of their ingenuity in Defence of the Popes Authority and that I saw not well what Advantage they could draw from the Infallibility of the Church which they maintained with so much ardor that doubled my attention to sound the depth of the matter and I found that by the help of this Infallibility they would conceal every thing so as to save the Popes Authority and all the Temporal Advantages which flow from it and I made no further doubt of it when I saw they applied it particularly to the Clergy excluding all the people and many men to the Pope alone excluding all other Bishops Since these Discoveries I have always held it as a Maxim wherein I have never been deceived which is That when any practice or Custom in the Church brings profit or honour to the Ecclesiasticks I presently suspect and examine it At length having a long time reflected upon all the abuses of this Papal Authority and having observed the Deplorable condition to which it hath reduced the Christian Religion as well without as within the Church and seeing it was that which having driven the Greeks and Protestants out of the Church is still the cause why they return not again unto its Communion and that it even draws strange Persecutions upon the Church from these scattered sheep by reason of the attempts of the Court of Rome and its favourers I at last resolved to publish this little Treatise to disabuse mankind in respect of the unjust and criminal Devotion which they have for the Papacy and also to purge the Church of it as well as of all other vices and misfortunes it hath there caused being perswaded that an Infallible fruit of this Reformation would be the Conversion of the Greeks Protestants Pagans Jews and Mahometans not to mention the Honour it would do to all the Catholick Princes whose Majesty and Greatness are vilified by this shameful subjection to and dependance on the Popes which make them to be despised by other Princes who have freed themselves from their Tyranny A Senator of Sweden told me one day a very good saying of Tacitus to this purpose Viri muliebria patiuntur Men act the parts of women which is as much as to say they are the Catamites of the Popes However since it is in their power to treat those as Hereticks and Enemies of the Church who oppose their Ambition and Interest I prepare my self against it and that doth not at all discourage me It is more Honourable to be hated by such people than loved Illi maledicent at tu Domine Benedices I know the Reader will in this Work of mine presently look after the Caracters of either Jansenist Calvinist or Lutheran or lastly of a man who could not be promoted to Benefices and many times he will think he hath found me As for Benefices I might perhaps have had one if I had had a mind to it but by the Grace of God I will have none nor have I need of any nor was I ever designed for it The Jansenists are as yet too much Papists to speak ill of the Papacy As for the Calvinists and Lutherans I wish they could be brought to own the opinions which I do and which I have no mind to betray in this my Book It is true they have both written often against this power but not with design that the Catholick Religion should be the better for it to which this Work wholly tends Whatever men will judg I think I ought not to renounce any truth because the Hereticks know it nor to put my eyes out rather than see the Injustice of the Papacy because the Hereticks see it If I had not here drawn the Picture of the Jesuits Religion it may be those they call the Jansenists would have suspected them to have been the authors of it as the present times go and for the Calvinists I am sure that in many places they will say that I do but gild over the Pill that they may the more easily swallow down the poyson as some people have said of the Book of Mr. de Condom they may judg of it what they please I have followed the sentiments which the reading of the Holy Scripture hath inspired me with and in which I am confirmed the more by reading the Fathers and the Ecclesiastical History and by making reflection upon all that I have seen in foreign Countries and upon what I see every day here If the Romanists hear this Work spoken of they will say without doubt as heretofore at the Council of Trent when Mr. de Faber made Remonstrances on the Kings behalf concerning the disorders of the Church Gallus Cantat they cried I have no better answer than what he made them Vtinam ad Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret let them come and renounce the Dominion and Tyranny they exercise over the Church and over the World and let our Bishops for time to come behave themselves like worthy Successors of this Apostle This Work shall be divided into Three Parts which will contain so many Chapters In the first I shall prove that the Papacy hath no foundation in the Word of God and shall shew the vanity folly of those arguments which they pretend to draw from the Gospel In the second I shall make it appear that the Primitive Church never knew it and that in the darkest Ages there were ever some who opposed it and I shall confute many human reasons which for want of the Scripture and of the Fathers are made use of for its defence And in the third and last I shall examine all the pretended advantages which this Authority procures to the Church or to States and I shall shew that 't is so far from bringing any real good to the Church or to Catholick States that it is the cause of the Desolations of the Church and of the greatest part of the Disorders among all Christians of Ignorance Heresies Schisms and Irreligion that reign No man ought to be surprised that I conceal who I am in so perverse an age as we live in where Truth and Honesty as well as those who profess it are exposed to cruel Persecutions and wherein I shall have as many mortal enemies as there are worldly Catholicks and Papists and people in possession of Benefices without mentioning the Monks I have no reason to flatter my self with any great success this Book may have by reason of the extream disorder and irreligion of the Age and I do it more to discharge my self of the load lying upon me and for the consolation of my own mind than for any other thing as heretofore Petrarch said upon a like occasion Haec scribo non tam ùt saeculo meo prosim cujus tam desperata miseria est quam ut me conceptis onerem Animum scriptis soler I write these things not so much to profit the age I live in whose misery is so desperate as to unburthen my self of my own thoughts
John the 23 d. of Benedict the 13 th and Gregory the 12 th and even to give encouragement to all other Princes to do as he had done and he had much less cause to do it than we have at this time You see his reasons in the Letters of the University of Paris in Theodore a Nyem which were that they would not consent that the disorders of the Church should be regulated by a free Council and that they would not submit themselves to the Decisions of the Church Are not we now again just in the same condition since the Councils of Constance and of Basil For those which have been Assembled since deserve not the name of Councils because there was no liberty in them and every thing was there done by the Inspiration not of God but the Popes France did but half free it self from this yoke for quickly after we suffered our selves to be drawn in and have been like to have been undone many a time since by it Nor do I make any great account of the Conduct of the Venetians which is so highly commended who after having known the nature of the Papacy and the Genius of this power have but half freed themselves from this slavery nay less than half They have behaved themselves in this according to their ordinary custom following moderate Councils where excess was not to be feared and where it could not be committed Consilia media quod inter ancipitia deterrimum est nec ausi sunt satis nec providerunt For they have still this Viper in their bosom which they stupifie as much as they can but he may some time or other revive and devour them They have every day a thousand difficulties with these cunning Romans who will be always spying out occasions to destroy them and to reduce them absolutely under their yoke They should renounce perfectly and for â—ver all dependance upon this See and thus shall they be better able to regulate their Clergy which is as licentious as that of Rome which they dare not reform because it would be to be feared that to maintain themselves in this Roman Libertinism they should give assistance to the Pope to oppress the Republick that they might always enjoy the full liberty of the children of the See of Rome Vulgo dissoluta gratior est quam Temperata vita vivere ut quisque velit permisit quoniam sic magna erit tali Reipublicoe faventium Magnitudo Et hoc Humanitas vocabatur ac ne pars servitutis esset c. Will any man still say Ought we not to be of the Roman Church People are not contented with being in the Catholick and Apostolick Church if they are not in the Roman they seem desirous of having a share in the Abominations of this City and of this Court but the Romans are not at all desirous to be of the Gallican Church I would fain know for what reason we should be rather of the Roman Church than the Romans of the Gallican Church Rome is not as heretofore it was the Seat of the Empire and tho it were we hold no longer of the Empire and it is a contradiction for a man to be in the Catholick Church in the Gallican and in the Roman Churches both together for the first is the General and the other two are particulars You may always have Communion with all the Romans who live in the fear of God with the Pope of Rome himself if he be a Christian but not to depend upon him nor upon Rome You shall be as the Christians of the Primitive Church were for more than six hundred years You shall pay no more Annates you shall buy no more Bulls nor Dispensations You shall be much more Catholick than before for then you may hold Communion with the Greeks and Protestants by drawing them home to the Faith of the Church whereas the See of Rome is at this time a wall of Separation between them and us CHAP. III. That the pretended Authority of the Papacy hath never done any good to the Church A Confutation of whatever is said to the advantage of this Power to prove it necessary to the world by shewing at the same time that it hath been the cause of all the Evils of the Church THEY maintain that the Papacy hath heretofore done and still doth a great deal of good to the Church and to the world this I can confute all at once by a thing which the world knows which is that we have in no place so many true Christians as in those Catholick Countries where this power is least known as in France Flanders and Germany But let us see particularly what good the Papacy doth It is a common saying that there is nothing so bad but that you may make some use of it either in its nature or in conjunction with other things Let us then examine the usefulness of the Papacy omitting nothing that can be said to its advantage It is says Cardinal Perron The Center and the root of Chriâ—tian Vnity These are fine words I confess but we shall find but very little sense in them if we a little consider them for I ask him In what this Unity doth consist and how the Pope is the center and the root of it If this Unity be in the pure service of God methinks that God should be the center of it and not the Pope and that it is also God who is the root of it that is the influencing principle over the will and strength of men to serve him and to do well If this Unity be for doing what is evil it is then but a conspiracy and I do confess that in regard of wicked Clergy-men who are the members of the Pope he is the source of all their Impiety Ambition and Dissoluteness and he is the center of the Unity of these people who belong all to him and as for themselves he is the center of their worship and would be so to all other men Palavicini says that the union and submission of all Catholicks to the Pope makes a band a life perfectly Politick Vna conjunctione di vita perfâ—tta mente Politica He says not a Christian but a Politick life and according to him it is the same thing And in another place he says the Church is the most happy Body Politick in the world Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra This Unity as I said before consists only in their obedience to the Pope whom they all honour for thâ—ir profit looking upon him as the source of Riches of Honours and of all the pleasures whiâ—h they have according to the flesh Secondo la carne This Unity is in the conformity of judgment which they all make of the riches of the Churches Patrimony which is that they are good It is certain that it is not in their opinions for what Clergy-man is there who cares for the Popes
judgment when it is contrary to his own What Unity is there between the Jesuits and the Pope now reigning What Unity is there among many Sects of the Monks who make war upon one another and mortally hate each other What Unity is there of Morals among one or other the Jesuits and the good Catholicks whom they treat as Hereticks Apostates Antichrists and Devils What Unity was there between the Jansenists and Pope Alexander the Seventh We see that for twenty years last past the Popes are between these two Sects as between the Anvil and the Hammer not knowing how to govern themselves because on one side the Jesuits dispose of all the powers of Europe and on the other their Morals destroy Christianity and Humanity it self in this they are opposed by the Jansenists who are followed by all sorts of people that are not lost in Ignorance or Irreligion How can they ever agree in their opinions because the decisions of one Pope do often times overthrow those of another and sometimes they are themselves Hereticks as some people do accuse the present Pope of being a Jansenist which is according to them worse than Heretick What Unity of Religion is there between the Spanish the Italian and French Nations whereof the two first have scarce any knowlâ—dg of God but are almost all Idolaters and the last is very different from them Lastly to judg of this Unity we need only to read the Books of the several Doctors and we shall find them of very different opinions even in regard of the Pope himself The Divines of Italy make him a God on Earth those of France and Germany believe nothing on 't The Universities of Rome and Bolonia determine that he is above the Councils those of France and of Louvain prove very well the contrary The Italian Councils of Florence the Lateran and of Trent will have him above a General Council those of Constance and of Basil maintain that it is a detestable Heresie to believe so If there be a Unity how comes it to pass that it is said and that with reason too that the Pope hath a different soul in every State where he governs If there were a Unity there would be but one Soul they must have greater abilities than either St. Peter or St. Paul who could not unite mens minds in the Churches of Corinth of Philippi and of Galatia where we learn by the Gospel that many Errors were taught in these Apostles times The Cardinal Palavicini says also that Il Principiato Apostolico maintienne in unita in regola in decoro tutta la Chieza the Apostolick Primacy maintains in Unity in Order and in Beauty the whole Church To know the truth of what this Cardinal says we need only to consider what edification the Popes have given to the Church since Boniface the Third Patriarch of the Popes and first Head of the Church Was not the action whereby he got to be Universal Bishop a good example to the Church and that of Pope Zachary in regard of Chilperic Is there any thing in the world that favours perfidiousness and injustice more than these Examples See the Histories of Platina of Genebrard of Sigebert and many others and you shall find that there are no crimes excesses nor abominations which the Popes have not committed to bring about their Affairs for many Ages Is it not a matter of great consolation for honest men to see in this Seat Children Magicians Atheists Adulterers and Sodomites as History affirmeth and not ten or twelve only in all but fifty one after another Baronius himself doth not deny it if the Church had had such Heads as these she would have been long since abolished upon Earth But to make short work on 't Was it not they who ruined the Church and Religion among the Greeks by giving them over as a prey to the Turks because they would not submit to the Popish yoke but demanded the observation of the Holy Canons Were not they the cause of the loss of Hungary by their perfidiousness having advised the King of Hungary to violate the Treaty made with the Turks for which the Hungarians were by a just judgment of God cut all to pieces in the Battel of Varnes as a Poet of those times relates who brings in the King of Hungary speaking thus Me nisi Pontifices jussissent rumpere foedus Non ferret Scythicum Pannonis ora jugum Discite Mortales non temerare Fidem Can it be denied but that it was they who by their detestable Simony and by their pride have destroyed Religion in all those Countries which are called Protestants See but the Complaints which all great men for many Ages have made against this See and those who have been in possession of it and you may judg of the solidity of what Cardinal Palavicini saith that they maintain the Church in Unity in Order and in Honour I will relate some Examples of it John of Salisbury Bishop of Chartres speaks thus The Scribes and Pharisees are sate in the Church of Rome imposing weighty burthens upon the people The Soveraign Pontife is an insupportable grievance to all honest men His Legates commit so many Enormities that it looks as tho the Devil were let loose whosoever doth not acquiesce in their Doctrine is by them treated as a Heretick And the Council of Rheimes Assembled under Hugh Capet and Robert his Son crys out thus Shall it be said that an infinite number of Bishops and Priests who are Illustrious for their merit and for their knowledg shall submit themselves to such Monsters What means this most Reverend Fathers What think you that this man is whom we see sitting upon a lofty Throne shining all with Gold and clothed with Purple We have spoken of the Letter of the Emperor Barbarossa to the Princes of the Empire which Aventine makes mention of the same Author also produces the Speech of an Archbishop who presided in the States of the Empire held at Ratisbon there are these words The Pope teacheth us one thing which is this That there is this difference between Christian Princes and those who are not such that the first bear rule over their Subjects and on the contrary the Subjects viz. the Popes ought to rule over their Princes Our Lord himself took upon him the form of a Servant to serve his Disciples and to kiss their feet but these Ministers of Babylon will reign themselves alone and cannot suffer an equal they will never be at râ—st till they have laid all at their feet till they sit in the Temple of God and even raise themselves above God. He despiseth the Hâ—ly Assemblies and Câ—uncils of his Brethren and of his Masters He is afraid of being compelâ—ed to give an account of what he hath committed against the Laws He speakâ— of great things as tho he were God. His mind runs upon new dâ—signs of establishing an Empire for himself He changeth
their Government and destroy the Maxims by which they have managed themselves so long They answer That then their lives would be in danger and that the Court of Rome would destroy them as they did Adrian the Sixth who thought to have reformed the Church of whom Cardinal Palavicini gives this Account That he was Ottimo Ecclesiastico Pontefice Mediocre a Good Priest but an Indifferent Pope But if the Popes cannot find a Remedy for the Disorders which are so prevalent because as they say their Authority is not sufficient what are they then good for and why shall we any longer suffer this Tyranny in the Church If they can find a Remedy and will not they are then not only unprofitable but detestable Creatures It is certainly one or other or both together for we see that every thing is overturned in the Church And what If they are the Vicars of Jesus Christ and Successors of St. Peter ought they not to think themselves happy to die for the Glory of God and Good of the Church Is it better to be the Object of Mens Worship to provoke the Jealousie of God and to do so much mischief in the Church Where is the Zeal of Moses or of St. Paul who would have died for their Brethren and have been even accursed and of the first Bishops of Rome who suffered Martyrdom so Couragiously They love rather to give them Money and Benefices because that thus they put out all to great Usury they sow that they may reap they give what is none of their own or else what signifies nothing to them If it be true that they are careful of the Salvation of these People why are they not so of their own Why do they not labour for the Salvation of Catholicks That would cost them no Money There needs nothing but to allow the Reading of the Holy Scripture every where and recommend it as God hath recommended it to us to suffer Divine Service to be read in a Language which every body understands For it cannot be denied but that the want of these things doth produce among us great Ignorance with which Piety is never to be found But to give Money to convert People it is the mark of a very prophane Spirit and a very dishonest method and an Example for Mahometans and Hereticks to make use of even towards Christians And to give Benefices it is yet worse for by this the Clergy is filled up more and more with Hypocrites and People of no Religion who spend the Goods of the Poor upon Debauchery and Luxury and most commonly are of no use at all to the Church They say That they make Religion to be respected But how Is it by their own Piety or Sanctity or that of their Court or by their Humility No truly these Vertues are wholly there unknown and the contrary Vices have ruled the Rost long since but their fine Court and the Greatness and Magnificence of the Cardinals are the things we hear of But are these the things that ought to make men love Religion Is it Gold and Silver costly Furniture Riches Carnal Pleasures which the Prelates glut themselves withal Is it their Cavalcades to Montecavallo their Horse and Foot-Guards their Armies and their Fleets which make Religion to be respected If it be so both Jesus Christ and his Apostles deserved to be despised in comparison of their Vicars and the Christian Religion also was very contemptible in their days Is it to Excommunicate all the World when they please without Authority without Cause and against the Nature of the Gospel which is Charity it self But wise men are so far from respecting them for this that they look upon them as Fools Is it to hold a Chappel or Consistory where they treat only of prophane things and of promoting of Cardinals What doth this signifie or what Relation hath it to the Glory of God or the Salvation of Men And what is there in all this which the Patriarch of Venice or the Archbishop of Lyons might not do as well as the Pope if he had a mind to it We must not dissemble All the Respect which men have for the Papacy at least they who hope for no advantage by it comes only from the Respect or from the Fear which they see Princes have of it And this respect of Princes if it be voluntary proceedeth from great Ignorance of Religion in which they have been brought up for that purpose or from the ill Council of some Ambitious Clergy-man who compasses his Designs at the Prince's Expence If this Respect be forced as ordinarily it is it is then out of the fear which men have of the Popes Power whereby he rules the vast Numbers of the Ecclesiasticks and especially the Monks who govern the meaner People who as Palavicini says are the disposers of the Religion of Countries It is said That they have the Power of making the Laws of God to be observed If so they ought themselves to give an Example they ought to apply to themselves what our Saviour said to St. Peter not to draw his Sword. It is a thing both ridiculous and horrible that these People should have Armies and make War. They do it in Germany after the Bishop of Rome his Example But where is it that they make the Laws of God to be observed Is there any place where they are violated more than where they have most Authority Is Rome at this day better than Sodom Do not they on the contrary favour as much as in them lies the very Crime by the Example of their Court by their Expences by their pretending to exempt all Clergy-men from the Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate that so they may commit all sorts of Crimes and go unpunished But they say furthermore That they make Kings stand in Awe and hinder them from professing Heresie On the contrary it is they who made them become Hereticks as in England Sweden and Denmark and who by their Tyranny hinder them from returning into the bosom of the Church It is also pretended That they are very useful for the composing of Differences between Princes being looked upon as common Fathers to them all On the contrary their Artifices and Ambition are so well known that thâ—re is no Prince whom they are more distrustful of They never carried on their own Interest better than during the Wars of Italy Germany France and Spain which either they always began or kept on foot They are also constant Enemies to Great Princes What is alledged might take place if the Popes were not thâ—mselves become Temporal Princes at the Expence of the Emperoâ—â— and other Princes whom they have robbed And it is kâ—own that they have Pretensions over all Christian Kingdoms That there is no Court more refined in Policy than theirs or that makes less Conscience of taking to themselves what belongs to another In truth they think it not taken wrongfully because they pretend that it is
their Right that the Pope is Sennor del Mondo and they call him Nostor Sennorâ— Our Lord as well as Jesus Christ. There is no State in Europe which they have not endeavoured many times to destroy and which they have not greatly endamaged Matthew Paris relates to us that King John of England because he would not receive an Archbishop of Canterbury whom Poâ—e Innâ—cent the Third had Elected against the Canons he was first Excommucated by Innocent who accordingly gave away his Kingdom to Philip the August King of France and that poor King John was compelled to implore the Popes mercy who received him very bountifully on condition that from thenceforth his Kingdom should depend upon the Holy See should be Tributary to it and pay 20000 Marks of Gold every year And that this King having recovered his courage resolved to Abjure Christianity as an evil Religion thereby designing to cast off the Popish yoke Because he made himself the Popes Vassal he was called the Apostolick King. I wonder why the Kings of France and Spain will not add to the Titles of Most Christian and Most Catholick that of Apostolick Kings at the same price as this King John of England did 'T is not his Holiness's fault they may have it when they please They answer that it is true that they have heretofore caused disorders but that it will never fall out so again that it was some hot headed men that amongst the Apostles themselves there was found a Judas But I maintain that all these disasters proceeded not only from the pettish humour of any one Pope but were the natural effects of the Principles of the Papacy And tho we do not see it visibly break forth every day by some bloody example yet we ought not to believe that the habit or the will is ever the less but that there is some external extraordinary reason which suspends the Action and which does sometimes make them act directly contrary to their own inclination Do not we see that the Inquisition it sâ—lf at Rome that Impious Tribunal which hath the power of authorising the greatest crimes and of Canonizing for the Popes Interest even Parricides and the Assassins of our Kings as amongst others by a Decree of the ninth of November 1609 it did condemn the Decree of the Parliament of Paris given out against John Chatel who had attempted to Murther Henry the Fourth This Tribunal I say hath not long since condemned the Jesuits Morals tho they were perfectly conformable to the Principles of the Inquisition and we see that the Jesuits of France are at this time in the Kings Interest against the Pope which is absolutely contrary to their Maxims and to all their former conduct which shews that it is not true that because an ill person does a good action he is no more to be feared Tho a man be extreamly wicked it does not follow from thence that every thing he does shall be so We must not think that the habit is lost because we do not always see its acts Philosophers tell us that it is often so It is a sort of a Truce and not a Peace Non pax sed induciae bellum enim manet pugna cessaâ— A Cobler says Horace is still a Cobler tho his Stall be shut Et Alfenus vafer omni abjecto instrumento Artis clausaque taberna sutor erat Thus the Pope remains still Pope tho he sometimes do a good Action Valerius Maximus says in a certain place that there are people Quorum animus peregrinatur in nequitia non habitat whose minds light upon iniquity but like a Traveller in an Inn they fix not so may it be said of the Popes Quorundam paparum animus peregrinatur in bonitate non habitat that they sometimes touch upon a good action but cannot hold to it The Viper is a very dangerous creature tho she doth not always bite when it lyes in her power But it is never good to trust her Nemo juxtae viperam securos somnos capit quae si non percutit certe sollicitat Says St. Hierom somewhere The Papacy is just the same it is the Chair of Pestilence Cathedra Pestilentiae where the best men are corrupted It is what he very well understood who said that the greatest harm he could wish a man was that he were Pope And the Holy Carthusian Father that praises God that none of his Order had ever yet been Pope How can any man maintain that Princes need not stand in fear of the Pope when three Popes of this present age have condemned the opinion that the Pope cannot depose Kings as wicked and contrary to the Faith Accipe nunc Danaum insidias crimine ab uno disce omnes These were Paul the Fifth Innocent the Tenth and Alexander the Seventh of whom it may be said that they were Ottimi Pontefici Ecclesiastici mediocri that they were true Popes but very indifferent Clergymen who will be both Judg and party in their own cause and pretend that their evidence must be taken even when it tends to their own profit and to the spoiling of those who believe them I could yet produce a later example which is that of the present Pope who with unsufferable rashness lately threatened to Excommunicate the Greatest King upon Earth because he would Reign alone in his own State and take away from some people who ought to employ themselves only in serving God the disposal of some Benefices which belong properly to the Soveraign of a State who we see makes a more judicious choice of men fit to serve in these Employs because he doth not sell them nor give them to his Relations as they did who had but very little regard to the merit of those upon whom they conferred these things Besides of right the Popes have nothing to do in the Dominions of other Princes and there have been sufficient proofs given by this Great Prince of his zeal for Justice and for Religion But these men love to make people feel their yoke and it may be well said of them what Mithridates said of the ancient Romans that it was not their love to Justice that made them fight against Princes but the desire of their Authority and of their Greatness Non delicta Regum illos sed vires ac Majestatem insequi It is well known how ill they have treated Spain not long since upon the account of the President of Castile who had reason in what he did and how at this time they handle the Venetians Don't we know how Alexander the Seventh and his Nephews behaved themselves at Rome towards our King in the person of his Ambassador the Duke of Crequi We may remember how that under Henry the Fourth they wanted but very little to have utterly ruined France and to have made the French all subject to the Spaniards and if the Parliament at Paris had not been better Christians than