auerre that I was had in as much esteeme in our Prouinces Churches as any other Modesty requires that men should be bashfull in speaking though with great moderation things tending to their owne praise whereas you proclayme your selfe second to none of the Bishops either of the State of Venice or of the Catholike world besides and this you professe to speake without blushing You say true Shamefastnes is not wont to wayt vpon an Apostata But we howsoeuer you dreame of your being famous had newes of the Archbishop of Spalato his flight before we heard of his name Marke Antony in the Northerne parts was sooner knowne by his face then by his fame he came so fast that he preuented the messenger of his worth and estimation The fugitiue Primate himselfe first declared to many that there was any such Spalatian Primate Notwithstanding you were not more vnknowne to the world then to your self which is the cause you insolently prefixe your name to your booke as already knowne and sufficient to giue it lustre Marke Antony de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato sets downe the reason of his going So you stile your booke as if you were the Pithian Apollo ready to giue Oracles or some Dictator deliuering Lawes vnto the people or Pithagoras prescribing to his schollers Aphorismes or at least some Authour knowne by his former writings able to gaine credit to any worke by the splendour of his name Who notwithstanding were at that time for afterwards you became more notorious through the staine of your fall so vnknowne that many wondred at the title nor were there wanting inquirers who should this Marke Antony be What going is that he speakes of so vncertainly without naming either whither or from whence Is peraduenture that old Marke Antony reuiued againe and fled from Rome to Aegipt that Antony so famous for wine and venery who hauing violated his former faith to his Roman spouse no lesse renowned for chastity then noble of blood ioyned himselfe to that Aegiptian woman infamous for her many foule enormities Thus did men not yet acquainted with your iourney descant vpon the title of your booke framing coniectures of the authour of Marke Antonyes name They could not speake more assuredly of a person wholy vnknowne neither did their rouing discourses much misse of the marke For you hauing left the Roman Spouse and violated your first faith haue matched your selfe to that Lutheran brat who being of her Fathers condition no more able to refrayne from venery then from food differs not much from Cleopatra's manners If you but resemble that drunken Triumuir as well in life as you do in name by this match may that old saying be renewed Bacchus is wedded to Venus THE FIRST PART OF THE SVRVEY OF APOSTASY or the Ladder of Marke Antonies fall consisting of eight steps or degrees SINCE therfore you must be cured by the most true knowledge of your selfe who through your too high a conceite of your selfe haue slid downe into hell in this Suruey I put you in mind of your selfe whom your selfe haue so much forgot and I lay open your Apostasy not so much to the Readers eye that he should detest it as before your owne conscience that you may bewayle it Behould now at last who you were when you seemed a Catholike and by what stepps by litle litle you fell into this abysse The degrees therfore are these secret Pride close Infidelity suspicious Lightnes abandoning the Iesuites Order ambition of holy Dignities audacious Contention for Preheminence open Contumacy against the Pope finally Presumption of your owne iudgment and learning aboue the Church I will handle all these in their order not led by variable rumors but by euident arguments and for the most part taken out of your owne Booke The first degree Secret Pride HERESIES are in number diuers deuided by nations but much more by manners rites and errours amongst themselues Yet all are sisters saith S Augustin borne of the self same mother Pride To which purpose saith S. Gregory Pride is the seat of Heretickes for were they not first puffed vp in their owne conceipt they would neuer fall into strife of peruerse opinions This also Antony was the beginning of al your mischiefe long agoe through a certaine secret Pride you coueted to shew your selfe wise and zealous for the vnion of all Churches aboue all other Catholikes vnder which pretensed zeale you now at last leaue the Church Which pride of yours you discouer in your 9. page in these words I euer cherished in me say you from my first entrance into holy orders a kind of innated desire I had to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ I could neuer brooke this separation of the West from the East in matters of faith nor of the South from the Northerne parts I was very anxious to vnderstand the cause of so many and so great schismes and to spie out if there could be any way thought vpon to reduce all the Churches of Christ to the true ancient vnion Yea I did burne with desire to behould it and I was vexed with inward grief for so many dissentions which strangely tormented me 2. If you perceaue not the pride that lurketh in these your thoughts I will stirre them vp further I let that passe where you call the Grecian Schisme a Separation of the West from the East when rather you should haue termed it the separation of the East from the West for we left not the Grecians but they departed from vs. We Latines are not the Church which departed but that frō which departure was made What principle of faith euer was common with vs and the Grecians which we haue forsaken They after they had nine times in nine general Councels peace vnion concluded subscribed to the Roman Supremacy so often againe with the note of leuity reuolted With no lesse apparant falshood you call the Lutheran defection a separation of the South from the North as if the South that is Rome Italy had deuided it selfe from the North abiding still in the faith of their auncestours It is not so for what is more knowne then at such time as Luther Zuinglius and Caluin and the first Nouellistes beganne to preach that the North was Catholike and imbraced the Roman doctrine which now they abhor The Roman Church made no diuision but suffereth diursiōs made against her The North falling away into new opinions Rome still remayned immoueable in the faith which before she imbraced nor did the hauen leaue the barke but the barke the hauen But against these your conceits I proceed no further because perhaps they are not so much signes of secret Pride wherwith you were then taynted as of newer errours wherwith now you are blinded 3. I come to your Pride Was it not a part of passing great arrogancy that you being but newly and scarcely yet admitted to holy Orders would take vpon you to be the Iudge of the whole Church
That you would cite before your Tribunall as guilty of Schisme as well the Latin Church as the Greeke no lesse the Roman whereof you were a member then the Lutheran I would say you faine haue knowne the cause of the diuision and Schismes of all Churches and find out some meanes to bring them vnto the true ancient vnity A great piece of worke Antony and hardly to be dispacht in a generall Councell of the Church much lesse are the shoulders of a puny Clergy man as you were then able to sustaine the burthen thereof But what necessity was it for you to intrude your selfe into the search of this cause Generall Councells had already heard this controuersie of schisms they had before hand condēned both Greeks and Lutherans Cyprian l. 4. Epist 6. they had concluded with Cyprian That Schismes Heresies do and haue euer sprunge vp from no other cause then this that the Bishop which is one and gouernes the Church by the proud presumption of some is set at naught and the man by Gods ordinance honoured by most vnworthy men is adiudged nor that there is any other way of vnion and of extinguishing heresies then that they returne to the fountaine of vnity and imbrace that Catholike proofe a short an easie way of belief cōteyning the Epitome of truth which our Lord appoynted Matth. 16. when he spake to Peter Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock will I build my Church That he that forsaketh Peters Chaire whereupon the Church is founded cannot be of the Church This is the only cause of Schisme this the only way to vnity this the definition of the Fathers and of the Church This you being then a Iesuite and a Clergy man could not be ignorant of nor doubt of being a Catholike if you were so indeed why therefore did not this iudgment of the Church quiet you Why did you vexe your selfe in the search of another cause of Schismes and another way of vnion 3. Certainly you then beganne to breed that which you haue now at last brought forth or at least you leaue the Church to the end you may bring it forth which is a certaine strange and wonderfull deuice to vnite all the Churches in one whereby all Christian societyes although differing in Religion among themselues from Peters Seate are thrust vp into one Body of a Church without any vniuersal Head or Prince to gouerne them This is the speciall new doctrine you come to preach this the great supposed light wherein you now exult a glimps wherof Sathan transfiguring himselfe into an Angell of light long ago presented vnto you And what was this else but to make your selfe wiser then all Catholikes besides then Councells Fathers and the vniuersall Church yea which is more wiser then Christ himselfe who when he saw that the peace of his Church could not otherwise stand without a Gouernour Leo ep 84. he made Peter the chiefe of his Apostles That in fellow-ship of honour there might be a certaine difference of power Hier. cont Iouin and that by appointing a head the occasion of schisme might be vtterly taken away 4. If as you would make vs belieue you had byn inflamed with the true zeale of soules you would neuer haue so anxiously searched into new causes of schismes but rather haue laboured to remoue those which are now already discouered by Fathers and Councells pestering the world to the ruine of many You would not haue byn so prodigall of your vaine and proud teares for the Christian Churches and for the Roman it self with the rest whose child you were but rather taking compassion of nations wādring from the Roman Church you would haue studied to reduce them to the head-spring of vnity by word example writing labours perills and lastly with your life laid downe in pawne for testimony therof This had beene the part of a wise man of one burning in Charity of a Iesuite But whilest your fellowes the Iesuites with other Preachers of the Faith sweat out their bloud for the vnion of Churches and the vtter racing of schisme you forsooth burning with zeale innated not infused humane not diuine at home in your idle and imaginary trauelles discouer new found wayes of conuersions such as were neuer trod on by any foote before Thus you vanished away in your owne cogitations whilst you toyled your selfe in seeking out new and vnused wayes you lost the auncient and ready way whilest in the Catholike way with the foote of pride you stroue to go beyond the rest from the Catholike truth were you cast away could not stand The second degree Secret Infidelity FOR whiles you sit in your throne vmpiere of Churches you begin your selfe to stagger in the Catholike faith that you might at last become an Apostata it was needfull that you should first doubt of your faith that so the saying of Hilary might stand for good Hilar. l. 6. de Trin. Well may heresy tempt an vnperfect man but it cannot supplant the perfect Cyprian saith Let no man thinke Cyprian de vnit Eccles ca. 7. that good men can departe from the Church The wind blowes not away the Corne nor doth the tempest ouerthrow the Tree that is well rooted in the ground The slighter chaffe is carried away with the winde the weaker trees by force of stormes are ouerthrowne These are those whom the Apostle Iohn noteth Ioan. 2. cap. 19. saying They went out from vs but they were not of vs For had they beene of vs they would no doubt haue stayed with vs. It is so indeed Antony you were none of ours euen when you seemed most to be ours you were euer of a doubtfull Faith and of a wit propense to heresy This those that know you testify this you seeme not to deny of your selfe and this will I demonstrate with a double argument out of your owne speaches 6. First in your eight page you write that continually you felt temptations which now you terme sparckles of the inward spirit about certaine supposed doctrines of the Roman faith wherwith say you I could neuer rest satisfied nor free my selfe wholy from a vehement suspition which euer held me perplexed as I grew more auncient in the studies of sacred diuinity What those temptations were and against what articles of the Roman faith you set not downe you leaue it to our choyce to thinke that you allways had a doubt of the mysteries of the most holy Trinity of the Incarnation and the Eucharist with others for these also are the articles of the proper Roman faith which it constantly manteynes against the old heretikes and many of the reformed or deformed rather of this vpstart Ghospell Nor can you say that you signified your temptations only but gaue no assent or consent thereunto For this is confuted out of that which you write in the same pag. 8. I haue truly alwaies thought it say you a matter not voyde of suspition as
fift generall Synod by an Edict of his which was read in the same Synode actione prima prohibited the writings of Seuerus an Heretike condemned by the Synod In 5. Syno gen act 1. Let not said he the writings of Seuerus remaine with any Christian Et in nouel Const. 42. but be had as prophane and odious by the Catholike Church and let them which haue such bookes Habetur in 5. generali Synodo collat 5. burne them vnles they will abide the perill thereof With like seuerity Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours both first of their names did prosecute Hereticall bookes in these words Let no man presume to reade possesse or write such bookes which withall diligence are to be searched for whersoeuer they be found to be burned in the publicke view of all men but those that are discouered to haue kept such bookes let them be sent to perpetuall banishment Nicepho l. 8. cap. 15. But of al others the Emperour Constantine the Great set forth the sharpest Edict against the bookes of Arius saying Our will is that if any writing of Arius be found it be committed to the fire that not only his wicked doctrine may perish but that also there may remaine no monument thereof yea and moreouer we enact If any man be detected to conceale any booke of his and not to burne it forthwith that he be adiudged to die For such a one being found guilty of the crime shal presently be put to death Behould how rigorous how seuere was Constantine What say you Antony to these decrees of Fathers and Princes Will you now suspect that for as much as the writings of Arius Nestorius Eutiches Seuerus were so roughly intreated that there must needs be something in them which the Christian doctrine could not conuince Be not so blasphemous I speake in a word If you know not the seuerity of the ancient Church in prohibiting the bookes of heretiks you are ignorant If you know it and would suspect thervpon that those Heretiks arguments were stronger then the Catholiks you are impious If you molest the present Church standing in equal termes with the ancient you are vniust 13. But now the other incitement of your suspitions and doubtes is to be looked into which then hapened when you first began being a Bishop to turne the Fathers For before that time you had not so much as saluted them a farre of For thus you declare the matter pag. 13. In the Theoriques I noted certaine sayings of the Fathers in many thinges very repugnant to the common doctrine wherein I was trayned vp in the Schooles and the same either passed ouer by my Maisters or not faithfully alleadged or not sufficiently or else falsly explicated Also the practise and forme of Ecclesiasticall discipline and spirituall gouerment of our times came to be very different from the ancient and thence my new mentioned suspitions were not a little augmented So you But the holy Ghost saith truly of you and your fellowes Prouer. 13. He that will part from his freind seekes occasions For euery where euen in your old manuscriptes did you hunt for calumnies wherewith to charge the Church which you had resolued to forsake And yet after all your diligence vsed with so great desire to find some shew of reason the causes you haue found out be most slender and such indeed as would haue moued no honest or prudent man to leaue a priuate friend much lesse the Catholike Church You found the Fathers sayinges in many thinges very different from the common Schoole learning either passed ouer by your Maisters or not faithfully cited or falsly explicated First you say all these things but neither are you able or do you go about to proue thē and yet faine would you haue your departure allowed euen by Catholikes Shall your bare word be belieued against the Maisters of the Church Shall Catholikes themselues against the Catholike Church giue credit to you a fugitiue an enemy It were impudency to craue this at their hands and folly to hope for it But admit all you obiect were true how slieght is all you say how ridiculous and making nothing at all for the mittigation of the crime of your Apostasy Your Maisters in the Schooles did explicate certaine places of the Fathers not so fully as they should or else vnproperly you perhaps were by their negligence brought into great straytes were there not other men in the Catholike Church learned inough to resolue your doubts put case the Maister had not satisfied you Sometime they did not faithfully alleadge testimonies how common and ordinary a thing is it for Scribes not to take well their Maisters words which they dictate in Schools though also what Maisters deliuer in schooles be not so exact as writings that are prepared for the presse Some things he wholy left out Surely a great fault And are you so great a straunger in schoole matters that know not this that the Maisters cannot possibly in the compasse of foure yeares to which the course of Diuinity is straytened giue full and ample satisfaction to all the testimonies of Fathers which are obiected against the Catholike doctrine by diuers Sectes of necessity many things are omitted which the Schollers afterward are to find out by their priuate industry But there are certaine sayings of Fathers which are very opposite to the doctrine that now is currant in the schooles This spoken in so generall tearmes is true What Catholike schoole man knowes it not Who euer denied it Nor do there want examples The common consent of Deuines is that those seauen days in which God accomplished the frame of the world were true dayes indeed distinguished by the heauens reuolution and the rising and setting of the light But who knows not that S. Augustine is of a contrary mind The Schooles agree that the Angells were not created before the world yet Nazianzen the great Light of Greece esteemes them elder then the world I could alleadge many more but to what end How do they serue to cloke your Apostasy Those Fathers sayings pretermitted or not fully explicated by your Maisters did they patronize your Sect You tell vs not what kind of Sect yours is nor do you plainly say that those Fathers sayings fauour you at all Suppose you should say they make for you might we not iustly put you to your proofe Lastly supposing that were true which you say only but prooue not That the moderne practise in many things now a dayes is different from the discipline of the Church of old what makes this for you Do you not see the times change men with the times with men customes It is the part of Ecclesiasticall wisedome to suite their Lawes Statues with the circumstances of times and persons to which purpose S. Augustine saith very well The former Councells are bettered by the later Therfore Antony you bring nothing that sound is for you excuse what you bring are either bare words
verily you will misse of your purpose Theft shall be theft murder murder Schisme schisme will you nill you Antony Well but I fly say you from errors I fly from abuses I fly that I may not be partaker of her sins not haue part in her punishments O how liuely did the holy Ghost describe you long agoe The wicked sonne saith Prouerb 30 ver 12. as S. Augustine readeth that he is iust yet doth he not wash cleere his going out You say the Church swarmeth with errours is ful of abuses loaden with sinnes that you are pure iust and thereupon fly not to be partaker of the punishments due to our sinnes who haue no sinns forsooth of your owne to be punished You say you are iust but you do not proue it notwithstanding though you should in your owne cause say the very truth yet could not you therby cleere your selfe from the crime of Schisme which I will make manifest euen by your owne words In the 37. page touching S. Cyprian you write in this māner Cyprian made no doubt but that Stephen the Roman Bishop did erre very grieuously yet rather then to make a Schisme in the Church he chose to communicate not only with Pope Stephen whose beliefe and practise was contrary to his but also with others whome he iudged impure for this cause only because Pope Stephē did admit them into his Communion which example S. Augustine as he sets it before the Donatists so likewise he sets it before vs for imitation Now I will iudge you by your one euidence For why do you not imitate this example which you say is layd before you a purpose that you should imitate it If S. Cyprian could not deuide himselfe from Pope Stephen whome he most assuredly iudged to erre without being guilty of the crime of Schisme may you reuolt from Pope Paul the fifth vnder pretence that he errs and not be a Schismaticke If S. Cyprian had he forsaken Pope Stephen could not haue iustified his departure by saying put case he might truly haue sayd so I fly his errours his abuses his sinnes do you thinke that your defection frō the Roman Church can be washed cleane from the note of Apostasy by your loud exclaiming that you fly errour A protestation vaine though it were true and indeed false vttered without any proofe You go about Antony to wash a bricke you loose your labour your crime cannot be washed away without teares of repentance The second Gulfe Wandring vncertainty about Religion THE second Gulfe wherein you are drowned I call Nullity of fayth because you abandoned the Roman Church and Faith before you had made choice of any other Church or religion that should succeed in lieu thereof You seemed at your departure from vs to be a blanke ready to preceaue any Religion or faith that should be written therin so it were contrary to the Roman A deepe pit of impiety which heretikes do fall into whos property it is not to establish but to ouerthrow fayth to beate downe Christian Churches that stand not to reare vp Christian Churches amongst Pagans They ioyne friendship and communion indifferently with all Sectes sayth Tertullian nor do they regard though they be different from them in opinion Praese cap. 40. so they will concurre with them to ouerthrow the truth This want of sound and solide faith you shew Antony by many signes and tokens First by your perpetuall silence not declaring either in the title or in the body of your booke to what sect or Religiō you meane to passe from the Roman In the title you pretend to shew the reasons of your going but you tell vs neither whence nor whither you take your iourney Motion as Philosophers say receaues forme and shape of the end and marke wherein finally the same resteth which being true your going to which your title prescribes not any end nor restraynes within the compasse of any markes what may it seeme but a vast vncertaine blind and inconsiderate wandering This your omitting to set down in your title the finall marke of your iourney is the more blame-worthy because straight in the very beginning of your discourse you require that euen we Catholikes should approue your departure For how can any prudent man possibly approue your iourney before he know in what Country Church or Religion you meane to take vp your rest We that know not for what place you are bound can we know or approue your course Seing then this circumstance whither is the chiefe thing that giues light to them that are to iudge in the vndertaking of a iourney and therfore is the first thing to be declared in the very beginning of the deliberation why did not you Antony expresse it in the Title of your Booke why haue you not once thoughout your whole pamphlet tould it vs in playne and direct termes The answere is easy you tould it not because you were certaine neither of the Church nor of the Religion wherein you should make your finall abode You compare your selfe forsaking the Church of Rome with the great Patriarke Abraham who following God left his Countrey which comparison though in the mayne point it be very idle yet heerein you are not vnlike to Abraham that as he departed from his natiue soyle not knowing whither he went so you abandoned the Roman Church and Religion before you could tell what other Church or Religion you should imbrace vpon the forsaking therof 6. Secondly of this your doubtfullnesse in choice of Religion which you did but insinuate in the title you make open demonstration in your booke in the 15. pa. wherof you write Now myne eyes being more opened I might easely perceaue that the doctrines of the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries which Churches though we sharply censure our Deuines maynly impugne do little or nothing at all swarue from the true primitiue doctrine of the pure Church So you write nor could you haue more disclosed the vast pit of vncertainty in your breast gaping for any doctrine so it be opposite to the Roman For let vs search into the matter I demaund of you Antony whither are you going to Churches say you that swarue very little or nothing from the true Primitiue doctrine I heare you But shew me these Churches which are they they be those Churchs which being very many Rome hath raised vp to be her aduersaries O what a deale of vncertainty and confusiō lyeth couched togeather in these words I let passe that vncertainty very little which how much or little it is no man knowes you only may determine and at your pleasure stretch or contract it I do not enquire where about in the world those Churches are to be seen which you so highly cōmend Which questiō should I propose I could pursue you from country to country and you would sweat to find such Churches in the world as you describe in your booke Churches I
reason teacheth that the bookes contrary to the Roman doctrine should be barred from the students and from those that are well affected to the Catholike faith You plainly confesse by this that you had not only a motion of doubt against faith but an assent also nor were you tempted only but you assented likewise to that which the temptation suggested to wit that the Roman faith was if not false at least wise not free from suspition of falshood 7. From hence is deriued the second Argument of your secret Infidelity You say that you euer haue suspected the Roman Church because she layeth those bookes out of sight which are any waies contrary to her doctrine And by and by you explicate more cleerely your suspition to wit That something there was no doubt in the bookes of heretikes which the Roman doctrine was not able to conuince I take you at your word that you alwaies suspected the Protestants doctrine to be sounder then the Catholikes What may be deduced from this Euen this that you were neuer a Catholike indeed neuer truly indued with the Roman Faith For he that beleeues like a Catholike and a Christian this thing of all other first and chiefly he belieues that nothing may be found surer or holier then his faith And this persuasion if it be vnsteddy and wauering is no Faith nor the substance of thinges hoped for nor the firme and immoueable ground of saluation Tertul. praesc ca. 8. When we beleeue saith Tertullian we desire to belieue no more for this thing we first of all belieue that there is not ought else to be belieued And againe Ibidem c. 11 No man seekes for that which he hath not lost or neuer had If you belieue the things that you ought to belieue and yet imagine something else to be sought for then surely you hope that there is something else to be found which you would neuer do but because either you did not belieue that which you seemed to belieue or else now you haue left to belieue Thus leauing your Faith you are found a denyer Thus Tertullian Who seemes Antony to speake to you your coÌ„science he conuents you say that with reason you haue alwaies esteemed the Roman doctrine to be touched with suspition of infirmity Is this you speake true or false If false who hath so bewitched you to giue the lye to your owne selfe how is it likely that you will speake well of the Pope whome you hate that spare not your owne selfe he that is not good to himselfe to whome will he be good If true how were you euer a Catholike and a Roman Catholike that haue alwaies iudged the Roman doctrine if not openly false yet lying open to suspitions of falshood and no way secure 8. Since then you confesse your Faith to haue been euer so sickly and feeble we trouble not our selues with the searching out of those decrees and mysteries of the Roman Faith wherof you doubted But in reward of your ingenuous confession we do of our owne accord vouchsafe you the graunt of your suite which you so painefully endeauour in this writing to obtayne of vs. For you desire that your departure may breed no admiration in vs Your suite Antony is reasonable and not amisse for vs. For it is the part of a Christian rather to eschewe heresies whereof Christ foretold vs Matth. 24.19 Act 20. then to wonder at them not to wonder I say though the starres should fall from heauen or that from among Bishops whome Christ hath placed to gouerne his Church purchased by his bloud there should arise men lying and speaking peruersly Wonderers as TertulliaÌ„ saith by the fall of certaine persons which were held for learned or holy men are edified to their owne destruction They vnderstand not that we ought to receaue Doctours with the Church and not with Doctours forsake the Church nor to esteeme the Faith for the persons that imbrace it but the persons for the Faith they imbrace But as for you Antony why should we wonder at your fall seeing you confesse that you were neuer stable Cypr. epist 52. ad Anton Graue men saith S. Cyprian and such as are once well soundly founded on the rock are not shaken with wind or stormes much lesse remoued with a silâ—y blast It were a wonder indeed if such men so grounded in the faith should fal but you that neuer stood fast vpon the Rock against which the proud gats of hel cannot preuaile Aug. cont part Donat you that alwaies had the sayles of you high mind spread to the winds of nouelty you that continually suspected the infallible doctrines of the Roman Church for feeble you being so doubtfull and vncertaine no meruayle if at last tossed with diuers fancies as it were with certaine blastes of windes rushing vpon you you were beaten from your first purpose The Faith that in your selfe already was false could not long retayne the semblance of standing The third degree Suspicious Lightnes and Inconstancy BVT now if we do looke into the causes of these your doubts such causes especially which you commit to writing straight appeareth your suspicious Leuitie readily carried away with euery blast You obiect forsooth errours abuses and innumerable nouelties to the Roman Church but they are but words only For in particuler you do not so much as name them much lesse proue them Namely and especially you vrge two incitements of your change two things that scandalized you in the Catholike Church which we will now examine and lay open the vanity you discouer therein The first in your 8. page you set downe in these words That which made me more doubtfull was the exact and rigorous diligence vsed both at Rome and in my owne Countrey Wherby a most vigilant heed is taken that no books contrary to the Roman doctâ—iâ—e be handled or read of any good reason I thought there was that the vulgar sort should be forbidden them But that students and those very well affected to the Catholike faith and well knowne to be sound in doctrine should wholy be depriued of them I haue euer thought it a matter of suspition And in hiding suppressing and destroying of such books so much industry is had that for this cause only a man may well suspect that there is something in them which our doctrine is not able to conuince Two things you say first that you haue always had the Roman Church in suspitioÌ„ because she prohibits the aduersaries books The other is that for this very cause her doctrine may wel be called in question By the first you bewray the instability of your mind but in the second your impiety also 10. For the first then what a lightnes inconstancy is it vpon so vaine a suspition to renounce the Church especially that Church that hath bred you to Christ In whose lap to vse S. Augustins words many iust respects should haue held you Aug. cont Epist rundam
cup. 3. to witt the consent of people and notions the authority which was first bred by miracles nursed by hope brought vp by charity founded in antiquity The succession of Priests euen from the seate of Peter the Apostle to whome our Lord after his resurrection committed his flock vnto this present Bishoprick Lastly the name Catholike which not without cause this Church only amongst so many heresies hitherto hath enioyed But say you she smothers oppresseth and destroyeth the aduersaries books by all meanes possible she doâ—h so indeed like a mother she wisely and piously tenders the good of her children like a shep-heard she lookes carefully to her flocke as the seruant of seruants Whome our Lord hath placed ouer his family forbiddeth them to tast of poysoned meates warily preuenting least such deadly food should be brought into her house what fault is there in all this This is no diffidence but prouidence nor is the weaknes of her doctrine which is diuine the cause of her feares but the frailty and inconstancy of mans mind For experience sufficiently approues nor do you deny that which S. Aug. cont Epist Fund Augustine affirmes That there is no errour whatsoeuer but may be so glossed that it may easily steale in by a faire gate to the minds of the ignorant And who sees not if dangerous Bookes for the vse of the learned should be freely brought into Countries that are not tainted with heresy that scarce truly or rather not scarcely can it be but that they must light into the hands of the ruder sort especially if they should be permitted in such a number as you would haue that is to say to all Bishops and Deuines Pag. 9. that haue fully ended their studies Yea and moreouer to Students and scholers also to see whether their maisters truly alleadge the testimonies of heretikes This were too great a multitude and would make poyson ouer coÌ„mon Wherfore the Catholike Church with great wisedome hath thought it more expedieÌ„t that the learned which may securely read such books rather should want this vaine contentment of curiosity or vnnecessary furtherance of learning then that the vnlearned by so common bringing in of such infectious merchandize should be brought into manifest daunger of their saluation 11. Neither truly as you suppose doth this daunger of drinking falshood by perusall of hereticall books belong to the common sort of men only whome you tearme voyd of iudgment and discretion I take it you meane heardes-men shepheards craftes men such like which kind of people notwithstanding for the most part is safest of all of they be not more by others example and authority then by their owne reading peruerted The daunger indeed threatens the vulgar sort but the vulgar sort of the learned In which number are found not a few rash hoat spirits men rather died then imbued with sacred learning that seeme to themselues and many times also to the people learned Catholikes constant when rather they are like vnto men easily remouable from their faith vnlearned apre to worship their owne fancies as diuine oracles Wherfore no Catholike vnles some giddy fellow voyd both of experience and reason will mislike this Roman sollicitude in prouiding so carefully that books condemned be not read rashly and promiscuously euen of those that are otherwise held learned but with choyce mature counsaile and regard had to places times persons and causes And if there be any that would read these books not out of an impious leuity to find out perhaps some better faith nor out of daungerous curiosity by such reading to become more learned but with a purpose to confute them the Catholike Church will neuer deny them faculty if charity be their motiue and they thought meet for the burthen What is there heer done but with great counsaile and wisedome What practise that the Church vsed not in auncient times Aboue 800. years ago more or lesse the seauenth Oecumenicall Synode the second Nicene Canon the ninth decreed that the bookes of the heretiks which they had condemned should be conueyed to the Bishop of Constantinople his pallace there to be laid vp amongst other hereticall bookes You will say that this Canon was directed only to the vulgar not to the Deuines to Bishops much lesse Hear what followes But if there be any that conceale these bookes be he Bishop or Priest or Clergy man let him be deposed and if he be a lay man or a Monke let him be anathematized What can be more manifest Leo ep 48. But Leo the Pope for learning holines surnamed the Great but much the greater by his office with no lesse carefulnes ordeyneth that with all Priestly diligence care be had that no bookes of heretikes differing from godly sincerity be had of any yea and that some of theÌ„ should he consumed by fire Moreouer the fourth Councell of Carthage or rather the fifth held in S. Augustines time permitted not hereticall bookes to be read for Bishops curiosities but restrained them to their limites of time Can. 16. necessity Canon 16. ordeyning thus Bishops may read hereticall books according to the time and necessity Is not this practise then of the Roman Church both ancient pious and full of wisedome What will not the reprobate catch at to their owne destruction that are offended with so holsome a custome Aelian lib. 4. cap. 16. The spider suckes poyson from flowers the beetle being toucht with the breath of the purest Rose dieth yea that flower of flowers by whose odour we breath life to the Iewes was an odour of death to death And you Antony are scandalized with the Churches piety in suppressing hereticall books her prudence in this practise strikes you blind her motherly care you calumniate you wrest the motiues of loue to causes of bitter hatred 12. Now as this other saying of yours that the Roman Church for so seuerely prohibiting the books of heretiks may wel iustly be called in question for her doctrine is not only in it self false but in the sequele impious For that which is said of a thing hoc ipso per se that is as belonging to the thing of it self by it selfe is spokeÌ„ likewise of euery such thing according to Philosophy nor any man that knowes what he saieth will deny it Therfore that which agreeth to the Roman Church of it selfe and meerly for this respect that she prosecuteth her aduersaries books must agree likewise to euery Church that with like industry suppresseth her aduersaries bookes If you do graunt but this once then you must giue sentence against the ancient Church and restore to life all those Heretikes who with their bookes haue beene long since turned into ashes For we haue already declared with what diligence our Forefathers and ancient Councels haue prohibited their aduersaries bookes which care and solicitude Christians and pious Princes haue imitated by their Edictes Iustinian the Emperour being in person at the
of the holy Fathers for before your Bishoprick you had not touched the holy Fathers which appeares by that that when your Sermonalls had bred a loathing in you Omitting say you the troubled streames I wholy resolued with my selfe to repaire from thenceforth to the fountaine of the holy Fathers with which reading for my Sermons I began to be very much delighted What is more cleare At last being a Bishop you applied your selfe to the holy Fathers and by reading them beganne to make vse of them for your Sermons Therfore seeing you were destitute of such aydes by which glory is wont to be purchased how should we once beleeue that you before all other Iesuites should be chosen a Prelate to honour the Church If the Pope had thought good to set forth and adorne his Church by a Iesuite-Prelate there was no want of most worthy men of that order both for learning and holines It had beene a dishonour to haue made choyce of you whome neither preaching nor writing nor learning nor opinion of sanctity nor any desertes towards the Church had commended 17. There is no cause therfore why you should vaunt so much of your being a Iesuite The more eminent you were being a Iesuite makes now your fall more shamefull The corruption of the best as the Philosopher saith is the worst That which is most opposite to the brightest light is the vgliest darknes That vice of all other is the most foule that is the furthest remoued from the fayrest of vertues The sowerest vinegar was once the sweetest and strongest wine Your example confirmeth that which S. Augustine writeth of his owne experience That as he had neuer met with holier men then those that perseuere in Monasteries so had he neuer tried any more wicked then those that had fled from thence The stones sincke deeper into the mire by how much higher the hills or steeples were from whence they tooke their leaue Of this opinion was Pope Gregory the thirteenth in whom the vertues of Gregory the Great were reuiued in our age Who as he loued the Iesuites so had he a true and perfect knowledge of them He therefore when the Cardinall whome they call the Datarie had exhibited vnto him one that had been of the Iesuites Order that stood for an Ecclesiasticall dignity would haue the Cardinall consult with the Generall of the Iesuits before he resolued any thing in that busines and gaue concerning the Iesuits this lesson worthy the great wisedome and experience which he had of such affaires As for the forsakers of the Iesuites Order said he let them be furnished with necessaries for meate drinke and apparell for they for the most part are well brought vp learned and therfore may stand the Church in some steed but in any case admit them not to Ecclesiasticall dignities for it is not likely they would euer haue forsaken their Order if they had not their wits somewhat crazed Thus much that most prudent Pope which also may be confirmed by reason For it is a token of naturall heate and vigour in a mans body to be able of it selfe to purge ill humours And for no other thing more is the Iesuites Order approued of all then for this that you shall hardly find amongst them any man to faile in vertue and religion that is not first by them disscarded from their Order But as for you Antony how you behaued your selfe amongst them and how you gaue them the slip though you hold your peace the euent it selfe hath aboundantly declared You see therfore what a shame and reproach you haue procured to your selfe euen by that wherein you vnwisely hunted for glory and estimation The fifth degree Ambition of a Bishoprick AMBITION of dignitie followes next in the ladder of your downefull A subtile mischiefe a secret poyson a lurking plague The Craftes-man of deceipt Hypocrisies Mother Enuies Nurse the Spring of Vice the fewell of guilt the Canker of Vertues the moath of sanctity the miste of mens Mindes as S. Bernard saith Bernard in Psal 9. The true mother indeed of all heresies which she hath bred in the Christian Church Euseb l. 4. cap. 21. Eusebius relates out of Hegisippus of one Thebulis who for that he receaued a repulse in the suite of a certaine Bishoprick went about to staine the Church euer till then a Virgin with note of errour This restlesse disease was the chiefest thing that vexed afflicted ouerthrew you For thus being oppressed with the Episcopall charge so vnmeet as you were you sanke downe into the gulfe where you lye and for euer we feare are like to lye If you answere you sought not for a Bishoprike Cannot I disproue you of falshood by your owne booke You do earnestly endeauour indeed to dissemble this ill beseeming desire of honour of yours yet certaine sprouts therof which easily bewray it vnwittingly shoot from you I was at last say you promoted to the gouernement of the Church now abouc 20. yeares agoe and made Bishop of Segnia What doth that signify at last promoted but only this that I obteyned the thing I sought for late indeed but yet at last into my ginne The wished prey fell in The word at last insinuates as much that the aduancement seemed long to you in comming which indeed could not come late either in regard of your yeares or merits For you confesse that when you were made Bishop you were not 40. yeares of age nor had then read the sacred Scriptures or handled the holy Fathers And how then were you at last and as you seeme to intimate lately promoted Your wishes Antony made great hast so that the digniry which soone inough ouer tooke your first yeares that were capable of a Bishopricke but far outwent your merits did seeme slow and tardy to your desires that had rid posting before The hope that is deferred afflicteth things desired come they neuer so fast seeme slacke in comming to the mind that burningly expects them 19. Besides you say which maks much to discouer your ambition That your Fathers the Iesuites were much displeased with your preferment The Iesuites indeed are said to take nothing more haynously in theirs thē Ambition The Miters euen those wherwith the heads of theirs are adorned by compulsion they rather esteeme a load to their Order then any wise a laude vnto them but for the Purples sought suied for they behould as a grieuous stayne How vainly you wrest the Iesuits horrour of Ambition to your owne praise as who would say they sorowed not so much for your behalf as for their own losse in that they should be depriued of such a labourer as you were not idle nor vnprofitable but industrious so do you proclaime of your self yet cannot I beleeue that you were a Iesuite whē you were made a Bishop nor had the Iesuites in Europe such scarcity of labourers who send often to the Indies men more worthy then your selfe They were indeed grieued to
of Christ And in the 38 page you name the Bishops in the Roman communion your most holy Colleages or fellow Bishops When you writ this you were in no Church but in the Roman into no other Church or cōpany were you then by visible externall profession admitted Wherfore you were Bishop in no Church of Christ but as you were Bishop in the Church of Rome or if you were Bishop in some other Church then were not our Catholike Bishops your colleags or fellowes If then you were a Bishop in the Church of Christ and the Bishops of the Roman were your follow-Bishops most holy it followes out of your owne confession that the Church of Rome is the Church of Christ the society of Saintes Which seing you forsake you cannot deny but you forsake the company of Christ and of his Saints which is to be peruerse to be delinquent and to Apostate Praes c. 8. Well saith Tertullian Erring is without fault where no delinquishing is He wanders securely who by wandering forsaketh nothing This is most true but he that forsaketh the Church of Christ he that abandoneth his Saintes he leaueth somthing yea a thing of great esteem he leaueth and so delinquisheth not without fault yea with great impiety is such wādring And if also he leaue that companie whome he iudgeth whom he tearmeth most holy which is your case then questionlesse he is a delinquent condemned by his owne iudgement Serm. 30. Marke what S. Ambrose expounding these words of the Apostle commenteth against your Apostasy The Heretike condemneth himselfe who casteth himselfe out of the Church of Christ and not being forced by any of selfe accord departs from the companie of Saints Well doth he declare what he deserues at the hands of all who by his owne proper doome is seuered from the company of all For whereas other criminous persons by Bishops censures are driuen out of the Church the heretike preuenteth all and becomes a forlorne from the Church by the choice of his owne will The Heretike then doth suffer the like condemnation that Iudas did being both delinquent and Iudge himselfe the authour and the punisher of his owne misdeed 3. You will say that you forsake the Roman Church with body not with hart that you fly for feare of persecution but are most ready so you may do it with your safety to haue peace and communion with the Church of Rome If you now pleade in this sort you will not be longe of so good a mind neither can this answere consort with your other deeds and doctrine For in the 34. 35. page you write that you are ready to communicate with any that agree with you in the essentiall articles and creeds of faith yet so say you that we all likewise detest new articles either openly contrary to the sacred scripture or els opposit to the aforenamed Creeds Now I aske you whether the Church of Rome teach new articles manifestly opposite to holy Scripture or no If not then you fly from her without any iust cause she being subiect to no cleere or notorious errour If she teach new articles that cleerly repugne with Scriptures and will not detest them yea seeing you say of her that she doth obtrude new articles that containe in them manifest falsity and doth persecute all that dare but mutter against them euen to the death this supposed I say cleere it is that you haue carried away not only your body but also your hart your loue cōmunion and profession from the Roman Church which yet you grant to be the church of Christ and the Company of Saints 4. You will say againe that you indeed abandon the Roman Church which is a Church of Christ notwithstanding you forsake not the Church of Christ but from one Church of Christ defiled with diuers errours you passe to another Church of Christ more pure and more sincere both for doctrine and discipline but this deuise wil not serue to quit you of the crime of Apostasy For Antony the Churches to which you fly be themselues fugitiue and fleeting Churches Companies which haue deuided themselues from the Roman which had they not done no Church no Company had been now in the world to haue receaued you in your flight This do you your selfe in a manner insinuate when you call the Churches to which you depart the Churches which Rome hath raised vp to be her aduersaries The time then was whē they were not Romes aduersaries when they were not raised vp but addicted to that which you call Romish Idolatry lay prostrate on the ground at the Popes feet So that also these Churches haue abandoned the Church of Christ and the Company of Saints if the Roman Church be as you graunt it to be the Church of Christ and the Company of Saintes Now then did these fly to a Church more pure then the Roman when they reuolted from her No but forsaking the Roman Church they departed to themselues being made purer then the Roman in their owne opinion not by cleauing to the purity of some Church before extant in the world but by the purity of a new Company raysed vp made more pure then any other by forsaking and abandoning the rest of the whole Christian world So Caluin sayth It is absurd that we that haue departed from the whole world should now fall out and quarell amongst our selues Caluin ep 107. Your strifes and contentions M. Caluin are in very truth absurde and ridiculous but much more absurde is this your confession that you made a separation from the whole world besids For straight out of S. Augustine I subsume they that forsake the communion of the whole world must needs be Apostata's God forbid wil you say for we haue iustly reuolted from the rest of the world we runne away from errours abuses we haue weighty reasons for what we do No saith S. Augustine you haue no iust reasons you are without doubt reuolting Apostata's Epist 48. for we are certaine saith he none could iustly separate themselues from the communion of the world and againe Ibidem It is no way possible that any should haue reason to separate their Communion from the communion of the whole world to call themselues the Church because vpon iust reasons they deuided themselues from the society of all nations Thus S. Augustine leauing you Antony no way to escape from the gulfe of Apostasy but by returning to the Roman Communion 5. But say you I will haue this my departure or flight to be free from all suspition of schisme You speake peremptorily like a Prince You will but you should know you haue not authority to ouerule the Natures of things If you will take another mans goods without his leaue and not be a theef If you will vpon priuate reuenge bereaue a man of his life and not be a murderer If you will abandon the Church of Christ and not be an Apostata or Schismatike
suppression of euery heresy as S. Lib. 4. aduersusduas Ep. Pelag. cap. 13. Augustine writeth You greeue I perceaue that the Roman Bishop is able to condemne you without a generall Councell Vnhappy were the Church could he not do it Out of pride innated to heretiks you ayme at this honour that a Coūcell of the whole Church should be called about you which glory also the Pelagians as being most proud Heretikes sought greiuing exceedingly that euery where by the Roman Bishop and others without any Generall Councell they were condemned accursed They desired saith S. Augustine a generall Coūcell that at least they might trouble and disquiet the Catholike world seing they could not God being against them peruert it 25. The seauenth Vntruth is in the 22. pag. That the Episcopall administratiō of Bishops is wholy perished the whole gouernment of Churches is altogeather translated to Rome the Bishops are scarse the vicars and seruants of our Lord the Pope That Church-busines of most weight should be referred to the Roman Bishop the Fathers in all ages haue ordayned This is now adayes still practised in the Church what besides and aboue this you add is not the Roman custome but your slaunder 26. The eight That Bishops be subiect not only to the Pope Cardinalls c. but also to innumerable Religious Orders of Regulars and to their Friars who by their priuiledges deuoure and swallow vp the power of Bishops Verily Antony you seeme to haue lost all regard of your good name that dare in this manner range without the bounds of truth 27. The ninth That Catholike teachers namely your maisters the Iesuites do not furnish their Diuinity with the sayings of holy Scripture exactly discussed and declared that amongst them and in the Church of Rome there is extreme ignorance of Scripture He that will but peruse some Catholike writers in matters of sacred learning specially the Iesuites will soone see how false a slaunder this is 28. The tenth That the books of our Aduersaries are wholy concealed from vs that such as are excellent for their piety and knowledge yea the learnedst Doctours or Bishops we haue are not permitted in any sort to read them Thus you write shewing that hatred against the Pope so transports you that you mind not what you say How could the Catholiks of all nations confute your hereticall books did none of vs read them Are they in no sort permitted no not to the learnedst of vs all You may see Antony that though your booke be forbiden yet I haue read it Therfore S. Cyprian saith truly Lib. 1. ep 2. Amongst prophan men that are departed from the Church and from whose breasts the holy Ghost is departed what els is to be found but a depraued mind a deceitfull tongue cankred hatred and sacrilegious lying To which whosoeuer giueth credit shall at the day of iudgment be found to stand on their side The fifth Gulfe Contumelious speach against the Pope AFTER the Falshood of Heretiks followeth their railing as being a neere neighbour vnto it Heretikes sayth S. Lib. 16. mor. c. 14. Gregory with violency of words assayle the weake minds of the faithfull and robbe the poore people Not being able to supplant the learned they take from the vnlearned the veyle of faith by their pestiferous preaching I shall not need Antony to search into your booke for stormes of angry and rayling speach which in euery page meet with the Reader and rage against the Pope that so you may take from Catholikes the veyle of faith by furious blastes of words seing you can not with solide reasons persuade them to cast it away In the 16. page thus you thunder out against the Church of Rome At Rome many thinges are made articles of Faith which haue not any institution from Christ yea moreouer the soules of the faithfull be miserably deceaued and consequently being blind togeather with their blind guides be lead and fall headlong into the gulfe of Perdition And in the 22. page you rage yet more angerly against Rome It is not a Church say you but a Vineyard to make Noe drunke it is a flocke which the Pastour doth milke till bloud follow which he pouleth shaueth fleaeth and deuoureth In the 32. page It is not for Prophets to deale with the Roman Bishop that now doth so mainly trouble scandalize robbe oppresse the Church The Maiesty of the Roman Pope is counterfayt temporall proude vsurped nothing at all 30. Finally your splene against this present Pope moueth you to reuile the most holy Pope and Martyr S. Stephen For in the 37. page you say that S. Stephen out of indiscreet zeale by importune excōmunications ranne headlong into a mischeiuous Schisme But Cyprian by his Patience Charity and exceeding great Wisedome was the cause that the separation did not ensue This you charge the most holy Martyr as though he had gone headlong into schisme a sinne in your opinion much worse then Heresy How wrongefully and without any iust cause For no man could proceed more religiously more modestly and more prudently then Pope Stephen did in this Controuersy with S. Cyprian When S. Cyprian impugned mightily a doctrine which as he did not deny was confirmed by the perpetuall custome of the Church what did this most holy Bishop appoynted of God to be Iudge and to giue sentence in this Controuersy where this perpetuall custome of the Church was opposed against by the excellent learning and sanctity of Cyprian He shewed a reuerent respect to them both as farre as truth conscience would permit him That the learning and sanctity of S. Cyprian might not ouerthrow a perpetuall custome without the assent of a generall Councell Vincent Lyrinens com c. 16. he set out that Decree so much commended by the Fathers Nihil innouandum praeterquam quod est traditum That nothing should be innouated contrary to that which had byn deliuered by tradition On the other side to shew the regard he had of S. Cyprians learning and sanctity he would not haue that custome should so preiudicate against S. Cyprians doctrine that thereupon it should be accompted Heretical before a generall Councell but that S. Cyprian though stil cleauing to his opinion should notwithstanding be retayned in the Catholike communion A most prudent and temperate decision 31. Neither did he with any bitter speach prouoke S. Cyprian who yet as S. Augustine saith too much moued against Pope Stephen powred forth such speachs as it were better to bury them in obliuion then to record and reuiue them Wherfore by the iudgment of antiquity not only truth stood on the Popes side but also modesty charity wisedome in his proceedings for the defence of the truth Take heed Antony that you be not a member of him Apoc. 15. to whome was giuen a wide mouth speaking bigge things and to blaspheme the tabernacle of God and the Saints that dwell in heauen You are as good as your word according to your