ever done it but that of Basil the least action whereof they scrupled to imitate they added that the coming of the Lutherans to the Council would onely serve to seduce people because they would not forbear their Dogmatical Cant that on the whole if they refused to submit that safe conduct would be dishonourable to the Council from which they required a compliance which ought never to be granted to Hereticks To remove all these difficulties they thought of giving a safe Conduct in general terms wherein the Protestants should not be named but onely designed under the Title of Church-men and Seculars of the German Nation that so if at any other time necessity did require they might say that by these terms none were meant but Catholicks Whilst they were consulting at Rome about the safe Conduct at Trent points of Doctrine were under examination and that inquiry was not so calm and peaceable as the other about the Anathema's and Canons against Protestants for it was impossible to keep the Jacobins and Cordeliers from going together by tho ears about the matter of Transubstantiation The Jacobins pretended that the body of our Saviour is made present in the Eucharist by way of Production because the Body of Jesus Christ without coming down from Heaven where it is in its natural being is rendered present in the Bread by a reproduction of the same substance according to which Doctrine the substance according to which Doctrine the substance of the Bread is changed into the substance of our Lord's Body The Cordeliers on the other hand defended that Transubstantiation which is called Adductive they alledged that our Lord's Body is brought down from Heaven not by a successive but momentany change and that the substance of Bread is not changed into the substance of the Body of Jesus Christ but that the Flesh and Bloud of Jesus Christ succeeds into the place of the substance of the Bread being conveyed thither from another place Each Party maintained their opinions with wonderfull heat branding one anothers with absurdities and contradictions The Electour of Cologne who had had the patience to hear these wretched janglings said very pleasantly that both Parties were in the right when they refuted and charged one another with absurdities but that they seemed all of them to be out of the way when they asserted their opinions because they spoke nothing that was Sense or Intelligible at length seeing there was no declaring for one Party without offending the other they satisfied them both by couching the Decree in very general terms In the same Congregation they discoursed of many abuses that concerned the Eucharist which ought to be reformed such as are the failings in reverence and respect to the holy Sacrament It was complained of that they did not kneel before it that they let it mould in the Pixes that it was administred with little reverence and that they took money from Communicants This last abuse was committed particularly at Rome where the Communicants carried in one hand a hollow Taper and a piece of money in the Taper which was the Priests see It was resolved that Canons should be made against that abuse and many more of the like nature The original of the Jurisdiction of the Tribunals of the Church with their progress At the same time other Congregations were held consisting onely of Doctors of the Canon Law for handling the matter of Discipline the Head that was examined was that of the Jurisdiction of Bishops The end the Bishops proposed to themselves was not the rectifying of the abuses of that Jurisdiction by restraining it to the just and lawfull bounds whereby it was limited in the Apostles time and in the primitive Ages of the Church on the contrary they would have enlarged it by exempting it from the power and attempts of the Court of Rome That Jurisdiction in the first Ages was onely grounded on the sixth Chapter of the first epistle to the Corinthians wherein St. Paul exhorts believers not to bring their Causes before Infidels but to chuse out amongst themselves fit persons to compose their differences but because the Tribunal which St. Paul establishes in that place was merely a tribunal of Charity which had no coercive power so the Sentences that past there were onely Verdicts of Arbitration which men stood by if they thought fit by the six and fiftieth Chapter of the second Book of the Constitutions attributed to St. Clement it appears that the Bishop and Priests met every Munday for determining the affairs of their Flock And it rarely happened that any one appealed from these Decisions because of the great respect that men in those days had for the Church But after the times of persecution were over the Bishops supported by the Emperours who were become Christians erected Real Tribunals the Decrees and Sentences whereof were put in execution by the Authority of the Magistrate It is said that Constantine ordained that the Sentences of Bishops should be without appeal and be put in execution by the Secular Judges and that if one of the Parties should desire that a Process commenced before a Secular Judge might be referred to the Tribunal of the Bishop the reference should be granted in spight of all opposition either from the Judge or the adverse Party In the year three hundred sixty five the Emperour Valens enlarged that Jurisdiction and Possidius reports that St. Austin was taken up in those trials of Civil matters many times even till night which troubled him much because it took him off from the true functions of his Ministery That Law of Constantine in favour of this Tribunal of Bishops was revoked or at least limited by the Emperours Arcadius and Honorius for they ordained that Bishops should decide in no Causes but those of Religion and in Civil matters when both Parties consented to it In the year four hundred and fifty two the Emperour Valentinian confirmed that Law which restrained the power of Bishops Justinian restored to them part of what they had been deprived of allowing them besides the Causes of Conscience power to take cognizance of the Crimes of the Clergy and to perform several other acts of Jurisdiction over Laics And thus by the indiscreet favour of Emperours the power of the Church which is all Spiritual became a Carnal Dominion In the following Ages the Jurisdiction and Authority of the Bishops got ground apace and especially in the Western Church because the chief of the Clergy were the ablest Statesmen they were commonly of Princes Councils and managed and Civil matters That was the reason that in a short time they grew to be sole Judges of all Causes Civil and Criminal of the Clergy and that they extended their Jurisdiction over Laicks under various pretexts for instance they took upon them to Judge of the Validity of last Will and Testaments to make Inventories and apply Seals under pretext that Widows and Orphans are recommended to the care of the Church
and the Bishop of Segovia revived the question of the Divine Right of Episcopacy This Bishop had been a Member of the Council held under Julius III. wherein Episcopacy was said to have been defined to be of Divine Right The Legates and Pensioners of the Court of Rome maintained that no such thing had been done in that Council And the Bishop of Segovia who had a very fresh Memory averred that it had and mentioned the hour and day when it was so decided The Cardinal of Mantua seemed to be very incredulous and ordered the Acts of Council to be brought out Which being done these words were found in the third Chapter of Doctrine concerning the Sacrament of Orders Besides that the holy Council teacheth that Bishops have been instituted by Divine Right seeing it is evident in the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ himself called the Apostles and promoted them to the Degree of Apostleship and in their places the Bishops have succeeded It ought not then to enter into the thoughts of any one that that so eminent and necessary a Degree hath been brought into the Church by Humane Institution And the eighth Canon said that whosoever shall say that Bishops are not instituted by Divine Right c. Let him be Anathema This was positive and downright and therefore the Cardinal of Mantua was suspected to have caused this Piece to have been produced purposely to favour an opinion which he held and durst not openly declare and own For all that the Pope's Party would not yield but they durst not say that the Council had erred for the Decree had been framed by the same men that had made the rest which past for Articles of Faith and for want of the Formality of Publication it was no less the Act of a Council to which Infallibility was ascribed They therefore stood their ground and maintained that these words ought to be interpreted of the Power of Orders and not of Jurisdiction so that the Congregation was spent in Janglings about the Sense of the Decree At length the Cardinal of Lorrain having been long expected entered Italy and the Pope could not but cause the Session to be put off The Cardinal of Lorrain arrives in Italy and the Pope sends to sound him that the Cardinal might be present at it But he ordered that it should not be delayed beyond the Month of November and we shall see in the sequel what accidents occasioned its delay untill the Month of July in the year following The Cardinal was received at Trent with great Ceremony He arrives at Trent he made his Entry on Horseback betwixt the Cardinals of Mantua and Seripando who were the two chief Legates The same day he visited the Cardinal of Mantua and next day had Audience of the Presidents This Audience past in Civilities and mutual Protestations of Services onely the Cardinal said that the Council must not be taken up about nice and needless questions that the Debates which had divided it about the questions of the Divine Right of Residence and Episcopacy had done great injury to its reputation that it ought to be their whole business to reclaim to the Church the Members who were separated from her that for his own part he did not think it an impossible matter and that many of them and amongst the rest the Duke of Wirtemberg had a design to come to the Council and that it was necessary for bringing them nearer to set about a good Reformation without which whereas the King his Sovereign at present had onely to doe with Huguenots he would very suddenly find work enough with Catholicks To conclude he told them that he had brought new Instructions to the Ambassadours of France that he desired to speak in name of the King in the next Congregation and that afterward he should doe no more but give his opinion freely as an Archbishop They made him answer in General terms commending his Piety and Devotion towards the Holy See and excused themselves that the Council had spent so much time about matters of so small importance laying the blame on the Licence that the Prelates took to themselves in giving their opinions They added that they hoped for the future things would goe better and that his presence would contribute much to it After several other matters had been discoursed it was concluded that on Munday following the Cardinal should appear in a General Congregation to declare the reasons of his coming and present the King's Letters Though they had stood onely upon General terms yet the Party of the Court of Rome conceived some Umbrage at the Cardinal's Speech because all his Actions were suspected Some Discourses that the French Abbots had had at Milan encreased the suspicions for they had been heard to say that they were going to the Council with design to joyn with the Spaniards against the Court of Rome and that they were resolved to have Annates Preventions Plurality of Benefices and other Abuses abolished threatning that if they were refused what they had to demand they would make but little noise but return and order their own business at home Besides that it was known that the Cardinal entertained a very strict Correspondence with the Emperour of whom the Court of Rome was not very sure and likewise with Maximilian King of Bohemia who was more suspected by them than his Father The Pope's Party relished very ill what the Cardinal of Lorrain had told them of the Duke of Wirtemberg coming to the Council because of the Conference that he had heretofore had with that Duke and they feared that some agreement might have been made betwixt the King of France the Emperour and the Germans to force the Council to doe more than the Court of Rome was willing they should They were even afraid that the King of Spain might enter into that League because after the Departure of the Count de Luna whom he sent Ambassadour to Trent he had dispatched after him Martin Gazdellun heretofore Secretary to the Emperour Charles the fith with instructions which he was not willing to trust to Letters They immediately acquainted the Pope with all that had past and gave their observations accordingly But that the French might take no Umbrage at it they made the Courier set out privately and wrote to Rome that when he came back he should have orders to steal into Trent without any noise The Cardinal of Lorrain could not come to Mundays Congregation because of a sit of a Fever that obliged him for some days to keep his Chamber The Congregation notwithstanding was held but nothing was done in it onely a General Review made of all the Members of the Council who upon occasion of the French who were just come had their several places assigned them anew In this Review they found the number of the Prelates to amount to two hundred and eighteen The Council was extremely well satisfied to see they were so numerous and yet
the Court of Rome who are our determined Adversaries in the Controversie It is against the Pope that the Protestants contend they dispute his quality of Vicar of Jesus Christ of supreme Head of the Church of infallible Judge of Controversies By the dictates of common sense there is nothing so unjust as to establish him for Judge of a Cause against whom the Suit is directly brought But that the Council of Trent was a Council of the Popes not of the Church is most apparent For it was convened by him he presided in it it consisted only of persons who had taken an oath of fidelity to him and were for the greater part his Pensioners And indeed he was so much Master of the Assembly that it acted nothing but as inspired or commanded by him But it will be replied that the Pope being the natural Head of the Church and having the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them he was not bound to lay aside his Character in favour of the Protestants who unjustly attaqued him Were a King whose Sovereign Power should by some persons be disputed obliged to divest himself of his Royal Dignity submit it to the fantastick humours of men The misfortune is that we are always pester'd with similies that have no manner of similitude A lawful Prince whose rights are clear and indisputable I confess were not obliged to renounce his Royal State But a King whose rights were doubtful false and contested by a Prince of the Royal blond and by the greatest part of his Subjects were obliged for the interests of peace to be content to sit down as a private person and suffer a Judgment of the validity of his Title Is the Pope a Sovereign whose rights are unquestionable Is it acknowledged genenerally that he hath the sole right of convening Councils and presiding in them without whose Authority no Act passed therein should be valid So far from it that the greatest part of the Christian world denies it It is not believed by the Eastern Church nor by the Churches of the North and South or of the Greeks Ethiopians Cophties or Russians that their Councils are unlawful because the Pope doth neither convene them nor preside in them The Protestants may be also reckoned for something not for their number only but chiefly for their reasons For they bring a cloud of Witnesses to demonstrate that the right of convening Councils belongs to the Emperours and that the Bishops of Rome have not always presided in them The first Council of Nice was called by Constantine the Great and Alexander the then Bishop of Constantinople did preside in it The second General Council was called by Theodosius at Constantinople at which neither the Pope nor any of his Legates were present and therefore cannot be said to have presided therein There is nothing farther from truth Râ—pi l. I. ch â—5 34. than what the Cardinal du Perron is pleased to affirm that the first Council of Constantinople besought the Pope to confirm its Decrees On the contrary the Church of Rome opposed her self in all that she was able to what the Council had done She disapproved the Election of Flavius whom the Council had established in the See of Antioch in the place of Meletius who died at Constantinople while the Council sate She favoured Paulinus who had been elected Bishop by a party in the Church of Antioch in separation from the rest She could never relish the Canon of this Council that ordains That the Bishop of Constantinople should have the Prerogatives of honour next to the Bishop of Rome because Constantinople was new Rome And even in the time of Gregory I. L. Ind. 15. Ep. 131. which was in the beginning of the seventh Century the Church of Rome was not as yet reconciled with this Council For Gregory affirms that this Council was not acknowledged in the West Yet after all the opposition of the Roman Church it passes still for a lawful and General Council To this I might add the third General Council assembled at Ephesus the fourth at Calcedon the fifth and sixth at Constantinople all convened by the Emperours and not by the Popes I might add to all these many other proofs of equal weight but being fallen but by accident upon this Dispute I have no intention to enlarge farther upon the proofs Yet I cannot but take notice that Pope Vigilius being at Constantinople in the year 553. when the fifth General Council was there held he would not assist in it nor did preside therein either in Person or by his Legates and yet the Council is received both for lawful and General There is then already just cause to doubt that the Pope hath such a right of convening Councils and presiding in them as to render them unlawful if called or managed by others But this is not all for a considerable part of the Roman Church it self hold this opinion to be most false That the Pope hath the sole right of convening General Councils and presiding in them All the Gallican Church and generally all that own the Councils of Constance and Basil that is to say at least France and Germany are of this Judgment The Council of Constance could not be convened by a lawful Pope for it assembled it self at the solicitation of the Christian Princes and by the authority of the College of Cardinals for the deposing of three Popes who were then sitting the one at Rome being Gregory XII another at Bologna being John XXIII the third at Avignon being Benedict XIII Not one of these Popes could preside in this Council being all thither cited and there condemned as false Popes The Cardinal of Cambray did preside in the third Session Cardinal Vrsini in the fifth John Bishop of Ostia Cardinal and Vice-Chancellour of the Roman Church presided in the seventh and in all the rest till the Election of Martin V. John XXIII being deposed and retired the Council declared in the third Session That by the departure of the Pope the Council was not dissolved but did still continue in its full authority In the Council of Basil Pope Eugenius IV. could not possibly preside for he was there condemned and deposed and Amadeus Duke of Savoy elected in his stead In the seventeenth Session the same Council declares that during the absence of the Presidents the first Prelate shall have the right of presiding without waiting for the Popes Commission This one would imagine doth not seem to import that a Council must be only under the direction of a Pope or of those that are Commissioned by him I am not Ignorant that the Decrees of the Councils both of Basil and of Constance are had in extreme horror by the Court of Rome But I know also that that doth not hinder but that the Gallican Church and divers others do receive and approve them And that suffices to shew that the rights of the Pope were not so clear and uncontested but
the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain loaded him with Complements for his Holiness desiring him that he would beseech his Holiness not to take it ill that the King and they by Orders from him did demand things which they judged necessary for the wellfare of France and at the same time and by the same hand offered the Pope his Mediation for taking up the differences about the Institution of Bishops and Residence These Memoires of the French Ambassadours were given to the Legates without the hearty condescension of the Prelates of that Nation For there were some Articles amongst them that tended to the Diminution both of the Authority and Revenues of the Bishops which went against the Hair But they consented that they might be presented to the Council in hopes that the Spanish Bishops who are Great Lords and jealous of their Grandure would have opposed them When they saw that the Memoires were sent to Rome they perceived that it would fall to the Pope's share to cut and carve in them as he had done in all the rest and they were afraid that he might compound with the King of France to their Cost in sacrificing to him the interest of the Bishops to make him spare the Court of Rome as it had been done betwixt Francis the First and Leo X. when they made the Concordat And therefore they began to make secret Cabals to get the Articles that concerned them struck out of the Memoires But Lansac perceiving it called them together and rebuked them severely for daring to oppose the Will of the King There were now two Bishops in Deputation at Rome the Bishops of Vintimiglia and Viterbo The first was employed to make fresh Remonstrances about the Subject of the Institution of Bishops and their Residence that the Pope might put the Decree into another form than that which he had formerly sent He arrived the first of January having made his Journey in seven days He gave the Pope an account of all that past in the Council and of the different dispositions of the Members of it The Pope immediately held a Congregation of Cardinals about the Point of the Institution of Bishops which was most urgent And it was there resolved that the Decision should be sent to the Legates in this form That Bishops hold the chief rank in the Church dependant on the Bishop of Rome by whom they are admitted and received in partem solicitudinis It was upon the main the same with the former but the form a little softer and the Pope for a recompence of the qualification which he had suffered to be made in the Canon of the Institution of Bishops would have the Canon that related to his own Authority to run in these terms That the Pope hath Authority to feed and to govern the Church Universal in place of Jesus Christ who hath imparted to him as his Vicar General all his Authority And ordered his Legates that in the Chapter of Doctrine they should enlarge more upon the matter and make use of the Terms of the Council of Florence which saith that the Holy See that is to say the Pope has the Primacy over all the Church that he is the Successour of St. Peter who was Prince of the Apostles that he is the true Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of all the Churches the Father and Master of all Christians to whom the Lord hath given full power to govern the Church Universal He enjoyned the Legates not to deviate from that form which had been authorised by a General Council At the same time that he might prevent the designs of the French who would have had a Pope elected by the Council in case the present Pope had died he published a Bull wherein he declared that having intention to goe to Bologna in case he should die in his Journey he ordained that his Successour should not be chosen but at Rome The Bishop of Viterbo who was charged with the Memoires of the French arrived a little time after the instructions of the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been dispatched The Pope very impatiently heard the Memoires read but the Bishop of Viterbo pacified him a little by giving him hopes that if he condescended to some of these Articles a part might be cut off and the rest moderated but particularly he gave him ease when he assured him that the greatest part of the French Bishops disliked those Reformations and that they were ready to oppose them The Pope held a Congregation upon that Subject and it was therein resolved that the Articles should be committed to Doctours of the Canon Law to make their observations upon them At the same time the Pope sent Orders to the Cardinal of Ferrara his Legate in France to represent to the King that some of these Propositions tended to the Diminution of the Royal Authority because they deprived the King of the Collation of Benefices and amongst others of Abbeys that the disposal of Benefices was a very commodious Privilege to him for rewarding his faithfull Servants that to raise the Authority of Bishops was not the way to strengthen the Authority of the King and that the more powerfull Bishops were the more troublesome they were to Princes He sent his Legate likewise Orders to give the King the forty thousand Crowns remaining unpay'd of the hundred thousand which he had obliged himself to furnish him but with all that he should not part from them but upon the Condition that he had till them required I mean the abolition of the Pragmatick Sanction in all the Parliaments He prayed also the King to consider that by diminishing the Revenues of the Holy See he would be deprived of means to procure Respect and Obedience that the Tithes of Tithes were by the Law due to the chief Priest and that they had been wisely converted into Annats and concluded with an exhortation to the King that he would sent new Instructions to his Ambassadours He sent likewise to Trent the Censures and Observations which the Canonists and Divines had made upon the Memoires of the French year 1563 The Minute of the Decree concerning the Pope's Authoritycomes from Rome and meets with much contradiction especially from the French The Courier who brought to Trent the Answer to the Remonstrances which the Bishop of Vintimiglia had been charged with arrived on the fourteenth of January and next day was the time appointed for perfixing the day of the Session A Congregation General was held and it was therein resolved that that deliberation should be put off till the fourth of February because they could not as yet certainly tell when matters might be in a readiness The Legates distributed Copies of the Minute of the Decree which was sent from Rome touching the Institution of Bishops and declared that they would begin the Congregations again for consulting about it These Minutes had the approbation of the Patriarchs and oldest Archbishops who gave their opinions first But when it
the Holy Ghost does not at all agree with that ancient Prayer of the Church Et ad te nostras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates It was thought that the Council had a design to condemn effectual Grace which St. Austin asserted that is to say Grace effectual in it self they also pickt out contradictions therein as for instance in that which is said in the seventh Chapter that Justice is given in a certain measure according to God's good will and pleasure and the disposition of him that receives it they could not comprehend how Grace was given at the same time according to the good will and pleasure of God and according to the disposition of him that receives it for if it be according to the pleasure of God it is without any respect to dispositions and if God have any regard to dispositions then it depends not absolutely on his pleasure They found another contradiction in that here the Council condemns those who say that men are not able to fulfill the Commandments of God and in the second Session had commanded men to obey the Commandments of God quantum quisque poterit as far as one is able because these terms suppose that every one is not able to fulfill the Law of God By these censures it was made apparent that in a matter purely Theological the Fathers of the Council had made use of many terms borrowed from Philosophy insomuch that without the assistance of Aristotle they could not have made an Article of Faith But above all other there happened one unlucky hit to the Council and made it evident that they had conceived their Decisions with intent to please all men except the Lutherans which was this In the Book which Dominico à Soto wrote de natura gratia which we mentioned before when he comes to treat of the certainty that one may have of his own Justification he proved that the intention of the Council was to condemn the opinion which affirms that one may have such a certainty of his being in the State of Grace as excludes all doubting Catarino that was present at the Council as well as Soto published a Book wherein he asserted that the intention of the Council was not to condemn those who say that one may believe that he is in the State of Grace with as much certainty as one believes an Article of Faith On the contrary that the Council favoured that opinion because it is expressed in the twenty sixth Canon that the righteous man ought to hope for a reward Catarino concluded that a righteous man cannot expect his reward unless he be assured of his Righteousness These two Authours wrote several Books against one another on this subject and even complained to the Council that Decisions and Sentiments were imposed upon them which they had not indeed intended The Council was in perplexity and could not tell what to think of this controversie which made People laugh in their sleeve It was thought strange that the Fathers should not understand their own Decisions and that brought the Bishop of Bitonto's Sermon into mens minds who in the opening of the Council promised the Prelates that the holy Ghost would inspire them as he did Caiaphas who spoke a Prophecy which he understood not session 6 The point of the Sacraments in general of Baptism and extreme unction chosen for the next Session Next day after the sixth Session which was the fourteenth of January the Legates called a general Congregation to make choice of the Controversie which should be decided the next Session they had made a kind of resolution in the beginning to follow the Order of the Confession of Ausbourg and the point of the ministerial function in the Church was the next in order in that Confession to that of Justification But because the point of Administration carried along with it that of the Authority of the Council and the Pope which the Legates would not meddle with they wisely laid it aside and favoured the Divines to whom that subject was not very agreeable neither but for reasons far different from those of the Legates for that is a point the Schoolmen do not much treat of nor are well versed in So it was concluded that the matter of the Sacraments which depend on the ministerial function should be discussed for the Chapter of Doctrine and that they might jointly treat of Reformation as had been resolved it was thought fit to endeavour the Reformation of abuses that had crept into the Administration of the Sacraments The Cardinal di Santa Croce had the Change of presiding in the Congregations for Doctrine and the Cardinal di Monte undertook the Province of moderating in the Congregations of the Canonists for Reformation besides these the matter of Residence was again brought upon the stage the Bishops and particularly the Spaniards pressed to have it declared of Divine right But the Cardinal di Monte a brisk and subtile Protectour of the papal Power perceiving that that would make a considerable breach in his Master's Authority presently alledged reasons for having it deferred till another time he told them that that Subject had been handled too eagerly that they ought to suffer the Stirs of Passion to be composed to make way for the Calm of Charity that so the holy Ghost might breath upon them by his inspirations however he concluded these devout Considerations with a plain and positive prohibition not to meddle with that subject for the present This seemed a little hard and somewhat inconsistent with the Liberty of the Council Nevertheless they condescended to treat of the Causes which hindered Residence the most considerable of which is the Plurality of Benefices To begin with the Point of Doctrine abstracts were made of the Books of the Lutherans that they might know their opinions as to the Sacraments in general and in particular as to Baptism and Confirmation The Articles that were drawn out as to the Sacraments in general were in number fourteen as to Baptism seventeen and as to Confirmation four wherein under the title of Lutheran errours were comprehended all the opinions of the Anabaptists which are rejected by true Protestants All these articles were examined in Congregations and great Debates happened about some of them they began first with the number of the Sacraments The Divines agreed upon the number of seven which had been first defined by the Master of the Sentences and then confirmed by a Decision of the Council of Florence in their instruction to the Armenians But they were not of opinion that this number should be determined to be neither more nor less than seven because of the difficulty of defining a Sacrament in regard that according to the different definitions that may be given of it a thing may be or not be a Sacrament There was some difficulty also started about the opinions of some of the Ancients of whom some had held our Saviour's washing the Apostles feet
to be a Sacrament as St. Cyprian and St. Bernard Others as St. Austin had called all the Ceremonies of the Church Sacraments and sometimes had restrained the Name of Sacrament to Baptism and the Lord's Supper they therefore concluded that they ought to retain the number of seven Sacraments but not determine it by a Decree nor second that with Anathema's But others who were resolved to shew no favour to the Lutherans maintained that the boldness of Hereticks ought to be taken down who assum'd the liberty to make sometimes three Sacraments sometimes four and sometimes more And here it was that divers pretty reasons were started for proving the number of seven Sacraments some taken from the seven Cardinal vertues others from the seven Deadly sins many from the seven Days of the Creation the seven principal Plagues of Egypt and the seven Planets though these reasons of the Divines were diverting enough yet because the deduction of them was long they were somewhat tedious to the Prelates They likewise proposed that the seven Sacraments should be named lest some rash Heretick keeping still the number of seven might strike out one of the true and clap a false one into the place they resolved in like manner to determine that the Sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ but some were of opinion that it would be better not to decide that point that they might spare the reputation of some Catholick Doctours who had maintained a different opinion as the Master of the Sentences who holds that St. James instituted Extreme Unction Bonaventure and Alexander de Hale who maintain'd that Confirmation began after the time of the Apostles nay and the same Bonaventure was of opinion that the Apostles had instituted the Sacrament of Penance The second Article of the abstracts related to the necessity of the Sacraments which the Lutherans were accused of denying some were of opinion that it ought not to be pronounced absolutely and without reserve that the Sacraments are necessary because some there are that may be let alone nay and some that are inconsistent together as Orders and Marriage The Carmelite Marinier reasoned strongly against the absolute Necessity of the Sacraments he proved that there could be no use of the distinction of Actus and Voto and Proposito in the Point of the Necessity of the Sacraments for receiving of Grace as if it were absolutely necessary to receive the Sacraments at least in purpose and intention because some have received Grace even before they knew that there was any such thing as a Sacrament he produced the Example of Cornelius and his whole Family and of the Thief that was converted who had all received the Holy Ghost before they knew that there was a Baptism whence it is clear that they had neither received it actually nor in intention and nevertheless they had received Grace This strong Reason was evaded by a distinction of a confused knowledge and a distinct knowledge saying that these People had at least a confused knowledge and implicite intention of receiving this Sacrament The third Article of these abstracts related to the dignity of the Sacraments because this opinion was imputed to the Lutherans that all the Sacraments are equal in dignity This being a matter of less importance it took up but little time and the proposition that admits of an equality in the Sacraments was adjudged to be false because every Sacrament hath its particular Excellency Concerning the fourth Article which related to the manner how the Sacraments operate they pretended that according to the opinion of Zuinglius they are but Emblemes and at most but signs of the Grace which one has already received and not means of receiving it All unanimously condemned that errour and concurred in Judgment That the Sacraments are the Causes of Grace But here arose a great Debate betwixt the Schools of Thomas and Scotus that is to say betwixt the Jacobins and the Cordeliers the Thomists maintained that the Sacraments are physical and instrumental Causes of Grace on the contrary the Cordeliers according to the Sentiments of Scotus and Bonaventure their chief Divines said that God produces not Grace which is spiritual by a thing that is corporeal and that therefore all the Efficacy of the Sacraments depends on the Gospel Covenant whereby God has engaged himself to confer inward Grace as often as the outward Sacrament is administred so that they maintained the Sacraments to be onely moral Causes The Jacobins accused the Cordeliers of approaching near the opinion of the Lutherans And the Cordeliers twitted the Thomists for asserting an absurdity that gave the Hereticks advantage over the Church And it was impossible to make them friends The Legates complained to the Generals of the Orders of the Vehemence of their Religious and even wrote to Rome that it was necessary to repress them There happened also another quarel betwixt the Jacobins and Cordeliers about the difference of the Sacraments of the Old and New Testament upon occasion of the sixth Article of the Abstracts That Article imported that according to the Doctrine of the Lutherans the Sacraments of the Old Testament had the virtue of conferring Grace and this gave an opportunity of handling the question concerning the Efficacy of the ancient Sacraments The Jacobins maintained that those of the Old Law did not justifie ex opere operato but ex opere operantis that is to say in their Language that they did not justifie by virtue of the Ceremony but according to the dispositions of the heart of those that received them Scotus and Bonaventure were of opinion that Circumcision justified ex opere operato and to this the Cordeliers adhered they proved it by the Infants who under the Law were saved by Circumcision if Circumcision justified Infants said they that could not be by virtue of Faith nor Charity nor any other Disposition because Infants could have no actual vertue And because St. Thomas had answered to that that in those days Infants were saved by the Faith of their Parents the Cordeliers loaded that answer with this great absurdity that now-a-days the Condition of Christians would be worse than that of the Jews seeing at present no Infant is saved in Baptism by the sole Faith of its Parents The fifth sixth seventh and eighth Articles were past over the fifth because it had been sufficiently decided already in the preceding Session that Article set forth that according to the Lutherans Faith alone without the Sacraments confers Grace And the Council in the foregoing Session had defined that Faith alone does not justifie The sixth was laid aside because of the Debate we just now mentioned betwixt the Jacobins and Cordeliers about the Efficacy of the Sacraments of the Old Testament The seventh and eighth it was thought might be taken in an Orthodox sense because these Articles affirmed that Grace is not given to all who receive the Sacraments But upon account of the ninth Article which denied according to the