present occasion to show which I think I have sufficiently done that he had cause to Appeal from the Pope to a Council that he did Appeal in due form of Law and prosecuted it with great Moderation which was enough to acquit him from Schism as far as we are concerned in it That on the other hand the Pope rejected his Appeal to the affront of that Supreme Tribunal among Christians and not only proceeded against the Appellant in which case the Appellant might and ought to resist him but he also took a course that the case should never be otherwise For whereas the Pope assumes to himself the only power to call Councils and whereas there had been none in Ten years to say no more and therefore a Council ought to have been then according to the Canons yet the Pope would have no Council then nor afterwards till he had tried all other ways to destroy both the King and his Kingdom When at last after many years talk and deliberation a Council was called that at Trent which pretends to be a General Council it was such as the King could not think himself bound to acknowledge nay he was bound to oppose it as well for his own preservation as to maintain the Common Right of Christians according to the Principles then received in the Western Church By his Appeal he was not bound to submit to any other than he expressed in it that is a Lawful General Council Such the Councils of Constance and Basil were then generally acknowledged to have been And it was the cry of the Western Church as well in this as the foregoing Ages for such a Council as those were to reform abuses as well in the Head as in the Members But the Head was as it would be and therefore being to chuse would take no Physick to cure it self This was visible in the Popes extreme averseness to a Council till he saw that without it the Nations were likely to Reform themselves Then he began to think it needful to call one himself But at first he named no time or place Then he named first one Town and then another When men began to think he was in earnest for they had been often fooled with reports the King declared he would not own a Council called by the Popes single Authority It was the Judgment of the Church of England that he ought not to own it for so their Synod declared that neither the Bishop of Rome nor any one Prince whatsoever may by his own Authority call a General Council without the express consent of the residue of Christian Princes When afterwards it appeared that the Pope was intent upon it the King on the same grounds made his publick Protestation shewing that the Indiction of a Council belonged not to the Bishop of Rome but to the Emperour and Princes which should send or come thither The like Protestation he sent abroad into all forein Countries And he afterward made it good by not sending one Bishop to the Council when it met though one of his Subjects was there whom the Pope was pleased to make a Bishop with a Title in this Kingdom Having thus no obligation to own this for a General Council he was therefore obliged to oppose it as being the Mockery and Abuse of that Supreme Judicatory joyned with the defrauding all Christians of their right in it and particularly himself of the benefit of his Appeal to it Which things he ought to have considered had it been held in the most innocent manner But much more being held as it was with most apparent design to establish those abuses which all Christendome cried out to have reformed to deprive the diffusive Church of that which was the only remedy for them to bring it to pass that there should be no more General Council as now we see there is like to be none while the world stands particularly as to himself he had cause to oppose the Trent Council as far as he was able For it was originally designed to please the Emperour and thereby to oblige him to head the Party of Christian Princes whom the Pope was then uniting to make War against England And as that Council was framed in all its circumstances the King could consider it no otherwise than he did the Pope himself who was his open and implacable Enemy For as the Pope called it by his single Authority so he always presided in it by his Legates He had it filled with his Creatures Italians and others who were sure to carry every thing by their Number And yet for fear they should forget themselves every thing must be examined at Rome before it could pass through their hands And being past yet it was of no force till it had the Pope's Approbation By which means he made himself so far Lord of this Council that though perhaps he could not pass whatsoever he pleased yet nothing could pass that should displease him in it And least by taking all this care the Pope might seem to intend no more but only to secure himself without doing the King a farther injury there was one thing which made it appear that he had as great a mind to plague the King as to provide for his own preservation For among all his number of Cardinals he could find none fitter to preside in the Council and there to judge the King's cause if he were so unwise as to send it thither than one that was the King's Enemy more than the Pope himself if it were possible That was Cardinal Pool the King 's unnatural Subject and Kinsman who being brought up by him and sent to travel for his farther improvement and while he was abroad being intrusted by him in his cause forsook it and joined himself to the Imperial party In which though he might pretend that he followed his Conscience yet nothing could excuse him for practising against his King and his Country He was the man employed to write against the King's Divorce and out-did other Writers in this that he stirred up the Emperour to revenge his Aunts injury for fear he should forget it and not only so but went about from Prince to Prince and from Country to Country to stir them up to War against this Realm For which so unworthy and so officious a disloyalty he was declared Traitor at home by Act of Parliament and had a price set upon his Head not to mention other instances of the King 's extreme displeasure against him When this had so far endeared him to the Pope that being not content to have made him one of his Cardinals he must also have this man to preside in his Council the English had so much the more cause to be jealous and to stand upon their guard as well against his Council as himself A General Council they could not hold it to be for their Church was not allowed to
Scripture they could then face them down with those things which now they do not love to hear of namely with forg'd decretal Epistles or Councils or Fathers or with pretended Revelations and Visions or with counterfeit Miracles For all which they had those at their beck who though ignorant enough otherwise had more learning and skill to forge such things than others had at that time to disprove them Thus in a blind Age nay many Ages together when this part of the World was conducted and governed in spiritual things by one-eyed men for the Popes themselves were no better it is no wonder that the generality of the people ran into so many Errours as they did to the great hurt and scandal of the Christian Religion And though 't is charitable to believe that at first there was no design to have those Errours obtruded on the Faith of Posterity yet appearing to be such as might be of great use for the wealth and greatness of the Clergy who were strongly attach'd to the Roman See nay some of them to the Advancement of the Papacy it self the Pope had great cause to look kindly upon them and to wish they were no Errours but Catholick Doctrines and if he pleased to have them such who durst say they were otherwise When they had once receiv'd that publick countenance from him he had much greater cause to continue it and by all possible ways to keep them in possession of that esteem which those dark times had given them And that not only for affection as before on the account of their usefulness to himself and his Clergy but for fear that if these Errours were detected and brought in disgrace it might reflect on the Infallibility of the Roman See and might give men occasion to look farther and to examine the whole Fabrick of Popery which being search'd to the bottom it could not but appear that the Fundamental Errour was that which gave the Pope such a Power and Authority over the whole Christian Church This was truly the cause why such care was continually taken in all the latter general Councils for so the Pope was pleas'd to call those Conventions of his Vassels in which nothing pass'd but what he pleas'd to establish those popular Errours as they grew up and to put them out of question by their Canons and Decrees Whereas the great capital Errour was never defin'd but supposed and pass'd as all Fundamentals do by such a general consent as is stronger than all positive Laws whatsoever It pass'd thus for many Ages till upon occasion of that long Schism when for about fifty years the Western Church carried double a Pope and an Antipope that rid Cursing and Damning one another the Council of Constance being met to judge which was which deposed both and began to set bounds to the Papacy It was follow'd by the Council of Basil which presuming to do the same and being likely enough to have gone farther the Pope that then was call'd an opposite Council and therein settled his Authority by a Law It was the Council of Florence which though not acknowledg'd by many Roman Catholicks abroad and particularly not by the generality of them in France Yet since I write this to English men I shall shew what they of our Nation thought of it at the last Revolution to Popery from whence we may take some kind of measure and guess what many would be at again It was declar'd by the Cardinal Legate with consent of his Synod at London that the cause of all the evils in this Church sprang from hence that departing from the Vnity and Doctrine of the Catholick Church we had relinquished the Authority and Obedience of the Pope of Rome Christ's Vicar and the Successor of Peter The denial of this Authority was declar'd to be the chief Errour of Protestants To correct which they thought fit to set forth the true Doctrine as it was delivered in the Eighth General Council at Florence held under Pope Engenius IV. of happy memory in these words We declare That the holy Apostolical See and Pope of Rome holds the Primacy over all the World and that the Pope of Rome is the Successor of St. Peter the Prince of the Apostles and is the true Vicar of Christ and Head of the whole Church and Father and Teacher of all Christians and that to him in St. Peter our Lord Iesus Christ gave full power to feed rule and govern the Vniversal Church Since the Council of Florence there have been only two pretended General Councils namely the fifth Lateran and the Council of Trent both which were acknowledged by that Synod of London above mentioned The fifth Lateran Council was call'd by the Pope for no other end but that he might be able to write their Approbation in the stile of those Bulls which he should publish for the greatness of the Papacy In the first of those Bulls he damn'd the Pisan Council which the French King had assembled against him In the second he laid an Interdict on the whole Kingdom of France and ordered the Fair of Lions to be removed from thence to Geneva In a third he annulled the famous pragmatick Sanction the Palladium of the French Church And so went on till having brought the French King to his terms his next Bull was to set himself above all General Councils and to declare That all Christians sub necessitate salutis under pain of Damnation must be subject to the Pope of Rome according to that Luciferian Constitution of Boniface VIII which he mentions and approves and confirms All this he does with consent of that Council The Council of Trent which came last and pinn'd the Basket not only took care to leave the Pope in full possession of this usurp'd Power by declaring that no act of theirs should infringe it and by making him Judge and Interpreter of all their Decrees but also confirmed it to him as much as in them lay For they ordained That in every Church of the Roman Communion at the first Provincial Synod after that Council every Member thereof should promise and profess true Obedience to the Pope and that all that were preferr'd for the future whether to Bishoprick Dignity or Cure of Souls should promise and swear the like Obedience in such form as the Pope should prescribe Whereupon Pope Pius IV. made that form of Profession of Faith that is every where taken at this day whereof one Clause is I promise and swear true Obedience to the Pope of Rome Successor to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Iesus Christ. Beside these publick Acts which have a general influence on all parts and Members of the Roman Communion there is a special tye on the governing part of it if not by their interest by another Oath which is taken by all Archbishops Bishops Abbots at their Consecration The form of it is prescrib'd in the
Roman Pontificale to which I refer the Reader that would see it at large There he may see how all Church-Governours of that Communion bind themselves to the Pope to be his Liege-men and Subjects his Counsel-keepers his Spies and Intelligencers his constant Correspondents his Factors his sworn Servants in express terms To the utmost of their power to persecute and impugn all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels against the Pope their own natural Prince Parents Kindred and Friends not excepted I wish every Protestant who is in their sense an Heretick c. would be pleas'd to read that Oath and then judge what he is to expect from any of these men unless he knows they are such as will be perjur'd for his sake It was surely not without cause that Cardinal Bellarmine call'd the Doctrine of the Pope's Authority over all Christians Caput Fidei the Head of the Catholick Faith I have shewn that it is so in their sense of the word Catholick A Doctrine that is the only Fundamental of Popery the Foundation whereof was first laid in the Papal Authority and the whole Building of Popery in other points has been raised in favour to it A Doctrine that has since been secured and confirmed by Canons of Councils and by the Oaths of all their Clergy A Doctrine to which the Leaders and Guides of their Church are sworn to sacrifice all that 's dear to them And which way the Guides go there 's no fear but the Laity will follow them with that blind Obedience which is peculiar to them in the Roman Church And therefore whatsoever Notion we have of Popery in other things the Pope himself is not so fond of them but that to gain the point of Authority he can either connive or abate or part with them wholly if he pleases Though no doubt he never does it but insidiously as well knowing that whatsoever Concession he makes for the establishing of his Authority he may afterwards annul and will do it when soever he pleaseth But that the owning his Authority is the thing which makes a Catholick in his sense and that only it appears by sundry Instances abroad but none more memorable then those which we have had here in England Where King Henry VIII having cast off his Obedience to the Pope was therefore judged a Heretick and underwent the worst that Rome could have done to him if he had rejected all their Errours together and yet he asserted all the rest and imposed them with the utmost severity He was a through-Papist in all points but only that of Obedience in comparison whereof all the rest are but talk That is the business as we are taught by this example And we are not a little confirm'd by the proceeding on the other hand with his daughter Elizabeth who being as much a Protestant as any is or can be at this day and having so settled Religion in her Kingdom that it had scarce been in her power to have altered it how and when she pleased yet if she could but have been brought to acknowledge the Popes Authority to which she was courted by all possible ways how gladly would his Holiness have received her and abated for lesser things that is for all things else if it be true that the Pope would have allowed her the English Liturgy that then was and the Communion-Service as it was generally reported he would And we have the more cause to believe it because we hear of the like offers prepared for us in order to perswade the restoring of Popery in our days I conceive it is sufficiently proved that the chief thing in Popery is the Doctrine which asserts the Popes Authority over all Christians I shall adde that it is the worst of all the evils which Popery contains the most hurtful and mischievous both to Church and State which being proved to my hand in sundry Learned Discourses within these few years I shall not need to say much on this head Yet I cannot but mind the Reader of that which is most notorious and which every one knoweth that hath read over almost any History of these last Eight hundred years For about so long since it was that the Church received the greatest Wound that ever was given it a Breach not to be repaired a Schism that reacheth throughout the whole Universe So long a time the Western Church that is the Western part of Europe hath been a Church by it self having broke off all Communion with all other Churches in the World that is with all the Asian and African Churches and all those in the East and North parts of Europe Instead of that Love and Peace which Christ left as his Legacy among Christians there hath been for so many Ages nothing else but Banning and Cursing between them As the Pope yearly curses all those Christians that are not of his Communion so he and his are yearly curst by the four ancient Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Ierusalem and by all the Christian Churches depending on them except those few whom he hath conquer'd or bought or otherwise gain'd by his Missionaries The original cause of this Breach was nothing else but the Popes Usurpation which those Churches were not able to bear It was the same cause that many Ages after divided this Western part of Europe within it self For our Church was thrown out of the Roman Communion many years before any thing else was reformed in it when there was no other difference between us but only this that we had cast off the Popes Usurpation This breach of Christian-Unity were of it self a great mischief to the Church though nothing else came of it but Hatred and Unchristian Censures in which perhaps both sides might be to blame but yet they might live and grow wiser and come at last to understand one another And this would possibly ensue upon any other difference of Opinion But this grand point of Popery is such as sets men in no ordinary heat it makes them breath not only Censures but Death against their Adversaries it arms out all the Wealth Power and Policy of them that hold it to reduce or destroy all them that oppose it Not to rip up ancient stories we have a sad instance this in the Greek Church which refusing to submit to the Pope was betray'd by him to the Turk under whom it hath groaned these two hundred years In all which time of bondage and misery which that poor Church hath endured what relief hath she had from the Interest or Wealth of the Papacy I cannot say but there have been and are daily great returns thither of money from Rome but all the use of them is to hire her Children against her for bread or to bribe the Turks Bassa's to do her all the hurt that is possible We have the less cause to take it ill if we find the Popes Agents busie among us and if we feel the woful effects of their
or more Popes since And yet many of their Church took that Oath and some of them defended it in writing and 't is taken and defended in like manner to this day By many others it is and hath been refused Whether as being contrary to the Principles of their Sect or whether in Reverence to the Popes Prohibition and possibly some may have refused to take the Oath upon some scruple which they have conceived against the wording of it But whatsoever the cause of their refusal may be the State hath no way left to distinguish and therefore being assured of the lawfulness of the Oath in these Terms and being aware of the wicked design with which it is forbidden hath just cause to secure it self by their peril It hath surely no cause to look on them as Friends that prefer their own scruples to its safety much less that break its just Commands to serve or to please its open Enemy And for this cause that wise and gracious Prince suffered some of their Clergy that were obnoxious otherwise to fall under the edge of the Law But never in his nor his Sons days did any one of that Communion suffer death for any Crime against the State that would clear himself of it by taking the Oath of Allegiance From what I have said it sufficiently appears that the asserting an undue Authority in the Pope or Bishop of Rome is properly to be called Popery 't is the chief thing and the only thing in the Popes esteem 't is most hurtful and dangerous and the worst thing in the Construction of the Law From whence I shall infer that among Roman Catholicks some are properly Papists and some are improperly called so And however they are both of one Communion and meet together in the same Offices of Worship and therefore cannot easily be distinguished unless they please to distinguish themselves yet there is a great difference between them As great a difference in relation to the State as there is between Wens and useful Members in the Body They that wholly deny the Popes Supremacy cannot properly be called Papists but Vnreformed Catholicks as men generally were here in England in the later part of King Henry VIII's days And they as I believe were the first that used the word Papists to denote the Assertors of that outed Supremacy Nor can they properly be called so in France or other Countreys who deny the Pope to have any Authority over them by Divine Right but grant it only by such Canons and Laws as being made upon good Considerations may on better be abrogated and repealed I know there are some of this mind in England and do believe there would appear to be many if they found sufficient cause to declare it Now though such men believe the same erroneous Tenets and use the same Superstitious and Idolatrous Rites that Papists do namely such as the Pope himself has made the Terms of his Communion and therefore they are properly in Communion with him yet those Tenets and Rites are not properly Popery Though they are bad enough otherwise yet if they keep them to themselves they are not hurtful to Humane Society As being consistent with the safety of the Kingdom and with obedience to Government and with Justice of Contracts and love of Neighbours with all which at least collectively taken Popery in the proper Notion of it is inconsistent and generally held so not only by all other Christians but by a very great and considerable part of the Roman Catholicks themselves They are properly Papists that hold the Pope as Vicar of Christ by Divine Right to have a Power and Authority over all Christians And yet if they give him this power in Spirituals only and not also in Temporals they are but half-Papists And so they will find the Pope accounts them if they have occasion to make use of him They only are thorough-Papists that acknowledge his Authority in both First directly in Spiritual things and then in Temporals also whether directly or whether indirectly in order to Spirituals it matters not Let him have the Power and he will trust himself with the use of it Now this thorough-Papist being a man after the Popes own heart I shall from him take the perfect measures of Popery He is one that asserts and maintains or at least practically submits to the Popes pretended Power and Usurpation over all Kings and People in their Temporals and over all Bishops and Churches in their Spirituals and in all things over all persons on earth not only separately but collectively in their Parliaments or Councils and consequently over all their Canons Laws and Definitions In few words that owns him to be the Infallible Oracle and Universal Vicar of God a kind of God upon Earth who has no limits to his Commission or to the execution of it but his own will and pleasure This most excellent Systeme it is that only passes at Rome for the Catholick Doctrine This is authorized by the Pope this is taught in his own Church at Rome and elsewhere by his Stipendiaries or other Dependants And this is properly Popish for it belongs not to any other Christians of whatsoever Church Sect or Denomination Nor is it owned by the far greater number of them that are or call themselves Roman Catholicks I have given my own private Opinion as well of the true as of the false Notion of Popery and have intimated withal though but occasionally what my Opinion is as well of the great Concernment of the Christian World if not of all Mankind to suppress Popery truly such as of the little occasion there is for any great severity to be used against that for Name-sake which in truth is not Popery nor has any essential or necessary conjunction with it Now to enter upon the main design of this Paper which according to the title is a Consideration or Search for the true way of suppressing of Popery I declare my design to be against Popery in its proper Notion And whereas I have shewn a lower degree of it to consist in owning the Popes power in Spirituals only by suppressing of this I intend at least such a restraint upon it as may suffice to keep it from being hurtful or troublesom For the other degree which cannot but be hurtful wheresoever it is in being I declare my design to be no less than the extinguishing of it at least out of England and if it were possible from the face of the Earth Of this matter to deliver my thoughts with all freedom I confess it seems to me that undistinguishing Severity whether of Laws or of the execution of them against all Roman Catholicks in general cannot be the true way to suppress Popery much less to rid it out of this Kingdom or any other of his Majesties Dominions The general Motives which induce me to think so are these three 1. That such
a course in all likelihood would not prove effectual 2. That if it should prove effectual yet it would be very far from seeming just or equitable 3. It would be against the interest of England in diversContingencies 1. That it would be ineffectual I am persuaded by the well-known experience of above a Hundred years that is of what hath pass'd in this Kingdom ever since the Reformation For notwithstanding all the Penal Laws that have been made and the execution of them which was severe enough at some times we see that still there have been Roman Catholicks ever since and they were never so much lessen'd by their sufferings as by the Court of Wards which took off many of the wealthiest Families But that which made them bear up against sufferings was this as I humbly conceive That by divers of our Laws or by the Interpreters and Executors of them especially of those Laws that had pecuniary Penalties they saw no distinction made between loyal and disloyal between peaceable and turbulent Principles between matters simply of Religion and those which threatned the State The same cause is like to have the same effect still And therefore I think we have just occasion to fear that if all men of that Communion are still equally liable to the same punishments in any kind and accordingly treated it will be thought by themselves if not by others also that their suffering is for some Articles of Catholick Religion and not for any Principles either of Treason or other Papal Superstition which Principles very many of them do as much as any Protestant with all their hearts abhor and are ready to abjure And while they think so it will undoubtedly cause at least a considerable number of them to stand the utmost extremities and thereby the Pope will peradventure gain more Proselytes to his Communion and more strength to his side than he will lose from it Besides the number of their Priests at home and of their Seminaries abroad would not lessen but increase by such undistinguishing Severity For divers of those Sufferers being streightned with want would send their Children beyond Sea to get them off of their hands to have them bred without charge and put into a way of living And they are so brought up and so principled in their Foreign Colledges that let the Laws in England be never so severe they will return hither and not stick to venture their lives in the service Seminaries also would increase For they are so addicted to their Religion beyond Sea that let a Preacher in a good Town sollicite the Charity of people towards the maintenance of such as shall expose their Lives to propagate their Religion and there will quickly be a new Foundation erected for that purpose The Colledge in Sivil was maintain'd by Alms and I think that at Valledolid likewise and yet Scholars lived no where better These two Colledges when the times were most severe to Roman Catholicks sent every year many Priests into England and now in many years send none But would undoubtedly grow numerous again if the Fame of our Severity here should quicken the peoples Charity in those parts which hath been slackned very much of late years Again neigbouring Princes who shall see men persecuted for the same Perswasions which they profess themselves will interpose in their behalf both of their own accord in some measure and much more at the Popes Sollicitation who will be sure to engage all the credit he has with them on such an occasion And the interest of all neighbour States are so interwoven that at one time or other it will be found inconvenient not to gratifie them in such a request There will oftentimes happen another kind of Obstruction even at home from English Protestants themselves For I think it ought to be considered that many Roman Catholicks however abused in their Judgments about some matters of Divine Belief or Worship are esteemed by their Protestant neighbours honest well-meaning men such as they cannot find in their hearts to use hardly without great and evident Cause Others have Relations or Friends or Dependants tied by several interests to them And even strangers to the persons who are to suffer the penalties of the Laws will think it hard to inflict them on men that are no otherwise liable than merely for such Religious Tenets and Rites as have been for many Ages warranted by the Laws and held and practised by all Christian People amongst us So that from one or other of these causes I have mentioned it will prove a very difficult matter to have the Laws executed on Roman Catholicks without Discrimination that is without separating those who are so qualifi'd for pity from those who deserve none in the judgment of any Protestant nay of any true Englishman whatsoever For no man that loveth the Peace of his Country can think fit to spare them who are so fond of a Foreign Government that rather than not be under it they will not spare to involve their Country in Blood and Misery Other men of that Principle have done as bad in former times And we have cause to be jealous of all men of that Religion that they are of the same Principles and will do the same things unless they will secure us by some Act which they may lawfully do being required to it Now it is evident we have too many such among us who are thorough-Papists and Ministers of that Foreign Government and many others who will not secure us by doing any such Act that the State shall require against the interest of that Foreign Government Therefore the State hath just cause to secure it self against them by such Laws as being executed it shall not be in their power to do us hurt But when those Laws are made without any distinction they Herd themselves with others of their Communion and being hunted together they have some little trouble perhaps which they laugh at for they know it will come to nothing After a while good nature works in the Protestants every man that should execute the Laws knoweth some or other that deserve favour and for their sakes he will punish none So the Prosecution at first grows cold and at last ceases till some fresh Apprehension of Danger awakens us and then there will be a little more stir to no purpose as we have seen more then once in our days But lastly If the Laws are executed to the full I speak of Laws made without Discrimination whatsoever severity shall be used in pursuance of them will chiefly light on the best and most innocent persons on them that are truly English and have nothing to do with Rome save that they live within her Communion For the thorough-paced Papist will shift better than the other can do The Jesuites can equivocate and teach their Scholars to do it They can sail with every wind and rather than lose their Port they can do all that Protestants do
about him so madly with the Keys of the Church It was so in Luther's Case The quarrel begun between him and the Procurers of the Pope's Bulls It proceeded from them to their Patrons in the Court of Rome And so at last it came up to the Papal Authority it self Who knows but that it may please God for Vexatio dat intellectum that many among us being vext with Declarations that are certainly uncanonical may be brought by that means to discover that the Power which sent them forth is Antichristian The most difficult thing that is required toward the making this discovery is only to lay aside those strong prejudices which men commonly receive from their Education and from converse with men and things of that Age in which they live He that laying aside these shall look impartially into the Scriptures and into the undoubted Records of the Primitive Church shall find no Foundation for that prodigious Fabrick of the Papacy For the first three hundred years after Christ they will find only two namely Victor and Stephen that took upon them to censure any which were not of their Diocess And though their Censures for ought that appears were only Declarations of Non-Communion such as any Bishop in those days might send forth against the Bishop of Rome as well as he against other Bishops yet we find that even for that they were blamed and condemned by other Bishops And that is all the effect that we read their Censures had in any place out of Rome it self Pope Victor in his Censure of the Asian Bishops is thought not to have gone beyond threatning to break Communion with them and endeavouring to persuade other Bishops to do the same And yet for this he was smartly handled by some of the Brethren and it is charitably thought he was set right by the grave Counsel of Irenaeus who writ to him in the name of the Gallican Church and told him he did not learn this of any of his Predecessors Of Pope Stephen it is certain that he went farther in his Quarrel with the Asian and African Bishops For he not only broke off Communion but all civil Conversation with them and commanded his people not to let any of them come within their doors But this was only at Rome For it does not appear that he pretended any Authority elsewhere And how he was scorn'd abroad for his Pride and Folly in this the Reader may see in those two excellent Epistles The later of which was left out of the Roman Edition of St. Cyprian and Pamelius honestly declares he would have stifled it if others had not publish'd it before him Lest any one should take offence at my not giving the usual garnish of the Popes of that Age to those two whom I mentioned for I dare not call them Saints and Martyrs though the Roman Church does both elsewhere and in her Offices on their days I ought to let him know how that Church is abused by them that have gained no small advantage to themselves by such Fictions That the old Roman Church in the time of Constantius knew nothing of either of their Martyrdoms it appears by her Catalogue of Popes publisht first by Cuspinian and since by Bucherius the Jesuite Nay she knew the contrary of one of them For in the Roman Calendar of that Age publisht by the same Iesuite Victor is not mentioned at all and Stephen is among the Popes that were no Martyrs If this proof were not enough or if this place were proper for it I should shew from good Authors that though these Popes lived under Emperors that were afterwards Persecutors yet they died before the beginning of their persecutions I do not say but they may be Saints but if they are 't is more than we have any ground to believe For neither the Church-History nor any Writer within a hundred years of their time has any more of their Sanctity than of their Sufferings Of Stephen there is great cause to doubt the contrary from what we read of him in St. Cyprian's Epistle and more from that of Firmilian which is thought to have been translated by St. Cyprian and which was written about the time of Stephens death rather after than before it It is to be hoped that many Roman Catholics among us have truly that Reverence which all of them profess to true Primitive Christian Antiquity and to the judgment of Saints and Martyrs in all Ages We all agree that Irenaeus and Cyprian had a just right to those Titles And Firmilian was a chief Pillar of the Church in his Age. He was thought worthy to preside in several Eastern Councils namely in that against the Novatians before Stephen was Pope and those against Samosatenus after Stephen was dead And after his own death the Eastern Church of that Age called him Firmilian of Blessed Memory Why this man is not in the Calendar of Saints they best know who can tell us why Victor and Stephen are there No doubt the Saint-makers do all things with great consideration But can any one imagin that those excellent men did ever believe themselves to be under the Roman Bishop that they ow'd any obedience to Him whom they school'd so or any Reverence to his Censures which they slighted in that manner Could any assurance of their Cause have justified that contempt of Authority if they had known any in him But it appears they knew it not nor did others in that Age. Those that were against them in the Cause blamed them for that and nothing else and yet held Communion with them for all Pope Stephen and his Censures So far it appears those great men had the judgment of the Church on their side They knew of no Authority over the Universal Church that the Pope had more than any other Bishop by any right whether Divine or Humane What the Judgment of the Church was in the next Centuries let them consider that shall read those Canons in the Margent and remember they are such as past in the first Four General Councils and in the African Council of 217 Bishops of whom St. Austin was one assembled at Carthage To which I add the African Church to Pope Coelestine I. as containing a full Declaration of their mind in that Canon I know there are objections against one or two of these Canons But all the dust that has been rais'd will not hinder any reasonable man from seeing that which I think is sufficient for our purpose namely that all the Fathers that sate in those Councils or at least the major part of them were of the same judgment with those above-mentioned in this point of the Authority of the Bishop of Rome They all allow'd him precedency as being Bishop of the Imperial City They had commonly a great deference to his Judgment in Debates between themselves And sometimes the Christian Emperors made him honorary Judge whether