and of such or such a Saint wee commit vnto you the Church of S. Sabina or of S. Chrisogonus c. that is he committeth to him one of the Parishes of Rome which is nothing but a bare formality and wordes without substance for after this ceremony this new Cardinall returneth home it may be into Fraunce or Sapine without euer setting his foote againe into the Church of which he beares the title And from thence it grew that for a long time there was in Rome but eight and twenty Cardinall Priests according to the number of the auncient Parishes in Rome which was seuen Churches vnder euery one of the foure principall and Patriarchall Churches of Rome as for the fift that is the Church of Lateran where the Pope made his residence that was aboue the other foure This number of eight and twenty Cardinall Parishes that is to say Parsons of Parishes continued in Rome vntill the time of Honorius the second father of the Cordeliers in the yeare 1125. as Onuphrius sheweth since which time the number hath encreased or lessened according to the pleasures of the Popes who were at that time in the height of their glory And the dignity of the Bishoppes of Millaine and Rauenna being decayed which before were held equall with the Bishop of Rome Since that there hath beene little speech but onely of the Cardinals of Rome As touching Deacons the custome of the City of Rome was to haue onely seuen following the example of the sixt Chapter of the Actes of the Apostles whose charge was to keepe and distribute the almes and to carry the Eucharist in the Church to the faithfull and to remoue the holy table and to cause those which were not yet fully instructed in the Christian Religion Catechumeni to goe out of the Church before the communion and to read the Gospell c. S. Laurence that suffered Martyrdome vnder Decius in the yeare 252. was one of those seuen Deacons as Prudentius testifieth Hic vnus ex septem viris Qui stant ad aram proximi Leuita sublimis gradu c. Likewise in the time of S. Cyprian there were but seuen as appeareth by the Epistle hee wrote to Cornelius in the sixt booke of Eusebius chap. 42. which agreeth with the twelfth Canon of the Counsell of Neocaesaria Now when the Church was growne to be in peace and quiet peace bringing plentie and plenty pride these Deacons became proude and insolent of which S. Augustine complaineth Falcidius duce stultitia Romanae ciuitatis iactantia Leuitas Sacerdotib ' equare contendit Quanquam Romanae Ecclesiae Diaconi modico inuericundiores videntur in his booke of questions of the olde and new Testament saying That one called Falcidius lead by folly and following the arrogancy and vaunting of the Citie of Rome would equal the Romane Deacons with other Priests and a little after saith that The Deacons of the Church of Rome seeme to be a little too impudent Pride was then in blooming but it is now full eared which sheweth that Haruest is at hand In the succeeding ages the number of Christians being greatly increased it is to be presumed the number of Deacons increased likewise amongst whom those which were the cheefest were called by the name of Cardinall Deacons which is as much to say as principall Looke Eusebius in the Election of Fabian Anno 240. It is not to be omitted that the election of the Bishoppes of Rome was long after this made by the voyces of the common people and Clergy the first mention of any Pope that was elected by Cardinals that I can finde in Platina is in the life of Nicholas the second in the yeare 1059. And yet a little after he ioyneth with them both the layetie and Clergy Onuphrius saith that Gregory the seuenth called Hildebrand See likewise Sigonius Ann. 1059. Nos Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinales Clerici acolythi presentibus Episcopis abbatibus multisque tum Ecclesiastici tum laici ordinis eligimus c. in the yeare 1072. and yet Platina affirmeth that he was elected not onely by the Cardinals but also by the whole Clergie in the presence of the people So that the custome which reserueth to Cardinals onely the elections of the Popes is of a new constitution as likewise those goodly vses they now haue to shut the Cardinals into the conclaue to put their meate in at a hole to serue their drinke in cleare bottles and their bread cut into little morsels to make them dyne euery one alone by themselues prohibiting them to serue one another diminishing euery day their allowance and when the name of a new elected Cardinall is declared out at the window to the people to runne home to his house and robbe and spoyle it as likewise that custome by which the elected Pope giueth to whom he list his place and Cardinals hatte as Pope Iulius the third did in the year 1505. who bestowed his place vpon a little boy called Innocentius who kept him an Ape Augusti Thrani Histor lib. 6. But chiefely that corruption by which euery Cardinall selleth his suffrage receiuing from Princes great pensions to giue their voyces with one of their faction Now after this bargaine and sale we must yet beleeue that such a purchast Pope cannot erre in faith By what which is already faid it appeareth that the Cardinals now a dayes haue no more resemblance of those of former times then the Pope hath of S. Peter or the Masse of the Lords supper first the auncient Cardinals were Pastors or Deacons of the Parishes of Rome to teach and to administer the Sacraments but the Cardinals now neyther teach nor haue any cure of soules secondly then the Cardinalship was a function now it is a dignitie Most ordinarily the creation of Cardinals is in vse one of the ember weekes thirdly then a Cardinall was not made but vpon the death of some other because that the Parish might not remaine without a Pastor But now the Pope createth when he pleaseth and as many as he pleaseth by which it hath happened that the Pope being carelesse thereof the number hath beene so strangely diminished that when Vrban the fourth was elected there were only two Cardinals Onuphrius so contrary to this Leo the tenth created eight and thirty in one day fourthly Then the Romane Cardinals were onely in the City of Rome whereas now they are euery where else and rule the Counsels of diuers Kings It is likewise to be presumed that in auncient time election was made of Cardinall Priests of the Inhabitants of Rome and such as were of most sufficiency but now the Cardinalshippe is bestowed vpon Infants and Princes children that are altogether vnlearned as likewise vpon others at the request and intreaty of Kings in recompence of their seruices Then the title of Cardinall Priests did not lift him vp higher then his fellowes but onely in some kinde of precedency
seeing that the thing can no wayes belong to mee in what sort soeuer Furthermore Bellarmine by this distinction hath no meaning to contradict the Popes whom we haue produced who speake of Kings as of their subiects and terme themselues Soueraignes in temporall affaires so that this commeth all to one It bootes not to dispute of the excellency of the spirituall power aboue the Ciuil by comparing as did Innocent the third the Pope to the Sunne and the Emperour to the Moone for albeit this were so yet doth not the excellency of one thing aboue another necessarily import that one must therefore gouerne another for if I say that the faculty of Diuinity is more noble and more excellent then the care and custody of the Kings Treasure must it needes therefore follow that Diuines and Clergy men must sway the Kings Exchequer And as litle to the purpose is it to alleadge that the temporall power is subiect to the spirituall for the question is not whether it be simply subiect vnto it but whether it be subiect to it in temporall things and with what punishments the Pastor of the Church may punish the Magistrate when he forgetteth his duety Foüiller en sa bourse to wit whether by depriuing him of his estates or by fingering his purse this is the point of the question which Bellarmine was to proue and not to suppose For what authority soeuer God hath giuen to faithfull Pastors ouer the Magistrates as they are Christians yet doe they not let for all that to be subiect to the Magistrates as they are Citizens and make a part of the Common-wealth A king that is sicke is for the time subiect to the gouernement of his Physitians and yet they neuertheles remaine his subiects As then the Temporall gouernement doth not impose spirituall punishments so the spirituall gouernement cannot impose temporall punishments vnlesse it be sometimes by miracle as S. Peter did vpon Ananias and Sapphira for ordinary power he hath none to doe it neyther doth the word of God giue him any Now if the Pope by vertue of his keyes of which he so much boasteth could dispossesse a King of his Kingdome for any fault whether it be true or pretended it should thence follow that he hath a greater power ouer Kings then oner priuate and particular men from whom he cannot by way of Penance plucke away their lands or houses to giue them to their neighbours for if it were so the Pope should be the direct Lord of all the lands and possessions of Christendome And seeing it is generally confessed that the Heathen Emperours were not subiect to the Bishops in temporall matters can it stand with reason that Princes by being become Christians should become lesse Soueraignes then they were before and that the faith of Iesus Christ should diminish their Empire I am not ignorant that the Prince ought so to administer temporall things that the spirituall administration be not thereby impeached I know also that if Princes offend God it belongeth to the Pastors not to be silent but to oppose themselues against that euil by al those wayes means which God hath permitted which are courses ful of all respect and farre from any rebellion and sedition The faithfull Pastor that shall least of all flatter the Magistrate in his vices is the man that shall carefully retaine the people in their obedience towards the Magistrate and shall keepe that golden meane which is betweene flattery and sedition As he must not be a dumbe dogge so must he not be a furious beast that had neede to be tyed vp And to the end that you may know that these two kindes of subiection doe not iustle or shoulder each other as incompatible I say that the Princes and the Pastors in a State are as the will and vnderstanding in the soule of a man The will commandeth the vnderstanding with an absolute commaund which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Lord-like inioyning it to study or to learne this or that thing But the vnderstanding on the other side leadeth on the will by suggestion without commaund the one is done by authority the other by perswasion So Princes command Pastors Pastors sollicite and intreate Princes The respect which Princes owe vnto them is not to their persons but to their charge and calling and to the word or message which they bring for they be not the candle it selfe but onely the Candlesticke on which it is set Ioh. 1. ver 8. sent as our Sauiour saith of S. Iohn not to be the light but to beare witnesse of the light Howbeit this comparison taken from the vnderstanding and the will doth halt in more then one point for the will cannot constraine the vnderstanding but Princes may compell Pastors to obey their lawes and to punish them corporally when they doe amisse Againe the vnderstanding is to guide the will in al things but the Prince in an infinite of businesse may do well enough without the helpe and counsell of his Clergy especially in affaires that are temporall and meerely ciuill Againe the will doth neuer teach the vnderstanding for it consisteth wholly in motion and action but many Princes haue reformed their Pastors and brought them back to their dueties as did Constantine who in the Councell of Nice stifeled and smothered vp all quarrels among the Bishops by casting their diffamatorie libels into the fire as did Dauid who erected new orders in the Temple and as did Salomon who deposed Abiathar from the Priesthood being attainted of conspiracy against him And likewise Ezechias and Ichosaphat who clensed the Temple and set vp the purity of Gods seruice againe In this sense a Synodall Epistle written to Lewes the Courteous calleth him Rectorem Ecclesiae gouernor of the Church And Lewes his young sonne being at Pauia tooke an account of the liues of the Bishops and of their diligence in their charge as Sigonius witnesseth in the yeare 855. The same Authour saith in his seuenth booke that Adrian conferred vpon Charlemaigne the honour of gouerneing the Church and of choosing the Bishoppe of Rome not that he might change the doctrine of the Church at his pleasure but only to hold a strait hand for the execution of the things which were enioyned by the word of God But Bellarmine addeth for a second reason That if the Church that is to say the Pope had not the power to dispose of temporall things it could neuer attaine to perfection but should want necessary power to arriue at her intended end For saith he wicked Princes might without feare of punishment intertaine heretickes to the ouerthrow of Religion This is a reason without reason and full of impiety for it accuseth the Church which was in the Apostles times of imperfection which then had no power at all ouer the Temporalty all things being then in the handes of Infidels Add hereunto that Kings might vse the same reason and say that their power could not
he celebrated the Eucharist and that his body was already dead Lactantius in his fourth booke and fourteenth Chapter dooth formally denie the Diuinity of Iesus Christ and in his seuenth booke and one and twenty chapter he saith that the soules of men as well good as bad In vna communique custodia detinentur are detained in one common prison Saint Gregory Nazianzen in his Sermon of Baptisme willeth that vnlesse it be in case of vrgent necessity the Baptisme of young children be deferred vntill such time as they may be capable to aunswere and to yeeld account of their faith Himselfe in his Epitaph vpon Basill doth preferre him before Enoch Contemninus n. Phegor omnem ignominiam eius scientes quod qui in carne sunt non possunt placere Deo and compareth him to Abraham Saint Ierome in his first booke against Iouinian often calleth marriage an vnchast state of life and an ignominy and that the fruite of it is death and that a woman that doth marry the second time ought not to participate of the Almes no nor of the body of the Lord. The Church of Rome doth no longer beleeue the Purgatorie of Gregory the first which hee placeth sometimes in Bathes sometimes in the winde sometime in the water Nor the opinion of Honorius Bishop of Rome who was a Monothelite the Epistles whereof are inserted in the fift and sixt generall Councels For all these good seruants of God were subiect to mistaking and had their faults and vices like warts in a faire face to the end that in reading them a man should haue alwayes in his hand the Compasse of the holy Scripture and the rule of the word of God And that a man should beleeue that which they haue well said not because they haue said it but because it is found in the word of God if they erre in any thing Antiquity cannot authorize an errour There can be no prescription against the truth And a time there was when these Fathers were no Fathers and before they wrote the Christians were ruled by the word of God As touching that which the King of great Britaine saith that they doe contradict one another the verification of it is easie For euery man knoweth the contentions betweene Chrysostome and Epiphanius the Disputes betweene Cyrill and Theodoret the sharpe Epistles and full of gall of Saint Ierome to Saint Austin And S. Austin speaketh farre otherwise of Free-wil of Predestination and of the gift of Perseuerance then all the Greeke Fathers of his age He that will haue a cleare mirrour of this their discord let him compare the Commentaries of S. Austin vpon the Psalmes with those of Saint Ierome and he shall scarcely finde them to agree in two verses together It is then with very iust reason that Coeffeteau doth graunt this to the King of great Britaine and doth acknowledge the faults and contradictions of the auncients whom notwithstanding we ought to loue and honour as great lights in their times and worthy seruants of God who hauing combatted Heresies in their life time doe yet beat downe Popery after their deaths For we maintaine against whosoeuer he be that in the foure first ages and yet wee might discend much lower there shall not be found out any one man who hath had a Religion not so much as approaching to that of the Romish Church now-a-dayes And in this challenge I will lay downe my Ministers cloake ready to be frocked and cladde in a Monks-coule if I shall finde a man that will satisfie me in this point And to the end to expresse my selfe more clearly I say that betweene vs and our aduersaries there be two kindes of Controuersies for some there be vpon which they are wont to produce some passages for proofes But eyther they be quotations altogether false or maimed and curtalled or of no vse to proue the point in question or else places taken contrary to the authours meaning Yet being a thing ordinary with these Messieus to put the ancient Fathers vpon the racke to make them speake in fauour of an vntruth Such is the question of transubstantiation of praying for the dead or Purgatory and of the Sacrifice of the Masse But there are other Controuersies no lesse important and more in number In which they are cleane destitute of all authority of the auncient Church and vpon which being interrogated they answere besides the matter For changing the question they endeauour to proue that which is not demaunded of them See here some examples 1. They cannot shew that any auncient Church did celebrate the eucharist without communicants as it is done ordinarily in the Church of Rome yea and sometimes also without any assistants 2. They cannot shew that any ancient Church hath excluded that people from the communion of the cuppe or chalice 3. Or that in any ancient Church the publike seruice was done in a language not vnderstood of the people 4 Or that any ancient Church hath hindered the people from reading the holy Scripture As it is no way permitted in those Countries where the Pope is absolutely obeyed without speciall priuilege 5. Or that in any ancient Church they haue made Images of God and representations of the Trinity in stone or in picture 6. Also they cannot proue vnto vs that in any ancient Church the people hath beene instructed to pray without vnderstanding that which they say speaking in a tongue not vnderstood of himselfe that prayeth 7. Or that any ancient Church did yeeld worship or religious seruice to the Images of creatures kissing them decking them with robes kneeling before them and presenting them gifts and offerings c. 8. Or that the ancient Church hath beleeued that the Virgin Mary is crowned Queene of the heauens and Lady of the world as this is painted throughout all their Churches 9. Or that the ancient Church hath giuen to the Saints diuers charges as to one the commaund euer such a country to another the cure ouer such a maladie to a third to be Patron ouer such a trade and mysterie 10. Or that the ancient Church hath beleeued that the Pope can giue and take away Kingdomes And dispense with subiects for the oath of their alleageance Can canonize Saints and dispense with Vowes and promises solemnly made to God c. 11. Or that in the ancient Church the Pope by his pardons did distribute supererogatory satisfactions of the Saints for the remission of paine and punishment of other mens sinnes 12. Or that the Pope did then place his pardons in one Church and not in another In one Towne and not in another and that sometimes for an hundred and two hundred thousand yeares of pardon 13. Or that the auncient Church hath beleeued the Limbe of little children 14. Or that the auncient Church hath adored the host which the Priest holdeth vp with the worship of Latria which is done to God alone And to this end the Priest hath caused the Eleuation of
doth not employ any creature to be presented vnto his Father to call Christ by the name of good things yea of things which God createth and doth alwayes blesse and sanctifie this is to mocke Iesus Christ who cannot bee called by the name of good things that God createth not nor alwaies sanctifieth And yet to offer these things by Iesus Christ that is to say to offer Christ by Christ is to be vtterly voyde of all sense Now to know what the Father 's beleeued in this point we must search the places where they doe expresly speake thereof The nineteenth chapter of S. Austines booke of faith ad Petrum Diaconum handles no other matter where thus he saith The Vniuersall Church throughout the world ceaseth not to offer a Sacrifice of bread and wine in faith and charity In isto autem sacrificio gratiarū actio atque commemoratio est carnis Christi quam pro nobis obtulit sanguinis quem pro nobis idem Deus effudit for in the carnall Sacrifices of the old Testament there was a representation of the flesh of Christ which he himselfe being without sinne was to offer for our sinnes and of the blood which he was to shed for the remission of our sinnes But in this Sacrifice of the Eucharist there is a giuing of thankes and a commemoration of the flesh of Christ which he hath offered for vs and of the blood which the same God hath shed for vs. Obserue that he saith that this is a sacrifice of bread and wine therefore not a sacrifice where the flesh of Christ is really sacrificed Aboue all this word of Wine is full of force for the bloud of the Lord was neuer called Wine Againe he saith that it is a sacrifice of thankesgiuing and of commemoration but not of propitiation or redemption The same Father in the three and twentieth Epistle to Boniface saith When Easter approacheth we say thus to morrow or after is the passion of the Lord howbeit he suffered so many yeares since and that this passion was but once indeede vpon the Saboath we say to day the Lord rose againe although so many yeares be past since the resurrection Why is there no body so vaine is to reproue vs for lying when we speake thus But because we name those dayes according to the resemblance which they haue with the daies wherin these things were done so that this day is called the same day which is not the same but resembling the same by the reuolution of time Was not Christ once sacrificed by himselfe and yet is he sacrificed vnto the people in a sacred signe not onely at euery solemnity of Easter but also euery day neyther doth he lie who being asked makes answere that he is sacrificed For if the Sacraments haue not some resemblance with the things whereof they are Sacraments they should be no Sacraments Now because of this resemblance they doe most commonly take the names of the thinges themselues This place ought very heedfully to be considered He sheweth how Iesus Christ is sacrificed in the Sacrament and doth illustrate the same by two examples to wit that it is all one as when we say two daies before Easter to day is the passion of Iesus Christ and when vpon the Saboath we say to day is the resurrection of Iesus Christ not that it is so indeede but because of the resemblance and commemoration for that the Sacraments take the names of the things signified Agreeable whereunto is the Canon Hoc est taken out of S. Austin in the second Distinction of the consecration Non rei veritate sed significante mysterio the offering of the flesh which is done by the handes of the Priest is called the passion the death and crucifixion NOT IN TRVTH BVT IN A SIGNIFYING MYSTERIE In like manner as the Sacrament of faith by which we vnderstand baptisme is the faith The same Doctor in the booke of Sentences gathered by Prosper alleadged in the same Distinction saith that Iesus Christ hath beene sacrificed but once by himselfe and yet he is continually sacrificed in a holy signe He is not then sacrificed by himselfe or in his owne person in the Eucharist For stronger confirmation whereof the auncient Glosses of the Church of Rome doe adde this marginall note Christus immolatur id est eius immolatio representatur fit memoria passionis Christ is sactificed that is his sacrifice is represented and the commemoration of his passion is solemnized Crysostome in the seuenteenth Homily vpon the Epistle to the Hebrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after hee hath said that that which we offer is a figure of the sacrifice addeth these decyding wordes of that difference We alwaies offer the same sacrifice or rather we make a commemoration of that Sacrifice Herein doth it especially appeare that the auncients beleeued not that the body of Christ was really sacrificed included vnder the formes forasmuch as their opinion was that the sacrifice was sanctified by the offerers that it was pure according to the purity of the persons that offered Now Iesus Christ is neyther sanctified nor purified by men S. Austin against Petilian lib. 2. cap. 52. Such as euery one is that commeth to commenicate Tale cuiusq sacrificium quale est is qui accedit vt sumat omnia munda mundis such is his sacrifice to the pure all things are pure The first that directly handled this question at large was Lombard lib. 4. Dist 12. in the letter G. where he resolues this question by the wordes of S. Austin and S. Ambrose in these words If any aske whether that which the Priest doth he properly called a sacrifice or an offering or whether Christ be continually sacrificed or hath beene sacrificed but once whereunto we may shortly answere that that which is offered and consecrated by the Priest is called a Sacrifice and an oblation because it is the memory and representation of the true sacrifice and of the offering made vpon the Altar of the Crosse Christ died once vpon the Crosse and hath beene once sacrificed in person but he is continually sacrificed in the Sacrament because in the Sacrament there is a commemoration made of that which is once done Wherefore Austin saith that we are sure that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more yet for feare that we should forget that which was done but once it is done euery yeare for our remembrance to wit at all times and as often as Easter is celebrated is Christ therefore slaine so often No BVT ONELY the anniuersary commemoration representeth that which is already done Obserue this word Onely that none doe say the Eucharist is indeede the commemoration of the sacrifice of the Crosse but because Christ ceaseth to be really sacrificed Besides it is not compatible that a thing should be a representation of it selfe and that in the same action there should be both the signe and the thing
their essence And indeed not the vulgar people only but the Doctors also doe call such pictures the Image of God and the Trinitie The title of the eight chapter of Bellarmines booke of Images is this That the Images of God are not forbidden Now there is no picture which hath not some resemblance with the patterne and euery Image is a likenesse Therefore our aduersaries must hold that there is some assimilation and resemblance betweene God and his Images for if there be none they are not the Images of God Now these Statues and pictures are to be seene in all their Churches and in the beginning of the Bibles printed at Rome by the authority of Sixtus Quintus and Clement 8. yea they serue for signes at Tauerne dores they vse to say Master N. lodgeth at the Trinity and his horses are set at Gods-head a matter ridiculously prophane and reproachfull to Christian Religion It appeareth also that these Images of God are not made to represent the formes wherein God hath appeared for they commonly picture God in a pontificall Throne in the habite of a Pope with a triple Crowne and a Papall robe as if you should say behold Pope Iulius granting pardons There wants nothing but a fanne of a Peacockes taile on either side surely God neuer appeared in this habite it makes me wonder whence it comes that the Images of the Trinity are commonly dusty and Spiders playing about them but the Images of our Lady and of the Saints are diapred and trimply appaireled me thinkes in regard of the Papall habit at least they should be neatly kept It is true that God appeared vnto Daniel in the shape of an old man for he knew well that Daniel would not Idolatrously abuse the vision but when he speakes to the children of Israel hee suffered them not to see him in any likenesse for feare saith he least ye corrupt your selues in making a representation of any figure of Male or Female Deut. 4.16 And me thinkes when they obiect this apparition in the figure of an old man they knock themselues on the fingers For did the Church then vpon this occasion represent God in that figure can it be found that after that time the Image of God was painted in the Temple or in the Synagogue And if the faithfull in those daies did it not for what reason shall we haue license to doe that which they thought vnlawfull God doth that which seemeth good to his wisedome but to vs it belongeth to doe what he commaundeth for his commandemenâ— and not his actions must bee the rule of our Religion If he commaund the Israelites to spoyle the Egyptians or Abraham to sacrifice his Sonne doth it follow that we must therfore breake his law by the imitation of these examples if a woodden old man that people call God the Father must be worshipped because it resembles the old man that appeared vnto Daniel why should we not much rather worship old men aliue which doe much more resemble him This is the reason why some Doctors of the Church of Rome as Abulensis Durand and Peresius doe condemne these Images Yea the second Nicence Councell how corrupt soeuer yet condemneth them in the sixth and seuenth Acts. Nicephorus a later and superstitious Author lib. 18. cap 53. saith a Imagines patris Spiritus S. effigiant quod perquam absurdum est The Armenian Heretickes doe paint the Image of God the Father and the Holy Ghost which is most absurd b Nec id ipsum quod sedâ—re pater dicitur flexis poplitibus fieri putandum est Ne in illud meidamus sacrilegium quo execratur Apostolus eos qui commutauerunt gloriam in corruptibilis Dei in similitudinem corruptibilis hominis Tale en m simulacrum Deo nefas est Christiano in templo collocare multo magis in corde Saint Austen in the seuenth Chapter of his Booke of Faith and of the Creede saith thus When it is said that the Father sitteth we must not thinke that he hath Legs to bow for feare wee fall into that sacriledge for which the Apostle detesteth those that turned the glorie of the incorruptible God into the similitude of a corruptible man for to erect any such Image vnto God in the Church is a thing vnlawfull for a Christian and much more in his heart c. He doeth not onely say that it is vnlawfull to desire to represent his essence but to make an Images of God sitting his hammes bowed in the similitude of a man which is the fashion of the Images of God which are made in these dayes Now no man that hath any drop of free iudgement can make himselfe beleeue that any Christian euer thought to represent the essence of God by such Pictures seeing they cannot expresse the essence of man In briefe by this abuse doth God shew vnto vs into what headlong courses man runneth when hee forsakes his holy word and that after the shipwrack of piety he loseth euen his very reason for the Lord hauing created man in the Image of God Loe heere are men that make God in the Image of man as if they would exchange good turnes with him And indeed his Maiesty of England saith true that the meanest man would not be so resembled for what man would be represented in the shape of a Pismiere or of a Frog and yet betweene an Ant and the greatest Monarch there is some proportion and between things finite the distance cannot be infinite but betweene the shape of a man that is finite and the Maiesty of God which is infinite there can be no proportion besides the distinctions and excuses which they bring forth are schoole distinctions not vnderstood by the common people whose minds are fixed on that which they see and seeing euery day in their Parish Church a God of stone clothed like a Pope must needes imagine very grosse things and such as are very iniurious to the eternal Deitie ARTICLE XX. Of the Crosse The KINGS Confession BVt Christs Crosse must haue a particular priuiledge say they and bee worshipped ratione contactus But first wee must know what kinde of touching of Christs body drew a vertue from it whether euery touching or onely touching by faith That euery touching of his body drew not vertue from it is more then manifest When the Woman in the bloody fluxe touched him she was healed by her faith Luke 8. But Peter then tolde him that a crowde and throng of many people then touched him and yet none of them receiued any benefit or vertue from him Iudas touched him many and many a time besides his last kisse so did the villaines that Buffeted and Crucified him and yet I may safely pronounce them accursed that would bestow any worship vpon their reliques yea we cannot denie but the land of Canaan it selfe whereupon our Lord did dayly tread is so visibly accursed being gouerned by faithlesse Turkes full of innumerable Sects of hereticall
vnto him in the Conclaue presently after his election for so soone as hee is named Pope by the Cardinals shut vp in the Conclaue he is stript out of his ordinary habites and there are others giuen him amongst other things redde hose and redde shoes hauing a Crosse of golde a redde girdle with buckles of golde a redde bonet and a rochet And thus being armed at all points with his redde cloake and triple Crowne See this Ceremony described in the first booke of the Ceremonies Sect. 1. cap. 6. glittering with Diamonds they lift him vp as a sacred body and set him on the Altar there the Cardinals kisse his hands and feete This is vulgarly called among the Italians Adoratione which is the more to be noted because they set him vpon the Altar which is the place where they place their Masse-god and it is the place appointed for diuine adoration So that this manner of adoration cannot be taken for ciuill adoration By this also it is euident that forasmuch as Kings are more mighty and powerfull then Popes in ciuill causes if this were a ciuil worship then coÌ„sequently they ought the rather to be worshipped But they are so farre from being worshipped as that themselues are enforced to worship the Popes And if a King should call himselfe God it should little auaile him to alleadge places of the old Testament where Princes are called Gods for that would no way serue his turne but that among Christians he would be accounted a blasphemer for now the Pope taketh this Title vpon himself exclusiuely shutting out al other Princes because with him it carrieth a religious sense and that importeth adoration Againe Princes in respect that they are called Gods doe not arrogate to themselues a liberty of being free 〈…〉 reprehension or of being iudged of any man as doth the Pope in the Canon Satis dist 96. the words whereof are these It is euidently shewed that the Pope can neyther be bound nor vnbound by any secular power Satis euidenter ostenditur à seculari potestate nec solui prorsus nec ligari pontificem quem constat à pio principe Constantino quem longè superê memorauimê Deum appellatum cum nec posse Deum ab hominibus iuiudicari manifestum sit because we know he hath beene called God by that religious Prince Constantine before mentioned and God cannot be iudged by man He excludeth Princes from the Title of Gods to reserue it to himselfe and approuing the saying of Constantine that called him God hee inferreth thereupon that the Pope cannot be iudged of any man But let vs note by the way that Constantine said in the Councell of Nice speaking to all the Bishops there present You are Gods but he neuer spake this particularly to the Bishop of Rome In consequence also of this Title the Pope calleth his Decrees and Canons Oracles Oracle signifieth the answer of God Extra de Maioritate obed Titulo 33. cap. Per tuas Rom. 3.2 11.4 With like modesty hee termeth his Decretall Epistles Canonicall Scriptures Dist. 19. in the Canon In Canonicis the inscription whereof is this Inter Canonicas Scripturas Decretales Epistolae connumerantur The Decretall Epistles are numbred among the Canonicall Scriptures Hee boasteth himselfe to haue all power in heauen and vpon earth in the last Councell of Lateran Sess 9. and 10. and attributeth it vnto himselfe in his booke of sacred Ceremonies Sect. 7 Cap. 6. according to which power Innocent the third in his Bull Adliberandam In retributionem iustorum salutis aeternae pollicemur augmentum which is at the end of the second Councell of Lateran giueth vnto Pilgrims that came from beyond the Seas an encrease of glory aboue the rest Among all these I finde none so odious as that Title which he taketh of being the Spouse of the vniuersall Church which belongeth particularly to Iesus Christ as S. Paul sayth 2. Cor. 11. For I haue married you vnto one man to present you as a chaste Virgin vnto Christ Extrauag de immunitate Eccles Tit. 22. Capite Quoniam in 6 And yet this is the quality which the Pope taketh vnto himselfe in more then thirty places in his Decrees and Decretals and in the last Councell of Lateran And to the end you may know his bookes in what sense he is called the Spouse of the Church Bellarmine who wrote at Rome § Ac ne fortè l. 1. de Rom. Pont. c. 9. sayth that the Pope is the Spouse of the Church etiam Christo excluso Christ being excluded And albeit Christ were not excluded yet in matter of marriage we are not accustomed to accept of a Deputy Whosoeuer would here heape vp places in which both the Pope and his flatterers attribute vnto him that he is aboue the law and aboue all right and that he may dispense against the Apostles nay against the Gospell it selfe that likewise he hath power to dispense with oathes made vnto God and a thousand things of the like nature whereby he setteth himselfe aboue God might well of these things compose a great volume and grieue the heart of the godly Reader who is touched with a zeale of Gods house But this shall suffice to shew that Coeffeteau wrongeth the Pope much in saying that he is called God onely in that sense that Princes are that is to say for ciuill considerations for in all that is abouesaid there is no one thing spoken of ciuill respect all is built vpon consideration of Religion I should haue said against Religion And as little grace hath hee in defending the Popes triple crowne when he is driuen to say that the title of Maiesty is very fit to bee giuen to the holy things For certainly S. Peter was farre more holy then the Pope and consequently ought to haue had the greater Maiesty and yet neyther Peter nor any other Prelate many ages after him did euer weare three crownes or adorned their heads with Diamonds This lustre well becommeth worldly Maiesty but not spirituall holinesse which ought to shine in vertues and not in pretious stones and to appeare rather in Martyrdome then in pompe and to edifie mens hearts in stead of dazeling their eyes yet all the Maiesty of Kings was neuer comparable to this worldlinesse neuer did any of them thinke it fit to weare three Crownes The onely name of this Head-tire teacheth vs what to iudge for in Italy it is called It regno The Kingdome and the booke of holy Ceremonies doth ordinarily so call it to shew that the Pope weareth that Crowne as a King and not as a Bishop or Pastor of the Church The marke of the Bishopricke in the Church of Rome is the Pastorall staffe which they call the Crosier But the Pope carrieth none such as Innocent the third teacheth vs in his first booke of the mysteries of the Masse cap. 42. Because saith he S. Peter sent his Crosier to Eucharius Bishop of Treuers
the Church and the first of all other and this is found in the 16 Session But note that it is not the Councell which speaketh thus but Paschasin deputed from Rome who pleadeth his owne cause and yet this hindred not this Councell from making a Canon expresly declaring and defining that the Bishop of Constantinople is equall with him of Rome in all things yea euen in causes Ecclesiasticall the Canon hath beene produced by vs before He further saith that Irenaeus chap. 3. lib. 3. doth attribute vnto the Church of Rome a principality more powerfull thē vnto others which is most false and an euident corruption of the place Irenaeus speaketh of the principality and power of the city for being the seate of the Empire the faithfull of all Churches had necessary occasions to repaire thither The words are these Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem conuenire c. Ecclesiam vnto this Church by reason of the more mighty principality it is necessary that euery Church should resort As if I should say that all the Churches of France should come to that of Paris because there is the principality and power of the Realme and yet can I not for all this say that the faithfull ministers of the Church of Paris haue a principality ouer the rest Saint Cyprian in the third Epistle of his first booke doth directly call the Church of Rome the principall Church because in all the West there was no Church so great or so remarkable as it He saith that the vnity of Priesthood came from thence because his opinion was Hoc crant vtique caeteri Apostoli quod Petrus pari consortio honoris potestatis sed exordium ab vnitate proficisc it ur vt Ecclesia vna monstretur that albeit the Apostles were all equall in power and honour yet S. Peter was entertained into his charge some small time before the other Apostles Iesus Christ hauing a determination to begin from one to the end to shew the vnity of the Church as he saith in his treatise of the simplicity of Prelates He beleeued then that S. Peter who for a season held the sacerdo tall dignity alone to testifie the vnity of the Church had beene at Rome and that from thence Christiā religion spred it selfe into the West Now in this Cyprian goeth about to soften and to gratifie the Bishop of Rome to the end to prepare him the better to taste and to brooke the checkes and reproofes which afterwards he adioyneth whereby he proueth to Cornelius that he hath no power at all ouer Affricke and that he neither could nor ought to receiue the causes of those whom the Bishops of Affricke had condemned for saith he presently after seeing it is ordered among vs all and that it is a thing iust and reasonable that euery mans cause should be examined where the crime was committed and that vnto euery Pastor there is allotted a portion of the flocke which each one ought to gouerne and leade as being to render an account vnto the Lord of his carriage and behauiour there is no reason that those whom we guide should runne from one place to another and through their fraudulent rashnesse seeke to breake the concord of Bishops friendly knit together but that they should there pleade their causes where they may haue accusers and witnesses of their crimes lest it fall out that some desperate and forlorne persons should thinke that the authority of the Bishops of Affricke who haue condemned them should be lesse then others their cause hath beene alreadie examined the sentence hath beene alreadie pronounced To conclude he maintaineth that Cornelius may not take knowledge of any causes determined by the Bishops of Affrica without accusing them of lightnesse and vustaydnesse and so trouble the peace and quiet of the Church This is the cause that made Cyprian to gild his pill to extol the dignity of the Church of Rome before he would shew him that he ought not to thrust himselfe into the affaires of other Churches For it is diligently to be noted that those among the ancient Fathers that affirme that the Bishop of Rome is successour to Peter doe thereby vnderstand that he is successour in the charge of Bishop of Rome but not in the Apostleship After this sort also the Bishops of Ephesus were successors to S. Iohn and S. Paul the Bishops of Ierusalem successors to S. Iames so farre as these Apostles were Bishops of Ephesus and Ierusalem but they neuer were successors to the Apostleship and to the gouernment of the Church Vniuersall Nor is there any reason why the Bishop of Rome should be successor to Peter in his Apostleship and yet the Bishop of Ierusalem should be onely successor to S. Iames in his Bishoppricke Besides the Bishop of Antioch more auncient then the Bishop of Rome hath alwaies beene called the successor of S. Peter and why should it not be aswell in the Apostleship and gouernment of the Vniuersall Church If you will say that Peter hath taken away the prerogatiue and preheminence from Antioch and hath transported it to Rome we vtterly deny it and thereof no proofe worthy the receiuing can be brought If they further say that Peter dyed at Rome I will also say that Iesus Christ dyed at Ierusalem And why should not Christ his death at Ierusalem haue in it more power and vertue to make the Bishop of Ierusalem chiefe of the Church then the death of S. Peter at Rome to conferre this great dignity vpon the Bishop of Rome I leaue it likewise to the Readers to iudge who after the death of Peter ought of right to bee the chiefe of the Vniuersall Church For S. Iames liued yet at Ierusalem after S. Peter was dead And the Apostle S. Iohn out-liued him 32 yeares Eusebius in his Chronicle saith that Peter and Paul died the yeare of our Lord 69. and that S. Iohn dyed at Ephesus in the yeare 101. according to the accompt of Eusebius and Irenaeus Is it a thing to bee beleeued that S. Iohn the Disciple whom Iesus loued who leaned on his breast vnto whom he recommended his mother at his death whose writings are diuine oracles as the Reuelations in the Apocalips doe witnes that he should bee inferior to Linus the Disciple of Paul and indeed our aduer saries themselues haue inserred into the first Tome of their Councels certaine Epistles which they say were Clements Bishoppe of Rome amongst which there is one to S. Iames Bishop of Ierusalem and thus it beginneth Clemens to Iames brother of the Lord Bishop of Bishops gouerning the holy Church of the Hebrewes which is in Ierusalem Clemens Iacobo fratri Domini Episcopo Episcoporum yea all the Churches which are founded euery where by the prouidence of God And a little after hee calleth him his Lord words which witnesse that Clemens acknowledged Iames for his superior and chiefe of all
course But to this I reply that for this opposition he was forged both to forsake England and quit his Bishopricke The contradiction of one of the Popes pensionary Prelates opposing his Soueraigne is of small moment in this behalfe for Anselme was accounted the Popes not the Kings subiect Nor is it any greater wonder if Mathew Paris who so often magnifies this King Henry doe now and then cast some imputation vpon him in as much as he was a superstitious Monke and liued soone after who in euery passage complaining of the tyrannie and exactions of the Popes doth yet sometimes restrain himselfe for some idle respects in which he oftener gropes for the truth then he doth see or finde it We must also obserue that the principall quarrell betweene the King of England and the Pope being for inuesting men with spirituall promotions the Pope hath bestowed very glorious Titles on those persons that suffered for this quarrell as if he should write Rubarbe vpon a pot of Rats-bane So hath he placed this Anselme in the Kalender of Saints and Confessours and Thomas of Canterbury in the Catalogue of Martyrs that lost his life not for the profession of the Gospell but for a Controuersie of Prebends and the right of Inuestiture Coeffeteau doth here adde That the Kings of England in the matter of ordination of Priests haue neuer violated the Discipline of the Church The King of England alleadgeth these and many other examples of like nature And I suppose that hee had not vouchsafed the reading of the booke against which he writes For the Kings book saith that Henry the first inuested an Archbishop in his Archbishopricke with his Ringe and Crosier-staffe without the Popes leaue which is flat repugnant to the discipline of the Church of Rome Fol. 15. pag. 1 And besides the now Pope Paul the fift doth pretend that the Venetians in punishing the criminall offences of their Clergy doe derogate from the liberty of the Church Edward then the first and second by inflicting corporall punishment vpon the Clergy that would hold a dependancy from the Pope haue by this reckoning derogated from the liberty of the Church To conclude our Doctor sayth that Henry the first did in other things submit himselfe to the lawes of the Church that in the Records of England most of the monuments speake of yeelding obedience to the See Apostolique that his Maiestie embraceth a Religion which his Predecessors neuer possessed but haue euer acknowledged the authority of Rome in all matters depending vpon matter of conscience First I answere that this is to wander from the question for heere is nothing questioned but the Popes Supremacy ouer Kings in matters temporall Secondly that barely to affirme and to confirme nothing especially writing against a King doth eyther discouer much weakenesse or argue ouer-much neglect and indeede his whole allegation is vntrue Concerning Henry the first I confesse that he ascribed too much honour to the Church of Rome for he liued in a dark ignorant age and in the height of the Popes tyranny to which England of all Countries was most enthralled which cannot bee proued of the times more auncient It may well appeare that the Citie of Rome being the seat of the Empire was by consequent the resort of all nations by which meanes the Church of that citie how poore and miserable soeuer might haue aduertisements from all parties and haue intelligence with all the Churches within the Empire and consequently which is the Church of great Brittaine which was originally planted by some of S Iohn Disciples that came thither out of Asia whereof we haue this proofe that euen to the time of August which was sent into England by Gregogorie the first about the yere 596. the Church of the Iland did keepe the feast of Easter according to the custome of Asia vpon the 14. day of the month which if it had beene vnder the iurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome no question but it had abrogated that custome when Victor in the yeare 200. did excommunicate the Churches which made any precise obseruation of the 14. day Helene mother vnto Constantine was of the Iland and held no points of Papistrie maintained at this day Pelagius was also of this Iland and sauing the points of free will and originall sinne dissented not in any opinions from S. Angustine Now S. Angustine receiued no Popish opinions now defended as we haue proued in the 20. chapter of my booke of the Eucharist in another place In the twenty Chapter of my booke of the Eucharist Pontificus Verumnius lib. 4. Jo. Lelandus that he died excommunicate from the Church of Rome The first Christian King of great Brittaine that can be remembred was Lucius that possessed a part of the Iland in the time of Marcus Aurelius who questionlesse had commerce with the Bishop of Rome for he had beene at Rome and held correspondence with the Emperour but that he should be subiect to the Bishop of Rome or acknowledge him the head of the Vniuersal Church admits no manner of proofe In the yeare of our Lord 530. that Warlike Prince Arthur raigned in great Britaine of whom being a Christian it doth not appeare that eyther he depended vpon the Bishops of Rome or that they intermedled in the election or inuesting of the Britaine Bishops during the raigne of Arthur or his Successors In the yeare 596. soone after that the English Saxons being Almaines and at that time Infidels had inuaded Britaine then did Gregory the first send Austen into this Iland a man full of faction and arrogancy to plant the Christian faith although the Christian Religion had beene planted here more then foure hundred yeares before But by the Christian faith these men doe now vnderstand the authority of the Pope This Austen was strongly and stoutly opposed by the Christians of that Countrey who refused to change their auncient forme of Religion which they had receiued from such as were Disciples to the Apostles They had seuen Bishopricks and one Archbishopricke the seat whereof being first errected at Carleon was afterward translated to S. Dauids as it is recorded by Rainulphus Cestrensis lib. 1. cap. 52. for the Archbishop of London was of a later foundation besides they had a Colledge of 2100. religious persons at Bangor who about the yeare 550. when the Order of S. Benet began to flourish in this I le were called by the new name of Monkes Men that adicting themselues to the study of Diuinity got their liuing by the labour of their handes not being tyed to the rigorous obseruation of a Vow whereunto no man by the ancient Order of S. Benet is obliged This Austen then found meanes to insinuate himselfe into the familiar acquaintance of one of the petty Kings of the Countrey called Ethelfred King of Northumberland who was an enemy to the auncient Christians of that land and had inuaded their Countrey and wasted many Churches with this Austen then
the Host to be vsed at the Masse 15. Or that the auncient Church hath held the bookes of Machabees for Canonicall 16. Or that the auncient Church hath beleeued that the Bishop of Rome cannot erre in faith 17. Or that the auncient Church hath beleeued that Iesus Christ by his death and sufferinges did clearely discharge vs of the paine and punishment of the sinnes that went before baptisme But as touching the paine of the sinnes committed after baptisme he hath onely changed it from eternall to temporall and that it lyeth in vs to satisfie the iustice of God for the same which is indeede the most important point of all Christian religion For he that would descend to smaller things and demaund of Coeffeteau if in any of the auncients there be mention made of Iubilees of Agnus Dei or holy Graines consecrated Medals of Cordelier-Friars or Iacobins or Iesuites and an infinite sort of religions and new deuotions I beleeue he would finde himselfe terribly puzled In all this as in those other seauenteene points before handled they receiue not the Fathers for Iudges Those auncient Doctors were not yet arriued to any so high point of learning But these messieurs our masters supply and support their ignorance in these matters In other controuersies they admit and receiue the Fathers for Iudges but with this caution and condition that themselues may be Iudges of the Fathers They allow the auncients to be interpreters of the Scriptures But themselues will be the interpreters of the auncients to the end to make them speake thinges contrary to the Scriptures ARTICLE IIII. Touching the authority of the holy Scriptures The KINGS Confession I Thinke also that no man doubteth but that I settle my faith and beleefe vpon the holy Scriptures according to the duty of a Christian Hereat Coeffeteau holdeth his peace and by his silence approueth the confession of the King of England For he doth not allow of the blasphemies which his companions disgorge against the sacred bookes of the word of God He hath not dared to say with Bellarmine Bellar. lib. 4. de verbo non scripto cap. 12. §. Respondeo Scripturae finem propriū praecipuum nō esse vt esset Regula Fidei Dico secundo Scripturam esseregulam Fidei nō totalem sed partialem that the Scripture is but a peece of a Rule and not the whole entire Rule of faith And that it was not properly made to bee the Rule of our faith It may be also that he doth not approue of Bellarmines saying who in his fourth Chapter of the fourth Booke of the word not written saith * Quarto Necesse nosse extare aliquos libros verè diuines quod certè ex sacris Scripturis haheri nullo modo possunt c. that a man cannot know by the testimony of the Scripture that there be any bookes of diuine inspiration albeit the Scripture doth say it and his reason is Because we reade aswell in the Alcoran of Mahomet that the Alcoran was sent from heauen It may be also that Coeffeteau hath not dared in this place to vse the tearmes of Doctor Charron in his booke called La troisiesme veritè where he saith that the Scripture is a Forrest to forrage in where Atheists lie in ambushments and that by reading it a man becommeth an Atheist Thou beleeuest saith he because thou readest so thou art not then a Christian It is cleare then that his Maiesty of England doth yeeld a thousand times more respect to the holy Scriptures then the Church of Rome or the Councel of Trent which ordaineth in the fourth Session that Traditions be receiued with like affection of piety and reuerence with the holy Scripture equalling mens Traditions with Gods diuine ordinances For the Pope hath letters of credit And we must presuppose that besides the new-Testament Iesus Christ hath made a Codicill or little booke which the Pope hath in his priuate custody whence hee draweth the ordinances that are not contained in the Scripture Yet this is but little For Bellarmine goeth farther and saith that Sunt quaedam Traditiones maiores quod ad obligationem quà m quaedam Scripturae That there are some traditions greater in respect of obligation then some partes of Scripture That is to say to which we are more bound to adhere Hauing good hope that in the end we shall see God to become Disciple to the Bishop of Rome ART V. Touching the Canonicall and Apocryphall bookes of Scripture The KINGS Confession In exposit Symboli BVt euen for the Apocrypha I hold them in the same account that the Auncients did They are still printed and bound with our Bibles and publikely read in our Churches I reuerence them as the writings of holy and good men but since they are not found in the Canon we account them to be secundae lectionis or ordinis which is Bellarmines owne distinction and therefore not sufficient whereupon alone to ground any article of faith except it be confirmed by some other place of Canonicall Scripture Concluding this point with Ruffinus who is no Nouelist I hope that the Apocryphall bookes were by the Fathers permitted to be read not for confirmation of Doctrine but only for instruction of the people Here Coeffeteau begins to put himselfe into the field In exposit Symb. we expected him long agoe He bringeth only two testimonies of the auncients and they are both false howbeit not through his fault for the falsification was made by others before him The first testimony is of S. Austen in his second booke of Christian Doctrine cap. 8. where he maketh an enumeration of the Canonical bookes almost agreeably to the Councell of Trent To this testimony hee adioyneth the third Councell of Carthage which also putteth Iudith Tobie the booke of Wisedome Ecclesiasticus and the Machabees among the Canonicall bookes He saith that it is not iust nor fit to alleage the opinions of particulars where question is of the publike faith testified auouched by this Councell In saying so little as this he spendeth three leaues Answere and yet he contradicteth himselfe and condemneth himselfe of iniustice by alleaging S. Austin who is but one particular If he say that S. Austin doth but report that which was the common beleefe I answere that those particular witnesses whom he reiecteth doe report the same also Againe * Tenebit hunc modum in Scripturis Canonicis vt eas quae ab om nibus recipiuntu Ecclesijs Catholicis praeponat eis quas quaedam non accipiunt it is false that S. Austen doth relate the common beleefe for a little before he had said that there are some books among the Canonicall which were not receiued for such of al the Churches Moreouer Coeffeteau hereby contradicteth the Church of Rome who doth not hold the Councels of Carthage for generall Councels nor their Canons for the publike beleefe of the vniuersall Church 1. To cleare this matter then the
Reader shall obserue first that these bookes to wit Tobie Iudith the booke of Wisdome Ecclesiasticus the Machabees they are not found in the Hebrew tongue and consequently they are not in the originall of the old Testament wherein there are but two and twenty bookes 2. Secondly we ought also to know that the Church of the old Testament neuer acknowledged these bookes nor receiued into the Church See Eusebius lib. 8. of his Storie cap. 10 as witnesseth Iosephus in his first booke against Appion 3. Thirdly it is also very considerable that Iesus Christ nor his Apostles who alleaged vpon euery purpose Texts and passages out of the old Testament neuer named any of those bookes nor neuer drew quotation out of any of them 4. Fourthly the chiefe and principall is that in these bookes there be many faults aswell in the Doctrine as in the Storie whereof * In my booke intituled the waters of Siloé cap. 6. we haue elsewhere produced many proofes But let vs heare the testimony of the auncients S. Hierome in his preface vpon the bookes of Salomon speaketh of Ecclesiasticus and of the wisdome of Salomon a Sicut ergo Iudith Tobie Machabaeorum libros legit quideÌ„ Ecclesia sed eos inter Canonicas Scripturas noÌ„ recipit Sic haec duo volumina legat ad aedificationem plâ—bis non ad authoritatem Christianorum dogmatum confirmandam As then the Church doth reade indeede the bookes of Iudith of Tobie and the Machabees but doth not receiue them among the Canonicall Scriptures so let it also reade these two volumes for the edification of the people but not to confirme the faith of the Church He saith the same in his Prologus Galcatus and marke by the way that he saith that it is the beleefe of the Church Sciendum tamen est quod alij libri sunt qui non Canonici sed Ecclesiastici a maioribus appellati sunt vt est SapieÌ„tia Solomonis Ecclesiasticus libellus Tobiae Iudith macabaeo rumâ—libri quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesiis voluerunt non tamen proferri ad authoritatem ex his fidei confirmandam Praeter istos sunt adâ—uc alij eius dem veteris instrumenti libri non Cononici qui Catechumenis tantum leguntur Sapientia Solomonis c. Amongst the workes of S. Cyprian there is a Treatise which seemeth rather to be the worke of Ruffinus touching the exposition of the Creede There he reckoneth vp the bookes of the old and the new Testament Then he addeth * These are then the bookes which the Fathers haue included in the Cannon or Rule and from which are drawne the proofs of our faith Notwithstanding we must know that there are other bookes which the auncients haue not called Canonicall but Ecclesiasticall bookes as is the wisdome of Salomon Ecclesiasticus Tobie Iudith and the bookes of the Machabees Then he addeth All which they would should be reade in the Church but that they should not be produced to confirme the authority of the faith S. Athanasius in his booke intituled Synopsis nameth al the bookes of the old Testament according to the Hebrew Bible Then he addeth Besides these there are yet other bookes of the old Testament not Canonicall which are not read but to the Catechumeni or Nouices newly taught and catechized such are the wisdome of Salomon the wisdome of Iesus the Sonne of Syrach Iudith Tobit c. Melito Bishop of Sardi as witnesseth Eusebius in his fourth booke of his Hystorie and the fiue and twentith Chapter Origen in Eusebius sixt booke and foure and twentieth chapter S. Hilary in his Preface vpon the Psalter S. Gregory Nazianzen in his verses of the holy Scripture Eusebius lib. 3. of his story cap. 10. Epiphanius in his booke of measures Damascene himselfe though long after in his fourth booke of the Orthodoxe faith cap. 18. And diuers other Fathers make an enumeration of the bookes of the olde Testament and yet do they not put in neyther Iudith nor Tobite nor Ecclesiasticus nor the booke of VVisedome nor the Maccabees But rather all with one consent and accord say that there are but two and twenty bookes in the olde Testament as many as there bee letters in the Hebrew Alphabet And yet further to conuince Coeffeteau let vs heare the very iudgement of him whom they most honour of all the Popes And this is Gregorie the first in his twenty sixe booke of morals vpon Iob cap. 29. where being desirous to alleadge the booke of Maccabees in the fact of Eleazar he excuseth himselfe in these wordes Of which thing we speake not out of reason Qua de re non inordinatè agimus si ex libris si non Canonicis sed ad Ecclesiae aedificationem scriptis testimonia proferimus if we produce the testimonies of bookes not Canonicall but written for the edification of the Church This ought to suffice to represent what was the heleefe of particular men who being assembled together are equiualent to a generallity Howbeit for the more store and the better supply let vs heare the Councels The Councell of Laodicea which was almost about the same time with the first Nicene Councell setteth ouer the last Canon this inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say How many bookes there be of the olde Testament that men ought to reade Then it reckoneth vp the number of them as farre as two and twentie Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers Deuteronomie Ioshua Iudges Ruth Hester the Kings or Samuel two bookes of Kings two bookes Paralipomena or the Chronicles Esdras Psalmes Prouerbs Ecclesiastes Canticles Iob the twelue Prophets Esay Ieremy Baruch or the Lamentations and Epistles Ezechiel Daniel But of Tobie or Iudith or the Maccabees c. there is no newes Aboue all it is a thing to be be noted that this Councell of Laodicea is confirmed by the sixt generall Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of which Councell the Fathers assembled together in the Palace made one hundred and three Canons in the second of which it is said We doe confirme and ratifie the sacred Canons made by our holy Fathers at Laodicea of Phrygia And this was now in the yeare of Iesus Christ 684. I adde the fourth Councell of Carthage which in the Tomes of the Latin Councels which are horribly mangled and falsified hath beene very ill handled For we haue not these Councels in Latine but by the meanes of the Church of Rome who hath deliuered them vnto vs such as she would her selfe But she hath not had that power ouer the Greek Coppies where there is no speech at all of the Maccabees Reade the Greeke Canons of the Councels printed at Paris in the yeare 1540. with a Praeface of Iohn du Tillet and the Canons of Balsamon and you shall finde that which I say to be true But Coeffeteau being content to write as Hunters breake their Fast that is
tanquam discipulos immitatores Domini diligimus which thing was done without any precise necessity of making it holy-day Secondly he doth malitiously dissemble the excellent words which goe before where the Church of Smyrnaspeaketh in this manner They are ignorant that we neuer leaue Christ who died for the saluation of them of the world who are to be saued and that we can yeelde seruice to none other but to him For him we adore as the sonne of God but we loue the Martyrs as his Disciples and imitators Wordes which shew to what end and in what manner the Smyrnians honoured the memory of Polycarpe So is it also falfe that S. Basill recommendeth the Feasts of S. Iulitta and the forty Martyrs for in those two Homilies there is no speech at all of Feasts But the falfest peece that hee produceth is the Oration of Gregory Nyssene in praise of the Martyr Theodore which was ridiculously framed by some Greeke Monke in the time that the Scythians otherwise called the Huns and Tartars ouer-ran Galatia Cappadocia and Armenia which In Rhodes began in the yeare 520 as both Cedrenus and Zonaras teach Cedrenus in Anastasio Ann. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For about the ende of this Oration the Authour entreateth this Martyr to defend his Countrey against he incursions of the Scythians of which there was neuer word spoken in the time of Gregory Nyssene for they fell out about one hundred and twenty yeares after The whole story also of this Martyr is euedently fabulous The Authour saith that he was of Iobs Country and consequently an Arabian whereas Theodorus is a Greeke name Within a little while after contradicting himselfe he saith that he suffered at Amasia a Cittie of Cappadocia and that the place of his death was also his Countrey He saith that he was a Souldier in the Romane bandes But at that time to wit vnder Dioclesian and Maximinian the Romanes did not entertaine the Arabians in seruice Moreouer the Story of his Martyrdome is plainely fabulous Being interrogated and examined by his Paynim Iudges with all gentlenesse and mildenes he answered at the first day with iniurious speeches comparing the Godddesse whom they serued to an hare or to a sow All this notwithstanding the Iudges sent him away and gaue him time to bethinke himselfe aduisedly he in stead of retracting any thing set fire on the great Temple of the mother of the Gods and being called for againe by the Iudges confessed the fact thereupon the Iudges flatter him euen so far as to promise to this simple souldier which was a ridiculous thing to make him Bishoppe But this Theodore burst out a laughing for a long time together mocking for that the Emperours tooke vpon them the title and purple of Bishops The Angels singe melodiously with him in prison and lighten all the Towne ouer with Torches But he that knoweth how vnder Dioclesian they burnt whole Christian Townes without any forme of processe and that this monster made a butchery a slaughter and channell-house of the whole Empire will acknowledge the falshood of this Story which hath beene forged by some worshipper of Images and Reliques about the time of the second Councell of Nice I put not in among his falsifications that Coeffeteau hath put in the margent the eighteenth Oration of Nazianzene for the fifteenth hee that borroweth his Allegations and writeth vpon trust is easily deceiued Now to his falshoods let vs adde the vnprofitablenesse of his impertinent quotations which surely doe not touch the Question For if the Church of Smyrna did celebrate the feast of Polycarpe or the Church of Caesaria that of S. Iulitta what is that to England who did no more then then nowadayes it doth celebrate those Feasts no more then doe the Churches of Spaine or of Fraunce And why should England be more bound therevnto now at this day Secondly to what purpose is it to speake of the Feasts of the auncient Christians and of the solemnity of the Martyrs to establish the Feasts of the Church of Rome which are cleane different and haue no community with them See here the differences 1 This commemoration of the Martyrs in the auncient Church was done in the Church-yards and vpon the Tombes Vpon which the Christians did often celebrate * Thence commeth the custome of the Church of Rome to haue bones hid vnder the Altar Nonne vides ad memorias Martyrum CristianuÌ„ a Christiano cogi ad ebrietatem the Eucharist and then fell to banquet vpon the same Tombes where oftentimes the Christians committed many abuses and excesses euen so farre as to drinke drunke and to bury their reason vpon those Sepulchres as witnesseth the Authour of the booke of Double Martyrdome attributed to S. Cyprian and S. Austin in his first booke of the manners of the Catholicke Church cap. 34. And against * Qui in memorijs Martyrum inebriantur c. Faustus Manicheus in his twentieth booke chap. 1. where namely he saith that he was constrained to tolerate this custome The Church of Rome hath left this abuse of the auncient Feasts 2 The commemoration of the Martyrs was done in times past in euery Church according to the ordinance and appointment of the Bishoppes and Pastors of the place without attending the commandement or aduise of the Bishop of Rome thereupon In the booke of the holy Ceremonies lib. 1. Sect. 6. who at that time did not Canonize Saints For now-adayes to be held a Saint a man must haue the Pope to bee fauourable vnto him and his cause must be pleaded in the Consistorie If it be iudged that he ought to be acknowledged for a Saint then his Holinesse doth ordaine a Feast or Holy-day to this new Saint 3 Then this solemnity carried with it an Anniuersary commemoration but did not bring with it any necessity of keeping Holy-day whereas now-adayes there be many Saints Feasts which they keepe Holy-day with more scruple and are celebrated with more solemnity then the Sunday it selfe 4 Againe then these dayes of commemoration of Martyrs were few in number in stead that now there is scarcely any day in the Calender which doth not carry the name of some Saint And there is such a number of Feasts to be kept holy that many poore people crie out they are famished They make them deuout whether they will or noe for they be kept and hindered by this superstition from working to get bread for their children hauing their handes bound with a scrupulous slothfulnesse and a forced idlenesse Epist 174. Nouam inducendo Celebritatem quam ritus Ecclesiae nescit non probat ratâ—o non commeâ—dat antiqua Traditio c. 5 Then also men were ignorant of so many new-made holy-dayes as the feast of the conception of the Virgine Mary which S. Bernard saith to haue beene instituted against reason and the auncient Tradition the Feast of the Assumption the Feast of S Peters Chaire the Gods feast otherwise
see more eloquence then diuinity and we will no other proofe hereof then that place which saith that the Martyrs if there remained any sinnes vnto them they purged them by their bloud what is there lesse agreeing with the Gospell then to thinke that any Martyrs haue beene without sinne and that which is worse that a man may wash away and blot out his sinnes by his owne blood For the holy scripture doth giue vs no other labor for our sinnes then the blood of Iesus Christ Apoc 1.5 To Iesus who hath loued vs and hath wasted away our sinnes by his blood And in the 7. Chapter The Saints do wash their garments in the blood of the lambe and to the end that no man should deuise any other clensing Jdeo ad Regem per tribunos aut Cometos itur quia homo vtique est Rex nescit quibus debeat Remp. credere Ad Deum autē promerendum saffragatore non opus estsed mente deuota Saint Iohn 1. Epist 1. saith that the blood of Iesus Christ doth clense vs from ALL sinne yea Saint Ambrose himselfe hath not perseuered in this error But vpon the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romanes he disputeth against those who said that they did as those who goe to the King by his offices and hee calleth it a miserable excuse and addeth Therefore men goe to a King by his Collonells and Nobles because the King is a man and knoweth not to whom to commit the Common-weale But to be receiued into grace and fauour with God we need no spokesman but onely a deuout Spirit Himselfe in the oration vpon the death of Theodosius Et tamen tu solus Domine inuocandus es tu rogandus Thou ONELY O Lord oughtest to be inuocated and prayed vnto Let this be noted in generall vpon all the passages that the King of great Britaine demaunded authorities from the first fower ages But all these allegations are but about the end of the fourth age we must then helpe Coeffeteaus memorie and bring him a little higher In the first age we haue the Apostles who did not only not inuocate the Virgin Mary nor any other of the Saints deceased But who doe expresly forbid vs to inuocate any other then God alone 1 S. Paul Rom. 10. How shall they cal vpon him in whom they haue not beleeued He is of opinion then that a man cannot call vpon any but him in whom he beleeueth Now we beleeue in God onely The Creede doth teach vs to beleeue in the Father and in the sonne and in the holy Chost but not to beleeue in any creature And Iesus Christ Ioh. 14.1 You beleeue in God beleeue also in me If any man will here bring forth vnto vs two sortes of Religious worship he must be pleased to proue them vnto vs by the word of God 2 The same Apostle Rom. 14.23 sayth that whatsoeuer is done without faith is sinne And cap. 10. he saith that faith commeth by hearing the word of God Prayer therefore to Saints being not founded vpon the word of God it is without faith and consequently is sinne 3 S. Peter Act. 1. calleth God searcher of the hearts agreeable to that which Salomon saith 2. Chr. 6.30 that God ONLY knoweth the hearts of men If then the Saints know not our hearts what an abuse is it to call vpon them Must a man cry high And how shall they know whether thou be an hypocrite or no If it be so that they see all things in the face of God as some say then should they haue an infinite knowledge and by consequent should be infinite and should know the day of iudgement * marc 13. which is vnknowne to them And their spirit in one onely moment should apprehend and behold infinite diuersity of things which is a thing incompatible with the nature of the creature whose life and being and consequently whose actions are fleeting by acontinuall succession of parts That is to say that as the parts of their duration succeede one another so their thoughts and action successiuely follow one another They doe not then apprehend infinite things in one moment Thus is their imaginary looking-glasse broken wherin nothing doth appeare but the temerity of these men who affirme things that they cannot know who speake of heauen and yet haue their nose in the ground describing what is done there as if they came but lately from thence I further adde that this is greatly to trouble the felicity of the Saints to make them spectators of mens affaires An holy woman that inioyeth the glory of heauen would she no feele an extreame greefe if she beheld from heauen one of her children tormented in Hell another broken vpon the wheele at the Greue in Paris another giuen to Art-magicke or bowing his knee before an Image or adoring a God made and set vp by men 4 The Apostle S. Paul 1. Tim 2. There is one God and one Mediator betweene God and men the man Christ Iesus In the Greeke it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnicus Deus vnicus mediator Seeing that these things are thus coupled together it is certain that as there is but one God so is there but one Mediator It is a coy nicenesse to say that he is the only Mediator of Redemption but not of Intercession But this distinction is not found in the Gospell and indeede it doth contradict it selfe for Iesus Christ is not the mediator of intercession but so farre forth as he is our Redeemer whence it followeth that in Iesus Christ to be mediator of redemption and mediator of intercession is one and the same thing And that which is more the same Apostle Rom. 8. doth teach vs that euen as touching the intercession he is our onely mediator For he saith Christ is he who died nay rather who is risen againe who also is set at the right hand of God who maketh request for vs. Now he died onely for vs he rose onely for our sakes and onely is set downe at the right hand of God and he alone then also it is which maketh request for vs for the course of the wordes and the drift of the place doth necessarily so require it And that which is more by this Distinction they condemne the Church of Rome who maketh Saints also to bee mediatours of Redemption as Bellarmine teacheth in the fourth Chapter of his first booke of Indulgences and indeede the Church of Rome doth holde that their sufferings doe turne to our aduantage and the Priest in the Masse doth euery day craue saluation of God not onely for their prayers but also for their merites as if by their good workes they had merited saluation Quorum precibus meritisque rogamus c. and the grace of God for vs Let a man read all the Letanies and publicke prayers of the Church of Rome and he shall finde that they say Petre Ora pro nobis S. Nicholae Ora pro
which did neyther sweat nor suffer Which of these two was our Sauiour If hee bee but one how is he contrary to himselfe For we haue shewed else where that the Distinction of diuers respects cannot be but when onething is compared to diuers things at one time as when one and the same man is poore and rich little and great in comparison of diuers persons But here they apply these diuers respects to the body of Iesus Christ without comparing him to any other body nay they oppose him to himselfe That I may not further say that this doctrine doth annihilate the body of our Lord by being receiued into the stomacke for when the formes are altered in the stomacke by the digestion they say that the body of the Lord is no longer there neyther yet is it come forth it must follow then that eyther it is reduced to nothing or changed into something else Both the one and the other are alike blasphemous ARTICLE XII Touching the Adoration of the Host THe Confession of the Kings Booke doth place among the new inuentions of the Church of Rome The Adoration of the Host and the Eleuation which is made to haue it adored This poynt is important and which doth surprise our spirits with a heauinesse mixt with horrour when at the sound of a little Bell the Priest lifteth vp the breade and euery man prostrateth himselfe to adore it Or when the people doth not let to kneele in the dyrt to adore their God which passeth along the street inclosed in a Pixe or Boxe It had beene greatly therefore to haue beene wished that Coeffeteau could haue produced some commandement of God for the same or some example of the Apostles but that could he not doe neyther hath any man done it hithervnto He commeth therefore to the Fathers and produceth for the same three passages the one of Chrysostome in his foure and twentieth Homily vpon the first to the Corinth the other of S. Ambrose in his third booke of the Sacraments chap. 12. And the last of S. Austin vpon the foure-score and eighteene Psalme All three exhort the faithful to adore the flesh of Iesus Christ and that which is more to adore him in the Eucharist Neuer did man more abuse his Reader and he seemeth to thinke that we are beside our selues for is there any thing in all this which we doe not willingly graunt him Is there any amongst vs who hath euer denied that wee ought not to adore the flesh of Iesus Christ Yea who hath euer doubted that we ought not to adore him in the Eucharist Ought not God the Father also to be adored And what is this to the purpose to inclose Iesus Christ vnder formes He that doth adore Iesus Christ in the Eucharist doth not for al that adore that which the Priest holdeth in his hand but he adoreth Iesus Christ which is in heauen Of these three places that which our aduersaries doe most presse is the place of S. Austin vpon the foure-score and eyghteene Psalme where hee saith that no man doth eate this flesh vnlesse hee haue first adored it Nemo carnem illam manducat nisi prius adorauerit An excellent passage For doth not S. Austin speake of the true and serious adoration Iudas then did not eate this flesh for he did not adore it According to this rule the Hypocrites who partake of the Sacrament doe not eate the flesh of the Lord for they doe not adore it Now what it is to eate the flesh of the Lord himselfe hath tolde vs as hath beene before alleadged Lib. 3. de Doctr. Christ cap 16. That to eate his flesh is a figure which signifieth to communicate of his passion and to meditate thereof in our memories And as he speaketh in his twenty sixe Tract vpon S. Iohn To beleeue in him is to eate the bread of life Credere in eum hoc est manducare panem vivumâ—qui credit in eum manducat eum he that doth beleeue in him doth eate him We hoped then that Coeffeteau would here haue produced the publique customes to shewe that it was then the custome to adore the Host which the Priest doth holde vp with diuine worship called Latria but he hath not beene able to finde any Dionysius who in his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy discribeth very exactly the forme of the publique seruice which was some foure hundred yeares after Iesus Christ and the Apostolical constitutions of Clement where all the Ceremony of that time is depainted and the auncient Liturgies howsoeuer fouly falsified doe in no wise speake of this adoration of the Host Theodoret saith indeede that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the signes are reuerenced This word Signes sheweth sufficiently that he doth not speake of diuine adoration which they call Cultus Latriae For that should be impiety ARTICLE XIII Touching the Eleuation of the Host to haue it to be Adored THe King of great Britaine demaunded proofes out of the fiue first ages or first fiue hundred yeares after Christ that is to say aswell Scripture as the auncient Doctors by which it might appeare that Iesus Christ or his Apostles made eleuation of the host Hereat Coeffeteau holdeth his peace Fol. 50. pag. 2. and in stead thereof saith that the auncient Church did shew the mysteries or sacraments to the people by drawing a Vaile or Curtaine from before the Table which is true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and he hath learned that out of my booke of the Apology of the Lords Supper Chrysostome in his third Homily vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians When thou shalt see the double Curtaines to be drawne then thinke that heauen doth open and inlarge it selfe And Dionysius in his Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy The Bishop discouereth and setteth out to open view the thing celebrated by the signes holily proposed And Basil in like manner in his booke of the holy Ghost Who is it of the Saints who hath left in writing the wordes of the prayer when they shew abroad the bread of the Eucharist and the Cup of blessing This vncouering of the Sacrament was done saith Coeffeteau to cause it to be adored and as he speaketh this without all proofe so doth he it most falsely and was not able to alleadge any one authority where mention is made eyther of the eleuation or of the Adoration of the host but in stead thereof he bringeth certaine passages which speake of the vncouering of the bread and of the drawing of a Curtaine ARTICLE XIIII Touching the carrying of God in the Procession The KINGS Confession Pope Vrbane the fourth instituted this feast in the yeare 1264. THe God-feast or Corpus Christi day and the walking or Circumportation of the Sacrament in procession is of this ranck and the King of great Britaine doth place it among the Nouelties Hereupon Coeffeteau fearing the touch and triall maketh an honest retreat without standing vpon his defence for he onely saith Fol 51
and by these the banke of mony-changers is set vp anew in the Temple which Christ ouerturned And indeede if you should say ten times as many prayers and that with farre more zeale and deuotion in any other Church then where these Indulgences are affixed you should notwithstanding goe without any Pardons for they are fastened to certain places for feare lest these contributions being diuided and passing through many handes would vanish into nothing So that the King of great Britaine doth both iustly and elegantly say that this abuse is rightly called the treasure of the Church Now to proue that the Pope hath intelligence with God and that he hath precisely calculated his reckoning with him hee doeth often limit his Pardons with a subtilty full of merriment As at Paris in the porch of a Chappell belonging to the Friers Feuillands in the Suburbes of St. Honorius there is a long list of Pardons to bee seene which among other things tell vs that on euery day of Lent a Pardon may be obteyned for three thousand eight hundred three score and seuen yeares and two hundred and seuen quarentaines of dayes there are many of the same stampe But I long much to know that if a man some few dayes before the day of iudgement should get a hundreth thousand yeares of Pardon whether these Pardons should any thing auaile him Againe if a man needing a Pardon but for ten thousand yeares should obtaine a Pardon for a hundred thousand what should become of the other fourescore and ten thousand but aboue all the rest it is a point furmounting our capacity how these Pardons that doe plenarily forgiue all sinnes and should besides remit a third part of a mans sinnes and yet further giue another eighteene thousand yeares of Pardon as if one should say that the Pope pardoneth all our sinnes and many of our sinnes besides It makes me also to wonder very often why the people doe so zealously flocke to the Iubile at Rome seeing they may as easily and at all times obtaine a plenary Pardon for all their sinnes I forbeare at this time to iudge bad I speake it with greefe and with commiseration whether in this whole Argument there be any the least footestep of Christian Religion to be discerned or whether coueteous gaine did euer trample godlinesse vnder foote in a viler manner ARTICLE XVI Of the baptising of Bels. The KINGS Confession THe King of great Britaine proceedeth to these wordes The baptising of Bels and a thousand other trickes But aboue all the worshipping of Images If my faith bee weake in these I confesse I had rather beleeue too little then too much And yet since I beleeue as much as the Scriptures doe warrant the Creedes doe perswade and the auncient Councels decreede I may well bee a Schismaticke from Rome but I am sure I am no Hereticke Mr. Coeffeteau answers Fol 51. that it is no baptisme that they giue vnto Bels but onely a plaine blessing which notwithstanding the common people do call baptisme for the resemblance of some Ceremonies therein but it is not of simple people but of learned men that we must learne the beleefe of the Church The Answere This answere of M. Coeffeteau is more mannerly then that of Cardinall Bellarmines who writing against his Maiesties booke tels the King that it is an impudent slaunder he might haue spoken more ciuilly to a King for if we wrong them in calling their consecration and benediction of bels by the name of baptisme this imputation should be laid vpon the people of the Romish Church which haue so named it or rather vpon their Bishops and Priests that by a Player-like prophanation haue practised the same Ceremonies vpon bels and gallies which they vse in baptisme for in the blessing and exorcising of a bell they giue him god-fathers and god-mothers which holde the rope in their handes the Suffragan asketh certaine questions of the bell they cloth him in white sprinkle him with holy water and salt the Bishop or his Suffragan annoints him with oyle with many signes of the Crosse praying God that hee will graunt power vnto this bell against the secret assaults of the diuell against thunder and tempest and for the comfort of soules departed then after the singing of certaine Psalmes he is newly marked again with seuen crosses without and foure crosses within which are made vpon the Crisme with the Bishops or his Suffragans thumbe who at euery crosse repeates these wordes Consecretur Sanctificetur Domine signum istus in nomine Patris filij spiritus sancti In all this Ceremony there is nothing wanting but the word Baptisme saue that it is done something more diuersly The same Ceremony is practised vpon gallies when they launch them into the Sea and for what offence they haue condemned this Sacrament vnto the gallies I doe not vnderstand He that shall well vnderstand the great vertue of bels will not wonder at all if the people of the Romish Church haue thought that baptisme doth of right belong vnto them sith that one peale hath power to carry soules into heauen and especially the soules of rich men for if a rich legacy be giuen all the bels in the towne shall ringe a requiem for the soule departed but the poore shall haue leaue to die without any sound And it is presumed that some bels haue more vertue then others for they are not rung all at one rate So at Paris there are bels some at foure Francs some at fiue and some at sixe For it is not credible that any will buy the sound of one bell dearer then another but vpon opinion of reaping a greater benefite thereby It is not then without great reason that Durandus in his rationale and other illuminated Doctors doe finde so many mysteries in bels saying that the clapper of the bell is the tongue of the Preacher that the rising of the bell is the contemplatiue life and the falling downe is the life actiue Boniface 8. au cap. Almamater § adijcimus De sententia excomm In Sexto Grego 9. T it 39. De sent excomm that a ringe of Iron is fastened to the end of the Bel-rope to shew that the Crowne is not obteyned vntill the race be finished which is the cause why Boniface the eighth and Gregory the ninth haue forbidden the ringing of Bels in proscribed or interdicted Churches vnlesse by speciall leaue they be licensed to toll an Aue-maria During the interdiction none but low Masses are said the doors being shut and without sound of Bell. And these obseruations the Apostles would not haue omitted if they had had the keeping of the Bels in the Temple of Ierusalem which then were not rung all the yeare long but now a dayes they are onely speechlesse vpon good Friday whereof there is some mysticall reason which comes not within the compasse of my vnderstanding ARTICLE XVII Of the Reliques of Saints The KINGS
his abode by the Reliques of Saints In another place he saith there were non done at all Surely the writings of the Fathers passed throgh certaine ages horribly darkened with ignorance in which some malicious men tooke a pleasure to falsifie them And indeede by the course of Storie of the ages following a man may obserue that by how much the more ignorance increased by corruption of doctrine by so much the more miracles were wrought Reade the Dialogue of Gregorie the first and you shall see that Christ did nothing in a manner in comparison of the miracles then wrought Gregorie himselfe in the fourth booke of his Dialogues chap. 41. wondereth at it and propoundeth this quetion to himselfe Quid hoc est quaeso quod in his extremis tem poribus tam multa de animabus clarescunt quae ante latuerant How commeth it to passe that in these latter times so many thinges are reuealed vnto vs touching the soules of the dead which before were bidden For then in those times men talked of nothing but of Ghosts that appeared which exhorted men liuing to giue to the Church And it was yet but the sixt hundreth yeare of Christ so much had the Prince of this world gotten in short time That which Coeffeteau most maketh bragges off and setteth it out with fairest colour is the testimony of S. Hierome Epistola ad Riparum aduersus Vigilantium Ergo Petri Pauli immundae sunt reliquiae who hath written two Epistles in defence of the Reliques of Saints against Vigilantius who did oppugne them But there is no affinity betweene their quarrell and ours For Hierome accuseth Vigilantius for accounting the Reliques of Saints vncleane a thing which we neuer affirmed nay the King of England speaketh of them with great respect He saith further Epist 2 aduers Vigil SanctoruÌ„ reliquias proijci in sterquilinium vt solus Vigilantius ebriê dormiens adoretur That Vigilantius would haue the reliques of Saints cast out vpon the dung hill that himselfe alone though druncke and asleepe might onely be adored Haue we euer said so Or is there any of vs that would onely be adored But as touching the question whether Reliques be to be adored S. Hierome in the Epistle before alleaged doth flatly denie that they ought to be adored Nos autem non dico Martyrum reliquias sed ne Solem quidem Lunam non Angelos non Archangelos colimus aaoramus We doe not adore I doe not say onely the Reliques of Martyrs But neither Sunne nor Moone for Angels nor Archangels Where is to bee seene that hee would haue it esteemed lesse strange to adore the Sunne then Reliques Which maketh vs to suspect the place in his Epistle to Marcella of falshood where he exhorteth her Samariam pergere Iohannis Baptistae Helisaei quoque Abdiae pariter cineres adorare to come to Samaria and to adore the ashes of Iohn Baptist Elizeus and Abdias Howsoeuer if he would haue beene beleeued he should haue grounded his saying vpon the authority of the word of God according to the rule which himselfe giueth vpon the 23. chapter of S. Matthew Because saith he Hoc quiae de Scripturis non habet authoritatem pari facilitate conteÌ„nitur qua probatur Lib. de Reliquijs Cap. 3. §. Gregor Lib. de Reliquijs c. 3. §. ex Africa this is not grounded vpon the authority of the Scriptures we may as easily reiect it as they proue it The place of Gregorie Nyssenus which Bellarmine produceth is false We haue heretofore shewed the falshood of that Oration vpon Theodorus As also that is false which he saith that the fift Councell of Carthage forbiddeth any Altar to bee dedicated without Reliques The Councell doth not speake in that place of all Altars but of the monuments of Martyrs which the beleeuing Christians assembling themselues together in the Church-yeards vsed in steede of Altars And because that for want of true monuments they sometimes erected in honour of true Martyrs false deuised sepulchres the Councel commandeth them to be plucked downe It is a thing incredible how the workes of this Cardinall doe swarme with vntruthes The other places which he alleageth doe neither speake of adoration nor religious worship Suborning of counterfait Reliques But the maine point is that through tract of time and the malice of men the question is now changed For in those times while the sufferings of the Martyrs were yet fresh in mens mindes and their Reliques certainely knowne men disputed vpon some ground and subiect how far they were to be honoured But now a dayes they thrust vpon vs fained Reliques counterfaite marchandise as a meere Artifice for gaine Reliques which they are wont â—o shew in darke places and that by vncouering them either by halfes or not at al making the seely people to rest content by bare seeing of the box or casket causing them to kneele vnto them with troubled deuotion And if they depart out of thâ—se Oratories without offering or paying it will be thought heresie or ingratitude Some Reliques there are meerely forged to mock and abuse the world And Burgos in Spaine there is a Crucifix whose bearde they cut euery moneth and pare his nailes and these parings are said to bee of great vertue At Rome there is kept in S. Iohns Church in Lateran the circumcised fore-skin of Christ as also the very Altar at the which Iohn Baptist did say diuine seruice in the wildernesse as witnesseth the booke of Romish Indulgences printed at Rome Our Pilgrims bring home out of Galizia the feathers of certaine hennes which are of the race of that cock that crew to S. Peter when he denied his master In S. Sulpitius Church in Paris there is a stone of that fountaine wherein the Virgin Mary washed the swathing-clothes of Christ newly borne There was shewed vnto my selfe at S. Denis Iudas his Lanterne which doubtlesse is a peece of great vertue As also Aarons rodde which by that reckoning must needes haue lasted three thousand and six hundred yeares without rotting and yet our good masters confesse that the coÌ„secrated hosts doe finnow and grow mouldy the presence of Christ in them cannot saue them from putrefaction Men goe to Collein to worship the bodies of the three Kings that neuer yet were The authour of the booke called Opus imperfectum vpon S. Mathew attributed to Chrysostome saith that they were of those whom they called Magi wizards or soothsayers and that they were twelue in number Their names Gaspar Melchior and Balthasar doe shew that it was the inuention of some Almaine Monke for the two first are high-dutch names That good and faithfull seruant of God Theodore Beza whom God hath now gathered to his Saints in glory in his booke against Baldwine reporteth of himselfe that he saw at Tours a crosse laden with rich stones which the people adored at the Passion amongst the rest there was an Achates or an
cruce aequi uaâ—eant Images are equiualent to the holy Gospels And in the eight Act it is ordained that d Imaginibus adorationem ex hibeant quemadmodâ— typo venerandae viuificae crucis sanctis EuaÌ„gelys such adoration be vsed vnto Images as is vnto the venerable and quickning Crosse and the holy Gospels In the same fourth Session speaking of the holy Hystories of Abraham and of the Martyrs it saith that maior est Imago quam oratio An Image is of more excellency then prayer In the fifth Act the entire body of the Councel pronounceth Ecclesia sentit noÌ„ omnino esse corporis expertes muisibiles veruÌ„ tenus corpore prae dito aerio siue igneo that the Church holdeth that the Angels are corporall and not inuisible but that they haue subtile bodies compounded of aire or fire And throughout the whole Councell is the worshipping of Images commanded Now this Councell in the Church of Rome is most authenticall is stiled Canonicall and confirmed by the Popes and it is to be beleeued that such a Councell cannot erre which is as much as can be said of the holy Scripture Bellarmine with other of their Doctors following this decision doth teach that Images are religiously to be worshipped and adored Who directly opposeth that which Coeffeteau saith that Images are worshipped Simply for that which they represent For Bellarmine in the 21. chapter of his booke of Images sets downe this maxime in Capitall letters that the Images of Christ and the Saints Imagines Christi SanctoruÌ„ venerandae sunt noÌ„ solum per accidens vel impropriè sed etiaÌ„ per se propriè tita vt ipsae termineÌ„t venerationeÌ„ vt in se considerantur non solum vt vicem gerunt exemplaris ought to be worshipped not by accident only or improperly but properly and by themselues so that the worship of them is determined in the Images as they are considered in themselues and not according to the patternes which they represent And about the end of the 22. chapter The vsuall worship performed vnto externall Images is considered properly and in themselues So the worship done to Images doth euidently shewe that they reuerence the Images for themselues For among the diuers Images of one Saint one is couered with dust another is cladd in silke and is often in change of rayment and some haue offerings tendered vnto them and some haue none and which â—s more the Images of the selfe same Saints haue diuers names there is our Lady of Vertue our Lady of Ioy our Lady of good newes our Lady of Snow whose festiuall day is in Italy celebrated in the moneth of August and hee that should call our Lady of Vertue by the name of our Lady of Ioy should be reputed a blockhead or that he had beene at Geneua And so doubtlesse when one censeth an Image or kindleth lights or clothes it with apparaile or offers vnto it or when one speaketh to a piece of wood or to the painting in a cloth I see not how the Saint is more honoured thereby for he meddles not with the perfumes and when the stones are polished he sees not a whit the clearer He takes no delight in seing the Images clothed or naked nor doth he gather vp anie of the offerings but they are all for the Curates and Vicars And if any should speake to the picture of a King the King would not esteeme himselfe honoured thereby And if Images which doe but doubtfully resemble the countenances of Saints must be worshipped then why should not the Bible bee adored wherein the power of God is most certainly represented Now if his Maiestie of England speake of this abuse as an abhomination what would he say if he had been an eye-witnesse of that superstitious madnesse wherwith the poore multitude are inflamed if he had seene behinde an Image of stone cladde in silke a poore naked picture standing for the Image of God if he had seene the people marching in procession before Lent toward the Image of our Lady for leaue to eate butter if he had seene the rule practised which the Tridentine catechisme sets downe approuing such as say a Pater noster before the picture of S. Dominicke or S. Barbara Cap. de Oratione Editionis Lonaniensis p. 483. Cum ad imaginem sancti alicuius quis Dominicam orationem pronunciat ita tum sentiat se ab illo petere vt secum oret if he had seene troupes of Saints in Churches diuersly apparailed among which some are but very basely cladde and some Saint hauing a hogge by his side some other a dogge c and these creatures to haue a share in the perfume to be equally adorned with lights He that should breake an arme of one of these liuelesse Images shall be thought to haue committed a greater fault then if he had broken the heades of a hundred liuing men howbeit the Image might be mended when the men could haue no amends This abuse is boundlesse and here superstition addeth madnesse vnto their blindnesse For the liuing Image of God fals downe before the Image of a dead man He among them that should see a church without Images would thinke himselfe in a newe world or he that should see Images vnworshipped would perswade himselfe he were among Deuils Such as blush at this abuse and speake thereof more nicely as Coeffeteau doth they say that Images doe helpe our deuotion but whence then is it that they may not be seene in Lent which is the time of deuotion and what deuotion is there without nay against the commandement of God Others say that they are ignorant mens bookes and they say the truth for they keepe them in ignorance So Habacuc cap. 2. calleth them teachers of lyes the mischiefe is that whiles the Churches and publique places are filled with these bookes for the ignorant they keepe away the Scripture which might haue made them learned and cured their ignorance they amaze the people insteed of instructing them they quicken the sense but dull the conscience they kindle their wax-lights while the Candle of Gods word is hid vnder the bushell of an vnknowledge language and by this meanes are men turned into stones hauing stones for their instructers And this is an old tricke of policie to busie the people with playes and publike shewes while their liberty is vndermined Tacitus in Iulio Agricola Paulatim discessum ad del inimenta vitiorum porticus balnea conuiuiorum elegantiam Id apud imperitos humanitas vo cabatur cum pars â—eruitutis esset so dealt Alcibtades by the Athenians and so as Cor. Tacitus witnesseth the Romanes dealt in great Britaine The same cunning hath beene vsed by the Pope who hath built his Hierarchy vpon the ruines of the Romane Monarchy he sets the people gazing on paintings and spectacles while he doth insensibly change the doctrine of saluation to make it seruiceable
whom we see and consider c. Tertullian in the vnderstanding of these thinges is not inferior to any of the auncients and yet he takes and Image and an Idoll for the same thing in his booke of Idolatrie cap. 3. Idos in greeke signifies a figure or representation whence comes the diminutiue Idolon which signifies a little forme or fashion and therefore euery little representation or figure must be called an Idoll If then it be absurd in French to call the Cherubins Idols in Greeke it shall be no absurditie at all But what neede we dispute whether we ougth to say Thou shalt not make any grauen Image or Idoll seing it is added nor any likenesse or resemblance what soeuer And that it is also forbidden to kneele or bow downe before it or at all to worship it and consequently this Dulia is forbidden which signifieth nothing else but worship Therefore neither had the Israelites the pictures of Abraham or Iacob or Dauid in the Temple or in their Synagogues being men that deserued to bee worshipped and adored at least aswell as S. Dominicke or S. Guerlicon or their good S. Francis They being farre from yeelding them worship or adoration Neither had the primitiue Christians anie of them and when in the fifth age they began to haue them in Church-yardes in some places they made nothing but painted hystories without any worshipping of them We haue heretofore seene that Tertullian condemneth alike all kindes of painting yea without any reference to religion Clement of Alexandria hath the like in his Protrepticon where speaking of Painting and Caruing he saith We are altogether forbidden to practise this deceitfull Art And hee discourseth very largely thereof in his sixth Booke of his Stromata Irenaeus * Frenaeus lib 1. Cap. 23. 24. Etiam imagines quasdam depictas quasdam de reliqua materia fabricatas habent dicentes forman Christi factam à Pilato reckons it among the abuses of the Gnostickes That they had certaine Painted Images and others made of other stuffe saying that it was the Picture of Christ made by Pilate Epiphanius saith the same Lib. 1. Tom. 2. Haeres 27. Origen in his eight Booke against Celsus Wee ought to Dedicate vnto the Lord not Images made by the hands of Craftesmen but framed by the word of God which are vertuous examples In the Dialogue of Minutius Faelix Caecilius a Pagan doth aske of the Christians e Cur nullas aras habent Christiani Templa nulla nulla nota simulacra Whence it comes that the Christians haue no Altars no Temples no Images that are obserued The testimonie of the Historian Lampridius in the life of Alexander Seuerus is remarkeable who saith that in fauour of the Christians f Quod Adrianus factitasse fertur qui Templa in omnibê° ciuitatibê° sine simulacris iusserat fieri quae hodie idcirco quia non habent numina dicuntur Hadriaâ— quae ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur Sed probibitus est as his qui consulentes sacra repererunt omnes Christianos suturos siad optatato euenisset The Emperour Adrian commanded that in euery Citie Churches should be built without Images which at this day are called Adrians Churches because they haue no Gods in them which they said he made for that end to wit to pleasure the Christians Saint Austen in his Booke of Heresies cap. 7. speaking of the Carpocratian heretickes a Colebanâ—â—â—magines Iâ—â—â—â—â—â—as adorando inâ—ensum ponendo They worshipped the Images of Christ adoring and burning incense vnto them Amphilochius Bishop of Iconia reporteth in the second Synod of Nice b Non enim nobis sanctorum corporales vultus in tabulis coloribus vultus in tabulis coloribus effigiare curae est quoniam his opus non habemus sed politiae illoruÌ„ virtutum memores essedeb emus We take no care of colouring in Tables the corporall visages of the Saints for wee haue nothing to doe with them but we ought to call to remembrance their vertuous conuersations Saint Austen vpon the hundred and thirteene Psalme expounding these words of Dauid that Idols haue a mouth and speake not eyes and see not that they are the worke of mens hands makes this obiection that the Church hath also instruments made with mens hands but hee answers that this is true * Et sanè profecto ista instrumenta vel vasa quid aliud quam opera manuum hominum veruntamen nuaquid os habent non loquuntur c. But haue these instruments mouths and speake not Or eyes and see not Doe we addresse our Prayers to them c. Surely he could not haue spoken thus if hee had had Images in Churches or if Images had beene a part of the Churches mooueables The same Father in his first Booke Noui multos esse sepulchrorum picturarum adoratores De moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae cap. 34. complaining of the superstition of certaine Christians that in Churchyards did kneedle before the Tombs of the Martyrs and before the Painted Histories of their sufferings saith I know some who worshippe Sepulchres and Pictures I know many that drinke largely ouer the dead It is not credible that these Christians thought these Images to be Gods for Christians neuer called a Saint God and much lesse his Image this is the reason why Bellarmine cap. 16. saith that S. Augustin was as yet but a nouice in Christianitie when he wrote this and that afterward he changed his opinion when he was better instructed Placuit picturas in Ecclesia esse non debere ne quod adoratur in parietibus depingatur The Eliberin Councell held at the same time as was the first of Nice in the thirtie and sixe Canon saith It is ordained that there be no Pictures in Churches for feare least that which is worshipped and adored be Painted in the Wals. The Iesuite Sanders in the second Booke of the worship of Images cap. 4. saith That then it was necessarie but that now the matter is without danger as if mans nature were now adayes not so prone vnto Idolatrie Others say that this Councell forbids the Painting of Pictures vpon wals but not the hauing of them in Frames with which conceite the Councell meetes not onely forbidding Painting in wals but ordaining also that there should bee no Painting in Churches It hath beene ordained saith the Councell that there bee no Painting in the Church but if Painted frames be fastned to the wals are they not in the Church In the second Tome of S. Ieromes Epistles there is an Epistle of Epiphanius which Ierome himselfe hath vouchsafed to Translate into Latine whereof obserue these words * Cum ergo hoc vidissem in Ecclesia Christi contra authoritatem scripturarum hominis pendere imaginem scidi illud Et magis dedi consilium custodibâ—eius loci vt pauperem mortuum eo obuoluerent Et deinceps praecipere eiusmodi vela quae contra religionem
him be deposed Or if he be a Lay-man let him be excommunicated Would they thus haue spoken if they had beleeued the Pope to haue beene their Superiour or the Church of Rome cheefe ouer other Churches and that it could not erre That the Passages of the Fathers alleadged by Coeffeteau for the Primacy of S. Peter are partly false Fol. 77. 78. partly maymed and partly impertinent FRom this point Doctor Coeffeteau passeth ouer to the Primacy of S. Peter Fol. 76. howbeit before he commeth thereto he giueth in passing by a blow to his Holinesse affirming that he is not Lord ouer any Towne thus doth he dispute the Souerainty of the City of Rome Wee leaue themselues to cleare this doubt and end this Processe He alleadgeth then for the Primacy of S. Peter the 11. Homily of S. Chrysostome and that very falsely for in all the Homily there is no mention of S. Peter nor of his Primacy But Bellarmine did deceiue him out of whom Coeffeteau copied his allegations This other is like it S. Cyprian saith Coeffeteau affirmeth Hoc erant vtique caeteri Apostoli quod Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis sed exordium ab vnâ—tate proficiâ— citâ—r vâ—â—â—â—â—â—sia vna monstretur that the other Apostles were certainly the same that S. Peter was fellowes and partners of his honour and of his power but the beginning proceedeth from Vnitie and therefore the Primacy was giuen to S. Peter the true reading is this the Apostles inde de were the same things that S. Peter was hauing ONE EQVALL SOCIETY In honour and in power but the beginning was made by one to shew the vnity of the Church Coeffeteau hath razed out the word EQVAL which troubled him and hath clapt on a Tayle of a sentence which is not in Cyprian and therefore the Primacy was giuen to S. Peter S Cyprian had said a little before that Iesus Christ after his resurrection gaue a like power to his Apostles and yet to shew the vnity of the Church he so disposed by his authority that the fountaine of this vnity should begin from one That is to say that he gaue to all his Apostles an equall power but to shew that the Church is one he gaue his power first vnto one namely to Peter and afterwards gaue equall power to the rest With like falshood he dealeth with S. Ierome Fol. 78. pag. 2. lib 1. against Iouinian whom he thus alleadgeth One is chosen among the twelue to the end that there being one head established all occasion of Schisme might be taken away At dicis super PetruÌ„ fundatur Ecclesia licet id ipsum in alio loco super omnes Apostolos fiat cuncti claues regni coelorum accipiant ex aequo super eos Ecclesiae fortitudo solideturâ—sed vnus eligitur vt capite constituto seismatist ollatur occasio But he omitteth the wordes that went before thou tellest me that the Church is founded vpon S. Peter notwithstanding that the same is done vpon al the other Apostles and that all do receiue the keyes of the Kingdom of heauen and that vpon them the stability of the Church is EQVALLY grounded whence appeareth that the Head and cheefe of which he speaketh is nothing else but a superiority in ranke without any Iurisdiction and power ouer his fellowes seeing that they had all the Keyes alike and were alike the foundations of the Church VVhich may serue to the end we may not trouble our selues with examining the rest of his falsifications for solution of all the rest of Coeffeteaus quotations in which S. Peter is called head and first among the Apostles S. Austen indeede in the beginning of his second booke of Baptisme which place Coeffeteau alleadgeth calleth S. Peter the first of the Apostles but he saith also in the same place that for all that he did not presume that the new-commers Nee Petrus queÌ„ primum Dominus elegit super quem aedificauit EcclesiaÌ„ suam cum secum Paulus de circumcisione disceptaret postmodum vindicauit sibi aliquid insolenter aut arroganter assumpsit vt diceret se primatum tenere obtemperari à nouellis posteris sibi potius debcri and latter Apostles were to yeelde him obedience The same S. Austen as he is alleadged in the 24. Cause Quaest 1. Canon Quodcunque speaketh thus S. Peter when he receiued the Keyes represented the Church if then all the good were signified in the person of Peter so were all the wicked also signified in the person of Iudas Seeing then that S. Peter was the same among the faithful that Iudas was among the wicked it followeth that as Iudas was not the head of the wicked to haue power and Iurisdiction ouer them but onely was the most remarkeable among them so S. Peter should be such a one among the beleeuers He might haue had perhaps a priority eyther in age or in vertue or in zeale or in eloquence or in preseance and taking the first place but yet without Dominion or power of Iurisdiction As touching that which somtimes he saith that the Church is founded vpon S. Peter we shall see hereafter that he retracted that ouer sight afterwards and we haue heard before S. Ierome to haue said that the Church is Equally founded vpon all the Apostles As for that which he saith that he that is without the Communion of the Church is to be accounted prophane and that he that is without the Arke shall perish in the floud the same may be said of euery other Church which holdeth the true Orthodox Doctrine yea of the least of the faithfull for that a man cannot separate and withdraw himselfe from him but by renouncing the truth Now in the quarrell which then was in debate Damasus maintained the truth and sounder opinion Whether the Pope may erre in faith or no. TO that which the King of great Britaine denieth that there is any Monarch of the Church on earth whose wordes ought to be held for laws who hath the gift to be able not to erre Fol. 80. Coeffeteau thus answereth We know that the Pope is a sinfull man as another man is and therefore may erre in Doctrine and Manners if we consider him in particular but in the quality of S. Peters Successour hee cannot teach any thing contrary to piety This is it which is commonly said that the Pope indeede may erre as he is a man and a particular Doctor but not as he is Pope Or that he may erre in manners but not in faith Cap. licet titulo 2 de Constitutioni in 6. They say also that he may erre in the question de facto but not in the question de Iure For as Boniface the eighth saith the Pope hath all law and right in the chest of his breast A man had neede of a good stomach to digest this And I doe not see how all this can agree For
non pertinentia vel sibi ipsi contraria quae imperite atque improuidè scripsit and that hee had written many things idle and contradictory very ignorantly and vnwisely It is not materiall to enquire whether Cyprian were in an errour or no it is sufficient that Cyprian thought that the Bishop of Rome was subiect to erre and to mistake Our Doctor addeth S. Ierome who in his third Apology against Ruffinus saith That the Romane faith Romanam fidem Apostolica voce baudatam istiusmodi praestigias non recipere commended by the voyce of the Apostle doth not admit any such iuglings For so is it read and not as Coeffeteau doth falsly alleadge it The Trickes of which he speaketh were to put the title of a good Authour to an euill booke so that this place is neyther to the purpose nor yet faithfully alleadged and if it were to the purpose yet doth hee not say that the Church of Rome or her Bishop cannot erre in faith but sayth that the Faith which S. Paul commended in the Romans could not subsist together with such impostures for the faith which S. Paul prayseth in them was the true faith which doth not approue of any seducing The same may be said of the fayth of the Ephesians and Thessalonians to whom the same Apostle giueth the same testimony as well as to the Romanes to wit that their faith was spread abroad in all quarters 1. Thes 18. Now that S. Ierome did not beleeue that the Bishop of Rome could not erre in the faith in hoc habetur detestabilis quod Liberium Romanae vrbis Episcopum pro fide ad exilium pergentem primus sollicitauit ac fregit ad subscripti onem haereseos compulit it appeareth by this that in the Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall writers he thus speaketh of Fortunatianus In this he is accounted detestable that he was the first that solicited Liberius Bishop of Rome who went into banishment for the faith and made him to yeelde hauing induced him to subscribe to Heresie And in the same Catalogue he calleth Felix Bishop of Rome Arrian as doth also Socrates lib. 2. cap. 2. S. Hilary in his fragments lately published by Monsieur le Feure doth often excommunicate Liberius in these termes Anathema tibi a me Liberi For hauing subscribed to the Confession of the Arrians framed at Sirmium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Athanasius an inward friend to Liberius in his Epistle to them that liued in the Desert after that he had greatly commended Liberius he saith that after two yeares banishment he yeelded and subscribed As also the Arrians would neuer haue giuen him Letters to restore him to his Bishopricke Tomo 1. Concil p. 431. Ingressus Liberius in vibeÌ„ 6. Nonas Augusti consensit Constantio haeretico perseâ—â— utio magna fuit in vrbe Roma if he had still persisted in the true faith Damasus in the Pontificall alleadged in ther. Tome of the Councels saith that Liberius being re-entred into the Citie consented to the Emperour Constantius an Hereticke and that vpon his arriuall there happened a great persecution at Rome Liberatus a great flatterer of the Bishoppes of Rome hath written a booke which is found in the second Tome of the Councels where in the two and twentieth Chapter is produced an Epistle of Vigilius Bishop of Rome written to the Eutychian Heretickes in which he declareth himselfe an Eutychian and denyeth two natures in Christ euen so farre as to excommunicate those that say the contrary Honori the first is condemned for a Monothelite hereticke by three Councels which our aduersaries call Generall to wit by the sixth seuenth and eighth that is to say by a thousand witnesses the Deputies of Rome then and there present neuer gainsaying it On the contrary his Successors Agatho and Leo the second doe there accurse and detest him for hauing polluted the Sea of Rome through his heresie Who will beleeue that these Popes would haue defamed their owne Sea with a false accusation Or that so many witnesses had beene ill informed seeing that euen in these Councels the Epistles of Honorius in which he defendeth heresie are produced and alleadged And although they should haue condemned him vniustly yet it appeareth hereby that they held it in those times for a thing certaine that the Bishop of Rome might erre Bellarmine in his fourth booke de Pontifice Romano maketh no difficulty to say Potest dici Pontificem ex ignorantia lapsum esse that Pope Gregory the third who taught that a man whose wife was through sickenesse become vnfit for the dueties of marriage might take another woman had erred and failed through ignorance Iohn the two and twentieth beleeued and taught that the soules of the faithfull did not see God be fore the resurrection as wee haue proued heretofore by many witnesses Iohn the three and twentieth out-stripped and exceeded them all for he denyed the immortality of the soule and maintained that there was neither Heauen nor hell For which cause besides many other crimes laid downe in the eleuenth Session of the Councell of Constance he was deposed from the Papacy by the same Councell whose wordes are these IOHN the three and twentieth hath often and many a time in the presence of diuers Prelates and other honest men of worth said held determined and obstinately maintained by the instigation of the diuell that there is no life eternall nor any other after this life yea and hath obstinately said and beleeued that the soule of man dieth together with the body and is extinguished as that of brute beasts and hath said that a man once dead shall not rise againe the last day And to the end that no man may doubt of the truth of the Accusation it is a little after added that it is publiquely and notoriously knowne Note also that the Councell before that it deposed him acknowledged him for lawfull Pope and all the Church of Rome doth reckon him among the number of Popes Furthermore that prodigious Canon which beginneth Si Papa in the fortieth Distinction after it hath said Si Papa suae â— fraternae salut s negligens innumerabiles popules secum ducit primo mancip io gehennae cum ipso plagis multis in aeternum vapulaturos huius cu pas istic reprehendere praesumit mortalium nullus c. that though the Pope should draw with him an innumerable multitude of soules into hell there to be euerlastingly tormented yet no man should presume to reproue him because he that iudgeth all men ought to be iudged of no man Addeth this exception Nisi deprehendatur a fide deuius vnlesse he be found to haue swarued from the faith Passages of Scripture touching this matter THe King of great Britain alleadged against the Ecclesiasticall Monarchy these wordes of our Sauiour Luc. 22. The Kings of the Nations rule ouer them but it shall not be so among you Coeffeteau answereth that hereby Christ sought
Non verbum verbo curabit reddere fidus Interpres Horat. in Art poet but retayning the strength and sinew of the Sentence I haue rendred it as best fitted the property of speech in our owne language Where the Kings words were to be inserted I haue chosen rather to follow his Maiesties owne Coppy then the French Translation which sometimes varyeth from it neyther haue I therein wronged mine Author Wherefore omitting those smaller mistakes which the discreete will passe ouer with an easie censure whether they bee wordes redundant as in or the twice repeated Or Syllables disioyned as often for often or letters transposed as villaines for villanies or wordes ill orthographized as Epostle and daceiue in one page for Apostle and deceiue Likewise Alminacke Letonies terent for Almanacke Letanies torrent c. Those other which are represented in the end of the booke I leaue to thy courtesie necessarily to be amended being such as import the matter and in which the Composers omitting or not well reading the wordes interlined wherein I sometimes corrected my selfe haue thrust in their owne coniectures Farewell TO THE READER MAy it please thee gentle Reader to vnderstand that after we had finished our worke and that the booke was now ready to come forth there came to my hands certaine corrections and amplifications of some points from the Author himselfe earnestly intreating to haue them inserted which because they could not conueniently be brought in in their proper places the booke being already printed yet that we might doe him right against the malice of his captious Aduersaries I thought it good to bestow them in this page requesting thee of thy charity which couereth a multitude of sinnes at once to pardon both our faults Page 30.14 reade the last Canon 45.25 r. as though he affirmed it without knowledge and spake it onely vpon trust 80.23 r. iudged to be vniust 181.7 r. the earth is almost full of the chips and pieces thereof Page 338.16 after the word men leaue out the whole sentence ending with the word Saluation then adde as followeth Onely we must note that this word Dulia hath a double and doubtfull signification and that there be two sorts of Dulia The one is a Religious action the other is onely a seruice an humane respect which is yeelded also to the liuing As for that kinde of Dulia which is a Religious worship the holy scripture forbiddeth it to be giuen to any saue onely to God alone as 1. Sam. 7.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prepare your hearts to the Lord and yeeld Dulia or Seruice to him alone And S. Austin Quaest 94. vpon Exodus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 debetur Deo tanquam Domino Doulia is due to GOD as to him who is MASTER And de Ciuit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 1. Religio non est nisi Dei cultus Religion is nothing else but the seruice of God plainly shewing that the seruing of the Creatures is not an action of Religion But if we take the word Dulia for a respect and seruice done vnto men and not for a religious action our aduersaries doe amisse to say that they serue the Saints or other Images with Dulia seeing they yeeld them a religious seruice and a voluntary worship tending to the attainment of saluation Againe ibid line 29. reade that then no miracles were wrought by their Images Page 367.13 r. the whole earth is full of the peeces of it 399.27 Modicum quodque delictum mora resurrectionis illic luendo Page 425.27 r. in the 9. Distinction and the 9. Canon of the Councell of Antioch and the 17. Canon of the Councell of Chalcedon These wordes of the Canon of Antioch are for a marginall note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Page 433. blot out the 8. last lines and the first line of the next page Page 440.21 read So in the 6. generall Councell Pope Honorius is condemned as an Hereticke and cast out of the Catholicke Church in the 13. Act and the same Councell assembled in the palace in the 13. Act doth by name condemne the Church of Rome c. Page 441.17 reade the 11. Homily of S. Chrysostome vpon Matthew Page 454.14 reade that Christ is an head more absolute and greater then the Pope and that the Pope is of lesse vertue then the holy Ghost Page 470.12 reade vpon the foundation layd by another Apostle The fame and good report and the mutuall communication of the strangers that were Christians with the Romanes had planted the Christian Religion at Rome but the Church of Rome required the presence of some Apostle for her full establishment A Table of the principall matters contained in this worke THE FIRST BOOKE ¶ Of the Vsurpation of Popes ouer Kings CHAP. 1. The occasion why IAMES the first King of Great Brittaine wrote his Booke together with a iudgement vpon Doctor Coeffeteaus Booke Pag. 1. CHAP. 2. Remonstrations of D. Coeffeteau with his iudgement touching the Treasons and attempts vpon the life of the King of England Pag. 16. CHAP. 3. Of Cardinals Pag. 23. CHAP. 4. Of Iesuites Pag. 39. CHAP. 5. Of the power of the Pope ouer the Temporalties of Kings and that he cannot take from Kings their Crownes nor free Subiects from the Oath of fidelitie and thereupon the reasons of Bellarmine are examined Pag. 45. CHAP. 6. Of the Clergie and their Exemptions Pag. 88. CHAP. 7. Of the Authoritie of Emperours and Kings ouer the Bishops of Rome that they haue chosen them punished them and degraded them That Princes haue had power ouer Bishops and their Temporalties The first seede of Poperie in England Pag. 105. CHAP. 8. That they who haue written against the King of Great Brittaine his Booke haue vniustly called him Apostata and Hereticke Pag. 128. THE SECOND BOOKE ¶ A defence of the Confession of IAMES the first King of great Britaine ARTICLE 1. Of the Creede Pag. 133. ART 2. Of the Fathers in generall Pag. 134. ART 3. Of the authority of the Fathers each apart by themselues Pag. 135. ART 4. Of the authority of the holy Scripture Pag. 143. ART 5. Of the Canonical and Apocrypha books Pag. 145 ART 6. Of the memory of Saints and of their Holy-dayes Pag. 154. ART 7. Of the Virgin Mary Pag. 164. ART 8. Of the suffrages of Saints and of the seruice due vnto them Pag. 173. ART 9. Of the Masse without Communicants or Assistants and of the Sacrifice of the Masse Pag. 202. ART 10. Of the Communion vnder one kinde Pag. 246. ART 11. Of Transubstantiation Pag. 258. ART 12. Of the Adoration of the Host Pag. 271. ART 13. Of the eleuation of the Host that it may be adored Pag. 274. ART 14. Of carrying their God in Procession Pag. 275. ART 15. Of workes of Supererogation and of super abundant Satisfaction and of the Treasury of the Church Pag. 276. ART 16. Of the baptizing of Bels. Pag. 308. ART 17. Of the Reliques of Saints Pag. 311.
their fidelity to the Pope thinke themselues bound to disloyalty towards their King And yet notwithstanding his Maiestie herein contained himselfe and would not that his mercy shold be surpassed by their wickednes so far that he hath rather chuse to take in hand the pen then the sword and hath studied to instruct those whom he might iustly haue destroyed desiring more to conuince them by reason then to ouercome them by force Maluit sanguinem suffundere quam effundere What would not hee doe for his faithfull subiects that lets himselfe downe so low to his enemies that laies aside the quality of a Iudge to become an Aduocate but he whom God hath lifted vp to a Soueraigne greatnesse neuer exalteth himselfe higher then by humility This King then to refute these Papal Letters and to iustifie what he had done made a booke entituled An Apologie for the Oath of Alleageance but not setting his name thereunto for it was nothing to him vnder what title the truth appeared so that his enemies might come to the knowledge of their fault This was no combat of the ability of wit but a meere manifestation of his innocency But the stile of a King is hardly disguised for Kings being in more eleuated places receiue nearer at hand the inspirations from heauen Their conceptions are as much aboue the vulgar as their conditions this onely thought that they are GODS Lieutenants and that they exercise his iudgements quickens their spirits with an extraordinary life and vigour besides if it so happen that their youth hath beene dressed and ordered by study and their iudgments polished by experience as it hath happened to the King of great BRITAINE why should any body wonder if their their spirits flye a pitch aboue ordinary This Royall Apologie hauing then bin knowne as a Lyon by his clawes stirred vp certaine English-men and Italians to write against it who as this King elegantly saide haue cast lots vpon his booke for that they could not part it for the reasons thereof are vnseparably weaued together but they not being able to bite his worke barke at his person with an incredible impudence so far some of them as to equall themselues with so great a Prince and to compare him to Iulian the Apostate Such are the flowers of their diuellish Rhethorique wherewith their writings are adorned on whom the Apostle S. Peter in his second Epistle Cap. 2.10 11 12 giueth this iudgement calling them brute beasts led with sensuality that despise gouernment which are presumptuous and stand in their owne conceit and feare not to speake euil of them which are in dignity whereas the Angels which are greater both in power and might gaue not rayling iudgement against them before the Lord. Then if it be ill done to speake ill of a Pagan Prince such as in those times all Monarches were how much more of a Christian King and if Angels forbore ill speaking of Princes how much more would it beseeme men and most of all their owne subiects But no more then the Moone is turned out of her course by the barking of Dogges that looke vp to her no more was the tranquility of his Maiesties spirit by these outragious iniuries disturbed nor his resolution diuerted from doing good to those which bore him hatred It is a poore and meane thing to tread vpon wormes There is no glory in ouercomming such people of whom he is sufficiently reuenged by the griefe and displeasure which they sustain in seeing that God hath blessed him and highly exalted him He would therefore haue contemned their sleighting of him would haue abstained from refuting their calumnies by a second writing had it not beene in regard not of them but of his people and of his neighbours and aboue all of the glory of God for God hauing honoured him with the true knowledge of him his Maiestie would not permit that the enemies as well of the Gospel as of his Crowne should find in his persō any subiect or colour to defame the true religion He is then by an admirable example constituted the aduocate of Gods cause by a second booke made in forme of a Preface to his former hath fully and throughly iustified himselfe In which booke he discouereth the flights and backe-turnings of his enemies representing the vniustnes of their proceedings He likewise maketh confession of his Religion conformable to the holy Scriptures and with a happy boldnes figures and depaints the Bishoppe of Rome and his Sea with liuely colours borrowed from the Apocalips and the Apostle S. Paul Neuer was Table drawne with a more exact hand or in liuelyer colours Such is the Torrent of his eloquence such is the weight of his reasons such is the linking together of his discourse such the variety of his learning and such his Maiesty in all thinges as hee may best iudge of it who shall compare them with that puft-vp weakenesse of the Popes letters and with the writing of his Aduersaries Oh happy eloquence which being armed with power is become the hand-maide of Gods word the sourse and spring whereof falling from high are like to the waters of Silo which water the City of our God Hee doth truely exalt his Scepter which layeth it downe at the foote of the Crosse and that placeth his height and greatnesse beneath the reproch of the Sonne of God he sanctifieth his house making his Cabinet a Temple for Diuinity and a retrayt for holy Meditations Then as in ancient times the earth was more fruitfull when it was laboured by Kings as though she had taken pride to beare a crowned Plough and to be tilled with a Triumphall Coulter So it is to be hoped that Religion and Piety will abundantly encrease since Kings are become labourers in the Haruest This latter booke then being come to succour and helpe the first did diuersly stirre mens spirits some with ioy some with feare some with hate but all generally with admiration The booke being little it was giuen out we should haue it answered within three dayes and sure their good will was not wanting but they found it a harder matter then so and that they were faine to take more time For it was eight moneths after it was published before the first Answeres came forth and what kinde of Answeres they were God he knoweth One Coeffeteau was the first that like an Infant perdu of the Romish army aduanced himselfe This Seraphicall Doctor of the order of the Iacobins or preaching Fryers one of the most remarkeable amongst the Sorbonists is of late through his companions negligence become the defender of the cause And he now after eight moneths being in labour hath brought forth a booke which is not like to liue because of the vntimely birth and indeede it had beene already extinct and dead had not the greatnesse of him against whom he writes kept it aliue wherein he shewed a point of skill to addresse himselfe against a person so illustrious that he might
vntil the thirtieth day I cannot see how this can serue to giue vnto the Pope power of deposing Princes For if Theodosius would not haue followed the counsell of Ambrose there had beene no harme done But this good Emperour did of his owne accord yeeld vnto it After him followeth Gregory the first at the end of whose Epistles is found a priuiledge graunted to the Abbey of S. Medard which hath this clause for the burthen of the Song If any King Prelate Iudge or secular person what soeuer shall violate the Decrees of this Apostolicall authority and of our commandement be he of what dignity or greatnes soeuer he may be let him be depriued of his honour I might say that this is onely an imprecation against Kings and not a Decree of deposition But we neede not busie our selues about the sense seeing that the Epistle is false It is a priuiledge indeed vnto which the name of Gregory is put to winne the greater credite and authority The falshood of it appeareth first in the Barbarisme of the style for men did neuer call neyther at Rome nor in Italy farmes or possessions by the name of Mansos It is a word which is found in the Chapter of Charles the great and of Lewes which sheweth that this priuiledge was first composed in France and not written at Rome Which thing also appeareth in this that he vseth these wordes Tusiacum Mortinetum fiscos regios To call the lands of the Kings Demaines Fiscos regios is a Barbarisme that may easily befall some French monke but at Rome this would not haue beene vnderstood and you espye the French vaine in these wordes very often repeated Dominus Medardus Monsieur S. Medard Adde hereunto that this priuiledge is absurd and vniust for it forbiddes to depose the Abbot of S. Medard howsoeuer attainted with crime vnlesse it be after the Popes pleasure known and after a Councel assembled wherein there shall bee found a dousen witnesses besides the accusers Now to breake this goodly priueledge is thought to bee a crime for which a King ought to loose his Kingdome The cheef poynt is that the humor of this Gregorie the first who called himselfe seruant of seruants doth very much disagree with these so arrogant terms which cut after the stile of an earthly Monarch For writing to Mauricius the Emperor in his third booke and sixt Epistle But I the vnworthy seruant of your goodnesse Ego autem indignus pietatis tuae seruus Ego vero haec dominis meis loquens quid sum nisi puluis vermis And a little after Now I speaking these things to you my Lords what am I but dust and a very worme And the King of great Britayne hath wisely obserued in his first booke that the Emperour Mauricius had commaunded this Gregory to publish a law which Gregory himselfe condemned as vniust and yet to obey his Master he published it I sayth he as one subiect to your commaundement haue sent these same lawes into diuers Countries and because they do not agree with God Almighty I haue by these my letters signified it to my Lords and Masters How well this Gregory knew to keepe his rancke and could not finde the way to draw this temporal sword which yet stucke fast in the scabbard For an vpshot of falshoods so at the end of this goodly priuiledge the subscriptions of the Bishops of Alexandria and Carthage who neuer knew the Abbey of S. Medard especially the Bishop of Alexandria who neuer saw Gregory and who beside that signeth his name very low among the thronge of ordinary witnesses albeit he neuer thought himselfe inferiour in any thing to the Bishop of Rome After all signeth King Theodoret as inferiour to all the Bishops After this Gregory wee are brought downe to Gregory the second the great puller downe of Images If we may beleeue Cedrenus and Zonaras great adorers of Images this Gregory went about to hinder the Italians from paying their tributes to Leo Isauricus who had demolished Images But Platina who hath most carefully searched out the story of Popes witnesseth the contrary and sayth in the life of this Gregory that vpon order giuen from the Emperour for the breaking downe of Images The people of Italy were so much moued Qua cohortatione adeo animati sunt Italiae populivt Paulum abfuerit quin sibi alium Imperatorē deligerent Quo minus a id fieret authoritate sua obstare Gregorius amicusest that it wanted but little but that they had chosen themselues another Emperour but Gregory employed his authority to hinder that matter Nay further he neuer for all that declared Leo fallen from the Empire he did not translate his Scepter to another he did not dispense with his subiects for their Oath of Alleageance And yet the Emperour at that time did onely hold a third part of Italy which was a very small portion of the Empire so that his tributes of Italy were vnto him of very little value As for Pope Zacharie when they report in the yeare 750 to haue taken from Childeriche the Kingdome of Fraunce to giue vnto Pipin and likewise Pope Leo the third whom men say to haue translated the Empire of the Greekes to the French by giuing the Empire to Charlemaine I could conuince all this of falshood and shew that the practise and custome of Popes is to giue vnto some one that thing which he cannot take from him Or after hauing incyted some one to inuade the possessions of his neighbour to vaunt afterward and to reproach him that what he got by rapine he now holdeth by his Holinesse liberality or as if in the Sacring of the Emperour because he hath put the Crowne on his head he should say that he hath giuen him the Empire as if in the sacring of a King he that hath inaugurated him by performing the Ceremony should bragge that he hath giuen him the Kingdome By this reason the Bishop of Ostias who hath had for a long time the right of consecrating the Pope should haue bin aboue the Popes and the Bishop of Millan should giue the Kingdome of Italy to the Emperour because from him he is to receiue a Crowne of Iron but this belongeth to another discourse neyther is the proofe of it necessary to this purpose For had these Bishops done much worse then this yet could not their example serue for a rule vnlesse it be shewed where and when God gaue them this power For is it credible that the Bishops of Rome could haue had in their hands this power neare eight hundred yeares together without enploying it or that they suffered this temporall sworde to hang rusting on a pinne without euer making vse of it vntill that after many ages this Zachary bethought himselfe of putting it to seruice in an action which the Church of Rome it selfe confesseth to bevniust Seeing that the Canon Alius before aleadged sayth that Childericke was not deposed for any
out of the auncient Councels authorising these exemptions may serue indeede to exhort Clerkes to addresse themselues to their Bishops to compose their differents in Ecclesiasticall matters But now a dayes to exempt Church-lands from paying taxe and Subsidy nor to take from the Magistrate the power of punishing any Clerke that is a wicked man and attaynted of some cryme which is punishable by the law Secondly I say that Clerkes cannot be iudged by the validity of their owne exemptions seeing they are made altogether in fauour of them and to their owne profite And being Iudges and parties they will take heed I trow of condemning themselues I say further for I mayntaine this truth That Princes cannot free Clergy men from their ciuill subiection and obedience seeing that God himselfe hath subiected them thereunto So a father cannot free his children from that due obedience which they owe vnto him Neyther can he by any damnable induldence and facility toward his children loose those bands of nature which God moreouer alloweth and authorizeth in his word That good indeed or that good turne is iniurious that byndeth a man to doe ill or that exempteth him from well doing And not to speake but of Magistrates only I say that God hauing commanded the Israelites to subdue the Cananites and Amorrhites and to make them their seruants They should haue offended God if they had let them goe free and at liberty I leaue this also to any mans iudgement whether a Prince may take any Donations by the which both himselfe and his Successors may loose the third part of their Dominion If any man be an angryed with his money he may giue it away and make hauocke of it if he please but he cannot binde his posterity to the like humour Neyther can his personall liberalities make vniuerfall Lawes Especially when by experienâ—e it is knowne to be true that those persons on whom the good deedes haue beene done doe waxe the worse by them and the benefites extended towards them corrupt in their owne bosomes For not to speake of those manyfold vices which haue thronged in at this gate by troupes Clergy-men are become very ill acknowledgers of those good deedes which Princes haue conferred on them For now they maintayne that these immunities belong vnto them by Gods law and by Diuine right and that they holde all this from God and not from man and that the Pope hauing exempted Clergy-men from the subiection of Princes they are no more their subiects neyther are Princes any longer their superiours This doctrine is constantly vpheld in Rome and mayntayned by all the Doctors that are of any marke in that Church But about all by the lesuites diuers of whose testimomes touching this point we haue heretofore produced Out auncient Kings neuer heard of any such propositions in their dayes And without doubt that which now-a dayes is called in our law Le droit de Regale and L'appell comme d'abus and likewise the Inhibition of the Annates by the pragmatical Sanction of which there remayneth no more now-a-dayes then the bare name these are the reliques of the auncient power of our Kings by the which they did dispose of Ecclesiasticall mens goods as well as of Secular persons But now-a-dayes after a lamentable manner of speaking and iniuri ous to our Kings these things are called Priuiledges of the Gallicane Church As if for a man not to be robbed or riffeled were a priuiledge vnto him Or as if it were a speciall grace graunted by the Pope that a man should haue power to be Master in his owne house Non est Priuilegium sed prauilegium And yet this priuiledge is not obserued And hereupon I beseech the Reader to consider how handsomely Cardinall Bellarmine doth carry himselfe in this poynt who in the eight and twentieth chapter of his booke of Clerkes § Secunda to the end to gratifie Princes with something he will that Clerkes should conforme themselues to ciuill lawes in certaine menial small things as in the buying of any Merchandize or not to go abroad in the night without a Lanthorne But within a short space after he plucketh backe all that which before he had giuen willing them to be subiects indeede Fol. 128. Obligatione non coactiua sed solum directiua by Obligation of direction not of coertion That is to say that they may be commanded but not constrained to yeeld obedience they shall obey as farre as themselues list and this is not to be a subiect in any regard That law is no lawe that onely hath reference to their discretion for whom it is enacted A law that wants his annexed punishment is ridiculous and should bee called an entreatie or good counsaile rather then a command And farther obserue that the matters wherein he maketh the clergie subiect to the law are trifles and things of no moment But to be vigilant for the safetie of his soueraigne or to mayntaine the peace of the Countrey or to shunne priuate intelligence with forrayners or to be punished for robbing or rauishing or for treason are matters wherein hee doth not subiect them to the power of Kings So he dazels the eyes of Princes with Schoole-distinctions of Directiue and Coactiue flatly denying the while that Princes haue superiority ouer their Clergy Lib. de exemp Cler. cap. 1. And he maytaines that Kingdomes are not held by a Diuine right § Ad confirmationem that is are not immediately appoynted by God nor established by Gods ordinance directly crossing the Apostle Saint Paul saying That there is no power but of God Rom. 13. and the powers that be are ordained of God By this meanes taking from subiects all religious regard due to Princes whom in a wicked disdayne he calles Prophane persons toward the end of the second Chapter of his booke of the exemption of the Clergy in these wordes * Quis dicere audeatius esse profane homini in ea quae sancta sanctorum id est sanctissima dici meruerunt Is there any that dares auerre that â—â—â—rophane man hath any power ouer matters that deserâ—â— to be stiled Sancta sanctorum that is most holy He giues also this title to Ecclesiasticall goods so that if the mony of a Kingdome be swept away vnder colour of Indulgences If sinnes be leuyed vpon the Curtyzans of Rome If any of the common people doe robbe their children to enrich the Fryers this wealth and these possessions are the holy of holies things most holy O grosse abuse and open mockery O enmity with God himselfe Thus is our simplicity seduced These then are the men that to shake off the yoake of Kings call them Prophane persons Kings who are the annointed of the Lord Gods image vpon earth the noursing fathers of the Church the Princes of the people of God of whom the very Angels speake not without reuerence Well may their glory be aduanced and the kingdome of the sonne of God established in
he combined against the Christians and both together massacred the poore religious men of Bangor and flew no lesse then 1200. of them The same Ethelfred assisted by the petty English Kings to despite the Christians inhabiting the Countrey remoued the Archiepisopall seate from London and translated it to Canterbury where ordinarily he made his residence Now the principall difference betweene the Christians and the Romish faction was about the day of Easter the single life of Priests and the Church-musique processions and Letany after the order of Rome consider further that some of the people were Pelagians for there was no speech then of transubstantiation nor of the Popes grand Pardons and indulgences nor of the Sacrament vnder one kinde nor of such heresies as were hatched in the after ages Whereof we haue sundry witnesses as Amandus Zirixensis in his his Chronicle Beda in the second booke of his Ecclesiasticall History of England Mantuan in fastis and Polydore Virgill Mantuanus Adde quòd Patres ausi taxare Latinos Causabantur eos stulte imprudentur aequo Durius ad ritum Romae voluisse Britannos cogere c. but especially obserue the wordes of Geffery of Monmouth in his eight booke de Britannorum gestis * In patria Britonum adhuc vigebat Christianitas quae ab Apostolorum tempore nunq tam inter eos defece rat Post quam autem venit Augustinus c. In the Countrey of the Brittà nes Christian Religion flourished which neuer failed among them from the time of the Apostles For Austen being arriued there found seuen Bishoprickes and an Archbishopricke in their Prouince all furnished with very religious Prelates and Abbots men that liued by the labour of their hands The King of England produceth also the Statute of Richard the second King of England by which all English-men were forbidden to holde or sue for any Benefice from the Pope which was in the heigth of the Popes vsurpation and this as the greatest part of the booke doth Coeffeteau passe by being content to scratch where he cannot bite CHAP. VIII That they which haue written against the King of great Britaines booke doe vniustly call him Apostata and Hereticke OVR Aduersaries are as open-handed in bestowing titles vpon vs as they are niggardly in giuing any reason of their doings Bellarmines booke vnder the name of Tortus sayth that the King of great Britaine is no Catholique but shewes neyther in what sense nor for what reason and as vniustly doth he call him an Apostata for an Apostata is one that hauing followed doth againe doth forsake the true Religion Now his Maiestie of England hath not forsaken the true Religion inasmuch as hee still maintaineth the same and should his Religion be as hereticall as it is sound and holy yet could he not be called an Apostata because he neuer professed any other Religion He that hath alwayes done euill is not a backeslider from vertue and no man can forsake that which he neuer had Now graunt that hee had beene baptized in the Church of Rome yet it followes not that he therefore receiued their faith that baptized him for the Church of Rome conferring any thing vpon him that is good bindes him not to follow her in that which is euill But because it may be presumed that the Queene his mother being of the Church of Rome might haue giuen him some impressions of that Religion his Maiesty therefore meeteth therewith and testifies that she adhaered not to the grosser superstitions of Poperie and that in the christening of the King her sonne she charged the Archbishop that baptized him not to vse any spittle in the Ceremonies saying that shee would not haue a rotten and pocky Priest to spit in her childes mouth that at her entreaty the late Queene ELIZABETH who was an enemy of Popery was his God-mother and christened him by her Ambassadour that she neuer vrged him by any letters to adhaere to Popery that euen her last words befor her death were that howbeit she were of a diuers Religion yet shee would not presse him to change the Religion he professed vnlesse he found himselfe moued therevnto in his conscience that if he ledde an honest and a holy life if he did carefully administer iustice and did wisely and religiously gouerne the people committed to his care she made then no question but he might and ought to perseuere in his owne Religion By these Demonstrations doth his Maiesty of England prooue that this great Princesse had no sinister opinion of our religion Hereunto Mr. Coeffeteau sayth hee will giue credite for the respect hee beareth vnto the King although it will with great difficulty bee generally perswaded that some Princes allied vnto his Maiestie could shewe some letters to the contrary Which is as much to say that although that which the King sayes be false yet to doe him a pleasure he will beleeue it and so giues him the lye very mannerly as if he should spit in his face doing him reuerence like the Iewes that cryed all haile to our Sauiour when they buffeted him His Encounter should haue had some coulerable matter at the least for what can argue more weakenesse in him then to mention letters that no man euer saw Or what strength hath it to weaken the testimony of a King concerning his own mother For to whom should she haue opened her minde more familiarly then to her sonne Or what wordes are more serious or more vndissemblingly spoken then such as are the last that dying persons doe vtter For then doth the hand of necessity pull off the maske from the deepest dissemblers then is it no time to hide themselues from men when they must mâ—ke their appearaÌ„ce before God But especially she then speaking to her onely sonne with whom to haue dissembled had beene a most iniurious dissimulation and an vnnaturall skill which if it bee blameable in a mother in any part of her life how much more at the time of her death His Maiesty of England being thus cleared from the crime of Apostasie he dooth likewise acquite himselfe from the imputation of heresie which is the ordinary wrong they doe him The word Heresie signifies a Sect by which name the Christian Religion was in auncient time traduced for so the Iewes speake to the Apostle S. Paul in the last of the Acts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as concerning this Sect or heresie We know that it is euery where spoken against And his Maiesty of England may very rightly say with the same Apostle cap. 24. vers 4. This I confes that after the way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they call Heresie I worship the God of my fathers beleeuing all things which are written in the law and the Prophets After which phrase of speech Tertullian and Cyprian doe call the Christian religion a Sect Tertul de Pallio c. 6. Denique etiam diuinae sectae ac disciplinae commercium pallio conferri Cyprianê° l
tumultuarily and in hast hath not had this curiosity It remaineth to examine the place of S. Austin of which euery one that hath a quicke smell will acknowledge the corruption and falsification First of all because it is not credible that this holy Personage would oppose himselfe single to the whole Church of his time and to all the Doctors that went before him and namely to the Councell of Carthage whereat himselfe had beene a present assistant Secondly because it is not credible that S. Austin would contradict himselfe for in the sixe and thirty Chapter of the eighteenth booke of the Citie of God he speaketh thus The supputation of these times since the building vp of the Temple is not found in the holy Scriptures which are called Canonicall but in other bookes among which are the Maccabees Is it possible to say in more plain and expresse termes that the Maccabees are not holy Scriptures nor Canonicall bookes But heere wee admire a pretty pleasant folly and stupidity of a taile handsomely fastened and sowed on by some Monke for after all this they make S. Austin to adde Which bookes not the Iewes but the Church boldeth for Canonicall O grosse Imposture After that hee had simply set downe that the Maccabees are not holy nor Canonicall Scriptures would hee say that the Church receiueth them for Canonicall By the same fraude this other place of S. Austin which Coeffeteau alleadgeth hath beene falsified Let vs adde hereunto that S. Austin cap. 23. of his second booke against Gaudentius answereth thus vnto Gaudentius who serued himselfe with the example of Razis who killed himselfe whereof mention is made in the second booke of the Maccabees The Iewes do not hold this booke in the same rancke with the law the Prophets and the Psalmes to which Iesus Christ beareth witnesse is they that beare record of him But this booke is receiued by the Church not vnprofitably if men read it soberly principally because of the sufferings of certaine Martyrs Who feeth not that he doth weaken the authority of these bookes in that Iesus Christ doth giue no testimony vnto them And if these bookes haue not beene reckoned for holy Scripture amongst the faithfull of the olde Testament I maruell when they became holy Scripture It is also a poynt very considerable that in this place of S. Austin produced by Coeffeteau Ecclesiasticus is put among the Canonicall bookes in which booke it is said cap. 46. Samuel prophesied after his death and declared vnto King Saul his death lifting vp his voyce out of earth An opinion which S. Austin doth condemne in his booke of Questions on the old Testament in the 27 Question saying Porrò autem hoc esi praestigium Satanae quo vt plurimos fallat etiam bonos se in potestate habere confingit that it is a great indignity to beleeue it and maintaineth that it was an illusion of Satan who to deceiue many faineth to haue good men in his power And in his booke of the care that men ought to haue of the dead after hauing spoken doubtfully he saith that men * Huic libro ex Hebraeorum Canone quia â—n eo non est contradicâ—tur controule the booke of Ecclesiasticus because it is not in the Canon of the Hebrews And in his booke of the eight Questions to Dulichius Quaest 6. he canuasseth this Question by way of Probleme leaning notwithstanding to the opinion that it was a meere fantasme or vaine apparition See hereupon the Canon Nec mirum in the Cause 26. Quest 6. where also S Austin is alleadged maintayning that this was done by enchantment Whence I conclude Caietan in fin-Commentaâ—oruÌ„ ad Historiam vet Test Ne turberis No uities si alicubi reperis libros istos inter Canonicos supputari vel in Sacris Con cilijs vel in Sacris Doctoribus Non. nâ—sunt Canonici id est regalares ad probandum ea quae sunt fidei possunt tamen Canonici dici ad aedificationem fidelium that S. Austin should contradict himselfe if after hauing refuted the opinion of Ecclesiasticus he should afterwards put him in the role of the Canonicall bookes These falshoods hauing not beene acknowledged by Cardinall Caietan droue him to finde out another euasion Be not astonished or troubled O thou who art but a Nouice in Diuinity if somtimes thou find eyther in the Councels or in the Doctors these bookes to be counted among the Canonicall For they are not Canonicall to proue the points of faith Notwithstanding they may be called Canonicall for the edification of the faithfull ARTICLE VI. Touching the memory of Saints and of their Feasts and holy dayes AS for the Saints departed I honour their memory The KINGS Confession and in honour of them doe wee in our Church obserue the dayes of so many of them as the Scripture doth Canonize for Saints but I am loath to beleeue all the tales of the Legended Saints Here Coeffeteau beginneth to skirmish without neede Fol 13. He complayneth for that the King speaketh onely of solemnizing the memory of those Saints of whom mention is made in the Scripture He saith that the Church of Smyrna did celebrate the feast of the Martyrdome of Polycarp That Basil did recommend the Feasts of S. Iulitta and of the forty Martyrs That Gregory Nazianzene did solemnize with the other Christians the Feast of S. Cyprian and S. Gregory of Nissa that of the Martyr Theodore That Cyprian commanded that they should marke out the dayes of the Passion of the Martyrs to the end that they mighcelebrate their memories That S. Austins twentieth booke against Faustus Manicheus cap. 21. saith that the Christian people did celebrate the memories of the Martyrs And yet that S. Polycarpe S. Iulitta c. are no Saints of whom there is any mention in the Scripture Hee addeth notwithstanding that the Church of England is in that lesse irreligious then the Caluinists of Fraunce who haue cut off all sorts of holy-daies of Saints aswell Apostles as others As touching the Legends We are saith hee no more credulous of them then you He saith he doth not receiue miracles vnlesse they be approued by the publique testimony of the Church and that euen in the first ages they suggested and foysted in false actes of Martyrs These passages which he alleadgeth are in part false partly they are of no vse to proue the Question Let vs begin with the falshood First in alleadging out of Eusebius the example of the Church of Smyrna who buried the bones of Polycarpe with honour and celebrated his memory Anniuersarily euery yeare there is no mention made of his Feast or Holy-day but onely of a day dedicated to the commemoration of his Martyrdome Ignorantes nos ChristuÌ„nunquam relinquere qui pro totius seruan dorum mundi salute passus est nec alium quenquam colere posse Nam hunc quidem tanquaÌ„ filium Dei adoramus Martyres verò
regard the whole company of the Apostles she seeketh no Mediator but insteed of all these shee taketh Patience for her companion which holdeth the place of her aduocate and commeth directly to the first fountaine For this ende came he down from heauen for this end did he take flesh and was made man to the end that I might speake vnto him There are found in this Father some passages wherein he recommendeth the intercession of the Saints but it is of the liuing Saints for the scripture in a hundred places doth so call the faithfull But our aduersaries produce those places for inuocation of the dead being falsaries in this point as in others Adde that we haue neuer denyed but that the Saints doe intercede for the Church in general but it doth not follow thervpon that we ought to inuocate them or to serue them God hauing not commaunded it yea hauing forbidden it and they not knowing our hearts and besides Iesus Christ calling vs vnto himselfe Saint Ierome in the Epitaph of Nepotian holdeth for a thing assured that he is in the heauenly glory g Scimus Nâ—potianâ— nostâ—um esse cum Chrâ—sto sanctorum mixâ—â— choris We know saith he that our friend Nepotian is with Christ and mingled among the quier of Saints And neuerthelesse he holdeth that Nepotian neither vnderstood nor saw the things which were said or done in the earth For he saith h Quicquid dixero quia illâ— no audit mutuÌ„ videtur Whatsoeuer I shall say vnto him will seeme dumbe because he heareth it not i Cum quo loqui non possumus de eo loqui nunquaÌ„ desinamus Againe let vs not cease to speake of Nepotian with whom we can no longer speake Againe k Felix Nepotianus qui haec non videt qui haec non audit happy Nepotian who neither heareth nor seeth these thinges Thence it came that many of the auncients did pray those who were about to die to haue them in-remembrance when they should be in Paradise because they thought it would be to late to pray vnto them after their death The same Ierome l Lib 4 cap. 14. Quod si in aliquo fiducia est in solo Domino confidamus Maledictus enim omnis homo qui spem habet in homine quaÌ„uis sancti sint quaÌ„uis prophetae vpon Ezechiell if there be confidence in any let vs put our confidence in God alone for cursed is the man who trusteth in man albeit they bee Saints albeit they be Prophets Agreeable to Origen in the 4. Homilie vpon Ezechiell towards the end m Ad cos qui in sanctis fiduciam habent non incongrue profertur exemplum Maledictus homo qui spem habet in homine To those who put their confidence in Saints this example may fitly be applyed cursed is the man who putteth his hope in the Saints There is among the workes of Saint Ierome a commentary vpon the Prouerbs which whether it be of Beda or of Ierome it conteineth this sentence n Lib. 1. cap. 2. Nullum inuocare id est in nos orando vocare nisi Deum debemus We ought not to inuocate that is to say to cal towards vs by prayers any other then God Saint Austine in his twenty two tract vpon Saint Iohn o Hoc tibi dicit Saluator tuus Non est quo eas nisi ad me Non est quá eas nisi per me This is it which thy Sauiour saith vnto thee thou hast not whether to goe saue onely to me neither cannest thou goe saue onely by me And vpon the Psalme 118. p Oratio quae non sit per Christum non solum non potest delere peccatum sed etiam ipsa sit in peccatum the prayer which is not made through Iesus Christ cannot onely not blot out sinne but it selfe is turned into sinne and against the Epistle of Parmenian q Lib 2. cap 8 Nam si esset mediator Paulus essent vtique caeteri Apostoli ac sic multi mediatores essent Nec ipsi Paâ—lo consta retratio qua dixerat Vnus Deus Vnus mediator c. if S. Paul were mediator so should the rest of the Apostles be and by that meanes there should be many Mediatours and so Saint Paul should haue mistaken himselfe in saying there is one onely God and one onely Mediatour Now it is to be noted that he doth not speake in that Chapter but of Mediator of intercession for he disputeth against Parmenian who had called the Bishop Mediator betweene God and men howbeit Parmenian did not vnderstand that the Bishop was the Redeemer of the people The same Doctor hath made a booke of the care to be had of the dead wherein he disputeth at large that the dead know not that which is done here beneath neyther doe they intermeddle with the affaires of the liuing his reasons are that if that were so his deare mother Monica who had followed him by Sea and by Land would not haue forsaken him but would haue stood by him euery night That Abraham himselfe father of the Israelites knew not his posterity which also complayneth thereof in Esay that God himselfe promised to Iosias for a great blessing that he should not see the euils denounced against that people but that he should die before whereupon he concludeth r Ibi ergo sunt spiritus desanctorum vbi non vident quaecunque aguntur aut eueniunt in ista vita hominibus Quomodo ergo vident tumulos suos aut corpora sua vtrum abiecta iaceant an sepulta The spirits then of the deceased are in place where they see not all the things which are done or which happen vnto men in this life How then should they see their graues or their corps whether they lie cast out and abandoned or whether they be buried And in c. 15. Å¿ Proinde fatendum est nescire quidem mortuos quid hic â—gitur dum hic agitur postea vero audire ab eis qui hinc ad eos moriendo pergunt We must confes that the dead know nothing of that which is done here whilst it is a doing but that they vnderstand it aftewards from those who dying goe from hence vnto them Yet doubtlesse not all things but that which is permitted them to declare vnto those to whom it is granted to haue it in remembrance and that which is expedient for them to know They may also learne something of the Angels who haue intercourse while things are done here below I make the Reader Iudge how we can call vpon the Saints departed if we must stand till some one of our friends die to report our prayers vnto them or if it be necessary that an Angell should goe from hence below to aduertise them aboue Obserue also that this good Doctour neuer bethought himselfe of that looking-glasse forged of late for indeede he neuer tooke his degrees in the faculty
of Diuinity As touching publique seruice it is certaine that at the celebration of the Eucharist there was commemoration made of the Saints deceased but without inuocating them as S. Austin witnesseth in his two and twentieth booke of the Citie of God chap 10. t Ad quod sacrificium sicut homines Dei qui mundum eius confessione vicerunt fuo loco ordine nominantur Non tamen a sacerdote qui sacrificat inuocantur At this sacrifice the Martyrs as men of God who haue ouercome the world in confessing him are named in their place and in their ranke but They are not Inuocated by the Priest who sacrificeth And to the same end the third Councell of Carthage in the three and twentieth Canon ordayneth very expresly u Cum ad altare assistitur semper ad patrem d rigatur Oratio that when they stand at the Altar the praier be alwayes addressed to God the Father not then to the Saints as they doe now adaies in many Masses In his twentieth booke against Faustus the Manichee x Cap. 21 Colimus martyres eo cultu dilectionis societatis quo in hac vita coluntur sancti homines We honour the Martyrs with the same honour of loue and society wherewith men honor the holy men of God which are in this life True it is that he acknowledgeth that it is with more assurance because they haue surpassed all danger but he alwaies acknowledgeth that it is one and the same kind of honour It is not then to inuocate them or to adore them and it is that seruice which is yeelded to liuing men which he affirmeth to be called Dulia whence it followeth that it is not a religious worship And therfore also in his booke of the true Religion c. 55. y Tom 1 Non sit vobis religio cultus hominum mortuorum quia si pie vixerunt non sic habentur vt tales quaerant honores sed illum a nobis coli volunt quo illuminante laetantur merito sui nos esse consortes Let not the seruice saith he of men departed be your religion if they haue liued holily they are in that state that they craue not these honors And a little after We must honour them for imitation but we must not adore them by any Religion The same Authour in his manuall to Laurentius cap. 114. z Non nisi a Domino Deo petere debemus quicquid speramus nos vel boni operaturos vel pro bonis operibus adepturos We ought not to craue from any other but from God the good which we hope eyther to doe or to procure as a Stipend of our good workes In his booke of Ecclesiasticall Determinations cap. 81. * Secreta cogitationis solus ille nouit ad quem dicitur Tu solus nosti corda filiorum bominum He alone knoweth the secrets of the hearts to whom it is said Thou alone knowest the hearts of the sonnes of men These passages a few amongst many shal suffice for this time against which our aduersaries produce some places drawne out of forged bookes or out of the ill gouerned deuotion of some particular men contrary to the publicke beleefe And if there be any examples found of some few who haue prayed Ad memorias Martyrum before or neere the sepulchres of the Martyrs our aduersaries perswade the ignorant that these prayers were made vnto the Martyrs in stead that they were made vnto God to praise him for the assistance giuen vnto the Martyrs and to craue of God the like grace Aboue all it is considerable that Coeffeteau doth touch but the half of the question and wardeth but halfe the blows for he endeuoreth to proue that we must inuocate the Saints which is but a litle peece of the abuse For the Church of Rome doth not stay there she craueth of God saluation not onely through the intercession of the Saint but also through their merites Quorum precibê° meritisque rogamê° Which is not to goe to God by the Saints but contrariwise to lead God to the Saints and to represent him their merites This is also to pray vnto God with an indiscretion which would be accounted impudent in speaking to a King If any man should aske him a fauour or benefite for the merites of another And this so vnworthy a prayer is accompanied with a superstitious iesture Oramus te Domine per merita Sanctorum quorum relliquiae hic sunt omnium sanctorum vt indulgere digneris omnia pâ—ccata mea when the Priest bowing himself ouer the Altar saith We pray thee O Lord by the merites of the Saints whose reliques are here for euery Altar is a Tombe and generally of all the Saints that thou wilt vouchsafe to pardon all my sinnes Of such a prayer Coeffeteau hath not been able to produce any example No more then of this damnable opinion which holdeth that the merites of the Saints doe serue to fill vp the measure of the merites of Iesus Christ Lib. 1 de Indulg cap 4. in that being adioyned to the merites of Iesus Christ and put together into the treasurie of the Church they are employed by the Pope for the redemption and discharge of the punishment of our sinnes whence also it is that Cardinall Bellarmine saith that in some sort they are our redeemers How comes it to passe that Coeffeteau holdeth his peace hereat and alleadgeth not any father and hath forgotten to excuse the Priest who in his Confiteor which he saith at the entrance of the Masse confesseth his sinnes to God to the Virgin Marie to Michael th'arch-Angell and to the Saints but not to Iesus Christ ARTICLE IX Touching Masses without Communicants and without Assistants BVt if the Romish Church hath coyned new Articles of faith The KINGS Confession neuer heard of in the first 500. years after Christ I hope I shall neuer be condemned for an Hereticke for not being a Nouelist Such are the priuate Masses where the Priest playeth the part both of the Priest and of the people If euer man turned his backe and shamefully fledde it is Coeffeteau in this place We expected from him the defence of priuate Masses by the word of God or at least that he should haue produced vnto vs the practise of the auncient Church or some examples of priuate masses in the first fiue hundred yeares after Iesus Christ seeing that the King of great Britain doth limit him to that terme but of all this not a word But rather he turneth aside his Discourse casteth himselfe vpon the sacrifice of the masse Fol. 22. pag. 1. heaping vp many passages of the Fathers who cal the Eucharist a sacrifice He saith onely that it is not necessary that a sacrifice be offered by many that in times past the greatest sacrifice of the Synagogue was done by the high Priest alone in the holy of holies that the fathers in many places called the
that in a manner the whole earth was filled with it The second place is out of the booke de caena Domini falsly ascribed 10 S. Cyprian as are also all the Treatises De Cardinalib operibus whereof this is one to which there is prefixed a Prologue wherein the Author saith that he hath suppressed his name by which it appeareth that the Authour of this Treatise is vnknowne yet might this booke bee purposely alleadged had it beene written by any auncient Authour that had liued within the first foure or fiue hundred yeares but the stile testifies that it is newly forged witnesse these wordes Distributê° non demembratur incorporatus non iniuriatur This is the worke of some prentice Frier that meant to wrong Priscian The third place is out of S. Ambrose in the ninth Chapter concerning those that are newly instructed in the Mysteries where Ambrose sayth that the benediction chaungeth the nature of the Sacrament and that it is not that which nature hath made but what the blessing hath consecrated And to shew that in this action there is a supernaturall worke he brings the example of Airons rod turned into a Serpent so farre doth Coeffeteau alleadge S. Ambrose but hee doth malitiously omit many examples following by which it appeareth that S. Ambrose did not thinke that that which was to be admired in this Sacrament was the Transubstantiation of the bread For he addeth also these examples that Moses deuided the redde Sea that the Riuer Iordan turned his course that water issued out of the Rocke that the bitter waters of Mara were made sweete that Elizeus made Iron to swimme vpon the water which were all workes of God whrein there was no transubstantiation which declare that he beleeued not that the bread became the body of Christ so as it was no more bread in substance which did plainly appeare for that in the words following comparing these miracles of the Prophets wherein God changed the nature of things Non minus est nouas res rebus dare quam mutare naturas with the change that is wrought in the Sacrament he saith That it is no lesse to adde some new things vnto things then to change the nature of things Auerring plainely thereby that the bread hath receiued some new thing without losing the nature of bread And we may not thinke it strange if he say that the bread remaining bread hath changed it nature For so a bit of Waxe becomming the Kings seale changeth it nature without Transubstantiation and is not any more commonly called Waxe euen as the common bread becommeth holy in the Sacrament Vera vtique caro Christi quae crucifixa quae sepulta est Verè ergo carnis illius Sacramentum est Ipse clamat Dominus Iesus Hoc est corpus meuÌ„ Ante benedictionem verborum caelâ—stium alia species nominatur post consecrationem corpê° Christi significatur and by this consecration is often called the body of Christ Therefore he further addeth It was the true flesh of Christ which hath beene crucified and buried This then is as truely the holy signe of the flesh The Lord himselfe crieth aloud this is my body before the blessing of the heauenly wordes another kinde is named after the blessing the body of Christ is signified The last place is out of S. Chrysostome in his Sermon of the Dedication where in his flourishing Discourse after his manner he heapes vp Hyperbolies to enflame his Auditory You which come saith he thinke not to receiue the Diuine body of a man but that you receiue the very Seraphins of fire with their tongues And a little after the spirituall fire streameth downe from the table Transported with the same zeale he saith there that the mysteries are consumed by the substance of the body And so in the fiue and fortieth Homily vpon S. Iohn We are mingled and knead with him we fasten our teeth in his flesh All which are hyperbolicall phrases and such as being hardly taken were absurd in the very iudgement of our aduersaries which make the helpes of deuotion to couer Idolatry for to know what is a Doctors opinion we must not take his Oratorious Amplifications nor Hyperbolical extasies Acceptum paneÌ„ distributum discipulis corpus suum fecit dicendo hoc est corpus meum id est figura corporis me i. Panem suum corpus appellans vt hinc iam eum intelligas corporis sui siguram pani dedisse I I le cibus qui sanctificatur per verbum Dei perque obsecrationem iuxta id quod habet materiale in ventrem abit in secessum emittitur but out of the places in which they aduisedly and expresly treate of this matter of which you shall haue here some passages Tertullian in his fourth booke against Marcion cap. 40. Iesus Christ hauing taken bread and distributed it to his Disciples he made it to be his body saying This is my body that is the figure of my body The same in his third booke against Marcion cap. 19. God hath so reuealed it in the Gospell calling the bread his body to the end that thereby thou mayest vnderstand that he hath giuen to the bread to be a figure of his body Origen vpon the fifteenth of Matthew That meate which is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer as touching the matter it goeth downe into the belly and is cast out into the draught and doth not sanctifie of its owne nature Cyprian in his third Epistle of the second booke Vinum fuit quod sanguinem suum dixit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Non dubitauit dicere Hoc est corpus mâ—um cum daret signum corporis sui Sicut ergo secundum quendam modum Sacramentum corporis Christi orpus Christi est Sacramentum sanguinis Christi sanguis Christi est Ita Sacramentum fidei fides est Spiritualiter intelligitur quod locutus sum non hoc corpus quod videtis manducaturi estis bibituri illum sanguinem quem fuâ—uri sunt qui me crucifigent Sacramentum a liquod vobis commendaui Spiritualiter intellectum viuificabit vos We find that the Cup which the Lord offered was mingled and THAT WHICH HE CALLED HIS BLOVD WAS WINE Eusebius in the eighth booke of the Demonstration of the Gospell chap. 1. towards the end Iesus Christ gaue to his Disciples the signes of the diuine dispensation commaunding them to celebrate the figure of his owne body For seeing that he did now no longer receiue the sacrifices of bloud nor the slaughter of diuers beasts ordained by Moses he hath taught vs to vse the bread for a signe of his body S. Austin against Adimantus chap. 12. The Lord made no difficulty to say This is my body when he gaue the signe of his body Where we see that he expoundeth this word Body by signe of my body In his three and twentieth Epistle to Boniface The holy signe of Christs
not good to be too deepely engaged to him and t is a credite for a man to satisfie for himselfe whence it followes that the diuell that makes long satisfaction with euerlasting torments shall purchase the more credire Besides it is a goodly ambition to giue vnto God more then we owe him by performing these supererogatory satisfactions for so it is to be feared that God finding himselfe indebted to such a number of Friers may bee in danger of turning banckrupt O spirite of blasphemy and prophanation of the Gospell O wonderfull patience of the Lord But now let vs take a view how this superfluity of satisfaction of the Saints is distributed The Pope opens this Treasure and drawing thence spirituall graces Of the distribution of the treasure of the Church doth variously make distribution of them sometimes hee giues particular priuiledges to certaine Orders and Fraternities So Pope Sixtus quintus in the yeare 1586. In the booke of Indulgences graunted to the Cordeliers printed at Paris by Iean le Bouc 1597. the seuenth of May graunted to all those of the Order of the Cordeliers that on the Eue of Palme-sonday and on Midsomer Eue and on the Eue of Io. Port-latin shall say fiue Pater-nosters and as many Aue-Maries a Pardon for all their sinnes beside the power of easing one soule in Purgatory And in as bountiful a manner hath the Pope graunted to the Order of the Friers Carmelites a priuiledge that they shall continue in Purgatorie no longer then the Saterday after their departure Sometimes againe the Pope disperseth certaine holy graines and hallowed Crosses the saluting of which with an Aue-Mary doth purchase a Pardon for a hundred yeares or peraduenture a plenary Indulgence Our Kings Ambassadours comming from Rome doe ordinarily bring with them such gratifications His Holinesse is also pleased to send vnto diuers places certaine priuiledged Altars vpon which if a Masse or two chance to be vttered they redeeme a soule out of Purgatory The Church of the Feuillans at Paris hath this priuiledge that euery Masse that is there sung for the dead on the Munday or Wednesday doth redeeme a soule from Purgatory for the Masses said on other dayes haue no such vertue in them to which purpose Mr. Coeffetean could haue alleadged some place of S. Paul but that he bethought him not of it Moreouer the Pope opening this Treasure doth now and then graunt certaine liberatory Bulles from Purgatory in fauour of some persons of quality and at the instance of their parents which Buls are paide for in Ducats of the Chamber at the end whereof there should not be written Datum Romae dated at Rome but venditum Romae solde at Rome For there is no reason that this treasure should be opened for the soule of euery monilesse beggar But the most ordinary manner of this distribution is that the Pope sets downe some proportion or number of Pardons for certaine Churches in some more in some lesse We haue a booke expresly written of Romane Indulgences printed at Rome by Iulio Accolto Ann. 1570. out of which take this example among a thousand others In the moneth of February vpon Septuagessima sonday for going the Station vnto S. Lawrence without the walles there is graunted a plenary Indulgence beside a pardon for eleuen thousand yeares and forty eight Quarentaines and remission of one third part of all sinnes and the redemption of a soule out of Purgatory This is one of the high Holy-dayes Vpon the Wednesday after S. Lucy being Ember-weeke the Station is to S. Maryes the greater for which an Indulgence is graunted for eight and twenty thousand yeares and as many Quarentaines and remission of one third part of sinnes yea and a plenary pardon for all sinnes The same booke saith that for each dayes repaire to S. Eusebies Church a pardon is vndoubtedly graunted for threescore and eighteene thousand yeares and as many Quarentaines and that on euery All-Saints day there is in al the principal Churches sixe thousand yeares of an infallible pardon But especially his Holinesse doth grow prodigall in the dissipation of this Treasure in the yeare of Iubile which is now celebrated euery fiue and twentieth yeare hauing made a kinde of circle of sinne as it were a solar reuolution of the forgiuing of sinnes then Indulgences flie thicke abroad and the Pope doth freely and fully pardon all sinne the place of this Iubile are the Stations at Rome prouided that they bee resorted vnto for thirty dayes whether of consecution or intermission it matters not then Pilgrims flocke from all partes and one Nation enuying anothers quarrels and blowes are often exchanged among them the next yeare after his Holinesse conueyes the Iubile ouer the Alpes and withall sendes the same spirituall fauours to two or three places in Fraunce and so in Spaine Now if death chaunce to take any out of the world in this yeare of Iubile no question but he goeth straight to Paradice but he that vnfortunately dies the yeare before his lot is to frie in Purgatory and must misse of this pontificall bounty vnlesse the Pope by a speciall pardon doe priuiledge him from this fire But hence arise sundry other inconueniences for in places not aboue fifty or a hundred leagues from the place where the Iubile is kept such as are well horsed and haue mony in their purse doe easily obtaine pardon for their sinnes but he that hath neyther horse nor money for his iourney is excluded from this great happinesse for why is he so beggerly Or wherefore should he want horse flesh Or why is he such an Asse that he should not finde himselfe a good paire of legges and therefore shal haue no remission of sinnes And therefore it is a goodly matter to dwell at Rome and be at the Well-head of these pardons without running so farre after them neyther is it credible that any that dwels at Rome vnlesse he be a very lob should goe to Purgatory for there is the spring of spirituall graces and a man may euery day get fiue or sixe hundred yeares of Pardons which is forsooth a gallant prouision at the yeares end Let the Reader take his counters and cast vp the reckoning Now if any shall atrest a Pilgrime trauelling toward the Iubile this is a case of speciall reseruation and from a sinne of this high nature none of this side the Alpes can giue absolution Bulla de Caena Domini de casibus reseruatis marry for murther or adultery or such sinnes as offend onely the law of God and hinder not the Popes profite the matter is more easie for we must obserue that in the Buls of pardon this clause is ordinarily inserted that these Pardons are granted manus porrigentibus adiutrices to such as put forth helping handes for which purpose there are Trunckes and Chests set at the gates and euery one is exhorted to spit in the Bason These high dayes of Pardon are euen the Faires of Babylon
to his Lordlinesse They alleadge the Images of the Cherubins made by the Commaundement of God which makes very much for our side for they were fastened in the Sanctuary where the people came not at all for God concealing them from the sight of the people preuented their Idolatry Whence appeareth the strange boldenesse of Bellarmine in the 12. Chapter of his booke of Images Imagines Cherubin super arcaÌ„ existentes necessario adorabantur ab ijs qui arcam adorabant where without any purpose he presumeth to affirme that the Israclites did worship the Cherubins with the Arke If so be the Iewes worshipped not the Angels how would they haue worshipped their Images hee should first then haue prooued that the people of God worshipped the Angels in the Temple or addressed their prayers vnto them And had the children of Israel worshipped the Arke as he falsely supposeth may it thence be concluded that they worshipped the Cherubins placed on the Arke he that saluteth the King doth he salute his hat or his habit this hath neither reason nor likelyhood Neither was the brasen Serpent worshipped or adored for as soone as the people began to performe any worship vnto it Ezechias brake it in pieces now it is impossible that the Israelites should haue thought that this peece of brasse was God the wit of man was neuer so blunted but they performed a respectiue seruice vnto the Serpent because of the power of God wherof that was a memoriall These men mend not their market by telling vs that they worship not the Images of false Gods as did the Paynims but the Images of the friends and seruants of God for Idolatry is called in the Scripture adultery and an adulterous woman cannot be excused in saying that she betakes not her selfe to her husbands enemies but onely to his friendes and in so ticklish a point and whereof God is so â—ealous we must be grounded vpon the commaundement of God and to make it appeare that God would haue vs to worship the Images of his seruants or that we should yeeld them some religious seruice or bow our knee before them and not shiftingly to shunne the question in shewing that it is lawfull to make pictures whereas the question is concerning the seruice that ought to bee performed vnto them Being thus vrged in place of alleaging the commandement of God they bring vs a distinction of Latria and Dulia and cast these greeke wordes like a handfull of sand in the peoples eyes It would be easie for vs to shew by a great number of greeke authorities that Dulia belongeth also vnto God * 2. Chron. 12.8 Which is the 4. c. in the greek And 1. Sam. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obserue also that S. Austin by the word Dulia vnderstaÌ„ds not religious worship but a ciuil reuereÌ„ce yeelded vnto men aliue yea vnto God onlie when it signifies religious seruice and that Latria is often referred vnto men But this matters not inasmuch as the seruice and inferiour adoration which they attribute vnto the Saints to their Images is alwaies a religious seruice and a voluntarie worship tending to the attainement of saluation Therefore they are perpetually foyled seing they can neither proue that this inferior worship belongeth vnto the Saints or to their Images nor that God hath commanded that anie religious seruice should be yeelded vnto their Images They being vnfurnished with proofes out of the word of God they flie vnto miracles and that they haue done of late For the second Councell of Nice saith that b â—ct 4. Quamobrem miracula a nostris imaginibus non eduntur cui sanè ita sit resposum Miracula non creditibê° data sunt then none were made c Lib de imaginibus cap §. Quid quod Bellarmine tels of a Deuil that promised a Heremite that he would trouble him no more vpon condition that hee would promise him not to worship any longer the Image of the Virgin Marie The Image of our Ladie of Montferrat in Spaine that fell from heauen was painted by S. Luke who was a painter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 19.35 if these men may be credited Which S. Hierome in his catalogue hath omitted S. Paul saith that he was a Phisitian But the Church of Rome hath made him a painter since he went to heauen Coloss 4.13 whence also come our Images Certainly we may well say that Clemens Alexandrinus and Tertullian would not haue thought the Art of painting to be wicked and vnlawfull if they had knowne S. Luke had beene a painter and it is strange that the auncient writers make no mention of his Images and where were they al the foure first ages that the Churches of the Christians were without pictures With like abuse doe they auerre that our Ladie of Loretto drawne by the same hand There is one also made by S. Luk at Rome in S. Maries in Porticu Villamont l 1 c. 14. and one at S. Iustines at Padua made also by S. Luke was carryed by Angels through the aire together with the chamber wherein shee was kept from Nazaret into Italie in the yeare 1369. for this fable is of no greater antiquity And it is strange how the auncient Christians which were in Syria neglected that chamber and that Image of such excellencie and how that image could subsist among the spoiles of the Turkes and Saracens which turnde all thinges vpside downe and that it should not be seene till after fourteene hundred yeares and that the Angels had not bethought themselues of transporting it sooner And that so rare a storie should not haue any authour worthie the naming To this Image hath Pope Sixtus the fourth granted an indulgence of eleuen thousand yeares for saying a short praier of three lines which is publikelie sold By reason of the multitude of offerings in his time the farming thereof was enhanced to a price incredible but the gaines are now shrunke to the one halfe There is much adoe made at Rome about the picture of Christ which he sent vnto King Agbarus drawne vpon a peece of linnen concerning which the first that made anie mention is Euagrius whose storie determineth about the sixt hundred yeare of our Lord. Which is doubtlesse a matter admirable that none hath mentioned it before and that Eusebius who neare the end of the first booke of his hystorie speaketh at large of this Agbarus and of certaine Epistles sent from him vnto Christ and from Christ vnto him hath not a word of this picture And yet notwithstanding Gelasius Bishop of Rome in the fifteenth distinction of the Decrees and after him Isidore account these Epistles fabulous and Apocryphall Sith that Eusebius makes him speake erroneously to Thadeus the Apostle sent vnto Agbarus saying that in the death of Iesus Christ his Deitie was diminished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And which is more if this hystorie of Agbarus were true then had S. Paul told an vntruth
through the instigation of the Diuell In the 20. chapter of my Apologie for the Supper of the Lord. An Epistle which witnesseth that S. Austen died excommunicated out of the Church of Rome which also wee haue elsewhere defended against Coeffeteaus accusations Neither was this the first ordinance by which these Bishops sought to stifle the growing tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome wherby he laboured to draw the appeales of the causes of Affrica to himselfe his purpose being that they who were condemned in Affrica by the Councels might make their appeale ouer the Sea that is into Italy For these same Bishops in another Councell assembled at Mileuitum in the two and twentieth Canon say If they who are condemned by the neighbour Bishops thinke that they may appeale from their iudgement Quod si ab cis prouocandum putauerint non prouocent nisi ad Affricana Concilia vel ad Primates prouinciarum suarum ad Transmarina autem qui putauerit appellandum à nullo intra Affricam in communione suscipiatur let them not appeale any whither else then to the Councels of Affrica or to the Primates of their Prouinces But whosoeuer shall appeale beyond the Sea let him not be admitted to the Communion by any in all Affrica These men feared neuer a whit least there might come from Rome a lapse vpon their Benefices or a deuolution to the Pope they did not expect from him the Archbishops Pall nor the Cardinals Hat nor any liberality of consecrated grains nor feared they his excommunication whose power in those dayes passed little further then mount Apennine And here out of this Discourse the Reader shall further learne that this very Canon is found in the Romane Decrees in the second Cause in the Canon Placuit but wholly corrupted and miserably falsified for after these wordes Whosoeuer shall appeale beyond the Sea let him not be receiued by any to the Communion there is a peece of another stuffe and another coulour vnhandsomely patched on vnlesse he appeale to the Sea of Rome Nisi forte Romanam sedem appellancrit how could this exception be allowable seeing that this Canon of the Councell was expresly made against the Sea of Rome So is it also against the truth and euidence of all the Coppies Yea so farre are the auncient customes and ordinances from giuing any Iurisdiction to the Bishop of Rome ouer other Patriarches that here is a flat Canon of the Councell of Nice recyted by Ruffinus to the contrary in his first booke and fift chapter They ordaine also that in Alexandria and in the Citie of Rome the auncient custome be kept to wit Et vt apud Aleandriam in vrbe Roma vetusta consuetudo seruetur vt vel ille Aegypti vel hic suburbicarum Ecclesiarum solicitudinem gerat that he of Alexandria haue the care of Egypt the Bishop of Rome of all suburbicary Churches that is of all the Cities that were vnder the authoritie and ciuill iurisdiction of the citie of Rome These Fathers did liberally cut him out a large share as the times then were but scant enough according to his ambition as now it is S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage wrote many Epistles to Cornelius Bishop of Rome al which beare this inscription Cyprian to Cornelius his brother sendeth greeting which had bin a great vnreuerence if Cornelius had bin head of the Vniuersall Church or if he had had power of Iurisdiction ouer S. Cyprian So likewise in the fourth booke of Socrates cap. 11. the Eastern Bishops who write to Liberius Bishop of Rome Socrates lib. 4. cap. 9. Domino fratri collegae nostro call him nothing but Brother and Companion yea they speake like Masters for qualifying themselues the Catholike and Apostolike Church they denounce Anathema against the Councel of Ariminum without expecting the iudgement or the will and pleasure of Liberius Thereupon Leo the first This is the Title of the three first Epistles albeit he speake bigge in his Epistles neuerthelesse he commonly taketh no other Title to him but onely this Leo Bishop of the Citie of Rome to such and such sendeth greeting See here a notable Example The auncient custome of the Church was that the penitents should confesse their faults aloude in the face of the Church But the Church being growne into wealth and riches many men refused to vndergoe this shame Sozom. l. 7. c. 16. Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 19. and iudged it intollerable To giue them content herein an order was established that euery Church should haue a Penetenciary Priest who should receiue their confessions in secret This order hauing beene euery where receiued Neuerthelesse Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople abolished this custome throughout all the East without asking the Bishop of Romes counsel who also did not reprehend him for it and this hath euer since so remained Thereupon I say that if Nectarius had beene subiect to the Bishop of Rome he would neuer haue vndertaken so great a matter without his aduise and contrary to his example Should a Bishop of Paris or Lyons bee borne withall now adaies if of his owne authority without aduise from the Pope he should put away auricular confession out of his Bishopricke Here are other examples It appeareth by S. Austens 118. Epistle to Ianuarius This Epistle is found in the 1. Tome of the Councels in the page 461. of the Collen Edition that in Rome they fasted on the Satterday but at Millan they did not so Damasus Bishop of Rome writing to S. Ierome complayneth that the seruice and the singing in the Church of Rome was performed with ill grace and vnseemly and with too great simplicity and requesteth Ierome to teach him the custome of the singing and seruice of the Greeke Church that he might bring it into the Church of Rome Is it credible that the Church of Rome would haue dayned to be the Disciple of other Churches and to correct her faults by the example of her neyghbour Churches if she had ruled and gouerned all other Churches as she doth to this day S. Ierome in an Epistle to Euagrius sheweth that the custome of other Churches touching Deacons was better then that of Rome which he saith was but a City from whence pride first sprunge So the Canon Aliter in the 31. Distinction saith That the Tradition of the Easterne Churches is one and that of the Church of Rome another for there the Priests and Deacons doe marry but here not And this Canon is attributed to Pope Steuen to whom Cyprian writeth Socrates lib. 5. cap. 21. maketh a long Bed-roule of diuers Church-customs and sheweth how different the Churches were in the obseruation of Fastes of the marriage of Churchmen and of the dayes of publique Assemblies which diuersity is an euident proofe that they were not all gouerned by one onely vniuersall head otherwise they should all haue beene conformed to the Ordinanances of the Church of Rome
way to the Gospell And all this was spoken to make his charge equall with the rest of the most excellent Apostles and not as Coeffeteau dreameth to be an example of humilitie to his Superior and of liberty in place of an inferiour indeede S. Ambrose vpon this place giueth to S. Paul and S. Peter an equall soueraignty saying he nameth Peter onely and compareth him with him because he receiued the Primacy to found the Church and saith that Paul was in like manner chosen to haue the superiority in founding the Churches of the Gentils And againe hee saith And a little after Vt dignus esset habere primatum in praedicatione gentium sicut habebat Petrus in praedicatione Circumcisionis to the end that Paul might he well worthy to haue the Primacy in preaching to the Gentiles as Peter in preaching to those of the Circumcision Now lest any man should say that S. Peter had also the Primacy ouer the Gentiles he addeth Paulus gratiam primatus gentium sibi soli vendicat concessam a Deo Paul challengeth that the Soueraignty ouer the Gentiles was by the fauour of God graunted to him alone By this it appeareth with how small credite Coeffeteau alleadgeth Ambrose vpon this place Chrysostome vppon the same text of the second to the Galat. compareth S. Peter to S. Paul in these wordes Paul after so many and so mighty effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hauing no need of S. Peter nor of his instruction but being equall vnto him in dignity for I will at this present say no more Hee would perhaps haue said that Paul was greater then he as saith Origen Homily 3. vpon Numbers that S. Paul was the greatest of the Apostles whence it followeth Ipse ergo Paulus Apostolorum Maximus qui sciret multos esse c. that if Chrysostome or any other call S. Peter the first or chiefe of the Apostles he vnderstood it eyther in age or in order of place and not in Iurisdiction ouer the rest of the Apostles otherwise these Fathers should haue contradicted themselues and as for rancke and precedency S. Paul seemes little to haue regarded that too for he nameth S. Iames before S. Peter Gal. 2. ver 9. Iames and Cephas and Iohn 1. Cor. cap. 9. The brethren of the Lord and Cephas As also doth S. Iohn cap. 1. vers 44. saying Philip was of Bâ—thsaida the towne of Andrew and of Peter In like manner when Iesus sent them to preach two and two together S. Peter was coupled with another as his fellow in that holy labour And in Acts 8. the Apostles sent Peter and Iohn to preach in Samaria Oh what a goodly matter would it be now adayes if an Assembly of Bishops should send the Pope and a companion ioyned with him to preach in Swisser-land or in the valley of Augrogne I thinke sure Mr. Coeffeteau would not like well of it who auoyding this poynt answereth nothing to that which his Maiesty of England affirmeth to wit that the Bishops of Rome haue alwayes beene subiect to the Councels and that the Councell of Constance not long ago vsing this authority did depose three Popes but he therein shifteth betaketh himselfe to those Titles which the Pope assumeth and which the ancients do giue vnto him Of the Titles of quality of the Romane Bishop and whether he be S. PETERS Successor or no. Mr. Coeffeteau confesseth to the King of England that the Pope is called GOD Coeff fol. 93. and that he is a God on earth but in the same sense that the Scripture calleth Kings and other Potentates Gods But this is a faint and trifling excuse and much contrary to his Holinesse meaning For in the old Testament the title of God is expresly giuen vnto Princes in the plurall number but to attribute vnto himselfe the name of GOD in the singular is a thing that no Christian Prince or Prelate euer did The Bishop of Rome is the first that hath vsurped this title in this later age The new Testament also attributeth the name of God in the singular to none but the soueraigne God 2. Cor. 4. or else Sathan whom the Apostle calleth the God of this world because in this world he seeketh to set footing into Gods roome and the Pagan Emperors haue also taken vpon them the Title of God Sueton. in Domitiano cap. 13. Dominus Deus noster fiâ— fieri in bâ—â— Martialis l. 5. Epigâ— 8. Edictuâ—â— Dom ni Dâ—â—que nostri as Domitian and Bassian Caracalla And so the Pope in the Canon Satis Dist 96 And in the Glosse of the Extrauagant Cum inter he is called Dominus Deus noster the Lord our God And in the last Councell of Lateran Sess 9. Diuinae Maiestatis tuae conspectus The beholding of your diuine Maiesty And in the first booke of holy Ceremonies Sect. 7. cap. 6. The seat of God that is to say the Sea Apostolicall And so likewise Steuchus the Popes Library-keeper in his booke of Constantines Donation Sedes Dei id est sedes Apostolica saith that Constantine held Syluester for God ador auit vt Deum and worshippted him as God In Italy at the gate of Tolentine there is this inscription Paulo 3. Optimo Maximo in terris Deo To Paul the third the best and greatest God on earth Of this there are infinite examples Now that the Pope is not called God in the same sense that Kings are called Gods in the Scripture appeareth by this that he doth not onely attribute vnto himselfe the name of God but also those very honours and preheminences that belong vnto none but God alone for he wil be worshipped on earth as God The last Councell of Lateran Session 3. and Session 10. sayth that the Pope ought to be worshipped of all people and doth most resemble God And lest a man should thinke that it speaketh of a ciuill kinde of worship it expoundeth it selfe and sheweth with what worship it should be worshipped to wit with the same adoration that is spoken of Psalme 72. Ador abunt eum omnes reges terrae All the Kings of the earth shall worship him where the Psalmist speaketh of that adoration which is due vnto Iesus Christ as Tertullian teacheth lib. 5. against Martion cap. 9. And so doth the Poet Mantuan vnderstand it that speaketh thus of the Pope Ense potents gemino cuius vestigia adorant Caesar aurato vestit imurice Reges That is His power hath two swords in store Him Empâ—rours serue and do adore Kings in Robes for Princes meete Of golde and Purple kisse his feete The Histories of these later ages are full of examples of this adoration of Popes Sigonius lib. 9. Populum diuisa per vicos pecunia ad ador andum inuitant In the second Tome of the Councels they would perswade the Emperour Iustinian that he ought to adore Pope Agapet But the most remarkeable adoration is that which is giuen
the Bishops of the world We graunt then willingly that the auncient Bishops of Rome before the corruption of Doctrine and vsurpation of the Monarchie in the Church were successors of S. Peter in the Bishoppricke of Rome onely euen as the Bishop of Corinth was successor to S. Paul but withall we adde this that through the corruption of Doctrine which hath by little little crept into the Church of Rome euery age hauing added and contributed thereunto hee is now wholy and iustly falne from that succession For he may not in no wise be called Peters successor who oppugneth the Doctrine preached by S. Peter and who in the Chaire of verity doth establish a lie The Turke may not bee called successor to the Emperour of Greece albeit he be seated in his place seeing that he is rather his subuerter I would haue one shew me that euer S. Peter preached any other purgatory then the bloud of Iesus Christ or any other satisfaction to the iustice of God then his obedience any other sacrifice propitiatory then his death That euer he gaue pardons for an hundred thousand yeares or drew soules out of Purgatory with buls and indulgences that he euer degraded Emperours that he tooke away from the people the reading of the holy Scriptures or the Communion of the Cup or that he commaunded the worshipping of Images and publique Seruice to bee said in an vnknowne tongue or that he euer constrayned other Bishops to take from him letters of Inuestiture and to pay vnto him Annates Or that euer S. Peter was called God on earth the Spouse of the Church and caused himselfe to be worshipped or that euer he sung Masse or commaunded the Host to be adored or that euer he left off preaching the Gospell or quitted the Crosier-staffe to take vnto him a triple Diaderne If I say they can shew me that S. Peter euer did these things then though the Pope were Bishop but of one Village alone I will willingly acknowledge him for S. Peters Successor but still in the Bishopricke only and not in the Apostleship which ended in his person and is not deriued vnto his Successors in particular Churches THus doth the confession of the King of Englands faith remain firme and vnshaken against which Coeffeteau hath armed himselfe with humane testimonies being vtterly destitute of any authority out of the booke of God For as they that are ready to drowne catch hold on any thing so these men in a desperate cause embrace all defences but least of all those that be good Againe whatsoeuer this Doctor alleadgeth out of the Fathers is found to be eyther false or clipt or vtterly counterfeit This payment is not currant especially to such a Prince who hath consecrated his penne to the defence of the truth But this is not to be imputed to Coeffeteaus disability but to the vnlawfulnesse of the cause vnto which we haue in such sort satisfied as whosoeuer shall examine my worke he shall finde an answere to Bellarmines booke also which he hath not long since made against the said booke of the King of great Britaine with more weakenesse and lesse dexterity then Coeffeteau hath done There remayneth the last part of his Maiesties booke wherein with a straine of admirable wit assisted by the spirit of God hee openeth the booke closed with seuen seales and piercing into the secrets of sacred Prophesies he findeth in the seat of Rome the full accomplishment of the Apocalyps When hate and bitternesse shall be extinguished through time Posterity shall admire both the worke and the person and looking backe into ages past for the like patterne shall not be able to finde any thing to be compared with it We will not feare then to enter into these darkenesses vnder so great a guide for it is hard eyther to stumble or to stray where so faire a Torch doth light and shine before vs. But we must here take breath a while before we enter into this taske For the sudden death of our King like a great cracke of Thunder benummeth our handes with astonishment and troubleth our spirits with griefe and anguish Let vs then giue place to necessity and leaue to write that we may haue leisure to lament and let Posterity carefully bethinke it selfe of remedies and hold it for a thing most certaine that hee that setteth light by his owne life is master of another mans and that there is nothing so forcible to make vs to contemne our owne liues as this new doctrine which by the murther of Kings openeth the way to the Kingdome of heauen FINIS Faults necessarily to bee corrected The first number noteth the Page the second the Line The letter R. standeth for Reade L. signifieth the line in the same PAGE PAge 13.25 r. Siloe 14.20 r. Enfant 17.19 r. Armies l. 24. r. these 20.15 r. villanies 42.13 for that r. as l. 19. r. State 49.25 r. things that appeare are more feared c. 56. l. vlt. r retorted 62.2 r. infinity of businesses 71.3 for or r. and. 74.2 r. differents 79.24 r. in the Bookes of the Acts and Charters 81.1 r. See and in the margent paulum annixus 82.1 r. whom l. 3 r. giue it l. 20. r. Ostia 84.25 r. deuolued 90.27 r. Ruota 91.4 r. fifth part or fifth penny 95.14 blot out he l. 25. r. Distinction 97.23 for alleadged r. already 99.18 make it 560.100.26 r. no wayes for now adayes 101.24 for take r. make 102 17. r. aboue 104.24 for Sinnes r. Summes 106.25 r Bellisarius 107.20 r. Conon 108.4 r. debonnaire l. 7. for to r. doe 110.1 for penalty r. priuity 119.12 Consiglio l. 17. r. retchlesse 125.7 for which is r. with l. 11. r. Augustin l. 25. for as r. and. in the margent Ponticus verunnius 127.20 r. different 136.24 blot out kinde in the marg r. communia debere 140.9 r messieurs l. 12. r. of for or 147.15 r. receiued them 158.2 r. or no more 160.25 r. Nattiers 161.1 blot out the. 168.4 r. Doctors l. 17. madonna 27. Letanies 169.22 for Fathers r. saluation 173.11 r. the brecz-flies 174.9 r. discourse l. 19. r. she for he 177. l. the last r. Antonine 178 27. r. places for phrases 180.18 r. as not being 182.18 r. lauour l. 20. r. washed 188.18 r. but saith 193.11 r no prescription 197.27 for toward r. ouer vs. 203.20 r. out of the 217.23 for ouer turnes r. powreth out of l. the last r. therefore 221.1 blot out the. 229.28 r. they saw well that if they should breake 261.3 for tongues r. Fire-tongs 281.11 r. commanded 300.1 r. meditation 301.8 for defectiue r. wanting 305.4 r. another 307.22 blot out that l. 23. r. should 308.1 blot out bad 309.25 r. with l. 28. r. istud 349.14 for if r. though 369.28 r. 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