experienc'd Physitians draw infinite advantages from that universal Crisis of the World Nothing was ever better contriv'd for that purpose then the Council of Trent And he that will survey it without being blinded with any preposterous Zeal will easily be convinc'd that Paul the Third the Promoter of it was a Man of great abilities and that his Predecessors trepidaverunt timore ubi non erat timor Psal 53. 6. IV. The Pope passes his word to call a Council against the express promise that Adrian the 6th had made of having it in Germany according to the constant maxime of the Canons To end Causes where their occasion began he calls it at Trent This Council summoned at Trent is so afraid not to be accounted a General and a Lawful one that it entitles it self at the beginning of all its Sessions Sancta oecumenica Synodus in Spiritu Sancto legitime congregata Who now would not think after such big words that from all places where our Blessed Saviors name is known Bishops did flock to Trent Who would not have expected to meet there with some Eastern Patriarchs or African Prelates Who would not have promised himself in reading the Subscriptions of this Council to â—ind more than 300 Witnesses of his Faith as at Nice 600. as at Chalcedon and in our very times 300 as at Constance or 400 as at Basil Who would not have â—ntertain'd hopes of hearing there many Athanasius's Cyril's Eusebius's Spiridio's Paphnutius's c In a word Who would not have flatter'd himself that our holy Faith had now bin made most clear and manifest and that Gods Spirit a Spirit of liberty and peace 2 Cor. 3. 17. had animated that great Body Nevertheless what must we say when we see appear there not any of those remote Bishops nay scarce any of the nearest not so much as one of Germany Poland England Denmark Sueden or France That grand oecumenical holy admir'd Council is reduc'd to three Cardinals five Arch-Bishops 36 Bishops for the most part without Churches some Mendicant Divines headed by Lainez and Salmero two stars of the Firmament worthy sons of the grand holy oecumenical company of Jesus The Sermons which were made at every Session and their manner of discussing the controverted Points are an evident proof of the mean parts not to say any thing sharper and truer of all these Divines Nay and to supply so remarkable a defect we hear of no extraordinary qualities nor eminent and surpassing Virtue nor gift of Tongues nor working of Miracles nor Spirit of Prophecy Notwithstanding this small handful 〈◊〉 People take upon them to explain the most obscure and intricate matters to give them after a slight and precipitatâ— survey a final determination and to make more Canons in one Session of four hours then the four first General Councils all put together had done in four hundred Years V. The Pope claims to himself the power of calling that Council He does not consider it as a privilege or an usurpation which the silence of those that are interested therein seem to render lawful but as an inseparable and inherent right to his See Nos saith Julius the Third ad quos ut summos pro tempore Pontifices spectat Concili a generalia indicere dirigere c. Who could imagine Christs Vicar to be a man of so small sincerity Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret affirm that the Nicene Council was call'd by the great Constantine The first Constantinopolitan which is the second General was called by Theodosius that of Ephesus by Theodosiue junior that of Chalcedon by Marcianus the fifth General by Justinian the sixth by Constantine the Fourth the seventh pretended General Council by Constantine and Irene his Mother the eighth by the Emperor Basil All these are accounted General in the Roman Church and full of so evident proofs that the Cardinals Cusan Jacobatius and Zabarella confess that in the Primitive Times the right of calling Councils belonged to the Emperors but so many that were assembled in Germany England France Spain Italy c. that of Constantia by Sigismundus that of Pisa by Maximilian gather'd for the most part to depose Popes make it appear that so great a Truth was not wholly worn out in the last Ages VI. It is pleasant to consider how different the stile of Popes in former times is from that of the present We were in hopes saies Pope Leo to the Emperor Marcianus Epist 44. that your clemency would condescend so far as to defer the Council but since you resolve it should be kept I have sent thither Paschasin Has not the Roman Church saies Pope Stephen to another Emperor sent her Legats to the Council when you commanded it We do offer these things to your Piety saies Pope Adrian to the Emperor Basil with all humility veluti praesentes genibus advoluti coram vestigia pedum volutando But Pope Paul the Third speaks quite in another manner Nulli hominum liceat hanc paginam infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire The Bull of Julius the Third is yet more bold and ill becomes the humility of one that writes himself The Servant of Servants So that it must needs be that either former Popes were extremely ignorant of the extent of their Power or that the ambition of the later is grown too exorbitant VII The Author of the Considerations upon the Council of Trent seems to be perswaded of this want of Jurisdiction in the Pope and he is at such a loss to excuse it that he has nothing to say but that in the Troubles that Europe had bin engaged in this right was devolv'd to the Pope But was not Europe more disturb'd when Frederick the First gathered a Council at Pavia where the German English French Italian Hungarian and Danish Bishops met together When Charles the Sixth King of France call'd one at Rhemes whither the Emperor being pleased to be present the King of England and many other Princes sent their Ambassadors Or when both the Pisan and Constantian Councils were indicted by the Emperors with so great applause of all Christians VIII Nor is it more difficult to prove that the Pope has no right of presiding in Councils nor ought we to recur for that to many subtil distinctions or deep Ratiocinations We need not put our selves upon the rack as the Cardinals Baronius and Bellarmine frequently do to render that probable which is evidently false and to make people wavering in things which are undoubtedly true We need but open those Books wherein lie the precious and everlasting Monuments of Antiquity and the precedent conduct of so many holy Bishops Constantine the Great presided at the first General Council as Pope Stephen doth acknowledge in his Letter to the Emperor Basil Theodosius senior did the same at the second and from the small remains that we have of this Council
ever err In his Letter to Vincent Do not oppose therefore Brother to so many and undoubted places some of the writings of the Bishops either ours or those of Hilary Cyprian and Agrippinus All these writings want the Autority of the Canon and we receive not their testimonies as things which it is not lawful to dissent from if they are dissenting from the Truth Upon the 87. Psalm You read not in the Gospel those whom you name neither do I see those whom I alledge Let us lay aside our Books procedat in medium Codex Dei Finally against Maximinus the Arian who relied upon the Council of Ariminum I ought not saies he to cite you the Nicene Council nor you that of Ariminum as prejudices for our cause Scripturarum autoritatibus non quorumcunque propriis sed utriusque communibus testâ—bus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet utrique tanti ponderis molibus cedamus Nay 't was not only Bishops that thought so but Lay-men themselves We are taught by the Gospel saies Constantine to the Nicene Fathers the Apostolical Writings and the Oracles of the Prophets what we must know of God let us therefore draw the explication of our doubts from the words divinely inspired VII We intend not hereby to detract from any part of the high esteem every Christian ought to have for the Works of the Fathers We consider them as the Masters of the Church who instructed her not only by the learned productions of their minds but by the purity and good examples of their lives We honor them as Preachers who spake no less by the wounds they received for the defence of Christ then by the words they made use of to make known his Doctrine Nor could we behold without a just resentment a Minister of our Age to abuse their Writings in a Book entitled De vero usu Patrum We acknowledg with the great S. Austin that these holy Men were stabiles in antiquissima robustissima Fide We call with the Primitive Councils our present Faith the Faith of our Fathers But we are not convinced that our respect should endue us to believe them infallible After Gods Word none is of greater weight to us then theirs but we are not bold enough to mingle confound them As a body grows not luminous but as it comes near the Sun to receive its impressions so we do not see in them any certainty of light but as they are conformable to the Scripture which is certainty and light it self And we think we give them all the praises they can expect from us when we say as S. Athanasius did of the Nicene Fathers that their Expositions of the Nicene Faith according to divine Scriptures are sufficient to destroy all Impiety and confirm the belief of Christ VIII But that which is more to be wondred at is that none of the controverted points has ever bin preserved in the Catholic Church as a point of Faith and agreeable to the consent of the Fathers a truth expresly maintained by a learned u Bishop of this Kingdom who successfully challeng'd any of the Roman Communion to a contradiction I would call for no other evidence then the Canon of this very Session § 4. which ordains under pain of Excommunication to admit of those Books as Canonical that had never bin such with the same veneration as those which had bin constantly kept by the Church All Councils Fathers Ages ancient and modern Writers exclaim against that Decree and there is no man tho but commonly read in Ecclesiastical writings that can deny it Notwithstanding the Council doth anathematize those that dissent from its Canons Pope Paul and Pius the IV. exact a dreadful Oath of it and make the People swear upon the Gospel to receive as certain and undoubted that which all the learned of the Church of Rome had lookt upon before as evidently false IX The Decree which consecrates the vulgar Translation is most strange but nothing is like the declaration of the Cardinals who assure us Quod ne vel iota unum repugnat in veteri vulgata Latinae linguae editione tho Pope Clement VIII confesses in the Preface to his Edition many things were purposely omitted which should have bin changed Let it be said with all due respect to their Eminencies that so surprizing assurances shew either deep ignorance or a wonderful unsincerity or the greatest boldness in the World X. The Articles of Justification which establish the merit of our Works in a manner so injurious to the Grace of our Redeemer are no less opposite to the ancient Church That holy Mother constantly instructed her Sons in all times That we are by nature the Children of wrath That God works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing of our selves but our sufficiency is of God She has bin taught by Christ himself Without me ye can do nothing if the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed and no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him She has bin informed by her Doctors that when God is pleased to Crown in us our merits he Crowns but his gifts that unless he gives us what he commands us his Law instead of a spirit giving life becomes to us a killing Letter She has determined in her Council That no man is free for doing any good thing but by Gods Grace that God expects not our will but prepares it according to what is written in his word that when we fall into any sin we do it of our selves and of our own will but when we do any good Action 't is out of his alone Let any unprejudiced person read the Canons of the Council of Orange where S. Hilary being President Christs Grace triumph't so entirely over all its enemies and compare them with those of Trent he will be amazed at so strange a contrariety But when we are so earnest in throwing down our pretended merits to raise a glorious Trophy to our Faith we intend not to patronize Libertinism and give way to those licentious opinions which are the natural consequences drawn from the Doctrines of some Reformers Faith whereby a man is justified is not barren and like that of the Devil which is of no use but to prolong and foment his disorders It is a Faith which as the Apostles stiles it works by love which makes us look upon Christ as the Foundation and only Source of our Salvation breeds in us an ardent desire of him That love which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost promts us to put our whole trust in him and to practise by the Soveraign power of his Grace what his Gospell teacheth is required of us S. Austin incomparably expresses this
understand the most important truths of Salvation This is not contrary to the exercise of the inward praier which St. Austin callâ— the voice of the heart by which we beâ— and are supplicants to God for his mercyâ— and the Church of England is so far from forbidding Christians to prepare themselves for the life to come by a seriouâ— consideration of the miseries and inconstancy of the present and to learn how to love Christ that by her they are commanded to do all this and the Bishop say to each of them in giving them thâ— Gospel as the Angel did to the Prophetâ— comede volumen istud Eat this Book and convert it into your own substance XXVII This makes it appear with how much less sincerity our adversaries who have but a blind zeal think to offer a great sacrifice to God in calumniating their Brethren and accusing all the Protestants of renouncing all the exercises of Christian Piety and of retaining nothing but a meer morality which is to be met with in any honest Heathen And indeed if going in Procession carrying Images about one counting Beads and a hundred such like nothings are counted Piety she acknowledges none of them But if the renouncing of our selves the mortifying our senses the humility of our hearts the love of our neighbor forgiving our enemies the meditation of the Gospel be stiled holiness she teacheth and practiseth them faithfully XXVIII The holy Church of England proceeds farther and the Church of Rome hath no really holy practices which she doth not follow Confession so ancient in the Church is in use here also but the liberty thereof is left to movements which God himself inspires into the hearts of sinners The Church had so done for twelve Ages and until the pretended general Lateran Council there was no Statute made about it She desires it should be wrought by the Holy Ghost that the Spirit of God should throw a sinner at the feet of the Priest and not the fear of Excommunication XXIX She doth as they believe the usefulness and necessity of fasting All Scriptures and Traditions are full of the praises which God and his holy Saints have attributed to it Lent and the abstaining from certain meats on certain daies are practices so ancient in the Church that none can blame them without an insupportable ignorance and temerity She observes all these things with a great deal of edification Her Bishops and many of her Clergy-men fast after the manner of the Primitive Christians that is eat but once and that at night Abstinence from flesh is alwaies injoined with their Fasts They abhor the shameful subtilties of the Casuists of the Church of Rome who retain nothing of it save the name but in effect destroy it Their fasting and abstinence have nothing superstitious He that eateth not is not scandaliz'd by him that eateth Rom. 14. 1. The strong do patiently bear with the weak and pray God that he strengthen them XXX Nor doth the Church of England condemn Monastical life She praiseth them that retire into solitude therein to bewail their crimes who forsake all to find all in Jesus Christ It cannot be denied but whatever irregularities the greater part of the Church of Rome be in there are amongst them a very great number of good people whom God will recompence rather according to their heart then actions Had they when Henry the Eighth suppressed them in England walked in the duties of their Calling they had bin still in being The Popes anger was not because they had bin suppress'd for Popes themselves shew by their examples that these sort of suppressions are somtimes necessary but 't was because it was done without his autority which then becomes a nice point in Law pernicious to all states and contrary to the respect due to Kings This Prince found them in ignorance and corruption They were a burden to the State a scandal to the Church a subject of grief to all good people Their zeal for asserting the temporal autority of the Pope was inconceivable and they treated their Bishops with extreme scorn When so many evils gathered together are incurable who doubts but that the root thereof should be pull'd up and the hazard be run of losing a blessing which cannot be preserved but by greater evils XXXI Good Monks are certainly of great example The conferences of the Priest of Marseilles shew that the East was filled with the fame of their virtue In the West the Order of St. Bennet had during many ages furnish'd all the Sees in the Church and bred up more Saints and Bishops then all the other Orders together had of Religious persons But those were neither insolent Monks who from the bottom of their Cells would condemn all the World besides nor vagabonds who made a trade of their poverty nor people who having renounced the World had yet more intrigues and restless desires then those who had not They that got their livelihood by the sweat of their brows were no less separated from Ecclesiastical emploiments then secular and â—ived in a continual humility and peâ—â—ance XXXII The Orders in the Church of Rome which continue still in the same state are worthy of Veneration It is a most false argument for looking upon them as people of no use to the Church They serve her in their way and truly it is a very great service they do her of praying and groaning continually for her We must not judg the usefulness of men by their actions but by the station God hath placed them in A person that does â—ut little in his calling is often more useful to the Church then another that does much out of his calling the will of God and not that which appears to men being the rule of the utility or inutility of those that serve him XXXIII It is clear following this principle that though there are yet many good men in the present corruption of Friers Orders nevertheless the Church of England hath done well in not suffering any She rejects them not because they are Friers or Monks but because the greateâ— part of them is not in that condition they ought to be in It is good to shew clearly and to make the devout of the Church of Rome see that they are injurious in reproching that of England for having banished Friers XXXIV Is there in the World any more effeminate and idle life then that of the Clervaux and the Cisterciens Is not the ignorance idleness and sloth of these Friers beyond all imagination Does there appear the least trace of that laborious and penitent life of their holy Founder Will not a man that hath read St. Bernard's Epistles or Sermons when he sees these Monasteries think himself in another World finding people that call themselves his sons who have nothing either of his spirit or manners For the Mendicants we need but hear the Bishops to be acquainted with their nature They are as great a charge
the place where he was before then you will know he gives not his Body as you understand it You will then apprehend that his Grace non consumitur morsibus till the end of the World the Lord is above but yet the truth of the Lord is upon Earth with us Corpus enim in quo resurrexit in uno loco esse oportet veritas autem ejus ubique diffusa est That incomparable Doctor speaks after the same manner when he teacheth that all places of the Scripture which seem contrary to truth and good manners are to be understood in a figurative sense If you find saies he a Commandment which forbids a crime or enjoins any good action then its sense is not figurative but it is otherwise when it seems to command a crime and prohibit a good action Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you saies Christ That word seems to command a crime figura est ergo it is therefore a figure which bids us communicate in the Passion of our Lord and recall into our memories with suavity and utility that his flesh hath bin wounded and nailed upon the Cross for us XIII To what the Church of Rome believes concerning Transubstantiation we may add her practice in taking away the Cup. She is not contented with changing the nature of a Sacrament but thinks it lawfull to tear and divide it All the learned men of her Commumunion assent to the following Propositions First That Christ instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood under both kinds of Bread and Wine Secondly That he instituted it thus for all Christians and said drink as he said eat without any distinction of of Priests and Lay-men being the Savior of all Thirdly That at least for twelve hundred years such a practise hath bin faithfully observed in all the Churches in the World and is still in the Eastern Fourthly That its intermission is not grounded upon any invincible reason or irremediable inconveniences For it would be the greatest piece of non-sense in the World to affirm that the Church of Rome in the thirteenth Age hath seen inconveniencies which the Catholic Church could not foresee in twelve hundred years and the Greek is still ignorant of Yet the Council of Trent perseveres in so considerable an innovation stops its ears to the cries of an infinite number of Souls who beseech their Fathers substance might not be so cruelly divided and stiles this a Liberty the Church has alwaies bin Mistress of to dispense Sacraments as she judges it convenient But suppose the Sacrament to be no less compleat under one kind then both and that the Cup is but an addition to it We notwithstanding maintain the Church hath no autority to change any thing Christ hath instituted and prescribes the observation of All reasons in such occasions must be suspected when Christ himself speaks promulgates himself his own Laws and commands them to be put in execution as he hath done here all our pretended inconveniences are then gross errors nor must we affect to be wiser then the eternal Wisdom who foresaw better then we can do the reasons of our scandals Had Christ instituted all the Ceremonies the Church judged necessary for the greater decency of her Worship and commanded the observation of them it would be a dreadful crime to cut off the least But Pope Gelasius speaks not of that division as of the taking away of a simple Ceremony We heard saies he that some by I know not what superstition after having received the sacred Body refused the Cup of the precious Blood But for such aut integra Sacramenta percipiant aut ab integris arceantur The reason of that learned Pope is worthy to be weighed because saies he divisio unius ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi sacrilegio non potest pervenire One and the same mystery cannot be divided without a grand sacriledge Pope Gelasius and the Fathers of Trent are wonderfully opposed these say the Sacrament is no less perfect under one kind then under both that such a division is a wise dispensation which cannot be reasonably contradicted the other calls the distribution of the precious Body and Blood one and the same Sacrament and stiles that prudent dispensation a division of two things united by Christ which cannot be done without an horrid sacriledg Which then of the two Gelasius or Paul III. must be supposed to have pronounced ex Cathedra If the Jesuits are chosen Judges between them Gelasius shall be condemned for Salmero and another of his Society were so impious as to say in the midst of the Council that sometimes the Devil transforms himself into an Angell of Light but now appears covered with the Cup of Christs Blood to offer a draught of poyson But as if it had not bin enough to have committed so great an enormity without adding to it an insufferable ignorance these two most holy and learned Fathers as a most holy and learned Jesuit styles them all the members of that Society being ipso facto most holy and learned begged of Cardinal Madruccio That it might be added to the Canons already made that the Sacrament was instituted under both kinds only for the Apostles and Priests XIV The Canons of the fourteenth Session are no less opposite to Antiquity wherein the Council defines Repentance to be a Sacrament a Doctrine unknown till the time of Eugenius IV. The Arch-Bishop of Caesarea tells us in a Book he entitled De Reformatione Scholasticae which he considered as a great step to that of the Church that Eugenius ascribed it to the Florentine Council tho such a Decree had never bin read or seen there 'T is an effect of the Popes usual sincerity So that for twelve hundred years together the Church is silent in this point Now what must a Christian think of a Council that gives to our human satisfactions and poor Sacrifices the power due only to the unspeakable merits of Christ Who without just indignation can hear that our Alms and Fastings expiate our sins and preserve us from eternal Death Did ever any Councils Fathers or Divines run into such excesses nor do we pretend to embrace the other extreme and diswade Christians from that life w ch the Saints term a Cross and a Martyrdom We think that it not only obliges Penitents but Innocents also and we are struck with fear at these words of Christ Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish But far be it from us to confine our Repentance to some trausient and slight exercices of Piety We require that sinners die continually to themselves that they think no pleasures lawful but such as the miseries of humane life render necessary and unavoidable that they endure rather then enjoy them and bewail the blindness and obdurateness of an infinite number of Souls who being made drunk by the pride and wantonness of the World are
Hurtado are purity it self compar'd with the Book of the Apostolical Tax All the Casuists together never taught the World so many crimes as this one profligate Book We suppress it because we would not offend the modesty of our Reader There are no tongues or words pregnant enough to express so great an infamy but yet to give some hint of it let us hear the Popes Secretary Our sins saies he are rais'd to such an height that we have scarce any hope of mercy left us 'T were a vain attemt to describe the greatness of the Priests covetousness especially of them that govern How unbounded is their ambition obscenity and luxury How deep is their ignorance both of themselves and Christs doctrine also How full is the little Piety they had left of hypocrisie and dissimulation and how instead of concealing the crimes they commit do they affect rather to make them appear XII This then was the disease of the Roman Church let us now examine whether the Council of Trent has truly reform'd so many abuses whether it hath preserv'd the respect due to Princes render'd the rights of Bishops inviolable taken away the Simonies and Extortions of the Court of Rome and whether Mr. d'Espences complains wrongfully Quod tot annis tot annorum centenariâ—is nil in ea emendatur XIII As for Princes the injuries which the preceding Popes had done them were so far from being repaired that Julius the Third was so bold as to excommunicate the Queen of Navar give her Kingdom over to depredation and confiscate her Goods XIV As for the Holy Father they work out his reformation in a pleasant manner It is consider'd as a Crime to speak of reforming him of searching into his wounds or taking any account of his excesses And when the Cardinals hurried on by the force of truth and the cries of all men are oblig'd out of meer shame to propose the mending any abuse they alwaies add Salva tamen Apostolicae sedis autoritate So when plurality of Benefices is condemn'd it is Salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when that intolerable abuse of Dispensations is cut off 't is salva semper sedis Apostolicae autoritate when any Penance is imposed upon non-resident Bishops 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate when Friars are put again under the jurisdiction of their Ordinaries and obedience to their Canons 't is salva semper Apostolicae sedis autoritate that is to say The autority of that Apostolic See which has patroniz'd their first violation of the discipline shal be at liberty to do it a second time They dare condemn no crimes without impowring the Apostolic See to commit them over again A Law however just and necessary in it self cannot be enacted without leaving to the Apostolical See the liberty of infringing it And thus they make of the Apostolical See a sanctuary and retreat for all disorders XV. Nothing is better known at Rome then the lives of a great many Cardinals Heaven and Earth are offended at their Pride Their plurality of Benefices Bishoprics and Abbies is monstrous No secular Princes are attended with greater magnificence Never had the most luxurious Heathens either Palaces so gloriously adorn'd or Tables so delicatly furnished and whatever we read of the Gardens of Lucullus or the pleasures of Tempe is far short of the luxury of their Country Houses Yet they are Clergy-men that is a sort of people who not only vowed in their Baptism to renounce the World but declar'd it also in their Ordination That the Lord was the lot of their inheritance and his Gospel a commandment to die and bury themselves with him Notwithstanding when their Reformation was spoken of in the Council the Legats presently declar'd that the Reformation ought not to extend unto their Eminencies to which a Pious and Learned Bishop more daring then the rest moved to see Sacred Episcopacy so trampled upon by them made answer that the most illustrious Cardinals ought to have a most illustrious Reformation Illustrissimi Cardinales indigent illustrissima reformatione But they are deaf to this voice of Heaven and instead of sincerely advancing the Interest of the Gospel among themselves to the end that the spring it self being purified the stream might be so too 200 Bishops and five Cardinals busie themselves in ordering the subsistence of Franciscans and shaping the habit of Nuns XVI Nothing is so certain as the shameful traffic of the Datary and Chancery none but the wilfully blind can deny it to be a gulph which swallows up the riches of many Kingdoms and sucks the purest Blood of the people But they must first have renounc'd the Gospel and their own reason who confess not that it is a continual commerce of abominable Simony a violating of the most Holy Canons and a pernicious attemt upon the autority of Princes and Bishops What Council in former Ages what custom of the Church what legitimate Title impowers the Popes to give Benefices of other Kingdoms What new Gospel teaches him to raise vast sums upon the account of Spiritual matters What right hath he over those Churches he hath never ministred unto Which of the Fathers or what Authors can he allege to maintain such usurpations Nay who in the latter times â—id not rise against such an execrable abuse and spoke not to him in the words â—f a famous Emperor Cesset altaribus imâ—inere profanus ardor avaritiae sacris â—dytis repellatur piaculare flagitium Yea the Council very well saw all this was in the Diocess of all these Bishops â—hat so intolerable disorders spread their â—ranches The Canons of the Sacred â—ouncils of Nice and Chalcedon are set before their eies as so many eternal Witnesâ—es of the Churches Spirit but instead â—f following their rules they wholly buâ—â—e themselves in cutting off some small â—â—uses reforming of a Country Vicar 〈◊〉 for the rest Salva semper Apostolicae â—â—dis autoritate XVII Of all the different kinds of Simony the Court of Rome is guilty of none is so certain and aver'd as the Annats Boniface the Eighth and John the Twenty second invented them two Popes Baronius stiles Monsters The Council of Basil prohibited them under pain of Excommunication and because the Fathers were inform'd that they came from no other source then the Pope who by a Pasce oves meas Joh. 4. 6. makes all crimes lawful they add those so remarkable words That if the Bishop of Rome who more then any other ought to observe and execute the Canons of the Councils comes to scandalize the Church attempting any thing against such a prohibition let him be proceeded against by a General Council The most considerable Authors of the Church of Rome both for Learning and Piety complain most bitterly of this The Faculty of Sorbon calls it not only a Crime but an Heresy Paul the Third his Counsellors who had bin first oblig'd under pain of Excommunication to declare