counselling to depose Childericke and to aduaunce Pippin to the kingdome And so was an other horne ouerthrowen by the little horne The third horne which was the kinges of Lombardie was brought lowe at the incensing of the Popes and finally also vtterly wiped away by Pippin and Charles kinges of Fraunce But by the vndoing oppressing of these kinges the wealth of the Bishops of Rome increased and their power waxed strong whom Gods will was to shew by this triple crowne as it were with the fingar to be very Antichristes Thus much concerning the Keyes Armes and Cognisances of the Romane Bishops Now come to my way againe ¶ Of the wordes power and ministery and so is the disputation of the keyes knit vp I Know well inough it offendeth many euen in this discourse that I vse the terme power so seldome and the worde ministerie or ministration so often when notwithstanding the Scripture doth openly geue power to the ministers and it is commonly called the power of the keyes But how small a thing is that I beséech you if it be compared with the fulnesse of power which these men chalenge to them selues openly I graunt in déede that the administration of the Church or if ye like it better of the keyes is called power For the Lord sayth in the Gospell Like as a man that at his going into a straunge countrey left his house and gaue his seruauntes power c. But who knoweth not that the power which is spoken of héere is none other but to do seruice or to minister specially seing that in an other Euangelist it is more effectually opened what maner of power the same is in these wordes to geue his honsholde meate in due season sayth the lord Which thing no man will wrest to the fulnesse of power but he that is past all shame For the Lorde speaketh manifestly of the preaching of the Gospell whereby meate is set before the housholde I meane before the Church of god And when Paule to the Corinthians had termed the preaching of the Gospell the word of attonement by and by expoūding him selfe he addeth that the office or ministration of preaching the attonement was geuen vnto him behold héere he calleth that thing a ministration which he had euen now called the worde And he addeth againe that Christ by the ministers exhorteth men to be at one with god What power I pray you shall the faythfull minister claime by this géere Rightly therefore do some men geue warning that the power by lawe is one thing and the power by ministration is an other The power by lawe is that wherby ech man as an owner hath power ouer the thinges that are his owne subiecte to his owne commaundement and not to an other mans After this sort the Lord hath power ouer the Church who sayth in the Gospell All power is geuen to me in heauen and in earth So is it sayd before that Christ hath the key of Dauid of death and of hell This power is communicated to no creature but remaineth to God alone Therefore except they will be false ministers they will neuer take this power vpon thē But the power of ministration or office is that which the Lord hath committed to the ministers with a certaine limitation and not absolutely For these do not what they list them selues nor as owners of thinges but as their Lord and master hath commaunded them and onely in the same maner that he by his certaine determination hath appointed them to be done and if they do it not or do it otherwise then their master hath commaunded them they shall be but vntrusty seruauntes And so vndoutedly the minister of Christ hath the ministering power of the keyes in the Church to preach the Gospell to the Church and to preach it in such wise as the Lord hath commaunded him to preach and certeinly he shall be a false and vnfaythfull seruaunt to his master if he take vpon him any other power and specially fulnesse of power and preach not the Gospell at all or preach it otherwise then is appointed him Besides this I am not ignorant that Christ gaue the Apostles great power howbeit with limitation and but for the beginning and for a certeine time according as Mathew witnesseth saying And he gaue his twelue Disciples power against vncleane spirites to cast them out and to heale all maner of diseases and infirmities For I thinke not that any man will affirme the same power to be geuen to all ministers of the Church together with the keyes considering that we know how that the Gospell being sufficiently confirmed already by such signes they be now no longer common and vsuall in the rest of the Church no more then the ablenesse and vse of sundry tounges But howsoeuer the case stād with that wonderfull power it is most certeine that the Apostle Paule sayd of all maner of power geuen vnto him by the Lord that the same was geuen him to edifie withall and not to destroy Which thing vnlesse euery minister wey very aduisedly with him selfe not onely in vaine but also to his owne great harme shall he dispute of the power that is geuen him and much more daungerously shall he take it vpon him Hetherto I haue made discourse of the keyes with as much bréefnesse and plainnesse as I could Wherby I trust that such as shut not their eyes of malice may perceaue that the keyes are for an other thing then the Papistes face vs withall doutlesse not an absolute ouer thinges in earth and in heauen but an healthfull ministery of Gods worde or of the Gospell of Iesu Christ and the charge and good ordering of the very Church of God And therefore that whē the Lord sayd I will geue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen he gaue not Peter and the Romane Idoll an infinite power which they call the fulnesse of power For when the Lord promised and gaue the keyes he gaue not the keyes of an earthly kingdome but of the kingdome of heauen Which thing is chéefly to be marked in this discourse And in this kingdome in this his Church Christ is the souerein Lorde and abideth King Bishop and supreme head yea and that alone without any copartener or deputie But his messengers or Ambassadors sent to his Church are the Elders rulers and ministers of the congregations As for all power it is onely Christes the King Préest and Head and is not surrendred to any other For he him selfe caryeth yet still and vnto the very end will cary vpon his shoulders the key of Dauid and he will open and no man shall shut and shut and no man shall open and he alone both looseth and bindeth But his Ambassadors or preachers that are sent and ordeined to gather his Church doe preach this Christ the Lord assuring men by the preaching of the Gospell that Christ forgeueth the sinnes of such as beléeue certeinly and bestoweth eternall life vpon them
tyme vnto Moses when he drew backe and would haue shunned the Lordes callyng But in those wordes there is no speakyng at all of souereintie but of the charge of preachyng Whereupon it ensueth that Ieremie is instructed how to teach and not how to reigne And there foloweth in the Lordes wordes behold this day haue I set the ouer natiōs kyngdomes to plucke vp roote out destroy and ouerthrow to build vp and to plant By which wordes the Lord sheweth vnto Ieremy to whom he sendeth him what his office should be or what should be end of his ambassade He is sent vnto nacions and kyngdomes as a preacher of Gods word and not set ouer them as a prince or a king For there foloweth to plucke vp c. Which is the office of a teacher and the end of the Lordes ambassade And a Prophet plucketh vp ouerthroweth buildeth vp and planteth two wayes First when by Gods word he declareth to people nacions and kyngdomes that the Lord which hath planted the nations kyngdomes will roote out the same for their outrageous sinnes vnlesse they amend For Ieremy of himselfe did not ouerthrow or build vp kyngdomes but the Lord alone did it But Ieremy beyng Gods minister and messenger told them out of the Lordes mouth or by his word that the Lord would do it And this sence is ministred and furthered by the thynges that folow in the 45. chapter where the Lord sayth behold I pull downe the thynges that I haue builded and I plucke vp the thynges that I haue planted And agayne in the 42. chapter I will build you vp and not pull you downe I will plant you and not plucke you vp Besides this to plucke vp and to plant are termes of husbandry like as to build and to pull down are termes of masonry and carpentry Hereupon now the Prophet is by an allegoricall speach informed what he must do and wherunto his commission extendeth Like as husbandmē and builders do first prepare their ground and cut it vp with the plough and afterward sow it with séede or first pull downe the decayed buildynges and clense the floore and then afterward build vpon it So is it the dewtie of a Prophet or preacher first and formest to confute by Gods word to pull downe and plucke vp wicked opinions Idolatrie and whatsoeuer thynges els are raysed vp agaynst God and afterward in place of the thynges that be rooted out to plant agayne sound doctrine the true worshyppyng of God and all maner of godlinesse and finally to kéepe the Lordes field in tilth and to decke Gods house with all diligence These thynges wil be the more enlightned if ye compare them with the Lordes owne wordes in the 13. and 15. of Mathew and with the wordes of the Apostle Paule in the third chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthiās and in the tenth chapter of the second Epistle Once againe therfore by the cleare natural and right construed interpretation of this place of Ieremye we haue wonne that the Pope by that Bull of his hath wickedly and trayterously to the Lord Godward corrupted and inuerted his wordes and wrested them to his own souereintie or rather to his owne tyranny which the Lord hath not ordeined or defended by his word neither here nor in any place els And if they be not yet ashamed of their wicked wrestyng and corruptyng of this place of the Prophetes Let them tell vs what maner of souereintie Ieremy bare in Hierusalem the chief Citie of Iewry or ouer what nation or kyngdome he reigned From the death of kyng Iosias he liued vnder the wicked kynges Ioachaz Ioachim Iechonias Zedechias The horrible déedes of these princes are described both in the holy stories of the Bible also in the same Ieremyes booke let them tell vs then in what wise Ieremy by the vertue of these the Lordes wordes I haue set thee this day ouer nations and kyngdomes c. dyd roote out or plant and which of those vngodly kynges he plucked vp and excommunicated or where he taught that bycause of the wickednesse of these kynges their people ought to yeld no obedience vnto them Let them tell vs where or when he discharged the noblemen and commons of the Realme of their othe made vnto the sayd kinges yea or vnto Nabuchodonosor which was a heathen kyng Or which of the kinges Ieremy cast downe frō his throne and afterward aduaunced another to it at his owne pleasure Tell me tell me I say Why are ye thus dumine Bicause ye be neuer able to proue by any Scriptures the thyng that you take vpon ye For the truth witnesseth manifestly that Ieremy was the humble seruaunt of the Lord God a poore Minister and therewithall a faithfull Prophet of the Lord God and that he was pitifull vexed imprisoned and persecuted by those kynges agaynst whom for all that he ment so litle to draw any sword at all that in all ciuill cases he willyngly obeyed them and taught all the people yea the nobilitie also to obey them and finally acknowledged and reuerēced them as his soueraine Lordes In déede he did sharply rebuke the wicked offences of these kynges and preached Gods greuous iudgementes not so much to them as to the Priestes and to the whole people vtterly after the same maner that the Lord had commaunded him to do it But in the meane while he made no commotions in the Realme but rather patiently suffered persecution at their handes prayed earnestly for their welfare Yea and this selfe same Prophet dyd diligently carefully teach the very people of God to obey euen the kyngs of Babylon Nabuchodonosor Euilmerodach and Baltazar Like as Ezechiel also blameth Zedechias very sore for falsifying his othe and breakyng his fayth geuen vnto Nabuchodonosor Therefore there is no reason why the Byshop of Rome should cloke his tyranny with Ieremyes wordes consideryng that Ieremyes wordes fight agaynst hym and that he in no poynt resembleth Ieremyes patterne ¶ That the Bishop of Romes vsurpyng of supremacie ouer kynges and nacions is agaynst the open example and expresse commaundemēt of our Lord Christ. NAy rather to the intent the matter may appeare yet more euidently vnto all men so little did our Lord Iesus Christ mynde to ordeine either Peter or any other of his Apostles souereines ouer kynges and kyngdomes in the Church that I am able presently to set the euident example of the Lord him selfe and his doctrine or expresse commaūdement agaynst the tyranny wrongfull dealyng of the Pope and as it were to shew with my finger that his vsurping of soueraintie ouer kynges and kyngdomes in the Church is extreme iniurie and vngodlynes This matter is of it selfe right plentifull in the holy Scriptures but I will as much as may be comprehend thē in a brief Therefore although our Lord Iesus Christ was by his almightie father ordeined both kyng and priest in his kingdome and that he manifestly auouched himselfe to be a
dedicate this my trauell vnto you assuring my selfe that your good liking well accepting of the same shall cause it to be the more readily receaued willingly imbraced of all others which thing I most humbly and hartily desire And thus I cōmit your good Lordship to the continuall protection of almightie God. Dated at London the x. of Ianuary 1571. De Sereniss Angliae Franciae Hiberniae Regina Elizabetha c. Et Bulla impij Pij Pontificis Romani in illam edita TErrifico nuper crepitantem fulmine Bullam Expuit irato feruidus ore Papa Perculit insolitus quorundam pectora bombus Ast horum fortis risit Elisa metum Atque ait ah miseros crepitus quos terret aselli Haec ex Tarpeio culmine Bulla venit Scilicet hoc os est quo vana tonitrua ructat Bestia quae in terris creditur esse Deus Ex opere artifices mea tu nunc Anglia disce Latrones fures sacrilegosque Papas Aethereo hanc Christus difflabit flamine Bullam Stultus qui bullas pondus habere putat In Bullas Pontificum DVm vendit terras Coelum Coelique potentem Roma diu emptores lusit auara suos Iam deerant merces cum mox diuendere bullas Coepit his fumos miscuit ipsa suos Cur igitur Romae Coelum Coelique potentem Quaeris adhuc alijs vendidit ista prius Mordaces praeter fumos bullasque tumentes Nunc nil quod posthac vendere possit habet Si quis emis bullas bulla tu vanior omni es Sin fumos oculis vae malè sane tuis In Bullas Venias Papisticas NVgis fictitijs Bullis Roma superbit Nugas Bullas vendere Roma solet Bullatas nugas nugales improba Bullas Non vereor Venias dicere Roma tuas Nomina conueniunt rebus cum vanius illis Nil sit cum nil sit prorsus inutilius Ast vt aquis bullae citò nascuntur pereuntque Sic pereant Bullae Roma superba tuae ¶ To the most reuerend godly and vigilant Bishops of the noble Realme of England L. Edmund Grindall Archb. of Yorke L. Richard Coxe Bishop of Elye and L. Iohn Iewell Bishop of Salisbury my right honourable Lordes and most deare brethren in Christ the Praeface of Henry Bullinger Elder RIght reuerend fathers in Christ my right honorable lords and most deare brethren I acknowledge my self greatly bound vnto your goodnesse that wheras we be set so farre a sunder you dwelling beyond the sea in England and I liuing here in Swicerland not farre from the Alpes yet neuerthelesse you of your goodnes do by your often writing earnestly maintaine preserue yea and by daily increasing more and more aduaunce the frendship and brotherhood long agoe begonne betwixt vs In respect wherof I ought of right to shew my selfe by all meanes thankfull seruiceable vnto you And wheras now of late by sending to me the Bull of Pius the fifth bishop of Rome which I had not seen nor heard of afore you haue ministred occasiō vnto me to do or at least wise to attempt somwhat for the glory of Christ our onely redemer and for the welfare of his Church which is among you in Englād against the Romish Antichrist behold I dedicate vnto your Lordships this confutation of mine set against the Bull submitting the same to your most exact iudgements wholy to stand or fall according to your good pleasure Neuerthelesse I beseech you to accept in good worth this indeuour and good will of mine most desirous both to further so good a case and also to pleasure your Lordships Otherwise I freely confesse mine own abilitie to be very small and your learning to be right great so as ye could haue handled this matter farre better than I if it had pleased you Notwithstāding forasmuch as I haue perceaued that by this my simple trauell I shall pleasure your Lordships I would not that you should finde any want in me Christ our Lord graunt that my treating therof may be abundātly frutefull vnto many I beseech you vouchsaue to salute my right reuerend Lords most deare beloued brethrē L. Rob. Horne Bishop of Winchester L. Edwin Sandes Bish. of London L. Iohn Parkhurst Bish. of Norwich L. Iames Pilckinton Bish. of Durham and also M. Iohn Aelmer M. Sampson M. Humfrey M. Leuer M. Foxe and the residue somtime cōpanions of your exile in Swicerland and Germany to the prayers of all whom I cōmend my selfe And all the Ministers and brethren that be here wish all prosperitie to you all in our Lord Iesus Christ. The Lord Iesus blisse the Ministerie of your good Lordships and preserue you from all euill From Zuricke in the moneth of February the yeare of our saluation 1571. ¶ The summe of the Romish Bull published against the most vertuous Queene of England and the whole noble Realme of England FIrst and formest it séemeth requisite to heare the very effect of the Romish Bull. For the Bull it selfe is not worthy to be recited at large and in forme of words as they terme it Wherin notwithstanding we will ouerslip nothing that is to any purpose and which may séeme worth the confuting In the enterance of it the Pope in most ample wordes blazeth and boasteth that vnmeasurable power of his which he termeth the fulnesse of power receiued as he would beare men in hand from the gouernour of all thinges our Lord Iesu Christ which committed the catholicke and Apostolicke Church to one alone vpon earth euen to Peter the prince of the Apostles and to Peters successor the Bishop of Rome with fulnesse of power to gouerne it ordeining him alone to be souerein ouer all nations and all kingdomes to plucke vp throw downe disperse and destroy and againe to plant and build vp that he might hold the Christian people together in vnitie of the spirite and yelde them vp safe and sound to their Sauiour Out of this fulnesse of power mounting vp into his high throne which he termeth the souerein seate of iustice and taking vpon him to be both iudge and accuser he thunderingly readeth forth from thence the articles of his accusation which he hath to alledge against the most vertuous Quéene of England whom euen at the first chop with a slaūderous mouth vtterly proper to him self he termeth a bondslaue of most hainous euil doings which hath brought backe into miserable destruction the Realme of England sometime turned away from the Church of Rome by that prince of blessed memory Henry the 8. whom the Bull termeth a reuolted runneaway and now of late brought againe to the Catholicke faith by Quéene Mary and to be short he sayth she is become the refuge of all runnegates and naughtipackes who also willeth her selfe to be taken for onely souerein Lady in all cases both temporall and spirituall monstruously vsurping the place of supreme head and finally which hath presumed to dispose of Bishops parsons of Churches and other Catholicke priestes and
publishing of the Gospell they might open the kingdome of heauen to the beleuers and shut it against the vnbeleuers But if these thinges which notwithstāding if I be not deceaued I take to be euident strong inough do not yet satisfie you beholde I will vnfolde this whole matter of the keyes yet an other way though nothing differing from the interpretation which I haue set downe already as in respect of the pith of the matter The worde keyes are also vsed in the Scripture for the care ordering of an householde For the seruauntes whom the master of any house setteth in office haue keyes deliuered vnto thē wherewith to open and shut and to order all the house which thing is wont to be done by the Stewardes or Comptrollers that haue the chéef charge of the house By meanes wherof the keyes also are taken for the very charge the ordering or the gouerning of the house Héere againe I faine nothing of my self I follow the holy Scriptures For in Esay the Lord sayth I wyll lay the key of the house of Dauid vpon the shoulder of Eliachim which shall open and no man shall shut and shall shut and no man shall open And what els is this then if he had said without figure I wil put Sobna out of office and make Eliachim Lord Treasurer and commit the gouernement of the Realme or of king Ezechias palace which charge he shall performe with so great faithfulnesse and authoritie that whatsoeuer he ordaineth shall stand sure and inuiolable and whatsoeuer he disanulleth no mā shall attempt to ratifie In like respect are the keyes of the kingdome of heauen sayd to be geuen to the Apostles and other ministers I meane the gouerning or housholdly ordering of the Church therby to bring mē to the kingdome of heauen or to shut them out of the partenership thereof Which surely can be none other then that which it accoūteth as the chéef namely the message of Gods worde I meane the preaching of the Gospell of Iesu Christ concerning the remission of sinnes and euerlasting life The which truely is so certaine and sure that looke whom the ministers absolue from their sinnes by it they are also assuredly acquit before God and whom the ministers condemne by the worde for their vnbeléefes sake those remain also condemned to destruction before God. And as for these thinges which I haue layd forth concerning the ordering of a housholde by Stewardes that is to say concerning the ordering of the Church by the ministers they are not differing from the worde of god For the Lord in his Gospell rehearseth a parable of a man that went from home and committed the charge of his house to his seruauntes which should be as Stewardes to order his house Which Parable certesse is applyed to the Church the house of God and to the ministers placed in the same that in gouerning it they may chéefly beautifie it with the preaching of the Gospell For in the same Gospell the Lord sayth againe Who thinkest thou is that faythfull and wise seruaunt whom his Lord hath set ouer his housholde to geue them meate in due season But who knoweth not what the meate of the Church is Truely Paule writing to a Bishop that is to say to an ouerséer or steward of the Church sayth Indeuour to yeeld thy selfe an allowable workman vnto God not to be ashamed of and rightly distributing the worde of truth And the same Apostle speaking yet more manifestly of the ministers and the housholde order of the Church sayth Let a man so esteeme you as the ministers of Christ and housholde guides or stewardes of the mysteries of God. Then the which I pray you what can be spoken more fully and plainly in this our case Christ our Lord ordained in his Church ministers and not Lordes ministers or seruauntes I say to be stewardes or dealers forth of Gods mysteries in the Church that is to say of the Gospell and of the thinges that are annexed to the Gospell For so doth the Lord him selfe expound the worde Mysterie in the xiii chapt of Mathew and so doth Paule also in the third to the Ephesians These keyes that is to say this charge houshold order of gouerning the Church which is executed according to the appointment of the Gospell of Iesus Christ did the Apostles receaue and after them all ministers of Churches that be lawfully called to the same office ¶ What is ment in the Gospell by loosing and binding and how Christes Apostles did loose and binde NOw although our Lorde sayd I will geue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and that by the way he made no mention in the processe following of opening and shutting which are the properties of keyes yet did he set down other termes in their stead that is to wit to loose and to binde by which doutlesse he ment to shew the power of the keyes and after what maner the Apostles doe either open or shut heauen with the keyes They open when they vnbinde or let loose for both those thinges come to one point and they shut whē they binde To let loose therefore is to open and to shut is to binde Otherwise to binde is a word of knowen signification For the officer bindeth which at the cōmaundement of his lord casteth a man in prison or by some other way hampereth him in bondes And he looseth which dischargeth a man from bondes or bringeth him out of prison This thing is conueyed ouer from the body to the minde For bondes in the Scripture betoken as well spirituall as bodily imprisonment To loose therefore is to open the prison of sinnes by preaching forgeuenesse of sinnes through Christ who onely releaseth sinnes and bringeth out of prison Which thing shall be the rightlyer vnderstood if we vewe and consider more néerly this saying of the Prophet which the Lord Iesus him selfe expoundeth in the Synagog of Nazareth in S. Luke saying The spirite of the Lord is vpon me meaning vpon Christ because he hath annointed me and hath sent me to bring glad tidynges to the poore to heale them that be hart broken to preach release to the prisoners and recouery of sight to the blynd and to set the broosed at lybertie Héerunto adde also that which the same Lord said in Iohn Like as the father hath sent me so send I you Whose sinnes soeuer you release they are released vnto them and whose sinnes soeuer you retayne they be retayned The sonne of God then sent out his disciples after the same maner that he him self was sent out by the father But the sonne of God according as the Prophet hath auouched was sent to bring glad tidinges to the poore to preach deliueraunce to prisoners Ergo the Apostles also were sent forth to shew glad tidinges and to preach deliueraunce to prisoners Which thing when they do then open they heauen by the keyes and let loose them that were tyde in the bondes
and that he cōdemneth those to eternall death which beléeue not or which gainstand the Gospell The self same Ministers do féede with Gods word the Church that is gathered vnto Christ comfortyng the weakeharted quickenyng and thrusting foreward the slothfull confirming the wauerers exhortyng all men euermore vnto continuall prayers to the lawfull vsing of the Sacramentes too the dewties of godly conuersation and most of all to charitie and mercy and in all thinges by all meanes with singular faythfulnesse and diligence endeuering to bryng and preserue the Churche safe and sound vnto Christ whiche doutlesse is the very true and wholesome vse of the keys of Gods kyngdome euen the natiue and holy stewardshyp charge and well orderyng of Gods Church ¶ Here is expounded that place of Ieremy I haue set thee ouer kynges kingdomes c. and it is shewed how the same maketh nothyng to the proofe of the Byshop of Romes tyranny which he exerciseth agaynst kynges and kyngdomes LEt vs procede further that we may also espye how truly the Pope of Rome vaunteth himself alone to be ordeined prince ouer all nacions and all kyngdomes Here agayn I am not ignorant what the decrées and decretalles cheefly of those Byshops whose names I haue cyted afore doe crake and belk out with open mouth concernyng this matter But we will haue no toyes we will haue them shew vs by Christes expresse wordes that the Byshops of Rome are lawfully ordeyned Princes ouer all nacions and all Realmes by the ordinance of Christ our Lord not by the ordinance of any men A few yeares past Austin Steuchus of Eugubie the Librarikéeper of the sea of Rome and besides that a Byshop also a man otherwise that had read much but yet for all that smally séene in the holy Scriptures and moreouer a most filthy flatterer of the Romish Bishops did put forth a booke agaynst Laurence Valla in the defence of Constantines Donation worthy to be spitted at of all godly men and méete to be trampled in the myre with dirtie féete In this booke among other thynges in the xv Diuision First of all sayth he it standes you in hand to know that Constantine did not giue by name those fewe Townes and those fewe Cities which are called the patrimonie of the Church but he gaue the whole West part of the world and so departyng from the Citie did as it were giue place to a greater Prince then hym selfe that is to wit to the Pope assuryng him selfe that Rome it selfe was the head and dwelling place of godlinesse wherein it were vnlawfull for any man to reigne besides the souereine of Religiō for any two men to reigne in that one Citie to whiche he knew Peter the Prince of the Apostles and head of Religion to be come he counted it a haynous matter specially if the earthly Prince should beare the cheefsway in the Citie And in his xvi Diuision It could not be sayth he that two princes should reigne in one Citie specially in this respect that worldly matters would haue ouermated holy matters Namely it would haue happened as it is in the Prouerb that riuers should haue ronne agaynst theyr streames Also in the 90. Diuision This is the Maiestie and prerogatiue which Peter gaue vnto Rome that lyke as she was Lady of all landes so she should reigne ouer all Religion and all thynges should be ruled at her becke Agayne in his 94. Diuision he reckeneth vp all the myghtyest kyngdomes of the West as Fraunce Spayne England Denmarke Portingale and all the residue all which are subiect to their holy and vniuersall mother for so speaketh he the Church of Rome And least he might ouerslyp any thyng at length in his 103. Diuision he addeth But what should I alledge any more to proue by this kynde of Argumentes the most auncient and welnere almightie power of the Church of Rome ouer all kyngdomes and kinges and the most auncient possession of the same Consideryng that the auncient monumētes of all the Byshops are full of the highe power wherwith they ruled the whole world at their commaundement holdyng the souereintie of all Realmes c. These thynges wherby he hath put all the kyngdomes of the world vnder the Pope and Churche of Rome could not satisfie and content that lying and blasphemous clawbacke but he must also with extreme shamelessenesse and horrible wickednesse make a God of that wicked wight the Bishoppe of Rome For in his 26. Diuision he sayth that the faythfull worshyp the sonne of God him selfe in the Pope and that they honour not so much hym as a mortall man as in him euen God hym selfe who hath made him his deputie vpon earth Agayne in the 67. Diuision 141. leafe Thou hearest sayth he how the hygh Byshop which is called God was by Constantine estemed as god And ye must vnderstand that this was then done when he endowed him with that noble graunt for euen then dyd he worshyp him as God then dyd hee as much as lay in hym bestowe godly honour vppon hym as Christes vicare and Peters successour and then did he reuerence him as the liuely image of christ Thus sayth he And such blasphemous and wicked writynges doth Rome yeld vnto vs Which thynges I haue hitherto mencioned to the end I might disclose vnto all men the extreme vnrecouerable madnesse of the Pope him selfe and of his houshold together with their wickednesse where through they beyng most heathenish shamelesse men are not afrayd euen in the sight of the whole world as well of Angels as men to vsurpe vnto them selues the very Godhead it selfe and all the kyngdomes of the world and to spit out whatsoeuer commeth at their tounges end This Steuchus was also a Byshop and yet he was not ashamed to offer so blasphemous writinges to the Church yea to dedicate them to S. Peter But let them bryng vs some one sentēce or at least wise some one word of Christ or his Apostles whereby they may shewe and auouch vnto vs that Christ authorized the Pope to be souereine of all kyngs kingdomes No they cannot bryng me oneiote out of all the new Testament And therfore they flée vnto Ieremy for succour But euē this mans holy writyngs also do they defile béeray corrupt with their poyson For the Prophet speaketh of the ministration of the word and not of any Lordyng of his owne For the Lord calleth authorizeth and sendeth Ieremy to the charge of preachyng For he sayth to him by expresse wordes Before thou camest out of thy mothers wombe I sanctified thée and appointed thée to be a Prophet vnto nations Afterward when Ieremie excused him selfe by his tender yeares and vnenured childhode the Lord harteneth and comforteth him promising to be present with him and to speake by his mouth For in the Lordes wordes it foloweth behold I haue put my wordes in thy mouth For so read we also that the Lord spake after the same maner in old
the vpper hand in persecutiōs aduauncyng his maner of spéech from bodily and earthly thinges to spirituall and heauenly thinges Yet notwithstandyng after all these thinges which surely may séeme a wonder to the whole world yea euen after thrise most earnest warning and euident instruction the Disciples dare byanby vpon Christes Resurrectiō and at the verie instant of his Ascension into heauen make mētion yet agayne of reigning yea and to cloy the Lord again with their desirousnesse of superioritie saying Wilt thou at this time that is to say before thou depart from vs into heauen restore the kingdome vnto Israell Unto which question the mercyfull Lord bearing with the weakenesse of his Disciples aunswereth méekely agayne and biddeth them referre the seasonable doing of it vnto god In the meane while he repeteth and beateth into them agayne what they should do and what he requireth at their hands saying After that the holy Ghost is come downe into you you shall receiue power and you shal beare witnesse of me not onely at Hierusalem but euen to the vttermost costes of the earth also And what els is this then if he had sayd The holie Ghost shall teach you to vnderstād what maner of kingdome mine shal be doutlesse spirituall not worldly wherin I shall sit and reigne the chief onely souerein And in this my kingdome that is to wit in the very Church of the saintes you shal be witnesses not kinges preachers and not princes For by preachyng of the Gospell you shall gather me a Church out of the whole world This I say is Christes doctrine concerning supremacie and reigning concernyng the ministerie of Christ in the Church more lightsome thē the sunne Wherby also it appeareth more clearely then the day light that the Byshop of Romes vsurping of souereintie in the Church and his bosting of himselfe to be ordeined head ouer all kinges and Realmes contrarie to Christes example and doctrine is not by the lowlie spirite of Christ but by the proude spirite of Lucifer ¶ Nor that the Apostles of Christ tooke vppon them any souereintie in Christes Church but onely the ministerie ANd when the Apostles had receiued the holy Ghost they vtterly displaced all ambition and desire of souereintie out of their hartes perceiuyng now that no such thing as they and the Iewes had hitherto surmised was to be sought or looked for in the kyngdome and Church of Christ but farre greater and diuiner thinges namely spirituall thynges And therfore accordyng to their Lord maisters cōmaundement traueling ouer the whole world they so behaued them selues that in all thinges they were sound to be the very Disciples and folowers of their maister endewed with lowlinesse not with Lordlinesse renowmed for their faithfull seruice not for stately superioritie For they not onely preached the Gospell purely without mens forgeries and traditiōs but also were wont to reuerence kynges as next vnto God in earth and chief of all men and to call them their Lordes and to pay them tribute and to obey them faithfully and to pray for their welfare without ceasing yea and to threaten Gods vengeance to such as refused obedience to the Magistrate commaunding no wickednesse They no where intermedled them selues in worldly affaires in somuch as they cast euē the care of the poore which otherwise is most holy vpon the shoulders of the Deacons verely to the end they might the earnestlyer apply them selues to the preaching of the word They no where vsurped to them selues the benches of iudges or the thrones of princes and much lesse did they depose any kyng or prince from his kingdome were he neuer so wicked and yet there is no man ignoraunt what the Romane presidentes were that liued in the time of the Apostles full of couetousenesse lechery and pride and the posteritie of Herode euen venemouse slippes yea and the Emperours them selues most filthie and vngracious persons as the Tyberiusses the Caligulaze the Claudiusses and the Neroes or discharge his people of their allegeāce or contend with any prince for the souereintie and much lesse did they euer purpose or practise to place exalt them selues aboue him Nay rather they suffered sore persecutiō the which they ouercame by patience and not by violent withstanding nor by practises and pollicies of malicious wylinesse and gathered verie great Churches vnto Christ out of the whole world by preaching the Gospell ouer all the earth S. Luke the Euangelist describeth these thynges diligently and plenteously in his booke of the Actes of the Apostles wherin although he pursue their doinges by the space of xxviii yeares together Yet doth he no where giue any little incling of that supremacie and fulnesse of power which they at this day do boast of that call them selues Apostolick and crake of the fulnesse of their power But if any man desire to here some singular thyng of S. Peter he is alwayes set first in the register of the holie Apostles But all men know that this formershyp of Peters is not in ouer ruling but in order for accordyng to the doctrine of the Gospell all the Apostles were indewed with like dignitie and power and the Churches were gouerned by their trauell in common In the meane while it was requisite that there should be order both in speakyng and doing for the auoydance of disordered confusion they that had obteined greater giftes were more honored and had in more estimation and authoritie than the residew Like as Paule speaking of Iames Peter and Iohn sayth that they séemed to be pillars in the Church Not for that they were preferred afore all the rest or had obteined a larger Commission but bicause that hauing obteined greater giftes they did more luckely and easly go through with all pointes of their charge wherin otherwise the residew had as good part as they and therfore were had in greater price and estimation among the faithfull So also were the Apostolike Churches which were first founded by the Apostles worthely had in great price and estimation in old time For their authoritie was of great credit with other Churches not that they were beleued to haue superioritie ouer them but bicause that being the first that were conuerted to the faith they kept still vnappaired the faith which they had once learned of the Apostles and gaue light to other Churches by their purenesse and constācie These thinges are set forth more at large by a very auncient writer called Tertullian in the prescriptions of heretickes In which place also he not onely calleth Rome an Apostolike Church but Ephesus also and Corinth and Thessalonica and other Churches founded by the Apostles And it is not to be douted but that the men of old tyme called Peter and Paule the princes of the Apostles not that they were secular or worldly princes or that they had dominion ouer the rest or that they had obteined a larger commission but bicause that being endewed by God with most
thūderbolt and no more to be feared then the thunderclappes smokes and mistes of Cacus were to be feared of Hercules as hath bene sayd already afore The blind mā to whom Christ had giuen eye sight was in old tyme cast out of the Synagoge of the Pharisies But that excommunication was so farre from hurting him that from thence forth he was receiued into Christes houshold by the Lord Christ himselfe who in his Gospell prophesying of the thinges that are now accomplished by the Pope sayd They shall thrust you out of their Synagoges Yea and the tyme commeth that who soeuer killeth you he shall thinke he doth God seruice And these thinges shall they do vnto you bycause they haue not knowē the father nor yet me But I haue told these things vnto you to the intent that whē that time is come ye may remember what I haue sayd vnto you Wherfore it hurteth not the Queenes Maiestie a whit that she is sayd to be cut of truly not from the vnitie of Christes body but from the felowshyp of the Popish corporation For were she not cut of from this verely she could not be reckened among the true and liuely members of Christes body neither could she haue God to be her father if she could finde in her hart to be an obedient daughter to the Syr that sitteth vppon mount Tarpey deuouring his owne sonnes and daughters like Saturne For the Lord willeth hys children to get them out of Babylon if they minde to escape the plagues of God and to atteine true saluation And we be not kept in the vnitie of Christes body which is the Church of the liuing God by obeying and reuerencing the Romane Church and the Bishop therof but by true faith in Christ according to the Gospell of god He that wanteth this or he that impugneth this hath no communion at all neither with Christ nor with the Church how much soeuer he pratle of the vnitie of Christes body ¶ That the Pope of Rome doth falsly and tyrannously giue sentence that the Queene of England is depriued of her kingdome and of all right of her crowne AFterward the Pope in his sayd definitiue sentence determineth peremptorily that the Quéene of England is depriued of her crowne and of all right of her crowne and of all other authoritie dominion dignitie and priuilege whatsoeuer But who hath made the Pope a souerein Monarche ouer the whole world to reigne alone and to haue all kingdomes vnder him and to hold all kynges and princes vnder his allegeance as his vassals or tenauntes at wil so as he might set them vp or thrust them out of their kyngdomes at his pleasure Heretofore when I discoursed vpon Ieremies wordes I haue set thee ouer kynges and kyngdomes c. I haue shewed openly and sufficiently inough so as there néedeth no more at this tyme that the Pope is not set ouer kynges and kyngdomes by God but rather vsurpeth superioritie and power ouer kynges and nations contrarie both to the open example and commaundement of the lord Therfore as now I wil adde no more but this that the Pope doth falsly or rather through mere tyranny without any right or regard of shame chalenge to him selfe this power which the Lord neuer deliuered to any man For the wise Prophet Daniel sayth Wisedome and power belong vnto the lord He it is that altereth the tymes and chaunges of tymes He it is that putteth downe kinges and setteth vp kinges The same thyng also haue Iob and Dauid in his Psalmes affirmed afore him Yea and the holy histories setting forth the same thyng most plenteously declare that God ordeined Saule kyng of the Israelites by the Prophet Samuel and by the message of the same Prophet deposed him agayne for his disobedience and rebellion aduauncing Dauid to his roome a man accordyng to Gods owne hart Agayne vnder Salomon Dauides sonne the kyngdome was rent a sunder and God by the message of his Prophet Ahia gaue ten partes of the kyngdome to Ieroboam and those ten partes of the kyngdome were not taken away from Salomon and his posteritie for any other cause then for that Salomon him selfe had withdrawen his hart from God and allowed his outlandish wiues wherewith to set vp and exercise their Idolatrie But the same Ieroboam is deposed agayne and none other cause of hys deposing by the report of the same Ahia the Prophet then for that he hearkened not to the word of the Lord but according to mans policie vpon a good intent of his owne made him straunge Gods and set vp the same for the children of Israel to worship and cleaued not vncorruptly to the word of the Lord. Other kinges of Israel also were deposed from from their kingdome by God as Baasa Ela Achab such other like and for none other cause then that they had leuer to folow the Idolatrie of Ieroboam then the word of the Lord. Furthermore when Iehu had destroyed Iezabell king Achabs wife and all his posteritie and therewithall made cleane riddance of all the Priestes of Baal yea beaten downe the Temple of Baal and made a draught of it the Lord said vnto him for asmuch as thou hast earnestly executed the thing that is right in mine eyes and done vnto the house of Achab according to all that was in my hart thy sonnes shall sit vppon the seate of Israell to the fourth generatiō I could rehearse many other thinges of this sort no lesse notable then these but that I séeke to be brief as far as the matter giueth leaue And I haue rehearsed these thinges to the end that all men may manifestly perceiue how it is God himselfe and not the pope that createth kinges and displaceth them yea and which remoueth shaketh ouerthroweth repaireth and stablisheth all kingdomes vniuersally and seuerally Now although he haue disposed it by his messengers the Prophetes as by Samuell Ahias Eliseus and others yet is not the Pope called to these matters as those men were neither hath he receiued any commission from God in this case so much as by one little word but rather is commaūded to attempt no such thing Besides this God deposed kinges as it were extraordinarily by the Prophetes not by the high Priestes which were ordeined by God to be in Israell with the kinges least the kingdome and the Priest hode might be set at oddes betwene them selues Therfore although the Pope were the souerein Bishop yet should not the disposing and ordering of kinges belong to his charge Moreouer if a man consider wherefore God deposed those kinges by the meane of his Prophetes the Quéene of England hath wherwith to comfort and confirme her and the Pope hath that which graffeth him into the nomber of false prophetes discorageth him and vtterly ouerthroweth him For Ahias said out of the mouth of the Lord vnto Ieroboam if thou wilt hearken to my commaundementes and walke in my wayes as
a Frier of the same order in his beadroll of heretikes sayth thus At such time as S. Dominike with xij Abbotes of the order of Cistertiū preached the Croysie against the heretikes of Albigia the Catholikes that is to say the Crossed papists slew a hundred thousand of them Of whom one hundred foure score continewing in their stubbornesse agaynst the Church of Rome chose to be burned rather then to abiure their heresie Which thing was also done And S. Dominik abode x. yeares in those quarters in the office of preaching and weeding out of heresie when all the rest returned home to their owne Thus reporteth he of his owne founder of that butcherie Wherby it appeareth that the pope had good cause afterward to canonize him and make hym one of his Saintes Neither is it without cause that Dominikes mother being great with child of him dreamed that she bare in her wombe a dog or as other say a wolfe with a firebrand in his mouth wherewith he did set the whole world on fire c. But I will returne to my matter Therfore at the Popes preaching of the Croysie the Lantgraue of Thuring addressed himselfe to the warres Againe there is running to weapon on both sides agayne wretched Germanie is by the Popes incēsing rent a sunder wounded with her owne weapons and slayne with ciuill encounters Conradus Duke of Sweueland the sonne of Friderike proclaimed king of Romanes encoūtering the Lantgraue of Thuring vanquisheth chaseth and sleaeth all his hoste for all their being marked with the Crosse. The same yeare the Lantgraue dyed of a wound The princes of Germanie that tooke the popes part being not yet made the wiser by their so great miseries but fauoring the Pope more then their owne countrey set vp another king against Friderike and his sonne Conrade For Pope Innocent sent his Legate Cardinall Peter Capuce into Germanie who calling the princes together to Colon caused them to chuse Williā Earle of Holland king agaynst Friderike Conrade Which thing wrought new broyles in the Empyre And forasmuch as Pope Innocent had excōmunicated king Conrade also He ceased not to persecute his sonne Corradine the rightfull heyre of Puell and Sicilie likewise and to dispossesse him of his fathers heritage In which matter Alexāder the fourth Vrbane the fourth and Clement the fourth which succeded next shewed themselues no flothfull folowers of Innocentes steppes Wherof Corradine set forth a publike proclamation wherin he lamentably reckeneth vp the sore wronges which those Bishops did vnto him And first he declareth how Innocent the fourth anoyed him being yet an innocent and fatherlesse yea and committed to the wardship of the Church by beréeuing him of his kingdome and dealing it among his owne graundchildren and kinsmē After whom folowed Alexander and he allured another mā to take his kingdome from him by force And Vrbane also shewing small vrbanitie towardes him called Charles king of Fraunce out of his owne Realme to take possession of the kingdome which was due to the sayd Corradine by descent from his father And Clement voyde of all clemencie set vp the sayd Charles as counterking agaiust Corradine and so most wrongfully spoyled the right heyre of his inheritance By meanes whereof he was compelled to séeke his right by rightfull force of armes which was wrongfully withheld him by the wrongfull demeanor of the Bishops These thinges are to be read in the Chronicles of Nauclerus Duryng this broyle Pope Clement the fourth hearing how Corradine was raysing a power in Germanie did put forth a Bull wherby he forbade all faithfull Christiās to call Corradine king of Sicill or to giue him any Councell or ayde agaynst Charles whom he had crowned king of Sicill for a péece of money Thus the pope blowes vp the trumpet the Christians fall together by the eares again It commes to hand strokes at the first the Germanes get the better hand and the Frenchmen are put to flight But when the Germanes brake their aray and fell more gréedely to the riffeling of the baggage of their enemyes thē was méete for them the Frenchmen fallyng againe in order of battell gaue a fresh charge vpon them vnwares and sleaing them down as they were escattered obteined the victorie There were taken two Princes Corradine king of Sicile and Duke of Sweueland and Fridericke Duke of Austriche who had takē part with Corradine to ayde him Also there were other Lordes and noblemen taken who were all caryed prisoners to Naples there kept in very streyt ward It is reported that Charles wrate to the Pope for his aduise what he would haue done with the prisoners and that the Pope amōg others aunswered The life of Corradine is the death of Charles and the death of Corradine is the life of Charles But Robert Earle of Flaunders the sonne in law of Charles by whose aduise he had gotten the victorie remembring the state of mens affaires counseled Charles to make peace and to bynd vnto him by bond of alyance these two young Princes of excellent towardnesse borne of the noblest houses in Germanie and the ofspryng of Emperors wishing that Corradine should haue Charles his daughter and Frederike his néere But whyle the tyme was prolonged in these consultations Robert returned home and then the bloud royall was condemned to death And so the xxix of October beyng Monday in the yeare of our Lord. 1268. a place was couered with purple there was Fridericke first beheaded with an axe Whose head Corradine taking vp and kissing it with teares lamentably bewayled the cruell death of that giltlesse young Prince his deare frend of whose destruction he himself was the cause Afterward hauing greatly complayned of the bitternesse and trecherie of his enemyes who contrarie to all right conscience whereas of all others he was most innocēt and blamelesse had bereft him of the heritage which his father graundfather greatgraundfather and graundfathers graundfather had purchased with their bloud and hauing committed his case to the souerein iudge calling vpon God the reuenger of trayterousnesse and murther he appealed to Christ our Lord and God and to his iudgement seate and cried vnto him for vengeance with castyng his gloues vp to heauenward and then in his owne right bequeathing these kingdomes to his Cousin Peter king of Aragon whose graundmother was sister to the Emperour Friderike he held out his necke vnfearefully to the execution and had his head striken of lastly eleuen noblemen of Sweueland and Italie suffered the same execution Among whom Gerhard of Pisa a noble gentlemā was one Within a few yeares after Peter king of Aragon began to lay clayme to Sicilie And the Westerne Frenchmen haue now about ij hundred foure score and seuen yeares striued with the Spanyardes for those kingdomes with exceding bloudshed and wasting of the countreys But in the sayd two Princes were extinguished the lynes of the Dukes
of the Scriptures Now if I listed to play the Rhetoricien héere I could with many wordes declare that hell gates do not onely preuaile against the Romishe Bishops and their Court the filthiest that euer was but also that the very prince of féendes him selfe obteineth full and onely souereintie in them Which thing I could without trouble shew and proue both by the witnesse and by the complaints of the Bishops them selues But let vs ouerpasse that abhominable filthinesse and make hast to the opening of the residue of this place For there is no man so blockishe that hath not now of late euen felt with his handes that in these wordes of the Lord there is nothing spoken of the vnmeasurable power of the Pope but that there be set out vnto vs farre more heauenly and healthfuller thinges Prayse and thankes be geuen vnto God. ¶ That not euen by the gift of the keyes vnto Peter there is any fulnesse of power deliuered by the Lord either vnto Peter or vnto the Pope for that the keyes are a farre other thing yea and a thing of much greater holinesse then is the sayd fulnesse of the popish power THe Lorde addeth vnto the premisses And I will geue thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and whatsoeuer thou byndest vpon earth shall be bound in heauen and whatsoeuer thou loosest vppon earth shall be loosed in heauen By which wordes the Lord sheweth againe that this charge concerning blessednesse and eternall life which he hath hetherto layd forth perteineth not onely to Peter or the rest of the Apostles but also vnto all men through the whole world Moreouer he sheweth the meane and maner how men are brought into the Church that is to say how they be builded vpon the Rocke and made members of Christ and the Church and so enter into the kingdome of heauen You Apostles sayth the Lord shall open the way and as it were by reaching out your handes bring men into the company of me and of my Saintes and consequently into the kingdome of heauē and that shall be done by the preaching of the Gospell For by fayth we be graffed into Christ and his Church But fayth commeth by hearing and hearing by the preaching of the Gospell And therfore sayth the Lord I will geue you the keyes of the kingdome of heauen that is I will commit vnto you the charge of preaching the Gospell to this end that you shall go out into the whole world and by declaring vnto all men the remission of sinnes through me set thē loose that be fettered in the chaines of their sinnes and open the kingdome of heauen to them that beleue and on the other side bynde those that shake of the preaching of the Gospell that is to say declare and witnesse vnto them that they be subiect to eternall damnation And this your declaration and witnessing shall be so ratified and assured that whomsoeuer ye loose or binde by my worde vpon earth them will I also account as loosened or bound in heauē And this is the simple meaning of Christes wordes flowing out of the wordes them selues without any racking of the wordes at all Which meaning I will more cléerly enlighten and more assuredly confirme by that which ensueth The worde Keyes are not vttered alwayes in one signification in the Scripture For otherwise there is no man but he knoweth what they be in their proper signification that is to wit tooles wherwithall the lockes of doores chestes and such other thinges are opened or shut And they be conueyed ouer from bodily thinges to spirituall thinges from earthly thinges to heauenly thinges and sometime they be taken for souerein and full power like as when we read in the Apocalips that Christ hath the keyes of Dauid of death and of hell For by that phrase of spéech is betokened that Christ hath the souerein and most absolute power or authoritie to gouerne the kingdome of Dauid and also full power ouer death it self and ouer hell and that he is able to deliuer from death or to thrust down into hell whomsoeuer he listeth These Keyes that is to say this power belongeth onely vnto Christ and no creature is partaker of it Wherupon also in the Apocalips the Lord sayth with a vehemencie I haue the Keyes and he sayth not I haue had but I haue I say I haue them yet still and will haue them euer I resigne them to no man. There is also the Key of knowledge and the Key of the kingdome of heauen whereof we intreate at this present The Key of knowledge is instruction wherby a mans vnderstanding is opened and his want of skill amended And the Key of the kingdome of heauē is a plaine or lightsome declaration or laying forth of thinges whereby men are taught what way they may goe into heauen or how they may be saued I faine nothing of mine owne head in this behalfe in these thinges I followe the Scripture and for mine exposition I alledge the very worde of Christ saying in the Gospell after S. Luke Woe be to you Lawyers whych haue taken away the key of knowledge ye entred not in your selues and them that came in ye forbad Which wordes of the Lord Mathew vttereth in this wise Woe be to you Scrybes and Pharyseys for ye shut vp the kingdome of heauen before men ye your selues goe not in neyther suffer ye them that come to enter in Behold looke what Luke called the taking away of the key of knowledge that doth Matthew call the shuttyng vp of the kingdome of heauen And therefore what els I pray you is it to bring forth the keyes of the kingdome of heauen then to bring forth the keyes of knowledge that is to say the doctrine which cōcerneth the kingdome of heauen through the instruction whereof we may know how to become partakers of the euerlasting saluation Againe to take away the keyes of knowledge or of the kingdome of heauen is nothing els but to withstand the doctrine of the Gospell concerning the kingdome of God or to assault it or to geue commaundement that it be not preached You therfore enter not in sayth the Lorde I meane by harkening to my doctrine ye beleue not that ye might be saued neither suffer ye them to enter which come and are desirous of my doctrine concerning the kingdome of God that is to say which would faine heare and beleue my doctrine that by faith they might be made heires of Gods kingdome while you slaunder my doctrine and my workes as though they procéeded from Sathan and therefore were to be abhorred and eschewed of good men And by these wordes of the Lord it appeareth most manifestly that the keyes wherof he speaketh here in S. Matthew saying and to thee will I geue the keyee of the kingdome of heauen are not any other thing then the charge of preaching the Gospell committed by the Lord to the ministers of his Church that by the sayd
of sinne releasing them their sinnes that is to say witnessing by the Gospell that their sinnes are released by fayth through christ For the Apostles release not sinne otherwise then by the warrant of the Gospell which auoucheth vnto them that onely Christ by his owne merite forgeueth sinnes For like as the Apostles are not sent to offer them selues in sacrifice for the clensing of the whole world as Christ was the sacrifice of whom alone clenseth away the sinnes of the whole world euē so doutlesse the Apostles were not sent to forgeue sinnes by their owne authoritie as Christ did but to witnesse vnto men that they be forgeuē by faith through christ For we must in these cases aduisedly and with a conscience obserue the matching of the superior with the inferior so as we may yéeld to ech partie that which is his owne and not wickedly attribute that glory vnto seruauntes which is due to the onely sonne of god Certesse Austine behauing him selfe reuerently in these matters sayth peremptorily that Christ worketh these thinges by power and that the disciples do the thinges which they do by seruice or seruauntly Wherof more shall follow anon Also Marke and Luke handling the same story which Iohn hath touched in his xx chapt do witnesse that in the talke which Christ hath in the day of his resurrection there is nothing els betaken to the Disciples but the office of preaching the Gospell For in Marke the Lord sayth Goe into the whole world and preach the Gospell And in Luke he sayth So behoued it Christ to suffer to rise againe from the dead the third day and repentaunce and forgeuenesse of sinnes to be preached to all nations in his name And therefore by laying all these places of Scripture together it is made most manifest and vndouted that the keyes which were geuen to Peter and the other Apostles is nothing els but the ministration of preaching the Gospel wherby the way is opened for the world into heauen wherby to be short is declared most assured release and forgeuenesse of sinnes through fayth in Christ to such as beleue Wherunto also séemeth to perteine this most elegant and fit sentence of the Lord speaking with Paule I will make thee a witnesse and messenger marke how he sayth a witnesse and messenger and will send thee vnto nations and realmes to open their eyes that they may be turned from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan vnto God so as they may receaue forgeuenesse of sinnes and lot among those that be sanctified by the fayth which is to meward You haue in these wordes a most exacte description of the keyes of the kingdome of heauen Wherunto to adde any more I thinke it but superfluous Now if vnto all these thinges ye will adde the practise of the Apostles as they terme it and diligently search out how they haue vsed the keyes that were deliuered to them and after what sort they haue opened or shut the kingdome of heauen vnto men and also in what wise they haue either bound them or loosed them ye shal no where in all the new Testament finde them to haue exercised the Popishe practise that is to wit that the Apostles haue set thē selues downe in the places where they came to preach the kingdome of God and saluation and commaunded mē to come vnto them and there to crouch or to knéele after the maner of worshippers and to shriue them selues that is to say to poure out all their thoughtes wordes and déedes with all the circumstances of them into the eare or lap of the confessor as he sits and to craue of him the absolution of their sinnes with enioynance of satisfaction and that he on the other side laying his handes vpon the head of the shriftman whispered an absolution of sinnes ouer him in an ordinary forme of wordes and enioyned him a certaine satisfaction by the workes of penance Much lesse shall ye finde that the Apostles installed them selues in thrones and thrust downe sinners into hell by sentence of excommunication c. What then Looke vpon the Actes of the Apostles or rather goe through that booke wherein Luke hath most diligently written the notable sayinges and doinges of the Apostles and specially of Paule without ouerslipping of any thing which tended to soule health or was necessary to be knowen and therwithall hath in xxviii chapters set forth as many yeares that is to wit the things that the Apostles did by the space of xxviii yeares together in the matter of saluation and thou shalt not finde in all that great worke that all and euery of the Apostles did any thing els then agreably and constantly in all places and in euery place preach the Gospell and promise remission of sinnes and euerlasting life to such as beleued in Christ and on the contrary part threaten endlesse and most assured damnation to them that beleued not Thus I say did the Apostles vse the keyes which they receaued of the lord Thus did they binde and loose If they would haue had any other thing or any thing more to haue bene done in the Church by their successors they would not haue dissembled it by the space of xxviii yeares preaching in all their doinges which Luke hath most faythfully written And among other places of the Actes of the Apostles let the godly read the second x. xiii.xvi and xviii chapters and they will beare witnesse that the thinges which I haue spoken héere are most true yea and also thinke them selues satisfied in this case I speake of such as are not contentious for such no man can well satisfie And at this present I say to them also as Paule sayd If any man seeme to be full of contention we haue no such custome neyther the Churches of God. And whereas the aduersaries vrge this singular spéech I wyll geue the keyes of the kingdome of heauen vnto thee I say vnto thee Peter vnto thee singularly and not vnto you plurally and in their vrging do cry out that I haue openly corrupted this place of the Gospell by communicating vnto the rest of the Apostles and to all their successors being ministers of the word the keyes that were geuen to Peter onely they bewray their owne grosse foolishnesse together with their inuincible malice considering how they can not deny but that such synecdoches or figures of putting one for a number and specially in such cases are very vsuall in the Scriptures Againe seing it is sufficiently knowen what the keyes be and that the rest of the Apostles receaued them as well as Peter I pray you what will they proue by their singular number But let them aske their owne fathers why the Lord wheras he gaue equall or one maner of power to them all did neuerthelesse say seuerally vnto Peter I will geue thee and they shall perceaue that therby is betokened and expressed the vnitie of the Church Surely Austine in his 118. treatise
king yet notwithstādyng he laid aside the gouernement of temporall and worldly thyngs and tooke him selfe to the charge onely of spirituall thynges By reason wherof when Pylate asked hym whether hee were the kyng of Israell or no He denyed not him self to be a kyng but hee addeth an exposition and méekely aunswered my kyngdome is not of this world Whereupon in another place of the Gospell he sayd he came not to be serued that is to wit as a worldly prince but to serue or to do seruice him selfe and to giue his life for the raunsome of the whole multitude For that cause he vtterly refused the iudgyng or diuidyng of the heritage that was desired at his hand and put it ouer from himself to the lawfull iudges not without displeasure saying mā who hath made me a iudge or vmper betwene you And therfore when the people were purposed to haue made him a temporall kyng he fled and by that flight of his shewed that those his ministers must not séeke for worldly souereintie in the Church and much lesse possesse it or by any meanes claime it no nor receiue it or take it vpon them if it be offered Besides this he not onely commaunded to giue vnto Caesar that which is Caesars but also furthermore when the tribute that was wont to be payd to the Magistrate was demaunded of him he commaunded a penny that was taken out of a fishes mouth to be payd for him least he might be an offence vnto others Finally by the space of whole iij. yeares together in which he most faithfully went through with the charge that his heauenly father had put him in trust with accomplished all things enioyned him to the full he neuer gaue any inclyng no not the least that could be of any souereintie or worldly dominiō Unto this holy and most humble example of the Lord there is also further added his most modest doctrine For when he perceiued that his disciples beyng caught and led away with ambition burned altogether with desire of souereintie and striue among themselues for supremacie or prerogatiue or as the Romane Bishops terme it for greaternesse as surely this maladie sticketh fast to the ribbes of them that are atteinted neuer so litle with ambitiousnesse which thyng appeareth by the Romish sort them selues he gaue them a very sore checke and withdrew them from that desire of souereintie beating lowlinesse into them therwithall also mainteinyng the right of the Magistrate ordeined of God and finally committyng the ministration of the word to his disciples without any hope or mention of souereintie at all Therfore when in the xvii of Mathew Peter had payd a péece of twentie pence for the Lord and himselfe to those that demaunded but ten pence and that therby he had put the rest of the disciples in suspicion as though Peter should be aduaunced aboue all the rest of them or be made primate among them in the kyngdome of heauen or in the gouernement of the Church they began to dispute of the matter among them selues and eche of them accordyng to mans infirmitie gaped after that hyghest degrée of souereintie But what sayd the Lord and what did he in that debate of his disciples He tooke a child vnto him and setting him in the middes of them sayd Uerely I say vnto you except ye turne and become like children ye shall not enter into the kyngdome of heauen Therfore whosoeuer humbleth himselfe as this child he is greatest in the kyngdome of heauen Which is all one as if the Lord had sayd vnto them ye striue for preheminence which of you should be gréeted as greatest of all But I tell you for a certeintie except ye turne your myndes from such ambitious disputations that sauour of nothyng but pride and pompe and turne your selues in lowlinesse vnto me and my example yea and vnto the simplenesse of this little boy whom you sée here ye shal be so farre from greatnesse and gloriousnes in that kyngdome of myne that I will not so much as take you for my Disciples Uery truly sayth S. Chrisostome in his 59. Homely vpon Mathew litle childrē know not how to enuy nor how to gape for vaineglorie nor how to desire preheminence of dignitie neither are they any whit the statelyer if ye prayse them or honor them What then aunswereth the Lord to the question of his Disciples Who soeuer sayth he becommeth like a child by puttyng away naughtie affections but chiefly ambition and desirousnesse to beare rule truly the same is greatest in the kingdome of heauē Upon which place Chrisostome sayth agayn Thou séest how he hath taught that preheminence of dignitie is not to be coueted in any case And so forth Agayne in the 20. chapter of Mathew when the mother of Zebedies children came vnto the Lord with her sonnes Iames and Iohn and made sute for them that they might haue the highest roome and chief authoritie about him in his kingdome so as he should place them next him selfe the one on his right hand and the other on his left for looke who they be that are next about a kyng and garde his person in sittyng on either side of him those are counted chief men in the Realme like as at this day those be called Legates a latere or from the Popes side whō the Byshop sendeth from Rome with full power and authoritie The Disciples hauyng forgotten the thynges which the Lord had taught them afore mistrusted eftsoone that those two brothers should be preferred before them all By reason wherof enuying them they began to take pritch at it and to contend agayne among themselues for the preheminēce The Lord therfore calling them to him sayd ye know that the kynges of nations reigne ouer them and they that be great exercise authoritie vpon them It shall not be so among you but he that will be great among you let him become your seruaunt and he that wil be chief among you let him be your vnderlyng like as the sonne of mā is come not to be serued but to serue and to giue his life for the redemption of many Most trimly and effectually hath the Lord herein seuered the Ecclesiasticall ministerie from the ciuill authoritie And iustly doth he challendge and yeld to the Magistrate that which belongeth to the Magistrate without derogatyng or takyng any thyng from him and conueying it to him selfe and his and likewise shew the ministers what they also ought to do Ye know sayth he that there be Princes or Magistrates ordeined among people and among the Gentiles so as there is no neede that you also should be made rulers ouer nations I mynde not to make warres with the Romanes and to put downe their presidentes and Tetrarkes to set you vp in theyr roomes which thyng notwithstandyng the Iewes beleued that Christ should haue done and therfore when he aunswered not their expectation they acknowledged him not to be the Messias Princes haue their
excellent giftes both in their sayinges and doinges yea and finally in their writings and vertewes they shyned as most bright Cressets among the rest of the Starres For S. Peter neuer chalendged to him selfe any superioritie no not euen ouer the basest sort of men and much lesse ouer princes he neuer aduaunced his throne which he had not aboue all kinges and all kingdomes Cornelius the Centurion a knight of Rome fell down at his féete and it was no small cause that made him so to do For the aungell of the Lord had set a great commendation vpon this Peter vnto him wherupon he fell downe before Peter But Peter liftes him vp agayne and humbly sayth that he him selfe is a man also So also when he had lifted vp the lame man and made him whole and sound at the temple of Ierusalem and that the people stode wondering and worshipping of him he gaue all the glorie vnto Christ and told them that he him selfe was but a Minister Neither doth he in his Epistles aduaunce him selfe with any prelacie but simply calles him selfe an Apostle and felowelder forbidding the elders to vsurpe any Lordship ouer the Clergie Neither sitteth he still in his chayre at Hierusalem and sendes abroad his Legates a latere but he is contented to let the cōgregation send him with Iohn into Samaria Yea and in the Counsell of Ierusalem he chalendgeth no preheminence to him selfe All thinges were done in that Counsell by common aduise and consent And the Apostle Paule who in all thinges euen of the smallest sort was a most diligent obseruer of the ordinaūces of his maister Christ no where acknowledgeth S. Peter as preferred before all other men by any prerogatiue neither would he in any wise haue neglected it if he had euer thought him to haue ben preferred afore the rest by the lord Nay rather he fréely reproued Peter in the Church of Antioche accordyng as he himselfe declareth in the 2. to the Galathians In the same place in déede he calleth Peter a Piller but not Peter aboue and therfore much lesse the piller of all pillers greatest and most excellent For with Peter he matcheth two other Apostles whom he termeth pillers as well as him euen Iames and Iohn yea and he putteth Iames afore Peter He had sayd heretofore that the same were had in reputation to the end we might know wherfore he called them pillers Meaning that they were in authoritie as men that by their common and faithful trauell séemed as it were to vphold the Church which els was like to fall if it had not ben vnderpropped and stayed vp through the grace of God in their faithfull teachyng And yet Paule affirmeth that those pillers added nothyng vnto him But rather comparing him selfe with Peter The same sayth he which was mighty in Peter in the Apostleship ouer the Circumcision was mighty in me also among the Gentiles And the same Paule speakyng of the plurall nomber saith he was nothing inferiour to the chief Apostles And in the 3. chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians what is Paule sayth he what is Apollo and in this place is Peter or Cephas to be implyed also as of whō he had made mention in the first chapter vsing the same maner of speaking Neither is there any reason why the opinion of those should hold vs in a mamering which surmise that here is not ment Peter but some other disciple whom Paul calleth by the name of Cephas For the truth of the Gospell crieth out against them in the first of Iohn and so doth Paules owne declaration in the second to the Galathians What are they saith he but onely ministers by whom you haue beleued euen as the Lord gaue vnto euery man I haue planted Apollo hath watred but God gaue the increase Therfore neither is he any thing which planteth nor he which watereth but God which giueth the increase And anone after speakyng of all the Apostles yea and euen of Peter or Cephas to Let a man sayth he in such wise esteme vs as the Ministers of Christ and the disposers of the secretes of God. These lightsome and euident textes of Scripture are sufficient for men that be curable as for vncurable quareling men we leaue them to God the iust iudge and doe witnesse manifestly enough that neither Christes Apostles no nor the Apostle Peter him selfe vsurped so much as one iote of souereintie in the Church but onely tooke vpon them ministration of the glad tydinges of saluation and of Christes holy Church all their life long euen vnto the last gaspe of their liues And therfore there is no reason why the Bishop of Rome should hereafter in maintenance of himselfe his supremacie alledge any more the supremacie of Peter which is now sufficiētly apparant to be vtterly none and alwayes to haue ben none at all in déede ¶ That the first Bishops of Rome vsurped not any souereintie at all in the church but were lowly shepeheardes teachers and ministers of the Church of Rome yea and besides that also Martyrs of Christ. I Will not now dispute whether Peter came at Rome or no. Wherof I sée learned men to dout not without cause Surely it may be proued by substantiall argumentes that Peter sate not in that seate at that tyme and so long a tyme as he is commonly sayd to haue sit continually together If he came to Rome at all certes it was late ere he came and peraduēture not long afore his death For all the old writers euen those that were néere the Apostles time do agreably and stedfastly affirme that Peter was crucified at Rome vnder the Emperour Nero for preaching Christ and his Gospell the same time that Paul was beheaded Which thing I can easly graunt But from this Peter vnto Siluester there be registred 33. Byshops or pastors of Rome Of whom notwithstandyng none tooke vpon him any souereintie either ouer the Citie it selfe or ouer the Church of Rome and therfore much lesse aduaūced they them selues ouer kynges and kyngdomes Yet am I not afrayd to say thus much more of them that if they might be found to haue attempted any whit of this preheminence or to haue sewed for souereintie it is certein that they started aside from the way of their predecessours yea and from their maister Christ and grew out of kynd from their owne Peter Wherfore their sayinges and doinges being against the expresse testimonies of Christ and the Apostles aboue rehearsed could proue nothing Howbeit like as in other Churches as of Antioche Alexandria Corinth Philippos Ephesus Cesarea and the rest there were pastors or teachers which were called Bishops set ouer the Church of God which by their holy ministerie serued seuerally their owne shéepe that were committed to them and not other mens shéepe or in many places at once for at the begynnyng euery pastor had his slocke appointed and committed vnto him So also was done in the Church of Rome which
truly in processe of tyme the vices that had euery where occupyed and corrupted other Churches began also to enter into the Church of Rome for there arose a great schisme in the Church of Rome some chosing S. Cornelius to be their pastors and some choosing Nouatus from whom sprong the heresie or sect of the Nouatians which became very noysome to the Church But Cornelius got the gouernement vnder whom certein of Aphrike began to put the decidyng of their controuersies to the sea of Rome Neuerthelesse the blessed Martyr Byshop of Carthage Cyprian did set himselfe agaynst them also and in his 3. booke of Epistles in his first Epistle to Cornelius Byshop of Rome whom he calleth his brother he sayth among other thinges how it is decréed by all men yea and also that it is right and reason that eche mans case should be there heard where the fault is committed Also he sayth that vnto euery pastor is allotted a portiō of the slocke for euery of them to rule and gouerne and he shall render an account of his doing vnto the lord Among these thinges marke that as yet at that tyme the Byshop of Rome was not taken for the vniuersall shepheard to whom all the other Churches should be subiect Nay rather he sayth that euery shepheard had his seuerall Church committed to him to gouerne for which he should render account to the Lord God and not to the Pope And S. Cornelius himself did not either allow such as appealed out of Affricke to Rome or desire to rule ouer all other Churches and to be called the souerein Lord of all kinges and kingdomes To be bréef these Byshops of the Romane Church were all put to death for the sound doctrine and the professing of Christes name by the Emperours of Rome So farre were they of from taking vpon them full and absolute power ouer any Princes and least of all ouer the princes of Rome For which of so many vngodly bloudy manquellyng princes being mo then xl in nomber did they depose from his souereintie or which of them I pray you did they excōmunicate Or which of these bishops assoyled the people of their othe made to the Emperours Or which of all these said wrate or thought himself to haue receiued fulnesse of power at the handes of Christ our Lord by Peter to be set ouer kinges and kingdomes Therfore it is most certein that these first ministers of the Romane Church were ignoraunt of the thinges which the Romish Bishops of this last and forworne age haue vsurped to themselues and which they haue now a long tyme in vayne indeuered to stablish by the Epistles of those mē ¶ That the Decretall Epistles of the first Byshops of Rome are but counterfettes VErely I am not ignorant how there fly abroad many Epistles of these holy Romane Bishops Martyrs which they call decretals But they ouerthrow themselues with their owne absurdities and shew themselues to be but counterfettes in asmuch as many thinges be so light so triflyng and so vtterly vnlike that auncient simplicitie purenesse and maiestie that not with out good cause they séeme vnto godly and learned men to haue ben deuised long since by others Neither do I greatly regard that the same are fathered vpon the gatheryng of Damasus and Isidorus seyng that there want not some men which put ouer certeine of these kynd of thinges euen to the time of Gregorie the 7. But howsoeuer the case stād for the tyme I pray yon what can be more fond then the fathering of these wordes vpon Anacletus This holy holy and Apostolike Church of Rome obteined the supremacie and preheminence of power ouer all Churches not frō the Apostles but from the very Lord himselfe our Sauiour And again There was a difference euen betwene the blessed Apostles and albeit that all of them were Apostles yet did the Lord graunt and the Apostles determined among them selues that Peter should haue preheminence afore all the rest of the Apostles and be Cephas that is to say a head and hold the souereintie of Apostleship Thus sayth he But who knoweth not though he be but meanely séene in histories that after full fiue hūdred yeares it was obteined and ordeined not by Christ or his Apostles but by loytering lozels or rather by traiterous persōs that Rome should be called the head of all Churches that is to wit that it should obteine supremacie prerogatiue of power ouer all Churches Or who would beleue that Anacletus exercised himselfe so little in readyng of the Gospell that he knew not how Cephas signifieth not a head but a stone or a Rocke according as it is interpreted by Iohn the Apostle in the first chapter And which interpreter should a man rather beleue Iohn the Apostle or the coūterfet Anaclete The lewd packing then of the lewd lozelles is detected both in these and in many other thinges The same partie maketh very often mention of Archbyshops and metropolitanes neither omitteth he primates But it is most manifest that those titles were vtterly vnknowen to the primitiue Church and were afterward inuented and vsurped in times folowyng And at their first comming vp the maner of vsing them was after a sort méetly tolerable till their posteritie did afterward vse them or rather misuse them more proudly Besides this the sayd counterfet Anaclete maketh a Bishop greater than an Elder whereas Ierome himselfe sheweth by Scriptures that Elders and Bishops are all one and that in processe of time Byshops were preferred before Elders not by the ordinaunce of God but by the ordinaunce of man Moreouer this Anacletus alloweth the Appeales that are made to the sea of Rome saying that all questions and matters of weight ought to be referred to the Apostolike sea for so had the Apostles decréed But this selfe same thing is manifestly disallowed by the holy maister of Christ Cyprian writyng to Cornelius the Pope Many other thinges prateth he concerning the priuiledges and iudgementes of the Church which who soeuer séeth not to disagrés with these first tymes of the primitiue Church he seeth nothyng but is blynder then a béetle Furthermore there is a decrée fathered vpon Pope Alexander wherby he commaundeth that water should be halowed with salt to clense the people and to put away the secret slightes of the deuill But who is so light headed to beleue that so great men in so great light of the Gospell published so filthy decrées concerning such baggagely gewgawes so openly fighting agaynst the Gospell and doctrine of the Apostles These thinges sauour not that Apostolike and auncient purenesse and maiestie which entierly attributeth all saluation to the onely bloud of the sonne of God and not to water and salt Pope Sixtus in the sayd decretall Epistles commaundeth that no man els should touch the holy vesselles but he that is halowed Ye may perceiue that this stuffe agréeth trimly with the Apostolicall doctrine deliuered by Paul in the 2. to
Romes persuasion sent abroad proclamations openly and to the whole world ordeinyng that all the Churches of the world should obey the Church and Byshop of Rome The same History writer addeth further that in tymes forepast the same proclamation was not obserued in all pointes and specially not of the Greekes c. The sayd Phocas that made this law was a monster of mankynd a most vnthrifty Prince a most cruell murtherer a thrall of lecherie and all wickednesse as histories beare witnesse and of all kynges the wretcheddest Therfore least the pot might not haue a coâ—â—â—â—fit for it or least like lippes might not alwayes finde lyke lettice he made a constitution euen méete for hym selfe ¶ That the latter Byshops of Rome degenerated vtterly from the first and middlemost Byshoppes of Rome and that they vsurpe the cursed title of full power agaynst all right and reason NOt vnfitly are diuerse godly and learned men of the Church reported to haue sayd that among the latter Byshops of Rome that are worthy to be reckoned among Shepherdes Gregory is the last For as for the hindermost sort that haue folowed after hym they were not sheepefeeders but sheepebyters a few excepted for through their neglecting of Gods worde and their earthly affections they haue not onely in wonderfull wise darkened the clearnesse of the christian doctrine with mens inuentions and traditions but also defiled and marred the simplicitie and purenesse of Gods seruice with vncleane superstitions differing little or nothing from the heathenish wicked Idolatries Many of them haue opeÌ„ly defended corrupt doctrines and the Idolles themselues and other abhominacions and therewithall haue forced them vppon the people Othersome of them treading all discipline and honestie vnder foote haue wallowed themselues in filthy and vnlawfull lustes in ryot and lecherie in vnchastnesse in aduowtrie and whoredome in incest and other horrible offences as it were in the myre of Cocytus and the poole of Stix Others of them haue not refrayned themselues from poysonynges from Necromancie or felowshyp with Deuilles from magik damned in all ages from murtheryng and from treasons All of them for the most part and specially the latter Bishops of Rome being blinded with diuelish desire of soueraintie and swolne and puft vp with such pride as the lyke was neuer heard of haue not bene ashamed before God nor before his aungels and the whole world to aduaunce themselues into that seate by simonie and to intangle themselues in secular kyngdome and therwithall to withdraw themselues from the subiection of kynges and princes ordayned by God to vsurp other mens rightes to beare both the persons of spiritualtie and temporaltie and to chalenge to themselues the iurisdictson of both the swordes to suffer no man to be equall wyth them and much lesse to be aboue them also to deny dutie and honour vnto their betters and to such as are ordayned of God or rather to take it froÌ„ them to theÌ„selues to raigne ouer the Princes themselues and to appoint them lawes and finally to trample them vnder their féete contrary to Gods commaundement and the example of the Apostles But least in this behalfe I may séeme to yelde to affection or to speake these thinges vppon malice or to fayne neuer so little go to let vs stand to the tryall let inquisitioÌ„ be made vppon the liues of the Bishops and read the liues of Iohn the twefth of Siluister the second and Siluester the third of Bennet the ninth of Gregorie the sixt and Gregorie the seuenth of Vrban the second of Paschall the second of Calixt the second of Honorius the second and Honorius the third of Innocent the second Innocent the third of Innocent the fourth of Adrian the fourth of Alexander the third of Gregorie the nynth of Clement the fourth and here I am fayne to stop least I might make a beadroll ouer long and wearisome to the reader for I could name yet mo of the byshops that ensued fewe better then these but too many worser But in thys behalfe it is best to heare the iudgement of some Byshop yet will I not alledge the testimonie of Cardinall Benno and certayne others but of Eberhart Erle of Abensperg who being byshop of Salisburg did in the counsell that was helde at Regenspurg the yeare of our Lord 1240. make a méetly long oration against the tyranny of the Romane byshops which oration Iohn Auentine hath copied out whole into hys history of yearly affayres in the seuenth booke the 683. leafe Among other thing Christ our Sauiour Lord and God leauing saith he his heaueÌ„ly throne became mortall and poore that he might make vs immorand rich And when he had conquered hell and was returning triumphantly into heauen he gaue vs hys peace he left vs his peace and he assigned concord and mutuall loue to be as it were the badge and cognisance whereby his citizens might be discerned from the souldiers of the infernall Ioue And he gaue vs earnest warning to beware of false Christes and false Prophetes namely men that should séeke to raigne ouer vs and to mocke vs vnder the Christian name and byshoply title If we be not blynde we sée a most cruell woolfe in a shéepes skinne vnder the title of the chiefe byshop The Romish flamines haue warre against all Christians being growen great by aduenturing by deceiuing and by sowing warre vppon warre they kill the shéepe they slea they driue peace and concord out of the world they bring vp ciuill warres and household debates from hell and they weakeÌ„ all mens streÌ„gthes dayly more and more that they themselues may leape ouer all mens heades deuour all men and bring all men in bondage They prouide not for their flocke like byshoply shepheardes but rather make hauocke of them with outragious licenciousnes like tyrantes Iustice waxeth skant vngodlinesse couetousnesse desire of honor loue of money and lechery waxe rise Christ forbiddeth vs to hate our enemies and commaundeth vs to loue them Contrariwise the Romish sort vnder great pretence of holinesse commaund men to breake stedfast couenauntes to abuse Gods holy name to deceiue men withall to be vnkinde to such as haue deserued well to recompence good déedes with euill déedes to make warre to quarrell to beguile and to betray Hildebrand the same is Gregory the seuenth a hundred threscore and tenne yeares agoe layde first the fouÌ„dacion of Antichristes kingdome vnder pretence of Religion He was the first that began this horrible warre which is continued vnto this day by his successors First they thrust out the Emperour from the election of the byshops and coÌ„ueied it to the people and the clergie After they had geuen them a mocke also and hist them out of doores now they labour to bring vs also vnder coram and bondage that they may raigne alone Moreouer being nouzeled in custome of bearing rule and hauing throughly wayed the power of themselues and of their aduersaries they will vse the beutifull colour of stablishing the
vsurpyng monstruously the place of supreme head And finally which hath presumed to dispose parsons of churches other Catholicke Priestes and to make constitutions in cases Ecclesiasticall deposing and oppressing the Catholike Byshops and aduauncing or restoryng wicked preachers and ministers of vngodlinesse to the roomes of those that be deposed c. This ye may sée is the fayre Helene for the winnyng of whom the Romish Byshops haue made warre in Christendome now these certeine hundred yeares agaynst all Christen Kinges and Princes This is the ground of all their grief verely this is the onely cause for which they haue turmoyled the whole world and cease not to turmoyle it euen at this day that is to wit in so great light of the Gospell which now shyneth bright and triumpheth through the whole world a most assured proofe of inuincible shamelesnesse and wilfulnesse For the Lord without any parable and most manifestly in the Gospell sayth to the pastors of Churches The kings of the Gentiles reigne ouer them but so shall not you Neuerthelesse the Byshop who will séeme to be the Prince of pastors despising or rather trampling that so manifest commaundement of the Lord vnder his féete is not ashamed to take vppon him all power as well in spirituall as temporall matters And what els is that but to wype away all shamefastnesse and openly and wickedly to rebell agaynst God and to outface him with saying to him but we will do so and not simply but also farre further yea and more to But I haue shewed euidently inough afore that all pastors of Churches are called and ordeined by Christ not to beare rule but to serue in all thinges Monstruously therfore doth the seruaunt of seruauntes which is excluded from all Lordship and appointed onely to do seruice vsurpe to him selfe the thyng that is peculiar onely to souereines whom God hath set in authoritie For if the thyng be sayd to be done monstruously which is done either agaynst nature or Gods expresse ordinaunce I pray you what can be deuised more monstruous than that he whom the Lord of all thinges of whom commeth all power and dominion hath cast downe as the basest seruaunt of all and put farre vnderneath the footestooles of all Lordes should not onely take vpon him the chayre of estate which God hath graunted onely to kynges but also moreouer deuise himselfe a throne which he will haue séeme to be exalted aboue the thrones of all kinges and mountyng vp into the same without remembraunce of his own base estate deuilishly vaunt himselfe to the whole world not now as a King or Emperour onely but also as chief Byshop that obteineth both the swordes and all power both in heauen and in earth Here is that dubbleshapped monster here here is séen that deadly and detestable that horrible also and wonderfull monster which is blased in the holy Scriptures by the title of the great whore which fitteth vppon many waters and vppon the scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemie But for a kyng or a Quéene to be called a head as well in spirituall as temporall matters within their owne Realme it is no monstruousnesse at all bycause the Lord hath so ordeined it in Gods word Princes be called the heades of the people so the thing can not be sayd to be done mōstruously agaynst nature which is done according to Gods will word With Kyngs I ioyne Quéenes also and not without cause least the Pope perchaunce might surmyse that women are excluded from reignyng or that it is a monstruous thyng if a woman should reigne For we know that the thinges which the Apostle speaketh concernyng the obedience of wiues and the silence of women in the congregation of God are not to be wrested vnto reigning For it is certein that the Lords Apostles impeached not the successions in kyngdomes ne disordered not the accustomed maner of inherityng in kyngdomes Also we know that mention is made in the Bible of the noble Quéene of Saba to her great prayse for her much conference with Salomon Neither will I now say any thyng of Delbora that Iudged Israell of other Princely Ladyes Truly Esay not onely sayd And Kynges shal be thy foster-fathers but also added And Quéenes shal be their nurces they shall bow downe themselues before thée c. Esay 49. ¶ How it is no monstruousnesse for the Queene of England and consequently for all ciuill Magistrates to determine in cases Ecclesiasticall or to vndertake and beare the charge of Church matters as to depose euill Byshops and to set vp better in their roomes NOw then it is out of dout that the sayd most vertuous Quéene is supreme head or souerein Lady in that her Realme ordeined of God himselfe and set ouer the puissant Realme of Englād except it be false which the Lords Apostle and chosen vessel Paule hath sayd Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers For there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordeined of god Therfore who soeuer resisteth power resisteth Gods ordinaūce And they that resist shall purchase dānation to themselues Seyng now that all men know these thinges to be most true it foloweth there withal not onely that the Quéene of Englād is Quéene by Gods ordinaūce but also that the byshop that resisteth her setteth himselfe naughtely agaynst her prouoketh Gods greuous iudgemēt agaynst himselfe But forasmuch as the Pope thinkes it a monstruousnesse that a king or a Quéene or any ciuil Magistrate in a cōmō weale should determine of Ecclesiasticall cases put down naughtie Priestes or Bishops aduaunce set vp better in their steddes and take vpon him to beare the charge not onely of temporall affaires but also of spirituall or Ecclesiasticall matters Lo I will proue and shew by euident and inuincible argumentes and examples of holy kynges howbeit briefly that the same thinges are parcell of their dewtie and therfore that the Magistrate doth then by Gods law and accordyng to the commaundement of the euerlastyng God and that the Bishop of Rome snatcheth them to him selfe and to his rable tyrannically and wickedly agaynst God playeth the Antichrist in pluckyng them from those to whom God hath giuen them That God in any wise would and that he hath ordeined from the beginnyng that Kynges in their kyngdomes and Magistrates in their common weales ought to take vpon them the care euen of Religion and to looke faithfully vnto it and to order it diligently accordyng to the rule of Gods woord this is the greatest proofe that God in hys law doth straitly commaund a copie of the law to be deliuered to the Prince of his people therby to dispose all his affaires And in the same law he commaundeth the Magistrate to make examination of doctrines and to restrayne yea and to smyte such as withdraw mē from God and such as teach stubbornly agaynst the law These thinges are to
be read in Deut. 13. and 17. and in other places of the booke of the law Besides this Moses whom God had made the onely lawfull and chief Magistrate of hys people ordeyned not onely iudges but also Priestes and by Gods word appointed euery of them his office yea euen vnto Aaron the high Priest and chosen of god It would be to long to recken vp these thinges particularly Likewise also Iosue that most deuout Capteine of Gods people geueth charge to all estates yea euen vnto the Priestes to what euery of them shall do For he ruled not onely ciuill or warlike affaires but Church matters also both by himselfe and by others Howbeit he restreined all thinges general and particular not at his owne pleasure but to Gods holy law So did Dauid order the Priestes and the Churchmatters also In conueying and settling the Arke of the Lord wherein is séene the ordering of the whole Religion he consulted with his Princes and afterward made all the people priuie to it and lastly also sent to the Priests and Leuites appointyng them as well as others what they should do Let the first booke of Chronicles be read in which he also sorteth the Priestes into degrées and appointeth euery man his office by Gods commaundement for the which thyng he deserued right great and perpetuall commendation in the Church In the 2. booke of the Chronicles and the viii chapter we read that Salomon according to the ordinaūce of Dauid his father appointed the degrées of Priestes in their ministrations and the Leuites in their degrées to wash and to do seruice before the Priestes c. And byanby there foloweth For so had Dauid the man of God commaunded Neither did they omit or go beyond any part of the kynges commaundement as well the Priestes as the Leuites The same Salomon deposed Abiathar the hygh Priest and set vp Zadoch in his sted And many other such thyngs as these did that wise king Salomon the beloued of God with Gods well likyng his owne glorie The same thinges did the rest of the kings of Iuda Dauides holy ofspryng that folowed after hym For Asa put the Priestes out of office that were defiled with idolatry set in others that were more godly Iosaphat callyng the Priestes together giueth them their charge and ioyning certein of the noblemen with them sendeth them through his Realme to preach Gods law And he not onely disposeth the Courbarres of iudges but also ordereth the offices of Priestes King Ezechias than who there was not a better since Dauid except Iosias onely repayred the temple of the Lord like as kyng Ioas also had done afore him who likewise had the Priestes at commaundement and sommoned a Counsell of the Priestes where he made an excellent Oration to them like a good diuine He delt with them as one hauing full power and commaūded them in these wordes Giue eare Clense ye Cary away c. The Priestes also rebelled not stubbornly agaynst their Prince after the maner of our prelates saying vnto him thou puttest thy siccle into an other mans corne for it is no part of thy charge to commaunde the Priestes But they submitted themselues redely to their Prince and obeyed his holy hestes in all thinges It is declared at large in the holy Scriptures that Iosias did set order in the whole Religion accordyng to the rule of Gods law commaund the Priestes puttyng some of them out of their office placing other in their roomes I will rehearse no mo examples for makyng my readers wéery But vpon all these I conclude that Kynges Princes among Gods people had souereintie and authoritie by Gods ordinaunce ouer the Priestes ouer the hyghest Byshop and ouer the whole Clergie and disposed not onely ciuill but also Ecclesiasticall matters accordyng to Gods law both rightfully and also with singular commēdation And yet in the meane while the Princes meddled not with the sacrificing which God had committed to the Priestes For that was not lawfull for them without punishment as it appeared by kyng Azarias otherwise named Osias who was striken with leprosie for presumyng wilfully to burne incense vpon the brasen altar contrarie to Gods ordinaunce For it is one thing to sacrifice and to execute the offices that belong peculiarly to the Priestes and an other thyng to dispose the Priesthode and discipline of the Church in conuenient order and to kéepe them when they be ordered For God hath sorted these offices asunder and will not haue them confoūded And what man except it be some giddybraynd and froward Anabaptist will say that Christen Princes haue lesse authoritie and power in the Churches of Christenfolke than the Iewish kynges had in the Synagoges Can ye say that the authoritie of these is diminished by Christ our Lord or by his Apostles Most certein it is that it is not diminished by christ For the Prophetes and among them specially Dauid in the 2. Psalme and Esay in his 49. chapter in other places haue foretold that kings should come into the Church of Christ that they should not onely lead their liues there after the maner of other Christen men but also more ouer continue there still in gouernyng defending aduauncing Church affaires as kinges still executyng kyngly power Which point S. Austin handleth excellently garnishyng and enlightenyng it with many sentences agaynst the Donatistes which denyed the Magistrate to haue any power at all to deale in matters of the Church Furthermore it is certein that Christes Apostles remoued not the faithfull Magistrate from the administration of Ecclesiasticall matters therby to make Christen kynges of lesse power than the kynges of the Iewes had For they say expresly that Princes are Gods ministers yea and ordeined to plant the thing that is good and to plucke vp the thing that is euill But who is so ouerlodē with the flesh that he will restreine these things to the flesh onely and to outward affaires and not also extend them to mens soules and to spirituall matters Considering how it is agréed vpon among all men of a right opinion that a Magistrate ought to looke chiefly vnto such thinges as belong to the maintenaunce of the publike welfare of the common weale or of the happy state of their Realmes But it is out of all dout that the diligent care of faith and Religion make to the increase and preseruation of the happie state and welfare of kyngdomes and common weales and therfore no man but he that is an enemy to the happy state of Gods people can deny that the regard of Religion also perteineth to Princes or Magistrates And that so much the lesse bicause we learne plainly by readyng the stories of the kinges of Iuda and Israel that those kyngdomes were and are most happie wherin the Princes do faithfully administer matters of Religion and that those be most vnhappie wherin the kynges either neglect
my seruaunt Dauid did I will be with thée and I will build thée a sure house and so forth as foloweth in the third booke of kinges and the xj chapter And I haue already rehearsed out of Gods word what reward Iehu reaped at Gods hand for taking away of Idols Idolatrie and Idolaters Seyng then that the Quéene of England hath made reformation in her Realme according to Gods word and taken away the Idols and Idolatrie of Baal yea and Baals chappels and temples and his chapleynes also together with all Popish abhominations she hath not lost her kingdome but rather knit it more strongly vnto her and is sure of Gods protection and fauour and by Gods grace shall alwayes be sure of it if she continew in the faith Therfore there is no cause why her most gracious Maiestie should be troubled any whit at the Popes most peruerse sentence of deposition For God in his word hath giuen a contrarie sentence to the Popes so as the pope is most manifestly reputed among the false Prophetes Also in the times of Ioachim Iechonias Zedechias kinges of Iuda there were false Prophetes and fauorers of Idolatry which warranted good lucke to these Idolatrous kings and cursed the king of Babylon whom God had stalled in the kingdome and whom he would haue to reigne and who afterward in the time of Daniell was turned from Idols to the true God and drew away the miserable people from his obedience But they were greuously rebuked and disproued by Gods holy and true Prophetes Ieremie and Ezechiell who prophesied that all maner of miseries should be powred out vppon the Idolaters according as the falling out of thinges proued in the end by Gods large powring out of a sea of miseries vppon them The same God also a thréescore and ten yeares after ouerthrew the kingdome of Babylon chiefly for Idolatries sake as it is read in the fifth chapter of Daniell and conueyed the Empire to Cyrus king of Persia who proclaymed the true God of Israell and let Gods people go frée out of captiuitie and commaunded Gods temple and holie Ceremonies to be set vp agayne Therefore after so great light of Gods word and the goodly consent of the holie histories there is no cause why any Princes or sacred Magistrates should be afrayd of the Balaamish popes cursinges depriuations and manaces brandished and denounced for putting away Idolles and for treading vnder foote that new Baalishnesse the Poperie For God likes well of all such as reuerence Gods word reforming them selues purely according to Gods word and framing all thinges in Rellgion by the same But it is most manifest that Gods word condemneth and reiecteth all Idolatrie and all seruing of God that is counterfet and deuised by mans good intent inuented and receiued at the good pleasure and appointement of men without Gods woorde or agaynst it ¶ That the Byshop of Rome can not discharge them of their othe which are sworne to the Queene For the trothe that is once plighted must be kept both to good and bad MOreouer looke how many soeuer within the noble Realme of Englād haue in any wise sworne to the Quéenes maiestie the Bishop of Rome vtterly dischargeth them from such othe and from all dewtie of subiection fealtie obedience But we aske him againe from whence he hath that power and what God or rather what féend hath giuen him commission to release those of their othe once made of all dewtie and of all their rightfull obedience whom the true God himselfe in his owne true word openly and streitly bindeth to kéepe their promise he is not able to alledge so much as one litle word out of Gods booke for this power of his which he leawdly surmiseth worthely therefore is this trayterous ambition and rashnesse of his spitted at and the faithfull know that they must obey their gracious Quéene by the commaundement of God. For wheras the Bishops soothers alledge certein things in maintenaunce of their trecherie out of Gratian 22. Quaest. 4. and chiefly this saying of Isidore In euill promises go backe from thy word and such other thinges which the Lombard gathereth together about the end of the third booke of his sentences that Iehu the king of Israell called all the Priestes of Ball to make sacrifice and whē they were at their businesse brake promise with them and slew them euery mothers sonne and also that the Coūcell of Constance were of opinion that there was no promise to be kept with heretikes They make nothing at all for the beawtifying of their most rightlesse case For by sound iudgement we willingly admit the examples of Dauid and Herode and the sentences of Ambrose Isidore and Bede which are alledged by the Maister of the Sentences But we say further that the othe which the nobilitie and commons haue made to the Quéene of England is not to be accounted among euill promises and vnaduised vowes or othes but among such promises and othes as are promised and confirmed with swearing by the commaundement and allowance of god Wherefore I say that those othes must in any wise be performed and in no wise reuersed And who soeuer teacheth that they are to be reuersed he prouoketh Gods wrath agaynst himselfe and putteth them that obey him in daunger of Gods greuous iudgement Certesse as for Iehus déede in sleaing the Priestes of Baal God disallowed it not for he said openly that he had done the thing that was rightous in Gods sight the thing that was in Gods hart But this was a singular or peculiar déede like as certein of Sampsons doinges were and of certeine other noble men which are not setforth in the Scriptures for euery man to folow being not rightly called therunto by god For we know we must liue according to lawes and not according to custome nor after the example of particular déedes But the law commaundeth that we should not lye or deceiue any man by couin or craft and much lesse then may wee defile our selues with periurie The thinges are knowen well inough which Austen hath discoursed to Cōsentius against lying We may adde hereunto that king Iehu bound not himselfe by any solemne othe to the Priestes of Baal but onely allured them by putting them in hope that he would offer a right great and sumptous sacrifice that the Priestes being blinded with their owne naughtinesse and their ouereager desire of Idolatrie came flocking by heapes therfore suffered iust punishment in Gods behalfe for their owne sturdy wickednesse and their vnappeasable hatred towardes the true Religion and true Ministers of god Neither is this to be ouerpassed here that Iehu commaunded diligent search to be made in the tēple least there might be any of the Lordes Prophetes among the wicked Priestes of Baal meaning therby that the true seruauntes and worshippers of God must not be punished or put to death with the offenders Idolaters that be hated of god Which thing doth
neuertheles kept promise with them vnimpeached euen after they had found out their deceit Wherupon Ambrose in hys booke of duties and Austen vnto Boniface geue vs to vnderstand and that full rightly that the promise that is once made must be perfourmed yea euen vnto our enemies and to euill men and infidelles Besides this certayne hundred yeares after the people of Israell were punished with a sore dearth for Saules breaking of the leage that was made with the Gabaonites and amendes could not be made for the fault vntill seueu men of Saulss posterity were hanged to death vnder the raign of Dauid according as it is read written in the second booke of Samuell the xxi chapter And like as our Lorde sayth in the Gospell that the Niniuites and the Quéene of Saba shall iudge the Iewes at the day of iudgemet Euen so there is no doubt but that Marcus Attilius Regulus the whole Senate of Rome which were heathen men shal condemne these most blessed fathers forasmuch as they estéeme it a thing of nothing to breake the promise that is made yea confirmed euē with an oth but the Romanes kept promise that a man would wonder at it yea euen to their enemies The histories beare witnes of these things in many places The Prophet Ieremy exhorteth Gods people with many wordes and very earnestly to kéepe promise with Nabuchodonozor though he were a heathen prince and an infidell and to obay him and to pray to God for hys welfare Ezechiel also speaking of the vnfaythfulnes of Zedechias towardes Nabuchodonozor sayth He hath set light by hys oth and broken hys couenaunt euen when he had geuen hys hand vpon it All these thinges hath he done and therefore he shall not escape As truely as I liue sayth God I will bring myne othe which he hath despysed and my couenaunt which he hath broken vpon hys owne head These sayinges are more apt and fit for our present case than that they read to be expounded applyed with many wordes None other thing taught Christes Apostles in the new Testament for Peter teacheth men expresly to perfourme faythfulnes euen to wicked maisters and rulers Let seruauntes sayth he obay theyr masters not onely if they be good and gentle but also if they be crabbed c. A little afore hauing spoken also of the magistrate he commaundeth the faythful to obay them for so is Gods will that we may stop the mouthes of foolish men by doing well And we knowe that in the Apostles dayes the Lordes and maysters were heathen men or infidelles Likewise S. Paule instructing seruantes sayth As many seruantes as be vnder the yoke let them estéeme theyr masters woorthy of all honor lest the name of God and hys doctrine be il spoken of Which thing the Apostle speaketh of heathen and vnbeleuing maisters for against these he macheth the beleuers saying forthwith And they that haue beleuing maisters let them not despyse them because they be brethren but let them bee the more seruiceable to them because they be beleuers After the same maner speaketh he in Rom. 13. and Tit. 3. and in other places of perfourmance of faythfulnes and obedience to the heathen magistrate And we also inferring vpon these thinges after the same maner say If the faithfull be bound to wayward and vnbeleuing maisters how much more are the Englishmen bound by Gods commaundemēt to kéep theyr promises and othes made to their Quéene being a faithfull holy and gracious Prince And men agrée also with God in thys behalfe For of many things I will alleage but this one About the yeare of our Lord 630. or as other reckon 681. vnder Sisenand king of Spaine at the citie of Toledo in Spayne there was hild a competent Synode wherin this case of performing othes sworne vnto Princes is diligently entreated of The sayd Synod is commonly called the fourth counsell of Toledo Among other thinges they make a decrée in these wordes Can. 74. The report goeth that many nations are so false-harted that they neglect to perfourme the promise which they haue made by othe vnto theyr owne princes and pretend to sweare with their mouthes when they wickedlye purpose to forsweare themselues in theyr hartes For they sweare to theyr kinges and impeach the faithfulnes which they haue promised and they are not affrayd of that booke of Gods iudgement whereby cursednes is brought vppon such as swear by the name of God lyingly What hope thē shall such people haue against theyr enemies when they be in danger What credit is to be geuen them any more in making peace with other contries what leage will they not break what assurance sworn to the enemies shal stand stable whē they kéep not their promises sworne to their owne kinges for who is so mad as to cut of his owne head with his own hands But they as it is wel known forgetting their own saluation murther thēselues with theyr own hand by turning their owne force against theyr Kinges thēselues And whereas the Lord sayth Touch not mine annoynted And wheras Dauid sayth who can lay his hand vppon the Lordes annoynted and be giltlesse they are not affrayd to fall into periury nor yet to destroy theyr owne kinges For promise is made to the enemies and not broken Now if faythfulnes take place in war how much more is it to be obserued in all other thinges For it is hye treason to God if people impeach theyr faythfulnesse promised to theyr Kinges For the offence is committed not onely agaynst them but also agaynst God in whose name the promise is plighted Héerupon it commeth to passe that the wrath of God hath so altered many kingdomes vpon earth that one of them is lozoned from another for the wickednes of their promise breaking and euil behauior Wherfore it behoueth vs to take warning at such chaunces of nations that we be not likewise stricken with swift plague and punished with cruell punishment for if God spared not the Angels that transgressed against him but thrust them out of their heauenly habitation for their disobedience wheruppon also he sayth by Esay My sword hath bene bathed in heauen how much more must we feare the losse of our saluation lest we perish for our vnfaythfulnes through the vengeance of the same sword of God But if we will eschew Gods displeasure and be desirous that he should turne his rigour into mercy Let vs kéepe the reuerence of religion and feare towardes God and performe the faithfulnes and allegiance that we promise to our Princes Let there not be in vs as there is in some nations wicked wilynes of vnfaithful dealing nor truthles trechery of deceitfull meaning nor villany of false forswearing nor trayterous practising of conspiracie Let no man among vs vsurp the kingdome through presumptuousnes let no man set his contrymen together by the eares let no man imagine the destruction of Kings but when a prince is
thinges to kéepe your faith plighted to your gracious souereine Lady by othe and to obey her faithfully to mainteine the peace of the Realme and to abhorre eschew the trechrie and traiterousnesse leawdly wound in or rather wickedly commaūded by the father of sedition the Bishop of Rome that sinnefull man to the intent you may also eschew the sore punishmentes of God. ¶ How great calamities and how great mischieues the Bishop of Rome hath brought vpō kyngdomes and nations in Christendome these foure hundred yeares and more in putting downe kinges and remouyng kingdomes and discharging subiectes of theyr dew fealtie and allegeance by the fulnesse of their power a brief historicall declaration or wyndyng vp VPon occasion of the fore mentioned storie of Gregorie the vij and kyng Rafe I will procede from the tyme of the said Gregorie almost vnto our age by the space of foure hundred yeares and odde briefly compyling and knitting together how great calamities and how great mischieues the Bishops of Rome haue wrought to kingdomes and nations in Christēdome these foure hundred yeares and more in deposing kings transposing kingdomes and discharging subiectes from their faith and allegeance by the fulnesse of their power to the intent that euē by this horrible butcherie and confusion of all thinges and the sorowfull rehearsall of most lamentable aduentures all people in Christendome may learne to know in déede what the Bishops of Rome be whom they still honour and with all aduisednesse and constancie to beware of those Romish Prelates as of a dispatching plague both to kingdomes and common weales the poyson of peace and welfare the authors and firebrandes of treasons warres ciuill slaughters and all most miserable calamities and worthely hated of God and all good men In the yeare of our Lord .1045 there arose a very great and noysome schisme in the Citie of Rome betwene thrée Bishops Benet the ix Siluester the iij. and Gregorie the vj. which turmoyled the Church of Rome very daungerously and outrageously Of this schisme Otho Frisingensis writeth thus About this tyme there was a shamefull confusion of the Church of God in the Citie of Rome by reason of three Intruders that sealed vpō that sea at once who as I my selfe being in the Citie haue heard the Romanes report led there a beastly and shamefull life And Beno the Cardinall in the life of Hildebrand the Church saith he by these mēs meanes meaning the iij. Bishops was torne a sunder with a sore schisme mortall warres and vnmeasurable slaughters and almost choked with horrible heresies by giuing men poyson to drinke vnder colour of hony And Platina in the life of Siluester the iij. sayth The Bishoprike was come to that point that who soeuer could do most by bryberie and ambition I say not by holinesse and doctrine he onely obteined the state of dignitie the good mē beyng borne downe and reiected and the rest that is written fréely inough agaynst the most corrupt maners of the Court of Rome But the Emperour Henry the third of that name surnamed the Blacke a godly and stout Prince gathered a chosen armye in Germanye and enteryng into Rome called a Councell and deposed those three Byshops placing in their roome one Swigger the Byshop of Bamberg whom they call Clement the second Hereunto Cardinall Beno addeth Which thinges beyng stoutly accomplished the Emperour Henry condemned Gregorie the sixth and his disciple Hildebrand who afterward was Byshop of Rome by the name of Gregorie the seuenth and would not forsake his master but folowed him euen in his vttermost aduersitie to be banished into the partes of Dutcheland Notwithstandyng beyng deceiued with ouermuch gentlenesse and by meanes therof looking neither to the Church nor to himselfe nor to mankind he gaue the new Idolaters to much scope whom he ought rather to haue shet vp in continuall prison that they might not haue infected men nor neuer bene heard of any more But after the sayd Gregorie the sixth was dead in exile Hildebrand became his heyre as well of his wickednesse as also of his money Thus much saith Beno But Hildebrand beyng vnthankfull the Emperour for his deliueraunce kept still the hatred which he had once conceiued agaynst him in Germanie For after he had by violence and euill slightes thrust himselfe into the Bishoprike by the name of Gregorie the vij he bent himselfe wholly to oppresse Henry the fourth the sonne of Henry the third of purpose to reuēge the carying away of his maister Gregorie the sixth and of himselfe into Germanie and to confirme and stablish the souerein power of his Bishops sea that the Popes might not hence forth stand in feare of the Emperours And truly Henry the third is reported to be the last Emperour that was able to bridle the Romane Byshops and to kéepe them vnder coram For although there succeded many noble and valyant Emperours in the Empyre which did set themselues stoutly against the Bishops and cast some of them downe from their seate yet had none of them so good lucke in bridlyng them as had Hēry the third For the rebellion that was begon by this Gregorie the vij and anone after continued by his scholers and stubbornely increased by their successours did so breake through by mayne force that the Emperours were able to do litle were they neuer so earnest and stoute Yea and the time was now come that the foresayinges of the Prophetes and Apostles must be fulfilled Therfore Gregorie the vij hauing inuaded the seate trusting that occasion was giuen him to oppresse the Emperour Hēry the iiij and to bring to passe the thing that he had purposed in his minde now many yeares afore first putteth forth a Bull against the Emperour wherein he layeth sore to his charge burtheneth him with greuous crimes by spreading those letters of his ouer all Italie Germanie Fraunce Also he assayth to besotte the mindes of certeine Princes of Germanie and to draw them to his side Which thing folowed his hand a litle to luckely Afterward becomming more bold by reason of the fauour of the Princes he aduentureth to excommunicate the Emperour to giue sentēce agaynst him the he should be deposed frō his Empyre or kingdome and to discharge all his subiectes of their faith obedience that they ought vnto him He had learned this not of the Prophetes or Apostles nor yet out of the holy Scriptures but of his predecessors Zacharie the first Steuen the second Adrian the first and Leo the third Furthermore he cōmaundeth the Princes to chose another kyng in stede of Hēry that was excommunicated least they might not know whom he would haue chosen he sendes them a crowne with this Antichristly verse ingrauen in it As Christ the Rocke the Crowne to Peter gaue So Peter would that Rafe the same should haue Certeine princes therfore which had conspired among thēselues chose Rafe of Rhynefild duke of Sweueland that
of Sweueland and Austriche two of the auncientest and noblest houses of Germanie Afterward Rafe Duke of Haspurge a Swicer seased vppon both the Duchies and bestowed them in Fée vppon his two sonnes Albert Rafe of whom Rafe was made Duke of Sweueland and Albert Duke of Austriche I haue recited this pitifull and lamentable storie out of Iohn Auentine somewhat the more at large bycause that in it as it were in a cleare glasse a man may behold the bloudthirstie nature of the Popes bearing hatred in minde most spitefully of couetousenesse and ambition vtterly vnsatiable malitious in all respectes outraging with beastly woodnesse and crueltie And also to what point the Bulles of the Romish Bishops haue driuen kingdomes and common weales casting downe some and aduauncing othersome at the pleasure of the Bishops and also acquitting the nobilitie and commons of their fealtie and obedience dew to their Princes Now if any man in way of obiection demaund wherefore God giueth these beastes leaue to outrage agaynst all good men and to bring to passe so great thinges and not rather ouerthroweth the seate them that sit in the seate the aunswere is ready shapen The Scriptures must néedes be fulfilled and specially the prophesie which Daniell vttereth in these wordes The Horne that grew vp had eyes and a mouth speaking great things and his looke was grimmer then all his felowes And he fought a battell with the Saintes and preuailed against them vntill the auncient of yeares came and iudgement was giuen to the high Saintes and so forth as foloweth in the vij and eight chapters of Daniell In the last end of their reigne when there shal be great store of wicked folke there shall stand vp a king of a stoute countenance that vnderstandeth riddles and he shall excell in strength howbeit not by his owne power and he shall make wonderfull hauocke and speede his matters prosperously and trouble the strong and the holy people and he shall bring his businesse to passe luckely through his owne wylinesse and craftes Also he shall presume great things in his hart and being furnished with store of thinges he shall spoile many men Furthermore he shall set himselfe against the highest Prince and shal be broken in péeces without handes For S. Paule also hath sayd that Antichrist shal be slayne that is to witte in the hartes of the faythfull not with swoorde speare or gunnes but with the breath of the Lordes mouth and be quyte done away at the commyng of the iudge to the last iudgement of the world But like as the former Bishops aforesaid drew the Frenchmen into the kingdome of Sicill Naples Puell So the latter Popes that is to say Adrian the fifth and Nicolas the third sought all the meanes that could be to haue them dispossessed of the same the one of them calling in the Germanes and the other calling in Peter of Aragon with the Spaniardes against the Frenchemen Contrariwise Martine the fourth aduaunced Charles the French king againe whom Nicolas had displaced and restored him againe to his former state Howbeit to no purpose For all at one same time the Frenchmen were diminished with a sore slaughter at an Euensongtime of the Sicilians and driuen out of the Isle and Peter of Aragon receiued in Who also vanquishing the sonne of king Charles in a battell vpō the Sea not farre from Naples caried him away prisoner into Spayne to the great grief of his father And Charles himselfe sayling ouer into Aphrike pyned away for pensiuenesse a iust punishmēt as many men then iudged for his most shamefull vniust putting of the ij Princes of Sweueland Austriche to death at the instigation of the Pope But Martine the fourth beyng moued with Charles miserie excommunicateth Peter of Aragon and giueth his kingdome for a pray to him that would inuade it assoyling his subiectes from the bond of their othe and finally proclayming a Croissy against him Besides this he sent Ambassadours into Fraunce to king Philip and commaunded him to inuade the kingdome of Aragon out of hand Once againe therfore when the Pope had sounded his trumpet they met together in mortall battell by the riuer of Geround And at the first the Frenchmen had the better but anone after the Spanyardes get the vpper hand What néedeth many wordes there was a miserable and sorowful slaughter all thinges were wasted farre and wyde bloud was shed without measure As soone as Martine was dead byanby there steppes vp another Hyen Honorius the fourth Who least there might be any abatement of miserie calleth Rafe of Haspurge king of Romanes out of Germanie to Rome there to receiue the name of Augustus to recouer Campain Calabrie Puell and Sicill to the Romane Empyre by driuing the Frenchmen and Spanyardes from thence For the which matter Rafe sommoned a Parlament at Wirtsburge thether there came a very great resort vnto whō Probus a Diuine of Tubing the Bishop of Tull made an Oration wherin amōg all other thyngs How long I pray you my right deare brethren sayth he will these Romish kytes abuse our patiēce I pray God I may not say our foolishnesse How lōg shall we beare with their trecherie couetousenesse pride superfluity This worst kind of Archsinagoges will neuer leaue till it hath brought all men to beggerie and slauerie This mischief hath growen through our debate It is our debate that setteth those rakehelles in their ruffe Neither is it possible for vs to maynteine peace and godlinesse as long as they reigne Not long ago they set the Sarons and Sweuians together by the eares Afterward they depriued Friderike the second a Prince most profitable for the common weale and Conrade his sonne and foure Princes of Sweueland of Empyre and life together They haue sowed the séede of discord in Germanie Besides this when Corradine that noble young gentlemā of excellent towardnesse who neuer did harme sought to recouer the heritage of his aunceters by the law of all nations they tooke him prisoner by craft and pollicie and put him to death They set the Sweuians and Frenchmen of Westrich at warre one against another and then stirred vp the Spanyardes against the Frenchmē and now they labour to set vs at oddes with the kinges of Spayne and Fraunce our owne kinsmen which came in old tyme out of Germanie And so forth as foloweth in the same Bishops Oration in the seuenth booke of Auentines Chronicles the 15. leaf What mā reading or hearyng these such other like doinges of the Romish Bishops can take them for Apostolike men that preach peace to folke and not rather for apostaticall Bellonase cursed féendes and the very furies or hellhoundes themselues About this time Meynhard the Earle of Tyroll entered into certein Castles that belonged to him by right of inheritaunce which notwithstanding the Bishop of Trent auouched to be his was not ashamed
to make clayme to thē being none of his And whē the Earle would not surrēder them Pope Nicolas the 4. layd his curse vppon him By meanes wherof he inforced the Earle to write an Apologie wherin amōg other thinges he sayth who is so stelyharted or to speake more truly so blockish a beast that he cā with quyet minde suffer the pride statelynesse trecherie craft outrage wickednesse prodigalitie and couetousenesse of these rakehelles Is the séeking of othermens riches and kingdomes is fighting for glorie and dignitie is oppressing of silly shéepe is sleaing is warring is this géere I say is this to féede shéepe and to loue the flocke And seing that they being our seruauntes will against the right of all Realmes be our maisters yea and make their Lordes serue them contrarie to the lawes and word of God if they be not Antichristes what els I pray you be they And so forth as is to be read in Auentine in the vij booke of his Chronicles the 720. and 721. leaues Boniface the viij euen by the record of Platina the arrogātest Bishop one of them that euer was and the author of the vj. booke of Decretals wherof somwhat hath ben said afore bare very sore grudge against Philip K. of Fraunce and at last breaking forth sent a Legate with his Buls to Paris commaundyng the king to resigne the Realme of Fraunce to the Apostolike sea But the king would suffer no such Buls to be published in his Citie kingdome Yea rather the Frechmen tooke them from the Legate burnt them in the fire and draue the Legate out of the Realme as a trouble of the state Furthermore the king greatly accused Boniface and charged him with so heynous and vgly crymes as the storywriters for the foulenesse of them are ashamed to report Yet procedeth he for all that to rayse vp troubles in Fraunce to commaund the king to depose him selfe from his kingdome and to resigne it to the Church of Rome and to assoyle the Lordes and gentlemē of their othe of fealtie wherby they were boūd to the king But the king being no whit abashed at those fond cursinges gaue streight charge to all his subiectes that none of them should come at Rome or send any money thether And at the lēght he foūd the meanes to haue the most proud and stubborne Prelate himselfe cast in prison where he dyed within xxxv dayes after being as he deserued consumed with frettyng for sorrow and spight Clement the v. being as proud and as great a troubler of Realmes as his predecessours Cursed the Uenetiās and certein other notable commō weales and abandoned them to the spoile of all men onlesse they returned to the obediēce of his sea and so he compelled the Uenetiās to send Ambassadours with submission vnto him The Ambassadour that was sent was Fraunces Dandalus who afterward was made Duke of Uenice Much a do he had to come to the Popes presence At length he had a cheyne of yron clapt about his necke was fayne to lye couched at the pope Clementes table too too basely and filthily so long till the popes displeasure was with much ado ouercome and then he assoyled the Uenetians from his excōmunication Afterward Dandalus bare the name of Dog bicause he had couched at the Popes table like a dog The reporter hereof is Sabellicus about the end of the vij booke of his ix Enneade But who could haue looked vpon this orped sight without grief vnméete for the cruell Turke much more for a mercyfull Apostle With wisedome therfore must they be mad who soeuer they be that after so many horrible examples of wicked and shamelesse vilanie and tyrannie do stil reuerence and worship the bishops of Rome recouer not their sight ne learne to know them by their vertues to shunne thē They be sore deceiued which hearing these and such lyke thinges say stil that the Apostolike sea must not be iudged by the liues of the wicked vnthriftes that sit in it and that the same is holy and to be obeyed neuerthelesse For if by the sea Apostolike they meane the Apostolike doctrine and ministerie of the Church these thinges are alwayes holy and vnspotted and although those that be in the ministerie preach the Gospell be vncleane yet neuerthelesse the sea Apostolike that is to wit the Apostolike doctrine must be obeyed still according also as it hath ben sayd afore But if by the sea Apostolike they meane the Popish kingdome or rather tyrannie wherby they chalenge to themselues absolute souereintie in matters perteinyng to God aud man as well in Ciuill as in Ecclesiastical matters through the fulnesse of their power then is it no lesse a pestilent seate and vncommended vnto vs by any word of God then they that sit in it be most deadly and pestilent plagues And therfore they that sit in it are to be eschewed and the seate it selfe is to be lothed as an abhomination of all good men But now I returne agayne to my abridgement of stories which I haue broken of The same Bishop to the exceding great domage of Italie called thether the Emperour Henry of Lucembrough the vij of that name agaynst the faction of the Vrsines who were of the Gwelfes and against Robert king of Puell with whō he encountered twise with reasonable good lucke Wherupon the Bishop began to feare least the Emperour should grow too great Therfore according to the crabbednesse of the Bishops began to fall to the byasse of his predecessours and shanke aside to Robert of Puell whom the Emperour had condemned as traytor to the Empire reuersed the Emperors sayd sentence giuen by law And whē the Emperour hasted to sease vppon the kingdome of Sicilie for which he had ben called out of Germanie at the first one Bernard of Mount Polician as Fasciculus Temporum reporteth a Frier of S. Dominikes order or a Frier preacher dispatched him at Bonconuent by putting poyson into the Sacrament of the body and bloud of our Lord giuing it vnto him surely a straunge horrible example And they alledge that the Frier was corrupted with promises brybes by the Emperours enemyes or els he durst not haue attempted this so horrible a déede Iohn the xxij after many attemptes against the Emperour Lewes the iiij disfeated him of the Empyre and vsurped it wholly to himselfe For he published a Bull and in open wordes named himselfe father and Prince of all Christendome through the whole world the high Gods lieuetenaunt in whom rested the highest power and souereine dominion of the Empyre to be disposed by his commaūdement iurisdiction and authoritie and to be bestowed as his frée gift vpō whom he listed And about the end of the Bull he commaūdeth Lewes to resigne vp the Empyre and title of king within thrée monethes and neuer after to take that dignitie vpon him but by the leaue and appointment of
the Pope And if he obey not he commaundeth all his Lordes temporall and spirituall to forsake their Prince and to compell him to obey the Pope This Bull was published the xv day of October the yeare of our Lord God. 1323. But Lewes asked the aduise of all the Clerkes that were best séene in the lawes as well of God as man through Germanie Italie and Fraunce at Paris Bononie Padua and other Uniuersities who gaue an agreable aunswere That the Popes doinges against the Emperour are contrarie to Christian doctrine that the Pope was out of his wittes and made hauocke of Christes people for desire of dominion and that the Emperour was not subiect to the Pope but the Pope to the Emperour For the seruaunt of seruauntes ought not to beare rule but rather to do seruice to such as sit at the table But the Bishop cryes out that all these which gaue the Emperour this aunswere are heretickes and he excommunicateth them all with the Emperour and burneth their bookes The Emperour for all this called a Parlament about the matter and sommoning a Counceil deposed the Pope For he was openly proclaymed for an heretike a tyraunt of the Church and a troubler of the common peace and thereunto his image was burned in the Marketsted Neuerthelesse when Iohn the xxij was dead Clement the sixth continewed the displeasure still agaynst Lewes commaunding him likewise to depose himselfe from the Empyre Yea he proceded yet further and reuiuyng all Iohn the xxij processes denounced the Emperour to be an heretike and a schismatike moreouer commaundyng the Electors to chuse another king by a tyme appointed except they had leuer that the Bishop himself should giue them a king They therfore obeying his manaces chose Charles Marques of Morania But for asmuch as the better part of the Empyre was displeased both with the Pope with Charles and sticked still to Lewes their true souerein Lord and Emperour it came agayne to swordes drawyng on both sides and there was burning wasting and sleayng the accustomed frutes of the Byshops of Rome which neuer brought tydinges of peace but alwayes blew vp the trumpet to battell And least Italie and Naples might take breath any while from their slaughters and wastinges Vrbane the sixth of that name made sute to Lewes the puissant king of Hungarie that he should send Charles Duke of Durace into Italie with an host of Hungarians for he would bestow the kingdome of Sicilie vpon him Therfore when he came to Rome he crowned him king of Sicilie howbeit in such wise as he departed with certeine of the best Earledomes in the Realme to the Bishops neuew Againe least Clement the Antipope might séeme of lesse authoritie then Pope Turbane he crowned Lewes Duke of Angeow a sideman of his kyng of Sicilie who immediatly enters into Italie with threescorethousand mē Then folowed spoilyng burning and sleaing againe and all maner of crueltie was exercised on either side verely by the instigation of these good and peaceable Apostles the souerein Shepeherdes of the Church of Rome I wittingly passe ouer here many outrageous doynges of the Bishops which the storywriter Theodoriche of Nyem prosecuteth very largely and truly in his thrée bookes of the Schisme Now come I to Martine the fifth that was created Bishop at the Councell of Constance who being nothing vnlike his predecessors gaue Sicilie in Fee to one Aloyse of Sicilie against Alphons king of Spayne Wherupon rose againe not a few nor small calamities The same Byshop was the cause of the Ciuill warre in Beame and that the Germanes that went into Beame with a great power brought nothing thence but dishonour very great losse I will not pursue the slaughters burninges wastringes miseries of that warre They be described at large by Aenaeas Syluius in his Historie of Beame The same author setteth out the horrible and blouddy practises that Eugenie the fourth and his successor Martine the fifth vsed to ouerthrow the Councel of Basill And it hath ben shewed already how great mischief the same Eugenie the fourth brought vpon Christendome when he inforced kyng Ladislaus vnto vnhappie warre contrarie to his othe made vnto Amurathes Prince of Turkye Pius the second and Sixtus the fourth were forewarder to feates of armes then to peace and preaching of the Gospell They neuer yelded an inche to any Prince but indeuered most scoutly not onely to maynteine but also by hooke and by crooke to increase the maiestie of their sea The histories beare witnesse hereof abundantly I will not any further report what the Byshops of Rome haue committed in our age and within the remembraunce of man least I trouble the gentle reader to much for they be better knowen then that they néede to be rehearsed For who knoweth not how great lawlesnesse they haue abused in transposing kingdomes in dischargyng subiectes from their dew faithfulnesse and obedience in putting downe and settyng vp of kynges and in hatching of most blouddy and mortall warres The horrible trecherie of Alexander the sixth agaynst Charles kyng of Fraunce is well inough knowen in that he made him take armes vppon him and called him into the kyngdome of Naples agaynst the kyng of Spayne and yet for all that did byanby after most trayterously take part with the Spanyardes agaynst him Iulius the second a Lombard practised the Uenetian warre which being the greatest and sorest of all others continewed eight yeares with excedyng great bloushed before it could be ended and stirred vp Lewes kyng of Fraunce agaynst the Uenetians and byanby after led not onely the Uenetians but also all the puissantest Princes and people of Europe agaynst Lewes Also he behaued himselfe after such a sort in the matter of calling a Councell that euen the Papistes themselues do greatly blame him and finde fault with him in that behalfe Yea and euen Onuphrius Panuinius hath blamed this dealing in Iulius the second Leo the tenth not onely appeased not the troubles styrred vp by Iulius but also continewed them doubblyng mischief vppon mischief armyng nation agaynst nation and kéepyng promise neither with Germanes nor with Frenchmen Clement the seuenth passed Leo and some of his predocessours For first he tooke part with the Emperour and afterward slipt away to Fraunces the French king to whom he was the occasion of a very great losse For in the kyngdome of Naples whether Lawtreche had brought his army very well appointed by the instigation of the Pope he lost the greater part of his armye by reason of an vnmercyfull plague that fell vpon them The storie of Frijndsperg Captein of the Almaine souldyers auoucheth in the eighth booke and the hundred and thréescor the leafe that of fourescore thousand there remained alyue scarcely one thousand and seuen hundred What troubles Paule the third the Romish Byshop wrought vnto Germanie the warre that