at the last The description of Antichrist whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is destroying The very Romane Antichrist himselfe destroying soules ouerthrowing common weales casting downe crownes dissipating Churches being armed with so many bloudy lawes so many conspiring Councells so many warlike Legions fetters halters gallowses rackes fires inuironed with so many Inquisitors so many cursatiue Iesuits some of them dogmaticall some pragmaticall King-killers that hee may be rightly called Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You see Paul the fift the disposition of the Romane Antichrist by the starre that fell from heauen by the key of the bottomlesse pit which hee receiued by the pit which he opened by the smoake of the pit which he brought forth by the kingdome of smoake which hee built vp by the stinch of the smoake that he thrust out by the Locusts and Scorpions which do very liuely resemble the Monkes new and olde by their infinite swarmes whereby they do hurt their double venome which they instill their deadly sting wherewith they strike their power pride cunning cruelty which they practise very worthy subiects of their King Abaddon whom they obey CHAP. XIV Wherein is set downe actions of the Beast OF what kinde Antichrist is wee haue expounded now wee must shew whereabout hee is occupied The starre which fell from heauen doth shew his disposition The beast that rose out of the earth shall expresse his action Saint Iohn describeth two beasts one ascending out of the sea another out of the earth The first doth resemble the Romane Empire the other Antichrist properly so called Saint Iohns Sea-beast The Romane Monarchy rose out of the sea that is out of a turbulent state out of the factions and disorders of nations as out of a troublesome sea who is called a beast not in respect of his ciuill authoritie which he hath from God but of his beastly vices which hee tooke from the Dragon Saint Iohns land-beast The Prophet brings in another beast rising out of the earth not the same but diuers from it like in many things yet not the same For I saw saith Saint Iohn another beast rising out of the earth which is both the seuenth head of the Romane beast and yet a beast in it selfe for her different beginning and nature The actions of Antichrist the land-beast 1 Ascending out of the earth therefore Antichrist is the sonne of the earth Therefore from the earth being borne of earthly and sensuall concupiscence and diuelish counsell as Iames the Apostle doth ioyne these 3. Ia. cap. 3.15 signifying all one thing earthly sensuall diuelish To speake like the Dragon 2 She is said to speake as a Dragon although shee dissembles the 2. hornes of a lambe whereof I spake before And herein Bellarmine doth almost agree with vs. That by the Dragon the Deuill is vnderstood by the first beast the great number of sinners but vnder the Romane Empire as we haue set downe by the consent of all Interpreters neither doth Bellarmine greatly denie it By the later Beast Antichrist as elsewhere as also the Preachers and Apostles of Antichrist being the head of the first beast cut off and liuing againe hee doth acknowledge with vs to be the true image of that Beast 3 She is said to worke all her power in his sight She worketh in the sight of the first beast First it is certaine that one and the same seat the citie with seauen hills belongeth to them both which hath ruled ouer Kings and Princes which can bee no other then that great Lady Rome In which seate the land-beast did succeede the sea-beast and deriued all the power of the Romane Empire to herselfe so that by her owne men it is called the Kingdome of Priests shee doth shew all the power of the first beast in his sight that is at Rome 4 She doth constraine the earth and the inhabitants thereof to worship the beast how will some say when the Pope doth enforce the inhabitants of the earth not to worshippe the Emperour but himselfe So you are to vnderstand the beasts not to be the person that did raigne either in the Empire or in the Popedome but those tyrannicall powers which those beastly persons did put in practise Againe you are to consider the Papall power to bee truely imperiall and although it commend it selfe vailed with the name of Christ yet that it was brought in by the Dragon as well as the other that it might worship the Dragon and be an expresse image of the Imperial power which contained in it the Papall The actions of Pagan Emperors For the Emperor was the cheife Bishoppe Now the Emperours did belch out blasphemies against God condemne the true worshippe of God oppresse the true worshippers of God maintaine the worshippe of Deuills and did openly serue the Dragon from whom they receiued their tyrannicall power And what did the Popes The action of the Antichristian Popes Did they not with a blasphemous mouth challenge to themselues the diuine name and godhead with Domitian did they not scoffe at the grace of Christ with Iulian did they not persecute the seruants of Christ with Dioclesian did they not bring in the worship and doctrine of Deuills and while they did openly professe the name of Christ did they not closly and secretly serue the Dragon So the difference betweene the Emperours and the Popes about the manner of worshipping the Dragon was somewhat but in plaine truth nothing at all But heere is a necessarie distinction to be vsed There was in the Emperours a blinde ignorance of Christ in the first Bishoppes a true confession of Christ in their successors a fained who did in word condemne the olde Romane Idolatrie and tyrannie What popery is but did call it backe againe in deede For what is poperie indeede if you doe truely weigh many of the parts of it but refined paganisme The Authors whereof were so bewitched of the Deuill that they intended one thing and did another in intention they worshipped God in very deede the Dragon as deceiuers so deceiued the principall Authours of the Deuills worship as Saint Iohn saith of the doctrine of Deuells as Saint Paul saith What is popery else therefore whether you consider the worshippe or the doctrine but secret Draconisme 1. They thinke that they do gaily well when they call vpon other Mediators either Angells or Saints when they adore the Pictures of Saints yeelding worshippe to the Image as they say which is due to the example whenas the contrary is fit to giue no worshippe to the Image when none is due to the substance They thinke they do passing holily but indeede they worshippe the Deuill when they worshippe the Image as Iohn teacheth whence Lactantius concludeth there is no religion there where there is an Image Hence it followeth that the Romane Synagogue is voide of religion which is full of
not Christ but for Christ a Substitute to his Person and an Opposite to his Glory for in many things hee makes himselfe equall to Christ The Pope wherein he makes himself equall to Christ carrying himselfe like God forgiuing sinnes redeeming soules making new articles of the faith the Iudge of all men himselfe to be iudged by no man That although hee call not himselfe God yet he makes a shew as if he were God as the Apostle teacheth Is not this the liuely picture of the Pope Doth it not present him vnto vs almost palpable Not so saith Bellarmine For Antichrist doth thinke himselfe to be God alone wherein he doth not agree with himselfe Bellarmines Antichrist is the Messias of the Iewes who doth brag that he is sent from God He doth not therefore bragge that he is God alone for God that doth send is one and God that is sent is another Againe he saith The Pope doth not sit as God but as a Bishop but yet as he that hath all the power of God both in heauen and in earth as he saith in another place He sitteth therefore at the least as a Bishop deified But he doth not call himselfe Christ But hee taketh to him if not the name yet the power of Christ This therefore I inferre Who sitteth as God in the Church and makes a shew as if he were God the same is Antichrist The Pope hath done and doth this The Pope therefore is Antichrist How the Pope lifteth vp himselfe against God For doe not thinke Paul the fift that Antichrist is so foolish to lift vp himselfe aboue God or doth swell with greater pride then doth befit a miserable mortall man He is sayd therefore Not to lift vp himselfe against euery God true and false as Bellarmine supposeth Wherin he doth contradict himselfe For a Magician doth not lift vp himselfe aboue all that is God For he doth not lift vp himselfe aboue the Diuell who is the God of this world Bellar. de Pont. lib. 3. cap. 14. But Antichrist is a Magician as Bellarmine saith Therefore Antichrist doth not lift vp himselfe aboue all that is God as the Cardinall saith But hee doth lift vp himselfe aboue all that is called God as the Apostle teacheth To whom not the essence of God The name of God to whō imputed in the Scripture but the name of God is attributed for the name of God in the Scripture is giuen to the Angels in heauen and the Princes on the earth for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not only signifie Maiesticall or Maiesty but it is also any thing which is worshipped as God or wherein God is worshipped And therefore the images alters among the Heathens were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now when as the Pope beareth rule ouer the Angels in heauen and ouer the Princes in the earth and ouer holy things in the Church it cannot be but hee needes must be Antichrist CHAP. VIII How Antichrist doth denie Christ NEither suffer your selfe Pope Paul the fift to be deluded by them who shal tell you that Christ is not openly expressely and directly denied by Antichrist so properly called For Antichrist was not so blockish that hee would openly and directly denie Christ by whose name and profession hee saw so much profit and honour to come vnto him you may bee sure hee was not so madde It was therefore requisite that he might both satisfie his owne hatred and serue his owne turne he should denie Christ secretly by consequent indirectly for could Antichrist possibly haue held his gouernment so manie yeeres in the Church if he had openly denied Christ certainely hee could neuer haue held it for all those Christians ouer whom he gouerned would either haue hist him out for a foole or burnt him vp for a blasphemour It was not therefore for Antichrists profit to deny Christ after this manner Adde moreouer that hee is described by the Apostle to be a cunning and a crafty companion and that he shall come with all deceit of iniustice Popery is a mystery of Iniquity Besides all his religion is not called iniquitie but the mystery of iniquity And the glosse hath noted that the mysticall impiety of Antichrist shall bee cloakt ouer with the name of piety It had beene therefore very absurd to haue denied Christ plainely openly and expressely for that did no whit agree either with the good of his kingdome or the humour of Antichrist or the mystery of Iniquity It followeth therefore that he denied Christ secretly implicitly and indirectly and retaining the name of Christ did abolish his faith and doctrine But that belongeth to petty Antichrists to denie Christ secretly and indirectly but to that great Antichrist directly and openly wherevpon his comming is called a Reuelation as Bellarmine doth sophistically gather By which words is expressed not the manner of the deniall of Christ but the manner of vsurping his kingdome For if you consider the manner of doctrine the apostacie of the great Antichrist is called mysticall and so is his opposition as of all the rest but that their apostacie from Christ ought to be counted particular his vniuersall And therefore for all Bellarmines words that Antichrist doth denie Christ secretly and indirectly as the Pope who though hee doth in word expresly and directly confesse Christ to be God and man yet he doth closely and indirectly denie hoth Christs Diuinitie and his Humanitie CHAP. IX The Pope taketh away the properties of ech nature in Christ. FOR hee taketh away the properties of ech Nature The Godhead is infinite the Humanitie finite The Pope doth set out the Deitie of the Father in pictures and images and doth imagine the humanitie of Christ to be present in many places at once and therefore doth forge a finite Diuinitie and an infinite Humanitie He doth confesse directly in word that Christ is iust and mercifull but in deed doth indirectly denie both for perfect iustice doth not admit imperfect satisfaction that is humane and perfect mercy doth not grant imperfect pardon it doth not remit the fault and retayne the punishment The Pope doth teach that imperfect satisfaction and pardon is performed by Christ to the faithfull he doth therefore denie vnto Christ perfect iustice and mercy and so makes Christ a plaine I doll CHAP. X. The Pope denieth the three offices of Christ HE doth in word acknowledge the three offices of Christ but indirectly denieth them his Prophecie his Priesthood and his Kingdome His prophesie First his Prophecie while hee telleth vs that the Canonicall Scriptures wherein the voice of our Prophet in all things necessarie to saluation is fully conteyned whether they be principles of faith or precepts of life to be very imperfect And therefore doth account his Decretall Epistles among the Canonicall Scriptures Distinc 9. Sic omnes Fie vpon such blasphemie and intolerable pride Herein he is a very Iew in that he abrogateth
Purgatorie is growne very gainefull and the bargaines about sinnes very profitable Then could the Images walke a foote then could the Bells strike alone without helpe then could the Angells like Quoristers chant it out in Canterburie Minster and play vpon Dunstans Harpe then could the Apostles come downe from heauen to helpe Basill to say Masse These lying miracles were faigned by cheating knaues to confirme strange lyes and to cozen simple people of their coine For how often hath a spirit being apprehended by the Magistracie and an Angell stript and our Ladie sent to her Cell been all of them notably whipt Soules so whipt with rodds that they had rather beene in Purgatorie So they couerd all their tricks and conueyances their kinde of deceit and their manner of working with the feare of punishment Of these miracles Paul spake which being meerely false had a shew of miracles but not the power being the deuises of cogging companions There were other miracles of deceiueable spirits which were wrought partly by the force of naturall causes partly by the power of Satan So that that Synagogue seemed to be another Canidia Antichrist doth make fire to descend from heauen in the view of men saith S. Iohn that is in the opinion of men as they imagine Whether that be taken mystically or literally let vs in a word consider Fire according to the Scripture descends mystically either when God doth approue the religion and sacrifices of his seruants How fire descends from heauen in the Scripture as of Abel and Elias or when God doth by an extraordinarie fashion send downe the graces of the Spirit into their hearts as in the fiery tongues or when God did cast downe fire from heauen moued by the prayers of his seruants as of Elias to destroy his enemies Three sorts of fire 1. Is the fire of sacrifice 2. The fire of grace 3. The fire of Reuenge In all these Antichrist is Gods Ape For he hath confirmed and approued the sacrifice of the Masse and Transsubstantiation with miracles The Masse confirmed by a false miracle witnesse that pillar of fire from heauen falling to the earth euen vpon that place where by the negligence of the Priest as the Legend reports the bodie of God fell out of the pixe vpon the grasse that pillar of fire shining like the Sunne was about the bodie of God so that all the beasts of the field except a blacke Horse which bended but one of his leggs bended all their foure leggs to the bodie Which miracle I haue brought out of the Legend that I might gratifie Bellarmine who knowes that beasts then were well nurtured like to his leane iade that forgetting to eat his meat did adore the sacrament vpon his knees which the beasts had not done if God forsooth had not brought downe the fiery pillar from heauen whereby they might haue discerned the bodie of God lying vpon the grasse Adde hereto that Antichrist doth bestow the grace of the spirit sanctification vpon his Agneit Dei his hallowed graines his holy water and his bells as Primasius hath it Further hee striketh his enemies with vengeance from God as it were with fire fallen from heauen but that in the conceit of men that they whom Antichrist his furie doth daunt may seeme to be wounded with heauenly reuenge as it were with fire falne from aboue Which whether it be true of the flash of excommunication which the Pope who is called the God of reuenge casts abroad let Kings looke to it whose kingdomes haue been often set on fire by such popish lightning But to excommunicate a King is say they no miracle But so to excommunicate a King that you cast him out of his kingdome and release subiects from the obedience of their Kings it is a great miracle that either Kings are so patient to endure or Subiects so madde to beleeue Wherefore this is not materiall fire but mysticall brought downe from heauen by Antichrist in the sight of men not that he doth so indeed but that he seemeth so to doe Although if the literall sense doe more content you I haue found out Gregorie the seuenth Gregor the 7. miracle that notable enchanter who could strike fire out of his bosome as oft as he listed Thus I infer Whosoeuer in the conceits of simple men doth seeme to bring downe reuenging fire out of heauen is Antichrist This the Pope doth and hath done Therefore the Pope is Antichrist CHAP. XVII Of the Popes Character I Proceede The Beast is sayd to imprint his character vpon all both great and small to bee carried either in their fore-head or their right hand Wherein he doth peruersly follow Christs character which GOD doth imprint vpon his seruants subiection to Christ and the acknowledging of him to bee their head and Sauiour And it is partly inward partly outward Christs character of two sorts The inward character is true faith imprinted vpon the soule by the spirit of God whereby we beleeue that Christ is our onely Redeemer The outward character is the confession of the mouth the operation of the hands And therfore a Christian doth beare the marke of God in his heart by faith in his fore-head by profession Rom. 10. in his hand by working as S. Paul hath expounded besides that the two sacraments are the seales of faith the witnesses of profession and the practises of holinesse The diuers characters of the Pope In like sort Antichrist hath a marke proper to himselfe of his owne which he doth imprint and brand the Antichristians withall Which character hangs vpon his name and his name vpon his state Of the first Beast that is of the Romane or Latine monarchie The seauen formes of gouernment among the Romanes there were seauen heads that is seuen kingly formes of gouerning the common-weale 1. Kings properly so called 2. Consuls 3. Decemviri 4. Tribunes of souldiers 5 Dictators 6. Emperors properly called 7 Antichrist The state of the Beast is Romane or Latine Therefore the character of the Beast is a note of difference whereby all they are discerned from all other who are of the Romane or Latine Religion whom we tearme Papists And the subiection to the Pope of Rome as to their head and the acknowledging of that See the inward and outward marke of Antichrist The double marke or character of Antichrist The inward marke is that implicite faith which I toucht before The outward marke is that outward profession of the mouth and the conformity of life to the Popes lawes as the obseruation of the heathenish rights was called the character of the Greekes which is made perfect by the sacraments of confirmation and order inuented by the Pope And Antichrist doth so imprint all his with the marke of the Beast that hee will suffer none to buy or sell except they be branded with the Beasts marke So euery Papist is a stigmaticke otherwise he cannot hold his house
foyst in a new deuised Canon of the counsell of Neece detected and reiected by the Bishops of Carthage But that small winde kept in I know not how in the heart of the Church it did not all breake out before Boniface the third had extorted that proud title from Phocas the Emperour by his importunate entreaty But yet Antichrist was but a Pupill as it were in his nonage not onely being subject to the Emperour for a time but the Emperours Vice Gerent in the gouernment of Rauenna by whom the election of the Pope first made by the Cleargie and people of Rome was necessarily confirmed vntill Benedict the second obtained this priuiledge of the Emperour Constantine the fourth Pogonotus that the Pope should be created without the confirmation of the Emperour And then Antichrist beganne to bee his owne man liuing after his owne law or rather without law as the Apostle speaks Not long after as Boniface the third did extoll himselfe aboue all Bishops so Gregorie the second vaunted that hee was aboue the Emperour Gregorie the third did spoyle Leo the third being first excommunicated by Gregory the second because hee went about to abolish images did spoyle I say him of all his reuenues in Italy and absolued his subiects from their oath of fealty And so took from him all the gouernment of the West as a Popish Authour doth testifie in his booke called The bundle of times Faesciculus tempâ—rum At last that we may not follow after the meane passages in the history seuerally Gregorie the seueuth like an Earth-quake brake out and shattered both the Church and the Empire For hee first settled the Popish gouernment as Auentinus doth witnesse which his successours continued 450. yeeres in despite of the Emperours so that they made the Emperour his vassall After that Antichrist was come to his height being reuealed by his two degrees and domineering in the Church first be began to be acknowledged of many holy and learned men in particular but from the time of Gregorie the seuenth to the happy age of Luther and then in generall Rome was acknowledged to be Babylon the Pope Antichrist in all the Reformed Churches I am not ignorant that this assertion of the Reformed Church of our owne men is thought doubtfull of yours madde and doting but if they doe seriously marke those conclusions following our men will feele that scruple taken from them and your men a sting fastened in them For thus I will dispute from all the premisses To whomsoeuer all those essentiall notes of Antichrist set downe by blessed Paul and Iohn do onely agree he is onely that great Antichrist But all those essentiall notes do agree to the Pope of Rome onely Therefore the Pope of Rome onely is that great Antichrist CHAP. XXVI A recapitulation of that which went before NOw that the assumption may plainely appeare we will set out as in one view all those propositions shortly which haue beene before more largely and soundly concluded I tolde you first what Antichrist was 1. Chap. 3. That Antichrist is not one singular and indiuiduall person but a state and a succession of persons 2. That hee is in a conterfeit shew Chap. 4. a Vicar or Vicegerent in presumption a fellow-mate in purpose an aduersary Afterward of what kinde Antichrist was Chap. 5. 3. That Antichrist is the head of a generall Apostasie from the faith Chap. 6. 4. That Antichrist is an Apostaticall Christian and an vniuersall Bishop 5. That Antichrist is not an outward and a professed but an homebred and hypocriticall aduersary 6. That Antichrist is subtill denying Christ indirectly Chap. 7. 7. Hee that sits in the Temple of God as God and makes a shew as if he were God the same is Antichrist 8. Hee that lifts vp himselfe aboue all that is called God or soueraignty aboue the Angels in Heauen aboue Princes on the earth aboue holy things in the Church the same is Antichrist Chap. 8. 9. 10. 9. He that taketh away the natures properties offices benefits of Christ by consequent and indirectly is Antichrist Chap. 11. I haue shewed what kinde of kingdome and attendance belongs to Antichrist 10. Antichrist is the key-keeper of hell 11. Antichrist is the head of that smoaky and dark kingdome Chap. 12. 13. 12. Abaddon or Apollyon is the King of the Locusts i. Antichrist is the eldest sonne of the Diuell Chap. 14. I shewed what the Beast doth that riseth out of the earth 13. That Antichrist is the sonne of the earth 14. That Antichrist hath two hornes of a Lambe but vttereth the voyce of the Dragon 15. He that sheweth all the power of the first Beast in his sight is Antichrist 16. The image of the first Beast is Antichrist 17. He that compelleth men to adore the image of the first Beast is Antichrist Chap. 15. 18. The restorer of the old Rom. Empire is Antichrist Chap. 16. 19. Hee that commeth with lying signes and wonders is Antichrist 20 The seauenth King of the Romaine or Latine Empire is Antichrist Chap. 17. 21 He that compelleth all vnder his rule to take on them the Character and name of the beast and the number of his name and the number of a man is Antichrist I haue shewed where he sits 22 Who so sitteth in that imperiall city scituated on 7. hills and 7. kingly formes of gouernment Chap. 19. neere to the bankes of Tyber and is a Latine Bishoppe and possesseth Peters chaire and is called most holy Pope is Antichrist 23 Whos 's seat is mysticall Babylon i Rome in name Christian and Bishoply the same is Antichrist 24 Who so sitteth vpon the whore that is blasphemous idolatrous lustfull proud selling soules bloody Chap. 20 and is the same in all things for wit and disposition is Antichrist I haue shewed at what time he is reuealed 26 He that after the fall of the Romane Empire and the departure of the Romane Emperour out of the city of Rome sitteth gouerning in the city of Rome being made the temple and the Church of God is Antichrist None of all these notes belong to Luther very few of them to the Turke But to the Pope of Rome both euery of them seuerally and all of them ioyntly and to him alone as it is euidently proued before Therefore the Pope of Rome only is that great Antichrist You haue Paul the fift a glasse wherein you may behold all your selfe but that you haue certaine about you more desirous of your momentany reputation then your eternall saluation who haue cast a certain mist vpon the Glasse that you might not know your selfe therein To whom I thinke good breefly to answere CHAP. XXVII Wherein is shewed what kinde of one Antichrist is not VVE haue shewed what kinde of one Antichrist is now what kinde of one he is not let vs likewise set downe Although that which is straight is the rule both of it selfe
thought of Bellarmine and Julian alike who with Iulian the Apostata will fasten a lye vpon Christ while together with him he will as it were carrie stones to the building of it he in a mocke to Christ this in the honor of Antichrist That Bellarmine may feare fire from heauen to disturbe the worke which as the storie reporteth Iulian suffred Theodoret. lib. 3 cap 20. Sozom lib. 5. cap. vlt. Cic de orat 3. One thing I greatly feare that Antichrist will not take it in good part that such a mightie Monarch of the world as he is like to be must sit in a Temple bâ—â—â—ded in part Cicero did pretily set out the praise of the Capitol wherein Latine Iupiter doth reside that the roofe was not onely good for vse and necessitie but for ornament and beauty that although the Capitoll were builded vp as high as the heauen where the raine was not engendred yet it would haue no name if it had no roofe But Bellarmine although he caried morter and stone to the Temple of Ierusalem by the helpe of Antichrist wherein so great a Prince should sit so farre of he was for tendring his Masters honour that he did not supply necessitie for hee left the Temple with out beames or roofe hee left it on the earth where many showres doe gather many stormes doe sodenly fall that he may seeme to haue exposed the great Prince to the pleasure of the vnmercifull heauen in the middest of his stately Palace But let vs make vp the rest of the tale of this imagined Prince gouerning in an imagined place For hee addeth many things of his kingdom and his victories whereof the Scripture hath not one word It is a very conceited dreame that is fetcht out of Daniel mis-vnderstood who prophecied of Antiochus Epiphanes the sonne of great Antiochus the brother of Seleucus Philopater the successor of that namelesse beast the tenth horne literally and properly as of nine others which went before cap. 11. which Bellarmine himselfe confesseth and yet concludeth 1. That Antichrist rising out of a most base stocke by fraud and guile shall obteyne the kingdom of the Iewes 2. That he shall fight with three Kings of Aegipt Lybia and Ethiopia and shall possesse their kingdomes themselues being vanquished which was not true of Antiochus himselfe being the figure of Antichrist 3. That he shall make captiue seuen other Kings and shall enioy the Monarchie of the whole world O noble conqueror to be preferred before all the Pompeis Caesars and Alexanders who shall doe so great acts in the compasse of three yeeres and a halfe 4. With his mightie armie he shall persecute the Christians and these be the warres of Gog and Magog Doe you thinke these to be the oracles of the Scriptures or Bellarmines owne dreames grant that Antiochus was Antichrists type in many things what then if we should apply all those things Antiochus Antichrist vnlike to make them the same many absurdities do follow which were proper to the person of Antiochus to Antichrist in respect whereof he was not the type of Antichrist and shall inferre from them not the like but the same thing Let Antiochus be fetcht out of hell and let his soule passe into Antichrist that he may performe all those things And although Antichrist be a most vilde beast as Antiochus yet he must come not out of a most vilde but a most honorable stocke that he the sonne of Antiochus the Great the brother of Seleucus Philopater and successor in the kingdome of Syria as Antiochus is plainly set downe by Daniel cap 11. v. 21. in whose place one that is very vilde shall arise Platoes great yeere must returne againe that Antiochus againe must be an hostage at Rome before he come to his kingdome and kill his Nephew Demetrius as Richard the third King of England did and make three voyages into Egipt And great Achilles must be sent againe to Troy Let Antiochus make warre againe let him in his returne plague the Iewes and let Antichrist do all the acts of Antiochus which Daniel the Prophet doth so liuely describe that to Porphery who knew not with what spirit he wrote he seemeth to haue compiled an historie rather then a prophecie whereof more hereafter Now let vs pursue the rest of the pretty passages of this tale Enoch and Elias must come againe from heauen to earth to wit those two witnesses who preach the Gospell in their owne persons and fighting with Antichrist shall be killed by him and shall rise againe after three daies and a halfe and the rest which out of the 11 of the Apocalyps they miserably by force presse out by wringing the letter so that they seeme to play the Iewes in no place more Although in that place neither Enosh nor Elias The second beast mistaken for the first nor Antichrist as certaine learned men thinke is vnderstood for the beast that makes warre against these witnesses of God is said to ascend out of hell which seemes to be the first beast which is said to rise out of the sea cap 13. v. 1. when as the second is said to rise out of the earth Againe the floore of the Church is said to be giuen ouer to be trampled on by the Gentiles 42 monthes v 2. which time is assigned to the persecution of the first beast cap 13. v. 5. Againe it is to be troden on by the Gentiles not the Iewes whose Prince Antichrist is faigned to be Now they which precisely take the two witnesses to be two men The two witnesses Apoc. 11. not agreed on could neuer yet agree among themselues about the persons Some that they were Elias and Moses some Elias and Elizeus some not Elias but Ieremie others together with Elias and Moses thinke that Iohn the Diuine is added as a witnesse aboue number of Enoch none of the Fathers make any reckoning of the two Testaments as two witnesses and the diuers sincere Interpreters of the two Testaments who expound the place they doe more easily shift themselues as it shall be vnderstood afterward who being clad with sackcloth in great sorrow and griefe did preach repentance to the Gentiles at whose hands in steed of reward Persecution committed they receiued most cruell death The cruell persecution of the first beast wherein they deuoured the most faithfull witnesses of God lasted 294 yeeres which made the 42 monthes according to Daniels weekes whereof more anon Neither did God suffer his witnesses to die vnreuenged Persecution reuenged if wee compare the storie to the Prophecie For God did punish those bloody Emperors for his two witnesses sake so that the Nations were consumed by sharpe and quicke diseases growing by long drought and too great heat of the Sunne which bred such plagues that often deuoured whole Cities and consumed whole armies So happily the two witnesses may be said to haue shut heauen that it should not raine and to haue opened
you for all the sorrowes they haue endured For what else could haue extorted that Law from so mercifull a Queene which you ere-while blamde as bloody For your Iesuites after the sending in of Pius the fifts Bull came swarming into England as Campion Parsons and many others and did mightily labour to put that Bull in execution and did propound it as the thirteenth Article of their faith That there was no more obedience to be shewed to a Queene excommunicated The seditious doctrine of Iesuites gaâ— that seuere law when it came to practise and deposed then presently followed the rebellion in the North. It was therefore your seditious doctrine that begat so seuere a law Your schoole hath made the Catholike doctrine of Rome a Catechisme of rebellion Your Logicke first made a Papist and a Traytor to be all one your Societie was the first ouerthrow of the Roman-Catholikes estate For your Papists behaued themselues quietly for the first eleuen yeeres while Pius the fift that old credulous dotard was induced by the false whisperings of the English Catholikes as they call them shewing that their powers were so strong that they could resist the Queenes forces had excommunicated the Queene by his Bull and depriued Her of her kingdome and had released her subiects from the Oath of their Allegeance and being so released stirred them vp to take armes against Hir. But the old man quickly found his error and corrected it with his dispensation that the Papists to redeeme their troubles so hee speaketh should shew outward obedience to Queene Elizabeth but restreyned with two conditions one things so standing thother while the publike execution of the Bull might be performed that is to say while they had so much power as by force they might ouercome the Queene Rebellion among Iesuites is an article of faith Hence among the cases of conscience brought into England by you sprang out the 55 Article Where a Catholike being demanded Doe you beleeue that the Pope can put the Queene from her authoritie he is taught to answer notwithstanding any feare of death I do beleeue it For this question doth appertaine to faith and requires a confession of faith Behold your Catholike faith which this present oath is said by the Pope to crosse it is the chiefe head of Iesuitisme which we may call the marrow of Poperie And are you now in a chafe Saturnine that a few Iesuites are hangde vp for Traytors who make treason an article of their faith And doe you not thinke the King hath a iust cause to take away their heads Alaâ—us who haue with such coniuring bewitched the consciences of subiects that they thinke that warre holy iust and honorable which is raised against their Prince But what if they were not only messengers and masters § 8 but authors and actors of rebellion The Iâ—suites and authors and actors of rebellion and haue entred into the most cruellest conspiracy that euer was since the creation not onely to depose the King and absolue his subiects but to rase out the King and Kingdome and to blot out the English nation and to root out the men out of the earth for euer and that not the guilty onely but the innocents also according to that olde tyrannicall practise Cicero pro Diatore Let our friends perish so our enemies perish also And they would haue the Catholikes with heretickes The Martyrdome of the Kingdome of England as wee seeme to you the noble with the ignoble and the fathers to bee Martyrs with their sonnes For what else was that gun-powder treason deuised by you but the Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome § 9 Then Saturnine you doe great wrong to the Iesuites saith he whom you faine to bee the Authors of Catesbies conspiracy for that which they heard onely vnder the seale of confession thought it was meet to bee concealed about the martyrdome of the kingdome as you call it which God wote hurt no body being only deuised and not performed Garnet therefore the chiefe Iesuite did wrong to the Iesuites saith Patriotta who when himself had nourished that euill humor in Catesby whom hee would haue to bee the head and heart of the whole conspiracy a right Cateline and an apt scholler who concluded by a very wicked consequence out of the bull of Clement the eight wherein the Pope had excluded the King being an hereticke as hee writ from entrance into the Kingdome concluded I say that being entred he was by all meanes possibly to bee expelled out of that wicked proposition which now is in question hee suckt out that most pestilent poyson of that vnheard-of treachery But when Garnet would haue him the cheife worke-man in this conspiracy hee ioyned vnto him diuers other counsellers out of his owne tribe nay out of his owne bosome And lest that liuing messe of Iesuites being singularly inspired with the spirit of the Pope of Rome Garnet Greenwell Gerard. Parsons should lay the whole fault vpon a Lay-traitor now dead let it be vnderstood that it was confest by Garnet being now ready to die vnder his hand by a voluntarie confession Hee writ that Greenwell with Catesby was heard of him The Traytor betraies himselfe not confessing but consulting That Greenwell with Gerard were not onely authors but actors who declared their guiltinesse of the fact by their flight That Baldwine and Parsons were acquainted with it whereof he set on Fauxe that Fire brand in Germany The other made acquainted by him of the villanous treachery came flying against the day out of Italie into Lyons in France as it were on pilgrimage to S. Winefreds well as a crow to carrion that like another Nero hee might with a detestable pleasure neerer behold the fire most furiously consuming each part of his country But this Martyrdome of the King and Kingdome as you call it was not brought to effect What then As though we are ignorant that Antichrist doth deliuer many to death and doth assigne many more That hee doth thirst after more blood then he doth spill We were all Martyrs in your intention but not in execution That the mischeefe was deuised we attribute it to your malice that it tooke no effect to Gods mercy Which mooued the neuer-suspecting heart of the King the most mildest of all that are haue beene or shall be that out of those letters whereof little reckoning was made he smelt out the kind of danger and I may almost say the verie gun-powder it selfe and so was made an instrument of the publike safetie Hence riseth a double bond one that bindeth the King to God the other that more neerely for euer bindeth vs to the King There is no want either of counsell and care to the King and his prudent and faithfull Counsellers but when neither care nor counsell can preuent such blinde and secret conspiracie both thankes are to be giuen to God for our deliuerance past whereof I doubt wee
accompt either to a Priest or to the people but to God For he holds his Crowne by the right of blood and inheritance not by the virtue of invnction or consecration or of election and acceptation as you were wont to say that you may giue some authoritie of deposing and depriuing to a Priest whom you make to be the first mouer and some to the people whom you make the remouer So you make Kings hypotheticall and the people conditionall but Priest absolute and categoricall being herein very simple because that power which you say they haue receiued of God to depose Kings that was neuer brought into practise vnder the whole old Testament Your argument therefore from the stronger falls to ground and comes to nothing that if the priestly excommunication vnder the old Testament was of such force of how greater and larger force is it vnder the new But we haue euicted it that there was none at all vnder the old Popish blasphemie At last you returne backe againe and repeat that former blasphemous argument of yours that God was not prouident enough but left the Church in a miserable case like a widdow cleane forsaken if hee had not giuen the chiefe Priest to hir either as a Tutor forsooth or a Husband That is like as if the father husband of the Church were not aliue or tooke care of another daughter and wife or else would appoint in his place such a one to be a Tutor for his daughter whom he foretold to bee an aduersarie or prouide such an husband for his daughter who would proue an adulterer Lastly as if Peter and Paul had dissembled and had commanded obedience to bee shewed to Nero so long till Christians could make head and other Christian Bishops had so many ages consented to the like dissimulation you doe not blush to affirme that Bishops could of right excommunicate their Princes and depose them being excommunicate if the Church had then power to resist True sayd Saturnine for Christ his Preistly prerogatiue § 51 wherewith he was able to breake in peeces such kings as earthen vessels beeing granted by large and precise charter to the Bishop of Rome the chiefe Preist which reason brought by vs you past by as a man vnknowen gaue power to the first Bishops and right to the thing it selfe as the Lawyers speake to depose Kings excommunicate being infidels apostataes heretickes and tyrants but the Church did neuer practise that authority till she gathered strength in processe of time For that commandement of Christ alleadged by you Giue to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods doth he not submit Caesar to be kept vnder by the Vicar of God when hee denieth to God those those things which belong to God And whereas Christ did thâ—â—ce speake to Peter Feede my Lambes feede my sheepe feede my sheepe did he not commit all Christians little and great lambes and sheepe subiects and princes to be fed and ruled without exception to Peter and Peters successour And when as he had committed the keyes of heauen to Peter and Peters successour to let in and shut out doth he not shew that diuine and admirable power of excommunication which you forfooth would haue so weake and feeble for whereas you sayd that Prelates and Bishops ought to be subiect and obedient to Kings Heb. 13.17 I did much maruell that you were so forgetfull of another commandement no lesse Apostolicall whereby hee bound Kings as well as subiects to obey their Prelates and their Pastors and to submit themselues as to them by whom accompt is to be giuen to God for their soules wherein what Christian Prince can exempt himselfe if hee doe thinke that he haue a soule § 52 Then Patriotta I past by that your reason Saturuine of the prerogatiue of Christ communicated with the Bishop Christ ouer-ruling Kings not as a preist but as a king not as vnknowen but as very idle For that prerogatiue whereby Christ doth bruise and breake in peeces kings and kingdomes the Prophet shewes not to bee his Preistly but his Princely power I haue set my king saith God not therefore as a Preist but as a King he hath broken and beat in peeces wicked Kings with his iron Scepter As a Priest he beares the Crosse as a King he bears the Scepter as a Preist he offred vp himselfe vpon the crosse and suffered his blood to bee shed for the remission of sinnes as a King hee vanquished his enemies shed their blood weakned and ouercame their power with the sight of this so great glorie that resides in him so you went about to blind our eies while you did closely subiect the scepter of a King to be trampled on by the Popes feet § 53 For you say that this prerogatiue of Christ is communicated with the Pope What else And that with large and precise charter where be those words point at the place shew the charter where Christ imparted this his prerogatiue with the Bishop of Rome Heb. 7. v. 23.24.25.26 For there bee many others appointed Preists saith S. Paul who by reason of death cannot continue but this because hee abides for euer hath an immutable Preisthood whence he can perfectly saue those who come vnto God by him alwaies liuing to make intercession for vs. For such a Preist was fit for vs holy innocent immaculate separated from sinners made higher then the heauens who hath no neede euery day as the Preists of Leui to offer sacrifices first for their owne sinnes then for the sinnes of the people for that he did once when he offered vp himselfe the onely sacrifice for sinne that hee might obtaine for vs eternall redemption The Bishop of Rome let him packe and bee gone and let him bragge of Christs Preistly prerogatiues granted to him by a large charter that all men may spit in the blasphemous face of this impure wretch But if hee haue not all yet hee hath imparted with § 54 him some of his prerogatiues at the least Which I pray you the keyes of the kingdome of heauen to open shut heauen the power of binding and loosing the power of feeding and ruling by all which you doe more then insinuate that the Bishop can rightly by the power of excommunication wrest from Caesar his scepter his crowne sword subiects kingdome and life For these belong to Caesar Therfore when Christ spake to Peter feed my sheep he meant this depose Princes I will giue you the keies of the Kingdome of heauen that is I will giue you the thrones of earthly kings that you may let into the kingdome whom you will and whom you will exclude that you may loose subiects whom you please and whom you please binde that you may punish whom you will and may forgiue whom you will We must I thinke learne not onely a new Diuinity but a new Grammer and a Logicke also To feede Christs sheepe The popish
of Popes Causa 15 qu. 6. alius Plat. in Zach. 1. Fâ—â—sing lib. 5. cap. 22. For who knoweth not that Childricke the French King was deposed by Pope Zecharie the first as foolish and vnprofitable and Pipine appointed in his place as it is cleare in our law and Platina writes that by his authoritie the kingdome of France was adiudged to Pipine And Frisingensis which Author your selfe do follow writes that Pipine was absolued by Pope Steuen from the Oath of fealtie which hee had giuen to Childricke and the other peeres of France likewise and that the King being shauen and thrust into a Monasterie Pipine was annointed King More then that Gregorie the great whom erewhile you called a worme in respect of the Emperour did bring the same into practise whereof we now speake foure ages before Gregorie the 7. for in the charter of a priuiledge granted to the monasterie of Saint Medard he so decreeth If any king Prelate Iudge or other secular person whatsoeuer do violate the decree of the Apostolicke authoritie and grant of what degree or state soeuer hee bee let him be depriued of his honour Wherefore in that you depraue Gregorie the seuenth that most holy man being dead because he was the first that offered to depose Henry the 4. Emperor a man full of dishonest lust The Empeâ—â—â— Henry the 4. slandered Auenti lib. 4. Anna. Botâ— infamous for his adulteries whoredomes which his verie freinds could not denie as Auentine writeth truelie it bewraies both great ignorance and singular malice in heretickes And that I may not heape manie things together wherwith the histories of those times haue set foorth the fame and glorie of Gregorie the forme of his election as it is set downe by Platina Sabellicus and other writers Author 3. conuer Angli par 2 cap. 7. doth easily shew what kinde of man hee was Wee haue chosen this day being the 21. day of May in the yeere of our Lord 1072. for the true Vicar of Christ Gregories false praise Hildebrand the Arch-deacon a man of great learning great holinesse wisdome iustice constancie religion The commendation of Lambert Schafnabergensis is extant wherein he writeth that those things which were vsually brought to passe by the prayers of Gregorie with signes and wonders and most feruent zeale for God and the lawes of the Church doe sufficiently defend him against the venemous tongues of all slanderers And what other authors write euen the Germanes themselues of Gregories enemy infamous for adultery Marian. Sco. iâ— chro an 1075 simonie and other trespasses what shall need to speake Marianus Scotus is witnes that Gregorie the 7. moued with the iust outcries of Catholike men who mightily spake against the sauagenes of Henries impietie did for the same excommunicate the Emperour but principally for his simonie in buying and selling of Bishoprickes And this act of the Pope did greatly content Catholikes but displease them who were ready to buy and sell benefices and fauoured the Emperour I might alleadge the same for Adrian the fourth and § 108 Alexander the third against Fredericke the first and for Honorius and Gregorie the ninth and Innocent the third against Fredericke the second but that I remember you gaue vs a caueat that the question betweene vs was not about the quality of the person but about the right of power I might shew also if it were not ouer long that those verie Romane Bishops themselues whose humility and obedience you commended did performe the same not with any preiudice of their right but for want of power to resist the hereticall and tyrannous Emperours I might alleadge likewise nationall Councells and Parliaments also which did alwaies approoue the necessary and iust correcting and deposing of such Emperours and Kings as you name by the Popes censures § 109 Then Carolus Regius it is prettie said he which the Oratour obserues to put ouer the businesse till another time when you haue no more or better matter to alledge though you would But that I may breifly answer the obiections that Leo the 3. Emperour was depriued of all his temporalties by Gregorie the second Leo the Emperour how deposed by the Pope which he held in Italie certainely if we diligently search the historie although the reuolt of the Italians from Leo the Emperour of Constantinople may seeme to be the act of Gregorie the second Zoner an Tom. 3. in impera Leo. Isaar as historians testifie because it made much for the Bishop to haue the Emperours wings clipt in Italy yet it nothing belongs to the controuersie in question for the Pope did it not as the minister of excommunication but as the head of rebellion neither as a Bishop without the rest but as a Rebell with the rest not with that vniuersall authority which § 110 he now claimeth but with a popular sedition Vispâ—rgâ—in an 718. Sigeâ—ert in an 731. Blond dec 2. l. 1 Sabâ—ll Enne 8. lib. 8. Auâ—ntin Anna lib 4. fol. 344. Sigebert in an 801. How the Empiâ—e was translated to the Germanes But the Empire was translated from the Greekes by Pope Leo the third to the Germanes Not so For the Empire was translated not by the Popes keyes but by the decree of the people of Rome as your owne historiographers testifie neither for religions sake but for respect of ciuill iustice for the Romanes who had in purpose reuolted long since from the Emperour of Constantinople who perceiued themselues to bee forsaken of the Grecians and exposed to the inrodes of the Lombards taking that occasion because a frantick woman that is Irene the mother to Constantine the sixt had put out her sonnes eies and taken awaie his crown all of them with one applause chose Charles for their King crowne him by the hands of Leo the Pope and salute him Caesar and Augustus Neither did the Pope depose Childericke Sabell â—nne 8. lib. 8. the French § 111 King but gaue consent to the Peeres and people of the Kingdome deposing him who making much of Pepines prowesse Childericke not deposed by the Pope and being weary of the Kings silly weaknesse Zacharie the Pope being first consulted withall and the title of a King taken from Childericke that all hope of ruling might be taken from him shaue him for a Preist and chose Pepine for their King He was therfore set besides his Kingdome not onely by the Popes consistorie but the councell and consent of the Peeres and people for that hee was vnprofitable for the kingdome as you obserued how iustly I doe not dispute onelie I shew that not by the excommunication of the Pope who could neuer haue brought so great a matter to passe but by the ioynt-consent of the Nobles and people he was put from his Kingdome and Pepine and his posteritie substituted in his place For whereas you said that Gregorie the great brought § 112 the deposing of a King into act that is verie ridiculous for
that he commanded warre to be raised wherein hee might be slaine he answeres in Tortus How the Papists may kill a King how not that Bellarmine spake not of murther which may happen in battaile but of that murther which may be committed by a royster A very honest distinction As though hee bee not as well a murtherer who at the command of the Pope doth kill the King by open force Cardinall Comensis incited Parry to kill Q. Elizabeth as he that shall doe it by secret treacherie That this Cardinall threatning warres armes is no honester then Cardinall Comensis whose letters are extant wherein he encouraged Parry with promise of reward and pardon from the Pope that hee should bring to good effect the purpose of his good spirit those were his wordes that is that he should murther Queene Elizabeth with his dagger Bellarmine proued no better to our excellent King Iames but somewhat the closer Did Peter feede the Church after this manner This is not foode but poyson Did he so guide the flock of his Master as if the chiefe belweather of the flocke went astray he would take care that he should either closly or openly be slaine Giue a Shipheards crooke to a Shepheard What hath a Shipheard to doe with a sword Yes forsooth saith he when Christ made Peter a Pastor hee made him a Prince For when hee commanded him to feed he commanded him to rule And he gaue him not only a ministery but a magistracy But good Sir the inward and spirituall gouernment is one thing which Peter exercised ouer soules by the worde the Sacraments and the keies the earthly and outward gouernment is another thing which Paul the 5 doth practise by fraude and force against crownes I pray you tell mee Calander what difference you make betweene these two and the Commentaries of the Fathers and their owne popish writers Marke the consequencies depending on this interpretation partly foolish partly wicked Peter is commanded to feede the flocke of Christ § 150 Therefore none but Peter Vpon Peter is laide the charge of feeding and teaching Therefore the honour of ruling and reigning is bestowed on him Peters dutie is to teach Kings Therefore to depose Kings To instruct Kings therefore to destroy Kings To Peter is granted a spirituall regiment therefore an earthly gouernment Whether doth hee that knits together such consequences and these are necessarily gathered out of Bellarmines interpretation seeme to be sent to the schooles or to the Anticira for a purge Charge is laid Calander vpon all true Pastors in Peter to feede and rule the flocke of Christ committed to their charge but so that they feede them with the spirituall foode of wholesome doctrine and rule them with the staffe of wholesome discipline But if Paul the 5. doe not feede the flocke but feede vpon it and doe not order the steppes of his sheepe but breake their legges and their heades truly he doth giue food and vse his shepheardes staffe otherwise then Christ appointed Wherefore I thinke King Iames would rather fast then bee fed by such a Shepheard who feedeth to that end that hee may kill and eat What other Kings doe let themselues looke to it let them laugh in their sleeues as they please when they read these foolish quiddities of Schollers but let them take heede of such wicked baites of rebellion which lurke in Bellarmines new Dictionarie Wherein To feede and to rule are 〈◊〉 To teach a King and to depose a King all one The excommunication of a King and depriuation The absoluing of sinners from sâ—â—e is the absoluing subiects from their duty § 151 Doe they not perceiue that this is the Grammer of that proud and bloody Antichrist Therefore King Iames doth willingly forsake the popish flocke that hee may betake himselfe to Gods flocke which is knowne of Christ and followeth him and flieth from a stranger For he doth not regard these carnall Cardinalls so leaden-pated in their arguing Peter is the Porter of heauen Therefore the Lord of the world Peter is a Pastor therefore a Prince Peter is a Fisher of men therefore of kingdomes A net was giuen him wherewith he may take fishes as well great as little Therefore he hath gouernment aswell ouer Kings as subiects Peter is charged to feede the sheepe therefore he is charged to feede the rest of the Apostles He is twise charged to feede Lambes therefore the Iewes and Gentiles and by consequent all Christians Do not these hange together as a sickmans dreames Doth not Bellarmine seeme to expose the Scripture to mockery when he reasoneth after this fashion against Aquinas rule who doth plainely deny that symbolicall diuinitie Bellarmine buildeth his Church gouernment vppon tropes hath any force to argue whereon for all that hee hath built the whole supremacy and doth pronounce it to be a doctrine of the Catholicke faith most plainly founded vpon the Scriptures The Philosophers doe laugh at Epicure for making the world of moates And will not Diuines hisse out Bellarmine that frameth the ecclesiasticall gouernment of tropes For truely you shall assoone finde Moores Vtopia in the world as Peters Monarchy in the text Which Article notwithstanding is fained to bee the cheefe article of the Popes Creede wherein are contained many articles aswell of superstition and Idolatrie as of conspiracie and rebellion So that Poperie is nothing else but a plaine catechisme of false faith toward God and the King For that double power ecclesiasticall and temporall § 152 which you faine to bee so inwardly ioyned to the supremacy that it cannot be separated from it you haue erected as a double engine to ouerthrow the truth of diuinity and the Kings dignity For you haue translated each of them as it were from Peter to the Pope and the Popes successour which you assume and proue not Ecclesiasticall whereby by excommunication he may binde Kings and absolue subiects not only from sinnes but from vowes lawes and oathes So by excommunication the Pope stealeth away crownes from Kings and soules from subiects while he taketh away authority from the one and obedience from the other In both he breaketh Gods will wherby the ciuill power of the Prince though he be euill and the obedience of the subiect is soundly established as I haue fully and at large satisfied you in the former Dialogue and I haue no lesse infringed the Popes temporall iurisdiction where you alleadged it In the meane while there was no reason this insolent Cardinall should tearme Kings Catholike in the faith if once they began to bee wicked vnruly râ—mmes Bellarmines sawcinesse iustly reprooued and Protestant Kings and Princes rauenous wolues himselfe being a goate and a foxe he durst not I say call them so but that hee thinketh Kings to be very patient Who if they remembred themselues to bee Kings would teach this sawcy and busie Cardinall to follow his holy studie and not to trouble himselfe with Kings affaires Neither would they
may be sayd of the secular tyrannicall power as of Tyberius and Nero which may be said of the Popish tyrannicall power as of Gregorie the 7. or Paul the 5. true in respect of the abuse But the ordination of the secular power is of God the abuse of the Diuell Therefore Pilates power which condemned Christ is not sayd to bee tolerated from aboue but giuen from aboue It was therefore a wicked power not a vsurped power as Austin thought wicked in respect of tyranny not vsurped in respect of the ordination but the power of this Prelate I may say this Pilate as Bernard spake it is not onely wicked but vsurped I conclude therfore out of the Apostles principle for the secular power against Bellarmine All power ordained is immediately from God by the witnesse of Paul All secular power whether it bee by the people by the Princes or by the King is a power ordained For reason which is a glimmering of the diuine light doth suggest that all societies must be subiect to one of these whether it bee simple or mixt for the good of common safety Therefore all secular power is immediatly from God § 171 But the title of the power is not diuine but humane therefore the secular Prince hath mediately power and gouernment to rule ouer these or those subiects Bellarmine in his answer to a booke entituled an answer of a Doctor of Diuity to an Epistle written to him by a reuerend freind of the monition of the censures from the Pope denounced against the Venetians either election comming betweene as the Emperour or succession as the Kings of France Spaine and England or grant as the free Princes as the Popes in their own Dominion for so he might haue sayd or by iust war as Godfrey heretofore c. Very ignorantly He doth not distinguish between the title of the power and the power it selfe The title is the condition without the which the power is not obtained to this or that King ouer those or these subiects The power is that authority and iurisdiction which God doth giue immediately to a Prince as Paul teacheth The Cardinall therfore vniesuited as I may so say did abuse that most renowned French King If any man said he should demand of the most Christian King by what right hee holdeth France or maketh Lawes hee shall not answer by the Law of God but by the title of hereditarie succession Yea truely the noble King might haue answered otherwise according to that wit wherewith hee was endued being demanded why he bare rule ouer his subiects or made lawes That hee did it not by the right of hereditarie succession but by the ordinance of that power which hee receiued immediately from God Inheritance doth not giue that power but it is a property necessarie in that man to whom God doth immediately giue that power That subiects may giue reuerence to their Kings not for blouds sake but for Gods sake Goe to and what if one should demand of Paul the fift by what right hee holdeth his Popedome he will answer as he is taught not by the title of mans election but by the Law forsooth of God Therfore the Popes power is by Gods Law as it seemeth although his election bee by the Cardinals Why then may not the Kings power be by the Law of God thogh his succession be from his ancestours for whose condition seemes to be like why should their iurisdiction be dislike The Cardinall therefore deales very vniustly who denieth that to the King which he granteth to the Pope § 172 But the malapert Cardinall did trie the patience of the most Christian King The cruell dealing of the Iesuites with the French King as another of his order a bloody nouist strucke out his tooth when he meant to cut his throat But now the Iesuites doe blesse the King but the King as oft as he cheweth his meate its maruell he doe not curse the Iesuites who while the controuersie depended about the expulsion of the Iesuites receiued a wound from Iohn Chastile and the bloud issued out of his mouth spake pleasantly as his vse was Now at the last the Iesuites being conuicted by my mouth must bee cast out That his friends may greeue that they were brought backe againe by that mouth as innocent and cleered who were the authours of so cruell a murther whose scholler did thrust that valiant King to the heart After the same manner Tom. 11. Baronius that testie olde man did entertaine the Catholike King Philip the second the Champion of their Church for with-holding Sicilie and Naples from the Church Whom will they spare if they spare not the Spaniard What may the Defender of the Faith expect of these fellowes who doe thus entertaine the Christian and Catholike Kings But although there be no truth yet there is some equitie in Bellarmine Bellarmines lewde dealing with all Princes Hee spareth no Princes not those of his owne side Hee holdeth that those who bee Catholike in faith if they beginne to be wicked are to be driuen by the cheife Pastour from the flocke and depriued of their kingdome as well as heretickes Those as giddie headed rammes that they hurt not with their hornes these as rauenous wolues that they deuoure not the flocke So scornfully doth this Braggadochian Cardinall terme the Excellencies and Maiesties of the Christian world The world doth not maruel that Preists be so sawcy but it wonders that Kings bee so patient that they will suffer Princely crownes to be tumbled vp and down by them as foot-bals and the prerogatiues of kingdomes to be so weakned diminished by schoole distinctions For this Cardinall like a bad archer doth strike his confederate next neighbour-neighbour-kings while he doth directly leuell and aime but in vaine against Iames the King of Great Britaine whom God still defend from his treacherie But to the argument Hee denieth all secular Princes to haue any power immediately giuen from God to rule ouer subiects But it is well that hee doth affirme euen in the same § 173 chapter in as manie words that secular Princes haue power immediately from God to rule their subiects as they are superiors and he alleageth a good reason because the commandement of obedience is immediately from God and this is true For he cannot bee superiour and aboue other if he doe not rule neither can he be a subiect that is not bound to obey And yet againe in the end If secular Princes saith he haue no power immediately from God ouer the Laity much lesse ouer the Cleargie therefore ouer none Which hee granted before Is it so indeede will some say yea truely looke vpon the place Hee is both vnconstant vnlearned you shall see Bellarmine affirming and denying the same predicate of the same subiect and that in respect of the same and that in one and the same chapter Let this great Logician be packing who sends his aduersaries to turne ouer Aristotles
iustification and of the saluation of the Elect by the grace of Christ before Peter gaue his sentence and that not sitting but arising and that very modestly and gently Afterward Iames did onely yeeld his opinion but pronounced and set downe in writing the decree it selfe which all the assembly of Apostles and Preists did follow It seemed good also not to Peter alone but to the Apostles and Preists with the whole Church to send certaine choice men to Antioch with the Apostle Paul and Barnabas and the Synodall Epistle did not beare the name of Peter but of all the Apostles Preists and Brethren And if Peter had receiued the primacy of iurisdiction from Christ the other Apostle had done him great wrong that suffered not Peter to bee President of the Councell that they sent Peter as inferior into Samaria that they took accompt of his doing that they met not together by his appointment that they suffered him not to sit aboue others to propound the decree to send Legates and to seale vp the Synodall Epistle in his owne name But the Apostles did no wrong to Peter It followeth then that Peter receiued no primacy of iurisdiction from Christ but was equall to the rest of the Apostles and inferiour to the whole Councell The Papists doe grant a double gouernment to Peter § 201 Peters double pretended gouernment Galat. 2. Paul nothing inferiour to Peter They make him Lord of the spirituals and temporals Therefore the Apostle Paul did ill bee it spoken with reuerence who made himselfe equall to Peter and gaue out that he was inferiour in nothing vnto Peter and which was more reprehended him sharpely to his face as his equall and fellow-seruant and that publikely when hee tooke him in a fault For the Gospell saith he was committed to me ouer the Gentiles as it was to Peter ouer the Iewes For hee that was powerfull through Peter in the Apostleship of the Iewes the same was powerfull in mee ouer the Gentiles And when as Iames Cephas and Iohn who seemed to bee pillers knew that grace was giuen me then they gaue the right hands of fellowship to me and Barnabas See Cephas doth acknowledge Paul his fellow hee had him not for a subiect neither did hee challenge to himselfe the highest top of gouernment but gaue the right hand of fellowship which was done by Peter not only in respect of humilitie of minde but for equalitie of office Farre be it from vs to thinke it was written by Paul for pride of minde but for the truth of the matter And if Christ had appointed Peter the vniuersall Bishop Prince of his Church how durst Peter and Paul couenant betweene them-selues in the 18. yeare after Christ his passion that Peter should exercise the Apostleship ouer the Iewes and Paul ouer the Gentiles not only but chiefly whereby Paul by the Antients is called the Prince of the Apostles as well as Peter But the equall hath no gouernment ouer his equall Peter would be are no rule ouer the clergie 1 Pet 5. Neither could Peter himselfe beare rule ouer the Clergie that he might not seem to permit that to other which he would not take to himselfe when hee called himselfe not a chiefe Priest but a fellow Priest Much lesse did he vse the sword and ciuill gouernment and iudge Caesar to be subiect vnto him but admonished himselfe with all other Christians to submit themselues to Caesar as to the most excellent and to other Magistrates as sent from him neither did at any time exercise ciuill gouernment He had it not therefore for that is not a power which is neuer brought into act Therefore Peter was no more ouer Kings than hee was ouer Apostles § 202 Nay Christ himselfe as a man was not aboue the Emperour Christ himselfe as man not aboue Emperors As he is God he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords as he was man he did not only submit himselfe to Tiberius but to Pilate Tiberius Deputie in Iurie You had no power said he ouer me if it were not giuen you from aboue Againe he saith that his kingdome was not of this world when he was demanded of Pilate what kingdome he laid claime vnto Whereby it appeareth that Christ was to haue not a temporall August in Psal 47. but a spirituall kingdome as Austin gathereth out of those words Harken to this ô yee Kings and enuy not Christ is a King after another fashion than you are who said my kingdome is not of this world Feare not therefore if the kingdome of this world be taken from you you shall haue another giuen vnto you and that a heauenly one whereof he is King If Christ had not a temporall kingdome was it for Peter to haue it what is this else but to make the seruant aboue his master and the embassador aboue him that sent him and if it did not belong neither to Christ nor to Peter do you thinke that not only the temporall kingdome but the chiefe gouernmēt ouer all temporal kingdoms was giuen to the Pope Christs supposed Vicar Peters counterfeit successor fie vpon such foolish pride fie vpon such loftie vanitie which Christ did reprehend in many places in the the Apostles when he said the Kings of the earth beare rule ouer them but you not so And as my father sent me so I send you And my kingdome is not of this world And yet Bellarmine dares to write Bellarmine contrary to Christ that the supreme temporall power was giuen to the chiefe Bishop which Christ himself by his owne confession did not exercise Christ saith the Kings of the earth beareth rule ouer them but you not so Bellarmine contrary but you so Christ as my Father sendeth me so I send you Bellarmine contrary not as my Father sendeth me do I send you The Father sent me in humilitie and ignominie I send you in pompe and maiestie Christ my kingdome is not of this world Bellarmine contrary yea it is of this world and of all this world So manifestly doth the Cardinall contradict Christ But although Christ as man did not exercise temporall § 203 power he might if he had so liked saith Bellarmine Here the question is not what Christ could haue done but what he did Neither is the authoritie of Peter to be grounded vpon that which Christ could haue done but vpon that which Christ did indeed Christ could if he had pleased haue made the world in an instant but he would not the Scripture witnesseth he would not because it is said that hee tooke to him six daies to bring forth that worke He could if he would haue redeemed the world with one drop of blood without death but he would not that hee would not the Scripture beareth witnes wherein it is said that he must die for vs. So he could if hee would as man exercise the dominion of temporall things but hee would not that hee would not truth it selfe
not preferre himselfe before the sea of Alexandria and Antioch but the sea of Constantinople tooke them both away and did not equall himselfe to the Romane but abolished the Romane for he was the vniuersall and onely Byshoppe and made the other not his fellow but his Vicar For other were not Byshoppes but his Vicars onely as hee imagineth Gregorie to haue thought Lib. 4. epist 36. Lib. 4. ep 34. For Gregorie thought by that title not to take away all Byshoppes but to diminish them or that other Patriarches had their honour abrogated but derogated nor that all other were put downe but that hee was set vp aboue all other neither did hee goe about that one thing that he alone should be but be alone in authoritie or that other should be no Byshoppes at all but that he should seeme a Byshoppe of better worth then the rest and that hee should ioyne them as parts to himselfe not cut them off and should bee among Byshoppes as Lucifer among the Angells who preferred himselfe before others tooke not others away So this vniuersall Byshoppe suffered other Byshoppes to bee but to be in subiection if wee beleeue Gregorie a better interpreter of his owne minde then Bellarmine And this did Boniface the third effect when Boniface tooke nothing to him by the grant of Phocas which Iohn did not claime by the grant of Mauritius That which Boniface tooke to himselfe Paul the 5. retaineth and that much more He doth retaine therefore a new prophane wicked § 111 blasphemous name c. as Gregorie thought while hee is called vniuersall Byshoppe It is well said and truely an euill head is a head of euills And euery euill as it is more generall is the worse And therefore an vniuersall euill is the greatest euill from whence all other euills are powred into the Church and Common-weale into the Church heresies into the Common-weale treasons while it vtterly lost the faith of Christ and trod vnderfoote the maiestie of the Emperour Lib. 4. Ep. 39. Gregorie foretould each of them For thus he said to Anianus to consent to this wicked name what is it else but to loose the faith And how much damage the faith hath sustained it shall appeare by those Articles of the faith which follow And to Mauritius he writ Epist 32. that who so delighteth in that name doth thereby set himselfe aboue the honour of the Emperour And how much damage the Empire hath sustained the lamentable endes of many emperours doth declare Regius our Councellor shall tell you who they were Gregorie as I said was a true alasse too true a Prophet And our learned interpreter of Gregorie the Byshoppe of Chicester said well that the vniuersall Byshop is for the Empire Lucifer for the Church Antichrist § 212 Yet Gregorie himselfe they say though hee liked not the vniuersall title he exercised the vniuersall iurisdiction Wherein they imagine Gregorie to be not truly holy but prophanely politicke like to Caesar who refused the name of a King as odious that hee might more cunningly exercise the authority of a King Therefore they counterfet a certaine Epistle of Gregorie thus indorst to Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse To Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse concerning the Byshoppe of Constantinople accused of a foule fault In the Epistle it selfe the Bizancen primate is said to haue beene accused of a certaine fault Gregor lib. 7. Epist 64. whom the most holy Emperour would haue iudged by vs according to the cononical decrees But the error of name Bizancene or Biazene deriued not from Bizantium the citie of Constantinople Glosse in Grati. edita à Greg 13 but from Bizatium a Prouince of Africa is amended in the glosse of the Cannon law which saith that Anselme and Gratian were deceiued in the inscription of the Epistle of Saint Gregorie An epistle suspected to be forged because Bizancene did not signifie the Patriarch of Constantinople but the Primate of Africa Which things giues vs iust cause to suspect that the Epistle is forged as another wherein they bring in Gregorie affirming that the Constantinopolitane Church is subiect to the Apostolick-sea Lib. 7. epi. 63. Lib. 2. de Rom. Pontific c. 14. as Eusebius the Byshoppe of the same sea doth confesse Which place Bellarmine citeth But in Gregories time none did sit in the sea of Constantinople but Iohn and Siricius who did vsurpe the title of vniuersall Byshoppe Nicephorus a witnesse in his tripartite historie Whereby it appeareth that a counterfeit Eusebius is brought in as a witnesse of the Romane prerogatiue A counterfet Eusebius and a bastardly Epistle deuised by some scribe who testified that Gregorie wrot that being dead which while he liued hee reprehended so earnestly not only in another but in himselfe When this deuise tooke no successe they tried another § 213 way Baronius Bellarmine That there were very many of Gregories Predecessors who did write themselues Byshoppes of the Catholicke Church that is of the vniuersall The vniuersall Byshoppe and Byshop of the vniuersall Church not all one And that it is all one to be called the vniuersall Byshoppe of the Church and Byshop of the vniuersall Church Wherein they haue not onely Costerus gaine-saying them in his Euchiridion and Lindane in his Panoplie in whose iudgement these differ the vniuersall Byshoppe and the Byshoppe of the vniuersall Church or that all ambiguitie may be taken away they deny it to bee one to be called the Byshoppe of the Catholicke Church that is vniuersall and Catholicke that is vniuersall Byshop of the Church And they will deny it Is it all one to say Tortus is a learned diuine of the schoole of Papia and a Diuine of the learned schoole of Papia Nothing lesse For in that proposition false praise is giuen to Tortus in this true to Papia So the Pope is the Catholicke Byshoppe of the Church is one thing and the Pope is the Byshoppe of the Catholike Church is another For in that proposition a counterfet title of the Pope in this the true name of the Church is expressed But Catholicke and Vniuersall are all one What then But these propositions be not all one The Pope of Rome is the Byshoppe of the catholicke Church i. of the vniuersall therefore the Byshoppe is vniuersall no more then these two propositions be all one The King of Spaine is the Catholike King therefore the vniuersall King Or thus The King of Spaine is the King of the Catholicke Church therfore he is King of the whole Christian world For the power ouer all Churches doth no no more belong to the Pope who is called Catholike then the power ouer all kingdomes belongeth to the King that is called Catholike § 214 Although this vniuersall Bishop challenge the cheife gouernment not onely ouer spirituall but ouer temporall causes also so that the power ouer all things is in the Pope the execution of that power is sayd to reside in Emperours and Kings which
A LOOKING-GLASSE FOR THE POPE Wherein HE MAY SEE HIS owne Face the expresse Image of ANTICHRIST Together with THE POPES NEW CREEDE containing 12. Articles of superstition and treason set out by Pius the 4. and Paul the 5. masked with the name of Catholike Faith Refuted in two Dialogues Set forth by LEONEL SHARPE Doctor in Diuinitie And translated by EDWARD SHARPE Bachelour in Diuinitie 1. KING 18. How long will you halt betweene two religions if GOD be GOD follow him if Baal be GOD follow him LONDON Printed by EDWARD GRIFFIN dwelling in the little old Bayly neere the Kings-head 1616. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY to the most Reuerend Clergie of ENGLAND IT must not seeme strange most Reuerend Fathers in GOD and my much beloued Brethren if seeing the Captaines of Israel be gone forth to warre against Antichrist a Souldier of a meaner rancke moued with the goodnesse of the cause enter the battaile and ioyne himselfe to the standard For all doe see the Pope renew the old warres and cannot rest quiet but assayes by all meanes Papistas nostros nostras dicerem how he may recouer the possession of GREAT BRITAINE being lost and in a vaine hope thereof our Papists in the masculine I should haue said in the feminine but that I should seem to some to haue spoken false Latine are growne more in number and farre more insolent then they were wont heretofore Who then though he be the meanest seruant of Christ borne vnder or rather with the Gospell restored without which he would not deeme Paradise it selfe to be a pleasant Country would not resist and withstand to his teeth Antichrist himselfe renewing his forces and taking courage vnto him with such earnestnesse to recouer that seat from whence aforetime he was iustly cast out I was not ignorant what labours were to bee vndertaken what wronges were to be digested by them who enter combate and maintaine fight with so cruell an enemie so that it were better for them to be silent if they thought what were auaileable rather for their owne priuate then for the publicke estate of the Church of Christ But that which vsually falles out in warre that the tried prowesse of the Captaines doth by their ensample whet on the courages of the Souldiers and doth stirre vp and pricke forward their sluggish mindes to the effecting of some exploite The very same doth happen to Gods Ministers in this spirituall warfare to whom there is abilitie giuen from God to some greater to some lesse to all some Whereby though they can adde nothing to the matters in controuersie and it may bee they ought not because not new things are to be deliuered by Diuines but after a new manner as Vincentius wrot nor with a diuers faith but with a diuers stile as Austen warneth yet notwithstanding both by the consent of their testimony with the difference of their giftes and the varietie of discourse they can and ought giue their helping hand to the Gospell That was also an encouragement that assoone as the beast wounded with the kings speare began to grunt Bellarmine Parsons Pacenius Christano Becan Coquaeus and many others it presently cast vp out of his mouth a great swarme of Iesuites who should not so much refute with arguments as traduce with slanders written with the hand of scorpions the Kings maiestie being not onely the best of Kings but the best of men and vndoubtedly the true Defender of the Faith Right Heretickes who murther men not with the sword but with their wiles as Ierome writeth for a mans style may bee counted aswell a cutthroate as a sworde drawne against Kings whose honour seemes to be more deare and tender vnto them then their liues So that Iames Clement or Francis Rauillacke were no more cruell in wounding the Kings body then Bellarmine or Pacenius in wounding the Kings name It is said that Ethnicke Rome did imprint that letter whereof Cicero makes mention not to the table of iudges as diuers interpret it but as Cicero and Pliny to the head and forehead of false accusers to the leaden head and iron forehead that they may carry countenances as stigmaticall slaues branded with the markes of those letters in disgrace of their slanderous tongues whom Plautus doth therefore tearme litered men Truely it may seeme very vniust if I doe not desire that those Iesuits should be accompted litered whom popish Rome doth nourish and cherish within her as those old geese and dogges who by their cackling and barking did pursue any that assaulted the capitall Adde that those two staues whereof Zacharie the Prophet maketh mention the authority of Magistrates and the obedience and agreement of Subiects Za cap. 1. vers 7. calling the one the staffe of beauty the other the staffe of bondes These gracelesse Iesuits endeauour to breake them both making rebellion an Arittle of their faith wherein they goe so farre that they be not only conuinced of our side but euen of their owne For of late certaine secular Priests as they are called more moderate in shew then the rest that they may the more freely disperse abroad closly among vs the seedes of superstition do cunningly inueigh against the Articles of treason brought in by the Iesuits whenas Alan and many other secular Priests do both command and practise treason Our men therefore both as good Patriottes and as faithfull Ministers being bound with the double bond of warfare euery one of them for his Graces for his time and place much more for his power ought to oppugne both these Articles whereby we may maintaine according to our vocations the liberty of the kingdome vnder which we were borne together with the truth of the Gospell by which we were borne again Wherein the most learned Byshoppe of Elye doth very iustly taxe the Ministers that are luke-warme and silent in a businesse of such importance Epist Dedicat to the KING who do not bestow their paines in writing when as this cause as hee saith is to be reckoned among those wherein he that gathereth not with Christ doth scatter abroad with the enemie of Christ wherein if any man shall not deliuer his faithfull knowledg eâ—e shall not deliuer his owne soule And doth adde this that in such a busines you were better want power then will and abilitie then faithfulnesse Which I remember was sometime tould me of that most Reuerend Archbyshoppe D. Whitgift then when the quarrell on both sides was not so hot when hee wished that in so great a plenty of excellent Diuines among vs there were more that would imploy their spare times from their duty of preaching in the paines of writing I am come therefore into the fielde being thereto prouoked with the goodnesse of the cause the ensample of the Captaines the iniury of the enemie the Oath of warfare the encouragement of the Fathers that I might somewhat daunt the enemie insulting so vnworthily To which purpose I thought good to set this taske
4. about the profession of the oath of orthodox faith annex to the Con Trent sub Innoc 3. a new Creede But shee was displeased with the foure Euangelists because they passed by their Pope as a vnknowne man And therefore she created a fift Euangelist who by the helpe of the Monkes might coyne a fift Gospell fitter for their purpose than the other They deemed the true Iesus the sonne of Marie crucified by Gods decree vpon Mount Caluarie for the saluation of men to be but halfe a Sauiour Therefore they deuised Francis Peter Barnardons sonne as if hee had beene pierced with the same wounds of Christ and in the same parts and consecrated him in the Laterane Councell to be the Typicall Iesus Shee thought the twelue articles of the faith gathered together by Christs 12. Apostles not to be sufficient for saluation And therefore published twelue new articles of the faith composed in the Councell of Trent and brought by Pope Pius the fourth into the forme of a Creede Paul the fift being the furtherer of it O holy mother the Church but ô father far more holy In the meane time she preached Christs great loue bounty toward the Pope and the Popes reuerence and obsequiousnes toward Christ But seing Babylon that old whore had learned to trimme and paint hir-selfe but to dissemble her inward affections and cunningly to cloake her hatred with loue and her loue with hatred euery wise-man is to forecast being taught by former hurt and mischiefe not any more what shee doth pretend but what shee doth intend Shee knoweth that the Scripture is a reuealer of her idolatrie luxurie couetousnes pride and crueltie Shee fretts and chafes that no portion of honour and gouernment but of labour and paines is allotted vnto the Pope by Christ his Testament Shee is greeued at the heart that shee is foretold by the Apostles to be mysticall Babylon and the Pope to be that Antichrist Shee abhorres the Scripture as a theefe doth the gallowes shee despiseth the Apostles as her accusers shee hates Christ as her Iudge but with a secret hatred as shee loueth Antichrist with a secret loue whose enemie shee doth earnestly counterfeit hir-selfe to be that shee may seeme to be at familiar enmitie with him So shee doth counterfeit hirselfe to be a most dutifull worshipper of the Scripture as of the former Councells and doth often alledge it as the Diuell doth turned to a contrary sense and doth alledge it but as a falsifier fraudulently corrupted and shee is inwardly vext that such a blow is giuen to her head by the Scriptures not as they be expounded by vs but as they be vnderstood by those Synodes But shee takes nothing more greeuously then that in the supremacie of her iurisdiction .i. in the chiefe article of her publike religion that two of their chiefest founders as shee calls them be so silent witnesses in this cause S. Peter 1 Pet 5. S. Paul S. Peter who did plainly forbid superioritie to any one Priest ouer the Clergie styled himself most truly most humbly not an Arch-priest but a fellow-priest S. Paul who when of purpose he sent an Epistle to the Romanes made no mention at all of the Pope and the prerogatiue of the Church of Rome nor of the after-borne articles of the faith which shee in great plenty brought in afterward And when as of set purpose he had reasoned of the perpetuall gouernment of the militant Church and had gathered together many vnities one God one faith one spirit one body one Lord hee ouer-past one visible head Ephes 4. being forgetfull of their Peter And no maruell when as Peter himselfe was forgetfull of himselfe He did rather diuide the gouernment of the Church among all the Bishops and would rather haue it an Aristocraticall gouernment with many vnder Christ than Monarchicall vnder one as the practise of the Church next following for many ages did approue For that the fiue Patriarches had equall authoritie both Balsamon doth witnes and the Councell of Neece doth confirme And Francis Duarene writes that Boniface the third Francis Duar. de sacris benef lib. 1. cap 10. not before the 607. yeares not without much adoe could obtayne of Phocas to be created the vniuersall Bishop The Pope then is indebted to a King-killer for all the glory of his kingdome and yet he seemeth to giue thanks to Christ as if by his word Feede my sheepe hee had ordeyned the Bishops of Rome in Peter as he writes himselfe a fellow-minister to be Kings so many ages before they were borne Cic. ad PetuÌ„ ep 9. â— 8. As Cicero when as a false decree of the Senate was brought into Armenia and Siria as made against his minde writes that thanks were giuen him from foraigne Kings because he had named them to be Kings by his consent whom he knew not that they were not onely named but not so much as to bee borne But the Nicene Councell doth greatly discontent the Romane Bishop whom he maketh but equall to the Bishop of Alexandria For therefore the Bishop had corrupted that Canon which had restreyned the supremacie of the Bishop of Rome nor being therewith content did adde many yeares after fifty false Canons to twentie true of the Nicene Councell that hee might make the whole world beleeue that his supremacie which was apparantly shortned by the Nycene Fathers being aliue were enlarged by them being dead As the same Cicero doth pleasantly sport himselfe with Antonie Philip 1. when as he had published certaine false decrees of Caesar that the Citizens that were sent into banishment of him aliue should be recalled being dead and that the Citie that was denyed them of him aliue should be granted being dead and that many immunities and priuiledges that were taken of him being aliue should bee sold of him being dead by which meanes Antonie did affect both an infinite and hurtfull power So the Pope doth publish many acts as proceeding from Christ as from the Apostles as from the Nicene Fathers whereby hee doth vsurpe most proud and cruell gouernment in the Church And he fetcheth them from the dead for they were neuer made by them when they were aliue In like manner hee bringeth in the Chalcedon Fathers being dead Coâ—up of a Can of Chalcedon denying that which they affirmed when they were aliue Iudging say the Fathers of Chalcedon that the See of Constantinople in matters Ecclesiasticall bee as well aduanced in matters ecclesiasticall as the Romane being the next vnto it Which words are falsly recited Distinct 22. Renovantes or rather filthily corrupted in the Canon Law while he addeth a negatiue to the last words which altereth the sense of the whole Canon into a cleane contrary yet notwithstanding let it not be aduanced in matters ecclesiasticall as shee but let her be the next vnto it What should I make many words The first six generall Councells which may be thought to
Christ is a Prophet dost in very deed indirectly denie and ouerthrow the Prophecie of Christ More then that the Pope doth indirectly ouerthrow his Priesthood and his kingdome His priesthood whereon dependeth the sacrifice and intercession of Christ 2 His Priesthood while hee doth erect another priesthood which doth either offer another propitiatorie sacrifice or doth reiterate the sacrifice of Christ as imperfect When as the Apostle doth proue throughout the whole Epistle to the Hebrewes that the propitiatorie sacrifice of Christ if you seeke for the number is but one if for the time is but once offered Heb. 10.14 Well expounded if for the Priest by himselfe if for the place vpon the Crosse if for the manner bloudily if for the vertue exceeding effectuall to make holie the faithfull With what face therefore doth the Pope either deuise another propitiatorie sacrifice or cause that to be often repeated of prophane Priests vnbloudily vpon the Altar as though the bloudy sacrifice of Christ were not sufficient to make perfect the beleeuers wherein he sheweth himselfe an vtter Aduersarie vnto Christ But they doe daily sacrifice Christ say they that they may apply him to the faithfull But the Apostles did not sacrifice Christ but propounded him in the word and sacraments that they might apply him to the faithfull Out of the sacrifice of Christ the redemption of the Church is the first part of his priesthood which the Pope of Rome hath communicated with the Saints Thus they speake of Gregorie Let him saue vs from our sinnes that in heauen with the Saints we may rest You would thinke that Gregorians not Christians spake Of Peter and Paul Grant that by both their merits wee may obtaine the glory of eternitie Out of the Romane Breuiarie It is true that it is said that the Lord can hardly be discerned from his Apostles O blessed mother In the Parisian Missal Satisfying for our sinneâ— By the right of a mother Command the redeemer Bâ—rnard in Mart. lib. 1. So that the Iesuites doe thinke meete to saluation to mingle the mothers milke with the sonnes blood and they do appeale from the seate of Gods iustice to the seate of his mothers mercy whom they call the goddesse and Queene of heauen So that poperie is no more to be called Christianisme but Marianisme Now if the Pope doe communicate the office of redemption with the Saints what maruell is it if they impart the office of intercession with them whereas the Apostle doth affirme 1. Tim 2.5 there is but one God so but one mediator betweene God and men the man Christ Iesus one mediator of intercession who doth offer vp our prayers to God as he that alone doth pay the price of redemption for vs all sith the efficacie of his intercession dependeth vpon the merit of his redemption 3 His kingdome Last of all they professe Christ to be a King in word in deede they deny him And whereas Christ doth walke in the middest of the 7. golden candlestickes and is not onely present in his Church but President of his Church this exorbitant Priest made a Vicar by himselfe and a voluntarie Prince doth raigne and supplie his turne as if hee were absent and taking vnto him the whole power of Christ in heauen and earth makes Christ but a titulare King and an idle God so that hee seemeth againe with the Iewes to mocke him in setting a crowne of thornes vpon his head and giuing him a â—eed for a Scepter into his hand But Christ is a king inuisible the Pope visible But Christ although inuisible yet he is really in the Eucharist yea carnally as the Pope teacheth falsly yet he teacheth it but in the reall presence of the greater that is Christ there is no reall presence of the lesser that is the Pope so the reall presence of Christ in the Eucharist doth take away the visible and spirituall King out of the Church Now seeing in deede he denieth the offices of Christ which he professeth in word The benefits of Christ diminished what maruell is it if he diminish the benefits which spring out of the offices if making of the crosse he weaken the merit of the crosse if teaching his death hee abolish the power of death if granting the spirit he extenuate the force of the spirit if preaching the Gospell he put out the light of the Gospell while he doth confound free will with Gods grace mans satisfaction with Christ his bloud inherent iustice with imputed obedience in iustification that part of saluation being attributed to man part to God may diuide the glory of so excellent a worke betweene God and man Wherein I cannot rightly determine whether Antichrist hath offered more contumely to God or wrong to man Out of the premises I argue briefly thus Whosoeuer doth denie Christ closly and indirectly is Antichrist The Pope of Rome doth deny Christ closly and indirectly and taketh away his natures his properties his offices his benefits The Pope therefore is Antichrist Wherein he doth alwaies one thing and pretendes another He is therefore a cunning craftie Antichrist CAHP. XI Wherein the smoakie Kingdome of Antichrist is plentifully described out of Iohn SAINT Iohn saith that the key of the bottomlesse pit is giuen to the starre that fell from heauen Apoc. 9. The Pope the key Keeper of Hell Now marke in this hellish businesse how diligent this Angell of darkenesse sheweth himselfe 2 For assoone as he receiueth the key hee presently vseth it to opening of the bottomles pit as it followeth in Saint Iohn from whence ascended the smoke of the pit as the smoake of a great furnace and the sun and the aire were darkned with the smoake of the pit 3. Therefore Antichrists kingdome is darke and smoakie The darknesse vnder Antichrist I doe not thinke that any who knoweth but his letters much lesse any learned man to be so weake an Interpreter of the Apocalips as to think the outward darkenesse is here meant and that the darknesse of this sunne which we see or of this ayre which wee breath and not rather the darkenesse of soules and mindes is here vnderstood or that smoake out of a furnace rather then out of hell is heere described Now the kingdome of Christ is the kingdome of light and therefore the kingdome of Antichrist is the kingdome of darkenesse Apoc. 8.12 At the sound of the fourth trumpet Saint Iohn saith No comparison betweene the old Heretikes and Antichrist that the third part of the sunne the Moone and the starres were darkned When Marcion destroyed Christs humanity Arrius denied his diuinitie so that the world was turned Arrian Eutiches confounded his natures Nestorius diuided them when Pelagius obscured the grace of Christ but all these were nothing to those vniuersall darknesses brought in by Antichrist For hee tooke some contagion from each of these and added much of his owne When he commanded the Scriptures
vpon the stage with his head couered for the greatnes of his griefe So these good fellowes bring vpon the stage their pleasant Antichrist hoodwinkt for the greatnesse of his ioy that the world may not see how he fleeres at them The number of the Locusts 5. The multitude and number of Locusts is answerable to the number and power of the Monkes old and new chiefly the Iesuites whose swarmes do adde greater force to doe mischiefe 6. Power is giuen to these Scorpions ouer the earth and charge giuen them that they hurt not the grasse of the earth Apoc 9. v. 4. nor any greene herbe nor any tree but men onely as it followeth in S. Iohn These Locusts then are reasonable creatures yet such as abuse their reason to the destruction of men for they doe not trample vpon herbes and trees but doe annoy the bodies and soules of men whom they strike with their stings infect with their poyson and kill with a lingring death The practise of Iesuites These Iesuites whom these Locusts and Scorpions doe liuely represent doe choke vp with their poyson and extinguish the fidelitie of subiects toward their Prince and the faith of Christians toward God The fidelitie of subiects when they teach they are released from the Oath of Allegeance giuen to their Princes whom the Pope doth denounce excommunicated The Popes vsurped power ouer Princes who can driue out of his Kingdome and depriue of his gouernment Kings Catholike in the faith but wicked as goates hereticall Kings as wolues as Bellarmine writeth neither only open but secret Heretikes as Symanchaâ— nor those onely but their sonnes and followers are vtterly to be rooted out as Creswell agreeth with Symancha by any meanes whatsoeuer as Saunders either by open force 2 King 33. as Iesabel by Iehu or by craft as Holophernes by Iudith as Rainoldus Bourchier write The cruell practise of Papists against Princes or by knife dagger wherby Henry the 3. Henry the 4 were most basely murthered either of them being a Catholike as they terme them only because they fauored hertikes that before sentence was denounced against them or els by a dag poyson The gunpowder treason from Iesuites by which means Queen Elizabeth was often assaulted as Walpoole and Comensus perswaded or else with gunne-powder wherewith King Iames with all the Kings Progeny and Nobilitie and the whole Kingdome of Britaine should haue been vtterly ouerthrowen by certaine wicked English conspirators as Garnet the Prouinciall of the Iesuites in England thought meete whereby it is manifest that the Cheargy-popery whereof Iesuitisme is the braine is nothing else but a catechisme of treason Must we not heere needes acknowledge the poyson of Locusts and Scorpions whereby the Allegeance of subiects towards their Princes is shaken off Let vs looke after another kinde of poyson if you please The Papists poyson the faith of Christians whereby the soules of simple people are infected to choake vp the faith of Christians which they teach must be secret and implicite that the Lay-people must beleeue as the Church beleeueth when as they know not neither what themselues or the Church beleeueth as Bellarmine saith that faith is not placed in the vnderstanding but in â—he assent i. The Colliars faith or that circular faith which Staphilus so much commendeth the master of the sentences proueth out of the first of Iob ver 4. While the oxen were at plow the asses fed neere them Many Mast sent lib. 3 distinct 25. saith he beleeue such things they know not and they haue their faith couered as in a mystery He liketh the greater and Doctors to Oxen Lombards foolish interpretation the lesse and the simpler to Asses who in their humility adhering to the greater beleeue in a mysterie an asse-headed interpretation by the masters leaue 8. Whereby it appeares that Laike-popery is nothing else but meere foolery Vers 4. Whom the Loâ—usts doe hurt 9. Neither doe these Locusts and Scorpions hurt all men but those onely which haue not Gods marke in their fore-head their mindes they goe about to intoxicate with their poyson As S. Iohn saith that the great heapes of vnbeleeuers are onely the prey of the Locusts Vers 5. Locusts kill not but afflict men 10. It is giuen to the Locusts and Scorpions not to kill men but to afflict them for fiue monthes but how can that be true say some when as the Iesuites be notable Cut-throates I answer that S. Iohn in this verse speaketh of the slaughter of soules which these destroying Locusts doe chiefely deuoure Wherein they doe not kill men at a blow but by afflicting them by little and little as they which bee stung of Scorpions consume away by lingring greefe This is S. Iohns sense when he saith that the Scorpions doe not kill men but torment them For when these Antichristian scorpions doe infuse and conuay the poyson into men what gnawing and pritching doe they leaue behinde them how doe they vexe mens consciences how doe they inwardly bite and sting men feele themselues to bee miserable sinners and after death stand in horrour of iudgement They heare little of the true fire of hell much of the false fire of Purgatorie from the Monkes they feele the bitternesse of sinne they feele not the sweetnesse of the remedy They neuer heare of Christ They giue eare to the monks preaching historically of the crosse of the death and resurrection of Christ but of the vertue of the crosse of the benefit of his death of the efficacy of his resurrection the force and power whereof doth consist in speciall application not one word The Papists enemies to certainty of saluation Yea rather there Doctors cry out that it is presumption and arrogancy if the wounded conscience of a penitent sinner be certainely perswaded by faith that Christ Iesus is his Sauiour or that he may confidently trust he is in the estate of grace vnlesse an Angell doe specially reueale it vnto him as though to a faithfull mans spirit the spirit of Christ the God of the Angels doth not giue a more inward more certaine and a more excellent testimony that he is the sonne of God the heire of heauen and fellow-heire with Christ so that the faithfull man feeleth that hee is gouerned by the spirit of Christ from whom hee receiued that testimony and doth ioyne the grace of that gouernment with the grace of that comfort Neither of this do those locusts feele or teach who while they depriue their auditours of the holy confidence in Gods mercy The manner how Papists torment mens conscience nor suffer them to serue God with a sun-like but a seruile spirit and therefore not with the reioycing of the spirit nor suffer them to enioy peace of conscience in the middest of their afflictions and send sinners trembling for feare to the treasure of the Church as popish indulgences and humane satisfactions and
Babylon whose wares are mens soules whose Marchants are the Monkes which make men value their saluation at a high rate Not without cause Martial a pleasant Poet thought hee might iest with one Calliodore who had put ouer his seruant tor 2000. peeces of siluer that out of his mans price hee might suppe daintily and feede vpon Mullet and other kindes of delicate fish I may well cry ô wreth that fish is not thy meat It is a man a man thou Calliodore doest eat The same may bee truely sayd of Bellarmine Becan and such like Iesuites who sell mens soules to feede their bellies It is not fish ye Iesuites whereon you doe so feed O they be men ye Canibals ô they be men indeed Whom if I cannot yet satisfie for I know their wrangling and obstinate wits I will send them to the Angell the Interpreter of the Mysterie who doth conuict that Rome in name onely Christian and Popish to be that whore of Babylon First the seuen heads of the Beast whereof he spake mystically before are seuen hils saith the Angell and seuen Kings The hils are the heads of the city the seuen Kings the heads of the gouernment by them the situation of Rome by these the seuen kindes of gouernment are noted whereof I spake before Fiue went before Iohns time the sixt was then that is the Empire which the first Beast shadoweth out the seuenth was not yet come that was the Popedome which the latter Beast doth represent The Rhemists obiection But the 7. hills and the 7. Kings say the Rhemists are not taken literally and properly but mystically and indefinitly so that they signifie all the Kingdomes of persecutors Why therefore doth the Angell adde of the seauen Kings 5. are falne one is and the other is not yet come which place the Rhemists do so expound afterward but vnwittingly they confesse fiue went before Christ one then was the other was to follow whereby they ouerthrow their former idle interpretation Whose peeuishnesse I pray behold how great it is In all other places almost Their mistaking where the sense is altogether mysticall they imagine a literall sense of their owne Heere where the Angell sets downe a plaine literall sense they imagine a mysticall Against sense which seeth the 7. hills of the city whereupon Rome is called the seuen hild-city Against the history which mentioneth 7. Kings that is the 7. kingly formes of gouernment of that City Neither doth the Angell say as they dreame the seauen heades are 7. hills and the 7. hills are seauen Kings but the 7. heades are 7. hills and those seauen heades are seauen Kings as Bellarmine acknowledgeth The Rhemists exposition is very foolish For the Kings being the heads do shaddow out the heades of the politicke body very fitly the hills very vnfitly Besides that it is very false for if the hills be Kings the City which is the woman vers 18. sitteth vpon 7. Kings For shee is said to sit on the hills vers 9. The light of which place did so strike and dasell the English Rhemists Anglo-Rhemen in Apoc cap. 17.5 as it had done Sanders before that they confesse Rome to be that Whore of Babilon and that it may fall out not inconueniently that great Antichrist may haue his seat at Rome Out of this exposition of the Angell and the confession of the Aduersarie ariseth this proposition That great City placed vpon seauen hills and subiect to the 7. kingly formes of gouernment is the seat of Antichrist hence I dispute both negatiuely and affirmatiuely Negatiuely But Ierusalem although a great City Antichrists seat not at Ierusalem yet was not situated on seauen hills nor euer subiect to seauen such kingly formes of gouernment Ierusalem therefore is not the seat of Antichrist Affirmatiuely but of all cities this scituation and gouernment is proper to Rome Rome therefore properly is the head-city of Antichrist Now sith Antichrist sits only at Rome as the Angell interprets in Iohn and the Aduersary confesseth and sitteth in the temple of God as Paul sets it downe that is in Gods Church as the fathers expound it out of the Scriptures it followeth both waies necessarily that not that Ethnicke but that Ecclesiasticall Rome is the head-city of Antichrist Sibilla did foretell both the scituation of the place Sibilla did foretell Antichrist and the state of Antichrist And she foretould there would bee great terror and furie of the Empire neere the bankes of Tyber and that the king would be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and gaue him the name like to a bridge and should be a Bishop adorned with a white that is a siluer Myter glistering with pretious stones as Ireneus likewise foretould Therefore he was a Latine Bishop that did hold Peters chaire as Bernard who shall bee called most holy Lord and most holy Bishoppe as Ioachim the Abbot said Could Saint Iohn could Saint Paul could Sibilla Irenaeus Barnard Ioachim the Abbot touch him neerer then they touch him Or more plainly shew the scituation of the seate the kinde of gouernment the state of the King the bank of Tyber the name of the chaire of Antichrist so that one of the Papists called him most holy Pope But let vs returne to the Angell by whom the beast which carried the whore is thus described which was that is a flourishing Empire but is not in truth the Empire of Rome for his strength and power but his shadow rather vers 3. and yet is the Romane Empire for name and title and is called the eight beast for 5. are already falne Vers 10. as the Angell saith One King was then that is the Empire in Saint Iohns time and another was not as yet come Vers 11. that is the Papacie which drew to it selfe the strength and power of the olde Empire without the name and is called the seuenth head of the beast The eight beast although of it owne selfe it be a beast But the beast which was and is not is the eight that is a new Empire for the name and title and is one of the seuen that is of the Emperours Therefore although the old Empire may seeme to be described by the Angell by the name of the beast yet a new is chiefly set out which the second beast did renew that the Whoore might sit vpon it and be vpholden by it What is more perspicuous then this Angelicall interpretation which euent it selfe hath prooued true for the whore sitteth vpon this heast and is vpheld by it For therefore the Romaine in name but the Germaine Emperour in deed is called as I said the Defendor Procurator and Protectour of the Apostolicke sea Out of the premisses I shortly dispute 6 The beast whereon the Whore sitteth is a new Empire for it is not the sixt head but the eight therefore not Ethnick Rome vnder the Pagans but in name only Christian vnder the Christian Emperours is that Whore described by Saint
hath said or any Father hath said The Apostle hath taught that that which hindred must be taken out of the way and remoued out of his place so farre forth as it hindred the reuelation and domination of Antichrist hee did not teach it should be abolished and ouerthrowne as they say so that he should lose his name for the remouing of the Empire is one thing the abolishing is another The Roman Empire is not dissolued but diuided into 10 Kings The Emperour is gone out of the Citie of Rome the Rom Empire is dissolued and diuided into ten Kings therefore Antichrist is now come This is therefore the conclusion of all those Fathers whom I mentioned before Hee that held is taken away sayth Hierome Ad Geront de Monoga and doe we not vnderstand that Antichrist is neere at hand for so S. Iohn sayth the ten hornes shall receiue the Kingdome together with the Beast that is with Antichrist and the ten Kings shall diuide the Romane Empire among themselues the number of ten is often taken indefinitely You haue heard the prophesie marke the euent The tenne hornes haue receiued the Kingdome and haue diuided the Romane Empire among themselues together with the Beast that is with Antichrist by the confession of Bellarmine Therefore Antichrist is now come But the name of the Romane Empire is not abolished Neither ought it to be abolished for S. Iohn hath taught that the sixt head of the Sea-Beast that is the Empire The sixt head of the Sea-beast after it was deadly wounded should bee cured and healed againe not therefore to bee vtterly taken away and finished as they say so that it retaine not the name of an Empire Againe hee sets out the cause why the second Beast that is Antichrist should renew the image of the former Beast that the whore might sit vpon her as I haue taught and bee sustained by her And therefore the former Beast was not cleane to be taken away lest the latter being depriued of her stay should fall to the ground But how doth S. Iohn and S. Paul then agree An obiection ansvvered S. Paul saith that the Emperour must be taken out of the way that he might leaue Rome empty for Antichrist as the Papists expound it Saint Iohn sayth that the whore sitteth vpon the Beasts backe that is the Emperour that she might be vpheld by him How doe you reconcile these will you say if you vnderstand S. Paul to speake of the olde and S. Iohn of the new Empire S. Paul speaketh of the Empire which hindred or detained and of that onely for so he saith He onely that now hindreth shall binder till it bee taken away The old Empire did hinder Antichrist not the new S. Paul therefore spake not of the new Empire but of the olde S. Iohn speaketh of the Empire that carrieth the Beast that is so farre off from hindring it that it doth rather vnderprop and vphold it And to that purpose was the Empire renewed in the West The Empire renewed in the West to vphold the Pope that it might hold vp the Church of Rome S. Iohn therefore doth not in this place speake of the olde Empire but of the new But the Popish sort who thinke that not the Maiestie onely but the name of the Empire is to bee extinguished before Antichrist come doe seeme by obscuring the prophesie with certaine contradictions to delude their Auditours They say that the Romane Empire which now is shall continue to the end of the world by the prophesie of Daniel and the same men say that it shall be dissolued and diuided into tenne Kings Very foolishly they say it notwithstanding before Antichrist come As though tenne very potent Kingdomes could consist of the naked name and vaine title of an Emperour or that that could bee said of them should be vtterly abolished before Antichrist came which by them is sayd shall continue till the end of the world Wherein in the one they seeme to follow the madnes of Epicurus who seemes to make the world of moates as these men make ten Kingdoms of words For what is now the Romane Empire but a meere word In the other they shew their brains to be crackt who say that the Romane Empire that now is shall continue to the worlds end and yet shall bee vtterly ouerthrowen before the comming of Antichrist whom they say shall raigne three yeeres and a halfe before the end of the world In them both they shew their notable impiety who while they wrape and infold a most waighty prophesie of Antichrist within their impossibilities contradictions they prophane Gods Word and deceiue Gods Church The summe of all is gathered by the Apostle that the olde Empire is to be taken away and to be dissolued and diuided into tenne Kingdomes before that Antichrist should come that the new was to be restored and repaired being the image of the olde vpon whose backe hee should sit and aduance himselfe when he came CHAP. XXV How the old Empire was taken away THe olde Empire therefore whereof S. Paul spake which hindred the reuealing of Antichrist let vs consider how it was taken out of the way whereof we put two degrees First when Constantine the Great did translate the seat of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople Two degrees of the falling of the Empire the second after the diuision of the Empire into the Easterne and Westerne which did presently weaken them both and afterward dissolued the Westerne which was properly the Romane Empire it was first depriued the Easterne I meane of all the title and interest to Rome and Italy The empty seat of the Empire the Maiesty thereof diuided and diminished then first in the West and after in the East put out and ouerthrowen wee say to bee the two degrees of the remoouing of that obstacle which hindred the reuealing of Antichrist and his dominion in the city of Rome I trip ouer the history briefely they that will set faster footing may fetch it out of the fountaines themselues if they please I doe likewise set downe two degrees of the Reuelation of Antichrist One wherein he beganne to raigne Two degrees of reuealing Antichrist the other wherein hee beganne to bee acknowledged I note also two degrees of the Kingdome when it tooke vpon it the cheefe gouernment of the vniuersall Church Anno 607. when he was called vniuersall Bishop by Phocas that King-killer at that very time when Mahomet beganne so that Phocas the murtherer When Mahomet began the Vniuersall Bishop and wicked Mahomet may seeme to bee of one birth The winde of false doctrine and of Church-ambition did by stealth creep into the minds of certaine Bishops Socrat. li. 7. c. 11 who as Socrates is witnesse lifting vp themselues aboue the limits of their Priesthood into strange gouernment did striue about the primacie and superiority ouer all Churches and to that purpose Zosimus and Celestinus did
word thought such a boundance of wealth to be very pernitious As Tacitus writeth that Aleius Capito and Lu Aruntius to keepe in the ouerflowing of Tyber they would diuert the fluds and streames whereby it did swell to that height that Tyber being cut off from the neighbour riuers might flow as with lesse glory so with lesse danger Ana 1. The Christian world seemeth to haue taken the same counsell to moderate the hurtfull abundance of the Tiberine Bishop so that Bellarmine may seeme to cast a needlesse doubt of the entrance of Antichrist of whose ouerthrow we so carnestly thinke We haue heard the mans first demonstration let vs consider of the second which is thus concluded CHAP. XXX Of the second token going before Antichrists comming IF the Romane Empire be not yet vtterly ouerturned so that it hath not lost the name of the Romane Empire Antichrist is not yet come But the first is true Therfore the second is true Or thus If before the comming of Antichrist the Romane Empire was to be diuided into ten Kings whereof none shall be called the King of the Romanes Antichrist is not yet come But the Antecedent is true Therefore the consequent is true Let vs see the strength and sinewes of this wonderfull demonstration wherin they so greatly triumph although in opening of the prophecy it is sufficiently before refuted the assumption whereof they go about to strengthen on euery side This is the assumption But the Romaine Empire is not yet vtterly ouerturned so that it hath lost the name of the Romane Empire Which they proue because the Romane Empire is to be diuided into tenne Kings whereof none is called the King of the Romanes They endeauour to strengthen either part out of the 2. Daniel 2.32 and seuenth of Daniel and 17. of the Apoc. in the 2. of Daniel they say is described a succession of 4. Kingdomes to last vnto the worlds end by the Image hauing the head of gold the brest of siluer the belly of brasse and the feete of iron The head of brasse signifieth say they the Kingdome of the Chaldees the brest of siluer the Kingdome of the Persians the belly of brasse the Kingdome of Alexander and the Grecians the feete of brasse the Kingdome of the Romanes the 2. feete the easterne and the westerne Empire of the Romanes Now as 2. feet haue 10. toes say they which are not feete So the Romane Empire shall bee diuided into 10. Kings whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes The very same 4. Kingdomes Dan. 7. are described by 4. beastes a Lyon a beare a Leopard and a fourth without a name hauing 10. hornes whereof none is or is called a beast But this beast they say signifieth the Romane Empire and the 10. hornes 10. Kings which shall diuide that Empire Which they proue out of the 17. of the Apocalips where Iohn describes the beast with seauen heades and 10. hornes vpon whom the woman sate For the Angell say they doth so interpret The woman is a great city which sitteth vpon 7. hills that is Rome The 10. hornes are 10. Kings which shall raigne at one time and shall hate the whore c. By which wordes the Angell doth signifie that the Romane Empire by them shall be diuided and desolated so that it shall not retaine the name of the Romane Empire But that Antichrist is not as yet to come it is openly euicted out of Daniel cap 7. vers 14. the ten hornes are the tenne Kings of that kingdome whereof wee haue spoken hitherto And another say they shall rise after them Dan. 7.24 to wit Antichrist and he shall be more potent then the former and shall subdue three Kings and hee shall vtter speech against the most highest and shal tread vnder foote the Saints of the Almightie and shall imagine that he can change times and lawes and they shall bee deliuered into his handes for a time times and halfe a time And this they proue out of Hirom who addeth that a leuenth little King shal arise who shall ouercome three of the tenne Kings Yea Bellarmine goeth farther and out of the 11. Chapter vers 21. and in his place shall stand vp the most vile concludeth that Antichrist rising out of a base place shall by fraud and deceit get the Kingdome of the Iewes and shall not sight onely with three Kings of Egypt Libia and Ethiopia and shall enioy their Kingdomes themselues being vanquished but shal also make slaues seauen other Kings and shall haue the gouernment of the whole world 3. yeares and a halfe and in the meane time shall oppresse the Christians with an innumerable armie and these are the warres of Gog and Magog By all which prophecies of Daniel and Iohn concerning the Romane Empire and Antichrist together with the extent of his Kingdome beginning end and continuance thereof all as he thinkes so fitly agreeing betweene themselues hee peremptorily concludeth that Antichrist is not yet come Whereby there is a greater charge necessarily imposed vpon vs to looke diligently to the expounding of Daniels prophecie as wee were carefull formerly of expounding of Iohns prophecie So the argument shal be well satisfied when I shall confer the historie with the prophecie and set in order things confused and make plaine thinges obscure and shall compare Testament with Testament booke with booke chapter with chapter verse with verse neither will I adde a long Commentarie to a cleare text nor too short a Commentarie to an obscure by this meanes I shall neither admit superfluities or omit necessaries Especially when the prophecie is as a riddle which being darkely in many wordes set downe by the Prophet cannot be made plaine in a few wordes by a Doctour which doth rather require a Prophet to be the interpreter till euent hath made it plaine Wherein the Papists but chiefly Bellarmine must deale more fauourably with vs who hath reiected 12. Fathers in this cause if we likewise doe reiect the same and among them Ierome chiefly so it be without touch of his reputation seeing Austen saith that prophecies may sooner bee accomplished then vnderstood and doth sometime require that naked authorities being laid aside the matter with the matter and the cause with the cause and the reason may striue with the reason Ireneus saith that prophecies till they bee performed are to bee counted doubtfull riddles Irene lib. 4. ad ver heres c. 43. wherein Bellarmine shall not grant lesse to vs then he taketh to himselfe who when hee seeth his Master the Pope to bee pincht and stonge by Ireneus Bellar. de Pon lib. 3. cap. 18. makes this answere to serue his turne Ireneus saith he thinkes it a surer way and lesse dangerous to expect the fulfilling of the prophecie then to suspect it And the Papists seeme to haue learned this modestie out of Daniel who prophecing of other things as wee shall proue of Antichrist as the Papists thinke
say that the words are shut and sealed vp to the time appointed Who if we grant to haue foretould of the Romane Empire and of Antichrist he will neither much hurt our cause or helpe theirs For if Daniels fourth beast be the state of the Romane Empire and the 10. hornes the tenne Kings among whom it shall bee diuided and the eleuenth horne springing thence be Antichrist assuredly the Pope who is raised out of the fall and ruine of the Empire is Antichrist Here if you please I will consider of all those places alleaged by Bellarmine and search-out how they agree within themselues and how with the text Bellarmine saith that the fourth Empire Bellarmines contradiction which he taketh to be the Romane shall last to the worlds end And yet hee saith that the Romane Empire shall be vtterly destroied before the comming of Antichrist who shall raigne three yeares and a halfe How can hee then alleage it for a truth that the Romane Empire shall last to the worlds end I send this great Chrisippus againe to Aristotles Analytickes whither some time he sendeth others without cause that when he hath reuiewed them he may teach vs how two contradictions can be true at one time The Romane Empire shall last to the worlds end The Romane Empire shall not last to the worlds end for it must haue the finall destruction at the comming of Antichrist who shall raigne three yeares and a halfe Now let vs consider how Bellarmine and Daniel doe agree Many of our age and those very learned who seeme very exactly to search into Daniel do thinke that the fourth Empire which many other without doubt as well learned as they doe take for the Romane Monarchie was the Kingdome of the Seleucides and the Lagides in Siria and Egypt The exposition of the 7. of Daniel as they afflicted Iury hembd in betweene them and therefore designed to be more terrible then the three former because more dangerous to Iury. And that the ten hornes were ten Kings of Siria Egypt who did successiuely oppresse the Iewes and that Antiochus Epiphanes was the tenth and last who more then the rest did plague them most cruelly and that therefore he was the type of Antichrist who should no lesse afflict the Christians and not Antichrist himselfe as Bellarmine dreameth Let vs if you please alledge some of the reasons drawne out of the Text. Reasons th t Antichrist is not properly in Daniel 1 The fourth beast was a kingdome to be abolished before the comming and raigne of the Messias as the Prophet teacheth cap 7. v. 11. 26. 27. which is true of the kingdome of the Seleucides false of the Romane 2. The fourth beast did make warre with the Iewes and did greuously oppresse them did hinder the worship of God not onely before the comming of Christ but before the purging of the Temple and the restoring of the Iewish worship by Iudas Machabeus cap 7. v. 25. 26. 27. which agreeth with the kingdome of the Seleucides not with the Romane 3. Ten hornes and no more did belong to the fourth beast that is ten Kings I will name them anon who did oppresse Iurie with their tyrannie which being vnderstood of seuen Seleucides and three Lagides is very true of the Romanes very false who after they got the gouernment of Iurie were more then ten 4. Besides those Kings did succeed one another orderly in the same kingdome this is true in the seuen Seleucides and three Lagides but not in them who after descended from the Kings in the Româ— Empire who at the same time did raigne in diuers Prouinces as the Aduersarie himselfe confesseth 5. Lastly the Leopard cap. 7. signifying the Graecian Empire is shadowed by the Goate cap 8. which appeares by that that as the Leopard is said there to haue had foure heads so the Goate when his great horne was broken of Alexander foure hornes are said to succeed in his place i. foure Princes among whom the Empire of the Goate was diuided which to the Romane Empire agreeth not but to the Greeke it doth Alexander and his foure Princes For after Alexanders death Ptolomey the sonne of Lagis held Egipt Philip Alexanders brother Macedon Seleucus Nicanor Syria and Babylon Antigonus Asia the lesse these were Alexanders foure Princes as Hierom obserueth If it bee demanded how the two feet prophecied of by Daniel What is ment by the 2 feete and 10. toes which in Bellarmines iudgment doth fitly resemble the Rom Empire diuided into the East and West from whence ten Kings as ten toes did proceede I answer from those foure Princes of Alexander two of them that is Seleucus Nicanor and Ptolomey Lagis were the most potent who brought the other four Kingdomes by mutuall warres vnder their subiection from him the kingdom of the Seleucides and the kingdome of Syria in the North from this the kingdome of the Lagides and of the Kings of Egipt in the South did descend and both these did with their invasions greatly afflict the Iewes placed in the middest These were the two feet which did so miserably trample vpon the Iewes from whence did spring out ten Kings as ten toes which Daniel describeth cap 11. Daniels litle horne who it is for the three Lagides descended from Ptolomie the seuen Seleucides from Seleucus and from thence in the end of the kingdome of the Selcucides ouer the Iewes a litle horne sprouted out cap 7. 9 that is a King with a bold face that is The ten hornes Antiochus â—piphanes the tenth horne cap. 11. properly and liuely described 1 Ptolomie Lagis The first horne of the fourth and namelesse beast Ptolomie Lagis King of the South .i. of Egipt is described v 5. then Seleucus Nicanor the most puissant of Alexanders Princes v 11. 2. Seleucus Nicanor 3. Antiochus Soâ—er 4. Anâ—iâ—chus Theos the King of the North is the second horne for hee preuailed against Ptolomie and recouered Iurie and all Siria from him and gouerned there himselfe Him did Antiochus Soter the third horne succeed whose sonne Antiochus Theos the fourth horne that he might establish a league betweene himselfe and Ptolomie Philadelphus King of Egipt v 6. tooke Bernice Philadelphus daughter to wife that thereby he might fulfill that part of the Prophecie of the two feet one of yron thother of clay that they should mingle themselues with mans seede and yet should not grow together Dan 2. v. 43. the prophecie was proued true by euent for Antiochus Theos had already Laodice another wife aliue 5. Seleucus Callinicus of whom he begat Seleucus Calinicus the fift horne who slew Bernice her sonne and seruants Antiochus Theos was poysoned by Laodice his wife and Ptolomie v 7. Bernices Father presently after the mariage died for griefe 6. Ptolomie Euergetes But in his place arose Ptolomie Euergetes the sixt horne who being of the same race with Bernice .i. her Brother made warre vpon
their speedy iournies as thou I will not say by thy swift marches but by thy swifter victories For thou ô great Antichrist with thine innumerable hoast shalt subdue all the Christians in the world within three yeeres and an halfe and shall obtaine the monarchy of the whole earth And this is the warre of Gog and Magog Let mee then adde the rest which followeth in Cicero All which vnlesse I should confesse to be so great that no mans wit or vnderstanding can conceiue let me be counted for a mad man But an imaginary victory doth befit an imaginary Antichrist Thus out of the premisses I argue against Bellarmine If Antichrist bee found in this prophesie where Antiochus is literally described He is there either in his person or in his likenesse or in his identitie or like substance or in his image The absurdities that follow if Antiochus be Antichrist 2. Macc. 9. If Antichrist be in all things Antiochus certainely as Antiochus is dead as it is in the end of the chapter so Antichrist is dead Then Antichrist must die before his birth but by what kinde of death Antiochus died is declared Lice did crawle out of his swolne bodie in great abundance which did inwardly gnaw vpon him heereby his flesh putrified Wherein Antiochus and Antichrist disagree and fell from him by peece-meales so that the army could not endure the stinch of the beast Antichrist therefore must bee eaten vp with lice and being so putrified must cast out a filthy stinck that Antichrist may be another Antiochus If Antichrist shall get the same kingdome of the Iewes which Antiochus enioyed if he shall cast down and root out three hornes that is three kings next going before in the kingdome of Syria the father the brother the nephew as Antiochus did to get his fathers kingdome by deceit therefore these three must bee aliue after they bee dead and Antiochus the father and Seleucus the brother and Demetrius the nephew must rise againe before the resurrection that Antichrist may depriue them of their kingdome and by his cunning cast them off and destroy them This is the summe of my conclusion Antichrist is Antiochus in his identity or in his likenesse if in his identity it is a great miracle if in his likenesse it is a lame argument for euery similitude doth halt as the Logicians teach and a symbolical argument is not of force to argue as Aquinas saith Yet notwithstanding rather for a flourish then for a proofe of the cause let vs shortly see wherein Antichrist is like or dislike vnto Antiochus Antiochus came not out of a base stocke and kindred as many Popes did but out of a kingly race Antichrist is the sonne of the earth as S. Iohn telleth vs. Antiochus most abiect in his manners but of a great parentage but is farther described by the Prophet to bee by his country a Syrian by religion vncircumcised a breaker of the sabboth an oppressour of the Iewes a worshipper of Iupiter Olympius What Antichrist how is he painted out by you Is he not though base in minde yet baser by birth by country a Iew by religion circumcised a keeper of the Sabbaoth the Messias of the Iewes an enemy to Idols is he not thus described that he may well enough denie himselfe to be Antiochus though hee be hanged vp in his picture You see how vnlike now marke how like he is to Antiochus For I will neuer denie that Antiochus in many things is the type of Antichrist Nay I will say more Antiochus the type of Antichrist wherin they do agree that S. Paul and S. Iohn did bring many things out of Daniels prophesies into their owne wherewith they did liuely set out and expresse that Antichrist Antiochus is an enemy to God and aduersary to the Church lifting vp himselfe aboue all against all that is called God an Out-law whose will stands for a law whose mouth speaketh great things whose hands doe afflict Gods Saints such an one is Antichrist described by the Apostles Antiochus as hee did abrogate his country and false ceremonies so the Iewish and the true ceremonies Antichrist hath ouerthrowen the Idols of the Gentiles and hath altered the true and Christian worship of God Antiochus is inwardly an Atheist and outwardly an Idolater for he did worship Iupiter Olympius in the Temple of Ierusalem and caused others to worship him whom their fore-fathers worshipped not who had worshipped Apollo and Diana So Antichrist is an inward Atheist and an outward Idolater Antiochus shall worship in his place the god Maozim described vers 38. as it is in the vulgar translation So Antichrist also who shall worship the Diuell as the author of his strength and power hee shall worship the diuell against God as your interlined glosse hath it And Bellarmine He shall worship the Diuell after the manner of the Magicians but closely And this is called the god Maozim by whose helpe Antichrist shall worke miracles Antichrist therefore shall be an idolater by his owne confession which elsewhere he often denieth But Antichrist shall fight against all Gods that hee alone may bee taken for God as he lately hath written How then shall hee worship the Diuell as he writ before you see that Antichrist is like to Antiochus in many things I grant then that Antichrist is typically described by Daniel but not prophetically Bell. lib. 2. cap. 21. de Antichr whom euen Bellarmine grants to haue spoken literally of Antiochus when hee seeth that the Pope is so neerely vrged and stung by our men with these notes of likenesse Although hee cite Ierome elsewhere expounding those words 21. v. cap. 11. not of Antiochus but properly of Antichrist Therfore in the same place hee doth both follow and forsake Hierome In Dan. cap. 11. Neither is it maruell when Hierome seemes to forsake himselfe For Hierome in the former part of the 11. chapter confesseth that the Seleucidae are described and Seleucus Philopater in the twentieth And one that is most vild shall stand in his place that is Seleucus Philopater in the place of Antiochus the great What reason had hee then why he should expound the 21. ver And the most vild shall stand in his place Bellarmine contradicts himselfe not of Antiochus Epiphanes Seleucus brother and successour but of Antichrist whom Daniel did not prophetically describe Heere Bellarmine staggers and speakes as it were out of a tottering boat He saith it he denies it that the Angell spake literally of Antiochus and Hierome brings such a reason against himselfe as Hierome himselfe cannot answer But Bellarmine thought it not suffiicient to dissent from himselfe The ten hornes in Iohn and Daniel not the same but hee must set a iarre also betweene Daniel and Iohn For hee saith that the ten hornes in Daniel and Iohn are the very same yet Daniel speakes of ten horns broken off and cast aside before Messias came in the flesh Iohn speaks
of those ten hornes which in his time had not attained the Kingly soueraignety Daniel speakes of the ten kings of the race of Seleucus and Lagis who by turnes successiuely succeeded one another in the Kingdome Iohn speakes of tenne Kings among whom the Romane Empire was to bee diuided who gouerned at one time in diuers prouinces Daniel tels vs what the little horne which was the tenth did doe to the three next foregoing without mention of the rest Iohn tels vs what the ten hornes shall doe to Antichrist which is not one of the tenne hornes but one of the seuen heads of the Beast Daniels king is a tenth horne pointing out one singular man Iohns king is not to bee accompted an eleuenth horne but a head and signifies not one singleman but a state Daniels tenne hornes rose out of the ruines of the Macedonian Empire Iohns ten hornes out of the ouerthrow of the Romaine Empire So that there is no likenesse betweene Daniels hornes and Iohns Dan. 7.8 but that in either of them they were ten Daniels ten hornes if you consider the chronologie were broken fell off many ages before Iohns ten hornes did appeare that is before they receiued kingly power with the Beast the Romane Empire being destroyed Those ten hornes if you consider cosmographie beare rule in Syria and Babylon out of these ten hornes wherein a certaine number is set for an vncertaine as our men haue prooued one had the Kingdome of France another of Spaine another of Great Britaine and other in other nations and kingdomes Those ten hornes after the captiuity and before the comming of Christ did oppresse Iury scituated betweene them These hornes being conuerted by Christ triumphing in the heauens shall at the last wound and strike thorow that double horned Beast of Rome O cunning Chronologie and skilfull Cosmographie BELLARMINE that can so well distinguish the places and times of each prophesie CICERO did in open place iestingly taxe a certaine Poet Bellarmine well compared who was very foolish in the iudgement of others but very learned in his own that in one place made Euripides and Menander and in another Socrates and Epicurus haue conference together whose liues were seuered not by many yeares but many ages and that he had many Schooles in the world that had as little learning as himselfe He did as wittily sport at other writers who said that Numa was Pythagoras scholler when Pythagoras was borne diuers ages after Numa But another most pleasantly said that by the ignorance of a foolish Historiographer he was made a Babilonian of a Grecian and that his Countrey being cut off from Hellespont with the very wales and towers and people were carried into Mesopotamia These mens ignorance Bellarmine seemeth very well to expresse who brings in Kings of Siria long dead conuersing with many Kings of Europe borne a thousand yeares after transporting Europe into Asia Absurdities out of Bellarmines interpretation and Paris to London and the seates of other Kings and Princes who fell from the Romane Empire together with their subiects into Hierapolis and Babylon That I can hardly refraine from crying out that this learned Historiographer will one day bring to passe that The Parthian shall drinke Araris the German Tygris A man may easily slippe in the mistaking of a yeare or yeares but it is a foule fault to confound an age or ages together which this learned Doctour hath committed But I know his answer that he had rather erre with certaine fathers then hould a truth with vs. Let vs now see the returne of that terrible demonstration fetcht out of Daniels corrupt interpretation If the Romane Empire bee not as yet altogether ouerthrowne Antichrist is not yet come For the destruction of the Romane Empire is a certaine token fore-running the comming of Antichrist as it appeares out of Daniel who speakes neuer a word either of the desolation of the Romane Empire or of the comming of Antichrist But the Romane Empire is not so vtterly ouerthrowne Therefore Antichrist is not yet come The generall ouerthrow of the Romane Empire hee thus proueth out of Daniel If before the comming of Antichrist the Romane Empire be to be diuided into ten Kings whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes then Antichrist is not yet come For the generall ouerthrow of the Empire is not come because the name remaineth The first is true Therefore the last is true He proueth the assumption out of Daniel What be the two feete and ten toes out of the first vision of the 2. feete and out of the second of the ten hornes of the beast without a name For as two feete haue ten toes which are not feete and as the ten hornes are not the beast so the Romane Empire shall be diuided into ten Kings whereof none is the King of the Romanes O full wittily as hee thinkes But Daniels two feete are not the esterne and westerne Empires of Rome but Ptolomeus Lagis and Seleucus Nicauor Alexanders Princes as I said before And the ten hornes of the beast are not ten Kings rising out of the ruine of the Romane Empire but ten Seleucides as toes springing out of those feete after the destruction of the Macedonian Empire whence foure hornes arose in Alexanders place as I shewed before which fell afterward to bee two feete Hath not Bellarmine prooued the assumption doubtely well out of Daniel But he hath shewed it I warrant you better afterward out of Iohn For those ten hornes in Iohn are ten Kings among whom the Romane Empire is diuided I grant it Neither so shall I loose the cause But that is not set downe by Iohn which Bellarmine addeth whereof none is or is called the King of the Romanes The cleane contrary is set downe by Iohn as I prooued before As the Romane Empire was to be taken away as Paul taught Why the Romane Empire restored so farre forth as it hindered the reuealing and gouernment of Antichrist So a new Empire as the picture of the old was to bee restored of the land-beast chap. 13. i. of Antichrist that the whore of Babylon might sit vpon her backe chap. 17. One of the two heades of the sea-beast i. the westerne Empire of Rome dead in Augustulus reuiued in Charles by the land-beast that is Antichrist got life againe and gathered strength and therefore it was not finally ouerthrowne The image of the first beast recouered life and voice and therefore did not altogether loose her power and name The image of the old Empire got life againe the name remained the thing it selfe perished not but past ouer from the chiefe secular Prince to the chiefe spirituall prince as Aquinas teacheth So as Antichrist was the last state that held the Romane Empire without the name of the Romane Emperour as Bellarmine confesseth Therefore the Pope did transfer the Maiesty and the power of the Romane Empire to himselfe and hath left a
imputed I haue made an euerlasting couenant with you neuer to forsake you euer to blesse you and to send my feare into your hearts that you neuer forsake me The imputation of righteousnesse doth necessarily follow the forgiuenes of sinne the grant of life and that eternall life doth likewise follow imputation of righteousnes for he that beleeueth in the sonne of God shall neuer come into condemnation but shall go from death to life and let him surely perswade himselfe that being now iustified by me and now glorified by me that being saued by my grace he shall sit in heauenly places with me and enioy the reall possession of the highest heauens Your sanctification Sanctification is the second part of the new couenant the beginning of your glorification as your coronation hereafter is the full accomplishment For what is grace but glory begun ☜ and what is glory but grace perfected Eternall life therefore which is begun in this world and made perfect in the world to come doth not differ in kinde but in degree Therefore your sanctification is begun in this world so that the relikes of sinnes doe abide in the most holy but couered the inbred corruption did abide in Paul regenerated but weakned it remained in him to try him not to destroy him that corruption is remitted not finished the guilt is released but the act remaineth Sanctification is not therefore perfect but true which inlightneth your mindes to true knowledge and reformeth your wills to the sincere obedience of the Gospell and therefore doth change the whole man both the inward and the outward man into my likenes by the power of my spirit that beholding the same in the Gospell as in a glasse Glorification you may proceed from glory to glory that is from the glory of your sanctification here to the glory of your coronation hereafter And herein behold how ill the Pope and I agree How Christ Antichrist disagree I set before you free remission he a mercenarie I a categoricall and absolute he an imperfect and hypotheticall I an euerlasting he a temporarie I require a sincere sanctification of a sinner in this life but imperfect hee faines a perfect holinesse but a counterfeit Now your Christ Iesus as he is propounded in the free couenant and the new testament is appointed the only foundation of the Church by the Prophets and Apostles vpon whom they are taught to build their good workes as gold siluer and pretious stones as the superficies fit for that golden and pretious foundation but they denie good workes to be the foundation it selfe because your workes be they neuer so glorious cannot endure the weight and burthen of the kingdom of heauen They make Christ alone euen Christ alone apprehended by faith as it were that mightie Atlas that with his shoulders and his power can beare vp heauen being made of God for you wisdome iustice sanctification and redemption and therefore the foundation of the whole building Not that saluation is begun by him and made perfect by you for there is one great stone of the whole building as deepest in the foundation so chiefest in the corner as the ground and beginning so the roofe and accomplishment of saluation Which your Pope hath not only deformed with wood hay and chaffe built vpon it that is with foolish and absurd doctrines differing from the foundation but with wicked and pestilent doctrines ouerthrowing the foundation and by that meanes hath most wickedly taken away the beginning matter forme instrument and end of saluation The causes of saluation For whereas the holy Scripture doth appoint the free mercy of God the efficient cause of righteousnesse the meritorious my obedience both actiue and passiue the formall the imputation thereof by the Holy Ghost the instrumentall faith conceiued out of Gods word founded vpon a free promise the finall the glory of Gods diuine mercy and iustice when as the Pope doth ouerthrow all the foundations of saluation then doth hee take and stop from you all the meanes and lights of comfort While I set before you eternall life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a reward of grace he makes it a stipend for worke that I make a gift hee makes a debt that I make a patrimonie he makes a stipend what I make due to adoption he makes as paid for obedience Hee doth not say it to him that is obedient which is very true but for obedience which is very false that he forsooth might set my gifts to sale and by that meanes depriue me of glory and you of peace From whence it doth arise that the Romane Antichrist let him pretend what he will is a breaker of Gods couenant a corrupter of his will a subuerter of the foundation being full of Satan being busie about this one thing to bring destruction to my Churches and damnation to your soules Is it any maruaile then if he bring destruction to bodies and ouerthrow to Empires Papists as Doggs when as he secretly sends in his runnagate Priests into your Kingdomes who as mad dogs with their infamous libels may rent in sunder the good name and fame of Kings bring them into hatred contempt of others Who as subtle Foxes Foxes do with their cunning sleights alienate the Kings subiects from the faith of their obedience due by my commandement and to be performed by their oath Wolues And as cruell Wolues after they haue taken away the Kings good name by false calumniations and drawne away the Kings subiects from their fealtie and obedience doe spill the Kings blood by what meanes soeuer either by open rebellions or secret conspiracies and defend it to be a deed most lawfull and meritorious They shew their dogs tooth by rayling their fox-like subtletie by equiuocating and their woluish crueltie by conspiring They doe nothing else but deceiue the simple bite them that be sincere and deuoure those that be innocent They pretend faith but they teach periurie They say they reconcile men to Christ but in deed reconcile them to Antichrist in the meane while whom they get to adhere to the Pope they draw from the King For while they build vp spirituall obedience they cast downe the ciuill is not this the qualitie of a Fox They set vpon those that be weakest that they may ouercome the strongest as the Serpent seduced Eue that Eue might seduce Adam so these Serpents set vpon wiues that the wiues may deceiue their husbands they catch after women that they may entangle young men in whom is greater vigor and heat to commit any wicked enterprise So they haue a schoole full of masculine women and feminine men doth not here appeare to you the wilinesse of the serpent Now with what vilanous slanders these curres haue abused Princes both liuing and dead being the excellencies and glories of the earth witnes those infinite libels cast out against Elizabeth Queene of England and Iames King of Great
they may distract your mindes and stirre them vp to make warre against your brethren that thereby that Latiall Iupiter waxing great by your discords may leape for cruell ioy at your miseries and destructions I appeale to your own consciences haue you not at all times found the Popes Nuntij Dataries and Iesuites to be such Let there bee an end of quarrelling at the last all these mischiefes shall bee presently taken away and now this serpent that hath swolne so bigge with discords to the publike hurt shall be broken and consumed Let me therefore be a counseller to you The duty of Kings that a true and a sound peace being concluded among you euerie one of you in your seuerall kingdomes wherein I haue left you Kings to be my Vice-gerents that you restore the true worship of God renew a right faith establish good manners purge the true Sacraments of the Church call backe a-againe the olde discipline brought in by the Colledge of the Apostles and confirmed by the counsell of Neece Further that what euery one haue done all the rest doe allow that you gather together a generall counsell by generall consent wherein the feare of danger being taken away and the partaking of sides being layd aside An admonition to the Pontifician Princes to beware of Syren and Erinnis the cause of Christ may bee safely and freely handled against Antichrist Heere I doe seuerally admonish the Romane Catholike Kings Princes to beware of two counsellers whereof I call one of them Syren the other Erinnis Syren doth perswade them to follow their pleasures auoid labour feare danger doe not stirre a settled pollicy doe not break truce with their olde friend and companion the Pope that they goe not about to mend any mischiefe that is almost past help For they cannot she saith cast off the Pope though they would Can they not What cannot the arme of a King bring to passe being strengthened with the arme of God from thence faith doth arise from faith the magnanimity of kings whereof that driues away blinde superstition this base sluggishnesse and cowardice That makes them to discerne this makes them to withstand all human hinderances so that they may cast off the Pope as easily as an old heauy gown It is a reproch for the Popish Kings to say that the mischiefe is greater then can be remedied that as yet they cannot mend it That they cannot cast out the Pope if they would Could the Princes of Germanie could the Kings of Denmarke Scotland and Sueuland that I may not speake of a great part of France Heluetia Polonia Bohemia and Pannonia The Kings of England could the Father the young Sonne and the Daughter euen then when all their neighbours abroad were alienated from them when at home they had a seditious cleargie and a superstitious people euen then did the holy courage of a Man a Childe and a Woman breake thorow and passe ouer all humane lets and impediments whatsoeuer Let it be a shame for Popish Princes both young men and ancient men not to bee able to doe that which a Childe and a Woman were able to doe But Syren perhaps will whisper that it is not good stirring of Paul the fift beeing full of Gregories Alexanders Bonifaces and Iulij O what foolish feare is that so to take heede that they feare a mischiefe which when they are able to put it cleane away they pull it and draw it vpon them But some will not cast off the Pope if they could They think it a necessary euill for Kings to bridle their subiects and for subiects to bridle their Kings To whom Christ doth seeme more hard and rigorous as hee that neuer dispenseth with sinne and doth remit nothing but to him that earnestly repents They haue neede therefore of a gentle and a cockering Antichrist who may dispense with adultery and incest and may approoue and allow of marriages forbidden by the Law of God As the fashion of the world is now adaies licēce is to be giuē to sinning so sin doth make the Pope necessarie Vnhappy necessity which necessarily brings damnation to a man He doth worthily loue his sinne who while hee keepes that loseth his soule Hee rates his short life at too high a price who that while he may liue a while after his owne lust doth lose life eternall In the meane time while Antichrist doth constraine them with so extreame necessity what a heauy burthen doth he lay vpon them that he seemeth to bind them with linckes of golde in this life whom he hath appointed for the chaines of darknesse in the life to come These you shall easily breake asunder by the helpe of God and assistance of Protestant Princes But the contrariety of their religion is suspected vnto vs. But this contrariety is your security for if the Popes bee so sawcy to doe such things when so many Princes haue forsaken the seat of pestilence what would they attempt if none at all had departed from them for if the Frederickes Henries and Charles did so easily punish the Gregories Alexanders and Clements euen in the very midnight of popish darknesse if Philip the Faire and Lewis the 12. did handle the Bonifaces and Iulij after their deserts how farre more easily may their posterity with the ayde of Protestant Princes in so cleere a light of the Gospell tame and bring vnder Paul the fift Especially seeing Philip the 2. the present king of Spaine cannot forget that his father who alwaies was the Popes champion was vnworthily and basely abused by the Pope in keeping Sicilie and Naples from him And let the French King remember that not onely Henry the 3. but Henrie the 4. his father was cruelly murthered by a villaine sent in for that purpose Therefore the holy courage of Protestant Kings should not mooue suspition in Popish Kings against the Kings their neighbours but rather it should stir vp their anger against the Pope that with ioyned forces they might breake the Idols head shorten his armes pare his nailes open his belly cut off those legs and feet wherwith they may remember their ancestours crownes were so basely cast to the ground You haue heard how euill Syren hath perswaded them now heare how farre worse Erinnis doth aduise them whose deadly musique if you bee wise you shall keepe farre off both from your mindes and eares perswading you that it is fit to raise warre in the defence of Antichrist against your brethren and allies for they purpose nothing else but that their treasure being spent on both sides and their forces being weakened by mutuall warres as it often hapned heeretofore that they may build vp a chaire for the Priests and by casting downe the thrones of Kings to whom it is great pleasure to lift vp their shrubbe which may set fire on the wood and consume the Cedars of Libanon Now I tell you before hand that you take heed of that war which these holy Erinnis will cry out
say that the Oath of obedience cannot be kept their faith and saluation reserued which Christ the Authour of faith and saluation did both command and performe I am not ignorant that both the Pope and Bellarmine doe take it for proued and granted that the King is an Hereticke But if the King might argue both cases with them face to face before learned and equall iudges I durst paune my life that the King in their presence would conuince more strongly and more peremptorily that the Pope were Antichrist then that the Pope with the helpe of his Champion should proue the King to be an Heritike But grant to them for a time that which they miserably begge would Christ thinke good that faithfull obedience should be giuen to an Infidell i. to an Emperour that was altogether a stranger from the faith and would he iudge the same to be denied to an Hereticke i. to a King deceiued in the faith hee would not hee would not If Christ then did right then doth this supposed Vicare of Christ amisse And if fealty and obedience cannot be performed to a King as you thinke with reseruation of the Catholike faith why did Saint Peter when he had set downe Catholike faith in the 1. Chap command obedience due to the King in the 2. Chapter 1. Pet. 2.13 Bee subiect to the King as to the most eminent euen to Nero that monster of men wherein he taught that the impietie of the person ordained of God to gouern ought not to ouer throw the obedience of subiects nor the authoritie of the Prince If Peter speakes well then Peters successor speakes ill If Peter speake by the spirit of Christ then Peters successour speaketh by the spirit of Antichrist But Peter did binde all by a bond of a religious commandement both Clarkes and Laickes when he presentlie added 1. Pet. 2.17 feare God honour the King As if he had said they be cleane voide of Gods feare whosoeuer deny honour to the King And therefore Salomon Prouerbes 21. doth comprehend both duties vnder one word My sonne feare God and the King § 13 Here Saturnine But auncient Ignatius saith he in his Epistle to the Church of Smyrna speaketh after this manner Forged Ignatius brought in to crosse Salomon worship God next the Byshoppe and last of all the King This is a hard case Saturnine said Patriotta to make Ignatius Salomons corrector as if hee had forgotten his dutie toward the chiefe Priest Pro. 21. Salomon saith honor God and the King but I say honour God first the Byshop next and the King last Certainely true Ignatius would neuer haue spoken so saucily Salomon saith but I say and so preferre a Priest before a Prince But it is no hard matter for you to place the Byshop in the middle betwixt God and the King For you do nothing more willingly then make your Pope the controuler of all Kings and to that purpose bring in a counterfet and a bastardly Ignatius to patronize your ambition § 14 But Peter saith Saturnine calleth the Prince a humane creature True answered Patriotta in respect of his nature but in respect of his ordination he is of as heauenly a creation as a Priest For kings rule by God as priests preach by God From man they haue their nature from God their power For there is no power but from God as the Apostle teacheth As they are men they are immediately from their Parents as they are Princes from God Therefore a Magistrate is called a Minister and ordination of God Yea which is more Kings are called Gods They as Gods vicegerents vpon earth are vouchsafed the honour of Gods name Priests are called men of God Angels of God but kings are called Gods Therefore the King is not called a humane creature by Peter because he hath his beginning from man A double obedience due to kings actiue passiue in things lawfull vnlawfull but because the gouernment is administred by man and for man Be subiect to him saith Peter for the Lord the text hath it sometime as to the Lord i. as to Christs Vicare in his owne kingdome as Eleutherius Pope of Rome called King Lucius sometime in the Lord i. in all things lawfull although in things vnlawfull there is a certain kind of obedience due but an actiue obedience in things lawfull to do that which is commanded a passiue in things vnlawfull to suffer that which is inflicted But for the Lord saith Peter that Kings although they bee tyrants as then Nero was bearing the rule and image of God vpon earth though they bee Gods scourges yet they must be honoured with the fealtie and obedience of all for Gods sake As an heathen man could say Good Emperors are to be desired of vs but any are to be endured The Apostle addeth for the praise of the good and the punishment of the wicked Hence a certaine Master of the Presbyterie gathered a false a dangerous consequence cosen germane to yours A leude collection of a Schismaticke That because the king is a power ordained by God to the praise of the good and the punishment of the wicked if he gouerne to punish the good and praise the wicked that hee is not a power ordained by God and if hee bee not of God no more to be obeyed but to be resisted O wicked consequence vnknowne to Peter Paul who although they did see and feele the tyrannie and crueltie of the Lyon as Paul calles Nero that they thought not that the abuse of the power did take away the power it selfe but did lay necessitie of obedience vpon all Christians teaching that it would come to passe that if they did resist Nero they did resist God himselfe the Author and ordainer of so great power With what face therefore can the Pope deny that the Oath of Allegeance and obedience is to be kept with a Christian moderate King though an Hereticke as you thinke as a matter in it selfe vnlawfull and contrarie to faith and saluation whereas Peter commanded faithfull obedience as holy and performed it as dutie to Nero a Pagan and most bloody tyrant § 15 And if fealtie and obedience cannot be performed of Catholickes to an Hereticall King retaining their Catholicke religion why did Saint Paul whenas formerly he had in plentifull maner deliuered the Catholike religion of Rome in his 13. Chapter drawe from thence this precept Rom. 13.1 that euery soule should submit himselfe to the higher power he that speakes of all excludes none as Chrysostome obserues And Bernard to the Archbyshop of Sene euery soule is subiect therefore yours Who hath exempted you from this generall commandement The exception is a meere illusion Subiection requireth these three 1. Reuerence in their soules 2. Honour in their wordes 3. Obedience in their deedes And marke that he requireth subiection of the soule in a subiect Rom. 12. In the beginning of the 12. Chapter speaking of the obedience due to
God he exacteth subiection of the body Rom. 13. In the beginning of the 13. Chapter speaking of the obedience due to a Prince he requireth the subiection of the soule What obedience is due to Princes Hath hee not likewise submitted the soule to God and the body to the Prince yes verily But to that end he hath distinguished these because men doe for the most part thus excuse themselues that they vowe their soule to God when they prostitute their body to the Deuill and yeeld their body to the magistrate when they deny him the reuerence of the soule Therefore let the soule be subiect to the higher power saith the Apostle Hence two other parts of subiection doe necessarily follow Paul the Apostle doth adde the reasons with a commandement which Paul the Byshoppe doth not adde with his prohibition For all power saith he is of God He speaketh not so much of the Prince as of the gouernment nor so much of the person as of the power To shew that hee rather respecteth the right of gouerning then the qualitie of the gouernour Againe if the power of a King be from God Power from God not the Pope or people then it is not from the Pope as diuers of the Popes flatterers would haue it Neither is it from the people as diuers flatterers of the people doe at this day striue for it I beleeue they leaue the power of destroying a gouernment to him whom they dreame to haue a power giuen to build it vp They that yeeld so much to the Pope subiect a King vnder a sober tyrant they that yeeld so much to the people subiect him vnder a furious tyrant and as the Poet said very wittily and truely to a beast of many heads And therefore the King is not bound to giue accompt either to Pope or people but to God from whom hee receiued all his power immediately Hence the Apostle presently inferreth these two conclusions 1. He that resisteth Gods power resisteth the ordinance of God and draweth to himselfe damnation The 2. that the King is Gods Minister and beareth the sword wherewith he doth defend the good and punish the wicked and that all must bee subiect not for wroth but for conscience That no man may thinke that Peter and Paul thought that obedience was due for the times sake and that they wanted force rather to resist Nero then a minde I will shut vp all in a word The Catholicke faith of the auncient Romane Church as it was deliuered by Paul the Apostle did inferre loyall subiection to a Pagan cruell King The Catholicke faith of the vpstart Church of Rome as it is deliuered by Paul the Byshop doth take away and ouerthrow Allegeance and all obedience as it were vnnaturall from a Christian King and such a King that euen by the confession of his Aduersaries is very mercifull Whom then shall we beleeue Paul the Apostle or Paul the Byshop an holy decree or an vnholy prohibition Neither were these commandements of Christ Peter and Paul of ciuill obedience to be shewed to Emperours Kings and ciuill Magistrates mutable according to times but are to be accounted perpetuall and eternall I haue laid the first foundation of our loyaltie the expresse and euerlasting commandement of Christ the second followes which is the practise of Christians § 16 Heere Saturnine before you go further saith he I yeeld that subiection reuerence honour fealty obedience is to be performed to a King A King excommunicated no King in poperie so long as a King is a king but if he leaue off to be a king then it ought no longer to be performed But he leaueth off to bee a King assoone as he is denounced to bee rightly excommunicated by the Vicar of Christ whereby he is presently accounted by law to bee deposed of his Kingdome and his subiects absolued from the Oath of obedience And although you laie very heynous and greiuous crimes of treason vpon our most holy Father and vpon many holy Priests and chiefly vpon the Iesuits yet if you would thinke of the matter a little better all this smoak of words would vanish to nothing For first I affimre that the Pope of right hath had and now hath this power then I affirme that assoone as he had it hee did put it in practise And yet it followeth not that he that defendes this as you conclude is a Traytor Thomas Aquinas obiected Vnlesse perhaps you dare account Thomas Aquinas that most glorious Saint and Angelicall Doctour to be a Traytor who writeth thus After that the Prince is denounced an Apostata all inferiours and subiects are to bee absolued from the Oath they had taken and from their obedience due vnto him And you may if you please ioyne with him Francis Toletanus obiected as a fellow in the like treason Francis Toletan a worthy Professor in our time who doth thus comment vpon Thomas Note saith hee that there is the same reason of one that is excommunicated because that assoone as one is denounced excommunicate all his subiects are freed from the fealtie The Laterane Councell obiected and that most famous Oecomenicall Lateran Councell held about 300. yeares since of 70. Pattiarches and Archbyshops and 400. and 12. Bishops and 800 other choice Prelates because it decreed that the Pope had the power we speake of do you thinke it was a conuenticle of Traytors Then Patriotta what Thomas Aquinas saith he what § 17 Toletane what Laterane Councell doe you speake of Thomas Aquinas writ 1200 yeeres after Christ was ouertaken with the error of his time and was the Popes vassall neither did hee alledge any Prophet Apostle or Doctor only he rested vpon the only example of Gregorie the seuenth who was the first that a 1000 yeeres after Christ did attempt by excommunication to cast Henry the 4. out of his Kingdom Pope Hildebrand no fit example against Kings A very weighty authoritie forsooth against a Kings sword which Christ ordeyned and to whom the Church of Christ as it shall appeare afterward obeyed for a 1000 yeeres of an vpstart Canonist dreaming in the darke night of Poperie that the subiects might be absolued by the Pope from the oath of obedience wherewith God had bound them and alleaging no other Author but Pope Hildebrand a turbulent and furious monster as he was accounted by his owne Cardinalls And yet Aquinas was somewhat more reasonable then Toletane Aquinas answered he thought that no mans subiects were to be absolued from their oath of obedience but his that was denounced an Apostata that for euer had fallen from all christianitie But Toletan forsooth Toletane answered the worthy professor of our age the Popes hireling with lesse learning and greater boldnesse as if he were some worshipfull Vmpire giues his sentence without all reason Note saith he that the case is all one of a Prince excommunicated by the Pope vpon any cause whatsoeuer Do you not
thinke that these be notable demonstrations in a controuersie of this weight which Antichrists hyred slaues haue vttered as Oracles vpon their bare authoritie against the perpetuall and manifest commandements of Christ and practises of the Apostles In the meane while the Apostles shall be silent the Fathers shall be mute while Kings shall be censured by two of the Popes young and sworne Chapleynes professed and sworne enemies of Kings § 18 But that famous Lateran Councell both for antiquitie and number must fight in the quarrell The Laterane Councell answered We seeke not what euill associates but what good authors you can alledge in this businesse neither must you striue with number but with reason It was no hard matter at that time for Innocent the third to call together 800 Couent Priors and their Vicars his creatures the hungry Friers and drousie pated Monkes for whom it was not lawfull to sit in Councels who might preuaile against 400 Bishops not in weight of reason but in number of voices and coine any decree against Princes at the becke of the Pope their great God and maker But what if at that time nothing at all was decreed but only propounded and deliberaetd on as Platina testifieth that many things were offred to consultation but that nothing could be determined because the Pope suddenly departing to quiet a sedition lately stirred vp died in his iourney And yet will you call the meeting of a number of hunger-starued Fryers onely consulting how the Pope might depose a King out of his kingdome but concluding nothing because the Popes sodaine death preuented it will you call it the most famous generall Laterane Councell And that power which Kings haue receiued from God and that obedience which subiects are bound to performe both by a charge from Christ and rules from the Apostles shall a few of the later proud Bishops 1000 yeeres after Christ and mercenarie schoolemen and begging Monkes take the same power from Princes by the decrees of men Shall God ordeyne Kings and shall men ouerthrow them Hath Gods word bound vs to obedience and shall mans word release vs of the same But that I may doe no wrong to Gods word I will oppose men to men Catholikes to Catholikes as they be called and ancient to younger ones Otho Frisingensis writes after hee had read ouer and § 19 ouer the acts of the Romane Kings and Emperors Lib 6. cap. 35. that he found none before Henry the 4th Emperor excommunicated by the Bishop of Rome or set beside his kingdom which was first assayed by Gregorie the seuenth in the yeere after Christ 1066. I haue found out Vrsbergensis Vrsbergens in anno 1085. who speaking of the Sinode of Mentz wherein the Popes Legates being present the Bishops that had taken armes with Gregorie the seuenth against the Emperor were deposed and cast out of their Bishoprickes said that there by common consent and counsell was setled the peace of God whence he concludeth that Gregorie was the author of that diuelish garboyle against the Emperor Sigebertus the Abbot speaketh playner Sigibertus in anno 1088. and goeth further if good men will giue me leaue to say so This only noueltie saith he that I may not say heresie did not as yet appeare in the world that his Priests who saith to a King thou Apostata and that causeth an hypocrite to beare rule for the sinnes of the people should teach the people that they ought to shew no obedience to wicked Kings and though they haue taken an oath of Allegeance yet owe no fealtie neither are to be called Periurs if they haue such mindes against Kings yea that hee is accounted for an excommunicant that doth obey the King that hee doth against the King is freed from the fault of iniustice and periurie This was counted noueltie this was counted heresie of your Sigebert about 500 yeares since which doctrine you thrust vpon vs as catholike out of Aquinas Toletane and the Laterane Councell And because Baronius the Cardinall Vincent in Spec. hist lib. 15. cap 84. doth denie Sigebert the Abbot a Schismatike I adde Vincentius the Bishop aboue 300 and fiftie yeeres agoe by whom this very heresie is condemned in the same words wherewith they are taxed by Sigebert And if either Sigebert or your Vincentius haue lost their authoritie because as Schismatikes they were said to take part with Kings against the Pope see that your credits be not crackt by these late writers because the fauourers of this nouell heresie as rebells flatter the Pope against Kings For it is plaine that there were very excellent and sincere Catholikes not a few as they were accounted in those times whom Gregories fact did mightily displease and who did plainely denie that the Apostolike See had any authoritie to depose Henry the 4. Emperor as he did and to absolue his subiects from their oath of fealtie as the Bishop of Mentz who was in great fauour with Gregorie the seuenth Gregor 7. epist 21. lib. 8. apud Sâ—uer ad Conc. writ to him and intreated him to furnish him with those reasons whereby he was moued to depose the Emperor that hee might be the better prouided to answer them that did gainesay him And Gerochus Gregories great champion was constreyned to say Auent lib. 5. fol. 563. as it is in Auentine that the Romanes tooke diuine honor to themselues neither would giue any accompt of their doings neither would endure that any should say to them why doe you so who answer as the Poet writes So I will so I command my will stand for a reason I did first vse heauenly weapons against you Saturnine you made resistance with humane Now I oppose humane against humane yours against yours and I will proue it with a necessarie argument that it was a new heresie which Sigebert so called If that be taken for a good definition of heresie which Robert Grosthead that holy and learned Bishop of Lincolne vnder King Henry the third fetcht out of S. Austen The definition of heresie Heresie in Greeke saith he is an election or choice in Latine wherein an opinion chosen by a humane sense contrarie to the holy Scripture is openly taught and obstinately maintayned By which argument as Matth Parisiensis reports he proued Innocent the Pope to be an Heretike because he thought it in his power to bestow a benefice vpon a childe with the same argument shall Paul the fift be convicted who thinkes it in his power to depriue a King of his Kingdome For this opinion was first chosen by humane sense by Hildebrand to get vaine-glory and enlarge the boundes of the Churches dominion with all humane policies and powers And it is against the holy Scriptures which hath submitted Bishops to Kings not Kings to Bishops as before I concluded And it is openly taught being set out in two Bulles by Paul the fift and it is obstinately defended by the Bishop who forbids vnder the paine
of excommunication that the Catholikes shall not take the Oath of Allegeance or else retract it being taken And it is to be doubted that to whom the definition of heresie doth agree whether heresie the thing defined doth agree That Grosthead being dead seemeth with his definition as with his Crosier-staffe to strike the Pope vpon his brest Then Saturnine What Schismatikes saith he what § 21 Sigebert what Vincentius what Grosthead with his Crosiers staffe do you reckon vp As if they were not all condemned by the Church because they were at contention with the head of the Church But that wee may not seeme rather to contend with the authorities of men then of God Paul the Apostle forbad to salute an Heretike yea he warneth that after the first or second admonition we should auoide him If it be not lawfull to salute an Heretike is it lawfull to serue and obey an Heretike Paul teacheth that we sacrifice an heretike as hatefull to God as a great sacrifice to him and tha◠we flie from him as from a gangrene And shall it not be lawfull to cut of the gangrene and cast it away lest it doe infect vs when as we are bidden to cut off our owne flesh if it be affected with a gangrene Now saith Patriotta you shew your selfe a right Iesuite § 22 when as Paul did forbid that we should salute an Heretike How heretikes are to be delt withall but auoide him after the first or second admonition in one word he did forbid voluntarie societie not necessarie dutie familiar salutations which curtesie affords not reuerent obseruance which pietie imposeth priuate acquaintance whereby soules are infected not publike obedience whereby gouernment is maintained It is not lawfull to salute an Heretike will you not therefore pay an Heretike the money that is owing him yes that I would say you I demand againe whether the debt of obedience be not more iust then the debt of money which is of greater force a debt contracted in your owne consent or that which is imposed vpon you by the commandement of God § 23 Here Saturnine We owe nothing saith he to Heretikes Nothing said Patriotta Doth not the seruant owe faithful seruice to his Master being an Heretike he oweth it you say to an Infidell not to an Heretike You trifle If you owe it to an Infidell which doth oppugne the faith doe you not owe it to an Heretike who only doth erre in the faith Doth not the wife owe faithfull obedience to her husband though he be an heretike yes when nothing may be the cause of diuorce but adulterie as Christ teacheth no not infidelitie it selfe as Paul saith Lastly children are bound to obey their Parents in the Lord although they be Heretikes Therefore shall not subiects much more obey the Prince Lord of the familie the husband of the common weale the publike father of the country although he be an heretike for heresie doth not dissolue the bond of dutie but breaketh of the knot of acquaintance But heresie is a gangrene as the Apostle faith But although we are commanded to cut of all heresie as a gangrene yet are we not commanded to roote out euery heretike It were wrong with the Papists if this your opinion were setled in our mens mindes But we leaue these parts of cruell Surgeons to your selues who presently betake your selues to lanching and fearing and alwaies vse the cutting knife and fire and look not for easier and gentler remedies But seeing in this quarrell you seeme to buckle with vs with weapons out of the Scripture which you doe seldom handle whereby you proue that Kings in right may be and in fact haue been depriued that subiects may by a word be absolued as by a word they were bound with an oath of obedience Goe to let vs see before you come to the second foundation the practise of Christians what you can say against vs in the former Then Saturnine I will freely speake saith he what I § 24 verily thinke God had not securely prouided for his Church if he had not sent some holy stout Prophets and Preists who might with their Church discipline correct and keep vnder such Kings as were wicked and tyrannous when they grew desperate Examples out of the old Testament 1. Saul and might remooue them being the hatred of God and men the shame to religion and the burthen to the people Therefore we read the first King ouer Gods people because he seemed to take vpon him the spirituall function was excommunicated by Samuel at Gods commandement and put from the possession of his Kingdome although after Dauids annointing and his owne deposing he held it by tyrannicall force many yeeres and did often attempt to murther both Dauid the competitour of the kingdome and Samuel the executioner of Gods decree as he had slaine foure-score and fiue of the holy Preists the Nobites Who knoweth not that a speciall Prophet was sent § 25 of God to Ieroboam King of Israel 2. Ieroboam who did denounce the iudgement of God against the King and the Kings race because he had separated the people by a wicked schisme from the ancient and true worship of God begunne at Ierusalem and had erected a new altar in Bethel whereby the schisme and diuision from the Apostolike See is properly prefigured and ordained a new Cleargy a hunger-starued and contemptible out of Aarons order such an one as yours is The sinne was afterward so seuerely punished according to the censure of the Prophet that there was none left of the Kings stocke to make water against the wall The King did very fondly lay hold vpon the man of God to kill him because hee thought the denouncing of Gods iudgement was treason against the Kings crowne and dignity § 26 3. Ozia We read likewise that Ozia the King of Iuda beeing puft vp with intolerable pride not content with the honour of a King did insolently presume to vsurpe the spirituall and Priestly office being stoutly withstood by Azaria and 80. other Priests and violently expelled out of the Temple and that because he threatned and resisted the Priests he was strucken with a filthy leprosie and therefore not onely cast out of the Temple but by their authority separated from the company of men which was a speciall figure of the Priestly authority vnder the new Law which may excommunicate Kings as well as others for heresie which is a spirituall leprosie and committed the gouernment of the Kingdome to Iotham his sonne An apparant example that it is lawfull for Priests to take armes and by force to bring vnder the wickednesse of Kings when as they deeme it is auailable for the preseruation of religion and the honour of God § 27 The zeale of the good Priests in the depriuing of that wicked Queen Athalia is worthily commended 4. Athalia whom Iehoida the cheefe Priest with a power of the Priests and Commons did command to be
put beside her throne and put to death and did annoynt and crowne the true heire § 28 Who is ignorant how couragiously Elias answered being designed to death by Achab and Iezabel 5. Ahab who had cast downe the holy altars and had slaine the true worshippers of God That it was not hee and other men of God but Achab and his house that had troubled Israel and with what zeale hee slew Iezabels false Prophets restored the holy altars called for fire from heauen wherewith he did destroy Ochozias captaines and messengers and annointed Iehu king ouer Israel and cast Achab with all his posterity out of the Kingdome of whom it is sayd That he put downe and ouerthrew Kings and cast the mighty out of their seats Eccles 48. as God appointed Ieremy ouer kingdoms that he should plant and roote them vp build them vp and plucke them downe Which power of Christs Preisthood vnder the new Testament doth appeare to bee farre larger and more ample and is giuen to the chiefe Preist the Bishop of Rome that he may in the name of Christ break in peeces and beat to powder with his iron rod as if they were earthen vessels such kings as lift vp themselues against Christ his Church which is his spouse his kingdome For by those examples it is euident that Kings annointed and iustly created may of right bee deposed Secondly for what causes they may in fact bee depriued Lastly that in the inauguration and consecration of kings as also in their depriuation God did vse the ministery of Priests and Prophets either ordinarie or extraordinarie to that purpose that they might be not onely Iudges but correctours of kings For whereas kings doe holde their dignity and supreame authority from God and haue bound themselues with all their might to promote the true religion and worship of God and the honour of their highest King and Lord and to gouerne the people in the faith and fear of God the Priests and Prophets to whom the cheefe and principall care of religion and soules is committed and who haue beene set aboue Princes in spirituall matters did of right oppose themselues against them in those passages which brought dishonour to God ruine to the religion and damnation to the soules of subiects and did exercise iustice and iudgement against their Princes in the name of God who abused their gouernment to ouerthrow the true worship of God brought in and established idolatry heresie and other abominations § 29 For there was betweene God and the King a certaine compact as it were which had force euer after either openly or at lest secretly that none should draw away their subiects either by force or by any other meanes from the faith of their Ancestours and from the religion holy ceremonies of God deliuered receiued by the hands of Preists whereby God did insinuate that if they did obserue these precepts and conditions they should long raigne with their posterity otherwise it should come to passe as we taught before that as the Prophets and Preists did annoint kings on that condition onely that they should defend and maintaine the worship and honour of God so likewise they should depose kings when they broke the couenant of God and fell to strange gods and draue their people to Apostasie And thus it appeareth it was vnder the olde Testament And if God did furnish the Priests and Prophets of the olde Testament with such power of excommunication whereby they might depriue wicked and tyrannous kings cast out of their thrones and driuen from the companie of men not onely of life if they could and this common light that they might bring no damage to the Synagogue with how much greater authority hath he strengthned the high priest of the new testamēt the vicar of Christ that he might cast out expell from the Communion of the Church beeing so cast out depose from their kingdomes such Kings as are Infidels Apostataes Heretickes and Tyrants and that not onely but release their peoples oathes giuen to such kings who haue broken their owne oath made to the Priest in the name of God at their coronation vnlesse we thinke that God had lesse care of his Church then of his Synagogue or doth more beare with Kings in these dayes who be heads of Apostasie from God then he did with Kings of former times Both which bee it farre from Gods Iustice and prouidence Truely he had left a miserable and a wretched Church as desolate and forsaken if he had exposed it being bereft of the helpe of holy Preists to the lust of cruell Tyrants that they might tosse and turne it at their pleasure and alter the state of religion euery yeere For whereas heeretofore Christian Bishops did not depose Nero Dioclesian Iulian the Apostata Valens and the like it was because Christians wanted temporall strength for otherwise they might haue done it by right I say by right the Bishops might haue depriued the Pagan-Emperours Apostataes and Hereticks if the Church had had that force to resist as before and after getting force it did resist Then Patriotta while in your malice Saturnine you § 30 suffer your selfe to bee thus carried against Kings you belch out notable blasphemy against God for what is blasphemy if this bee not to accuse Gods prouidence against the Church vnles he giue power to holy Preists to depose wicked Kings you haue very vnaduisedly founded the depth of Gods counsell with the plummet of your shallow iudgement who hath neuer the lesse I cannot tell whether much the more prouided for his Church as well by trying her patience with aduersity as seeking after thankfulnesse with prosperity aswell when he consumed the sinnes of the Saints by the persecution of Princes as when hee satisfied their desires with the mercy of pious Princes aswell by spoiling his sonnes of earthly pleasures recompencing them with the rewards of the blessed as continuing them hee delighted them with the comforts of such as were miserable Which I doe not speake to that end that I may excuse the cruelty of Tyrants but that I may set foorth the mercy of God because those things which they intend to the Saints for their euill God turneth to their good But you went about to daily with the expresse commandements of Christ and the Apostles with a few examples of the Priests and the Prophets ill vnderstood and farre worse applyed to the Pope How did that vnbeseeme a Diuine let vs therefore if you please waigh them seuerally § 31 Samuel you say did excommunicate Saul and being excommunicate cast him out of his kingdome Samuel did not excommunicate or depose Saul therefore the Pope hath power to cast a Prince out of his Kingdome I denie first the Antecedent It was not the Prophet but God himselfe that cast off Saul for his wickednesse for it is Gods onely prerogatiue to depose the mighty out of their thrones to raise vp those that are
cast down to deiect kings lift vp kings and to bestow a Kingdome vpon whom hee please Hee sent Samuel onely to denounce it to Saul and to annoynt Dauid in his roome Samuel did annoint Dauid when God did expressely command it therefore the Pope may depose a Prince although God did not expressely command it I pray tell me hath the Pope any reuelation from God to depriue a King No you will say but hee hath a commandement as before him many other had true to denounce the iudgements of God either temporall or eternall not to execute them God is the actour in casting downe of Saul not Samuel God inflicted the punishment as a Iudge Samuel onely did publish it as a messenger neither as he was a Prophet by his generall vocation but as hee was a Prophet by speciall instinct appointed to that purpose not as Superiour to Saul but as Gods messenger who did precisely lay this chaâ—ge on him and named the successour with his own mouth What is this to the Pope vnlesse you thinke the prerogatiue proper to the mighty God communicable with a sinnefull man which if hee take it on him without Gods speciall and expresse commandement he doth not exercise it vnder God but equall as God And whatsoeuer is done without God is done against God But Saul as you say is deposed by Samuel by Gods commandement God set downe the censure Samuel declared it I adde also out of the text hee did not declare the § 32 person of Saul to bee cast out of the possession of the kingdome as you say but the off-spring of Saul from the succession of the kingdom for Israel and Iuda after Saul was reiected of God and Dauid annointed did for all that with Dauid obey him many yeers 1. Sam. 24.11 whom Dauid after his deposing called his Lord and the Lords annoynted God keepe mee saith hee from laying my hands vpon him for he is the annoynted of the Lord he doth not say he was but he is the annoynted of the Lord. And he restrained himselfe in ot for feare but for conscience not for curtesie but for duty when he found him sleeping in the caue and one of his captaines would haue killed him Take heede saith he what you doe 1. Sam. 24.5 for who shall strike the Lords annoynted and be guilâ—lesse hee did not thinke it compassion because hee spared him but hee would haue thought it a sinne if hee had layd his hand on him Hence arose that scruple in his conscience because he had cut off the lappet of the Kings garment hee trembled when hee cut off the skirt of the kings coat these good fellowes blush not to offer violence to the kings person Hee commanded the man to be thrust thorough who had killed Saul the Lords annointed these appoint earthly heauenly rewards for such as murther annointed Kings And if all Israel did of right obey Saul being reiected § 33 by Gods command if Dauid himselfe annointed the successour of the kingdome did performe all loyall obedience to him if he reuerenced him as the Lords annoynted and condemned it as a sinne in himselfe if he had layd his hand vpon him when hee might and reuenged it vpon another that had committed it how can the Pope absolue the subiects from the oath of obedience made to any king whatsouer or make his act meritorious who doth kill him from whom the Pope without any authoritie hath taken the gouernment you see therefore that there is neither truth in the Antecedent of your enthymem nor coherence in the consequence § 34 After the same manner wee may answere you about Ieroboam The example of Ieroboam answered that which your selfe confesse by the way that the Prophet was sent who should denounce the punishment in word only not violently inflict it himselfe and did not vtter one word of the schisme and deposing but onely foretold what should follow that Iosias should ouerturne that altar and burne the Priests bones vpon it as it fell out 300. yeares after Ieroboam was dead But whether it prefigured our falling from the Apostolicall sea Ieroboam and his Priests types of poperie as you call it or your backsliding from the Apostolicall truth and whether Ieroboam with his altar doe represent your Pope who hath corrupted the true and auncient worship of God with vnwritten traditions or our Princes who haue reformed it so corrupted by the holy Scriptures it is not to be argued at this time onely I see a great likenesse betweene his calues and your idoll vpon the altar I appeale to your religious wisedome what difference is there in the case of Idolatrie whether a caluish or a crustie Godhead bee adored I know your answere you doe not worshippe the bread but Christ in the bread And Ieroboams Priests might make the same answere that they worshipped not the calfe but God in the calfe whose Idolatrie for all that you hold to be condemned But whether Ieroboams Priests be the types of our Ministers or of your shaulings and whether they be more abiect and hungerstaru'd they who for conscience sake serue the liuing God or your Priests who to fill their paunches serue the golden calfe it belongs not to this question in hand And all this example proueth nothing else but that a wicked King may rightly bee reprehended of a Prophet as a wicked Pope may of any Priest yet you would not say that a Pope might iustly bee deposed of him as neither the king by the Prophet although hee were greiuously reprehended by him as hee well deserued § 35 Neither leprous Ozias though hee were shut from the company of men according to the Law Ozias the Leperous no type of excommunication whom you make the figure of a spirituall Leper and by that reason of one that is excommunicate was at any time thrust from his kingdome because the gouernment thereof was committed to his sonne 4. Reg. 15. For Ozias continued king to his dying day as the Scripture calleth him in the 25. yeare of his raigne which was the last of his life Iothan therefore was not as yet the King but the Kings Vicegerent while his father liued Neither did any Leper by Gods law loose his priuate inheritance Inheritance not lost for leprosie much lesse a king the publicke inheritance of the crowne Neither did heresie which you tearme a spirituall leprosie driue any out of his kingdome no more then couetousnesse or ambition or the contempt of the word cast the Pope out off his Popedome which the Fathers called the leprosie of the soule And if leprosie shall remoue a king out of his throne how shall the Popes hold their chaires that you leprous conclusion doth as well touch the Popes myter as the Kings crowne This figure then is as pernitious to the Pope as to the King For whereas you said it was the office of the Priest to separate those that were Lepers there you
erre greatly It was their office to discerne the leprosie the Magistrates to separate lest they should faint others That we may therefore vrge this figure against you It is the duty of Princes to separate the leprous that is hereticall Popes rather then of Popes to separate hereticall Princes But whereas you said the person of the King was stoutly assalted by Azaria and 80. other Priests and by violence cast out of the Temple that is an error far more dangerous For they did not violently cast him out but as the text hath it they caused him to make hast to go out of the temple no force at all being attempted For it followeth because the Lord stroke him he was forced of his owne accord to depart And so the word signifies and so your vulgar translation hath it which you call Ieromes he made hast to go foorth 2. Chron. 26. The Iesuits violence taxed But this error hath brought forth that dangerous sin Saturnine by the helpe of your conclusion as it were by the aide of a Midwife For you conclude it is a manifest example that it is lawfull for Priests by force of armes and by violent meanes to represse the wickednesse of Kings Azarias I confesse and the other Priests did resist the King but with words not with weapons And because he had broken the Law by burning of incense they did as it was meete sharpely reproue him neither did they forceably rush vpon the Magistrate or lay strong hand vpon him to driue him out of the temple much lesse out of the kingdome But your men Saturnine go further and from admonition fly to rebellion from reprehension to force from reprofe to armes being cousoned and deceiued by the false interpretation of this and the like places § 37 Here I appeale to you Princes neither to you only who haue departed from the Pope but to you who cleaue vnto him ☜ How long will ye suffer these martiall and swaggering Priests to abuse your patience how long shall this superstitious madnesse deceiue you An Ap strophâ— to popish Kings how long shall this wolâ—ish fearcenesse vnder sheepes cloathing assaile you how long shall they couer their detestable rebellion against kings vnder the cloake of religion And as if they fetcht poyson from heauen as Hercules Aeteus in the tragedie abusing the authoritie of holy Scriptures and examples of holy Priests gather force against your sacred persons and opprobry to your Maiesties This is said Saturnine to chaffe with vs not to dispute § 38 with vs. But marke the reason if you please why Ozias the king was stroken with the leprosie because he presumed to execute the spirituall and priestly function whereof you haue ordained your Kings supreame Gouernours I marke it well said Patriotta and when we maintain that it is lawfull for our Princes to preach the Gospell to baptise to minister the supper of the Lord to forgiue sinnes then cast vs in the teeth with Ozias pride and plague In the meane while learne that it is not for priests but kings to beare armes and the kings of Iuda who vsed the temporall sword to restore the truth and suppresse error which Dauid Iehosophat Ezekias Iosias were said to haue done got great fauour with God and great honour with men But wee when wee are iustly displeased with you whenas like seditious tribunes you stirre vp the commons against Kings and call them to armes wherewith they may vanquish the professours of the Gospell as occasion is offered then here I pittie you exceedingly that from Azarias example peeuishly vnderstood and wretchedly drawn to your purpose you draw from an idle figure so slender an argument of your out-rage that there appeareth neither probabilitie in the Antecedent or necessitie in the consequence And whereas you said that Athalia was depriued of § 39 her kingdome and put to death by Iehoida the priest with the forces of the priests and people Athaâ—â—â— iustly deposed but not by the Priest Ioash the right heyre whom hee preserued in the temple being proclaimed annointed and crowned king you held that the Pope might likewise rightly depriue a lawfull king for heresie both of his kingdome and life it doth lay open apparantly the wretchednesse of your cause For what can you say else then that a wicked woman who flew all Ochasias the kings ofspring one sonne only excepted and did vniustly vsurpe the kingdome was surprised and punished by the vndoubted and lawfull heire of the crowne the king being proclaimed and annointed and the crowne set on his head by the consent of the whole kingdome as you your selfe haue confessed But Iehoida the high priest commanded to put her to death not the king True but hee commanded it by the authoritie of the king not his own But the king you say was but a childe of seuen yeares of age but hee was no lesse a king at seuen yeares then if he had beene of seuentie yeares For age cannot take away the right of a kingdome which bloud hath giuen him Iehoida had Gods law mans law to approue his action But Iehoida when he commanded Athalia to be slaine in the kings name did it both by Gods law and mans law First he preserued the young king in the Sanctuarie being kept from the rage of Athalia and nourisht him secretly in the Lords house Againe hee was the chiefe of his Tribe as others were of theirs that hee might arrogate so much to himselfe as others might in the nonage of the king to pacifie the kingdome and to take vengeance vpon the vsurping Queene for the cruell tyrannie against the kings progenie Besides that his wife was the kings Ant and he was his neerest kinsman and therefore was bound both by the law of nature and nations to defend the kings right his age and innocencie Last of all whatsoeuer hee attempted was with the Kings authoritie and with the common counsell and consent of all the nobility For he conuented all the captaines and cheife Fathers of Israel vnto him into the house of God and made a couenant with them and exacted an Oath of them in the house of God and shewed the kings sonne vnto them And so being not only the high priest but chiefe also of his Tribe and neerest allie to the king nor with his owne but with the common counsell and consent of the Peeres nor commanded with his owne but with the kings authoritie that wicked Athalia iniustly vsurping the kingdome the kings ofspring being first murthered and extinguished to be cast from her kingdome and of her life What is this to the Pope to depose a lawfull king to be murthered by a rebellious people being first by excammunication deposed from his kingdome And whereas you bragge of Elias zeale who did not § 40 only answere king Ahab very stoutly but slew 400. Elias killed not Baals Priests of Iesabels false Prophets you tell vs of the act but you cunningly conceale
the cause and manner of it The famine of the kingdome and Elias miracle were the causes that king Ahab yeelded vp by a compact and publicke decree of the kingdome these false Prophets into Elias hands to be put to death according to Gods Law But Elias you say kild them What with his owne hand do you think the Prophet was a slaughter-man you will say no though they were not slaine by Elias hand yet by Elias authoritie You should say by his aduise rather then authoritie For Elias was a priuate man not a Magistrate But Ahab if Elias had not vrgd him had not slaine them I thinke so Elias mooued the king to do it but compeld him not Ahab gaue his consent with all Israel that the Baalitish priests who had seduced the king and kingdome should bee slaine being conuicted by Gods law For whenas a greeuous famine grew vpon them and that no raine could fall but at the word of Elias as hee had foretold Ahab before the drought being accused to Ahab to be the procurer of the famine and troubler of Israel defendeth himselfe and testifieth before the king that God had sent that plague vpon all Israel because he and his Fathers house had forsaken the commandements of God and worshipped strange Gods And to make his word good he offered before all Israel vpon paine to loose his head that the king and his people were seduced by Baals priests and that he would make it plain by a miracle that is with fire sent downe from heauen which should make it appeare whose sacrifice God did approue promising that they should haue plenty of raine after the conuersion of Israel to the true God and that he was sent to that end at that time The King accepts the condition all the rest giue their consents and when they plainly perceiued by the miracle of Elias that the Baalites were conuicted to be the deceiuers and should haue cast downe themselues vpon their faces and giuen glorie to God as the people did and should most humbly haue submitted them-selues to the truth of God Elias did aduise them to lay hands on the Baalites and to punish them with death by Gods law due to such seducers and deceiuers So Elias perswaded Ahab and all Israel to consent to the slaughter of the Baalites with a publike decree Therefore by the consent of the King the decree of the kingdome in so extreame necessitie by so notable a miracle wrought by the Prophet not by Elias hand but by his perswasion the people did in publike place put to death those Baalitish impostors according to the law of God publikely convicted How can you draw this example to your purpose Will you reason after this manner False Prophets may rightly be put to death by Magistrates therefore Princes may rightly be deposed by Priests I will not send you to the schooles to learne better Logicke but to * An I le in Thessaly where Eleborus groweth that purgeth Melancholie Anticyra to purge your foolish braine if you dispute after this manner § 41 But you will say hee consumed Ochasias captaines and souldiers with fire calld downe from heauen How Ochosias souldiers were destroyed by whom Elias spake the word God performed the deed That fire from heauen was not in Elias power but in Gods will And if Elias had not receiued a speciall instinct of Gods spirit to that end he durst neuer haue called for fire from heauen for that had been plainly to haue tempted God which Christ reproued in his Apostles desirous to imitate Elias As these were extraordinarie so by no meanes you can thence draw a conclusion for disputation or an ensample for imitation no more then you can allow of thest because Israel by Gods command spoyled the Egyptian or perswade that one kill himselfe because Sampson killd himselfe or teach that one may curse and kill vnhappy boyes because Elizeus handled fortie two in that manner that calld him bald pate in Bethell But here I doe acknowledge you to be very peruerse followers of Elias How the Papists differ from Elias in their fire-workes in that you goe about to vse consuming fire for Elias calld downe for fire from the height of heauen but you haue fetcht it vp from the depth of hell Elias by the instinct of God you by the instigation of the Diuell And yet Elias did not once touch the King much lesse depose him but you went about not only to depose the King but vtterly to consume the King with all his excellent progenie and kingdome But Elias you say did by Gods appointment anoint § 42 Iehu King ouer Israel and cast off Ahabs sonne and all his house for euer bearing rule in the kingdom Elias did not annoint Iehu but one of the sonnes of the Prophets whom Elizeus sent and chargde him in the name of God not in Elizeus name marke but in the name of God that Iehu should take sword in hand and roote out Ahabs house The King therefore was not cast off by the prophet but slaine by Iehu to whom God had giuen Ahabs kingdom that he might destroy Ahab and all his house and posteritie Now if you please let vs weigh your argument God may rightly giue a Kingdome to whom he will and by name stirre vp a subiect to punish his masters sinne therefore the Pope may rightly doe the same What Catholike King can be safe from the conspiracies of his subiects if once he begin to displease the Pope With such arguments our English Iesuites haue gone about to bewitch ou men that they may take away the liues of our most worthy Princes Be they not the very slaues of Antichrist and members of the Diuell who do flatter the Pope with such argumēts to the destruction of Kings § 43 But Elias did cast downe and destroy Kings that is to say did foretell they should be cast downe if you beleeue Hugo the Cardinall Hugo the Cardinal expounding Ieremie And Ieremie was set ouer Kingdomes to plant and roote out to build vp and plucke downe Kingdomes that is as that learned Cardinall expounds it I haue appointed you saith God to pull vp that is to threaten the Iewes that they shall be cast out of their owne countrey and that you destroy that is that you prophesie that the Citie of Ierusalem shall be destroyed and that you disperse that is that you foretell that they shall be dispersed by the Chaldean Princes and that yee scatter abroad that is foreshew that the kingdome of the Iewes shall be scattered abroad after the captiuitie And that the Iewes should not be cast into despaire hee did not only foreshew their captiuitie but their deliuerance also adding that he should build vp that is shew that the Citie should be re-edified and that you should plant that is tell the Iewes that they shall be planted in Iurie This literall sense Hugo the Cardinall did giue that I may omit the mysticall
sense whereby the Prophets doctrine doth vnderstand that the kingdome of sinne should be rooted out and destroyed and the kingdome of vertue should bee planted and aduanced in the conscience § 44 We haue examined your examples whence you inferre a conclusion that ill hangs together first that Kings rightly created and annointed may rightly be put downe I answer that one of the Kings you named was put downe and that was Ahab not by Elias not by Elizeus but by Iehu whom God by his owne mouth raised vp by name The deposing therefore of the King was not effected by the Prophet but by a Prince by name appointed to that purpose What doth this helpe your cause Saul was not deposed it is manifest that his posteritie was cut of from the succession of the kingdome and not his person from the present possession Ierobâ—am was by the Prophet sharpely reproued not violently expelled Ozias as a Leper was remoued from the gouernment not the right of his kingdome Athalia was neuer rightly created and for the cruell murthering of the Kings of-spring was put to death not by the Priests but the Kings authoritie The second conclusion is very idle for what causes the Kings in fact are to be secluded What shall you neede to enquire for what causes they be deposed when you doe not proue they should bee deposed Athalia was taken away neither for apostacie nor heresie but because shee vsurpt the Crowne against the lawfull heyre apparant God commended the acts of Ozias but detested his pride Ieroboam both an Apostata and an Idolater and yet neuer set beside the cushion Achab the Idolater was cast of with all his race but by the Magistrate not by the Priest The causes therefore which you alledge helpe your cause no whit at all The last conclusion which concernes the persons of § 45 the deposers is very lame You say that God vsed the ministerie of the Prophets and the Priests to that purpose either ordinarie or extraordinarie as iudges and executors of Gods will God did vse the tongues as I said of the Prophets and Priests to foretell and denounce those plagues which God decreed to bring vpon those Kings and sometimes hee vsed their hands to annoint those whom by name he appointed to be the successors of the kingdome but hee neuer vsed them either ordinarie or extraordinarie either iudges or executioners of his will in deposing them He vsed them as messengers who with their liuely voice did deliuer Gods decrees to Kings either deposed or appointed by God other execution or authoritie they had none which is very farre from that power of the Pope whom you challenge to be the ordinarie Iudge Tutor and Corrector of Kings And doe you endure his ferula ô yee Kings will you kisse the rodd that hath so often paid you and by this your patience make your Tutor more curst and whip you the more But I come now to you Saturaine § 46 You haue not of my word you haue not one Priest or Prophet vnder the old Testament that deposed a King Kings deposed Priests but I haue a King that deposed a Priest Whom you will say Abimilech I speake not of Saul who slew Abimelech for taking part with Dauid I passe ouer Ioash the King who commanded Zachariah Zacharia Iehoidas sonne to be stoned to death forgetting his fathers virtue and dutie What say you to Salomon who displaced Abiathar the high Priest from his primacie and dignitie Abiathar because he followed Adoniahs faction being the elder brother When it would haue followed by your conclusion that Salomon was rather to be deposed because the High Priest thought Adoniahs right to the kingdome to be better then Salomons § 47 But whereas you added that Princes hold their soueraigne dignitie and authoritie receiued from God because truth drew that speech from you which falls out very seldom I accept it willingly and thence conclude that God alone hath the power of putting downe Kings who alone set them vp and that Kings are bound to giue accompt to God alone from whom they receiued that honour But whereas you make the end of supreme princely maiestie receiued of God to be the promoting of the true worship and honor of God and the reteyning of the people in the faith and feare of the Lord I maruell what it ment that when alwaies you denie that a King should meddle with spirituall affaires and busines now as if you were forgetfull of your owne minde Alanus you direct the chiefe end and scope of the Kings dignitie to set forward the worship of God to stirre vp others to honor his high Lord and to preserue the people in the faith and feare of God We accept of your grant but that which you adde that Priests and Prophets haue opposed them-selues against Kings in all those matters How Priests ought to oppose Princes which may bring either dishonor to God or ouerthrow to religion or damnation to soules I am affraid vnlesse you expound your selfe more plainly wee may not grant it vnto you For if you say they opposed themselues as men of God and did earnestly admonish them by word and counsell or else did sharply reproue such Princes we doe willingly acknowledge the freedome of their holy vocation but to take vpon them to be Iudges ouer Kings by their rule and authoritie and do either iudicially depriue them or violently inuade them we detest the pride of such a turbulent spirit But betweene God and the King there is a certaine § 48 couenant which alwaies is of force either openly or secretly Be it so The couenant between God and the King And what if the King do breake some article of the league who shall accuse him before what iudgement seate before what Iudge shall hee be endighted shall it be in the Court of the common people who for fashion sake haue made choice and accepted of the King or in the consistorie of a Bishop who hath annointed and consecrated him I see what you meane to answer a Bishop who hath conditionally annoynted him if he breake the condition and couenant made with God hath againe depriued him and hath shewed iustice against him in the name of God who hath abused his supreme authoritie The Scripture recites nineteene Kings of Israel and § 49 fourteene of Iuda No bad King of 33 deposed by a Priest who brake the couenant made with the Lord and worshipped strange gods and draue the people to apostasie shew me any one of them to be depriued by a Priest or a Prophet because they had broken their first couenant and take the cause if you cannot leaue of to tell an vntruth and to crosse your own speech whom wee euen now heard confessing that Kings doe hold their supreme authoritie receiued from God not then from a Priest not from the people and that therefore they are not bound if they breake their couenant to giue
strange diuinity and to abandon Christian Princes are Synonamaes or all one with the Papists To binde Kings and to binde Scepters is all one To exclude a King out of the Temple and take from him his kingdome and life be Synonomaes with you O diuine and admirable power of excommunication which brought in not onely a new Grammer but a new Logicke also into Diuinity All Princes ought to bee taught of the high Preist therefore deposed They may be shut out of the kingdome of heauen therefore out of their earthly domimions Princes ought to obey the wholesome doctrine â—aught by their Pastors therefore if they refuse it they may rightly bee cast off by them The condition of Princes is very hard But what shall they doe excommunication can do thus much if we beleeue Saturnine But you haue other Catholike Doctors as I heare honester men a great deale who weaken and take away the edge of excommunication for bringing foorth such monstrous effects § 55 For that I may say nothing of Austin who thought that excommunication was very sparingly to bee vsed against Princes August cont Epist Parmen lib. 3. cap. 2. and when it were it was not to roote them vp but to correct them that we may omit Bernard De consid ad Eugen. lib. 2. who was not afraid to tell Pope Eugenius Therfore your power is ouer sinnes not ouer possessions because for them not for these you haue receiued the keyes of the Kingdome of Heauen Thomas Aquinas your Angelicall Doctor sayd that excommunication is one thing and rotting out is another which we finde written in an Epistle of Pope Vrbane recorded in the canon Law whereof hee alleadgeth a reason out of the Apostle who sayth that one excommunicate is to that end so dealt withall Decret 2. part caus 4 qu. 3. cap. 37. that his soule may be saued in the day of the Lord. It is vsed then for correction not for destruction for excommunication is discipline saith Pope Vrbane not a rooting vp Either of them both a Canonist and a Preist seemed to borrow the distinction out of Austin So hee writeth that excommunication is not the taking away anie mans priuate goods which the transgressour of the Law did formerly possesse but it was the taking away of the publike goods which he was to receiue from the Church and the receiuing of the Sacraments The force of excommunication Therefore excommunication is of force if you may beleeue your owne men to shut a King out of the Church not out of his Kingdome to depriue him of the Sacrament not his Scepter to seuer him from the Communion of the faithfull not from the obedience of his subiects to saue his soule not to destroy his body to remooue him from the confines of the Kingdome of Heauen till he repent not to driue him out of his territories or to loose the raines of obedience from subiects or free them from their sworne fealty As Ludonicus Richeomus hath it in his Apologeticke These agree with the canon Render saith Christ to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Which bee Caesars his scepter crowne and sword which be Gods our faith worship inuocation and all our spirituall obedience Matth. 22. Christ therefore saith render to Caesar his scepter his crowne his sword what say you Saturnine let him take away from Caesar being excommunicate his scepter his crowne his sword bee these your Synonimaes to render and to take away Christ if he had pleased could thus haue excommucate Tiberius and obtained of his father an army of Angels to haue cast him out of his throne He would not for he came to giue an heauenly crowne not to take away an earthly crowne When a certaine man sayd to him Luc. 12. Master command my brother to diuide the inheritance with me the Lord answered who hath made mee a Iudge betweene you Christ thought that the power of diuiding a priuate inheritance belonged not to his vocation who therefore could appoint the Pope to be a Iudge Distributer of kings crownes Christ being demanded of Pilate what kingdome he layd claime to answered my kingdome is not of this world but you Saturnine with the turn of a key which others receiued as well as Peter haue deliuered all that belongs to Caesar to the Vicar of Christs disposition forsooth Therefore what Christ could not doe can the Vicar of Christ do That which the Lord himselfe would not vndertake shall a seruant take vpon him Peter was a simple scholler to Christ belike whom § 56 you doe make to be your founder What Peter did to Princes for hee did not cast Nero out of his throne with a thunder bolt of excommunication he did not forbid Christians from taking the Oath of Allegeance or free them when they had taken it he did not dispose of his kingdomes and dominions hee did not arme the seruants against their master or stirre vp other Princes against the Emperor Hee taught that the glory of Martyrdome was to bee sought after by suffering not the infamie of rebellion by resisting cheefely by Bishops to whom hee hath committed the power of perswading not enforcing the duties of teaching not of fighting the vse of prayers not of weapons Shall it bee lawfull for the Popes successour which was not lawfull for his founder did not Peter vnderstand what it was to feede sheepe did he not learne what it was to binde and to loose did he not know the power of the keyes Belike hee had not met with your dictionary He could with his word as well haue strucken Nero as he strucke Ananias but he following his masters steps yeelded simple obedience to Nero as he had yeelded to Tiberius § 57 Whose successours they were so farre from resisting the Emperours How Peters successorus vsed Princes the seruants their masters that for 300. yeers euen to Syluester they did patiently submit themselues to Pagans as Martyrs and for 300. yeeres to Boniface they did humbly obey both Christian Catholike and Hereticke Princes as beads-men and for 400. yeeres to Gregorie the 7. they did obey them euen in their absence somewhat tolerably as free-men For the times of the Empire were diuers as the times of the Church were as the qualities of Emperors were diuers so of Bishops while the Emperour was but one and present the Bishop was of small reputation but when hee was absent and diuided hee grew great the Imperiall spoiles being left in Italy whereby the master being somewhat weakned and cast off the seruant began to grow lustie and stout and I wish he would leaue off to continue so still Lest happily the King of birds doe come And take his feathers from this ietting Iay Whereat the rest may doe naught else but laugh To see stolne feathers taken thus away For surely it was not thus from the beginning that the staffe should resist the sword the crosier
Bishops vnlesse happily any other course seeme better to you Then Calander I promise you said he that nothing § 67 is more acceptable to vs that I may make answer for Argentine my friend I neuer doubted of ciuill obedience to be rightly performed to good Kings by Catholikes I thought to confesse the truth I was absolued from the oath of obedience to Heretikes and Tyrants after once they were denounced excommunicated by the Pope and now lawfully deposed from their kingdome Now seeing I perceiue that Christ Peter and Paul not only taught but shewed ciuill obedience to Tiberij and Neroes and to be so farre from taking from them with their diuine power as they might their scepter sword and Crowne that vnder them they laid downe their life to confirme their faith and obedience You haue said that which makes me begin to doubt of such force of excommunication and such power of the Pope For when I did diligently obserue euery passage of your disputation Patriotta out of that perspicuous and short exposition as it were consisting of those three texts I must needes confesse that the sparkes of this vnknowne and vnhard of truth did first cast them selues into mine eyes wherewith the authoritie of Aquinas Toletane and Laterane Councell for their power of excommunication and the authoritie of the Pope alleaged by Saturnine presently brought a mvst ouer them But light was brought out of the myst by Fristugensis Vrshergensis Sigebert and Vincentius and all the ancient and sincere Catholikes and graue witnesses of those times as I heare my Velbacellus affirme at what time Gregorie the 7. did first attempt to driue Henry the 4. Emperor by his excommunication out of his kingdome Here Saturnine being driuen from humane authorities betooke himselfe to diuine But whatsoeuer he tooke Patriotta straight-way caught it out of his hands where hee said that the Apostle forbad wee should not salute an heretike and commanded to auoide him after one or two admonitions Patriotta made answer that hee forbad voluntarie societie not necessarie subiection priuate familiaritie not publike obedience And when he prest that a gangrene was to be cut of he instantly replyed that it was not an heretike but heresie was compared to a gangrene and with a religious kinde of charitie as it seemde sparing the heretike thought good the heresie should be rooted out And from thence in my iudgement concluded not amisse when no heretike was to loose his inheritance or his life that a King much lesse was to be depriued either of his life or inheritance by reason of heresie Here Saturnine bent all the force of his wit and betaking himselfe into the fortifications of the old Testament from euery place gathering the forces of examples with arguments drawne from thence fought very valiantly so that when I heard him alone he made me consent almost vnto him But this heretike Patriott shrunke not a foote but presently buckled hand to hand He had said that Saul was deposed Patriot as the truth was distinguished that the person of Saul was not remoued from the possession of the kingdome but his of-spring from the succession But by whom euen from GOD not from Samuel whom hee proued to be not a Iudge but a messenger nor to haue inflicted the punishment of deposing but to haue published the decree and that not by the right of his generall vocation but by speciall instinct and reuelation from God not as Prophet but as a Prophet appointed to that end to annoint Dauid for the succession of the kingdome whom God had named with his owne mouth So that nothing can accrue to the Pope from hence vnlesse he can proue he haue receiued a reuelation to depose a Prince When hee contended that Ieroboam was cast aside § 68 by the Prophet he againe denied it confessing hee was greeuously reproued by the Prophet not violently remoued Saturnine assaults againe that Ozias a Leper was by force driuen out of the Temple by Azaria and 80. Priests and that he was separated from the societie of men and the gouernment committed to Iothan his Sonne Here Patriott a better Text-man as it seemeth denied that the King was put out of the Church forceably but being strooke with a leprosie was enforced by his owne accord to depart out of the Sanctuarie not out of the kingdome the right whereof hee reserued to himselfe to his dying day and put ouer the gouernment to his sonne as to his Vicegerent And that a Leper neuer lost his priuate inheritance much lesse his publike And when as heresie is a leprosie nor euer any was depriued of his kingdome for leprosie and therefore for heresie none was to be depriued Which reason must needs satisfie me in this businesse vnlesse it can be proued that the leprous Iewes lost their inheritance And when Saturnine affirmed that the lepers were separated from the company of men by the Priests Patriotta excepted against it that it was their duty to discerne the leprosie but the Magistrates were to put them apart So that the iudgement of the businesse belonged to the Preists the parting of the person to the Magistrate Whence he concluded and retorted it vpon Saturnine who sayd that heresie was a spirituall leprosie that it followed from this figure that the King ought rather to separate an hereticall Pope then the Pope an hereticall king So that this figure was more hurtfull to the Pope then to the King § 69 One thing there was which both Patriott did shrewdly re-enforce against you Saturnine and did likewise mightily offend vs all when you concluded out of Azarias example that it was lawfull for Preists to take armes to represse the wickednesse of Kings for the Preist resisted the King not with arms but with words vnlesse perhaps you will take a greeuous admonition reproofe and reprehension for armes Azarias did not cast the king out of the temple much lesse out of the kingdome And doe you thinke of corslets swords and lawnces wherewith a warlike Preist may remooue a King from his throne fie vpon this proud vanitie A Bishop ought not to bee a striker much lesse a warriour It was not lawfull for Dauid to build vp Gods materiall Temple because he was a man of bloud and will you build vp Gods spirituall Temple with bloudy hands But I referre you to the canons and goe forward For where you sayd that Athalia was lawfully deposed § 70 by Iehoida the Preist it was first answered that shee was neuer rightly created and crowned Againe that she was deposed by Iehoida not as hee was high Preist but cheife Prince of his tribe and next allie to the king nor by himselfe alone but ioyned with all the Nobles of the kingdome not with the authority of the Preist but by the authority of Ioash being first annoynted and crowned by him that whatsoeuer he did he seemed to doe by the power of the king with the common consent of the Peeres and Nobles against the wicked
vsurper of the Kingdome which had murthered all the Kings Progeny What is this to the Pope that hee may depose a lawfull Prince with his Bishoply authority And whereas you propounded Elias zeale to bee imitated by you Patriott answered truely that your zeale was too fiery and would proue too preposterous vnlesse you could prooue you had Elias speciall instinct And when you said that Achab was remooued from his Kingdome by Elias or Elizeus it is partly true partly false It is true that you say he was remooued but by Iehu whom one of the sonnes of the Prophets did annoynt by Gods speciall commandement which God gaue to Elizeus that Iehu should roote out all the posterity of Achab. Hee was not therefore deposed by Elias or Elizeus but by Iehu whom God had raised vp by name extraordinarily for that purpose Neither did the sonne of the Prophet when hee annoynted Iehu beginne thus thus sayth Elizeus but thus saith the Lord. This doth no whit help the popes cause that Patriott did somtime scatter abroad your arguments as brooms that are not bound together and enforced him as a cripple with a broken legge to halt now vpon one leg now vpon both both in his antecedent and consequent as if the antecedent retained neither truth in the matter or Law in the forme and the consequent had lost all the necessity of proofe So that you neither did helpe the popes power or satisfie our consciences For it was to no purpose as he rightly said to seeke for causes at the last why princes should in fact be deposed by preists and prophets when you cannot proue that any was deposed § 71 You therefore as it seemes could not alleadge that any king was deposed by a priest but Patriott did alleadge that a preist was deposed by a king one especially Abiathar by Salomon This did not onely not help but hurt the popes cause Heere when you did enforce the couenant between God and the King your ready aduersary did demand if the King breake any of the articles of agreement who would enter suite against him or in what court or consistory were hee to bee accused And out of your owne grant hee concluded when you said that the king held his supreame authority taken from God and therefore the king was to yeeld account to God alone in the heauenly court for his gouernment Two pillers of gouernment ouerthrowen And where there are two pillers of gouernment Authority in the King and obedience in subiects which for all our good we are to keep safe sound you seemed Saturnin to ouerthrow them both when you made the king as it were an hypotheticall propositiō and the subiects conditionales but when you made the Popes categoricall and absolute although I reuerence them as most holy fathers yet I will speake truly you haue dealt herein as an vnskilfull Phisition who gets a more greeuous disease to the body by curing one that is easier Being repelled from the old Testament you fled into § 72 the strength of the new and here I had great hope that that your feede my sheepe and I will giue you the keyes had well strengthned the Popes authoritie and sharpned the edge of ecclesiasticall excommunication But it fell out otherwise For the aduersarie proued that by the first wordes diligence was enioyned the Byshoppe to feede the flocke and by the second were committed the keyes of the heauenly not the earthly kingdome And he brought for proofe not onely Augustine and Bernard as common witnesses but Aquinas Pope Vrbane Dominicus à Soto and Ludouicus Rycheomus all of them being on our side who thought the force of the keyes to be not in possessions but in crimes not in binding Scepters but sinnes and iudge it not to be a rooting vp but a meere discipline What you doe you thinke these to be Heretickes as lately you tearmed Sigebert and Vincentius what maruell is it if strangers accuse the Pope when his owne condemne him if his enemies set vpon him when his friends forsake him if the late Catholickes leaue him when the ancient forsake him The first foundation therefore of our obedience laid by Patriotta vpon the perpetuall and vnchangeable commandement of Christ and his Apostles standes firme and sure vnlesse you thinke that it be lawfull for the Vicar of Christ an holy man though a sinner to plucke downe the sacred tables of the Testament to violate the heauenly lawes of Christ and to abrogate the eternall decrees of God Forwhereas in the end you say that the Apostles and their Successours might lawfully haue deposed Nero Dioclesian Iulian Constantius Valens and the rest if the Church had had power to resist you would neuer haue said it as your aduersarie rightly obiected vnlesse you thinke the holy Apostles and fathers were dissemblers who obeyed those euill Emperours for feare not for dutie for times sake not for conscience sake wherein we heard that not the holy Scripture only but the antient historie was directly against you § 73 That we may greatly lament that Bellarmine and Alan so great wittes brought forth so wicked an vntruth And that we may omit Symancha Creswell Reynoldes Parsons and others of our side who brought all their wit and eloquence to patronize so wicked a cause with Alan trumpets not of the word but of warre and we must needes confesse that they haue brought an ouerthrow to many Catholicke families and a plague to their Countrie but also a torture to our consciences and an euerlasting infamie to the Catholicke religion Wherfore leaue off I pray you any more to solicite vs in this cause Saturnine vpon whose head wee see your first argument to be retorted by Patriotta who confest that subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is due to a King while the King is a King But the King is king and we be subiects notwithstanding any excommunication or authoritie of the Pope whatsoeuer as Patriotta hath proued against you as it seemes to vs not only with common but with proper arguments of our owne Catholickes It followeth therefore by your owne confession that all subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is to be performed of vs to our King § 74 Then Saturnine I am right heartily sorry most honourable Calander and am much vext with all that you whom wee euer held a deuout sonne of the Romaine Church now to finde a Renegate in the Heretickes tents and not onely doubting of the supreame authoritie of the Byshoppe but that which is farre worse and more dangerous to your soule oppugning it For not onely the excommunication of Princes which to diuers seemes to be the soueraigne censure of the ecclesiasticall and spirituall power of the Pope belongeth vnto him but their ouerthrow also and rooting out which proceedes not from the power of excommunication but from the power of a certain supreame authoritie in the Pope either as he is directly the Lord of the temporalties or indirectly in
it not by an immediate execution and committeth that to the Emperour by an vniuersall iurisdiction That the Romane Bishop is the cheefe father and man in the world and that all hang on him as on the cheife workeman he should haue sayd foundation otherwise if any should appoint an Emperour by himselfe I thinke he should say a substantiue in respect of his temporalties should make two principles which heresie that he might auoyd he makes the Emperour an adiectiue Isodor Mos pa. 22. de maiest mil. Eccles As another saith that the holie writer in the olde Law made the Priest-hood an adiectiue to the kingdome but that S. Peter made the kingdome an adiectiue to the Priesthood g Tho Boz de iure sta lib. 1. cap. 6. fol. 137. That kings are not immediately from God but by the interposing of the Church and the cheefe Preist thereof That there is a warlike and compulsiue power giuen to the Church aboue Kings and Princes that Constantine gaue nothing that was his owne but restored what was vniustly and tyrannously taken from the Bishops § 79 That Christ committed to Peter the key-keeper of eternall life Isido Mos de maiest pag. 27. the right of earthly and heauenly gouernment and that in his place the Pope is the vniuersall Iudge the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and therefore that hee is consecrated as a cheefe Bishop and crowned as a King Because hee hath each power that hee vseth that power either absolutely or ordinarily absolutely when he doth abrogate such lawes as he please ordinarily when hee vseth lawes When he will liue vnder lawes to vse the counsel of Cardinals when he will not to rule without counsell because his power is from God not from the Colledge of Cardinals I thinke not onely Asses but Lyons also That all the faithfull and the vnfaithfull and euery naturall creature for so he speaketh is subiect to the Popes gouernment and that therefore the Pope doth all men to worship him prostrate themselues before him and kisse his feete that the adoration of Dulia seruice is giuen to him as to Images and Saints in respect of his kingdome hee hath a crowne of his Preisthood a myter That Emperours and Kings may bee compelled to obserue their oathes taken at their coronations and confirmations because by the vertue of their oath they bee made the Popes vassals That by the Law of God and nature the Preâ—sthood is more eminent then the Empire That secular powers are not necessarie but that Princes should performe that by the terrour of discipline August triump apud Carer p. 130. 132. which a Preist cannot doe by vertue of his doctrine And if the Church could punish offenders the Imperiall and Kingly gouernment should not be necessary because potentially it is included in the Apostolicall gouernment Celsus Mancinê° ib 3. cap. 1. Et Care p. 133. That it may bee auowed of Christs Vicar by a certaine similitude which Plato in Time us spake of God for being demanded what God was answered he is not man he is not heauen nor good but somewhat that is better if a man shall demand whether the cheefe Bishop be a Duke a King or an Emperour Isodor Mosc pag. 80. hee shall answer warily if he shall affirme by denying that the Pope is something more excellent something more eminent That all temporall Iurisdiction is to bee exercised Fâ—e vpon flattery not at the Popes commandement but at his becke Princes will and command God the Lord doth all things with his becke agreeable to that He spake and with his becke made all Olympus quake And that Christ had all plenarie iurisdiction aboue all the § 80 world and all creatures and that therefore the Pope Christs Vicar hath it To what end I pray you to what end As they make Christ Leli Zeâ—h tract Theol. pag. 81. Franc. Bozius lib. 2 cap. 14. so they make the Pope the absolute Lord of the world out of those wordes Behold two swordes which signifie the power spirituall and temporall and from them I will giue you the keies The keyes of heauen are giuen therefore of the whole earth And from those wordes all power is giuen to me in heauen and in earth therefore the right both of the heauenly and earthly Empire is committed to the Pope who is Christs Vice gerent vpon earth To what end say I But that Christian Kings and Emperours should acknowledge that they hold their kingdomes and Empires of him forsooth and that as oft as they doe any great hurt to the Church they may be depriued by the Pope and the right of their kingdome may rightly be conueied ouer to others or if they doe not acknowledge it they may be constrained by armes either of their owne subiects or of outward Catholicke Princes if the Pope will haue it so to part with their kingdome and life § 81 Here Patriotta I beleeue truly said hee that your Doctours did striue among themselues by aduancing the dignitie of the Popes and suppressing Emperours and Kings whether of them with a more grosse or with a more spruisse kinde of flatterie might set foorth the pride of the Popes court But the very naked recitall of these toyes seemes to bee a sound refutation of them Then Velbacellus I doe said hee and haue much greiued that the withered and decayed opinion of the Canonists disproued long since and reiected of good Catholickes should bee now taken vp againe and brought in as a thing forlorne by so many excellent wittes the chiefe whereof both for place and learning was Cardinall Baronius who did very stubbornly and obstinately defend the direct ordinarie and inherent authoritie of the Pope whereby as a Lord of the world in temporall matters hee may at his pleasure depose Emperours and Princes Is it not necessarie to adde his many other reasons They are extant in his bookes that are in many mens hands there they may fetch them that will haue them There is sprung vp on the other side Cardinall Bellarmine § 82 a man of no lesse credite with our men Bellarmine and as well deseruing of the Church who did ouerthrow that ordinarie direct and inherent gouernment of the Pope in temporalties as left by Christ with so sound arguments of scripture that in my minde neither the aduersaries nor himselfe afterward could with his most exquisite skill of distinctions dissolue them But that hee may seeme somewhat to gratifie the Pope although saith he he be not the Lord of all temporalties directly neither hath inherent and ordinarie authoritie as hee is Pope to disthronize temporall Princes yet bee is Lord of the temporalties indirectly in order to the spiritualles as hee vsually speaketh and hath an extraordinarie and a borrowed authoritie as he is chiefe spirituall Prince to alter kingdomes to take them from one and giue them to another if it be necessarie to the saluation of soules i. in order
to the spirituals Carerius a Doctour of Padua Carerius against Bellarmine a sharpe witted and earnest fellow hee is of a contrarie opinion and doth not only striue with argument but laies a curse vpon the aduersaries sparing none no not Bellarmine himselfe whom he taking in hand of purpose to refell in a whole booke written as the Preface importes against the wicked Polititians and Heretickes of our time did a little too plainely touch the Cardinall So farre are they from agreeing in the manner of diriuing so great authoritie to the Pope from Christ Here Patriotta your Doctours saith hee § 83 seeme praeposterously to wrangle among themselues of the manner to deriue such authoritie from Christ when as yet it appeareth not that he hath any at all and in vaine do they argue whether the Pope receiued directly or indirectly such gouernment when it is doubtfull whether he receiued any or no. But I easily grant them by their dissenting about the manner to ouerthrow the thing it selfe that the confusion of tongues may againe seeme to happen in building their tower of Babel § 84 Then Velbacellus somewhat more gently I pray Patriotta Although that I ingenuously confesse while they thus egerly striue among themselues about the manner and ouerthrow their owne opinions with mutuall contradictions they seeme to leaue the Pope very small or no authoritie at all in temporalties For Carerius saith the Pope hath either ordinarie and direct authoritie to depose Kings as he is Pope or he hath no authority at all But he hath none direct and ordinarie as he is Pope by Bellarmines assumption Therefore hee hath none at all by Carerius conclusion It were long to set downe all the reasons drawne from Scripture whereby Bellarmine hath vtterly ouerthrowne the direct and ordinarie authoritie of the Byshoppe neither were it necessarie because they may bee had in his fift booke he set out so that men may thinke hee spake one thing and thought another Which when he might not touch openly for offending the Pope he did with sleights and deuises impugne that he might by any meanes deliuer the truth For he seemeth indirectly that I may vse his owne aduerbe to take away all power of the Pope of depriuing Princes For if the Pope as hee is Pope cannot directly and ordinarily depose Princes though the cause bee iust as Bellarmine saith and yet as hee is the chiefe spirituall Prince may dispose of kingdomes taking them from one and giuing them to another if it be necessarie for the sauing of soules that is indirectly in order to spiritualls as hee affirmeth what other thing did he closly insinuate but that the Pope had no power at all to displace Princes For Saint Peter neither did or could transfer any power but ordinarie Besides it is plaine that the Pope is no otherwise the chiefe spirituall Prince but as he is Pope so that what he cannot do as Pope he cannot do as he is the chiefe spirituall Prince Which Carerius concludeth against Bellarmine and doth vrge it with this grant that the Pope is properly called Gods Vicar Either he is not saith he the Vicar of Christ or else he deposeth inferiour powers as Pope But he deposeth them not as Pope by the witnesse of Bellarmine He is not therefore the Vicar of Christ by the conclusion of Carerius So Bellarmine gaue Christs Vicar so greiuous a wound if we beleeue Carerius that he could neuer cure with all the remedies of his distinctions And Carerius while he deckes him with strange fethers spoiled him of those were his owne Whom while hee ordeined Lord of the temporalties hardly left him Lord of the spiritualties In the mean time when neither the direct nor indirect power bee a matter of faith formally determined by the publicke sentence of the Church as Alanus and Couarruvias confesse there was no reason why Saturnine should call my friend Blackwell wretched Apostata who neuer swarued from the Catholick faith vnlesse by inueighing so bitterly against Blackewell he vaunt himselfe to be of the contrarie faction Then Patriotta I willingly behold Bellarmine and § 85 Carerius as Cadmeyes brethren or the Madianites cutting one anothers throate But I could more willingly behold the Pope as a iacke-daw dispoiled of his Egles and Doues feathers which he hath stolne which is of all his regall and Byshoply ornaments wherewith hee hath so long ietted so proudly and terribly vp down but I leaue this cause to God to be mended by him at his due time But truely Baronius and Carerius with all their faction doe flatter the Pope more grosly but Bellarmine with his cunning opposition flatters him more smoothly being the more dangerous enemie to Kings because the more cloase But that I often obserued the witty old fellow crossing of himselfe with his owne trickes and coyning those distinctions whereby hee vnweaued those things which he had weaued before O Penelopean skill of disputing But while he doth touch kings crownes indirectly and tels vs that it is all in the Pope so that he thinkes it meete to belong to a spirituall end he bewraieth lesse malice but greater craft Here Argentine who had kept silence from the beginning looking earnestly first on Saturnine then on Velbacellus Saturnine saith he seemes to me to bee more strickt in this matter then is requisite and Velbacel more loose and remisse because he gaue too much authority this none at all to our most holy father to suppresse Kings when neede requires This great Doctour of the Church therefore Bellarmine tooke a middle course who first ouerthrew that infinite power of ordinarie and inherent gouernment then retained that extraordinarie and borrowed authority in the Pope least Kings like vntamed coultes as it were not hauing bitte and bridle should waxe too lustie whom the most holy Pope might bring againe into the circle of religion and iustice if once they began to start out first with his counsell and after if that were relected with some other moderate chastisement Which would be the most safe course for Kings and very auaileable for subiectes § 87 Then Carolus Regius this moderate chastisement of Kings Argentine as you call it is their vtter ruine and rooting out if you vnderstand Bellarmine aright For there lurkes vnder those Aduerbes certaine deceites which subiectes haue found to be as damnable to them as Kings haue For he bringeth in your Pope whom one doth well tearme Satans Asse with this his extraordinarie and borrowed power which he bestowed vpon him curbing of Kings with a bridle when the raynes lay on his owne necke turning and ouerturning kingdomes at his pleasure taking them from one and giuing them to another Meanes of the Popes greatnesse when he thinketh good that it is for the order tending to spirituall good And by what counsells he alwaies vsed to take from Kings both their kingdomes and their liues all histories do shew them to haue beene by the emulation of
neighbour Princes the faction of subiectes the treason of the nobles and the superstition of the people And doe you call this a moderate chastisement And safe for kings and good for subiects Wherein as there are many thinges very vniust and vnworthy so those are most of all that hee tearmeth these wicked treacheries holy counsells and pretendes that they tend in order to a spirituall end And doe in that manner sowe the scruples of conscience mingled with the seedes of treacherie in the harts of men as if the graines of religion and rebellion had sprung out of one and the same blade So it comes to passe that the Romane faith at this day doth beget and nourish most dangerous faction both to Kings and subiectes which so long is very demure and humble till as a wise man obserues it hath found the keye of power and authoritie For as all faction which springs out of the heate of desire is dangerous so that is most dangerous which riseth out of the scruple of conscience For when it riseth from desire it is like fire that taketh hold of stubble which though presently it rise vp into a great flame yet soone being consumed is extinguished But when it ariseth from the conscience it is like fire that heates iron which getting his strength but slowly keepes it surely as a very worthy and a wise Senator left it in writing Wherefore that which Bellarmine said of the Oath of § 88 allegeance that it was not therefore lawfull because it was offered someway tempred and qualified that may more iustly be said of the Popes temporall dominion as it is qualified and tempered by Bellarmine knowe therefore Argentine that such qualifications are nothing else but Satans sleights and deceits wherewith the maiesty of Kings is either openly or closely assailed which Christ hath fortified plainely with his commandements That these vaine pretences of Aduerbes are Sathans ginnes and stratagems whereby vnder the colour of religion he bringeth vtter destruction both to your soules and bodies But because you will not giue as good credite to vs as to your owne men and I think it not meete to take vpon mee Velbacellus part I pray you Calander entreat your Confessour that hee would lay open and vnfold the subtill and hurtfull fleights deuises of this working braine Yeelde so much saith Calander to the Catholikes your friends Velbacellus yeelde it to the Catholike religion which is necessary to bee discerned from these false Catholike opinions as you call them lest the consciences of Catholikes be corrupted § 89 Then Velbacell I will doe saith hee as you require me in respect of my duty to the King not vnwillingly but against the Popes inhibition not so willingly howsoeuer it bee I answer for the satisfying of the conscience sincerely and for the Catholike religion not vnfitly The Oath of Allegeance and Supremacy confounded by Bellarmine And I maruell much that Bellarmine beeing a learned man and of great wit did confound the Oath of Allegeance with the Oath of Supremacy but I am greeued at the heart that the supremacy of the Pope which he doth of right enioy in spirituall and ecclesiasticall causes is so enfolded with the worldly gouernment which is in temporall and ciuill causes that hee brings his lawfull authority in hazard to be lost Adde thereto that when he had ouerthrowen the direct dominion of the Pope in all temporall matters with sound reasons hee did maintaine the indirect gouernment in order to the spirituall as hee speaketh with such slight flaggy arguments that with this his playing fast loose hee seemes to haue left him no authority at all Although other thinke otherwise and thinke that hee doth aswell submit Kings crownes to the Popes feete as Baronius doth But let it bee as euery man takes it Hee cannot directly take away the crownes from Kings What then but he can indirectly hee cannot as Pope ordinarily depose Kings but extraordinarily he can as hee is the cheife spirituall Prince Hee hath not inherent authority but that is fetcht else where much forsooth what matter is it with what authoritie Kings be cast off if they may be cast off by the Pope But they be worse then mad who subiect the crownes of Kings to schoole-distinctions Heere Saturnine But although sayd hee it please § 90 you to scoffe at the distinctions of Catholike Doctors yet I hope you will not deny that the Pope is Lord of all the temporaltyes which doth belong to the Bishopricke of Rome But that England Ireland are portions of Peters patrimony and the Bishop of Romes temporalties it is plaine by the articles of agreement betweene Alexander the third Pope of Rome and Henry the second King of England agreed on in the yeere of the Lord 1171. who when he was absolued by the Pope for the death of Thomas of Becket did couenant that none should afterward accept that Crowne of right or should be acknowledged for King till hee had his confirmation from the cheefe pastour of our soules Which couenant was renewed in the yeere 1210. by Iohn King of England who had confirmed the same by oath to Pandulphus the Popes Legate at the request of the Barons and Commons as a matter of great importance to preserue the common-weale to keepe it from the vniust vsurpation of Tyrants and to auoyd other mischeefes whereby before they had smarted and to preuent that they fall not into the like againe by the default of any wicked King thereafter Wherefore if it bee honourable and pious for the Bishop to dispose of the kingdome being made tributary why may hee not likewise depose a refractory and a disobedient Prince § 91 Then Velbacellus you alleadge saith hee a worme eaten and ridiculous charter whereby you make the King of England Tributarie to the Pope England not tributarie to the Pope neither can bee which was neuer done and if it were it neither could or ought binde the successours Kings of England For Rome neither can nor euer could at any time shew such a grāt as Thomas Moore that great Catholike doth argue and if it could it was to no great purpose for no King of England might at any time giue away England to the Pope or make his kingdome tributary though he were so disposed Therefore let vs passe by that counterfet compact and that friuolous deuise and let vs returne to the matter in hand The question is not Saturnine of the true temporalties of the patrimonie of Peter but of the true temporalties of the patrimony of Kings the soueraignty whereof either directly or indirectly is giuen to the Pope and it is giuen either by Law diuine or positiue and therefore the temporalties of Kings doe no more belong to the Pope then the temporalties of Peter belong to Kings And euery King may as well depriue a Pope as any Pope may depriue a King And an Emperour may aswell he called Lord of all the spiritualties as
a Pope Lord of all the temporalties But God hath distinguisht these giuing the spirituall swords to Popes and the temporall to Kings as Bellarmine himselfe seemeth formerly to confesse who if hee had beene still the same man hee would neuer haue placed Popes to be Lords of temporalties indirectly for order to the spirituals and haue rooted and cast them out as Kings and haue attempted any euill against them by their agents either subiects or strangers when place and occasion was offered if they thought it auailable to spirituall good So it is a spirituall action but a diabolicall as if he thought the murther of Kings to be a spirituall action which after some sort may bee sayd with a distinction that the spirit of God doth not direct and gouerne such bloudy counsels but the spirit of Sathan Who if hee goe forward as he beginnes and vse the pen of such a man as Bellarmine is it is to bee feared I will speake plainely what I thinke truely it is I say to be feared that blood will ouertake blood and that Kings will imitate Charles the fift who when Clement the seuenth beganne to grow proud belegred Rome with his armie Bellar. de Rom. Pont. tit lib. 5. cap. 6. and battered the castle of Saint Angelo not with arguments but with cannon-shot But why added the Cardinall to his aduerbe indirectly § 92 other of the like force Bellarmines dangerous ad uerbes incidently and casually seene as if he should say although the Pope as hee is Pope cannot ordinarily no not vpon iust cause depose a Prince yet as hee is Lord of the temporalties incidently and casually he may change kingdoms and take them from one and giue them to another if not as the politicke Prince of the Church yet as the cheefe spirituall Prince whether I say hee doe not lay trappes for Kings whereby they may more certainely of a sudden be surprized Theeues haue not an ordinary power to breake vp houses well fenced or to robbe trauellers by the high-way-side being well accompanied but they haue power casually to do both when they light vpon houses that be but sorrily defended or trauellers that be ill appointed So hee denieth that the Pope hath ordinary power to depose Kings and to cast them off but grants that hee hath a power accidentary and casuall whereby he may either with his owne or others forces or with the secret deuices of his part by any meanes ouerthrow king when they least suspect it and finde them most weake and feeble looking for no such matter What is this else but to make the Pope Machiauils scholler sometime playing the Lyon sometime the Foxe attempting the destruction of Kings with whom he is displeased either by force or fraud as hee can casually bring his purposes to passe and swallow vp Kings as it were their prey which without doubt is farre from the holy fathers minde but so it sometimes fals out that wicked men being deceiued by such distinctions do abuse the opinions of learned men against the Popes will to the ruine of Princes § 93 Therefore Calander and Argentine if you will bee aduised by mee put out of your mindes and consciences this bewitching and ouerthrowing diuinity you may doe better to goe the plaine and the Kings high-way directed by Christ and his Apostles and shewed vnto you erewhile by Patriott and auoyd these by-pathes and dangerous downfals that you may liue and die with the honor of your families and safties of your consciences Then Patriott I wish it I wish it sayd hee with all my heart Velbacell The second foundation of obedience the practise of Christians chiefly of the Ro. Bishops that you vnderstood all the mystery of iniquity aswell as you vnderstand this part in controuersie I will cleare your eye-sight with an oyntment as olde Tobies was And being warned by you I will shew you the right way of obedience prescribed by Christ and trod foorth by the footsteps of the ancient Christians and cheifely of the Bishops of Rome that I may finish that I promised that it may appeare what predecessours the Bishop of Rome had in the better ages and what in the worse who were so far off from hauing power in the tēporalties that they had it not in the spirituals they who vaunt themselues now to be Lords ouer kings acknowledged thēselus to be their seruants as I will make it plain out of your own histories § 94 And when I often thinke of the former times it is doubtfull to mee whether the Bishop of Rome grew greater by the pietie and obedience of his ancestors How the Pope grew great or by their impietie and rebellion or whether he attained greater power and wealth by the munificence of former Caesars or by the ouermuch patience of such as succeeded for when as the ancient noblenesse of that Imperiall citie and the great estimation of the Apostolike See and the inuincible holinesse of thirty Martyrs had first made him famous then the great fauour of Christian Emperours Popes for their excellency first had primacy of order and the syncere faithfulnesse of the Bishops and their dutifull obedience did so highly promote and aduance him that hee did easily obtaine the primacy of order among all the other Bishops And you might perceiue for the first sixe hundred yeeres at the least vertues in the Bishops contending with vertues patience with obedience and constancy with learning and you could hardly know whether they were more famous for the glory of their zeale and martyrdom or for the commendation of their knowledge and obedience So great was the fauour of Emperors so deadly the hatred of Pagans so exceeding the loue of Christians was toward the Bishops that you may well doubt whether their crueltie did more purge and refine the Bishops holinesse or this ouer lauish bounty did infect and corrupt it Whence came that notable speech of Tertullian The bloud of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church aswell as that of Augustines Religion brought foorth riches and the daughter eat vp the mother Which I thinke was not spoken to that end as though the subsequent peace had cleane extinguished that primatiue zeale which persecution had raised vp but rather cooled abated it for as the Bishops for 300. yeeres to Syluester performed passiue obedience to the Heathenish Emperours so before and after Boniface for 500. yeeres they performed actiue obedience to Christian Emperours And when as either an Hereticke or an Apostata or a Tyrant possest the seate of the Empire yet by the doctrine of Christ when they might not doe that the Emperour commanded they would suffer that the Emperour inflicted The histories are extant which shew that the Emperors § 95 were acknowledged supreme Lords Popes subiect to Emperors euen in things spirituall by the Rom. Bishops that they were reuerenced obeyed not with a constrained but voluntarie obseruancie not with a counterfet but
Empire was translated out of Greece into Germanie when it did reside in the family of Charles the great who had left the Pope great possessions in Italy Caus 2. quest 7 cap. Sic nos how dutifull and humble did the Pope shew himselfe to Ludouike his sonne and Lotharius his nephew The submission of Leo the fourth Bishop that wee may make short is famous and notorious which hee shewed to Ludouike and Lotharie Wee if wee haue done any thing Leo the Bishop writing to Lodouike and haue not dealt iustly with them ouer whom we be placed whatsoeuer is done amisse we will amend at the discretion of your Excellencie beseeching your Maiestie that you would bee pleased to send those who in the feare of God may strictly examine not onely those things whereof we are accused but all other our dealings both great and small Heere we haue the Emperour the Popes correctour in great matters and small But this was you will say no part of the Popes duty Ibi ca. Petrâ— but a dispensation of the Popes humility Indeede Gratian doth speake so ridiculously as if the Bishop had submitted himselfe in iest for a mocke to the Emperor and not in earnest and of bounden duty Distinct 10. de capi Caro. Ludo La. ha Did he afterward in iest or with voluntarie humility submit himselfe to Lotharius and not rather in all duty obseruancie when he promised that he would inuiolably obserue all the Ecclesiasticall lawes of Charles Ludouike and Lotharius and did sweare not onely present obedience but for euer after The Bishop of Rome was then as you see the Emperours subiect and seruant He did humbly supplicate the Emperour as his Lord hee did not proudly command him as his seruant He did obey hee did not resist and that not a Catholike onely but an hereticke also and that an Arrian Hee gaue honour to his person he offered no wrong to his crowne Hee kept his lawes hee did not gaine-say them And hee receiued Ecclesiasticall canons from him himselfe set downe none He did performe the Oath of obedience he did not then free others from keeping it The Emperours themselues were not onely but their Lieutenants also were the Bishops of Rome Iudges and Correctours in all matters both small and great The Popes therefore were not then their Iudges and Controllers They were not as yet Lords of the spiritualties much lesse of the temporalties as they are now tearmed by their Claw-backes § 101 Popes grew greater by abundance diuision of the Empire At the last being enriched and furnished with the temporalties of Bishops Kings by little little they began to wax proud against their Lords Patrones grew very great by the diuision of the Empire the departure of the Emperour out of Italy the dissention of Kings and the rebellions of the people Gregorie the 7. was the first as Frisingensis testifieth Gregorie the 7. the first that excommunicated curst Emperours 1600. yeares after Christ that curst Henry the 4. Emperour with excommunication and assayed to set him beside his kingdome and to that end loosed his subiectes from their oath of obedience Whos 's next successors followed his franticke humour Who as Hilde brand had stirred vp first Rodolphus then Hermanuus after that Ecbertus all seruants against their Soueraigne and lastly Courad and Henry sonnes against their father all of them being bound with an Oath of fealtie and these besides with the bond of nature But the Author of this tragedie Gregorie Sigeb in ann 1â—84 Vesserg in an 1089. Gregories fall foure years after being forsaken by his owne people with a ioynt consent of all was cast out of his Popedome And being at the point of death as Sigebert found it written of him one of his twelue Cardinals whom he chiefly fauoured being cald vnto him hee confest to God to S. Peter and the whole Church that hee had greiuouslie sinned in the administration of the pastorall charge committed vnto him In the life of Greg. 7. and that by the instinct of the Deuill he had raised discordes and warres among men as Benno the Cardinall writeth I am not ignorant that the Italian writers of malice against the Emperor did go about to hide and dissemble the faults of their Pope with the greatest skill of lying that might be Who can giue credit to Blondus Fulgofius Trithemius and other writers of small accompt either of a later time who were borne some hundred yeares after these things were done that eitheâ— for fauour or hatred as Bloudus or for ignorance as Fulgosius and Trithemius the Abbot they might easily ouer-reach who I say can credite these men as ribing false praise to Hildebrand when as his owne Abbote and Cardinals who were not onely earewitnesses but eyewitnesses of the whole tragedie who had a purpoâ—e not to honour the faultes of men but defend the ordinance of God branded him with deserued infamie and writ that the chief Authour of rebellion and periurie was put besides his Popedome and that hee troubled the world being moued by the instinct of the Deuill as hee confest vpon his death bed And may we not now maruell that this Byshop who followeth his outrage may not feare his ruine Who hath stirde vp Tirone against King Iames a most mercifull Prince as he stirred vp Rodolphe against Henry the Emperour § 102 But Rodolphe the cheife Actour when he beheld his right hand cut off in the skirmish Rodulphus ruine and repentance Vrsbergene in ann 1080. and ready to giue vp the Ghost fetching deepe sighes is said to speake thus to the Byshops that stood about him as Vrspergensis recordes Behold this is that right hand wherewith I sware fealty to Henry my soueraigne Lord and now as you see shewing the truncke of his arme I leaue both his Kingdome and this present life Whose end I wish to Tirone that most treacherous Traytor but I wish him his repentance also In ann 1080. Hildebrands reuelation Sigebert writeth that Hildebrand by a reuelation from heauen as he said foretould the death of a false King that yeare wherein Rodolphe was slaine He vnderstood him to be Henry But Henry fighting with his Saxons returned Conquerour and Rodolphe the false King died If this were a true Reuelation as Gregorie said God as he foretould did thus punish Rodolphe the false King whom Gregorie had raised vp against his Lord if it were not a diuine Reuelation but some diuelish familiaritie with the spirits what a holy Saint was this man whom you so commend who had such acquaintance with the Deuill who deceiued and betraied the franticke humor of this his hellish Scholler § 103 That same treacherous head likewise of Hermannus being broken by a stone cast from a tower by a womans hand Hermannus ruine his braine being dasht in peeces and running about his eares frighted and scattered the armie following the ensignes of his treacherie
Ecbertus ruine Eebertus flying out of his throne into a sincke-hole to saue his life lost it Conradus the elder sonne being rightly disinherited of his fathers kingdome which hee had betrayed died miserably Conradus ruine Henry the younger sonne being instructed by the Popes lesson to breake his oath wherewith hee bound himselfe to his Father Henries treacherie against his father first leuied an armie against his Father And when by the intercession of diuers of the nobilitie who regarded the sunne rising more then the sunne setting the quarrell seemed to be ended between the Father and the Sonne the sonne allured the Father with promises teares and Oathes to enter into a castle whom he receiued as an Emperour but detained as a prisoner and made him this offer that either he should resigne his crowne or his head O most periurde and vilanous parricide O most wicked scholler of a wicked master That stone which Gregorie the 7. first moued against § 104 Henry the 4. Emperour with his ouerthrow as it appeareth the same other Popes afterward haue not left off to cast downe vpon other Emperours and Kinges sometime with no better successe alwaies with no lesse disgrace to the Church As Adrian the 4. and Alexander the third against Fredericke the first Honorius and Gregorie the 9. and Innocent the 4. against Fredericke the 2. two very wise deuoute and valiant Emperours that we name no others For Adrian the 4. Adrian against Fredericke an agreement being made with the Cardinalls and William King of Sicely and other peeres and cities of Italy that they should expell Fredericke the first out of Italie first cast out his bolt of excommunication And when a flie shortly after had choakt Adrian as he was a drinking Choakt with a flie Alexander the third persecuted the Emperour in the same footsteppes hee sent out his Cursitors out of his owne bosome who should sollicite Crema Placentia Vâ—rona Mylaine Brixia to rebellion he did more incense William the King of Sicely his aduersarie to assault Fredericke He did corrupt Henry Duke of Saxonie and made him forsake his soueraigne in the field hee raised vp the French the English the Spanish and the Venetian to molest and vexe him with these deuises and engines he endeauored to strippe the Emperour of his kingdome and his life But God did so blesse and assist his seruant Fredericke that he tooke the cities of Italy and ouerthrew them droue the treacherous Duke out of his dukedome and the Pope from his Popedome and made him flie to Saint Marke at Venice vnder the habite of a Cooke Although hee afterward being mooued by naturall affection to release his sonne out of captiuity suffred himselfe to be there trod vpon by Alexanders feete Alexander trod vpon the Emperours necke Which base indignity was not so reproachfull for the Emperour to suffer as for the Pope to commit § 105 It is not requisite to touch the causes why the Popes thought meete that Henry the 4. As Cardinall Wolsie deâ—lt with King Henrie the 8. Emperour and Fredericke the first should bee deposed whenas there was no lawfull power or iust reason for any Popes at any time to depose Emperours Adrian the Pope that followed was displeased with Fredericke the first because the Emperour had set his name in his letters before the Popes name because he forbad the Cardinalls vnder the colour of visiting the Churches to robbe and to spoile them i. because hee withstood the Byshops ambition and auarice As Gregorie the seuenth set vpon Henry the fourth that hee might transferre the donation of byshoprickes taken from the Emperour to himselfe so Adrian to exempt the persons of Byshops whereby neither in respect of their benefice or duty they might adheare to Princes Fredericke the second had good successe against the Pope Pla. in Greg. 9 The like causes did incense Honorius and Gregorie the 9. and Innocent the 4. against Fredericke the second his Nephew whom God did assist being so vnworthily abused that hee handled the treacherous Cardinalls according to their deserts plagued the Popes and his Priests shut vp Gregorie the ninth and brought him to that miserie that he died in great anguish of minde Let the Pope take heede lest if hee Gregorize with Princes Princes Henrize and Frederize with Popes Neither is Innocent the 4. Conuina Theobaldus Franciscus Gulielm de San. Seuerino Pandulphus therefore the more happy § 106 man that by the name of the Church the power of the keyes the discord of princes the negligence of Byshoppes the superstition of the people he droue Fredericke the second out of his Empire and prouided two other to bee chosen in his roome For if they had not preuailed more with conspiracies and poysonnings then elections Caspini in Freder 2. Fredericke murthered they could neuer haue surprized Fredericke that noble Prince But at last hee was taken away by poyson as he returned into Apulia Whereof when he seemed to haue recouered hee was choaked with a pillow by Manfred his bastard sonne as hee lay in his bed These bee the actes of Popes whereby they ruinate Princes and so highly aduance their Popedome The popish engines against Princes Excommunications wherewith as with hookes they catch after kingdomes and as with whippes to scourge kings open rebellion whereby they tosse Princes vp down as balles with their feete and secret conspiracies wherby as with ginnes they lay for and entangle Princes and take them vnawares that they may more couertly take them out of the way by poyson That there is a great doubt as I said left whether the Byshoppe of Rome grew more by the vertue and obedience of his predecessors or by their treacherie and wickednes whether by the beneficence of former Emperors or patience of the later he is come to that height and toppe of greatnesse that the world wonders at I haue now laid the two foundations of obedience toward a King whatsoeuer he bee and of the fealtie of their subiectes One in the perpetuall and vnchangeable decree of Christ the other in the perpetuall practise of the ancient Christians and chiefly of the Byshops of Rome for eight hundred yeares at the least till worldly ambition had cleane put out all pietie and religion § 107 Here Saturnine that I may omit saith he other things least our disputation be ouerlonge which you haue collected out of histories concerning the Byshoppes of Rome that one I cannot passe ouer that you said that Gregorie the 7. whom you defaced as much as you could was the first Authour that excommunicated and deposed Kings For both Leo the 3. Emperour was excommunicated by Gregorie the 2. and plainely depriued of all his temporalties he held in Italy and the Greeke Emperors were remoued from the Empire by Leo the third Byshoppe of Rome for defect in religion and forsaking the defence of the Church and the Empire translated to the Germaines The defence
Byshoppe of Rentzburge when he deliuered the bull against the prince All of them scoft at the mans impudency and disdainefully askt what that light headed and superstitious French man what the Rome-pope himselfe did in Germanie without the consent of the Germaine-byshops his colleagues They disdaine that discordes should be sowne that the libertie of Christians should bee opprest that the flocke of Christ redeemed by his blood should bee brought into slauerie by false Teachers And when the Legate would not giue ouer the Germane Byshoppes did not onely dispise his commandements but denounced a curse against him in all their Churches as an enemie to Christian peace and an Arch hereticke and pronounced him to be worse then any Turke Saracene Tartar or Iew. They did publickly likewise accuse the Byshoppe of Rome for attempting such matters among Christians which were against reason and the law of nations against the doctrine of Christ and which were not at any time done among the most sauage Tartars And as the Byshops so the nobles of Germanie did take in foule scorne so great a wrong offered by the § 116 Pope to the Emperour their Master to repell it conuented all the States wherein Eberhardus the Archbyshoppe of Salisburge a godly olde man when hee had knowne ten Romane-byshoppes and had diligently markt their practizes and dispositions vnder Fredericke the first Henry the sixt his sonne and Fredericke the second his Nephew for fifty yeares together that the chiefe byshoppe was wholy compounded of auarice luxurie contention warres discordes and desire of rule and so did decipher him for a rauenous wolfe in each part vnder a Shepheards weede and so liuely paint him out that although in other matters he were not a Lutherane in this one you would haue said he had beene almost Luther himselfe The old Catholicke fathers Oration is extant in Auentine a Catholicke Writer Auenti annal lib. 7. fol. 683. there you may haue it if you will read it § 117 That which the Byshoppes and Nobles of Germanie with the whole commons did with common consent against Innocent the fourth in the quarrell of Fredericke the Emperour the very same they did in the like quarrell of Lewes the fourth Emperour against Iohn the 22. that although they were released from the Oath of Obedience they did notwithstanding take the Oath of obedience to be faithfull to Lewes though hee were remooued and that they did by the iudgement of all the Doctours in both lawes Philip the faire the French King in a councell with full consent of the Nobles and Byshoppes did not only set at nought and despise the iniust sentence of the Popes depriuation sent out against him but brought all the kingdome from the Popes obedience and that hee might the better tame his pride he laid hold of the Pope kept him in durance so that within sixe weekes after in great anguish of soule hee gaue vp the Ghost Popes crossed by the French The pragmaticall sanction is well knowne which did of old infringe the Popes authoritie and all the canons of the Church of France that part which maintaineth the popish religion and all the decrees of the Kings parliament do so disanull the Popes power in excommunicating Kings and releasing their Subiectes from the Oath of obedience Tract inscript le Franc. Discours an 1600. that the very body of Sorbone and the whole Vniuersitie of Paris doe condemne the doctrine of the Iesuites as schismaticall and pernicious Neither Henrie the 8. onely Edward the 6. and § 119 Queene Elizabeth English practise against Popes whom you tearme Caluinists and Heretickes did by their lawes expell this vsurped authoritie of the Pope and punished by death the Abetters thereof but other Kings of England who raigned in the midst of poperie thought good to contemne the Popes censures and to suppresse the Actors therein by your Lawes The law of Edward the 3. 25 Edwar 3. doth it not seeme to bee made by a Caluinist which makes it treason to attempt and go about the death of the King to mooue warre in his Kingdome against the King or to ioyne with the Kings enemies in his kingdome or to giue them aide and comfort either within the Kingdome or without Doe you not see how that two hundred yeares before Queene Elizabeth was borne the Priests treason couered with the habite of religion by the Statute of Edward the third in euery branch of it as it were with lime twigges is met with and suppressed If to attempt the death of the King be treason therefore Greenway and other Iesuites who tooke counsell to destroy the King and kingdome had beene Traytors by Edward the thirds Law although Queene Elizabeth had made no such law If to raise warre against the King in his kingdome were then treason the priests were Traytors who stirred vp papists to take armes and to ioyne themselues with Catsby and Persie in the rebellion If to ioyne with the Kings enemie in his kingdome were then treason how can you then ye Iesuits auoide the sharpenesse of King Edwards law who being the instruments of sedition doe adheare to the Pope the Kings deadly enemie vnder the colour of religion If to aide and animaâ—e the Kings enemies either within his kingdome or without was treason at that time truly whosoeuer at this day vnder pretense of religion whatsoeuer do either solicite foraine Kings to inuade this Kingdome as Garnet Creswell Baldwine and others haue done or perswade the people to take armes to depose their King as Greenwell Hall and others haue vndertaken were Traytors although Elizabeth with her Caluinists had neuer made any law against them § 120 But King Edwardes law you will say doth not touch the people by name True But when the noble King remembred that the French King was stirred vp against Iohn King of England who had contemned the Popes censures that the Subiectes were incensed against their King the Barons and Byshops fell from him and were the Ministers of the Popes wrong that thereby hee might the better confirme his subiects in their obedience against the French the Spanish and the Romane and all others whatsoeuer froâ— whom he foresaw danger might come to himselfe and his kingdome and that he might decline the enuy of naming the Pope particularly made a generall Statute with the consent of the Byshoppes Baron and Commons without any exception of person or cause whatsoeuer wherein hee made him a Traytor whosoeuer did adhere to the Kings enemy in his kingdome or did aide or animate any either within his dominions or without who should moue warre against the King including by his generall word aswell the Pope as the Popes factours as if hee had expressely named them § 121 But in the 26. of Richard the second the Prelates Dukes Earle Barons and aâ—l the Commons of England the Clarkes and Lay people named the Pope when they all ioyned in a couenant of association with the
King against the Pope that theâ— would maintaine to the houre of death against the papall citations suspensions excommunications and censures the crowne of England which they held as alway free subiect to no common-weale but immediately subiect to God and not subiect by name to the Byshoppe of Rome that they would vnite theÌ„seâ—ues to the King against the Pope in all causes vndertaken by the Pope against the King his crowne and dignitie and wouâ—d liue and die with the King This was the loue and the ancient faithfulnesse of the whole English people toward their King namely against the Pope they were so far from suffering the King to be deposed by the Pope Now the Spaniards with what earnestnes they haue § 122 detested the treacherie of subiects against their king couered with anie pretence or colour of religion whatsoeuer Concil Teleta 4 Cano. 75. their manie Councels of Toled doe declare in that booke which is intitled the Apologie for the Oath of Allegeance The practice of Spaniards against Popes wherein they seeme to checke your equiuocation which they obserued in many things when as they made profession of their oath with their tongue and retained in their minde perfidious treachery Doe you not see how in the thicke darknesse of Poperie these noble Nations the Iâ—â—lians Germanes French English and Spanish did retaine this light and heat of obedience toward their Kings against the Popes and that in this businesse neither the Bishops dissented from the Nobles nor the Nobles from the Bishops but the Laickes with the Clearkes and the Clearkes with the Laickes Councels with Parliaments did fully agree to maintaine the dignitie of the King and the obedience and concord of subiects against the popish censures what is becom of this ancient nobility and this vertue of the people where is that magnanimity of the Italians French Germanes and Spanish when shall wee euer see a second Fredericke or another Philip the faire who will suppresse the Popes insolency in Germany and France when will these noble Kingdomes bring foorth such Catholike Bishops which will keepe the Kings crownes and the peoples consciences free from the Popes tyrannie They haue England Scotland and other famous countries going before them in this businesse But you call these schismaticall the Italian Germane French English and Spanish who with common consent resisted the Pope But marke if you beleeue Sigebert your Abbot if it bee not a harder matter for you to wipe away the note of heresie from the Pope who carries himselfe so proudly against Kings then to take away the aspersion of schism from those Catholike people who did maintaine their Kings against the popes § 123 But from these things which we haue spoken it doth sufficiently appeare Saturnine how that is very false which you alleadged erewhile that the Councels and nationall Parliaments did euer approoue the deposing of Kings by Popish censures when as they did publikely condemne their insolencie cruelty treacherie toward their Kings as you see For so the matter stands grace did neuer destroy nature or diuinitie ciuility faith did neuer ouerthrow ciuill iustice but made it better nor euer took away the affection of man but made it more humane And when men ought to behaue themselues reuerently toward the parents of their bodies much more reuerently ought they to carrie themselues toward their countrie and the father thereof for this loue of our countrie and reuerend respect of our Kings is not taught vs by a master but in bred and grafted by nature which whosoeuer doth vnder pretence of religion either weaken or blot out he opposing himselfe to God the author of nature is to bee accompted not a Pastour but an impostor not a holy father but a cruell tormentour of soules and bodies But you as if the Popish religion put all ciuill honestie out of the minde of men and as if Popish zeale did blot out all naturall affection you thinke that the glorie of your Pope must be builded vp with the blood of our Princes and the greatnesse of your Kingdome with the ruines and desolations of our Countrey And if Catholike Kings did retaine those Princely spirits of their ancestours proud Popes would not more boldly desire to rule without the commandement of God then they to forbid them being armed with the sword of God And by the exaÌ„ple of most excellent Protestant Kings they would not onely prune and cut off these hurtfull sprigges of this vniust and poisonfull power but they would vtterly cut vp and plucke vp that poisoned tree from the verie roots out of their Kingdoms But the beginning of all this mischeife is the Popes spirituall supremacie whereby hee claimes to be the head of the visible Church the Vicar of Christ the Iudge and Father of Kings the vniuersall Bishop of Bishops to whom the originall of all spirituall iurisdiction doth forsooth immediately descend from Christ to be deriued mediately to others from him which whether it be done with greater wrong to Kings or to Bishops I cannot iustly set downe But all this spirituall supremacie from whence all the force and nature of that excommunication doth depend whereof so many things haue beene spoken and of the deposing of Kings and of releasing of subiects from the oath of obedience Patriott shall plucke it in peeces in the Creede wherein first he shall flie at the head of Popery after hee shall wound the bodie Thus wee haue seene Pragmaticall Antichrist vpon the stage now wee shall heare him disputing out of his chaire DOGMATICAL ANTICHRIST OR The Popes Creede OR The Pastor raigning The second booke of the Dialogue AFter that the most renowned Iames § 124 King of Great Bâ—itaine had made answer to the Popes two buls Bellarmines Epistle for the Oath of Allegeance One Matthew Tortus vnder whose visard Bellarmine lay hid vttred both elswhere diuers articles blasphemous against God and those two reproachfull against Princes full of insolencie and crueltie one of the supreme dignitie the other of the depriuing power of the Pope and set them out being taken foorth of the Popes new creede with all the skill hee could This creede was composed of twelue new articles of the Romish-Catholike faith The diuision of the Popes creede taken in Councell of Trent as it it propounded in the bull of Pius the fourth about the oath of the profession of the Christian faith It may bee diuided into two parts one wherein the faith of Christians the other wherein their faithfulnesse toward Princes is corrupted From that spring out the articles of superstition and idolatrie from this of treason and sedition By them they are made euill Christians by these euill subiects that it is hard to say whether they haue more troubled the Church or this the common-wealth Hence Lionell Sharpe an English Diuine tooke vpon him to lay open the popes whole creede and to illustrate it in a Dialogue For when as the most learned Bishop of Chichester had
Peter that is not spoken to others for as it is said to Peter Cusan a Cardinall against Bellarmine whatsoeuer thou shalt binde so it is said to others whatsoeuer yee shall binde Here you haue Cusan opposite to Bellarmine a Cardinall to a Cardinall One Peter you will say receiued the keyes but he receiued them not as one man but as the vnitie of the Church as Pius the second said Pius 2. a Pope against Bellarmine Here you haue a Pope opposite to a Cardinall Peter receiued them not as in his owne person but as in the person of the Church For if this be said to Peter only I will giue thee the keyes the Church hath them not If the Church haue them Peter when he tooke the keyes signified the whole Church as Austin taught Tract 14. in Joh. Then Caietane the Cardinall when he could not rid himselfe out of these straites If we speake saith he formally and properly the keyes promised to Peter are aboue the keyes of order and iurisdiction But this saith Cardinall Bellarmine is not true for it was neuer heard of in the Church that there were more keyes in the Church then two which hee doth as well grant to all the Apostles as to Peter Whence I thus argue against Bellarmine Peter receiued no other power than that which was promised in the keyes as Bellarmine saith But the rest of the Apostles had all that power as the Fathers and the learneder Papists teach and Bellarmine whether he will or no doth confes Therefore Peter had no other power than the rest of the Apostles Yet Bellarmine hath a tricke how to scape hee saith § 143 that the keyes were giuen to Peter immediately to the rest mediately by Peter With hundred chaines binde fast the man And yet this flye ladd Proteus Will still escape doe what you can And yet he shall not escape for if the keyes were giuen mediately to the rest by Peter they should open and shut binde and loose not in Christs name but in Peters name Then how can that be true which Paul writeth of himselfe Paul the Apostle neither from men nor by man but by Iesus Christ For if we credit Bellarmine he came mediately either from the man Peter or by the man Peter How doth Paul affirme that he was not inferiour to the chiefe Apostles as who had receiued both his doctrine and his vocation immediately with them from Christ Will the Cardinall then father a lye vpon the Apostle and labour to proue that Paul did mediately receiue the keyes from Peter All the Apostles receiued the keyes from Christ the spirit descended vpon all the Apostles in fiery tongues All the Apostles receiued the keyes and fiery tongues from Christ All the Apostles are pillars All the Apostles are said to be the pillars of the Church as the Fathers obserued out of the Scripture What Did Bellarmine read that to Peter was giuen a greater and a better key than to the rest of the Apostles Hath he heard that a larger and a more shining fiery tongue than the rest sate vpon Paters head as the prince then vpon the other Apostles heads Hath he learn'd that of twelue pillars one was set more firme and surer than all the rest that the house might be more supported by that than by the rest which if Bellarmine knew not let him leaue of to play the foole and to tell vs that the power was giuen to Peter immediatly from Christ and to the rest mediately by Peter as it were by assignment Marke I beseech you Calander I cannot say whether more wicked or more ridiculous consequences follow necessarily out of this place of the keyes The keyes are promised to Peter § 144 Therefore to none but to Peter Wicked and ridiculous coÌ„clusions Two keyes were giuen as badges of the ministerie Therefore three Crownes as badges of the Empire For when Christ gaue the keyes he gaue principalitie as Bellarmine saith Peter receiued the keyes of the kingdom of heauen Therefore of earthly kingdomes Peter can exclude Kings hereticall out of heauen Therefore out of their thrones He can binde sinnes Therefore Scepters He can shew his power in offences Therefore in possessions He can release penitent men from their sinnes Therefore trayterous subiects from their oathes He hath a key wherewith he doth loose the sinnes of Kings Therefore he hath a club wherewith he may breake their heads So Bellarmine hath changed Peters key into Hercules club He can loose and binde any thing He can therefore as Oedipus loose any riddle he can binde Turkes and beares These consequences proue that a King is not to be depriued of his kingdom for heresie but that the Cardinall is depriued of his wit for phrensie Peters key is altogether the key of heauen whereby by the preaching of the eternall Gospell hee hath opened heauen to the faithfull and penitent and shut it to the vnfaithfull and impenitent which the Pope the counterfet successor of Peter doth vse otherwise as somtime an elegant Poet played vpon this princely porter I should not maruaile much Doctor Giles Fletcher If that the Popes good grace Did happily beare the key Of that darke stigian place For he enriched hath that place with many an elfe And opened wide hell gate And entred in himselfe But sith that heauen and hell Are set so far asunder That he should beare the key Of heauen it is a wonder But now t is none at all From heauen he all shuts out And â—pes the gate of hell And letteth in that rout As the falling starre in the prophecie of Iohn he hath changed the key of heauen into the key of the bottomles pit § 145 Bellarmine being driuen from the keyes must needs betake himselfe to that his hold Feede my sheepe Why then good Sir why do you vrge this place of the keyes any more for the supremacie whereby nothing was promised more to Peter than was granted to all the Apostles as the Fathers both old and new both strangers and your owne do apprarantly proue But in this place because to feed is the same with to rule and Peter alone is commanded to feed the sheep not some but all therefore to Peter alone is giuen the principalitie ouer the whole Church being armed with a double sword with a double power spirituall and temporall which the old man saw I beleeue as lunatike Pentheus by fitts saw Two seuerall Sunnes two seuerall Moones appeare which the Fathers both old and new being of a more setled wit Bellarmines pride in making a Cardinall equall to a King and sharper insight could neuer see But Bellarmine thinketh so gaily of the pastorall vocation that in respect thereof he preferreth a Bishop before a King as a sheepheard before a sheepe which perhaps he had well concluded if Christ had said to Peter Feed thy sheepe he said it not but feede my sheepe But he doth not only prefer a Bishop before
Byshoppe and by the power and authoritie of the King § 180 There are some who foolishly compare these two together there are other who doe wickedly mingle them together so that one doth destroy the other which God hath most wisely ioyned together that one should helpe the other Now this spirituall power if you respect Christ Ephes 4. is monarchicall vnder him alone if men it is aristocraticall vnder many as wee shewed out of Paul The ciuill is of three sorts Either belonging to the People Princes or cheife King Which last when wee set foorth wee disgrace not the rest The duty of a Byshoppe It cannot be denied but that the byshoppe in his spirituall perfection and comfort doth excell the King for God doth not appoint the King but the byshoppe to bee the seedsman of his word the Messenger of his grace the disposer of the mysteries of his kingdome But in the outward authoritie and power of compelling the King doth excell the byshoppe while hee commandes that which God alloweth Neither do I so preferre the ciuill gouernment before the spirituall but do affirme that the same God who teacheth those that be simple and draw such as be willing by the mouth of the minister doth draw those that bee negligent and constraine such as be retractory by the sword of the magistrate whom the spirit and God of the spirits hath ordained to that purpose Yea truly they who set the ciuill gouernment behind the spirituall simply as the body behinde the soule and the flesh behinde the spirit do make a very fleshly comparison betweene Kings and Byshoppes vnlesse they imagine Byshoppes to be without bodies and Kinges without soules And who so inferre thereupon that a godly king cannot inflict a punishment vpon a wicked Priest doe deface holinesse in the King as a matter temporall and aduance wickednesse in a Priest as a matter spirituall And who thence conclude that a Christian King cannot promote holy rites by his lawes as well as a minister can by his doctrine and censure giue more without cause to the shauing of a Priest then to the character of Baptisme and do foolishly preferre priestly annointing before the Princely And they seeme not wel to vnderstand what those excellent lights of the world Constantine Iustinian Theodosius Valentinian Gratian Zeno Charles the great Lâ—wes his sonne and Lothary his nephew and many other Kings and Emperors did out of Gods word iustly commaund Byshoppes in causes ecclesiasticall and wherein they did obey Byshoppes as was made manifest before But the Byshoppe hath power from God to gouerne § 181 the Church as is before said therefore aboue the King in the gouernment of the Church I distinguish of the gouernment One was Inward Outward It is one thing to administer the inward another thing to order it In the administration of the inward gouernment a Byshoppe doth excell a King in the ordering of it a King doth excell a Byshop I confesse a Pastor is superiour in feeding so Carpenters in building and Mariners in sayling are aboue a Prince A Priest not aboue a Prince What then are they simply better It is a fallacy from that which is in part to that which is simply But the actions of a Byshoppe are more excellent then the workes of a King as the preaching of the word the administration of the Sacraments the remitting and retaining of sinnes Therefore a Byshoppe doth excell a King But the working and perfection of these things doth depend not vpon the arbitrement of the Byshop but the commandement of God August cont Cres lib. 4. c. 6. Ambros There is a double spirituall power 1 Ministeriall of men 2 Imperiall of God Therefore the credit of these actions must serue the glory of God not the honour of the Priest The spirituall worke is of God A Byshoppe great not in respect of his person but doctrine the bodily seruice is of the Minister Men in the remission of sinnes doe not exercise the right of power but doe exercise their Ministerie They pray God doth grant The ministerie is from men the gift from an heauenly power The reason therefore drawne from the perfection of heauenly graces in the Church to preferre the person of a Priest before the person of a Prince is very weake because the subiection due to the sword is annexed to the person of the Prince the worthinesse and power due to the key is not annexed to the person of the Byshoppe but to his doctrine § 182 By Gods law obedience is due to each For hee that saith keepe the commandement of the King saith likewise obey your Prelates who watch ouer your soules But we are to hold this that here are not to be vnderstood by Prelates Popes and Cardinalls who obtrude their owne inuentions vpon vs but holy and Christian Byshops and Pastors who deliuer the word of God vnto vs as the Apostle addeth for wee are not tyed to the decrees of Doctours but to the oracles of God Therefore the obedience required is not the outward subiection to the person of the Priest but an inward submission to the doctrin of Christ and an allowance and practise of the same For in respect of the person Byshoppes are called seruantes and their function is called a Ministery as I said Therefore the greatest King is bound to beleeue and obey the least seruant of God deliuering his Lords will And he oweth that subiection to the Lord not to his Messenger to his doctrine not to his person For hee commeth not in his own but in the Lords name which may be as truely said of the meanest Minister as of the greatest Byshoppe What a Byshop may do A Byshoppe therefore may teach a King that is ignorant may reproue him being an Hereticke as the Prophet did Ieroboam king of Iuda may admonish him being of a bad life as Iohn did Herod may correct him being a Tyrant as Elias did Ahab may reprehend him being otherwise good if hee doe openly and greeuously trangresse as Nathan did Dauid and depriue him of the sacrament of grace while he repent as Ambrose did Theodosius But whether he can remoue him from the companie of his faithfull subiects by excommunication it is a great question and diuersly discussed by the Fathers They who hold it may be done by the Byshop do denie for all that that the King by him may bee put from the obedience of his subiectes much lesse being excommunicated bee abandoned by his subiects and killed either by open force or secret treacherie as certaine of the popish sort doe hold I say certaine for the honester sort decree otherwise and commit the King to the Byshoppes cure submit him not to his Court. For the King is the Lords seruant and the Byshoppes Lord as I said before subiect to the Byshoppes pulpit not his consistorie that he may be directed by him not iudged by him A Byshoppe is appointed to perswade not compell not to gape
with their decrees The popish levvd dealing Here the Popes side haue brought in so many voluntarie corruptions forgeries impostures wherewith they might foyste in false Canons and blot out true that they who haue dealt so deceitfully are rightly deemed to haue a bad cause Lastly wee brought into open view not only the doctrine and practise of Christ and Peter that the literall sense hath reproued this supremacie which the allegoricall sense of the Scripture did not proue and that literall sense is confirmed not only by the testimonie of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of our owne side but by the testimonie of the very Papists themselues So that this tower of Babylon being not only bereft of her rotten weake vpholders but being also thrust at by our strongest engines that is by the decrees of the Church and oracles of scripture must needs be shaken in peeces and fall to the groud Therefore the supremacie of Peter that in Bellarmines iudgement is a transcendent thing aboue all by the censure of the Scripture is nothing at all and the succession of the Pope is not from the institution of Christ as they say but from the fact of Peter and this fact is proued not by any certaine reuelation but by an vncertaine vision Behold why the primacie of Bellarmine in Tortus did vaunt that this article of the catholike faith had a sure ground in the Scriptures And now marke Calander to what passe all Bellarmines deuises are brought The deposing of a King hangeth on the excommunication of the Pope the power of excommunication is vnited to the supremacie the supremacie hath the beginning from a Primate but the Primate though hee be narrowly fought for yet cannot possibly be found in the text Where is then the supremacie where is the power of excommunicating Kings where is the right of deposing them Truly your Primate hath either a bad title or a bad Patron But the Patron is said to be very good therefore the title is very bad But the Papists will accept any thing at his hands as he hopeth with whom if hee preuaile in this cause it is more for the credulitie of the Readers than the wisdome of the Writer Then Regius The supremacie being ouer-turned that double power which is so annexed to the supremacie must needs be ouer-turned the spirituall and the temporall The spirituall whereby as a Bishop by excommunication hee thinks hee may driue from their kingdomes Kings that are in opposition whether Heretikes or Roman-Catholikes The temporall whether it be direct or indirect whereby hee may as the chiefe spirituall Prince take the Crowne from one and bestow it at his pleasure vpon another But of the temporall we shall see afterward Excōmunication the mother of rebellion Now let vs consider of the spirituall This great Sophister when the Pope of Rome purposed to shoot his venemous arrow at the head of the Prince he bent the Popes bowe with this double power as it were with a double stringe that if the temporall did faile the spirituall should hit him home Which if I should not accompt holy as the desire of gold is holy I should lye For this tricke of popish excommunication wherewith he bindeth Kings that they cannot raigne or absolue subiects that they doe not obey the world hath felt long since that it is but a diuelish arte as Vrshergensis saith which hath brought in treacherie and rebellion vnder the cloake of faith and religion dreadfull to Kings damnable to subiects to whose bodies it hath brought destruction and damnation to their soules as appeareth manifestly by the former Dialogue § 222 Then Saturnine We saith he for our parts do not greatly care what Heretikes say what the Church ordeynes that we regard neither are we bound to their conceits but to hir decrees And wee retayne the supremacie by a double right by claime and by possession About the claime the Heretikes haue often moued many brawles from the possession they shall neuer remoue vs. Then Regius you say that you regard the constitutions of the Church as you call them I wish rather you should regard the oracles of Scripture You say that you hold the supremacie by a double right by clayming and by possessing The Pope is falne from the right of a great claymer as Patriott hath plainly won Now at the last you vrge another right of a great possessor which what is it else than the right of a strong theefe For what other law belongs to theeues than to brag that that which they possesse is their owne howsoeuer they haue got it Now seing the supremacie is not grounded vpon Gods institution but mans ambition which you see to be clearely ouerthrowne by the oracles of the scripture and decrees of the Councells it followeth now that the serpents head being broken we breake in peeces likewise the rest of his members Then Calander Saturnine seemes to bee driuen to straites when as being beaten from the right of clayming he flyeth to possession That therfore you may haue a breathing time let vs put of the conference about the other Articles till another day for now it is more than time that you refresh your minds being tyred with the labor of this discourse A Table of the principall matters conteyned in this Treatise A. ABomination of desolation what is ment thereby 82. 90 Absurdities 78. 108. 133 An admonition to popish Princes 156. Adrian against Fredericke choakt with a flye 253. Agathus obedience to Constantine 249 The oath of Allegeance and Supremacie confounded 240 Ambrose did obey Valentinian an Arrian 248 Alexander the 3. in a Cooks attyre 374 Alexander and his foure Princes 99 Alexander trod vpon the Emperors necke 254 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof it is a note 6. Antichrists type in Daniel himselfe in Iohn 2. The reasons 98. Hee began to worke in Pauls time 2. He must decay by the preaching of the word and perish at Christs last comming 793. Epiphanes described in Daniel not Antichrist 3. Hee shall worke wonders 3. Hee is held for one single man 5. The reasons ib but is a succession 9. Antichrist hath two hornes like a lambe speaketh like a dragon 5. 40. Antichrist is Christs Vicar in apparance in truth his aduersarie 6. Antichrist not a beast of three yeares and a halfes continuance 8. Heresies makes the great Antich 8. 28. Antichrist is the Land beast 9. As many Marij in one Caesar so many Antichrists in one Antichrist 11. He is that man of sinne and sonne of perdition 11. Antichrist in many ages yet but one 11 The popish description of Antich 12 a bearer 39 Antichrist a falling starre an Apostata a Renegate from the Lord. 13 He is not a Iew but an Apostaticall Christian 15. He sitteth in the temple of God or against the temple 17 He doth not openly deny Christ 19 Antichrist denieth Christs two natures three offices and the benefits therof 20. 21. 26. 27 His kingdome darke and smoakie