lenitatem datam Ipsi Dii lenes sunt talibus If thou canst teach me better if not remember Gentleness was given thee for this very purpose The Gods themselves are gentle to such If the Christian Religion did establish the Inquisition if she justified the Perfidiousness and Inhumanities which the Court of Rome and Hereticks commit every day upon the account of Religion I should make no difficulty to declare it an abominable Religion and that we ought not to be of it one moment longer and if People went to Heaven by such ways as these I should be soon of the Americans mind who said they would not go to the same Paradise whither the Spaniards went nor would I go to the Paradise of the Popes and the Inquisitors I do maintain that the Popes have ruined the Church in those Countries where their Inquisition hath been set up more than all the Heresies in the World together ever could have done We need not but consider the good Effects which it hath had in those Countries where in truth there is no Religion at least Christianity scarce there to be found and how should it with that Ignorance which the Inquisition brings along with it which hath produced nothing but Superstition Impiety Hypocrisy dissembling of Opinions a thousand Cruelties and Treacheries and all sorts of abominable Vices which are scarce known but in Countries of the Inquisition And where we find them in other Countries they have been brought thither from Rome by those that were devoted to the Papacy through the too great Commerce which Princes suffer with Rome The Hereticks may well say that they are obliged to the Inquisition that Holland is no longer Catholick If the Inquisiâ—ion be advantagious to Christianity Why do the most Christian Nations of Europe the best regulated both in their Religion and their Manners detest it Compare the French Nation Germany Flanders and Poland with the other Slaves to the Inquisition and you will say that the latter are not worthy of the Name of Christians in comparison of the former And for the Hereticks I esteem and Heretick that is an honest Man and that fears God a hundred times more than a Catholick who lives disorderly or that knows not what Religion is I know no worse Heresy than to be without the knowledg of God and how can He be known where the Holy Scripture is not allowed to be read where the Clergy are wholly lost in most abominable Vices and know nothing at all where it is Crime enough to be burnt to discourse about Religion where Mens Minds are filled with a thousand Fooleries that have no relation at all to Piety Set a Spaniard or an Italian who hath gotten a little Sense to discourse on Jesus Christ and he shall not fail to tell you that Jesus Christ was a great Politician Christo era Grande Politico because he sees that his Vicar under the pretence of Religion hath made so great Conquests and subdued all Catholick Princes to himself This is the Idea which they have of Jesus Christ and which they form to themselves upon what they see in the Court of Rome and in the present State of the Church for as for the Holy Scripture they know less of it than of the Alcoran And their Divines teach them that the Church is the most happy Body Politick upon Earth Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra as Cardinal Palavicini says And the same Cardinal says in another place that Jesus Christ would have his Church governed as great Polititians govern their States and that he came down from Heaven upon Earth to make her happy as well in this World as in the other by heaping upon her Honours Riches and Pleasures secondo la carne according to the Flesh. And of the Papacy in particular he says that it is the abundant Source of Temporal Felicity Il Principiato Apostolico fonte d'utilita Temporale secondo la carne in quel modo chi e piu conforme etiandio all humana felicita The Apostolick Primacy is the Fountain of Temporal Profit and in such a manner as is most conducing to Human Felicity Nor do the Portuguees understand things better they are more than half Jews and yet know not what either Judaism or Christianity is There are a great many of them who look for a sort of a Messias who by his great Conquests ought to make them Masters of the World this is one of their Kings named Sebastian whom they have made a Saint he was killed in the Battel of Alcazar going to assist one Moorish King against another and because his Body was not found after the Battel they pretend that he is not dead but that he roams up and down the World and that he will return suddenly again to conquer all the habitable Earth and make it subject to the Portugal Nation This is the Faith of the Christians in that Country and they learn it insensibly of the Jews It is not long since a Man might have borrowed a considerable Sum of Mony in Portugal payable at the return of St. Sebastian That which doth produce this horrible Ignorance among these People is not only that they read not the Holy Scriptures but because the Inquisition suffers there no Religion but its own for by this means there is no body who can accuse either the Inhumanity of the Inquisition or the Vices and Incapacities of the Clergy If some other Sect had liberty among them the Contradiction of this Sect would oblige them to study and to instruct themselves which would make the Study of Divinity and other Sciences flourish among them and seeing every Man would have as many Censurers of his Religion and of his Manners as there were Men of contrary Opinions this would make Men take care of their Behaviour that their Lives might be more conformable to true Christianity Wickedness would be greatly abated Men would be ashamed of those horrible Crimes which the Italians now make their diversion there would be much more knowledg of God more Industry and Perfection in the World. I know that this is not at all agreeable to the Humour of the Popes and their Clergy who make their Markets better by Ignorance and the Inquisition I know by my own Experience and what I have heard say by many good People in England that the expulsion of Catholicks would destroy amongst them all Devotion and Religion because they would have no Adversaries to awaken them and to oblige them to take care of themselves their Ministers would become ignorant and debauched and so proportionably the People But say they the Inquisition doth prohibit all ill Books you must know too that the Word of God is of the number of these ill Books that are prohibited and that there are many other Books forbidden which have not only no ill in them but which are very excellent only because they are contrary to the Ambition of the Court
Reputation and of Merit as people told me and I believed so seeing his Air and his Behaviour In a matter of 8 days I should hear the secret History of him which was a horrible one The Heros of this Court are as Tacitus says of Mucian people compounded of great Vertues and great Vices Mucianus Luxuria Arrogantia Comitate Industria bonis malisque artibus mixtus These are brave worldly men but for Religion most certainly they have none at all I am of the Opinion That staying in this place is very dangerous for an honest man and people do complain both in Germany and in England that their young people that travel come back from thence lost in Debauchery and Impiety That which preserved me from the Contagion of this place was that I went with an honest and a simple mind however not very ignorant for I had finished my studies This it was that disgusted me at all the disorders and licentiousness I saw there and gave me a horror for all their pleasures Perhaps I should have done like other people if I had not been so stiff and resolute To free my self from the perplexity I was in about Religion through the disorder and irregularity of this Court that is esteemed the Center of Religion from whence according to this supposition there ought to shine forth nothing but Sanctity Purity Humility Charity and Zeal for the salvation of men Contempt of the Grandeurs and Riches of the World with a continual application to the instruction of the people and where I saw nevertheless nothing in the stead of these Vertues but Licentiousness Ambition and Superstition with a horrible Ignorance in the people I then formed a Design to instruct my self and to know a little better the Principles of the Christian Religion And I desired for that end a French Abbot with whom I lodged to lend me a Latin New Testament which he had and which he read but seldom I read it with attention twice over from one end to the other which set my mind in better condition than it was before The more I read the more I was inwardly comforted but I was the more enraged against what I saw without being able to find the least solution to the impossibility that there appeared to me to be in the Popes being the Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ upon Earth and Head of the Church Catholick I there quickly found the principal Articles of Religion established in many places and often in express terms one only Head of the Church Jesus Christ of whom the Church is the Body and Believers the Members one only Spouse of the Church one only Bishop of Bishops but not one word neither far nor near of the Pope and Cardinals nor any thing that had any relation to them Besides all places there were full of Examples and Exhortations to Humility to Piety to Chastity and to Charity The Master and Disciples there spoke continually of renouncing the World its Grandeurs Vanities Pleasures Riches and above all against the Spirit of Domination But in the Popes and in their Court I found Maxims that were quite contrary I sometimes entertained the Abbot who was an honest man and very sociable with the trouble that this Authority of the Popes gave me He laughed at it and gave me pleasing Answers owning one part of what I objected and for the rest he gave me Reasons which to me were not very sufficient One day when I pressed him a little more than ordinary not knowing what to answer me he told me That if I would read Bellarmin I should there find many Reasons that would resolve my Doubts So that I hired one which I read over and over upon this Subject without finding any thing that gave me the least satisfaction There were passages of Scripture wrested with great violence which touched not the question or else were contrary to it and the forc'd sense that he gave them was always directly contrary to the Genius of the Gospel and opposite to other passages of Scripture whereof I had made a great Collection and agreed not at all with the Maxims and with the Example of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles It is true there were some Humane Reasons which at first might seem plausible but besides that they had not that weight which those had which the Scripture furnished with against him they tended to establish a Worldly and Temporal Dominion in the Church and renewed the Error of those Jews who believed that the Reign of the Messias ought to be accompanied with worldly Pomp and Splendor and to be exercised with great Authority and with fleshly Arms for this was the Sum of what he endeavoured to prove That Monarchical Government is the most advantagious in the World and by consequence that the Church ought to be governed by the Soveraign Orders of only one man who is the Pope who hath the power to exterminate Kings and all those who will not submit themselves to him This confirmed me in the Opinion I had before seeing that so subtil a Wit as Bellarmin a man so well versed in Antiquity and that had so much interest in the thing could find out nothing at all to maintain this Opinion At length I went into Germany where after Eight or Nine Months travelling I came to Cologne where I had a great desire to inform my self farther and to know if the Papacy had a great while ruled in the Church and how long since Whether or no the Ancient Doctors of the Church had heard it spoken of and what they thought of it I applied my self then to examine some of the Fathers upon this Article and that I might the sooner have done I consulted them upon those places of Scripture which the Popes make use of to see if the Fathers understood them as they do I found in examining them that they explained them in a manner quite contrary to the Pope's Pretensions This made me certainly conclude that the Papacy must have been set up in the Church by some violent stroke or else by small beginnings and by degrees as it ordinarily falls out in Usurpations which are made either altogether by a greater force or else by little and little and that this Usurpation had been seconded and favoured by people who saw there was not like to be any great resistance and they made their advantage of it through mens ignorance After that another thing that gave me a great deal of trouble was how to separate the Article of the Papacy from the Verities of the Catholick Faith so that the Infallibility of the Church as I understood it might not be prejudiced Thinking on this then often in my unquiet mind I resolved farther to consult the Scripture and the Fathers upon the passages ordinarily alledged to prove the Infallibility of the Church and I found that they did not understand them as I did But because I knew what made the Cardinals and other people employ the utmost
to do at Rome nor was he ever there as they imagine There is yet somewhat of greater weight then all this That is that St. Paul tells us he withstood St. Peter to his face because he deserved reproof This looks as if St. Paul had had some Authority over St. Peter We hear not that he reproached him for his Arrogance nor that he Excommunicated him It must be acknowledged that here is a great difference between the proceedings of the Pope and those of St. Peter For it is certain that if a Bishop should at this day dare to displease the Majesty of the Pope he should be soon swallowed up and destroyed by his glory I believe that Origen might have an eye to St. Paul's thus correcting St. Peter when he said that St. Paul was the greatest of all the Apostles Paulus Apostolorum maximus or else he might also have regard to the great extent of St. Pauls Ministry or to what he himself says that he took more pains than all the other Apostles And all the Fatheâ—s looked upon him as he who among all the Apostles wrote the most profoundly and with the greatest light This is what St. Augustin says of him St. Chrysostom looks upon him as the first of all the Saints and if there had been any Preheminence among the Apostles he should have been preferred before any other We may say then that the Popes in that Authority which they usuâ—p have nothing common with St. Peter nor can they be compared together but in one thing which is that as St. Peter being come into Pilates-Hall denyed Christ three times the Popes since they have taken upon themselves the Authority of Pilate and of worldly Princes have denyed him not three times but once for all Vna sol volta in Corte di Pilato entro est Petro e tra rinego Christo. Thus we see that in the Holy Scripture there is not one word that can in the least authorize the Popes Supremacy And we may compare those who establish it there to poor Heralds who to get a little money do very frequently make people meanly descended to derive from the Ancient Greek and Roman Emperors because the Cullyes havâ— gotten an Estate and are become rich tho most usually 't is only by Rogueries and Robberies And it is not difficult thus to deceive people who always admire those that are rich and able to do them a kindness They never enquire how they came by it as the Spaniard says Alcansados los honores quedam Borrados los passos pordende se subio a ellos Since then that the new Testament doth not acknowledg this Authority of the Popes but absolutely condemn it it hath no lawful Institution for a Doctrine of that Importance as the Primacy of the Pope is whereon they make the whole Government of the Church Religion it self and the Salvation of all Christians to depend being not to be found in Scripture cannot be but false For though it be true that there are some Customs and Ceremonies in the Church which are not to be found in Scripture and which the Protestants are greatly in the wrong obstinately to reject because that Tradition and the use or practise of the Church have so long since given them sufficient Authority as they themselves acknowledg yet that cannot be said of this Article which according to the Popes and the greatest part of the Doctors is Capital and so Capital they would willingly perswade us that without it the rest signifies nothing It was very impiously said of Cardinal Palavicim in his Third Book of his History of the Council of Trent Chap. the 15. That the Christian Religion hath no more sure and immediate certainty than the Popes Authority Quella Religione i cui Articoli Vnitamente considerati non hanno Altera Certezza prossima immediata che l' Autorita del Pontifice We see clearly that if this Authority were laid aside they would renounce the profession of Christianity as piety hath been already renounced by them CHAP. II. That the Primitive Church knew not the Papacy The Vanity of some Humane Reasons by which for want of the Scriptures and the Fathers they would establish it LET us now see if the Primitive Church did acknowledg a power in the Church like to that of the Popes Altho that which hath been already alledged from the Holy Fathers proves sufficiently that they knew not the Papacy let us however examine the thing a little more particularly We are told then that St. Peter was Head of the Church that he was at Rome that he was a Bishop there that he died there that he resigned that Charge of Head of the Church and of Bishop but not that of an Apostle to a Successor which Successor he either chose or the Church of Rome did it after his death by the power which he had given her which things are all of them very difficult to prove and certainly very false for a thing of this consequence ought not to be founded upon conjectures of meer probabilities but we ought to have as certain and as exact a knowledg of it as of any other Article of our Religion And yet we see that they who have spoken of St. Peter's coming to Rome and of his Death there have said it upon such miserable grounds and say so many contradictory things as well of it as of his pretended Successor that there is nothing more uncertain in all Antiquity But besides this none of them ever believed no nor so much as suspected that St. Petâ—r was Head of the Universal Church And the contradiction and little certainty that is in these Authors shews sufficiently that in the Primitive times it was not believed that this was necessary to be known nor did they in the least suspect that ever any body would endeavour to lay upon it the foundation of that horrible Authoâ—ity which the Popes do Exercise To give you some Instances of their Contradictions I need only to shew you that some say it was Linus who succeeded Peter others Clement and lastly others say it was Anacletus some will have it that St. Peter founded this Church and was the first that Preached at Rome Others maintain namely Dorotheus that it was Barnabas Barnabas primus Romae praedicavit And St. Paul shews us clearly that it was he himself who founded that Church for he complains that coming to Rome he found that the Jews there who had embraced Christianity were but very little instructed in the Doctrine of the Christian Religion Who can believe that if St. Peter had been there and had founded this Church he would not have instructed them better And what is yet more St. Paul says expresly in another plaâ—e that he would not go and preach whâ—re others had preached before him because he would not build upon the Foundation of others As for the manner of his Death some say he was Crucified with St. Paul Others that he was
but it is 〈◊〉 that they should beg at least if it be voluntary and for that 〈◊〉 their number ought to be diminished and they of them that aâ—e â—ich should keep them that are poor let them all apply themselves to work and to study as heretofore they did It would be very well done abâ—olutely to retrench some of these Orders that are so chargeable to the People Pope Alexander the Seventh did very well in suppressing two Orders that were as good as those that are now remaining the one was called the Order of the Cross and the other of â—he Holy Ghost And in Spain they have done very well never to endure among them the Capucins The Council of Toledo did heretofore ordain that no new Religious Order should be suffered to be established in the Church ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem parturiat There are no People that hate or destroy one another more than the different Orders of the Mendicants because they hinder one anothers Trade and there are no People in the World that debauch the Women more than they the Secular Priests are Angels in comparison they are in so good Credit and Esteem that they are not endured in the Court of our Kings and they have no access to it Their Principle of blind Obedience is both foolish and impious which may cause and many times hath been the occasion of horrible Disorders in the Estates and Families of our Kings It is a Principle which makes the Pope whom their Superiors implicitly obey Master of our Lives and of the State for these Superiors are always as ready to inspire the Monks with all sorts of Opinions how horrible soever they be provided they serve the Pope his Designs for this reason I have often wondered that some Law hath not been made in the State against the perfidiousness of the Monks and Jesuits from the example of two of our French Kings whom they have murthered and that it hath not been declared that if any such thing shall happen for time to come all these People should be driven out of the Kingdom There is no other means to hinder the Court of Rome from doing the same things hereafter The Parliament of England hath lately enacted somewhat like this to secure the Life of their King against the Monks No Clergy-man ought to be received without subscribing the Condemnation of the impious Bull de Coenâ Domini which is a bottomless Gulf of Impieties Heresies and Inhumanities And till the Monks and Jesuits shall solemnly renounce and condemn this accursed Bull it will be no great Injustice done them to accuse them of attempting against the Lives of Kings If any Man did suspect me to be an Arrian and I knew it and could justify my self from such cursed Opinions and did it not the World would have reason to impute to me all the Consequences of thâ—s pernicious Heresy It is well known that all the Monks and particularly the Jesuits have by their fourth Vow obliged themselves to the Execution of this infernal Bull. It was the Monks who living in Idleness corrupted and falsified many Ecclesiastical Books they have counterfeited many other Books full of Lies and set them out under the Names of good Authors They are every where known for People who by their Artifices under pretext of Religion are the ruine of most Families whose Substance they cunningly suck in themselves It is they who have vilified and discredited the true Orthodox Priests drawing the People after themselves by false appearances of Mortifications They are good for nothing but to move Seditions and to bring People to Disobedienee and when ever the Interest of their Monarch the Pâ—pe is concerned they think the Blood of their Enemies as meritorious as that of the Cross. The Humility they boast of is a very pleasant thing when at the same time they take place of their Elders and of People of Quality They pretend to have renounced Vanity more strictly than the Secular Priests and yet these Asses are called Father Father as heretofore the Pharisees Rabbi Rabbi they cause themselves also to be stiled Reverend Fathers and pretend to have Merit enough besides to obtain their own Salvation and to impart the overplus to others They call themselves Father Raphaels Father Cherubims and Father Seraphims with such like Names which are Marks of Vanity and Folly with which there can be neither Humility nor Piety Their Generals also manage the matter fairly to have the same Respect shewed them in the Courts of Princes as the Ambassadours of the greatest Kings These Gentlemen are all sworn Enemies to the Holy Scripture as well as to the Court and they do all they can to render the reading of it suspicious they heretofore did what they could to abolish it because it made as much against them as the Popes In the Year 1192. they made a new Gospel upon the Dreams of a Carmelite named Cyrill this was to suppress the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their own they called the Eternal Gospel wherein they taught that God the Father reigned under the Law God the Son under Grace and that the Holy Ghost was now going to reign by the Establishment of four Orders of Mendicants and that for the future Men could not be saved but by this Gospel that that of Jesus Christ was imperfect and that the Sacraments were of no great use This Gospel was preached almost all Europe over by the Jacobines and Franciscans and it was very near being received in the University of Paris but there remained yet some worthy Men who opposed and made it be condemned but seeing these new Evangelists had the favour of the Holy Father the Doctors of the University were forced to go to Rome where at length they obtained that this Book should be condemned and burned but privately for fear of decrying the four Orders of Mendicants and also that the Book of the University of Paris should be burned much after the same manner as heretofore at Bezancon at the beginning of Luther's Revolt which drew many Towns after it the Magistraâ—e of Bezancon fearing that this Fire should reach thither forbad all sorts of People to speak of God either Good or Evil. And there falling out lately a Dispute between some Divines of the Sorbonne at Paris some of whom do hold with the Jesuits that we may be saved without loving God and others on the contrary that we ought to love God whereupon both the one and the other were forbidden to speak of it so that the matter yet remains undecided whither we ought to love God or no or whither the Gospel of the Monks or of Jesus Christ be the true one The Author of the Book against this new Gospel is called William de St. Amour de periculis novissimorum Temporum See in Matthew Paris At length the Monks had Credit enough having procured several Bulls to be given out against the Book to
SURE and HONEST MEANS FOR THE CONVERSION OF ALL HERETICKS AND Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the REFORMATION of the CHURCH Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome and Translated from the French Printed at Cologn 1682. With a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England LICENSED GVIL NEEDHAM Novemb. 3. 1687. LONDON Printed and to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall M DC LXXX VIII THE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH READER AFTER so many excellent Discourses as have of late been publish'd by the Divines of the Church of England upon almost all the Points in Controversy between Us and our Brethren of the Church of Rome it might well be thought a very needless thing to call in this foreign Auxiliary were it not hoped that those Reasons which usually are not so well received when coming from such as they esteem their Enemies might possibly be allow'd the favour of an Examination being offer'd by one of their own Communion It may besides be perhaps no unseasonable design especially at this time to satisfy the World that those things which we chiefly complain of in their Church are after all no other than what divers of those who have lived and died in it have both confessed to be amiss and earnestly wish'd they might see reformed It is not unknown to any at this day what the Complaints have been of many the most considerable Persons of the Church of Rome in the very beginning of our Reformation How much they desired that something might be done to rectify what they could not deny to be amiss both in the Head and in the Members Let the frequent Demands of the Emperor and other Catholick Princes let the Acknowledgment of the Pope Himself and the Proposals of the Colledg of Cardinals expresly set apart for this Consultation let the Remonstrances that were made and the Endeavours that were used both by the French Legats and the Spanish Bishops even in the Council of Trent it self suffice to shew both that something was amiss and that the Protestants tho they might perhaps be censured by them for not proceeding so regularly as they thought they should yet could not be deny'd to have had just grounds in the bottom for their Complaints And what was then more generally own'd as to these things whilst as yet it was hoped that some redress might be had of them many of the best Men of that Church and who have made the most diligent and impartial Enquiries into the differences between us have not ceased tho in a more private manner to confess since and publish to the World their just Resentments of it It were infinite to insist upon all those that have done this Something of that kind has been already offer'd to the World and more perhaps may hereafter be done more fully to confirm it In the mean time the Author here before us and who lived and died in the Roman Communion sufficiently declares that he was so far from esteeming that Church which now pretends to so much Authority over all others to be absolutely exempt from all possibility of erring that on the contrary he judged it to be actually involved in very great Errors It cannot reasonably be doubted by those who know any thing at all of this Book but that he who wrote it was truly a Member of the Church of Rome however dissatisfied with it in many of its pretences His Preface will give a satisfactory account how by the general decay of Piety that he met with in a place which he expected should above all others have deserved the Name of the Holy City he came first to search more fully into his Religion and how the more he read the Holy Scriptures and compared the Pretences of his Church with what he found in them the more he still perceived it to have deviated from the Primitive Rule and to have usurped upon the Consciences and Credulity of its Members But tho by this means therefore he saw that in many of our Disputes we had Reason in our Arguments against them yet in so many other Points he still defends their Errors as plainly shew how far he was at the time that he wrote this Book from being a Deserter of his first Faith. Hence it is that we sometimes find him arguing thus against our Religion That there being no visible Church of our Perswasion at the beginning of the Reformation and yet it being confess'd by us that there ought always to have been a visible Church of Christ in the World we must confess that then ours is not the visible Church of Christ and there being no other that can with so good reason pretend to it as the Roman we ought to acknowledg that to be it Concerning the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist he seems to the last to have stuck to that Interpretation of Christ's words upon which the Church of Rome so much insists against us That this Sacrament being the last Will and Testament of our Blessed Lord we ought to interpret it as all other things of that kind according to the Letter And cannot without Impiety believe that our Lord Jesus Christ in the Institution of it should have made use of Words either obscure or ambiguous Besides that it was never his custom to establish Articles of Faith upon Metaphorical Expressions In a word tho for Peace sake indeed he seems to desire that no ones Conscience should be tied up to any determinate manner of Christ's Presence in this blessed Eucharist yet he plainly enough declares that as for himself he thought him to be really nay corporally present there And that the Calvinists were guilty of Novelty and Error in this matter seeing as he adds all the Christians of Asia and Africk believe the Real Presence and there are none but themselves that do deny it From this Error he elsewhere argues in behalf of the Communion in one kind In which tho he confesses his Church to have departed from the Primitive Institution and therefore wishes is might be redressed yet upon this Principle of the Real Presence he endeavours to shew that it is not so capital a Matter as we pretend nor ought we from hence to conclude that their Church which he calls the Catholick Church is not the true Church I shall add but one Point more and wherein he plainly shews himself to have been far from our Perswasion and that is the Invocation of Saints Which says he we call a Religious Worship and little better than Idolatry But he denies it to be a Religious Worship for any one to pray to a Saint to pray to God for him or any more than to intreat any good Man living to do the same All the difference he thinks is that we are not so secure that the Saint hears our Prayers as we are that our fâ—llow Christian does That for that Passage which from St.
of their ingenuity in Defence of the Popes Authority and that I saw not well what Advantage they could draw from the Infallibility of the Church which they maintained with so much ardor that doubled my attention to sound the depth of the matter and I found that by the help of this Infallibility they would conceal every thing so as to save the Popes Authority and all the Temporal Advantages which flow from it and I made no further doubt of it when I saw they applied it particularly to the Clergy excluding all the people and many men to the Pope alone excluding all other Bishops Since these Discoveries I have always held it as a Maxim wherein I have never been deceived which is That when any practice or Custom in the Church brings profit or honour to the Ecclesiasticks I presently suspect and examine it At length having a long time reflected upon all the abuses of this Papal Authority and having observed the Deplorable condition to which it hath reduced the Christian Religion as well without as within the Church and seeing it was that which having driven the Greeks and Protestants out of the Church is still the cause why they return not again unto its Communion and that it even draws strange Persecutions upon the Church from these scattered sheep by reason of the attempts of the Court of Rome and its favourers I at last resolved to publish this little Treatise to disabuse mankind in respect of the unjust and criminal Devotion which they have for the Papacy and also to purge the Church of it as well as of all other vices and misfortunes it hath there caused being perswaded that an Infallible fruit of this Reformation would be the Conversion of the Greeks Protestants Pagans Jews and Mahometans not to mention the Honour it would do to all the Catholick Princes whose Majesty and Greatness are vilified by this shameful subjection to and dependance on the Popes which make them to be despised by other Princes who have freed themselves from their Tyranny A Senator of Sweden told me one day a very good saying of Tacitus to this purpose Viri muliebria patiuntur Men act the parts of women which is as much as to say they are the Catamites of the Popes However since it is in their power to treat those as Hereticks and Enemies of the Church who oppose their Ambition and Interest I prepare my self against it and that doth not at all discourage me It is more Honourable to be hated by such people than loved Illi maledicent at tu Domine Benedices I know the Reader will in this Work of mine presently look after the Caracters of either Jansenist Calvinist or Lutheran or lastly of a man who could not be promoted to Benefices and many times he will think he hath found me As for Benefices I might perhaps have had one if I had had a mind to it but by the Grace of God I will have none nor have I need of any nor was I ever designed for it The Jansenists are as yet too much Papists to speak ill of the Papacy As for the Calvinists and Lutherans I wish they could be brought to own the opinions which I do and which I have no mind to betray in this my Book It is true they have both written often against this power but not with design that the Catholick Religion should be the better for it to which this Work wholly tends Whatever men will judg I think I ought not to renounce any truth because the Hereticks know it nor to put my eyes out rather than see the Injustice of the Papacy because the Hereticks see it If I had not here drawn the Picture of the Jesuits Religion it may be those they call the Jansenists would have suspected them to have been the authors of it as the present times go and for the Calvinists I am sure that in many places they will say that I do but gild over the Pill that they may the more easily swallow down the poyson as some people have said of the Book of Mr. de Condom they may judg of it what they please I have followed the sentiments which the reading of the Holy Scripture hath inspired me with and in which I am confirmed the more by reading the Fathers and the Ecclesiastical History and by making reflection upon all that I have seen in foreign Countries and upon what I see every day here If the Romanists hear this Work spoken of they will say without doubt as heretofore at the Council of Trent when Mr. de Faber made Remonstrances on the Kings behalf concerning the disorders of the Church Gallus Cantat they cried I have no better answer than what he made them Vtinam ad Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret let them come and renounce the Dominion and Tyranny they exercise over the Church and over the World and let our Bishops for time to come behave themselves like worthy Successors of this Apostle This Work shall be divided into Three Parts which will contain so many Chapters In the first I shall prove that the Papacy hath no foundation in the Word of God and shall shew the vanity folly of those arguments which they pretend to draw from the Gospel In the second I shall make it appear that the Primitive Church never knew it and that in the darkest Ages there were ever some who opposed it and I shall confute many human reasons which for want of the Scripture and of the Fathers are made use of for its defence And in the third and last I shall examine all the pretended advantages which this Authority procures to the Church or to States and I shall shew that 't is so far from bringing any real good to the Church or to Catholick States that it is the cause of the Desolations of the Church and of the greatest part of the Disorders among all Christians of Ignorance Heresies Schisms and Irreligion that reign No man ought to be surprised that I conceal who I am in so perverse an age as we live in where Truth and Honesty as well as those who profess it are exposed to cruel Persecutions and wherein I shall have as many mortal enemies as there are worldly Catholicks and Papists and people in possession of Benefices without mentioning the Monks I have no reason to flatter my self with any great success this Book may have by reason of the extream disorder and irreligion of the Age and I do it more to discharge my self of the load lying upon me and for the consolation of my own mind than for any other thing as heretofore Petrarch said upon a like occasion Haec scribo non tam ùt saeculo meo prosim cujus tam desperata miseria est quam ut me conceptis onerem Animum scriptis soler I write these things not so much to profit the age I live in whose misery is so desperate as to unburthen my self of my own thoughts
beheaded and Linus the pretended successor of St. Peter who writes the History of St. Pauls Death says not one word of St. Peters St. Hierom though a Roman and Nicolas de Lyra assures us that he was Crucified at Hierusalem And St. Hierom says in another place also that his Sepulcher is in Hierusalem Thus we see what reason they have to build an Article of Faith so monstrous as the Popes Supremacy is upon an imaginary Conjecture that hath no Foundation that St. Peter was at Rome But how comes it then to pass may some say that many of the Fathers both believed and said that St. Peter was at Rome It was because they did not examine the thing believing it useless and they did not forsee the dreadful Consequences that the Bishops of Rome would draw from it They grounded it upon that place of St. Peters Epistle where it is said the Church which is at Babylon saluteth you Interpreting Rome by Babylon without any reason because there were two other Babylons the one in Mesopotamia where Bagdet is and the other in Aegypt near Memphis where it is certain there were many Jews who were under St. Peter's Ministry As for the pretended combat between St. Peter and Simon Magus the Learned acknowledg that it was but a fiction But put the case St. Peter had been at Rome what advantage can the Bishops of Rome make of it That he had left at Rome his Charge of Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ But on what do they found this pretence If he had done it it would plainly have been united to his Apostleship rather than to the quality of a Bishop and so by consequence could not have been communicated to any other than an Apostle and so St. James or St. John who continued alive long time after him should have inherited it and not Linus nor any other and they would have transported it to Jerusalem or to Ephesus which were their Churches if the Town of Rome had not had some particular priviledges which no man knows that affixed this Dignity to that City in which case one of these two Apostles ought to have come and resided there However it is likely that St. James or St. John who without all controversie lived a great while after him should rather have succeeded him in this admirable Charge than a simple Priest or Bishop as Linus If the City of Rome pretends to derive this Prerogative from St. Peter's having been there and Preached the Gospel which cannot be proved the Church of Antioch ought to be preferred before it for it is certain both by the Scriptures and by the Fathers that he was there and Preached there before it was possible for him to do it at Rome And upon this it was that they built that Revelation of the See of Peter's being removed from Antioch to Rome which you find in the Decrees of Gratian in the Epistle of Pope Marcellus which Imposture they contrived because they could find nothing in the Scripture that could favour their pretences Besides if St. Peter had had a Successor in this pretended Charge how comes it to pass that the Primitive Church that compiled the Canon of Books which ought to regulate the Faith of the Church hath not comprehended therein the Works of Linus or of Clement who wrote enough and yet hath inserted those of St. James and of St. John who ought to be much inferior in Infallibility and in Sanctity to the Vicar-General of Jesus Christ upon Earth and who ought to have been his Subjects and to have taken the Oath of Fidelity to him as they do at this day to his Holiness But a man may well wonder that Clement who according to some Writers was his Successor and who be he what he will must have lived very near that time knew nothing of it 'T is seen by his first Epistle to St. James where he terms him Bishop of Bishops and in another place he brings in St. Peter saying Jacobus Episcopus accâ—rcitum me inde huc Caesaream mittit That is to say That the Bishop James sent him into Caesarea It is yet a little surprising that the Fathâ—rs of the Primitive Church who composed the Canon of our Faith that is the Creed should forget to place after the Catholick Church the Bishop of Rome who is the Head of it and without whom as they say it is like a Body without a soul or a Vessel exposed to the tempest without a Pilot. That Article doth it self sufficiently exclude all dependance upon any particular See. And the other I believe the Communion of Saints doth also establish Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church and condemns its being subject to an humane Head. And St. Dionysius the Areopagite or some other of those times who in his name composed a Treatise of the Hierarchy and says not one word of a Bishop of Bishops and Head of the Church shews that in those times people did not believe that the Hierarchy could not subsist without him Saint Gregory also Bishop of Rome was wholly ignorant of these pretended Priviledges of his Bishoprick for he acknowledges in his Register to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria that the Bishops of Alexandria and of Antioch are Successors of St. Peter and that they sit in the Chair of Peter as well as the Bishops of Rome Nor was Irenaeus any more perswaded that the Bishops of Rome alone had this advantage when having reproved Victor Bishop of Rome who by a ridiculous rashness had Excommunicated for a matter of small importance all the Churches of Asia which was concerning the difference of the day whereon Easter was to be kept he says to him Presbyteri Ecclesiae cui nunc praesides Anicetum dicimus Ejum Hyginum Telesphorum Christum neque ipsi sic observarunt neque posteris suis sic praeceperunt Observe by the way the modesty of the Bishops of those times they affected no other quality than that of Priest as we also see in the Gospel that Bishops are there sometimes called Priests It was not in contempt that St. Ireneus called them so but because that in those blessed times the Bishops were humble and were ambitious of no other Title But now-a-days a Priest is called My Lord Abbot an Abbot takes the Arms of a Bishop a Bishop of a Cardinal a Cardinal equals himself to Princes and will even take the place of them And the Bishops of Rome who in those times were humble and desired no other Crown than that of Martyrdom now raise themselves above Soveraigns Kings and Emperors wear a Triple Crown which these Villains called Il Regno for a mark of their Royalty tread even Empâ—rors under their feet make them kiss their Slippers and treat them like fools Cardinal Cusan confirms to us what St. Gregory said before In Cathedra Petri says he Patriarchae leguntur sedisse Romanus Alexandrinus Antiochenus cum illis omnes subjecti Episcopi