hold forth this new sect and thus this new Religion maie not last but if it be by this Blasphemie to constraine a man unable by Gods dome to hold this new sect and suffer him not to come to freedome of Christs Order And Chapter the 4th Friars saien if a man bee professed to there holie Order hee shal not Preach freelie and generallie the Gospel of Christian men without en licence of his Soveraign for virtue of obedience be his Soveraign never so cursed man of life and uncunning of Gods Law and enimie to Christian men souls and in case a foule Devil of Hel thowgh this man professed have receaved of God never so much cuninge of Gods Law and power and wil to work after this cuninge and so this man shall needes be damned for misspending of Gods treasure For sith Gods Law saies that hee is out of Charity that helps not his Brother with bodilie Almes if he maie in his nede much more is he out of Charity that helpes not his Brothers soule with teaching of Gods Law when hee sees him runne to Hel yea by â—gnorance And thus to magnifie and maintaine their rotten sects they neden men by Hypocrisie falseteaching and strong paines to break Gods heasts and leese Charity Out on this false heresie and tyrantrie of Antichrist that men be neded strangely to keep more his Lawes and obaye more to them then to Christ's Commandements ever rightful And Page 17. Thus As Christ saved the wordle by writing and teaching of foure Evangelists so the Fiend casteth to Damme the wordle and Priests for letting to Preach the Gospel by these foure by fained Contemplation by Songs by Salisbury use and by wordly buysiness of Priests The COURANT. Illa propago Contemptrix Superûm Saevaeque avidissima Caedis Et violenta fuit Scires è Sanguine Natos Ovid. I. Metam Tory T was bravely done to ' ther day in the West I love people that will go thorough stitch with their Business I can shew you a French Author Naudaeus by Name that affirms the Bartholomew-Massacre at Paris had been one of the most glorious acts of Christianity if it had not unluckily been perform'd but by halves Truem. Ay but destroying of BIBLES if that story be true was sure attempted a little too soon such Exploits would be time enough under a Popish Successor 'T is our present happiness and comfort under God that we live under a Prince who is a Defender of the Protestant Faith content his loving Subjects should have English Bibles and much averse in his Royal Nature to such Sanguinary Rigours as some hot-headed people men of as little Estates or Interest in their Country as of Brains Piety or real Loialty would fain be practizing to imbroil us in Confusions and help forward the Popes Design by weakning the Body of Protestants with unnecessary and unnatural Heats amongst themselves Tory. Well I am sure our Parson and hee 's a Gentleman that wears a Scarf already and hopes to be a Right Reverend ere long told us last Sunday that t' was a Duty to teize and worry Dissenters and that it was their own faults if their Brains were beat out for why the Vengeance don't they Conform Truem. Prethee present my Service to his Reverence and desire him from a Friend of mine to return an answer to the Case following Suppose his Doctorship were a Minister of the Reformed Church in France whether at Charenton Caen or Saumurr it matters not Tory. Hold hold do you think our Doctor will suffer himself to be suppos'd into a Damn'd Presbiterian a Traiterous Villain of a Calvinistical Hugenote Truem. Patience Man The supposition I le warrant you shall not infect him therefore still I say for once suppose him so and that Monsieur the Intendant of that Province should thus accost him Sir being your Neighbour I am so far your Friend as to pitty and advise you for though you are an Heretick you are yet one of humane Race and may easily make a good conformable Catholick the King our Master will have but one Religion in his Dominions and you must comply or you are undone He is resolv'd all his Subjects shall Worship God in the same Mode therefore go to Church or your Estate Liberty and perhaps your Life will be Sacrific'd to his Royal Indignation and your own obstinate Folly Then Imagine he should answer thus Monsieur I conserve a profound Respect to our Puissant and invincible Monarch am ready to obey all his just Commands but in this particular I pray have me Excused I dread his Majesties displeasure but am much more apprehensive of God's the one may hang or break me upon the Wheel but the other will Damn me to Eternity I beseech you therefore interpose with his Majesty on the behalf of me and my Brethren that we may Enjoy the same liberty of Worshiping God as we have hitherto had under him and his Royal Predecessors we vow all Duty and Allegiance to his Person and Government we will defend him with our Lives and Fortunes Nothing is so dear unless our Consciences which we will not Sacrifice to his pleasure and Honour but in the Matters proposed we cannot comply without the offence of God and our Souls The Catholick Gentleman like any Observator replies These are only Flams to colour Hypocrisy Rebellion and Disobedience His Majesty is advis'd to put an end to all Religious Feuds amongst his people thereby to render his Government more firm and secure He is weary of the everlasting Squabbles of different Perswasions The Temple of Janus shall therefore be shut he will have no more Religious Wars amogst his Subjects To grant or connive at any Liberty of serving God after your own own way is not a course to end Differences but to perpetuate them for should you be gratified others may succeed with newscruples and under pretence of Conscience carry on differences as high as ever to the weakning of his Authority and Empire c. Now let the Doctor but tell us what in this case he would Rejoyn to such a Catholick Monsieur and if from the same Topicks our Protestant Dissenters cannot fairly excuse themselves the Doctor shall have all the Money that the Devil and Thompson found out tother day under the Holy-Bush in Mannock-Hill and a sine Cure into the Bargain Printed for Langley Curtis 1681. The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY Jan. 6. 1681-2 Optarem quod omnes Ritus nostri forent a Deo Confirmati Wickliff de verit Script p. 581. An Omission in the last supply'd The means how Wickliff's Doctrine was spread into Bohemia c. His Death His Bones dug up and burnt BY a mistake at the Press last week there was not only some things mentioned in the Contents more than there was room for in that Sheet but also four or five Lines happen'd to be twice repeated For the latter we beg the Readers
but the Pope refus'd to Crown him unless he would first promise to Ratify the pretended donation of Constantine and also grant all those things de novo and swear forthwith to depart Italy All which Valla cannot mention without Indignation what saith he would be more absurd than to be crown'd Emperor and at the same time renounce Rome to be Crowned of him who he confesseth and as much as in him lieth maketh Lord of the Roman Empire And to Ratify a donation which if it be true leaveth to the Emperor nothing of the Empire which I think Children would not have done I shall not mention all the quarrels of this Pope the greatest part of whose times was spent in Wars and Bloodshed insomuch that the Romans not able to endure his Cruelties once drove him out of the City making him run away in the habit of a Monk and pelting him with durt and stones whence he retired to Florence and remained there some time but having by his friends again reduc'd Rome to his obedience he used greater severities than ever and notwithstanding he had so approv'd of the Council of Basil yet now will needs dissolve it and accordingly recalls Cardinal Julian his Legate from thence on the other side the Fathers of the Council by their Letters first intreat and afterwards admonish him to come thither himself or at least not to disturb the peace of the Church by offering to obstruct their proceedings but he persisting and appointing another Anti-Council at Ferrara they formally Cite Accuse Adjure suspend and at last depose him from the Popedome and in his room Elect Amades Duke of Savoy by the name of Felix the Fourth who before led an Hermits Life on the Banks of the Lake of Lausanna However Eugenius still swagger'd as Pope in Italy and having got together a Conventicle of Cardinals most of their own making and others in Ferraria in the year 1438. and next year by reason of the Pestilence removed to Florence John Palaeologus the Emperor of the East and several Bishops of the Greek Church upon a treaty that had been advanc'd for a Reconciliation between the two Churches resolved to have a personal Conference and being at Sea upon his Voyage for Italy Charles the 7 th King of France who sided with the Council of Basil sent forth a Fleet of Gallies into the Ionick Sea to meet him and acquaint him that the lawfull Council was held at Basil not at Florence and therefore to perswade him to Land in France whence he should be honourably Conducted to Basil But the Pope understanding this design by large Bribes Corrupts the Admiral of the French Gallies who willfully steering a wrong course misses the Emperour and so he Lands in Italy The presence of this Emperour and the noise of an Vnion like to be patcht up between the Two Churches added not a little lustre to the Popes Council yet the proceedings of the Council of Basil extreamly troubled him and against them he and his Council published several Bulls and writings wherein they blush not to affirm That it was so far from truth That he ought to obey general Councils that he then most merited when he contemn'd the Decrees of the Council and that this proposition The Council is above the Pope is Heretical although both then and ever since it was and has been held and affirmed by all the Universities of Christendome whence it will follow that whilst the Roman Church boasteth her self superior to all other Churches and the Roman Bishop above all other Bishops by this Decree of Eugenius the Bishop of Rome is made superior to and of higher Authority than the universal Church and consequently the pretended Infallibility of the Church should be derived not now to the Romish Church but to one only man which shews him evidently to be the Antichrist according to that Interpretation of St. Augustine de Civitate Dei Lib. 18. Cap. 2. That Antichrist should not not only sit in Templo Dei in the Temple of God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Templum into the Temple As if he himself were the Temple it self and he alone the Church Besides by these Translations let the Christian Reader judge of that Infallibility of the Church represented in a Council since here he sees these Two Councils at one and the same time in one and the same question do decree things directly contrary But 't was not with Paper pellets and spiritual Thunders that this stouthearted Pope Attaqu'd the Council of Basil for a truce being concluded between the Kings of England and France whereby the Soldiers on each part were dismiss'd Eugenius subtlely Inveigles the Dauphin of France afterwards Lewis the 11 th who gathers up near 30000 of those disbanded Troops and marches towards Basil Colouring the Expedition with many remote pretences but indeed with a design to unroost the Fathers there and force them to break up But they were no sooner entered the Territories of Basil but the Cantons of Switzerland hastned to its succour and relief And 4000 Switzers with incredible Valour stood the Shock of all the great Army and continued the Battel all night scarce 150 of them escaping but thereby they put a stop to the enemies advance and preserv'd the City and Council The COURANT. Inter Serpentes et scorpiones Nemo securus Ingreditur St. Hierom. Tory. FOr all your Tatling Catholick Nat tho unhapily Cag'd since I saw you last yet defies the Wooden Ruff and the Whipping-post The good man avows to all the World He has done nothing to be asham'd of Truem. I told you then I should not meddle with the success of his present Adventures Nor will I dispute whether hebemore meritorious better be friended less Guilty or born under more indulgent Stars than his Sister Cellier 'T is certain their ends were the same though they pursued several means her story of Prances being Racks and his of Sir Edmondbery Godfrey's Killing himself being a like design to Sham that Murder from the Papists and load the Justice of the Nation with scandal But all I shall say is that he had long since a prior right and Title to the Pillory for if he be not belied this very Loyal Protestant was the Gentleman that besides some Cart-loads of bare fac'd Popery first Printed and Publisht a certain Libell the Reprinting of which from his Publique Copy after it had many days haunted the Town brought another to that Ignominious stand Tory. Prethee let Nat alone he 's safe enough and I think at this juncture your Faction have little cause to boast Truem. I know not what you mean by Faction for some Folks of late have got new Dictionaries and they call Religion Sedition the Nine and Thirty Articles Fanaticism drunken madness Loyalty horrid damming and swearing zeal for the Church Traiterous Papists good confiding subjects moderate Churchmen the worst sort of Whigs asserting liberty and property though in never so dutifull and legal away
to restore them Tolletus the Jesuit in his Instructions for Priests on the Title Excommunication Non tenentur reddere rem verbis contractam They are not bound to make good Contracts with Hereticks Nay the Gloss of their Canon Law in Gratian Caus 15. q. 6. not only justifies the thing but also assigns the reason of it Si Juravi me soluturum alicui pecuniam c. If I have sworn to pay a man Money and he happen to be Excommunicated I am not bound to pay it because we ought by all the means we can to vex ill men that they may repent of their Evil. Very pretty Popish Divinity Cardinal Allen resolves Pater qui filium habet Haereticum c. A Father that has a Son that is an Heretick is bound to disinherit him and Parents sin mortally that bestow their Daughters in marriage to Hereticks And of this too the Gloss of Gratian Decret l. 5. Caus 23. q. 8. gives the reason Because Hereticks are not to be esteem'd our Brothers or Kindred but tho he be the Son of thy Mother or thine own only Child yet according to the Law of old Thy hand must be upon him that thou mayest put him to death According to these Maxims 't is notorious that the Apostate Church of Rome and Papists have acted how often have Popes put Princes upon the breaking of their Treaties Alliances and Covenants How remarkable is that Story of Vladislaus the fifth King of Hungary about the year 1440. who having concluded a Peace with Amurath Emperour of the Turks for ten years space and sworn to keep and observe the same inviolably Eugenius the Fourth who at that time was Pope of Rome hearing thereof writes to Cardinal Julian then resident in Hungary to persuade the King to break that Peace alledging and declaring That no Peace made with the Enemies of Religion and in their esteem Protestants are worse than Turks without first consulting the Pope and having his leave was good or valid And therefore commanded the King to fall into Hostility assuring him That as for his Oath given at the Treaty he had dissolv'd the same Hereupon the King partly by Intreaties and partly by Threats is prevail'd upon to become a most perfidious wretch and to the dishonour of the Christian name treacherously to fall upon the Turk at unawares which Amurath observing and seeing his Forces like to be discomfited he draws forth the Original Articles of their League and looking up to Heaven cries out Haec sunt Jesu Christe Foedera quae Christiani tui mecum percussêre per nomen tuum Sanctè Jurantes Nunc si Deus es tuas measque Injurias te quaeso ulciscere Bonfin l. 3. Aenaeas Sylvius afterwards Pope â—p 81. Spondanus ad Ann. 1444. Behold O Jesus these are the Covenants which thy Christians solemnly swearing by thy name made with me now therefore if thou art a God revenge these Injuries to me and thy self upon their perfidious heads And no sooner had he pronounc'd these words but the success of the Battel was chang'd the Christians put to flight and the perjured King together with the wretched Cardinal that put him upon 't being both slain Pope Innocent the Third in the year 1213. in a Letter to Peter King of Arragon charges him in the name of the Holy-Ghost and as he expected ever to obtain Divine and Apostolical Grace to abandon the people of Tholose certain honest Waldensian Christians of whom in our Third Volume we have given an account nor to afford them any Aid or Countenance as long as they continued in their Heresie Non obstante promissione vel obligation quacúnque praestitâ Notwithstanding any promise or obligation whatsoever before pass'd to the contrary In the Year 1538. Paul the Third sends abroad a Roaring Bull against our King Henry the 8 th wherein he admonishes and requires all Christian Princes That they shall not under pretence of any Leagues or Obligations although corroborated by frequently repeated Oathes yield the said King directly or indirectly any Aid Favour or Assistance and to take them off from any apprehensions of their Duty pretends to Absolve them all from all Oathes or Obligations by them made or to be made and pronounces them to be void and of none effect So likewise Pope Pius Quintus Absolv'd not only all the Subjects of Queen Elizabeth but also Caeteros omnes qui Illi quomodocunque Juraverunt All others who in any manner had sworn unto her After Henry the Third of France was Barbarously Murder'd by Frier Clement all the World knew the Right of the Crown by Lineal Succession and Proximity of Blood belong'd to Henry of Burbon but the Popish Doctors of the Sorbon being intreated by the People of Paris to give their Judgment whether it were Lawful to submit to him They answered That Catholicks by the Divine Law were forbidden to admit to the Kingdom a Sectary and manifest Enemy to the Church That all that should Assist him were guilty of mortal Sin and would infallibly be Damn'd And all that did Resist him unto Blood would dye Martyrs and enjoy an Everlasting Reward in Heaven But to prove That Popish Princes who have made never so fair Promises did notwithstanding Persecute their Protestant Subjects with the greatest Rigour and act quite contrary to those Solemn Engagements our Native Island affords a sad and never to be forgotten Precedent for when the Men of Suffolk upon the pious King Edwards Death requested that bloody bigotted and treacherous Queen Mary to know Whether she would alter the Religion Establish'd in her Brothers days She assur'd them with all Asseverations That she would never make any Innovation or Change but be contented with the private Exercise of her own Religion And on April the 12 th she made a Publick Declaration in Council That although her own Conscience were fixed in matters of Religion yet she would never Inforce her Subjects otherwise than God should put into their Hearts a persuasion of the Truth she was in But no sooner was she settled in her Throne but slighting all these Engagements she no less perfidiously than cruelly fell to Burning her Protestant Subjects purely for their Religion Nay do we not at this Instant see the like Proceedings in our next Neighbouring Country where notwithstanding many Edicts and Solemn Promises Ratified with all the formalities of Perpetual Laws yet the poor Protestants directly contrary to all these Priviledges without any colour or shadow of Crime save only their Religion wherein their Persecutors deal much more Generously than if with fained Accusations and damnable Subornations they should falsly represent them as Rebellious and Disloyal are daily harass'd Ruinated and undone Therefore the General Inference from these Premises is That knowing so well the Principles and Practises of the Romish Church no Protestants or men of sense should ever trust to any though never so plausible Promises of any person of that Communion For with such all the
Hundred Authors as any unbiass'd Learned Reader cannot but observâ— Thirdly He notes several Passages in the Two last Pacquets that are in Foxe 'T is very true What then Do not I there Cite Foxe for them where is the Plagiarism I Write to the Common People and Publish it thus in Successive sheets that so it may fall into the more Hands I pretend not to Instruct the Learned but to give the Vulgar such as perhaps never read Foxe and know nothing of the Magdeburgh Centuries a general Prospect of Popery that they may know and Abhor it Those things which in Foxe are tediously told I abridge what is less material I omit Remarkables I Transcribe and fairly tell the Reader where I have them and what Felony and Treason is there in all this Fourthly Why may not I furnish my Matter from Foxe and the Centuriators I doubt the Observator has some particular spite at them The first continues the Memory of many Glorious English Martyrs barbarously Butcher'd even since the Reformation under a Popish Princses of excellent Vertues setting aside her Blind Bloody Zeal which perhaps the Observator would have had forgot And the Second's Learned Labours and Industrious Researches into Antiquity have wrested one of the Church of Romes boasted Weapons out of her hands and taught us to distinguish the real Testimonies of the Fathers from Spurious Suborn'd Knights of the Post though in Gray Perriwiggs and Venerable Names I wonder what Authors the Gentleman would Advise us to perhaps his friend Father Cressy's Church History or the Golden Legend But he that regards every bark of Cerberuâ— may quickly be Deaf Let us proceed in our intended Work and let Mr. Observator be never so angry at it we will again make use of Mr. Foxe and from thence observe to the Reader That though the Church was already over-burthen'd and almost suffocated with a vast Mass of vain Superstitious Ceremonies yet Tho. Arundel Bishop of Canterbury in the days of King Henry the 4 th about the Year 1410. took upon him to encrease them by Commanding That in all Monasteries and Collegiate Churches there should every Morning be Bells Rung in Honour of the Virgin Mary which commonly was call'd Toling of Aves For the promoting of which he sent his Mandate stuft full of Wicked and Blasphemous Expressions to the Bishop of London and towards the Close thereof used these Words We therefore desiring more earnestly to stir up the Minds of all Faithful People to so devoâ—â— an Exercise c. do grant to all and every Person that shall say his Pater Noster and the Angels Salutation Five times at the Morning Peal with a Devout Mind as oft as he shall do it for each time forty days of Pardon by these Presents Given under our Seals in our Manner of Lambeth the 10th of February in the 9th Year of our Translation Now we appeal to the Reader if this were not a Lumping Pennyworth to have Forty days Pardon of all Sin whatsoever Villany a man should in that time Commit meerly for Muttering over Five Pater Nosters and Five Aves what a kind good humour'd pleasant delicate inviting Religion is Popery Yet now I think on 't my Country-men of Wengham did not find it so under his Predecessor William Courtney Archbishop of the same Province when they were forc'd to do a scurvy scandalous Pennance for the horrid Sin of not bringing Litter for his Graces Horses decently and in order The Sentence against whom being very notable I shall here Recite it and to spight the Observator it shall be out of Fox too Erroris Mater Ignorantia c. Ignorance the Mother of Error hath so blinded certain Tenants of the Lord of Wengham viz. Hugh Penny John Forestall John Boy John Wanderton William Hayward and John White That at the coming of the Lord Archbishop to his Pallace at Canterbury on Palm-Sunday-Eve in the Year 1390. being warn'd by the Bailiff to carry Hay Straw and Littor Foenum Stramen sive Literam 't is in the Original which may be noted from an Archi-episcopal Elegancy to the aforesaid Pallace as by the Tenure of their Lands which they hold of the See of Canterbury they are bound refusing and disdaining to do their due Service as they were accustomed brought their Straw not in Waines and Carts publickly and in sufficient quantity but sneakingly in Sacks and hugger-mugger to the undervaluing of the Lord Arch-bishop and derogation of the Rights of his See of Canterbury For which being call'd and personally appearing before the said Lord Arch-bishop on Thursday in Easter week sitting on his Tribunal in his Castle of Statewode they did humbly submit themselves to his Judgment devoutly craving Pardon and Mercy for those Crimes which they had committed in this behalf And then having sworn them to stand to the Commands of Holy Church and to perform the Pennance that should be Enjoyn'd them his Grace did Absolve them imposing on them and each of them a wholsom Pennance after the manner of the Fault viz. That on the Sunday next the said Penitent should leisurely go bare-footed and bare-headed in an Humble and Devout Manner a Procession to the Collegiate Church of Wengham each of them bearing on their shoulders openly a Sack full of Hay and Straw with the mouthes of the Sacks open so as the Hay and Straw may appear hanging out And to perpetuate the Memory of this Foolery the Pictures of these poor men doing this Ridiculous Pennance were entred in his Graces Register a Copy of which taken from the Original you have in Foxe with this Superscription being as 't is probable the Words they were to say in their Procession This Bagful of Straw I bear on my Back Because my Lord's Horse his Litter did Lack If you be not good to my Lord Grace's Horse You are like to go Bare-foot before the Cross In the 11 th Year of King Henry the 4 th The Commons of England in Parliament perceiving how abominably the Clergy Monks Fryars c. abused those vast Revenues which they Enjoyed to all kind of Pride and Licentiousness Preferr'd a Bill to the King to take away their Temporal Lands and to Imploy the same to the better Advantage and Safety of the Kingdom Alledging that the Temporailties then in the Possession of Spiritual Men amounted to Three hundred and twenty three thousand Marks by the Year But as the Clergy had mainly Assisted that Prince to Usurp the Crown so he did not think it safe to disoblige them at that juncture and therefore put off this Bill with a Le Roy S'avisera And about Two Years after the said King Henry dyed viz. the 2 d. of March 1413. in the 46 th Year of his Age to whom succeeded his Son then near 30 years of Age by the name of Henry the Fifth By the Preaching of Wickliff and his Followers the Eyes of great numbers of the People were in some measure enlightned to see the Errors
their Tenets and general avowed Practises of their pretended Church must needs render the condition of any Soul in that Communion very dangerous and hazardous 4. No man can come to God the Father but by Jesus Christ as our Lord testifieth of himself John 14. Who also sheweth That he is the way the truth and the life And by his holy Apostle 1 Tim. 2. teacheth us That there is no Mediator betwixt God and Man but the Man Christ Jesus But contrary hereunto the Papists vainly hope and imagine to come to God not only by Christ but also by the Virgin Mary by Angels and Saints They also seek out new ways and content not themselves with such as the infinite wisdom of our Lord prescribed unto us and do foolishly believe that the Pope by his Indulgences and every Hedg-Priest by mumbling over his Masses is able to redeem mens Souls 5. Whoever buildeth his Faith upon other foundation than the Doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets doth build upon the Sand and not upon such a firm foundation as will abide in the day of the Lord. But the Papists generally build their Faith upon the Popes Decretals upon unwritten and uncertain Traditions upon false pretended Miracles lying Legends and silly Fables do they not then build upon ruinous foundations and if so what is like to become of the Superstructure 6. By their own Canon Law Chapt. si papa dist 40. 't is affirm'd That the Pope may be remiss and negligent in his Office and silent in teaching and lead innumerable people with him into Hell Now if the Papists are to adhere to the Pope as their Head and to follow him how can they escape when he leadeth them into Hell So that if they know not or will not believe the Scriptures nor any other Arguments yet their own Decrees may teach them that following the Pope innumerable Papists run blindfold and headlong into Perdition 7. How is it possible that they should be saved who are Ignorant of the means of their Salvation who hold damnable Heresies repugnant to the Apostles Doctrine whose Faith is Faction and their Practises Idolatry Perjury Treasons Massacres and all kind of Abomination and this conniv'd at promoted excused justifyed nay commended and applauded by their Church as means to propagate the Gospel But all this is too true of the Papists at this day and therefore what Scripture grounds have we of hope unless they speedily repent and depart from these Abominations But if any man shall ask what then is become of all those that either now die or in times past are dead in places where Popery is or hath been professed We answer secret things belong to God we dare not pretend to sentence those that are gone but would caution such as survive Of those that held the foundation and lived good lives we hope well nor were several of the most destructive errors ever inforc'd upon the belief of men before the Conventicle of Trent and there may and no dobut are many amongst the Papists at this day who though conforming to them in outward Ceremonies yet hold not the errors of Popery positively but keep themselves to the old Apostolick Faith and of such persons Salvation we have no cause to despair God grant that the rest also may see their deformities and upon what a dreadful precipice they stand and revoke their errors and hearken to the call of God to come out of Babylon lest they are partakers of her plagues and joyn themselves with a sincere heart to the true Church of God and so be saved The COURANT. Tory. YOu see our Reverend guide disowns the Translation of The History of Calvinism Alas good pious man he declar'd it unfit to be turn'd into English Truem. Sure no more unfit than Pere Simon which is sold in Paul's Church yard as commonly as the Practice of Piety They were L'Estranges own Pupils that reported he was upon that Job but possibly he may have dropt the Design finding it smell too Rank or thought it unfit to be Englisht in wholesale That so he may more advantagiously retail the good Fathers notion in Observator's four times a Week Tory. But for all that He 's satisfied that John Calvin Introduced his Government and Discipline by a Rebellion Observ N. 139. Truem. Tho I have nothing to do with Calvin or his Discipline yet I must tell L'Estrange to his Beard though he wore a Sword three Inches longer than he does That in this particular He lies to use his own Phrase like a Kidnapper or any dying Jesuit For the Bishop of Geneva had quitted that City and the Form of Government was popular before ever Calvin came amongst them The judicious Hooker a Testimony more valuable than a million of Observators in the Preface to his Ecclesiastical Policy gives this account of that Affair At the coming of Calvin thither the Form of their Civil Regiment was popular as it continueth at this day neither King nor Duke nor Nobleman hath any Power or Authority over them but Officers chosen by the people yearly out of themselves to order all things with publick consent For spiritual Government they had no Laws at all agreed upon but did what the Pastors of their Souls by perswasion could win them unto Calvin being admitted one of their Preachers and a Divinity Reader amongst them considered how dangerous it was that the whole Estate of that Church should hang on so slender a thread as the liking of an Ignorant Multitude is if it have power to change whatsoever it listeth Wherefore taking unto him two of the other Ministers for more Countenance of the Action albeit all the rest were against it they moved and in the end perswaded with much ado the people to bind themselves by Solemn Oath First never to admit the Papacy again and Secondly to live in Obedience to such Orders concerning the exercise of their Religion and the former Ecclesiastical Government as those their true and faithful Ministers of Gods Word had agreeably to Scripture set down for that end and purpose Now prethee where 's the Treason or Rebellion in all this Tory. Come come have you observ'd Roger's Advertisement N. 138. What a damnable kindness he has for Dr. Oats If any man will be so kind and generous as out of an affection to the Protestant Religion c. to call Simson Tongue to a Legal account c. Roger L'Estrange out of a zeal to a publick good will furnish Authentick Papers and Materials c. What in the name of Nonsense is the meaning of all this Truem. Why first here is Roger honestly declares that is he not a man that has any affection to the Protestant Religion for if he had he might being so well furnisht with Tools and Materials call Tongue to an account himself without putting others upon it if it be a business that will as he pretends be a Service to the Protestant Religion But 2 ly There seems a greater
ought we to esteem any thing small or light that is repugnant to the Divine Will especially in a matter of this moment as we have proved it to be tending to advance Idolatry rob God of his honor harden Papists in their impiety and laying a stumbling block before weak Christians Remember that famous History Recorded by Josephus and in the Book of the Maccabees touching Eleazar and the Jewish woman with her seven Sons All that Antiochus and the persecutors urg'd them to do was only to taste a little Swines-flesh a small business you 'l say what not eat a bit of Pork and yet being expresly against the Law of their God they all chuse rather to dye with exquisite Tortures and the reason is notably given by the good old man 2 Maccab. 6. 24. in these words It becometh not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore years old and ten were now gone to a strange Religion And so they through mine Hypocrisie and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me and I get a stain to my old age and make it abominable For though for the present I should be delivered from the rage of men yet I should not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead 'T is true this History is no part of Canonical Scripture but yet it was never esteemed Fabulous but the Church has always reckon'd them for Holy Martyrs and applauded their Faith and Constancy and consequently must condemn those that practise the contrary In a word those that repute this feigned compliance with Idolatry for a little matter and dare join with Papists in their damnable Superstitions know not how highly Gods Honour ought to be prized by all his Creatures which have their Being to no other end but to glorify him nor have sufficiently weighed that Tremendous Declaration of the great Jehovah Isaiah 42. 8 I am the Lord my Glory will I not give to another nor my Praise to Graven Images Obj. You will say here 's a stir indeed about going to Mass will you compare that with the Idolatries of the Heathen are not the Papists Christians I answer That the Church of Rome is no Church of Christ we have lately prov'd at large that she is guilty of Idolatry is apparent in this respect worse Idolatry than the Heathens because she is faln into the same by Apostacy 'T is an aggravation of her Crime that she was once a Spouse of Christ a man resents more sensibly the Disloyalty and Adulteries of his Wife than those of a common acpuaintance or ordinary friend Nor is this any other than the Doctrine of the Church publickly profest and taught in her Book of Homilies part the 2. p. 213. The Church of Rome as it is at present and hath been for the space of 900 years and odd is so far wide from the nature of the True Church that nothing can be more And again in her Homily against the peril of Idolatry she thus plainly expresses her self That the Church of Rome is an Idolatrous Church not only an Harlot as the Scripture calls her but also a foul filthy old withered Harlot and the Mother of Whoredme guilty of the same Idolatry and Worse than was amongst Ethnicks and Gentiles Thus thought thus spake the Church of England heretofore and whatever some young flashy heads who fancy a Reconciliation with Rome possible may pretend our Church â—â—till of the same Juâ—gment witness Dean Stillingfleet's learned Discourse Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome witness to that excellent and most true Assertion publickly delivered by the Right Honorable the present Lord Chief Justice Pemberton at Plunket's Trial p. 100. That Popery is a Religion ten times worse than all the Heathenish Superstitions so that we have the present Papists not only accused by our Church to maintain and practise Doctrines and Fopperies worse than Heathennism and the Charge made good by our most able Divines but also judiciously condemned from the Bench for the same However it may be still Objected what if Popery which God forbid should once again in after Ages gain the Ascendent of England and the Mass happen to be Establisht by Law may not I if I am a Minister brought up in the Protestant Religion comply so far as to say Mass if it be done purely out of a good intention thereby to gain an opportunity of Preaching the saving Doctrine of Christ to the people for their Edification who otherwise will be bereaved thereof I answer as Jehu replied to Joram talking of peace 2 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the Whâ—redoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrâ—fts are so many So what talk you of Preaching to Edification when you practise shall lead to Destruction This is an excuse that proceeds from the Belly not from the Heart he that makes it whoever he shall be has more respect to the keeping a Fat Benefice than the Salvation of the people or if indeed his aim should be right it will not follow that what he does is not sinful for good intentions can never justify bad actions God indeed sometimes by his omnipotent providence can promote his word even by means unlawful being an All-wise Artist that can bring good out of evil but shall it therefore be said that he approves of the irregularity or that he is excusable that commits it when he that mounts the Pulpit to take upon him the Person of Christ by instructing the people in the Gospel under his name and authority and performing the office of an Ambassadour from Heaven shall fain a consent to abominable Idolatry which is openly repugnant with the chief Scope of the Evangelical Doctrine what hopes are there of Edification from such an Hypocrite Let such boast their pious designs as much as they please those Cobweb pretensions are all instantly swept away and overthrowâ—â— by this one word of Eternal Truth That no Evil is to be done that good may follow Others there are that alledge they haunt Popish Chappels only out of curiosity spectatum veniunt they come meerly to see but let them remember too spectantur ipsi they are seen by men which if Papists may by their presence be Confirm'd in their Idolatries and if Protestants may be scandaliz'd and perverted by their Example for who can tell what their Intentions are when they do as the rankest Papists do and what is yet more they are also seen by God who will revenge and punish such their mispending their precious time and abetting of damnable Superstitions It is not safe to touch upon the borders of evil Dinah in curiosity went out to see the Maids of that Country otiosè spectat sed non otiosè spectatur her gazing was her vanity but her being gazed upon produced worse than vanity far was it from her thoughts that such a petulant curiosity should forfeit her Chastity yet we see what a
Rebellion promoting a general good of the King and Kingdome Faction and endeavouring the safety of the Nation against Popish Conspiracies a Presbyterian Plot. But if by Faction may be understood a few boysterus Troublesome people with as little sense as honesty that contrary to the rightful customes of the place they live in bandy against and disturb the Majority as suppose out-number'd above one Thousanâ—d in three and by persons of as good or better Quality every way than themselves and struggle to overthrow the Right Laws and Priviledges of the whole Community and when with Innovations Noise Shamms and shamefull foul practises they themselves have first industriously rais'd Feuds and Cumbustions do then think to file them to the account of such as justly and innocently oppose their lewd designs if this I say may pass for a true description of Faction then on my Conscience Popery and Torism are as errant Factions as ever pester'd a State Tory. Thou art always harping upon Popery I tell thee once again that party is not worth minding where shall you meet a man that now adays will own himself a Roman Catholick now quoth Roger we have taken the Oaths c. There 's Sing and Nevil shall talk as zealously for the Church by Law as any Country Curate and is not this a happy Reformation Truem. A Wolf is never the less a Wolf but the more dangerous for wearing the Lambs-skin that he lately worried I tell you there are still Papists in England and Bloody Traiterous Papists and a damnable Company of them too when was St. Omers and Doway more empty and yet I 'le warrant you all the Jesuits are not gone to Convert the Great Mogul Do not their raskally hedge-Priests flutter up and down as thick as Filfares who may not any day meet at 'tother end of the Town with Father Mathew's my Lord Peters's Ghostly Tool Father Fincham Brother to the Right Worshipful in Cromwel-shire Father Witherington Who once in doleful dumps Being drunk said Mass upon his Stumps Cum multis aliis quos cum proscribere Nolo strutting up and down streets as briskly as if they hoped to sing te Deum in Pauls and what business think you have these reverend Blades here Tory. Nay how do I know perhaps they only come over to turn Informers against Protestant Conventicles Do any of them Lodge in the Savoy Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY June 7. 1682. Crudeles Impiorum Misericordiae The Debates of the Bohemians at the Council of Basil The Story of Zisca his wonderful success and Epitaph The use of the Cup permitted to the Bohemians c. AMongst other Occurrences that happened at the Council of Basil which began to be Assembled Anno 1431. and continued sitting almost 12 years very remarkable were their proceedings with the Bohemians How God had been pleased to enlighten that Nation with the knowledge of his Truth and to discover to them the errors and wickedness of the Church of Rome by the spreading of Wickliffs Books amongst them we have heretofore acquainted you As also how those good seeds were cultivated by the pains of those laborious Husbandmen in the Lords Vineyard John Huss and Jerome of Prague who were both cruelly martyr'd contrary to the safe conduct granted them by the Council of Constance about the year 1415. Whereby the Gospel had taken such Root amongst the Bohemians that all the powers of darkness could not pluck it up yet of those of them that refused the Church of Rome there were two sorts some that only contended to have the use of the Cup in the Sacrament restored to the Laity but in other Doctrines agreed with the Romanists and these for that reason were commonly called Calixstines from Calix a Cup the other not only complained of the Sacriledge of the Papists in that respect but also pressed for the purity and simplicity of Religion in all Articles and Ceremonies and these were sometimes call'd Piccardines and sometimes Tabâ—ritâ—s for the cause herein after mentioned You must note after the burning of Huss and Jerome the Nobles of Hungary to the number of 50 and upwards in the name of themselves and the whole Commonalty sent Letters under their Seals Dated 2 Sept. 1416 to Constance complaining thereof as likewise did the Nobles of Moravia But that Bloody Conventicle vouchfased them no answer but on the contrary stirred up great persecution against them so that the Hussites were not only Excommunicated but their Churches broke open and their persons and goods every where exposed to violence which occasion'd such a tumult on the 13 th of July 1419 at Prague that the common people being enraged threw 12 Senators of Old Prague with the chief City Majestrate out of the Windows of the Senate House who fell upon the points of Spears Pope Martin the 5th Anno 1420 publickly excommunicates the Bohemians Exciting the Emperor and all Kings Prince Dukes c. to take up Arms against them Intreating them by the Wounds of Christ and their own Salvation unanimously to fall upon them and quite Extirpate that Sacrilegious and cursed Nation and withal promises so zealous and bountiful was his Holiness an universal remission of sins to the most wicked person that should kill one Bohemian Heretick History of the Bohemian Persecution p. 27. But some small time before this some thousands of those that profess'd the true Religion finding they could not live peaceably in Prague retired from thence to a stony Mountain about 10 Miles distant which they named Tabor and encompassed it round with a Wall and other fortifications constituting there a kind of Common-wealth and resolv'd to defend themselves by Arms and hence they were call'd Taborites The Emperour Sigismund spur'd on by these Incentives and large promises from the Pope of gairing Heaven gathers a most puissant Army from all parts of the Empire and resolves utterly to extirpate these poor Bohemian Hussites Who being in this sore distress one John de Trosnovie call'd Ziska because he had but one Eye of a Noble house but mean fortune yet great valour and conduct undertakes to gather together the scatter'd people and to head them against their Enemies which he perform'd with such success that Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope and no friend to be sure to the Bohemians who wrote the Story of those Wars affirms his Atchievements will rather be admir'd than believed by posterity for with handfuls of those poor unfurnisht people he fought eleven several Battels with Sigismund's numerous well provided and fresh recruited Armies and in all of them came off victorious nay though in one of them he lost his other Eye and so was blind yet afterwards he continued no less fortunate a Leader so that at last Sigismund despairing to vanquish him but by a Treaty consents to declare him his Lieutenant and allow him a Pension on condition he and his followers would
only with the Domestick friends of the Faith but also with the Enemies thereof Pope Eugenius went the way of all flesh Anno 1446. To whom succeded one Thomas de Sarzana by the name of Nicholas the fifth who had been Imploy'd by Eugenius in Germany to compose the differences and take the Emperour from siding with Felix formerly Duke of Savoy who was Created Pope as we told you lately by the Council of Basil and was still living during this negotiation he Contracted a friendship with the before mentioned Aeneas Sylvius and such â—avoâ—râ—n the Imperal Court that soon after he came to the Chair Foelix the Anti-Pope finding himself abandon'd voluntarily resignâ—d his Pope-ship Anno 1449. and accepted of a Legates place under Nicholas and so the Schism as they call it that is having two or more Popes at once and this was just the Thirtieth of that kind which had lasted almost Ten years was soder'd up and Cured The year 1450. was the great Jubilee held at Rome an excellent Fair for the Popes Merchandize and which brought him in abundance of Money Tanta multitudo Roman venit quanta nunquam antea There came â—saith Platina such a power of People the world was always full of fools to Rome as never the like was seen and one day there were 200 men and 3 horses and a Mule Kill'd upon Hadrians Bridg by reason of the Crowd The next year the Emperour Frederick takes a Journy into Italy as well to be Crown'd as to Marry Lonâ—ra the King of Portugals Daughter Pope Nick being naturally a Coward was very apprehensive lest Frederick calling to mind the antient Right and Authority of his predecessors should take upon him the Rule and Government of the City and thereof Fortified the Capital and Castle of St. Angels and all the Gates c. But he was more afraid than hurt for Frederick had no such design against him but being Crown'd and Married and magnificently treated for sometime at Rome peaceably returned into Germany When Constantinople was beseiged by the Turks the Greeks saith Antonius part 3. Tit. 22. C. 13 sent Ambassadours to Pope Nicholas Imploring his assistance of men and money but Nicholas would not hear them yet Platina would make us beleive he was so much afflicted for the loss of the City that it was one of the causes of his Death which happen'd Anno 1455. 'T is a remarkable odd story which Bodin in his Daemonomania and Jacob Sprenger the Inquisitor of Witches in his Book Intituled Malleus Maleficarum tells of this Pope viz. That a certain German Bishop being sick for whom Nicholas had a great kindness he understood by a Witch the Divel it seems was these Holy Fathers Oracle that his indisposition proceeded from Witchcraft and that there was no way in the World to Recover him but by a contrary Charm by which the Witch her self that had bejuggled him must die He therefore sends Post to Rome and begs Pope Nicholas leave to be Cured by this White Witch and accordingly his Holiness grants him a Dispensation both as to Imploying the Witch and the Murther that was to follow the Bull alleadging that he allow'd that same because of two evils we are to avoid the Greater the Popes worship had forgot that we are not to do evil that good may come on 't indeed that maxime has no place in the Roman divinity for by Blood and Murder force and fraud perjury and all kind of villany they pretend to advance the Glory of God true Religion and Holy Church well this License being arrived the Witch under the Popes Blessing and Authority at the Bishops Intreaty undertakes the Job and ply'd her business so much I cannot say so well that about Midnight the Bishop was perfectly restored to health and at the very same Instant the disease passed into her that had bewitched him whereof she dyed We come now to Calixtus the third named before Alphonsus Borgia who was no sooner Elected but he denounc'd War against the Turks saying that he had long since vow'd the same and in testimony thereof shew'd a note formerly subscribed with his own hand in a certain book containing the words following Ego Calixtus Pontifex Deus omnipotenti voveo Sarctâ—â— Individuâ— Trinitate me Bello maledictis Interdictis execraâ—ionibus dâ—mum quibuscunque rebus potero Turcos Christiani nominis hostis saevissimos persecuturum I Pope Calixtus do vow to Almighty God and to the holy undivisible Trinity that I will persecute the Turks Enemies of the Christian name by Wars Curses Interdictions Execrations and by all other means that I can 'T was a riddle to all present how he should qualify himself with the Title of Pope so long before he was Elected but it seems the mans head ran much upon it nor were the Threatnings of such an old decripiâ—e fellow for he was about Fourscore very terrible However in pretence at least of Carrying on this sacred War he laid a Tenth on all the Clergy of Christendome and publisht a Croysado according to Custome granting thereby full Remission of sins to all that should Contribute to that expedition provided that once in their lives and once at their death they were Confessed and also gave Authority to whomsoever would give Five Ducats to Absolve and dispence in many cases Alponsus King of Naples and Philip Duke of Burgâ—udy were admonished to Cross themselves that is to serve in person for in such cases all both Soldiers and Commanders wore Crosses on their outward Garments but as the business was suddenly started and for a spurt carried on with wonderfull vigour so in little time the zeal abated and the preparations declin'd Some few Gallies the Pope did equipp and put out to Sea that did the Turks some damage and sent a Friar with great presents to the King of Persia and the Cham of Tartary perswading them likewise to fall upon the Turk For a blessing on these Enterprises he ordain'd that a Bell should every day between Noon and Evening be Tâ—ll'd at the sound whereof whoever did on their knees mutter over 3 Ave Maria's and Pater Nosters should have three years and three fortieth parts of Indulgences that is to say for three years a man might live as he list and defie both God and the Divel and for the rest of all his sins being divided into Forty equal parts every time he mubled over three Ave's and Pater's at the tinkling of that Bell three of those parts should be wip'd off the score so that Foureteen bouts would Ballance the whole Account He likewise appointed a General prâ—câ—ssion or Letany the first Sunday of every Month in which whosoever assisted should obtain seven years and a seven fortieth part of Indulgences besides a Prayer in the Mass for Victory over the â—â—â—â—dels and he that said That had three years Indulgenâ—e If all these Baits of dâ—votion would make men Saints he yet had another trick would do the feâ—â— and