of Piety which are no other than liberal Contributions to Convents and Priests They fail not to urge the advice of Daniel to the King of Babylon to very good Purpose Redeem they sins by Alms-deeds Lastly that arrogant piece of new Divinity which exalts the Clergy so far above the rest of mankind is of great use to serve a Covetous design The Pope must be the first and principal Monarch of the world the Cardinals must be the Princes of the Church and Arch-Bishops and Bishops must be Lords and Peers and consequently very rich to support their Dignity No wonder therfore that the Church exacts Tribute from the whole Earth and hath got possession of one half of the Wealth of Christendom To this purpose doth Cardinal Pallavicini argue in his History of the Council of Trent By this we see how the Popish Theology turns altogether to the side of a dishonest Gain let us see whether their Practice be not answerable Prodigious Riches of the Papacy First let us consider the Extraordinary Riches of the Papacy There is no Empire upon earth which can equal it The City of Rome and a very great part of Italy is intirely their own The Kingdom of Naples is held Feudatory from the Pope He is the temporal Lord of very considerable Lands and large Revenues as the Cities of Liege with the Country that depends upon it Cologne Treves Mentz He did once possess all those great Bishopsticks of Germany Saltsburg Munster Osnabrug Magdeburg Paderborn and several others whose Bishops are Soveraign Princes and many Abbies whose Abbots are Princes and members of the Empire The Papacy had all this some part of it 't is true is lost but they yet retain a very considerable share How large are the revenues of the Church in France There are Lordships and Dutchies and Peerages and Bishopricks of a vast revenue wealthy Abbies and great Commendoms 'T is the same in Spain where all the Prelates are more Potent than the King even at this day England formerly was altogether the Territory of the Court of Rome All the rest of Europe was almost in the same condition In a word we may say truly that the Papacy in its height and glory was Master of more than half the Riches of Europe To speak plainly is this the Character of Jesus Christ or of Antichrist of Jesus Christ who had not where to lay his head and foretold his Disciples that they must look for Poverty and Tribulation Distress and Suffering How blind and sottish must we be not to perceive that this prodigious Power and Riches is Antichristian exalting it self upon the ruin both of true Christianity and of Christian Princes Unlawful ways us'd by the Papacy to get Riches Let us see by what methods the Papacy hath attain'd to this height of Power and Riches It was by unjust and unlawful Means by Impieties so horrible that we must be altogether insensible stupid and of a seared Conscience not to take notice of the working of the Man of Sin. The Reader would do well to peruse the treatise of Father Paul concerning Benefices God permitted that in these latter days it should be drawn out of Darkness to open the eyes of the most blind in this matter 'T is wrote in a grave stile by a learned Pen without discovering any other design than to speak the Truth 'T is properly an History of the Roman Church who made use of one Knavery after another to draw the Riches of Europe into their Net. He had good reason to begin the History of Benefices with the Instance of Judas who carried the Purse of the Apostolical Colledge and for Lucre of Money sold his Master for he was the true Forerunner of the Bishop of Rome and his Clergy and of the carriage of the Church of Rome There we see the Tricks and Cheats which the Clergy used to persuade the Laity to alienate their Lands and Revenues to put them into the possession of the Church How the Clergy understood the knack of getting money by Excommunications Interdicts Holy-wars and the Fewds of Germany and the Contentions between the Popes and Emperors the Divisions of Italy the Weakness of some Princes and the Superstition of others therby to attain to this Prodigious Wealth When we see a beggar one that was such become of a sudden immensly rich we need no other proof of his being a Cheat and a Robber and we may therupon charge him with it without Injustice for such excessive Riches cannot be got by honest means To consider the Prodigious Wealth of the Papacy is sufficient to assure us that they did not honestly come by it but by Rapine Fraud and Violence The Church was poor and had neither Gold nor Silver in those days when she open'd the eyes of the Blind and made the lame to Walk the Liberality of Christian Princes drew her out of this Indigence but it was to her unhappiness and loss for as soon as she became Rich she became Covetous Luxurious and Wicked and because those Riches which she got by the bounty of Princes and the well-meant tho mistaken Piety of others could not satisfie her greedy desire of more no shamefull and dishonest means have been unattempted to acquire larger Revenues than she had before and to add more to what she had already The Simony of the Papacy She then set her self to work upon the Living and the Dying and to scare and frighten 'em that they might part with their Goods in favour of those whom they intrusted with the care of their Souls that is the Monks and Priests By plain and down-right Usurpations without other mystery the Popes and Prelats have seiz'd divers Kingdoms and the most considerable lands of Europe and to enrich themselves have made use of the most execrable Simony which hath risen to that degree as would make an honest Heathen tremble These are but small matters in comparison the Sale of Benefices Reunions Commendams Degrees Reservations Expectatives Preventions Provisions Resignations Rescriptions Dignum Arbitramur Rescriptions in common form and of the lesser one signing the Grace of First-fruits Translations Erections Cathedrals Subrogations Dispensations for Non-residence Dispensations for Defects of Body for Defect of Age c. These I say are but little things and trivial in comparison with some others Who can read without Horror the Sale of the most enormous Crimes Incest Parricide Buggery Sodomy and Murder of the nearest Relations set at a certain price so much for Buggery or Sodomy so much for a Nun who suffers her self to be known by a man several times within and without her Convent with a capacity again for any dignity of the Order even that of being Abbess so much for a Woman who hath kill'd her child in the Womb so much for having destroyed Infants by Inchantments so much for having murder'd a Father or a Mother c. Can we read without trembling the Robberies which several Popes have
most Holy Virgin Mary the Mother of God almost every thing which is in the H. Bible In prosecuting this design the Virgin Mary must be found in the first word of the Bible By the Heavens which God created in the beginning we must understand the Empyreal Heaven i. e. the Lady of the World the V. Mary When God said Let there be Light the meaning is Let Mary be begotten and born Every thing that is Great and Singular in the Antient History is Mary She is the Altar which Noah built to God after the Deluge the Holocaust in which God will smell a sweet savour is the Prayers of the same Virgin the Virgin is the Bow in the heavens of which 't is said when I bring a cloud over the Earth the bow shall be seen She is the mystical Ladder which Jacob saw in a Dream for by her the Son of God descends to us and by her we ascend to him she is the Gate thro which we enter into the Kingdom of God 't was of the Virgin that Jacob spoke when he said how dreadful is this place 't is the House of God the Gate of Heaven The Jewish Tabernacle and all its parts did respect the Virgin. She is the Ark of the Covenant that is gone into Heaven before us to prepare us a place there She is the Mercy-seat of pure Gold because she was sanctifyed above others in her Mothers womb She is also the Altar of Burnt-offerings because she is the Reconciler and hath taken this Office at her going into Heaven We may judge of the whole piece by these small shreds A thousand and a thousand Copies have been taken from these two famous Originals the antient Preachers of the Roman Church adorned their discourses with these excellent flowers For example in Solomons Song they found a large field for these profane applications There the H. Spirit in a mysterious manner sets forth the Wonders of the Union between J. Christ and his Church by the Emblems of a Bridegoom and a Spouse These profane wretches apply all this to the Virgin as if the Mysteries of our Redemption and Union with J. Christ were verifyed and fulfill'd in her And to give greater authority to all these shameless applications they were brought even into the Hymnes of the Roman Church In them they say to the Virgin Tu quoe furentem Leviathan serpentem tortuosumque c. Thou bruisest under thy feet the furious Leviathan and the crooked Serpent an Elogy which the Oracle in Genesis gives to the Blessed Seed i. e. to J. Christ Another hymn speaks thus to her Scala Jacob ora pro nobis Jacobs Ladder pray for us Nor is less done to the other Saints every one of 'em hath his proper Votaries especially the modern Saints are much more feasted and caressed than the old The book of the Conformities between S. Francis and J. Christ is full of these Abominations That Author will have that God had his eye on S. Francis when he Created the first man. For to him those words ought to be applyed Let us make man in our Image after our Likeness and let them have dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl c. There are none who have been so extravagant in abusing the H. Scripture as the Preachers of the Papacy For they have adopted all these profanations and over and above have peculiar ones of their own 'T was their profession to make the Scripture ridiculous and absurd by impertinent Expositions by expressions fit for the Stage and by the language of a Farce which they still used in all their discourses If any should dare to deny this we have at this day enough to convince the incredulous in the Sermons of Menot of Maillard of Barelette V. Exceptions from which we have made considerable citations and the consulting them will be useful to let us see the Character of Popery Tho their Preachers are not so sottishly extravagant in this age yet 't is certain that the same Character is to be discern'd in those who are newly come out of the Convent and have not convers'd with the world The Writers of Controversy Scripture abused by Controversial writers ought to be much more exact and circumspect in the using of the H. Scripture Preachers and those who write Books of Devotion have some Priviledge in this matter and may take some liberty in their Applications of Scripture provided that these applications are sutable to bring the soul unto God. But when we alledge Scripture as an evidence to decide a Controversy we must keep close to the true Intent of the H. Spirit Nevertheless one would pity and blush for the Controversial writers of the Church of Rome who boldly abuse and wrest the Scripture to prove their Doctrines We have ground already to say that all the proofs she brings from Scripture are real Abuses of it And what we have discoursed above to prove that the Papacy is not in the least sollicitous to have a conformity to the Rule of Christians might be repeated here But besides those abuses which the Papists are forced to employ otherwise they must in plain terms grant that the Scripture is not their Friend besides those I say we may find others which they could have spared Are not the words of Christ to S. Peter Thrust out a little from the land Panigarola and Launch out into the deep an excellent proof that S. Peter was first to erect his Episcopal Seat at Antioch and afterward to erect the Popes See and the Soveraign Tribunal of the Church in the City of Rome Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send the Rod of thy strength out of Zion rule thou in the midst of thy enemies Behold an express Text to prove the same thing viz. that Rome is to be the Metropolis of the Church the Queen of the world Christ saith to Peter Bozius Follow thou me i. e. Go and place thy Seat and that of my Kingdom at Rome Behold I lay in Ston for a foundation a tryed stone a pretious Corner stone i. e. I will establish the Pope to be the Lieutenant of God and the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth Bellarmin There is one Lord i. e. The Pope is the only Soveraign of the world Where two or three are gatherd together in my name Panigarola there I will be in the midst of them i. e. The Pope alone hath Authority to call general Councils Bellarmin Let a man so account of us as stewards of the mysteries of God i. e. There is a Treasure of Indulgences in the Popes keeping which he may dispense as he pleaseth Verily I say unto you Eckius this generation shal not pass away till all these things be fulfilld This signifieth that there shall be a constant succession of Bishops in the Roman Church Loose him and let him go did Christ say concerning Lazarus And this denotes that
and Darkness At this time ruled those two Notorious Strumpets Theodora a Roman Dame most infamous for her lewdness and her Daughter Marosia wife to Albertus the Marquess of Hetruria and Concubine of this Pope Sergius who at the same time kept the Mother and the Daughter to reward them for raising him to be Pope by their Influence and Authority One Athanasius succeeded him concerning whom we have no account it is not easy to imagine the cause for as this Pope was one of the Cabal of Theodora and Marosia he was of the like character with his Predecessors After him comes Laudo who to oblige the infamous Theodora prefer'd a Priest of Ravenna named John to the Bishoprick of Bologna and afterwards to be Archbishop of Ravenna But Theodora not finding it for her Convenience to have her Gallant at such a distance from her quickly makes away with Laudo An. 912. and makes this John the tenth by name Bishop of Rome Platina Some Historians say that This John was the son of Pope Sergius by Marosia Theodora's daughter This Pope then was the Son of a Pope and kept his grand-mother Theodora to be his whore This Monster possess'd the Chair sixteen years and lest it by a violent death for Marosia who is reputed by some Authors to have been his Mother caused him to be put in prison and there to be stifled under a Bed. She made Leo VI. Pope in his room who surviv'd but six months and dyed in prison of a violent Death as his Predecessor did Stephen VIII succeeded him and he was permitted to continue in the chair till it was thought fit to place John 11. in his room who according to the opinion of several Authors was Marosia's bastard by Pope Sergius An. 931. and not John 10. as Platina would have it This John had his own Mother Marosia for his whore Albertus the son of Marosia by her marriage with Albertus Marquess of Tuscany imprisons both Marosia An. 936. and John 11. his Brother by the Mothers side This latter dyes there and leaves his seat to Leo VIII of whom Platina gives this great commendation nihil memoriâ dignum fecit that he did nothing worth remembring Those that follow'd till the year 956. had the good fortune to be almost buried in silence An. 955. It was otherwise with Octavian son of Albertus Marquess of Tuscany who was made Pope at seventeen years old the first who chang'd his name upon his advancement to the Chair which hath been the custom of succeeding Popes ever since His Crimes were very enormous but they are well known also by all the world Luitpâ—and In him did Rome see another Nero a second Heliogabulus The Lateran Palace became the most publick Bawdyhouse of all Europe an Honest Woman could not with any safety perform her Devotions in the most publick places for women were ravisht even in the Churches Besides that he was Cruel and caused Benedict his Spiritual Father to have his eyes put out and John Cardinal a Subdeacon to be put to death by cutting off his Privy Members he offer'd incense to the Devil and invok't Jupiter and the other Gods of Paganism the Emperor Otho coming to Rome caused this monster to be depos'd but he formed a party against the Emperor by which an Insurrection was made and much Blood shed Otho remain'd Master and set up another Pope but assoon as he left the City to return into Germany the Whores at Rome set him again upon the Chair and thrust out the other Pope whom the Emperor had made Otho who again prevail'd over the Seditious at Rome being dead another Villain who called himself Boniface VII seiz'd Pope Benedict VI. and caus'd him to be strangled in prison Another Tyrant of the Faction and Family of the Marquess of Tuscany named Benedict VII turned out this Boniface VII who was forc't to save himself at Constantinople whither he carried all the moveables and as much of the treasure of St. Peter as he could with him Some time after he comes back to Rome and puts himself again in the Chair where he found one named John XIV whom he throwes into Prison and there he is starv'd to death Eight moneths after this he himself dyes and is drag'd thro the streets to be thrown on a common Dunghill Behold these are the God's of the Papacy The Emperor Otho the Second Son of Otho the first would put a stop to these disorders as his Father had done He comes to Rome makes a new Pope according to his own mind but no sooner was he gone from thence but the Romans set up another Pope who called himself by the name of John XVI Otho returns and makes himself Master of Rome cuts off the Hands and Ears of this John XVI and put out his eyes he enters the Castle of S. Angelo by force and throws Crescentius the Leader of the Rebells who was retir'd thither headlong from the walls Doth not this look like the Chair of Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace Gilbert first Arch-Bishop of Rhemes and afterward of Ravenna concluded this tenth Century and took the Chair under the name of Silvester the second Some late writers will have him to have been a good man contrary to the unanimous consent of all Popish Historians of any Age and of any Credit Geofrey of Monmouth Cardinal Benno who liv'd in that age Martinus Cistensis Petrus Premonstrensis Platina Nauclerus Rolluinkus Martinus Polonensis William of Malmesbury do all say he was a Sorcerer and strangled by the Devill in a Chappell at Rome which is called Jerusalem The Devil promis'd him that he should not dye till he had said mass at Jerusalem he thought of no other Ierusalem but the City of that name in the Holy Land and confider'd not that there was a little Church in Rome which bore the same name where he went to say Mass and there dyed This History is not invented by Protestants no more than that other which saith that he kept a Brazen Head in his Closet which he consulted concerning future Events and which gave him Answers The Popes of the eleventh century and their Character The eleventh Century saith Baronius began with a Report which spread it self far and near that Antichrist was come and that ere long we should see the end of the World. He confesseth that the horrible Villanies which had been seen in the Church and were yet to be seen there gave occasion to this Report This was no Popular Error but an evident undeniable Truth which all the world might take notice of that Antichrist was then come In this 11th Century untill the middle of it the Roman Chair was possest by men every whit as vile and monstrous as their Predecessors The Marquesses of Tuscany who did whatever they pleased at Rome continued to bestow the Popedom on their Kindred or to sell it unto Strangers Terrible Schisms follow'd on this Gregory VI. was