Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	rome_n	6,168	5	7.0527	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17020	A treatise of the perpetuall visibilitie, and succession of the true church in all ages	Abbot, George, 1562-1633.	1624 (1624)	STC 39.3; ESTC S100501	43,587	128

God's good seruants to bee of the number of the Elect and propter sanioren et meliorem partem for their sounder and better part to bee of that Church whereof we are to be members of that body whereof by the grace of Christ we are a portion And in this respect our settled and resolued iudgement is that when it is asked Where our Church in former Ages was we may besides that which we haue formerly answered truly say that it was in England in France in Spaine in Italy yea in Rome it selfe Spiritus vbi vult spirat the holy Ghost breatheth where it pleaseth for who cannot conceiue by the writings of many in former Ages or by such touches as others doe giue concerning them that diuers who liued neerest the Whore of Babylon did most detest her abomination and finding that the weaknes and impurity of her doctrine could not truely satisfie the hungry and thirsty soule did according to that knowledge which Christ out of his Word reuealed vnto them seek some means which was not ordinarily professed in that Time And if it be asked Who they were and how they could lie hid from the world It may truly be answered that their case was like the case of them in the daies of Elias who were not knowne to that State which would haue persecuted them Now why should not wee think but as God had his secret and inuisible company at that time in that most idolatrous Countrey so in the time of the deepest darknesse hee had those which saw light his Christian Children among Antichrists Brood such as embraced true Religion among the superstitious So that Italy and Rome and these Westerne parts had some of Gods Saints in all Ages who like Sea-fish most fresh in the salt water and beeing remoued in their affections though not in their persons did with Lot vex their righteous soules in the middest of a spiritual Sodom and kept themselues vnspotted of the world And yet it is not to bee taken that wee coarctate the Church within those Prouinces onely which looked towards the See of Rome but know that God had thousands of his Elect elsewhere Christians haue bin in India euen by perpetuall descent from the daies of the Apostles and so in Africa among the Abissines in infinite and huge companies besides such as haue continued in Armenia Asia the lesser Aegypt but especially in the Greeke Church which was neuer so much as in shew extinguished and from whom the Russians and Muscouites had their Faith Our Popish Lads would gladly shut all these out of Christs Fold because they acknowledge not the Bishop of Rome for their Vniuersall Pastor but wee should doe wrong to Almighty God to pinne his iudgement vpon the Popes sleeue and to offer to pull from him so many ample Churches whereas charity and common sense might put vs in minde that he might there haue thousands throughout all Ages Looke to these places ye Papists and imagine that if there had beene none but these yet the words of the Scripture which in generality speake of a Spouse had beene true and Christ had there had his body on earth and the Church had not beene vtterly extinguished if neither we nor the Synagogue of Rome had beene extant But in as much as it cannot be denied but that the prophesies concerning Antichrist doe most touch the Westerne world Rome beeing by the holy Ghost euidently designed to bee the seat of the Whore of Babylon as also because our Romish Standard-bearers are more willing to talke of those parts then of any other I will once returne againe to the Countreys neere adioyning Then in some parts of Christendome how many men were there in all ages who loathed both the See of Rome and the whole courses of it as the Israelites did loath the Aegyptians bondage Mathew Paris alone giueth as many notable experiments that way as relating the Acts of the Emperour Frederick who put out diuers declarations in detestation of the Pope and adding elsewhere further of his owne that Pope Gregory did absolue from the oath of fealty all who were bound vnto the Emperor perswading them that they should be faithfull in vnfaithfulnesse obedient in disobedience But so much deserued the Romane Churches lewdnesse which is to be execrated of all men that the Popes authority did merit to bee harkened vnto by few or none He reporteth also of a certain Carthusian Monk at Cambridge who cryed out against the Pope and said that Hee was an Heretick and that the Churches were profaned and of Robert Grosthead Bishop of Lincolne who was a man both holy and learned in his time This Lincolniensis while he liued had many combates with the Bishop of Rome and openly resisted his barbarous tyranny in domineering so farre in England as to enioyne prouision of the best Benefices to be taken vp for Italian Boyes which for a Prebend in his Church of Lincolne hee would not yeeld vnto and for that cause was by the Pope excommunicated But when hee was dying hee most bitterly inueighed against the Romane Bishop and the Ecclesiasticall persons as the most wicked men that did liue In the same Author you may also finde the conceit which the most reuerend Arch-bishop of York Sewaldus had of them and their proceedings What should I mention Ioachim who said that in his time Antichrist was already born and was in the City of Rome or that Bishop of Florence who liued about the yeer 1100 and did vse to say that Antichrist was then in the world Which moued Pope Paschalis so much as that hee thought fit to enquire of him in a Councell and did there castigate him for it Notable in this kinde are the Contentions of Philippus Pulcher the King of France and his whole Clergy against Boniface the Eightth I might adde to these Petrus de Brus and many other learned men who laid the Axe to the very Root of Popery and some in set Treatises oppugned one of their documents and some assaulted other but that the Writer of the Catalogus testium veritatis as it is lately enlarged and Master Fox and Master Bale and diuers other haue largely handled this to the reading of whose Bookes I doe referre them who in particular desire to bee more aduertised in this behalfe Now if these things doe appeare much by their own witnesse and by the confession of Papists themselues as also by such few Records as by Gods prouidence so disposing doe yet remaine how many illustrious arguments might there haue beene of the Confession of our faith if the Clergy and Magistracy of those darke times had not burned and suppressed all things which made against them as I shewed before touching the Bookes of Iohn Wickles Reinald Pecock in Oxford The Clergy in those dayes did almost rule all and they had the custody of all Libraries to ransack at

of Lōdon and in a Monition directed to Oxford where it is said that certain Conclusions hereticall and erronious were generally and commonly preached and published in diuers places of the Prouince of Canterbury There be extant also Letters of king Richard 2. directly signifying so much But there is nothing which may more amply testifie the spreading of his doctrine then an Act of Parliament in the beginning almost of that young Kings dayes where it is related that there were diuers Preaching dayly not onely in Churches and Church-yardes but also in markets faires other open places where as great congregation of people is diuers Sermons containing heresies and notorious errours This putteth me in minde of a written book which once I saw being a Chronicle compiled by a Monk of Leicester Abby who writing of the time of the said King reporteth at large that the people in faires and markets and riding by the way and almost euery where would talke of the Scripture and reprooue the customes of that time as also the Priests to the exceeding great trouble and offence of the Clergie This they might the rather do out of the Word of God because the Scriptures were then translated into English as may bee seene by diuerse Copies written and remaining vnto this day supposed to be so turned by Wicklef And it is very probable that in Leicester shire there were many of those of whom the Monk Leicestrensis spake since at Lutterworth a Towne in that County Iohn Wicklef was beneficed But the greatest part of this learned mans abode was at the first in the Vniuersitie of Oxford where hee was both a Doctor and Reader in Diuinity and therefore is to bee conceiued to haue many learned men partaking with him in his opinions Master Fox saith out of the Chronicle of S. Albanes that hee had a Benefice in Oxford of which he was depriued by Simon Sudbury Arch-Bishop of Canterbury It may bee this was nothing else but the Mastership or chiefe Gouernors place in Bailioll Colledge which I am perswaded that hee had since there are yet two antient Writings in the treasury of that Colledge which I haue seene which were made in the name of Iohn Wicklef Master of that house and that in the daies of King Richard the Second But while he liued he had so many fauourers in that Vniuersity as that Master Robert Rigges Vice-Chancelor and the two Proctors took part with him as also Nicholas Herford Philip Repington and Iohn Ashton Preachers and Batchelors of Diuinity and grew into great question for his cause where Repington in the end beeing Doctor did slippe from him Yea so farre was his doctrine there spred that Pope Gregorie the Eleuenth in the yeere 1378 did direct his B●ll to the Vniuersity of Oxford against the Doctrine and Articles of that learned man euen Rome it selfe ringing of his opinions in that Vniuersity Neither did his Followers dye when he himselfe died But long after that Pope Gregory the twelfth did direct downe another Bull to Oxford against Wicklef in which he vsed the same words which his Predecessors had that is to say that Wicklef did follow the doctrine of Marsilius of Padua and of Iohn of Gandune of vnworthy memory Which speech is worth the marking to shew that this man also had his Predecessors The Copie of this latter Bull is to bee seene in the Booke which that worthy louer of Antiquities Master Hare gaue to our Vniuersity where also is to bee seene in the Constitution of a Prouinciall Councell celebrated at Oxford a sharp Inquisition decreed by Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterbury against all euen the heads of Colledges and Halles and others suspected of Lollardy and Wicleuisme They might well suppose that the Students of that place were entertainers of such doctrine since about that very time a testimoniall was giuen in their Congregation house vnder seale in fauour of Iohn Wicklef where these words are among other God forbid that our Prelates should haue condemned a man of such honesty for an Heretick And yet in the Councell of Constance hee was condemned for such a one forty yeeres after that he was dead and buried But all would not serue to extirpate his Bookes or memory out of our Vniuersity but euen in the daies of King Edward the Fourth there were new letters directed to the Gouernors of that place by the King himselfe to make search for his Bookes and to burne them I haue in my custody a faire antient Record of that Vniuersity which by meanes of a good friend I haue gained back to this place And therein is a solemne Letter directed from the Conuocation of Doctors and Masters to the King te●tifying that according to their Soueraigns Commandement they had with accurate diligence searched out the Bookes and Tracts of Wicklef himselfe and of Reginald Pecock and had burnt them So much adoe was it and that in so long a space to suppresse the head whereunto Wicklefs doctrine was growne in the famous Vniuersity of Oxford How elsewhere in this Kingdome his positions were spred may be easily collected out of Geffry Chaucer who dying about the yeere 1400 may rightly be supposed to haue liued while Ioh. Wicklef liued This Chaucer who wanted neither wit nor learning did at large paint-out the pride lasciuious vicious and intolerable behauior of the Pope Cardinals and Clergy euen applying the name of Antichrist diuers times vnto the Romane Bishop and saying that There were many in those daies of the speakers minde yea finding fault with their faith aswell as with their manners The whole tale is wel worth the reading but I will cite onely a few verses Peter was neuer so great a foole To leaue his Key with such a lorell Or take such cursed such a toole He was aduised nothing well I trow they haue the key of hell Their master is of that place Marshall For there they dressen hem to dwell And with false Lucifer there to fall They beene as proud as Lucifer As angry and as enuious From good faith they beene full farre In couetize they beene curious To catch cattaile as couetous As hound that for hunger will yall Vngodly and vngracious And needily such falshod shall fool fall This and a hundred times as much he expresseth in a simple plough mans person as euidently inferring that the husbandman meanest country body of that time by the reading and hearing of the Word of God could tell what was right and religious and what otherwise yea and complaine of the blindnesse and impiety of the Romanists in that age But if wee would be aduertised what euen Lay-men in those times could doe let vs looke into the Declarations of Walter Bruite who was in question for his opinion before the Bishop of Hereford in the yeere 1393 and gaue vp a a little booke containing those t●●ngs which he maintained The true