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
reason teacheth that the bookes contrary to the Roman doctrine should be barred from the students and from those that are well affected to the Catholike faith You plainly confesse by this that you had not only a motion of doubt against faith but an assent also nor were you tempted only but you assented likewise to that which the temptation suggested to wit that the Roman faith was if not false at least wise not free from suspition of falshood 7. From hence is deriued the second Argument of your secret Infidelity You say that you euer haue suspected the Roman Church because she layeth those bookes out of sight which are any waies contrary to her doctrine And by and by you explicate more cleerely your suspition to wit That something there was no doubt in the bookes of heretikes which the Roman doctrine was not able to conuince I take you at your word that you alwaies suspected the Protestants doctrine to be sounder then the Catholikes What may be deduced from this Euen this that you were neuer a Catholike indeed neuer truly indued with the Roman Faith For he that beleeues like a Catholike and a Christian this thing of all other first and chiefly he belieues that nothing may be found surer or holier then his faith And this persuasion if it be vnsteddy and wauering is no Faith nor the substance of thinges hoped for nor the firme and immoueable ground of saluation Tertul. praesc ca. 8. When we beleeue saith Tertullian we desire to belieue no more for this thing we first of all belieue that there is not ought else to be belieued And againe Ibidem c. 11 No man seekes for that which he hath not lost or neuer had If you belieue the things that you ought to belieue and yet imagine something else to be sought for then surely you hope that there is something else to be found which you would neuer do but because either you did not belieue that which you seemed to belieue or else now you haue left to belieue Thus leauing your Faith you are found a denyer Thus Tertullian Who seemes Antony to speake to you your coÌ„science he conuents you say that with reason you haue alwaies esteemed the Roman doctrine to be touched with suspition of infirmity Is this you speake true or false If false who hath so bewitched you to giue the lye to your owne selfe how is it likely that you will speake well of the Pope whome you hate that spare not your owne selfe he that is not good to himselfe to whome will he be good If true how were you euer a Catholike and a Roman Catholike that haue alwaies iudged the Roman doctrine if not openly false yet lying open to suspitions of falshood and no way secure 8. Since then you confesse your Faith to haue been euer so sickly and feeble we trouble not our selues with the searching out of those decrees and mysteries of the Roman Faith wherof you doubted But in reward of your ingenuous confession we do of our owne accord vouchsafe you the graunt of your suite which you so painefully endeauour in this writing to obtayne of vs. For you desire that your departure may breed no admiration in vs Your suite Antony is reasonable and not amisse for vs. For it is the part of a Christian rather to eschewe heresies whereof Christ foretold vs Matth. 24.19 Act 20. then to wonder at them not to wonder I say though the starres should fall from heauen or that from among Bishops whome Christ hath placed to gouerne his Church purchased by his bloud there should arise men lying and speaking peruersly Wonderers as TertulliaÌ„ saith by the fall of certaine persons which were held for learned or holy men are edified to their owne destruction They vnderstand not that we ought to receaue Doctours with the Church and not with Doctours forsake the Church nor to esteeme the Faith for the persons that imbrace it but the persons for the Faith they imbrace But as for you Antony why should we wonder at your fall seeing you confesse that you were neuer stable Cypr. epist 52. ad Anton Graue men saith S. Cyprian and such as are once well soundly founded on the rock are not shaken with wind or stormes much lesse remoued with a silâ—y blast It were a wonder indeed if such men so grounded in the faith should fal but you that neuer stood fast vpon the Rock against which the proud gats of hel cannot preuaile Aug. cont part Donat you that alwaies had the sayles of you high mind spread to the winds of nouelty you that continually suspected the infallible doctrines of the Roman Church for feeble you being so doubtfull and vncertaine no meruayle if at last tossed with diuers fancies as it were with certaine blastes of windes rushing vpon you you were beaten from your first purpose The Faith that in your selfe already was false could not long retayne the semblance of standing The third degree Suspicious Lightnes and Inconstancy BVT now if we do looke into the causes of these your doubts such causes especially which you commit to writing straight appeareth your suspicious Leuitie readily carried away with euery blast You obiect forsooth errours abuses and innumerable nouelties to the Roman Church but they are but words only For in particuler you do not so much as name them much lesse proue them Namely and especially you vrge two incitements of your change two things that scandalized you in the Catholike Church which we will now examine and lay open the vanity you discouer therein The first in your 8. page you set downe in these words That which made me more doubtfull was the exact and rigorous diligence vsed both at Rome and in my owne Countrey Wherby a most vigilant heed is taken that no books contrary to the Roman doctâ—iâ—e be handled or read of any good reason I thought there was that the vulgar sort should be forbidden them But that students and those very well affected to the Catholike faith and well knowne to be sound in doctrine should wholy be depriued of them I haue euer thought it a matter of suspition And in hiding suppressing and destroying of such books so much industry is had that for this cause only a man may well suspect that there is something in them which our doctrine is not able to conuince Two things you say first that you haue always had the Roman Church in suspitioÌ„ because she prohibits the aduersaries books The other is that for this very cause her doctrine may wel be called in question By the first you bewray the instability of your mind but in the second your impiety also 10. For the first then what a lightnes inconstancy is it vpon so vaine a suspition to renounce the Church especially that Church that hath bred you to Christ In whose lap to vse S. Augustins words many iust respects should haue held you Aug. cont Epist rundam
cup. 3. to witt the consent of people and notions the authority which was first bred by miracles nursed by hope brought vp by charity founded in antiquity The succession of Priests euen from the seate of Peter the Apostle to whome our Lord after his resurrection committed his flock vnto this present Bishoprick Lastly the name Catholike which not without cause this Church only amongst so many heresies hitherto hath enioyed But say you she smothers oppresseth and destroyeth the aduersaries books by all meanes possible she doâ—h so indeed like a mother she wisely and piously tenders the good of her children like a shep-heard she lookes carefully to her flocke as the seruant of seruants Whome our Lord hath placed ouer his family forbiddeth them to tast of poysoned meates warily preuenting least such deadly food should be brought into her house what fault is there in all this This is no diffidence but prouidence nor is the weaknes of her doctrine which is diuine the cause of her feares but the frailty and inconstancy of mans mind For experience sufficiently approues nor do you deny that which S. Aug. cont Epist Fund Augustine affirmes That there is no errour whatsoeuer but may be so glossed that it may easily steale in by a faire gate to the minds of the ignorant And who sees not if dangerous Bookes for the vse of the learned should be freely brought into Countries that are not tainted with heresy that scarce truly or rather not scarcely can it be but that they must light into the hands of the ruder sort especially if they should be permitted in such a number as you would haue that is to say to all Bishops and Deuines Pag. 9. that haue fully ended their studies Yea and moreouer to Students and scholers also to see whether their maisters truly alleadge the testimonies of heretikes This were too great a multitude and would make poyson ouer coÌ„mon Wherfore the Catholike Church with great wisedome hath thought it more expedieÌ„t that the learned which may securely read such books rather should want this vaine contentment of curiosity or vnnecessary furtherance of learning then that the vnlearned by so common bringing in of such infectious merchandize should be brought into manifest daunger of their saluation 11. Neither truly as you suppose doth this daunger of drinking falshood by perusall of hereticall books belong to the common sort of men only whome you tearme voyd of iudgment and discretion I take it you meane heardes-men shepheards craftes men such like which kind of people notwithstanding for the most part is safest of all of they be not more by others example and authority then by their owne reading peruerted The daunger indeed threatens the vulgar sort but the vulgar sort of the learned In which number are found not a few rash hoat spirits men rather died then imbued with sacred learning that seeme to themselues and many times also to the people learned Catholikes constant when rather they are like vnto men easily remouable from their faith vnlearned apre to worship their owne fancies as diuine oracles Wherfore no Catholike vnles some giddy fellow voyd both of experience and reason will mislike this Roman sollicitude in prouiding so carefully that books condemned be not read rashly and promiscuously euen of those that are otherwise held learned but with choyce mature counsaile and regard had to places times persons and causes And if there be any that would read these books not out of an impious leuity to find out perhaps some better faith nor out of daungerous curiosity by such reading to become more learned but with a purpose to confute them the Catholike Church will neuer deny them faculty if charity be their motiue and they thought meet for the burthen What is there heer done but with great counsaile and wisedome What practise that the Church vsed not in auncient times Aboue 800. years ago more or lesse the seauenth Oecumenicall Synode the second Nicene Canon the ninth decreed that the bookes of the heretiks which they had condemned should be conueyed to the Bishop of Constantinople his pallace there to be laid vp amongst other hereticall bookes You will say that this Canon was directed only to the vulgar not to the Deuines to Bishops much lesse Hear what followes But if there be any that conceale these bookes be he Bishop or Priest or Clergy man let him be deposed and if he be a lay man or a Monke let him be anathematized What can be more manifest Leo ep 48. But Leo the Pope for learning holines surnamed the Great but much the greater by his office with no lesse carefulnes ordeyneth that with all Priestly diligence care be had that no bookes of heretikes differing from godly sincerity be had of any yea and that some of theÌ„ should he consumed by fire Moreouer the fourth Councell of Carthage or rather the fifth held in S. Augustines time permitted not hereticall bookes to be read for Bishops curiosities but restrained them to their limites of time Can. 16. necessity Canon 16. ordeyning thus Bishops may read hereticall books according to the time and necessity Is not this practise then of the Roman Church both ancient pious and full of wisedome What will not the reprobate catch at to their owne destruction that are offended with so holsome a custome Aelian lib. 4. cap. 16. The spider suckes poyson from flowers the beetle being toucht with the breath of the purest Rose dieth yea that flower of flowers by whose odour we breath life to the Iewes was an odour of death to death And you Antony are scandalized with the Churches piety in suppressing hereticall books her prudence in this practise strikes you blind her motherly care you calumniate you wrest the motiues of loue to causes of bitter hatred 12. Now as this other saying of yours that the Roman Church for so seuerely prohibiting the books of heretiks may wel iustly be called in question for her doctrine is not only in it self false but in the sequele impious For that which is said of a thing hoc ipso per se that is as belonging to the thing of it self by it selfe is spokeÌ„ likewise of euery such thing according to Philosophy nor any man that knowes what he saieth will deny it Therfore that which agreeth to the Roman Church of it selfe and meerly for this respect that she prosecuteth her aduersaries books must agree likewise to euery Church that with like industry suppresseth her aduersaries bookes If you do graunt but this once then you must giue sentence against the ancient Church and restore to life all those Heretikes who with their bookes haue beene long since turned into ashes For we haue already declared with what diligence our Forefathers and ancient Councels haue prohibited their aduersaries bookes which care and solicitude Christians and pious Princes haue imitated by their Edictes Iustinian the Emperour being in person at the
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
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
say for number very many in doctrine all opposite to the Roman and all agreeing among themselues in the pure primitiue truth But pretermitting these questions I only aske when you say that the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries do very little swarue from the pure primitiue doctrine whether you speake of all the Churches and Companies that in doctine are opposite to the Roman or of some of them only You cannot with truth speake it of all they being so many and so repugnant the one against the other Grecians Lutherans Caluinistes Libertines Anabaptists Arians Trinitarians How can it be that they all should very little or nothing disagree from the true doctrine whose doctrines disagree mainly and allmost infinitly the one from the other 7. If you say that though not all yet some of the Churches aduersaries to Rome do very little disagree from the primitiue truth then I demaund Why do you not distinguish these pure Churches from the other impure before you prayse them Why do you thus at random rashly not to say impiously cast that great commendation to swarue very litle from the pure primitiue doctrine vpon the confuse multitude of sects disagreeing from the Roman Church in which masse euen your selfe being iudge all be not sincere yea many be corrupt many impious many most food sottish And yet by your words no man can perceaue whether this high prayse be bestowed by you on the Grecians or on the Septentrionals on the Lutherans or on the Anabaptists on the Caluinists or on the Arians Verily you be not the mouth of God Antony you be not the preacher of Truth who to good bad layd togeather on an heape giue your approbation without any distinction not seuering pretious from vile noxious from wholsome hereticall from Catholike impious from Christian doctrine And yet herein you are excusable For what els could you do who had not as yet made choice of any certaine Church you might magnify before al other being vncertaine for the present and ignorant what finally your choice might be you durst not condēne any Church of the many opposite to Rome fearing you should perchance condemne that Church which you might be forced to fly vnto Had you singled one Church out of that number extolling it only aboue all other the rest perchance would with lesse willingnesse haue intertained you taking your singular prayse of that one Church as a disparagement to them all nor durst you commend distinctlie and by name all the sectes that are enemies to the Pope knowing that thereby you might expose your selfe to iust exception that Catholikes might take at you as being a friend of damnable errours Wherfore craftily you resolued to shoot at randome in the praise of Churches that oppose themselues to Rome without specifying the name or doctrine of any that so you might haue both freedome to runne to what sect you pleased and shelter against Catholikes should they except against you as fauouring the errours of any particuler heresy Now Antony perceaue you not that your secret wily deuise is layd open that this your booke brings to light the things which you most of al desired should haue byn hiddē 8. Thirdly so great is your vncertainty that you are not only ignorant to what sect to fly from the Roman Church but also you know not from what doctrine of the Roman Church you should fly I confesse you do particularily mislike the Primacy of the Roman Bishop but you were not ignorant that the hatred of this authority is common to all sorts of Heretikes Whosoeuer are wicked in the world the more egregiously that they are wicked the more mortally do they hate the power of the Pope all being herein combined Grecians Protestants Lutherans Caluinists Anabaptists Arians Turkes Iews Atheists What other article of the Roman beleife do you condemne besides this You name no other but in generall you proclaime that you fly the Roman sinnes errors abuses and innumerable nouelties Why name you them not I will tel you the sects that band against Rome being very many do not all mislike the same doctrines in the Roman Church What one condemneth another prayseth what some approue others abhorre so your religion depending on future euents you could not shew detestation of the Roman errours in particuler till you had made certaine choice of your Church You knew that you were to condemne in the Roman Church other articles did you become a Grecian others did you fall to be a Lutheran others did you turne Caluinist others did you cleaue to the Anabaptists others should you stay in Germany others should you fly to France others should you sayle into Englād Wherfore wauering in vncertainties not able to forsee what shall becom of you without naming any particulers with all your might and mayne you cry out on the Roman Errours When you shall haue made your election for your religion therein set vp your rest then shal the Roman Church erre in those poynts and as damnably as it please that company you liue with to haue you say 9. But I pretermitt say you in the 17. page to set downe particularly the Errours of Rome because in my booke of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth I do fully prosecute them which booke now a good while ready for the print I haue and will set it forth out of hand and bequeath it to the first printer in Germany that by the way I shal find for the purpose I beseech you Antony why did you not performe what here so solemly you promise Met you with no Printer in Germany that was for the purpose or did the King of great Britany countermand your purpose or did you of your self shrinke from your purpose I search not into this secret This I say that now you shall not print the booke you brought out of Italy with you but another Your selfe growing daily worse and worse will change therein diuers things either taking away some points of Catholike doctrine or adding some new doctrines gotten by your reading in the books of heretikes to say nothing of the things which Ministers by their arguments will winne you to alter And what shall I say of his gracious Maiesty so excellent for his knowledge To change some things in your booke and to adde other things to it he will persuade you by his learning to leaue out diuers doctrins that sauour to much of Rome he may compell you by his authority perchāce also sundry of his sayings though he vrge you not yet you to please him will put them into your booke Know you not what befell Casaub one How much changed he was from that affection and mind that he seemed to carry with him into England which alteration he going about to excuse to his friend plainly confesseth that by entrance into the English Court he was become a slaue not daring in any thing gaynesay the Kings pleasure which basenes
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
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
auerre that I was had in as much esteeme in our Prouinces Churches as any other Modesty requires that men should be bashfull in speaking though with great moderation things tending to their owne praise whereas you proclayme your selfe second to none of the Bishops either of the State of Venice or of the Catholike world besides and this you professe to speake without blushing You say true Shamefastnes is not wont to wayt vpon an Apostata But we howsoeuer you dreame of your being famous had newes of the Archbishop of Spalato his flight before we heard of his name Marke Antony in the Northerne parts was sooner knowne by his face then by his fame he came so fast that he preuented the messenger of his worth and estimation The fugitiue Primate himselfe first declared to many that there was any such Spalatian Primate Notwithstanding you were not more vnknowne to the world then to your self which is the cause you insolently prefixe your name to your booke as already knowne and sufficient to giue it lustre Marke Antony de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato sets downe the reason of his going So you stile your booke as if you were the Pithian Apollo ready to giue Oracles or some Dictator deliuering Lawes vnto the people or Pithagoras prescribing to his schollers Aphorismes or at least some Authour knowne by his former writings able to gaine credit to any worke by the splendour of his name Who notwithstanding were at that time for afterwards you became more notorious through the staine of your fall so vnknowne that many wondred at the title nor were there wanting inquirers who should this Marke Antony be What going is that he speakes of so vncertainly without naming either whither or from whence Is peraduenture that old Marke Antony reuiued againe and fled from Rome to Aegipt that Antony so famous for wine and venery who hauing violated his former faith to his Roman spouse no lesse renowned for chastity then noble of blood ioyned himselfe to that Aegiptian woman infamous for her many foule enormities Thus did men not yet acquainted with your iourney descant vpon the title of your booke framing coniectures of the authour of Marke Antonyes name They could not speake more assuredly of a person wholy vnknowne neither did their rouing discourses much misse of the marke For you hauing left the Roman Spouse and violated your first faith haue matched your selfe to that Lutheran brat who being of her Fathers condition no more able to refrayne from venery then from food differs not much from Cleopatra's manners If you but resemble that drunken Triumuir as well in life as you do in name by this match may that old saying be renewed Bacchus is wedded to Venus THE FIRST PART OF THE SVRVEY OF APOSTASY or the Ladder of Marke Antonies fall consisting of eight steps or degrees SINCE therfore you must be cured by the most true knowledge of your selfe who through your too high a conceite of your selfe haue slid downe into hell in this Suruey I put you in mind of your selfe whom your selfe haue so much forgot and I lay open your Apostasy not so much to the Readers eye that he should detest it as before your owne conscience that you may bewayle it Behould now at last who you were when you seemed a Catholike and by what stepps by litle litle you fell into this abysse The degrees therfore are these secret Pride close Infidelity suspicious Lightnes abandoning the Iesuites Order ambition of holy Dignities audacious Contention for Preheminence open Contumacy against the Pope finally Presumption of your owne iudgment and learning aboue the Church I will handle all these in their order not led by variable rumors but by euident arguments and for the most part taken out of your owne Booke The first degree Secret Pride HERESIES are in number diuers deuided by nations but much more by manners rites and errours amongst themselues Yet all are sisters saith S Augustin borne of the self same mother Pride To which purpose saith S. Gregory Pride is the seat of Heretickes for were they not first puffed vp in their owne conceipt they would neuer fall into strife of peruerse opinions This also Antony was the beginning of al your mischiefe long agoe through a certaine secret Pride you coueted to shew your selfe wise and zealous for the vnion of all Churches aboue all other Catholikes vnder which pretensed zeale you now at last leaue the Church Which pride of yours you discouer in your 9. page in these words I euer cherished in me say you from my first entrance into holy orders a kind of innated desire I had to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ I could neuer brooke this separation of the West from the East in matters of faith nor of the South from the Northerne parts I was very anxious to vnderstand the cause of so many and so great schismes and to spie out if there could be any way thought vpon to reduce all the Churches of Christ to the true ancient vnion Yea I did burne with desire to behould it and I was vexed with inward grief for so many dissentions which strangely tormented me 2. If you perceaue not the pride that lurketh in these your thoughts I will stirre them vp further I let that passe where you call the Grecian Schisme a Separation of the West from the East when rather you should haue termed it the separation of the East from the West for we left not the Grecians but they departed from vs. We Latines are not the Church which departed but that frō which departure was made What principle of faith euer was common with vs and the Grecians which we haue forsaken They after they had nine times in nine general Councels peace vnion concluded subscribed to the Roman Supremacy so often againe with the note of leuity reuolted With no lesse apparant falshood you call the Lutheran defection a separation of the South from the North as if the South that is Rome Italy had deuided it selfe from the North abiding still in the faith of their auncestours It is not so for what is more knowne then at such time as Luther Zuinglius and Caluin and the first Nouellistes beganne to preach that the North was Catholike and imbraced the Roman doctrine which now they abhor The Roman Church made no diuision but suffereth diursiōs made against her The North falling away into new opinions Rome still remayned immoueable in the faith which before she imbraced nor did the hauen leaue the barke but the barke the hauen But against these your conceits I proceed no further because perhaps they are not so much signes of secret Pride wherwith you were then taynted as of newer errours wherwith now you are blinded 3. I come to your Pride Was it not a part of passing great arrogancy that you being but newly and scarcely yet admitted to holy Orders would take vpon you to be the Iudge of the whole Church
readier to praise the truth and so much the safelier condole the ruines of the Church which it susteynes at the hands of the Roman Marke I beseech you your wordes What is this els but so say let the bands of the diuine Law be broken let soules redeemed by the bloud of Christ perish all is well so that I with my ten stringed Psalter may get liberty to chaunt out the praises of Truth or to deplore the wretched state of Schisme You hold belike the teares you spend for the Roman Church at so high a rate that the Bloud of soules the Law of God must be set at naught and contemned for them Yf you had such a pleasure to singe mourne why would you be a pastour Why entred you not into some Religious family deuoted to the quire and solitude and there haue giuen your selfe to songes and teares Lastly what greater crime then to dissemble in matters of Religiō with body to approach that Church whose faith in your hart you approue not Is not this wickednes Now tell me Antony haue you so soone vomited forth all those Roman doctrines wherewith you were once imbued or haue you suddainly swallowed vp all the articles of the English Faith that you haue so without guide of Conscience imbraced their Communion I cannot thinke it but rather that you dissemble in many points to giue them satisfaction of whom you expect your hire and to get the Kings Protection and assistance for the priuiledge of your Booke that what you could not publish in the light of Christianity you may at last set forth in the darcknesse of Heresie 32. It is reported of a certaine Zoilus that was wont to keep his bed like a sick man when in truth he was not so that he might thereby take occasion to shew forth a purple Couerlet of his wherin he was much delighted Such a kind of languour is it wherein you languish with desire to publish your writings which that you might the better bring to passe you feigne your selfe an Heretike in the English Church you lay your selfe downe at the feet of the Kinges Supremacie ouer the Church as though you were sicke of that Parlamentarian Maladie and all this to get leaue to print your Bookes and shew them to the view of the world and yet alas when these your so highly by you esteemed treasures of learning shall haue passed the print which by committing so many sinnes you haue found out at last there will not want diuers I say not Catholiks but Protestants that hauing read your so much expected Booke will apply to you that which was spoken to Zoilus These riches are but vaine Which make the sicknesse fayne I wish you would rather follow the counsaile that the Angell gaue vnto Agar Genes 16. being great with Child which was Returne home to thy Mistresse againe and humble thy selfe vnder her handes Returne I say home againe to the Church which you haue forsaken Cast prostrate at her feet your selfe your wit your learning your bookes Submit them to the Catholike and Roman Censure As Rachels seruant deliuered her children into her Mistresse lap so do you offer vp your Bookes to the pleasure of the Church But me thinkes I see you turne your head aside at this and say This is base this is seruile this is to become againe a little child It is so indeed But oh noble basenes and high humility whereby a Christian transcending himselfe and his naturall wit comes to be vnited to God reuealing mysteries that surpasse mans capacity by the mouth sometimes euen of vnlearned Prelates Oh happy seruitude that tieth makes men bondeslaues of the Truth which only affoardes true Liberty Oh huge littlenes which only art capable of heauen which only canst intertaine God! So that Antony though you be welnigh threescore yeares of age you shall neuer enter into the Kingdome of Heauen vnles you be conuerted and become as a little child They that scorne to be little ones grow to be great ones indeed not in wisedome but in malice and folly which shal be further demonstrated in the second part of this Suruey of your Apostasy THE SECOND PART OF THE SVRVEY OF MARCVS ANTONIVS de Dominis his Apostasy CONCERNING The state wherein now he is WE will not there being no need vse circumlocutions but plainly set downe the misery of your present state By the former eight degrees not of beatitudes but of maledictions you are falne into eight bottomles Gulfes which within the compasse of Heresy are contayned I will first tell you what they are and then shew that you lye plunged in them These they are Forsaking of the Church of Christ Not to be certaine of any religion Hypocrisy Mendacity against the Church Contumelious speach Arrogancie Inuenting of new flattering doctrine Vayne and idle talking That you are swallowed into these pits belonging to Heresy I will make playne and by no other arguments then such as your owne booke affoardeth This booke now pleadeth against you but more dreadfull euidence will it giue in at the day of doome against your obstinate perseuerance Wherefore Antony rise out of this mayne deep of Heresy wherein as yet you lye not so low but repentance may reclayme you The first Gulfe of Apostasy The forsaking of the Church of Christ TO abandon the Church of Christ and the Catholike Communion is the first though not the shallowest gulfe of Hereticall peruersity All Heretikes saith S. Hierome are Apostata's that is Reuolters The Apostle tearmeth the Heretike peruerse Tit. 3 11. because no man is an Heretike that hath not auerted himselfe and swarueth from the way of Truth wherein once he walked He saith also that the Heretike delinquit proprio iudicio condemnatus that he is a delinquent condemned by his owne iudgment That you are in this Gulfe Antony is a thing so cleare that it need not to be proued yet seeing you deny it I will proue it not by common arguments but such as shall leaue you conuicted out of your owne words 2. He that forsaketh the Church of Christ and the communion of Saintes is peruerse a delinquent an Apostata This you will not deny and that you do it your selfe most manifestly affirme For that you fly from the Roman Church that you depart out of it in the pag. 34. you openly professe This my departing say you this my going out of Babylon or flight I will haue to be cleare from all suspition of schisme You depart then out of the Roman Church which you stile Babilon but the Roman Church is the Church of Christ the Society of Saintes therfore you impiously go from it impiously you call it Babylon If you aske me how I can proue the Roman Church to be the Church of Christ the society of Saintes I answere euen by your owne words which are registred in the 28. page I may not say you be wanting in my charge I being a Bishop in the Church
what faith you would be you meane to frame such a profession of faith as might sute with diuers occasions times with sundry countries and sectes Wherein you do no new thing which your ancestors did not practise in S. Hieromes dayes They do saith he so temper their words they range them in such order they so mince the matter with ābiguous speach that they make a confession both of our doctrine and of our aduersaries doctrine that in one sense taken their profession is Hereticall taken in another Catholike Neither hath this our age been without such kind of Prothei and Changelings nor without these Camelion-like confessions of faith which change their colour and sense according to time and place Such was the confession of Ausburge which to Charles the fift Emperour the first Fathers of your Ghospell presented The articles of which confession Philip Melancthon the Authour therof Hospin concordia discord in an Domi 1527. did of set purpose and studiously cloth with doubtfull wordes The reason of which his deed writing to Luther he yields saying that those articles were now and then to be changed and made to sute with occasions So it is your faiths be variable and monthly but the verity of our Lord lasteth for euer The third Gulfe Hypocrisy THE third Gulfe of Heretical naughtines is Hypocrisy Heretikes saith S. Lib. 5. de ciuit c. 8. Augustine be crafty people endued not with the spirit of wisedome but with the spirit of wily deceit wherewith their harts are accustomed to boyle and so trouble the quiet of Saintes And S. Hilary Lib. 5. de Trinitate Vpon defection from the faith saith he wayteth lying Hypocrisy so that they keep the shew of godlines in their words the truth wherof they haue cast out of their conscience But it is not easy within the compasse of the skinne of one Lambe so to shut vp a whole wolfe that no part of him be seen You fayne Piety Antony but you dissemble in such sort that by your owne wordes you may be detected to be counterfaire which I will make euident with fiue examples First in the second page you take vpō you the testimony of a pure cōscience Our glory say you is the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity of hart in the syncerity of God not in carnall wisedome but in the grace of God I haue changed place Thus you appeale from the Iudgement of the Church to the Chancery of your secret Conscience you turne your selfe from publick knowledge to your owne priuity that is Confess lib. 10. saith S. Augustine from truth to falshood Shall I proue that you went away moued by the wisedome of the flesh out of care to sleep in a whole skinne ouer which you feared some punishment was imminent that had not this feare giuen you winges to fly away you might haue been still a Papist at this day in outward shew and haue adored those thinges which you now tearme Idolls In the 23. page Hatred against me say you was conceyued and harboured in their hartes at Rome who now had smelt out my labours in writing against her opinions for more then once by the Nuntius Apostolicus abiding in Venice was I warned hereof rebuked Therfore it was my best course to take the winges of the Done and fly into the wildernesse Behold how clearly you confesse that feare gaue you the winges wherewith you were carried away from vs feare I say not of the Romish Idolatry not feare to offend God or to fall into Hell but feare to feele the sharpenes of Roman seuerity feare lest the Republike would deliuer you vp or permit you to be taken and punished according to your desertes by the Inquisition 14. Secondly you make shew of great loue of crosses and of desire to suffer for Christ apparelling your affections in the words of S. Paul burning with diuine charity For my selfe with Paul I say it is a very small thing for me to be iudged of men let me be a foole for Christ let me be ignoble let me be buffeted and cursed let me endure persecutions let me be blasphemed let me be made the scum of the world an outcast and Anathema so only that I make satisfaction to Christ Thus you speake and forward you goe with the words of the Apostle seeming to long to suffer disgraces and torments for Christ But all is faygned for if persecution be your desire why runne you to a Countrey where you may rather persecute others then endure persecution your selfe Where you may securely rayle on the Pope blaspheme him curse him to the pit of hel as the outcast of the world and Anathema The motiue of this your running away you set downe in the 23. pag. What should I say you haue tarried longer in the midst of a peruerse and crooked Nation If I would haue taught and exercised the true Catholike doctrine I had hastened and brought vpon my head the most terrible Roman stormes and most foule tempests And is it so great a misery tody for Christ Antony doth death endured for the true Catholike doctrine seeme foule and hatefull in your eye it being honorable and pretious in the sight of God for the Pilot being in a storme to abandon his ship is foule and shamefull but for him to encounter with the tempest to venture life for ship and passengers is glorious You desire to be a Pilot you will needs gouerne the ship of the Church but to be in stormes and persecution to liue in perill of your life you cannot endure Verilie you dissemble Antony when you make shew of desire to suffer and little do you feele the affections of S. Paul whose wordes breathing forth a burning desire of Martyrdome you borrow for your self which be no more fit for your desire then is Hercules shoo for a Childes foote 15. Thirdly you make great demonstration of condoling with the Church and deploring the ruines she suffers at the handes of the Pope This griefe and sadnes say you in the 10. page did in wonderfull manner consume me and still day by day more and more consumes me Which wordes I could not read without smiling when I remember how your fall giueth euidence against this your pretended pining away for sorow In your whole body from top to toe there appeare not any signes of the mortification of Christ Iesus nor of any inward griefe either wasting your flesh or drying vp your bones When you write that you were in a consumption by reason of sadnes I wonder whether you smiled not your selfe Nor is this any new fiction but the common mantell of Heretikes Lib. 3. mor. ca. 19. which S. Gregory discouered longe since Heretikes saith he make shew to condole with the Church and with this sayre shew of loue do they bayte their bookes of deceyt You weep the teares of the Crocodile wherewith that rauenous beast moisteneth and maketh slippery the ground that when the passenger
drawne by that counterfayt weping approacheth his feet fayle him and suddainly falleth a ioyfull pray to the mourner 16. Fourthly you faigne that Scriptures fauour you in the fift page Neuer say you did I at any tyme square the motions and thoughts of my mind by any other ruler then such as the Holy Ghost prescribeth in Sacred Writ This is soone said what Heretike said it not Neither could their talking saith S. Hierome gayne them beleeuers did they not make shew to confirme their peruerse doctrine by diuine authority You still gouerned your thoughts inclinations by the rules of scripture other ruler or direction you vsed neuer at any time A great praise which I cannot say agreeth to any of the Saints if from that number we exempt Christ and his Virgin Mother If this be true surely you neuer sinned vnles one may sinne and do amisse in following the rule and gouernment of Gods spirit perchance you meane not so rudely as you write and I can beleeue these your words may be more vayne then your mind I only warne you not to be hasty to beleeue these thoughts and motions of the spirit that present themselues to you vested with testimonies of scripture wherwith euen serpents are couered and walke about Will you not beleeue me then beleeue Luther who writeth they are wretches that do not consider that the Diuell doth dart venemous fiery thoughts into their hartes Tom. 2. Germ. wit fol. 122. art 552. which be nothing els but most fine thoughts adorned with testimonies of Scripture that they cannot perceaue the subtill poyson that lurketh in them Wherfore seing you make your boast of Scriptures you might not wonder though we should answer you as S. Augustine did the Manichees Being bad you read them not well being ignorant you vnderstand them not right being blind you cannot behold their truth 17. Fifthly you pretend to follow the Fathers After the inward motiōs of the holy Ghost only the holy Fathers say you haue beene the most honorable authors aduisers of this my enterprise You be not wise to trimme your selfe with the shew of ācient Fathers authority seing you go towards those Churches that professe to follow neither Fathers nor Mothers but only the pure Word And if you haue your Passe-port frō the auncient Fathers to leaue Rome why haue you not alleadged so much as one cleere testimony out of them in your behalfe and against the Roman Bishops Preeminency Pag. 35. You bring indeed out of the Councell of Carthage this testimony which you call the most renowned saying of the most renowned Cyprian We do not iudge any man saith he nor remoue them from the right of communion that be of a contrary mind For not any amongst vs doth make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops nor by tyrannicall terrour force his fellow-Bishops to obey him You could not Antony haue produced a cleerer testimony to conuince that in truth you haue found no matter of substance in the Fathers to obiect against vs. Cyprian was indeed most renowned for sanctity learning and eloquence but he was also renowned for an errour which God permitted this worthy light of the Church to fall into This errour he sought by all meanes to establish in that Councell of Carthage out of which you bring this testimony so finding in the approued writings of S. Cyprian not any saying that might steede you Septem libris de baptismo you fly to the testimony of this erroneous reiected councell which S. Augustine hath by name confuted in a most renowned worke And this seemeth to be the weightiest authority of all that in ten yeares study you haue gathered Moreouer when you prayse the charity patience wisedome of Cyprian in his contention with Pope Stephen depressing as much as you can the Pope it is cleere that hatred against the present successour of Stephen makes you forsake the knowne iudgment of antiquity For S. Augustine a most moderate and friendly Censurer of S. Cyprian doth say in plaine tearmes that in his contention with the Pope he wrote with so great indignation Lib. 5. de Baptis c. 25 and addeth this prudent aduise that it were best not to mention all the things which Cyprian irritated against Stephen powred forth in his anger which brought with them danger of pernicious dissention Finally the words of S. Cyprian sound more of indignation then of any errour nor do they crosse the power of the Roman Bishop in deciding the controuersies of faith For he doth not say that none was in the Church appointed by Christ whome the rest of Christian Bishops were bound to obey and endued with authority to put an end to the controuersies of faith but he saith that in that concell of Carthage there was not any Bishop of Bishops nor any that did challenge to himselfe such authority by which words he doth rather insinuate then deny the knowne authority title of the Roman Bishop though perchance he grudged and girded at the present exercise therof accompting it Tyrannous because he found it opposed to his errour which shews that S. Cyprian was then ouer feelingly moued against the Pope as S. Augustine sayth who with great reason exclaimeth against you and such mates as would iustify their rebellion by Cyprians example Oh how detestable is their errour who thinke they do laudably imitate the faultes of some worthy men De vnico Bapt. cont Petil. lib. 1. cap. 13. when they haue not any part of their excellent Vertues The fourth Gulfe Mendacity against the Church NOTHING more notorious in former ages nothing whereof the books of the Fathers do more sound then the impious mendacity of Heretikes whereby they shew themselues to be borne of him that was false from the beginning and the Father of falshood They put their confidence in vntruth nor is there any man held for perfect amōgst them saith holy Irenaeus that hath not fruclified and begot very great and mighty vntruths Antony Lib. 3. ca. 1. you desire to be perfect in your generation and the fertility of your soile is sufficiently proued by this little plant you now haue set forth which is more stored with lies then with leaues Out of which multitude I will gather and present you with ten which be both notorious for their sent and very remarkable for their bignes 19. The first whereof before we made mention but heere in the proper place to be repeated is set downe in your 15. pag. I saw now most cleerly and did fully perceaue that at Rome without any lawfull authority yea by great violence wronge innumerable new articles dayly were coyned and obtruded vnto vs. If you marke well your owne wordes perchance you your selfe will remaine amazed at the hugenes of this vntruth You say that doctrines new cleerly false without any ground by extreamest wrongfull violence are euery day without number coined at Rome and forced vpon the Church euen as articles of faith
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