sever not For it is not by humane but râ—ther divine power that spiritual marriage is dissolved when as by translation or cession by the authority of the Bishop of Rome whom it is plain to be the Vicar of Iesus Christ a Bishop is removed from his Church An admirable interpretation of the Text Quos Deus conjunxit by which the Pope not only challengeth that which is proper to Gods judgment only as he saith viz. to dissolve the Bond of spiritual Wedlock but because that is the stronger of carnal it seems also when it shall please him The anointing of a Prince since Christs coming is translated from the Head to the Shoulder by which Principality is fitly designed according to that which is read Factus est principatus super humerum ejus for signifying also whereof Samuel caused the shoulder to be set before Saul Who should ever have understood these Texts if your infallible Interpreter had not declared them But this is nothing yet to the exposition of those Texts which the Pope interprets in his answer to the Emperour of Constantinople as Subditi estote omni humanae Creaturae propter Deum c. He tells him that S. Peter wrote that to his own Subjects to provoke them to the merit of humility For if he had meant thereby to lay the yoke of subjection upon Priests it would follow that every Servant were to rule over them since it is said Omni humanae creaturae After It is not barely set down Regi praecellenti but there is put between perhaps not without cause tanquam And that which follows ad vindictam malefactorum laudem verò bonorum is not to be understood that the King or Emperor hath received the power of the Sword upon good and evil Men save only those who using the sword are committed to his jurisdiction according to that which the Truth saith They which take the Sword shall perish with the Sword For no Man ought or can judge anothers Servant since the Servant according to the Apostle standeth or falleth to his own Lord. For the love of God consider this Interpretation and compare it with S. Chrysostome upon Rom. 13. Nay do but read the Text attentively and judge of the infallibility of your interpreter Straight after he tells the Emperor That he might have understood the prerogative of Priesthood out of that which was said not of every Man but of God not to the King but to the Priest not to one descending of the Royal Stock but of the Priestly Linage of the Priests to wit which were in Anathot Behold I have set thee over Nations and Kingdoms to pull up and destroy to build and to plant See the Prerogative of the Priesthood out of Ieremies calling to be a Prophet O if he had been high Priest This had been a Text for the nonce But he goes on It is said in Gods Law also Diis non detrahes Principem populi tui non maledices Which setting Priests before Kings calls them Gods and the other Princes Compare this exposition with David's and Paul's Psal. 82. and Acts 23.5 and ye shall see how the Interpreter hath hit the mark Again you ought to have known quod fecit Deus duo magna luminaria c. See the Exposition and the difference between the Pope and Kings both in the Text and Gloss. Now although the Gloss-Writer were no excellent Calculator yet out of Clavius the account may be cleared who tells us the Sun exceeds the Moon 6539. times and a Fifth I let pass the collection out of Pasce oves meas that he belongs not to Christs Fold that doth not acknowledge Peter and his Successors his Masters and Pastors out of Quodcunque ligaveris that nothing is excepted Indeed the Pope excepts nothing but looseth Vows Contracts Oaths the Bond of Allegiance and Fealty between Subjects and their Princes The Commandment of Christ Drink ye all of this c. But our Lord expounds himself Iohn 20. Whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. Ex ore sedentis in Throno procedebat gladius bis acutus This is saith the Pope the Sword of Solomon which cuts on both sides giving every Man his own We then who albeit unworthy hold the place of the true Solomon by the favour of God do wisely exercise this Sword when such causes as in our audience are lawfully canvassed we do with Iustice determine This interpretation first corrupts the Text for it hath not out of the Mouth of him that sate on the Throne but that sate on the Horse next it perverts it for it is not the Sword of Iustice but of Christs Word which is more piercing than any two-Edged Sword that issueth out of his Mouth As for that of Iustice he never assumed it but renounced it rather when he said Man who made me a divider to you Luke 12.14 ¶ To prove that in other Regions besides the patrimony of the Church the Pope doth casually exercise temporal Iurisdiction it is said in Deuteronomy Si difficile sit ambiguum c. And because Deuteronomy is by interpretation the second Law Surely by the force of the Word it is proved that what is there decreed should be observed in the New Testament For the place which the Lord did chuse is known to â—e the Apostolick See For when as Peter fleeing went out of the City the Lord minding to call him back to the place he had chosen being asked of him Lord whither goest thou answered I go to Rome to be crucified again The Priests of the Tribe of Levi are the Popes coadjutors The high Priest or Iudge he to whom the Lord said in Peter Quodcunque ligaveris c. His Vicar who is a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchisedeck appointed by God the Iudge of quick and dead He that contemns the Popes Sentence is to be excommunicated for that is the meaning of being commanded to be put to death Doth not this well follow out of the word Deuteronomy And Rome is the place that Christ did choose because he went he said to be crucified there Only there is a scruple of the High Priest for as much as he that is High Priest after Melchisedeck's Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a Priesthood that passes not into another Heb. 7. He adds there that Paul that he might declare the fulness of power writing to the Corinthians saith Know ye not that ye shall judge the Angels how much more the things of the World Is this then the Popes plenitude of Power to judge secular things or was Corinth the Apostolick See and so many Popes there even of the meanest of the Church What shall we say to that Exposition of the famous Text Tu es Petrus super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam The Lord he saith taking Peter into the fellowship of the undivided Vnity would have him to be
of the Woman shall crush his head The vulgar Edition leaving here the Hebrew the Seventy and Saint Hierome himself as appears by his questions upon Genesis translates Ipsa She shall bruise thy head So it stands now in the authentical Scripture of the Church of Rome and herein Sixtus and Clemens are of accord The Divines of Lovaine observe that two Manuscript Copies have Ipse That the Hebrew Chaldee and Greek have it so likewise Why then did not either Sixtus or Clemens or they themselves having Copies for it correct it and make it so in the authentical Text I will tell you by colour of this corruption the Devil envying Christs glory like an obstinate enemy rather yielding himself to any than his true Conqueror hath given this honour to the Virgin Mary To her it is attributed in that work which I think to be the most ungodly and blasphemous that ever saw the Sun The Ladies Psalter wherein that which is spoken of God by the Spirit of God is writhed to her In the 51. Psalm Quid gloriaris in malitia ô maligne Serpens e. Why boastest thou in malice ô thou malignant Serpent and infernal Dragon Submit thy head to the Woman by whose valour thou shalt be drowned in the deep Crush him ô Lady with the foot of thy valour arise and scatter his malice c. And in the 52. speaking to the same Serpent Noli extolli c. Be not lifted up for the fall of the Woman for a Woman shall crush thy head c So that in that Anthem Haec est mulier virtutis quae contrivit caput Serpentis Yea which I write with gief and shame to her doth good Bernard apply it Hom. 2. Super Missus est and which is more strange expounds it not of her bearing our Saviour but Ipsa proculdubio c. She doubtless crushed that poisonfull head which brought to naught all manner of suggestion of that wicked one both of temptation of the flesh and of pride of mind To her doth the learned and devout Chancellor of Paris apply it Has pestes universas dicimus membra Serpentis antiqui cujus caput ipsa virgo contrivit And what marvel in those times when the plain Text of the Scripture ran so in the feminine gender of a woman and few or none had any skill of the Greek or Hebrew Who should that SHEE be but she that is blessed among women Now although that thanks be to God it is known that this is a corrupt place out of the Fountains yea out of the Rivers also the testimonies of the Fathers referring this to Christ as Irenaeus Iustine Cyprian Clemens Alexandrinus Hierome yea Pope Leo himself yet because no error of the Church of Rome may be acknowledged how palpable soever they have cast how to shadow this corruption and set some colour upon it that howsoever this reading cannot be true yet it may be made like to truth Lo in the Interlinear-Bible set forth by the authority of King Philip the father of his Majesty that now Reigns with you the Hebrew Text is reformed according to the Latine IPSA There was some opportunity hereunto by reason that the Letters of the Text without pricks would bear both readings For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hu or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu And this self-same word for the Letters the base of reading is so pointed in this Chapter verse 19. and applyed to Eve She is the mother of all living And so elsewhere as Gen. 28.1 and 21. Hereunto perhaps was added that the pricks are a late invention of the Rabbines as many think and no part of the Hebrew Text. And that not only Leo Castro and such as accuse the present Hebrew Copies as faâ—sified but those that defend them also do many of them confess Hereupon it was resolved as it seems to point this place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hiu For it was not by mistaking but purposely done Franciscus Lucas in his Annotations upon the place doth assure us and saith it was Guido Fabricius his deed And indeed other things there be in that work which savour not of the learning and integrity of Arias Montanus as for example the Etymologie of Missa from the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as Boldness is not always as provident as Ignorance or Malice is bold these Correctors marked not that the gender of the Verb and the affix of the Noun following are both Masculine So although the Orthographie would be framed to consent yet the Syntax doth crie out against this Sacriledge And yet our Rhemists as I am informed in their lately set-forth Bible with a long note upon this place defend the applying of this Text to the blessed Virgin and the old reading Ipsa What should a man say Necessity makes men desperate and as the Apostle saith Evil men and deceivers shall wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived These be frauds indeed in the strictest sense wilfully corrupting the Texts of good Authors wilfully maintaining them so corrupted not abstaining from the holy Scriptures themselves For as to that other kind depraving the sense retaining the words it were endless to cite examples Bellarmine alone as I believe passeth any two Protestants that ever set pen to paper perhaps all of them put together CHAP. VII Of the Armies of evident Witnesses for the Romanists WHere you add That you found the Catholicks had far greater and better Armies of evident Witnesses than the Protestants it might perhaps seem so to you as your mind was prepared when you had met with such cunning Muster-Masters as the Romanists are Who sometimes bring into the Field to make their number seem more after the old stratagem of War a sort of Pages and Lackies unworthy to hold any rank in the Host of God under the names of the Fathers Sometimes to confirm their part give out a Voice confidently that all the Forces which they see aloof in the Field are on their side whereas when it comes to the Battle they shall find that they will turn their Arms against them Sometimes they change the Quarrel it self in which case how easie is it to bring Armies as you say into the Field to fight against No-body and evident Witnesses to prove that which no Man denies For the purpose that the Bishop of Rome hath had a primacy of Honour and Authority when as the question is about a Monarchy and infallible Judgment an uncontrolable Jurisdiction Herein if you please see how Bellarmine alledges the Fathers Greek and Latine in the 15. and 16. Chapters of his First Book de Summo Pontifice So for proof of the verity of Christs Body and Blood in the Lords Supper he spends a whole Book only in citing the Testimonies of the Fathers To what purpose When the question is not of the truth of the Presence but of the manner whether it be to the Teeth and Belly
THE LIFE OF WILLIAM BEDELL D. D. Lord Bishop OF Killmore in Ireland WRITTEN By GILBERT BURNET D. D. Now Lord Bishop of Sarum To which are Subjoyned Certain Letters which passed betwixt Spain and England in Matter of Religion concerning the general motives to the Roman Obedience between Mr. Iames Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition in Sevil and the said William Bedell then a Minister of the Gospel in Suffolk LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1692. THE PREFACE THe Contests that have been raised in this Age concerning the lawfulness and the usefulness of the Episcopal Government have engaged so many learned Men to treat that Argument so fully that as there is very little excuse left for the Ignorance or obstinacy of those who still stand out against the Evidence of a Cause made out so clearly so there is scarce any thing left to be said by any whose zeal may set him on to handle a matter that seems to be now exhausted There is one sort of Arguments yet remaining that as they are more within every ones compass to apprehend and apply so they have a greater force on Mens affections which commonly give a biass to their understandings For conviction has an easie access to us when we are already inclined to wish that were true concerning which we imploy our enquiries And in practical matters such as Government Arguments fetched from great Patterns do not only prepare us to think well of such Forms but really give us truer and juster Ideas of them than speculative Discourses can raise in us which work but coldly on persons unconcerned An Argument not foreign to this is used by all the Assertors of Episcopacy in which the force of the reasoning is equal to the truth of the assertion Which is that it is not possible to think that a Government can be criminal under which the World received the Christian Religion and that in a course of many Ages in which as all the corners of the Christian Church so all the parts of it the sound as well as the unsound that is the Orthodox as well as the Hereticks and Schismaticks agreed the persecutions that lay then so heavy on the Church made it no desireable thing for a Man to be exposed to their first fury which was always the Bishops portion and that in a course of many Centuries in which there was nothing but Poverty and labour to be got by the Imployment There being no Princes to set it on as an Engine of Government and no Synods of Clergymen gathered to assume that Authority to themselves by joynt designs and endeavours And can it be imagined that in all that glorious Cloud of Witnesses to the truth of the Christian Religion who as they planted it with their Labours so watered it with their Blood there should not so much as one single person be found on whom either a love to truth or an envy at the advancement of others prevailed so far as to declare against such an early and universal corruption if it is to be esteemed one When all this is complicated together it is really of so great Authority that I love not to give the proper name to that temper that can withstand so plain a demonstration For what can a Man even heated with all the force of imagination and possessed with all the sharpness of prejudice except to the inference made from these Premisses that a Form so soon introduced and so wonderfully blest could not be contrary to the Rules of the Gospel and cannot be ascribed to any other Original but that the Apostles every where established it as the Fence about the Gospel which they planted so that our Religion and Government are to be reckoned Twins born at the same time and both derived from the same Fathers But things so remote require more than ordinary knowledg to set them before us in a true light And their distance from us makes them lessen as much to our thoughts as Objects that are far from us do to our Eyes Therefore it will be perhaps necessary in order to the giving a fuller and amiabler prospect of that Apostolical Constitution to chuse a Scene that lies nearer and more within all peoples view that so it may appear that for the living Arguments in favour of this Government we need not go so far as to the Clement's the Ignatius's the Polycarp's the Ireneus's the Denys's and the Cyprian's that were the glories of the Golden Ages Nor to the Athanasius's the Basil's the Gregorie's the Chrysostome's the Martin's the Ambrose's and the Austin's that were the beauties of the Second but Silver Age of Christianity but that even in this Iron Age and dreg of time there have been such Patterns as perhaps can hardly be matched since Miracles ceased We ought not to deny the Church of Rome the just Praises that belong to some of the Bishops she has produced in this and the last Age who were burning and shining Lights and we ought not to wonder if a Church so blemisht all over with the corruptions of her Clergy and in particular of the Heads of them covers her self from those deserved Reproaches by the brightness of such great names and by the exemplary Vertues of the present Pope which being so unusual a thing it is not strange to see them magnifie and celebrate it as they do France has likewise produced in this Age a great many Bishops of whom it must be said That as the World was not worthy of them so that Church that used them so ill was much less worthy of them And though there are not many of that stamp now left yet Cardinal Grimaldy the Bishop of Angiers and the Bishop of Grenoble may serve to dignifie an Age as well as a Nation The Bishop of Alet was as a great and good Man told me like a living and speaking Gospel It is true their intanglements with the See of Rome and the Court of France were things both uneasie and dangerous to them but I love not to point at their blind Sides it is their fair one that I would set out and if we can bear the highest commendations that can be given to the Vertues of Heathen Philosophers even when they do eclipse the reputation of the greater part of Christians it will be unjust for any to be uneasie at the Praises given to Prelates of another Communion who are to be so much the more admired if notwithstanding all the corruptions that lye so thick about them that they could hardly break through them they have set the World such examples as ought indeed to make others ashamed that have much greater advantages But since the giving of Orders is almost the only part of their function that is yet entirely in their Hands they have indeed brought a regulation into that which was so grosly abused in former times that cannot be enough commended nor too much
writ so kind a Letter to him that as it made him lay down those thoughts so it drew from him the following Words in the Answer that he writ to him Touching my return I do thankfully accept your Graces exhortation advising me to have Faith in God and not to consult with Flesh and Blood nor have mind of this Countrey Now I would to God that your Grace could look into my Heart and see how little I fear lack of Provision or pass upon any outward thing in this World My chief fear in truth was and is lest I should be unfit and unprofitable in the place in which case if I might have a lawful and honest retreat I think no wise Man could blame me to retain it Especially having understood that your Grace whose authority I chiefly followed at the first did from your own Iudgment and that of other wise Men so truly pronounce of me That I was a weak Man Now that I have received your Letters so full of life and encouragement it puts some more life in me For sure it cannot agree with that goodness and ingenuity of yours praised among all Gods Graces in you by those that know you to write one thing to me and to speak another thing to others of me or to go about to beguile my simplicity with fair Words laying in the mean while a Net for my Feet especially sith my weakness shall in truth redound to the blaming of your own discretion in bringing me thither Thus was he prevailed on to resign his Benefice and carry his Family to Ireland and then he applyed himself with that vigour of Mind that was peculiar to him to the government of the Colledge He corrected such abuses as he found among them he set such rules to them and saw these so well executed that it quickly appeared how happy a choice they had made And as he was a great promoter of learning among them so he thought his particular Province was to instruct the House aright in the Principles of Religion In order to this he catechised the Youth in the Colledge once a Week and preached once a Sunday though he was not obliged to it And that he might acquaint them with a plain and particular body of Divinity he divided the Church Catechism into Two and Fifty Parts one for every Sunday and did explain it in a way so mixed with Speculative and Practical Matters that his Sermons were both learned Lectures of Divinity and excellent exhortations to Vertue and Piety Many took notes of them and Copies of them were much enquired after for as they were fitted to the capacity of his Hearers so they contained much matter in them for entertaining the most learned He had not stayed there above two Years when by his Friend Sir Iermyn's means a Patent was sent him to be Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh two contiguous Sees in the Province of Vlster And in the Letters by which the King signified his pleasure for his Promotion he likewise expressed his acceptance of the service he had done in the Colledge in very honourable terms as follows And as we were pleased by our former gracious Letters to establish the said William Bedell by our Royal Authority in the Provostship of the said Colledge of the Blessed Trinity near Dublin where we are informed that by his care and good Government there hath been wrought great Reformation to our singular contentment so we purpose to continue our care of that Society being the principal Nursery of Religion and Learning in that our Realm and to recommend unto the Colledge some such person from whom we may expect the like worthy effects for their good as we and they have found from Mr. Bedell And now in the 59 th Year of his Age he entered upon a different course of Life and Employment when it might have been thought that the vigour of his Spirits was much broken and spent But by his administration of his Diocess it appeared that their remained yet a vast heat and force of Spirit to carry him through those difficult undertakings to which he found himself obliged by this new Character which if it makes a Man but a little lower than the Angels so that the term Angel is applyed to that Office in Scripture he thought it did oblige him to an angelical course of life and to divide his time as much as could consist with the frailties and necessities of a Body made of Flesh and Blood as those glorious Spirits do between the beholding the Face of their Father which is in Heaven and the ministring to the Heirs of Salvation he considered the Bishops office made him the Shepherd of the inferiour Shepherds if not of the whole Diocess and therefore he resolved to spare himself in nothing by which he might advance the interest of Religion among them and he thought it a disingenuous thing to vouch Antiquity for the Authority and Dignity of that Function and not at the same time to express those Virtues and Practices that made it so Venerable among them Since the Forms of Church Government must appear amiable and valuable to the Word not so much for the reasonings and arguments that learned Men use concerning them as for the real advantages that mankind find from them So that he determined with the great Nazianzen To give Wings to his Soul to rescue it wholly from the World and to dedicate it to God And not to think it enough to perform his duty in such a manner as to pass through the rest of his life without reproach for according to that Father This was to weigh out Vertue by small weights but in the Language of that Father he resolved to live As one that had got above his Senses and all sensible things that was recollected within himself and had attained to a familiarity with divine matters that so his mind might be as an unsullied Mirrour upon which he might receive and represent the impresses of God and divine things unallyed with the Characters of lower objects He saw he would fall under some envy and meet with great oppositions but he considered that as a sort of martyrdome for God and resolved cheerfully to undergo whatsoever uneasie things he might be forced to suffer in the discharge of his Conscience and Duty In laying open his designs and performances in this last and greatest period of his life I have fuller materials than in the former parts For my Author was particularly known to him during a large part of it and spent several Years in his Family so that his opportunities of knowing him were as great as could be desired and the Bishop was of so gentle a temper and of so communicative a nature that he easily opened himself to one that was taken into his alliance as well as into his heart he being indeed a Man of primitive simplicity He found his Diocess under so many disorders that there was scarce a sound part remaining The Revenue
endanger both their own Souls and the Souls of their Flocks And to let them see that he would not lay a heavy Burthen on them in which he would not bear his own share he resolved to part with one of his Bishopricks For though Ardagh was considered as a ruined See and had long gone as an accessory to Kilmore and continues to be so still yet since they were really two different Sees he thought he could not decently oblige his Clergy to renounce their Pluralities unless he set them an example and renounced his own even after he had been at a considerable charge in recovering the Patrimony of Ardagh and though he was sufficiently able to discharge the duty of both these Sees they being contiguous and small and though the Revenue of both did not exceed a competency yet he would not seem to be guilty of that which he so severely condemned in others And therefore he resigned Ardagh to Dr. Richardson and so was now only Bishop of Kilmore The Authority of this example and the efficacy of his Discourse made such an impression on his Clergy that they all relinquished their Pluralities The Arguments that arise out of interest are generally much stronger than those of mere speculation how well soever it be made out and therefore this concurrence that he met with from his Clergy in so sensible a point was a great encouragement to him to go on in his other designs There seemed to be a Finger of God in it for he had no authority to compel them to it and he had managed the minds of his Clergy so gently in this matter that their compliance was not extorted but both free and unanimous For one only excepted they all submitted to it and he being Dean exchanged his Deanery with another for he was ashamed to live in the Diocess where he would not submit to such terms after both the Bishop himself and all his Clergy had agreed to them But the opposition that was given him by the Dean and both his sense of that matter and his carriage in it will appear from the following Letter which he writ concerning it to the Primate which though it be long and particular yet it seemed to me too important to be either stifled or abridged Most reverend Father my honourable good Lord I Cannot easily express what contentment I received at my late being with your Grace at Termonseckin There had nothing hapned to me I will not say since I came into Ireland but as far as I can call to remembrance in my whole life which did so much affect me in this kind as the hazzard of your good opinion For loving and honouring you in Truth for the truths sake which is in us and shall abide with us for ever without any private interest and receiving so unlookt for a blow from your own Hand which I expected should have tenderly applyed some remedy to me being smitten by others I had not present the defences of Reason and Grace And although I knew it to be a fault in my self since in the performance of our duties the Iudgment of our Master even alone ought to suffice us yet I could not be so much Master of mine Affections as to cast out this weakness But blessed be God who as I began to say at my being with you refreshed my Spirit by your kind renewing and confirming your love to me and all humble thanks to you that gave me place to make my Defence and took upon you the cognisance of mine innocency And as for mine Accuser whose hatred I have incurred only by not giving way to his covetous desire of heaping Living upon Living to the evident damage not only of other Souls committed to him but of his own truly I am glad and do give God Thanks that this malignity which a while masked it self in the pretence of friendship hath at last discovered it self by publick opposition It hath not and I hope it shall not be in his power to hurt me at all he hath rather shamed himself and although his high Heart cannot give his Tongue leave to acknowledge his folly his Vnderstanding is not so weak and blind as not to see it Whom I could be very well content to leave to tast the Fruit of it also without being further troublesome to your Grace save that I do not despair but your Grace's Authority will pull him out of the snare of Satan whose instrument he hath been to cross the Work of God and give me more occasion of joy by his amendment than I had grief by his perversion and opposition Your Grace's Letters of Aug. 23. were not delivered to me till the 29th In the mean space what effect those that accompanied them had with Mr. Dean you shall perceive by the inclosed which were sent me the 28th the Evening before our Communion I answered them the next Morning as is here annexed As I was at the Lord's Table beginning the service of the Communion before the Sermon he came in and after the Sermon was done those that communicated not being departed he stood forth and spake to this purpose That whereas the Book of Common Prayer requires That before the Lord's Supper if there be any variance or breach of charity there should be reconciliation this was much more requisite between Ministers And because they all knew that there had been some difference between me and him he did profess That he bare me no malice nor hatred and if he had offended me in any thing he was sorry I answered That he had good reason to be sorry considering how he had behaved himself For my part I bare him no malice and if it were in my power would not make so much as his Finger ake Grieved I had been that he in whom I knew there were many good Parts would become an instrument to oppose the Work of God which I was assured he had called me to This was all that passed He offered himself to the Lord's Board and I gave him the Communion After Dinner he preached out of 1 Joh. 4.10 And this Commandment have we from him that he that loveth God c. When we came out of the Church Dr. Sheriden delivered me your Grace's Letters And thus Mr. Dean thinks he hath healed all as you may perceive by his next Letters of August 30. Only he labours about Kildromfarten Whereabouts I purposed to have spoken with your Grace at my being with you but I know not how it came not to my mind whether it be that the Soul as well as the body after some travel easily falleth to rest or else God would have it reserved perhaps to a more seasonable time It is now above a Twelvemonth the Day in many respects I may well wish that it may not be reckoned with the dayes of the year that your Grace as it were delivered to me with your own Hands Mr. Crian a converted Fryer To whom I offered my self as largely as
had without paying for it or be lyable to a Suit in the Prerogative Court He knew the Archbishop's power over Bishops was not founded on Divine or Apostolical right but on Ecclesiastical Canons and Practice and that it was only a matter of Order and that therefore the Archbishop had no Authority to come and invade his Pastoral Office and suspend him for a Year These were some of the worst of the abuses that the Canonists had introduced in the later Ages by which they had broken the Episcopal Authority and had made way for vesting the whole power of the Church in the Pope He laid those things often before Archbishop Vsher and prest him earnestly to set himself to the reforming them since they were acted in his name and by vertue of his Authority deputed to his Chancellour and to the other Officers of the Court called the Spiritual Court No Man was more sensible of those abuses than Vsher was no Man knew the beginning and progress of them better nor was more touched with the ill effects of them and together with his great and vast learning no Man had a better Soul and a more Apostolical mind In his conversation he expressed the true simplicity of a Christian For Passion Pride self-Will or the Love of the World seemed not to be so much as in his Nature So that he had all the innocence of the Dove in him He had a way of gaining peoples Hearts and of touching their Consciences that lookt like â—omewhat of the Apostolical Age revived he spent much of his time in those two best Exercises secret Prayer and dealing with other peoples Consciences either in his Sermons or private Discourses and what remained he dedicated to his Studies in which those many Volumes that came from him shewed a most amazing diligence and exactness joyned with great Judgment So that he was certainly one of the greatest and best Men that the Age or perhaps the World has produced But no Man is intirely perfect he was not made for the governing part of his Function He had too gentle a Soul to manage that rough Work of reforming Abuses And therefore he left things as he found them He hoped a time of Reformation would come He saw the necessity of cutting off many abuses and confessed that the tolerating those abominable corruptions that the Canonists had brought in was such a stain upon a Church that in all other respects was the best reformed in the World that he apprehended it would bring a Curse and Ruine upon the whole Constitution But though he prayed for a more favourable conjuncture and would have concurred in a joynt Reformation of these things very heartily yet he did not bestir himself suitably to the Obligations that lay on him for carrying it on And it is very likely that this sat heavy on his thoughts when he came to dye for he prayed often and with great humility That God would forgive him his sins of Omission and his failings in his Duty It was not without great uneasiness to me that I overcome my self so far as to say any thing that may seem to diminish the Character of so extraordinary a Man who in other things was beyond any Man of his time but in this only he fell beneath himself And those that upon all other accounts loved and admired him lamented this defect in him which was the only allay that seemed left and without which he would have been held perhaps in more veneration than was fitting His Physician Dr. Bootius that was a Dutchman said truly of him If our Primate of Armagh were as exact a Disciplinarian as he is eminent in searching Antiquity defending the Truth and preaching the Gospel he might without doubt deserve to be made the chief Churchman of Christendome But this was necessary to be told since History is to be writ impartially and I ought to be forgiven for taxing his Memory a little for I was never so tempted in any thing that I ever writ to disguise the Truth as upon this occasion Yet though Bishop Vsher did not much himself he had a singular esteem for that vigour of Mind which our Bishop expressed in the reforming these matters And now I come to the next instance of his Pastoral care which made more noise and met with more opposition than any of the former He found his Court that sat in his name was an entire abuse It was managed by a Chancellour that had bought his place from his Predecessor and so thought he had a right to all the Profits that he could raise out of it and the whole business of the Court seemed to be nothing but Extortion and Oppression For it is an old observation That men who buy Justice will also sell it Bribes went about almost barefaced and the exchange they made of Penance for Money was the worst sort of Simony being in effect the very same abuse that gave the World such a scandal when it was so indecently practised in the Church of Rome and opened the way to the Reformation For the selling of Indulgences is really but a commutation of Penance He found the Officers of the Court made it their business to draw people into trouble by vexatious Suits and to hold them so long in it that for three Pence worth of the Tithe of Turf they would be put to five Pounds charge And the solemnest and sacredest of all the Church Censures which was Excommunication went about in so sordid and base a manner that all regard to it as it was a Spiritual Censure was lost and the effects it had in Law made it be cryed out on as a most intolerable piece of Tyranny The Officers of the Court thought they had a sort of right to oppress the Natives and that all was well got that was wrung from them And of all this the good Primate was so sensible that he gives this sad account of the Venality of all sacred things in a Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury As for the general state of things here they are so desperate that I am afraid to write any thing thereof Some of the adverse part have asked me the Qâ—estion Where I have heard or read before that Religion and Mens Souls should be set to sale after this manner Vnto whom I could reply nothing but that I had read in Mantuan That there was another place in the World where Coelum est venale Deúsque Both Heaven and God himself are set to sale But our Bishop thought it not enough to lament this he resolved to do what in him lay to correct these abuses and to goe and sit and judge in his own Courts himself He carried a competent number of his Clergy with him who sate about him and there he heard Causes and by their advice he gave Sentence By this means so many Causes were dismist and such a change was wrought in the whole Proceedings of the Court that instead of being any
more a grievâ—nce to the Countrey none were now grieved by it but the Chancellour and the other Officers of the Court who saw their Trade was sunk and their Profits were falling and were already displeased with the Bishop for writing the Titles to Benefices himself taking that part of their Gain out of their Hands Therefore the Lay Chancellour brought a Suit against the Bishop into Chancery for invading his Office The matter was now a common Cause the other Bishops were glad at this step our Bishop had made and encouraged him to go on resolutely in it and assured him they would stand by him and they confessed they were but half Bishops till they could recover their authority out of the hands of their Chancellours But on the other hand all the Chancellours and Registers of Ireland combined together they saw this struck at those Places which they had bought valuing them according to the Profits that they could make by them and it cannot be denyed but they had reason to move That if their places were regulated the Money by which they had purchased that right to squeeze the Countrey ought to have been restored The Bishop desired that he might be suffered to plead his own Cause himself but that was denyed him which he took ill But he drew the Argument that his Council made for him for it being the first Suit that ever was of that sort he was more capable of composing his Defence than his Councel could be He went upon these Grounds That one of the most essential parts of a Bishop's duty was to govern his Flock and to inflict the Spiritual Censures on obstinate Offenders That a Bishop could no more delegate this power to a Lay-man than he could delegate a power to Baptize or Ordain since Excommunication and other Censures were a suspending the Rights of Baptism and Orders and therefore the judging of these things could only belong to him that had the power to give them and that the delegating that power was a thing null of it self He shewed That feeding the Flock was inherent and inseparable from a Bishop and that no Delegation he could make could take that power from himself since all the effect it could have was to make another his Officer and Deputy in his absence From this he went to shew how it had been ever lookt on as a necessary part of the Bishop's Duty to Examine and Censure the Scandals of his Clergy and Laity in Ancient and Modern times That the Roman Emperours had by many Laws supported the Credit and Authority of these Courts that since the practices of the Court of Rome had brought in such a variety of Rules for covering the corruptions which they intended to support then that which is in it self a plain and simple thing was made very intricate So that the Canon Law was become a great study and upon this account Bishops had taken Civilians and Canonists to be their Assistants in those Courts but this could be for no other end but only to inform them in points of Law or to hear and prepare matters for them For the giving Sentence as it is done in the Bishops name so it is really his Office and is that for which he is accountable both to God and Man and since the Law made those to be the Bishops Courts and since the King had by Patent confirmed that Authority which was lodged in him by his Office of governing those Courts he thought all Delegations that were absolute and exclusive of the Bishop ought to be declared void The Reader will perhaps judge better of the force of this Argument than the Lord Chancellour of Ireland Bolton did who confirmed the Chancellours right and gave him an hundred Pound Costs of the Bishop But when the Bishop asked him How he came to make so unjust a Decree he answered That all that his Father had left him was a Register's place so he thought he was bound to support those Courts which he saw would be ruined if the way he took had not been checkt This my Author had from the Bishop's own mouth But as this matter was a leading Case so great pains were taken to possess the Primate against the Bishop but his Letters will best discover the Grounds on which he went and that noble temper of mind that supported him in so great an undertaking The one is long but I will not shorten it Right Reverend Father my honourable good Lord I Have receiv'd your Grace's Letters concerning Mr. Cook and I do acknowledge all that your Grace writes to be true concerning his sufficiency and experience to the execution of the Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction neither did I forbear to do him right in giving him that Testimony when before the Chapter I did declare and shew the nullity of his Patent I have heard of my Lord of attempt and I do believe That if this Patent had due form I could not overthrow it how unequal soever it be But failing in the essential parts besides sundry other defects I do not think any reasonable creature can adjudge it to be good I shall more at large certifie your Grace of the whole matter and the reasons of my Councel herein I shall desire herein to be tryed by your Grace's own Iudgment and not by your Chancellors or as I think in such a case I ought to be by the Synod of the Province I have resolved to see the end of this matter and do desire your Grace's favour herein no farther than the equity of the Cause and the good as far as I can judge of our Church in a high degree do require So with my humble Service to your Grace and respectful commendations to Mrs. Usher I rest Kilmore Octob. 28. 1629. Your Grace's in all duty Will. Kilmore Most reverend Father my honourable good Lord THe report of your Grace's indisposition how sorrowful it was to me the Lord knows Albeit the same was somewhat mitigated by other News of your better estate In that fluctuation of my mind perhaps like that of your health the Saying of the Apostle served me for an Anchor That none of us liveth to himself neither doth any dye to himself For whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we dye we dye to the Lord. Whether we live therefore or dye we are the Lords Thereupon from the bottom of my Heart commending your estate and that of the Church here which how much it needs you He knows best to our common Master though I had written large Letters to you which have lain by me sundry Weeks fearing in your sickness to be troublesome I thought not to send them but to attend some other opportunity after your present recovery to send or perhaps bring them When I understood by Mr. Dean of his journey or at least sending an express Messenger to you with other Letters putting me also in mind That perhaps it would not be unwelcome to you to hear from me though
Courts my self and set some good order in them And to this purpose I have been at Cavan Belturbet Granard and Longford and do intend to go to the rest leaving with some of the Ministry there a few Rules touching those things that are to be redressed that if my health do not permit me to be always present they may know how to proceed in my absence I find it to be true that Tully saith Justitia mirifica quaedam res multitudini and certainly to our proper work a great advantage it is to obtain a good opinion of those we are to deal with But besides this there fall out occasions to speak of God and his presence of the Religion of a Witness the danger of an Oath the purity of a Marriage the preciousness of a good name repairing of Churches and the like Penance it self may be enjoyned and Penitents reconciled with some profit to others besides themselves Wherefore albeit Mr. Cooke were the justest Chancellour in this Kingdome I would think it fit for me as things now stand to sit in these Courts and the rather sith I cannot be heard in the Pulpits to preach as I may in them Albeit innocency and Iustice is also a real kind of preaching I have shewed your Grace my intentions in this matter Now should I require your direction in many things if I were present with you But for the present it may please you to understand that at Granard one Mr. Nugent a Nephew as I take it to my Lord of Westmeath delivered his Letter to Mr. Aske which he delivered me in open Court requiring that his Tenant might not be troubled for Christnings Marriages or Funerals so they pay the Minister his due This referred to a Letter of my Lord Chancellors to the like purpose which yet was not delivered till the Court was risen I answered generally That none of my Lord's Tenants or others should be wronged The like motion was made at Longford by two or three of the Farralls and one Mr. Fagarah and Mr. Rosse to whom I gave the like answer and added That I would be strict in requiring them to bring their Children to be Baptized and Marriages to be solemnized likewise with us sith they acknowledged these to be lawful and true so as it was but wilfulness if any forbare Here I desire your Grace to direct me For to give way that they should not be so much as called in question seems to further the Schism they labour to make To lay any pecuniary mulct upon them as the value of a Licence for Marriage three Pence or four Pence for a Christning I know not by what Law it can be done To Excommunicate them for not appearing or obeying they being already none of our body and a multitude it is to no profit nay rather makes the exacerbation worse Many things more I have to confer with your Grace about which I hope to do coram as about the re-edifying of Churches or employing the Mass-houses which now the State inquires of about Books Testaments and the Common Prayer Book which being to be reprinted would perhaps be in some things bettered But especially about Men to use them and Means to maintain them now that our English have engrossed the Livings About the printing the Psalter which I have caused to be diligently surveyed by Mr. James Nangle who adviseth not to meddle with the Verse but set forth only the Prose Which he hath begun to write out fair to the Press Mr. Murtagh King I have not heard of a long time I hope he goeth on in the Historical Books of the Old Testament Mr. Crian was with me about a Forthnight after I came to Kilmore since I heard not of him Of all these things if by the will of God I may make a journey over to you we shall speak at full As I was closing up these this Morning there is a complaint brought me from Ardagh That where in a cause Matrimonial in the Court at Longford a Woman had proceeded thus far as after contestation the Husband was enjoyned to appear the next Court to receive a Libel one Shaw-oge Mr. Ingawry the Popish Vicar General of Ardagh had excommunicated her and she was by one Hubart and Mr. Calril a Priest upon Sunday last put out of the Church and denounced excommunicate Herein whether it were more fit to proceed against the Vicar and Priest by vertue of the last Letters from the Council or complain to them I shall attend your Graces advice And now for very shame ceasing to be troublesome I do recommend your Grace to the protection of our merciful Father and rest with my respective salutations to Mrs. Usher Kilmore Feb. 15. 1629. Your Grace's in all duty Will. Kilmore Ardaghen The other Bishops did not stand by our Bishop in this matter but were contented to let him fall under Censure without interposing in it as in a cause of common concern Even the excellent Primate told him The tide went so high that he could assist him no more for he stood by him longer than any other of the Order had done But the Bishop was not disheartened by this And as he thanked him for assisting him so long so he said he was resolved by the help of God to try if he could stand by himself But he went home and resolved to go on in his Courts as he had begun notwithstanding this Censure For he thought he was doing that which was incumbent on him and he had a Spirit so made that he resolved to suffer Martyrdome rather than fail in any thing that lay on his Conscience But his Chancellour was either advised by those that governed the State to give him no disturbance in that matter or was overcome by the authority he saw in him that inspired all people with reverence for him For as he never called for the 100 Pound Costs so he never disturbed him any more but named a Surrogate to whom he gave order to be in all things observant of the Bishop and obedient to him So it seems that though it was thought fit to keep up the Authority of the Lay Chancellours over Ireland and not to suffer this Bishop's practice to pass into a Precedent yet order was given under hand to let him go on as he had begun and his Chancellour had so great a value for him that many Years after this he told my Author That he thought there was not such a Man on the face of the earth as Bishop Bedell was that he was too hard for all the Civilians in Ireland and that if he had not been born down by meer force he had overthrown the Consistorial Courts and had recovered the Episcopal Jurisdiction out of the Chancellours hands But now that he went on undisturbed in his Episcopal Court he made use of it as became him and not as an Engine to raise his power and dominion but considering that all Church power was for Edification and
English Translators had failed He thought the use of the Scriptures was the only way to let the knowledge of Religion in among the Irish as it had first let the Reformation into the other parts of Europe And he used to tell a passage of a Sermon that he heard Fulgentio preach at Venice with which he was much pleased It was on these Words of Christ Have ye not read and so he took occasion to tell the Auditory That if Christ were now to ask this Question Have ye not read all the Answer they could make to it was No for they were not suffered to do it Upon which he taxed with great zeal the restraint put on the use of the Scriptures by the See of Rome This was not unlike what the same person delivered in another Sermon preaching upon Pilate's Question What is Truth he told them that at last after many searches he had found it out and held out a New Testament and said There it was in his Hand but then he put it in his Pocket and said coldly But the Book is prohibited which was so suited to the Italian genius that it took mightily with the Auditory The Bishop had observed that in the Primitive times as soon Nations how barbarous soever they were began to receive the Christian Religion they had the Scriptures translated into their vulgar Tongues And that all people were exhorted to study them therefore he not only undertook and began this Work but followed it with so much industry that in a very few years he finished the Translation and resolved to set about the printing of it for the bargain was made with one that engaged to perform it And as he had been at the great trouble of examining the Translation so he resolved to run the venture of the Impression and took that expence upon himself It is scarce to be imagined what could have obstructed so great and so good a Work The Priests of the Church of Rome had reason to oppose the printing of a Book that has been always so fatal to them but it was a deep fetch to possess reformed Divines with a jealousie of this work and with hard thoughts concerning it Yet that was done but by a very well disguised method For it was said that the Translator was a weak and contemptible Man and that it would expose such a work as this was to the scorn of the Nation when it was known who was the Author of it And this was infused both into the Earl of Strafford and into the Archbishop of Canterbury And a bold young Man pretended a lapse of the Benefice that the Bishop had given to the Translator and so obtained a Broad Seal for it though it was in the Bishop's Gift This was an abuse too common at that time for licentious Clerks to pretend either that an Incumbent was dead or that he had no good right to his Benefice or that he had forfeited it and upon that to procure a Grant of it from the King and then to turn the Incumbent out of Possession and to vex him with a Suit till they forced him to compound for his peace So upon this occasion it was pretended that the Translator had forfeited his Living and one Baily that had informed against him came down with a Grant of it under the great Seal and violently thrust him out of it The Bishop was much touched with this and cited Baily to appear before him He had given him a Vicarage and had taken an Oath of him never to hold another so he objected to him both his violent and unjust intrusion into another man's right and his Perjury Baily to cover himself from the last procured a Dispensation from the Prerogative Court notwithstanding his Oath to hold more Benefices The Bishop lookt on this as one of the worst and most scandalous parts of Popery to dissolve the most sacred of all Bonds and it grieved his Soul to see so vile a thing acted in the name of Archbishop Vsher though it was done by his Surrogates So without any regard to this he served this obstinate Clerk with several Canonical admonitions but finding him still hardned in his wickedness he deprived him of the Benefice he had given him and also excommunicat'd him and gave orders that the Sentence should be published through the whole Deanry upon which Baily's Clerk appealed to the Prerogative Court and the Bishop was cited to answer for what he had done He went and appeared before them but declined their Authority and would not answer to them He thought it below the Office and Dignity of a Bishop to give an account of a spiritual Censure that he had inflicted on one of his Clergy before two Laymen that pretended to be the Primate's Surrogates and he put his Declinator in 24 Articles all written with his own Hand which will be found at the end of this Narrative he excepted to the incompetency of the Court both because the Primate was not there in person and because they that sate there had given clear Evidences of their partiality which he had offered to prove to the Primate himself He said the appeal from his Sentence lay only to the Provincial Synod or to the Archbishop's Consistory and since the ground of Bailys Appeal was the dispensation that they had given him from his Oath they could not be the competent Judges of that for they were Parties And the Appeal from abusive faculties lay only to a Court of Delegates by the express words of the Law And by many Indications it appeared that they had prejudged the matter in Baily's favours and had expressed great resentments against the Bishop and notwithstanding the dignity of his Office they had made him wait among the croud an hour and an half and had given directions in the management of the Cause as Parties against him they had also manifestly abused their power in granting Dispensations contrary to the Laws of God and now they presumed to interpose in the just and legal Jurisdiction that a Bishop exercised over his Clergy both by the Laws of God and by the Kings Authority Upon these grounds he excepted to their Authority he was served with several Citations to answer and appeared upon every one of them but notwithstanding the highest contempts they put upon him he shewed no indecent passion but kept his ground still In conclusion he was declared Contumax and the perjured Intruder was absolved from the Sentence and confirmed in the possession of his ill-acquired Benefice It may be easily imagined how much these Proceedings were censured by all fair and equitable Men The constancy the firmness and the courage that the Bishop expressed being as much commended as the injustice and violence of his Enemies was cryed out upon The strangest part of this transaction was that which the Primate acted who though he loved the Bishop beyond all the rest of the Order and valued him highly for the zealous discharge of
might have cleared all controversies and put all Heresies to silence How durst sundry holy and learned Men have rejected his decisions whether right or wrong is not now the question unchristianly out of doubt on their parts if he had been then holden the infallible Oracle of our Religion As when Polycrates with the Bishops of Asia and Irenaeus also yielded not to Victor excommunicating the Eastern Churches about the celebration of Easter when S. Cyprian with the first Council of Carthage of eighty six Bishops had Decreed That such as were baptized by Hereticks should be rebaptized and certified Stephanus of this Decree and he opposed it and would have nothing innovated would Cyprian after that have resisted and confuted Stephanus his Letter had he known him for infallible And how doth he confute him as erring writing impertinently contrary to himself Yea let it be observed that he doth not only not account Stephanus infallible but not so much as a Judge over any Bishop See the Vote of Cyprian and note those Words Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigit quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit cum nec ipse possit alterum judicare Sed exspectemus universi judicium Domini nostri Iesu Christi qui unus solus habet potestatem praeponendi in Ecclesiae suae gubernatione de actu nostro judicandi A passage worthy to be noted also for the clearing of the independence of Episcopal Authority from the Pope which I now let pass Neither was S. Cyprian herein alone Firmilianus and the Eastern Bishops resisted Stephanus no less as appears by his Epistle which in the Roman Edition of Manutius set forth by the command of Pius the Fourth with the survey of four Cardinals whereof one is now a Saint with exquisite diligence is wholly left out And Pamelius saith he thinks purposely for himself is of the mind that it had been better it had never come forth But to return to our purpose The Fathers of the Council of Africk and S. Augustine amongst them resist three Popes succeeding each other Zosimus Boniface and Coelestinus about appeals to Rome shall we think they would ever have done it if they had known or imagined them to be the supream and infallible Judges in the Church I let pass the Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church which had not happened if this Doctrine had been anciently received Nay it is very plain in Story that the Bishop of Rome's lifting up himself to be universal Bishop chiefly caused it To conclude neither Liberius nor Honorius to omit many other Bishops of Rome had ever been taxed of heresie if this had anciently been currant that the Pope is infallible I will not stand now to examine the shameful defence that Bellarmine makes for the latter of these bearing down Fathers Councils Stories Popes themselves as all falsified or deceived herein Wherein because he is learnedly refuted by Dr. Raynolds I insist not upon it This I press That all those Writers and Councils and amongst them Pope Leo the Second accursing Honorius did not then hold that which by Pighius and the Iesuites is undertaken that the Pope is infallible Even the Council of Basil deposing Eugenius for obstinately resisting this Truth of the Catholick Faith That the Council is above the Pope as an Heretick doth shew the sense of Christendom even in these latter times how corrupt soever both in Rule and Practice And because you make this infallible Judge to be also an infallible Interpreter of Holy Scripture how happens it that Damasus Bishop of Rome consults with Hierome about the meaning of sundry Texts of Scripture when it seems himself might have taken his Pen and set him down quickly that which should have taught both him and the whole Church not only without danger but even possibility of error Sure we are little beholding to the diligence of our Ancestors that have not more carefully registred the Comentaries or because they have had for sundry Ages small time to write just Commentaries the Expositions which in their Sermons or otherwise the Bishops of Rome have made of Holy Scripture A work which if this Doctrine were true were more worth than all the Fathers and would justifie that blasphemy of the Canon Law where by a shameful corruption of S. Augustine the Decretals of Popes are inrolled amongst the Canonical Scriptures I am already too long in so plain a matter Yet one proof more which is of all most sensible Being admonished by this your conceit of an infallible Interpreter I chanced to turn over the Popes Decretals and observed the interpretation of Scriptures What shall I say I find them so lewd and clean beside the purpose yea oftentimes so childish and ridiculous both in giving the sense and in the application that I protest to you in the presence of God nothing doth more loath me of Popery than the handling of Holy Scripture by your infallible Interpreter alone Consider a few of the particulars and especially such as concern the Popes own Authority To justifie his exacting an Oath of Fealty of an Archbishop to whom he grants the Pall is brought our Lord Iesus Christ who committing the care of his Sheep to Peter did put too a condition saying Si diligis me pasce oves meas Christ said If thou lovest me feed my Sheep Why may not the Pope say If you will swear me fealty you shall have the Pall. But first he corrupts the Text Christ said not If thou lovest me Then Christ puts not Peters love as a condition of Feeding but feeding as a proof and effect of his love And if the feeding of Christs sheep were sought love to him and them might suffice to be professed or if he would needs have more than Christ required to be sworn What is this to the Oath of Fealty Straight after to the Objection that all Oaths are prohibited by Christ nor any such thing can be found appointed by the Apostles after the Lord or in the Councils he urges the Words following in the Text Swear not at all quod amplius est à malo est that is saith he Evil compels us by Christs permission to exact more Is it not evil to go from the Popes obedience to condemn Bishops without his privity to translate Bishops by the Kings commandment See the place and tell me of your Interpreters Infallibility Treating of the Translation of Bishops or such as are elected unto other Sees he saith That since the spiritual Band is stronger than the carnal it cannot be doubted but Almighty God hath reserved the dissolution of the spiritual Marriage that is betwixt a Bishop and his Church to his own judgment alone charging that whom God hath joyned man
of the Leaves the number he saith will rise to thirty thousand by which Iohn Fox his Book will as much exceed Iohn Sleidans Story in number of lyes in which were found only eleven thousand as it doth in bulk and bigness This manner of writing of these Men brings to my mind that which Sir Thomas More writes of Tyndals New Testament wherein he saith Were founden and noted wrong and falsely translated above a thousand Texts by tale The Language is like and the cause is the same Men were loth these Books should be read The substance of them was such as could not be controlled The next remedy was to forestal the Readers minds with a prejudice of falsification that so they might not regard them but cast them out of their Hands of their own accord The Vulgar sort would be brought out of conceit at the first hearing with vehement accusation Even wise Men would suppose though there should not be any thing near so many wilful faults yet surely there must needs be a very great number and that could not happen but with a very bad meaning this admitted who would vouchsafe them the reading And in truth among those that favour the reformed part I have met with some that out of this buz of falsification in the Lord of Plessis Book cared not for reading it whereby may be thought in what account it should be with all those who esteem all F. Parsons Libels to be Oracles But shortly Sith neither the Cardinal Perone nor F. Parsons have had the means or will to decypher those hundreds and thousands of falsifications in Sleidan Bishop Iewel Mr. Fox or Plessis in these so many years as have run since they wrote and as for the last he hath set forth the Book again with all the Authorities at large in the Margent in the Authors own Words and hath answered all those that bayed at it till they are silent what remains but that we count this multiplying of F. Parsons may be joyned with Aequivocation to make up the art of Falshood wherein he and his Faction may justly claim to be the worthiest Professors in the World But without any multiplication or other Arithmetick in the fifth page of that Relation of his in the seven first Lines are four notorious I will not say lyes or falsifications but falshoods by tale The First That the tryal being begun upon the first place that was found false The French Discourse printed at Antwerp Cum privilegio and approbation of the Visitor of Books saith And as to the said first Article nothing was judged thereabout by the said Commissioners nor pronounced by my said Lord the Chancellor and the King said that it should be remitted to another time to deliberate thereabout The Second He that is Plessis would have passed to the second but the Bishop refused so to do except the Ministers and Protestants there present would first subscribe and testifie that this first place was falsified He said in the page before that Plessis appeared at last with some four or five Ministers on his side There were no Ministers appeared with him on his side No Protestants no creature did subscribe or was required so to do The third Which at length they did viz. subscribe this place was falsified An utter untruth Whereof there is not a Word in the said printed Narration The fourth As well in this as in all the rest There was no subscription as I said at all The Commissioners were all of the Roman profession saving Casaubon and he no Minister They never pronounced much less subscribed that any of those places examined were falsified Of the first place of Scotus they pronounced nothing Of the second of Durand That the opposition of Durand was alledged for the resolution And this they would have remitted also as the former to another time save that the Bishop insisted saying it was in vain to dispute if they would not judge Addressing his Speech divers times to the King to the intent he should signifie his pleasure to the Commissioners and then his Majesty drawing near to them they gave their Opinions upon that Article as before This was that which F. Parsons stumbled at when he wrote The Ministers and Protestants there present subscribed and testified that it was falsified and so all the rest For being overjoyed with this News which he did not well understand to think the charitablest of him he thought the Commissioners had been part at least Protestants and Ministers And had subscribed whereas they pronounced their Sentence vivâ voce by the Mouth of the Chancellor never using the term falsification yea in some of the rest they acquitted the Lord of Plessis as in the passage of P. Crinitus though they said Crinitus was deceived In that of Bernard that it had been good to distinguish the two passages of S. Bernard out of the same Book with an caetera Not to stand now upon that that in the rest of the places he hath a reasonable and just defence with indifferent Men for the omissions he was charged with in Chrysostome Hierome Bernard and Theodoret And in that of Cyril the King himself said aloud tha both sides had reason But F. Parsons not having as it appears received perfect information of the particularities of this affair was so hasty to write according to the partial intelligence he received at Rome that he faults himself in the same kind that he imputes to another And if he should meet with some severe Adversary that would multiply his falshoods by his leaves and lines as he dealeth with Mr. Fox and then extend by proportion his Pamphlet to the bigness of Mr. Fox his Book of Martyrs he would find that he provides very ill for himself that is too rigorous and censorious to other Men. But I leave him and come to the fidelity of the Popish Faction whereof I shall desire you to take a taste in one of the questions which you name about the Church even that which is indeed cardo negotii as you say the controversie of the Popes authority For the establishing whereof First the Epistles of the ancient Bishops of Rome for the space of about three hundred years after Christ are counterfeited The Barbarous not Latine but lead of the stile and the likeness of them all one to another the deep silence of Antiquity concerning them the Scriptures alledged after Hierom's translation do convince them of Falshood and by whose practice and procurement we cannot doubt if we ask but as Cassius was wont cui bono For at every bout the Authority of the Pope and priviledges of the Roman See are extolled and magnified Next the Donation of Constantine is a senseless forgery and so blazed by some of the learnedest of the Roman Church Read it advisedly either in Gratian or in the Decrees of Sylvester with the Confession and Legend of Constantines baptism and say out of your own judgment if ever any thing
Lords of their due obedience and antient inheritance When as the Bishop and Clergy of Geneva upon the throwing down Images there by popular tumult departed in an anger seven years ere ever Calvin set Foot within the Gates of that City A thing not only clear in Story by the Writers of that time and since Sleidan Bodine Calvins Epistles and Life but set down by those whom ye cite Mr. Hooker in his Preface speaking of Calvin He fell at length upon Geneva which City the Bishop and Clergy thereof had a little before as some do affirm forsaken being of likelihood frighted with the peoples sudden attempt for the abolishment of Popish Religion And a little after At the coming of Calvin thither the form of their Regiment was popular as it continueth at this day c. Dr. Bancroft The same year that Geneva was assaulted viz. by the Duke of Savoy and the Bishop as he had said before pag. 13 which was Anno 1536. Mr. Calvin came thither If Calvin at his coming found the Form of the Government Popular If he came thither the same Year that the Bishop made war upon Geneva to recover his Authority being indeed either affrighted or having forsaken the Town before how could Calvin expel him And in truth Bodine in his second Book De Repub. Chap. 6. affirmeth That the same Year Genoa was established in a State Aristocratical which was he saith Anno 1528. Geneva was changed from a Monarchy Pontifical into an Estate Popular governed Aristocratically although that long before the Town pretended to be free against the Earl and against the Bishop c. What Saravia hath written touching this point I cannot tell as not having his Book But in Beza his answer to him there is no touch upon any such thing He joyns with his complaint of the sacrilegious usurping Ecclesiastical goods in answer to his Proëme He dissents in that Saravia accounts the Seniors of the reformed Churches like to that kind which Saint Ambrose speaks of brought in out of wisdom only to rule the disorderly Beza saith they were not introducti but reducti Cap. 12. For the rest in all that answer there is nothing of Calvin or any such revolving of the state as you accuse him of Which makes me think that herein your memory deceived you It may be that in your younger time falling upon these Authors by occasion of the question of Discipline which was then much tossed ere ever your judgement were ripened you formed in your mind a false impression of that which they say of Calvin You conceited them out of your zeal in the cause to say more than they do and thus possible unawares received the seeds of dislike of the doctrine of Calvin as well as his discipline which have since taken root in you But you shall do well to remember the difference you put a little before of these two Christian doctrine is uniform and ever the same government is changeable in many circumstances according to the exigence of times and persons And even the same men that write somewhat eagerly against Master Calvin yet give him the praise of wisdom to see what for that time and state was necessary Master Hooker saith of him That he thinks him incomparably the wisest man that ever the French Church did enjoy since the hour it enjoyed him and of his platform of discipline after he hath laid down the summ of it This device I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered if we duely consider what the present state of Geneva did then require But be it and for my part I think no less that herein he was mistaken to account this to be the true form of Church policy by which all other Churches and at all times ought to be governed let his error rest with him yea let him answer it unto his Judge but to accuse him of ambition and sedition and that falsly and from thence to set that brand upon the Reformation whereof he was a worthy instrument though not the first either there or any where else as if it could not be from God being so founded for my part I am afraid you can never be able to answer it at the same Barr no nor even that of your own Conscience or of reasonable and equal men For the stirrs broils seditions and murthers in Scotland which you impute to Knox and the Geneva Gospellers they might be occasioned perhaps by the Reformers there as the broils which our Lord Jesus Christ saith he came to set in the world by the Gospel Possible also that good men out of inconsiderate zeal should do some things rashly And like enough the multitude which followed them as being fore prepared with just hatred of the tyranny of their Prelates and provoked by the opposition of the adverse Faction and emboldened by success ran a great deal further than either wise Men could foresee or tell how to restrain them Which was applauded and fomented by some politick Men who took advantage of those motions to their own ends And as it happens in natural Bodies that all ill humors run to the part affected so in civil all discontented people when there is any Sorance run to one or other side and under the shew of common Griefs pursue their own Of all which distempers there is no reason to lay the blame upon the seekers of Reformation more than upon the Physicians of such accidents as happen to the corrupted Bodies which they have in Cure The particulars of those affairs are as I believe alike unknown to us both and since you name none I can answer to none For as for the pursuing our King even before his birth that which his Majesty speaks of some Puritans is over-boldly by you referred to Master Knox and the Ministers that were Authors of Reformation in Scotland Briefly consider and survey your own thoughts and see if you have not come by these degrees First from the inconsiderate courses of some to plant the pretended Discipline in Scotland to conceive amiss of the Doctrine also Then to draw to the encreasing of your ill conceit thereof what you find reported of any of the Puritans a Faction no less opposed by his Majesty in Scotland than with us in England So when we speak of Religion though that indeed be all one you divide us into Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists Protestants Brownists Puritans and Cartwrightists whensoever any disorder of all this number can be accused then lo are we all one and the fault of any Faction is the slander of all yea of the Gospel it self and of Reformation Judge now uprightly if this be indifferent dealing From Scotland you come to England Where because you could find nothing done by popular tumult nothing but by the whole State in Parliament and Clergy in Convocation you fall upon King Henry's Passions you will not insist upon them you say and yet you do as long as upon any one member
inaudita Here is at length some certainty Some truth mingled among to give the better grace and to be as it were the Vehiculum of a lye For Iohn Scory in King Edward his times Bishop of Chichester and after of Hereford was one of those that ordained Doctor Parker and preached at his Ordination But that was the Ordination effected as you call it We are now in that which was not effected but attempted only And here we seek again who were these quidams that laid Hands on Scory We may go look them with Laudasensis the Archbishop of Ireland Well hear the proofs Master Thomas Neal Hebrew Reader of Oxford which was present told thus much to the antient Confessors they to F. Halywood This proof by Tradition as you know is of little credit with Protestants and no marvel For experience shews that reports suffer strange alterations in the carriage even when the Reporters are interested Irenaeus relates from the antient Confessors which had seen John the Disciple and the other Apostles of the Lord and heard it from them That Christ our Saviour was between forty and fifty years of Age before his Passion I do not think you are sure it was so For my part I had rather believe Irenaeus and those Antients he mentions and the Apostles than Father Halywood and his Confessors and Master Neal. But possible it is Mr. Neale said he was present at Matthew Parkers Ordination by John Scory These Confessors being before impressed as you are with the buz of the Ordination at the Nags-head made up that Tale and put it upon him for their Author Perhaps Mr. Neal did esteem Iohn Scory to be no Bishop and so was scandalized though causelesly at that action Perhaps Mr. Neale never said any such Word at all To help to make good this matter he saith It was after enacted in Parliament That these Parliamentary Bishops should be holden for lawful I looked for something of the Nags-Head Bishops and the Legend of their Ordination But the lawfulness that the Parliament provides for is according to the Authority the Parliament hath civil that is according to the Laws of the Land The Parliament never intended to justifie any thing as lawful jure divino which was not so as by the Preamble it self of the Statute may appear In which it is said That divers questions had grown upon the making and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops within this Realm whether the same were and bâ— duely and orderly done according to the Law or not c. And shortly to cut off Father Halywoods surmises the case was this as may be gathered by the body of the Statute Whereas in the five and twentieth of Henry the Eighth an Act was made for the Electing and Consecrating of Bishops within this Realm And another in the third of Edward the Sixth For the Ordering and consecrating of them and all other Ecclesiastical Ministers according to such form as by six Prelates and six other learned Men in Gods Law to be appointed by the King should be devised and set forth under the great Seal of England Which Form in the fifth of the same Kings reign was annexed to the Book of Common Prayer then explained and perfected and both confirmed by the Authority of Parliament All these Acts were 1 Mariae 1 2 Philippi Mariae repealed together with another Statute of 35. Henry 8. touching the Stile of Supreme Head to be used in all Letters Patents and Commissions c. These Acts of repeal in the 1 Elizabeth were again repealed and the Act of 25. Hen. 8. revived specially That of 3 Edw. 6. only concerning the Book of Common Prayer c. without any particular mention of the Book or form of Ordering Ministers and Bishops Hence grew one doubt whether Ordinations and Consecrations according to that Form were good in Law or no. Another was Queen Elizabeth in her Letters Patents touching such Consecrations Ordinations had not used as may seem besides other general Words importing the highest Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical the title of Supreme Head as King Henry and King Edward in their like Letters Patents were wont to do And that notwithstanding the Act of 35 Hen. 8. after the repeal of the former repeal might seem though never specially revived This as I guess was another exception to those that by vertue of those Patents were consecrated Whereupon the Parliament declares First That the Book of Common Prayer and such Order and Form for consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops c. as was set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth and added thereto and authorised by Parliament shall stand in force and be observed Secondly That all Acts done by any person about any Consecration Confirmation or investing of any elect to the Office or Dignity of Archbishop or Bishop by vertue of the Queens Letters Patents or Commission since the beginning of her Reign be good Thirdly That all that have been Ordered or Consecrated Archbishops Bishops Priests c. after the said Form and Order be rightly made ordered and consecrated any Statute Law Canon or other thing to the contrary notwithstanding Theâ—e were the Reasons of that Act which as you see doth not make good the Nags-head-Ordination as F. Halywood pretends unless the same were according to the Form in Edward the Sixth's days His next proof is That Bonner Bishop of London while he lived always set light by the Statutes of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth alledging that there wanted Bishops without whose consent by the Laws of the Realm there can no firm Statute be made That Bonneâ— despised and set not a Straw by the Acts of Parliament in Queen Elizabeths time I hold it not impossible and yet there is no other proof thereof but his bare Word and the antient Confessors tradition of which we heard before Admitting this for certain there might be other reasons thereof besides the Ordination at the Nags-head The stiffness of that Man was no less in King Edwards time than Queen Elizabeths And indeed the want also of Bishops might be the cause why he little regarded the Acts of her first Parliament For both much about the time of Queen Maryes death dyed also Cardinal Poole and sundry other Bishops And of the rest some for their contemptuous behaviour in denying to perform their duty in the Coronation of the Queen were committed to Prison others absented themselves willingly So as it is commonly reported to this day there was none or very few there For as for Doctor Parker and the rest they were not ordained till December 1559. the Parliament was dissolved in the May before So not to stand now to refute Bonners conceit that according to our Laws there could be no Statutes made in Parliament without Bishops wherein our Parliament Men will rectifie his Judgment F. Halywood was in this report twice deceived or would deceive his Reader First that he would make that exception which
Bishop of Ostuna interpretâ— Sacrificia pro populo tâ—o immaculata perficiat Marvel that he added not tam pro vivis quam pro defâ—nctis Sure if S. Paul Rom. 15.16 had not added the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had sacrificed also This was the antient and Apostolick manner of Ordination if the Author be worthy of credit But that ye may perceive what tampering there hath been to bring Ordinations to the Form which the present Pontifical prescribes consider with me the Words of Amalarius Bishop of Triers in his second Book de Ecclesiast Officiis where in the Office of the Subdeacon he thus writes Miror quâ de re sumptus usus in Ecclesia c. I marvel whence the use was taken in our Church that very often the Subdeacon should read the Lesson at Mass since this is not found committed unto him by the Ministry given him in Consecration nor by the Canonical Writings nor by his name And streight after Nam primaevo tempore For in antient time the Deacon read not the Gospel which was not yet written but after it was enacted by our Fathers That the Deacons should read the Gospel they appointed also that the Subdeacon should read the Epistle or Lesson It appears then that in Amalarius time who lived with Charles the Great and Lewis his Son that ridiculous Form was not in the Pontifical where the Book of the Epistles is given to the Subdeacons and power to read them in the holy Church of God as well for the Quick as the Dead The same Author coming to speak of Deacons telleth of their consecration by Prayer and imposition of Hands and confuteth that in the present Pontifical which he saith he found in a little Book of Holy Orders made he knows not by what Author That the Bishop alone should lay Hands on the Deacon At last he adds There is one Ministry added to the Deacon viz. to read the Gospel which he saith doth well befit him quia Minister est But of the delivery of the Book of the Gospels with authority to read the Gospel for the Quick and Dead not one Word In the next Chapter of Presbyters he expounds their name and saith further hunc morem tenent Episcopi nostri Our Bishops have this Fashion they anoint the Hands of Presbyters with Oyl which Ceremony he declares touching imposition of Hands upon them he remits us to that he said before in the Deacon Then he shews out of Ambrose and Hierom That these are all one Order with Bishops and ought to govern the Church in common like Moses with the seventy Elders As for delivery of Chalice and Wine or Paten and Host with power to sacrifice so well for the Quick as the Dead he makes no mention Judge you whether these were thought to be the matter and essential Form of Priesthood in his time Yet one Author more will I name in this matter not only because he is a famous Schoolman and one of Luthers first Adversaries and therefore ought to be of more account with that side but because he professeth the end of his writing to be circa Sacramentum ordinis cautos reddere ne pertinax quisquam aut levis sit circa modum tradendi aut recipiendi ordines It is Cardinal Cajetane in the second Tome of his Opuscula Tit. De modo tradendi seu recipiendi Ordines Read the whole where these things I observe for our present purpose 1. If all be gathered together which the Pontificals or which Reason or Authority hath delivered the nature of all the rest of the Orders except Priesthood only will appear very uncertain 2. The lesser Orders and Subdeaconship according to the Master of the Sentences were instituted by the Church 3. The Deacons instituted by the Apostles Acts 6. were not Deacons of the Altar but of the Tables and Widows 4. In Deaconship there seems to be no certain Form for according to the old Pontificals the laying of Hands upon the Deacon hath no certain Form of Words but that Prayer Emitte quaesumus in eos S. Sanctum Which according to the new Pontificals is to be said after the imposition of Hands For the giving of the Book of the Gospels hath indeed a form of Words but that impresseth not the Character for before any Gospel was written the Apostles ordained Deacons by imposition of Hands 5. In the Subdeaconship also there is no Pontifical which hath not the matter without Form viz. the delivery of the empty Chalice c. These things with more which he there sets down he would have to serve to the instruction of the learned touching the uncertainty of this whole matter to teach Men to be wise to sobriety that is every Man to be content with the accustomed Pontifical of the Church wherein he is ordained And if ought be omitted of those things which be added out of the new Pontificals as for example that the Book of the Epistles was not given with those Words Take Authority to read the Epistles as well for the Quick as the Dead there is no need of supplying this omission by a new Ordination for such new additions make no new Law Learn then of your own Cajetane that the new additions of delivery of the Chalice with Wine and Paten with Hosts and authority to offer sacrifice for the Quick and the Dead make no new Law Learn to be content with the Pontifical of the Church wherein you were ordained Wherein first is verbatim all that which your Pontificals had well taken out of the holy Words of our Saviour Accipe Spiritum Sanctum quorum remiseris peâ—cata remittuntur eis quorum retinueris retentâ— sunt Which methinks you should rather account to contain the essential Form of Priesthood than the former both because they are Christs own Word and joyned with that Ceremony of laying on Hands which antiently denominated this whole action and do express the worthiest and principallest part of your Commission which the Apostle calls the Ministry of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Then because this Office is not only deputed to consecrate the Lords Body but also to preach and baptize which in your Pontifical is wholly omitted in a larger and more convenient Form is added out of S. Paul 1 Cor. 4.1 and be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word of God and of his holy Sacraments In the name of the Father c. As to that you add That we offer no Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead and therefore well may be called Ministers as all Lay-men are but are no Priests I have met with sundry that pull this Rope as strongly the other way and affirm that because by the very Form of your Ordination you are appointed Sacrificers for the Quick and the Dead well may ye be Mass-Priests as ye are called but Ministers of the New Testament after S. Paul 's Phrase ye are none For that Office stands principally in preaching the Word whereof in
your Ordination there is no Word said And as little there is in Scripture of your Sacrifice which makes Christ not to be a Priest after the order of Melchisedeck c. with much more to this purpose Where my Defence for your Ministry hath been this That the Form Receive the Holy Ghost whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. doth sufficiently comprehend the Authority of preaching the Gospel Use you the same equity towards us and tell those hot Spirits among you that stand so much upon formalities of Words That to be a Dispenser of the Word of God and his holy Sacraments is all the duty of Priesthood And to you I add further that if you consider well the Words of the Master of the Sentences which I vouched before how that which is consecrated of the Priest is called a Sacrifice and Oblation because it is a Memorial and Representation of the true Sacrifice and holy Offering made on the Altar of the Cross and joyn thereto that of the Apostle that by that one Offering Christ hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified and as he saith in another place through that Blood of his Cross reconciled unto God all things whether in Earth or in Heaven you shall perceive that we do offer Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead remembring representing and mystically offering that sole Sacrifice for the Quick and Dead by the which all their sins are meritoriously expiated and desiring that by the same we and all the Church may obtain remission of sins and all other Benefits of Christs Passion To the Epilogue therefore of this your last Motive I say in short Sith we have no need of Subdeaconship more than the Churches in the Apostles times and in truth those whom we call Clerks and Sextons perform what is necessary in this behalf Sith we have Canonical Bishops and lawful Succession Sith we neither want due intention to depute Men to Ecclesiastical Functions nor matter or Form in giving Priesthood deriving from no Man or Woman the Authority of Ordination but from Christ the Head of the Church you have alledged no sufficient Cause why we should not have true Pastors and consequently a true Church in England CHAP. XII Of the Conclusion Mr. Waddesworth's Agonies and Protestation c. YEt by these you say and many other Arguments you were resolved in your understanding to the contrary It may well be that your Understanding out of its own heedless hast as that of our first Parents while it was at the perfectest was induced into error by resolving too soon out of seeming Arguments and granting too forward assent For surely these which you have mentioned could not convince it if it would have taken the pains to examine them throughly or had the patience to give unpartial hearing to the Motives on the other side But as if you triumphed in your own conquest and captivity you add that which passeth yet all that hitherto you have set down viz. That the Church of Rome was and is the only true Church because it alone is Antient Catholick and Apostolick having Succession Vnity and Visibility in all Ages and Places Is it only antient To omit Ierusalem are not that of Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians and Alexandria Ephesus Corinth and the rest mentioned in the Scriptures antient also and of Antioch antienter than Rome Is it Catholick and Apostolick only Do not these and many more hold the Catholick Faith received from the Apostles as well as the Church of Rome For that it should be the Vniversal Church is all one as ye would say the part is the whole one City the World Hath it only succession where to set aside the enquiry of Doctrine so many Simoniacks and Intruders have ruled as about fifty of your Popes together were by your own Mens Confession Apostatical rather than Apostolical Or Unity where there have been thirty Schisms and one of them which endured fifty years long and at last grew into three Heads as if they would share among them the triple Crown And as for dissentions in Doctrine I remit you to Master Doctor Halls peace of Rome wherein he scores above three hundred mentioned in Bellarmine alone above three-score in one only head of Penance out of Navarrus As to that addition in all Ages and places I know not what to make of it nor where to refer it Consider I beseech you with your wonted moderation what you say for sure unless you were beguiled I had almost said bewitched you could never have resolved to believe and profess that which all the World knows to be as false I had well nigh said as God is true touching the extent of the Romish Church to all Ages and places Concerning the agonies you passed I will say only thus much if being resolved though erroneously that was truth you were withholden from professing it with worldly respects you did well to break through them all But if besides these there were doubt of the contrary as methinks needs must be unless you could satisfie your self touching those many and known Exceptions against the Court of Rome which you could not be ignorant of take heed lest the rest insuing these agonies were not like Sampsons sleeping on Dalilahs knees while the Locks of his Strength were shaven whereupon the Lord departing from him he was taken by the Philistins had his Eyes put out and was made to grind in the Prison But I do not despair but your former resolutions shall grow again And as I do believe your religious asseveration that for very fear of damnation you forsook us which makes me to have the better hope and opinion of you for that I see you do so seriously mind that which is the end of our whole life so I desire from my Heart the good hope of salvation you have in your present way may be as happy as your fear I am perswaded was causeless For my part I call God to record against mine own Soul that both before my going into Italy and since I have still endeavoured to find and follow the truth in the Points controverted between us without any earthly respect in the World Neither wanted I fair opportunity had I seen it on that side easily and with hope of good entertainment to have adjoyned my self to the Church of Rome after your example But to use your words as I shall answer at the dreadful day of judgement I never saw heard or read any thing which did convince me nay which did not finally confirm me daily more and more in the perswasion that in these differences it rests on our part Wherein I have not followlowed humane conjectures from foreign and outward things as by your leave methinks you do in these your motives whereby I protest to you in the sight of God I am also much comforted and assured in the possession of the truth but the undoubted Voice of God in his Word which is more