particuler is bound actually to do As to professe the name of Christ to pardon receaued iniuries to restore the goods of others vniustly detayned Necessity of approbation is of those things which euery one in particuler is not bound actually to execute but he is bound not to contradict or condemne those that do them nor the Church which doth approue them nor for any dislike of them to separate themselues from the Church vnder paine of being excluded from euerlasting saluation Of this sort is the choice of liuing a chast and single life and other the like Of all which kindes of Necessitie the ancient Fathers held many things ech one in his degree differently necessary to saluation as we will shew in those particulers which shal be presented to be examined Now if we hold the points of doctrine or of action which the Fathers esteemed necessary for saluation according to some of these necessities and do reiect the rest we cannot for this be said to agree in beliefe with the ancient Fathers but it is further needfull to hold and esteeme all those things necessary to saluation which the ancient Fathers did esteeme to be necessary euery one in the degree and according to the kind of necessity as they were esteemed by them The fourth Obseruation is about the word Ancient which some when they should come to performe their promise of submitting their iudgment to Antiquity do restraine to the first or second Age immediatly after the Apostles not for that they hope to find within that space any ancient Father that doth fauour them but for that the Church being then oppressed with persecutions left vs but few writings of that Date and those for the most part against such persons about such matters as do so little appertaine to the questiōs now in cōtrouersy as the face of the anciēt doctrine the practise of the Church in those dayes cannot be fully represented vnto vs knowne But reason and equity requireth that if we wil confer the estate of the Sects of this age which would chalenge to themselues the Title of the Catholike Church with the estate of the ancient Church we should take a time wherin not only our Competitours do agree with vs that the Church of that age was the true Church the true Spouse of Iesus Christ and that she had lawfull authority to iudge and determine the Cōtrouersies in matters of Religiō but also it behoueth vs to take such a tyme of which we haue sufficient Monuments and Records to shew cleerly vnto vs the doctrine obobseruatiōs of that Church which cannot in any sort be better found then in the tymes of the foure first Councels that is from the tyme of Constantine the Great who was the first Emperour that publikly professed Christian Religion to the tyme of the Emperour Martian And it seemeth his Maiesty doth liberally accord not onely to this but to much more in some of his writings hauing extended the continuance of the true Church to the whole space of the fiue first ages For besides that the freedome from the yoke of seruitude of the Pagans gaue place to the Church then to speake with more liberty and to haue more free communication with all the parts belonging vnto it dispersed in diuers Countreys and Kingdomes and to flourish in a greater multitude of learned and excellent Writers which hath bene the cause that we haue at this present without comparison many more testimonyes of those ages to discouer the entire and perfect forme of the ancient Christian Religion then we haue of the other ages which went before Besides this I say our Aduersaryes cannot deny but that Church which was nourished with the brests of the first Christian Emperours and which destroyed the Temples abolished the seruice and honour done to false Gods and exercised the soueraigne Tribunall of spirituall authority on earth by the sentence of condemnation which she pronoūced against the foure most famous Heresies in the foure first generall Councells which were the foure first generall Assemblyes and Parlaments of Estate of the Kingdome of Christ was that Church of whom it was fortould that she should suck the brests of Kings and that Nations should walke in her light and Kings in the brightnesse of her orient that all attempts against her should be destroyed that she should iudge euery tongue that resisted in iudgement that God had put watchmen vpon her walles who should not be silent day or night for all eternity that the gates of Hell should not preuaile against her and whosoeuer refused to heare her should be esteemed as a Publicane and Heathen and briefly that she was the pillar and firmament of truth Shall we doubt saith Saint Augustine to put our selues in the bosome of that Church which by succession of Bishops from the Seat of the Apostles to the vniuersall confession of mankind the Heretikes barking on all sides and condemned partly by the iudgement of the very people and partly by the Maiesty of miracles hath obtained the highest degree of authority which not to obey and acknowledge is an act of extreme impiety or precipitous arrogancie And againe The Catholike Church resisting all Heretikes may be impugned but neuer ouercome al heresies haue come out of her as vnprofitable branches cut off from the vine but she remaineth still in her roote in her vine in her charity That doctrine therefore shall truly be sayd to be ancient and marked with the character of the primitiue Church which shal be found to haue bene belieued and practised vniuersally by the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Generall Councells and principally when it shall appeare that the things affirmed by the authors of those ages were not held by them as doctrines and obseruations of their owne but as doctrines and obseruations perpetually practised by the Church in all ages from the time of the Apostles although perhaps there cannot be found so many expresse testimonies of euery one of those things within the compasse of the precedent ages as may within the time of the foure first Councells by reason of the small store of writings which the Persecution of those times suffered to come to our hands For it sufficeth to assure vs of the perpetuall practice of those matters that the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Councells and knew better then we what passed in the ages that went before them do testify that they were belieued and practised not as things instituted in their age but as things which had bene practised in all times in the Church were come by cōtinuall and successiue obseruation from the Apostles vnto them and that in the Authors of the precedent ages no repugnant testimonie can be foūd but wholy to the contrary when any occasion of speaking of those things is offered they alwaies affoard cōformable and fauourable testimonies which is in few words to say That
A LETTER VVRITTEN FROM PARIS BY THE Lord Cardinall of Peron TO MONSr. CASAVBON in England Translated out of the French corrected Copie into English Anno M.DC.XII GENTLE Reader This Epistle was cōposed by the Lord Cardinall of Peron without any purpose to haue it seene in publike but rather with deliberation not to impart it so much as to his very familiar friends But a Copie therof being by chance gotten it was presently printed in Paris with many faults yea and with some heresies And although the foresaid Cardinall vsed all diligence to haue it suppressed causing the Copies to be seyzed on by the Officers of Iustice and the Printer to be punished for publishing them without his knowledge yet was there soone after another impressiō made therof in Roan conformable to that faulty Copie of Paris and the like may also be done else-where For remedy therfore of the disaduantage which may arise hereof both to the doctrine of Catholikes and the reputation of the Author it hath seemed necessary to permit that it be printed entire and perfect according to the Copie which was written sent And this we do at this present disclayming from all the former copies and whatsoeuer else not cōformable to this SYR THE Letter which you deliuered to Monsieur de la Boderie to be giuen me I receaued when I was vpon my departure taking my iourney into Normandie Since my returne I haue bene allwaies sick which hath bene the cause that my Answer cōmeth no sooner to your hands But now that my infirmity alloweth me some little ease I will pay the arrierages of my former slacknesse And first I yield you many thankes for the pleasure you did me in shewing my Letter to his Maiesty of Great-Britaine and procuring me some part in his gracious fauour which I will endeauour so to increase by most humble seruices and particulerly by setting forth his Royall Praises the only fruite which good and vertuous Kings such as his Maiesty is do receaue of the thorny cares annexed to Royall Gouernement as he shall haue no cause to be sorie that Posterity know the honour which his Maiesty did me with his Royall fauour and the Reuerence and Admiration I had of his Princelie vertues As for the Translation of Virgils verse wherof you say his Maiesty desired a Copie that being lost which before I sent you I must differre for some daies the performance of this duty for that I haue caused it to be printed againe with an Addition of one part of the fourth which for his Maiesties sake I haue of purpose added to make therof vnto him a more ample and worthy present and as soone as some few Copies shal be finished I will not fayle to send you one that you may present it to his Maiesty in my name There resteth now the third point of your Letter which is that his Maiesty much meruailed at these wordes of mine where I sayd that excepting the only Title of Catholike there was nothing wanting in his Royall Person to expresse the liuelie patterne of a Prince completely endued with all Princely vertues and that he pretended the Title of Catholike could not be denied him since he belieued all those things which the ancient Fathers with vniforme consent esteemed necessary to saluation To this I answere that as on the one side I cannot but greatly praise the Christian humility of his Maiesty in that he refuseth not to submit his Iudgement adorned with so rare light of Nature and increased by Industrie to those bright shining Lampes of Antiquity imitating herein the prudence of the Great Emperour Theodosius who thought no other meanes more ready for the composing of those dissentions wherewith the Church was molested in his time then to demaund of both parties if they belieued that the ancient Fathers who flourished before their contentions began had the true faith which they confessing he required them to submit themselues to that which they should find to haue byn belieued by the ancient Fathers so on the other side there are diuers things to be obserued vpon the Premises before we come to the Conclusion which for that I haue not meanes to present to his Maiesty I shal be content to informe you of thē for your particuler satisfaction The first is that the Name of Catholike is not a Name of only Beliefe but of Communion otherwise the ancient Fathers would neuer haue refused to giue this Name to them that were separated from them not in beliefe but in the communion vnity of the Church Neither would they euer haue affirmed that out of the Catholike Church they might haue Faith and Sacraments but not Saluation Out of the Catholike Church saith S. Augustin in his Treatise of the Conference had with Emeritus a man may haue all things excepting saluation he may haue Orders he may haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may haue the Ghospell he may haue and preach the faith in the Name of the Father of the Sōne and of the holy Ghost but he can by no meanes obtaine saluatiō but in the Catholike Church And in his booke de vtilitate credendi There is one Church as all do confesse and if you looke on the whole compasse of the world it exceedeth all others in number and as they affirme that know it is more sincere in the doctrine of the Truth But this is another question That which sufficeth for our present purpose is that there is one Catholike Church to which diuers heresies haue giuen different Names when as euery of them haue their proper Names which they dare not deny by which it may easily appeare to whome the Name of Catholike of which all are desirous ought to be attributed And in his booke contra Epist Fundam And that I may omit this wisdome which you denie to be in the Catholike Church there are diuers other things which do most iustly retayne and hould me in her bounds vnity There doth hould me the consent of people and natiōs the authority which had her beginning by miracles nourished by hope augmented by charity confirmed by antiquity There doth hould me the Succession of Bishops vntill this present day from the very Seate of Peter to whom our Lord committed the feeding of his sheepe after his Resurrection to the Episcopall dignity of the present Bishop And lastly this very name Catholike doth hould me in the vnity of this Church which name this Church hath alwaies not without cause amongst so many different sects of heresies in such sort obtained that although all heretiks desire to be called Catholiks yet if a Stranger should demaūd where is the Assembly of the Catholike Church there is no Heretike that dareth to assigne him his Temple or his house And in his Treatise de fide symbolo We doe belieue the holy Church that is Catholike for the Heretikes and the Schismatikes do cal their Congregations Churches but
the Heretikes belieuing those things of God which are false do violate the fayth and the Schismatiks by vnlawfull diuisions doe separate themselues from brotherly charity although they belieue in all things the same with vs. And for this cause neither doth the Heretike appertaine to the Catholik Church for that she loueth God nor the Schismatike for that she loueth her neighbour And in his Booke de vnitate Ecclesiae All those that belieue as hath bene said that our Lord Iesus Christ is come in flesh risen from death in the same flesh in which he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the Sonne of God with God and one with the Father and the onely immutable Word of the Father by whome all thinges were made but doth yet in such sort dissent from his body which is the Church that their communion is not with all them with whome the Catholike Church doth participate but are in some deuided part it is manifest that they are not in the Catholike Church And Prosper his Disciple saith That he who doth cōmunicate with this Vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholike and he that doth not cōmunicate is an Heretike and Antichrist By which we see that the ancient Fathers denyed the Title of Catholike to the Donatists because they separated themselues from the Communion of the Church and graunted it to them from whome the Donatists tooke their doctrine because they remayned in the Vnity of one communion The people vnder S. Cyprian his charge saith Saint Pacianus haue neuer bene called otherwise then Catholike And S. Vincentius Lyrinensis O admirable change of things The Authors of one and the same opinion are esteemed Catholikes and their followers are iudged Heretikes And S. Augustine Your dissention saith he and your diuision maketh you Heretikes their peace and vnity made them Catholikes And when as in the fourth Councell of Carthage this Article was put in the examen of those that were to be made Bishops the same was repeated in the Epistle of the Councell by Saint Augustine who was the Secretary in these words Whosoeuer is deuided from the Catholike Church how laudably soeuer he seeme to liue for this only cryme that he is separated frō the Vnity of the Church he shall be excluded from life and the wrath of God shall remayne vpon him And the same was repeated againe by Fulgentius who saith Hold for most certaine and doubt not in any manner that no Heretike or Schismatike baptized in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost if he be not vnited to the Catholike Church although he giue neuer so great almes and shed his very bloud for the name of Christ yet can he in no wise be saued Thus sayd these Fathers wholy or principally against the Donatists who notwithstanding agreed with the Catholikes in all articles of the Creed and in holy Scripture You accord with vs sayth S. Augustine in Baptisme and in the Creed and in all other Sacraments of our Lord but in the spirit of Vnity in the place of peace lastly in the Catholike Church you are not with vs. And yet they differed only in one poynt of Tradition not expressely contayned in Scripture And S. Augustine himselfe the chief Conquerour of this Heresy doth confesse that it could not be proued by Scripture This saith he lib. de vnitate Ecclesiae neither you nor I do read in expresse wordes And in his first booke contra Cresconium Although no example of this matter be found in holy Scriptures yet do we follow in this the Truth of the Scriptures when we do that which is agreable to the Vniuersall Church cōmended vnto vs by the authority of the same Scriptures And l. 11. de Bapt. cont Donat. And we our selues saith he should not dare to affirm any thing of this matter if we were not warrāted by the most vniforme Authority of the Church And l. 5. The Apostles haue cōmanded nothing concerning this matter but the custome which was alleadged against S. Cypr. is to be thought to haue descended frō their traditiō as diuers other things haue done which the Vniuersall Church doth obserue and are therfore with great reason belieued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles although they be not written Whence it followeth that it sufficeth not for the obtaining of the Name Catholike to hould or rather to thinke we do hould the self same beliefe of the ancient Fathers if we do not participate with them in the Vnity and Communion of the same Catholike Church with which the same ancient Fathers did communicate and which by succession of persons and as we further pretend by the succession also of doctrine is descended vnto vs. And if she hath lost any part of her greatnes in our Hemisphere she hath gotten as much or more in the other Hemisphere that is vnder vs that so those ancient Prophesies may be fulfilled In thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed And In the last dayes the mountayne of the house of our Lord shal be in the top of mountaines and shal be lifted vp aboue the hilles and all nations shall come vnto it The Ghospell of the Kingdome must be preached through the vniuersall world and then shall follow the end and consummation with other the like sentences of holy Scripture By which as Saint Augustine noteth the Church hath obtayned the Title Marke of Catholike The second obseruation is concerning the restriction to things necessary to saluation For besides those that are necessary to saluation there are two other degrees of things the one of such as are profitable to saluation as according to the iudgment of your Ministers is the selling of all that a man hath and giuing it to the poore Likewise to fast in time of afflictiō to appease the indignation of God to pray for the brethren that are of the same faith with vs to pray to Almighty God for our owne necessities The other degree is of things lawfull not repugnant to saluation as to flie in time of persecution and for such as serue the Altar to be maintained by the Altar to put away the wife that is Adultresse and the like For I alleage these as exāples and not for instances Now for entire conformity with the beliefe of the ancient Fathers it is necessary that we belieue all those things which they belieued euery one according to the degree in which they were held by them that is to belieue those things to be necessary to saluation which they reputed necessarie and those things profitable to saluation which they esteemed so and likewise to belieue those things to be lawfull and not repugnant to saluation which they did hold for lawfull not repugnant and that vnder colour that these two last degrees are not of things necessary to saluation but only profitable or lawfull we should not condemne them
thing ought to be held in all reason for ancient which those whome we do accompt ancient did themselues esteeme to be ancient The fifth obseruation is about the Vnanimity and vniforme consent of the Fathers which some contentious spirits would haue to be vnderstood only when one and the selfe same thing is actually found in the writings of all the Fathers which is a most vniust and impertinent pretension For that any doctrine or obseruation be truly held by the Fathers to be Vniuersall and Catholike it is not needfull that it be found in the writings of all the Fathers when as many of them perhapps neuer treated of those matters and of whose writings some haue perished and neuer come to our hands but there are two other lawfull waies to assure and satisfy vs in this matter The one when the Fathers or greatest eminencie in euery Countrey do agree in the affirmation of one and the self same doctrine or practise and none of the others haue noted it as dissenting from the Church nor haue written against it In this sort when Saint Augustine had cited against the Pelagians the testimony of an eleuen Fathers eminēt in learning and agreeing in the same points of doctrine he thought he had sufficiently produced against them the beliefe of the Catholike Church and when the Councell of Ephesus had produced ten Fathers of former ages they thought they had sufficiētly expressed the cōsent of the Church in the precedēt tymes against the doctrine of Nestorius for that as Vincentius Lyrinensis noteth they doubted not but those ten Fathers held belieued the self same which all the rest of their brethren did The other way is when the Fathers do speake not as Doctours but as witnesses of the vse and practise of the Church in their ages do not say In my opinion this ought thus to be belieued or thus to be vnderstood or thus to be obserued but the Church from one end of the world to the other belieueth thus or obserueth this For then we do not hold that which they say as a thing sayd by them but as sayd by the vniuersall Church and principally in matters whereof they could not be ignorant by reason either of the condition of things as in matters of fact or in respect of the sufficiencie of the persons And in this case we do not draw from their words only a probable argument as we do when they speake as particuler Doctours but the argument we draw from hence is an absolute demonstration This therfore is to be held vndoubtedly for Vniuersall Catholike which the most eminent of the Fathers that liued in the time of the foure first Councells haue taught in diuers Countreys and different parts of the world and which none of the rest haue impugned or noted as disagreing from the doctrine of the Church or which the Fathers of these Councells haue witnessed to haue bene belieued and practised by the whole Church in their ages and that shall vndoubtedly remayne as ancient and Apostolike which the Fathers of those ages haue testified to haue bene obserued by the whole Church not as a thing newly begun in their time but descended to them by continuall and immemorable succession from former ages or from the expresse Tradition of the Apostles For those thinges hauing bene vniuersally obserued in the tyme of the foure first Councels they could not be instituted but by an vniuersall authority For in the Catholike Church was then exactly obserued the rule mentioned by Vincentius Lyrinensis to oppose Vniuersalitie against Particularitie And therefore one doctrine or obseruation of one particuler Prince could neuer come to be the beliefe or custome vniforme and vniuersall throughout all parts of the world especially in such sort as no one of the Fathers liuing neere the tyme of those vniuersall innouations should haue perceaued or noted but whatsoeuer was then vniuersally obserued in the whole Church must necessarily be instituted by some vniuersall Prince For according to the opinion of your Ministers there were in those ages but two principall and vniuersall authorities the one of the Apostles and the other of generall Councells For they will not admit that the Sea Apostolike had at those tymes any vniuersall authoritie and therefore whatsoeuer shal be found to haue bene vniuersally and vniformly obserued in the Church in all Countreys Prouinces of the earth in the tyme of the foure first Generall Councells and not to haue bene begun in that time but to haue bene formerly practised that is before there was any Generall Councell in the Church must necessarily be a tradition of the Apostles following those rules of S. Augustine Epist 18. Those things saith he which we keep not by writing but by Tradition which are obserued through the whole world are vnderstood to be receaued from the ordination and institution either of the Apostles themselues or of Generall Councells whose authority is most profitable to the Church And in another place That custome also which men looking vpwards could not find that it was instituted by posterity was iustly belieued to haue bene instituted by the Apostles And there are many other things which would be long to repeat And againe If any one in this do seeke diuine authority although that which the vniuersall Church obserueth and hath not bene instituted by Councells but alwayes retayned is iustly belieued not to haue bene deliuered by Tradition but by Apostolicall authority c. Which rules of S. Augustine if they haue place in those things which the Fathers who liued in the tyme of the foure first Councells do testifie to haue bene obserued in the Church before those Councells with how much more reason ought they to haue place in those matters which the same Fathers affirme not in doubtfull but in expresse termes to haue bene instituted and ordained by the Apostles These fiue Obseruations then thus made vpon the Premisses to passe now to the Conclusion I say that so farre of it is that your Ministers to whome his Maiesty doth exteriourly adhere doe hold the same thinges which the ancient Fathers haue belieued and practised as necessary to saluation that in the solemne Seruice or Liturgie of the Church which is the seale of Ecclesiasticall Communion the foure principall points for which they haue separated themselues frō vs which are the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament the Offering of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist Prayer Oblation for the dead Prayer to Saints the ancient Fathers haue vniuersally and vniformly belieued held and practised them all as thinges necessary to saluation although in different degrees of necessitie So as if your Ministers had liued in the time of the ancient Fathers they must as they haue now forsaken and renounced our solemnities and communion for these causes so also haue then renounced the solēnities cōmunion of the ancient Fathers and consequently the title society of the Catholike Church
I sayd the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament not because I thinke not to passe further to affirme the substantiall conuersion of the Sacrament into the body of Christ but it sufficeth for my purpose to say the Reall Presence For it is not precisely and particulerly the Transubstantiation of the Sacrament but the Reall Presence of the body of Christ in the Sacrament on which is grounded the importance of this article and the necessity of it to saluation to wit the Communion and substantiall Vnion to the body of Christ which Saint Cyrill calleth the knot of our Vnion with God Neither is it particulerly and precisely the Transubstantiation but the Reall Presence from whence those two inconueniences do proceed for which your Ministers in this article haue separated themselues from our Communion which are the one the adoration of the body of Christ in the Sacrament whome they would haue to be sought and adored only in heauen and the other is the pretended destruction of the Vnion of the body of Christ by being at one time in many places in the Sacrament I haue sayd nothing of the prerogatiue of the Roman Church which all the ancient Fathers haue held to be the Center and roote of Episcopall Vnitie and Ecclesiasticall communion For that I perswade my self that You are sufficiently conuersant in antiquity to know that the most ancient Fathers Councells and Christian Emperours haue perpetually giuen vnto her the Primacie and supereminent Authority in all Ecclesiasticall matters and such as concerne Religion which is as much as the Church requireth to be confessed as a point of faith by them that do returne to the Vnity therof that so this companie of the Faithfull may be discerned from the Grecians and others of their Sect who some ages since haue separated themselues from the visible and ministerious head of the Church These foure points therfore are the principall fountaines of our dissention if about these we were of accord it would be easy to agree about the rest I say that the Fathers who liued in the time of the foure first Councells haue all of theÌ„ held practised as necessary to saluatioÌ„ albeit in different degrees of necessity to wit the Reall Presence of the body of Christ the oblatioÌ„ of the Sacrifice as a meanes absolutely necessary to the whole body of the Church and conditionally necessary to euery one in particuler Prayer and Oblation for the dead as necessarie necessitate medij to them for whom they are offered to help theÌ„ by the prayers and Sacrifices of the Church to deliuer from temporall paines after this life those who hauing sinned after baptisme haue not done sufficient pennance nor fully satisfied the iustice of Allmighty God and they are necessary necessitate praecepti for the exercising of Christian charity piety both to the Church who maketh them and to the Ministers and Pastours by whom she maketh them And Praier to Saintes hath bene practised as necessary to the body of the Church and to the Ministers by whome she maketh them necessary I say necessitate praecepti for the communion and commerce betweene the Triumphant and Militant Church And as for particuler men than haue no office in the Church but vse their priuate deuotions it is not necessary necessitate actus but it is only profitable for the more easie obtaining pardon for their sinnes by making their recourse in praier to them that are allready in perfect and assured possession of the grace and fauour of God but to these and to all other it is necessary necessitate approbationis that is they are bound not to contradict it nor to condemne the vse and doctrine of the Church in this point nor to separate theÌ„selues from the Church for this cause vnder paine of Excommunication and to be held and esteemed for Heretikes Of all which things I do not for the present vndertake the proof least in place of a Letter I should seÌ„d you a booke but I oblige my self to performe it whensouer you shall require it and to shew vnto you both by the vniforme consent of the Fathers who flourished in the time of the foure first Councells and by the formes which they haue left vs in their writings of the ancient seruice of the Catholike Church in their ages vniuersally and vniformely were held belieued and practised through all the Prouinces and Countries of the earth these foure points in the same sense and in the same forme as they are vsed in our Liturgies and common Seruice and not as Obseruations which then had their beginning but as things which the same Fathers affirme to haue bene belieued and practised by all Antiquity and to haue come to them by a neuer-interrupted succession of the tradition or approbation of the Apostles So as no man can renounce the Communion of our Church vnder the pretext and colour of any of these things but they must also renounce the CommunioÌ„ of the ancient Catholike Church and consequently the inheritance of saluation And this I will doe by authors and testimonies of good ranke and marke as you know I am curious not to vse others and with plaine and cleare answeres to all obiections taken out of the Fathers of those or former ages which thing will be vnto me so much the more easy forsomuch as the proofes which we bring out of the Fathers do containe in expresse tearmes the affirmatiue of what we say whereas on the contrary our Aduersaries shall neuer be able to find one passage which doth in expresse tearmes containe the negatiue but only by such inferences as in an equall and iust Tribunall deserueth not so much as once the hearing For who knoweth not how contrary to reason it is to alleage the consequences of passages and those also ill interpreted and vnderstood in whose inferences doth alwaies lye hidden some Paralogisme and fallacie against the expresse words and the liuelie and actuall practice of the same Fathers out of whom they are taken and that this is a ready way to accuse the Fathers of want of vnderstanding and memory not to take them for iudges and to submit ones selfe to the obseruation of that which they haue belieued and practised To this I will further adde when you shall desire it the present conformitie of all other Patriarchall Churches in these foure poynts with the Church of Rome and of all those which do yet remaine to this day vnder their iurisdiction that is of those that doe remaine vnder the Patriarchall Iurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople as the Grecians Russians Muscouites and Asians of the lesser Asia separated from vs some eight hundred yeares since of those also which are vnder the Patriarch of Antioch as the Syrians Mesopotamians and others that are further East For those that acknowledge the Patriarch of Syria as the Maronites do still perseuere in the Communion of the Church of Rome Of those also which rely and depend of the Patriarch of Alexandria as the naturall Egyptians whome they call Copthes and the Ethiopians deuided from vs and the Grecians more then eleuen hundred yeares agoe euen from the last of the foure first Councells that is from the Councell of Chalcedon these do hold these foure articles and with greater iealousie if it were possible then the Latins do and particulerly that of the Sacrament in which they do not only belieue the Transubstantiation which the Grecians at this day doe call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but do also adore it with externall actions full of much more humility then ours are which is a manifest signe that these foure poynts were vniformely held and obserued by the ancient Catholike Church seeing that all the partes into which the Catholike Church is deuided retayne them to this present day with great vniformity notwithstanding the distance separation and diuision of them through all Nations of the earth Behould heere in generall the causes which moued me in my Letter to vse that exception obiected vnto me in yours which if his Maiesty of Great-Brittaine had as well the leasure to consider in particuler as he hath capacitie to comprehend them I assure my selfe he would not thinke it strange that I should wish him the Title of Catholike but would also wish and desire it himself and put himselfe in state to obtayne it both to himselfe and his I meane he would to his other Crownes adde also this that he would become a Mediatour for the reconciliatioÌ„ of the Church which would be vnto him a more triumphant Glory then that of all Alexanders and Cesars and it would obtaine no lesse honour to his Iland to haue bene the place of his birth then to haue brought forth the Great Constantine the first deliuerer and pacifier of the Church of Christ I beseech the infinite goodnes of God that he would vouchsafe one day to increase with this the other graces which he hath giuen him and to graunt in this behalfe the prayers of the happy deceased Queene his Mother whose not only teares as did those of S. Augustines Mother but also her bloud doth make intercession and cry vnto heauen for him and allwayes preserue You in health and safety FINIS Cap. 7. Cap. 4. Cap. 10. Cap. 4. epist 152. ad Donatâ—st lib. de fid ad Pet. Diac cap. 29. Cap. 19. Cap. 33· Cap. 4. Cap. 24. Gen. 26. Isa 2. Matth. 23. Ioan· 3. lib. 3. de an eius orig c. 9. Isa 62.54 Matth. 16.18 1 Tim. 3. de vtilitate cred c. 17. De symb ad Catech. lib. 1. c. 5. Contra 〈…〉 Cap 42 De Bapt. cont Donat lib. 4. c. 6.