and the Elders of the People Can they deny that the Christian Emperours did not heretofore call Councils to Order the State of Religion and to provide against disorders in the Church Can they deny that our Kings have not often done the same in their Kingdome But the Senate of Zurich would of it self take Cognizance of the matters of Religion I say that that very thing was its Right for if it be the Duty of every Christian for the Interest of his own Salvation to take Cognizance of those things that the Church-men Teach and not blindly to refer themselves to their Word as I have made it appear to be in the first Part it is not less the Duty of Magistrates to do the same to bind the Church-men to acquit themselves faithfully in their Charges and to Teach men nothing that might not be conformable to the Word of God So that if the Ministers of the Church go astray from that Word and if they corrupt their Ministry by Errors and Superstitions it belongs to the Magistrate to Labour to reduce them to their Duty by the mildest and justest methods he can use Thus the Kings of Judah used it heretofore as it appears from the History of Hezechias Josias and of some others who made use of that lawful Authority that God gave them for the Reforming of their Church by the Word of God We all know that the Antient Emperors took Cognizance either by themselves of their Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs and not only of those that respected the Discipline but of those also which related to the Doctrine and the very Essence of Religion it self to that degree that they frequently published under their Names in the Form of Edicts Decisions of Opinions Condemnations of Heresy and the Interpretations of the Faith which they had caused to be disputed in their Presence in Synodal Assemblies We ought not therefore to imagine that Magistrates ought not to interpose in matters of the Faith under a pretence that they are Lay-men for on the contrary they ought to interpose themselves more in those then in those of Discipline because the Faith respects every man where Discipline relates to the Clergy more peculiarly Therefore it was that Pope Nicholas the First told the Emperour Michael who was present in person in a Council where only the Fact of Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople was treated of whom that Emperour had deposed That he did not find that the Emperours his Predecessours had been present at Synodal Assemblies unless they might possibly have been in those where matters of the Faith were Treated of which is a common Thing relating Generally to all and which belongs not only to the Clergy but the Laity also and universally to all Christians There was nothing therefore in that Action of the Magistrates of Zurich that was not a Right common to all Soveraign Magistrates within the extent of their Jurisdictions But they will say Was it not to break off the Unity of their Church with the rest to go about so to order the State of Religion within their Canton without the Participation of other Churches and were they not Schismaticks in that very thing I answer That when a Prince or a Soveraign Magistrate is in a condition to call a General Council together to deliberate about the Common Faith he would do better to take that way But when he is not as the Senate of Zurich evidently was not ought he to abandon all care of the Churches of his State They will see in the end of this Treatise that the States of Germany seeing the Oppositions that the Popes made to the calling of a general Council often demanded a National one of the Emperour Charles the Fifth They will see also that that Emperour was sometimes resolved to do it and that he Threatned the Popes to cause divers Colloquies or Conferences of Learned men to be held to labour to decide those Articles that were Controverted They will see that our Kings for the same design have sometimes deliberated about assembling a National Council in France And no body is ignorant of the Conference of Poissy under the Reign of Charles the Ninth There was nothing therefore in the Conduct of that business that did not belong to the Right of Soveraigns and nothing which they can charge with Schism in it For when a Prince or a Senate Assembles a Synod to condemn Heresies or Reform Errors and by that means takes Cognizance of matters of Religion provided that in effect that which it condemns be a Heresy or that which it Reforms be an Error he is so far from breaking Christian Unity that on the contrary he confirms it as much as he can in freeing it from a false and wicked Unity which is that of Error which cannot be other then destructive to the whole Body of the Church and which cannot be too soon broken So that we ought to Judge of their Action more by the Foundation then the Form or Manner For the Foundation being good its Action cannot but be approved When a Man is Sick with divers others as it frequently happens in Epidemical Diseases it would be Injustice in him not to provide for his own particular healing but to stay for a general one and it would be a great absurdity to say that if he did do so he violated the Rights of the Civil Society for the Civil Society does not consist in being a Communion of sickness but in being a Communion of Life On the contrary it ought to be said that in healing himself in particular he established as much as in him lay that Civil Society which he had with his diseased Companions because he encouraged them by his Example to heal themselves with him the better to enjoy in common the advantages of Life It is the same case here where a Church sees it self infected with Error and Superstition with divers other Churches she no ways violates Christian Unity in labouring to reform her self particularly for the Christian Unity does not consist in the Communion of Errors and Abuses it consists in the Communion of that True Faith and Piety It establishes therefore on the contrary that Unity because it gives others a good Example and thereby encourages them to reform themselves as it has done All that which a Prince or Soveraign Magistrate ought to observe in those Seasons is on one side to take heed that he makes a just discerning of good and evil I would say that he reforms nothing which would not be in effect an Error or a Superstition or an Abuse and that he does not give any wound to the True Religion under a pretence of Reformation and on the other side to offer no violence to Mens Consciences but to purify the Publick Ministry as much as he can by the general consent of the People that God has committed to him But this is that which not only the Magistrates of Zurich but those also of other places
in it no sooner I have heard it has been the wish of some Great Divines but their own Employments hindred them from Effecting it and it might have been expected that it should have moved somebody to have attempted it upon that very account because they desired it For since the Gift of Tongues is ceased and those Inspired Linguists have been long ago silenced Translation is none of the worst ways of supplying that absent Grace neither can it be accounted beneath any man by his Industry to retrieve a departed Miracle I could wish he had come forth in all the Ornaments of our Language as he did at first in those of his own Those Ceremonies of Speech though in themselves not absolutely necessary and add not much to the Substance yet they contribute not a little to the Decency and pleasing part of an Author for there is a Delightful Prospect arising from the Agreeable Mixture of the Colours of Language without which a Book is never the less solid but with which it is much more perswading However he appears the more in his own Dimensions the thinner his Garments are and the closer they sit about him I shall make no Apology for the Author because I know nothing in him that needs it unless some should mistake some of his expressions about Episcopacy Where if he has let fall any thing that may offend he has these two things at least for his excuse First that he lived under an external constitution of a Church that did not exercise that way of Government Secondly he himself tells us those that he mentions were only such who were of the Popish Communion and only as such he uses them I shall not detain the Reader any longer from the Book it self only I am to desire him that whatsoever faults he finds in the Preface may not be imputed any further to the Book it self For the more mistakes there are in it the more proper it is for that Perfect Piece it is set before as the Errors of the Church of Rome had no small share in the occasion of our Religion and may in some sense be stiled The Preface to the Reformation The Epistle Dedicatory of the Author To the Right Honourable The MARQUESS of RUVIGNY Lieutenant-General of His Majesties Armies AND General Deputy of the Protestants in FRANCE MY LORD MY first thoughts after I had read the Books of the Prejudices were not to write any Answer to it For besides that I saw in that Book nothing else but the same Accusations from which our Fathers and we have already been frequently justified and that moreover they were wrote there in so extreamly passionate and invenomed a stile for my own particular I did not think my self bound to follow every where those persons who seem to make it their design to load me with the number of their Volumes affecting to take me for a Party in all the Works that they daily publish and even in those that are most remote from the chief Subject of our Controversy Yet when I perceived the loud Out-cries that these Gentlemen and their followers made about their Prejudices to draw the applause of the World to themselves as if they had silenced us and our Reformation remained over thrown under the weight of their Victory I judged it necessary to enter upon this new labour and the deference that I had for those who exhorted me to undertake it has brought forth this Treatise that I now give to the publick Those who shall take the pains to read it will find that I have not meerly tied my self to the Book that I confute but that to save my self the labour of doing it at twice I have considered the matter in its first Principles and examinëd it in its just extent that I might be the better able to judge of it I acknowledg the Subject Treated on required more Learning readiness and leasure then I was master of but it may be also they will find in the plain and natural way wherein I have handled it something more easy then if I had employed more Art and Meditation in it It is this makes me hope that when I shall not fully have answered the expectations of those who have engaged me in this work yet they will not read this Defence without some satisfaction However it be My Lord I take the boldness to present it to you and to entreat the favour of you to receive it as a token of the acknowledgment that I have for so much goodness as you have testified towards me I am perswaded that those of our Communion in this Kingdom will very heartily consent that my weak pen should also express the sentiments that they all have of your person and of the cares that you take to uphold their common interests I will also affirm that your Merit is so generally acknowledged that when nothing shall be disputed but the just praises that are due to your prudence to the wisdom that appears throughout your whole Conduct to the inviolable Principles of Honour and Justice that are the perpetual Rules of your Actions and in a word to the great and solid Vertues that you practise with such exactness they can assure themselves that there will be no difference about that between those of the one and the other Communion But all those Qualities that they take notice of in You how Rich and Resplendent soever they are even in the eyes of those who are destitute of them would be nothing else but false dazling light if they were not accompanied with real Piety which only gives a value to all the Moral Virtues You are not ignorant My Lord you in whom we saw it but a few Months ago how your Soul ready to take its flight trembled and remained confounded in the view of all that humane Righteousness and that you could find no rest in your Spirit any where else then in the bosom of Religion and Piety This alone was that which gave you the Tranquillity of Soul which taught all those who had the honour to come near your Bed after what manner a good man who could rest assured of Gods Mercy and the Grace of Jesus Christ might look Death in the Face It is this that has yet prolonged your days or to speak better that has restored Life to you by an extraordinary blessing of heaven little different from that which Hezechias heretofore received as the fruit of his humiliation and prayer Continue MY LORD to lay out that life which has been given you again in the service of God and in the employments to which your calling engages you and of which you have so great an account to render Those employments are certainly difficult and if I may take the boldness to say it they are oppressing through their quality through their numbers and through the accidents that either accompany or follow them But he who has called you to them will give you ability to discharge
I know not how many others that were evidently either the Remnants or Imitations of Antient Paganism Who would think it strange that an Idea of a Religion that plainly appear'd to be so little advantagious to it or to say better which was so contrary to the Spirit and the true design of Christianity should have touched our Fathers and inspir'd into them a desire of knowing those things a little more particularly then they had as yet done 3. They were yet further carri'd out with that desire when they considered the ill Effects that those Ceremonies borrow'd from the Pagans had produc'd and some others that were annexed to them as Rosaries Chaplets holy Salt their Pilgrimages and and Monastick Vows and such like things For they manifestly fill'd the minds of men with superstition they caused a thousand abuses among the people they ordinarily made way for lying Forgeries and which rendred them yet far more odious they fomented a too natural negligence which every one has for works of true and solid Piety whether by busying the minds of Christians too much or perswading them that they had very well acquitted themselves of their duty by doing these External things or lastly whether it was by infusing into them a false Idea of Divinity as if all its worship did consist in such Trumpery Who is it that sees not what a great prejudice this was against a Religion that taught such things and so solemnly enjoyned them to be practised 4. It had been yet very hard if our Fathers had not been offended by that worldly Pomp wherewith they saw Religion so excessively cloathed For they very well knew that true Christianity was contented to gain the Hearts and Souls of men by the Majesty of its Doctrines and Holiness of its Precepts And that for the rest it professed to retain its simplicity notwithstanding which they observed a clean contrary Character in the Magnificence of their Tenples in the Gold of their Tabernacles in the Pride of their Sacrifices in the Riches of their Ornaments and in general in all that external splendour which seem'd destin'd only to strike extraordinarily the sences and by this means to raise an ill grounded Admiration that which is proper to only corrupt Religions which as Tertullian takes notice labour to gain their Authority and to obtain the belief of the People by their Pomp and their profuseness 5. The Natural Effect of the Doctrines of Christianity when they are receiv'd with Faith and when its worship is practised with Devotion is to comfort the Conscience and to give it a certain satisfaction and calm which is better felt then it can be exprest But our Fathers were so far from receiving that Effect from the Doctrines and worship wherein they made in their days almost the Fundamentals of Religion to consist as in the Invocation of Saints the absolute Obedience to the Pope or to his Councils the conceit of Mens satisfactions the Adoration of Reliques the Pilgrimages and other things of the like nature they were I say so far from receiving it from these Doctrines that on the contrary they could not but feel secret remorses after having practised them For the Consciences of Christians are naturally carried out to none but God alone and cannot endure that that which is due to him should be divided between him and the Creatures They have naturally a reluctance to call upon any other Being then the first Cause of all to pay a Religious service to lifeless Images to subject themselves to any other Oracle then that of God to attribute any part of their Redemption to any others besides Jesus Christ who has acquired for them a fullness of Salvation And in a word to lay hold on any Creature as the object of their Confidence or Piety so our Fathers knowing from their own Experience that these Tenets and Devotions were not only barren of all that quiet but at the same time contrary to the peace of their Souls they could not but receive a great prejudice against those Tenets and against those Devotions themselves and against that Religion that proposed them 6. But that was not all they saw yet many things in that Religion most formally opposite to many plain and express passages of Scripture As the point of Images to the second Commandment Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. That of Communion only in one kind to that Command of Jesus Christ Drink ye all of this That of Praying in an unknown Tongue to the Prohibition of St. Paul in the fourteenth of the first Epistle to the Corinthians Else if thou shalt bless with the Spirit how shall he that occupieth the Room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he uuderstandeth not what thou sayest For thou verily givest thanks well but the other is not Edified And the business of blind Subjection to the Ministers of the Church to that strict Declaration of the Apostle We have not Dominion over your Faith That of the Papal Monarchy to these words of our Saviour The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship c. but it shall not be so with you That of humane satisfactions to the words of St. John The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all Sin And that of the Sacrifice of the Mass to that Doctrine of St. Paul to the Hebrews That Jesus Christ has once offered up himself for us I do not at all enquire whether the force of these passages may be eluded and distorted to a sence that may agree with those points which I have mentioned I do not enter upon that It is enough if any see that opposition of which I speak to appear at 1 sight that it likewise strikes the Soul and seems at least strong enough to Create great scruples and to form a prejudice that carri'd our Fathers on to examine those things a little more narrowly 7. To which they were yet further urg'd by the Consideration that they made of some Maxims and Distinctions which they ordinarily made use of to uphold the worshipping of Creatures for they discovered in them something that was extremly Scandalous For Example where they maintained the Worshipping of Angels and that of the Saints by saying that they did not adore them but by a lower sort of Adoration proportioned to the excellency they acknowledged to be in them not that they gave them that supream Adoration which is due to none but God alone I do not here put it in Question whether this distinction be good or bad it is sufficient that it had the ill luck to fall in with that which the Antient Heathens made use of for the defence of those Adorations which they paid to their Genius's to their Heroes to their Demy and inferiour Gods c. For the Pagans said the same that men did them great wrong in laying it to their charge that they worshipped their Genius's and inferiour Gods with that Soveraign Worship
Saint Paul calls her the Body of Jesus Christ But the Body of Jesus Christ is Eternal Jesus Christ promises to be with his even unto the end of the World and says that the Comforter shall abide with them for ever and that the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against his Church But it is no need of heaping up these Proofs of a thing which was never contested God will always keep a Church upon Earth that is to say he will always have a number of true Believers whom he will guide by his Word and by his Spirit and they are those that are betroth'd to him for ever and the Mystical Body of his Son to whom he will grant his gratious presence for ever and an assured Victory against the Gates of Hell There is nothing disputed in that point Our business is only to enquire whether all that Body composed of the good and the wicked that Assembly in which the worldly men and Hypocrites are mixt with the truly Faithful and that which they call the Visible Church can never fall into errour after what manner soever it be Whether it is not possible for that party of the men of the World which may be sometimes the stronger to corrupt the publick Ministry and for the same in respect of some errours and superstitions less Fundamental to infect the Good and to draw them tho' not so far from the Truth as to make them wholly lose the true Form of Piety and Communion with God for if that might happen the Church would be brought to nothing yet after such a manner as that their Faith and their Religion could not be said to be altogether pure But this experience justifies For in the Corruptions of the Church of Isral and in those times wherein they had introduc't the Worship of false Gods into the publick Ministry God had reserv'd seven thousand men who had not bowed their knees to Baal and that which is most considerable is that that very Religion of those seven thousand was not pure for they liv'd in that Schism that Jeroboam made and no more went to render that Worship to God which they were bound to pay at Jerusalem but to Bethel It will signify nothing to them to say that the Church then subsisted in the Tribe of Judah for besides that that would not hinder any from seeing clearly by that example of those seven thousand that God can when he pleases preserve his own in a corrupted Communion and that yet the far greater number might fall into errour and that the publick Ministry might be contaminated it will not follow notwithsanding that that Church was wholly extinct which is only that which we say Besides that I say it is yet manifest that those two Churches that of Israel and that of Judah were often found to depart both together sometimes from the true Worship of God as it appears from that which Jeremiah says That God having given a Bill of Divorce to that of Israel for her Idolatries Judah her Sister feared not but that she also had turned aside from his true Worship It appears also by that which Ezekiel said that Samaria had not committed half the sins of Judah who had justifi'd her Sister in multiplying her Abominations The same History of the Kings of Israel and Judah teaches us concerning Joram the Son of Ahab King of Israel that he clave to the sins of Jeroboam by which he had made Israel to sin and that at the same time Joram the Son of Jehoshaphat and his Son Ahaziah Reigned in Judah and walked after the ways of the Kings of Israel in doing that which displeased the Lord. But without going so far is it not true that when Jesus Christ came into the World he did not find a pure Church upon Earth The Schismatical Samaritans had so confused a Religion that Jesus Christ did not scruple to say that Salvation was of the Jews The Jews on their side had defac'd their Religion by a thousand superstitions and by the false Doctrine of the Pharisees and in fine they had crucifi'd the Lord of Life the only Messoas they expected Notwithstanding which we ought not to believe that the Church was perished from the Earth and that God did not preserve his Children in the midst of those Confusions The same thing happened then when the Arrians had made themselves Masters of the Ministry of the Church and when under the Emperour Theodosius the younger the Eutichians prevailed in the second Council of Ephesus For it would be a very absurd thing to imagine that during the time of the Triumph of those Hereticks there were no more any true Believers in those Churches all whose Pulpits they had fill'd and none in all that Communion but those who obeyed the erronious Councils of Milan of Ariminum and of Ephesus At this very day the most zealous among those of the Church of Rome acknowledge that God saves many persons who live under the Schismatical Ministry of the Greeks and the Muscovites although besides that Schism they accuse them of holding a multitude of errours and superstitions For so Possevin sets it down in one of his Relations of Muscovy We ought not then to make the subsistance of the Church to depend absolutely on that Infallibility whereof we dispute We ought yet far less to abuse the promises of God by pretending under that pretext that they can never do that that is ill The true use of the promises is to encourage us to our Duty and in stead of making us presumptious they ought on the contrary to humble us and to shew us the horrour of our sins when it is contrary to that promise For so the Scripture makes use of it in the second Book of the Kings upon the subject of the Idolatries of Manasseh King of Judah for after having reckoned them over particularly it adds that he set up a graven Image of the Grove that he had made in the House of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his Son In this House and in Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the Tribes of Israel will I put my Name for ever See there the promise employed to its right use not to defend Manasseh in what he had done under a pretence that God had promised that his Name should never depart from the Temple which is the Language they speak in these days but to condemn Manasseh of that that as much as it lay in his power he had nullified that promise of God And so also it is that good men ought to speak to the Corrupters of Religion God has promised us that he would betroth his Church to himself for ever and you have laboured to break off that happy Marriage Jesus Christ has promised us that he will be always with us even unto the end of the world and you have endeavoured to deprive us of his presence He has promised us that his Holy
adored it and that he should never have done the same Actions that were practised by others they may very well understand what Judgment their Ministers used in their Conduct during those first Years For according to all their Principles they ought to have Condemned it since it was as little allowable to Zuinglius to partake with that Worship as it is at present to the Calvinists and since they pretend that it is so far forbidden them that they urge the Obligation that they say lies upon them not to take any part in it as the chief Reason of their Separation So that Zuinglius remaining yet in Communion with those who adored the Eucharist contributed to that adoration by his Ministry and joyning himself to their Assemblies rendred himself guilty of all those sins which the Calvinists apprehend to be committed in remaining united to the Church He would every day have betrayed his Conscience he would every day have committed a criminal Idolatry And it is in that condition that the Calvinists pretend that God made use of him for the greatest Work that ever was done which was the Reformation of the Error of all their Fathers Answer As that Accusation is founded upon this only thing That it is very hard to be believed so also we shall here Answer in saying That it is very hard to be believed That Zuinglius did any thing during that Time that should be repugnant to the Dictates of his Conscience All the Histories of his Life shew that he was a man of strict Piety and of a severe Virtue that he was not used to those Juggles of the Hypocrite which we may see practised by so many and even by those who would appear the most severe and that moreover he never did any thing remote from the sincerity of an honest man They cannot then without equally violating the Laws of Justice and those of Charity suspect on those meer Conjectures that he went contrary to his sentiments on that Occasion and the Author of the Prejudices ought to produce the proofs of his Accusation or to suffer himself to be condemned for Injustice and Malignity It is true that during that Time Zuinglius neither quitted his Ministry nor forsook those who adored the Eucharist but who has told the Author of the Prejudices that men ought to forsake a People that are in Error in the same Time that they have hopes of disabusing them and labour to reduce them into the right way As the Reformation of a Church is not the work of a Day none can think it strange that Zuinglius did not propose all of a sudden all that he had to say and that he did one thing after another It is sufficient that during the Time wherein he set himself to that Work he did not in the least partake in the abuses which he had a design to correct and therefore the Author of the Prejudices ought not to have accused him without ever laying down the proofs of his Accusation The History of Zuinglius relates that he was called to the Church of Zurich in the beginning of the Year 1519. and that from the first moment wherein he was there he set himself with all his might to the Instruction of his Flock to the Reformation of those grosser Errors wherewith the Ministry was then infected and to the correcting of mens manners which succeeded so well with him by the blessing of God that within less then four years he changed the Face of that Church and disposed it to a thorough Reformation But among those Errors that he opposed he applied himself particularly to the Sacrifice of the Mass shewing the People out of the Scripture that there could be no other real Sacrifice then that upon the Cross whence it is very easy to conjecture that he carefully avoided to assist in a Ceremony that he so openly opposed and from which he himself withdrew his Hearers 3. Object Zuinglius engaged the Magistrates of Zurich to call a Synod and to make themselves Judges and Arbiters for the Ordering the State of the Religion of their Canton There was never till then a Synod of that Nature spoke of and it is an astonishing thing that mens rashness and insolence should have been able to have carried them out to so great an excess The Council of two hundred that is to say Two hundred Burghers of a Switz Town as learned and ready in matters of Divinity as one may believe the Switz Burghers were called together all the Church-men under their jurisdiction to dispute before them with an Intention to Order the State of Religion with the understanding of the matter Answer It were much to be wished that the discourse of the Author of the Prejudices were as well Ordered as that Action of the Senate of Zurich was besides these Abuses and Superstitions that were Ordinary they had seen for some Time past a Preacher of Indulgences in that Church called Samson sent by the Pope to distribute his Pardons That Preacher managed his part so well that there were not any Crimes how great soever they were that were or should be committed which he did not set a price upon without making any other difficulty then about the Sum that was be paid to him and by that means he put the whole Country into a dreadful disorder filling it with profligate Persons Zuinglius opposed this Seducer with all his might and at the same time he laboured to give his Flock the knowledge of the true Principles of the Christian Religion and to reduce them back to one only Jesus Christ and his Scripture in freeing them from the Errors and Superstitions of Mens Invention But as the Word of God was never yet without Adversaries the greater number of the Church-men lifted themselves up against Zuinglius and accused him before the people to be a Heretick which forced the Senate it self to take knowledge of those Accusations and to call together a Synod composed of all the Church-men of its State wherein every one had the liberty to propose what he would against Zuinglius and Zuinglius that of defending himself And that very thing was done by the consent of the Bishop of Constance who sent his Deputies thither and among others John le Fevre his Vicar General What was there in all that that might not come from the Justice and Prudence of a Senate If the Accusations wherewith they charged Zuinglius had been well grounded it had been the Duty of the Magistrate to have enjoyned him Silence and being false as they were it was the Magistrates duty to uphold him What is it that the Author of the Prejudices can blame in that Conduct They called a Synod We maintain it to be the Right of Kings and Soveraign Magistrates within the extent of their States The Holy Story Testifies that Josias intending to set up the pure worship of God in his Kingdom called together an Assembly of Priests Prophets
of a shadow of Reformation that he had propounded which consisted only in most trivial matters he caused them to make a League among them for the defence of the Roman Religion and the destruction of the Lutherans Soon after they saw the effects of this League appear for Ferdinand and the Legat being gone into Austria they condemned to death some persons upon the account of Religion Clement elsewhere took the same cares for all places which they took in Germany to hinder the progress of the Reformation He wrote upon that subject into Switzerland into Bohemia France Poland Swedeland Denmark and he stirr'd up every where the Princes Magistrates and Prelates to overthrow the Reformed Wherefore they beheld soon after under his Pontificate the Inquisitions taken up in that pursuit the Prisons filled with Prisoners and the Scaffolds and the Stakes filled almost generally in all places that owned his Authority It was at this time that Antonius Pratensis Cardinal and Arch-Bishop of Sens held a Provincial Synod at Paris the ninety second Article of which was framed in these terms We intreat the Most Christian King our Prince and Soveraign Lord by the bowels of the mercies of God that according to his singular zeal and incredible devotion for the Christian Religion that he would suddenly banish from the Lands of his Jurisdiction all Hereticks and that he would extirpate that deadly and horrible plague which increases every day more and more The ninety third was framed after this manner Therefore it is that the Orthodox Princes if they would have any care for the Christian Name and would hinder the ruine of Religion ought necessarily to use all their endeavours to extirpate and destroy Hereticks That Arch-Bishop was very much interessed in the preservation of the ancient abuses for we find in the Dialogue of the Two Parishioners of S. Hilary Montanus that he was Cardinal Arch-Bishop of Sens Bishop of Alby Bishop of Valence Bishop of Gap and Abbot of Fleury We ought not to be astonished if he declaimed so much against the Reformation He was in effect one of those who opposed themselves to it in France with the greatest heat and if any would know his character they need but look to that which the Authors of that same Dialogue say of him This Du Prat was he not as great a Prelate as a S. Hilary of Poictiers a S. Martin of Tours a S. German of Auxerre and as a S. Lupus of Troye He had alone full as many Bishopricks as all those admirable Saints had together and moreover the Abby in which is the Body of S. Benorist but he has not done so many Miracles as all those Saints and he never resided in any of those Diocesses nor ever performed any other office of a Bishop than that only Ordinance against Martin Luther Philip Melancthon Oecolampadins Zuinghus for as yet Calvin and Beza were not talked of It is this good Prelate to whom they attribute the taking away of the Pragmatick Sanction that is to say the pure observation of the Ancient Canons of the Church of France and the having made the agreement between King Francis the First and Leo the Tenth which has destroyed all the Apostolical Discipline in France and abolished the Canonical Elections and subjected France to a deplorable servitude The same Spirit that the Cardinal Du Prat had brought into France reigned then in England Scotland Flanders Austria Poland and universally in all places where the Power of the Pope extended it self for there was nothing talked of there but the extream punishments which they inflicted on those pretended Hereticks and their very Judges who touch'd with some compassion did not readily do their duty according to the humour of the Court of Rome did not remain unpunished For it was for this reason that Pope Clement charged Cardinal Campeius his Legate to remove those Inquisitors who were in the Low-Countreys and to put others in their places who should better acquit themselves of so detestable a service as Raynaldus relates But while they acted after this manner the Light of the Reformation did yet spread it self abroad in divers places through an admirable blessing of God who has alwayes made the ashes of his Martyrs the seed of his Church For not only Saxony had receiv'd it but also a great part of Germany a great part of Switzerland Swedeland Denmark Prussia and Livonia also In the month of April in the year 1529. an Assembly of the Princes and other States of Germany was held at Spire whither Clement did not fail to send a Nuntio The first thing they did there was to reject the Assembly at the City of Strasburgh under a pretence that it had abolish'd the use of the Mass without waiting for the Imperial Diet. This violent procedure was quickly after followed by a Decree that Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Austria and some other Princes who took part with the Court of Rome made and whom the Emperour had expresly chosen for his Deputy Commissioners They ordain'd therefore in the first place that those who till then had observ'd the Edict of Wormes that is to say who not only had not receiv'd the Reformation but who had persecuted it with all their might should for the future do the like and force their Subjects to do the same and that as for those in whose Countreys that new Doctrine had been spread abroad provided they could not extirpate it without putting themselves into a manifest danger of stirring up troubles it should be their part at least to hinder any thing more from being innovated till the calling of a Council Secondly They ordained That above all things the Doctrine which opposed the substantial presence of the body of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist should neither be received nor propounded by any in all the compass of Germany and that the Mass should not be abrogated In the third place they decreed That they should not allow Preachers in any place to explain the Gospel otherwise than by the interpretations of the Fathers In fine they ordained grievous penalties against the Printers and Booksellers who should Print or Vend for the future the Books that contained that new Doctrine The other Princes and States of the Empire beholding this manifest oppression thought themselves bound to make an Act of Protestation to the contrary They remonstrated therefore That that new Decree contradicted that that had been passed in the preceding Assembly where every one was to be free in respect of his Religion That they did not pretend to hinder the other Princes and States from enjoying that liberty but that on the contrary they pray'd God that he would give them the knowledge of his Truth That they could not with a good conscience approve of the reason for which they would allow them to retain the Evangelical Doctrine to wit lest they should fall into new troubles for that would be to confess that it would be good to renounce that Doctrine
Letters of Safe-conduct violated in the person of John Husse and Jerom of Prague They caused in the end a Writing to be Printed containing all these reasons and divers others too long to transcribe to justifie themselves against the calumnies of their adversaries and they published it not only in Germany but in other foreign Countries also Some time after the Pope published another Bull by which he prolonged the holding of the Council under a pretence that he could not agree with the Duke of Mantua and a little after he assign'd it at Vicenza Notwithstanding the prosecutions continued alwayes against the Protestants every where where the Pope had any Authority In Germany the Imperial Chamber committed a thousand injustices and outrages against them In France the flames were kindled in all the Provinces and although Henry the Eighth King of England had thrown off the Yoke of Rome yet he did not fail to appear a good Catholick to put to death without mercy all those who had learned the New Religion The same was done in Scotland in Flanders and in all the Countreys of the Duke of Savoy In the year 1539. the Pope published a Bull by which he suspended the Convocation of a Council indefinitely until it should be his good pleasure to have one held And moreover there was held in this same year an Imperial Diet at Franckfort whither the Emperour sent the Arch-Bishop of London as his Commissioner and decreed with him that to labour to put an end to the differences about Religion he should make a friendly Conference between the most Learned and well meaning persons both on the one side and on the other who without the intervention of the Pope should have nothing before their eyes but the glory of God and the good of the Church and that notwithstanding they should let the Protestants have peace for fifteen months under conditions that were yet harsh enough to them But this Resolution so highly offended the Pope that as soon as he had received the news of it he dispatch'd away a Nuntio to the Emperour who was then in Spain with orders to complain and to hinder by all sorts of wayes that he should not authorize it by his consent The Protestants having sent thither on their parts the Emperour would not for that time declare himself but dismiss'd that business to another season After which he went into the Low-Countreys to appease some popular Sedition there and having there put the matter into debate because he was to give some answer Cardinal Farnese who was Legate there before him opposed him with all his might remonstrating the inconveniencies that might arise from such a Conference and that he had far better referr the cause of Religion to a Council and notwithstanding to sortifie the Catholick League to make the Protestants submit by fair means or foul against whom he made a very long Invective This counsel notwithstanding did not then please the Emperour he appointed a Diet to be held in Germany for the Conference and he invited all the Princes to come in person thither promising publick safety to all which oblig'd the Cardinal Legate to retire in great discontent This Cardinal in his return went into France and obtain'd of Francis the First an Edict against those whom he call'd Hereticks and Lutherans which was afterwards publish'd and executed through his whole Kingdom with extream rigour The Conference was first assigned at Haguenaw a little after at Wormes and the Pope who feared the success thought good to send thither his Nuntio Thomas Campeius with Paulus Vergerius in whom he reposed a great deal of confidence But the Policy of the Court of Rome was too averse to an accommodation to suffer that Conference to proceed far the Emperour therefore at the urgent solicitation of the Pope broke it off by express Letters and referred it to a Diet which he would have held some time after at Ratisbon The Protestants saw clearly to what all these delayes tended and yet nevertheless they did not fail to appear at Ratisbon whither the Emperour came in person and whither the Pope had also sent Cardinal Contarenus in the quality of his Legate This was in the year 1541. Moreover the Emperour caused a Book to be presented on his part to the Assembly which chiefly treated of the Articles of Religion and particularly of those which were in controversie and he declar'd that it was his Will that that Book should be examined and that it should serve as the Theme or Subject of the Conference for which he himself named the Collocutors by the consent of both parties who deferr'd that nomination to him In this Conference the Collocutors agreed upon some Articles and could not agree upon some others as upon those of Transubstantiation of the Adoration of the Eucharist the Sacrifice of the Mass the Celibacy of Priests the Communion under one kind the Sacrament of Penance And the Emperour having consulted the Legate about this to know of him what he should do on this occasion the Legate gave him his answer in writing That after having seen as well the Articles agreed upon between the Collocutors as the others which they could not come to agree about it was his judgement that he ought to ordain nothing about the rest but that he ought to refer all to the Holy See which could in a General Council or otherwise do that which it should judge necessary for the good of the Church and in particular for that of Germany The Emperour took this answer as if the Legate had consented that the Articles agreed upon between the Collocutors should immediately be received by both the Parties and he related it to the Assembly after that manner But there sprung up a kind of division between the Bishops of one side and the Roman Catholick Princes on the other For the Princes would that the Articles agreed upon should be received and that the rest should be referred either to a General or National Council or at least to a General Assembly of the States of the Empire and the Bishops on the contrary who saw that this was the beginning of a Reformation were of opinion that they should reject those Articles agreed upon wherein they said that the Catholick Collocutors had too much given way to the Protestants and that they should change nothing either in Religion or its Ceremonies but that they should refer all to a General or a National Council This dispute therefore having so hapned the Legate feared lest they should upon this meddle with the affairs of the Court of Rome so that he openly declared by another publick Writing that he did not mean that they should receive any Articles but that they should absolutely refer all as well the agreed on as the others to his Holiness for him to determine what he should think fit He published yet farther another Writing by which he very much condemned as well the Catholick Princes as the Bishops
for that they had referr'd that business to a National Council in defect of a General one and he maintained that the Authority of the See of Rome was very much wounded in that reference and that a National Council could not deliberate about matters of Religion In fine after a great many disputes which only serv'd more and more to discover the obstinate resolution that the Roman party had taken up not to suffer a Reformation this Diet ended with a Decree of the Emperour which referr'd the whole affair to a General Council or a National one in Germany or to an Imperial Assembly if they could not obtain a Council and that nevertheless the Execution of the Decree of Ausburg should remain suspended All this pass'd in the year 1541. See here what the success of the Conference of Ratisbon was The year following which was 1542. the Pope assign'd the Council to be held at Trent in the Month of November he sent a Bull to the Emperour in Spain and after to the Kings exhorting them to send their Embassadors thither and he himself deputed thither three Cardinals in quality of Legates he sent thither some Bishops also But this Convocation had not then any effect by reason of the War that was carried on about the same time between King Francis the First and the Emperour And this latter seeing himself to have two Wars upon his hands that with France and the other with the Turks made a new Decree at Spire by which he gave peace to the Protestants but more than that he ordain'd that they should make choice of some Learned and well-meaning persons to draw up a Formulary of the Reformation that the Princes should do the same and that all those pieces being referred to the next Diet they should there resolve with a common consent that which they should judge fit to be kept about the matters of Religion till the meeting of a Council This Decree was made in the year 1544. But the Pope was so netled at this that he wrote to the Emperour in a very threatning style complaining above all things of this that he had not referred that which concerned Religion to the decision of the Church of Rome and that he had favoured those who were Rebels to the Apostolick See Some time after King Francis the First and the Emperour made a Peace and one of the Articles of their Agreement was that they should defend the Ancient Religion that they should employ their endeavours for the Union of the Church and the Reformation of the Court of Rome that they should jointly demand of the Pope the calling of a Council and that they should labour to subdue the Protestants This obliged the Pope to prevent them He therefore again assigned the Council to be held at Trent the fifteenth day of March 1545. and dispatched away his Legates thither but at the same time he resolv'd to use all his endeavours to oblige the Emperour to turn his Arms against the Protestants to oppose them at the same time with the Spiritual and Temporal Sword or to say better to the end that the War might serve him for a pretence to elude the Council For that purpose he made use of the Ministry of his Nuntio and afterwards of that Cardinal Farnese whom he sent to the Emperour as his Legate whose chief pretence was the refusals which the Protestants had propounded anew against his pretended Council He made therefore very powerful solicitations to the Emperour by his Legate with offers to aid him with men and money and even to cause him to be assisted by the Princes of Italy and the Emperour who on his side was very glad to take this occasion to subdue Germany to himself readily accepted of this proposition so that a War was concluded between them but the conclusion was kept very secret till the time of Execution Notwithstanding the better to cover this design the Emperour appointed a Conference of Learned Men to be held at Ratisbon upon the subject of Religion according to his last Decree but he did not fail to cite the Arch-Bishop of Cologne to appear before him who had embraced the Reformation and afterwards excommunicated him and deprived him of his Arch-bishoprick And as for the Conference at Ratisbon which gave some jealousie to the Bishops who were already assembled at Trent it was quickly after broken by the unjust conditions that some Monks who were there as the Commissioners of the Emperour would impose on the Protestant Divines The Council was opened the thirteenth of December of the same year 1545. But in fine after a great many artifices and dissimulations able to have lull'd asleep the most vigilant after a great many contrary assurances given to the Protestants the Emperour sent the Cardinal of Trent in Post to Rome to give the Pope notice that he should make his Troops march with all diligence The Treaty which they had made together was published the eight and twentieth of July 1546. bearing this among other things That the Emperour should employ his Arms and open force to make those Germans who should reject the Council return to the ancient Religion and to the obedience of the holy See and the Emperour soon after openly declared himself as well by the Letters which he wrote to divers Cities in Germany to the Elector of Cologne and the Prince of Wirtemburg as by the answers that his Ministers gave to the Embassadors of those Towns who were with him The Pope on his side presently published a Bull dated the fifteenth of July by which he commanded that they should make solemn Processions exhorting all Christians to put up prayers to God for the happy success of the War which the Emperour and himself had undertaken at their common charges against the Germans who should either profess Heresie or protect it Before this he had wrote to the Switzers Letters dated the third of June by which he gave them notice of the Emperours design praying them to send all the succours they could possibly The Emperour would at the beginning cover this War with another pretence than that of Religion but the Pope would never suffer him to do it So that the Emperour having no further way left to disguise himself began with the proscribing of the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave of Hessia and moreover he sent his Army into the field The Protestant Princes on their parts took up Arms also for their just defence The success of this War was not so happy for the Protestants all Germany saw it self soon enslav'd under the Arms of the Emperour and according to all humane appearance the Reformation also had been presently destroy'd if God who never utterly forsakes his Church had not provided for it by his Providence It hapned that the Pope and the Emperour quarrell'd about those temporal interests which were far more prevalent in their minds than that of Religion which fell out because the Emperour would not