and throw down and build and plant And a little after You see who is this servant even the Vicar of Christ the Successour of Peter the Christ of the Lord the God of Pharaoh one plac'd in the midst betwixt God and Man short of God but beyond Man less than God but greater than Man Likewise from St. Peter's walking on the Water he maketh this Inference Forasmuch saith he as many Waters are many People and the Congregations of Waters are the Sea in that St. Peter did walk upon the Waters of the Sea he did demonstrate his Power over all the World Further this Innocentius having written a malapert Letter to the Emperour of Constantinople his Majesty in answer of it putteth him in Mind how St. Peter commandeth all Men to be subject to Kings whereunto the Pope replyed saying that St. Peter wrote so to his own Subjects and did not therein include himself and that moreover he might not only have remember'd that it was not said to any King but to a Priest Behold I have placed thee over Nations and Kingdoms and so followeth the words of the Text but likewise that as God made two lights in the Firmament of Heaven a greater and a less the one for the Day the other for the Night so for the Firmament of the Universal Church he made two dignities the Pontifical and the Regal the Pontifical resembling the Sun which is the great Light and the Regal the Moon which is the less Light to the end that thereby it might be known that there is a great difference betwixt Pontifical Bishops and Kings as there is betwixt the Sun and the Moon But here we must a little digress to observe that this Pope being swoln as big as the Sun cast his Beams not only into England and scorched King John exceedingly about the Year 1212. by thundering against him and interdicting the Kingdom and by exciting his Subjects to Rebellion and Treason the Weapons of those Bishops but likewise fired Otho the Emperour out of the Empire by raising up against him Frederick the Second And when he had played these two Feats amongst many other he held a Council at Lateran Anno 1215. wherein to strengthen such Traiterous Proceedings he caused it to be ordained as it is pretended That if any Temporal Lord being admonished by the Church should not purge his Countrey from Heresie the Metropolitan and other Comprovincial Bishops should excommunicate him and if within a Year he did not give satisfaction in that behalf the same should be signified to the Bishop of Rome that so he from thence forward might denounce his Vassals absolved from their Fidelity to him and expose his Land to Catholicks to be without Contradiction by them possessed Upon this Canon many in these days do much rely although indeed it was but a Project amongst many other to have been concluded in that Assembly wherein nothing could be clearly determined saith one of their Writers because by Wars it was broken off which the Pope labouring to suppress died in that Journey And now we return from whence we digressed and leaving Innocentius do address our selves to Boniface the Eighth who had as great dexterity as his said Predecessour in expounding of the Scriptures For whereas the Apostles upon a mistaking of Christ's meaning where he bad them to provide bags and scrips for themselves and that he who wanted a sword should sell his Coat and buy one they answered saying Lord we have two swords This Pope inferreth there is in the Church a Spiritual Sword and a Temporal and that consequently they are both at the Commandment of the Bishops of Rome Also to make the matter more clear touching the temporal Sword which should rule the World in all temporal Causes he saith Boniface that shall deny that St. Peter had this temporal Sword doth not well understand Christ's Words when he bad St. Peter after he had cut off Malchus's Ear that he should put up his Sword Again whereas the Apostle doth teach us that the spiritual Man judgeth all things but is judged by none this good Bishop doth ingross these words to the only Use of the Popes and thereupon concludeth that they have Power to judge and censure all Earthly Powers and Authorities but are themselves exempted from the Checks and Censures of any as being only subject to God and to his judgment And again that the Spiritual Authority may institute and judge the Terrestrial it is verified by the Prophecy of Jeremy Behold I have placed thee this day over Nations and Kingdoms for the perverting of which Portion of Scripture both this Pope and Innocentius the Third with all the Popes that since have followed were and are much beholding to Adrian the Fourth he being the first for ought we find that so did overstrain it Lastly That he might imitate as he seemeth the Governour of the Feast in the Gospel that brought forth his best wine in the end of the feast and likewise such skilful Rhetoricians as commonly build their principal Conclusions upon their most pinching Arguments His Holiness relying upon the Scriptures because it is not said In the beginnings but In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth Therefore except we will say with the Manichces That God did not Himself make all Things but that there was also another Creator as well as he It must needs be confessed that there is but One viz. St. Peter's Successor that is the chief and principal Ruler of all the World and so he cometh to his irrefragable Conclusion We declare we define and we pronounce that it is of the Necessity of Salvation for all humane Creatures to be subject to the Bishop of Rome We may not therefore marvel that having thus notably made perfect the rough Platform drawn out by Gregory the VIIth rubbed over by Hadrian the IVth and amended by Innocentius the IIId of so infinite a Soveraignty if He the said Boniface to make the Honour and Glory more conspicuous and memorable to all Posterity after He had thrice refused to yield the Crown of the Empire to Albertus Austriacus came forth one day amongst the people to be admired of them with a Sword by his Side and a Crown upon his Head saying That He and none but He was Caesar Augustus Emperour and Lord of the World It had been plain dealing if for the better strengthning of this his Greatness He had alledged the Words in the Gospel for the Honour of his Lord Paramount All these will I give thee because He did so worthily by his said Proceedings magnifie his Name and Authority Placet eis John Overall CAP. X. WE have hitherto followed the Bishops of Rome through many Windings from their mean and militant Condition like to their Brethren unto their Glorious Estate and as we may say Triumphant We found them at the first little better than their Master Who
Episcopi quasi Cardinales Archiepiscopus sederet quasi Papa ibi omnis Appellatio subsisteret querela Hoc quidem Rex Henricus machinabatur approbant quamplures Episcopi hâc de causâ ut dictum est ut possent de sub jugo sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae colla excutere Now the building of the said Church is so forward that there is ordain'd there a Dean a Provost and more than 40. Canons founded of the Goods of the Church of Canterbury by birth Noblemen abounding in Wealth Allies of the King and of the Bishops Some of them do adhere to the King some have Offices in the Exchequer all of them familiar Friends to the Bishops and of a Confederacy with them Against such and so great Persons what is the Church of Canterbury able to do Certainly it is to be feared not only that the Church of Canterbury shall hereby be overthrown but that upon this occasion the Authority of the Apostolical See which God forbid shall in England be greatly diminish'd und prejudiced For when this Canonry or Cathedral Church was founded it was the common fame and the opinion of every Man that it was founded to this end that Bishops should be there as it were Cardinals and that the Archbishop should sit amongst them as Pope and that there all Appeals and complaints should be determined This assuredly was plotted by King Henry and the same very many Bishops do allow for this cause or end that so they might deliver their Necks from under the Yoke of the Holy Church of Rome Again after the Death of Celestin the Fourth the Cardinals being at so great a Dissention amongst themselves as that they could not agree for the space of a Year and nine Months who should succeed him both the Emperour and the French were greatly moved and offended therewith The Emperour finding his advice unto them to hasten their Choice to be despised and scorned and how dishonestly some of them had broken their Promises and Oaths unto him made in that behalf he gathered a great Host and dealt sharply with them And from France they received a Message that if they continued to dally as they did in prolonging the choice of a new Pope they would utterly leave Rome and choose to themselves a Pope of their own to govern the Churches on this side the Alps. Hereof Matthew Paris writeth thus Per idem tempus miserunt Franci solennes Nuncios ad Curiam Romanam significantes persuadendo praecisè efficaciter ut ipsi Cardinales Papam ritè eligentes Vniversali Ecclesiae solatium Pastorale maturiùs providerent vel ipsi Franci propter negligentiam eorum de sibi eligendo providendo summo Pontifice citra Montes cui obedire tenerentur quantocyùs contrectarent About that time the State of France did send their solemn Messengers to the Court of Rome signifying unto them and perswading them precisely and effectually that either the Cardinals should more speedily provide for the Vniversal Church her Pastoral Comfort by their due choice of a new Pope or else they themselves the French because of their negligence would forthwith fall into deliberation of choosing and providing for themselves a Pope on this side the Mountains whom they might be bound to obey Thus the said History Whereby as also by the former words of the Monks of Canterbury it is very evident that both England and France was long since in deliberation to have abandon'd the Authority of the Bishops of Rome out of both those Kingdoms as finding no necessity of the Universal overswaying power of the Roman Papacy and that the Churches within their several Countries and Territories might receive as great benefit and comfort by the Ecclesiastical Government of their own Archbishops in every respect as ever they had done from the Bishops of Rome For as it may truly be said not of one King to govern all the World but of every particular King in his own Kingdom so may it be truly affirmed not of one Pope to govern the whole Catholick Church but of every Archbishop in any National Church and Province to rule and direct the same that under the Government of one viz. of Kings for temporal Causes and of Archbishops for Ecclesiastical Causes there is the best order the greatest strength the most stability for continuance and the easiest manner and form of ruling We have spoken hitherto of the Government of the Church especially as it was in the Apostles times and afterward for the space of 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Enemies unto it Whereby we do infer that if the particular Churches setled then almost in every Country and Nation throughout the World had so good success when there were no Christian Magistrates nor had any assistance of the temporal Sword for the strengthning of their Ecclesiastical Government but only Ministers to teach and direct their Parishioners in the ways of Godliness and Bishops over them in every Diocess to oversee and rule as well the Ministers as the several People committed to their charge that they taught no new Doctrine or ran into Schisms and Archbishops over them all in every National Church and Province for the moderating and appeasing of such oppositions and dissentions as might otherwise have risen amongst the Bishops and so consequently have wrought great distraction betwixt their Diocesan Churches how much more then are the said particular Churches like to flourish and prosper under such a Form of Ecclesiastical Government wherein the Christian Magistrate is become to be as the chief Member of the Church so the chief Governour of it to keep as well the said Archbishops within their bounds and limits as all the rest of the Clergy and Christians Bishops Ministers and Parishioners that every one in their several places may execute and discharge their distinct Offices and Duties which are committed unto them We shall have fit occasion hereafter to speak of the Authority of Christian Princes in Causes Ecclesiastical here we do only still prosecute the Government of the Church when temporal Kings and Princes were her great and mortal Enemies and the Folly if not the obstinacy of our Adversaries who either see it not or will not acknowledge it that peace and quietness may as well be preserved in all the Churches in the World by Archbishops and Bishops without one Pope to govern them all as by Kings and Sovereign Princes in all the Kingdoms and temporal Governments in the World without one temporal Monarch to rule and oversway them For our Adversaries shall never be able to prove that it may be ascribed as we have before said more to any want of discretion and due Providence in our Saviour Christ that he hath not appointed the Pope to govern the Catholick Church than that he hath not assigned the Government of the whole World to one King or Emperour Rather it is to be attributed to their audacious temerity and presumption that will either enforce
an abstract of the Bishops of Rome and comparing those that were before Victor with those that followed saith thus In his Papis abundat Spiritus in posterioribus malesuaeda Caro The Spirit abounded in the former Popes but in those that succeeded him the seducing Flesh Some more Light whereof as also of the said undermining Ambition brake out little above 50. Years after Victor in Cornelius the 22 th Bishop of Rome Who notwithstanding the great trouble he had at home with his Fellow-Counter-Pope Novatianus could find such leisure under pretence of Importunity and threatnings as to entertain a complaint against St. Cyprian which was preferr'd unto him by one Felicissimus a Priest sent to Rome from Fortunatus an Usurping and Schismatical Bishop whom together with Felicissimus St. Cyprian with other African Bishops had lawfully excommunicated for sundry their lewd and ungodly actions With which injurious course St. Cyprian being made acquainted and somewhat moved he writ to Cornelius an Epistle wherein he justifieth his Proceedings and disliketh those of his Adversaries First because there was a Decree amongst them and that also Equal and Just That every Man's Cause should be there heard where the fault was committed Secondly For that a Portion of the Flock was committed to several Bishops which every one of them was to rule and govern being to yield an account of his actions to God Whereupon he inferreth thus saying It doth not become those over whom we bear rule to run gadding about nor by their crafty and deceitful rashness to break the united Concord of Bishops but there to plead their Cause where they may have both accusers and witness of their Crime Unless saith he the Authority of the Bishops of Africk doth seem unto a few desperate and outcast Persons to be less than the Authority of other Bishops It appeareth furthermore that for the better Government of the Churches in those times of Persecution it was thought fit that there should be 4. Patriarchs who were to take upon them the Inspection and especial charge of all the Bishops Priests and Churches that were severally assigned unto them In which distribution the Bishops of Rome got the first place it being then thought convenient to seat their chief Bishops in the principal Cities of the Romans and to grant unto them Authority in Causes Ecclesiastical much resembling the Prerogatives which those Cities had in Causes Temporal Of all the Eastern Lieutenantships that of Syria was the Chief and therefore Antioch being the Principal City of that Province was made also the Seat of one of the said Patriarchs Afterward likewise Alexandria exceeding much in honour the City of Antioch another Patriarch was there placed who according to the Dignity of that City had the precedency of the Patriarch of Antioch Whereby we judge that the Patriarch or Bishop of Rome had the first place amongst the rest of the Patriarchs because Rome was then the chiefest City in the World and the Seat of the Empire Which point is yet more manifest by these words of the Council of Chalcedon Sedi Veteris Romae Patres meritò dedêrunt Primatum quòd illa Civitas aliis imperaret Howbeit this Primacy or Precedency notwithstanding the Bishop of that See before the Council of Nice confirm'd by Constantine the Emperour was little more respected than any other of the Patriarchs as a principal Person afterward of that Rank testifieth saying Ante Concilium Nicaenum ad Romanam Ecclesiam parvus habebatur respectus Before the Council of Nice there was little respect born to the Church of Rome Although we doubt not by the premises but that the Bishops thereof endeavour'd what they could to equal the Primacy of that Patriarchship to the honour and dignity of that Imperial City as by their subsequent practices it will more plainly appear Placet eis John Overall CAP. III. COnstantine the Emperour having received the Gospel did in his Zeal greatly advance the Dignity of the Bishops of Rome by endowing of that Bishoprick with great Honour and temporal Possessions Besides whether it grew from the Cunning of those Bishops and their especial Instruments or through the Zeal of the People or by both those Means it is apparent that within some 47. Years after Constantine's Death that Bishoprick was grown to so great Wealth as when it was void many Troubles Garboiles and Contentions arose for the obtaining of it After the Death of Liberius the second Bishop after Constantine such were the Tumults in Rome betwixt Damasus and Vrsinus in striving for that Place as there were found in the Church of Sicininus slain on both sides in one day 137. Persons and great Labour was taken before the People could be appeas'd Whereat saith the Writer of that History I do not marvel and that Men should be desirous of that Preferment considering that when they have got it they may ever afterward be secure they are so enriched with the Oblations of Matrons they ride abroad in their Coaches so curiously attir'd and in their Diet are so delicate and profuse Vt eorum Convivia Regales superent Mensas as their Feasts exceed the Fare of Kings Insomuch as a desperate Heathen Man was accustomed in scorn to Damasus after he had gotten the Victory against his Adversary to cast out these Words Facite me Romanae Vrbis Episcopum ero protinus Christianus make me Bishop of Rome and I will presently become a Christian Which alluring Plenty and Delicacy being added to the Primacy of that Place and to the aspiring Humours of those Bishops their Ambition began to shew it self daily more and more Insomuch as they hardly endured that any of the other Patriarchs should have any extraordinary Reputation being ever most jealous of their own The Fathers of the Greek Church met together in the General Council at Constantinople about 40. Years after the Death of Constantine finding themselves grieved of likelyhood with the Proceedings of the Bishops of Rome and that the Bishops of Constantinople were not so much regarded in Rome as they ought to have been Constantinople being then the chief Seat of the Empire did define with one Consent That as Causes did arise in any Province the same should be determined in the Council of the same Province And furthermore they made this Canon Constantinopolitanae Civitatis Episcopum habere oportet Primatûs honorem post Romanum Pontificem proptereà quòd sit Nova Roma With these Proceedings the Bishops of Rome were afterwards as one noteth much discontented as fearing we suppose lest by these Beginnings New Rome might in time more prejudice old Rome than they could well brook or endure But that all Causes should be tried in the Provinces where they did arise it was no marvel though they disliked it Therefore to meet with that Inconvenience as they might after some distance of time one Apiarius being excommunicated in Africk and thereupon appealing to Rome Zosimus the
Bishop there did very readily embrace his Cause and without hearing of the other side pronounced him innocent and so absolved him Which Fact of his was afterward approved by Boniface the first and Caelestinus the first pretending as it seemeth that as in all Civil Causes for these Western parts there lay Appeals to the City of Rome so in all Ecclesiastical Causes when Men received as they thought Injury under any of the Patriarchs or other Bishops they might if they would appeal to the Bishop of that See And to justifie that their ambitious Challenge they forged a Canon of the Council of Nice as it was directly proved in the African Council holden at Hippo about the Year 423. Whereupon the Bishops of the said Council in which number St. Augustin was one perceiving what the Bishops of Rome meant by that sleight viz. that if once they might obtain a Power to receive Appeals from all the Churches within the Empire they would shortly after grow to challenge some Universal Authority over all the said Churches did to prevent the same make two Decrees That if any Clergyman would appeal from their Bishops they should not appeal but to the African Councils or to the Primates of their Province adding this Penalty That if any did appeal to the transmarine Parts à nullo intra Africam in Communionem suscipiatur And their second Decree is thus set down by Gratian Primae sedis Episcopus non appelletur Princeps Sacerdotum vel summus Sacerdos aut aliquid hujusmodi Sed tantù primae sedis Episcopus Vniversalis autem nec etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur It is strange to consider how the Bishops of Rome were vexed with this Council and how from time to time they sought to discredit it as also what Shifts and Devices their late Proctors have found out to the same Purpose but all in vain For the Truth of that whole Action is so manifest as it cannot be suppressed by any such Shifts or Practices whatsoever Placet eis John Overall CAP. IV. ALthough the said Council of Africk troubled the Bishops of Rome as is abovementioned Yet shortly after some other new Occasions happen'd which stung them more sharply For about the Year 451. when the City of Constantinople was grown to be in very great Honour it seem'd good to the Fathers of the Greek Church and others assembled in the General Council holden at Chalcedon to make this Canon following The ancient Fathers did justly grant Priviledges to the Throne of Old Rome because that City bare then the chief sway and with the same Reason 150. godly Bishops being moved did grant equal Priviledges to the Throne of New Rome rightly judging that the City of Constantinople which was then honoured with the Empire and Senate should enjoy equal Priviledges with Old Rome and that in matters Ecclesiastical she ought to be extolled and magnified as well as Rome being the next after her Against this Canon Pope Leo stormed exceedingly and the whole Council it self in respect of the said Canon is of later Years sought to be discredited But the great and main quarrel betwixt New Rome and Old Rome began about the Year 586. when John the Patriarch of Constantinople not contenting himself to have equal Priviledges with the Bishops of Rome would needs be accounted the Vniversal Bishop Which Challenge did the rather move the Bishops of Rome because they found that Mauricius the Emperour inclined greatly to his desire Whereupon Pelagius the second and after him Gregorius the first as fearing the Issue that might ensue of that Contention to the great prejudice of the Church of Rome they blew successively both of them a hasty Retreat and pretended very earnestly that it was utterly unlawful for any Bishop to seek so great an Authority over all other Bishops and Churches And first Pelagius opposing himself against the said John Patriarch of Constantinople wrote thus to certain Bishops Let none of the Patriarchs ever use this so prophane a word For if the chief Patriarch be called Vniversal the name of the other Patriarchs is derogated from them but far be it from the mind of every faithful Man so much as to have a Will to challenge that to himself whereby he may seem in any respect how little soever to diminish the honour of the rest of his Brethren But Gregory in this point exceedeth He telleth Mauricius the Emperour and others in sundry of his Epistles That it is against the Statutes of the Gospel for any Man to take upon him to be called Vniversal Bishop That no Bishop of Rome did ever admit of that name of singularity and profane Title That John his endeavour therein was an Argument that the times of Antichrist drew near That the King of Pride was at hand and that an Army of Priests was prepared for him and thus he concludeth I considently affirm that whosoever calleth himself Vniversal Bishop or desireth so to be called he doth in his Pride make way for Antichrist After Gregory succeeded Sabinianus who had so hard a conceit of Gregory his Predecessor that he was purposed to have burnt his Books rather as we suppose because he had written so much against the Title of Universal Bishop than for either of the Conjectures which Platina mentioneth But the Issue of the said Contention was this Mauricius the Emperour being slain by Phocas his Servant and Phocas himself having gotten the Empire Boniface the third prevail'd so far with him after much and great Opposition as the Emperour gave Order that the Church of Rome should be called and accounted Caput omnium Ecclesiarum Which another Man of great account amongst them in these days reporteth after this sort The Contention betwixt the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bishop of Rome for the Primacy was again determined by Phocas the Emperour pronouncing out of the old Councils and Fathers that the Church of Rome should be the Head of all Churches For his Again he might well have left it out as also his Phrases of Councils and Fathers and therefore we prefer in this point Platina before him who making neither mention of Councils nor Fathers dealeth more truly and saith That the Church of Constantinople sibi vendicare conabatur that place which Boniface obtained from the Emperour Phocas and that the same was obtained upon these grounds viz. That whereas the Bishop of Constantinople insisted eò loci primam sedem esse debere ubi Imperii Caput esset It is answered by the Bishop of Rome and his Agents that Constantinople was but a Colony deduced out of the City of Rome and therefore that the City of Rome ought still to be accounted Caput Imperii That the Grecians themselves in their Letters termed their Prince the Emperour of the Romans and that the Citizens of Constantinople were called not Grecians but Romans Indeed Platina further saith being peradventure
of our mind that he will omit how the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given to St. Peter and so to the Roman Bishops his Successors and not to the Bishops of Constantinople and we likewise following his Example as a thing impertinent to our purpose will here omit the same Only we do observe that the contention betwixt the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople was de Primatu and that the Bishop of Rome obtain'd that place by Phocas his means which the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Whereupon we offer to Mens Considerations these two Arguments Whosoever taketh upon him that Primacy or place in the Church which John Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself is the forerunner of Antichrist but the Bishops of Rome do take upon them that Primacy and place Ergo. Again Those Priests which do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that place and Primacy which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself are an Host prepared for the King of Pride but all the Priests that do adhere to the Bishop of Rome do adhere unto him that taketh upon him that Primacy and place which John the Bishop of Constantinople did challenge to himself Ergo. But our purpose is not to dispute only this we add that till this time that the Bishop of Rome had prevailed so far with Phocas as is aforementioned his Predecessors notwithstanding their great Authority after Constantine's Reign and favour with the Emperours succeeding they behaved themselves dutifully toward them and acknowledged them to be their Lords and Masters But afterward in short time they left those Phrases and began to call the Emperours their Sons To which alteration a very worthy Man taking exception he is answered by another of many good parts it must be confessed after this sort St. Gregory might call Mauricius his Lord either of Courtesie or of Custom and yet our holy Father Pius the Fourth shall not be bound to do the like in consideration that the Custom hath long since been discontinued Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. V. ALthough when the Bishops of Rome after much opposition had obtain'd their desires for their Primacy beforementioned they might well enough as we suppose have been contented Yet forasmuch as still they remain'd in greater subjection to the Emperours than they thought was agreeable with their greatness their aspiring mind rested not there but began shortly after to cast about how they might in their places be independent and absolute For the compassing whereof they took hold of every occasion that might serve or be wrested and drawn to that purpose At the first receiving of the Gospel Men are ever for the most part very zealous and great Favourers of the Ministry In the Apostles times they sold their lands and possessions and laid the price of them at the Apostles feet St. Paul was received by the Galatians as an Angel of God yea as Jesus Christ and such was their love toward him that to have done him good they would have plucked out their Eyes and given them unto him When the Emperours of Rome became Christians they did exceed in this behalf especially towards the Bishops of that See bestowing upon them very great riches and ample possessions Of all which zealous Dispositions benefits and favours they ever made above all other Bishops their greatest advantage by imploying the same to the advancement of their greatness Wherein they were furthermore very much helped and further'd by the Authority which the Emperours gave unto them in temporal Causes holding them for their Gravity Learning and Discretion very meet and sit Persons in their own absence from Rome to do them that way very great service Besides if we shall deal sincerely and truly as we hold our selves always bound and more strictly in a cause of this Importance we must needs confess that it hath been the manner of Divines from the Apostles times almost to magnify and extol the worthiness and excellency of their own calling which was a very commendable and necessary course in many the ordinary contempt of the Ministry consider'd and had been so in all of them if they had not therewith depressed too much the Dignity and preheminence of Kings and Princes Comparisons in such Cases were ever worthily held to be odious Bishops and Priests might without any just reprehension have been resembled to Gold to the Sun and to what else is excellent without comparing the highest Magistrates under God in respect of themselves to the Moon to Lead and to some other things of such like base Estimation And we doubt not but that they would have refrain'd from such Comparisons if they could have foreseen how the Bishops of Rome would to the disgrace and dishonour of civil Authority have wrested and perverted them notwithstanding that their Inferences thereupon have ever had more shew and probability than substance and truth except we shall say that the Callings of Schoolmasters and Physicians are in Dignity to be preferr'd before all other Temporal Callings because the end of the one is the instructing of Mens understandings and of the other Health which either are or ought to be both of them in their kinds of greater Estimation than any other things whatsoever We shall not need to trouble our selves with the citing of any Authorities to prove how eagerly the Bishops of Rome especially after Boniface the Third had obtained of Phocas the said Supremacy have pressed the same Comparisons It is so evident both in their own Writings and likewise generally in all their Treatises who from time to time have laboured with all their force and might to advance above all other Authority upon Earth the Soveraignty of that See Placet eis John Overall CAP. VI. ALbeit the former occasions as they were handled and particularly the device last before specified wrought very much in the hearts of the simpler sort to the debasing of the Imperial and Regal Authority in respect of the Spiritual and that it was therefore prosecuted and amplified with all the skill and rhetorick that could be Yet there was another matter which troubled the Bishops of Rome exceedingly and never gave them rest until they had prevailed in it as if without it they had gained little by their Primacy It seemeth that Constantine the Great when he left Rome notwithstanding his especial benefits and favours to the Bishops of that See did in his wisdom think it fit that none should be advanced to that Bishoprick without the Emperour's consent For the better manifestation whereof it is to be observed that whilst the Bishops of Rome were labouring so earnestly for their Supremacy till Phocas's time the City of Rome had been four times surprised by divers barbarous Nations An. 413. by Alaricus the second King of the Goths Innocentius the First being then Bishop An. 457. by Gensericus the Leader of the Vandalls Leo the First being then Bishop An.
particular Congregations Ministers and People in one City and in the Towns that did belong unto it but likewise over all the Churches in certain whole Provinces and Countries as unto Timothy all that were in Asia the less and unto Titus all that were planted throughout the Island of Crete And this sort of Bishops who had so large Jurisdictions over the Bishops themselves in particular Cities were afterward called Archbishops Over whom in like manner as likewise over all the rest Bishops and Ministers and particular Churches the Apostles themselves as the chief Fathers and Patriarchs of all Churches had whilst they lived the chief preheminence and oversight to direct and over-rule all as they knew it to be most convenient and behoofull for the Church communicating notwithstanding unto the said Bishops and Archbishops now their Substitutes but in time to be their Successors as full Authority in their absence with the limitations mention'd for the ordering of Ministers for the use of the Keys and for the further Government of all the Churches committed to their charges by the good advice and counsel of the inferiour sort of Priests or Ministers under them when Causes so required as if they the Apostles themselves had been present or could have always lived to have performed those duties in their own Persons their Patriarchal Authority for Government not ceasing or dying with them Of this Authority of Ordination and Government given to Bishops by the holy Apostle St. Paul he himself hath left to all Posterity most clear and evident Testimonies where writing to two of his said Bishops Timothy and Titus he describeth very particularly the Essential parts of their duties and Episcopal Office in manner and sort following For this cause I left thee at Crete that thou shouldst continue to redress the things that remain and shouldst Ordain Priests or Elders in every City as I appointed thee Lay hands hastily on no Man neither be Partaker of other Mens Sins Let them first be proved then let them minister if they be found blameless Against a Presbyter or Priest receive no accusation but under two or three Witnesses Them that sin rebuke openly that the rest may fear I pray thee to abide at Ephesus to command some that they teach no strange Doctrine neither that they give heed to Fables and Genealogies which are endless and do breed Questions rather than godly Edification which is by Faith They would be Doctors of the Law and yet understand not what they speak neither whereof they affirm There are many disobedient and vain Talkers and Deceivers of Minds whose Mouths must be stopped which subvert whole Houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake Stay foolish questions and contentions reject him that is an Heretick after one or two warnings These things speak and exhort and rebuke with all Authority See that no Man despise thee What things thou hast heard of me the same deliver to faithful Men which shall be able to teach others also Put them in remembrance and protest before the Lord that they strive not about words which is to no profit but to the perverting of the Hearers Stay profane and vain bablings for they shall encrease unto more ungodliness Put away all foolish and unlearned Questions knowing that they engender strife I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one to another and do nothing partially Divers other particulars might be hereunto added were it not that these are sufficient for our purpose to show as well what Power was given to the said Timothy and Titus two Apostolical Bishops newly designed unto their Episcopal Functions as also what Authority the Apostle himself had whilst he lived both of prescribing rules unto them and also of exacting the due observation of them He retaining still in his own hands as full power and ample Jurisdiction over them as they the said Bishops had received from him over the rest of the Ministry within their several charges And thus we see how by degrees the Apostles did settle the Government of the Church amongst the Gentiles converted to Christ most suitable and agreeing with the Platform ordain'd by God himself amongst the Jews Ministers are placed in particular Congregations as Priests or Levites were in their Synagogues Four and twenty Priests termed Principes Sacerdotum had in that Kingdom the charge over the rest of the Priests and amongst Christians one sort of Priests named Bishops or Arch-Bishops as their Jurisdictions were extended had the oversight of the rest of the Ministry or Priesthood Lastly as over all the Priests of what sort soever and over the rest of all the Jews Aaron had the chief preeminence so had the Apostles over all the Bishops and Priests and over the rest of all Christians There was only this want to the full accomplishment of such a Church-Government as was settled amongst the Jews that during the Apostles times and for a long season afterward it wanted Christian Magistrates to supply the rooms of Moses King David King Solomon and of the rest of their worthy Successors There is no mention in the Scriptures of the particular success that the rest of the Apostles had in planting of Churches throughout all Africa and Asia the great and a great part of Europe but we doubt not but that they followed that same course in those parts nearer or better known to us they proceeding within their limits as St. Paul did within his And moreover we have sufficient warrant by the said Practice of our Apostles to judge that if all the Kings and Soveraign Princes of the World would have received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived they would have setled this Platform of Church-Government under them in every such Kingdom and Sovereign Principality that as the three Essential parts of the Priesthood under the Law were translated to the Ministry or Priesthood in the New Testament so the external shew or practice of them might have been in effect the same under Christian Princes that it was under the godly Kings and Princes of Judah Christians of particular Congregations to be directed by their immediate Pastors Pastors to be ruled by their Bishops Bishops to be advised by their Archbishops and the Archbishops with all the rest both of the Clergy and Laity to be ruled and governed by their godly Kings and Sovereign Princes CAN. VI. AND therefore if any Man shall affirm under colour of any thing that is in the Scriptures either that the Platform of Church-Government in the New Testament may not lawfully be deduced from that Form of Church-Government which was in the Old or that because the Apostles did not once for all and at one time but by degrees erect such a like form of Ecclesiastical Government as was amongst the Jews therefore it is not to be supposed that they
that was held necessary for the Apostles times or that Order so much commended amongst all Men and is most properly termed Parium dispariumque rerum sua cuique loca tribuens Dispositio should be necessary to build the Church but unfit to preserve it or that the same Artisans that are most meet to build this or that House are not the fittest both to keep the same in good Reparations and likewise to build other Houses when there is cause No Man can doubt who is of any reading but that when the Apostles died there were many defects in many Churches and that likewise there were a number of places in the World where the Apostles had never been and where there were no Churches planted or established Whereupon it followeth of necessity that if the said Form of Government in the Apostles days was then necessary for the planting and ordering of Churches that the same did continue to be as necessary afterward for the supplying of such defects as were left in some Churches and for the planting and ordering of other Churches in those places that had not received the Gospel whilst the Apostles lived And to this purpose it doth much avail that for ought we can find there can no one Nation or Country be named since the Apostles days neither in times of Persecution nor since but when it first received the Faith of Christ it had thereupon both Bishops and Archbishops placed in it for the Government of the Churches that were there planted imitating therein for their more certain direction the Government of the Churches that were erected by the Apostles and had been deduced from them agreeable in substance with the Form of Ecclesiastical Government that was once amongst God's own People the Jews Which was no new conceit amongst the ancient Fathers as it may appear by the words of one of them Who saith in effect that Bishops Priests and Deacons may challenge now that Authority in the Church which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites had in times past and that the Apostles in establishing of their Government in the New Testament had respect to that which was in the Old for as much as concern'd the Essential parts of that Priesthood Moreover the Primitive Churches presently after the Apostles times finding in the New Testament no one person to have been ordain'd a Priest or Minister of the Gospel mediately by Men but either by Imposition of the Apostles hands or of their hands to whom they gave Authority in that behalf as unto Timothy and Titus and such other Bishops as they were and knowing that the Church of Christ should never be left destitute of Priests and Bishops for the work of the Ministry they durst not presume upon their own heads to devise a new form of making of Ministers nor to commit that Authority unto any other after their own Fancies but held it their bounden duty to leave the same where they found it viz. in the hands of Timothy and Titus and consequently of other Bishops their Successors Whereupon it followeth very necessarily that none of the Primitive Churches or ancient Fathers did ever so much as once dream that the Authority given by St. Paul to Timothy and to Titus and to the rest who were then made Bishops as well for the ordering of Priests as for the further order and government of the Church did determine by the death of the Apostles Considering that presently after as long as they were in being and lived and ever since till very lately it was held by them altogether unlawful for any to ordain a Priest or Minister of the Word except he were himself a Bishop and no one approved Example for the space of above 1500. years can be shewed for ought we find to the contrary It is true that one Coluthus being himself but a Priest would needs take upon him to make Priests in spleen against his own Bishop the Bishop of Alexandria with whom he was then fallen at variance and that the like attempt was made by one Maximus supposing himself to have been a Bishop where he was indeed but a Priest as it was decided by the first Council of Constantinople Howbeit such their Ordinations were accounted void and utterly condemn'd as unlawful they themselves not escaping such just reproof as so great a Novelty and presumption did deserve We acknowledge that for the great dignity of the Action of Ordination it was decreed by another Council That Priests should lay their hands with the Bishop upon him that was to be made Priest but they had not thereby any Power of Ordination but only did it to testifie their consent thereunto and likewise to concur in the blessing of him neither might they ever in that sort impose their hands upon any without their Bishops Again the said Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers finding how the Apostles by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost had ordained Bishops Timothy Titus and such like for the ordering and appeasing of such Quarrels and Contentions as arise amongst the Ministers and People for want of some amongst them of Authority to govern them they might thereby have been confirmed more and more in their Judgments if at any time they had doubted of it concerning the necessity of that Apostolical Form of Government that it was for ever to continue to the end the Schisms and contentious Persons might be still by the same means suppressed that they were whilst the Apostles lived For they ever observed what the want of Bishops would work in the Church and how the contempt of them and disobedience to their directions was always a chief cause of Sects and Schisms Which made them easily to discern that if the Apostles had not provided for the continuance of their Apostolical Authority in Bishops who were to succeed them in the Government of the Church but had left an equality in the Clergy that every one might have proceeded in his own particular Church after his own Fashion there would have been nothing in the Church but Disorder Scandals Sects Schisms and all manner of Confusion One of the ancient Fathers perceiving in his time what Pride and Contempt certain unstaid and contentious Persons shewed toward their Archbishops did lay it upon them as a property of Hereticks and feared not to compare them to the Devils These are his words Quilibet haereticus c. loquens cum Pontifice nec eum vocat Pontificem nec Archiepiscopum nec Religiosissimum nec Sanctum sed quid Reverentia tua nomina illi adducit communia ejus negans autoritatem Diabolus hoc tum fecit in Deo Ero similis Altissimo Non Deo sed Altissimo And another Father long before the days of the former did accordingly observe that Hereticks and Schismaticks did usually spring from no other Fountain but his Quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur nec unus in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur
Timothy of of his Epistle to Titus though they are found in the ancient Copies of the Greek Testament are of no Credit or Authority or that such an Impeachment and Discredit laid upon them is not very prejudicial to the Books and Writings of the Holy Ghost or that it is not great presumption for Men in these days to take upon them to know better Whether Timothy and Titus were Bishops than the Churches and godly Fathers did which were planted and lived either in the Apostle's times or presently after them except they have some especial Revelations from God or that whilst Men do labour to bring into discredit the ancient Fathers and Primitive Churches they do not derogate from themselves such credit as they hunt after and as much as in them lieth bring many parts of Religion into a wonderful uncertainty or that it is probable or was possible for Timothy to have observ'd those Rules that St. Paul gave him unto the coming of Christ except as the Fathers expound some of them he meant to have them first observed by himself and other Bishops in that Age and that afterward they should so likewise be observed by all Bishops for ever or that the ancient Fathers and Ecclesiastical Histories when they Record it to all Posterity that these Men and those Men were made by the Apostles Bishops of such and such places are not to be held to be of more credit than any other Historiographers or Writers or that when the ancient Fathers did collect out of the Scriptures and practice of the Apostles the continuance for ever of that Form of Church-Government which was then in use they were not so throughly illuminated with the Holy Ghost as divers Men of late have been or that it was an idle course held by the Primitive Churches and ancient Fathers to keep the Catalogues of their Bishops or to ground Arguments in some Cases upon their Succession in that they were able to deduce their beginnings either from the Apostles or from some Apostolical Persons or that the Form of Government used in the Apostle's times for the planting and ordering of Churches was not in many respects as necessary to be continued in the Church afterward especially considering that many Churches were not left fully ordered nor in some places were at all planted when the Apostles died or that true and perfect Order grounded upon the very Laws of Nature and Reason and established by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles times was not fit for the Churches of God afterward to embrace and observe or that any Church since the Apostles time till of late years when it received the Gospel had not likewise Archbishops and Bishops for the Government of it or that divers of the ancient Fathers did not hold and that very truly for ought that appeareth to the contrary that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles in establishing the Form of Church-Government amongst the Gentiles had an especial respect to that Form which God had setled amongst the Jews and did no way purpose to abrogate or abolish it or that any since the Apostles times till of late days was ever held to be a lawful Minister of the Word and Sacraments who was not Ordain'd Priest or Minister by the Imposition of the hands of some Bishop or that it is with any probability to be imagin'd that all the Churches of Christ and ancient Fathers from the beginning would ever have held it for an Apostolical Rule That none but Bishops had any Authority to make Priests had they not thought and judged that the same Authority had been derived unto them the said Bishops from the same Apostolical Ordination that was committed unto Timothy and Titus their Predecessors or that the Apostles and all the ancient Fathers were deceived when they judged the Authority of Bishops necessary at all times for the suppressing of Schisms and that without Bishops there would be in the Churches as many Sects as Ministers or that when Men find themselves in regard of their disobedience to their Bishops so fully and notably described and censured by all the ancient Fathers for Schismaticks and contentious Persons they have not just cause to fear their own Estates if they continue in such their willfulness and obstinacy or that the Church-Government by us above treated of is truly to be said to savour of Judaism more than the observation by godly Kings and Princes of the Equity of the Iudicial Law given to the Jews may truly be said to savour thereof or that it doth proceed from any other than the wicked Spirit for any sort of Men what godly shew soever they can pretend to seek to discredit as much as in them lieth that Form of Church-Government which was established by the Apostles and left by them to continue in the Church to the end of the World under Archbishops and Bishops such as were Timothy and Titus and some others then called to those Offices by the said Apostles and ever since held by the Primitive Churches and all the ancient Fathers to be Apostolical Functions or to term the same or any part of it to be Anti-Christian He doth greatly Erre CAP. IX The Sum of the Chapter following That our Saviour Christ upon his Ascension into Heaven did not commit the Temporal Government of the whole World unto St. Peter That the Apostles and whole Ministry did succeed Christ not as he was a Person immortal and glorious after his Resurrection but as he was a Mortal Man here upon the Earth before his Passion That Christ left neither to St. Peter nor to the Bishops of Rome nor to any other Archbishops or Bishops any temporal Possessions all that since any of them have gotten being bestowed upon them by Emperours Kings and Princes and other their good Benefactors And that the Imagination of St. Peter's Temporal Sovereignty is very idle the same being never known unto himself for ought that appeareth and argueth great Ignorance of the true nature of the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ for the erecting whereof the spiritual working of the Holy Ghost with the Apostles and the rest of the Ministry of the Gospel was and is only necessary IT hath been shewed by us before that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension became actually in the State of the Heir of all things Governour of all the World and King of kings even as he was Man his divine Nature working more gloriously in his Humanity than formerly it had done Howbeit although we also made it plain that notwithstanding the said Glory Power Rule Dominion and Majesty wherewith Christ is really possest sitting in Heaven at the right hand of his Father he made no alteration in the Form and manner of Temporal Government but left the whole World to be ruled by Kings and Soveraign Princes under him as it had been before himself retaining still in his own hands the Scepter and chiefest Ensigns of Royal and highest Majesty to direct and
dispose them all according to his divine pleasure Yet the Parasitical and sottish Crew of Romish Canonists with the new Sectaries their Companions will assuredly moil and repine thereat telling us by the Pen of one of their Fellows the veriest Idiot we think amongst them That all Power Dominion and Worldly Principality was left by Christ after his Ascension unto St. Peter That two times are to be considered in Christ the one before his Passion when propter humilitatem he refused to judge that is to shew himself a Temporal Magistrate the other after his Resurrection and then he said All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth That Christ after his Resurrection gave his Power to St. Peter and made him his Vicar and that ex potestate Domini the Power of his Vicar is to be measured And to advance that Power as highly as he can supposing that what he can say thereof doth belong to St. Peter he quoteth a number of places out of the Scriptures concerning the Dignity Honour Royalty and Majesty attributed to our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension by reason of the Unition so oft before by us mentioned and doth conclude That cessantibus rationibus humilitatis necessitatis atque paupertatis that the reasons of his former humility necessity and poverty ceasing Christ did shew himself to be the Lord of all ut ascensurus ad Patrem eandem potestatem Petro relinqueret And moreover he is peremptory that Peter did exercise this temporal Power in suâ propriâ naturâ temporaliter in the proper nature of it temporally for it is said in the Acts c. 5. that he condemn'd Ananias and Sapphira pro crimine facti ad panam civiliter for the crime of a fact to a punishment civilly Now if Peter were so great a Temporal Monarch whilst he lived what must we think of his Vicar the Pope and how royal is the Estate of all Archbishops and Bishops that have any dependency upon him For as the especial Jesuit and Cardinal an Enemy to the Canonists in this point doth infer Si Papa est Dominus totius orbis Christiani supremus ergo singuli Episcopi sunt principes temporales in oppidis suo Episcopatui subjectis If the Pope be Lord of all the Christian World then it followeth that all particular Bishops are temporal Princes in the Cities and Towns subject to their Bishopricks To the manifestation of all which the said Canonist his so absurd and gross assertions before we proceed any further We hold it not unfit for the reasons elsewhere specified by us when we shewed that Christ was no temporal Lord nor had any temporal Dominion after the manner of other Kings First to hear the Cardinal how he shaketh the very ground-work and foundation of all these Vanities For whereas his Opposites would make St. Peter and consequently the Pope his Successor to derive such their infinite Power and temporal Authority from Christ after his Resurrection as he was then a Man immortal and glorious having cast off his former infirmities and mortality The Cardinal is resolute to the contrary and doth reason in this sort Christus ut homo dum in terris vixit non accepit nec voluit ullum temporale Dominium Summus autem Pontifex Christi Vicarius est Christum nobis repraesentat qualis erat dum hic inter homines viveret Igitur summus Pontifex ut Christi Vicarius atque adeo ut summus Pontifex est nullum habet temporale Dominium Christ as he was Man and lived upon the Earth neither did nor would receive any temporal Dominion But the Pope is Christ's Vicar and doth represent Christ unto us in that Estate and Condition that he lived in here amongst Men therefore the Pope as Christ's Vicar and so as he is the highest Bishop hath no temporal Dominion And again Dicimus Papam habere illud Officium quod habuit Christus dum in terris inter homines humano more viveret Neque enim Pontifici possumus tribuere officia quae habuit Christus ut Deus vel ut homo immortalis gloriosus sed solum ea quae habuit ut homo mortalis We say that the Pope hath that Office that Christ had when he lived in the Earth amongst Men after the manner of Men for we cannot ascribe unto him those Offices which Christ hath as he is God or as he is Man immortal and glorious but only those which he had as a mortal Man Neither doth he stay here but goeth on forward saying Add that the Pope hath not all that Power which Christ had as a mortal Man For He because he was God and Man had a certain Power which is called a Power of Excellency by the which he govern'd both faithful Men and Insidels but the Pope hath only committed unto him his Sheep that is such Persons as are faithful Again Christ had Power to institute Sacraments and to work Miracles by his own Authority which things the Pope cannot do Also Christ might absolve Men from their Sins without the Sacraments which the Pope cannot Nay the Cardinal was so far from believing that all Power and Worldly Principality was left by Christ unto St. Peter and so unto his Successors as he confesseth in effect that neither St. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome nor any of his Successors can challenge so much as a rural Farm or any other kind of temporal Possessions which have not been given unto them by the Emperours and other Temporal Princes And lest such gifts might be held by any to be unlawful he to prove the contrary alledgeth that they were godly Princes who so endowed the Church of Rome These are his words Qui donaverunt Episcopo Romano aliisque Episcopis Principatus temporales pii homines fuerunt eâ de causâ praecipuè à totâ Ecclesiâ commendati sunt ut patet de Constantino Carolo magno Ludovico ejus silio qui inde Pius appellatus est They who gave to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops temporal Principalities were godly Men and for that cause especially were commended by the whole Church as appeareth ofConstantine Charles the Great and Lewis his Son who in that respect was called Lewis the Godly Again That the Pope holdeth in right that Principality which he hath may easily be perceived quia dono Principum habuit because he had it by the gift of Princes Of which gifts he saith the Authentical Instruments remain still in Rome adding nevertheless that if they had been lost abunde sufficeret praescriptio octingentorum annorum that a prescription of 800. years were abundantly sufficient to prove the Pope's right And unto these words of Bernard Forma Apostolica haec est interdicitur Dominatio indicitur Ministratio he answereth that Bernard doth speak of the Bishop of Rome secundum id quod habet ex Christi institutione Also
dispersed Jews to have submitted themselves for the Lord's sake unto Kings and other Governours to have obey'd them and honour'd them if he had known them to have had temporal Authority because they did not acknowledge themselves to be his Vassals or that it did not proceed from the great Wisdom of God to abridge in the Apostles of Christ even in St. Peter himself that great Power and Authority which Christ had as appeareth by his words when he said that if he had thought it fit he could have twelve Legions of Angels at his Commandment to have defended him from all his Enemies the Scribes and Pharisees with all their partakers in that perhaps the Apostles even St. Peter himself might have abused it or that it is not more than probable that howsoever St. Peter would have used the said Power and Authority if he had had it if the Bishops of Rome had received it from him they would certainly have made great havock and confusion in the World with it or that if all the Kings and Sovereign Princes in the World had been subject to St. Peter and were thereupon in the like subjection to the Bishops of Rome they both St. Peter and his Successors might not have had ready at their Commandment if Kings and Princes had done their duties more than twelve Legions to have confounded all Men that should have disobey'd them or that therefore it is not as absurd an imagination and conceit for any Man to think that Christ did give so great temporal Authority either to St. Peter or any of his Successors over temporal Kings and Princes that they might have so great Armies when they list at their directions as if any Man should hold that because they are Christ's Vicars they may have twelve Legions from Heaven to do them service if perhaps temporal Kings and Princes should be negligent or refuse to be at such charges at their Commandment or that it is not a kind of madness the true nature of Christ's spiritual Kingdom and Church here upon Earth consider'd for any Man to conceive and thereupon maintain that any such Omnipotency of temporal Power in St. Peter ever was or ever shall be available to vanquish the Devil or remove him out of his Palace or to spoil him of all his Principalities or to beget Faith in the Children of God or to erect in their hearts a Tabernacle for Christ and the Holy Ghost which are only the peculiar and proper actions of our Saviour Christ as he is our Spiritual King and of St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles with all their Successors in their degrees and as they are his Spiritual Ministers He doth greatly Erre CAP. X. The Sum of the Chapter following That the Bishops of Rome have no temporal Authority indirectly over Kings and Princes throughout the Christian World to depose them from their Kingdoms for any cause whatsoever BEcause we have been bold to use the Authority of the Cardinaliz'd Jesuit against the ridiculous Canonists and their Companions the new Sectaries of the Oratory-Congregation concerning the Pope's temporal Authority over all Kings and Princes in the World directly We may not do him so much injury as once to pretend that he favoureth either us or any point of truth for our sakes that we defend It may rather be ascribed unto him for a singular virtue his bringing up and course of life consider'd if he study not to impugn it with all the strength that he hath either of his Wit or Learning Nevertheless albeit he hath travelled exceedingly in his Books de Romano Pontifice to advance the Papacy to his uttermost Ability and had no purpose therein we are well assured to give us any advantage who do oppose our selves against the whole drift of those his Books Yet he hath so muster'd and marshall'd his matters and Forces together as whilst he endeavours to fortifie the Pope's Authority and to encounter the Assaults that have been made against it he hath done more for us against his Will to the prejudice of his Master whom he laboureth to uphold than we could ever have expected at his hands Insomuch as we are verily perswaded the time will come before it be long that his Works will be thrust into the Catalogue Librorum prohibitorum because dealing with our Arguments as he did in the said Books de Romano Pontifice and thinking that he would no further yield to the truth by way of Objection than as he should be able sufficiently to refel it it hath often fall'n out with him as it will ever do with all Impostors that the very meaning of the truth according to the nature of it hath notwithstanding all his cunning very much prevail'd against him to the everlasting glory of her own name and forcible strength to discover Errors like to the Sun 's to expel Darkness We will not here otherwise make proof hereof than as by the matter we have in hand and are purposed to prosecute we are after a sort urged and compelled For albeit hitherto he hath seemed to have joined with us as he hath indeed more than now we are perswaded he doth well vouchsafe yet foreseeing what tempests he was otherwise like to have endured in affirming so peremptorily as he did that the Pope had no temporal Authority at all as he was either Christ's or St Peter's Vicar he minced his matter in the titles of his Chapters to that purpose with the word Directè whereof in his reasons he never made mention and then falleth upon this Issue That Indirectè the Pope hath Authority over all Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes to hurry them hither and thither to depose and remove them from their Regal Estates and Dignities to dispose of their Kingdoms according to his own Pleasure to release their Subjects of their Oaths and Obedience and to thrust them into all Rebellions Treasons Furies and what not against them In the which his course this is our comfort that by direct dealing the Cardinal did find no ways or means how to withstand the truth but is driven by indirect shifts and by-paths to oppose his labours we fear reclamante Conscientiâ how to save his own Worldly credit he might cast a mist upon the truth if not to depress it which was not in his power yet at the least to obscure it to darken it and perplex it Some of the principal Reasons which he hath used to this purpose mentioned are of this kind and consequence Bona corporis the good things that do appertain to the Body as health especially are to be preferr'd before Bona fortunae as the Philosophers call them that is Riches and all other Worldly Dignities and Preferments whatsoever Therefore the calling of Physicians the end whereof is the health of Mens Bodies is to be preferr'd before all other temporal Callings that are in the World Or thus Natural Parents be they Emperours Kings or Sovereign Princes do give unto their Children their
Churches for the space of 300. years brought the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as here it is termed unto her Spiritual End as directly and fully as either the Bishops of Rome or any other Bishops have at any time done since and yet they took no Power and Authority upon them nor did challenge the same of disposing of temporal Kingdoms or Deposing of Princes Besides if such an indirect temporal Power be so necessary in these days for the upholding the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth as that without the same she cannot attain the Spiritual End or be a perfect Ecclesiastical Commonwealth when there are so many Christian Kings and Princes then was the same much more necessary for the attainment of the same end in the said times of Christ of his Apostles and of the Churches in the Ages following for 300. years when the civil Magistrates were Pagans and Infidels and for the most part Persecutors of the truth But we hope we may be bold without offence to say that there appeared then no such necessity of this pretended temporal Power and Authority in any Ecclesiastical Persons over Kings and Kingdoms for the disposing of them and that nevertheless the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth in those times did attain her Spiritual End and was as perfect an Ecclesiastical Common-wealth as it is now under the Pope's Government notwithstanding all his temporal Sovereignty wherein he so ruffleth Again we are perswaded that it cannot be shewed out of any of the ancient Fathers or by any general Council for the space of above 500. years after Christ that the Bishops of Rome were ever imagin'd to have such temporal Authority to depose Kings as now is maintained much less was it ever dream'd of during that time that such Authority was necessary for the attaining the Spiritual End whereunto the true Church of Christ ought to aim or that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth ordain'd by Christ and his Apostles could not be perfect without it It were a miserable shift if any should either say that during all the times above-mention'd first the Apostles and then the holy Bishops Martyrs and Fathers after them were ignorant of this new temporal Power or at least did not so throughly consider of the necessity of it as they might have done or that whilst they lived there could indeed no such matter be collected out of the Scriptures for that in those days the Scriptures had not received such a sense and meaning as might support the same but that afterward when the Bishops of Rome did think it necessary to challenge to themselves such temporal Authority over both Kings and Kingdoms the sense and meaning of the Scripture was alter'd But be this shift never so wretched or miserable yet for ought we perceive they are in effect and still will be both in this cause and many others driven unto it the Scriptures being in their hands a very Rule of Lead and Nose of Wax as in another more fit place we shall have occasion to shew moreover if the Bishops of Rome have this great temporal Authority over Kings and Soveraign Princes to preserve the State of the Church here upon Earth that she may attain her Spiritual End assuredly he hath made little use of it to that purpose For it is well known and cannot be denied that for the first 300. years of Christ the Doctrine of the Gospel did flourish far and near in Greece Thracia Sclavonia Hungary Asia minor Syria Assyria Egypt and throughout the most part of Africk where there were many very worthy Apostolical and notable Churches in the most of which places there are scarce in these days any footsteps or visible Monuments of them And although afterward during the space of above 700. years much mischief was wrought in these parts of the World better known unto us than the rest by sundry sorts of Scythians and Northern People yet after the days of Gregory the Seventh when the Bishops of Rome did most vaunt of this their Soveraign Power over Kings and Princes the Turks gained and encroached more upon Christendom still retaining that which they then had so gotten than at any time before Whereby it is to us very evident that neither Christ nor his Apostles ever ordained that the means of building of the Church of Christ and the conservation of it should consist in the temporal Power or Authority of any of their Successors to deprive Emperours or Kings from their Imperial or Regal Estates and that the Bishops of Rome may be ashamed that having had so great Authority in their own hands extorted from the Emperours and other Kings per fas nefas since Gregory the Seventh's time they have made no better use of it but suffer'd so many famous Countries and Kingdoms to be utterly over-run and wasted by Pagans and Infidels considering that they pretend themselves to have so great an Authority for no other purpose but only the preservation of the Church that she might not be prevented of her Spiritual End But what should we speak of the shame of Rome whose forehead hath been so long since hardned or ever imagine that Almighty God either did or will bless her Usurpations and Insolencies against Emperours Kings and Princes for any good to his Church other than must accrue unto her through her Persecutions and Afflictions For it were no great labour to make it most apparent by very many Histories if we would insist upon it that the Bishops of Rome in striving first to get and then to uphold after their scrambling manner this their wicked and usurped Authority of troubling and vexing Christian Kingdoms and States with their manifold Oppressions and quarrels have been some special means whereupon the Saracens Turks and Pagans have wrought and by degrees brought so great a part of Christendom under their Slavery as now they are possessed of For it is but an idle and a vain pretence that the preservation of as much of Christendom as is yet free from the Turk and Paganism is to be ascribed to the Bishop of Rome and his Authority that so the Catholick Church might attain her Spiritual End which ought to be the planting of Churches and Conservation of 'em it being most manifest to as many as have any wit experience and sound Judgment that as the very situation of the said Countries which now Pagans enjoy made them very subject unto the Incursion and Invasions of Saracens and Turks God himself for his own Glory having his Finger and just operation therein so through his most merciful goodness and care of his Church he blessed the situation of the rest of Christendom being now free in that respect from those kind of violences and endowed the hearts of Christian Kings and Princes with such Courage and Constancy in defence of Christianity and of their Kingdoms as notwithstanding that the Popes did greatly vex them in the mean while they did mightily repel the Forces of their Enemies and most religiously uphold and maintain the
Soveraigns either for their Cruelty Heresy or Apostasie was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the ancient Fathers abovementioned during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperours before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions amongst themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Iudges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Iudges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their Award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their lawful Soveraigns from their Regal Seats and to choose unto themselves new Kings into their places or that any of the said ancient Fathers or godly learned Men for many hundred years after Christ did ever so grosly and irreligiously expound the said place of the Apostle as our Cardinaliz'd Jesuit hath done or that it can be collected out of the Scriptures that either Christ or any of his Apostles did at any time teach or preach that they who meant to be Baptized must receive that Sacrament upon Condition that if at any time afterward they should not be obedient to St. Peter for his time and to his Successors they were to lose and be deprived of all their temporal Estates and Possessions or that it can be proved either out of the Scriptures or by any of the said ancient Fathers or shewed in any ancient Form of Administration of Baptism that ever there was any such Covenant made by any such faithful Persons when they were Baptized or required of them to be made by any that Baptized them or that if such a Covenant were by Christ's Ordinance to be made in Baptism it ought not as well to be made by Farmers by Gentlemen possessed of Mannours and by Lords of greater Revenues and Possessions as by Kings and Soveraign Princes or that it were not an absurd Imagination to think that Christ and his Apostles did only mean that Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes should be received to Baptism upon the said Condition or that all Christian Men ought not to judge that the eleven Apostles if they had known of any such bargain or condition in Baptism would have dealt as faithfully with the Church and in the behalf of St. Peter in preaching and teaching the same as now our Cardinal and other such like Persons of the Roman strain do by their Writing Publishing and maintaining of it in the behalf of the Bishops of Rome or that either Christ or his Apostles knowing that Baptism ought to be received with such a Condition did think it convenient that the same should be concealed not only whilst they lived but for many hundred years afterward until the Bishops of Rome should be grown to such a head and strength as that they might without fear of any inconveniencies make the whole Christian World acquainted with it or that it is not an idle conceit for any Man to maintain that the Renunciation of the effects of Baptism doth deprive Men of their temporal Lands and Possessions which they did not hold by any force of Baptism or make them subject in that behalf to the deprivation of the Bishops of Rome or that Apostasy from Christ put on in Baptism doth any further extend it self than to the Souls of such Apostates in this Life in that the Devil hath got again the possession of them and so depriveth them in this World of all the comfort and hope they had in Christ leading them on to the bane both of their Bodies and Souls in the Life to come or that any Ecclesiastical Person hath any other lawful means to reclaim Wicked Heretical or Apostated Kings from their Impiety Heresy and Apostasy than Christ and his Apostles did ordain to be used for winning Men at the first to embrace the Gospel or that Christ himself while he lived did attempt either directly or indirectly to Depose the Emperour by whose Authority he was himself put to death as holding that the Church could not attain to her Spiritual End except he had so done or that by the death of Christ the Church did not attain to her Spiritual End without the Deposition of any Emperours or Kings from their Regal Estates or that ever the Apostles in their days either preached or writ that the Ecclesiastical Commonwealth could not be perfect except St. Peter for his time and after him the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Power and Authority to Depose Emperours and Kings that the Church might attain her Spiritual End or that the Church in their days did not attain to her Spiritual End although no such Authority was then either challenged or put in practice or that the Church could have attain'd to that her Spiritual End in the Apostle's times if the said temporal Power and Authority had been then necessary for the attaining of it or that our Saviour Christ and his Apostles did propound a Spiritual End unto his Church and left no other necessary means for the obtaining of it than such as could not be put in practice either in their days or for many hundred years after or that the Churches of Christ after the Apostle's times for the space of 300. years being wonderfully oppressed with sundry Persecutions did not attain to their Spiritual End without this dream'd off Temporal Authority of Deposing Kings and Emperours then their mortal Enemies not in respect of themselves but of the Doctrine of Salvation which they taught to their Subjects or that this new Doctrine of the Necessity that the Bishops of Rome should have temporal Authority either directly or indirectly to Depose Emperours and Kings for any cause whatsoever or that else the Church of Christ should not be able to attain to her Spiritual End was ever heard of for ought that appeareth for many hundreds of years after the Apostles times either in any Ecclesiastical History or in any of the ancient Fathers by us abovementioned or that the Bishops of Rome with all their Adherents whilst they would make the World believe that the Church of Christ cannot attain her Spiritual End except they have temporal Authority indirectly to Depose for some Causes Emperours Kings and Soveraign Princes are more learned now than either the ancient Fathers or the Apostles themselves were and that they know the sense of the Scriptures better than either they the said ancient Fathers did or the Apostles that writ them who for ought that was known for many hundred years never preached taught or intended to have any such Doctrine collected out of their Writings and Works or that it may without great Impiety be once imagined that if such a necessary point of Doctrine concerning the said
our Saviour Christ to be contented with that Form of Government in his Church which they think good to assign unto him and so make him to divide stakes as the Phrase is with the Bishops of Rome or else to be reputed amongst them for a Person of little Discretion and Providence and to have dealt absurdly in ordering and setling the external Government of his Church as he had ordered and setled the external Government of his Universal Kingdom over all the Kings and Princes in the World Which profane wicked and blasphemous proceedings with Christ will no doubt in short time receive a heavy Judgment in that although the Man of sin hath long wrought in a mystery and taken upon him for his time and so every one of his Successors during their Lives to sit in the Temple of God vaunting that the said Temple or Spiritual Kingdom of Christ is wholly at his Command yet now he beginneth to be revealed and disclosed to be that Impostor that by the assistance of Satan hath with power and signs and lying wonders in all deceiveableness and unrighteousness long abused the Christian World and is consequently to be consumed by our Saviour Christ with the Spirit of his mouth In the mean while and till this work be throughly effected we are not to censure Christ either for his Discretion or Divine Providence but indeed to admire and magnify them both considering that by his Government both of the Universal World as he is the Son of God and of his Catholick Church as he is the Redeemer of it in such manner and form as we have before expressed by several Kings and Priests within their Kingdoms Provinces and Diocesses he hath left unto them certain general rules and motives which being diligently observed do tend to the universal good and preservation both of the one and the other though they have no assistance therein from the Bishops of Rome For as it is an apt and good reason to perswade all Kings and Kingdoms to live quietly with their Neighbour Princes and Nations and to be at a firm League and Friendship with them because they have all but one Heavenly King are Members and Subjects of one Universal Kingdom have or ought to have but one moral Faith one rule of Justice one square for Equity one nature of Truth one moral Law one Kind Form and nature of all the several Virtues both Moral and Intellectual one natural Instinct to know God and to worship him and one Form and Rule of mutual love and affection So the particular Churches dispersed over the World when they had small Comfort from the civil Magistrate held themselves bound to have a special care one over another that matters of Religion might proceed by one rule with mutual Agreement and Uniformity for avoiding of Schisms in that they well knew they had all but one Redeemer and Saviour one Heavenly Spiritual King or Archbishop were all of them Members of one mystical Body whereof Christ was the Head had all of them but one Faith one Baptism one Spiritual Food one Hope one Bond of Charity one Redemption and one Everlasting Inheritance in the Life to come Which were such Arguments of mutual Consociation in those days as when any great matters of importance did fall out in any one Country through the willfulness and obstinacy of Hereticks and crafty Seducers of the People which perhaps were countenanced with some of strength and greater power than could easily be withstood their Neighbour Churches adjoining did sometimes assist them by their Letters with the best counsel they could give them and sometimes did send some especial Learned Men unto them for the better suppressing of those Evils and sometimes when occasions fell out thereunto moving sundry Archbishops and Bishops of several Countries with other learned Priests and Persons of principal note did as they might for fear of danger meet together and upon due and mature deliberation did so order and determine of matters as thereby Heresies and Contentions were still suppressed and the Churches in those Countries received great comfort and quietness And if in those troublesome times the peace of the Church were thus preserved how much more now under Christian Magistrates may it be strengthned upheld and maintain'd without the Pope not only within their several Kingdoms but likewise throughout in effect all these Western Parts of the World if Christian Kings and Soveraign Princes would agree together for a general Council to the end that all those Heresies Errours Impostures and Presumptions wherewith the Church of Christ hath been long and is now miserably shaken and disturbed might be at the last utterly suppressed and extinguished Many other means might here be alledged to shew how the state of Christian Religion is to be upheld and maintained without any assistance from the Bishop of Rome But our purpose being in this place to resemble and compare the government of the Catholick Church with the Universal Government of the Son of God over the whole World We hold it sufficient to observe That every National Church may as well subsist of her self without one Universal Bishop as every KIngdom may do without one general Monarch Nevertheless we acknowledge that in this particular Tractate we have been very tedious and it may be thought perhaps by some that our pains therein is altogether superfluous because many of our Adversaries do in effect acknowledge that there is the like necessity of one Emperour to govern all the World as there is of one Pope to have the oversight and ordering of the whole Catholick Church Indeed upon the sifting of the usurped Authority of the Bishops of Rome our Adversaries finding that by their Arguments to bolster up his said Authority the Erection of one Man to govern the World in temporal Causes is as necessarily to be inforced as of one Pope to govern the whole Church in Ecclesiastical Causes they are grown to this most admirable Insolency and most high presumption as that they dare affirm and do take upon them without all modesty to maintain it That the Pope is both the Monarch of the Catholick Church and the Emperour of all the World Which mystery of theirs is thus managed and by piece-meal unfolded after this sort viz. That to ease the Pope lest he might be oppressed with multitude of affairs if he should take upon him in his own Person to govern the whole World as he doth direct the especial affairs of the Catholick Church they do assign unto him Power and Authority to create and delegate under him as his Feudatary or Vassal this one supposed Emperour to whom they say he may commit the special Execution of his temporal Sword to be drawn and put up at his direction and commandment And for this one base Emperour over all the World many are now as busy as others are to maintain the Pope's Supremacy over the whole Catholick Church Now to prove that the Pope hath
Clamour of the Canonists of the Glossographers and of the Schoolmen and Divines that took their part in the Pope's behalf upon whom all their Preferment Credit and Countenance did depend as they would needs by force carry the Bell away though their Opposites each of them were very confident that the common Opinion sway'd with their side more standing for them than were against them We have before briefly touched the chief Grounds and Reasons whereupon the Civil Lawyers divided amongst themselves did insist and therefore that we may not seem partial we thought it fit to hear the Canonists with their Adherents whilst they tell us That all the World is the Pope's at his disposition as well the Emperour as any other the meanest Person whosoever Because 1. that Christ had all Power given him 2. That the Pope blesseth the Emperour 3. That the Bishops of Rome do anoint them 4. That the Church Triumphant hath but one Prince 5. That Innocentius told the King of France that he did not intend to abate his Jurisdiction whereby it is collected that if he had pleased he might have so done 6. That in the Vacancy of the Empire the Pope hath the Government of it 7. That the Pope translated the Empire from the Grecians to the Germans 8. That the Papacy exceedeth the Empire as far as Gold doth Lead or as Men do Beasts 9. That Pope Nicholas saith Christ gave to St. Peter the Key-Carrier of Eternal Life Jura terreni simul coelestis Imperii The Authority both of the Earthly and of the Heavenly Empire 10. That Optimum optima decent but the Monarchical Government is best and so fittest for the Pope 11. That no Man giveth that to another which he hath not himself but the Pope giveth Licence to chuse the Emperour and to govern in Temporal Causes 12. That as the Body is for the Soul so Temporal Government is for the Spiritual 13. That Reason teacheth us when an Office is committed to any that also is thought to be committed without the which it cannot be executed but except the Bishop of Rome may rule all the World he cannot discharge the Office that is committed unto him And 14. lastly to omit infinite such like Collections this Argument is reserved after many other by a great Clerk that it might strike home viz. because it is defined by Boniface the Eighth that No Man can be saved except he be subject to the Bishop of Rome Which Argument is held so strong as it carries with it divers other of little less Force than it self as that St. Peter had a Sword because Christ bad him put up his sword 2. Ecce duo Gladii Behold here are two Swords One Sword must be under another the Temporal under the Spiritual 3. It is not agreeable to the general course of things that they should have all equally their immediate being 4. The Spiritual Power ought to institute the Temporal 5. The Spiritual Man judgeth all things and therefore what Catholick can deny that the Bishop of Rome hath both Swords the One actually the Other habitually to be drawn at his Commandment We have not quoted the several Authors that are Parties unto the Particulars which we have touched in this Chapter because twenty such Margents would not contain them Only we refer our selves in that behalf to these few which we have noted and selected from the rest Unto which Number if we shall add John of Paris Bellarmin and Covarruvias they altogether will furnish a Man with divers sorts of other Authors such as they are who have disputed these Points at large and in that manner as we are driven into a great admiration that any Men of Understanding could be so sottish either to write as they have done or to give any Credit to such ridiculous Janglings or rather indeed that ever Christian Kings and Princes should have endured such Impostors so long to seduce their Subjects and presumptuously to shake and dishonour the Royal Authority given them from God to have bridled such Insolency Placet eis Jo. Overall CAP. XIII NOtwithstanding that the Bishops of Rome especially since Gregory the Seventh's time have ruffled and tyrannized as before we have shewed and that still they have been supported in all their wicked attempts partly by stirring up Subjects to rebel against their Soveraigns and partly by the Canonists School-men Monks Friers Hirelings and Flatterers Yet their Hypocrisy Pride Covetousness and Ambition were never so closely cover'd and cloaked with St. Peter's name and sundry other Flashoods Wringings and Wrestings but that their nakedness in that behalf with all their Deformities were clearly discover'd by the wiser sort and there were always some that spared not as there was occasion for the discharging of their Consciences to speak the truth When the said Gregory did so proudly encounter with the Emperour Henry the Fourth he was Condemn'd for a perjur'd Person and depos'd from his place by a Council held at Worms in the year 1076. by all the Bishops of Germany almost saving those of Saxony who in his Quarrel were become Traytors to the Empire And afterward also in the Year 1080. the said Gregory was more roughly handled in another Council of thirty Bishops at Brixia wherein he was declared to be a perturber of the Christian Empire a sower of Discord a Protector of Perjury a Murtherer a Necromancer one possess'd with a wicked Spirit a Man altogether unworthy of the Papacy and therefore to be deprived and expelled Henry the Fifth with his Council did easily discern the packings both of Paschal the Second and of his Predecessors When he complain'd of their thrusting him into Arms against his Father and how Genitore oppresso his Father being overborn they sought likewise his suppression and overthrow He charged them with great Unthankfulness in that being made rich by the Emperours they were never satisfied but under a Religious pretence of Ecclesiastical liberty desired still more and more and that by shaking off from their shoulders all duties and subjection they did affect the Empire it self and would not cease until they had it ended With this the Emperour's plainness the said Paschal being incens'd made certain unlawful Decrees against the said Emperour which Decrees the Divines of Fraxinum who were accounted the most learned men in all Germany did condemn and reverse as being contrary to the word of God Upon the insolent Speeches of Adrian the Fourth's Messenger one that was present had slain the said Messenger if the Emperour had not staid him And two Archbishops thereupon did write to Rome accusing the Priests there of Pertinacy Pride Covetousness and Faction against the Emperour requiring them to give Adrian their Pope some better Counsel Frederick the Second in one of his Letters to the Princes of Christendom in defence of himself against Gregory the Ninth does likewise most notably describe the ambitious aspiring hearts of the