Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A28474
|
Essays on several subjects written by Sir Tho. Pope Blount.; Essays. Selections
|
Blount, Thomas Pope, Sir, 1649-1697.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing B3349; ESTC R202032
|
58,794
|
183
|
pretence of War against the Infidels or Hereticks to send out and proclaim Marts and Sales for these Indulgences upon condition that those who would disburse any Sums of Money which is all to be laid out as he pretends upon the said occasion should have Pardons and Indulgences for numbers of Years proportionable to the Sums they could or would deposite Nam aliter non absolvebantur nisi tribuerent secundum Posse suam facultatem suum For otherwise they could not be absolv'd except they did disburse as much as their abilities would afford as Henr. de Knighton an English Historian in Richard the Second's time honestly and plainly tells us And then as for the Poor and Indigent truly they deserve our pity when the Taxa Cameroe Apostolicoe deals thus plainly with them Nota diligenter quòd hujusmodi Gratioe non conceduntur Pauperibus QUIA non habent ergò non possunt Consolari Note diligently That such graces are not granted to the Poor Because they have not wherewithal they cannot be comforted A very sad Case indeed Thus though our Saviour tells us how hard it is for a Rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet by the Religion of Popery the difficulty lies wholly on the Poor Man's side and the only Sin capable of Damning a Rich Man is that of Covetousness for let him but see his Holiness well and he may then safely sing a Requiem to his Soul 4. As to Auricular Confession The necessity of this Doctrine was unknown to the Fathers of the Primitive Church Nay about a Thousand Years after Christ it was held disputable in the Roman Church And though the Practice of it was impos'd by Pope Innocent in his Council of Lateran yet even then it remain'd disputable as to the Doctrine till the Council of Trent gave it the Sanction of Divine Faith At first it was voluntary and only us'd in Case of a troubled Conscience or a strong Temptation But it is now made necessary at stated times in all probability to make the Priest Master of every Man's Secrets This is the main Curb of the Laity whereby the Clergy hold them in awe for by this means they have an Intelligencer in the breast of every Great Man of their Communion Which is a thing of that vast Consequence that if ever they part with it then farewel Popery 5. As to the Celibacy of the Clergy That this Custom was derived from the Heathens will plainly appear Clemens Alexandrinus tells us That the Ancient Hereticks took occasion to condemn Marriage from the Precepts and Practices of Pagan Philosophers And St. Hierom saith that the Athenian Hierophanta's to this day by supping the Broth of Hemlock make themselves Chast being forbidden Marriage before they were admitted into Sacred Orders or advanced to Prelatical Dignity And Alexander ab Alexandro informs us That the Priests of Cybele did castrate themselves that they might be Chast And he further adds in the same place That those who performed their greatest Solemnities or their Chief Priests that they might continue in Chast Religion and escape the Contagion of Women did emasculate themselves with certain Herbs And Euripides testifieth That in Crete those whom they call'd the Prophets of Jupiter do not only abstain from Flesh but also from all savoury Meat And the like did the Indian Magi who were advanced to the Priesthood of the Sun And among the Assyrians the Priests of Diana Ecbatana liv'd in perpetual Virginity To add more Testimonies is needless since the Romanists are themselves so far from denying it that several of them as Pope Syricius Medina and others urge it as an unanswerable Argument against the Marriage of Priests But notwithstanding the great care the Heathen Priests took as to their Chastity yet we find it signified but little And therefore Arnobius describing the single life of Priests amongst the Heathen saith Where are Whoredoms more frequently committed than by Priests even in their Temples nay before the very Altars And in the Conclusion he tells us That their Lust was more frequently discharged in Chancels than Brothel-Houses But having shew'd this to be a Custom derived from the Heathens and the effect it had let us now see whether the Primitive Christians had any such usage and when and by what means it was at first introduced and the Use that hath since been made of it That there was no such Usage in the Primitive Church is most certain for St. Ambrose in his Comment on 2 Cor. 11. testifies that all the Apostles except St. John and St. Paul had Wives And also Eusebius Ruffinus and Socrates Ecclesiastical Writers of great Note do all testify of several very Religious Bishops who had Children by their lawful Wives after they were Bishops And the Greek Church even to this day observes it for a Custom not to admit any into Holy Orders unless they were Married as judging them then more stay'd and less subject to Temptations The first account we meet with of prohibiting Wives to the Clergy was not long before the Nicene Council A foolish Opinion had then seiz'd the Heads of some of the Leading Men of the Church That no Married Man was fit to officiate at the Altar Whereupon the Question came to be started in the Council of Nice Of which matter the Ecclesiastical Historian Socrates Lib. 1. Cap. XI gives us this account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It pleas'd some of the Bishops to bring in a new Law into the Church That those who were dedicated to the Holy Ministry viz. Bishops Priests and Deacons should not sleep any longer with their Wives But this at first was most strenuously oppos'd and particularly by one Paphnutius an Egyptian Bishop who had formerly one of his Eyes pluckt out for the Testimony of the Blessed Jesus Nor did this Doctrine advance it self into a Decree till above fifty Years after at which time Siricius Bishop of Rome first ordain'd it though for many hundred Years after it was not much observ'd till Gregory the Seventh commonly call'd Hildebrand began to put it in Execution by excommunicating all such Married Priests as would not immediately quit their Wives and take the Oath of Continency And this hath been strictly observ'd ever since The Council of Trent having denounced an Anathema against all those who shall say That Clerks in Holy Orders may contract Matrimony And that such a contract is valid notwithstanding the Laws and Constitutions of the Church But how little this Romish Celibacy signified amongst their Priests as to the keeping them Chast even their own Historians can best inform us Matthew Paris tells us The Pope thought it almost a Miracle to hear a Candidate for a Bishoprick attested to be a pure Virgin Alvarus Pelagius a Portugal Bishop in the 14th Century in his known Book De Planctu Ecclesiae amongst other crying Sins of the Roman Clergy of his days Laments in an especial manner their Incontinency wishing that the Spaniards
and Regricolae especially had never promis'd Continency The Children of the Clergy being in those Countrys says he more numerous than those of the Laity and what is more detestable for several Years together from their Concubines beds they go straight to the Altar And in another place the very same Author complains of their debauching the Women who came to Confession Alfonsus à Castro tells us That if they should attempt to conceal the Incontinency of the Clergy their own Children would proclaim it Johannes Aventinus affirms that the Salacity of the Priests was so famous that it was grown into a Proverb Robert Holkot who liv'd in the fourteenth Century a Dominican by Profession and born at Northampton stiles the Priests of his days Priests of Priapus and Baalpheor Johannes Gerson speaking of the Incontinency of the Priests saith That it was so rooted and Epidemical an Evil that as things stood under the reign of Celibacy if Priests were not allow'd the use of common Women they would in several places fall upon the Wives and Daughters of their Parishioners Nay even Albertus Pighius and Dominicus Soto as stout Assertors as they were of the Celibacy yet were so ingenuous as to confess the leudness it Occasions Thus could I from several other instances of the like Nature drawn from their own Historians dilate upon this Subject As also by adding the remarkable Instances of the great Incontinency or the unchast Celibate of several of their Popes themselves as of Paul the Second Sixtus the Fourth Innocent the Eighth Alexander the Sixth Julius the Second Leo the Tenth Paul the Third Julius the Third c. But I forbear this since raking of Dunghills is an Employment more fit for a Scavenger than a Gentleman That so great Wickedness should ever be Practis'd amongst such as serve at the Altar is indeed a thing much to be lamented but that ever any Christian Church should allow and approve of such Practices is matter of Astonishment And yet that the Church of Rome does so is most clear and manifest Hence we find it was one of the German Grievances That such Priests as were dispos'd to live Chastly and abhorred this Sin of Uncleanness were compell'd to take Dispensations to keep Concubines Nicolaus de Clemangis also makes the same sort of complaint What a strange thing is it says he That in several Dioceses now a days the Rectors of Parishes bargain with their Bishops for License to keep Concubines That Great Angelical Doctor of the Church of Rome Thomas Aquinas whether from his own Complexion or no I know not seems to be so great a favourer of this Vice that he argues for it in a pretty odd sort of a Manner in his 4th Book De Regimine Principum Id facit in Mundo Meretrix c. A Whore in the World saith he is as the Pump in a Ship or a Privy in a Palace Take these away and all will be filled with stench and annoyance Most Incomparable Divinity Sure if this Rule be true no place for sweetness can compare with Rome where by the best Computation are reckon'd three Thousand Licensed Harlots which pay an Annual Tribute to his Holiness But to return to my Subject Since it plainly appears that this Doctrine of the Celibacy was never us'd nor practis'd amongst the Christians of the Primitive Church how came then this Innovation to be introduced into the Church of Rome Cui bono for what end and purpose hath it so many Ages been so very zealously asserted In promptu causa est the reason is very obvious and a Man with half an Eye may see the Policy of it This Doctrine then is maintained by the Policy of the Court of Rome on purpose to make advantage of the Clergy both while they live and when they dye Hence their great Espencoeus crys out shame of that execrable Custom of indulging Concubinage to Professors of Chastity at a set annual rate assuring us That amongst the vast numbers of Delinquents in this kind few or none suffer any other Punishment than that of the Pocket But besides this 't is of great advantage to his Holiness to disengage the Clergy from all Civil Interests and thus to make them wholly depend upon the Court of Rome which is a thing could never be effected so long as the Clergy gave hostages of their sidelity to the Civil Government by the Interests of their Families and Children And therefore this Invention was cunningly enough contriv'd That as the old Roman Souldiers were forbidden Marriage while they received pay lest their Domestick Interests should abate their courage So the Celibacy of the Clergy was strictly enjoyn'd to make them more true and hearty to the Interests of the Court of Rome And the vast advantages that accrue to his Holiness by this one Doctrine of the Celibacy of the Clergy is scarce to be computed since now the Church is the general Heir to all the Clergy Thus have I run over those five several Gainful Doctrines in the Church of Rome whereby it is most manifest That let them pretend what they will Grandure and Secular Interest is all they aim at And therefore let us no longer wonder at this Priest-Craft of theirs but rather conclude with that Ingenious Cardinal who when the People flockt about him gave them his Benediction in these words SI DECIPI VULT POPULUS DECIPIATUR ESSAY II. The great mischief and prejudice of LEARNING And that a Wise Man ought to be preferr'd before a Man of LEARNING LEARNING does but serve to fill us full of Artificial Errors That which we so much admire under the name of LEARNING is only the knowing the fancies of particular Men Deliri veteris Meditontes somnia vana in effect but like Gossipping Women telling one another their Dreams The Romans were so far from esteeming Learning as an essential part of Wisdom that with them the word Scholar was seldom us'd but by way of reproach A Learned Man may not improperly be compared to Aesop's Crow deckt with the Feathers that he had stoln from other Birds He maketh indeed a great shew in the World but he may thank others who are at the charge of it In a word There is not a simpler Animal and a more superfluous Member of a State than a meer Scholar He is Telluris inutile Pondus And were I to give a description of a Pedant newly arrived from the University I could not do it more to the life than in the words of Horace Cùm septem Studiis annos dedit insenuitque Libris curis Statuâ taciturnius exit Plerumque Populum risu quatit No wonder then that the Italians in their Farces always bring in a Pedant for the Fool of the Play That Learning is no way serviceable to the life of Man even daily experience sufficiently shews for how many are there in the World of high and low condition that live pleasantly and happily who never trouble themselves