little after the sixth of Carthage None constituted in the bond of Marriage can be admitted to Priesthood without promise of Conuersion Secondly it appeares by all the Councells of the African Church which concerne the same matter It hath pleased saith the second Councell of Carthage that Bishops Priests Deacons c. practice intire continence c. to the end that what the Apostles haue taught or according to the Greeke edition giuen by tradition and antiquitie itselfe obserued we also should obserue And againe It hath pleased that Bishops Priests and Deacons or others that handle the Sacraments should liue chastlie and abstaine euenfrom their owne wiues And the fifth Councell of Carthage It hath pleased that Priests and Deacons according to their owne Statutes or as the best copies haue it according to the former Statutes should abstaine from their owne wiues It appeares thirdly by the testimonie of all the doctors of the Latine church and especiallie the African who haue liued in the tyme of those Councells That the Ministrie saith Saint AMBROSE must be preserued inuiolate and immaculate without defiling it with anie coniugall embraces you know it you that with integritie of bodie and incorruption of modestie abst ayning yourselues euen from the vse of Marriage haue receiued the grace of the sacred Deaconship And saint Hierom Bishops Priests and Deacons are chosen either virgins or in widowhood or at least are after their Priesthood eternallie chast And saint AUGUSTINE The soule and penn of the Councells of Africa Wee haue said he accustomed to propound to lay men that haue put awaie their wiues the continence of Clergie men who are often taken by force and against their wills to vndergoe that charge and hauing accepted it be are it with gods helpe lawfullie euen to the end Wee saie to them what would become of you if you were constrained and forced by the violence of the people to vndergoe this charge would you not chastlie preserue the office wherewith you were charged instantlie conuerting your selues to beseeche of God such strength as before your neuer thought of Wherto I might yet add the ancient Greeke doctors as Eusebius who writes Now the 〈◊〉 of the diuine word doe necessarilie imbrace abstinence from Marriages to attend to a better imploymeut practizing a generation of spirituall and incorporall children Or as saint EPIPHANIVS that cryes out The holie Church of God receiues not him that hath bene but once married and conuerseth still with his wife and begetts children for Deacon Priest and Bishop But because heere the question is of the custome of the latine Church and particularlie of the African notof the greeke Church I sett the greeke testimonies aside It appeares fourthly by Fulgentius Ferandus an African Canonist of aboue 1100. yeares antiquitie who in his epitomy of the Canons registers the Canon of the Councell of Carthage in these words That Bishops Priests and Deacons should abstaine from their Wiues And by Cresconius an African Canonist likewise of neere a thousand yeares antiquitie who registers it in these wordes That the priestlie and leuiticall order ought to haue no cohabitation with woemen It appeares fistly by the proper text of the Canon which plainely comprehends Bishops which neuerthelesse the Greekes exclude from all coniugall acts and to whom this condition of seruing by turnes and alternatiue weekes cannot agree It appeares besides this by the sixth Canō of the same Coūcell of Carthage which saith That readers when they are come to the yeares of manhood shall be constrained either to marrie or professe chastitie A thing which necessarily shewes that the vse of Marriage was wholie prohibited to Bishops Priests and deacons And finallie it appeares by Andrew Gesnerus minister of Zurich and the German Centuriators being ashamed of this falshood for Gesnerus interpreting the Greeke translation of the Councell of Carthage hath turned it into these words It hath pleased that Bishops Priests and Deacons according to their statutes should abstaine euen from their wiues And the Centuriators of Germanie epitomizing the same Councell of Carthage reporte it in these wordes That the Sacerdot all and and Diaconall order should abstaine from their wiues But forasmuch as this matter was treated of more largely in the appendix of the conference of Fontainebleau where wee confuted the fable of Paphnucius reported by Socrates and Sozomene Nouatian Authors from whom the later Greekes haue borrowed the occasion of their fall and expounded the Canon of the Councells of Gangres which seemes to fauour them It shall suffice me for an end of this aduertisment to remitt the readers thereunto The second Example of infidelitie shal be taken out of the twentie fourth Canon of the Greeke Rapsody which is the twentie fourth of those thirtie three latine Canons whereof the collection is intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage where the Greeke interpretor hath ecclipsed from the Catalogue of the Canonicall Bookes receiued in Africa the two Bookes of the Machabes Now that this subctraction is a notable falshood appeares by six vnreprochable ' meanes It appeares first by all the latine copies as well printed as manuscripts of the collection intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage in which the two Bookes of the Machabes are expressed by name It appeares secondly by the fortie seauenth Canon of the third Councell of Carthage from whence the canon of the collection intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage hath bene extracted which mentions particularly the two Bookes of the Machabes It appeares thirdly by the Canon of the Canonicall Bookes inserted into saint AVGVSTINS second Booke of Christian Doctrine where the two Bookes of the Machabes are expressly contained and to which saint AVGVSTINE for an impediment that the number should not be varied by anie addition or Subtraction setts to this seale In these fortie foure Bookes the authority of the old Testament is determined And againe repeates the same seale in the Register of his retractions in these words In the place 〈◊〉 said hee of the second booke of Christian Doctrine where I haue written in these fortie foure bookes the authoritie of the olde Testament is determined I made vse of the word olde Testament according to the forme of speech which the Church practiseth at this daie but the Apostle seemes to call none the old Testament but that which was giuen in the Mount Sinai It appeares fourthly by the other writings where saint AVGVSTINE speakes of the Machabees as when he saith in the eighteenth Booke of the cittie of God Amongst the volumes seuered from this ranke are the bookes of the Machabees which not the Jewes but the Church hold for Canonicall And in the second booke against the Epistle of Gaudentius the Donatist The scripture intituled from the Machabes the Jewes doe not hold as the lawe the Prophetts and the Psalmes which our
Lord alleadgeth for his testimonie c. But it hath bene receiued by the Church not vnprofitable if it be read or heard soberlie In which passage that saint AVGVSTINE saith that the Iewes hold not the Scripture of the Machabees in the same ranke as the Lawe the Psalmes and the Prophets is not to weaken the authoritie of the Scripture of the Machabees for the Jewes doe no more hold the booke of Wisdome in the same degree of the Lawe the Psalmes and the Prophets and our Lord hath noe more alleadged it amongst the Testimonies then that of the Machabees And neuerthelesse S. AVGVSTINE saith The booke of WISDOME hath merited after so long a continuance of yeares to be read in the Church of Christ by the Readers of the Church of Christ and to be heard by all Christians euen from the Bishops to the lowest laymen faithfull penitents and catechumens with the reuerence of diuine authoritie And againe All the Doctors neere the tyme of the Apostles making vse of the testimonie of the Bookes of WISDOME haue beleeued that they made vse of none but a diuine Testimonie but the reason why saint AVGVSTINE said that the Jewes held not the Scripure of the Machaebees in the ranke of the lawe the Prophetts and the Psalmes was to shew the Donatists who were seperated from the Church and yet made vse of her owne weapons to oppose her that this Scripture hauing bene receiued into the Canon not by the Jewes but by the Church they could not imploy it against the sence and Doctrine of the Church And that he adds that it was receiued by the Church not vnprofitablie prouided it be read soberly it is not to the end to diminishe the credit which ought to be giuen to it but to represse the furious consequences that the Donatists inferred vpon it and signifies no other thing but prouided it be read with setled sences and not with madnesse and frensie as the Donatists read it who tooke occasion from the example of Sampson in the history of the Judges and from the example of Razias in the historie of the Machabees whose zeale and not his act is commended to kill and precipitate themselues which he confirmes a while after in these words Wee ought not then to approue by our consent all things which wee reade in the Scriptures to haue bene done by men euen adorned with prayses by Gods owne testimonie but to mingle our consideration with discretion bringing with vs iudgment not of our authoritie but of the authoritie of the holie and diuine Scriptures which permitt not vs to praise or imitate all the actions euen of those of whom the Scripture giues good and glorious testimonie if they haue done anie thing that hath not bene well done or that agreeth not with the custome of the present time It appeares sifthly by the Catalogue of the Canonicall bookes that Pope Innocēt the first tyme fellowe with S. AVSTINE sēt to Exuperius Bishop of Tholosa where the two Bookes of the Machabees are expressely contained For whereas Pope Gelasius in renewing the decree of the Canonicall bookes makes vse of the history of the Machabees but for one only booke it is because he speakes according to the Stile of S AMBROSE who reckons the first and second of the Machabees for one and the same Booke And whereas saint GREGORIE the great in his commentary vpon Iob compounded neere two hundred yeares after the Canon of the African Fathers cyting the Bookes of the Machabees adds although not canonicall yet written for the edification of the Church that is because the first draught of this comentary was made in the East For saint 〈◊〉 was not yet Pope when he first composed the comentarie vp on Job but a simple deacon exercising the 〈◊〉 of Nuntio at Constantinople amongst the Greekes For this occasion then speaking in the East of the Bookes of the Machabees he added in the forme of a case put and not granted If not canonicall yet written for the edification of the Church that is to 〈◊〉 the which if they were not canonicall neuertheles had bene writtē for the edification of the Church It appeares finally by the very continuance of the African canon inserted into the Greeke Rapsody which is Wee haue learnt from our Fathers that those are the bookes that ought to bee read 〈◊〉 the Church For not only all the ancient African Church but also all the ancient Westerne Church had holden from age to age the Bookes of the Machabees to be canonicall as it appeares in regard of the ancient 〈◊〉 church by the testimonie of saint Cyprian who calls the Machabees 〈◊〉 scriptures and in regard of the other partes of the westerne church by the testimonie of saint AMBROSE who cryes out Moyses saith as it is written in the bookes of the Machabees And by that of the great defender of the Catholick Faith Lucifer Bishop of 〈◊〉 who writt to the emperor 〈◊〉 The holie scripture speakes in the first booke of the 〈◊〉 And by an infinite number of others whose names I will not 〈◊〉 particularly to report Only I will saie in generall that there was 〈◊〉 anie latine Author which tooke liberty to remoue the authoritie of the Booke of the Machabees before saint HIEROME and Ruffinus 〈◊〉 him while he was his disciple Whereupon there are three 〈◊〉 to be made The first obseruation is that as saint HIEROME before the perfect maturitie of is studies for afterward he changed his opinion ecclipsed from the canon of the old testament the historie of the Machabees so did he also shake in the canon of the new testament the epistle to the 〈◊〉 The latine custome saith hee receiues not the Epistle 〈◊〉 Hebrewes amongst the canonicall scriptures And againe If anie one will 〈◊〉 the Epistle which vnder Paules name hath bene written to the Hebrewes And 〈◊〉 where Paule in his Epistle which is written to the Hebrewes though 〈◊〉 of the latines doubt of it By which meanes if the authoritie of saint HIEROME not yet fullie instructed in the sence of the Church be 〈◊〉 for the exclusion of one of these pieces it is also auaileable for the 〈◊〉 of the other The second obseruation is that saint HIEROME 〈◊〉 induced to remoue this stone by the commerce that he had with 〈◊〉 Iewes of Palestina amongst whom hee inhabited and from whom he 〈◊〉 the Hebrew letters For Istdore Bishop of Seuilla who writt a 〈◊〉 yeares agoe reportes that the Iewes in hate of our Lord reiected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Booke of Wisedome The Hebrewes said Isidore as some of 〈◊〉 sages haue noted it receiued the Booke of Wisdome amongst the canonicall 〈◊〉 but after they had taken Christ and putt him to deach remembring that 〈◊〉 were in the same Booke so manie euident testimonies of Christ c. they made 〈◊〉 together and least ours should conuince them of so manifest a 〈◊〉 they
cutt it of frō the propheticall volumes and prohibited theirs from reading Now the Jewes could haue no faire colour to cutt of the Booke of 〈◊〉 from the rolle of the Canonicall Bookes but because it was not in 〈◊〉 Canon of Esdras a thing which likewise obliged them to cutt of all 〈◊〉 other Posthume bookes from the old restament so call I all the 〈◊〉 of the olde Testament which had bene writtē or published since 〈◊〉 of Esdras and after the death of Esdras as Ecclesiasticus the 〈◊〉 of Tobias the Booke of Iudith and the two Bookes of Machabees 〈◊〉 these causes then saint HIEROME tying himselfe to the catalogue of the Iewes vpon whose text and with whose helpe and particularly of a certaine Rabbin called Barabanus or Barhanina whom Ruffinus by way of reproch calls Barrabas he had made the translation of his Bible not only excludes in his prologue vpon the booke of Kings that he intitles the armed prologue and in his prologue vpon the Prouerbs all the whole bookes which were not in the canon of Esdras as were Wisedome Ecclesiacticus Tobias Iudith and the Machabees but also in his prologue vpon Daniell reiects all the partes of the canonicall Bookes not comprehended in the text of the Hebrowes as were the Canticle of the three Children and the historie of Susanna and that of Bel. The Booke of Daniell saith he amongst the Hebrewes containes neiter the history of Susanna nor the Himne of the three Children nor the fables of the Dragon of 〈◊〉 which neuerthelesse because they are spread ouer all the world we haue annexed thereto but after hauing marked them with an obeliske which precedes them and cutts their throate From whence it is that Ruffinus being growne his enemie reprocheth him thus All those then that supposed Susanna had furnished all married and vnmarried woemen with an example of Chastitie haue erred it is not true all those that conceaued that Daniel yet a child had bene fulfilled with the Spirit of God and had 〈◊〉 the adulterous Elders haue erred it is not true And the whole Church throughout the extent of the world as well as those that are still vpon the Earth as of those that are before our Lord be they holy coufessors be they holy Martyrs who haue sung in the Church of our Lord the Hymne of the thre Children haue all erred and sunge false things Now then after foure hundred yeares doth the truth of the Lawe bought with Siluer Soe he saith because saint HIEROM had giuen money to the Iewes to be helped by them in the edition of this Bible come to vs from the Synagogue And the third obseruation finally is that saint HIEROME being afterward more exactly instructed in the truth of the sence of the Church changed his opinion and retracted both in generall and particular all that he had written in these three prologues For in his Apologie against Ruffinus answering to his reproach about the historie of Susanna and of the Dragon of Bel and of the canticle of the three Children he saith Whereas I haue reported what the Hebrewes vsed to obiect against the historie of Susanna and the Hymne of the three Children and the fables of the Dragon of Bell which are not in the Hebrew volume c. I haue not explicated what I thought but what the Iewes were accustomed to saie against vs. And in his preface vpon the booke of Tobias The Hebrewes saith hee cutt of the booke of Toby from the Catalogue of the diuine Scriptures And againe The ie alousie of the Hebrewes doth accuse vs and imputes it to vs that against their Canon we transferr the booke of Toby into the latine eares but I iudge that it is better to displease the iudgement of the Pharises and to obay the commaundements of the Bishops And in the exposition vpon the fortie fourth Psalme Ruth Hester and Iudith haue bene so glorious as they haue giuen their names into the sacred volumes And in his preface vpon the historie of Indith The booke of Iudith said hee is read by the Hebrewes amongst the Hagiographs whose authoritie is esteemed lesse sufficient to decide contentious things c. but for as much as the Councell of Nicea is read to haue reckoned it amongst the holy Scriptures I haue obeyed your demaund Words which plainly retract what he had said in his Prologue vpon the Prouerbs As then the Church reads Iudith and Toby and the Machabees but receaues them not amongst the canonicall Bookes so may she reade Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the people but not for the confirmation of Ecclesiasticall Doctrines And which cannot be auoided by answering that the word holy Scriptures doth not there signifie Canonicall for the opposition that he makes of the Councell of Nicea to the Iewes which esteemed the Booke of Iudith amongst the Hagiograph bookes whose authoritie is reputed lesse sufficient to diuide contentious things stopps the mouth of that delusion And finallie in his commentarie vpon the Prophet Esay compounded long after the prologue armed he setts the historie of the Machabees amōgst the canonicall Bookes The Scripture saith he reportes that Alexāder king of the Macedonians came out from the land of Cethim Which some Latins that followed being ignorant of it befell that they were seperated from the common voyce of the westerne Church For although the greater part of the later Latine Doctors as Alcimus Bellator 〈◊〉 Isidorus haue followed the catalogue of S. AVS of the third Councell of Carthage and sett the historie of the Machabees amongst the canonicall Bookes yea that some of them as Bellator who liued in the tyme of the Emperor Iustinian the first haue illustrated it with cōmentaries neuerthelesse some others not knowing that S. HIEROME had chāged his opinion haue tyed themselues to that of S. HIEROME But in summe whatsoeuer the later Latine doctors haue done it is certaine that in the Latine Church neuer anie before S. HIEROME had remoued the authoritie of the six posthume bookes of the old Testamēt For whereas S. HILARIE in his commentary vpon the Psalmes cōposed or rather as S. HIEROME saith translated by him out of Origene whilst he was in the East writes that the nūber of the canonicall bookes of the old Testamēt is reduced according to the tradition of the Elders either to the number of the twétie two letters of the Hebrew alphabet or by the additiō of the Bookes of Iudith of Tobias to the nūber of twentie foure letters of the Greeke Alphabet besides that these markes are not the notes of S. HILARY but the notes of Origene in his cōmentary vpō the first psalme that S. HILARY hath transcribed in part into his prologue vpon the psalmes Hee meanes by the traditiō of the Elders not the traditiō of the Church but the traditions of the Iewes whereof some to wit
these that made vse of the Hebrew tongue in their Synagogues set twentie two Bookes into their canō according to the nūber of the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet And the others to witt the Hellenist Iewes that is to saie those that vsed the Greeke tōgue in their Synagogues sett in twentie fower according to the nūber of the Greeke Alphabet which cōtaines twentie fower letters But at the least will some man saie there are amongst the monuments of the Greeke Church catalogues wherein the six postume Bookes of the old Testament are omitted Now this is a case apart for the dispute which now is treated of is not of the custome of the Greeke Church but of the the oustome of the Latine Church and particularly of the African in the times of the Councells of Carthage Neuerthelesse for as much as this chance may be mett in our waie wee will furnish it with fower aduertisments The first aduertisement shal be that of the Greeke canons where these bookes are omitted there are manie which haue bene supposed by the later Greekes as amongst others the Synopsis which beares the title of S. ATHANASIVS the which also Beda and the copies of Basile cast into the Tome of the Bookes falsely imputed to S. ATHANASIVS For the Synopsis intitled from saint ATHANASIVS defalketh Wisedome from the number of the Canonicall Bookes and setts it into the 〈◊〉 of the Bookes that were read by the Catechumens only directly against saint AVGVSTINE who saith That the bookes of Wisedome had merited by so long a continuance of yeares to be read in the Church of Christ by the Readers of the Church of Christ and to be heard by all the Christians from the Bishops to the lowest laymen faithfull penitents and 〈◊〉 with reuerence of diuine authoritie And against saint ATHANASIVS himselfe who cryes out They feare not what is written in the holy letters the false witnes shall not be vnpunished and the lying mouth slayes the soule The second aduertissement shall be that although the neighbourhood and the confusion of dwelling with the Iewes hath sometimes hindred the Greeks principally the Asians from setting the posthume bookes of the old Testament into their Canons neuerthelesse there are none of those bookes but haue bene imployed by diuers Greeke Authors in the qualitie of a sacred and canonicall booke as the booke of wisedome by Melito Bishop of Sardes by S. ATHANASIVS and all the Synod of Alexandria which saith speaking of the Arrians They feare not that which is written in the holy scriptures the false witnes shall not remaine vnpunished and the lying mouth slayes the soule The booke of Tobias by the same Sainct ATHANASIVS and the same Synod which saith It is written that the misterie of the King must be concealed The booke of Iudith by the Councell of Nicea which is read saith S. HIEROME to haue reckoned the volume of Iudith amongst the holy Scriptures The bookes of Wisedome and of Ecclesiasticus by S. EPIPHANIVS who writes against Aetius Thou must turne ouer the two Wisdomes that of Salomon and that of the sonne of Syrach and in summe all the diuine Scriptures And finallie the booke of the Machabees by the three first and greatest Antiquaries of the Greeke Christendome Clemens Alexandr Origen and Eusebius For Clemens Alexandr reporting the historie of the Scriptures saith In the captiuitie were 〈◊〉 and Mardocheus whose historie is currant as that of the Machabees And Origen in the second booke of the worke of Principles disputing against the here tickes of the sect of Marcion who placed matter as coeternall to God willing to proue to them that God had created the world of nothing cryes out And that we may proue it to be so by authority of Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the booke of Machabees to the mother of the seauen martyrs And in his commentarie vpon the Epistle to the Romans expounding this verse of S. PAVL None dyes for the iust and disputing against the same Marcionites who interpreted it of the God of the old lawe he askes But what will they doe For we finde in the 〈◊〉 manie martyrs lett them reade the bookes of the Machābees And Eusebius in the worke of Euangelicall preparation comparing the points of the doctrine of Plato with the diuine Oracles of the Hebrewes setts downe among the examples of cōformitie the place where Plato writes that the soules of the iust after their death helpe the liuing with the place where the booke of the Machabees quots that Jeremy was seene after his death praying for the people The twelfth booke of the Euangelicall preparation saith Euselius shall containe the rest of the conformitie of the doctrine of Plato with the oracles of the Hebrewes And a little after reporting the articles of this conformitie Plato saith hee writes that the soules of the deceased are endued with a certaine vertue and haue a care of the affaires of men c. And in the booke of the Machabees it is written that the Prophet Ieremy after his departure out of this life was seene praying for the people And from this it doth not derogate that Origen alleadged also in the second booke of his worke of principles the volume of Pastor which manie of the auncient held for canonicall for he adds in the fourth booke of the same worke that some despised it which he noe were notes of the booke of Machabees Contrariwise in his apologie against Celsus he cryes out that the historie sf the Machabees is testified by the witnesse of two whole nations that is to say of the Iewes and the Christians Frō whence it is also that the Greeke doctors hold it for so au thēticall 〈◊〉 as they affirme that the things therein described the holy Ghost had long before foretolde by the mouth of Dauid the other Prophets The Prophet saith S. CHRISOS hath indited the 43 th psal not in his person but in the person of the Machabees describing and prophecying the things that 〈◊〉 happe in their times And S. ISIDORE of Egipt time fellow with the same S. CHRYSOS saith The Angell that discoursed with 〈◊〉 spake of Antiochus Epiphanes that he should be manifestlie conquered and dispossessed by the Machabes And Theodoret contiguous in tyme to both of thē The holie Ghost saith hee hath writtēn by the diuine Dauid the fortie third psalme of the 〈◊〉 The third aduetisment shal be that not only diuers Greeke authors 〈◊〉 often the same Greeke authors in speaking of the Bookes of the old testament follow according to the occasion of their speeche sometimes the primitiue computation of the Iewes the Rabbinicall tradition of the canon of Esdras of the bookes inclosed in the Arke answerable to the number of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in which the posthumall bookes of the old testament were not cōprehended somtymes the accessory cōputation of the
Christians wherein they were contained from whence it appeares that from the lesser of these computations nothing can be inferred against the larger To proue it so when Origen in his cōmentary vpon the psalmes speakes of the Scriptures of the old Testament he followes the canon of Esdras and the nūber of the twentie two Hebrew letters wherin neither Tobias nor Iudith nor that of Wisedome had anie place Yon must not be ignorāt said hee that the bookes of the Testament according to the tradition of the Hebrewes are 22. according to the number of their letters And whē he speakes in his cōmentary vpō the book of Nūbers of the volumes of the Scripture he followes the accessory cōputatiō of the christians the appēdix of the posthumall bookes sets downe the 〈◊〉 of Iudith Tobie that of Wisedome amongst the canonicall Bookes When there is presented saith hee to those that are newly Schollers in diuine Studies anie reading of the diuine volumes in which there is nothing that seemes obscure as the booke of Hester or of Iudith or of Tobie or the precepts of wisedome they receiue it willinglie but if the booke of Leuiticus be read to them their spirit is presentlie dulled And in the same place of the cōmentary vpon the psalmes where he reckons the Canonicall Bookes of the old Testament according to the cōputation of the Hebrewes and the number of the Hebrew letters hee adds out of this ranke are the bookes of the Machabees which the Hebrewes call Sarbit Sarbaneell that is to saie the Scepter of the Prince of the childrē of God By which wordes he intēdes not to saie that they are not of the ranke of the canonicall Bookes of the old Testament for then wherefore hauing purposed to speake of the Canonicall Bookes should he mentiō the Machabees but that they were not in the ranke of the canonicall bookes inserted in the canon of Esdras Likewise when S. EPIPHANIVS in the Booke of the Hebrew weights measure in the confutatiō of the Sect of Epicurus speaks of the canonicalll Bookes of the old Testamēt he followes the catalogue of Esdras the cabbale or tradition of the twentie two Hebrew letters and saith that the Bookes of Wisedome Ecclesiasticus were not of this nūber The Wisdome of Salomon and that of Iesusthe sonne of Syrach are vsefull and profitable but are not sett downe amongst the bookes enrolled that is to saie enrolled by Esdras And for that cause they are not placed in the Aron that is to saie in the Arke of the testimonie for so it must be read not neither in the Aron nor in the Arke as it is read at this daie by the ignorance of the booke writers interpreters who of the word Aron which in hebrew signifies Arke haue made Aaron brother of Moyses And when he disputeth against Aetius head of the heresie of the Anomeans he follloweth the accessory cōputation of the Church setts both those amongst the diuine and Canonicall Scriptures You must saith hee turne ouer the twentie seauen bookes of the olde Testament that the hebrewes reckon twentie two and the four Ghospells and the fourteen epistles of the Apostles S. PAVL and the Acts of 〈◊〉 Apostles made before and during the same time and the Catholick Epistles of Iames Peter Iohn and Iude and the 〈◊〉 of John and the two Wisdomes that is to saie that of Salomon and that of the Sonne of Syrach and in summe all the diuine Scriptures And finallie the fourth and last aduertisment shall bee that there is not one of all the Greeke canons wherein the Machabees are past ouer in silēce except those that follow the double computation whereof wee now speake which is not according to the verie iudgment of Geneua imperfect omitts those Bookès the Caluinists théselues confesse to be canonicall And to proue it so in the canon of Melito the booke of Hester is omitted in the canon of S. CYRILL of Hierusalem in the canō of the coūcell of Laodicea the Apocalips is forgoten in the Synopsis falsely imputed to S. ATHANAS the booke of Hester is cutt of in the canon laid to S. GREGORIE of Naziazenes charge I say laid to his charge because this canon leaues out Wisedome which S. GREG. of Nazianzene in his true writings cites as canonicall the Booke of Hester and that of the Apocalips are excluded In the catalogue attributed to Amphilochius the booke of Hester and the Apocalips are called in question In the catalogue of Iosephus an author that was an Hebrew by nation but whose Bookes are written in Greeke the booke of Job is omitted principallie according to their computation that will haue Job to haue been before Moyses as Origen amōgst the old Christians Mercerus the Caluinist amōgst the moderne Raby Moyses Kimhi amongst the Iewes And in all the Iudaicall antiquities of the same Josephus there is no mētion made of Iobs history By meanes whereof nothing can be concluded from the silence of those imperfect rolls against the volumes by thē omitted And indeede notwithstanding this catalogue Josephus leaues not of if wee giue creditt to the Greeke text of the worke against Appion to alleadge the booke of Ecclesiasticus for one of the pieces of the Jewish lawe when he writes The lawe saith that the woeman is in all things worse then man and that a mans iniquitie is better thē the good worke of a woeman Nor to insert a great parte of the history of the Machabes into his treatie of the dominion of reason ouer the senses yea with the title of a sacred Booke if wee beleeue the finall clause of the worke which is defectiue in the Greeke text but is in the anciēt latine translation acknowledged publisht by Erasmus For whereas the same Iosephus distinguisheth betweene the bookes written before Artaxerxes when the Prophets flourished in the Jewish Church the Bookes writté since so farr of is he frō excluding heereby the bookes of the Machabes frō the nūber of the bookes writtē by the Prophets that cōtrary wise in noting that the bookes written since Artaxerxes are not reputed so worthie of credit as the former because the successiō of the Prophets hath not bene exact he shewes that they were beleeued to haue bene writtē by the Prophets but with a beleefe lesse assured mingled with some vncertaintie Since Artaxerxes saith he euē to our tyme other things hane bene writtē but they are not esteemed worthie of the same credit as the former becanse the Succession of the Prophets hath not bene exact Now this vncertaintie S. IOHN S. PAVL seeme to take awaie S. IOHN whē he reportes that our Lord assisted at the feast of the dedication of winter whose institutiō is described in the only collection of the Machabees for the historie of the dedication of winter was a thing necessary to Saluatiō
2. Decemb. 1631 F. Leander de S. Martino sacrae Theologiae Doctor Hebraeae linguae in alma Academia Duacena professor Regius Benedictinorum conuentus S. Gregorij Angliae Prior. THE LETTER OF THE LORD CARDINALL OF PERRON SENT TO MONSIEVR CASAVBON INTO ENGLAND SIR the letter that you deliuered to Monsieur de la Bodery was deliuered to me by him euen as I was vpon my departure for a voyage into Normandy and since my returne from thence I haue bene almost perpetuallie sicke which hindered me from answering with more speede Now that my disease begins to be at some truce with me I will paie the arrerages of this delaie and will first thanke you for the good office that you haue done me in shewing the letter I writt to you to the most excellent king of great Brittaine and in procuring me an interest in his fauour I will striue so to husband it by my humble seruice s and particularlye by celebrating his prayses which is the only fruite that good and vertuons kinges such as hee doe gather from allthe labours and thornie cares that the burden of a kingdome loades them with as his maiestie shall haue noe cause to be sorrie that it be declared to after ages how he hath honord mee with his well wishes ād how I haue had his 〈◊〉 in reuerence and admiration As for the translation of the verses of Virgill whereof you writt to me that he desires a Copie that which I sent you being lost I deferr yet for some daies to acquit myself of that dutie because I haue put it to the presse with the addition of a part of the fowrth which I haue ended expresselie for his maiestie sake to inlarge my presēte to him As soone as those few Copies which are in doing shall be finished I will not faile to addresse one of them to you to offer vp to him on my behalfe The third point of your letter yet remaines which is that his Maiestie was astonisht at those wordes in my letter That excepting the title of Catholicke I knew nothing wanting in him to expresse the figure of a perfect and compleate Prince and that he pretendes that since he beleeues all thinges that the Ancientes haue with an vnanimous consent esteemed necessarie to saluation the title of Catholique cannot bee donied him Now as on the one side I can not but greatlie praise his maiesties pietie and Christian humilitie in not disdayning to submitt his iudgement adorned with so manie lightes naturall ād acquired to that of those cleare beames of antiquitie imitating therein the wisdome of that great Emperor Thodosius who thought there was noebetter meanes to agree the dissentions which disturbed the Church of his time then to exact from either part an answere whither thy beleeued that the Fathers which had flourish'd in the Church before the separation had bene orthodoxall and that being confessed to summon them to submitt themselues to whatsoeuer they should be found to haue beleeued so on the other side there are manie obseruations `to be made vpon this Thesis before wee passe to the hypothesis which since I Cannot represent to his maiestie I shall be gladd to informe you of them for your particular satisfaction The first is that the name of Catholicke is not a name of beleefe simplie but of Communion also else antiquitie would not haue refused that title to those Which were not separated from the beleefe but from the Communion of the Church nor would they haue protested that out of the Catholicke Church the Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation Out of the Catholicke Church saith S. Augustin in his treatie of Conference with Emeritus a man may haue orders hee maie haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluya he may answere A men he may keepe the Gospell he may haue and preach the faith in the name of the Father of the Sonn and of the holie Ghost but he can no where finde Saluation but in the Catholicke Church And in the Booke De vtilit credendi There is a Church as all men graunt if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more full in multitude then all the rest and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in the doctrine of truth But of the truth that is an other question that will suffice for this search that there is one Catholicke Church vpon which seuer all heresies impose seuerall names whereas they are all call called euery one by his particular name which they dare not disauow from whence it may appeare to the iudgment of anie arbiter that is not prepossessed by fauour to whom the name of Catholicke where of all are ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the Booke against the fundamentall Epistle Then to omitt this wisdome which you denie to bee in the Catholicke Church there are manie other things which doe most iustlie retaine me in her bosome the consent of people and nations retaine me therein the authoritie begūn by miracles nourished by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me therein the succession of Prelates euen from the verie seate of Peter to whom our Lord deliuered his sheepe to be fedd after his Resurrection euen to the present Bishops seate retaines me therein and finallie the verie name of Catholick retaines me therein which not without cause this Church alone amongst so manie heresies hath in such sorte obtained as though all heretickes would be called Catholiques neuerthelesse when a stranger askes where the Catholicke Church doth assemble there is not one 〈◊〉 that dares shew his 〈◊〉 or his howse And in his treatise of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue the holie Church and that Catholick for heretickes and schismatickes call their Congregations Churches but hereticks beleeuing of God false thinges violate faith and Schismatickes separate themselues from brotherly charitie by vniust diuisions allthough they beleeue the same things that we beleeue and therefore neither can the hereticke belonge to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the schismaticke because she loues her neightour And in the Booke Of the vnitie of the Church All those that beleeue as hath bene said that ouer Lord IESVS is come in the flesh and is risen againe in the same flesh wherein he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the sōne of god god with god ād one with the Father and the onlie immoueable word of the Father by which all things haue bene made but yet dissent so from his bodie which is the Church that theire communion is not with the whole or is spread in deed but yet is in some part found to be separate it is manifest they are not in the Catholick Church And Prosper his scholler Hee saith hee that Communicates with this vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholicke but he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist And for this cause wee see that the Fathers denied the title
of Catholique to the Donatists because of the separation of Communion and yet graunted it to those from whom the Donatists had taken their doctrine because of the vnitie of Communion Cyprians people saith S. Pacian hath neuer bene called otherwise then Catholicke And Sainct Vincentius Lerinensis O admirable change the authors of one selfe same opinion are adiudged Catholickes and the Sectaries heretickes And S. Augustin Dissention and diuision saith hee makes you heretickes and peace and vnitìe makes Catholiques And that in the fowrth Coūcell of Carthage this article was inserted into the triall of the promotion of Bishops whither they beleeue that out of the Catholicke Church none cā be saued And that in the Epistle of the Councell of Cyrtha it was repeated by S. Augustin who was Secretarie thereto in theses wordes Whosoeuer is separated from this Catholicke Church how praise-worthie soeuer he conceaue his life to bee by this onlie crime that he is separated from the vnitie of Christ he shall not haue life but the wrath of God shall remaine vpon him And after by Fulgentius in these wordes Beleeue firmelie and doubt it not at all that no hereticke or Schismaticke baptized in the name of the Father of the sonne and of the only Ghost if he be not reconciled to the Catholicke Church what almes soeuer he may giue yea though he should shedde his blood for the name of Christ can in any sort be saued That I say was against or principallie against the Donatists And neuerthelesse the Donatists agreed in all the doctrine of the Creede and of the Scripture with the Catholicks Your are with vs saith S. Augustine in Baptisme in the Creede and in all the other Sacraments of our Lord but in the spirit of vnitie and in the bond of peace and finallie in the Catholicke Church you are not with vs And yet they differed only in one pointe of vnwritten tradition which as S. Augustin himself who principallie triumphes ouer this heresie confessed could not be demonstrated by Scripture This saith hee in the Booke of the vnitie of the Church neither thou nor I doe euidentlie reade And in the first Booke against Cresconius though for this there be noe example in the scriptures yet euen in this wee follow the truth of the Scriptures when wee doe that which hath pleased the vniuersall Church which the authoritie of the same scriptures doth recommend And in the secōd Booke of Baptisme against the Donatists And ourselues saith hee durst affirme no such thing but that we are upheld by the vnanimous authoritie of the Church And in the fift The Apostles haue in this prescribed vs nothing but this custome which was opposite to Cyprian ought to be beleeued to haue taken it's originall from their tradition as manie other things which the vniuersall Church obserues and for this cause are with good right beleeued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles although they haue not bene vvritten From whence it appeares that to obtaine the name of Catholicke it sufficeth not to hold or rather to suppose to hold the same beleefe that the Fathers held vnlesse they communicate with the same Catholicke Church wherewith the Fathers did communicate and which by succession of persons and as wee pretend of doctrine is deriued downe to vs and if she haue lost anie thing of her extent in our hemisphere she recouers as much and more daily in the other hemisphere that these prophecies may be fulfilled In thy seede shall all the nations of the earth be blessed In the last daies the mountaine of the howse of our Lord shall bee vpon the topp of mountaines and shall be exalted aboue all the highe hills and all nations shall come vp to her This Ghospell of the Kingdome must be preached ouer all the world and then the end shall come and such like in right whereof the Church as saith S. Augustin hath obtained the title and the marke of Catholicke The SECOND obseruation is vpon the restriction in Cases necessarie to saluation For besides pointes necessarie to saluation there are two other degrees of thinges the one sort profitable to saluation as it is according to the opinion of your owne ministers to sell all our goods and giue it to the poore to fast in affliction to appease the wrath of God to pray our Bretheren in the faith to praie to God for vs and the other sort lawfull and not repugnant to saluation as to fly from persecution to liue by the Altar since we serue at the Altar to putt awaie our wiues for adulterie and other the like for I alleadge these for examples and not for instances Now it is needefull to be cōformable to the integritie of the beleefe of the Fathers to beleeue all thinges that they haue beleeued according to that degree wherein they haue beleeued them to witt to beleeue for thinges necessarie to saluation those thinges that they haue esteemed to be necessarie for saluation and for thinges profitable to saluation those things that they haue esteemed to be profitable to saluation and for things lawfull and not repugnant to saluation those thinges that they haue holden to be lawfull and not repugnant to saluation and not vnder colour that the two last kindes are not things necessarie to saluation but only profitable or lawfull to condemne them and to separate ourselues for their occasion from the Church which then had thē in practise and still practiseth thē to this day The third obseruation is vpon the ambiguitie of the word necessarie to saluation which because of the diuers kindes of necessitie which haue place in matters of religion is capable of diuers sences for there is an absolute necessitie and a conditionall necessitie a necessitie of meanes and a necessitie of precept a necessitie of speciall beleefe and a necessitie of generall beleefe a necessitie of act and a necessitie of approbatio I call an absolute necessitie not simplie but by vertue of Gods institution that which receiues no excuse of impossibilitie nor anie exception of place time or persons as in regard of those that are of age capable of knowledge the beleefe in Christ mediator betweene God and man for neither the circumstance of being in a place where wee cannot be instructed in that article nor the preuention of time in dying before wee are informed thereof nor the condition of being an ignorant person vnlearned dull not apt to comprehend a sheepe and not a shepheard can warrant those from damnation that beleeue it not actually for as much as who beleeues not in the onlie Sonn of Gods is alreadie iudged And in regard of little Children baptisme only according to our doctrine may supplie the defect of Faith in Christ in their behalfe agreeing with that sentence of S. Augustin Doe not beleeue doe not saie doe not teache if thou wilt be a Catholick that little children which are 〈◊〉 by death from being
as it hath pleased God whollie to accept may be hastned by the prayers and sacrifices of the Church and necessarie with necessitie of precept and to exercise christian charitie and pietie both to the Church that offers them and to the ministers and Pastors by whom she offers them The prayer of the Saintes they haue holden as necessarie to the bodie of the Church and to the ministers by whō they are made with necessitie of precept to exercise the commerce betweene the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant and to particular persons out of the offices of the Church and in their priuate deuotions not neeessary with necessitie of act but only profitable that they may the more easilie obtaine pardon for their sinnes by the concourse of their prayers who are alreadie in the per fect and assured possession of the grace of God but necessary to them and all others with nessitie of approbation that is to saie they are obliged not to contradict them and not to condemne the custome and doctrine of the Church in that article and not to separate themselues from her vpon this occasion vnder paine of falling into Anathema and to be holden for heretickes All which things I will not now stand to proue least I make a Booke of a letter but I doe oblige myselfe to iustifie them when soeuer you shall desire it and to make it appeare both by the vnanimous consent of the Fathers that haue flourished in the time of the first fowre councel's and by the formes which remaine to vs in their writings of the ancient Church Seruice that all the Catholicke Church of their times hath vninersallie and vniformely beleeued holden and practised them throughout all the regions and prouinces of the earth I oblige myself I saie to make it appeare to you that she hath holden these fower thinges in the same sence and in the same forme and for the same end as our Lyturgies are and not as obseruations that then sprung vp but as things that the same Fathers testified to haue bene beleeued and practised from all antiquitie and to be deriued to them by an vninterrupted continuance from the tradition or approbation of the Apostles Soe as they cannot renounce the Communion of our Church vnder pretence of anie of these fowre points without renoūcing the Communion of the ancient catholick Church and consequently the inheritance of saluation and that by authors and testimonies all able to abide the touch as you know I am curious to make vse of noe other and with cleare and ingenuous answeres to all obiections collected out of the Fathers of the same ages or of ages before them A thing that will be the more easie for me because the proofes that wee will avouch out of the Fathers are proofes which containe in expresse termes the affirmatiue of what wee saie whereas our aduersaries cannot finde one only passage which containes in expresse terme the negatiue but only in termes from whence they pretend to inferr it by consequence and which at a iust tribunall would not merit so much as to be heard For who knowes not that it is too great an iniustice to alleadge consequences from passages and euen those euill interpreted and misvnderstood and in whose illation there is alwaies some paralogisme hidd against the expresse wordes and the liuely and actuall practise of the same fathers from whom they are collected and that may be good to take the Fathers for Aduersaries and to accuse them for want of Sence or memorie but not to take them for Iudges and to submitt themselues to the obseruation of what they haue beleeued and practised To this I will also adde whensoeuer you shall desire it the present Conformitie of all the other Patriarchall Churches in these fowre cases with the Roman and of all those which haue remained euen to this daie vnder their iurisdiction to witt those that are vnder the Patriarchall iurisdiction of the Patriarck of Constantinople as the Grecians Russians Muscouites and Asians of Asia-minor separate from vs neere eight hundred yeares Of those that are vnde the Greeke Patriarch of Antioch as the Syrians Mesopotamians and others yet more Easterne nations for those that obey the Syrian Patriarch as the Maronites perseuer in the Communion of the Roman Church of those that relye vpon the Egiptian Patriarch of Alexandria as the Egiptians whom they call Cophtites and the Ethiopians which haue bene diuided both from vs and from the greekes more then eleuen hundred yeares euen from the time of one of the fowre first Councells to witt of the Councell of Chalcedon For all these hold these fower pointes yea with more iealousie if it be possible then the latine Churches and particularlie the article of the Sacrament where of they doe not only beleeue transubstantiation which the greekes at this daie call in the very self same sence and phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also exercise the adoration with externall gesture more full of humilitie then ours A manifest proof that these fowre pointes were vniformely holden and obserued by the ancient Cahtholicke Church since all the partes whereinto the ancient Catholicke Church is dismēbred doe retaine them vniformly to this daie notwithstanding soe manie distances separations and diuisions through all the regions of the Earth These are in generall the causes that haue moued me to vse that exception in my letter that you obiect to me in yours whereof if the Excellent King of great Brittaine had as well leasure to heare the particularities as he hath capacitie to comprehend them I assure myselfe he would not thinke it strange that I should desire in him the title of Catholique but he would desire it himsefe and put himsefe in state to obtaine it and to cause it to be obtained by those that are depriued of it that is to saie he would add yet to is other Crownes that of making himsefe a mediator of the peace of the Church which would be to him a more triumphant glorie then that of all the Alexanders and of all the Caesars and which would gaine to his Isle noe lesse an honor in hauing bredd him thē to haue bredd great Constantine the first deliuerer and pacifier of the christian Church I praie god that he will one daie Crowne all the other graces wherewith he hath indowed him with that and heare to this effect the prayers of his late Queene Mother whose teares like those of S. Augustins Mother doe not onlie intercede for him in heauen but her blood also And likewise keepe you Sr. in his safe and holie protection From Paris 15. Iulij 1611. AN ADMONITION TO THE READER This letter to Mons. Casaubon occasiond the whole discourse ensuing For the letter being shewed to his most excellent maiesty our Souuerain Lord king Iames of glorious memory it pleased him not only to read it but to take paines to answer it as he thought most conuenient To which answer of his maiesty the Cardinall replieth
Epithete to distinguish the Christian Church from her for as the starr that the authors call Lucifer although it be the same with that that is called Vesper yet when it goes before the Sonne it beares one name and when it followes him it hath an other soe although the Iewish congregation hath bene in some sorte one same societie with the Christiā Congregatiō neuerthelesse whē this societie hath gone Before her SVNNE which is CHRIST she hath borne one name to witt the Synagogue and when she followes him she beares an other to witt the Church And therefore when our Lord said to S. Peter Dic ecclesiae tell it to the Church and if he heare not he Church let him be to thee as an heathen or a publican And when S. LVKE relates that HEROD sett himselfe to Persecute quosdam de ecclesia some of those of the Church and when saint Paul writes I teach it so in all the Churches And againe bee without scandall to the Iewes and to the Gentiles and to the Church of God And when S. Iames proclaimes If anie one be sicke lett him call the priestes of the Church And when S. Ireneus saith there haue bene sacrifices among the people there are sacrifices in the Church they thought they had sufficiently distinguished without anie other additiō the Christian Church frō the Iewish Synagogue And contrariwise when the Church of SMYRNA in an age neighbouringe vpon that of the Apostles intitles her Epistle to the Church of PHILOMILION and to all the a Diocesses of the Catholique Church that are throughout the world And when CLEMENT ALEXANDRINVS writes There needes not manie wordes to shewe that the mocke-Councells of heretickes are after the Catholicke Church And when TERTVLLIAN saieth Marcion gaue his money to the Catholique Church which reiected both it and him when he strayed from our truth to heresie And when sainct CYPRIAN aduertised the Bishops of Africke that passed in to Italie to acknowledge and hold fast the roote and matrice of the Catholicke Church And when Saint EPIPHANIVS reporteth that vnder the persecution of DIOCLESIAN those that held the ancient Churches called themselues the Catholicke Church and the Militians the Church of the martyres And when the Emperor CONSTANTINE ordained that all the Oratories of the Heretickes should be taken from them and presently after deliuered to the Catholicke Church they pretended not by the word Catholicke to distinguish the Christian Church from the Iewish but to distinguish the great and the originall bodie of the Church from the particular and later sectes Yet wee acknowledge that the word Catholicke in distinguishing by hervniuersalitie the true Church from the hereticall and schismaticall sectes distinguisheth her alsoe by accident from the Iewish Synagogue as a speciall difference in distinguishing her species from other species of the same genders doth also distinguish it from that of other genders though that be not her proper office for the word reasonable discerninge men from birds fishes serpentes and other beastes leaves him not vndiscerned accessarily from plantes metalls and stones But we maintaine the expresse and direct end for which the Surname of Catholik hath bene added to the Church I saie to the Church and not to the figures of the Church hath bene to distinguish it from hereticall and Schismaticall sectes If I should this daie by chance enter into a populous towne saith S. PACIANVS an author celebrated by sainct Ierom and finde there Marcionistes and Apolinarians it must be reade Apellecians Cataphrigians Nouatians and other such like which call themselues Christians by what surname should I knowe the Congregation of my people if it were not intitled Catholicke and againe Christian is my name Catholicke is my Surname that names me this markes me out by that I am manifested prodor non probor by this I am distinguished And sainct CYRILL of Ierusalem an author the same age expoundinge the creede For this cause saith he thy faith hath giuen thee this article to holde vndoubtedlie and in the holie Catholicke Church to the end thou 〈◊〉 flie the polluted 〈◊〉 of heretickes And a little after And when thou comst into a towne inquire not simplie where the temple of our Lord is for the other heresies of impious persons doe likewise call theire dens the temples of the Lord neither aske simplie where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church for that name is the proper name of this holie Church And sainct AVGVSTINE in his booke of the Faith and the creede Wee beleeue saith he the holie Church and that Catholicke for the heretickes and Schismatickes name also theire Congregations Churches but heretickes beleeuing in God in a false manner violate the faith and Schismatickes by theire vniust Diuisions seperate themselues from brotherlie Charitie although they beleeue the same thinges that we beleeue therefore the hereticke appartaineth not to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the Schismaticke because she loues her neighbour So that it amazeth me that I haue had soe little industrie to explaine myselfe as to haue giuen his Maiestie occasion to answere that the reason for which I had said in the beginninge of my first obseruation that the word Catholicke was not a title of simple beliefe but of communion was not enough manifest For hauinge alleaged these fower places of sainct AVGVSTINE Schismatickes appertaine not to the Catholicke Church although they beleeue the same thinges with vs. Those that disagree soe from the bodie of Christ which is the Church as theire communion is not with all or that it spread it selfe but is found separate in some part it is manifest they are not in the Catholicke Church There is a Church if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more aboundant in multitude and also as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in truth then all the others but of the truth is an other disputation Diuision and dissention makes you heretickes and peace and vnitie makes vs Catholickes And hauinge accompanied them with these wordes of sainct VINCENTIVS 〈◊〉 O admirable conuersion or change the authors of one selfe opinion are called Catholiques and the followers of it beretickes And with those of sainct PROSPER 〈◊〉 that communicates with the vniuersall church is a christian and a 〈◊〉 catholicke and he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist It seemed to me that I had sufficiently shewed that the title of Catholicke is not a simple title of beliefe but of communion also It is true I expected not that a question that had bene anciently moued and adiuged euen with the interuention of the authoritie of Emperors should againe haue bene contested against and put into dispute For in the controuersie of Catholickes and Donatistes vpon the word Catholicke before the decision whereof as sainct Austin saith the Church was neuer
a heathen or publican that is to saie a Church visible manifest and eminent and not a Church either perpetually inuisible or as if she had Giges ring now visible and now inuisible The Church saith Sainct CYPRIAN clothed with the light of our Lord sheds her beames through the whole world And S. CRISOSTOME g It is more easie to extinguish the Sunne then to obscure the Church And againe h The Sunne 〈◊〉 not soe manifest nor the ligh thereof as the actions of the Church And Sainct AVGVSTINE a The Church is not hidden for she is not put vnder a bushell but in a Candlesticke that she may giue light to all those which are in the house And of her our Lord hath said The Cittie built vpon the Mountaine cannot be hidd And in an other place b It is a condition common to all heretickes not to see the thinge that is in the world the most manifest and built in the light of all the Nations out of the vnitie whereof all that they doe though they seeme to doe it very exactly can noe more warrant them against the wrath of God then the Spiders webb against the rigor of the cold And againe he hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is then knowne to all nations The sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie Nations then that cannot be she And in deede how could it be that the Fathers had not had neede to be purged with Hellebore who imployed these sentences against the here tickes and Schismatickes of theire ages to presse them to returne to the Church That he shall neuer come to the rewardes of Iesus Christ that hath abandoned the Church of Christ d that he shall not haue God sor his Father that hath not the Church for his Mother e That he cannot liue that withdrawes himselfe from the Church and buildes to himselfe other seates and other dwellinges f That Christ is not with those who assemble themselues out of the Church g That he who shall not be in the Arcke shall perishe at the comminge of the floud h that he which eates the lambe out of his howse is prophane i That out of the Catholicke Church none can be saued k whosoeuer is separate from the Catholicke Church cannot haue life l That the Catholicke Church alone is the body of Christ m That out of this bodie the holy Ghost quickens none n That whosoeuer then will haue the holy Ghost should take heede of beinge separated from her and likewise take heede of entring into her fainedly if they had beleeued that the Catholicke Church had bene an inuisible flocke of predestinate persons knowne only to God and into whose Rolle as appointed from all eternitie none could enter or be added thereu nto SECONDLY by the word Catholicke Church the Fathers did not intend the Chaos and generall Masse of all Christian Sectes Societies as well pure as impure as well heretickes as Schismatickes as our aduersaries doe when they feele themselues excluded from theire refuge of an inuisible Church but by the word Cacholicke Church the Fathers intended a Societie such both for doctrine and Communion as these propheticall Oracles painted her forth o Thou art wholie faire and there is noe spott in thee p Thou shalt be called the citie of Iustice the faithfull citie q Through thee shall noe more passe anie that is vncircumcised or vncleane r I will espouse thee in faith and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And these Euangelicall decrees s The gates of Hell shall not preuaile against her t The Church is the pillar and soundation of truth u There is noe communion of Christ with Belial nor of light with darknesse x If anie one bring not this doctrine saie not to him so much as well be it with thee for whosoeuer shall saie to him well be it with thee communicates in his wicked workes that is to saie they vnderstood by that terme socitie of Christians extracted and contracted by the iust and sufficient meanes of externall vocation to saluation and distinct and purified from the impurity and contagion of all the hereticall schismatical sectes y If thou hearest in any parte saith saint IEROM of men denominated from anie but from Christ as Marcionites 〈◊〉 Montayners or Campites know that it is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist OPTATVS Mileuitanus z besides the only Church which is truly Catholicke the others amongst the heretickes are esteemed to be but are not soe indeed And againe The Church is one which cannot be amongst vs and amongst you it remaines then that it be in one only place And Sainct AVGVSTINE to Honoratus Although there be manie heresies of Christians and that all would be called Catholickes yet there is alwaies one Church if you cast your eies vpon the extent of the whole worlde more abundant in multitude and also as those that know themselues to be of it more sincere in truth then all the rest but of the truth that is an other Dispute That which sufficeth for the question is that there is one Church to which different heresies impose different names whereas they are all called by there particular names that they dare not disauow from whence it appeares in the indgment of anie not preoccupate with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the booke of the true Religion Wee must holde the Christian Religion and the Communion of that Church that is called Catholicke both by her owne and by strangers for whether heretickes and Schismatickes will or will not when they speake not with theires but with stranges they call the Catholickes noe otherwise then Catholickes And in the Comentary vpon the 149. Psalme The Church of the Saints is the Catholicke Church The Church of the Saintes is not the Church of heretickes she hath bene marked out hefore she was seene and she hath bene exhibited to the end she should be seene And in the booke of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue one Church and that the Catholicke for the heretickes and Schismatickes call also theire congregations Churches but the hereticke beleeuinge of God false things violate the Faith And Schismatickes by vniust dissentions separate themselues from brotherly Charitie although they belieue the same thinges that we belieue and therefore neither the heretickes doe appertaine to the Catholique Church because she loues God nor the Schismatickes because she loues her neighbour And certainly how could the Fathers without making themselues ridiculous te theire auditors beate downe the heretickes and Schismatickes with these sentences That out of the Catholicke Church there is noe Saluation that whosoeuer is not in the Catholique Church canot haue life that he shall not haue God for
his father who wil not haue the Church for his mother That Christ is not with those that assemble out of the Church That although they should be slaine for the confession of Christ this spot is not washt awaie euen with bloud That he cannot be à martyr that is not in the Church That out of the Catholicke Church one may haue Faith Sacraments Orders and in summe euery thing except saluation That he that communicates not with the Catholicke Church is an hereticke and Antichrist That noe hereticke nor Schismaticke that is not restored to the Catholicke church before the end of this life can be saued if they had belieued that all the Sectes that professe the name of Christ both heretickes and Schismatickes had bene in the Catholicke Church THIRDLY by the word Catholicke Church they did not intend a Church interrupted and intermitting as that of the protestantes which is borne and dyes by fittes like the Tyndarides but such a Church as these wordes of the prophet describe As in in the daies of Noe I swore that I would no more bring the waters of the floud vpon the earth soe haue I sworne I will no more be angrie against thee Thou shalt noe more be called the forsaken I will place my sanctification in the midst of them for euer I will noe more doe to the rest of this people as in tymes past And these of our Lord The gates of hell shall not preuaile against her I am with you vntill the consummation of all ages The Spirit of truth shall dwell with you eternally Let the one growe with the other vntill the haruest that is to saie a Church permanent eternall and not capeable of ruine Wee acknowledge said that great ALEXANDER Bishop of Alexandria one only Catholicke and Apostolicke Church which as she can neuer bee rooted out though all the world should vndertake to oppose her soe she outhrowes disperseth all the wicked assaulth of heretickes And Sainct ATHANASIVS The Church is inuincible though hell it selfe should arise with all the power thereof against her And THEOPHILVS God in all tymes grants one selfe grace to his Church to witt that that Bodie should be kept intire and that the venome of the Doctrine of heretickes shall haue noe power ouer her And Sainct AVGVSTINE in the comentary vpon the 47. psalme God saith he hath founded her eternallie let not heretickes deuided into factions boaste let them not lift themselues vp that saie heere is Christ and there is Christ. And againe But perchance this Cittie that hath possessed the whole world shall be one daie ruined neuer may it happen God hath founded her eternallie If then God hath founded her eternally wherefore fearest thou that her foundation should fall And in the Comentary vpon the 101. psalme But his Church which hath bene of all nations is noe more she is perished soe saie they that are not in her O impudent voice And a little after this voice soe abominable soe detestable soe full of presumption and falshood which is sustained with noe truth illuminated with noe wisedome seasoned with noe salt vaine rash headie pernicious the holy Ghost hath foreseene it And in the treatie of the Christian combate They saie the whole Church is perished and the relickes remaine only on Donatus his side O prowde and impious tongue And in the worke of Baptisme against the Donatists If the Church vere perished in Cyprians tyme from whence did Donatus appeare from what earth is he sprung vp from what Sea is he come forth from what heauen is he fallen And in the third booke against Parmenian How can they vaunt to haue anie Church if she haue ceased from those tymes And in the explication of the Creede to the Cathecumenistes The Catholicke Church is she that sighting with all heresies may be opposed but cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come out from her as vnprofitable branches cut from the vine but she staies in her vine in her roote in her Charitie And the gates of hell shall neuer ouerthrow her Behold without colour or fraud what the Father 's vnderstood by the word Catholicke Church to witt a Church visible and eminent aboue all other Christian societies A Church pure from all contagion of schisme and heresie A Church perpetuall and which had neuer suffered nor neuer could suffer anie interruption neither in her faith in her Communion nor in her visibilitie This Church if the most excellent King haue let hin giue her to vs if not lett him receiue her from vs Aut det as saint AVSTINE said to the Donatists aut accipiat Of the proceeding of the Father for the preseruation of the vnitie of the Church CHAP. III. The pursute of the Kinges Answere THe Kinge commendes also the prudence of the religious Bishops who in the 4 Councell of Carthage as it is heere truly obserued added to the forme of the examination of Bishops a particular interrogatory vpon this point And his Maiestie is not ignorant that the Fathers of the ancient Church haue oftentymes done manie thinges by forme of accommodation for the good of peace and to the end to preuent the breach of vnitie and mutuall Communion whose example he protesteth he is 〈◊〉 to imitate and to followe the steps of those that procure peace euen to the Altars that is to saie as much as in the present estate of the Church the integritie of his Conscience will permitt him For he will giue place to none either in extreame griefe he suffers for the separation of the members of the Churdh which the good Fathers haue soe much detested or in his dosire to communicate if it were possible for him with all the members of the mysticall bodie of our Lord Iesus-Christ THE REPLIE IT was not by way of prudence as prudence signifies a human vertue that the Fathers pronounced this decree that out of the Catholicke Church saluation could not bee obtained but by way of decision and as an article of faith For this cause saith sainct AVGVSTINE vpon the Creede The Conclusion of this Sacrament is determined by the holie Church for as much as if anie one be found on t of it he shall be excluded from the number of the Children And he shall not haue God for his Father that will not haue the Church for his Mother and it shall serue him for nothing to haue belieued or done soe manie and soe manie good workes without the true end or butte of the souer aigne good And sainct FVLGENTIVS in his booke of the Faith Holde this firmely and doubt it not that euery hereticke and Schismaticke haptized in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost if before the end of this life he be not revnited to the Church Catholicke whatsoeuer almes he distribute yea though he should shed his bloud for the name
the Donatists doe heale from the wound of infidelity and Idolatrie they hurt them more greevously with the wound of Schisme And for a proofe of his saying he alleadgeth the example of Core Dathan and Abiron and other Schismatickes of the old Testament who were all sent quicke into hell and punished more greevouslie then the Idolators Who doubtes saith he but that was committed most criminally that was punist most seuerelie And therefore as the ancient heretickes haue alwaies against the vnitie of the Church pressed and Cryed out the Faith the Faith soe the ancient Fathers against the diuisions of heretickes and Schismatickes haue alwaies pressed and cried out the Church the Church He shall iudge saith S. IRENEVS those that make Schismes in the Church ambitions men not hauinge the honor of God before theire eyes but rather embracing theire owne interests then the vnitie of the Church and for little and light causes deuidinge the great and glorious bodie of Christ. And a little after For in the end they cannot make anie soe important a reformation as the euill of the Schisme is pernicious And sainct DENIS of Alexandria writinge to Nouatian Certainly all thinges should rather be indured then to consent to the diuision of the Church of God those martyrs beinge noe lesse glorious that expose themselues to hinder the dismembringe of the Church then those that suffer rather then they will offer Sacrifice to Idolls And sainct CYPRIAN Doe those that assemble themselues without the Church of Christ suppose Christ to bee with them in theire assemblie Allthough they should be dragged to death for the confession of the name of Christ yet this spott is not washt awaie from them with bloude the inexpiable and inexcusable crime of discord is not purged vith death t selfe he cannot be a martyr that is not in the Church And sainct PACIAN Although saith he Nouatian hath bene put to death yet hath he not bene crowned Wherefore not because it was out of the peace of the Church out of concord out of this mother whereof whosever will be a martyr must be a portion And Saint CHRYSOSTOME nothinge stirrs saith he so sharpely the wrath of god as the diuision of the Church so as when wee haue done all other kindes of good workes wee shall deserue no lesse cruell punishment deuidinge the vnitie and fulnes of the Church then those that pierced and deuided his owne blessed bodie And S. AVGVSTINE Out of the Catholike Church all thinges may bee had except Saluation etc. They may haue and preach the faith in the name of the Father the sonnne and the holy ghost but they can noe where haue Saluation but in the Catholicke Church And a little after I saie more if a man out of the Church suffer the enemie of Christ I saie not his Catholike brother that desires his Saluation but the enemie of Christ if he suffer him without and that he being out of the Church the enemie of Christ saie to him offer incense to Idolles adore my Gods and for not adoring them he be put to death by the enemie of Christ he may well shedd his bloud but he cannot obtaine the Crowne And in an other place Being constituted out of the Church and separated from the heape of vnitie and the bond of Charitie thou shouldest be punisht with eternall death though thou shouldest haue bene burnt aliue for the name of Christ. Aud againe I goe not to worship the diuells I serue not stockes and stones but I am of Donatus his partie What will it serue thy turne that the Father is not offended since he will reuenge the Mothers 〈◊〉 And in his worke against the Aduersarie of the law and the Prophets If he heare not the Church let him be to thee as a heathen or publican which is more grieuons then if he were stricken by the sword consumed with flames exposed to wilde beastes And in the booke of Pastors The diuell doth not saie let them be Donatistes and not Arrians be they heere be they there they appartaine to him that gathers without any distinction Let him saith the diuell adore Idolls he his mine let him remaine in Iewish superstition he is myne let him abandon vnitie and enter into such or such an heresie he is myne And in the profession to be made by the Donatistes returninge to the Church Wee thought it had not imported in which part we had held the Faith of Christ but thanckes be to our Lord that hath taken vs in from the diuision and taught vs that it belonhgs to God who is one to be serued in vnitie And FVLGENTIVS the second Sainct AVGVSTINE and the Phenix borne a new out of his ashes Out of this Church neither doth the title of Christian warrant anie bodie nether doth baptisme conferr Saluation nor can they offer a Sacrifice acceptable to God nor receiue remission of Sinnes nor obtaine life eternall For there is one only Church one only doue one only well beloued one only sponse And againe Beleeue this stedfastly without doubting that euery hereticke or schismaticke baptized in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost if before the end of his life he be not reconciled to the Catholikke Church what almes soe euer he geueth yea though he should shed his bloud for the name of Christ he cannot obtaine saluation Faire but fearefull lessons for those who thinke that in what communion soeuer they be so they beleeue in Christ they may be saued Of the marks of the Church CHAPTER V. The continuance of the Kinges answere AMongst the proper markes of the Church the King confesseth that that is greatly necessary but his Majesty is not of opinion that it is the true forme of the Church and as the philosopher termes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that wherein it consisteth THE REPLIE Neither is it necessarie that a condition for to be the marke of anie thing should be the essentiall forme of the thing for then we should haue noe marke of anie substantiall thing For we know not the essentiall forme of anie one of them except only of man and for more then three thousand yeares the true essentiall forme of man was vnknowen witnes the ieast of Diogenes vpon the definition of a man giuen by Plato And therefore Saint BASILE reprocheth it to Eunomius who had boasted that he knew the essence of the Father that he knew not soe much as the essence of the ground whereupon he walked euery daie and that what comes to the knowledge of men are but accidents Neither on the other side is it necessary that the essentiall forme of a thing should be the marke of the same thing Nay contrarywise to be the essentiall forme of anie thing and to be the marke of the same thing are commonly repugnant and incompatible conditions For the marke doth demonstrate the thing to the sense and the
Scripture haue bounded her to a little number of Moores of the Cesarian prouince then we must goe to the Rogatists if to a little compaine of Tripolitans Byzacenians and prouincialls the Maximianists haue gotten her If onlie to those of the East we must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others to be found for who can number the particular heresies of euerie nation But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonie of the holie Scriptures she is designed to be in all Nations whatsoeuer is alleadged to vs or from whence soeuer it is alleadged by those that saie heere is Christ there is Christ if we be sheepe lett vs rather heare the voice of our shepheard who saith beleeue them not for these are not tobe found in manie places where she is and she who is euerie where is also wheresoeuer they are And againe My sheepe heare my voice and follow me You haue heard his most manifest voice recommendinge his future Church not only in the psalmes and in the prophets but by his owne mouth alsoe And a little after This is no obscure question and wherein they may deceiue you of whom our Lord hath foretolde that they should come and saie lo heere is Christ behold he is tbere lo he is in the desert that is to saie out of the frequeneie of the multitud beholde him heere in the secret places that is in hidden traditions and darke Doctrines You heare that the Church must be spread ouer all and grow to the haruest you haue the citie of which himselfe that built it said the Cittie built vpon a hill cannot be hidden it is then she that is not in anie single parte of the earth but is well knowne euery where Beholde the markes of the Church that saint AVGVSTINE affirmes to be designed by the voice of the pastor and soe cleerely designed as they neede noe interpreter to the end that the Church beinge knowne by them we may after by the Church be informed of the sense of the other voices of the pastor which neede interpretarion Produce to vs said he something for your cause which cannot be interpreted more truly against you nay which at all needes no interpreter as these wordes In thy seede all nations shall be blest neede no interpreter As these wordes It behoued that Christ should suffer and rise againe the third daie and that in his name there should be preached penāce and remissiō of Sinnes through all nations beginning from Ierusalem haue no neede of an interpreter c. As these wordes And this Ghospell of the kingdome shall be preached through the whole world in testimonie to all people and then the end shall come haue noe neede of an interpreter As these wordes Let both grow together till haruest haue noe neede of an interpretor For when they had neede of an interpretor our Lord himselfe ineerpreted them for euen as when a testator ordaines some one to interpret the difficulties of his testament and that the name o this interpreter being common and equiuocall to manie the testator assignes marks in his 〈◊〉 to make him knowne the clause whereby he designes the markes to know him must be so cleere as they shall need no interpreter since it is by them that he should be knowne to whom it is necessary they should addresse themselues to make them vnderstand those thing that shall neede interpretation So God hauing promised in his testament to giue the interpretatiō of his testamēt to the Church the wordes whereby the markes of the Church are there designed must be so cleere that they shall neede noe interpreter so that by them the Church beinge knowne we may after by the Church learne the vnderstanding of those things that neede an interpreter And therefore the order and course of S. AVGVSTINE was to verifie by places of Scripture which had not need of an interpretor the externall and sensible markes ' of the Church by the externall and sensible markes of the Church the Church itselfe and by the Church the vnderstanding of those places of Scripture which had need of interpretation n This point said he we reade it not plainely and euidētly neither I nor thou but if there were beere some mā indued with wisdome to whom our Lord himselfe had giuen testimonie and that he were consulted with by vs about this question I beleeve we would nothinge doubte to doe as he would 〈◊〉 vs for feare of beinge iudged repugnant not soe much to him as to our Lord Iesus Christ by whom he was recommended Now he giues testimony to his Church And elswhere Whosoeuer then feareth to be deceaued through the obscuritie of this questiō lett him cōsult with that Church which the holy Scripture bath designed without 〈◊〉 ambiguitie But this was when hee disputed with the Donatists who agreed with the Catholicks concerninge the truth of the Scripture for when he disputed with the Manichees or with the Infidells which denied or questioned it then he changed his method and did not proue to them the Church by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Church and to that end he vsed two kindes of proceedinge The one was to put it for a ground that if god haue care of the Saluation of man as without this principle all discourse of Religion is in vaine there can be noe doubt but he hath appointed a meanes howe they might attaine it and that this meanes not cōsisting in thinges knowne by naturall reason for as much as thē naturallie all men would agree in it it is thē of necessity that it should consist in authority and then this ground benig laid to verifie that amonge all the Societies of Religion that bee in the world the onely Catholicke Church hath the true markes of authority The other proceedinge was to propose to them the accomplishment of profecies touching the extirpation of Idolles and the ruyne of the false Gods of the paganes and touchinge the abolishment of the Iewish Ceremonies and the dispersinge of the people of the Iewes and touchinge the comeinge of a newe lawe maker and of a newe Religion and to represent to them that these prophecies were written before the birth of our Lord and kept by the enemies of the Church and were couched in termes soe cleere that it was a wonder that the Iewes which kept them were not persuaded by them but that within the same bookes it was foretolde that theyshould be stricken with blindnes and that in seeinge they should not see And by this meanes to proue to them that these were sacred and inspired from God and then this obtained to shewe them in the same prophecies the markes whereby amongst soe manie Societies which should vsurpe the title of Christian Societies shee was to be discerned to whow appertained the right of beinge the true Common wealth of Christ. And she beinge finally acknowledged to addresse them to
learne from her what the true lawes of the Christian Religion are and what ought to be theire true sence and vnderstandinge Of the Examples vvhich vve haue from the practise of the Apostles CHAP. VII The continuance of the Kings answere And that the Sacraments are duely and lawfullie administred that is to saie as the Apostles haue shewed the example and those who haue next succeeded them THE REPLIE It is true the due and lawfúll administration of the Sacraments is that they be administred as the Apostles haue shewed the example and those which haue next succeeded them but that the examples that the Apostles haue tracked to vs for patternes and myrrors to imitate are not all contained in theire Writinges Saint AVGVSTINE teacheth vs when he saith There are manie thinges which are belieued by good right to haue bene recieued by tradition from the Apostles though we finde them not written And Saint CHRISOSTOME when he proclaymed The Apostles haue not giuen vs all thinges by writinge but manie things also vnwritten And Saint Basile when he protests Wee haue somethinges in written doctrine and other some we haue receiued in misterie that is to saie rituall and vnwritten obseruations efrom the tradition of the Apostles And Saint Epiphanius when he faith All thinges cannot be taken from the Scriptures and therefore the holy Apostles of God haue giuen vs somethings by writinge and other some by tradition And his maiesty himselfe when he answeres that he is farr from the opinion of those that would shutt vp all the historie of the primitiue Church into the sacred indeed but yet one onely booke of the Acts of the Apostles And as for the Authors which haue followed next after the first persecution of the pagan Emperors vnder whom they lived which gaue them much lesse leasure to write then those had that flourished after the tēpest and in the tyme of the first peace of the Church and then the very state of the most part of the controuersies of theire ages employed either against the pagans or against the Iewes or against heresies much differing from those which are since risen vp and thirdly the shipwracke of theire workes which the flood of the same persecution hath soe swallowed vp as the least part of them is come to our handes And finallie the care that the authors which succeeded them haue had to reduce into writing the thinges which they haue receiued from them by vnwritten tradition And by succession of custome tyme out of mynde witnes enough how much wee must want of being able to perceaue by the relicks of theire writinges that followed next after the age of the Apostles 〈◊〉 the tracts and lineaments of the face of the auncient Church And therfore equitie wills and the most excellent King who is equitie it-selfe consents to it that not only the monuments which remaine to vs from the first or second age after the Apostles shall be receiued as testimonies of the state of the primitiue Church but also the writinges of the Fathers of the third and fourth age after that of the Apostles and principally when they speake of the customes of the Church of theire tymes not as of things of a new institutiō but as of things come to them from the vniuersall and immemoriall practise of fore-goeinge ages For behold his Maiestiés answere vpon this article this demaunde will seeme to 〈◊〉 little equitie to those that would that all the historie of the primitiue Church should be contained within the diuine indeed but yet onely one booke and that a litle one of the Acts of the Apostles From theire opinion the most iust aud wise king is very farr who in his monitory epistle hath ingenuously declared how much hee esteemeth the Fathers of the fowrth nay euen of the fifth age Of the definition of the Church and in what vnion it consists The continuance of the Kings answere THe Churches that are instituted in this manner it is necessary that they should be vnited amongst them selues 〈◊〉 diuers kindes of communion THE REPLIE THose that obserue the proprieties ofliuing creatures affirme that the nest of the Halciō is wouē and built in such a symmetrie that is to saie the entrie of it is so fitted and equald to the measure of the birdes bodie that it can serue for no other bird either greater or lesse A definition must be iustlie soe it must cōprehend exactly the thing thereby defined without stretching it selfe to anie thing more or restrayning it selfe to anie thing lesse it must be fitt it must agree only with the subiect thereof And therefore ARISTOTLE writes that to frame a definition is verie difficult and to destroy one is contrariwise verie easie for to establish a good definition all the conditions that limitt and inclose the nature of the subiect must meete together and to confute it it is sufficient that anie one be wanting And for this cause Plato saith that if he could haue found a man that knew how to define and deuide well he wold haue cast himselfe at his feete to adore him For definition is an Epitomie and abridgement of the intire knowledge of euery thing which is reduced and epitomized from the more ample consideracon of the 〈◊〉 and accidents which accompanie it to that which is precisely of the essence there of iust in such sort as in the constitution of the numbers which the philosophers propound for types and patternes of essentiall formes euerie addition or substraction be it neuer soe little varies the being and the caracter and destroyes the precise species or kind of the number so in the iust turne of wordes and in the lawfull reuolution of language whereby the essence of euery thing should be bounded as in an horizon or bourning line all additiō or omissiō of wordes ruineth and destroyeth the definition For when the definition aboundes saith DAMASCENF in the excesse of wordes it wants in the conception of things and when it wants in sufficiencie of wordes it is superfluous in the extent and cōprehension of things Wherein as he addes nature hath inuented a merueilous arte to witt a plentifull pouertie and an indigent and defectiue plentie Now as Aristotle notes those are the worst seruantes that steale the corne not out of the garner but from thence where it is kept for seede because this theft is measured not by the quantity of the thing stolne but by the vsury and multiplicatiō of the returne or income depending theron so the errors which are cōmitted in principles which are as the seede corne of cōclusios are more pernicious and hurtfull then those that are cōmitted in anie other part of doctrine For in other parts the faults may be particular but the vices in principles amongst which the definitiō holdes the Scepter and Empire are necessarily cōmunicated to all the bodie of the disputatiō And therefore Clemēs Alex. cries out that the ignorance of
Pastors but only in regard of internall and finall correspondencie to these externall conditions that is to saie in regarde of the conformitie of manners with the vocation and of the perseuerance in his conformitie of manners They are saith Saint Au so in the howse by the Communion of the Sacraments as they are out of it by the diuersitie of manners And Fulgent after him The good ought not to be seperated from the wicked in the Catholicke Church but by the dissimilitude of manners From whence it followes that when there is question of representing the perpetuitie of the Church for matter of Religion that is for matter of doctrine and Sacramente and of the Communion of Pastors it is an vnprofitable refuge to haue recourse to this distinction of 〈◊〉 and of people knowne in the eyes of God and in the eyes of men and of 〈◊〉 which are in the howse and are not of the howse since this distinction puts noe barre betweene the one and the other people for what concernes Religion but only for what concernes manners For although the list of the chosen is vnknowne to vs in respect of the secret 〈◊〉 and the certainty of election neuerthelesse for what concernes protestation of faith participation of Sacraments and adherence to lawfull Pastors it is alwaies visible if not distinctly yet at least ioyntly with the rest of the called with which in these three cases it constitutes alwaies one and the same Church it not being possible for the elect to be installed in the temporall effect of thiere election and in the estate of saluation vnlesse they make profession to communicate and to be 〈◊〉 vnited in all these things with the visible bodie of the Chnrch. For our Lord cryes out He that shall confesse me before men I will confesse him before God my father And Saint Paul Were beleeue in our hartes to iustice but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with our mouthes to Saluation And Saint August We cannot be saued vnlesse labouring also for the Saluation of others we protest with our mouthes the same faith we beare in oure harts by which meanes so farr is it of that the Church should be lesse visible in regard of Religion in the persons of the predestinate then in the persons of others as contrary wise 〈◊〉 it could be either by error or by infirmitie and feare of persecutiō that the externall and visible profession of the true faith the Syncere administration of the Sacramentes and the adherence to lawfull pastors should faile in the person of all others it would be conserued in those of the predestinat following Saint Pauls maxime There must be heresies that the approued may be made manifest And this testimonie of Saint AVGTSTIN The Church is sometimes obscured and as it were dimmed by the multitude of scandall that is to saie of persecutions but yet euen then she is eminent in her stedfast Champions Onely there is this difference that as the vocation which is the condition that settes men in the Church may be possessed in two sortes the one worthily when it is answered by conformitie of manners and inward deuotion from whence it is that Saint Paul praies for the Thessalonians that God would make them worthie of his holy wocation that is to saie make them answere and perseuer to answere by theire inward disposition the externall vocation wherewith he hath honored them The other vnworthily which is when it is not answered by conformitie of manners and life so there are two waies of being in the Church the one worthie and meritorious when theire manners answere theire vocation and the other vnworthie and without merit when they correspond not Which hath giuen ground to the schoole distintion of being in the Church in mumber and not in merit and therefore in the place where Saint AVGVSTIN introduceth more expressely the distinction of those that are in the howse but are not of the howse nor are the howse which is in the 7. booke of Baptisme against the Donatistes euen there to take awaie all occasion of suspicion that this house could be inuisible he addes the keyes and the power of binding and loosing are giuen to her that is the proprietie and practise of the ministrie and that all are commaunded to heare her and consequently to holde her visible vpon paine of beinge reputed heathens and publicans This howse said he hath receiued the keyes and the power to binde and loose and from thence when she censures or correctes if anie one despise her it is said that he should be to thee as a heathen or a publican And in the booke of the vnitie of the Church where he repeates in euery period the same distinction The Church saith he is not hidden because she is not vnder the bushell but vpon the candlesticke that she may giue light to all that are in the howse and of her it was said the Cittie sett on the Montaine cannot be hidd And in the booke of the waie to Cathecise We must said he instrust and incourage the infirmitie of man against temptations and scandall whether without or within the Church itselfe without against Gentiles or Iewes or heretickes and within against the chaffe of the barne of the Lord. And againe Let not the enemie seduce thee not onely by those that are out of the Church be they pagans Iewes or heretickes but also by those that thou shalt see in the Church euill liuers And in the Comentarie vpon the Epistle of Saint Iohn How can I call those other then blinde that see not so great a Mountaine and shutt theire eyes against the lampe sett vpon the Candlestick And not only in those places but in all his other workes he declares that the Church is perpetually visible yea he pronounces that it is an hereticall position or rather the common foundation of all heretickes to suppose that she is inuisible The Church of the Saints saith he is the Catholicke Church the Church of the Saintes is not the Church of heretickes the Church of the Saintes is that which God hath predesigned before she was seene and exhibited that she might be seene And in an other place It is a common condition of all heretickes not to see the thing in the world that is most cleere contituted in the light of all nations out of the vnitie whereof all that they doe can noe more warrant them from the wrath of God then the Spiders webb from the extremitie of colde And againe She hath this most certaine mark that she cannot be hid she is then knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nations then that cannot be she The third solution is that besides euen the vse of the finall definition of the Church is a forced vse and where with Saint AVG. was constrayned in the beginning to serue his turne to withstād the fraude of the Donatists but afterward he so
corrected or explained it both in the conference that he had with them in Carthage and in his retractations as there remaines noe more colour to abuse it For Saint AVGVSTINE in his first disputatiōs against the Donatistes finding himself pressed with the arguments that they brought to proue that baptisme could not be giuen by heretickes because heretickes were out of the Church aduised himselfe and particularlie in the worke of the seuen bookes of baptisme from whence this distinction of people knowne in the eyes of God and in the eyes of men is principally taken to helpe himselfe against them not with the formall definition of the Church by which onely infidells and hereticall and Schismaticall Christians are excluded but by the finall definition of the Church that is to saie by the definition of the Church considered according to the finall and future number of those of whom she should be constituted in the other world from which wicked Catholickes are also excluded to the end to inferr from thence against the Donatistes that as euill Catholickes though they were out of the Church defined according to her future permanent and principall being did truly baptise soe heretickes and Schismatickes though they were out of the Church defined according to her present and passant being yet might administer true baptisme And for a foundation of his definition he made vse of Epithetes of Salomon and S. Paul hauing noe spott nor wrinkle and 〈◊〉 her such like elogies of the Church which appertained either to the state of the other world or to the puritie of doctrine But after that the Donatistes abused both this definition and the testimonies from whence it was taken to inferre from thence that the Catholicke Communion which was mingled with wicked men was not the Church he changed his proceding in the conference that he had with them at Carthage and declared that this definition belonged not to the Church considered according to the present and formall being which she hath in this world but accordinge to the future and finall being which she shall haue in the next The Catholicks saith he made it appeare by many testimonies and examples of holy Scriptures that wicked mē are now so mingled in the Church that although Ecclesiasticall discipline ought to be watchfull to correct them both in words and by excommunications and degradations neuerthelesse not onely being hidden they are vnknowne but euen being knowne they are often tollerated for the vnitie of peace and shewed that the testimonies of scriptures did in that manner well agree together to witt that the places whereby the Church is represented with the medly of the wicked signisie the present tyme of the Church as she is in this world and the places whereby she is designed to haue no wicked persons mixt with her signifie the future state of the Church such as she shall eternally haue in the world to come And a little after so the Catholickes refuted the calumny of the two Churches declaring expressely and instantly what they intended to saie to witt that they had not pretended that that Church which is now mingled with wicked men should be an other Church then the kingdome of God that shall haue no wicked pesons in it but that the same one and holy Church is now in one sorte and shall be then in an other now she is compounded of good and wicked men and thē she shall not be soe And in the worke of the Cittie of God made by him after the Conference of Carthage there where the one and other kinde are found that is good euill there the Church is as 〈◊〉 is at this present but where the one only shal be there is the Church such as she is to 〈◊〉 when there shal be no wicked men in her And in the answere to the second Epistle of Gaudentias written also after the said Conference You see that the Church according to Cyprian is called Catholicke by the name of all and it is not without manifestly-wicked men And in the second booke of his retractations I wrote said he 7. bookes of Baptisme against the Donatistes attempting to defend themselues by the authority of the most happie Bishop and Martyr 〈◊〉 in all those bookes where I haue described the Church without wrinckle or spott it must not be takē of the Church as shee in her present being but as being 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 such whē she shall appeare in glorie And againe In my writings to an vnknowē Donatist speaking of the multitude of cockle I said by which are vnderstood all heretickes there wantes a Coniunction which is necessary for I should haue said by which are also vnderstood all beretickes c. whereas I spake as if there were onely cockle out of the Church and none in the Church And neuerthelesse the Church is the Kingdome of Christ from whence the Angells in the haruest tyme will plucke vp all Scandalls which caused the Martyr Cyprian to saie Although we see tares in the Church yet ought neither our faith nor our charitie to be so diuerted as because we see tares in the Church we should therefore seperate our-selues from the Church Which sense we haue also followed els where and principallie against the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present in the act of the Conference From whence it appeares how much it is to abuse Saint AVGVSTINES wordes against the sense whereto himselfe intendes they should be either corrected or explained to transferr as the protestantes doe that that he spake of the Church considered according to her future and finall being in the other world and applie it to the Church considered accordinge to her actuall being heere and to inferr from thence that she may consist in this world formally in the onely mumber of the predestinate and remaine hidden and visible To the fift obiection which is that Saint Ierom writes vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians The Church is glorions wthout spott or wrinkle or anie such like thing he then which is a sinner and soyled with anie spott cannot be called of the Church of Christ neither subiect to Christ We answere that he meanes not to saie that wicked men are not of the Church which is the body of Christ which fightes heere below but that they are not of the number of the Church which is the bodie of Christ which shall raigne in heauen For soe farr of is it from Saint IEROM to belieue that the promise to be without wrinkle or spott of manners appertaines to the Church considered as she is in this world that he cryes out quite contrarilie against the Pelagians That what the Apostle writes that our Lord will make his Church holy and without spott or wrinkle shall be accomplished at the end of the world and in the consummation of vertues And againe True perfection and without soyle is reserued for heauen when the bridegrome shall say to the bride Thou art wholie saire my
Palestina These were all complaintes which still remain'd within the limites of theire manners and neither touched the faith of the Roman Church nor the succession of saint Peter nor the communion of the Apostolicall Sea nor the very person of the Pope And indeede how could saint IEROME applie these wordes of the Reuelation Goe out of Babylon to the Cittie of Rome for anie thinge concerninge faith and Religion He that cryes out in his apologie against RVFFINVS Which faith is it that he calls his that that the Roman Church holdes or that that is contained in Origens bookes if he answere that that the Roman Church holdes then we are Catholickes And in the Epistle to THEOPHILVS Patriarche of Alexandria Know that we haue nothinge in greater recommendation then to conserue the statutes of Christ and not to transgresse the bounds of our fathers and alwaies to remember the Roman faith praysed by the mouth of the Apostle whereof the Alexandrian Church doth glorie to partake And in the Epistle to DEMETRIAS When thou wert little and that the Bishop Anastasius of 〈◊〉 aud happie memorie gouuerned the Roman Church a cruell tempest of 〈◊〉 risen out of the Easterne partes attempted to pollute and corrupt the 〈◊〉 of that faith which had bene commended by the mouth of the Apostle but this 〈◊〉 Pope Anastasius riche in a most plentifull pouertie and iu an Apostolicall care brake the pestilent head and stopped the hissinge mouthes of 〈◊〉 Hydra And because I feare yea I haue heard saie that the budds of this venimous plante doe still liue and springe vp in some I thought it my 〈◊〉 to admonish thee in a deuout zeale of charitie that thou keepe fast the faith of Saint INNOCENT his sonne and Successor in the Apostolicall Chaire And in the Epistle to Pope DAMASVS I am chayned in communion with thy blessednesse that is with Peters Chaire I know the Church is built vpon that rocke if anie eate the lambe out of that howse he is prophane And a little after I know not Vitalis I reiect Meletius I am ignorant of Paulinus whosoeuer gathers not with thee scatters that is to saie whosoeuer is not of Christ is of Antichrist Far then was hee from holdinge the Church of Rome for Babylon and the Pope for Antichrist since he held whosoeuer did not communicate with the Pope for Antichrist The third exposition is of them who interpret the allegoricall Babylon to be the Monarchy of the Turkes who with its false Prophet Mahomet haue possessed all the citties and particularly those of the seuen Churches of Asia to which S. Iohn addressed his reuelatioÌ„ and which hath giuen vp her soule to the perished beast that is to saie hath againe takeÌ„ the office and ranke of the pagan Emperors blasphmers and persecutors of the name of Christ and hath vsurped the Seate whither theire succession had bene transferd to witt Constantinople and who is clothed with purple that is hath the Emperiall power and authority whose simbole in Saint Iohns tyme was purple and which is seated be it literally vpon seuen Mountaines for Constantinople hath seuen Mountaines as old Rome had for moderne Rome hath nyne Or be it accordinge to the allegoricall interpretation of Saint Iohn vpon seuen kings that is to say vpon the seuen Empires that followe the impietie of Mahomett And in briefe which hath soe many other affinities with the Babylon in the ReuelatioÌ„ as OECOLAMP and BVLLINGER are constrayned to giue her two seates and conâ—â—â—â—uâ—e two Antichrists one in the weste and an other in the East Now which of these expositioÌ„s answeres the precise inteÌ„tion of the Author or whether the perfect accoÌ„plishment of these thinges be yet to come and should be vnderstood of a Societie which shall not arise till after the Ghospell haue bene actually preached to all the nations of the world as all ancient writers are agreed that the Monarchie of Antichrist which the ProtestaÌ„ts esteene to be one thinge with the Babylon of the Reuelation shall not come till after that tyme it is not heere our purpose to examine But in summe that that Babylon where of the reuelation speaketh can be seriouslie taken for the cittie of Rome the antithesis that saint IOHN makes of Babylon and Ierusalem which teacheth vs that as the Ierusalem described by the same Reuelation is not a locall cittie soe Babylon described by the same Reuelation is not a locall and corporall cittie takes from vs all colour to belieue it And therefore ARETHAS who beinge a grecian and a schismaticke as he is held to bee had had more interest to interpret this passage of Rome resolues in the end that it cannot be vnderstood neither of Rome nor of Constantinople but of the state of this corruptible world It appeares saies he vndoubtlie by this place that the thinges which are heere foretolde should neither be vnderstood of Babylon nor of olde nor newe Rome that is Constantinople nor of any other cittie but of all this corruptible world And that she may be taken for a Church which in the beginninge was a true Church of Christ and since growne false and adulterate bearinge neuerthelesse still the title of a Church the figure of Babylon which was from the beginninge founded by Nimrod a pagan and infidell and after alwaies perseuered in paganisme and in the open profession of infidelitie till the fall of her Empire cannot beare it Contrarywise that which saint IOHN saith that all those whose names are not written in the booke of life haue worshipped the beast vpon which the harlott sitts seemes to insinuate that he speaks of the societie of all the reprobate of what soeuer Secte Religion and profession they haue bene as well Iewes Gentiles Heretickes Schismatickes as euill Catholickes and not of any determinate Communion Yet we avowe neuerthelesse that the Fathers haue some-tymes turned the wordes of Isay and Ieremy from whence those wordes of the Reuelation are takeÌ„ to make vse of them against the particular Sect of the Arrians As when OSIVS and after him S. ATHANAS say the Scripture cryes out depart depart goe out from her and touch not her vncleanesse Withdrawe you from the midst of them separate your-selues froÌ„ theÌ„ you that carrie the vessells of our Lord. But besides that they haue neuer preteÌ„ded that this precept should be exteÌ„ded to all the multitude of ChristiaÌ„s and that there might come a tyme wherein there were noe externall CoÌ„munion visible and eminent out of which it should be vnlawfull to goe forth which is that which is in question There is great difference betweene the conceites allusions that the Fathers made vpon the allegoricall expositions of the passages of the Scripture and the proper and direct vnderstandinge of the same passages which is that onely from whence we may argue seriouslie And therefore when the Donatists in the conference of Carthage would haue made vse of the same wordes against the
Catholicke Church Saint AVGVST and the other Bishops of Africa answered them that the separation intended by that passage was the morall separation of faith and breach of Communion It was saith S. AVGVST represented what ought to be the separation of the good from the bad in this world that they might not communicate in theire sinnes to witt separation of hart by dissimilitude of life and manners and that otherwise ought not to be vnderstood that which is written goe out from the middle of them and withdrawe from them and touch not theire vncle annesse that is to saie be distinguished in liuing in an other sorte and consent not to theire vncleannesse But the excellent kinge saith that there are other places of scripture whereby is proued that which he pretendes to gather from the allegoricall wordes of the reuelation to witt that the visible Church should become soe corrupt as the faithfull should be obliged to leaue her communion Now the obiections that his Maiestie reserues for vs in this regard are either taken from this interrogatory of our Lord In your opinion the sonne of man when he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth or from these wordes the moone shall not giue vs her light Which S. AVGVST interpretes of the Church or from this prophecie of Saint Paule the Sonne of perdition shall be seated in the temple of God Or out of these words of the same booke of the reuelation two winges of a great Eagle were giuen to the woeman that she might flye into the wildernesse Or from the examples of the pretended ecclipses and sincopes of the Iewish Church And therefore settinge aside the obiection of the symptomes of the Iewish Church which we remitt to treate of heereafter it is fitt that we solue all the rest presently To the first obiection then which is to the interrogatory that our Lord made to his disciples when he asketh them In your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith on the earth Wee saie saint IEROM and S. AVG. haue answered it longe agoe the one against the Luciferians and the other against the Donatists And haue shewed that this passage is intended not of confessed and doctrinall faith but of iustifiynge faith workinge by charitie and yet not of the extinction but of the diminution of this iustifiynge faith The Donatists saith saint AVG. alleadge that this that our Lord asketh in your opinion the Sonne of man vhen he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth is to be expounded of the reuolte of all the earth which we vnderstand to be said either in regarde of the perfection of faith which is soe oifficult to men that in the very Saintes who where to be admired as in Moses there was found some thinge wherein they haue staggered or might stagger or for the aboundance of the wicked and the smalle number of the good And saint IEROM speakinge of the Luciferians If they flatter themselues said hee with this sentence written in the Ghospell in your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth let them know that the faith there mentioned is that whereof the same Lord said Thy faith hath saued thee And agaiue of the Centurion I haue not found so great faith in Israell And a little after it is this faith that our Lord hath foretoulde shall be rarelie found it is this faith that euen in those that belieue well is hardlie found perfect Let it be done to thee said hee accordinge to thy faith I would not haue that word pronounced to me for if it be done to me accordinge to my faith I shall perish and yet I belieue in God the father I belieue in God the Sonne and I belieue in God the holy Ghost To the second obiection which is that sainct AVGVSTINE interpretes allegorically these other wordes of the Ghospell then the moone shall 〈◊〉 more giue her light to be meant of the Church which in tyme of persecutions whereof he speakes shall not appeare we answere sainct AVGVSTIN meanes that she should not appeare in her carnall and weake members but not that she shall not appeare in her strong and spirituall Champions that she shall not appeare or lesse appeare in her 〈◊〉 parte in her strawe in her drosse because that parte will yeild to persecutions but not that she shall not appeare in her more excellent parte in her corne in her golde which contrarywise will then shine more then before This appeares by what he writes in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 It is shee said hee that is sometimes obscured and as it were shadowed with 〈◊〉 by the multitude of scandalls that is to saie persecutions when the Sinners 〈◊〉 theire bowe to wound it the obscuritie of the moone the lawes of theire heart but euen then she is eminent in her moste firme champions And a little after It is not in vaine that it was said of the seede of Abraham that is should be as the starrs of heauen and as the sand vpon the Sea-shore that by the starrs of heauen might be meant the faithfull lesse in number more steddie and more cleere and by the sand which is on the Sea-shore the multitude of weake and carnall men who some-times in calme weather appeare free and quiet and sometimes are couered and troubled with the waues of tribulations and temptations And therefore after he hath said she shall not appeare he adds for as much as manie which seemed to shine in grace shall yeilde to persecutions and fall awaie and some faithfull persons verie firme shall be troubled And againe persecution shall so precede as that defection of some shall followe that he might shew that he meanes not to saie that the Church shall not appeare in her whole bodie otherwise how coulde he crye out in an other place she hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden but that she shall not appeare in some of those that had bene her partes Which neuerthelesse in matter of application of allegories where it is permitted to bow the sense of the wordes to accommodate it to the grace of the application and where interpretors content themselues if the thinge signified answere in anie parte to that signifiyinge it sufficeth to make him say to the end to appropriate the 〈◊〉 of the moone to the Church that the Church then shall not appeare that is shall not appeare in some of her partes The third obiection followes which is that saint Paul writes that the daie of the Lord shall not come till the reuolte be first made and till the man of sinne be reuealed and the sonne of perdition who shall oppose and exalte himselfe aboue all that is called God or esteemed an obiect worthie of whorship euen to sitt in the temple of God shewinge himselfe as if he where God Now I will not heere stand to dispute what saint Paul meanes by this reuolte or
is deriued And in vertue of what power did he solicite Pope STEPHEN to write letters to the Gaules whereby he should depose Martian Bishop of Arles Thou shouldest saith he write letters into the prouince and to the people inhibiting in Arles by which Martian being deposed an other might be substituted in his place And why then when the same Saint CYPRIAN and the councell of Africa had embraced the error of rebaptising heretickes which since the Donatistes haue conuerted into an heresie did Saint VINCENTIVS 〈◊〉 say then Pope Stephen of happie memorie prelate of the Apostolicke Sea with 〈◊〉 before his other colleagues resisted it esteeming it a thing worthie of him to surpasse all others as well in deuotion of faith as he surmounted them by aucthoritie of place For as for the angrie words that Saint CYPRIAN lett slip against Pope STEPHEN which Saint AVSTIN iudges vnworthie to be reported they shall be spoken of hereafter And why then the same Pope STEPHEN had depriued of his communion Firmilianus Arch-Bishop of Cappadocia and the other Bishops of the Religions of Cappadocia Cilicia and Galatia for the same error of S. CYPRIAN but more obstinately defended did Firmilianus amongst his other wordes of fury which bare with them their owne confutation that he spued vp against the Pope reproch to him that he was soe senselesse he that boasted soe much of the place of his Bishops Sea and gloried that he had the succession of Peter vpon which the foundation of the Church had bene established as to introduce many other Peters and to cōstitute a plurality of Churches I am angrie said he not without cause with soe manifest and euident a follie in Stephen that he that glorifies himselfe soe much for the place of his Bishops Sea and maintaines that he hath the succession of Peter vpon which the foundation of the Church hath bene sett hath introduced manie other Peters and constituted new buildings of manie Churches in sustaining by his authoritie that baptisme is amongst heretickes And why then when DIONISIVS Patriarch of Alexandria had seene that Pope STEPHEN had shut the gate of his communion from Firmilianus and the other Bishops of Cappadocia Cilicia Galatia and the other neighbouring nations did he write to him letters of intercession and of intreaty vpon this subiect I writt to him said hee beseeching him for them all or praying him concerning all these things For as for that that Saint BASILL Archbishop of 〈◊〉 in Cappadocia omitted not to reckon Firmilianus amongst his Catholicke Predecessors notwithstanding his staine it was because he repented afterwardes as Saint AVGVSTINE witnesseth in these wordes Those of the East that had held the opinion of Ciprian corrected their iudgement And Saint IEROM in these Finally the Bishops themselues that had conceaued with Cyprian that heretickes should be rebaptised returning to their ancient custome published a newe decree saying what doe wee soe to them and to vs their Elders and ours haue giuen it by traditiō And why then whē the same DIONISIVS Patriark of Alexandria was fallen into suspition of heresie did the Catholickes of Alexandria in steed of hauing recourse to the Synodes of their prouinces come to accuse him at Rome before DIONISIVS Bishop of Rome They went vp said saint ATHANASIVS to Rome to accuse him before the Bishop of Rome being of his owne name And a while after And the Bishop of Rome the translator hath falsely reported the surname to that of Alexandria sent to Dionisius that he should cleere himselfe from those things whereof they had accused him and suddenly he answered and sent his bookes of defence and apologie And in an other place Some hauing accused the Bishop of Alexandria before the Bishop of Rome to holde the Sonne for a creature and not consubstantiall with the Father The Synod of Rome that is to say the consistory of Rome compounded of the Bishops neighbouring vpon the 〈◊〉 of Rome without whom the Pope iudged nothing of importance and of the principall Church men of Rome was offended with him and the Bishop of Rome writt to him the opinion of all the assistants and he iustifying himselfe addressed to him a booke of defence and apologie And why then when the councell of ANTIOCHE twice called from the prouinces of Pontus Capadocia Cyria Cilicia Lycaonia Palestina Arabia and from all the other Prouinces of the East had deposed Paulus Samosatenus Patriarke of Antioche and substituted Domnus in his steede And that Paulus would not quitt the possession of the Church did the Emperor Aurelian though a Pagan ordaine And that saith EVSEBIVS verie fitlie that it should be deliuered to him whome the Bishops of Italie and of Rome that is the Bishops of Italie assembled with the Pope should direct it to by writing For for what cause should EVSEBIVS who was one of the Bishops of the Patriarkship of Antioche and besides as an 〈◊〉 not well affected to the Roman Church and this word verie 〈◊〉 but to shewe that the Emperor had in this action followed the order of the church and that it was a thing fitt for the Ecclesiasticall lawes that the 〈◊〉 of Rome should iudge the affaires of the East euen after the 〈◊〉 of the East and synodes compounded of a farr greater mumber of Bishops and Prouinces When Paule saith EVSEBIVS would not quit the 〈◊〉 of the Church the Emperor Aurelian being called to this businesse ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it should be deliuered to him to whom the Bishops of Italie and of Rome of the same lawe should write backe And the Greeke manuscript of the 〈◊〉 of the councells kept in the priuate library of the most Christian kinge The Emperor Aurelian although a Pagan sent backe the question of Paul to the Bishop of Rome and to those that were by him that when they had examined whether he were iustlie deposed he might be dispossessed of the Church And Zonaras and after him Balsomon not onely Grecians but schismatickes The Emperor Aurelian enioyned the Bishop of Rome and the Bishops that were with him to examine those things wherewith ` Paul was charged and if he were iustly deposed to cast him out of the Church of the Christians Which alsoe since the 〈◊〉 councell of Ephesus did imitate when it reserued as shall appeare hereafter the iudgement of Iohn Patriarck of Antioche to the Pope and that Iuuenall Bishop of Ierusalem saied that the ancient custome and the 〈◊〉 tradition bare that the Church of Antioche was alwaies to be ruled by the Roman And after the councell of Ephesus the sixth oecumenicall councell of Constantinople when they sent backe the cause of Macarius Patriarck of Antioch to the Pope And why then when the Arrians held their false councell at Antioch 1270. yeares agone did Socrates an ancient Greeke author of 1200 yeares standing write IVLIVS Bishop of Great Rome was not there nor sent he anie in his steede
Iudea but contrarily he plainely affirmes that he was crucified at Rome PETER said he held the Sacerdotall Chaire at Rome till the fourteenth yeare of Nero by whom he was crucified And againe He was buried at Rome in the Vatican neere the triumpball Streete where he is celebrated by the veneration of all the Cittie Onely after he hath reported the wordes of our Lord Behould I send you prophets and wise men and Scribes and you will kill them and crucifie them and whip them in your Synagogues hee adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there are diuers Guifts in the disciples of Christ according to the Apostle to the Corinthians Some are Prophets who foretell things to come some are wise men who know when they should pronounce the word others Scribes well learned in the law whereof Steuen hath bene stoned Paule beheaded Peter crucified But that S. PETER was crucified in Iudea he hath no where said and if he had bene crucified by the Iewes hee had intēded it in the same sence wherein S. PAVL cryes that the Jewes crucified the Lord of Glorie that is to saie the lewes caused him to be crucified but not that hee had bene crucified in Iudea otherwise they must also haue concluded that S. PAVL was not beheaded at Rome but in Iudea for S. IEROM saith it equallie of the one and of the other whereof PAVLE hath bene heheaded and PETER Crucified To the third obiection which is that S. AVGVSTINE writ that the historie of the combatt of S. PETER and Simon the Magitian at Rome had taken ground from an opinion Wee answere that S. AVGVSTINE saith no such thing And indeede how should he saie it that had for suertie and forerunners in this historie not onely S. IVSTIN Martir an author of the next age after Simon Magus who writt thus to the Pagan Emperors from and in the name of all the Christians One Simon a Samaritan hauing by the Diuells art done workes by enchantment vnder the Emperor Claudius in your imperiall Cittie of Rome was accoūted a God and honored by you with a Statue as a God And S. Ireneus and Tertullian which writ the like but also Arnobius Eusebius S. CYRILL of Ierusalem S. EPIPHANIVS 〈◊〉 S. JEROM Sulpitius seuerus who all affirme that Simon hauing vndertakē by art magicke to flie at Rome was hindred from it and caused to fall by S. PETER he saith only that whereas some held that the particular custome obserued by the Roman Church to forbeare dinner on Saturdaies proceeded from a fast celebrated by S. PETER the Satturdaie before this act was an opinion Behold his words It is said hee the opinion of manie although manie Romans hould it to be false that the apostle Peter being on the Sundaie to combat against Simon the magitian for the perill of so great a temptation fasted the daie before both he and the Church of the same Cittie and that hauing obtained so prosperous and glorious a successe he continued the same custome and that some Churches of the west imitated him But that the historie of the conflict of S. PETER and Simon Magus at Rome was grounded vpon an opinion he saith nothing neere it cōtrariwise he setts it downe for the first principle in his booke of heresies in these words Simon would haue made it belieued that he was Jupiter ad that a common woman whose names was Helen with whom he had ioyned himself for a complice of his crimes was Minerua and gaue the images of himself and his Copesmate to be adored to his desciples and had obtained that they might be constituted by publicke authoritie amongst the images of the Gods at Rome in which Cittie the blessed Apostle Peter extinguished him by the power of God Almightie Which it seemes the prophane authors themselues though curious to bury the memorie of all the miracles of Christianitie haue obliquely pointed at when 〈◊〉 saith that there was a spectacle exhibited in a full theater in Nero's time whereby they should haue made the 〈◊〉 flight appeare but the Icarus fell against Nero's chamber and watred it with blood and when Dion Chrisostome saith that Nero had a long time neere him in his pallace a certaine man who promised to flie To the fowrth obiection which is that amongst the Successors of S. PETER some place Linus and Cletus before Clement and some after wee answer that S. EPIPHANIVS hath preuented and solued it 1250. yeares agone in these worde At Rome were first Apostles and Bishops Peter and Paul and then Linus then Cletus and then Clement c. and lett none wonder that others receiued the Bishopricke before Clement And a little after whether that the Apostles being still aliue Clement had receiued the ordination of the Bishopricke from Peter and hauing resused it abstained from it for hee saith in one of his Epistles I goe my waies and withdraw myselfe till the people of God be erected c. or whether after the decease of the Apostles he haue bene instituted by Cletus wee doe not euidently know but it may be that hauing bene promoted to the Bishopricke hauing refused it c. he was againe cōstrained after the death of Linus and of Cletus to accept of it For that which the obiectors add for the banquet and to make vp their mouthes that Eusebius saith that S. PETER was crucified and that the Legend where vpon wee ground the Papacie saith he was beheaded there are two ridiculous ingredients in this last Seruice the one to impute to vs that we ground the historie of S. PETERS seate at Rome which is testified by all the first ages of the Church vpon the Legend which is a booke written in the last ages by a Jacobin called Jacobus de voragine And the other not to discerne that that S. PETER that the Legēd said was beheaded is S. PETER the Iacobin Martir who was beheaded for the Catholick faith in the time of the Albigeses about 400. yeare agone and not S. PETER the Apostle whom it assirmes to haue bene crucified But now let vs leaue the obiections of the Popes aduersaries and let vs heare the testimonies of the Fathers S. DIONISIVS Bishop of Corinth writing to be Church of Rome in the next age after the Apostles you haue said hee mingled the plant of the Roman Corinthian Church made by PETER and PAVL And a little after for hauing taught together in Italie they were both martired at one and the same time And S. IRENEVS We represent the tradition apostolick of the greatest and most ancient Church founded at Rome by the two glorious Apostles PETER and PAVL And againe The blessed Apostles then founding and instructing the Church consigned the Episcopat of the administration of the Church to Linus And TERTVLLIAN Happie Church wherein the Apostles haue shed all their doctrin with their bloud in which PETER is equalled to the passion
ordaine saith hee according to the definition of Councells that the holy Pope of olde Rome shall be the first of all Prelates and that the blessed Archbishop of Constantinople new Rome should haue the second place after the Sea Apostolick of olde Rome Lesse yet is it to be obiected that some latter Greekes saie that the Councells of Constantinople Chalcedon adiudged the primacie to the Church of Constantinople for they will not saie that the intention of those Councells was then to iudge the primacie to the Church of Constantinople but by propheticall spirit to iudge the primacy to the Church of Constantinople after the Roman Church should haue lost it And to this end they pretend that the word after which the Councell of Constantinople made vse of when it saith the Bishop of Constantinople should haue the priuiledges of bonor after him of Rome was not a note of order but a note of tyme that is to say that the Fathers of the Councell foreseeing by diuine inspiration that the Sea of Rome should one daie fall into the heresie of the double procession of the holy Ghost so call they the doctrine of the procession of the holy Ghost by deriuation from the Father and from the Sonne and by that occasion fall from her ranke they ordained that after the Bishop of Rome should haue lost his primacie the Bishop of Constantinople should possesse it Which Zonarus although a Greeke and a Schismaticke reportes and confutes in these words Some said he belieue that the preposition after is a marke of time and not a submission of honor to the Church of Rome and they make vse for the proofe of their opinion of the twentie eigth Canon of the Councell of Chalcedon c. But the 130. Nou. of Iustinian inserted in the third title of the fift booke of the Basilickes giue the Canons otherwise to be vnderstood And a little belowe From hence it appeares manifestly that the preposition after signifies submission and inferioritie And elsewhere the Councell of Chalcedon ordaines that newe Rome should be honored with the same Ecclessiasticall prerogatiues as old Rome and should be preferred in honor before all the other Churches being the second after her for it is impossible that she should be equallie honored in all thinges vnlesse they will saie that those diuine Fathers foreseeing by the light of the holy spirit that the Church of Rome should be cutt off from the bodie of the orthodox and bee banisht from the Societie of the faithfull because of the diuersitie of the doctrine they destined that of Constantinople to be one day the first and so esteemed it then worthie to enioy in all things equall priuiledges to witt when she should haue receiued the primacie as the Roman Chuch had in former time had it And againe But to this sence the thirtie sixth canon of the councell Trullian doth oppose it self which hauing placed the Sea of Constantinople second after that of old Rome adds And after it that of Alexandria and after that of Alexandria that of Antioch and after that of Antioch that of Ierusalem And therefore not onely Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica writing against the latines confesseth ingeniously that the Greekes neuer disputed for primacie with the Roman Church Wee are not said hee separated from peace for attributing to ourselues the primacie nor for refusing to holde the second place after the principalitie of Rome for wee neuer contested for primacie with the Roman Church But euen amongst the Authors of the last age Duaren although a greate enemie to the Pope acknowledgeth that the sentence of Phocas interuened vpon the word Vniuersall and not vpon the word First Behold his words Boniface the third said hee obtained with great contention from Phocas to be made oecumenicall and vniuersall Bishop Onely he shewes his galle in saying that Boniface obtained from Phocas to be made vniuersall Bishop where hee should haue said that he obtained of Phocas that the title of vniuersall Bishop should be preserued to him alone and that the Bishop of Constantinople who desired to participate in it might be excluded frō it For neither did the Bishop of Constantinople dispute the title of Vniuersall Bishop with the Pope but pretended he ought to be therein associated with him neither did the title of Vniuersall Bishop begin to be attributed to the Pope by Phocas but from the tyme of the Emperor Marcian aboue an hūdred fiftie yeare before Phocas it had bene exhibited to him in the councell of Chalcedon and after that vnder the Emperor Iustinian aboue fiftie yeares before Phocas it had bene giuen him in Constantinople it selfe as it appeares both by the Acts of the Councell of Chalcedon wherein the petitions of the Clerkes of Alexandria presented to the Councell bore To the most holie and vniuersall patriarke Leo and to the holie generall Councell And by the testimonie of saint GREGORIE who wrote to Eulogius Patriarke of Alexandria Your Holynesse knowes that the title of vniuersall Bishop hath bene offerred in the councell of Chalcedon and by the following Fathers to my predecessors And by the Acts of the Councell of Constantinople holden vnder Menas confirmed by Iustinian where the petitions of the Regulars of Constantinople and of Syria and of the Bishops of the Patriarkships of Antioch and of Ierusalem to Pope Agapet were inserted with this inscription To our holy aud blessed Lord the Archbishop of old Rome and vniuersall Patriark Agapetus In such sort as be it that Phocas sentence were vpon the word vniuersall it cannot be said that Phocas was the author of the attribution of this title to the Pope since from the time of the Councell of Chalcedon and since vnder the Empire of Iustinian it hath bene attributed to him or be it that it interuened vpon the word First the originall thereof could not be imputed to Phocas since the Emperor Iustinian more then fiftie yeare before Phocas had written Wee ordaine following the definitions of the Councells that the holy Pope of olde Rome be the first of all the Prelates and that the blessed Archbishop of Constantinople new Rome haue the second place after the Sea Apostolicke of old Rome and be preferd before all the other Seas But it may be replied that S. GREGORIE did not onely condemne the vse of the word vniuersall in the person of the Btshop of Constantinople but refused it himself in his owne For hauing admonisht the Bishop of Alexandria that he should giue this title neither to him nor to the Bishop of Constantinople and the Bishop of Alexandria hauing written to him that hee had abstained according to this admonition from attributing it to the Bishop of Constantinople he replies I said you should giue such a title neither to me nor to anie other and behold in the front of your Epistle which you haue addressed to myselfe which haue made you this prohibition you haue
to cause the 〈◊〉 of the westerne Church to be carried to the generall Councells celebrated in the East sent a legation compounded of two kinde of Legats the one internall and taken from the bodie of the particular Roman Church whom wee with the Councell of Sardica call Legats taken out of the Popes owne side and the other externall and taken out of the order of the Bishops And this legation was sometymes made by two distinct commissions as in the sixth generall Councell the Legats from the popes particular person and those from the Councell of Rome were deputed feuerally And sometymes by a ioynt deputation as in the Councell of Ephesus and Chalcedon Now were those Legats that we call internall that is to saie taken out of the particular Clergie of the Roman Church the principall Legats not in honor except when the Popes legations and those of the Councell of Rome were distinct but as for the instructions and in the report of the Popes intentions And therefore also when there was question of the particular voice of the Pope they were often named alone as in the historie of Sozomene and in the list of the signatures of the Councell of Sardica because they were onely Legats deputed both from the person of the Pope and from the bodie of his Church And of those examples we haue one remarkable in the commission that the Councell of Ephesus gaue to the Bishops that it sent to Constantinople for by this commission the Councell of Ephesus intituled Phillip Priest of the Roman Church Legate from the Pope in these words To Phillip Priest holding the place of the Bishop of Rome Celestine to Arcadius to 〈◊〉 c. And intituled not Arcadius Legat to the Pope though he were both Bishop and Legat to the Pope altogether because Phillip was Legat à latire from the Pope that is to saie a Legate taken out of the very bodie of the particular Roman Church and Arcadius was Legat from the Patriarchall Roman Church that is to saie Legat from the Pope and Councell of Rome by meanes whereof when Sozomene and Theodoret say there were two Legats from the Pope at the Councell of Nicea to witt Uito and Uincentius and that S. ATHANASIVS and Socrates put Osius Uito and Vincentius into one place they contradict not one an other for as much as the one speakes onely of the internall Legats that we call Legats a latere of which Osius was none and the other speakes of the Legats aswell internall as externall whereof Osius was one And in this the ancient Greeke and Latine Canonists agree with vs For not onely Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes who flourished in the time of Charles the Balde and was not suspected to fauour the Pope much writes At the Councell of Nicea in the place of Syluester Osius Bishop of Cordua and Vito and Vincentius Priests of the cittie of Rome presided But alsoe Dalmatius Bishop of Cyzica in Asia one of the Fathers of the Councell of Ephesus who liued neere a thousand two hundred yeares agoe and after him Gelasius Priest of Cyzica who liued vnder the Emperor Zeno a thousand one hundred and fortie yeares agoe that is to saie in the next age to the Councell of Nicea and from whose pen is come to vs the famous Canon of the Eucharist so much cited by Caluin and by all the Sacramentaries written in the extract of the same Councell of Nicea that Osius was the Popes Legat in the Councell of Nicea and that Vito and Vincentius were his Colleagues At this Councell saith 〈◊〉 of Cyzica speaking after Dalmatius of Cyzica of the Councell of Nicea assisted Osius Bishop of Cordua who held the place of the Bishop of great Rome Syluester with the Priests Uito and Vincentius And not onely Gelasius of Cyzica vseth these words but Photius Patriarke of Constantinople the greatestenemie to the Roman Church that euer was amongst the Greekes alleadgeth them neere eight hundred yeares agoe in these words I haue said he read a booke in forme of a historie intituled The Acts of the Councell of Nicea containing three tomes and bearing added he a little after the title of Gelasius of Cyzica in this booke saith he the Author writes that Osius Bishop of Cordua and Vito and Vincentius Roman Priests assisted at the Councell from the part of Syluester Bishop of Rome And not onely Photius alleadgeth them but himselfe in his treatie of the Synods dedicated to Michell King of the Bulgarians and reported by Euthymius writes with Vito and Uincentius was ioyned Osius Bishop of Cordua And indeede for what other cause should Osius simplie a Bishop of the patriarkship of the Roman Church and subiect in the first instance to the Metropolitan of Seuilla in Spaine and by appeale to the Patriarke of the West haue preceded all the Patriarks of the East yea in the East it selfe he that in the Councell of Eluira that we call Elibertin composed of ninteene Bishops of Spaine had held but the secōd or according to others the eleauenth place And in the Councell of Arles compounded of two hundred Bishops had had noe ranke amongst the principall Bishops of the Councell but for the same cause for which Uito Uincentius simple Priests of the Roman Church preceded them to witt for the order of his legation for to precede them by vertue of the particular conditions of his person neither age nor antiquitie of promotion nor learning nor desert hath euer giuen ranke in generall Councells to anie simple Bishops before Archbishops much lesse before the Patriarks otherwise the distinction of the Seas had bene introduced in vaine and the personall condition of Osius were good to make his person reuerent but not to make him preside in a generall Councell where the order of the Hierarchy saith Caluin ought to be singularly obserued Iointly that euen in all these qualities there were manie in the Councell that surpassed him For if wee speake of persecutions for the Faith 〈◊〉 Bishop of one of the citties of Thebaida who had lost a knee vnder the persecution of Maximinus and an eye whose skarre the Emperor Constantine was wont to kisse was not he there Potamon Bishop of Heraclea in Egipt whom S. EPIPHANIVS calls great Bishop and great 〈◊〉 and who in the same persecution had had an eye put out was not he there Paul Bishop of Neocesarea vpon Euphrates whose handes had bene maimed with a hott iron in the persecution of Licinius was not he there And if we speake of the guiftes of prophetie and working of miracles Spiridion Bishop of Trimithunta in Cyprus that Ruffinus calls a man of the order of the Prophets was not he there James that great Bishop of Antioch in Mygdonia otherwise called Nisibis that Theodoret saith had raised againe the dead and whom hee intitles the prince of
the troupe of the Councell was not he there S. NICHOLAS Bishop of Myra in Lycia a man for manners and for miracles Apostolicall was not he there And if wee speake of credit and estimation with the Emperor euen he whose credit wee learne from Osius to witt Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea in Palestina whō the Emperor from his childhood had knowne in the East and whom he testified in his conceit to be worthie of the Bishopricke of the whole earth and to whom besides so manie other letters and markes of familiaritie he directed the first commission for the re-establishment of the Churches in the East and the charge of the transcription of the sacred bookes for the Churches of Constantinople was not he there Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia who afterward baptized the Emperor and who was Metropolitan of the prouinces where the Councell was held and Bishop of the Seate of the Empire in the East and of the cittie where the Emperor resided a man say Socrates and Sozomene indued with great authoritie and very prudent and honored in the pallace of the Emperor for the ecclipse of his fauour with the Emperor happened not till after the Councell and lasted but a moment was not he there Alexander Bishop of the future Imperiall cittie of Byzantium conuerted by exchange of name into Constantinople was not he there Paphnutius of whom Socrates saith the Emperor honored him extraordinarily and kept him ordinarily in his Court was not he there Protogenes Bishop of Sardica to whom the Emperor had addressed his first lawe for the manumission in Churches and to Osius the second lawe was not he there And if wee speake of learninge the same Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea of whom the Emperor said that he more then admired his knowledge and his studies was not he there Alexander Patriarke of Alexandria whom Theodoret calls the admirable Bishop was not he there Eustachius Patriarke of Antioch who made the oration of the Councell and whom Sozomene intitles the miracle of eloquence was not he there And if wee speake of reuerence for age the same Alexander of Alexandria whom the histories of the Councell call the old man and whom the epistle of the Councell exalts for hauing at that age sustained so manie labours was not he there Alexander Bishop of Constantinople of threescore and three yeares of age whether he were then Bishop in cheife or as the Patriarkes of the Church of Constantinople will haue it Coadiutor and Legate of Metrophanes yet elder then himself was not he there And if we must speake of the antiquitie of promotion Zeno whom saint EPIPHANIVS calls antique Bishop of Phenicia euill qualified by the lists of the signatures of the Councell Bishop of Tyre was not he there Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia before Bishop of Berith whom saint EPIPHANIVS calls the ancient old-man of Nicomedia was not he there And in briefe an infinite number of other Bishops that Eusebius for the antiquitie aswell of their age as of their promotion comprehends in the first clause of this passage some where honored because of their length of tyme others flourished in the rigor of their age and spirits others were newly entred into the course of their charges were not they there For that in the Councell of Sardica the age of Osius was accompted amongst those things that purchased him Reuerence that was more then twentie yeare after the Councell of Nicea And that saint ATHANASIVS calls him the Father of Bishops and saith he died a centenarie it was neere fortie yeare after the Councell of Nicea But if none of these what personall qualitie soeuer he had noe not Alexander Patriarke of Alexandria whom the Epistle of the Councell calls the master of the Councell that is to saie Master for sufficiencie did aduance himselfe a finger breadth beyond the degree of his dignity for what cause should Osius for his particular cōditiōs haue bene President of all the Assemblie For to saie Osius presided there as the Emperors deputie the Emperor was in person at the Councell and so could haue noe deputy and besides that he presided not there but was sett there beneath the Bishops and in a lower Seate and after he had attended and desired the leaue of the Bishops to shew that in matter of Religion he was of the number not of the Iudges but of those that were to be iudged And in the sirst Councell of Arles where the Emperor Constantine assisted also in person and Osius with him as it appeares by the reproches of the Donatists against the Iudges of that Councell wherein Osius was inwrapped not onely Osius who was alreadie then in as great Credit with that Emperor witnesse the Epistle of the iudowing the Churches of Africa did not preside there but euen in the letter of the Councell was not placed amongst the first Bishops but comprehended vnder the curtaine of silence with the troupe and multitude of the Bishops And in the Councell of Sardica where Osius presided aswell as at the Councell of Nicea he was so euill willed by Constantius the Lord of the Empire who was an Arrian that he could not be said there to preside in qualitie neither of a fauorite or of a Deputie to the Emperor contrarywise the care he had to make himself Procurator and Promoter of the Popes Rights and the instance he made for the appeales to the Pope and for the honor of saint PETERS memory and the iustificatiue relation of the Councells which Protogenes Bishop of Sardica and he dedicated to the Pope and the protestation that he and the other Bishops inserted into the Epistle of the Councell to the Pope to hold him for head of the Church and to acknowledge That it was a conuenient thing that from all Prouinces of the earth the Prelats of God should referr all affaires to their head that is to saie to the Sea of the Apostle Peter shew sufficiently that it was from the part of the Pope and not of the Emperors that he presided there And from this it derogates not that saint ATHANASIVS makeing the recitall of the signatures of the Councell of Sardica puts the signatures of Osius without a title of Legation and before that of the Pope in those words Osius of Spaine Iulius of Rome by Archidamas and Philoxemus For besides that this recitall followes not the rankes of the dignities as it appeares by Nessus an African Bishop who is placed there before Gratus Archbishop of Carthage And moreouer that hee vseth this order for as much as Osius signed the Epistle of the Councell immediately and by himselfe and the Pope mediatelie and by another the legates of the Pope who were Bishops had a vote of their owne in the Councell and the Priests not From whence it is that when the legations of the Pope and of the Councell of Rome were
councell of Africa the two and fortith Canon Epigonius Bishop pronounced this amongst other things I conceaue that a people that hath alwaies bene vnder the subiection of a Bishop and neuer had a proper Bishop ought not to be admitted to haue a Bishop All which is said neuertheles with so much respect as the world shall knowe that we admire the great cardinall Baronius euen when we reproue him and we doe acknowledge that his dreames are more learned then the cleerest sight of others The second question concerning the councells of Africa in chiefe is about the number of the Canons of the third Councell of Carthage and consists in this whether the third Councell of Carthage hath publisht all the fifttie Canons that are in the ordinary editions and amongst the rest the canon of the Canonicall booke which is the fortie seauenth or whether it hath publisht but twentie one The new promulgators of the canōs of the African church will haue it that it publisht but 21. amongst which that of the canonicall bookes which they pretend to haue bene framed by the sixth coūcell of Carthage is not comprehended And we contrarywise maintain that the third councell of Carthage hath publisht all the fiftie canons contayned in the ordinarie edition amongst the rest that of the canonicall Bookes Their pretēces are grounded vpō two reasons the one that there are but twentie one Canons or few more of the third coūcell of Carthage inserted into the African Rapsody amōgst the which the canon of the canonicall bookes is none and the other that in the continuance of this canō it is said that they must cōmunicate with Pope Boniface and with other Bishops beyond Sea which Boniface was of the tyme not of the third Councell of Carthage but of the sixth To the first then of their reasōs we answere that whereas they saie there are but twētie three canons of the third councell of Carthage in the rapsody of the coūcells of Africa it is because the rapsodist as it hath aboue appeared hath inserted there but the Canons of the third Councell of Carthage which had added some amplification or modification to the canons of the councell of Hippo and hath not sett in those that had first bene instituted in the Councell of Hippo and had bene but repeated in the third of Carthage amongst which was that of the canonicall bookes as it appeares by the thirtith canō of the councell of Hippo whose quotation remaines to vs in these wordes What are the canonicall Scriptures which ought to be read in Churches and besides which noe others ought to be read To the second reason which is taken out of the Illustrious Cardinall Baronius who saith that the fiftie canons contained in the copies of the coūcell of Carthage cannot be all of this councell and particulaaly the canon of the number of the canonicall Bookes for as much as in the end of the same canon there is mentiō made of Pope Boniface who was long tyme after wee answere two things the one that it is not in the originall canon of the copies of the third councell of Carthage wherein this mention is found of Pope Boniface but in the repetition that is made of the same canon in the collection of the thirtie three Canōs attributed to the sixth Coūcell of Carthage holden vnder Pope Boniface frō whence certaine ignorant exemplifiers haue takē it awaie made it retrograde in forme of a diuers reading in the margent of some of the copies of the third Coūcell of Carthage the other that if this continuāce were of the originall text of the canon it must haue bene read Syricius not Bonifacius as it appeares both by the canon following where the Fathers speaking of an other matter saie It 〈◊〉 bene concluded that we should consult with our bretheren and colleagues Cyricius and Simplicianus And because that Pope Innocent the first a little after Cyricius who dyed six moneths after the third coūcell of Carthage had alreadie made a catalogue of the canonicall bookes cōformable to that of the third Councell of Carthage more then fifteen yeare before Boniface and the sixth Councell of Carthage which the fathers of the sixth Councell of Carthage whereat the Popes legates assisted could not be ignorant of By meanes whereof there was noe more neede to demaund the Popes confirmation in this regard in the tyme of the sixth Councell of Carthage But it is not sufficient to solue the reasons of the contrarie opinion but we must propound our owne The 〈◊〉 then that wee make to conuince that the third Councell of Carthage hath publisht the fiftie Canons that are in the ordinarie editions and amongst others that of the catalogue of the canonicall bookes is grounded vpon fower reasons the firstreason is that the twelfth Coūcell of Toledo which was holdē neere a thousand yeare agoe citeth the 42 th canō of the third Coūcell of Carthage in these words In the 42 th canon of the third councell of Africa it is said that a people that hath bene alwaies subiect to a diocese shall receaue noe other Bishop for Bishop Which are the proper words of the two fortith Canon of the third Councell of Carthage which we 〈◊〉 in our haudes The second that in the repetition of twentie three of the canons of the Councell of Carthage holden vnder Cesarius Atticus the sixth of the calends of September that is to saie of the third Councell of Carthage which is made in the African Rapsody there is a canon repeated which saith That it shal be also lawfull to reade the passions of the Martyrs which canon being bound by the aduerbe alsoe to some Canon from whence it hath bene seperated can haue noe relation but to the Canon that forbidds anie other scriptures but the Canonicall Scripture to be read in Churches and consequently supposeth that the Canon of the canonicall Scriptures had bene publisht in the Councell holden vnder the consulship of Atticus and Cesarius which is the third Councell of Carthage but that it hath bene omitted in the Rapsody because it reportes none but those Canons that haue added some amplification or diminution to the Canons of the Councell of Hippo which the Illustrious Cardinall Baronius could not see for the impediment that was giuen him by the vitious collocation that the Exemplifiers of the latin Rapsody haue made of the preface of the Councell holden after the Consulship of Stelicon which they haue interposed betweene the exordium of the Councell holden vnder Atticus and Cesarius and the first Canon of the same Councell a thing which gaue him occasion to thinke that all the thirtie two canons following were of the Councell celebrated after Stilicons consulship whereas the twentie three first were of the Councell celebrated vnder Cesarius and Atticus as we will proue heereafter by the order of the dates and by conferring of the Greeke edition and as it is
in the sixth Coūcell of Carthage for the dereee of the Anniuersarie holding of the Nationall Councells of Africa first intituled in the Councell of Hippo and since renewed by this canon in the third Councell of Carthage had bene suppressed and abrogated more then twelf yeare before the sixth Councell of Carthage by the Councell holdē vnder the seauenth consulship of Honorius in these wordes Because it had bene ordained in that Councell of Hippo the there should be holden euerie yeare a Generall Councell of Africa not onely heere at Carthage but in all the other prouinces euerie one in his turne it hath bene reserued to be kept sometimes in the prouince of Numidia and sometimes in that of Byzacia But for as much as this hath seemed laborious to all the bretheren it hath pleased that there should be noe more anniuersarie necessitie to trauaile-trouble the bretheren but that when the common cause that is to saie of all Africa shall require it from whatsoeuer part the letters shall be addressed to this Sea the Synod shall be assēbled in the prouince that shall be thought fittest In the ninteenth and tweentith it is said that Bishops and Priests accused cannot be excommunicated vnlesse after citation and refusall to appeare which are two decrees transferred from the third Councell of Carthage into this collection and not transferred from this collection into the copies of the third Councell of Carthage as the new publishers of the Councell of Africa pretend For S. AVGVSTIN himself notes that the decree forbidding to excommunicate accused Priests but after citation and refusall of appearance was instituted in the tyme that Proculian was Bishop for the Donatists at Hippo. Now Proculian had liued and was dead à long while before the sixth Councell of Carthage as it appeares both by the letters of the clergie of Hippo to Ianuarius which testifie that Proculian was Bishop of Hippo before the lawes of the Emperors against the Donatists came into Africa and by the cōferēce of Carthage which was holden eight yeares before the sixth Councell of Carthage in which tyme it was noe more Proculian but Macrobius that was Bishop of the Donatists at Hippo. In the twentie fourth canon which is of the canonicall Bookes the collection saith Bee it also made knowne to our brother and fellow Bishop Boniface and to the other Bishops of the same prouinces for the confirmation of this canon that these are the bookes that wee haue receiued from our fathers to be read in the church Now we haue alreadie shewed by three reasons and can yet confirme it by a fowrth that the canon of canonicall bookes had bene publisht in the third councell of Carthage For the first Mileuitan councell testifies that the Statutes of the councell of Hippo which cōtained fourtie one canons amongst which was a decree of the canonicall bookes had bene inserted and confirmed in a more full councell assembled at Carthage Which can not be vnderstood but of the third councell of Carthage that is to saie of the councell holden the fifth of the calends of September vnder the consulship of Cesarius and Atticus in which was propounded the extract of the canons of the Councell of Hippo. Moreouer wee haue proued that Pope Innocent the first had alreadie framed a roll of the canonicall Bookes agreable to that of the third Councell of Carthage more then fourteen yeare before Boniface and the sixth Councell of Carthage By meanes whereof it had bene an impertinent thing for the Bishops of the sixth Councell of Carthage to write to Pope Boniface for the confirmation of this canon and it cannot be said that perchance the Africans knewe it not for Faustinus the Popes legat who was present at this Councell and Phillippus and Asellus priests of the Roman Church who assisted him would not haue permitted them to be ignorant of it In the twentie fifth the collection containes Aurelius saith wee add my most deere brothers moreouer as relation bad bene made of the incontinence of some clerkes although but readers towardes their owne wiues It was decreed which also hath bene confirmed in diuers Councells that the subdeacons which should handle the sacraments the deacons and Priests and also Bishops according to the former Statutes should abstaine from their owne wiues c which if they obserue not that they should be deposed from their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 office but that the other clerkes should not be constrayned by this lawe but in a riper age Now besides that these are the wordes of the third canon of the fifth Councell of Carthage which saith moreouer as relation had beue made of the incontinence of some clerkes though toward their owne wiues It was decreed that Bishops priests and deacons according to the former Statutes should abstaine euen from their owne wiues which if they obserue not that they should be deposed from their ecclesiasticall office but that other clerkes should not be bound by this lawe there are soe manie impertiencies in the extract of the canon as it could not be collected by the Fathers of a Councell For first these wordes Aurelius saith Wee add my most deare bretheren hath noe relation with the former canon of the same collection which is of the catalogue of the canonicall bookes And secondlie this contexture Aurelius saith Wee add my most deare bretheren moreouer as relation had bene made to the incontinencie of some clerkes hath noe construction neither naturall nor gramaticall but is a strained and impertinent coniunction to bring into Aurelius discourse the words of the third Canon of the fifth Councell of Carthage which beginus with these wordes Moreouer as relation had bene made of the incontinence of some Clerkes And thirdly this parenthesis although but readers is directly against the discipline of the Fathers of Africa who neuer meant to depriue the Readers from the vse of their owne wiues contrarywise they haue bound them coming to the age of Manhood either to professe chastitie or to marrie It hath bene ordained saith the third councell of Carthage that Readers hauing once attained to the age of 〈◊〉 shall be constrained either to take wiues or to make profession of chastitie And fowrthly this exception vnlesse a riper age vtterlie destroyeth the intent of the councell which wills that none but Bishops Priests deacons and subdeacōs should be obliged receiuing orders to quit their wiue that the other clerkes which handle not the Sacraments should not be obliged to this Condition In the twentie eight Canon which is a repetition of the canon instituted in the second Mileuitan Councell and confirmed in the Councell of Carthage holden vnder the twelfth Consulship of 〈◊〉 where it had bene decided that the priests Deacons and other inferior Clerkes cannot in their proper causes appeale beyond Sea the greeke edition and some latin copies add as it hath-bene often said of Bishops
Councell of Sardica Nessus Gratus Magesius Coldeus Rogatianus Consortius Raphinus Manninus Cecilianus Erennianus Marianus Ualerius Dinamius Nyronius Iustus Celestine Cypryan Uictor Honor at Marinus Pantagathus Felix Baudeus Liber Capiton Minersall Cosmus 〈◊〉 Hesperion Felix Seuerian Optantius Hesper Fidetius Salustus Paschasius And Osius speaking to the Councell of Sardica Manie Bishops make a custome of trauailing to the court and principallie the Africans that as we haue vnderstood by our welbeloued brother and Colleague Gratus receiue not wholsome Councells And Gratus himself citing in the first Councell of Carthage cōcerning the credit whereof we are all agreed and which is alleadged by 〈◊〉 Archdeacon of Carthage one of the Canons of the Councell of Sardica I remēber said hee that in the most holie Councell of Sardica it was 〈◊〉 that none should vsurpe a man of another diocesse for his Clerke By meanes whereof not only the Councell of Sardica was of more authority then the Councell of Africke as Zonarus himselfe acknowledgeth when he saith speaking of the intituling of the Archbishopps The Councel of Chalcedon agreed rather to the Canon of the Councell of Sardica then to that of the Councell of Africa but also in regard of discipline was more strong and obligatorie in respect of the Africans then the Councell of Nicea Now it happened as we haue alreadie touched aboue that when the Pope sent this Rule to the Africans the Canons of the Councell of Sardica were no more to bee found in the African Prouinces for the 〈◊〉 had soe wrought by craft as they had suppressed and banished out of Africa all the true Actes of the Councell of Sardica that had bene brought thither in the time of Gratus and of the first Councell of 〈◊〉 and had supposed and slipt into their steede the actes of the Anticouncelle of Sardica that is to saie the acts of the false Councell holden by the Arrians at Philopolis neere Sardica vnder the title of the Councell of Sardica because that in the Epistle of this false Councell the 〈◊〉 made mention of Donatus Bishop of the Donatists of Carthage This appeares by conferring the places of S. AVGVSTINE with the rest of 〈◊〉 For S. AVGVST testifies that the Actes of the Councell of 〈◊〉 which were in his time currant in Africa were the acts of the 〈◊〉 Councell which had condēned S. ATHANASIVS the Councell of Nicea He offerd me said S. AVGVSTINE speaking of Fortunius the donatist a certaine Booke where he would shew me that the Councell of Sardica had written to the African Bishops of the commnnion of Donatus And a little after Then hauing taken the Booke and considering the statutes of the same Councell I found that Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria c. and lulius Bishop of the Roman Church no lesse Catholicke had bene condemned by this Councell of Sardica whereby I was assured that it had bene a Councell of Arrians And in the third Booke against Cresconius the Donatist who had alleadged the same Councell of Sardica The Councell of Sardica saith hee was a Councell of Arrians as the copies that we haue in our hands doe manifest principallie holden against Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria a Catholike And all antiquitie contrariwise teacheth vs that the true Councell of Sardica had confirmed the Councell of Nicea and iustified S. ATHANASIVS and was a most holy and most Catholicke Councell The holy Synod of Sardica saith S. ATHANASIVS who assisted there in person compounded of aboue thirtie fiue Prouinces receiued vs in our iustifieable proceedings And a little after They declared Athanasius and those that were with him pure and free from all crime and their aduersaries slaunderers and wicked persons And elsewhere In the great Councell of Sardica our aduersaries were deposed as slanderers and more then three hundred Bishops subscribed to our iustification And againe The holie councell assembled at Sardica decreed that therein nothing of faith should be concluded but that they should content them selues with the confession of the councell of Nicea And Gratus Archbishop of Carthage who was also there in person I remember said hee that in the most holy councell of Sardica it was decreed that none should vsurpe a Clerke of an other diocesse And the Epistle of the same Councell of Sardica We haue declared our deare brethren and fellow-ministers Athanasius Marcellus Asclepas and others their adiuncts in the seruice of God innocent and blamelesse And Socrates The Bishops assembled at Sardica condemned before all things the desertion of those of Philopolis and then deposed the accusers of Athanasius and confirmed the decrees of the Coūcell of Nicea Sozomene They answered that they would not separate themselues from the Communion of Athanasius and Paul and principallie Iulius Bishop of Rome hauing examined their cause and not hauing condemned them and the Councell of Chalcedon The father 's assembled at Sardica combated against the Relicks of Arrius A manifest proofe that the Africans in the tyme of S. AVGVSTINE and of the sixth Councell of Carthage had no other but the Actes of the false Councell of Sardica holden by the Arrians at Philopolis neere Sardica which had condemned S. ATHANASIVS and ouerthrowne the coūcell of Nicea and not those of the true councell of Sardica wich had iustified S. ATHANASIVS and cōfirmed the councell of Nicea But let vs returne to our history The Bishops of Africa then finding neither of these Canons in the copies of the councell of Nicea and not being able to finde them in those of the councell of Sardica because they had them not they stretched out vpon the occasion of the question of the priests for which at the beginning the conclusion was moued euen to Bishops and seeing that the title vpon which that was groūded which had vntill then bene obserued by custome concerning Bishops Appeales did no more appeare then that of Priestes tooke their tyme and opportunitie to complaine of the progresse of this custome and of the greeuances that the Appeales aswell of the one as of ther other that is to say as well of the Bishops as of the priests brought vpon them not by the fault of the appeales but by the malice of men which is such as the gate cannot be opened for Appeales but there wil happen great euills in the frequent executions of this remedie as the cōtempt of the first Iudges the delaie and prolonging of iustice the cost and vexation of the parties the incommoditie of the transportation of witnesses of all sexes and all ages nor wholly shut it vp from them least worse may come of it And therefore they writt to Pope Sozimus whom their letters found already dead and after to 〈◊〉 his successor an Epistle by which after they had remonstrated to him the troubles that the past examples of appeales had brought vpon them and had represented to him that they had not
the confession of PETER and the Church was built vpon the person of PETER are both ioyntly true but in different sence for the confession of PETER is the causall foundation of the Church that is to saie it is the cause for which the Church is built vpon the person of PETER rather then vpon that of anie other Apostle for as much as the primacie of this confession not proceeding nor preuented from or by anie humane instruction but proceeding immediatlie frō the pure reuelation of God the other Apostles being silent not knowing what to answere was the cause in fauour whereof Christ chose preferring him before all others saint PETER to constitute him the foundation of his Church And the person of Peter is the formall foundation of the Church that is to saie him vpon whose ministrie by preferring him before all others Christ hath built and edified his Church But the differenc of these two expositions is that the one is immediate and the other mediate the one direct and the other collaterall the one literall and the other morall the one originall and perpetuall and the other accessorie and temporall the one consigned from the beginning and the other introduced by occasion For before the Arrians were risen vp that is to saie before the age of Constantine and of the first Councell of Nicea the interpretation that was current in the Church was that not of the confession of PETER but of the person of PETER As when 〈◊〉 saith in his Booke of Prescriptions against heretikes Was there anie thing cōcealed from Peter who was called the stone of the building of the Church And ORIGEN See what is said to the great foundatiō of the Church and the solid stone vpon which Christ hath built his Church And elsewhere Peter vpon whō the Church of Christ hath bene built against which the gates of hell shall not preuaile And in the comentarie vpon the Epistle to the Romans trāslated by saint HIEROME When the Soueraigne authoritie of feeding the Sheepe was giuen to Peter and that vpon him as vpon a stone the Church was built the confessiō of anie other vertue was not exacted of him but onlie that of Charitie And S. CYPRIAN Peter whom the Lord chose first and vpon whom he built his Church And againe God is one and Christ is one and the Church is one and the Chaire is one built by the voyce of our Lord vpon Peter But after the coming of Constantine when the Arrians had lifted themselues vp against the diuinitie of Christ the Fathers finding no passage in the scripture more expresse to proue vnto them that IESVS CHRIST was the sonn of God not by adoption but by nature then this Confession of sainct PETER Thou art Christ the Sōne of the liuing God in which they held that the word liuing had bene expressely inserted to shew that IESVS CHRIST was the sonn of God by generation for as much as to engender as saie the Philosophers is proper to liuing thinges they tooke care as much as was possible for them to 〈◊〉 the dignitie of this confession And because that in fauour thereof and for it S. PETER had bene constituted foundation of the Church they licensed themselues to call it by Metonimy that is to say by translation of the name from the effect to the cause the foundation of the Church that they might haue the more occasion to declaime against those that destroyed it in reproching thē that they ruined the foundatiō of the Church that is to saie the confession in fauour whereof and for whose cause he that had made it had bene constituted foundation of the Church but neuerthelesse to shew that they intended not in doeing this to exclude the person of PETER from being the formall foundation of the Church that which the same fathers had said in one place of the confession of PETER as causall foundation of the Church they said it in an other yea often times in the same place of the person of PETER as formall foundation of the Church This appeares by saint HILARIE who disputing in his workes of the Trinitie against the Arrians after he had said This faith is the foundation of the Church by this faith the gates of hell are disabled against her this faith hath the keyes of the heauenlie Kingdome Adds immediately after to declare that this should be intended of the saith of sainct PETER causallie and meritoriouslie but of his person formallie that is to saie that this confession hath only bene the meritorious cause for which sainct PETER hath receiued these things but that it is the person of PETER that hath properly and formallie receiued them This is hee that in the silence of all the other Apostles acknowledging beyond the capacitie of human infirmitie the Sonn of God by the Reuelation of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Confession of his blessed faith a supereminent place And a little after Hee hath confessed Christ to be the Sonn of God and for that he is called blessed This is the Reuelation of the Father this is the foundation of the Church this is the assurauce of eternitie from hence he had the keyes of the Kingdome of 〈◊〉 from hence his earthly iudgments become heauenly And a little before After the confession of the Sacrament the blessed Symon is submitted to the edification of the Church receiuing the keyes of the heauenly Kingdome And in his comentaries vpon the verie place of the words of IESVS CHRIST The confession of Peter hath receaued a trulie worthiereward And a little after in the title of a new name blessed foundation of the Church and worthie Stone of her edification that destroyed the lawes of 〈◊〉 and the gates of the deepes and all the prisons of Death O blessed Porter of heauen to whose arbitrement the keyes of the eternall entrie are deliuered whose iudgments on earth haue authoritie to preiudge in heauen And elsewhere Christ had so great a zeale to suffer for the Saluation of human kinde as Peter the first Confessor of the Sonn of God the foundation of the Church the Porter of the heauenly kingdome the iudge of heauen vpon earth disswading him he called him by the name of Satan And soe sainct CHRYSOSTOME interprets it that is to saie sometimes of his faith Upon this stone said hee that is to say vpon the faith of this confession And sometimes of his person Hee promiseth saith he to make a fisherman more solid then anie kinde of stones And vpon the fiftith Psalme heare what he saith to PETER That Pillar that foundation and therefore called Peter as made a Rocke by faith And againe that Pillar of the Church that basis of the faith that be ad of the Apostolick flock And saint CYRILL doth euen the same sometimes of his faith He hath said hee called the immutable faith of Peter his disciple a Rocke and sometimes of his
and not our mother as the first Eue was who engendred her children dead to Saluation but as the second Eue who engendred her children liuing From whence it is that saint AMBROSE and saint HIEROME call the Church the true Eue mother of the liuing And how then is it that hereticall sects who amongst the conditions vnder which they receiue men into their communion oblige them to hold killing doctrines should attribute to thēselues the title of a Church Hee teacheth vs that the Fathers of the Earth will not giue their children a Scorpion for an egge or a Serpent for a Fishe And how then is it that the Church should giue hers poyson insteede of wholesome food or that hereticall sects whose wine saith saint HIEROM is the furie of Dragons and the incurable furie of Aspes should bee Churches Hee teacheth vs that the Church is the Waie the Gate and Entrie into the Kingdome of Heauen yea for this cause himself often calls it the Kingdome of Heauen it is then of the Essence of the Church that Saluation might be therein obtained and the waie howe to come to the Kingdome of Heauen and consequently that amongst the conditions vnder whose obligation she receiues men into her communion there be none repugnant to Saluation Now contrarywise it is of the Essence and of the definition of hereticall and Schismaticall Societies that amongst the conditions vnder which they receiue men into their communion there are conditions repugnant to Saluation otherwise they could not be hereticall Schismaticall And so it is of the Essence and of the definition of the Church not to be hereticall and it is of the Essence and of the definition of hereticall Societies contrarywise not to be Churches nor partes of the Church and they cannot be called Churches nor members of the Church but falselie and equiuocallie as a dead member that is cutt off from the Bodie is noe member but equiuocallie and by abuse of speeche of as a dead man or a man either formed in picture or raised in a Sculpture is noe man but equiuocally by abuse of speech By meanes whereof it is to erre against the Essence and definition of the Church to hold them for Churches or to reckon them in the totalitie of the catholick Church and to this all the Fathers agree Heresies saith Clemens Alexandrinus are equiuocallie called Churches And saint CYPRIAN Nouatianus doth as Apes doe who would seeme to be men though they be not soe so will he seeme to haue a Church though he haue none And againe When the Nouatians demaunded beleeuest thou the remission of sinns by the holie Church they lye in their Interrogatorie for they haue noe Church And the Elibertine Councell If anie one passe from the Catholick Church vnto heresie and returne againe to the Church c. And the Councell of Sardica Wee cast out of the limtts of the Catholicke Church those that affirme Christ to be God and not verie God And saint HIEROME Heretick make in their Church by false appellation that which they made when they were yet heathen And againe Noe hereticall congregation can be called the Church os Christ. And elsewhere In what Church hath he beleeued in that of the Arrians but they haue none And in the same worke If thou hearest in anie place of men denominated from anie other then from Christ as Marcionites Ualentinians Montagniers or Campites knowe that there is not the Church of Christ. And Optatus Mileuitanus Out of the onelie Church which is the true Catholick Church others amongst hereticks are esteemed to be and are not And againe There is one onely Church which cannot be amongst you and amongst vs it remaines then that she must be in one place And S. AVGVSTINE you are with vs in the creede and in the other Sacraments of our Lord c but you are not with vs in the Catholique Church And againe There is one Catholique Church vpon which other 〈◊〉 impose other names although themselues be all called by particular names which they dare not disauowe From whence it appeares in the iudgement of Iudges not preoccupate with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed And elsewhere The Church of the saints is the Catholique Church the Church of the Saints is not the church of Hereticks She hath bene predesigned before she was seene and hath bene exhibited that she might bee seene And in the Booke of Faith and of the creede Neither do the Hereticks belonge to the Catholick church because she loues God nor the Schismatickes because She loues her neighbour And in the Booke against the Fundamentall Epistle In this Church finallie the name of Catholique detaines me which this Church alone amongst so manie and so great heresies hath so preserued as when a stranger askes where they assemble to the Catholick Church there is noe hereticke dare she we his Temple or his howse And in his Treatise vpon saint IOHN All hereticks and Schismaticks are gone out from vs that is to saie are gone out from the Church Faustinus was not President to a Church but to a faction The holie Ghost hath not glorified Christ with a true glorie but in the Catholick Church for elsewhere addeth hee be it amongst hereticks be it amongst Pagans his true glorie vpon earth cannot bee And vpon sainct MATTHEW Jewes and all other hereticks which doe indeede confesse that there is a holy Ghost but denie that he is in the bodie of Christ which is his onely Church no other certainelie but onely the Catholicke are without doubt like the Pharises who though they did confesse that there was an holie Ghost yet denied him to be in Christ. And in the Booke of the method to cathecise the not instructed Wee must saith hee garnish and animate the infirmitie of man against temptations and scandalls be it without or be it within the Church 〈◊〉 against Gentiles or 〈◊〉 or hereticks and within against the Strawe in the Barne of our Lord. And againe Let not the Enemie seduce thee not only by those that are without the Church whether Pagans or Iewes or Hereticks but euen by those that thou seest in the Church euill liuers And in the fowrth Councell of Carthage where he assisted in person Let not the Conuenticles of Hereticks be called Churches but mock-Councells And the verie lawe of the Emperors Hereticks rashlie presume to call their Conuenticles Churches Now if this haue place in other heresies to witt that the beeing and title of a Church is denied to them how much more in that of the Eutychians that is to saie of the Egyptians and Ethiopians which destroy not the walles the roofe and the couering onely but the foundation of the Edifice of Faith vpon the which all the other partes of the doctrine are built to witt Christ the corner stone and maintaine
Church the priuiledge to conquer Hell and to deliuer mankinde from the tyrannie and oppression of the deuill that name is become consecrate and affected to her alone and it hath bene forbidden to communicate it anie more to anie other Societie either Paga hereticall or Schismaticall Let not the Conuenticles of hereticks saith the fowrth Councell of Carthage be called Churches but Mock-Councells And the verie lawe of the Emperors That the Donations made to hereticall Conuenticles which they presume rashlie to call Churches be applied to the reuerend Catholick Church THE second that S. PAVLE writing to the Galatians and to the Corinthians calls their Societies Churches and neuerthelesse the Galatians erred in faith imbracing the circumcision with the Ghospell and the Corinthians in not beleeuing the Resurrectiō but the snare here is manifest For there is great difference betweene the doctrine of a Church and the doctrine of anie particular person which is deuided from the doctrine of the same Church The doctrine of a church is that which is held by the bodie of that Church vnder the codition whereof either expresse or tacite she receiues men into her comunion not the doctrine which euery particular mā straying fro the commo doctrine of the same church holdes against the opinions of the Bodie Now it cannot be found that the Societie of the church of the Corinthians did euer hold that the dead did not rise againe nor that she had exacted that beleefe from those that entred into her communion but onelie that amongst the Corinthians there were some that did not beleeue the resurrection of the dead If Christ saith S. PAVLE be preached to haue risen againe from the dead how is it that there are some amongst you that saie there is no resurrection of the dead And that S. PAVLE made his remonstrance in common it was to hinder them from being seduced by them which spake this language Suffer not your selues said hee to bee seduced euill words corrupt good manners But not that he supposed they beleeued it contrarywise hee exhorts them to remaine firme in that which they beleeued And therefore my Bretheren said hee be stedfast and vnmoueable And for the Galatians soe farr off was it that that error which sainct PAVL cryed out against was the doctrine of the Church of the Galatians as it was the doctrine of those which rebelled against the faith of the Church of the Galatians which doctrine sainct PAVL disputes as if all the Galatians had imbraced it not that they did doe soe but to hinder them from doeing soe as he testifies to them in these wordes I haue this confidence of you in our Lord that you will haue noe other beleefe but that he that troubles you shall beare his iudgement whosoeuer hee be And againe If a man be found in anie crime doe you which are spirituall instruct him in the spiritt of mildness And that this is the true intent of sainct PAVL sainct AVGVSTINE teacheth vs when hee writes to Vincentius Rogatist Thou might'st saie euen as well that manie of the Churches of Galatia were not when the Apostle cryed out O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you And a while after The Canonicall scriptures haue bene wont to make their reprehcnsion in such sort as it may seeme the word is addressed to all and neuerthelesse it concernes but some fewe THE third is that sainct AVGVSTINE disputing against the Donatistes writes That the Church begetts all Christians by Baptisme from whence they would inferr that all those then that are baptized as well Catholiks as hereticks are in the Church but he bringes with it expressely this distinction either in her selfe or without her selfe to shewe that the Church begetts none but Catholicks onely in her selfe as Sara begate but Isaack onely in herselfe and that the rest the Church begets without her selfe For although Ismael were not begotten in the Bodie of Sara but in the bodie of Agar yet he was in a sort begotten by Sara for as much as he was begotten by her that belonged to Sara and was Saras nuptiall right to witt by the seede of Abraham Soe then the hereticks be begotten by Baptisme out of the Church neuerthelesse it is the Church that begetts them euen out of the Church for as much as the baptisme whereby they are begotten and which those that baptise them haue carryed out of the Church belonges to the Church and is of the coniugall rightes of the church and not heresie By which meanes when they returne to the church there is noe neede that the church should baptise them againe The Church saith hee begetts all Christians by baptisme be it in her-selfe that is to saie in her bowells or without her selfe that is to is to saie of her husbands seede be it in her selfe or in the bond-woeman Whereby soe farr is hee from teaching that heretickes are in the church as contrarywise he plainelie affirmes heereby that they are out of the church For the thing wherein catholicks and the Donatists were at agreement was that hereticks were out of the church and the thing where about they disagreed was that the Donatists held that Baptisme could not be out of the church and consequently that heretickes could not haue it And catholicks contrariwise maintained that Baptisme might to be out of the church and consequently that hereticks though they were out of the church left not to haue it The Church saith sainct AVGVSTINE compared to Paradise teacheth vs that Baptisme may be had without her but the Saluation of the beatitude none can receaue or haue out of her for the floods of the fountaine of Paradise rann abouudantlie forth of it And in the Booke following What is saith hee this doctrine that an heretick is pretended to haue noe baptisme because he hath noe Church And againe It is a wonder that there are some that saie that baptisme and the Church cannot be separated and deuided the one from the other And elsewhere But of the Church and against the Church they haue holden the sacraments of Christ and as in a ciuill warr they haue fought bearing our owne Banners against vs. From whence we may discouer the impertinencie of those that conclude that because hereticall Sects haue baptisme therefore they are Churches THE fowrth 〈◊〉 is that sainct HIEROME speaking in the person of the Church saith to Hilarie a Luciferian Deacon I am a harlott but yet I am thy mother I committ adultrie with Arius and I did soe before with Praxeas 〈◊〉 Cerinthus But it shal be heereafter manifested that this is a ridiculous equiuocation by which they attribute that to S. HIEROME as spoken in his owne sence which he spake according to the sence of his aduersary that is to saie according to the sence of the hereticke against whom he disputeth For to this that some add that a lying man leaues to be trulie a man although he be not a true
that the Church was then perished for since the excellent King will haue it that the only assured marke to discerne which either of the Church which hee calls English or of ours is the true Church be it that which is the essentiall forme of the Church and that he pretends to be doctrine it is necessary that he suppose that the difference which are betweene the Church that hee calls English and ours be questions which take awaie the essentiall forme of the Church and destroy the being of a Church And by consequence that that of the one or other Societie which errs in these pointes shall bee depriued of the essentiall 〈◊〉 of a Church and destitute from the being of a Church And then if when Luther came into the world there were noe Societie neither visible nor inuisible which held that that the English Church holdes at this daie in the pointes disputed betweene her and vs it followes there was then noe Church Of the authoritie of the worke intituled imperfect CHAP. XVII The Continuance of the Kings Answere AND therefore the excellent King thinkes that he ought with soe much the more Care in so great a floud of different opinions withdrawe himselfe into the mountaines of the holie Scripture THE REPLIE WHEN Nauplius King of the Island of Euboea now called Negrepont would at the returne frō the Seige of Troy cause the fleete of the Greekes to be shipwrackt to reuenge the death of his Sonn Palamides hee sett by night torches in forme of a beacon vpon one of the mountaines of his Island at the foote whereof the Sea was full of bankes cliffes and rockes so to drawe their shipps by the hope of a safe hauen to runn hazard and perish in those shores Soe whenantient heretickes whom saint AVGVSTINE calls mountaines for Shipwracke would cause the Catholickes to make shipwracke in Faith the more their doctrines haue bene pernicious and mortall the more they haue adorned and illustrated them with texts and lampes of the scripture This appeares in the heresie of the Arrians who painted and coloured their error with more then fortie passages of the Bible and by this art attempted to call men backe from the externall and sensible markes of the Church which could not bee pretended by false ensignes by those who had them not to reduce them to the only marke of the scripture the interpretation whereof by their subtletie they made subiect to as manie deceipts as there were wordes But aboue all this is verified in the writer from whom his Maiestie borrowes this language who was one of the most passionate Champions of the Arrians For though he cites these wordes without naming the Father neuerthelesse both the termes wherein they are couched and the tracke of those who haue alleadged them before him to witt Caluin in some of the prefaces to his institution the author of the Booke of the Eucharist in the preface to his worke cannot suffer vs to doubt but that they were taken from the author of the worke intituled Imperfect falselie attributed to Sainct CHRYSOSTOME Now that this Author was not onelie an open Arrian but one of the most eager and violent Champions of the Arrians it appeares by this that he calls the Trinitie triangular impietie and the doctrine of the homousians that is to saie of those that held the Consubstantialitie of the Father and the sonne Heresie Not but that I knew well that he is sometimes alleadged euen by Catholickes with the title of saint CHRISOSTOME vnder whose name he had bene first printed at Basle But because it is one thinge to alleadge him in places where hee disputes not against the Church wherein he is excellent and aboue all in the discourse of manners and an other to alleadge him in the places where hee combates with deliberate purpose against the doctrine of the Catholicke Church of his age as he doth in that from whence the words are taken which his maiestie produceth For behold the expresse termes of the passage When you shall see the impious heresie which is the armie of Antichrist sett in the holie places of the Church then let them which are in Iudea flie into the Mountaines that is to saie let them that are in the christian Societie haue recourse to the scriptures And a little after The Lord then knowinge that so great a confusion of things should arriue in the last daies for this cause commaunds that the Christians who are in the Christian Societie being willing to receaue the stedfastnes of the true faith should haue recourse to noe other thing but to the Scriptures otherwise if they cast their eyes elsewhere they shall be scandalized and perish not discerning which is the true Church Now that by this impious heresie and by this Armie of Antichrist he intends the Catholicke Church and the communion of them which beleeue the equalitie of the Father and the sonne he plainelie shewes when he saith in the same Homilie that the great spirituall euills which haue come vpon the Church haue happened in the time of Constantine and Theodosius and that the armie of Antichrist is the heresie and the abhomination of desolation which hath since them possest the holie places of the Church that is to saie the Basilickes that Theodosius cōmaunded to be deliuered vp to the Catholickes And whē he saith in the former Homilie that the heresie of the Homousians that is to saie of those that hold Christ to be consubstantiall which his Father Fights not only against the Church of Christ but euen against the other heresies which hold not the like And in the nineteneth Homilie when hee calls the worshippers the Trinitie Those that honor the triangular impietie Whereby it appeares that this passage if so farre from giuing fauour to his Maiesties intention as contrariwise it manifestes how dangerous a thing it is to seeke to reduce the markes of the Church to the onelie doctrine drawne from the scripture by the interpretation of euerie particular person since the Arrians in the point which of all others should be most expresse in the scriptures for the catholickes to witt in the point of the diuinitie of Christ for if there be anie thing cleree in a Testament it should be the qualitie of the testator refused all the other markes of the Church and all the other waies of disputation and burnt with desire to fight by the onely texts of the Scripture disarmed from the traditions of the Church Of the vnderstanding of these words of S. Augustine to seeke the Church in the words of Christ. CHAP. XVIII The continuance of the Kings answere AND to seeke according to the Councell that S AVGVSTINE heretofore gaue to the Deuatists the Church in the Words of Christ. THE REPLIE WHEN S. AVGVSTINE said in the booke of the vnitie of the Church there is a question betweene the Donatists and vs where the Church is what shall wee thē doe shall wee seeke her
in our owne wordes or in the wordes of her head our Lord Iesus Christ I thinke wee ought rather to seeke her in his word from him that is truth and well knowes his owne Bodie And a while after I would not haue the Church demonstrated by humane instructions but by diuine or acles And againe Let vs then seeke her in the canonicall scriptures He did not intend that to seeke the Church in the scriptures betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists was to seeke the doctrine of the Church in the scriptures that is to saie to examin by the scriptures the point of doctrine which was contested betweene the Church and the Donatists but to seeke the markes and externall and visible characters of the Church in the scriptures to the end that the Church being discerned by those markes the truth of the doctrine contested might be after knowne by the disposition of the Church For the vnderstanding whereof it must be noted that there were two questions betweene the Catholickes and the Donatistes the one of the Bodie of the Church to know on what party either of the Catholickes or of them the true societie of the Church resided The other of the doctrine of the Church to witt the which they or the Catholickes held the true doctrine concerning the Baptisme of heretickes The first question then which is of the Bodie of the Church saint AVGVSTINE wills it should be iudged by the scripture alone for as much as in the precise controuersie wherein the question was which of the two societies was the Church the voice of the true Church cannot be discerned But the second question which is that of the doctrine contested betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists he would haue it decided by the onlie deposition of the Church as a faith full guardian and depositarie of the Apostolicke tradition To seeke then according to saint AVGVSTINE betweene the Catholickes and the Donatists the Church in the Scriptures was not to search the doctrine of the Church in the contentious points of Faith in the Scripture but to seeke the visible markes and notes by which the Church ought to be exteriorly discerned in the Scripture For the Donatists to proue that their Church was the true Church and not the Catholicke Church alleadged human actes and human proofes to witt that the Catholicke Church had receaued into her communion without anie expiation and purgation of preceding pennance those that had deliured the holie Bookes to be burnt and had sacrificed to the false Gods in the time of persecution and therfore that she was polluted with their contagion and was perished And then that the onely faction of Donatus which had remained pure from this contagion was the true Church And saint AVGVSTINE contrariwise saith that against all these words which were human proofes and words for if he that ordained Cecilianus had deliuered vp the holy Bookes in persecution time it was a thing to be proued by human testimonies that is to saie by actes of notaries and clerkes euen prophane the Catholickes had the wordes of Christ wherein the workes of the Church were described to witt that she ought to be visible eminent vniuersall perpetuall and that to examin the Church according to these markes it was to seeke her in the words of Christ and to examine her according to the production of the Donatists it was to seeke her in humane wordes What are saith hee our words wherein wee must not seeke her c. All that wee obiect one against an other of the deliuerie of the holie Bookes of the sacrificing to Jdolls and of the persecutions those are our wordes And a while after I would not that the Church should be demonstrated by human instructions but by diuine oracles for if the holse Scriptures haue designed the Church to be in Africa alone and in a smalle number of Roman inhabitants making their conuenticles in Rockes and mount 〈◊〉 and in the howse and territorie of a certaine Spanish Ladie then whatsoeuer records can be produced there are none but the Donatists that haue the Church If the Scripture assigne it to a little number of Mauritanians in the 〈◊〉 prouince you must goe to the Rogatists If in a smalle troupe of Bizacenians and Tripolitans prouincialls the Maximinianists haue mett with her If those of the East alone wee must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others for who can number the heresies as proper and particular of euerie particular Prouince But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonies of the Canonicall scriptures she be designed in all nations whatsoeuer they produce and whensoeuer it be produced by those that saie there is Christ if wee be 〈◊〉 let vs 〈◊〉 heare the voice of our Shepheard saying beleeue them not For euerie one of those is not to be found but this which is ouer all is to bee found in the selfe same places where the others are And therefore lett vs seeke her in the holie Canonicall scriptures The places the of the scripture where S. AVGVSTINE would haue the Donatists to seeke the Church are these In thy seede all the nations vpon the earth shal be blessed The children of the forsaken shal be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 number then those of her that hath a husband This Ghospell must be declared ouer the whole world and then the end shall bee I am with you to the consummation of ages And other such like And the arguments that he bringes to manifest the Church by the Scriptures are these The cittie of God saith he hath this for a certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is thē knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nations then that is not shee Item You haue the Church which ought to be spread ouer all and to growe till the haruest You haue the Cittie whereof hee that built it hath said the Cittie built vpon the mountaine cannot be hidd It is she then that is most euident not in anie one part of the world but ouer all And other the like But as for the point of doctrine I saie againe and I saie it boldlie that saint AVGVSTINE neuer intended either that the question of the Church betweene the Catholiques and the Donatists should be tryed by the doctrine nor that the article of the doctrine contested betweene thē should be decided by scripture but that the point of the Church should be examined by the externall and visible markes that of the externall and visible markes by the Scripture and the difference of doctrine by the reporte of the Church that is to saie by the tradition of the Apostles is to denie that in disputatiōs against other heresies whē pointes are handled which are heere esteemed to be expresselie treated of by the canonicall Scriptures but that hee often called vpon their iudgment For who doubtes but that where the Scripture is cleere
besides that antiquitie affirmes that the Apostles haue giuen manie thinges by tradition vnwritten to their disciples his maiestie himselfe testifies that he is farr frō their opinion that beleeue the vniuersall historie of the primitiue Church to be all contained in the sacred but onlie little Booke of the Actes of the Apostles Of the indefectibilitie of the Church CHAP. XXVII The continuance of the Kings answere THE King Confesseth that his Church hath separated her selfe in manie points from the faith and discipline that the Roman Bishop doth at this daie hold and defēd with might and mayne But the King and the English Church 〈◊〉 not interpret that to be a defection from the antient Catholicke saith but rather a returne to the antient Catholicke faith which in the Roman Church had bene admirablie deformed in manie kindes and a conuersion to Christ the only master of the Church THE REPLIE AND euen this confirmes our intention to know that there is at this daie noe Catholicke Church a thing directly against Gods promises or that this that wee haue is shee For there could be noe other Catholicke Church but her that was in the time of the first 〈◊〉 Councells Now shee if shee haue bene interrupted and she hath bene soe if ours which hath succeeded her haue bene wanting in faith and in vnion with Christ without which a Societie cannot be a Church the English Church which succeedes her not by an vninterrupted continuance cannot be the same Church For what Aristotle saith of Common-wealths may also be said of the Church to witt that when a common-wealth hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her being it is noe more one common wealth in number but an other common-wealth Soe if the antient Catholicke Church hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her beeing she is noe more one and not being one shee is noe more a Church for the Church is one or none And therefore the Fathers cry out that if the Church be once perished she can noe more be borne againe If in S. CYPRIANS time saith saint AVGVSTINE the Church perished from what Heauen it Donatus fallen from what Sea came hee forth what earth hath sprunge him vp For to saie that the English Church accounts not her separation from the faith and from the discipline of the Pope a defection from the antient Catholicke faith but a returne to the antient Catholicke faith and a conuersion to Christ is not the question viz. whether the English Church be conuerted to the antient Catholicke Faith For as it hath bene aboue shewed the name of catholicke is not a name of simple beleefe but of cōmunion By meanes whereof the English Church might haue all Faith euen to the remouing of mountaines yet if she communicated not with the Catholicke Church she could neither obtaine the title of Catholicke nor the reward of life eternall but should be schismaticall and excluded from saluation And therefore the state of the question in this which is presented is not whether the English Church be return'd to the true faith but whether the Church which possesseth at this daie the name of the Catholicke Church hath lost the being of the Catholicke Church which she cannot haue done if in things important to saluation and constructiue or destructiue to the being of a Church she haue not varied from that of the time of the fowre first Councells which wee on both sides confesse to haue bene the true Church that is to saie if she haue not taken awaie from the practise of the Church of those ages some thing necessarie to saluation and without which saluation cannot be obtained or if she haue not added to the practise of that Church something repugnant to saluation and with which life eternall cannot be obtained From whence it appeares that the office of the English Church in this question is to shew not that she hath returned to the ancient Faith which would alwaies exact the necessitie of a preceding dispute to witt that the Church from whence she went out hath diuerted her selfe from it for the proofe of the auersion should precede the proofe of reuersion but that the Church which wee at this daie intitle Catholicke hath soe diuerted her selfe from the faith of the Church of the time of the fowre first Councells which both they and wee hold to haue bene the true Church as she hath lost being and the iust title of a Church and that saluation can noe more be obtained in her And our office is contrariwise to maintaine that the Church which is at this daie differs not in anie thinge that can destroy saluation and make her loose the beeing and the title of a true Church from the ancient Catholicke Church and that all the points that our Aduersaries obiect against vs as such and for which they take occasion to separate themselues from vs vnder pretence that in our communion Saluation cannot be obtained haue bene holden by the ancient Church Of the sense wherein the Fathers haue intended that their doctrine had bene holden from the beginning CHAP. XXVIII The continuance of the Kinges answere AND therefore if anie one in consequence of this obseruation Will inferr from thence that the English Church because she reiects some of the decrees of the Roman Church is departed from the antient Catholicke Church the King Will not graunt him that till hee haue first proued by solid reasons that all things that the Roman teach haue bene approued from the beginning and ordained by the antient Catholicke Church And that noe man can doe this now nor in the time to come at the least that till nowe noe bodie hath done it is a thing é as certaine to the king and to the Prelats of the English Church as that the Sunn shines à t noone daies THE REPLIE NEITHER is it the question as I haue alreadie manie times said whether the English Church haue departed from the doctrine of the antient Catholicke Church but whether our Church be soe farr strayed from the doctrine of the antient Church as she can noe more be reputed one felfe same Church with the antient Church and that we can noe more communicate with her without losse of Saluation For if she be still the same Church and that amongst the conditions vnder the obligation whereof her communion is participated there be noe doctrine nor custome which is opposite to Saluation it is certaine that out of her Societie though one should haue Faith sufficient to remoue mountaines yet they can neither possessé the Saluation nor title of the Catholicke Church Neither is it the question to knowe whether all thinges that the Roman Church holdes and principallie those which she holdes to be necessary for Saluation haue bene holden by antiquitie and in this qualitie which would be a longe and thornie disputation because of the diuersitie of the acceptions of the word necessarie vnder the ambiguitie whereof there would alwaies remaine a thousand cauills and
shiftes But whether all thinges that they obiect to vs as repugnant to saluation and as occasions sufficient to cause separation from our communion haue bene holden by the Catholicke Church from the time of the first fowre Councells For in case they haue bene so it is cleere that it is sacriledge in them to separate themselues for their occasion from our communion Not but that if this point were once cleered it would be easier for vs then his maiestie conceaues to proue that all thinges that the moderne Catholicke Church holdes as necessary to saluation haue bene holden for such and in the same ranke of necessitie by the antient Catholicke Church in the time of the first fowre Councells but because the lawes of disputation doe not permitt vs to ingage our selues to the triall of this point before the cleering of the other for feare of goeing out of the listes of the question and of confounding the order 〈◊〉 the conference For whereas his Maiestie adds that they haue bene approued ordained frō the beginning it hath bene manifested in the third obseruation of our Epistle that to conuince that a thing haue had place from first ages it is sufficient because of the fowre writinges of of that date that persecutions haue suffered to come downe to vs to proue that it hath bene holden by the Church of the first fowre Councells and that the Fathers that then liued testifie to haue receiued it not as a thinge of a newe institution but as a thing deriued to them by an vninterrupted succession from the age of the Apostles to the Church of their time and that none of the preceding authors saie the contrary His Maiesties owne selfe being agreed with vs in this as hath often alreadie bene repeated that the only little Booke of the Acts of the Apostles is verie farr from contayning all the historie of the primitiue Church Of the exceptions that the Kinge produceth to shewe that he hath not separated himselfe from the Church CHAP. XXIX The continuance of the Kings answere FInallie the King adds that it is a great crime to separate ones selfe from the Church but that he hath anie thing common with that crime either hee or his Churchh ee 〈◊〉 denes for saith his maiestie wee fly not but we are driuen away THE REPLIE AND why then doe Ministers soe earnestly exhort their hearers rather to indure all kindes of death then to communicate in our Synaxes And why then when they would dehort those of their partie from marrying with Catholickes doe they alleadge those words of sainct PAVL What communion is there of the faithfull with an Infidell And ioyne also in their prayers the Turkes Papists and other Infidells And why then doth his maiestie alleadge for a reason not to communicate with vs these words of the reuelation Goe forth of Babilon my people for feare of communicating with her sinns For to offer to communicate with vs when wee shall haue corrected those thinges that our Aduersaries pretend to haue bene deformed in our Church who sees not that that is not to offer to returne to vs but to desire that wee should returne to them And what sect hath there bene in the world that hath not offered to communicate with the Catholicke Church prouided that the Catholicke Church would renounce those pointes for which they were at difference that is to saie soe she would loose the condition of being the Catholicke Church Of the demaunds made for Reformations since the fiue last ages Chapt. XXX The continuance of the Kings Answere AND your illustrious dignitie knowes as he that is well informed thereof how manie and how great personages in pietie and doctrine haue desired at least for this last fiue hundred yeares the reformation of the Church in the head and in the members How manie greuous complaints of good kinges and princes haue there bene heard deploring the estate of the Church in their ages But what hath it auailed For wee see not that hitherto there hath bene anie one of those thinges corrected which were esteemed before all others to bee fitt for correction THE REPLIE THOSE demaundes of reformation in the head and in the members propounded before the last deuisiōs of the Church haue bene demaundes of reformation not in the doctrine of Faith and of the sacraments or vniuersall ceremonies of the Church but in manners and in the practise of ecclesiasticall discipline which euen these words of reformation both in the head and members principallie vsed in the time of the Councells of Constance and of Basile testifie Now as there is great difference betweene complayning of the personall practise of Iustice and of the exercise of the Officers of a Kingdome and desiring the reformation thereof and betweene complayning of the lawes ordinances and constitutions of the state soe there is great difference betweene complayning of the conuersation and manners of Ecclesiasticall persons betweene complayning of the doctrine and institutions of the Church For when the corruption to speake by hypothesis is in the doctrine or in the sacraments or vniuersall ceremonies of the Church none can remaine in the communion of the Church without participating in that contagion but when it is in the manners and in the practise of discipline those onely that committ the faultes are culpable therein and not the rest who tolerate them as sainct AVGVSTINE saith for the good of vnitie that which they detest for the good of equitie And to whom the more frequent and fowle such scandalls are by soe much the more is the meritt of their perseuerance in the communion of the Church and the martir-dome of their patience as sainct AVGVSTINE calls it For this only Sacrifice of choosing rather to support the remayning in communion with such persons then to rent the coate of Christ and to separate themselues from his Church to auoid their Societie is the most pleasing Sacrifice that can be offered vp to God Now the Church hath alwaies not only since the last ages but from all antiquitie bene filled with such like complaints For while she shall remaine in this world she shall alwaies singe this verse of the Canticle I am black but I am louelie That is to saie black in manners 〈◊〉 louelie in doctrine our Lord hauing deferred till his second Coming the making her glorious and without sport And not only so but euerie one in his time hath alwaies beleeued himselfe to bee in the worst age of the Church for manners and for the practise of discipline because they sawe the euills of their owne time and did but heare the historie of other times whereof the relation doth not soe liuely touch the eares as the sight touches the eyes But neuerthelesse neither the euill hath alwaies gone on increasing nor the good alwaies diminishing but according to the diuersitie of the ages the Church hath bene either more or lesse pure in manners For as for those that in the
himselfe confest in these wordes The Apostles saith hee in truth haue prescribed nothing of this but this Custome ought to be beleeued to haue taken originall from their tradition as there are manie things that the vniuersall Church obserueth which art with good reason beleeued to haue bene giuen by the Apostles although they be not in writing Was this to pretend to seperate themselues from the Church out of iollitie of hart and without anie cause and neither to blame the faith nor discipline of the Church Of the authoritie of the rest of the Christian people which denied to the Church the title of Catholick Chapt. XXXII The continuance of the Kings Answere THE English haue separated themselues by a cruell necessitie from that Church that infinite Christian people that I may speake as modestly as I possiblie can doe not 〈◊〉 to be the true vniuersall Church THE REPLIE THat the English Church hath bene iustly forced by a cruell necessitie to depart from the Catholicke Church wherein alone the stocke of vnitie doth reside as our very aduersaries dare not saie that the bodie of Catholicke vnitie was to be found in anie other Societie when the English nation deuided themselues from her saint AGVSTINE will not avow who saith that there is no iust necessitie to deuide vnitie And lesse S. DIONISIVS of Alexandria who was much antienter then saint AVGVSTINE who writes Thou oughtest rather to suffer all kinds of death then to deuide the Church of Christ. For whereas his maiestie adds that an infinite number of Christian people doe not grant her to bee the true vniuersall Catholicke Church if these people can shew that there was an other to whom this title belonged when Luther came into the world wee will confesse her not to be soe but if it be not in their power not only to shewe but to faine an other then this must be shee For the Catholicke Church is perpetuall and their contradiction that are departed from her can not raise anie doubt of her title more then the contradiction of the antient Arrians and other hereticks could cause the antient Catholicke Church to loose this title For in that only that they haue departed from her and cannot shew that she hath departed from anie of all the other Societies which are in being they testifie that she only is the true Catholicke Church that is to saie the true stocke and originall roote of the Church from whom all others by their Schismes and diuisions are departed and gone forth Of the testimonies of our writers CHAP. XXXIII The continuance of the King answere AND that maniē of your writers themselues haue a longe while agoe ingeniousliē confessed to haue much varied from the antient in the dogm'as and in the forme of discipline and to haue patched and tacked together manie new thinges to the old manie euill thinges to the good THE REPLIE THOSE writers haue bene such as I haue aboue described as Erasmus Cassander and others who partly in presumption and partlie in ignorance of antiquitie and partlie to gratifie those Princes in whose fauour they haue taken penn in hand haue written thinges which would confound their faces if they were to maintaine them before anie that were versed of purpose in the studie of Antiquitie Of the begging of the principle contained in this hypothesis CHAPT XXXIV The continuance of the Kings answere WHICH is alreadie so knowne to all the world as it is noe longer in thé power of anie to denie it or to be ignorant of it THE REPLIE THIS is to take for a principle of disputation that which is the subiect of the controuersie for not only all Catholickes but also all the Christian Societies in the world more antient then the authors of this diuision and who haue noe interest neither for the one part nor for the other and if they had anie would haue it rather against the Church from which they are separated then for her doe maintaine that all the principall pointes that the pretended reformers calumniate in the Roman Church are of the true faith and of the true discipline of the antient Catholicke Church Of the temporall causes of the separation of England CHAP. XXXV The Continuance of the Kings Answere ADD to this that the Church of England had found the yoake of the Roman Bondage so hard vpō her for some ages past being incrediblie tormented frō daie to day with new vexations oppressions and vnheard of exactions as 〈◊〉 only cause before iust iudges may seeme to be able to free her from suspition of Schisme and as S. AVGVSTINE saith speaking of the Donatists wicked dismembring For sur ely the English haue not separarated themselues for iollitie of heart from brotherly charitie as the 〈◊〉 did THE REPLIE IF it may please your maiestie to call againe to memorie the historie of the Schisme of England you will finde that all those thinges which were alleadged for pretence of the Churches diuision haue noe waie bene the cause thereof contrariwlse that the English Church was more flourishing when this separation happened and the King of England and his clergie more affectionate to maintaine the Faith and communion of the Roman Church then euer they had bene before as appeares by the Booke that he made in defence of the Church against Luther the originall whereof he sent to Rome with these verses such as they are addressed to Pape Leo written with his owne hand Harrie the English King at once doth recommend This worke Leo to thee which publick proofe shall lend To shew which way his faith and friendship both doe bend But that it was the amorous passion of that King who to satisfie the appetite which transported him would cause a iust mariage to be broken and marrie her that he loued his first lawfull wife and by whom he had issue being yet liuing to which the Pope conceaued that he could not with a safe conscience giue consent This was the true and onely cause of all this Iliad of euills From hence gusht all these teares Of the comparison of the English Church with the Iudaicall CHAP. XXXVI The continuance of the Kings answere NOT for feare of the 〈◊〉 which was eminent but did not yet presse them like the tenn tribes of the people of the Iewes but after hauing suffered manie ages after the 〈◊〉 of vnspeakable greeuances they haue finallie shaken from their shoulders that insupportable burthen which neither their strength was longer able to beare nor would their conscience permitt them to doe it THE REPLIE HERE I might content myself with saying that what was ordained and approued by God in the separation of the ten tribes of Israell from the Kingdome of Iuda was the only di uision of State and not that of Religion For God as saint AVGFSTINE saith commaunds neither Schisme nor heresie And by consequence what pretence soeuer is added of present and not future euill there can be noe consequence