Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	doctrine_n	tradition_n	2,974	5	9.2119	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30405	Reflections on Mr. Varillas's history of the revolutions that have happned in Europe in matters of religion and more particularly on his ninth book that relates to England / by G. Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1686 (1686)	Wing B5852; ESTC R13985	50,351	202

And Lee of York was so far from consenting to it that he strugled long against it after Warham and his Synode had past it And whereas he pretends that the King drew his pretence to be Head of the Church of England from a general acknowledgment that they had made of the King's Authority over Churchmen this is so far from true that the whole Clergy even his admired Fisher not excepted did in the Title of the Submission to which they all set their hands call the King in so many formal Words supream Head of the Church and Clergy of England in so far as was agreable to the Law of Christ and this was done during More 's Ministry who continued Chancellour 15 Months after this 43. He says that upon More 's laying down his Office the King gave the Seals to another Churchman that was no less devoted to him than Granmer whose name was Andley on whom he bestows a character thô he knows nothing concerning him Andley was no Churchman but a common Lawyer as More was that had been Chancellour before him and the Gentlemen of that Robe being raised upon Merit and not by their Birth his low Extraction was no extraordinary matter 44. He says the King finding that the Pope was ofraid that he should contract a secret Mariage with Anne Boleyn resolved to do it on design to do the Pope a Spite so the Day being set one Polland a Priest being appointed to do the Office demanded the Pope's Bull for the Mariage which he was made believe that the King had procured but the King swore to him that he had it in his Closet and that nothing made him not go immediatly to fetch it but his unwillingness to retard that Action This is so ill told that Mr. Varillas ought to have imploied a little of his Religious Zeal to make it more plausible for it was then so well understood that the Pope was entirely united to the Emperour that Polland Lee could not imagine there was any Bull granted and he was all his Life of too complying a Temper to need such Artifices to oblige him to do any thing that might serve to advance him Mr. Varillas represents the King here too much like a private Gentleman that keeps his Papers in his own Closet of several Popes the Canons of many Synodes and Councils ●nd by the concurring Testimonies of almost all the Greek and Latin Fathers both Ancient and Modern and by the agreeing Doctrines both of Schoolmen Canonists and Casuists and if Tradition was the true Expounder of Scripture and the sure Conveyance of Doctrine the Mariage was certainly incestuous so that according to the fundamental Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Mariage was unlawful and by the same Authorities it was also proved that the Pope's Dispensation could not make void the Law of God and that the Clergy of England were the proper Judges of what fell out in England This being the State of that Matter and almost all the Universities of Europe that of Bologna it self not excepted thô it was the Pope's own Town having declared in the King's Favours it was no wonder if Cranmer upon such Grounds proceeded to give Sentence 47. He dresses up a Speech for Card. Bellay all out of his own Fancy but one thing is remarkable he makes the Cardinal represent to the King that if he went to separate himself from the Communion of the Church of Rome either he would succeed in it or not if he succeeded in it besides that he put himself in a state of Damnation there would be no place found that would be safe for his sacred Person against the attempts of zealous Catholicks who would endeavour to kill him that they might preserve their ancient Religion and if he succeeded not he might be assured that he would lose both his Crown and his Life in a general Revolt Mr. Varillas is now in a Fit of Religion of another sort for as there are hot and cold Fits of Agues so if some of his Fits make him forget the obligations of speaking truth this makes him speak out a Truth indeed but of that nature that if he had been long practised in the Secrets of the Court of Rome or of the Jesuite Order he would have known that thô during the Minority of a King a Cardinal Perron might speak it boldly or during the confusions of a Civil War the whole Sorbonne might declare in Favours of it yet under such a Reign and in the present Conjuncture it was to be denied boldly And one would not have thought that at this time a Clement or a Ravilliae would have had no worse character but that of zealous Catholicks So we have now an entire notion of a zealous Catholick from Mr. Varillas he does not trouble himself to examine what he says whither it is true or false nor will he stick at any Crime if it may tend to preserve his Religion And if a Prince goes about to change his Religion and to depart from the Communion of the See of Rome he must at first look for a general Revolt which must end in his Deprivation and Death and if that fails there is a reserve of zealous Catholicks who will pursue him into every corner and never give over till they have sacrificed him to the interest of their Religion This is the severest thing that the greatest Ennemy to their Church could possibly object to it and yet Mr. Varillas has so little judgment as to put it in the Mouth of a Cardinal But it is but lately that he has got his Pension and he has not past a long Noviciat or perhaps he is now too old to learn the refayings that his Pattern Mr. Maimbourg would have taught him who in such a Reign as this is in France must dress up their Religion as a Doctrine all made up of Obedience and Submission But perhaps some had told Mr. Varillas that the late Articles of the Clergy lookt like the beginning of a Separation from the Court of Rome so that he thought it was fit to let the King know his Danger if he went a step further either in that Matter or in a Reformation of Religion of which there has been so much noise made lately in France thô it is visible that this has been set on foot meerly to deceive those that had a mind to cosen themselves by the hopes of some Amendments to make Shipwrack of their Faith and of a good Conscience 48. He makes the Hopes that the Cardinal Bellay had of succeeding in his Negotiation to be chiefly founded on the King's being weary of Anne Boleyn and his becoming in love with Iane Seimour and that therefore he concluded that time and a little Patience might infallibly dispose him to return back again to Queen Katherine He makes here strange Discoveries in the matters of Love since he fancies that the King 's falling in love with a new Mistress might

not made Secretary of State till near the end of this Negotiation nor was he ever sent to Rome with Brian nor was Brian a Lord but only a Knight and it was a year after this Sute was first begun before Brian was imploied in it so that he could carry no such deluding Message to the Pope concerning the Queen's desiring the Divorce And for this pretension of the Queen's desiring to retire to a Monastery it was never made use of by the English Ambassadours It was on the contrary a notion of the Pope's who thought that if that could be put in her Head it would be the easiest Method of getting out of this uneasy matter and therefore he ordered his Legate Card. Campegio to advise the Queen to it And for the scandals of Brian's Life they must have been very great if they gave offence at Rome at that time but as I can not answer much for Brian so I will not trouble my self to vindicate him but he could not behave him more indecently at Rome than Campegio did in England when he came over Legate who scandalised even the Court with his lewd behaviour 31. He says the Pope was sensible of his obligations to the King and resolved to do all he could to gratify him and so ordered Cajetan to examine the matter who did it in his manner after the Method of the Schools And here he gives us an abstract of his Book He laid this down for a Maxime that the High-Priest under the N. Testament had no less Authority than the High-Priest had under the Law of Moses who had power to allow of such Mariages to good ends and in good Circumstances and that the end of this Mariage was noble that the Crowns of England and Spain being united might send their Fleets to block up Constantinople And that by this Mariage as Italy was to be set at Peace so K. Henry was diverted from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy and that therefore the Pope could not grant a Dispensation for annulling it And with his usual Confidence he cites on the Margent Cajetan's Consultation And this he says confirmed the Pope in his Resolution not to grant the Dispensation for breaking the Mariage upon any Terms whatsoever I have given such Authentick Demonstrations of the Falsehood of this Particular that I am sure the strongest Fit of Mr. Varillas's Religion can not resist them For the Pope upon the first Proposition franckly granted the Dispensation and only consulted with some Cardinals about the Methods of doing it and afterwards he sent one over to England and promised that he would do not only all that he could grant either in Law or Justice but every thing else that he could grant out of that plenitude of Power with which he was vested in the King's favour The Pope also proposed a Method that perhaps would have brought the matter to an easier issue which was that if the King was satisfied in his own Conscience concerning the Divorce in which he did not think that there was a Doctor in the whole World that could judg so well as himself then he might put away his Queen and marry another and then the Pope would confirm all For the crafty Pope thought it would be easier for him to confirm it when it was once done than to give Authority to do it and in short the Pope made the King still believe that he would do it till by that means he brought the Emperour to grant him all he desired And as for Cajetan's opinion I am now in a Countrey where I cannot find his Works so I cannot be so positive in this matter but as far as my Memory serves me Cajetan writ nothing with relation to this matter but only in the body of his School-Divinity that he had published long before this Sute began he had set on foot a new Opinion touching the Prohibitions of marrying in near Degrees which the Church by a constant Tradition had in all Times lookt on as Moral Laws whereas he asserted they were only Positive Precepts that did not bind under the Christian Religion and by consequence that there was no Law now against Mariages in those Degrees but the Law of the Church with which the Pope might dispense In all the Books that I have seen that were writ for the Queen's Cause Cajetan's Authority is brought as a thing already abroad in the World and not as a Consultation writ upon this Occasion and by what I remember of that Cardinal's Life it is said that in his reasonings with Luther he had found himself so defective in the knowledg of the Scripture that whereas formerly he had given himself wholly to the Study of School-Divinity he after that gave himself entirely to the Study of the Scripture in which making allowances for his Ignorance of the Original Tongues he succeeded to admiration But thô I cannot procure a Sight of his Treatise concerning the Degrees of Mariage the Idea that I retain of his solide way of writing makes me conclude that he was not capable of writing in so trifling a manner as Mr. Varillas represents the Matter For what Man of sense could say that the Highpriest under the Jewish Religion could dispense with a Brother's marrying his Brother's Widdow in some cases in case that a Brother died without Children his Brother or the next of Kin might have married the Widdow by the Dispensation that the Law gave and not by a Dispensation of the Highpriest And for the Ends that he pretends of those two Princes going to block up Constantinople with their Fleets a Man must be ignorant in History to the Degree of Mr. Varillas to imagine this since as the Kings of those Times had no Royal Fleets but were forced to hire Merchant Vessels when they had occasion for them so the blocking up of Constantinople was too bold a project for those Days and does not seem to have been so much as once thought on And for the other Ends that he mentions thô the procuring such a Peace to Italy as was for the Interest of the Popes was a thing for which they would have sacrificed any thing yet this differs much from P. Iulius the second 's Character who granted the Dispensation since his whole Reign was a continued Imbroilment of Italy Nor does it appear that K. Henry's Mariage could have any influence on the Peace of Italy unless it were very remote And as for the other Reason alledged for the Mariage that it diverted K. Henry from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy this is too great a violation of the Costume for it seems Mr. Varillas had the present State of Europe in his Head when he writ it but Cajetan could not write this for in the year 1503 there were no Families in Europe suspect of Heresy so that all this reasoning that is here entitled to Cajetan is a mass of Mr. Varillas's crude Imaginations which doe equally discover both his Ignorance