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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56252	The history of popedom, containing the rise, progress, and decay thereof, &c. written in High Dutch by Samuel Puffendorff ; translated into English by J.C.	Pufendorf, Samuel, Freiherr von, 1632-1694.; Chamberlayne, John, 1666-1723.	1691 (1691)	Wing P4176; ESTC R5058	76,002	238

shall find convenient to impose them now these bring no small profit to them for tho' the impos'd pennance mostly consists in Prayers Pilgrimages Fastings Whippings and such like yet the rich are always condemned to some pecuniary mulct which must be converted to the Benefit of the Convents Churches and the Poor under which they comprehend the Begging Friars who therefore them themselves minimos Fratrum according to the fifteenth of St. Matthew that their bag might be the better fill'd Now this interpretation of the Scripture has burthened Christendom with more than an hundred thousand idle Bellies Besides The first sort of Penitence may easily be redeem'd by Money if they on whom 't is impos'd should find it too grievous and in effect What rich man is there that would not shew himself respectful and liberal to his Holy Father that he may be merciful to him and make his pennance more light and easy 'T is no hard matter to guess why good works are reckoned amongst the means of obtaining Salvation for as soon as they proceeded to give the definition of good works they placed in the first rank all Gifts and Liberalities bestow'd on the Clergy Churches and Convents and other acts introduc'd by the Pope and his Creatures out of a principle of Hypocrisy and Superstition to which they added this Doctrine That the Monks and Friars could not only satisfy for their own sins but that they had also an inexhaustible stock of Supererrogatory Merits remaining to be bestow'd for the use and service of the sinful Laity from which Superfluity they have erected a Magazine of an extreamly profitable Merchandice which cost them nothing either to stow or keep which neither grows mouldy nor musty by length of time which never diminishes and which in a word cannot be restor'd by the buyer tho' he should afterwards chance to discover the insignificancy and unprofitableness thereof They have likewise burthen'd the exercise of Religion with so many unnecessary Ceremonies Holy-Days and superfluous Processions built so many useless Churches Chapels and Altars only that the swarming drones of the Clergy may have just something to do and not seem to be always and wholly idle and to the end that they may still get a little by these and the like Fopperies This is likewise the reason of their multiplying the Sacraments to the number of seven since the administration of each one brings in grist to the Priest's Mill They have introduc'd the Mass without Communicants baptizing it a Sacrifice for the Living and for the Dead to the end that the Dead as well as the Living may be put under Contributions Besides nothing of Importance is taken in hand by a pious Catholick till he has made a Mass be said for his good success There is no Man of Quality that dies without ordering a good number of Masses to be said for his Soul for which the Priest must be well greas'd in the Fist It happen'd once by chance or forgetfulness that the Cup was not administred to the Laity afterwards it became a Law and tho' the Institutions of Christ and the practice of the Church for several hundred Years together was directly contrary to this encroachment yet they obstinately persisted therein lest it might be said the Church has err'd and that the Clergy might enjoy a Prerogative above the Laity nay so far their impudence proceeded that as if they design'd to mock both GOD and Man they give the Laity the unblest Cup which in a scornful manner they name the Washing Cup as if they had eaten some unclean thing and must wash their Mouths after it Marriage must be turn'd into a Sacrament tho' it seem never so absurd and ridiculous that the Clergy alone may take cognizance of all Affairs thereunto belonging which being almost innumerable are very profitable to them and of no less consequence for thereon depend the Estates Inheritances and Successions not only of private Persons but many times of Kingdoms also hence it was that Mary the first Queen of England found herself oblig'd to re-establish Popery in her Kingdom whilst without the Pope's Authority she could never have past for Legitimate thus Philip the third King of Spain saw himself indispensably engag'd to espouse the Pope's Interest because amongst other obligations it was not the least that he permitted him to be born of his Father's Sister's Daughter which could hardly have receiv'd a Dispensation amongst other Christians Now the same Religion that scruples not to dispense with the nearest Bonds of Consanguinity has introduc'd an endless Roll of forbidden Degrees and likewise forg'd a new sort of spiritual Affinity Why To afford the Priests a more frequent occasion of Dispensations which brings in an inestimable Revenue In the extream Unctions the Clergy have found out a very proper expedient of giving the dying person a friendly admonition to make some pious Legacies all which tends to their profit Nor is there any other design in the Fiction of Purgatory than to wheedle those that are just departing and who then little value the goods they must leave to others to give a good part thereof to the Clergy to the end that by their Prayers and Masses they may the sooner get out of a place so terribly hot and thirsty The adoration likewise of Relicks does not make the least part of the Clergy's Revenue for with an old rotten knuckle-bone they will reward the greatest Services that the Pope's most faithful Creatures shall have rendred to him The Invocation of Saints has furnish'd them with a very fair and specious pretext of building so many the more Churches of Instituting more Holy-Days of providing more Priests to officiate and of extorting more Money from the Laity to maintain them Besides the Canonization of Saints which depends on the Pope's breath does contract a greater respect and admiration of his power as if he could dispose of Charges and Offices in Heaven and that God Almighty were oblig'd to receive all the Candidates the Pope should present him by which means he can dispose of the wills of other Princes Subjects offering so considerable a Reward to their Ambition and Credulity on condition that they will maintain his Interests to the very last To which we may add That since Superstition has got the upper hand none but Ecclesiasticks have been admitted into the number of Saints and especially such of them who by some rare Master-piece of Hypocrisy and a false and affected Devotion have render'd themselves Famous o'er the World And if this Honour has at any time been granted to a Secular Person either he or those that sollicited it for him must have merited it by no common Services As to the rest I shall not trouble my self to particularize how the Clergy have cheated poor simple people of their Money by the invention of Miracles Images Apparitions Exorcisms Indulgences Jubilee-Years forbidden Meats and a thousand such like Tricks and Devices Sect. 34. After these means the

speak with Honour before their Masters but deserve to be burned Sect. 31. In the mean while 't is very plain that this Spiritual Soveraignty was absolutely oblig'd to assume the form of Monarchy and that it is altogether inconsistent with either Aristocracy or Democracy as well upon the account of several other inconveniences as because it would be morally impossible to erect any sort of Democracy or Aristocracy where so many different opinions always occurr that could be so well modell'd by the most exact and severest Laws as not be plagu'd with a thousand Divisions Schisms and Factions whereby the whole structure built upon so weak Foundations would soon fall to ruin but amongst the several sorts of Monarchy they have pitch'd upon so good a one that it is impossible to find any other more agreeing with their Interests than that they have chosen and it is certain that all the most subtile Speculations of politick Writers is nothing in comparison of what we see here actually perform'd 't is true there have been Kings who have made themselves and their Countriesvery Famous for as much as they have given out that they were descended from Divine origin or that their States were founded either by the special command of the Gods or confirm'd by Miracles wrought in their favour or else they have by their Heroick Actions procur'd their Deification and made their Subjects adore them after their Death but the Pope has been able to perswade the people that he is the true State-holder and Vice-gerent of Jesus Christ who has all Power in Heaven and on Earth and that too to be understood in a much higher Sence than when it is sometimes said of the Supreme Powers that they are Earthly Gods for he gives out that he is the Dispenser of that Grace which is procur'd us by the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ and that he who does not acknowledge his Power can have no hopes or pretence to Salvation Now there is nothing in the world that can more attract the most profound respect and veneration of men than the Divine Majesty and consequently nothing more prevalent in the obliging them to obedience and a blind submission to all sort of trouble and charges than the fear of God's wrath and the damnation of their Souls and when once the Pope can insinuate the belief thereof into the Peoples minds there needs no other demonstration of all the other Articles of Faith as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pope has said it Besides tho' most other Nations look upon hereditary Kingdoms to be the best and most secure yet this sort of Government does not square with the Pope's Interests for where the Crown descends from Father to Son 't is impossible but that sometimes the minorities of Kings must happen which would sound very absurd that God's Vicar upon Earth should sometimes ride upon a Hobby-Horse and that the Monarch of all Christendom should stand in need of a Tutor Besides 't would be very difficult for a young Prince to assume such a Gravity as is absolutely necessary in the acting of that personage nor was it to be hoped that all the Successors and Posterity of the Pope could have equal inclinations to such an employ In a word the hereditary Right would have turned it into a bare temporal Kingdom which could not have been long supported by so weak and unnatural a Title not to add that the Ministers of State and those that enjoyed the chiefest Employs would have endeavour'd to turn out their Master and put themselves in his place whereas they now contain themselves in a very exact obedience in hopes that they or theirs may also by Election one day ascend to this Supreme Dignity to which force can never give them any right Lastly If this Monarchy had been made hereditary the extinction of the reigning Family would have caus'd horrible Debates about the Succession and perhaps at last have over-turn'd the whole Machine They have farther found it to be the Interest of the Popedom that this Monarch should lead a single Life which does very well agree with the Gravity of that Court especially whilst a gawdy Attendance of young and airy Court-Ladies would have made an odd figure and have been an ill example of a more than ordinary Piety and Devotion 't was likewise a piece of politick Hypocrisy to seem to have so great an attachment to Heav'n as to be quite insensible to all fleshly motions and desires nor was it easily to hoped that a Man who had Wife and Children could defend himself from being debauch'd by them and become more addicted to their particular Interests than to the publick good since there is no consideration or prospect that can come in competition with that a man has for the welfare and prosperity of his Family whereof one may find a very remarkable example in the natural Children of Alexander the sixth and Paul the third to which we may add that perhaps it was feared lest a Secular Prince becoming Master of the Ecclesiastick States should make it hereditary in his Family which by obliging them to celibacy can never happen The Conclave is likewise a good expedient to bridle the immoderate ambition of any Pope and prevent those Schisms which heretofore did mightily weaken the Papal Authority and to hinder the long interregnum's And it is much more easy by the way of Election to find a person fit to exercise all the Cheats Slights and Intrigues requir'd in such a Government and whom they may better perswade the ignorant Vulgar Strangers to the Arts of the Conclave to be by an especial Order of God as the best and most capable call'd to be his locum tenens or Vicar on Earth At least by such an Election they are able to find one that understands the Affairs of the World and the Art of Governing and who having laid aside the Heats and Extravagancies of Youth by his Age and Experience may render himself venerable 'T is also very politickly provided in the Election of the Pope that two third parts of the Voices must concurr to the admission of any one to this Dignity to the end that the Choice may not be displeasing to a too great number of Cardinals In the Election of a Pope the greatest caution at present is that he be not a Transalpine that is a Foreigner of any Country beyond the Alps but a Native of Italy which does not alone happen upon the account of their being more favourable and desirous of transferring so great Honour and Profit on one of their own Country-men rather than on a stranger but chiefly because their preservation and surety depends on the keeping the balance equal betwixt France and Spain which equilibrium a French or Spanish Pope would quickly ruin and by a too great partiality to his own Nation render himself hateful to the other They usually chuse an old man rather than young that others may have some hopes of quickly

Learned Men. They have likewise in the Romish Church made a great Reformation amongst the ordinary Priests and Friars and that brutality and ignorance which heretofore was so common amongst them is now no more to be seen The brave and learned Sermons of Luther was that which at first procur'd him and his Disciples so great a concourse of people they edified a great many by the excellent Books which they put out in their Mother tongue to excite them to Meditation Piety Prayer and Spiritual Exercises both which the Papists have since imitated and there are found amongst them a great many good Preachers and wholesome Books of Prayer and Meditation so that at present the Protestant Clergy have no longer reason to reproach the Romish with their want of that modesty and excellent conduct which they observe in the external Service of God They are also well versed in all Controversies and are ready with whole dozens of distinctions for every objection made against them for example whereas there is nothing can be more ridiculously invented than the Pope's distributing out Indulgences for twenty or thirty Thousand Years they give it a colour with the distinction of intensivè and extensivè potentialiter and actualiter wherein the young Students take a great deal of pleasure and the ignorant imagine some great Mysteries to be invelopt therein whereas also in Luther's time the ignorance of the Clergy and their hatred to Learned Men was so prejudicial to the Popedom those of that Communion and especially the Jesuits have since found remedies for that inconvenience for the Jesuits have not only taken upon them the Information and Instruction of the youth but in the Countries where they are establish'd they have as 't were made a Monopoly thereof so that learning is now so far from being any longer prejudicial to 'em that it procures them great advantages Lastly They desisted from the propagation of their Religion with Fire and Sword and endeavour'd to allure the chiefest of the Protestants with good Words great Promises and effectual Preferments Those that will go over to 'em if they have any parts and capacities are sure to make their Fortunes to which upon the account of their Church's Riches they have the best opportunity in the World Whereas on the contrary if any one of them would turn Protestant and does not bring means along with him or is not of a more than ordinary understanding he has nothing but contemptible poverty to expect Lastly The House of Austria has much contributed to the raising up and restoring of the Popedom by driving out the Protestants not only out of its hereditary Lands but likewise from Bohemia and the depending Provinces and lately out of all Hungary or else by obliging them to embrace the Romish Religion Sect. 29. From what has been said before may easily be understood how and by what means this Spiritual Monarchy has insinuated it self in the Western part of Christendom but that you may the better conceive the structure and all the resorts of this Machine 't would not be amiss if we consider'd the Pope two ways first as he is one of the Princes of Italy and secondly as the Ghostly Soveraign of the Occidental Churches As to the first we say That the Pope may very well pass for one of the greatest Lords in Italy but under this consideration must he yield to most of the Potentates of Europe his Territories are the City of Rome with its Dependances on both the sides the Tyber the Dutchy of Benevento in the Kingdom of Naples of Spoletto Urbin and Ferrara the Marquisate of Ancona several places in Hetruria as also the Romaniola or Flaminia containing the Cities of Bolonia and Ravenna in France he has the County of Avignon Parma is a Fee of the Church which Paul the third invested his Son Peter Lewis Farnesse with tho' since that time it has been resolv'd that for the future it shall not be in the Pope's power to alienate the vacant Fees nor invest any one with the Church-Lands for fear of weakning the Papal State and to the end that the Pope might have wherewithal to maintain his Court if it should happen that any part of his Foreign Revenues should fail or come short The Kingdom of Naples is likewise a Fee or Copy-Hold of the Church in acknowledgment of which the King of Spain does yearly present the Pope with a white Hackney and five Thousand Ducats As for the Pope's Pretensions upon other Lands they are now no longer passable All these Countries are peopled and fertile enough and do comprehend a great many considerable Towns and Cities from whence the Pope does yearly draw about two millions of Gold and his Officers are very careful that the People may not grow too rich Though there are good Souldiers enough to be found in the Pope's Dominions yet his Militia is not very considerable whilst the means he uses to maintain his Countries are quite contrary to those of other Princes He keeps ready equipp'd about Twenty Gallies which usually lie at Civita Vecchia The politick Maxims of the Pope which he as temporal Prince puts in practice do mostly consist in the maintaining of the Peace in Italy and retaining it in the same posture and condition as it is at present and especially in suppressing any upstart Power that may give Laws to all the rest Besides 't is his peculiar Interest to hinder the Turk from getting footing in Italy and in case of any Invasion to unite not only all the Italian Princes but likewise all Christendom against him who likewise ought not to suffer that this noble Country fall into the hands of those Barbarians The Pope has now no reason to be alarm'd by Germany as long as it does continue in its present form of Government But if it should happen to fall under an Absolute Monarchy it might easily revive its old pretensions Spain and France are those which can only give the Pope his hand full of business and therefore in respect of those it is the Pope's Interest to foment a continual Division betwixt them or to balance them so equally that neither may be able to trample upon the other I don't doubt but the Pope wishes with all his Heart that the Spaniard were not so near a Neighbour to him in Italy and would not be sorry to see him driven out of Naples but there 's no probability that he could effect that himself and to call in the French to drive out the Spanish were to leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire Therefore the Pope must be contented to hinder the Spanish from making any greater Progress in Italy and if at any time Spain should attempt it France and the rest of the Italian Princes would soon be upon their backs Nor is it less the Pope's Interest to hinder France from getting so sure footing there as to be able to sway the Affairs of that Country according to its own will

Tributary Slaves doom'd to maintain so great a Militia at their own Expences The first are singular in this That they are obliged to abstain from Marriage which they pretend is upon the account of a more particular Holiness and that they may uninterruptedly addict themselves to the exercise of the Charge But the true reason is That they may not be embarassed with the care of Wife and Children to the prejudice of the Church's Interest or oblig'd to side with the Prince under whose Dominion they live nor cheat the Church of its Income to supply the necessities of their Families but that they may devote themselves wholly to the Pope and yield him a blind Obedience and execute his Orders against all but more especially against the Princes whose Subjects they are whose Anger they dread the less because they are not joined or united to the Republick by so streight Bands as the rest are and have but one body to take care for whereas a Wife and Children are look'd upon to be the greatest and dearest Pawns of our Fidelity but a single man can easily get his Bread in any Country In fine the Pope endeavours by all sort of waies to free them from the Dependance and Jurisdiction of their lawful Soveraigns to subject them entirely to his own The Clergy also could never have satisfy'd their Avarice with so rich a Harvest had they been oblig'd to have scrap'd up for their Wives and Children nor so fair a Pretext of begging for the Church and not for themselves But in the mean while those that first introduced Coelibacy or a single Life among the Romish Clergy were wonderfully overseen in not finding out at the same time a fit Receipt for the Gift of Continency which had been very seasonable We may guess at the multitude of the Clergy by the computation which Paul the Fourth is said to make thereof viz. That he had under his Jurisdiction Two hundred and eighty eight thousand Parishes and forty four thousand Cloisters especially if that of the Convents be just We may again divide the Clergy into those that are simply Priests and those that have made particular vows as the Monks and Jesuites which may pass for the Pope's Life Guard The pay of these Troops consists in honourable Charges great Revenues an easie Labour idle daies and a constant Kitchin but those that are kept more strict have their Heads fill'd with a particular Holiness and Merits and Advantages above the rest Sect. 33. The means which the Pope makes use of to keep the Laity in subjection are the accustoming them to a belief that he and his Ghostly Militia are the Promoters of their Salvation and the Lords of their Consciences which is the strongest Argument in the World to lead them into a perpetual Slavery and Submission to their Wills but that it may be more serviceable to their Spiritual Monarchy they have accommodated thereto some of the Articles of the Christian Religion and since made some additions of others tending to the same end So that if you take good notice of the Disputes and Contestations which they of the Romish Religion have with their Adversaries you will alwaies find some Interest mingled therewith concerning the Authority Power or Revenues of the Clergy The chiefest of these Doctrines is concerning the Power and Authority of the Pope of his Superiority over the Councils and of his Infallibility which last point the Jesuites have stretch'd as far as possible for that being once granted all the rest is an easie and natural consequence thereof But the Sentiments of the Ancient Christians with whom if I am not mistaken the Sorbon at present holds viz. That the Councils are at least equal if not above the Popes are directly opposite to the grounds of the Papal State for this Opinion once stiffly maintain'd would destroy the Monarchy and on its Ruins erect a Democracy and in effect to grant the Pope such almighty Prerogatives and yet subject him to his Creatures and Vassals are things incompatible and inconsistent with one another For that which the Holy Writings of the Fathers have attributed to the Church must be only understood of the Pope just as in ordinary Discourse we ascribe that to a whole Kingdom which is done by the King alone The reading of the Holy Scriptures is forbid the Laity and only permitted to the Clergy which does not alone contribute to the Grandeur of the Priests as if they were the only persons worthy to approach the Divine Oracles but does also more particularly hinder the Laity from finding any thing contrary to the Interests of the Clergy and becoming too wise and refusing any longer blindly to receive the Fables of their lying Priests So that the Laity not being permitted to search into Matters of Divinity nor to examin them seriously are oblig'd to referr themselves wholly to their Priests Hence is it that they appropriate to the Pope the Right of interpreting the Scriptures and of giving an absolute decision of all controverted points to the end that none may be alledg'd that are prejudicial to his Interests They give out too That the Scriptures are imperfect and therefore to be supply'd by Traditions to the end that when they would preach up any Doctrine advantageous to the Holy Chair of which there is not the least tittle to be found in the Scripture they may appeal to Tradition and so spare themselves any farther demonstration In the Doctrine of sins they have a distinction betwixt venial and mortal sins as also of particular cases and exceptions all which does only tend to the profit and advantage of the Priests and all that infinite number of Books of Confession enough to lade a whole East-India-Fleet are not writ for the amendment of sins but to the end that by the Taxes therein contain'd the Dominion of the Clergy may be confirm'd and their avarice satiated The comfortable Doctrine of the Remission of Sins is intirely accommodated to their Interest for whilst it is no advantage to the Clergy that a truly penitent sinner should obtain remission of his sins by the confidence he has in the merits of Christ alone therefore they teach that to the attainment of a full and perfect forgiveness of sins a man must reveal even the least particulars of all and every sin to the Priest whereby they do not only make the people to be at their Devotion and give them such impressions as are most conformable to their Interests but they do more particularly thereby discover all the secrets and designs of Families and the humor and inclinations of the people and by that means have the best intelligence of all that is done tho' they are forbid to reveal what is imparted to them at Confessions for without that caution of secresy they could never have been able to have establish'd a thing so contrary and so ungrateful to humane nature They promote also the works of Satisfaction according as the Father-Confessor