the most Blessed and most Apostolike man the Pope of Rome who is head of all Churches whereby his Apostleship hath pleased to cōmaund that Dioscorus the Archbishop of the Alexandrians should not sit in the Councell all the Councell obayed And afterwards the letters of Pope Leo being read Act. 2. all the Fathers of the Councell sayd so we belieue Peter hath spoken so by Leo. And in the third action Leo is often called vniuersall Patriarch and vniuersall Archbishop And Iutianus one of the Bishops sayd vnto one of the Popes Legates that they held the Primacy of the most holy Leo and desired them as holding his place to giue sentence against Dioscorus wherunto the Councell consented and sentence was giuen accordingly in the Popes name against him In which Councell also Theodoretus who was deposed by a Synod of Ephesus being restored by the Pope was admitted to enter with these words Let the most reuerend B. Theodoret come in and be made partaker of the Councell because the most holy Archbishop Leo hath restored his Bishoprick vnto him S. Thomas of Aquin recitoth out of the same Councell the confirmation of appeales of all Bishops accused of any great cryme to the Pope of Rome and that other things defined by him should be held or receiued as from the Vicar of the Apostolike Throne and that the whole Councel made this acclamation to Pope Leo Let the most holy Apostolike and vniuersall Patriarch liue many yeares Lastly the same Coūcell in their Epistle to Leo confesse him to be their head and they the members speaking of the wickednes of Eutiches after all this say they ouer and aboue he extended his madnes euen against him to whom the custody of the vineyard was committed by our Sauiour that is against thy Apostolicall Holynes and he thought to excommunicate thee that doest hasten to vnite the body of the Church And in cōclusion with many faire words they desire him to grant vnto them that the Church of Constantinople might haue the second place after the Apostolike Sea which notwithstanding he would not grant them nor was it granted by his successours for a long tyme after And thus much of the foure first generall Coūcells which they that receiue them according to the Statute must needs grant that the Pope hath always had Primacy that he is the successor to S. Peter the head of the whole fayth of all the rest of the Apostles and the vicar of Christ the like That his care and study is the ground and foundation of the Church that he is the vniuersall Archbishop head of the Church that no Councells ought to be celebrated without his sentence that it is necessary the Councells should declare vnto him what passed in them that whatsoeuer he defined should be receiued as from the vicar of Christ That causes of great difficulty must be referred vnto him that all Bishops may appeale vnto him to the Church of Rome as to their Mother that he commaundeth in Councells that he may depose Patriarches restore them that be deposed And lastly that the decrees of Councells take no effect without his confent and confirmation SECTION XI The Popes Supremacy is proued out of the point of the infallibility of his doctrine by the Authorityes of the ancient Fathers FOVRTHLY therefore the Catholikes in defence of this doctrine of the Popes Supremacy produce the authorityes of all the ancient Fathers nubem testium a bright and great cloud of witnesses to inlighten the obscurity of fayth in this vale of darknes Which if I should go about to set downe at large I should be infinite Wherefore to contract this copious matter I will alleadg some of those who teach that the authority of the Pope of Rome and the Church of Rome as vnited with the Pope ought to be receiued in matters of Faith whereof it must needs follow that the Pope succeedeth S. Peter and that as vpon S. Peter in respect of his faith so also in his place vpon the Pope the Church is so built in such manner as that the gates of Hell shall not preuayle against it But before I begin I would haue you obserue that it is all one to affirme the sea of Rome to be the Rocke of the Church or the Pope to succeed S. Peter in his Pastorall Office or to giue vnto the Pope any of those titles which are proper to S. Peter as to say expresly that neither the one nor the other can fayle in teaching the true faith because these former assertions and the like do imply that the promise made vnto S. Peter doth belong also to the Pope his seat and that the fayth or doctrine which the Pope teacheth can suffer no defect because according to the words of our Sauiour the stability and duration of the Church dependeth of it And therefore it is manifest that the Fathers do signify thereby that the Church of Rome was not only the true Church in their dayes or that the Pope did not teach any false doctrine in their times as some Protestants seeme to vnderstand them but also that the truth was alwayes to continue therein and that the Pope could neuer erre in matter of Fayth grounding themselues as I haue sayd vpon the promise of Christ to S. Peter and that you may not doubt of this I thought good to proue the supremacy of the Pope out of the infalibility of doctrine which the Fathers acknowledge to be inseparable from the Pope and sea of Rome The first that I thinke fit to produce in this matter is the great Athanasius who withstood himselfe alone the force and fury of foure Emperours and sustained the persecution of all the Arian heretikes and a man may say of all the Easterne world against him He was Patriarch of Alexandria at that tyme the second seat after Rome was a principall man both in the Councell of Nice and also in that of Sardis In which sacred Schooles in respect of his excellent vertues it might perchance be truly sayd that he deserued the place of a maister But it is prayse sufficient that he shewed himselfe a most renowned scholer of those renowned maisters He therfore that had receiued the spirit of the Nicen Councell and wrote according to the sense and doctrine of the Fathers therof saluted Marke the Bishop of Rome in this manner Athan. ep ad Marc. To our most holy Lord venerable with Apostolicall dignity Marke the Father of the holy Roman and Apostolicall seat and of the vniuersall Church Athanasius the Bishops of East health and afterwards in his letters he acknowledgeth the Roman Church to be the Mother of all Churches and vseth also these words We are yours and vnto you with all those committed to our charge we are obedient and euer will be And in his epistle to Felix the second he with the other Bishops of Aegipt do say In tom 1. Concil that they suggest
would keep all the Pastours in the world in peace and vnity c. For in all societyes authority which cannot be where all are equall must procure vnity and obedience Thus Doctor Couell who goeth further and sayth If it concerne all persons and ages in the Church of Christ as surely it doth the gouernement must not cease with the Apostles but so much of that authority must remayne to them who from time to time supply that charge c. Which also is the doctrine of Melancthon who further confesseth Melanthō that as certayn Bishops are presidēt ouer many Churches so the Bishop of Rome is President ouer all Bishops Luther And Luther himselfe is inforced to acknowledge that for the vnity of the Catholike Church consisting of al Nations with infinite diuersity of māners conditions it was necessary that one should be chosen vnto whome and his Successors the whole world being made one fold might belong or pertayne Cart wright M. Cartwright likewise vrgeth the Protestāt Doctors with their owne argument saying that the peace of the whole Church requireth as well a Pope ouer all Archbishops as one Archbishop ouer all Bishops in a Realme Iacob And to conclue M. Iacob another Puritan sayth if a visible Catholike Church be once aknowledged there is no place in all the world so likely as Rome to be the visible and spring head of the gouernement thereof Protestant Apology See the Protestants Apology tract 1. sect 3. subdiu 10. And thus appeareth the force of this truth which God almighty hath caused to be iustifyed euen by the mouthes of our aduersaries themselues And now by the resolution of this first point alone hauing clearly ouer throwne and disproued whatsoeuer the Bishop can say in the fiue first books of his Commonwealth against the Monarchy Primacy and Papacy of the Church of Rome the succession therof the subiection of other Bishops therūto and in fine against all Iurisdictions of the Church of Christ I come to the explication and proofe of the second poynt concerning the succession of the Bishop of Rome to S. Peter wherein the folly and impudency of this man will be more discouered and his whole Volume of Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth either extant or not extant will be sufficiently answered SECTION IX The continuance of S. Peters authority is proued by Scripture and by the Fathers and by the confession of many Protestants and therof is inferred the succession of the Pope to S. Peter IN the beginning of the former point concerning S. Peters authority I shewed how the Catholiks considered and distinguished a double power in the Apostles of Christ the one extraordinary Apostolicall whereby they had equall Iurisdiction ouer the Church of Christ which is therfore called Extraordinary because it dyed with them for if others had succeeded them therin their successours also by vertue therof had beene all Apostles The other ordinary and Episcopall wherein others were to succeed them for the gouernement of the Church and which in S. Peter alone was supreme absolute and independant but in the rest it was limitted to particuler places and therefore albeit as Apostles they had all equall authority ouer the rest of the Church yet they were not equall amongst themselues but S. Peter by vertue of his supreme Episcopall authority was the chiefe Pastour and head of the rest And now likewise for your greater light in the handling of this second poynt we must distinguish in S. Peter a double Episcopall power the one in particuler proper to the diocesse of Rome wherof he was the immediate Bishop the other vniuersall ouer the whole Church of Christ whereby albeit he be not the immediate Bishop of the particuler Churches yet is he the vniuersall supreme Pastour ouer them all As the Bishop of Canterbury for example although he be the immediate Bishop of Canterbury alone yet as he is Archbishop he hath the care of those other Churches and Bishopricks of our Nation which are vnder his charge This distinction therefore being granted first there is no question to be made but that the Bishop of Rome doth succeed vnto S. Peter as he was the immediate Bishop of that Diocesse For this is euident not only by the catalogue of the Bishops of Rome and tradition of the Church but also by the testimony of all Historiographers and ancient Fathers and in particuler of S. Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hierome S. Augustine Optatus and others as we shal see anone Which being commonly granted by all the learned Protestants because if the supreme authority of S. Peter did not dye with him as the generall power of the Apostles ouer the whole Church did cease with them but remayned and continued in the Church after his death thereof it would follow that the Pope who succeeded him in the one should succeed him also in the other as he who is made Bishop of Canterbury is thereby also made Archbishop and Primate of all the kingdome For this cause diuers Protestants haue affirmed that albeit the Pope do succeed to S. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome yet they deny that he succeeded him in his vniuersall Pastorall function because they say it dyed with him And therefore on the other side if the Catholikes can shew that the Primacy of S. Peter doth still remayne in the Church that being proued there will be no difficulty but that the Pope doth succeed to S. Peter as wel in his Primacy ouer the whole Church as in his particuler authority ouer the Church of Rome especially no other Bishop hauing euer pretended or made claime to that Succession but only the Bishop of Rome Wherefore that the Primacy of S. Peter was to descend and remayne to his successors is proued by these two places of Scripture Matt. 16. Ioan. 21. alleadged for the proofe of his Supremacy For in the first place our Sauiour promised that he would make him the foundation and build his Church vpon him in such manner as the gates of Hell should not preuayle against it Whereby as he signifieth that the Church was to remayne and indure perpetually so much more he promised that the Foundation therof was likewise to remayne from whence the Church it selfe was to receiue her perpetuall strength and duration origen in 16. Matt. Which Origen considering sayd very well that it was manifest albeit not expressed that the gates of Hell cannot preuaile neither against Peter nor against the Church for if they preuailed against the Rock whereon the Church is founded they should also preuaile against the Church it selfe The like also may be easily inferred out of the second place where S. Peter was made the vniuersall Pastour of the sheep of Christ and by consequence the sheep of all ages were commended vnto him and therfore not only to him in person but also to his seat and to his successours represented and contayned in him as in theyr seed and foundation In which
quidem Episcopo Romano parilis mos est which Bellarmine sheweth very well that it can beare no other sense but only this That the Bishop of Alexandria ought to gouerne those prouinces because the Roman Bishop hath been so accustomed that is to say because the Roman Bishop before this tyme hath alwayes permitted the Bishop of Alexandria to gouerne those Countreyes or because he hath alwayes vsed to gouerne them by the Bishop of Alexandria And so Nicolas the first in his Epistle to Michael vnderstood the same Vpon the reading of which Canon of the Councell of Nice the Iudges in the Calcedon Councell began and sayd That they had well considered perpendimus all Primacy and chiefe honour to be consirued according to the Canons vnto the most beloued of God the Archbishop of old Rome Where you see the Primacy of the Pope acknowledged not only in the Nicen but also in the Calcedon Councells which was another of the foure first wherein this Canon was recyted and allowed as hath been sayd Also in the third booke of the Nicen Councell in the three first Canons taken out of the Epistle of Pope Iulius the first are found these words Councells ought not to be celebrated ConÌ„ Nic. l. 3. Socra l. 2. c. 13. Zozom l. 3. cap 9. Nicepho l. 9. cap. 5. Synod Alexand without the sentence of the Roman Bishop And againe Bishops in more weighty causes may freely appedle to the Apostolike Sea and sly thereunto as to their Mother And lastly While the Bishop of the Apostolike Sea doth iudge againe that is to say vpon appeale the cause of any Bishop no other may be ordayned in his place that is then vpoÌ„ his tryal And the reason is giuen because it is not permitted to end or define such causes before the Roman Bishop be consulted withall For our Lord sayd vnto Peter whatsoeuer thou shalt bynd c. By which words you see that the Pope is acknowledged to be the head of all Councells without whose sentence they cannot be celebrated or confirmed and that he is the supreame head of the Church vnto whome it is lawfull for all other Bishops to make their appeales Which last poynt of appellation is also more fully expressed and confirmed in the foruth and seauenth Canon of the generall Councell of Sardis which was celebrated a very short tyme after the Nicen Councell and is accompted to be as one therwith because the same Fathers for the most part were present in both nothing concerning Faith was added of new in the latter And therefore not only Sozimus but also Iulius Innocentius and Leo seeme to cite these Canons vnder the name of the Canons of the Nicen Councell Lastly in the 39. Canon of those of Nice translated out of Greeke Arabick it is sayd in this mannor A Patriarch is so aboue al those that are vnder his power as he that holdeth the Sea of Rome is head and Prince of all Patriarches because he is the first as Peter was to whome was giuen power ouer all Christian Princes and ouer all their people as he that is the Vicar of Christ our Lord ouer all people the vniuersall ChristiaÌ„ Church And whosoeuer shall coÌ„tradict it is excoÌ„municated by the Synod See the notes vpoÌ„ this Canon in the first Tome of the Councells especially in Binnius And so much for the Nicen CouÌ„cel The second Councell was that of Constantinople where in the 3. alias 5. Canon it is said that the Bishop of CoÌ„stantinople should haue the Primacy of honour after the RomaÌ„ Bishop wherby it is supposed as a thing most certayne and a thing out of question that the RomaÌ„ Bishop had the Primacy not only in honour but also in Gouerment and Iurisdiction wherof the Councell speaketh in that place as appeareth out of the second Canon next preceding The other part of this Canon was not receiued for many hundred yeares after because it was not coÌ„firmed by the Bishop of Rome which also proueth his Primacy vntill at last the Roman Church consented then it began to take offect as is manifest in the CouÌ„cell of Lateran Theod. l. 5. hist c. 9. Also the same Councell in their Epistle to Pope Damasus which is extant in Theodoret do say that they met togeather at Constantinople by the commandement of the Popes letters sent vnto them by the Emperour wherein they further acknowledge the Roman Church to be the head and they the members The third generall Councell was that of Ephesus the Fathers whereof in their Epistle to Pope Celestine acknowledge the Popes care of them for fincerity in matter of Faith to be most gratefull and pleasing vnto the Sauiour of all And say that they imbrare it with all a miration and reuerence and that it was the custome of those in that high place Vobis tam eximijs in more positum to be renowned in all things and to moke their studdyes the solide stayes and grounds of Churches Wherein also they sayd that necessity required they should declare to his Holynes all things which had passed in that Councell shewing thereby their dependance of the Roman Bishop And when the whole Councell had applauded the Popes letters and followed his instructions and that the Legates comming in afterwards had vnderstood the same one of them Tomo 2. cap. 15. called Philip thanked them that with there pious voices and acclamations they had submitted themselues as holy members to their holy head For sayth he your happynes is not ignorant that the Blessed Apostle Peter was the head of the whole Fayth and of all the rest of the Apostles And further he saith that Peter was the Vicar of Christ constituted by him and that he yet liued in his successour and that his successor and holy Vicar was the Roman Bishop which speaches the sacred Synode was so far from detesting that shewing conformity in the same fayth they subscribed with them Euag. lib. 1. hist c. 4. Also the same Councell as Euagrius recordeth affirmed that it deposed Nestorius ex mandato by a commandement of the Popes letters And the Fathers thereof in their Epistle to the Pope do write that they presumed not to determine the cause of Iohn Patriarch of Antioch which was more doubtfull then the cause of Nestorius but that they reserued the same to the Pope himselfe The fourth generall Councell was that of Chalcedon which confirmed the sixth Canon of the Councell of Nice concerning the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome as you haue heard The superscriptions of the letters or petitions to the Councell all or many were in this forme To the most holy and the most Blâ—ssed the vniuersall Archbishop Patriarch of great Rome Leo whereby he was acknowledged the head of the Councell and those superscriptions were recorded by the Notaries togeather with the acts of the sayd Councell In the beginning wherof Paschasius said in this manner we haue in our hands the precepts of
following Melchiades For these meaning Bishops our Lord reserued to his owne iudgment and this priuiledge he committed alone to the Blessed key-bearer Peter in his place which prerogatiue doth iustly accrew to his sea to hold and inherit the same in all future tymes because euen among the Apostles there was some distinction of power Bonifacius in his 2. epistle to the Bishops of France Bonifacius speaking of the iudgment of Bishops In Apol. 2. pro Athans in weighty causes concludeth thus It is necessary that they be confirmed by our authority Iulius the first in his epistle ad Orientales in the cause of Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria Iulius asketh them whether they were ignorant that it was the custome to write vnto his Church if any Bishop were called in question of suspition that from thence that which was iust might be defined And a little after he sayth therof Those thinges which we receiued from the blessed Peter the Apostle we fignify vnto you which I would not haue written imagining that they were known vnto you vnles the facts themselues had troubled you Gelasius in his epistle to the Bishops of Dardania sayth Gelasius That the Church of Rome hath the knowledge of all things through the world because the sea of the Blessed Peter the Apostle hath authority to dissolue whatsoeuer hath beene bound by the sentence of any other Bishops as vnto whome it belongeth to iudge of all Churches neither is it lawfull for any other to iudge of her iudgment Sixtus 2. Epist. 1. Sixtus 2. pronounceth that it is lawfull for Bishops to appeale vnto the Apostolike sea to whose disposition the ancient authority of the Apostles and their successours and of the Canons hath reserued all the greater Ecclesiasticall causes and the iudgment of Bishops because Bishops are blamed that deale otherwise with their brethren then is pleasing to the Pope of that seat Damasus Theod. lib. 5. hist c. 1 Damasus in his epistle to the Bishops of Numidia admonisheth them that they should not permit to deferre vnto him as their head all things which might be subiect to disputation or question as the custome sayth he hath alwayes beene Lastly concerning the ordination of Bishops Leo. Epist 82. Leo writing to his vicar in the East the Bishop of Thessalonia commaundeth that the Metropolitan should certify his vicar of the person of the Bishop that was to be consecrated of the consent of the clergy and of the people that with his authority the ordination which was duly celebrated might be confirmed And S. Gregory in his epistle to Constantia the Empresse Gregorius aduertising her that the Bishop of Salonae a Predecessour of this our fugitiue Bishop who is now with you was ordayned without his knowledge or the priuity of his vicar or legate Responsalis addeth concerning the same facta res est and such a thing is done as neuer hapned vnder any of our former Princes SECTION XIIII The Popes Supremacy is proued by the auncient and continuall practise thereof in the Catholike Church THVS hauing proued the Supremacy of the Pope as well in matter of fayth as in iurisdiction and gouernement by the sentences of so many Popes which according to the doctrine of the Fathers are aboue all exceptions and permit no answere from any man that would be accompted a Catholike It remayneth for the conclusion and most full and absolute proofe of this matter to confirme the same by the receiued practise therof and approued execution of this authority in the Church of God which I will do very briefly because I consider that I haue dwelt too long in this matter already Wherefore concerning Councells it shall be sufficient to say that such as haue resisted the Pope or his Legates in their definitions haue alwayes erred as the second Councell of Ephesus and the Councell of Constantinople in the tyme of Nicolaus the first and that such Councells as were reiected by the Pope haue had no authority in the Church of Christ Whereof Gelasius the Pope giueth many examples in his booke de Anathemate and in his epistle to the Bishops of Dardania And in particuler Theodoretus speaking of the Councell of Ariminum sayth That it ought not to haue any force the Bishop of Rome whose sentence before all other was to be expected not consenting thereunto And in the Councell of Chalcedon Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria was commaunded not to sit amongst the Bishops because he presumed to call a Councell without the authority of the Apostolike seat Epist ad Solitar Quod numquam licuit numquam factum est which say they was neuer lawfull was neuer done And the famous Athanasius speaking of Constantius the Arian Emperour who tooke vpon him to be president in a Councell which he assembled at Millane Who sayth he seeing him to make himself Prince of Bishops in their decrees and president in their Ecclesiasticall iudgment may not worthily say that he is the same abhomination of desolation which was fortold by the Prophet Daniel And as for the sentence of the Pope allwayes receiued in matter of fayth that may suffice which Bellarmine sayth That if for the extinguishing of 7. Heresyes the first seauen generall Councells were called aboue a 100. heresyes haue been extinguished by the Apostolike sea alone with the help of particuler Councells yet I cannot omit to confirme the same by some few examples A Cōtrouersy being risen about the dignity of the holy Ghost Zozomenus recordeth That the Bishop of Rome Lib. 6. cap. 22. being aduertised therof wrote his letters to the Bishops of the East that they should belieue togeather with the Bishops and Priests of the West the Blessed Trinity to be consubstantiall and equall in glory Which being done sayth he and the matter being iudged by the Roman Church all men were quiet and so that Cōtrouersy seemed to haue an end Prosper cōt Collat. cap. 41. S. Prosper sayth that Innocentius of blessed memory stroke vpon the head of the wicked Pelagian heresy with his Apostolicall dagger and that Celestine deliuered our Countrey from that disease And a little after that by his care Scotland was made Christian In the second age or Century of the Church in the tyme of those horrible persecutions the Controuersy of rebaptizing those that were baptized by heretikes began to grow hoat and the tempest was so great that if it did not cast downe some principall bulwarkes of the Church it made the strongest Towers to shake At which tyme in hatred of Heretikes Firmilianus an excellent man with the other Bishops of the East decreed rebaptization in the case aforesayd and that those were to be punished that doubted thereof In Africa S. Cyprian and very many other Bishops ioyning with him in sundry Councells declared their opinions in fauour thereof though they would not condemne the rest of the world that practised the contrary In Aegipt also Dionisius Patriarch
and were preferred to Ecclesiasticall dignity could be allowed to read any such authours Thirdly he sayth that from the first yeare of his Clergy he had nourished in himselfe an inborne desire of the vnion of al Christian Churches inquyring what might be the cause of their Schisme which did excruciate and torment his mynd and doth still consume and wast him as you may perceiue by looking vpon him with such grief and sorrow as is wonderfull Fourthly telling you vnder hand pag. 11. That leauing the Society of Iesus where he had read Mathematickes Rethoricke Logicke and Philosophy preached often done them other domesticall seruice for the which they were very sory to leaue him he sayth Fiftly page 11. and 12. That being made a Bishop and falling to read bookes of printted Sermons Quadragesimalls and others for the exercise of his Episcopall function in preaching he found great abuse of Scripture in them apocriphall and ridiculous examples inuentions of Auarice and Ambition not without superstition wherewith the people were deluded Sixtly he sayth pag. 13. That in reading the Fathers he obserued that his maisters had taught him many thinges against them and that the Ecclesiasticall discipline of our tyme did differ very much from the auncient practise therof These considerations I haue called dispositions which somewhat prepared his mynd to make mutation of Religion because as he saith they made him to see as it were a farre off that matters went not well and because all this while he did not fully consent but made some kind of resistance vnto them Wherein before we passe any further not to confound you with too much matter togeather let vs consider whether that which he hath brought be of any moment to perswade his Reader that his new beleefe proceded from God And to begin with his vehement suspition which was the first seed from whence his vocation sprung wherein and in the other three assertions which follow I wil be content to do him that courtesy which he refused to shew vnto his Maisters and to suppose he cyteth the booke of his conscience aright though none but himselfe can looke into it it appeareth euidently thereby that this new seed of suspition was nothing els but the worst kind of cockle which our enemy and his the Father of Heresy is wont to sow vpon the good Corne of Christ For suspition is nothing els but an opinion of euill without any iust or sufficient ground as the Rhetoritians S. Thom. 2.2 q. 60. art 3.4 Philosophers and Deuines define it And therefore it alwayes importeth some fault and some iniury done to the party who is thereby wronged because vniustly suspected whereof I maruell how your learned Bishop could be ignorant Wherefore to suspect and concerue an ill opinion of so many as he did in a matter of such importance without any reason or sufficient cause was a sinne and that a great one especially in him who at that tyme thought himselfe bound in conscience to belieue entirely the whole doctrine of the Church of Rome For if to doubt of any article of Faith without inclyning to either side be an act of Heresy as all Deuines do affirme then much more to suspect which is to inclyne and to giue some consent to any motion contrary to the very ground of Faith must needs be Heresy But you will say the Bishop made resistance thereunto and therefore he did not sinne against his conscience To which I answere If when the thought therof came first to his mynd he did repell it that then in that case it neuer grew to be any suspition but if once it came to be suspition as he affirmeth it was then hauing cōceiued an opinion of so great euil vpon sleight occasion or rather no occasion at all it cannot be denyed but that he sinned in admitting the same though he might do well afterward in changing his mynd and in opposing himselfe against it And therefore this suspition being so great a sinne it could not be inspired into him from God Almighty So as it can no way be denyed but that this first motion arising in the Bishops mynd against the Catholike Religion was the bad seed sowne by the Diuell which sprung vp out of his owne Malice Pryde Leuity and Inconstancy from whence neither a good tree nor good fruite can be expected For as you know Paruus error in principio magnus in fine and if the light it selfe wherewith he began to worke be darkenes then the works themselues that proceded from it must needs be the workes of extreme darkenes Let vs now proceed to the increase of this his strong and vehement suspition as he tearmeth it occasioned as he saith by the strict prohibition of such books as are cōtrary to the Roman doctrine Which likewise we shall find that as it begun without reason so was it augmented vpon a very false and friuolous reason and as it sprung out of pryde and leuity so was it fed and nourished with pryde and curiosity And therefore the new strength or force which it receiued could not proceed from the spirit of God For supposing as all Catholikes do and as he then did that such kind of bookes are full fraught with the poyson of Heresy which is the most damnable vice of all other it standeth with great reason that they should in no case admit such dangerous warres amongst them for such bookes being once admitted they easily passe from maisters and learned men to the hands not only of Schollers but also of other simple people who not knowing what they are but feeding of all the bread that comes from the Baker and of all the dishes that are set before them insteed of wholesome meat should fall vpon poyson for whose soules their negligent pastors should answere to God at the day of Iudgment For I pray you if some vnquiet and ambitious spirit in other Countreys should make clayme to the Crowne of England and call in question the Kings title though neuer so cleere with vs do you thinke that the Pleas and Processe of such a man should be remitted to the reading of euery yong student or Counsellour at Law in the Ins of Court especially if this Claymer or Pretender had got some Lawyers to be of his side and had made a party which followed him and sought to set footing in England Much more is it necessary for those that haue the gouerment of soules to be iealous of their safty to be vigilant for the preseruation of peace amongst them But you will say vnto me why then are Catholike Latin writers permitted to be read by our ministers and others here in England to which I answere that the case is farre different For first England was neuer yet fully Protestant the Catholike number remayning still very great and therefore the state of England in this respect might do well to follow the example of the primitiue Church wherein after that the Christian Religion