being taught by the Divine Spirit who as St. Austin says does without noise of Words speak in the Heart very well understands this to be the Original of these Mischiefs that some Popes your Predecessours having itching Ears as says the Apostle Paul heaped up Teachers after their own Lusts not to learn from them what they ought to do but that they should take pains and employ their Wit to find out ways how it might be lawful for them to do what they pleased To which we may add that as the Shadow follows the Body so Flattery follows Greatness and Truth can hardly find any way to the Ears of Princes hence it has come to pass that there have been Doctors ever ready to maintain that all Benefices being the Pope's and the Lord having a Right to Sell what is his own it must necessarily follow that the Pope is not capable of the Guilt of Simony insomuch that the Pope's Will and Pleasure whatever it be must needs be the Rule for all that he does which doubtless would end in believing every thing lawful that he had a mind to do From this Source as from the Trojan-Horse those so many Abuses and such mortal Diseases have broken forth into the Church of God which have reduced her as we see almost to a State of Desparation The same of these things having come to the Ears even of Infidels let your Holiness believe us speaking what we know who deride Christianity more for this then for any thing else so that through our selves we must needs say through our selves the Name of Christ is blasphemed amongst the Nations As for you most Holy Father for so in truth you are besides that Prudence which you so long since have obtained being also instructed by the Spirit of God when you gave your self wholly to this care that the Church of Christ wherewith you are entrusted might be healed of her Distempers and recover a good state of Health you saw and you saw aright that where the Disease grew at first there the Remedy must begin And following the example of the Apostle Paul you intended to be a Dispenser and not a Lord but to be found faithful in the Lord like that Servant in the Gospel whom the Lord set over his Family to give them their Food in their season And in order to this you resolved at no hand to Will that which is unlawful nor to desire the Power of doing what you ought not For these Reasons you called us to your self who how unqualified soever we may be in point of skill for so weighty an Affair do not yet want a good Affection towards the Honour and Glory of your Holiness and above all to the Reformation of the Church of Christ You enjoyned us with most serious expressions that we should go and bring together all those Abuses and lay them before you protesting that if we proceeded herein negligently and unfaithfully the account that should be given to Almighty God of this matter committed to our Trust should be upon our selves And that all things might be more freely handled by us and opened to you afterward you bound us by an Oath and under the Penalty of Excommunication that we should discover no part of this our Trust to any one whatsoever We therefore in obedience to your Command have brought together those Distempers in as few Words as may be and their Remedies the most effectual at least which we for our part could think upon And now we rely upon your Goodness and Wisdom to mend all those faults and supply all those defects of the performance which are left in it by reason of our incompetency for this undertaking But to reduce all our Thoughts to some certain Heads since your Holiness is both the Prince of these Provinces which are the Ecclesiastic Estate and Territory and withal the Governour of the Universal Church and likewise the Bishop of Rome we have not taken upon our selves to speak of those things which concern that Principality which by your Prudence is so excellently Govern'd as we see We will touch upon these matters only that belong to the Office of the Universal Pastor and some also that are proper to the Roman Bishop First of all then we think most B. Father according to what Aristotle says in his Politicks that as in every other Commonwealth so in the Ecclesiastic Government of the Church of Christ it should be esteemed the principal Law of All that Laws should be observed as much as is possible and that it be not lawful to Dispense with the Laws but for a Cause urgent and necessary For no Custom introduced into a Commonwealth can be more pernicious than inobservance of Laws which our Ancestors thought were religiously to be kept and doubted not to call their Authority Venerable and Divine All these things you know Most Excellent Pope you have read them long since in the Philosophers and Divines But one thing there is of moment next to this or rather of far greater consequence as we think that it is not lawful for the Pope who is Christ's Vicar to make any Gain to himself of the use of the Keys of the power of the Keys we say which Christ hath committed to him For this is the Commandment of Christ Freely ye have received Freely give These things being in the first place provided for since your Holiness has the care of Christ's Church upon you so that it may be furnished with divers Ministers by whom that trust is to be discharged and that these are all the Clergy to whom Divine Service is committed the Presbyters especially and those of them chiefly that have the care of Souls and above all the Bishops it follows that in order to a right Proceeding in this Government the first care that is to be taken is that these Ministers be such that are fit for the Duties of their Function And here the first Abuse in this kind is that in the Ordination of Clerks especially of Presbyters no manner of care and diligence is used but every where the most uneducated Youths of the vilest Parentage set out with nothing but evil Manners are admitted to Holy Orders even to Priesthood it self thô that be the Character which expresseth Christ more than all others From hence grow innumerable Scandals from hence comes the Contempt of the Ecclesiastic Order and hence it is that the reverence of God's Worship is not only diminished but well nigh extinguished We think therefore the best way would be for your Holiness to appoint two or three Prelates of Learning and Probity to look after this matter who should govern the Ordinations of Clergy-men and then to enjoyn all Bishops under the Penalty of Censures to take the like care in their Diocesses Nor should your Holiness suffer any to be Ordained but by his own Bishop or with the License of his Bishop or such as are Deputed in the City And every Bishop should provide a Master
spreading any farther althô it has got too far already which in truth can never enough be lamented For 't is no trifle that is under debate but the safety and welfare of your whole State and of Us who are all your Creatures and Members is now at stake For in the days of the Apostles to tell you the truth but you must be silent and for several years after them there was no mention made of either Pope or Cardinal there were none of these large Revenues belonging to Bishops and Priests no sumptuous Temples were raised there were no Monasteries Priors or Abbots much less any of these Doctrines these Laws these Constitutions nor this Soveraignty which we now exercise over People and Nations But the Ministers of all Churches as well that of Rome as others were willingly obedient to Kings Princes and Governours Let your Holiness therefore judge how hard it would go with us if by ill Destiny we should again be reduced to the Primitive Poverty and Humility again subjected to the wretched Servitude of being under the Command of others This is therefore as we said before a matter of the highest moment Moreover this in our judgment is the onely way of avoiding this grievous danger We find upon full examination of the matter that the Glory Authority and Power of the Church first arose when shrewd discreet active Bishops began to preside over it who used their opportunities to obtain from the Emperours that they would by their Authority and Power Establish the Primacy and Supreme Power over other Churches in this See. And this Pope Boniface the 3d amongst others is said to have received from the Emperour Phocas We observed likewise that the Affairs of the Church began more and more to flourish every day when Cardinals were created the number of Bishops was encreased and so many and so goodly Orders of Monks and Nuns were first founded Nor can we doubt but those Popes Cardinals Bishops Monks and Nuns have by their Cunning their Inventions Rites and Ceremonies turn'd away the Church from that ancient Doctrine which kept her so poor and humble and have by these Arts procured her Favour and Authority We ought therefore to take the same measures to preserve her in that State to which they have raised her That is all kind of application and wit is to be imploy'd the number of Cardinals Bishops Monks and Nuns is to be encreased and to speak particularly your Holiness is in the first place to take this course France Italy and Spain notwithstanding the Lutherans boast that the greatest part of Europe is in their Interest are content with your Empire the last of which does most Religiously observe all your Laws and Constitutions does not change or innovate in any thing And as for that Nation you need not be sollicitous for you can find but few amongst the Spaniards who have not an abhorrence for the Doctrine of Luther But if there are any Hereticks amongst them they are such as rather deny that the Messiah is yet come or that mens Souls are immortal than question the Power of your Holiness But without doubt this Heresie of theirs seems to Us more sufferable than that of Luther and the reason is plain for these Marani thô they believe nothing of Christ or a future State are yet wont to hold their tongues or at most laugh amongst themselves and in the mean time are not at all wanting in their Duty to the Roman Church But the Lutherans do not behave themselves thus they openly dissent from Us and endeavour what they can to weaken and ruine our whole State. France and Italy seem plainly to affect Innovations and most of these Nations according to the Copy that Germany has set them are ready to lay hold on the next occasion to fall off from Us Moreover there are many eminent Cities in those two Provinces who have no Bishop of their own but are subject to the Bishops of the greater and most powerful Cities Now your Holiness should choose out about a hundred of these and create so many new Bishops to govern them Then add fifty more to the present number of Cardinals and out of all these Bishops I say and Cardinals as well old as new select thirty or forty of the most subtile and most versed in Courts and Business who are skilful in the Cannon and Civil Laws Keep these about your Person let these be your Counfellors and Ministers in your most weighty Affairs and private concerns And send all the rest as well those Bishops that are Cardinals as others into their respective Diocess and order them to entertain the People with Plays Shows and all manner of Diversions And let them present themselves to the People both in the Church and riding frequently about the City in as much pomp and splendor as they do at Rome So will it come to pass that the common People who admire these Pomps and Ceremonies and are wont to make much Money where there are many rich men will at last be brought over either by Courtesie or their own advantage to favour your side And we need not fear for the future what Luther Brentius Melancthon or that late Heretick Vergerius shall Write Oh! how much did it concern Us that he should not have escap't from Us but have here been either clapt into Prison or thrown into Tiber For he who was brought up in your publick and private Affairs is acquainted with a great deal of our concerns and of all our Councils But your Holiness has long hands and in your great Wisdom will find a Remedy for this Evil for it is and ever will be lawful to take all ways to free our selves from the Snares of our Enemies nor did we think fit to name those men but for a very good reason a word to the Wise Then let your Holiness take care that these Cardinals and Bishops that reside in their Diocess bestow Benefices on the Children of their Citizens for this is an admirable and ready way to keep their minds steady in the Faith. And we know many of your Subjects who would long ago have embraced Luther's Doctrine but for this one reason that either they themselves or their Brothers or their Sons enjoyed some Ecclesiastical Preferment Nor would it be amiss to send a great many of those Priests that they call Chietini and Paulini into France and Italy For to say the truth these common Priests and Monks do really abuse the Mass too much which they say with little or no Devotion chopping it up in haste and making a publick Sale of it Besides they live such dissolute profligate lives that men deservedly give no longer credit to them nor suffer themselves to be perswaded though our Sophisters take great pains about it that a wicked debauched Fellow can draw Christ out of Heaven to the Altar free Souls from Purgatory and obtain Forgiveness of Sins both to themselves and others and all this by the
Imprimatur Oct. 24. 1687. Liber cui Titulus The State of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began c. H. Maurice R. in C. P. D. Wilhelmo Archiepisc Cant. a Sacris THE STATE OF THE Church of Rome WHEN THE Reformation Began As it appears by the ADVICES GIVEN TO PAVL III. and JVLIVS III. BY Creatures of their Own. With a Preface leading to the Matter of the Book LONDON Printed for William Rogers at the Sun over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street and Samuel Smith at the Princes Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVIII The Preface THE opposition that Luther made to Indulgences at first and soon after to other Abuses in the Roman Church awakened many to enquire into the Reasons of several things in which they had hitherto acquiesced without particular examination Which liberty so dangerous to the interest of the Roman See soon brought upon Luther who was so notable an example of it no little trouble from thence insomuch that be found himself constrained to appeal to a General Council An expedient no less hated by the Court of Rome which had not yet forgotten the Councils of Constance and Basil than it was generally desired by all the better sort of men as before for the reforming of Abuses so now for the quieting of Controversies in Religion Leo the Xth being dead who had not been wanting for his part to suppress these beginnings of a new Inquisition into the Authority of Popes was succeeded by Adrian VI about four Years after Luther's Declaration Adrian like an honest man ingenuously confessed that this distress was justly come upon the Holy See as a punishment of those Abominations that had been committed in it and promised to the World a Reformation But the German Princes insisted to have a Free and General Council called which was by no means well taken by the Court of Rome Whereupon the Secular Princes sent their Manifesto to the Pope of the Centum Gravamina or the hundred Grievances which they had suffered from that Court. But Adrian died not without vehement suspition of foul play before he had sat two Years in the Chair and with him died almost all that was honest and good in the Roman Court. Clement VII comes next to the Papacy who of all things could not endure the thoughts of a General Council in times wherein he was sure the Popes Authority would be called in question He therefore laboured against it with all imaginable industry and artifice But it being impossible to satisfy those that had not yet openly withdrawn themselves from the Obedience of that See without seeming to condescend to the general desire of Christendom in this matter he tried at length to pacifie them by making promises of calling a Council which it was plain to wise men he never intended to perform since at first he would neither say where nor when it should be held and at length when the Emperour pressed hard upon him he absolutely insisted that the Council might be held in Italy A condition which as things then stood he was sure would not be submitted to Then comes Paul III as great a Dissembler as ever lived who knew no less than his Predecessours how fatal such a Council as was desired must necessarily be to the Gentlemen of the Roman See. He found that it was but more passionately desired for being refused and was indeed put to the utmost stretch of his Talent to keep a temper in so difficult a case But being the fittest person in the World to do what was possible in this nice Juncture he put off for some time the Indiction of a Council under the pretence of an earnest desire to call one but when that artifice was stale he delaied the opening of it after it was called And when nothing else would do he knew the best ways how to manage and govern it and to make the World believe all the while that it was unconstrain'd and free But in the third Year of his Popedom the clamour of the World being upon him for neither calling a Council nor so much as performing his promise of Reforming the Court and the Church himself he was forced to make some notable semblance of the later that he might a little longer keep off the former To this end he required four Cardinals and five other Prelates to draw up in the most impartial manner a formal Catalogue of Abuses that needed a Reformation Which accordingly was done in the former of the two following Advices that are here published The trick was to make the Christian Princes believe that he that required and they who gave this Advice were in good earnest And so it was sent into Germany where it produced quite other effects then were hoped from it for all mens mouths were opened against the Court more than they were before And the Court soon shewed that this solemn Advice was but meer Artifice and Collusion to amuse the World. and to keep off the so-much-dreaded Council as long as it was possible As for the Pope himself how well he was disposed to follow the Rules of this Advice appeared by the whole course of things afterwards For his business all along was to support the Absoluteness of the Roman See and to maintain that all Judgment in matters of Religion ought to be referred to the Apostolic See and that Divine and Humane Laws and the Consent of Ages had given to the Pope the Supream Authority as of calling Councils so of determining and ordering things that regard the Unity and Advantage of the Church Padr Pael Aug. 5. according to some Copies 24. 1544. As he told the Emperour roundly in a Letter to him about seven Years after As for the Courtiers that gave the Advice one of them was the Theatine Cardinal John Peter Caraffa who was eighteen Years after Pope by the name of Paul IV and who therefore had it in his power to put the Counsel he gave to Paul III into execution if any such thing had been in his mind But nothing could be more inconsistent with his Counsel than his Practice was The Advice acknowledged that the unbounded Licentiousness of Popes in breaking Laws and doing whatever they had amind to do had reduced Christendom to its deplorable condition But this man yielded not to any of his Predecessours in Pride and lawless Liberty He vouchsafed not to allow Secular Princes fit to be his Companions He began his Papacy with breaking the Oath of Capitulation usually made in the Conclave and upon that occasion declared it to be an Article of Faith That the Pope could not be bound He made himself so odious to the World and especially to the Citizens of Rome by Perfidiousness and Oppression that the rage of the People against his Name and Family could not be appeased but by doing the most publick disgraces to him after he was dead Now whether Paul IV when Cardinal gave some good Advice for fashion sake