Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	church_n	rome_n	1,965	5	6.8105	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11511	The free schoole of vvarre, or, A treatise, vvhether it be lawfull to beare armes for the seruice of a prince that is of a diuers religion; Quaestio quodlibetica. English	Sarpi, Paolo, 1552-1623.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Brent, Nathaniel, Sir, 1573?-1652.	1625 (1625)	STC 21758; ESTC S116734	27,201	78

Sauiour himselfe would haue things that are not necessary but only profitable helpfull to saluation left to Counsell not circumscribed in precepts How much lesse then can Ecclesiastickes vse their power in Temporall matters when there is no necessitie thereof but onely because it may peraduenture conduce vnto saluation And in this case least of all because we vnderstand not for what such power may bee profitable vnlesse it bee for the aduancement of the interests of their temporall Greatnesse And this difference touching Italians which cannot indeed bee admitted in temporall matters in which Saint Paul knew no diuersitie of Iew Greeke or Barbarian hath beene found out by some shrewd and experienced braines who by obseruation of former times and comparing them with this know that the Ecclesiastickes haue mightily diminished their authority in Tramontane Countries and therefore doe procure in Italy intensiuely that which hath extensiuely beene lost in other places and to this end they imploy all their art and force and draw euery matter to the head of Spiritualitie or Religion Vnto this Soueraigne Princes ought to haue great regard as they haue had by the exclusion and inobseruance of the foresaid Constitution Notwithstanding which the Italians who are subiects to the most renowned Republicke to the Dukes of Sauoy and Tuscany doe repaire where they see cause for matter of marchandise and for any other concernement that belongs vnto them They frequent England Germany and Cities that are subiect to Protestant Princes and all places else whereunto their interests doe draw them And therefore it is lawfull by an vniuersall consent of all Catholicke States to persist in that libertie which God and Nature haue granted and which is independent of the will of Ecclesiastickes as being a matter that toucheth not spirituall Saluation at the least not by a necessary connexion But the importance of this action requireth further consideration because the offences of Princes are of greater moment than the faults of priuate persons And this attempt is a beginning of notable vsurpation and perturbance in ciuile Gouernement For it is to be held as a constant Tenet as already wee haue touched that where any matter is handled concerning the saluation of Soules in which the Ecclesiasticall Prelate hath authority to make orders to command there can no distinction or difference of persons bee admitted And therefore Pope Clement the eight in the Constitutions aforesayd commands in generall without exception either of Persons or Causes That none without licence of the ordinary Inquisitors should presume to go into such parts where there is not a publike Church Priest exercise of the Romish Rites and Seruice So that by vertue of this Constitution a Prince should not send Embassadors ordinary or extraordinary into the Countries that are held by Potentates diuided from the Sea of Rome And if an occurrence or Case should happen that out of the emergency of Reason or out of necessitie of good Gouernement it should bee held expedient to send a secret person to act some negotiations which it were inconuenient that the Ecclesiastickes should know yet notwithstanding all must bee reuealed vnto him or men must fall into censures and bee made obnoxious vnto the Inquisition These inconueniences are so cleere and so vsuall that they doe sufficiently declare the apparancy of the vsurpation And it would be too great an aduantage that the Pope and Spaine may as dayly they doe and examples hereof are actually practised send into the Countries of Protestants where there is publikely neither Romish Church nor Priest Iesuits and some of other Religious Orders in disguise and in more priuate restriction too whether for businesse or for guile or for exploration euery man speaketh after his owne fancie and that it should bee vnlawfull for other Princes to send any person without their leaue or knowledge And in the Leuant too where the very Soule of trafficke breathes there is scarce a place conuenient for trading that hath the benefit of a publike Church so that here likewise if this Rule should hold there is no abiding without licence And if Princes must in their interrests depend thus on others and submit the ground-worke of good Gouernement and the necessitie of their defence and préseruation to other mens ends and arbitrements they are no longer absolute Princes and farewell Soueraignetie if it be once brought to such a descent as to render an account vnto any but to God and to receiue Laws of what it ought to doe or not to doe from any power but Diuine But it exceedes all beleefe and Christian charitie to obserue the course which hath bin taken with these Gentlemen The time comes that a Gentleman out of compunction for his sinnes goes to reconcile himselfe to God by Confession and then is hee intreated with such strange and intollerable rigor that the spirituall comfort of absolution is denied him And yet we are impatient to heare it maintained by such as are seperated from the Church of Rome That Confession is become the very path through which insteede of comforting mens Soules the interrests of the Courts of Rome and Spaine are conueyed to the detriment and disaduantage of other Potentates and that it is distorted from the originall and pure Institution and made to pry into mens actions to debauch the allegeance of subiects to instill affections to augment partialities and sidings and such like things as these By all this that hath beene sayd I remaine fixt in my iudgement and it is sufficiently prooued That if the Confessor haue denied his Penitents absolution onely because they are in a Countrey which is separated from the obedience of the Pope of Rome he hath done wrong vnto his Penitent and abused Confession and if hee haue done this by the command of any person whatsoeuer that commaundement is vniust and vnlawfull trenching by vsurpation vpon the authoritie of others and is actiuely scandalous in abusing spirituall authority to compasse ends that are purely mundane So that the cause which may bee pretended can bee no other than that which is in the Fourth Head propounded that is Because they professe to march in the Army of the LL. the States of Holland against the Catholicke King And this cannot in our Case arise but from two Heads Either for that it is not lawfull for Catholickes to take armes absolutely in fauour of such as the Church of Rome accounts Heretickes or because the war which they mannage is vniust And these two Heads will easily reciue their discussion Touching the first it will be necessarie to alleage the common Doctrine of Ciuilians which in matter of defence ayde or supporting of Heretickes is voide of all contradiction by distinguishing that a man may fauour or defend Heretickes two manner of wayes either formally or not formally A formall fauouring or defending of Heretikes is to vse the very words of a Ciuilian and a Iesuit which in this subiect may stand for a thousan witnesses when

bee not vnited vnder the obedience of the Church of Rome yet are they Christians and not Idolaters or Infidels And the Maxime which the flaterrers of the Court of Rome doe endeauor to sow the propagate That Heretickes be worse than Idolaters is finely accommodated to the temporall and worldly interests of the Ecclesiastickes but no way conformable to the sacred Scriptures nor to the Doctrine of the antient holy Fathers And my Soule trembleth within mee to thinke that hee should bee held more tollerable and lesse abhominable That calleth Christ a seducer and a false Prophet than he that inuocates him as God and is baptised in his holy name and receiues his Sacraments and confesseth that it is the onely Name vnder Heauen by which mankinde may be saued And if in some antient Writers any passage shall bee found that may seeme to fauour those opinions it was because such Heretickes denied the Diuinitie of Christ and thereby laboured to ouerthrow the very foundation of Christianitie by reason whereof they were rather a Sect of Infidels than Heretickes But it cannot be vnderstood of these who confesse him to bee God and by this confession acknowledge the ground of our saluation yet to take away this cauill too see here examples in the particular of Heretickes and Infidels together Vnder the Romane Empire in the time that the Princes professed the Christian and Catholicke Romane Faith Histories both Ecclesiasticall and others do swell with examples of the greatest and deuoutest Emperours that haue made leagues and held amitie with Infidell Princes and Hereticall also It is most certaine that Constantine who so well deserued of the Catholicke Church did for the defence of the Empire make Conuentions with Tartars and Vandals who were Idolaters with Heretickes hee could not because as then they had no territory and bestowed places on them to dwell in amongst the Prouinces of the Romane Empire And in those times it is well knowne how aboundantly the Church flourished with holy men zealous of the purenesse of Religion and yet you shall not finde that any of them did euer reprehend or teach that it was not lawfull to make such confederacies the which doth inuincibly argue the approbation of all the holy Catholicke Church Afterwards Valentinian was created Emperor who was not only a Catholicke but also an exceeding fauourer of the Church and of the Bishops and Prelates of the same At the same time was his brother Valens Emperor in the Eastern parts who was an Arian hereticke and persecuted Catholicks yet was there euer vnion confidence confederacie betweene these two brethren the one an Hereticke and the other a Catholike for the common defence and offence of the enemies of the Empire The Emperours Theodosius Arcadius Honorius and Valentinian made many Conuentions with Gothes Alans Gepides Vandals and French part of which were Infidels and part Heretickes and yet there was none so hardy to reprehend those leagues as a thing vnlawfull although there then liued those great Fathers and zealous Doctors the Luminaries of the Holy Church who out of their zeale to truth feared not to reprooue euen Emperours to their faces and to tell Empresses of their faults and defects There liued in those dayes Ambrose Ierome Austine Chrysostome Leo and other most renowned Bishops of Rome Patriarckes Archbishops Bishops and Chiefetaines of the holy Church whose workes and writings remaine with vs and it can neuer bee found that they reprehended these Confederations And therefore of necessitie wee must confesse that their silence in this Case when the other errours of the Emperors were exagitated by them with infinite zeale doth demonstrate herein the consent of the whole Catholicke Church After the death of the aboue named Emperours the Kingdome of the Gothes began to take roote in Italy and continued a long time These were Christians but Arians who were the most pernicious Sect of Heretickes that euer infested the Church for they fought against the very person of Christ whose Diuinitie they denied and shooke the Article on which as on a ground-worke Christian Religion is built and that is the Article of the Blessed Trinitie notwithstanding which the Emperours of Constantinople who were Catholickes were for the most part in peace and league with them and the Popes themselues were their subiects and yeelded them obedience Yea one of the Popes was sent in Embassage by them about affaires of State and yet he made no refusall of such imployment and it cannot be proued that any Writers or Holy men of those times did blame those Catholicke Princes for that they held friendship with kings that were hereticall and infected with such monstrous falshoods This labour would be endlesse to particularise in all the examples which might be alleaged in this argument After that the power of a Temporall Prince was in the persons of the Popes of Rome ioyned in Jtaly to the Pontificall Dignitie in which time they haue framed so many Lawes as in the Decretals in the sixt and in the Clementines and Extrauagants are comprehended that there is not a matter of State in which by extension of their authoritie they haue not opinated and decreed yet doe wee not want examples of the like Confederations as may easiely bee seene in the Histories of those times George Podibras was an Hussite Hereticke and so held by the Church of Rome and for that cause he was pursued by Pius the second with Censures This example is obseruable because it will so flatly shew that there were treaties and leagues then handled notwithstanding the matter of Religion Now in the yeare 1463 the Emperour Fredericke the third being inuested with a dangerous siege in Vienna called him to his succour and made conuentions with him of mutuall assistance and these were approoued by the Pope himselfe who hereupon left to prosecute him with Censures And Iulius the second in the yeare 1510 seeing himselfe in danger at Bologna by the vicinitie of the French armie receiued into the citie to his ayde Chiappino Vitellio with sixe hundred light horse a squadron of Turks whom hee much entrusted with his person And in the yeare 1558 Paul the fourth did hire and pay many Protestant Grisons who euen in Rome it selfe performed diuerse actions contrary to the Catholicke Religion and all was told the Pope who auouched openly that they were Angels of God sent for his defence and that to preserue a mans selfe it was lawfull to vse the seruice of all sorts of persons And hee gaue an authenticke document hereof when the third of September in the yeare 1557 hee spake these expresse words to some that quipped him for this It would haue beene lawfull and laudable too to call in Turkes Moores and Jewes for our defence And it is a matter without doubt that hee did indeede actually treate with the Turke To this day the House of Austria hath amitie and league with the Protestant Princes of Saxony and others and giues and takes ayde from them

Prouinces doe straine a point beyond their vsuall manner To this ought the Confessor to haue had some regard and by considering that hee was thus strictly appointed Not to administer absolution to those that fought for the defence of the Hollanders he should thence haue inferred That the Catholick Religion was the pretext onely but the end is the interest of factions the which haue nothing to doe with Religion neither haue the Antients euer taught that it should by such meanes bee ampliated Further hee ought to haue taken into consideration that hee is not depending on the authoritie of the Nuntio or of any deputed from him that is not his Ordinarie neither doth hee receiue authoritie from him to heare Confessions and that these secret iuglings are odious before God and that it is an adulterated Zeale which vnder the mantle of Religion couereth humane passions and ends And it would bee too great an inconuenience that when Embassadours and their Families as good Authours doe maintaine are not assubiected to Princes where they reside but by the Law of Nations are exempt and free and onely owe submission vnto their naturall Lords yet hee which attendeth them for the administration of the Sacraments should take law from one that is an Alien to that Countrey yea and serueth such a Prince as maketh warre against it Who can doubt but that such a one will trie to doe all the mischiefe hee is able especially by disbanding the souldiers that serue the other side as is apparant in this very Case yet it cannot without horror be conceiued how great an iniurie is done to the Maiestie of God and to Religion to make it like vnto Medusas Head a Bug-beare to scare and intimidate mens Consciences for ends meerely mundane and peraduenture for designes that tast of tyranny and iniustice as to seise vpon and take away Countries from those persons vnto whom God hath giuen them For conclusion then of this Head it was not Iustice and it is contrarie to Religion that the Confessor did follow the directions of a professed enemie to those States by vertue of a blind obedience and hee ought not to haue done so notorious a wrong and iniurie to those Gentlemen without examining first Whether it were iust or vniust to denie such a Penitent absolution For I would see great and euident reason before I would exclude any man from the participation of the Sacraments which is a bond of grieuous preiudice And as Saint Ierome writes Priests ought not to put on a Pharisaicall superciliousnesse as if it lay in their power to binde and loose but they are to consider the Conscience of the Penitent and the merite af the Cause So that you see all is reduced to the two last Heads which remaine to bee examined because in them lyeth the pyth and point of the cause Of which The third is Whether the Confessor had iust cause to denie these Gentlemen absolution for this respect That they could not liue in the Low Countries without sinne as beeing to conuerse with those who acknowledge not the Pope of Rome for Head of the Church and refuse to yeeld vnto him obedience and For that there is not in those parts the publike exercise of the Catholick Romane Religion This reason in times past would haue receiued no shew or colour but now some shadow of doubt may bee put since that Clement the eight tooke on him to bee the first that euer made any step and pretention in this matter For in the yeare 1595 hee published a Constitution That no Italian should or ought to goe for any cause whatsoeuer no not for trafficking and marchandise to any place where there was not a Parochiall Priest and a publike Church wherein the Romane seruice was celebrated except he first should obtaine leaue from the holy Office of the Inquisition or from the Ordinaries binding also those that should trauell with such licences to send yearely to the Inquisitors letters of authenticall credence that they had confessed and communicated Peraduenture this might bee the cause why the Confessor and he who mannaged him did deale so roughly with their Penitents But withall you must know that this Papall Constitution was neuer entertained or put in execution by any Prince but contrariwise totally excluded as if it had neuer bin ordained And to confirme this it is the receiued Position of Canonists and Ciuilians and of the Popes themselues and it is a Doctrine also consonant both to Diuinitie Nature That all humane positiue Lawes vnder which kind no Catholick Doctor doth denie that such like Constitutions are comprehended neither can he vnlesse he will make a man a God nay aboue God are iust so much in force as they are in vse and by not beeing receiued or by an application of them vnto a contrarie vse they loose all their vertue obligatorie and are as if they had neuer beene ordained And if it should bee otherwise there would bee nothing but confusion in Gouernement and destruction of good Policie and Popes should not onely bee Patrons of all States and Dominions and Lords of all matters of Iudicature and of all Tribunals but the very facultie and meanes to thinke of any question would bee idle and out of vse for what matter is there that the Popes in some past ages till now haue not themselues decreed or else commanded their determinations But Iurisdiction is not acquired by commaundements but by commanding iustly and by being obeyed So that no foundation must bee layd on this Constitution which was abortiue in the birth reiected in the first beginning opposed by all receiued by none and by the Declaration of some Princes against the very Pope that made it it is apparant that it ought not to be receiued so that it hath had no obseruation at all but hath remained as if it had not beene made and that with the knowledge of the Ecclesiasticks and of the Popes themselues yea and of the very person that made it And so it ought to bee in reason because the Pope extended his power to the restriction and confinement of that libertie which God and Nature all Lawes diuine and humane and the practise in the generall course of all times from the beginning of the World vntill the yeare 1595 haue giuen and granted vnto the Faithfull Whosoeuer hath any insight into the Sacred Stories knowes that after the Creation of the world there was a diuision of Religion in the very sonnes of Adam and that some worshipped the true God with pure and lawfull Adoration as was requisite others became Idolaters and yet he will not finde that the Faithfull I speak not of the separation of Nations but of particular diuisions for that was a Case reserued to God alone euer receiued prohibition to inhabit those places where men of impure or false Religion did dwell but the true worshippers of God did alwaies enioy the freedom of going staying dwelling there where their best commoditie