fall to challenge not only the infallibility but which were more dangerous the Authority of their Judge If it be thought better to leave scope to Opinions opposition it self profitably serving to the boulting out of the Truth If Unity in all things be as it seems despaired of by this your Gellius himself why are we not content with Vnity in things necessary to Salvation expresly set down in Holy Scripture And anciently thought to suffice reserving Infallibility as an honour proper to God speaking there Why should it not be thought to suffice that every Man having imbraced that necessary Truth which is the Rule of our Faith thereby try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. If he meet with any that hath not that Doctrine receive him not to House nor salute him If consenting to that but otherwise infirm or erring yet charitably bear with him This for every private Man As for the publick order and peace of the Church God hath given Pastors and Teachers that we should not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine and amongst them appointed Bishops to command that Men teach no other or foreign Doctrine which was the end of Timothy his leaving at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 Then the Apostles themselves by their example have commended to the Church the wholesome use of Synods to determine of such controversies as cannot by the former means be composed but still by the Holy Scriptures the Law or Rule as you say well by which all these Iudges must proceed Which if they do not then may they be deceived themselves and deceive others as experience hath shewed yet never be able to extinguish the truth To come to Antiquity There is not any one thing belonging to Christian Religion if we consider well of more importance than how the purity of the whole may be maintained The Ancients that write of the rest of Christian Doctrine is it not a miracle had they known any such infallible Judge in whose Oracle the security of all with the perpetual tranquillity of the Church is contained they should say nothing of him There was never any Age wherein there have not been Heresies and Sects to which of them was it ever objected that they had no infallible Judge How soon would they have sought to amend that defect if it had been a currant Doctrine in those times that the true Church cannot be without such an Officer The Fathers that dealt with them why did they not lay aside all disputing and appeal them only to this Barr Unless perhaps that were the lett which Cardinal Bellarmine tells the Venetians hindred S. Paul from appealing to S. Peter Lest they should have made their Adversaries to laugh at them for their labour Well howsoever the Cardinal hath found out a merry reason for S. Paul's appealing to Caesars Judgment not Peter's lest he should expose himself to the laughter of Pagans what shall we say when the Fathers write professedly to instruct Catholick Men of the forepleadings and advantages to be used against Hereticks even without descending to tryal by Scriptures or of some certain general and ordinary way to discern the Truth of the Catholick Faith from the prophane novelties of Heresies Had they known of this infallible Judge should we not have heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his own Court Nay doth not the writing it self of such Books shew that this matter was wholly unknown to Antiquity For had the Church been in possession of so easie and sure a course to discover and discard heresies they should not have needded to task themselves to find out any other But the truth is infallibility is and ever hath been accounted proper to Christs judgment And as hath been said all necessary Truth to Salvation he hath delivered us in his Word That Word himself tells us shall judge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that word even now judgeth Christ judgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speaks in the Apostle Thus Antiquity Neither are they moved a whit with that Objection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controversies For in that case the remedy was easie which S. Augustine shews to have recourse to the plain places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there be by which the other may be cleared The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned Which be Scriptures which not I think it was never heard of in the Church that there was an external infallible Judge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquity and inherent signs of Divine Authority or humane infirmity but if the Auditor or Adversary yield not to these such parts of necessity must needs be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in judicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place only reason remains To which I think it will scarce seem reasonable if you should say Though all Men are lyers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his Determinations for he cannot err No not if all Men in the World should say it Unless you first set down there is a God and stablish the authority of the Books of Holy Scripture as his voice and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priviledge Where you affirm The Scriptures to be the Law and the Rule but alone of themselves cannot be Iudges If you mean without being produced applied and heard you say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not amiss when he demanded Doth our Law judge any Man unless it hear him first he meant the same which S. Paul when he said of the High Priest thou sittest to judge me according to the Law and so do we when we say the same Neither do we send you to Angels or God himself immediately but speaking by his Spirit in the Scriptures and as I have right now said alledged and by discourse applyed to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if we should make them infallible Judges or give them Authority to decree in Religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the Eight it might well be condemned for monstrous as it was by Calvin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo usum calicis in Coena Quare Potestas n. summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to be But that Princes which obey the truth have commandment from God to command good things and forbid evil not only in matters pertaining to humane society but also the Religion of God This is no new strange Doctrine but Calvins and
of your induction though it matters little whether you do or no since Father Parsons will needs aver that he lived and dyed of your Religion Here first you mention his violent divorceing himself from his lawful Wife We will not now debate the Question How his Brothers Wise could be his lawful Wife You must now say so Whatsoever the Scriptures Councils almost all Universities of Christendom determined Yet methinks it should move you that Pope Clement himself had consigned to Cardinal Campegius a Breve formed to sentence for the King in as ample manner as could be howsoever upon the success of the Emperours affairs in Italy and his own occasions he sent a special Messenger to him to burn it But what violence was this that you speak of The matter was orderly and judiciously by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the assistance of the learnedest of the Clergy according to the antient Canons of the Church and Laws of the Realm heard and determined That indeed is more to be marvelled at What moved him to fall out with the Pope his Friend in whose quarrel he had so far engaged himself as to write against Luther of whom also he was so rudely handled as you mention before having received also for some part of recompence the title of The Defender of the Faith having been so chargeably thankful to the Pope for it All these things considered it must be said this unkindness and slippery dealing of Clement with him was from the Lord that he might have an occasion against the Pope and that it might appear that it was not Humane Counsel but Divine Providence that brought about the banishment of the Popes Tyranny from among us His marriage with the Lady Anne Bullen her death and the rest which you mention of the abling or disabling her Issue to inherit the Crown I see not what it makes to our purpose The suppression of the Monasteries was not his sole Act but of the whole State with the consent also of the Clergy and taken out of Cardinal Wolsey his example yea founded upon the Popes Authority granted to him To dissolve the smaller Houses of Religion on pretence to defray the charges of his sumptuous Buildings at Oxford and Ipswich wherein if it pity you as I confess it hath sometimes me that such goodly Buildings are defaced and ruined we must remember what God did to Shiloh yea to Jerusalem it self and his Temple there And that Oracle Every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire You demand If this Man King Henry were a good Head of Gods Church What if I should demand the same touching Alexander the Sixth Iulius the Second Leo the Tenth or twenty more of the Catalogue of Popes in respect of whom King Henry might be canonized for a Saint But there is a Story in Tullies Offices of one Lucatius that laid a Wager that he was bonus vir a good Man and would be judged by one Fimbria a Man of Consular Dignity He when he understood the case said He would never judge that matter lest either he should diminish the reputation of a Man well esteemed of or set down that any Man was a good Man which he accounted to consist in an innumerable sort of Excellencies and Praises That which he said of a good Man with much more reason may I say of a good King one of whose highest excellencies is to be a good Head of the Church And therefore it is a Question which I will never take upon me to answer Whether King Henry were such or no unless you will beforehand interpret this Word as favourably as Guicciardine doth tell us Men are wont to do in the censuring your heads of the Church For Popes he saith now a-days are praised for their goodness when they exceed not the wickedness of other men After this description of a good head of the Church or if ye will that of Cominaeus which saith he is to be counted a good King whose vertues exceed his vices I will not doubt to say King Henry may be enrolled among the number of good Kings In special for his executing that highest duty of a good King the imploying his Authority in his Kingdom to command good things and forbid evil not only concerning the civil Estate of Men but the Religion also of God Witness his authorizing the Scriptures to be had and read in Churches in our Vulgar Tongue enjoyning the Lords Prayer the Creed and ten Commandments to be taught the people in English abolishing superfluous Holy-days pulling down those jugling Idols whereby the people were seduced namely the Rood of Grace whose Eyes and Lips were moved with wires openly shewed at Pauls Cross and pulled asunder by the people Above all the abolishing of the Popes Tyranny and Merchandise of Indulgences and such like Chafer out of England Which Acts of his whosoever shall unpartially consider of may well esteem him a better Head to the Church of England than any Pope these thousand years In the last place you come to the Hugenots and Geuses of France and Holland You lay to their Charge the raising of Civil Warrs shedding of Blood occasioning Rebellion Rapine Desolations principally for their new Religion In the latter part you write I confess somewhat reservedly when you say occasioning not causing and principally not only and wholly for Religion But the Words going before and the exigence of your Argument require that your meaning should be they were the causers of these disorders You bring to my mind a Story whether of the same Fimbria that I mentioned before or another which having caused Quintus Scavola to be stabbed as Father Paulo was while I was at Venice after he understood that he escaped with his life brought his Action against him for not having received the Weapon wholly into his Body These poor people having endured such barbarous Cruelties Massacres and Martyrdoms as scarce the like can be shewed in all Stories are now accused by you as the Authors of all they suffered No no Mr. Waddesworth they be the Laws of the Roman Religion that are written in Blood It is the bloody Inquisition and the perfidious violating of the Edicts of Pacification that have set France and Flanders in combustion An evident Argument whereof may be for Flanders that those Genses that you mention were not all Calvinists as you are mis-informed the chief of them were Roman Catholicks as namely Count Egmond and Horne who lost their Heads for standing and yet only by Petition against the new Impositions and the Inquisition which was sought to be brought in upon those Countries The which when the Vice-roy of Naples D. Petro de Toledo would have once brought in there also the people would by no means abide but rose up in Arms to the number of fifty thousand which sedition could not be appeased but by delivering them of that fear The like resistance though more
Estate which has now descended to his Son his elder Brother dying without Issue After he had past through the common education at Schools he was sent to Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge and put under Dr. Chadderton's care the famous and long-liv'd Head of that House and here all those extraordinary things that rendred him afterwards so conspicuous began to shew themselves in such a manner that he came to have a very eminent Character both for Learning and Piety so that Appeals were oft made to him as Differences or Controversies arose in the University He was put in Holy Orders by the Bishop Suffragan of Colchester THâ— I met with this passage I did not think these Suffragans had been continued so long in England How they came to be put down I do not knâ—w it is probable they did ordain all that desired Orders so promiscuously that the Bishops found it necessary to let them fall For complaints were made of this Sâ—ffragan upon which he was threatned with the taking his Commission from him for though they could do nothing but by a Delegation from the Bishop yet the Orders they gave were still valid even when they transgressed in conferring them Upon that the Suffragan said a thing that was as insolent in him as it was honourable for Mr. Bedell That he had ordained a better Man than any the Bishop had ever ordained naming Bedell He was chosen Fellow of the Colledge in 1593. and took his Degree of Batchelour of Divinity in the year 1599. From the University he was removed to the Town of S. Edmondsbury in Suffolk where he served long in the Gospel and with great success he and his Colleague being of such different characters that whereas it was said of him that he made the difficultest places of Scripture appear plain it was said That his Colleague made the plainest places appear difficult the opening of dark passages and the comparing of many Texts of Scripture together with a serious and practical application of them being the chief subject of His Sermons Which method several other great Men at that time followed such as Bishop Vsher Dr. Iackson and Mr. Mede He had an occasion given him not long after his settlement in this charge to shew his courage and how little he either courted preferment or was afraid of falling under the displeasure of great Men For when the Bishop of Norwich proposed some things to a meeting of his Clergy with which they were generally dissatisfied though they had not resolution enough to oppose them He took that hard Province upon himself and did it with so much strength of reason as well as discretion that many of those things were let fall upon which when his Brethren came and magnified him for it he checkt them and said He desired not the praises of Men. His reputation was so great and so well established both in the University and in Suffolk that when King Iames sent Sir Henry Wotton to be his Ambassadour at Venice at the time of the Interdict he was recommended as the fittest Man to go Chaplain in so critical a conjuncture This Imployment proved much happier and more honourable for him than that of his fellow Student and Chamber-fellow Mr. Wadsworth who was at that time beneficed in the same Diocese with him and was about that time sent into Spain and was afterwards appointed to teach the Infanta the English Tongue when the match between the late King and her was believed concluded for Wadsworth was prevailed on to change his Religion and abandon his Countrey as if in them those Words of our Saviour had been to be verified There shall be two in one Bed the one shall be taken and the other shall be left For as the one of these was wrought on to forsake his Religion the other was very near the being an Instrument of a great and happy change in thâ— Republick of Venice I need not say much of a thing so well known as were the quarrels of Pope Paul the V. and that Republick especially since the History of them is written so particularly by him that knew the matter best P. Paulo Some Laws made by the Senate not unlike our Statutes of Mortmain restraining the excessive Donations extorted from superstitious Men and the imprisoning two lewd Fryers in order to the executing Justice on them were the grounds of the quarrel and upon those pretences the Ecclesiastical Immunity from the Secular Tribunals was asserted to such a degree that after that high spirited Pope had tryed what the spiritual Sword could do but without success his Interdict not being observed by any but the Iesuites the Capucins and Theatines who were upon that banished the State for the age of the Anselms and the Beckets could not be now recalled he resolved to try the Temporal Sword next according to the advice Cardinal Baronius gave him who told him in the Consistory That there were two things said to S. Peter the first was Feed my Sheep the other was Arise and kill and therefore since he had aâ—â—eady executed the first part of S. Peter's duty in feeding the Flock by Exhortations Admonitions and Censures without the desired effect he had nothing left but to arise and kill and that not being an Age in which Croisades could pass upon the World and the Pope not finding any other Prince that would execute his Bulls he resolved to make War upon them himself hoping to find assistance from the Crown of Spain who he believed would be willing to enlarge their Dominions on that side but when all help failed him and he saw that his Censures had not created any distractions in the Republick and found their Treasure and Fâ—rce like to prove a match too hard to the Apostolical Chamber and to such Forces as he could levy and pay he was at last willing to accept of a mediation in which the Senate though they were content to deliver up the two profligate Fryers yet asserted their Right and maintained their Laws notwithstanding all his threatnings nor would they so much as ask pardon or crave absolution But without going further into matters so generally known I shall only mention those things in which Mr. Bedell had some share P. Paulo was then the Divine of the State a man equally eminent for vast learning and a most consummated prudence and was at once one of the greatest Divines and of the wisest Men of his Age. But to commend the celebrated Historian of the Council of Trent is a thing so needless that I may well stop yet it must needs raise the Character of Bedell much that an Italian who besides the caution that is natural to the Countrey and the prudence that obliged one in his circumstances to a more than ordinary distrust of all the World was tyed up by the strictness of that Government to a very great reservedness with all people yet took Bedell into his very Soul and as Sir Henry Wotton assured the
and so he removed to that place where he stayed Twelve Years during which time he was a great honour to the Church as well as a pattern to all Churchmen His habit and way of living was very plain and becoming the simplicity of his Profession He was very tender of those that were truly poor but was so strict in examining all Vagabonds and so dexterous in discovering counterfeit Passes and took such care of punishing those that went about with them that they came no more to him nor to his Town In all that time no notice was ever taken of him though he gave a very singular evidence of his great capacity For being provoked by his old acquaintance Wadsworth's Letters he writ upon the points in controversie with the Church of Rome with so much learning and judgment and in so mild a strain that no wonder if his Book had a good effect on him for whom it was intended It is true he never returned and changed his Religion himself but his Son came from Spain into Ireland when Bedell was promoted to the Bishoprick of Kilmore there and told him That his Father commanded him to thank him for the pains he was at in writing it he said It was almost alwayes lying open before him and that he had heard him say He was resolved to save one And it seems he instructed his Son in the true Religion for he declared himself a Protestant on his coming over This Book was printed and dedicated to the late King while he was Prince of Wales in the Year 1624. The true Reasons that obstructed Bedell's preferment seem to be these He was a Calvinist in the matter of Decrees and Grace and Preferments went generally at that time to those that held the other Opinions He had also another Principle which was not very acceptable to some in power he thought Conformity was an exact adhereing to the Rubrick and that the adding any new Rite or Ceremony was as much Nonconformity as the passing over those that were prescribed So that he would not use those Bowings or Gesticulations that grew so much in fashion that Mens affections were measured by them He had too good an understanding not to conclude That these things were not unlawful in themselves but he had observed that when once the humour of adding new Rites and Ceremonies got into the Church it went on by a fatal increase till it had grown up to that bulk to which we find it swelled in the Church of Rome And this began so early and grew so fast that S. Austin complained of it in his time saying That the condition of Christians was then more uneasie by that Yoke of Observances than that of the Jews had been And therefore Bedell thought the adhering to established Laws and Rules was a certain and fixed thing whereas Superstition was infinite So he was against all Innovations or arbitrary and assumed Practices and so much the more when Men were distinguished and markt out for Preferment by that which in strictness of Law was a thing that deserved punishment For in the Act of Vniformity made in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth's Reign it was made highly penal to use any other Rite or Ceremony Order or Form either in the Sacraments or in Morning or Evening Prayers than what was mentioned and set forth in that Book And this was particularly intended to restrain some that were leavened with the former Superstition and yet for saving their Benefices might conform to the New Service but retain still with it many of the old Rites in sacred Offices And it seems our Legislators were of the same mind when the last Act of Vniformity was past for there is a special Proviso in it That no Rites or Ceremonies should be openly used in any Church other than what was prescribed and appointed to be used in and by the said Book Therefore he continued to make the Rubrick the measure of his Conformity as well before his promotion as after it But he was well satisfied with that which the Providence of God laid in his way and went on in the duties of his pastoral care and in his own private Studies and was as great a Pattern in Suffolk of the pastoral care in the lower degree as he proved afterwards in Ireland in the higher Order He laboured not as an Hireling that only raised a Revenue out of his Parish and abandoned his Flock trusting them to the cheapest Mercenary that he could find nor did he satisfie himself with a slight performance of his duty only for fashions sake but he watched over his Flock like one that knew he was to answer to God for those Souls committed to his charge so he preached to the understandings and Consciences of his Parish and Catechised constantly And as the whole course of his own most exemplary behaviour was a continued Sermon so he was very exact in the more private parts of his Function visiting the Sick and dealing in secret with his people to excite or preserve in them a deep sense of Religion This he made his work and he followed it so close and lived so much at home that he was so little known or so much forgot that when Diodati came over to England many years after this he could hear of him from no person that he met with though he was acquainted with many of the Clergy He was much amazed at this to find that so extraordinary a Man that was so much admired at Venice by so good Judges was not so much as known in his own Countrey and so he was out of all hope of finding him out but by a meer accident he met him on the Streets of Londen at which there was a great deal of joy on both sides And upon that Diodati presented him to Morton the learned and antient Bishop of Duresme and told how great a value P. Paulo set on him upon which that Bishop treated him in a very particular manner It is true Sir Henry Wotton was alwayes his firm and faithful Friend but his Credit at Court had sunk for he fell under necessities having lived at Venice in an expence above his appointments And as necessitous Courtiers must grow to forget all concerns but their own so their interest abates and the favour they are in lessens when they come to need it too much Sir Thomas Iermyn was in more credit though he was alwayes suspected of being too favourable to the Puritans so that his inclinations being known the characteâ— he could give of him did not serve to raise him in England While he was thus neglected at home his fame was spread into Ireland and though he was not known either to the famous Bishop Vsher or to any of the Fellows of Trinity Colledge in Dublin yet he was chosen by their unanimous consent to be the Head of their Colledge in the Year 1627. and as that worthy Primate of Ireland together with the Fellows of the Colledge
you forbare to answer I yielded to the example and condition so much the rather because I remembered my self a Debtor to your Grace by my promise of writing to you more fully touching the Reasons of my difference with Mr. Cooke and now a suiter in your Court at his instance And First I beseech your Grace let it be a matter meerly of merriment that I skirmish a little with your Court touching the Inhibition and Citation which thence proceeded against me as you shall perceive by the inclosed Recusation For the thing it self as I have written I do submit it wholly to your Grace's decision And to enlarge my self a little not as to a Iudge but a Father to whom besides the bond of your undeserved love I am bound also by an Oath of God I will pour out my Heart unto you even without craving pardon of my boldness It will be perhaps some little diversion of your thoughts from your own infirmity to understand that you sâ—ffer not alone but you in Body others otherwise each must bear his Cross and follow the steps of our high Master My Lord since it pleased God to call me to this place in this Church what my intentions have been to the discharge of my duty he best knows But I have met with many impediments and discouragements and chiefly from them of mine own Profession in Religion Concerning Mr. Hoile I acquainted your Grace Sir Edward Bagshaw Sir Francis Hamilton Mr. William Flemming and diverse more have been and yet are pulling from the Rights of my Church But all these have been light in respect of the dealing of some others professing me kindness by whom I have been blazed a Papist an Arminian a Neuter a Politician an Equivocator a niggardly Housekeeper an Vsurer That I bow at the name of Iesus pray to the East would pull down the Seat of my Predecessor to set up an Altar denyed burial in the Chancel to one of his Daughters and to make up all That I compared your Grace's preaching to one Mr. Whiskins Mr. Creighton and Mr. Baxters and preferred them That you found your self deceived in me These things have been reported at Dublin and some of the best affected of mine own Diocess as hath been told me induced hereby to bewail with tears the misery of the Church some of the Clergy also as it was said looking about how they might remove themselves out of this Countrey Of all this I heard but little till Mr. Price coming from Dublin before Christmas to be ordered Deacon having for his memory set down Twelve Articles among a number of Points more required satisfaction of me concerning them Which I endeavoured to give both to him and to them of the Ministry that met at our Chapter for the examination of Mr Cookes Patent Omitting all the rest yet because this Venome hath spread it self so far I cannot but touch the last touching the preferring others to your Grace's preaching To which Mr. Price's answer was as he told me I will be quartered if this be true Thus it was Mr. Dunsterville acquainted me with his purpose to preach out of Prov. 20.6 But a faithful Man who can find where he said the Doctrine he meant to raise was this That Faith is a rare gift of God I told him I thought he mistook the meaning of the Text and wished him to choose longer Texts and not bring his Discourses to a Word or two of Scripture but rather to declare those of the Holy Ghost He said your Grace did so sometimes I answered there might be jâ—st cause but I thought you did not so ordinarily As for those Men Mr. Whiskins and the rest I never heard any of them preach to this day Peradventure their manner is to take longer Texts whereupon the comparison is made up as if I preferred them before you This slander did not much trouble me I know your Grace will not think me such a Fool if I had no fear of God to prefer before your excellent gifts Men that I never heard But look as the French Proverb is He that is disposed to kill his Dog tells Men he is mad And whom Men have once wronged unless the Grace of God be the more they ever hate Concerning the wrongs which these people have offered me I shall take another fit time to inform your Grace Where they say Your Grace doth find your self deceived in me I think it may be the truest word they said yet For indeed I do think both you and many more are deceived in me accounting me to have some honesty discretion and Grace more than you will by proof find But if as it seems to me that form hath this meaning that they pretend to have undeceived you I hope they are deceived yea I hope they shall be deceived if by such courses as these they think to unsettle me and the Devil himself also if he think to dismay me I will go on in the strength of the Lord God and remember his righteousness even his alone as by that reverend and good Father my Lord of Canterbury when I first came over I was exhorted and have obtained help of God to do to this day But had I not work enough before but I must bring Mr. Cooke upon my top One that for his Experience Purse Friends in a Case already adjudged wherein he is ingaged not only for his profit but reputation also will easily no doubt overbear me How much better to study to be quiet and to do mine own business or as I think Staupitius was wont to bid Luther go into my Study and pray My Lord all these things came to my mind and at the first I came with a resolution to take heed to my self and if I could to teach others moderation and forbearance by mine own example But I could not be quiet nor without pity hear the complaints of those that resorted to me some of them of mine own Neighbours and Tenants called into the Court commonly by information of Apparitors holden there without just cause and not dismissed without excessive Fees as they exclaimed Lastly one Mr. Mayot a Minister of the Diocess of Ardagh made a complaint to me That he was excommunicated by Mr. Cooke notwithstanding as I heard also by others the correction of Ministers was excepted out of his Patent Whereupon I desired to see the Patent and to have a Copy of it that I might know how to govern my self He said Mr. Ask being then from home should bring it to me at his return Himself went to Dublin to the Term. At the first view I saw it was a formless Chaos of Authority conferred upon him against all reason and equity I had not long after occasion to call the Chapter together at the time of Ordination I shewed the Original being brought forth by Mr. Ask desired to know if that were the Chapter Seal and these their Hands they acknowledged their Hands and Seal and said they were
will persist in them And yet further if there be any doubt he must manifest unto me which is the Catholick Church Thirdly to make it full Apostasie he should have convinced me to have swarved and backslidden as you know the Greek Word signifies like Iulian renouncing his Baptism and forsaken totally all Christian Religion a horrible imputation though false nor so easily proved as declaimed But I thank God daily that I am become Catholick as all our Ancestors were till of late years and as the most of Christendome still be at this present day with whom I had rather be miscalled a Papist a Traytor an Apostata or Idolater or what he will than to remain a Protestant with him still For in Protestant Religion I could never find Uniformity of a settled Faith and so no quietness of Conscience especially for three or four years before my coming away although by reading studying praying and conferring I did most carefully and diligently labour to find it among them But your contrariety of Sects and Opinions of Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists â—rotestants Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists some of them damning each other many of them avouching their Positions to be matters of Faith for if they made them but School Questions of Opinion only they should not so much have disquieted me and all these being so contrary yet every one pretending Scriptures and arrogating the Holy Ghost in his favour And above all which did most of all trouble me about the deciding of these and all other Controversies which might arise I could not find among all these Sects any certain humane external Iudge so infallibly to interpret Scriptures and by them and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost so undoubtedly to define questions of Faith that I could assure my self and my Soul This Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in Conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his determinations of Faith for he cannot erre in those Points And note that I speak now of an external humane infallible Iudge For I know the Holy Ghost is the Divine internal and principal Iudge and the Scriptures be the Law or Rule by which that humane external Judge must proceed But the Holy Scriptures being often the Matter of Controversie and sometime questioned which be Scriptures and which be not they alone of themselves cannot be Judges And for the Holy Ghost likewise every one pretending him to be his Patron how should I certainly know by whom he speaketh or not For to Men we must go to learn and not to Angels nor to God himself immediately The Head of your Church was the Queen an excellent notable Prince but a Woman not to speak much less to be Iudge in the Church and since a learned King like King Henry the Eighth who was the first temporal Prince that ever made himself Ex Regio jure Head of the Church in Spiritual matters a new strange Doctrine and therefore justly condemned by Calvin for monstrous But suppose he were such a Head yet you all confess that he may erre in matters of Faith And so you acknowledge may your Archbishops and Bishops and your whole Clergy in their Convocation-House even making Articles and Decrees yea though a Council of all your Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. of Germany France England c. were all joyned together and should agree all which they never will do to compound and determine the differences among themselves yet by the ordinary Doctrine of most Protestants they might in such a Council err and it were possible in their Decrees to be deceived But if they may err how should I know and be sure when and wherein they did or did not err for though on the one side Aposse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquanâ—o valet and on the other side frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum So that if neither in general nor in particular in publick nor private in Head nor Members joyntly nor severally you have no visible external humane infallible Iudge who cannot err and to whom I might have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith I pray let Mr. Hall tell me Where should I have fixed my foot for God is my Witness my Soul was like Noah's Dove a long time hovering and desirous to discover Land but seeing nothing but moveable and troublesome deceivable Water I could find no quiet center for my Conscience nor any firm Foundation for my Faith in Protestant Religion Wherefore hearing a sound of Harmony and Consent That the Catholick Church could not err and that only in the Catholick Church as in Noah's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation I was so occasioned and I think had important reason like Noah's Dove to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah Hereupon I was occasioned to doubt Whether the Church of England were the true Church or not For by consent of all the true Church cannot err but the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People as before is said yea a whole Council of Protestants by their own grant may err ergo no true Church If no true Church no salvation in it therefore come out of it but that I was loth to do Rather I laboured mightily to defend it both against the Puritans and against the Catholicks But the best Arguments I could use against the Puritans from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient Doctors interpreting Scriptures against them when they could not answer them they would reject them for Popish and flye to their own arrogant spirit by which forsooth they must control others This I found on the one side most absurd and to breed an Anarchy of confusion and yet when I came to answer the Catholick Arguments on the other side against Protestants urging the like Authority and Vniformity of the Church I perceived the most Protestants did frame evasions in effect like those of the Puritans inclining to their private Spirit and other uncertainties Next therefore I applyed my self to follow their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in essental Points and the differences to be accidential confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed and to this end I laboured much to reconcile most of our particular controversies But in truth I found such contrarieties not only between Catholicks and Protestants but even among Protestants themselves that I could never settle my self fully in this Opinion of some reconciliation which I know many great Scholars in England did favour For considering so many opposite great Points for which they did excommunicate and put to death each other and making the Pope to be Antichrist proper or improper it could never sink into my Brain how these two could be descendent or Members sound nor unsound
participant each of other Rather I concluded that seeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant The Church of Rome to be a true Church though peradventure faulty in some things And contrarily not only the Catholicks but also the Puritans Anabaptists Brownists c. did all deny the Church of England to be a true Church therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick who have a true Church by consent of both parties than to remain a Protestant who do alone plead their own cause having all the other against them For the testimony of our selves and our contraries also is much more sufficient and more certain than to justifie our selves alone Yet I resisted and stood out still and betook my self again to read over and examine the chiefest Controversies especially those about the Church which is cardo negotii and herein because the Bearer stayes now a day or two longer I will inlarge my self more than I purposed and so I would needs peruse the Original quotations and Texts of the Councils Fathers and Doctors in the Authors themselves which were alledged on both parts to see if they were truly cited and according to the meaning of the Authors a labour of much labour and of travel sometime to find the Books wherein I found much fraud committed by the Protestants and that the Catholicks had far greater and better armies of evident Witnesses on their sides much more than the Protestants in so much that the Centurists are fain often to censure and reject the plain testimonies of those Ancients as if their new censure were sufficient to disauthorize the others ancient sentences And so I remember Danaeus in Commentariis super D. Augustin Enchirid. ad Laurentium Where S. Augustin plainly avoucheth Purgatory He rejects S. Augustines Opinion saying hic est naevus Augustini But I had rather follow S. Augustine's Opinion than his Censure for who are they to control the Fathers There are indeed some few places in Authors which prima facie seem to favour Protestants as many Hereticks alledge some Texts of Scriptures whose sound of Words seem to make for their Opinions But being well examined and interpreted according to the Analogy of faith and according to many other places of the same Authors where they do more fully explain their Opinions so they appear to be wrested and from the purpose In fine I found my self evidently convinced both by many Authorities and by many Arguments which now I do not remember all nor can here repeat those which I do remember But only some few Arguments I will relate unto you which prevailed most with me besides those aforementioned First therefore I could never approve the Protestants evasion by Invisibility of their Church For though sometime it may be diminished and obscured yet the Catholick Church must ever be visible set on a Hill and not as Light hid under a Bushel for how should it enlighten and teach her Children if invisible or how should Strangers and Pagans and others be converted unto her or where should any find the Sacraments if invisible Also the true Church in all places and all Ages ever holds one Vniformity and Concord in all matters of Faith though not in all matters of Ceremony or Government But the Protestants Church hath not in all Ages nor in all places such uniform concord no not in one Age as is manifest to all the World and as Father Parsons proved against Fox's Martyrs Wickliffe Husse and the rest Ergo the Protestants Church not the true Church Again by that saying Haereses ad originem revocasse est refutasse and so considering Luther's first rancor against the Dominicans his disobedience and contempt of his former Superiours his vow-breaking and violent courses even causing rebellion against the Emperour whom he reviles and other Princes most shamefully surely such arrogant disobedience Schism and Rebellions had no warrant nor vocation of God to plant his Church but of the Devil to begin a Schism and a Sect. So likewise for Calvin to say nothing of all that D. Bolsecus brings against him I do urge only what Mr. Hooker Dr. Bancroft and Saravia do prove aganst him for his unquietness and ambition revolving the Commonwealth and so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other temporal Lords of their due obedience and ancient inheritance Moreover I refer you to the stirs broils sedition and murthers which Knox and the Geneva-Gospellers caused in Scotland against their lawful Governours against their Queen and against our King even in his Mothers Belly Nor will I insist upon the passions which first moved King Henry violently to divorce himself from his lawful Wife to fall out with the Pope his Friend to marry the Lady Anne Bullen and soon after to behead her to disinherit Queen Mary and inable Queen Elizabeth and presently to disinherit Queen Elizabeth and to restore Queen Mary to hang up Catholicks for Traytors and to burn Protestants for Hereticks to destroy Monasteries and to pill Churches Were these fit beginnings for the Gospel of Christ I pray was this Man a good Head of Gods Church for my part I beseech our Lord bless me from being a Member of such a Head or such a Church I come to France and Holland where you know by the Hugonots and Geuses all Calvinists what Civil Wars they have raised how much Blood they have shed what Rebellion Rapine and Desolations they have occasioned principally for their new Religion founded in Blood like Draco's Laws But I would gladly know whether you can approve such bloody broils for Religion or no I know Protestants de facto do justifie the Civil Wars of France and Holland for good against their Kings but I could never understand of them quo jure If the Hollanders be Rebels as they are why did we support them if they be no Rebels because they fight for the pretended liberty of their ancient Priviledges and for their new Religion we see it is an easie matter to pretend Liberties and also why may not others as well revolt for their old Religion Or I beseech you why is that accounted Treason against the State in Catholicks which is called Reason of State in Protestants I reduce this Argument to few Words That Church which is founded and begun in Malice Disobedience Passion Blood and Rebellion cannot be the true Church but it is evident to the World That the Protestant Churches in Germany France Holland Geneva c. were so founded and in Geneva and Holland are still continued in Rebellion ergo They are not true Churches Furthermore where is not Succession both of true Pastors and of true Doctrine there is no true Church But among Protestants is no succession of true Pastors for I omit here to treat of Doctrine ergo no true Church I prove the minor where is no consecration nor ordination of Bishops and Priests according to the due Form and right intention required necessarily by the
hurtful and noisome to it as the Weeds are to the Corn which overgrow and choak it And to follow this similitude the state of the Church under the Roman obedience and that part which is reformed is like a Field overgrown all with Weeds Thistles Tares Cockle Some part whereof is weeded and cleansed some part remains as it was before which makes such a difference to the view as if it were not the same corn But being better considered it will be found all the difference is from the Weeds which remain there and here are taken away Yet neither here perfectly nor all where alike but according to the industry of our Weeders or conveniencie of the Work with care of the safety of the good Corn. By this Parable you may see what is to be hoped of your labour to reconcile most of our particular Controversies For although I doubt not but in some it may be performed where the difference is rather verbal than real and in the manner of teaching rather than in the substance of Doctrine And if moderate Men had the matter in handling the flame of contention in a great many more might be trodden down and slaked suppose the sparks not all extinct yet in some other it is as possible to make the Weed and Corn Friends as your and our Opinions where there is none other remedy but that of our Saviour Every Plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted out Neither doth this impossibility arise more out of the nature of the things than the affection of the persons For the Pope and the Court of Rome which are those that domineer on that side do no less out of the fear of their own ruine deadly detest all reformation than the Reformed out of their present view and former feeling the tyranny of the Papacy which they see doth Excommunicate and put to cruel Death all that are of this way And which is a prodigious thing where they tolerate the blasphemous and professed enemies of Christ even with allowance of the publick exercise of their Religion there do they burn Men professing Christs Religion according to the ancient and common Rule thereof with that uprightness of Conscience that if they had as many Lives as there be Articles thereof they would give them all rather than renounce any of them As for the Protestants making the Pope Antichrist I know it is a point that inrageth much at Rome But if the Apostle S. Paul if S. Iohn in the Revelation describe Antichrist so as they that do but look upon the Pope well must be forced to say as the people did of the blind Man in the Gospel some this is he others he is very like him if himself and his flatterers do and speak such things as if all others should hold their peace do in a sort proclaim I am he what can the Protestants do with the matter I will take the liberty here to relate to you what I saw while I was in Venice the rather because it is not impertinent to our present purpose And though perhaps yâ—u may have heard somewhat of it yet the particulars are I suppose unknown in those parts And yet it doth more import they were known there than otherwhere being occasioned by a subject of the Crown though of a name and Family whereto it is not much beholding In the Year 1608. F. Thomas Maria Carafa of the Order of the Friers Preachers Reader of Philosophy in Naples printed a thousand Theses to be disputed thrice once at Rome in the Church of S. Mary super Minervam twice in S. Dominicks at Naples Of these five hundred were in Logick Natural Philosophy Metaphysick and Mathematicks five hundred more in Divinity amongst which that was one Solus Petrus successores in totam Ecclesiam illimitatam jurisdictionem habent These were all included in the form of a Tower and dedicated with an Epistle to the present Pope Paulus the Fifth to whose Arms alluding he saith Idem Draco biceps qui utrumque polum amplexus imperio ad Ecclesiae pomoerium tanquam ad amoenissimos Hesperidum hortos pervigil excubat nullius Herculis vim metuens turris etiam mea sit custos On the top of this Tower was this Representation curiously and largely cut An Altar with two Columns and their Ornaments according to the Rules of Architecture In the midst for the Altar-piece was the Popes Picture very lively portrayed to the Breast Over his Head was the Word Vultu portendebat imperium Above on the top of the Front in â—hree compartiments his Arms thus On the one side the spread Eagle alone the Word Ipse mihi fert tela pater On the other a Dragon and by it Meliora servo In the midst both together in one Scutcheon with the cross Keys and triple Crown in the Crest On either side of these Columns were depending Crowns and Scepters whereof six were on the right-Hand after the Christian fashion The Imperial above other underneath and lowest the Corno of the Duke of Venice so they call a certain Cap the Prince useth to wear being of Gold Embroidery and somewhat resembling a Horn. There were also Turkish Turbans and Diadems of divers fashions as many on the left side By these on either side of the Columns were two of the four parts of the World Europe and Africk on the one Asia and America on the other in the Habit of Ladies sitting upon their proper Beasts couchant each offering unto him that was above the Altar of their Commodities Corn Fruits Incense c. On the base of the Column on the Christian and European side was the Word Et erunt Reges nutritii tui On the other Vultu in terram demisso pulverem pedum tuorum lingent Esai 49. Agreeable whereto there was made flying over their Heads two Angels on each side one with these Sentences in their Hands That over Europe and Africk Gens Regnum quod non sâ—rvierit illi in Gladio in Fame in peste visitabo super gentem illam ait Dominus Hier. 27. That over Asia and America Et dedit ei Dominus potestatem regnum omnes populi ipsi servient potestas ejus potestas aeterna quae non auferetur Regnum ejus quod non corrumpetur Dan. 7. Now just underneath the Picture of the Pope on the foreside of the Altar was this Inscription PAVLO V. VICE-DEO CHRISTIANAE REIP MONARCHAE INVICTISSIMO ET PONTIFICIAE OMNIPOTENTIAE CONSERVATORI ACERRIMO The Copies of these Theses were sent as Novels from Rome and did the more amuse Men at Venice because of the Controversie that State had with the Pope a little before and their seeing their Dukes Corno hanged up among his Trophies under all other Princes Crowns But most of all the new Title Vice-Deo and the addition of Omnipotency gave matter of wonder The next day it was noised about the City that this was the Picture of Antichrist for
that the Inscription PAV5L L50O V5. V5I I1C C100E-D E-D500EO contained exactly in the numeral Letters the number of the Beast in the Revelation 666. What anger and shame this was to the Popish Faction I leave it to you to esteem But whom could they blame but themselves who had suffered so presumptuous and shameless a flattery to come forth with publick approbation annexing also so blasphemous an Inscription as unawares to them by the providence of God should so plainly characterize Antichrist But to heal up this matter again not long after we had fresh news went about That Antichrist was born in Babylon had done many miracles was coming toward Christendome with an Army We had an Epistle stampt at Venice pretended to be written at Rome An. 1592 by the Rever D. Valentinus Granarensis touching the birth of Antichrist his stock progeny Country Habitation Power Marvels Life and Death out of the Holy Scriptures and Fathers printed Cum Privilegio And as for the Title Vice-Deus as if they would have it in despite of all Men One Benedictus à Benedictis a Subject of the Venetian State setting out a Book against Doctor Whitakâ—rs Position de Antichristo at Bologna for at Venice it was not suffered to be printed revives it with advantage He dedicates it thus Paulo Quinto Pontifici Vniversalis Ecclesiae Oecumenico summo totius Orbis Episcopo atque Monarchae supremo Vice-Deo These Titles he heaps upon the Pope again and again and that you may judge of his Wit by one place in the conclusion exhorting Dr. Whitaker to repentance he tells him That by his example his King and with the same King James the First many Englishmen convertentur ad Dominum Deum ipsius loco ad Vice-Deum confugient And p. 135. he saith of Grègory the Great Totum mundum quasi Monarcha ac Vice-Deus optimè irreprehensibiliter rexit c. He might have learned of him that his other Title Oecumenicus Pontifex is the very name of Antichrist the name of blasphemy by which he doubts not to presage that Antichrist was near and an Army of Priests ready to attend him In this if ever in any thing it seems your Judge was infallible It will be said here it is not in the Popes power what his followers will say of him he stiles himself the Servant of Gods Servants If the Canonists will call him Our Lord God the Pope first it may be denyed Secondly it may be laid to the over-sight of the Writers or Printers Thirdly if it be shewed to be left standing still in the Gloss of the Canon Law by them that were appointed to over-see and correct it what marvel if one word escaped them through negligence or weariness or much business And yet if they thought the sense of the word not so usual indeed in the ordinary talk of Christians but not differing from the custom of Scripture was to be allowed to an ancient Writer the matter deserves not such out-crys But the Pope such is his modesty never usurped this Title full of arrogancy never heard it with patient ears To this let it first be considered that the Censors of such things as come to the Press are not to be imagined such Babes as not to know what will please or displease his Holiness Especially in writings dedicated to himself a man may be sure they will allow nothing the second time and after some exception and scandal taken at it but what shall be justified How much more in the Popes own Town of Bologna and when his Chaplain could not be allowed to print it at home But to let all these go we may have a more sensible proof how the Pope tastes these Titles That which he rewards he approves Benedictus was shortly after made for his pains Bishop of Caorli How worthily he deserved it you shall judge by his book which at my request vouchsafe to read over and if there be any merit you shall sure get great meed of patience in so doing That you may not doubt of the Popes judgment concerning these Titles you shall further know that the matter being come to the knowledge of the Protestants in France and England made them talk and write of it broadly namely the Lord of Plessis in his Mysterium iniquitatis and the Bishop of Chichester in his Tortura Torti This gave occasion to the Cardinal Gieurè to relate in the Officio Santo at Rome of the scandal taken hereat and to make a motion De moderandis titulis It was on foot sundry months At last the Pope revoking it to himself blamed those that had spoken against these Titles and said they were no whit greater than the authority of S. Peter 's Successor did bear To return thither whence I have a little digressed In the question whether the Pope be the Antichrist or no for my part I despair of all reconciliation For neither doth there appear any inclination at all in the Pope to reform any thing in Doctrine or Government nay he encroacheth daily more and more upon all degrees even among his own subjects and resolves to carry all before him at the breast with his Monarchy and infallibility On the other side the Reformers partly emboldned with success partly enforced by necessity chiefly tyed with band of conscience and perswasion of truth are not like to retract what they have affirmed in this behalf and whatsoever their differences be in other things in this point they have a marvellous unity amongst them Those in France having been molested for calling the Pope Antichrist have been occasioned as I have heard some few years since to take it into their Confession thereby to justifie themselves according to the Edicts of Pacification giving them liberty to profess their Religion In England as you know it is no part of the Doctrine of our Church yet a commonly received opinion Howbeit this is so far from hindering that the reformed Churches and those which heretofore were or at this present are under the Popes obedience be one Church that is all members of the Catholick that the Protestants without this cannot make good the other For Antichrist must sit in the Temple of God and that is in the Church as Chrysostome and Theophylact interpret it and Gods people could not be commanded to go out of Babel if he had none there CHAP. V. Of the safeness to joyn to the Roman being confessed a true Church by her opposites BUt you concluded hence that seeing many of the best learned Protestants did grant the Church of Rome to be a true Church though faulty in some things and contrarily not only the Romanists but Puritans Anabaptists and Brownists deny the Church of England to be so therefore it would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick c. This Discourse hath a pretty shew at the first blush and perhaps was used to you since your coming into Spain as it was to some there before At
not drawn from any thing à parte rei as what the true Church is what it teacheth or such â—â—ke but from opinion and testimony What Men say of that of Rome and of the reformed Churches c. Now Opinions are no certain grounds of Truth no not in natural and civil matters much less in Religion So this Argument at the most is but Topical and probable Let us see the parts of it And first that ground The testimony of our selves and of our contraries is much more sufficient and certain than to justifie our selves alone Surely neither the one nor the other is sufficient or certain It is true that if other proof fail and we will follow conjectures he is in probability an honester Man that others beside himself say well of than he that alone testifieth of himself And yet according to truth this latter may be a right honest Man and dwell as we say by ill neighbours or where he is not known or requires not the testimony of other Men Whereas the other being indeed a knave is either cunning to conceal it or hath suborned other like himself to say for him or dwels by honest Men that judge and say the best And in this very kind our Saviour attributes so little to testimony as he pronounces a woe to them that all Men speak well of So in our case it is more probable I grant if there were no other Argument to clear it but Opinion and most Voices that you have the true Church and are in the way of salvation than we because we give you a better testimony than you do us But it is possible we are both deceived in our Opinions each of other we through too much charity and you and others through ignorance or malice Herein undoubtedly we have the advantage of you and the rest and do take that course which is more safe and sure to avoid sin that if we do fail of the truth yet we be deceived with the error of Love which as the Apostle saith hopeth all things and is not puffed up We avoid at the least that gulph of rash judgment which me thinks if the case be not too too clear we should all fear With what judgment you judge you shall be judged Thou that judgest another condemnest thy self But that you may a little better consider the weakness of this discourse if the testimony of our selves and our contraries were sufficient and certain to make truth and ever more safe and secure to follow that side which hath that testimony it had been better to have become a Jewish Proâ—elyte in the Apostles times than a Christian For the Christians acknowledged the Jews to be the people of God heirs of the promises and of Christ and stiled them Brethren notwithstanding their zeal to the Ceremonies and Traditions of their Fathers excused their ignorance bare with them laboured to give them content in all things Whereas they to the contrary called those that professed Christ Hereticks and Sectaries accursed them drew them out of their Synagogues scourged them cast them in Prison compelled them to blaspheme As you do now Protestants to abjure though in other cruelties I confess you go far beyond them By like reason a Pagan in S. Augustine's time should rather have made himself a Christian among the Donatists than with the Catholicks For the Catholicks granted the Donatists Baptism to be true accounted them Brethren The Donatists to the contrary renounced their Brother-hood and Baptism both re-baptized such as fell to their side used these forms to their Friends Save thy Soul become a Christian like to those used by your Reconcilers at this day Lastly consider if this ground of the testimony of our contraries for our part and their lack of ours for theirs be sure you have justified the cause of the Protestants in the main Question Which is the better Religion For whatsoever a Protestant holds as of Faith you cannot deny to be good and Catholick nor any Christian Man else For he binds him to his Creed to the Holy Scriptures and goes no further And in these he hath your testimony for him But he denies many things which you believe and accounts them foreign yea repugnant to Faith as the Popes infallibility Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of Images invocation of Saints In all these you speak only for your selves in some of these you have not us only but all other Christians your opposites to say nothing of the Jews and Turks whom I might as well chock you withal as you do the Protestants with Anabaptists So by this reason our Profession is more safe and secure and questionless is more Catholick than yours Neither have we in this discourse the Argument only as you see very appliable and favourable to us but which I would entreat you by the way to observe the conclusion it self often granted by moderate and sober Men of your own side viz. That our course is in sundry things more safe than yours As in making no Image of God In trusting only in the merits of Christ. In worshipping none but the Trinity In directing our Prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ alone In allowing Ministers to marry In diverse other Points also many of your side say the same with the Protestants and defend us from the imputations which others of you lay upon us as is shewed in the Catholick Apology by the reverend Bishop of Chester This to the proposition Let us come to the Assumption where you mince too much the Protestants Opinion touching the Church of Rome when you make them say It is peradventure faulty in some things Nay without peradventure they say It is corrupt in Doctrine superstitious and Idolatrous in Religion tyrannical in government defiled in manners from the crown of the Head to the soal of the Foot no soundness in it as the Prophet saith of another like it yet the vital parts not perished ready to dye yet not dead A true Church though neither the Catholick Church nor yet a sound member of the same That also is false in the assumption that the Puritans deny the Church of England to be a true Church Unless the Puritans and Brownists be with you all one which you have made diverse Sects above and then are you to blame as to multiply names whereof I have told you before so now again to consound them What is now the Conclusion It would be more safe and secure to become a Roman Catholick But the Proposition will not infer thus much simply but only in this respect For Topical arguments as you know hold only caeteris paribus We must then inquire if there be no other intrinsical arguments by which it may be discerned whether cause be the better whether pretence to the Church and Truth more just more evident Whether it may be warranted to return to Babel because God hath some people there when as he commands those that are there to come out
that he had been too vehement and excusing himself by the importunity of the Pardoners and of those that had written against him promising to use more modesty in time to come to satisfie the Pope and not to speak any more of Indulgences provided that his Adversaries would do the like This was Luthers manner at the first till the Bull of Pope Leo came out dated the ninth of November 1518. Wherein he declared the validity of Indulgences and that he as Peters Successor and Christs Vicar had power to grant them for the quick and dead that this is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Mother and Mistris of all Christians and ought to be received of all that would be in the Communion of the Church From this time forward Luther began to change his stile And saith he as before he had for the most part reserved the Person and Iudgment of the Pope so after this Bull he resolved to refuse it and thereupon put forth an Appeal to the Council c. You see then how submissively Luther at first carried himself But extream tyranny overcomes often a well prepared patience Touching his causing Rebellion also against the Emperour ye are mis-informed His advice was asked about the Association of the Protestants at Smalcald he said plainly He could not see how it could be lawful further than for their own defence Ioh. Bodin in his second Book de Repub. cap. 5. hath these Words We read also that the Protestant Princes of Almain before they took Arms against the Emperor demanded of Martin Luther if it were Lawful He answered freely that it was not lawful whatsoever tyranny or impiety were pretended He was not believed so the end thereof was miserable and drew after it the ruine of great and illustrious Houses of Germany As for the war in Germany it began not till after Luthers death neither was it a rebellion of the Protestants the truth is they stood for their Lives The Emperor with the help of the Popes both Mony and Arms intended to root them out and although at the first the Emperour did not avow his raising Arms against them to be for Religion yet the Pope in his Jubilee published upon this occasion did not lett to declare to the World that himself and Caesar had concluded a League to reduce the Hereticks by force of Arms to the obedience of the Church and therefore all should pray for the good success of the War That Luther ever reviled the Emperour I did never till now hear or read and therefore would desire to know what Authors you have for it Touching other Princes namely King Henry the Eighth I will not defend him who condemned himself thereof It is true that he was a Man of a bold and high Stomach and specially fitted thereby through the Providence of God to work upon the heavy and dull disposition of the Almains and in so general a Lethargy as the World then was in he carried himself as fell out sometimes very boisterously But Arrogancy Schism Rebellion were as far from him as the intention it self to plant a Church As to his Vow-breaking lastly if that Vow were foolishly made and sinfully kept it was justly broken Perhaps also charitably if he would by his own example reform such as lived in Whoredome and other Uncleanness and induce them to use the Remedy that God hath appointed for the avoiding of them to wit honourable Marriage All this matter touching Luther unless I be deceived you have taken from Mr. Harding that at least touching his rancor against the Dominicans for it is his very Phrase But Mr. Harding both in this and many things else discovereth his passion and lack of true information in this affair When with one Breath he affirmeth that first it was a Pardon of a Croisade against the Turks which was preached Whereas it was an Indulgence to those that should put their helping hands for the building of S. Peters Church at Rome as the Articles of this Pardon printed in English one of the Copies whereof I have my self do shew Secondly next he saith the preaching hereof was granted to Friar John Tetzet It was Friar Iohn Thecel or Tecel Thirdly he saith The Elector of Mentz Albert granted this to Thecel and the Dominicans whereby Luther was bereft of the gain be expected The truth is it was Aremboldus a Bishop living at the Court of Rome whom having before been a Merchant of Genoa Magdalen the Popes Sister put in trust with this Merchandise that appointed the Dominicans to be the Retailers of these Pardons The Archbishop of Mentz had nothing to do with it otherwise than to allow and suffer it which occasioned Luther to write to him as to the Bishop of Brandenburgh and to Leo himself to repress the impudence of the Pardoners And Lutherâ—aith â—aith further in one place that the Archbishop undertook to give countenance to this business with that condition that the half of the prey should go to the Pope and himself might have the other half to pay for his Pall. By these Errors heaped together it may appear what credit it is like Mr. Hardings Tale be worthy of touching the remnant that of rancor and malice against the Dominicans and because he was bereaved of that sweet Morsel which in hope he had almost swallowed down Luther made this stir A hard thing methinks it is for any that lived at that day to set down what was in Luthers Heart what were his hopes his desires rancor and spleen much more for Mr. Harding most of all for you and me When the actions of Men have an appearance of good Charity would hope the best Piety would reserve the judgment of the intention to God Let us come to Calvin touching whom I marvel not much that you say nothing of all that which Bolseck brings against him who being by his means chased out of Geneva discovereth as I remember in the very entrance that he was requested by some of his good Masters to write against him I once saw the book while I lived in Cambridge it hath no shew of probability that Calvin would go about to work a miracle to confirm his Doctrine who teacheth that Miracles are no sure and sufficient proof of Doctrine I marvel rather that even in reading Dr. Banâ—roft Mr. Hooker and Saravia all Opposites to Calvin in the question of Church-Discipline and therefore not all the fittest to testifie of him or his actions all late Writers and Strangers to the Estate and Affairs of Geneva of whom therefore besides their bare Word sufficient proof were to be required of what they say you not only receive whatsoever they bring but more than they bring You say they prove what never came in their minds and which is not only utterly untrue but even unpossible As that Calvin by his unquietness and ambition revolved the State of Geneva so unjustly expelling and depriving the Bishop of Geneva and other Temporal
Bonner laid against the First Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time to be true of all the rest Then that he accounts Bishop Bonner to have excepted against this Parliament because the Bishops there were no Bishops as not canonically ordained Where it was because there was no Bishops true or false there at all His last proof is That Dr. Bancroft being demanded of Mr. Alablaster whence their first Bishops received their Orders answered That he hoped a Bishop might be ordained of a Presbyter in time of necessity Silently granting That they were not ordained by any Bishop And therefore saith he the Parliamentary Bishops are without order Episcopal and their Ministers also no Priests For Priests are not made but of Bishops whence Hierome Quid facit c. What doth a Bishop saving Ordination which a Presbyter doth not I have not the means to demand of D. Alablaster whether this be true or not Nor yet whether this be all the answer he had of Dr. Bancroft That I affirm that if it were yet it follows not that D. Bancroft silently granted they had no Orders of Bishops Unless he that in a false Discourse where both Propositions be untrue denies the Major doth silently grant the Minor Rather he jested at the futility of this Argument which admitting all this lying Legend of the Nags-head and more too suppose no Ordination by any Bishops had been ever effected notwithstanding shews no sufficient reason why there might not be a true consecration and true Ministers made and consequently a true Church in England For indeed necessity dispenses with Gods own positive Laws as our Saviour shews in the Gospel much more then with Mans And such by Hieroms Opinion are the Laws of the Church touching the difference of Bishops and Presbyters and consequently touching their Ordination by Bishops only Whereof I have treated more at large in another place for the justification of other reformed Churches albeit the Church of England needs it not To confirm this Argument it pleaseth F. Halywood to add That King Edward the Sixth took away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining and instead of it substituted a few Calvinistical Prayers Whom Queen Elizabeth followed c. And this is in effect the same thing which you say when you add That Coverdale being made Bishop of Exceter in King Edward 's time when all Councils and Church Canons were little observed it is very doubtful he was never himself canonically consecrated and so if he were no canonical Bishop he could not make another Canonical To F. Halywood I would answer That King Edward took not away the Catholick Rite of Ordaining but purged it from a number of idle and superstitious Rites prescribed by the Popish Pontifical And the Prayers which he scoffs at if they were Calvinistical sure it was by Prophecie for Calvin never saw them till Queen Mary's time when by certain of our English Exiles the Book of Common Prayer was translated and shewed him if he saw them then Some of them as the Litany and the Hymn Veni Creator c. I hope were none of Calvin's devising To you if you name what Councils and Church Canons you mean and make any certain exception either against Bishop Coverdale or any of the rest as not Canonical Bishops I will endeavour to satisfie you Mean while remember I beseech you That both Law and Reason and Religion should induce you in doubtful thingâ— to follow the most favourable sentence and not rashly out of light surmises to pronounce against a publick and solemn Ordination against the Orders conferred successively from it against a whole Church Wherein I cannot but commend Doctor Carriers modesty whose Words are these I will not determine against the succession of the Clergy in England because it is to me very doubtful And the discretion of Cudsemius the Jesuite which denies the English Nation to be Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops And to take away all doubt from you that some of these Ordainers were only Bishops elect and unconsecrated besides Miles Coverdale in King Edward's time Bishop of Exceter cast in Prison by Queen Mary and released and sent over Sea to the King of Denmark know that William Barlow was another in King Edward's days Bishop of Bath and Wells in Queen Mary's beyond the Seas in the company of the Dutchess of Suffolk and Mr. Bertie her Husband at the time of Dr. Parker's Ordination Elect of Chichester A third was Iohn Scory in King Edward's time Bishop of Chichester and at the time of the said Ordination Elect of Hereford A fourth was Iohn Hodgeskin Suffragan of Bedford And these four if they were all ordained according to the Form ratified in King Edward's days were presented by two Bishops at least to the Archbishop and of him and them received Imposition of Hands as in the said Form is appointed One Scruple yet remains which you have in That these Men did consecrate Doctor Parker by vertue of a Breve from the Queen as Head of the Church who being no true Head and a Woman you see not how they could make a true Consecration grounded on her Authority But to clear you in this also you must understand the Queens Mandate served not to give Power to ordain which those Bishops had before intrinsecally annexed to their Office but Leave and Warrant to apply that Power to the person named in that Mandate A thing unless I have been deceived by Reports used in other Countrys yea in the Kingdoms of his Catholick Majesty himself Sure I am by the Christian Emperors in the Primitive Church as you may see in the Ecclesiastical Histories and namely in the Ordination of Nectarius that I spake of before Yea which is more in the Consecration of the Bishops of Rome as of Leo the Eighth whose Decree with the Synod at Rome touching this matter is set down by Gratian Dist. 63. c. 23. taken from the example of Hadrian and another Council which gave to Charles the Great Ius potestatem eligendi Pontifâ—cem ordinandi Apostolicam Sedem as you may see in the Chapter next before See the same Dist. c. 16 17 18. and you shall find that when one was chosen Bishop of Reate within the Popes own Province by the Clergy and people and sent to him by Guido the Count to be consecrated the Pope durst not do it till the Emperors Licence were obtained Yâ—â— that he writes to the Emperour for Colonus That receiving his Licence he might consecrate him either there or in the Church of Tusculum which accordingly upon the Emperours bidding he performed Yet another Exception you take to the making our Ministers That we keep not the right intention First Because we neither give nor take Orders as a Sacrament By that Reason we should have no true Marriages amongst us neither because we count not Matrimony a Sacrament This Controversie depends upon the definition of a Sacrament