of that ridiculous question which was so solemnly sent to Rome Namely Whether he that had the name and title of a King only being given to idlenesse or he that was active and exercised the office and power of a King deserved to weare the regal diademe Which in plain termes was this Whether Chilperick King of France descended from the ancient race of Kings having out of respect to his own ease entrusted the management of affairs with his servant Pipin might not be turned out of that throne which his ancestours had so long enjoyed by his own servant whom he had unadvisedly rais'd to a Capacity of doing it if he would The good Pope was not ashamed of this senselesse question nor needed he to be instructed how profitable it was to judge for the strongest At length it came to this that King Chilperick's head was shaven and his man Pipin's wore the Crown Now Pipin having made use of pontificial authority to cheat the poore Francks of their King and to invade the temporal Soveraignty did out of gratitude recompense the Pope with a spiritual jurisdiction over the Gallicane Church Nay further when Desiderius the Lombard infested Gregory the third Pipin out of a tender regard to that See which had been so friendly towards him not only by his aid delivered the Pope from feare of being besieged in Rome but gave him as the Italian writers say the Exarchate with several other territories Eighthly The Conquering arms of Charlemaign son to King Pipin who having the same reasons that his Father had to indulge the pontificial See confirmed whatsoever his Father Pipin had granted to the Pope Yet to make him the more sure Leo the third with the people of Rome elected him Roman Emperour Hence it came to passe that as far as the Conquests made by Charlemaigne did reach So farre also did Papal authority extend No otherwise than the Mahometan doctrine did enlarge it's bounds by the victorious arms of Ottoman Thus have we proceeded to the Pope's Ecclesiastique supremacy through eight severall causes Of which the six former may be accounted the more remote or procatarctique The two latter being those which put together doe integrate the principal efficient and adaequate cause For although the six procatarctiques did very much embroile the Church affairs and laid them in a tendency to Papal encroachments yet it is evident that the universal power which the Pope acquired over the Western Churches owed it's very rise and being to the notorious jugling between the Roman Bishops and the usurpers of the French Merovingean Crown Well therefore may the Kings of France be stiled the eldest sons of the Papal Church Nay rather let them be stiled fathers thereof There being no appearance in History of a generall submission unto the pontificiall See untill the dayes of the traitor Pipin and the Emperour his Son But then you may perceive as it were a bargain stroake of mutual assistance between the pontificial and the French tyrants The pontificial assistance is made use of by Pipin for the deposing his master and invading the French Crown By Charles his Sonne for the obtaining of the Western Empire They on the other side in lieu of their secular Kingdomes settle upon the Popes an Ecclesiastique Soveraignty Nor are they content to gratifie them only so but they must needs be giving them a very fair temporal demeans The tast of which did so please their palates that they have been ever since hankering to be Lords paramount over all the world in Civil as well as Ecclesiastical affairs Wherefore it behoves me next to set down the remaining causes of the Papal encroachment Whereby the Bishop of Rome was encouraged to usurp unto himselfe the rights of the Magistrate CHAP. III. How or by what Causes the Pope was not onely confirmed in his Ecclesiastical usurpation but was also encouraged to invade the rights of the Magistrate HEre I shall in the first place premise that the causes mention'd in the foregoing Chapter did not only advance the Pope's Ecclesiastique Tyrannie but also had an influence upon the making of way for his temporal usurpation Had he not first come to that heighth in the Church he could never have dreamt of a superintendency over the state Likewise the causes which now follow are to be allowed an influence upon the Popes domination spiritual by way of confirming him in his unjust acquests Although I confesse they do more neerly concerne his invading the rights of the Magistrate in regard that we have already brought him unto the highest pinnacle in the Church Ninthly The donation which Pipin made and his sonne Charles confirmed unto the Pope whereby he was possessed of a very large territory yet not as Lord in chiefe thereof but rather as a dependant on the Empire as appeares by several actions of Charlemaigne and his Sons after him which sufficiently evince that they kept the Soveraignty of those places still unto themselves however this proved such a bait of temptation to the Pope that he hath ever since had an unbridled lust after the kingdomes of this world and the glory thereof insomuch that he who pretends to be the Universal Vicar of Christ and Deputy to Him in His Kingdome seems unto me a pretty riddle Our Saviour doth absolutely Declare that His Kingdome is not of this world But I pray to what world doth that belong which is full of armed Souldiers walled Cities fortified Havens strong Gallies great Guns abundance of Ammunition and Treasures Tenthly The general decay of Learning after the dayes of Charlemaign Whence it came to passe that the East and the West were not more alienated one from the other by the distinction of different Empires than they were by the want of mutual correspondence in learned entercourses Nay it was the policy of the Popes by affronts done to the Emperours and several other waies to augment the strangenesse between the Greeks and the Latines That so the Barbarians being brought up in a prejudice against the Gracians might neglect their language and consequently be overcast with such a night of ignorance that they should not be able to see the injustice of the Papal proceedings And truly to the losse of the Greek tongue may justly be imputed the losse of all purity in the Latine and consequently of History Geography skill in Antiquity and whatsoever savour'd of polite learning Thus the whole Western Empire were quite deprived of the benefit they might have received by informing their judgments in Religion with the goodly books that were written in Greek Nay they did not so much as knowingly converse with the Latin Fathers So that it was allmost impossible for them to be acquainted with the infant purity of the Christian religion which they had taken upon trust from the Roman Bishop Whereas if they had but well studied the writings of those men whose Fathers were converted together with nay some before the Bishop of Rome it would have been
which ought to be between believers especially those of the same calling But alas had the world been perswaded in the primitive times that the letters of the Roman Bishop were not onely charitative advisoes but dictatorian mandates necessary to be obeyed As proceeding forsooth from one whom Christ had appointed head of his Church and an oracle whence nothing but veritable answers should be heard I say had such a perswasion possessed the minds of men They would have made it the common subject of their praises and thanksgiving Without question many Panegyricall orations and many homilies would have been made upon no other theme or text than the praises of the Roman See and thanks unto God for bestowing on the Christians a visible unerring decider of controversie Whereas on the contrary if we peruse the ancient Writers we shall plainly perceive how little the noise was which the Roman Bishops did make in their daies So little that I much wonder they were no more talkt of considering as I said before their residence in the Metropolâ—◠〈…〉 and their virtues eminent in the first Bishops 〈…〉 not the Fathers been very malignant in this case if the papal pretenses were true not to leave it set down expresly in any of their writings That Christ made Peter the head of his Church and gave unto him an infallible spirit As also that Peter being Bishop of Rome The following Bishops in that City succeeded him not only in his Bishoprick but likewise in his great priviledges of headship and infallibility Moreover did not the Fathers trouble themselves to no purpose in toyling to make laborious confutations of hereticks if they might have had present recourse to a visible unerring authority in decision of controversies So that suppose the Hereticks had refused to submit unto this authority The maine worke should have been not to confute their opinions but to convince them of the duty of their obedience to the supreme judg For my own part I verily believe that if the Bishops of Rome had been acknowledged in the primitive times to be what he pretends to in these daies The eyes of all nations would have been upon that see to revere it to honour it to bow down before it in the submission of their understandings Nay further I am really perswaded Had Christ intended such a supreme power in his Church Seeing it doth so highly import the Church's welfare to be generally known We should have had it set down in Scripture with as expresse termes as we find Justification by faith or the resurrection of the dead But now on the contrary what is there left by 〈…〉 Penmen which may be said to patronize the 〈…〉 and infallibility of Peter and the Roman Bishopsâ— As for Peter how easy were it for me to evacuate those trivial arguments which are drawn from Scripture concerning him which I forbeare to doe because it is not my intent to insist upon Logical arguments either pro or con but only to reflect on Historical passages Wherefore I cannot chuse but take notice that when Peter came to Antioch he walked not according to the truth but was guilty of a great scandall and thereupon withstood to the face by Paul Who makes it his businesse in the two first Chapters to the Galatians to prove himselfe equall with the rest of the Apostles Nay when Peter to speak according to their own phrase was in Cathedra in the midst of a Councel of Apostles and other brethren The definitive sentence to which all did assent proceeded from the mouth of James As for the Roman Bishop you must not look to have any hint of him in Scripture Peter never being taken notice of under such a capacity Nay Paul in those several Epistles which he wrote either to or from Rome doth not so much as mention Peter Which is somewhat strange if Peter did dwell in that City For Paul is solicitous in mentioning severall others farre lesse considerable whom he doth either salute or send salutations from to others But what if it should be granted that Peter was at Rome I am confident it would trouble the whole Papacy to prove that ever he was Bishop of that City Paul it 's certain was there and those who contend that Peter was too doe generally hold they were both martired at the same time the one by the Sword the other by the Crosse Why then was Peter Bishop and not Paul I 'me sure the Scripture saith that Paul was entrusted with the Gospel of the Uncircumcision as Peter with that of the Circumcision Nay James and Peter and John did solemnly give the right hands of fellowship unto Barnabas and Paul That they should goe to the Gentiles and themselves unto those of the Circumcision CHAP. II. How or by what causes the Pope was advanced to a supremacy in the Church BUt I shall not trouble my selfe any longer to make it appeare that neither Peter nor the primitive Bishops of Rome had that power which the later Bishops pretend to derive from them There being few in our Nation that will gainsay the truth of what I have said Wherefore having allready made such briefe remarques as plainly evince the Pope to be an usurper I am now come to what I did chiefely intend namely to lay down the several steps or degrees by which he was advanc'd in his usurpations This I shall doe by reflecting on the events of humane affairs and giving an account in order of the several causes which did cooperate towards the bringing of the intolerable Roman yoake on the necks of our Forefathers The first Cause therefore was The removing of the Empertal seat by Constantine For though a good while after him there were Westerne as well as Eastern Emperours yet after the 〈◊〉 on Italy by the Heruls first and then the Goths The Emperial Majesty did entirely reside at Constantinople Now this City by Constantines means was grown so magnificent and august that it was dearer to the Emperours than Rome in selfe Insomuch that when Bellisarius and Narses had recovered Italy from the Goths The Emperours never affected to goe and reside at old Rome by which means the Bishop thereof gained the more elbow rome to play REX Secondly The residing of the Italian exarchs at Ravenna Justine the second was Authour of the Exarchy to which kind of government the Italian writers impute most of the calamities afterwards befalling Italy But indeed it was the occasion of an other guise calamity than they were aware of For now neither the Emperour himselfe nor so much as his Exarch resided at Rome only a petty companion who was sent by the Exarchs to praeside over the City and was called Duke in the same manner as the governour of Narni Spoleto and other townes of Italy Hence it came to passe that the splendour of Emperiall Majesty being far removed from the eyes of the Roman people Their Bishops shone so much the brighter and gaind a proportionable
increase of veneration Thirdly The comming of the Lombards into Italy who intending the finall conquest of that Country for themselves made it their businesse to destroy the power of the Emperour whom they found Lord thereof Wherefore as soone as the Emperour began to chastise the Insolency of any Roman Bishop who now by reason of the aforementioned causes began to play tricks The Lombard was at hand to help him Again on the otherside when the Lombard out of a desire to win Rome it selfe fell foule with it's Bishop The Emperour for fear of loosing his dominion was faine to helpe him whom before he did endeavour to punish Marke how capriciously things in those daies stood and how exceeding well they suited with the Roman Bishop Whensoever he had to doe with the Lombard he was sure of the Emperous help And when he contended with his Master the Barbarian presently took his part Thus did he rivet himselfe into his Authority between the Emperour and the Lombard till at last by the helpe of the French He brought them both below himselfe as to any Italian Dominion Fourthly The reputation of Gregory the first Roman Bishop of that name who was sir named the Great This man lived in the hottest season of the Barbarian violence when the Empire of the Romans and their learning failed In such an age as that was he being endowed with great natural parts and well accomplisht with acquired perfections did easily overtop his contemporaries Before he was Bishop By his retiring for devotion 's sake to the private life of a Monk By his zealous turning his own house at Rome into a Monastery In general by his outward austerity and sanctity of life he so gained upon the Roman people that they would not part with him when he proffered to goe into Brittany for to convert the Saxons And when he was sent to Constantinople upon publique employment he quickly obtained the Emperour's favour Afterwards when he was chosen Bishop By his zeale in continuing to write volume upon volume concerning the Christian Doctrine As also in destroying the Heathen Authours and those goodly buildings at Rome which he feared might tempt the admiring beholders to hanker after the ancient Roman glory By his new modelling the Christian worship adding many inventions of his own to make it more splendid and pompous in vulgar eyes By his converting the English Saxons By these and many other waies he grew renowned in the world and filled Christendome with his name Nor did his glory expire with his life About an hundred years after this Gregory our Bede in the West and Monke Damascene in the East were passionate in their respects for him and highly magnified him in their writings Nay generally the Monks for a long time did so reverence his memory that he seemed to eclipse the primitive Fathers Now this great esteem and high valuation which the world had of Gregory the first did redound upon the Roman See and proved notably advantageous for his successours But nothing more strengthned their hands than his converting our English Nation No people in the world for a long time after were more prodigal of their bloud more enpensive of their estates in behalfe of the Roman Bishops than our English No people more earnest in their devotion to Rome This can be attributed to nothing else but their conversion by Gregory and to that impression which his memory had left in the minds of their Ancestours and was handed along from father to sonne Nay what say ye if at this very day the Gregorian praises be fresh amongst our English Papists who also have a tender regard for the memory of their Convertor Austin and love the very Benedictines for his sake Fifthly The prodigious growth of the Saracenical Empire founded by Mahomet in the time of Heracltus The Saracens cut out so much worke for the Graecian Emperour in his Easterne provinces that he was forced to neglect and at last give over his interest in the West Now this may be observed all along in History that the weakning of the Emperours was the strengthning of the Popes Sixthly The general deluge of Barbarians overwhelming the Romans in the West much about the same time that the Saracens did in the East Pannonia Italie Spaine France Brittain were all over-run not many years after one another These Barbarians comming from Climates frozen with ignorance as well as cold did both give and receive a Conquest As they Conquered the Romans by their Sword So they were reciprocally foild by the Roman Learning and Religion Now the Bishop of Rome was the grand instrument of their conversion For in those times of general desolation he best held his own and was most eminent in the eyes of the Barbarians by reason of his residence in that Renowned City concerning which before their passage over the Rhine and the Danow they had heard their Fathers speak of old How feasable then was it for him to foist what he pleas'd into the beliefe of those men who newly came from worshipping such kind of Gods as Aegypt was wont to adore Alas those silly soules taken up with amazement at a discovery of the true God had neither leasure nor ability to attend the observing of those obtruded fopperies which they did imbibe together with the principles of their Religion Wherefore if he that first told them of an omnipotent eternal God whose seat was in the highest Heavens and of a Crucified Saviour did at the same time tell them of a St Peter and his Successour T is no wonder that they believed one as well as the other If Valens the Emperour be an Arrian then all those whom he converts will be Arrians too For it is well known that the Visigoths flying from before the approaching Hun when they had obtained their request from Valens for a quiet Habitation in Thrace did not only receive from him the Doctrine of Christ but that of Arrius also Insomuch that they and their posterity for a long time after did stoutly maintain Arrianism So great a prevalency hath that Doctrine which is first seated in the spirits of men Here I shall crave leave of the reader to make a small digression concerning Baronius with a promise to trouble him so no more Baronius in his annals will needs have it contrary to several Historians that these Goths were converted to Christianity long before the time of Valens His reason is because in the time of Constantine they had a Bishop named Theophilus present at the Nicene Councel But I suppose nothing can be lawfully concluded thence excepting this that some few of them were Christians in the dayes of Constantine For my part that the body of their nation was converted before their entrance into Thrace by the permission of Valens I see no reason to believe Seventhly The Collusion between Zacharias the third and Pipin Major domo to the King of France Pipin made use of Zacharias's authority towards the decision
the decree Since that the world hath n'ought but knavery Now if Gregory the ninth's decretals were justly liable to such a censure what shall we say of the sixth book put out by Boniface the Eighth of the Clementines by Clement the fifth and the extravagants by John the twenty second The latter Pope still exceeding the former in arrogancy and insolence However let the Canon Law be what it will This is certain it hath been one of the notablest engines in the whole world to raise the Papal See to an adored heighth For by this means the minds of many thousands were trained up in a reverence to the Roman Bishops who seem to emulate Emperial Majesty by taking upon them to give lawes unto the world Now the names of Justinian and Tribonian began to dwindle and Gregory with his Raymund grew in request nor hath ever Aristotle nor Galen nor Justinian nor the very Bible it selfe been more zealously smothered with commentatours than the decretals of Gregory have been Nay what say ye if the Canonists have been past all shame in the heat of contending for their own faculties Charles du Moulin in his Treatise of the French Monarchy saith that some of them carp't at the Civil Lawes as impious and of no worth And Francis Hottoman in his Tract intitled Fulmen Brutum testifies that they look upon the Pope as their Jupiter giving him halves with the Emperour in the Government of the world as appeares by this verse which they commonly applied to the Pope Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet This is high language you â— say but perhaps it may be accounted modest if we consider how their own law teacheth them that the Pope is above the Emperour Wherefore no man needs to doubt that the prevailing of such a profession in the world hath been an incredible advantage to the Roman Bishop as being the founder and patron thereof For we all know with what eagernesse of spirit the professours of any faculty doe usually contend for their patrons Whence I may lawfully conclude that as long as this pontificial law shall be attended with wealthy preferments So long the Pope will never want Janisaries I mean Canonists Who for the sake of their own profession and the bread which they get by it will allwaies be sure to be trusty Myrmidons in the Roman cause Thus have I at last traced out the Papal encroachments through Sixteene several causes without mentioning others which seeme not to here so great and necessary an influence Such as the title of Universal Bishop given unto Boniface the third by the Tyrant Phocas The Holy Warre trumpeted forth by Peter the Hermite at the appointment of Urban the Second The abrogation of the Roman Banderensian Magistracy whereby Clement the Fifth became absolute Master of Rome and the like Far lesse was it my intent to take notice of Constantine's donation and such other things which indeed make much for the pontificial advancement if true But their truth is questioned by all indifferent men There being as great a certainty that many false stories have been coyn'd as well as true ones suppressed by the Pope's creatures Amongst which kind of delinquents 't is probable that Pandulphus the Librarian of the Lateran Church was not the least guilty CHAP. IV. A Corollary deduced from the preceeding discourse with a Conclusion intimating how much the Pope is beholding to the want of able and Faithfull Historians ANd now let the Papists object if they please that we have have forsaken the paths of our forefathers with little regard unto ancient times I pray What is the Autiquity they boast of Or what were those ancestours they upbraid us with Can they date their Hierarchichal constitution under one supreme head higher than the barbarous times And are not we as also the Nations round about us the off-spring of Barbarians As long as the Roman Empire stood firme and the stock of primitive Christians did remaine there was no Pope to be heard of Nor is it likely that ever the progeny of those men who were converted by the Apostles and taught by the Fathers would have given way to Papal Dominion any more than the posterity of the Graecians did But in come our ancestors a barbarous generation halfe starved with the cold of their own Climates and resolved for a warmer habitation In come they and like a deluge carry all before them implanting their selves in the roome of those who were the race of first borne Christians Which when they had done they did with admiration here from their conquered enemies the newes of an Omnipotent God a Crucified Saviour a Heaven and a Hell Now what could be expected from these ignorant Barbarians whose former adoration was of no sublimer straine than to worship the Image of a dead man a peice of wood or a rotten clout Nay whose later discoveries were made unto them by word of mouth and taken upon trust they themselves being void of all kind of Learning whereby they might have been enabled to search the Ancient Writers I say what could be expected from such men but that they should be easily cozened partly with the specious pretense of a derived succession and supremacy from Peter by the Roman Bishop and partly with the collusion between the Bishops of that Emperial City and their own commanders Well then if they be deluded must we be so to Or rather ought we not to assert our own liberty and shake off that pontificial yoke under which the spirits of our forefathers did groan The revolutions of eternal providence have brought better times upon us their Children than ever they enjoyed It was much about two hundred yeares agoe that Mahomet the Great Turke did take Constantinople to the utter subversion of the Graecian Empire Whereby overcasting the Sun of Christianity with a dismal cloud in the Eastern parts he was the accidental occasion that it shone the more bright in the West For the poore Greeks being dispersed all abroad Their Learned men to wit Theodore Gaza John Lascaris Manuel Chrysaloras and others did betake themselves to the teaching of the Greeke tongue Hereupon that treasury of all arts and sciences being so happily retrerv'd the purity of Learning began to revive again And those books which ever since the daies of the Goths and Lombards had lain rotting in the publique libraries were every where pulled out of heaps of dust and recovered from the moths and worms By this means we who are the latest nephewes of our barbarous ancestours doe yet overlook them even in reference to their own daies and plainly perceive that they were Heathenish half-witted Christians for a long time void of all knowledg and receiving their instructions from the contrived policy of corrupted men We on the contrary enjoy the Original Scriptures and the Learned Monuments of the primitive Christians by which it is easy to understand that Christianity is no Carnal profession much lesse that on it is