Christianity seeks only to serve God and save his own soul can break Communion with this Church if he be within its Precincts Or will not rather judge it as much his duty to joyn with it as to separate from Rome A Government and Order and a Liturgy of necessity there must be all Christian all Reformed Churches have and maintain them to prevent Confusions Prophaness and Innovations such as are here amongst us established oblige to nothing that God hath forbid under them we may be vertuous and Religious in the highest degree and ought therefore to be meek and peaceable thankful to God that he hath graciously freed us from those Romish impositions before mentioned They that would break those Rules that are now fix'd and established either have little value for true Christian Religion or are willing to make way for Popish Innovations or will make it appear that some tempers are so ungovernable that nothing can hold them but that Yoke and Tyranny of which I am now to speak CHAP. III. How the Inquisition came to be established and first of the Oaths and Excommunications wherewith they tie the Consciences of men IT is not for denying any Article of the Christian Faith that we like our fore-fathers are bloudily persecuted where-ever the Popes power can reach Neither is it that we worship a False God or are any ways impious against the True one Father Son and Holy Ghost It is for rejecting that Romish Creed and Worship whereof I treated before And it was not to maintain Christianity but those corruptions that Inquisition was invented and used with so much rigour Any one that hath read the Life and Doctrine of our blessed Lord will easily judge that cruelties are destructive of her Religion and cannot be fit Instruments to propagate or maintain it But the maintaining of that formidable Empire and Dominion the Pope and his Clergy have got into their hands requires they should proceed with that inexorable severity they practise against them that dissent from those Doctrines on which is grounded their power therefore they oblige all that have any Jurisdiction among them by a strict Oath of Allegiance to be the Popes Subjects and to endeavour all possible ways to make others be so Thus Ego N. electus Ecclesiae vel Monasterii N. ab hac hora in antea fidelis obediens ero Beato c. I N. elect of such a Church or Monastery from henceforth will be faithful and obedient to blessed Peter the Apostle and to the Holy Roman Church and to our Lord Pope N. and to his lawful Successors I will give no counsel or consent that they should lose Life or Limb or be any way injured upon any account I will never to their detriment reveal to any what counsel they shall trust me with by their Nuncios or themselves I will help them against any man saving my Order to keep and maintain the Roman Papacy and the Regalities of St. Peter I will assist their Legates going and coming and contribute to their necessities I will endeavour to preserve defend and encrease the authority rights honours and priviledges of the Holy Roman Church and of our Lord the Pope and of his Successors And I will no way contribute but rather detect and hinder any thing that should be to their prejudice With all my strength will I observe and cause to be observed by others all the Rules of the Fathers and all Apostolick i. e. Papal Decrees and Commands Provisions and Reservations All Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to our said Lord the Pope and to his Successors will I oppose and persecute I will come when called to Synods and once in three years come to Rome And I will give an account to our Lord the Pope of my Pastoral Office and of all things that pertain to the state of my Church and Clergy All Papal Injunctions I will humbly receive and most diligently execute c. So help me God and these holy Evangils Here is a good hold already whereby all Secular and Regular Prelates are enslaved to the Papacy and to the Roman Doctrine and Worship From which if they or any other swerve then are the direful thunderbolts of Excommunication lanc'd against them with extinguishing of Candles and in the name of God and of his Saints shutting them out of the Church in heaven and in earth denouncing them to be cursed and anathematiz'd and adjudging them to be damned in eternal fire with the Devil and his Angels and all Reprobates As is to be seen in their form of Excommunication All we reputed Hereticks and all others that fall under this severe doom are good for nothing afterwards but to be destroyed any way possible as will be seen in what follows But if any by terror or hope or any other inducement are brought into their Church from among Hereticks he must climb over a high and difficult partition-wall and be tied so short that he shall hardly ever think of a return It is not as they represent to deceive the simple only going amongst them and be within the Pale of the Church and do what you will But after they have drawn you so far that you cannot go back then you must in earnest be reconciled to the Church And this is the manner of it as is prescribed in the Pontificale The penitent Schismatick or Heretick must kneel before the Church-door and there make a Confession of his Faith and have the Devil Exorcised out of him And being brought in and kneeling before the High Altar renounce all heretical pravity and promise to live in the unity of the Roman Faith and have some Prayers and Grosses made over him and then swear obedience to the Pope imprecating damnation to himself if ever he departs from the Communion of his Church and if he were a noted Heretick he is thus kneeling to damn all Heresies that especially which he leaves and pronounce all that still hold it worthy of an eternal Curse and upon his Oath profess to believe from his heart that Faith which is taught by the Roman Church and promise if ever he quits it to submit himself to the severity of the Canons This one would think should be judged sufficient by the Church of Rome to keep men in her obedience But she dares not trust to it as indeed experience hath shewn that long agon the exorbitant greatness of the Papacy had been reduced and a general Reformation effected if nothing but ties of Conscience or Excommunications had been used other means therefore have been found more violent but more effectual Inquisition managed with great rigour and great policy hath been as Pope Sixtus Quintus called it in a Bull I shall cite afterwards Firmissimum Fidei Catholicae propugnaculum The best and strongest Supporter of the Catholick Faith A truth which will manifestly appear when we have seen how it was at first established and hath proceeded ever since SECT I. Of the beginning of the
THE Holy Inquisition Wherein is Represented What is the RELIGION OF THE CHURCH OF ROME And how they are dealt with that Dissent from It. LONDON Printed for Joanna Brome at the Gun at the West End of St. Pauls Church-yard 1681. TO THE Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of the Lords of his Majesties Most Honourable Privy Council My Lord THough with great zeal and prudence you use all the power which your Birth and Dignities have given you for the defence of the true Christian Religion as it is amongst us professed and established yet I hope this short account of what is most contrary and most destructive to it will not displease you I know your Lordship understands what is here treated of far better than I do but so doth not the Common People they may receive information from these Papers and will likely do it the more freely if you shall permit them to go abroad under your Name For it is generally acknowledged that we owe much of our preservation to your Care and Christian Courage and that you did stand in the gap when our Enemies were pressing to come in upon us My Lord the watchfulness and labours of your Sacred Order to preserve the face of a Church and as much Order and Discipline among us as the iniquity of the times can permit is a greater service to the Protestant Interest than many are apt to believe For our Adversaries expect not to prevail but by breaking of us and dissolving those bonds of Government which keep us united well knowing that those sheep are an easie prey when scattered abroad which under the guidance of their proper Pastors are safe and impregnable I have therefore endeavoured by what I have said of the Superstitions and cruelties of Rome to persuade such as are averse to them that their duty and interest oblige them to joyn with our Church which professing nothing but the pure and Primitive Religion of our blessed Redeemer makes use of none of those bloudy and violent Methods wherewith the Papal Religion and Authority are preserved and whose dangers and persecutions on both hands are for the best Cause in the world even for her faithful Allegeance to God and the King I shall rejoyce if what I have designed for the common good be beneficial to any And if the humble offer I make of it to your Lordship be favourably accepted However I shall ever pray for the peace and prosperity of our Jerusalem And that God would long preserve you to advance his glory and be an Ornament and Support to this Church Remaining My Lord Your Lordships most dutiful and obedient Servant L. B. THE PREFACE IT cannot but grieve every Lover of peace that is every good man to see our distractions We fear many things and have reason to fear yet many more especially when we consider how grievously God is provoked to bring upon us the worst of evils I design not to represent those crying sins that call for destroying vengeance upon us or to make declamations against them but it is for my purpose to note that the deforming a most pure and pious Reformation and the disturbing and weakening an equitable and happy frame of Government doth not only call for ruin but actually brings it breaks down the fence of our safety and so makes way for those Erroneous and Tyranical impositions we fear and foresee There is cause enough to believe that the Romish Party hath all along since the Reformation and doth still continue to widen our breaches and to foment our divisions there are many instances of it related by several credible Witnesses and some of them sworn too but that which most of all confirms it is that it is much their interest to keep us from ever having a happy peaceable and well-setled Church a constant and beautiful Order amongst us and that they certainly will not sâ—â—ck at dissembling and acting the part of zealous and scâ—â—pulous Dissenters to promote the ruin of them whom they would out right massaâ—râ—e and burn had they power so to do Some of our Seperatists are so ungrounded and have so poor an interest in the wâ—rld that they must of necessity yield and fall were they not supported by the power and policy of a stronger Party and the moderate sort of them are so near us that we could not but joyn and unite together were it not for their interposition whose great concern it is to keep us asunder that they may have room to come in at the void urguarded space betwixt both Whether or no it shall succeed as they would God alone knows they have great hopes and we cannot but have a dread upon us but however by breaking us to pieces they revenge our breaking of Communion with them and they likely tempt some to believe that we separated from the Church of Rome upon the same grounds as the Separatists have to leave the Church of England They will now and then draw a parellel betwixt both Cases and confidently assert that we can urge nothing against our Schismatick but what they may urge with as much reason against our Reformers It is no small advantage to their Cause if they can work in Dissenters as great an abhorrence for our Liturgy and Divine Service as for the Latin Mass and so bring them to an indifference as though there were hardly any choice betwixt both This will lessen the Odium under which they lie deriving part of it upon our Church and withal is a preity sure way to bring men bach again to Rome So that if I were a Jesuit I would as Lewis Moulin and some such as he so cry out upon the Superstitions bloudy Persecutions and Idolatries of the Church of England and by that means drive men so far from it that when things tend towards a change the people might either be undetermined what Party to take or even prefer Popery to so deform a Reformation as they should believe ours to be And accordingly it is easie to observe that those Sectaries are not far from Rome which are farthest from the Church of England The Jesuits Schools abroad are full of our Youth in the Low Countries in France in Spain and at Rome the English Seminaries are perpetually fitting up young men to carry on the great work of reducing this potent Island to the See of Rome Once every year they are sent over in numerous Sholes from those Colleges not directly and openly to preach Popery they are too wise to go that way to work but by other means to promote its restauration acting such parts bare-faced or in a disguise as they are enabled by their Genius and interest such to be sure as shall conduce to the disturbance and destruction of that Church and Government which now keeps them out Hence I make no question proceeds the beginning or the continuance of our divisions and the frequent insulting over us upon this
betraying himself and his Conscience must hold no Laws but the Popes Will that can clear himself by satisfying the Reverend Inquisitors Indeed I find that Ignatius Loyola came off with great applause when being brought and questioned in the Holy Office at Complutum and at Salamanca he very bravely and clearly acquitted himself It was about the year 1534. when the Reformation had prospered in many been Kingdoms and kept out of others only by vigilant and stout cruelty The Inquisitors every where were then very sierce and very jealous and the Founder of the Jesuits leading a strange unusual kind of life and preaching with great vehemence and very little skill and no licence at all became suspect to them they took him twice and the last time did press him so home with about thirty inquiries and he answered so positively to their hearts content that he removed all suspition of his not being a dutiful and true Son of the Roman Church But to return the Delinquent brought to answer hath in some cases towards the latter end a kind of a mock-Advocate who excepts at formalities and pleads in the behalf of the Prisoner some Decretals or Canons that can do him no great good He himself let him answer what he will can neither move his Judges with pity nor persuade them to change their usual way of proceeding After they have sworn him upon those Articles that concern his Faith and constant adherence to the Roman Church they will question him about various things and without taking any notice of it hear him sometimes deny that stoutly of which they have sufficient proofs such is the weakness of man such is the terrour of that bloudy Court Here the Friers with their composed gravity make long and religious exhortations to the Prisoner at the Bar protest of their good intentions towards him and that all they do is for the good of his soul tell him they have clear evidence of the whole matter he is charged withal only that it may profit him they would have from his own mouth the whole truth in a full and free confession And when they have said what they will and heard what his Fears or his Conscience suggest him they send him back to his Prison But if a man at first resolved to save his Soul whatever his Body suffers tells them plainly he is a Protestant and resolves to die so Then their promises and their threats are all used to make him change his mind and regain him to the Church and as they see cause they will hasten or delay his doom and still so order their Methods as to proportion their rigours to the hainousness of the Crime of Heresie SECT II. How the Prisoners Estate is seized upon IT is a Maxim in the Jus Pontificium Haeretico nihil est licitum possidere and this is as good Law as the Pope can make it That it is not lawful for a Heretick to possess any thing Accordingly when Papal Inquisitors have judged any man to be so his Estate is wholly forfeited When once he is taken and imprisoned the Fiscalis who prosecutes him demands an Order for the securing of all his Estate If he be the Father of a Family his Wife and Children can claim nor detain nothing nay if it be the Wife that is accused and detained in the Inquisition her Husband is deprived of part of what she brought and must be at charge to maintain her and it is well if it doth not involve him into the suspicion or guilt of Heresie Nay Alphonsus de Castro is of opinion that a Heretick is bound in Conscience to give up all his goods to be consiscated before he is accused or convicted and that he is unjust and sins if he doth not However all the Inquisitors and Canonists are agreed that the Possessions of a Heretick are all forfeited Carrorius Jacob. Septim Gundiss de Vill. Franc. Squil and many more you may see cited by Gazaros who all cite Popes Decretals for it Et hoc merito contra Haereticos statutum fuit ut in egestate haeretici laborent alii terreantur c. And this is a just Law saith Roïas an Inquisitor that Hereticks may be beggarly and others may be deterred from that crime The Holy Office therefore sends an Order to attach the Heretical goods and then they become Sacred No man for the world dares touch any part of them then if a man be declared to be an Heretick whether he recants or persists whether he be burnt or not his Estate is forfeited and that even from the very hour that he first committed the crime of Heresie and this breeds many learned questions in the Canon-Law Nay though the man have been dead many years and never whilst he lived questioned about his Faith yet he may be declared to have been an Heretick and his Estate seized and by the Pontifician Law declared forfeited Post Haeretici mortem declarari potest eum haereticum fuisse ad finem confiscandi Cap. accusat 8. § We need not seek far to find whence some Fanaticks took their Tenents of Dominion being founded in grace and the wicked being Usurpers of what they possess there is enough to this purpose among the Decretals and Extravagants And the Gloss which is approved notes in utroque Jure speaks it thus plainly That Hereticks may justly be spoiled of what is theirs and that it is lawful to take from them what they have though better it were to have it done by the authority of a Judge Haeretici recte possunt spoliari rebus suis licitum est auferri Haereticis ea quae habent melius tamen est si authoritate judicis id fiat Gl. 1. sum 23.4.7 This is very punctually observed by the Inquisitors who are accountable to none but to the Apostolick Chamber Benedict XI appointed it anno 1303. and that the Bishops should have no share and no power to demand any account of the Inquisitors for what they take from Hereticks yet in the Dominions of Spain the King hath one third part the Inquisitors one third part and the other third part is laid by ad usus fidei for the depressing of Hereticks and advancing the Popes power This brings to him and to his Oficers an Vberes fructus in the literal sense a very plentiful income and the King for giving way to have his Subjects plundered and destroyed is also allowed a dividend though with many defalcations When above five thousand houses in one Citiy have been emptied of goods and inhabitants as Hieron Zurit l. anal 20. hath it this must have been a brave booty and this makes some say that only Covetousness keeps Inquisition on foot in Popish Countrys which is as true as that Covetousness and Ambition cause the Papacy to hate the Reformation and to endeavour to destroy it and all Protestants That is though it be so Inquisition is never the less formidable to us and intended for our
Inquisitores quibus ex officio incumbebat pravitatem Haereticam extirpare volentes prout tenebamur in super his certius informari videre an ambulares in tenebris an in luce diligenter inquisivimus de praedictis teque citantes efficaciter interrogantes reperimus te praedictum N. infectum Haeretica pravitate ac eandem defensantem coram nobis animo pertinaci Sane cum prae cunctis mentis nostrae desiderabilibus cordi nostro insidat sidem Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam in Populorum praecordiis complantare omni eradicata haeretica pravitate modos diversos varios congruos tam per nos quam per alios adhibuimus quatenus resilires ab Haeresibus erroribus antedictis in quibus steteras atque stabas prout nunc stas contumaciter ac pertinaciter animo indurato Verum cum humani generis inimico tuis praecordiis assistente teque in dictis erroribus volvente involvente nolueris neque velis à saepe dictis Haeresibus resilire plus eligens mortem animae incurrere gehennalem corporis temporalem quam antefactas Haereses abjurare ad gremium Ecclesiae advolare animam lucrari in reprobum sensum datus eapropter cum sis ab Ecclesia sancta Dei excommunicationis vinculo innodatus merito imò à grege domini separatus ac participatione bonorum Ecclesiae privatus Ecclesia non habet circa te ultra quod faciat cum ad te convertendum fecerit juxta posse Nos c. Judices in causa Fidei antedicti sedentes pro Tribunali more judicum judicantium Sanctis Evangeliis positis coram nobis ut de vultu Dei judicium nostrum prodeat ut oculi provideant aequitatem habentes prae occulis solum Deum sanctae fidei veritatem ac extirpationem Haereticae pravitatis hac die hora loco tibi in antea assignatis ad audiendum sententiam definitivam condemnamus ac sententialiter judicamus te esse veraciter Haereticum impoenitentem ut veraciter talem tradendum relinquendum brachio saeculari sicut Haereticum impoenitentem per hanc nostram sententiam de foro Ecclesiastico te projicimus tradimus seu relinquimus brachio saeculari ac potestati curiae saecularis dictam curiam saecularem efficaciter deprecantes quod circa te citra sanguinis effusionem mortis periculum sententiam suam moderetur We c. considering that thou N. hast been accused before us for c. and that thou hadst for many years persisted in those Heresies to the great detriment of thy Soul we Inquisitors to whom by our Office it belongs to extirpate heretical pravity willing as in duty we are bound to be more certainly informed about the premises and to know whether thou dost walk in the light or in darkness have made a diligent inquisition into those matters and having cited thee did find by efficacious interrogations that thou the foresaid N. wert infected with Heretical Pravity which thou didst maintain in our presence with an obstinate mind And also we desiring above all things after the eradication of all Heretical pravity to plant in the hearts of men the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Faith have by our selves and others used and caused to be used divers various and proper means to bring thee off from those the foresaid Errors and Heresies wherein thou wert and still continuest to be with an obstinate incorrigible and hardned heart But now whereas at the instigation of the Devil who possesseth thy heart and doth more and more involve and plunge thee into the said errors thou hast refused and still dost refuse to depart from the said Heresies chusing to endure the damnation of thy Soul and the temporal death of thy Body being given up to a reprobate mind rather than to abjure thy Heresies and save thy Soul by fleeing into the Lap of the Church for this cause thou being justly excommunicated from the Holy Church of God separated from the Lords Flock deprived from the participation of all Church-advantages and the Church after all her endeavours to convert thee having no more what to do towards thee We N. N. the foresaid Judges in causes of Faith sitting upon a Tribunal as absolute Judges having laid before us the Holy Evangils that our Sentence may come forth from Gods presence and our eyes may look upon the thing that is equal having also before our eyes nothing but the glory of God the truth of the Holy Faith and the extirpation of Heretical pravity and having before appointed thee this day hour and place to receive thy final doom we now by this Sentence judg and condemn thee to be truly an impenitent Heretick and as truly such to be left and delivered up to the Secular Power and according as an impenitent Heretick we by this our Sentence cast thee out of the Ecclesiastical Court and leave and deliver thee up to the power and judicature of the Secular Court earnestly beseeching the said Court so to moderate her Sentence towards thee as that thou mayst lose neither bloud nor life CHAP. XIII Of the Enormity and further punishment of the Crime of Heresie POssibly some that have frequented persons of the Communion of the Church of Rome and have found them courteous and obliging in their Converse as many of them are or some that have travelled through some Popish Countries and have observed nothing of what I here relate may be tempted to think that these cruelties of which we complain are Fables or were only in the days of old and now laid aside and so that our lives and fortunes would not be in such great danger under a Popish Government as some are apt to think But the answer is easie and plain that in many persons of that party humanity and natural good dispositions out-weigh the cruel principles of their Religion which are not approved or followed not so much as known by numbers of them That however here amongst us whatever they think and whatever they would do if they had power it is not fit nor prudent they should now threaten and tell us the worst That abroad their greatest cruelties are acted secretly or under a disguise in some Kingdoms where the Popes have long reigned they cannot now find Hereticks and in others they are protected by secular Princes from the worst prosecutions of the Papal power And that whatever any man may have seen or not seen yet the decrees are fixed and in full force and as they themselves tell us have been executed with the utmost rigour at all times and in all places when and where the Popes have had power and opportunity It is not what this or that man knows or says that is to be heeded where there are Laws and standing Rules Our danger lies in this that by the Church of Rome we are declared Hereticks that by the same Church Hereticks are declared to be the greatest the most
A Paramo and Th. del Bene will give any men sufficient information about these matters in general But about particular subjects de fide or de Haereticis or de indiciis or de modo procedendi or de quaestionibus Torturis c. there are very many Authors Nichol. Eimericus his directorium Jacobi Simancae Intitut Cathol Alvarez Guerrero Thesaurus Religionis Christian Caesar Carene de off Inquisit Repertorium Inquisitorum Franciscus Brunus de Tortur indiciis Jacobus Arenas de quaest Gundissalvus de villa Diego de Haeret. Julius Clarus Joannes Roias Lud. Carrerius de Haeret Alphonsus de Castro de justa Haeret punit Laurent Arnoldus Robertus Cenalis de compescenda Haeret. ferocia c. They that shall consult these Books will be fully satisfied and tired But numberless are the Authors that treat of these matters and with little variation repeat the same things over and over CHAP. XIV Of several things that conduce to make the Inquisition powerful and glorious HEresie being so vile so execrable a thing and Hereticks so mischievous and odious accordingly the Church of Rome hath mightily magnified those persons and instruments that serve against them The Pope who is the great keeper and maker of their Faith is exalted above all right and Laws and all created things In his quae vult pro ratione voluntatem habet 5. the Gloss His Will stands for Reason and a sufficient one in whatsoever he hath a mind to do And so absolute and uncontrolable is his Dominion that he cannot be tied to any thing not so much as by himself Papa non potest legem sibi imponere à qua sibi recedere non liceat his own word hath no power to bind him And as for others the Text saith Papa à nemine judicari potest nec ulli contra eum sententiam proferre licet There is on earth no Judg nor Tribunal above the Pope Inquisition by the same Rule is placed next to him for it is saith the Law Inventum in augmentum fidei d. Clem. 1. found out and set up for the preservation and propagation of the Faith And it is a maxim in their spiritual Courts Citatus ab Episcopo Inquisitore prius Inquisitori pareto That the Inquisition must be obeyed before the Bishop But how should Prelates be regarded when even sovereign Princes who under God should be Masters of the world are as far as lies in the power of the Roman Court made to truckle under the Papal and Inquisitory Empire in all cases wherein Faith and Heresie are concerned So Spondanus ad ann 1460. tells us that there is a Bull of Pius II. whereby he damns as Traitors and Hereticks all that should presume to appeal from the Sentence of the Pope to the next Council though they were Kings or Emperours And there is a Decree of Julius III. anno 1551. against them that should any ways hinder the proceedings of the Inquisition or that admit Lay-men to be Judges in the Case of Heresie which he concludes thus bravely Quicunque monitis his nostris non obtemperaverint noverint se non solum per sacras praedecessorum nostrorum constitutiones verumetiam per hanc nostram sanctionem sive sententiam declarationem perpetuo duraturam quam auctoritate omnipotentis Dei ac Beatorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli ac nostra in ipsos non obtemperantes quacunque illi praefulgeant dignitate in his scriptis proferimus communione Fidelium omnium sacramentòrum perceptione privatos ac maledictionis ac execrationis aeternae ligatos Anathematisque majoris excommunicationis mucrone percussos Whoever shall not obey these our Precepts whatever dignity they are of let them know that by the Constitutions of our Predecessors and by the Sanction and Sentence which we bear in these presents to endure for ever against all disobedients by the Authority of Almighty God of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of our own they are deprived of the Communion of the Faithful and of the receiving any Sacraments and are bound over to eternal Curse and Execration and struck with the piercing Anathema's of the greater excommunication And Pius V. anno 1569. hath a long Bull against all persons whatever that should do any wrong or injury to any thing or person belonging to the Most Holy Office as he calls it which he mightily magnifies and strengthens giving this reason for it Si de protegendis caeteris omnibus Ecclesiae Ministris quanto majore studio eam nos solicitudinem capessere necesse est ut qui in sacro Inquisitionis Haereticae pravitatis officio versantur sub tutela inviolatae auctoritate hujus sedis periculorum omnium expertes quaeque munera ad exaltationem fidei Catholicae exequantur c. If we are obliged to protect all the Ministers of the Church with how much more zeal and carefulness ought we to endeavour that they that belong to the Sacred Office of the Inquisition against Heretical pravity should be inviolably defended from all dangers under the authority of this See that for the exaltation of thâ— Catholick Faith they may executâ— freely all that belongs to their Office They being the most expert and valianâ— Champions against Hereticks who best convert them into Catholicks or Ashes are therefore to be defended and exalted by that Faith which they protect and advance And therefore besides this Hectoring of the Pope in their behalf whereever Inquisition is set up all Secular Officers are obliged to swear that they will persecute Hereticks with all their power and will be obedient to God to the Roman Church and to the Inquisitors This is the Form in the Directorium Nos N c. Tenebimus teneri faciemus fidem Domini nostri Jesu Christi sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae haereticos eis credentes fautores receptatores eorum prosequemur capiemus capi faciemus quomodocunque poterimus accusabimus denunciabimus Ecclesiae Inquisitoribus st alicubi noverimus cos esse administrationes nullas neque officia publica alicui de praedictis personis suspectis vel diffamatis de Haeresi committemus erimus obedientes Deo Romanae Ecclesiae Inquisitoribus sic nos Deus adâ—uvet c. We N. N c. will hold and cause to be held the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the holy Roman Church we shall prosecute and apprehend and cause to be apprehended all Hereticks and their Followers Favourers and Receivers all the ways we can we shall denounce and accuse them to the Church and to the Inquisitors if we can know where they are we shall commit to them or to any suspect or diffamed of Heresie no Administrations nor publick Offices and we shall be obedient to God to the Roman Church and to the Inquisitors So help us God c. And the Canonists tell us Quod si tale juramentum non praestiterint eorum sententiae irritae sunt inanes That the
of them What hapned in the Low Countries where Philip II. by fire and sword and great violence for the establishing of the Spanish Inquisition provoked the People in their own defence to undertake that long and bloudy War which cost him seven Provinces Thuanus What was done in France against the two Henries by that rebellious League which the Pope abetted and which undertook to set up his authority Inquisition and Tridentine Council These two memorable attempts in the behalf of Papal Inquisition against Heretical pravity have shed so much Christian bloud that nothing but that very power and Tribunal they were designed to promote have ever made greater effusions of it And I am of opinion that were all things duly considered and compared it would clearly appear that there have been as great slaughters outrages inhumanities committed as many Martyrs made by Rome Papist since Dominic and the Inquisition appeared as was done by Rome Pagan in the Ten Persecutions for three hundred years Rev. xvii 6. And I saw the Woman drunken with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration SECT II. Of the prohibiting of Books and the Indices expurgatorii AMong the many priviledges of the Inquisitors it is none of the least that the Censure of Books belongs to them whereever they have a Tribunal by which means they keep the People in as much ignorance as they please and furnish the learned with none but such Books as tend to establish the Roman Faith and their own Authority For these two there being in those Popish Countries so very many Books so fierce and positive and none appearing to contradict them it is no wonder if persons of all ranks lie under great invincible prejudices in those Points that are disputed betwixt us and the Church of Rome whether such as concern the Faith or the Power of the Magistrates or those common Rights of humanity which belong to all mankind where we and our opinions are represented as very monstrous and pernicious and there are publick Schools and Lectures of cruelty against us and a great part of the learning is to know the accurate and established methods of destroying Hereticks and men are acquainted with nothing but what makes for the Papal Power and Dominion and these things are inculcated and taught with great assiduity and great industry and a very strict watch is had against all Persons Books or Opinions that could any ways thwart or oppose those received Maxims it must needs have a mighty influence upon the minds and persuasions of men The Officers of the Inquisition who have nothing else to do are so numerous powerful inquisitive and diligent that it is matter of the greatest danger and difficulty to print or import any Books that should savour of what they call Heresie or maintain the just rights of Temporal Princes against the Spiritual Monarch For this last saith the Judicious Padre Paolo When a Potentate hath not the favour of him that commands in Ecclesiastical causes Religion is made a pretext to oppress him Of which he gives instances Chap. 1. and amongst them that when the Pope was fallen out with the Venetians any Books that came out in Favour of the Republick were forbidden by the Papal Inquisitions under colour of Heresie It is but giving any thing hard and terrible names and forbidding all things that can be said in the defence of it and then it will be easie to impose on the People Relating to this I shall transcribe out of the last mentioned Author part of Chap. 29. The matter of Books seems to be a thing of small moment because it treats of words but through these words come opinions into the world which cause partialities Seditions and finally Wars they are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts of armed men By forbidding Books which at Rome are not liked of although they be good and godly because they maintain Temporal Power great wrong is done to Sovereign Princes to such especially as would rule with the Arts of Peace who use Books as a chief Instrument to cause people to believe as a firm truth that the Prince is Ordained by God and Ruleth with Divine Authority and the Subject consequently in Conscience is bound to obey him and not doing it offendeth God because that the Prince by the Law of God is above every person that is within his Dominions and may lay burthens on mens Estates as publick necessities require Where these things which are most true are believed a State may easily be governed but where contrary opinions are held great disorders must needs happen But as there was always in Gods Church those who made use of Religion for worldly ends so the number of them is more full These under a spiritual pretence but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth would free themselves of the obedience due unto the Prince and take away the love and reverence due to him by the people to draw it to themselves To bring it to pass they have newly invented a Doctrine which talks of nothing but Ecclesiastical greatness liberty immunity and jurisdiction This Doctrine was unheard of until about the year 1300. Neither is there any Book concerning it before this time then did they begin to write of it scatteringly in some Books but there were not above two Books which treated of nothing else but this until the year 1400. and three until the year 1500. After this time the number encreased a little but it was tolerable After the year 1560. this Doctrine began to encrease in such manner that they gave over writing as they used before of the Mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity of the Incarnation of Christ of the Creation of the World and other Mysteries of the belief and there is nothing Printed in Italy but Books in diminution of Secular Authority and exaltation of the Ecclesiastical and such Books are not Printed by small numbers but by thousands Those people which have learning can read nothing else the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine neither need they any other Learning to be approved of Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally that Princes and Magistrates are human Inventions yea and Tyrannical that they ought only by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Laws and defrauding the publick Revenues doth not bind unto sin but only unto punishment And contrariwise that every beck of Ecclesiastical persons ought to be taken for a divine Precept and binds the Conscience and this Doctrine is perhaps the cause of all the inconveniences which are felt in this Age. Here we may see as I noted before whence the disloyal and factious Principles of our Dissenters come and by whose instigation they likely have been moved to act as they have done Our Author adds That as they condemn and persecute Books that come out in the
affections those Prayers and Praises and acceptable Services wherewith she worships God daily and by having a Reverend esteem of those Orders and Constitutions which our Reformers established in opposition to Popery and which cost many of them their lives We see how great is our danger from the Church of Rome that she hath made Sacred and Religious the most severe and unnatural means that can be used to destroy us and that therefore we must expect no quarter from them that live in subjection to her who the more zealous and devout they are the more implacable and fierce they are against us being persuaded that by the punishing and extirpating Heresie they mightily endear themselves to the whole Court of Heaven and merit the highest rewards We see further that though there were not that danger yet we are in duty bound to avoid and oppose the Romish Religion which greatly wrongs the truth and honour of our God and Saviour and puts men out of the plain Primitive and safe way to Heaven and to endeavour the preservation and advancement of true Christianity as we have it by Gods blessing and the great sufferings of our Predecessors restored to us Therefore let me desire the good people among us who really have a love and value for the true Protestant Religion to consider that Popery is not what every one dislikes or is pleased to call so We have a sort of men who brand with as black names the innocent Ceremonies and necessary Decencies and Orders of our Church as they can do the worst Corruptions in the Church of Rome nay and all men that make Conscience of being conformable to the Laws under which we live and that are Friends to the Government Ecclesiastical and Civil are presently Popishly affected This palpably appears to be a design of them who once before under the same pretence did ruin King and Church and enslave their Country for these very men upon occasion when it is to serve a turn or to get an Office will freely Conform even receive the blessed Sacrament in our way which generally they had never done before but much slighted and spoken against and our present Constitutions in Church and State are so far from favouring Popery that they were made in opposition to it and have effectually kept it out above a hundred years and it is now clear by the Depositions upon Oath of the chief Discoverers of the Plot and by Colemans Letters that Popery is to be brought in if it can be by means of these very Sectaries who now would run us down for Papists and by weakning and abrogating those Laws and that Establishment which many Dissenters clamour at and fain would pull down This may suffice to shew well-meaning people the Snare that is set for us and to induce them as good Christians and good Subjects to help to maintain and defend the Established Religion in the profession whereof they may be as godly and as vertuous and good as it is possible for men to be here below in our state of imperfection Herein lies our Safety as well as our Duty that there may be a National Constitution and we may be united together in Religious Bonds under our lawful Governours It adds much to the strength and credit of the Church of Rome that the Members thereof are governable or at least governed and kept under one Rule whereas it brings disgrace and threatens ruin to the Reformation to have some that would be called Protestants perpetually contending with their Governours endeavouring to shake off their Yoke always objecting and struggling against Laws and publick Orders and entertaining such Principles of Libertinism as divides them into Sects and Factions This is so contrary to the common notion of true Godliness and to that meek spirit which the Gospel so much recommends that I hope God will open the eyes of such as truly fear him and have no ill designs and make them see how much it is for the interest of their present and future happiness to joyn with our Church to defend it and live in it like good Christians and loyal Subjects as all the ties of Religion and Conscience oblige them to do They that now aim at a change brought one about within these forty years most fatal and infamous to the Protestant cause and the good people were infinitely cheated and paid very dear for the overturning that Government in Church and State under which they might have lived very innocent and very happy in comparison to what they did in that bloudy and unnatural War and Usurpation which I hope is not yet forgot but will ever be a caution to all good men amongst us to endeavour for the preservation of our peace and settlement That having such a truly Christian Religion as we have and so gracious a Government we may not use our liberty for a cloak of Maliciousness nor abuse by a froward and unthankful humour those great and special mercies we enjoy nor provoke God to bring upon us and our Land the Superstitions and Cruelties of the Roman Church From which good Lord deliver us and all thy Servants for ever Amen FINIS THE CONTENTS THe Introduction p. 1 CHAP. I. Of the Roman Faith as distinct from the Christian and truly Catholick and first of the new Creed p 3 Sect. 2. General Reflections on this Roman Creed p. 9 Sect. 3. That this new Creed makes the distinction betwixt Papists and other Christians p. 12 CHAP. II. Of several parts of the Roman Worship and first of their Exorcisms p. 20 Sect. 1. Of their many Consecrations p. 24 Sect. 2. Of their Mass p. 27 Sect. 3. Of their worship of Images and Saints p. 30 CHAP. III. How the Inquisition came to be established and first of the Oaths and Excommunications wherewith they tie the Consciences of men p. 44 Sect. 1. Of the beginnings of the Inquisition p. 50 Sect. 2. Of Dominic the first Inquisitor p. 54 Sect. 3. Of the first making of Familiars or armed Officers or Bailiffs for the Holy Tribunal p. 59 CHAP. IV. Of the first that suffered the Rigours of the Inquisition p. 62 Sect. 1. Of the Waldenses and the proceedings against them p. 66 CHAP. V. Of the restoring of the Inquisition p. 76 Sect. 1. The erecting of the Spanish Inquisition p. 78 Sect. 2. The setling the Inquisition in Portugal and elsewhere p. 81 CHAP. VI. Of several Tumults and oppositions against the Inquisition p. 84 CHAP. VII Of the ordering of the Inquisition p. 90 Sect. 1. The Bull of Sixtus Quintus about the new modelling of the Inquisition p. 95 CHAP. VIII Of the proceedings of the Inquisition p. 101 Sect. 1. Of the Accusations p. 104 Sect. 2. Of proceeding by way of Inquisition p. 109 Sect. 3. Of the Inquisitors Visitation p. 113 CHAP. IX Of the intermedial proceedings betwixt the apprehension and the torture p. 116 Sect. 1. Of the being brought to the Bar p. 118 Sect. 2. How the Prisoners Estate is seized upon p. 122 Sect. 3. Of the tedious and sad condition of the Prisoner p. 126 CHAP. X. Of the Tortures and what relates to them p. 130 Sect. 1. Of some preparations previous to the Torture p. 132 Sect. 2. Of the ways of Torturing p. 137 Sect. 3. Of repeating the question p. 140 CHAP. XI Of reconciling and dismissing Penitents p. 144 Sect. 1. Of the Cautions of the Friers when they absolve an Heretick p. 146 Sect. 2. Forms of Sentences p. 150 CHAP. XII Of the condemning of Hereticks that are to be burnt p. 156 Sect. 1. A Sentence in some Relapses p. 160 Sect. 2. A form of delivering a stubborn Heretick to the Secular Power p. 166 CHAP. XIII Of the Enormity and further punishment of the Crime of Heresie p. 171 Sect. 1. Of the vileness of Heretical Pravity p. 175 Sect. 2. Of several Inflictions upon Hereticks p. 182 Sect. 3. That in the Case of Heresie Princes fare no better than Subjects p. 189 Sect. 4. Of the Authorities and Authors cited in this Book p. 193 CHAP. XIV Of several things that conduce to make the Inquisition powerful and glorious p. 200 Sect. 1. Some Priviledges of the Inquisitors and cruelties committed or occasioned by them p. 206 Sect. 2. Of the prohibiting of Books and the Indices Expurgatorii p. 213 Sect. 3. Of the honour of being employed in the Holy Office and the praises of it p. 227 CHAP. XV. The Conclusion p. 133 ERRATA PAge 5. line 6. after explain add them p. 44. l. penult for her read his p. 55. l. 25. for St. r. that p. 56. l. 13. r. decease p. 64. l. 3. r. were p. 64. l. 17. r. Bearn p. 66. l. 7. for 80. r. 30. p. 67. l. 23. after that r. it is p. 76. for 47. r. 4th p. 119. l. 26. been is transposed p. 155. l. 3. r. sowed p. 157. for him r. them p. 170. l. 16. r. accordingly p. 206. in tit Sect. 1. for it r. them p. 219. l. 21. for and r. any