Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	matter_n	see_v	3,060	5	3.1155	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A11511	The free schoole of vvarre, or, A treatise, vvhether it be lawfull to beare armes for the seruice of a prince that is of a diuers religion; Quaestio quodlibetica. English	Sarpi, Paolo, 1552-1623.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642.; Brent, Nathaniel, Sir, 1573?-1652.	1625 (1625)	STC 21758; ESTC S116734	27,201	78

Sauiour himselfe would haue things that are not necessary but only profitable helpfull to saluation left to Counsell not circumscribed in precepts How much lesse then can Ecclesiastickes vse their power in Temporall matters when there is no necessitie thereof but onely because it may peraduenture conduce vnto saluation And in this case least of all because we vnderstand not for what such power may bee profitable vnlesse it bee for the aduancement of the interests of their temporall Greatnesse And this difference touching Italians which cannot indeed bee admitted in temporall matters in which Saint Paul knew no diuersitie of Iew Greeke or Barbarian hath beene found out by some shrewd and experienced braines who by obseruation of former times and comparing them with this know that the Ecclesiastickes haue mightily diminished their authority in Tramontane Countries and therefore doe procure in Italy intensiuely that which hath extensiuely beene lost in other places and to this end they imploy all their art and force and draw euery matter to the head of Spiritualitie or Religion Vnto this Soueraigne Princes ought to haue great regard as they haue had by the exclusion and inobseruance of the foresaid Constitution Notwithstanding which the Italians who are subiects to the most renowned Republicke to the Dukes of Sauoy and Tuscany doe repaire where they see cause for matter of marchandise and for any other concernement that belongs vnto them They frequent England Germany and Cities that are subiect to Protestant Princes and all places else whereunto their interests doe draw them And therefore it is lawfull by an vniuersall consent of all Catholicke States to persist in that libertie which God and Nature haue granted and which is independent of the will of Ecclesiastickes as being a matter that toucheth not spirituall Saluation at the least not by a necessary connexion But the importance of this action requireth further consideration because the offences of Princes are of greater moment than the faults of priuate persons And this attempt is a beginning of notable vsurpation and perturbance in ciuile Gouernement For it is to be held as a constant Tenet as already wee haue touched that where any matter is handled concerning the saluation of Soules in which the Ecclesiasticall Prelate hath authority to make orders to command there can no distinction or difference of persons bee admitted And therefore Pope Clement the eight in the Constitutions aforesayd commands in generall without exception either of Persons or Causes That none without licence of the ordinary Inquisitors should presume to go into such parts where there is not a publike Church Priest exercise of the Romish Rites and Seruice So that by vertue of this Constitution a Prince should not send Embassadors ordinary or extraordinary into the Countries that are held by Potentates diuided from the Sea of Rome And if an occurrence or Case should happen that out of the emergency of Reason or out of necessitie of good Gouernement it should bee held expedient to send a secret person to act some negotiations which it were inconuenient that the Ecclesiastickes should know yet notwithstanding all must bee reuealed vnto him or men must fall into censures and bee made obnoxious vnto the Inquisition These inconueniences are so cleere and so vsuall that they doe sufficiently declare the apparancy of the vsurpation And it would be too great an aduantage that the Pope and Spaine may as dayly they doe and examples hereof are actually practised send into the Countries of Protestants where there is publikely neither Romish Church nor Priest Iesuits and some of other Religious Orders in disguise and in more priuate restriction too whether for businesse or for guile or for exploration euery man speaketh after his owne fancie and that it should bee vnlawfull for other Princes to send any person without their leaue or knowledge And in the Leuant too where the very Soule of trafficke breathes there is scarce a place conuenient for trading that hath the benefit of a publike Church so that here likewise if this Rule should hold there is no abiding without licence And if Princes must in their interrests depend thus on others and submit the ground-worke of good Gouernement and the necessitie of their defence and préseruation to other mens ends and arbitrements they are no longer absolute Princes and farewell Soueraignetie if it be once brought to such a descent as to render an account vnto any but to God and to receiue Laws of what it ought to doe or not to doe from any power but Diuine But it exceedes all beleefe and Christian charitie to obserue the course which hath bin taken with these Gentlemen The time comes that a Gentleman out of compunction for his sinnes goes to reconcile himselfe to God by Confession and then is hee intreated with such strange and intollerable rigor that the spirituall comfort of absolution is denied him And yet we are impatient to heare it maintained by such as are seperated from the Church of Rome That Confession is become the very path through which insteede of comforting mens Soules the interrests of the Courts of Rome and Spaine are conueyed to the detriment and disaduantage of other Potentates and that it is distorted from the originall and pure Institution and made to pry into mens actions to debauch the allegeance of subiects to instill affections to augment partialities and sidings and such like things as these By all this that hath beene sayd I remaine fixt in my iudgement and it is sufficiently prooued That if the Confessor haue denied his Penitents absolution onely because they are in a Countrey which is separated from the obedience of the Pope of Rome he hath done wrong vnto his Penitent and abused Confession and if hee haue done this by the command of any person whatsoeuer that commaundement is vniust and vnlawfull trenching by vsurpation vpon the authoritie of others and is actiuely scandalous in abusing spirituall authority to compasse ends that are purely mundane So that the cause which may bee pretended can bee no other than that which is in the Fourth Head propounded that is Because they professe to march in the Army of the LL. the States of Holland against the Catholicke King And this cannot in our Case arise but from two Heads Either for that it is not lawfull for Catholickes to take armes absolutely in fauour of such as the Church of Rome accounts Heretickes or because the war which they mannage is vniust And these two Heads will easily reciue their discussion Touching the first it will be necessarie to alleage the common Doctrine of Ciuilians which in matter of defence ayde or supporting of Heretickes is voide of all contradiction by distinguishing that a man may fauour or defend Heretickes two manner of wayes either formally or not formally A formall fauouring or defending of Heretikes is to vse the very words of a Ciuilian and a Iesuit which in this subiect may stand for a thousan witnesses when

Prouinces doe straine a point beyond their vsuall manner To this ought the Confessor to haue had some regard and by considering that hee was thus strictly appointed Not to administer absolution to those that fought for the defence of the Hollanders he should thence haue inferred That the Catholick Religion was the pretext onely but the end is the interest of factions the which haue nothing to doe with Religion neither haue the Antients euer taught that it should by such meanes bee ampliated Further hee ought to haue taken into consideration that hee is not depending on the authoritie of the Nuntio or of any deputed from him that is not his Ordinarie neither doth hee receiue authoritie from him to heare Confessions and that these secret iuglings are odious before God and that it is an adulterated Zeale which vnder the mantle of Religion couereth humane passions and ends And it would bee too great an inconuenience that when Embassadours and their Families as good Authours doe maintaine are not assubiected to Princes where they reside but by the Law of Nations are exempt and free and onely owe submission vnto their naturall Lords yet hee which attendeth them for the administration of the Sacraments should take law from one that is an Alien to that Countrey yea and serueth such a Prince as maketh warre against it Who can doubt but that such a one will trie to doe all the mischiefe hee is able especially by disbanding the souldiers that serue the other side as is apparant in this very Case yet it cannot without horror be conceiued how great an iniurie is done to the Maiestie of God and to Religion to make it like vnto Medusas Head a Bug-beare to scare and intimidate mens Consciences for ends meerely mundane and peraduenture for designes that tast of tyranny and iniustice as to seise vpon and take away Countries from those persons vnto whom God hath giuen them For conclusion then of this Head it was not Iustice and it is contrarie to Religion that the Confessor did follow the directions of a professed enemie to those States by vertue of a blind obedience and hee ought not to haue done so notorious a wrong and iniurie to those Gentlemen without examining first Whether it were iust or vniust to denie such a Penitent absolution For I would see great and euident reason before I would exclude any man from the participation of the Sacraments which is a bond of grieuous preiudice And as Saint Ierome writes Priests ought not to put on a Pharisaicall superciliousnesse as if it lay in their power to binde and loose but they are to consider the Conscience of the Penitent and the merite af the Cause So that you see all is reduced to the two last Heads which remaine to bee examined because in them lyeth the pyth and point of the cause Of which The third is Whether the Confessor had iust cause to denie these Gentlemen absolution for this respect That they could not liue in the Low Countries without sinne as beeing to conuerse with those who acknowledge not the Pope of Rome for Head of the Church and refuse to yeeld vnto him obedience and For that there is not in those parts the publike exercise of the Catholick Romane Religion This reason in times past would haue receiued no shew or colour but now some shadow of doubt may bee put since that Clement the eight tooke on him to bee the first that euer made any step and pretention in this matter For in the yeare 1595 hee published a Constitution That no Italian should or ought to goe for any cause whatsoeuer no not for trafficking and marchandise to any place where there was not a Parochiall Priest and a publike Church wherein the Romane seruice was celebrated except he first should obtaine leaue from the holy Office of the Inquisition or from the Ordinaries binding also those that should trauell with such licences to send yearely to the Inquisitors letters of authenticall credence that they had confessed and communicated Peraduenture this might bee the cause why the Confessor and he who mannaged him did deale so roughly with their Penitents But withall you must know that this Papall Constitution was neuer entertained or put in execution by any Prince but contrariwise totally excluded as if it had neuer bin ordained And to confirme this it is the receiued Position of Canonists and Ciuilians and of the Popes themselues and it is a Doctrine also consonant both to Diuinitie Nature That all humane positiue Lawes vnder which kind no Catholick Doctor doth denie that such like Constitutions are comprehended neither can he vnlesse he will make a man a God nay aboue God are iust so much in force as they are in vse and by not beeing receiued or by an application of them vnto a contrarie vse they loose all their vertue obligatorie and are as if they had neuer beene ordained And if it should bee otherwise there would bee nothing but confusion in Gouernement and destruction of good Policie and Popes should not onely bee Patrons of all States and Dominions and Lords of all matters of Iudicature and of all Tribunals but the very facultie and meanes to thinke of any question would bee idle and out of vse for what matter is there that the Popes in some past ages till now haue not themselues decreed or else commanded their determinations But Iurisdiction is not acquired by commaundements but by commanding iustly and by being obeyed So that no foundation must bee layd on this Constitution which was abortiue in the birth reiected in the first beginning opposed by all receiued by none and by the Declaration of some Princes against the very Pope that made it it is apparant that it ought not to be receiued so that it hath had no obseruation at all but hath remained as if it had not beene made and that with the knowledge of the Ecclesiasticks and of the Popes themselues yea and of the very person that made it And so it ought to bee in reason because the Pope extended his power to the restriction and confinement of that libertie which God and Nature all Lawes diuine and humane and the practise in the generall course of all times from the beginning of the World vntill the yeare 1595 haue giuen and granted vnto the Faithfull Whosoeuer hath any insight into the Sacred Stories knowes that after the Creation of the world there was a diuision of Religion in the very sonnes of Adam and that some worshipped the true God with pure and lawfull Adoration as was requisite others became Idolaters and yet he will not finde that the Faithfull I speak not of the separation of Nations but of particular diuisions for that was a Case reserued to God alone euer receiued prohibition to inhabit those places where men of impure or false Religion did dwell but the true worshippers of God did alwaies enioy the freedom of going staying dwelling there where their best commoditie