of them What hapned in the Low Countries where Philip II. by fire and sword and great violence for the establishing of the Spanish Inquisition provoked the People in their own defence to undertake that long and bloudy War which cost him seven Provinces Thuanus What was done in France against the two Henries by that rebellious League which the Pope abetted and which undertook to set up his authority Inquisition and Tridentine Council These two memorable attempts in the behalf of Papal Inquisition against Heretical pravity have shed so much Christian bloud that nothing but that very power and Tribunal they were designed to promote have ever made greater effusions of it And I am of opinion that were all things duly considered and compared it would clearly appear that there have been as great slaughters outrages inhumanities committed as many Martyrs made by Rome Papist since Dominic and the Inquisition appeared as was done by Rome Pagan in the Ten Persecutions for three hundred years Rev. xvii 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration SECT II. Of the prohibiting of Books and the Indices expurgatorii AMong the many priviledges of the Inquisitors it is none of the least that the Censure of Books belongs to them whereever they have a Tribunal by which means they keep the People in as much ignorance as they please and furnish the learned with none but such Books as tend to establish the Roman Faith and their own Authority For these two there being in those Popish Countries so very many Books so fierce and positive and none appearing to contradict them it is no wonder if persons of all ranks lie under great invincible prejudices in those Points that are disputed betwixt us and the Church of Rome whether such as concern the Faith or the Power of the Magistrates or those common Rights of humanity which belong to all mankind where we and our opinions are represented as very monstrous and pernicious and there are publick Schools and Lectures of cruelty against us and a great part of the learning is to know the accurate and established methods of destroying Hereticks and men are acquainted with nothing but what makes for the Papal Power and Dominion and these things are inculcated and taught with great assiduity and great industry and a very strict watch is had against all Persons Books or Opinions that could any ways thwart or oppose those received Maxims it must needs have a mighty influence upon the minds and persuasions of men The Officers of the Inquisition who have nothing else to do are so numerous powerful inquisitive and diligent that it is matter of the greatest danger and difficulty to print or import any Books that should savour of what they call Heresie or maintain the just rights of Temporal Princes against the Spiritual Monarch For this last saith the Judicious Padre Paolo When a Potentate hath not the favour of him that commands in Ecclesiastical causes Religion is made a pretext to oppress him Of which he gives instances Chap. 1. and amongst them that when the Pope was fallen out with the Venetians any Books that came out in Favour of the Republick were forbidden by the Papal Inquisitions under colour of Heresie It is but giving any thing hard and terrible names and forbidding all things that can be said in the defence of it and then it will be easie to impose on the People Relating to this I shall transcribe out of the last mentioned Author part of Chap. 29. The matter of Books seems to be a thing of small moment because it treats of words but through these words come opinions into the world which cause partialities Seditions and finally Wars they are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts of armed men By forbidding Books which at Rome are not liked of although they be good and godly because they maintain Temporal Power great wrong is done to Sovereign Princes to such especially as would rule with the Arts of Peace who use Books as a chief Instrument to cause people to believe as a firm truth that the Prince is Ordained by God and Ruleth with Divine Authority and the Subject consequently in Conscience is bound to obey him and not doing it offendeth God because that the Prince by the Law of God is above every person that is within his Dominions and may lay burthens on mens Estates as publick necessities require Where these things which are most true are believed a State may easily be governed but where contrary opinions are held great disorders must needs happen But as there was always in Gods Church those who made use of Religion for worldly ends so the number of them is more full These under a spiritual pretence but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth would free themselves of the obedience due unto the Prince and take away the love and reverence due to him by the people to draw it to themselves To bring it to pass they have newly invented a Doctrine which talks of nothing but Ecclesiastical greatness liberty immunity and jurisdiction This Doctrine was unheard of until about the year 1300. Neither is there any Book concerning it before this time then did they begin to write of it scatteringly in some Books but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. After this time the number encreased a little but it was tolerable After the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing as they used before of the Mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Creation of the World and other Mysteries of the belief and there is nothing Printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical and such Books are not Printed by small numbers but by thousands Those people which have learning can read nothing else the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine neither need they any other Learning to be approved of Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally that Princes and Magistrates are human Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the publick Revenues doth not bind unto sin but only unto punishment And contrariwise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons ought to be taken for a divine Precept and binds the Conscience and this Doctrine is perhaps the cause of all the inconveniences which are felt in this Age. Here we may see as I noted before whence the disloyal and factious Principles of our Dissenters come and by whose instigation they likely have been moved to act as they have done Our Author adds That as they condemn and persecute Books that come out in the
Inquisition THe origin of the Inquisition if we may believe Lud A Paramo is as ancient as the World He himself in Sicily for many years was imployed about the Holy Office A Paramo de orig c. Matriti 1598. as they commonly call the Inquisition and was much in love with it And he in good earnest tells us that God was the first Inquisitor who when our first Parents were fell into Heresie came and made Inquisition about it But finding them disposed to repent mitigated their punishment and had them not rack'd and burn'd but only deprived them of their estates casting them out of Paradise Sent them as it were to the Gallies adjudging them to hard labour and sorrow put upon them a kind of San benit making them Coats of skins All which merciful proceedings the Holy Inquisitors do now imitate towards Penitents Afterwards he tells us the Patriarchs were appointed Judges in the case of Heresie and amongst them he puts Abraham whom he calls praeclarum Inquisitorem a famous Inquisitor though when the Jews sought to kill our blessed Saviour he told them they could not be his Children for that did not Abraham Joh. 8. But however as he goeth on the Prophets afterwards succeeded in the office and at last it came to our blessed Lord who is now the Head of the Roman Inquisition but delegated it to St. Peter from whom the Pope hath it This my Author tells us in very good earnest and I make no doubt believed it But the true origin of the Inquisition by delegation from the Pope as it is now managed was about the year 1216. when Pope Innocent III. appointed St. Dominic to be the first Inquisitor to repress the growing Heresie of the Albigenses Before that the Bishops were the sole Judges in the ease of Heresie And though before Dominic there had been by the power or Instigation of several Popes many Persecutions raised against such as dissented from the Church of Rome and many Princes and Bishops by interest or inclination had been very severe against them yet that was not enough to uphold the Roman Errors and Tyranny some Princes did favour the Reputed Hereticks some Bishops were tainted and most of them too remiss they generally would not exercise such cruelties over their own Sheep as were requisite to secure the Papal Interest And the Popes who were glad to depress them as much as they could and draw all their power to themselves found it necessary and expedient to appoint Commissioners by their own Authority who should depend wholly upon themselves to punish and exterminate all that would not submit to bear the Roman Yoak These they called Inquisitors and as I said Dominic was the first Before him indeed Charles the Great anno 805. had appointed Judges to punish such as turned Heathen after they had professed Christianity And they put many to death in those furthest parts of the Belgick Provinces which that Emperour conquered But that lasted not long and differed much from the now-Inquisition Ildefonsus also a Spanish King permitted by a publick Edict anno 1154. to persecute the Waldenses throughout his Dominions Praeter tamen laesionem mortis aut membrorum detruncationem yet so as that they should be neither maimed nor killed as A Paramo himself relates it But all this comes very short of the Inquisition and neither came from the same Authority nor proceeded by the same Methods so that still it remains true as my Authors have it that Pope Innocent III. was he that erected the Holy Tribunal as they call their Hellish Barbarities against poor Christians That Pope was he who first made Transubstantiation an Article of Faith in a Council he called at Lateran at Rome or rather under the name of it as Matthew Paris relates who gives such an account of this Pope as also Platina as makes him a worthy Inventor of such a device as is the Holy Inquisition His Pride Ambition and Covetousness were in extreme as those Authors have it and what his Kinsman and Successor Gregory IX records of him in his Decretals sufficiently detects his cruelty and proves against those Popish Traitors who of late have denied it dying That the Church of Rome maintains and teacheth the most bloudy and traiterous Principles though possibly some particular persons in it may not approve them SECT I. Of Dominic the first Inquisitor THis Innocent III. the year after his Lateran Council anno 1216. authorized St. Dominie to be his Inquisitor at Tholosa where he had caused the Croisadoes to be preached against the Albigenses as also in the Neighbouring places and in Lombardy for many years before having granted the same Priviledges and Indulgences to such as should Arm against those Hereticks and destroy them as to those that went to the Holy Land as is to be seen in the foresaid Council and Decretals cited by Grotserus the Jesuit in his Edict of Reinerius His verbis Catholici qui crucis assumpto charactere ad Haereticorum exterminium se accinxerint illa gaudeant indulgentia illoque sancto privilegio sint muniti quae accedentibus in sanctae Terrae subsidium conceduntur Dominic himself in preaching and prosecuting these persecutions which destroyed many thousands was very busie and very zealous He was born in Spain anno 1170. and his Mother Johanna Daza sometime before she brought him forth dreamed that she was big of a Whelp A Paramo p. 95. who when born should awake and terrifie all the world with barking and set it all in a flame with a burning torch which he carried in his mouth which the event did prove a very ominous dream For he as many more since got his Saintship by teaching and exercising most inhumane cruelties against such as would not approve the corruptions of the Church of Rome He being yet but young was by the interest of his Father Felice de Gusman made one of the Canons of Osma And soon after when the Bishop of St. See was sent Embassador into France by Alfonsus King of Castile Dominic accompanied him and passing thorow Tholosa found that great and stately City and the parts adjoyning almost all infected with the Heresie as they count it of the Albigenses which mightily kindled the zeal of this great Roman Champion and set him to barking and kindling with his breath as his Mother had dreamed that terrible fire which burnt so long and so fiercely Tom. 3. p. 613. St. Antoninus saith that a very bright Star was seen upon his forehead when he was asleep And that he raised to life again nine persons three whilst he lived and six after his desease so brave a thing it is to be a zealous propagator of the Roman Faith which Faith he asserted as A Paramo saith by this notable Miracle Having long disputed in vain he got two Books in his hands one of them written by the Hereticks containing their Errors another writ by himself containing the Doctrines of the Roman
Sentences of all Judges and Magistrates that do not take such an Oath are void and insignificant The Civil Magistrates as we see are made Officers of the Holy Tribunal even in Venice Padre Paolo tells us c. 6. the Inquisitors would oblige the Assistants who represent the State to swear secrecy to them making it a great Case of Conscience to reveal any of their proceedings without their leave and backing it with this Maxim Checause di fede evono restarappo i Giudici◠della fede That matters that concern the Faith must remain with the Judges of the Faith SECT I. Some Priviledges of the Inquisitors and Cruelties committed or occasioned by it INquisitors are called Defensores fidei Ecclesiae ad gloriam Dei augmentum fidei deputati Defensors of the Faith of the Church deputed for the glory of God and the increase of holy Faith They have power at any time to grant Indulgences of forty days and of three years to them who any ways are assistants against Hereticks They themselves have granted by three Popes as Aimericus in his Directorium tells us Plenary Indulgences and a full Pardon of all their sins both living and dying So that if they are exorbitant in the use of their power and chance to wound their Consciences here is a sure Plaister near at hand They being accountable to none but to the Pope whose Delegats they are and having power to proceed against all sorts of persons even against the Secular and Regular Clergy notwithstanding all exemptions as Villa-Diego cites the Canon Law Pro crimine Haeresis possunt procedere contra omnes etiam exemptos c. have therefore a mighty influence over all Confessors and by their means over all people who either living or dying are so awed by them that can give or deny Absolution that where the Inquisition prevails the Popes Edicts are of more force than any Civil Laws or Evangelical Precepts Padre Paolo chap. 26. gives an instance of it very observable And A Paramo p. 623 c. saith that in their Visitations when the Inquisitors publish their Edict of Justice they command all Confessors to make what inquiries they please and forbid them to absolve any penitents from any thing that concerns Heresie And they enjoyn all under severe penalties to declare who they are that have or have read any Bibles in the Vulgar Tongue or any Heretical Books or have revealed any secret of the Inquisition or spoken any thing against it or not obeyed their Injunctions Which makes their Dominion more formidable and absolute than that of Turkish Emperours We have seen before how they have a numerous train of armed men who have power always and in all places to wear all sorts of Weapons and are devoted to their service and obedience Now these men as well as their Masters are sacred and inviolable as appears by the fore-mentioned Bull of Pius V. But Leo X. had before that anno 1515. ordered that whoever should kill beat or strike any of them should be delivered up to the Secular Power to be burnt as a Heretick It would be endless to rehearse all their priviledges and powers which make the Tribunal of a few in outward appearance contemptible Friers higher more firm more irresistible and dreadful than that of any Potentate upon earth Their Mystick Coat of Arms represents much of this as some make it out very ingeniously A green Cross in Field Sable on the right side a green Olive branch on the left a naked glittering Sword and a Brier round the Cross this Motto Exurge Domine judica causam tuam which is ver 23. of Psal 74. But Torrents of Bloud and devouring Flames had been more proper to represent what use they make of their might Out of their own Writings and other Authors since the time of Ferdinand and Isabella a man might gather a dismal Catalogue of men of Fame Learning and Piety whom they have by various torments murthered in several Kingdoms for being Hereticks besides Millions known only to themselves whom they have likewise destroyed A Paramo tells us of more than thirty thousand burnt in Sicily in less than 150. years under pretence of being Magicians That in Portugal Didacus de Sylva being supreme Inquisitor so many and some even of the principal men were miserably harassed imprisoned bound tortured condemned that about the year 1535. the King was mightily affected with pity and with much ado stopt and reversed those bloudy proceedings And the same Author cites Hieronimus Zurita to witness that in a few years more than one hundred thousand in Sevil alone were several ways put to death and that more than five thousand houses remained empty for a great while But it would no doubt exceed much all other accounts and be the astonishment of the world if the Registers of the Inquisition for the two last hundred years should come to publick view and we could see in them the numbers of men they have slain and the sorts of tortures they have made them endure that were or were suspected to be such Hereticks as we Thuanus in l. 3. giving an account of the great prevalency of the Lutheran Doctrine even in Italy and how the Tyranny of the Inquisition was let loose upon all that but looked towards it gives this short account of that Holy Tribunal Ejus horror odium ingens augebat horrorem perversa praepostera judiciorum forma quae contra naturalem aequitatem omnem legitimum ordinem in jurisdictione illa explicanda observatur tum etiam immanitas tormentorum quibus plerunque contra veritatem quicquid delegatis judicibus libebat à miseris innocentibus reis ut se cruciatibus eximerent per vim extorquebatur That is That it is the object of the greatest dread and hatred because the method of its proceedings is against all Order and Justice and natural Equity and because by direful unnatural tortures the Judges make innocent Criminals suffer and say what they please I know there have been Massacres and bloudy Executions in many places where there is no Inquisition In France many Towns of the poor Waldenses were destroyed and the Inhabitants Men Women and Children most barbarously murthered Thuan. l. 6. The Parisian St. Bartholomeo some years after is also sadly remarkable what hapned since here and elsewhere upon the same account cannot be forgotten The Jesuit Strada l. 2. saith that besides those that suffered under Queen Mary the severities she used to purge this Kingdom of Heresie drove away no less than thirty thousand persons out of it How many in lesser numbers endured great persecutions and died at the the Stake for many years in most places of Europe where the Popish Religion and Power had the prevalency is known only to that God who hears the voice of Innocent bloud and is the Revenger of it though many Authors have transmitted to Posterity large memorials of those cruelties some in detestation some in commendation
behalf of Kingly power so they geld the Books of ancient Authors by new Printing them and taking out of them all that which might serve for Temporal Authority What he saith of Books that concern the Government is most true also of them that concern their Religion or new Creed Not one Book Ancient or Modern is suffered to speak one syllable against any thing that the Church of Rome doth teach or practise though they be such as are acknowledged even by learned men of their Communion to be corrupt or superstitious And Book that might open the eyes of the People is without fail either prohibited or gelded Even the Holy Bible as a dangerous Book that favours Hereticks is streightly forbidden the People as we have seen before in the severe Edict of the Inquisitors There are now great variety of those Indices or Catalogues of Books forbidden or of things to be taken out of them Every year likely their comes out one commanded to be admitted and obeyed in all the Christian world Where there are Inquisitors those Indices are sent to them who enjoyn all Confessors to take care about them in their confessing and absolving their Penitents And by this means they not only keep from the people all instructive good Books but they so mangle and alter those Books which they cannot keep out of their hands that at present in reading of a Book a man can no more find what the Authors meaning was but only what is the meaning of the Court of Rome who hath altered every thing as famous Padre Paolo complains and shews at large In those Indices published first by Junius and afterwards even by authority and licence we have this acknowledgment speaking of Bertrams Book In old Catholick Writers we suffer many Errors and extenuate and excuse them and by some device we feign some convenient sense when they are opposed to us Excogitato Commento sensum iis affingimus And we have these Corrections in Indices Text or Marginal Notes of several Authors which were to be purged and left out in the next Editions as being heretical or dangerous Doctrines Deus solus adorandus God alone is to be worshipped Alienis meritis operibus nemo juvatur No man is benefited by the merits or good works of another Habitat Jesus per fidem in cordibus nostris Christ dwelleth in our hearts by faith Credens Christo non morietur in aeternum He that believeth in Christ shall not die eternally Justus coram Deo nemo No man is just before God Vxorem habeat unusquisque confitendo Deo peccata non homini sine scriptura divina nihil asserendum Sancta Dei Ecclesia creaturam non adorat The Holy Church of God worships no Image A Deo solo omnia petenda every thing is to be demanded of God alone by Prayer These and many the like some whereof are in the Authors themselves and some in holy Writ expresly yet are to be blotted out as not agreeing with Roman Catholicism Padre Paolo observes that they not only take away what they like not but that they also add what makes for their purpose I am sure by the Instructions of Clement VIII if they be duly observed Books that pass through the hands of the Inquisition must become as correct and infallible as his Holiness himself He directs and enjonys the Inquisitors and those whom they should appoint to repurge Authors that want it ann 1596. Qui negotium susceperit corrigendi atque expurgandi circumspicere attente notare debet non solum quae in cursu operis manifeste se offerunt sed si quae in scholiis in summariis in marginibus in indicibus librorum in praefationibus aut Epistolis dedicatoriis tanquam in insidiis delitescunt That is That they that undertake the work must not only look foreright but round about on all sides that no Bugbears lurk and lie in ambush in any corner in Annotations Summaries Margins in the Epistles Dedicatory Prefaces or Tables And these are some of the things which he saith want a purgation of Ink. Positiones erroneae schismaticae haereticae haeresim sapientes quae contra sacramentorum ritus ceremonias contra receptum usum consuetudinem sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae novitatem aliquam inducunt Prophanae etiam novitates vocum ab haereticis excogitatae ad fallendum introductae Verba dubia ambigua quae legentium animos à recto Catholicoque sensu ad nefarias opiniones adducere possunt Verba sacrae scripturae non fideliter prolata vel à pravis haereticorum versionibus deprompta nisi forte offerentur ad eosdem Haereticos impugnandos propriis telis jugulandos convincendos Expungi etiam oportet verba scripturae sacrae quae ad sensum detorquentur abhorrentem ab unanimi sententia Catholicorum doctorum itemque Epithet a honorifica omnia in laudem Haereticorum dicta deleantur Expungendae sunt etiam propositiones quae sunt contra libertatem immunitatem jurisdictionem Ecclesiasticam Explodantur exempla quae Ecclesiasticos ritus Religiosorum ordines statum dignitatem personas laedunt violant Positions heretical that have a smack of Heresie erroneous schismatical whatever is introductive of any novelty repugnant to those Rites and Ceremonies that are used about the Sacraments or to any of the customs and usages of the holy Roman Church Also new expressions and ways of speaking invented by Hereticks to deceive others And all such doubtful and ambiguous words as may draw the minds of Readers from the right Catholick sense to naughty opinions Words of Holy Writ not well rendred or taken from heretical versions except they be intended to serve against Hereticks to cut their throats with their own weapons Also those sacred Scriptures that are wrested to a sense differing from the unanimous consent of Roman Doctors be blotted out All honourable Epithetes also and whatever is said in praise of any Hereticks must be taken away As likewise those Propositions which are any ways contrary to the Ecclesiastical liberties immunities and jurisdictions And let nothing remain that may hurt or violate Ecclesiastical Rites Religious Orders or Persons or their state and dignities Heretical pravity must needs be mighty stubborn and incurable in those Authors that will not be purged and made sound Roman Catholicks by these and the like Prescriptions of which there are good store made since by other Popes Whereby we may see how we are to trust the faith and ingenuity of the infallible Church and what credit is to be given to Writers of that Communion when they treat of any matters that concern Hereticks Now in the Rules of the Sacred Congregation anno 1667. published by the Authority of Pope Alexander VII the former Injunctions are confirmed and they expresly set down in the Index of prohibited Books Biblia vulgari quocunque idiomate conscripta All Versions of the Bible in any vulgar tongue and in the Rules