to do at Rome nor was he ever there as they imagine There is yet somewhat of greater weight then all this That is that St. Paul tells us he withstood St. Peter to his face because he deserved reproof This looks as if St. Paul had had some Authority over St. Peter We hear not that he reproached him for his Arrogance nor that he Excommunicated him It must be acknowledged that here is a great difference between the proceedings of the Pope and those of St. Peter For it is certain that if a Bishop should at this day dare to displease the Majesty of the Pope he should be soon swallowed up and destroyed by his glory I believe that Origen might have an eye to St. Paul's thus correcting St. Peter when he said that St. Paul was the greatest of all the Apostles Paulus Apostolorum maximus or else he might also have regard to the great extent of St. Pauls Ministry or to what he himself says that he took more pains than all the other Apostles And all the Fatheâ—s looked upon him as he who among all the Apostles wrote the most profoundly and with the greatest light This is what St. Augustin says of him St. Chrysostom looks upon him as the first of all the Saints and if there had been any Preheminence among the Apostles he should have been preferred before any other We may say then that the Popes in that Authority which they usuâ—p have nothing common with St. Peter nor can they be compared together but in one thing which is that as St. Peter being come into Pilates-Hall denyed Christ three times the Popes since they have taken upon themselves the Authority of Pilate and of worldly Princes have denyed him not three times but once for all Vna sol volta in Corte di Pilato entro est Petro e tra rinego Christo. Thus we see that in the Holy Scripture there is not one word that can in the least authorize the Popes Supremacy And we may compare those who establish it there to poor Heralds who to get a little money do very frequently make people meanly descended to derive from the Ancient Greek and Roman Emperors because the Cullyes havâ— gotten an Estate and are become rich tho most usually 't is only by Rogueries and Robberies And it is not difficult thus to deceive people who always admire those that are rich and able to do them a kindness They never enquire how they came by it as the Spaniard says Alcansados los honores quedam Borrados los passos pordende se subio a ellos Since then that the new Testament doth not acknowledg this Authority of the Popes but absolutely condemn it it hath no lawful Institution for a Doctrine of that Importance as the Primacy of the Pope is whereon they make the whole Government of the Church Religion it self and the Salvation of all Christians to depend being not to be found in Scripture cannot be but false For though it be true that there are some Customs and Ceremonies in the Church which are not to be found in Scripture and which the Protestants are greatly in the wrong obstinately to reject because that Tradition and the use or practise of the Church have so long since given them sufficient Authority as they themselves acknowledg yet that cannot be said of this Article which according to the Popes and the greatest part of the Doctors is Capital and so Capital they would willingly perswade us that without it the rest signifies nothing It was very impiously said of Cardinal Palavicim in his Third Book of his History of the Council of Trent Chap. the 15. That the Christian Religion hath no more sure and immediate certainty than the Popes Authority Quella Religione i cui Articoli Vnitamente considerati non hanno Altera Certezza prossima immediata che l' Autorita del Pontifice We see clearly that if this Authority were laid aside they would renounce the profession of Christianity as piety hath been already renounced by them CHAP. II. That the Primitive Church knew not the Papacy The Vanity of some Humane Reasons by which for want of the Scriptures and the Fathers they would establish it LET us now see if the Primitive Church did acknowledg a power in the Church like to that of the Popes Altho that which hath been already alledged from the Holy Fathers proves sufficiently that they knew not the Papacy let us however examine the thing a little more particularly We are told then that St. Peter was Head of the Church that he was at Rome that he was a Bishop there that he died there that he resigned that Charge of Head of the Church and of Bishop but not that of an Apostle to a Successor which Successor he either chose or the Church of Rome did it after his death by the power which he had given her which things are all of them very difficult to prove and certainly very false for a thing of this consequence ought not to be founded upon conjectures of meer probabilities but we ought to have as certain and as exact a knowledg of it as of any other Article of our Religion And yet we see that they who have spoken of St. Peter's coming to Rome and of his Death there have said it upon such miserable grounds and say so many contradictory things as well of it as of his pretended Successor that there is nothing more uncertain in all Antiquity But besides this none of them ever believed no nor so much as suspected that St. Petâ—r was Head of the Universal Church And the contradiction and little certainty that is in these Authors shews sufficiently that in the Primitive times it was not believed that this was necessary to be known nor did they in the least suspect that ever any body would endeavour to lay upon it the foundation of that horrible Authoâ—ity which the Popes do Exercise To give you some Instances of their Contradictions I need only to shew you that some say it was Linus who succeeded Peter others Clement and lastly others say it was Anacletus some will have it that St. Peter founded this Church and was the first that Preached at Rome Others maintain namely Dorotheus that it was Barnabas Barnabas primus Romae praedicavit And St. Paul shews us clearly that it was he himself who founded that Church for he complains that coming to Rome he found that the Jews there who had embraced Christianity were but very little instructed in the Doctrine of the Christian Religion Who can believe that if St. Peter had been there and had founded this Church he would not have instructed them better And what is yet more St. Paul says expresly in another plaâ—e that he would not go and preach whâ—re others had preached before him because he would not build upon the Foundation of others As for the manner of his Death some say he was Crucified with St. Paul Others that he was
SURE and HONEST MEANS FOR THE CONVERSION OF ALL HERETICKS AND Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the REFORMATION of the CHURCH Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome and Translated from the French Printed at Cologn 1682. With a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England LICENSED GVIL NEEDHAM Novemb. 3. 1687. LONDON Printed and to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall M DC LXXX VIII THE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH READER AFTER so many excellent Discourses as have of late been publish'd by the Divines of the Church of England upon almost all the Points in Controversy between Us and our Brethren of the Church of Rome it might well be thought a very needless thing to call in this foreign Auxiliary were it not hoped that those Reasons which usually are not so well received when coming from such as they esteem their Enemies might possibly be allow'd the favour of an Examination being offer'd by one of their own Communion It may besides be perhaps no unseasonable design especially at this time to satisfy the World that those things which we chiefly complain of in their Church are after all no other than what divers of those who have lived and died in it have both confessed to be amiss and earnestly wish'd they might see reformed It is not unknown to any at this day what the Complaints have been of many the most considerable Persons of the Church of Rome in the very beginning of our Reformation How much they desired that something might be done to rectify what they could not deny to be amiss both in the Head and in the Members Let the frequent Demands of the Emperor and other Catholick Princes let the Acknowledgment of the Pope Himself and the Proposals of the Colledg of Cardinals expresly set apart for this Consultation let the Remonstrances that were made and the Endeavours that were used both by the French Legats and the Spanish Bishops even in the Council of Trent it self suffice to shew both that something was amiss and that the Protestants tho they might perhaps be censured by them for not proceeding so regularly as they thought they should yet could not be deny'd to have had just grounds in the bottom for their Complaints And what was then more generally own'd as to these things whilst as yet it was hoped that some redress might be had of them many of the best Men of that Church and who have made the most diligent and impartial Enquiries into the differences between us have not ceased tho in a more private manner to confess since and publish to the World their just Resentments of it It were infinite to insist upon all those that have done this Something of that kind has been already offer'd to the World and more perhaps may hereafter be done more fully to confirm it In the mean time the Author here before us and who lived and died in the Roman Communion sufficiently declares that he was so far from esteeming that Church which now pretends to so much Authority over all others to be absolutely exempt from all possibility of erring that on the contrary he judged it to be actually involved in very great Errors It cannot reasonably be doubted by those who know any thing at all of this Book but that he who wrote it was truly a Member of the Church of Rome however dissatisfied with it in many of its pretences His Preface will give a satisfactory account how by the general decay of Piety that he met with in a place which he expected should above all others have deserved the Name of the Holy City he came first to search more fully into his Religion and how the more he read the Holy Scriptures and compared the Pretences of his Church with what he found in them the more he still perceived it to have deviated from the Primitive Rule and to have usurped upon the Consciences and Credulity of its Members But tho by this means therefore he saw that in many of our Disputes we had Reason in our Arguments against them yet in so many other Points he still defends their Errors as plainly shew how far he was at the time that he wrote this Book from being a Deserter of his first Faith. Hence it is that we sometimes find him arguing thus against our Religion That there being no visible Church of our Perswasion at the beginning of the Reformation and yet it being confess'd by us that there ought always to have been a visible Church of Christ in the World we must confess that then ours is not the visible Church of Christ and there being no other that can with so good reason pretend to it as the Roman we ought to acknowledg that to be it Concerning the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist he seems to the last to have stuck to that Interpretation of Christ's words upon which the Church of Rome so much insists against us That this Sacrament being the last Will and Testament of our Blessed Lord we ought to interpret it as all other things of that kind according to the Letter And cannot without Impiety believe that our Lord Jesus Christ in the Institution of it should have made use of Words either obscure or ambiguous Besides that it was never his custom to establish Articles of Faith upon Metaphorical Expressions In a word tho for Peace sake indeed he seems to desire that no ones Conscience should be tied up to any determinate manner of Christ's Presence in this blessed Eucharist yet he plainly enough declares that as for himself he thought him to be really nay corporally present there And that the Calvinists were guilty of Novelty and Error in this matter seeing as he adds all the Christians of Asia and Africk believe the Real Presence and there are none but themselves that do deny it From this Error he elsewhere argues in behalf of the Communion in one kind In which tho he confesses his Church to have departed from the Primitive Institution and therefore wishes is might be redressed yet upon this Principle of the Real Presence he endeavours to shew that it is not so capital a Matter as we pretend nor ought we from hence to conclude that their Church which he calls the Catholick Church is not the true Church I shall add but one Point more and wherein he plainly shews himself to have been far from our Perswasion and that is the Invocation of Saints Which says he we call a Religious Worship and little better than Idolatry But he denies it to be a Religious Worship for any one to pray to a Saint to pray to God for him or any more than to intreat any good Man living to do the same All the difference he thinks is that we are not so secure that the Saint hears our Prayers as we are that our fâ—llow Christian does That for that Passage which from St.
see here even One of their own Communion to have proved not only false but insupportable Let us beseech God if it be his Will to bring all others that are yet enslaved by them to the like knowledg of the Truth And that in the mean time he would vouchsafe unto us the Grace of his blessed Spirit that we may faithfully persevere in our Holy Profession to our Lives end That no Terrors no Interests no Craftiness of cunning Men who lie in wait to deceive may be able to make us fall from our own Stedfastness But that contending earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints we may grow in Grace and in the knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ To him be Glory both now and for ever Amen The Authors PREFACE THE Authority of the Pope hath taken such root by the ignorance of the Holy Scripture by the multitude of Ecclesiasticks and by all the Temporal Benefices whereof the Pope is looked upon as the Source that a kind of Miracle seems necessary to destroy it and to Reestablish the Church in that liberty which the Son of God hath purchased for it by his Blood. Besides Impiety Irreligion Ambition and Dissoluteness have so seized upon the minds of the greatest part of Mankind that a man cannot hope to be so much as heard when he speaks of Reforming the Church Aâ—tho I am very well satisfied of that yet I think my self indispensibly obliged to represent the abuses of this Power and Authority which hath no just foundation at least in this respect I shall in some measure justifie my self towards God in doing my Duty I shall justifie my self to my own self whom my Conscience hath long accused of a large and Criminal silence I shall also justifie the Catholicks against the Hereticks who will know by this that we are not so blind as they imagin And this will also serve to fortifie the Catholicks against all the Temptations they may have of abandoning the Church by freeing themselves from the Papacy so that Renouncing the latter they may always stand firm to the former and also prepare themselves to fight couragiously against Antichrist who in all appearance is near at hand I have a great while hoped that there would have been found among the great and learned men that we have among us some one or other that would have undertook to open mens eyes and would have saved me a labour therein I could consult no body without manifest danger both to themselves and me since it is a work that may equally displease both weak Catholicks and Hereticks being obliged in regard of the first to disentangle and separate truth from falshood and a falshood more beloved by many Catholicks than the most Important truths And in regard of the Hereticks I know it is the way to undermine the foundation of their false Religions tho without dispute and indirectly in abolishing the Papacy In respect both of the one and of the other the effects of this mischievous Authority are terrible since it fills the Catholicks with ignorance and gross and low Ideas of the Christian Religion and mars the beauty of that as well as of the Church The Hereticks are thereby scandalized and harden themselves more and more in their obstinacy perswading themselves that every thing in our Religion is false seeing clearly that some part of it is so It is not to be doubted but that many Catholicks of our time do see this evil since in the preceding Ages many have perceived it and that the evil is come to so high a degree that it is almost impossible not to take notice of it And truly there have been some who could not forbear saying somewhat of it but this hath been but very slightly and superficially It seems as tho they were ashamed of Jesus Christ and his Gospel as the Scripture speaks In truth it is a deplorable thing that amongst the multitude of learned men professing the Christian Religion and that employ themselves in writing there cannot be found so much as one man of understanding touched with the miseries of the Church and of such courage as to represent it to those who may and ought to remedy it the Sacriledg daily committed in the Church under the very name of the Church and under the pretence of Religion Either the greatness of the evil must discourage them and bereave them of all hopes and not being able to cure the Ulcer they had rather let it wholly alone Omittere potius praevalida Adulta vitia quam hoc assequi ne palam fieret qualibus flagitiis Impares simus Tac. Annal. Lib. 3. or else it must be that their own interest is concerned in the continuance of this evil or that they have no regard for the desolations of the Church or lastly they are afraid of shaking the Catholick Religion in respect of weak Brethren and for fear of giving occasion to the Hereticks thereby to insult over it If they had these last thoughts it was for want of examining the thing for it is certain that the Papacy hath neither by nature nor Divine institution any connexion with the Christian Religion but on the contrary its Principles are opposite and tend to its destruction It is also certain that those who have separated themselves from the Church see very clearly the inconsistency of the Papacy with the Gospel since there was nothing else that heretofore obliged the Greeks and since the Protestants to forsake the Church so that no man can believe but that they see the thing very well since it is the only place wherein they daily attack us with a mighty advantage and tho it were not true that they knew it perfectly we are however indispensibly obliged to oppose Errors Mendacia nec tegunt nec vulnerant and not to palliate them and certainly not sincerely to acknowledg palpable gross abuses is to betray Religion and the Church for that makes men call in question the best establisht Truths according to that saying He that denies all things grants all things Qui en todo niga loda And I have always observed that a frank and generous acknowledgment when a man is in an error produces a very good effect upon all judicious and reasonable persons and disposeth the Protestants with much more readiness to embrace the Catholick Verities Furthermore I dare be bold to affirm That one of the principal causes of the irreligion and impiety which reigns in the World proceeds in great measure from the little Reason and Wisdom wherewith this Primacy and Papal Almighty power is exercised which converting all Religion to its Temporal Profit makes the very Divinity of the Christian Religion to be called in question For as the World goes men will have all or nothing So that having at first received the Article of the Papacy as an Article of Faith whilst they see the Popes under colour of this Article robbing and
of their ingenuity in Defence of the Popes Authority and that I saw not well what Advantage they could draw from the Infallibility of the Church which they maintained with so much ardor that doubled my attention to sound the depth of the matter and I found that by the help of this Infallibility they would conceal every thing so as to save the Popes Authority and all the Temporal Advantages which flow from it and I made no further doubt of it when I saw they applied it particularly to the Clergy excluding all the people and many men to the Pope alone excluding all other Bishops Since these Discoveries I have always held it as a Maxim wherein I have never been deceived which is That when any practice or Custom in the Church brings profit or honour to the Ecclesiasticks I presently suspect and examine it At length having a long time reflected upon all the abuses of this Papal Authority and having observed the Deplorable condition to which it hath reduced the Christian Religion as well without as within the Church and seeing it was that which having driven the Greeks and Protestants out of the Church is still the cause why they return not again unto its Communion and that it even draws strange Persecutions upon the Church from these scattered sheep by reason of the attempts of the Court of Rome and its favourers I at last resolved to publish this little Treatise to disabuse mankind in respect of the unjust and criminal Devotion which they have for the Papacy and also to purge the Church of it as well as of all other vices and misfortunes it hath there caused being perswaded that an Infallible fruit of this Reformation would be the Conversion of the Greeks Protestants Pagans Jews and Mahometans not to mention the Honour it would do to all the Catholick Princes whose Majesty and Greatness are vilified by this shameful subjection to and dependance on the Popes which make them to be despised by other Princes who have freed themselves from their Tyranny A Senator of Sweden told me one day a very good saying of Tacitus to this purpose Viri muliebria patiuntur Men act the parts of women which is as much as to say they are the Catamites of the Popes However since it is in their power to treat those as Hereticks and Enemies of the Church who oppose their Ambition and Interest I prepare my self against it and that doth not at all discourage me It is more Honourable to be hated by such people than loved Illi maledicent at tu Domine Benedices I know the Reader will in this Work of mine presently look after the Caracters of either Jansenist Calvinist or Lutheran or lastly of a man who could not be promoted to Benefices and many times he will think he hath found me As for Benefices I might perhaps have had one if I had had a mind to it but by the Grace of God I will have none nor have I need of any nor was I ever designed for it The Jansenists are as yet too much Papists to speak ill of the Papacy As for the Calvinists and Lutherans I wish they could be brought to own the opinions which I do and which I have no mind to betray in this my Book It is true they have both written often against this power but not with design that the Catholick Religion should be the better for it to which this Work wholly tends Whatever men will judg I think I ought not to renounce any truth because the Hereticks know it nor to put my eyes out rather than see the Injustice of the Papacy because the Hereticks see it If I had not here drawn the Picture of the Jesuits Religion it may be those they call the Jansenists would have suspected them to have been the authors of it as the present times go and for the Calvinists I am sure that in many places they will say that I do but gild over the Pill that they may the more easily swallow down the poyson as some people have said of the Book of Mr. de Condom they may judg of it what they please I have followed the sentiments which the reading of the Holy Scripture hath inspired me with and in which I am confirmed the more by reading the Fathers and the Ecclesiastical History and by making reflection upon all that I have seen in foreign Countries and upon what I see every day here If the Romanists hear this Work spoken of they will say without doubt as heretofore at the Council of Trent when Mr. de Faber made Remonstrances on the Kings behalf concerning the disorders of the Church Gallus Cantat they cried I have no better answer than what he made them Vtinam ad Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret let them come and renounce the Dominion and Tyranny they exercise over the Church and over the World and let our Bishops for time to come behave themselves like worthy Successors of this Apostle This Work shall be divided into Three Parts which will contain so many Chapters In the first I shall prove that the Papacy hath no foundation in the Word of God and shall shew the vanity folly of those arguments which they pretend to draw from the Gospel In the second I shall make it appear that the Primitive Church never knew it and that in the darkest Ages there were ever some who opposed it and I shall confute many human reasons which for want of the Scripture and of the Fathers are made use of for its defence And in the third and last I shall examine all the pretended advantages which this Authority procures to the Church or to States and I shall shew that 't is so far from bringing any real good to the Church or to Catholick States that it is the cause of the Desolations of the Church and of the greatest part of the Disorders among all Christians of Ignorance Heresies Schisms and Irreligion that reign No man ought to be surprised that I conceal who I am in so perverse an age as we live in where Truth and Honesty as well as those who profess it are exposed to cruel Persecutions and wherein I shall have as many mortal enemies as there are worldly Catholicks and Papists and people in possession of Benefices without mentioning the Monks I have no reason to flatter my self with any great success this Book may have by reason of the extream disorder and irreligion of the Age and I do it more to discharge my self of the load lying upon me and for the consolation of my own mind than for any other thing as heretofore Petrarch said upon a like occasion Haec scribo non tam ùt saeculo meo prosim cujus tam desperata miseria est quam ut me conceptis onerem Animum scriptis soler I write these things not so much to profit the age I live in whose misery is so desperate as to unburthen my self of my own thoughts
lenitatem datam Ipsi Dii lenes sunt talibus If thou canst teach me better if not remember Gentleness was given thee for this very purpose The Gods themselves are gentle to such If the Christian Religion did establish the Inquisition if she justified the Perfidiousness and Inhumanities which the Court of Rome and Hereticks commit every day upon the account of Religion I should make no difficulty to declare it an abominable Religion and that we ought not to be of it one moment longer and if People went to Heaven by such ways as these I should be soon of the Americans mind who said they would not go to the same Paradise whither the Spaniards went nor would I go to the Paradise of the Popes and the Inquisitors I do maintain that the Popes have ruined the Church in those Countries where their Inquisition hath been set up more than all the Heresies in the World together ever could have done We need not but consider the good Effects which it hath had in those Countries where in truth there is no Religion at least Christianity scarce there to be found and how should it with that Ignorance which the Inquisition brings along with it which hath produced nothing but Superstition Impiety Hypocrisy dissembling of Opinions a thousand Cruelties and Treacheries and all sorts of abominable Vices which are scarce known but in Countries of the Inquisition And where we find them in other Countries they have been brought thither from Rome by those that were devoted to the Papacy through the too great Commerce which Princes suffer with Rome The Hereticks may well say that they are obliged to the Inquisition that Holland is no longer Catholick If the Inquisiâ—ion be advantagious to Christianity Why do the most Christian Nations of Europe the best regulated both in their Religion and their Manners detest it Compare the French Nation Germany Flanders and Poland with the other Slaves to the Inquisition and you will say that the latter are not worthy of the Name of Christians in comparison of the former And for the Hereticks I esteem and Heretick that is an honest Man and that fears God a hundred times more than a Catholick who lives disorderly or that knows not what Religion is I know no worse Heresy than to be without the knowledg of God and how can He be known where the Holy Scripture is not allowed to be read where the Clergy are wholly lost in most abominable Vices and know nothing at all where it is Crime enough to be burnt to discourse about Religion where Mens Minds are filled with a thousand Fooleries that have no relation at all to Piety Set a Spaniard or an Italian who hath gotten a little Sense to discourse on Jesus Christ and he shall not fail to tell you that Jesus Christ was a great Politician Christo era Grande Politico because he sees that his Vicar under the pretence of Religion hath made so great Conquests and subdued all Catholick Princes to himself This is the Idea which they have of Jesus Christ and which they form to themselves upon what they see in the Court of Rome and in the present State of the Church for as for the Holy Scripture they know less of it than of the Alcoran And their Divines teach them that the Church is the most happy Body Politick upon Earth Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra as Cardinal Palavicini says And the same Cardinal says in another place that Jesus Christ would have his Church governed as great Polititians govern their States and that he came down from Heaven upon Earth to make her happy as well in this World as in the other by heaping upon her Honours Riches and Pleasures secondo la carne according to the Flesh. And of the Papacy in particular he says that it is the abundant Source of Temporal Felicity Il Principiato Apostolico fonte d'utilita Temporale secondo la carne in quel modo chi e piu conforme etiandio all humana felicita The Apostolick Primacy is the Fountain of Temporal Profit and in such a manner as is most conducing to Human Felicity Nor do the Portuguees understand things better they are more than half Jews and yet know not what either Judaism or Christianity is There are a great many of them who look for a sort of a Messias who by his great Conquests ought to make them Masters of the World this is one of their Kings named Sebastian whom they have made a Saint he was killed in the Battel of Alcazar going to assist one Moorish King against another and because his Body was not found after the Battel they pretend that he is not dead but that he roams up and down the World and that he will return suddenly again to conquer all the habitable Earth and make it subject to the Portugal Nation This is the Faith of the Christians in that Country and they learn it insensibly of the Jews It is not long since a Man might have borrowed a considerable Sum of Mony in Portugal payable at the return of St. Sebastian That which doth produce this horrible Ignorance among these People is not only that they read not the Holy Scriptures but because the Inquisition suffers there no Religion but its own for by this means there is no body who can accuse either the Inhumanity of the Inquisition or the Vices and Incapacities of the Clergy If some other Sect had liberty among them the Contradiction of this Sect would oblige them to study and to instruct themselves which would make the Study of Divinity and other Sciences flourish among them and seeing every Man would have as many Censurers of his Religion and of his Manners as there were Men of contrary Opinions this would make Men take care of their Behaviour that their Lives might be more conformable to true Christianity Wickedness would be greatly abated Men would be ashamed of those horrible Crimes which the Italians now make their diversion there would be much more knowledg of God more Industry and Perfection in the World. I know that this is not at all agreeable to the Humour of the Popes and their Clergy who make their Markets better by Ignorance and the Inquisition I know by my own Experience and what I have heard say by many good People in England that the expulsion of Catholicks would destroy amongst them all Devotion and Religion because they would have no Adversaries to awaken them and to oblige them to take care of themselves their Ministers would become ignorant and debauched and so proportionably the People But say they the Inquisition doth prohibit all ill Books you must know too that the Word of God is of the number of these ill Books that are prohibited and that there are many other Books forbidden which have not only no ill in them but which are very excellent only because they are contrary to the Ambition of the Court
Subjectionalis Obedientiae And he maintains with good reason in another place Si per possibile Treverinus Archiepiscopus per Ecclesiam Congregatam pro Praeside Capite Eligeretur Ille proprie plus Successor esset Beati Petri in Principatu quam Romanus Episcopus That if it were possible that the Arch Bishop of Treves could be chosen Head of the Church by a General Council he would be a more lawful Successor of St. Peter than the Bishop of Rome which shews that in his time no Council had declared the Bishop of Rome as such Besides these words if it were possible shew that he belioved not that the Church could dispose of such a thing Gerson was also of this Opinion for he acknowledgeth very ingeniously that the Papal Authority cannot be conferred by the Church Papalis Authoritas si non a Deo esset immediate instituta a tota Ecclesia institui non poterat If the Papal Authority were not from God immediately it could not be instituted by the whole Church And though it were true that the Church had established it as Pope Innocent the Third pretends when he says Ecclesia non nupsit vacua sed Dotem mihi tribuit absque pretio pretiâ—sam spiritualium plenitudinem latitudinem temporalium illius me constituit vicarium qui habet in vestimento suo scriptum Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium The Church hath not married me without a Fortune but hath given me the invaluable dowry of God the fulness of Spirituals and the latitude of Temporals hath made me the Vicar of him who hath written on his garment King of Kings and Lord of Lords Although that I say were true it would not be less necessary to abolish this power which is the cause of so many disorders because the Church in those days might have created it for the good of the Church as she then thought And having found out that it is to her ruine she ought to destroy it for the Chair of Peter is for the Church and not the Church for the Chair of Peter Petri Cathedra propter Ecclesiam non Ecclesia propter Petri Cathedram Quod propter Charitatem fit non debet contra Charitatem Militare And since that our Faith according to Thomas Aquinas ought to be founded upon the Word of God only and not upon the Eshablishments of the Church as he says Fides nostra innititur Revelationibus Prophetis Apostolis Factis Ecclesia non statuit nisi de non necessariis ad Salutem According to this Truth we are not obliged to believe the Extravagant of Pope Boniface who says That it is necessary to Salvation to submit to the Pope And if the Church according to these People dared to change the Aristocratical Government instituted by Jesus Christ under which the Kingdom of God spread it self so far Piety flourished Idolatry was confounded shall it not be allowable for the Church and for Princes who are its natural Protectors to redeem it out of that Slavery into which the Enemy of Mankind hath reduced it to its first Purity and Simplicity Methinks if Men had any sense of Religion they ought to sigh continually for the deplorable condition of the Church and of the Greeks and Protestants whom we have cast headlong into the Evil they now labour under Some people will have it That because the Greek Patriarchs among themselves hold that Place which the Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine gave to all Patriarchs he of Rome who had the first Place ought still to keep it and as in Place he was the first Bishop and the only Patriarch in the West he ought still to enjoy these Prerogatives But first of all none of the Greek Patriarchs unless it were that John of Constantinople against whom St. Gregory wrote so vehemently ever pretended to bear Rule over the other Bishops nor over the Church much less over Christian Princes as the Popes do and the Patriarch of Rome for above Three Hundred Years after his Institution never attempted it Secondly The Place which the Bishop of Rome held was Propter Principalitatem Vrbis in regard of the Dignity of the City which now hath no weight at all Rome being no longer the Seat of the Empire but the Sink and Common-shore of all filthy Iniquity a Den of Thieves and a Nest of Satan Nido di Satanazzo and the very Habitation of Sloth Laziness and Beggary Paris or London do at this time deserve this Honour a thousand times better Besides it was in a time when there were but very few Christians in the West These great States were not yet converted to the Faith France Germany Poland part of Spain and all the Northern Countries knew not what Christianity was so that one Patriarch might more easily have the inspection of this small number of Christians who resorted also to Rome for their civil Affairs as to the capital City where the Emperor resided How are they now able to govern all the Churches they who cannot govern that at Rome and which is worse that trouble not their Heads about it Add to this a fourth Reason which is That in those days they were not Temporal Princes as they are become since and had not innumerable Legions of Monks and Beneficiaries at their command as now they have which renders this Power the most formidable of any upon Earth among the Catholicks If because Rome had heretofore the first Place for the Spirituality before other Cities she should pretend still to have it it will thence follow that she hath it for the Temporality over these same Cities since the Spiritual Authority of this City as I have already proved was founded upon the Temporal and Civil which she enjoyed as the Seat of the Empire and so in pretending to the Regency of Religion in France Flanders and other Catholick Countries they pretend also to have a Right of treating these States as they please and they have effectually made them their Subjects and Tributaries even to the disposing 〈◊〉 the Crowns of Kings as their fancy leads them There are others who believe they have hit on the right when they say that the Pope is Primus inter Pares and that so he is the first of all Bishops But I ask by what Authority It is true he was so among the Patriarchs whilst that Rome as I have said already was the Seat of the Empire but now I maintain that he is Vltimus inter Pares and unworthy of the Name of either Priest or Bishop being the Tyrant of the Church and of Christian Princes and a Temporal Prince himself Were he not a Temporal Prince all he could lawfully pretend to would be to be the first Bishop of Italy I know it will be said That I ask too much to obtain any thing and I know that it will be neither better nor worse but I will discharge my mind and tell the Truth God Almighty may raise up Princes
Bishops if they preached the word of God if they instructed their Diocess in the knowledg of God if they applied themselves to their Prayers without being ambitious without desiring Command and Authority and playing the Princes at Rome without abusing the World with their Dispensations Induglences false Reliques Agnus Dei's and other Fooleries without drawing of Annates giving of Bulls and comparing themselves to Kings and Princes If I say they behaved themselves like the first Bishops of Rome I should honour and admire them as a Souldier said heretofore to Nero I loved thee dum amari meruisti sed postquam Parricida Histrio incendiarius extitisti c. whilst thou didst deserve it but since thou wert a Parricide a Stage-player and destroyer of thy Country I have abhorred thee They say furthermore that were it not for the Pope there would be no Missions to the Indies and that those People would never be converted On the contrary by the Ambition Pride and carnal Pleasures which they keep up in the Church Zeal and Charity are almost wholly extinguished But what do the Popes do for these Missions If they contribute any thing towards them it must be as in all other things for their own Interest But there were Missions to the Indies before ever the Bishops of Rome undertook to govern the Church those who are now sent thither go only for Gain and Traffick and by the Relations we have of them they are the strangest Conversions in the World they take no care at all to instruct these poor People nor to teach them any thing they baptize them only without explaining to them the Virtue of that Sacrament or what it signifies nay without turning them from their former Idolatry They are contented instead of instructing them to tell them that in worshipping their Idols and doing all as they did before it is sufficient if they direct the Intention to Jesus Christ or to the Saints and so they are no less Idolaters than they were before These now are their Conversions But say they does not the Pope create a great many Bishops in partibus Infidelium in the Countries of Infidels That may be done without the Pope Metropolitans and Primates did heretofore create them and Bishops may do so still This tends to nothing but to flatter the Vanity of the Popes who not being able to establish themselves effectually in those Countries will however satisfy their Fancies by this imaginary Empire which they attribute to themselves in disposing of fantastick Bishopricks in those Countries This is all but Farce My Lord the new Bishop makes wry Faces as if he were going to his pretended Diocess where the People shall be Greeks Pagans or Mahometans he prepares his Equipage to be gone and whilst he is just ready to depart his Holiness hath a tender Affection for his dear Son commends his Zeal and his Piety to go to hazard himself among the Infidels dispences with him as to his Journey and for a recompence of his Devotion he gives him good Pensions and Benefices wherewith the good Prelate lives jollily at Rome in Pleasures and in Honours They have by this Principle of Vanity created four Patriarchs at Rome to make themselves amends because they could not make the four Greek Patriarchs submit to them There are some People also who pretend that the necessity of a visible Head of the Christian Church is proved by this that the Mahometans have one and the Pagans also had one And they say that the Mahometans who have a Musti and had heretofore their Caliphes the Pagans their Pontifex Maximus as the ancient Romans had will have less Aversion for Christianity when they see in it a Head of Religion like their own But there is a great deal of difference for these never did usurp the Temporal Power of Princes like the Popes they never exacted Oathes of Allegiance from their Clergy nor pretended to a share of the Princes Authority as the Popes do in Catholick Countries The Ambition of the Popes will ever keep them back more than this Conformity will induce them to embrace Christianity But Men must not form to themselves such carnal Ideas of the Religion of Jesus Christ who is all Spirit Truth and Holiness it is a sort of Idolatry to believe that Jesus Christ hath such Vicars It is to be wholly ignorant of God and to make Jesus Christ the Minister of Sin. It may be yet said that the Popes keep Princes and great Men in the Catholick Religion by the conveniency of Dispensations which they many times gives them very opportunely and such as they could not find in other Religions as Cardinal Palavicini maintains that if the Pope did not give these Dispensations to those who possess and change many Benefices they who enjoyed them would offend God and be uneasy in their Consciences and that it is because that God should not be offended that the Popes have found out the Secret of Dispensations But these Dispensations are either against the Law of God or they are not If they are then Princes are so much the more to be blamed to address themselves to the Pope for this is manifestly to mock both God and Men. I know very well as I have already observed that there are some good People who maintain that the Popes can make that a Sin which is not a Sin and that not a Sin which is a Sin but I do not think that any Prince was ever so simple as to believe so thus the Action of a Prince who hath recourse to the Popes for Dispensations authorizeth this abominable Impiety and by his Example makes it pass for an Article of Faith making himself the shameful Instrument to establish the most pernicious and the most infamous of all Impostures If the thing be not contrary to the Law of God there is no need of a Dispensation for any whatsoever And furthermore be they necessary or unnecessary the meanest Bishop hath as much right to grant them as the Pope nay more since that as I have already said the Popes being Temporal Princes can not be in the Christian Religion either Bishops or Priests they have forfeited this Character and have no calling under God since God hath not instituted this monstrous Authority Besides these Dispensations are only for the Popes advantage for by them he raiseth and maintains himself in Credit not only other above Bishops his fellow Brethren but even above God himself abrogating his Laws and fastning Princes with his whole Families indispensably more and more to their Service it being their Interest to maintain this pretended Authority of the Pope without which their Actions would appear shameful and scandalous and as many times it is for their Marriages which they are dispensed with their Children would be illegimate which would confound the order of the Succession Thus does every thing turn to the Popes advantage who are always of his opinion who said
in Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that where Profit is there is Piety Omnia retinendae Dominationis causâ honesta They do not only give Dispensations to Princes which are many times very unjust but they also give them to every Body for Mony which makes Hereticks abhor the Catholick Religion who in this have much more respect for the Law of God never practising any thing like this and if there be amongst them a Licentious Person who hath some great Affair to compass he must become a Catholick then making his Addresses with a good grace to the Pope his business is done this is not Simony because that which he obtains is in premio del denaro donato a Dio a Reward for the Money which he hath given to God as Cardinal Palavicini says He also makes them give Mony as a Punishment for their Sins as the same Jesuit says in another place How could Men arrive to such Excesses of Impiety as to suffer such things as these A Pagan heretofore said that Maxima fortuna minima licentia est that they ought to give themselves the least liberty who are Masters of the greatest Fortunes Our Popes on the contrary believe that they may do any thing because that every thing is subject to them which boldness the long continuance of their Empire hath caused Vetustate Imperii coalita audacia and as they found that the People easily swallowed down their Impostures they by degrees invented more enormous ones When People have once passed some certain Bounds they have afterwards no shame left them neque metus ultra neque pudor est But it is a strange thing that no body opposes such horrible things that they are suffered to be done in the Church and in the Name of God too which the whole World ought to acknowledg to be Holiness it self Every body hath seen it doth yet see it says nothing of it but by silence approves nay applaudes it I believe for my part that People please themselves with fancying that God is like the Popes and that they may come off easily with him in their Affairs That which is as bad too as all the rest is that proportionably other Ecclesiasticks at least many of them do attribute to themselves some part of this Authority of the Popes of dispencing against the Law of God and that after the Popes Example who have infected all the others Sicut Grex totus in agris unius scabie cadit This it is which hath produced those fine Morals which reign so much in the World and have done so much Mischief They will rather dispence with some great Crime against the Law of God and Nature than with an indifferent thing against which either they or their Predecessors have made some rash Decree for by either of them they raise their Almighty Power above Heaven it self In the first they raise themselves above God by dispencing with the Obedience to his Law and by the other they make that a Sin which is not so in its own nature which belongs only to God and so they put themselves in his place What Reason is there for Example in what Pope Innocent the Third established that a Priest may be dispenced with for keeping many Concubines but not for being twice married upon which the Glossary makes this just Observation Notandum mirabile quod plus valet hic luxuria quam Castitas What reason is there that at Rome the best Benefices are disposed of in favour of wicked Wretches Atheists Poisoners and Sodomites Fellows that are known to be such and not to one only but a great number of them and that in France such Benefices as those cannot be possessed by a Prince and natural Son of a great King I am not ignorant that there are some Canons which are against it but why shall People observe so scrupulously a Canon of a Council upon a thing almost indifferent whilst that the Popes do every day violate many Canons of the most Sacred Councils in things that are Essential and even in this very Point for there is no body who knows Italy or Spain but must acknowledg that there are a great many who not only possess Benefices but Priests and Bishops who are Bastards born even of double Adultery begotten by Priests upon married Women I do affirm that I have my self known more than four of them and even in France our own Country which is a very religious place in comparison of Italy or Spain who is there but knows that there are People of this sort in Possession of Benefices The Roman Divines maintain that a Priest is not irregular for Adultery and Sodomy yet it would be irregular to let a Prince enjoy Benefices because his Father did not beget him by his lawful Wife See in Navarre the great Canonist he shall tell you that Sodomy causeth no irregularity in a Priest but that Marriage does because Pope Innocent the Third hath so established After he hath spoken of those cases which causes Irregularity he asks the Question whether Sodomy be one or no. Dubitarûnt an voluerimus etiam nefandum Sodomiae crimen comprehendere sequitur respondendum esse non comprehendi primo quia irregularitas nisi ob casus jure expressos non incurritur secundo quia verba illa sunt Innocentii Facit etiam quòd nos intelleximus quod in Italiâ ubi ut fertur plus hoc malo laboratur quam oporteret nullae de eo Dispensationes quaeruntur He concludes that Sodomy makes not a Priest irregular And the Cardinal Tolet does maintain it to be the common Doctrine of the Divines at Rome that all Orders even Priesthood it self may be conferred upon Children and those who have not yet the use of Reason Omnes Ordines says he etiam Presbyteratum conferri posse Infantibus nondum usum Rationis habentibus est communis Doctrina Theologorum We see clearly by this that when in France these People refuse to grant Benefices without Cure of Souls upon the account of pretended Irregularities that it is more out of Pride than Religion and that they take pleasure as I have already said to make People feel their Yoke this they call super Aspidem Basiliscum ambulare to tread upon Serpents and Dragons Those who maintain the Popes Authority do moreover affirm that we are obliged to the Popes for the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition without which the true Religion would have supplanted by Heresy in Italy Spain and Portugal Cardinal Palavicini does assure us so Il Tribunal dell ' Inquisitione dal quale l' Italia riconosce la conservata integrita della sua fide It is to the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition that Italy owes the preservation of the Integrity of the Faith. Wherein truly they do a great deal of Honour to God and to the Christian Religion to imagine that