hath approued the fact hath he approued it and how I pray you by dispensation or definition hath he defined it Excathedra to be lawfull in it selfe neither contrary vnto the law of God nor vnto the positiue law of the Church or hath he supposing it to be only against the second as one which is the steward of Gods family dispensed herein Now for the dispensation That the Pope hath not dispensed I see not how if ther were any it could auaile you considering the danger of dispensations from Rome in our countrey and that although you would neuer so carefully conceale it yet you might hereafter be put to your othe whether you went to the Church vpon any dispensation or tolleration from Rome or no. But let vs scanne the truth of this dispensation When was it graunted by whom in what forme or maner how passed it the Alpes without our priuitie in these countries why are not the Preistes there with you made priuy thereunto considering that the * Mal. 2. lippes of the Preistes doe keepe knowledge men must require the law out of their mouth what subordination is there kept whē such things are sent vnto lay-men and not vnto the Pastours teachers of your soules why doe we not in these countries informe those which come out of the Seminaries of this enlargement must a few vnlearned timerous inconstant lay-men and such as your selfe are for I meane not all be the Popes Agentes in so waighty matters to haue the diuulging of them in the Realme But how began the Pope so lately to tender thus prouidently your distresses and how hard harted haue his predecessors bene all this time who haue not considered them was Gregory the 13. whom both for corporal spiritual prouision for our countrey we may worthely call an other Apostle of England heire vnto the first of his name not only in his seate but also in his affections way that great Patrone so kind vnto our nation that he would oftentimes weepe at the hearing of our miseries only in this point vnkind or did he with all his learning in which he excelled forget his authority in this one point Bring forth the letter the messenger the reporter of his owne knowledge of this new graunt which if you cannot as I am most sure you cannot then as I saide vnto you before out of the Prophet Hieremy that you haue taken hold of a lye in your erroneous proposition which you maintaine So doe I now say that you haue taken holde of an other lye to proue the former and such a lye as vpon my conscience is as long as betweene you and Rome as broade as the way thither whether you goe by Sea or by Germany ioining therunto all the space in the middest And finally as loud as if lies may be hard farther then true tales it may be heard from Westminster hall to the Popes Consistory So that plainly to deale with you I will not say you haue deuised for I know your nature too well but in ouer much credulity you haue taken hold of a long large loud lye although it pleased one in cheife autority of late to reporte that such a dispensation was graunted for men and not for woemen who surely hath bene also too credulous for it did not beseeme his place or person for to lye Now for any definition of the lawfulnes of the acte The Pope hath not defined it as lawfull I say the very same which for the dispensation And besides for them both I adde that it was neuer heard of in any age that the Pope did define or dispense in a thing which hee had no Diuines to maintaine It may be that he define a thing which hath bene doubtfull among Diuines The Pope neuer defineth or dispenseth contrary to common doctrine of Diuines or that he dispense in a thing which some affirme others deny to be dispensable as we know he practiseth in dispensing in some kind of matrimony But this is such a point so necessarily deduced out of Gods word so confirmed by the practise of all ages so resolued in all learned mens iudgements of the world that I assure you whosoeuer taking vpon him the name of a Diuine should propound it as a doubtfull or disputable question I meane practically and not onely as to exercise mens wittes in disputing of very resolued cases in any vniuersity of the world he would be hissed at much lesse it is to be thought that the Pope would dispense in it Yea this I say vnto you and am most assured of The Pope cannot dispense in this case that although this point of going to the Church with heretickes were only by positiue lawes forbidden as vndoubtedly it is of the owne nature and by Gods law vnlawfull as shall be shewed hereafter yet the case so standeth in England that he can not dispense in it For the action of going to the Church going to the Church is exacted for contempt of Catholicke religion therfore beside many other reasons indispensable is alwaies exacted in contempt of Catholicke religion as appeareth both by the vsages of those poore soules which in some partes before the late Commissioners relenting were with singuler despite and barbarous vsages by the officers driuen to the Church and also by the ordinary submission which at the Assises diuers haue pronounced when they haue become conformable wherin the principall pointes of Catholicke religion are renoūced So that I know who purposely comming to the Assises to submitte him selfe by hearing his fellow before him to make so shamefull a protestation which also very contemptuonsly some are like grammer schollers commaunded to repeate againe as not hauing pronounced it well or not spoken loud enough this man I say perceiuing more to be exacted then he had stomacke to beare withdrew himselfe and abode the aduenture of the law And although all which yeeld to goe to the Church doe not make this submission yet hereby may we see that the intent of going to the heretickes seruice is so to obey the Prince that Gods Church and autority may be contemned Now therfore the Pope cannot dispense in the breach of his owne law The Pope cannot dispense in the contēpt of his owne lawe when it is exacted in contempt For than is not his owne law onely broken but also Gods who saieth * Luc. 10 he that despiseth you despiseth me So that if the Pope hauing excommunicated one of those Emperours with whome he had in times past so great contention should fall into the said Emperours handes and the Emperour should say vnto him thou hast excommunicated me therfore to Preist will say Masse in my presence But in despite of thee I will make thy selfe say Masse before me In this contempte although the Emperour be excommunicate only by the Popes own decree yet if the Pope celebrate he sinneth mortally Euen so although this were a positiue law of
by a knowne Catholicke and not exacted in contempt or more in the Church then otherwise as to beare the sword vphold the Princes person or other such like any person who necessarily is to attend on the Prince and cannot by any ordinarye meanes keepe him selfe from the Court may accompany the same Prince of a connary religion vnto the Church because his going is not as to the Church neither is he thought to goe to the Church as to a Church that is as it hath seruice and communion but as to a place where he must serue his Prince with lawfull temporall dueties such as he were to yeeld him in any other place And that by this euident knowne temporall seruice altogether void of any religiouse ceremony for why he neither kneeleth nor sheweth any reuerence at all more than when he attendeth in other places all signification of religion vnion with heretickes and contempt of Catholieke obedience is taken away neither is he to be for all that accounted other than a Recusant But how farre in this matter one may proceed I need not bere to sette downe for you are no Courtier and I thinke there be few Courtiers which in this point will trouble you for counsaile To whom if they should aske your aduise you may say the matter is very doubtfull wheras many say that ELIZEVS allowed not his petition but with a doubtfull answere dismissed him saying goe in peace Seeing perhapps that after the fashion of courtiers he hearing the truth would not obey it And surely vpon this word the scripture maketh no mention whether he went to the temple of Remmon or no so that his practise cannot shew vs Elizeus his meaning But of this place I referre you to the two bookes written in our tongue the one of schisme the otherof the reasons of refusall Sufficient it is that out of this lace you cannto inserre any formall presence or going to the Church with heretickes to be lawfull The like answere vnto this doe I giue vnto the example of Valentinian the Emperour Of Valentinian the Emperour who going to a temple with Iulian the Apostata as Theodoret and Sozomenus reporteth being one of his cheife captaines and alwaies assistant to his person by reason that it was an auncient custome as Sozomenus expreslye noteth Theod. l. 3. c. 15 Sozo l. 6. c. 6. that the captaines of those souldiers which were called Iouiani and Herculiani should alwaies follow the Emperour next behind him as his defenders gaue the Porter a blowe on the eare for sprinckling him at his entrance with the Idolatrous water and cutte out of his garment so much as the water had touched euen in the Emperours sight saying that he was therby not purged but polluted with a shamefull filth For which cause as he was by that Tyrannicall Apostata sent into banishment so as Theodoret writeth he was by God within a yeere and few moneths for a reward of his confession exalted to the Imperiall seate Whose example if you would follow so often as by such base officers your eares are sprinkled with hereticall soundes I dout not but some Cōmissoner or other to your great benefitte would quickely prouide that you should come to the Church no more §. 8. The fourth reason you make out of the Cannon lawe which according to the extrauagant of Martinus 5. and the Councell of Constance giueth leaue to participate euen in Diuine seruice with all maner as excommunicate persons The 7. obiection of the extrauagāt of Martin the fifth except those which either are by name excommunicate or notoriouse strikers of a clergy man This reason verely is so childish that I am euen ashamed to answere it For it is euen as if you should argue thus The Pope geueth me leaue to be present at Masse in a Catholicke Church and company with an hereticke therfore he alloweth my going to hereticall seruice or communion with the same When did you euer heare that by a Catholicke mouth the heretickes prophane communion was called Diuine seruice It were not lawfull to goe to heretickes Churches although they had true Masse Pirestes Yea this I saye that although in the hereticall Churches there were very true Preistes and the same Masse which is saide at Rome with the same rites and ceremonies yet a separation being once made from the Catholike vnion and the hereticks vsing a church aparte from the Catholicke for all this decree it were a mortall sinne and an exterior act of heresye to goe to the heretickes Masse of which you shall heare Nauarre say his mind c. 27. n. 36. agreeing herein with all other Diuines He which for feare of death doth participate with an excommunicate person in Diuine seruices doth not sinne so that he participate not with a virtuall deniall of Catholicke faith which would arise through communication with contempt See Sotus 4. d. 22. q. 1. ar 4. Silu. verb. excō 5. dub 14. verbo Metus q. 7 Maior d. 18 q. 4. Couar parag 3. num 9. Angles ar 3 diff 7. Schismatickes may not be present at Masse See more of this point §. 38. The 8. obiection of Obedience Ser. 6. de ver Do. dispising of excommunication for it behoueth rather to dye then so to communicate Wheras he is more bound to defend this article of faith of the autority and power of the Church to excommunicate and the valew therof then his owne corporall life ⧠Now you may iudge whether your case were not so in England euen although you had true Preistes and true Diuine seruice But in this riffe rasse which you goe vnto there is no question Neither for all this may such as are excommunicate be present at Masse although they be not of those two kindes of excommunicate persons For the Canon intendeth not to fauour them at all but onely geueth leaue to the Catholicke not to auoid for all the sinful presence of him which is excommunicate and for all the prohibition of the Church which had bene vntill that time in force of auoiding the participation of the excommunicate not onely in spirituall but also in ciuill and temporall thinges §. 9. Now to your fifth reason of obedience to the Prince wherin you trrumph S. Augustine shall answere ⧠Who resisteth vnto power resisteth vnto the ordination of God But what if he commaund that which thou oughtest not to doe here truely contemne power by fearing power See also .l. 3. confess c. 8. Doe you consider the very degrees of humane lawes If the gouernour commaund any thing is it not to be donne yet if the Proconsull commaund the contrary then truely dost thou not despise power but choosest to obey the greater Neither herein ought the lesser to be angry if the greater be preferred Againe if the Proconsull commaund one thing and the Emperour another is it doubted but that he is to be obeied the other being despised S. Augustine would not allow
is of necessity to saluation Thus Saint THOMAS The ground of this doctrine hitherto sett downe is the infallible rule of S. PAVL Ro. 10. with hart it is belecued vnto iustice but with mouth confession is made vnto saluation But of this kind of affirmatiue precept we needed not here to intreate saue that partly for the necessity therof in our countrey I thought it charitable not to omitt to saye thus much Partly also I thinke it profitable for the better vnderstanding of that which shall follow But most of all for that I desire to engraffe in euery ones mind a great conconceit of the excellency of faith what account we should make of the confession therof §. 20. Now there is concerning this very same pointe of confession of faith A man is alwaies boūd not to deny his faith a kind of negatiue precept forbidding vs euer to deny either in word or deed our faith For so is there in all affirmatiue precepts included also a negatiue As in the precepts of louing God and honouring our Parents which are affirmatiue there is implied a negatiue precept of not hating God or dishonouring our Parents And as the affirmatiue precepts doe not bind vs at all instants to fulfill them So doe the negatiue at euery moment bind vs not to breake them For at no season may a man steale wherby he shoulde transgresse a negatiue precept And yet at all seasons is not a man bound to pray to fast to geue almes to honour his father which are affirmtiue commaundements but in time and place conuenient This precept therfore of neuer denying our faith Mat. 10. Luc. 9 2. Tim. 2. Mat. 26. Aug. l. cont mend c 6. Theophil in Luc. 12. Leo. ser 9 de Pass Do. alwaies bindeth vnto mortal sinne For who denieth Christ shall be denied by him who is ashamed of Christ of him also will Christ be ashamed and this was the sinne of S. PETER for which he wept so bitterly For he neuer lost his inward faith as S. Augustine and others doe affirme but only sinned against the exteriour confession ther of as we may manifestly gather by the promise of Christ that his faith should not faile Against this precept may a man sinne not onely in worde by saying that he knoweth not whether any one point of faith be trew or false A man may deny his faith by deeds aswel as by words Admitting of conserēce by offering to conferre with heretickes as to be instructed by them so going from the schoole of his master Christ and of his mistres the trew Church by saying he is a Turke or Protestant or no Christian or Catholicke or by vsing such wordes as may make others to conceiue that he is no Christian or Catholike at such time as he is asked although the wordes of them selues be indifferent But also in facte or in any signe which sheweth that which in wordes might be falsly or vnlawfully vttered This doth S. Hierome teach neither must we thinke saith he in ep ad Tit c. 1 that in the day of iudgement those onely shall be denied by the sonne of God which in Martyrdome haue denied Christ but all those also by whose worke or speach or thought Christ being denied Ser. de Abra ham denieth or being confessed confesseth ⧠And Saint Ambrose not onely in false wordes but also in dissembled workes a lye is found ⧠And euen as the inwarde dissenting from trew faith is either inward infidelity Apostasy or heresie so the outward shew of a false faith Exteriout heresy or denying the trew faith is called exteriour infidelity or exterior heresy and apostasy And so were alwaies those which had outwardly donne any acte of infidelity in the primatiue Church thought by all Fathers to haue denied their faith Cypr l. 2. ep 7. §. 21. Than out of this wholle most certaine discourse will we thus frame our argument Going to heretickes seruice is exteriour heresy The being present with heretickes at theire seruice in such outward shew as is nothing diuerse from the heretickes them selues is an exteriour act of heresy and consequently a profession of heresye and deniall of Catholicke religion Most manifest therfore is it that such presence is of it selfe vnlawfull and a mortall sinne But lett vs proue our Antecedent Such presence is a ceremonious and religious acte applyed vnto a false congregation and religion But euery ceremony is an exteriour acte or profession of that faith and religion to which it is applied therfore is such presence a profession of Protestants religion That such presence is a ceremonious and religious acte Going to the Church is a ceremony L. 10. ciu c. 6. S. Augustine shall witnesse who expresslye teacheth that whatsoeuer worke is donne that with holy society wee may cleaue vnto God is a kind of sacrifice which truely cannot be without a religious ceremony It signifieth a society of Godlines And what I pray you is the end of coming togither in Churches in all mens opinion but for to cleaue vnto God with holy society than must the coming thither of hecessity be a ceremony And of what religion or society but of DATHAN and ABYRON of such as DAVID did detest Psal 25. whan hee saied I hate the Church of the malignant and with the wicked will I not sitt therfore in this ceremony is implied a profession of heresy Neither is it sufficient to say that your meaning is not to make any such profession but onely to go after a prophane sorte or to vse a lawfull ceremony of your owne religion for that is the meaning of wordes and signes and actions which either their own nature or the common vse of men hath imposed not that w e your selfe would intend neither can you by this word Mountaine make others to vnderstand water nor by Fier an house nor by a horse a man although you would frame vnto your selfe neuer so many CHIMERAS and false imaginations of the same in your braine Besides the being present at Catholicke seruice is a ceremony of Catholicke religion Presence at Catholicke seruice is ceremonious Therfore the being present at heretickes seruice is a ceremony of heresy Moreouer S. Augustine teacheth that no religion can be begonne or maintained without ceremonies A principall signe of religion l. 19. cont Faust c. 11 therfore cannot we shew our religion to God without the same But wherin doth our religion shew it selfe so much as in going to the Church on the holy daies wherin consisteth the very fulfilling of the 3. cōmandement therfore is this a ceremony of our religion Holy daies are obserued especially by going to the Church Further also the Church in the cōmaundement of the keeping of holy daies which no doubt is a ceremony of Christian religion doth prescribe vnto vs the maner therof and bindeth vs to no other obseruance than to be peesent at Masse at the which Diuine
perfection And therfore a sufficient signe of religion is it in the laity to be present Than may we manifestly inferr that the lay people is also ceremoniously present Whence I inferre that as the minister if in the saying of his cōmunion he were touched of god so that he were resolued to renounce his heresy were bound vnder mortai sinne presently to lay downe his booke It is impossible to receaue Gods grace in the Church of heretickes and not to continew his vnlawfull action no not for one instant So also the lay man going thither for feare and in offering vp such praiers as he can afford almighty God in that place being touched with remorce of conscience of his vnlawfull presence is bound vnder paine of the same sinne to followe immediately the counsell of the Prophett and of the Apostle Esa 52. 2. Cor. 6. Gett ye hence gett ye hence go forth from hence touch not that which is polluted go forth of the middest of your congregation Neither were it sufficient for such to determine that he would go no more for so long as he staied there so long should he continew in the acte of a mortall sinne The heretickes pretence is cere monious Againe the hereticke him selfe euery time that he goeth doth an acte of religion and of his false religion professing his vnity in the church of Caluin therfore so doth the Catholicke also both alike in euery particuler time committ a new offence For although the one with this exteriour act of religion hath ioined the interiour yet sufficient it is that both doe the same exteriour act And the heretickes sinne is dubble for he is an inward an outward hereticke But the other is onely an exteriour hereticke but not an interiour Than that it is not lawfull to receiue the heretickes communion all agree But the very same case is of the presence at seruice Receauing the cōmunion is cere monious although one be more greeuouse than the other therfore it is not lawfull to be present For let vs scanne a litle the nature of receiuing the communion For I pray you why may you not receiue Because this is not an indisterent thing as my presence is what thing more indifferent than to eate a peace of bread because it is geuen me in steed of a farre more excelent thing which Christ instituted So is the seruice roung in your eares in steed of a farre more sacred thing And as you sett litle by the seruice so you may also sett as litle by the bread especially wheras some of your ministers will scant take it vp from the ground if it fall Because I should receiue it vnworthely to my damnatiō What do you now know that Christ is not there that true consecration is not made Doe you receiue euery but of meate which you receiue vnworthely to your damnation because it goeth against my conscience O scrupulous conscience and why goeth it against your conscience or why this more than that Bring forth any cause why you may not receaue and I will bring the same for to disallow your presence The trew cause therfor is for that to receaue is an acte of their religion and so is also to be present at seruice Obedience may excuse as well the one as the other An intention of I knowe not what may cleare them both alike And if to go to the Church be not euill in it selfe neither is receauing Yea greater indifferency is in eating and drincking which hath other materiall reasons of commendable and discommendable than can be in the going to the Church and to such a company which hath no other naturall end at that time and with those conditions but religion The ministers sayng is not ceremoniouse but in respect of the company Againe the ministers saying is an exteriour acte of religion and a ceremoniouse behauiour But his saying is not ceremoniouse but in respect of the company which is there religiously present for to heare him For if one which hath licence to read hereticall bookes did out of the Church at a table for curiosity before great companies read the verve same it were no religiouse or ceremoniouse acte Therfore as well the hearer as the reader are religiously present Presence at Idolatry is ceremoniouse 1. Cor. 10 see Testament of Rhemes Besides To be present at Idolatry after the like maner or to eate idolothites otherwise thē at a prophane seast not in the temple is a profession of the Idolls seruice therfore is the like in this your presence in respect of heresy the one signifying as well as the other heither haue wee in Christian times any other Idolls but heresies nor idolothites but their false seruices shifted into our Churches in steed of Gods trew and onely worshippe Furthermore to vse the vestiments of a Turke in which for the honour of Mahomet there is his picture The vestiments of a Turke see §. 35. or the picture of the mone specially dedicated vnto him is by all Diuines esteemed of it selfe a mortall sinne For no other reason than because such a vestiment is ordained for no other end but to signify religion Caiet verbo Habitus omissio Bannes 2.2 q. 3. ar 2 dub 2. Euch as the offring of incense vnto an Idoll donne in such time and place is determined vnto a naughty end of Idolatry although the intention be sarre contrary But the vnion in praier with a false secte being a ceremony of religion is more neere vnto such a signification than a coate which is prophanely vsed and only a marke of religion Much more than must it be vnlawfull although the intention be neuer so contrary Also in the great and famous controuersie which was betweene the two great lightes of the Church S. AVGVSTINE S. HIEROME Dissembling of any lewes ceremony is ceremonious ep 11. 19 Aug. they both agree in this that the Iudaicall obsernances are perniciouse and deadly As thou saieth Saint AVGVSTINE with a free voice yea although all the worlde were against thee doest pronounce that the ceremonies of the Iewes are both perniciouse and deadly vnto Christians and whosoeuer shall obserue them whether he be of the Iewes or Gentiles that he is tombled downe into the pitt of the Diuell So doe I also confirme this thy saying S. AUgustin and S. Hieromes censure and adde that whosoeuer shall obserue them whether of the Iewes or of the Gentills not onely nuely but also dissemblingly he is hurled downe into the pitt of the Diuell ⧠This doctrine is according to those wordes of S. PAVL Gal. 5 If you be circumcised Chust will profit you nothing what is the reason of this but because these ceremonies are signes of Iudaicall religion Ther Iewes ceremonies more lawfull And is it not lawfull to vse the signes of a religion which was once the onely trew religion in the world and by Gods owne prescript ordained and
Church if you desire to be you may easely dreame it but then are you not of the trew Church but of a dreamed Church But as the trew Church of God is visible it selfe so is the vnion ther which visible And the diuision of other Churches which are in deed not trew Churches but conuenticles or as S. Hierome calleth theē sinagogues of the Diuell being in all the world manifest visible as it were the diuels visible congregations Ep. 11. ad Gerōt de monog As the Church is visible so is the vnion therwith visible who doubteth but the vnion ther which is also visible You know that in Philosophy ENS VNVM be certaine Transcendents which agree to all thinges equally and looke what euery thing hath of Entity that it hath also of vnity Now if Caluins Church be a visible Church and I would to God it were altogither inuisible and sent downe so that the persons therof were safe vnto the Prince of darkenes from whom it first proceeded if Caluins Church I say bee visible than as the being of it is so is the vnity also that is it hath a visible vnity and what vnity is this but that which the wholle world iudgeth a visible frequēting of Caluins congregation The Church you go vnto is Caluins congregation Eph. 6. Col. 1. what is a congregation but a multitude gathered togither and who maketh this multitude but Ihon Thomas and Peter and all that are there If you will from this word All challendge a certaine extra ordinary priuiledge to say that they are all except your selfe you surely doe more than euer was heard of and arrogate vnto your selfe Ro. 5. the deserued Priuiledge of CHRIST our B. LADY who onely are said to haue bene exempted yet with sufficient groundes of scriptures and Fathers from generall sentences such as is that of S. PAVL ⧠in which all haue sinned ⧠But Sir you can no more exempt your selfe from this sentence All these are Caluinists by saying except I than you shall be able at the dreadfull daye of Gods seuere iudgement if you alter not your course to exempt your selfe from go you cursed by saying except I. Mat. 23. What place our Schismatickes haue in Caluins congregation Aug. in Brouin collat 3 The soule of Caluins church Than are you one of Caluins congregation Yet that I may doe you no wrong I will heere put you in minde of a certaine distinction which Catholick Doctours vse that is that some be of the soule of the Church and some of the body For the Church of Christ is not a deade bodye but a body quickned with a liuely spirite The soule of the Church are the inward vertues therof the body is the outward shew Euen so doe I say that in Caluins Church there is a body and a soule the soule is Caluins beliefe and whatsoeuer other dowry of hell it hath for this soule hath no other place than hell fier The body of Caluins church The body therof most fitt for such a soule is the outward profession or shew or vnion or practise and society of Caluins broode Now I confesse that one of these may be without the other And as there may be in the Catholicke Church variety of her members So may there also be in Caluins Sinagogues In the Catholicke Church some are both of the body and soule of the same such as haue both Faith and the outward profession of Catholike religion Others onely of the soule such as haue not the outward vnion and peace with the Church but before God are of such perfection that they be immediately vnited therunto by his heauenly grace Such are those cathecumens which abound with loue of God and trew faith or also excommunicate persons not yet restored in humane Iudgement but restored before God from whom they haue receiued trew contrition and purpose of amendment For God is not tied vnto his Sacraments but can and doth oftentimes immediately iustify those which are throughly conuerted vnto him Finally others there are which hauing no inward disposition at all yet either for feare or some other affection of worldly interest in outward shew doe nothing differ from the rest And these are worthely compared vnto the heares of a mans body or nailes or euill humours which although they be within the body yet are they not animated by the soule as other partes of the body are being depriued of all sense and lost without paine and by nature not fitte to be quickned bvt rather certaine excrementes of the body onely made to adorne and gard the body and to be vsed by the same for the operations of the wholle So than haue we found out your office in Caluins congregation You are not of the soule therof in deed For I hope of the former faith which I know to haue bene perfect in you But as S. Hierome saith although at the beginning no schisme hath false doctrine in Tit. 3. Schisme is the way to heresy yet at the length it forgeth to it selfe some erroneous proposition that it may seeme to haue gonne from the Church with pretense of some cause much like vnto your selfe who first going to the Church for feare now that you may purge your selfe of cowardise basenes maintaine your errour contrary to the generall sense not onely of the Church but euen of morall reason Therfore looke well vnto your selfe least at the length as the losse of charity * 1 Tim. 1. is the way to the losse of faith so your entrance into schisme make you an entrance vnto heresy and so to a generall shipwracke in faith according to the saying of the Psalmist Destroy it * Psal 136. See S. Greg. l. 25. mor. c. 5. destroy it euen vnto the very foundation But yet as I saied you are not of the soule of Caluins religion Neither are you of the body of Caluin as a principall member But you shall heare what you are and I pray you heare it patiently Prou. 27. For better are the strokes of a frend then the kisses of an enemy You are the excrements of Caluins congregation The excrements of Caluins religion receiuing life neither from Catholicke religion nor from Caluins heresy although how could Caluins heresy or any heresie at all geue life vnto the soule and in that body you serue for no necessary vse in which you are the happier and so I hope you will keepe your selfe from any butcherly and tyrannicall exercise but you serue them yet Caluins religion in England hath bene compacted of excrements for an ornament and creditt as though they had a shew of a common wealth And how fitlye is Caluins religion adorned with excrements For if you take way these excrements or at the least if such excrements had bene taken away from the begining in Caluins wholle body there woulde be now neuer a sound mēber But remember I pray you that whilest your
remember an ordinary distinction of Deuines For there are 2. maner of consents the first is consent Caiet verbo Restit which is cause of the action as when I know that without my consent such action would not be donne An other is a simple consent which onely consenteth Two manner of consents to an other mans sinne and yet is not the cause of the action As if in Parliament there be a Bill put vpp against Catholickes and I know that so many voices being passed already before mine my contrary voice can not hinder but it will be made a law Now if I consent after so many voices as are sufficient for if I should before sufficient voices were graunted the case were altered although I knew what voices were to follow than is not my consent a cause of that law yet is my consent a consent Ro. 1. and so according to S PAVI worthy of death as well as that of the others In like maner of you go to the Church and the minister saieth seruice onely for you than is your consent the cause of his sinne and of the sinne of as many as are there present and than who doubteth but you committ a scandall But if you go at ordinary times when the minister notwithstanding your presence would say seruice and others be there without your inducement or any euill example if this be possible yet is your consent present and so vnderstood by all men and therfore is not your action voide of sandall but by consenting vnto an other mans sinne you are also guilty therof as a coucurrunt though not as the cause or mouer therunto as one which alloweth not as one which commandeth as one which geueth the voice whan the number already is sufficient to make the law Neither is there any doubt but you may as well geue consent vnto an action vnto which you concurre for feare See §. 10. as if you concurred for loue as we haue saied before Than vnto your selfe must you apply the verses of the Psalme Ps 49. Whan thou sawest a theefe thou didest runne with him with adulterers thou didest putt thy portion Thou didest wickedly thinke that I were like vnto thee I will reproue thee and sette thy selfe before thy owne face that is that your own conscience shall iudge and condemne you But least you should thinke I speake this of my owne iudgement not leaning vnto the generall doctrine of Gods Church you shall heare the Martyr Irenaeus his graue doctrine against the Valentinian heretickes and other like L. 4. c. 46. A plaine testimony of S. Ireneus Be not you saith he partakers with them And as there in the schisme of Dathan and Abyron the damnation of the principall sinners was common to the rest because they liked them and conuersed with them So here also a litle leauen corrupteth the wholle heape §. 32. Hitherto you see I haue proceeded from the very necessary groundes of the law of God and of nature THE THIRD PARTE Neither can you by your protestation or intention or pretense of feare or any other motiue whatsoeuer excuse your selfe from the violating of any one of these vertues before rehearsed There are some other reasons of no small force vsed to be alleadged of which because I know you wil make no great account I will be content to say no thing One onely thing will I putt you in mind of that is of the daunger of infection Danger of infection which by going vn to heretickes churches you expose your selfe vnto of which if you make small reckoning esteeming your selfe a great doctour able to answere all maner of heretical obiections yet do I earnestly desire you to remember that once you could say as much in this point of going to the Church as in any other matter of Catholicke religion And O senselesse Galathian who hath bewitched you Gal. 3. Sap. 4. how are you so suddenly altered verely malice hath altered your vnderstāding fiction hath deceaued your soule and therfore most happy had you bene if as the wisdome of God doth speake Dissimulation is the way to infection you had bene thē taken vp vnto god whā liuing amongst sinners you were pleasing beloued vnto God O how trew it is that fiction and dissimulation deceiueth the soules of many in our poore countrey What olde man is now a Protestant who hath not gotten such pestilence by fiction who is now a Cōmissioner of ripe witte who being sonne of Catholike parents hath not bene altered by fiction Yea who is now so earnest persecut our of Catholickes as those which at the beginning of this last reuolte hauing bene Catholickes them selues are now most opposite because they saw they could not haue creditte at the first but by fiction L. 4. mor. c. 27. S. Gregory describeth fower degrees of sinnes both in the minde and in the deede expounding a sentence of IOB and to euery member of that sentence applying one degree The wordes of IOB are these Iob. 3. Wherfore died I not in the wombe or being come forth from thence did I not forthwith perish why was I taken vpon the knees why was I nourished with the papes Fower waies saieth he is sinne committed in the hart Fower degrees of sinne and so many also is it executed in the deedes In hart it is committed by suggestion delection consent and by the presumptuousnes of defence Suggestion is made by the aduersary delectation by the flesh consent by the Spiritt the presumption of defence by pride For the sinne which shoulde terrifie the mind doth extoll it and hauing throwen it downe doth lifte it vp but being lifted vp doth more greeuously bruse it In the same maner is a sinne executed in the deed First the sinne is * Going to the Church secretly secretly donne afterward before the eies of men without any shame therof it is manifested than is it brought in to custome at the last either with the seducements of false hope or the obstinacy of miserable dispaire it is nourished Thus S. Gregory This is the miserable progression of lamentable Schismatickes who trusting too much to their owne cleannes aduenture to touch pitch and much like vnto the lewd persons of the world seeking to enioy their vnlawfull contentments before they be aware conceiue sorrow * Psal 7. and bring forth iniquity which so long they harbour in their vnhappy lappe that at the length they nourish it with their pappes and drinke it in vnto their very harte Thus much for a wise man as you are will be sufficient for the daunger of infection Eccle. 3. least perhapps louing daunger you perishe therein I my selfe haue bene acquainted with a learned religious Professour of Diuinity who according to the necessity of his lectures hauing sometimes Caluins workes in his chamber with great humility a farr contrary spirit vnto that which beareth great sway in our
lay man may weare a religious mans ordinary apparell or a man a womans gowne for a good end or for necessity and yet not make any lye at all in the outward shew but vsing that which hath an other end besides the signification permitt the behoulders to thinke him to be either a freer or a woman which in deed he is not As also Christian Captaines in warre often times for policy vse Turkes banners and Priestes among heretickes lay apparell and neuer are reprehended by any deuoute conscience for lying or dissembling either in religion or in their particuler estate In like maner the same Deuines doe teach against Caietane that a man may lawfully omitte a signe of a Christian where it is appointed whan by any necessity he is vrged therunto and they yeld a reason for that such Princes cannot prescribe vnto vs by what signes we shall protest our faith Here Sir was that with which you were deceiued For although Caietane be worthely iudged to haue bene too seueere yet against this action of going to hereticall scruice togither with Caietane doe all other Deuines geue theire graue and most deserued verditte Diuerse kindes of signes or tokens of religion For they distinguish in these matters whether they be garmentes or other actions diuerse kinds The first is when some speciall garmentes or actions are proper onely to a certaine nation which is hereticall Iewish or Turkish not in that they be of such religion Asigne distinctiue of religion in respect of the nation but in that the common vse of their countrey hath brought into practise such particuler custome Such are the diuerse banners of seuerall countreis and the manifolde fashions of apparell which in euery countrey we see to be most in vse and in this kind there is no difficulty but any man may vse such garments or signes as well as the proper tongue of the countrey Asigne distinctiue in respect of ciuill Pollicy for any lawfull aduantage The second degree is when not onely in respect of the countrey but particulerly for to make a distinction of religion such garment is prescribed or vsed And if such prescription or custome be onely brought in for humane policy of ciuill gouernment although withall there were a purpose of punishing or afflicting Christians therby yett if there be some ciuill or honest humane vse of the same besides the signification of heresie Iudaisme Turkisme or other sorte of Infidelity and Apostasy In vrgent case of necessity it may also be vsed lawfully by a Christian as we haue saide before and it seemeth very reasonable for that a Turke newly conuerted to Christ were not in any mans iudgement bound vnder mortall sinne presently to cast away his white Turbant and so to betraye him selfe for in those countreis a signe of a Turke is a white Turbant on his head The third degree is whan such garment or action is besides the ciuill vse thereof A signe distinctiue in repect of religion yet hauing a prophane vse for the principall end which is the principall end referred vnto a ceremonious signification in euery religion As amongst Catholicks a corner cappe a Freers weede eating of white meates and not fleshe vppon a friday Amongst other sectes a ministers apparell an Idolatrous Preistes ordinary and prophane garment And in this degree also they say that wheras these thinges haue of them selues a good and conuenient vse for the life of man and the principall end of them is an honest humane vse not a religious signification neither trewly is a Freers weed although it signifie a Freer so religiouse as a Surplesse Cope Tunicle or such like whose principall and onely end is religion wheras also the common practise of mans life hath as it were by a long prescription obtained that such thinges in time of danger may be vsed for their ciuill end not regarding their religious signification it shall be lawfull for to saue a mans life or for other necessary and important good to weare a corner cappe or Freers weed although these holy signes were vsed in a false and detestable religion Also to eate flesh on a friday to putte on a ministers or Purseuants apparell or such like Neither were a minister vnder paine of mortall sinne presently bound to put of his cloake or Ierkin after his conuersion nor a Purseuant to throwe away his dreadfull badge which he shold necessarily doe if it were a mortall sinne to vse the same You haue now 3 degrees of signes or tokens of a false religion and the common doctrine of Deuines of their lawfull vse and practise Certaine necessary circumstances in the vse of the signes aforesaied yet are not these degrees altogither indifferent of them selues but with certaine circumstances onely to be practised and not otherwise that is first with necessity for otherwise the wholle action and the signification also should delighte which cannot be without sinne Secondlye that it be seldome as such necessity happeneth seldome but that it may be preuented Thirdly that there concurre not such circumstances therwith that there be an effectuall profession of religion as if one vsing a ministers apparell for to hide his religion should with all prepare him selfe as it were to say hereticall seruice or to preach or such like although he meant it not or if one should do any thing indifferent in it selfe in maner aforesaide but commaunded for contempt of trew religion Fourthly that scandall and daunger of infection be auoided which in familiar conuersation with those of a contrary secte doth ordinarily vse to happen Asigne distinctrue which hath no other vse but to be a marke of religion But besides these indifferent vses of such actions or garments there is the fourth degree when garments or actions either of their owne nature or by common iudgement and estimation of men haue no other conuenient or honest vse but onely to be certaine markes or tokens of religion for the vse of such maner of thinges is of it selfe euill and can neuer be admitted without mortall sinne as for to weare a garment with an Idoll painted therin or the signe of the moone which the Turkes vse for Mohometts honour or to haue an Idoll in a mans house with an aultar before it or other religiouse signe this is altogither vnlawfull because it is by the conmmō estimation of men esteemed as a necessary signe of religion and for no other end vsed and therfore no more indifferent than to cast incense into the fier before an Idoll and with the intention to referre it vnto the trew God Wherfore al Deuines conclude that such a signe in the very instant of such a mans conuersion is to be presently lefte neither possible to be continued without remaining in the estate of mortall sinne Such markes amongst Protestants I thinke you haue none But amongst Catholicks such a signe were a paire of beades which onely to weare at our girdle if Catholike religion were not the
truth were a damnable sinne There is yet the highest degree of all A signe distinctiue which is a in which your going to Church shal be lodged and harboured that is when a man vseth such signes or actions as of their owne nature common consent very ceremony of religion or practise of all nations are onely appointed to be ceremonious actions of religion Such for to vse and to apply vnto a false secte or to a Schismaticall congregation is a manifest signe of the same sect and of vnion with the same conciliable or false cōgregation See §. 7. This made deuoute Naaman for to feare least his kneeling when the King kneeled should haue bene thought as donne to the Idoll which in deed if it had bene so iudged and not only materially donne before the Idoll without any ceremonious signification coulde not any way haue bene iustified but his kneeling to aide and assist his Prince to whom he owed that dewtifull tēporall seruice conuenient vnto his Princely greatnes was not thought by any man to be vnto the Idoll whom all the people knew he detested See §. 6. And for this cause is Iehu condemned by the generall consent of Doctours for his dissembled vse of an action of the owne nature signifying a ceremony of Baalls religion and honour Vnto this place and lodgeing must I of necessity vssher your selfe and all your companions whose action of going to the seruice of hereticks as I haue proued before hath as intrinsecall a signification of heresy and schisme as the deuoute going of a Catholickc to Masse in a catholicke congregation hath a profession of Catholicke faith and of Catholicke vnity and religion yet is it here to be noted that as in wordes which haue the principall place amongst signes of the minde and affection of man there may sometimes be themateriall vse or supposition thereof without the formall as the Logicioners teach So there may also be in any action which signifieth religion An example we brought aboue of one which did onely relate the disloiall wordes spoken of Augustus who onely vsed those words materially without any formall signification therof on his parte So also did we bring an example before of a materiall ve of signes and ceremonies of religion whan we according to the common doctrine of Deuines affirmed that the materiall shew of Idolatry in a play or Comedy was not of it selfe vnlawfull Yet notwithstanding as we saye that Sacrifice vnto Idolls and contumelious speaches vnto his Prince are of them selues vnlawfull So doe we say of signes of religion namely of going to the Church For we alwaies take such actions with the formall therof which is the signification which whan it is to be thought present or absent the common estimation of men must decide by the consideration of time person place and such like And so wee say that going to the Church in an orderly maner as it is vsed in our coū trey cannot be voide by all mens estimation of signification of heresy and of contempt of verety as hath bene proued Than doe I conclude that the graue censure of Deuines condemning Caietanes opinion as too seuere Why Caietaines opinion is thought too rigorouse connot be vnderstood of these expresse and positiue signes of a contrary religion but of the omission onely of a signe of a trew religion wherin the reason is manifest For a man is not bound alwaies to professe his religion but in time and place yet is he bound in no time or place to deny his religion So may a man omitte a signe of his religion when he is not expresly interrogated but he cannot neither beeing asked nor without asking vse a ceremoniouse signe of a contrary religion without a most greeuous mortall sinne See than how you are deceiued whilest you argue in this maner If the Prince doe commaund me to weare a yellow cappe for protestation of my trew religion I shall not deny my faith by leauing it because the Prince cannot make a yellow cappe a signe of religion Therfore if the Prince command me to go to the Church of heretickes for signe of conformity and adherency vnto his religion I shall not deny my faith by doing it because he cannot make going to his Church a sign eof his religion Surely Sir he needeth not to make it a signe of his religion for nature it selfe and the consent of all nations the iudgements of all men not affrighted from their reasonable vnderstanding by terrour of hereticall persecution hath made it so already And if you should remaine in Bocardo vntill you had proued this consequence and reduced it to any lawfull moode or figure you should neuer come forth aliue A great difference betweene a signe of trew of false religion That I may saye nothing of the difference betweene a signe of trewe of false religion For the trew religion may be protested onely by ceremonies ordained by God and his Church And therfore a temporall Prince cannot make a protestatiue signe therof But as a false religion may be by a temporall Prince instituted and followed so may the ceremonies and protestations and distinctiue signes therof be framed also according to his peculier imagination A man may contemne God and his Church by houlding vpp his finger whan by a blasphemous cōuenticle it were so agreed but I thinke he could not please God so much by houlding vpp his finger for his honour as he may displease him with the contrary intention in the selfe same action Neither doe I thinke any so wise as to make that a generall signe of Catholicke religion and vnity Lett this than be our finall conclusion in this pointe The cōclusion of this wholle last discourse that although an Infidell Prince cannot make vs determinate signes of protestation of our onely trew religion yett may hee make protestatiue signes of his owne Religion which cannot be practised without mortall sinne as we see in euery false religion to be in vse In Mahomets religion to kisse his toumbe IN Iewish to be circumsed In Caluins to receiue his communion or to be at his seruice Sozom. l. 5. c. 16. Which thing in Iulian the Apostata his time made diuerse Christians to repent their folly who hauing put incense into the fire before the Emperour supposing it to haue bene donne accordin gto some auncient law custome of the Romans onely to his honour vnderstood afterward that the Emperour tooke it as a signe of Idolatry wherfore they with open protestation returned to let the Emperour know their Christian intent and were banished the courte for the same Moreouer I say that this signe of going to the Church with heretickēs is whether the Prince will or no of the owne nature a signe of heresie and so not made by any lawe a signe distinctiue neither in any case to be iustified by the Princes commaundement As fot your Protestation wee haue long since ouerthrowen it
iniquity which is in their seruice cōtrary Aultar vnto Gods holy Church § 39. For that alwaies euen since the beginning what the Canons haue decreed of auoiding heretickes Seruice l. 6. hist c. 3. Origen there hath bene amongst trew Christians an especiall account of communication with heretickes in theire praiers the great learned clearke Origen and most auncient Doctour shall geue plaine testimonie Of whom thus writeth Eusebius Origen saieth he although being driuen by necessity he conuersed in the same house with Paule an hereticke yet euen at that time was he not affraide to shew euident and open tokens of his trew and Catholicke opinion in matters of faith Going to hereticall conuenticles a tokē of faith For when a great multitude not only of heretickes but also of our men for the greate eloquence which was in Paule did flocke vnto him Origen could notwithstanding neuer be induced to be present at praiers with him As who from his tender age had both seriously obserued the Canon of the Church and had alwaies detested the doctrines of errours Thus Eusebius Where I desire you to marke those wordes Euident and open tokens of his religion To be present at praiers The Canon of the Church And the condemnation of such as being in minde Catholickes were present with Paule at his praiers Diuers maners of praying with he retickes But we must necessarily make some distinction of diuerse manners of praying with hereticks The first manner is whan they pray with vs but Catholickly that is either in a Catholicke congregation or else priuately but yet after a Catholicke forme and manner which maketh such ceremony not to be accounted as an hereticall ceremony but rather as Catholicke So that here I doe not so much shew my selfe to communicate with the hereticke as he to communicate with me This was accounted in the auncient Church alwaies vnlawfull vntill the Councèll of Constance and decree of Martinus the fifth For this degree of communication being not of it selfe vnlawfull neither implying any deniall or contempte of religion nor vnion with the hereticke in his diuision as it was iustly forbidden at the first so for the auoiding of many scandalls and daungers it was permitted after as we lately saied The second maner of cōmunicating with heretickes in praier is when we cōmunicate with them in their proper Churches or if in priuate houses yet after their owne particuler forme and maner And this was that which Origen refused And although hee woulde no doubt haue refused also the first communication as than being vnlawfull according vnto auncient Canons than in force yet was hee by Eusebius iudgement thought in refusing this second communication to haue shewed his Catholicke faith which he should haue denied if he had donne otherwise This second kind of praying with hereticks is in it selfe vnlawfull For it importeth a particuler vnion and association in that in which they haue cutte thē selues from the house of DAVID and erected a new Aultar fashioned new calues and new Gods besides him which cannot be truely worshiped but in the trew spirituall Hierusalem The third kind of communication with heretickes in praiers is to receaue their baptisme or sacrifice of whatsoeuer maner it be or any kind of trew or counterfaite Sacrament And this is in the highest degree of spirituall cōmunion with them alwaies vnlawfull and most detestable as also the second although somewhat in a greater measure of iniquity These three degrees you shall now see plainly set downe in three Canons of the Apostles where by the diuerse punishments contained you may iudge of the greuousnes of euery one The 44 Canon hath thus A Bishopp Priest The Canons of the Apostles or Deacon which shall ioine prarers with hereticks lett him be onely suspended from Communion But if also hee permitte them to doe any thing as Clerks lett him be deposed In the 63 Canon so we read If any Clearke or lay man enter into the Sinagogue of the Iewes or conuenticle of hereticks that he may ioine praiers with them lett him be deposed and excluded from the Communion Finally this is the 45 Canon The Bishoppe or Priest which hath taken the baptisme or sacrifice of heretickes we commaund to be deposed For what agreement is there betweene Christ and Beliall or what portion is there vnto a faithfull with an Infidell ⧠Where although it pleased the holy Apostles to impose sometimes punishments vpon the Clergy onely as which of dewty should be the forme of the flocke yet doth both their reason and the practise of the Church shew the thing to be vnlawfull to euery faithfull Christian But here you very subtelly reply that it is the comming into heretickes Churches for that intent of praier which is condemned in the 63 Canoni not the onely comming without any praier at all Nay Sir that is no good glosse For the 44 Canon imposeth a smaller penance for praying with them and that only to some degrees of the Clergy Therfore here is something more than praying with them forbidden and what is that but going to their conuenticles which going because they will distinguish from that going which may be sometimes lawfull they call it going for to pray And it is alwaies vnderstood that one goeth for to pray whan he is orderly present at the time of praier Neither can mans iudgement which searcheth not the harte esteeme otherwise Neither did euer the custome of the Church according to the politicke and new deuised intentions interpret the presence of a man at seruice or Masse but as a communication in praier For which cause good Catholickes were alwaies bounde to auoide the Chappell or Church whan any excōmunicate person in none of the tollerable degrees shewed before entered in Which if he did not he reputed him selfe to haue cōmunicated with him in praier Nauar. c. 27 n. 20. The 4. Coū cell of Carthage c. 71. 72. howsoeuer lewdly or idlely disposed the excōmunicate person was Thus much of the Canons of the Apostles The 4 Councell of Carthage where S. Augustine was present thus honourably speaketh of your Churches The Conuenticles of heretickes are not Churches but Conciliables with them we must neither praye nor sing ⧠Where if you make the same reply as before I geue you also the same answere And a new reason also for both For wheras praier with them is vnlawfull onely for this respect that we doe make our selues therby of their cōmunion or fellowship what doubt is there but in signification of this vnity it is all one to pray with them and to seeme to pray with thē Or who doubteth but that a shrewd wanton boy kneeling in his mothers presence at his praiers may satisfy her who knoweth not his minde although she be his mother as well in mouing his lippes onely and knocking his beades as if he had praied with greatest deuotion The Councell of Antioch The Councell of Antioch c. 2. With excommunicate
none but a few timerouse Catholickes of a small corner of the worlds calling it into doubt For in hereticks iudgementes against whom the Councell was gathered the case was most cleare euident that a man may not go to the congregations of a contrary religion and other very waighty matters were put ouer to diuers Deputies as the correcting of the Missall and Breuiarye the censure of bookes forbidden the ouerseeing of the text of scripture the making of a Cathechisme for Pastours and other like And finally the iminent death of the Pope caused thē to leaue vnfinished many other matters of our faith as may appeare to who-soeuer considereth the wholle course of their decrees Secondly I bring the autority of so many Reuerend and learned Bishopps and Prelates The auncient Clergies doctrine example w e the example also of the Laity as at the beginning of this schisme did both refuse themselues and induce others to refuse such participation with heretikes For all the world can very well testifie that from the very begining there haue bene diuerse lay-men who haue refused and it is a childish distinction of say that those first Reuerend Fathers thought that to go to the Church was lawfull for lay-men and not for the clergye To this I add that one of them wrote a learned booke of the same argument and when they beganne more dilligently to looke into the matter they admitted none to Masse or Sacraments which did not fully determine to auoide the prophane conuenticles of heretickes And if they were before vnwilling to publish their iudgement herein either it was for feare of the seculer power or least that the common people whose sinne before had bene excusable for their ignorance should notwithstanding the knowledge of the truthe herein goe forwarde in theire vnlawfull course vnto farther damnation in which case charitie bindeth vs to omitte correction of our brothers faulte Or if there were some more fearefull then others who allowed this action we must consider that perhapps they were of that number which not long before in King Henries time in matters of greater moment had shewed greater infirmity Thirdly of those which for the confession of theire faith did leaue their countrey The banished Doctours and Diuines certaine it is that not one was doubtfull in this question that you may see this to be no Seminary resolution For one of the most principall of that company in the preface asa booke yet extant of Images doth so fully and learnedly discourse therof that a sincere vnderstanding can require no more And this ener since the yeere 64 which is almost 30 yeeres since And he complaineth not a litle of the foule ouersight which was in the clergy not to controle at the first so vnlawfull an action Of my knowledge also was he wonte to blame his owne and other Preachers negligence who in Queene MARIES time not fearing any such alteration as we since haue proued did not forewarne the people of their duety in such accidents The Colledges of Rome and Rhemes Last of all I adde vnto these the whole Colledge of Rhemes of Rome and all those vnto whom the managing gouernment therof doth appertaine their bookes and writinges in so great number the wholle multitude of Preistes and Martyrs which haue come from thence Preistes and Martyrs So many deuoute and constant lay-men either Martyrs or otherwise All which no doubte beeing guided by the holy ghost who dwelled within them could not but looke into the distressed case of so many weakelings so many woemen and children so greate families as easely with this new doctrine might haue bene relieued Thus therfore all your autority is ouerthrowne neither can you bring any thing to allowe your action but the temporall lawes of our countrey which in this case ought to beare no more sway for the crediting of the new religion professed in England then in times past the decrees of the Turkes for the reuerence of their Mahomet it being of olde condemned * Silu. verbo Apostasia §. 4 haero sis primo §. 9 as an action of infidelity to kisse for feare the tombe of Mahomet though farre against the inward consent §. 5. Your first reason is the example of the three children which in Babilon were present at the solemne dedication of Nabuchodonosors Idoll although they kneeled not downe to worshippe the same The 4. obiection of the example of the children in Babilon Dan. 3. wherupon you inferre that a Catholicke may be present at hereticall seruice so that he doe no reuerence therunto nor receiue the communion To which I answere First that their presence onely in that place was not religiouse or ceremoniouse for the ceremony of religion beganne onely in the prostration vnto the Idoll at which time they were sufficiently discerned from the others by their standing vp wherby they shewed the contempte therof and no way satisfied the precept of the Tyrant And according to this solution that is if there were no other ceremony there used but the prostration they might although they knew before such a thing to be intended with great perfection come thither and present themselues vnto such Martyrdome as was to ensew But our case and theirs is not alike for the very presence at seruice with heretickes is religiouse neither is there any thing required of whosoeuer is most deuoutly and willingly present but to be in that place in an orderly manner And this in Catholicke religion also is accounted a participation IN DIVINIS to be present in the place So that he which is at Masse where an excommunicate person heareth Masse is alwaies iudged to participate which the same this being in Christian religion the nature of all sacred actions that the laye people are as it were patients that is doe nothing solemnlye but all action appertaineth to the clergy to whome it belongeth to purge illuminate and make perfect as both out of * ad hebr 10 S. PAVL also out of S. * De hier Ecc. c. 5 Dionisius we may gather And yet if a Catholike came thither and shewed him selfe present at the very religiouse actions of heretickes without all contempt of Catholicke Religion scandall and shew of conformitye onely to mocke publicklye or disturbe the minister as those holy children did in Babilon 3. Reg-13 A like case vnto this of the children such a one should if there were no scandall or tumult to ensew no more offend then the Prophet which came into Bethel to denounce Gods threatnings to wicked Ieroboam whilest he was at his Idolatry The like vnto the case of the three children were if that in England there were a proclamation that such a day euery one should repaire vnto the markette towne there in the markette place to subscribe Now some Catholicke perhaps will no come at all Others for a very desire of shewing their religion no way to colour theselues knowing what the
greeke word The greeke ENCAENIA signifieth properlye as much as INITIALIA that is the solemne begining or renouation of any thing the worde CAENOS of which it is deriued importing nothing else then New But it is better to heare S. Augustine speake ENCAENIA saith he was the festiuity of the dedication of the Temple for in the greeke tongue CAENON is that which is new for whansoeuer any new thing is dedicated those are called ENCAENIA now that very vse hath this word if any man putte on a new coate he is said ENCAENIARE Thus S. Augustine where if we will English ENCAENIARE we must say that he which putteth on a new coate doth either dedicate his coate because he beginneth first to vse it or at the least that he seemeth in a certaine maner to keepe ENCAENIA or a feast of his new coate where who seeth not that there can be no religiouse meaning in the word The hebrue word HANVCCHA signifieth as largely as DEDICATIO in latin The hebrue word but it is also indifferent by deriuation to the begining of any thing For the verbe HANACH whereof it is deriued signifieth to season and because those which are taught the first rudiments of arte doe beginne as it were to be seasoned hereupon doth it also signifie to instruct And for the same reason to dedicate because that which is dedicated is thē first vsed and than as it were seasoned Wheruppon HANICH in the scripture signifieth a childe taught wherin no spirituall dedication is imported and HANICHIM Gen. 14. is taken for new * The souldiers which Abraham tooke with him souldiers such as had lately bene trained vnto warre not such as had bene dedicated religiously vnto God In like maner in the 22 chapter of the Prouerbes where we reade in the hebrew HANOCH LANAAR the meaning is not dedicate religiously but season or beginne to instructe a young man according to his way also when he is olde he will not depart from it But if any one should vrge the word of erecting the Image for why it was already erected and there could be no other end now of coming but Idolatry I answere that although it were sette vp before yet might there be some prophane solemnity at the first vse therof euen as at the rearing of houses the feast is made after the setting vp of the house Also we may very well say that the scripture here vseth the figure of Anticipation as in many other places so that when they came togither the Image was not erected but it is said to haue bene already erected in respect both of the time in which the history was written and also in respect of the time in which they denied worship vnto it especiall wheras it is credibly to be thought that the King after the miracle of the fornance caused the Image to be pulled downe Euen as if we should say K. Henry commaunded all his Lords to come to the solemnization of the matrimony of Q. Katherine whom he had maried the meaning is not that she was maried before the solemnization but that in respect of her diuorce following it may be said that he had married her whom afterward he putt away although in the greeke and hebrew this is no more then an ordinary preterperfectense yea in greeke it is the Aorist which is indifferent to any time past To conclude therfore aswel by the circumstance of the place and intent of Nabuchodonosor as by the signification of the three languages in which this part of scripture is written it is euident that the children might and did vnderstand no Idolatry and so came as it were to a ciuill feast or triumph A 3. answere not knowing what would happen A third answere we may giue that they might of ignorance erre and thinke that to be lawfull which in deed was not For not all thinges which are reade in scripture euen of Saintes are to be rules of our life Lib. de mend c. 5. as teacheth S. Augustine but those onely which the scripture doth either commend expresly or lay before vs in them as to be imitated As for example LOT did well in keeping him selfe vnspotted in that wicked citty in harbouring the Angells for which he is in the scripture it selfe commēded Also in dissuading the men of his citty from attempting wickednes yet in seeking to deliuer his daughters vnto them therby to diuert them from their purpose who will defend him from blame of iniurye to his daughters The Midwiues of Aegipte did well and are commended for their piety but not for their lying IVDETH is commended for the affection towardes the safety of her countrey yet not by all doctors excused from a lye in speaking vnto Holofernes although her words may haue some mysticall vnderstanding So perhapps may we say that these children were commended and approued by God with so great a miracle for their constancy in withstanding the Kings commaundement yet is not all their other behauiour therby canonized Euen as if one shold with inuincible ignorance of this our question goe to the Church with heretickes yet for refusing to receiue the communion be hanged he were a Martyr for his fortitude in the one excused for his ignorance in the other Yet because we are not vrged hereunto hauing two other sufficient answeres it is best to excuse them being such singuler holy personages not only from sinne in this action but also from ignorance A 4. answere Fourthly considering what great offices these three persons bore in the kingdome of Nabuchodonosor as we reade in the same chapter and in the first we may defend their going to such place as Naaman Syrus is by diuerse defended of which we will speake hereafter §. 6. Your second reason you bring from the example of IEHV an Idolater The 5. obiection of the example of Iehu 4. Reg. 10. and very much discommended by the scripture it selfe such shiftes are you put vnto when you are forced to begge the patronage of wicked men for your euill course And yet shall you see in the end that it maketh more against you than with you IEHV say you was present at the sacrifices of BAAL although afterward he killed all the Idolatrous Preistes of BAAL therfore may wee also for a good end of sauing our goods liues or families be present at hereticall seruice Now Sir I returne your Argument vppon your selfe IEHV by Sainte AVGVSTINE and all Catholicke Doctours is reprehended for beeing present at the Sacrifices of BAAL though for a principall end of restoring Gods Religion in his wholle kingdome therfore by the iudgement of all Catholicke Doctours you are condemned whilest you be present at the sacrifices of hereticks although of your presence might ensew the conuersion of the wholle Realme much lesse to serue your belly and to conserue the Mammon of iniquity For although there be difference betweene Idolatry and heresie and the seruice of Idolaters and of
Of a Protestation see §. 31. § 35 then of his outward action And whether his protestation be sincere or no certaine it is that there is in the action all signification sette apart at such time place a very great contempt of religion and of that person to whose dishonour the signification would tend that is of God himselfe For who doubt eth but that if one should cōtumeliously name his Prince before his face although both the Prince that wholle court knew his meaning to be otherwise yet if such opprobrious wordes were enforced by a forreine enemy for contempte of the Prince A very fite example against Prote testation such action would be deemed treason Wherefore that this wholle matter may be perfectly conceiued Let vs imagine that vnto AVGVSTVS the Emperour came 4. seuerall persons the first contumeliously and also from his very harte saieth AVGVSTVS is an vniust Prince the second contumeliously also although against his conscience vseth the like speaches yet doth he not seeke to make his cōscience known vnto the Emperour or vnto his courtiers being present The third maketh in deed his mind open vnto his maiesty and court that he thinketh not so vndoubtedly of him yet contemptuously either to please an aduersary of his or else moued with greater feare of that aduersary than of the Emperour he vttereth the very same The fourth not after any of these maners but sent by a very loiall subiect of the Emperours bringeth him this relation that a forreine Prince or Lord forgetting his alleageance or duety hath publikely said of his Emperiall maiesty AVGVSTVS is an vniust Prince Most euident it is that the three first hath formally vsed and most traiterously the aforesaid wordes but the last only materially without any crime at all Now to apply this example vnto our purpose there are three kind of men which wickedly and traiterously vnto God and his Church go to hereticall seruice The first is the hereticke himselfe who in this action both signifieth inwardly meaneth a false religion The second is the dissembling scismatike who signifieth it and yet in his hart thincketh it not The third is the same fearfull schismaticke who protesteth that he meaneth not to shew liking of a false religion yet neither can his protestation be knowne to all which see his facte and perhapps also he is not beleeued in the same wheras he may aswell lye in his wordes as in his action and yet although he obtained so much that he might be beleeued cannot be excuse himselfe from contempt and derogation vnto Catholicke truth The fourth onely vseth the action materially with out any signification of falshood or contempt of truth at all as are those whom we haue excused before For as in wordes which are principally instituted for to represent the meaning of the hart there may be the materiall sound of them without the signification which is the forme therof as when one repeateth the wordes of an other although they were blasphemous So and much more may there be in actions or outward signes which are not ordinarily so determined to signify as wordes So may a man cary an Iuy bush vpon his backe home for the fire neuer be thought to pretend selling of wine Bannes 2.2 And a comedy plaier counterfeite Idolatry before an Idoll without any formall or sinfull meaning therof Neither for all this is going to the seruice of heretickes not euill in it selfe All kind of dissimulation in this point For we speake of going to their seruice formally that is when there is annexed vnto the materiall therof a signification contempt or preiudice of religion Finally hereby it appeareth that wee exclude not any from the sinfulnes of the deed who any way guie shew or vse any kind of dissimulation in these weighty matters Such are those which go but pray not there or pray by them selues those which by their owne procuring or consent are put in the booke of cōmunicants or of married folkes or of such like Such as gette licence from the Arches to be married where they will Such as send their children to be christened by ministers or say that the minister christened them woemen which cause the minister to come to their house with his booke and surples as though he should Church them those which receiue comfort of ministers at their death or in sicknes for those * c. Filij De Haereticis in sexto are adiudged by the Canons of the Church euen heretickes and so their goods confiscate after their death those which go with coarses to Burialls if they withdraw not them selues when seruice of the Buriall beginneth nor such as to saue them selues from the danger of the law cause a Catholicke Preist to go into the Church to preach therby to make their neighbours to say or thinke that they go to the Church yea and without such intent if they go so that they seeme to go to hereticall seruice nor those which are married by a Catholicke Priest with the communion booke or otherwise that it may seeme they be married conformably those which hauing secrett Pewes or closettes looking into the Church cause some other to go thither that them selues may be deemed present or those which cause thēselues to be caried to the church for al such haue not lied to mē but * Act. 5. vnto god And although we are not bound alwaies to confesse our religion yet are we bound neuer to deny it or to giue probable occasion to others so to esteme of vs. although without such occasion geuen wee may permitte them to thinke what they list §. 17. Whether this doctrine be scrupulous Neither let any man marueile at these manifold downe falls intosinne or esteeme vs to scrupulous or the way of saluation to straite For this is that straines of the gate * Mat. 7. which leadeth vnto life this is the combate betweene the world and Christ * 10.16 neuer agreeing in one this is that * Psal 18. vnsported law of God which not with standing conuerteth soules and maketh them despising the delightes of the flesh yea the extreme vsages of the world only cleaue vnto Christ and that which is a most happy thing to remaine * Luc. 22. with him in his tribulations in the least iote not swaruing from his holy will Maruaile not though hereticks dissemble amongst Catholikes though they shew no difficulty of making al demonstratiō of feined piety contrary vnto their owne consciences whilest they receiue our Sacramentes professe our doctrine and seeme to detest all heresies They want togither with true religion all constant prosessiō of that which they esteeme for truth Treacheries dissimulations false worshippings dublenesse deceite and all manner of fallacy is farre from those hartes which em brace Christian verety One remedy there is which may deliuer you from this precisenes An easie way to auoid all seruples herein Be at
Sacrifice whosoeuer is present although without any attention or deuotion which is dew yet hath he donne an exteriour act of religion commaunded yet sinned for want of the inward deuotion which he should haue ioined thereunto But the same is found in the presence at hereticall seruice Therfore is such presence ceremonious and religious Neither can you excuse your selfe with saying that you are not attentiuely and deuoutely present because there wanteth your goodwill and affection For there is an inward acte of religion as I touched before and an outward Inward and outward actes of religion and sometimes the one and the other ioined togither Now this is an exteriour action of religion although it want the inward forme and that is the thing which we purposed to proue that it is an outward acte of religion Againe in all sortes of religion there be diuerse kindes of ceremonies Comparison with other kind of ceremonies Some doe consist in hallowed thinges as Water Oyle Ashes Palmes Vestimentes Other in time as in Holy daies Vigils Fastings Lent or such like And in like maner doth there some ceremonies consist in places as in Churches Churchyardes Chappell 's Others are found in diuerse obseruances as we see were kepte in the ould lawe of MOYSES Now to vse the other ceremonies is alwaies a signe of that religion vnto which they belong as the keeping of Saturday of IVDAISME the eating of swines flesh of GENTILISME the absteining from certain meates of MANICHISME the keeping of the Catholicke Fastes and daies of some kind of affection to Catholicke religion And why I pray you shall not the place being ceremonious with the ceremonious action vsed therin and the ceremonious time withall of the Sonday or holy day be a signe of religion of that religion I say which vseth the same Ceremonies of places lesse indifferent than others 2.2 q. 85. ar 3. and commandeth the same and which there as a distinct common welth from all others is gathered togither And this reason in ceremoniouse places hath more force than in any other sortes of ceremonies For as the Diuines doe excellently teach Religion being a vertew which exhibiteth honour and reuerence vnto god sometimes it happeneth that this vertew commaundeth vnto other vertues ordaineth their actes to Gods honour As is to fast not onely for the punishment of the body but also for the honor of God to geue almes to pay debtes to visitt Pupills and widdowes for Gods honour and such like Iac. 1. which properly belong to other vertues but are by religion as it were commaunded and directed vnto the end of religion But there are other proper actes which onely belong to religion and not to other vertues Such as haue no other praise as S. THOMAS speaketh but that they are donne for the reuerence of God And these are most properly actes of religion Of this sort are sacrifices kneeling knocking of the breast and such like Such also is this ceremony of going to such a place more than to an other Hereof it proceedeth that one may eate fleshe vpon a friday or otheer fasting day in diuerse cases Why one may eate flesh on a friday and not lawfully go to the Church and yet in no case go to the Church with hereticks For to absteine vpon certaine daies is not a proper or immediate acte of religion but commaunded by religion being in deed an acte of temperance and so intended by the Church though it may be referred not onely to chastice the body but for to doe an honour vnto God And because this law is particulerly found amongst Catholicks hence it is that it doth oftentimes betoken a Catholicke and distinguish him from an hereticke Yet because the immediate end of the law is temperance and the acte of eating flesh or other forbidden meates is such as hath other naturall endes besides the profession of religion as of feeding the body or eating with dispensation therfore is there not necessarily implied therin any ceremony or signification of religion And in case of necessity it may be vsed although others vnderstand a profession of heresy therin For why this act of eating or absteining neither of the owne nature nor by common estimation of men doth signifie religion but hath an other principall vse Yet the going to the Church howsoeuer doth alwaies betoken both of the owne nature and by common ac ception of all the worlde deuotion and religion in Catholicke Churches to the true faith in hereticall to their detestable sinagogues This doth S. THOMAS whom I oftener alleage because my conflict is with those which will be counted Catholickes 2.2 q. 84. ar 3. ad 2. although in this apostaticall action they doe deny their Catholicke religion This I say doth S. THOMAS very plainely sett downe whan he yeeldeth three causes why exteriour worship of God should haue a determinate place where principally it ought to be exhibited not that God may be included in any place but for respect of those which doe worshipp him The first is Three causes of Churchches 3. Reg. 8. for the consecration of the place wherby those which praye conceiue spirituall deuotion that they may the rather be heard as it is manifest in the worshipping of SALOMON Secondly for the Sacred misteries and other signes of holines which are there conteined Thirdly for the concourse of many worshippers wherby the praier is made more acceptable Mat. 18. according to that where there are two or three gathered togither in my name there am I in the middest of them Consider I pray you then whether this place haue not a signification of agreement in religion and of a ceremony of that religion which is there gathered togither I may not say in the name of Christ but leaue vnto your selfe to iudge in whose name As for the consecration you know from whence it came and how neuerthelesse they which were the autours therof account it now prophaned But of the sacred misteries and other signes of holines I hope you wil not be very ready to bragge or boast especially when I shall tell you hereafter what maner of misteries there be in Protestants seruice Yet moreouer doe I proue this presence to be ceremonious The ministers presence is ceremonious The minister himselfe is ceremoniously present yea although whilest he readeth his seruice he would neuer so faine intend to be away or wish that as it hapneth sometime to some of his brethrē he were reading Chaucer But the presence of the minister and of the auditours haue a necessary relation togither The minister is there as one that offereth for the rest the others as those which are offered for Heb. 3. Euery Bishopp saith S. PAVL being assumpted out of men is appointed for men in those thinges which appertaine vnto God The minister is to enter into the Tabernacle the people to expect without Luc. 1. The minister is to make perfect the people to receiue
may we vse the signes of a Diabolicall schisme and diuision from the truth of Christ which neuer was good neither can euer be good or what difference is there betweene the circumcision and shauing and conuersing with Iewes and the signes of your goodly new religion For euen now may a man be circumcised for his bodily health and in like maner shauen But the doing of these thinges after the ceremoniouse maner of the Iewes is that which is reprehended as a thing of it selfe euill Euen so doe I say vnto you that although you may go to the Church when none is there and pray also with heretickes in a Catholicke Church or congregation when a few heretickes come thither Yet if you go to the Church of heretickes to their seruice I say Wherein doe hereticall ceremonies cōsist Christ will profitt you nothing Hereticall ceremonies consist in their seruice and sacramentes the sacramentes you cannot receiue but by some particuler acte but of the seruice you are partaker by your onely presence For that the very presence may be ceremoniouse S. Peters cōuersing with Iewes was to Iudaise it is manifest by S. PETERS conuersation with the Iewes to whom he adicined himselfe that he might not be thought to conuerse withGentills which to haue bene a dissimulation in religion both S. HIEROME and S. AVGVSTINE agree although the first excuse him from sinne the second condemneth although not of a mortall sinne For than was it lawfull to vse the Iewes ceremonies that the Sinagogue for the reuerence of the Author antiquity thereof being now dead after the promulgation of the new law of Christ and of a Church which was to last for ener might with honour be carried to the graue The lewes ceremonies were lawfull to the Christened Iewes for a while to knitt the Iewes and Gentils togither yet so that they were not accounted as necessary vnto saluation And so S. PETERS dissimulation although it were in a matter of religion yet beeing in a matter of a lawfull Religion for a time it had no other sinne than it had by dissimulation which is not mortall but whan it is in a mortall matter Now if S. PETERS ciuill conuersation with Iewes was religieuse because it was to fulfill the Iewes law how much more shall the spirituall association with heretickes be ceremoniouse And can it than any way be iustified No no Sir your reasons are sriuolous and your dissimulation is perniciouse In Amos. 5. Hereticall Synagogues doe stincke Your Sinagogue is long since dead yea already buried and rotten and if it were not buried yet deserued not to be buried with that honour which was conuenient vnto the reuerend Sinagogue of the Iewes who were Gods trew and naturall people And therfore in nothing must you obscrue her lawes but perswade your selfe of them as S. HIEROME very truely faith that so ofte as heretickes are gathered togither in the name of our Lord God detesteth their stench and stoppeth his nose In ose 6. Yea the same Doctour in an other place hath these wordes euen of heretickes which haue trew administration of sacraments See S. Cypr. l. 1. ep 6. They offer sacrilegiouse bread giue almes seeme to follow humility which things if they be done truely I esteeme as holocaustes but whan they haue loste the knowledge of God Sacrilegious bread L. 3. dial c. 31. in vaine doe they bragge hauing cutt off the head of faith to haue the other mebers So did S Gregory call the Eucharist cōsecrated by an Arrian Bishop a communion of sacrilegious consecration Sacrilegious consecratiō How than dare you haue any part in such felloshipp or how can you so wrest your vnderstanding that you can perswade your selfe whilest you are ioined vnto Beliall to haue felloshippe with Christ The sabboth Gal. 4. Col. 2. Cōe Laod c. 29. Greg. l. 11. ep 3. Can. Apost 69. Finally to obserue the Sabboth or other daies of the Iewes is to Iudaise Therfore to be present at the sacrifices and ceremonis of the Iewes is to Iudaise For how can one vnderstand that not to worke or to omitte an action is to Iudaise and to vse an ordinary action of their religion is not to Iudaise than is there any doubt but in like manet to be present at Caluins ceremonies is to Caluinise Surely except you can inuent other reason other rules and Iudgementes of morall actions yea and withall other wittes and other men than hitherto haue bene in the world you can neuer conuince the contrary Than do I by so many reasons conclude that to be present at hereticall scruice is an exteriour religiouse and ceremoniouse acte euen of that congregation to whome such ceremony or religion doth appertaine What is a ceremony See Bellarm l. 2. de Sacra in gen c. 29 And therfore whereas the nature of a ceremony is to be an exteriour acte of religion which hath no other end but onely the profession of honour and reuerence towardes God in that way which euery one doth follow this acte for to be an exteriour acte of heresie a profession of Caluinisme a deniall of Catholicke religion saith and a participation with those of a contrary religion and saith and a plaine incorporation with the members of the same vtterly excluding a man from the participation of the mysticall body of IESVS CHRIST which because it doth in diuerse maners I must here breifly as I am went de clare the same §. 22. Those w e go to hereticks seruice are many waies excōmunicate First therfore an exteriour heriticke is excommunicate in FORO EXTERIORI in the exteriour courte For the holy Church generally excommunicating all heretickes they are perfectly excommunicate But if they shew that outwardly which is proper vnto an hereticke yet keeping inuiolable their inward saith they are not properly called heretickes Exteriour heretickes excommunicate in foro exteriori but onely exteriour or outward heretickes And the Church because she cannot iudge of the inward affection of the mind esteemeth them neuerthelesse as absolute heretickes Neither must you doubt but if you were in Spaine the Inouisition would so proceed against you for your going to the Church with heretickes as it doth with those which will not washe their dishes or sweepe their house on the Saturdaies that is as if both you were an hereticke and the other Iewes Whosoeuer therfore is an exteriour heretike must fully perswade himselfe that the Church accounteth him an absolute hereticke and therfore that in places where he is knowne to haue behaued him selfe as an hereticke he ought to behaue him selfe also as an excommunicate person not communicating with any other either an ciuill or spirituall thinges wherby he remaineth although not so perfectly as others Nauar. c. 11. num 27 Silu. verbo haeresis 1 q. 9. verbo A postasia §. 4. Bannes 2.2 q 11. ar 4 Cap. Nuper ca. Sicon cubina De sent
brother Let none as much as lieth in him beare patiently that order doe perish discipline be transgressed For to be silent when thou maiest reproue is to consent and we know that like punishment is prouided for those which doe and those which consent Feed saieth S. Ambrose him which dieth for hungar Dist 86. c. Pasce vide l. 3. off c. 6. for whosoeuer thou arte which by feeding him mightest haue saued his life if thou hast not fedd him thou hast killed him ⧠Inferre hence the greater necessity of sauing a soule than feeding the body and the grrater bond of fatherly piety than of brotherly charity God graunt that in our afflicted countrey many thousand soules without any other crime but with this onely want of charity and piety towardes their neighbours and children doe not euery day eternally perish §. 35 By this which hitherto hath bene said THE FOVRTH PART Of the nature of a signe distinctiue it remaineth proued that this action of going to hereticks seruice is of it selfe repugnant vnto the very law of God and of nature a case indispensable by any power vpon earth and besides many other deformities therin conteined a distinctiue signe and manifest note wherby heretickes or schismatickes are discerned from trew Catholickes Wherupon I do infer two very certaine truthes The 16-obiection that temporall lawes or Princes can not appoint distinctiue signes of religion first that most friuolous is that reason of yours that the going to the seruice of heretickes was lawfull before the statute of going to the Church and no distinctiue signe at all and thence you conclude that neither it can now be a distinctiue signe wher as temporal Princes cannot giue the nature of a necessary signe of Religion vnto any exteriour actiō which is not such of it selfe For howsoeuer your assertion of the power of Princes in this pointe be trew or false This action is of it selfe a signe distinctiue this action is as I haue saied not by any worldly Prince or law instituted but by nature it selfe and by the very forme of all maner of Religions ordained as a ceremony and from a ceremony if you take away the signification of religion of that religion I meane vnto which it doth belong you destroy the nature of a ceremony and make a ceremony no ceremony But I perceiue the cause of your errour in this argument to be the dissention betweene Caietane and the rest of the Deuines Caietane saieth that if a Prince or a law amongst Infidells in 2.2 q. 3. ar 2. Whether a Prince may make a signe distinctiue the omission wherof may be a mortall sinac doe commaund that euery Christian weare a certaine kind of garment different from the rest of that countrey as a redd or yellow cappe such lawe or commaundment may be in two respectes either for the protestation of religion that the Prince intendeth onely to know theire religion therby or else for a politicke distinction that a Christian may be knowen from an Infidell for the peaceable order of the common welth and by such marke be reputed as it were infamous Of these two cases he geueth a different censure For in the first that is when the Prince intendeth to know euery mans faith and religion although the same Prince intendeth therby to take occasion of persecuting the Christians he saieth that it is a mortall sinne to omitt such garment for than as he saieth euery one is virtually and in effect interrogated of his religion which than he is bound to confesse In the second he saieth that a man may lawfully omitt such a signe especially for to saue his life wheras such law doth not bind in daunger of life being onely a politicke and ciuill law for the peaceable gouernment of the state not in respect of religion What Caie tane thinketh of the omission of a signe of trew religiō appointed by the Prince of a false religiō Therfore he concludeth that if a Christiā amongst Infidells should be commaunded to weare a redd cappe onely for ciuill pollicy least any tumulte should arise or disorder in the common wealth by diuersities of religions than in daunger of death and with lesse daunger also he may without mortall sinne omitt that signe As a Iew at Rome or at Venice for to auoide the officer which cometh to arrest him may without deadly sinne cast off his Iewes cappe that he may not be knowen yea although his religion were the onely trew religion of the world For such signe is not ordained for the protestation of his religion but onely for ciuill pollicy But if the end of such law were onely to protest religion and that the Prince intended therby to knowe Christians for to punish them for their religion and not to make onely a ciuill distinction for the peaceable gouernment of Christians and Infidells than to omitt such signe is a mortall sinne against the confession of faith which alwaies is necessary when a man is interrogated euen as he is now as it were in effect interrogated by the law or commaundment of the Prince Thus doth Caietane discourse of the omission of the signe of a Christian vsed amongst Infidells Caietanes opinion of the vse of a signe of a false religion But now let vs also see for it maketh much for the vnderstanding of the wholle matter and there is great difference what he saieth of the vsurping of the signe of an Infidell either when Infidells liue in a Christian common wealth as Iewes at Rome or whan Christians liue in an Infidell common wealth as among the Turkes Than saieth Caietane although there be a signe appointed for an Infidell onely for ciuill respectes of temporall peace yet is it a mortall sinne for a Christian euery time which he vseth the same So that a Christian at Rome wearing a Iewes cappe or amongst the Turkes a white Turbant doth euery time committe a mortall sinne although it were for to saue his life for he than sheweth him selfe a Iewe or Turke by vsing the signe of either of them Thus you see Caietanes opinion is Marke the difference of vsing a signe of false religion and omitting a signe of true religion that a man may neuer vse a signe of a false religion although appointed by the Prince but that he may omitte the signe of his owne religion when it is not instituted for a protestation of religion but when it is ordained as a signe of religion than cannot hee omitte it without mortall sinne This doctrine by all other Deuines for the most parte is thought to rigorous And they teach very well Bannes 2.2 q. 3. ar 2. that a signe of an Infidell ordained for ciuill respectes onely may lawfully be vsed by a Christian in time of necessity and whan there is no scandall neither is there is such vse any signification of religion iustly geuen Other Diuines are against Caietane but onely permitted Euen as a