vtter defiance with Schisme and Heresie Lett all the worlde vnderstand that in the least dangerouse pointe you will take the secure part and no way shrinke from your duety towards God than shall you certainly auoide the diuerse snares of conscience with which you may otherwise be entangled and perhaps be left in more setled quiet in the world which ordinarily molesteth them moste which most seeke to flatter it This assure your selfe of that as you cannot too soone flye from places suspected of pestilence So cannot you be too curiouse of shūning whatsoeuer hath the least sauour of schisme and heresie And least you may for want of a right persuasion of your duety doe amisse compare alwaie the case of going to the Church A rule to know how farre we may go in this pointe vnto the receuing the cōmunion and doing facrifice or being present at sacrifice vnto Idolls And what you may doe or say you haue donne or will doe or what you may dissemble in one you may in the other For I will shew hereafter that although there be degrees amongst them yet there is sinne committed in them all alike §. 18. Hauing than hitherto declared our full meaning in this question and whome we exclude or include therin Let vs beginne to handle the matter scholastically as I said before as for fruitfull examples of auncient ages and pithy sentences of the doctours of the Church and deuout conceites and exhortations vnto that which is necessary in so weighty a pointe of Christian religion I leaue thē vnto the three bookes The booke of Schisme which learnedly deuoutly and largly intreate therof in our owne tongue My purpose is onely to presse you with sound argumentes and so to inclose you within the bandes of most firme reason The reasons of refufall that you shall neither escape my handes nor being once in them be wrested from me We must therfore out of the sure and stedfast groundes of sound Diuinity The cololatory letter proue that the vsuall going vnto the Church with heretickes in England is altogithtr of it selfe vnlawfull hauing annexed vnto it as signification of false religion a denaill contempt dishonour and preiudice of the truth which doe geue the forme and nature vnto such going and so make it that by to accident or circumstance in the world it may be iustified This will we deduce out of the nature and quality of fiue principall vertues necessarily appertaining vnto Christian duety §. 19. Euery Christian is bound to professe his faith at some times The first of these vertues is an exteriour confession of faith to which euery Chrstian is bound in two fortes For first there is an affirmatiue precept which commandeth vs to confesse our faith and shew outwardly that which we beleeue and to this are we bound sometimes in respecte of other vertues sometimes in respect of faith it selfe In respect of other vertues as of religion which is a vertue to which it belongeth to yeeld honour vnto God not onely with the mind esteeming him our cheife Lorde and finall end Damasc l. 4. c. 13. and submitting our selues vnto him as the soueraigne ruler of our soules but also with our body* and exteriour actions wheras wee consist as well of bodye as of soule exhibiting vnto him outward reuerence in praier thanksgeuing sacraments and ceremonies of religion Which exteriour actions alwaies being a profession of faith it is a cleare case that sometimes in respect of religion we are bound to this exteriour acte of faith which we call confession of faith And this bond in respect of religion taketh place so ofte as the holy Church bindeth vs vnto any acte of religion as of hearing Masse confession receiuing baptisme extreeme vnction or other such like or when there may happen any necessity either of our neighbour or of our selues or of the honor of God or singuler cōmon profit To this confession we are also bound sometimes in respect of charity to wardes our neighbour A man is bound to professe his faith for the charity towardes his neighbour As whan this is a necessary remedy to hinder the peruersion of others in faith and religion or any great scandall in this behalfe As we reade of diuerse Saintes who seing Christians in torments ready to relent comforting them with holsome and necessary counsell haue them selues confessed their owne faith and togither with charity towardes their neighbour shewed their faith towardes God for wihch they haue bene rewarded euen with Martyrdome Christening of children a great bond And here can I not conceale a thing as necessary for the good of my countrey as any other thing without which we cannot be saued It happeneth not seldome that in childbirth the litle Infant is in manifest danger of death The midwife and others assisting either for ignorance malice or for feare of the instrumentes * Commōly against the 9. Iniunctions such are now troubled by the spiritualty of the Diuell which seeketh to take away that onely remedy of saluation which our poore most miserable countrey hath retained doth not care to Christen the same Now whatsoeuer other man or woeman there present yea the * 30. q. 1. c. Ad limina father or mother in such necessity is bound although manifest death woulde ensew vnder paine of mortall sinne that is of eternall damnation if they repent not to Christen or cause to be christened the aforesaide Infant wher by it happeneth that in such fact they consesse this most certaine point of Catholicke verety that no Infant can be saued without Baptisme And in this bond are included schismatikes heretickes themselues who hauing this beliefe are also bound to shew the same in like necessities Some other may be bound hereunto by reason of Iusticke as those which are by office appointed to teach others For such are bound euen with perill of their owne death to instruct theire flocke so therwithall vttering their owne beliefe But in respect of the very vertue of Faith it selfe this outward confession is necessary first Whan is a man ordinarily bound to shew his faith whan any man by concealing and not confessing his faith should be thought to deny the same Secondly in Baptisme where an open profession therof is made Thirdly when generally the faith were in greate hazard or perill of subuersion Saint THOMAS intreating of this matter geueth this rule of the obligation of this precept saying 2.2 q. 3. ar a That a man is bound vnto the exteriour confession of his faith when by the omission therof there shold be withdrawen dew honour from God or profitt to our neighbour as saith he if any man being demaunded of his saith shoulde holde his peace and therby it should be thought either that he had not faith or that the Catholicke faith were not trew or others by his silence should be auerted from the faith for in such cases the consession of our faith
Church if you desire to be you may easely dreame it but then are you not of the trew Church but of a dreamed Church But as the trew Church of God is visible it selfe so is the vnion ther which visible And the diuision of other Churches which are in deed not trew Churches but conuenticles or as S. Hierome calleth theē sinagogues of the Diuell being in all the world manifest visible as it were the diuels visible congregations Ep. 11. ad Gerōt de monog As the Church is visible so is the vnion therwith visible who doubteth but the vnion ther which is also visible You know that in Philosophy ENS VNVM be certaine Transcendents which agree to all thinges equally and looke what euery thing hath of Entity that it hath also of vnity Now if Caluins Church be a visible Church and I would to God it were altogither inuisible and sent downe so that the persons therof were safe vnto the Prince of darkenes from whom it first proceeded if Caluins Church I say bee visible than as the being of it is so is the vnity also that is it hath a visible vnity and what vnity is this but that which the wholle world iudgeth a visible frequēting of Caluins congregation The Church you go vnto is Caluins congregation Eph. 6. Col. 1. what is a congregation but a multitude gathered togither and who maketh this multitude but Ihon Thomas and Peter and all that are there If you will from this word All challendge a certaine extra ordinary priuiledge to say that they are all except your selfe you surely doe more than euer was heard of and arrogate vnto your selfe Ro. 5. the deserued Priuiledge of CHRIST our B. LADY who onely are said to haue bene exempted yet with sufficient groundes of scriptures and Fathers from generall sentences such as is that of S. PAVL ⧠in which all haue sinned ⧠But Sir you can no more exempt your selfe from this sentence All these are Caluinists by saying except I than you shall be able at the dreadfull daye of Gods seuere iudgement if you alter not your course to exempt your selfe from go you cursed by saying except I. Mat. 23. What place our Schismatickes haue in Caluins congregation Aug. in Brouin collat 3 The soule of Caluins church Than are you one of Caluins congregation Yet that I may doe you no wrong I will heere put you in minde of a certaine distinction which Catholick Doctours vse that is that some be of the soule of the Church and some of the body For the Church of Christ is not a deade bodye but a body quickned with a liuely spirite The soule of the Church are the inward vertues therof the body is the outward shew Euen so doe I say that in Caluins Church there is a body and a soule the soule is Caluins beliefe and whatsoeuer other dowry of hell it hath for this soule hath no other place than hell fier The body of Caluins church The body therof most fitt for such a soule is the outward profession or shew or vnion or practise and society of Caluins broode Now I confesse that one of these may be without the other And as there may be in the Catholicke Church variety of her members So may there also be in Caluins Sinagogues In the Catholicke Church some are both of the body and soule of the same such as haue both Faith and the outward profession of Catholike religion Others onely of the soule such as haue not the outward vnion and peace with the Church but before God are of such perfection that they be immediately vnited therunto by his heauenly grace Such are those cathecumens which abound with loue of God and trew faith or also excommunicate persons not yet restored in humane Iudgement but restored before God from whom they haue receiued trew contrition and purpose of amendment For God is not tied vnto his Sacraments but can and doth oftentimes immediately iustify those which are throughly conuerted vnto him Finally others there are which hauing no inward disposition at all yet either for feare or some other affection of worldly interest in outward shew doe nothing differ from the rest And these are worthely compared vnto the heares of a mans body or nailes or euill humours which although they be within the body yet are they not animated by the soule as other partes of the body are being depriued of all sense and lost without paine and by nature not fitte to be quickned bvt rather certaine excrementes of the body onely made to adorne and gard the body and to be vsed by the same for the operations of the wholle So than haue we found out your office in Caluins congregation You are not of the soule therof in deed For I hope of the former faith which I know to haue bene perfect in you But as S. Hierome saith although at the beginning no schisme hath false doctrine in Tit. 3. Schisme is the way to heresy yet at the length it forgeth to it selfe some erroneous proposition that it may seeme to haue gonne from the Church with pretense of some cause much like vnto your selfe who first going to the Church for feare now that you may purge your selfe of cowardise basenes maintaine your errour contrary to the generall sense not onely of the Church but euen of morall reason Therfore looke well vnto your selfe least at the length as the losse of charity * 1 Tim. 1. is the way to the losse of faith so your entrance into schisme make you an entrance vnto heresy and so to a generall shipwracke in faith according to the saying of the Psalmist Destroy it * Psal 136. See S. Greg. l. 25. mor. c. 5. destroy it euen vnto the very foundation But yet as I saied you are not of the soule of Caluins religion Neither are you of the body of Caluin as a principall member But you shall heare what you are and I pray you heare it patiently Prou. 27. For better are the strokes of a frend then the kisses of an enemy You are the excrements of Caluins congregation The excrements of Caluins religion receiuing life neither from Catholicke religion nor from Caluins heresy although how could Caluins heresy or any heresie at all geue life vnto the soule and in that body you serue for no necessary vse in which you are the happier and so I hope you will keepe your selfe from any butcherly and tyrannicall exercise but you serue them yet Caluins religion in England hath bene compacted of excrements for an ornament and creditt as though they had a shew of a common wealth And how fitlye is Caluins religion adorned with excrements For if you take way these excrements or at the least if such excrements had bene taken away from the begining in Caluins wholle body there woulde be now neuer a sound mēber But remember I pray you that whilest your
deceitfull leasinges to salsifye the truth Euen as S. PAVL doth warne A man that is an hereticke after the first and second admonition auoide knowing Tit. 3. that he that is such a one is subuerted sinneth beeing condemned by his owne iudgement All this doth Eusebius * l. 4. c. 13. reporte of these Saintes out of Ireneus so that you haue in one thing the autority of many of Eusebius S. Ireneus S. Policarpus S. PAVL and S. IOHN S. De nis The same rigour we reade to haue bene obserued by S. Dionisius an auncient Bishoppe of Alexandria whose owne wordes Eusebius thus citeth l. 7. c. 6. This Canon and this example did I receaue of our blessed Father Heraclas S. Heraclas For hee cast out of the Church such as had departed from the Church not so yet but that they in corporall presence were partakers of the congregation of the faithfull whā they were accused that they had much conuersed with one of those which defended a contrary doctrine vnto the Church ⧠Finally you know very well that if this were the auncient custome of the Church towards all excommunicate persons 11. q. 3. c. cum excommunicato sequenti preced Chrys ho. 25. in c. 11. ad hebr 1. Cor. 5. In vita S. Anthonies last will which were neither heretickes nor schismatickes according to S. PAVLES doctrine who speaking of all such deuided members commaundeth not to eate with them you may much more know the stricte kinde of bond in auoiding heretickes and schismatickes Which lesson the glorious S. Anthony a most perfect master of all holines and Christian dewty not onely taught by example but leste vnto his schollers for his last will and testament Heare saieth he my children the last will of your Father And presently To the Meletians and Schisinatickes doe you not come neere neither ioine your selues in ' communication with the Arrians ⧠Thus much as in so cleare a case for this first point shall suffice But because I know very well Two kinds of tollerations in cōmunication with heretickes that you will say that this custome is now worne out in the Church of Christ you see not the most zealous Catholicks of all to be so scrupulous in auoiding hereticks ciuill conuersation as these examples doe seeme to require I must necessarily say somewhat of two kind of Tollerations which hath iustly enlarged the auncient seuerity of the Church herein c. quoniam multos 11. q. 3. seq The first is necessity wherby wiues children seruants bondslaues are permitted to communicate in ciuill thinges with those to whom they belong Also trauailers strangers for their necessary helpes might of olde haue ordinary traficke in places of excommunicate persons This tolleration hath a grounde in S. PAVLES doctrine 1. Cor. 5. See Saint Chrisost cited before who to the Corinthians writeth in this manner I wrote vnto you in an epistle not to keepe company with fornicatours I meane not the fornicatours of this world otherwise you should haue gonne out of this world But if he the is named a brother c. ⧠Where he sheweth a certaine necessity of ciuill cōuersation with those which make the wholle community of the place where we abide for otherwise as he saieth wee could not liue in this world For which cause he geueth leaue * c. 10. in the same epistle to go to an Infidells feast So that we may ground this tolleration vppon an euident necessity that whan we liue amongst Infidells onely or for the most parte although they be heretickes and fugitiues from Gods Church yet we may vse such ciuill conuersation with them as shall be necessary vnto vs auoiding alwaies daunger of infection and scandall Thus farre may we bouldly aduenture by the auncient permission of the Church But for the auoiding of many scandals and dangers of soules which might happen and for the comforte of fearefull consciences it hath seemed conuenient vnto the wisdome of the holy ghost to yeelde a farther liberty Mart. 5. Ext. ad euitanda See Nauar. c. 27. n. 35 and euen in the countreis where most be Catholickes to graunt by the speciall permissiō of our holy mother the Church that we may freely in all maner of thinges as well spirituall as temporall communicate with whosoeuer hauing incurred excommunication through some crime so punished by the lawes of the Church are not either specially declared and denounced to be so excommunicate or manifestly and notoriously knowen to be strikers of a Clergy man And although some doe except from this tolleration all manifest excōmunicate persons consequently all manifest hereticks according to the limitation of the Councell of Constance yet hath the custome of the Church a trew interpreter of lawes receiued this decree with this generall enlargement as it was also in the Councell of Basill propounded So that this tolleration must be generally vnderstood that euen with heretickes not by name excommunicate nor notorious strikers of the Clergy we may as well in ciuill as in spirituall thinges cōmunicate Whan I say spirituall things I meane such thinges as belong vnto the spirite of God not the inuentions or society of infernall spirits But what manner of spirituall thinges Caluins misteries are and of the vnderstanding of this kind of tolleratiō See §. 7. enough hath bene said aboue Now must I warne you and whosoeuer shall take the paines to geue the reading vnto this my writing that these Tollerations in two cases cannot be any warrant vnto vs at all No Tolleration in two cases they being in whatsoeuer case indispensable First if we finde such communication to be noisome vnto our soules so that we perceiue our selues to waxe colde in our feruour and Catholicke resolution of perseuering in Christian dewty good life and frequenting of Sacraments for this bond of auoiding spirituall daunger doth bind vs in euery sinne Secondly if there be ioined withall an expresse or virtuall deniall of our faith or contempt of the Church or superstitious behauiour or scandall which in going to heretickes Churches doe alwaies concurre For euen as the aforesaide tolleratiō cannot make but if you in murder thefte fornication Idolatry communicate with heretickes you shall sinne as much as before the Tolleration So is it in this case of going to the Church That therfore which is good you may by the tolleration aforesaid doe with heretickes that which is euill is as vnlawfull as euer before And therfore in vnlawfull matters wee must haue recourse vnto the auncient Apostolicall rule of auoiding most constantly heretickes And especially in their seruice as a thing which can neuer be lawfull For if a man may in putting of his cappe to thē as S. IHON saith in his second epistle cōmunicate to their wicked works because he may geue thē countenance encouragement to prosecute the same how much more shal he do the like in the very toppe of their
conformity in their superstition The pretense of obedience maketh this actiō worse than before contempt of Catholicke vnity I pray you imparte your conceite vnto me I my selfe can see nothing else wheof I doe inferre that by such pretended obedience this act is made worse then it was before For a precept law or commaundment prescribeth a matter to that vertue which it intendeth of which it was not a necessary matter before as the commandement of not eating flesh vpon a fasting day was not a matter of fasting necessary before the law for why one might haue before fasted better with one bitte of flesh than with a dainty dinner of diuerse dishes of fishe but after the law it is a necessary obseruance and matter prescribed vnto fasting So in like maner although to goe to the Church before with hereticks had not bene as alwaies it was an act of religion now being commaunded by the law as an act of religion for that is the intent of the law manifestly pretended in the one or other statute of going to the Church it is only a simple act of obedience but an act of obedience in such a matter principally intended as is the profession of a false religion For euery religiouse act applied vnto a false god or a false kind of worship or a false Society of worshippers is an expresse protestation of the same false worship or vnlawfull fellowshippe So should you first haue proued this action to be lawfull in it selfe Obedience is no excuse but whan the matter thereof is first proued lawfull and then you might haue inferred that your obedience had bene lawfull and you should also haue shewed some end in this law ouer and besides bare obedience other then the end of religion which surely must needes be yeelded to be the very end and obiect of the law And this long experience hath shewed in the Church of God that when temporall Princes must be obeyed in Churches Amb l. 5. ep 33. ad Marcellinam there is farther daunger in it then I list now to speake But you shall see an example of Christian obedience When the Emperour was at greate strife with S. Ambrose the holy B. of Millan about the deliuering certaine Churches in the citty of Millan vnto the Arrians as alwaies before this fearefull abiect age Ibid. S Ambrose his obedience to the Emperour Catholikes wold neuer be found amongst heretickes in Churches S. Ambrose aunswered the Emperour in this maner Trouble not thy selfe O Emperour that thou maiest thinke that thou hast any emperiall authority ouer diuine thinges To the Emperour Pallaces appertaine to the Bishop the Churches To thee is committed the righte ouer the publicke not ouer the sacred walles ⧠And when the same Saint was threatned with death for the same cause by Calligonus the Emperours Eunuch euen in the Church God permitte saith he that thou doe that which thou threatnest for I will suffer that which becommeth a Bishop thou shalt doe that which beseemeth an Eunuch ⧠In which controuersie the souldiers sent word as saith S. Ambrose vnto the Emperour that if he would come abrode he mighte with good leaue But that they woulde waite vpon him if they saw him agree with Catholickes Trew Catholicke Christians were than Recusants otherwise they would passe vnto that companye which Ambrose should gather Such accounte ought Christians to make of auoiding hereticall synagogues I will conclude therfore this matter of obedience with one shorte but inuincible reason You will haue it lawfull for obedience to goe to the Church An inuincible reason that it is not lawfull to go to the Church for obedience Than say I in this maner Whatsoeuer is lawfull to be donne that being by a Superiour commaunded is a mortall sinne to transgresse or to omitte But as you defend it is lawfull to goe to the Church for obedience therfore it is a mortall sinne not to goe to the Church when it is so commanded See I pray you how many Preistes Martyrs men woemen and children you condemne to hell whilest you seeke to maintaine your owne dangerouse wilfull estate §. 10. Now let vs proceed vnto your feare The 9 obiection of Feare which you make as one reason amongst the rest but in deede is the wholl cause of your forsaking God Because you haue not perfectly learned his lesson which saidI will teach you whom you shall feare Feare him which when he hath killed the body hath power to sende both bodye and soule into Hell fier yea verely I say vnto you feare him You saye therfore that you doe as you doe for feare and not voluntarily But nothing is a sinne which is not donne voluntarily Therfore in your action is no sinne at all Where if you had said thus that you doe what you do not voluntarily but nothing not voluntarily donne is a sinne therfore what you doe is no sinne then had your argument bene good but your Maior false for I would then say you did voluntarily what you did But now in your first proposition where you say that you doe a thing for feare and yet not voluntarily you include two thinges most repugnant in them selues For it is impossible that a thing be donne onely for feare and not voluntarily Whatsoeuer is done for feare is voluntary And in thispoint we must begge helpe of heathen Philosophers For so hath feare darckened our countreis vnderstanding that the very principles of all morall actions and of goodnes or badnes in our doinges are called into question For what I pray you if for feare of loasing your owne life you vniustly take away an others because of that feare haue you not sinned If you haue sinned then haue you voluntarilye donne it For * Aug l. 3 de lib. arb c. 17 18. et lib. de vera rel c. 14. lib. 1. retract c. 13 asinne is not a sinne except it be voluntary If IOSEPH for feare of his Ladies slaunder had satisfied her will had he donne against his owne Had the three childrē done against their owne will if they had for feare sacrificed or donne worship to the Idoll And your selfe shall be iudge When you goe to the Church doe you goe against your will doth any man cary you or doe you cary your selfe in such maner because of your feare that you might not stay your selfe at home Surely if feare be so mighty a Passion that it taketh away the free gouernment of a mans wil and not onely threatneth but inferreth violenc to the outward members in vaine did our Sauiour exhorte vs not to feare the world in vaine did he with his heauenly instructions animate his Disciples against incounters whatsoeuer of the aduersaries of his holy truth But let vs decide this question out of Philosophy Onely violence taketh away voluntary In a reasonable creature therfore nothing taketh away the nature of voluntary but constraint Now coaction or constraint
body is with Caluin your soule cannot be with the Catholicke Church None can be of the soule of the Catholicke Church which are of the body of another 1. Cor. 6. For although the catholike Church haue vndoubtedly some which are of the soule therof not of the body yet those are such as being in soule in the Church desire also to be in body and no waies make the members of Christ the members of an harlotte You whilest you are with your body belonging to heretickes cannot haue your soule in Gods hands or his Churches Therfore consider your selfe wher it is with Caluin it is not and God forbid it shold keepe at the least your soule from him if you cannot your body with God it is not nor with his Church For they both of very good right require both soule and body neither can either haue the soule without the body It is in his hands yet not as of a louer and fauourer into whose handes as a Iudge it is most horrible to fall Heb. 10. Who for his great mercy whold a while his iustice and geue you space of trew and perfect repentance Thus much be for this time said of schisme See § 40. for we shall afterward most euidently out of holy Fathers shew that your action is Schisme §. 25. But your refuge will be here The 12 obiection that he which goeth to the Church is not a schismatike but rather an exteriour here ticke that by these reasons I make you a Caluinist that is an hereticke and not onely a Schismaticke which I intended to proue and therfore assuring your selfe that you are no Caluinist whose faith and pernicious opinions I with your selfe thinke you detest you seeme to inferre that as I conclude falsly that you are a Caluinist So doe I also falsly inferre that you are a Schismaticke From this starting hole can I easely expell you I haue proued that you doe shew an exteriour vnion with Caluin thence doe I inferre that you are in the iudgement of the Church a very Caluinist for the Church iudgeth not of inward affections but of the outward actions and deemeth those actions to proceed from your inward faith as they are of them selues an outward profession of the same And of this I spoke before where I shewed how your action was contrary vnto faith But now I say you are a Caluinist also by reason of Schisme and as Caluin is both an hereticke and a Schismaticke So you Going to the Church is both exteriour heresy schisme The difference betweene heresy schism L. 20. con Faust c. 3. con Craesco Gram. saepe out of his congregation come loaden with both vices of exteriour heresy and absolute schisme Which that you may the better conceiue you shall vnderstand that the difference betweene heresy and Schisme is very well sette downe by S. Augustine in that he saith that Schisme is when one hauing the same opinions and vsing the same ceremony of worshipping God with others yet onely is delighted with a seuerall congregation But Heresy hath contrary opinions vnto the Catholicke Church Now therfore Caluin in that he teacheth diuersly from Christ his trew Church is an hereticke in that he hath deuided the Church of Christ erected a new aultar and appointed new ceremonies he is a Schismaticke 2.2 q. 39. at 1. ad 3. And therfore S. THOMAS with all the Diuines doe vere truely teach that euen as faith may be without charity so may a man be a Schismaticke and yet not an hereticke Euery hereticke is a Schismaticke But as charity cannot be without faith so can it not be that one be not a Schismaticke which is an hereticke Caluin than is an hereticke and also a Schismaticke Now in that he is an hereticke your communication with him if we may beleeue your selfe saying you be no Caluinist in deed is onely exteriour heresy as I haue said before but in that he is a schismaticke your cōmunication with him doth make you a Schismaticke and not onely an exteriour Schismaticke For in Schisme there is no such distinction of interiour and exteriour schisme but a very absolute Schismatike So that you are a Caluinist both for the exteriour profession of Caluinisme and also for the exteriour vnion which you haue with Caluin And so should be called although Caluin were no more an hereticke than other Schismatickes haue bene heretofore in the Church whose followers haue bene called Nouatians Luciferians Donatistes and such like And to shewe you plainely my minde I cannot but maruaile greatly at their clemency The name of a Schismaticke is too fauourable in our countrey who gaue first vnto such as you are the name of Schismatickes or rather I maruaile at your selfe and your companions in that you dispute so seriously whether you be to be called Schismatickes wheras you are rather in the iudgement of the Church plaine heretickes being in the outward apparance of which onely the visible Church as of a visible token and badge can iudge most absolutely worthy of that name We in deed who know you so particulerly and are fully persuaded of your inward resolution which notwithstanding wee onely suppose vpon your owne fidelity because yon say so See more §. 40 out of S. August albeit your owne fidelity towardes God we see outwardly to be very small yet doe we very fitely and truely call you Schismatickes of which name I would you were so readely ashamed for to mend it as you are deseruedly ashamed for to heare it The 13. obiection that this acte is only exteriour schisme and not absolute perfecte Schime There is no exteriour schisme but is also inward §. 26 But this must wee for your better satisfaction proue that it is possible to be an exteriour heretike not being properly an hereticke and yet not an exteriour Schismaticke without being a very Schismaticke This Argument I can first answere by an other like case For if you will haue in all vices the like distinction vnto infidelity heresie than may you saye of a murderer that although he wittingly and willingly killeth yet he may be but an exteriour murderer and not a perfect murderer And in like maner of thefte fornication and all maner of sacriledge The reason therfore of this difference is that the vertew of faith is in the vnderstanding for it is a kind of knowledge which is alwaies in that power of the soule which we call vnderstanding but other vertues of charity iustice religion and such like are harboured in the will And hereof it proceedeth that as one may doe an exteriour act contrary vnto his vnderstanding but not contrary vnto his will So may a man exteriourly worke against faith and yet his vnderstanding not consent therwith as to veresie it although his will doe consent vnto it as to doe it for it is the will which hath the rule and gouernment ouer all outward actions and they all
brother Let none as much as lieth in him beare patiently that order doe perish discipline be transgressed For to be silent when thou maiest reproue is to consent and we know that like punishment is prouided for those which doe and those which consent Feed saieth S. Ambrose him which dieth for hungar Dist 86. c. Pasce vide l. 3. off c. 6. for whosoeuer thou arte which by feeding him mightest haue saued his life if thou hast not fedd him thou hast killed him ⧠Inferre hence the greater necessity of sauing a soule than feeding the body and the grrater bond of fatherly piety than of brotherly charity God graunt that in our afflicted countrey many thousand soules without any other crime but with this onely want of charity and piety towardes their neighbours and children doe not euery day eternally perish §. 35 By this which hitherto hath bene said THE FOVRTH PART Of the nature of a signe distinctiue it remaineth proued that this action of going to hereticks seruice is of it selfe repugnant vnto the very law of God and of nature a case indispensable by any power vpon earth and besides many other deformities therin conteined a distinctiue signe and manifest note wherby heretickes or schismatickes are discerned from trew Catholickes Wherupon I do infer two very certaine truthes The 16-obiection that temporall lawes or Princes can not appoint distinctiue signes of religion first that most friuolous is that reason of yours that the going to the seruice of heretickes was lawfull before the statute of going to the Church and no distinctiue signe at all and thence you conclude that neither it can now be a distinctiue signe wher as temporal Princes cannot giue the nature of a necessary signe of Religion vnto any exteriour actiō which is not such of it selfe For howsoeuer your assertion of the power of Princes in this pointe be trew or false This action is of it selfe a signe distinctiue this action is as I haue saied not by any worldly Prince or law instituted but by nature it selfe and by the very forme of all maner of Religions ordained as a ceremony and from a ceremony if you take away the signification of religion of that religion I meane vnto which it doth belong you destroy the nature of a ceremony and make a ceremony no ceremony But I perceiue the cause of your errour in this argument to be the dissention betweene Caietane and the rest of the Deuines Caietane saieth that if a Prince or a law amongst Infidells in 2.2 q. 3. ar 2. Whether a Prince may make a signe distinctiue the omission wherof may be a mortall sinac doe commaund that euery Christian weare a certaine kind of garment different from the rest of that countrey as a redd or yellow cappe such lawe or commaundment may be in two respectes either for the protestation of religion that the Prince intendeth onely to know theire religion therby or else for a politicke distinction that a Christian may be knowen from an Infidell for the peaceable order of the common welth and by such marke be reputed as it were infamous Of these two cases he geueth a different censure For in the first that is when the Prince intendeth to know euery mans faith and religion although the same Prince intendeth therby to take occasion of persecuting the Christians he saieth that it is a mortall sinne to omitt such garment for than as he saieth euery one is virtually and in effect interrogated of his religion which than he is bound to confesse In the second he saieth that a man may lawfully omitt such a signe especially for to saue his life wheras such law doth not bind in daunger of life being onely a politicke and ciuill law for the peaceable gouernment of the state not in respect of religion What Caie tane thinketh of the omission of a signe of trew religiō appointed by the Prince of a false religiō Therfore he concludeth that if a Christiā amongst Infidells should be commaunded to weare a redd cappe onely for ciuill pollicy least any tumulte should arise or disorder in the common wealth by diuersities of religions than in daunger of death and with lesse daunger also he may without mortall sinne omitt that signe As a Iew at Rome or at Venice for to auoide the officer which cometh to arrest him may without deadly sinne cast off his Iewes cappe that he may not be knowen yea although his religion were the onely trew religion of the world For such signe is not ordained for the protestation of his religion but onely for ciuill pollicy But if the end of such law were onely to protest religion and that the Prince intended therby to knowe Christians for to punish them for their religion and not to make onely a ciuill distinction for the peaceable gouernment of Christians and Infidells than to omitt such signe is a mortall sinne against the confession of faith which alwaies is necessary when a man is interrogated euen as he is now as it were in effect interrogated by the law or commaundment of the Prince Thus doth Caietane discourse of the omission of the signe of a Christian vsed amongst Infidells Caietanes opinion of the vse of a signe of a false religion But now let vs also see for it maketh much for the vnderstanding of the wholle matter and there is great difference what he saieth of the vsurping of the signe of an Infidell either when Infidells liue in a Christian common wealth as Iewes at Rome or whan Christians liue in an Infidell common wealth as among the Turkes Than saieth Caietane although there be a signe appointed for an Infidell onely for ciuill respectes of temporall peace yet is it a mortall sinne for a Christian euery time which he vseth the same So that a Christian at Rome wearing a Iewes cappe or amongst the Turkes a white Turbant doth euery time committe a mortall sinne although it were for to saue his life for he than sheweth him selfe a Iewe or Turke by vsing the signe of either of them Thus you see Caietanes opinion is Marke the difference of vsing a signe of false religion and omitting a signe of true religion that a man may neuer vse a signe of a false religion although appointed by the Prince but that he may omitte the signe of his owne religion when it is not instituted for a protestation of religion but when it is ordained as a signe of religion than cannot hee omitte it without mortall sinne This doctrine by all other Deuines for the most parte is thought to rigorous And they teach very well Bannes 2.2 q. 3. ar 2. that a signe of an Infidell ordained for ciuill respectes onely may lawfully be vsed by a Christian in time of necessity and whan there is no scandall neither is there is such vse any signification of religion iustly geuen Other Diuines are against Caietane but onely permitted Euen as a
persons it is not lawfull to communicate neither with those which come togither in houses auoiding the praiers of the Church must we pray The like we read in the 5 Canon The Councell of Laodicea c. 9.32.33.37 The Councell of Laodicea forbiddeth the same euen whan none is there present And in the 33 Canon it expresly forbiddeth to pray with heretickes or Skhismatickes and in the Canon before it calleth the blessings of heretickes curses In the 37 it forbiddeth to keepe holy daies with heteticks or Iewes how than may we go to their Churches with them on holy daies The great Laterane Councell c. 70. C. Quidane de Apostatis Eccli 2. Ex. 22. Innocentius the third in the great Lateran Coūcell saieth thus Some as we vnderstand which voluntarily haue come vnto baptisme doe not at all leaue the ould man that they may putt on a new wheras retaining the relickes of their former ceremonies or rites they by such mixture consoūd the comelines of Christian religion But wheras cursed is the man which goeth vpon the earth by two waies and we must not weare a coate wouen of linnen and wollen we ordaine that by the Prelates of the Churches such obseruance of theire ould ceremonies be in any case repressed that whō their owne free will did offer vnto Christian religion those the necessity of holesome coaction may retaine in the obseruance therof wheras lesse harme it is 1 pet 2º not to know the way of God than after it is knowne to go backe ⧠Here haue you nothing to say but that by going to the Church you vse no ceremony of Protestants religiō which I haue confuted aboue shewing that your very going presence is a ceremony of Caluinisme But lett vs come vnto the example of so many constant Catholickes as in the time of the Arrian heresy were in greater misery than we but bore it with farre greater fortitude Wherein first there cometh vnto my minde a lawe which was made euen of going to the Church not vnlike vnto ours of our new kind of obedience of which because it serueth for the perfecter description of those times I will sette downe what Sozomenus writeth L. 7. c. 13. What Iustina the Emperesse mother vnto Valentinian the younger A law against Recusants in S. Ambrose his time maruailously molested holy Ambrose Bishop of Millan and yet could not preuaile to make him yeeld the Churches vnto the Arrian secte she growing vnto more fury sought to strenghthen her endeuours with a law Therfore sending saieth Sozomene for BENIVOLVS the cheife amongst the enroulers of the lawes A good lesion for trew gentle men she commaunded him that with all speed he should make a law for confirmatiō of the faith established in the Councell of Arininum which was for the Artians This busines whan he modestly sought to auoide because he fauored the catholike Church she was very importunate to entreate him and to allure him with great promises of higher dignity and yet preuailed not For BENIVOLVS taking off his girdle cast it at the Empresses feete saying The girdle was a signe of dignity as with vs the garter that neither his present nor any greater dignity he so esteemed that he would desire it for a reward of impiety Whan therfore he persisted therin that he would neuer doe it others were found which should vndertake the seruice of the making of such lawe This lawe commaunded that freely should come togither those w e were of the Arrian saith A law for going to the Church and that such which should resist vnto these or attempt things contrary vnto the Emperial law should be putt to death Thus Sozomenus of this lawe which notwithstanding was not executed because of extraordinary calamities and troubles which as Sozomenus writeth made Iustina forget her fury About that time notably S. Ambrose who whan the Emperour demaunded a Church for the Arrians Againe saieth he he sent this message Amb. l. 5. ep 33. I must also my selfe haue one Chrrch. But I saith S. Ambrose answered * He alludeth to the speach of S. Ihon Baptist vnto Herode Mat. 14. It is not lawfull for thee to haue her what hast thou to do with an aduoutresse For she is an aduoutresse which is not ioined in the lawfull mariage of Christ ⧠Euen so doe I say vnto you you may not go to the heretickes Church for what haue you to doe with their aduoutresse Sinagogue which is not ioined in the vndefiled matrimony with Christ This argumēt is of the greater force for that it is manifest that this Valentinian was alwaies a catecumen and not baptited at all by reason of his suddaine death So that we are hereby assured that his onele presence was by S. Ambrose forbidden wheras it is most certaine that beeing but a Catecumen he could not receiue any Sacrament nor so much as be present at the Churches sacrifice But onely at the singing of Psalmes and readings sermons Those souldiers also which sought by force to gett a Church for the Emperour Ibid. being by him commaunded to be excommunicate suddenly God altering their mindes came vnto the Catholicke Church where S. Ambrose was refusing to be ioined with the heretickes or for them to obtaine a Church The same most gloriouse Prelate in the same quarrell of the deliuery of the Churches to the Emperour Orat. de tra dend ba sil for the Arrians taketh occasion of that parte of scripture which by meere chance beeing reade that very day in which the tumulte was attempted for the Churches very fittely he applieth vnto his purpose Luc. 19. Mat. 21. The place was of the riding of our Sauiour vppon an Asse vnto Hierusalem and casting forth amongst others those which soulde pigeons in the Temple Where after that this Saint had shewed his seruent desire to make his owne body an hoste and sacrifice vnto Christ in so noble a quarrell if it would please our Sauiour so to vse the same his body as he once vsed the Asse whan he satisfied with a few of his forceable wordes all those which would haue hindered it saying that he had need of his seruice he addeth this most notable sentence of the Doues What are the Doues but simple mindes or soules following the sincere and pure faith should I than bring into the Church one whom Christ excludeth for he is commaunded to go forth Auxētius because of his wicked behauior in other places had changed his name which will sell the simple mindes of the faithfull Therfore Auxentius is cast forth Mercurius is excluded One monster it is but two names ⧠What thinke you thā would S. Ambrose persuade if he now sawe Auxentius in Churches or what wold that his deuour people thinke thēselues boūd vnto if Valentinian commaunded them there to be present neither was Auxentius so excluded but that if he could not haue ben excluded euery Catholicke should haue auoided him