Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	pastor_n	3,324	5	9.0283	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09831	The refutation of an epistle, written by a certain doctor of the Augustins order within the citie of Leige together with the arguments, which he hath borrowed from Robert Bellarmine, to proue the inuocation of Saints. By Iohn Polyander, minister vnto the French Church in Dort: and now translated by Henry Hexham, out of French into English.	Polyander à Kerckhoven, Johannes, 1568-1646.; Hexham, Henry, 1585?-1650?	1610 (1610)	STC 20096; ESTC S100869	112,398	138

saith he rauished with all my affection there will I attend with my deuotion There through loue do I take all my delight and thereunto will I hold my selfe by consent Now although this zeale of S. Austin and S. Bernard hath been followed and obserued badly by their successors who since their time gaue too much credit to their owne Councels and humane fantasies yet Gerson neuerthelesle sought to remedie this abuse through his wholesome aduertisements For in his booke of the spirituall life of the soule he sheweth that the sayings of the Apostles and their disciples were of another kinde of authoritie namely in things which purely concerne our faith then the instructions of their successors and consequently that the authoritie of the Primitiue Church is farre greater then that which is at this day and that there is neither Pope nor Councell that can abate any thing of that which was giuen vs by the Euangelists and S. Paul or which hath the like authoritie to make that any thing should bee of faith as some men dreame And in another place vpon this question if in points of faith one might be called before the Pope No particular man saith he not the Pope himselfe neither the Bishops can make a proposition which is hereticall to be catholicall or which is catholicall to be hereticall And againe in the triall of doctrines Consider 5. Tom. 1. That in case of doctrine more credit is to be giuen to one simple lay man excellently skilfull in the Scripture then to the Popes declaration insomuch as it is certaine that one ought to beleeue the Gospell rather then the Pope Also that such a learned man ought to oppose himselfe against a whole Councell if he be there present and seeth the greater partie to be inclined either through malice or ignorance to that which is contrarie to the Gospell according to the example of S. Hilary Whereunto doth agree that which the Abbat Panorma wrote in his chapter intituled Significat extra de Elect. to wit that in things which concerne faith the saying of a priuate person ought to be preferred before the saying of the Pope if so be it is fortified with better reasons out of the old and new Testament Franciscus Picus de Mirandula saith If in a whole Councell the greater partie would ordaine some things which are ●ontrarie to the holy Scriptures and against things that are not lawfull to bee violated the other which are of the lesser number opposing themselues against the greater wee must rather cleaue vnto the lesser number as it happened in the Councels of Rimini and the second of Ephesus Yea euen a simple countriman a childe or an old woman are more worthie to bee beleeued then the Pope and a thousand Bishops if they should speake against the Gospell Now that which wee haue spoken of the authoritie of Councels ought to be appropriated to the censure of our fathers pastors of the ancient Church to wit that wee ought not to receiue their writings with such a reuerence and obedience of faith as wee receiue the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles but to iudge and examine them by the Scriptures according to that good counsell and example of some faithfull Doctors of the Primitiue Church We ought not saith S. Ierome inter cap. 9 on the 98. Psalme to follow the errors of our Fathers but the Scriptures authoritie and the commandements of God which ●nctruct vs. Euery other thing which shall be spoken after the Apostles time ought to bee cut off let it haue no authoritie then though the author thereof be holy or eloquent Reade me those things saith S. Austin in his booke of the Church chap. 6. in the Law in the Prophets in the Psalmes or in the Epistles reade them there and we will beleeue them All others saith he how holy or learned soeuer they be I may reade them not to beleeue what they say is true because they say it but in so much as they proue it by those canonicall authors or by probable reason And in his epistle to Fortunatus We ought not saith he to esteeme of all disputes though they proceed from praise worthie and catholike men as the canonicall Scripture but that in such a sort as is lawfull with the honour due vnto such men to gainsay them or to reiect some things in their writings if per aduenture we finde they iudged otherwise then stands with the truth found out through the helpe of God either by others or by our selues For I am such a one in the writings of other men as I would they should be in mine Doe not stand saith he in his preface of the third booke of the Trinitie vpon my words and writings as vpon the canonical Scripture What soeuer in them thou shalt finde beleeue it without doubting but in my writings that which thou holdest not for very certaine or if thou vnderstādest it not hold it not as firme The like saith he of S. Cyprians bookes in his second booke against Crescon chap. 32. I hold not S. Cyprians bookes for canonicall that which agreeth with the authoritie of holy Scripture I receiue it with his praise but that which agreeth not with them I reiect by his good leaue and we doe him no wrong to make a distinction betweene his writings and the canonicall For this wholesome canon of the Church was not without cause established whereunto were brought certain bookes of the Prophets and Apostles which wee dare not at all iudge and according vnto which we freely iudge of all other bookes either of beleeuers or Infidels The like saith he also of S. Ieroms books of S. Ambroses and of the rest of the Fathers which haue written since the Apostles time in his epistle 112 and 11 booke against Faustus Manichean cap. 5. I would not bring in the opinions of those great personages lest thou shouldest thinke that it behoueth me to follow the iudgement of any man as the authoritie of the Scripture In all their bookes the reader or hearer hath a free iudgement to approue or reiect them without the necessitie of beleeuing them but with freedome to iudge thereof From thence it commeth that hee exhorteth Vincent his friend in his 48. epistle that hee should take heed of gathering against so many holy cleere and vndoubted testimonies some cauils out of the writings of the Bishops whether saith he of our owne or of Hilaries Cyprians or Agrippines for such writings ought to be distinguished from the authoritie of the canon for men reade them not so is it were to draw any testimonie from them contrary to which it should not be lawfull to deeme if peraduenture their opinion were otherwise then the truth requires Wherewith the sentences of our Fathers agree We haue no commandement fr̄o Christ saith Iustine the Martyr in Triph. pag. 207 to beleeue in humane doctrines but in those which his Apostles haue preached and himselfe hath taught Therefore

the Deitie any thing which by God hath been made and created but the only God who hath made and created all things From whence appeareth that the inuocation of Saints bore not any sway in those daies nor any degree or title of diuine seruice in the Christian Church in the time of Saint Austine and his predecessors True it is hee complaineth that in his daies the Church began to lose her virginitie and that they obscured not those most wholesome things which in the diuine books are commanded but that there were instituted some other ceremonies beyond the custome He confesseth also that the Church being setled among much chaffe and tares did beare with many things which themselues durst not reproue nor condemne to auoid the scandals of some persons whereof some were holie and others seditious But howbeit on the other side hee declareth that neither hee nor the Church hath allowed the things which were against the faith and a godly life There is a difference saith he in his 119 epistle to Ianuarius betweene the things that we teach and the things which we suffer betweene the things that wee are commanded to teach and between the things that we are commanded to amend and constrained to support them till we haue reformed them And yet notwithstanding ye would make vs beleeue that S. Austin S. Ierome S. Ambrose S. Chrysostome S. Basil S. Athanasius S. Origen S. Irenaeus and Denys the disciple of S. Paul haue not only approued the superstition of those which worshipped the departed Saints but that euen themselues haue recommended it to the people aswell by their prayers addressed to the Virgin Mary and some other Saints as by the recitall of their vertues and merits Whereunto first of all I answere that many sentences haue been falsified and many annexed to the writings of the Fathers against their intention Which was easie to bee done because in their time the Art of Printing was not found out but copies only in written hand Secondly where as many books haue bin falsely published vnder the names of the Apostles which had been receiued if the Apostle S. Iohn who suruiued the others according to the testimony of S. Tertullian and Ierome had not foreseene it so many Treatises haue been deceitfully attributed to their successors as by their complaints appeareth To begin then with the writings of S. Clement Bishop of Rome S. Ierome in his Apologie against Ruffinus saith of him that hee made some bookes intituled Recognitions among which although there was a doctrine truly Apostolicall exposed in many texts vnder the person of the Apostle S. Peter yet they had mixed among them the doctrine of the Heretike Eumonius So that it seemed in sundrie places of them there is none but he that speaketh Eusebius also saith in his third booke and 35. chapter that it cannot bee cleerely knowne that the second Epistle and the Commentaries which are attributed to him be his because the ancient Fathers made no vse of this Epistle and that these Commentaries kept in no wise neither the stile nor the forme of the pure doctrine of the Apostles and containe in them the communication betweene Peter and Appion of which the ancients make no mention S. Epiphanius addeth that the Ebonians did vse certaine bookes intituled The Peregrinations of S. Peter written by S. Clement stuffed with falsehood and that S. Clement himselfe controlled thē by his owne epistles written to the Enoclycians Eusebius speaking of the booke intituled the Pastor in his third booke and third chapter saith That it is Apocrypha and that they were deceiued who thought that that Hermes which the Apostle S. Paul greeteth in his 16. chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes was the author thereof So likewise Erasmus of Roterdam saith that many bookes badly patched together haue bin annexed to S. Cyprians bookes to wit the Treatise of the Reuelation of S. Iohn Baptists head which is full of fables and superstitions that reciteth sundrie things happened a long while after S. Cyprians time The treatise of Sina and Sion against the Iewes which in no wise representeth neither the knowledge nor zeale of S. Cyprian They haue also mingled among S. Austins bookes the booke intituled The true and false penance which containeth that fine fable how S. Andrew seeing that the people would haue taken him away from the crosse whereunto they had bound him began to make this prayer to God Lord it is time that thou laiest my bodie in the graue suffer them not to take me downe aliue from this crosse It is time that my bodie should be interred c. In like manner Lewes Viues Valentine one of your best Catholikes complaineth in his annotations vpon the bookes of the Citie of God that many sentences are annexed to them which are not S. Austins They haue put into the books of S. Ierome the Commentaries of some of the Epistles of the New Testament which as S. Austin testifieth was composed by a Monke and a here●ike called Pelagus Robert Bellarmine also maintaineth in his disputations that the booke written to Orosus and attributed to be Saint Austins is not his And many other bookes base and illegitimate and which euen your selues confesse to haue been falsely fathered on our Fathers and in no wise receiueable But to answere more particularly to your allegations You deceiue your selues in that you thinke your S. Denys Areopagite was the disciple of the Apostle S. Paul For in the booke of Celestial Hierarchies which you attribute to him he speaketh of his predecessors Clement and Ignatius which liued and suffered martyrdome vnder Traian the third persecutor of the Christians after Nero and the 14. Emperor which began to raigne about the yeere of Christ 100 and the thirtieth yeere after the decease of the Apostle S. Paul according to the calculation of your Bishop Treculphus This booke we haue also in suspition because wee finde in it no marke of the true disciple of the Apostle S. Paul neither in his language nor in his doctrine For there is no mention made therein for the abolishing of the ancient ceremonies of which the Apostle S. Paul very often disputeth in his Epistles neither doth hee say in any place thereof that that which he wrote he did it by his masters authoritie Therein hee doth but sport himselfe with deliberate discourses to teach the doctrine of the holy Gospell by obscure subtilties vaine speculations and very intricate He there treateth of Popes Prelats Priests Monks and of many other Orders which in the Apostles time were not in the Church nor a long while after Likewise to shew that he did dissent from the Apostles he applaudeth therein the Order of Monkes as the highest and most excellent of all others Causes wherefore Laurence Valla one of your chiefest Doctors flouts at such as thought this S. Denys to be the disciple of S. Paul and the author of this booke As Erasmus of Roterdam noteth in