conformity in their superstition The pretense of obedience maketh this actiō worse than before contempt of Catholicke vnity I pray you imparte your conceite vnto me I my selfe can see nothing else wheof I doe inferre that by such pretended obedience this act is made worse then it was before For a precept law or commaundment prescribeth a matter to that vertue which it intendeth of which it was not a necessary matter before as the commandement of not eating flesh vpon a fasting day was not a matter of fasting necessary before the law for why one might haue before fasted better with one bitte of flesh than with a dainty dinner of diuerse dishes of fishe but after the law it is a necessary obseruance and matter prescribed vnto fasting So in like maner although to goe to the Church before with hereticks had not bene as alwaies it was an act of religion now being commaunded by the law as an act of religion for that is the intent of the law manifestly pretended in the one or other statute of going to the Church it is only a simple act of obedience but an act of obedience in such a matter principally intended as is the profession of a false religion For euery religiouse act applied vnto a false god or a false kind of worship or a false Society of worshippers is an expresse protestation of the same false worship or vnlawfull fellowshippe So should you first haue proued this action to be lawfull in it selfe Obedience is no excuse but whan the matter thereof is first proued lawfull and then you might haue inferred that your obedience had bene lawfull and you should also haue shewed some end in this law ouer and besides bare obedience other then the end of religion which surely must needes be yeelded to be the very end and obiect of the law And this long experience hath shewed in the Church of God that when temporall Princes must be obeyed in Churches Amb l. 5. ep 33. ad Marcellinam there is farther daunger in it then I list now to speake But you shall see an example of Christian obedience When the Emperour was at greate strife with S. Ambrose the holy B. of Millan about the deliuering certaine Churches in the citty of Millan vnto the Arrians as alwaies before this fearefull abiect age Ibid. S Ambrose his obedience to the Emperour Catholikes wold neuer be found amongst heretickes in Churches S. Ambrose aunswered the Emperour in this maner Trouble not thy selfe O Emperour that thou maiest thinke that thou hast any emperiall authority ouer diuine thinges To the Emperour Pallaces appertaine to the Bishop the Churches To thee is committed the righte ouer the publicke not ouer the sacred walles ⧠And when the same Saint was threatned with death for the same cause by Calligonus the Emperours Eunuch euen in the Church God permitte saith he that thou doe that which thou threatnest for I will suffer that which becommeth a Bishop thou shalt doe that which beseemeth an Eunuch ⧠In which controuersie the souldiers sent word as saith S. Ambrose vnto the Emperour that if he would come abrode he mighte with good leaue But that they woulde waite vpon him if they saw him agree with Catholickes Trew Catholicke Christians were than Recusants otherwise they would passe vnto that companye which Ambrose should gather Such accounte ought Christians to make of auoiding hereticall synagogues I will conclude therfore this matter of obedience with one shorte but inuincible reason You will haue it lawfull for obedience to goe to the Church An inuincible reason that it is not lawfull to go to the Church for obedience Than say I in this maner Whatsoeuer is lawfull to be donne that being by a Superiour commaunded is a mortall sinne to transgresse or to omitte But as you defend it is lawfull to goe to the Church for obedience therfore it is a mortall sinne not to goe to the Church when it is so commanded See I pray you how many Preistes Martyrs men woemen and children you condemne to hell whilest you seeke to maintaine your owne dangerouse wilfull estate §. 10. Now let vs proceed vnto your feare The 9 obiection of Feare which you make as one reason amongst the rest but in deede is the wholl cause of your forsaking God Because you haue not perfectly learned his lesson which saidI will teach you whom you shall feare Feare him which when he hath killed the body hath power to sende both bodye and soule into Hell fier yea verely I say vnto you feare him You saye therfore that you doe as you doe for feare and not voluntarily But nothing is a sinne which is not donne voluntarily Therfore in your action is no sinne at all Where if you had said thus that you doe what you do not voluntarily but nothing not voluntarily donne is a sinne therfore what you doe is no sinne then had your argument bene good but your Maior false for I would then say you did voluntarily what you did But now in your first proposition where you say that you doe a thing for feare and yet not voluntarily you include two thinges most repugnant in them selues For it is impossible that a thing be donne onely for feare and not voluntarily Whatsoeuer is done for feare is voluntary And in thispoint we must begge helpe of heathen Philosophers For so hath feare darckened our countreis vnderstanding that the very principles of all morall actions and of goodnes or badnes in our doinges are called into question For what I pray you if for feare of loasing your owne life you vniustly take away an others because of that feare haue you not sinned If you haue sinned then haue you voluntarilye donne it For * Aug l. 3 de lib. arb c. 17 18. et lib. de vera rel c. 14. lib. 1. retract c. 13 asinne is not a sinne except it be voluntary If IOSEPH for feare of his Ladies slaunder had satisfied her will had he donne against his owne Had the three childrē done against their owne will if they had for feare sacrificed or donne worship to the Idoll And your selfe shall be iudge When you goe to the Church doe you goe against your will doth any man cary you or doe you cary your selfe in such maner because of your feare that you might not stay your selfe at home Surely if feare be so mighty a Passion that it taketh away the free gouernment of a mans wil and not onely threatneth but inferreth violenc to the outward members in vaine did our Sauiour exhorte vs not to feare the world in vaine did he with his heauenly instructions animate his Disciples against incounters whatsoeuer of the aduersaries of his holy truth But let vs decide this question out of Philosophy Onely violence taketh away voluntary In a reasonable creature therfore nothing taketh away the nature of voluntary but constraint Now coaction or constraint
wholle action and is called a circumstance therof An example of this you may haue in all actions If a man determine to go to dinner the very obiect and motiue and intrinsecall end of his desire that is of his intention is to dine But if he referre this his dinner vnto obedience or vnto the glory of God for whom he intendeth to keepe and increase hiscorporall strength these are extrinsecall endes or circumstances of the first intention or end and his immediate intention being to dine he referreth the same with a farther intention vnto those endes Now this intrinsecall end which we spake of as it giueth the nature and forme vnto the inward action so doth it also giue what goodnes or badnes is in it For if that obiect or motiue be of the owne nature conformable vnto to reason than is it a good action or desire If contrary contrary A good action of it selfe may be corrupted by the circumstances but an euill action cannot be iustified by good circūstances or intentions If indifferent so that it hath in it selfe no certaine or determinate order vnto right reason then is the action of the owne nature indifferent neither good nor badde Yet doth not goodnes or badnes flow into an action onely by the nature of the immediate obiect or end of the same but also by the extrinsecall end yea by euery circumstance and euery meanes taken for the obtaining of the same first end or obiect So that although the action be good of it selfe or indifferent yet if it be referred to a further end which is euill or if any meanes vsed for the bringing to passe of the action it selfe be euill or there wante any circumstance of time place maner or measure necessary than is the wholle action it selfe naught for some circumstance Euen in like manner is the action it selfe naught when it being vnlawfull is donne with all possible circumstances or intention of whatsoeuer farther good Dion c. 4. de diu nom For the generall ground both of Philosophers and Diuines cannot be infringed that good is of the wholle intiere cause but the euill is of euery particuler defect Hence is it therfore euident first that although your remote intentions in going to the Church haue neuer so great colour of piety yet that which immediatelye you doe which is to goe to the Church is your intention also And that you as well intend to goe to the Church although for those extrinsecall endes as hee which stealeth for to geue Almes intendeth to steale and the dissolute woeman which killeth her Infant for feare of geuing scandall intendeth the death therof Secondly that the immediate action of going to the Church being euill it cānot be iustified by any godly or lawfull circumstance Euen as if it were good of it selfe yet might it be made euill by an euill circumstance For good requireth a perfect cause euill is that which wanteth any part of the cause Euen as a man is not a perfect man except he haue all his members perfect yet is he imperfect if with all other good pro portion he doe but looke awry §. 12. The 11. obiection of that nature of Churches As for your last reason it is answered in one worde The Churches are ours in ded But the heretickes seruice and company is not ours Euen as if there were Idolatry or any filthy crime there practised you had no right vnto the Idolatry or other sinne nor might be there present for all your right to the Church But if you haue right to the Church why goe you thither at seruice time or so that you may seeme to be at seruice Greg. l. 3. dial c. 30. Hereticall Churches are Deuils lodgings is it not sufficient at any other season O Sir it is not the Church which draweth you but the seruice And if you knew that Churches prophaned by heretikes haue other maner of inhabitants in them then the holy Angells you would not be very hasty for deuotion to go vnto them euen when they be emptye But you shall heare what S. Hillary saith of those which in his time wente to the Churches where heretickes were gathered for loue vnto the Churches dedicated before vnto God Lib. cont Auxent circa fin Wickedly hath the loue of the walles possessed you wickedly doe you reuerence the Church of God in houses and buildings wickedly vnder these pretenses doe you talke of peace vnto me are more safe the mountaines lakes prisons and dongeons ⧠Where you may see a perfect example of our age and how the most holy Fathers which haue liued in auncient times amongst heretickes accounted no small matter the ioyning themselues vnto theire detestable company For they alwaies esteemed it besides a fauouring and exterior protestation of their sectes a most ready way vnto the wholle ouerthrow of true religion For the heretickes haue alwaies endeuoured with shew of piety to darken true piety The cause why heretickes retain Churches and with maintaining some outward shewe of reuerend antiquitye to blotte out of peoples memory the auncient truth it selfe Such was the inuention of Idolatrous Hieroboam who made Israell to sinne Now saith he will the kingdome returne vnto the house of DAVID 3 Reg. 12. if this people doe ascend to doe sacrifice in the house of God in Hierusalem ⧠And for this cause he deuised new Gods new preistes and prophane temples Euen so is it with you For least the people should haue desire to resorte to the true house of God in spirituall Hierusalem longing after Confession after Masse after holy Catholicke Sermons and the whollevse of Catholicke rites and ceremonies you are fedde with reuerend Churches with gay painted words and seruice in the vulgar tongue not for any affection of piety or inclination of vertue For who knoweth not how litle they seeke for piety or desire for other respects to keepe Churches standing but only to nourish the dissention and maintaine the diuision of ISRAEL from IVDA To this end doe they furnishe your Tables with such dishes as are no more comparable with the Catholike dainties than the Onions of Aegipt with the most delicate Manna of the Desert §. 13. THE SECOND PARTE Hauing now answered sufficiently as I suppose vnto your obiections for other obiections which I must of force helpe you withall I wil after bring forth Other obiections are answered in the progresse of this Treatise there resteth the onely thing which I haue in this wholle discourse supposed and taken as certaine in wihch in deed our wholle disputation doth principally consist that is to proue by necessary groundes that to goe to the Church is an action of it selfe euill and iustifiable for no circumstance at all which I haue hitherto supposed not bringing any argumentes therof other then by answering your obiections must needes be insinuated because it was not my part in this Epistle to proue the truth but to
Church if you desire to be you may easely dreame it but then are you not of the trew Church but of a dreamed Church But as the trew Church of God is visible it selfe so is the vnion ther which visible And the diuision of other Churches which are in deed not trew Churches but conuenticles or as S. Hierome calleth theē sinagogues of the Diuell being in all the world manifest visible as it were the diuels visible congregations Ep. 11. ad Gerōt de monog As the Church is visible so is the vnion therwith visible who doubteth but the vnion ther which is also visible You know that in Philosophy ENS VNVM be certaine Transcendents which agree to all thinges equally and looke what euery thing hath of Entity that it hath also of vnity Now if Caluins Church be a visible Church and I would to God it were altogither inuisible and sent downe so that the persons therof were safe vnto the Prince of darkenes from whom it first proceeded if Caluins Church I say bee visible than as the being of it is so is the vnity also that is it hath a visible vnity and what vnity is this but that which the wholle world iudgeth a visible frequēting of Caluins congregation The Church you go vnto is Caluins congregation Eph. 6. Col. 1. what is a congregation but a multitude gathered togither and who maketh this multitude but Ihon Thomas and Peter and all that are there If you will from this word All challendge a certaine extra ordinary priuiledge to say that they are all except your selfe you surely doe more than euer was heard of and arrogate vnto your selfe Ro. 5. the deserued Priuiledge of CHRIST our B. LADY who onely are said to haue bene exempted yet with sufficient groundes of scriptures and Fathers from generall sentences such as is that of S. PAVL ⧠in which all haue sinned ⧠But Sir you can no more exempt your selfe from this sentence All these are Caluinists by saying except I than you shall be able at the dreadfull daye of Gods seuere iudgement if you alter not your course to exempt your selfe from go you cursed by saying except I. Mat. 23. What place our Schismatickes haue in Caluins congregation Aug. in Brouin collat 3 The soule of Caluins church Than are you one of Caluins congregation Yet that I may doe you no wrong I will heere put you in minde of a certaine distinction which Catholick Doctours vse that is that some be of the soule of the Church and some of the body For the Church of Christ is not a deade bodye but a body quickned with a liuely spirite The soule of the Church are the inward vertues therof the body is the outward shew Euen so doe I say that in Caluins Church there is a body and a soule the soule is Caluins beliefe and whatsoeuer other dowry of hell it hath for this soule hath no other place than hell fier The body of Caluins church The body therof most fitt for such a soule is the outward profession or shew or vnion or practise and society of Caluins broode Now I confesse that one of these may be without the other And as there may be in the Catholicke Church variety of her members So may there also be in Caluins Sinagogues In the Catholicke Church some are both of the body and soule of the same such as haue both Faith and the outward profession of Catholike religion Others onely of the soule such as haue not the outward vnion and peace with the Church but before God are of such perfection that they be immediately vnited therunto by his heauenly grace Such are those cathecumens which abound with loue of God and trew faith or also excommunicate persons not yet restored in humane Iudgement but restored before God from whom they haue receiued trew contrition and purpose of amendment For God is not tied vnto his Sacraments but can and doth oftentimes immediately iustify those which are throughly conuerted vnto him Finally others there are which hauing no inward disposition at all yet either for feare or some other affection of worldly interest in outward shew doe nothing differ from the rest And these are worthely compared vnto the heares of a mans body or nailes or euill humours which although they be within the body yet are they not animated by the soule as other partes of the body are being depriued of all sense and lost without paine and by nature not fitte to be quickned bvt rather certaine excrementes of the body onely made to adorne and gard the body and to be vsed by the same for the operations of the wholle So than haue we found out your office in Caluins congregation You are not of the soule therof in deed For I hope of the former faith which I know to haue bene perfect in you But as S. Hierome saith although at the beginning no schisme hath false doctrine in Tit. 3. Schisme is the way to heresy yet at the length it forgeth to it selfe some erroneous proposition that it may seeme to haue gonne from the Church with pretense of some cause much like vnto your selfe who first going to the Church for feare now that you may purge your selfe of cowardise basenes maintaine your errour contrary to the generall sense not onely of the Church but euen of morall reason Therfore looke well vnto your selfe least at the length as the losse of charity * 1 Tim. 1. is the way to the losse of faith so your entrance into schisme make you an entrance vnto heresy and so to a generall shipwracke in faith according to the saying of the Psalmist Destroy it * Psal 136. See S. Greg. l. 25. mor. c. 5. destroy it euen vnto the very foundation But yet as I saied you are not of the soule of Caluins religion Neither are you of the body of Caluin as a principall member But you shall heare what you are and I pray you heare it patiently Prou. 27. For better are the strokes of a frend then the kisses of an enemy You are the excrements of Caluins congregation The excrements of Caluins religion receiuing life neither from Catholicke religion nor from Caluins heresy although how could Caluins heresy or any heresie at all geue life vnto the soule and in that body you serue for no necessary vse in which you are the happier and so I hope you will keepe your selfe from any butcherly and tyrannicall exercise but you serue them yet Caluins religion in England hath bene compacted of excrements for an ornament and creditt as though they had a shew of a common wealth And how fitlye is Caluins religion adorned with excrements For if you take way these excrements or at the least if such excrements had bene taken away from the begining in Caluins wholle body there woulde be now neuer a sound mēber But remember I pray you that whilest your
lawes or Princes cannot appoint distinctiue signes of religion § 35 The 17. The 17. obiection that we haue no expresse Canon or auncient practise of the Church against going to heretickes seruice § 36.37.38.39.40 The Printer to the Reader HAuing made readye for thy necessary preseruation against all contagion of Schisme so present an Electuary Gentle Reader I thought it very profitable for thy better vnderstanding and the easier reading of this Treatise to aduertise the of the generall order and methode therof The wholle booke therfore is fittely deuided into fiue partes The first answereth in order the obiections which are vsually made in defence of Schisme and were the principall cause of writing this Treatise according to the occasion ministred by the letter here confuted although afterward also through the wholle booke many obiections be aunswered either propounded by the author him selfe or touched in the aforsaide letter The second parte out of Theologicall grounds and reasons §. 13. declareth the vnlawfullnes of this kind of Schisme The third parte intreateth of some thinges annexed vnto this Schismaticall action §. 32. as daunger of infection the greeuousnes of the sinne comparison with other sinnes and the neglecting of our dewty towardes our neighbours in the reformation therof The fourth parte deduceth out of that which went before §. 35. that this action was vnlawfull and a signe distinctiue before any statute of the realme or late Canon of holy Church and largely entreateth of the nature and variety of signes distinctiue of religion The fifth §. 36. examineth the auncient practise of Gods Church and out of the same doth euidently conclude the determined purpose This gentle Reader did I thinke good to warne thee of desiring in recompence of all my labour that thou wilt courteously pardon the faultes escaped which although they be more than I would yet considering many difficulties of a straunge language a straunge countrey absence of the authour and an vnready copy are notwithstanding fewer than I expected Other faultes thou maiest lett alone vntill in reading thou be at a stay yet in two places there wanting wholle lines take the paines at the beginning to amend them that so both thy owne course in reading may be easied and those which shall come afrer thee may be furthered The faultes escaped P. 4. in the margen Iob. 41. P. 23. there wanteth the quotatiō of S. Augustin in the margen Tract 48. in Ioan. P. 29. l. 2. in marg 8.9 P. 35. l. 15. there wanteth a full pointe before very well P. 36. in the margē at the beginning note Tract in Psal 124. P. 40. l. 2. it is not onely P. 46. l. 17. vnuoluntary P. 60. l. 7. for vndoubtedly reade vndewtifully P. 61 l. 25. of this deede P. 66. in the margen l. 14. Q. Iniuncti P. 75. l. 3. in religion P. 76. l. 12. in the margen sence l. 26. and outward P. 81. l. 18. put a comma after truely P. 82. l. 30. reade thus all heretickes if such be indeed inwardly heretickes P. 83. l. 20 which as a visible P. 85. l. 4. in the marg reade thus Psal 118. ver 165. P. 93. l. 8 in marg in Breuic P. 95. l. 3. marg c. 15. l. 18. away P. 101. l. 23. mortall P. 112. l. 12. reade thus S. Agnes My Angell will keepe me that I be not polluted with other mens filthines or with S. Lucy ibid. in marg Amb. ser 90. ad Virgin P. 113. marg See § 16. P. 116. l. 12. Concurrent P. 123. l. penult obiectes P. 127. there wanteth the note of § 34. P. 128. l. 26. they be neuer P. 129. l. 18. marg for 23. read 32. P. 130. l. 11. marg Honoratur P. 150. l. 12. for P. 164. l. 15. to your politicke P. 166. l. penult Ariminum P. 173. l. 5. marg 162. P. 177. l. 5. with Martyrdome P. 187. l. 20. Donatian P. 188. l. 2. marg l. 2. vitae The places of S. Cyprian are sometimes cited according to an ould imperfect edition which the authour vsed at the beginning but afterward he gotte the last edition of Pamelius AN APOLOGY AGAINST THE DEFENCE OF Schisme THe first degree of felicity as worthely noteth S. CYPRIAN is not to offend Lib. 1. ep 3 the second to know the offence It is a greate misery and most heauy punishment of Gods iustice after that the innocency and purity of an vnspoted conscience is once lost not to know what is amisse and not feeling the smart of the disease to neglect the helpe of phisicke One of the highest degrees of pride the roote and complement of all iniquity is the defence of sinne Psal 140. and with very great reason did DAVID aske of God that his hart might not decline into wordes of malice for to frame excuses in iniquities The not knowing of sinne is so great a plague of Gods indignation that he hath reserued the same especially for the times of Antichrist when wickednes abounding 2. Thes 2. Gods seuere punishment shall also match the same At which time as saieth S. PAVL to such as haue not receiued the charity of truth that they may be saued God will send the operation of error that they may beleue a lye So did he punish those which * Esa 3. preached their sinne like vnto Sodome and were so farre from the knowing of sinne that by preaching it they did defend it Woe vnto you saith the Prophet ESAY which call euill good and good euill making darknes Esa 5. light and light darknes making bitter sweet and sweet bitter Woe vnto you which are sage in your owne eies and wise before your selues Be not * Ro. 13 ouer wise but feare saith the vessell of Election for * Ro. 11. the wisdome of the flesh is death The * Ro. 8. Prophet Ieremy in the person of God propoundeth a question of the obstinacy of the Iewes what should the cause bee that hee which was falne * c. 8. did not rise againe and he which was gone backe did not returne But he answereth it in these wordes why therfore was this people in Hierusalem auerted with a contentious auersion they haue taken hold of a lye and would not returne I haue attended and harkened no man speaketh that which is good there is none which doth Penance of his sinne saying what haue I done All are turned vnto their owne course as a horse going impetuously vnto warre The Kite in the aire hath knowne his time the Turtle and Swallow and Storke haue kepte the time of their coming but my people hath not knowne the iudgement of their Lord. How doe you say we are wise and the law of God is with vs verely the lying stile of the Scribes hath wrote a lye Thus Ieremy I may seeme vnto you my deare frend to forget the familiarity of an epistle and being caried away with the vehemency of an extraordinary greife rather to
not going to the Church with heretickes yet if you be commaunded of purpose to doe contrary vnto such law by doing it you sinne mortally neither can the Pope dispense that his owne autority be had in contempt This is the common doctrine both in matters of excommunications * Caiet ver contem verbo In Festo licita which are positiue and also in working of holy daies w e also at the least besides Sonday are positiue So that although vpon necessity one may worke vpon such a daye yet were it a mortall sinne if euen with danger of death he wrought at his Lords commaundement for despite of the Church or contempt of that particuler law And the like is in diuerse cases §. 2 Thus much therfore of your autority which you fetch from the Pope Now let vs goe to our English Cardinal of whose autority of dispensing The second obiectiō of the English Cardinalls dispensatiō or altering his opinion I must say no lesse then I said of his superiour Besides that it being held by your lawiers there that it is treason to take meate and drinke of so dangerous a person you may well suppose that it will be a deeper kind of treason to fetch from him his dispensations But he hath perhapps altered his opinion concerning the lawfulnes of this act His opinion is well knowne by all his schollers and more then 20. diuerse places in the new testament of Rhemes and now being sory that he hath heretofore bene so rigorous he hath geuen you to vnderstand how farre you may proceed To this I can say nothing more then I haue said before of the rest but that you may doe well to counsaile all Recusants which haue hitherto paied the statute or otherwise forfeited any thing for their recusancy to chalenge of him a ful restitution of all their damages For he is not ignorant that who vpon rash decision of a question of iustice or iniustice of an act is cause of any mans losse or hinderance is by Gods law and mans liable for the same besides the offence which hee committeh towardes God as well in the same resolution as if withall he haue therby caused the spirituall ruine of many soules which any man may perceiue whether it hath proceeded of his former rigour or no. But the truth is that these are thinges which are fitte onely to be tould or beleeued by Babes §. 3 And what maruaile if you beleeue such reportes of persons so farre off The 3. obiection of the opinion of Preistes in England wheras you are ready to beleeue the same of your Preistes at home with whom because you dare not either for the loue of your owne opinion or for the feare of the penalty of the law go forth of your dores to conferre you are easily drawne to beleeue euery flying false report For I am very credibly giuen to vnderstand that there is not one Catholike Preist in England who differeth from the rest of his brethren one only excepted of whom I heare that no good and godly person maketh any accounte at all least perhaps the ministeriall spirite of pride which must needes haue bene once in him before he was a Catholike should returning vnto his former house make the last things worse then the former especially wheras I vnderstand that the Superiours of Rhemes hearing of his doings sent word to all other Preists by one coming vnto you that they should not feede his contentiouse humour by writing against him but account him rather as a heathen and Publicane And diuerse of our countrey-men are here resolued that he will be very shortly suspended for his singuler perniciouse doctrine This also I am assured of that a certaine other Preist who in England hauing committed vnto writing some fantasticall conceites of his owne concerning this point not finding sufficient credit at home returned to Rome whence he first came with his conceited writinges there freely and voluntarily making an humble submission and reuoking his dreames burned his papers and I heare also that for desire of perfect satisfaction for his former singularity and errour he went after his returne into England to the aforesaid Preist of whose opinion before his departue he had known nothing at all and informed him very charitably of the effect of his iorney But very likely it is that he auailed litle Yet this I do vnderstand that since his returne from Rome this Preist behaued him selfe very well in England before his imprisonment for now they say here he is in Bridewell far contrary to the conceite they had of him with vs. For this I know that at Rome to hinder his returne vnto you and to preuent the returne vnto his vomitte which was feared they would haue either kept him as prisoner or proceeded with him euen so farre as the inquisition if it had not bene feared least it would haue scandalized the countreis there discouered too much vnto them the imperfections of our nation And in the low countrey he should haue bene detained by force if they could haue found of charity who would haue discharged his commons But thankes be to God he hath behaued himselfe otherwise then we looked for God grant that in prison he be the same which he was abrod It would also haue beseemed any humble spirite such as it is not like the other singuler Preist is endowed withall to haue repaired also to his Superiours if he thinke he hath any to enquire theire iudgement seeing himselfe so singuler at home Now then you are vtterly shutte off from the autority of your Preistes at home if you will not venture your soule either vpon the fancy of one who hath since becoming soberer made knowne vnto you the sober iudgements of his graue Superiours or of one who for his too much learning may perhapps haue harboured in his minde his auncient olde acquaintance And if there be any others counsaile them I pray you to keepe their doctrine secrete for feare of what may light vpon them §. 4. Now against all these autorities which you see notwithstanding how they be either rotten or coloured and painted with a counterfaite shew That going to heretikes seruice is against the autority of all learned men of our age I oppose that I may now saye nothing of auncient times in which you will deny perhappes that your estate was fully resembled I oppose I say moste true and reuerend authority of most singuler men which haue florished in our owne age and most perfectly vewed and examined our owne cause First the 12. The Councell of Trēt Fathers of the Councell of TRENT whose learned iudgement in this point is yet extant Neither ought it to be called in to suspicion because it was not generally set downe For both there are sufficient witnesses aliue for the verity therof and it was our owne suite to haue it done couertly and perhappes it was a question vnworthy of publicke discussion
alwaies proceedeth of an extrinsecall cause vsing our members contrary vnto our owne will or desire For as in a stone it is violence to be throwen vpwarde because it is contrary to the nature of the stone which would goe downeward of it selfe and proceedeth from an externall cause which is said violently to moue the stone So in a reasonable creature which hath to gouerne it selfe by reason and knowledge whatsoeuer is contrary to the inclination and propension of the will receiued by the same knowledge is violent and properly called constraint The will cannot be constrained and cannot be any way vsed but by an externall cause For whensoeuer the will it selfe agreeth vnto a thing for whatsoeuer respect than is the action voluntary because it proceedeth from the will Yea God himselfe although he may moue the will of a man for * Pro. 21 the Kinges hart is in the hand of God and whither it pleaseth him Aug. Tract 26. in Ioan. Chrysost â—o 9. in Ioan. he will incline it yet doth he not violente the will at all but sweetly draweth it and allureth it For if he drew the will against the will now a will were not a will Most certaine then it is that the will it selfe can not be constrained because it is a will and no way subiect vnto an externall mouer Now the outwarde powers of man may no doubt be subiect vnto an outward strengh The outwarde members of man may be constrained but not by the will and moued against the will For as Aristotle defineth * l. 3. Eth. c. 1 that is violence or constraint whose begining is without the thing the thing it selfe applying no endeuour therunto But certainely we know that a mans hand or foote or anyother parte whatsoeuer yea the wholle body may be moued by an externall cause or begining the hand foote or body beeing not applyed therunto by the will which is mistresse of the wholle And when this happeneth then doe we say that action to haue bene donne violently and constrainedly You goe therfore to the Church if you go carried by force pulled drawne finally so that your selfe apply not your members therunto then was this a violent action against your will and you haue not sinned But if your selfe once moue your members thereunto D. Tho. 1.2 q. 6. ar 5 ad 2 yea ifyou giue an inward consent to be so violented although it be for feare of losse of goods and liuinges although there stand a gallowes of purpose erected for you although the Beadle of Bridewell come behinde you with his staffe fearcely and barbarously threatning you than haue you moued your selfe the begining of your action is within your selfe if not the first motiue which is outward daunger yet the immediate beginning and naturall cause therof you apply somewhat of your owne which cannot be but from the will therfore is your action voluntary For this cause doe both Philosophers and Diuines conclude that what is donne of feare is alwaies simply and absolutely voluntary For although in other times or with other circumstances none would consent vnto that which he doth for feare yet with those condicions being present he doth absolutely yeeld vnto the same Wherefore concludeth S. Thomas that wheras euery thing is properly said to be such as it actually is not as it may be apprehended that is absolutely voluntary which is donne and consented vnto for the present fearfull condition which it hath annexed although as it is imagined and apprehended without the same condition it would be reiected He therfore which by constraint is violented doth nothing but onely suffereth he which is moued for feare because he doth somewhat himselfe is not violented or constrained but the particuler circumstances considered doth voluntarily what-soeuer hee doth although without those conditions it were vnuoluntary The humane lawes of diuerse countreies for that power which the common wealth hath ouer our ciuill actions doe commonly disanull those contractes which are made for feare yet cannot all the lawes of the worlde bring to passe but these contractes must be voluntary albeit the lawe for to punishe the iuiuriouse person doth make them voide neither can feare or any autority make such contract in him which is iniuried to be no sinne if it were of it selfe a sinne to make it You therfore may resolue your selfe that your going to the Church is voluntary And because euery action voluntary in a matter which of it selfe is a mortall sinne deserueth euerlasting damnation although it be donne for feare acknowledge your sinne that you may the sooner obtaine remission And for all this will I vtter somewhat more in this point that you may see I conceale nothing which may stand for you that if this action of going to the Church with heretickes were onely forbidden by positiue lawes of the Church than when there were no scandall it were lawfull to vse it the Church like a most kinde mother neuer intending to bind vnto so great incoÌ„ueniences as in our countrey by the omission of the same action may ensew But this to be no such action as onely humane lawes doe reprooue shall be proued belowe it is sufficient now to haue shewed that onely feare cannot make it voluntary and consequently not iustifie it if it be euill §. 11. But your reason following of your good intention either to pray Catholickly The 10. obiection of a good intention or to saue your wife and children and goodes or landes is moste friuolous The end say you is that which maketh the action either good or badde But my end is good therfore the action also is not vnlawfull Wherin I maruaile no more that you are become a new patrone of going to the Church This reason serueth for the defence of all vice for you haue taken vpon you the defence maintenance of all other wickednes Teach I pray you the murderer to haue an intention of shewing his manhoode the theefe to desire riches that he may liue in his ould age honestly and truely in the common welth the adulterer to procure amity and frendshippe in his neighboures samely and then may you vpon such intentions I will not say dispense with them that they may seriously applye their trades but persuade them that which they doe to be sound and perfect vertue Two kinds of intentioÌ„s There be therfore two kindes of endes and likewise two sortes of intentions in our actions The first is an intrinsecall end which is the very obiect and motiue which the will desireth and that act of the will by which we desire to obtaine that end is properly called our intention There is an other end extrinsecall vnto the acte and not alwaies pretended when we doe not only desire that which is the immediate motiue of our desire but referring that to a farther purpose desire withall to obtaine the same and this is also a kind of intention but extrinsecall and accidentary in our