Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	christian_a	church_n	great_a	1,565	5	2.6950	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20595	A declaration of the reasons which moued Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato or Salonas, primate of Dalmatia and Croatia, to depart from the Romish religion and his countrey. Written by himselfe in Latine, and now for the populare vse translated; Marcus Antonius de Dominis, Archiepiscopus Spalatensis, suae profectionis consilium exponit. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.; W. S., fl. 1617.	1617 (1617)	STC 6999; ESTC S116248	16,073	35

suspected some thing lurketh in them which our doctrine is not able to confute From the first yeeres wherein I rendered my selfe to be a Clergie man I fostered an in-borne desire to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ could neuer patiently thinke vpon the division of the Westerne Easterne Churches the South North in matters of faith I desired earnestly to know the causes of so many and so great Schismes and to search if possibly any way could be found out to bind vp again all the Churches of Christ in the true ancient vnion I was also tormented with heauy dolour which I conceiued at the dissentions of Professors of Christian Religion and the coate of Christ so miserably rent asunder which dolour and too great heauinesse did wonderfully afflict mee and yet more and more vexeth me daylie Thereafter now some twenty yeeres agoe I was promoued to the gouernement of the Church and made Bishop of Segnat which thing my Fathers the Jesuits tooke heauily because they knew by experience that I was not ydle not improfitable for their societie but that their account I doe not much regard for I contemne all humane aestimation vnlesse it make some furtherance to diuine obedience they had found me I say profitable for them for in the time of my tryall when I was but young they praeferred mee to a publicke profession of HVMANITIE in the Colleges of VERONA And before I was a Priest they placed mee in the Publicke Chaire for the profession of the MATHEMATICKES at PADVA vvith great concourse of hearers They made mee Professor of RHETORICKE first and then of the LOGICKE and PHILOSOPHIE in the Publicke Schooles of BRESCIA and often on the Festuall dayes would needes haue mee making Sermon in their Churches They enjoyned mee the dispatch both of priuate and weightie Affaires And in all the seruices of their societie they found my diligence Why then should they not haue taken heauily my promouing to a Bishoprick which was vnto me the first occasion to come downe to the earth from the subtill and airie or improfitable disputations of the Schoolmen and to turne my contemplation in wholesome practise of the cure of soules and of the Church And because I did acknowledge the proper taske of a Bishop was to preach the Word I set my selfe to reade Sermons and such Bookes as are appointed for Lent which did soone beget in mee a loathing and detestation for I sawe in them and that easilie a filthie abuse of Scripture while it is throwne to vaine improfitable impertinent yea and a pernicious sense I saw Examples and Miracles propounded either false and fained or at least ridiculous and not worthie of credite I sawe the people miserablie deceiued and the inuentions of auarice and ambition superstitiouslie forced vpon them vnder colour of articles of Faith These thinges I was astonished to consider and therefore I resolued to leaue these troubled Streames and to take my selfe to the Fountaines of the Fathers in reading of whose works I beganne to delyte for Sermons and holy Canons and Church Gouernement From this course now and then some beames of new light did shine vnto me as yet vnwilling and repining for on the one part I did obserue the sayinges of the Fathers in verie manie thinges contrarie to the common Doctrine which I had learned in the Schooles and I did perceiue that they were either passed by in silence by my Masters or not faithfully alledged or not sufficientlie or which is worse sinistrously expounded On the other part I did see and that not without great wondring that the Rule of Church Discipline and Spirituall Gouernement of our time was exceeding farre different from the ancient practise whereby my forenamed suspicions were greatly augmented and I perceiued a farre off that we did not faithfully handle the Doctrine and Affaires of CHRIST and his Church but sluffed our THEOLOGIE rather with the quicke inuentions of humane speculations and Philosophie than with the wholsome wordes of holy Scripture exactly considered and expounded whereof there is a grosse ignorance amongst vs. From a Bishoprick I was aduanced to an Archbishoprick wherby a new and more vrgent occasion grew vnto me to renew my studies and to labour in them more earnestly for whereas the troubles of the Suffragane Bishops of my Prouince but much more the excessiue power of the Court of Rome encroching vpon my Metropolitane Iurisdiction began to injure mee I proponed to my selfe to search out and throughly to knowe the Root and Fountaine of Church degrees Iurisdictions callings offices and dignities and chiefely of the Papall greatnesse A little after the State of VENICE was by the Pope put vnder Interdiction and scoffing Pamphlets sent dayly from Rome ceased not to oppresse vexe and slander all of vs who were Bishops of the SEIGNORIE of VENICE as Beastes Dolts Ignorantes and men of euill Conscience Whereof for the better instructing our lawfull defences and for the better knowledge of the quaestion debated betwixt the Venetians and the Pope new occasions were giuen to mee of a new and more earnest studie The holy ancient Canons the Orthodox Councels the Discipline of the Fathers and the ancient customes of the Church were often and againe turned ouer by me Whereto shall I say more I found aboundantly in these only all that I sought and a great deale more than I sought Then it was easie with opened eyes to obserue that the doctrine of these Reformed Churches which in great numbers Rome maketh enemies to her selfe and which are bitterly reproued and impugned by our THEOLOGS did in little or nothing at all differ from the true and ancient doctrine of the pure Church I did also perceiue that their doctrine both at Rome and among vs is abhorred and repelled rather than lawfully impugned not for that it is indeede Haereticall and false but only because it is contrary to the corrupt sense and manners of the Court of Rome and to her fleshly plottes and inuentions which is nowe turned into a temporall estate I saw also perceiued most clearly that at Rome without any lawfull ground yea by extreame violence innumerable new articles of faith were daily coined forced vpon vs that in such things as not only appertaine nothing to diuine faith but also containe in themselues manifest falsehood Which articles that corrupt Court will neither suffer to be discussed by any nor be brought in a due consultation of the Church but pursueth euen to the death all those who dare whisper against them They haue now for a long time smoothered the sacred Councels and so haue put out the eyes of the Church of CHRIST that nowe vnhappie shee as another Sampson made blinde and depriued of her owne strength captiued and made vyle is able only to groane It was sometimes an article of Faith that the vniuersall Church dispersed throughout the whole worlde is that Catholicke Church of CHRIST whereunto CHRIST himselfe doeth promise his