earnestly to thirst after these waters when hee sayth Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnes but the vngodly having tasted of the wine of mundane joy and temporall riches hate dislike and put from them this water and therefore the Lord sayth well of them by the Prophet Esay 8. Because this people haue refused the waters of Siloe that runne softly and without noyse and haue taken rather Rasin and the sonne of Romelia I will bring upon them the mighty waters of of the floud Siloe is interpreted sent and it signifieth the doctrine of the diuine Law sent vnto vs by Christ the Apostles and other faithfull ones which doctrine the Pastors of the Church are bound vnder the paine of damnation to know and teach whereupon Isidore saith de summo bono lib. 3. c. 46. The Priests shall bee damned for the iniquity of the people if either they neglect to teach them being ignorant or to reproue them when they offend the Lord hauing said by the Prophet I haue set thee as a watch-man ouer the house of Israel and if thou shalt not tell the wicked of his wickednes that hee forsake his euill way he shall dye in his iniquitie but I will require his bloud at thy hand Notwithstanding all this many of the moderne Priests cast from them this learning and say we will none of it because it is not de pane lucrando that is it serueth not to bring in gaine and profite and giue themselues to the study of humane lawes which are not so necessary for the sauing of soules as the law of God because as Odo saith here vpon the Gospell sermone 39. If Christ had knowne that we might more easily attaine saluation by the Lawes of Iustinian he would surely haue taught them vs with his own mouth and haue let that alone which he taught vs and deliuered vnto vs et in quâ continetur implicitè vel explicitè omnis scientia ad salutem necessario requisita and in which is contained expressely or implicitely all knowledge necessarily required to saluation according to that of S. Augustine 2. de doctrinâ Christianâ in fine Whatsoeuer a man learneth without and beside the holy Scripture if it be hurtfull it is there condemned if it bee profitable it may there be found But many Church-men leaue this learning and take vnto them Rasin and the sonne of Romelia Rasin signifieth a picture and Romelia high and mighty thunder so that by Rasin and the sonne of Romelia wee may vnderstand painted and glorious wordes and that wordy thunder of humane lawes which kindes of learning many Ecclesiastical persons assume that they may be by such profession exalted in the courts of great Lords and for this cause as the Prophet addeth the Lord shall bring vpon them the mighty and great waters of the floud that is infernall punishments so saith Odo Hitherto hee hath alleadged the words of Grosthead and Odo In another place he saith concerning them that so contemne the word of God that the Lord complaineth of such by the Prophet Ierem. 2. saying My people hath done two euils they haue forsaken me the fountaine of liuing water and haue digged to themselues broken cisterns to which as Gulielmus Parisiensis saith the decree or canon law may fitly be compared which is a broken cisterne that cannot hold water which though it haue water to day shall haue none to morrow because it shall bee abrogated whereas touching the Law of God it is otherwise and therefore the Psalmist saith thy righteousnesse O Lord is an euerlasting righteousnesse and thy law is trueth Yet is the holy Scripture much contemned by the profession of the Canonists so that the knowledge of holy Scripture and profession of Divinity may say to an ill Advocate or Lawyer as Sara said to Abraham in the 16 of Genesis Thou dealest ill with me I gaue thee my handmaid into thy bosome who seeing that she had conceiued despised me for as Gulielmus Parisiensis saith de vitiis part 4. cap. 6. The profession of Canonists contemneth the profession of Divines and science of holy Scripture because they are not so gainefull as it is When Ismael and Isaack played together Ismael mocked Isaack so that Sarâ—… was forced to intreate Abraham to cast out the bondwoman and her sonne So happily it were behoofefull and profitable for the Church that this Science in a great part should be cast out because it not only contemneth the diuine Science and Law of God but blasphemeth it and in so doing contemneth and blaspheameth God himselfe who is the lawgiuer Here wee haue the opinion of three worthy men touching the sufficiencie of the Scripture and the dangers confusions and horrible euils that followed vppon the multiplying of humane inuentions Many more might be alleadged to the same purpose but these may suffice to let us know what the doctrine of the Church was in the dayes of our Fathers for they deliuer not their priuate conceipts but tel vs what all good and iudicious men conceiued of these things in their times But some men will say wee find often mention of traditions in the writers of former ages soe that it seemeth they did not thinke the Scriptures to containe all things necessary to saluation For the clearing of this doubt wee must obserue that by the name of tradition sometimes all the doctrine of Christ and his blessed Apostles is meant that was first deliuered by liuely voice and afterwards written Sometimes the deliuering of the diuine and canonicall bookes from hand to hand as receiued from the Apostles is named a tradition Sometimes the summe of Christian religion contained in the Apostles creed which the Church receiueth as a rule of her faith is named a tradition but euery one of those articles is found in the Scripture as Waldensis rightly noteth though not together nor in the same forme so that this colection may rightly be named a tradition as hauing beene deliuered from hand to hand in this forme for the direction of the Churches children and yet the Scriptures be sufficient Sometimes by the name of traditions the Fathers vnderstand certaine rites and auncient obseruations And that the Apostles delivered some things in this kind by word and liuely voyce that they wrote not wee easily grant but which they were it can hardly now be knowne as Waldensis rightly noteth But this proueth not the insufficiencie of the Scripture for none of those Fathers speake of points of doctrine that are to be belieued without and besides the Scripture or that cannot be proued from thence though sometimes in a generall sort they name all those points of religion traditions that are not found expressely and in precise tearmes in Scripture and yet may necessarily be deduced from things there expressed Lastly by the name of tradition is vnderstood the sense and meaning of the Scripture receiued from the Apostles and deliuered from hand to hand together with the bookes There are
subscribed in this sort First Eutychius Bishop of Constantinople then Apollinarius of Alexandria after him Domninus of Antioch and last of all the Legates of Eustochius of Ierusalem for the Bishop of Rome was not there in person nor by his Legates In the sixth the Emperour sate in the highest place in the middest His great men and the Consuls sate by him on the left side the Legates of the Bishop of Rome the Vicars of the Bishop of Ierusalem the Bishops that were present out of the Romane Synode On the right side sate first the Bishop of Constantinople next him the Bishop of Antioche then hee that supplied the place of the Bishoppe of Alexandria and so in order the Bishoppes subiect to them yet in subscribing the Bishop of Rome was first Constantinople second Alexandria third Antioch fourth and Ierusalem last In the seauenth the Legates of Adrian Bishop of Rome had the first place and subscribed first after them the Bishop of Constantinople Tharassius and then they that supplyed the roomes of the other three Patriarchicall Thrones But Tharassius rather performed the duty of a President Moderator then the Legates of Rome as I shewed before These are all the Generall Councels that the Greeke and Latine Churches jointly acknowledge by this view which we haue taken of them wee may see how diuersly things haue beene carried both concerning the Presidentship in Generall Councels and the preheminences of the chiefest Bishops in the same Yet as the Graecians were content in the Councell of Florence that the Bishoppe of Rome should haue all such preheminences againe as hee had before the division of the Churches if other matters might bee agreed on So if the Bishoppe of Rome would disclaime his claime of vniuersall jurisdiction of infallible judgement and power to dispose at his pleasure the Kingdomes of the World and would content himself with that all Antiquity gaue him which is to bee in order and honour the first among Bishoppes wee would easily grant him to bee in such sort President of Generall Councels as to sit and speake first in such meetings but to bee an absolute commaunder wee cannot yeeld vnto him Cardinall Turrecremata rightly noteth that the Presidentship of Councels whereof men doe speake is of two sorts the one of honour the other of power Presidentship of honouris to haue preheminence in place to propose things to bee debated to direct the actions and to giue definitiue sentence according to the voyces and judgement of the Councell Presidentshippe of power is to haue the right not onely of directing but of ruling their doings also that are assembled in Councell and to conclude of matters after his owne judgement though the greater part of the Councell like it not yea though no part like it A Presidentshippe of the former sort Antiquity yeelded to the Bishop of Rome when hee was not wanting to himselfe And if there were no other differences betweene vs and him wee also would yeeld it him But the latter kinde of presidentshippe wee cannot yeeld vnlesse wee ouerthrow the whole course of Councels and goe against the streame of all Antiquity This seemeth saith Duarenus to bee consonant vnto the Law of GOD that the Church which the Synode doth represent should haue the fulnesse of all power and that the Pope should acknowledge himselfe subject vnto it For Christ did not giue the power of binding and loosing to Peter alone whose successor the pope is said to bee but to the whole church Although I doe not deny but that hee was set before the rest of the Apostles yet so often as any one was to bee ordained either Bishoppe or Deacon or any thing to bee decreed that concerned the church Peter neuer tooke it to himselfe but referred it to the whole church But heerein did his preheminence stand and consist that as prince of the Apostles it pertained to him to call the rest together and to propose vnto them the things that were to bee handled as with vs at this day the president of the court of parliament calleth together the whole Senate and when occasion requireth beginneth first to speake and doth many other things which easily shew the greatnesse of the person which he sustaineth and yet notwithstanding hee is not greater or superiour to the whole court neither hath hee power ouer all the Senatours neither may hee decree any thing contrary to their judgements But the judgement of all controversies pertaineth to the court it selfe whose Head the president is said to be nay which is more the court commaundeth judgeth and punisheth the president as well as any other if there be cause so to doe And these things truely were likewise in the Ecclesiasticall state heretofore but I know not by what meanes it is now brought about that supreme power ouer all Christians is giuen to one and that hee is set free from all Lawes and canons after the example of the Emperours This is the judgement of the learned and worthy Duarenus yet the Iesuites and Iesuited papists at this day will needs haue the pope to be president of General councels in such sort that hee may conclude of matters after his owne judgement and liking though the greater part of the councell like it not yea though no part like it But this their conceit is easily refuted first by reason then by the practise of the church from the beginning For first either Bishops are assembled in Generall Councels onely as the Popes Counsellers to giue him aduise or they are in joynt Commission with him and sitte as his fellow Iudges of all matters of faith and discipline If onely as Counsellers to aduise him Councels should not consist only or principally of Bishops For as they say commonly that many a doting old woman may be more deuout and many a poore begging Frier more learned thē the Pope himself so there is no questiō but that many other may be as learned and iudicious as Bishops Though saith Austine according to the titles of honour which the custome of the Church giueth men Austine a Bishop be greater then Hierome a Presbyter yet Hierome in worth and merite is greater then Austine In the late Councell of Trent there is no question but that Andradius Vega and other Doctors that were there were euery way comparable with the greatest Bishop or Cardinall yet Bishoppes onely as of ordinary right and some few other by speciall priuiledge gaue decisiue voyces in that Councell other how learned soeuer being admitted onely to discusse and debate matters and thereby to prepare and ripen them that the Bishops might more easily iudge of them and therefore the current of most Papists is against that conceit of making Bishops to bee but the Popes Counsellers onely as appeareth by Andradius Canus Bellarmine and many moe That Bishops saith Melchior Canus are not Counsellers onely to advise but Iudges to determine all matters doubtfull touching
in appointing some selected men for the visitation of the rest Fourthly in joyning temporall menincommission with the spirituall guides of the church to take view of and to censure the actions of men of Ecclesiasticall order because they are directed not onely by Canons but lawes Imperiall Fifthly when matters of fact are obiected for which the canons and lawes Imperiall judge men depriueable the Prince when hee seeth cause and when the state of things require it either in person if he please or by such other as hee thinketh fitte to appoint may heare and examine the proofes of the same and either ratifie that others did or voyd it as wee see in the case of Caecilianus to whom it was objected that hee was a Traditor and Faelix Antumnitanus that ordayned him was so likewise and that therefore his ordination was voyd For first the enemies of Caecilianus disliking his ordination made complaintes against him to Constantine and hee appointed Melchiades and some other Bishoppes to sitte and heare the matter From their judgement there was a new appeale made to Constantine Whereupon hee sent to the Proconsull to examine the proofes that might bee produced But from his iudgmēt the complainants appealed the third time to Constantine who appointed a Synode at Arle All this hee did to giue satisfaction if it were possible to these men and so to procure the peace of the Church And though he excused himselfe for medling in these businesses and asked pardon for the same for that regularly hee was to haue left these iudge ments to Ecclesiasticall persons yet it no way appeareth that hee did ill in interposing himselfe in such sort as hee did the state of things being such as it was nor that the Bishoppes did ill that yeelded to him in these courses and therefore in cases of like nature Princes may doe whatsoeuer hee did and Bishops may appeare before them and submit themselues to their iudgement though in another case Ambrose refused to present himselfe before Valentinian the Emperour for tryall of an Ecclesiasticall cause Neither is it strange in our state that Kinges should intermedle in causes Ecclesiasticall For Matthew Paris sheweth that the ancient lawes of England prouided that in appeales men should proceed from the Arch-deacon to the Bishoppe from the Bishop to the Arch-bishop and that if the Arch-bishop should faile in doing iustice the matter should be made knowne to the King that by vertue of his commandement it might receiue an end in the Arch-bishops Court that there might be no further proceeding in appeales without the Kings consent From the power which Princes haue in causes Ecclesiasticall let vs proceed to the power they haue ouer persons Ecclesiasticall and see whether they be supreame ouer all persons or whether men of the Church bee exempt from their iurisdiction That they are not exempted by GODS law wee haue the cleare confession of Cardinall Bellarmine and others who not onely yeeld so farre vnto the trueth forced so to doe by the cleare euidence thereof but proue the same by Scripture and Fathers The Cardinals wordes are these Exceptio Clericorum in rebus politicis tam quoad personas quam quoad bona iure humano introducta est non diuino that is The exemption of Cleargy-men in things ciuill as well in respect of their persons as their goods was introduced brought in by mans law and not by the law of God Which thing is proued first out of the precept of the Apostle to the Romanes Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers and addeth Therefore pay yee tribute For when the Apostle saith Let euery soule be subiect hee includeth Cleargy-men as Chrysostome witnesseth and therefore when hee addeth for this cause pay yee tribute he speaketh of Cleargy-men also Whence it will follow that Cleargy-men are bound to pay tribute vnlesse they be exempted by the fauour and priviledge of Princes freeing them from so doing which thing Thomas Aquinas also affirmeth writing vpon the same place Secondly the same is proued out of the Ancient For Vrbanus saith The tribute money was therefore found in the mouth of the fish taken by Saint Peter because the Church payeth tribute out of her outward and earthly possessions And Saint Ambrose saith if tribute bee demaunded it is not denyed the Church-Land payeth tribute Now if Vrbanus Bishoppe of Rome and worthy Ambrose Bishop of Millaine then whom there was neuer any Bishoppe found more resolute in the defence of the right of the Church say that tribute is not to bee denyed but payed vnto Princes by men of the Church and in respect of Church-land I thinke it is evident there is no exemption by any Law of GOD that freeth the goods of Church-men from yeelding tribute to Princes For touching that text where our Sauiour sayth vnto Peter What thinkest thou Simon of whom doe the Kings of the Gentiles receiue tribute of their owne children or of strangers And Peter answereth of strangers Whence CHRIST inferreth that the children are free brought by some to proue the supposed immunity of Cleargy-men to bee from GODS owne graunt Bellarmine sufficiently cleareth the matter For first hee sheweth that CHRIST speaketh of himselfe onely making this argument Kings sonnes are free from tribute as beeing neither to pay to their owne fathers seeing their goods are common nor to strangers to whom they are not subiect therefore himselfe being the Sonne of the great King of Kings oweth no Tribute to any mortall man So that when hee saide the children are free hee meant not to signifie that any other are free but onely that himselfe was free Secondly he rightly obserueth that this place would proue that all Christians are free from Tribute if it proued any other then CHRIST to bee so for all Christians are the sonnes of GOD by adoption and grace And Hierome writing vpon this place hath these words Our Lord was the Kings son both according to the flesh and according to the spirit descending of the stocke of Dauid and being the Word of the Almighty Father and therefore as being the Sonne of the Kingdome owed no tribute but because hee assumed the humility of flesh it behooued him to fulfill all righteousnesse but vnhappy men that wee are we are called after the name of Christ doe nothing worthy so great an honour He for the great loue he bare towards vs sustained the crosse for vs and payde tribute but we for his honour pay no tribute and as Kings sons are free from tribute These words are brought by some to proue the imagined freedome we speake of but first they are so far from prouing any such thing that Erasmus thinketh Hierome reprehended it and disliked it as a thing sauouring of arrogancy that cleargymen should refuse to pay tribute which hee saith is contrary to the conceit of men in our time who thinke it the height of all piety to maintaine
ended by Synodes and they holden twice euery yeare But in processe of time when the gouernours of the Church could not conueniently assemble in Synode twice a yeare the Fathers of the sixth generall Councell decreed that yet in any case there should be a Synode of Bishops once euery yeare for Ecclesiasticall questions Likewise the seventh generall Councell decreeth in this sort Whereas the Canon willeth iudiciall inquisition to be made twice euery yeare by the assembly of Bishops in euery prouince and yet for the misery and pouerty of such as should trauell to Synodes the Fathers of the sixth councell decreed it should be once in the yeare anà then thinges amisse to be redressed we renew this later Canon So that whereas at the first there was a Synode of Bishoppes in euery prouince twice in the yeare now it was sufficient if the Bishops met once But afterwards many thinges falling out to hinder their happy meetings we shall finde that they met not so often and therefore the Councell of Basil appointeth Episcopall Synodes to be holden once euery yeare and Prouinciall at the least once in three yeares And so in time causes growing many and the difficulties intollerable in comming together and in staying to heare these causes thus multiplyed and encreased it was thought fitter to referre the hearing of complaints and Appeales to Metropolitanes and such like Ecclesiasticall Iudges limited and directed by Canons and Imperiall lawes then to trouble the Pastours of whole provinces and to wrong the people by the absence of their Pastours and Guides Thus hauing spoken of the authority of the Metropolitane and his Councell in every province it remaineth that we come to Synodes of a larger extent These besides Oecumenicall whereof wee will not yet speake were of two sorts Patriarchicall wherein one of the Patriarches and chiefe Bishops of the world sate as president or Nationall consisting of the Bishops of many Provinces within one Country or Kingdome wherein the Primate sate as President of which sort the Councels of Africa were concerning which Councels it is ordered in the third Councell of Carthage that once euery yeare there shall be a general assembly of the Bishops of Africa to which all the provinces which haue primas sedes that is first Sees and so may holde provinciall Councels shall out of their Councels send two Bishops or as many as they shall thinke fit but that out of Tripolis because of the pouerty of the Bishops of it one Bishop shall come In these Councels the Legates of the Bishop of Rome were sometimes present not as presidents but assistants as other Metropolitanes were There were many provinces which had primas sedes that is first Sees and so consequently many Primates yet for distinction some call him that was Bishop of that first See which was in honour before all the rest of the same country and kingdome and to whom in all common deliberations the other Metropolitans did resort by an excellency the Primate the rest by the cōmon name of Metropolitans in which sense the Bishop of Carthage was Primate of all Africa and so is a Primate in order and honour before Metropolitanes but inferiour vnto a Patriarch Of this distinction of degrees of honour amongst Metropolitanes and chiefe Bishops Hugo de Sancto Victore writeth in this sort Post Sacerdotes altiores sunt Principes Sacerdotum id est Episcopi supra quos iterum sunt Archiepiscopi supra illos qui dicuntur Primates supra quos quidam Patriarchas constituere volunt alii eosdem Patriarchas Primates dicunt that is after priests we are to reckon the chiefe priests that is Bishops as in the first degree and honour aboue them aboue whom againe are Arch-Bishops and aboue them they that are named Primates aboue whom some will haue Patriarches to bee placed but others will haue Patriarches and Primates to bee all one Rabanus in his booke de institutione Clertcorum sorteth Bishoppes into three rankes Patriarches Arch-Bishoppes who also are named Metropolitanes and ordinary Bishops CHAP. 31. Of Patriarches who they were and the reason why they were preferred before other Bishops TOuching the Patriarches they were in the beginning but onely three to wit the Bishops of Rome Alexandria and Antioche The reason as some thinke why the Bishops of these places were preferred before other and made Patriarches was in respect had to blessed Peter who was in sort before expressed in order and honour the first and chiefest of the Apostles For Antioche was honoured for that he sate there for a certaine space and afterwards governed it by Euodius Alexandria for that he placed Marke his Scholler there and Rome because it was the place of his death and martyrdome where in his body hee stayeth and expecteth the Resurrection of the dead and the second comming of Christ. All the Churches founded by any Apostle are rightly called Apostolique but these more specially in which the Apostle Peter sate Secunda fedes saith Anacletus apud Alexandriam beati Petri nomine à Marco eius discipulo consecrata est Tertia autem sedes apud Antiochiam eiusdem beati Petri Apostoli habetur honorabilis that is The second See and in degree and honour next vnto that of Rome was consecrated at Alexandria by the authoritie of blessed Peter by Marke his Scholler and the third See honourable for Peters presence in the same is at Antioche Nihil saith Leo writing to Anatholius Alexandriae sedi eius quam per sanctum Marcum Evangelistam beati Petri discipulum meruit pereat dignitatis Antiochena quoque Ecclesia in quâ primum praedicante Apostolo Petro Christianum nomen exortumest in paternae constitutionis ordine perseveret in gradu tertio collocata nunquam fiat inferior that is Let the See of Alexandria lose no part of that dignity which it obtained by Saint Marke the Evangelist the disciple of blessed Peter Let the Church of Antioche also in which vpon Peters preaching the name of Christians first beganne continue in that degree and order wherein the constitution of the Fathers set it and being placed in the third degree let it neuer be put lower This did Leo write when the Bishop of Constantinople sought to haue the second place in the Church of God and to be preferred before the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioche Gregory writeth to the same effect to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria His words are Cum multisint Apostoli pro ipso tamen principatusola Apostolorum Principis Sedes in authoritate conualuit quae tribus in locis vnius est Ipse enim sublimauit sedem in qua etiam quiescere praesentem vitam finire dignatus est Ipse decorauit sedemin qua Euangelistam discipulum misit Ipse firmauit sedem in qua septem annis quamuis discessurus sedit Cum ergo vnius atque vna sit sedes cui ex authoritate dinina tres nunc Episcopi praesident
ill and violated the canons hee could not but offend in admitting such their appeales And therefore they of Africa tell the Pope that it befeemeth him to repell such appeales and that to admit them is to bring in the smoaky puffe of worldly pride into the Church professing that the ending of such matters belongeth to the Church of Africa and complaining of intollerable wrongs and injuries done vnto them when such appeales are admitted whence it is consequent that the Pope may not admit them Secondly he answereth that the Bishop of Rome admitted not the appeale of Apiarius but heard his complaints and commaunded them of Africa more diligently to examine his cause whereas it is most plaine and euident that the Pope vpon his appeale vnadvisedly receiued him to his communion and restored him to his degree and place again Besides that to heare complaints to command a review is in the judgement of all men of sense vnderstanding a kind of an admitting of an appeale seeing no such thing can be done but by him that hath power to judge of their judgement whom he cōmaundeth to review and reexamine that they haue formerly judged Concerning Bishops the Councell of Chalcedon decreed that if a Bishop haue ought against the Metropolitane he shall goe to the Primate of the Diocese or to the See of the Princely city of Constantinople that there the matter may be examined and heard And the Emperour confirming the same canon decreed that if the Bishops of one Synode haue any matter of variance among themselues either for Ecclesiasticall right or any other occasions first the Metropolitane and the other Bishops of the Synode shall examine and determine the cause and if either part dislike the judgment then the Patriarch of that Diocese shall giue them audience according to the Ecclesiasticall Canons and Imperiall lawes neither side hauing liberty to contradict his judgment This decree of the Emperour Gregory the first reciteth and alloweth onely adding that if there be neither Metropolitane nor Patriarch then the matter must bee ended by the Apostolicke See which is the Head of all Churches So that euen in his judgment when there is a Patriarch no Bishop may appeale frō him to Rome but euery one is bound to stand to the end that he shall make The eight generall Councell in like sort appointeth Bishops cōplaining of their Metropolitans to go to the Patriarch that he may make an end requireth either side to stand to the end that he shal make seeing the more honourable Bishops out of sundry Provinces called together by him sit in councell with him Yet Zozimus Bonifacius Caelestinus Bishops of Rome by their agents in the Councels of Africa vrged claimed a pretended right to admit appeales of Bishops from any part of the world as frō the canons of the Nicene councell But the worthy Bishops there present looking into the decrees of that councell finding no such thing as was alleaged lest haply those copies of the councell which they had might be defectiue imperfect or corrupted sent to the most reverend Patriarches of Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch for the authentical indubitate copies but could find no such thing in them when they came as was alleaged by the agents of the Bishop of Rome And therefore they wrote vnto him prayed him no more so easily to admit men comming to him with appeales and complaints nor to receiue to his communion such as they should excommunicate because the Nicene councell hath forbidden all such admission committing not onely Lay-men and inferiour Cleargy-men but Bishops also to their owne Metropolitans and requiring that Bishops put from the communion in their own Provinces should not bee by other hastily suddainly or vnduely restored to the communion And farther they besought the Roman Bishops to repell as beseemeth them the wicked appeales of Presbyters other inferiour Clergy-men because no decree of any councell hath prejudiced the Church of Africa in this behalfe but all the Fathers most prudently justly decreed determined that all matters should be ended in the place where they arise seeing no Province can lacke the grace of the Holy Ghost whereby the Bishops of Christ may be able both wisely to see and constantly to maintaine the right and especially for that it is lawfull for euery one that shall mislike the judgment of them that haue the hearing of his cause to appeale to the councels of his Province or to a generall Councell vnlesse haply any man will thinke that God will inspire the tryall of justice into one man alone that he will deny the same to a great number of Bishops assembled in Councell and farther they adde that these beyond-sea iudgments cannot be thought good and of force whereunto the persons of the witnesses necessary for the finding out of the truth cannot bee brought either in respect of the infirmity of their sexe or age or by reason of some other impediment And thus we see that the Bishops of Rome could not demonstrate their right to receiue Appeales of Bishops refusing to stand to the iudgments of their owne Metropolitanes and Synodes out of the Nicene Councell but failed in the issue Yet may we not hereupon charge them with falsification or mistaking say the worthy Proctors of the Romane Church But wee must rather say with counterfeit Athanasius in his Epistle to Faelix that the coppies of the Nicene Councell were corrupted or in his Epistle to Marke the Bishop of Rome that they were burned then that we should yeeld any such thing And yet surely if they were corrupted they were not burned and if they were burnt they were not corrupted and that the Arrians should corrupt the coppies of the Nicene Councell in other things and leaue it inuiolable in that part that toucheth them most and condemneth their heresie is strange and vnlikely Bellarmine saith the Magdeburgians doe laugh at the report of the burning of those coppies of the Nicene Councell that were kept at Alexandria and seemeth to confesse they haue reason so to do For saith hee the supposed burning happened in the time of Constantius the Emperour when as Athanasius being driuen from thence George the Arrian had gotten into his place as Athanasius testifieth in his Epistle ad omnes Orthodoxos whereas it may be clearely proued out of the Chronicle of Hierome that Marke the Pope was dead at that time Besides if Marke the Pope had sent the true coppies to Alexandria vpon this letter of Athanasius as is pretended why should not the coppies that were found at Rome they that were brought from Alexandria into Africa haue agreed together How came it to passe that the canon vrged for the Popes aduantage in the Councels of Africa was not found in the coppies sent from Alexandria but that that coppy altogether agreed with the other that came from Constantinople and Antioch Bellarmine therefore passing by
earnest and promised confidently to pacifie Ambrose he bade him goe with speede and himselfe followed after in hope of reconciliation trusting vpon the promises of Ruffinus But when Ambrose saw Ruffinus he sayd vnto him O Ruffinus thou doest imitate the impudencie of shamelesse dogges for hauing beene the aduiser and counsellor to so vile murthers thou hast hardned thy forehead and hauing cast away all shame blushest not after the committing of so great and horrible outrages against men made after the image of God And when he was importunate with him and told him the Emperour was comming full of fierie zeale he brake forth into these words I tell thee Ruffinus I will not suffer him to passe the thresholds of Gods house and if of an Emperour he become a tyrant I will ioyfully suffer death Whereupon Ruffinus caused one to runne to the Emperour to desire him to stay within the Court But the Emperour being on the way when the messenger met him resolued to come forward and to endure the reproof of the Bishop So hee came to the sacred railes but entred not into the Temple and comming to the Bishoppe besought him to vnloose him from the bands wherewith hee was bound The Bishop somewhat offended with his comming told him the manner of his comming was tyrant-like and that being mad against God he trampled vnder his feete the lawes of God Not so said the Emperour I presse not hither in despite of order neither doe I vniustly striue to enter into the house of God But I beseech thee to vnloose me to remember the mercifull disposition of our common Lord and not to shut the doore against me that hee would haue opened to all that repent What repentance therefore saith the Bishoppe hast thou shewed after so grieuous an offence what medicines hast thou applied to cure thy wounds It pertaineth to thee sayth the Emperour to prepare the medicines that should heale mee and to cure my wounds and to me to vse that thou prescribest Then sayd Ambrose seeing thou makest thy displeasure iudge and it is not reason that giueth sentence when thou sittest vpon the throne to doe right but thy furious proceedings make a law that when sentence of death and confiscation of goods shall bee passed there may passe thirty dayes before the execution of the same that so if within that space it be found vniust it may be reuersed or otherwise it may proceede This law the Emperour most willingly consented to make and thereupon Ambrose vnloosed him from his bands and he entred into the Temple and prayed vnto God not standing nor kneeling but prostrate vpon the earth and passionately vttering these words of Dauid My soule cleaueth to the pauement Lord quicken me according to thy word Here we see an excellent patterne of a good Bishoppe and a good Emperour and it is hard to say whether Ambrose were more to be commended for his zeale magnanimous resolution and constancie or the Emperour for his willing and submissiue obedience But of deposing Princes here is nothing Ambrose being so farre from any thought of lifting vp his hand against the Emperour that he resolued to subiect himselfe vnto him euen to the suffering of martyrdome if neede should require But saith Bellarmine Ambrose exercised ciuill authority in that hee tooke notice of this murther of the Emperour beeing a criminall cause and forced him to make a ciuill law for the preuenting of furious and bloodie proceedings in iudgment This surely is a weake collection for the Church hath power by vertue of her Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction to take notice of such horrible crimes as murther to punish them with spirituall punishments Neither was the inducing of Theodosius to make a ciuill law for the preuenting of such like euils as he was now censured for before he would reconcile him to the Church an act of ciuill authoritie But such testimonies as this is they that haue no better must be forced to vse That which followeth of Gregories confirming the priviledges graunted to the Abbey of Saint Medardus in such sort that whatsoeuer Kings Iudges or secular persons should go about to violate them should be depriued of their honour proueth not the thing in question For it is evident that the confirmation of these priviledges was passed not by S. Gregory alone but by a whole Councell and more specially by Theodoricus the King and Brunichildis the Queene who might binde their successours and other inferiour secular Rulers vnder paine of deprivation though neither Gregory of himselfe nor yet a councell of Bishops could doe any such thing by their authoritie alone Wherefore let vs proceede to the next example Gregory the second saith Bellarmine excommunicated the Emperour Leo the third who was an enemy to Images he forbade any tribute to be payde him out of Italy and consequently depriued him of part of his Empire Surely if Greg. the second of himself alone had had such power as to forbid all Italy vpon his dislike to pay any more tribute to the Emperour there were some good shew of proofe in this allegation But if wee examine the stories we shall finde the case to haue beene farre otherwise then Bellarmine would beare vs in hand it was For first Gregory did not excommunicate Leo of himselfe but called a Synode to doe it Secondly he did not forbid the paying of tribute out of Italy to the Emperour but the circumstances of the History are these Leo seeking to win the Bishop of Rome and the people of Italy to the casting downe of Images in the West as he had done in the East Gregory the Bishop did not onely refuse to obey him but admonished all other to take heed they did no such thing for feare of any Edict of the Emperour By which exhortation the people of Italy already mis-conceited of the Emperours governement were so animated that they were likely to haue proceeded to the election of a new Emperour and Nauclerus sheweth that the decrees of the Bishop of Rome disswading the people of the West from obeying the Emperour in casting downe of Images were of so great authoritie that the people and souldiers of Ravenna first and then of Venice beganne to make shew of rebellion against the Emperour and his Exarche or Lieutenant and to inforce the Bishop of Rome and the other people of Italy to disclaime the Emperour of Constantinople and to chuse another in Italy And that this rebellion proceeded so farre that euery city putting downe the Magistrates of the Exarch set vp Magistrates of their owne whō they named Dukes but that the Bishop of Rome at that time pacified thē and by his perswasions stayed them from chusing any new Emperour in hope that he would amend So that we see the Bishop of Rome with his Bishops by their authority did nothing but stay the people from obeying the Emperours vnlawfull Decrees as they iudged them but no way went about to depose the
Chap. 2. Of the sufficiencie of the Scripture 232. Chap. 3. Of the originall text of Scripture of the certainty and truth of the originals and of the authority of the vulgar translation 238. Chap. 4. Of the translating of the Scripture into vulgar languages and of the necessitie of hauing the publique liturgie and prayers of the Church in a tongue vnderstood ibid. Chap. 5. Of the three supposed different estates of meere nature grace and sinne the difference betweene a man in the state of pure and meere nature and in the state of sinne and of originall sinne 250. Chap. 6. Of the blessed virgins conception 264. Chap. 7. Of the punishment of originall sin and of Limbus puerorum 270. Chap. 8. Of the remission of originall sinne and of concupiscence remaining in the regenerate 272. Chap. 9. Of the distinction of veniall and mortall sinne 277. Chap. 10. Of free will 279. Chap. 11. Of iustification 290. Chap. 12. Of merit 324. Chap. 13. Of workes of supererogation and Counsels of perfection 331. Chap. 14. Of Election and Reprobation depending on the foresight of something in the parties elected or reiected ibid. Chap. 15. Of the seauen Sacraments 332. Chap. 16. Of the being of one body in many places at the same time ibid. Chap. 17. Of transubstantiation 333. Chap. 18. Touching orall Manducation 334. Chap. 19. Of the reall sacrificing of Christs body on the Altar as a propitiatory sacrifice for the quicke and dead 335. Chap. 20. Of remission of sinnes after this life ibid. Chap. 21. Of Purgatory 336. Chap. 22. Of the Saints hearing of our prayers 337. Chap. 23. Of the superstition and idolatrie committed formerly in the worshipping of Images 338. Chap. 24. Of Absolution ibid. Chap. 25. Of Indulgences and Pardons 339. Chap. 26. Of the infallibility of the Popes iudgment 340. Chap. 27. Of the power of the Pope in disposing the affaires of Princes and their states ibid. The fourth Booke is of the Priuiledges of the Church CHAP. 1. OF the diuerse kindes of the priuiledges of the Church and of the different acceptions of the name of the Church 343. Chap. 2. Of the different degrees of infallibility found in the Church 344. Chap. 3. Of the meaning of certaine speaches of Caluine touching the erring of the Church 345. Chap. 4. Of their reasons who thinke the present Church free from all error in matters of faith 346. Chap. 5. Of the promises made vnto the Church how it is secured from errour of the different degrees of the obedience wee owe vnto it 348. Chap. 6. Of the Churches office of teaching and witnessing the truth and of their errour who thinke the authority of the Church is the rule of our faith and that shee may make new articles of faith 350. Chap. 7. Of the manifold errors of Papists touching the last resolution of our faith and the refutation of the same 351. Chap. 8. Of the last resolution of true faith and whereupon it stayeth it selfe 355. Chap. 9. Of the meaning of those words of Augustine that he would not beleeue the Gospell if the authority of the Church did not moue him 358. Chap. 10. Of the Papists preferring the Churches authority before the Scripture ibid. Chap. 11. Of the refutation of their errour who preferre the authority of the Church before the Scripture 359. Chap. 12. Of their errour who thinke the Church may make new articles of faith 361. Chap. 13. Of the Churches authority to iudge of the differences that arise touching matters of faith 362. Chap. 14. Of the rule of the Churches iudgment 364. Chap. 15. Of the Challenge of Papists against the rule of Scripture charging it with obscurity and imperfection 365. Chap. 16. Of the interpretation of Scripture and to whom it pertaineth 366. Chap. 17. Of the interpretation of the Fathers and how farre wee are bound to admit it 368. Chap. 18. Of the diuerse senses of Scripture 369. Chap. 19. Of the rules we are to follow and the helpes wee are to trust to in interpreting the Scriptures 372. Chap. 20. Of the supposed imperfection of Scriptures and the supply of Traditions 373. Chap. 21. Of the rules whereby true Traditions may be knowne from counterfeit 378. Chap. 22. Of the difference of bookes Canonicall and Apocryphall ibid. Chap. 23. Of the Canonicall and Apocryphall bookes of Scripture 379. Chap. 24. Of the vncertainty and contrariety found amongst Papists touching books Canonicall and Apocryphall now controuersed 382. Chap. 25. Of the diuerse editions of the Scripture and in what tongue it was originally written 385. Chap. 26. Of the Translations of the old Testament out of Hebrew into Greeke 387. Chap. 27. Of the Latin translations and of the authority of the vulgar Latine 388. Chap. 28. Of the trueth of the Hebrew Text of Scripture 390. Chap. 29 Of the supposed corruptions of the Greeke text of Scripture ibid. Chap. 30. Of the power of the Church in making Lawes 393. Chap. 31. Of the bounds within which the the power of the Church in making lawes is contained and whether shee may make lawes concerning the worship of God 394. Chap. 32. Of the nature of Lawes and how they binde 397. Chap. 33. Of the nature of Conscience and how the conscience is bound ibid. Chap. 34. Of their reasons who thinke that humane Lawes do binde the Conscience 399. The fifth booke is concerning the diuers degrees orders and callings of those men to whom the gouernment of the Church is committed CHAP. 1. OF the Primitiue and first Church of God in the house of Adam the Father of all the liuing and the gouernement of same 409. Chap. 2. Of the dignity of the first borne amongst the sonnes of Adam and their Kingly and Priestly direction of the rest 410. Chap. 3. Of the diuision of the preeminences of the first borne amongst the sonnes of Iacob when they came out of Aegypt and the Church of God became Nationall 411. Chap. 4. Of the separation of Aaron and his sonnes from the rest of the sonnes of Leui to serue in the Priests office and of the head or chiefe of that company 412. Chap. 5. Of the Priests of the second ranke or order 413. Chap. 6. Of the Leuites 414. Chap. 7. Of the sects and factions in religion found amongst the Iewes in latter times ibid. Chap. 8. Of Prophets and Nazarites 416. Chap. 9. Of Assemblies vpon extraordinary occasions 417. Chap. 10. Of the set Courts amongst the Iewes their authority and continuance 418. Chap. 11. Of the manifestation of God in the flesh the causes thereof and the reason why the second Person in the Trinity rather tooke flesh then either of the other 423. Chap. 12. Of the manner of the vnion that is between the Person of the Sonne of God and our nature in Christ and the similitudes brought to expresse the same 429. Chap. 13. Of the communication of the properties of eyther nature in Christ consequent vpon the vnion of them in his Person
of Chalcedon they condemne Leo Bishop of Rome they accurse Eutyches and honour Dioscorus and Iacobus his Disciple Fourthly they are baptized in the name of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost in such sort as other Christians are but they are also circumcised both Male and Female which may seeme to cut them off from the fellowship of true Christians and the hope of saluation according to that of the Apostle if yee be circumcised yee are fallen from grace and Christ can profit you nothing For the clearing of this point Thomas à Iesu deliuereth these propositions First that Circumcision and other legall observations were so abrogated after the promulgation of the Gospell that the continuing of them became not only a dead thing and of no force but deadly also So that Cerinthus Ebion thining otherwise were condemned as Heretickes 2 That some legall observations though not as legall may bee nay are retained and continued amongst Catholique Christians For the better vnderstanding of this proposition he noteth that legall and ceremoniall things may be obserued foure wayes First as they are legall that is with an intention to keepe the Law and to doe as the Law prescribeth and in this sort Christ submitted himselfe to bee circumcised Secondly that things prescribed or forbidden in the Ceremoniall Law may bee done or omitted not onely in respect of obedience to the Law but as figuring the comming of Christ or as figures of Christ to come as Thomas Aquinas sheweth So the holy Fathers that liued before Christ kept this observation Thirdly we may doe or omit such things as are commaunded or forbidden in the Ceremoniall Law neither as figures of Christ to come nor as being bound by the Law so to doe or not to doe but onely to make it knowne that such Lawes were not euill but of God howsoeuer they are now no longer to haue any binding force Thus the Christians after the resurrection and ascension of Christ before the full promulgation of the Gospell retained circumcision for a time that they might bury the Synagogue with honour Fourthly such things may be done or omitted as the Law forbiddeth or prescribeth materialitèr sine vllâ formalitate vel respectu ad legem veterem that is though the same thing be done that is there prescribed yet it is not done as there prescribed but for other ends as we keepe the feast of Pentecost which the Iewes obserued but not because it was prescribed in the law nor for the same reasons for which they kept it for it was therefore a solemne day with them because as on that day the law was given vnto them vpon mount Sina but with vs because on that day the law of the spirit and life was given so in like sort some Christians consecrate in vnleavened bread yet are they not to be condemned as Iewish seeing the reasons of their observation are very different from those motiues the Iewes had So that to omit or doe such things as are forbidden or Commaunded in the ceremoniall law materialiter tantum that is without anie of the former respects is vndoubtedly lawfull as if a man should bee circumcised or should abstaine from swines flesh for physicall considerations or keepe Saturday holy as many Christians doe but to omit or doe such things as are forbiden or prescribed in the ceremoniall law because they are there forbidden or prescribed or as figures of Christ is hereticall wherefore let vs see in what sort the Abissens vse circumcision Zagazabo professeth that they vse it onely as an auncient observation of their Countrie which they had receiued before they became Christians even from the time that the Queene of Sheba went to see Solomon and that they retaine it onely for the honour of their nation that they may thereby shew that they are of the stocke of David and indeede Herodotus speaking of certaine nations that were circumcised before the comming of Christ amongst the rest hee numbreth the Aethiopians which being soe I see not why wee should censure them as heretickes for this observation William Reinolds speaking of the Abyssens hath these words The Abyssens Christianly and as wee that beleeue as Christians should doe Baptize their infants and that they may shew from how noble a stock they are come circumcise them also but not as if circumcision were of any force or a man might put any trust in it as the Iewes doe which being soe I would no more condemne them in respect of Circumcision then a man that should abstaine from swines flesh which was forbidden by the Law vpon the advise of his physician onely Caietan and Bartholomeus de Medina thinke they sinne not in retaining this observation but supposing it to be lawfull whether it be fit they should be tolerated still soe to doe many taking offence at it I had rather sayth Caietan heare the Church speake then other particular authors Some impute to them that they are not Circumcised onely or principally for the causes before expressed but in imitation of Christ and consequently to fullfill the law which was the end of circumcision and therevpon condemne them as observers of the Ceremoniall Law But first it will hardly be proved as I thinke that they vse circumcision in imitation of Christs circumcision And secondly it will not follow if it be so that they are circumcised to the same end he was but only that they desire to be like vnto him in the outward act and to haue that done vnto them in the honour of him So that I rather encline to the opinion of Caietan and Bartholomeus de Medina who acquit them then to that of Soto and others that condemne them vpon this supposall The particular points of their religion are these First they think that the soule is ex traduce Secondly they vse the same forme of words in baptizing that the Latines doe saying I baptize thee in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the Holy Ghost 3 None baptizeth with thē but the Priest or in his absence the Deacon 4 Their males are not Baptized till the 40th day their females till the 80th till which time the mother is not purified nor entereth into the Church but if there be danger of death they are baptized sooner but they must not suck the brests of the mother vntill shee be purified They are vniustly charged that they Baptize with fire for there is none amongst them that do so but in some Provinces they signe themselues in the forehead either that they may differ from the Mahumetans or for the cure of diseases incident to the eyes 5 On twelfe day in memory of the baptisme of Christ they goe forth in great multitudes to the riuer and after many praiers said by the priests they put them selues into the water but no man is newly baptized 6 They thinke that the infants of beleeuing parents are sanctified in the vvombe as Hieremie and Iohn the Baptist were and therefore
many hundred yeares after him yea the Greeke and Aethiopian Churches continue that errour and the practise of communicating infants assoone as they are baptized euen vnto this day Touching predestination how many obscurities vncertainties and contrarieties shall we finde Surely before Augustines time many great worthy prelates and doctors of the Church not hauing occasion to enter into the exact handling of that part of Christian doctrine did teach that men are predestinate for the foresight of some thing in thēselues And Aug himselfe in the beginning of his conflicts with the Pelagians was of opinion that at the least for the foresight of faith men are elected to eternall life which afterwards he disclaimed as false and erronious and taught that mans saluation dependeth on the efficacie of that grace which God giueth and not his purpose of sauing vpon the vncertainty of mans will This doctrine of Augustine was received and confirmed in the Church against the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians And Bellarmine professeth that Augustines doctrine in this case is the doctrine of the Church yet so that many followed the former conceipt as wee may easily see by the writings of the Schoole men many of which do teach that men are elected for the foresight of some thing positiue or priuatiue in themselues Howe farre some did Montanise in the matter of second marriage so farre disliking it that they would not haue it blessed in the Church but imposed penance on them that married a second wife after the death of the first Hierome against Iouinian certaine auncient provinciall Councells are proofes more then sufficient Touching the state of Saints departed their generality of presence in all places their vniversall knowledge of all things and admirable working every where where their memories are solemnized are not more confidently affirmed by Hierome and Gregory than they are modestly denyed and doubted of by Augustine Hugó de sancto victore the Author of the glosse and others That there were superstitions and abuses in the primitiue Churches wee haue such witnesses as the Romanists dare not except against Doth not Hierome confesse that the burning of lights at noone day vsed in some Churches was an act of zeale but not according to knowledge Did not a Councell forbid those pernoctations in the cemeteries and places ef the martyrs buriall which when Vigilantius reproued Hierome with such fiercenesse and rage as cannot well be excused traduced him as the vilest monster the earth did beare Are not these vigils long since abolished Doth not Augustine confesse there were certaine adoratores sepulchrorum et picturarum worshippers of Tumbes and Pictures in the Church in his time It is therefore much to be maruailed at that our aduersaries charge us with I know not what impiety for that wee say there hath beene a defection not only of heretickes from the Church and faith but also in the Church of her owne children from the sincerity of the heauenly trueth sometimes more and sometimes lesse in some things by some and in some other by others That this defection began long agoe but found greater and stronger opposition in the first six hundred yeares then after there being in later times a great decay of the auncient piety whence it came that many moe and worse errours then euer before were broached and they which were in some beginnings before were augmented and more dangerously defended In which sence some of our men haue said that Gregory was the last of the Good Bishops and the first of the bad For that all things since his time haue greatly decayed and the state of the Church beene much corrupted CHAP. 10. Of their errour who say nothing can be amisse in the Church either in respect of doctrine or discipline IT is vaine saith Gerson that some object the Church is founded on a Rocke and therefore nothing can be amisse either in the doctrine or discipline of it nothing that should neede any reformation If it be so saith he then where is the observation of that Canon that Clarks goe not into Innes or Tavernes that Monkes in their owne places attend onely prayer and fasting without intermedling with Ecclesiasticall or secular busines whence is the superfluous pompe and Princely state of Cardinals and Bishops making them forget that they are men what say they to that abhomination that one man holdeth two hundred or three hundred Ecclesiasticall benefices That the sword of excommunication is so easily drawne out against the poore for euery trifle as for debts and that the Lords of the Clergie vse it for the maintenance of their owne temporall states That strangers are appointed by the Pope to haue cure of soules not vnderstanding the language of them ouer whom they are set nor liuing amongst them Open your eyes saith he and see if the houses of Nuns be not stewes of filthy harlots if the consecrated Monasteries be not Faires Markets and Innes Cathedrall Churches dennes of theeues and robbers Priests vnder pretence of maides keepe harlots consider whether so great variety of pictures and images be fit and whether it occasion not Idolatrie in the simple Looke vpon the number variety of religious orders the canonising of new Saints though there be too many already as Briget of Suetia Charles of Britaine the feasts of new Saints being more religiously kept than of the blessed Apostles Enquire if there be not Apocryphall Scriptures hymnes and prayers in processe of time either of purpose or of ignorance brought into the Church to the great hurt of the Christian faith Consider the diversities of opinions as of the conception of Mary and sundry other things See if there be not intollerable superstition in the worshipping of Saints innumerable observations without all ground of reason vaine credulity in beleeuing things concerning the Saints reported in the vncertaine Legends of their liues superstitious opinions of obtaining pardon and remission of sins by saying so many Pater nosters in such a Church before such an Image as if in the Scriptures and authenticall writings of holy men there were not sufficient direction for all acts of piety devotion without these fabulous and frivolous additaments nay which is yet worse see if these observations in many Countries and Kingdomes of the World bee not more vrged than the Lawes of God euen as wee shall finde in the decrees and decretals a Monke more seuerely punished for going without his coule then for committing adulterie or sacriledge CHAP. 11. Of the causes of the manifold confusions and euils formerly found in the Church THese are the euils deformities and sores of the Church which this worthy man in his time cōplained of The causes where of he thought to be principally two First the neglecting of the Lawes of GOD and direction of the Scriptures following humane inventions Secondly the ambition pride couetousnesse
which wee haue lost by our sinnes for there is nothing that offendeth God and provoketh him to be dipleased but sinne only as the Psalmist sayth they prouoked and displeased God with their inuentions the Priest therefore lifteth vp the body of Christ on the altar as if hee should thus say O heauenly Father wee haue sinned and provoked thee to anger but now looke on the face of Christ thy sonne whom wee present vnto thee to moue thee to turne from thy wrath and displeasure to mercie and grace turne not away thy face therefore from this thy holy child Iesus from this thy sonne but remember that thou hast sayd of this same thy sonne this is my welbeloued sonne in whom I am well pleased correct therefore mercifully in vs whatsoeuer thou findest in vs fit to be corrected and turne vs vnto thee and turne thy wrath from vs. The question is proposed sayth Petrus Cluniacensis why this sacrifice is so often repeated seeing Christ once offered on the crosse is sufficient to take away the sinnes of the whole world especially seeing here and there not a diuers but the same sacrifice that is the same Christ is offered For if that on the crosse sufficed this seemeth to bee supefluous but it is not superfluous c. for after hee had sayd doe this hee addeth in remembrance of mee This then is the cause of this Sacrament euen the commemoration of CHRIST Our Sauiour knew what hee had done and what hee would doe for man hee knew how great and singular that worke was which hee had done in putting on the nature of man hee knewe how wonderfull that worke would bee that hee was to do when hee should die for man hee knew that by this worke hee should saue man but that noe man could be saued without the loue of this worke hee knew that this worke of his becomming man and dying for man as it was renowned aboue all his workes soe it was especially to bee recommended vnto men for whome it was done it was specially to bee commended to them seeing his flesh was tormented for them his soule grieued and death seized on him that they might liue this was solemnly to be commended vnto them that Christ might bee beloued that being beloued hee might be possessed that being once had hee might neuer bee lost But this loue of him could not haue beene retained by men if they should-haue forgotten him neither could they haue retained the memorie of him vnlesse they should haue beene put in minde of him by some fitting outward signe For this cause was this signe proposed and appointed by CHRIST which yet is so a signe that it is the same thing that it signifieth and herein it differeth from the sacrifices of the old Law which were not that they signified Sed istud nostri sacrificij signum non aliud sed ipsum est quod signat ita vero est ci idem quod signat vt quantum ad corpus id est ad veritatem carnis sanguinis Christi pertinet sit idem quod signat non quoad mortem passionem neque enim ibi Christus vt olim dolorem mortem patitur cum tamen immolari dicatur cum videlicet inviolabiter in altari frangitur diuiditur comeditur cum ijs quibusdam alijs signis in quantum fieri potest mors domini maximè repraesentatur vnde sicut dixi quantum ad veritatem corporis sanguinis Christi pertinet est idem quod signat non quoad mortem passionem quam tamen maximè signat that is This signe of our sacrifice is noe other but the same thing that it signifieth but wee must soe vnderstand it to bee the same thing that it signifieth in respect of the trueth of the flesh and bloud of Christ which it signifieth but not in respect of his passion death though it very liuely expresse signifie that also for Christ doth not there suffer griefe or death as once he did though hee be said there to be offered immolated when hee is inviolably broken vpon the altar distributed eaten when by these the like signes Christs death is represented asmuch as possibly it may be so that as I said if we speake of the trueth of the body and bloud of Christ this signe is the thing it signifieth but if we speake of the death and suffering of Christ it is not so though it doe very clearely expressely represent signifie that his death and passion Thus we see he maketh the sacrifice to be merely representatiue Algerus excellently expresseth the same thing in these words Notandum quia quotidianum nostrum sacrificium idem ipsum dicit cum eo quo Christus semel oblatus est in cruce quantum ad eandem veram hic ibi corporis substantiā quod verò nostrum quotidianum illius semel oblati dicit esse exemplum id est figuram vel formam non dicit ut hic vel ibi alium Christum constituat sed ut eundem in cruce semel in altari quotidiè alio modo immolari offerri ostendat ibi in veritate passionis quâ pro nobis occisus est hic in figurâ imitatione passionis ipsius quâ Christus non iterum verè patitur sed ipsius verè memoria passionis quotidiè nobis iteratur quod ipse Ambrosius notans subiicit Quod nos facimus in commemorationem fit eius quod factum est hoc enim facite inquit in meam commemorationē non aliud sacrificium sed ipsum semper offerimus magis autem sacrificii recordationem operamur Non ergo est in ipsius Christi veritate diversitas sed in ipsius immolationis actione quae dum veram Christi passionem mortem quâdam suâ similitudine figurando repraesentat nos ad imitationē ipsius passionis invitat accendit contra hostem nos roborat munit à vitiis purgans virtutibus condecorans vitae aeternae idoneos dignos exhibet That is It is to bee noted that our daylie sacrifice is the same thing with that sacrifice whereby Christ was once offered vpon the crosse in that the same true substance is offered here that was offered there whereas therefore he saith that the sacrifice which we daylie offer is a similitude figure or representation of that sacrifice which Christ once offered he is not to be conceiued to imagine that there is one Christ essentially here another there but his meaning is to shew that the same Christ once offered on the crosse is dayly offered in another sort on the altar there in the truth of his passion being slaine for vs here in figure and imitation of his passion not suffering againe indeed but hauing the memory of his passion which once he endured daylie renewed which thing Ambrose himself also obseruing hath these words That which we doe is done in remembrance of that which
themselues to another not of falsehood but of superfluitie the first instance whereof that they giue is the sixt of Mathew where the Lords prayer in the vulgar Latine endeth with that petition deliuer vs from euill leauing out for thine is the Kingdome the power and the glory which they suppose to bee superfluously added in the Greeke But these men should know that though it were granted that these words were superfluous yet nothing is thereby derogated from the Greeke seeing some Greeke Copies and they very auncient omit them as Beza sheweth Their next instance is Rom. 11. where the vulgar Latine hath If of grace not of workes otherwise grace should be no more grace to which is added by way of Antithesis and opposition in the Greeke If of workes not of grace otherwise workes should be no more workes It will be very hard for our adversaries to proue that these latter words are superfluously added being found not onely in the most Greeke Copies but in the Syriacke translation But if it were granted yet there is one Greeke Copie of great antiquity that omitteth these words as well as the vulgar Latine The next instance is the sixt of Marke and the 11. Verily I say vnto you it shall be easier for Sodome and Gomorrha c. If it were granted that these wordes were superfluously added which yet there is no reason to doe seeing besides very many Greeke Copies the Syriacke translation hath them also yet would this make nothing for the improuing of the credite of the Greeke seeing as Beza professeth there are three Greeke Copies that omit them The like may bee said touching the next allegation of Mathew the 20 22 23. where these wordes and bee baptised with the baptisme that I am baptised with are supposed to bee superfluous for there are some Greeke Copies that omit them as well as the vulgar Thus hauing examined the seuerall allegations of our adversaries against the authoritie and credite of the Greeke Text of the New Testament wee see that they faile in them neither being able to convince it of falsehood nor superfluitie Wherefore to conclude this matter wee say with Hierome that the Latine editions are to be corrected by the Greeke that by the providence of GOD the verity of the Scriptures of the New Testament hath euer beene preserued in the originall That those faults and errours which are crept into some Copies may easily by the helpe of others be corrected and that there is no difference in matter of substance in so great variety of Copies as are found in the world If any man say the Greeke hath beene corrupted since the dayes of Hierome and that therefore though hee in his time thought the translations might bee corrected by the originals yet now wee may not take the same course we answere it may easily be proued that all those supposed corruptions which they now finde in the Greeke were found in it in Hieromes time For there are but two places to wit 1. Corinth 15. and 1. Iohn 4. 3. where all Greeke Copies haue otherwise then they say the truth is and these places were corrupted if there bee any errour in the present reading before Hieromes time Thus much touching the sufficiencie of the Scriptures and the editions wherein the authenticall veritie of the same is to bee sought CHAP. 30. Of the Power of the Church in making Lawes NOw it remaineth that wee come to the next part of our diuision touching the power of the Church in making lawes As the will of God willing and purposing the being of each thing is the first and highest cause of things so the same will of God determining what is fitte to bee what of what kinde in what sort each thing must bee that it may attaine and possesse the vttermost degree of perfection the orderly disposition of things requireth to bee communicated to it is the first and highest lawe to the whole world And as the will of God determining what is fitte defining what ought to bee and what must bee if the Creatures attaine their highest perfection is a generall lawe to all Creatures soe when he maketh knowne to creatures rationall and of an vnderstanding nature which haue power to doe or omitte thinges thus fitte to bee done that though hee leaue it in their power and freedome of choise to doe or omitte them yet they shall be tyed either to doe them or to loose the good they desire to enjoy incurre the euils they would avoyd It is more specially named a lawe of commandement precept or direction binding them vpon whom it is imposed to the performance of that it requireth The Precepts and Commandements of Almighty God are of two sorts for either they are such as in respect of the nature and condition of the things themselues are good and soe binde all men at all times or else they are positiue prescribing things variable according to the diuersities of times and the different condition of men liuing in them The former kinde of lawes God imposed vpon men in the day of their creation or redemption and restauration together with the very nature and being which hee gaue them the later prescribing things not naturally and perpetually good but good onely at some time to some men and to some purposes and vses to which they serue were not imposed at first together with the institution of nature or the restauration of the same by grace but are then imposed when the things they prescribe are iudged good and beneficiall Soe God prescribed before the comming of Christ his sonne those sacrifices and offerings which now hee regardeth not and hath now instituted those Sacraments Ceremonies and rites of Religion which before were not knowne in the world Thus wee see that the originall of all lawes is the will of God who as hee reserueth for himselfe the honor of being the supreame first and highest cause of all thinges and yet communicateth part of his Diuine power to subordinate and inferiour causes so though he alone be the great lawegiuer to euery creature yet hee communicateth part of his authority to such among the sonnes of men as he is pleased to make greater than others giuing them power to command and prescribe lawes vnto them Touching this matter thus generally deliuered there is noe difference betweene vs and our aduersaries For it is confessed on both sides that God who is the great lawgiuer to the whole world hath chosen out some from amongst the rest of the sonnes of men whom hee hath beene pleased to honour with his owne name to set vpon his owne seat and to make rulers and lawgiuers vnto his people but the question is within what bounds this power is contained and how farre the band of lawes made by such authority extendeth CHAP. 31. Of the boundes within which the power of the Church in making lawes is contayned and whether shee may make lawes concerning the worshippe of God TOuching
excommunication they may restraine from vse of Sacraments societie of Beleeuers and benefite of the Churches praiers so by Absolution they may free from all these bonds againe Neither is this kinde of binding and loosing lightly to bee esteemed of or little regarded for he that for his contempt and disobedience is debarred from the vfe of the Sacraments from enjoying the societie of the beleeuers and partaking in the benefite of the Churches prayers is vndoubtedly excluded from all accesse to the Throne of grace in Heauen all acceptation there so consequently no lesse bound in Heauen then in Earth and he that is vnloosed from these bonds on Earth is vnloosed and set free in Heauen that without all restraint he may goe boldly to the Throne of Grace to seeke helpe in the time of neede Thus wee see the diuerse kindes of binding and loosing that the Guides of Gods Church haue power and authority by Lawes and precepts censures and punishments to binde those that are committed to their care and trust and when they see cause by reuersing such Lawes and precepts wholly or in part and by diminishing releasing taking away such censures and punishments to vnty them and set them free againe The bond of Diuine Lawes they may no otherwise meddle with then by letting them know who are so bound how straightly they are tyed The bonds of sinne and punishments by Diuine Iustice to be inflicted they haue no power and authoritie to vnloose but they concurre as helpers to the vnloosing of them by the Ministery of the Word vvinning and persvvading men to convert vnto God to cast their sinnes from them and by the Sacraments instrumentally communicating vnto them the grace of repentant conversion and the assurance of remission and pardon In all these kindes of binding and loosing the Apostles were equall seeing our Aduersaries themselues confessing they had the same power of Order and jurisdiction in like extent within the compasse whereof all these kinds of binding and loosing are confined Wherefore let vs proceede to speake of the power of remitting and retaining sinnes giuen to the Apostles by Christ our Sauiour To remit sinne properly is nothing else but to resolue not to punish sinne and therefore hee onely may properly be sayd to remit sinne that hath power to punish it Now as sinne is committed against the prescript of God our Conscience and Men in authority soe GOD the conscience of the Sinner and the Magistrate and Minister haue power to punish sinne GOD with punishments temporall and eternall of this life and that which is to come the Conscience with remorse the Magistrate with death banishment Confiscation of goods imprisonment and the like and the guides of the Church with suspension excommunication degradation and such other censures Hence it followeth that GOD onely is sayd properly to remitte the punishments that his justice doth inflict that the conscience onely vpon repentance canne take away that bitter and aflictiue punishment of remorse wherewith shee is wont to torment and disquiet the minde of the offendour and that the Magistrate and Minister onely haue power to take away those punishments that in their seuerall courses they may and doe inflict Notwithstanding the Minister by the Word perswading men to repentance procuring remission and out of his prudent obseruation of the parties conuersion vnto GOD assuring him that it will goe well vvith him as also by the Sacrament instrumentally communicating to him as well the grace of repentant conuersion as of free remission that soe hee may heare the very sound and voyce of GOD in mercy saying to the heart and spirit of the repentant Sinner I am thy Saluation may bee sayd in a sort to remitte sinne euen in that it is an offence against GOD not by way of authority and power but by winning and perswading the sinner to that conuersion which obtaineth remission from GOD and by the Sacrament instrumentally making him partaker as well of the grace of remission of sinne from GOD as of conuersion from sinne to GOD. There are but foure things in the hand of the Minister the Word Prayer Sacraments and Discipline By the word of Doctrine hee frameth winneth and perswadeth the sinner to repentant conuersion seeking and procuring remission from God By Prayer he seeketh and obtaineth it for the sinner By Sacraments he instrumentally maketh him partaker as well of the grace of remission as conuersion And by the power of Discipline he doth by way of authority punish euill doings and remit or diminish the punishments he inflicteth according as the condition of the party may seeme to require By that which hath beene sayd it appeareth that to bind and loose to remit to retaine sins are equiualent the same saue that to bind and loose is of more ample large extent in that it implyeth in it the binding by precepts lawes the loosing which is by reversing or dispensing with the same And therefore hauing shewed that the Apostles were equall in the power ofbinding and loosing we need ad no farther proofe that they were equall in power of remitting retaining sins Wherefore let vs proceede to the promise of Christ made to Peter that vpon the Rocke mentioned by him he would build his Church and let vs see whether any peculiar thing were promised vnto Peter in that behalfe The Church of God we know is compared in Scripture to a City an House and a Temple and therefore the beginning proceeding and increasing of the same is rightly compared to building Now in building there must be a foundation vpon which all may rest and stay that is put into the same building and the foundation must be sure firme immoueable for otherwise it wall faile and so alll other parts of the building wanting their stay will fall to the ground Now nothing is so firme sure and immoueable as a Rocke and consequently no building so strōg as that which is raised vpon a rockie foundation wherevpon our Sauiour sheweth that a House builded on the sand is easily ruinated soone shaken to pieces but that an House builded vpon a rocke standeth firme notwithstanding the furie and violence of the flouds winds and tempests and compareth a Man rightly grounded and established in his perswasion and resolution to an house so built By a Rocke therefore in this place is meant a sure foundation that will not faile nor be moued or shaken how great a weight soeuer be laid vpon it In a foundation there are three things required The first is that it bee the first thing in the building the second that it beare vp all the other parts of the building the third that it be firme and immoueable For as Christ saith If the eye that is the light of the bodie be darknesse how great is that Darknesse So if that which is to support and beare vp all doe faile shrinke all must needs be shaken and fall a
haue bin attempted sought by the Bishops of Constantinople that liued in his time But granting that Gregory did so write that Eusebius a B. of Constantinople did acknowledge his Church to be subject to the See of Rome yet he meant nothing else thereby but that it was an inferiour See and so subject in such sort as I haue declared the inferiour Sees to be subject to the superiour which subjection will no way proue the supremacie that the Popes now claime Fourthly that Gregory doth not say that the Bishop of Constantinople acknowledged himselfe subject to the Bishop of Rome For it was not Primas Byzanzenus the Primate of Byzantium that Gregory reporteth to haue confest himselfe subject to the Bishop of Rome and whose cause the Emperour commanded Gregory to heare but Primas Byzanzenus that is the Primate of the Byzazene prouince of Africa So that this confession of the Primate mentioned by Gregory brought to proue that the Bishop of Rome had a commanding power ouer the Bishop of Constantinople is meerly mistaken by Bellarmine as it was before him by Gratian. But some man wil say howsoeuer there be a mistaking of this allegation yet it is strong and forcible to proue the thing intended For Gregory saith expressely that howsoeuer all Bishops in respect of humility be equall yet there is no Bishop but if he be found faulty is subject to the See of Rome That this saying of Gregory may be foūd true certaine limitations must be added vnto it For the Bishop of Rome might not immediatly punish euery Bishop that he found to offend nor vpon appeale take notice of the faults and misdemeanours of all Bishops but the Councell of Chalcedon ordereth that if any inferiour Clergy-man haue ought against another inferiour Clerke the matter shall be heard and determined by the Bishop or such as with the liking of the Bishop shall by the parties be chosen arbitratours and if he go against their determination hee shall be punished If a Clerke haue ought against his owne or another Bishop it shall be inquired of in the audience of the Synode of the Prouince If either Clerke or Bishoppe haue ought against the Metropolitane of the prouince hee shall goe to the Primate of the Diocese or to the throne and See of the Regall citty of Constantinople This Canon of the great Councell of Chalcedon was confirmed by the decree of Iustinian the Emperour If any man sayth the Emperour accuse a Bishop for whatsoeuer cause let the cause be judged by the Metropolitane and if any man gainsay the Metropolitane let the matter be referred to the Arch-bishop and Patriarch of that Diocese and let him end it according to the canons and Lawes So that wee see the Bishops of Rome might not intermedle in judging inferiour Bishops subject to other Patriarches neither immediatly nor vpon complaint and appeale whatsoeuer their faults be but they haue other supreme Iudges who haue power finally to determine such matters and from whom there lyeth noe appeale This canon of the Councell of Chalcedon and the Emperours decree confirming the same Gregorie alleageth and alloweth onely adding that if there be no Metropolitane or Patriarch such things as otherwise should be finally determined and ended by them are to be brought to the Bishop of Rome Wherefore it seemeth that Gregory speaketh of the Bishops within his owne Patriarchship whom sometimes he calleth his own Bishops when he sayth there is no Bishop but if he be found faulty is subject to the See of Rome Of these hee speaketh when he sayth I impute it to my sinnes that my owne Bishops should thus despise me And againe if the causes of bishops committed to mee be thus dealt with alas what shall I doe And in this sense he willeth Iohn of Palermo to whom hee sendeth a Pall not to suffer the reuerence of the Apostolique See to be troubled by any mans presumption for that the state of the members is then entire and safe when the canons are kept and no iniurie hurteth the head of the faith not naming the Church of Rome the head of the Faith for that the Bishop of Rome hath an infallible iudgment and absolute command in matters of faith vpon which all the world must depend as some ignorantly construe him but because it was the head that is the beginning and wel-spring whence the doctrine of Faith the knowledge of GOD and all Christian institution flowed to sundry other Churches which therefore are in a sort to depend on it to haue recourse to it and to hold conformity with it No other faith Innocentius established and founded the Churches of Italy France Germany Spaine Africke and the Isles that lye betweene but Peter and his Successours and therefore the Bishoppes of these Churches must keepe such obseruations as the Romane Church from which they tooke their beginnning receiued from the Apostles ne caput institutionum omittere videantur that is Lest they seeme to forsake the Head well-spring of all the institutions and ordinances they haue This is the reason why the Churches of these parts haue beene so subiect to the Church of Rome namely for that from thence they receiued the light of Christian knowledge but to all Churches it is not an head in this sort seeing they receiued the faith not from Rome but from some other Apostolicall Church as Antioche or Alexandria CHAP. 35. Of the pretended proofes of the Popes supremacie produced and brought out of the writings of the Greeke Fathers HAuing examined the proofes they bring for confirmation of the Popes supremacie out of Councels and the writings of ancient Bishops of Rome let vs come to the testimonies of the Fathers Greeke and Latine The first that they produce amongst the Greeke Fathers is Ignatius who writeth to the Holy Church which hath the presidence in the Region of the Romans or sitteth before other in the Region of the Romans from which wordes nothing can be inferred that wee euer doubted of For wee most willingly confesse the Romane Church to haue beene in order and honour the first and chiefest of all Churches and he saith nothing out of which any other thing may be concluded The next is Irenaeus who being to shew against Heretiques that the Tradition of the Church is against them and for him and thinking it very tedious to run through the successions of all Churches saith he will content himselfe with that which is the greatest ancientest best knowne to all founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul at Rome for that the whole Church that is the company of all faithfull ones that are euery-where in which the Tradition hath beene euer preserued must of necessity agree in her tradition with this propter potentiorem principalitatem that is For that it is the principall of all other This testimony of Irenaeus no way proueth the thing in question For heere is
authority so to do Which kind of reasoning I thinke the Reader will not much like of Touching Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Paule Bishop of Constantinople and Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra deposed by the Orientall Synode their complaints to the Bishop of Rome and other Bishops of the West of the wrongs done vnto them how the Bishop of Rome with the Westerne Bishops fought to relieue them with how ill successe and how litle this instance serueth to proue the thinge in question I haue shewed before as likewise Theodorets desiring Leo with his Westerne Synodes to take knowledge of his cause Soe that it is a vaine bragge of Bellarmine that to these and the like testimonies of Antiquity nothing is nor can be answered CHAP. 38. Of the weakenesse of such proofes of the supreme power of Popes as are taken from their Lawes Censures Dispensations and the Vicegerents they had in places farre remote from them HAVING examined the pretended proofes of the illimited vniversality of the Popes authority and jurisdiction taken from the power they are supposed to haue exercised in former times ouer other Bishops by confirming deposing or restoring them let vs come to their Lawes Dispensations Censures see if frō thence any thing may be cōcluded If they could as strongly proue as they cōfidētly endertake that Popes in ancient times made Lawes to bind the whole Christian Church dispensed with such as were made by general Coūcels cēsured al men as subject to them of necessity we must be forced to acknowledge the fulnesse of all power to rest in the Romane Bishops But their proofes are too weake to make vs beleeue any such thing For first touching the decrees of Popes they did not binde the whole Christian Church but the Westerne Provinces onely that were subject to them as Patriarches of the West And secondly they were not made by them without the consent and joint concurrence of the other Bishops of the West assembled in Synodes and sitting with them as their fellow Iudges with equall power of defining and determining things concerning the state of the Church as appeareth by the Decrees of Gregory the first who sitting in Councell with all the Bishops of the Roman Church the Deacons and inferiour Clergy-men standing before them made Decrees and confirmed them by their subscriptions the rest of the Bishops and the Presbyters also who sate in Councell with them subscribing in the very same sort that Gregory did And of Decrees in such sort made Leo speaketh when he requireth the Bishops of Campania Picene Thuscia to keepe and obserue the Decretall constitutions of Innocentius and all other his predecessours which they had ordained as well touching Ecclesiasticall orders as the Discipline of the Canons or otherwise to looke for no fauour or pardon And in the very same sort are the words of Hilarius to be vnderstood when he saith That no man may violate either the divine constitutions or the Decrees of the Apostolique See without danger of losing his place For this he spake sitting as President in a Councell of Bishops assembled at Rome of things decreed by Synodes of Bishops wherein his predecessours were Presidents and Moderatours as he was now but not absolute commaunders But Bellarmine saith that Pope Anastasius the yonger in his Epistle to Anastasius the Emperour willeth him not to resist the Apostolicall precepts but obediently to performe what by the Church of Rome and Apostolicall authority shall be prescribed vnto him if hee desire to holde communion with the same holy Church of GOD which is his Head Therefore the Pope had power to command and giue lawes to the Emperour and consequently had an absolute supreme authority in the Church Surely this allegation of the Cardinall is like the rest For Anastasius doth not speake in any such peremptory and threatning manner to the Emperour but acknowledging his breast to bee a Sanctuary of happinesse and that he is Gods Vicar on earth telleth him in modest and humble sort that hee hopeth hee will not suffer the insolencie of those of Constantinople proudly to resist against the Evangelicall and Apostolicall precepts in the cause of Acatius but that he will force them to performe and doe what is fit and in like humble sort beseecheth him when he shall vnderstand the cause of them of Alexandria to force them to returne to the vnity of the Church The last instance of the Popes Law-giuing power brought by Bellarmine is the priviledge granted to the Monastery of Saint Medardus by Gregory the first in the end whereof we finde these words Whatsoeuer Kings Bishops Iudges or secular persons shall violate the Decrees of this Apostolicall authority and our commaundement shall be depriued of their honour driuen from the society of Christians put from the communion of the Lords body and bloud and subjected to Anathema and all the wofull curses that Infidels Heretikes haue beene subject to from the beginning of the world to this present time A strong confirmation of the priviledges graunted is found in these wordes but a weake confirmation of the thing in question for the priuiledges were graunted and confirmed in this sort not by Gregory alone out of the fulnesse of his power but by the consenting voyce of all the Bishops of Italy and France by the authority of the Senate of Rome by Theodoricus the King and Brunichildis the Queene So that from hence no proofe possibly can be drawne of the Popes absolute power of making lawes by himselfe alone to binde any part of the Christian Church much lesse the whole Christian world Wherfore let vs passe from the Popes power of making lawes to see by what right they claime authority to dispense with the Lawes of the Church and the Canons of Generall Councels The first that is alleadged to haue dispensed with the Canons of Councels is Gelasius But this allegation is idle and to no purpose For first it cannot bee proued that by dispensing he sought to free any from the necessity of doing that the strictnesse of the Canon required but those onely that were subiect to him as Patriarch of the West And secondly he did not dispense but vpon very vrgent cause and driuen by necessity so to doe and yet not of himselfe alone but with the concurrence of other Bishops of the West assembled in Synode The other instances that are brought of the dispensations of Gregory the first are nothing else but the instances of the ill consciences of them that bring them For Gregory did not dispense with the English to marry within the degrees prohibited as the Cardinall vntruely reporteth but only aduised Austine not to put them that were newly conuerted from such wiues as they had married within some of the degrees prohibited in the time of their infidelity lest hee might seeme to punish them for faults committed in the daies of their ignorance and to discourage other from becomming Christians Neither
in the West had iudged and condemned him ioyned his authority with Cyril the principall of the Bishops that were present that so nothing might be wanting to the perfection of a generall Councell So that it is most certaine that Cyril was president of the Councell of Ephesus not as a Vicegerent onely to the Bishop of Rome but in his owne right though he had the authority direction and consenting concurrence of the Bishop of Rome and all the Westerne Bishops ioyned with the power and authority which he and the rest of the Bishops present had of themselues And therefore Leo saith in expresse wordes that Cyril was President of the Councell of Ephesus as likewise Photius and others affirme The same answer may serue for Acacius For he was not Vicegerent of the Bishop of Rome in hearing and determining the cause of Peter Bishop of Alexandria who was an Eutychian Heretique as hauing none authority of his owne but there was a ioynt concurrence of the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Constantinople the later hauing besides his owne right and interest the full power and authority of the other and being likewise to vse the helpe of the Emperour for the reducing of the Church of Alexandria to the vnity of the faith againe in which businesse he failed for though at first he condemned Peter Bishop of Alexandria yet afterwards he was content to cōmunicate with him For which cause he was iustly reprehended as not answering the trust that was reposed in him and as being a fauourer of heretiques and so in a sort an heretique himselfe To these allegations which we haue already heard Harding in his answer to Bishop Iewels challenge addeth another of a Bishop of Alexandria being Vicegerent to the Bishop of Rome out of the Epistle of Bonifacius the second to Eulalius or Eulabius But Bellarmine refuteth that Epistle and sheweth that it is counterfeit and that there neuer was any such Eulabius to whom Bonifacius might write and therefore we will no longer insist vpon the examination of the same but proceed to the proofes which our Aduersaries bring from appeales made to Rome CHAP. 39. Of Appeales to Rome FOR the clearing of the matter of Appeales we must obserue that they are of three sorts Of Lay-men of inferiour Clergie-men and of Bishops Of the appeales of Lay-men there is noe mention in all Antiquity and yet now the Bishops of Rome reserue all the greater causes euen concerning the Laitie to thēselues alone forbidding the ordinary guides of the Church to intermedle with them and very ordinarily admitte appeales of Lay-men to the infinite vexation of men and the great hinderance of the course of all Iustice. Whereas it is most wisely and rightly ordered each Bishop hauing his portion of the flocke of Christ committed to him as Cyprian obserueth that they that are committed to their charge should not bee permitted to runne hither and thither but bee iudged there where the thinges for which they are called in question were done and where the accusers and witnesses may bee present Concerning inferiour Clergy-men the holy Bishoppes in the Councell of Mileuis speake in this sort It hath seemed good vnto vs that if Presbyters Deacons other inferiour Clergi-men complaine of the iudgements of their own Bishops the neighbour Bishops intreated by them with the consent of their Bishoppes shall heare them and make an end and if they thinke good to appeale from their iudgement it shall not be lawfull for them to appeale but onely to the Councels of Africa or to the Primates of their owne Provinces And if they shall make their appeale beyond the seas no man in Africa shall receiue them to the Communion This whole Councell Innocentius the first approued as it appeareth by his Epistle which we finde in the booke of the Epistles of S. Augustin Hereunto Bellarmine saith some answere with Gratian who addeth to the Canon of this Councell forbidding appeales to be made beyond the seas an exception vnlesse it be to the Sea Apostolique But this exception saith Bellarmine seemeth not fitting seeing the Africanes made this decree that men should not appeale beyond the seas especially in respect of the Church of Rome and to restraine the making of appeales thither there neuer being any appeale from the Africans to any other church but to the church of Rome only And yet Stapleton answereth the authority of this Councell as Gratian doth and that out of Iulius and Fabianus Bishops of Rome as he saith The Councell of Sardica saith Bellarmine decreed that the causes of Presbyters and inferiour clergy-men appealing from the iudgements of their owne Bishops should be determined and ended by the neighbour-Bishops and Pope Zozimus as appeareth by the sixth Councel of Carthage and the Epistle of the same Councell to Bonifacius the Pope required the same canon to be reuiued Augustine likewise sheweth that it was not lawfull for those of the clergie vnder the degree of Bishops to appeale out of Africa Neither was this the peculiar priuiledge of Africa alone For the Councell of Chalcedon ordained that if a clergie-man haue ought against another of the clergy the matter shall be heard by the Bishop or by arbitrators chosen by both parties with the Bishops allowance But if he haue ought against his Bishoppe he shall prosecute the same complaint in the Synode of the province This canon of the Councell of Chalcedon the Emperour confirmed saying if any of the clergy complaine against his Bishop for any matter let the cause be iudged by the Metropolitane according to the sacred rules and the imperiall lawes And if any man appeale from his sentence let the cause be brought to the Arch-bishoppe or Patriarch of that Diocese and let him according to the canons make a finall end And yet notwithstanding these canons aboue recited precisely forbidding inferiour clergy-men to appeale to Rome we finde that the Bishops of Rome admitted the appeale of one Apiarius iudged condemned in Africa which caused a great difference betweene the Africanes and him Whereupon the Fathers in the Councell of Africa wish the Bishop of Rome as it beseemeth him to reiect and repell the wicked and vnlawfull appeales as well of Presbyters as of other inferiour clergy-men seeing the ending and determining of their causes is by no decree of any Synode denied to the church of Africa and the Nicene canons most clearely committe both inferiour clergy-men and Bishops to their owne Metropolitanes Bellarmine to cleare the Pope from intrusion and to avoide the testimonies authorities of the holy Bishops and Pastours of the church which we haue produced to shew the vnlawfulnes of appeales to Rome answereth first that though they of the inferiour clergy were prohibited to appeale to the Pope yet hee was not forbidden to admit their appeales which is a most strange answere For if they in appealing did
chiefe-fathers of Israel they came to Ierusalem and all the congregation made a couenant with the King said The Kings sonne must reigne as the Lord hath said of the sons of Dauid Hereupon the King is proclaimed Athaliah is slaine the house of Baal destroied the Altars and idols that were in it broken down In all this narration there is nothing that maketh for the chiefe Priests power of deposing lawfull kings if they become heretiques For first Athaliah was an vsurper no lawfull Queene Secondly here was nothing done by Iehoiada alone but by him and the Captaines of hundreths and the chiefe Fathers of Israel that entred into couenant with him Thirdly there is great difference betweene the high Priest in the time of the Lawe and in the time of Christ. For before the comming of Christ the high Priest euen in the managing of the weightiest ciuill affaires and in iudgement of life and death sate in the Councell of State as the second person next vnto the King by Gods owne appointment Whereas our Aduersaries dare not claime any such thing for the Pope And therefore it is not to bee maruailed at if the high Priest beeing the second person in the kingdome of Iudah by Gods owne appointment and the Vnckle and Protectour of the young king whom his wife had saued from destruction bee the first mouer for the bringing of him to his right and when things are resolued on by common consent take on him not onely to commaund and direct the Priests and Leuites but the Captaines souldiers also for the establishing of their King the suppressing of a bloody tyrant and vsurper For all this might be done by Iehoiada as a chiefe man in that state and yet the Pope be so farre from obtaining that he claimeth which is to depose lawfull kings for abusing their authority that hee may not presume to do all that the high Priests lawfully did and might doe as not hauing so great preeminence from Christ in respect of matters of ciuill state in any kingdome of the world as the high Priest had by Gods owne appointment in the kingdome of Iudah Israel In the old Law saith Occā the high Priest meddled in matters of warre in the judgment of life and death the losse of members vengeance of blood it beseemed him well so to do But the Priests of the new Law may not meddle with things of this nature Wherefore from the power dominion which the high Priest of the old Law had it cannot be concluded that the Pope hath any power in tēporal matters The fifth example is of Ambrose repelling Theodosius the Emperour from the communion of the Church after the bloody and horrible murther that was committed at Thessalonica by his commandement The story is this The coach-man of Borherica the Captaine of the souldiers in that towne for some fault was committed to prison Now when the solemne horse-race and sporting fight of horsemen approched the people of Thessalonica desired to haue him set at liberty as one of whom there would be great vse in those ensuing solemne sports which being denied the citty was in an vprore and Botherica and certaine other of the magistrates were stoned to death and most despitefully vsed Theodosius the Emperour hearing of this outrage was exceedingly moued and commaunded a certaine number to be put to the sword without all iudiciall forme of proceeding or putting difference betweene offendors and such as were innocent So that seauen thousand perished by the sword and among them many strangers that were come into the citty vpon diuerse occasions that had no part in the outrage for which Theodosius was so sore displeased were most cruelly and vniustly slaine Saint Ambrose vnderstanding of this violent and vniust proceeding of the Emperour the next time he came to Millaine and was comming to the Church after his wonted manner met him at the doore and stayd him from entring with this speech Thou seemest not to know O Emperour what horrible and bloudy murthers haue beene committed by thee neither dost thou bethinke thy selfe now thy rage is past to what extremities thy fury carried thee perhaps the glory of thine Imperiall power will not let thee take notice of any fault thy greatnesse repelleth all checke of reason controlling thee but thou shouldest know the frailty of mans nature and that the dust was that beginning whence we are taken and and to which we must returne Let not therefore the glory of thy purple robes make thee forget the weakenesse of that body of flesh that is couered with them Thy subjects O Emperour are in nature like thee and in seruice thy fellowes for there is one Lord and commander ouer all the maker of all things Wherefore with what eyes wilt thou behold his temple or with what feete wilt thou treade on the sacred pauement thereof wilt thou lift vp to him those hands from which the bloud yet droppeth wilt thou receiue with them the sacred body of our Lord or wilt thou presume to put to thy mouth the cup replenished with the precious bloud of Christ which hast shed so much innocent bloud by the word of thy mouth vttering the passion of thy furious minde Depart therefore adde not this iniquity to the rest and decline not those bands which God aboue approueth With these speeches the Emperour was much moued and knowing the distinct duties both of Emperours and Bishops for that he had bin trained vp in the knowledge of heauenly doctrine returned to the Court with teares sighes A long time after for eight moneths were first past the solemne feast of the Natiuity of Christ approached and all prepared themselues to solemnize the same with triumphant ioy But the Emperor sate in the Court lamenting powring out riuers of teares which when Ruffinus maister of the pallace perceiued he came vnto him and asked the cause of his weeping to whom weeping more bitterly then before he said O Ruffinus thou makest but a sport of these things for thou art touched with no sence of those euils wherewith I am afflicted but the consideration of my calamity maketh me sigh and lament for that whereas the doores of Gods Temple are open to slaues and beggars and they goe freely into the same to make prayers vnto their Lord they are shut against me and which is yet worse the gates of heauen are shut against me also for I cannot forget the words of our Lord who saith Whomsoeuer ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heauen To whom Ruffinus replied I will runne if it please thee O Emperour to the Bishop and intreate him to vnloose these bands wherewith hee hath bound thee No saith the Emperour it is to no purpose so to doe for he will not bee intreated I know his sentence is right and iust and that he will not transgresse the law of God for any respect of imperiall power Yet when Ruffinus was
the Kings Iustices for murther vsed vile and contemptuous speeches against them which though it were proued against him before the Arch-bishoppe yet hee was only depriued of the benefit of his Prebend and driuen out of the Realme for the space of two yeares for so horrible and bloudy a crime This was one of those sixteene Articles concerning the ancient customes of the Realme whereunto Becket and the rest of the Bishoppes did sweare and whereof hee so soone repented againe namely that Cleargy-men accused of any crime should at the summons of the Kings Iustices appeare in the Kings Court to answere to such things as to that Court should be thought to appertaine and in the Ecclesiasticall what pertained thereunto and that the Kings Iustices should send to see what was there done and that if they should bee conuicted of any enormous cryme or confesse the same the Bishoppe should not protect thē then which course nothing could be deuised more reasonable Neyther is it absurd for sheepe to judge their Pastors in these cases as Bellarmine fondly affirmeth That the Councell of Chalcedon and Toledo forbid Cleargy-men to leaue the Eccesiasticall Iudges and to prosecute their quarrels one against another before Temporall Magistrates and the Councells of Carthage and Agatha condemne them that chuse rather to bee tryed in Ciuill Courts then Ecclesiasticall when they haue power to chuse or that begin suites there without the permission of their Bishoppe no way contrarieth any thing that I haue sayd for howsoeuer some things are to bee handled in the Ecclesiasticall Courts as properly pertaining to them either naturally and originally or by graunt of Princes and other thinges concerning Church-men not to bee brought into Ciuill Courts but in due sort and with respect had to their places and rankes yet neuer had they any such absolute exemption and immunity but that in criminall causes such as theft murther and the like and in tryall of the title oflands and inheritances and the right of aduocation of Churches they were to bee tryed in ciuill Courtes and no other whether the differences grewe betweene Lay-men and Cleargy-men or Cleargy-men among themselues As likewise they were to do homage and sweare fealty for such lands honours and Baronryes as they held of Princes Thus wee see how fauorable Princes haue beene in graunting priuiledges concerning the persons of such as attend the seruice of God Neyther were they lesse carefull to free such lands and possessions as they indowed the Church with from such burdens taxes and impositions as other temporall possessions are subject to So that howsoeuer in the Apostles times and long after euen till the time of Ambrose as it appeareth by his writtings the Church-lands payd tribute yet afterward by Iustinian and other Christian Emperours they were freed from those impositions Neither is it to be maruailed at that Christian Princes out of their deuout and religious dispositions were thus fauourable to the Church seing euen the Heathen Princes did as much for the Idolatrous Priestes of their false-Gods for we read in the booke of Genesis that in the time of that great famine that was in the dayes of Ioseph when the people of Egypt were constrained after all their money and cattell were spent to sell their land to Ioseph the Steward of Pharaoh in whose hands all the prouision of Corne was to buy them bread so that all the land of Egypt became Pharaohs yet the Priests were not forced to sell their lands for they had an ordinary from Pharaoh and they did eate their ordinary which Pharaoh gaue them And when as afterwardes Ioseph let the people enjoy their land again which he had bought for Pharaoh yet so that onely foure parts of the increase thereof should bee to themselues for the seed of their fieldes for their meate and for them of their householdes and their children to eate and the fifth part should be Pharaohs whose now the land was the land of the Priests was free from this rent and charge as not being Pharaohs Yet were not the priuiledges and immunities which Christian Princes gran◅ed to Ecclesiasticall persons to prejudice other men nor to lay too heauy a burden on them and therefore it was lawfull for Princes when they saw any inconveniences in that too much of their land by passing into the right and possession of Church-men was freed from seruices and charges to stop the passing of any more into such dead hands as would yeeld them no helpe and cleargy-men were bound in conscience voluntarily to contribute to all publike necessities when need required though the Temporall Magistrates might not impose any thing vpon them as we find it ordered in the third councell of Lateran and in the fourth vnder Innocentius the third yea if they should contemptuously and presumptuously refuse to beare part of the common burdens notwithstanding any pretended priviledges the supreame Prince might force them to put too their helping hand rather then the whole state of the cōmon-wealth should bee shaken and indangered or other parts and members of it too heauily burdened as Duarenus learnedly and excellently sheweth This may suffice touching the exemption of Cleargy-men either in respect of their persons or goods the right by which they inioy the same And thus haue we runne through all the different Degrees Orders of Ecclesiasticall Ministers and shewed what their power office and authority is both seuerally and assembled in councels and what power Princes haue to commaund ouer them or to intermeddle with the businesses and affaires more specially belonging to them CHAP. 54. Of the calling of Ministers the persons to whom it pertaineth to elect ordaine them NOw it remaineth that we first treate of the calling of Ministers for No man taketh this honour vpon him but he that is called as was Aaron◅ Secondly of the things required in them and thirdly of their maintenance Touching the first which is the calling of Ecclesiasticall Ministers Saint Hierome noteth that there are 4 sorts of such men as are imployed in the businesses affaires of Almighty God The first are such as are sent neither of men nor by men but by Iesus Christ as the Prophets in olde time and since the comming of Christ those Twelue designed immediatly to the Worke of the Ministery by Christs owne voyce specially called Apostles The second such as are sent of God but by man as Bishops and Ministers which succeede the Apostles and deriue their commission from them The third are such as are sent of men and not of GOD who are they that are ordained by fauour of men not judging rightly of the quality of them that are to serue in this calling who yet are not simply denyed to bee sent of God as if they had no commission from him but therefore onely because if the Ordainers had done their duties they should haue made a better choyce and sent other
and not these for being sent by men that haue authority though abusing the same they haue a true and lawfull Ministery till they be put from it by superiour authority else were all Ministration of Sacraments and other sacred things voyde performed by such as simoniacally or by sinister meanes get into these holy places The fourth are such as neither are sent of GOD nor of men nor by men but of them-selues of whom our Sauiour Christ saith all that came before me were theeues robbers and of whome almighty GOD pronounceth and sayth by the Prophet Ieremy I sent them not they 〈◊〉 I spake not to them they prophecied This euill is carefully to bee declined and therefore CHRIST would not suffer the diuels to speake that which was true least vnder the pretence of trueth errour might creepe in seeing hee that speaketh of him-selfe cannot but speake lyes These are the foure sortes of them that serue in the worke of the Ministery whereof the last haue no calling at all and all they doe is voide the Third haue a lawfull commission though they obtayned it by sinister meanes and bee vnworthy of it so that they could not bee put into it without the faulte of the ordayners The First had a lawfull but extraordinary calling needefull onely in those first beginnings of Christianity and not longer to continue The second haue that calling which is Ordinary and to continue whereof wee are now to speake In this calling there are three things implied Election Ordination and Assignation to some particular Church whereof men elected and ordained are appointed to take charge In ancient times there was no ordination at large without particular Assignation and sine titulo allowed as it appeareth by the Councell of Chalcedon forbidding any such thing to be done and voyding any such Act if it should bee done and therefore in those times the very electing and ordayning was an assigning of the elected ordayned to the place of Charge they were to take and a giuing of them the power of iurisdiction as wel as of order But this Canon in latter times grew out of vse whence ensued great confusions in the state of the Church as Duarenus rightly noteth yet are we not of opinion that all such ordinations are voyde in the nature of the thing whatsoeuer the Ancients pronounced of them according to the strictnesse of the Canons For seeing Ordination which is the sanctifying of men to the worke of the holy Ministery is a diffeernt thing in nature from the placing of them where they shal do that holy worke and a man once ordained needeth not any new Ordination when he is remoued from one Church to another it is euident that in the nature of the thing Ordination doth not so depend on the title and place of Charge the Ordayned entereth into as that Ordinations at large should bee voyd yet are they not to bee permitted neither are they in our Church For the Ordinations of Ministers in Colledges in our Vniuersities are not within the compasse of those prohibited Ordinations at large and sine titulo and none other by the order of our Church may bee Ordayned vnlesse he be certainly prouided of some definite place of charge imployment And as the Auncient were thus precise in admitting none into the holy Ministery but with assignation of the particular place of his imployment so they tooke as strict order that men once placed should not sodainly be remoued and translated to any other church or charge In the Councell of Sardica Hosius the President of that Councell sayd That same ill custome and pernicious corruption is wholy to be plucked vp by the rootes that it may not be lawfull for a Bishoppe to passe from his citie to any other city For the cause why they doe so is knowne to all seeing none is found to passe from a greater citie to a lesser whence it appeareth that they are inflamed with ardent desires of couetousnesse and that they serue their owne ambitious designes that they may exercise dominion and grow great If therefore it seeme good to you all that such an euill as this is may be more seuerely punished lette him that is such a one bee reiected from all communion euen such as Lay-men inioy To whom all the Bishoppes answered it pleaseth vs well To whom Hosius replyed Though any shall bee found so ill aduised as haply in excuse of himselfe to affirme that hee receiued letters from the people to draw him from his owne city to another yet I thinke seeing it is manifest that some few not sincere in the Faith might be corrupted by reward and procured to desire his translation all such fraudes should altogether bee condemned So that such a one should not bee admitted so much as to the communion which Lay-men enioy no not in the end which thing if it seeme good vnto you all confirme and settle it by your Decree And the Synode answered it pleaseth vs well Leo to the same purpose writeth thus If any Bishoppe despising the meanenesse of his owne citie shall seeke to gette the administration gouernment of some more noted and better respected place and shall by any meanes translate remoue himselfe to a greater People and more large and ample charge let him bee driuen from that other chaire which hee sought and lette him bee depriued also of his owne So that hee bee neither suffered to rule ouer them whom out of a couetous desire hee would haue subiected to himselfe nor ouer them whom g in pride hee contemned and scorned And the like is found in other but as Theodoret sheweth it was ambition and such other like euils that these Holy Fathers sought to stoppe and preuent rather then generally to condemne all Translation of Bishops from one Church and cittie to another For these changes may sometimes bring so great and euident vtility that they are not to be disliked And therefore the same Theodoret sheweth that notwithstanding this Canon Gregory Nazianzen was remoued from his Church and constituted Bishop of Constantinople And Socrates reporteth that Proclus was remoued thither from Cyzicum Wherefore passing by these matters as cleare and resolued of Let vs proceed to see first to whom it pertaineth to Elect Secondly to whom it belongeth to ordaine such as are duly elected and chosen to the worke of the Ministery Touching Election wee thinke that each Church and People that haue not by lawe custome or consent restrayned themselues stand free by Gods law to admitte maintaine and obey no man as their Pastor without their liking and that the peoples election by themselues or their rulers dependeth on the first principles of humane fellowships and assemblies for which cause though Bishops by Gods lawe haue power to examine and ordaine before any may be placed to take charge of soules yet haue they no power to impose a Pastor on any Church against their
thinke will easily discerne for whereas the Apostle and after him Paphnutius in the Councel of Nice pronounce that mariage is honourable among all and the bed vndefiled and Chrysostome affirmeth that it is so honourable that men may be lifted vp into the Bishops chaires with it with what face can these men say that to liue in mariage is to liue in the flesh in such sort as not to please God Bellarmines evasion that they speak not of mariage simply but of forbidden mariage such as that of Priests is when they say to liue in mariage is to liue in the flesh that therefore they say only they who liue in vnlawfull forbidden mariage liue in the flesh cannot please God will not serue the turne For they speak not of vnlawfull forbidden mariage but goe about to proue that mariage is to be forbiddē denied to Presbyters by a reason taken frō the nature of it something in it or consequent of it in respect whereof it cannot stand with the holinesse of the degree and calling of Presbyters and Ministers So that they say simply to liue in mariage is to liue in the flesh and that therefore the holy Ministers of the Church who may not liue in the flesh must bee forbidden to marry their words being a reason mouing them to prohibite mariage and not taken from the prohibition as it will easily appeare to any one that will take the paines to view the Epistles of the Romane Bishops if yet they haue not beene corrupted as many other things of like nature haue But how-so-euer wee censure these sayings of the Popes it is most certaine that those particular Bishops of the West who vpon misconce it sought to restraine Presbyters from liuing with their wiues yet neuer proceeded so far as either to pronounce their mariages vnlawful or to dissolue them till of late And therefore they were most contrary in their judgments to the lewde assertions of Papists who thinke and teach that the mariages of Church-men are adulteries and feare not to say that it is worse for a man to take a wife to liue with continuallie then to joine himselfe vnto harlots which prodigious assertion all men in former times euen they who were most averse from the mariage of Cleargy-men would haue detested If a Presbyter saith the councell of Neocaesarea will marry a wife let him be put from his order but if hee commit fornication or adultery let him bee driuen further and put to pennance Whereunto the councell of Helliberis before-mentioned agreeth prescribing that such as commit adulterie shall be put from the communion of the Church for euer and likewise the councell of Arverne Some other indeede there were that proceeded a little further and put them from the communion of the Church that would liue in Matrimoniall society but the Bishops in the Councell of Turon thought good to moderate that extremity and onely to keepe them from further promotion and sacred imployment and with them the Bishops in the fifth Councell of Orleans agree So that these Bishops though inconsiderately restraining marriage yet durst not pronounce the marriages of Church-men voyde as our Aduersaries now do neyther did they for ought I can read force men to make any vow of continence For though some of them required a promise of liuing single yet was it no vow seeing a promise made to men is farre different from a vowe which is a promise made to God And many of them as it may seeme vrged such as they admitted into the Ministery to no such promise at all but receiued them in such sort that they should so lōg be imployed as they would refraine that if they pleased to marry they should still injoy the Communion of the Church but should not be imployed in sacred function any longer Touching the promise which some required the second Councell of Toledo prescribeth that at eighteene yeares of age they of the Cleargy shall resolue to marry or promise to containe that at twenty they shall be made Subdeacons The Councell of Ancyra prouideth that if Deacons shallprotest when they are ordained that they will not liue single but will haue wiues they shall be permitted to marry and yet keepe their places But if professing that they will containe they betake themselues to former or new marriages they shall inioy the Lay-communion but shall be put out of the Ministery and Cleargy Whereby it appeareth that there was no vniforme obseruation in the promise of continencie that was required seeing the one of these two Councels requireth it at eighteene yeares of age of such as were not yet Subdeacons and the other leaueth such as were to bee Deacons to their owne choyce at the time of their ordination nor that this promise was thought to make voyd the ensuing mariage seeing such as contrary to promise returned to the state of mariage were permitted to enioy the communion of the Church as Lay-men though in some places they were put out of the Ministery and Cleargy I say in some places because it appeareth by the Councell of Toledo appointing that such shall haue but the places of Lectors only that they were not wholy depriued of the honour of Cleargy-men in all places Afterwards indeed in the Ninth Councell of Toledo the Bishops finding that all their former indeauours preuailed not though they voyded not the mariages of Cleargy-men nor iudged them to be adulteries as our Aduersaries do yet they adjudged such as should be borne of such marriages to a kind of bondage and depriued them of that possibility of inheritance which formerly they might haue had But this was but the particular Decree of that prouinciall Councell and soe could binde none but those fewe Churches in those partes Neyther did it For long after heere in England as I haue shewed the Ministers of the church were publikely maried without any such wrong done eyther to them or their children And long after the restraint of Gregory the seauenth when this Decree of single life had in some sort preuailed they did still secretly marry and when they saw cause for the good of their children made proofe of their mariages Neither is it to be maruailed at that some particular Synodes in the west set on by the Bishops of Rome went about in some sort to restraine the lawfull Mariages of church-men lawfull I say both by the lawe of God and the resolution allowance practice of the greater part of the Christian Churches seeing they forbade those which euen in the iudgement of our aduersauersaries themselues I thinke cannot bee denied to haue beene lawfull If the widdowe or relicte of a Presbyter or Deacon shall ioyne herselfe to any man in mariage sayth the first Councell of Orleans let them after chastisement bee seperated or if they persist in the intention of such a crime let them be excommunicated Wherewith the
to say That they had no doubt reason to leade them so to doe that forbade the Marriage of Cleargy-men but that there were much greater reason now to leaue it free againe Baptista Mantuanus saith that many thought the Lawes against mariage to bee euill that they which made those Lawes had not sufficiently considered what the nature of man can beare that CHRIST neuer put so vnpleasant a Yoake vpon the neckes of men that this burden too heavie for the shoulders of men to beare hath brought forth many monstrous effects that it was a shew of Piety but indeede too great boldnesse that laide this burthen vpon the shoulders of men that it had beene more safe to haue gone that way wherein the divine Law directeth vs and to haue trode in the steppes of the Auncient Fathers whose life was better in marriage then ours that is single Ioannes Antonius saith in the time of the Primitiue Church it was lawfull for Presbyters and such as were entered into holy Orders to haue wiues so that they refrained from companying with them vpon the dayes wherein they celebrated that afterwardes in the Westerne Church they that were entred into holy Orders were commaunded to containe which commaundement hee sayth yeelded matter to ensnare the soules of many men and therefore hee verily beleeueth that as the Church brought in this precept of continencie so the time will come when the same Church will reverse and revoke it againe which revocation shall be agreeable to that of the Apostle who sayth Concerning Virgins I haue no commaundement but I giue advice With Antonius agreeth Panormitanus who proposing the question whether the Church may giue leaue to Presbyters to cōtract mariage or to liue in mariage as the Graecians doe aunswereth that hee beleeueth it may that he is assured it may in respect of them who are not tyed by vow implyed or expressed Which hee proueth because continencie in secular Cleargy-men is not of the substance of order nor prescribed by the Law of GOD. For that otherwise the Graecians should sinne and no custome could excuse them seeing no custome is of force against the Law of GOD. Neither doth hee onely thinke that the Church hath power thus to doe but professeth hee thinketh it were behoouefull and for the good and saluation of the soules of men that such as are willing to containe and to lead a life of higher perfection should be left to their owne will and that such as are not willing to containe should by the Decree of the Church be set free to contract marriage Alfonsus Veruecius as Andreas Frisius telleth vs discoursing of the words of Paul For the auoyding of fornication let euery one haue his owne wife sayth they containe no precept but a concession or graunt and affirmeth that by vertue of this grant euery one that cannot otherwise auoyde fornication may marry a wife And after certaine remedies prescribed to be obserued vsed by Presbyters that they may auoyde fornication at last confidently giueth counsell to him who hauing tryed all those meanes cannot containe rather to marry a wife and soe to prouide for his owne saluation then to commit fornication and so cast himselfe head-long into eternall death but yet perswadeth such a one to doe nothing without seeking the Popes consent hopeing that he will dispense in such a case seeing the power hee hath was giuen him for edification not for destruction I dare confidently say sayth Polydere Virgill that it hath beene soe farre from beeing true that this inforced Chastity hath excelled that which is in marriage that no sinfull crime hath brought greater disgrace to the order of the Ministery more euill to religion or made a greater and deeper impression of sorrowe in all good men then the staine of the impure lust of Priests And therefore haply it were behoouefull for the Christian common-wealth and for the good of them that are of that sacred order and ranke that at the last a publicke Lawe might bee made to giue leaue to Priestes to contract mariage Wherein rather they might liue honestly and holily without infamy then in most filthy manner defile themselues with this sinne of Nature And Bishoppe Lindan sayth Surely euen at this day it is lawfull to take chast and honest married men into the order of Priesthood which in my judgment might much better bee done in some prouinces of Germany then to set ouer them certaine most impure companions or any longer to endure and tollerate Knaues Apostataes and sacralegious Pastours With these agreeth Erasmus affirming that in his conceipt hee should not ill deserue nor take the worst course for the furthering of humane affaires the right informing of the manners of men which should procure liberty of mariage if it might bee both for Priestes and Monkes And therefore Sigismund the Emperour a lttle before the Councell of Basill began published a reformation of the Cleargy in which among other things this was one that forasmuch as more euill commeth by the forbidding of mariage then good it were better and more safe to permit Cleargy-men to liue in the state of mariage according to the custome of the Orientall Churches then to forbid them so to do In the Councell of Trent the Orator of Bauaria moued to the same purpose And Chemnitius reporteth from George the Prince of Anhault that Adolphus Bishoppe of Mersbergh his vncle would often say before euer Luther began to stirre that if there were a Councell hee would bee a perswader that Cleargy-men might be permitted to marry and professed that hee knew that many for the quiet of their consciences secretly contracted mariage with those women which they kept vnder the name of Concubines And surely euen the Popes themselues were content to winke at things in this kinde Georgius Cassander a man of infinite reading excellent iudgment and singular piety and sincerity and therefore soe much respected and honoured by Ferdinand and Maximilian the second that they held him the fittest man in the world to compose the controuersies in religion sent for him to come vnto them for the same purpose is clearely of opinion that howsoeuer some in ancient times forbad the marriage of Cleargy-men yet now it were fit and necessary that that lawe were abrogated first because it is found by wofull experience to bee the cause of many grieuous euils secondly for that the seuerity of Discipline and strictnesse in all courses of life that was in vse when this Lawe began first to bee vrged is cleane gone or much decayed euen in the opinion of all Soe that that which was fitte in those times may now bee most vnfitte Thirdly for that many godlie and learned men are thereby discouraged from entring into the Ministerie refusing to binde themselues to the obseruation of this lawe of single life whereby the Church looseth the benefitte of their labours fewe young men
These men therefore make 2. sorts of vowes naming some simple and other solemne and affirme that the latter do debarre men from mariage and voyd their mariages if they do marry but that the former do so debarre them from marrying that they cannot marry without some offence and yet if they do their mariage is good and not to be voyded The Diuines of the Church of Rome as Caietane rightly noteth differ much in opinion about the difference of these vowes For some of them thinke that they differ in such sort as that one of them is a promise onely and the other a reall and actuall exhibition that the solemnity of a mans vow consisteth in a reall and actuall exhibition of himselfe and putting himselfe into such an estate as cannot stand with marriage But this opinion as hee rightly noteth cannot bee true seeing there is no such repugnance simply and in the nature of the thinges betweene the Order of the holy Ministery and Marriage as appeareth in that the Ministers of the Greeke Church as tyed by noe vowe are judged by all to liue in lawfull Mariage notwithstanding their Ministery and also in that the entering into noe religious Order voydeth mariage vnlesse it be approued by the Church There is therefore as he sheweth another opinion that it is not from different nature of the vowes that the one voydeth mariage contracted and the other doth not but from the authority of the Church that will haue mariage after a vowe made in one sort to bee voyd and not in another The latter of these two opinions Bellarmine sayth Scotus Paludanus and Caietane follow and as Panormitan reporteth the whole schoole of Canonistes And these do answere to the authorities of the Fathers denying mariages to bee voyde after a solemne vowe that they are to bee vnderstood to deny them to be voyde by Gods Law and that there was no Law of man then passed to make them voyde when they liued that they knew of and that therefore they might rightly bee of opinion in those times that no vowes made insuing marriages to be voyde seeing no vowes doe voyde marriages by GODS Law and there was no law of man in their time making marriage voyde in respect of a vowe made to the contrary Soe that euen in the judgment of many of the best learned of our Aduersaries themselues Mariage after a vow is not voyd by Gods law but only by the positiue Constitution of the Church which will haue it so to bee But against this positiue Constitution two things may be alleaged first that it began from that erroneous conceipt which Anstine refuteth in his booke do bono viduitatis as it appeareth by the Epistle of Innocentius grounding his resolution for voyding of mariages in this kinde vpon that verie reason of their beeing espoused to Christ which haue vowed vnto GOD that they will liue continently Secondly that the Church hath no power simply to forbidde any man to marry whom Gods Law leaueth free seeing single life is one of the things that men may be counselled and advised vnto but cannot be prescribed and imposed by commandement that the Church may keepe men from mariage if they will inioy some fauours as wee see in Colledges and Societies or that She may by her Censures punish such as vnaduisedly and without just cause shall breake their vow and promise wee make no question but that She may simply forbid any one to marry how faulty and punishable soeuer otherwise wee vtterly deny Neyther is the reason that is brought to proue this power to bee in the Church of any force For though it were graunted that the Church by her authority for respectes best knowne to her selfe may forbid a man to marry with some of those with whom God permitteth him to marry yet wil it not follow that she may absolutely forbid any one to cōtract mariage seeing parents to whom it pertaineth to direct the choyce of their children may forbid them to marry with such as they iustly dislike and yet they may not simplie restraine them from marying So that though it were yeelded that the Church for causes best known to her selfe may forbid mariage with moe then the Law of God doth and that in such sort as to void it hauing greater power in this behalfe then naturall parents yet would it not follow that shee may simplie forbid any one to marry and voide his mariage if he do whereas the Law of God voideth it not And so vvee see that as mariage after a solemne vow is not void by the Lavv of God so the Church hath no power to make any law to make it voyd But because though it be so yet it may seeme that no man that had vowed the cōtrary can marry without sinne it remaineth that wee proceede to consider and see whether there be any cases wherein a man that vowed the contrary may marry without offence to God First touching this poynt the Schoole-men generally resolue that the Pope may dispence with a Priest Deacon or Sub-deacon to marry though he haue sollemnely vowed the contrary by entring into holy Orders because the duty and bond of containing is not essentially annexed vnto holy Orders but by the Canon of the Church onely Aquinas and they of that time thought hee might not dispense with a Monke to marry For that single life is essentially implyed in the profession of a Monke and cannot be seperated from the same as it may from the office and calling of a Priest But since that time the generall opinion is that he may because though single life cannot be separated from the profession of a Monke yet he that is a Monke may be freed from that profession that he hath made and cease to be a Monke Neither is this onely the opinion of the Schooles but the practise of Popes hath concurred with the same For as Petrus Paludanus reporteth a Pope reviued a Monke who was next in blood and to succeed in the Kingdome of Arragon and dispensed with him to marry a wife for the good of that Kingdome Caietan sayth the like is reported in the stories of Constantia daughter and heire of Roger King of Sicily who was a religious woman and of fifty yeares of age and yet by the dispensation of Caelestinus was called out of the Cloyster and permitted to marry with the Emperour Henry the Sixth who begatte of her Fredericke the Second And Andreas Frisius reporteth out of the Histories of Polonia that Casimirus sonne of Mersistaus King of Polonia was a Monke and ordayned a Deacon and yet when after the death of Mersistaus his father there was none to sway the Scepter of that Kingdome whence many mischiefes followed Benedict the Ninth gaue him leaue to marry a wife making him to leaue his Cloyster his Vowes and Deaconship that so there might bee a succession in that Kingdome So that there is no question but that for a