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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	church_n	1,754	5	4.4354	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20595	A declaration of the reasons which moued Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato or Salonas, primate of Dalmatia and Croatia, to depart from the Romish religion and his countrey. Written by himselfe in Latine, and now for the populare vse translated; Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archiepiscopus Spalatensis, suae profectionis consilium exponit. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.; W. S., fl. 1617.	1617 (1617)	STC 6999; ESTC S116248	16,073	35

great conspicuous Princes but Bishops they are not but by aequiuocation all their Bishoply administration is perished for the gouernment of all Churches is drawn to Rome and the Bishops themselues are scarsely Vicars and seruants to the Lord Pope they are vile cōtemptible oppressed troden vnder foot miserably subjected not to the Pope only but to Cardinals to so many Cōgregations as are institute at Rome against them Legates from his Holines side Apostolick Nunces Inquisitors Visitors in end to innumerable Orders of Regulars and their brethren who now by their Apostolicke priuiledges are uot onely aequalled to Bishops but also ouermatcheth them stayeth their proceedinges in their gouernment swallowing vp their power The Church vnder the Bishop of Rome is no more a Church but a certaine humane Commonwealth all of it vnder the Popes temporall Monarchie It is a Vineyard only to make Noe drunke it is a Flock which the Shepheards do sheare and clip euen to the blood yea to excoriate and flaye them Why then should I not flee lest I should see these euils any longer lest I should be a fellow-worker of such thinges a partaker with them CHRIST hath set mee as a dogge among his flocke I should not bee dumbe anie longer as nowe all the other Bishops vnder the Romane pope are dumb dogs who on the one part allured with large ●●pes and on the other terrified with great feare are altogether silent and choose by base flattery to hasten to perdition with their Chiftane And because according to the Prouerbe Flattery begetteth friends and trueth begetteth hatred seeing I neither could nor ought to desert the trueth I behoued of necessitie to flee noisome hatred and poyson and daggers the ordinary effects of hatred among vs for in these our times matters are come to this poinct that at Rome or elswhere by commission from Rome the defence of Controuersies of Religion is not committed to Theologs or Councels but to Torturers Burrios Cut-throates and bloodie Murtherers And albeit all these things did euer and earnestly perswade me to flee yet I doe confesse I fonnd the handmaide Agar with her childe Jsmael for a long time troublesom to me I mean I heard my flesh rebelling against my spirit and reasoning after this manner And whither I pray thee wilt thou goe Thou art come to great dignities wealth vnder the Bishop of Rome with hope also to attaine further These things thou doest possesse these are certain but thou knowest not what shall befall thee in other places Shall it bee euen so that thou wilt leaue thy Countrey Consignes Alliance friends neuer any more to see them againe Wherfore makest thou thy selfe wiser than innumerable other Bishops who comporteth vvith all things tolerateh excuseth them why wilt not thou in like manner comport with tolerate excuse them Art thou only the wise man among such an innumerable multitude Are all the rest foolish Doest thou not know that immediatly after thy departing first at Rome and then euery where thou shalt bee burdened with great reproaches and noted with the infamous name of an Haereticke These and more such like speaches my fleshly Agar did often whisper in mine eares not without a great combate betwixt her mine inwarde spirit and my Conscience nowe already ouercome with the trueth But that diuine Spirit with a more vehement force suffered me not any longer to make delayes but with an effectuall voyce he called me to himselfe as he did Abraham saying Come out of thy Countrey and from thy kinred and from thy Fathers house and come vnto the Land which I will shew vnto thee And he forced mee to put in execution that notable saying of the wise men FOLLOW GOD euen as blessed Abraham indeed obeyed it according to the consideration of holie Ambrose de Abraham lib. 1. cap. 2. Which fact of the holy Patriarch after a wonderfull sort augmented both my courage and strength while I perceiued that GOD did first rewarde his ready obedience by keeping disgrace and infamie farre from him for hee praeserued the chastity of his beautiful wife Sara whē it was in liazard by a licentious Tyrant Ambrose also did much comfort mee in this case while he saith Because Abraham contemned all things for GODS calling therfore he receiueth al things again abundantly multiplied first of all hee gaue him the safety of Saras chastity which hee knew was deare to the husband That same holy Father addeth moreouer Whosoeuer followeth the LORD is euer in surety therefore saith he we should not bee called backe from the obedience of heauenlie commandements neither for respect to our countrey or parents or children or wife because GOD giueth all these gifts to vs is able to preserue them all These things giue mee full assurance that for this my following of his calling though it bee somewhat too late GOD will giue me this remuneration euen the praeseruation of my fame and aestimation that of whatsoeuer account it be it shall suffer no disgrace amongst Barbarians but shall be kept found and vndefiled for the aedification of some and auoyding of offences Beeing therefore encouraged with this confidence and moued with this holy calling and admonished by these dangers I haue most chearefully vndertaken this my flight But yet the loue of CHRIST constraineth me for I might be counted of a vile base spirit if laying aside all lawfull striuing I should rot in sluggish idlenesse in some corner and so flee for mine owne ease The cause of CHRIST is in hand which calleth me to it selfe I heare that voyce continually thundering in mine eares CRYE and admonishing mee to goe vp to some high mountaine to the ende that my voyce joyned with their voyce who haue not bowed their knee to Baal may bee better heard in preaching the Gospel to Sion That voyce now I follow and I goe into some mountain where the Catholick Church hath lifted vp her head in a free profession from whence according to the oblishment of my calling so farre as in me lieth I may proclaime the trueth to the worlde and may open and shew the wayes for taking away all diuisions and binding vp again of peace in the Church The Church shall shortly heare my cries I will speake to the heart of Hierusalem and call vnto her For I cannot in any case bee lacking to my calling because I am a Bishop in the Church of CHRIST to euery Bishop his own particular Church is so committed that hee must in the meane time vnderstand where there is any necessity of his helpe the vniuersall Church is recommended to him by IESVS CHRIST To all of vs who are Bishops the Apostle Paul hath said Take heed to your selues to the whole flocke ouer which the Spirit of God hath made you ouer-sieers to rule the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood These words also are giuen out in the

name of Eleutherius an ancient Bishop of Rome writing vnto other Bishops For this cause Christ hath committed vnto you the vniuersall Church that ye labour for all men and neglect not to helpe all according to necessity Cyprian also affirmeth epist 13. lib. 3 that joyntly with Stephanus Bishop of Rome he did hold the leuell of gouerning the Church And then he addeth The body of the Priesthood is exceeding large and is coupled together with the glew of mutuall concord and the band of vnity therfore if any of our fellowship shall prasume to forge an haeresie or to rent destroy the Church of Christ let all the rest make conuenient helpe And that same Cyprian in very deede often helped troubled Churches euen such as were without the bounds of Africke yea and the Church of Rome it selfe So Polycarpus Irenaeus Osius of Corduba Athanasius Basilius the two Eusebii one of Samosata the other of Vercels Lucifer of Calarie Hilarie of Poitiers Theophilus and Cyrillus of Alexandria Aurelius of Carthage and many other Bishops did painfully labour by vertue of their Episcopall office to helpe the necssities of the vniuersal Church and leauing for a space their own Churches well appointed recōmending them to the ouersight of others they went vnto other afflicted troubled Churches Therefore it is most proper to my calling not without the compasse of it with all my might as Cyprian exhorteth to helpe the Court of Rome which factionously maketh a Sect and deuiding it selfe frō the Church renteth destroyeth the Church of CHRIST and yet mine helpe must not be by approching to it because that is not sure but by a bodily departing from it I would indeed most gladly haue retained mine own Church of Spalate as Osius Basilius the two Eusebii Hilarius others aboue named retained their own Churches returned vnto them after they had ended the publicke businesse of the vniuersall Church But because that my Church with many others groaneth vnder the tyrannie of the Pope who hateth abhorreth Reformatiō and by all his power and the forces of his adhaerent Princes maketh impediment to it And hauing power of life death ouer these who suit vrge reformation suffereth none of them aliue Therefore I could not choose but leaue my Church that I my selfe hauing cast off these bands set at liberty might be the more ready to proclaime the trueth and with greater safety might deplore the desolation of the holy Church which she suffereth of the Court of Rome True it is the majesty of an earthly king is dreadfull because as Tertullian saith he is next vnto God lesser than God only aboue whom as Optatus Milevitanus saith there is none saue God alone Therefore when k. Dauid was to be reproued for his adultery murther neither the high Priest nor any other of the Priesthood nor any Leuit or friend or familiar durst praesume to take that charge vpon him but God vsed his own proper peculiar messenger appointed the Prophet Nathan to rebuke him But there is not now such necessity neither need we expect that God will raise vp extraordinary Prophets appoint peculiar messengers to deal with the Bishop of Rome who is now troubling scandalizing spoyling oppressing the whole Church The majesty of our Rom. Pope is not so great as to affray vs that his temporall hauty majesty is fained vsurped is none at all he is but our Brother Collegue a Bishop with vs a Fellow-seruant in the work and a brother who is holpen of a brother is as a fenced city as Salomon saith in the Prouerbs Wherfore then doe we snort wherfore doe we sleep a Brother perisheth draweth the Churches away with him to perdition we his Brethren neglect the danger doe not occur Let all be silent let all be quiet contemn as they will yet I the least Whelpe among them all with such barking as I can shall wakē those great mastius who are asleep made drowsie by a wōderful policy of the Popedome that according to their charge they may hold back the Wolues saue the flock of Iesus Christ I shall not vse mine own voyce but the voyce of God in wakening the good Dogs and I shall double vpon them the Cry of holy Fathers Councels holy Catholick Church As for these ten Bookes Of the Ecclesiastick Republick which I am shortly to put to light I shall specially endeuour that the errours of the Church of Rome may be detected the trueth and wholsomnes of the Catholick doctrine discipline may be opened these many reformed Churches which by our Romane Church are proudly casten off diuorced may be retained in a Catholik sense and that the way of vnion of all the Churches if not clearly demonstrat may be at least pointed out if by any means we can be broght to that estate all of vs to thinke one thing to say one thing that Schismes may be remedied and all occasions taken away from Christian Princes of plotting the ouerthrow one of another of troubling the common peace of Christian people with vntimous vngodly warres that vnder the praetence of Faith Religion but rather that all their forces may be so directed as the Catholik Church of Christ groaning vnder the tyrannie of those who are Infideles indeed may be restored to her ancient libertie This my departing from my Countrey or rather my going out flight from Babel I will that it want all suspicion of Schisme for I flee from errours I flee from abuses that lest I be partaker of Babels sinnes and receiue of her plagues yet will I neuer seuer my selfe from the loue which I owe to the holy Catholick Church and to all and euery one who communicate with her but so far as in me lieth I shall euer bee ready to communicate with them all so long as wee agree in the essentiall articles of our Faith and the Creedes of the ancient Church of Christ if in the meane time we derest abhorre all new articles of Faith which are contrary to holy Scripture or repugnant to the forenamed Creedes and that we admit not in anie case articles indifferent in thēselues as articles of Faith which haue neuer bene sufficiently discussed established and determined by the Church except first they be fully determined or bee showne to haue bene determined of before neither yet that we condemne those articles as haereticall vnlesse we haue sufficient notice that they haue bene condemned by the Church In things therefore indifferent let liberty of opinion and action be permitted to euery Church and let euery of them abound in their own judgement vntill the Church it selfe instructed gouerned by the Spirit of Christ shall put an ende to controuersies and seuer the Chaffe from the true Corne. In the meane time let vs remember that notable saying of worthie Cyprian which hee vsed in

A DECLARATION OF THE REASONS WHICH MOVED MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATO OR SALONAS PRIMATE OF DALMATIA AND CROATIA to depart from the ROMISH Religion and his Countrey WRITTEN BY HIMSELFE IN LATINE and now for the Populare vse translated EDINBVRGH PRINTED BY ANDRO HART 1617. TEMPUS THE TRANSLATER imparteth his obseruation to the READER RECEIVE CHRISTIAN READER a proofe of the force of Trueth and a praesage of the ende of that worke God is about to doe in these last Ages A man brought vp in the Learning of Aegypt and inchaunted with the Sorceries of Babel without the helpe or counsell of any Protestant by occasion of Popish tyrannie searching the trueth findeth out their errour in Doctrine and abuses in Discipline and conuinced of both first in his minde forsaketh their opinions and now in his body fleeth from their society This is not like to the change of Apollinaris and Arrius of olde or of Carier in our time whose miscontented humour for hopes disappointed made them alter their opinion But more like to that of Paulus Vergerius Bisshop of Iustinople whom vnjust suspitions at the first burdened with a secret fauour of Lutheranisme for purging whereof he intended a refutation of Luthers doctrine But while he wrangled with the Trueth to ouer-come it hee was taken captiue of it and leauing his Place and Dignities rendered himselfe at Tubing to our Profession The ground of our praesage is GODS Trueth in Times accomplishment wherein Prouidence goes on with remarkeable degrees of persons and places not without some respect to the periods of time Hee raysed Wickleff from their Schooles Iohn Husse from their Pulpits Martin Luther from their Cloysters and nowe Marke Antonie from their Arch-episcopall Chaire The places haue the like gradation Great Britaine seemeth too faire from Rome to waken them by Wickleffs crye Therefore it sounded nearer in Germanie And nowe Dalmatia looking ouer the Venetian Gulffe assureth Italie that her next Aduertiser shall bee within her bowels Jt was more than a Poeticall licence to applye Sybillas Oracles of CHRIST to Saloninus the sonne of Pollio for keeping in memorie his victorie in taking in Salonas But this our Saloninus maketh large restitution and applyeth the Oracles of GOD to the owne purpose As the Clergie hath gone before so Princes doe follow The King of Great Britaine with most of the Princes of Germanie stand out alreadie against Rome The ambiguitie of France will resolue in ende in an open departure And the temporizing of Venice importeth more the want of occasion than of will and resolution The Romane Empire did stretch out it selfe by degrees proceeding from the middes to the extremities as circles goe out from the Center And at the extremities againe their ruine began and went backe to the heart The fall of their Spirituall Monarchie shall keepe the same course The periods of time haue their owne obseruation The Iewish solemnitie of Iubilee not brought in the Church till the thirteenth Age was then tyed to the Centenarie number and that their joye hath since proued to be like the song of the Marmaide before a storme for soone after Wickleff beganne to trouble their mirth and in the ende of that Age Iohn Husse made them some more businesse till in the 1415. yeere the holy Fathers at Constance by a Punicke Faith brought him to the fire An hundreth yeeres after him Luther renewed his song with greater boldnesse and in the 1517 yeere gaue out his Propositions against the Pope from which time they haue perswaded themselues and cuen to this daye assure their followers that Luthers doctrine can stand no longer than an hundreth yeeres This present yeere closeth that period and while they looke for an euanishing of that Doctrine beholde euen from themselues it receiueth againe a newe light anewetestimonie We holde with Plato the fatalitie of Periods but Pythagoras numbers are too weake a grounde for such a necessitie Or if wee shall take anie numbers it must bee these of sinne and in sinne more the degrees than the numbers The Amorites sinnes must come to the height and the Iewes must fill their cuppe before their punishment The Pharisees of our time doe mightily to fill out their measure The pryde and filthinesse of Sodome the whordomes of Babell are now multiplyed exceedingly and the greatest sinne euen that to death is become an epidemicke disease among their Clergie Pope Iohn the 22. can denye the trueth Leo the tenth can scoffe at it Gardinerus can confesse it at his death but with this addition That it must rather still be impugned than the state of Rome decay All their wittes runne vpon this one poinct but all their meanes turne vpon them The cruelty of their Inquisition The tyranny of their Prohibitions Their impudency in falsifying wordes and writs giue them but a moments aduantage But euen from these shall come their rnine Alye hath no more strength than for the time it is spoken and credulously embraced but the eternall force of Trueth hath more than a momentanie preuailing What then resteth for them but that they giue place to the fatality of their estate since they will not giue place to the Trueth And for vs while Rome is renting in it selfe take heede that we be not diuided Whosoeuer now casteth in the apple of strife in the Reformed Church proueth an enemy to GOD and an improfitable friend to Antichrist Let vs stande still and beholde the worke of the LORD and bee sure while wee imagine wee haue left Babel that we haue first forsaken Aegypt W.S. MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS Arch-Bishop of SPALATA expoundeth the purpose and reasons of his departing LEst this my departing suddaine and vnexpected of all others but to my selfe by a long and more than ten yeeres aduising resolued vpon and by exquisite deliberation brought to ripenesse should cause wondring among these of our Profession and should produce some badde effectes through my default in these who are ignorant of the proceeding I thought it necessarie by a timous praeoccupation to expound the reasons of this my not-hastie but well-aduised departing For surely I doe foresee there shall not be lacking many traducers who according to the custome will take occasion of this my departing to reuile and burden me with calumnies Which thing I confesse before GOD doeth not much trouble mee For with the Apostle PAVL I count little to be judged of men Let me bee a Foole for CHRISTS cause let me bee vyle buffetted rayled vpon persecuted blasphemed and counted the off-scouring of the worlde yea and accursed so that I may satisfie the LORD IESVS CHRIST and profite my brethren in the Ministerie of CHRIST I should contemne all these thinges For ont glorie is the testimonie of a good conscience that in simplicitie of heart and sinceritie of GOD and not in fleshly wisedome but by the grace of GOD I haue changed my place It is my parte indeed as the Minister of GOD to shewe my selfe

suspected some thing lurketh in them which our doctrine is not able to confute From the first yeeres wherein I rendered my selfe to be a Clergie man I fostered an in-borne desire to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ could neuer patiently thinke vpon the division of the Westerne Easterne Churches the South North in matters of faith I desired earnestly to know the causes of so many and so great Schismes and to search if possibly any way could be found out to bind vp again all the Churches of Christ in the true ancient vnion I was also tormented with heauy dolour which I conceiued at the dissentions of Professors of Christian Religion and the coate of Christ so miserably rent asunder which dolour and too great heauinesse did wonderfully afflict mee and yet more and more vexeth me daylie Thereafter now some twenty yeeres agoe I was promoued to the gouernement of the Church and made Bishop of Segnat which thing my Fathers the Jesuits tooke heauily because they knew by experience that I was not ydle not improfitable for their societie but that their account I doe not much regard for I contemne all humane aestimation vnlesse it make some furtherance to diuine obedience they had found me I say profitable for them for in the time of my tryall when I was but young they praeferred mee to a publicke profession of HVMANITIE in the Colleges of VERONA And before I was a Priest they placed mee in the Publicke Chaire for the profession of the MATHEMATICKES at PADVA vvith great concourse of hearers They made mee Professor of RHETORICKE first and then of the LOGICKE and PHILOSOPHIE in the Publicke Schooles of BRESCIA and often on the Festuall dayes would needes haue mee making Sermon in their Churches They enjoyned mee the dispatch both of priuate and weightie Affaires And in all the seruices of their societie they found my diligence Why then should they not haue taken heauily my promouing to a Bishoprick which was vnto me the first occasion to come downe to the earth from the subtill and airie or improfitable disputations of the Schoolmen and to turne my contemplation in wholesome practise of the cure of soules and of the Church And because I did acknowledge the proper taske of a Bishop was to preach the Word I set my selfe to reade Sermons and such Bookes as are appointed for Lent which did soone beget in mee a loathing and detestation for I sawe in them and that easilie a filthie abuse of Scripture while it is throwne to vaine improfitable impertinent yea and a pernicious sense I saw Examples and Miracles propounded either false and fained or at least ridiculous and not worthie of credite I sawe the people miserablie deceiued and the inuentions of auarice and ambition superstitiouslie forced vpon them vnder colour of articles of Faith These thinges I was astonished to consider and therefore I resolued to leaue these troubled Streames and to take my selfe to the Fountaines of the Fathers in reading of whose works I beganne to delyte for Sermons and holy Canons and Church Gouernement From this course now and then some beames of new light did shine vnto me as yet vnwilling and repining for on the one part I did obserue the sayinges of the Fathers in verie manie thinges contrarie to the common Doctrine which I had learned in the Schooles and I did perceiue that they were either passed by in silence by my Masters or not faithfully alledged or not sufficientlie or which is worse sinistrously expounded On the other part I did see and that not without great wondring that the Rule of Church Discipline and Spirituall Gouernement of our time was exceeding farre different from the ancient practise whereby my forenamed suspicions were greatly augmented and I perceiued a farre off that we did not faithfully handle the Doctrine and Affaires of CHRIST and his Church but sluffed our THEOLOGIE rather with the quicke inuentions of humane speculations and Philosophie than with the wholsome wordes of holy Scripture exactly considered and expounded whereof there is a grosse ignorance amongst vs. From a Bishoprick I was aduanced to an Archbishoprick wherby a new and more vrgent occasion grew vnto me to renew my studies and to labour in them more earnestly for whereas the troubles of the Suffragane Bishops of my Prouince but much more the excessiue power of the Court of Rome encroching vpon my Metropolitane Iurisdiction began to injure mee I proponed to my selfe to search out and throughly to knowe the Root and Fountaine of Church degrees Iurisdictions callings offices and dignities and chiefely of the Papall greatnesse A little after the State of VENICE was by the Pope put vnder Interdiction and scoffing Pamphlets sent dayly from Rome ceased not to oppresse vexe and slander all of vs who were Bishops of the SEIGNORIE of VENICE as Beastes Dolts Ignorantes and men of euill Conscience Whereof for the better instructing our lawfull defences and for the better knowledge of the quaestion debated betwixt the Venetians and the Pope new occasions were giuen to mee of a new and more earnest studie The holy ancient Canons the Orthodox Councels the Discipline of the Fathers and the ancient customes of the Church were often and againe turned ouer by me Whereto shall I say more I found aboundantly in these only all that I sought and a great deale more than I sought Then it was easie with opened eyes to obserue that the doctrine of these Reformed Churches which in great numbers Rome maketh enemies to her selfe and which are bitterly reproued and impugned by our THEOLOGS did in little or nothing at all differ from the true and ancient doctrine of the pure Church I did also perceiue that their doctrine both at Rome and among vs is abhorred and repelled rather than lawfully impugned not for that it is indeede Haereticall and false but only because it is contrary to the corrupt sense and manners of the Court of Rome and to her fleshly plottes and inuentions which is nowe turned into a temporall estate I saw also perceiued most clearly that at Rome without any lawfull ground yea by extreame violence innumerable new articles of faith were daily coined forced vpon vs that in such things as not only appertaine nothing to diuine faith but also containe in themselues manifest falsehood Which articles that corrupt Court will neither suffer to be discussed by any nor be brought in a due consultation of the Church but pursueth euen to the death all those who dare whisper against them They haue now for a long time smoothered the sacred Councels and so haue put out the eyes of the Church of CHRIST that nowe vnhappie shee as another Sampson made blinde and depriued of her owne strength captiued and made vyle is able only to groane It was sometimes an article of Faith that the vniuersall Church dispersed throughout the whole worlde is that Catholicke Church of CHRIST whereunto CHRIST himselfe doeth promise his