so that except the Churches reasons do so fully conuince you that it manifestly appeare to you that she proposeth to our beliefe that only which is conteined in the Scriptures except you see this I say you will not yeild nor do you thinke it meet that you should yeild being a man of such yeares Thus to stand vpon reasons drawne from Scripture is I say an hereticall tricke For those ancient Heretikes amongst whome as S. Augustine saith it was ordinarie to oppose their reasons and arguments to countermaund the definitions of the Church these heretikes I say did not vrge reason without Scripture but they boasted that they had and exacted likewise of the Church argumēts out of Scripture so cleere and so perspicuous that mans vnderstanding cannot resist against them And the same kind of conuincing arguments our Nouellestes require of the Catholike Church nor will they graunt any man to be an Heretike but such a oneas being conuinced by testimonies of Scriptures cleerly seeth that to be affirmed in Scriptures which the Church would haue to be beleeued notwithstanding he refuseth to belieue This is their doctrine which if we once admit to be currant t' is impossible there should be any men in the world properlie Heretikes For if that which the Church proposeth to be belieued they find not cleerlie deliuered in Scripture although they disagree from the Church they be not Heretikes as they say And on the other side if they see the doctrines of the Church to be cleerlie contained in Scripture they cannot dissent from them vnles they belieue either that God can lie or that the Scriptures of Christians be not the word of God And if they beleeue either of these two things they be not properly Heretiks For if they beleeue that God can lie they are not Heretikes but Atheists if they beleeue that God is true but thinke that Christian Scriptures be not his word they be not Heretikes but Infidells seing they wholy deny Scriptures and as Tertullian saith There can be no Heretike without Scriptures Praes c. 39. And if you say they be Heretiks that deny the Scriptures not wholy but in part then this followes that there can be no Heretike which doth not refuse some part of Canonicall Scriptures And then I aske of Protestants how they can taxe vs Catholikes for Heresy who from the Canon exclude no booke which they themselues admit nor do we find the doctrines cleerlie deliuered in Scriptures which they so boldly and clamorously contend to be conteined in them But my purpose is not at this time to ouerthrow this proud Tower of Heresy which is not to beleeue the Church vnlesse they see with their owne eys that her doctrine is conteined in Scripture 30. This only I vrge that you Antony were come to this last step towards Apostasy which is not to yield to the Churches authority without she make her word good by weighty reasons that out of presumption of your Wit and Learning but especially out of a great opinion of the ten Bookes you promise to print you haue shamefully reuolted frō the Church That which we read of Agar Sara's handmaide Gen. 16. may very well be applied to you Who perceauing that she had conceaued with child set light by her Mistresse For as soone as you had conceaued in your braine that new forme plot of an Ecclesiasticall gouernement and Christian vnion you forthwith contemned the iudgment of the Roman Church to whō you should haue beene obsequious submitting and captiuating your iudgment But it seemes by your manner of proceeding that you be of opinion that in those your ten Bookes more is conteined then in the whole Catholike world besids For you promise many great wonderfull Benefits which by your Reuolt from the Pope shall redound to the Church to witt the suppression of Schisme the vniting of Churches the extinguishing of Heresies the pacification of Princes from open Hostility and the combining of their forces for the subuersion of the Turke with the infranchisement of Christiā Captiues groaning vnder their yoke These are great and glorious things Let vs now see by what power you will performe them As Dauid with fiue stones encountred Goliah so you with the same number of bookes twice told will enter into combat with the aforenamed Monsters The Church say you shall shortly heare my voyce I will speake to the hart of Ierusalem I will call her forth Thus you and yet if I be not deceaued God only is he that speakes to the hart as for men euen the greatest the most learned and eloquent while they inuite men to heauenly matters of themselues can do no more but knocke at their eares Nor do I see vpon what grounds you may be so sure that your voyce should penetrate into the hart of the Church though I see very well that you imagine there is no small force but rather some diuine efficacy in your voyce Well what is that you will proclayme that shall be heard ouer Christendome Let vs now heare it from you own mouth I will say you shortly put forth my ten Bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth in which principally I endeauour that the Roman Errours may be detected the truth and soundnes both of Doctrine and Discipline may appeare that many of the Churches cast forth and reiected by the Roman Church may be reteyned still in a Catholike sense That the way of vnion betweene the Churches of Christ may be demonstrated or at least pointed at with a nod or finger And that if it be possible that is if it be possible my bookes wil do the deed we may all say and thincke the same thinges and so all Schismes may be repressed that the occasions may be taken away from Christian Princes of oppressing one another that therby the better they may direct their forces in such sort that the Churches of Christ groning vnder Infidel Tyrantes may be recouered to their former liberty Thus you write of your Booke What victories will this your Child yet in wombe get for the Church What ouerthrowes and woes will he worke vpon Heretiks if he may be once happily borne into the world 31. Whose birth therefore you iudge a matter of such consequence that any wickednes may be committed that he may be borne For I pray you is it not a wicked thing to forsake the Church Yes certainly and yet you finding no possibility to print your booke in a Catholike Country rent your self wholy from the Catholike Church that so your ympe finding no other way of passage to life might worke himselfe into the world by renting his mother Againe is it not great wickednes for Pastours to forsake their flock to the continuall tuition whereof the law of God seuerely bindeth them Without question it is Yet you write in this manner It was very necessary for me to leaue my flocke that so hauing broken also these bandes being at more liberty I might be the
A SVRVEY OF THE APOSTASY OF MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS Sometyme Arch-bishop of SPALATO Drawne out his owne Booke and written in Latin by Fidelis Annosus Verementanus Druinus Deuine AND Translated into English by A.M. Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XVII THE AVTHOVR to the Reader GENTLE Reader I wish thee to peruse this Treatise with the same mind and affection wherwith it was written We make triall whether by whole some admonitiōs we can reclay me an Apostata by order a Priest in dignity an Arch-bishop and to vse no worse tearmes by nature and in manners a Man sinning out of human leuity and folly We would not arraigne him vpon other mens euidence but make him a course most reasonable both Plantisse and Defendant in his owne cause and the Holy Scriptures with the ancient Fathers his Iudges To whose Sentence and Authority if he yield we will entertaine with ioy his Returne whose Flight and Apostasy we now commiserate But if feare of shame be more forcible with him then loue of Truth if he will be stubborne in his errours and obdurate in his sinnes he shall perish to himselfe an example for others to beware and a meanes of saluation of many THE TRANSLATOVR to the Reader I Thought good to let thee vnderstand Courteous Reader that the Authour of this Suruey in citing the pages of the Arch-bishops Booke followeth the London Edition printed for Iohn Bill The wordes of the Arch-bishop I haue endeauoured to translate faithfully into English and haue not followed the supposed English Translation which indeed is no translation at all but a vayne and idle storish vpon the matter many times very opposite to the Text darke and without sense in so much that it may seeme the Translatour therof either did not vnderstand well the Latin tongue or was ashamed at the true conceits of his Arch-hishop and therfore would not set them forth in English A SVRVEY OF THE APOSTASY OF MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS Sometimes Archbishop of SPALATO Drawne out of his owne Booke by Fidelis Annosus Verementanus Druinus NO sooner was your Booke Marke Antony deliuered into my hands by a friend of mine wherein you set downe the purpose of your going but I presently perused it I expected from such an Apostata some new and colourable reasons of reuolte from the Catholike Church When I found nothing but vulgar excuses vsurped by ancient Heretikes of all ages growne by long vsage worne thred bare I could not but wonder at your Proiect how you could perswade your selfe that with a few silly and ill compacted leaues a wickednes of all others the greatest and fowlest could so easily be shrowded And not only you bring nothing wherwith to excuse your crime but so vnwarily and grossely you discouer your selfe that from the steps left printed in your booke the whole race of your Apostasy may not only be traced and tracked out but fully shaped forth It is needlesse therfore for him that would know you to seeke out matters a far off or to listen to rumors euer vncertaine and often false The Rat by his owne sauour is sufficiently bewrayed out of your owne booke may be gathered inough and too much to declare Who you were and who now you are From hence haue I taken an Inuentory of your Apostasy to the publishing wherof foure causes haue moued me First least with the vaine titulary sound wherewith you set your selfe forth in the front of your booke any be deceaued to thinke that which Tertullian writeth should not be true Tertul. de praesc ca. 3. That those are not to be esteemed prudent nor faithfull nor learned whome heresies can peruert The second that by this your example others may become more wary in following your stepps whose fal so deseruedly they dread to behold Thirdly that the English Protestants may learne to be ashamed to glory so much in you whome ouer greedily they admitted with promise to themselues you would proue a fatall writer against Rome They that know you what will they say Doubtles that one of weake sight may raigne amongst the blind that beggers haue nothing but a few ragges to boast of that men are easily perswaded that shall come to passe which earnestly they desire The fourth cause concerneth your selfe who may reape this aboundant fruite out of this Suruey to know your selfe The speciall end of my writing is your saluation Should not I write for him for whome Christ died should I spare my labour of writing for you when God of sheding his bloud for you made no end but with his life Peruse then with a quiet mind what charity hath suggested regard not how sharpe the things are which you read but how true how authentically proued God being the Iudge your owne conscience giuing euidence Your disease will not permit that I should deale coldly or dissemble with you it hath wrought into the in most parts of your body it hath dispersed it selfe into the bowells nor could I search into it lurking in the quick without your payne and feeling Strong must the medicines be that must cure you And nothing is stronger then the Truth nothing more wholesome to a man then the knowledge of himselfe the roote of all euill and errours being not to know ones self Christ threatens that Pastour who knows not himselfe with the penalty of Apostasy which of all other is the greatest If thou knowest not thy selfe Cant. 1. vers 8. go forth and follow after the steppes of thy flockes and feed thy kids besides the tabernacles of the Pastours Which place S. Augustine most elegantly declareth and so as he may seeme plainly to speake vnto you Aug. ep 40. If you know not your selfe sayth he go your wayes I do not cast you forth but get you hence that those which are within may say vnto you he went out from vs but he was not of vs. Go treade you the footing of your flockes not of one flock but of diuers and wandring flockes Go feed your goates not like to Peter to whome it is said feed my sheep Go feed your goates in the shepheards tabernacle not in the pastures where is one flock one Pastour That this punishment is inflicted on your self if you haue not lost togeather with faith all sense reason you cannot but acknowledg We truly haue not thrust you out but freely you went forth of your selfe Scarce had you departed when you lighted vpon steps diuers path-wayes of doctrine Lutheran Caluinian Zuinglian Anabaptistcall Arian different and opposite one to another Proceeding further you arriue not to the Tabernacle of one Pastour but to the shep-heards Tentes being not so much for the number of persons as for variety of opinions many Wherfore now at last looke back by what gate you entred into these mischiefes you knew not your selfe Had you but known your selfe you would neuer haue imagined much lesse haue writtē in the sixt page of your booke I am not ashamed to
fift generall Synod by an Edict of his which was read in the same Synode actione prima prohibited the writings of Seuerus an Heretike condemned by the Synod In 5. Syno gen act 1. Let not said he the writings of Seuerus remaine with any Christian Et in nouel Const. 42. but be had as prophane and odious by the Catholike Church and let them which haue such bookes Habetur in 5. generali Synodo collat 5. burne them vnles they will abide the perill thereof With like seuerity Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours both first of their names did prosecute Hereticall bookes in these words Let no man presume to reade possesse or write such bookes which withall diligence are to be searched for whersoeuer they be found to be burned in the publicke view of all men but those that are discouered to haue kept such bookes let them be sent to perpetuall banishment Nicepho l. 8. cap. 15. But of al others the Emperour Constantine the Great set forth the sharpest Edict against the bookes of Arius saying Our will is that if any writing of Arius be found it be committed to the fire that not only his wicked doctrine may perish but that also there may remaine no monument thereof yea and moreouer we enact If any man be detected to conceale any booke of his and not to burne it forthwith that he be adiudged to die For such a one being found guilty of the crime shal presently be put to death Behould how rigorous how seuere was Constantine What say you Antony to these decrees of Fathers and Princes Will you now suspect that for as much as the writings of Arius Nestorius Eutiches Seuerus were so roughly intreated that there must needs be something in them which the Christian doctrine could not conuince Be not so blasphemous I speake in a word If you know not the seuerity of the ancient Church in prohibiting the bookes of heretiks you are ignorant If you know it and would suspect thervpon that those Heretiks arguments were stronger then the Catholiks you are impious If you molest the present Church standing in equal termes with the ancient you are vniust 13. But now the other incitement of your suspitions and doubtes is to be looked into which then hapened when you first began being a Bishop to turne the Fathers For before that time you had not so much as saluted them a farre of For thus you declare the matter pag. 13. In the Theoriques I noted certaine sayings of the Fathers in many thinges very repugnant to the common doctrine wherein I was trayned vp in the Schooles and the same either passed ouer by my Maisters or not faithfully alleadged or not sufficiently or else falsly explicated Also the practise and forme of Ecclesiasticall discipline and spirituall gouerment of our times came to be very different from the ancient and thence my new mentioned suspitions were not a little augmented So you But the holy Ghost saith truly of you and your fellowes Prouer. 13. He that will part from his freind seekes occasions For euery where euen in your old manuscriptes did you hunt for calumnies wherewith to charge the Church which you had resolued to forsake And yet after all your diligence vsed with so great desire to find some shew of reason the causes you haue found out be most slender and such indeed as would haue moued no honest or prudent man to leaue a priuate friend much lesse the Catholike Church You found the Fathers sayinges in many thinges very different from the common Schoole learning either passed ouer by your Maisters or not faithfully cited or falsly explicated First you say all these things but neither are you able or do you go about to proue thē and yet faine would you haue your departure allowed euen by Catholikes Shall your bare word be belieued against the Maisters of the Church Shall Catholikes themselues against the Catholike Church giue credit to you a fugitiue an enemy It were impudency to craue this at their hands and folly to hope for it But admit all you obiect were true how slieght is all you say how ridiculous and making nothing at all for the mittigation of the crime of your Apostasy Your Maisters in the Schooles did explicate certaine places of the Fathers not so fully as they should or else vnproperly you perhaps were by their negligence brought into great straytes were there not other men in the Catholike Church learned inough to resolue your doubts put case the Maister had not satisfied you Sometime they did not faithfully alleadge testimonies how common and ordinary a thing is it for Scribes not to take well their Maisters words which they dictate in Schools though also what Maisters deliuer in schooles be not so exact as writings that are prepared for the presse Some things he wholy left out Surely a great fault And are you so great a straunger in schoole matters that know not this that the Maisters cannot possibly in the compasse of foure yeares to which the course of Diuinity is straytened giue full and ample satisfaction to all the testimonies of Fathers which are obiected against the Catholike doctrine by diuers Sectes of necessity many things are omitted which the Schollers afterward are to find out by their priuate industry But there are certaine sayings of Fathers which are very opposite to the doctrine that now is currant in the schooles This spoken in so generall tearmes is true What Catholike schoole man knowes it not Who euer denied it Nor do there want examples The common consent of Deuines is that those seauen days in which God accomplished the frame of the world were true dayes indeed distinguished by the heauens reuolution and the rising and setting of the light But who knows not that S. Augustine is of a contrary mind The Schooles agree that the Angells were not created before the world yet Nazianzen the great Light of Greece esteemes them elder then the world I could alleadge many more but to what end How do they serue to cloke your Apostasy Those Fathers sayings pretermitted or not fully explicated by your Maisters did they patronize your Sect You tell vs not what kind of Sect yours is nor do you plainly say that those Fathers sayings fauour you at all Suppose you should say they make for you might we not iustly put you to your proofe Lastly supposing that were true which you say only but prooue not That the moderne practise in many things now a dayes is different from the discipline of the Church of old what makes this for you Do you not see the times change men with the times with men customes It is the part of Ecclesiasticall wisedome to suite their Lawes Statues with the circumstances of times and persons to which purpose S. Augustine saith very well The former Councells are bettered by the later Therfore Antony you bring nothing that sound is for you excuse what you bring are either bare words
at Rome without all lawfull foundatiō there were innumerable new articles of faith dayly coyned and thrust vpon vs. And do you not yet perceaue your selfe to be blind that you see an vntruth that you see that which hath no being at all that you see a most huge nothing that at Rome there are new articles of faith coyned not in ech age in ech yeare or in ech day one but euery day many without number and yet vouchsafe you not to name vs one But rightly S. Ambrose Anger waytes on Enuy it festereth the mind Precat 2. ad Missam it dulles the senses it doubles the tongue it dims the eyes it disquiets the whole body especially if the Anger be so impotent as yours is a gainst the Pope which most intemperatly you bewray in these words The Maiesty say you of our Roman Pope is not so great that it ought to be feared that temporall and statly Maiesty is merely counterfait vsurpt it is t' is nothing So do you make shew to contemne the dignity you cannot reach to rather then any man should enioy it but your self You would haue it not to be at all seing you cannot ouerthrow it with your deedes You seeke to beate it into nothing by contemptuous speach This is the nature of Enuy and the property of enraged displeasure The Maiestie of the Roman Pope affrights you nothing So you professe yet S. Hierome borne in the same Dalmatia with you a farre more learned man more holy lesse timorous of to yes and humane vanities then your selfe was afraid of this maiesty Your greatnes saith he speaking to Pope Damasus dothterrify me but your curtesie inuites me Let the ambitious greatnes of the Roman dignity be laid a side whilest I speake with the successour of a Fisher man But it booteth not to stand refuting of sayings which only malice venteth That is now cleere which we intended to shew That you haue wel trodden the steps of contention and enuy which is the sixt downefal of your soules hasty running into Apostasy The seauenth Degree of Apostasy Contumacy and Contempt of the Supreme Pastour FROM the contumacy and contempt of the Pope men do easily fal into heresies which S. Cyprian affirmes do spring from no other head then that one Priest in the Church for the time being and one Iudge the Vicar of Christ for the time likewise being is not regarded nor is obeyed according to diuine precept by the whole fraternity To you Antony as you were yet sparkling flames of enuy a fit occasion was offered to passe to this degree and make a nerer approach vnto Apostasy For no sooner was the knowne difference betweene the Pope and the Venetian Cōmon wealth risen but straight you bewrayed your secret hardly concealed malice against the Pope by open contumacy Thus do you lay the matter forth before our eyes in your 14. page Shortly after came forth the Venetian Interdict There was no end of Roman libells oppressing vexing and reuiling vs Venetian Bishops as so many beastes rude fellowes men ignorant of no conscience Hence new occasions were offered me of new and more burning endeauours as well to make our defense as to cleere the truth in the Venetian cause So do you set forth the busines and togeather do lay open the increase of your flames you burned but too much before and were ouer hoate yet you tell vs that new fires and ardencyes seyze vpon you You perchance affect the stile of Arch-heretike and you would faine haue vs apply vnto you the sentence of S. Ierome No man can plot an heresy In Ose c. 10. that is not of a fiery witt Such kind of Apostles doth most please and cōtent this vpstart Ghospell of our age which the Kinges Maiesty of Great Britany testifies in his Basilicon Doron to haue beene brought into Scotland in these later dayes by Preachers that were of a fiery temper and seditious fellowes You delight belike and would willingly be still more and more enraged against the Romans and that you may burne more hoatly you faigne your selfe and your fellow Bishops to be reproachfully intreated to be called beastes rude and ignorant men of no conscience I haue read diuers of the Roman books written in the controuersie of Venite for the Pope but these disgracefull and contumelious speeches you charge them with I could neuer find in those books But I may thinke that to the end you may heate your selfe the more against the Pope you conceaue by imagination iniuries done you meerly deuised by your self wherein you are like the Lion who to whet himselfe to the fight laies loade on himselfe with his owne taile 27. But seeing you desire to be thought feruent I will not contentiously deny that you were more eager in the Venetian Contention then any man els that in your priuate contempt of the Pope you might exceed the publike I make no doubt but to the flame with which that most flourishing Common-wealth wealth to their owne perdition was set on fire you added oyle and pitch by your writings and Sermons to increase it which yet was quenched by the Popes wisedome benignity and patience His Fatherly piety preuailed ouer the Maiesty of his power He chose rather to yeald a litle to his childrēs stoutnesse and to leaue the heate of their courage to be allayed with time then to master their stubbornesse pull downe their stomackes with violent or irreuocable punishment The calme of this Peace liked not you very wel whos desires were now sayling towards Rome presaging to the Republique victories against the Pope You with a false and deceiptfull hope such as Lunacy is wont to breed had in your idle fancye perhaps set the Papall diademe on your owne head But this composition did not only thrust you out of your present hope and imaginary Popedome but for euer excluded you as a discouered enemy from Roman dignities Wherfore the Republike being quietted and friend with the Pope the flames of your anger ambition also in outward shew were somewhat slaked but inwardly they were no lesse quicke and ardent then before You intermitted not your earnest and feruent endeauours which you had taken in hand for defence of disobedience you studied still priuatly to find senten̄ces of Fathers and Councells for your purpose Ten years you spent in this passionate study hoping the Venetians would againe breake with the Pope which not succeding a vehement terrour assailed you and made you hasten your reuolt For now you began to feare least the league betweene the Pope and the Venetians dayly increasing you at last should be turned ouer to the Pope to yeild him account for all your forepassed misdemeanours This feare gaue new fewell to your former fire which now for these ten years had closely burned and made it breake forth at last into the publike spectacle of Apostasy Let vs heare your self declare the euēt of your studying of the Fathers whilest blinded
verily you will misse of your purpose Theft shall be theft murder murder Schisme schisme will you nill you Antony Well but I fly say you from errors I fly from abuses I fly that I may not be partaker of her sins not haue part in her punishments O how liuely did the holy Ghost describe you long agoe The wicked sonne saith Prouerb 30 ver 12. as S. Augustine readeth that he is iust yet doth he not wash cleere his going out You say the Church swarmeth with errours is ful of abuses loaden with sinnes that you are pure iust and thereupon fly not to be partaker of the punishments due to our sinnes who haue no sinns forsooth of your owne to be punished You say you are iust but you do not proue it notwithstanding though you should in your owne cause say the very truth yet could not you therby cleere your selfe from the crime of Schisme which I will make manifest euen by your owne words In the 37. page touching S. Cyprian you write in this māner Cyprian made no doubt but that Stephen the Roman Bishop did erre very grieuously yet rather then to make a Schisme in the Church he chose to communicate not only with Pope Stephen whose beliefe and practise was contrary to his but also with others whome he iudged impure for this cause only because Pope Stephē did admit them into his Communion which example S. Augustine as he sets it before the Donatists so likewise he sets it before vs for imitation Now I will iudge you by your one euidence For why do you not imitate this example which you say is layd before you a purpose that you should imitate it If S. Cyprian could not deuide himselfe from Pope Stephen whome he most assuredly iudged to erre without being guilty of the crime of Schisme may you reuolt from Pope Paul the fifth vnder pretence that he errs and not be a Schismaticke If S. Cyprian had he forsaken Pope Stephen could not haue iustified his departure by saying put case he might truly haue sayd so I fly his errours his abuses his sinnes do you thinke that your defection frō the Roman Church can be washed cleane from the note of Apostasy by your loud exclaiming that you fly errour A protestation vaine though it were true and indeed false vttered without any proofe You go about Antony to wash a bricke you loose your labour your crime cannot be washed away without teares of repentance The second Gulfe Wandring vncertainty about Religion THE second Gulfe wherein you are drowned I call Nullity of fayth because you abandoned the Roman Church and Faith before you had made choice of any other Church or religion that should succeed in lieu thereof You seemed at your departure from vs to be a blanke ready to preceaue any Religion or faith that should be written therin so it were contrary to the Roman A deepe pit of impiety which heretikes do fall into whos property it is not to establish but to ouerthrow fayth to beate downe Christian Churches that stand not to reare vp Christian Churches amongst Pagans They ioyne friendship and communion indifferently with all Sectes sayth Tertullian nor do they regard though they be different from them in opinion Praese cap. 40. so they will concurre with them to ouerthrow the truth This want of sound and solide faith you shew Antony by many signes and tokens First by your perpetuall silence not declaring either in the title or in the body of your booke to what sect or Religiō you meane to passe from the Roman In the title you pretend to shew the reasons of your going but you tell vs neither whence nor whither you take your iourney Motion as Philosophers say receaues forme and shape of the end and marke wherein finally the same resteth which being true your going to which your title prescribes not any end nor restraynes within the compasse of any markes what may it seeme but a vast vncertaine blind and inconsiderate wandering This your omitting to set down in your title the finall marke of your iourney is the more blame-worthy because straight in the very beginning of your discourse you require that euen we Catholikes should approue your departure For how can any prudent man possibly approue your iourney before he know in what Country Church or Religion you meane to take vp your rest We that know not for what place you are bound can we know or approue your course Seing then this circumstance whither is the chiefe thing that giues light to them that are to iudge in the vndertaking of a iourney and therfore is the first thing to be declared in the very beginning of the deliberation why did not you Antony expresse it in the Title of your Booke why haue you not once thoughout your whole pamphlet tould it vs in playne and direct termes The answere is easy you tould it not because you were certaine neither of the Church nor of the Religion wherein you should make your finall abode You compare your selfe forsaking the Church of Rome with the great Patriarke Abraham who following God left his Countrey which comparison though in the mayne point it be very idle yet heerein you are not vnlike to Abraham that as he departed from his natiue soyle not knowing whither he went so you abandoned the Roman Church and Religion before you could tell what other Church or Religion you should imbrace vpon the forsaking therof 6. Secondly of this your doubtfullnesse in choice of Religion which you did but insinuate in the title you make open demonstration in your booke in the 15. pa. wherof you write Now myne eyes being more opened I might easely perceaue that the doctrines of the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries which Churches though we sharply censure our Deuines maynly impugne do little or nothing at all swarue from the true primitiue doctrine of the pure Church So you write nor could you haue more disclosed the vast pit of vncertainty in your breast gaping for any doctrine so it be opposite to the Roman For let vs search into the matter I demaund of you Antony whither are you going to Churches say you that swarue very little or nothing from the true Primitiue doctrine I heare you But shew me these Churches which are they they be those Churchs which being very many Rome hath raised vp to be her aduersaries O what a deale of vncertainty and confusiō lyeth couched togeather in these words I let passe that vncertainty very little which how much or little it is no man knowes you only may determine and at your pleasure stretch or contract it I do not enquire where about in the world those Churches are to be seen which you so highly cōmend Which questiō should I propose I could pursue you from country to country and you would sweat to find such Churches in the world as you describe in your booke Churches I
notwithstanding I am persuaded did proceed not from the Kings disposition but from Casaubons dastardy 10. And as for the changes which I do now aforehand auouch wil be in your booke we haue a fayre presage or rather a beginning of them in this Pamphlet which reprinted in England differs somewhat from that you set forth at Venice For in your edition of Venice declaring the argument of the ninth booke of the ten you promise you say that you largely shew quà m parca esse debeat Ministrorum Ecclesiae sustentatio How scarse the maintenance of the ministers of the Church ought to be The word scarse maintenance sounded harshly in the eares of English ministers Peraduenture when you wrote at Venice you prouided maintenance for Bishops only not also for their wiues and children Wherefore in the London edition the matter is amēded you say that you declare qualis esse debeat ministrorum Ecclesiae sustentatio What kind of maintenance Church-ministers ought to haue And when your bookes come forth you may happily to gaine the good will of Ministers wiues change their scarse maintenance into plentifull You may see that without cause you bragge that you will publish a booke brought with you from Italy contayning the Roman errours togeather with many cleere sights and visions of truth you had at Venice and diuers doctrines different from the Roman which you learned by the only reading of the Fathers For the booke you now publish Antony is not that you wrote at Venice it is not I say that worthy worke which you as you vaunt placed in the midest of the darkenesse of Popery not hauing the candle of any hereticall booke shining before you writ only by the light which diuine illustrations falling downe from heauen yeilded to your pen these discourses of yours so noble and diuine be now lost vanished away perished Not so me thinks I heare you say for though some points of doctrine may be changed in my Booke yet many and very many will remaine Suppose this be true who will be able to discerne the reliques of the pure originall from so many the new corruptions therof or distinguish the parts of your booke vntoucht from the parts changed your ancient opinions from your new your Venetian beliefe from your English his Maiesties conceyts from those that be properly yours yours which you lately got by perusing the workes of heretikes from those whereof you boast as if you had receaued them immediatly from heauen No man certainly though he be neuer so sharpe-sighted 11. Fourthly you bewray your vncertainty in that to free your selfe from suspition and to meet with these inconueniences you haue not in this your writing set downe any confession of the faith you brought from Venice which thing was most expected and it did greatly behooue you to haue done it For this is the first thing which persons reclaymed from heresy haue care to do that seeing they now openly forsake the Religion which once they followed the world may take notice of the Religiō which in lieu therof they imbrace least otherwise they should thinke them plaine Infidels vtterly without any certaine religion Wherfore you should straight in the beginning of your reuolte haue made a plaine profession of your faith set down distinctly the doctrines of the Roman Church which you disliked also what you approued in the pretendedly reformed Churches for when you say of them that they swarue from the pure doctrine very little you seeme to insinuate that none of them do fully and absolutly content you This you did not but seruing the time rather then the truth and as S. Hilary saith Lib. 7. de Trinit Heretiks vse to do being ready to frame your doctrine to the humours of men by this negligence you haue changed the ten yeares of your cleere light into darkenesse eternal Neither shall any mortal man euer know what was the faith that ran away with you frō Venice nor what doctrine of Popery made you runne away your writings will be not only charged with falshood but also suspected of fiction that you write to please others what you beleeue not your selfe 12. Nor may you say that in this Booke you haue made confession of your faith in the 29. page therof where you write I am ready to communicate with all so long as we agree in the essentiall articles of our faith and the creedes of the ancient Church yet so if also we togeather detest new articles either openly contrary to the holy Scripture or else repugnant with the aforsayd Creedes This confession of faith is too wandring and wild within which all Heresies may range or at least very few are excluded by it And yet you are not constant in this profession For pag. 9 you cōmaund the Roman Church to restore communion to all the Christian Churches that professe Christ by the essentiall Creeds of faith Where you do not mention what heere you so expressely require the detestation of new articles that are openly contrary to Scriptures Moreouer how vncertaine and ambiguous is that phrase openly repugnant with Scripture For many kindes there be of errours openly contrarie to Scripture and euen Protestants themselues do mainly disagree nor can they define which of these errours must needs be detested vnder paine of expulsion from the Church Againe you say nothing of the Iudge to whose censure it belonges to decree which errours be new and clearly repugnant with Scripture For if you require of men that they detest those errours and articles which to themselues seeme clearly repugnant with Scripture there is not any Sectary that will not do it If you will haue all men reiect such errours and articles which in your iudgment be new and do manifestly contradict the Scripture you do them wronge For who made you their iudge If you will haue the Controuersy decided neither by your iudgment nor by theirs but remitted to the finall decision of a third Iudge why do you not name him Finally you do not declare what you meane by essentiall articles nor how many they be in number nor whether all the articles of the ancient Creedes be essentiall nor what you meane by Creedes essentiall that being a new phrase with I do not remember to haue read in any Authour Catholike or Protestant yea the word may without much adoe be drawne to such a sense as no Heresy will reiect any ancient Creed so farre forth as it is essentiall And why do you not rather exact full and absolute profession of all ancient Creedes but still with this restriction of the Creedes essentiall verily something lurkes in this phrase In libro de Synod Nican decret which we as yet vnderstand not nor without cause did S. Athanasius warne vs to suspect all the wordes and phrases of Heretikes Why speake you not plainly and ingenuously Why dally you with doubtful and ambiguous words in the busines of Religion but only because not being resolued of
suppression of euery heresy as S. Lib. 4. aduersusduas Ep. Pelag. cap. 13. Augustine writeth You greeue I perceaue that the Roman Bishop is able to condemne you without a generall Councell Vnhappy were the Church could he not do it Out of pride innated to heretiks you ayme at this honour that a Coūcell of the whole Church should be called about you which glory also the Pelagians as being most proud Heretikes sought greiuing exceedingly that euery where by the Roman Bishop and others without any Generall Councell they were condemned accursed They desired saith S. Augustine a generall Coūcell that at least they might trouble and disquiet the Catholike world seing they could not God being against them peruert it 25. The seauenth Vntruth is in the 22. pag. That the Episcopall administratiō of Bishops is wholy perished the whole gouernment of Churches is altogeather translated to Rome the Bishops are scarse the vicars and seruants of our Lord the Pope That Church-busines of most weight should be referred to the Roman Bishop the Fathers in all ages haue ordayned This is now adayes still practised in the Church what besides and aboue this you add is not the Roman custome but your slaunder 26. The eight That Bishops be subiect not only to the Pope Cardinalls c. but also to innumerable Religious Orders of Regulars and to their Friars who by their priuiledges deuoure and swallow vp the power of Bishops Verily Antony you seeme to haue lost all regard of your good name that dare in this manner range without the bounds of truth 27. The ninth That Catholike teachers namely your maisters the Iesuites do not furnish their Diuinity with the sayings of holy Scripture exactly discussed and declared that amongst them and in the Church of Rome there is extreme ignorance of Scripture He that will but peruse some Catholike writers in matters of sacred learning specially the Iesuites will soone see how false a slaunder this is 28. The tenth That the books of our Aduersaries are wholy concealed from vs that such as are excellent for their piety and knowledge yea the learnedst Doctours or Bishops we haue are not permitted in any sort to read them Thus you write shewing that hatred against the Pope so transports you that you mind not what you say How could the Catholiks of all nations confute your hereticall books did none of vs read them Are they in no sort permitted no not to the learnedst of vs all You may see Antony that though your booke be forbiden yet I haue read it Therfore S. Cyprian saith truly Lib. 1. ep 2. Amongst prophan men that are departed from the Church and from whose breasts the holy Ghost is departed what els is to be found but a depraued mind a deceitfull tongue cankred hatred and sacrilegious lying To which whosoeuer giueth credit shall at the day of iudgment be found to stand on their side The fifth Gulfe Contumelious speach against the Pope AFTER the Falshood of Heretiks followeth their railing as being a neere neighbour vnto it Heretikes sayth S. Lib. 16. mor. c. 14. Gregory with violency of words assayle the weake minds of the faithfull and robbe the poore people Not being able to supplant the learned they take from the vnlearned the veyle of faith by their pestiferous preaching I shall not need Antony to search into your booke for stormes of angry and rayling speach which in euery page meet with the Reader and rage against the Pope that so you may take from Catholikes the veyle of faith by furious blastes of words seing you can not with solide reasons persuade them to cast it away In the 16. page thus you thunder out against the Church of Rome At Rome many thinges are made articles of Faith which haue not any institution from Christ yea moreouer the soules of the faithfull be miserably deceaued and consequently being blind togeather with their blind guides be lead and fall headlong into the gulfe of Perdition And in the 22. page you rage yet more angerly against Rome It is not a Church say you but a Vineyard to make Noe drunke it is a flocke which the Pastour doth milke till bloud follow which he pouleth shaueth fleaeth and deuoureth In the 32. page It is not for Prophets to deale with the Roman Bishop that now doth so mainly trouble scandalize robbe oppresse the Church The Maiesty of the Roman Pope is counterfayt temporall proude vsurped nothing at all 30. Finally your splene against this present Pope moueth you to reuile the most holy Pope and Martyr S. Stephen For in the 37. page you say that S. Stephen out of indiscreet zeale by importune excōmunications ranne headlong into a mischeiuous Schisme But Cyprian by his Patience Charity and exceeding great Wisedome was the cause that the separation did not ensue This you charge the most holy Martyr as though he had gone headlong into schisme a sinne in your opinion much worse then Heresy How wrongefully and without any iust cause For no man could proceed more religiously more modestly and more prudently then Pope Stephen did in this Controuersy with S. Cyprian When S. Cyprian impugned mightily a doctrine which as he did not deny was confirmed by the perpetuall custome of the Church what did this most holy Bishop appoynted of God to be Iudge and to giue sentence in this Controuersy where this perpetuall custome of the Church was opposed against by the excellent learning and sanctity of Cyprian He shewed a reuerent respect to them both as farre as truth conscience would permit him That the learning and sanctity of S. Cyprian might not ouerthrow a perpetuall custome without the assent of a generall Councell Vincent Lyrinens com c. 16. he set out that Decree so much commended by the Fathers Nihil innouandum praeterquam quod est traditum That nothing should be innouated contrary to that which had byn deliuered by tradition On the other side to shew the regard he had of S. Cyprians learning and sanctity he would not haue that custome should so preiudicate against S. Cyprians doctrine that thereupon it should be accompted Heretical before a generall Councell but that S. Cyprian though stil cleauing to his opinion should notwithstanding be retayned in the Catholike communion A most prudent and temperate decision 31. Neither did he with any bitter speach prouoke S. Cyprian who yet as S. Augustine saith too much moued against Pope Stephen powred forth such speachs as it were better to bury them in obliuion then to record and reuiue them Wherfore by the iudgment of antiquity not only truth stood on the Popes side but also modesty charity wisedome in his proceedings for the defence of the truth Take heed Antony that you be not a member of him Apoc. 15. to whome was giuen a wide mouth speaking bigge things and to blaspheme the tabernacle of God and the Saints that dwell in heauen You are as good as your word according to your
do they concerne Who requires that doctrines questionable be admitted as articles of Faith before they be fully and sufficiently defined Who would haue any to be accomted Heretikes before the Church instructed by the holy Ghost hath-censured them We Catholikes hold the Primacy of the Roman Bishop as a doctrine of Faith the denyers therof who haue byn accursed in diuers generall Councells we detest as Heretikes This grieueth you so many Councells be not full because you the Pastour forsooke of the vniuersall Church haue not subscribed vnto them And in the 38. page you thunder againe without any bolt and giue vs idle prescripts Let vs say you hold different doctrines let vs be of contrary opinions till things be fully defined which are not yet fully defined but in the meane time let vs continue in vnity Do not make the schisme greater then it is Thus you idly spend pen inke and paper What doctrine do we demaund that you should beleeue which hath not byn established by the Decrees of general Coūcels Well saith Marcian the Emperour that they call in question and dare publikely dispute against that which is already iudged and rightly ordayned offer great wronge to the iudgmēt of the most Reuerend Synodes The doctrine which most you mislike to wit that the Pope is appoynted of God Head and Pastour of the whole Church the Orient and Occident hath defined in nine Generall Councells What fuller Councells can you desire Are you yet fully satisfied No but you puffe and go forward blowing still demanding fuller definitions till you come to conclude your Pamphlet with this sentence which to me seemes wholy deuoyd of any good sense Let vs driue away by the light of the truth Euangelicall without firme obstinacy the darkenes of errours and falsities 50. Secondly that you not only beate the ayre with idle words but also fight against your selfe denying in one place what in another you affirme these fiue examples of your contradictions may make manifest 51. The first contradiction In the page 8. and 9. you say that the Roman diligence in forbidding the bookes of her aduersaries did euer displease you This practise say you not to be voyd of suspition as reason doth shew so did I euer Iudge Euer Antony did you neuer dislike the reading bookes that impugne the Roman doctrine did you neuer aboue measure detest it In the 4. page to proue that you tooke not your resolution to depart from vs by reading our aduersaries bookes thus you write I Religiously call God to witnesse that I did vehemently abhorre from the reading of the bookes that the Roman diligence had forbidden Which bookes if any Prelate addicted to the Roman Court hath detested then I by reason of vayne feares conceaued against this reading in my childhood did aboue measure detest 52. The second Contradiction In the 9. page you say That you still suspected the Roman Church by reason of her forbidding of her aduersaries bookes that her doctrine was weake and not able to ouerthrow her aduersaries arguments But in the 7. page you say the contrary to wit that the proper decrees doctrines of Rome were with true captiuity of your vnderstanding wholy imprinted and rooted in your mind How were they wholy imprinted in your mind if you euer supected them if you still imbraced them not without feare staggering 53. The third Contradiction You say in the 2. and 5. page That by going from Rome you incurre great losse of wealth and dignity And in the 25. page That vnder the Pope you had honorable dignities and commodities not to be contemned But in the page 22. you say that Bishops vnder the Pope that are not Temporall Lords and such a meere Bishop were you are scarse so much as seruantes of our Lord the Pope base contemptible oppressed troden vnder foote miserably subiect Now Antony make these things agree base seruitude and honorable dignity cōmodityes not to be contemned miserable subiection 54. The fourth contradiction In the 22. page you write That the Church vnder the Pope is no Church but a certaine Common-wealth vnder his Monarchy meerly temporall These wordes import that the Church of Rome is no Church but else where you call it a Church yea the Church of Christ Pag. 29. I am Bishop in the Church of Christ who then were Bishop in no Church but in the Roman And in the 35. page you call the Roman Bishops your Colleages and fellow-Bishops And againe page 39. you thus commaund the Catholike-Roman Bishops Offer your communion readily to all that still retayne their opinions against you yet so that falsityes be driuen away None can make that common with another which they haue not themselues If the Roman Church be not a Christian Communion and society how can they offer readily their Christian Society and communion to others If it be meerely and wholy a temporall Common-wealth what can it affoard to her friends but meere human peace and temporall communion 55. The fifth Cōtradiction In the 39. pag. you cōmand Bishops to restore peace and charity to all that professe Christ by the Creeds essentiall In these words you require no more then the profession of the Creeds essentiall but within three lines after this sentence followes Offer readily your cōmunion to all sauing their opinions yet driuing away falsityes Here you will haue them that communicate togeather to agree not only in the profession of your essentiall Creeds but also in the abnegation of falsities wherof you expresse neither the quality nor the number And yet also herein you agree not with your selfe for in the 36. page you praise S. Cyprian because he did cōmunicate with such as erred and whome he iudged to erre most grieuously Here you will haue errours to be tolerated and communion not to be broken for errours but in the former speach you allow not communion but with this condition that on both sides falsities be driuen away I demand of you Antony whether errours grieuous errours be not falsities If they be then how is communion to be giuen without reiecting of errours and yet not to be exhibited without driuing away falsities Here you shamfully contradict your selfe The Conclusion I will now end I haue shewed who you were before you fell and by what stepps and degrees you came to fall into the depth of Apostasy I haue also declared who now you are and into what a low gulfe of Hereticall Impiety you be plunged Why then may I not conclude and in few wordes foretell what will finally become of you laying vpon you the Censure of the Apostle 2. Timoth. c. 3.9 You shall not further proceed for your folly shall be manifest vnto almen You being thus discouered by this Suruey if you will not see your selfe yet Protestants wil easily see who you are and what great want of iudgment you haue bewrayed in your writings They will wonder that into so little a Pamphlet written in your owne defence