it you see I say all this in fauour of Regulars on the one side and on the other a petty Canon of Bolonia who in fine is not indeede contrary to vs though he be so in apparance 14. Rendring therefore to my Lords the Prelates that which their quality deserues and their vertues require that which the Councell of Trent ordaynes that which use right and custome haue made to passe in the nature of a Law and honoring parsons and Curates and loving them with particular affection and withall exhorting all devout men to doe honour to their parsons or Curates to frequent their parishes to pay in all their rights and yet notwithstanding hauing those so authentical priviledges in their hands and the possession of so many yeares why doe men complaine so much of poore Religious men who very often reape no other thing but much paine and travaile Oh no man knoweth what it is to be a good Confessarius but such a man as is in a very ordinary exercise thereof Alas what a huge patience is needfull what kinde of longanimity what a condiscending what a company of repetitions must bee endured how many uncleannesses what hazards what a company of ill houres Is there perhaps so great pleasure in feeding uppon nothing but the sinnes of the people and with Saint Peter to devoure Dragons Vipers and a million of bruite beasts full of venoime I doe rather thinke that men should haue pitty of such poore men then enuy and giue thankes to these poore Martyres and Confessours for their paines they suffer rather then to arraigne them thus and make warre upon them Some of my Lords the prelates haue themselues beene willing to heare Confessions and they haue done it with great edification but wee haue knowne of very few who haue long continued in that course so tough so dangerous and so greatly wearisome is that businesse 15. As for us if wee were to take our turne in pleading certainely I would cite no other Canon then that of Omnis vtriusque sexus with the Glosse of one of our Synodes of France The Text sayth that a man must confesse himselfe to his Proper Priest or else haue his leaue to Confesse himselfe to another Now who is this Proper Priest who may giue the leaue Let us heare the Synode of Langres in the yeare of our Lord 1421. Ne remaneat aliqua haestitatio quis proprius dicatur Sacerdos declaramus prout etiam jura doctores declarant quod Proprius Sacerdos est Papa ejus Legatus Paenitentiarius Diocesanus Vicarius Generalis ille cui cura suae Parochialis Ecclesiae est commissa After this I beseech you what can more be sayd 16. There resteth onely now this complaint that parishes are forsaken and that consequently Priests studie not that men goe not to their Sermons that for spite they leaue all that Religious men deuoure all and that their Churches swell with people whilest parishes are forsaken to the great contempt of the Hierarchy of the Church That now few are found who will bee parsons or Vicars especially in Villages and therefore Bishops grow to finde much difficulty in furnishing their Dioceses by meanes whereof all goes to ruine and soules are damned and yet Bishops in the meane time are as much obliged in the sight of God to haue care of their Dioceses as the Pope hath of his and of the Vniversall Church Besides that Priests finding themselues not to bee imployed and that persons of quality goe to Confesse themselues elsewhere and that men make no great account of their Sermons they spend not their time in studie and not studing they giue themselues to idlenesse and from idlenesse growes the rest in such sort that Regulars are the cause of these mischiefes and that secular priests grow to bee irregular and it belongeth to Bishops to redresse these things who groane in the meane time under this burthen and know not how to apply good and effectuall remedies 17. Behold here great store of crimes hudled vp one vpon another and behold a grieuous mortall sinne whereof by mischance the Regulars meane not to confesse themselues to be guilty And the reason is because they knowe it not and they found themselues vpon this that non entis proprié non est scientia And they make good that they are not the cause of these mischiefes in the strength of these maximes of Lawe which is receiued throughout the whole world Qui vtitur iure suo nemini facit iniuriam For what shall it not be lawfull for me to doe well for feare least others do ill for spight What will you say if God haue sent Religious men into the world as Renatus Benedictus said to awake them of the Church who were sleeping And certainely these are the motiues which Popes assigne in their Buls of priuiledges and which deserue to be read and well weighed with a mind full of respect and piety God himselfe discouered this to Pope Innocent the third when he shewed him the Church as if it had bene falling to the ground and Saint Dominicke and Saint Francis who shouldred it vp so happily that they kept it on foote and restored it to the former place But let vs passe from this discourse which yet neuerthelesse is not impertinent For considering the incredible good which God hath vouchsafed to worke by meanes of Regulars ouer the whole world wee haue reason to praise his infinite goodnesse to render him all glory for it and to hope that they may yet be able to serue him in the assistance of many soules 18. O how I loue that good and gallant Parson in Paris whom all you my Lords do also loue and verily he deserues it who sayd thus after an Apostolicall manner and with a generous heart Let vs do better then Religious men and beleeue me the Religious men will be more affraid of vs then we of them The world followeth vertue or the opinion of vertue or both together that which we should doe Religious men striue to doe but let vs striue to do that which they do and their Houses will be more forsaken then ours Let vs adorne our Churches as they do let vs make learned and deuoute Sermons which may greatly edifie our people let vs liue as we speake let vs cultiuate the soules of our Parishioners let vs make choice of Priests of good liues let all go orderly in our Churches let vs lay all our interests at the feete of the Crucifixe and this will be the most powerfull meanes to defend vs and to mainetaine vs in our rights and to haue cause to feare nothing But otherwise to make such a noyse and to doe nothing but cry out without ceasing and to tosse Excommunications vp and downe and to be sending threats all this makes for nothing but discourse without producing any fruit and mens minds are so made that by this meanes they rather growe wild then soft and sweete and restored to the
that there is more worke cut out then we shall be able to sow and that the heart of a Bishop which ought to be a heart paternall and Apostolicall ought to imbrace all them who may serue to cultiuate the faire field of the Church of God 22. There is escaping from my hand and I know not how to keepe it backe a passage which seemeth pardonable to a man who defendeth so good a cause Aristotle saith that Ex quibus constamus ex ijs nutrimur conseruamur in esse This being so my Lords it is still to be considered that Regulars haue not lost their time nor done any great wrong to them who haue done them the honour to imploy them and that indeed they are not yet to be cast out of the way Certainly it hath pleased the infinite goodnesse of God to serue himselfe of them either for plantation of our faith or else of pitty in an eminent degree and that in a manner ouer the whole world Is it not true that it was Saint Bernard who made Campayne flourish St. Columbanus Burgundy St. Martin Tourayne Saint Anselme Normandy Saint Dominicke Languedoc and Guyenne Saint Vincent Britany Saint Thomas and Saint Bonauenture the King Saint Lewes and Fraunce Saint Augustine the Monke all England And now in our dayes is it not they who haue planted the Crosse of Iesus Christ in all those new worlds and who are planting it now whilest I am speaking in the heart of Aethiopia in Persia in the East and throughout the foure Winds of the world May they not well be thought to helpe towards the entertaining of the Church since they haue sweate bloud and water to plant it and are bedewing it with their teares and with their blood and sealing it with their heads and liues For a little I know not what must the occasion alas be lost of drawing so many exemplar seruices out of their labours vnder colour of some little indiscretion of any single man who may be transported by his zeale That amendment which might be desired can it not possibly be procured without such a deale of businesse and confused noise O my God there are so many abhominations in the world vpon which we daily looke and yet men open not their mouthes and hardly thinke that it concernes them at all and now it seemes that all consisteth in dragging Religious men after them as if that being once done we were instantly to see vertue ride in Tryumph I would to Christ there were no impediment but that and 〈◊〉 would to Christ that all this did â—urne vpon no other thing but that â—f the pure zeale of the seruice of God If euery one might make his owne complaints good God what a terrible discourse would grow vpon it but let not the Diuine Maiesty be pleased that so great a misfortune should ariue It is better to hold ones peace and to labour in silence and humility Bona facere mala pati Apostolicum est sayd the great Saint Bernard 23. That my Lords which is to bee much weighed is that by this course they are not the Regulars whom men assault but the Priviledges themselues and the Popes who gaue them and the authority of the See Apostolicke for all this is but a leuell at the same aime and Generall Councells and Canonized Saints and the doctrine of the Church received by the whole world and practised through so many ages and iudged by so many sentences And all this must be done for 〈…〉 point of honour or of power and in a businesse which so many great Cardinals full of wisedome and so many holy and venerable old men who were growne gray in the Gouernement of the Church would neuer alter I find that my most illustrious and most reuerend Lord the Cardinall of Rochfaucault who is of so delicate a conscience so graue in his iudgements and of so exemplar a life did say very well when he sayd I care not what habit men weare but I euer take the best As long as Religious men serue to good purpose I do willingly serue my selfe of them when they forget themselues I will also forget them When Doctors and Seculars and Pastors do well I will loue them and shall be glad to employ them In fine when a man is to make his choyce he must euer take the best whatsoeuer habite he weare Behold this is a saying worthy of him 24. I would to God that he with any other who resembled him were arbitrator of this cause in difference to calme this Tempest and to appease all things with the spirite of 〈◊〉 For there is good meanes for it when that which may be sayd on both sides may bee heard allowing to my Lords the Prelates more honour then euer themselues desire as also to the Pastors of particular Churches and leauing also Religious men in liberty to enioy their right in repose and with respect and honor These words of Abraham cast themselues into my mouth Facta est rixa inter pastores Gen. 3. gregum Abraham Lot c. Dixit ergo Abraham ad Lot rè quaeso sit iurgum inter me te inter pastores meos pastores tuos fratres enim sumus Ecce vniuersia terra coâ—am te est recede à me obscero si ad sinistram ieris ego dexteram tenebo si tu dexteram elegeris ego ad sinistram pergam c. Elegitque sib Lot regionem circa Iordanem recessit ab Oriente Make you the choyce my Lords and take you the faire Easterne Sunne to your selues those first beames of the day of honour are due to you the most liuely Orientall spring of light was made for you You are they whom the world must honour as euery one looketh towards the rising Sunne The sweet dewes of Indulgences the Easterne winds of Missions and the powers of commanding and sending hither and thether ought to issue out of your mouthes all the sweetenesses of heauen passe by your hands iust as the fauours of nature beginne from the East Be you therefore the Orients of the world according to the stile of Origen Estote filij Orientis ecce vir oriens nomen eius dabo Zachar. 6. vobis sernum meum Orientem eius Zachar. 3. 1. Reg. 9. erunt optima quaeque c. All this is done to you 25. Religious men whom you honour with the name of Brothers but who yet are in effect your sonnes and your seruants will place themselues towards the West and will lodge all their ambition in the setting Sunne of Mortification They will not at all mislike that the beames of honour be ecclipsed from them so that the beames of their charity may be able to shine brightly in the darknesse of sinfull soules and that they may cause the zeale of sauing those soules rise vp from the descent of humility They will bee well content to see themselues in this setting quarter where the day of honour
way of the antient piety of France In fine this man liueth after this manner and not onely he but some others also who are adored in their parishes and all men do so loue them and they are so desired and euen as it were opprest with businesse that men cannot see them but with halfe an eye And as for those others who are euer crying out they breede more feare then enuy in such as would drawe neere to them and they estrange their parishioners from them who beleeue that there is some other thing in the businesse then the pure loue of God the saluation of soules and the preseruation of the Hierarchy I beseech God to preserue this most vertuous Pastor and bestow vpon him a great heape of benedictions and grant that all the rest may walke the same pace and doe so much good that Regulars may haue no more to doe O in how great repose and with how ioyfull a heart would they pray God for so many and so worthy labourers 19. Let vs come to that other exception that Benefices remaine voyde and that now in effect men doe finde no persons capable to fill them with especially in countrey townes and villages Now here I must cleerely auow either my simplicity or my too great credulity For in very truth I was of opinion that there had not beene halfe a Benefice which enow had not extreamle desired to get and to heape one vpon another and that not being able to procure them by any other meanes men buy them out right with ready money and that they vse a thousand trickes to serue one anothers turnes and that Simony was neuer so refined nor lesse apprehended to be ill and all the rest of that which common fame is spreading in all companies Verily I beleeued all this and I confesse I did it as a thing most certaine and without all doubt But my Lords since you haue told me the contrary for you haue sayd it I will resolutely giue my minde this law and I will make it stoope to this yoake that I will beleeue you without contradiction But my Lords you will pardon me if still I tell you that although I beleeue the thing yet I cannot force my heart to beleeue the cause which is alledged namely that Regulars are the cause thereof For how can this be Is it because they get their Benefices let them haue no more of them Is it that they diuert Secular Priests from taking those Benefices excommunicate them Is it that they carry away all the stations or Indulgences They haue none but such as please you and oftentimes they haue but the refuse of others Is it because they debaush secular Priests make them bee punished by their superiors and if they will not doe it you Is it because they doe not Counsell them to studie Alas some times they say that the Iesuites make too many men learned and too full of knowledge and sometimes the direct contrary Good God whom shall wee beleeue If I feared not to offend some and if I had not promised that I would not anger any I would acquaint you very clearely with the true source of all these miseries but I had rather leaue it to your thought and I will impose perfect silence uppon my selfe saving onely in this that I declare to you clearely with a strong voyce and with much truth that it is not good Religious men who are the cause of these disorders 20. So farre of it is that Regulars should bee the cause that a hundred Bishops will tell you on the other side when there hath beene some disorder in Bourgs and Villages they haue served themselues of Regulars to put things in Order as before and the successe hath proved that the choyce was good This is so cleare that it needes no proofe Whether this trouble the Order of the Church whether it bee against the authority of Prelates or against the right of Pastours or against reason I make the most reverend Charles the Bishop of Langres the Iudge who in his Synode after hee had commaunded the publication of that Canon Omnis vtriusque sayth these very words Nè detur materia fratribus Mendicantibus querelandi volumus quod in fine publicationis constitutionis praedictae Omnis vtriusque sexus c. subinferatur publice quod per hoc non intendimus praejudicare Privilegijs super audiendis Confessionibus eisdem fratribus concessis subjungendo quod fratres nobis praesentati possunt audire Confessiones libere confitentibus eisdem paenitentias salutares impartiri de commissis c. All that which he demaundeth is that men doe it vnder his authority and this is done and it is more then most reasonable that it should be so But in the meane time you see that it is he who is called the Proper Priest he who sendeth whom he will and who serueth himselfe of good Religious men for the helpe of parishes And doe you not beleeue that other Bishops haue the same Dictamen with this great Peere of France and Bishop of Langres who held this language 21. Let vs adde to this that if euer there were little cause of complaining vpon this title it is in this age of ours No my Lords doe not any longer feare that now Secular Priests will not proue such as you desire or that parsonages will be in want of men very well able to serue the Cures or for the seruice also of other Benefices For the fatherly prouidence of God hath sent a new Renforce by a most vertuous congregation of holy Priests who beeing full of knowledge and piety will supply all these wants according to the vocation which God hath giuen them to reforme secular Clergy By the example of their liues they will shew what is to bee done by their endeauours they will fill such places as shal bee voyde both in City and Countrey and they will yeeld good labourers will refuse to take no paines and will gladly spread their Charity ouer the whole World as they haue alreadie begunne to doe in many places and will also by little and little grow substituting excellent Ecclesiasticall men to make this Church of France flourish both in Villages and Townes One onely thing I feare that after men shall haue cryed hard against Religious men they will also beginne to cry out against these every one interpreting their zeale according to his owne fancy and banding themselues perhaps as stiffely against them as against Religious and alleadging a thousand things according to their passions and humours Now if this should happen you would clearely discerne even from that instant that the noyse which is made both against the one and against the other proceedes from some other roote then of meere charity and of a true desire of the good of the true Hierarchy To tell you more of this would serue for nothing to my purpose onely I will say franckly that there will neuer be good labourers enow
of one of them at least who dyed miserably In fine you shall haue in Saint Thomas all those very arguments which are brought against us at this day with the angelicall and most solid answeres of this Oracle who at his returne to Paris did publikely make good all his Doctrine and answered all them who went to assault him with their Canon shot and with arguments which they conceived to bee omnipotent But there hapned an accident which discovered that spirit well whereby they were animated who banded themselues against these For uppon a certaine Palme-Sunday when Saint Thomas Preached publikely in the Vniversity and spake like an Angell behold a strange and very unworthy case which hapned For a certaine silly fellow called Iuliot a Picard who appeared about the middle of the Sermon and opening a great paper wherein was contayned a list of injurious speeches against the great man and a thousand outragious slanders against his holy Order After I say that hee vomited out all this he concluded thus with a loud voyce How now my maisters can you be content after all this to heare the Sermon of so wicked a man and of a Doctor who teacheth so abhominable errors And you brother Thomas what doe you answere to this Now the people was confounded to see the vnspeakeable modesty of Saint Thomas who harkened to all that poysoned Discourse with so profound humility and with a silence so full of modestie and holy mortification that they esteemed him as a Saint of Heaven for hee did never so much as answere any one word But the people calling up their spirits and considering the insolency of this bold meane fellow did that which you may read if it please you in the story for I will not loade this paper with it nor yet importune you But so it is that the Auditors did that which perhaps you your selues wold haue done if you had beene at that Sermon and the King caused him and those maisters of Arte to bee punished who had made him commit that base tricke so full of insolency and scandall Now all those good Religious seeing themselues opprest on all sides and that the earth and this World fayled them they had recourse to Heaven and to the holy mother of God who appeared to Saint Thomas and made him see these Words written in letters of Gold Liberavit vos Deus abinimicis vestris de manu omnium qui oderunt vos In a word in the yeare of our Lord 1259. all this tempest broake up and those holy men remained in peace But I dare not forbeare to tell you that all this storme grew not into that heigth but by reason of a certaine rage and a strong passion of a Prelate who had seene a Nephew of his enter into the Order of Saint Dominicke and had never beene able to draw him thence Alas a little winde doth sometimes stirre up great stormes uppon the Sea of this World and how many things do men ill vnder colour of good if they take not heed 28. Methinkes you doe yet desire at my hands the Theses which Saint Thomas defended publikely in this matter and the Propositions which hee maintayned against all them who disputed thereof which was the cause why all the World yeelded to the truth and which calmed this tempest which was so blacke and so terrible that it was likely to swallow up these two Orders I wil obay and giue you here the chiefe points therof and I will draw them out of his booke and doe you but see if they be not the very same of these dayes 1. Cum misit Deus Apostolos 12. Opusc 15. c. 4. 72. Discipulos dedit illis facultatem alios mittendi sicut fecit Sanctus Paulus 1 Cor. 4. 2. Multo melius potest Papa Episcopus delegare alios mittere in vineam Domini quam Parochus 3. Minores Angeli in caelesti Hierarchia mitti possunt a superioribus eadem plane opera exercâ—nt ideoque dicuntur Seraphin Cherubin quia eorum opera exercent sic in Hierarchia Ecclesiastica 4. Papa non destruit Ecclesiasticam Hierarchiam cum mittit Monachos ad praedicandum quod enim potest inferior ut Curatus concedere committendo curam alicui hoc potest ejus superior ut Episcopus Papa 5. Papa in hoc non facit contra decreta Canorum nec contra statuta Sanctorum quod si daretur eum facere contra verba statutorum certum est eum servare intentionem statuentium quae est vtilitas Ecclesiae 6. Quae sunt de jure positiuo relicta sunt sub Papae dispensatione ut est hoc de quo quaeritur nempe mittere Monachos ad Praedicationes Confessiones audiendas 7. Quisquis Papae vel Episcopo suo vel alicui ejus vicem habenti confessus est ille confessus est proprio Sacerdoti 8. Cum Episcopus subditum Sacerdotis absoluit perse vel per alium cui commisit tum Sacerdos Parochialis itâ debet se reputare cognoscere eum ac si sibi confessus esset Nam cognoscere potest aliquem aut ex propria Confessione aut ex sententia superioris an sit dignus communione 9. Licet concedatur posse aliquod malum oriri ex hoc quod aliquis non confitetur Parocho suo tamen multo plura majora mala nascuntur si quis cogatur necessario illi confiteri vt patet experientia 10. Quicquid Sancti Doctores Canones videntur dicere de Monachis quorum Officium esse dicitur magis plangere quam docere hoc dicitur de Monachis illis qui nec Sacerdotes erant neque Diaconi sed solitarij Heremitae non de ijs qui ad hoc vocati sunt qui non ex propria authoritate id faciunt sed ex commissione Praelatorum 11. Etiamsi daretur duos tantum Ordines a Domino esse institutos qui possent propria authoritate praedicare c. posset tamen Ecclesia tertium statuere Ordinem qui posset propria authoritate praedicare multum magis eorum quiex commissione sicut in Primitiua Ecclesia fuerunt tantum duo Ordines sacri scilicet Presbiteri Deaconi tamen postea Ecclesia minores Ordines statuit 12. Quidam a Confessione desisterent nisi possint alijs quam suis Sacerdotibus confiteri propter multas causas 13. Ex communi consuetudine Orientalis Ecclesiae omnes fere Monachis confitentur 14. Quidam novellum sibi statuentes errorem in tantam prorumpunt audaciam vt asserant non posse per Episcopos Religiosis praedicta committi absque voluntate Parochi quod pernicio sius est non posse hoc asserunt concedi per Privilegium sedis Apostolicae 15. Optimè ait S. Dion Eccl. Hier. c. 6. summus Sacerdos per suos ministros aut Sacerdotes purgans aut illuminans ipse dicitur purgare illuminare ergo Episcopus eodem modo qui autem