accompt either to a Priest or to the people but to God For he holds his Crowne by the right of blood and inheritance not by the virtue of invnction or consecration or of election and acceptation as you were wont to say that you may giue some authoritie of deposing and depriuing to a Priest whom you make to be the first mouer and some to the people whom you make the remouer So you make Kings hypotheticall and the people conditionall but Priest absolute and categoricall being herein very simple because that power which you say they haue receiued of God to depose Kings that was neuer brought into practise vnder the whole old Testament Your argument therefore from the stronger falls to ground and comes to nothing that if the priestly excommunication vnder the old Testament was of such force of how greater and larger force is it vnder the new But we haue euicted it that there was none at all vnder the old Popish blasphemie At last you returne backe againe and repeat that former blasphemous argument of yours that God was not prouident enough but left the Church in a miserable case like a widdow cleane forsaken if hee had not giuen the chiefe Priest to hir either as a Tutor forsooth or a Husband That is like as if the father husband of the Church were not aliue or tooke care of another daughter and wife or else would appoint in his place such a one to be a Tutor for his daughter whom he foretold to bee an aduersarie or prouide such an husband for his daughter who would proue an adulterer Lastly as if Peter and Paul had dissembled and had commanded obedience to bee shewed to Nero so long till Christians could make head and other Christian Bishops had so many ages consented to the like dissimulation you doe not blush to affirme that Bishops could of right excommunicate their Princes and depose them being excommunicate if the Church had then power to resist True sayd Saturnine for Christ his Preistly prerogatiue § 51 wherewith he was able to breake in peeces such kings as earthen vessels beeing granted by large and precise charter to the Bishop of Rome the chiefe Preist which reason brought by vs you past by as a man vnknowen gaue power to the first Bishops and right to the thing it selfe as the Lawyers speake to depose Kings excommunicate being infidels apostataes heretickes and tyrants but the Church did neuer practise that authority till she gathered strength in processe of time For that commandement of Christ alleadged by you Giue to Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods doth he not submit Caesar to be kept vnder by the Vicar of God when hee denieth to God those those things which belong to God And whereas Christ did thâ—â—ce speake to Peter Feede my Lambes feede my sheepe feede my sheepe did he not commit all Christians little and great lambes and sheepe subiects and princes to be fed and ruled without exception to Peter and Peters successour And when as he had committed the keyes of heauen to Peter and Peters successour to let in and shut out doth he not shew that diuine and admirable power of excommunication which you forfooth would haue so weake and feeble for whereas you sayd that Prelates and Bishops ought to be subiect and obedient to Kings Heb. 13.17 I did much maruell that you were so forgetfull of another commandement no lesse Apostolicall whereby hee bound Kings as well as subiects to obey their Prelates and their Pastors and to submit themselues as to them by whom accompt is to be giuen to God for their soules wherein what Christian Prince can exempt himselfe if hee doe thinke that he haue a soule § 52 Then Patriotta I past by that your reason Saturuine of the prerogatiue of Christ communicated with the Bishop Christ ouer-ruling Kings not as a preist but as a king not as vnknowen but as very idle For that prerogatiue whereby Christ doth bruise and breake in peeces kings and kingdomes the Prophet shewes not to bee his Preistly but his Princely power I haue set my king saith God not therefore as a Preist but as a King he hath broken and beat in peeces wicked Kings with his iron Scepter As a Priest he beares the Crosse as a King he bears the Scepter as a Preist he offred vp himselfe vpon the crosse and suffered his blood to bee shed for the remission of sinnes as a King hee vanquished his enemies shed their blood weakned and ouercame their power with the sight of this so great glorie that resides in him so you went about to blind our eies while you did closely subiect the scepter of a King to be trampled on by the Popes feet § 53 For you say that this prerogatiue of Christ is communicated with the Pope What else And that with large and precise charter where be those words point at the place shew the charter where Christ imparted this his prerogatiue with the Bishop of Rome Heb. 7. v. 23.24.25.26 For there bee many others appointed Preists saith S. Paul who by reason of death cannot continue but this because hee abides for euer hath an immutable Preisthood whence he can perfectly saue those who come vnto God by him alwaies liuing to make intercession for vs. For such a Preist was fit for vs holy innocent immaculate separated from sinners made higher then the heauens who hath no neede euery day as the Preists of Leui to offer sacrifices first for their owne sinnes then for the sinnes of the people for that he did once when he offered vp himselfe the onely sacrifice for sinne that hee might obtaine for vs eternall redemption The Bishop of Rome let him packe and bee gone and let him bragge of Christs Preistly prerogatiues granted to him by a large charter that all men may spit in the blasphemous face of this impure wretch But if hee haue not all yet hee hath imparted with § 54 him some of his prerogatiues at the least Which I pray you the keyes of the kingdome of heauen to open shut heauen the power of binding and loosing the power of feeding and ruling by all which you doe more then insinuate that the Bishop can rightly by the power of excommunication wrest from Caesar his scepter his crowne sword subiects kingdome and life For these belong to Caesar Therfore when Christ spake to Peter feed my sheep he meant this depose Princes I will giue you the keies of the Kingdome of heauen that is I will giue you the thrones of earthly kings that you may let into the kingdome whom you will and whom you will exclude that you may loose subiects whom you please and whom you please binde that you may punish whom you will and may forgiue whom you will We must I thinke learne not onely a new Diuinity but a new Grammer and a Logicke also To feede Christs sheepe The popish
the order to the spiritualties as very learned and holy Catholicke fathers haue deliuered I am not ignorant what was attempted lately by George Blackwell the Archpriest with certaine answeres of his to weaken and cut in sunder all the sinewes of ecclesiasticall excommunication Neither that onely Blackwell accompted an Apostata but hath broken and cut off as it were the ioyntes of the Popes two armes not that of his supreame authoritie spirituall and ecclesiasticall but of his ciuill and imperiall power which the Romane Byshop hath receiued from Christ and hath exercised vpon the earth vnder Christ But the timerous old man and wretched Apostata did not so much hurt by his fact as by his example which gaue occasion of a very foule schisme to you the Catholicke laickes whose constancie the Christian world did much commend Heere Calander you are too testie said he Saturnine § 75 who strait-way call me a Renegate when I neuer fell from the Catholicke faith onely because I refused and reiected certaine false Catholicke errors brought in by a companie of factious fellowes certaine claubackes of the Pope But because your heate hath carried you so farre to accuse the reuerend old man George Blackwell as a wretched Apostata and a Captaine of schisme I will intreat Velbacellus that hee answere somewhat not for mee only but much more for our Archpriest his antient friend Then Velbacellus Truly said hee when I am vnwilling § 76 at any time to dissent from my brethren then neuer more vnwilling then at this time when ill happe hath made our aduersaries beholders of our disorders But because I thinke it not fit Calander to neglect your authoritie and withall haue purposed to satisfie both your conscience and mine in this worthy businesse of religion I will doe as you aduise me Two popish meanes to ouerthrow Princes These are as you say Saturnine the two ingines the Romane Byshoppes haue vsed to ouerthrow Princes the one ecclesiasticall excommunication the other ciuill and imperiall authoritie What was the force and nature of excommunication they were not Ignorant they knew it was giuen to binde sinnes not scepters as Patriotta did truely dispute out of our own men Which first when Gregorie the 7. was Pope as he did rightly obserue out of Frisingensis Sigebert and Vincentius all ours brought foorth those monstrous effectes the deposing of Kings the absoluing of subiectes and the styrring of them vp to take armes against their Prince with which this present Oath of allegeance doth meete Whose successours fearing that ecclesiasticall excommunication in processe of time would loose not that natiue and inherent power but that vnnaturall and borrowed in the opinion of men they assumed that ciuill as you call it and imperiall power giuen by the Canonists for the increase of their owne authoritie as if it had beene bestowed by Christ himselfe § 77 For the old Canonists did first make them Lords of all the temporalties and sayd that the supreame iurisdiction not in spirituall things onely but in temporall things also did belong to Peters successours whose worme eaten assertions and such as long agoe were hist out by the more sober Papists certaine men not vnlearned haue lately renued and haue set them out publikely in printed bookes for found and Catholike doctrine and haue very stoutly defended them Whereof some a Franci Bozius de temp eccles monarch lib. 1. cap. 3. fol. 98. as you say defend the Bishop of Rome to bee directly Lord of things temporall one and the same to bee the Ruler and Monarch of the world That b Baron annal tom 1. ann 57. pag. 423. 433. Christ as hee receiued all Iudiciall power from the Father and vnited it with his Preist-hood when he meant to settle a Kingly Preist-hood in the Church put it ouer to Peter and his successours and that as Christ was King of Kings and Lord of Lords so the Church ought to be Queene and Lady of all and if the husband must be Lord of all the temporalties the spouse must be Ladie of all likewise that all temporall Princely power did first reside in the soule of Christ then in the Church the Queene of the world and from thence it did flow to others that were faithfull or vnfaithfull as from a fountaine c Thom. Bozi de iure statu praefat ad Aldobran That this spouse of Christ Queene of the world as often as the order of the vniuersall doth require it can transferre the proper right of one to another as a secular Prince for the adorning of a city may plucke downe priuate mens houses and may doe it by Law although hee haue not erred by whom such rights were translated to others So the Pope gaue the Indies to the Spaniards d Isodor Mosco de maiest mili Eccles pag. 670 All dominion do hold of the Church and of the Pope the head of the Church And that authority is to be considered in the Pope power in Emperours and Kings for power doth depend of authority that true e Care de potest Rom. Pont. pag. 9. Difference betweene power and authority Idem pag. 111. iust and ordinate from God and meere dominion as well in spirituall things as in temporall is fetcht by Christ and the same is committed to S. Peter and his successours that Christ was Lord of all these inferiour things not onely as hee was God but also as he was man hauing at that time dominion in the earth and therefore as the dominion of the world both diuine and humane was then in Christ as man so now it is in the Pope the Vicar of Christ As God may be called by a secondary meanes the temporall Gouernour and Monarch of the world though in himselfe principally hee bee neither temporall nor of the world Idem pag. 112. so the Pope may bee sayd to bee the temporall Lord and Monarch although his power be a certaine spirituall thing That Christ when hee had performed the mysterie of our redemption as a King gaue Peter the gouernment of his kingdome and that holy Peter did vse that power against Ananias and Sapphira That Christ as he is directly the Lord of the world in temporall things and therefore that the Pope Christs Vicar is the like that hee set out an immutable truth by the sole comming of Peter to Christ vpon the water Pag. 151. and that the vniuersall gouernment which is signified by the sea was committed to Peter and his successors that diuers powers and authorities were giuen of God but that all did depend vpon the supreme authority of the Pope and that they take their light from thence as the starres doe from the Sunne § 78 And as God is the supreme Monarch of the world productiuely and gubernatiuely Pag. 145. although of himselfe he be neither of the world nor temporall so the Pope although originally and from himselfe hee haue dominion ouer all things temporall yet he hath
to the spirituals Carerius a Doctour of Padua Carerius against Bellarmine a sharpe witted and earnest fellow hee is of a contrarie opinion and doth not only striue with argument but laies a curse vpon the aduersaries sparing none no not Bellarmine himselfe whom he taking in hand of purpose to refell in a whole booke written as the Preface importes against the wicked Polititians and Heretickes of our time did a little too plainely touch the Cardinall So farre are they from agreeing in the manner of diriuing so great authoritie to the Pope from Christ Here Patriotta your Doctours saith hee § 83 seeme praeposterously to wrangle among themselues of the manner to deriue such authoritie from Christ when as yet it appeareth not that he hath any at all and in vaine do they argue whether the Pope receiued directly or indirectly such gouernment when it is doubtfull whether he receiued any or no. But I easily grant them by their dissenting about the manner to ouerthrow the thing it selfe that the confusion of tongues may againe seeme to happen in building their tower of Babel § 84 Then Velbacellus somewhat more gently I pray Patriotta Although that I ingenuously confesse while they thus egerly striue among themselues about the manner and ouerthrow their owne opinions with mutuall contradictions they seeme to leaue the Pope very small or no authoritie at all in temporalties For Carerius saith the Pope hath either ordinarie and direct authoritie to depose Kings as he is Pope or he hath no authority at all But he hath none direct and ordinarie as he is Pope by Bellarmines assumption Therefore hee hath none at all by Carerius conclusion It were long to set downe all the reasons drawne from Scripture whereby Bellarmine hath vtterly ouerthrowne the direct and ordinarie authoritie of the Byshoppe neither were it necessarie because they may bee had in his fift booke he set out so that men may thinke hee spake one thing and thought another Which when he might not touch openly for offending the Pope he did with sleights and deuises impugne that he might by any meanes deliuer the truth For he seemeth indirectly that I may vse his owne aduerbe to take away all power of the Pope of depriuing Princes For if the Pope as hee is Pope cannot directly and ordinarily depose Princes though the cause bee iust as Bellarmine saith and yet as hee is the chiefe spirituall Prince may dispose of kingdomes taking them from one and giuing them to another if it be necessarie for the sauing of soules that is indirectly in order to spiritualls as hee affirmeth what other thing did he closly insinuate but that the Pope had no power at all to displace Princes For Saint Peter neither did or could transfer any power but ordinarie Besides it is plaine that the Pope is no otherwise the chiefe spirituall Prince but as he is Pope so that what he cannot do as Pope he cannot do as he is the chiefe spirituall Prince Which Carerius concludeth against Bellarmine and doth vrge it with this grant that the Pope is properly called Gods Vicar Either he is not saith he the Vicar of Christ or else he deposeth inferiour powers as Pope But he deposeth them not as Pope by the witnesse of Bellarmine He is not therefore the Vicar of Christ by the conclusion of Carerius So Bellarmine gaue Christs Vicar so greiuous a wound if we beleeue Carerius that he could neuer cure with all the remedies of his distinctions And Carerius while he deckes him with strange fethers spoiled him of those were his owne Whom while hee ordeined Lord of the temporalties hardly left him Lord of the spiritualties In the mean time when neither the direct nor indirect power bee a matter of faith formally determined by the publicke sentence of the Church as Alanus and Couarruvias confesse there was no reason why Saturnine should call my friend Blackwell wretched Apostata who neuer swarued from the Catholick faith vnlesse by inueighing so bitterly against Blackewell he vaunt himselfe to be of the contrarie faction Then Patriotta I willingly behold Bellarmine and § 85 Carerius as Cadmeyes brethren or the Madianites cutting one anothers throate But I could more willingly behold the Pope as a iacke-daw dispoiled of his Egles and Doues feathers which he hath stolne which is of all his regall and Byshoply ornaments wherewith hee hath so long ietted so proudly and terribly vp down but I leaue this cause to God to be mended by him at his due time But truely Baronius and Carerius with all their faction doe flatter the Pope more grosly but Bellarmine with his cunning opposition flatters him more smoothly being the more dangerous enemie to Kings because the more cloase But that I often obserued the witty old fellow crossing of himselfe with his owne trickes and coyning those distinctions whereby hee vnweaued those things which he had weaued before O Penelopean skill of disputing But while he doth touch kings crownes indirectly and tels vs that it is all in the Pope so that he thinkes it meete to belong to a spirituall end he bewraieth lesse malice but greater craft Here Argentine who had kept silence from the beginning looking earnestly first on Saturnine then on Velbacellus Saturnine saith he seemes to me to bee more strickt in this matter then is requisite and Velbacel more loose and remisse because he gaue too much authority this none at all to our most holy father to suppresse Kings when neede requires This great Doctour of the Church therefore Bellarmine tooke a middle course who first ouerthrew that infinite power of ordinarie and inherent gouernment then retained that extraordinarie and borrowed authority in the Pope least Kings like vntamed coultes as it were not hauing bitte and bridle should waxe too lustie whom the most holy Pope might bring againe into the circle of religion and iustice if once they began to start out first with his counsell and after if that were relected with some other moderate chastisement Which would be the most safe course for Kings and very auaileable for subiectes § 87 Then Carolus Regius this moderate chastisement of Kings Argentine as you call it is their vtter ruine and rooting out if you vnderstand Bellarmine aright For there lurkes vnder those Aduerbes certaine deceites which subiectes haue found to be as damnable to them as Kings haue For he bringeth in your Pope whom one doth well tearme Satans Asse with this his extraordinarie and borrowed power which he bestowed vpon him curbing of Kings with a bridle when the raynes lay on his owne necke turning and ouerturning kingdomes at his pleasure taking them from one and giuing them to another Meanes of the Popes greatnesse when he thinketh good that it is for the order tending to spirituall good And by what counsells he alwaies vsed to take from Kings both their kingdomes and their liues all histories do shew them to haue beene by the emulation of
other popish writers subscribe That with a few others did Bellarmine attempt against the Scripture which the boldnes of many popish writers more learned were afraid to attempt And will you hearken to this fellow Calander in a chiefe article of faith as he calls it so far dissenting from his owne side or dare you securely admit of those whom you see as the Madianites mutually wounding them-selues in a cause of such importance Saturnine who seemeth to bee no other thing but very Bellarmine himselfe proceedeth from Christ to Peter from Peter to the Pope from the Pope he falleth to the Popes chaire and hee proueth that the Church is to be founded vpon that rocke out of testimonies borrowed and framed out of Ierome Austin and Cyprian Cic de erat Cicero makes mention of a certaine mad fellow who finding a small boate on the sea-shore purposed to build a great ship of it Papists like mad-men These mens madnes is like who finding Peters chaire in the Fathers do dreame that the Church must be built vpon the chaire Ierome to Damasus I am vnited in communion saith he to your blessednes that is to Peters chaire I know that vpon that rock the Church is builded that is vpoÌ„ the chaire as you relate it Jerome misalleaged But Ierom thus I following after none chiefest but Christ 〈◊〉 vnited to your Blessednes c. You passe by Christ in this sentence as if he were a man vnknowne and you curtall Ieromes words wherein hee confesseth that he doth follow none chiefly but Christ You make mention of Peters chaire Vpon that rocks saith Ierome I knowe that the Church is â—aide Why should you not rather referre That rocke to Christ that goeth before then to Peter that followeth after in the sentence chiefly when Ierome doth adde the word I know that the Church is builded vpon that rocke Now that Christ is that rocke wheron the Church is builded â—one at all doubteth but that Peter is that rocke many deny And yet you are so mad that you will build the ship of the Church vpon the chaire as it were vpon a small boate You haue well Saturnine by rasing out the name of Christ shauen away the sentence as a beard with Ieromes sharpe rasor I shall maruaile much if Austin when he cannot endure that Peter should bee the foundation of the Church would suffer the Pope to be and if when he did remoue the person of Peter from this honor hee would admit Peters chaire But when he makes mention of Peters seat that said he is the rocke Is it so indeed let vs adde the wordes following recken vp said he all the Priests from the very seat of Peter and in that order of Fathers marke who succeeded one another that is the rocke against which the proud gates of hell shall not preuaile Then Saturnine while you are handling another § 161 matter Patriot you doe confirme by Austens authority another article of the Catholicke faith of the Pope Peters successour But said he againe to the confirmation of an article of the Catholicke faith Austens authoritie without the testimonie of the Scripture cannot be sufficient in the iudgement of Austen himselfe who speaketh of the matter as he had heard that the Byshop of Romes seat was the seat of Peter and that in that seat some succeeded others but hee makes it no article of the faith Wherefore when he speaketh that is the rocke it cannot be referred either to the seat or to the succession of Byshoppes in the seat For therein hee should contradict himselfe who makes Christ the rocke of the Church Apostles rockes in respect of doctrine vnlesse rather he referre it to Peter so vnderstood as I said with the rest of the Apostles who in respect of doctrine may in some sort be called rockes But it is not said you will say he is the rocke but shee is the rocke therfore the reference is not to the person in this place but to the seat i. to the chaire As though by the deceit and carelessenesse of writers greater faultes then these had not crept into Austens workes then she for he Although what hinders why shee is the rocke may not aswell bee referred to the person of Peter as those wordes in the Gospell vpon this rocke c. are referred to the person of Peter by the Rhemistes But let that be granted you for a time which you shall neuer euict that Peters chaire is ment in that place Austen saith not that is the rocke whereon the Church is builded but that is the rocke which the gate of hell shall not vanquish So he doth not promise that Rome shall alwaies withstand but doth testifie that Rome did then resist the gates of hell while it kept that faith vncorrupt that Peter left vnto them For if hee should now liue and make diligent search hee should not finde Rome in the middest of Rome This Rome not old Rome Our Romaines at this day are no Romaines they are but the carcasses of those Romaines who receiued their first faith from Paul and Peter which these men haue breathed out as their soules § 162 And now let Cyprian make answer for himselfe who affirmeth that the like power was giuen to all the Apostles by Christ Lib. de vnitat Eccles and that the rest of the Apostles were the same that Peter was being endowed with the same fellowshippe of honour and power Let him make answere for himselfe how he could lift vp Peters chaire aboue the chaires of the rest and would not haue it forsaken for iust cause which he did oppose in an vniust But Cyprian as both Ierome and Austen and other fathers haue iust cause to complaine Contra Stepha Corruption of Fathers after their death that so many bastardly bookes are brought in the place of those that were right and true And false sentences deceitfully foysted in and true violently cast out that now being dead they are constrained to speake and holde their peace according to other mens pleasures not their owne Now Ierome at your command conceales that which he vttered before Cypr. de vnit Eccles Now Cyprian speaketh that which he neuer meant He that forsaketh Peters chaire whereon the Church is built doth he trust that he is in the Church Cyprian writ thus a little before Christ doth build his Church vpon Peter alone How Peter the first stone in order not in power meaning that Peter was the first stone that was placed vpon Christ the foundation vpon whom the rest in their order were to bee builded First therefore in order not in power therefore he said that equall authoritie was giuen by Christ to all the Apostles but that it tooke the beginning from vnitie that the Church may be shewed to be one The foundation therefore of the building in Cyprian is nothing else but a beginning The rest of the Apostles were this which Peter was being endowed
4. about the profession of the oath of orthodox faith annex to the Con Trent sub Innoc 3. a new Creede But shee was displeased with the foure Euangelists because they passed by their Pope as a vnknowne man And therefore she created a fift Euangelist who by the helpe of the Monkes might coyne a fift Gospell fitter for their purpose than the other They deemed the true Iesus the sonne of Marie crucified by Gods decree vpon Mount Caluarie for the saluation of men to be but halfe a Sauiour Therefore they deuised Francis Peter Barnardons sonne as if hee had beene pierced with the same wounds of Christ and in the same parts and consecrated him in the Laterane Councell to be the Typicall Iesus Shee thought the twelue articles of the faith gathered together by Christs 12. Apostles not to be sufficient for saluation And therefore published twelue new articles of the faith composed in the Councell of Trent and brought by Pope Pius the fourth into the forme of a Creede Paul the fift being the furtherer of it O holy mother the Church but ô father far more holy In the meane time she preached Christs great loue bounty toward the Pope and the Popes reuerence and obsequiousnes toward Christ But seing Babylon that old whore had learned to trimme and paint hir-selfe but to dissemble her inward affections and cunningly to cloake her hatred with loue and her loue with hatred euery wise-man is to forecast being taught by former hurt and mischiefe not any more what shee doth pretend but what shee doth intend Shee knoweth that the Scripture is a reuealer of her idolatrie luxurie couetousnes pride and crueltie Shee fretts and chafes that no portion of honour and gouernment but of labour and paines is allotted vnto the Pope by Christ his Testament Shee is greeued at the heart that shee is foretold by the Apostles to be mysticall Babylon and the Pope to be that Antichrist Shee abhorres the Scripture as a theefe doth the gallowes shee despiseth the Apostles as her accusers shee hates Christ as her Iudge but with a secret hatred as shee loueth Antichrist with a secret loue whose enemie shee doth earnestly counterfeit hir-selfe to be that shee may seeme to be at familiar enmitie with him So shee doth counterfeit hirselfe to be a most dutifull worshipper of the Scripture as of the former Councells and doth often alledge it as the Diuell doth turned to a contrary sense and doth alledge it but as a falsifier fraudulently corrupted and shee is inwardly vext that such a blow is giuen to her head by the Scriptures not as they be expounded by vs but as they be vnderstood by those Synodes But shee takes nothing more greeuously then that in the supremacie of her iurisdiction .i. in the chiefe article of her publike religion that two of their chiefest founders as shee calls them be so silent witnesses in this cause S. Peter 1 Pet 5. S. Paul S. Peter who did plainly forbid superioritie to any one Priest ouer the Clergie styled himself most truly most humbly not an Arch-priest but a fellow-priest S. Paul who when of purpose he sent an Epistle to the Romanes made no mention at all of the Pope and the prerogatiue of the Church of Rome nor of the after-borne articles of the faith which shee in great plenty brought in afterward And when as of set purpose he had reasoned of the perpetuall gouernment of the militant Church and had gathered together many vnities one God one faith one spirit one body one Lord hee ouer-past one visible head Ephes 4. being forgetfull of their Peter And no maruell when as Peter himselfe was forgetfull of himselfe He did rather diuide the gouernment of the Church among all the Bishops and would rather haue it an Aristocraticall gouernment with many vnder Christ than Monarchicall vnder one as the practise of the Church next following for many ages did approue For that the fiue Patriarches had equall authoritie both Balsamon doth witnes and the Councell of Neece doth confirme And Francis Duarene writes that Boniface the third Francis Duar. de sacris benef lib. 1. cap 10. not before the 607. yeares not without much adoe could obtayne of Phocas to be created the vniuersall Bishop The Pope then is indebted to a King-killer for all the glory of his kingdome and yet he seemeth to giue thanks to Christ as if by his word Feede my sheepe hee had ordeyned the Bishops of Rome in Peter as he writes himselfe a fellow-minister to be Kings so many ages before they were borne Cic. ad PetuÌ„ ep 9. â— 8. As Cicero when as a false decree of the Senate was brought into Armenia and Siria as made against his minde writes that thanks were giuen him from foraigne Kings because he had named them to be Kings by his consent whom he knew not that they were not onely named but not so much as to bee borne But the Nicene Councell doth greatly discontent the Romane Bishop whom he maketh but equall to the Bishop of Alexandria For therefore the Bishop had corrupted that Canon which had restreyned the supremacie of the Bishop of Rome nor being therewith content did adde many yeares after fifty false Canons to twentie true of the Nicene Councell that hee might make the whole world beleeue that his supremacie which was apparantly shortned by the Nycene Fathers being aliue were enlarged by them being dead As the same Cicero doth pleasantly sport himselfe with Antonie Philip 1. when as he had published certaine false decrees of Caesar that the Citizens that were sent into banishment of him aliue should be recalled being dead and that the Citie that was denyed them of him aliue should be granted being dead and that many immunities and priuiledges that were taken of him being aliue should bee sold of him being dead by which meanes Antonie did affect both an infinite and hurtfull power So the Pope doth publish many acts as proceeding from Christ as from the Apostles as from the Nicene Fathers whereby hee doth vsurpe most proud and cruell gouernment in the Church And he fetcheth them from the dead for they were neuer made by them when they were aliue In like manner hee bringeth in the Chalcedon Fathers being dead Coâ—up of a Can of Chalcedon denying that which they affirmed when they were aliue Iudging say the Fathers of Chalcedon that the See of Constantinople in matters Ecclesiasticall bee as well aduanced in matters ecclesiasticall as the Romane being the next vnto it Which words are falsly recited Distinct 22. Renovantes or rather filthily corrupted in the Canon Law while he addeth a negatiue to the last words which altereth the sense of the whole Canon into a cleane contrary yet notwithstanding let it not be aduanced in matters ecclesiasticall as shee but let her be the next vnto it What should I make many words The first six generall Councells which may be thought to
of excommunication that the Catholikes shall not take the Oath of Allegeance or else retract it being taken And it is to be doubted that to whom the definition of heresie doth agree whether heresie the thing defined doth agree That Grosthead being dead seemeth with his definition as with his Crosier-staffe to strike the Pope vpon his brest Then Saturnine What Schismatikes saith he what § 21 Sigebert what Vincentius what Grosthead with his Crosiers staffe do you reckon vp As if they were not all condemned by the Church because they were at contention with the head of the Church But that wee may not seeme rather to contend with the authorities of men then of God Paul the Apostle forbad to salute an Heretike yea he warneth that after the first or second admonition we should auoide him If it be not lawfull to salute an Heretike is it lawfull to serue and obey an Heretike Paul teacheth that we sacrifice an heretike as hatefull to God as a great sacrifice to him and tha◠we flie from him as from a gangrene And shall it not be lawfull to cut of the gangrene and cast it away lest it doe infect vs when as we are bidden to cut off our owne flesh if it be affected with a gangrene Now saith Patriotta you shew your selfe a right Iesuite § 22 when as Paul did forbid that we should salute an Heretike How heretikes are to be delt withall but auoide him after the first or second admonition in one word he did forbid voluntarie societie not necessarie dutie familiar salutations which curtesie affords not reuerent obseruance which pietie imposeth priuate acquaintance whereby soules are infected not publike obedience whereby gouernment is maintained It is not lawfull to salute an Heretike will you not therefore pay an Heretike the money that is owing him yes that I would say you I demand againe whether the debt of obedience be not more iust then the debt of money which is of greater force a debt contracted in your owne consent or that which is imposed vpon you by the commandement of God § 23 Here Saturnine We owe nothing saith he to Heretikes Nothing said Patriotta Doth not the seruant owe faithful seruice to his Master being an Heretike he oweth it you say to an Infidell not to an Heretike You trifle If you owe it to an Infidell which doth oppugne the faith doe you not owe it to an Heretike who only doth erre in the faith Doth not the wife owe faithfull obedience to her husband though he be an heretike yes when nothing may be the cause of diuorce but adulterie as Christ teacheth no not infidelitie it selfe as Paul saith Lastly children are bound to obey their Parents in the Lord although they be Heretikes Therefore shall not subiects much more obey the Prince Lord of the familie the husband of the common weale the publike father of the country although he be an heretike for heresie doth not dissolue the bond of dutie but breaketh of the knot of acquaintance But heresie is a gangrene as the Apostle faith But although we are commanded to cut of all heresie as a gangrene yet are we not commanded to roote out euery heretike It were wrong with the Papists if this your opinion were setled in our mens mindes But we leaue these parts of cruell Surgeons to your selues who presently betake your selues to lanching and fearing and alwaies vse the cutting knife and fire and look not for easier and gentler remedies But seeing in this quarrell you seeme to buckle with vs with weapons out of the Scripture which you doe seldom handle whereby you proue that Kings in right may be and in fact haue been depriued that subiects may by a word be absolued as by a word they were bound with an oath of obedience Goe to let vs see before you come to the second foundation the practise of Christians what you can say against vs in the former Then Saturnine I will freely speake saith he what I § 24 verily thinke God had not securely prouided for his Church if he had not sent some holy stout Prophets and Preists who might with their Church discipline correct and keep vnder such Kings as were wicked and tyrannous when they grew desperate Examples out of the old Testament 1. Saul and might remooue them being the hatred of God and men the shame to religion and the burthen to the people Therefore we read the first King ouer Gods people because he seemed to take vpon him the spirituall function was excommunicated by Samuel at Gods commandement and put from the possession of his Kingdome although after Dauids annointing and his owne deposing he held it by tyrannicall force many yeeres and did often attempt to murther both Dauid the competitour of the kingdome and Samuel the executioner of Gods decree as he had slaine foure-score and fiue of the holy Preists the Nobites Who knoweth not that a speciall Prophet was sent § 25 of God to Ieroboam King of Israel 2. Ieroboam who did denounce the iudgement of God against the King and the Kings race because he had separated the people by a wicked schisme from the ancient and true worship of God begunne at Ierusalem and had erected a new altar in Bethel whereby the schisme and diuision from the Apostolike See is properly prefigured and ordained a new Cleargy a hunger-starued and contemptible out of Aarons order such an one as yours is The sinne was afterward so seuerely punished according to the censure of the Prophet that there was none left of the Kings stocke to make water against the wall The King did very fondly lay hold vpon the man of God to kill him because hee thought the denouncing of Gods iudgement was treason against the Kings crowne and dignity § 26 3. Ozia We read likewise that Ozia the King of Iuda beeing puft vp with intolerable pride not content with the honour of a King did insolently presume to vsurpe the spirituall and Priestly office being stoutly withstood by Azaria and 80. other Priests and violently expelled out of the Temple and that because he threatned and resisted the Priests he was strucken with a filthy leprosie and therefore not onely cast out of the Temple but by their authority separated from the company of men which was a speciall figure of the Priestly authority vnder the new Law which may excommunicate Kings as well as others for heresie which is a spirituall leprosie and committed the gouernment of the Kingdome to Iotham his sonne An apparant example that it is lawfull for Priests to take armes and by force to bring vnder the wickednesse of Kings when as they deeme it is auailable for the preseruation of religion and the honour of God § 27 The zeale of the good Priests in the depriuing of that wicked Queen Athalia is worthily commended 4. Athalia whom Iehoida the cheefe Priest with a power of the Priests and Commons did command to be
vsurper of the Kingdome which had murthered all the Kings Progeny What is this to the Pope that hee may depose a lawfull Prince with his Bishoply authority And whereas you propounded Elias zeale to bee imitated by you Patriott answered truely that your zeale was too fiery and would proue too preposterous vnlesse you could prooue you had Elias speciall instinct And when you said that Achab was remooued from his Kingdome by Elias or Elizeus it is partly true partly false It is true that you say he was remooued but by Iehu whom one of the sonnes of the Prophets did annoynt by Gods speciall commandement which God gaue to Elizeus that Iehu should roote out all the posterity of Achab. Hee was not therefore deposed by Elias or Elizeus but by Iehu whom God had raised vp by name extraordinarily for that purpose Neither did the sonne of the Prophet when hee annoynted Iehu beginne thus thus sayth Elizeus but thus saith the Lord. This doth no whit help the popes cause that Patriott did somtime scatter abroad your arguments as brooms that are not bound together and enforced him as a cripple with a broken legge to halt now vpon one leg now vpon both both in his antecedent and consequent as if the antecedent retained neither truth in the matter or Law in the forme and the consequent had lost all the necessity of proofe So that you neither did helpe the popes power or satisfie our consciences For it was to no purpose as he rightly said to seeke for causes at the last why princes should in fact be deposed by preists and prophets when you cannot proue that any was deposed § 71 You therefore as it seemes could not alleadge that any king was deposed by a priest but Patriott did alleadge that a preist was deposed by a king one especially Abiathar by Salomon This did not onely not help but hurt the popes cause Heere when you did enforce the couenant between God and the King your ready aduersary did demand if the King breake any of the articles of agreement who would enter suite against him or in what court or consistory were hee to bee accused And out of your owne grant hee concluded when you said that the king held his supreame authority taken from God and therefore the king was to yeeld account to God alone in the heauenly court for his gouernment Two pillers of gouernment ouerthrowen And where there are two pillers of gouernment Authority in the King and obedience in subiects which for all our good we are to keep safe sound you seemed Saturnin to ouerthrow them both when you made the king as it were an hypotheticall propositiō and the subiects conditionales but when you made the Popes categoricall and absolute although I reuerence them as most holy fathers yet I will speake truly you haue dealt herein as an vnskilfull Phisition who gets a more greeuous disease to the body by curing one that is easier Being repelled from the old Testament you fled into § 72 the strength of the new and here I had great hope that that your feede my sheepe and I will giue you the keyes had well strengthned the Popes authoritie and sharpned the edge of ecclesiasticall excommunication But it fell out otherwise For the aduersarie proued that by the first wordes diligence was enioyned the Byshoppe to feede the flocke and by the second were committed the keyes of the heauenly not the earthly kingdome And he brought for proofe not onely Augustine and Bernard as common witnesses but Aquinas Pope Vrbane Dominicus à Soto and Ludouicus Rycheomus all of them being on our side who thought the force of the keyes to be not in possessions but in crimes not in binding Scepters but sinnes and iudge it not to be a rooting vp but a meere discipline What you doe you thinke these to be Heretickes as lately you tearmed Sigebert and Vincentius what maruell is it if strangers accuse the Pope when his owne condemne him if his enemies set vpon him when his friends forsake him if the late Catholickes leaue him when the ancient forsake him The first foundation therefore of our obedience laid by Patriotta vpon the perpetuall and vnchangeable commandement of Christ and his Apostles standes firme and sure vnlesse you thinke that it be lawfull for the Vicar of Christ an holy man though a sinner to plucke downe the sacred tables of the Testament to violate the heauenly lawes of Christ and to abrogate the eternall decrees of God Forwhereas in the end you say that the Apostles and their Successours might lawfully haue deposed Nero Dioclesian Iulian Constantius Valens and the rest if the Church had had power to resist you would neuer haue said it as your aduersarie rightly obiected vnlesse you thinke the holy Apostles and fathers were dissemblers who obeyed those euill Emperours for feare not for dutie for times sake not for conscience sake wherein we heard that not the holy Scripture only but the antient historie was directly against you § 73 That we may greatly lament that Bellarmine and Alan so great wittes brought forth so wicked an vntruth And that we may omit Symancha Creswell Reynoldes Parsons and others of our side who brought all their wit and eloquence to patronize so wicked a cause with Alan trumpets not of the word but of warre and we must needes confesse that they haue brought an ouerthrow to many Catholicke families and a plague to their Countrie but also a torture to our consciences and an euerlasting infamie to the Catholicke religion Wherfore leaue off I pray you any more to solicite vs in this cause Saturnine vpon whose head wee see your first argument to be retorted by Patriotta who confest that subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is due to a King while the King is a King But the King is king and we be subiects notwithstanding any excommunication or authoritie of the Pope whatsoeuer as Patriotta hath proued against you as it seemes to vs not only with common but with proper arguments of our owne Catholickes It followeth therefore by your owne confession that all subiection reuerence honour fealtie and obedience is to be performed of vs to our King § 74 Then Saturnine I am right heartily sorry most honourable Calander and am much vext with all that you whom wee euer held a deuout sonne of the Romaine Church now to finde a Renegate in the Heretickes tents and not onely doubting of the supreame authoritie of the Byshoppe but that which is farre worse and more dangerous to your soule oppugning it For not onely the excommunication of Princes which to diuers seemes to be the soueraigne censure of the ecclesiasticall and spirituall power of the Pope belongeth vnto him but their ouerthrow also and rooting out which proceedes not from the power of excommunication but from the power of a certain supreame authoritie in the Pope either as he is directly the Lord of the temporalties or indirectly in
plainely shewed against Tortus or rather counterfet Bellarmine that the Apostles Creede was set foorth whereto Iames the Apostle before his martyrdom had added the Article of Christ before the departure of the Apostles from Ierusalem and therefore before S. Peter came to Rome by the testimonie of Baronius himselfe Anno 44. and had concluded necessarily from thence that the Catholike faith was fully finished before the Apostolike See was begunne hence it is said there arose a doubt in that right honourable Calanders conscience a Papist but very moderate and honest not onely of the supremacie of Peter and of that depriuing power annexed to the supremacy but of all the whole Romish Catholike faith which he saw was contained in the popish not Apostolicall Nycene or Constantinopolitane Creede § 125 Therefore when those former learned men together with William Argentine came againe to visite him It is very well sayd Calander that you are met againe to discusse before vs a verie difficult controuersie of the popes new creede which Pius the fouth had formerly compiled Paul the 5. comanded it lately to be printed my good freind Argentine hath lately recited it and I hope by and by he will recite the same to you This being prescribed by the Church vtterly to reiect it I doe as yet to speake truely make a conscience and to admit it wholly vnlesse it bee ratified by the testimonies of the holy Scripture I cannot admit without scruple of conscience For I haue lately learned to giue attendance to the holy Scripture which holy S. Peter doth directly affirme to bee as a candle lightned in this life to vs wandring in darknesse 2. Pet. 1. Which holy Paul doth likewise make the foundation of the Church Ephes 2.20 1. Tim. 3.15 and yet I cannot depart rashly from the Catholike Church whereto I haue beene accustomed which the same S. Paul calles the piller and ground of truth by which there is a creede of faith set out for me So I hang doubtfull betweene the Scripture the Church which God hath giuen vnto vs as the Sunne and Moone the two great lights to giue vs light to life Then Patriott you say right Calander said he in the § 126 generall that as the Sunne and Moone so the Scripture and the Church as two lights shew light vnto vs The Scripture and Church compared to the Sun Moon but that you erre in the speciall as after it shall better appeare But the holy Scripture hath light in it selfe as the Sunne the Church is a light but borrowed from the Scripture as the Moone from the Sun these two I confesse are giuen vs of God to direct vs vnto eternall life But the Scripture directs vs with masterly authority the Church with her ministery for the holy Scripture is the wisdome of God in Christ inspired from aboue into holy men for the eternall saluation and perfection of the Church as the Apostle hath defined it God hath commended the Scripture to the Church The office of the Church as an heauenly charge that it may discerne expound keep and publish it to men the Scripture is therefore mens master but the Church is Gods minister Therefore the Apostle calles the truth the foundation of the Church and the Church the piller of truth as Salomon made his chariot to haue a golden axtree and pillers of siluer vnderstanding by the axetree the sound doctrin of the Messias by the pillers the faithfull teachers of the same § 127 It is a wicked thing therefore to detract from the maiestie of the holy Scripture and it is vniust to derogate from the ministery of the true Church for the Scripture is the truth of God The office of the Scripture and the Church is the house of God the truth is the golden foundation of this house and this house is the siluer piller of this truth that is cut out of the truth as out of the rocke as Chrysostome obserueth So if the Scripture be the base of the Church then the Church is the piller of the word as he spake very wittily Now reason teacheth that the foundation is not sustained by the house but the house by the foundation And religion concludes from thence that truth makes the Church not the Church the truth For the approbation of the truth is the working cause of the Church For before it do approue the written word of God it is but a company of Infidels and Idolaters after it hath approoued it it beginneth to be the familie of the faithful worshippers of God that is a Church Further although the Church by the Spirit doe discerne the true Scripture from the false yet the Scripture being once knowen and acknowledged as before it made so after it sheweth the Church For what more certain note can there be of shewing a thing then the working cause of the thing Againe what priuiledge soeuer the Church doth rightly challenge to it selfe it receiued from the Scripture as that which calleth the Church the piller of truth Therefore the truth of the Scripture is more ancient in time more perspicuous for the light and greater for authority then the Church which when it once receiueth her essence light and power from the Scripture then at last as a piller it vpholdeth with her ministery the truth in respect of men and reueales it to the inhabitants of the earth and it is that ground whereon men both may and ought to leane and rest Lawes vpon pillers so the Scriptures on the Church Whereupon the Propheticall and Apostolicall doctrine is said to bee the foundation of the Church the Church is the strength of doctrine not the foundation It is euident therfore that the Church is founded and sustained by the truth and that the truth is sustained and reuealed by the Church once founded as it were a watch-tower for trauellers to direct them into heauen The Heathens were wont to write their lawes in tables and hang them vp vpon pillers to bee read of the people The Apostle describing the Church compareth it to such a piller the vse wherof was to shew the Law when it selfe was not the Law So the true Orthodoxe and Catholike faith being written in the tables of the Scripture is fastned to the Church as it wereto a most beautifull piller as a most strong prop which resteth vpon it not with its owne but a borrowed strength Wherefore the Apostle in the second to the Ephesians defines the Church when in the second to Timothie hee describes it For there hee argueth from the causes heere from the effects in each place he vnderstandeth the Church of Ephesus that is a particular Church In the first place he teacheth what made that in the second what that did nor so much what it alway doth for of necessitie the foundation being taken away the Church must fall as it happened first to the Church of Ephesus and afterward to the Church
of Rome as what it ought to doe For this is rather an admonition then a commendation and with a praise giueth warning of duty Wherefore you shall doe well Calander as S. Peter warnes you if you alwaies giue attention to the holy Scripture as to the candle to the Church as to the candle-sticke so long as it containeth and vpholdeth that candle giuing light to all the house For if it bee bereft of the light of her sunne and being blinde endeauours to make others blinde also while it makes new Articles of the faith and conceales the old it doth retain the name of a Church but it hath altogether lost the nature that which may very truely be spoken of the Church of Rome § 128 You doe very vnaduisedly traduce the Church of Rome saith Saturnine by whom you thinke that new Articles of the faith were made for the Articles of the faith which it propoundes are diuided into two sortes One are of immediate Reuelation Others are drawne and fetcht from thence What articles of faith the Church maketh The Church doth not make new Articles of the faith of the first sort But the Church maketh Articles of the second sort which ought to bee beleeued with the Catholicke faith as the case requireth if it thinke them necessary Therefore Vincentius Lyrinensis thinketh that the life of propheticall and euangelicall doctrine must be directed by the rule of Ecclesiasticall and Catholike sense so that he doth in vaine brag of the text of scripture who reiecteth the sense of the Church § 129 Then Patriott how absurdly is it said saith he that the Church doth not make immediate reuelations of God Vnlesse that be more absurd to thinke that to fetch and draw from is the same which to make for an Article must first be made before a doctrine can be drawne or fetcht from the same Therefore that is said to bee an Article of the faith which is drawne from an Article Foolishly Articles are principles deductions are conclusions An article is one thing a conclusion drawne from the article is another which often is so contrarie that it vtterly ouerthroweth the article As it shall bee made cleare in the explication of your creede For I confesse with Vincentius Lyrinensis that the line of propheticall and Apostolicall doctrine is to be directed by the rule of the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense For the ecclesiasticall and catholicke sense must alway agree with the Propheticall and apostolicall text For where the text doth faile vs the glosse cannot helpe vs. Whence I conclude that nothing can bee Catholicke and Ecclesiasticall which is not Propheticall or Apostolicall Now because Vincentius doth restraine the propheticall and apostolicall line to the cannon of the Scripture which he confesseth to be more then sufficient for faith it followeth that nothing contrarie to the canonicall Scripture can be Ca holicke though it bee so determined by the Church Wherefore Calander if the Church of Rome haue cast any article of faith into the Creede of the second sort which is contrarie to an Article of the first sort and haue added an ecclesiasticall glosse disagreeing from the definition of canonicall Scripture that Church shall sooner leaue off to be the Catholicke Church then that Article shall beginne to be Catholicke Let vs come therefore to the Creede and let vs intreat Argentine if hee please to open it vnto vs. Then Argentine I will doe it and very willingly and § 130 I will so professe it as it is propounded by the Bull of Pius the 4. to be a forme of an Oath of the profession of the orthodoxall faith 1 I William Argentine doe firmely admit and hold the Apostolicall and Ecclesiasticall traditions and other ordinances and constitutions of the Church of Rome The Popes creede Traditions Scriptures according to the Romane sense 2 I doe firmely hold and admit the holy Scriptures according to that sense which the mother Church hath and doth hold whose right it is to iudge of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture neither will I euer admit it or expound it but according to the ioynt consent of the fathers 3 I professe that there be seauen Sacraments truely and properly of the new Law 7 Sacraments ordained by our Lord Iesus necessarie for the saluation of mankind Baptisme Confirmation the Eucharist Penance Extream vnction Orders Matrimony I admit the receiued and approoued rites of the Catholicke Church Originall sin and iustification 4 I admit and hold all and euery those points concerning originall sinne and iustification which were determined in the holy Councell of Trent The Masse 5 I professe that there is offered vp in the Masse vnto God a true proper propitiatorie sacrifice for the quicke and the dead Transsubstantiation 6 I beleeue that in the holy Eucharist the body and blood of Christ is truely and really and substantially and that there is made a change of the whole substance of bread into his body and of the whole substance of wine into his blood which change or conuersion the Catholicke Church calleth transsubstantiation I confesse also that vnder one kinde onely whole Christ is receiued and a true sacrament Purgatorie 7 I constantly hold that there is a purgatorie and that the soules there deteined are holpe with the praiers of the faithfull Adoration of Saints 8 I hold that the Saints raigning with Christ are to be worshipped and to be called vpon and that they offer vp their prayers to God for vs and that their reliques are to be worshipped The worshipping of Images 9 I firmely hold that the Images of Christ and the euer blessed Virgin and of other Saintes are to bee had and to be adored with due worshippe Indulgences 10 That the power of indulgences was left by Christ and that the vse of them is very auaileable for saluation The supremacie of the Pope 11 I acknowledge the Catholicke and Apostolicke Romaine Church to be the mother and mistris of all Churches and I vowe and sweare true obedience to the Byshoppe of Rome the successour of blessed Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the Vicar of Iesus Christ The authority of the Councell of Trent 12 I vndoubtedly likewise receiue all other thinges defined and determined by the holy Canons and Occumenicall Councells chiefly of the holy Councell of Trent and I reiect and accurse all things contrarie and all heresies reiected by the Church This true Catholicke faith without which none can § 130 be saued at this present I voluntarily professe I will procure as farre as lyeth in me to be wholy vncorruptly and constantly kept and taught by Gods assistance to my liues end I the same William promise vow and sweare so help me God and these his holy Euangelist And I stand in feare of that which the most holy Father added It shall not bee lawfull for any man to infringe this authoritie of our ordination inhibition
no errors The Pope of Rome doth erre by the Papists iudgement Peter de Aliaco a Cardinall Adrianus Pope The three Legates of the Trent councel I wonder that Peter de Aliaco a very learned Cardinall granted that there were many things not only in manners but in faith had neede of reformation Why did Adrian the sixt ill touching the fountaine it selfe say that all mischiefe came from the cheife Byshoppe into the whole Church and promised reformation of all things by his Legate Cheregatus to the Germaines I wonder also why the three Legates in the Councell of Trent did apply that Prophesie of Ieremy to themselues and to the popish people This people haue committed two great euills They haue forsaken mee saith the Lord the fountaine of liuing water and haue digged to themselues cisternes that can hold no water And in the Councell it selfe Cornelius the Byshoppe of Bitont did openly acknowledge the Apostasie of the Church of Rome in the chiefe heades both of doctrine and life I would to God saith he that they had not falne wholy from religion to superstition from faith to infidelitie from Christ to Antichrist from God to Epicurisme saying out of a wicked heart and with an impure mouth There is no God Neither did any Shepheard or Pope care for these things For all of them sought their owne and not one of them all sought for those things that belong to Iesus Christ § 137 I wonder also why after that Councell many not onely priuate Doctours did plucke in peeces the decrees of that Councell as Sixtus Senensis Canus The councell of Trent reiected by their owne side Lindanus the Byshoppe Catharinus Pighius Ouander Ferus and many more but Pope Pius himselfe confest that the worshippe of the Church of Rome had much swarued by continuance of time from the ancient institution Therefore these reuerend Doctours Cardinalls and holy Byshoppes doe giue mee both cause and leaue greatly to doubt Neither doe I desire only that the chiefe Articles of immediate Reuelation be discust which I embrace with all faith and reuerence but these articles of the second sort which are supposed to be fetcht from the first and in truth doe altogether ouerthrow them For whereas by the aduice of Austen the simplicitie of beleeuing noâ— the quickenesse of vnderstanding is required not an humble desire of learning things necessarie but a curious desire to seeke after high mysteries is forbidden by him For the simplicitie of beleife Implicite faith blinde Idoll doth as well shut out brutish ignorance as presumptuous knowledge I can therefore no longer adore that blinde Idoll implicite faith whereby we are taught to receiue with all reuerence what the Church teacheth and to beleeue as the Church beleeueth though wee doe not well know what the Church beleeueth Bellarm de iustific lib. 1. cap. 7. Neither can I giue credit to Bellarmine saying that faith doth consist in the assent not in knowledge and may better be defined by ignorance then vnderstanding Whence our learned aduersaries do too truly conclude that as Cleargy poperie was before nothing else but a catechisme of treason so Laicke-popery was nothing else but meere idiotisme and as they worthily laugh at the fox-like craft of our Doctors so likewise the asse-headed ignorance of our schollers Such faith which the colliar had so commended by Staphilus A certaine colliar being at the poynt of death Apolâ—g Staphi pars 1. pag. 53. was tempted by the Diuell and demanded what faith he held the colliar answered I beleeue and die in the faith of the Church of Christ The Colliars faith And beeing againe demanded what was the faith of the Church answered as it § 138 were in a circle it is that faith that I holde and so the Diuell being vanquished by this answer fled away if we may beleeue Staphilus Therfore the faith of a Romish Catholike is the Colliars faith that is a circular faith I pray you Saturnine teach mee first before I giue my assent and write to that reuerend Bellarmine that hee will prouide that implicite faith which is nothing else but blinde and affected ignorance bee put out of the creede wherewith the grauity and wisdome of the Catholike religion is greatly defaced I haue learnt at last to distinguish between the fictions of mans braine and the doctrines of Christian faith the foundations wherof are not the opinions of men but the oracles of God and those which are committed to writing by the Prophets and Apostles by inspiration of God wherein all necessarie principles of faith and precepts of life are plentifully contained as I heare it affirmed by the fathers Let vs now come to the creed § 139 Wherein first I demand whether the supremacy of Peter with such things as depend thereon haue her foundation directly in the Scripture as the Cardinall writeth in Tortus For I hold no doctrin necessary to be beleeued vnlesse it bee founded on the Scripture as Pope Gregorie the first reacheth I am a bad Text-man and I reade the bookes of the Prophets and Apostles but seldome the reading whereof the Church hath forbidden to vs lay-men fearing lest by reading we should fall into heresies But I am both ashamed and repent of that my ignorance and negligence Yet I leaue not off to reuerence the fathers both olde and new whose sonne I professe my felfe to bee and not their seruant I account them for schollers in the Scripture not masters witnesses and interpreters thereof not arbitrators and iudges Neither am I so much mooued with their names as with their reasons I seeke not then what they bring out of themselues but what they prooue out of the Scripture in the cause of faith I will henceforth admit of no definition of the Church vnlesse it relie vpon a manifest testimonie of holy Scripture or at the least a necessarie conclusion drawen from thence I will not haue the matter ordered by bare authority but let thing with thing cause with cause and reason striue with reason neither am I led with the number of arguments but with the waight * Number doth oppresse the memory waight doth beget knowledge Neither am I delighted with circumstances I desire breuity And I will preferre one sound argument shortly and directly concluded out of the Scripture before all the quirkes of men brought for pompe and shew Neither will I suffer any of you to leape from this one poynt to another before I see this bee fully sifted and discussed among you Buckle vp your selfe therefore Saturnine to set the onset and confirme the supremacy of Peter and the succession of the Pope and that power which you say is annext to the supremacie out of the holy Scripture but that you may not swarue from the state of the question remember that you are to prooue the primacy not of order and distinction which is granted to Peter but the primacy of power and iurisdiction which is denied For
of iudging into one man whatsoeuer he be and denie it to an infinite number of Priestes assembled in a Councell How then shall this ouer-sea iudgement bee certaine Reasons not to appeale beyond sea whereto the persons of witnesses be necessarie who either for weaknesse of nature or for age or for some other lets and impediments cannot be present For that which was sent by Faustinus in the behalfe of the Nycene Synode in the truer descriptions of the Nycene Councell we could finde no such matter Therefore doe ye not suffer this that wee may not seeme to bring in the smoakie pride of the world into the Church These things did the Carthaginians publickely write to Celestine byshoppe of Rome wherein they did refute out of the true and authenticke copies the appeales to the Romane by shoppe which Sozumus laid claime to out of the false Cannons of the Nycene Councell For the decrees of the Nycene Synode doe commit either the Clarkes or the byshoppes themselues directly to their owne Metropolitanes They forbidde therefore that they which were excommunicated by vs should bee receiued into the communion by the Romanes As it is say they determined in the Councell of Neece The Africans reiected the Popes Legates as new creatures and vnknowne to the ancient Church they called their gaddings to Rome impudent and deemed the sending of his Legates the smoakie pride of the world And they did propound not the bare decree of the Synode but enforced it with very weighty reasons One is that if so great authority were giuen to the § 292 byshop of Rome not only by the right discerning of iudgement but by the grace of the holy Ghost giuen to him alone then it should seeme to bee denied to all others assembled in the Councell The second that when it is sufficient to appeale twise the Synode gaue leaue to such as would appeale from the sentence of his byshoppe first to appeale to the prouinciall Synode then from that to the vniuersall The third that seeing in the repealing of sentences the presence of witnesses is requisite the Romane byshoppes doe impose a very vnequall law vpon Christians to come necessarily from other kingdomes so farre distant by sea and land especially being hindered by age or sicknesse or any other impediments which fall out to be very many The fourth because by this custome of appealing the authority of all other byshoppes being diminished and brought into one the smoakie pride of the world would be brought into the Church The Carthaginian Fathers vpon these reasons reiected that vniust request of the Romane byshoppe and discouered the false and forged Cannons by the true and right copies sent from Cyrill and Atticus So wisedome ouercame deceit and modestie pride For the Fathers did the second time condemne Apiarius and in Apiarius Sozimus Boniface Celestine that is in one wicked runnagate three very cunning forgers Here Saturnine in a great chafe These saith he are § 293 the maine points that your men out of the Carthaginian fathers doe commonly obiect against ours But the good fathers offended of ignorance A meere Shifter yours of malice The Fathers by a double ignorance One because they beleeued there were but twenty Cannons onelie of the Nicene Councell whereas there were seuentie whereof fiftie being burnt by the Arrians perished Wherin as many other things so that right of Appeales which the Romane byshoppe did challenge was contained Sozâ—m lib. 3. cap. 10. The other because they did not distinguish betweene the two Sinodes of Sardis Popish reasons to proue moâ—e Canons of Neece then 20. Epist of Egipt to Marcus For the coppie of the Nicene Councell Tom. Conc. 1. as it appeareth out of Sozemane whereof one was Catholicke and generall of 300. byshoppes which Austin saw not The other was hereticall of 86 byshoppes which Austin saw Now beside those twentie Cannons which Ruffinus reckons vp that there were other 50. more appeareth out of a certaine Epistle of Athanasius and the Egyptians to Marcus the Romane Byshoppe of whom they required the true copie of the 70. Cannons after the Arrians had burnt the authenticke copie which Athanasius brought from Neece There is extant a record of Iulius the Romane Byshoppe against those of the east in the behalfe of Athanasius wherein beside those twentie Cannons other twentie seuen are repeated whereof sixe do more cleerly set foorth the authoritie of the Romane byshoppe then that Cannon which Sozimus alleaged Besides that there bee many more Cannons of the Councell of Neece besides those twentie which Ruffinus reckons vp Euseb in the life of Const cap. 3. Ambros Ep 82. One wherein it decreed that Easter should be celebrated on the sabboth day as appeareth by Constantines Epistle in Eusebius A second wherein it decreed that a man twise married should not be admitted into the clergie As Ambrose telleth vs. Ierom. in pref on Iudith Austen Epist 110. A third wherein the booke of Iudith is admitted among the canonicall bookes as Ierome witnesseth A fourth wherein it is forbidden that two byshops should sit together in one Church as Austin affirmes A fift wherein it decreed that it was not lawfull for them that were fasting to minister the Sacrament of the supper As the Africane Fathers testifie Lastly the hereticall Doctours Luther Caluine and the writers of the centuries out of the first booke of Socrates cap. 8. doe alleage a Cannon out of the Councell of Neece wherein their Wiues are permitted to Priests But none of these Cannons are found among those 20. which they only number Therefore if Sozimus be said to be a corruptor and a Forger of the Cannons of Neece because he recited one Cannon vnder the name of the Nycene Councell which is not found among the 20. Cannons by the same reason Constantine Ambrose Ierome Austin the African Fathers the Centurie writers Luther and Caluine are to bee tearmed corruptors and forgers for all of them doe recite Cannons out of the Councell of Neece which are not reckoned among those twenty Cannons Last of all in the Councell of Florence Sess twentie one Iohn a great learned man affirmed that hee could shew by many testimonies of the antient that the Fathers of the 6. Councell of Carthage did at the last acknowledge that very corrupt and false Cannon of the Nycene Councell were sent ouer to them out of Constantinople and Alexandria Then Patriot hee that holdes you not worthy Saturnine § 194 saith he of a Cardinalls hat that can lye so profoundly for the triple crowne doth you great wrong You doe very shamelesly obiect ignorance to the Carthaginian Fathers among whom Austin was present A popish slander out of Bellarmine and malice to our men When the Papists perceiued that their Sozimus waâ— taken tardie in a manifest lye they deuised this tale of the 70. Cannons of the Nycene Councell And to thâ— purpose coyned an Epistle as it had beene sent from Athanasius and other
not preferre himselfe before the sea of Alexandria and Antioch but the sea of Constantinople tooke them both away and did not equall himselfe to the Romane but abolished the Romane for he was the vniuersall and onely Byshoppe and made the other not his fellow but his Vicar For other were not Byshoppes but his Vicars onely as hee imagineth Gregorie to haue thought Lib. 4. epist 36. Lib. 4. ep 34. For Gregorie thought by that title not to take away all Byshoppes but to diminish them or that other Patriarches had their honour abrogated but derogated nor that all other were put downe but that hee was set vp aboue all other neither did hee goe about that one thing that he alone should be but be alone in authoritie or that other should be no Byshoppes at all but that he should seeme a Byshoppe of better worth then the rest and that hee should ioyne them as parts to himselfe not cut them off and should bee among Byshoppes as Lucifer among the Angells who preferred himselfe before others tooke not others away So this vniuersall Byshoppe suffered other Byshoppes to bee but to be in subiection if wee beleeue Gregorie a better interpreter of his owne minde then Bellarmine And this did Boniface the third effect when Boniface tooke nothing to him by the grant of Phocas which Iohn did not claime by the grant of Mauritius That which Boniface tooke to himselfe Paul the 5. retaineth and that much more He doth retaine therefore a new prophane wicked § 111 blasphemous name c. as Gregorie thought while hee is called vniuersall Byshoppe It is well said and truely an euill head is a head of euills And euery euill as it is more generall is the worse And therefore an vniuersall euill is the greatest euill from whence all other euills are powred into the Church and Common-weale into the Church heresies into the Common-weale treasons while it vtterly lost the faith of Christ and trod vnderfoote the maiestie of the Emperour Lib. 4. Ep. 39. Gregorie foretould each of them For thus he said to Anianus to consent to this wicked name what is it else but to loose the faith And how much damage the faith hath sustained it shall appeare by those Articles of the faith which follow And to Mauritius he writ Epist 32. that who so delighteth in that name doth thereby set himselfe aboue the honour of the Emperour And how much damage the Empire hath sustained the lamentable endes of many emperours doth declare Regius our Councellor shall tell you who they were Gregorie as I said was a true alasse too true a Prophet And our learned interpreter of Gregorie the Byshoppe of Chicester said well that the vniuersall Byshop is for the Empire Lucifer for the Church Antichrist § 212 Yet Gregorie himselfe they say though hee liked not the vniuersall title he exercised the vniuersall iurisdiction Wherein they imagine Gregorie to be not truly holy but prophanely politicke like to Caesar who refused the name of a King as odious that hee might more cunningly exercise the authority of a King Therefore they counterfet a certaine Epistle of Gregorie thus indorst to Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse To Iohn Byshoppe of Siracuse concerning the Byshoppe of Constantinople accused of a foule fault In the Epistle it selfe the Bizancen primate is said to haue beene accused of a certaine fault Gregor lib. 7. Epist 64. whom the most holy Emperour would haue iudged by vs according to the cononical decrees But the error of name Bizancene or Biazene deriued not from Bizantium the citie of Constantinople Glosse in Grati. edita à Greg 13 but from Bizatium a Prouince of Africa is amended in the glosse of the Cannon law which saith that Anselme and Gratian were deceiued in the inscription of the Epistle of Saint Gregorie An epistle suspected to be forged because Bizancene did not signifie the Patriarch of Constantinople but the Primate of Africa Which things giues vs iust cause to suspect that the Epistle is forged as another wherein they bring in Gregorie affirming that the Constantinopolitane Church is subiect to the Apostolick-sea Lib. 7. epi. 63. Lib. 2. de Rom. Pontific c. 14. as Eusebius the Byshoppe of the same sea doth confesse Which place Bellarmine citeth But in Gregories time none did sit in the sea of Constantinople but Iohn and Siricius who did vsurpe the title of vniuersall Byshoppe Nicephorus a witnesse in his tripartite historie Whereby it appeareth that a counterfeit Eusebius is brought in as a witnesse of the Romane prerogatiue A counterfet Eusebius and a bastardly Epistle deuised by some scribe who testified that Gregorie wrot that being dead which while he liued hee reprehended so earnestly not only in another but in himselfe When this deuise tooke no successe they tried another § 213 way Baronius Bellarmine That there were very many of Gregories Predecessors who did write themselues Byshoppes of the Catholicke Church that is of the vniuersall The vniuersall Byshoppe and Byshop of the vniuersall Church not all one And that it is all one to be called the vniuersall Byshoppe of the Church and Byshop of the vniuersall Church Wherein they haue not onely Costerus gaine-saying them in his Euchiridion and Lindane in his Panoplie in whose iudgement these differ the vniuersall Byshoppe and the Byshoppe of the vniuersall Church or that all ambiguitie may be taken away they deny it to bee one to be called the Byshoppe of the Catholicke Church that is vniuersall and Catholicke that is vniuersall Byshop of the Church And they will deny it Is it all one to say Tortus is a learned diuine of the schoole of Papia and a Diuine of the learned schoole of Papia Nothing lesse For in that proposition false praise is giuen to Tortus in this true to Papia So the Pope is the Catholicke Byshoppe of the Church is one thing and the Pope is the Byshoppe of the Catholike Church is another For in that proposition a counterfet title of the Pope in this the true name of the Church is expressed But Catholicke and Vniuersall are all one What then But these propositions be not all one The Pope of Rome is the Byshoppe of the catholicke Church i. of the vniuersall therefore the Byshoppe is vniuersall no more then these two propositions be all one The King of Spaine is the Catholike King therefore the vniuersall King Or thus The King of Spaine is the King of the Catholicke Church therfore he is King of the whole Christian world For the power ouer all Churches doth no no more belong to the Pope who is called Catholike then the power ouer all kingdomes belongeth to the King that is called Catholike § 214 Although this vniuersall Bishop challenge the cheife gouernment not onely ouer spirituall but ouer temporall causes also so that the power ouer all things is in the Pope the execution of that power is sayd to reside in Emperours and Kings which
after crownes but to watch ouer their soules and when hee obeyeth the King then hee prescribeth the doctrine of obedience to others as Christ Paul and Peter went before them both in precept and practise § 183 Then Calander you haue satisfied me abundantly Patriot Primacie of order onely due to Peter in the distinction of these powers now if you please I desire the other about the largnes of that spirituall power which the Pope now vsurpes whether the former Councells did grant the same Then Patriot the Fathers saith he doe grant to Peter the primacie of order and to the Byshoppe of Rome as to his successour whom certaine doe call the Byshoppe of the first sea but they deny vnto him the primacie of power as I said either ouer Kings or ouer their fellow Byshoppes Ierusalem Anâ—ioch Alexandria Constantinople Rome There were either foure or fiue Patriarches among whom the gouernment of the whole Church was diuided That all the rest were equall to the Patriarch of Rome in all points of iurisdiction whose power was bounded within certaine limits out of which he might not passe doth appeare by that notable Cannon the sixt The Nicene Councell of 318. Byshops of the Nycene Councell Which was gathered together by the authoritie of Constantine the great in the yeare of Christ 325. wherein 318. Byshoppes met together and set out 20. true Cannons only as Ruffinus numbers them the true copies whereof remained in all the patriarchall Churches and are extant in many others at this day The sixt Cannon of the Councell doth make the gouernment of the Byshoppe of Rome the forme of gouernment of the Byshoppe of Alexandria as it is said before Where it doth appeare that the gouernment of the byshoppe of Rome was shut within the compasse of his owne Prouince For if it had reached into other Prouinces it had not beene the forme of the gouernment of Alexandria Rome no larger in iurisdiction then Alexandria which was contained in one Prouince Againe it appeareth by the Cannon that the byshoppe of Rome had the same fashion Therfore the gouernment of Alexandria was like vnto Rome How could there otherwise bee a likenesse For there could be no likenesse betweene an vniuersall byshoppe and a prouinciall The second generall Councell was the first Councell § 184 of Constantinople assembled by Theodosius the elder in the yeare of Christ 381. wherein 150. Constantinople Councell the first of 150. Byshoppes byshoppes met together who confirmed the decree of the Nicene Councell Then came the third generall Councell the first of Ephesus The Councel of â—phesus of 200. Byshops gathered together by Theodosius the younger in the yeare of Christ 4â—1 it consisted of 200. byshoppes in which two Councells the Prouinces of the Christian world were diuided and euery Prouince assigned to his owne Patriarch and the byshoppe of Constantinople by name made equall to the byshoppe of Rome without any difference of honour but that the byshop of Constantinople was next after the byshop of Rome in place had the second voice in all answers and subscriptions The 4. The Councel of Chalcedâ—ne of 630. Byshoppes generall Councell of Chalcedon gathered by Valentinian and Marcian in the yeare of Christ 451. which consisted of 630. byshoppes who decreed thus in the 28. Cannon we euery way following the decrees of the holy Fathers and acknowledging the Cannon of the 150. byshoppes we also decree the very same and ordaine the same about the priuiledges of the most holy Church of Constantinople which is new Rome For to the throne of old Rome because that Citie bare rule ouer all the Fathers by right giue the priuiledges Constantinople equall with Rome and the 150. Fathers being mooued with the same consideration doe giue equall priuiledges to the most holy throne of new Rome rightly iudging that citie which is honoured both with the Presence and Senate of the Empire and doth enioy equall priuiledges with Rome that ancient Lady should be aduanced in causes Ecclesiasticall aswell as she and be as much esteemed being the next vnto her § 185 But the fathers of the Councell of Chalcedone Acto 3. write thus to Leo the most holy and blessed vniuersall Archbishop and Patriarch of great Rome Note saith Binius that in these bookes Leo is called the vniuersall Archbishop Suri tom 2. Concil pag. 111. Bini tâ—m 2. Concil fol. 215. But note also that which Binius concealed that it is added to Leo the Archbishop of the Romanes Note heere the authority of the Bishop of Rome saith Surius but it may be that these words slipt out of the margent into the text though they bee most true saith Binius But we appeale from these two pararasites of the Romane Bishop to the very acts of the Councell themselues which we before alleadged But this canon is reiected say they by Leo the Bishop of Rome about the priuiledges and eminency of the Bishop of Constantinople because he presupposeth that the Roman seat was made the head of the Church not by Gods Law but by mans Law as Binius saith fol. 180. whom shall we beleeue Leo who out of his ambition reiected the canon or Gregorie who with all reuerence receiued the whole Councell as it is in Gratian distinct 15. cap. sicui But the Councell say they in their Epistle writ Leo the head of the vniuersall Church Because Leo so writeth Piniuâ—iâ— anno in hanc Synod 188. lib. 3. epist 3. to Eulogius the Bishop of Alexandria your holinesse knoweth that by the holy Synode of Chalcedon the name of vniuersality was giuen to the seat of the Bishop of Rome onely wherein now by Gods prouidence my selfe doe serue Why then is not the name of vniuersall prefixed before the Epistle of the fathers It was prefixed say they but by the craft of some Scribe it was taken out what a iest is this as if it were not more likely that the Popes Epistle admitted a fraudulent addition Whether one Leo or 600. Bishops are rather to bee beleeued then the Epistle of the generall Councell a subtraction But hee it so let Leo haue written so Whether is it more meete to giue credit to the Pope priuately in his owne cause or to 600 Bishops in the cause of the Church decreeing against it in a publike Councell especially when as Gregorie the great doth plainely write that none of his predecessours did euer vse the title of vniuersall Bishoppe Farther the fift generall Councell was the second of § 186 Constantinople assembled in the Empire of Iustinian 2. Constantinople Councell of 280. Bishops in the yeere of Christ 586. wherein were present 280. Bishops who repeating word for word the former decree of Chalcedon renewed in the 36. canon Whereby it is euident that Constantinople had no lesse authority in Ecclesiasticall causes then Rome had and that Rome had obtained the primacy of order because it was the cheife
seat of the Empire which so many fathers in fiue Synodes gathered together would neuer haue sayd if they had iudged the primacie of Peter had beene founded vpon the institution of Christ What can we imagine that so cheife an article of the Catholike faith was vnknowen to fathers so many for number so famous for holinesse so excellent for learning and that in fiue seuerall the most renowned generall Councels If the supremacie was plainely grounded vpon the Scripture Note then did the Councels very ill to take away the supremacie If the Councels did well in taking it a way certainely the supremacie is not so plainely founded vpon the Scripture If you shall lay enuie to their charge whereby men of such iustice and integrity would not behold a matter so manifest we will wonder at it If you obiect ignorance to them that hauing eies in their heads they could not see wee will laugh at it Neither can wee conceiue any other cause alleadged by you but either blinde enuie or enuious blindnesse An irony Concordan li. 2 cap. 13. O blind or enuious Cusan who rested content in the decrees of these Councels and whatsoeuer right belongeth to the Pope doth thinke the same was giuen him by the Church Dâ—fens part 2. de cap. 18. O malicious and dull pated Marsilius Patauine who thought he had no power either aboue Bishops or other Churches by any Law either diuine or humane but that onely which was giuen the Pope either absolutely or for a time in the Nicene Councell If all this power was giuen first by the Scripture not therefore by the Church if by the Church as Cusan and Marsilius say not therefore by the Scripture § 187 The sixt Councell was the Councell of Carthage in the yeere of Christ 418. The Councel of Carthage of 217. Bishops wherein 217. Bishops were assembled among whom Austin was present In which Councell as in the rest the power of all the Patriarches was made equall the right of appealing to the Bishop of Rome to such as were condemned by the Archbishop of their owne Diocesse was denied Which Cardinall Bellarmine notwithstanding doth auow to belong to all Bishops by the Law of God Cap. 25. de primi Rom. sedis yea if any were condemned by a Synode of their own prouince among the Antipodes they might prouoke to the consistorie of the Bishop of Rome Which Cardinall I thinke liues not in our Horizon but with the Antipodes who is wont to tread contrarie steps against so many men aliue not only of ours but against his own Doctors also Vnlesse peraduenture he descended lower then the Antipodes who dare be so bold to goe against so many holy fathers being dead He doth admit with his followers many fraudulent deuices whereby he goeth about to weaken the authoritie of this Councell Boniface the second with one blot of a greeuous accusation doth wipe out all the decrees of that Councell and damnes them all For hee saith that Aurelius sometime Bishop of the Church of Carthage with the rest of his Colleagues among whom was S. Austin began to waxe proud at the instigation of Satan in the times of Boniface and Celestine his predecessours against the Romane Church It is a hard case to say that Austin with his Colleagues at the instigation of Sathan beganne to waxe proud against the Church because they had resisted both by their decrees and letters three proud Romane Bishops Zozimus Boniface and Celestine in a iust cause common to all Churches Apiarius a wicked Preist whom for his lewdnesse in § 188 discharge of his ministerie Apiarius Vrbane the Bishop had iustly depriued appealed to Zozimus Bishop of Rome who sent three Legates Faustine Philip and Asellus to the Councell at Carthage in fauour and aid of Apiarius them he enioyned among other things that they should lay claime in his name to the right of appeales to him and his seat if anie Bishop accused or condemdemned did appeale to Rome that the Bishop of Rome might commit that cause by his letters to bee determined by the next prouinces or send Legates from his side who might sit about the businesse in his turne and with other Bishops might determine of the whole matter To that purpose he deliuered to his Legates the title and instrument of his right written with his owne hand the Canon of the Nycene Councell Concil Carthag 6. cap. 3. whereby he affirmed that the right of appeales was bestowed vpon him The fathers of the Carthaginian Councell assoone as they had heard the Legates answered that they neuer had read anie such thing in the canons of the Councell of Neece and withall willed the Legates that if they had that canon they should giue it to Daniel the publike Notary A false canon offered for a true to reade it openly They in stead of the canon of the Nicene Councel offer the third chapter of the Councel of Sardis but mangled and gelded For in the authenticke it is thus written Osius said If any Bishop be condemned for any cause and thinketh that he haue no euill but a good cause that the iudgement may be againe renewed doth it please you that for charitie we honor the memorie of Peter the Apostle that it may be written of them who haue examined the cause to Iulius the Bishop of Rome and if he shall thinke that the iudgement is to be renewed it be renewed appoint Iudges to that end But if he proue the cause to be such that those things be not repealed which were already spred those which he decreeth shall stand firme if this please all the Sinode answered It pleaseth Council Sard cap 3. apud Surium Tom 1. The Pope corrupteth the words of Osius But the Bishop of Rome curtoling those words of Osius Doth it please you that for charitie we honor the memorie of Peter the Apostle and by writ to Iulius the Rom Bishop goeth on thus Osius the Bishop said It pleaseth that if a Bishop be accused and the Bishops of the same Country being assembled shall iudge and depose him from his degree if be that is cast of do appeale and flye to the Bishop of the Roman Church would haue himselfe heard if he shall thinke it in â—â—t the iudgment be reuerst or do vouchsafe to write the examination of the cause to those Bishops that be of the next Prouince that they make diligent inquirie and determine it according to the credit of the truth And if any man will haue his businesse againe to be heard and shall moue the Bishop of Rome with his petition to send his Legate let it be in his power to do what he will in the businesse and what he shall thinke best The Popes deuise to cosen the African Fathers Here marke the notable tricke wherewith the Bishop of Rome went about to cosen the African Fathers First he pretends a Canon of the Nicene Councell for the right