Councils ought to have free Liberty orderly to declare and Determin Maters in question That whatever must oblige as Divine ought to be confirmed by the Authority of Holy Scripture That no Councils are Legitimate where private Respects are managed under pretext of Faith and Religion That the Roman Bishop hath not that power which many flatterers attribute to him viz. That he alone is to Determine and Others only to Consult and Advise That a General Council is Superiour to the rest of the Patriarchs and also to the Roman Bishop That a General Council may be deficient and that de facto Councils lawfully assembled have erred And since they have failed and have contradicted one another as appears in the Second Council of Nice and that of Constance among many others the one Decreeing the Worship of Images the other prohibiting Communion in both Kinds against the express words of Scripture the Councils of Lateran in Deposing Kings the Council of Frankfort opposite to that of Nice in the Business of Images the Council of Florence against those of Basil and Constance in the point of the Pope's Superiority over a Council It is certain that Councils are to be Regulated and Examined by God's Word and to be Received or Rejected as Conformable to or Disagreeing from that And for this we have the Authority of the Great S. Augustin contra Maxim Arian l. 3. c. 14. Nec ego Nicenum c. Neither ought I to produce the Nicen nor Thou the Ariminum Council as having already prejudged or absolutely Determined the Cause beyond all Appeal For I am not bound up by the Authority of this nor Thou by the Decree of that but let us regard the Authority of the Holy Scripture witnesses not partial or appropriated to either party but common to both A speech worthy the Gravity Learning and Piety of S. Augustin As for the Councils of the Later Centuries they neither have been General nor hath either their Assembling or Proceeding been Lawful and they have most Industriously thwarted the Canons of the most Pure and Antient Councils Their Assembling hath not been Legal in that the Modern Popes have Usurped the whole Right and Authority of Convocating Councils contrary to the Primitive Custom and Practice of the Church The first Nicene Council was called by Constantine the Great the first Constantinopolitan which is the second General Council by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosius Junior that of Chalcedon by Martianus the fifth by Justinian c. All which are such evident Proofs that the Cardinals Cusanus Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the first Ages of the Church the Right of Calling Councils belonged to the Emperour Nor are Their Proceedings any better For the Popes admit no Assessours or Judges in Councils but their own Faction Men beforehand enslaved by a Solemn Oath which all Bishops of that Communion take at their Confecration to maintain the Regalia Petri all the Usurpations of that See The Pope is the only Authentick Judge in All matters Approving and Refusing whatever He pleases Their own Histories afford us Examples enough to confirm this I shall instance but in the Sleights and Wiles of the Late so much cryed up Trent-Council Wherein to make sure work on the Pope's side there were more Italian Bishops than of all the World beside And most ridiculously to dazle the eyes of the and Others as if they were Greek Prelates Some had the Titles of Archbishops who had neither Church nor Diocess as Vpsalensis and Armachanus who were Created on purpose to fill up the Number And when the Pope on a certain Occasion wanted Voices to sway the cause He sent a fresh supply of 40 Bishops newly made And this was part of that Leigerdemain which an Eminent French Bishop Claud. Espenc one of those vvho sat in the Council calls the Great Helena which of late Ruled All at Trent in Ep. ad Tit. c. 1. All the Oriental and Greek Patriarchs and Bishops were Excluded None out of England Scotland Ireland Danemark Swedland few out of France and Spain fewer out of Germany it self were admitted When the Protestants required Audience they could not be hearken'd to upon any tolerable terms It was long before they could get a Safe-Conduct and when it was procured it was clogg'd with this Clause That it should belong to none but such as would Repent and Return to the Bosom of the Roman Church This Partiality and Jugling when the Princes of Europe saw they sent their Protestations against the Council as being Insufficient to Reform Religion In Trying and Deciding Controversies they adhered more to Tradition than Scripture and pass'd nothing till the Pope with his Consistory had seen it at home and approved it and then he transmitted it to his Legats So that as One said the Holy Ghost was continually posted in Cloakbags between Rome and Trent Though by the way their own Doctors teach that the Assistance of the Holy Ghost is a personal Privilege and cannot be Delegated While the Divines were formally Disputing at Trent the Pope was as busie in Ingrossing Canons at Rome and sending them to the Council to be published Thus they proceeded sometimes by a wrong Rule sometimes by none at all In the 4th Session they Decree That none should give any other Exposition of Scripture than such as might agree with the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And yet this very Doctrine was the Thing questioned and the Scriptures were to have been the Touchstone to try it by Take this whole Affair in the Words of Andraeas Dudithius a Bishop in the Roman Church and an Eminent Member of this Council He thus writes in an Epistle to the Emperour Maximilian the 2d What good could be done in that Council where voices were taken by Number and not by Weight The Pope was able to set an 100 of his against every one of ours and if an 100 were not sufficient he could on a sudden have created a thousand to succour those that were ready to faint We might every day see hungry and needy Bishops and those for the most part Beardless Youngsters come in Flocks to Trent hired to give their Voice according to the Pope's humour unlearned indeed and foolish but of good Use to him for their Audaciousness and Impudency The Holy Ghost had nothing to do with that Conventicle All things were carried by Humane Policy which was wholly employed in Maintaining the Immoderate and indeed most Shameless Lordship and Domineering of the Pope From thence were Answers waited for as from the Oracles of Delphos or Dodona From thence the Holy Ghost who as they brag was President of their Council was sent shut up in Carriers Budgets who a thing worthy to be laugh'd at when the Waters were up as it falls out many times was fain to stay till they were down again before he could repair to the Council By this means it came to pass that the Spirit was not carried on
Faithful themselves and if the Faithful then must it have Preheminence before the Church it self which is nothing else but the Congregation of the Faithful Thus the Church of Rome will evidently fall short of that Prerogative she so presumptuously arrogates of being both Before and Above the Scripture Again a Rule consisting in Indivisibili as we say i. e. being of that Nature that it is not to be inlarged or diminished how guilty are they who either make Additions to or Substractions from it Both which the Roman Church practiseth as de facto will be manifest in the Sequele of this small Tract In Fine they hold the Word of God written to be that one infallible entire Rule whereby all men Learned and Unlearned may in all necessary and fundamental Points of Faith and Manners be sufficiently instructed what is to be embraced for True and Good That it is a Rule most Certain Plain Universal Impartial not addicted to one Side more than another which neither Pope Conclave nor Councel can so much as pretend to of Power and Authority able to convince the Consciences of such as use it and from which there can be no Appeal And the only Cause why any miss of the True Faith is because they do not sincerely seek and find out this infallible Rule or having found it will not with an obedient Mind captivate their Understanding but have Access to it with Pride Curiosity Prejudice or some other unmortifyed Lust or Impediment More especially the Church of England besides that high Veneration that she her self hath for these sacred Books labours to confirm and root the same in the Hearts of her obedient Children by her Devout Practice For to omit the Frequent Laborious and Judicious Preaching and Expounding of them in this Church she hath so prudently disposed of her publick Liturgy that every day some Part and Portion of both Testaments is appointed to be read The whole Book of Psalms is gone through once a Moneth the Old Testament once and the New thrice every year with other most excellent Exercises of Piety at which even the Romanists themselves can take no just Exception and a very great Author affirms that a modern Pope would have approved the whole Service-Book had his Authority but been acknowledged which discreet Course cannot but afford much heavenly Instruction and Consolation to the constant Attenders on such Blessed Opportunities But what saith the Church of Rome all this while in this Business In her Tridentine Council Sess 4. Can. 1. She expresly Decrees that unwritten Traditions are of equal Authority with the written Word that they are to be received with the same Reverence and Affection And Cardinal Hosius who was one who in the Popes Name presided at that Council defends that most Blasphemous Speech of Wolfangus Hermannus that the Scripture is of no more Authority than Esop's Fables but for the Churches and Popes Approbation lib. 3. de Authorit Script The Council of Basil would fain perswade us that the Churches Acts and Customs must be to us instead of the Scriptures Instar habeant Sacrarum Scripturarum for that the Scripture and Churches Customs both require the same Affection and Respect Indeed I find the Romish Doctors in nothing more fluent than in degrading and vilifying the Scriptures Our Country man Dr. Stapleton positively affirms that the Church hath Authority to put into the Number of Books of Scripture and to make Canonical the Writings of Hermes and Constitutions of Clemens two famous Counterfeits and that then they would have the same Authority which other Books have canonized by the Apostles themselves Some call them a Nose of Wax to be wrested any way Cardinal Cusanus blushes not to write that the Scriptures are fitted to the time and variously understood the sense thereof being one while this and another while that according as it pleases the Church to change her Judgment Some teach that the Scripture is not simply necessary that God gave it not to the People but to the Doctors and Pastors and that we must live more according to the Dictates of the Church than the Scripture Eckius the great Antagonist of Luther would make us believe that Christ never gave any Command to his Apostles to write any thing Which yet seems very odd when such an express Injunction was lay'd on S. John to write that mystical Book of the Apocalypse which certainly is not more conducing to the Churches Edification than our B. Saviour's Sermon on the Mount and the many other practical Discourses both of himself and his Disciples In a word the most ingenuous and civil among their Writers think they have pay'd all due Respect to Holy writ when they term it a Dumb Judge Dead Ink or Ink shaped into various Forms and Characters Notwithstanding which I humbly conceive that let an Indifferent Person open the Bible and the Canons of the Council of Trent together and he will receive at least as clear and full Satisfaction from the Bible as from the other unless we will impiously deny Almighty God the Faculty of expressing his holy Will and Pleasure as intelligibly as frail Men can theirs or without any shew of Reason affirm with a late Divine that Religion it self was never fully setled till that upstart Conventicle Conformable to the Sentiments are the Practices of that Church in keeping the Bible lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue from the Use of the Vulgar Clement the Eighth very strictly orders all Vulgar Translations to be put into the Index of Prohibited Books And in Italy and Spain and wherever the Inquisition hath the least Jurisdiction the very keeping of them is a Crime no less than Capital It is true where the Reformation hath got any footing Faculties are sometimes granted to read a Translation but clog'd with so many Proviso's and various Cautions and their Spiritual Guides give so small Encouragement to it that it seems rather a Trick to stop the Mouthes of their Adversaries when they Object the Prohibition of Reading Scripture than any real Intention of Promoting so Pious an Exercise among their Devotes Besides their other Forms of Devotion Rosaries or saying over the Beads after divers Methods our Ladies Office Prayers for the Dead Manuals the long Litanies of Saints hearing of Masses reading of Legends c. are in so great Vogue and take up so considerable a Time that I scarce see how any can be allotted for that contemned Employment of studying Gods Word which ought to be the Meditation of every good Christian Day and Night Indeed this neglect to say no worse of Holy Scripture is so notorious among and so peculiar to those of that Way and the Ignorance not only of the Laity but of divers of the Clergy in that kind of Learning especially is so gross that it would be a Work of Supererogation to attempt the proof of it Their Doctors generally pretending Translations of Scripture to be the cause of all Heresies and Phanaticism
and Charity the same Heavenly Example one worship in Spirit and in Truth one Communion or Communication of the Members which is the Unity of that Church which includes all the Faithful from the beginning of the World to the end c. In short such an Unity as the Holy Scriptures require in being derived from one beginning which is the Holy Ghost who as one Soul quickens and moves all the Parts in having one Head which is Jesus Christ and in being but one Body partaking the same Doctrine Sacraments and Worship of God This Unity by God's Grace all true Protestants breath after as may apparently be evinced by the Harmony of their Confessions although in points of smaller importance there may be some little differences and most of their Dissentions are rather Verbal then Real As to the Sanctity of that Church let but the Lives of the Roman Bishops be perused written by their own Authors a noysomer Sink and Kennel of Abomination can never be raked up in all Antiquity some Atheists some Conjurers some Adulterers Murderers Incestuous Sodomites Simoniacks and what not the manners and conversation of their Clergy Religious Men and women so heinously tax'd and inveigh'd against by those Famous Writers of their own side S. Bernard Nic. Clemangis Alvar Pelagius Claud. Espencaeus c. and at least they will have little cause so boldly to challenge and appropriate it to themselves above all their Neighbours These things are sufficiently known to any that have viewed their Doctors or conversed even with their Modern practices though themselves are very much amended since the Reformation But I love not to tell stories out of the School and I promised at first to refrain from personal Reflections There are Books enough on this Subject and the World talks sufficiently loud of it If all the precedent Prerogatives signifie nothing at last we must be overborn by whole Legions of Innumerable Miracles that are obtruded upon our Credit But so spurious so ridiculous so impious many of them that the more modest and discreet among themselves dare not own them Their best Writers affirm That Miracles are not necessary for the Being of a Church but onely for the Begetting of a new Faith or an Extraordinary Mission Nay I may add not for an Extraordinary Mission neither as we may see in many of the Prophets of the Old Testament of whose Miracles not one word is mentioned Nor are they at all to be expected from or by the Protestants who neither profess a new Faith nor an Extraordinary Mission The Miracles of our Saviour his Apostles and the first Age of the Church are sufficient Seals to the Doctrine they own And as for those so importunately urged by the Romanists they are but too often convinced to be meer juggles contrivances for filthy Lucre Sleights to uphold some gainful Doctrine or to advance the reputation of some particular place or Religious Order done in a Corner of a far different Nature from those of our B. Saviour and rather of the same stamp with those the Apostle speaks of 2 Thess 2.9 belonging to him who comes with all Power and Signs and Lying Wonders and Revel 13.13 who doth great Wonders so that he makes fire come down from Heaven on Earth in the Sight of Men. A man that duly ponders the most palpable Cheats and Impostures of this kind dailypractised in the Church of Rome for these By-Respects would almost be of Mr. Chilling-worth's mind that it cannot be sufficiently made out that ever so much as a Lame Horse was cured by way of Miracle in confirmation of any Popish Tenet Some insist much on the Outward Prosperity Pomp Splendour and Magnificence of their Church To this the Wise Man hath given an answer Eccles 9.1 Our Works are in the hand of God and no man knows either Love or Hatred by all that is before him Nay our Saviour puts it down as a Mark of the false Church Joh. 16.20 Verily I say unto you that you shall weep and lament but the World shall rejoyce It remains then that the onely Certain and Evident marks of a True Apostolical Church are The Sincere Preaching of God's Word and a Due Administration of the Sacraments To which may be annexed Ecclesiastical Discipline but this is reducible to the other two These are All that the Holy Scriptures afford us Matth. 28.19 Go and Teach all Nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to chserve all things whatever I have commanded you Act. 2.42 And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrin and Fellowship and in Breaking of Bread and Prayers Having thus survey'd the Roman Church in general it will hardly be thought Good Manners if we neglect his Holiness the Pope in particular or as some are pleased to flatter him The Church Virtual For what ever stirr and bustle they make about the Church their Mother the plain English of their meaning is nothing but the Pope their Father It is the express Doctrin of S. Thomas Aquinas and his Doctrin in that Church is little less than Canonized 2.2 q. 1. a. 10. that the making of a true Creed belongs to the Pope as all other things do which belong to the Whole Church and that the Whole Authority of the Universal Church abides in him 2.2 q. 12. a. 2. Thus as they take all Authority and Sufficiency from the Scripture and give it to the Church so all the Churche's Authority they attribute to the Pope Gregorius de Valentia one of the Learnedst Jesuits tells us plainly That by the Church they mean Its Head that is to say the Roman Bishop in whom resides the full Authority of the Church when he pleases to Determin matters of Faith whether he doth it with a Council or without Bellarmine teaches that the Pope himself without any Council may decree matters of Faith Bannes affirms that the Authority of the Universal Church the Authority of a Council and the Authority of the Pope are one and the same thing The Canon Law in Sext. Extrav Johan 22. c. Cum inter in Gloss speaks thus It is Heresie to think Our Lord God the Pope may not Decree as he doth And Distinct 19. in Canon His Rescripts and Decretal Epistles are Canonical Scripture All which passages clearly convince us what is the meaning of those perpetual Braggs of the Catholick Church His Holyness must excuse me if being no Courtier I address not my self to him in the phrase of the Roman Inscription to Paul the V. yet to be seen in that City saluting him as a Vice-God and the Stout Assertor of the Pontifical Omnipotency or as the Gloss of the Canon Law in their last and best Editions viz. the Roman 1580 and Parisian 1612. Our Lord God the Pope Waving therefore these Ceremonies I shall summarily consider his Authority both what he pretends to and what it really is And here starts forth a material
the Waters as in Genesis but along besides the Waters c. Nothing is more talk'd of than the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and this I know to be a most tempting Bait to get Proselytes especially amidst those Many Dissentions in the Christian World at this Day But because this Pretext hath been utterly destroyed by the Lord Falkland Mr. Chillingworth and other most Learned Pens I will only Recommend this Single Consideration to All Judicious Roman Catholicks who would not be chouced out of their Wits Estates and Liberties by a Gang of Ecclesiastical Mountebanks viz. That this Huge Swelling Prerogative of Infallibility is so Sensless a Thing so Ungrounded that no Romanist according to his own Principles can have so much as a probable Moral Assurance of that wherein he thinks himself Infallible And unless every one in particular be Infallible it is to little purpose to boast of an Infallible Judge For a Man may as well mistake the Meaning of his Sentence as the Sentence of one who proceeds only upon prudent Moral Assurance and we see that thousands do erre in the Intepretation of those acknowledged Infallible Oracles the Holy Scriptures The Consideration I recommend is this That after All the Stirr that is made about Infallibility the Learnedest amongst them knows not where to meet with it nor in what cases it is annexed to that Chair in what it forsakes it Some as the Jesuits generally will have it in the Pope but then whether with his Cardinals or by Himself is controverted very briskly Others will have it in a General Council and this Opinion is backt by no less Authority than the Councils of Basil and Constance But then the Church hath been very long without it and possibly may never injoy it by means of a General Council to the End of the World That wherein they fix it with most plausibility is both the Pope and a Council together But even here we are at a great many losses For as to the Pope no man can be assured of his being a true Pope considering the various defects that may render him otherwise as a fundamental Error in his Election Simoniacal Induction the female Sex Want of true Baptism and Holy Orders both which depend upon the Intention and Validity of those from whom he receives them and theirs upon the like Qualifications in their Predecessors c. Occult Heresie and Many others And then as to a Council which consists chiefly of Bishops tho the Popes for some ends best known to themselves have now pack'd in Cardinals Abbots Generals of Orders c. besides that the Validity of a Council depends upon the uncertainty of the Pope's being truly Qualified the very same Difficulties occur in every particular Member as did in respect of the Pope himself The like uncertainty appears in every Sacrament administred in that Church some whereof are absolutely necessary both Necessitate Medii Praecepti v. g. in Baptism Absolution Consecration of the Host which if it be not duly performed Idolatry is committed by the People in adoring it even by their own Concessions Azorius the Jesuit Enchirid. c. 8. openly proclaims That it is a more tolerable Error in them who worship Golden and Silver Statutes as the Gentiles did their Gods nay a piece of red Cloth on the top of a Spear as the Laplanders are reported to do than in those who adore a piece of Bread And now I would fain know of a Lay-Roman-Catholick what is become of his Infallibility where it is and to what purpose it serves him No where is it to be found as I know of but in the bold Assertion of every pragmatical Confessor Who bids you be sure to look to your Faith who are the Solifidians now to believe as the Church believes and then all is safe for the breach of the Ten Commandments there are Merits and Indulgences enough in the Church which being mixt with a little Attrition and Confession will do the work Though in the mean while He himself can neither tell where this Infallible Church is nor what she certainly believes Methinks S. Paul spoke as much like a Prophet as an Apostle as if he foresaw the Haughtiness of the Members of that Church to which he wrote And therefore to curb them and banish from their Minds all such vain conceits of Infallibility he tells the Church of Rome she stood on no firmer grounds than her Neighbours His words are these worthy to be had in everlasting Remembrance by All Roman-Catholicks Rom. 11.18 19 Boast not against the Branches c. Well because of unbelief they were broken off and Thou standest by Faith Be not high-minded but fear For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not Thee Behold therefore the Goodness and Severity of God on them which fell Severity but towards Thee Goodness if Thou continue in his Goodness otherwise Thou also shalt be cut off Which words need rather your Practice than my Paraphrase How much Safer and more Satisfactory is it to rely on the Holy Scriptures themselves which by all Sides are acknowledged Infallible For as much as they were divinely Inspired by that great Infallible Truth which neither can be deceived nor deceive his Creatures which can make you wise enough to Salvation and who hath promised to every humble Petitioner and devout Practiser a sufficient Competency of Knowledge in what is necessary for his present Condition and Eternal Happiness Now all this you will find abundantly provided for in the Doctrine and Constitutions of the Church of England Here is the Word of God faithfully Translated and exactly as far as the Idiomes of Languages will permit compared with the Originals and All those Books received of whose Authority there was never any doubt made in the Church Some others called Apocryphal are read indeed but as Ruffinus in Exposit Symboli speaks non ad Fidem firmandam sed ad Mores Instruendos Not for confirming Faith but for direction of Manners And they are excluded from the Canon upon very weighty Reasons For that they were never committed as of Divine Authority to the Jews to whom the Oracles of God were intrusted Rom. 3.2 Nor are they to be found in the Hebrew Canon They are never found cited by Christ or his Apostles and in some places they contain things manifestly false contradictory both to themselves the other Genuine Prophetical Writers You have here the three Creeds the Apostles that of the Nicene Council and that of S. Athanasius together with the four first General Councils which represent to us the Sincere Scheme of Apostolical Primitive Doctrine and Discipline You have here good works Recommended Preach'd and Practiced as the Fruits of Faith and Evidences of our Justification and though not as Expiatory for our Sins yet as in Obedience to the Divine commands and as a Sacrifice acceptable to God And even in this Degenerate Age of Christianity it might be
at Rome by the special Command of Christ 3. That he dyed Invested with such a Supremacy as is now Exercised in that Church 4. That his so dying there is sufficient without a new Revelation from God to make the Succession of the Bishop of Rome of Divine Authority We shall now take a View of that Grand Machine of the Pope's power over Temporal Princes and make it most evident that it is an Article and Doctrin of the Roman Church and being so that this alone were a sufficient Motive to forsake her Communion since She Teaches Justifies and strictly Commands even under the penalty of being accounted no Christians Treason and Rebellion The present Lord Bishop of Lincoln hath written a Learned and Satisfactory Treatise on this Subject and I find his Lordship very faithful in his Citations Wherefore I may be the more sparing However because I heartily desire that Honoured Pious and Loyal Persons may not unwarily ingage their Liberties Estates and Lives for the Maintainance of so Extravagant and Tyrannical a Power which hath in all Ages caused so many dismal Tragedies in the Christian World and is in it self Fatal and Destructive to all Civil Government I shall briefly treat of this Matter to undeceive others especially since I was herein miserably seduced my self till I had Maturely and Exactly Examined the whole Business I shall begin with General Councils whose Decrees if they will not admit I confess I as yet understand not what the Doctrin of the Roman Church is nor do I know where to find it The Third Council of Lateran c. 27. after it had Condemned and Excommunicated many Hereticks and you must know that All Protestants are both accounted so and as such are once every year solemnly accursed by His Holyness in Person on Maundy Thursday It Absolves All that had sworn Fidelity or Homage to them from those Oaths and we know who they are to whom Fidelity and Homage strictly speaking is due and they are required in Order to the Remission of their Sins to fight against them And those who dye doing Penance in that manner may undoubtedly expect Indulgence for their Sins with Eternal Rewards Then by the Authority of S. Peter and Paul the Council remits to all who shall rise and fight against them two years penance Here a General Council uses all its Industry to poyson people with Rebellious Doctrin and calls Treason Doing of Penance Not long after Pope Celestin Predecessor to Innocent the Third with more than Luciferian Arrogance sets the Crown on the Head of the Emperour Henry the 6th with his two feet and then kicks it off again And the fact is produced by no meaner a Person than Cardinal Baronius to shew that it is in the Pope's power to Give and Take away Empires But to as much purpose as He produced that Text Rise Peter Kill and Eat to incense Paul the 5th against the Venetians The second Evidence shall be the Fourth Great and as they call it Most General Council of Lateran wherein were assembled 1200 of one sort or other These C. 3. make a Decree That the Aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Rooting out of Hereticks i. e All that are not of the Roman Communion and that when the Temporal Lord required and admonished by the Church shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical Wickedness He shall be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year let him be signified to the Pope that he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks shall possess it without Contradiction and preserve it in the Purity of the Faith So as no Injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord where there is such provided He do not any ways oppose himself And the Law is to take place in them who have no Superiour Lord. Which Last Clause perfectly comprehends Soveraign Princes and so anticipates that Reply which some make That the Decree was only made for Feudatory and Subordinate Princes And whereas some few deny it to be a General Council and that it made any Canons it is a most Impudent Cavil For both the Council and Canons have been and are Universally received by the Roman Church the Council as General and Approved so by Innocent the III. and the Canons as Authentick All their Writers concerning Councils put this down among the General ones and commonly call it the Great General Council of Lateran and Joverius says he cannot see with what face a Man dare deny it They always put it among those Councils that are Approved by the Church for you must know that some are Reprobated some are partly Approbated and partly Reprobated Their Canon Law so esteems of it The Council of Constance puts it among those General Councils to the Observation whereof the Popes were to swear at their Installment The Council of Trent which I hope none will boggle at Sess 24. C. 5. in express terms calls it a General Council and Confirms one of its Canons To which I may add because it concerns us a Synod at Oxford where this Council was received for England And though some Princes that were deposed out of the Pope's meer Spite and Malice got some Advocates to write for them and Synods of Bishops to Protest against the Pope's Proceedings yet in the case of Pretended Heresie which neerly touches Protestant Princes not one Writer or Bishop appears in Vindication of the Temporal Power A shrewd Sign that this Deposing Heretical Magistrates is in General the Romish Doctrine The General Council of Lions is next It was summoned by Innocent the 4th against the Emperour Frederick the 2d Here the Pope having consulted with the Council Declares the Emperour deprived by God of his Dominions and thereupon they Actually Depose him and Absolve All from their Oaths of Fidelity to him strictly charging All persons to acknowledge him no more for Emperour and denouncing All that did otherwise Excommunicated Ipso facto So we have another whole General Council concurring with the Pope in asserting this Deposing Power and with Candles burning in their hands thundering out Sentence against the poor Emperour In the Council of Constance Sess 19. we often meet with this Clause That All Breakers of their Privileges whether Emperours Kings or any other Degree were thereby Ipso facto subjected to the Banns Punishments and Censures in the Council of Lateran and Sess 17. in the Pass they gave to the King of Arragon they decree That whatsoever Person either King Cardinal c. hinder him in his Journey he is Ipso facto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office or Benefice whether Ecclesiastical or Secular It is true with much Importunity and Danger Gerson procured a Decree in this Council that No Subject should Murder his Prince But that
Practice was only condemned in such as did it without waiting the Sentence of any Judge whatsoever So that if Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judge notwithstanding this Decree a Prince may be Assassinated But there is a further Mystery in it For a King once declared to be no more such i. e. being Deposed He then becomes a Rebel and an Usurper according to their Principles and then it is lawful to kill him The Council of Siena confirms all the former Decrees made against Hereticks and the Favourers of Heresie are declared liable to all Pains and Censures of Hereticks and consequently to the Greatest of them viz Deposition The Council at Basil ratifies the Decree of Constance by which Emperours and Kings that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council are subjected to Excommunication Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal Finally the Council of Trent though the world was then much changed and they durst not trample on Crowned Heads as formerly yet they would still be nibling at this sweet Morsel as near as they could and still endeavoured though covertly to continue the Claim to this Deposing Authority For in the Decree against Duels Sess 25. c. 19. they declare If any Emperours and Kings c. did assign a field for a Combate they did thereby lose their Right to that place and the City Castle or other places about it If Councils then as surely they are be fit deliverers of the Churches sence we have here no less than seven General Councils to prove this to be the Churche's Doctrine For my own part I can see no ways they can extricate themselves but either by Confessing their Church hath erred or by obstinately going on in a most wretched Justification of such Damnable Tenents and Practices There is nothing more to do in this business but by way of surplusage to give a General Touch at these following particulars By the Book of the Sacred Ceremonies which is Authentick and of great Esteem with the Church of Rome the Emperour as soon as he sees the Pope must bare-headed how till his knee touch the Ground and worship the Pope coming nearer he must bow again and when he comes to the Pope he must bow a third Time and devoutly kiss the Pope's Toe The same book informs us that the Pope never gives any Reverence to any Mortal either by rising up or uncovering or bowing his head That the Emperour must hold the Pope's stirrup till he gets on horseback and then lead the Horse for some paces And some mean spirited Emperors have de facto performed these slavish offices The Emperour must swear Fealty to the Pope and be his Hector to maintain all his Rights and Honours That horrid Extravagant of Boniface VIII makes it absolutely necessary to Salvation that all Christians be subject to the Pope who hath both the Swords and Judgeth all Men and is Judged of None And the Gloss upon that Extravagant dares to say our Saviour had not done discreetly unless he had left such a Vicar behind him Bzovius an approved and applauded Author in that Communion tells us the Pope is Monarch of All Christians Supreme over All Mortals there lyes no Appeal from him He is the great Arbitrator of the World Isiodorus Mosconius Vicar General to the Arch-Bishop of Bononia and a great Lawyer terms the Pope the Universal Judge King of Kings Lord of Lords and saies that God's Tribunal and the Pope's are one and the same that they have the same Consistory and therefore all other powers are his Subjects that the Pope is judged of none but God not of the Emperour Kings Clergy or Laity Pope Innocent the Third Extra de Major gives this description of the Papal power that it is as much greater than the Imperial as the Sun is than the Moon And the Gloss saies that is 47 times greater but the note in the Margin puts 57 times nay there is an Author that adds 7744 times This Decretal of Innocent the III. and the forecited Extravagant of Boniface VIII are both put into the body of the Canon Law It would be endless to enumerate the Romish Authors that defend this prodigious power of deposing Kings Bellarmin Suarez Sa Mariana maintain and prove this Doctrine Nor do I know one Jesuit that teaches the contrary And it is very well worth our notice what an odd kind of answer Mr. Fisher gave to King James who demanded of him what he thought Subjects ought to do in the case of the Pope's deposing a Prince The Jesuit gives this sly return I will pray for Peace and Tranquillity between both Parties I will exhort all to do good offices conducing thereto and will rather dye than any wayes be accessory to your Majestie 's death And no more could be got from him but this Compliment But else where he told the King more plainly that he disclaimed any singular opinion of his own or more than the Definitions of Councils and Consent of Divines did force him to hold And what those are we have pretty well discovered The Canonists Casuists and Schoolmen are Generally if not Vniversally of this opinion some teach that it is evident to all that Emperors are to be Deprived and Deposed by the Pope not onely for things pertaining to Faith but for Manners Others that the Secular Power is subject to the Spiritual and that it is no Usurpation if the Spiritual judge the Secular and that the Pope hath Supreme Power over Christian Kings and Princes and may Correct Depose and put others in their places that he may deprive a King of Royal Dignity for Heresie Schisme or any intolerable Crime Negligence or Lazyness if in great matters be break his Oath or oppress the Church and several other Cases and that the Pope himself is sole Judge both of the Crime and of the Condemnation And Bzovius de Pontifice Rom. c. 46. p. 611. gives us a Catalogue of above 30 Kings and Princes who have de facto been Deposed or by Anathema's damn'd by the Pope They count them Martyrs that dye for the maintaining this Power which cannot be unless they Esteem it an Article of Faith And we have a late Instance of F. Paul Magdalen aliàs Henry Heath a Learned and in his way Pious Franciscan who was put to death by the Long Parliament about the year 1643. Who just before his Execution being desired to give his Judgment of the Oath of Allegiance which chiefly concerns our present purpose declared it absolutely unlawful and that he would as soon lay down his Life for the Refusal of it as for any Article of the Roman Belief Eman. Sa is not ashamed to publish that if a Clergy Man rebell against his King it is no Treasen because Clergy men are not the Kings Subjects Aphorism Confess verbo Clericus Others though I will not say this is so generally taught that Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks And if my Memory fail not