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book_n	new_a	testament_n	write_v	6,542	5	5.9777	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B08923	Memoires of Mr. Des-Ecotais: formerly stiled in the Church of Rome the most venerable Father Cassianus of Paris, priest and preacher of the Order of the Capucins. Or, The motives of his conversion. Divided into two parts. I. That the doctrin of the now Roman church is not grounded neither upon the Holy Scripture; neither upon the belief of the primitive church or the authority of the Holy Fathers, which is more particularly and more evidently verified in the examination of the belief of Rome concerning the Eucharist. II. That the church of Rome is not the true church; that it doth not enjoy, as absolutely its own, out-shutting all other churches, neither the antiquity of the belief, neither the multitude of the people, neither the true and lawful succession of the bishops; that the authority thereof is not infallible, and that it is full of errors and corruptions.	Des Ecotais, Louis.	1677 (1677)	Wing D1174AA; ESTC R204416	150,657	428

my self engaged upon pain of a mortal Sin to recite every day the 119th Psalm wherefore I did read it every day with as much application as I could Ch. 1. §. 1. The obligation to recite it so often did never make me to loath and though I were weary oftentimes to Read or to hear Read I do not know how many fabulous Stories which are to be found in the Roman Breviary several thwart applications of the Scripture several Orisons and Litanies wherein they Pray to all the Saints one after another to obtain of them the things which we are to hope only from God Almighty yet I was never loath to hear the Scripture especially this Psalm whereunto I had some most peculiar Attractions I went to Church with joy I opened my Breviary with pleasure to Read that Psalm and I discovered therein every day some new glimps of Light which inticed me to have a great deal of Esteem for the Word of God Psalm 119. It is in that Psalm I learned that the Wor of God is an excellent remedy to Cure all the Diseases of our Souls (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. drawing them out of their Deboachments and a miraculous Preservative (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. to keep them from falling again into Sin Therein I learned that an infallible mark to be sure whether a man fears God or no is to know whether he be glad (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 74 to see and frequent those who put all their trust in his Holy Word Therein I learned that a very good way to become (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 98. Wiser than all our Enemies to have more * 99. understanding than all our Teachers * 100. to be Wiser than the Ancients is to love the Scriptures so that our Study be in them all the day long Therein I learned that the Word of God is an Holy Contract full of a great many very obliging Promises wherein the Lord has been pleased to agree with men (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 82. to comfort them in their afflictions (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 107 to strengthen them in their troubles to fulfil them (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 41. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 58. with his loving Mercies to save them (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 81. to deal well with them (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 65. to take them in his Protection and to deliver them Therein I learned that the Saints are to love the Word of God (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 154. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 170. above all Silver and Gold in the World that (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 72. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 127. it is their Meditations all the day long That the cause of their grief and trouble is to see that their Enemies which are no others than the Enemies of God (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 97. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 148. have forgotten his Holy Words despised them and banished them out of their hearts therein I learned that the Word of God (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 139. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 158. is sweeter than any thing that it is (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 103. a LAMP unto our Feet and a LIGHT unto our Path that (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 105. the entrance of the word of God gives LIGHT that it gives understanding unto the simple that this holy Word is (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 130. very Pure that it is (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 140. true from the beginning and that it (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 160. endureth for ever These Holy thoughts of a Prophet full of the Holy Ghost presented themselves every day unto my eyes with some new inticements and made me conceive so high an esteem of the word of God that I fully resolved to make the Holy Writings my peculiar Study I read first many times that Translation of the Bible which is called the Vulgar Translation then having obtained the permission of Reading the Scripture in a Vulgar Tongue knowing that one 's own Tongue prints in his mind more pure and more lively Notions I read the Translation of the Bible by the Doctorsof Louvain But whereas I heard say every day by those I conversed withal that the Bible was a Book full of Darkness that the Translations thereof had been corrupted by the Hereticks I read the New Testament in the Togue in which every body confesses it has been first written and as for the Old Testament the places which they say have been corrupted by those of the Reformed Church I conferred with the Translation of the Sventy Interpreters which I thought free from Corruption since it was done about 272 Years afore the Birth of our Lord Jesus Christ Good God! how marvellous are the means thou art pleased to use to act thy Miracles would some body had told me at that time Oh you are plunged in many Errors and all that Study of the Scripture to which you give your self with so great an application it is the work of God who begins to pluck you from the Errors of Rome Alas I should have been amazed very much Yet for all that it is very true for if I had been altogether Ignorant of the Original Tongues of the Scripture I should have had some Reason or at least some pretence to mistrust that the places of the Scripture which are directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome Ch. 1. §. 2. had not been Translated according to the Originals or that the Interpreters had changed the sense and the signification of them as it is cried out so often by those of the Roman Church § 2. The Errors of the Roman Church whereof I was perswaded made me find in the Scriptures many difficulties many insufficiencies and many contradictions THe reading of the Scripture raised in my mind many difficulties Difficulties of the Scripture not that the Scripture is dark in it self but because I had my understanding full of the Errors of Rome and I did endevour to find those Errors in the Scripture in the places from whence the Roman Writers are wont to draw them This place of (a) Matth. 16.18 St. Matthew Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will Build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it c. That of (b) Luke 22.32 St. Luke I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and that (a) John 21.16 of St. John Feed my Sheep c. If all these Words do signifie nothing but what every body conceives by the natural notions which they do picture in our Soul these Words are very easie but if they do signifie that the Pope is the true Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Christ the High-Priest the Head

Deus qui fecit Imperatorem dum se super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat metas se ut deum non ut hominem aestimârat from thence it is manifest that the Pope makes himself equal to God Almighty since as I have shewed before he raises himself above Kings and the Emperors But he is not contented with that he maintains he may give dispensations against that which the Apostles have ordained even against that which is contained in the Old and New Testament Papa dispensat contra Apostolum Papa dispensat contra vetus Testamentum say the Interpreters of the Pope in the Gloss upon the Chap. (b) Decretal In. 3. lib. 8. de concess praebendis Proposuit and upon the Canon (c) Causa 25. q. 1. sunt quidam Papa dispensat in Evangelio interpretando ipsum and Thomas Aquinas holds (d) 2ª 2 a● quest 1. Artic. 10. that the edition of a new Crred belongs to the Authority of the Pope According to those principles Luther was condemned because he held that it was not at all in the power of the Church nor in the power of the Pope to establish new Articles of Faith as it is to be seen in the Bull of Leo X. that begins Exurge which is to be found in the end of the first Council of Lateran You may give to that Theologie what name you please but for my part I cannot chuse but think that to give dispensations against the Laws of the Apostle St. Paul to release men from observing what is written in the Old and New Testament may well be called more than Judaisme more than Mahometisme must be stiled Heathenisme and monstrous Impiety 2. The Pope takes upon himself the same Titles that we use to give but to God Almighty and unto Jesus Christ our Saviour the true Son of God IN the Book of Decretals of Gregory the IX (a) Titul 7. ad caput quanto personam Innocent III. saies that the Pope upon the earth holds the place not of a mere man but of God himself and according to that upon one of the Gates of Rome these words are to be found Paulo III. Optimo maximo in terris Deo To Paul III. the best and mightiest God upon the earth after that what title can one give to God Almighty Optimo maximo to attribute those titles to men who dares maintain that it is not an Impiety And lest some should believe that it is the fault of him who built that Gate who gave to the Pope titles which the Pope does not assume we are but to read the titles which the Pope takes to himself Martin V. sends his Embassadors to Constantinople and in the beginning of the instructions he gives them concerning the business of which he commands them to treat these are the titles which he takes upon himself sanctissimus beatissimus qui habet coeleste arbitrium qui est dominus in terris successor Petri Christus domini dominus universi Regum pater orbis lumen c. The most holy and most blessed who has celestial Authority who is Lordin the earth successor of Peter the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World c. Truly when you hear those great Tibles do not you believe that it is Christ himself which is spoken of the most holy and most blessed there is none but God who can be the most Holy and the most Blessed who is Arbitrator of Heaven and the Lord of Heaven and Earth What think you is it not God Almighty is it not to give him a Rival and A Competitour in his mighty power to give unto the Pope titles which belong but to the Divinity In fine these other titles following the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse Father of Kings the light of the World c. Could you find in all the Scripture and in the Holy Fathers more stately and more magnificent titles to express the Kingdom the supream power the goodness and the highness of Christ our Lord If the Pope doth attribute to himelf the same titles and the same power which are attributed only to God Almighty is not this a good cause to say that it is a manifest Impiety And if the Roman Church be grounded upon the power of the Pope is there not good cause to say that it is grounded upon Impiety Such is the Religion of Rome it is not God Almighty who is worshipped in that Church it is the Pope Paulo III. Maximo optimo in terris Deo it is not the word of God which is received there for the word of truth it is the word of the Pope dispensat super Evangelium in the Roman Church it is not Jesus Christ who is the most holy one it is Martin it is Alexander Sixtus Innocent Clement or some other which you please who is Bishop of Rome Sanctissimus Beatissimus in the Roman Church it is not Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of the Lord the Lord of the Vniverse the Father of Kings the Light of the World it is the Pople Martin Alexander Innocent Clement Christus Domini c. And to be brief it is not Jesus Christ if I may dare rehearse that Blasphemie who participates the human and the Divine nature it is the Pope who participates those two natures as it was proved in the Theologie of the Papists about the time that Luther began to be known in the world * Erasm in Epist ad Timoth and some while after Could ever Impiety have been raised up to an higher degree could the Devil himself have devised any thing more profane and do you think that the ambition which cast him down head-long into Hell was more criminal and more opposed to God Almighty's Majesty than the ambition of the Bishops of Rome SECTION II. The Covetousness of the Popes THE second point whereupon doth turn all the frame of the Roman Church is covetousness 'T was to heap up riches that Pope Boniface VIII began to traffick with Indulgences and Forgivenesses and to declare that the Popes Bulls had efficacy even in Purgatory and that they were therein exactly executed in favour of those souls for whose deliverance a sum of mony was given 't is to heap up great Treasures that the Roman Church doth hold that the Pope for a certain sum of mony may dispense in the degrees in which it is forbidden by the Law of God to contract Matrimony 't is by reason of a certain sum of mony that your sins are forgiven you how great and horrid soever they be It is to heap up riches that the Church of Rome sells Bishopricks Archbishopricks Cardinalships all kind of Dispensations and all kind of Ecclesiastical preferments in a word it is to heap up riches that the Pope sends his Legates into all the Kingdoms which would receive them to preach there Croisadoes and Jubilees and to distribute

with more maturity the reasons whereupon I was perswaded to hold that the Pope was infallible Alas said I all the reason the Monks have to refuse to obey the Bishops is because the Pope has held them excused from their jurisdiction what then could the Pope release Children from obeying their Fathers could he release Servants from their duty to their Masters can he free men from obedience to their Superiours can he take away the Sheep out of the conduct of their Pastors without exposing the flock to the fierceness of the Monks from the natural jurisdiction of the Bishops so that all the order of the Church shall not be overthrown and disturb'd with inevitable confusion Doth not one see every day the effects of those dispensations which are altogether the effects of that mighty power which is attributed to the Pope If a Bishop comes to make his visitation in some Churches belonging to the Monks they shut the door against him to the scandal of all the people If the matter comes into some of the Monk's Churches to perform therein some Ecclesiastical Functions there must be a great fighting before as it happened about 6 years ago with the Priests of St. Roch by the Capucin Nun's Church at Paris at the Burials of Madame la Duchesse de Vandôme they use the handles of Crosses instead of Halberds they fight with Links and Candle-sticks they burn the Surplesses of the Priests they rent their Ornaments in fine the strongest beat down the others some lose there their square Caps some their Hats and of an action which should be to replenish all the assistants with thoughts of death of eternity of the judgments of God they make it a Buffoonry a Puppet's fighting an action so ridiculous that the most serious can hardly forbear to burst with laughing a jeasting which is the subject of I know not how many Satyres and mock Poems so far that they must make of each side some verbal reports and obtain from the King an express inhibition to hinder the people from making Ballads thereupon and enterludes to make the people laugh at it on the Theaters of the King 's or the Duke's Play-houses These tragical and scandalous consequences which are the effects of the power of the Pope in the Roman Church freeted me and went against my mind which was the cause that I resolved to examine again whether that Authority which is given to the Pope was grounded upon some reasonable principles and to examine it if it was possible without any prejudice for my own instruction and to establish solidly the grounds of my Religion but God Almighty whose judgments are impenetrable permitted that the resolution I took was crossed again for some while The Curates of the Diocess of Sens at that time were to meet every month in the Synod where in my Lord Archbishop presided and there give their answers and opinions upon the Canonical and Ecclesiastical questions which had been propounded in the precedent meeting many of those Gentlemen who thought I had a peculiar knowledge of the Ecclesiastial History and of the Canons of the Church came to me and desired me to explain the propositions to which they were to answer in the next Conference and give them the resolutions and the proofs of them and so whereas I gave them every month their Conferences in writing that employed me wholly and gave me no other leasure during six or seven months but to study hard the Holy Fathers writings the Pope's decretals and the other Books of the Canons which I could find in the Monastery that I lived in 3. Circumstances wherewith I began to examine the Authority of the Roman Church and what is my design in the rehearsal of them AT last the divine providence furnished me with an opportunity which set me in a condition to give my self to the inquiry I intended to make I went with the obedience of our General to live in a Monastery which is called Font-Evrald by the River of Loire about nine miles from Saumur there I had the leasure to examine throughly the question of the Authority of the Roman Church and of the infallibility of the Pope which was the only principle which kept me in the Roman Church every thing did contribute to my design the solitude and the commodity of a fine and great library which I had at hand gave me all the facility that could be to give my self to that examination and I was no great while before I had acquaintance with one of the most learned men of that province who is Mr. Prior Pavilion who among the Books he has written made an answer to Mr Claude Minister of Charanton concerning the matter of the Eucharist I took an extream delight to converse with him and he took the pains as to come almost every day from about a mile off to the place where I dwelt and there we passed all the day long in Conferences and disputes upon matters of Religion it was with all those advantages having the convenience to learn the thoughts and to weigh the reasons of the learned men both of the quick and the dead that I examined that question whereupon depended my Religion and consequently my Salvation It would be a very hard matter to rehearse here all the questions which I thought to have some connection with that that I had proposed to examine and which I thought were either the principles or the consequences thereof and I should be tedious if I should rehearse here the thoughts of all the Authors I read upon that matter the reasons I examined in their principles and in their sources and the difficulties which I unwrapped in fine what I read what I wrote and what I thought during the space of almost one year Since I do intend here but to tell the faithful the means which God Almighty has used to draw me out of the captivity of the Roman Church and to make me one of his Church which professes to follow the purity of his word I will relate here only the motives which made at that time a mighty impression in my mind which were like Celestial influences of grace which ruled my conversion and my design in all this discourse is no other but to entice the holy and faithful people to praise God and to give thanks to his majesty for the marvellous things he works inlightening with his divine lights those who walk in the wandering of the truth and in being merciful even to those who seek after pretences to remain in their errors CHAPTER I. Chapt. I. The pretended grounds of the Authority of the Roman Church I Did understand well that there was in the world a true manner of worshiping God and I supposed as a principle not to be contested received of all those to whom God has given reason to govern themselves that the true manner of worshipping God was that which had been instituted by Christ but forasmuch as all the