be that Babtlon spoken of in the Apocalips for it is the opinon of many Catholicke Interpreters that in the persecution of Antichrist the Ethnick Idolaters and the Enemies of the Christian name shall perhaps subdue it and of such that prophesie not yet fulfilled may be fitly verified yet in such sort as the faith of the Catholicke Church may continue safe and found Whereby now you see that my applying it to Christian Rome is but a meere calumniation for I know that Christian Rome is not Babylon neither can it be so called without great iniurie and God forbid that by this Prohesie we should vnderstand the same Romane Church which is the Mother and the head of all either to haue beene or hereafter to become Babylon for those things which are spoken of the Citie are not to be transferred vnto the Church I denied that there is a Church at Rome but I did not proue it therefore that negation must be layed vp amongst my euill speeches reproaches and heresies and conuincing my selfe within my selfe being ouercome by reason euen in the same Treatises I constantly affirmed that the Romane Church with her adherents was the only Church of Christ and now I doe most earnestly professe and affirme it I said it made a Schisme when I had not yet exact consideration what a Schisme was and in this I erred grosly this being a manifest falsehood and the proofe which I brought in confirmation is of no force For he who is lawfully appointed head of a Body and calleth and publisheth himselfe for head of the same body doth not seperate himselfe from the body neither casteth away the body from him but ioyneth himselfe vnto the body which hath no coherence with a Schisme yet I will handle this matter more at large in the correction of that worke Now I proceede to declare how it is euident to me that the English Sectaries and much more all the other Sectaries of our age are truly and properly Schismaticks because they haue seperated themselues without any lawfull cause from the true Church of Christ which is the Catholick Romane Church and her adherents 10 There can be onely two causes of a lawfull separation why one or more Churches of Christ and yet not commit Schisme should abandon one or more other Churches from their communion The one is heresie and the other is Schisme it selfe This is well knowne vnto all the faithfull that the hereticall Churches which are incorrigible are to be auoyded by Catholickes and that with such they ought not to haue any Ecclesiasticall communion I enquired often times of the English why they seperated themselues frō the church of Rome her adherents whither for any heresie And truly not none of them could either by words or writing shew me that the Romane Catholicks either of our time or in the time of our auncestors in their generall publi ke profession were at any time stayned with any heresie The Kings Maiestie himselfe of great Eritanie granted to me publickly and plainely and so did the wiser sort of their Ministers of all sorts and not a fewe of their learned men that the Church of Rome did not erre in fundamentall poynts of Faith wherefore the Church of Rome is not hereticall if we will take but that which they graunt Perhaps they will say the Church of Rome doth not erre in fundamentall poynts of faith which thing I also seemed to teach especially in the causes of my departing and in the Sermon I preached at London yet they erre and are fallen into heresie in other articles of faith which be not fundamentall But first I know not what article it may be of true faith which is not fundamentall for neither could I vnderstand nor they explicate vnto me how there may be such a distinction made or admitted that some be fundamentall and some not I haue alwayes thought that all and the sole articles which are truly articles of faith were fundamentall yet I errred when I excluded many true articles from the fundamentall which being true were also fundamentall articles and without heresie could not be denied although they be not of those principall articles of the Trinity incarnation necessity of grace Baptisme in the name of the Trinity c. such as are the Sacraments iustification necessity of workes merrits indulgences and the rest which I haue before rehearsed as already limitted in the Church because those things relye no lesse vpon the reuelation of God then the former and for that cause appertaine no lesse vnto faith then those For he that thinketh God to be a deceiuer in any one article whatsoeuer it be must of necessity also acknowledge him to be a deceiuer in all the rest Then I enquired often times of them who dealt seriously in the businesse to shew some article of faith in which the Church of Rome thought taught erroniously They vse to bring the article of Transubstantion of the bread into the body of Christ frō which they gather as they think some heresies viz. That Christ hath not a true body but a phantasticall if that in the least crum of the bread we put that whole body so that a body should not be a body Item that Christ is not in heauen if he be vpō the Altar on earth which is contrary to the article of the ascension of our Lord. Itē that Christ is not borne of the virgin Mary if that we do make him of bread In these men it is most true that which St. Hierome saith vpon the Epistle vnto Titus cap. 3. There is no Schisme that doth not inuent some heresie vnto it selfe that it may seeme to haue departed frō the Church vpon a iust cause But transubstantiation which the Catholicks professe is very far distant frō those heresies for all the properties of a body in thēselues are safe although they be put in a crum of bread but the same proprieties in order vnto the place which is externall to the body be seperable from it by the diuine omnipotencie which our Schoolmen explicate sufficiently But what heresie can they find in vs if we all doe constantly confesse that we beleeue as an article of faith that Christ had hath a true body with all his naturall proprieties in himself which we beleeue confesse may be kept by the same omnipotencie euen whē the body is brought into the least externall place neither can any impugne this Theologically and humane Philosophy neither can nor ought to measure the diuine power Let naturall Philosophy iudge what may be done by nature but let her reuerence and not iudge those things that be aboue nature Neither doth it follow that the body of Christ is not in heauen if it be vpon the Altar we all confesse that we beleeue by a diuine faith that Christ ascended into heauen and there sitteth continually at the right hand of the Father But yet we say that by dinine power one and the same body may
foundation they haue forsaken the foundation it selfe and the gold and siluer and pretious stones which they vainely brag of and vaunt to be theirs are more base then the filth and mire in the streets vnlesse they be built vpon the true foundation which is Christ There is one foundation not two foundations one Church not two one Christ not two If Christ be our foundation which they cannot deny then he is not theirs They haue made another Church deuided and seperated from ours and that cannot be the Church for that the Church is one and not two He that will be a member of that Church must needs be without the true Church of Christ 26 I confesse that the English Protestants deceiued me before that I had exactly considered the nature of a schisme for when I obiected schisme vnto them some answered that it was not their fault that they did not communicate with the Church of Rome they were ready to be in vnion but the Pope would not receiue them into his communion but reiected them with an anathema This excuse seemed to me for a time to be iust and reasonable but after I begun out of this ground in my priuate arguments and publike Sermons to vrge an vnion which vpon their words seemed to me somewhat easily to be concluded and so thrust my finger further into the wound then I perceiued that in England they did not vse the English confession or authorised articles for a rule of their faith which as they affirmed were very modest But the Confession of Caluin and many grosse errours of Luther And this I perceiued more euidently when I looked into the counterfeit Sinod of the Protestants at Dort in which the puritanicall articles of Caluine by consent of the English Agents were confirmed with the good liking of the English sect And if the English confession which is deuided into certaine articles doth not include in them those puritanicall articles of Dort why did they giue their consent and voyces vnto the Caluinian excesses in the name of the English sect Moreouer how can they which professe themselues mortall Enemyes to the Church of Rome be thought to desire an vnion with the Church of Rome and that the defect of agreement is not on their parts How can they cast the causes of schisme vpon the curses of Rome and Councell of Trident when before the said curses they had deuided themselues by schisme from the Catholicke Church and by such a schisme as in some respect was farre worse and more foule then was the schisme which was first raised by Luther and increased by Caluine For that England at the beginning abstained from the opinions of Luther and Caluine neither did they charge the Church of Rome either with heresie or Idolatry which the Lutherans and Caluinists made the pretext of their schisme and yet neuerthelesse without any apparent cause long after they yealded vnto the common schisme of these hereticks And now at this time the Englishmen for the most part doe not onely commend and defend the deuision and seperation made but striue by all force to maintaine it for they flye backe from vnion cast away charity and doe all they can to hinder peace and brotherly Loue in such sort as that many of them say they will sooner and more willingly enter into allyance or league with the Turks then with the Papists Call you this a minde ready to agree or to make an attonement is it likely to be true that the fault is not theirs why they doe not communicate with the Romane Church No it cannot possibly be that the vnion whereof I had some hope should take effect except they doe first detest all heresies and heretickes and beleeue aright with the Catholicke Roman Church and be conioyned vnto it in perfect Charitie 27 Henry the 8. made little difference but with the Pope onely whose primacie he denied with an hereticall spirit and moued with some distempered humours violently tooke vnto himselfe onely the Ecclesiasticall supremacie and carried himselfe more modegatly in other things which belonged vnto the faith and diuine seruice and ceremonies of the Catholicke Religion Vnder Edward his sonne a childe and much more vnder Elizabeth they departed not onely from the Pope the Vicar of Christ and supreame Pastor of the whole Christian slocke but also the diuine seruice and worship of God was taken away from the Catholicks by maine force and iniury and forbidden by the publique secular lawes What was there any lawfull Synode first called were the obiections against the Catholicks examined and discussed were their answers heard were they conuicted of any errour or impiety in Religion was the iudgement giuen by any competent Iudge No such matter Doth not the same violence the same iniury the same impietie continue for what labour and paines doe they who haue the chiefe charge of their Religion in England such as it is daily take least that the diuine anncient pious and prescript seruice should be restored vnto Catholicks And are not they then in the fault that the Schisme is not taken away They vrge Reformation yet Reformation although it be iust and necessary if it be done with Schisme is a most foule hatefull deformation That is reformed which continuch the same in substance Therefore the Catholicke Religion and her substantiall exercises ought to haue remained in England and if any thing therein had been to be reformed it should haue beene put vnder a lawfull reformation seruatis seruâ—â—ndes without taking away necessaries And they should not haue brought in another Religion and suppressed the former or thrust it into a corner thereby to make two contrary and repugnant Religions so as the first is not reformed but as much as in them lyeth lestroyed and a new forged Moreouer there cannot be two Religions of Christ but one onely which is ours as I haue shewed because there is but one Church one foundation and one Christ 28. Therefore when amongst other euils I saw my selfe enuironed on euery side with an inuetterate Schisme and that there was no hope of vnion an Altar being erected against an Altar and disioyned from the charity of the Church I neither ought nor could stay with them any longer with a safe conscience Wherefore the remorse of conscience compelled me to returne vnto the Catholicke Church My Agar hearing the voyce of the Angell reprouing her and saying Returne vnto thy Mistris and humble thy selfe vnder Gen. 16. 9 her hand was forced of necessity to returne vnto the most holy Church her Mistris Moreouer my slight could bring me nothing but shame and destruction God commaunded me to be humble vnder the hand of my Mistris and in this thing especially it behooued me to follow God I wish to God that they vnto whom I foolishly fled would acknowledge their most miserable spirituall estate not onely for their heresies but also for their lamentable Schisme from which as I haue shewed them they cannot be
Saints themselues is giuen vnto them 20 Our aduersaries chiefly vrge two arguments against this our worshipping of holy Images which they thinke so strong as that they imagine we can by no meanes auoyde them and free our selues from the crime of Idolatry and by these they confirme their Schisme to be lawfull The one is the commandement of God forbidding Images to bee made The other that they who doe adore the true God in any externall signe which is a pure creature cannot be excused from extreame Idolatry for they say with Caluine that the Calfe was made by the children of Israell Exod. 32. 4. to represent the true God And in this poynt especially Raynolds the English man an earnest Puritane strengtheneth and foundeth his Treatise of the Idolatry of the Romane Church But I doe not doubt neither can the learned Aduersaries doubt that the most auncient holy Fathers and the Catholicke Church it selfe did know the commandements and the History of the Calfe and neuerthelesse without all difficulty or any scruple they vsed holy Images in euery place with worship and honour But this disputation becommeth not this little booke and I hope I shall haue oportunity hereafter to confute at large Raynolds booke of the Idolatry of the Church of Rome by the authority of which booke England doth now chiefly defend her Schisme In the meane space let me change a fewe words with them I desire them to remember the works of Salomon who indued with heauenly wisedome beautified the Temple which he built not onely with those Images and artificiall workes which God himselfe had commanded to be made such as were the Cherubims c. but also of his owne deuise added many Images and engrauen trees and beasts as brasen Bulles Palmes and Pomegranets and adorned also his throne with Lyons and Lyons whelpes of gold 3. Reg. 10. 19. 20 c. Therefore Salomon vnderstood and expounded vnto vs sufficiently that the precept of the Decalog forbidding grauen Images was neither perpetuall nor yet forbidden by the diuiue naturall law which prohibiteth the adoration of Latria towards Images but onely of the law of God positiue for a time and conditionall to be kept then and so long as there was present danger of committing Idolatry by hauing Images Now because there is no danger of committing Idolatry in Images by vs who are well instructed Therefore that prohibition of the Decalog which forbiddeth similitudes to be made hath no place amongst vs and for this cause the Iconomochi abollishing the vse of holy Images and breaking them and abusing them vnreuerendly were in all times accounted by the Catholick Church for pestilent wicked hereticks and reckoned amongst the Enemies of Christian religion 21 It is most certaine that the children of Israell committed Idolatry in the adoration of the Calfe but I will neuer graunt that the Calfe did onely represent vnto them the true God And it is most false and against the true sence of the holy Scripture to affirme that the Israelites did adore the true God in that Calfe They adored the golden Calfe it selfe and erring most wickedly they thought that it had the Diuinity of the true God And I doe not doubt but that I shall easily demonstrate this out of most plaine places of the holy Scripture in his time and place and then I will dissolue the subtill reasons of Caluin and Reynolds and shew that the true God may euen in corporall signes be adored with compleat Latria without all danger of committing Idolatry to the end that it may more manifestly appeare that the English are grosly deceiued while they dreame by the fopperies of Reynalds to triumph ouer the Catholick Romane Church as fallen into Idolatry and therefore iustly forsaken by them Seeing there is neither euill circumstance nor scandall in our vse of holy Images because we liue not amongst Idolaters and are or may be sufficiently instructed about their lawfull worship how farre it is different from true Latria therfore we may lawfully fall downe before an Image and so adore with true Latria the primatiue patterne if it be to be adored with true Latria As the children of Israell did when they adored God in the cloud at the dore of the Tabernacle and did not adore the cloud Exod. 33. 10. and when they adored him in the fire 2. Paralip 7. 3. and yet herein they did not commit any Idolatry though they adored God in corporall signes They therefore who condemne such like adoration as truly and properly Idolatricall are ignorant of all true and sollid Diuinity Therefore in vaine doe the Protestants cauill at this Idolatry to defend their Schisme and seperation from the romane-Romane-Church and hereby first they pollute themselues with manifest heresie and remaine true Schismaticks for that herein there was no lawfull cause of seperation 22 They doe obiect vnto vs a most open Idolatry in adoring the B. Sacrament for that we adore it with true Latria and by this also our Aduersaries doe excuse themselues from Schismes But they are much deceiued for we are most certaine that the reall and corporall presence of the body and blood of our Lord Iesus Christ in the holy mysteries of the Eucharist is present we adore the very body of Christ which is to be adored with true Latria of it selfe by reason of the hypostaticall vnion lying hid vnder the formes of bread and wine but this question doth not belong vnto this place Wee suppose this reall and corporall presence which supposition is assured vnto vs by faith for that we take it from the Gospell Christ saying when hee held the Bread in his hands This is my body according to the promise he had made saying Ioan. 6. 51. The bread which I will giue is my flesh Wherefore our aduersaries cannot so much as imagine that we in this adoration are guilty of Idolatry and therefore they cannot aleage it in any excuse of their schisme But they are not only truly and properly Schismaticks but also hereticks and therefore I was bound of necessitie to forsake them vnlesse I would haue consented vnto their errours 23 They impute vnto vs secret Idolatry for that we place a spirituall confidence in salt water oyle and the like after exorcismes and benedictions But these things they heape together to the intent that they may disgrace and defame vs and excuse their schisme by what meanes soeuer for they know well that we doe not put any certaine confidence in these things as if we thought that these creatures receiued any certaine and infallible force or power by our exorcismes and benedictions and we doe not call these things Sacraments but holy things which we vse for the increase of our deuotion and put all our confidence in God alone who hearing the prayers of his Church doth distribute his gifts by these creatures through the vertue of the same prayers and benedictions of his Church And the greatest part of these and such like rites we haue receiued
from Apostolicall Tradition and succession from the most ancient Church which who so followeth cannot erre and he who contemneth and reiecteth such things is to be cast out as an haire-brained enemy of the Church Tertullian lib. de Baptismo setteth downe the vse of hallowed oyle August epist 119. numbereth also oyle amongst holy things The consecration of water for baptisme hath beene kept time out of minde in the Church for Cyprian lib. 1. epist vlt. maketh mention of the water and oyle of consecration and anoynting We haue in Optatus Miliuitanus That the holy Lib. 2. câ—â—e Par ent Temples if they were polluted by any meanes were wont to be hallowed againe with exorcismes and washing of the walls St. Basil deduceth from tradition Lib. de Spirita Sanct. ca. 27. the vsuall rite of annointing the baptized with oyle Antiquity teacheth that the signe of the crosse was wont to be vsed in the hallowings and consecrations of all things Iustin quest 118. Nazianzen Orat 1. against Iulian and in the Orat. at the Funerall of his Father Chrysost 55. in Matheum August tract 118. in Ioan. and serm 3. of the Annunciation and serm de tempore 181. cap. 3. Areopagita and others There are perhaps amongst vs some Rytes not so ancient in which we vse hallowed and consecrated things but seeing the Primatiue Church instructed by the Apostles feared no danger of secret Idolatry when she vsed consecrated oyle and the like why should we now feare who attribute no more vnto these consecrated things then the old Antiquity did vnto theirs Therefore to runne into schisme for these things is great impiety These rites are good seeing most of them are instituted by the Apostles and others sprung forth from the deuotion of Catholicke Churches and all are in no part contrary to faith but rather consonant vnto faith There was in old time diuersity of rytes and ceremonies in diuers Churches and yet they did not therefore depart from a mutuall Communion For as Sozominus saith They esteemed it to be friuolous and that worthily that they who agree together in the principall heads or points of Religion should be seperated one from another for the difference of a Ceremony Therefore the seperation of the English by which they haue deuided themselues from the true Catholicke Church and broken out into a manifest schisme is friuolous rash and impious And to communicate with them in diuine matters is to consent vnto their most wicked and pestiferous schisme 24 I will not here for feare of being too long dispute of the supposed new articles whereupon they ground their complaints and endeuour to excuse their schisme But will reserue this matter to be handled in another place Now I aske them this question Whither they thinke that those which they call new articles be contrary to faith or no if they should be contrary to faith then they should be heresies and should make vs heretickes worthily to be auoyded and to be seperated from the Communion of the catholicke Church But I haue proued already that there is no heresie in the Catholicke Roman Church and the Kings Maiestie of great Britaine and many learned men in that kingdome haue confessed that the Church of Rome doth not faile or erre in fundamentall points of faith and I haue already proued before that there is no true article which is not fundamentall and to be firmely beleeued therefore it maintaineth no articles which are contrary to the Catholicke faith and since they be not contrary to the true faith but containe the true faith they cannot minister a iust cause to begin a schisme But Protestants say the Church of Rome doth seperate and deuide vs from her because we respect those articles But I am sorry and lament that they had made a most foule and grosse schisme before any thing was spoken of concerning these articles which they call new Therefore it is great folly in them to alleage these new articles as a cloake for their schisme for the effect cannot goe before his cause I defend that they haue made a schisme without cause and by this I knew that they were manifest schismatickes and therefore haue departed from them And those same articles which Protestants affirme to be new may be euidently demonstrated out of Scriptures Traditions and Fathers to be true and the contrary articles which they set downe may be conuinced out of them to containe manifest heresies If the sence of the first Authors be retained for some milder Protestants now of late in matters of Controuersie as I haue heard doe vse fauourable explications not much dissonant from Catholicke doctrine by which they seeme to tend to a pious Reconciliation Who without a pernitious errour or rather plaine heresie can put all his saluation in faith only and exclude the necessitie of good workes and absolutely denie our merits and affirme that grace once had cannot be lost and that the iust cannot sinne They who hold with tooth and nayle that these and the like are articles of faith and that the contrary are heresies doe without question erre in matters of faith and declare themselues to be hereticks and by consequence are worthily numbred amongst hereticks by Catholicks in their definitions Therefore not any heresie of the Church of Rome or her manifest or secret Idolatry could giue an occasion vnto the Protestants schisme Neither can they obiect schisme vnto the Roman Church for she made not the schisme but they made it and she endured it for from her Luther and Caluin and the rest seperated themselues first and not she from them When they obstinatly reiected the Iudgement of the Church then they made a schisme Then they deuided the Coate of Christ then they errected one Altar against another then they forsooke the true Church 25 Besides the causes before rehearsed and examined they also pretended for their schisme a necessitie of Reformation in the Church But I could neuer yet see any reformation amongst them but to say the truth I obserued many deformations for the care of conscience is vtterly neglected and cast away amongst them some few accepted the rest haue no scruple of conscience to commit adultery violent extertion treacherie against their neighbours cosenage vsury as people who haue impiously abollished auricular confession fastings penance and such like holy exercises And suppose that they had found amongst vs any thing to be reprehended either in our manners or in our actions or in our gouernment that should not be imputed to the defects of the Church but vnto particular men whose actions are not allowed but reproued by Catholicks neither ought they to haue raised a filthy schisme for those smaller matters when the foundation of faith remained firme stable and vnshaden in the Church of Rome And suppose that we had builded vpon it Wood stubble or Hay as it is said in 1. Cor. 3. 12. Yet we should not be excluded from saluation But the Protestants haue left the
THE SECOND MANIFESTO OF MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS Archbishop of Spalatto wherein for his better satisfaction and the satisfaction of others he publikely repenteth and recanteth his former errors and setteth downe the cause of his leauing ENGLAND and all Protestant Countries to returne vnto the Catholicke Romane Church Written by himselfe in Latine and translated into English by M. G. K. LVKE 22. 26. Egressus foras fleuit amare LIEGE By Guilliaume Houius with permission of Superiours 1623. Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalatto declareth the cause why he left England MOst excellently as he doth all other things hath the holy Ghost by the mouth of St. Paul numbred vp amongst the works of the flesh contentions emulations anger quarrels discentions and Gal. 5. 20. sects for I haue had too much triall in my selfe of the vnhappy fruit of this vnluckie tree And now hauing receiued a potion of Diuine grace for my recouery must vomit out that filthinesse which before through the sicknesse of my minde and corruption of my taste I had greedily deuoured which that I might the more safely and speedily performe and correct my selfe in publicke before all the world and condemne to the pit of hell my infinite errours sprung from the wicked intention of my first going into England I haue taken that good counsell first to leaue the Schoole of errours lyes and heresies and then of mine owne free will to returne to the holy Romane Church the one and onely piller and excellent ground of Catholicke truth and the Mother of all Catholickes from whom I had most wickedly departed First therefore I will prosecute this my correction condemnation and detestation of my errours and afterwards I will declare the other causes why I left England and all other hereticall Countries whatsoeuer and returned to the holy Catholick Romane Church 2 It is the most auncient disease of our corrupt humane nature descended from our first Father vnto all his posterity that when we fall into any errour or slide into any vice we doe either finde out filthy excuses as the woman which thou gauest me to be my fellow Deu 3. 2. companion gaue me of the tree and I did eate or else we defend our faults and endeuour to couer them with a counterfait cloake of Iustice and honesty and I confesse that this was my case for which I am very sorrie The disease of my minde in which before my departure from the Romane Church I languished was that contrary to the wholesome counsell of the wise man I trusted too much to mine owne prudence and Pro. 3. 5. out of the confidence of my owne wit being no body I would giue very rash iudgement in matters of faith vnto which also was ioyned a certaine frenzie of anger Not that which some weake Schollers at my going out of England imputed vnto me because I was denied vaine pretended dignities but it proceeded altogether out of mine owne vnreasonable impatience by taking in euill part to be made subiect to others of whom I did vndeseruedly complaine in my booke of the cause of my departing These things draue me vpon the quicke sands and shallowes these cast me vpon the Rockes these sharpened my wit to inuent pestiferous cogitations these made me vainely to pittie the errours of the Romane Church thereby to excuse my departure from it these made me to transcend all limits And that I might seeme to haue done well in leauing the Church of Rome and auoide by some meanes the brand of impudencie rashnesse and heresie in defence of my departure I set forth first an exposition of mine intent and afterwards certaine volumes and little bookes into which I thrust what the Art of counterfaiting and dissimulation had inuented and aduice of the flesh suggested And so as long as the inward disease increased and the spurres of anger pricked my exulcerated minde the itching of my tongue and pen brake forth into madnesse and now my vnderstanding being darkened many things which the Enemies of the Apostolicall sea transported with heresie did beleeue affirme and professe seemed vnto me credible and some-things also true as long as I did not try the Doctrine in controuersie by the touchstone of true Diuinity nor perfectly discusse them for at that time I had neither finished nor yet begun some of the parts of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth in which I had purposed to treat of the decrees and rules of faith howsoeuer in the booke of my intent of leauing the Romane Church I affirmed that I had them all ready for the Presse and being thus blinded and relying rashly more vpon the false accusations of the heretickes then vpon the truth of the Catholick faith I wrote the little bookes of the intent of my depaerture from the Romane Church and the Rockes of Christian shipwracke and a certaine Sermon stuffed with errours and heresie and out of my then conceiued hatred which for the most part I bare to the holy Romane Church the Apostolicall sea and the Pope I affirmed these things and many more to be true which before I writ them I knew to be false and hereticall and afterwards in some part corrected them and with my whole heart detested them euen when I writ them and now also I abhorre and detest these little bookes because they containe manifest heresies against Catholicke truthes and are repugnant to sound Doctrine that is to say to the Doctrine which the holy Catholicke Romane Church doth and hath alwayes maintained against which Doctrine whatsoeuer I haue spoken or written that I doe wholy condemne and detest and by the grace of God I will more amply and largely condemne and detest it in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth and of the other bookes which I haue written for I doe wholly submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Romane and Apostolicke sea the chiefe of all Churches whatsoeuer 3 In the meane space it is necessary in this my second and truly sound determination to detest that intention of my vnhappy departing from the Romane Church and the infamous Rockes shipwracks chiefly to my selfe and heretiques and not of Catholicks and also that Sermon Neither will I be ashamed by pulling off my garments which I had forged to my selfe to lay open my nakednesse because I haue not beene ashamed against all right and honesty to breake forth into vaine lyes manifest slaunders and silthy heresies The stinging and venome of the Scorpion is cured by the bruising of the same Scorpion which pricked and if the voluntary contrition and bruising of my selfe Diascor lib. cap. 44. may heale the venomous wounds of others if any be wounded by me I will esteeme this my bruising humiliation and mortification most happy Let the glory of the Catholicke Church and of the Apostolicall sea remaine vnmoueable although it be with the losse of whatsoeuer I haue in this life seeing I
excused because they haue seperated themselues vniustly and without cause from the true Church of Christ which is our Catholicke Romane Church And this thing terrisieth me for Schismaticks exclude themselues from being the sonnes of God as Cyprian affirmeth saying They haue not God Ioh. 11. 52. Deâ—â—â— â—◠〈◊〉 to their Father who will not haue the true Church for their mother Christ died to gather into one the sonnes of God which were dispersed Therefore the death of Christ did not onely worke and doth worke the redemption of men but also the vnion of the Church Before the death of Christ the children of God were deuided and scattered some vnder the law of Moyses others vnder the law of nature all were deuided one from another into seuerall congregations But now since the comming of Christ the diuine wisedome would that all his faithfull beleeuer and true children by faith should make one onely societie throughout the whole world vnder their Captaine and Emperour Iesus Christ and serue him in his warres vnder the standard of the holy Crosse with the same colours and Ensignes of the Sacraments And this society and vnity is a notable effect of the death of Christ which death hath brought to passe that disagreeing Sects innumerable formes of Rites and Religions amongst themselues opposite should ioyne together into a Christian vnity by him Who is our peace and hath made both one and this by the Ephe. 2. 14. Lib. 3. Hexem Crosse whereupon Anastasius of Mount Sinay saith that these words Let waters be gathered into one place are to be vnderstood of the Church assembled together of diuers people and Nations and Sects vnder the vnity of faith For which cause Christ also said of his Crosse If I be exalted from the earth I will draw all Ioh. 12. 32. things vnto my selfe Athanasius in his Treatise of the Incarnation of the word of God sayeth Our Lord exalted in the Crosse stretcheth forth both his armes to invite vnto himselfe onely both the Nations of the Iewes and Gentiles that by embracing them he might gather them both into his bosome but there is but one onely bosome betweene the armes of our Sauiour 29 And Athanasius in the same place thinketh that it is not without mysterie that Christ did choose the death of the Crosse and not the cutting off his head by which his precursor St. Iohn Baptist lost his life nor the deuiding of his body into parts which I saie suffered that in his death he might without dismembring keepe his body whole and intire and take away all excuses from Schismaticks who desire to deuide the Church into parts And Christ our Lord was so pleased with this vnity that with a most seruent prayer in the very last night of his life he required of his Father that he would not suffer his Disciples and the other beleeuers to depart from this vnity and said twice that the cause why he Ioan. 17. 11. 20. 21. prayed for the preseruation of this vnity was That the world may beleeue that thou hast sent me But our Aduersaries nothing considering these things as much as lyeth in them would haue the death and crosse of Christ to be without this most excellent fruit of vnity and by deuisions and schismes giue vnto the Iewes and Pagans occasion to speake ill of and to blaspheme Christ by saying that he was not the sonne of God nor sent by God seeing the vnion which he ordained did not continue but now and then was broken into parts The Church of Christ is one house and one family he who shall withdraw himselfe from this family or goeth out of this house doth not appertaine vnto the family of Christ but is excluded from saluation euen as they who were without the Arke perished in the flood Gen. 8 The Protestants haue cut off themselues from the body of Christ which is the sole Catholicke Romane Church with her inseperable adherents Therefore there be not members of Christ nor is Christ their head neither are they partakers of his holy spirit or gifts They are rotten members and already cut off for that they haue by their owne free will impiously cut off themselues from the body They are branches cut off from the Vine good for nothing but for the fire Neither can he saith St. Augustine be partaker of Diuine charity who is an enemie of vnity 30 By Schisme they haue inenrred the losse of all spirituall goods if they thinke they possesse any If I speake saith St. Paul with the tongues of men and Angels 1 Cor. 13. 1. and haue not charity I am nothing it doth profit me nothing c. According to these words of St. Paul St. Augustine saith that Schismatickes doe not profit 〈◊〉 1. de Bapt. â—◠〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 2. by doing good workes Cyprian affirmeth the same many times saying Although a man be slaine for the name of Christ after he is out of his Church and deuided from vnity and charity he cannot be crowned in his death and repeateth the same lib. 1. epist 1. and vnto Iubaâ—â—num and in his bookes de Simplicitate Praelethrum or de vnitate Ecclesiae and de oratione dommica Chrisostom in epist ad Ephes hom 11. followeth him and saith the same 31 I wish they would consider what a horrible sin they haue committed by making this damnable seperation For that Schisme is the destruction of holy Church according to the words of Christ saying Euery Kingdome euided against it selfe be made desolate Luk. 11. 17. Galat. 5. 15. And S. Paul saith Take heed how you bite one another least you be consumed one with another and St. Lib. depoenit â—â— 4. Ambrose proueth that this wickednesse of destroying the Church may be that sinne against the holy Ghost which Christ said is not remitted neither in this Mat. 12. 31. 3 〈◊〉 6. world nor in the world to come So that wicked harlot had rather to haue the childe destroyed then to be restored into the bosome of the owne mother and therefore cryed against her be it neither mine nor thine 〈◊〉 10. â— but let it be deuided So Schismatickes least the faith should be conscrued aliue and whole in the bosome of the true mother the Church doe what they can to deuide it that it may be dead to them both But they labour in vaine to the verifying vpon themselues this saying He that breaketh the hedge a Serpent shall byte him And it is no wonder that in these dayes the English are fallen into many heresies and that Puritanisme doth so much raigne amongst them although at the first seperation they were not polluted with the Lutheran or Caluinian heresies For Ireneus doth excellently Lib. â— cap. 40. li. 4. ca. 43. teach that they who are cut off from the Church doe not drinke of the Fountaine of the spirit of God but digge vnto themselues olde Cisterns and fall into most filthy errours