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
to shew the King and to assure him he was in earnest because things could not be done presently in form of Law he gave him secret advice to marry while the cause was depending The King having been two years without a Wife and not only holding himself free in his conscience but expecting to be shortly declared so and having now some kind of leave to chuse another cast his eye on Anne Bolen one whose Person and Birth might have deserved the best of his subjects and who being then a stranger in England could not have that part which Sanders gives her in displacing Queen Katharine nor could have preserved her any otherwise than by submitting to the King's lust the refusal whereof made her worthy of a nobler application But this Lady had been brought up in France among Protestants and was suspected to have some inclination that way which suspicion was enough not only to blacken her but to dash the King's suit much the sooner if not only for her sake It moved but slowly before for the Pope being engaged by the Emperour had sent instructions after his Legates requiring them to use all possible delays either to conceal his Bulls or to burn them and leave him free to do as he should see occasion Thus far he seems to have gone before he heard what choice the King had made But when that was discovered and whether for that cause or because he had made a new Alliance with the Emperour which tended to make the Popes Nephew Duke of Florence and the Queen being the Emperour's Aunt ought in reason to have some benefit of it whatsoever moved him to it the Pope after this would trust her cause no longer in England but having voided that Commission to his Legates called it home to his own Determination The King not knowing what to do next and taking time to consider in his Progress had Cranmer brought to him by some that chanced to hear him say what they thought was material in the Case He was a stranger to all that had passed hitherto which I mention because some would make him a chief man in it But from what he had heard and especially from their discourse he judged that the King had taken a wrong way in courting the Pope to retract his Predecessour's dispensation whereas in truth as most learned men thought the Matter it self was Indispensable And because it was not reasonable to expect that the Pope would judge it so for that had been to cut off a main limb of the Papacy he therefore wish'd that instead of dancing attendance at Rome the King would send to the Universities as being most able and unconcerned and get them to declare their Judgments in the case Hereupon the King sent learned men with his case and got the judgments of the Universities upon it To send to those in the Emperours dominions had been to no purpose But he had ours in England and those in France of his side and the two chief in Italy though not only the Emperour opposed but the Pope who had Bologna in his Territory And whereas it is said the King bought them which his Agents deny they say that the Emperour bought hands on the contrary and that he offered largely to get those who had given their judgments for the King to retract it but they would not take his Money though they might much more safely than the other The King being thus strengthened in his cause had reason to be the less in fear of the Pope and yet it appears he was not the more willing to break with him For after this he made fresh application to him by his Orators and Letters which were seconded with a Petition under the hands and seals of both the Archbishops and others the chief men of the three States of this Kingdom They represented their own and others judgments of the case they passionately besought him to do the King and them right in it they declared that if he did not they should think he had left them to themselves All this came out of time for the Pope was not then to be perswaded to break his Alliance while he was gathering the fruits of it This the King understood by his Answer And therefore knowing what he was to expect from abroad he was the more careful to secure himself at home Where to satisfie the minds of the people he declared what had passed to all his Subjects in Parliament he shewed them the Judgments of the Universities and the books of above one hundred Doctors against the lawfulness of his Marriage He also caused the same to be shewn to Queen Katharine by some Lords of his Council who would have perswaded her to withdraw her Appeal that she had made to the Pope and to refer her cause to the Judgment of others She refused it and thereupon was removed from the Court and had her choice given her of the Kings houses in the Country The Queen prosecuting her Appeal the Pope by Letters exhorted the King to receive her Which he refused as being unlawful for him to do and offered the Pope to send Doctors to dispute it before him He also got the King of France to mediate for him who did it as being assured of the Justice of his Cause But all this did not hinder the Pope from committing it to the Dean of the Rota who cited the King to appear before him This being done once and again the King entred his Protest against all proceedings in that Court. And the same day he privately married Anne Bolen in which if he was too hasty it was because he had not been quite seven years to consider Not long after this he had the Nullity of his former Marriage judg'd and declared in his own Kingdom which being done he owned her publickly as his Queen and gave her the solemnity of a Coronation This was no sooner heard of at Rome but the Pope who as long as the King was Plaintiff had used all possible delay and dissimulation now the Scales being turned without delay declared this Marriage a Nullity and gave Sentence of Excommunication against the King unless he put away Anne and restored Katharine before the end of September next The mean while the Pope made sure of the French King by a Treaty then afoot which produced an Interview between them at Marseilles and a Marriage between their two nearest Relations Our King in hope this new Allyance would have given good effect to the French King's Mediation in his behalf sent his Embassadours thither They waited there for a while but found nothing but delays And the Pope was now returning to Rome where he resolved to proceed in the Cause Therefore at an Audience before him they declared the King's Appeal
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
that matter as well in Foro Ecclesiae having the Canonical right of an Appeal against them as in Foro Conscientiae because what she did was to keep her Faith pure from their undue Impositions Whether she can be cleared as well on the account of her Government in Ecclesiastical matters this we ought to consider as a thing that more immediately concerns us For we date the Reformation of our Church from the beginning of her Reign And though we have a Prescription since of above a hundred years which is enough to secure us against the Claims of the Papacy in the Judgment of them that hold it to be only of Humane Right as all men ought to do upon those grounds above mentioned yet to them of the Roman Communion it will perhaps be more satisfactory if it appear that beside the Right that we have now from Prescription there was also an Original Right in our Reformers to do what they did in the beginning of the Reformation The first thing they did was to assert the Queens Supremacy from whence they proceeded to settle the Church Government and ended with the Reformation of Worship and Doctrine 1. First of what she did in assuming the Supremacy more needs not be said than to make it be understood And we cannot understand her meaning in it better than by her own declaration and practice She declared that she took no other power to her self than what Anciently belonged to the Crown of England that is immediately under God to govern her people of all sorts as well the Clergy as the Laity And she exercised no other Power or Jurisdiction over the Church than what was meerly External as appears by her Injunctions and other Acts. Though if she had exercised any other power than what she claimed it had been only an Act of Misgovernment in her for which she was accountable to God and the Church had not therefore been guilty of Schism since it gave her no other power nor owned her in the exercise of any other than what is above-mentioned And that power is so inherent in every Supreme Magistrate and so necessary for the well-being of the People that we cannot deny the right of it in them to whom we grant the Supreme Magistracy it self Wheresoever any Prince or State have seemed to think so ill of themselves as if they were not so fit as a Foreiner was to be trusted with this Power over their own People or rather where they have been so obsequious to the Pope as to take this Flower out of their own Crown and put it into the Triple It may be every where observed that either they or their Successors have found occasion at some time or other to call for it home again or to use it as if they had notgiven it from themselves We may see examples of this in Germany in Ockham's days in Spain under the Emperour Charles V and in Venice at the time of the Interdict But especially in France where the Gallican Church is obliged to justifie this Right of Princes unless she will grant that her most Christian Kings have been in Schism more than once and especially while they stood to the pragmatic Sanction But we need not go abroad for examples having so many at home and such as are very full to our purpose He that will may see them elsewhere gathered to his hand And I have mentioned enough to shew that even in Popish times our Princes were not ignorant of their Right and that between whiles they were fain to assert it in such terms as did import though they did not name a Supremacy But as their Laws did not expresly mention the word so neither did they always stand by their Laws When they had made them the Pope still found some device or other to make them ineffectual Till King Henry VIII having thrown out the Pope for those reasons above mentioned did by advice of his Council and Bishops take both the Power and the Title on himself whether he took more than his due let others judge As I am not engaged to defend all that he assumed so I need not for so much as Queen Mary exercised of it For it is agreed and there was great reason for it that she was always for the Popes Supremacy in her heart though for fear of her life she renounced it when time was And yet she no sooner came to the Crown but she exercised the Supremacy her self in changing most of the Bishops and Reforming what she held to be Abuses in the Church Afterward when she had surrendred it to the Pope yet she did not so wholly put it out of her self but that when He displeased her she could shut his Legate out of her Kingdom So that to adjust the matter between the two Sisters in this point of Supremacy they seem to have differed only thus One adjudged it to the Pope and yet took it from him when she pleased the other thought it belonged to the Crown and therefore kept it wholly to her self 2. What Queen Elizabeth did in setling Church matters was founded on her Right in the Supremacy By vertue whereof she took upon her to Reform abuses in the Church as her Sister Queen Mary had done And I believe that whosoever compares their proceedings will find that she took more leisure and advice than Queen Mary in doing it For before a Parliament sate she had gone only thus far that she allowed her people some of the Church Offices in a Language which they all understood Afterward by advice of her Parliament she restored King Edwards Laws and repealed those which had been made by Queen Mary for Ecclesiastical matters And by those Laws she abolished the Popish Mass and restored the whole Communion to the Laity whereas her Sister had done the contrary without Law by her mere Right of Supremacy Which Right she having afterwards given away by Act of Parliament though still she used it when she saw cause Queen Elizabeth thought fit to have it restored by Act of Parliament or rather Redeclared for the Act was not Operative but Declarative And whereas by this Act it was required that all Bishops and others that held any Church-living in this Kingdom should take an Oath of Supremacy as we call it or else should be uncapable of holding any such Church preferment on refusal of this Oath there were turned out thirteen Bishops I note the number the rather because there had been just so many of the Protestant Bishops turned out by Queen Mary There appears to have been some difference between the turning out of these by Law and of those without any Law then in force But there was more in the cause of their fuffering those being outed for matters purely Religious and these for a Civil cause for refusing an Oath lawfully imposed Which Oath did not truly concern their
it by their practice When he impowered an Archpriest to govern them the Seculars would not receive him And when he would have placed a Bishop over them the Regulars would not receive him So the Seculars and Regulars as it were with one consent have given us their Judgment in the Case and that by no Indeliberate Act on either hand for they contended about it a great part of the last Age. And therefore unless their Principles are altered since the same Right which they exercised in not submitting to a Government they may exercise as well in not receiving a Council though the Pope should presume to impose it And that the Council of it self has no power to oblige them it appears in that judged case of the Egyptian Church The Bishops whereof would not subscribe to a Decree of the Fourth General Council because they had then no Archbishop to give them an Authority for it This was allowed to be a Reasonable excuse though the Decree which they were to have subscribed was in a matter of Faith I suppose they of the Roman Communion here in England have had the same Reason ever since the Reformation They have had no lawful Primate nor no declared Bishops all this while And during this imperfect state of their Church if there had been a General Council and any of their Clergy had been there they might have been excused from subscribing though in matters of Faith What difference there is in the Case makes wholly on our side For there is a wide difference indeed between Subscribing and Receiving The first is only the declaring ones own personal assent to the Decrees of any Council the other is to give them the force of Laws in the National Church And if according to that Canon the Bishops where they are in a Council are not bound to subscribe without their Primate how much less can any National Church be Obliged to receive things for Law without her Bishops Nay more how can she Lawfully receive them Especially such a Church as owns there is no Jurisdiction without Bishops She cannot do it without a Synod of Bishops according to the ancient Canons And therefore the English Church of Roman Catholics is so far from being bound to receive the Trent Council that in her present condition she could not Lawfully receive it I say still according to the ancient Canons which ought to be of some force with them of the Roman Communion But let them do as they please The case is plain that the Reformed Church of England ought not to receive it if she can prove her charge that that Council has innovated in the Christian Faith or rather unless that Council can discharge her self of it by proving that what we call her New Faith is not new but received from Catholick Tradition We think we are sure they cannot bring this Tradition for those Doctrines which are laid as Foundations for all the rest in that Council namely their making unwritten Tradition to be of Divine Authority and therefore equal with the holy Scriptures their bringing those which we call the Apocryphal Books into the Canon of Scripture their making the Vulgar Latine Translation Authentick in all matters of Faith and good life For these and all the rest of their Doctrines of Faith as they are called in the Roman Church which we call Innovations and Errors We are not afraid to refer our selves to Catholic Tradition If they of the Roman side would submit to it as well there would be no difference between us in matters of Faith whatsoever there might be in Opinion And therefore they would have no cause in their own private judgment to conclude us for Heretics much less would they find us condemned for such by any competent Judicature If they think otherwise than we do in this matter the reason must be because they do not mean what we do by Catholic Tradition It is plain that too many of that Church have a wrong notion of it taking that for Catholic Tradition which is only presumed to be so by a Party in these latter Ages For though they call themselves the Catholic Church and perhaps really take themselves to be no other yet they are but a handful to the body of Christians especially considered in our notion of Catholic which as we take it extends to all the Christians of all Ages We plainly profess to take the Catholic Tradition in that sense of Vincentius Lyrinensis and before him of Tertullian in his Prescriptions who make this to be the Standard of all Doctrines of Faith quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus First that which has gone for Christian Faith in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity Secondly which has been taken for such by the whole diffusive Church comprehending all those particular Churches which have not been Canonically condemned either of Schism or Heresie And lastly that which has not only been the Faith of some persons though contradicted by others but that which has been the constant belief of the generality in all those Christian Churches To bring our differences to this standard betwixt us I conceive that first they of the Roman Communion will not find such evidence for their Articles of Faith as they think of in the Primitive Records I say such evidence as will make it appear that they were of Faith antecedently to the Definitions of Councils They will find that those Councils which first defined them to be of Faith were not such against which we have no just exception nor that their Definitions have been generally received throughout the diffusive Catholic Church For the Primitive Records I suppose they of the Roman Church that have read them will scarce pretend to shew how they convey all those Articles to us as of Faith And where they fail to shew this of any Article they must excuse us if we cannot allow it to be a Catholic Tradition Much more when we shew from those Records that there are strong presumptions to the contrary Whereof not to trouble my Reader with more instances I have given some proof in that which Bellarmine calls Caput Fidei namely in that Doctrine of the Popes Supremacy over all Christians For the Councils by which their new Articles have been defined the most they can rationally pretend to by their Definitions is to deliver the sense of the present diffusive Church Which they are presumed to do when they have power to represent it or when their Decrees are received in all parts of it and not otherwise But how few of their General Councils can pretend to either of these Conditions It appears that the Eldest of them could not I mean the Second Council of Nice which first imposed the worship of Images For about thirty years before there was an Eastern Council held at Constantinople which Condemned that very thing And not ten years after there was a Western Council at Francford which
way for the suppressing of Popery in this Kingdom to get our Church to be better understood by all among us of that Communion And surely if they did rightly understand it wise men would consider how they made themselves guilty of Heresie and Schism by unjustly charging us with those crimes How of Heresie by joyning with them that have made such Additions to the Faith And of Schism in charging us with Heresie for not receiving those Additions and thereupon separating themselves from our Communion They that shall be convinced of their danger in both these will endeavour to avoid it by relinquishing that Forein Power which they can think themselves no way obliged to if they better consider it And finding themselves free from any such obligation I do not see what should hinder them from joyning themselves to that National Church in which God has sufficiently provided all things necessary for their Salvation Though if they stay where they are it may perhaps be better for Us upon Politic accounts which I add as my last instance of the Benefit that we may expect from this Discrimination It would be no small Benefit to us if such men continuing in the Roman Communion would but keep the Popish Party from being more united and more active against us And thus much they would do for us though they did not intend it But they will do much more and that with full Intention unless their Opposition to us weigh more with them than their care of themselves For they will find themselves Obliged if they consider it as well in Duty as Interest and no less obliged both ways then we are to keep out the Forein Power from coming in among us Their obligation in Conscience will be the same that ours is and so much more if they are bound to it by Oath whatsoever the Oath shall be that is designed for their Discrimination And as to Interest it will be much more theirs than it is ours to keep out the Common Enemy that will be heavy to us both but much heavier to them than to us For as they are fewer in Number so they are better known in their Persons and therefore the more easie to be found out And being found if ever that day should come which God avert though we must look to feel Rods they are sure to be punished with Scorpions The provocation which they have given already has been more than most of us have been able to give And when we are gone if they continue the Roman Court having no other Adversaries would be the more intent and the more able to root them out of the Kingdom I do not say this to waken them that are most concerned to think of it for I suppose they cannot sleep having so great a Danger before their eyes And if they should happen to forget themselves they would be wakened by those Censures of which enough has been spoken already It is at present more needful to make our own People who do not so well understand the Common Adversary as not having had the same Experience of him to be sensible how much they are concerned not to lose any Help that can be had And therefore that it is our Interest as well as theirs to preserve such a Party of useful men and to oblige them to joyn with us against him Which can be done no other way but by a Discrimination I cannot think there is any Protestant among us who will not for these or other the like Considerations think fit to use the Moderation here proposed and endeavour to promote it in others as far as he is able Unless he may perhaps be discouraged by some other Considerations that may make it seem not so Practicable as it were to be desired For if it can be put in practice I think no wise and good man having weighed the reasons here given will deny that it ought to be and that as well in Prudence as in Justice to preserve both Church and State and whatsoever is dear to us in this Nation The things chiefly alledged against the Practicableness of it are these that follow I shall first name them and then consider the Consequence of them First It is alledged that all they of the Roman Church are obliged by their Principles to follow the Judgment of the Roman Court And that they Actually follow it in those very things which are Popery in the proper signification Secondly If any of them deny this or declare and promise the contrary we can have no Assurance of what they say they have so many ways to elude all such Promises and Declarations especially being made to Hereticks as they are taught to call us Thirdly Though we have a sufficient assurance of any persons at present that they are No Papists yet while they are of that Communion they are in a continual danger to be seduced or change their minds and whensoever that happens as it may before we are aware of it they will be able to do us the more hurt through our relying on the security which they have given us I confess there is a force in these Objections which I cannot so well avoid but that they who are chiefly concerned to have them answered may suspect that I use some kind of Prevarication because I do not answer them their way or not say all that they think their Cause will bear To secure my self against that most odious Imputation I do in the first place declare that I shall omit nothing which I think to be material though I do not pretend to say all they have to say for themselves And then for their Way of answering If they think they can Justifie themselves against the charge that is implied in those mentioned Allegations and that they can thereby entitle themselves as well to Trust as to Protection I confess this is more than I can do for them And therefore I take so much lower Endeavouring to excuse the persons as far as they are capable to be excused from those things which are not to be Justified in their Cause and since the Law has excluded them from Trust for such Reasons as cannot but continue as long as the established Religion I shall yet endeavour to shew that they safely may and ought to have Protection while they give such assurance of their Loyalty as they are capable to give and no otherwise I shall do it with much the more ease having the matter prepared to my hand in a Book that was published about two years since to this purpose Where the Objections being proved as to matter of Fact and the Inferences drawn with great evidence and strength if I should not extract enough to satisfie the Reader in either kind I shall however satisfie my self that I have made him amends by recommending the Book to him where he may find those things said at large and with very great accurateness which either cannot so well be