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
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
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
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
at the least no lesse vncertayne then the thing he proueth euen to himself as euery Reader may easily perceiue And therfore to perswade his friends that he himselfe at the least is well perswaded of it he should haue declared what rules of Scripture they were that he obserued which perchance would haue troubled him more then his great booke with the 10. hornes which was no lesse then 10. whole yeares a making But this man hauing lost his credit at home and being new come into a strange Countrey taketh vp all vpon trust without pawne or surety which is another point wherein he also resembleth Monsignor fate voi And in the end withall his borrowing like vnto his predecessour he may chance though in another kind to be well beaten for his labour And now I might here dispute how improbable the story is which he telleth and how grosse the inuention which he seeketh to put vpon you That hauing no knowledge of your doctrine either by Speach or Reading any of your bookes he should fall iust vpon your Parlamentall Religion For first both Geneua and Saxony were in his way and supposing that the English Angells might haue more power with him then the poore Guardian spirits of those other Countryes Secondly I might obiect his vehement suspition wherof he speaketh pag. 8. That Catholike Authours did not faithfully deliuer the opinions of the Protestants against whom they wrote Which if it be true no man can tell how possibly he should know what points they held either in England or in any other Countrey against the Church of Rome Wherof it would follow that at his comming from Venice he could only be perswaded that the Romane Religion was false and that all other were sufficiently true and that therevpon he resolued to carry his sheres with him and to cut out his Religion according to the fashion of the Countrey where he came In the meane time forsaking his former fayth which though neuer so white his owne pride and malice against the Pope made him thinke to be black and bedecking himselfe with the party-coloured feathers of all other moderne Religions to be the better welcome in all places Pag. 15. we shall plucke him anone like Esops crow and shew him to be naked without any religion at all as you will see heereafter But for the present letting his strange conuersion passe for a Protestant Myracle that which I lay hold on at this tyme and whereupon I must insist a little before I go any further is the first part of his Argument wherein he calleth God and his conscience to witnesse That the persuasion of no mortall man of any sort came euer to his eaves which might moue him to this determination That no man at any time did euer inuite him to it That he vsed the counsell of none at all nor euer conferred or spake with any man about it Pag. 4. That he neuer read any Protestant booke And that if any Roman Prelate detested such bookes he detested them aboue measure For if this be true then say I that hereof it wil euidently follow that he was deluded by the Diuell and was not directed by the spirit of God as he pretendeth And so without any more ado as our Sauiour sayd of the wicked seruant Out of his owne mouth you may condemne him For the first part of his argument ouerthroweth not only the second but also the principall conclusion of his whole booke and sheweth that the alteration he hath made could not proceed from God Which now I will proue vnto you by three arguments very plaine and in my opinion most conuincing 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 BVT first you must note that being in Venice if he had listed to conferre he could not haue wanted sufficient meanes and choice of men with whome he might haue treated most securely For besids al Catholike Deuines with whome he might haue dealt in Confession and vnder the seale of secresy there were others inough of his owne hayre both Italians and strangers and some also of our owne Nation Qui se putant aliquid esse by whose acquaintance also he might haue procured bookes of al your Authours out of Germany France and England And perchance in those declining parts vnder the State of Venice there be too many of such bookes already Supposing therfore which cannot be denied that he might easily haue gotten both men and bookes if he would as they say but haue wished for them out of his owne mouth against himselfe and against the spirit that brought him thither I reason thus The spirit of God is the spirit of wisdome in which respect Goodnes in Scripture is tearmed the Wisdome of God as Vice on the contrary is called Folly And therfore such as are gouerned by the spirit of God Prou. 8.12 are gouerned by wisdome and by the rules of wisdome set down in Scripture But Wisdom dwelleth in Counsell according whereunto it was prophesied of our Sauiour who is the wisdom of his Father Esa 9.6 that his name should be called Admirable Counsellour Esa 11.2 and that the Spirit of Counsell should rest vpon him with which agreeth that which he sayd where two or three be gathered togeather in my name I am there in the midst of them Matth. 18.20 And who knoweth not that one of the principall gifts of his Holy Spirit is called Donum Consilij Which is nothing els but a certaine effect of his grace in the harts of al his children wherby they are aptly disposed to receiue spirituall aduice and wholesom counsell Whereof it followeth that the Bishop who so much despised all kind of counsell in this his probation of spirit could not be gouerned by the spirit of God nor by the rules of wisedome set downe in Scripture For further profe wherof you may remember how in the bookes of Wisdom there is nothing more recōmended vnto vs Prou. 2.12 then to order our affayres by counsell Counsell shall keep thee that thou mayst be deliuered from the euill way and from the man that speaketh peruersly That is to say from the way of perdition and from the Diuell from whom the Bishop admitting no counsell had no meanes to be deliuered Againe Eccles 38.27 Confer thy buysines with thy friend My Sonne do nothing without counsell and of thy doing thou shalt neuer repent thee Which the Bishop in this weighty busines of his soule not forseeing may be sure that the scourge of repentance will follow after him Prou. 15.22 Againe Where there is no counsell there is distraction or dissipation of thoughts But where there are many Counsellours cogitations are confirmed Now the thoughts of the Bishop in this case wanting Counsellours to confirme them could therefore tend to no other end but only to that dissipation diuision which
and were preferred to Ecclesiasticall dignity could be allowed to read any such authours Thirdly he sayth that from the first yeare of his Clergy he had nourished in himselfe an inborne desire of the vnion of al Christian Churches inquyring what might be the cause of their Schisme which did excruciate and torment his mynd and doth still consume and wast him as you may perceiue by looking vpon him with such grief and sorrow as is wonderfull Fourthly telling you vnder hand pag. 11. That leauing the Society of Iesus where he had read Mathematickes Rethoricke Logicke and Philosophy preached often done them other domesticall seruice for the which they were very sory to leaue him he sayth Fiftly page 11. and 12. That being made a Bishop and falling to read bookes of printted Sermons Quadragesimalls and others for the exercise of his Episcopall function in preaching he found great abuse of Scripture in them apocriphall and ridiculous examples inuentions of Auarice and Ambition not without superstition wherewith the people were deluded Sixtly he sayth pag. 13. That in reading the Fathers he obserued that his maisters had taught him many thinges against them and that the Ecclesiasticall discipline of our tyme did differ very much from the auncient practise therof These considerations I haue called dispositions which somewhat prepared his mynd to make mutation of Religion because as he saith they made him to see as it were a farre off that matters went not well and because all this while he did not fully consent but made some kind of resistance vnto them Wherein before we passe any further not to confound you with too much matter togeather let vs consider whether that which he hath brought be of any moment to perswade his Reader that his new beleefe proceded from God And to begin with his vehement suspition which was the first seed from whence his vocation sprung wherein and in the other three assertions which follow I wil be content to do him that courtesy which he refused to shew vnto his Maisters and to suppose he cyteth the booke of his conscience aright though none but himselfe can looke into it it appeareth euidently thereby that this new seed of suspition was nothing els but the worst kind of cockle which our enemy and his the Father of Heresy is wont to sow vpon the good Corne of Christ For suspition is nothing els but an opinion of euill without any iust or sufficient ground as the Rhetoritians S. Thom. 2.2 q. 60. art 3.4 Philosophers and Deuines define it And therefore it alwayes importeth some fault and some iniury done to the party who is thereby wronged because vniustly suspected whereof I maruell how your learned Bishop could be ignorant Wherefore to suspect and concerue an ill opinion of so many as he did in a matter of such importance without any reason or sufficient cause was a sinne and that a great one especially in him who at that tyme thought himselfe bound in conscience to belieue entirely the whole doctrine of the Church of Rome For if to doubt of any article of Faith without inclyning to either side be an act of Heresy as all Deuines do affirme then much more to suspect which is to inclyne and to giue some consent to any motion contrary to the very ground of Faith must needs be Heresy But you will say the Bishop made resistance thereunto and therefore he did not sinne against his conscience To which I answere If when the thought therof came first to his mynd he did repell it that then in that case it neuer grew to be any suspition but if once it came to be suspition as he affirmeth it was then hauing cōceiued an opinion of so great euil vpon sleight occasion or rather no occasion at all it cannot be denyed but that he sinned in admitting the same though he might do well afterward in changing his mynd and in opposing himselfe against it And therefore this suspition being so great a sinne it could not be inspired into him from God Almighty So as it can no way be denyed but that this first motion arising in the Bishops mynd against the Catholike Religion was the bad seed sowne by the Diuell which sprung vp out of his owne Malice Pryde Leuity and Inconstancy from whence neither a good tree nor good fruite can be expected For as you know Paruus error in principio magnus in fine and if the light it selfe wherewith he began to worke be darkenes then the works themselues that proceded from it must needs be the workes of extreme darkenes Let vs now proceed to the increase of this his strong and vehement suspition as he tearmeth it occasioned as he saith by the strict prohibition of such books as are cōtrary to the Roman doctrine Which likewise we shall find that as it begun without reason so was it augmented vpon a very false and friuolous reason and as it sprung out of pryde and leuity so was it fed and nourished with pryde and curiosity And therefore the new strength or force which it receiued could not proceed from the spirit of God For supposing as all Catholikes do and as he then did that such kind of bookes are full fraught with the poyson of Heresy which is the most damnable vice of all other it standeth with great reason that they should in no case admit such dangerous warres amongst them for such bookes being once admitted they easily passe from maisters and learned men to the hands not only of Schollers but also of other simple people who not knowing what they are but feeding of all the bread that comes from the Baker and of all the dishes that are set before them insteed of wholesome meat should fall vpon poyson for whose soules their negligent pastors should answere to God at the day of Iudgment For I pray you if some vnquiet and ambitious spirit in other Countreys should make clayme to the Crowne of England and call in question the Kings title though neuer so cleere with vs do you thinke that the Pleas and Processe of such a man should be remitted to the reading of euery yong student or Counsellour at Law in the Ins of Court especially if this Claymer or Pretender had got some Lawyers to be of his side and had made a party which followed him and sought to set footing in England Much more is it necessary for those that haue the gouerment of soules to be iealous of their safty to be vigilant for the preseruation of peace amongst them But you will say vnto me why then are Catholike Latin writers permitted to be read by our ministers and others here in England to which I answere that the case is farre different For first England was neuer yet fully Protestant the Catholike number remayning still very great and therefore the state of England in this respect might do well to follow the example of the primitiue Church wherein after that the Christian Religion
seek after it sheweth to haue so much pride and selfe-conceit as is sufficient to make him vnworthy Besides that it is a thing expresly directly against the institute of the Society wherein this man liued to seeke and hunt for preferment Euery man in the vocation whereunto he is called let him remaine sayth S. Paul 1. Cor. 7.20 And our Sauiour He that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh backe is not fit for the Kingdome of God Luc. 9.61 according whereunto such as are professed in any Religious Order being afterward made Bishops are bound to the obseruation of their vowes so farre forth as the exercise of their digdity and function will permit But this man though forsaking Gods plough wherunto his hand was consecrated though breaking his first vowes for the which according to S. Paul he should feare to be damned doth thereby thinke to haue made himselfe fit to be made a gouernour in Gods kingdome which is the Church of Christ truly suspecting as he did the Catholike doctrine to be false and fraudulent he might better haue suspected that being in this case he was no fit man to be made a Bishop whose office it is to maintayne and defend it And I meruaile knowing himselfe to be a dog Pag. 24. that began to take part with the wolues more then with the sheep not thinking it fit that they should trust their shepheards but rather desiring that they might heare what the wolues could say for themselues and hand to hand debate their reasons with them I maruaile I say with what good conscience such a dog could thinke himselfe fit to be made a sheepheard To that which he sayeth of printed Sermons and his Maisters dictates I answere first that although it were true yet because they be no rules of faith and that the Catholikes are not bound to defend in all thinges either the one or the other as himselfe knoweth well inough therfore such scandalls as these should not haue moued him to depart from the vnity of the Church of God Secondly I say that if it were not altogeather false it should haue beene proued by him one way or other something would had beene alleadged out of those Sermonaries whome he so much reuyleth and some one point or other would haue beene vrged for an instance wherein his Maisters did contradict the Fathers Vnles he thought his Readers to be so many Pots without couers that should receiue any thing by infusion which he pleaseth to powre or let fall into them Or vnlesse you will excuse him by saying that as when he was conuerted to your Religion he disdayned to heare reason so now intending to conuert others he scorneth as much to affoard any reason for that he sayth Wherin he doth wisely in one respect for bringing no proofe in partiduler he saw that albeit no man could in reason beleeue him yet it should be hard for any man to disproue him But notwithstanding all his policy to put something more in the ballance of your iudgment besides his yea and my no for the deciding of this matter betwixt vs I will giue you the testimony of Syr Edwyn Sands Syr Edwin Sands relation of relig Sect. 6. a man as I heare much esteemed in England in his owne words which are these In their Sermons much matter of faith and piety is eloquently deliuered by men surely of wonderfull zeale and spirit And for your better information herein I pray you do but inquyre of others that haue been in those parts and are men of vnderstanding what kind of preachers there are and inquire likewise of your Schollers at home what they thinke of those Schoole-deuines whose bookes are brought from thence and are commonly sould and much read in England For it is very probable that neuer in any age since Christian Religion began to flourish in the world there haue beene so many I say so many the like excellent Preachers and profound Deuines in the Catholike Church as we haue seen and heard in this age of ours And thus much may suffice to haue obserued in the first kind of those his proofes which I called Affirmatiue alleadged by him as vndoubted signes to shew that God was the author of his comming thither Wherein notwithstanding you see how the serpent hauing found him to haue but a weake head of his owne with a giddy spirit and a shallow vnconstant brayne first deluded him with vayne surmyses and false suspitions that the truth was errour and afterward thrust him out of his Order which protected him that thereby he might haue the more force vpon him And lastly set him vp to be seen aloft as it were vpon the pinacle of the Temple where he knew that in respect of his giddynes and Pride he was not able to stand to the end that his owne victory might be the more glorious and the Bishops fall more famous SECTION V. The Bishops Motiues to change his Religion are discussed and the arguments of the ten books he promised are all reduced to one question alone of the Popes Supremacy HITHERTO you haue heard of those things that did somewhat prepare him to change Religion and hitherto as he sayth he resisted in himselfe more or lesse these motions or suggestions that were contrary to his former faith It followeth now to consider what moued him directly to this strange mutation which must needs be very wel worth the consideration For you may easily imagine that being a man of his quality learning experience he will say what may be sayd and lay downe such prudent motiues sound reasons and well grounded proofes if any such may be found as the truth of them shal be so apparant and conuincing that no indifferent or well disposed mynd shal be able to resist them He beginneth therfore and sayth that of a Bishop being made an Archbishop two accidents fell out that compelled him to study these matters more earnestly and more eagerly then before he did and made him to ouerthrow or to ouerturne or turne ouer as you please to expound him more then once or twice the Fathers the Canons the Councells and ancient Records of the Catholike Church The first occasion was that the Court of Rome his Suffragan Bishops that were vnder him began to perturbe his Metropolitan rights The second that a little after the Interdict of Venice there came bookes from Rome taxing the Bishops of the Venetian State who did not obey to be but sheepish rude and ignorant men without courage or conscience in which second passage he discouereth not only his pride and contentious spirit in seeking to supprese his owne Suffragans and in resisting the publique authority of the Court of Rome in the Interdict and in maintayning the sheep against the sheepheard which is far against the vnity which he pretendeth but also he doth manifest so much hatred malice and enuy against the Pope because he opposed himselfe to his vniust pretences and
lesse pouerty of meanes and matter in buylding without a foundation as much want of proofe to persuade in giuing you nothing but wordes insteed of other substance But you will reply whatsoeuer he sayth here he promiseth to proue and pursue hereafter in his Booke of Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth I pray you were it fit that when a souldier cometh into the feild to fight he should come without weapons and should thinke either to ouercome his aduersary or to satisfy the beholders of his prowesse by saying that he hath an excellent sword a making Were it not absurd that a Scholler comming to dispute of any Probleme should thinke to satisfy the arguments of his aduersary or to perswade his auditours that the truth were of his side by affirming that he would or that he had composed a great volume of that matter This booke being made by the Bishop to proue his spirit to disproue his aduersaryes and to approue his change of Religion to all those that should here thereof now was the tyme to vse his Weapons to shew his Wisedome and to bring forth his euidence And therefore if he sayle of his proofes it is an euident signe that he is altogeather destitute and vnprouided of them Neither is it true which he sayth That when his worke cometh forth whatsoeuer he hath heere affirmed shal be there proued For how will he proue that Rome hath coyned not a 100. or a 1000. new articles of Fayth in one day but as he sayth innumerable and that euery day How will he proue that the Church of Rome suppresseth the Councells Doth it not make them a rule of Fayth hath it not alwayes preserued them doth it not mayntayne and defend them from the calumniations and contradictions which the Heretikes of these dayes oppose against them How will he proue that we belieue the whole spirit of Christ to remayne in the Pope alone and that all which hath been sayd heretofore in the honour of the vniuersall Church must be applyed to the Court and Pallace of the Pope alone Do we belieue that to be Catholike one holy visible to haue conuerted Nations and Kingdomes which are some of the supernaturall prayses and excellencyes of the Catholike Church whereby she shyneth like the sunne in the Firmament aboue all other Congregations or assemblyes Do we belieue I say as an article of our Fayth that these things agree to the Pope and his Pallace alone That the Pope or his Court is extended ouer al the world That the Vnity Holynes Visibility and Miracles of the Church and of the Pastors and Saints thereof are only to be found in the Pope and his Pallace and that all other Catholike Nations and Kingdomes are excluded from the participation of these graces can this be proued thinke you And can it stand with the grauity and reuerent authority of a Bishop to affirme these things with promise to confirme them making them also the ground of his conuersion Could any ignorant shamelesse Minister whose learning were nothing els but lying Could any Zani or Counterfait that had been hyred to rayle against the Pope haue spoken more fondly more intemperatly or more absurdly The innumerable new articles whereof he speaketh and the whole doctrine of so many Churches impugned by the Church of Rome which he vndertaketh to defend can surely contayne no lesse then all the points in Controuersy betwene you and vs which are so farre from being decided in his Ecclesiasticall cōmon Wealth that for the greater part of them they cannot be so much as mentioned therin For as it appeareth by his owne description therof the 4. first bookes proue only in effect that all Bishops and their Churches by the Law of God are equall And that neither S. Peter nor the Pope nor the Roman Clergy should haue any Primacy or Papacy or Prehemynence aboue the rest In his 5. and 6. Booke he taketh away all kind of iurisdiction from the whole Church not only in temporall but also in Ecclesiasticall matters In his 7. booke he disputeth of the rule of Fayth In the rest that follow he speaketh of nothing els but only of the temporalityes and immunityes of the Church In the 8. he considereth the external gouernemēt of the Church by Lawes and Canons which if he affirme to be lawfull it is directly contrary to his 5. and 6. booke wherein he reiecteth all kind of Iurisdiction from the Church of Christ So that this great booke wherof he braggeth so much contayneth in effect but one Controuersy alone And he that should proue the Popes Primacy and Supreme Iurisdiction ouer the Church of God should ouerthrow the substance of this whole Volume For thereof it would follow directly that the gouernement of Christs church vpon earth is Monarchicall against his first and second booke that the gouernours of the Church are not equall in authority by the Law of God against his third booke That the Pope and Church of Rome hath preheminence ouer other Churches against his fourth booke That the Church of God hath Iurisdiction both Ecclesiasticall directly and temporall indirectly the latter being necessary for the maintaynance of the former against his 5. and 6. booke That the decree of the Pope as Head of the Church in a generall Councell is a sufficient rule of Fayth against his 7. booke The resolution also of the matters contayned in his 3. other bookes is of no great importance and may easily be deduced from the former conclusion Wherefore if he thinke to discharge himselfe of all other poynts in Controuesy by handling the titles of these bookes alone he shall behaue himselfe like a Banquerupt who insteed of the whole debt should scarce make payment of one in the hundred SECTION VI. Concerning the Popes Supremacy The state of the question is proposed and S. Peters Supremacy is proued by Scripture BVT now as oftentymes it falleth out that vnder the fayre shewes of Banquerupt Merchants vnder their goodly inscriptions of many rich commodityes and dissembling text letters vpon pots packs and boxes there is nothing to be found except perhaps some poore refused brockage that is not salable so to make it manifest that vnder these glorious titles of the ten Bookes which the Bishop promiseth there is nothing contayned but false wares and idle tryfles lapt vp in so many bundles of wast paper And to giue you withall some satisfaction in this one point of Controuersy of the Popes Supremacy the occasion being so fit the labour not great the way so well beaten by others I will briefly set you downe some of those euident proofes wherewith the Catholikes are wont to demonstrate the Popes Supremacy in spiritual matters Whereby also it will appeare how well the Bishop hath spent his 10. yeares in reading of the Fathers whether he haue more attended to his study or to his belly For the greater breuity and more perspicuity in handling this ample and copious matter I will reduce all that I
would keep all the Pastours in the world in peace and vnity c. For in all societyes authority which cannot be where all are equall must procure vnity and obedience Thus Doctor Couell who goeth further and sayth If it concerne all persons and ages in the Church of Christ as surely it doth the gouernement must not cease with the Apostles but so much of that authority must remayne to them who from time to time supply that charge c. Which also is the doctrine of Melancthon who further confesseth Melanthō that as certayn Bishops are presidēt ouer many Churches so the Bishop of Rome is President ouer all Bishops Luther And Luther himselfe is inforced to acknowledge that for the vnity of the Catholike Church consisting of al Nations with infinite diuersity of māners conditions it was necessary that one should be chosen vnto whome and his Successors the whole world being made one fold might belong or pertayne Cart wright M. Cartwright likewise vrgeth the Protestāt Doctors with their owne argument saying that the peace of the whole Church requireth as well a Pope ouer all Archbishops as one Archbishop ouer all Bishops in a Realme Iacob And to conclue M. Iacob another Puritan sayth if a visible Catholike Church be once aknowledged there is no place in all the world so likely as Rome to be the visible and spring head of the gouernement thereof Protestant Apology See the Protestants Apology tract 1. sect 3. subdiu 10. And thus appeareth the force of this truth which God almighty hath caused to be iustifyed euen by the mouthes of our aduersaries themselues And now by the resolution of this first point alone hauing clearly ouer throwne and disproued whatsoeuer the Bishop can say in the fiue first books of his Commonwealth against the Monarchy Primacy and Papacy of the Church of Rome the succession therof the subiection of other Bishops therūto and in fine against all Iurisdictions of the Church of Christ I come to the explication and proofe of the second poynt concerning the succession of the Bishop of Rome to S. Peter wherein the folly and impudency of this man will be more discouered and his whole Volume of Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth either extant or not extant will be sufficiently answered 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 IN the beginning of the former point concerning S. Peters authority I shewed how the Catholiks considered and distinguished a double power in the Apostles of Christ the one extraordinary Apostolicall whereby they had equall Iurisdiction ouer the Church of Christ which is therfore called Extraordinary because it dyed with them for if others had succeeded them therin their successours also by vertue therof had beene all Apostles The other ordinary and Episcopall wherein others were to succeed them for the gouernement of the Church and which in S. Peter alone was supreme absolute and independant but in the rest it was limitted to particuler places and therefore albeit as Apostles they had all equall authority ouer the rest of the Church yet they were not equall amongst themselues but S. Peter by vertue of his supreme Episcopall authority was the chiefe Pastour and head of the rest And now likewise for your greater light in the handling of this second poynt we must distinguish in S. Peter a double Episcopall power the one in particuler proper to the diocesse of Rome wherof he was the immediate Bishop the other vniuersall ouer the whole Church of Christ whereby albeit he be not the immediate Bishop of the particuler Churches yet is he the vniuersall supreme Pastour ouer them all As the Bishop of Canterbury for example although he be the immediate Bishop of Canterbury alone yet as he is Archbishop he hath the care of those other Churches and Bishopricks of our Nation which are vnder his charge This distinction therefore being granted first there is no question to be made but that the Bishop of Rome doth succeed vnto S. Peter as he was the immediate Bishop of that Diocesse For this is euident not only by the catalogue of the Bishops of Rome and tradition of the Church but also by the testimony of all Historiographers and ancient Fathers and in particuler of S. Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hierome S. Augustine Optatus and others as we shal see anone Which being commonly granted by all the learned Protestants because if the supreme authority of S. Peter did not dye with him as the generall power of the Apostles ouer the whole Church did cease with them but remayned and continued in the Church after his death thereof it would follow that the Pope who succeeded him in the one should succeed him also in the other as he who is made Bishop of Canterbury is thereby also made Archbishop and Primate of all the kingdome For this cause diuers Protestants haue affirmed that albeit the Pope do succeed to S. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome yet they deny that he succeeded him in his vniuersall Pastorall function because they say it dyed with him And therefore on the other side if the Catholikes can shew that the Primacy of S. Peter doth still remayne in the Church that being proued there will be no difficulty but that the Pope doth succeed to S. Peter as wel in his Primacy ouer the whole Church as in his particuler authority ouer the Church of Rome especially no other Bishop hauing euer pretended or made claime to that Succession but only the Bishop of Rome Wherefore that the Primacy of S. Peter was to descend and remayne to his successors is proued by these two places of Scripture Matt. 16. Ioan. 21. alleadged for the proofe of his Supremacy For in the first place our Sauiour promised that he would make him the foundation and build his Church vpon him in such manner as the gates of Hell should not preuayle against it Whereby as he signifieth that the Church was to remayne and indure perpetually so much more he promised that the Foundation therof was likewise to remayne from whence the Church it selfe was to receiue her perpetuall strength and duration origen in 16. Matt. Which Origen considering sayd very well that it was manifest albeit not expressed that the gates of Hell cannot preuaile neither against Peter nor against the Church for if they preuailed against the Rock whereon the Church is founded they should also preuaile against the Church it selfe The like also may be easily inferred out of the second place where S. Peter was made the vniuersall Pastour of the sheep of Christ and by consequence the sheep of all ages were commended vnto him and therfore not only to him in person but also to his seat and to his successours represented and contayned in him as in theyr seed and foundation In which
answering a secret obiection that the Pope might erre because a wicked man might be Pope For sayth he though some traytor or Iudas should haue entred into that rancke or order yet this could nothing preiudice the Church nor the innocent Christians or beleeuers for whom our Lord had prouided by saying of euill gouernours do what they say but do not what they do for they say and do not to the end that the assured hope of the faythfull relying it selfe not vpon mā but vpon God or vpon the word of our Sauiour they might neuer be deuyded by tempest of sacrilegious Schism Where he proueth that no euill Pope can erre because if that could be the innocent Christians following our Sauiours commaundment should be thereby deceiued Cont. ep Fundamēti cap. 4. and deuyded in Schisme And therfore he also professeth that the succession of Priests from the seat of Peter vnto the Bishop liuing in his time held him in the Catholike Church making that an argument of the true doctrine therof And comparing the communion of the Apostolike head with the members to the vnion of the mystical vine with the branches In psal cont part Donat. he exhorteth the Donatists thereunto in these words Come brethren if you please that you may be grafted in the vyne It is a grief vnto vs when we see you to lye thus cut off Number the Priests euen from the very seat of Peter and in that order of Fathers see who and to whome each one succeeded That seat is the Rocke which the proude gates of Hell do not ouercome vnder standing thereby that they who were cut off from the communion of that seat and succession were also cut off from the Church of Christ and that according to the promise of our Sauiour neither they nor their errours should be able to prouayle against it Lib. 2. cōt duas epist Pelag. Lib. 1. cont lūli cap. 4. And affirming against the Pelagians that the antiquity of the Catholike fayth was cleerly knowne by the letters of venerable Innocentius the Pope he inferreth that to departe from his sentence was to straggle from the Roman Church making it by this inferrence a certaine signe of departure from the Church of Christ And rebuking a certaine Pelagian Me thinkes sayth he that part of the world should suffice thee meaning for his beliefe in matters of fayth wherein our Lord would that the chiefe of his Apostles should be crowned with a most glorious Martyrdome vnto the President of which Church being the blessed Innocentius if thou wouldest haue giuen care long since in the dangerous tyme of thy youth thou hadst freed thy selfe from the snares of Pelagians For what could that holy man answeare to the Affrican Countells but that which the Apostolike seat and the Roman Church doth anciently hold with other Wherein he teacheth that the definition of the Pope ought to suffice vs and that he cannot determine otherwise then according to the ancient Fayth Optatus likewise recounteth the lyneall succession of the Popes and beginneth the same in this manner Therefore the Chayre is vnited which is the first of her gists therein Peter sate the first to whome succeeded Linus c. numbring the rest vnto Siricius who liued in his tyme. And a little before he sayth it ought to be seene who sate first in the Chayre where he sate And afterwards tho◠canst not deny but thou knowest that the Episcopall Chayre was giuen first to S. Peter in the Citty of Rome wherin Peter the head of all the Apostles sate in which one Chayre vnity ought to be kept of all men Signifying therby that Peter the head of all the Apostles sate first therin to shew that all those that are members of the Church are bound to vnite themselues vnto it Tertullian is also one of those that describeth the Catalogue of the Roman Bishops which he composeth in verse beginning with S. Peter and ending with Higinius Pius Anicetus And in his booke of Prescriptions he sayth thou hast Rome whose authority vnto vs also is ready at hand so giuing his reader to vnderstand that the authority of Rome was an argument euer ready to confute an heretike And thē followeth A Church happy in her state to whō the Apostles powred forth or gaue abundantly their whole doctrine togeather with their bloud meaning no doubt that they powred forth their whole doctrine into it to be preserued therin for euer in respect wherof he tearmeth it happy per excellentiam which Irenaeus doth more fully expresse when he sayth that we must not go to others to seeke the truth which we may easily haue from the Church Irenaeus l. 3. cap 3. wherein the Apostles as it were in a most rich treasure haue layd togeather all those things which are of truth that from thence euery one who will may receiue the same And thus much of those Fathers that do not only set downe the Popes succession to S. Peter Tom. 1. Cōcil ante Concil Calced but also plainly teach that his fayth cannot fayle because he holdeth the place of Peter wherein none of the other Fathers disagree or dissent from thē Petrus Chrysologus in his epistle to Euthiches the Heretike condemned afterward in the Calcedon Councel exhorteth him in this māner We exhort thēe venerable brother to attend attentiuely vnto those things which are written from the most blessed Pope of the Citty of Rome For blessed Peter liuing and gouerning in that his proper seat gaue the truth of fayth to all those that secke it which may serue for a cleere exposition of the words of Tertullian and Irenaeus afore sayd Prosper S. Augustines Scholler inferreth as most absurd Prosp cōt Collit cap. 20. that according to the cēsure of his aduersary Pope Innocentius should haue erred a man sayth he most worthy of the Seat of Peter And likewise that the holy Seat of Blessed Peter should haue erred which spake vnto the whole world by the mouth of Pope Sozimus Cap. 41. And againe that Pope Innocentius strock the heads of wicked errour with the Apostolicall dagger And that Pope Sozimus with his sentence gaue force to the Affrican Councells and armed the hands of all the Fathers with the sword of Peter to the cutting off of the wicked And that Rome by the principality of Apostolicall Preisthood De vocat gentium lib. 2. was made greater by the Arke of Religion then by the Throne of secular power S. Ambrose sayth Ambros cap. 3 1. ad Tim. that though all the world be of God yet his house is sayd to be the Church wherof at this day Damasus is the Rector And els where He demaunded the Bishop sayth he whether he agreed with the Catholike Bishops that is whether he agreed with the Roman Church Orat. in Satyrum In which words he maketh it all one to agree with the Church of Rome and with the Catholike Church And againe he saith
Lib. 1. ep 4. ad Imperatores that the clemency of the Pope should be intreated not to suffer the head of the whole Reman world the Romā Church and that inuiolable Fayth of the Apostles to be disquieted because from thence did flow the Lawes of venerable communion vnto all Saint Cyprian besides that he teacheth as you haue heard the cause of an Heresy Schisme to be Epist 55. ad Cornel. Epist 40. Ib. lib. 4. epist 8. for that one Priest and one Iudge for the tyme is not acknowledged in the Church of God And that there is one chayre buylt by the voyce of our Lord vpon S. Peter that whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth which S. Hierome expoundeth as you haue heard not to be with Christ but with Antichrist being to signify vnto the Pope that one to whome he wrote did communicate with the Pope expounding himselfe he sayth Epist 52. that is with the Catholike Church Where he also maketh it all one to communicate with the Pope and to accord with the Catholike Church And complayning of certayne Heretikes he vseth these words Epist 55. ad Cornelium They are so bold as to sayle vnto the chayre of Peter to the principall Church from whence Priestly vnity doth proceed not considering that they are Romanes whose Faith is praysed by the preaching of the Apostle vnto whome no falshood can haue accesse Giuing thereby to vnderstand that it was in vayne for Heretikes to imagine that the Sea of Peter or the Roman Church could be deceiued by them S. Cyril desired to know of Pope Celestine Cyril ep 18. tom 1. Concil Ephes cap. 10. cap. 14. whether he would communicate any longer with Nestorius the Heretike for that he presumed not to separate himselfe frō him without the Popes knowledge vnto whome Pope Celessine answered that with the authority of his Sea the Popes and with the power of his place as his Vicar he should with all diligence execute the sentence of excommunication c. Whereunto S. Cyril obayed Who also in his booke called the booke of Treasury as S. Thomas doth alledge him hath these words as Christ receiued most full power from his Father Opusc 1. cont err Graec. cap. 32. §. Habetur so also most fully he committed the same to S. Peter and his Successours Againe vnto no other then vnto Peter but vnto him alone he gaue quod suum est plenum the fulnes of his power And againe D. Thom. in catena Matt. 16. according to this promise of our Lord meaning that of the 16. of S. Matthew the Apostolike Church of Peter doth remayne immaculate from all seduction and Hereticall circumuention in the Bishops thereof in the most full Faith and authority of Peter ouer all the Primates of the Churches and their people Againe D. Tho. op cōt Graec. all according to the diuine law bow downe their heads to Peter and the Primates of the world obayed him as our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe And S. Thomas sayth further that it is necessary to saluation to be vnder the Roman Bishop prouing the same out of other words of S. Cyril in the same booke saying Therefore brethren if we follow Christ let vs heare his voyce as his sheep remayning in the Church of Peter which testimonyes albeit now they are not found in that volume of S. Cyrils because as it is knowne many bookes thereof haue perished yet in respect of the authority of S. Thomas no question can be made of the true allegation of them Lastly not to be ouer tedious I will conclude with the testimony of S. Bernard who imploring the Popes authority against a new Heresy then arising saith All dangers and scandalls arising in the Kingdome of God especially which concerne Faith ought to be referred to your Apostleship For I thinke it conuenient that the domages of the Faith should there especially be amended where Faith can feele no defect For this is the prerogatiue of that sea c. SECTION XII The Popes Supremacy is proued by his being priuiledged from errour in doctrine of Faith out of the Authorityes of the Popes themselues HAVING thus proued the Popes Supremacy by the foure first general Councells and by the testimonyes of the Fathers not only in generall but also in the particuler poynt of their infallible doctrine which is most in Controuersy betwene you and vs according as your patience and the straitnes of a letter will permit It is now expedient in this place to shew how the Catholikes demonstrate the same by the authorityes of the Popes themselues For how much lesse the protestants esteem of them so much the more the holy Fathers as you haue seen do magnify and extoll them submitting themselues no lesse to their decrees then to the sentences and definitions of generall Councells Suarez in his answere to the Kings booke alleadgeth the authorityes of more then fourty Popes within the first 600. yeares for the power dignity and succession of their Supremacy Who being men chosen by the spirit of God and of the primitiue Church in respect of their wisedome and excellent gifts for the gouerment thereof and the most of them being declared and acknowledged for Saints and Martyrs by the whole Christian world I cannot tell with what face any man that beareth but the name of a Christian can deny their authority For breuities sake omitting the most and greatest part I will first produce some of those Popes that challenge to themselues the like stability in Faith and doctrine as the Fathers grant vnto them according to the word and promise of our Sauiour made to S. Peter their predecessour and afterwards I will likewise proue their Supremacy in gouernment and Iudiciall power ouer the Church of Christ Fabianus acknowledgeth that he was bound by the diuine precepts and Apostolicall ordinations to watch ouer the state of all Churches Epist 1. That others were bound to know the sacred rites of the Roman Church which was called their Mother Epist 3. ad Hilarium And that he was aduanced to that Priestly height to forbid those things which were vnlawfull and to teach those things that were to be followed Lucius the first in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spayne and France saith Epist 1. that the Roman Church is Apostolike and the Mother of all Churches which was proued neuer to haue erred from the path of the Apostolike tradition nor to haue byn depraued with Hereticall nouelty according to the promise of our Lord saying I haue prayed for thee c. which promise you know can neuer fayle and therefore the Roman Church can neuer erre as being vnited to S. Peter and his successours to whome the promise was made Felix the first likewise sayth that as the Roman Church receiued in the beginning Epist ad Benignū the rule of Christian Faith from her authours or founders the Princes of Christs Apostles so it remayneth vntouched
tymes their own bloud their friends and nearest kynred to whome in vertue piety they were not comparable against whome no other cryme could be proued but the ancient religion of Christendome commonly either iustified or not condemned euen in the consciences of those that apprehended them prosecuted and executed the former lawes vpon them and if we might shew vnto them how by this means they haue crucifyed our Sauiour not once or twise but againe and againe for so many yeares togeather in his holy members I cannot but thinke that representing these things vnto them in vertue of that Word which deuideth betweene the soule the spirit the ioints and the marrow awaking in them the guilt of their owne consciences and the feare of Gods iugments we should inforce them to knock their breasts with the Iewes conuerted at the Sermon of S. Peter and to cry out vnto vs with teares of repentance Act. 2.17 Quid faciemus viri fratres men and brethren what shal we do SECTION XVI The absurd and pernicious grounds of the Bishops 10. Bookes and his Christian Commonwealth are further discouered and confuted AND now to returne to our Bishop I thinke by this tyme you perceiue that albeit this little booke of his be great bellyed like the Father yet his other ten bookes conceaued therin are but like so many bladders full of wind which if euer they come forth are like to shame not only himselfe but you also Not only because the former proofes of the Popes Supremacy are in themselues vnanswerable especially admitting as he doth the authority of the Councells Canons and Fathers of the Church but also in respect of that most absurd and most pernicious Position which he maketh the argument of his fifth booke and is indeed the very foundation of his Christian Commonwealth and the mayne ground of his Diuinity wherein he professeth to hold that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church of Christ Iurisdictionem omnem ab Ecclesia procul reijcio all Iurisdiction sayth he I cast far away from the Church that is to say all power and authority to commaund or to make spiritual lawes or to impose any punishment for the transgression of them A miserable deuise no lesse furious then dangerous and no more repugnant to the Popes Supremacy then directly contrary to the Councells Fathers and to the practise of the Primitiue Church in making lawes Canons and imposing censures vpon transgressours directly contrary as well to the institution of Christ in the authority which he gaue to S. Peter as you haue seene as also to the doctrine and proceeding of the Apostles themselues wherof no man that can read the Scriptures should be ignorant Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers sayth S. Paul for there is no power Rom. 13.1 but of God c. Therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist purchase to themselues damnation Rom. 13.5 And a little after Therefore be yee subiect of necessity not only for auoyding wrath but also for Conscience sake Out of which place we may argue thus The Church hath receiued power and authority from God and therefore they that resist the same resist and disobey the ordinance of God and purchast to themselues damnation That the Church hath receiued power and authority to gouerne from Almighty God is to too manifest for so all the Fathers expound the words of our Sauiour to S. Peter Whatsoeuer thou shalt bind c. and to the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Matt. 18.18 whatsoeuer you shall bind c. And that binding signifieth the imposing of some law or commaundment we find in the 23. Matt. 23.4 of S. Matthew They bind sayth our Sauiour burdens heauy and importable vpon the shoulders of men but they with their finger will not moue them and in the same manner the Fathers expound those other words Ioan. 21.11.16.17 feed my sheep of the gouernment of Christs sheep as you haue heard And our Sauiour signifying how much we are bound in conscience to obey our Prelates sayd vnto them Luc. 1◠16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And againe as my Father sent me Ioā 20.21 so send I you and he that will not heare the Church let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican Act. 16.4 According whereunto it is sayd of S. Paul S. Timothy that passing through the Gittyes they deliuered vnto them to keep the precept of the Apostles and of the Elders 1. Thes 2.23 And to the Thessalonians he sayth You know what commaundments I haue giuen vnto you he that despiseth them despiseth not man but God that gaue his holy spirit vnto vs and if any do not obey our word note him by an epistle 1. Tim. 5. and do not accompany with him that he may be confounded So he writeth to Timothy not to receiue my accusation against a Priest vnder 2. or 3. witnesses And to the Corinthians the weapons of our warrefare sayth he are not carnall but mighty to God 1. Cor. 10.7 vnto the destruction of munitions destroying Councells and all loftynes extolling it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captiuity all vnderstanding vnto the obedience of Christ Act. 15.20 and hauing in a readynesse to reuenge all disobedience c. And in the first Coūcell the Church of Hierusalem made this Decree It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to vs not to impose any other burthen vpon you but only these necessary things to abstayne from meats offered to Idolls from strangled meats from bloud Can. Apost Can. 62. and fornication And the punishment of those that did eate bloud or strangled meat afterward was so great in the Primitiue Church as that Clarks were deposed and lay men were excommunicated for the same Neither is this most pestilent assertion of the Bishop contrary to Scripture alone and to the Fathers and Councells as hath been shewed but also to the practise and doctrine of the Church of England For I would aske this wild Bishop whether the authority the English Bishops in their spirituall Courts be from God or no If it be then according to S. Paul all men are bound to obey them in that which is iust vpon paine of damnation If it be not then it is no small vsurpation in them to take vpon them such authority whereof the Bishop should do well to admonish them as his friends before he go about to reforme the Catholike Bishops whome he supposeth to be his enemyes In conclusion the necessity of Iurisdiction is so euident in it selfe and the institution thereof so palpable in Scripture that the Puritans themselues who deny the same to Bishops are inforced notwithstanding to challenge so much to themselues as may suffice to excommunicate all those who are obstinatly disobedient in their Congregations And therefore I thinke there is
none but himselfe so drunke at this day with heresy in Christendome as to deny the lawfullnes of all Iurisdiction in the Church of God And as this position is most pernicious to all kind of Churches or spirituall Cōgregations whatsoeuer they be in taking away al obligation of obedience from them so also it is most dangerous to kingdomes and commonwealthes for such as in our tyme haue opposed themselues to the Iurisdiction of the Church haue likewise for the most part denyed their band of obedience to all temporall gouernement And their principall ground or reason is the same in both For no man say they that seeth not another mans conscience can bind the conscience of his brother And that all being made free by Baptisme ought to enioy the liberty of the Ghospell Whereof it followeth that neither sonnes nor seruants nor wyues nor subiects are bound to obay their Superiours for conscience sake but only and at the most either for feare or els for the auoyding of some publike scandall which doctrine if it were once receiued would in short space make Christians worse then Heathens And therefore I marueile how your English Bishops could let such doctrine passe being no lesse contrary to their authority then to the Popes Supremacy and no lesse perillous to themselues then to the gouernement of the whole kingdome vnles perhaps finding their case to be desperate they desire more to offend their enemy then to defend themselues would be cōtent their heresy should sinke so the Catholike Religion might be drowned with it But the Bishop being reputed to haue gotten some learning when he was yong and not being yet so old as to dote for age aboue all it is to be marueiled how he could suster himself to be so much deceiued by the Diuell as to ground his 10. yeares studyes the 10. books of his Christian commonwealth and in a word his whole religion and the saluation of his soule vpon an absurdity so grosse so fowle enormous dangerous to Church and Common-wealth as this is and the strangenes of his illusion is so much the greater because he was so blinded therewith that he saw not how manifestly he was inforced to contradict himselfe not only in other places of this his booke where he grāteth that Christian Princes haue power to do many thinges in the Church and challengeth vnto himselfe I know not what authority ouer Bishops in some cases which should make the Bishop of Canterbury to looke about him but also in the very title of his Booke which he calleth his Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth because it doth inuolue a manifest contradiction to this his strange position For vnles it be meerly a dreame and much more fantasticall then Platoes Idaea no man can imagine how any Cōmonwealth should be framed or est ablished without some Iurisdiction or power of gouernement giuen thereunto If he had contayned himselfe within any reasonable bounds and relyed his proofes vpon the Scripture alone interpreting the same according to his own sense how strang soeuer he might perhaps haue made some shift therewith for a while as his fellowes haue done before him But to pretend and contend as he doth that according to the Fathers Councells and Canons there is neither superiority of gouernment in the head nor power of Iurisdiction in the body of Christs Church is an euident signe that as he hath forsaken God so also God in his iustice hath not only forsaken him but also in great part hath taken his wits and reason from him For as S. Augustine sayth of the Prophesyes of the Church that they are more cleere in Scripture then the prophesyes of Christ himselfe because the tryall of all other Controuersyes dependeth vpon the knowledge of the Church so also for the same reason God Almighty in his prouidence hath so ordayned that the Iurisdiction of the Church and the authority of the head therof should be more expresly taught and aboundantly proued by the Doctours Pastours and ancient Fathers then any other point in Controuersy So that he might better haue gone about to proue and maintayne out of the Fathers Canons or Councells that the Sonne is not equall with the Father or the holy Ghost not equall to the Sonne or not proceeding from the Father and the Sonne or that our Blessed Lady ought not to be called the Mother of God or some other of those anciently condemned and rotten heresyes then to proue that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church nor any inequality of gouernment amongst the Pastours thereof And therefore as most impudently he denyeth the latter so it is much to be feared that he faltereth also in the former whereof he giueth many shrewd signes and apparant tokens in this little booke and much more is it likely he will bewray himself in the greater whē it cometh forth For being borne vpon the confines of Turky and Greece in which Countrey those ancient heresyes haue tirannized heeretofore and worse succeeded them in latter ages the suspitions wherewith as he professeth he was troubled when he was yong by all reason were more in fauour of the Easterne heresyes which he knew then of these of the West which he knew not And the bookes of the Arian Greciin heresyes being no lesse forbidden in Italy then the hereticall writers of these westerne parts whereby his suspitions were much more increased it is very probable that they swayed his mind more to that side then to this His maisters also do commonly dispute more against them then against these whome they are content to pretermit in these parts there being no vse of the knowledge of them And therefore by al likelihood his suspitions increased most in fauour of those opinions whereunto he was naturally most affected and wherewith he had more to do and which did more belong vnto him to know then the other did And besides all this that which he maketh his chiefe quarrell against the Pope is only the excommunication and condemnation of those opinions for heresyes which he sayth are not sufficiently condemned by the Church although it be manifest and he denyeth it not that they haue byn condemned by generall Councells And that inborne desire of peace Pag. 35. and vnity which he pretendeth of the East and West seemeth to consist in nothing els but only in permitting euery Bishop at the least to abound in his owne sense and to hold what he list as long as he doth not separate himselfe from the rest nor condemne their opinions And lastly to returne to the matter which we haue in hand by taking away all Iurisdiction from the Church of God he maketh voyd and repealeth the Anathema and excommunication of all former heretikes and by condemning the Fathers and Councells for condemning them without iudiciall authority he restoreth them all to their first pretended pleas and old forged titles And the renewing of these ancient censures condemnations of Heretikes by the Churche of Rome at this
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
the Pelagian they condeÌ„ned the denyall of exercisme and exsufflation vsed in Baptisme In Proclus they condemned the affirming that the sioue of Comupiscence was not taken away by Baptisme but only cast a sleep by Faith In the Donatiste they condemned the euer throwing of Altars and the easting away of sacred Chrisme for what is so sacrilegiaus sayth Optatus as to breake raze Optatus l. 6. cont Donatist and remoue the Altars of God wheren on you your selues haue some tyms offered c. For what is the Altar but the seat of the body and bleud of Christ All these your fury hath razed or broken or remoued c. what had Christ offended you whese body and bloud as tertayne ordinary tymes did dwell opens 〈◊〉 What haue you offended your serues also that you should breake these Altars c Epiphan haer 64. 70. In the Origenists they condeÌ„ned the affirming that Adam had lost the image of God according wherunto he was oreated In the Nouations the deniall of Chrisme or CoÌ„firmation to the baptized by a Bishop And lastely Euseb hist lib. 6. c. 35. Theod. l. 4. haer Pab Aug. in psal 〈◊〉 â—oâ—e 2. not to be ouer tedious with this discourse In the Donatists and Luciferians they coÌ„demned the denyall of the Churches continuing visible wherupon S. Augustine cryeth out and sayth O impudentem vocem o impudent voyce I omit that vnion and communion with the Pope and his sea which the Fathers do teach to be necessary for saluation because I haue treated thereof in sundry places before whereunto I will adde one testimony more in this place out of S. Cyprian the Bishops great friend Cypr. de vnitate Eccles as he pretendeth who teaching as you haue heard that in the Church of God there is one Priest one Priesthood one Altar one Iudge one Chayre built vpon Peter that whosoeuer gathereth els where scattreth which S. Hierome expoundeth not to be of Christ but of Antichrist in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae he maketh this interrogation He who keepeth not the vnity of the Church doth he thinke that he keepeth his fayth He that resisteth and striueth against the Church he that forsaketh the Chayre of Peter vpon the which the Church is founded doth he presume that he is in the Church Sâ—nce the blessed Apostle S. Paul doth teach and shew this Sacrament of vnity sayings one body one spirit one hope of our vocation one Lord one Fayth one 〈◊〉 one God Where S. Cyprian teacheth notably all these vnityes to be one and the same with the unity of the Church and with the Commâ—â—…on of the Chayre of Peter Thus the Fathers of the first 500. yeares wherein it is also to be noted that none of them was impugned or contradicted by the other wherby it appeareth that it was the generall verdict and sentence of them all and therefore you must needs grant that he is in a very miserable and most fearefull case who standeth so generally cast and deeply condemned by them For of the Fathers of the Catholike Church the words of our Sauiour must needs be specially vnderstood where he sayth He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you Lue. 10.16 despiseth me Wherfore if the sentence of the Fathers be as the iudgment of Christ himselfe Rom. 8.33 then as S. Paul asketh who shall be able to condemne those whome God doth iustify so giue vs leaue to aske you who shall iustify those whome God condemneth They therefore that tell you all is well and that your Religion dissereth little or nothing from the doctrine of the primitiue Church albeit they may haue the name of Bishops yet are they no better theÌ„ wolues in sheeps clothing and so many false Prophets sent out to sow pillowes vnder your elbowes and to lull you so fast a sleep in sinne and heresy that nothing but the fire of hell when it wil be too late shal be able to awake you SECTION XVIII The dissent of the Protestants from the Fathers is proued out of the Protestants themselues condemning the Fathers THIS Condemnation and Censure of the Protestant doctrine by the voyce of the Fathers being of such great force as well for the gayning of any well meaning soule who is not will fully obstinate but of the nuber of those that shal be laued as also for the eternal confusion of others who with intollerable pride of mind and presumption of spirit condemne the vniforme consent of Fathers to iustify their owne opinions it hath pleased God that it should be so confirmed by the testimonyes and confessions of the Protestants themselues that neither the brasen face of this Bishop nor of any other though more shamelesse and impudent then the Diuell himselfe should be able to make doubt of it or to call it againe into question Attend therfore and admire the Luciferian arrogancy of your owne Doctours in condemning the Ancient Fathers on the one side and the obdurate impudency of this out-cast Bishop in affirming that the Fathers dissent not from them on the other And to beginne with the most ancient S. Dionysius Arcopagita is coÌ„demned to haue (a) Luther in Com. ad 1â— 14. Deut. incap Bab. written bookes most like to dreames and most pernicions and for (b) Caus dial 5. 11. a doting old man S. Ignatius to haue (c) Caluin inst l. 1. c. 13. nuÌ„ 29. deformed moales and filthy gigs in his epistles S. Irenaeus that (d) Cent. 2. cap. 5. he set forth a phanaticall or a furious frantick thing and the Fathers of that age (e) Cent. 1. l. cap. 10. sequen to haue left blasphemys and monsters to posterity Tertullian (f) Perkins probl pag. 184. and Cyprian for Montanist Heretikes or at least for hauing erred filthily in making Confirmation a Sacrament S. Irenaeus (g) Middleton Papistom p. 179. 180. Hilary and Epiphanius for Pelagian heretikes in defending Free-will S. Siluester (h) Luther in Colloq mensal wotton in defence of Perkins p. 402. Beza in c. 3. ad Roman that baptized Constantine accused to be Antichrist Origen (i) Caus dial 2. Cartwright in M. Whitgifes deféce pag. 352. for accursed and generally condemned a chosen instrument of the Diuell S. Augustine (k) Middleton Papistom p. 136. 618. numbred for one among other Fathers that were doting foolish men deuoyd of the spirit of God and therefore vnworthy that any man should giue them credit And that to allow S. Augustines rules is to bring in all Popery S. Cyprian (l) Caus dial 8. 11. Cent. 3. cap. 5. to be stupide destitute of God and a deprauer of pennance Nazianzen (m) Caus dial 6.7.8 to be a prating fellow and that he knew not what he sayd S. Ambrose that he had the Diuell dwelling within him and that for teaching Transubstantiation he was guilty of presumtuous and desperate blasphemy S. Hierom (n)
differeth little or nothing from the pure doctrine of Christ But Luther his disciples teach that all Sacramentaries or such as deny Christ to be taken with the mouth in the blessed Sacrament are Heretikes alienated from the Church of God who driue away and kill the sheep of Chritt that their errour Ioan. Schutz in 50. Cans in praefat Tigurni in prafat Apol. Tig. tract 3. cont supremam Luth. confes p. 61. is a blasphemous defence of many horrible heresyes an abnegation of the power and truth of Christ and a preparation to Nestorianisme Arianisme and Turcisme That their breast is insathanized supersathanized persathanized that their mouth is oueruled by Sathan being infused perfused and transfused into the same Therefore it differeth little or nothing from the pure doctrine of Christ to hold the Bishop and is fellowes who are Sacramentaryes to be heretiks alienated from God deceiuers and killers of the sheep of Christ c. Secondly I argue in this manner Caluin in admonit vlt. ad Westfalū cont Hesshusiā according to the doctrine of Caluin which differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell Such as refuse to condimne the opinions of Luther are malepers wicked furious heretikes and slaues of the Diuell But the Bishop doth not condemne the opinion of Luther therefore according to that doctrine which differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell the Bishop is a malepert wicked furious heretike c. Thirdly in the behalfe of the Puritans I argue thus The doctrine of the Puritans according to the Bishop differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell But the Puritans affirme (e) Dangerous positions l. 2. c. 9. 11. that the Protestants put no difference betwixt truth and falseshood Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell that their Clergy are an Antichristian swynish rabble and the enemyes of the Ghospell Therefore it differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell to affirme that the Bishop being a Protestant putteth no difference betwixt truth and falshood Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell c. To be short Bernard Minister of VVorsop in his book of the Separists Schisme p. 71. in the behalfe of the Brownists his other yonger brethren I argue thus The Brownists according to the Bishop do not dissent from the purity of the Ghospel But the Brownists affirme that the Ministers of the Church of England are Aegiptian inchanters lymms of the Diuell Sycophants Angels of hell an Antichristian Clergy Therfore it differeth little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell to affirme that the Bishop being now a Minister of the Church of England is an Aegiptian inchanter a limme of the Diuell a Sicophant c. Lastly in the behalfe of the Protestants against the Puritans I argue thus The Protestants doctrine according to the Bishop differeth little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell But the Protestants affirme Ormerode dis ouery of Puritan Papisme dial 1. f. 5. that the Puritans who are the Bishops brothers in Christ and make one Church with him haue ioyned themselues with the Pharisies Apostolikes Aerians Pepuzians Petrobusians Floriniās Cerinthians Nazarens Begardines Ebionists Catabaptides Euthusiests Donatists Iouinians and Catharists Therfore the Bishop is a Pharisy Aerian c. Neither are these the dissentions of priuate men alone whose quarells the Bishop hath vndertaken Protest Apology pag. 505. but of whole bodyes Countreys and Societyes who haue mutually opposed themselues with such rage and fury as that they not only condemned but also banished ech other for heretiks from their seuerall Dominions prohibiting bookes making articles of Inquisition examining imprisoning entring into open armes one against another the Lutherans in particuler vsing cruelty euen to the dead corps of the Caluinists The Church of England hath decreed as you know that Whosoeuer shall affirme any of the 39. Articles agreed vpon in the yeare of our Lord 1562. to be in any part erroneous or such as may not with a good conscience be subscribed vnto is ipso facto excommunicated and not to be restored but after repentance and publike reuocation of his wicked errour whereunto it is euident that the Lutherans will neuer subscribe Luth. tom 7. Witēb f. 382. Luth. de coena Domini Tom. 2. Germ. fol. 174. their Father Luther hauing layd a curse vpon all Charity and Concord with the Sacramentaryes for euer and euer to all eternity And a little before his death he protested that hauing now one of his feet in the graue he would carry this testimony and glory to the Trybunall of God That he did contemne and eschew the Sacramentayes with all his hart and that he would not haue any familiarity with them neither by letters nor by words nor deeds accordingly as the Lord had commounded And Eccard a Lutheran sayth it is manifest Eccard in fasciculo Cont. in praefat ad Ducē Sax. that the diuinity of the Lutherans Caluinists can neuer be reconciled and that none but a most light Epicure can affirme that the differences betwene them are but light For sayth he they are most weighty and concerne the foundation both of Churth fayth Schlussch l. 2. Theol. Caluinist art 8. And Schlusselburge hath the like with others The like may be sayd of the Puritans in Genena France Flaunders and other places who do all oppose themselues against the Supremacy of the King in spirituall matters and against the Episcopall Hierarchy of the Clergy of Englād Whom also the Puritans of England haue intituled the Reformed Church and prepose them to the Parliament for example of imitation Two of the chiefe articles of the Scottish Puritās be these first Bishops Archbishops haue no authority their very names he antichristian and diabolicall Secondly it is Heresy for any Prince to call himselfe head of the Church T. C. reply p. 144. but he may be excommunicated and deposed by his Ministers Thomas Cartwright sayth that the English Puritans are bound to defend their doctrine with losse of as many liues as they haue hayres on their heads And that Princes must submit their Scepters and throwe downe thir Crownet and licke the dust of their feet Our English Puritans in their admonition to the Parliament Admonit tract 2.3 complaine that there is no right religion nor so much as the outward face of a Church rightly reformed in England That the titles of Bishops were deuised by Antichrist plainely forbiden in Gods word And at last they conclude desiring God to confound all them who will not allowe of their admonitions and holy Eldership That say they his peace may be vpon Israel Tract 23. and his sauing health vpon this Nation So that you see into what straytes this Protheus is brought Into what forme of religion soeuer he shift himselfe of those which he defendeth Lutheran Protestant Caluinist or Puritant he is euery where taken reuiled reiected and condomned Wherefore that from hence forward
you may know this man to be one of those of whom S. Paul speaketh who taking vpon them to be Doctours of the Law do not vnderstand neither what they speake nor of what they affirme Let vs suppose it were true that his eyes were opened as he saith and that he saw manifestly and clerely in the Fathers Canons and Councells those so many Churches whome Rome hath made her aduersaryes do differ little or nothing from the ancient and pare doctrine of the pure Church What other thing I pray you did he see with his eyes broad open so plainly but only this that he is alienated from the Church of God a deceiuer and a killer of the sheep of Christs a blasphemous defender of many horrible Heresyes a disposer to Arianisme and Turcisme insathanized and 〈…〉 c. according to the purity of the Lutheran Ghospell That he is amalepert wicked furious herecike and a slane of the Diuell in defenthing Luther according to the purity of Caluins doctrine That he putteth no difference betwene truth and falshould Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell but it one of the Antichristian Swyntsh rabble according to the purity of the Puritants themselues And lastly that he is excommunicated and guilty of a wicked errour according to the purity of the Protestants for defending most impurely that all these Sects togeather do differ little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell SECTION XX. The conclusion of this Tract cōcerning the Bishops motiues by occasion wherof the nature of a motiue is declared and the first Catholike motiue of the holynes and sanctity of Catholike doctrine is propounded AND this much concerning the Bishops Motiues and the formall Reasons of his conuersion which I haue shewed that being in themselues not only strang but also incredible he neither goeth about to proue in this place nor can possibly proue them in his other bookes hereafter because in them he doth not descend to those particuler points which are in Controuersy betwene vs as is manifest by the titles of his bookes themselues And this one Controuersy alone of the Popes Supremacy according to the doctrine of the ancient Church I which is the substance of all the bookes he promiseth is found as I haue shewed to he most extreme against him and that which he maketh the ground thereof hath been also discouered to be a most absurd and most pernicious position as much contrary to the authority of your Bishops and to the Puritan Eldership and to the title of his owne booke as to the Popes Supremacy and if all were true which he pretendeth to proue in his Common wealth it might shew perhaps the Catholike Religion to be false but yours to be the right it could not proue I haue also made it euident vnto you that the Bishops motiues as they are heere set downe in his little booke are as monstrous vntruths as can be deuised and albeit he may saue them from broad lyes perchance vnder the title of some rhetoricall figure whereof he hath been a Maister yet too much of one thing is good for nothing and he cannot deny but that it is a great disgrace euen to the Art of lying to vse this one figure of manifest vntruth so often By this also that hath beene sayd concerning this matter you will further perceiue the Bishop being a man so deeply learned and after ten yeares study hauing produced such reasons as these for the proofe of your Religion how hard or rather how impossible it is for any man whatsoeuer to giue any sound or good reason for it Wherin also by the way it wil be worthy your knowledge to consider that such reasons as may induce a man to be of any Religion are of two sorts For either they proue euery point of Religion in particuler to be true or els they open and declare the euidence of certaine generall principles which being once receiued draw after them the consent of the mind to all those thinges in speciall which are taught or practised in that Religion Vnto the first kind do belong all those books which treat of particuler Controuersyes as of the Masse of prayer for the dead of prayer to Saints Purgatory and the like which indeed to a man that hath but little will or little leasure to read is a wearisome course and tedious way to tryall Vnto the other doth belong those shorter discourses which some haue tearmed motiues and for the Catholike party may be seen in such as haue handled the notes of the Church in Canipian his ten Reasons in the booke of the Three Conuersions of England in Bristow and others Whereunto besides that they must be generall reasons as I haue shewed two things againe are necessary The one that the truth of them be more euident then the truth of other particulers which depend vpon them The other that they induce almen Heathens or Christiās of what belief soeuer they be to change opinion and to submit their iugdments to the obedience of that Religion for which they are produced This being seene if you please but to examine a little all those Protestants books which haue been published in this kind you shall not find any one argument in them which may be called a generall reason or an vniuersall motiue for the truth of your Religion but either they are no lesse obscure then the Religion it selfe as that the word of God is truly preached and the Sacraments rightly administred amongst you or most improbable as that the Protestants haue beene alwayes the most visible Congregation of all other Christian Churches or that your religion accordeth with the doctrine of the ancient Fathers as here the Bishop pretendeth or el they concerne some particuler point in Controuersy and commonly are not only most improbable as that the Masse is Idolatry that the Pope is Antichrist and the like but also most palbably false as that we hope to be saued without the merits of Christ that we worship stockes and stones that for nication is a veniall sinne such other iniuries of like nature as it pleaseth your vnlearned Ministers for want of knowledge or of better matter to lay vpon vs. Whereas on the other side euery Catholike whether learned or vnlearned wise or simple is able to giue you such a reason of his fayth as may be sufficient to moue any indifferent mind of what belief soeuer to like and imbrace it For Almighty God not inforcing man against his wil but drawing him according to his Nature and demaunding a reasonable obedience of him hath ordayned in the sweetnes of his prouidence that all Christians should make profession of some principall motiues of their fayth wherein many others are vertually conrayned saying in their Creed I beleeue the holy Church Catholike Not only to moue others therby but also more and more to confirme themselues in their beliefe For albeit matter of diuine fayth be infinitly aboue the knowledge of naturall reason which
did put the Church in danger of pernicious dissention But it is no maruell though his intention were not bad that an ill cause should be no better defended wherein the greatest commendation of S. Cyprian in my opinion is this that as it is most credible he repented himselfe both of the matter and of the manner SECTION XXXIII VVherein 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 VVHERFORE this one authority alone produced by the Bishop being almost all the matter of substance and almost the only proofe which he bringeth for any thing he sayth in his whole booke taking vp all things vpon trust as hath been obserued you see notwithstanding how that out of this one place of S. Cyprian alleadged by him we haue proued the Popes Supremacy and the necessity not only of tradition but also of the iudgment of the Church for the defyning of matters in Controuersy and for the condemning of heresy Besides we haue shewed how notoriously he falsifieth the Ecclesiastical history how he cōdemneth not only S Stephen most impiously but also S. Cyprian most absurdly whome he sought most to commend And now that you may perceiue how much this authority of S. Cyprian maketh not only against his cause in generall and his owne credit in particuler but also against himselfe in the very poynt for the proofe and declaration whereof it is inserted by him Thus I argue He that without authority condemneth any other Bishop and refuseth to hold communion with him according to S. Cyprian may be iudged a Schismatike or to giue occasion of schisme but Marcus Antonius condemneth without authority not only his Colleague but also his Superiour the Bishop of Rome not of one errour but of inumerable heresies not of any ordinary fault but of suppressing the Councells of deprauing the Scriptures and ancient Fathers of vsurpation and tyrany ouer the Church of God oppressing pilling and spoyling the same and sucking the bloud of the members thereof And by consequence he condemneth likewise all other Bishops that communicate with him and are subiect to him calleth the vniuersall Church which is vnder the obedience of the Pope by the name of Babylon that is to say the Citty or congregation of the Diuell Therefore Marcus Antonius is a Schismatike according to his owne discourse and according to the words of S. Cyprian which he fondly alleadgeth to proue the contrary Secondly according to the processe of his owne discourse I argue thus He that goeth against the example of S. Cyprian proposed to the vniuersall Church for the auoyding of schisme falleth into the cryme of schisme But Marcus Antonius goeth directly against the example of S. Cyprian propounded by himselfe as a rule for the auoyding of schisme Therfore Marcus Antonius according to his owne rule is falne into the cryme of schisme That Marcus Antonius hath proceeded against his owne rule and the example of S Cyprian which he propoundeth is a thing most manifest For whereas S. Cyprian notwithstanding that he reputed the Pope almost all the vniuersall Church to be in manifest errour would neuer depart from the communion of the Pope but respected him so much that he communicated with those whome he held impure only because the Pope receiued them into his communion Marcus Antonius in the same case hath not only forsaken the Pope but also all those that are vnited with him whome otherwise he thinketh not impur e only because they do not separate themselues from the Pope but still remayne in his communion Wherfore these two arguments produced by himselfe are so conuincing that there needeth nothing els to confound him So that this proofe of his out of S. Cyprian being the substance of his booke and being withall so contrary to his cause to his credit and to himselfe in the poynt of Schisme whereof he intended to cleare himselfe therby may be sufficient to giue you to vnderstand of what substance the matter of his other booke is like to be when it shal be printed For my part I am verily perswaded if it be well vnderstood it wil be found to be more against the Protestants then the Catholikes and more contrary to himselfe then to either of the other And now to draw towards an end of this matter in the allegation of this authority out of S. Cyprian he is so much the more to be blamed in that being of such force against himselfe for as much thereof as concerneth the Popes authority it may full easily be answered For those words of S. Cyprian That none of them made himselfe the Bishop of Bishops c. may very well be vnderstood of those that were present at that Councell and not to conclude in that sentence the Bishop of Rome who truly may be sayd to be the Bishop of Bishops the Father of Fathers the Bishop and Father of the vniuersall Church and the like as hath been shewed That which he sayth A Bishop cannot be iudged but by God alone as he receiueth his authority from God alone ought to be vnderstood that he cannot be iudged in those things which are doubtfull obscure and hidden Aug. l. 3. de baptis cap. 3. For so S. Augustine himselfe doth expound him For hauing recited these words of S. Cyprian As I take it sayth he he meaneth in those questions which are not yet discussed with most cleere perspection And that S. Cyprian belieued that Bishops in cases of heresy or schisme Cyp. lib 5. epist 13. might be iudged and deposed by the Pope is euident in one of his Epistles to Pope Stephen where he exhorteth him that he would commaund the Bishop of Arles in France to be deposed and to appoint another in his place So that you see the childish arrow of this Bishop as it is shot vpward against the Pope doth not aryue vnto him but returneth with greater force to fall vpon his owne head and woundeth him in many places as hath been declared But now to do him a pleasure let vs suppose that Cyprian in these words did glance at S. Stephen and that he meant to taxe him for proceding as he thought too rigorously against him with what conscience or with what honesty I pray you can this strange Bishop alleadge these words of S. Cyprian spoken in the defence of a wrong cause as he knoweth and in his cōmotion anger against the Pope of the which it is most probable and according to S. Augustine we ought to thinke that he repented himselfe against so many playne places expresse doctrine of S. Cyprian as I haue cyted before and which for the full satisfactions of your selfe and the Reader in this poynt I shal be content to repeat in part at this present SECTION XXXIIII Many testimonyes and playne places are produced out of S. Cyprian wherby
so the charity of this man is no lesse to be obserued and admired in calling the Pope his most holy Father and the Bishops vnited with him his most blessed Brethren giuing them thereby his kisse of peace whom before through all his booke he had sould to the Protestants for blind guydes teaching innumerable errours for corrupters of Gods word tyrants oppressors of the Church Babylonians and the like Which termes albeit no lesse falsely then impiously they are applyed by him to the Pope and his Bishops whether you respect the former wherein he should shew his loue or the later wherein he expresseth his hatred vnto them yet because as it appeareth by his owne words he describeth therein his owne spirituall kindred it cannot be denyed but that he is ready to acknowledge if need were the author of lyes himselfe for his holy Father and his wickedest children for his most blessed Brethren Wherefore considering his zeale wherof he boasteth so much to be so large and the armes of his charity to be so far extended from East to West as to imbrace the fellowship of Babylon which is the Citty of the Diuell it is manifest that he excludeth neither Turks nor Iufidells from his Communion And therefore me thinks that as no good Protestant can be much delighted with it so euery good Christian should abhorre and detest it The second poynt to be noted in his conclusion is this that he rather ordereth commaundeth then aduiseth the Pope to restore peace and charity to all those Churches that professe to receiue the essentiall Creeds of Fayth By which he must needs meane the three Creeds of the Apostles of the Councel of Nice against Arius and of the Councell of Constantinople against Macedonius and therefore supposeth all other poynts of Cōtrouersy not contayned in those Creeds to be matters indifferent not sufficiently defyned and not to be beleeued as articles of Fayth Which is such a monstrous opinion as doth euidētly shew him to be of no Religion at all and therefore I maruell how he could be suffered to publish such wicked doctrine in England For if the Pope must haue peace and communion with all those that receiue the Creeds alone howsoeuer they please to vnderstand them thereof it will follow that all Councells which haue beene celebrated since the making of those Creeds haue beene the authors of Schisme and dissention in condemning later Heresyes and that albeit a man should deny al Sacramēts yea and al Scripture at this day yet according to this Antichristian doctrine it should be Schisme to refuse him or to accompt him no good Christian for the same And how easy a matter is it not beleeuing the Scripture to contemne the Creeds or rather how impossible contemning the one to beleeue the other This therefore may be another signe to be added vnto those which I haue touched before that the Bishop being fallen frō the Church is fallen likewise to Neutrality in Religion may be a cause of greater mischiefe and of greater dishonour to our Countrey then they that feed him haue yet discouered in him I cannot omit his incredible ignorance which he discouereth where among other poynts of idle Counsell which he pleaseth to bestow vpon the Pope and the rest of the Bishops of the Catholike Church himselfe being so wyse as to admit no Counsell at all neither from them nor any other he telleth them that he will haue them belieue for certaine that Schisme in the Church is a greater euell then Heresy it selfe Wherin it is to be admyred how he could presume to teach the whole Church such a notable falshood with such arrogant temerity as heere he doth For as he that hath no faith can haue no charity so Heresy that destroyeth Faith bringeth also schisme with it which is opposed to Charity So that albeit there may be schisme in the Church without heresy as faith may remayne without charity yet charity without faith or heresy without schisme there cannot be And therefore all Deuines haue euer held that heresy is far the greater mischiefe which bereaueth a man of all supernatural vertue and maketh him worse then an Infidell The rest of his conclusion is much of the same nature wherein no lesse insolently then ignorantly he taketh vpon him to schoole and to catechize the Pope all his Prelates prescribing vnto them what they ought to belieue and with what tearmes and conditions they may giue him satisfaction make their peace and concord with him Whereunto I thinke no better answere can be giuen in the Popes behalfe then that which S. Cyprian made to Florentius Pupianus of whom we haue spoken before for no man can be thought of so fit as S. Cyprian to rebuke his Pryde whom a little before vnder the colour of much respect he so much abused And in his arrogant and insolent behauiour towards the Pope he doth so perfectly resemble the presumptuous demenour of Pupianus towards S. Cyprian Cyp. ep 65. as that the one seemeth to haue been but the figure of the other the words therefore of S. Cyprian are these that follow What swelling Pryde is this what arrogancy of hart what inflation of mynd to call vnto the trybunall of thy Iudgment the Priests that is to say the Bishops and those that are set ouer thee that vnlesse we can purge ourselues to thee and be absolued by thy sentence now for so many yeares for more then a thousand the Fraternity must be condemned to haue had no Bishop the people no Prelate the flock no Pastour the Church no Gouernour Christ no Antistes and God no Priest Let Pupianus or Marcus Antonius be pleased to help vs let him giue his sentence and be contented to make good the iudgment of God of Christ that so great a number of faythfull people ranged vnder vs may not be thought to haue departed without hope of saluation and that so many Nations of new beleeuers be not accompted to haue receiued from vs no grace at all of the spirit of God that the Communion and reconcilement giuen by vs to so many that haue repented be not dissolued and taken from them by the authority of thy decree vouchsafe at length to grant our request giue vs thy fauourable sentence confirme vs in our place by thy iudiciall authority that God and his Christ may giue thee thanks that by thee their Prelate is restored to their Alter againe and their Rector to the gouernement of their people Truly me thinks these words of S. Cyprian being so applyable to your Bishop as they are should make any man that seemeth to respect him euen to blush and to be ashamed for him And as concerning his Vertue of peace and concord S. Cyprian in the same place doth answer him so fitly as if he had penned the same directly for Marcus Antonius vnder the name of Florentius Pupianus For the which cause it being no way seemly for me to adde any thing
you by this subscription POSTSCRIPTVM TRVTH is the daughter of tyme and as I obserued in the beginning it is good to expect the lame post and the last newes is euer truest Hauing ended this my Treatise there came to my hands a short information of the life and manners of this our Dalmatian Bishop whome before out of his owne words I had sufficiently discouered taken authentically and iuridically vnder the oathes and testimonyes of many lawfull witnesses Whereby it appeareth that he had no lesse cause to feare the manifestation and publication of his former lewdnesse then he discouereth in diuers places of his booke to be exceeding iealous of such a matter many of the particulers related therin being so foule and abhominable that modesty and good manners do not permit me to set them downe For hauing byn lewdly brought vpin his youth before he entred into Religion which it is very probable that he concealed after his Apostacy he returned to his vomit againe and his old gift according to the words of our Sauiour bringing seauen more with him worse then himselfe entred into him and the last of this man was made farre worse then his foule beginning And assure your selfe that nothing doth so much saue his good name if he haue any among you as the turpitude of his former life wherein all men had rather it should be buryed still then defile their pennes themselues and the world with the discouery of it except they be inforced to it But because among other heads of his information there is a poynt or two which will declare by what meanes he attayned to those titles of Ecclesiasticall dignity wherof he vaunteth so much and from whence doth flow all the grace and particuler respect which is giuen vnto him of those that do not know him I thought it expedient to adde this short addition to the end they be not longer ignorant what a Saint they haue gotten to honour their cause and what a pillar he is like to proue to support their Religion You shall therfore vnderstand that Segnia which was his first Bishopricke is a little Citty but most impregnable vpon the Confines of Germany Italy the people wherof commonly called Iscocehi do neither plow nor plant for their sustenance nor card nor spin for their cloathing nor trade with other Nations by way of merchandize but liue altogeather vpon spoyle either of the Turkes which is their profession or els of Christians when they please to mistake the one for the other In which respect it is easier to find those that would refuse if they were either wise or honest then such as would willingly accept the Ecclesiastcall gouerment of this Martiall people Wherefore to come to our purpose it appeareth by the information aforsayd that the Bishop of Segnia being slaine in some enterpize of warre amoÌ„g certaine soldiars of the Emperour with whom he was in company Marcus Antonius de Dominis who was then a Iesuit in profession though not in purpose but desirous to be at liberty forged letters from the friends and kindred of the late Bishop to himselfe as to their kinsman which as it seemeth he was not signifying that the Bishop was not slayne but taken prisoner and entreating him to come to Segnia from whence he might worke some meanes to set him at liberty Vpon the credit of which letters his Superiours as it should seeme gaue him leaue to go thither where first he obtained to supply the place of the late desceased Bishop afterwards to be made Bishop himselfe Which Episcopall function as he got by forgery and Apostasy from his owne Order so he behaued himselfe accordingly in the administration therof For he had his part if not his hand in the prey with the souldiars of that place became a pot companion with them and in how sing and got mâ—ndiâ—ing nothing behind them Being then their Pastour and spirituall Father he defrauded them of foure or fiue hundred Crownes which beget from them vnder pretence of building a Quire in their Church but conuerted the mony to his owne vse And taking occasion to go to Venice he wrot backe to the Iscocchi his gostly children that he had made their peace with the VenetiaÌ„s that they might safely sayle in the Venetian seas vpon which assurance fourty of them sayling to wards Turky were intrapped and slaine by the Venetian souldiars at a certaine 〈◊〉 where they fell into the snare which their reuerend Father in God had layd for them Of which bloudy treachery this audacious Prelate being come to the prefoundnes of iniquity Prou. 1863. was so little ashamed as he was accustomed to boast of his seruice therein done to the Commonwealth of Venice saying that if the Iscocchi could lay hands of him they would make a bagge of his skin as they are accustomed to make of Swines skins for wine and oyle in those countryes and that he expected the first good Bishopricke which might fall in the State of Venice should be giuen him for his desert And so as it seemeth in recompence of this his seruice and expectation of the like when occasion should be offered for policy of State the Church of Spalato was giuen him which though poore in reuenews yet in respect of the Metropolitan dignity was fit to satisfy his ambition By this you may see how truly and litterally that saying is verified of the Church of Segnia vnder his Cure which falsely and impudently he applyeth to the Church of Christ vnder the Pope affirming that it was become a vinyeard to make Noe drunke and a flocke which the Pastour did ouermilke and not only sheer and shaâ—e but also flea and slea for so it is testified against him as you haue heard that he liued a drunken life and not only fleesed his flocke and imbezelled their money but betrayed his sheep into the bloudy hands of their enemyes Wherein the greiuousnesses of his sinne may be compared to the sinne of Iudas Iudas betrayed the innocent bloud of Christ vnder the shew of peace for a little money this second Iudas betrayed in the same maÌ„ner the innocent bloud of fourty Christians his spiritual children not for mony but for spiritual preferment which of all other things being most opposite to the sheeding of innocent bloud was a far fouler Symony more damnable price therof then any money could be And whereas Iudas repented him of his sinne and threw the money from him this other Iudas did glory in his cryme and as yet boasteth of his dignity being the vniust reward of so barbarous a treachery This man notwithstanding his forgery apostasy sacriledge gluttony murther in the foulest and ambition in the highest degree that may be imagined besides his other sinnes not to be named without any amendement or satisfaction to the world for his former life with incredible hypocrisy and impudency Pro. 30.20 only wiping his mouth with the shamles woman in Salomons Prouerbes as if he