Points upon which they were to deliberate telling them you shall speak only as I direct you you shall debate the Propositions that I shall make you and you shall not dare to exceed the bounds I set you Yet such was one of the Decrees of the Council signed by all the Fathers and made at the opening of the third and most solemn Convocation of the Council Was there any thing done to remedy the consequences of this Clause Truly just nothing in effect There was a little Decree made and little it signified to pacifie dissatisfied minds it was that the Legats a little before the end of the Council should declare that it was not intended by this Clause to prejudice the liberty of the Council nor at all to alter the manner of proceeding that former Councils had observed but it is not said that there was no intent to prejudice the opinion that subjects the Council to the Pope Those that shall read this History will find by what passed from the twenty second to the twenty third Session what Endeavours were used by the Court of Rome to slide in a Decree among the Acts of the Council to establish the Popes Supremacy There was a Minute of such a Decree sent from Rome wherein it was said that the Pope hath power to govern the Universal Church Ecclesiam universalem The Emperour and the French joyned to oppose it as easily penetrating the Design of exalating the Pope over the whole Church of making him absolute Master of it and by consequence placing him above Councils Well then and what was the issue of the Dispute The Court of Rome feigned to yield the Point and the Decree did not pass but yet the thing was after cunningly done in another Decree where the very words are used but in a way that seems as if it was without design It is in the first Chapter of General Reformation in the last Session where it is said that the Pope has the Administration of the Vniversal Church These words do plainly signifie that the Pope is sole Bishop that the others are but his Delegates and by consequence that he is the Monarch and Superiour of the Church whether it be considered together as a Body or disjunctly in its Parts If the words might admit of another construction yet the very Council it self did thus interpret them and therefore for a time did reject them tho afterwards it received them by inadvertence And this is another express Decision that exalts the Pope above the whole Church It would certainly be tiresom to the Reader should I produce all the Proofs that might be brought to shew that the Council of Trent hath acknowledged the Pope for Superiour For I should then be obliged to speak of the Bulls of Convocation that were registred and received by the Council in which the sole power of convening Councils and presiding in them is ascribed to the Pope contrary to the Decisions of the Councils of Constance and Basil I should also speak of the Bulls of Suspension sent by the Popes to their Legats by which as Masters and Superiours they impowered them to suspend and to dissolve the Council I should in fine be obliged to speak of all that was done in those two important Controversies that made so much noise in the Council that is whether the Episcopal Order were of Christs Institution and whether the Residence of Ecclesiasticks be Jure Divino But I shall leave the Readers to make due Reflections upon the Legats presiding in the Council and their management of affairs I shall only offer two Proofs but the most convincing that can be The first shall be the last Chapter of Reformation in the last Session In this Chapter the Council declares That all that hath been ordained concerning the Reformation of Manners and Ecclesiastical Discipline is so ordained as that the Council will thereby manifest to all the world that the Authority of the holy Apostolick See remains whole and untouched That is to say that the Pope is not bound by the Canons nor tied from dispensing with them when he thinks fit This is not our Gloss but the Court of Rome's it is the plain intent of the Council that framed the Decree it is agreeable to constant and continual Practice for the Pope de facto does daily dispense with the Canons of this Council It could not more plainly be pronounced that the Pope is Master and Sovereign of the Council nor could any thing be more directly contrary to the Decisions of the Council of Constance This latter Council speaks thus in the fourth and fifth Session The holy Synod of Constance duly assembled being a General Council and representing the Catholick Church is empowered immeditely from Jesus Christ which every person of whatsoever condition or dignity tho even of the Papal dignity is bound to obey in all things that relate to Faith the extirpation of Heresie and the Reformation of the Church as well in the Head as in the Members That is to say the Council of Constance declares that the Pope is bound to obey the Canons of the Council And the Council of Trent declares that the Authority of the Council reaches not to the Pope but leaves his Power untouched One of the two Councils has therefore certainly erred for their Decisions are in direct contrariety to each other The last Proof I shall urge is the Confirmation of its Decrees which the Council of Trent desired of the Pope If that does not suppose that without such Confirmation the Decrees of the Council were of no force as the Court of Rome pretends it signifies just nothing If the Validity of the Decisions of a General Council depends upon the Popes Confirmation it it into Propositions and then it runs thus The Church hath Power over the Temporalties of Kings and private Persons can take away their Possessions and give them to others can proceed to Sentence and Execution by Corporal punishment by Imprisonment and Sequestration can take cognisance of the validity of Wills and Testaments can oblige Laymen to give an account of their management of Donations for pious Uses hath Power to exercise all manner of Judicature and in Matrimonial Causes exclusive to all other Tribunals In a word can hear and determine all matters Civil and Criminal Is there not reason then to allow this for Doctrine Is not Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction matter of Doctrine Hath not the Council of Trent treated of it in the Chapter of Order as of a point of Doctrine If the Jurisdiction of the Church be a matter of Doctrine is it not absurd to say that the Decrees to which such Jurisdiction does extend are meerly points of Discipline Are not the Whole and its Parts of one nature Iâ— the Jurisdiction of the Church considered together and in gross belongs to Doctrine why not the parts the branches the extent of it likewise Thus have we another point of Doctrine in which the Gallican Church and
ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
Heretofore all contracts were confirmed and ratified by Oath and because an Oath is a matter of Conscience they made themselves Judges of all Causes that related to Contracts and Promises Besides these Jurisdictions they established a Court which they called the Mixt Court wherein they Judged of all civil Causes belonging to the Magistrate if the Court of the Church had by anticipation taken cognizance of the Cause but on the other side if the Magistrate had anticipated them then the Ecclesiastick-Court had no more Power They likewise laid down for a Maxim which brought a great many Causes before them that when the Magistrate neglected or refused to doe Justice then the Cause devolved to the Ecclesiastick-Court And in fine to fill up the measure of corruption in the eleventh Century they laboured to lay down this for a Maxim that Bishops did not derive this great Power from the Concessions of Princes but immediately from Jesus Christ Otherwise if the Bishops had acknowledged that they held these Privileges from Princes Sovereigns would have always had power to punish them and rectifie the abuses committed by them in their Jurisdiction But that they might put themselves out of reach of Animadversion they perswaded People that their Jurisdiction was independent of the Power of Princes At last that they might frame an Empire Paramount over all the States of Christendom the Pope was made Head of that Jurisdiction which the Bishops had usurped and reared up within the space of thirteen hundred years For after that the Bishops had taken from Magistrates a great part of their Jurisdicton the Pope found a way to strip the Ordinaries of the greatest part of their Power by Evocations Appeals and Exemptions So that if on the one hand the Secular Judges complained of the usurpations of the Bishops on the other hand the Bishops complained of the encroachments of the holy See This in general was the matter that then was handled in the Congregations of the Canonists whilst in the others matters of Faith were examined Gropper votes for the abolishing of Episcopal Jurisdiction and Ecclesiastick Tribunals Gropper who was in the Council both as a Lawyer and a Divine reasoned accurately about these abuses of Jurisdiction and shew'd that in the beginning the sentences of Bishops were sentences of Charity that these sentences were rendered not by Officials as now a-days but by the Bishop and Priests assembled in a kind of Consistory or Synod That moreover there was no such thing known as Appeals from those sentences to the Pope that if any Appeal was made it was to their next immediate Superiours which are Synods And therefore he was of opinion that these Synodal Judgments should be restored that the Courts and Judgments of Officials should be abolished and that all Appeals to the Pope immediately without passing through subordinate Superiours should be discharged The Legate Nuncio's and Italians slaves to the Court of Rome listened to this discourse with a great deal of impatience and having consulted together they set on the Promooter of the Council Giovanni Baptista Castello a Bolonian who in a long harangue maintained that it was lawfull to Appeal immediately to the Pope Baptista Castello Promooter of the Council refutes Gropper about the subject of immediate Appeals to the Pope and to bring Actions before the holy See without passing through the Intermedial Judges The Bishops were not satisfied with Gropper's Discourse but far less with that of Castello For he raised the Authority of the Pope to such a pitch that the Italians themselves murmured at it because according to Castello's Maxims the Pope was all in all and the Bishops signified nothing at all and that made the Italians recoyl and talk of accommodation In effect they came to an accommodation and adjusted matters in this manner That there should be no Appeals from the definitive Sentences of Bishops and Officials but in causes criminal and that even in criminal matters it should not be lawfull to Appeal from Interlocutory Sentences untill Definitive Sentence were pronounced But they would not re-establish Synodal Judgments by ruining the Officials The Bishops urged not to be re-established in their ancient right of being Judged by their Synods that is to say by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials because men are not commonly inclined to facilitate Judgments against themselves and Processes against Bishops are much more difficult when one must go to Rome or procure a Commission from thence than if they could be accused upon the place before their proper Judges which are Synods The power was therefore left to the Pope of Judging them by Commissaries delegated in partibus Onely the Council made some Regulations that none inferiour to the Bishop in Dignity should be chosen as a Commissary of the Pope to Judge him It is one of the Grievances against the Council of Trent and one of the reasons why it is not received in France that contrary to the ancient Canons it deprives Bishops of the right of being Judged by the Metropolitan and their Comprovincials Of Degradations their Original and Progress There was also another great abuse in the Jurisdiction of Bishops of which a Reformation was demanded and that was the manner of Degradations According to the Privileges that have been granted to the Clergy or which they have usurped this Maxim has been long received that the Magistrate has no power over Clerks so long as they remain Clerks So that a Member of the Clergy must be degraded before he can be delivered over to the Secular Power for capital and enormous Crimes where sentence of death is to be pronounced which cannot be given by an Ecclesiastick Court because it imbrues not the hand in Bloud and this custome was confirmed by the Laws of Justinian It was even the custome in preceding Ages that is in the fourth and fifth Century when a Member of the Clergy returned into the World to degrade him by the same Ceremonies whereby he had been installed but in a manner inverse and retrograde that is to say that they clothed him in all his Priestly Habits and then stript him of the same one after another applying words quite contrary to those of Ordination But since about the year six hundred these Degradations were abolished and those who had taken high Orders were prohibited from returning again into the World so that the custome of Degradations is onely retained in Criminal matters when a Member of the Clergy is to be delivered over to the Secular Power to be punished But these Degradations of Clerks convicted must be done according to the new Canons with so many Ceremonies as rendered the punishment of the Members of the Clergy almost impossible That was their Scope and they onely clogg'd Degradations with so many difficulties that they might live in impunity For Degrading a Bishop thirteen Degrading Bishops were required besides twelve Assistants For Degrading a Priest there must be six Bishops for Degrading a
Pope and yet give some satisfaction to those who so urgently demanded Reformation The Legates are willing to satisfie the Bishops by passing the Decree of the Reformation of Princes but that causes great noise The chief Design of the Legates was to please the Bishops because without them there was no concluding of the Council The principal Aim of the Bishops was to enlarge their Power and for accomplishing of that design they demanded three things First that they should have the absolute Collation of all Benefices that had Cure of Souls that so the Curats might depend on them Secondly that the Council would abolish all the Exemptions of Chapters of privileged Churches and of Monks or Regulars who by certain Privileges obtained from the Court of Rome had found a way to decline the Power of their Bishops And thirdly that all those hinderances might be removed which Princes and Secular Magistrates bring to Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction calling that an invasion of Princes when they strive what they can to hinder the Clergy from challenging and taking to themselves the Trials of civil Causes and temporal Jurisdiction The Legates were very well disposed to satisfie the Bishops as to the third Point of their Demand because none but Princes must pay for that whose interest they did not at all consider And therefore in the Articles which they proposed they failed not to insert every thing that could contribute to the retrieving of the Jurisdiction of Bishops to the same State that the Invasions of the Clergy had formerly brought it to And upon these three heads chiefly the Articles of Reformation run for the satisfaction of the Bishops But as to the second Point which concerns the Exemptions of the Regulars or Monks the Legates had no mind to comply too much with the Bishops because that could not be done without Diminution of the Authority and Profits of the Court of Rome of which all the Monks hold immediately And if the Bishops made instances on their side for obtaining that Demand the Generals of Orders who were present in the Council on the other hand vehemently opposed it The Legates had appointed a particular Congregation for the Reformation of Monks and in that Congregation divers good Regulations were made to which the Generals of Orders had submitted because that Monks are pretty well satisfied that the Rules to which they are oblig'd should be severe and hard that being the thing that appears outwardly to the World and which gains them a great Reputation of Sanctity and Austerity But after all since they are the Masters of the Monasteries within doors and of the manner how these Rules are observed the Severity of Orders incommodes them no more than they please themselves But for the matter of Exemptions they would by no means have that medled with They liked it much better to depend on a Master that lived at a distance who could not watch over their Conduct than on a Bishop who would always have his Eyes upon them Nevertheless the reason that they alledged for their refusal was the remisness and relaxation that Bishops allowed themselves in their Conduct and Conversation and franckly said that when Prelates were Masters of Monasteries Bishops lived under a far more severe Discipline than they did at present and that times were changed The Ambassadours also favoured the Monks for the interest sake of Princes who desire not that Bishops should have too much power because they many times abuse it Martin Royas Pontal Rouge Ambassadour from the Great Master and Knights of Malta was received in Congregation the seventh of September Seeing every one minded their Interests his chief demand was that the Council would Ordain that the Possessions and Commendaries which had been taken from them should be restored The Legates acquainted the Pope with the demand of the Ambassadours of Malta and the Pope answered that it was the business of the Council who ought not to neglect it In that and the following Congregations the Articles of Reformation were again treated of which had been so many times altered and corrected by the Legates and they afforded no important Debates The third Article regarded the Authority of Metropolitans or Archbishops Those of that Character and such of them as were present were for having the Ancient Canons reestablished according to which Bishops were subject to visitation correction and to the Government of Metropolitans as Curates are subject to the Bishops Particularly Giovanni Trevisano Patriarch of Venice was mightily for the restitution of those privileges but the Archbishops were not strong enough to gain their Cause The Bishops who were far the Sedition of the Bishops they were forced to propose in Congregation the Decree of the Reformation of Princes which was sometime before laid aside and referred to another Session Abstract of the Decree of the Reformation of Princes It will not be amiss to give an Abstract of it that it may appear what the temper of the Bishops was and how far the Clergy would have carried on their Usurpations upon the Temporal Right of Princes and Magistrates That Decree contained a Preface thirteen Chapters and a Conclusion The Preface mentioned that the Council had a design to prevent the enterprises of Seculars upon the Immunities of the Church and that for that end it revived the Decrees and Holy Canons which were to be observed under pain of Anathema It ordained then that the persons of Churchmen should not be Judged by a Secular Court upon any pretext whatsoever though they should even consent to it that Secular Judges should not offer to meddle with Matrimonial Causes Causes of Heresie Tithes Rights of Patronage Benefices nor with other Causes wherein any thing of the Spirituality is concerned whether they be Civil or Criminal that Secular Princes cannot Establish Judges in Ecclesiastick affairs that Secular Magistrates must not prohibit an Ecclesiastick Judge to proceed against any by Excommunication that neither Emperour Kings nor Princes can make any Edicts or Ordinances concerning the Affairs Goods and Possessions of Churchmen that Churchmen should be maintained in their Temporal Right of high middle and low Jurisdiction that Ecclesasticks should not be obliged to pay any Taxes Imposts Tenths or Subsidies that Princes and Magistrates should not have Power to quarter their Officers Soldiers or Horses in the Houses of Churchmen There were a great many more Articles of the same force and that tended to the same end So the Clergy shook off the lawfull Yoke of Obedience which they owed to their Sovereigns and erected to themselves within their States a temporal Jurisdiction over Christians parallel to that of Kings and wholly independent of their Authority The Conclusion contained an earnest Exhortation to the Observation of these Decrees under the pain of Anathema This was the Piece against which the Ambassadours of France had orders to protest if they intended to pass it which they failed not to doe The Emperour wrote also to Cardinal Morone that
and Tyranny could make use of What then had been done or rather what had not been done if as the Protestants desired the Pope's Authority had been directly struck at and the subversion of his Grandeur openly attempted If the Council of Trent had but only offered at what was actually done by the Council of Constance that is the declaring of the Pope to be subject to the Council the Court of Rome would rather have set all Christendom in confusion that have suffer'd it The Presidents had express Orders if that Point came at all into question immediately to break up the Council and return to Rome reason 7 7. Seventh cause of Rejection The Council of Trent hath erred even by the Confession oâ— those that would have us submit to it But I would very fain know why we should be obliged to receive the Decisions of the Council of Trent since the Roman Church her self does not receive them Why should it be expected from us that we should look upon this Council as Infallible when thousands of the Roman Communion do believe that the Council hath de facto erred and in consequence of that Belief do refuse to submit to it and daily reject its Canons This last reason for our rejecting that Council is indeed of high importance we shall therefore enlarge a little upon it and evidently make it appear that those that would exact of us a Submission to this Council have themselves no regard to its Authority and that upon the score of its having erred I shall not press upon the Council for having forbid Non-Residence under grievous Penalties which yet is now universally connived at for having forbidden Pluralities and yet there are now no Eminent Prelats but are guilty of it for having forbidden to give Dispensations but in Cases of great moment and yet now at Rome they are denied to none but to such as want Mony that matter of mighty moment for which only they are granted For I very well know that to these and to a hundred other particulars in which I could instance it will presently be replyed that they are Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions indeed but that those Corruptions do not hinder the Decrees of the Council from being just and good And the Popes Flatterers will add that he is not bound by the Decrees of the Council but has Power to dispence with the Canons when he thinks fit But I speak of Decrees made by this Council and rejected by an infinite number of People Decrees that never were suffered to take place in France after all the endeavors of the Court of Rome The French Kings their Parliaments and Bishops dislike several things in the Decrees of this Council Reasons why the Council of Trent is not received in France 1. That the Council hath done and suffered many things that suppose and confirm a Superiority of the Pope over Councils 2. That it hath confirmed the Papal Encroachments upon Ordinaries Ses 2. Res. c. 8. by Exemption of Chapters and Privileges of Regulars who are both withdrawn from Episcopal Jurisdiction 3. That it hath not restored to the Bishops certain Functions appertaining to their Office and taken from them otherwise than to execute them as Delegates of the See of Rome 4. That it hath infringed the Privileges of Bishops of being judged by their Metropolitan and the Bishops of the Province by permitting a Removal of great Causes to Rome and giving Power to the Pope to name Commissioners to judg the Accused Bishop 5. That it hath declared that neither Princes Magistrates nor People are to be consulted in the placing and setling of Bishops 6. That it hath empowered Bishops to proceed in their Jurisdictions by Civil Pains by Imprisonment and by Seisure of Temporalties 7. That it hath made Bishops the Executors of all Donations for Pious Uses 8. That it hath given them a superintendency over Hospitals Colleges and Fraternities with Power of disposing their Goods and Revenues notwithstanding that those matters had been always managed by Lay-men 9. That it hath ordained that Bishops shall have the examining of all Notaries Royal and Imperial with Power to deprive or suspend notwithstanding any Opposition or Appeal 10. That it hath given Power to Bishops with consent of two Members of their Chapter and of two of their Clergy to take and retrench part of the Revenue of Hospitals nay to take away Feodal Tithes belonging to Lay-men 11. That it hath made Bishops the Masters of Foundations of Piety as Churches Chappels and Hospitals so as that those that have the care and Government of them are obliged to be accomptable to the Bishops 12. That in confirming Ecclesiastical Exemptions it hath wholly ascribed to the Pope and the Spiritual Judges all Power of judging the Causes of accused Bishops as if Sovereign Princes had lost the Right they have over their Subjects as soon as they became Ecclesiasticks 13. That it hath empowered the Ordinaries and Judges Ecclesiastical in quality of Delegates of the Holy See to enquire of the Right and Possession of Lay-Patronages and to quash and annul them if they were not of great necessity and well founded 14. That in prohibiting Duels it had declared that such Emperor King or Prince as should shew favour to Duelling should therefore be Excommunicated and deprived of the Seignory of the Place holding of the Church where the Duel was sought 15. That it hath permitted the Mendicant Fryars to possess Immoveables 16. That it hath ordained an Establishment of Judges it calls Apostolick in all Dioceses with Power to judg of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical matters in prejudice of the Ordinaries 17. That it hath declared that Matrimonial Causes are of the Churches Jurisdiction 18. That it hath enjoyned Kings and Princes to leave Ecclesiasticks the free and intire Possession of the Jurisdiction granted them by the Holy Canons and General Councils that is to say Usurped by the Clergy over the Civil Power These are the principal Points disputed in France Those that tend to the diminution of the Authority and Privileges of Bishops to enlarge the Roman Power are rejected by the Bishops and those that would extend the Power of Bishops to the prejudice of the Civil Authority are rejected by the Parliaments Between both this Council as enacting contrary to the Rights and Liberties of the Gallican Church was never at all received in France so as to obtain the force of a Law Why then should that Assembly give Law to us Protestants that is rejected by so great a part of the Church of Rome If it hath not erred why do Roman Catholicks as they will be termed refuse to receive it And if it hath erred what reason is there to press us to receive it I know what is answered to this that matters of Faith and of Discipline must be distinguished that the Council did not nor could not err in matters of Faith and Doctrine and that it was only mistaken in points