meaning Nomen non facit Episcopum sed vita c. It is not the Name but the Life that makes a Bishop If a Man have the Name of a Prelate and does not answer the reason thereof in sincerity of Doctrine and integrity of Life but live scandalously in open Sin he is but a Nomine-tenus Sacerdos A Bishop or Priest in Name not in Truth Yet still Wickliff did not deny but that such an ones Ministerial Acts were valid for so in the same Treatise p. 138. he saith Unless the Christian Priest be united unto Christ by Grace Christ cannot be his Saviour Nec sine falsitate dicit verba Sacramentalia Nor can he pronounce the Sacramental words without Lying Licet prosint Capacibus The notwithstanding they are available so far that the worthy Receiver is thereby nothing hinder'd from partaking of the Grace signified Obj. 3. They pretend that Wickliff maintain'd That it was not lawful for any Ecclesiastical persons to have any Temporal Possessions or property in any thing Answ This is falsly imputed to him he only tax'd the Abuses of the Revenues given to so many Abbies Priories and Monasteries tending only to Superstition and the keeping so many Drones in idleness And therefore he was of opinion That our Kings might dispossess them thereof and give them Genti facienti Justitiam to good and godly Uses The Poverty he exhorted to was no other than that which St. Paul recommends viz. Having Food and Rayment therewith to be content He did not debar Ministers from actual having but from Covetous affecting the things of this World which are to be Renounc'd saith he Per Cogitationem Affectum in the Mind and the Affections Obj. 4. They charge him with asserting That God ought to obey the Devil Answ This is so senseless and improbable a Slander that no Man in his Wits can believe it And on the quite contrary Wickliff in his Commentary on Psal 112. Expresly affirms That the Devil can do nothing without God's permission Obj. 5. Well but if they cannot fix Blasphemy upon him they will charge him with Treason This is a frequent Stratagem of the Devils and his Instruments If thou suffer this Man thou art not Cesar ' s Friend said the Jews of old not that they cared for Cesar but only to gratifie their own Revenge Thus the Papists charge Wickliff as a Teacher of Sedition and an opposer of Magistrates and that if a Civil Magistrate be in a mortal Sin he is no longer to be obey'd Answ There is much craft and malice but very little truth and no reason for this Slander Wickliff indeed in several of his Works admonisheth the King and all other inferiour Officers and Magistrates that he beareth not the Sword in vain nor hath his Office for nought but to discharge well and truly the part and Office of a King by seeing wholsom Laws duly executed and Justice impartially administer'd And tells him That if he be defective in such his Duty by suffering the Sword of Justice to rust in its Scabard and his People to perish for want of good Governance then he is not properly and truly a King that is in effect and operation for so the words must necessarily be understood being spoken by way of Exhortation But otherwise so far was Wickliff from mutinying himself or persuading others to any act that was Rebellious that never any Man in those times did so stoutly assert the King's Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Civil against all usurped foreign Jurisdiction for which amongst many others he gives this reason That otherwise our Soveraign should not be King over all England but Regulus parvae partis a petty Governour of some small parts of the Realm Nor does any thing tending to countenance Rebellion appear in any of his Works that are extant But the Friars and proud Clergy having an inveterate spleen against Wickliff and there happening to fall out about the same time a grievous Insurrection of the Commons under Wat Tyler occasioned chiefly upon a civil score about Taxes Commons and Servitude but much augmented by one John Ball a Priest and one of Baal's Priests too for ought I know for he does not at all appear to be any of Wickliff's Followers therefore in spight to Wickliff they cast the odium of that Frantic Tumult upon him and his Doctrine But indeed as Wickliff was a person of extraordinary Learning and Piety so that in substance he held and taught the very same Doctrines as are at this day maintained by the Church of England is demonstrated by the Learned Dr. James Oxford Library-keeper in his Book Intituled An Apology for John Wickliff shewing his Conformity with the now Church of England c. Printed Anno 1608. However to the end the vulgar Reader may better judge of this reverend man and his Works I shall here produce some few passages out of two of his Books Printed by the said James from the Original Manuscripts remaining one in Bennet Colledge Cambridge the other in the Publick Library at Oxford The English being excusable considering 't was wrote above 300 years agoe in his complaint to King Richard the Second and his Parliament Article 2. He hath these words Nothing ought to be damned as errour and false but if it favour errour or unrightewiseness against Gods Law And Article 4. He prays That Christ's teaching O beleave of the Sacrament of his own Body that is plainly tawght by Christ and his Apostles in Gospels and Pistles mayen be tawght openlie in Churches of Christen People and the contrary teaching and false beleave is brought up by cursed Hypocrits and worldlie Priests unkunning in Gods Law which say they are Apostles of Christ but are Fools And he concludes that Article with these words As Christ saved the wordle by writing and teaching of foure Evangelists so the Fiend casteth to Damme the wordle and Priests for letting to Preach the Gospel by these four by fayned Contemplation by Songs by Salisbury use and by worldly business of Priests And in his Treatise against the Orders of Friars Ca. 4. runs thus Friars sayen that if a man be once professed to their Religion he may never leave it and be saved though he be never so unable thereto for al time of his life and they wil nede him to live in such a state ever more to which God makes him ever unable and so nede him to be damned Alas out on such heresie that Mans Ordinance is holden stronger than is the Ordinance of God For if a man enter into the newe Religion against mans ordinance he maie lawfully forsake it but if he enter against Gods Ordinance when God makes him unable thereto he shall not be suffered by Antichrist's power to leave it And if this reason were wel declared sith no man wote which man is able to this new Religion by Gods dome and which is not able no man should be constrained to
pardon and as to the former shall endeavour now to satisfie him which is Touching the Troubles and Opposition that Wickliff met with If the strength or policy of Man could have stifled those Truths which he delivered his Doctrine had long since been extinct for the Pope was soon alarm'd therewith and bestir'd himself amain to get Wickliff silenc'd but such Esteem had he by his Vertues and Learning obtain'd that when Gregory the Eleventh in the year 1378. sent his Bull to the University of Oxford expostulating with them for suffering him there to spread his Tenets Walsingham the Historian tells us That the Heads of the Vniversity were long time in suspense whether they should receive such the Pope's Bull with Honour or reject it with Contempt Yet at last the Reverence they bore to his Un-holiness prevailed with them to entertain his Bull with Respect However we do not find that they did any thing effectually against Wickliff But the Archbishop of Canterbury was very violent against him twice he was actually convented before him and other Bishops and thrice summoned to appear The first time he escaped by the favour of the Duke of Lancaster who would needs have a Chair for him that he might sit which the Bishops would not admit in their presence and so a Quarrel arose and nothing then was done The second time he got off by means of a Messenger who just as they were about to pass Sentence upon him came in from the Queen charging them immediately to desist The third time he prudently absented himself and did not obey their Summons because he had intelligence that the Bishops had plotted his Death by the way devising the means and encouraging certain Russians thereunto However in his absence the Bishops with the Rabble of Friars to assist them took upon them to examine and censure his Writings meeting for that purpose at the Gray-Friars London where just as they were going about their business happen'd a most terrible Earthquake which much daunted them yet at last they proceeded to pick out 9 Articles or Propositions which they condemn'd as Heretical and 23 others as Erronious And then they got the King's Letters forbidding his Books and Doctrines to be publish't yet still he remain'd firm and constant and laboriously both by preaching and writing propagated the Gospel and God wonderfully preserv'd him out of the hands of his Enemies continuing Parson of Lutterworth in Leicestershire and so died in peace in a good old Age in the year 1387. Nor was his Doctrine confin'd only to England but shone and gave light into Regions far remote Some say that to avoid the fury of the Clergy he himself for some years withdrew into Germany and there preached the Gospel but I do not find sufficient Ground for that opinion but rather believe the Truth might be propagated there by some of his Followers and in particular Cochleus in his History of the Hussiâ—es l. 1. tells us Petrus Payne Anglus Discipulus Wiclephi Pragam cum Libris illius profugerat One Peter Payne an Englishâ—man one of Wickliff ' s Scholars who was sent with other Legates to the Council at Basil where he disputed for three days together touching the Civil Dominion of the Clergy fled into Bohemia and carried with him some of Wickliff ' s Books Some of which were Translated by John Huss into the Bohemian Language as the same Cochleus relates who also affirms That one of the Bishops of England wrote him word Esse sibi adhuc â—odie duo maxima Volumina Wiclephi quae mole suâ videantur aequare opera B. Augustini That he had then by him two Volumes of Wickliff ' s which were almost as large as St. Austin ' s Works Of which many it seems are since lost or destroy'd by the Papists but divers of them are yet extant What opinion the University of Oxford had of the Learning and Piety of this good Man appears by that Testimonial which they publickly gave of him under their Common Seal dated October 5. 1406. which you may read in Mr. Foxes Acts and Monuments fol. 112. And now being in his Grave one would have thought he had been beyond the Sphere of Activity of the most inveterate Malice but such is the nature of Papal Cruelty that its Rage extends almost to the other World and with a Barbarity more than Heathenish violates Sepulchers for 41 years after Wickliff's Death the Council at Constance the very same Conventicle that Decreed That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks made an Order for taking up his Bones and burning them in these words For as much as by the Authority of the Sentence and Decree of the Council of Rome and by the Commandment of the Church and the Apostolical See after due Delays granted this Holy Synod hath proceeded unto the Condemnation of the said John Wickliff and his Memory having first made Proclamation and given Commandment to call forth whosoever would defend the said Wickliff or his Memory if any such there were but none did appear And likewise Witnesses being examined by Commissioners appointed by Pope John and his Council upon the Impenitency and final Obstinacy of the said John Wicliff reserving that which is to be reserved as in such Cases the Law requires and his Impenitency and Obstinacy even unto his end being sufficiently proved by evident Signs and Tokens and also by lawful Witnesses of Credit therefore the Sacred Synod declareth determineth and giveth Sentence That the said John Wickliff was a notorious obstinate Heretic and that he died in his Heresie Cursing and Damning both him and his Memory This Synod also Decrees and Ordains That the Body and Bones if they may be discerned and known from the Bodies of other faithful people be taken out of the Ground and thrown away far from the Burial place of any Church according to the Canon Laws and Decrees Pursuant to this worshipful Decree The Archdeacon and Official of the Diocess shortly after came with their Officers to Lutterworth Church where Wickliff lay buried and having disinterred his Bones they with much Formality burnt the same and turn'd his Dust into Ashes which Ashes they also took and threw into the River as if they would Interest all the Elements in their Inhumane Pageantry Touching which I find in a most Learned Treatise written by Dr. Hoyle Professor of Divinity in Dublin Colledge Entituled A Rejoinder to Mr. Malone ' s Reply concerning the Real Presence p. 654. this remarkable passage The Doctor having discours'd of the taking up the Bâ—nes of Bucer and Fagius adds these words I cannot upon so good an occasion but glance at the like more than Savage usage of Wickliff and signifie to the World a strange Accident not yet observed in Print by any and which my self learned of the most aged Inhabitants and they within a few hands from the very Eye-witnesses and is a common Tradition in all Lutterworth A Child finding one of Wickliff's Bones
the truth is How much a Sot soever he were he prov'd too cunning for them for having smoakt their Consult and Design next time they came according to Custom to Complement him he seiz'd seven of the most busie of them and without any colour of Law presently confiscated all their Estates and thereby so terrified all the rest that no man of them durst think any more of the Curatorship These seven that he had snapt he with a Cruelty suitable to a Pope thrust into a miserable Dungeon and without any respect to their Age or Quality put them to the Rack and all manner of Tortures his gracious Nephew Pregnan standing by to see Execution done and upbraiding them whilst in Torments But King Charles soon after by reason of some Insolencies offer'd to him by the said Pregnan coming to besiege Vrban himself in the said Castle of Lucera his Impietyship was forc'd to fly over the Mountains and with much ado got to Salerno carrying his Captive-Cardinals under a Guard along with him and one of them broken with Tortures not being able to follow him farther he commanded his Hangman to knock out his Brains and left his Body in the Fields without Burial the other six he dragg'd with him all but Cardinal Adam a poor Monk whom he gave to King Richard the Second of England First to Sicily and then to Genua and at last that he might not be troubled with them any longer he caus'd them saith the Author all in one Night to be beheaded But Platina saith they were sown up in Sacks and so flung into the Sea after the manner of punishing Parricides of old which is probable since no doubt the Pope would call their Crime Rebellion against their Spiritual Father But which way soever he dispos'd of them all Authors agree That they were never seen afterwards Lewis King of Hungary dying the before-mentioned Charles his Son was forc'd to go home thither to settle Affairs where by the Treachery of the Queen he was beheaded but had left two Sons Ladislaus and John Children very young at Ferrara whereupon the Pope thirsting after Revenge and to wreck his Spleen on these two innocent Babes for the Injuries he pretended to have received from their Father thinking he had a fit opportunity departs from Genua to Lucca then to Sena and Perusium with a desire as he pretended to see Naples but in truth with a design to defeat the young Princes of their Inheritance but by the prudence and faithfulness of some Counsellors to whose Charge they were left their Lives and Estates were preserved from his malicious Fury Then he return'd to Rome and made in one day 29 Cardinals of whom 26 were Neopolitans In the last year of his Popedom calling to mind of the vast Gain that the Jubilee had brought to Clement the Sixth in the year 1350. He would needs tho against all Reason except only that of private Lucre abreviate the Term and have it kept every 30 years yet so as that it should begin at Christmas Anno Dom. 1388. and continue a year Inclusive But tho he had laid his Bait for Money yet he did not live to see the Fish caught for being bruis'd by a fall of his Mule as he was riding to Perusium he was carried to Rome where after few days he died Paucis admodùm utpote hominis Rustici inexorabilis flentibus Hujus autem Sepulchrum adhuc visitur cum Epitaphio satis Rustico inepto Very few says Platina lamenting his Death for he was a clownish Fellow and inexorable His Tomb is seen to this day with a very Rustical and foolish Epitaph And there 's an end of one of our Popes and if he were as Roman Historians bear us in the hand the Right and most Legitimate of the two we may very well say Bad was the best for amongst other of his meritorious Feats he caus'd a Book to be written by one John de Therano his Chamberlain the beginning whereof is Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar ' s and to God the things that are God's wherein he affirms That these words of our Saviour have place only for a time namely until his Ascention but afterwards they were out of Date and of no force seeing that himself saith John 12. When I shall be taken up I will draw all Men after me that is Pray mark the Wit and Divinity of the Interpretation All Kings and Kingdoms shall be under the Empire of the Pope c. Likewise John the Ligni wrote a Book in favour of this Pope Vrban against his Rival Clement as on the other side the Abbot of St. Vast wrote one for Clement against Vrban wherein they call each Pope Heretic Schismatic Tyrant Thief wicked sower of Sedition Son of Belial and 't is believ'd they were not either of them much mistaken Pope Vrban you have heard left the hopeful Crop of his intended Jubilee to be reap'd by his Successor who was one Peter de Thomacellis a Neopolitan who was call'd Boniface the Ninth Ignorant he was saith our oft-quoted Author Theodoric a Nyem l. 2. c. 6. of writing and singing and so unfit for Administration of the Affairs of the Court of Rome that whilst he lived he hardly understood the Propositions made before him by the Advocates in Consistory in so much that in his time Inscitia ferè venalis fuit in ipsa Curiâ Ignorance was almost buyable as a main step to preferment in the Roman Court Yet in all kind of Simony so far he excell'd all his Predecessors that not one Cardinal or Bishop was promoted without extorting great Sums of Money from them And indeed such an unreasonable Griper had Vrban before found him who only for his Personage and goodly Stature had from a Vagabond Clerk preferr'd him to be a Cardinal That he for meer shame was about to degrade him if he had not been prevented by Death Of this godly Gentleman's Invention as some Authors report were the payments to the Pope call'd Annates concerning which it may not be wide of our mark to inform the vulgar Reader what by that word is understood Annates deriv'd from Annus a year are no other than Primitiae the first Fruits or profits of every Spiritual Living for one year to be paid by the Parson that is invested in it at his first entrance thereupon and near of Kin hereunto are Decimae Tenths take it in a strict sense viz. The Tenth part of the first Fruits or of one years value of all Spiritual Livings and these were anciently paid to the Popes not only in England but throughout the Western parts of Christendom for the Pope as Pastor pastorum claim'd Decimas decimarum and that Jure divino too tho never thought of 'till about or some small time before this year 1399. by Example forsooth of the Jewish High-Priest who Numb 18. 16. was to have Tenths from the Levites But tho Jure Divino as in many other
cases of Clergy-cheats were the Gloss yet Interest was the Text for Polydere Virgil one of the Pope's own Publicans or Peter-pence Collectors is not shy to insinuate l. 8. c. 2. tho he refers them to a more ancient Original That the first Rise of them was for the maintenance of the Pope's Grandeur and that this Income was one of the fairest Flowers in the Triple Crown But when once the payment of them had continued some competent time it was politickly done upon any questioning of the Right to refer them to a Divine Original which was sure to satisfie such as used in those times to take the Pope's bare word for far greater matters Yet the payment of these with others so much impoverisht the Kingdom of England for we are willing to sum up all here that we have to say occasionally on this matter that notwithstanding such Allegation of Divine Right the ancient Kings of England made no scruple sometimes to forbid the payment of them as King Edward the Third once discharg'd the Pope's Nuncio from Collecting the first Fruits c. and many Prohibitions were granted against the Pope's Collectors on Complaints made by the aggriev'd Commons in Parliament as appears in my Lord Coke's Jurisdiction of Courts c. 14. and several Statutes where it is termed once an horrible Mischief and damnable Custom and another time 't is call'd a very Novelty see the Acts 2. H. 4. c. 1. and 1. R. 2. But so subtle was the Court of Rome that when sometimes the Kingdom complain'd of these Burthens and withall the Kings in Exigencies press'd for aids from their Subjects they would in a frolic of Bounty yield or assign the First-Fruits c. for a certain time a year or more to the King whereby they both inur'd the People to the payment and the Prince to the continuance of it But in the 26 th of Henry the Eighth they were given to the King and his Heirs and Successors for ever and in the 32 d of his Raign a particular Court was erected for recovering them which being dissolv'd in the first of Queen Mary the thing was reviv'd again by 1. Eliz. c. 4. but the Court not restored only the First-Fruits were order'd to be within the Rule and Adjustment of the Exchequer and a new Officer viz. A Remembrancer erected of the First-Fruits and Tenths of the Clergy who both taketh all Compositions for them and maketh out Process against such as make default in payment So that every Spiritual person must pay or secure by Bond his First-Fruits before his actual possession of his Benefices which Bond is of like force with a Statute-Staple The mode of Composition now is for the Parson with Sureties to enter into four Bonds each condition'd for payment of the fourth part of the First Fruits according to the rate of his Living as it was Taxed anno 26. H. 8. for that 's the Standard which is call'd being so much in the King's Books but yet with a deduction of Tenths the first Bond payable at half a years end the second at a Twelve months end the third at a year and half 's end and the last at the expiration of two years This we thought fit to add out of the Respect we have to the young Clergy that are hankering after Benefices to whom this Discourse at least whatever our other Writings through sinister Informations may be will probably prove not unacceptable The COURANT. Trueman Solus NOw shan't I see my old Correspondent Tory for he was drunk last night at the Queens Head with toping Confusions to the City Charter But no matter here 's Ben. Tooks Goblin Heraclitus will do as well He dashes through thick and thin and flings durt on as good Scarlet as any i' th City Alas poor fool Their Reputations Crystal none of the filth will stick but Reverts to your own face and will one day infallibly sink the pittifull and already Crazy Shipp 't is squirted from However by this the World may take notice what respect the Tories pay to Authority if their Magistrates don't humour them presently they 'l affront them to their faces Hiss Revile slander and Libel them Having been thus sawcy to his Superiors 't is no news if he snarl at the Courantier who he says is much unacquainted with Guinnies poor heart I 'm sorry for 't but the truth is he has no Faction nor party to Bribe or Encourage him nothing but God and the King Truth and a good Conscience to protect and support him and so long he sings as to the Guinnies Nec habeo nec Careo Nec Curo let Pimps and flatterers and L'Estranges boast their hundreds of Guinnies sent 'um from the Divel knows who He has enough in being Honest Yet sure the Milk and Butter and Cheese was the conceit of some Hunger-starv'd Curate of the Club that lives on small Tyths and is fain to make shift with such Commons when every Monday morning he Trudges from near Dartford to London Popish Nat still drudges on but of late more bare fac'd what abundance of little Tricks have his managers been trying to raise some pretence of slâ—r in Dr. Oatses Evidence but I know not whether with more malice or folly Is not yesterdays Sham a rare one Mr. Oats swore He was Informed Parson Elliot was Circumcised yet upon a Commssion of Inspection a nice business I le promise ye It appears Nat says that the man's twigg of Life has all its apurtenances well but does it follow that the Doctor might not be Informed otherwise Away you ridiculous Scoundrels I' th' next place Godfry's Murder O that 's a bone in some peoples throats must be represented uncertain prethee dear Nat tell us if thou darest in thy next the inquisitive Gentleman of Sarum's true name I 'le warrant he 's as good a Protestant as thy self And now Enter Observator who fiddles to the old Tune For in earnest the fellow has not Compos'd above one sheet bating his Translations these 20 years tho he has blurr'd ten thousand Ream of Paper He 's much troubled that Mrs. Joan should be questioned and to bring in the Chat tells two or three notorious Lies in a breath viz. That Care was Cited as he call it to Guild-Hall that Janeway desired Joan might be sent for c. which is all utterly false But above all where is Rogers Wit or Modesty to Revive a sluttish story little to the Credit of the Parties Concern'd But since you now twice together have Rak'd it up I tell thee Roger once for all that the debauch in the Church you mention was favourably told in Janeway's Mercury and there are better men than you or I that are or may be satisfied of the Truth on 't Nor was it first Publisht for any such base end as you maliciously suggest but only to the Intent that the Actors might be brought to just Punishment For not a few good Churchmen think those Swine deserv'd to
and afterwards Divinity he was scribe in the Council of Basil and Master of the Ceremonies and by them imploy'd in several Eâ—bassies and wrote the Transactions of that Council mainly opposing Eugenius and asserted that a Pope ought to be subject to a general Council Most remarkable is the Epistle he wrote to Gasper Schâ—â—ck the Emperours Chancellor Epist Aen. Sylvii 54 All men abhor and detest Schism the Remedy is brief and safe viz. That Princes or their Ambassadors Convene in some common place and conclude matters among themselves for he shall be undoubted Pope whom all Princes would obey nor do I see any of the Clergy so constant to Death as to suffer Martyrdome either for the one part or for the other we all commonly hold that Faith which our Princes embrace and if they should Worship Idols we would also do the same and not only deny the Pope but God also if the secular power press us thereunto for Charity is grown cold and all Faith is gone c. But Honours change manners no sooner was he Pope but he begins to sing another Tune and sets forth a Bull entituled Retraction revoking his former Acts and opinions and the things which he before had seemed to detest in other Popes he himself now both applauded and advanced So likewise by another Bull begining Execrabilis dated in the second year of his Popedome he strictly forbids any to presume to Appeal from the sentence of the Bishop of Rome to any future Council and pronounces all such Appeals whether of Emperors Kings Bishops c. to be void vain execrable and pestiferous In another Bull which begins In minoribus agentes directed to the University of Cologn Anno 1463 he professeth that it repenteth him that he wrote the Dialogue and other Books touching the Authority of the Council and is not ashamed to add That then like St. Paul he ignorantly persecuted the Church of God affirming now on the contrary that the Authority of the Pope is above that of the Church Representative and endeavouring to prove the same by the very same Text which before he had expounded in a quite different sense Nor was he less pragmatical in his Actions than his predecessors For the Augmentation of the Papal Majesty he feared saith Stella in his Life neither Kings nor Dukes people nor Tyrants but if they would not obey he Persecuted them so long both by Wars and Censures till he perceived them to be recovered Thus he became an enemy to Lewis King of France who went about to restrain the Insolences of the Clergy in his Dominions he Thundred forth terrible Execrations against Sigismond Duke of Austrea for that he had Chastised the Cardinal of St. Peter ad Vincula he deposed the Archbishop of Ments for having an ill opinion of the Church of Rome and brought many Towns of Campania to the submission of the Holy Seâ— But his Ambition cannot better be descry'd than from his 3â—6 Epistle where he offereth and promiseth the Empire of the Greeks to Mâ—homet the Grand Seignor if he would become a Christian and succour the Church that is to say his Faction that he might more easily rend and at his pleasure trample upon Christendome which he continually harrass'd with Wars Yet it must be acknowledged that he was more Learned and a man of better sense than most of those that have possess 't the Chair and till he was blinded with self-Interest had a very piercing Judgment of things as appears by these his following sayings or Apothegms recorded by Platina and others Proverbial Maximes of Aeneus Sylvius or Pope Pius the II. 1. Every sect grounded on Authority wants humane reason 2. The Christian Faith if it were not approved by Miracles yet ought to be received for its innate Honesty and Excellency 3. Marriage with great reason was forbiden to Priests and yet for the greater reasons ought to be restored to them Note that in some late Editions of Platina this sentence is struck out but it is in mine Printed at Cologn 1611 4. To search into and study the Course of the Stars is a thing of more delight and ostentation than profit 5. A Covetous man is never satisfied with Mony nor a Scholar with knowledg 6. Those who have the happiness to know most have the perplexity to meet with most doubts 7. Learning to the vulgar ought to serve instead of Silver to the Nobles as Gold but by Princes to be valued as pretious stones 8. Laws on poor people have force but towards the great ones they are Dumb. The COURANT. Quae tanta Insania Cives Creditos avectos Hostes Truem. ANd have you dispos'd of the House in Aldersgate-street Tory. Yes yes that little man is to be Abbreviated in Michaelmas Term and Sir Richard to enter upon the premises at Christmas so 't was resolv'd at our Club last night at the Queens Head I 'le assure you Truem. Very fine and who are the rest that you design the Two Gentlemen shall have the honour of being Executioners to Tory. Why not above half ascore Lords Four Aldermen and about Three hundred and fifty Commoners Truem. That 's a small business prethee let it be two or three thousand when your hands in But how will you do for Evidence Tory. Pshaw let 's have confiding Juries and wee 'l presâ—ntly find Witnesses enough in the divels-name there 's a spot of ground near Pauls where they grow as fast as solun-Geese do in Scotland Godwin the Tailor who swore his wife Colledges sister into Newgate tother day will do well for a young beginner besides we still maintain the old Reserve at 'tother end o th' Town on purpose for opportunity I saw some of them on Wednesday last in Fleet-street as fine as if the Divel were their Tailor they looked I 'le promise you more like Lords than Common Knights look look quoth a roguish Porter seeing them go by observe the difference all the while these fellows swore against Papists they were forc'd to sneak up and down and beg Coffee at the Amsterdam and dâ—ne five of them on a Loyn of Mutton but no sooner did they Tack and puff Shafâ—sbury into the Tower but Hey bâ—ys up go we The plate Fleet arriv'd it rain'd Lac'd Cravaâ—s and Beavers and the Fairies brought them New Suits and Guinnies in the pockets and ever since the miracle continues and they live like Princes Truem. But how if one of your Gazet-Sheriffs should not be willing to hold after this Tory. Nay then I faith Roger L'Estrange has spent his time and pains to a fine purpose Pray do you know what Company that Gentleman is of he has stickled more in this No-Choice than any Livery man of them all Truem. Who Roger hee 's a Haberdasher of small Wares Tory. Well you see he claws off Prance still Truem. Yes he went by there the other morning and put forth his Snout out of the Coach against Prances door and loll'd out his Tongue
Fact and so being taken 4 or 5 years after was upon that outlawry without any further Tryal or Judgment Hang'd and Burnt This is the Tale The Credit of which depends partly upon the Testimonies of Historians and partly upon that of the Records of the Commission and Indictment We shall consider each of these whereby the Reader will more clearly perceive how Improbable it is in all its parts and how ill laid together in the whole 1. As to the Historians Thomas of Walsingham is the first whom all latter Authors follow as a Flock doth the Bell-weather and when we have told you that he was a Benedictine Monk of St. Albans you may easily make Judgment of his Sincerity and what truth there is in those who take matters from him upon trust Amongst the rest I observe the Jesuite Parsons makes great use of John Stow's Testimony and indeed take notice of any Popish Author speaking of modern English History you shall find commonly Stow's Chronicle strutting his Margin this made me wonder why they should make choice of him who was but a mean Mechanic being by Trade a Tayler and ignorant of the Latin Tongue rather than so many other Learned Authors till I suppose at last I hit upon the reason in a Treatise of Dr. Matth. Sutclife afterwards Dean of Exeter Intituled A Threefold Answer c. to Parsons 3 Conversions Printed Anno. Dom. 1606. where p. 3. That Reverend Author who no doubt being Contemporary with Stow had good grounds for his Assertions saith John Stow is a simple Story-writer and a worse Protestant For 't is well known that certain crafty Companions and enemies of Relion were too much Conversant with him to write truely in these matters And p. 24. Stow hath the most part of his Lies concerning the Lord Cobham alis Sir John Old castle out of Walsingham which understanding he understood 〈◊〉 being Latin and he a meer English Tailer Now it was no difficult thing if he Imployed persons Popishly Affected to Translate for him for them to Impose upon his Ignorance what would make for their Cause and then twit us with the noise and pretended Testimony of a Protestant Author Secondly that which might lead some Historians into an Error was that in the second year of this King Henry the 5. an Act was made part of this we recited in our last That all Convicted of Hâ—resy should forfeit all their Lands and Goods wherefore since they were to lose both Life and Estate the noise went that Haeresy was then made Treason tho indeed it was not so I will give an Instance or two of such misled Authors Thomas Walden in the Prologue of his first Tome to Pope Martin has these words speaking of this very business Nec Mora Longa processint qui Statutum c. Nor was it long but it was publickly Enacted by a Statute that all the Wicklevists as they were Traitors to God so should also be accounted Traitors to the King So Roger Wall of the Acts of King Henry 5. Statuit et decrevit ut quot quot Illius Seâ—tu quae diciâ—â—r Lollardâ—rum invenirentaer aemuli et fautores eo facto Rei Proditorij Criminis in Majestâ—tem Regiam haberenter He establisht and Decreed saith he That all that should be found Embracers or favourers of the sect which is called Lollards should for that only Fact be Adjudged Guilty of the Crime of Treason against the Kings Majesty And Polidore Virgil in the 22 Book of his History harps upon the same string declaring that all the Followers of Wickliffes Doctrine were deemed Hostes Patriae Enemies of their Country which is all one as to say Traitors And yet all this while the Statute does not make them Traitors nor speak any thing of putting them to Death for in case of being Convict of Haeresy and refusing to Abjure they were already to be burnt by the Statute of 2 H 4. Ca. 15. But it being so vulgarly taken as appears by these Examples 'T is no wonder that knowing Sir John Old-castle to be convicted for what they call'd Haeresy and that he was Executed they delivered to posterity that he was Executed for Treason as Imagining Haeresy to be Treason by the Law In the next place as to the Records I willingly acknowledge there is no kind of humane Testimony that ought to challeng a greater Reverence Probant et non Probantur yet even Records themselves are liable to be falsisied and whether sometime of that kind is not to be suspected here may still be a question there being not a few Symptomes of Fraud and ill practice As 1. The Commission issued to Indict and Try them bears Date the 10 th of Jannuary 1414. which was on Wednesday next after the Epiphany or Twelfth day And by the Record of the Indictment it not only appears that they were the very same day Indicted and the Bill found which is very much that a Court should sit the very same day the Commission Authorising them bears date for what time was there then for summoning a Jury c. But also in the same Indictment it is averr'd that the very same 10 th of January too was the day on which the aforesaid Conspirators to the number of Twenty Thousand were so in Warlike manner assembled in St. Gilses-fields See both the Records in Foxe fol. 529. Which being so one would expect rather to hear of Commissions Issued not so much to try them as to raise Forces to suppress them Inter Arma silent Leges twenty Thousand Rebels got together where not like much to value a Commission of Oier and Termener 2. In the Record of the Indictment it is said per Sacramenta duodecim Juratorum exstitit presentatum by the Oaths of 12 Jurators it is presented But the names of the Jurors are ommitted whereas I humbly Conceive if any such Indictment had been really and bona fide framed and found the Jurors names as in all other cases would have been here particularly Inserted in the Record 3. The Crimes alleaged in this pretended Indictment are of several sorts some of them Extravagant and all very observeable for tho there be some matters Treasonable to colour the process yet the bottom of all appears to be that they were Enemies to the Church But take the very words of the Record and Judg of them your selves By the Oaths of 12 Jurors 't is presented that John Oldcastle of Coulingin the County of Kent Chevaleir Note tho he were styled Lord Cobham in Right of his Wife yet he was no Peer of the Land and others vulgarly called Lollards who long have rashly held diverse Heritical Opinions contrary to the Catholic Faith and other manifest Errors repugnant to the Catholic Law to maintain such their Errors not being able to Accomplish their design as long as the Royal power and Regal State of our Lord the King as well as the State and Office of the Prelatick dignity within the Kingdom of England
ought we to esteem any thing small or light that is repugnant to the Divine Will especially in a matter of this moment as we have proved it to be tending to advance Idolatry rob God of his honor harden Papists in their impiety and laying a stumbling block before weak Christians Remember that famous History Recorded by Josephus and in the Book of the Maccabees touching Eleazar and the Jewish woman with her seven Sons All that Antiochus and the persecutors urg'd them to do was only to taste a little Swines-flesh a small business you 'l say what not eat a bit of Pork and yet being expresly against the Law of their God they all chuse rather to dye with exquisite Tortures and the reason is notably given by the good old man 2 Maccab. 6. 24. in these words It becometh not our age in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Eleazar being fourscore years old and ten were now gone to a strange Religion And so they through mine Hypocrisie and desire to live a little time should be deceived by me and I get a stain to my old age and make it abominable For though for the present I should be delivered from the rage of men yet I should not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead 'T is true this History is no part of Canonical Scripture but yet it was never esteemed Fabulous but the Church has always reckon'd them for Holy Martyrs and applauded their Faith and Constancy and consequently must condemn those that practise the contrary In a word those that repute this feigned compliance with Idolatry for a little matter and dare join with Papists in their damnable Superstitions know not how highly Gods Honour ought to be prized by all his Creatures which have their Being to no other end but to glorify him nor have sufficiently weighed that Tremendous Declaration of the great Jehovah Isaiah 42. 8 I am the Lord my Glory will I not give to another nor my Praise to Graven Images Obj. You will say here 's a stir indeed about going to Mass will you compare that with the Idolatries of the Heathen are not the Papists Christians I answer That the Church of Rome is no Church of Christ we have lately prov'd at large that she is guilty of Idolatry is apparent in this respect worse Idolatry than the Heathens because she is faln into the same by Apostacy 'T is an aggravation of her Crime that she was once a Spouse of Christ a man resents more sensibly the Disloyalty and Adulteries of his Wife than those of a common acpuaintance or ordinary friend Nor is this any other than the Doctrine of the Church publickly profest and taught in her Book of Homilies part the 2. p. 213. The Church of Rome as it is at present and hath been for the space of 900 years and odd is so far wide from the nature of the True Church that nothing can be more And again in her Homily against the peril of Idolatry she thus plainly expresses her self That the Church of Rome is an Idolatrous Church not only an Harlot as the Scripture calls her but also a foul filthy old withered Harlot and the Mother of Whoredme guilty of the same Idolatry and Worse than was amongst Ethnicks and Gentiles Thus thought thus spake the Church of England heretofore and whatever some young flashy heads who fancy a Reconciliation with Rome possible may pretend our Church â—â—till of the same Juâ—gment witness Dean Stillingfleet's learned Discourse Of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome witness to that excellent and most true Assertion publickly delivered by the Right Honorable the present Lord Chief Justice Pemberton at Plunket's Trial p. 100. That Popery is a Religion ten times worse than all the Heathenish Superstitions so that we have the present Papists not only accused by our Church to maintain and practise Doctrines and Fopperies worse than Heathennism and the Charge made good by our most able Divines but also judiciously condemned from the Bench for the same However it may be still Objected what if Popery which God forbid should once again in after Ages gain the Ascendent of England and the Mass happen to be Establisht by Law may not I if I am a Minister brought up in the Protestant Religion comply so far as to say Mass if it be done purely out of a good intention thereby to gain an opportunity of Preaching the saving Doctrine of Christ to the people for their Edification who otherwise will be bereaved thereof I answer as Jehu replied to Joram talking of peace 2 Kings 9. 22. What peace so long as the Whâ—redoms of thy Mother Jezabel and her Witchcrâ—fts are so many So what talk you of Preaching to Edification when you practise shall lead to Destruction This is an excuse that proceeds from the Belly not from the Heart he that makes it whoever he shall be has more respect to the keeping a Fat Benefice than the Salvation of the people or if indeed his aim should be right it will not follow that what he does is not sinful for good intentions can never justify bad actions God indeed sometimes by his omnipotent providence can promote his word even by means unlawful being an All-wise Artist that can bring good out of evil but shall it therefore be said that he approves of the irregularity or that he is excusable that commits it when he that mounts the Pulpit to take upon him the Person of Christ by instructing the people in the Gospel under his name and authority and performing the office of an Ambassadour from Heaven shall fain a consent to abominable Idolatry which is openly repugnant with the chief Scope of the Evangelical Doctrine what hopes are there of Edification from such an Hypocrite Let such boast their pious designs as much as they please those Cobweb pretensions are all instantly swept away and overthrowâ—â— by this one word of Eternal Truth That no Evil is to be done that good may follow Others there are that alledge they haunt Popish Chappels only out of curiosity spectatum veniunt they come meerly to see but let them remember too spectantur ipsi they are seen by men which if Papists may by their presence be Confirm'd in their Idolatries and if Protestants may be scandaliz'd and perverted by their Example for who can tell what their Intentions are when they do as the rankest Papists do and what is yet more they are also seen by God who will revenge and punish such their mispending their precious time and abetting of damnable Superstitions It is not safe to touch upon the borders of evil Dinah in curiosity went out to see the Maids of that Country otiosè spectat sed non otiosè spectatur her gazing was her vanity but her being gazed upon produced worse than vanity far was it from her thoughts that such a petulant curiosity should forfeit her Chastity yet we see what a
Rebellion promoting a general good of the King and Kingdome Faction and endeavouring the safety of the Nation against Popish Conspiracies a Presbyterian Plot. But if by Faction may be understood a few boysterus Troublesome people with as little sense as honesty that contrary to the rightful customes of the place they live in bandy against and disturb the Majority as suppose out-number'd above one Thousanâ—d in three and by persons of as good or better Quality every way than themselves and struggle to overthrow the Right Laws and Priviledges of the whole Community and when with Innovations Noise Shamms and shamefull foul practises they themselves have first industriously rais'd Feuds and Cumbustions do then think to file them to the account of such as justly and innocently oppose their lewd designs if this I say may pass for a true description of Faction then on my Conscience Popery and Torism are as errant Factions as ever pester'd a State Tory. Thou art always harping upon Popery I tell thee once again that party is not worth minding where shall you meet a man that now adays will own himself a Roman Catholick now quoth Roger we have taken the Oaths c. There 's Sing and Nevil shall talk as zealously for the Church by Law as any Country Curate and is not this a happy Reformation Truem. A Wolf is never the less a Wolf but the more dangerous for wearing the Lambs-skin that he lately worried I tell you there are still Papists in England and Bloody Traiterous Papists and a damnable Company of them too when was St. Omers and Doway more empty and yet I 'le warrant you all the Jesuits are not gone to Convert the Great Mogul Do not their raskally hedge-Priests flutter up and down as thick as Filfares who may not any day meet at 'tother end of the Town with Father Mathew's my Lord Peters's Ghostly Tool Father Fincham Brother to the Right Worshipful in Cromwel-shire Father Witherington Who once in doleful dumps Being drunk said Mass upon his Stumps Cum multis aliis quos cum proscribere Nolo strutting up and down streets as briskly as if they hoped to sing te Deum in Pauls and what business think you have these reverend Blades here Tory. Nay how do I know perhaps they only come over to turn Informers against Protestant Conventicles Do any of them Lodge in the Savoy Printed for Langley Curtis 1682 The Weekly Pacquet OF Advice from Rome OR The History of POPERY The Fourth Volume FRIDAY June 7. 1682. Crudeles Impiorum Misericordiae The Debates of the Bohemians at the Council of Basil The Story of Zisca his wonderful success and Epitaph The use of the Cup permitted to the Bohemians c. AMongst other Occurrences that happened at the Council of Basil which began to be Assembled Anno 1431. and continued sitting almost 12 years very remarkable were their proceedings with the Bohemians How God had been pleased to enlighten that Nation with the knowledge of his Truth and to discover to them the errors and wickedness of the Church of Rome by the spreading of Wickliffs Books amongst them we have heretofore acquainted you As also how those good seeds were cultivated by the pains of those laborious Husbandmen in the Lords Vineyard John Huss and Jerome of Prague who were both cruelly martyr'd contrary to the safe conduct granted them by the Council of Constance about the year 1415. Whereby the Gospel had taken such Root amongst the Bohemians that all the powers of darkness could not pluck it up yet of those of them that refused the Church of Rome there were two sorts some that only contended to have the use of the Cup in the Sacrament restored to the Laity but in other Doctrines agreed with the Romanists and these for that reason were commonly called Calixstines from Calix a Cup the other not only complained of the Sacriledge of the Papists in that respect but also pressed for the purity and simplicity of Religion in all Articles and Ceremonies and these were sometimes call'd Piccardines and sometimes Tabâ—ritâ—s for the cause herein after mentioned You must note after the burning of Huss and Jerome the Nobles of Hungary to the number of 50 and upwards in the name of themselves and the whole Commonalty sent Letters under their Seals Dated 2 Sept. 1416 to Constance complaining thereof as likewise did the Nobles of Moravia But that Bloody Conventicle vouchfased them no answer but on the contrary stirred up great persecution against them so that the Hussites were not only Excommunicated but their Churches broke open and their persons and goods every where exposed to violence which occasion'd such a tumult on the 13 th of July 1419 at Prague that the common people being enraged threw 12 Senators of Old Prague with the chief City Majestrate out of the Windows of the Senate House who fell upon the points of Spears Pope Martin the 5th Anno 1420 publickly excommunicates the Bohemians Exciting the Emperor and all Kings Prince Dukes c. to take up Arms against them Intreating them by the Wounds of Christ and their own Salvation unanimously to fall upon them and quite Extirpate that Sacrilegious and cursed Nation and withal promises so zealous and bountiful was his Holiness an universal remission of sins to the most wicked person that should kill one Bohemian Heretick History of the Bohemian Persecution p. 27. But some small time before this some thousands of those that profess'd the true Religion finding they could not live peaceably in Prague retired from thence to a stony Mountain about 10 Miles distant which they named Tabor and encompassed it round with a Wall and other fortifications constituting there a kind of Common-wealth and resolv'd to defend themselves by Arms and hence they were call'd Taborites The Emperour Sigismund spur'd on by these Incentives and large promises from the Pope of gairing Heaven gathers a most puissant Army from all parts of the Empire and resolves utterly to extirpate these poor Bohemian Hussites Who being in this sore distress one John de Trosnovie call'd Ziska because he had but one Eye of a Noble house but mean fortune yet great valour and conduct undertakes to gather together the scatter'd people and to head them against their Enemies which he perform'd with such success that Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope and no friend to be sure to the Bohemians who wrote the Story of those Wars affirms his Atchievements will rather be admir'd than believed by posterity for with handfuls of those poor unfurnisht people he fought eleven several Battels with Sigismund's numerous well provided and fresh recruited Armies and in all of them came off victorious nay though in one of them he lost his other Eye and so was blind yet afterwards he continued no less fortunate a Leader so that at last Sigismund despairing to vanquish him but by a Treaty consents to declare him his Lieutenant and allow him a Pension on condition he and his followers would