that there is more of the Old City than of the Ancient Church in Rome Lastly If the Papal Supremacy be so absolutely necessary to Christ's Kingdom here on Earth Whether the Cardinals be not strange Men that they by their long Janglings and Disputes upon a Vacancy and at an Election should so long debar him from the Administration of that Power by his Vicar And whether it be not more suitable to a Monarchy that suffers no Interregnum And consequently since Rex Angliae non moritur The King of England is said not to dye according to our Law whether the King be not according to the 37th Article the Supreme Governour in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Civil in all his Dominions and whether the Bishop of Rome hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction in any of them At this a Jesuit stood up and looking earnestly upon some newly proselyted Papists Regard not said he what any prating Heretick of them all says Have we not made you sufficiently sensible that all the Protestant Religion is an Innovation that King Henry the 8th a mere Julian was the first that apostatiz'd from the Holy Catholick Faith the first that arrogated to himself the Pope's incommunicable Dignity of being Head of the Church 'T is false replyed one of the Church of England King Henry the 8th onely reassum'd what some of his Predecessours own'd what none of them ever could or any of his Successours ever can give away from the Crown of England But the Papal Supremacy is an Usurpation and an Innovation too 't was never heard of in the World untill above 600 Years after Christ nay Pope Boniface the 3 d was the first that ever pretended to be the Vniversal Bishop The Christians in * Tertull. ad Scap. cap. 2. Tertullians's time acknowledg'd the Emperour to be Hominem a Deo secundum solo Deo minorem And †Opt. Lib. 3. Optatus has the same Strain Super Imperatorem non est nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem What need I mention what Cyril and Chrysostome and Gregory the Great and Pope Agatho have clearly and plainly said and written upon this Point you have been told often enough nay in that Council which you call the Eighth General Council the Emperour Basilius publickly professeth none of the Bishops contradicting him * Epag Basilii in Conc. quod vocat Act. 8. 1. Gubernacula Ecclesiasticae navis sibi a Deo commissa That the Government of the Church was committed to him by God There was no reply made of a long time for a great bustle that was among the Papists at last three or four lusty Fellows came dragging in a mighty tall Statua almost resembling the old Image of St. Christopher in Nostre Dame in Paris he held in his Hand a long Scroll which was a Catalogue of all the Popes and was hung from Head to Foot with all manner of old fashion'd Trumpery Before it march'd an aged Hermit with a Scyth in his Hand and looking upon the Protestants as if he would have mowed them down at once Ye base Innovatours cryed he that have troubled the World with new Doctrines where was your Religion before Luther See here the ancient and undeniable Records of ours see here the infallible Traditions of many Ages by which we clearly know that we profess the same Fundamental Truths the first Martyrs asserted who were so very old that their Beards help'd to burn them and which none but a Company of new fangled Hereticks in the last Century ever denyed Good Father grey-Beard replyed Bishop Montague don 't think to afright us out of our Senses with an old Worm-eaten Idol over-run with Cobwebs you might as well have brought a Tom of Bedlam with the Luggage of the Gibeonites to prove the Antiquity of your Doctrines as this old wither'd Hercules for assure your self we cannot onely prove them the spurious Inventions of your Cabalistical Innovatours but we can tell you the very Time and Occasions of the introducing every one of them into the Christian Church we have not onely the Scriptures Fathers and Councils maintaining all the grounds of the Protestant Religion according to the Reformation of our Church of England but before it even in the darkest days of Popery we meet with many the learned'st Men that those Ages afforded inveighing against the Corruptions both in Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Rome as Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincoln William Occham John Gerson Picus Mirandula Hierom Saveranola Hus and Hierom the Followers of Waldo and in the Year 1260 Nicholas Gallique wrote a Book upon that Subject entituled the Fiery Dart But since we cannot convince you of the Antiquity of Protestantism we will be so complemental for this once as to allow Popery to be older than Christianity it self it is no difficult thing to prove several of your Legends out of Livie and Valerius Maximus what a dull Theologue was Lipsius not to remember that several of the fine Stories he tells concerning our * Just â—ips de Virg. Hallu cap 6. Lady at Hall were long before recorded of the †Val. Max. lib. 1. cap 8. Statua of Claudia plac'd in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods the speaking and Miracles of Images are all Ethnick Illusions and the friskings of Monkish Puppets the Artificial Contrivances of Heathenish Oracle-mongers many of your Saints are slipt into places of Trust held by the old Deities but I wonder that since Diana had so noble an Office as to hunt the Stag and the Wild-Bore that St. Gertrude should get no better Preferment in your Legends than that of a paltry Rat-catcher But we will talk no more of the Antiquity of your Religion As for that Jesuit who boasts so much of it although he is the greatest Innovatour amongst you yet rather than fail upon occasion he can learnedly prove his own Order to be the eldest as well as the richest in the World nay contemporary with the very Hivites and Perizzites for Numb 26. 44. we reade Of Jesui the Family of the Jesuits He had a great deal more to say to them but that he was interrupted with a great Crowd and Noise of Clergy-men coming in from all parts of the Kingdom who made great Complaints against the Presbyterians and other Dissenters for that they in a time when the Government both in Church and State was in such danger by reason of the Papists were then more ungovernable restless and insolent than at any other time and indeed so it plainly appeared for those there present began to be troublesome and mutinous pretending great Fears of Popery but levelling all their Invectives against Persons the most remarkable for Loyalty and Conformity and clamouring for a speedy Reformation of I do not know what holding a great many Seditious Pamphlets in their Hands complaining railing petitioning threatning which when the Papists observed they very cunningly slipt away well knowing that they had too much alarm'd
and the graves of the dead our Examples have too great an influence And if a Cloud hang about St. Peter's Cupola it will be seen afar of My just Commands therefore are that ye first Reform your selves before ye go about to mar or mend others and let it not be said that my Vatican which was the ancient abode of the Cornel. Tacit. in fine Vitel. Imper. Whores is now become the Sanctuary of Thieves and Robbers when ye shall have shown some truly Cardinal Vertues at home in our Consistory then your assistance abroad in a General Council will put an end to all the present disturbances in the Church Had a whole Regiment of Oracles spoken it could not have been more Authentick Nothing now was noised about the World but a General Reformation and a General Council every man began to frame to himself a new Model of things as himself most affected and indeed the variety of mens inclinations in this case was so apparent that nothing seemed more a Contradiction than a General Reformation For since the Laws of Charity which alone can make men of one mind were abolished in Rome the Orders his Holiness gave the three Cardinals took no effect at Histor Concil Trident lib. 1. pag. 68. all and yet for all that a Reformation we must have and that a General one too and that by the Authority of Pope Paul the Third who was the worst man living for not only the Penetentiary and Datary-Courts and the manners of the Courtiers of Rome were to be reformed but whatever was amiss in the whole world was threatned with a strict Visitation so that wandring non-resident Stars were to keep at home the spots were to be wiped out of the Moon and dame Nature which had been extravagant with Earthquakes Storms and Tempests was to put an end to her frolicks and to grow staid and moderate and indeed so great a splutter there was in the lower World about Reformation for about half an Age that not many years after a Star that was a great stranger peeped down out of Cassiopeia to see what was the matter The Pope carried it on with such seeming Resolutions that there was a pious uproar all over Rome all men marvelling where this wonderfull Reformation should first take place indeed the first effects of it appear'd in the Cardinals who began to leave off talking Politicks at Mass at the Jews traffick at their devotions and that there might be a race of Innocent Cardinals for the future that had not run through all Orders of Vice His Holiness created two of his Grandchildren one of 14 the other of Hist Concil Trent lib. 1. pag. 73. 16 years of age All Inferiour Orders were threatned as severely and although the Heretick Pasquin had waggishly reported that the City was holy enough most of the Inhabitants being either Clergy-men or Clergy-women of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction yet Pope Paul the Third was resolved to cut out all his Predecessors a bar and a half in point of Piety for strict Orders were given that all men should restore to the Brutes those Irregular Passions which they had purloyn'd from them all old Images were to be new varnisht a kind of extreme Unction to them and several of them threatned with Excommunication because they bred Worms and could never prove their Conversion from Idolatry since they had formerly been the Images of Heathen Gods so that the talk was That the second Commandment should be taken into favour again and restored to all its ancient Honours and Dignities and that all of them should take the upper hand of Indulgences a thing which mightily startled the Courtiers for since they had been in fashion the Spiritual Court flourished beyond measure and therefore they resolv'd to defend them to the last man and indeed they so brought it about that this great noise of Reformation dwindled to nothing but the mending a Gutter which drain'd the filth of the Town into Tyber for indeed they were as much afraid of the Reformation of their pockets as of their manners and therefore peremptorily said That if Sins and Iniquities were totally abolisht the Prerogative of Holiness would not belong to the Pope but become a Property to all his Vassals and his Supremacy would so dwindle away that his Successor might e'n call himself Pope Job They said moreover that Perjury and Simony were two flowers of the Triple-Crown that Adultery Incest and Sodomy were Sins of Quality that brought in vast Revenues and Customs that they were considerable Passes to the Kingdom of Darkness which they ought not to surrender but upon honourable terms that if Vice was Banisht the World Purgatory would be utterly uninhabited and his Holiness would never be able to lay an Embargo upon Charon's Boat again To this Fryar Nicolas Scomberg the Cardinal of Histor Con. Trid. St. Sistus added that the Lutherans would laugh that they had frighted his Holiness into better manners than Marforio's Libels or his own Conscience could that 't would be very dishonourable to his Infallibility to confess his Errours to the World and to his Holiness to publish the Vices of his Court by a Reformation of them This was all this while a mere piece of politick Hypocrisie carried on to stop the Clamours of the World but far from being then design'd or ever effected Nay when Adrian the Sixth did afterwards really attempt it he was not only Contemned by his Courtiers but Cardinal Palavicini a long time after spake very Lib 2. cap. 6. meanly of him and calls his zealous design of Reformation an Abstracted Idea Ma non forme proportionate alle Condizioni della materia But the form was not proportionate to the disposition of the matter said he Now that hypocritical strict Reformation the Presbyterians afterwards proclaimed differed from this only in that to attain that Tyrannical Power over men's Consciences and Estates the Pope then had and was in danger of losing they were forc'd to longer and deeper hypocrisie to colour their Principles which are most Jesuitically Popish observing the politick Rule of this Jesuit The form was not proportionate to the matter they were then poor had not the power in their hands but when by their Doctrines they had gained their designs how did they agree with him in his new lights and what difference was there between their Establishing Christ's Throne which they had made wide enough for all of them to sit in like one great accumulative Pope or St. Peter's Chair which he makes the Imperial seat of all Power and Dominion But further in the course of History which is the second Method of this Book we shall find when we come to their days of domineering that they fell into the most extravagant excesses even in those very things times and actions they pretended to Reform and so likewise those very abuses the Court of Rome then for a while pretended to take away are now establisht by Canons and
the Poor-mans-Box with a Back-Sword lifted up over the Effigies of a Cripple standing upon it I was resolved if possible to hear what he had to say to it when I was got close to him Thou lame Idol quoth he that haltest betwixt two Opinions that hast Feet and walkest not I will hew thee in pieces as Samuel did Agag before the Lord in Gilgal At a few Strokes he cut it down and had so split the Box that out flew several pieces of Brass and Silver which he greedily catching thou art said he like the Image in Aesop's Fables which did the Man no good whilst he worship'd it but now being broken thou sheddest thy Mammon like Bloud I left him to observe a Tribe of Quakers who were got to the Steeple and seemed so mighty Zealous against it that they would have pulled it down about their Ears had they not feared it might have beaten off their Hats but nothing more offended them than the Bells and their great Fault was that they called others to Church although they never came in themselves so that whatever was said to prove them true Protestant Bells that they had never been baptized as Popish * As the great Bell in St. John Lateran Bells used to be though they had neither God-Fathers nor God-Mothers yet down they must because said they The Babylonians had an Idol called Bell. Thus the Reformation was carried on according to the various Frensies and ridiculous Humours of the jangling Rabble who agreed in nothing but Mischief and Desolation not sparing the very Monuments of those first Reformers whom in the * Pag. 6. Preface to the Directory the Presbyterians acknowledged as excellent Instruments raised by God to begin the purging and building of his House and desired they might be had in everlasting Remembrance with Thankfulness and Honour for they pull'd the Brass off their Tombs and defac'd every thing that was curious for Workmanship or Venerable for Antiquity under the pretence of Popery when as indeed their Covetousness which was worse than Idolatry was the chiefest Motive that they scratch'd up the Names of worthy Benefactours for the Brass they were engraven upon that they rak'd up the very Dust of their Ancestours and would have sold the Bones of their Grandsires if any would have bought them but this was not all their brutish Zeal carried them to greater Extravagances as to thrust their Swords through and mangle the Corpses of the deceased a piece of Romish Fury now turn'd into Protestant Piety Whilst I observed these things with Grief and Wonder the Clergy-man pulled me by the Sleeve and look you yonder quoth he is fine work at this I espied a mixt Multitude of the wildest Machines that ever I beheld some tooting with the broken Pipes of Organs others dancing in Hoods Copes and Surplices some Smoaking others Swaggering with lewd and bloudy Oaths and all of them pulling down the King's Arms calling them the Colours of the Dragon and the Ensigns of Antichrist and saying that the Vnicorn was the very White Horse in the Revelations with a blazing Star upon his Forehead Then a great number of Levellers great Enemies to Angels and Arch-angels cutting in pieces the Images of the Apostles After them a Troop of Antinomians fell foul upon the Ten Commandments and carried out the Pictures of Moses and Aaron vowing to make his Incense blaze as well as smoak and so burnt them with the Rails before the Altar Whilst the Rout were thus revelling in their lewd and diabolical Triumphs I wondred to hear on a sudden some howling and mourning very lamentably but was much more astonished to see Greenhill weeping as if he had been sorry for what the People by his Instigation had done and therefore going up to Edwards who wrote the Gangraena Pray good Sir said I What ails Mr. Greenhill what is the Matter What! said he * Edwards Catalogue of Errours pag. 25. an Anabaptist and a great Sectary came to him and said he might as safely Baptize a Dog as a Believer's Child At this I looked towards the Font and espied a Company of Villains †In Lichfield Cath. Sir William Dugdale 's Hist baptizing a Calf wrapt in Linnen Edwards seeing them at the same time cryed out From all these Errours Heresies and Practices of the Sectaries you may see what a great Edward 's Further Discourse p. 195. Evil and Sin Separation is from the Communion of the Reformed Churches and how highly displeasing to God for Men to make a Schism and Rent in the Church of God in time of Reformation God punishing the Schism and Separation of our Times with so many Heresies Blasphemies and wicked Practices Very true replyed the Orthodox Clergy-man Knox and some of your Predecessours made a Schism in the Church of God in the very time of the Reformation and because your Separation from the truly Reformed Church was unreasonable the Pretences frivolous and the Methods of your Super reformation Impious and Ridiculous therefore does God justly punish your Schism and Separation Impious and Ridiculous cryed 40 or 50 of them at once was the visible growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government a frivolous Pretence Yes marry was it replyed he 't was what the Papists themselves suggested and was rather therefore the Invisible Growth of Popery under the Visible Growth of Knavery And since you talk of God's Punishment for Schism surely the World may now trace the Guilt of your pretended Reformation in the Consequences of it 'T was ye set the People above the King and now every Individual usurps a Supreme Equality a nonsensical Confusion not to be found among Cannabals 't was ye abolish'd Episcopacy and now every one makes himself a Priest with as much Authority as one Presbyter makes another 't was ye taught the People to sit irreverently at the Sacrament and now ye may see some of them laying their Tails at the Communion Table ye took away the decent Ceremonies in Baptism and now they prophane that Sacrament with Diabolical ones ye brought the Catechumeni to the Desk and 't is not long e're they are chirping in the Pulpit Thus like so many Judas's have ye betrayed both Christ's Vicegerent and his Church too with glorious Pretences and then left them to the mockery of Men worse than Jews who have now made the Temple of God a Den of Thieves which ye denyed to be the House of Prayer Prayer cryed one of them Was not the whole Book of Common-Prayer Popish and Superstitious Are not Bishops Antichristian And did not that Arch-Prelate Laud design to bring us into right down Popery That you shall know by and by replyed he but in the mean time 't is remarkable that the Arch-Bishop was condemned upon an Indictment of the Scots for obtruding the Book of Common-Prayer and you imposed the * Title Page of the Directory Directory upon them and the Irish too a little after That Bishops are not
Greg. Epist lib. 6. cap. 3. know it he detested it as a Symptome of Antichrist and Phocas who bestowed it upon Pope Boniface did not doe it untill he had an occasion to bestow his Master the Emperour Mauritius in the other World But now said he you may plainly see it with your Eyes look you there there is the Globe of the whole Earth of which the Pope is the Lord and Governour 't is true you Hereticks wander in some little bye Places as in England and in some petty Hans-Towns of Germany but his Authority is extended over all the World all the Indies acknowledge him all Italy France Spain Poland Hungaria Transylvania Gallicia Valentia Granada Andalusia Hold Hold Sir cryed he if you should stumble o'er the Straits Mouth you will beat out your Brains against Hercules's Pillars Pray let us examine this Monster 's Noddle what a grievous bruise has Martin Luther given him with his High Dutch Knuckles he has broken I do not know how many Degrees of Longitude and Latitude all Great Britain is quite beat out and the Low-Countries are so sunck in that I believe he must be trepan'd before he can recover in short the Protestants are almost as numerous as the Papists But suppose we grant him that thumping Appellation why did Pope Paul the 5th in his Bull wherein he excommunicated Queen Elizabeth use that sneaking Title of Servant of Servants your Triple Servant He should have sent a good deep-mouth'd Nuncio that should have stretch'd his Muzzle to the uttermost and have roar'd like a crack of Thunder among the Alpes and have cryed Paolo quinto Papa Monarcha di Regno di Vaticano Segnor del mondo supremo santissimo Vmano magistrato c. This would have conjur'd down all the Protestants and have put them into such a trembling Fit that they would have shak'd all their Heresie out of the Knees of their Breeches this would have better suited him who is the most serene and invincible Sultan of Contradictions the Grand-Seignior of all Mental Reservations and Equivocations the Sophi of Legends and Romances the Great Mogul of Indulgences the Czar of Holy Impostures and Pious Cheats the Great Cham of the Inquisition c. Hold Sir cryed one of the Papists this is Railery and Abuse 't is as true replyed he as that the Pope is Vniversal Bishop let him but keep within his own Diocese and not meddle any more with the Rights of Sovereign Kings and Princes and there is no body that I know of will be so ready to complement him from the Artick to the Antartick Pole for the Future But we hope cryed several of them you will allow our Church to be the Catholick Church For this word Catholick there has been much scrambling these many Years replyed he and you have taken much pains to monopolize it to your See of Rome in order to which for the great number of humane Hereticks whom you excommunicate you take all manner of Beasts Fowles and Fishes into the Pale of your Church St. Francis first converted the Birds and then afterwards he fully convinc'd and satisfied a Wolf that had a very tender Conscience nor was he the onely Apostle to the Brutes but the Bishop Book of Conf. p. 114. of Canaglion managed as difficult a Diocess in the Year 1593 for he Catholickly accused the Fishes so that afterwards they without all doubt believed the Doctrine of Holy Water St. Bernard in a Fit of Popery is reported by * Pet. de Nat. in vit Bern. Petrus de Natalibus to have excommunicated the Flies and therefore several Species of Creatures observing that all Regular Orders had put themseves under the Protection of some considerable Saints have likewise listed themselves the Dogs under St. Hubert a Huntsman the Horses under St. Loys their Ostler-General and because the Geese once preserved the Capitol there was an Order from the Vatican that St. Feriol should take care of them And so said he I hope we are all satisfied as to the Vniversality of the Romish Church pray set forth the Antiquity of it Upon this all the Papists desired that they might save that Argument untill the last fancying that it gathered strength every Moment and desired the Assembly to take into their consideration the Vnity of their Church and the Supremacy of the Pope as for the Protestants cryed one of them they are divided into as many Factions as there are days in the Year and make an Anarchy of the Kingdom of Grace but the Roman Catholicks are all united under one Head the Pope so making the true Hierarchy of the Holy Catholick Church Upon this one of the Church of England stood up and said as for our Church it has no more to doe or answer for the Factions among Protestants than yours nor so much neither when did ever any Minister of the Church of England preach the Doctrines of Fanaticks to promote its Interest when did any of them ever preach that which in their Consciences they knew to be a Lye for the sake of the Truth and if you look into your own you will find those Divisions which never were in our Church as the differences betwixt the Dominicans and Franciscans betwixt the Jansinists and Mollinists which have been continued with the greatest heats imaginable 't is true the Pope hath sometimes interposed his Authority but to no great purpose but where was the Papal Authority in the days of the Anti-Popes or what will become of it if the Jesuits gain their designs will all other Orders acknowledge the Papal Authority if the Jesuits confine it to their own the Church of England can never be subject to such a Fatal Division so long as the King of England is acknowledged to be in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil Supreme Governour As for the Pope's Supremacy that has been so sufficiently pelted with good Greek and Latin by many of these Learned Authours that I will onely humbly drop a few Queries concerning it at this time First then We desire to know Whether our Saviour ever granted it to St. Peter Secondly Whether the present Pope be his Successour Thirdly Suppose it was granted to St. Peter Whether there was any need of forging the Donation of Constantine afterwards Fourthly If it was granted to St. Peter because he first confess'd him to be Christ the Son of the living God Whether Pope Leo the 10th had any right to it for saying to Cardinal Bembo * Crispinus Quantum nobis nostrique ea de Christo fabula prosuerit satis est omnibus secuâ— notum Fifthly we desire to know whether any Bishoprick in Christendom remaining can shew a Succession so disordered and corrupted as that of Rome Not to mention their strange Schisms let any Person but consider the Stratagems and impious Intrigues of the Conclave the Factions of the Nepotism contrary to that Solemn Oath they take enough to make Angels tremble and he will conclude