Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	ancient_a	church_n	pope_n	2,079	5	6.4952	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20602	The second manifesto of Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatio [sic] wherein for his better satisfaction, and the satisfaction of others, he publikely repenteth, and recanteth his former errors, and setteth downe the cause of his leauing England, and all Protestant countries, to returne vnto the Catholicke Romane Church: written by himselfe in Latine, and translated into English by M. G.K.	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.; G. K., fl. 1623.	1616 (1616)	STC 7001; ESTC S109786	30,635	70

reason and by lawfull authority that the Pope may excommunicate the faithfull wheresoeuer they are That the precepts of the Church binde vnder paine of mortall sinne That the vnity of the Church dependeth chiefely of one onely visible head of the same Church That the Pope is the true and lawfull Pastor of the whole Church and according vnto his obligation is zealous of the good of Christs flocke by daily thirsting after and most carefully procuring their eternall saluation That in the Masse is offered a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice vnto God That the ceremonies of the Masse instituted by the holy Fathers and Pastors of the Church by the inspiration of the holy Ghost are holy mysticall profitable and ought to be obserued and kept That in the Sacrament of the Alter there is transnbstantiation that is to say a conuersion of all the substance of bread into the body and of wine into the blood of our Lord Iesus Christ That in the sacramentall absolution which the Priest vseth in absoluting from sins is exercised the true and proper power of binding loosing sins which our Lord hath deliuered or giuen to the Ministers of his Sacraments in the Church That there is a Purgatory after that manner and sort which the holy Romane and Apostolicke Church doth affirme it to be That satisfaction is of great power after the fault remitted for the remission of the punishment also That the vse of Indulgences in the Catholicke Church vnto whom Christ hath giuen authority to bestowe them is very auncient very profitable and approued by the authority of holy Councels That we may not onely lawfully pray vnto Saints but also that it is a good and profitable thing to flye for helpe vnto their prayers and ayde That the worship of Images and Reliques is good lawfull and profitable and cannot be rejected without the blot of heresie That the merrit of eternall life dependeth vpon good workes Also I often times loathed and despised the later generall Councels which be of high authority in the Church especially the Councels of Florence and Trent and sometimes that of Constance And by my meanes it came to passe that a certaine History of the Councell of Trent was published whereof I could haue no certaine knowledge for that it was iustly suspected of forgerie and in these things also I confesse that I haue maliciously erred and now affirme that all the most wholsome decrees of these Councels are worthy of credit and ought to be embraced 6 In a certaine Sermon of mine on the first Sonday of Aduent made at London in the Italian tongue and printed I published almost the same errours which I repeated after in the booke of the Rockes all which I doe now deepely detest In that Sermon I faigned a certaine darke night of Popish errours and of the Church of Rome when in very deede in the onely Church of Rome and in the Churches connexed vnto her is a true and cleare Sunne-shining day and out of her especially in England there is a perpetuall night and most obscure darknesse The light of truth and the true and right vnderstanding of the Scriptures which is in the Church of Rome driueth farre from her the mistes of all these errours wherewith wretched England being ouer-clowded walketh as a blinde man groping for the wall at mid-day I said in the same Sermon and I repeated the same in the little booke of the Rockes that Peter was neuer at Rome yet notwithstanding I know that this is a grosse and an ignorantlye and therefore I doe ingenuously confesse that it ought to be rejected of all men I made the Apostles equall in founding and ruling the Church when yet euen out of the very Gospels and Apostolicall tradition the Supremacie of Peter aboue them is apparant I said that the Bishops succeeded the Apostles with equall power and that they were Bishops of the vniuersall Church in grosse when as they are but Pastors of perticular Churches in their sole particular cares or charges the generall Primacie belonging vnto him who succeeded Peter which is the Pope I said that holy water graynes crosses holy Images the Popes or Bishops benediction Stations habites girdles belts the visitations of Churches Altars Beades Processions and the like were meere toyes when yet it is certaine that the vse of almost all these things is well approued and very auncient in the Catholique Church and ought to be preserued together with the vse of other things of later times added as prouokements to piety aad deuotion I affirmed that there were onely two Sacraments Baptisme and the Supper when yet the Catholicke Church illuminated by the holy Ghost plainely teacheth and defineth that there are seuen true Sacraments All which and whatsoeuer other heresies condemned by the Catholicke Romane Church I also condemne and the things contrary to them being defined by the same I also with a firme faith beleeue holde and professe For most certaine it is that in the decrees of the holy Romane Church reason is not seperated from authority and that the Doctrine of the Schoolemen is altogether consonant vnto the sence of the holy Fathers especially in articles of faith I also confesse that I did vndeseruedly in these little Pamphlets complaine of the Court of Rome as if she had vsurped other mens rights for except she preserue by her lawfull authority ouer them the Bishops and Archbishops in their duties there would presently follow a generall violation of her lawes by them And the Church is then very happy when all her perticular Pastors vnder the most vigilant and highest Pastor doe readily receiue and execute both reformation in manners and the custody of sound and sincere Doctrine from him who hath the soueraigne authority And verily except the benigne and paternall care of the holy Inquisition had watched seriously ouer our Lords flocke the scabbed cattell should not receiue any cure but the filthy Canker would daily encrease The ordinary Armour of that Tribunall is found Doctrine and charitable instructions and not those instruments which out of a minde corrupted with malice in my Pamphlets I haue exagerated by lyes and slaunders and yet sometimes when rotten vlcers cannot be cured with gentle medicines it is both fit and necessary that the Physitians should vse more forceable remedies 7 But when the inward burning of the infirmities of my minde was alayed almost by a miracle about the beginning of the Popedome of the most holy Gregory the 15. whose rare piety singular prudence and continuall holinesse of life was such as that I doe not doubt but that it was cause of his aduancement to that high dignity the holy Ghost illuminating me with a certaine diuine light my minde began to thinke vpon wholsome courses And then the dangers into which I had cast my soule began also euery day more clearely to muster themselues in troupes before me and I did wonder how I had fallen into so great madnesse and errour as to

haue sought to diminish it for at last that losse must needs before God be glorious to me also Wherefore I doe first confesse and truly and sincerely out of my owne conscience doe giue testimony that I did not write the intent of my departing from the Romane Church and the Rockes and the Sermon out of sincerity of heart or out of a good conscience or faith not fained but that I might couer with some excuse my shamefull departure and be more gratefull and acceptable to hereticks to whom wretch that I was I ranne in hast and with whom I familiarly conuersed The ten yeares labour which in the booke of the intent of my departing I boasted of were not spent in mature deliberations graue and aduised Counsels or other discreete discussions of the truth but contrariwise mispent in vaine vnprofitable and malicious purposes and preparations how I might boldly vent and put in practise my hereticall lyes and inuentions thereby to satisfie my malitious anger insomuch as my vocation to doe it was not a Diuine vocation but a deuillish suggestion stirred vp in me not by the holy Ghost but by a wicked spirit a spirit of giddines worse then was that of Saules And I do not doubt to attribute my returne back againe to a true Diuine vocation the holy Ghost calling me to returne vnto my Mother the Catholicke Romane Church 4 I said that the manners of the Court of Rome did cause mee alwayes to abhorre it This I acknowledge to haue bin wickedly spoken for neither then nor yet is wanting in Rome very many notable examples of piety and all Christian vertues which may both delight and incite religious mindes to further deuotion I said that by forbidding the reading of bookes written against the Doctrine of Rome there arise some euill suspitions which gaue credit to the writing of hereticks and made men beleeue that there is some thing in them secretly which Catholicks are not able to answere This I confesse to haue beene iniuriously spoken of me against the Catholicke faith who found in the bookes of hereticks false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous Doctrine from the reading whereof the faithfull are to be kept least it infect their soules Neither is it a thing befitting priuate men to read such bookes but the iudgement in matters of such alwayes did and now doth belong vnto the Shepheards who finding venomous Pastures should remoue their sheepe as farre from them as they can Moreouer the arguments of hereticks are deceitfull Sophisticall and easie to be answered I said that the Doctrine of those who opposed themselues against the Romane Church did either nothing or little differ from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and this is false for the opinions wherein they differ from Catholicks are wholly differing from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and nothing can more connince them then the authority of the auncient Church from which they by their nouelties haue so farre departed that worthily for this respect they are condemned for hereticks by the Church of Rome It is therefore detestable and I detest that which I said that their Doctrines were therefore condemned onely by the Church of Rome because these things they said were repugnant vnto the sensuality and corrupt manners of the Court of Rome I said also that at Rome they coyned new articles of faith by maine force And this I said truly against my conscience for I neuer obserued it at any time and I certainely know that it cannot be obserued by any man For the declarations and explications made by holy Church touching articles and mysteries of faith collected out of Diuine Scriptures and traditions of the Fathers and out of the very rules of faith cannot any wayes be termed new coyning of articles Moreouer I endeauoured to take away the title of Catholicke and vntuersall from the Church of Rome in which I erred very much for by the Catholicke Romane Church is vnderstood not onely that speciall and perticular Church which is at Rome but also the whole multitude and company of all the Churches adhearing vnto the Church of Rome in the vnity of faith and in obedience to the Pope in what place soeuer they be yea in the vtmost confines of the earth And it is most true and was approued by me both by word of mouth as England it selfe may witnesse and by writing in my Treatises of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth in that part which I heare is lately set forth in Germany that no Church is Catholicke but the Romane and such as are vnited vnto her For all other congregations of Christians being stayned with heresies and deuided and seperated by Schisme from the Romane Church are and be excluded from the Catholicke vniuersall and true Church of Christ and being as it were blinded together with their blinde Guides doe rush and runne headlong into the bottomlesse pit of perdition which I wickedly affirmed of the Romanes to their great wrong For from the Church of Rome at all times a most glorious light of pure and incorrupted faith came forth and doth at this present lighten all other Churches of Christ whatsoeuer But I remember that in the preface of the bookes of the Christian Common-wealth among other things I vsed some words in which I seeme to put and place in the Catholicke Church all them who haue receiued Baptisme in the name of the Blessed Trinity and in so saying althought the words sound euill and make the hereticall Churches true and sound members of the true Catholicke Church which is most false and hereticall yet my meaning was vtterly to exclude the Arrian Nestorian and Eutichian heresies and all hereticall Churches condemned in former times and to retaine them onely that were Orthodoxall But herein I was deceiued in that I esteemed that there were many more Orthodoxall Churches then are for I erroniously beleeued that many Churches which are infected with the heresies of these later Times and deuided by Schisme did appertaine vnto the Catholicke Church which although it be called Catholicke for that it is vniuersall yet vniuersality doth not comprehend any but those that be Orthodoxall and true beleeuing and dilated ouer all the world and continuing in the Catholicke vnity with the Romane For the vniuersality of the Romane Church consisteth not onely in the perpetuall and neuer interrupted or to be interrupted continuance and firmenesse of faith but is also vniuersall because her Identicall or selfe same faith and soueraigne gouernement hath beene dilated and spread ouer all places and into Nations after the comming of Christ for which respect euen in these later times and ages it is to be called Catholicke no lesse then it was in the times of the auncient Fathers seeing that the faith of the Romane Church is dilated in these our times into the farthest and most vast or remote Regions of the East and West and euen to the vttermost confines of the earth So that her children trauelling too and fro from