he cannot do well and as he ought if as a Shepherd he dwells not with his Sheep besides Holy Father the example of this custom does a world of mischief For how can this Holy See guide others and correct their Abuses if she suffers such Abuses in her principle Members For we do not think that because they are Cardinals it should be more lawful for them to transgress the Laws but that they should least of all presume to do it since their lives are to be a Law to others nor are they to be like the Pharisees who said but did not but to our Saviour Christ who began to do and then to teach And besides this Licentiousness being the fewel of Avarice the use of it is prejudicial to the Counsels they take in Church Affairs Moreover for the obtaining of Bishopricks Cardinals do court Kings and Princes their dependence upon whom afterwards hinders them from speaking their minds freely at least if they were bold and willing enough to speak yet they would easily be perverted into a wrong judgment by affection and interest We could wish therefore that this custom were broken and that all the Cardinals might have an equal Revenue which would maintain them handsomly according to their Dignity which provision we think might easily be made if we would be willing to serve Mammon no longer and would serve none but Christ. These things being set right which refer to the appointment of your Ministers who are as it were the Instruments for the right performing of God's Worship and the well ordering of the People in a Christian Life We must now come to those things which relate to the Government of Christian People As to which matter most holy Father there is an Abuse in the first place to be corrected and the greatest care is to be taken that Bishops especially no nor Curates be absent from their Churches and Parishes unless for a weighty cause but keep their Residence but especially the Bishops since they are the Husbands of the Church committed to their care For we appeal to God that no sight can be more lamentable to a Christian man going through Christendom than this solitude of the Churches Almost all the Pastors are withdrawn from their Flocks which are almost every-where entrusted with Hirelings There ought therefore to be a great Penalty upon Bishops above all and likewise upon Curates who are absent from their Flocks and who ought not onely to be censured but not so much as receive the Revenues of the Church unless for some short time the Bishops obtain leave of absence from your Holiness and the Curates from their Bishops Let some of the Laws and Decrees of Councils in this matter be read whereby it is provided that a Bishop shall not be absent from his Church above three Lord's Days It is also an Abuse that so many of the most Reverend Cardinals are absent from this Court and do not so much as in part do any thing of that Office which belongs to a Cardinal We think indeed that 't is expedient for some few Cardinals to live in their Provinces since thy are as it were the Root of the Papacy that by shooting out its strings abroad in the Christian World contains the People in their Obedience to the Roman See. But yet we think it were very much for the Interest of your Holiness to recal them though not perhaps every one to their Residence in this Court For besides that by this means they would execute the proper Office of Cardinals the State and Retinue of your Court would be provided for and the want of those many Bishops would be supplied who ought to leave the Court and return to their Churches Another great Abuse and by no means to be endured since 't is a scandal to all Christian People arises from the hindrances and restraints that are upon Bishops in the Governing of their Flocks and chiefly in the punishing and correcting of wicked persons For first there are ill men and especially Clergy-men who by many ways exempt themselves from the Jurisdiction of their Ordinary But then if they are not exempt they betake themselves easily to the Penitentiary or to the Datary where they presenly find a way to protect their Impunity and which is still worse by giving of Money This scandal most holy Father does so disturb Christian People that 't is not to be expressed We beseech your Holiness by the Bloud of Christ wherewith he hath Redeemed his Church having washed the same in his Bloud that these foul blemishes be taken away Let these mischiefs be removed to which if in any Republick or Kingdom allowance were given it would in a little time fall head-long into ruine and would not by any means be able to subsist long And yet we think it is lawful for us so that we have the doing of it our selves to see these Monsters brought into the Common-wealth of Christendom In the Orders of the Religious there is another Abuse to be corrected that many of them are so degenerate that they are grown scandalous and their examples pernicious to the Seculars We think the Conventual Orders are to be abolished not by doing to any man that injury of Dispossessing him but by forbidding them to admit any more For thus without wronging any one they would soon be worn out and good Religious might be substituted instead of them but at present it were best that all Children who are not yet professed should be taken from their Monasteries We think also that as to the Preachers and Confessors that are sent out by the Fryers there is need of Animadversion and Amendment that great care should be taken by their Chief that they be fitly qualified and then that they be presented to the Bishops to whom chiefly the Church is intrusted to be examined by them or by fit persons and that without their consent they be not admitted to the exercise of those Offices We have already said most holy Father that it is by no means lawful to make any Gain by the use of the Keys in which matter the Words of Christ stand firm and sure Freely ye have received freely give This does not onely belong to your Holiness to take notice of but to all who share in this power and therefore we desire that it may be observed by your Legates and Nuntio's For as the custom which has much prevailed dishonours this See and makes the People clamorous so the contrary would be exceedingly for the Ornament of the one and for the Edification of the other Christian People are disturbed by another Abuse which concerns Nuns that are under the care of the Conventual Fryers where in most Monasteries publick Sacriledges are committed to the intolerable scandal of the Citizens Let your Holiness deprive the Conventuals of this care and give it to the Ordinaries or to others as you shall see cause The publick Schools are most perniciously abused especially in Italy where
the least Title to that Doctrine which our Saviour delivered to us and the Apostles taught for thus says the Canon Transferat c. 24. q. 3. They change Truth into a Lye who Preach any other thing then what they received from the Apostles This is a down-right Lutheran Maxim for what else do our Adversaries daily inculcate Then that it is not lawful to depart in the least degree from those things that were in use amongst the Apostles But who of us doth not every day often depart from them Indeed in our Churches we scarce retain as we hinted at the beginning the least shadow of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourisht in the times of the Apostles but have brought in quite another of our own Nay we are expresly called Lyars by that Decretum inasmuch as we have done this yet we have done it by the Advise and Instructions of Popes nay by their peremptory Order and Command But we wish there were not so many Canons as there are of this kind that enjoyn things directly contrary to what the Popes and all of us do every day we speak of Matters of Faith and Doctrine not of Manners Take one or two of them for instance Thus says the Canon that begins Contra 25. q. 1. Nothing can be establisht contrary to the Constitutions of the Fathers nor any thing alter'd no not by the Authority of this See. And then another Canon that begins Ideo c. says Thus by the Divine permission we are so made Pastors of Men that we ought not in the least to transgress what ever our Fathers in their Sacred Canons or Civil Laws have appointed for we go against their most wholsome Institutions if we do not keep inviolably what they according to Divine Pleasure have ordained Do not Pope Zosimus and Leo the Third nay and the whole Roman Church plainly here declare aloud that the Authority of this See can do nothing against the Canons against the Law and against the Ordinances of the antient Fathers which ought to be Religiously observed How therefore shall we answer our Adversaries when they press and urge us with this and turn that of the fifth Psalm upon us There is no certainty in their Mouth for they accuse us of lightness and inconstancy who have such express Canons which forbid the Popes to alter the Decrees of the Fathers or to do any thing contrary to them and notwithstanding all this thereis nothing more frequent than the presumption of altering what has been Established by the Antient Fathers and Councils How I say shall we answer this especially since the Book of Decrees is so celebrated and famous and is in all Schools Courts of Judicature and Churches held in the greatest Honour and Esteem And besides those few which we have given you a tast of it contains a great many others that favour the Cause of our Adversaries and favour it in such a manner that they seem to have been pen'd by some of them Moreover we shall consider of some course to be taken with these Decrees for it seems very absurd that any thing should be taught which is contrary to what your Holiness does not only do but commands to be done But we have reserved the most considerable Advice which we could at this time give your Holiness to the last And here you must be awake and exert all your force to hinder as much as you can possibly the Gospel from being read especially in the vulgar Tongue in all the Cities that are under your Dominion Let that little of it which they have in the Mass serve their turn nor suffer any Mortal to read any thing more for as long as Men were contented with that little things went to your mind but grew worse and worse from that time that they commonly read more This in short is the Book that has beyond all others raised those Storms and Tempests in which we are almost driven to destruction And really who ever shall diligently weigh the Scripture and then consider all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it And no sooner does any man discover this being set on by some of our Learned Adversaries but he never ceases bawling against us till he has made the whole Matter publick and rendred us odious to all Men. Therefore those Papers are to be stisled but you must use caution and diligence in it least that create us greater disturbance * Author of e Poâ—n Dâ—ll urâ—o D. John Della Casa Archbishop of Beneventum the Legate of your See at Venice behaved himself handsomly in that business for although he did not openly and avowedly condemn that Book of the Gospel or order it to be suppress'd yet in an obscure dissembling manner he insinuated as much whilst in that long Catalogue of Hereticks which he put out he has found fault with part of the Doctrines maintained in it particularly some certain Chapters which seem most to make against us Seriously a renowned Divine Action what ever others chatter for at first blush it seem'd ridiculous to many that he should condemn so many Authors at once who writ about Religion when himself had never read so much as one syllable of Divinity and Publisht I know not what to which he gave this Title Of the Divine Art. But this is nothing and they who censure this in him have little business of their own to employ them and shew themselves to be great Novices in the Court of Rome For he as he is a true and eminent Courtier spake freely what was his Opinion which we think makes much for his credit It now remains Most Holy Father That we should in short make a Reply to what may perhaps be objected by you that having done this we may finish our Epistle Your Holiness therefore perhaps may say If it is at this time so dangerous a thing to hold a Council of these Bishops thô few in number least some of them should dare to raise a clamour and be severe against my Dignity to undermine it How much more dangerous would it be if besides these therewere a hundred others Created We shall offer three things in answer to this First Look as you generally do that those Bishops who are to be created be ignorant and unlearned but very skilful in the Affairs of Court and addicted to the interest of your Family for that alone will suffice Then avoid a Council as much as you can thô Caesar be very urgent clamorous and importunate Lastly If onely to save your fame and reputation you desire or would seem to desire a Council you may reassemble that But as has been hitherto let there onely be admitted who you are certain will go on your side and let the others be kept out and driven away But of all things be most careful that
being taught by the Divine Spirit who as St. Austin says does without noise of Words speak in the Heart very well understands this to be the Original of these Mischiefs that some Popes your Predecessours having itching Ears as says the Apostle Paul heaped up Teachers after their own Lusts not to learn from them what they ought to do but that they should take pains and employ their Wit to find out ways how it might be lawful for them to do what they pleased To which we may add that as the Shadow follows the Body so Flattery follows Greatness and Truth can hardly find any way to the Ears of Princes hence it has come to pass that there have been Doctors ever ready to maintain that all Benefices being the Pope's and the Lord having a Right to Sell what is his own it must necessarily follow that the Pope is not capable of the Guilt of Simony insomuch that the Pope's Will and Pleasure whatever it be must needs be the Rule for all that he does which doubtless would end in believing every thing lawful that he had a mind to do From this Source as from the Trojan-Horse those so many Abuses and such mortal Diseases have broken forth into the Church of God which have reduced her as we see almost to a State of Desparation The same of these things having come to the Ears even of Infidels let your Holiness believe us speaking what we know who deride Christianity more for this then for any thing else so that through our selves we must needs say through our selves the Name of Christ is blasphemed amongst the Nations As for you most Holy Father for so in truth you are besides that Prudence which you so long since have obtained being also instructed by the Spirit of God when you gave your self wholly to this care that the Church of Christ wherewith you are entrusted might be healed of her Distempers and recover a good state of Health you saw and you saw aright that where the Disease grew at first there the Remedy must begin And following the example of the Apostle Paul you intended to be a Dispenser and not a Lord but to be found faithful in the Lord like that Servant in the Gospel whom the Lord set over his Family to give them their Food in their season And in order to this you resolved at no hand to Will that which is unlawful nor to desire the Power of doing what you ought not For these Reasons you called us to your self who how unqualified soever we may be in point of skill for so weighty an Affair do not yet want a good Affection towards the Honour and Glory of your Holiness and above all to the Reformation of the Church of Christ You enjoyned us with most serious expressions that we should go and bring together all those Abuses and lay them before you protesting that if we proceeded herein negligently and unfaithfully the account that should be given to Almighty God of this matter committed to our Trust should be upon our selves And that all things might be more freely handled by us and opened to you afterward you bound us by an Oath and under the Penalty of Excommunication that we should discover no part of this our Trust to any one whatsoever We therefore in obedience to your Command have brought together those Distempers in as few Words as may be and their Remedies the most effectual at least which we for our part could think upon And now we rely upon your Goodness and Wisdom to mend all those faults and supply all those defects of the performance which are left in it by reason of our incompetency for this undertaking But to reduce all our Thoughts to some certain Heads since your Holiness is both the Prince of these Provinces which are the Ecclesiastic Estate and Territory and withal the Governour of the Universal Church and likewise the Bishop of Rome we have not taken upon our selves to speak of those things which concern that Principality which by your Prudence is so excellently Govern'd as we see We will touch upon these matters only that belong to the Office of the Universal Pastor and some also that are proper to the Roman Bishop First of all then we think most B. Father according to what Aristotle says in his Politicks that as in every other Commonwealth so in the Ecclesiastic Government of the Church of Christ it should be esteemed the principal Law of All that Laws should be observed as much as is possible and that it be not lawful to Dispense with the Laws but for a Cause urgent and necessary For no Custom introduced into a Commonwealth can be more pernicious than inobservance of Laws which our Ancestors thought were religiously to be kept and doubted not to call their Authority Venerable and Divine All these things you know Most Excellent Pope you have read them long since in the Philosophers and Divines But one thing there is of moment next to this or rather of far greater consequence as we think that it is not lawful for the Pope who is Christ's Vicar to make any Gain to himself of the use of the Keys of the power of the Keys we say which Christ hath committed to him For this is the Commandment of Christ Freely ye have received Freely give These things being in the first place provided for since your Holiness has the care of Christ's Church upon you so that it may be furnished with divers Ministers by whom that trust is to be discharged and that these are all the Clergy to whom Divine Service is committed the Presbyters especially and those of them chiefly that have the care of Souls and above all the Bishops it follows that in order to a right Proceeding in this Government the first care that is to be taken is that these Ministers be such that are fit for the Duties of their Function And here the first Abuse in this kind is that in the Ordination of Clerks especially of Presbyters no manner of care and diligence is used but every where the most uneducated Youths of the vilest Parentage set out with nothing but evil Manners are admitted to Holy Orders even to Priesthood it self thô that be the Character which expresseth Christ more than all others From hence grow innumerable Scandals from hence comes the Contempt of the Ecclesiastic Order and hence it is that the reverence of God's Worship is not only diminished but well nigh extinguished We think therefore the best way would be for your Holiness to appoint two or three Prelates of Learning and Probity to look after this matter who should govern the Ordinations of Clergy-men and then to enjoyn all Bishops under the Penalty of Censures to take the like care in their Diocesses Nor should your Holiness suffer any to be Ordained but by his own Bishop or with the License of his Bishop or such as are Deputed in the City And every Bishop should provide a Master
Works Done. Therefore these new Priests the Chietini because they say Mass slower and with greater gravity take no Hire but are content with their Meat and Cloathing and in the course of their lives carry a greater shew of goodness will restore Mass to its Primitive Authority and recover its Reputation You should likewise make it your business to get new Orders of Monks founded every-where for they believe us do great service in the establishment of your Dominion For you may consider how they have encreased it by the Confessions Preaching and Worship which they have brought into the Church Besides we are taught this by long experience that the Sect of the Lutherans has been less able to intrude it self there where there is the greatest numbers of Monks especially Dominicans and Franciscans who have ever stoutly maintained your and overthrown the Adversaries Doctrine Likewise give Orders to the Cardinals and Bishops who Reside as well as to the Priests and Monks that they institute new Fraternities as they call 'em in honour of this and that Saint For our Brother Thomas Stella or Todeschin boasts that he contributed much to the Establishment and Enlarging of your Empire by Preaching the people in many parts of Italy into a zeal for these Fraternities especially that of Corpus Christi Moreover let them make Supplications with the greatest show and pomp imaginable Let them cause new Statues and Images to be made burn Lamps and Candles before them and use all sorts of Instruments and Organs in their Temples these are the things I say with which the people are chiefly delighted and for whose sake they have almost forgot that Doctrine which was so destructive and pernicious to us Nor are these which we have mentioned the only things to be observed but the most Reverend the Cardinals and Bishops ought likewise to be mindful of this That they themselves sing Mass with the greatest Pomp and Magnificence they can possibly and also Consecrate Fonts Give Orders Purifie Churches Altars and Burying Places Christen Bells Veil Nuns in the Eyes of the people and in the sight of all the Congregation For the vulgar are given to admire and to be amused with these things in the Contemplation of which their minds are as it were so intangled in a snare that they have no relish for any other food or any inclination to any other Doctrine As indeed to say the truth they were designed for that purpose And really in our judgment these things should be augmented and multiplied for if the introducing and appointing those few which we have now mentioned were of such use to the settlement of your Kingdom of what advantage would it be were there some new ones added For example That threefold Oyl for the Crismes and for the sick is Consecrated every year upon Maunday Thursday and that by one Bishop together with Twelve Priests with that thrice Repeated Adoration and Salutation with those Exorcisms with those breathings upon it and with that rich Balm which is usual Let your Holiness appoint that the Consecration be not performed under five Salutations and Twenty Priests Command likewise that some other precious Liquor besides Balm such as Manna be added because we find it Rain'd that in the Wilderness which therefore deservedly ought to take place amongst our Ceremonies Likewise as often as the Water of Baptism is Consecrated it is customary to put Salt and Oyl into it and to dip the Paschal Taper thrice in it and to divide it into four parts Order that moreover they mingle some Vinegar with it for that was given Christ to drink on the Cross and therefore that ought to be of some use amongst the Ceremonies Also in the Dedication of Churches the Bishops are wont to draw all the Letters of the Latin and Greek Alphabet with their Crosier in the dust Command them to write the Hebrew Letters too if they know them though that does not signifie much for they do not understand Greek and hardly Latin and yet they can write it and 't is the same thing as if they knew them for the reason of Christs Crucifixon was written on the Cross in those Three Languages Latin Greek and Hebrew And whereas the Bishops only Anoint the Palms of the Priests Hands Order them to Anoint both the Palms and Backs of their Hands as well as their Head and whole Face For if that little Oyl has so much Virtue to sanctify them surely a greater quantity of Oyl will have more virtue for that purpose Lastly when Bells are Christen'd they make a Perfume of Frankincense and other Incense appoint that Musk and Amber be mixt with it to raise and increase the Religion of the thing and the wonder of the people Once more when any Bishop sets himself to officiate in any Divine Service with Pomp and Solemnity he ought to have many Ornaments to distinguish him from ordinary Priests such as to omit the rest the Bones and Reliques of some Dead Man which he usually wears at his Breast set in Gold in the Form of a Cross Do you command him to hang a whole naked Leg Arm or Head of some Saint about his Neck by a good thick Cord for that will contribute very much to the encrease of the Religions Astonishment of all that see it The truth is these Ceremonies were all invented and continued by Popes you therefore that are Pope may if you please augment them Nay rather indeed for that Purpose and Design which we mentioned ought to do it Besides we would advise that your Heliness should lay your Commands on those Cardinals and Bishops that happen to reside in their Diocess that they take care to have Logick Sophistry and the Art of the School-men Metaphisicks the Decretals Sextus the Clementines the Extravagants and the Rules of Chancery publickly Taught and Read in their Cities It had been well if Men had ever applyed themselves industriously to the Reading such sort of Books for then our Affairs had never been in so bad a posture as they are but despising this sort of Learning they began to employ themselves in learning Greek and Hebrew and in a little time to examine the Translation of the Bible by the true Original and to study Divinity and the Antient Fathers of the Church and hence sprung all the Misfortunes we lye under therefore you must endeavour that setting these Studies aside Men should again fall to the Study of the Schoolmen and of your Canon-Law by which 't is manifest the study of Divinity was in a manner overwhelm'd and buried But let your Holiness use caution in this For we mentioned before only the Decretals and Sextus and the Clementines and the Extravagants and not that which is called the Decretum which ought not to seem strange For 't is a pernicious Book and lessens your Authority extreamly although it seems in some places to enlarge it For amongst other things in several places it denies That the Pope can add