in the Councell of Lateran Anno 1215. fully plumed in the Councell of Trent and now lately hath her feathers imped by the moderne Casuists SECT II. Romish Confession not warranted by Scripture SInce our quarrell is nâ—t with confession it selfe which may bee of singular vse and behoofe but with some tyrannous straines in the practice of it which are the violent forcing and perfit fulnesse thereof It shall be sufficient for vs herein to stand vpon our negatiue That there is no Scripture in the whole booke of God wherein either such necessitie or such intirenesse of Confession is commanded A truth so cleare that it is generally confessed by their owne Canonists Did we question the lawfulnesse of Confession we should be iustly accountable for our grounds from the Scriptures of God now that we cry downe only some iniurious circumstances therein well may wee require from the fautors thereof their warrants from God which if they cannot show they are sufficiently conuinced of a presumptuous obtrusion Indeed our Sauiour sayd to his Apostles and their successours Whose sinnes yee remit they are remitted and whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained But did hee say No sinne shall bee remitted but what yee remit Or no sinne shall be remitted by you but what is particularly numbred vnto you Saint Iames bids Confesse your sinnes one to another But would they haue the Priest shrieue himselfe to the penitent as well as the penitent to the Priest This act must bee mutuall not single Many beleeuing Ephesians came and confessed and shewed their deeds Many but not all not Omnes vtriusque sexus they confessed their deeds Some that were notorious not all their sinnes Contrarily rather so did Christ send his Apostles as the father sent him He was both their warrant and their patterne But that gracious Sauiour of ours many a time gaue absolution where was no particular confession of sinnes Only the sight of the Paralyticks faith fetcht from him Sonne be of good cheere thy sins be forgiuen thee The noted sinner in Simons house approuing the truth of her repentance by the humble and costly testimonies of her loue without any enumeration of her sinnes heard Thy sinnes are forgiuen thee SECT III. Against reason IN true Diuine Reason this supposed dutie is needlesse dangerous impossible Needlesse in respect of all sinnes not in respect of some for how euer in the cases of a burdened conscience nothing can bee more vsefull more soueraigne yet in all our peace doth not depend vpon our lips Being iustified by faith wee haue peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Dangerous in respect both of exprobration as Saint Chrysostome worthily and of infection for delectabile carnis as a Casuist confesseth Fleshly pleasures the more they are called into particular mention the more they moue the appetire I doe willingly conceale from chaste eyes and eares what effects haue followed this pretended act of deuotion in wanton and vnstayed Confessours Impossible for who can tell how oft he offendeth He is poore in sin that can count his stocke and hee sinnes alwayes that so presumes vpon his innocence as to thinke hee can number his sinnes And if hee say of any sinne as Lot of Zoar is it not a little one as if therefore it may safely escape the reckoning it is a true word of Isaac the Syrian Qui delicta c. Hee that thinkes any of his offences small euen in so thinking falls into greater This doctrine and practice therfore both as new and vnwarrantable full of vsurpation danger impossibilitie is iustly reiected by vs and wee for so doing vniustly eiected SECT IV. The noueltie of Absolution before Satisfaction LEst any thing in the Romane Church should retaine the old forme how absurd is that innouation which they haue made in the the order of their penance and absolution The ancient course as Cassander and Lindanus truly witnesse was that absolution and reconciliation and right to the Communion of the Church was not giuen by imposition of hands vnto the penitent till hee had giuen due satisfaction by performing of such penall acts as were enioyned by the discreet PeniteÌ„tiary yea those works of penance saith he when they were done out of faith and an heart truly sorrowfull and by the motion of the holy Spirit preuenting the minde of man with the helpe of his diuine grace were thought not a little auailable to obtaine remission of the sinne and to pacifie the displeasure of God for sinne Not that they could merit it by any dignitie of theirs but that thereby the minde of man is in a sort fitted to the receit of Gods grace But now immediately vpon the Confession made the hand is layd vpon the penitent and he is receiued to his right of Communion and after his absolution certaine workes of pietie are enioyned him for the chastisement of the flesh and expurgation of the remainders of sinne Thus Cassander In common apprehension this new order can bee no other then preposterous and as our learned Bishop of Carlile like Easter before Lent But for this Ipsi viderint it shall not trouble vs how they nurture their owne childe CHAP. XIV The newnesse of the Romish Inuocation of Saints OF all those errours which we reiect in the Church of Rome there is none that can plead so much show of Antiquitie as this of Inuocation of Saints which yet as it hath beene practised and defended in the latter times should in vaine seeke either example or patronage amongst the Ancient How euer there might be some grounds of this deuotion secretly muttered and at last expressed in Panegyricke formes yet vntill almost fiue hundred yeeres after Christ it was not in any sort admitted into the publique seruice It will be easily graunted that the blessed Virgin is the Prime of all Saints neither could it be other then iniurious that any other of that heauenly societie should haue the precedencie of her Now the first that brought her name into the publike deuotions of the Greeke Church is noted by Nicephorus to be Petrus Gnapheus or Fullo a Presbyter of Bithynia afterwards the Vsurper of the See of Antioch much about 470 yeeres after Christ who though a branded heretick found out foure things saith he verie vsefull and beneficiall to the Catholike Church whereof the last was Vt in omni precatione c. that in euerie prayer the Mother of God should bee named and her diuine name called vpon The phrase is verie remarkable wherein this rising superstition is expressed And as for the Latine Church we heare no newes of this Inuocation in the publique Letanies till Gregories time about some 130. yeeres after the former And in the meane time some Fathers speake of it fearefully and doubtfully How could it bee otherwise when the common opinion of the Ancients euen below Saint Austens age did put vp all the soules of
beseeching him that no such pictures may be hanged vp contrarie to our religion Though by the way who can but blush at Master Fishers euasion that it was sure the picture of some profane Pagan When as Epiphanius himselfe there sayes it had Imaginem quasi Christi vel sancti cuiusdam the Image as it were of Christ or some Saint Surely therfore the Image went for Christs or for some noted Saints neither doth he find fault with the irresemblance but with the Image as such That of Agobardus is sufficient for vs Nullus antiquorum Catholicorum None of the ancient Catholiques euer thought that Images were to be worshipped or adored They had them indeed but for historie-sake To remember the Saints by not to worship them The decision of Gregory the Great some six hundred yeeres after Christ which he gaue to Serenus Bishop of Massilia is famous in euerie mans mouth and pen Et quidem quia eas adorari vetuisses c. Wee commend you saith hee that you forbade those Images to bee worshipped but we reproue your breaking of them adding the reason of both For that they were onely retained for historie and instruction not for adoration which ingenuous Cassander so comments vpon as that he showes this to be a sufficient declaration of the iudgement of the Roman Church in those times Videlicet ideo haberi picturas c. That Images are kept not to bee adored and worshipped but that the ignorant by beholding those pictures might as by written records be put in minde of what hath beene formerly done and bee thereupon stirred vp to pietie And the same Author tells vs that Sanioribus scholasticis displicet c. the sounder Schoole-men disliked that opinion of Thomas Aquine who held that the Image is to be worshipped with the same adoration which is due to the thing represented by it reckoning vp Durand Holcot Biel. Not to spend many words in a cleere case What the iudgement and practice of our Ancestors in this Iland was concerning this point appeares sufficiently by the relation of Roger Houeden our Historian Who tells vs that in the yeere 792. Charles the King of France sent into this Isle a Synodall Booke directed vnto him from Constantinople wherein there were diuers offensiue passages but especially this one that by the vnanimous consent of all the Doctors of the East and no fewer then 300. Bishops it was decreed that Images should be worshipped quod Ecclesia Deiexecratur saith he which the Church of God abhorres Against which errour Albinus saith he wrote an Epistle maruellously confirmed by authoritie of diuine Scriptures and in the person of our Bishops and Princes exhibited it together with the sayd Booke vnto the French King This was the setled resolution of our Predecessours And if since that time preuailing superstition haue incroached vpon the ensuing succession of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the old rules stand as those Fathers determined Away with nouelties But good Lord how apt men are to raise or beleeue lies for their owne aduantages Vspergensis and other friends of Idolatrie tell vs of a Councell held at London in the dayes of Pope Constantine Anno 714. wherein the worship of Images was publiquely decreed the occasion whereof was this Egwin the Monke after made Bishop had a vision from God wherein hee was admonished to set vp the Image of the Mother of God in his Church The matter was debated and brought before the Pope in his See Apostolike There Egwin was sworne to the truth of his vision Thereupon Pope Constantine sent his Legate Boniface into England who called a Councell at London wherein after proofe made of Egwins visions there was an act made for Image-worship A figment so grosse that euen their Baronius and Binius fall foule vpon it with a facile inducimur c. we are easily induced to beleeue it to be a lie Their ground is that it is destitute of all testimony of Antiquitie and besides that it doth directly crosse the report of Beda who tells vs that our English together with the Gospell receiued the vse of Images from their Apostle Augustine and therefore needed not any new vision for the entertainment thereof Let vs inquire then a little into the words of Beda At illi but they Augustine and his fellowes non daemoniaca c. came armed not with the power of Deuils but of God bearing a siluer Crosse for their Standard and the image of our Lord and Sauiour painted in a Table and singing Letanies both for the saluation of themselues and of them whom they came to conuert Thus he This shewes indeed that Augustine and his fellowes brought Images into England vnknowne here before A point worthy of good obseruation but how little this proues the allowed worship of them will easily appeare to any reader if hee consider that Gregorie the first and Great was he that sent this Augustine in England whose iudgement concerning Images is cleerely published by himselfe to all the world in his fore-cited Epistle absolutely condemning their adoration Augustine should haue been an ill Apostle if he had herein gone contrarie to the will of him that sent him If withall he shall consider that within the verie same centurie of yeeres the Clergie of England by Albinus Bedes Scholler sent this publique declaration of their earnest disauowing both of the doctrine and practice of Image-worship SECT II. Image Worship against Scripture AS for Scripture We need not to goe further then the verie second Commandement the charge whereof is so ineuitable that it is very ordinarily doubtlesse in the guiltinesse of an apparent checke left out in the deuotionall Bookes to the people Others since they cannot raze it out would faine limit it to the Iewes pretending that this precept against the worship of Images was only Temporall and Ceremoniall and such as ought not to be in force vnder the Times of the Gospell Wherin they recal to my thoughts that which Epiphanes the sonne of Carpocrates answered When his lust was checked with the command of Non concupisces True said hee that is to be vnderstood of the Heathen whose Wiues and Sisters wee may not indeed lust after Some more modest spirits are ashamed of that shift and fly to the distinction of Idols and Images a distinction without a difference of their making not of Gods Of whom we neuer learned other then that as euery Idoll is an Image of something so euery Image worshipped turnes Idoll The Language differs not the thing it selfe To be sure God takes order for both Yee shall make you no Idoll nor grauen Image neither reare you vp any standing Image neither shall you set vp any Image of stone in your Land to bow downe to it Yea as their owne vulgar turnes it Non facies tibi c. statuam Thou shalt not set thee vp a Statue which God hateth The Booke of God is full of his
for vs against the Pride of his following Successours he could not haue set a keener edge vpon his stile Consonant whereto it is yet extant in the very Canon Law as quoted by Gratian out of the Epistle of Pope Pelagius the second Vniuersalis autem nec etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur Not the Bishop of Rome himselfe may bee called Vniuersall Yet how famously is it knowne to all the World that the same Gregories next Successour saue one Boniface the third obtained this title of vniuersall Bishop from the Emperour Phocas which the said Emperour gaue him in a spleene against Cyriacus Patriarch of Constantinople for deliuering Constantina the Wife of Mauritius and her Children or as some others relate it vpon a worse occasion And accordingly was this haughty title communicated by the same power to the See of Rome and by strong hand euer since maintained This qualification their Register Platina confesses was procured not without great contention And Otho Frisingensis fully and ingenuously writeth thus Gregorie departed hence to the Lord After whom the next saue one Boniface obtained of Phocas that by his authoritie the Romane Church might bee called the head of all Churches For at that time the See of Constantinople I suppose because of the seat of the Empire translated thither wrote her selfe the first Thus their Bishop Otho Now if any man shall think that hence it will yet follow that the See of Rome had formerly enioyed this honour how euer the Constantinopolitan for the present shouldred with her for it Let him know the ground of both their challenges which as it was supposed by Otho So is fully for the satisfaction of any indifferent iudgement layd forth in the Generall Councell of Chalcedon The same say those Fathers we determine of the priuiledges of the most holy Church of Constantinople called New Rome For the Fathers haue iustly heretofore giuen priuiledge to the Throne of old Rome because that Citie was then the Gouernesse of the world and vpon the same consideration were the hundred and fiftie Bishops men beloued of God moued to yeeld equall priuiledges to the Throne of new Rome rightly iudging that this Citie which is honoured with the Empire and Senate and is equally priuiledged with old Rome the then Queene of the world should also in Ecclesiasticall matters bee no lesse extolled and magnified Thus they And this act is subscribed Bonifacius Presbyter Ecclesiae Romanae statui subscripsi I Boniface Presbyter of the Church of Rome haue so determined and subscribed Et caeteri c. And the rest of the Bishops of diuers Prouinces and Cities subscribed What can be more plaine This headship of the Bishop was in regard of the See and this headship of the See was in regard of the preeminence of the Citie which was variable according to the changes of times or choyce of Emperours But Binius wrangleth here Can we blame him when the free-hold of their Great Mistresse is so neerely touched This act saith he was not Synodicall as that which was closely and cunningly done in the absence of the Popes Legates and other Orthodox Bishops at the instance of Anatolius Patriarch of Constantinople an ambitious man by the Easterne Bishops only How can this plea stand with his owne confessed subscription Besides that their Caranza in his Abridgement showes that this point was long and vehemently canuassed in that Councell betweene Lucentius and Boniface Legates of the Romane Church and the rest of the Bishops and at last so concluded as we haue related not indeed without the protestation of the sayd Legates Nobis praesentibus e. The Apostolike See must not in our presence be abased Notwithstanding this act then carried and after this Pope Simplicius succeeding to Hilarius made a decree to the same purpose not without allusion to this contention for precedencie that Rome should take place of Constantinople Yea so vtterly vnthought of was this absolute Primacie and headship of old as that when the Roman Dition was brought downe to a Dukedome and subiected to the Exarchate of Rauenna the Arch-Bishop of Rauenna vpon the verie same grounds stucke not as Blondus tells vs to striue with the Bishop of Rome for prioritie of place So necessarily was the rising or fall of the Episcopall Chaire annexed to the condition of that Citie wherein it was fixed But in all this we well see what it is that was stood vpon an arbitrable precedencie of these Churches in a prioritie of order and according thereunto the Bishop of Rome is determined to be primae sedis Episcopus the Bishop of the first See A style which our late learned Soueraigne professed with Iustinian not to grudge vnto the moderne Bishops of that See But as for a Primacie of Soueraignty ouer all Churches and such an Headship as should enforme and enliue the body and gouerne it with infallible influences it is so new and hatefull as that the Church in all ages hath opposed it to the vtmost neither will it bee endured at this day by the Greeke Church notwithstanding the colourable pretence of subscription hereunto by their dying Patriarch Ioseph of Constantinople in the late Florentine Councell and the letters of vnion subscribed by them Anno 1539. Yea so farre is it from that as that their Emperour Michael Paleologus for yeelding a kinde of subiection of the Easterne Bishops to the Roman would not bee allowed the honour of Christian buriall as Aemilius hath recorded And in our time Basilius the Emperour of Russia which challengeth no small part in the Greeke Church threatned to the Popes Legate as I haue beene informed an infamous death and buriall if hee offered to set foot in his Dominions out of a iealous hate of this vsurpation SECT II. The newnesse of challenged Infallibilitie THe particularities of this new arrogation of Rome are so many that they cannot be pent vp in any strait roome I will only instance in some few The Popes infallibilitie of Iudgement is such a paradoxe as the very Histories of all times and proceedings of the Church doth sufficiently conuince For to what purpose had all Councels beene called euen of the remotest Bishops to what purpose were the agitations of all controuersall causes in those Assemblies as Erasmus iustly obserues if this opinion had then obtained Or how came it about that the sentences of some Bishops of Rome were opposed by other Sees by the Successours of their owne by Christian Academies if this conceit had formerly passed for currant with the World How came it to passe that whole Councels haue censured and condemned some Bishops of Rome for manifest Heresies if they were perswaded before hand of the impossibilitie of those errours Not to speake of Honorius of Liberius and others the Councell of Basil shall be the voyce of common obseruation Multi Pontifices c. Many Popes say they are recorded to haue
Behold it is in our power to giue it to whom we list And to the same purpose is that of Pope Innocent the fourth Imperator est aduocatus c. The Emperour is the Popes Aduocate and sweares to him and holds his Empire of him But perhaps this place is yet too high for an Emperour a lower will serue Fit Canonicus c. The Emperour is of course made a Canon and brother of the Church of Lateran Yet lower He shall be the Sewer of his Holinesses Table and set on the first dish and hold the Basin for his hands Yet lower he shall be the Train-bearer to the Pope in his Walking Processions He shall be the Quirie of his Stable and hold his stirrope in getting vp on his Horse He shal be lastly his very Porter to carrie his Holinesse on his shoulder And all this not out of will but out of dutie Where now is Augustus ab Augendo as Almain deriues him when he suffers himselfe thus diminished Although there is more wonder in the others exaltation Papae Men are too base to enter into comparison with him His authoritie is more then of the Saints in Heauen saith one yet more hee excelleth the Angels in his Iurisdiction saith another yet more once The Pope seemes to make one and the same Consistory with God himselfe and which comprehends all the rest Tues omnia super omnia Thou art all and aboue all as the Councell of Lateran vnder Iulius Oh strange alteration that the great Commanders of the World should be made the drudges of their Subiects that Order and Soueraigntie should leese themselues in a pretence of Pietie That the professed Successor of him that said Gold and siluer haue I none should thus trample vpon Crownes That a poore silly Worme of the Earth should rayse vp it selfe aboue all that is called God and offer to crawle into the glorious Throne of Heauen CHAP. XVIII The Epilogue both of Exhortation and Apologie NOt to wearie my Reader with more particularities of Innouation Let now all Christians know and be assured that such change as they sensibly find in the head they may as truly though not so visibly note in the bodie of the Roman Church yea rather in that soule of Religion which informeth both And if thereupon all our endeuour as we protest before God and his holy Angels hath beene and is only to reduce Rome to it selfe that is to recall it to that originall Truth Pietie Synceritie which made it long famous through the World and happy how vniustly are we eiected persecuted condemned But if that Ancient Mistresse of the World shall stand vpon the termes of her honour and will needs plead the disparagement of her retractations and the age and authoritie of these her Impositions let me haue leaue to shut vp all with that worthy and religious contestation of Saint Ambrose with his Symmachus That eloquent Patron of Idolatry had pleaded hard for the olde Rites of Heathenisme and brings in Ancient Rome speaking thus for her selfe Optimi Principes c. Excellent Princes the Fathers of your Countrey reuerence yee my yeares into which my pious Rites haue brought me I will vse the Ceremonies of my Ancestors neither can I repent mee I will liue after mine own fashion because I am free This Religion hath brought the World vnder the subiection of my Lawes these sacred Deuotions haue driuen Hannibal from our walles from our Capitoll Haue I beene preserued for this that in mine old age I should be reproued Say that I did see what were to bee altered yet late and shamefull is the amendement of age To which that holy Father no lesse wittily and elegantly answers by way of retortion bringing in Rome to speake thus rather I am not ashamed in mine old age to be a Conuert with all the rest of the World It is surely true that in no age it is too late to learne Let that olde age blush that cannot mend it selfe It is not the grauitie of yeares but of manners that deserues prayse It is no shame to goe to the better And when Symmachus vrges Maiorum seruandus est ritus wee must obserue the Rites of our forefathers Dicant igitur saith Saint Ambrose Let them as well say that all things should remayne in their owne imperfect Principles that the World once ouer-couered with darknesse offends in being shined vpon by the glorious brightnesse of the Sunne And how much more happie is it to haue dispelled the darknesse of the soule then of the bodie to bee shined vpon by the beames of Faith then of the Sunne Thus he most aptly to the present occasion wherto did that blessed Father now liue he would doubtlesse no lesse readily apply it Nec erubescas mutare sententiam saith Hierome to his Ruffinus Neuer blush to change your minde you are not of such authoritie as that you should bee ashamed to confesse you haue erred Oh that this meeke ingenuitie could haue found place in that once famous and Orthodoxe Church of Christ how had the whole Christian World beene as a Citie at vnitie in it selfe and triumphed ouer all the proud hostilities of Paganisme But since wee may not bee so happie wee must sit downe and mourne for our desolations for our diuisions In the meane time wee wash our hands in innocence There are none of all these instanced particulars besides many more wherein the Church of Rome hath not sensibly erred in corrupt additions to the faith so as herein wee may iustly before heauen and earth warrant our disagreement of iudgement from her The rest is their act and not ours wee are meere patients in this schisme and therfore go because we are driuen That we hold not communion with that Church the fault is theirs who both haue deserued this strangenesse by their errours and made it by their violence Contrarie to that rule which Cato in Tully giues of vnpleasing frendship they haue not ript it in the seame but torn it in the whole cloth Perhaps I shall seeme vnto some to haue spoken too mildly of the estate of that debauched Church There are that stand vpon a meere nullitie of her being not resting in a bare deprauation For mee I dare not goe so farre If she be foule if deadly diseased as she is these qualities cannot vtterly take of her essence or our relations Our Diuines indeed call vs out of Babylon and wee run so as here is an actuall separation on our parts True but from the corruptions wherein there is a true confusion not from the Church Their verie charge implies their limitation as it is Babylon we must come out of it as it is an outward visible Church we neither did nor would This dropsie that hath so swolne vp the body doth not make it cease to bee a true body but a sound one The true Principles of Christianitie which it maintaines maintaine life in