Reputation and of Merit as people told me and I believed so seeing his Air and his Behaviour In a matter of 8 days I should hear the secret History of him which was a horrible one The Heros of this Court are as Tacitus says of Mucian people compounded of great Vertues and great Vices Mucianus Luxuria Arrogantia Comitate Industria bonis malisque artibus mixtus These are brave worldly men but for Religion most certainly they have none at all I am of the Opinion That staying in this place is very dangerous for an honest man and people do complain both in Germany and in England that their young people that travel come back from thence lost in Debauchery and Impiety That which preserved me from the Contagion of this place was that I went with an honest and a simple mind however not very ignorant for I had finished my studies This it was that disgusted me at all the disorders and licentiousness I saw there and gave me a horror for all their pleasures Perhaps I should have done like other people if I had not been so stiff and resolute To free my self from the perplexity I was in about Religion through the disorder and irregularity of this Court that is esteemed the Center of Religion from whence according to this supposition there ought to shine forth nothing but Sanctity Purity Humility Charity and Zeal for the salvation of men Contempt of the Grandeurs and Riches of the World with a continual application to the instruction of the people and where I saw nevertheless nothing in the stead of these Vertues but Licentiousness Ambition and Superstition with a horrible Ignorance in the people I then formed a Design to instruct my self and to know a little better the Principles of the Christian Religion And I desired for that end a French Abbot with whom I lodged to lend me a Latin New Testament which he had and which he read but seldom I read it with attention twice over from one end to the other which set my mind in better condition than it was before The more I read the more I was inwardly comforted but I was the more enraged against what I saw without being able to find the least solution to the impossibility that there appeared to me to be in the Popes being the Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ upon Earth and Head of the Church Catholick I there quickly found the principal Articles of Religion established in many places and often in express terms one only Head of the Church Jesus Christ of whom the Church is the Body and Believers the Members one only Spouse of the Church one only Bishop of Bishops but not one word neither far nor near of the Pope and Cardinals nor any thing that had any relation to them Besides all places there were full of Examples and Exhortations to Humility to Piety to Chastity and to Charity The Master and Disciples there spoke continually of renouncing the World its Grandeurs Vanities Pleasures Riches and above all against the Spirit of Domination But in the Popes and in their Court I found Maxims that were quite contrary I sometimes entertained the Abbot who was an honest man and very sociable with the trouble that this Authority of the Popes gave me He laughed at it and gave me pleasing Answers owning one part of what I objected and for the rest he gave me Reasons which to me were not very sufficient One day when I pressed him a little more than ordinary not knowing what to answer me he told me That if I would read Bellarmin I should there find many Reasons that would resolve my Doubts So that I hired one which I read over and over upon this Subject without finding any thing that gave me the least satisfaction There were passages of Scripture wrested with great violence which touched not the question or else were contrary to it and the forc'd sense that he gave them was always directly contrary to the Genius of the Gospel and opposite to other passages of Scripture whereof I had made a great Collection and agreed not at all with the Maxims and with the Example of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles It is true there were some Humane Reasons which at first might seem plausible but besides that they had not that weight which those had which the Scripture furnished with against him they tended to establish a Worldly and Temporal Dominion in the Church and renewed the Error of those Jews who believed that the Reign of the Messias ought to be accompanied with worldly Pomp and Splendor and to be exercised with great Authority and with fleshly Arms for this was the Sum of what he endeavoured to prove That Monarchical Government is the most advantagious in the World and by consequence that the Church ought to be governed by the Soveraign Orders of only one man who is the Pope who hath the power to exterminate Kings and all those who will not submit themselves to him This confirmed me in the Opinion I had before seeing that so subtil a Wit as Bellarmin a man so well versed in Antiquity and that had so much interest in the thing could find out nothing at all to maintain this Opinion At length I went into Germany where after Eight or Nine Months travelling I came to Cologne where I had a great desire to inform my self farther and to know if the Papacy had a great while ruled in the Church and how long since Whether or no the Ancient Doctors of the Church had heard it spoken of and what they thought of it I applied my self then to examine some of the Fathers upon this Article and that I might the sooner have done I consulted them upon those places of Scripture which the Popes make use of to see if the Fathers understood them as they do I found in examining them that they explained them in a manner quite contrary to the Pope's Pretensions This made me certainly conclude that the Papacy must have been set up in the Church by some violent stroke or else by small beginnings and by degrees as it ordinarily falls out in Usurpations which are made either altogether by a greater force or else by little and little and that this Usurpation had been seconded and favoured by people who saw there was not like to be any great resistance and they made their advantage of it through mens ignorance After that another thing that gave me a great deal of trouble was how to separate the Article of the Papacy from the Verities of the Catholick Faith so that the Infallibility of the Church as I understood it might not be prejudiced Thinking on this then often in my unquiet mind I resolved farther to consult the Scripture and the Fathers upon the passages ordinarily alledged to prove the Infallibility of the Church and I found that they did not understand them as I did But because I knew what made the Cardinals and other people employ the utmost
but it is 〈◊〉 that they should beg at least if it be voluntary and for that 〈◊〉 their number ought to be diminished and they of them that aâ—e â—ich should keep them that are poor let them all apply themselves to work and to study as heretofore they did It would be very well done abâ—olutely to retrench some of these Orders that are so chargeable to the People Pope Alexander the Seventh did very well in suppressing two Orders that were as good as those that are now remaining the one was called the Order of the Cross and the other of â—he Holy Ghost And in Spain they have done very well never to endure among them the Capucins The Council of Toledo did heretofore ordain that no new Religious Order should be suffered to be established in the Church ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem parturiat There are no People that hate or destroy one another more than the different Orders of the Mendicants because they hinder one anothers Trade and there are no People in the World that debauch the Women more than they the Secular Priests are Angels in comparison they are in so good Credit and Esteem that they are not endured in the Court of our Kings and they have no access to it Their Principle of blind Obedience is both foolish and impious which may cause and many times hath been the occasion of horrible Disorders in the Estates and Families of our Kings It is a Principle which makes the Pope whom their Superiors implicitly obey Master of our Lives and of the State for these Superiors are always as ready to inspire the Monks with all sorts of Opinions how horrible soever they be provided they serve the Pope his Designs for this reason I have often wondered that some Law hath not been made in the State against the perfidiousness of the Monks and Jesuits from the example of two of our French Kings whom they have murthered and that it hath not been declared that if any such thing shall happen for time to come all these People should be driven out of the Kingdom There is no other means to hinder the Court of Rome from doing the same things hereafter The Parliament of England hath lately enacted somewhat like this to secure the Life of their King against the Monks No Clergy-man ought to be received without subscribing the Condemnation of the impious Bull de Coenâ Domini which is a bottomless Gulf of Impieties Heresies and Inhumanities And till the Monks and Jesuits shall solemnly renounce and condemn this accursed Bull it will be no great Injustice done them to accuse them of attempting against the Lives of Kings If any Man did suspect me to be an Arrian and I knew it and could justify my self from such cursed Opinions and did it not the World would have reason to impute to me all the Consequences of thâ—s pernicious Heresy It is well known that all the Monks and particularly the Jesuits have by their fourth Vow obliged themselves to the Execution of this infernal Bull. It was the Monks who living in Idleness corrupted and falsified many Ecclesiastical Books they have counterfeited many other Books full of Lies and set them out under the Names of good Authors They are every where known for People who by their Artifices under pretext of Religion are the ruine of most Families whose Substance they cunningly suck in themselves It is they who have vilified and discredited the true Orthodox Priests drawing the People after themselves by false appearances of Mortifications They are good for nothing but to move Seditions and to bring People to Disobedienee and when ever the Interest of their Monarch the Pâ—pe is concerned they think the Blood of their Enemies as meritorious as that of the Cross. The Humility they boast of is a very pleasant thing when at the same time they take place of their Elders and of People of Quality They pretend to have renounced Vanity more strictly than the Secular Priests and yet these Asses are called Father Father as heretofore the Pharisees Rabbi Rabbi they cause themselves also to be stiled Reverend Fathers and pretend to have Merit enough besides to obtain their own Salvation and to impart the overplus to others They call themselves Father Raphaels Father Cherubims and Father Seraphims with such like Names which are Marks of Vanity and Folly with which there can be neither Humility nor Piety Their Generals also manage the matter fairly to have the same Respect shewed them in the Courts of Princes as the Ambassadours of the greatest Kings These Gentlemen are all sworn Enemies to the Holy Scripture as well as to the Court and they do all they can to render the reading of it suspicious they heretofore did what they could to abolish it because it made as much against them as the Popes In the Year 1192. they made a new Gospel upon the Dreams of a Carmelite named Cyrill this was to suppress the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their own they called the Eternal Gospel wherein they taught that God the Father reigned under the Law God the Son under Grace and that the Holy Ghost was now going to reign by the Establishment of four Orders of Mendicants and that for the future Men could not be saved but by this Gospel that that of Jesus Christ was imperfect and that the Sacraments were of no great use This Gospel was preached almost all Europe over by the Jacobines and Franciscans and it was very near being received in the University of Paris but there remained yet some worthy Men who opposed and made it be condemned but seeing these new Evangelists had the favour of the Holy Father the Doctors of the University were forced to go to Rome where at length they obtained that this Book should be condemned and burned but privately for fear of decrying the four Orders of Mendicants and also that the Book of the University of Paris should be burned much after the same manner as heretofore at Bezancon at the beginning of Luther's Revolt which drew many Towns after it the Magistraâ—e of Bezancon fearing that this Fire should reach thither forbad all sorts of People to speak of God either Good or Evil. And there falling out lately a Dispute between some Divines of the Sorbonne at Paris some of whom do hold with the Jesuits that we may be saved without loving God and others on the contrary that we ought to love God whereupon both the one and the other were forbidden to speak of it so that the matter yet remains undecided whither we ought to love God or no or whither the Gospel of the Monks or of Jesus Christ be the true one The Author of the Book against this new Gospel is called William de St. Amour de periculis novissimorum Temporum See in Matthew Paris At length the Monks had Credit enough having procured several Bulls to be given out against the Book to
hope from the good Intention that appeared in many Princeâ— so desirous of a Reformation would not consent to the calling a Council till at length having without success employed their utmost skill to hinder it they at last managed the matter so that the Pope was to convene it Charles the Fifth having basely parted with the Right he had to assemble it that it should be called in an Italian Town and that the Popes Legats should have the management of the whole Affair from that time there was no good to be expected from this Assembly In truth the Popes Legates did rule all aâ—cording to their own Fancy almost all the Bishops who assisted at it were Italians and the only Mark they all hit at was more and more to establish the almighty Power of the Pope wherein they easily succeeded except in this one point God did not suffer Heresy to triumph there But as for the Popes who were the Soul and only Organ of it sending every Week the Holy Ghost in a Cloak-Bag if the Heresy of Luther would have served their turn they would have chosen it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay without all doubt if the Mahometan Religion would have conduced to the augmenting of their Power and Riches both they and all their Court would have embraced it presently This Council hath done the Church a thousand times more harm than good for it hath given the Protestants plausible Reasons of Obduracy and to us no greater assurance of the goodness of our Religion for as they carried it they made it a Work perfectly Humane Intrigue and Policy did all The Pope was there a Party and became himself the Judg. The Protestants could not be there seeing the Pope was the manager both of the Convocation and of the Suffrages which he got for Mony distributed about in Germany and Italy before the Assembly began And because he would be master some good Bishops who knew not how to manage it so well inesperti del maneggio as Cardinal Palavicini says of them offering to speak against the Popes Interest were treated many times unworthily by the Legates who gave no sort of Liberty Christian Princes as the Emperour Ferdinand Charles the Ninth and Albert Duke of Bavaria to whom they granted not one of their just Demands had no more reason to be satisfied To convince the World that it was only the advantage of the Popes which the Court of Rome sought after and not the Glory of God nor the Salvation of Men It is not necessary to relate at large all the base Intrigues which were unworthy of the Legates but only to consider the Decree which was there made against the reading of the Holy Scripture By this Decree all People were forbidden to read it without leave given them by their Ordinary who was to allow it to none but Clergy-men that is to say the People who were in possession of Benefices and whose Interest it was to maintain things in the same condition they were in Thus did the Legates forbid what God had commanded generally to the whole World. And as Tyrants live in continual fear they thought themselves not yet secure but fearing that they had granted too much they made another Decree whereby they absolutely forbad all sorts of People to read it All their fear was that by the comparing the Papacy with the Kingdom of Jesus Christ People should discover the Imposture which they have put upon the Church whose Face they have disfigured and changed its very Nature making the Government of the Church a piece of Knavery and a Device to supplant all the Kings and Princes of the World confounding Heaven with Earth and destroying all Order both Divine and Humane The Hereticks make a more Christian Use of it for tho they have been so inconsiderate as to reject many Books of the Old Testament which are Canonical as the Apocrypha yet they do not only allow but recommend the reading of them and we find them bound up with their Bibles to be there read as well as the rest I make no doubt but that if the Legates had dared to do it they would have suppressed the Holy Books or at least razed out or changed all those places that were against them as the Inquisition hath done by many of the Ancient Authors How are they who are gone away from us scandalized at such Conduct as this What shame hath it not brought upon our holy Religion they cannot look upon us without abhorrence because we suffer such Abominations Expediret ut suspenderentur molae asinariae in collis eorum ut non scandalizarent pusillos istos It were expedient that Mill stones were hanged about their Necks that they might not scandalize these little ones This Example alone proves sufficiently that it was a profane and worldly Spirit that reigned in this Councâ—l It was the same Spirit that made them give a Ball at Trent to Philip the Second where it may be said that the Pope also danced in the Persons of his venerable Legates It was also the same Spirit that made them give up Religion wholly to the Popes Fancy which is evident by this because that having made many Decrees they say that they shall be of force without prejudice to the Authority of the Apostolick See that is to say that they shall have place no farther than the Pope himself pleaseth whereby they make the Council subject to the Pope which is a devilish Heresy condemned by the Councils of Constance and Basil. The Popes did in effect get by this Council as well as by the others dispencing both with them and themselves when they pleased as Palavicini says that if the Pope should be bound to observe Laws the Fountain of his Beneficence would be half drawn dry Se'l Papo vuol osservare quelle leggi il fonte della sua Beneficenza asciugarsi per meta He says in another place that the Council would not bind his hands who was able to do all things This Worldly Spirit is yet farther to be discerned by the Ambiguity which they have affected in many places which shews us that they had oftentimes no other design than to throw Dust in our Eyes they have also forbidden that any body should pretend to interpret reserving the knowledg of them only to themselves It is then clear by this account that there is never any good to be expected from any Council which the Pope shall call together or where he or his Creatures shall preside or which shall be assembled in Italy not only because of the multitude of Italian Bishops who would spoil all but because a Council of worthy Men would not be there in safety for the Italians would run to all sorts of Excess and Violence rather than suffer that the Spiritual Empire which they claim over all other Nations should be taken from them because they come all in for a share of the Plunder just as we see the Inhabitants of
the Church instead of being governed is devoured by a Faction of Villains who eat the people of God like bread But say they you speak of abolishing the Primacy in the Church and nevertheless there is no Society no Families no Colledge but hath it Without it these Societies cannot subsist It is not so much the Primacy which I condemn as the Tyranny which hath been joined to it The Primacy of Place might yet be suffered although Jesus Christ hath not instituted it in the Church but that of Pope is a Primacy of Jurisdiction to which the Universal Church and the whole World is subject as they pretend I condemn the Primacy of a Bishop who is a Worldly Prince who hath more than Twenty Millions of Revâ—nue this Primacy which is the Cause of all the Disorders of the Church Whereas the end and ordinary use of Lawful Primacies is to maintain good Order in all Societies And I wish nothing more than to see re-established in the Church that Primacy which Jesus Christ hath there instituted viz. that of Councils and that they should be often assembled as they were in the Primitive Church for it is the want of these Councils which hath undone the Church We see in the Preface of the Eleventh Council of Toledo that the Fathers say That having wanted the Light of Councils for the space of Ten Years the whole World went astray and the Church fell into disorder and confusion How much more reason have we now to complain of that we who for above these Hundred Years have seen none and which is more can never hope to see a Lawful one whilst the Papacy shall subsist Substracta Luce Conciliorum integro decennie Matrem Omnium Errorum ignorantiam otiosas Mentes occupasse adeo ut Babylonicae Confusionis olla succensa purpuratae Meretricis incrementa Sacerdotes sequerentur quia Ecclesiastici Convenius non aderat Disciplina nec erat qui Errantium Corrigeret partes cum Sermo Divinus haberetur Extorris Is not this the cause of so many Superstitions of so many Heresies Schisms and Licentiousness which we see in the Clergy Is it not a ridiculous thing that no more Councils shall be called whilst we see the Monks both Capucins Carthusians and Jesuits often assemble their Congregations for the augmentation of their Societies It is no wonder if the Church daily runs to ruin whilst these Societies fortifie themselves Is it not clear as the day that if Provincial Synods were called every year National every three or four years as heretofore they were under our great Kings and Oecumenical Councils at least once in Ten years that Remedies would be found out for the Calamities of the Church Might not a Patriarch in every State aided by the Secular Power excute the Decrees of the Church with more facility less jealousie and more security for Religion and for the State than a forreign Ambitious and potent Prince who resolves to take no care for Religion but to model every thing to his own Interest If this Patriarch should neglect his Duty or carry it like a Master should not the Prince chastise him nor depose him Experience shews us that the Church never flourished but when she was Aristocratically governed and when there was no other Primacy in the Universal Church than that of Councils and all Primates and Patriarchs were subject to them But since the Patriarch of Rome hath had the sole disposing of Religion in the West we have seen nothing but Confusion Anarchy Schism Heresies Impiety Atheism Cruelty and Barbarity Ipsa Ecclesia Vnus est Princeps Vnitati fidelium non singulis haec Jurisdictio a Domino conceditur c. Quia Vnitas Ecclesiae multo major est atque perfectior quam Vnitas Vnius Regis aut Imperatoris terreni Thus did the Holy Council of Basil answer the false Reasons of Pope Eugenius his Orators who pretended That the Unity of the Church was preserved much better by a Pope than by the Council There are others who would have the Pope's Authority confin'd within the bounds which the Councils of Constance and of Basil had marked out for it but they never understood the Moral Impossibility that there is not only of making the Popes consent to it but suppose they were constrained to consent to these Rules for a season to make them observe them always or for any long time And Experience confirms what I say with reference even to these Councils which have put no stop at all to their career for they live in contempt as well of these as of all other Lawful Councils Have not they called others in Italy who have destroyed whatever these had established even to treat with the Name of Heresie this Holy Doctrine of the Superiority of the Council Have not the Popes been sufficiently Sacrilegious to raze out of the Roman Edition of General Councils the Council of Basil from among the Oecumenical Councils It is then impossible that with the Impiety and Ambition wherewith the Court of Rome is wholly made up and with the enormous power which the Popes at this time have which equals that of the greatest Kings that they should be reduced to submit themselves to the Council of Constance And even that would signifie nothing for this Council gives them too much Authority It gives them the power which belongs to the Emperors of assembling General Councils of presiding in them and concluding and of executing the Canons of Councils in regard of particular Churches and even of making Decrees during the Intervals of Synods and of being judged only by a General Council They ought then to be deprived of this temporal power the Cardinals to be abolished and the Monks to be Enfranchised and Released from the rash Vows they have made to the Popes the disposing of the Palls of Archbishops ought to be taken from him and the faculty of Investing Bishops and of dispencing with them for holding so many Benefices with all the other Simonical Traffick which will still renders him the Tyrant of the Church the Master of all States and the Devil the possessor of many souls It is much more easie to restore all at once the ancient Discipline I promote a Paradox but my reason is that there will never be a good change but it must happen after some strangely surprizing or if I may so say some violent manner such violence as forces its way into the Kingdom of Heaven Whilest we stand upon treating the Popes shall maintain themselves always with the times either by Intriegues or by some Devilish inventions the most zealous shall grow cold upon the business Ministers shall be corrupted either by money or by Cardinals Caps the Prince shall have other affairs found him to look after or shall be killed by the hand of some Monk or other All the Jesuits and the Monks shall be everlastingly for the Papacy whatever shew they at this time make Gerson somewhere says that there will never
judgment when it is contrary to his own What Unity is there between the Jesuits and the Pope now reigning What Unity is there among many Sects of the Monks who make war upon one another and mortally hate each other What Unity is there of Morals among one or other the Jesuits and the good Catholicks whom they treat as Hereticks Apostates Antichrists and Devils What Unity was there between the Jansenists and Pope Alexander the Seventh We see that for twenty years last past the Popes are between these two Sects as between the Anvil and the Hammer not knowing how to govern themselves because on one side the Jesuits dispose of all the powers of Europe and on the other their Morals destroy Christianity and Humanity it self in this they are opposed by the Jansenists who are followed by all sorts of people that are not lost in Ignorance or Irreligion How can they ever agree in their opinions because the decisions of one Pope do often times overthrow those of another and sometimes they are themselves Hereticks as some people do accuse the present Pope of being a Jansenist which is according to them worse than Heretick What Unity of Religion is there between the Spanish the Italian and French Nations whereof the two first have scarce any knowlâ—dg of God but are almost all Idolaters and the last is very different from them Lastly to judg of this Unity we need only to read the Books of the several Doctors and we shall find them of very different opinions even in regard of the Pope himself The Divines of Italy make him a God on Earth those of France and Germany believe nothing on 't The Universities of Rome and Bolonia determine that he is above the Councils those of France and of Louvain prove very well the contrary The Italian Councils of Florence the Lateran and of Trent will have him above a General Council those of Constance and of Basil maintain that it is a detestable Heresie to believe so If there be a Unity how comes it to pass that it is said and that with reason too that the Pope hath a different soul in every State where he governs If there were a Unity there would be but one Soul they must have greater abilities than either St. Peter or St. Paul who could not unite mens minds in the Churches of Corinth of Philippi and of Galatia where we learn by the Gospel that many Errors were taught in these Apostles times The Cardinal Palavicini says also that Il Principiato Apostolico maintienne in unita in regola in decoro tutta la Chieza the Apostolick Primacy maintains in Unity in Order and in Beauty the whole Church To know the truth of what this Cardinal says we need only to consider what edification the Popes have given to the Church since Boniface the Third Patriarch of the Popes and first Head of the Church Was not the action whereby he got to be Universal Bishop a good example to the Church and that of Pope Zachary in regard of Chilperic Is there any thing in the world that favours perfidiousness and injustice more than these Examples See the Histories of Platina of Genebrard of Sigebert and many others and you shall find that there are no crimes excesses nor abominations which the Popes have not committed to bring about their Affairs for many Ages Is it not a matter of great consolation for honest men to see in this Seat Children Magicians Atheists Adulterers and Sodomites as History affirmeth and not ten or twelve only in all but fifty one after another Baronius himself doth not deny it if the Church had had such Heads as these she would have been long since abolished upon Earth But to make short work on 't Was it not they who ruined the Church and Religion among the Greeks by giving them over as a prey to the Turks because they would not submit to the Popish yoke but demanded the observation of the Holy Canons Were not they the cause of the loss of Hungary by their perfidiousness having advised the King of Hungary to violate the Treaty made with the Turks for which the Hungarians were by a just judgment of God cut all to pieces in the Battel of Varnes as a Poet of those times relates who brings in the King of Hungary speaking thus Me nisi Pontifices jussissent rumpere foedus Non ferret Scythicum Pannonis ora jugum Discite Mortales non temerare Fidem Can it be denied but that it was they who by their detestable Simony and by their pride have destroyed Religion in all those Countries which are called Protestants See but the Complaints which all great men for many Ages have made against this See and those who have been in possession of it and you may judg of the solidity of what Cardinal Palavicini saith that they maintain the Church in Unity in Order and in Honour I will relate some Examples of it John of Salisbury Bishop of Chartres speaks thus The Scribes and Pharisees are sate in the Church of Rome imposing weighty burthens upon the people The Soveraign Pontife is an insupportable grievance to all honest men His Legates commit so many Enormities that it looks as tho the Devil were let loose whosoever doth not acquiesce in their Doctrine is by them treated as a Heretick And the Council of Rheimes Assembled under Hugh Capet and Robert his Son crys out thus Shall it be said that an infinite number of Bishops and Priests who are Illustrious for their merit and for their knowledg shall submit themselves to such Monsters What means this most Reverend Fathers What think you that this man is whom we see sitting upon a lofty Throne shining all with Gold and clothed with Purple We have spoken of the Letter of the Emperor Barbarossa to the Princes of the Empire which Aventine makes mention of the same Author also produces the Speech of an Archbishop who presided in the States of the Empire held at Ratisbon there are these words The Pope teacheth us one thing which is this That there is this difference between Christian Princes and those who are not such that the first bear rule over their Subjects and on the contrary the Subjects viz. the Popes ought to rule over their Princes Our Lord himself took upon him the form of a Servant to serve his Disciples and to kiss their feet but these Ministers of Babylon will reign themselves alone and cannot suffer an equal they will never be at râ—st till they have laid all at their feet till they sit in the Temple of God and even raise themselves above God. He despiseth the Hâ—ly Assemblies and Câ—uncils of his Brethren and of his Masters He is afraid of being compelâ—ed to give an account of what he hath committed against the Laws He speakâ— of great things as tho he were God. His mind runs upon new dâ—signs of establishing an Empire for himself He changeth
obtain one by which the Author was forbidden to set foot again in France and the Sorbonne to receive him Scilicet sic Petrus sactitabat sic Paulus ludebat The Court of Rome as well as the Monks was mortally grieved that this new Gospel could not pass and had it not been for the University at Paris we should in all likelihood have never known what the Gospel of Jesus Christ was and the Monks would have been our Saviours I have heard say that in all the rich Convents there is a Father that keeps the Evidence-Office whose whole Employ it is to find out good Titles when they want them to joyn their Neighbours Field to their own and there is no harm in that because it is for the Church There are some of these Orders the Benedictines for example who have their Pensioners in the Parliament at Paris like the Excise-men in the Courts of Aydes to help them gain their Cause From whence come all the Enterprises which they daily make upon their Neighbours Goods stripping them as often as they can of them People of very good Credit and who know the thing very well have assured me that this one Oâ—der gave more than two hundred thousand Livers a Year in Pensions to divers Officers of Parliament judg then what Disorders that makes I know not why the Monks have not been kept to read the Holy Scriptures and to study Divinity and Morality rather than so many ridiculous ways of Mortifying themselves if they studied or worked hard they would need no other Mortification but they have invented whipping since they have left off working which is the most extravagant thing in the World. The reading of a Chapter of Scripture would be much better than that as an excellent Man said It is not the Severities of the Body nor the Agitations of the Mind but the good Motions of the Heart that are meritorious which shall be excited much sooner by Meditation of the Word of God than by all their Follies Wherefore I have reason to ask what the Monks are good for The poor Orders as they are also lazy are a burthen to the State they of them that are rich take no care of the poor and both the one and the other are unprofitable nay prejudicial both to Church and State they ought to do quite otherwise than to plunge themselves into Idleness so dangerous both for their Souls and Bodies and to be so chargeable to the Kingdom that keeps them and fats them up without receiving any Service from them they are good for none but themselves and the Popes whose Tyranny they support thus the Popes in maintaining them do good only to themselves when certainly the Monks at present might easily spare the Popes Wherefore I yet once more demand what Service the Popes do to the World As for the Nuns tho there be not by much so great Disorders amongst them as amongst the Monks because generally they have no share at all in the Affairs of a Civil Life yet I think I may safely say it That Fathers and Mothers who are desirous of their Childrens Salvation ought not to send them to such Houses and that there is more real Piety Chastity and Purity of Heart among Secular Women than among the Nuns by reason of the little Liberty that is given them All the good they can do there is by Force and by Constraint it is a place of Slavery and of Torment People imagine that in these Houses where they have so much time to employ in reading and instructing themselves they ought to be very knowing yet they are more ignorant and superstitious than Women that live abroad in the World. Their Abbesses are ordinarily chosen for their Quality not for their Merit and are either covetous or extravagant fantastical without Humanity for these poor young Women without Conduct and almost always without Piety I have known many of them in my time but never saw any that was worthy of this Employment but Madam de Fontevrault Daughter of King Henry the Fourth In those Houses where the Superiours of the Nuns are Elective or Triennial there are continual Factions and Intrigues that the Election may fall on her that every particular Woman likes It would be very well that these Elections were abolished provided that Persons of real worth were placed in their stead The number of these Nuns is also too great as well as of the Monks and they ought to be reduced so that those who remain should have 200 Livers a Year for their Subsistance and that the King should dispose of these places to whom he pleased for the succour of many Families and the over-plus of so many rich Convents Revenue might be employed in the building of many Hospitals Nor should any young Woman be admitted to take the Vail till 25 Years old for the Tyranny of Fathers and Mothers and the want of Consideration in young Girls throws a great many of them into Dispair They ought also to be allowed sometimes to go home to their Fathers and Mothers when their Health requires it and to refresh their Spirits which are sometimes over-born with Grief and Vexation either by the Tyranny of their Superiours or by their too long Confinement in this Prison without this a Convent is a perfect Shambles both for the Body and Soul. It must be acknowledged that this sort of Religâ—ous Life is unproportionable to the weakness both of our Bodies and Minds and is much less proper to produce true Piety than a Secular Life Thus the Popes are so far from being Serviceable to Mankind that they are matter of scandal to us and stumbling Blocks to turn us out of the true way of Salvation Of what use then are they to the World An Italian will tell me that they are serviceable to Italy by their inriching it But it is at the Expence of other Countries which do this Honour to Italy which having now lost its Temporal Empire hath by the Popes means raised a spiritual one to make amends for it but still this is at our Expence It is certain that all the Italians in general look upon themselves as having a share in the Glory of this Empire and pretend that they have more Wit and Merit than other Nations which they have in this respect subdued especially those of Rome who for this reason give themselves the liberty of speaking contemptibly of Catholick Princes whom they look upon as their Tributaries the very Coblers come in for their share and are mightily pleased that the Pope rules in all places And I have observed that they have more respect and value for those Princes that have shaken off the Popish Yoke as if it had been the Effect of their Courage nay for the very Strangers of those Countries as English Swedes and Danes This may seem strange for it is well known that otherwise they bitterly hate these Nations that no longer yeild them any thing You would say that