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A19952 The reply of the most illustrious Cardinall of Perron, to the ansvveare of the most excellent King of Great Britaine the first tome. Translated into English.; Réplique à la response du sérénissime roy de la Grand Bretagne. Vol. 1. English Du Perron, Jacques Davy, 1556-1618.; Cary, Elizabeth, Lady, 1585 or 6-1639.; Du Perron, Jacques Davy, 1556-1618. Lettre de Mgr le Cal Du Perron, envoyée au sieur Casaubon en Angleterre. English.; Casaubon, Isaac, 1559-1614. Ad epistolam illustr. et reverendiss. Cardinalis Peronii, responsio. English. Selections. 1630 (1630) STC 6385; ESTC S107359 685,466 494

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that in Christ there is but one Nature that is to saie confound and steepe the Essence of the humanitie in that of the diuinitie Doth not sainct AVGVSTINE crie out Those that beleeue not that Christ is come in the fleshe c. and that he is risen againe in the same Bodie wherein he hath bene crucified and buried although they should be in all the countries ouer the which the church is spread are not in the Church How can then the true Church haue cōmunion with this Sect and how can this Sect bee a member and a true part of the Church And how can it bee that of the Roman Church which holdes the contrarie doctrine and of this Sect there should be framed one common Bodie of the 〈◊〉 Church and to goe about to ioyne them together in one selfe-same Societie of a catholicke Church and more to add vnto them all other hereticall and schismaticall sects How is it anie other thing then to goe about to ioyne like Mezentius dead bodies with liuing bodies and to make of the spouse of Christ of the doue of Christ which is the only catholicke Church a monster and a Prodigie compounded of all the impious horrible and contradictorie heresies that haue rent the Coate and mysticall Bodie of Christ and to putt communion betweene Christ and Beliall and betweene light and darknes The Catholicke Church then is not a Masse and common Societie which containes in it the confusion of all Sects and of all the multitude of those that are called Christians but it is a particular Societie amongst all those Societies which beares the name of Catholicke or totall Church not because it containes in deed all the rest You will saith Optatus Mileuitanus to the Donatists bee alone all the whole 〈◊〉 are not so much as in the whole And saint AVGVSTINE Whosoeuer defends a part separate from the whole cannot vsurpe the title of a Catholick but because she containes them in right and holds habituallie the place of the whole in regard of them For the Church holds the place of the whole habituallie in regard of hereticall and schismaticall Sects and by her eminencie for as much as none of the other considered euerie one a part equalls her in number and in multitude Howbeit saith Saint AVGVSTINE that there are manie heresies of Christians which would be all called Catholickes There is neuerthelesse one Church if you cast your Eies vpon the extent of the whole world more aboundant in multitude and because vnto her alone belonges the prerogatiue of being successiuely spread ouer the whole earth in beginning from Hierusalem whereas none of the others hath the priuiledge but that the most part of them like that kinde of Ape which the Greekes call Callithrix cannot liue but in that climate and vnder the same influence wherein they were bredd And beyond this because all the rest hauing gone forth from her and she hauing as saint AVGVSTINE saith still remained in her stock and roote holdes the places and right of the whole in regard of all the rest noe more nor lesse then that part of the tree in which the life stood and roote rests holdes the place of the whole habituallie in regarde of those that haue bene separated from it They vnder st and not saith hee that amongst the Sects of the Christians there is one true and wholesome and in sort Germinall and radicall Christian societie from whence they haue separated themselues And finallie because all the rest are obliged if they will obtaine saluation to reinsert and reincorporate themselues into the bodie of the Catholick Church Holde most stedfastlie saith FVLGENTIVS that noe heretick or schismatik if he bee not reconciled to the Catholick Church before the end of his life can bee saued Otherwise if all the hereticall and schismaticall Societies which professe the name of Christ might iustlie enioy the title of the Church and were actuallie parts of the Church wherefore had the Fathers imployed these sentences against hereticks and schismaticks That 〈◊〉 of the Church there is noe saluation that out of the Church there may be had the faith and Sacraments and all thinges else Saluation excepted that who hath not the Church for his Mother cannot haue God for his Father that hee that communicates with the vniuersall Church is a Catholicke and he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist And howe could the excellent King himselfe haue protested That he beleeues without colour or fraude that the is one only Church in deede and in name Catholicke and vniuersall spread ouer the whole world out of which there can be 〈◊〉 Saluation hoped for and condemneth and detests those that heretofore or since haue seperated themselues either from the Faith of the Catholicke Church and are become heretickes as the Manichees or from her communion and are become Schismatickes as the Donatists if the Catholicke Church did comprehend all the Hereticks and all Schismaticks among which there was neuer anie more pernicious then those that destroy the human nature of Christ the only organ of our Saluation as the Egiptians and Ethiopians doe For whereas his maiestie auowes that the frame contexture of the Church is alreadie longe agoe dissolued dissassēbled betweene thē vs but adds in regard of externall forme S. IOHN in saying to vs If anie one bring thee not this doctrine saie not so much to him as well bee it with thee for whosoeuer shall say to him well be it with thee shall communicate in his wiched works forbidds vs all communion as well internall as externall with thē And elsewhere we haue alreadie shewed that when externall and Sacramentall communion is interdicted on both sides that is to saie where there is a reciprocall excommunication and an erection of Altar against Altar there cannot be vnitie either internall or externall If wee be in vnitie said S. AVGVSTINE what makes two Altars in the Cittie And Sainct CYPRIAN The Church which being Catholick is one maintaines herself whole and is ioyned together with the cement of Prelates adhering to one another But against these decisions of the scripture and Fathers there doe arise fowre obiections The first that the word Church doth grammaticallie signifie assemblie and consequently that all assemblies are Churches and so all Christian assemblies are Christian Churches Now this obiection is good in gramar and to interpret prophane authors but not in diuinitie nor to interpret christian Authors amongst whō the word Church hath noe more this vast and large Grammaticall signification as it had before For as when Hormodius and Aristogiton had freed the common wealth of Athens from the slauerie of the thirtie tyrants the Athenian Senate to consecrate their names and to make them reuerenced to Posteritie ordained that from thence forward they should neuer be imposed vpon or communicated to anie other Soe after our Lord had giuen to his
2. Decemb. 1631 F. Leander de S. Martino sacrae Theologiae Doctor Hebraeae linguae in alma Academia Duacena professor Regius Benedictinorum conuentus S. Gregorij Angliae Prior. THE LETTER OF THE LORD CARDINALL OF PERRON SENT TO MONSIEVR CASAVBON INTO ENGLAND SIR the letter that you deliuered to Monsieur de la Bodery was deliuered to me by him euen as I was vpon my departure for a voyage into Normandy and since my returne from thence I haue bene almost perpetuallie sicke which hindered me from answering with more speede Now that my disease begins to be at some truce with me I will paie the arrerages of this delaie and will first thanke you for the good office that you haue done me in shewing the letter I writt to you to the most excellent king of great Brittaine and in procuring me an interest in his fauour I will striue so to husband it by my humble seruice s and particularlye by celebrating his prayses which is the only fruite that good and vertuons kinges such as hee doe gather from allthe labours and thornie cares that the burden of a kingdome loades them with as his maiestie shall haue noe cause to be sorrie that it be declared to after ages how he hath honord mee with his well wishes ād how I haue had his 〈◊〉 in reuerence and admiration As for the translation of the verses of Virgill whereof you writt to me that he desires a Copie that which I sent you being lost I deferr yet for some daies to acquit myself of that dutie because I haue put it to the presse with the addition of a part of the fowrth which I haue ended expresselie for his maiestie sake to inlarge my presēte to him As soone as those few Copies which are in doing shall be finished I will not faile to addresse one of them to you to offer vp to him on my behalfe The third point of your letter yet remaines which is that his Maiestie was astonisht at those wordes in my letter That excepting the title of Catholicke I knew nothing wanting in him to expresse the figure of a perfect and compleate Prince and that he pretendes that since he beleeues all thinges that the Ancientes haue with an vnanimous consent esteemed necessarie to saluation the title of Catholique cannot bee donied him Now as on the one side I can not but greatlie praise his maiesties pietie and Christian humilitie in not disdayning to submitt his iudgement adorned with so manie lightes naturall ād acquired to that of those cleare beames of antiquitie imitating therein the wisdome of that great Emperor Thodosius who thought there was noebetter meanes to agree the dissentions which disturbed the Church of his time then to exact from either part an answere whither thy beleeued that the Fathers which had flourish'd in the Church before the separation had bene orthodoxall and that being confessed to summon them to submitt themselues to whatsoeuer they should be found to haue beleeued so on the other side there are manie obseruations `to be made vpon this Thesis before wee passe to the hypothesis which since I Cannot represent to his maiestie I shall be gladd to informe you of them for your particular satisfaction The first is that the name of Catholicke is not a name of beleefe simplie but of Communion also else antiquitie would not haue refused that title to those Which were not separated from the beleefe but from the Communion of the Church nor would they haue protested that out of the Catholicke Church the Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation Out of the Catholicke Church saith S. Augustin in his treatie of Conference with Emeritus a man may haue orders hee maie haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluya he may answere A men he may keepe the Gospell he may haue and preach the faith in the name of the Father of the Sonn and of the holie Ghost but he can no where finde Saluation but in the Catholicke Church And in the Booke De vtilit credendi There is a Church as all men graunt if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more full in multitude then all the rest and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in the doctrine of truth But of the truth that is an other question that will suffice for this search that there is one Catholicke Church vpon which seuer all heresies impose seuerall names whereas they are all call called euery one by his particular name which they dare not disauow from whence it may appeare to the iudgment of anie arbiter that is not prepossessed by fauour to whom the name of Catholicke where of all are ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the Booke against the fundamentall Epistle Then to omitt this wisdome which you denie to bee in the Catholicke Church there are manie other things which doe most iustlie retaine me in her bosome the consent of people and nations retaine me therein the authoritie begūn by miracles nourished by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me therein the succession of Prelates euen from the verie seate of Peter to whom our Lord deliuered his sheepe to be fedd after his Resurrection euen to the present Bishops seate retaines me therein and finallie the verie name of Catholick retaines me therein which not without cause this Church alone amongst so manie heresies hath in such sorte obtained as though all heretickes would be called Catholiques neuerthelesse when a stranger askes where the Catholicke Church doth assemble there is not one 〈◊〉 that dares shew his 〈◊〉 or his howse And in his treatise of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue the holie Church and that Catholick for heretickes and schismatickes call their Congregations Churches but hereticks beleeuing of God false thinges violate faith and Schismatickes separate themselues from brotherly charitie by vniust diuisions allthough they beleeue the same things that we beleeue and therefore neither can the hereticke belonge to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the schismaticke because she loues her neightour And in the Booke Of the vnitie of the Church All those that beleeue as hath bene said that ouer Lord IESVS is come in the flesh and is risen againe in the same flesh wherein he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the sōne of god god with god ād one with the Father and the onlie immoueable word of the Father by which all things haue bene made but yet dissent so from his bodie which is the Church that theire communion is not with the whole or is spread in deed but yet is in some part found to be separate it is manifest they are not in the Catholick Church And Prosper his scholler Hee saith hee that Communicates with this vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholicke but he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist And for this cause wee see that the Fathers denied the title
shall remaine trulie vniuersall and Catholicke that the most eminent Fathers of the times of the fowre first Councells haue taught in seuerall regions of the earth and against which none except some persons noted for dissention from the Church hath resisted or that the Fathers of those ages doe testifie to haue bin beleeued and practised by the whole Church in their times And that shall remaine trulie antient and Apostolicke that the Fathers of those ages doe testisie to haue bin obserued by the whole Church not as a thing sprung vp in their time but as a thing deriued downe to them either from the immemorial succession of former ages or from the expresse tradition of the Apostles For these thinges hauing bin holden vniuersallie by the Catholicke Church in the time of the first fowre Councells they could haue noe other originall but from an vniuersall authoritie for as much as in the Catholicke Church which did then so strictlie obserue the rule mentioned by Saint Vincentius Lirinensis of opposing vniuersalitie to particularitie a doctrine or obseruation from a particular beginning could not be slipt in ād spread into an vniforme and vniuersall beleefe ād Custome through all partes of the Earth and principallie soe as the Fathers that were next after these vniuersall innouations could not perceiue it but it must needes be that all that was then vniuersallie obserued in the Church must haue come from an vniuersall beginning Now there were in those ages according to the beleefe of your ministers but two beginnings of vniuersall authoritie in the Church to wit either the Apostles or the generall Councells for they Will not yeild that the Sea Apostolicke had then anie vniversall authoritie And therefore whatsoeuer was vniuersallie and vniformly obserued in the Church by all the Prouinces of the Earth in the time of the first fowre generall Councells and had not begun in that time but had bin before practised that is to saie before there had bin anie generall Councell in the Church must necessarilie haue bin from the tradition of the Apostles following these rules of S. Augustin Those thinges said hee which we obserue not by writeing but by tradition which are kept ouer all the extent of the earth must be vnderstood to haue bin retained from the appointemēt and institution either of the Apostles themselues or from the generall Councells whose authoritie is most wholsome in the Church And elsewhere what custome soeuer men looking vpward can not discerne to haue bene instituted by those of later times is rightlie beleeued to haue bin instituted by the Apostles and there are manie such which would bee too longe to repeate And againe If anie one herein seeke for diuine authoritie that which the vniuersall Church obserues and which hath not bin instituted by the Councells but hath alwaies bin held is iustly beleeued not to haue bin giuen by tradition but by Apostolicall authoritie c. Which Rules of S. Augustin if they haue place in those things which the Fathers of the time of the first fowre Councells testifie to haue bin obserued iu the Church before the fowre first Councells how much more ought they to haue it in those things that the same Fathers affirme not in termes equiualent but expresslie to haue bin instituted and ordained by the Apostles These fiue obseruations then made vpon the theses I will saie to passe vnto the hypothesis that your ministers to whose societie his Maiestie outwardlie adheres are so farr from holding all the same thinges that the Fathers haue beleeued and practised as necessarie to Saluation that in the only Synaxis or Church Lirurgie which is the Seale of Ecclesiasticall Communion the fowre principall thinges for which they haue seperated themselues from vs which are the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament the Oblation of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist prayer and oblation for the dead and the prayers of the Saints the Fathers haue all vniuersallie and vniformely beleeued holden and practised as things necessarie but in different kindes of necessitie vnto saluation By which meanes if your ministers had bene in the time of the Fathers as 〈◊〉 haue for these thinges renounced our Seruice and our Communion so must they for the same causes haue renounced the Seruice and Communion of the Fathers and Consequently the title and Societie of the Catholicke Church I haue said the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament not but that I could haue gone farther and said the Substantiall transition of the Sacrament into the Bodie of Christ which wee call transubstantiation but I haue been content to saie the reall presence because it is not precisely and particularlie vpon the transubstantiation but vpon the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament that we ground the importance and necessitie of this Sacrament to Saluation to witt the Communion and Substantiall vnion to the Bodie of Christ which S. Cyrill calls the knott of our vnion with god Nor is it particularly and precisely vpon transubstantiation but vpon the reall presence that the two inconueniences depend for which your ministers in this article seperate themselues from our Lyturgies which are one the adoration of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacramēt which they will haue to be only sought and adored in heauen and the other the pretended distraction of the vnitie of the Bodie of Christ by existence in manie places in the Sacrament Neither haue I spocken of the prerogatiue of the Roman Church which all the Fathers haue holden for the center and roote of Episcopall vnitie and of Ecclesiasticall Communion because I will beleeue you are sufficientlie read in antiquitie to knowe that the first Fathers Councells and Christian Emperors haue perpetuallie granted therevnto the primacie and supereminent ouersight ouer all religions and ecclesiasticall things which is all that the church exacts as a point of Faith from their confession that enter into her communion to the end to discerne her societie from that of the Greekes and other complices of their Sect wich haue deuided themselues for some ages from the visible and ministeriall head of the Church These fowre points then which are the principall Springes of our dissention and which being agreed vpon it would be easie for vs to agree vpon the rest I saye that the Fathers of the time of the fowre first Councels haue all holden and practised as necessary to Saluation though with diuers kindes of necessitie The reall Presence of the Bodie of Christ and the oblation of the sacrifice they haue holden as necessary with necessitie of meanes for the Bodie of the Church absolutely and for euery particuler person conditionnallie Prayer and oblation for the dead they haue holden as necessarie by necessitie of meanes for those for whom it is done that soe their deliuerace from temporall paines which remaine after this life for sinne cōmitted after baptisme ād for which thy haue not done such penances
man that is to saie a veritable man and then that a Church leaues not to be truly a Church although she be not a true Church it is a Sophisme of the truth of the essence to the truth of the word and of the word verus to the word Verax there being none so young a scholler but knowes that to speake vniuocallie whosoeuer is truly a man is a true man for as much as being and truth are conuertible from whence it is that sainct AMBROSE vseth these wordes true Israelite and trulie Israelite as termes equiualent And that sainct AVGVSTINE saith Euerie soule is by that a soule by which it is a true soule And therefore as the Fathers affirme that there is none but the Catholicke Church that is a true Church From thence saith sainct AVGVSTINE it appeares that the true Church is concealed from noe bodie Soe they also saie that there is none but the Catholicke Church that is truly a Church If you did teach saith sainct AVGVSTINE to the Manichees that mariage were good but virginitie better as doth the Church which is trulie the Church of Christ the bolie Ghost had not predesigned you And whereas it is replied that a man for being lesse or more sound leaues not to be a man and soe that a Church for being lesse or more pure leaues not to be a Church it is an other manifest Sophisme for health is not the essentiall forme of a man nor sicknes the priuation of the essentiall forme of a man but an accident which consequentlie may receaue more and lesse whereas puritie of faith according to his maiesties owne confession is the essentiall forme of the Church and the impuritie of Faith the priuation of the essentiall forme of the Church By meanes whereof noe Societie can hold among the conditions of her Communion and doctrine impure in Faith and contrarie to saluation but shee looseth at the same time the being and title of a Church And therefore the diuersitie of the communions whereinto the Church was deuided when Luther rose must not be alleadged for a pretence to be ignorant where the true Church then was For since the Church ought to be perpetually visible and eminent and that then there were noe Christiā communions visible in the world but ours that of the Grecians vnder which are cōprehended the Muscouites the Antiochians that of the Egiptians Ethiopians which is but one that of the Armenians that of the Nestorians that it is of the essence of the necessirie of the Church that she should be pure and impolluted in faith and that all those others by the common confession of vs and of the Protestants are heretickes and corrupt it is not needefull to goe to Delphus to learne that either the Church was perished which as wee haue aboue shewed could not be or that it was our communion which was the Church Of the qualitie wherein the Catholick Church attributes to herself the name of the whole CHAP. VIII The continuance of the Kings answere AND therefore the most excellent King is much amazed when hee sees the Churches which haue bene members of the whole Bodie drawe to themselues all the right of vniniuersalitie THE REPLIE IT hath alreadie bene aboue shewed that by the Catholicke Church the Fathers neuer intended the Masse and totall conclusion of the multitude of Christians but a speciall societie distinct from the beleefe and from the communion of all hereticall and schismaticall sects and which in regard of the Masse and generall confusion of all the multitude of Christians held actuallie but the place of a part and held only the place of the whole actuallie in regard of the particular Churches which were comprehended in deede in her communiō For there was neuer anie age since the apostles built the church but there haue bene some heretickes which haue gone forth from the Bodie of the Church neuerthelesse making profession of the name of Christ They haue gone forth from vs saith S IOHN but they were not of vs. And S. IVDE Cursed bee they for they perish in the contradiction of Chore people which separated them selues men animalls hauiug not spiritt And S. AVGVSTINE All hereticks and Schismaticks are gone forth from vs that 〈◊〉 to saie saith hee are gone sorth of the Church But amongst this difference of societies making profession of Christian Religion there was alwaies one more eminent in multitude then the rest which hath alwaies remained in her stocke and roote and from whence all the rest are gone forth to whom also the name of Catholicke nath bene preserued not because she held actuallie the place of whole in regard of the rest but onlie of all habituallie as the stocke in regard of the boughes which haue bene pluckt off for as much as in all the separations she remained in the same estate wherein all the Bodie was before the separation and consequentlie hath iustlie inherited the name of totall Church and succeeded onelie in the right and application of the whole as being she alone that represents it The Church saith S. AVGVSTINE Combating against all heresies may be resisted but she cannot be ouerthrowne all heresies are gone forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt off from their vine but she remaines in her roote in her vine in her charitie the gates of hell shall not preuaile against her Which amazeth me that is maiestie should be amazed that the Churches which haue heretofore bene members of the whole Bodie should drawe to themselues all the Right of the vniuersalitie For the word Catholicke was neuer common to all Christians but onely to a part of Christians to witt to that wherein there remained the actuall totalitie of that which rested in the iust possession of the title of the Church and which in regard of the partes separated retained noe more the effect but only the right of the whole as representing her that before each separation was the whole And therefore so farr was S. AVGVSTINE from extending the totalitie of the Catholicke Church to the multitude of all the sectes of Christians as contrariwise after hauing reported the opinions of the eightie eight heresies he adds What the Catholicke Church holdes against all these thinges is a superfluous demaund since it is sufficient for to knowe that she holdes the contrary to these thinges And a while after There may also be or be made other heresies besides these which are reported in this worke of ours whereof who shall holde anie one shall be noe Catholick Christiā And elsewhere The Catholick and the heretick are deuided the one against the other And againe They cannot beginn to be Catholick till they haue left to be hereticke And therefore when the hereticall Sects separate themselues from the Catholicke Church and deuide themselues from the part that consents not to heresie they hinder not the title os Catholicke nor the Right of vniuersalitie from being preserued in her
as it hath pleased God whollie to accept may be hastned by the prayers and sacrifices of the Church and necessarie with necessitie of precept and to exercise christian charitie and pietie both to the Church that offers them and to the ministers and Pastors by whom she offers them The prayer of the Saintes they haue holden as necessarie to the bodie of the Church and to the ministers by whō they are made with necessitie of precept to exercise the commerce betweene the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant and to particular persons out of the offices of the Church and in their priuate deuotions not neeessary with necessitie of act but only profitable that they may the more easilie obtaine pardon for their sinnes by the concourse of their prayers who are alreadie in the per fect and assured possession of the grace of God but necessary to them and all others with nessitie of approbation that is to saie they are obliged not to contradict them and not to condemne the custome and doctrine of the Church in that article and not to separate themselues from her vpon this occasion vnder paine of falling into Anathema and to be holden for heretickes All which things I will not now stand to proue least I make a Booke of a letter but I doe oblige myselfe to iustifie them when soeuer you shall desire it and to make it appeare both by the vnanimous consent of the Fathers that haue flourished in the time of the first fowre councel's and by the formes which remaine to vs in their writings of the ancient Church Seruice that all the Catholicke Church of their times hath vninersallie and vniformely beleeued holden and practised them throughout all the regions and prouinces of the earth I oblige myself I saie to make it appeare to you that she hath holden these fower thinges in the same sence and in the same forme and for the same end as our Lyturgies are and not as obseruations that then sprung vp but as things that the same Fathers testified to haue bene beleeued and practised from all antiquitie and to be deriued to them by an vninterrupted continuance from the tradition or approbation of the Apostles Soe as they cannot renounce the Communion of our Church vnder pretence of anie of these fowre points without renoūcing the Communion of the ancient catholick Church and consequently the inheritance of saluation and that by authors and testimonies all able to abide the touch as you know I am curious to make vse of noe other and with cleare and ingenuous answeres to all obiections collected out of the Fathers of the same ages or of ages before them A thing that will be the more easie for me because the proofes that wee will avouch out of the Fathers are proofes which containe in expresse termes the affirmatiue of what wee saie whereas our aduersaries cannot finde one only passage which containes in expresse terme the negatiue but only in termes from whence they pretend to inferr it by consequence and which at a iust tribunall would not merit so much as to be heard For who knowes not that it is too great an iniustice to alleadge consequences from passages and euen those euill interpreted and misvnderstood and in whose illation there is alwaies some paralogisme hidd against the expresse wordes and the liuely and actuall practise of the same fathers from whom they are collected and that may be good to take the Fathers for Aduersaries and to accuse them for want of Sence or memorie but not to take them for Iudges and to submitt themselues to the obseruation of what they haue beleeued and practised To this I will also adde whensoeuer you shall desire it the present Conformitie of all the other Patriarchall Churches in these fowre cases with the Roman and of all those which haue remained euen to this daie vnder their iurisdiction to witt those that are vnder the Patriarchall iurisdiction of the Patriarck of Constantinople as the Grecians Russians Muscouites and Asians of Asia-minor separate from vs neere eight hundred yeares Of those that are vnde the Greeke Patriarch of Antioch as the Syrians Mesopotamians and others yet more Easterne nations for those that obey the Syrian Patriarch as the Maronites perseuer in the Communion of the Roman Church of those that relye vpon the Egiptian Patriarch of Alexandria as the Egiptians whom they call Cophtites and the Ethiopians which haue bene diuided both from vs and from the greekes more then eleuen hundred yeares euen from the time of one of the fowre first Councells to witt of the Councell of Chalcedon For all these hold these fower pointes yea with more iealousie if it be possible then the latine Churches and particularlie the article of the Sacrament where of they doe not only beleeue transubstantiation which the greekes at this daie call in the very self same sence and phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also exercise the adoration with externall gesture more full of humilitie then ours A manifest proof that these fowre pointes were vniformely holden and obserued by the ancient Cahtholicke Church since all the partes whereinto the ancient Catholicke Church is dismēbred doe retaine them vniformly to this daie notwithstanding soe manie distances separations and diuisions through all the regions of the Earth These are in generall the causes that haue moued me to vse that exception in my letter that you obiect to me in yours whereof if the Excellent King of great Brittaine had as well leasure to heare the particularities as he hath capacitie to comprehend them I assure myselfe he would not thinke it strange that I should desire in him the title of Catholique but he would desire it himsefe and put himsefe in state to obtaine it and to cause it to be obtained by those that are depriued of it that is to saie he would add yet to is other Crownes that of making himsefe a mediator of the peace of the Church which would be to him a more triumphant glorie then that of all the Alexanders and of all the Caesars and which would gaine to his Isle noe lesse an honor in hauing bredd him thē to haue bredd great Constantine the first deliuerer and pacifier of the christian Church I praie god that he will one daie Crowne all the other graces wherewith he hath indowed him with that and heare to this effect the prayers of his late Queene Mother whose teares like those of S. Augustins Mother doe not onlie intercede for him in heauen but her blood also And likewise keepe you Sr. in his safe and holie protection From Paris 15. Iulij 1611. AN ADMONITION TO THE READER This letter to Mons. Casaubon occasiond the whole discourse ensuing For the letter being shewed to his most excellent maiesty our Souuerain Lord king Iames of glorious memory it pleased him not only to read it but to take paines to answer it as he thought most conuenient To which answer of his maiesty the Cardinall replieth
aduauncinge towards the liuing God And in the volume vpon the psalmes all those who perferr earthlie felicitie before God all those which seeke themselues and not Iesus Christ belonge to that onlie Cittie which is mysticallie called Babylon and hath the diuell for her kinge And to this it is noe impediment that she is described to be clad in purple fore there purple signifies not the coulour of purple but temperall powers dignities and authoritie which are for the most parte in the hands of the wicked rather then of the good the white and shining linnen wherewith the bride is clothed signifieth not the stuffe and colour of linnen but the iustification of the saintes As little is it repugnant to this that she is described to be sett vpon 7. Mountaines for that which followes imediately after and those are 7. kinges shewes that the word Mountaines ought not in that place to bee literally taken but allegorically whether for the seuen sinnes that wee call mortall or for anie other septenary mumber ruling ouer the societie of the wicked The second interpretation celebrated by the Fathers is to expound the destruction of Babylon described in the Reuelation to be destruction of Paganisme and of the honor of the false Gods and the descent of heauenly Ierusalem to be the propagation of Christian Religion for as much as in the tyme of the prophetes from whose wordes this verse of the Reuelation goe out of Babylon my people is taken Babilon was as it were the head of Pagan superstition and also that the word Babylon signifyinge Confusion is more proper then anie other to designe the Religion of the Pagans which was a Confusion of Religions because Rome which in the age of the Apostles was become the head of Paganisme had receiued into her Common-wealth and Religion the worship and Religion of all the Prouinces that she had ouercome From whence it is that Saint AVGVSTINE attributes by a particular title the word confusion to the Religion of the Pagans when he saith We must seeke for Religion neither in the confusion of the pagans nor in the refuse of heretickes nor in the lāguishing of Schismatickes nor in the blindenes of the Iewes And it is noe contradiction to this that the Angell cryes goe out of Babylon my people And a little after and recompence her double for what she hath done to you For this cry is addressed to the elect which were not yet the people of God in act and vocation but in power and in predestination whom God soe calls to drawe them from paganisme and to make them actually his people and Commands them to repay or returne what she hath done to them that is not what she hath done in theire persons for they could not be persecuted by her for the faith if they were not yet seperated from her in faith but in the persons of theire predecessors And therefore Saint AVGVSVINE saith Marke how the people of Babylon are put to death the double of what she hath done is rendred vnto her for soe it is written of her recompence her the double of what she hath done c. And how is the double recompenced vpon her when she might persecute the christians she slewe theire bodies but she brake not theire God Now she is recompenced double for we roote out the pagans and breake theire Idolls And how sayest thou are the pagans put to death how else but in beinge made Christians For if some ancient Fathers haue interpreted the word Babylon to be the Cittie of Rome because of this epithet drunck with the bloud of the Saints and the martires of Iesus whose sufferinges were soe frequent at Rome in the first ages of the Church that it hath bene iustlie said that Rome was not so much a cittie of men as a Church-yard of martires It was the pagan Rome that they intended as the Capitall Seate of the heathen Religion and of the Empire of the Gentiles and not of any Church neither particular nor vniuersall as it appeares by these wordes of Saint IEROME I addresse my speeche to thee ô most puissant towne which hast wiped out the blasphemies written in thy forehead by the confession of Christ Which shewes vs that whilst Rome was pagan she was the same to the Christians as Babylon was in the tyme of the old Testament to the Iewes but that becomeinge Christian she had ceased to be soe and was transformed from Babylon into Ierusalem If any replie that in his epistle to Marcella the same Saint IEROM hath gone soe farr as to applie the name of Babylon to Rome after she was Christian it was not to Rome as the Seate of Religion but to Rome as the seate of the Empire not to the Ecclesiasticall communion of Rome but to the politicke State of Rome not to the Church of Rome but to the Imperiall Court to the Senate to the Pallace and to the troupe of Courtiers Solicitors and Negotiators of Rome and not in matter of Faith but in matter of manners and not in regard of Secular Christians but in regarde of the monkes to whom Rome was a kinde of Babylon because of the diuersions that the noyse the confusion the tumult of men and affaires in soe great a Cittie brought to monasticall deuotion as it appeares by what he adds presently after It is true that in that Cittie there is the holie Church it is true that there are the trophies of the Apostles and of the martyres it is true there is the true confession of Christ it is true there is the faith celebrated by the Apostle and the Christian name euerie day exalted by the depression of paganisme troden vnder foote but the ambition the power and greatnesse of this Cittie to visitt and to be visited to salute and to be saluted to flatter and detract to heare and speake nay to see though vnwillingly so great a multitude of men are thinges farr from the purpose and quiet of those that would followe a monasticall life And againe notinge the same discomodities in the dwelling in Ierusalem If said hee the places of the Crosse and Resurrection were not in a famous towne where there is a Court where there is is a garrison of Souldiers where there are common woemen players ieasters and all thinges which vse to be in other Citties c. it would certainly be a dwellinge much to be desired by Monkes Now if some-times he haue chanced to make vse of this word in his writinges against certaine Priestes and Deacons of the Clergie of Rome who iealious of his fauour with Pope Damasus persecuted him with slanders reproching to him that he had translated the treaties of Didymus an hereticall author that he had conuersed too familiarly with the deuout ladies of Rome and perswaded them to quit theire countrie children and kindred that is the confusion and tumulte of the world to goe as recluses into the Monasteries of