can it choose but rise ouer the banks There is puritie therefore out of Wedlocke but not out of Continence And what needed my Detector to trauel so farre as England for an example of incontinency in a King Henrie or any wife of his whether falsely or truly obiected when hee might haue looked neerer the centre of their Church and haue found his owne Pope Iohn in the very time now questioned for this prohibition killed by the Deuill in the act of adulterie with another mans wife This end of the Wallet hangs behind him SECT VIII HIldebrand as I learned of Auentine is as much as Titio Amoris But how little hee differed in name or nature from Hellebrand Titio infernalis as Chemnitius calls him his Historie shewes too well And is it possible that any man should rise vp after so many hundred yeeres to Canonize Saint Hildebrand euen in that for which hâ— condemned himselfe My Reader must know the man a little from the witnesse of his owne Conclaue his Cardinall Benno Archpriest of the Roman Church then liuing Others besides tell of his beginnings in wicked Necromancy and murderous vnderminings and tyrannicall swaying of the Keyes ere he had them Benno tells how he got them how he vsed them gotten Hee got them by fraud mony violence vsed them with tyrannie There was a knot and a succession of Necromancers in those dayes Gerberius which was Syluester the second was the Master of the schole His chiefe Schoilers in the blacke Arte were Theophylactus afterwards changed into Pope Benedict and Laurentius and Gratianus These were the Tutors of Hildebrands yonger times of whom hee learned both Magike and Policy It is a world to see what worke these Magicians made like the ill spirits they raysed in Church and Common-wealth opposing Emperors setting vp what Popes they pleased poysoning whom they disliked At last it came to Hildebrands turne to take the Chaire To which purpose he separated first the Bishops from the Cardinals auerse from him when he had done he compelled them by terror and force to sweare unto his part which done hee was elected in spight of the Canons only by Lay persons by Souldiers he expelled the Cardinals â—ashly excommunicated the Emperor of his owne head without any Canonicall accusation without subscription of any Cardinall hyred a bloudy Villaine to murder the Emperour consulted with the Oracle of his breaden God which because it answered not hee cast it into the fire hee exercised most horrible cruelties vpon many hanging vp men at his pleasure vnconuicted in a word quantis haeresibus mundum corruperit c saith Benno in his conclusion His heresies his periuries can scarce be described by many Pens Clamat tamen altiùs c. But the Christian bloud shed by his instigation and command saith he cryes yet lowder to God yea the bloud of the Church which the sword of his tongue in a miserable prodition hath shed cryes out against him for which things the Church did most iustly depart from all communion with him Thus Benno who yet to make amends tells vs that Hildebrand vpon his death-bed repented of these lewd courses and sent to the Emperor and the Church to cry them mercy confessing as Sigibert reports that he had by the suasion of the Deuill raysed these wicked tumults Yet this is the man whom Bellarmine will iustifie by seuen and twentie Authors and C. E. can adde two more to the heape yea in those very things for which hee condemned himselfe Reader if one of his euill spirits should haue stept into Peters chaire doe yee thinke hee could haue wanted Proctors But how good an account we were like to haue of seuen and twentie Authours if it would requite the cost to examine them appeares in that Lambertus Schafnaburgensis which is cited for the man that magnifies the miracles of this Gregory sayes not one such word of him but speaks indeed the like of one Anno Archbishop of Coleine who liued and dyed in the time of Gregory As for Gregories miracles Benno the Cardinall tells vs what they were that hee raysed Deuils familiarly that hee shaked sparks of fire out of his sleeue by his magike A tricke that well beseemed an Hellebrand who set all the world on fire by his wicked impetuositie Wee will not enuy Rome this Saint let them inioy him let them celebrate him and cry downe Henry the Emperour and all that opposed him Still may such as these be the Tutelar gods of that holy Citie For vs it is comfort enough to vs that our marriages had such a persecutor That the Churches did hereupon ring of him for Antichrist Auentine is my author Pro concione c. In their sermons saith he they did curse HILDEBRAND they cryed out on him as a man transported with hatred and ambition Antichristum esse praedicant They declared him to be Antichrist They said that vnder the colourable title of Christ he did the seruice of Antichrist That hee sits in Babylon in the Temple of God and is aduanced aboue all that is called God So he And little better is that which his Schafnaburgensis so much extolled by C. E. recordeth Aduersus hoc decretum infremuit tota factio Clericorum c. Against this Decree saith he all the whole faction of Clergy men fretted and mutined accusing him as an Heretike and a man of peruerse opinion who forgetting the Word of Christ which said All men cannot receiue this did by a violent exaction compell men to liue in the fashion of Angels To which if I should adde the sentence of the Synod of Wormes and that of Brixia my Reader would easily see that it is not the applause of some deuoted Pen that can free him from these foule imputations of deserued infamie That vntruth then cleered another belike hangs vpon the score My Refuter charges mee with falsehood in saying That GREGORY the seuenth was deposed by the French and German Bishops Only the Germans hee saith were Actors in that Tragedie But if not at Wormes yet let him tell mee what was done at Brixia and by whom Quamobrem Italiae Germaniae Galliae Pontifices c. Wherefore saith AVENTINVS the Bishops of Italy Germany and France the seuenth of the Kalends of Iuly met at Brixia in Bauaria and sentenced HILDEBRAND to haue spoken and done against Christian pietie c. and condemned him of heresie impietie sacriledge c. And that my Refuter may find himselfe answered at once to the last of his Cauils wherein hee pleads that this deposition was not so much as pretended for the inhibition of these marriages but for other causes let him see the Copie of the iudgement passed against him in the said Councell wherein after the accusation of his Simoniacall climing into the Chaire the vice which he pretended most to persecute in others his forceable possession his heresie his machinations against the
it a filthie vow and his heroicall LVTHER for terming it a diabolicall thing So hee I take him at his word onely let him not flye forth vpon the shift of solemnity which their Scholer lately hatched That were to seeke gray hayres in infancie First I bring forth that famous place of Saint Cyprian in his Epistle written both in his owne name and his fellow-Bishops to Pomponius concerning some vowed Virgins which were found in bed with men whereof one was a Deacon of which Virgines he with his Brethren passe this sentence Quod si se ex fide Christo dicauerunt c. If they saith hee haue faithfully dedicated themselues vnto Christ let them without all deceit perseuere in the course of Chastitie and so couragiously and constantly expect the reward of their Virginitie Si autem perseuerare nolunt vel non possunt c. But if eyther they will not or cannot perseuere it is better that they marrie then by their wantonnesse fall into the fire Let them giue no scandall to their Brethren and Sisters What could Luther or Caluin write more directly So that Erasmus notes in the Margine Etiam virginibus sacris permitit nubere Here CYPRIAN permits euen holy Virgines to marry BELLARMINES shift hereof is ridiculous That Cyprian by occasion of some Virgins which after their vow behaued themselues dishonestly aduised others that if they had not a firme purpose of perseuering they should not vow but marrie whom we remit to the checke of his owne Pamelius of his conscience Indeed what is this but to mocke both the Author and the Reader For doth Cyprian at all varie the persons of whom hee speakes Doth he not speake plainly of Virgins deuoted to Christ And what perseuering could there be but in that which they had vndertaken And what had they vndertaken but a dedication of themselues to Christ What is this Reader but willingly to try his oares against the streame of Truth To the same purpose is that noted sentence of Hierome though otherwise none of the best friends to marriage who speaking of Virgins ascribed by their vow into the celestiall Family addes Quibus apertè dicendum c. Whom we must openly charge that eyther they would marry if they cannot containe or that they would contayne if they will not marrie We know the elusion of this place also That Hierome speakes of Virgins in purpose not in vow But whose name I beseech you was defamed by their lewdnesse or what was the heauenly and Angelicall Family whose glory was blemished herewith Was it of any other then professed Virgins Or could the act of a purposed Virgin onely shame Virgins professed To the same purpose is the aduice of Basil and Epiphanius Adde to these an elder then they all Tertullian with him all those Fathers which interpret Saint Pauls voâ—o iuniores nubere of vowed widdowes All which must needes hold that our Apostle allowes marriage for the lawfull remedie of vnable Votaries Let not this malicious Masse-Priest then turne vs ouer to his Tyberianus or Iouinian for the first founders of our opinion and practice which we receiued from no other then that diuine Arch-heretike that sate at the feete of Gamaliel from no other then the holily-hereticall Fathers and Martyrs of the Church As for those two mis-alledged Authors to whom hee ascribes vs his skill doth palpably fayle him in both For Tyberianus he beeing suspected of Priscillianisme wrote affectly against that heresie at last foulely fell to that which hee disclaymed whereon it was that Hierome sayes Canis ad vomitum not vpon the marriage of his daughter And for that particular fact it is no lesse mis-taken Hierome sayes onely Filiam virginem Christo deuotam matrimonio copulauit but Sophronius who it seemes well know the Storie turnes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compelled his daughter a consecrated Virgin to marry A foule fact which we detest no lesse then the contrary practice of those Romanists who compell their daughters which would marrie to bee consecrated Virgins It is then no lesse false that Tyberian gaue beginning to vs then it is true that Tyburne hath giuen a iust end to some of them For Iouinian what is he to vs when neyther our practice was his nor his opinion ours Not our practice for he liued and dyed a single Monke Not his opinion How can wee be said to admit marriage to an equall share of merit with virginitie when wee deny merit in eyther Againe that Eunuchisme not in it selfe but for the Kingdome of Heauen is better then it we doubt not But when these two are reduced to their subiects their value is according to their vse Chrysostome could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Vse marriage with meete moderation and thou shalt be the first in the Kingdome And Gregorie Nazianzen besides that he saith of his Sister Gorgonia when he commends the children of Bazil the elder tells vs some of them so vsed their marriage that it was no hindrance to them quo minùs ad pacem virtutis gloriam aspirarent that they might not aspire to an equall glorie of vertue with the Virgins and made these two rather different kinds of life then maners of liuing Saint Chrysostome then and Nazianzen shall vsher vs into the Schole of Iouinian And if Iouinian were Formosus monachus crassus nitidus c. A fayre fat spruce Monke as hee saith Mee thinkes hee should rather haue hoped to match him in their Sybariticall Cloysters where they abound with meat and drinke and ease then in our laborious Clergie It is happy for vs and for that reuerend Archbishop Marcus Anton. de Dominis that this rayler can obiect nothing to him but an harmelesse lode of corpulencie It moues their spleene enough that this learned Prelate hath honoured our Iland with a Dalmatian Pall Their cause feeles that he can notwithstanding passe into the Pulpit What speake they of this when to their sorrow they see hee could passe ouer the Alpes to leaue Rome This Beagle and his balling Beyerlinck and the kennel of Sorbon may bay at him but not one of their Bandogs dare fasten But why doe I suffer this babbler to lead mee out of my way What is all this sleeuelesse discourse to a man that neuer said neuer thought euery vow of this kinde vnlawfull nor euery breach of such vow sinlesse When he takes mee with this Tenet let him load mee with authorities Till then his now-friuolous papers may serue for any honest vse SECT X. NO lesse wise and proper is that other discourse of Impossibilitie For to make short worke That no man can contayne though it be giuen him I neuer said That any man may contayne though it bee not giuen him either he will not say or if he doe he hath Christ for his Aduersarie Why doe wee blot Paper How the performance of this
them notwithstanding our doubt or denyall For example The Trent Canons rore terribly to them to vs or the French they are but as the Pot-guns of Boyes we may cite these to them as Gospell they may cite them to vs as Alchoran By this it appeares how farre not only Schoole-Learning but euen Logike transcends this poore Refuters capacitie who could not distinguish betweene disputing adrem ad hominem What I said in my Epistle to my reuerend and worthy Friend Master Doctor Iames the incomparably-industrious and learned Bibliothecary of Oxford a man whom their Posseuine thought so well of that he hath handsomely stolne a Booke of his and clapt it out for his owne a man whom so base a Tongue as my Detectors cannot disgrace I professe still that I hold those Canons of the Apostles vncanonicall And doe I hold this alone Doth not his Pope Gelasius so Doth not Isidore Bishop of Hispalis so Doth not Leo the Ninth so Are not some of them at pleasure reiected by Posseuine Baronius Bellarmine Or in a word if they bee the true issue of the Apostles are they accordingly respected and obserued of the Roman Church Doth not his Medina grant to their shame that the Latine Church scarce obserues six or eight of them These Canons then I doe not hold Apostolicall I doe hold ancient and not vnworthy of respect and such as I wonder they haue escaped the Romane Purgations As for those other nine or tenne noted Counterfeits which I ioyned herewith for companie in that Epistle his shame would serue him to iustifie if his leasure would whereas there is scarce one of them whome his owne Authours haue not branded My Refuter must haue a fling In an idle excursion therefore he iustly rayles on the Protestant practice in reiecting those Fathers for Bastardie one while whome otherwhiles they cite for currant when his owne eminent impudencie in the very passage next going before and in the next following to goe no further offends in the same kinde The truth is The Protestants take libertie to refuse those Fathers whom euen ingenuous Papists haue censured as base The Papists take libertie when they lift to reiect the authoritie of those Fathers whose Truth they cannot denie The instances hereof would bee endlesse But with what face can any Papist taxe vs for this when all the World may see aboue three hundred and twentie of their Authours whome after the first allowance they haue either suppressed or censured To their eternall and open conuiction Doctor Iames whome they may reuile but shall neuer answere hath collected and published the names and pages SECT XXIX NOt to follow therefore this babbling vagary of my Aduersary against Zuinglius Luther Musculus Whitakers what Puppy cannot bark at a dead Lion we come close to the Canon That no Bishop Presbyter or Deacon shal forsake or cast off his Wife in pretence of Religion or Pietie vpon paine of deposition Wherewith how much my Refuter is pressed appeares in that he is faine with Baronius to auoyd it with Apocryphorum non est tanta authoritas There is no so great authoritie in Apocryphall Canons Where is the man that euen now vpbrayded vs with the lawlesse rejection of ancient Records and by name would vndertake to iustifie those whom my Epistle taxed for adulterine whereof these Canons of the Apostles were a part now hee is faine to change his note Apocryphorum non est tanta authoritas Hee hath cast off Ignatius alreadie anon you shal find him reiecting Socrates Sozomen Nicephorus Gratian Sigebert H. Huntingdon and whom not vpon euery occasion shamelesly practizing that which hee censures If I alleage the sixt general Councell that of Constantinople proclaiming this sense truely Apostolicall euen the sixt generall Councell is reiected as neither sixt nor generall nor Councell That this Apostolicall Canon is bent against the deniall of Matrimoniall conuersation is apparantly expressed in those Canons of Constantinople how-euer the extent of it in regard of some persons is restrayned There is no way therefore to vntye this knot but by cutting it and my cauilling Priest with his Jesuites may gnaw long enough vpon this bone ere they suck in any thing from hence but the bloud of their owne iawes Any of those words single might be auoyded but so set together will abide no elusion Let him not vpon pretence of Religion eiect his Wife The shift that C. E. borrowes from Bellarmine is grosse and such as his owne heart cannot trust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he that is praetextu cautionis Looke ouer all the Copies all interpretations of these Canons that of Dionysius Exiguus that of Gentianus Heruetus that of Caranza that which Gratian whome my either gracelesse or ignorant Aduersarie dares name against mee citeth from hence all of them runne praetextu religionis How cleere is that of their owne Law Si quis docuerit Sacerdotem c. If any man shall teach that a Priest vnder pretence of Religion may contemne his own Wife let him be accursed And Zonaras whom both our Iunius and their Espencaeus cite out of Quintinus his Exposition is most cleere Hoc enim videtur in calumniam fieri nuptiarum c. For this eiection saith hee would seeme to bee done in reproch of marriage as if the Matrimoniall knowledge of man and wife caused any vncleannesse Thus he Where it is plain that he takes it not of maintenance but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Coniugall act The necessitie of which sense also is euicted by their owne Espencaeus out of Saint Chrysostome in his second Homily vpon Titus And Balsamon no lesse directly Because saith he before that Law of IVSTINIAN it was lawfull for a man vpon any cause to diuorce his Wife therefore the present Canon giues charge that it shall not be lawfull for a Bishop Priest or Deacon vpon pretence of Pietie to put away his Wife Thus he From all which it is not hard to see that in those yong dayes of the Church the mystery of iniquitie began in this point to worke so as Marriage according to the Apostles prediction beganne to bee in an ill name though the cleere Light of that Primitiue Truth would not indure the disgrace So as in all this I haue both by Moses and the Examples of that Leuiticall Priesthood by the Testimonie of the Apostles by their practice by their anciently-reputed Canons by the testimony of the agedest Fathers so made good the lawfulnesse and antiquity of the Marriages of persons Ecclesiastical that I shall not need to feare a Diuorce either from my Wife or from the Truth in that my Confident and iust Assertion THE HONOVR OF THE MARRIED CLERGIE maintained c. The second Booke SECT I. ANd now since in this poynt wee haue happily wonne the day lesse labour needs in the other It is safe erring with Moses and the Prophets with CHRIST and his
eight Booke hee shall find Badegisitus the cruell Bishop of the Cenomans matched with â—n ill wife who yet liued with him as it seemes all his time and had altercations with Bertram Archdeacon of Paris for his goods deceased In these there is strength of â—egall presumption though no necessitie of inference But what doe I instance in these or any other when Balsamon tells vs cleerly that before the sixt Synode it was lawfull for Bishops to haue wiues Etiam post dignitatem Episcopalem And his owne Canon Law can tell him that in the East Church their Priests Matrimonio copulantur which his wariest Masters expounding would interpret by copulato vtuntur Iudge then Reader what to thinke of the mettle of this mans forehead who would beare vs downe that no one Bishop or Priest was allowed after Orders to haue any Wife Yea euen for the very contraction of Marriage it selfe after Orders honest Espencaeus can cite one Ioannes Marius a Dutch-man by birth but a French Historian to whom hee allowes the title of non indiligeris who writes that hee knowes that in the times of Pope Formosus and Ludouicus Balbus Priests were married Et ijs lieuisse sponsam legitimam ducere modo Virginem non verò Viduam and that it was lawfull for them to marrie a Wife so shee were a Virgine not a Widdow As for that base slander wherewith this venomous Pen besprinkles the now-glorious face of our renowned Archbishop and Martyr Doctor Cranmer whom hee most lewdly charges with lasciuiousnesse and incontinent liuing with I know not what Dutch Fraw it is worthy of no other answere then Increpet te Dominus It is true that the holy man wisely declining the danger malignitie of the times made not at the first any publike profession of his Marriage as what needed to inuite mischiefe But that he euer had any dishonest conuersation with her or any other it is no other then the accent of the mouth of Blasphemy And if any one of our Clergie after a legall and iust Diuorce long since haue taken to himselfe that liberty which other Reformed Churches publikely allow as granting in some case a full release both à thoro and à vinculo what ground is this for an impure wretch to cast dirt in the eyes of our Clergie and in the teeth of our Church Malicious Masse-priest cast backe those emissitious eyes to your owne infamous Chaire of Rome and if euen in that thou canst discerne no spectacles of abominable vncleannesse spend thy spightfull censures vpon ours I reckoned diuers Examples of marryed Bishops and Priests out of Eusebius Ruffinus others amongst the rest Domnus Bishop of Antioch which succeeded Samosatenus for which my margent cited Eusebius in his seuenth Booke and nine and twentieth Chapter My Detector taxes mee for citing Authours at randome as Eusebius lib. 7. cap. 29. when as there are he saith but sixe and twenty Chapters and for things which are not found in him As if the man had desperately sworne to write nothing but false Trust not me Reader Trust thine owne eyes Thou shalt not finde that Booke of Eusebius to haue one and thirtie Chapters and in the cited place thou shalt duly finde the Historie of Domnus Whose patience would not this impudencie moue If I reckoned not Examples enow or such as he likes not as vniustly seeming litigious there is choice enough of more Tertullian Prosper Hilarie Eupsychus Polycrates and his seuen Ancestors To which let him adde foure and twentie Diocesses at once in Germanie France Spaine Anno 1057. of married Clergie-men recorded by their owne Gebuilerus and make vp his mouth with that honest confession of Auentine Sacerdotes illa tempestate publicè vxores sicut caeteri Christiani habebant filios procreabant Priests in those dayes publikely had Wiues as other Christians had and begat children which the olde Verse if hee had rather expresses in almost the same termes Quondam praesbyteri poterant vxoribus vti which his Mantuan hath yet spun in a finer thred as we shall shew in this Section What danger is there now therefore either of the breach of my promise to my worthy Friend Master Doctor Whiting or of my diuorce or of his victorie If the man and his modestie had not beene long since parted these idle crackes had neuer beene But whereas this mightie Champion challenges me with great insultation in many passages of his brauing Discourse to name but one Bishop or Priest of note which after holy Orders conuersed coniugally with his Wife without the scandall of the Church branding such if any were for infamous and daring to pawne his cause vpon this triall I doe heere accept his offer and am readie to produce him such an Example as if all the Iesuites heads in the world stood vpon his shoulders they could not tell how to wrangle against I doe not vrge to him that Prosper of Aquitaine a Bishop and a Saint whose Verses to his Wife are famous and imply their inseparable conuersation Age iam precor mearum Comes irremotarerum c. Nor yet the fore-named Hilarie Bishop of Poitiers who in his olde age if that Epistle be worthy of any credit writing to his Daughter confesses her yeeres so few that through the incapacitie of her age shee might perhaps not vnderstand the Hymne or Epistle of whom the honest Carmelite MANTVANVS could ingenuously confesse Non nocuit tibi progenies non obstitit vxor Legitimo coniuncta thoro Non horruit illa Tempestate Deus thalamos cunabula taedas Nor Bishop Simplicius of whom Sidonius giues this prayse that his Parents were eminent either in Cathedris or Tribunalibus and that his Pedigree was famous either Episcopis or Praefectis and for his Wife that shee was of the Stocke of the PALLVDII qui aut literarum aut altarium cathedras cum sui ordinis laude tenuerunt of whom also Sidonius can say she did respondere Sacerdotijs vtriusque familiae answere the Priesthoods of eyther Family Nor Alcimus Auitus the French Archbishop who writing to his Sister of her Parentage hath thus Stemma Parentum Quos licet antiquo mundus donârit honore Et titulis à primaeuo insigniuerit ortu Plus tamen ornantur sacris insignibus illi c. Nec iam atauos soror alma tibi proauosque retexam Vita Sacerdotum quos reddidit inclyta claros Nor Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania to whome Ausonius writes Tanaquil tua nesciat istud And Formidatamque iugatam obijcis c. These and such like might suffice reasonable men but since wee haue to doe with those Aduersaries whom Saint Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who if we vrge hundreds of such euident examples turne vs off with bold shifts and will needes put vs to proue those acts which seeke secresie Let him and all his complices whet their wits vpon that cleare and
and Cheâ—nitius all Germanes that should bee best acquainted with the state of their own haue long since told him that his Saint Vdalrick was not the man whome they held the Authour of this Epistle but â—lderick another not much different in name but differing in time aboue seuenty yeeres Ne nominis equiuocatio lectorem â—urbet and lest the equiuocation of the name faith CHEMNâ—â—IVS should trouble the Reader There is another VDALRICK of Augusta whome AVENTINE writes to haue dyed Anno 973. But this HVLDERICK AENaeAS SYLVIVS writes to haue dyed Anno 900. and in the yeere of his age 83. Thus hee from the authoritie of two their famousest Historians from whose account Onuphrius differs not much But that my Refuter may hereafter saue the labour of scanning their discordant Computations whether it were either or neither of them it is not worth to vs one haire of his Crown since with our faithfull and learned Foxe we rather from the authoritie of ancient English Copies ascribe it to Volusianus whose second Epistle also in the same stile to the same purpose is extant from the same Records not inferiour to the former What matters it for the name when it appeares that the Epistle it selfe is truly ancient ponderous reuerend Theologicall conuictiue and such as the best Romanes heads cannot after seuen hundred yeeres shape a iust answere vnto Euen in some Canonicall Bookes though there bee difference in the names of the Pen-men there is full assent to their diuine authoritie And why is it not so in humane Thus then wee haue easily blowne away these light bubbles of Discourse which our Aduersary hath raised out of the Nut-shell of his computation from the Age Person Writings of his Saint Vdalrick and returne his impuram nescio cuius nebulonis Epistolam with his ferrei oris and plumbei cordis backe whence it came to the Writer cited by my Aduersarie not named But by better due to the next hand whereto I am no whit beholding for leauing it vnenglished In that C. E. spared not mee but himselfe who is nescio quis but he that leapeth into the Presse without a name Who Nebulo rather then he that masketh and marcheth sub nebulâ hoping to passe in the Conflict for a doughtie Knight or Champion Sconosciuto not daring to lift vp his Beuer Who writes impuram Epistolam but he that hath scribbled a Voluminous Epistle to cry downe pure and Honourable Marriage for the inhauncing of impure Celibate not that in Thesi Celibate is impure but in Hypothesi theirs forced and hypocriticall SECT III. AS for the difference that hee finds in our number of Pope Nicolas whether first or second or third wee may thanke his Gratian whose fashion it is as likewise Sigeberts to name the Popes without the note of their number we are sure it was not Nicolas Nemo which wrote to Odo Bishop of Vienna reproouing him for giuing leaue to Aluericus a Deacon to marrie thereupon sending his contrarie Decree to the Germane Churches which it seemes or the like imposition gaue occasion to this noble Epistle But can there bee any Game amongst our English Popish Pamphleters where the Foxe is not in chase Where is the shame of this Romane Priest whiles he so manifestly belies our holy reuerend worthy Master Foxe whom this Scoganly Pen dare say playes the Goose in the inconstancie of his Relation of this Nicolas first reporting him the first then the second when it is most manifest in the during Monuments of that industrious and excellent Authour that hee still insists vpon Nicolas the Second reiecting by many Arguments the opinion of them which haue referred it â—o the first Such truth there is in shorne crownes Iohn Husse was a Goose by name and now Iohn Foxe is a Goose by reproch Two such Geese are more worth then all the fawning Curres of the Romane Capitoll And how much more wit then fidelitie is there in my Detector whiles hee would proue that Pope Gregorie had then no Pond because there are now no Ponds at Rome As if Rome were now in any thing as it was as if twelue hundred yeeres had made no alteration As if the streets of Troy were not now Champaine As if his Lipsius could now finde Rome in Rome As if lastly that man were vncapable of a large Pond whâ—se Seâ— is vniuersall As for the number of childrens heads I can say no more for it then hee can against it this Historie shall be more worth to vs then his denyall But this I dare say that I know persons both of credit and honour that saw betwixt fiftie and threescore cast vp out of the little Mote of an Abbey where I now liue Let who list cast vp the proportion After the refusall of this worthie Epistle according to his fashion hee tryes to disgrace it with vs telling vs that therein the Bishop of Rome is stiled Supreme Head and Gouernour of the whole Church If it were thus so much more powerfull is the Testimonie against them by how much more the witnesse was theirs There must needes bee much cause when hee that so humbly ouer-titles the person resists the Doctrine so vehemently But the truth is that the Epistle stiles Pope Nicolas no otherwise in the superscription then Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae prouisorem Ouer-seer of the holy Romane Church And in the bodie of the letter Summae sedis Pontificem Bishop of the chiefe See to whome the examination of the common affaires of the Church doth appertaine which is farre other then in the now Romane sense the Supreme Head of the Church Secondly hee tels vs that this Epistle both grants and allowes a Vow of Continencie Nullum excipit nisi professorem continentiae wherein we are no other then friends we yeeld no lesse where there is good euidence of the gift and calling of God But whiles our Volusian grants the professor of Continency bound and pleads the Clergie to bee free how plainly doth hee shew vs that there was no such Vow then required of no such made by the Clergie But what needes the man to bee so furiously angry with the good olde Epistler for saying that the Apostles charge Let euery one haue his owne Wife is generall to all reaching to the Clergie as well as the Laitie excepting none but those which haue the gift of Continencie What Logike the want whereof he sometimes causlesly obiecteth to mee euer taught him that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnâ—squisque was any other then vniuersall Or what other sense can bee put vpon the words of the Apostle Could I as truly vpbraid Sir Refuter with reading the Logike Lesson as he doth me with the Rhetorike surely I should not now bee put to the paines to teach this Nouice that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnusquisque is a terme of collectiue vniuersalitie and must be extended to all where kinde is excepted tacitely ex natura reâ— as this