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A25400
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Of episcopacy three epistles of Peter Moulin ... / answered by ... Lancelot Andrews ... ; translated for the benefit of the publike.; Responsiones ad Petri Molinaei epistolas tres. English
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Andrewes, Lancelot, 1555-1626.; Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing A3143; ESTC R10969
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34,395
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66
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Of Episcopacy THREE EPISTLES OF PETER MOULIN Doctor and Professor of Divinity Answered By the Right Reverend Father in God Lancelot Andrews Late Lord Bishop of Winchester Translated for the benefit of the Publike S. Clemens in Epist. ad Corinth 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Our Apostles understood by our Lord Iesus Christ that there would be contention about the name of Episcopacy Printed in the Yeer 1647. To the most Reverend Prelate the Lord Bishop of Winchester Peter Moulin wisheth all health and happiness THat Honorable man your Predecessor was taken hence not without great damage both to the Church and Common-wealth The King lost a most wise Counseller and the Church a faithfull Pastor but I a Patron and a friend who though he was most carefull and desirous of my good yet oblig'd me more by his Virtues then his benefits I have his Letters by me which he wrote to me when he was sick and his recovery was almost desperate the very sight wherof doth exceedingly afflict me But yet my grief was not a little eas'd when I heard that you succeeded in his room whose learning I long since admir'd and of whose good affection I had great experience when I was with you Indeed his most judicious Majestie did not stick long upon his choice You were even then design'd his Successor in the judgment of all who knew the wisdome of the King May it I beseech God prove happy and fortunate to your self to the Church and Kingdom May He grant you with increase of Honor increase of Virtue and a fresh and lively old age That his most Gracious Majestie may long enjoy you for his Counseller and the Church daily reap more and more fruits of your industry and vigilance I wrote a Book touching the Calling of Pastors wherin some passages greiv'd the soul of your most wise King as if they were averse to the Office of Episcopacy But indeed on the other side our Countrymen complain not a little that I vndertook the cause of Bishops and condemnd Aerius who in a matter anciently and universally receivd durst oppose himself against the Practise of the Catholik Church And they take it in ill part that I said that it was generally receivd in the Church even from the first successors of the Apostles that among the Presbyters of a City some one should have the preeminence and be call'd the Bishop But though there be many things in my Book which the King set a dash of his dislike upon which as all things els he observed wisely and with an incredible sharpness of wit yet Three things there are which specially offend Him The First is that I said that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter are promiscuously taken in the New Testament for one and the same The Second that I affirm'd that there is but one and the same Order of Presbyter and Bishop The Third and that the greatest is that I think the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Priority or Superiority of Bishops not to be of Divine Right nor a point of Faith but to be a thing wherein the Primitive Church vsed her liberty and prudence when she judged the Preeminence of One to be fitter for the mantaining of Order and conserving of Peace and that Vnity may well be kept whole and intire between Churches though they differ upon that point I confess these things were wrote by me which lest they be drawn to a wrong sense or be taken in the worser part take I pray breifly my meaning in them I said indeed that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were taken for all one in the New Testament But I thought not that the Dignity of the Bishop was less'ned thereby since I spake only of the Name not of the Office only and I have beside clear places of Scripture the consent not only of Hierom the Presbyter but also of the most famous Bishops of the Ancient Church Chrysostom Ambrose Theodoret who took it not as a wrong to them or that any thing was abated of their honor if it were beleeved that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were at first used in the same sense That the Order indeed of Bishop and Presbyter was one and the same that I said For so did the Ancient Church ever think and the Church of Rome thinks so to this day although there be in that Church an incredible difference betwixt the pomp of the Bishops and the meaness of the Priests Thence it is that in the Roman Pontifical there is set down the Consecration of Bishops but not the Ordination of them Indeed Order is one thing a Degree another for men of one and the same Order may differ in Degree and Dignity even as among Bishops the Degree of Archbishops is the more eminent Howbeit that this Episcopal Degree and Prerogative is by Ecclesiastical not by Divine Right I confess it was said by me For beside that to speak otherwise then I thought had not been the part of an vpright honest man you according to your wonted goodness will easily judg that a French man living vnder the Polity of the French Church could not speak otherwise but he must incur the censure of our Synods and vnder the danger {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} of degrading be forced to a recantation For to think that our Churches do err in points of Faith and in that which is of Divine Right were questionles to brand them with the note of Heresy and to shake the conscience of many weak ones Truly I came very vnwillingly to the writing of this Book but our Church requiring it and lately enforcing me for to stop the insolency of our Adversaries who in this point insult over vs out of all temper and speak of vs as of so many doltish mushrums newly sprung out of the earth and as of a company of base fellows who by force and tumult had got the Pulpit But howsoever I think I have kept such a temper that in defending our own I have not struck at your government nor by immoderate affection to a part have inclined more then was meet to either side Nor did I ever mention the Bishops of England with out due honor These things I thought fit to write to you Great Sir by whom I chiefly desire my papers may be approved I had sent my Book to you before now but that I was told by divers you vnderstood not French Now I send it because since you enjoy a more frequent and neerer presence of His Majestie I doubt not but He may have some speech with you about it and use you as an umpire in the cause And I shal most willingly stand to your iudgment well knowing that the most learned are ever the most can did and hoping that you wil not lauce too deep whatever may be salved with a fair interpretation So think of me as of a man with whom the Authority of Antiquity shal be
the refractory Such things as appertain to Salvation and to Faith were ordered by the Apostles by a Divine Inspiration but in the rest they did often use their own prudence as S. Paul intimates 1. Corinth 7.25 Nor are you ignorant so oft as examples are brought of Bishops placed by the Apostles in a higher degree above Presbyters what is commonly answered viz. that they had not that preeminence as Bishops but as Evangelists of whose superiority above Pastors somewhat you may have in S. Chrysostom on the IV. to the Ephesians Which reply of what strength it is I had rather stand to your iudgment then any mans Indeed S. Ambrose on that same place makes Evangelists inferior to Bishops and without Seas Yet however you shall call Titus Timothy and S. Mark whether Bishops or Evangelists it is clear they had Bishops their successors and heirs of their preeminence You determine therfore that our Churches do offend against the Divine Right yet so as you exclude them not from hope of salvation but do think that in our Church Government men may attain to Salvation for this you brought in in your Second Letter that you might deal the kindlier with us But in your larger you liken us in this point to Aerius who you say was deservedly upon this ground by the Antients put in the black Book of Hereticks Herein Great Sir I appeal to your equity Think with your self what streits you drive me to For if I should have spoke as you conceive it I could not but necessarily accuse our Church of Heresie and so doing be forced {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be packing to leave my station here and to provide for my self as I could Nor could I say that the Primacy of Bishops is by Divine Right but I should brand our Churches which have spilt so much blood for Christ with Heresie For questionless to be obstinately set against such things as are of Divine Right and peremptorily to gainsay what God commands is downright Heresie whether it concern Faith or Discipline Besides that I should have overthrown that Principle wherwith cheifly our Religion defends her self against Popery viz. That what things are by Divine Right are sufficiently and evidently contein'd in the Holy Scriptures I hear what you will reply That it had been safer and better for me to have been silent in these points then itch to be writing so unseasonably Because therby it comes to pass that I must necessarily offend our own Church or your nay haply both And to tell you truth I had rather have been silent for very unwillingly I sett my mind to write nor did I write but upon command Arnoldus the Iesuite the Kings Confessor publikely and in the pulpit before His Majestie inveigh'd against the Confession of our Church and further in a pestilent book revil'd it wherin he mightily insults over us in this question and odiously seeks to overthrow our Churches Government This book coming to be sold all over France through the high ways and streets at the voice of a Cryer did greatly scandalize many Nay before this the Pulpits the Markets the Court the Streets and the very Barbers shops rang with this question This is the field wherin wanton witts sport themselves daily How earnestly my Book was look'd for which should stop that insolency it doth thence appear that in Four months space it was nine times printed I could not therfore shun this task Nor was it possible to write exactly of that Argument but I must begin with the signification of the words Bishop and Presbyter and treat of the Original of the Office But here I took occasion to speak honorably of the Bishops of England I deriv'd the dignity of Bishops from the very infancy of the Church I condemn'd Aerius I said that S. Iames himself was Bishop of Hierusalem from whom in a long course the succession of Bishops of that City is deduced Only this one thing was wanting viz. that I did not say that our Church was heretical and did trample the Divine Right under her feet which indeed I neither could nor ought to do yea had I done it you your self would have noted that want of prudence in me This may serve for the Three chief points To which you further add this {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or corollary namely your iudgment touching the Title of my book which I wrote for France Of the Calling of Pastors These words you say are novell and never used by any of the Antients in this sense I acknowledg indeed that the word Calling is unusual among the Antients nor taken in that sense But we Frenchmen speak otherwise for as many as have wrote of that Argument either Our or Papists use this word which with us signifies somewhat more then Ordination for it is taken for the Office it self If I had wrote in Latin I should have given this Title of the Office and Ordination of Pastors Neither would you have all Presbyters and Ministers of the Word of God to be called by the name of Pastors For this word you say belongs only to Bishops and that the Antients spake so If this be true Worthy Sir the Churches in France Germany Lowcountrys and Helvetia are flocks without a Pastor But S. Paul Acts the xx commandeth the Presbyters of Ephesus pascere i. e. to be Pastors of the Church v. 17. 28. And S. Peter in his 1. Epist. 5. ch. 1. 2. v. The Presbyters who are among you I exhort Pascite feed the flock of God which is among you taking the over-sight therof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre which exhortation to diligence and shunning filthy lucre no doubt belongs also to the inferior Presbyters Now to think that they ought not be called Pastors whom God commands Pascere to feed the flock I cannot persuade my self But if the Word of God be Pabulum the food of Souls I see not why he should not be call'd a Pastor who doth administer this food S. Paul in the fourth to the Ephesians verse 11. makes an enumeration of Ecclesiastical Offices God gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers If Presbyters who labour in the Word whom we Frenchmen call Ministers be not understood under the name of Pastors I see not what place they can have in this enumeration of the Apostle S. Augustine in his 59. Epistle saith that Pastors and Doctors here are the same The same thinketh S. Hierom upon this place of S. Paul Vincentius Lirinensis expounding this place maketh no mention of Pastors but comprehends them vnder Doctors whom he calls Treatisers who certainly were a different thing from Bishops But that Bishops only are Doctors I never yet read anywhere S. Ambrose is so far from thinking the name of Pastors to belong only to Bishops that he even calls Readers Pastors Readers saith he are and may be Pastors who fatten the souls of