affirme the Catholick Church of God to be onely in Rome and in the Countries subiect to their Bishop And therefore they tearme themselves Catholicks excluding all other Christians in the World out of the Catholike Church and so Heaven and putting them into the state of damnation though never so Orthodox and Pious for not being subiect to their Bishop onely Yet many of these Christians by them so damned suffer grievous persecutions for Iesus Christs sake which they might quit themselves of if they would renounce their Saviour and also attaine great priviledges and preferments And that which is more some of these Churches so damned and condemned by them never heard of the Bishop of Rome Postel writeth a Booke of the great multitude of Christians unknowne to the Latine World Before the Papacy of Iulius the third writeth Miraeus the name of the Chaldean Patriarch was unknowne to us Neither doe I find any mention of him in the Popes Records And yet Cardinall Amuleius reporteth That hee and his Bishops had long kept the Faith and also many of them had suffered Martyrdome for Christs Name Also the Indian Christians of Taprobane and the Islands adiacent saith Thevet nor their Fathers never heard of the Pope of Rome nor his Cardinals nor of the Greek Patriarchs nor of the Councells untill the Portugals came among them and yet they kept the Ceremonies of the Primative Church which they received from the Apostles and their Disciples God forbid that all these Christians and especially they that have given their Bloods for Iesus Christs Name and glory in his Crosse should be excluded for having any share or benefit by Christs Blood and this for not being subiect to the Pope of Rome and for not being members of the Roman Catholicke Church which they never heard of By this their uncharitablenesse doe not the Romish Catholicks cut themselves off from the unity of the Catholicke Church As Firmilian writeth to St. Cyprian of Pope Stephen Excommunicating other Churches Thou hast cut off thy selfe from the unity of the Churches Deceive not thy selfe he is a true Schismaticke that maketh himselfe Apostate from the Communion and Union of the Churches Thou thinkest they are divided from thee but thou onely art separated from them As the Church of Rome hath exalted her selfe above all other Churches so also the Roman Catholicks are accused for devising and adding some new Articles of Faith to the old ones much advancing the state and profit of their Clergy which the other Christians will not nor dare admit of having received onely twelve from the holy Apostles As first they have made the Popes Supremacy before named an Article of the Faith viz. That their Bishop is head of the whole Church of God and that every soule must be subiect to him upon necessity of salvation Secondly That their Bishop cannot erre in Cathedra Thirdly That their Bishops hath power to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdomes Fourthly For the honour of the inferiour Clergy they have made Transubstantiation a Doctrine of Faith by which every Priest hath superlative power given him As a Reverend Bishop writeth viz. To doe a greater worke daily than God did in the Creation For therein Almighty God made but Creatures But in this the Priest as they say can make his Maker Fiftly for the more honour of the Clergy They allow them the onely use of Christs Blood in the Eucharist prohibiting the Laity the use thereof VVhich all the Christians in the Vniverse enioy but onely the Romish Catholick Laitie and for this they have made a Decree flat against Christs institution viz. Although the Lord Christ in his last Supper did deliver this venerable Sacrament in both kinds c. Yet non obstante they doe approue and decree for a Law the custome of receiving in one kind Againe for the better Maintenance of their Clergy they have invented new devises as Purgatory with the horrible paines thereof as with Burnings Boylings and Roasting of soules they doe so fright simple people that they get much mony from them Of this place the Bishop of Rome hath iurisdiction the other Orthodox Patriarchs having nothing to doe with it commanding out whom he will much Treasure is got hereby 2 Pardons which are grounded upon Purgatory Pardons began saith Fisher Bishop of Rochester when men were frighted with Purgatory 3 The inferiour Clergy doth also share with the Pope in the profits of Purgatory for they have turnd the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist into a Sacrifice true reall and propitiatory under the name of Masse in which they doe say that the Priest doth truely and really offer up Christ to God his Father but this is done by way of bargaine and hire for remission of sins and freedome of soules out of Purgatory And of this they make great profit 4 They have made a Canon for the Worshiping of Images and for this cause they have in every Church an Image or more of some of their Saints many of which simple people and especially foolish women are made to beleeve to have some speciall vertue to helpe as St. Radegond can make barren women fruitfull St. Bartilmew can make women to conceive a Male-child or a Female according to their desires St. Margart can give them easie labour St. Uncomber can make peace betweene married folk St. Edith can keepe corne from blasting And to these Saints simple people did trot with rich Offerings and Worship these Saints with kneeling bowing and praying before them yea the Priests carry them about in Procession with great pomp playing at noddy with the simplicity of the people 5 They have also devised a Treasury in which is reserved the surplussage of the Sufferings of Christ of the Saints Whereas say they the least drop of Christs Blood had beene sufficient to have saved all the World And that Christ shed all his blood and also that many holy men suffered more than their sins deserved least their sufferings should be in vaine they are reserved in this Treasury for the Pope to bestow where he list The other Orthodox Christian Patriarchs having nothing to doe with this Treasurie With this and such like devises they get much money from simple and silly people For the confirmation of these things although they have no Scriptures yet they will store you with multitudes of Miracles and Visions These with some other the Church of Rome hath Canomzed for Articles or Doctrines of Faith as if the Apostles Creed should be defective which the other Christians in the world thinke to bee compleate enough About these Additions is the contestation betweene the Roman Catholicks and the other Christians of the world These are urged by the Romanists under their Popes curse and these additions are reiected by others fearing Gods curse being Articles not left by the holy Apostles nor found in holy Scriptures The societies of Christians before named
excepting the Romanists doe all genegenerally as I find deny the Popes Supremacy viz. First That every soule must bee subiect to him upon necessity of salvation Secondly they affirme the Roman Bishops to be subiect to Error as other Bishops are Thirdly they deny that he hath power to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdomes Fourthly they teach not works of Supererogation Fiftly they admit not of Purgatory Sixtly nor pray for deliverances of soules from any temporall punishment after this life Seventhly they reiect the Romish Doctrine of Pardons and Indulgences Eightly they allow not private Masses Ninthly they administer the Communion in both kinds daring not to keep the Cup the symbol of our Lord Iesus Christs Blood from the Laity Tenthly they believe not the Romish Transubstantiation Eleventhly nor the now reall sacrificing of our Lord Iesus Christ to quit soules out of Purgatory Twefthly they have married Priests Thirteenthly they make no Image of God Foureteenthly they have most of them their Service in their owne or a knowne Language And these are some of the causes of the bitter contentions between the Roman Catholicks and these other Churches And as the Roman Church excommunicateth these Churches so doe they excommunicate the Roman Church For example the Patriarch of Constantinople doth yearely excommunicate the Pope and his Church for Schismaticks The Moscovites doe the same as counting the Pope an Hereticke The Patriarchs of Ierusalem Antioch have done likewise The Christians under the Patriarch of Mozul call the Pope the Reprobate Bishop other call him Antichrist The Copts account the Roman Church Hereticall and avoid the communion and conversation of the Latines no lesse then of the Iewes Thus some of the Popes of Rome have beene like Ismael whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against him The Turkes in their Mahumetan Worship The Pagans in their adoration of the Sun and Moon The Aegyptians in the service of Isis and Osyris use diversity of worships and Rites and yet still retaine the ill-tied knot of Friendship in their Idol-worship But Christians differing thunder calumnies bolt out excommunications one against another after their excommunications usually follow eradications of Kingdoms people estates by Conspiracies rebellions and hostile machinations by generall Massacres and particular torments As how many Kings and great persons have beene murthered by their desperate Assassins The said Massacre in France is not to be paralelled by any ancient cruelty The Acharonticall Powder treason for the heinousnesse thereof will seeme incredible in the Ages to come Examples are infinite yea so great is the uncharitablenesse and cruelty of the Roman Catholicks to the Christians of the Reformed Churches that if any of them dye among them they setting themselves as if it were upon Gods Tribunall in whose secret Cabinet is blessing and cursing give sentence of damnation against them sending their soules packing to hell and denying their bodies Christian Buriall Barbarous cruelty voyd of Charity As a tree is knowne by his Fruit so is the true Church by Charity By this saith our Lord all men shall know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another Zaga-Zabo an Aethiopian Bishop and sent Embassadour from the Emperor of Aethiopia to the K. of Portugall complaineth his words are these The Romish Doctors I know not how piously forbad me the communion of our Lords Body all the time I was in Portugall even the space of seven yeare and which I cannot relate without grief and tears I was reputed among the Romanists as a Heathen and Anathema upon which their doings let him that governeth all things looke to whose iudgement I commit these their doings This their uncharitablenesse doth not onely offend other Christians but also it maketh the very Mahumetans to loath our Profession to condemne our Faith and to persecute our Persons Good Iesus when shall these iarrings have an end when shall the Church Catholicke live in union of faith and communion of Charity O miserable Christians returne unto the Lord and he will cure you Earnest Prayer endlesse Devotion volumnes of penitentials Ninives fastings Peters weeping Pauls conversion is the Metredate and true Alexipharmacon to cure this Vlcer to heale this never enough to be lamented Schisme Alas who shall furnish my eies with floods of water who shall make my head a living Spring that I might water my Couch with sorrowfull teares As for us Clergy men let us not so much endeavour to make the Christians our adversaries odious to our people as to move them to commiserate their estates and so to make our ioynt prayers to Almighty God not for their confusion but for their Conversion Oh would to God the Potentates and Monarches of Christendome would ioyne hand in hand to make up the breaches of Zyon and to build up the wals of Ierusalem Oh sweet Iesus that cleansed thy Church by thy most precious blood Prince of Peace and author of love grant us thy peace To conclude my most humble prayer to Almighty God is that he would vouchsafe us most unworthy to enioy that Legacy which our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ left unto us viz. My Peace I give unto you my Peace I leave with you And for this cause I humbly supplicate his Divine Maiesty that he would incline the great Bishop of Rome Pope Urban whom he hath endued with many gifts and graces with the hearts of the Lord Cardinalls and Prelates of the Church of Rome that they would submit themselves to retrograde from some of their new Canons to the ancient Primative Canons of their Church viz. That they would restore to the Church of God of which they have cure in the Sacrament of the Eucharist The Cup the symboll of our Lord Iesus Christs blood according to our Lords holy institution and practise of the ancient Roman Church and of all the other Christian Churches in the World That they would suffer our Lord Iesus Christs sheepe to drinke of the Waters of Life viz. to have the use of the Holy Scriptures in the Vulgar tongue from which they are now restrained with their Service in their own tongue That they would permit Marriage to all men and represse Stewes and Brothel-houses permitted by them scandelous not onely to all the Christians in the VVorld but also to them which are without with some other like things which may admit of reformation And also whereas some other Churches pretend to abhorre Idolls I wish from the bottome of my heart that they would also abstaine from committing of Sacriledge And whereas they cry out of permitting of Stewes and Brothel-houses in the Roman Church that they would be as zealous in not permitting oppressing Usury among them both which are alike abhominable in the eyes of Almighty God Sweete Iesus what should not a man doe yea what should he not suffer to quench the fire of Contention in the Christian world There was a time when the Roman Church did
the Spanish Bishops are very great As the Archbishop of Toledo hath 250000 Ducats per annum more than some Kingdomes Italie being as some write 900 miles in length and in breadth from the Adriatick Sea to the Ligurian shoare 240 miles growing narrower in breadth untill it shut itselfe into two hornes either of which are not above 14 miles in bredth Of this Country the King of Spaine hath a part as the Kingdome of Naples and the Dutchie of Millaine In it also the Venetians The Duke of Florence and other Princes and Common-wealths have severall Dominions In Italie also resideth the Bishop of Rome who as hee hath many Cardinals Metropolitans Archbishops and Bishops under him so also many temporall Dukedomes and Principalities of which he is absolute Prince and Lord. The Bishops of Rome for the first 300 yeeres were most of them Martyrs as Clement who was tied to an Anchor and cast into the Sea Fabian who did prohibit the Emperour Philip to enter the Church without some shew of penitence Cornelius who was banished revoked whipt and beheaded c. Paul and Barnabas preached Christ first in Rome and afterward was the first Bishop of Millaine where Saint Ambrose also sate France mingled with Protestants as before being about 200 leagues square in which is reckoned Loraine Saboie and Avignion belonging to the Pope and Geneva with foure Territories not subiect to the French King The Church Gallican is best priviledged of all the Churches in Christendome that are under the Pope It is more free from payments to the Pope than the Church of Spaine as also to the King they pay only the Disme whereas in Spaine the King hath his Tertias Subsidio Pila Escusado in all a moitie of the Church-livings In France are reckoned 12 Archbishopricks 104 Bishopricks 540 Archpriories 1450 Abbeyes 12322 Priories 567 Nunneries 130000 Parish Priests 700 Convents of Friers 259 Commendants of the Order of the Knights of Malta six of the French Bishops are Peeres of France who are to aid the King with their Councell Poland mingled with Protestants and Greeks as before there are in Poland two Archbishopricks and many Bishopricks The Archbishop of Guesne is Primate and in the vacancy hath regal Authoritie precedeth in Councell proclaimeth the new King c. Some part of Germany in which Country are reckoned seven Archbishops and about 47 Bishops Three of their Archbishops are Princes Electours Halfe the Netherlands in which there are two Archbishopricks and many Bishopricks One third part of Switzerland and the Grisons Country Austria Hungaria Bohemia and some other Countries mingled with Protestants as before The third sort of Christians in Europe are the Moscovites VNder the great Emperour of Moscovia whose Dominions in Europe and Asia extend from Narve to Siberia West and East about 4400 Verstes and from Cola to Astracan North and South 4226 or thereabouts A Verst is about three quarters of a mile They received the Christian Faith from Saint Andrew the Apostle as their Histories report They have the holy Scriptures in their owne tongue translated by St. Ierome they use the service of St. Chrysostome translated into the vulgar neither is their Clergy mean base or beggarly The now Emperour Michael honoured his father Theodore with the Patriarkship of Mosco their Patriarke Metropolitanes Arch-Bishops under him are men of great dignity and honour what their Clergy want in learning they have and make good in devotion and holinesse of life Some of their Bishops have 2000 some 3000 Rubbles per annum The fourth sort of Christians are the Greekes VNder the Patriarke of Constantinople who live mingled with the Turks and make two thirds and more of the Inhabitants in many places of the Turkes Dominions The Grand Signior alloweth the Christians the liberty of their Religion they paying a tribute and the Bishops their Ecclesiasticall Government The Patriarkship of Constantinople being voyd Sultan Mahumet the Emperour that subdued Constantinople invested Gennadius into it with great solemnity giving to him his Pastorall staffe and many gifts This Patriarke had 28 Provinces under his iurisdiction and yet hath at this day many Metropolitans Arch-Bishops and Bishops under him Stachis was their first Bishop placed there by St. Andrew and now Cyril governeth the Patriarchall See in a continued succession from Stachis before named In this Church the holy Apostles constituted many Bishops As St. Paul placed Timothy in Ephesus Titus in Crete Silas in Corinth Silvanus in Thessalonica with others As St. Andrew constituted Stachis before named Bishop of Bizantium now called Constantinople Philologus Bishop in Sinope Calistus Bishop in Nice Polycarp Disciple to St. Iohn was Bishop of Smyrna In time following this Church had many holy Patriarchs as St. Chrysostome Gregory Nazianzen Paul the Patriarch whom the Arrians banished and strangled with others who governed this Church whose memories shall remaine for ever The Patriarchs of Constantinople before the Turkes Conquest were men of great dignity and estate as Theophylact about the yeare 936 kept 2000 Horse and Alexander An. 1043 died worth 800000 Crownes The Patriarch now hath as Chytraeus writeth about 20000 Dollers yearely for his maintenance He hath also out of Moscovia some pension which was in time past under his iurisdiction The Greekes of Corcira Candy and other Islands are subiect to the Venetians who have Arch-Bishops and Bishops under them In Asia are the Christians 1 VNder the Patriarch of Ierusalem who absolutely moderateth in Iudea and over all professors of the Greek Religion throughout Syria This Patriarch hath had 101 Bishops under him St. Iames called the Iust and the Brother of our Lord was the first Bishop there and now Theophanes sitteth in that See Simon Cleophas succeeded Iames among these Bishops Cyrillus was famous a man greatly hated by the Arrians and deposed by them This Church is most ancient The Law went out of Syon and the Word of God from Ierusalem This City was Emporium The mart of the Christian Faith and the Mother of all Churches as Theodoret saith 2 Vnder the Patriarch of Antioch Who had 141 Bishops under him Their first Bishop was St. Peter and now Athanasius The Disciples were first called Christians there Ignatius the holy Martyr was Bishop of this Church and Cyril who was slaine for denying Numerian the Emperour sonne of Charus to enter his Church because he had sacrificed to Idolls Charus was slaine by Thunder and Numerian by Aper 3 The Georgians in Iberia who have 18 Bishops under their Metropolitane or Patriarch 4 The Circassians who inhabite a Country about 500 miles long and 200 miles broad 5 The Mengrellians who live as the Circassians doe by themselves not mingled with the Mahumetans 6 The Christians in Asia the lesse who except the Cilitians and Isaurians are subiect to the Patriarch of Constantinople