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A08829
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A relation of the Christians in the world
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Pagitt, Ephraim, 1574 or 5-1647.
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1639
(1639)
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STC 19113; ESTC S5143
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28,211
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97
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excepting the Romanists doe all genegenerally as I find deny the Popes Supremacy viz. First That every soule must bee subiect to him upon necessity of salvation Secondly they affirme the Roman Bishops to be subiect to Error as other Bishops are Thirdly they deny that he hath power to depose Kings and to dispose of their Kingdomes Fourthly they teach not works of Supererogation Fiftly they admit not of Purgatory Sixtly nor pray for deliverances of soules from any temporall punishment after this life Seventhly they reiect the Romish Doctrine of Pardons and Indulgences Eightly they allow not private Masses Ninthly they administer the Communion in both kinds daring not to keep the Cup the symbol of our Lord Iesus Christs Blood from the Laity Tenthly they believe not the Romish Transubstantiation Eleventhly nor the now reall sacrificing of our Lord Iesus Christ to quit soules out of Purgatory Twefthly they have married Priests Thirteenthly they make no Image of God Foureteenthly they have most of them their Service in their owne or a knowne Language And these are some of the causes of the bitter contentions between the Roman Catholicks and these other Churches And as the Roman Church excommunicateth these Churches so doe they excommunicate the Roman Church For example the Patriarch of Constantinople doth yearely excommunicate the Pope and his Church for Schismaticks The Moscovites doe the same as counting the Pope an Hereticke The Patriarchs of Ierusalem Antioch have done likewise The Christians under the Patriarch of Mozul call the Pope the Reprobate Bishop other call him Antichrist The Copts account the Roman Church Hereticall and avoid the communion and conversation of the Latines no lesse then of the Iewes Thus some of the Popes of Rome have beene like Ismael whose hand was against every man and every mans hand against him The Turkes in their Mahumetan Worship The Pagans in their adoration of the Sun and Moon The Aegyptians in the service of Isis and Osyris use diversity of worships and Rites and yet still retaine the ill-tied knot of Friendship in their Idol-worship But Christians differing thunder calumnies bolt out excommunications one against another after their excommunications usually follow eradications of Kingdoms people estates by Conspiracies rebellions and hostile machinations by generall Massacres and particular torments As how many Kings and great persons have beene murthered by their desperate Assassins The said Massacre in France is not to be paralelled by any ancient cruelty The Acharonticall Powder treason for the heinousnesse thereof will seeme incredible in the Ages to come Examples are infinite yea so great is the uncharitablenesse and cruelty of the Roman Catholicks to the Christians of the Reformed Churches that if any of them dye among them they setting themselves as if it were upon Gods Tribunall in whose secret Cabinet is blessing and cursing give sentence of damnation against them sending their soules packing to hell and denying their bodies Christian Buriall Barbarous cruelty voyd of Charity As a tree is knowne by his Fruit so is the true Church by Charity By this saith our Lord all men shall know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another Zaga-Zabo an Aethiopian Bishop and sent Embassadour from the Emperor of Aethiopia to the K. of Portugall complaineth his words are these The Romish Doctors I know not how piously forbad me the communion of our Lords Body all the time I was in Portugall even the space of seven yeare and which I cannot relate without grief and tears I was reputed among the Romanists as a Heathen and Anathema upon which their doings let him that governeth all things looke to whose iudgement I commit these their doings This their uncharitablenesse doth not onely offend other Christians but also it maketh the very Mahumetans to loath our Profession to condemne our Faith and to persecute our Persons Good Iesus when shall these iarrings have an end when shall the Church Catholicke live in union of faith and communion of Charity O miserable Christians returne unto the Lord and he will cure you Earnest Prayer endlesse Devotion volumnes of penitentials Ninives fastings Peters weeping Pauls conversion is the Metredate and true Alexipharmacon to cure this Vlcer to heale this never enough to be lamented Schisme Alas who shall furnish my eies with floods of water who shall make my head a living Spring that I might water my Couch with sorrowfull teares As for us Clergy men let us not so much endeavour to make the Christians our adversaries odious to our people as to move them to commiserate their estates and so to make our ioynt prayers to Almighty God not for their confusion but for their Conversion Oh would to God the Potentates and Monarches of Christendome would ioyne hand in hand to make up the breaches of Zyon and to build up the wals of Ierusalem Oh sweet Iesus that cleansed thy Church by thy most precious blood Prince of Peace and author of love grant us thy peace To conclude my most humble prayer to Almighty God is that he would vouchsafe us most unworthy to enioy that Legacy which our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ left unto us viz. My Peace I give unto you my Peace I leave with you And for this cause I humbly supplicate his Divine Maiesty that he would incline the great Bishop of Rome Pope Urban whom he hath endued with many gifts and graces with the hearts of the Lord Cardinalls and Prelates of the Church of Rome that they would submit themselves to retrograde from some of their new Canons to the ancient Primative Canons of their Church viz. That they would restore to the Church of God of which they have cure in the Sacrament of the Eucharist The Cup the symboll of our Lord Iesus Christs blood according to our Lords holy institution and practise of the ancient Roman Church and of all the other Christian Churches in the World That they would suffer our Lord Iesus Christs sheepe to drinke of the Waters of Life viz. to have the use of the Holy Scriptures in the Vulgar tongue from which they are now restrained with their Service in their own tongue That they would permit Marriage to all men and represse Stewes and Brothel-houses permitted by them scandelous not onely to all the Christians in the VVorld but also to them which are without with some other like things which may admit of reformation And also whereas some other Churches pretend to abhorre Idolls I wish from the bottome of my heart that they would also abstaine from committing of Sacriledge And whereas they cry out of permitting of Stewes and Brothel-houses in the Roman Church that they would be as zealous in not permitting oppressing Usury among them both which are alike abhominable in the eyes of Almighty God Sweete Iesus what should not a man doe yea what should he not suffer to quench the fire of Contention in the Christian world There was a time when the Roman Church did
of Portugall who remained in Europe many yeares whose Confession of faith is set downe by Damianus a Goes As also the Aethiopian Rites are set forth in Print by Alvares a Portugall Priest who was some yeares Leidger in Aethiopia sent thither by the King of Portugall Thomas a Iesuite writeth of a long succession of the Abassin Abunas There is also a succession of the Christian Abassin Emperours from Abraham called the Saint who reigned about the yeare 427 to Abbas and Claudius their late Emperours It is reported that the Turke hath subdued much of the Prets Country yet the Abassine Religion may continue which the Turke taketh not from any 3 The Christians also inhabit the Kingdome of Cephala Thevet writeth that they received the faith by the preaching of the Abassines 4. Moreover the Matacasian Kingdome received Christianity by the means of the King of Cephala The Matacasian King placed over his Churches eight Bishops and over them a Primate or Patriarch whom they call Elchadie or Ismael In time past Christianity flourished in the North-west part of Africa Wee read of Synods there of above 200 Bishops and in one Province called Zingitana where Carthage stood of 164 Bishops to bee under one Metropolitane When these Churches flourished they opposed the iurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over them as appeareth by writings of St. Cyprian St. Augustine the sixt Councell of Carthage and by a Synod at Melevis in both which the African Fathers forbad appeales to Rome In the North-west parts of Africa doe remaine onely now two Bishopriks viz Septa and Tanger And whereas in Barbary Algier and other places there are many thousands of Christians in Captivity they are allowed by their Patrons the Moores the liberty of their Religion and the learnedest or eldest is to the rest in stead of a Priest 6 Beside the subiects of Prester Iohn very many people of the neighbour Kingdomes mixed with Mahumetans and Heathen people doe professe the Religion and Rites of the Abassin Christians as Miraeus affirmeth 7 In Congo called by some Manicongo there are or have beene some Christians Miraeus reokoneth up a succession of nine Christian Kings in that Kingdome 8 In Monomopata there have bin some Christians and they have had a King baptized 9. In the Isle of Zocotora there are some Christians who have also a Protomist or Bishop over them 10 The Portugals and Spaniards inhabit certaine Townes and Forts in Africa as also the English and Hollanders reside in some places of Africa Miraeus setteth downe Alphabetically the Bishopricks of Africa and reckoneth about 430 but howsoever many of the Bishopricks are not but ruinated and dissolved yet the Fame of the Sanctity and learning of their Holy Bishops heretofore shall continue for ever As of St. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage St. Austin Bishop of Hippo Aurelius Bishop of Carthage Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria Origen Tertullian Arnobius and others who governed the Church of God after a most singular manner and having finished their course rest with God in Heaven But by the way to adde a word or two for the better understanding of this my Relation VVhereas you have heard of many Bishops in Europe Asia and Africa it will not be impertinent to set downe what manner of men these Bishops in the Primative Church were for some suppose Bishops and Elders to be all one which was the Herefie of Aerius and that they lived meanly upon Almes and Stipends For the first the Office of a Bishop is set downe by St. Paul Titus the 1. and 5. For this cause I left thee in Crete that thou shouldst set in order things that are wanting and ordaine Elders in every City Here we see Elders or Pastors to be in every City But Titus the Bishop had the charge to order and ordaine Elders for the whole Island in which wee reade 100 Cities to have been besides Townes Titus was their first Bishop and there is now an Archbishop residing there who hath Bishops under him For the second whereas some suppose that Bishops then lived upon almes or stipends heare what Saint Augustine hath left written of his little Bishopricke of Hippo in Africa Saint Augustine was a Patricians sonne and had a faire estate from his Father I saith hee went not from Riches but to Riches my fathers estate left mee was not the twentieth part in comparison of the Farms other Estates which I was Lord of by being Bishop of Hippo. In the 60 Epistle of Saint Cyprian you may perceive the estate of the Church of Carthage of which place hee was Bishop Also Eusebius setteth downe the condition of the Church of Rome under Cornelius the Bishop and Martyr who had under him 155 Clergie men besides a multitude of Widdows and Poor who were abundantly relieved and lest any man should thinke this to be done penuriously The said Cornelius writeth to Fabian Bishop of Antioch that so great a multitude were by the Providence of God made rich and abounding in all plenteousnesse In ancient time the Church Goods were divided into foure parts one to the Bishop for the mayntenance of his Dignity and State the second to the inferiour Clergy the third to the poore and the fourth for building repayring and adorning of the Church and other uses But whereas some think the chiefe points of Reformation to be put downe Bishops and to ceaze upon Church-livings and to put their Ministers to stipends I suppose it to be a great plague laid upon a Church to make their Ministers Stipendaries and so to depend upon the benevolences of their people it being the curse of God denounced upon the Priests of the Posteritie of Elie to bow for a piece of silver and to crowch for a morsell of bread For the miserable condition of Stipendarie Ministers reade Doctour Saravia who setteth downe the poornesse of their Stipends as also the difficulty of attaining those little Pittances allotted to them viz. that oft the Ministers are compelled to travell no small iourneyes to their Pay Masters in most humble manner as if it were begging their Stipends and yet many times sent away with empty Purses and laden with reproachfull words and this not only by the Treasurers but all by men of base condition as Shoomakers Taylors Curriers c. who are ready to reproach their poore Ministers saying You are our servants wee pay you your wages he reporteth also that he heard some of their Burgomasters say Wee must take heed to these our Ministers especially that their Stipends be not so great they that too much pamper their servants shall finde them stubborn and contumacious The greatest of the Primative Persecutours is affirmed to be Iulian the Emperour Who although hee set forth no Mandate to put Christians to death yet hee endeavoured by subtile meanes to undoe Christian Religion forbidding Christian Schools and the use of Learning debarring them from