notably Cont. epist Fundam That be would not beleeue the Ghospell except the authority of the Catholike Church did mooue him thereunto so also he sayth as plainly August epist 18. that it was most insolent pride to dispute against it And therefore the mind of man being insatiable of knowledge for which it was created and according to the Philosopher it being better to know a little of Diuine thinges then to haue great intelligence of other matters hence it followeth that to know so many celestiall Misteryes as the doctrine of Christ containeth in so short a tyme with such great ease and infallible certainty being groūded vpon so many conuincing arguments and apparent testimonyes of Diuine authority which doctrine being also that pretious stone that bringeth with it all good thinges and beginneth that happynes in this life which is perfected and rewarded with eternall felicity in the next This I say must needs be a wonderfull strong and excellent motiue to compell all those to enter into the Schoole and Church of Christ whose mynds haue any dominiō ouer their bodyes and are not wholy transported with the pride of life or altogeather drowned in worldly desires or brutish sensuality Whereas the Protestants on the other side professing to haue no other ground of Fayth but only the bare Scripture do shew therein that they haue neither sufficient ground to beleeue that God hath reuealed his secrets to the world nor any Diuino assistance to know and discerne what seerets they are that were so reuealed For first as concerning Scripture denying the authority of the Church as they do if S. Augustine for example should deny the Scripture which he sayth plainely that he would not beleeue vnlosse the authority of the Church did moue him thereunto how I pray you could they perswade S. Augustine by Scripture alone which he would flatly deny that any thing was euer reuealed by God or being reuealed that it was truely deliuered againe or that any part of those thinges which were reuealed was writen by the spirit of God and so recommended to posterity Secondly the Scripture it selfe making mention of many other bookes of Scripture that are not extant though one should graunt that some part of Gods word was written which the Protestants without cause beleeue how could they proue that any part therof remayneth For if some bookes are lost why may not all haue perished Thirdly the malice of the Iewes and the fraud of Heretikes being so great as they are and the diligence of Scribes in writing being no more but humane and the copyes of Scripture being very many and very different one from another and the Hebrew Text hauing beene written a long tyme without vowells and the adding or giuing of diuers vowells making diuers and contrary senses the vowells themselues being but little prickes set vnder the letters and the Characters being so strange and many of them so like one another as they are and therefore it being not only an easy matter to change them but also it seeming almost impossible that they should not haue beene mistaken among so many writers in so many seuerall Countreyes for so many yeares togeather all this considered though a man should graunt that some bookes of Scripture were not lost how I beseech you can the Protestants shew that any part thereof is free from errour and foule corruption especially granting as they do that many places of the Originalls are actually corrupted Fourthly supposing the originalls either to haue remayned perfect all this while or els to be restored by them to their perfection whereof they can haue no other ground but their owne wilfull imagination considering that all their interpreters haue translated with passion and preiudice in fauour of their owne opinions and in opposition to the Roman Church and to the auncient vulgar translation following therein See the Protestant Apol. p. 256. 257. 258. rather the exposition of the Iewish Rabbins the enemyes of Christ then of the ancient Fathers And likewise considering that as their translatours are all deuided among themselues euery one seeking his owne glory so also that they condemne one another of mangling dismembring forging and of corrupting the Scripture with what colourable reason can the Protestants belieue any of their Bibles or particuler versions to be the word of God not rather the word of Tyndall or Caluin or Luther or of some other translatour Fifthly giuing vnto them that some things haue been reuealed by God and were truly deliuered and truly written and that some of those writings haue been preserued by God and still remaine miraculously vncorrupted And that the Caluinists alone or the Protestants of England alone haue only the true version or translation therof the (a) Diony de Eccles hierar c. 1. Orig. in prin peria tract 23. in Mat. Tertul. in l. praescrip l. de corona Milit. Clemens in ep Iren. l. 3. cont haer c. 2. 3. Bafil l. de spiritu sāctoc 27 l. cont Eunom Epiphan haeres 61. Hier. l. cōt Lueif August ep 118.119.86 Cypr. l. de card Chrisoper c. de ablut peaū Theoph in 2. ad Thes 2. Chrysost orat 4. in eandem ep Theod. ibi auncient Fathers of the Church prouing not only by tradition but also by the writen-word it selfe that the word of God is partly written and partly vnwritten what infallible proofes can the Protestants bring out of Scripture that we ought to belieue nothing which is not expresly contayned in the Scripture Especially considering that contrary to their owne ground they pretend to belieue many things which indeed are true but no where expresly contayned in the Scripture as that the Scripture it selfe is the word of God that children may be baptized before they belieue That Baptisme in rose water or any liquour then naturall Elementary water or in the Name of Christ alone is not good and sufficient That the Baptisme of Turkes and Iewes and Heretikes is good in some cases That it is allwayes a sinne to rebaptize That God the Father hath no Father which among many others is one instance of S. Augustine against the Heretikes of his tyme acknowledging no other ground of their Fayth but only Scripture That the Sabaoth day which is Saturday ought not to be publickly obserued as holy which is against the Commaundement of the Law and that all Christians are obliged to obserue the Sunday whereof there is not commaundement to be found in the written word of the Ghospell That our Blessed Lady remayned and continued still a Virgin That Easter day ought to be kept vpon a Sunday That it is lawfull to eat bloud and strangled meats contrary to the words of the Decree of the Church in the Acts of Apostles and the like Many things also they belieue that are meerly fals and not only not contayned in the words of Scripture but also expresly contrary thereunto As that (a) Ephes 5.32 Matrimony is no
Bishop against the Pope â—â—erthroweth the principall grounds of the Protestant Religion pag. 259. SECTION XXXII Wherin is declared how the Bishop in all aâ—ging the example of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen falsifieth the truth of the story against himselfe p. 264. SECTION XXXIII Wherein the Bishop is manifestly conuinced of Schisme out of the Authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by himselfe and the same authority for as much as it seemeth to concerne the Pope is sufficiently answered pag. 269. SECTION XXXIIII Many testimonyes plaine places are produced out of S. Cyprian whereby the Bishop is euidently conuinced both of Schisme Heresy p. 274. SECTION XXXV The conclusion of the Bishops booke togeather with a short Conclusion of the whole Treatise p. 277. THE DALMATIAN BISHOP DISCOVERED By C. A. to his Friend P. R. Student of the Lawes in the Middle Temple WORTHY SYR I haue receaued your Letter The Occasion of this Treatise togeather with a little Lattin Booke or rather a Preface to our fugitiue Bishop dated at Venice printed in London In my mynd you wil be able to make no other vse of him but only to shew him for a tyme vp and downe the streets and after that he may serue you for a stale to publish more Bookes in his name For giuing him his diet and some other small contentment you may do with him what you please In which respect I thinke he may be fitly surnamed Monsignor fate voi wherof euery one that hath been in Italy may be able to giue you the reason by recounting vnto you the Originall story of this application But if you suffer him to write himselfe or that the Booke he promiseth come forth as it came from him though it were as big as the horse of Troy coÌ„tayning in it an innumerable number of our errours besides the Confutation of them as he pretendeth and though it were longer a making Pag. 4.14.21 then the warre of Tray indured as himselfe confesseth yet in my opinion as he hath shamed himselfe already by leauing his Countrey so will he shame you also by his comming thither Which I am bold to say because in this his first peece which he hath exposed to your view like a greene Bush for the sale of his new wyne euery body may easily see the Diuell sitting And in those few degrees which he maketh of the course of his Conuersion he discouereth so many vices that it cannot be denyed the way he tooke could no more bring him to the knowledge of the truth then the fall of Lucifer could end in heauen Which to giue you some tast of the mans wyne and some knowledg of that which hereafter may be expected from him I will take the paines to shew vnto you out of his owne words and out of the seuerall passages of the booke you sent me which for this time I will suppose to be his owne without any addition or alteration by such a speciall priuiledge as now a dayes is not vsually giuen or permitted in that Kingdome His meaning therfore and scope therein is only to proue as he professeth that his sodayne flight from Venice which he calleth his Profection The argument of the Bishops booke and change of place in going for England was vndoubtedly the vocation of Almighty God intending by this discourse to preuent in time those stormes of false imputations as he saith that are like to come vpon him Not that he feareth any thing if yee will belieue him but least it might hinder the fruit of good edification in some and occasion some others to take scandall therat Wherfore he is now pleased to reueale the Secrets of his Counsells and writeth this booke to iustify the same and to make it so manifest vnto the world that God himselfe was the Authour of it as that no indifferent Reader shal be able to doubt therof and they that will presume to write against it being so fully answered before hand shal be wholy confounded by this Apology The old Prouerb saith it is good to expect the lame Post and the last newes are euer truest In the meane time the Bishop excusing himselfe before he be accused which is an ill signe setting that good face vpon the matter which you haue seene and knowing as he saith that we ought not to belieue euery spirit but that spirits must be tryed according to S. Iohn he putteth himselfe to the tryall of his spirit 1. Ioan. 4. and seemeth to proue his Vocation and Profection to haue proceeded from the Spirit of God First Negatiuely because it could not proceed from any other And secondly Affirmatiuely by some other reason His Negatiue proofes are two The first begineth in his probationibus pag. 4. and endeth with Curergo pag. 5. And briefly it is this in effect Continuing in this probation and triall of spirit full ten yeares togeather I neuer aduised nor spake with any mortall man about it nor euer read any Authour against the Roman doctrine whome I detested all that while supra modum aboue measure and therefore this change of mynd neuer came from man But on the other side during all this long space of time I gouerned my thoughts by those rules of spirit which the holy Ghost hath set downe in Scripture and by the Fathers Therfore I haue no cause to suspect it came from an euill spirit And therfore it came from the spirit of God I will not stand to shew the insufficiency of the consequence But I would haue you begin to obserue how contrary to that which he pretended he seemeth now altogeather to neglect his Reader who should haue been edified and as you will perceiue more plainely anone he laboureth as it were to satify himselfe And which is a strange thing seemeth to haue published a Book to persuade himself alone of the truth of the matter Marke therfore I beseech you how with this first argument of his consisting of 2. parts as he sets it downe he so concludeth as he leaueth his Reader altogeather a stranger to the truth of either For who knoweth but himselfe with whome he spake what he read and what rules he obserued And if the rest of his proofes be such as these surely in my opinion it had been better for him that men should haue trusted him still with their courteous construction of the cause of his comming rather then by meanes of this Booke first to bring the matter in question and afterwards for iustification therof to take vp in great all that he saith vpon the courtesy of his Readers credit and to set the truth of this whole booke vpon his score of Trust But especially in the latter part of his argument he was much to blame wherein he proueth that his change proceded from the spirit of God because he obserued those rules for the triall of spirit which the holy Ghost hath left in Scripture For if his proofe be not all one it is
propbane to be out of the Arke Iren. lib. 3. cap. 3. Hier. epist ad Dam. Aug. in psal cont part Don. not to gather but to seatter not to be of Christ but of Antichrist to be branches cut off from the byne and members denided from the body that in the next life the gate of heauen shall be shut against them the like For the which I reserre me to the 14. and 15. Section of this treatise Wherunto shall be added more anone when by occasion of these friuolous motions and illusions which made the Bishop to forsake his religion we come to propound some of those solid and substantiall motiues which are sufficient to induce any man that is not willfully obstinate to become a Gatholike And for the present because he seemeth to set downe the mayne ground of his peruorsion or conuersion as you please to tearme it in those words especially where he saith That reading the Fathers and perusing the Councells and ancient customes of the Church with great labour and busy diligence for so many yeares togeather he plainly saw at the length that the doctrine of those Churches being very many in number which Rome hath made her aduersaryes do little or nothing differ from the ancient doctrine of the pure Church the discussion hereof will also fall out to be very fit for our present purpose wherin you shall heare the Fathers vtterly to condemne the Religion now commonly professed in England and the Protestants themselues not only to reiect the Fathers but also most spitefully to inueigh most grieuously to censure one the other For that man whome neither the Authority of the Fathers nor the testy-monyes of his owne Doctors can moue or persuade neither if one should be sent from the dead toaffright him would be thereby conuerted Wherefore that you may as yet more fully perceiue the vanity and impudency of this man in affirming that all the Fathers are directly for him albeit he proue nothing I will take the paynes to shew you by some generall arguments that the Fathers do manifestly make against him First therfore you must know that the Catholikes prefesse the generall Consent of the Fathers or the doctrine of a few not contradicted by the rest to be a rule of faith and that all men are bound vpon payne of damnation to belieue it whose authority as the Protestants will not receiue so the Catholikes would not admit in such absolute manner if they were not fully perswaded that their religion were all one with the faith of the Pathers In confirmation wherof some industrious and zealous men amongst vs haue made certayne bookes of common places vnder the titles of the poynts in Controuersy betwixt vs and them wherin they hade recorded the sayings of the Fathers in approbation of our doctrine And therfore they call them the Confessions of the auncient Fathers So haue you the confession of S. Augustine in one volume of S. Hierome in another So likewise of S. Basil S. Bernard and others which it is impossible for any Protestant to see but he must needs confesse that the Fathers were all Papists and that they haue said so much in the proofe and defence of our opinions as all that we can bring is but taken from them And if the Bishop had but made the signe of the Crosse to driue away the Diuell that blynded him before he had turned ouer the Fathers workes he must needs haue seen euen by their titles and the argument of there seuerall treatises how much they make against him S. Basil S. Gregory Nazianzen S. Chrysostome haue written most excellent Sermons of the Lent and of other dayes to be fasted vpon payne of great sinne by the custome commaundement of the Catholike Church S. Basil S. Chrysostome S. Hierome and S. Augustine haue written bookes of the institute and rule of Monkes and of their vertues S. Chrysostome in particuler wrote a booke against the disgracers of Monasticall life And S. Augustine againe hath written three bookes of Free-will wherunto Luther opposing himselfe wrote a booke de seruo arbitrio of slauish will S. Augustine wrote also a whole booke of the Care of the dead and a long Chapter besides other sermons of Miracles wrought at the memories monuments of Martyrs Optatus whome S. Augustine compareth with S. Ambrose and S. Cyprian confuted the Donatists out of the Catholike Communion reprehended their wickednes out of the decree of Pope Melchiades refuted their heresy out of the succession of the Roman Bishops made knowne their madnes in contaminating chrisme the holy Eucharist abhorred their sacriledge in breaking down of Altars whereupon sayth he the mēbots of Christ were born and in polluting Chalices which he affirmeth to haue held the bloud of Christ S. Athanasius wrote a curious booke in the prayse of S. Antony the Aegiptian Eremit and in an epistle which he wrote in the name of the whole Synod of Alexandria whereof he was the Patriarch he appealed to the iudgment of the Apostolicall sea and of S. Peter Prudentius euery where in his Hymnes at the ashes bones of Martyrs adoreth the king of Martyrs S. Hierome hath written against Vigilantius in defence of reliques and honour due to Saints He hath written also against Iouinian for the state and vowes of virginity S. Ambrose did honour his Patrons S. Geruasius and S. Protasius with a most famous solemnity whose fact it pleased God to commend with more then one prodigy And therefore to omit the rest if it were not manifest by the Bishops leanesse how much he hath consumed his body with his ten yeares study of the Fathers and Councells by these contrary deuises which he sayth he hath found in them a man might wel imagine that he had neuer seene them Amongst other bookes of Controuersy very learned and profitable set forth in our English tongue by the direction of Gods holy spirit wherewith so many haue been conuerted to the Catholike faith there is no one that I would rather commend to the reading of a iudicious Protestant then the booke intituled the Protestants Apology for the Roman Chruch In which authour I cannot tell whether I should more cōmend the substance of the matter or the labour or the method or the breuity or the perspicuity or the fidelity or in fine the modesty of the manner wherewith it is written wherein you in particuler of the Innes of Court haue a speciall interest For as in the beginning it is in tytled to the King so in the end it is recōmended to the examination and consure of the learned Sages of our Cōmon law wherein you shall find three Chapters amongst the rest which do especially make for our present purpose The first folio 74. sequentibus where he sheweth by the confession of the Protestants themselues that the Catholike Roman Religion which is now professed in very many the most important matters in Controuersy betwene you and vs was
hidden What shall I say more sayth S. Augustine vpon these words of our Sauiour but that they are blynd who cannot see so great a mountayne From hence also it doth necessarily follow that the doctrine of the Church is infallible and priuiledged from errour For according to the Protestants themselus that only is the true Church wherein the word of God is truly preached and the Sacraments truely administred And therefore if the Church should erre it should cease to be the true Church and should not contynue but the Gates of hell should haue preuayled against it Matt. 16.18 which is directly against the Scriptures And in particuler this priuiledge from errour is expresly promised in the old Testament Esa 59.21 in many places as where the Prophet Esay speaketh therof in these wordes This is my couenant with them sayth our Lord My spirit which is in thee and my wordes which I haue put in thy mouth shall not depart from thy mouth nor from the mouth of thy seed Oze 2.19.20 nor from the mouth of thy seeds seed from this tyme forth for euermore And where in Oze God sayth of his Church I will espouse thee for euer and I will espouse thee to me in iustice and iudgment in mercy and commiseration and I will espouse thee vnto me in sayth for euer Ephes 4.11 Epipha in Aâ—corato circa princ Matt. 16.18 Matt. 17.18 1. Tim. 3.5 IoaÌ„ 14.26 according whereunto it is also sayd in the new Testament That there should be Pastours and Doctours in the Church for euer that we be not carryed about nor deceiued with new doctrine that the Gates of hell by which is meant Heresy shall not preuayle against it that he who did not beleeue the Church should be compted as a Heathen or Publican that it is the Piller and foundation of truth that the holy Ghost should teach all things and suggest all things to the Pastours therof that God would giue them the spirit of truth IoaÌ„ 14.16 to remayne with them for euer In conclusion if you list to see more of the largenesse of these induments and of the flourishing greatnes of the Church of Christ you may read 4. whole Chapters of the Prophesyes therof in Esay 60.61 and 62. and Micheas the 4. which I thinke no man can read without the acknowledgement and admiration of them SECTION XXIII The force of the former Motiue is further declared out of the authorityes of S. Augustine and out of the effects of the contrary Doctrine AMONG all the ancient Fathers as there is none more opposite to the Protestant Ministers then S. Augustine so there is none more respected in outward shew and more esteemed by them which is vnto vs on the other side a notable argument of the excellency of the one and of the impudency of the other Now therfore if the word of S. Augustine be of force with you whome in regard of his antiquity learning wit vertue his aduersaryes themselues do so much respect read but the 6. Chapter of the first booke of that worke which is called Confessio Augustiniana for it cannot be that relying vpon the sayth of S. Augustine which could be no other then the sayth of the whole Church but that your vnderstanding should be wholy conuinced by it In regard wherof considering that it would be to long to alleadge the testimonyes of the rest of the Fathers and that men now a dayes are loath to seeke after that which they are affrayd to find with some temporall preiudice although it be the means of their saluation I thinke good to shew vnto you before I go any further the weight and force of this motiue out of the iudgment sayth and perswasion of S. Augustine For this was that which oueruled him so much as that he spared not to say I (a) Aug. cont epist Fundam c. 5. would not beliue the Ghospell vnles the authority of the Catholike Church did mooue me thereunto I (b) cont Faustum lib. 15. c. 3. must needs beleeue the acts of the Apostles if I beleeue the Ghospell because both those Scriptures the Catholike authority doth equally commend vnto me It being of necessity that one of those bookes must be fals speaking of the acts of the Apostles and of some other Apocriphy booke to which do you thinke we should rather giue credit either vnto it which the Church began by Christ himselfe continued by the Apostles with a constant course of succession euen vnto those tymes dilated ouer all the world doth acknowledge approue to haue beene deliuered and conserued or vnto that which the same Church doth reiect as vnknowne Those whom I beleeued saying vnto me Beleeue the Ghospell why should I not obey saying vnto me beleeue not Manichaeus Choose which thou wilt If thou sayst Beleeue the Catholikes they admonish me not to beleeue you Wherfore beleeuing them it is of necessity that I beleeue not you If thou say Beleeue not the Catholiks thou canst not with any reason compell me to beleeue Manichaeus because I beleeued the Ghospel it selfe by the preaching of the Catholikes If thou say thou didst well to beleeue them preaching the Ghospell but thou didest not well to beleeue them discommending Manichaeus dost thou thinke me such a foole as without any reason giuen to beleeue what thou wilt haue me and what thou wilt not not to beleeue Be not deceiued with the name of truth speaking as to the person of the Catholike Church the truth thou only hast in thy milke and in thy bread but in this Church of the Manichies or any other which is not Catholike there is the name of truth but the truth it selfe is not And of thy great ones thou art secure I frame my speach to thy little ones I call to thy tender issue that with garrulous curiosity they be not seduced from thee but rather let him be accursed of them who shall preach otherwise then that which they haue receiued in thee Know (c) Conc. ad Cathecum cap. 20. beloued that true sayth true peace and eternall saluation is only in the Catholike Faith For it is not in a Corner but it is euery where if any man depart from it and deliuer himselfe ouer to the errour of Heretikes he shall be iudged 〈◊〉 fugitiue seruant and no adopted sonne neither shall he rise to eternall life but rather to eternall damnation By (d) cort Faust l. 13. cap. 13. what manifest signe therefore I being yet a little one or a yong scholler and not able to discerne the pure truth from so many errours by what manifest token shall I know the Church of Christ in whome with so great manifestation of things fortold I am compelled to belieue the Prophet followeth on and hauing as it were orderly heard the difficulty or doubt of mynd of this new beginner Hier. 17. he sheweth him the Church of Christ fortold to be the same which is more apparant and
Monsig r fate voi OR A DISCOVERY OF THE DALMATIAN APOSTATA M. ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS AND HIS BOOKES By C.A. to his friend P.R. Student of the Lawes in the Middle Temple Matth. 10 vers 8. Gratis accepistis gratis date Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XVII TO THE READER CHRISTIAN discreet Reader by example of this Apostata thou maist perceiue how easy a thing it is for any man of the meanest capacity to build many wind-mills and Castles in the ayre alone with himselfe and how impossible to discouer but one of thē to the iudgment of others without inconueniences For things not found in truth fall of themselues and often oppresse the builders but howsoeuer they cannot stand if they be duely oppugned I had compassion of this poore mans simplicity reading the Booke which he published for excuse of his flight fraught with so many disaduantages against himselfe which we should not haue knowne if he had byn so wise as to haue kept his owne counsaile They are so many as they would require a greater volume to handle them all at large but some of the chiefest thou shalt find examined in this Treatise And because we may expect the like workmanship from the same workman in the other ten Bookes which he promiseth if he be not holpen by others better maisters of Art then himselfe to ease the labour of further censure hereafter if he be so bold as to publish them I haue thought good to preoccupate the answere of whatsoeuer he hath allready written or his friends may say for him hereafter vnder his name vpon the same subiect And to giue thee at once aforehand sufficiēt principles of Catholike truth wherewith by thy selfe thou maist easily confute his errours without further help ouerthrow the phantasticall Tower of Babel which he hath imagined For the Leuell layed to a crooked worke without any more discouereth what is out of order as the Philosopher teacheth Quod rectum est index sui curui And with this forewarning I betake thee to our Sauiour This 10. of Nouember 1617. THE TABLE OF THE Sections SECTION I. The Bishop his first Reason turned against himselfe And from thence are deduced three arguments which do plainly proue that he was deluded by the Diuell pag. 7. SECTION II. The three former Arguments inforced by three other Circumstances pag. 17. SECTION III. The Bishop his second Negatiue Argument is discussed pag. 22. SECTION IIII. Of the Bishop his Affirmatiue proofes and in particuler of those things that disposed his mind to make mutation of Religion pag. 30. SECTION V. The Bishops Motiues to change his Religion are discussed and the arguments of the ten bookes he promised are all reduceth to one question alone of the Popes Supremacy pag. 43. SECTION VI. Concerning the Popes Supremacy The state of the question is proposed and S. Peters Supremacy is proued by Scripture pag. 52. SECTION VII The former Expositions of the two places aforesayd togeather with S. Peters Supremacy in dignity doctrine and gouerement are proued out of the testimonyes of the ancient Fathers pag. 58. SECTION VIII The conclusion of the first point of this Controuersy which is also further confirmed by the Confession of the Protestants themselues pag. 70. SECTION IX The continuance of S. Peters authority is proued by Scripture and by the Fathers and by the confession of many Protestants and therof is inferred the succession of the Pope to S. Peter pag. 74. SECTION X. The Supremacy of the Pope and his succession to S. Peter is proued by the titles of his supreme dignity in the ancient Fathers and by the foure first generall Councells pag. 78. SECTION XI The Popes Supremacy is proued out of the point of the infallibility of his doctrine by the Authorityes of the ancient Fathers pag. 87. SECTION XII The Popes Supremacy is proued by his being priuiledged from errour in doctrine of Fayth out of the Authorityes of the Popes themselues pag. 99. SECTION XIII The Popes supremacy in Iudiciall authority is proued out of the testimonyes of the Popes theselus p. 104 SECTION XIIII The Popes Supremacy is proued by the ancient and continuall practise thereof in the Catholicke Church pag. 107. SECTION XV. The Conclusion of this discourse of the Popes Supremacy pag. 115. SECTION XVI The absurd and pernicious grounds of the Bishops ten Bookes and his Christian Commonwealth are further discouered and confuted pag. 119. SECTION XVII The substance of the Bishops ten books being thus confuted the mayne paynt of this other Booke which he maketh the ground of his Conuersion That the doctrine of the Protestants differeth little or nothing from the doctrine of the ancient Fathers is disproued by sundry generall reasons and by the Fathers themselues condemning the Protestants opinions for no lesse then Heresies pag. 130. SECTION XVIII The dissent of the Protestāts from the Fathers is proued out of the Protestants themselues condemning the Fathers pag. 141. SECTION XIX That the Protestants dissent very much from the doctrine of the Church is proued out of the Protestāts themselues condemning one another pag. 145. SECTION XX. The conclusion of this Tract concerning the Bishops motiues by occasion wherof the nature of a Motiue is declared the first Catholike motiue of the holynes sanctity of Catholike doctrine is propounded p. 152. SECTION XXI The former motiue is confirmed and by occasion thereof the necessity of keeping the Commaundments to obtaine Saluation is declared pag. 164. SECTION XXII The force of the second Motiue signifyed by the word Catholike in the Creed of the Apostles is declared pag. 176. SECTION XXIII The force of the former Motiue is further declared out of the authorityes of S. Augustine and out of the effect of the contrary doctrine pag. 181. SECTION XXIIII Foure other particuler motiues of the Conuersion of Nations of the Miracles of the Martyrdoms and of the vnion of the members of the Catholike Church are briefly propounded pag. 194. SECTION XXV Of the authority of the Catholike Church in generall pag. 202. SECTION XXVI The same authority and the grounds of Christian Fayth are further declared pag. 217. SECTION XXVII Wherein two motiues that is to say Feare of danger and the Instigation of a certaine spirit which induced the Bishop to change the place of his aboad are propounded and examined pag. 232. SECTION XXVIII Wherein the Bishop his zeale and desire to try which is the last Motiue that induced him to forsake his Countrey is discussed pag. 240. SECTION XXIX The first obiection of the Bishop against himself is discussed Wherein he affirmeth That albeit the King ought to be feared and may not be reprehended yet the Pope is not to be feared pag. 247. SECTION XXX Of Schisme which is the last obiection of the Bishop against himselfe wherein he is proued to be not only a Schismatike but also a manifest Heretik p. 253. SECTION XXXI Wherein is shewed that the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the
was publiquely professed because a great part of the Gentills were not then conuerted not only their bookes and writings were tolerated but their religion it selfe although it were most grosse Idolatry was permitted Besides in England the Catholikes being many wise and learned do not cease by alledging most pregnant proofes important reasons and authenticall testimonyes to mayntaine the truth of their cause and to draw others to imbrace their doctrine In which regard it standeth the Protestants vpon and especially the Ministers to read their bookes thereby to defend themselues and others as well as they can from the force of the Catholike arguments brought against them And for the same cause in France and in Germany and in all other Countreyes where many religions are allowed the Catholike Students and other secular men are vsually permitted to read all kind of bookes the better therby to refute their errours Which this good Bishop thought good to conceale for his owne aduantage But in those other Catholike Countreys which were neuer yet infected with Heresy and where there is no occasion to impugne it there it importeth that the Pastours be very vigilant to keep it out For Heresy being once gotten in it crepeth like a canker and at last breaketh out like a raging fire and burneth so dreadfully that whole Cittyes and Kingdomes and Nations haue been consumed with it in a very short space as may appeare in Greece in Asia in Africa other Countreys And therfore in all ages not only the Fathers Doctours and Prelates but also Men Women and Children of the Catholike Church haue euer concurred with all speed and with might and mayne to quench and ex inguish the least sparke therof By which meanes it is wonderfull to consider in how short a tyme the bookes and writings of all the ancient Heretikes in former ages haue been consumed and abolished by the zeale of Catholikes In so much as of so many millions of their Volumes there is not at this day one left remayning But this good man the Bishop is of another mynd who if it were possible would dig those authours out of hell againe to see whether they were truely cited by chose that wrote against them And for the present he would permit without any occasion such mens workes to be familiarly read whom the Apostle forbiddeth to be saluted Our mother Eue out of a vayne curiosity conferring with the serpent whome she might thinke to be an Angell Gen. 3.2 fell into Heresy but this man out of a curiosity more then monstrous Ioan. 10.3.5 would perswade the sheep of Christ to heare the voyce of a stranger and to conferre with that serpent whome they know and confesse to be the Diuell Wherfore this spirit of his being so contrary to the spirit of the Church to the spirit of the Apostle to the spirit of Christ himselfe and in fine contrary to the light of reason in the Gouernement both of Church and Common Wealth you may easily indge from whence it commeth and to what end it tendeth Whereby you will also coniecture what vnion and coniunction may be of the East and of the West of the North and South with the desire whereof this good Bishop is so much tormented For it can be nothing els but a horrible confusion of them all and the vtter ouerthrow of Christian Religion as we shall see hereafter In the meane tyme that you may the better perceiue his naturall and inborne desire of vnity wherewith his poore hart is so much tormented he wil make it knowne himselfe you vnto by the effects thereof For presently after he tells you that he deuided himself from the vnion of that Society wherunto he was vowed and separated himselfe from the body of that order whereof he was a member like a branch from his vyne from the which being once cut of it was likely he could be good for nothing but to be cast into the fire The great comendations he giueth of his owne learned laborious life whiles he was in Religion I can hardly belieue For writing this booke as he doth to no other end but only to blaze his owne prayses you need not doubt but that euery where he speaketh the most of himselfe or more then the most And supposing it to be true it amounteth God he knoweth but to a very small matter especially being done for humane prayse wherewith he payeth himselfe insteed of others that should reward him for it It may be that in respect of his proud and vnquiet spirit his Superiours were inforced to proue him in many things to see what good they might make of him But in the end it should seeme by his going forth which was like to be vpon some discontentment that they found him fit for nothing The Order of the Society of Iesus may fittly be compared to the sea that casteth forth the dead bodyes or to a vessell of new wine which purgeth all the trash and corrupt matter that is mingled with it and therefore they easily permit such as be not fit for them to depart from them least by staying amongst them being stopt vp close like corruption togeather with the pure wine they should breake the vessell it selfe wherein they are inclosed And albeit for this cause it be more easy for such as are ill disposed to quit themselues of the Society then for any other Religious men to be freed frō other Orders yet the dreadfull iudgments of God haue beene so many and so wonderfull vpon those that haue wrought themselues out of their Company that an honest and a pious mind should be more terrified therewith then with the prisons and fetters of other Orders Whereby also God himselfe hath made manifest to the world that the dispensation which is somtime giuen to those that are dismissed the Society doth acquit them of their vowes according to the cause of their departure which if it be good and sufficient it taketh away the whole obligation but if it be not as I feare me this mans was not they are not discharged before God and their conscience but they remayne still in the laps and in the state of Apostasy from their Religion But you will say he wanted not sufficient cause to depart for he that desireth to be made a Bishop desireth a good worke and this man went forth to be made a Bishop To which I answere that the worke of a Bishop is good but not the desire to be made a Bishop Chry. hom 3. in oper imperf hō 3. in Matt. To desire Primacy in the Church according to S. Chrysostome is neither iust nor profitable And Primacy sayth he desireth those that desire it not and abhorreth those that desire it And the reason is because the worke of a Bishop is a calling of such perfection and such dignity also danger ioyned with it that whosoeuer he be that thinketh himselfe so sufficient for it and so worthy of it as to sue and
day I take to be some part of those innumerable heresyes whereof he accuseth the Sea of Rome to be euery day an authour for otherwise that monstrous Hyperbole of his could haue no proportion and within the number of those other very many Churches which heere he sayth that Rome hath vniustly made her aduersaries must be contayned not only those of the West which are but two or three notoriously knowne but also the other of the East that is to say the Grecians and Arians at the least if the Turkes and Iewes do not also come in to make vp the reckoning of so great a number The fury of Heresy being now ouerblowne wherewith it entred first into our miserable Countrey and the Kingdome hauing been a long tyme setled in a reposed kind of gouernemēt many strangers of good iudgment and well affected to our Nation do wonder to see that it receiueth with tryumph all kind of Fugitiues and Apostata Fryars that come running thither of what life or what religion soeuer they be so long as they professe themselues enemyes to the Church of Rome which many wise men our friends who are lookers on esteeme and affirme to be no lesse dishonorable then dangerous to any well ordered and well gouerned society And in very deed what reputation I pray you can it giue vnto you in the eye of your Neighbour Countreys to see the scumme and vomit of other Nations and their Religious Orders to be so much esteemed and magnifyed among you or what conceit can they make either of your zeale in religion or wisedome in gouernement that open your armes to euery Sectary and your pulpits to euery renegate pretending to preach although his conuersation his intention his priuate opinions or the cause of his comming be neuer so much vnknowne vnto you And at this tyme I pray God it proue not too true that in the shape of a Bishop you haue receiued a most venomous and pestiferous serpent into your bosome For albert as yet he doth not shew his head by discouering his opinions in all the particuler poynts of Christian Religion making demonstration of malice against the Pope alone yet in the windings turnings of this little booke as I haue shewed and especially in destroying all iurisdiction in arrogating to his owne iudgment aboue measure and in challenging liberty to abound in his owne sense he discouereth a most fearefull and deformed body For if this which he pretendeth may be permitted to himselfe and others there is no poynt of Religion which will not presently be called in question euery thing wil be made a quodlibet as the Academikes in Philosophy so you also in Diuinity must hold all things probable and problematicall whereof it will shortly follow that as all the wisedome of the Academy was summed in this one sentence Hoc tantùm scio quòd nihil scio so the Religion of England wil be wholy reduced to this one article hoc tantùm credo quòd nihil credo And the danger hereof is the greater at this tyme because as I vnderstand it is an opinion growing into fashion among you that a man may be saued in any Religion so he belieue in Christ and I haue seene one of your principall Doctours cyted D. Morton in his treatise of the kingdome of Israel pag. 94. who durst to publish in prynt that an Arian might be saued because albeit he deny the Deumity of Christ yet he confesseth Christ to be the true Messies which your Doctour thinketh sufficient for saluation From whence euery man being permitted to abound in his owne sense as the Bishop would haue it your selfe may iudge how easy a matter it is to passe a little further and to thinke that it may suffice to hold that Christ was a great Prophet as the Turkes do or that it is indifferent to belieue whether he be come or no which disposeth to Iudaisme or that a morall life may be sufficient to saue vs in any Religion which is playne Gentility And if this be the vnion of the East and West and of the North and South which the Bishop so much desireth to establish in his Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth I am sure that none but the Diuell can be the head therof and to satisfy the mans ambition if it were to do him good I should be contented for my part that he himselfe should be made the Vicar But thus you see how such as once fall from the Catholike Church which is the body do easily contemne the head thereof who is Christ himselfe and come to loose not only their dewine faith which none can haue but they that belieue the true Church but also to renounce their morall beliefe and former persuasion of that truth of Christianity wherin they were bred which hitherto God be thanked hath been constantly mayntained in our Countrey SECTION XVII The substance of the Bishops 10. bookes being thus confuted the mayne poynt of this other Booke which he maketh the ground of his Conuersion That the doctrine of the Protestants differeth little or nothing from the doctrine of the ancient Fathers is disproued by sundry generall reasons and by the Fathers themselues codemning the Protestants opinions for no lesse then Heresies FOR this important consideration and to meete with the danger of Neutrality in Religion so fast increasing in our Countrey as I fynd it most easy so I thinke it most necessary in these desperate tymes to make some cōfutation of these idle dreams and sottish illusions of the Diuell by shewing plainly out of the rule of Fayth and according to the ground of naturall reason that no man can be saued without the perfect loue of God which requyreth perfect obedience both of the vnderstanding in beleeuing the Catholike Church whome God hath appoynted to teach vs and also of the will in keping Gods Precepts and Commaundements Which indeed were a medicyne most appropriate to the diseases of the tyme and a hatchet layd to that root from whence the Bishops tree is already sprung and which spreadeth a pace in the harts not only of the idle youth which I feare but also of those that take themselues to be the wisest men in our Countrey But because I am loath to be ouer troublesome at this tyme and that this Treatise requyreth some hast which growing in my hand from a letter to a booke should haue been dispatched long since not only to giue iust contentment to your selfe expecting my answere to your letter but also to satisfy others who hauing hard the Bishops tale keep one eare open all this while to heare the reply of the contrary party I will reserue the handling of this matter for a fresher pen and for this tyme I will coment my selfe with those authorityes which I haue a leady produced out of the Fathers pronouncing such as are not vnited with the Pope it be confounded with the succession of his seat built vpon the premise of our Saniour to be
descend to particulers in this kind I should neuer make an end and many bookes haue beene written of the miracles of the B. Sacrament alone of our B. Lady in fauour of those that in their necessityes haue recommended themselues to her prayers of the soules in Purgatory demaunding reliefe of Masses and other pious workes or giuing thanks for help receiued by those meanes and so forth of other miracles which God hath vouchsafed to worke by the hands of his holy seruāts aliue and dead that were pleasing vnto him not deriued from any Apocriphall or vnapproued writers whom the Protestants are wont to deride but testified either by the ancient Fathers themselues S. Augustine S. Hierome S. Bernard S. Bede and the rest or by the oathes and depositions of many lawfull witnesses taken before Bishops or other secular Magistrats Wherunto not to giue so much as morrall credit were to extinguish one chiefe part of reason and to take away all credulity and so by consequence all beleife both human and diuine out of the world Thirdly many haue relented and rendred thēselues beholding or reading the admirable constancy of Catholike Martyrs For albeit there haue not wanted those that haue dyed for the maintenance of most ridiculous heresyes and their owne absurd opinions yet there is a great difference both in life and death between our Catholike Martyrs and those other mad men or malefactors For as our Martyrs haue for the most part beene men of rare perfection most exemplar life and of excellent talents both of grace and nature so the others haue beene no lesse scandalous and infamous for their former lewd conditions commonly very meanly qualified of no extraordinary parts but rather desperate or sottish or halfe besides themselues And in their deaths as our Martyrs haue all suffred contrary to the inclination of the pride and selfe loue of our corrupted nature in obedience to God and his Church for the same truth and the same poynts of doctrine without any disagreement between them which could not be done without the speciall assistance of Gods grace so the others haue beene iustly punished for the mantaynance of their own peeuish opinions out of pride and selfe loue and euer more haue obstinatly dissented not only from the commō iudgmēt of others but also from the priuate deuices of one another And therfore as the humility modesty meeknes discretion charity and other vertues of our Martyrs haue made their passions or sufferings to be pleasing sacrifices in the eyes both of God and men and their deaths most amyable and admyrable to the beholders so on the other side the pride vaine glory arrogancy presumption fury and folly of the others is sufficient to make their deaths most odious detestable and infamous to all posterity Which if you please to read the examination of Fox his Calendar of Saints you will easily see and ingenuously acknowledge this diuersity and difference which I haue noted betweene the Martyrdomes of those Catholikes whom you may haue seene to suffer in our time and the gracelesse and distempered ends of those which Fox relateth And to omit the innumerable companyes of those that haue giuen their liues for the testimony of the Catholike fayth in former ages which are at least 1000. for one of those that haue suffred for heresy and their owne priuate opinions and likewise to omit those excellent men and women that haue suffered from the beginning of the last Queens raigne vnto this present in our infortunate Countrey whome not only vertue piety and wisdome but also their nobility dignity and highest Maiesty haue made famous to the world what man of iudgment is there that will not be more moued with the death of Bi. Fisher and Sr. Thomas More alone the two great lights of the Clergy Laity of England then with al the rabblement of Foxes new Martyrs though they were ten tymes so many as he doth falsly make them Fourthly many others obseruing the obedience of all Catholiks through the world to one supreme head and the vnity which thereby is preserued amongst them and on the other side being ashamed of the infinite dissentions amongst the Protestants euery man following his owne head and being the founder of his owne religion haue beene induced thereby to forsake the troublesome inconstancy of the one and imbrace the constant peace of the other For this also is so euident on both sides as the principal Protestants themselues are inforced to confesse it M. Whitaker sayth Whita de Eccl. cont 2.9.5 pag. 327. That the contentions amongst the Protestants are for Fayth and Religion the contentions amongst the Papists are vaine and friuolous as much to say not for Religion but about matters of no moment The consent and peace of the Popish Church sayth M. Fulk proueth nothing M. Fulk against Heskins c. p. 295. Sands relation fol. 8. but that the Diuell then had all things at his will and therefore might sleepe More expresly Syr Edwin Sands declareth the same in these words The Papists haue the Pope as a common Father aduiser and conducter to reconcile their iarres to decyde their differences to draw their religion by consent of Councells into vnity c. whereas on the contrary side Protestants are as seuered or rather scattered troupes ech drawing a diuers way without any meanes to pacify their quarrells Who also further obserueth That in all this age they could not find the meanes to assemble a generall Councell on their side for the composing of their differences Beza also Beza ep theol ad Andr. Duditium in an epistle to his great friend Andreas Duditius whom he estemed a most eminent and adorned man and much respected of him for his piety learning and elegant wit repeateth the words of his friend in a letter to him which make this poynt yet more manifest Although say you there are many horrible things defended in the Roman Church vpon a weake and rotten foundation yet it is not deuided with so much dissention and it hath the plausible shew of venerable antiquity ordinary succession and perpetuall consent and if that be the truth which the auncient Fathers did professe with one mutuall consent it stands wholy for the Papists Thus say you of the Papists But ours at length what are they scattered say you whirled about with euery wynd of doctryne and being blowne vp aloft are carried sometymes to this part and sometymes to that what their opinion of Religion is to day perchance you may know but what it will be to morrow you cannot certainely affirme In what poynt of religion do these Churches agree among themselues that haue proclaymed war against the Church of Rome If you run them all ouer from head to foote you shall scarce finde any thing affirmed of one but that another will presently cry It is impiety These things you write my Duditius in the same words as I haue set them downe Thus farre Bexa Where himselfe
because our iudgment giueth consent thereunto not being moued by any inward experimentall light of our owne reason but only by giuing credit vnto others which as you see being as it were not only the other hand or Canonicall eye of reason but also the Schole-maister thereunto is of such necessity that neither the state of Church and Cōmon Wealth nor the life of man can stand without it Wherefore as in all questions and Controuersyes it is a generall rule and a receiued Maxime that the iudgment of all men or of the most or among the most of the best and wysest ought alwayes to be followed so especially it must needs haue place in the Schoole of Christ the Learning whereof being as it is not only one kind of belief and therefore wholy depending of authority but also such a practicall science as concerneth a matter of no lesse moment then our eternall felicity and endlesse misery And consequently if wisedome will that in sicknes we should follow the directions of all Phisitians or of the most and best learned reiecting such desperate medicynes as a few vnskilfull Empericks or Quacksaluers as they tearme them should propound vnto vs. Or as in matter of law or State busines of great consequence all reason commandeth vs to preferre the iudgment of the most auncient Sages and grauest Counsellours especially being many in number before the instigations of a few Pettyfoggers or yong ambitious heads that aspyre to be Politicks so in the case of the eternall damnation or saluation of our soules it stands vs more vpon most exactly to obserue the former principle as well in relying our selues vpon the doctrine and authority of the most the best and the wisest Deuines as in flying the new deuices of a few disorderly factious and infamous vpstarts that seeke to with draw vs from them First therefore that the truth of Catholike Religion is recommended vnto vs by the testimony of the most is euident in it selfe The Catholike Church possessing so many Countreyes not only in Europe but also in Asia Africa and America both East and West as the Protestants themselues auouch and there being no other Sect of Religion wherein so many do so constantly agree togeather not only the Pagans and Infidells as is notoriously knowne but also the Heretikes being infinitly deuyded among themselues as I haue shewed And that if you respect honesty vertue and good life the Catholikes are also the best is likewise confessed by their enemyes themselues as hath been declared and setting all other considerations apart there being so many Orders and great Religious bodyes among them following the Counsells of Christ in renouncing the riches the pleasures and the pryde and ambition of the world which are the only occasions of sinne submitting themselues to the direction of those who by long practise and tradition and prayer and their owne exact obedience haue learned how to commaund with sweetnes how to defend their Ghostly children from their spirituall enemyes and how to conduct them to the highest perfection of all Christian vertues in which course of spirituall life as S. Bernard sayth very notably he that will be his owne Maister shall haue a foole to his Scholler to conclude their whole life being spent in nothing els but in assisting the Sacrifice of the Church in hearing and reading the word of God in pryuate and publike prayer in mortification of their senses and naturall desires and in other deuout exercises of religious obedience of which sort alone there being many hundred thousands in the Catholike Church besides other innumerable secular people that imitate the liues of Religious persons it must needs be granted that in all human reason so great a number of the like deuout and holy people consecrated to the pure seruice of God cannot be found by the hundreth part in all the rest of the world that is not Catholike being put togeather And lastly that the Catholikes excell especially speaking of the Clergy the rest of the world in all kind of learning knowledge and wisedome both human and diuine may sufficiently appeare by the meanes they haue to attaine thereunto before others by the effects therof in their workes and writings For first as concerning the meanes and helps which God hath prouided for them to arriue to the perfection of knowledge as all the world in respect of Christendome is nothing els but barbarisme so amongst those that beare the name of Christians if any Countreyes excell the rest in quicknes of wit maturity of iudgment and capacity of great vnderstanding they are those that still remayne vntaynted and vntouched from the Schismes and Heresies of this present tyme. And besides this knowne aduantage of naturall tallents the manner and constant course of study amongst them is such as that to speake for examples sake of the Iesuites alone doubtles a meane vnderstanding may sooner attayne to be an excellent learned man by their education then an excellēt wit may come to any mediocrity by the slacke disorderly course of teaching which is held in England or in any other Countrey that is not Catholike Which Syr Francis Bacon in one of his bookes doth acknowledg in great part and your selfe will easily beleeue by their manner of study in Philosophy and Deuinity alone which heer I will briefly set downe vnto you First therefore all their Schollers in these sciences do write for an houre in the forenone and another houre after dinner two seuerall Lectures which their Maisters do dictate vnto them repeating their wordes so leasurely that they need not loose one word of their Maisters readings In this manner they continue in hearing their Philosophy 3. yeares togeather vnder one the same Maister The first yeare is appropriated to Logicke the second to Phisickes and the third to the Metaphisicks of Aristotle In which manner all the questions of moment profit as they depend of one another so likewise they are methodically orderly deliuered vnto them togeather with the explication of the Text and meaning of Aristotle where it importeth The Lecture being ended and they being deuyded into many classes vnder so many seuerall repetitors or moderators appointed to heare them they repeat for halfe an houre their precedent lessons and dispute vpon them one against the other in the Schoole before they departe their Maister being present And afterward they returne to make the like repetitions and disputations for an houre togeather more exactly then before at a certaine tyme prefixed euery day in their seuerall Colledges and Academyes and other places of priuate meetings which tyme being put togeather maketh 4. houres The rest of the day is imployed in study and prayer sauing that in the yeare of Phisickes they bestow halfe an houre euery day vpon Mathematickes and in the yeare of Metaphisickes vpon morall Philosophy which is read vnto them by other Maisters As euery day they dispute of the Lectures giuen them the dayes before so also euery
been so much ashamed thereof as to conceale it if he had knowne in what playne termes some of his ancestours whose course he followeth domaunded the like sauour And that you may the lesse maruell thereat if such a thing should happen I will set you downe part of an Epistle to the Bishop of Constance written and subscribed vnto by Swinglius Leo Iude Erasmus and 8. other Ministers who all of them cry out for wyues therein and after some intimation made of the heauenly doctrine so long hydden Prot Apol. fol 572. sequent and in their tyme restored confesse and say Hitherto we haue tryed that this gift of Chastity hath been denyed vnto vs we haue burned O for shame so greatly that we haue committed many things vnseemely To speake freely without boasting we are not otherwise of such vnciuill manners that we should be euill spoken of among the people to vs committed this one poynt only excepted Thus they Which if you please to see in the Protestāts Apology when you are at leasure you shall find also another longer petition to the purpose that will either make you laugh or lament at the weaknes of your first Apostles But thus the Bishop recommending his good name vnto you concludeth his 2. first Motiues of change of place and saith That being admonished by these dangers drawne by this vocation and thus animated therein he toke himselfe to flight then most nimbly SECTION XXVIII VVherein the Bishop his zeale and desire to try which is the last Motiue that induced him to forsake his Countrey is discussed HIS third Motiue which he seemeth all this while to haue forgotten he beginneth in this manner pag. 28. Charuas tamen Christi super omnia vrget me but yet the Charity of Christ vrgeth me aboue all things Which when I read I could not chuse but smyle remēbring how one that was troubled with vermyne in Italy went shrugging vp and downe and singing that verse of Petrarch S'amor non è che dunque è quel ch'to sento If loue it be not what is that I feele For it is very probable that pouerty and famine began to pinch him as not hauing sufficient to feed his maw after he had resigned his poore Bishoprike to his Nephew as I haue shewed And the Italian might better compare his life to naughty loue then the Bishop his counterfeit charity to the diuine loue of Iesus Christ so that the one if he had thought his life to be loue should haue been no lesse mistaken then the other This charity sayth he did vrge him to cry And to get him vp to some high place that his cry might be heard the further if you had euer been in Venice you would imagine him to be possest with the spirit of some Montebanck not only in respect of his mounting and crying but also in respect of his discourse For with a great many arrogant tearmes and boasting words cōfusedly vttered you would thinke he meant to sell the wares of his new booke as Montebancks sell boxes But for orders sake I will reduce all that he sayth to three heads For either he sheweth what it is that he intendeth to cry or what authority he hath to cry or answereth certayne obiections that might be made against his crying I expected iudgement Isa 5. 7. and behold iniquity and iustice and behold a cry Me thinkes as S. Augustine said to a Donatist that part of the world should suffice him wherein our Lord would that the chiefe of his Apostles should be crowned with a most glorious Martyrdome For what could the President of that Church answere but that which the Apostolike Seat and the Roman Church doth anciently hold with others or at least that the authority of Christendome which S. Augustine calleth the Confession of mankind might haue suffised to haue kept this man in quietnesse and obedience but insteed of iudgment behold iniquity and insteed of iustice behold a cry For this man is so farre from hearing and obaying the Church which our Sauiour hath appointed to teach him that being worse then an Infidell he cryeth against the Church and with extreme arrogancy would inforce the Church to belieue him and to be obedient vnto him That which he intendeth to cry is the matter of his booke of Christian Common Wealth whereof he vaunteth as if therby the world should know Pag. 28.33 what a champion the Protestants haue gotten for them For by meanes thereof the errours of Rome must be made manifest and the purity of the Protestant doctrine shal be no longer hidden and a number of their Churches reiected by that of Rome shal be declared Catholike and the way of making peace and vnion ouer all the world shal be cleerly manifested And all this he pretendeth with such confidence and presumption as if with him the Catholike verity were turned Protestant or as if he had gotten a Monopoly of the doctrine of Christ and that no part thereof were warrantable without his marke or licence and with his approbation that any Religion might passe for currant Of this booke of his he speaketh euery where with such admiration as a man may easily perceiue it is the Idol that he adoreth and was doubtlesse the principall cause of his fall and for the loue of it more then any thing els he was content to renounce both his Faith and Countrey But as Idolls are nothing so I haue shewed sufficiently that this Idoll of his contayneth nothing And though it were neuer so strong and substantiall yet cōming once forth and falling vpon the stone of Peter which is the Rock of the Church wherat it aymeth it must needs be broken all to peeces And considering with my selfe what the cause might be that all this while it is not published I am perswaded that the Protestants themselues perceiuing the deformity thereof and especially the clouen foot of the Diuell I meane the deniall of all Iurisdiction in the Church of God which is the crutch wheron it standeth were either affrayed or ashamed to prynt it which if it be true we shall shortly heare that either he will take the course that Achitophel did when his Counsell was contemned or els that before it be long forsaking Kent and Christendome he will turne himselfe towards the Turkes and Gentiles And indeed intending as he doth to take away the occasion of Schisme not by establishing one head vpon earth as our Sauiour did but by beating downe the same not by order of Iurisdiction but by the disorder of licentious liberty any man may perceiue it is a Diuellish deuice not to bring forth vnion but to breed confusion nor to gather with Christ but to scatter with Antichrist And therefore the Cryer himselfe considering the matter a little better and being ashamed to discouer in playne tearmes his wicked meaning correcteth himselfe afterward and instead of demonstrating the way of this vnion which he promised before he saith afterward that
place by way of a friendly exhortation to peace and amendement he accuseth the Pope of many foule crymes and addresseth his speach vnto him in this manner Let vs obserue the famous saying of S. Cyprian iudging no man excōmunicating no man let vs imitate Cyprian c. as if he being free from all fault himselfe he had great compassion of the Popes vniust proceeding perswading him with all charity to reforme himselfe only he hath one trick which I know not how it can stand with the art of Rhetorick and it is this that commonly through all his booke he speaketh against himselfe or produceth such matter as most easily and most strongly may be vrged against him Whether it be his ill luck or a fault in Nature or the iudgment of God vpon those that falling from the Catholike Religion attempt to write against it I know not But this I dare say that he neuer learned this poynt of Rhetorike among the Iesuits First therefore as in other passages of his booke you haue seene all that he hath sayd to haue been retorted against him so in the same manner we will examyne in this place how much this allegatiō of S. Cyprian doth make for his purpose For the Cōtrouersy betweene S Stephen and S. Cyprian being about the baptizing of those that were before baptized by heretikes which could not be determyned by Scripture alone the decision thereof by the tradition of the Church and the condemnation of S. Cyprians opinion by the Nicen Coūcell doth euidently proue the necessity of tradition against the Protestants of whome the Bishop hath made himselfe one and that the Scripture alone cannot be in all matters a sufficient Iudge of Cōtrouersyes For as S. Augustine sayth that custome which was opposed to Cyprian Aug. de bapt cont Donat. l. 5. c. 23. ought to be belieued to haue taken his beginning from the tradition of the Apostles as there are many things which the vniuersall Church doth hold and for this cause are rightly belieued to haue been commaunded by the Apostles albeit they be not found to be written Thus S. Augustine Secondly I would know the reason of this great change and strang conuersion of things why as Vincentius sayth the authors of the selfe same opinion should be acknowledged for Catholikes and the followers therfore should be iudged Heretikes the Maisters should be acquitted the disciples condemned The writers of the same bookes should be receiued into heauen and the mayntainers of them shut vp in hell For the latter did no more oppose themselues against the Scripture then the former and both of them seeme to haue alleadged more Scripture in the defence of their opinions then the Catholikes that opposed themselues against them Wherfore no other reason can be giuen thereof but only this That in the time of S. Cyprian and his predecessors who were the authors of this opinion of rebaptizing Hereticks the controuersie was no way defined which being afterwards determined the Donatists that reuiued the same against the beleife of the whole Church were iustly condemned and this kind of condemnation being once admitted the Protestants that haue broached and retayned so many opinions against the generall beleife of the vniuersall Church since the time of Luther and haue been most authentically condemned by the generall Councell of Trent can neuer be secured from the infamy of Heresie which followed the Donatists in this life nor from the same eternall punishment which they receiued in the other Thirdly wheras S. Cyprian sayd to the rest of the Councell that none amongst them did make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops because Marke Anthony would haue it seeme that he taxed Pope Stephen therin who subscribed his letters with that title it must needs be graūted that those words were improuidently alleadged by this Protestant Apologer For as to haue vsurped so great a title had bene as great a crime as could be imagined and such as that all the Bishops in the world had bene bound in conscience to haue opposed themselues against S. Stephen for it more then against any heresie which those times produced so S. Stephen liuing in the 2. age and being a man so renowned for sanctity and martyrdome as he is by the vse of this title affordeth vs a most forcible and inuincible argument of the Popes Supremacy For writing himselfe the Bishop of Bishops he could intend no lesse nor be no otherwise vnderstood then that he professed himselfe the head and the chiefe of all other Bishops Which also may be further confirmed because he inuented not this title of himself but receiued it from his predecessors Wherof his zeale in preseruing the tradition of antiquity against all kind of nouelty may serue for a sufficient argument and Baronius proueth out of Tertullian that it was an ancient custome before the time of S. Stephen which is also confirmed by other titles giuen to the Pope by S. Athanasius and other Bishops in the foure first generall Councels as hath byn shewed SECTION XXXII VVherein is declared how the Bishop in alleadging the example of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen falsfieth the truth of the story against himselfe HAVING shewed how much the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the Bishop doth make against his owne cause ouerthroweth the principall grounds of all Protestant Religion that you may the better perceiue what a notable Champion he is like to proue of the Protestant faith I may not omit to shew you with what falshood he relateth the story of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen and how much to his owne disgrace For first in my opinion he wrongeth S. Cyprian not a little whom he semeth so much to extoll For he maketh him so stiffe in his owne opinion his words are propria opinione firmatus as to oppose himselfe not onely against the Roman but also against almost the vniuersall Church and so voyd of conscience as both to dissent almost from all others in matter of faith and yet to communicate with them For with what conscience could he eyther perseuere in his owne opinion wherein he condemned almost the whole Church of errour or condemning allmost all the members therof in such manner as this man sayth he did with what conscience could he communicate with them These things therefore as they redound very much to the dishonour of S. Cyprian so in themselues they are not true Cyp. ep 2. but are most vniustly layd vpon him by this back friend of his as may easily be proued For S. Cyprian was not the first that began to defend the baptisme of heretikes to be of no force but he receiued this custome from his predecessour Agrippinus as himselfe declareth in these words But with vs it is no now or sodayne matter that we should thinke that they ought to be baptized which come vnto the Church from heretikes there hauing passed now many years a long age sithence that vnder Agrippinus very many Bishops agreeing
the Bishop is euidently conuinced both of Schisme and Heresy IN the tyme of S. Cyprian as the Nouatian Heretikes on the one side denyed that such as were once fallen Cyp. ep 55 ad Cornel. were to be receiued into the Church againe vpon any tearmes whatsoeuer so there were other heretikes who affirmed that all were to be receiued without any pennance or satisfaction for their former sinne For the which cause S. Cyprian sayth of them that they endeauored that sinnes might not be redeemed by iust satisfaction lamentation that wounds might not be washed by teares That weeping and wayling might not be heard to proceed from the brest and from the mouth of such as were fallen that such as were inuolued in defrauding and deceyuing or defyled with adultery or polluted with the cōtagion of sacryfiee to Idols might not make confession of their crymes in the Church whereby all hope of satisfaction and pennance being taken away they lost both the sense and the fruit thereof Which heresy whether it be reuiued by the Bishop or by those congregations wherunto he hath vnited himselfe I shall leaue to your iudgment to consider But one of those heretikes called Florentius Pupianus writing vnto S. Cyprian in the same māner as heere the Bishop in the latter end of his booke addresseth his speach to thē Pope to giue them satisfaction and to purge himselfe of his proceeding against them S. Cyprian to abate his Pryde to make him acknowledge that it was the cause of the schisme and heresy wherinto he was fallen vseth these words among others and sayth From hence Schismes and Heresyes haue risen and do arise because the Bishop which is one and gouerneth the Church is cōdemned by the proud presumption of some and the man whome God hath vouchsafed to honour is iudged of men to be vnworthy And after a while he sayth There speaketh Peter vpon whom the Church was buylt shewing and teaching in the name of the Church That albeit the proud stifnecked multitude of those that would not obay departed from Christ yet the Church departeth not wherefore thou oughtest to know sayth he that the Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop And so he who is not with the Bishop is not in the Church wherof he concludeth that such do flatter themselues in vayne who not hauing peace with the Priests of God thinke it sufficient to communicate with others The like words S. Cyprian vseth in his epistle to Pope Cornelius where he sayth Cyp. lib. 1. epist 3. That there is no other cause of Heresyes and Schismes but that the Priest of God is not obayed and that one Priest and one Iudge is not acknowledged in the place of Christ in the Church for the tyme. Where also hauing sayd as before that the Church was built vpon Peter at length speaking of the former Heretikes that presumed to go and complaine of him to Pope Cornelius he sayth That they were so audacious as to sayle vnto the Chayre of Peter and to the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood did proceed not considering that they were Romans whose fayth was praysed by the mouth of the Apostle and vnto whome perfidiousnes or error in fayth can haue no accesse The like words againe he wrote in his Treatise of the vnity of the Church where he sayth That men are transported by the Diuell into Heresy and Schisme out of the Church of God because they do not returne to the origen of truth nor seeke the head nor follow the doctrine of their heauenly Maister Which if they considered there were no need of any long treatise or argument but that the tryall of Fayth would be very easy And then shewing what was this heauenly doctrine and what the head and origen of truth which is taught vnto vs he addeth immediatly Our Lord sayd vnto Peter I say vnto thee thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke c. and vnto the same man after his resurrection he sayd Feed my sheep and so concludeth that our Sauiour built his Church vpon him alone and committed vnto him his sheep to be fed and gaue him the Primacy that there might be one Church c. And a little after he addeth This vnity of the Church he that doth not keep doth he beleeue that he keepeth the Fayth He that resisteth the Church and striueth against the same he that forsaketh the Chayre of Peter doth he confide that he is in the Church And to the same purpose els where he sayth Epist 8. ad plevē vniuersam God is one Christ one and the Church one and the Chayre one built vpon Enter by the voyce of our Lord any other Altar or new Priesthood beside one Altar and one Priesthood cannot be erected and made Whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth Out of which places because it is euident that our fugitiue Bishop with proud presumption cōtemneth that one Bishop who hath the chiefe place in the gouernement of Gods Church and likewise that he contemneth the Successor of him vpon whom the Church was built and who is in the Church and the Church in him because the Chuych is nothing els but the people vnited to the Priest and the flocke adhering to the Pastour And againe because it is euident that he disobeyeth the Priest of God and doth not acknowledge one Priest and one iudge for the tyme in the place of Christ and forsaketh the Chayre of Peter and the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood proceedeth and wherunto no falshood in Fayth can haue accesse that he obserueth not the dostrine of our heauēly Maister neither returning to the origen of truth nor seeking the head which is S. Peter vpon whome alone our Sauiour built his Church and committed the feeding of his sheep vnto him which course according to S. Cyprian is the only cause and occasion and only meanes whereby the Diuel transporteth men out of the Church into Schism and Heresy it cannot be denyed but that your Bishop forsaking the successor of S. Peter the Chayr of Peter who holdeth the place of Christ in the Church forsaketh the Church and in vayne beleeueth to be therein and gathereth not with Christ but scattereth with Antichrist And thus much cōcerning the obiections which he pleased to frame against himselfe SECTION XXXV The conclusion of the Bishops booke togeather with a short Conclusion of this whole Treatise THERE remayneth only the conclusion of his booke wherein because I haue wearied my selfe too much already with sweeping a way the cobwebs of his idle discourse whereunto in respect of the sleightnes and vnprofitablenes and foulnes of the matter the substance thereof may fitly be compared I will only note two or three things vnto you very briefly First therefore as Iudas saluted Christ and sayd Marc. 14.45 hayle Maister and kissed him whom a little before be had sould to the Iewes as a false Prophet
had done nothing amisse setting a brasen face vpoÌ„ the matter and telling before hand that he should be caluÌ„niated by his aduersaryes thinking by this deuice to make that his purgation and defence which he had cause to feare as the condemnation and punishment of his former wickednesse he dispatched himselfe from Venice in the shape of a Saint See his own booke pag. 10. 28. compareth himselfe to Abraham and to S. Paul and speaketh of his great zeale as if it had brought him into a consumption and of his Charity as if it put him in danger to burst with crying And this he doth with such coÌ„fidence of his owne worth with such authority as one may plainly see that he assureth himself not only to be able to deceiue you in the opinion of his honesty but to giue rules of beleef and a law of Religion like a new Prophet sent from God to all the world about you Wherein you may choose whether you will admire his strange impudency vnaccustomed boldnesse or the supposition he brought with him of your credulity and simplicity in beleeuing But the iudgment of God hath ouertaken him and that which he feared is come vpon him For not only he is become reprobate in sense but also the little wit and learning he had seemeth to be taken from him And as in his booke he discouereth himselfe to be nothing els but an arrogant Impostor and an irreligious sycophant so also this other Iuridicall testimony which is brought against him being aboue all exception and perchance more authenticall then was euer produced against any other Heretike doth set his abominations against his face in such manner as though it be of brasse it cannot defend him from extreme confusion according to that of the Psalmist God hath sayd vnto the sinner Psal 49.26 c. why doest thou declare my Iustice and takest my Testament into thy mouth thou hast hated discipline in forsaking thy Order and thou hast cast my words behind thee which thou hadst learned therein If thou sawest a theefe in Segnia thou didst run with him and thou didst put thy portion with adulterers liuing in all vncleanesse Thy mouth abounded with malice iustifying thy sinne and thy tongue contriued fraud betraying the innocent bloud Sitting thou didst speake against thy brother writing bookes against the Catholike Religion didst giue scandall to the senne of thy mother and the Children of the Church These things thou hast done and I haue held my peace Wherupon thou didst thinke o wicked man that I would become like vnto thee not punishing thee for thy offences but I will reproue or confound thee and bring forth thy sinnes to plead before thy face against thee Vnderstand these things you that forget God least suddainly he take you away and there be none to deliuer you To conclude considering that such as forsake our Church to come to yours wax coÌ„monly worse then they were before which as I haue noted your owne Authors haue obserued I doubt not but this mans life hereafter if it be looked into but a little especially when his new maske of strangnesse and grauity which he thought good to put on at his first comming among you with tyme and familiar custome shall be worne away will make him to be no more knowne then hated and no lesse contemned then abhorred In the meane â—â—me the infamous shipwrack wherinto he is fallen first of all Vertue which is the merchandize and secondly of Fayth which is the shippe of eternall life lastly of all good name and common honesty without the which this present life is farre worse then any temporall death hath made him a perpetuall and a most dreadfull example for all Religious men to take heed how they breake their first fayth and depart from their Order whereby this miserable man first entred into the way of perdition and for the whole Clergy to beware of ambition which was the morsell wherewith the Diuell entred into him for euery good Christian of the Catholike Church that they haue care aboue all things to keep a good conscience which he neglecting made shipwrack of his Fayth and was therfore giuen ouer by Almighty God into impenitency and hardnesse of hart to heape or store vp wrath to himselfe against the day of wrath and to increase the waight of his owne damnation against the tyme of the reuelation of Gods iust iudgement who shall render vnto euery man according to his workes And thus wishing him no more hurt then I do to your selfe whose good I specially intend by this discourse and making my humble prayer vnto God that once againe he may awake out of the infernall slumber in which he now lyeth and receiue new grace to follow the example of the poore Capuchin his Predecessor who notwithstanding his former Apostasy from vs to you is lately returned from you to the Catholike Church againe â— bid you as before most hartily farewell FINIS Faults escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction 3. 30. in his In his 11. 28. permitting pretermitting 14. 22. one owne 54. 27. to easy to be easy 110. 3. any an 116. 8. infallable infallible 120. 19. purchast purchase 122. 6. the English of the English 126. 5. these those 137. 19. foward forward 149. 25. contemne condemne Ibid. 29. commounded commaunded 38. 30. immiâ—â—nt eminent 179. 12. mortally morally 195. 19. beleeue borrow 197. 10. mortall morall 212. 28. ages age 216. 17. his this 216. 20. arrogancy Not arrogancy not Ibid. 21. deceaued what deceaued What 226. 32. imminent eminent 266. 30. S. Stephen S. Cyprian In the margent pag. 69. the citation is misplaced