so highly commendeth maintaine the home discipline if Christians bee the men which especially ouerthrow it But before we passe any further in the discourse let vs satisfie this great Diuine and then consider whether it be true that now a daies there is any authority left vs ouer our children or no and if it bee any and yet but of verie small esteeme whether notwithstanding it bee such or so much as should be exposed to all contempt and wrong Certaine it is that the outragious cruelty which the ancient Lawmakers deuised to improue the power of parents withall was but a cast of policy that so in regard therof either out of pure constraint or of a ready mind children might conforme themselues to better behauiour and at no hand bee withdrawne from that reuerent obeysance which naturall affection and no law nor ordinance of man taught them as they were sucking of their mothers breasts They in their wisedom knew right well that youth was so prone to riot and lust so arrogant and lasciuious in behauiour so hard to bee tamed and menaged that they concluded it to bee a case of meere necessity by way of enacting such terrible punishments to renue and repaire that which was so far corrupted and depraued from natures primitiue institution that as in old time they kept debters to their word by tearing their lims in sunder drawing bloud from them the like so the very shew and representation of such horrible tortures and martyrdomes which parents might inflict vpon their children might lesson them obedience and beare them downe if they should euer attempt or vndertake any thing that past not first by their allowance and leaue by whom they liued had their education but yet thereby no checke was giuen to naturall affection for it was to be intended that although parents might be so tender of their childrens good as to enter into such seuere termes of consultation for them yet the law-makers neuer dreamed it would once so happen which they permitted that is that a son might be sold by the father for a bond-slaue disinherited and then kild Or if perchance it might so fall out that it should be vpon such as had worthily deserued it and with such circumstantiall considerations that iustice her selfe should sne haue giuen iudgement could neither haue said better or done more vprightly But God almighty handles matters otherwise that which he commands is plainly set down not with fetches and deuices For hee needs no compassing or prefacing to perswade that to be iust and good which he once requires he is so essentially good of himselfe and hath such a prerogatiue of iustice and equity cōsubstantiall to him as his bare command necessarily enforceth our precise obedience Religion keeps men more in aw than feare for were the son loose or dishonest of conuersation and for that cause oftentimes turnd out of doores nay lastly refused of the parents for their child because no gentle meanes preuailed ought with him Why if once he were conuerted to christianity presently saith Septimius he became to liue in good order and good counsell regaind him to duty and obedience Doubtlesse though God vnto these lawes of men and nature inserted also his heauenly behest yet did he nothing thereby preiudice those former lawes he commanded obedience but neuer abrogated any part of their authority Nay long time after Christs passion the commission of life and death which parents might exercise vpon their children was still currant amongst Christians and though the more ancient of them reproued some things amongst the Pagans as the murdering of yong infants the bloudy fencing of sword players yet against that terrible authority of parents they spake not a word And howsoeuer God in bare termes pronounced this Commandement honour thy father and thy mother yet notwithstanding for two reasons especiallie it farre exceeds the lawes of men The one is because what he commands is constant and perpetuall but our lawes bee mutable and repealeable if anything please vs to day to morrow we are out of loue with it a patterne whereof wee may see in that verie lawe which Romulus ordained For at first without all exception or bar it was free for a father to put his child to death Afterwards it might not bee done but vpon the assistance and aduice of others then the cause must bee heard iudiciallie lastlie the magistrate might decide it but no priuate iurisdiction nay in conclusion that rigorous lawe vtterlie vanished and became voide the other is because if the iniunction of a Consull bee greater than the Pretors and the Pretors greater than an order of the Edilis it will necessarilie follow in good proportion that the lawe of God is to bee preferred before any ordinance of man whatsoeuer And why so because men in their wisedomes may erre and therupon be of meane reputation by reason of such escapes ouer sights as saith the same Tertullian In God there is no such matter so then S. Gregory who vnderstood this well enough and was of opinion that this precept of our Lord God should be left at large and neuer concluded by any limitation when he had forsaken the world against the will and expresse commandement of his father and had betaken himselfe to a monastery and had refused a Bishopricke which before was his fathers yet at length he began to be toucht with a sence of inward regreeting and can I saith he be vndutifull and disobedient vnto so good a father and be blameles can I endure to be accused for a stubborne and contemptuous sonne to be guilty of violating and distaining my natural obedience vnto my father and thereupon leauing the solitary life he gets him home accepts the sea and Bishopricke which had been before his fathers and all this doe I saith he more for God almighties commandement sake than for any feare of mortall men therefore now good father I pray giue me your blessing And in this sence you see may S. Gregory be well vnderstood For euen S. Chrysostome in his eleuenth booke against such as discommend the monasticall life writes in this manner Thy son loues and obserues and honors thee not because the law of nature enioynes him so to doe but much more for that in so doing hee may testifie his duetie to the commandements of almighty God for whose loue he hath perfitly despised and relinquisht all the world But if notwithstanding all this it be true that now a dayes there be no trace left of this fatherly power which we so much hunt after and if this home bred authority be scarce remaining in shadow or shew among vs how may S. Gregory be then defended the power of life and death long since hath bin discontinued by an immemoriall custome to the contrary as before we mentioned you cannot pawne or sell your sonne much adoe you will haue to disinherit him If he get any thing it is for himselfe his father hath no part
vs our fathers or forefathers The charge and cost of funeralls is a publique businesse saith Papinian the sanctuarie of the law whence also Iustinian in his 43. and 59. Nouell manifestlie sheweth that in Constantinople the charge and expences of funeralls was wont to be defraied out of the publique treasurie Why therefore should this celebration hinder the disciple frō following Christ since that it might be done as well by another as by himselfe But yet ther is great difference whether children destitute their parents in malice or pure simplicity This exposition will serue thee against all these arguments wherewith they haue beguiled thee If thy parents be dead that is if they be Iewes if Idolaters if Pagans if Infidels if the son contrariwise be a christian if a Catholique and the father would burie this his sonne with him that is command him to commit idolatrie leaue this father and follow mee saith Christ let the dead burie this dead That these words ought so to be taken and vnderstood is cleare bothout of S. Ambrose when he saith The sonne is not disswaded from his duty towards his fathers but a beleeuer is seuered from the fellowship of an vnbeleeuer And also out of S. Austin as well in that one booke of obseruations on S. Mathew as in his first booke to Marcellian concerning the Baptisme of children Canst thou therefore perswade any man that the Iesuits onlie liue the best kind of life and that we miserable christians because we are of the laitie must be reputed for dead and buried S. Hierome writing vnto Furia thinketh far otherwise whosoeuer beleeueth in Christ saith hee liueth And Tertullian in his booke de carne Christi doth not therefore ranke Marcion among those that were dead because he was not a Monke or an Hermit but because whilst he was an heretique he was not truly and properly a good christian But we fathers poore men though we be euen we are beleeuers we are called the sonnes of God his friends his brethren and coheires with him and wee also are made partakers through him of the holy Ghost As many as haue a true faith and lead an vpright life yea although they worke not miracles nor cast out diuells yet they are holie saith S. Hierome in his 59. Homilie But if you pretend the same yea if thou boast of greater things than these why this also is our benefit this also is our aduantage For if you aske any of vs Christians of what religion we are euerie of vs being taught by you can make you this answer of the same religion whereof our fathers and ancestors were There was no oath more inuiolable than that which wee sware by our fathers faith saith Philo who borrowed this sentence of an ancient Philosopher therefore why thou shouldst so excredinglie despise vs now there is no reason or if thou wilt needs contemne vs doe it then when we can expect nothing from thy hands but our buriall You shall haue in this case if not the meaning yet the words of Christ to his Disciples when our Sauiour Christ said vnto him follow me he well knevv that his father was novv dead saith the same S. Ambrose in this verie place But I beleeue the text in S. Matthewes Gospell hath most seduced thee He that loueth father or mother more than mee is not worthy of me And againe in S. Luke if any man commeth vnto me and hateth not his father and his mother his wife and his children his brethren and his sisters yea and his owne soule he cannot be my disciple These and such like places seem to yeeld thee great and forceable arguments for thy defence but since those reasons and authorities which we haue already brought to the contrarie be as pregnant and forceable to all intents it had been your course to infer that surelie these latter places do require some farther exposition and declaration least God should seem to be contrary or to contradict himselfe For I pray you tell me what manner of doctrine is this or what kind of religion may this be called which teacheth that a man of necessity must hate his father and his mother his wife and his children his brethren and his sisters yea his owne deare soule also that will be Christs disciple if we should sticke vnto the words and not stand vnto the meaning for if he that should hate his father must therefore be a good disciple doubtlesse he that should well beate him were worthy to be a patriarch and hee that should kill him might exceedinglie well deserue to be a Pope See how many absurdities and mischiefes would arise from these words not ill conceiued but il vnderstood So S. Chrysostome in his 36. homily vpon S. Matthews Gospell he did not absolutelie command thee to make inuectiue speeches against thy familiar friends and acquaintance for that were an action sauouring of indiscretion and might procure harme But look how much any other desires to haue thee loue him more than me hate him saith he so much the more I confesse then that we ought rather to loue God than our parents and that is the lesson which Salomon teacheth vs begin your loue with me as Origen witnesseth Which is also spoken by S. Ambrose on S. Luke if men ought to performe dutie to their parents how much more then ought they to render their most bounden dutie to the creator and maker of their parents in yeelding him alwaies thanks that gaue thē parents But I am much mistaken if the consequence hold ergo it is more blessed to become a Franciscan Frier or a Iesuit than either to loue or reuerence thy father For christian religion is grounded especiallie vpon faith but doth not depend vpon this or that particular order of religion Nay I may further tell you may a generall Councell haue been summoned that neuer confirmed or approued these orders And if put case it be a degree of more perfection to be a Cleargie man than a lay man I thinke it must not be inferred ergo a sonne need not refraine anie stubborne vndutifull or vngodly behauiour to his parents if he intend to be a Priest rather than a lay man God hath no where that I cā find laid any such precise cōmandemēt on either of vs both to be Priests his especiall charge to thee wards is that thou shouldst doe me honor by all meanes Hast thou then wilfullie done me this open wrong thy sinne is of so hainous a nature that Gods curse mans is vpon thee for it For I tel thee sonne it is a matter of meer indifferency to be one of the Iesuits companie A man may be a good christian and walke in the way of Christ which is the path to euerlasting life and yet neuer turne Iesuit for the matter And therefore it ill became thee to put by an act of absolute necessitie for a proiect of thine owne priuate fancie voluntarie concept as S. Thomas verie wiselie informeth
thee I pray thee tell me if there were two waies to follow Christ in and the one were so faire and plaine that thou mightst loue me and thy sauiour Christ also the other so stonie and craggie that vnlesse thou didst perfectly hate me it were impossible for thee to loue him which of these waies wouldst thou rather chuse but O sonne S. Matthew and S. Luke are so cleer in this point that there is not so much as the least letter which may cast thee into any such labyrinth or intricate maze Read these Euangelists and read them from the beginning to the end thou shalt find it deliuered that if question be of vndergoing martyrdome for Christ which they call to carrie the crosse and follow him and these two should be in tearmes of opposition To denie God before men or to honor and loue ones father it is farre better to hate father yea to hate himselfe and his owne foule than once to distrust the promises of his sweet Sauior Christ So then if I should haue perswaded thee to abiure the Christian baptisme wherunto I first brought thee and might well enough haue beene thy Bishop in it had I aduised thee to cast away that most pretious pearle which S. Iohn the Apostle gaue him that told him where hee might find the woluish God that had yeere by yeere had 12. young children offered vp vnto him for sacrifice had I requested thee to renege Christianitie to entertaine Mahometisme Atheisme or heresie I may not haue thee tell me now with Saluianus that such a time may happen wherein some thing that is not God ought to be preferred before God then mightst thou by vertue of this scripture in these cases haue lawfully refused to do me such duty and reuerence as appertaineth to a father and Saturus or the worthy Lady Victoria would haue been good precedents for thy imitation of whom Victor the Bishop reporteth in his first booke De persecutione Vandalica that they had rather be held from their children parted from their husbands depriued of all their worldly wealth than by any seducements whatsoeuer become Arrians In such a case it would haue been good for thee to haue been without father or mother like Melchisedech who was therefore said to be without both because he was a deuout holy man though his parents were wicked and cruell Canaanites Heathen people loue their natiue country exceedingly and none can haue any part in their loue but their parents Now we saith Pontius S. Cyprians Deacon we detest and abhor our very parents when once they goe about to perswade vs for anie thing against our God But sith we are both good christians and Catholiks who should preuaile more with thee than my selfe that haue done more for thee than all the world besides if any father might be iustlie despised of his childe abused and wronged by him choaked with that text in Leuiticus I am ignorant I know you not certainlie it were such a father as shold dedicate his childrē to strange Gods or aduow them to the worship of the molten Calfe according to that of Moses let thy hand be vpon them and powr foorth their blood which would seduce thee from the truth in which place notwithstanstāding maybe obserued as also out of the 32. of Exodus that although Moses in this case allowes of parricide yet he exemplifieth it in the wife in the sonne in the brother in the sister in the kinsman and friend he makes no mention at all of the father So sacred venerable and inuiolable is that name of a father nothing may lawfullie be attempted against a father Read the Epistle of Moses Maximus Nicostratus Rufinus and other Confessors it is the 77 to Cyprian thou shalt find these words vnderstood in this sence peruse likewise Chrisostome in his 65. homilie vpon S. Matthew where he expounds them These words saith he to my vnderstanding closelie do betoken persecutions For many sonnes haue been drawn to wicked courses by their parents manie husbands by their wiues which whensoeuer they attempt let them neither be respected for wiues nor parents And the author which wrote on the same Euangelist in his 27 homilie It is not to be beleeued saith he that God which commanded thee to honor thy father and mother would bid thee forsake father and mother if therefore thou hast an vnbeleeuing father continue thy obedience to him for in so doing thou shalt receiue the reward of thy dutie and contrariwise he shall find the condemnation of his infidelitie And therefore our Sauior said not he that loueth his father is not worthy of me but he that loueth his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me For as to loue our parents after God it is dutie so to honor them more than God is plaine impietie If therefore he repeats it againe thou hast an vnbelieuing father still obey him but if hee would haue thee swallowed into the gulfe of infidelitie loue God more than thy father for he is the father not of the soule but of thy bodie onlie Howsoeuer yet he doth not require that the sonne vpon any such occasion should desert him by his bodily presence but by dissenting from him in point of religion Marke how these words of the olde law these men saith the Lord haue kept my commaundementes which haue saide vnto father and mother we know you not are expounded by Philostratus sometimes Bishop of Brixia and S. Austins ancient in his booke of heresies You are not to vnderstand hereby to condemne your father for begetting you but to condemne the grosse impietie of your father that would mislead you And this was the opinion of Salonius Bishop of Vienna writing vpon Ecclesiastes For the profession of our faith in Christ wee must contemne yea and hate father and mother and all our kindred when they be anie stops or impediments vnto vs in the way of the Lord as vve read that the holy Martyrs manie times did whence it is that S. Austin in his sermons saith these words seeme to encourage men to martyrdome Finallie Christ Iesus himselfe being readie to giue vp the ghost to speake in the words of Arnold the Abbot that he might superlatiuelie commend this noble and great article of the second table Honour thy father and thy mother and that by al the bonds and leagues of pietie doth giue bequeath it to his mother the blessed virgin woman behold thy sonne and to his best beloued disciple S. Iohn behold thy mother And that S. Iohn was likewise of his masters mind Prochirus relateth Chap. 21. for hauing baptized Chrysippa in the Iland Pathmos and she would thereupon in all speed leaue hir vnbeleeuing husband S. Iohn told her no that is by no meanes to be permitted for God hath not sent me to separate man wife I haue no such commission therfore returne in peace to your owne house For if it were lawfull that a woman might separate her selfe
the father done it it was thought needlesse and vnnecessary For as when a naturall father will adopt his naturall and base borne child to be his lawfull sonne the adoption wil hold vpon anie termes so it is in point of consecration let but the father tender his child to religion and there is nothing else expected For what if the daughter vpon som dislike or other would leaue Vestaes cloister and lay it to her grandfather or gardians charge that they had no such authoritie or commission to make her change her estate and manner of liuing that this power belongs only to him that hath power of her life and death that is her father as Seneca tels me For the grandfather had nothing to doe with it surelie he that makes a poore yong girle enter into an order of religion that liued before in the world at large doth in manner execute her aliue and make her a banisht woman in her owne country and therefore not without good cause the father alone was put in trust with this high authority For as for the chiefe Priests authoritie vsurped right were it not first giuen takē by the fathers leaue and permission it was iudged to all intents and purposes clearelie voide in lawe Now should it be vrged why but this which you speake of was of vse onelie in vest all Nunnes and that principallie by reason of their minoritie when they were professed Nunnes this obiection is easily answered and the contrarie opinion clearely euicted by Gellius his owne words which be these Manie be of opinion that onlie virgins should bee taken after this fashion to orders of religion nay but euen Iupiters Priests the Bishoppes the soothsaiers were to bee taken and admitted in the selfe same fashion And certaine it is that male children in their parents life time were so taken Doe we not read in Dion that when the great controuersie was about Cornelius Spinter his admission into the Chapter of the high Priests though Faustus were both his kinsman and an high Priest likewise in the Colledge that the naturall and adoptiue fathers did both ioine in this to make good their presentation for their sonne and not the sonne for himselfe questionlesse it is that children could not exempt themselues from filiall obedience had not the father first allowed them the libertie which needed neuer to haue been granted them if they might haue made vows at their owne pleasure and without their fathers consent But that I may come by little and little to times of christianitie for perchance these heathenish examples can doe little good with you I pray you as you think what lawe or custome had the Iewes for their precedent in this case first it is not said anie where in expresse tearmes to the sonne Leaue father and mother but with this prouisoe that he should cleaue to his wife If any thing be otherwise spoken it is by way of aduice and may not passe vpon trust without stricter examination as it shall else where be declared more at large In deed in case of mariage there is an absolute commandement penned without all limitation to renounce all naturall affection and dutie but in other cases it is done with so many cautels and deliberations that in my iudgement it were better still to keepe on the high rode way than to iourney by coasting But whatsoeuer it be that Adam in that place speakes of the relinquishment of our parents doth the argument thereupon conclude that the knot of wedlocke is of more force and power then the bond of filiall dutie nay verily for this proceeds and springs from nature and which is more from our owne indiuiduall and personall subsistence that other from a desire to propagate a mutuall societie and conuersation amongst men And whereas a man and his vvife be accounted as it were for one person this is in the intent and imagination of the law and therefore we see them easily to be parted againe as Anastasius speaketh in the tenth booke of his commentaries vpon the Hexameron But the sonne is altogether bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh he is one and the selfe same person with his father a parcell of the selfe same substance and as I may so say a verie piece carued out of his body and soule whence it followes that come what can come a sonne must euer be a sonne Disinherit him turne him into the wide world to shift for himselfe sell him leaue him to his owne libertie suffer him to be adopted into another family still nature holds her owne bloud and kindred will neuer be altered Before the Emperor Constantines daies had the father vnnaturally forsaken and cast off his daughter yet might she not marry an husband without his consent But a man might be rid of his wife God he knows many wais by the sentēce of a Iudge in Court by madnesse such a law the Emperor Leo made by a separation from bed and boord by bondage and lastly by diuorce but in children the case is admirable that though the principall obligation be extinguished as say I am diuorced from my wife yet the accessorie holds that is children which be wedlockes pledges though their mother be not my wife yet are they my children they be morgaged by nature and so must they euer continue But if the case stand so then why doth a sonne forsake father and mother to cleaue vnto his wife why doth he forsake the greater commandement and betake him to the lesse because in this case the parents vnderhand be willing hereunto as in a desire to haue the world peopled by propagation of children so to maintaine a lineall succession in posterity and the inheritance euer to descend vpon the grandchild after the death of the sonne and heire And yet to keepe house with a wife in anie construction is this to leaue or abandon ones father nay herein consists their principall dutie and obedience And if they marrie and keepe house together and so deduct as it were new Colonies all is done with leaue and reference to their parents And for my part I would faine know how it can in anie sence be construed that for a man to marrie a wife is to forsake and relinquish his father and mother whereas children though they be maried neuer so often are not thereby exempted from obedience and though they be eftsoones man and wife yet be they stil in subiection to their father and mariage changes not the lawes of nature and ciuilitie But be it as it may be almightie God calling to his remembrance the law which first he established in paradise added also this heauenlie diuine commandement to Adams sentence that whether children marrie or not marrie his oracle should continue without all exception and instance to the contrarie honour thy father and thy mother yea and that in more precise and determinate manner of speech than if he should haue said obey father or mother for obedience is
he is able For it is not the Ecclesiasticall dignity that makes a Christian sayth Ierome One man in the Church is an eye another the tongue another the hand and another the foote or the eare In whatsoeuer vocation a man be if therein hee serue God as he is able hee pleaseth God exceeding well For God exacteth not the same obedience of all But in man it is farre otherwise except his sonne be obedient and dutifull at his beeke and at his seruice when hee shall thinke fitte he is by no meanes contented Neither is it much materiall of what condition both of them are for whosoeuer is a father is a father in the same proportion and whosoeuer is a sonne is a sonne in the same degree Therefore that we may honour our parents without exception and beyonde that voluntarie obedience which wee ought to shew them the Lord saith this I will this I commaund and for this duety I prolong thy yeares that thou mayest performe it alwayes What then if Christ did iustly and deseruedly reprehend those Iewish Priestes doest thou thinke especially seeing both of vs professe one Religion that thou being my sonne shouldest addict thy selfe to some certaine Colledge Rule or Societie which say it bee lawfull and holy yet is it but the inuention of men and thereupon contemne and despise mee thy father a sinne which God and Nature hath forbidden thee Excepting that worshippe which wee owe vnto our God such as is adoration and inuocation What is there in religion it selfe more religious and more diuine than to honour and reuerence our parents Sacrifice is a holy worke yet Christ as you may see lesse esteemeth it than the duety and obedience of children It is a holy and religious work for a man to deuote himselfe vnto the Church Ministery and seruice of the brethren Neuerthelesse S Paul commaunds in his first Epistle to Timothy 5. Chapter and 4. verse If widdowes haue children or nephewes let them learne first to shew godlinesse to their owne house and to recompence their parents for that is honest and acceptable before God Certainely if wee ought to choose any to that Ministery hee or shee ought to be chosen who are well reported of for their good works and they are of this kinde if shse hath nourished her children c. Would Paul haue prescribed this so earnestly except hee himselfe being the author had well perceiued that there were some priuate and domesticall duties which of necessity were to bee preferred before all other though sacred and publique the truth is that these latter proceed from those former For when the question is of morall and naturall institution Christians differ in nothing from Pagans He that liues contrary to Nature keepes not Gods commandements as Nilus saith in his institution to certaine Monks And as Athenagoras in his Apologie for Christians obserues that God mooues not man to those things which are against Nature And therefore Saint Paul spake nothing but that which Socrates had spoke before him in Zenophon which the Atheniās had long before thoght vpon and prouided for in their lawes If any one be disobedient to his parents sayth he in his 2. booke de fact dict Socrat. let him be vncapable of all Magistracy For how can he offer pure Sacrifice or sit well at rhe sterne of the common-wealth if hee be a bad liuer at home and if he be vnkind vnnatural and iniurious to the people of his own house As for the lawes of the Athenians you shall finde them in Aeschines against Timarchus in Plutarch in the life of Aeschines but what saith Saint Paul hee as if hee were in some emulation with Socrates sayth If there be any of you that prouideth not for his owne namely for them of his owne houshold hee denieth the faith and is worse than an Infidell Now see what coniecture may be gathered of thee to the contrary Certainely say they he cannot chuse but of necessitie bee most obedient to the generall Prouinciall Presbyters who so resolutely contemnes his Father and so coragiously renounceth him for a stranger and a Publican See my good sonne how far thou art diuerted from the way of the Lorde how exceedingly thou art estranged from his commandements although thou arrogantly thinkest that thou doest know and vnderstand them better than all thy fathers and thy forefathers did yea better than Christ himselfe Without doubt a father and a mother are not to be compared with God yet are they to be beloued with God saith Tertullian against the Gnostickes And in his book of Chastitie he saith you may know by the placing of euery commandement the manner by the order the state and by the end the reward therefore hee which honoureth not his father and mother is worse then an adulterer worse than a murtherer and worse than a theefe But I had rather cōpare vertues with vertues than vices vvith vices vvhat is so good a work in the Church as to giue legacies to charitable vses And yet saith S. Augustine whosoeuer will disinherit his sonne and make the Church his heire let him seeke one that will accept it truly he shall not find that Austin will be his heire and by Gods grace he shall find no man will be And in his 119. Epistle vnto Ecdicias doth he not reprehend her because she vowed continencie not acquainting her husband first with it and when he had afterward consented vnto her vowe doth he not blame her because she tooke vpon her the habite of a Nunne against his will and did he not reproue her because she gaue her goods to two poore Monkes when she had a sonne liuing on whom she might haue bestowed them which I speake not saith he as though I thought that if any of vs should be ill spoken of and scandalized for our good works therefore we should desist from doing them but because in euerie societie the respect we beare to our kindred ought to be one and the respect we shew to strangers another the condition of a christian is one and the condition of an infidel another the duty of parents to their children one and the dutie of children to their parents another Write therefore vnto him a letter of satisfaction and aske him pardon saith he to Eridicea because thou hast sinned against him and disposed of thy goods after thy pleasure without his aduise and contrary to his will not that it repenteth thee that thou didst bestow thy goods on the poor but because thou wert vnwilling that he shold haue any share or part in so charitable a worke Is not the fact memorable which is recorded of Aurelius Bishop of Carthage who restored a deed of gift he had receiued of a father that then had no children vnto him againe when afterwards hee had children For it is not likelie nor to be presumed in any case that he had rather haue another man to be his heire than his owne sonne See here a
Fathers consent Doth all this displease you sir and sticke you yet so close to Iustinian To encounter him I oppose the sixt generall Councell of Constantinople I oppose that great Canon of the Church in both which the heauie sentence of excommunication which the Councell of Gangrene pronounceth against all such kinde of offenders is againe renewed confirmed But in a word to this forraigne Emperour whose lawes haue no authoritie to binde vs I oppose the most excellent and flourishing Princes of our own natiue countrie the decrees constitutions of our French Church the most commō and receiued opinions of al men and the book cases as they were debated and determined in the court of Parliament Charles the great with the aduice and consent of his Lords spirituall and temporall enacted sundrie lawes about Church matters my Author for that which I deliuer is Ansegistus amongst the rest these be some in the fift booke and 95. Chapter Now concerning boies and yong maidens it is flatlie forbidden that either the one should be clipped or the other veiled without leaue of their parents And whosoeuer shall attempt ought against this act shall be liable to that fine and amercement which is mentioned in some of the branches of our temporall lawes and in deed the fine in that Salique law is vnder the title of them which either kill or clip yong boies or maiden children Where it would be principallie noted that in the intent of the law it is absolutelie all one to kill our children and to match them to a monasterie against their parents liking For I pray tell me is it not a kind of murder so to tirannize ouer them that now they must become aliens to their owne parents no kin to their kinsfolke must die intestate leaue no issue keep no companie must neuer see them so long as life lasteth as though they were dead men and out of mind I euer before this thought that the Fabian law had onlie taken order with these purloining companions and man-stealers But now I find that this great Emperor hath brought thē within compasse of the Cornelian law and made them murderers So then to summe vp all in a word what manner of reproofe is this what a strange kind of challenge that such holie and blessed men forsooth our Sauiour Christ should not onlie deem hypocrites the Church accursed miscreants the law manstealers S. Bernard wolues but the Emperor should brand them also for murderers Looke to it in time Sirra and looke to it that such and the like enormeous crimes doe not turne you and your mates one day out of this countrie and all the kings dominions for some such kind of spirituall murder as hereafter you are verie like to haue a hand in And now let vs take a short view of that which remaines whether there be any such statute at this time in force as was that of Charles the great Charles the ninth a Prince of famous memorie in a Parliament holden at Orleance the 19. article makes this order that no parents gardians or kinsmen man or woman should suffer either their children or their wards to enter into any monasticall profession vnlesse the one first were going into fiue and twentie the other into twentie And if anie were professed before such times the parties so professed might neuerthelesse haue power and interest to make and declare their last wills and Testaments euer with this prouiso that they bequeathed nothing therein to their monasterie anie former lavve or custome to the contrarie notwithstanding This constitution is of larger extent than the Councell of Mentz in their 16. and 20. question the third and seuenth Chapters For in case any man before such age should haue shaued his crowne the intendment of the law is that it vvas done in fraude and couin altogether and to satisfie the monkes hungrie couetous humour Furthermore it is so short of permitting children before that age to enter into religion vvithout parents leaue and liking that it expresly forbiddeth parents gardians or kinsmen to giue any such leaue Now if reports and book cases can doe any good with you see here is the iudgement of a parliament assembled both of Lay and Ecclesiasticall persons as it was punctuallie giuen in thy verie case by name a case peraduenture which the Iesuits of purpose haue concealed from thee and it is this that whereas Petrus Aerodius Iustice of the Pleas of the Crowne hath put in a bill of complaint against his yong sonne Renate by the Iesuits fraudulentlie seduced and purloined from him and whereas the Rector and President of Clerement Colledge haue beene cited and brought personallie into the Court about the matter it is therefore ordered and thought good by the Court at the motion of Faius the Kings Atturney general that Aerodius shall haue a commission granted vnto him to enquire and make search after his stolne sonne for had they not stood vpon the negatiue in pleading not guilty the decree would haue been that they must haue laine fast by it till they had rendred thee openlie in Court in the meane while the Court doth straightlie forbid that ought be done to the preiudice of this their order and that the Iesuits entertaine him not into their societie as they will answer to the contrarie and that no excuse of ignorance may be herein pretended by the brethren of that company they charge and require with all that they of Cleremont Colledge certisie so much vnto their seuerall companies wheresouer Giuen at the Parliament the 20. of May. 1586. Happily you shall also in time reade what the states of France assembled at Blois haue humblie besought his maiestie now our king Henry the third in this verie businesse and what he will conclude thereupon after his brother the king deceased I am sure in the Interim his pleasure was that the Pope should bee certified thus much that whereas all good men were much offended heerewith his holinesse would set to his helping hand that it might be reformed and redressed Now sir what can you answere to all these reasons all these lawes and precedents If for this offence of thine or rather thy seducers offence to whome indeede it is more proper I haue bin grieued am I grieued thinkest thou without cause or is it naturall affection flesh bloud that makes me beyond measure passionate or is it my grosse ignorāce that knowes not in the matter of religion what appertaines to pietie honesty or any duty else of great importance I trust you are informed and throughly resolued by this time that bee the religious life good and commendable in it selfe or newter and indifferent it ill beseemed you sonne in making choyce of either so contemptuously to haue neglected me For were it indifferent there 's a necessitie would haue forced you to obedience but had it bene good and commendable it would neuer haue proued the worse for my approbation Indeede if none could bee sound now a daies