the whole body politick whereof if the Presbyter or Independent judge themselves to be any part then is the Law even their own deed also as being made by the representatives of the whole wherein they are included as having their most proper representatives in our Parliaments and Convocations the undoubted Legislative Power of this Kingdom And is it reasonable in things of this nature and consequence to give men audience pleading for the overthrow of that which as it were their own very deed hath ratified Laws that have been approved both in Church and State may be no man doubteth again repealed and to that end also disputed against by the same Authority But this most properly is when the whole doth deliberate what Laws each part shall observe and not when a few run counter the Laws which the whole hath made in a full and free Parliament and lawfull Convocation Be it that some reasons induce some persons to be otherwise minded if those reasons be demonstrative and absolutely necessary such I confess discharge consciences and setteth them at full liberty but if probable only what thing was there ever set down so agreeable to sound reason but some probable shew against it may be made Is it meet that when Acts of Parliaments and Canons have been publickly received and long practised that general obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case some few led by some probable conceits should make open protestation of their dissatisfaction Certainly in such cases they are obliged to suspend their judgments for that in otherwise doing they offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause For until the Civil Christian Magistrate whose power it is that I contend for doth otherwise order and determine obedience is to be given to the Laws Ecclesiastical and Civil if not contrary to the word of God Turpis est pars quae universo non congruit suo Out of which premises and of what will follow more particularly I shall take the liberty to assert and conclude that the Church of England in general is undeniably Independent and hath intrinsick power within it self without any forraign aid or dependency or any subordination to any other Person Church or Council to govern it self and that every Parish or Congregation thereof is not so Independent but rather that every particular doth depend upon the whole for that all ought to govern the whole and every particular thereof and every one ought to imploy himself most in that which is most particularly recommended to him and that the true Representatives of this Church of England and of all other National Churches is the Legislative Power thereof and that the King is the chief Governor thereof according to the constituted Laws and Canons thereof § And this Legislative Power hath lawful Authority to constitute all Qualifications unto all publick Ecclesiastical preferments so that they which will not submit to such qualifications shall be uncapable of such publick Benefices and Preferments But neither this nor any other Power throughout the whole Vniverse hath any lawful Authority to forbid the gathering of Churches or stop the mouths of any Bishop or Presbyter to preach the Gospel nor to forbid the solemn assembling together of the Saints or of the Brethren according to their several Commissions viz. go teach all Nations c. 28. Matth. 19.20 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another 10. Hebr. 24.25 if this had not been good Doctrine and practised even by Christ himself his Apostles and their followers maugre all the Interdicts of Jewish and Gentile States and Princes cursed Tyrants the Gospel had never been spread In such Cases where commands of Governments are contrary to commands of God it is undoubtedly better to obey God than Man I have dwelt the longer on this subject of Indepency for that though in truth it the be elder Brother unto Presbyterian Government by 1600 years yet it seems unto most to be but my Lord Musshrome and of yesterdays extract and very little understood by Vulgar Capacities In the Treaty whereof I have taken occasion in some measure to trace both the wayes of the Church and the wiles of the Church-Men from its very Infancy and shall pursue it farther when I come to shew what and who are meant by the term Church so that if possible the Government of the Church may be made easie and intelligible to every understanding Plain dealing is best and truth like beauty is most beautiful when stark naked stript of all paints and School-tricks and Glosses by which truth is more often confounded and defaced than brought unto light in its pure and natural colours § I shall now proceed and say something of the Presbyterian way but shall not meddle with their Model at all it being done and done to my hand it hangs on every Hedg and is decyphered and refelled in an Iliad of Pamphlets and is as perfectly disliked and disgusted as known and therefore I think we may bid them defiance set it up and establish it if they can especially if excommunication the main prop and pillar thereof were taken away without which it must necessarily fall to the ground and which is of no use in any Christian State and which in truth is a nemo scit utterly unknown to Scripture it self as now used especially And yet so fond are they of it and so wedded unto it and such is the selfishness of the Clergy of all perswasions and so great a Biass is their interest and love of domination that the very thought of parting with it doth cut them to the heart and it cannot be got from them without rending and tearing as if it were as perverse as an unclean spirit and though in truth it makes no return considerable unto any of them but what redounds unto their dishonour and reproach I shall only shew some of their tenets and practises by which you may the better judge of them and I shall not go far to fetch them and declare that now to erect and establish that Government here or in any other Christian Common-wealth were to erect Regnum in Regno and then in short process of time upon every difference and dispute as it happened in the State of Venice 1610. where Father Avaraldo a Capuchin being demanded by the Inquisitors at Rome for a certain opinion concerning Anti-Christ and from that Inquisition the process being sent to Bressia where the Father was the Inquisition at Bressia proceeded in the Cause without the Civil Assistants and answered them not without a design to cajole the Civil Magistrate out of his just right by a nice distinction viz. that they ought not to assist but only in causes which were begun at the proper Tribunal but not when the Denuntiation was given at Rome so in a very short time as
sent it by Stephanus and others signifying unto them that though he were absent in Body but present in Spirit had already judged as present him that had so done and therefore advised them in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ that being gathered together and his Spirit with the vertue of the Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one unto Sathan Now it is observable that when St. Paul wrote this Epistle he was absent at Philippi a City of Macedonia and directed it not to any one single person Pope or other but unto the Church of God which was at Corinth and to them that were sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours He did not according to Romish Custom write by his Breves I excommunicate such a one and in one Scrap of Paper send as much as in him lieth Kings and Queens and Emperors nay whole Kingdoms and States to the Devil but he wrote to the Church a Collective Body that being gathered together with his Spirit they should deliver that Incestuous person to Sathan And again when he wrote his Second Epistle he directed it also unto the Church of God which was at Corinth with all the Saints which are in all Achaia declaring it sufficient to such a Man is this Punishment which was inflicted of many admonishing them to forgive and comfort him lest perhaps he should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow whereby it is plain and not to be gainsaid that the Delivering of him unto Sathan be the Punishment be the Censure what it will it was inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Now if Paul an Apostle would not excommunicate or deliver unto Sathan at his own will and pleasure but would consult the Church that the Matter being transacted by common Authority and Approbation the Censure the Punishment might be performed by Common Consent It being most just and equal and of Moral Right that they who to morrow must deliver such a one to Sathan whom to day they account as a Brother dear in Christ should be fully satisfied why and wherefore Now how came Signore Papa alone to be entituled to exercise Powers greater than the Apostle Paul would use What hath he to do with it more than the rest of his Brethren If so interrogated I can make no other Answer but Ignoramus Moreover hath the practice of Christ's Vicars at Rome been correspondent to that of Paul the Apostle of such esteem and prevalency is publick consent with God himself even in the Affairs of the Church that though in his secret Decree Paul and Barnabas were to be set apart for the Work of the Ministry yet by God's own appointment were they separated after Fasting and Prayer to the same by the Church which was at Antioch Acts 13.2 Thereby teaching us not to despise the Office of the Church i.e. of the Multitude of Brethren where it may be had By these very small Hints it is easily discernable what a Nose of Wax the Papalins make both of Scripture and Tradition and Excommunication their great and terrible Thunderbolt even against Kings and Kingdoms not considering the little efficacy it hath What was the State of Venice and her Duke or Queen Elizabeth and her Dominions the worse for Romish Excommunications and Interdicts or what the worse the Kings of Spain for being excommunicated every Maunday Thursday And indeed what the worse his Holiness at Rome for being solemnly excommunicated every year by the Muscovite Fops § Some indeed of later days have intimated a great and just dislike of those who have hitherto endeavoured to hang Excommunication on some doubtful Places of Scripture but yet endeavour to settle it on another Basis viz. on the Nature and Constitution of the Church Christian as a Society Instituted by Jesus Christ whereby they say it is manifest that if Excommunication cannot be established upon some better and other Bottom than what hath hitherto been laid by their Predecessors on some doubtful places of Scripture it must necessarily decay and fall to the ground moreover they most ingenuously confess themselves unsatisfied as to any convincing Argument whereby it can be proved that any were denied Admission unto the Lords Supper who were admitted to all other parts of Church-Society and owned as Members in them § Though I have said enough already sparsim that if rightly applied doth demolish this Fabrick of Fundamental Right yet I will add a little and but a little more viz. that if by the Word Church in these Positions be meant only the Clergy met or not met in Councils Synods Consistories Convocations or Assemblies as the Representatives of the Church Assembled by their own power as by a Fundamental Right grounded on Christs Institution then to say no more is hereby justified Robert Bruce David Blake and those seventeen Scottish Ministers before-mentioned and their Tenets denying the King and his Council to have any Authority in Matters Ecclesiastical For certainly if God hath given them power of themselves to Assemble and Consult and make Laws and hath not withal given them Force and Power to put them in execution they have only a mock and ridiculous Authority which God never instituted nor ordained And if it be not so meant then they either say nothing to the purpose or equivocate But if herein by the Word * By the word Church may be meant either all Believers holding saving Truth in general of what condition or quality soever or else more striftly the collective Body of the Clergy for if we speak right of the Church Universal or this or that Particular Church as of Spain France England c. this Term may be taken in either of those two Sences Church be meant the Civil Power and Laity together with the Clergy then we are Friends and that Fundamental Right arising from the Constitution of the Church derived from Christ himself of Right belongs to the Commonwealth if Christian and to every congregated Number of Believers gathered in any Gentile State or People and united into one Society and not only to the Clergy thereof and the Laity are as capable and have as much Right to be of such Councils and Synods as the Ecclesiasticks Or that the Church be not semper and perpetuo a peculiar Society separate and distinct from the Commonwealth as certainly it is not or that the Officers thereof as limited by these Positions unto Teachers and Pastors injuriously enough if they pretend beyond Teachings Administrations of Sacraments Imposition of hands for Ordination and the publick use of the Keys are not only inflicters or executioners of Church-Censures as certainly they are not then the very Foundation of this Fabrick for the Support and Justification of Excommunication must necessarily fall to the ground It is true that every Church is a Society or Body Politick though every Society or Body Politick is not a Church every
I abhor the thoughts of it as will appear hereafter there being a Vast difference between such a Tolleration of Idolatry Superstition crying sins and therefore absolutely unlawful and a Remission only of some few severities in some Acts Canons and Injunctions which relate only to Formalities that tho in construction of Law may be exacted yet may be dispensed withal without prejudice to sound Doctrine or good Conversation and without which the Worship of God would be as pure and sincere Indeed all Acts Canons and Injunctions whether they relate unto Uniformity or not ought according to their own Nature to be sincere and free from all Traps and Covert designs to exclude any that Profess the same Faith and Worship tho many cannot perhaps thro meer tenderness of Conscience submit to every thing therein enjoyned In Concerns of this Nature Scripture in a more especial manner ought to be the Rule of Resolutions and that abstractly and purely without mixing and bringing with them Interest Usurpation or Artifices of men else what were it but by Edicts to lay Snares in Mispah and spread Nets upon Tabor to use Laws Menaces and subtleties to keep Gods People from his Court and Sanctuary and Confine them to State-Religion and to Walk after the Mode of the Commands of men Those Non-conformists Non-assenters that have received Order which they could not have had but permissu superiorum by the Licence and under the Authority of the King in our Laws expressed For no Man hath Power to give himself either Orders to be a Priest or Institution to a Pastoral Charge but must depend upon another Power who by Acts Canons and Edicts long since published and extant hath directed the qualifications of the Persons to be Ordained the manner and Form how the Persons who ought to Ordain them c. and they could not be ignorant that the Liturgy and enjoyned Ceremonies were by the Imperative Constitutive Government of this Church and State to be Countenanced and used in publick Churches by the Bishops Presbyters and Pastors either they consulted their Consciences when they entered on the Ministery by taking Holy Orders whether they could Comply and Submit unto the whole Frame of Government and Polity of this Church Constituted by Act of Parliament from whom they were to receive Authority and Licence to Exercise their Function Gifts and Talents or they did not If they did not they are inexcusable for entring on so Sacred a Calling Stamped with an Indelible Character so rashly so unadvisedly without perspect or foresight of Consequences and yet if they were so pur-blind as not to see one step before them yet their neglect herein cannot be Pleaded in their Excuse it being their own Fault in Common Justice no Court will permit any man to take Advantage of his own misdemeanors or failings Besides hath not every Minister that hath receiv'd Pastoral Charge twice or thrice if not oftner witnessed his allowance of all and singular the 39 Articles of our Church once at his Ordination before the Bishop then at his Institution into his Benefice before his Ordinary and both these by Subscription under his own hand and afterwards upon his Induction before his own Flock and that by verbal Approbation he hath not only acknowledged in the Church the Power of Ordaining Rites and Ceremonies 20 Articles But he hath after a sort bound himself openly to rebuke such as willingly and purposely break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church as Offenders of the Common Order of the Church and Wounders of the Consciences of the weak Brethren and hurters of the Authority of the Magistrate Artic. 34. and is it not enacted 1º Eliz. c. 2. that they shall be punished pro ut in the Act that shall Preach declare or speak any thing in derogation or depraving our Liturgy c. Are not then such Dissenters obliged both in Conscience and by virtue of their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions to be constant to their own Hands and Tongues if they would be accounted Faithful in Gods House as was Moses And is it reasonable then to hearken unto such Pleading against their own Voluntary Acts and Subscriptions their own Hands and Tongues Besides quo jure with what Face or Conscience can they expect Temples maintenance protection and all things requisite for their Ministery from that Law and Government that they will not Protect Countenance nor submit unto § Indeed it seems to me an old piece of Conscientiousness if not Impiety to enter the Holy Ministerial Function to day when they are sure without Conformity to be silenced to morrow Besides it is Nicety and Indiscretion to exact an express Rule of Scripture or Faith for the Cross in Baptism for standing at the Creed Kneeling at the Lords Beard for Habits in Divine Service the usual sear-Crows of scrupulous men In these cases consent of the Church or Tradition may suffice so there be no express Law of Command to the contrary He that exacts in these Points as express Rules of Faith or Warrant of Scripture for his Obedience to Ecclesiastical Government as he would or as every man ought to do for adventuring upon Worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints c. doth make his Brain or Fancy the chief Seat of his Religion which should be seated in the Heart and Intitles God to the Fancies and Chymaeraes of their own Brains Thus to disobey the Church in these Cases wherein it hath Authority to Command Obedience is to disobey those Mandates of God which give the Body of the Church Authority to make Laws to Govern it self by in things indifferent neither expresly Forbidden nor expresly Commanded by the Law of God I know the Apostles Rule is let every man be fully persâ—â—ded in his own mind 14 Rom. 5. And this full perswasion or assurance of Faith is in the Cases there mentioned necessary because whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin v. 23. This last Maxim is undoubtedly true and the former Precept most exactly to be observed in such Causes as the Apostle there speaks of that is where the positive Practise unless our Warrant be Authentick in it self and evident to us is very dangerous or deadly whereas on the contrary the forbearance of such Practise is either safe or not prejudicial to our Souls but to our Bodies only or State temporal such Ceremonies as be neither against Faith nor adverse to good manners in the Judgment of St. Austin ep 11.8 go for indifferent and may be Born in Christian Unity without Offence or Confusion If God hath left things indifferent what Authority can make them necessary Let them be so still and their nature not changed by any Injunction and Unity will necessarily ensue Quodam modo it may be true that in Ordination there is something which they receive thereby from God Independent of the King or any Civil Power viz. Authority to Tâ—â—ch Baptize and Administer Sacraments by Virtue of Ordination And â—â— is as true that
Canons 1. Of Spiritual things 2. Of Temporal things 3. Of those that are mixt of both the Care of the first belongs to the Pope within his own Territories and to the Ecclesiastical Order observing the Canons With the Second he hath nothing to do out of his own Dominions quatenus a Bishop And Princes ought to take as much care of the third as Church-men if not more And those Princes are too unworthy ignorant and mean that will suffer themselves to be excluded or usurped upon And if the Pope of Rome use all his power to make men believe that Princes ought to be excluded why then do they which have the advantage of many clear Texts of Scripture of the Judgments of Councils and Fathers together with the practice of all times suffer themselves to be so abused If they did understand and would maintain in them the power which God and the people hath given them they would quickly put off the Mask and make those blush that design so to abuse the goodness and simplicity of others and would vindicate themselves from the constant injuries which are offered them and not suffer themselves to be led by the Nose as they are as if they had offended Religion by defending the power which God had granted unto them and the Jurisdiction whereof a Prince ought not to suffer the least diminution but rather put a Flook into their Nostrils as Henry the Eighth did Certainly not only for truth and conscience sake but even for necessity and reason of good Government every Faithful Man but most especially Princes ought carefully to defend and to make the preservation of Religion their chiefest concern and business For this end God hath appointed Princes as his Lieutenants and conferred Greatness and Majesty upon them to make them Protectors Defenders Conservators and Nursing Fathers of his Church in which calling the greatest of them can never give a good account to God neither can it answer the ends of Government they are intrusted withall by God and Man except it be by a continual and Vigilant care in matters of Religion And how be it there be many abuses yet that is not to be imputed to the fault of Religion which is in it self true James 1.4 pure and Holy but unto them that abuse it Perfection and absolute purity endeavoring to be perfect and intire wanting nothing is the very end whereunto the Church and every Individual thereof ought to pretend and aspire unto tho it be not the path wherein they alwayes tread Tho divers Times do require divers Laws and Orders and tho Popes for the more excellent Government should make more reasonable Laws than other Princes which is not reasonable to believe and should impose them to be received which he ought not to do yet as in the World nothing can be held unchangeable and every custom ought to be accommodated to the time and persons so it is to be done by them only whom in reason and of just right it concerns to do it and by no others viz. by the lawful and natural Prince by the advice and consent of his people and not by the Pope If any one not lawfully called thereunto could rule common business of himself which tho he did do with good intent and happy Issue yet did he nevertheless transgress Divine and humane Laws For to give just force unto a Law it is not sufficient that it be convenient and reasonable for that it is essential that it be made by those who have full power to make them and this not only for the preservation of Power and Jurisdiction but also for the necessity of a good Government It is a strange piece of Jesuitical non-sensical Polity to hearken unto them when they tell us that Laws in all Kingdoms may be without confusion because they are of force and in use at Rome and yet things are there in a quiet and peaceable condition the State of Rome being different from that of other Princes For that the Romans most impudently and against all reason affirm that they are above these Ordinances if they think sit they may or may not observe them or dispence with them and they do wonderfully serve for their ends as well when they are observed as when they are disobeyed because they are not to be ruled by the Laws but they do rule and govern the Laws In other Kingdoms when the Laws are once published and received they are no more in the Princes power they must then run to Rome to seek a Remedy where they regard not what is behooful to another State but to their own and what will serve their own Turn and Ends best Their great Design being to monopolize under colour of Religion the Administration of some certain things without which States cannot be governed by which means Rome would become Mistress of the World and judge of all Governments proposing that if there be any Inconvenience they should have recourse to the Pope and he will redress But the Remedy which comes not from the same Prince but from them who have their proper and distinct Interests is worser than the disease God whose works are perfect and who is the Author of all Principalities and Order gives to every Government as much power as is necessary to Govern it self well neither will he have it acknowledged from any other but from his Divine Majesty All that which Kings acknowledge from others but from God and their own Subjects is meer Slavery and Subjection whether in Civil or Ecclesiastick concerns § As it is destructive to Kings to acknowledge the Pope to have the least power in the making of their Laws so it is no less destructive to allow him any priviledge to suspend them it being nothing less than to confess a want of Wisdom or of Authority to ordain them which in effect is to cut the very sinews of Government which must needs be hazarded if they grant him but a power by his Censures to constrain them but unto a Suspension a thing deadly pernitious to the liberty of all Soveraign Princes who must necessarily rest deprived of all Soveraignty when they submit themselves unto the Pope who shall have power by his Excommunications or Interdicts to force them to regulate or suspend their Laws and Ordinances after his Will and pretence of Ecclesiastical libâ—rty will produce this monstrous effect that no Law shall be exempt from the Censure of the Pope seeing he attributeth to himself Authority to define and determine even against the opinion of all the World what Laws are just or unjust nay but to suspend the least Law for fear or at the menace of another necessarily infers a Subjection And to give Popes never so little in things of this nature is but to make them more Insolent and to give them encouragement to demand and stuggle for more and to minister occasions to conceive pretensions above all Princes for what power soever they now enjoy beyond Preaching
milites tuos subtrahis and a little after requirat ergo Dominus meus piissimus quis prior imperatorum talem legem dederit subtilius extimet si debuit dari And concluding in the end what it is that he desires of the Emperor saith unde per eundem tremendum Judicem deprecor ne illae tantae lachrimae tantae orationes tanta jejunia tantaeque elemoslnae Domini mei ex qualibet occasione apud omnipotentis Dei oculos fuscentur sed aut temperanda pietas vestra aut mutando rigorem ejusdem legis inflectat such humble and decent remonstrance well-becoming a Pious Bishop or Pastor deserves not to be termed by Bellarmine A sharp reprehension But what follows is yet more worthy to be considered Ego quident jussioni subjectus eandem legem per diversas partes terrarum transmitto quia lex ipsa omnipotenti Deo minime concordat ecce per suggestionis meae paginam Dominis nuntiavi utrobique ergo quae debui exolvi qui Imperatori obedientiam praebui pro Deo quod sensi minime tacui By which humble expressions it appears that it was not a sharp reprehension but rather an humble and respective remonstrance which hath no agreement with the Doctrine wich Bellarmine hath published wherein he makes the Pope Supream Temporal Monarch and the Princes of the World less than his Vassals as his words do necessarily infer altho they dare not yet avow it in express terms Consider Reader whether Gregory calling himself so often the Emperors unworthy Servant and his saying that as one that acknowledgeth himself subject to his Commandement he had sent abroad into divers parts of the World a Law which in his conscience he held not to be just And that other saying of his that in so doing he rendred unto the Emperor that obedience that was due unto him whether I say these Speeches do agree with the Doctrine which Bellarmine hath published who ever desires to know more of Gregory's modesty prudence and submissive deportment towards his Lord the Emperor may receive full satisfaction if he please to read his 64th Epistle I shall end this with this observation of Bellarmines great subtilty in that he forbears to quote the place it self of Gregory being so exact and subtle in his Allegation of other places But what if Pope Gregory did sharply reprove him It was but his duty Quatenus a Bishop which priviledge belongs to all Bishops as well as to the Pope as being in the same Commission viz. Tell Judah of her sins and Israel of her transgressions so it is but according to the duty of all Priests to dispense the word of truth be therewith displeased who will And all being granted it makes nothing at all for the Impery of Popes over Princes His next Fortress Ch. Novit examined is the Chapter Novit which because it most particularly concerned John King of England you shall have the true ground and History thereof This Chapter Novit de Judiciis was indeed admirably well designed and well Calculated for Papal Grandeur and Impery but not in the least what pretence soever was held out for the just right of Kings or of any other Mode of Civil Government good of Christians or glory of God It was designed purposely by Innocent the Third to trample on the necks of Kings as once that Monster Alexander the Third did on the prostrate neck of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa blasphemously arrogating to himself for his warrant Psalm 91.13 Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under thy feet as if David more than 1000 years before there was any Pope should particularly Prophesie of Popes And he followed this blow with all the might he had by endeavoring to put it in practice on John King of England and Philip Augustus King of France But the truth is he wanted the Welch-mans Back-sword with two Edges for he neither had the true Bilbo-blade Temporal Power sufficient to force obedience nor yet the Sword of the Spirit Rightful Authority to do what he did He only sent out his Voice yea and that a mighty voice by thundring out his abominable Excommunications which only proved to be vox praeterea nihil Take the Scene and History as it then lay After long Wars between Philip Augustus King of France and Richard King of England About Anno Dom. 1199. Richard died and his Brother John surnamed Lackland succeeded him either by the Nomination or appointment of his Brother as some affirm or by Usurpation upon Arthur who was Son to Geossery another Elder Brother of his But those Territories which John possessed in France submitted themselves to the Dominion of Arthur followed the faction of the French King and was supported by him But at length about Anno Dom. 1200. by means of a Marriage between Lewis Son and Heir and Successor of the French King and Blanche of Castile King John's Sisters Daughter of which Marriage issued afterwards St. Lewis A Peace was concluded between Philip and John wherein Arthur was likewise comprised upon this Condition that John should do Homage to Philip for the Dominions of Brittany and Normandy and Arthur should do Homage for the same unto John After this upon some occasion that fell out Arthur was put in Prison by his Uncle the King of England and there died Anno Dom. 1203. and the common opinion was that he was murthered by his Uncles command whereupon Philip Augustus as Chief Lord of the Fee caused John to be cited to Paris and upon default of his appearance condemned him and confiscated those Territories which he held of him and went afterwards with an Army to seize them into his hands by force John pretended that this was directly against the Peace and Treatise between them and made his complaint to Innocent the Third who commanded both the Kings upon pain of Excommunication to keep Peace and to surcease from War and sent also a Legate unto them for that purpose John for whose advantage this Commandment was did gladly embrace but Philip found himself much grieved and took great exceptions against it and so did the Prelates of France in this behalf unto whom Innocent the Third made that answer contained in the Chapter Novit Philip for all that desisted not from his former purpose but went on and conquered by the Sword all the Territories that the English at that time possessed in France neither could the Pope prevail any thing by his Commands In the year 1208. Innocent the Third Excommunicated John and Interdicted his whole Kingdom which continued six years and three months yet did not John yield to obey the Pope in that he required of him The Pope sent Pandulphus his Legate into France to Philip to perswade him to make War upon John Philip made his preparations accordingly and many Barrons of England combined themselves with him but in the mean time Pandulphus coming into
it is possible so it is very probable that both the Independent and Presbyterian Government would incroach and intrench on the Civil Powers so natural is it for every power to incroach upon another and either jostle it quite out of doors or make the Civil subservient to the ecclesiastical Power the sad effects of which hath been manifested in Scotland already where the Presbytery when they will speak out plainly claim to be coordinate at least with the Civil Jurisdiction and if we consult their practises we shall find them Paramount § According to Sa. Rutherford there is a mutual and reciprocal subjection of Magistrate and Pastor Pastors as subject in a Civil Relation and Magistrates as they have Souls and stand in need to be led to Heaven are under Pastors and Elders For if they hear not the Church and commit incest they are to be cast out of the Church 18. Matth. 1. Cor. 5.16 Rom. 17.1 1. Thes 3.14.15 that God respecteth not the Persons of Kings and we find them not excepted If the Preachers of the Gospel be to all believers over them in the Lord 1. Thes 5.12 1. Tim. 5.17 they have some Authority over the Christian Magistrate Divine Right of Church Government and Excommunication Presbytery displayed printed 1644. and reprinted 1663. together with the forms of Church Policy claimed and presented to the Convention at Edenburgh in January 1560 drawn up by Knox and to the Parliament of Scotland and sitting in Striveling 1578. by Mr. Andrew Melvil and together with their particular proceedings justifying their Arguments by their Facts truly related by King Charles the first in his large Declaration concerning the late tumults in Scotland printed 1639. do abundantly make it appear that their Maxims relating to Church and State Policy are the same with the Jesuits their Sermons delivered according to the Dialogue of Becanus Scippius and Eudaeman Johannes and their Arguments to be taken out of Bellarmine and Suarez as may also appear by King James his monitory Preface and his Apologia for the Oath of Allegiance and by the Books written in Defence of them both To this Assertion also give Testimony the Writings of Buchanan and Knox c. of old and Sa. Rutherford in his Lex Rex printed 1644. and his Plea for Presbytery printed 1642. and his Divine Right of Church Government and excommunication printed 1646. and a 100 more Pamphlets of later days § If we examine their practises in particulars most notoriously known we shall find them answerable to their Positions Upon the return of Angus Arrol and Huntley Popish Lords Fugitives for some Rebellious designs into Scotland Anno. 1596. K. I. and convention meeting in August at Falkland intended to shew some favour to them which being ratified at another convention of the States at Dunfermling in Septemb. the Church forsooth took pet at it and thereupon entred into a Combination to cross and prevent it K. J. for the better preservation of his Realm in peace and setled quietness consulted with much kindness Mr. Robert Bruce as one for whom the King had a particular kindness and the most leading man amongst them who was very willing that Angus and Arrol should return on the conditions proposed but by no means would admit that Huntley should return though he marryed the Kings Cousin whom he accounted as his own Daughter and offered to satisfie the Church and fulfil the conditions required and one who had the greatest power amongst them and therefore his Interest most likely to do the K. most service or most prejudice whereupon Bruce most insolently replyed I see Sir that your resolution is to take Huntly into favour which if you do I will oppose and you shall choose whether you will lose Huntley or me for us both you cannot keep There 's your Presbiter in his right Colours This done the Commissioners of the Church which Stile they most wrongfully assume and monopolize to themselves only as if the King his Council and Parliament I might say the meanest of their Congregations were not as much of the Church as themselves assembled at Edenburgh where they ordained to acquaint all the Presbiteries with what had been done and passed finding great fault with the Conditions granted to Huntly and the rest by the King and the Conventions as bringing a manifest hazard both to Church and State and therefore was desired to inform their flocks and both by publick Doctrine and private Conference to stir up the Country people to apprehend the danger to be in readiness to resist the same Oh brave Sheba's Trumpeters of Sedition and Commotion a speedy way to set a whole Kingdom against the King in a trice they proceeded yet farther by proclaiming a day of Humiliation through the whole Country to be on the first Sunday mark that in December that in Nomine Domini they might with the better grace fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fist of Wickedness and the cause assigned was the return of the excommunicated Lords whereby danger was threatned to Religion mostly made a Dequoy to intice heady and highminded men and despisers of Government not modeled by themselves to Rebellion and therefore the Presbyteries should call before them their Entertainers Resetters and such as keep company with them and proceed summarily with the censures of the Church una citatione quia periclitatur salus ecclesiae Reipublicae I wonder where this Jure Divino Power is to be found that they assumed this Prerogative to Cite Summon c. any for causes of Rebellion or censure by excommunication A meer device of their own which they can never make clearly out either what it is or of what extent or if there be any such thing that they only have power to execute it or that they can delegate it Nor rested they here but ordained that a number of Commissioners selected out of all the quarters of the Country should reside at Edenburgh to receive advertisements as should be sent from other places and take advice upon the most expedient in every case and in every business that occurred by direction of this Council which by a new name was now forsooth called the Council of the Church And was not this to erect Regnum in Regno If the punishment and pardon of Rebels be not a civil affair I do not see what is But rather than they will have their power docked they will by their Inordine ad Spiritualia their Pastoral Sheep-hook hook even Crowns and Diadems within the verge of their mitered Caps and Powers Whilst these things were agitated divers conferences passed between the King and them wherein the King and his Council made many prudent and gracious Offers and condescentions with great respect to the priviledges of the Church but no reasonings prevailing with them the King was forced to express and said that there could be no agreement so long as the marches of the two Jurisdictions were not distinguished that in their
his own sanctions and to publish and teach his truths or to contradict impede or alter any of his Laws which are so Righteous and just that they may be exercised and practised under any worldly Government without clashing with it or interrupting it the Subjects of whose Kingdom being true to the Principles of Christian Religion viz. to love one another even their Enemies and their neighbours as themselves to do justly to love mercy to obey Kings and all that are in Authority in all civil and moral affairs and to pray for them and pay tribute c. can never fairly be accounted as seditious Separatists Schismatical or Trayterous or that they worshipping God innocently according as Christ himself hath instituted can be justly liable to Bonds Mulcts Imprisonments or can come under any other Jurisdiction as to their Worship and Service of God It is true the Jews did hate him de facto the chief Priests Sadduces Scribes and Pharisees being the chief Inquisitors and Instigators did by Menaces Prohibitions Prisons Dungeons Beatings Stonings what not Forbid him his Apostles and Disciples to publish his Gospel or teach in his Name Nay they did not use force only but craft also and yet all would not do They took Counsel how they might intangle him in his talk and sent unto him some of their own Disciples to catch him about paying of Tribute to Caesar 22 Mat. 15.12 Mark 13 14. Accused him of Blasphemy 14 Mark 64. and of perverting the Nation and for forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar for stirring up the people teaching throughout all Jury 23 Luke 2.5 And if we let him alone all men will believe on him and the Romans shall come and will take away our place and Nation 11 Joh. 48. And yet for all this and more when some of the Pharisees spake to Christ to rebuke his Disciples for praising God for all the mighty works they had seen answered that if these should hold their peace the Stones would immediately cry out 19 Luk. 37.40 Did his Apostles and Disciples speed better than their Master I trow not They falsly accused Steven of Blasphemy and stoned him 7 Acts. The High Priest with the sect of the Sadduces put the Apostles in Prison for Preaching the Gospel but God sent an Angel by Night who opened the Prison doors and brought them forth and maugre all their rage against them commanded them to go stand and speak in the Temple to the People all the words of this Life and they accordingly without dread of farther Persecution and without asking leave of any Authority entred into the Temple early in the Morning and taught and when the Captain of the Temple had found them so teaching brought them again before the High Priest who strictly charged them that they should not teach in the Name of Jesus Christ for that they had filled Jerusalem with his Doctrine intending to bring his Blood upon them As high and as home a charge I confess as can be laid against any now What answer made they we ought to obey God rather then man Though they were cut to the heart at this convincing and unanswerable repartie and took Council to slay them Yet when Gamaliel had advised them that it was hard sighting against God they followed his advice and did refrain from them and let them alone on this grand reason for if this Council or this work be of Men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it least happily ye be found to sight against God And to him they agreed yet beat them and commandâ—d that they should not speak in the Name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the Council but yet ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ daily in the Temple and in every house 5 Acts 17.42 I 'le trouble you with no Applications or Reflections do but turn the Tables awhile and consider that if all the Reproaches Calumnies Lies and Slanders cast on our worthy Prelates and Priests of late should be taken for truth and they thereupon silenced and deprived without being impleaded or convicted would they not think themselves very hardly dealt withal And was not such their case fresh yet in our own memories And was it unjust then in them And is it just now in others because the Scene is altered and the Tables turned Doth God pervert Judgment Or doth the Almighty pervert Justice 8 Job 3. And shall we follow such examples of Men vile Men perverting all Judgment and Justice Absit It is unbeseeming no See episcopal no not that of Rome it self nor indeed any of that most reverend Coat high or low to become Servants unto all that they may gain the more nor to be made all things to all Men that by all means they might save some nor yet to humble themselves to all wayes and means conducing to the gaining of Souls to Jesus Christ no nor to warn every one night and day in Church or Conventicle with tears and from House to House 20 Acts 20. Cura animarum being undoubtedly the main duty and glory both of Priest and Prelate and to be apt to teach to be instant in season out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort with all long suffering and doctrine 2 Tim. 4.1.2 For hereunto most especially if not only they are called as was Aaron and if not called to this duty they are called unto none as I know of by any Patent or Commission from Heaven Salvation and Damnation of Souls is of everlasting consequence and of the highest concern in the World to every Individual and is it not reasonable then that every Man should have Liberty and free Access to that Ministry whether Publick or private under which he can profit most Moreover if causeless fears and jealousies that Conventicles may Nurse and nuzzle up a faction averse to present Constitutions and to preserve a party in animosity against the establisht Government of Church and State and that their Pastors will abuse their callings to the subversion of Church and State if such reasonings may prevail happily all the Orders of the Church and all the Ordinances of God nay Scripture it self may be forbidden as in the Church of Rome by the very same Logick For if a thing Lawful in it self may be forbidden out of causeless fears and jealousies only of being abused no Man can be assured of the exercise and enjoyment of his calling whether Priestly or Prelatical though never so Warrantable never so strictly commanded by the word of God It is not unworthy of consideration whether a Divine Precept so Solemnly binding conscience with a VVo attending the non-performance of the duty enjoyned can Lawfully be superseded by any humane Law for fear only that evil may ensue Besides this liberty is indulged to them in some Popish Countries as in France Poland Germany and even by Mahumetans and is it not bitter then to be wounded in the house of
The Prince on the other side though he pretend not to Preach Baptise impose hands administer Sacraments use the Keys or the like yet deems it more particularly and more especially within his Province to take care of these Priests and Priestly things to see that the Persons be able and well quallified and that they execute the Mandat according to the Doctrine of Faith and of the Gospel of Jesus Christ And as to countenance and maintain these that do perform their Function accordingly so to silence and punish those that do not else why should he be blamed for giving liberty to a Popish Priest or Phanatick Quaker more than unto an Independant or Presbyterian § A King is he that Ruleth others and the relation of the Word doth teach us that there can be no King but in respect of his Subjects and his duty towards them is to direct to command and punish in all things needful Where God chargeth the King to keep and observe all the words of the Law keeping and observing are not there referred to his private Actions as a Man but to his publick Functions as a King and therefore the Kings in these words received the charg and oversight of the whole Law that is an express command from God to see the Law kept and every part thereof observed of all men within his Dominions and the breakers of it Prophets Priests and People to be punished Now the Law contained all things that any way touched the true Service and Worship of God and therefore the Kings had one and the self same power to command and punish as well in the Precepts of Piâ—ty as other points of Policy neither did God favour or prosper any of the Kings of Israel or Judah but such as chiefly respected and carefully maintained the Ordinances of Religion prescribed unto them in Moses Law This Power is granted to belong to Princes even by some Papists themselves witness that moderate and learned Servite Padre Paolo throughout his History of the Inquisition where he complains and avers that amongst the perverse opinions of which this our unhappy Age is full this also is preached that the care of Religion doth not belong to the Prince that in other times Holy Bishops did not preach nor recommend any thing more to Princes than the care of Religion they warned them of nothing nor modestly rebuked them for any thing more than for their carelesness in it And now nothing is more preached than that to the Prince belongeth not the charge of Divine things though contrariwise the Holy Scripture be full of places wherein Religion is commended to the protection of Princes by the Divine Majesty which also promiseth Peace and Prosperity to those States where Piety is savoured and Desolation and Destruction threatned to those States wherein Divine things are held as Alien David though being entred into a Kingdom out of Order both internally and externally and being very busie both in Wars and framing a politick Government yet did set his chief care on matters of Religion Solomon entring into a quiet and exceeding well ordered Kingdom regarded also Religion more than any other part of the Government The Princes most applauded in former Ages as Constantine Theodosius Charlemain St. Lewis and others made it their chief care and travail to protect and rule the Affairs of the Church It is a great deceit to set forth this part as a thing of less moment since the neglect of this doth provoke the divine wrath experience tells that a State cannot stand untroubled where change of Religion cometh for that true Religion is the foundation of States He that ruleth over Men must be just ruling in the fear of God 2 Sam. 23.3 It is an abomination to Kings to commit wickedness for the Throne is established by righteousness 16. Prov. 12.14 It were a great absurdity to leave the total care of it to others under pretence that they are spiritual where temporal Authority will not reach or that a Prince hath any greater charge or imployment than this § As it is manifest that the Prince is not Pretor nor Prefect nor Proveditore no nor Priest nor Bishop So it is as true that he is to oversee and cause them to do their duties both the one and the other And here lieth the deceit that the particular care of Religion is proper to the Officers of the Church as the Civil Government is to the Prince who ought to do neither the one nor the other but is to direct all and to take heed that none do fail in his Office This being the Princes charge as well in matters of Religion as in any other part of the Government And as in other matters the Prince is to be informed of all occurrences so ought he to be particularly advertised of all that happeneth in matters of Religion And I conceive that therefore a Prince is more bound than a private Subject to fear and to serve God to be both zealous and jealous of his holy Faith to honour cherish and defend Gods true Church that he as Pope Eleutherius writ to King Lucius being Christs Vicar in his own Dominions should discharge Christs Place and Commands and also more bound to avoid Hypocrisie Superstition and all open and scandalous sins to preserve his Dignity and maintain his State and Royalty in the exercise of Religion Because Regis exemplum in numerabiles populos catervatim secum ducit and least that happen to his People which sometime fell out to the Jews through Moses long absence who thinking that in him they were deprived of the true God made themselves one of Gold § It is agreed by all That God hath not left humane Nature destitute of such remedies as are necessary to its conservation and that Rule and Dominion being necessary to the conservation where that Rule and Dominion is granted there all things necessary for the support of that Rule and Dominion are granted also It is farther granted also that supreme power ought to be entire and undivided and cannot else be sufficient for the protection of all if it do not extend over all without any other equal power to controul or diminish it and that therefore the supreme Temporal Magistrate ought to command Ecclesiastical persons as well as Civil Look back a little into the old Testament and consider the Jewish Church and Republick of which the Lord himself doth testify 4. Deut. 7.8 That his people hath Statutes and Laws so just and wise that the Institutes of no people that the Sanctions of no Republick that no Ordinances howsoever wisely constitute were able to compare with them therefore methinks that the Church and State should be most divinely and wisely ordered that cometh as near as the circumstances of the present matter will permit to the Constitution of the Jewish Church and State in which matters were so ordered by God that we find not any where two diverse Judicatories concerning manners the one
for Supremacy over Causes and Persons Ecclesiastical and Civil but let them accompt it their most Supreme Service to attend on that Supremacy so shall more honour and sanctity pass from Pope and Presbyter to Kings and Emperors and more efficacy and vertue from Kings to Ministers more Grace and happiness from both to the People § Excommunication The main Argument used both by Pope and Presbyter to raise the Miter and Consistory above the Crown is drawn from the power of the Church in Excommunication which Sword Church men only claim and wherewith they think they may as freely strike Princes as Princes may strike them with their Temporal Sword of both which a word in general and also in particular as it relates to Princes Excommunication that great Popish and Presbyterian Thunderboult and Diana of their Discipline claimed to be their due Jure Divino and so highly exalted by them that it is not more monopolized nor advanced higher at Rome than it would be here by them within their Precincts if not curbed by the Civil Magistrate so apt it is to be tyrannically abused by Pope and Presbyter for experience tells us that if they might have their Will they would by virtue thereof put such a Spiritual Pad-lock upon the Temporal Sword and by their In ordine ad Spiritualia take such fast hold of it themselves that if they and Christian Princes should chance to differ they may be sure so long as their Doctrine concerning it will be believed to have the drawing of it themselves and leave poor Christian Princes to whom the Sword of Right more antient than Papacy or John Calvins Presbytery more properly belongs to defend themselves with the Scabbard for which several of them have paid dear witness amongst others those 17 Scotish Ministers who being convented before the Council of Scotland for holding a solemn Assembly at Aberdeen without the Kings leave 2. July 1605. utterly denied the Authority both of King and Council in that behalf affirming that in matters Ecclesiastical they neither ow nor ought to acknowledge themselves in any subjection either to the King or to his Council and that all spiritual differences should be tryed and determined by the Church meaning thereby themselves the Clergy for which cause and for denying the Kings Supremacy 6 of the chief of them were arraigned and condemned at Blackness in Scotland January 10. 1605. and how insolently some of the same Tribe vsed King James more than once he himself hath published in Print and their imperious exhorbitances may be read as in several other Books so in Presbytery Displayed printed 1644. and how they used King Charles the first I. M. hath demonstrated in his Tenure of Kings therein manifesting that they founded the Premises that enabled the Phanaticks to conclude that sanguinary and unparalled Catastrophe And that their good deeds also may be remembred we do recount them to have been very instrumental in the restoration of the Son which is some kind of expiation for their injuries done unto the Father Some and those of no small esteem in the Church are of opinion that the exercise of Excommunication was then only needful when no visible Church had any legal or civil remedy to preserve its unity or purge it self of gross Offenders or that the right or power of Excommunication which the Apostles and immediate Successors had did utterly expire when once whole Cities and Common-wealths became Christian and were enabled from the Supreme Civil Magistrate to punish Offenders and to enact coercive and penal Laws and other means necessary for the spreading and promulgating of the Gospel Sure I am that experience hath made it more than probable that after the Church and Common-wealths were so linked and interwoven together that every Member of the Common-wealth was enforced to become a Member of the Church and to be so admitted by the Church Governours the edge of this spiritual Sword was very much abated and the force of former spiritual Ordinances became stifled with the multitude of those persons against whom they were directed whether the defect be in the power it self or in such as have but to do not use it as they ought certain it is that this branch of discipline is not in our days so effectual as in former times it hath been The meer spiritual Power with which alone the Apostles and their Immediate Successors were endued was of greater efficacy than both the remainder of the like spiritual Power in Dermier Bishops and Pastors and all the strength of secular Civil Power wherewith Princes States or Kingdoms since the mutual incorporation of Common-wealths and Churches have as they were in conscience and Jure Divino bound assisted Prelates and Church Governours of this nature seems to be the Apostolical Rod. 1. Cor. 4.21 wherewith Paul threatneth the Corinthians whereby is meant as he explains himself 2. Cor. 13.10 ch 10.16 ch 13.2 To use sharpness to revenge all unrighteousness not to spare all which are expressions of a certain miraculous vertue of impossing punishment Thus Annanias and Saphira fell down dead 14. Acts 13. Elymas was smitten with blindness 1. Tim. 1.2 Himeneus Alexander and the Incestuous Corinthian were delivered to Sathan 1. Cor. 55. § To deliver to Sathan was plainly a point of miraculous Power which inflicted torment on the Body such as Saul in former times felt after his departure from God as Chrisostome and other Fathers interpret This is certain when the earthly powers used not their right of punishing God had given them to purge and defend the Church what was wanting in human aid God himself supplied by divine assistance After the Emperors took on them the Patronage of the Church whose office was to punish them that troubled the Church without or within the forenamed divine punishment expired And most properly that divine execution of revenge was the jurisdiction of God not of Men because the whole work was Gods not the Apostles God that he might give testimony to the truth of the Gospel preached as at the Apostles Prayers or presence or touch he healed diseases and cast out Divils so at their imprecation commanded men to be vexed with Diseases and seized by Divils Nor did Paul more by delivering men to Satan than did Peter and John by curing the lame man who say they did nothing by their own Power Acts 12. and ascribe the whole effect to God At the Prayers also of the Church did God often shew the like signs of his displeasure therefore are the Corinthians 1. Cor. 5.2 blamed that they mourned not to the end the Incestuous person might be taken away from among them And to the same effect is that wish not command of the Apostles to the Galatians 5.12 would they were cut off that trouble you This kind of Excommunication if it may be so called was a Corporal punishment and there is no appearance of any internal obduration by the binding power of Pope or Presbyter and
a great wonder in his Judgment that the Pope was never thought infallible till this last age since this Pasce implies this also so clearly and if the Hereticks do not believe that his Holiness hath power to make new Articles of Faith and when they cry shame upon Pope Pius the Fourth for adding Twelve new Articles to the old Apostles Creed it is because they are ignorant and know not what Pasce signifieth In sum this one Word with them contains more Matter than all the Bible besides It works Miracles makes the Pope omnipotent gives him all power not only in Heaven and on Earth but even in Purgatory a place that God knows nothing of for if you ask by what Authority he takes upon him to pardon Sins and Souls after Death to give or sell the Saints Merits to dispence with Oaths to depose Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms or if he list to murder them c. If you look the Popes Lexicon as Dr. Potter well observes you shall find that Pasce expresly denotes all this Authority and enables him to be not only a Prince or a Pastor or Bishop but even a Butcher too by the self-same Logick for what is murdering of Kings and that by Mariana his quacunque arte less than savage Butchery For according to Sententia Baronii Cardinalis super excommunicatione Venetorum Ministerium Petri est duplex pascere occidere Feed my Sheep Joh. 21.15 16 17. Kill and eat Acts 10.13 dixit enimei Dominus Pasce oves meas Joh. 21.15 16 17. Audivitque è Coelo vocem occide manduca Acts 10.13 The Words I confess are plain and words of truth and their natural Sence obvious to every Capacity but such Conclusions and Deductions from them as are drawn by the Popes Partizans and Sycophants are strangely uncouth and utterly unknown to right Reason and so notoriously false that they carry their own Confutation in their Foreheads that they that run may read them and need no other Answer yet in their due place they shall be touched § But to return The Esteem and Powers allotted to the Brethren or body of the Church by the Apostles they did preserve unto themselves above 250 years after Christ which is very plain and manifest by the abundant Testimony of the most Antient Fathers and Old Canons as by Clement First Bishop of Rome who lived in or near the Apostles days by Tertullian and Cyprian who lived in the Third Century with divers others but because to cite the whole Caravan of Witnesses at large and in particular would make this very Paragraph swell into a Volume I forbear and shall only gently touch some of them hereafter that by them you may guess at the rest § As in the first and purest times the Name and Title of Church was common to all Congregations and Societies of Believers so unto them also according to all antient Records did belong also the Use and Propriety of the Goods which were called Ecclesiastical in which times the poor and the Ministers had their Food and Rayment from one common Fund or Bank and which is observable those were more principally provided for than these But not long after this excellent Use was perverted by the Subtilty of the Clergy and the poor put in the lowest place which according to the former Use ought to have continued in the first and chiefest And when the Name of the Church became appropriated to the Clergy only all other Christians being excluded then that was applied to few which belonged to all and that to the rich which first served for the poor In the beginning of those Times the Clergy having divided among themselves all the Revenues of the Church the Charges which before were and were called Ministeries and Offices of Spiritual Care the Temporalty and Profits being now most esteemed were now called Benesices and so long as the Old Canons remained that one man should not be Ordained unto Two Titles Titulus was the Old Word for a Church Many Ages after Christ A Bishoprick before the World was divided into Parishes was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Parish and whoever was Ordeined in and for one Bishoprick he could not belong unto two And for many Ages there were no Tithes paid or due but the Church and Clergy were maintained by the Oblations of the People and those by the old Canons divided into four parts none could have more than one Benefice But the Revenues being by Wars or Inundations diminished and become not sufficient for their Maintenance one Man might hold two yet so as that he should attend them both This was begun in favour not of the Man Benesiced but of the Church which because it could not have a proper Minister might have at least some other Service upon pretence of the insufficiency of the Benefice and that none could be found to serve in them they began to grant more of them unto one though no necessity appeared for the Service of the Churches and the Mask being taken away by little and little they were not ashamed to do it for the Man Benesiced But the World being scandalized thereat there was a Moderation used whereupon a distinction began of Men tied to Residence and not tied and of Benesices compatible and not compatible calling those of Residency incompatible one with another Trattato delle materie benesiciarie 144 145 c. and the other compatible with these and with themselves yet the Gloss of the Canonist to make a shew at least of Honesty always declared that many Benefices should not be given to one but when one is not sufficient for maintenance But they cut this Sufficiency very large proportioning it not to the Person but to the Quality not esteeming it sufficient for an ordinary Priest if it were not enough for himself the Family of his Parents three Servants and an Horse and more if he were Noble and Learned And it is strange how much they allowed for a Bishop in regard of the Decorum he was to keep For Cardinals it is sufficient to note the common Saying of the Court that they are equal unto Kings by which they conclude Aequiparantâ—r Regibus 144. that no Revenue is too much for them except it be more than enough for a King The Custom being begun and neither the World nor Equity being able to resist it the Popes reserved to themselves power to dispence with the Incompatible and to have more than two of the other But to find a colourable way to put this in practice they laid hold on Commendaes Commendaes a thing instituted at first to good purpose but after used to this end only For when by reason of Wars Pestilence and other such Causes the Election or Provision could not be made so soon the Superiour did recommend the vacant Church to some honest and worthy man to take care of it besides the care of his own until a Rector were provided who
vel indignos recusandi quod ipsam videmusde divina Authoritate descendere ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur c. whereby it appears that the supream Power of choosing such Priests as are worthy and refusing unworthy doth principally rest in the People And he speaketh of Bishops particularly although in the words alledged he mentioneth Priests and withal it is not only St. Cyprians Epistle but the Epistle of thirty six Bishops and written to the Common People of Leon Asturia and Emerita Vide his 14. Epist of his 3. Lib. such Authorities we may alledge but not mystical and enforced Explications nor yet wrong Conclusions from right Premisses The Faithful Flock of Christ ought to resemble Sheep indeed in humility and innocency yet ought they not to be so sheepish or sottish as to decline the Authority which Christ their great Shepherd hath bestowed on them either of choosing them a Good or of judging a Wicked Shepherd St. Austin proves unanswerably that Doctrines are to be grounded on the Literal Sense of the Scripture and not on any Mystical Interpretation In this equivocating Art of Sophistry Bellarmine hath shewed both in this Subject as in others his great dexterity first to settle with the Reader the Relation which the Holy Church hath towards the Divine Majesty and then to conclude on the Relation towards the Pope such false Sophistry such disingenuity becomes not so great a Prince so great a Scholar as himself but the Parisians no Protestants conclude that God hath called the Church to the Faith and his Worship and that he hath placed Christ over it for an Head for ever who first himself did govern it on Earth in the days of his Flesh but being ascended into Heaven doth rule it with inward influence and assistance invisible unto the end of the World It is true that the Church is not a Common-wealth as Venice or as Geneva which give as much Authority as themselves please to their Dukes and Princes nor a Kingdom which may change the manner of governing it neither invisibly nor visibly because that Christ hath prescribed the manner much less is it such a Kingdom as England which hath a Blood-Royal where the Kings succeed by Birth neither as some other by Testament but as touching the Inward Government and meerly Spiritual it is not like unto any because it hath a perpetual Immortal and Eternal King who only knows the Heart and tries the Reins In the visible Government it hath a Ministry whose Authority was instituted by Christ and independing of the Church but as concerning the Application of this Authority unto this or that Person it is elective or depending of it Wherefore when he alledgeth I am constituted a King by him Our Lord God shall give him a Kingdom Luke 1.32 and 12.32 You chose not me but I have chosen you John 15.16 Thou hast made us to our God a Kingdom All these places and such like others are meant of the Invisible Spiritual and Interior Kingdom where the Pope hath no regiment nor influence at all but Christ is all in all governing by his Spirit and according to the Council of his own Will Thus he having laid down and proposed to use a Proposition or Doctrine quodammodo and in some sense true and having Validity under the Covert of an Universal yet having applied it to wrong Particulars it hath lost its Energy and Effort and its fallacy is discovered A piece of Artifice and Skill that runs through the Veins and Lines of most Popish Writers in the Controversies between us and them and what else is this but to make Lies their refuge and under Falshood to shelter themselves If Popes may now excommunicate as they pretend yet this concludes not that they may excommunicate Princes or Magistrates or whole Common-wealths The Primitives of old did use excommunication very sparingly and moderately and with great prudence and policy and with great respect to the good of the Church And therefore be the Power what or where it will St. Augustine holds an Excommunication against a Multitude though it were for some notorious and manifest sin too sacrilegious pernicious impious and insolent Lib. 3. contra Ep. Permen 23.4.4 c. non potest And Thomas putteth a Question whether any generality may be excommunicated and he answereth himself No and produceth Reasons for the same concluding that the Church appointeth with great Providence that no Community might be excommunicated And all other Divines with one accord determine the same And also Pope Innocent the 4th in the Chap. Rom. saith In Vniversitatem vel Collegium proferri sententiam Excommunicationis penitus prohibere de Sentent excom in 6. We must know that it is of worse consequence and example where â—t is used against Princes than divers other Bodies and Societies in as much as one Prince is of more consequence and power than thousands of other Lay-men We know also that in all Judgments there is a necessity of a Legal Trial to precede Conviction And that great Multitudes may be convented examined sentenced and punished with less disturbance of Peace less violation of Majesty than those that sway the Ball-Imperial Besides if the condemnation of Princes might be upon due Trials without violence yet the execution of the Sentence would produce more monstrous events in them than in private Men for how shall the People honour obey and reverence him in the State as Gods Lieutenant whom they see accursed cut off and abhorred in the Church as the Devils Vassal upon the excommunication of Princes whole Nations have been interdicted witness England Venice and other in the times of several Popes whole States subjected to ruine the Innocent with the Obstinate the Princes with the People all have have been sacrificed to Blood-thirsty-Popish-Priests under pretence of obedience to the Holy Catholick Church In what Code of the Ancient Church can it be found where any such strange kind of punishment was ever instituted as that for the offence of a few many Millions of Souls should be accursed cast out of the Church and in Popish construction damned How can they call that Power Apostolical that punisheth in this manner seeing the Apostolical Power was given for edification and not for destruction And yet so precipitate have some Popes been as to excommunicate whole States and Kingdoms Surely therefore we ought not so tamely to acquiesce on the bare ipse dixit of the Clergy pleading in their own Cause and for themselves only exclusive the Laity Certainly it is too small a security for so great a concern therefore let us a little examine what they urge for this exorbitant Power § If Kings be not this way punishable then they are no other way which is mischievous in the Church Sol. The Jewish Kings were as great and scandalous sinners as Kings-Christian now are yet God assigned no Rulers Spiritual for their Castigation and we must suppose that if it had
been so extreamly and publickly mischievous God would not have suffered it Besides if Scandal shall not remain unpunishable in the Prince yet it shall in the Spiritual Man which is a Mischief of the same nature with the other For if Caesar shall abide the Censure of this or that froward Pope or Consistory what Judgment shall the Pope or Consistory abide If this Spiritual Supremacy rest in any one that one must be unpunishable for two Supreams are things incompatible And if this Supremacy rest in more than one is is very hardly consistent with Monarchy for the one or other must be transcendent § Without all contradiction it is a manifest violence to use the Power of excommunication be it what it will if any such thing there be at all granted by Christ contrary to his own Institution and towards him that hath Power and unjustly useth the same the remedy is to have recourse to a Superior if he may but if there be no Superior to whom to have recourse God hath allowed no other remedy to a Prince thus offended but to make resistance with his own force opposing himself and force to force because it comes from God And the Civil Being of every Common-wealth or Kingdom is to the end of his Glory And therefore a Prince cannot permit without a sin and offence that his own Liberty should be infringed which is the Civil Being of every Principality and there is no doubt but that negligence in defending it is a dangerous offence to God and most hainous if he voluntarily suffer it to be usurped and incroached upon § To obey therefore the Commandements of God Kings when accosted and assaulted by Excommunication Papal or Presbyterian may and ought to oppose themselves against the Authors of them that will take away the Power which God hath given them to make Laws both Civil and Ecclesiastical and with Justice to defend themselves and their injured Subjects in their Lives Honours Goods and Religion And as the Innocent by an error in facto unjustly excommunicated to avoid scandal is bound patiently to endure So when the Error is in Jure and the manifest injustice thereof is apparent to avoid scandal likewise the Prince is bound to resist and oppose himself against the Injury Because there is no doubt but that such unjust Censures are against Magistracy it self and therefore when it shall be known to other Kingdoms that such a Prince or State for fear of unjust Censures and those invalid hath yielded unto violence whereof there are Examples not a few and omitted to exercise and execute his Natural Power they would be exceedingly scandalized thereat as also the Subjects that should discover such a vain fear they would become very perverse And therefore for this cause also it is both equal and necessary for the Prince to make due resistance for such no doubt or more weighty Reasons have our Kings and Queens defended themselves and their Subjects against all such Thunderbolts and so did the Venetians against Paul the Fifth who without any colour of reason excommunicated them being not a few Millions of Men The like have the Emperors and Kings of England and of France done and they had Authority so to do by their great Charter from Heaven The Church both Laity and Clergy but especially the Clergy ought to pacifie their Minds and Consciences attending the Service of God under the protection of their Princes constantly believing that the Holy Ghost was promised and given to all the Faithful both Laity and Clergy amongst whom Christ himself is present when they are congregated in his Name and that none can justly be excluded out of the Holy Catholick Church except by their own sins they be first excluded out of the favour of God and that the obedience which God commands us to perform to our Ecclesiastical Superiors is not a foolish or ridiculous Subjection nor the Power of Pope or Presbyters an Arbitrary Judgment but both the one and the other must be ruled by the Law of God who Deut. 17.10 11 12. ordained not an absolute obedience to the Priest but a prescribed observance according to the Law-Divine Facies quaecunque dixerint qui praesunt loco quem eligerit Jehovah docuerint te juxta Legem ejus It is the Word of God only not of Men in the Priests Mouths that me must obey God only is an Infallible Rule to whom only we must profess and yield obedience without all exception He that generally professeth this towards others without the Commandments of God as the Papists do sinneth and whosoever supposeth any Humane Will to be infallible as the Papists do committeth great Blasphemy in ascribing to the Creature a Property only Divine We have an Example hereof in the Acts when the Ancient Church expostulated and contended with Peter himself about the Vocation of the Gentiles he did not thunder against them with hideous and abominable Excommunications nor use menacing Language nor went about to silence them but he taught and perswaded them by Reason and Authority of Divine Revelations and the Words of our Saviour The very same Peter commanded the Elders to feed the Flock of God taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre for Cardinalisme or Nepotisme sake but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods Heritage but being Examples to the Flock 1 Pet. 5.2 3. by which it is evident that Priests must not domineer nor command with Empire but with Holy Deportment and Instructions of Piety for that they have no Dominion of our Faith but are or should be Helpers of our Joy 2 Cor. 1.24 The very same St. Peter when he erred in Antioch St. Paul did not forbear boldly to reprehend him in the presence of all Men Gal. 2.11 St. Paul's superexcellency above any thing that we can pretend unto was no Warrant for him to oppose himself against one whom it was not lawful to resist Who more humble or gave greater acknowledgement of his due Reverence to the High Priest than Paul did In this questionless Paul did no more than what the least of us may do with due Reverence to his Holiness Quaecunque scripta sunt ad nostram Doctrinam scripta sunt Rom. 15.4 the Holy Ghost would never have written this History but for our Example to the end we might imitate it And we see that all the Popish Doctors in discussing how any one may oppose himself to the Pope when he erreth and governs unworthily they have recourse to this Example Let no Man therefore be troubled depending only on the Authority of a Pope for that according to their own Doctors not one but two Keys were given to Peter and to the rest of the Apostles and if they be not both used together the effect of Loosing and Binding doth not ensue the one being of Power the other of Knowledge and Discretion Christ never gave Power to be used without due Knowledge and Circumspection
that in many places it was irreverently used and cast out of the Church and many other Enormities committed which they seconded by oppugning the established Ceremonies and it is not improbable but that if the Liberty here pleaded for were granted but that the same disorders and confusions would also return and therefore for these also amongst many other reasons Antecedent also as for avoiding diversities of Formes and Opinions and for establishing Consent touching true Religion and Worship and for removing of some Offences taken by Calvin and his followers whose design it was to have this as well as other Churches to depend on his direction It was thought fit by our Learned and prudent Governors both of Church and State the better to settle peace and truth and to keep out Error and Superstition to Establish a Liturgy and Rubrick As Reformation was a Work most glorious so it was a work most difficult because it was to Null and cancel such Customs and usages in Divine Worship as tract of time Age after Age for many Generations had made so habitual and had taken such deep root and Impressions in the Hearts and Souls of the People of all sorts from Father to Son that in humane reason it appeared almost impossible And therefore a Work not to be undertaken by blew-Apron or Tradesmen nor yet by giddy Phanatick Multitude nor indeed by any but by the Supream Magistrate and therefore a Work fit only for a King and such a King only as was fit for such a Work fit to match the Empress of Abominations and of the World and such a King proved Henry the 8th Having great courage and great understanding and great resolution without which requisites he could never have done what he did § As our Author in his sixth Chapter hath given us his Account of the Reformation and of the Introduction of our Liturgy not without some unbeseeming reflections on so great so good a Work to make the better way for the design of his Book so I shall take leave to give you also a short account thereof for the better Justification of our Liturgy and leave the Reader to Judge and favour which he please Tho Henry the 8th from his Cradle lived in an Antichristian Age and Church so that he suckt in the very Milk of the Mother of Harlots and Abominations and tho he made great havock of the Blood of Saints and Martyrs scourging them to Death with his Six knotted-Whip of Articles And tho he made great havock of the Popes Power and Patrimony wrongfully so called and not excrescences For indeed Monasteries c. That he destroyed and took away were for the most part exempt from Episcopal Jurisdiction and wholly depended on the Pope who was not so much the rightful Head of the Church then as was this Henry the 8th and therefore were not so essentially belonging to the Church as were the Bishops and their Patrimony yet it cannot be denied but that he left the Officers and Fathers of the Church that were more truly so the Bishops in many respects in a better condition then he found it both in respect of the Polity and the Endowments of it and also in order to a Reformation of Doctrine and Worship the Polity was mended in that he banished the Power of the Pope and setled it on himself to whom it did more rightfully belong and on his Bishops moderated the extream Severity of the Six Articles abolished the superstitious usages observed on St. Nichola's day all which may abundantly be seen in the Church History and by his Proclamation of Sept. 19. 1530. by a Publick instrument of the Convocation dated March 22. after acknowledging him to be Supream Head of the Church of England as also by several Acts of Parliament viz. H. 24.8 c. 12.25 H. 8. c. 1.20 21. and 28. H. 8. c. 10. In Order to a Reformation H. 8. first permitted the Bible to be Translated by Mr. Tyndall Anno 1530. afterwards Martyr But some Bishops having ill Characterized him to the King it was afterwards suppressed But the Popes Authority declining about the year 1536. the King issued out an Order for a New Translation indulging in the Interim the use of a Bible then passing under a feigned Name of Mathews Bible not much differing from Tyndalls which came forth Anno 1540. which was called the great Bible and sometimes Coverdales Bible or Translation the publick uses thereof and of all other Translations was interdicted 1542. and so continued without leave of the King or Ordinary first had until Edward 6. repealed that Statute and introduced the publick use thereof again according to Miles Coverdales Translation which doth not much differ from Tyndalls from this Translation doth our Liturgy derive the Translations of the Psalms and other Portions of Canonical Scripture since which time we have had two other more exact and refined Translations one in Queen Elizabeth her time called the Bishops Bible another in King James's time that the Psalms and other Portions of Scripture in our Liturgy were not altered in Queen Elizabeths days according to the best Translation then extant was because it could not be done without altering the whole Frame of the Liturgy which the Sages of those times thought not prudent to endeavour by reason of the different temper of those Parliaments in which it had always some potent Enemies but why they were not lately altered with our Liturgy and as the Scotch Liturgy before had been I can give no account If the last Translation be the most perfect why were they not made Conformable to that and so compiled if it be not the best why is it commanded to be used at all H. 8. by his Injunctions 1536 and 1538. abolished Church Holy dayes and Holy dayes in Harvest time he banished the Popes Supremacy and asserted his own he forbade Images and Pilgrimages commanded Prayers in the Mother-tongue and every Parish to provide a Bible in English and to place it in the Quire for every Man to Read therein and no Man to be discouraged from it but to be exhorted thereunto the Lords Prayer to be Learned in English Sermons to be made Quarterly at least with Instructions not to trust in Works divised by Mens fantasies besides Scripture as in wandring to Pilgrimages offering of Money Candles or Tapers to feigned Reliques or Images or Kissing or Licking the same saying over a number of Beads not understood or such like Superstition and therefore all such Images to be pulled down that that most detestable offence of Idolatry may be avoided the commemoration of Tho. Becket to be quite omitted Fox 1247 1250. In farther Order to a Reformation in points of Doctrine he first caused his Convocation Anno 1537. to Compose a Book expounding the Creed the Lords Prayer the ten Commandments the Avy Mary and the seven Sacraments more agreeable to the truth then formerly and it was called the Institution of a Christian Man But this Book lay
boldly Written that to restrain the Obedience due unto the Pope unto things concerning the Salvation of the Soul is to bring it to nothing That St. Paul appealed to Caesar who was not his Judge and not to St. Peter lest the By-standers should have laughed at him That the Holy Bishops of Old shewed themselves subject to Emperors because the times so required others adjoyned farther that then it was meet to introduce the Empire of the Pope by little and little it being a thing unseasonable to despoil Princes newly converted of their Estates and also to permit something unto them for to interess them Other like discourses they made which many Godly persons abhorred to read and reputed them Blasphemies Hist of the Inquisition Sparsim § Moreover these were not the Scriblings of some Vulgar Pens but some Ecclesiasticks of very great quality Printed in favour of the Roman Pontiffs cause a very seditious Sheet wherein was affirmed against all sound Doctrine that Marriages within the State of the Republick were invalid the Matrimonial Conjunction Adultery and the Children all Bastards that it was not only lawful butmeritorious for Pastors to abandon their Flocks And whither did all this tend but to unty the very Bonds of the Civil Government of all States To contradict which there was published a Treatise of John Gerson written 150 years before to which was adjoyned a Letter exhorting all Curates to take care of their Churches not fearing the Offence of God by not observing the Interdict Soon after came out a Treatise of Cardinal Bellarmine against that of Gerson then followed the admonition of Cardinal Baronius as also a discourse of Cardinal Colonna endeavouring to terrifie the Prelates and other Ecclesiasticks placed in the greatest places by the fear of censures and the privation of their Dignities and Benefices Bellarmine aimed to shake the devout Consciences by exalting the Authority of the Pope so far as to make it equal to that of God Bellarmine Baroâ—ius Colonna In summ all the three Cardinals laboured mainly how conscientiously let the World judge to disguise the truth that it should not be discovered These are not only false and Blasphemous but new Doctrines also never known to the Old Romans for many hundred of years The Sun at Noon never saw these abominations until within these 3 or 400 years whereby it is apparent that they are not all Rome which are of Rome neither are they all Legitimate Children begotten in the Lord by the Doctrines of St. Peter but are the degenerate and Bastard Plants and Successors tho they boast of their succeeding Peter in his Local Chair at Rome tho they differ from him in his Doctrines and tho in the truest understanding the Protestants are the Legitimate Children of St. Peter and not those that stile themselves St. Peter's Successors at Rome § The Antient Fathers taught obedience to Princes Antient Fathers taught obedience to Princes but never taught that the Pope hath Power to abrogate the Laws of Princes in Temporal matters or to deprive them of their Crowns or free their Subjects â—â— their Allegiance that to depose Kings from their Thrones is a new thing never attempted till within these 600 years and is against the Scriptures and the examples of Jesus Christ and of his Saints and to teach that in Case of Controversie between the Pope and a Prince it is lawful to pursue the Prince with frauds and open force or that the Subjects which do Rebel against him do by that means obtain the Remission of their sins are Doctrines Seditious and Sacrilegious That Ecclesiastical men by Divine Law are not exempted from the Secular Power neither in their Persons nor in their Goods though they have received from Godly and Devout Princes since Constantine the Great until Frederick the Second divers Priviledges which they had power only to grant for their own times and their own Dominions which did exempt them from the power of Inferior Magistrates only but not from their own Soveraign Authority That the exemptions granted by Popes unto the Order of the Clergy have not been admitted in some places and in others admitted only in part and that they have been valid so far only as they have been received that notwithstanding any Papal exemption the Prince hath still power over their Persons and Goods whensoever necessity constrains him to serve himself of them And if at any time they should abuse such exemption to the perturbation of the publick tranquillity that the Prince is obliged to provide a remedy Now that these Evils having gotten such exorbitant growth and have been so troublesom to all States and Kingdoms whom may Kings and Princes blame but themselves who not having that due regard to the Divine Precepts which so straitly oblige them to take knowledge of Gods most Holy Law and of Religion but have altogether neglected this duty as if Religion were a thing that did not concern them and as if they were not to render an account to God neither for themselves nor for their Subjects by neglecting the care and defence of it against the Divine Precepts of Gods word the Doctrine of Sacred Canons and Fathers and the Practice of Pious Princes contenting themselves with a Religion without knowing what it is or how it should be kept from Corruption tollerating for their own Ease and worldly Interests the people to be kept in ignorance and to be deceived by often alterations under pretence and Mask of Religion and Piety with a dayly permission not only to Religious persons but to all sorts of men to invent new Orders and Rites as Jesuitism Inquisition c. for their own profit Interest and Greatness without considering that in the end every old Order Rite and Custom carries along with it its own Credit which invites belief and so Religion becomes changeable and meerly serviceable to the Interests and Ends of those that manage it And these alterations having been once received and a while continued by the present Kings and Princes have been no small obligation to their Heirs and Successors to continue them upon the reason of Authority stampt upon them by time and custom A thing that often happens in all humane affairs but chiefly in Religion when superstition and false Doctrines are broached and invented for ends not suitable to pure Religion and undefiled As every Government so that of the Church more especially requires watchfulness and faithfulness and he that dischargeth himself of these destroyeth himself of so much of his Authority and happily doth not perceive it till it be lost and cannot be recovered again which hath been the Case of many supine and negligent Princes Kings and Princes ought not in any prudence to trust to the Pope or any other Ecclesiastick mens care nor have recourse to any one but to abound in care themselves forbidding all that may hurt a good Government lest his Subjects be circumvented and induced to embrace and favour opinions
this Life and in that which is to come meer Vassals they and their Subjects likewise in no better condition than the Sheep in Demosthenes where the Dogs were to be banished and the Wolves to be their Guardians for they endeavor to make the World believe that they have power over their Souls and Bodies at their pleasure both in this Life and after Death These have been the Collections and Observations of Fra. Paolo and other learned and faithful Writers and eye-witnesses The best is Ab initio non fuit sie there are no such Doctrines in Bibliis Sacris but the contrary And our Doctrines concerning these points and indeed our Religion is the same which is contained in the Scriptures in General Councils and in the Fathers of the First Three I might say Five Ages which have not been purified in their Purgatory their Indices expurg and agrees with the Articles of Faith and only differs in those which they have lately invented and added which he that examines them one by one shall find that none of them make for the Glory of God but all for the Increase of the Grandeur Wealth worldly Power and Jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Order so that in truth the true Roman Religion such as it was in the dayes of the Apostles and some Centuries next succeeding is insensibly but manifestly Bastardized and become spurious at Rome and all reduced to a new fashioned Religion which chiefly if not only makes for the pomp and Interest of the Court of Rome So that in truth these latter Popes are no more nor otherwise the true Possessors or Successors of St. Peter's Doctrines at Rome than the Grand Signior is of the Doctrines of St. James's at Jerusalem or of St. Paul's in those famous Churches of Asia In the dayes of Sixtus Quintus that Great Prince there lived in Italy that famous Alchymist and Impostor Nick-named Mamugna who was verily believed that he could make Gold not by the Vulgar only but by Cardinals Princes nay by the Pope himself One more wise and more merry than the rest habiting himself like this famous Alchymist went up and down the City of Venice in a Gondelo well fraught with a Cargo of fire Bellows Crucible Glasses c. crying Al Magmugna A tre lire il soldo del loro sino who buyes a shillings worth of pure Gold for nine pence which being told the Turkish Chiaus made this short answer Il gran signore dumque verra a servirlo if he can make Gold the Great Turk shall come to be his Servant I shall make no other Application or inference of this Mountebank Story than what is natural qui vult decipi decipiatur if Princes will be content to let false and base Coin go for currant be it so But in truth all the Papalins were not of the same mind and opinions with those famous Cardinals and Jesuits the Popes Partisans nor with the Court of Rome but Books were Printed Pro and Con by Papalins themselves in great numbers For besides the Papalins within the State of Venice the Sorbonists were very Orthodox and maintained the Defence of the lawful Secular Power opposing themselves against the Usurpations of Rome and maintaining the Liberty of the Gallican Church for that Kingdom holds it for a matter most certain and apparent that Popes have no power over Princes and that they ought not to proceed by Censures against them or their Officers in things which concern the State And as soon as the King knew of the publication of the Monitory at Rome he complained greatly of the too hasty proceedings of the Pope and sent a dispatch to him with speed requesting him to accommodate the differences The King of Polonia absolutely denyed the publishing of the Popes Monitory for that it did not stand with reason to govern themselves after another fashion towards that Republick of Venice whose Cause was common with his own Kingdom The Catholick King of Spain on whom the Pope relyed for Succors for that he had sometime before made liberal offers unto His Holiness from which he retreated in time of necessity and advised him to neglect his own private Interests for the universal good of Christendom and said that it did not beseem the Father of all Christendom to ground a War so cruel and pernitious to Christian People upon a King so pious and that His Holiness would abase the Apostolick Dignity if he sustained by humane means the Authority which God had given him Quarrels of Paul the Fifth pag. 374 375 376. Thus you see Rome it self divided the Pope and Court of Rome differing in this their greatest point and Diana Jurisdiction both from the old and from the more Novel Church of Rome as well as from that of the Church of the Protestants And thus you may perceive the unquiet and uncertain State that all Princes are like to be in and their Condition never like to be better whilst such monstrous State-destroying-Principles are held for Gospel at Rome For it matters not whether these Doctrines are true or false or received and believed by others or no nor yet whether Protestants or Papists it is all a case so long as so believed at Rome You see the State of Venice a Popish Republick no more safe nor quiet than England a Protestant Kingdom Had the Popes Swords been keen and powerful enough no doubt but that they would have brought both those States in their respective differences and quarrels as once Frederick Barbarossa the Emperor to that Brute Alexander the Third creeping on their knees to obtain Absolution from their Sentences of Excommunication or as Henry the Fourth whom Hildebrand would not release from his Excommunication till he came bare-foot to Canusium in a bitter cold Winter waiting three dayes before the Popes Palace for his Absolution which he hardly obtained by the Intercession of the Dutchess Matilda The Pope besides that he is the Head of Romish Religion is also a Prince who hath for more than 600 years by past aspired to the Monarchy of all Italy at least I might say at an universal Monarchy Temporal and Spiritual which he hath been some time so near to obtain that it is a wonder that he hath misled of it seeing he leaves no stone unturned quacunque arte to enlarge his Jurisdiction He hath three great charges upon him 1. That of Religion 2. That of Ecclesiastical affairs 3. The Temporalty of his Estate The care of all which I shall not grudge him as of right belonging unto him in one or other of his Capacities so he kept within his own Dominions and Territories tho happily all of the Romish Religion will not allow him so much for that all Bishops ought to be governed by the Canons and in which both Pope and all Bishops antiently in the best and purest dayes did acknowledge the Supream power to be to which they all submitted and not by the Pope alone there being also three kinds of
and Administration of Sacraments they have had from the largess and good graces of good and Pious Emperors tho now so grateful as to scorn to acknowledge them but to claim them by the most potent claim in the World Jure Divino and to fight against the Sons and Successors with the very Weapons which their Fore-Fathers and Predecessors had put into their hands In sum the Popish claim of such enormous and exorbitant Jurisdiction over all Kings and Bishops hath certainly been the grand cause of all the discords troubles and wars in all Countries of these latter Ages Both the Eastern and Western Churches lived in Brotherly Communion and Christian Charity for 900 years or more In which time the Pope of Rome was complemented both by the Greeks and Latins as the Successor of St. Peter and to be the first of the Eastern Catholick Bishops more out of respect of Rome being the Imperial City than of any Divine right he had above his fellow Bishops In the Persecution of Hereticks his help as also the help of the other Italian Bishops was implored and peace was easily preserved because the Supream power was in the Canons to which both Greeks and Latins professed to owe subjection the Ecclesiastical Discipline was exactly maintained in both Churches by their own proper Prelates as it seemed best unto them but absolutely according to the disposition and tenour of the Canons no intruding into one anothers Government but each mutually assisting other in the observation of the Canons In those dayes never any Pope of Rome pretended so much as to confer a Benefice within the Diocess of another Bishop nor had the Court of Rome as yet introduced the Custom of drawing Moneys from others by way of Bulls and Dispensations But immediately after the Court of Rome began to challenge a Freedom from being subject to the Canons and that at their pleasure they might change all Antient Constitutions of the Fathers Councels yea and of the Apostles themselves and endeavored in the room of the Antient Primacy of the See Apostolick to introduce an absolute Monarchy and Dominion not bounded or regulated by any Law or Canons the Division soon sprang up and tho 700 years past Peace and Re-union have been divers times attempted yet could it never be effected because disputes have ever been intended and promoted more than the taking away of that abuse which was the true Cause that brought Divisions in and made the Rupture and is the only Cause that still maintains them Whilst the Churches were united the Doctrine of St. Paul was held by both Churches and observed that in affairs of publick Government all men ought to pay subjection to the Prince because God commands it should be so whom he doth disobey who will not yield obedience to the secular power by him appointed for the Government of all Mankind never did any pretend that he might not be punished for misdeeds holding it for certain that exemption to do evil is a thing condemned both by God and Man the words of St. Paul in those dayes were held for good and sound Doctrine viz. wilt thou not be afraid of the Temporal Power Do that which is good and thou shalt have praise for the same but if thou dost evil be afraid for he beareth not the Sword in vain for he is the Minister of God a Revenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil Rom. 13.1 2 3 4 5. After the Division of those Churches the same opinion still remained in the East and continues to this day The truth of these things being so undeniable methinks that it would not be unbeseeming him who accounts himself the Father of all Christendom to put off the Mask of Religion and abandon all his pretentions unto unlimited Powers which would in good earnest be for the good of all Christendom considering he hath but one Soul and that he ought to do any thing to save it and nothing to destroy it and that it is not made of any better or other mould or mettal than the Souls of his Brethren in both Capacities of Prince or Bishops and that Heaven and Hell must divide the whole World and therefore he should wave his own private sublunary Interests for the universal good of all Christendom If such considerations move not yet methinks they should consider that the World is now grown wiser and have made a full discovery of the Vanity of all his Excommunications Censures of his Bulls Interdicts c. nay they themselves have made them all Ridiculous in many particulars witness themselves at Rome who Annually with great formality and Solemnity Excommunicate their most Catholick King of Spain every Maunday Thursday for keeping away part of St. Peters Patrimony and with as great Formality and Solemnity absolve him again on Good Friday without giving any satisfaction witness also the Venetians who upon the close with Paul the Fifth so slighted all his Monitories Interdicts Excommunications and Censures that they did not only refuse Absolution and Apostolick Benediction offered by him but also refused to give him the Ordinary satisfaction of words and of all Pontilles Subtleties Ceremonies that might have the least Semblance or appearance of any such thing The Pope finding himself thus baffled and slighted did not desist but had recourse unto little pittiful tricks and Subterfuges and therefore suffered to go abroad and to be divulged Four Counterfeit Writings 1. A Breve to Cardinal Joyeuse which gave faculty to take away Censures 2. An Instrument of Absolution dated April 21 3. An Instrument of the Delivery of the Prisoners 4. A Decree of the Senate for the restitution of the Religious c. which tho they did not dare to divulge in formal Copies yet under-hand dispersed Breviates of them designing that after a while when they might not be so easily detected and discovered they might be produced and pretended to be true and so to be believed of necessity And this Policy hath often succeeded well to these men who have many times given colour to many such false Writings prejudicial to divers Princes So Gregory the Second served Alphonsus King of Spain about the Office of Mozarabes So Innocent the Third Anno Dom. 1 199. saith that the Interdict against France because King Philip Augustus had put away his Wife Isemberge was observed in the Kingdom when there was no such thing So Adrian the 20. Anno 870. sent a severe Monitor to Charles the Bald King of France which afterwards he was fain to recall with many submissive excuses Stories are full of such Artifices § What Pitty nay what shame is it that so great Princes as Popes esteeming themselves Gods on Earth and Vicars of Christ should by taking such wrong measures of their Authority and Jurisdiction be driven to such pittiful tricks to uphold Powers so exorbitant and which were never given unto them by any Law of God or Man Did they but seriously consider 1. That they like Gods
own Sabbath were ordained for men and not men for the Sabbath nor yet for Popes that what Powers soever of Right belongs unto them they are given unto them for the good and benefit of Christians and not to Tyrannize or Lord it over Gods Heritage 2. That God hath not given unto Popes any greater Authority in the Government of their Dominions whether of Church or State than unto other Princes and Bishops to whom God hath also confirmed and ratified all Power that is necessary for the good of the Governed And as it appertaineth not to other Emperors and Kings to govern Romish Church or State so it doth as little appertain to Popes to Govern either Church or State of other Kingdoms 3. That no people were or ever will be contented with a Government which tends more to the benefit grandeur pomp and pride of life of those that Govern than to the good and comfort of those that are governed it being the natural and fundamental right of the governed to apply and devolve as much of their own power without divesting themselves thereof as they please to one or more Persons subject nevertheless to the trusts reposed in them to be alwayes imployed and improved to the behoof and benefit of the governed 4. That all people do with some contentedness endure a reasonable Bond but from an excessive one every one doth naturally endeavor by all means tho indirect to free themselves The Antient History of Nodus Gordianus which because Alexander could not unty he cut in pieces whereby Oraculi sortem vel elusit vel imâ—â—evit is applicable to all Humane tyes and Obligations not excepting Governments Ecclesiastick or Civil which if of such a Nature that those that are unjustly or too hard bound may free themselves by ordinary way of Justice then they are endured with some patience But if there be no ordinary means to relieve themselves then they ever have had and I fear ever will have recourse to means extraordinary tho Indirect as Seditions and the like Wherefore it is undoubtedly doing God the best Service to keep every Government within its due bounds which is absolutely necessary for the preserving and propagating of Religion and for keeping the State in quiet temperament and that to grant Ecclesiasticks exorbitant Authority thinking it to be a favoring of Religion as heretofore they did perswade some Emperors with design to get their power into their own hands is an undiscreet Zeal prone to end in the dishonour of God damage of Religion and in publick confusion As God himself without respect to Persons made the Earth by his Power established the World by his Wisdom stretched out the Heavens by his understanding Jer. 51.15 so he never made Kingdoms and Nations for Popes or Princes but both the one and the other for the Comfort and Solace of the governed Think you that if his Vicars or Ambassadors or Vice Royes govern otherwise than according to his own Rules and Precepts who will measure all by his own Line and righteousness by his own Plummet that they shall go unpunished I tell you nay but except they repent they shall all likewise perish His Holiness himself not excepted according unto Jer. 23.1 2. Wo to the Pastors that destroy and scatter the Sheep of my Pasture Therefore thus saith the Lord ye have scattered my Flocks and driven them away and have not visited them behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doings I say again is it reasonable to believe that ever God who created light and darkness Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are therein and created and formed all Mankind in general a little lower than the Angels out of one and the same Clay in his own likeness and after his own Image without respect to these or those Persons Popes or others and gave unto Mankind in General Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Foul of the Air and over the Cattel and over all the Earth and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth and all this for the good and comfort of all men in general should yet subject all Mankind Emperors Kings and Temporal Princes not excepted to the will and pleasure of one Pope or one Vicar or one Ambassador or one Vice-Roy as Vniversal Monarch to be governed and guided by the Will and pleasure of these men because they stile themselves Gods Vicars nay Gods on Earth whereby one Mans will may become all mens misery No! God made all Governors in the World for the good and happiness of the governed and not the governed to be subject to the Will Lusts and Pleasures of the Governors he never gave Precepts nor Commands relating to Government and Governors but what conduced to the good of the governed and alwayes rebuked and punished all such Governors as well those that he anointed and set up himself as severely as those whom the People did choose that walked and governed contrary to his Rules and Precepts Did God think you send his own Son out of his own bosom to take on him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man humble himself and became obedient to that shameful death the death of the Cross for us Men and our Salvation in General And can we then be so sottish as to believe that all Mankind were made to be Slaves and Vassals unto one Compito one Vicar General made Governor by themselves by delegating their own Power without divesting themselves thereof upon this or that man for their own good and benefit and for the better Government of their whole body either explicitely or implicitely alwayes implyed and alwayes so to be understood undoubtedly all Governors in the World whether Ecclesiastick or Civil be their Power what it will never so absolute never so Arbitrary yet by the Law of God they ought to govern no otherwise than Christ himself would govern were he come in glory to Reign on Earth and to square their Actions according to the Dictates and Laws of God delivered unto us by the Prophets and Apostles And tho so to govern be a happiness and a favour indeed unto the Subjects yet it is an absolute duty unto God and Man and of which he will certainly one day exact an Account The reason is demonstrable for that no man living Paternal Government excepted nor any number of men whatsoever can have any compleat lawful Authority over any Politick Society of men but he must have it either by consent of Parties or immediate appointment of God Hooker 70. Notwithstanding this natural right of publick Societies I appeal to all Story if ever it were Recorded that ever any Pope quitted his pretensions to his Supremacy or to his pretended power over any Temporal Prince that was at variance with him since the day that they first took them up unless he were Cudgelled into better manners and better obedience
a sin as great as the former not to wrest and misapply the New Testament only but to hook in the Old Testament also by Head and Ears to serve a wicked turn and to make that intend the Pope also questo dispregiare Dio nel suo Vicario si chiama da Samuel Profeta 1 Sam. 15.23 una sorte d' Idolatria And this despising God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry If one should retort and say that so to expound Samuel is a kind of Nonsence what could be said against it The Text and Story is so well known that it requires no repetition There Samuel as a Prophet by Gods express Precept sharply rebukes Saul telling him that Obedience was more acceptable to God than Sacrifice and that it was as the sin of Idolatry not to rest upon his Commandment And shall Bellarmine now put a humane Precept subject to errors in the Ballance with an express Precept from God by a slight of wresting of Scripture Impune Can any Man that hath any spark of Grace bear it with patience that Humane Precepts should be thus equalled with Divine It is horrid Impiety thus to match and rank any man with God Almighty It is Gospel-like to perswade due obedience and reverence to the word of God in the Mouths of Prelates but to enhaunce and inlarge it beyond its just bounds is rather to abuse and villifie than advance it Who can but wonder and stand amazed that Samuel above 1100 years before there was any Pope or Prediction that there should be one or any description what manner of Person this omnipotent Vicar should be should yet by saying that not to obey Gods express Precept delivered by the mouth of his Prophet is as it were Idolatry should thereby intend the Pope And that Bellarmine should conclude from hence that to despise God in his Vicar is called by Samuel a kind of Idolatry Put all this together 1. That Samuel spake of Saul a King because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord not of a Pope or of his Vicar he hath also rejected thee from being King 2. That under the Law God had no Vicar 3. That Peter was Christ's first Vicar according to their own Confession 4. That the Authority of a Prophet in the Old Testament was Infallible yea even in the least things 5. That Christ's Vicar in the New Testament may by their own Confession err except in matters of Faith è Cathedra With what colour or shew of ingenuity or reason can this their great Goliah Bellarmine aver that Samuel terms this despising of God in his Vicar a kind of Idolatry Deus bone Unto what Absurdities will not Pride Ambition Interest drive men unto Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was 2 Tim. 3.8.9 without doubt one abuse of Power and Authority gives a greater Scandal to the World and is a cause of greater mischiefs than a hundred disobediences of the subject and the person of the Superior as more eminent is much more bound by his greater obligation to God to do his duty quo major sum eo plus laborabo ut Sol. § Tho it cannot be denied that to err manifestly against the Scriptures be the most dangerous and greatest blindness that can possibly besall any Christians and the greatest Chastisement that God can impose in punishment of them whosoever shall make use of the Divine Authority to serve their own turns in any Worldly Interests yet so Cative is their Zeal of inlarging the greatness and Impery of the Roman Pontiffs that Bellarmine and his Crew make no bones of wresting and perverting any Scripture Old or New to make it serve their turns as hath been Intimated before Bellarmine to prove the Pope's Power to be a Supream Power given of God Mat. 16.10 John 21.16 examined he produceth Mat. 16.19 whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. and that this power is universal and over all Christ's Sheep he produceth John 21.16 Feed my Sheep which Texts taken in their true and right sence we heartily imbrace i.e. bounded and limited unto things only belonging to the Kingdom of Hâ—â—â—â—n and â—â— the Edification of the Church according to Evangelical Rules Hebr. 5.1 2. c. For every High Priest taken from among Men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sins c. But from hence to ground a new term of Vniversalium and by this ambiguous term to extend and strain it even to Worldly matters is a Doctrine not true nor peaceable nor according to Christ's meaning Nay Pope Gregory Lib. 7. Ep. 30. held this very word Vniversal supercilious and in very great Jealousie when he was first stiled Papa Vniversalis and said it was a proud Title and imported as much as if he were the only Bishop and no other man Bishop but himself And so to have Authority most Universal is sec quid to say that there is no other Authority but it For if the stile of Papa Vniversalis according to Gregory take away all other Bishops a most Universal Authority Pari ratione must needs take away all other Authorities Now to prove this Vniversal Authority it is said to Peter Matth. 16.19 and in his person to all Popes whatsoever thou shalt bind c. and whatsoever thou shalt loose c. ergo their Authority is most Universal Be it so but then by the same Logick in Matth. 18.18 it is said to all the Disciples and in their persons to all Priests their Successors whatsoever ye shall bind c. and whatsoever ye shall loose c. ergo there shall be sundry most Vniversal Authorities which implies a flat contradiction jam sumus ergo pares Indeed the Whatsoever is Vniversal but it is bounded and restrained by the words before viz. the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven so that what pertains to the Kingdom of Heaven was committed to Peter and to the other Apostles but what pertains to the Kingdoms of the Earth Christ never committed to him and consequently to no Priest or Bishop or Pope whatsoever The Genuine sense of this Text is before delivered The other proof by feed my Sheep is also Vniversal in respect of my Sheep but God denieth by Ezek. 34. that to eat the Fat and to feed themselves and to Cloath themselves with the Wool is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to kill them that are fed that to domineer over thom with force and with Cruelty is to feed his Sheep he denieth that to eat up the good Pasture themselves and to tread down with their feet the residue of the Pastures that to drink up the clear water and to foul the residue with their feet is
Catholicorum haec explicantium citantium inseruntur By this holy Inquisition also these men so wise are they in their Generation have endeavoured to appropriate and monopolize unto themselves the whole power of the Press and as much as in them lyes to cajole the secular power thereof and not without grand reason of State Ecclesiastick for they have been so dexterous at it that they have already expunged the ancient Authors and Councils of all that makes for temporal Authority Ab initio non fuit sic The matter of Fact stands thus the reasonableness of the Practice shall follow In the primitive Church Heretical Books were examined and declared to be such by the Councils but not prohibited by them nor by the Pope but by the Prince The first Council of Nice condemned the Heretical Doctrine of Arius but Constantine the Emperor did forbid his Books by Imperial Law The second Council of Constantinople did declare Eunomias to be an Heretick but the Emperor Arcadius did prohibit the Books of the Eunomians and Maniches by a Law which is in the Theodosian Code The third Council of Ephesus declared Nestorius to be an Heretick and his Books were forbidden by a Law of Theodosius which is in the body of the Civil Laws The fourth Council of Chalcedon condemned the Eutychians and their Books were forbidden by a Law of the Emperor Martian which is in the same aforesaid Book and in Spain the King Ricaredus those of the Arrians This was the manner of the Church until the year 800. since which Times the Popes of Rome have by Usurpation declared divers Writers to be Hereticks and heretical that will not subscribe to the Canons of that Conventicle of Trent But all this while the Press was not guarded nor Transcribing forbidden but left free Books only and those but few censured and prohibited until after the year 1200. and then also but sparingly until about the time of Wickliff H-usse and Jerome of Praghe which was about 1371. in the days of Edw. 3d. Rich. 2d and Pope Martin 5th who by his Bull excommunicated all Sects of Hereticks in their esteem especially Wicklefists and Hussites and had recourse also unto a stricter Guardianship of the Press and also to Excommunication nay to Fire and Fagot also against them and their Books and good reason and high time it was so to do for that their Doctrines touched to the quick the Reformation of the Heretical Doctrines and lewd practices of the Court of Rome and therefore that faithless and jugling Council of Constance in a time of Schism did condemn them their * Counted to be 200 Volumes by Aenaeas Sylisias and Jo. Cocleus in his Book de Historia Hussitarum Books and Bones though Wickliffe had been quiet in his Grave above 40 years before causing them to be taken up burned and their Ashes to be thrown into the River such was their rancour of heart since which Times the Popes succeeding have made it their grand Concern to prosecute the same design which is still on foot at this very day viz. to lay Foundations to maintain and make great the Authority of the Court of Rome by depriving men of knowledge which is absolutely necessary to defend themselves from Abuses Vsurpations and Delusions with which the Court of Rome is full fraught And therefore Paul 4th caused an Index to be composed which being perfected Anno 1659. was so severe and strict that there scarcely remained a Book to be read if rightly observed for that therein many Authors and Books were condemned which for 1 2 or 300 years had usually been read by the Romanists with the privity and without the Contradiction of the Popes then ruling and amongst the Modern some of those which were Printed in Italy even in Rome it self with approbation of the Inquisition and allowed also by the Brief of the Pope himself are forbidden as Erasmus on the New Testament which Leo 10th having read approved by his Brief dated the tenth day of September One thousand five hundred and eighteen But which is most considerable as to the main of my intent and purpose is to shew that where the Hogen Mogen Pontiff not unlike the chief Musty doth domineer there the very bowels of orthodox and sound Books wherein the Authority of Kings and Civil Magistrates is defended from the Vsurpations of the Clergy and in which the Hypocrisies and Tyrannies of the Clergie are manifested are hellishly raked into purged prohibited and condemned with strange Cruelties and which is yet more abominable this is done under the colour of Faith and Religion by which the people under that very pretence of Religion are miserably cheated and deluded A greater mystery of Iniquity was never broached then to use Religion so dirtily as under pretence thereof to make men as much as in them lyes insensible nay brutish by keeping them from the knowledge and consequently from the love of the truth What is this less then Antichristian and like men abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate and to sit as God in the Temple of God as Judex vivorum mortuorum working after the working of Satan with all power and deceivableness of unrighteousness But though the Court of Rome hath assumed to it self to prohibit Books whether they concerned Religion or other Matters yet before these latter years they have not been so impudent as to dare to say that the Prince also hath not power to forbid Books Cardinal Baronius was the first that spake that boldly but was not seconded by any a long time after but he in the beginning of the year 1605. printing the 11th Tome of his Ecclesiastical Annals libelled therein the Monarchy of Sicily with much bitterness and against many Kings of Arragon and especially against King Ferdinand the Catholick and the Progenitors of the Fathers side of him who then reigned which Book coming to Naples and Millan were prohibited by the King's Officers whereof the Cardinal having notice made a bitter Invective against those Officers unto the Colledge of Cardinals assembled in the vacancy of the See of Clement the 8th for that in so doing they had forsooth laid hands on Ecclesiastical Authority And afterwards when Paul the 5th was chosen Pope he wrote unto the King of Spain the 13th of June the same year wherein amongst other things he concluded that to the Pope only did belong the approving of Books of all kinds much more Ecclesiastical ones Notwithstanding the King of Spain was so wise as to abett and continue the Prohibition of his Officers at which the Cardinal was so netled that he could not contain himself but printing his 12th Tome 1607. he inserted a Discourse stigmatizing that Prohibition as abominable and impious affirming that Princes do it because the Books rebuke their unjust acts and that it was to take out of St. Peter's hands and putting into the Prince's one of the Keys given him by Christ viz. the Key of knowledge to