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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	article_n	authority_n	church_n	1,686	5	4.1311	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11519	The history of the Inquisition: composed by the Reverend Father Paul Servita, who was also the compiler of the Councell of Trent. A pious, learned, and curious worke, necessary for councellors, casuists, and politicians. Translated out of the Italian copy by Robert Gentilis; Historia dell'origine, forma, leggi ed uso dell'ufficio dell'inquisizione nella città e dominio di Venetia. English	Sarpi, Paolo, 1552-1623.; Gentilis, Robert.	1639 (1639)	STC 21765; ESTC S116775	69,818	96

Inquisitors that by meanes of the Confessors they may get them to worke the best effect they can and by this meanes the agreement is deluded and groweth out of use And that which is worse when an Index is printed within this City they doe endeavour to have those new prohibitions inserted in them which they also attempted to doe this yeare And if diligent care be not alwaies had as it is at this present they will one day set up a Court of Iustice and open a way to the destruction of the agreement Their intents to make themselves absolute Masters of Bookes and the respects wherefore the Secular power hath neede to watch to the end that they may not obtaine it though they doe not appeare at first sight yet with an easie consideration they are made manifest The matter of Bookes seemes to be a thing of small moment because it treats of words but through these words comes opinions into the world which cause partialities seditions and finally warres They are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts ofarmed men In this matter the Romans cannot hide two high pretences which they have The first that so they may prohibit bookes not onely for cause of Religion but also for any of her cause The second that the Prince shall not have power within his owne state to forbid any bookes for any cause whatsoever and if that any be by them approved the Prince cannot hinder although he judge it to be dangerous but that within his Dominions it may be had printed and publickly sold And these two pretences taking once effect they should doe the Temporall power wrong in three notable particulars The first in prohibiting or corrupting Bookes which are good and profitable for the maintenance of a good government The second in prohibiting of Bookes which doe not belong to them to prohibit The third in hindring the Secular Power from removing what shall finde hurtfull to a good government Of which three prejudices we ought to treate particulary for to consider of the remedies About the first concerning the prohibition of Bookes which at Rome are not liked of though they bee good and godly because they maintaine Temporall Power It is a cleare thing that a Prince especially one that ruleth with the Arts of Peace useth this as a chiefe instrument to cause the people to beleeve this to be a firme truth vid. that the Prince is ordained by God and ruleth with Divine authority and the Subject consequently in conscience is bound to obey him and not doing it offendeth God that the duty of undergoing publicke burthens either personall in bearing office or reall in Tributes Customes or such like doth tye the Conscience and bindeth under the paine of sinning to restitution he that refuseth to beare them or doth defraud them Because that the Prince by the Divine Law is above any person that is within his Dominion and may lay a burthen on any mans estate when publicke necessity according to his judgement shall require it Everyone of himselfe without any greater discourse may judge how easily a State may be governed where the aforesaid Maximes as they are most true shall be so beleeved to bee and the disorders which most necessarily happen where contrary opinions are held Ofthese truths written by the Prophets taught by Christ and preached by the Apostles ancient Fathers bookes are also sull and good Divines doe hold them as they are necessary to be beleeved But as there were alwayes in Gods Church those who made use of Religion for worldly ends so the number of them is now sull These under a spiritual pretence but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth would free themselves from the obedience due unto the Prince and take away the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves To bring these things to passe they have newly invented a Doctrine which talkes of nothing but of Ecclesiasticall greatnesse liberty immunity and of her jurisdiction This Doctrine was unheard of untill about the yeare of 1300. neither is there any booke found concerning it before that time then did they beginne to write of it scatteringly in some bookes but there were not above two bookes which treated of nothing else but this untill the yeare 1400. and three untill the yeare ●500 After this time the number increased a little but it was tollerable After the yeare 1560. this Doctrine beganne to increase in such manner that they gave over writing as they did before of the Mysteries of the most Holy Trinity of the Creation of the World of the incarnation of Christ and other Mysteries of the Beliefe and there is nothing printed in Italy but Bookes in Diminution of Secular Authority and exhaltation of the Ecclesiasticall and such Bookes are are not printed by small numbers but by thousands Those people which have any learning can reade nothing else the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine nor to bee approved of neede they any other Learning Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally that Princes and Magistrates are humane inventions yea and Tyranicall that they ought onely by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Lawes and defrauding the publicke revenewes doth not binde one unto sinne but onely to punishment and he that doth not pay if he can but flye from it remaines not guilty before the Divine Majesty and contrarywise that every becke of Ecclesiasticall persons without any other thought ought to be taken for a Divine Precept and binds the Conscience And this Doctrine perchance is the cause of all inconveniences which are felt in this Age. There want not in Italy pious and learned persons which hold the truth but they are not suffered to write nor to print Something comes written from another place but presently it is prohibited And little thought is taken of Hereticall Books especially those that treate of the Articles of Faith but if any one comes that defends the Prince his Temporall Authority and saith that Ecclesiasticall persons are also subject to publicke functions and punishable if they violate the publicke tranquility these are condemned bookes and persecuted more than others They have gelded the bookes of ancient Authors by new printing of them and taken out all which might serve for Tempoporall authority In the yeare 1607. they printed in Rome with publicke authority a Booke intituled Index Expurgatorius where they did note the places which in divers Authors ought to be cancelled in which book every one may with eyes behold what things are taken away or changed in many good Authors which did defend the Authority given by God to the Prince So that at this present in reading of a Booke a man can no more finde what the Authors meaning was but onely what is the Court of Romes who hath altered every thing And that above all things would be thought incredible if it were not seene in Print Pope Clement the eight

in the yeare 1595. in the Index published a rule that all Catholicke Writers Bookes written after the yeare 1515 might be corrected and amended not onely by taking away what is not conformable to the Doctrine of Rome but also with adding to it This Precept hath beene put in practice and executed continually these seventy yeares though it hath beene done publickly but some few yeares since So that if in Authors wee finde no good Doctrine favouring Temporall authority wee know who hath taken it away If wee finde any that favoureth the Ecclesiasticall we know who hath put it in and finally we may be assured to have no booke true Wherefore since the onely aime is to extinguish or corrupt those Bookes by which onely well minded men might receive necessary instruction The Secular Magistrate ought also to be circumspected and not suffer himselfe under faigned pretexts to bee deprived of more than heretofore hee hath beene and when new mention is made of prohibiting any booke which treateth not of Articles of Beliefe to informe himselfe well of the Doctrine which it containes and of the ends for which the Court of Rome would forbid it before he gives his consent And if any good and famous Authors Booke should be new Printed to see that the good Maximes be not taken out or new ones inserted contrary to the Authors intention Yea publicke service justice and honesty would require that good Maximes should bee printed againe and that those Bookes which have beene corrected by taking away or altering things favouring Temporall Authority given by God should againe be restored according to the first and uncorrupted Coppies according to the Authors meaning And because by new prohibitions sent out under hand the force of the agreement may not be deluded or diminished when the Index of the yeare 1595. is printed the agreement also should be printed at the end of it Taking notice of the prohibiting of Bookes is not onely necessary to prevent the extinguishing of good Doctrine in Italy which beginneth now to be done but also because that under the pretence of good the Inquisition may not usurpe that authority which doth not belong to it forbidding of Bookes which though they be evill yet have nothing to doe with Religion which is the second prejudice The Ecclesiasticals have declared unto us that they prohibit books for eleven causes of which there be five that doe in no wise belong unto them The first of them is when the Booke containeth any thing against his neighbouts reputation especially Ecclesiasticall Persons or Princes The second if it containes any thing against Ecclesiasticall liberty immunity and jurisdiction The third if with politick propositions of ancient Princes or Historians they favour tyranny The fourth if the Booke containes conceites or quippes against any ones reputation The fifth if they containe lasciviousnesses and other things against honesty There is no question but those Bookes wherein such absurdnesses are found ought to be condemned but every one may not doe it it were breeding a confusion in the World if every one who knoweth an order to be good might Decree it That belongeth to publicke authority which onely can make a Law upon that which belongeth to her Government He that is zealous and seeth the evill which is in a booke let him procure the suppressing of it and hee doe well by his authority that may lawfully doe it The diligence in seeking out and discovering of an evill is commendable but to goe about to remedy it when it doth not belong unto him is usurpation and ambition If by a booke the neighbours reputation bee touched though he bee an Ecclesiasticall man it belongeth not to the Inquisition to right it That Office is against Heresie and is not to protect any mans reputation The Secular power is protector of mens honours and he is to defend it and to punish any one that doth wrong it with deeds words or writings Let the Inquisition be carefull that by bookes there is no Doctrine sowne against the Faith and God hath provided a Magistrate to give a remedy if by deeds words or bookes any mans reputation is wronged If Ecclesiasticall Persons doe see any injury done to themselves or to others it is just that they may crave the Magistrates helpe and expect amends through him If any thing bee written against Ecclesiasticall liberty and immunity because it is enjoyed by priviledge from the Princes it belongeth to the Prince to maintaine it to them as farre as the publicke Service will permit it were not good that every priviledged Person might out of his owne power defend his priviledges Would God there were Bookes which might deserve prohibition for being against Ecclesiasticall liberty rather than Bookes that doe deserve it for extending it so farre as it doth confound all government It usurpeth and taketh away that which belongeth to the Secular and shameth Christs Ministery which is for Celestiall things and not to become masters of Terrestriall committed by God unto others It is not a lesser but a greater evill to extend Ecclesiasticall liberty so farre as it may become irregular then to restraine it more than it ought to bee What is the cause that no booke is censured Because it vaunts it too much and taketh away the temporall The best way to maintaine it is not to prohibite those bookes which keepes it within the bounds but rather those which doe make it hideous for the absurdnesse of it wherefore it ought not to bee denyed but if any one should write in this behalfe contrary to truth the Magistrate ought to proceed against the author and the booke and observe the decency and authority due to the Ecclesiasticall order but it is not just that they should right themselves If politicke things be written according to the maximes of Princes and ancient Historiographers according to all mens opinions it belongeth not to the Ecclesiasticall to judge of them if they be tirannicall that belongeth onely to Princes to whom is proper the Government of States Private men doe not understand it and much lesse the Ministers of Christ to whom is severely forbidden to entermeddle in it and if any one will goe further hee must not thinke to remedy it with his owne authority but to signifie it to him to whom it belongs to helpe it As it is also most plaine that those who desire to have an unresistioned liberty doe give the name of Tiranny to the lawfull power given by God to that Doctrine which opposeth it self to their attempts so that under pretence of Religion they will become arbitrators of all Governments The same is to be said of bookes containing conceites or biting quippes which directly or indirectly doe offend in any one and if they doe teach ill manners laciviousnesse surfeits which offend the publicke dignity none of these excesses is Heresie that they should belong to the Inquisition The Inquisitor is made a Iudge of the beleefe and not a censurer of

And to give it the more credit and force he caused the Edict to be published in Sicily with a Decree and subscribed by Cardinall Doria and was sent in print all the World over The Court of Rome stood amazed as well for the Edict as for the execution of it done by the Cardinall yet in Spaine they moved not a whit and the Edict remaineth still in force Certainly there cannot be imagined a higher enterprize than to send into a Prince his Dominions a booke in print against his Government and to pretend it to bee Lawfull and that the booke shall be there read kept and sold publickely and that the Prince shall have no power to discover it and withstand it and that under colour of Religion and the authority of Christ given to St. Peter Which pretence will be taken away if we doe but marke the Catholicke Doctrine and the custome of the holy Church whence the truth plainly appeares and Cardinall Baronius his reasons are plainely confuted It is a thing well knowne that unto St. Peter were given the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that many holy Fathers and Catholick Writers meanes by the Keyes in the Plurall number the one of Knowledge and the other of Power and that the power ought not to be understood Universally but onely concerning the Kingdome of Heaven which is the Spirituall for the Civill Royall and Temporall power is expresly forbidden him by Christ So the Knowledge is not to be understood of naturall things nor of corrections much lesse of Politicke Civill or Morall things but as St. Paul saith plainely they are made dispencers of Christs misteries onely Wherefore if by the Ecclesiasticall authority a booke be approved to be good in matters of Faith it cannot be condemned as bad by any Secular power but if the booke treateth of other matters as of jurisdiction of Government of Merchandize although it were applauded by all the Prelates of the World yet doth not that prejudice Temporall authority but that it may be condemned It is a great wrong to pretend that because Christ hath given St Peter the Cognisance and power of the Kingdome of Heaven and forbidden him the Earthly one may against his precept extend spirituall things to temporall St. Augustine often saith that grace doth not destroy nor take any thing away from nature but leaving all her owne unto her doth adde unto it Divine perfections The Temporall power hath of its owne nature power to forbid all things which are repugnant to publicke quietnesse and to honesty and amongst the rest writings and bookes which are contrary to it Christ is not come to take away any of this authority from the Magistrates but to leave it intire onely he addes power to his Ministers over things concerning Christian Faith of which men by nature know nothing but onely by Revelation Therefore these ought not to assume unto themselves the power of approving of bookes which belong not to them or to endeavour to deprive the Magistrate of the authority which is given them by God and by nature Cardinall Baronius alleadgeth the Epistles of certaine Writers who have dedicated unto Popes their bookes of Histories or of Law or of concerning Government and have submitted their Workes to the Popes censure and therefore he concludes that to him alone belongeth to approve of all sorts of bookes and that once approved by him none ought any further to meddle with it But this is but a vaine reason since it doth not make any distinction betweene Obligatory binding words and words of compliment Who ever Dedicateth a Booke not onely to a Prince but also to a private man but that he will submit it unto him and that with some Hyperbole of words If we shall upon these Rethoricall colours ground Articles of Divinity we will also finde other Epistles which wee will give the same power to all manner of Persons and wee shall finde many bookes of Phisicke and of Grammar Learning Dedicated unto Popes with such like phrases of speaking and should that inferre therefore that the Papacy is an Office concerning health or a Grammar Schoole Reverence and civill speaking is one thing and that which must bee holden as an Article of Faith is another But because that Baronius taxeth the Princes Officers with forbidding of bookes because they reprove their unjust dealings it will be good to speake a word concerning that because it shall not seeme that we will have unjust things defended nor that any should thinke that it is Lawfull under colour of reproving of things to disturbe the publicke quietnesse One may speake two wayes of a misdeede by way of Thesis or Position vid. in generall without touching either Person or place or time and to reprove in this manner hath bin alwayes held good for the rooting out of vice It is Lawfull for any one to write bookes in this manner Another way is by Hipothesis that is of particular case naming of Persons and other circumstances and that is not permitted to any but to the Lawfull Judge Every one may write against Usury in generall but to touch any particular instrument for usury belongeth to none but to the publicke Judge and the doing otherwise is to put the World in a confusion leaving the managing of businesses unto unjust persons A generality may easily bee considered of and hath neede of nothing but of study and authors but a particularity by reason of the infinitenesses of circumstances requires an exquisite prudence and experience It is easie to say and to prove in generall that the usurping the Soveraignty of a State is unjust and Cardinall Baronius might have thereupon made a long Parenthesis But to come to a particular and say that the King of Spaine usurpes the Soveraignty of Sicily is not a cause belonging to him And if the Kings Officers in Naples and Milan have therefore prohibited his booke they have not forbidden the reproving of unjustice but rather the small wisedome of him who judgeth the present possession of Sicily to be unjust without having so much knowledge as was needfull for the doing of it And if the Pope did approve the booke intending to doe it for the places Ecclesiasticall Dominion and State it is well but if he did meane it also for other Princes States so that it might not be prohibited by those who held it scandalous that had beene an excesse and usurpation of other mens authority which ought not to be supposed of Pope Clement the eight who was a wise Prince And because Cardinall Baronius addes that publicke Officers cannot prohibit Booke sellers to sell bookes without their Licence under pretence of hindering Hereticall bookes from comming in with false Titles because that seeing such a danger they ought with humblenesse to seeke that the Bishops may doe it this also deserves a little consideration And first to take away all ambiguity neither did any approve of doing any thing under a fained pretence that is to cover

evill with the colour of good this being a pernicious dissimulation but to set up one good thing behind another to cause it to passe without naming of it to make the execution of it easie or for some other end is not to be reproved and the Holy Scripture doth give infinite examples of it If an Edict were made by a Secular Magistrate that no Booke-seller should sell bookes without Licence because Hereticall bookes should not come in having an intent that way to hinder not onely Hereticall but all other kind of evill bookes also it were not a thing to be reproved neither had the Cardinall any reason to enveigh against so just a thing But it is worse when he saith that they must have a recourse to the Bishop for that would bee a most unperfect Government which in it selfe had not a meanes to provide for a thing so necessary and should stay for a remedy from him that should give it according to his proper interests and not according to the publicke necessity In matter of bookes wee ought to distinguish that it is one thing to judge whether a booke bee Hereticall or no which belongeth to Christs Ministers onely neither hath Secular power any part therein And another thing it is when a booke is knowne by the Church to bee Hereticall to forbid it by Law which is not so proper to the Ecclesiasticall but that it may very laudable bee done by the Secular power In the Primative Church Hereticall bookes were examined and declared to be such by the Counsels but not prohibited by them but by the Prince The first Counsell of Nice condemned of Hereticall Doctrine of Arius the Emperour Constantine did forbid his bookes by Imperiall Law The second Counsell of Constantinople did declare Eunomias to be a Hereticke The Emperour Arcadius did prohibit the bookes of the Eunomians by a Law which is in the Theodosian Code The third Counsell of Ephesus declared Nestorius to be an Hereticke and his bookes were forbidden by a Law of Theodosius which is in the body of the Civill Lawes The fourth Counsell of Calcedon condemned the Entichians and their bookes were forbiden by a Law of the Emperour Martian who is in the same foresaid booke This was the manner of the ancient Church untill the yeare 800. since which time the Popes of Rome have declared divers Writers to be Hereticks And the Princes have let that Declaration passe without any other Law of theirs but it is not therefore to be said that they have deprived themselves of their authority of forbidding things hurtfull to their State A Hereticall booke offends the Church and disturbs a peaceable life The first respect which is spirituall belongeth to the Ecclesiasticall to discerne good bookes from evill and to the Secular as Protector of the Church to helpe it But for the second respect to withstand novelties for the publicke repose the Secular ought not to trust to other mens care nor have recourse to any one but to abound in care forbidding all what may in any respect hurt a good Government It ought to be held for an undoubted conclusion that the Secular power may forbid within its owne jurisdiction any booke though approved by any other and besides his power hee ought also watchfully to consider what danger it is if his subjects doe swallow any opinion which is repugnant to good Government I will also put it in remembrance that as it is a great good to the Common-wealth to have every booke that is to be printed examined with such care as is accustomed in this State so it would not be of lesse good to have every booke which is printed abroad and brought hither examined before it be sold It is a folly to thinke that the Common-wealth may be damnified by the printing of an evill booke and not if it be printed in another place and so scattered abroad It is true that some things may be suffered in one that is already printed which would not be suffered in one which is not printed But things of importance ought equally to be handled as well in those that are printed as in those that are to print And as it is sometimes wisedome in the prohibiting of a booke which is printed without the State to doe it with silence onely intimating it to the Booke-sellers to not have the businesse regarded nor spoken of so it should bee my respectfull advice that sometimes about bookes which are very pernicious it should bee done by Edict and writing for that would bee a putting in practise the proper authority and not giving way to them who say that prohibiting of bookes is a thing properly Ecclesiasticall and that would also accustome the people to it For if the exercising of that authority bee put off till some most urgent or most dangerous case should happen it would run in danger of being thought to bee a novelty and so bee disobeyed It is necessary before wee come out of this matter to adde that some others who have not dared to speake so great an absurdity as Baronius did have stumbled upon another not much lesser granting that the Prince may prohibit bookes as seditious dishonest or infamous but adding thereunto that this prohibition ought to be obeyed for feare of temporall punishment and not because it tyeth the conscience so that he that reades them or keepes them secret is not culpable before God This is a false and perverse opinion and contrary to Christian Doctrine St. Paul with precepts and plaine words saith that every one is bound to obey temporall power not onely because of the punishment but for conscience sake When one commands any thing having not power from God he that doth not obey him him doeth not offend his Divine Majesty But disobeying in that wherein the authority commeth from God hee himselfe comes to be disobeyed and offended Saint Paul who hath beene often alledged but never enough saith that God hath given the Prince charge of tranquillity quietnesse piety and honesty and if for these respects the Prince prohibits a booke because it is seditious another because it is impious another because it is dishonest it cannot be said without contradicting St. Paul that every one is not bound in conscience to obey If it would please God to open the eyes of many to bring to passe that this Doctrine as it is true and Christian so it might be taught and the contrary as pernicious should be confuted innumerable inconveniences would cease which wee doe now see daily Because if there be some in the World who doe worke for the love of honesty the great number of the rest is divided into two sorts The one sort are they who doe well for feare of spirituall punishments and the other for feare of temporall punishments When spirituall feare is taken away their obedience is lost who thinke that they shall lye concealed and shall through favour and other meanes hinder and eschew the punishment And those also