love left I need make no application of this to Mr. Cressy and I am far from the vanity of supposing this capable of being applyed to my case any farther than as I am one of those who are at present engaged in the Defence of our Church against that of Rome It is the happiness and honour of our Church of England that it hath in it at this day such store of persons both able and willing to defend her Cause as it may be no Church in the World hath ever had together more persons of excellent abilities great Learning and unaffected Piety and I look on my self as one of the meanest of them but it hath been my lot to be engaged more early and more frequently in this Cause than others which hath drawn so great a hatred of my Adversaries upon me but I thank God I have a good Cause and the testimony of a good Conscience in the management of it and so long I neither fear the waspishness of some nor the rage of others § 4. But this is their present design to represent me as one of different principles from the Church of England and not only different but such as if well understood are destructive to it and therefore they very gravely advise our Reverend Bishops to have a care of me if they hope to preserve the Church of England And can we think it is any thing else but meer kindness and good will to our Church that makes them so solicitous for its welfare It is a sad thing saith Mr. Cressy that not one Protestant will open his eyes and give warning of the dangerous proceedings of their Champion Nay it is no doubt a very sad thing to them to see that we do not fall out among our selves I am sure it is no fault of theirs that we do not for they make use of the most invidious and reproachful terms together concerning me that if they cannot fasten on one passion they may upon another but these poor designs have hitherto had but little success and I hope will never meet with greater And yet if nothing else will do Mr. Cressy saith that it is a â—hame that hitherto not one true Prelatical Protestant has appeared as a Defender of the English Church and State against me but on the contrary even some English Prelates themselves have congratulated and boasted of my supposed successful endeavours against the Catholick Church though ruinous only to themselves Alas good man his heart is even broke for grief that our Bishops take no more care to preserve the Church of England The Church he hath alwayes so entirely loved and ventured as much for her as any body while she was in prosperity and there was no danger and only forsook her when she was not able to reward his Love The truth was he gave her for gone at that time and then it was the late Church of England with him and no wonder when he thought her dead that he made Court to a richer Mistress but it was but a swooning fit she is come to her self again and I hope like to hold out much longer than that which he hath chosen And although Mr. Cressy's hands be now tyed and he hath entred into new Vows yet he cannot for his heart forget the kindness he had to her in her flourishing condition because she was then very kind to him he remembers the marks of her favour and the rich presents she made him and therefore something of the old Love revives in him towards her at least so far that he cannot endure to see her ill used when her Guardians neglect her and her Sons prevaricate with her If Mr. Cressy's faith had been as great as his Charity to have made him believe that she would ever have come to her self again I cannot think he would have forsaken her so unhandsomely and left her in a dying Condition but who could ever have thought that things would have come about so strangely But what if all this present shew of kindness prove meer collusion and prevarication in him What if it be only to divide her Friends and thereby the more easily to expose her to the malice of her enemies For as long as the Church of England stands she upbraids him in his own words with malignant ingratitude and it is the plausiblest way for him that was once a Servant and a Lover to compass her ruine with a pretence of Kindness § 5. But wherein is it that I have prevaricated with the Church of England whilst I have pretended to defend her The first thing he instances in is my charging the Church of Rome with Idolatry In very good time Mr. Cressy and is this prevaricating with the Church of England when I have already in two set Discourses at large proved that by all the means we can come to know the sense of a Church this Charge hath been made good against her from the beginning of the Reformation to 1641. and that even then the Convocation declared the same in the Canons then made But what must I do with such kind of Adversaries that will never answer what I say for my self but do run on still with the same Charge as though they had nothing to do when they write but to tell the same story over and over Let Mr. Cressy do with his Readers as he pleases for my part I shall never follow him in that kind of impertinency For there is not one word there used by him which I had not particularly answered before he writ it The like I may say of the second Charge viz. that by the principles laid down by me I destroy the Authority of the Church of England which I have already shewed at large to be a very impertinent Cavil and that I do maintain as much Authority in the Church of England as ever the Church of England challenged to her self And to that Discourse I refer Mr. Cressy for satisfaction If he will not read it I cannot help that but I can help the not writing the same things over again and so this other part of his Epistle Apologetical is wholly impertinent unless he had taken off what I had said for my self already in answer to the very same Objections But all the reason in the World shall never satisfie Mr. Cressy that I aim not at setting up a Church distinct from the Church of England If it be any I assure him it is a very invisible Church for it is a Church without either Head or Members I declare my self to be not only a Member but an affectionate hearty friend to the Church of England I perswade some to it I endeavour what in me lyes to keep others from revolting from it But where lyes this Dr. Stillingfleet's Church which Mr. Cressy makes such a noise with I know none but that of the many thousands in England that have not bowed their knees to Baal and to
than the Pope treated him as a Christian and Catholick King and as the Popes predecessours had done â—is And after the writing of that Letter and the reconciliation with his Son Radulphus de Diceto Dean of S. Pauls about that time hath an Authentick Epistle of Henry the second to the Pope wherein he acknowledges no more than the common observance which was usual with all Princes in that Age whereas Feudatary Princes write after another Form So that I cannot but think it to be a meer complement of Petrus Blesensis without the Kings knowledge or else a Clause inserted since his time by those who knew where to put in convenient passages for the advantage of the Roman See It is said by some that Henry the second A. D. 1176. did revive the Statutes of Clarendon which the Pope and Becket opposed so much in the Parliament called at Northampton It is true that Gervase of Canterbury doth say that the King did renew the Assise of Clarendon for whose execrable Statutes Becket suffered but he doth not say that he renewed those Statutes but others which are particularly enumerated by Hoveden upon the distributing tâ—e Kingdom into six Circuits and appointing the itinerant Judges who were made to swear that they would keep themselves and make others to observe the following Assises as the Statutes were then called but they all concerned matters of Law and Civil Iustice without any mention of the other famous Statutes about Ecclesiastical matters Whereas at the same time it is said that King Henry the second granted to the Popes Legat though against the advice of his great and Wise men that Clergy-men should not be summon'd before Secular Tribunals but only in case of the Kings Forest and of Lay-fees which is directly contrary to the Statute of Clarendon but some men love to heap things together without well considering how they agree with each other and so make the King in the same page to null and establish the same Statutes But it is observable that after all this contest about the exemption of Clergy-men and the Kings readiness to yield it they were made weary of it at last themselves for as Richard Beckets successour in the See of Canterbury saith in his Letter to the three Bishops that were then three of the Kings Iustices the killing of a Clergy-man was more remisly punished than the stealing of a Sheep and therefore the Archbishop perswades them to call in the Secular Arm against Ecclesiastical Malefactors And now in his opinion the Canons and Councils are all for it and Beckets arguments are slighted and no regard had to the Cause he suffered for when he found what mischief this impunity brought upon themselves But for this giving up their Liberties the Monks revenge themselves on the memory of this Archbishop as one that yielded up those blessed priviledges which Becket had purchased with his blood Notwithstanding the sufferings the King had undergone by his opposing the Ecclesiastical encroachments we may see what apprehension after all he had of the declension of his own power and the miserable condition the Church was in by those priviledges they had obtained by that notable discourse which Gervase of Canterbury relates the King had with the Bishops in the time of Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury wherein with tears he tells them that he was a miserable man and no King or if a King he haâ— only the name and not the power of a King that the Kingdom of England was once a rich and glorious Kingdom but now a very small share of it was left to his Government And then gives a sad account of the strange degeneracy both of the Monks and Clergy and what saith he in the day of judgement shall we say to these things Besides Those of Rome see our Weakness and domineer over us they sell their Letters to us they do not seek justice but contentions they multiply appeals and draw suits to Rome and when they look only after Money they confound Truth and overthrow peace What shall we say to these things how shall we answer them at Gods dreadful Iudgement Go and advise together about some effectual course to prevent these enormities Was this spoken like a Feudatary of the Popes and not rather like a wiâ—e and pious Prince who not only saw the miseries that came upon the Kingdom and Church by these encroachments of Ecclesiastical Power but was yet willing to do his best to redress them if the great Clergy would have concurred with him in it who were a little moved for the present with the Kings Tears and pathetical speech but the impression did soon wear off from their minds and things grew worse and worse by the daily increase of the Papal Tyranny And when this great Prince was very near his end some of the Monks of Canterbury were sent over to him who had been extreamly â—roublesome to himself and the Kingdom as well as to the Archbishop by their continual Appeals to the Court of Rome and they told the King the Convent of Canterbury saluted him as their Lord I have been said the King and am and will be Your Lord Ye wicked Traytors Upon which one of the Monks very loyally cursed him and he dyed saith Gervase within seven dayes § 17. Having thus far shewed that the Controversie between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Power was accounted a Cause of Religion by the managers of the Ecclesiastical Power and that so far that the great Defender of it is to this day accounted a Saint and a Martyr for suffering in it I now come to shew that the ancient panal Laws were made against that very Cause which Becket suffered for After the death of Henry the second Beckets Cause triumphed much more than it had done before for in the time of Richard the first the great affairs of the Nation were managed by the Popes Legats during the Kings absence and after his return scarce any opposition was made to the Popes Bulls which came over very frequently unless it were against one about the Canons of Lambeth wherein the King and Archbishop were forced to submit no hindrance made to Appeals and even in Normandy the Ecclesiastical Power got the better after long contests In the latter end of Richard the first the Pope began to take upon him the disposal of the best Ecclesiastical preferments in England either by translation or Provision or Collation which Fitz Stephen saith that Henry 2. told those about him after the four Courtiâ—rs were gone for England to murder Becket was the design Becket intended to carry on viz. to take away all Right of Patronage from the King and all Lay-Persons and so bring the gift of all Church-preferments to the Pope or others under him Upon the agreement of King Iohn with the Popes Legat he renounced all right of Patronage and gave it to the Pope but it is no wonder in him
the Iesuits when themselves were the Causes of all the Calamities any of them had indured since her Majesties Reign and they think all circumstances considered few Princes living of her judgement and so provoked would have dealt more mildly with such their subjects than she hath done with them 13. They confess the Spanish Invasion 1588. to be an everlasting Monument of Iesuitical Treason and Cruelty For it is apparent in a Treatise penned by the advice of Father Parsons altogether as they do verily think that the King of Spain was moved and drawn into that intended mischief by the long and daily solicitations of the Iesuits and other English Catholicks beyond the Seas affected and altogether given to Iesuitism and that Parsons as they imagine though the Book went under a greater name endeavoured with all his Rhetorick to perswade the Catholicks in England to joyn with the Spaniards but Caraâ—nal Aâ—en takes it upon himself and saith the Pâ—â—â— had made him Cardinal intending to send him his Legat for the sweeter managing this forsooth godly and great affair and there he affirms that there were divers Priests in the Kings Army ready to serve ever mans necessity and promises them the assistance of all the Saints and Angels and of our Blessed Saviour himself in the Soveraign Sacrament after a very invisible manner and they do not at all deny that the Pope did joyn and contribute towards this intended Invasion 14. That in these ten years from 1580. to 1590. the Prisoners at Wisbich lived together without any trouble Colledge-like without any wanâ— that of all sorts towards the number of fifty suffered death as they think most of them for conscience but as their Adversaries do still affirm for Treason that such Priests as upon examination were found any thing moderate were not so hardly dealt with insomuch as fifty five that might by the Laws have been put to death in one year 1585. and in a dangerous time were only banished and that although some hard courses were taken against them yet it was not by many degrees so extream as the Iesuits and that Crew have falsly reported and written of it 15. That there being just apprehensions of a new Invasion a Proclamation was set out 1591. against Semâ—nary Priests as being suspected to 〈◊〉 sent hither to pâ—â—pare a way for it and Parsons did not only acknowledge such a design but said the King of Spain had just cause to attempt again that enterprise but in the mean time they tryed a shorter course by the several Treasons of Heskett Collen both set on by Jesuits Lopez York Williams and Squire animated by Walpole the Iesuit 16. That Parsons at last set up the title of the Infanta of Spain and endeavoured to get subscriptions to it and promises to perswade the Catholicks of England to submit to it and that the Seminary Priests were to promote her Title against the Queen and her Lawful Successors From all which they confess that the Iesuitical designs abroad and the Rebellions and Traiterous attempts of some Catholicks at home have been the Causes of such calamities and troubles as have happened unto them great they confess in themselves but far less they think than any Prince living in her Majesties case and so provoked would have inflicted upon us And what more need to be said for the Vindication of the Poenal Laws from the charge of Injustice and cruelty than is here so ingenuously confessed by the Secular Priests men of the same Religion with those who complain of them men that suffered themselves in some measure men that throughly understood the true Reasons and casions of the several Laws that were then made and yet aâ—ter all this can Mr. Cressy have the impudence to parallel these Laws with those of Nero Domitian and Dioclesian and to say that they who suffered by them suffered only on the account of Religion If the primitive Christians had been guilty of so many horrible Treasons and Conspiracies if they had attempted to deprive Emperours of their Crowns and absolved Subjects from their Allegiance to them if they had joyned with their open and declared enemies and imployed persons time after time to assassinate them what would the whole World have said of their sufferings Would men of any common sense have said that they were Martyrs for Religion no but that they dyed justly and deservedly for their Treasons And for all that I can see all such as suffered in those dayes for their attempts on their Soveraign and Countrey are no more to be said to have suffered for Religion than the late Regicides who pleaded the Cause of God and Religion as well as they and if the one be Martyrs let the other be thought so too but if notwithstanding all their fair pretences of Religion and Conscience the Regicides shall not be thought to suffer for their Religion why then should those in Q. Elizabeth ' s or King Iames ' s time who suffered on the account of actual Treasons as those did who were engaged in the Gunpowder Treason as well as those who suffered in the Queens time And if the supposition of Conscience or Religion makes all men Martyrs the Regicides will put in their plea for Martyrdâ—m if it be not then there is no reason to say they suffered for Religion whom the Law condemned on the account of Treason If it be then allowed that the Laws must determin Treason then it will follow that those suffer for Treason who act directly against those Laws which determine it to be Treason § 22. But suppose the Law should make it Treason for men to serve God according to their Consciences as for Roman Priests to officiate or say Mass can such men be said to suffer for Treason if they be taken in the Fact and not rather for their Religion To this I answer that a great regard is to be had to the occasion of making such a Law for the right interpretation of it For if plain and evident Treasonable actions were the first occasion of making it as it is confessed in Q. Elizabeths time then all those Persons lyable to the suspicion of the State may be seized upon in what way soever they discover themselves and in this case the performing Offices of their Function is not the motive of the Law or Reason of the penalty but meerly the Means of Discovery of the Persons For by reason of Disguises and Aequivocations and mental Reservations being set on foot by the Iesuits to prevent discovery the Law had no certain way of finding them out but by the Offices of their Function in which the Magistrates are sure they will not dissemble so far as that a man who is no Priest will not take upon him to say Mass and therefore the Law looks upon the Office of Religion as only a certain Criterion of the Persons and not as the Reason of the punishment not as the thing that makes them guilty but as the way
Animadversions on this Epistle Apologetical Which is written with that shew of humility and respect that those who look only on the appearance would imagine him strangely come off from the rage and fury he was in when he writ his former Book but if we observe more carefully his sly reflections and crafty insinuations we shall find that he hath only learnt to dissemble his passion and to do the same mischief with a fawning Countenance The first part of his Epistle is wholly spent in Vindication of himself as to the sharpness of Style and bitter Invectives he had used against me which I shall briefly consider before I come to the more material parts of his Book CHAP. I. Of Mr. Cressy's Apologie for the sharpness of his Style § 1. MR Cressy in his Preface to Sancta Sophia finding it necessary to put some shew of difference between the pretences to extraordinary illuminations in F. Bakers way and those of the Fanatick Sectaries among us hath unhappily pitched upon this for one of them That the lights here desired and prayed for are such as do expell all Images of Creatures and do calm all manner of passions to the end that the soul being in a vacuity may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the Spirit Could any one after these words have expected to have found this recommender of Mystical Divinity foaming and raging with the violence of passion and so tormented with the creatures of his own imagination that he could not forbear expressing it to that degree in his Book as deserved rather the pitty than the answer of his Adversary This the Person of Honour took just notice of in the beginning of his excellent Discourse and wondered what insupportable provocation was given to him that he could not restrain so free a vent of his unmanly passions but upon an impartial view of the places in my Book at which Mr. Cressy was so highly offended he did at first rather think he was not the Author of the Book he answers than that he should be guilty of so much bitterness and unreasonable passion but when the reasons were so many to convince him that he was the Author he had rather still lay the fault of his manner of writing upon the commands of his Superiours than his own temper and inclination Upon this Mr. Cressy makes many Apologies for the sharpness of his style against me and spins out a great part of his Epistle on this subject which he needed not to have done with any regard to me as though I were concerned at it for I assure him if I would wish an Adversary to write so as to do the least prejudice to me and the greatest to himself and his Cause I would wish him to write just after that Copy and I cannot easily think of a provocation great enough to make me follow his example But he pleads for himself that Charity it self sometimes requires sharpness of style and even bitter that is uncharitable Invectives I suppose he means such a sort of Catholick Charity as first damns us and then brings railing accusations against us and I do not question but he that pleads for bitter Invectives out of meer Charity could make as fine an harangue to shew not only the admirable Charity but even the Mercy of Fire and â—aggot and he knows the charitable method of the Inquisition is first to put on the Sanbenits representing the Persons with Pictures of Devils upon them and then to carry them to execution I remember I have read that Machiavils Son being summoned to appear before the Court of Inquisition to answer to some things laid to his Charge the grave Inquisitors asked him Whether he believed as the Church believed he answered yes and a great deal more at which they were not a little pleased hoping to get from his own words enough to condemn him and asking him What that was which he believed more than the Church believed he gravely told them it was That their Worships Informers were a pack of Knaves So indeed I should think that I believed more than their Church believed should I believe that they damn us out of meer charity and write bitter Invectives for a demonstration of their Kindness Alas how hath the World been mistaken in them Their cruelty is meer pitty their Invectives Compassion and their Railing Charity § 2. But Mr. Cressy wants not great examples for this for he brings in no meaner than of Moses and the Prophets St. John Baptist Christ and his Apostles and several Fathers of the Church for it It seems then the practice of railing hath Antiquity Universality and Consent for it which is much more than they can shew for many other of their practices and which is the greatest wonder of all they have Scripture too and that not one single passage like Hoe est corpus meum but Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles nay S. Iohn Baptist too do all bear witness to it Any one would think if Mr. Cressy say true the Bible were the railingest Book in the World What not Moses the meekest man upon earth forbear such bitter Invectives not our Blessed Saviour who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously not he who hath threatned Hell-fire to him that uses contumelious expressions against his Brother such as Zani or Scarron or the like Not he who bids his Disciples learn meekness from him and was the most incomparable pattern of it that ever appeared in humane nature Not his holy Apostles who charge all Christians to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking And would they indeed do that themselves which they so severely forbid in others Where is Mr. Cressy's Charity for them the mean while While he produces these examples to justifie his own bitterness he makes the most bitter Invective not only against them but even Christianity it self But what will not men do or say to justifie their violent passions If he had stabbed me he might as well have made Phinehas his precedent and if he had cursed me have quoted some passages in the Fsalms for it If Moses was so angry that he brake the Tables of the Law doth Mr. Cressy think it was at any that spake against the Idolatry of the Golden Calf no it was at those who committed it and it is probable he might have been so at those who would have struck the second Commandment out of those Tables or eluded the force of it by vain and idle distinctions The great anger of the Prophets was against those who drew the people to Idolatry and Mr. Cressy is so pertinent in his proofs as to bring this to justifie his rage against me for writing against the Idolatry of the Roman Church for so much he expresses in several
places Our Saviour and S. Iohn Baptist do express great zeal against the Scribes and Pharisees but let Mr. Cressy consider they were a sort of sowre ill-natured hypocrites that would allow none a good word nor so much as hopes of salvation that were not of their way that were full of malice and envy and all evil passions and at the same time pretended highly to mortification and more devotion than others I find nothing like Invectives in all the writings of the holy Apostles unless it were against the opposers or corrupters of Christianity and when Mr. Cressy proves me to be guilty of either of those I will lay my self open to the darts of the most Venomous Tongue among them But instead of that I know no other cause in any Books I have written that should expose me to the rage of these men beside the zeal I have therein discover'd for the honour and purity of the Christian Religion against the fopperies and corruptions of the Roman Church And for such a Cause as this I am prepared to suffer whatever their fury and malice can raise up against me This this is the Cause which I hope I should not be ashamed nor afraid to own and defend although Mr. Cressy's Power were as great as his Charity The Church of England I do from my heart honour and esteem notwithstanding all the base suggestions of Mr. Cressy to the contrary even in this Epistle Apologetical but I do therefore so much esteem it because in it the Christian Religion is preserved free from the frantick heats of Enthusiasm and the dotages of Superstition If they will undertake to convince me that the things I condemn in the Church of Rome were any parts of the Christian Religion delivered by Christ or his Apostles I shall diligently weigh and consider what ever they have to say but if they only give hard words and betray impotent passions if they shuffle and shew tricks instead of reasoning if all their charity towards me lyes only in bitter invectives they will do but little good upon me and I think not much to their own Cause § 3. But I am mistaken all this while Mr. Cressy doth not write this Apology to give me satisfaction but the Person of Honour and the genuine Learned Protestant Clergy of the English Church and if these he saith after impartial considering the motives and grounds of his invectives shall determine that in his late to him alas unusual manner of treating with me he hath offended against Christian Charity or purposely intended to fix any dishonourable brand on the English Protestant Church or Discipline of it established by Law he will be ready without any reply to suffer whatsoever censure or punishment they shall think fit to inflict upon him What! no offence against Christian Charity to charge me with deriding and blaspheming the Saints in glory with having a hatred horribly poysonous against the Catholick Church militant and that will not spare the Church Triumphant no offence at all to call me Theological Scarron and to say that I act the Theological Zani that all my Book except twenty or thirty pages consists of Scurrilous Buffoonries petulant revilings of Gods Saints and in effect by his Epigram out of Martial to charge me with downright Atheism and twice in the same passage with impiously and profanely employed wit none at all to say That I had a heart brimful of the Gall of bitterness that I writ with Ink full of Gall and poyson that I gave free scope to all unchristian and even inhumane passions That my Book wholly composed of malignant passions and new-invented Calumnies against Gods Church was only the private design of a malicious brain on purpose to feed the exulcerated minds of a malevolent party among us that all the weapons I make use of pierce into the very bowels of the persons fortunes and condition of English Catholicks whose destruction I seem to design What! none at all to charge me so often with prevaricating with the Church of England and designing to destroy her under a pretence of defending her These are some of the flowers of Mr. Cressy ' s Charity towards me which I have picked out of some few pages of his Book and he hath taken abundant care to prevent any unlikeness in the parts of it And doth Mr. Cressy in good earnest think it is no breach of Christian Charity to charge me upon such pittiful grounds with no less than carrying on blasphemous Atheistical treacherous and cruel designs But if this be his Christian charity what would the effects of his malice be Let now any indifferent person judge whether the Person of Honour had not reason to say That he never observed so many personal reflections and invectives fuller of causless passions and of bitterness and virulence in so little room in any Book But whatever the Person of Honour thinks Mr. Cressy makes his appeal to the genuine Learned Protestant English Clergy If he had been a Clergy-man who had done me that great kindness then Mr. Cressy would have appealed to Persons of Honour and surely such are the most competent Judges in cases of affronts and injuries but herein lyes Mr. Cressy's art which runs throughout his Epistle that he would fain separate me from the Church of England and make my cause distinct from hers I do not wonder that they would part me from my company and deprive me of my shelter when they have such a mind to run me down But these arts are easily understood and the design is too fine to hold and too apparent not to be seen through Mr. Cressy knows very well the Use that was made at Athens of the Fable of the Dogs and the Sheep and what good words and fair promises the Wolf made to the Sheep if they would but consent that the Dogs might be given up to be destroyed And no doubt the crafty Wolf would have made a very fine speech to the Sheep to have perswaded them that he had no manner of ill will to them for he had known them long and loved them well and alwayes looked upon them as a company of very innocent and harmless creatures but for those Dogs that were set to watch them he knew how different their principles were and how destructive to them if occasion served and for all that he knew these Dogs might have Covenanted together to worry them upon a fair opportunity and therefore for his part he could not but wonder at their patience that some of the stoutest Rams among them did not set upon those pestilent Currs or at least he hoped they would not be so regardless of their own safety as not to suffer some well-wishers to the flock to take them quietly and destroy them For alas at the best they do but make a noise and disturb the repose of the Sheep and if they were gone there would be nothing but unity and
in causing Ecstasies besides that of Socrates Bona mentions the like of Carneades related by Valerius Maximus of Plotinus by Porphyrius of Iamblichus by Eunapius and the common instance of Restitutus in S. Austin who fell into an ecstasie when he pleased Thomas Aquinas reckons up three causes of Raptures Bodily distempers Diabolical and Divine Power but Cajetan saith there is a fourth cause acknowledged elsewhere by him viz. a vehement intention of the mind which he therefore omitted because he spake of causes extrinsecal to the mind it self § 10. 2. There can be no certainty by the Rules laid down by themselves that the Ecstasies and Raptures or Visions and Revelations of Persons do come only from divine and supernatural Causes For they grant that in all these cases there is reason to suspect Ecstasies and Raptures 1. If the Persons natural temper be very melancholy This is the first Rule in Cardinal Bona for saith he those who are troubled with this may easily fix their minds so upon one object as to suffer an alienation of their senses from any other Ioh. à Iesu Maria a great Mystical Divine makes this his fourth Rule to consider whether the Person have a good understanding or be troubled with any distemper in the head or with Melancholy or be subject to any vehement passions which Cardinal Bona likewise adds and therefore Cardinal Cajetan well notes that the various motion of the heart arising from some apprehension or desire moves the body and alters it according to different qualities which alteration of the body doth again affect the imagination and appetite from whence we may observe that those accidents which often happen to persons under Ecstasies are Originally caused from their own apprehension although afterwards custome being turned into nature makes them fall under them whether they will or no. which is seen by this that if they turn their imaginations with all their force quite another way those accidents forsake them as saith he I have found by certain experience which is a plain discovery that these things are produced by natural causes F. Baker himself puts that down among his Rules whether the persons be not addicted to Melancholy from which Rule there is great reason to suspect those who have complained of being oppressed with a most profound Melancholy as M. Teresa did and we have reason to believe it of all those lovers of Solitude that forsake all conversation of mankind as the Aegyptian Eremites did 2. If their proficiency in vertue be not very great This is the first Rule laid down by Fortunatus Scacchus Prefect of the Popes Chappell in his Book of the Qualifications necessary to Canonization viz. that we examine the life and actions of the Persons who pretend to Ecstasies and Raptures if they have been such as have come up to an Heroical degree of Perfection it may be believed that they come from God but if not they come either from a natural or Diabolical cause especially saith he if they happen in women who may seem to aim either at the fame of Sanctity or some advantage by it Great Caution saith Cardinal Bona is to be used in judging the Raptures of Young Beginners for the very Novelty and Sweetness of Divine Contemplation is apt to put such into Ecstasies it is like strong Wine which they cannot bear without intoxication Besides saith he it ought to be inquired into whether their Souls be capable of such favours what purity and humility they have attained to whether their lives be as much above the world as they pretend their souls are if not they are no true raptures but illusions of the Devil to the same purpose the rest speak What must we then think of those Raptures which M. Teresa had when she said she was very backwards and but in the beginnings of vertues and mortifications 3. If they are not able to give any good account of what they speak in their ecstasies this Cardinal Bona layes down That if when they come to themselves they know not what they said in their Ecstasies but refer the hearers to what they spake then or if they speak whether they will or no there is great reason to suspect them For this saith Cardinal Cajetan is a condition of true Inspiration that the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets in this that they do not speak with any disturbance of mind as though they were acted by another but from their own sense with a quiet mind understanding what they speak therefore saith he they that speak in alienation of mind or after it do not remember what they spake in it have no true inspirations From whence it appears saith he that those who in their Ecstasies speak in the Person of Christ or of some Saint as though they were acted by them are either seduced or do seduce And yet the foolish world is astonished and admires and adores these words and actions But this rule although as much grounded on Scripture and Reason as any is as far as I can find very carefully omitted by the Mystical writers for a very good Reason which they well know 4. If they have weakned themselves by very long fastings for so Cardinal Bona saith that very great weakness may bring them to fainting sits and Ecstasies and he tells us from S. Teresa that she cured a Nun of her Ecstasies by making her leave her Fasting and bringing her to a good habit of Body It is great pity the same experiment had not been tryed upon her self Some saith Bona have made that an argument that their Ecstasies were supernatural because they continued many dayes in them without eating or drinking whereas many have undergone long fasts without a Miracle and some of the Indian Priests have â—asted twenty dayes together but because in those parts the heat may take away their appetite therefore Paulus Zacchias produces many instances of very long Fasts in these European parts without any miracle besides what Licetus Horstius Kornmannus and Sennertus and others have related to the same purpose and such Instances have been lately known among us in England 5. If they be very frequent and ordinary and happen upon any slight occasion For saith Paulus Zacchias since Divine Raptures have the nature of something miraculous in them we are not to suppose them to be very common and as often as any one pleases therefore saith he when we see a person fall frequently into Ecstasies we may justly presume that it is something natural since God doth not commonly work miracles Cardinal Bona saith that Sales thought the meer frequency of having Divine Revelations was enough to make them suspected And for persons to fall as often as they please into Ecstasies is saith Scacchus an evident sign of a Diabolical illusion so the Maid of Saragoza and Magdalena Crucia were discovered And what shall we then think of the
was sent for by Eâ—bert King of Kent where he went up and down through his Countrey and then adds cum Regula Benedicti instituta Ecclesiarum bene melioravit he improved the Orders of Churches by the Rule of S. Benedict which is in effect to say that he first brought this Order among them for how could he better their Orders by it if they had it among them before And he presently adds Tunâ— ergo in illis regionibus sancto Episcopo sicut Paulo Apostolo magnum estium fidei Deo adjuvante apertum est as though the â—eceiving the Order of S. Benedict were of as much consequence as believing the Christian Faith After three years by Theodore's means then Arch-bishop of Canterbury he was put into the Archbishoprick Of York and Ceadda deposed he had not been long there but refusing to consent to the making of three Bishops under him he was deprived by Theodore Wilfrid appeals to Rome and hastens thither himself where he was kindly received for Rome from its foundation hath been an Asylum for fugitives especially when their coming helps to increase its Grandeur Pope Agatho with his Council orders his restitution and threatens deprivation and excommunication to those that refuse him Wilfrid returns loaden with Reliques and the Popes Bull the King and the Bishops refuse to obey the Popes command and instead of restoring him the King commits him to Prison and afterwards banished him and he returned not home till the second year of Aldfrid where he continued not long but he was banished again for refusing to submit to the Synodical Constitutions at home Then a Synod was called of all the Bishops of England to which Wilfrid was summon'd where he upbraided the Bishops that they had opposed the Popes command for twenty two years and wondered they durst prefer the Constitutions of Theodore before the Bull of the Pope Was not England in great subjection to Rome at that time when all the Bishops one factious person excepted refused to obey the Pope upon an appeal for two and twenty years together and governed themselves by their own Constitutions in opposition to the Popes express command Notwithstanding the Bishops persist in their resolution and would hearken to no terms unless Wilfrid would submit to their sentence and oblige himself to run no more beyond Sea which he refuses to do and appeals again to Rome upon which Wilfrid and all his adherents were solemnly excommunicated But it is observable that where Wilfrid speaks the most in his own vindication he insists on these things as his great merits that he had been the great instrument of converting the Scots and English following them to the true Easter and the right Tonsure and that he had brought the Monks under the Rule of S. Benedict which no man had brought among them before By which we see that Wilfrid at least in the Northern parts was the first who brought in the Benedictin Order Which passage Eadâ—erus a Benedictin Monk in the liâ—e of Wilfrid thoâ—ght convenient to leave out although he takes most of the rest out of Heddius and so doth Fredegodus in the rumbling Verses of his life published lately by the Benedictins of France but William of Malmsbury hath the very same words in effect of Wilfrid that â—e gloried that he had been the first who brought the Benedictin Order into those parts It is a strange objection of Reyner against this that he would not boast of doing it there unless it had been every where else in England before his time for we have no mention at all of this Rule here before his time and he might think he had cause to glory to begin that Order in the North and to give an example to others and if our Historians say true he brought it into the Midland parts for he had a great hand in the consecration of the Abby of Evesham which Pope Constantin in his Bull saith it was to be under the Benedictin Rule quae minus in illis partibus adhuc habetur which is yet very little known in those parts So that the coming in of the Benedictin Order into those parts of England is not a matter of so great obscurity as those Learned Persons supposed and that some time after the death of Augustin and his Companions but it hath been therefore thought so obscure because only this Author who was never yet printed makes so express mention of it the Benedictins afterwards thinking it made for their honour to conceal it § 6. The greatest difficulty seems to be about our Church of Canterbury of which Mr. Selden saith that it was alwayes supposed to be of the Benedictin Order from its first Foundation by Augustin For saith he since there were alwayes Monks there and no other Order named we have reason to believe them to have been Benedictins for the name of Monk being set without addition of Family he supposes in the Western parts to have implyed a Benedictin as in the Eastern one of S. Basils Order Supposing this were granted of the latter times after that the Benedictin Order prevailed in the times of Dunsâ—an when the Concordia Regularis Anglicâ— Nationis was generally received after the Expuâ—sion of the Canonâ—cal and Secular Clergy out of most Cathedrals yet I can see no reason at all for it before when there were so many different Rules of Monks both here and in Italy and France All those who lived after the Monastick way whether they lived by Rule or only unâ—er the Government of a Superiour had equally the name of Monks given to them But of all sorts of Monks of that time those whom Augustin brought with him and were setled at Canterbury seem to be the farthest from the Benedictin Ruâ—e for any one that looks into that will easily see that it was intended for illiterate persons who were to imploy themselves in Work when the Office of the â—â—oire was over and for such who lived at a distance from Cities and consequently were to have all conveniencies within themselves and all the Monks in their Course were to go through the Office of the Kitchin and such like But those whom S. Gregory sent over with Augustin were Clergy-men and to be constantly imployed in preaching and other duties of their Function and when Augustin sent to Gregory for directions after he was made Bishop how he should live among them Gregory takes not the least notice of the Benedictin Rule which on such an occasion he would certainly have done if they had been of that Order but only tells him he ought to live with his Clergie after the custom of the Primitive Church which was to have all things in common From which it is very plain that he considered them as Clergy-men who if they had been tyed to the Benedictin Rule could have had very few hours of the day either for study or their other imployments Only
as the Bishop of London saith had rather he had wounded his body than his reputation by such an escape into forreign parts where he was sure to be represented as a Tyrant and persecutor of the Church Becket was driven back by a Tempest the King takes no notice of it uses him kindly and bids him take care of his Church Not long after a Controversie happened about some Lands which Becket challenged as belonging to his Church the King sends to him to do justice to the Person concerned in it notwithstanding complaints are brought to the King for want of it the King sends a summons to him to appear before him that he might have the hearing of the Cause Becket refuses to obey the summons and sends the King word he would not obey him in this matter at which saucy answer the King was justly provoked as a great disparagement to his Royal Authority Upon this he calls the Parliament at Northhampton where the People met as one man the King represents his case with becoming modesty and eloquence however he consented that his fault should be expiated by a pecuniary mulct after this the King exhibited a complaint against him for a great summ of money received by him during his Chancellorship which he had never given account for it was 44000 Marks as the Bishop of London told the Cardinals who were sent by the Pope afterwards to end the Controversie Becket pleaded that he was discharged by his promotion as though as the Bishop of London said promotion were like Baptism that wiped away all Scores But this being a meer civil Cause as the Bishop tells Becket yet he denyed to give answer to the King and appealed to the Pope as the judge of all men living saith sarisburiensis and soon after in a disguise he slips over the Sea and hastens to the Pope who received him with great kindness and then he resigns his Arch-bishoprick into the Popes hands as our Historians generally agree because he received investiture from the King and takes it again from the Pope This is the just and true account of the state of the Controversie as it is delivered by one of the same time that knew all the intrigues and which he writes to Becket himself who never answered it that I can find nor any of his party and by one who was a Person of great reputation with the Pope himself for his Learning Piety and the severity of his Life And is it now possible to suppose that Gregory 7. if he had been in Beckets place could have managed his cause with more contempt of Civil Government than he did when he refused to obey the Kings summons declined his Iudicature in a Civil Cause and broke his Laws against his own solemn promise and perjured himself for the Popes honour If this be only defending ancient priviledges of the Church I may expect to see some other moderate men of the Roman Church plead for Gregory 7. as only a stout defender of the ancient Canons and an enemy to the Popes temporal Power But men are to be pittyed when they meet with an untoward objection such as that from Beckets Saintship and Martyrdom is to prove the doctrine of Ecclesiastical Liberty and the Popes temporal Power to be the sense of their Church if they cannot find that they endeavour to make a way to escape and I hope the Persons I now deal with have more ingenuity than to think this new pretence any satisfactory plea for Beckets Cause And as the Bishop of London tells Becket it is not the suffering but the cause which makes a Martyr to suffer hardship with a good mind is honour to a man but to suffer in a bad cause and obstinately is a reproach and in this dispute he saith the whole weight of it lay upon the Kings power and some Customs of his Ancestors and the King would not quit the Rights of his Crown which were confirmed by Antiquity and the long usage of the Kingdom This is the cause why you draw your sword against the Sacred Person of the King in which it is of great consequence to consider that the King doth not pretend to make new Laws but as the whole Kingdom bears him witness such as were practised by his Ancestors And although it appears that he wished well to the main of Beckets Cause yet he blames him exceedingly for rashness indiscretion and insolency in the management of it and bids him remember that Christ never entred Zacchaeus his house till he came down from the Sycamore Tree and that the way of humility did far better become him and was likely to prevail more with the King than than which he took § 13. But Becket being out of the Kings reach and backed by the King of France and favoured by the Court of Rome made nothing of charging the King with Tyranny as he and his party do very frequently in the Volume of Epistles and because the Empress his Mother pleaded for some of the Customs as antient Rights of the Crown she is said to be of the raâ—e of Tyrants too The King finding himself thus beset with a swarm of Horneâ—◠〈…〉 of his own Power to 〈…〉 farther attempts upon his Crown and Royal Authority which was exposed to such publick ignominy in forreign parts and therefore sends this precept to all the Bishops to suspend the profits of all such Clergie-men as adhered to him Nosti quam male Thomas Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus operatus â— est adversus me Regnum meum quam male recesserit ideo mando tibi quod Clerici sui qui circa ipsum fuerint post fugam suam alii Clerici qui detraxerunt honori meo honori Regni non percipiant aliquid de redditibus illis quos habuerant in Episcopatu tuo nisi per me nec habâ—ant aliquod auxilium nec consilium a Te Teste Richardo de Luci apud Marlebergam After this the King commands the Sheriffs to imprison every one that appealed to the Court of Rome and to keep them in hold till his pleasure were known and he causes all the Ports to be watched to prevent any Letters of Interdict from the Pope and if any Regular brought them he was to have his feet cut off if in Orders he was to lose his eyes and something else and if he were a Lay-man he was to be hanged Accordingly the Popes Nuntio was taken with Letters of the Popes coming over for England and imprisoned by the Kings Order But the difference still growing higher and the King being threatned with excommunication and the Kingdom with an interdict the King commands an Oath to be taken against receiving Bulls from the Pope or obeying him or the Archbishop and the penalty no less than that of Treason which is so remarkable a thing I shall give it in the words of the MS. A. D. MCLXIX Rex Henricus jurare facit
who so meekly resigned his Crown to the Popes Legat and did swear homage to the Pope declaring that he held the Kingdom in Fee from him upon the annual payment of a thousand Marks And I desire it may be observed that the Oath of Fealty extant in Matthew Paris and the Records of the Tower and the Vatican Register which King Iohn made to the Pope hath no other expressions in it than are contained in the Oath which all the Popish Bishops now take at their consecration only with the variation of necessary circumstances And although Sr. Tho. Moor once denyed any such thing as King Iohns Resignation of his Crown yet the matter is now past all dispute by the concurrence of the Records of the Tower and the Vatican Register and the Authentick Bull of the Pope and the Epistles of Innocent the third published out of MS. by Bosquet now a Bishop in France wherein the devout Pope attributes thus resignation of his Crown to no less than the inspiration of the Holy Ghost and saith the Kingdom of England was then become a Royal Priesthood and in another Bull he accepts of the Resignation and declares that whereas before these Provinces were subject to the Roman Church in Spirituals they were now become subject in Temporals too and from hence he requires an Oath of Fealty from himself and all his Successors and charges all persons under severe penalties not to dare to infringe this Charter And although the Parliament 40 Edw. 3. did deny the payment of the Popes Tribute upon the invalidity of King John ' s Charter not being done by the consent of the Barons as the Pope said it was yet we are to consider what Gregory the seventh said to the Princes of Spain that a Kingdom once belonging to the See of Rome can never be alienated from it but although the Use be discontinued yet the Right still continues so that although the thing be never so much null and vain in it self yet it still serves for pretence to usurp the same temporal Power over our Princes when opportunity serves them And it is certain that Henry the third did swear homage and Fealty to the Pope at his Coronation and promised to pay the tribute which was performed several times in his Reign till the King and People protested against it in the Council of Lyons as a grievance of the Kingdom which was extorted by the Roman Court unjustly in a time of War and to which the Nobles had never consented and never would But whatever opinion the Nobles were of the Pope had the Bishops sure to him for upon his Message to them they all set their hands to King John ' s Charter of Resignation which highly provoked the King and made him swear that he would stand for the Liberty of the Kingdom and never pay the Tribute more while he breathed In the same Council the English complained that infinite numbers of Italians were beneficed among them that more money went out of England every year into Italy than the Kings Revenues came to that the Popes Legats grew more intolerable and by reservations and Provisions and one trick or other the Patrons were defrauded of their Right and the Clergy impoverished by unreasonable pensions and whoever would not presently submit his Soul was immediately put into the Devils Custody by Excommunication Notwithstanding all these complaints the Pope goes on in the same way with them and resolved to try how much the Asses back would bear without kicking the English Ambassadours go away highly incensed from the Council and resolved to defend their own rights but they yet wanted a Prince of Spirit enough to head them Before this time the insolence of the Roman Clergy was grown so intolerable to the Nation that the Nobility and Commonalty joyned together in a resolution to free themselves from this Yoke and threated the Bishops to burn their goods if they went about to defend them they sent abroad their Letters to several places with a Seal with two swords between which were written Ecce duo gladii hic in abuse of the Roman Court and it seems they destroyed the goods of several Roman Clergy-men but Matt. Paris saith they were all excommunicated by the Bishop of London and ten Bishops more although Matt. Mestminster saith the Bishop of London was cited to Rome for favouring them and having his Purse well emptied was sent home again It seems the Pope was so nettled at the Remonstrance of the English Nobility at the Council of Lyons that he entred into a secret consultation with the King of France either to depose the King of England or to bring him wholly to his will so that neither he nor his people should so much as dare to mutter against the oppressions of the Roman Court and the Pope offered the utmost assistance of his Power for it but the King of France declined the employment However the Pope goes on with his work and grants a Bull for raising ten thousand Marks out of vacant Benefices in the Province of Canterbury which so incensed the King that he made at Proclamation that whosoever brought Bulls of Provision from Rome should be taken and imprisoned but this did little good saith Matth. Paris because of the uncertain humour of the King The same year a Parliament was called about the intolerable grievances of the Roman Court in which many of the Bishops favoured the Popes party but at the Parliaments meeting at Winchester the Ambassadors were returned from the Pope who gave a lamentable account of their Ambassy viz. that instead of any redress the Pope told them the King of England kicks and playes the Frederick whom he had deposed from the Empire in the Council of Lyons he hath his Council and I have mine which I will follow and withal they say they were scorned and despised as a company of Schismaticks for daring to complain Upon this the King issues out another Proclamation that no money should be sent out of England to the Pope At which the Pope was so enraged that he sent a severe Message to the Bishops of England under pain of excommunication and suspension to see his Money punctually paid to his Nuntio by such a day in London and the King by the perswasion of the Bishop of Worcester and some others fairly yields and gives up the Cause to the Pope After this the Pope sends for a third part of the profits of all Benefices from Residents and half from Non-residents with an Italian Gentleman called Non obstante that had almost undone the Nation the Clergie meet at London about it and make a grievous Remonstrance of their sad condition declaring that the whole Kingdom could not satisfie the Popes demands but it seems the Bishops brought the inferiour Clergie to it against the consent of the King and Parliament The next year the Parliament made