Dog with a fire Brand in his Mouth the signification and application whereof I leave to every Reader to make Only his deportment towards the Albigenses is storied to be rabying against whom he so Preached adeo quidem ut câ—ntum haereticorum millia uh octo Millibus catholicorum fusa intersercta fuisse perhibeantur saith one of him and of those who became Captives 180 were Burnt to Death the first Example that I find in the Church of Rome of putting Dissenting Bretheren to Death Of this order was this precious Inquisitor Jacomello to Arms alleadging for their Justification that Magistrates were set over them by God and themselves for the good and behoof of the Governed and not the Governed Ordained for the Lusts of Magistrates to be destroyed and killed at pleasure that their Condition being desperate they might use Arms in their own Defence and that in their Condition their appeal unto Arms was not so much against the Prince as against the Pope who usurped more Authority than did Dejure belong unto him and did also abuse the Authority of their Prince by subtle and crafty seducements for his own sinister ends Hence there were War all this year and part of the next And the Duke having made more than a years tryal to reduce them by Wars and Punishments being therein assisted with Money from the Pope and at last after many Skirmishes an Appeal being made unto the Lord of Hoasts by a formal pitcht Battel the Duke lost 7000 men slew but 14 of his Enemies and tho he did often recruit his Army yet had he always the worst Therefore the Duke wisely considering that he did thereby only make his Subjects the more Warlike and teach and inure them more Stoutly to Offend him Consume his own Country and VVast his Treasury he resolved to receive them into favour and made an agreement with them 5º Junij in which he pardoned all past faults gave them Liberty of Conscience appointed them places where they might meet gave leave to those that were Fled to return and restitution of Goods to those that were Banished Which Agreement very much distasted the Pope that an Italian Prince who had been Assisted by him and might have more need of him should yet permit Hereticks to Live freely in his Territories and for that the example would be urged by greater Princes when they inclined to permit another Religion whereof he bitterly complained in the Consistory comparing the Ministers of the most Catholick King with the Duke who having about the same time discovered 3000 Lutherans who went out of Cosenza and retired themselves to the Mountains to Live according to their Doctrine did Hang some Burn others and put the rest into the Gallies but the Duke justifying his Cause with such Reasons which the Pope not being able to answer did Acquiesce And are not such Councils such Advisocs greater marks of an Hireling or a Butcher than Obedience to the Pope a true Mark of the Church Appello ad Caesarem Deum Deorum Dominum Dominorum qui non accipit personam neque recipit munus 10 of Deut. 17. § About the same time there were great Troubles and Disorders in France for cause of Religion Multitudes disdaining to see poor Innocent Christians drawn every day to the Stake to be Burned Guilty of nothing but of Zeal to Worship God to keep a more intimate near and dear Communion with their God and to fave their own Souls These Humors were not Purged nor yet allaied neither by Punishments nor Pardons proferred and Proclaimed but that greater Tumults were raised in Province Languedoc and Poicton whether the Preachers of Geneva were called and came willingly by whose Sermons the number of the Protestants did daily increase examples of great fear being always joyned with others of equal boldness for the quieting of which Humors Francis the 2d the 11º Aprilis 1559. intimated a National Synod as a proper Remedy But the same Hireling Pius the 4th as before in the cause of the Duke of Savoy did most severely complain that the King had Pardoned Hereticks and Errors committed against Religion wherein none had Power but himself and that he would not by any means Consent to an Assembly of Prelates either in France or elsewhere for that a National Council of that or of any other Kingdom would be a kind of Schism from the universal Church give bad example to other Nations and make Prelates proud assuming greater Authority with Diminution of his own and that to consent to a National Synod was to consent that the Axe should be laid to the Root of the Papacy and that by consequence it was an Alienation from the Apostolick See As if God had not given to every National Church and State all things necessary to Govern themselves by but that they must all run to Rome and Romish Priests for redress nay this good Shepherd commanded his Nuntio to intimate farther to the King that if he would resolve to compel his Subjects by force that he would assist him with all his Power and Labour that the King of Spain and Princes of Italy should do the like But if he refused to compel his Subjects by force then his Nuntio was to insinuate to him that all the mischief and Poyson came from Geneva that the extirpation of that root would take away great part of the nourishments of the Evils that disquieted his Dominions § Dissentions and Troubles Fears and Jealousies still increasing in France the King maugre all the Popes Arguments and Interests called a great Assembly at Fountain Bleau 21 Aug. 1560. who being Petitioned by the Reformatists desired nothing but a moderation of their cruel Punishments and that they might make publick profession of their Religion to avoid suspition which might arise by Conventicles or private Assemblies John Monluc the Bishop of Valence did therein complain that Provision had not been made against them because the Popes had no other aim but to hold the Princes in Wars and the Princes thinking to suppress the Evil with Racks and Tortures having not attained their desired end nor the Magistrates and Bishops justly performed their Duty the principal Remedy was to fly unto God to assemble Godly Men to find a way to root out the Vices of the Clergy to forbid Infamous and Immodest Songs and instead of them to Command the Singing of Psalms and Holy Hymns in the Vulgar Tongue And farther shewed that they did grievously erre who troubled the Publick with Arms upon pretence of Religion and that their error was as great who Condemned to Death those that adhered to the New Doctrine only for the Opinion of Piety During these disorders Francis the first Dying the 5th of Dec. 1560. and Charles the 9th Aged 10 years Succeeding he more like the good Shepherd than he that Styled himself Pius by the mature advice of his Council after Solemn and great Consultations and deliberations about the Troubles and Disorders in
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
and Administration of Sacraments they have had from the largess and good graces of good and Pious Emperors tho now so grateful as to scorn to acknowledge them but to claim them by the most potent claim in the World Jure Divino and to fight against the Sons and Successors with the very Weapons which their Fore-Fathers and Predecessors had put into their hands In sum the Popish claim of such enormous and exorbitant Jurisdiction over all Kings and Bishops hath certainly been the grand cause of all the discords troubles and wars in all Countries of these latter Ages Both the Eastern and Western Churches lived in Brotherly Communion and Christian Charity for 900 years or more In which time the Pope of Rome was complemented both by the Greeks and Latins as the Successor of St. Peter and to be the first of the Eastern Catholick Bishops more out of respect of Rome being the Imperial City than of any Divine right he had above his fellow Bishops In the Persecution of Hereticks his help as also the help of the other Italian Bishops was implored and peace was easily preserved because the Supream power was in the Canons to which both Greeks and Latins professed to owe subjection the Ecclesiastical Discipline was exactly maintained in both Churches by their own proper Prelates as it seemed best unto them but absolutely according to the disposition and tenour of the Canons no intruding into one anothers Government but each mutually assisting other in the observation of the Canons In those dayes never any Pope of Rome pretended so much as to confer a Benefice within the Diocess of another Bishop nor had the Court of Rome as yet introduced the Custom of drawing Moneys from others by way of Bulls and Dispensations But immediately after the Court of Rome began to challenge a Freedom from being subject to the Canons and that at their pleasure they might change all Antient Constitutions of the Fathers Councels yea and of the Apostles themselves and endeavored in the room of the Antient Primacy of the See Apostolick to introduce an absolute Monarchy and Dominion not bounded or regulated by any Law or Canons the Division soon sprang up and tho 700 years past Peace and Re-union have been divers times attempted yet could it never be effected because disputes have ever been intended and promoted more than the taking away of that abuse which was the true Cause that brought Divisions in and made the Rupture and is the only Cause that still maintains them Whilst the Churches were united the Doctrine of St. Paul was held by both Churches and observed that in affairs of publick Government all men ought to pay subjection to the Prince because God commands it should be so whom he doth disobey who will not yield obedience to the secular power by him appointed for the Government of all Mankind never did any pretend that he might not be punished for misdeeds holding it for certain that exemption to do evil is a thing condemned both by God and Man the words of St. Paul in those dayes were held for good and sound Doctrine viz. wilt thou not be afraid of the Temporal Power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise for the same but if thou dost evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.1 2 3 4 5. After the Division of those Churches the same opinion still remained in the East and continues to this day The truth of these things being so undeniable methinks that it would not be unbeseeming him who accounts himself the Father of all Christendom to put off the Mask of Religion and abandon all his pretentions unto unlimited Powers which would in good earnest be for the good of all Christendom considering he hath but one Soul and that he ought to do any thing to save it and nothing to destroy it and that it is not made of any better or other mould or mettal than the Souls of his Brethren in both Capacities of Prince or Bishops and that Heaven and Hell must divide the whole World and therefore he should wave his own private sublunary Interests for the universal good of all Christendom If such considerations move not yet methinks they should consider that the World is now grown wiser and have made a full discovery of the Vanity of all his Excommunications Censures of his Bulls Interdicts c. nay they themselves have made them all Ridiculous in many particulars witness themselves at Rome who Annually with great formality and Solemnity Excommunicate their most Catholick King of Spain every Maunday Thursday for keeping away part of St. Peters Patrimony and with as great Formality and Solemnity absolve him again on Good Friday without giving any satisfaction witness also the Venetians who upon the close with Paul the Fifth so slighted all his Monitories Interdicts Excommunications and Censures that they did not only refuse Absolution and Apostolick Benediction offered by him but also refused to give him the Ordinary satisfaction of words and of all Pontilles Subtleties Ceremonies that might have the least Semblance or appearance of any such thing The Pope finding himself thus baffled and slighted did not desist but had recourse unto little pittiful tricks and Subterfuges and therefore suffered to go abroad and to be divulged Four Counterfeit Writings 1. A Breve to Cardinal Joyeuse which gave faculty to take away Censures 2. An Instrument of Absolution dated April 21 3. An Instrument of the Delivery of the Prisoners 4. A Decree of the Senate for the restitution of the Religious c. which tho they did not dare to divulge in formal Copies yet under-hand dispersed Breviates of them designing that after a while when they might not be so easily detected and discovered they might be produced and pretended to be true and so to be believed of necessity And this Policy hath often succeeded well to these men who have many times given colour to many such false Writings prejudicial to divers Princes So Gregory the Second served Alphonsus King of Spain about the Office of Mozarabes So Innocent the Third Anno Dom. 1 199. saith that the Interdict against France because King Philip Augustus had put away his Wife Isemberge was observed in the Kingdom when there was no such thing So Adrian the 20. Anno 870. sent a severe Monitor to Charles the Bald King of France which afterwards he was fain to recall with many submissive excuses Stories are full of such Artifices § What Pitty nay what shame is it that so great Princes as Popes esteeming themselves Gods on Earth and Vicars of Christ should by taking such wrong measures of their Authority and Jurisdiction be driven to such pittiful tricks to uphold Powers so exorbitant and which were never given unto them by any Law of God or Man Did they but seriously consider 1. That they like Gods
Bellarmine doth this Proposition viz. that the Pope may judge of all sins they are forced to except the greater part of particular sins Besides a Prince may sin by breaking his own Laws as the same St. Thomas proves 1.2 quaest 96. Art 5. yet of this sin he cannot be judged of any but God alone as Cajetane in that place declareth shewing that in foro Poenitentiae and in the sight of God is all one in sence Certes to affirm that a Prince transgressing his own Laws should be therein subject to the Censures of the Pope were wholly to take away the Power and Authority of Princes And to affirm that he should be subject to them in other Crimes and not in that were to overthrow the very ground of the reason presupposed in that infamous Chapter Novit Moreover it is very necessary well to observe the very words of Innocent the Third Intendimus decernere de peccato cujus ad nos pertinet sine dubitatione Censura quam in quemlibet exercere possumus debemus And a little after Ad officium nostrum spectat de quocunque peccato mortali corripere quemlibet Christianum which Bellarmine Translates le tutti di Principi del mundo All the Princes of the World by which it is plain he had more than an ordinary Pique at Kings and Princes Now if he be bound by the duty of his place quia potestas nostra non est ex homine sed ex Deo to denounce censures against every mortal sin and against every Christian so offending surely if he do it not he sins and endangers damnation to himself And yet we do not find that the Pope sends out any Censures against the Curtizans the Concubines of Priests and profest Harlots who yet abide and persist notoriously in their sins Besides if by quemlibet Christianum be understood all the Princes of the World as Bellarmine hath rendred it it belongs to him to Excommunicate the Turk the King of Persia the Tartar cum multis aliis And St. Peter's Successor must accuse St. Paul of false Doctrine who said 1 Cor. 1.5.12 quid mihi de his qui foris sunt judicare what have I to do to Judge them that are without § I have insisted the longer on this Chapter Novit because it was designed purposely under pretence of favor to make an Ass of England and her King it being made use of to that very end and also against the French King as appears by the Story And trow you Contrives she not Complots she not at this very day to make England once more to carry the Saddle If ever the like Fate betides us or if ever it be again the Stile of England I cannot say less than Not the Pope only but the Devil rides us § His next recourse is unto another Buckram Decretal Extravagant Vnam Sanctam examined rightly stiled Extravagant called unam Sanctam I must confess I could wish that before he had made any use thereof that he had first reconciled it with another of Pope Clement the Fifth who succeeded him not long after which begins thus Meruit de privilegiis cap. 2. extravag com where Clement saith that he determineth and declareth that by the said Extravagant Vnam Sanctam Meruit charissimi filil nostri Philippi Regis Francorum Illustris sincerae affectionis ad nos Ecclesiam Rom. integritas progenitorum suorum praeclara merita meruerunt Meruit insuper Regnicolarum puritas ac devotionis sinceritas ut tam regem quam regnum favore benevolo prosequamur Hinc est quod nos Regi Regno per definitionem declarationâ—m banae memoriae Bonisacii Papae Octavi Praedecessoris viri quae incipit Unam Sanctam Nullum volumus vel Intendimus praejudicium generari nec quo id per illam Rex Regnum Regnicolae praelibati amplius Ecclesiae sint subjecti Romanae quam antea existebant sed omnia intelligantur in eodem esse statu quo erant ante definitionem praefaram tam quantum ad Ecclesiam quam etiam ad Regem Regnum Regnieolas superius nominatos there shall be no prejudice or injury done to the King and Kingdom of France nor that the said King and Kingdom shall be any more or otherwise subject to the Church of Rome than they were before but that all things shall continue in the State they were in before that Extravagant Now it had not been unworthy so great an Ecclesiastick as my Lord Cardinal Bellarmine was to have dealt so ingenuously as to have declared whether Boniface in this Extravagant Vnam Sanctam did make a Declaration of Jus Divinum in this point i.e. expound and declare that Jurisdiction which the Pope hath de Jure Divino over Princes or whether he did thereby impose a new subjection over Princes in some matters wherein God had not made them subject before unto the Popes Be it which His Eminency pleaseth it will avail him nought if Boniface meant the latter then it was an Innovation after the year 1294. A meer Extravagant after English Construction a void Decree an Vsurpation an Incroachment and an abuse of the Power given them by God by enlarging it beyond its just bounds Besides by what reason Scriptural or other could Clement declare or mean that France alone should be exempted from that Extravagant and not all other Princes and Kingdoms Neither was it a matter or favor to be yielded as in recompence of the good deserts of that King and Kingdom but a thing due unto them of right and Justice Now if Boniface intended it as a Declaration of Jus Divinum it were worthy our knowledge to know by what right Clement could free the King and Kingdom of France from that subjection which God had appointed them unto the case being very clear according to their own Doctrine that the Pope cannot exempt any man from his own Power and Jurisdiction which he holds de Jure Divino so it undeniably follows that if Boniface were in the right Clement was in the wrong and è contra Pope against Pope no news at all Besides that which Boniface saith in that Extravagant viz. si deviat terrena potestas judicabitur à potestate spirituali that the Authority Temporal when it erreth ought to be corrected and rectified by the Spiritual be a Declaration of the Law of God yet then according to as wise honest and learned of your own Fraternity as ever writ in your defence it ought to be understood only for so much as concerns the Salvation of their Souls and that only in foro Dei and Abstract from all Temporal Power of that kind which the Lawyers term Coactive and that all the Ecclesiastical Power over Princes is therefore only Spiritual And herein we shall not need to have recourse to Signior Papa our Lord the Pope for that this kind of Authority is in every Bishop and Priest how Heretical soever it be esteemed by some
sit in the seat of God I have a Heart like the Heart of God Ezek. 28.2.6 whilst he exalteth himself above all that is called God above all Magistrates to the Abasure of Gods Lieutenants above measure and much more than he ought attributing that to themselves which is proper and peculiar unto God only Were not our first Parents so tempted by Sathan ye shall be as Gods Gen. 3. I admire Gods insinite patience and mercy yet wonder that they have hitherto escaped the Judgment of Herod and have not long ere this been eaten up of Vermin because to this very day they have not given God the glory by expunging all such expressions bordering so near upon nay indeed are the quintescence of Blasphemy out of their extravagants and Decretals Canons and Authors when by their Indices Expurgatorii they have obliterated and expunged many Divine Truths out of the Antient Fathers and Books nay out of God's own Commandements out of his own Decalogue written with his own finger on Tables of Stone and split another into two that the same number might still remain And are they thus Hogen Mogen in words only Have not their Acts and Enterprises been answerable What say you to deposing of Kings of Emperors or if any thing in Magistracy may be more transcendent To speak of Kings of Italy France England Translating their Kingdoms oft attempted sometimes executed is but to speak them modest in pride and haughtiness these in their esteem being but Dii minorum Gentium what thing you of the deportment of Alexander the Third towards the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa doth it not proclaim him in pride Luciferian Such facts read many in the Cardinal de Rom. Pont. Lib. 5. c. 8. not related only but justified as done de Jure and pleaded as evidence to prove that the Pope hath Supream Power Temporal on Earth tho not directly yet in Ordine ad Deum for all Spiritualia How long Lord Holy and Just dost thou not avenge the Abasures of thy Lieutenants upon that false Prophet Stir up O Lord the Spirit of Princes that once the lofty looks of that proud man may be brought low Who is there amongst the Lords Anointed ones whose heart the Lord hath inclined to be an instrument of his vengeance upon this Pater omnium fornicationum Abominationum terrae his God be with them And if hereto the offering of the People be not willing unworthy they to see the peace and welfare of the everlasting Gospel But that I may not in the least prevaricate with my Lord Cardinal Bellarmine so great a Prince so great a Scholastick nor yet seem in the least to imitate him in his equivocating arguings of which I so much complain I shall joyn issue with him upon his own Instance viz. For the Pope is able to do all that is necessary to the conducting of Souls to Paradise Perche puo five tâ—tto questo che è necessario à condurreâ—i ' anime in Paradiso puo ' levare tutti gli impedimenti che il mundo o' l' demonio con tutta la loro fozza o' astutia and can take away all the Impediments which the World or Devil can lay in the way A doughty Prince doubtless To answer which I must preliminarily once more Interrogate His Holiness Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts Who hath given understanding to the Heart Is it the Inspiration of His Holiness or of the Almighty that giveth understanding Wilt thou then disanul his Judgments Wilt thou rob him of his glory that thou maist seem righteous or that thou maist be Dominus fac totum To conduct the Soul of an Infant into Paradise which is yet in the Mothers Womb and cannot be brought forth alive necessary it is one way or other to make it partaker of Grace can the Pope do it I trow not For neither can he institute a Sacrament for this purpose nor grant that the Child should be cut out of the Mothers Belly and therefore the Pope cannot do any thing necessary to conduct this Soul into Paradice According to like Romish Doctrine a man being Actually in some mortal sin and in this State deprived of his Wits cannot be saved unless he recover his wits again and repent himself can the Pope restore him to his wits again I trow not and yet according to their own Doctrine it is necessary for this Mans Salvation But if he can he shall have my Vote to be Doctor to all the Bedlams in the World Nothing more necessary to Salvation than the Internal motions of the mind Can the Pope influence the Hearts of men by secret Heavenly suggestions and illapses of the Spirit Can he speak unto the Hearts of men in a Dream in a Vision in the Night when deep sleep falleth upon them in slumbrings upon the Bed Can he then open the Ears of men and seal their Instruction All these and much more can and doth God do that he may withdraw Man from his purpose and hide pride from him Job 33.14 15 16 17. No no the fining pot is for Silver and the Furnace for Gold Prov. 17.3 But God only searcheth the heart and tryeth the reins Jer. 17.20 and Ch. 20.12 And their own St. Thomas denyeth that the Pope hath any power over the hearts and minds of men If Bellarmine will not believe nor Scripture nor St. Thomas yet I hope he will believe himself who in his own Book de Rom. Pont. makes a long discourse prescribing limits to the Pope's Authority and touching many things which the Pope cannot do oportet mendacem esse memorem Infinite indeed are the things which are necessary for the conducting a Soul into Paradise which are not subject to the Pope's Authority If He can remove all Impediments which the World and the Devil can lay in the way with all their Subtilty why then doth he not convert all Jews Turks Infidels and Hereticks Nay can they save their own Souls by removing all Impediments c. then can the Devils too some of them so peerelesly vicious full of all unrighteousness not in their own Persons only but like Jeroboam making Israel to sin St. Paul is too nice and too modest when he reckons Fornicators Adulterers Effeminate Covetous Extortioners 1 Cor. 16.9 10. among the damned Crue Let not the Laws Curse touch them except they be found unholy profane Murtherers Parricides Sodomites Perjured what not Nor he reputed the Man of Sin except he be found amongst Bishops Christian as Ahab amongst Kings of Israel a sine pare a none such that have sold themselves to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Ly their own Chroniclers Martin Polon Anno 986. Platina in Bonifac. 7. in Sylv. 2. in Benedicto 9. Martin Polon Anno 1042. Beno Cardin. de vita gestis Hild. or were their Popes many such Necromancers in express league with the Devil purposely Sacrificing unto him Masters of that Hellish Art to
and Judicature one of the other is not denied by any Protestant Divines that I know of and it is or ought to be as little gain-said that it could not then be otherwise And why Christ knew that the Messengers which he sent to gather a People to himself out of Saracens and Insidels Jews and Gentiles by perswasive means only were to build up his Church within the Bosom of Kingdoms which were and would continue avowed Enemies to his Gospel every where for a long time then to come And therefore he gave them such Doctrines and such Commissions for Doctrine and Discipline as they might any where publish and exercise in a quiet and peaceable manner the Subjects of no Common-wealth being any where therein concerned in goods or person by vertue of that spiritual regiment whereunto Christian Religion once embraced did make them lyable And indeed if they had not a Government within themselves they could have none at all concerning Christian Religion For Princes and all Nations were then professed and bitter enemies to Christian Religion which Government did also extend it self unto small matters even such as were otherwise impleadable and remediable in the Civil Courts and Judicatures of the Kingdome or State though heathenish wherein and under whom they lived as Subjects Dare any of you saith St. Paul having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if the world shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters 1 Cor. 6.1 2. So that upon the whole matter the Sum total of Religion that Christ committed to his Apostles and they to their successors consisted in the Doctrin and Discipline thereof viz. to preach him and him crucified and to perswade others to become Christians through the belief of one Lord one Faith and one Baptisme and when once admitted by the door of Baptism into the Christian Church then to become and to be accounted Members of the visible Church Christian As for Discipine that concerns moral righteousness and honesty of life and their contraries unrighteousness and dishonesty and therefore Christ gave them this General Precept viz. to love one another even our neighbours as our selves and if any did transgress the Vertues and Laws which belong unto moral righteousness and honesty of life which are not proper and peculiar unto Christian men as Christians but as Men what then the transgressors were first privatly to be admonished if the offence were private those that sinned openly were to be rebuked openly if they did not then repent and amend then to be admonished by two or three if still they remained incorrigible then to acquaint that Congregation of Christian Brethren of which they were Members and if still they continued refractory after private and publick Admonitions Warnings and Prayers then not to own them as Brethren nor to keep company with them with such no not to eat with them and in the end to pursue them as if Publicans and Heathens as not being worthy of the Name and Profession of Christians which they had put on they not living to the adorning but to the shame of the Gospel And this is the sum of the whol Government or Discipline which Christ after the death of the Apostles who having gifts extraordinary had also powers extraordinary which died with them left to his Church for ought appears by any Scripture extant And what need of more For if the Ministers of the everlasting Gospel have liberty to Instruct break Bread Baptize and Pray the Civil Christian Magistrat hath sufficient power by Gods own Ordinance to order all the rest § To me indeed it seems marvelous nay monstrous that out of so plain so intelligible so easily practicable directions for the Government of Christian Churches that so various so meerly wordly and pompous nay imperious and impious forms of Church Government should be drawn into use as have been hundreds of years practised both in the Eastern and Western Empires and all held forth to be according to the Gospel when in truth they all differ from the true Gospel Discipline as far as the East is from the West they being all degenerated into meer worldly forms set up for meer worldly self-ends and interests If any man can more plainly make out any other form from the Gospel it would be a favour my self I must confess to be Impar Negotio it is past my understanding Indeed to me it seems wonderful whilst I consider that though Histories are ful and plain how and when the several forms crept in and got Accruments partly by the supineness and negligence of the Brethren of their own Rights and Priviledges partly by the craft and subtlety of proud covetous and ambitious Clergy and partly by the carelesness of Princes who not willing to trouble themselves with the care of Religion devolved it upon others that they should yet endeavour to keep us hoodwinkt though they know that our eyes are now open If there be any other Gospel-form of Government let it plainly appear without offering violence to any Texts of Scripture if not why should we be wiser than Christ our Head and Lawgiver God only is truth and all men are subject to errors what remains but that all his Servants and more especially the Priests of the most high God whose lips above others should more especially preserve knowledg do abandon humane errors and fals superstructures and keep the praecepts of God only that they may remain stedfast in the truth only § Some are of opinion that there is no need at all of any Ecclesiastical Government as distinct from the Civil if Christian and Orthodox and if there be that yet the Body of the Church is to govern it self and not the Clergie or Officers the Body they are to teach them their duty but the provisionary coercive and executive power is seated in the Body and not in the Pope or Presbyter I know the grand objection against Independency is that it is destructive to Government and tends to Anarchy a meer slander rather than a just objection for if rightly considered it would be found the least Chagreen to any Civil Government of any Ecclesiastical Government at this very day in use in any Nation and if not mistaken I have Christ who was the Wisdom of the Father and his Apostles to justify me herein For the Government that is herein stated may be exercised under any Government how averse soever to Christianity it self without clashing or interfeering therewith And if Christ left no other Government as for certain he did not why should we pretend to be wiser than Christ himself The same was exercised by the Apostles and long after and how incroachments of power were gained to the Clergy Stories are full Vide Fra Paolo Sarpi his Treatise of Beneficiary Matters § On the contrary how thwarting Popish or Presbyterian Governments are to
perfectly 18 Acts 24 25 26. For he knew only the Baptism of John So that it is possible that some Doctrines and some Truths may be revealed or revealed more perfectly to Auditors and sitters by than to the Priests themselves tho qualified as Apollos was besides the practice of former times even in the days of the Apostles and times of persecution nothing more common witness 20 John 19.26 Then the same day at Evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut ergo private when the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews c. And after 8 days again his Disciples were within and Thomas with them then came Jesus the doors being shut c. V. 26. The Rulers of the Jews being offended at Peters Sermon for that thousands were converted thereat did imprison him and John and commanded them to preach no more in that Name adding also threatnings but Peter and John boldly answered whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye for we cannot but speak the things we have heard and seen whereupon they being farther threatned and let go they did not desist but went to their own company and having prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the Word of God with boldness 4 Acts 1.2.17.19.20.23.31 And it came to pass that a whol year they assembled themselves with the Church and taught much People 11. Acts 26. K. Herod having persecuted the Christians killed James and imprisoned Peter whom an Angel delivered on the prayers of the Church assembled in the House of Mary the Mother of John where many were gathered together praying 12. Acts 2.3.12 Upon the first day of the week when the Disciples came together to break bread Paul preached unto them continuing his speech until Midnight there being many lights in the upper Chamber whereby it is apparent that Paul did not only teach publickly in the Temple but also from House to House not ceasing to warn every one night and day with tears 20 Acts. 7.8.20.31 Paul having escaped shipwrack and being upon Melita many came to him unto his Lodging to whom he expounded and testified the Kingdom of God c. and Paul dwelt two whol years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him 28. Acts 1.23.30.31 The application is easie and obvious without a Comment times of persecution can be no objection here nor alter the case if lawful then under Perscutors and Enemies of the Gospel nay a duty injoyned certainly much more lawful now under the Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Church Reasons of State only can have room here either pro or con Conventicles of such nature being so far from being against Scripture that they are warranted thereby both by Precept and Example of Christ and his Apostles and of the most pure and primitive times which may be a Document at least and caution to all in Authority that they do not hand over head and without due consideration suppress all Conventicles promiscuously as if Conventicles and Schism and Conspiracy were termini convertibiles least by mistake or inadvertency they act over again the Priests of old the Captain of the Temple and the Sadduces or those lewd fellows of the baser sort who upon such like occasions being grieved that the Apostles taught the People and preached through Jesus the resurrection of the dead accusing them for turning the world upside down by acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar came upon them laid hands on them put them in prison and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the Name of Jesus But Peter filled with the Holy Ghost and John answered them boldly saying whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye 4. Acts 18.19 And being let go no fault having been found in them for so congregating and so preaching they went to their own Company and after report made of all that the Chief Priests and Elders had said unto them they lift up their voices with one accord and applied and said with David Why did the Heathen rage and the People imagine vain things the Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ V. 25.26 When many signs and wonders were wrought among the People by the Apostles few men daring to joyn themselves to them the temper and complexion of many in these our days I doubt but the People magnified them the High Priest with his Sect of Sadduces being filled with indignation imprisoned them whom the Angel of the Lord delivered miraculously by night the doors being shut with command to stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this life and they were sound so teaching when by the command of the High Priest that the Captain of the Temple with his Officers seized them in the Temple and brought them without violence for they feared the People least they should have been stoned before the Council who tho cut to the heart at the stout and resolute answers and deportment of the Apostles yet waved the counsel given to slay them and followed the advice of Gamaliel a Pharisee a Doctor of Law had in reputation among all the People who cautioned them to take heed what they did to these Men invited thereunto by the example of Theudas and Judas of Galilee who advised to refrain from these Men and let them alone upon this grand reason because if this counsel or this work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found even to fight against God to whom they all agreed yet not without beating and commanding them that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and yet they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ in the Temple and in every House 5. Acts 12.42 When Christ was ascending up to Jerusalem and being come even at the descent of the Mount of Olives the whole multitude of Disciples rejoyced and praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen whereat the Pharisees being offended said Master rebuke thy Disciples but instead of silencing them he rebuked the Pharisees and said unto them I tell you that if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out 19. Luke 37.40 If our Separatists our Schismaticks falsly so miscalled do so assemble contrary to Decrees of Caesar yet it is not without strict Precepts and great Examples of Christ the Lord Paramount and of his Apostles If Paul that great Apostle 1. Rom. 11.12 did long to see the Romans that he might be comforted together with
Election of Bishops purporting that a Cathedral being vacant the Metropolitan should write unto the Chapter the Name of him who was to be promoted who should afterwards be published in Pulpit in all the Parish-Churches of the City on Sunday and hanged on the Door of the Church and afterwards the Metropolitan should go to the City vacant and examine Witnesses concerning the Qualities of the Person and all his Letters Patents and Testimonials being read in the Chapter every one should be heard that would oppose any thing against his Person of all which an Instrument should be made and sent to the Pope and read in the Consistory But such a Decree was too good to pass in that Packt Council which having too much publick respect to the publick Good even of their own Catholick Church Protestant Churches having not the same reasons to complain was oppsed by all Arts and Industry by the Bishop of Bertinoro General Laynez and by all the Pentioners and Favourites of the Court of Rome which by much was the major part for the many and great inconveniences that would ensue thereby And what were they Forsooth that such a Decree would be a Cause of Calumnies and Seditions and that thereby some Authorities long since taken away would be restored to the People Vâ—â— Ao 870. Distinct 73. Padre Paolo Defence 75. with which they would usurp the Election of Bishops which formerly they were wont to have that this was to bind the Authority of the Pope that he could not gratifie any one Just and pregnant Reasons I must confess to perswade unto Usurpation of the Right of others and therefore it could not pass The like Opposition was made against the Article concerning those who were to be promoted to the greater Orders in which it was also said that their Names ought to be published to the People three Sundays and affixed to the doors of the Church and that their Letters Testimonial ought to be subscribed by four Priests and four Laicks of the Parish alledging that no Authority ought to be given to the Laicks in these Affairs which are purely Ecclesiastical 725 726. what Right soever they had unto them In the Discourse also of the Reformation of Cardinals a Congregation was ordained on purpose to consult and find a means that Princes might not intermeddle in the Conclave in the Election of the Pope so jealous and unwilling are they to have any Laick great or small to come within their Verge their Scrinia sacra or to intermeddle in such their Concerns though they have none de Jure but their Priesthood but what they have either obtained by Power or usurped by Fraud or by the Supineness or Favours of Pious Princes But when some of the Council thought in order to Reformation to make a Constitution that no Bishop should have any Temporal Offices either in Rome or in the Ecclesiastical Dominions that even that also would be a great prejudice to the Ecclesiasticks of France Polonia and of other Countries and Kingdoms where they are Councellors of Kings and have the Principal Offices of which they would soon be deprived by the instigation of the Secular Nobility for their own Interests and therefore that String was not to be touched upon but left unto the Popes ordering Furthermore the Bishop of St. Mark in the Dispute about the Title of the Council of Trent had the boldness to aver that the Laicks are most improperly called the Church for that the Canons determine that they have no Authority to command but Necessity to obey and that the Council ought to Decree that the Seculars ought humbly to receive the Doctrine of Faith which is given them by the Church without disputing or thinking of it Petro Soave Polano 141. That is in Romish understanding that that Religion which the Pope Obedience unto him being made by them a true Mark of the Church doth please to give them ought to be embraced by the Laicks without dispute What is this else but plainly and grosly to mock the world and to think all men Fools and Cuddens but themselves and to perswade themselves that all their Absurdities should be believed without more ado What is this less than to perswade Rational men that they are Bruits Horses or Asses void of all understanding or that hearing they do not hear or that seeing they do not see or that perceiving they do not understand Qui vult decipi decipiatur § Thus have I unto the meanest Capacities made plain and evident both by Precept and Practice out of the Word of Truth the Title and Interest which the whole Congregation of Believers have unto the Appellation and Powers of the Church and unto Ecclesiastical Concerns without wresting or perverting any one Text of Scripture § Now the Pope would very much oblige us if he would vouchsafe unto us but only one plain Text to warrant the Powers he exerciseth and lays claim unto over the Laity or how he comes to be so essential to the Church as to be put into the very definition thereof It being plain downright nonsence if it be good manners to say so to aver that any one single person alone how great soever can suffice to make a Church a Congregation for that at least two or three are necessarily required to make an Assembly or Congregation Ecclesia or the Church even in its Natural and Grammatical Construction signifying a Plurality or Multitude be it Civil or Ecclesiastical And as it is a new so it is an absurd kind of Trope devised by the Romanists to make the Pope a single person to signifie the Church I know the Papalins are most excellent Artists most rare Alchymists surpassing even those our Brethren Roseae Crucis who are modest Mountibanks in respect of these Audaces Jesuitae for they took the whole Book of Genesis to found their Phanatick Chymaeraes upon but these can extract their extravagancies out of two or three words only viz. Pasce oves meas i.e. Feed my Sheep out of this Word Pasce Bellarm. hath extracted so many Quintessences so many Elixirs so many Legions of Diabolical or Antichristian Arguments for the Popes Pride and Grandeur that he can hardly desire any thing that these would not afford him will he be a King as well as a Bishop and will he have Temporal Power to be as extensive as his Spiritual Bellarmine assures him that it is so for that Christ said to Peter Pasce i.e. Regio more Impera Play the Rex at pleasure In the ancient Church when any Heresie disturbed the Truth and publick Peace a grave Assembly of Bishops and others were called and the Book of God fairly laid open before them and out of it were all Doubts determined Now Scriptures and Councils are needless Will the Pope be supreme Judge of all Controversies Lib. 4. De Rom. Pontif. C. 1. C. 3. Bellarmine thinks the Claim to be well grounded upon this Pasce Joh. 21.17 And it is
but with great and exquisite Judgment the which wanting Power only takes no effect The Canonists themselves say That the Power of Binding and Loosing is intended by a Key not erring and Pope Leo expresly affirmeth it in a Canon speaking of this Priviledge given by St. Peter Manet ergo Petri privilegium ubicunque ex ipsius fertur aequitate Judicium nec nimia est vel severitas vel remissio ubi nihil erit ligatum vel solutum nisi quod Beatus Petrus solverit aut ligaverit 24. q. 1. c. Manet § Of old the Holy Bishops did preach and teach Princes that they having two Callings the one of Christians the other of Princes were bound in both of them to serve God as Christians in observing the Divine Precepts as every other private Person but as Princes to serve God by ordaining just and good Laws and directing their Subjects to Piety Honesty and Justice by having his Eyes on the Faithful of the Land that they that excel in Vertue and Piety may dwell with him by not countenancing wicked Persons by erecting publick Places of Worship and as much as in them lyeth by chalking out a High-way of Holiness throughout their Dominions by their Good and Pious Example that way-faring Men though Fools might not erre therein by punishing all such as transgress Gods Commandments especially those of the Decalogue wherein those that sin against the first Table which more immediately concern the Divine Honour are worse than those that sin against the Second which concern Justice amongst Men Wherefore Kings are more bound to punish Blasphemies Heresies and Perjuries than Murders and Thefts For this cause were divers Laws made against such Crimes as are Registred in the Justinian and Theodosian Codes imposing on the guilty Pecuniary Mulcts Banishment Privation of Part or of all their Goods according to the Circumstances of the Offence the execution of which Laws are committed to their Secular Officers And accordingly this our Kingdom from its Original of being Christian hath been accustomed to sentence and punish in case of grievous offence any Person Ecclesiastical of what Degree or Order soever by which means it hath hitherto preserved the Ancient and Independent Liberty of its true Dominion and Empire § Every Criminal Judgment hath three parts 1. For Example Criminal Judgment hath three parts The Cognisance of the Cause 2. The Cognisance of the Fact 3. The Sentence 1. For Example In the Judgment of Heresie or the Cognisance of the Reason is whether such an Opinion be Heretical or no 2. The Cognisance of the Fact is whether the Person so accused or denounced hath defended or held the same 3. The Sentence consisteth either of Absolving or Condemning The first Cognisance what Opinion was Heretical was mostly Ecclesiastical but not absolutely exclusive of Secular Learned Men appointed by the Emperors And when there grew any difficulty of some Opinion the Emperor did require the Judgment of Bishops and if need were did call Councils For the Cognisance of the Fact whether the accused Person were Innocent or Guilty that he might have the punishment ordained by the Laws of the Emperor and the Sentence of Condemnation or Absolution did all belong to the Secular Power Thus were matters ordered for Causes of Heresie c. in the Church under the Roman Empire until about 800 Years after Christ when the Eastern Empire being divided from the Western this Form rested in the Eastern till the end of it In the Western the Princes needed not make any Laws nor take much care about this Business seeing for the space of 300 Years from 800 to 1100 there were very few Hereticks found in those Parts and when any Case did happen which chanced but very seldom the Bishop did judge of it in the same manner as he proceeded against Ecclesiastical Persons as against Infringers of Holy-days Breakers of Fasts and such like judging and punishing them themselves in those Places where they had Jurisdiction granted them by the Princes and where they had not the like Power they did implore the Secular Aid to punish them After the Year 1100. by reason of the continual differences which for about fifty Years before had been between the Emperors and Popes and lasted afterwards for a whole Age until about 1200 Years with frequent Jars and Wars and the wicked life of the then Clergy there did arise an infinite number of Hereticks as the Papists are pleased to call them whose most common Heresies were against the Popes Authority and where the Multitude of them exceeded there was a forced Toleration About this time of the day Pope Innocent the fourth subtilly designed by introducing the Inquisition Inquisition more Authoritatively to deprive the Civil Magistrates of their Rights over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical to whose Judgment was committed the punishment of Heresie c. by the Ancient Laws of the Empire and by the Laws of Frederick the second and by particular Statutes which each City was forced to make for the preservation of their own indubitable and independent Right of Governing Ecclesiastical Causes and Persons according to their great Charter from Heaven But the Pope sinding great opposition from all Places he offered one Expedient which in shew made the Civil Magistrate the Inquisitors Companion but in Substance and Effect his Lacquey This Opposition grew so strong and was so universal that the Pope could not introduce his Tribunals Inquisitory except it were in the Provinces of Lombardy Romania and Marca Trevisana nor in them neither for all his Bulls and severe Edicts as he desired no nor yet as he did without great reluctancy and opposition from the Civil Magistrates though in those three Provinces his Authority was very great they having no Prince and each City governing it self and where the Pope also had a part because he had assisted them in their late Wars And although the said Frederick Anno 1244. set forth four Proclamations receiving the Fathers Inquisitors into his protection and imposing the Penalty of Fire the first Law that imposed death upon obstinate Hereticks for which kindness and assistance of his he was admirably well requited by the same Pope who first excommunicated and then deposed him and as Hier-Marius reports corrupted one to poison him which not taking effect corrupted another to strangle him so that Alexander the fourth his Successor Anno 1259. and Clement the fourth 1265. were constrained to moderate the Edicts of Innocent the fourth And four other succeeding Popes employed themselves in overcoming the difficulties which thwarted them in setling the Inquisition After some moderation it being setled in those three Provinces it afterwards crept into Tuscany and so into Arragon and into some Cities of Germany and France out of which it was soon exiled and in Arragon they were reduced to a very small number Into the Kingdom of Naples it was not brought there being little correspondence between the Popes and the Kings thereof In the
Fruit thereof Nostrorum quilibet de legibus interrogatus facilius quam nomen suum recitat they knew the Law as well as their own Names To this agrees Acts 15.21 to after times Stories give witness Socrates of the Church at Alexandria once or twice a-week the Scriptures are read in the Assembly and so necessary they thought it that they ordained an Order of Readers who had to that Function their Solemn Consecration So was Julian afterwards the Apostate ordained a Reader in the Church of Nicomedia Then consider the Power of it 1. For discerning things that differ and trial of Doctrines taught by the Preachers to which End Esay calls to the Law and to the Testimony and Beraeans practised it with commendations 2. The People are thereby better acquainted with the Letter of Scriptures and Language of the Holy Ghost which always carries much more Awe Majesty and Conviction than what is not Scripture the Power of it being exceeding great to work knowledge God having in things necessary condescended even unto the meanest Capacity it confirms Faith and always is a strong Preparative to saving Faith and Conversion as to Austin was the obeying of the Voice from Heaven Tolle lege to Junius the reading of St. Johns Gospel in Josiah what remorse and compunction wrought it 2 Kings 22.20 what Godly Sorrow to Repentance wrought it in the Corinthians 2 Cor. 7.8 9. of such necessity and avail to Gods People is the naked reading of Scriptures in the Congregation These Considerations should and I hope will instruct us to beware how in our Judgment we vilisie this so holy and wholesom an Ordinance of God it being as much Gods Ordinance that the Scriptures be read in the Congregation as that they be interpreted and applied to the People by Preachments Let us not be Monsters in our Worship attributing a Nemis to some Ordinances thereby debasing or derogating from other Ordinances Sathans Policy herein is not inconsiderable that would thereby fain make us prophane Anabaptists or Quakers to contemn all Gods Ordinances by permitting us to over-admire some one that the rest may be despicable in our esteem Prayer amongst Romanists we see half Idolized Preaching too prophanely scoffed at Reading there are that most magnifie There are of another Strain desiring to turn our whole Liturgy after the French or Geneva Schomme into a meer Preachment Know ye not that these all are Holy Ordinances of God necessary useful powerful to their Ends assigned of them all may we not say they are ordained of God they that contemn shall receive condemnation who except prejudice or unpreparedness have forestalled his profiting hath not felt Gods Spirit by reading to enlighten admonish excite mortifie c. or can think God hath in vain with such adjuration enjoyned it to those that are Guides of the Congregation I say as our Saviour of the Commandments Whoso contemns the least of these Ordinances and teacheth Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5.19.29 Petrus Cunaeus de Repub. Hebr. lib. 2. c. 17. affirms That howsoever the Law was read amongst them in the former times either in publick or private yet the bare Text was only read without gloss or descant Interpretatio Magistrorum nulla Commentatio nulla but in the second Temple when there were no Prophets then did the Scribes and Doctors begin to Comment and make several Expositions on the Holy Text ex quo natae disputationes sententiae contrariae from whence saith he sprang up Debates and doubtful Disputations and most probable it is saith another upon him that from this Liberty of Interpretation sprung up diversity of Judgments from whence arose the several Sects of Pharises Essenes and Saduces who by their difference of Opinions did distract the Multitude and condemn one another even so c. Therefore thrice accursed is that practise of Rome monopolizing Scriptures to the Clergy all Participes Criminis Parties to the Cheat as their Priviledge and Prerogative interdicting the People acquaintance with them without faculty first obtained from the Ordinary to some few but at no hand may be publickly read in a Vulgar Tongue Luke 11.52 Is not this the taking away the Key of Knowledge and hindering those that would enter in what I beseech you was Gods aim in that Gift of Tongues what time he meant to set open to Gentiles the door of Faith but that every one might hear in that Tongue wherein he was born the wonderful Works of God Acts 2.8.11 To what purpose were the Labours of Ancients translating Scriptures into Vulgar Languages as Hierom into the Dalmatian Chrysostome into the Armenian Tongue Vulphilas into the Language of the Goths In Bedes time were extant Translations into six several Languages for the use of the People of this Island Vainly except to the Laity also their use was freely intended This Apostrophe by the By relating only to Romanists who by so doing Amongst Jews under Antiochus 1597. do vilifie the Gift of Tongues and act diametrically contrary to the whole Ch. 14. of the first of the Corinthians thereby making themselves wiser than Christ and his Apostles It can be but a frivolous Cavil for our Anti-liturgists to say that the Intendment of the before-recited Portions of Scripture is for the reading of Scriptures only and not for any thing that is composed by Man whereas St. Pauls Charge to Timothy was general viz. That he should give attendance to Reading to Exhortation to Doctrine 1 Tim. 4.13 If this may be allowed for currant I doubt it may prove as strong against Sermons and where are we then The Sermons of our Priests and of our days are not so the Word of God as the Sermons of the Apostles were nay they are but quodam modo and interpretativè termed Gods Word because his Word is the Subject of which they treat and Liturgies in this sense are or should be as much the Word of God as Sermons for the Wit and Gifts of Man gives equally the Being and Form to them both Will you confine the Spirit and ascribe Vital Operation to Sermons alone or to the Administrations of every Individual Priest only and not unto those composed by Bodies Collective Is that to divide the Word aright nay is it not partial dispensation so to rob Peter to pay Paul to derogate from and to deprive one Gift and Way of Administration of its just Efficacy and Operation and to attribute it wholly to another Gift of the same Stamp Nay is it not imparting the most peculiar Glory of the Word of God unto that which is not properly his Word nor no more his Word than Liturgies are Apostolick Sermons were no doubt unto such as heard them the Word of God and are not their Writings so now to us Sermons are not the only Preaching which doth save Souls Writing or reading of what is written and spoken speaking either extempore or premeditately do differ indeed yet not
the Son of a Boarnerges yet fury he hated sire and faggot were none of his principles after much solemn deliberation chose to Steer his Course in a mild and gentle way and therefore first recalled those that had abandoned the Kingdom and released the Imprisoned because they would not submit to Romish superstition and corruptions that they might enjoy that liberty of Conscience for which they had suffered extremities in his Fathers time and that they might be serviceable to him in the furtherance of the work of Reformation and forthwith without staying for the return of the Banished he smoothed the way to the intended work by setting out some preparatory Injunctions yet extant which were sent abroad into all parts of the Kingdom by certain Commissioners or Visitors attended by Godly and Learned Preachers appointed to instruct the People where they were to sit and Act the better to facilitate the work that the people might not cool or relapse these Preachers were more particularly instructed besides the points contained in the said Injunctions to disswade the People from Praying to Saints to the dead from Adoring of Images from the use of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Dyrgies Praying in unknown Languages c. all which was done to prepare the People by little and little that with the more ease and less opposition they might insensibly admit the total intended Alteration in the Face of the Church In the whole Progress they did deem it best to remove those things first which were least needful and newliest crept in and therefore did Abrogate a number of Sts. dayes and recalled the Latine Services and all Antiphoneys Missals Grailes Processionals Manuals Legends Pies Portuasies Journals and Ordinals after the use of Sarum Lincolne York Bangor Hereford or any other of Private use and all other Books of Service that might hinder the Service in English and so Established the Liturgy which was also Translated into the French for the use of the Marches of Calais and the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey famous for that unparallel'd Martyrdom of Perotine Massey who being great with Child was in the Marian dayes there committed to the Flames amidst which her Belly bursting and her Child falling into the Fire was like a Brand pluckt forth thereof by one William House but was presently ramanded again to the flames by Gosling the Baily that it might have the Honour which never any had before to be born as well as dye a Martyr Articles of Religion and discipline Catechisms Churches cleansed of things burthensom to the People offensive and scandalous to the Simple to which God gave such Blessings and Success that many Papists considering the reasonableness and purity of the Worship frequented our Churches and turn'd Protestants others tho Papists still frequented our Churches until the Pope made it a signum distinctivum and then many return'd with the Dog to the Vomit and with the Sow that was washed to her wallowing in the Mire unto their old Idolatrous and Superstitious fopperies again Tho this most worthy Prince by his wise and moderate Council and management brought that great that difficult that admirable work of Reformation to such excellent perfection in so short time that this Nation hath found the Blessing and comfort of it ever since even to this very day yet doth it not escape the private reproach of this Author among others tho elsewhere he seem also in some part to approve it who would have us remember that our Reformers were but men who never claimed Infallibility and that the Reformation was performed by men which never claimed perfection f. 36. that the Book of Common Prayer became a bone of contention from its very Cradle to this Nation and unto other parts of the World many of the People and Ministers seeming to be enlightned with a beam of truth with an equal luster and brightness with that which shined in the minds of their Brethren wholly decrying that prudential Complyance with the Peoples Ignorance and Adherence to Popery and which Considerations he supposes ought to prevail with sober men to take the whole matter of the Imposition of this or the like form once more under a Sedate Consideration f. 40.41 § It is true that our Reformers were but Men that they never claimed Infallibility nor their work perfection such perfection as God promises Isay 35.8 a High way of Holyness throughout this Land that Way-faring men tho Fools should not err therein yet such perfection as the wisdom of the wise and Godly of those times and the posture of Affairs then could devise and would admit of we humbly conceive they had and ought so to be esteemed But is not he that Objects these and were not those great Luminaries he minds us of Men subject to like Passions and Infirmities with their Brethren or is he or were they any more Infallible than those he Objects against If not so nor so why so quarrelsom why so Captious O! to have the whole matter taken once more into a Sedate Consideration The request I confess is modest and mannerly and not without Reverence and it shall be considered with like respects By this Discourse of his he seems to me to be of Opinion happily not erroneous viz. That there is no such Contrariety between the different Opinions of the Assenters and Dissenters in point of Liturgies and things indifferent but that some moderation and connivance may be indulged to the Dissenters without peril of Inconvenience to the Government and that without it these petty differences and trifles may accidentally foment Divisions and disturb the quiet State of the Kingdom and therefore the more prudent and safe way were to connive at least by a prudent Neutrality between the Contrarieties and take care that none do Condemn the other nor yet the present Government but that all do live peacibly and Piously together In the dayes of Luther many moderate Popish Princes were of the same Opinion and that many of the Modern Innovators Opinions might have been tollerated if they had been modestly Maintained without Condemning the Church of Rome and the Doctrine of the Schools which constrained Leo to retort against Luther those Arrows which he had first Shot against the Apostolick See But what more usual in all Countries Ages and Times than for Innovators by Petition nay by Protestation to shew willingness to refer themselves and to submit to a Sedate Consideration nay even for Papists themselves in their Differences and Disputes which are not few as may be seen in Bellum Papale to refer themselves to the Pope yet neither the one nor the other ought to be believed that he or they have a purpose to acquiesce if a neat and sit occasion be offered to evade Of this great truth the Arrians the Dominicans and Franciscans Jansenists and Molinists indeed all Sects and Heresies give abundant Testimony nay of this Luther himself was a Manifest example who while he had to do only with
earnestly but inconsiderately pleaded for again But what did this Liberty produce but Factions Schisms and variety of Fashions and Modes in Celebrating the common Service and Administration of the Sacraments and other Rights and Ceremonies of the Church nay it is observed as intimated before in the Register of Petworth that many at this time affirmed the most blessed Sacrament to be of little regard that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other great enormities committed nay many of the Licensed Preachers appear'd as Active against the Kings proceedings as any of the unlicensed Preachers had been found to be now what security can this our Author give to our Prince that if the like Liberty should now be Indulged to him and others that it shall not be abused nor produce the like or worse effects All which together with the Insurrections in Cornwall Devon Norfolk Suffolk and other Counties springing therefrom the King and his Council seeing the dangerous consequence thereof concluded that Uniformity was the best remedy against Schisme Heresie Faction and for the quiet State and Weal of the Kingdom and therefore gave Order to the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and other Learned and Pious Men rather than to use Severity against his Subjects that a publick Liturgy should be drawn and Confirmed by Parliament with several Penalties to be Inflicted on all those who should not readily conform to the Rules and appointments of it and accordingly it was so signified unto the Kingdom by Proclamation Queen Elizabeth who was not unacquainted with such Sollicitations nor with the Consequences of them gave that reason in her time for not suffering any deviation from the established Form viz. that the English Angli beliâ— intrepidi as they were Zealous in their Religion so they were a Stout and Warlike Nation and the difference in Rites and Worship would unavoidably beget words and disputes which would certainly beget Animosities and consequently Blows and Insurrections the experience whereof she had seen in the first years of her Brothers Reformation for the Commissioners attending the Kings Injunctions met in many places with Scorn and Reproach and Railing and the farther they went from London the worse they were handled in somuch that as one of them was pulling down Images in Cornwall was Stabbed by a Priest who tho Hanged in Smithfield which quieted all matters for a time yet the next year the Storm arose more violently than before not only in the Western parts but in a manner all the Kingdom over which great Commotions the Council foreseeing as the most probable consequence of such Alterations especially when they are sudden and pressed too fast did let the People understand that there was no Intention to abolish their Antient Ceremonies which might consist with Piety or the Peace or Prosit of the Nation and therefore the King both by his Proclamation dated in Jan. 1548. commanded a strict observance of Lent and also pursued it by his own observance thereof in his Court by which and other like Innocent complyances did the King make good and established his most happy Reformation and yet is he and his work and his prudent Innocent Complyances evil spoken of by some Boarnarges hot and fiery spirits because forsooth there were some that had a Beam of Light of equal Lustre that would have had it otherwise The most eminent whereof were Bonner Calvin John Alasco and Hooper the very first Anti-Liturgists Pardon I beseech you that I name that Sanguinary Bonner the same day with those Pious Men. John Alâ—sco and Hooper having suffered very much for the truth and Bonner having made the truth highly to suffer and Calvin who setting aside the fondness of his own Brat the Chimera of his own Invention his Church discipline and also his rigid opinions concerning Election and Reprobation now even in this our Age become the Darling arguments of our Atheists or which is as bad of all those that live as it were without God in the World who tho they profess God with their Mouths yet in their Works do deny him was both as wise a Man and as orthodox in points of Doctrine as any as that age did afford and did Write so much yet so it is that the Beam of light which Bonner and his Gang enjoyed led him and his Complices as much to make the Liturgy a Bone of Contention to them in that it took away so much and retained so little as the Beam of Light of the others did make it a Bone of Contention to them because it took away no more and retained so much For Bonner did still suffer sundry Idolatrous private Masses of peculiar Names as the Apostles Mass the Ladies Mass and the like to be daily solemnly sung within certain particular Chappels of St. Paul cloaking them with the Names of the Apostles Communion and our Ladies Communion not once finding any fault therewith until commanded by the Council and that by several Letters 1265. Tho I am far from thinking that any Person or any Reformation can be too pure when God hath commanded us to be Holy as he is Holy and perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect it can then be but an accursed modesty even next unto Atheism to believe that any Man or any Reformation can have a Nimis of Purity and Piety yet I can no more renounce moderation reason and Prudence in guiding and Governing Church than State Assairs nor yet subscribe unto Calvins Counsel unto Bucer viz. to take heed of his old fault viz. of running a moderate course in his Reformations nor yet his Advice to the Protector Advising him to take away all Ceremonies and to Reform the Church without regard unto peace at home or Correspondency abroad such considerations being only to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word and in managing whereof there is not any thing more distastsul in the eyes of God than Worldly Wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his Will revealed Ep. ad Protect More particularly for example sake see the ill Fruits and Effects of such Liberty as our Discourser Pleads for being granted unto John Alasco A Polonian born and unto his Congregation of Germans and other Strangers by Edw. 6th about the year 1550. who being persecuted in their own Country for the same Religion which was then here professed fled hither for Succour to whom the King by the Advice of his Council out of great Zeal to the propagation of the true Religion and out of most wonderful Commiserations unto those that were persecuted for the profession and exercise thereof most graciously afforded them Favour Entertainment and Protection and did assign them the West part of the Church then lately belonging unto the Augustine Fryers for their Exercising of Religious Duties and made them a
latter years Cardinal Bellarmine set forth a Book wherein he is so bold as to labour to make Princes subject to the Pope in Causes Temporal and most impudently dares to treat them all as Hereticks which say that the Prince in Temporal Affairs hath no Superior but God only thereby preferring the Ambitious ends of the Court of Rome before the Publick ends of Gods Holy Truth and of his Vice-gerents He pretends therein to write against Barclay but his main drift and design is to advance the Popes Power to the Zenith and top of omnipotency it self In this Book he treats of nothing but of the Popes Power over Princes wherein it is more than five and twenty times inculcated viz. That when the Pope judgeth a Prince for faults or unfitness unworthy to Govern or that he knows that it is profitable for the Church he may deprive him of his Government And he sundry times affirms therein That when the Pope commands that Obedience be not given to a Prince that is deprived by him that then he is no more a Prince but a private Person Nay he is so bold as to affirm That the Pope if he shall deem it expedient may dispose of all the goods of any Christian whatsoever and all must go for nothing if he only say it is his opinion Nay farther averrs That it is an Article of the Catholick Faith viz. that he is a Heretick that doth not believe the same and all this with strange impudence scarce to be parallel'd This Book was written by Bellarmine presently after the Murther of Henry the Great of France before whose death such Doctrines were but whispered and covertly broached but soon after his death they vomited them out most impudently leading Princes then as it were in Triumph as that they might be Excommunicated by the Pope deprived of their Kingdoms for unskilful Governing weakness of strength or any other cause or ineptitude that His Holiness shall deem just This Book was so offensive to some of the Roman Catholicks themselves not only because of those false Doctrines so broached but because he asserted those Doctrines to be the Doctrines and Faith of the Catholick Church and pronounceth all those that did think otherwise to be temerarious and scandalous Hereticks Parasites of Princes Ethnicks and Publicans Notwithstanding all these bold Averments the wise State of Venice fore-seeing the evil consequences of such Doctrines might follow to the disturbance of the Peace of a Nation they presently forbid the coming in of that Book into their Dominions lest their Subjects thereby should be seduced into the same errors Whoever shall wisely consider that Murder perpetrated by Ravillac 1610. throw the Instigation of the Jesuits and the Decree of the Sorbon clearing themselves and laying all the guilt thereof and of all Assassinating Doctrines and Principles on the Jesuits and shall also consider Anti-cotton's Refutation of Father Cotton a Jesuit and Confessor to the said Henry the Fourth who had highly oblidged him and the Society by giving them his House at La Flesche for a Colledge with 1000 Crowns yearly Pension for Twenty years and had otherwise marvellously obliged them by many favors thereby hoping to secure his Life but all in vain his Declaratory Letter to the Queen and shall also consider the Discourse to the Lords of Parliament at Paris touching the said Murther all manifestly proving the Jesuits to be the Plotters and Actors in that horrible Murther all printed soon after that detestable stroak viz. 1610. and shall also consider that the said Book of Bellarmine was the very same year Printed at Rome under the Popes Nose with an Imprimatur by Fr. Ludovicus Ystelli Magistri Sacri Palatii Apostolici And shall also consider the Popes silence and calmness in all these great concerns may well conclude that if the Pope were not Particeps Criminis yet he seemed to be accessory by his silence and to be content and very well pleased and that there was a right understanding between him and the Jesuits About this time also viz. 1610. as if Hell-hounds had been breaking loose the Jesuits were so insolent fierce and zealous to make His Holiness Almighty on Earth that there being in Rome a very great number above 150 Catchpoles Serjeants or Bayliffs whom they perceiving to be men of dissolute lives of profligated honesty and living very little like Christians the fitter for their turns they designed to erect in their Church a Society of them only pretending to teach them Christian Doctrine and to exercise them in frequent Confessions which the Governor and Court of Rome understanding and suspecting so strict a Practice of the Jesuits with such their Ministers they complained with the Pontiff Wherefore the Bishop of who had advanced them 30000 Crowns in order thereunto being near to death and died soon after then the Apostolick Chamber not approving the Donation took the Money as a Booty and applied it as they thought fit § That Reverence which is due and deservedly given to Religion hath been the cause that many abuses which came under the Vmbrage of that Sacred Canopy have had such easie admittance whereby the evil designs that have lain couchant under that pretence and the true ends of the designers have not appeared until time hath made a discovery when â—â— hath been too late to remedy them without great disturbances The Covetous desire of inlarging Phylacteries Wealth and Authority doth so naturally blind men even Ecclesiasticks that without any respect to plainness and sincerity of Gods own Holy Writ they betake themselves to Cavils only pittiful Blasphemous Cavils Averring that if God doth punish and hath punished Sinners the Pope and Inquisitors his delegates may and ought also to punish them Certainly to say no worse to draw Arguments from the Divine Omnipotency to Humane Authority agrees in no proportion with the Reverence due to the Divine Majesty Nothing more frequent and ordinary than for Judges whose Jurisdictions and Powers are limited by Paramount Authority to seek the enlargement thereof tho by the disabling of the General Jurisdiction as well Civil as Ecclesiastick And this proceedeth as well from the natural Inclination which all men have to command in chief as also from the profit and Grandeur which necessarily attends Soveraignty But if such Ecclesiasticks or others do seek enlargement of their Power beyond their Commission and natural duty the Supream Civil Magistrate is most to blame if he suffer it tho sometimes with good intent and success for that it can never be with Wisdom Therefore if Ecclesiastical persons shall fail in their duties the power will return to that Body who gave it without depriving it self of it Wherefore it is no wonder if the secular person ought to be an Overseer of him that exerciseth a charge which he himself hath given him The old and true Legitimate Romanists for the first 300 years and more whose Faith and Doctrine the Protestants at this day both own and defend
milites tuos subtrahis and a little after requirat ergo Dominus meus piissimus quis prior imperatorum talem legem dederit subtilius extimet si debuit dari And concluding in the end what it is that he desires of the Emperor saith unde per eundem tremendum Judicem deprecor ne illae tantae lachrimae tantae orationes tanta jejunia tantaeque elemoslnae Domini mei ex qualibet occasione apud omnipotentis Dei oculos fuscentur sed aut temperanda pietas vestra aut mutando rigorem ejusdem legis inflectat such humble and decent remonstrance well-becoming a Pious Bishop or Pastor deserves not to be termed by Bellarmine A sharp reprehension But what follows is yet more worthy to be considered Ego quident jussioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas partes terrarum transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Deo minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam Dominis nuntiavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quod sensi minime tacui By which humble expressions it appears that it was not a sharp reprehension but rather an humble and respective remonstrance which hath no agreement with the Doctrine wich Bellarmine hath published wherein he makes the Pope Supream Temporal Monarch and the Princes of the World less than his Vassals as his words do necessarily infer altho they dare not yet avow it in express terms Consider Reader whether Gregory calling himself so often the Emperors unworthy Servant and his saying that as one that acknowledgeth himself subject to his Commandement he had sent abroad into divers parts of the World a Law which in his conscience he held not to be just And that other saying of his that in so doing he rendred unto the Emperor that obedience that was due unto him whether I say these Speeches do agree with the Doctrine which Bellarmine hath published who ever desires to know more of Gregory's modesty prudence and submissive deportment towards his Lord the Emperor may receive full satisfaction if he please to read his 64th Epistle I shall end this with this observation of Bellarmines great subtilty in that he forbears to quote the place it self of Gregory being so exact and subtle in his Allegation of other places But what if Pope Gregory did sharply reprove him It was but his duty Quatenus a Bishop which priviledge belongs to all Bishops as well as to the Pope as being in the same Commission viz. Tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her transgressions so it is but according to the duty of all Priests to dispense the word of truth be therewith displeased who will And all being granted it makes nothing at all for the Impery of Popes over Princes His next Fortress Ch. Novit examined is the Chapter Novit which because it most particularly concerned John King of England you shall have the true ground and History thereof This Chapter Novit de Judiciis was indeed admirably well designed and well Calculated for Papal Grandeur and Impery but not in the least what pretence soever was held out for the just right of Kings or of any other Mode of Civil Government good of Christians or glory of God It was designed purposely by Innocent the Third to trample on the necks of Kings as once that Monster Alexander the Third did on the prostrate neck of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa blasphemously arrogating to himself for his warrant Psalm 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet as if David more than 1000 years before there was any Pope should particularly Prophesie of Popes And he followed this blow with all the might he had by endeavoring to put it in practice on John King of England and Philip Augustus King of France But the truth is he wanted the Welch-mans Back-sword with two Edges for he neither had the true Bilbo-blade Temporal Power sufficient to force obedience nor yet the Sword of the Spirit Rightful Authority to do what he did He only sent out his Voice yea and that a mighty voice by thundring out his abominable Excommunications which only proved to be vox praeterea nihil Take the Scene and History as it then lay After long Wars between Philip Augustus King of France and Richard King of England About Anno Dom. 1199. Richard died and his Brother John surnamed Lackland succeeded him either by the Nomination or appointment of his Brother as some affirm or by Usurpation upon Arthur who was Son to Geossery another Elder Brother of his But those Territories which John possessed in France submitted themselves to the Dominion of Arthur followed the faction of the French King and was supported by him But at length about Anno Dom. 1200. by means of a Marriage between Lewis Son and Heir and Successor of the French King and Blanche of Castile King John's Sisters Daughter of which Marriage issued afterwards St. Lewis A Peace was concluded between Philip and John wherein Arthur was likewise comprised upon this Condition that John should do Homage to Philip for the Dominions of Brittany and Normandy and Arthur should do Homage for the same unto John After this upon some occasion that fell out Arthur was put in Prison by his Uncle the King of England and there died Anno Dom. 1203. and the common opinion was that he was murthered by his Uncles command whereupon Philip Augustus as Chief Lord of the Fee caused John to be cited to Paris and upon default of his appearance condemned him and confiscated those Territories which he held of him and went afterwards with an Army to seize them into his hands by force John pretended that this was directly against the Peace and Treatise between them and made his complaint to Innocent the Third who commanded both the Kings upon pain of Excommunication to keep Peace and to surcease from War and sent also a Legate unto them for that purpose John for whose advantage this Commandment was did gladly embrace but Philip found himself much grieved and took great exceptions against it and so did the Prelates of France in this behalf unto whom Innocent the Third made that answer contained in the Chapter Novit Philip for all that desisted not from his former purpose but went on and conquered by the Sword all the Territories that the English at that time possessed in France neither could the Pope prevail any thing by his Commands In the year 1208. Innocent the Third Excommunicated John and Interdicted his whole Kingdom which continued six years and three months yet did not John yield to obey the Pope in that he required of him The Pope sent Pandulphus his Legate into France to Philip to perswade him to make War upon John Philip made his preparations accordingly and many Barrons of England combined themselves with him but in the mean time Pandulphus coming into