still building and pulling down our opinions Former Catholick Christians practised and we dispute They had a religion fixt we are still seeking one They exercised themselves in good works by the guidance of their holy faith which led them towards them and pressed their duty all these works we by our new way evacuate They had the substance of religion in their hearts we the text in our lips They had nothing to do but conform their lives to Gods will all our endeavour is to apply Gods word to our own faction Let there be no longer a mistake the question is not whether people are to have Gods word or no but whether that word consist in the letter left to the peoples disposal or in the substance and meaning of it urgently imposed upon people for their practice And we must still and ever remember that it is not Gods will or word but the letter of scripture onely which makes here-ticks this may be depraved by men unto their own destruction that cannot So that when we come to a conclusion of these things there is no such Catholick doctrine faith or religion amongst us which prescribes any of these thing put here in his third chapter upon the Roman Church For first our Catholick way is so far from keeping Gods word from the people that it has been the only great endeavour of our Church and pastors in all times and places to derive Gods word and will in such a manner unto people that they may observe and keep it however they will not permit the letter promiscuously unto all hands without a knowledge of their ability and stayedness even as they do not suffer all sorts of men to come to holy communion without a license and assurance of their lives and persons Secondly that our efficacy of sacraments depends upon meer administration without any preparation of mind is so false that every Catholick boy and girl arrived to years of discretion will hiss at it Thirdly that we pray in an unknown tongue and know not what we say is a calumny onely proper for the wise men of Gotam Fourthly that prayers for one another after this life ended do hinder our own holiness and devotion in this present life is a paradox fit onely for discourse in a tavern or coffee-house over cups Fifthly that our sacrament of penance with interiour contrition sufficeth us without any amendment of life or purpose towards it is a slander which the doctor could not have vented with applause on any other ground but Billingsgate He took it seems more pleasure to shew an evil wit than a good candid nature which is a perfection more becoming him and if I be not mistaken by too much charity more apparent in his courteous conversation with his neighbours than in his written Romances or books made against the Church of Rome which are so false and injurious that they cannot but hurt as well our Protestant neighbours who read and believe them as poor innocent Catholicks who dislike and suffer them And now dear Sir I bid you farwel the second time FINIS ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ FANATICISM I Am now Sir arrived to the Doctors merriment a merriment peculiarly prophane which has gained him much applause He endeavours in his 4. Chapter to declare and prove that the Church of Rome is fanatical founded and supported on fanaticism A merry theme and fit for a terrae filius And I suppose here that he means by the Church of Rome not any material building of stone and morter either the floar or walls windows pillars steeple or weather-cock nor yet any men or women boys or girls in England Ireland France or other countreys but the Catholick faith and religion protest all over the world by such as we now in England call Papists For his readers both Catholick and Protestant do understand him so to mean And this religion and faith he proves by such arguments to be fanatical as might infer fanaticism indifferently upon all Kingdoms of the earth and all mankind thus he speaks There were two men and as many more women in distant times and places who pretended revelations about the unspotted purity of the blessed Virgin Mary Therefore is the Catholick Church and faith fanatical Secondly one St. Catherin of Sena is said to have had shining wounds in her body and to smell the stench of lecherous men therefore is their faith and Church fanatical Thirdly St. Gregory and St. Bede write of some apparitions therefore is their religion and faith fanatical Fourthly one Bishop appointed a day to be holiday another built a Church and both were done by revelation therefore is their faith and religion fanatical Fifthly St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Romewal and St. Bruno founders of chief religious orders among them had many symptoms of madmen as to prophesie to see angels to neglect their bodies to be beaten and scoft at by men therefore is their religion and Church fanatical Sixthly about four hundred years ago there rose a pernicious heresie which spread far and caused much disturbance before they could silence and suppress it 〈◊〉 therefore is their Church and religion fanatical Seventhly St. Ignatius founder of the Society of Jesuits was such another fool as St. Francis and laboured and suffered much before he could get his order and rule approved by the Bishop therefore is the Roman Church fanatical Eightly one man among them of late printed a spiritual book wherein were some words and phrases unusual and hardly intelligible therefore is the religion and Church of Rome fanatical Ninthly three men amongst them in this last age uttered blasphemous words against the honour and prerogative of Kings who are Gods Vicegerents upon earth therefore is Catholick religion fanatical All these hollow voices are to be heard and seen in this his Bartholmew Booth for the recreation of such as love it issuing unto our great wonderment onely from the belly of one man breaking wind in the midst of it § 1. Let us see then how all this put together does prove the Church of Rome whose emblem it is intended to be fanatical It is an easie thing to act upon a stage the gravest and soberest man alive in a drunken posture Wit without honesty and confidence without conscience can pervert and turn things upside down at pleasure But a little reflection will set all straight again The Catholick Church and religion here represented as fanatical first it has subsisted by the confession of our first reforming Protestants even from the Apostles days or very little after spread all over Europ Asia and Africa Secondly it has been imbraced and owned by Kings and Princes honourable Lawyers learned Physicians stout Captains subtil Philosophers people innumerable as the very sands on the sea shore Thirdly it made and framed the Laws both of our own Countrey and every Christian Kingdom Fourthly it built the many goodly Churches all over the world even those here wherein now Protestants the right
is here put upon the Jesuitical party And yet it is nothing to our purpose if it were But as to the personal designs of them or any others we can no more dive into them then into the several wandering thoughts and purposes of men museing daily in London-streets about their affairs And one man or other thus museing amiss amongst the Jesuits can no more be called the Jesuitical party then such a one here in England be termed the English party Mariana I am sure has been soundly checkt amongst them and other Catholicks for his fault here spoken of And if the Court or Courtiers of Rome have any fancy that they are higher than Kings and by their excommunication can render them Kings no more as this Doctour here speaks this may argue indeed that they are a high minded people But Courtiers do not walk so exactly according to our Christian religion that this can prove that vanity of theirs to be any part of it Catholick Kings who have been here in England well nigh twenty since the Conquest more among the Saxons and others not a few amongst our antient Brittains and the present Catholick Kings of France Spain the Emperour German Princes and others have and do all know well enough that such a fancy is no part of our Catholick religion Nor did our King Henry the Eighth who first left it off express any such cause or reason for it The times would be very good and happy if all the words and actions of every particular man were answerable to his holy faith But this is not to be expected in this evil world And to call that religion which is done or spoken contrary unto it is a very great injury and injustice Our holy religion teaches us to observe and obey our Kings and Superiours as Gods Vicegerents upon earth though they be Infidels and Pagans and rather to lay down our lives for them then suffer them to be hurt And this is nothing but the very law of Nature antecedent to any religion whatsoever and holds good although there were neither heaven nor hell nor any reward or punishment to come And what power can any man upon earth have to take that away which he never gave nor ever had He that creates can only annihilate So long as kings are Catholicks the Pope prays for them And if they cease to be so he is nothing to them any more And yet are they the same they were in all their royalty and power uncontroulably If the King of France should receive the Garter from our King of England he is thought to be so long his friend as he is pleased to wear it But if he throw it off he is King of France still as much as ever he was I know not what the Court or Courtiers of Rome may think or say in this business For what the Doctour here tells us about the Irish remonstrance is a personal business and not so circumstanced that one can draw any general conclusion or position from it But if they be only so much as said either to have conceived or countenanced any such opinion looked upon by all Catholicks and good Christians upon earth as ungrounded fals and impious it behoves them I should think both for the publick good honour of Catholick religion and their own credit to see it censured with all speed that the progress of Christianity be not stopped by it For no Pagan King will venture at a promise of everlasting felicity with the hazard of his Crown at the pleasure of one man whom he never saw nor knows Sure I am if any such opinion had been heard of when Christianity was first planted in Kingdoms it had never found footing in this world And if it be now countenanced the progress of Christianity is at an end I doubt not but that a Cotholick writer may in his controversy about religion if so he pleas defend an opinion also of any one or other who has professed the Catholick religion which he maintains But this is more then any one needs to do For religion is quite another thing derived from another authour and original established in another manner no less differing from an opinion then a fixed star in the firmament from the mist or fog ariseing from the earth Faiâ—h is one known thing but opinions are innumerable and endless If the various opinions entertained in mens minds but one only day in any City of England were all faithfully recorded at night they would exhibite to a Reader a most prodigious spectacle Opinions are infinitly various infinitly changable infinitely contradictory and absurd in the world Nor may we doubt but that thousands of them are contrary both to religion and law Angry rageing men and wanton women unfaithful servants and di obedient children theevs and murderers cheats and liars can we think when they act according to their own disordered passions that they hold not then an opinion that in such circumstances it is expedient for them so to do Wicked sinners hold wicked opinions be the religion what it will Gainsay and blame them in their heat and it will soon appear that they are stiff and resolved in that their opinion by the very fury of their wrath And what will not sycophants and flatterers either say or write to pleas the mind of those on whom they depend even against their own Rules of law and religion are fixt and stable and ever the same But opinions are moveable as water and never right but when conformable to a right rule of some good law and how far they are conformable so far are they right and no more And therfore it is a madness in any one who undertakes to write against the standard of a religion to object instead of that opinions of men For first one man may have an opinion to day and write it also in a book and yet few years after nay perhaps very few days change his mind Secondly the opinion of one man may be gain-said by a thousand as wise as he who live under the same law and religion Thirdly an opinion in a book is indeed nothing at all in the world but a meer pâ—atonick idea till it be reduced to some reall existence by circumstances which actuate it and make the action really to be and some opinions are worse then nothing For which reason all the multitude of opinions which sill up the books of learned Casuists may be exercises of wit indeed but no guids can they be unto action The direction of a liveing Oracle and Counsellour who can penetrate all present circumstances and prescribe by his wisdom on which side is then most of good and least of evil which is the only rule that directs a wise counsellour what to determin this only is our guide in doubts Wherfore the great Princes of the earth recurre not to books in their difficulties but use the wisdom of their counsel wise and grave men who must hear all
the Doctors Countenance quite differing from his heart For the Presses guarded enough before against Catholicks was presently within a month after his Book came forth so stoutly beset so frequently invaded so violently searched night and day especially by the industry of one of them who entring into the Printing-houses cried out aloud And what have ye here any thing against the Doctor Stilling fleet hah that what before was difficil and extreamly dangerous was now become impossible So that I believe no Catholick in England can do him the favour which the Doctor thirsts after so earnestly in his Lips He challenged the Papâ—sts for his Credit and stopt up their way for his Security He would first make the world believe they cannot answer him and then provides that they shall not This seems to be his mind And yet I think Sir there be few Protestant Gentlemen in England who desire not as earnestly as any Catholick to see some Reply to his Book So little do they think themselves concerned in a Scroll which neither defends their Religion nor hurts or touches ours wherein nothing is said but what might as well be spoken by a Mahomet an Jew or Pagan and the most part of that which is put to disable Catholick Religion diminishes Christianity it self Some of them offered themselves to print a Reply for us But they offered but words For they found that the Bishop durst not give a License to any of our Catholick Books onely so far as to secure the Printer from danger although the Doctor be a Foe to their Rank and Order and Catholick Religion a Friend This is truly Sir a very sad case that they can freely give one a License to defame men and yet dare not give others a License to clear themselves Doctor Cousins when he was in Paris spake up and down so freely against Catholick Religion that their Clergy hearing of it came to him and told him plainly That if he had ought to say against their Religion they would both get him a License from the Bishop to print his Book and themselves pay the whole charges and then answer him when they had done for his satisfaction But we poor Creatures can obtain no favour in our own Countrey no leave to speak or justifie our selves no License to print a Book for our defence when we are both scurrilously libelled and falsely slandered and imperiously challenged to answer Nor is there any open field for our poor Men to come forth into that I know of but Tybourn and that is perhaps the Doctor 's meaning It does mightily amaze our Catholicks all over the Land to have their Ears thus beaten with slanders which are both of a high nature and still notoriously false year by year without any end thereby to make us odious to our Neighbours and them to God Our blessed Lord have pity on us and either open if it may be thy will our Magistrates hearts towards us or stop the Ministers mouths against us that our good Name and Peace may return unto thy great Glory We are if we be siâ—ent proclaimed guilty and if we speak insolent What can we do Sir here but still commend our selves unto our heavenly Lord who miraculously preserves us We do either subsist after this life or not Our Protestant Countrey men must needs believe one of these two things Either some Religion is true or it is all a fiction If it be all aâ—fiction and there is no life to come then are they as guilty as we nay something more for they have taken away our Churches from us for themselves to dissemble in If there be a life to come and this everlasting then can there certainly be nothing of greater importance in this world than to know when many ways are pretended to it which of them is the most authentick and truest wherein we may be both happy and safe for ever Why then are we who are the first not permitted to speak while all others are permitted to blaspheme us If we prove to go amiss the danger is our own and if we be in the right it cannot be any danger unto them to know it All the positive things of Religion which any of them do keep they have them all from us we borrow nothing from them And the negative points which separate them from us seem to us as false and impious as they can possibly appear true to them They have as many Articles to believe as we only some of them which made the separation are affirmative to us and negative to them And one Affirmers word is to be taken in Judgment before ten Deniers And yet will they neither read our Books nor suffer us to print any when we are falsified and mis-interpreted and challenged and obliged to do it for fear I think our Religion should prove true All rejoyce when a Book is written against Popery but no man seeks to be informed They will have it by all means to be esteemed false be it in it self what it will or can be And in that strange prejudice men venture to die onely for the pleasure of a Minister and his Wife and Children who must needs have it so The occasion of this his present book intitled A Discourse concerning the Idolatry c. was it seems a question or two propounded unto Mr. Stilling fleet by I know not what Gentlewoman who having heard the Doctor say That Protestants if they turned Roman Catholicks would lose their Salvation told him That if Protestants say so then are they full as uncharitable as Papists themselves who aver the like of Protestants She therefore consults some Catholick Gentleman in the business I do not know whom neither But he it seems put into her hand two questions to show to Doctor Still in her next encounter First was Whether the same motives which secured one born and bred in the Catholick Church to continue in it might not also serve to secure a Protestant who convinced by those motives should embrace it The second was Whether it suffice to be a Christian in genere or it be also necessary to adjoyn to some Church of Christians in particular These be the two questions The second of these two questions the Doctor reâ—â—lves affiâ—matively I affirm saith he that a Christian by vertue of his being â—oâ— is â—ound to joyn â—e the Communion of some Church or Congregation in particular Thus he resolves it and speaks not a word more of that business Yet here we may take notice that the said Resolution of his is quite contrary both to a book of his called Irenicon written in the times of our late Anarchy and also to his first work written more lately against Popery For all the whole scope of both these books is to show that a Christian by vertue of his being so is not bound to joyn in the Communion of any one Church in particular or any Organical Body as he calls it And that because every such
one and the same and has no other superior Church on earth either to resist or observe But yet does this man go nimbly about his work without either fear or scruple For first revelations have been countenanced in that Church One of an Abbat in a storm another of St. Norbert of St. Gertrude of St Briget St. Joan St. Catherin of Sena about the Conception and these revelations were contradictory to one another one affirming the immaculate conception the other denying it Oho is this the first proof of fanaticism in the Church A very pretty one surely He has already forgotten his own definition of fanaticism For here is no mention made either of any new way of religion invented or of resisting authority under pretence of it But all that he esteems whimsical or fanciful stuff must it seems be called fanatical But can any vain fancies dreams or visions of two or three who profess a religion prove that religion to be fanatical Yes will he say if they be countenanced But first they might be countenanced and yet not as any part of their religion Secondly how does he prove they were countenanced because some Doctors maintained one of those contradictory revelations and some the other till the whole business was silenced Thus he tells his story But is this to countenance any thing I think not nor yet can any one in reason think it It is moreover certainly believed by all Catholicks in the world that the blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord Jesus was ever most pleasing to God and immaculate in all her ways even from her first Beeing and this is not questioned by any The dispute in Schools yet undecided is only about the Moode Tense of it whether that her Sanctity were in her from the beginning by way of preservation from the blemish of sin for every conceivable Instant of her being in her passive Conception as Scotus teaches in his School or whether it were by way of Sanctification after the first real instant of her Beeing wherein as other Children of Adam by natural progation she was lyable to Original sin as the followers of St. Thomas affirm And this was the matter of those their Revelations or Dreams according to the pious opinion They conceived of our Lady's purity These of their Angelical Doctors contemplations But how does this prove that our general Faith wherein they all lived and dyed is Enthusiastick There be Dreamers in England good store and those that dream waking too and yet may not the Church of England be called Fanatick for that Fond contradictory fancies of some make not the general Religion unto whose guidance they are to submit when they come to be questioned any ways in fault Indeed the Doctors of these Schools as they have been too earnest in the maintaining their School Curiosities to the admiration of innocent Believers not at all concern'd in their subtilities So were some of them strongly perswaded about the said Revelations or dreams for the honour each of their Schools and the positions they teach but our Catholick Bishops who heed Religion only concern not themselves in School Niceties but in plain and solid Faith It is the property of such as are meer School-men to reverence their School dictates oft to the prejudice of grace and charity That these women should pretend Revelations about a School point was either the strength of their own fancy working on the way they had heard or the weakness of their guides It matters not whether for Saints are not Saints in every point of their lives flesh and blood will sprout Imbecilities until their perfection comes And how hard it is to discern the Original of Visions which of them is divine which humane and perhaps an evil Motion we have examples enough in holy Writ amongst the Prophets and Sons of Prophets When Josaphat and Achal Kings of Judah and Israel were to make War on Ramoth Gilead all the chief Prophets were called together even four hundred of them to give their Counsel All of these pretended revelations from God and yet speak contrary things especially Micheas Zedechias were at open defiance one with another about the truth of their Visions And yet all this made not any proof that the Religion of the Hebrews was Fanatick But he that wil read more of these theological subtilties may see it if he please in the works of that learned Divine Franciscus à Sancta Clara a Catholick Doctor especially in his book De Schismate his other called Paralipomena philosophica and a third called Religio Philosophi in a more ample and solid manner there discust I have now said enough of this business and something more may chance to add by and by when occasion offers § 4. Saint Catherin had her five shining wounds in her bands feet and side insensible of all pains in her extasies and could smell stinking vitious souls as St. Philip Nerius did afterwards which is one degree above the enthusiasm of a Quaker I know not how many degrees it is above the enthusiasm of a Quaker sure I am it is far below the fanaticism of Doctor Stillingfleet who talks at this wild rate What is all this if it were true to the definition of fanaticism and where does the fanaticism lie is not this man strangely frantick himself who cannot distinguish between peoples religion and the accidenâ—â— that do befall them Were these wounds and Noses any part of their Creed Although the Doctor have no such nose yet may he have such a stink and though he want the wounds he may have fairy nips that are as bad If St. Catherin were so estranged from sensual things and so absorpt in God as is here related God be thanked for it if she was not I can believe in God nevertheless and my religion is still the same I did once read a story of a young man in Hungary who flying for fear at the coming in of the Turks into the adjoining woods lived there so long estranged from all human diet that all his friends and neighbours after the Turks departure could not take him till he chanced to slip into a deep pitfall set on purpose to catch him The reason was as he afterward related because his smell became so refined and pure by his living in the woods on the wild and thin provision there that he smelt men a mile or two off before they could come near him And this story I judg to be true as well as that of St Catherin who had heavenly helps beside And if Dostor Still unacquainted with such things esteem them whimsical let him think so What them I do not It is but the various judgment of two petty Doctors My religion however is still the same solid faith it was unless the pain I have now actually in my side must give the Church of God a pleurisie § 5. Visions and apparitions have been made use of by them to prove Doctrines that were before
us to our Lord Jesus Christ receives somtimes peculiar visits and priviledges from God so is it likly to meet with contempt hunger nakednes scourges and persecutions in this world And these are the things which Dr. Stillingfleet hâ—re derides in these five Catholick Saints which be either the genuin works of spiritual wisdom or secondly some peculiar priviledges conferred from heaven upon it or thirdly some afflictions that do annoy it either from evil Angels or men That they fled from their Fathers hous mortified their flesh and carnal concupiscence retired to rocks and caves wept at their devotions neglected human literature that they were swallowed up in God melted at the sight of the crucifix tender hearted towards the poor covering them sometimes with their own cloaths those texts of holy Gospel for the rule of their life these and such like things are but the connatural operations of divine wisdom and Gods good spirit in them Secondly that they perceived angels or drove them away by the sign of the cross that they seemed to be besides themselves after they had conversed with God in prayer and unlike unto other men that they pierced their hearers hearts when they preached and exhorted them that they discerned the dissimulation and fraud of people who appeared before them and somtimes the evil deeds and counsels of men out of their sight that divine visions were made either to themselves or to other men concerning them and their peculiar friendship with God all such things as these are but peculiar priviledges of heaven graunted unto some special friends and lovers who are wise to God Thirdly that they were taken for beasts derided scoft pelted with dirt or stones whipt renounced by their parents buffeted and bruised by angels of Satan walking in extream hunger and dirty attire reviled and contumeliously treated these are but afflictions falling upon them by evil angells and men and all of them either voluntarily undertaken or voluntarily accepted and entertained when they fell upon them for his love and respect who so suffered and so entered into glory And the doctour if he were honest and truly wife would never dare to lay fanaticisme unto Saints becaus some men here in England who are according to his own definition fanaticks indeed pretend some of those things for which antient Saints were much renowned He might and ought to remember that these good things bear no part at all in the definition of fanaticisme but are the very lineaments of evangelical perfection nor is all evil which such men do It is neither wisdom nor honesty nor so much as a manly behaviour to deride good or innocent things even in those men we may by custome and education dislike Papists Quaker or how ever they be called By these proceedings atheisme spreads its roots in the hearts of those who read such flouts and contumelies perhaps further than the gibeing author of the libell himself intended If the doctour who by his little parcels of story endeavours to render these five great persons contemptible do believe those relations of them to be true then must he needs believe also that the Patriarchs and Prophets Apostles Martyrs and all the Saints of God so esteemed hitherto were all mad men and fanaticks If he believe them not but judg them false relations then is he a mad man himself to conclude them fanaticks by that which never was So that be the stories true or false the doctour will be thought either unwise or impious which he pleases These worthy Sir are the five thoughts wherewith my mind was then wholly taken up before I put my Pen to paper which now too much tired already with his many impertinencies and falshoods I can but only mention And I wish with all my heart that the doctour had so moderated and guided his words that neither his own Prelates nor other grave People of the Land who cannot but fore-see the dismal event of such wild talk as his is might not take offence or be scandalized thereat All our Bishops mouths are now stopt against fanaticks if the said enthusiasts do derive their pedigree from renowned Saints who by the Bishops authority are put every Year into the Calendar § 13. The things I had to say concerning the Orders and families of these Saints were yet more and greater than any I could speak of the men themselves who lived but a short time in this world And all this I must also now omit Only I wish with all my heart that my countrimen would first think in their mind what a comely and blessed Land this was when it was inamelled up and down with so many beauteous tabernacles of religious men in their several rites and habits chanting the praises of God night and day with Hymns Psalms and Canticles perpetually living in common chastly and obediently all their days After this if they please to consider the hourly imployments of all these families throughout the day while they now worked now prayed now subdued their bodies with hard disciplines now wrote out books for the use of posterity now chanted out Gods praises met all together seven hours a day in the Quire and thus ended their lives in the arms of one another they cannot but applaud that happy society of men thus dedicated to God and think the Country wherein they live the happier for them All the many books both greek latin and hebrew historians oratours and works of antient Fathers had never possibly been deduced unto our times had they not been renewed age by age still in several kingdoms by the labour of these religious men before Printing was invented Nor had England seen any of these goodly Churches that remain in it to this day nor yet enjoied those wise and equitable laws by which this land is still governed contrived all of them by Catholick Princes Monks and Bishops Nor is Catholick religion against the law as some now think but with the law and the law with it and for it and by it however some superadditional statutes have been contrived of late against that holy antient faith since the reformation Thirdly they may consider if â—â—ey pleas the wondrous convenience of these general granaries in a land religious foundations I mean not only in spiritual things wherin we have good helps and examples all the land over at our own doors but even in our temporals also For no sooner was a child born to any man but he had choice of occasions to provide for him without any further cost or charges both for his soul and body which is a benefit so wanted now that neither high nor low know well now adaies how to dispose of their children Fourthly they may call to mind and admire the great love and respect the Christian world ever had for those holy orders and their founders unto whose company they flocked continually with exulting hearts And happy he who could be thought worthy to be admited into their society even of all
ages states and conditions of men wherein they profitted some of them unto admirable sanctity and glory and even the worst and veriest truant among them was yet better than the wide world would have made him The one order of St. Bennet received into it twenty Emperours and ten Empresses forty seven Kings and above fifty Queens twenty Sons of Emperours and forty eight Sons of Kings about a hundred young Ladies daughters to Kings and Emperours a hundred other Princes and Princesses Dukes and Dutchesses Marquesses Earls and Countesses well near two hundred fifteen Bishops who left their Miters to live in that happy retired life and others of the inferiour Gentry innumerable And thus hath this holy order continued thus lived and flourished now a thousand Years in the Christian world the resting place of the rich and refuge of the poor So that all people who lived in those good daies and beheld religious orders had a contrary judgment of them unto Dr. Stillingfleet who was born but yesterday and never saw any Fifthly the eminence of learning in all these orders and the books of all sorts and kinds that have issued from them who is able to recount them No sort of knowledg no kind of literature has escaped them The one order of St. Bennet has brought forth fifteen thousand seven hundred Monks eminent writers and compilers of books The Academies were all antiently in their Monasteries At one Abbey in France called Fleury were brought up at once four thousand Students Their Rabanus set up the School of Germany Their Alcuinus founded the University of Paris Their Bede advanced our Oxford University first renewed by Theodore and Adrian benedictin Monks also Their Dionysius Exiguus perfected the Ecclesiastical computation Their Guido made the scale of Musick Their Silverster invented the Organ Theirs were Anselmus Ildephonsus Bernardus and Rupertus the four Marian Doctours and what not Sixthly if we please to consider the multitudes of glorious men in these five orders who had received a double portion of their Fathers spirit as Elizeus is said to have got of Elias above other Sons of the Prophets who wiâ—l then be able to recount the eminent Saints Confessours Martyrs Aposties and Converters of Countries that have issued out of these divine Sanctuaries The one order of St. Bennet has brought forth forty thousand blessed Confessours above three thousand Martyrs Missioners and Apostles so many and powerful that they have converted no less than thirty Provinces unto Christian faith St. Bennet himself converted Campania which had remained Pagan even to his daies St. Leander part of Spain St. Boniface and his companions much of Germany and Hassia St. Amand Willebrord Wilfred Switbert with their fellow Monks Belgium Holland Friseland and South Saxony St. Willehade Dacia Gothland and Groonland St. Kilian and Lambert the Taxandrians and other Germans St Lugdurus Adalbertus and other Monks out of the Monastery of Corbey Pannonia Sarmatia Poland and Muscovy St. Steven Suecâ—a St. Bruno Lituania St. Albo Gascony another St. Boniface Sclavonia St. Otho Pomerania St. Winkelin Wandalia and St. Austin with his good Monks sent hither by St. Gregory made all our England Christian wherein we now lâ—ve For though our learned and reverend Antiquary Mr. Broughton doth think that St. Austin and his holy Monks brought hither with them the rule of St. Gregory distinct from that of St. Bennet yet that is of small concernment to my purpose now in hand especially since that rule and all the former rules in our Britany did unite at last in St. Bennets rule as lesser lights in the body of the Sun And should I mention the holy Confessors learned Writers valiant Martyrs and vigorous Apostles all those glorious men in the orders of St. Francis St. Dominick St. Bruno and other such like founders bright stars now out of our sight yet shining in a higher heaven the day would fall me My voyage is now bent another way And therefore great Servants of God spirits inkindled from heaven brave vertuous hearts raised up even in your mortal pilgrimage above mortality it self let it suffice I love you Time will bring forth a better Pen to recount your names in a character more worthy of you than mine is I must go hence By this little Sir we may discern if the God of this world hath not utterly blinded our eyes that these holy orders were founded in the wisdom of God and power of God and not in Stillingfleetisme For counsels of men come to nought but what is of God is lasting as wise Gamaliel discoursed in a councel of the Jewes The order of St. Dominick St. Bruno Romwall and St. Francis have been six hundred years in the Christian world St. Bennet almost twice as long and yet live What is of God is powerful of it self without any worldly helps of force or subtilty What is of God is servent and vigorous What is of God however it may seem distastful at the first becomes dayly more delectable attractive and pleasing What is of God is zealous of God loves and bends towards God thinks nothing hard nothing tedious nothing heavy that is undertaken for Gods cause All time is well spent in his service all difficulties easy all labour pleasant all mortification comfortable all our members too few for his imployment all the blood in our vains too little to shed for his love And all this fervour and constancy love of God and amiableness to men zeal and vigour purity and perseverance were looked upon and approved and imitated to their power by such as lived here in England in the days of holy Catholick religion with all heavenly comfort however now out of sight it be all out of mind too so much out of mind that Dr. Stillingfleet calling it fanaticisme expects an applause for his labour The grand Turk a great enemy of Christians when he looked upon poor humble St. Francis who having come a long journey unto his conversion made his way unto him by the very majesty of his countenance and power of GOD that went along with him through all his Guard and Nobility about him the grand Seigneur had so great a reverence for the man that dismissing all that were about him he took him into his closet and there converst with him many hours in private several times And thence at last he dismist him with so much peace and honour as if he had been not a man but an Angel of God rather appearing upon earth And this thing was never done to any in that Court either before that time or since But the doctour never saw either St. Francis or St. Dominick St. Bruno or St. Bennet or any of their orders and therfore speaks of things utterly unknown to him according to the malice of his own heart be the truth what it will It was once a Christian lesson in England that we should speak of the dead nothing but good and of the living nothing but truth But
spirit from them So may we contrariwise think of this worthy society of Jesuits that such a stable gravity and fixed wisdom as is in them all must needs be derived unto them from the spirit and statutes of their founder That is I think a true moral physiognomy which is given us by the Lyrick poet especially in a continual succession of men Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbelles ferocem Progenerant aquilam columbae But let St. Ignace be never so simple yet did he ever submit unto his Superiours and Pastours walking all his daies in Catholick religion and had his rule of life confirmed by his Prelate and therfore could be no fanatick according to the Doctours definition of it He neither invented any new way of religion nor yet resisted authority under pretence of it But I think the doctour gave us that definition of fanaticisme in the begining of this his Chapter only to keep his discourse far enough off and never to touch it § 16. The Doctour proceeds now to declare how the very Catholick way of devotion doth promote enthusiasme And what think you Sir doth he speak of here not one word of our daily psalms hymns canticles anthems sacred lessons doxologies our Lords prayer or any other devotion prescribed by the Church and almost hourly in the hands and eyes of Catholick people not a word of our examination of our selves upon our knees penitential petitions or other our obsecrations thanksgivings deprecations or interpellations for our selves and all other good Christian people for Kings and prelates and all constituted in authority over us that we may live a peaceable and quiet life with all piety and decent behaviour No mention of all this which he knows as I perceive by his talking of our Manuels and Breviaries to be our Catholick devotion no not one word What is it then he calls the Catholick way of devotion Only one spiritual book set forth by Mr. Cressy about twenty Years ago out of Father Baxers works wherin the Doctour finds some uncouth hard words which he cannot understand this is that which he calls Catholick devotion and this is all the way he shows that Catholick devotion promotes enthusiasme Have not I reason Sir to be weary in following after such a butterfly § 17. He tells us at last That Papists are guilty of resisting authority under pretence of religion which he proves first by the principles of the Jesuitical party which are destructive to government and Secondly by this that the said party are most countenanced in the Court of Rome But he never tells us what are these principles of the Jesuitical party nor what this Jesuitical party is He only names Mariana and one or two others who should say that a Prince excommunicated loses his Soveraignty For which boldness they suffered worthily both by their own body and others Now how this discourse of our Doctour agrees with his purpose all this while pretended here I cannot see For it has not so much as the colour which appeared in some sort hitherto His book is intitled A Discourse of the idolatrous fanaticisme of the Church of Rome but now he tells us of a Jesuitical party and the Court of Rome The Society of Jesuits a religious grave prudent family in the Catholick Church of God this I have heard of and the Church of Rome or Catholick Church I know But what is this Jesuitical party and what this Court of Rome I understand not at all The Doctour pretended to speak of the Church and her religion though indeed he hath never come neer it yet But now he speaks that which hath not so much as the sound of it A Jesuitical party and a Court what are these to our purpose now in hand There be parties and as many designs signs as there be men in this world although they should be all of one religion and not all of them nay not perhaps one in a thousand directed according to Gospel or right reason at all times but for avarice rather solicitude of this world or sensuality Who can mend this Or whose part is it to justify such things No man that defends a religion can conceive how they may concern him and he that opposes a religion if he were wise or honest would never object them And as for the Court of Rome I know no more of it then I do of the Court of France Spain or Constantinople I have long since been told that the designs of Courts and Courtiers are politick high ambitious and close And I have heard again that they are of one and the same opinion all over the face of the earth a high elevated secret mysterious way unknown to us peasants who are born in sin although it go under the name still of that rurall religion which is countenanced in their respective Kingdoms How true these things be and what this way of theirs is I know not nor do I love to speak of them at all One part of our duty I think and respect towards our Superiours is silence and not to speak at all of them For we may conclude that God subjected all other Creatures unâ—o man becaus he created them dumb And certainly enough may we imagine that the opinions of Courts and Courtiers are very high since one can hardly meet any ordinary man who would not have the whole earth under his command and power if he could get it It is not long since we had here threescore thousand of our own Protestant Countrymen armed in the field who held all of them an opinion that the Kings Crown was at their disposal So they wrote so they talked and so they acted And it is hard to say in what head are the most presumptuous ambitious and lofty opinions And our Doctour himself who so contemptuously treats King Pepin Charlemaign and other renowned Kings of the earth nay all the Catholicks in the world at once cannot be one of the humblest and modestest of men Court of Rome and Jesuitical party sounds in my ears like a thorough Bass and treble Violyn playing together the one strikeing three long humming Notes about the double Gamut the other descanting theron in short and quicker graces The Court of Rome I something perceive methinks what it should be but not what it is But the Jesuitical party with all its graces I neither know what it is nor what it should be That worthy Society of Jesuits may be considered either according to their religion or Schools or personal designs According to their religion they are as other Catholicks be in the same worship same Sacraments same Altar same Priesthood same faith same hope to come As to their Schools although they have I believe five hundred Readers of the Chair and perhaps as many publick defensions in every three years space yet did I never hear of any such thing either taught or defended in their Schools which
things that can be said on both sides hic nunc and ponder them deeply before a judgment can result And it often happens amongst them that they will determin in one year that action to be rejected which was in another time expedient and good only upon change of circumstances It is in my mind a vain labour to write long discourses about probable opinions as some do For if we speak of an opinion in a strict sence an opinion tending to action and yet separated or abstracted from all circumstances of person time place means motives events and connexions with ill or welfare which no writer of a book can see such an opinion is nothing at all in the world but a meer fantosme more apt to mislead then secure any action of life And he that goes to a book to learn there how he is to act in any business he is about goes like one blind man to another blind guide to lead him For this reason all antient good Christians ever had their consciences gâ—ided by living Oracles of men who laying the general rule of religion before them still gave that for safest counsel which all circumstances considered came nearest to the intent and scope of Gospel Truly I cannot but grieve to see men talk so much as they do now adaies about opinions For we are to hold nothing but Gospell and our holy Christian tradition and no opinions at all in religious affaires And if opinions do rise therin as needs they must sometimes by variation of circumstances that is still to be rejected which most swarves from the intent of holy Gospel or which is all one hath least in it of good and most of ill Let not only three men but three millions of men hold any thing to the breach of this rule it is not to be heeded They who write books of moral actions and conscience can know nothing either of the person actually concerned or of the various circumstances which must bring this action into a just existence let them in their abstracted aery problems say what they please nor innumerable events therof although there be some opinions that no circumstance can justify Nor do Catholick Kings and Princes ever heed at all what people talk in their Schools and Academies unless it proceed to action If any do act well he has peace and if any do ill death is at his door however opinions go But of this enough Doctor Still threatens us here with a more accurate examination of these things from the authour who wrote against the Apology for Catholicks I know not who that Authour is But I can tell him thus much that the right honourable Authour of that charitable Apology stands now actually ready with his Pen in hand to entertain him as he hath once already done And that Protestant writer will find him still a main strong Castle not to be blown down or so much as shaken by his impertinent waves All after ages shall make honourable mention of that noble man when his adversary shall be swallowed up in the deep of oblivion Not only Catholicks but many worthy Gentlemen even amongst our Protestant countrymen have grieved in their hearts to see us lie open to so many grievous defamaâ—ions of men But this noble Person ventured to speak and write an Apology for us And if no man should be valorous truth â—ow kept under lock and key for a whole hundred years would never appear as it is and in its own shape § 18. Sir one mistake of mine committed in my first packet wherin I told you that this piece of Fanaticisme was Doctour Stillingfleet's own proper invention I must here revoke For it is not so I wondred indeed that in his arguments against the Church of Rome set down in the begining of his book wherin is mention made of that Churches Idolatry hinderances of a good life and divisions there was not there any one word of Fanaticisme which here fills up a whole chapter in his book compiled as himself speaks in defence of those arguments But I was inlighten'd in this my doubt by a meer chance For meeting with a Protestant Stationer I asked him if he ever heard of an Authour called Foolis or Foulis who is quoted once or twice by Doctour Stillingfleet O quoth he presently Foolis is an asse he printed last year an ecclesiastical history wherein he says that Papish Saints were fanaticks I had the book but threw it out of my shop It is sold now up and down the streets for wast paper I considered then with my self that the Doctour's arguments were made as himself speaks two Years ago this his book in defence of them is but now printed and Foolis his book a Year ago came forth My riddle is now out The Doctour never dreamed of fanaticisme till he learned it of Foolis And yet does he not quote this Foulis in all his Chapter of Fanaticisme though he does in another ambitious it seems to have the honour of the invention ascribed to himself alone Nor is it hard since Foolis his book is become wast paper to find out not the Master only from whom our Doctour learned his lesson of fanaticisme but the very chair also wheron he sat when first he learned it fith bookish men are very apt to peruse the wast paper they are then to use But it was a lucky chance for Doctour Stillingfleet He applied therefore his wast paper and saying in his heart Here is a gallant matter for a whole new Chapter in my book he rose and tied up his breeches ΤΩ ΚΑΘΟΛΙΚΩ DIVISIONS UNto this fifth Chapter I shall speak Sir very little becaus it is wholly parergicall and besides his or what ought to be his purpose A Reader who looks upon his book conceives him to speak of divisions which are contrary to their unity of faith And yet the Doctour by a multitude of stories which make up this chapter exemplifies only and declares divisions that have been in several times and places contrary to the unity of affections in matter of honor wealth and power some in Italy some in France some in England some in America some about their School conceptions some about power and jurisdiction liberty and freedom and the like So that all that has happened in the Catholick world the space of a thousand years contrary to that peace humility love tendernes justice mercy patience prudence which religion requires so much of it as he found related in Catholick authors to his hand is the miscellan hodg podg of this his fifth chapter called Divisions not ever intended by any of those Catholicks authors unto Dr. Still purpose unto which the said stories are wholly improper 1. The story of the wars and differences in Italy nine hundred years ago about Church-lands managed on one side by Charles Martell King Pepin Charlemaign Ludovicus Pius Lotharius and others for the Popes right against Emperours and their Lieftennants on the other And here by
the way we may note that Charlemaign or Charles the great was a notable champion not for the faith only but for the temporals also of the Roman Bishop even to his death which I gave the Doctour notice of when I spoke of the Councel of Frankford and himself now here acknowledges it 2. The story of the quarrels between Henry fourth Emperour and Pope Gregory Hildebrand about an age afterward and the various troubles inferred upon the said Emperour therby 3. The story of P. Vrban and Paschall and others then sitting in the See apostolick and Emperour Rodulphus Lotharius Conradus and the great wars and feuds between them unto the great affliction and misery of mankind 4. The story of the Schismes that happened in the ninth age about the election of Popes wherein successively they deposed contradicted judged and censured one another unto the unexpressable scandall and grief of the whole world And all these above named histories are gathered out of Alphonsus Ciaconus Baronius Luitprandus Morinus Papirius Massonus Onuphrius Sigonius Nauclerus Sigebertus Otto Frisingensis Conradus Rubeus Valesius Sirmondus Sabellicus Blondus Nithardus Hincmar Guicciardin Platina all Catholick historians not one that I know excepted 5. The story of Friars and Monks exemption from Episcopal jurisdiction and the troubles caused thereby amongst the Clergy and the instability of Roman Prelates sometimes confirming and then again recalling those their priviledges This happened in the thirteenth age about four hundred years ago some Doctours defending the said Religious exemptions and priviledges as St. Bonaventure St. Thomas Jacobus Abbas Cluniacensis and some opposing them as Dr. Saint Amour and the University of Paris Armacanus Durandus Mimatensis Petrus de Vineis and Aegidius Romanus 6. The story of two or three Priests here in England about threescore years ago who haveing boarded together at Wisbich with some of the Society very peaceably for a time at last fell out and parted with much scandal and heats one against another 7. The story of Richard Smith Bishop of Calcedon opposed here in England about forty years ago by some religions 8. The story of a bitter contest between some regulars and their bishop in the Philippin Islands and again in Angelopolis in America about twenty years ago 9. The story of the many differences amongst the Schoolmen not to be ended either by Pope or Councels although one of the contradictories must needs be false These are his stories some of them dismal enough and yet all of them I think as true as I am certain they are impertinent And ever and anon the Doctour cries out where is their unity here where is now their infallibility so much talked of whereas indeed the stability of religion and Gods infallible protection of his Church never appeared in greater splendour then it did in those dismal dark times when such as should have been Pastors proved wild beasts rather and wolves to destroy the flock For even in those worst times did the Catholick Church most flourish in unity and Christian piety all over the world And through all these tempests and many more yet greater hath this ship of the Church passed on now almost seventeen hundred years and yet continues To keep it safe and whole not only from outward opposition of Infidels but even from the many inward domestick scandals strong enough to crack asunder the very sides of it and dissipate it into dust is a power and vertue truly divine which can proceed from nothing but Gods great favour and love and blessing upon it We had never heard so much of the power of our Lord Jesus nor known it so well if a tempest had not rose and indangered the ship And all that I think can be judiciously gathered from these many dismal stories and miserable scandals is only this that in all such distresses and ever we are still to trust in God and in the vertue of our Lord Jesus Christ who has promised to be with us even to the worlds consummation And if he be with us we shall be well be what will against us whether it rise within the Church or fall upon it from without The Catholick Church must tast all the trials and temptations which may render her conformable to her Lord and head both from friends and foes And it is enough that he watches over us who never sleeps and suffers no more to befall us then will redound to his own glory in the end But I wonder much how the Doctour amongst the many differences and broils here recorded could omit to relate the differences betwixt the Kings of France and Spain now daily sounding in our ears unto the sad and woful ruin of so many thousand people But he is subtle and thinks perhaps if he should speak of such publick things now in present action that every one would be able to tell him presently that the said discourse is nothing to the purpose for that the said Kings and their whole Kingdoms are all in a perfect unity of their Catholick faith for all that And therefore he judges it a wiser part to hunt farther from home as foxes do where ordinary Readers cannot so easily discern his impertinency If he do speak any thing near our own times it must be the wranglings of some obscure men unknown to us if he relate the differences of greater men they must be such as are far removed off four five nine hundred years ago and then he hopes that his Reader may not so easily discover his fraud For the same reason he omits also to speak of the great wars and differences between the hous of York and Lancaster here in England which brought with them as dismal effects as any here recorded by him as also the Wars of England with France unto the utter depopulation in a manner of that whole Kingdom And yet did their unity of faith stand all the while inyiolable And this truth becaus it is known to every Reader therefore will not the subtle Doctor make any mention of these things But I cannot so well tell why he should omit the story of the Arrian heresy which disturbed not one Kingdom only but all the whole Christian world Europe Asia and Africa so far as the very Sun in the Firmament looked upon it And those differences were indeed about a point of faith which nothing is here in all the differences related by the Doctor Secondly they brought with them unspeakable molestations and damages all the world over far further then these his related differences ever reached Thirdly they lasted four hundred Years whereas most of these his differences were little and light and personal or national and none of them so lasting as the troubles of Arrianism So peevish obstinate and self-will'd are men even against all rules of Christian piety and moderation when concupiscence and passion are once ingaged And yet was that Arrian dispute so quaint and subtile that the world hardly discerns where the difference lay which so much incensed all the Catholick Prelates in the world and set in such a deadly fewd so many great and holy men on both sides who had guided their Flocks before in all tranquillity and peace But what reason soever the Doctour had for his omission of this Arrian heresy which is more pertinent than any of all his stories put together yet might he not me-thinks have utterly forgot the famous and renowned story of Robin Hood who was a noble person and well beloved of his Countrey and yet out-lawed by his King who professed the same Catholick religion with him was forced to confine himself to woods and deserts in much hunger and distress and daily dangers of his life If he had bethought himself well he might have printed here the whole History of England and France Spain and Italy Germany Poland and Greece And it would have made him a fine long chapter Especially if he had inserted all the wranglings and law-suits that have happened amongst Christians in all the said Kingdoms from their first conversion for above a thousand years unto this last age when Protestancy first showed its head But in all that time there is not an Authour upon earth who mentions any wars any wranglings any division of Protestants For neither Cesar nor Pompey however mischievous made any troubles before they were born nor did any writer take notice of those turbulent warriours from the time of Picus first King of the Latines unto their daies which was little less than the same space of time that Protestants were in a deep silence and peace all over the whole Christian world fifteen hundred years I have no more now to say but dear Sir farewell and continue still to love and pray for Your friendly Postillator J. V. C. FINIS
Religion but on the contrary a tenour and rule of life drawn out of Gospel and confirmed by his own Prelate and Ecclesiastical Superiour The ways of fanaticks fanaticism are quite contrary to this Much less have we here any resistance of Authority but a submission to Authority and an humble expectation of their approbation and licence He must surely think our Kingdom of England to be much alienated from the Kingdom of God if he hope to perswade them that love of poverty neglect of worldly wealth and humane literature charity to the poor divine revelations powerful preaching against sin melting affections towards God and a rule of life drawn out of Gospel is fanaticisme He will be a very dull reader who will not hence conclude that our twelve Apostles were the first and chiefest fanaticks in the world And this our wits too much prone to loosness and atheism will greedily enough and nimbly infer and perhaps rejoyce that they have an Atheist in Print to propagate their infidelity Atheism loves not lonelines but is then most secure when the company is greatest But it will be here objected why then did St. Bennet St. Francis and St. Dominick make themselves new rules Is not this a new religion Sir although a Catholick cannot easily be so ignorant as to ask any such question as this is yet because it may be the straw at which Dr. Still stumbles who as in this his whole book he speaks like a Child so for ought I know he may understand like a Child I say therefore that a new rule is so far from a new religion that the Gospel can do little good without it For the counsels and precepts of Gospel whereby our souls are to be sanctified and ordered to our final end are all general and abstracted from any circumstance of time or place or measure or manner to the end they may be indifferent to the many conditions professions and imployments of mankind in their several states and ages Watching fasting works of charity mortification of sensuality continence repentance administration of Sacraments and the various like good things commended to us in our holy Gospel are so prescribed and counselled us that the manner the when the where how often how long and other such like circumstances without which those rules and counsels cannot be brought down to execution and practâ—ce are not specified Therefore hath the Catholâ—ck Church brought down some of these things unto individual circumstances when she appointed rites and times for Sacraments set holy days for people to meet together in their meditations and prayers set times for fasts others for confession others for Communion some for rejoycing in our Lord some for mourning and doing pennance so much and in such a manner as might well consist with the generality of the Catholick world But because neither is this sufficient for our daily progress unless people considering their own particular occasions and the lettanees which may occur more in one hour of the day then another ether set themselves a further rule for their daily piety and particular ordering of their houses or follow the direction herein of some wiser and better man Hence it is that so many rules have issued forth in the Christian world by which some people have governed their own private houses accommodating them in the best wise they could unto their affairs and others have quite retired out of the world to serve God more perfectly all their life according to this or that approved rule in a more full observance of it under Monastical obedience This is the motive nature and end of so many rules in the Church of God whereof some suit best with one complexion and some with another And all of them tend unto the bringing down of Gospel unto a constant practice And what Christian soever sets himself no such rule nor follows any must needs live a loose and careless if not a wicked life although he should have the whole Gospel by heart and be able to speak it all without book If the exact lives and pious rules of St. Bennet St. Francis St. Dominick St. Basil St. Brunâ— St. Romwall and such like men were printed together in our English tongue with the pictures of their Religious men met together either in their Refectory Schools or Quire this one sight would I am confident more move my good Protestant Country-men who are daily abused with Ministerial lies against us then any one book of controversie can do I will only set down here the one rule of St. Francis according to which his religious disciples are regulated all their life time throughout the world whereby either your self Sir or any other may judge whether he be worthily called either fool or fanatick St. Francis his Rule Chap. 1. THe rule and life of Fryar minours is this To observe the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord living in obedience without property of goods and in chastity Brother Francis doth promise obedience and reverence unto Bishop Honorius his Lord and to his Successors Canonically installed and to the Roman Church And be other Fryars bound to obey Brother Francis and his Successors Ch. 2. If any shall be willing to take this life and shall therefore present themselves to our Brothers let them be sent to the Provincial Ministers who may only and none besides them have power to admit them The Ministers must be diligent to examine them about Catholick Religion and Church Sacraments And if they believe these things and will faithfully confess them and firmly observe them to the end and either have no Wives or those Wives if any they have are entered into Monasteries or by the authority of the Bishop of the Diocesse are dismist a vow of continence now solemnly made and their said Wives be of that age that there can arise no suspicion of them let the Ministers then speak unto them the word of holy Gospel that they go and sell all their goods and bestow them upon the Poor Which thing if they cannot be able to do their good will in this part may suffice And let the Brothers beware and their Ministers too that they be not solicitous about the temporal goods of these men that they may freely dispose those things of their own as our Lord shall inspire them And if Counsel be required the Ministers have leave to send them unto some men fearing God by whose advice they may bestow their goods upon the Poor After this they may grant them their vest of probation namely two tunicks without a capuce and a girdle and drawers and a caparoon down to the girdle unless the Ministers shall otherwise think fit according to God After the year of probation is ended let them be received unto obedience promising ever to observe this life and rule And in no wise shall it be lawful for them to go out of this religion according to the command of my Lord our chief Bishop because according to
Gospel no man putting his hand unto the Plough if he look back is fit for the Kingdom of God And those who now have promised obedience let them have one tunick with a capuce and another without a capuce such as will have it And those who are urged by necessity may wear shooes But let all our Fryars be cloathed with course Garments and they may mend them with Sack-cloath or other pieces on Gods blessing All whom I do exhort and admonish that they neither despise nor judge men whom they shall see cloathed in soft and coloured raiments to use finer meats and drinks but let every one of them judge and despise himself Ch. 3. The Clarks must say the divine Office according to the course of Roman Church the Psalter onely excepted out of which they may have Breviaries But Laimen are to say four and twenty times Our Father c. for their Matins for Lauds five for prime tierce sext none for each of those hours seven for Vespers twelve for Compline seven and pray for the dead And all are to fast from the Feast of all Saints unto Christmas day But as for the holy Lent which begins from Epiphany unto fourty days after it which our Lord by his own holy fast hath consecrated those who voluntarily will fast it Gods blessing be upon them and they who will not let them not be tied to it But the other Lent from Ashwednesday unto Easter day let them all fast that Other times excepting Fryday they need not fast And in times of manifest necessity let no brother be tied to corporal fastâ—ng And I counsel admonish and exhort my brothers in our Lord Jesus Christ that when they chance to walk through the world they do not wrangle nor contend with words nor censure other men but be meek peaceable modest gentle and humble civilly speaking unto all men as becomes them And they ought not to ride but in a manifest necessity and urgent weakness In what ever house they enter let them first say Peace to this house and let them according to holy Gospel eat what is set before them Ch. 4. I do firmly command all my brothers that in no wise they receive Money or Coin either by themselves immediately or by another person interposed And for the necessities of the sick or the cloathing of brothers the Ministers only and the Controlers may by their Spiritual friends take special care according to places and times and coldness of countries as they shall find expedient for their need this still provided that as it is already said they receive no money nor coin Ch. 5. Those brothers whom our Lord hath given the gift and strength to work let them labour faithfully and devoutly yet so that idleness our souls enemy being kept out they extinguish not the spirit of holy prayer and devotion unto which all other temporal things ought to be still subservient And for reward of their work they may take the necessaries of body both for themselves and brothers besides coin or money and that humbly as becomes the servants of God and followers of most holy poverty Ch. 6. Our brothers may appropriate nothing to themselves not house not place not any thing but as strangers and pilgrims in this world in poverty and humility serving our Lord let them confidently go for Alms. Nor must they be ashamed for our Lord for us hath made himself poor in this world This this is the high towring spire of our sublime poverty which hath installed you my dearest brothers heirs and Kings of that Kingdom of the Heavens It hath made you poor in pelf but in vertues it hath raised you up on high Let this be your portion even this poverty which will conduct you unto the land of the living unto which my dearest brothers remaining close and wholly fixt no other thing for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may you wish to have under Heaven for ever And where ever my brothers are or meet with one another let them show themselves towards one another as domesticks and let each one open to the other his necessity freely For if a mother nourishes and caresses her carnal child how much more carefully ought each one to support and love his spiritual brother And if any of them fall into sickness other brothers ought to serve him as they would be served themselves Ch. 7. If any of our brothers by the instigation of Satan shall sin unto death for such sins as it has been appointed among our brothers that recourse should be had only to our Provintial Ministers let the said brother be bound to have recourse unto them as soon as possibly he may without delay And the said Ministers if they be Priests must enjoyn him a pennance with mercy if they be not Priests let them cause it to be enjoyned by other Priests of the Order as they shall according to God think fittest and they must take heed they fall not into wrath and trouble for the sin of another for anger and disturbance in ones self and others hinder charity Ch. 8. All our Fryars universally must still have one of the brothers of this religion for the Minister general and servant of the whole brotherhood and him they must constantly obey and when he goes out of office an election of a successor must be made by the Provincial Ministers and Controllors in the Pentecost Chapter wherein the Provincial ministers are bound to meet where ever it is by the minister general appointed and this once in three years or in some other term of time either greater or lesser as by the said Minister it shall be ordained And if at any time it should appear to the universality of the ministers Provincial and Controllers that the said general elect is insufficient to the service and common good of the brothers the said brothers unto whom the election does belong may in the name of our Lord choose themselves another for a custos and after the Pentecost Chapter the Minister and Controllors may all if they please and it seem good unto them in the same year convocate their brothers unto a Chapter in their custodies Ch. 9. Let not our brothers preach in the Diocess of any Bishop where it is forbidden them by him And let no brother presume at all to preach unto people unless he be first examined and approved by the Minister general of this Fraternity and have by him that office of preaching deputed to him I do also admonish and exhort all our brothers that in any preachings they make their expressions be well examined and chast unto the profit and edification of people denouncing to them vice and vertue punishment and glory with brevity of speech for an abbreviated word hath our Lord made upon earth Ch. 10. Those brothers who are Ministers and servants of their other brothers must visite and admonish their other brothers and charitably reprove them not commanding them any thing