Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	pope_n	prince_n	1,609	5	5.8946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89818	The history of magick by way of apology, for all the wise men who have unjustly been reputed magicians, from the Creation, to the present age. / Written in French, by G. Naudæus late library-keeper to Cardinal Mazarin. Englished by J. Davies.; Apologie pour tous les grands personnages qui ont esté faussement soupçonnez de magie. English	Naudé, Gabriel, 1600-1653.; Davies, John, 1625-1693.	1657 (1657)	Wing N246; Thomason E1609_1; ESTC R202977	182,379	328

corruption Simony and a many other unjustifiable wayes whereby such as endeavour the satisfaction of their ambition more than the tranquillity of their Conscience and the well fare of the universall Church may happly attain though not without abundance of trouble that supreme dignity of Ecclesiasticall Monarchy To that Catalogue if we credit Wierus we must adde all those inclusively who had the Chaire from Sylvester II. to Gregory VII that is about fifteene or sixteene But since Benno a schismaticall Cardinall who made a Catalogue of the Popes that we●e Magicians reckons but four or five that really were such viz. Sylvester II. Benedict IX John XX. and XXII and Gregory VII three whereof had never been suspected but by occasion of the other two I think I need do no more then shew what this Benno was and endeavour the particular vindication of Sylvester and Gregory so to clear them all together of that calumny and discover how little reason men have had to be corrupted so long by the Leaven of this erroneous opinion For when I reflect on the first and most ancient Authors from whom this kind of injurie hath been deriv'd against the successors of St. Peter I cannot but say with Apuleius perinjurium est ei fidem in pejoribus habere cui in melioribus non haberes and consequently fall into a double admiration First at the simplicity of a many of our Demonographers and moderne Historians who fill their Books with such triviall stories and fables taken out of those Authours without any discretion Secondly at the inveterate malice of Hereticks who to satisfie the envy and hatred they bare the holy See whose ruine they have as much conspir'd as ever Hannibal did that of Rome make it still their businesse to seek out those calumnies and reproaches which good Authours cannot furnish them with in the sepulchers and common shores of Schismaticks and as the Civilian Michael Riccius hath well observ'd Antiquos manuscriptos libros in latebrosis lucis laborios eevolvunt et ex foetido pulvere autores quosvis excitant quos licentiosé in ipsos Pontifices scripsisse deprehendunt Whether this be so I appeal to that Collection which Matthias Flaccius Illyricus hath made in that great Volume entituled Catalogus testium veritatis which I cannot more fitly compare to any thing then to that Poneropolis of Philip of Macedon For as that City was inhabited only by Exiles Rogues Cutpurses pillory'd persons and all the dregges and offalls of the Country So may it be truely said that the depraved passages out of the Fathers and Councels only excepted all that so vast Catalogue is only a heap of their shreds and fragments who had before either kick'd against the Church or been cutt off from it as rotten and gangren'd Members such as among a million of others was the pretended Cardinall Benno who made it his busines to give us the representation of a bad Pope in Gregory VII as Xenophon did that of a Vertuous and accomplish'd Prince under the person of Cyrus For I can hardly believe that a man could say such strange things of the wickedest person in the world as what this Author saies of such a Pope and upon his account of Sylvester II. John XX. XXI and Benedict IX who if we may believe him did by his Magick force women to run after him through Woods and over Mountaines and gave infallible predictions of things to come And yet these fables are nothing in comparison of what he addes concerning the Archbish Laurence who perfectly understood the singing of Birds and Gregory VII who cast the holy Host into the fire conspir'd the Emperours death poison'd six Popes by the help of his friend and Confident Gerard Brazutus and had so well Learn'd Magick of Theophylact and Laurence Sylvester's disciples that he scatter'd fire when he shook his armes and sent out thunder-cracks out of his sleeve But this Authour speakes too liberally to be believ'd and since it was his designe to traduce the Popes he should have done it with more modesty and judgment and so not have given Delrio and Florimundus Remundus occasion to Imagine his Book supposititious and forg'd at the eruption of Lutheranisme or rather that he might have avoided the distaste of the more reserv'd and conscientious among those of the Reformation and particularly Vigner who hath these words of him Cardinall Benno speakes after a strange manner of the Popes of these times as also of the meanes whereby they arriv'd to that height I know not whether he be an Authour that may be credited or no. Adde to that the Censure given of him by Papyrius Masson in the History he hath written with too much liberty of Conscience of the Bishops that have govern'd the Church of Rome for speaking of Sylvester and the injury done him by accounting him a Magician he sayes Atque hujus fabulae inventorem suspicor Bennonem presbyterum Cardinalem is enim odio Hildebrandi multa quoque de praedecessoribus ejus fingit quos ob mathematicas disciplinas velut Maleficos damnat et hanc de Sylvestro narrat fabulam Whence may easily be inferr'd that Bibliander hath a mind maliciously to deceive us when he affirmes in his Chronicle that this Benno was created Cardinall by Hildebrand with whom he was in great friendship whereas it is evident that that dignity was conferr'd on him by the Anti-Pope Clement III. and that he ever follow'd the party of the Emperour Henry IV. a Schismatick and excommunicated person To which may be added for confirmation his Letter found at the Councell conven'd by the Cardinalls who sided with Henry and his Antipope against Urban II. and those whom they call'd favourers and followers of the Heresies invented by Pope Hildebrand to disgrace whom Ultramus Bishop of Noremberg and all the Partisans of the Emperour scatter'd abroad abundance of Challenges and Libells as it is ordinary with Princes to be ever well furnish'd with such Advocates and defenders of their Causes be they good or bad But as this pretended Cardinall Benno a person equally discarded both by Protestants and Catholicks seems to have done all he did out of a set designe and purpose to calumniate Gregory VII so must it be acknowledg'd that Platinus an eminent writer of the lives of Popes hath too credulously embraced what was said before him by Martin de Citeaux and Godefrey of Monmouth in his Additions upon Sigebert concerning Pope Sylvester to represent him to us as a famous Conjurer and Magician It were much better to search the truth of this story to the bottome and not to trust either this Martin who had been already deceiv'd in the life of Pope Joan or Godefrey who entertaines us with the fine Romance of Arthur and his Prophet Merlin For had he persu'd his designe with as much integrity as he was oblig'd to have done those ridiculous fables so frequent in his Writings would not

darknesse of Errour or we must look towards it as our onely Pole-star regulating our course and discoveries of Truth For since she alwayes appears to us masked with the passions of those who either out of ignorance or interest endeavour to disguise her we must to enter into familiarity with her and to be absolutely possessed of her seek her out as Palamedes did Ulysses or young Aristeus the Sea-god in those places where she is hidden and be so importunate with her that after she lurked under the indiscretion of the ignorant the envie of the passionate the extravagancies of the temerarious the blindnesse of the interessed and an infinite number of fabulous strange and ridiculous opinions she may appear at last restored to her own former shape Et quant● illa magis formas se vertet in omnes Tanto nate magis contende tenacia vincla Donec talis erit mutato corpore qualem Videris incaepto tegeret cum lumina somno To do this we must shake off all the insinuating titles the Panegyricks the manifest gratulations which are ordinarily bestowed on those who are the most able to disguise her with the greatest Artifices and Palliations For we should be more tender of our liberty than to be fooled out of it by the number of their suffrages as if we were obliged as a packed Jury to approve whatever they are pleased to tell us and had not the freedom of a diligent disquisition and censure to consider whether it be just and rationall To our discare as to this point may we justly attribute all the fables impertinencies and superstitions that have to this day crept into the writings and imaginations of abundance of people especially that simple and ridiculous opinion of a many who have thought the most eminent men that ever were even to the highest Magistrates of the Ecclesiasticall State Sorcerers and Magicians But as this discare hath been extreamly prejudiciall to us so must we endeavour to make it as advantagious and use it as Telephus's spear which only could cure the wounds it made or as the Sun who onely disperses those clouds and mists which were risen in its absence This task is indeed too difficult and subtle to be indifferently accommodated to all persons and therefore Experience which is onely acquired by Time the Reflection men ought to make on what they have conceived the carefull observation of the excellent sayings and prudent actions of others and above all things that Indifference which should alwayes carry the light before us in this disquisition of Truth give a certain dispensation to weak inconstant and obstinate minds as also to young men such for the most part as he whom Virgil describes Ense velut nudo parmâque inglorius alba from employing themselves in this censure whereof a riper age and a well-settled constitution of mind acquits it self with better successe and lesse difficulty Nor can we but observe that Erasmus Vives Scaliger Bodin Montaigne Canus Possevin and many more who reserved this employment for their more serious studies have proved so fortunate in this kind that we must needs if with Seneca we acknowledge that Bona mens nec emitur nec commodatur adde something to it by their examples and by the assistance of those precepts which may be generally given for the regulation and refining of the judgement whereof The first is to be very well versed in those Authours who have been most excellent in this kind as for instance Seneca Quintilian Plutarch Charron Montaigne Vives as also in those admirable and great Genius's of History Thucydides Tacitus Guicciardine Comines and Sleidan Adde to this an acquaintance with those who have been Authours of politicall and rationall Discourses and all such as are eminent for new discoveries and conceptions such as Cardan and the great Chancellour of England Verulam in all their books The second requires the knowledge of Logick to be able with more readinesse and facility to distinguish between true and false simple and compound necessity and contingence which does as it were open the way to The third and last which is a certain familiarity with the most profitable Sciences and the most universall and generall account of the affairs of this World that may be had which is to be gained partly by our own industry partly by the endeavours of those who have gone before us such as may be those of Historians But in this the choice is of such consequence that there cannot be too much circumspection used especially in the present age wherein self-love does so easily triumph over the industry of men to force upon the world the fruits of their ignorance Sic dira frequentes Scribendi invasit scabies turpe putatur In nullis penitus nomen praestare tabernis In so much that we may justly say of the Mystery of Printing the Mint of all these rampant imaginations what Seneca said upon such an occasion in Nature as this is in Art Si beneficia naturae utentium pravitate perpendimus nihil non nostro malo accepimus This is no more than what was foreseen above an hundred and twenty years since by the learned Hermolaus Patriarch of Aquilea and Perrot Bishop of Sipontum and to which alone as to their cause we are to attribute the sudden dissemination of our modern Heresies with this complaint into the bargain that with all the advantages we derive from the Ancient we are much inferiour to them in point of learning I therefore think it extreamly necessary amidst such a multitude of Authours to be curious in the choice and selection of those the diligent reading whereof may convince us that they have been furnished with all the conditions required in a perfect Historian such as was for the English Polydor Virgil for the Germans Rhenanus and for the French Paulus Aemilius and discard all the rest who as the fore-mentioned have not the mark of truth But if we are desirous to read them let it be on the same conditions as Seneca permitted his friend Lucilius Nec te prohibuerim sayes he aliquando ista agere sed tunc cum voles nihil agere For my part it should be my censure that they be all suppressed or that as anciently all under fourty years of age were forbidden the reading of the Apocalyps and the last chapter of the Prophet Esdras so they whose judgements are not settled by the reading of good books should not be permitted to surfet on those abortive fruits of ignorance whereof there is no end but that of degenerating and bastardizing the spirits of those that trouble themselves with them Nam qui omnes etiam ind●gnas lectione schedas ex●utit anilibus quoque fabulis accommodare operam potest But before we dilate any further upon the censure and precaution we are to make of them it will not be amisse by the way to lay open the extravagance of I know not what persons who are of a saith that Painting

according to the Satyrist Faciu●t hi plura sed illos Defendit numerus junctaeque umbone phalanges But if the number of these Authors were not yet less considerable than the prooss they bring I should ingenuously confess that it were in me no lesse temerity to take a course contrary to them than it was anciently in Travellers not to cast a stone at those Pillars and Mercuries in the high-waies to give others notice of them And since it is not always according to the saying of Pythagoras the surest way to follow the most beaten track that the most common opinions are ordinarily the most false as being such as are rather applauded than examined I shall stand upon the same liberty which I have taken from the first Chapter of this Apology to passe from the vindication of Religious men to that of Bishops and shew that if ever great Learning and the ignorance of a barbarous age prejudic'd any man Robert Great-head Bishop of Lincolne or as others of Lancaster and Albertus Magnus Bishop of Ratisbonne have just cause to complain As to the first if we only except certain Demonographers who upon the account of a Brazen Head that spoke which John Gower an English Poet said he had endeavoured to make to serve him instead of an Oracle rank him among the Magicians all Authors agree with Pits that he was one of the most learned men of his time a subtile Philosopher an excellent Divine a man equally acquainted with the seven liberal Sciences and the Latine Greek and Hebrew Tongues one that writ a great number of Books whereof there are some remaining in Philosophy Besides all which he was of ●o holy and exemplary a life that not to prove it by the Fable so well refuted by Delrio concerning his death and that of Pope Innocent fourth Matthew Paris writes in his Chronicles that he was in so much reputation among the English that they called him the holy Prelate the King 's faithful Counsellour the Reformer of the Monks the Director of Priests the Instructor of the Clergy the Nursing-father of Schollars and Students the Preacher of the People and the Scourge of Vices And for Albertus I am very much oblig'd to Paulus Jovius that he had not honour'd him with his Elogy but upon the Title of Great which was given him even while he liv'd by the universal consent of all Schools For if we consider with Botero on what persons and upon what occasions that title hath been bestow'd I believe there will be some miracle in it to see a simple Fryar of the Order of St. Dominick have an Epithet given him not so ordinary with Popes Emperours and Soveraign Princes had not his works discover'd his desert to be so great and his Learning so extraordinary that such a recompence might seem inconsiderable if Trismegistus had not so reservd the title of thrice great to himself that it hath not been since communicated to any Nor shall I need to say with Trithemius that Non surrexit post eum vir similis ei qui in omnibus literis scientiis et rebus tam doctus eruditus et expertus fuerit Nor yet with Thevet that he was so curious in the disquisition of the Secrets of Nature that it might be said one part of his soul was transported into the Heavens another into the aire the third under the earth and a fourth upon the waters and that he had by some extraordinary course so united and contracted together his whole soul that nothing that this world comprehends could escape it For all those Elogies added to what is commonly said of him Inclytus Albertus doctissimus atque disertus Quadrivium docuit ac totum scibile scivit cannot so well help us to judge of his Learning as the reading of his own works which would make almost as many volums as those of his Disciple Aquinas if they were as well reprinted It is not therefore to be admir'd if so many things may be said of him upon the account of his knowledge which being so great and extraordinary some may very well be extreamly doubtful others absolutely false and fictious To confirm this we have John Matthew de Luna who living about 120 years since held though contrary to the opinion of Polydor Virgil Magius Mayerus Pancirollus Florence Rivault Zezoldus and all Authors that writ of the invention of Fire-workes that Albertus Magnus first found out the use of Canon Arquebuse and Pistol For I could never find in these Authors any thing that came near this opinion save that such inventions were put in practise in his time and that by a Germane Monk call'd Berthold Schwartz or by a certain Chymist who as Cornazanus an Author ancient enough conceives liv'd in the City of Cullen where it is certain that Albertus Magnus liv'd ever after he had taken the habit of a Dominican And this makes me not a litle wonder that the Alchymists should never bethink them of holding this opinion since they might have done it with much more reason than attribute to him the knowledge of the Philosophers stone as hath lately done their great favourer and a better Majerus who is not asham'd in his Symbols upon the golden table of the 12 Nations to affirm that St. Dominick had it first and that those to whom he had left it communicated it to Albertus Magnus who by the advantages he made of it discharg'd in lesse then three years all the debts of his Bishoprick of Ratisbonne and afterwards taught it St. Thomas Aquinas while he was his disciple To give this the greater Authority he highly celebrates three Books of Chymistry which he attributes to him whereof since there is not any of them either among the collection of his works or specified in the Catalogue made of them by Trithemius we are only to take notice of that which Fran. Picus saies he writ Of Quintessence to shew by the forgery of that what account should be made of the others it being certain that Albertus Magnus never contributed a thought towards it This may be prov'd not only from his laughing at the Alchymists and their pretended Transmutations in his third Book of Minerals as Velcurion and Guybert endeavour to shew since he there maintains a quite contrary opinion but because the Author of that Book calls himself therein a Friar of the Order of St. Francis and saies he writ it in prison These two circumstances which must infallibly relate to John de Rupescissâ easily evince that some Impostor made it his businesse to play the Plagiary and steal it out of a Book he had written on that subject to divulge and gain it reputation under the name of Albertus Magnus according to the ordinary cheat of all Alchymists who make this their common sleight to inveigle people into a belief of their promises and by that means Noctem peccatis et fraudibus addere