him twise to feed his lambs and the third tyme to feed his sheep whereby he made him the Pastour of his flocke And for a conclusion to keep him in Humility he gaue him warning that as he was to follow him in his place so also he should imitate him in his death signifying what death he should dye That is to say the death of the Crosse In the exposition of which place there is no diuersity of opinion amongst the Fathers neither do they make any doubt or questiō but that our Sauiours speach in this place was directed only to S. Peter that by the word Sheep the whole flocke of Christ was recommended vnto him for the rest of the Apostles themselues were not excepted And that by the word Feed he was commaunded not only to teach but also to gouerne the Church of Christ so far forth as should be necessary for the conduction of the members thereof vnto their supernaturall end which is life euerlasting And therefore albeit all the Apostles in respect of their Apostolike power which was extraordinary and dyed with them had equall Iurisdiction ouer the rest of the Church yet were they not equall amongst themselues but S. Peter in respect of his supreme Episcopall and ordinary authority was the chief and head of them all and especially as they were Bishops or capable of Bishoprickes wherein others might succeed them they were all subiect to S. Peter And for this cause albeit the Church is sayd to be built vpon the other Apostles in generall and that they are also called the Pastours therof yet you shall neuer find that any of them in particuler as for example S. Iohn or S. Iames is tearmed the foundation or the Pastour of the Church without any other limitation but that these titles and the like are giuen by the Fathers to S. Peter alone in respect of the excellency of his dignity and plenarity of ordinary power ouer the Church of Christ SECTION VII The former Expositions of the two places aforesayd togeather with S. Peters Supremacy in dignity doctrine and gouernement are proued out of the testimonyes of the ancient Fathers FOR manifestation whereof and for the more euident proofe that the expositiōs which I haue deliuered of those two places of Scripture aforesayd are conformable to the doctrine of the Fathers I will alleadge some of their authorityes as briefly and succinctly as possible I can And first the same is proued by those titles with the Fathers haue giuen to S. Peter alone By the Councell of Chalcedon (a) Act. 1. therefore he is styled the Rocke and Top of the Church By Origen (b) hom 5. in exod the most solide Rocke By Cyrill (c) Lib. 2. c. 2. in Ioā the Rocke and Stone most firme By Euthymius (d) In cap. 16. Matt. the foundation of the beleeuers By Ambrose (e) Lib. 4. de fide c. 3. the firmament of the Church By Hilary (f) In cap. 16. Matt. the happy foundation of the Church and blessed porter of heauen By Augustine (g) Ser. 15. de Sanctis the foundation of the Church which the Church doth worthily worship By Damascen (h) Orat. de Transsig the key-bearer of the kingdome of heauen By Chrysostome (i) Hom. in psal 50.1 part the basis or bearing-stone of fayth By S. Hierome (k) Lib. 1. cont Iouin the Rocke of Christ Out of which titles or appellations giuen to none of the Apostles but only to S. Peter it must needs be gathered that the words of our Sauiour in the 16. of S. Matthew are to be vnderstood of him alone and that as he was the foundation of the whole buylding so which is all one that he was also the head of the whole body which may be further declared and more expresly proued if need be out of the Fathers For therfore S. Cyril (l) Lib. 12. in Ioan. cap. 64. doth call him the Prince and head of the rest S. Hierome (m) Lib. 1. cont Iouin the head of the Apostles S. Augustine (n) Serm. 124. de tempore Verticem the Crowne Optatus (o) Lib. 2. 7. cont Parmen Apicem the top or highest perfection of the Apostles Euthymius (p) Inc. vlt. Ioan. the Maister of the whole world Epiphanius (q) Epiph. haeres 51. Ducem the Captaine or Leader of the disciples Ambrose (r) lib. 10. in Luc. sc 24. the vicar of the loue of Christ towards vs. S. Cyprian (s) Lib. de vnit Eccl. sayth that the Primacy was giuen to Peter S. Leo (t) Serm. 2. de SS Pet. Paul that he Peter who was the first in confession was the first in Apostolicall dignity S. Athanasius (u) Epist au Pelic. That vpon the foundation of Peter the Pillars of the Church that is to say the Bishops are set or confirmed S. Ambrose (w) Ser. 47. that he was the immoueable Rock contayning the whole Pyle and Iuncture of the whole Christian worke or buylding S. Basil (x) Ser. de neditio Dei that he was happy in being preferted before the rest of the Disciples to whome the keyes of the kingdome of heauen were committed S. Augustine (y) Lib 2 de Baptis hath these words Loe where Cyprian relateth that which we also haue learned in the Scriptures that the Apostle Peter in whome the Primacy of the Apostles appeared aloft with such an excellēt grace was corrected by Paul a later Apostle And againe (z) Serm. 29. de SS he alone among the Apostles deserued to heer Thou art Peter c. Truly a man worthy to be a stone for foundation a Pillar for sustentation a key of the kingdom vnto the people which were to be built vp in the house of God To which purpose S. Ambrose (a) In cap. vlt. Luc. sayd therefore because he alone professed of all the rest he alone is preferred before all the rest And why sayth S. Chrysostom (b) Hom. 87. in loā omitting the rest doth he speak of these thinges to Peter alone He was the mouth of the Apostles the prince and top of that company therfore Paul ascended to visit him before the rest Among the most blessed Apostles sayth Leo (c) Ep 85. ad An ast there was a certayne distinction of power and though the election of all was equall yet vnto one it was after giuen to excell aboue the rest S. Cyprian (d) Ep. ad Iubaia sayth that the Church is one founded vpon one who receiued the keyes thereof by the word of our Lord. The prerogatiues also of the three first Chayres that is to say of Rome Alexandria and Antioch the Bishops whereof were anciently the three first Patriarcks and are so acknowledged in the first generall Councell of Nice do euidently proue the Supremacy of S. Peter whereof S. Gregory writeth in this manner Albeit there were many Apostles Greg. l 6. epist 37.
so the charity of this man is no lesse to be obserued and admired in calling the Pope his most holy Father and the Bishops vnited with him his most blessed Brethren giuing them thereby his kisse of peace whom before through all his booke he had sould to the Protestants for blind guydes teaching innumerable errours for corrupters of Gods word tyrants oppressors of the Church Babylonians and the like Which termes albeit no lesse falsely then impiously they are applyed by him to the Pope and his Bishops whether you respect the former wherein he should shew his loue or the later wherein he expresseth his hatred vnto them yet because as it appeareth by his owne words he describeth therein his owne spirituall kindred it cannot be denyed but that he is ready to acknowledge if need were the author of lyes himselfe for his holy Father and his wickedest children for his most blessed Brethren Wherefore considering his zeale wherof he boasteth so much to be so large and the armes of his charity to be so far extended from East to West as to imbrace the fellowship of Babylon which is the Citty of the Diuell it is manifest that he excludeth neither Turks nor Iufidells from his Communion And therefore me thinks that as no good Protestant can be much delighted with it so euery good Christian should abhorre and detest it The second poynt to be noted in his conclusion is this that he rather ordereth commaundeth then aduiseth the Pope to restore peace and charity to all those Churches that professe to receiue the essentiall Creeds of Fayth By which he must needs meane the three Creeds of the Apostles of the Councel of Nice against Arius and of the Councell of Constantinople against Macedonius and therefore supposeth all other poynts of Cōtrouersy not contayned in those Creeds to be matters indifferent not sufficiently defyned and not to be beleeued as articles of Fayth Which is such a monstrous opinion as doth euidētly shew him to be of no Religion at all and therefore I maruell how he could be suffered to publish such wicked doctrine in England For if the Pope must haue peace and communion with all those that receiue the Creeds alone howsoeuer they please to vnderstand them thereof it will follow that all Councells which haue beene celebrated since the making of those Creeds haue beene the authors of Schisme and dissention in condemning later Heresyes and that albeit a man should deny al Sacramēts yea and al Scripture at this day yet according to this Antichristian doctrine it should be Schisme to refuse him or to accompt him no good Christian for the same And how easy a matter is it not beleeuing the Scripture to contemne the Creeds or rather how impossible contemning the one to beleeue the other This therefore may be another signe to be added vnto those which I haue touched before that the Bishop being fallen frō the Church is fallen likewise to Neutrality in Religion may be a cause of greater mischiefe and of greater dishonour to our Countrey then they that feed him haue yet discouered in him I cannot omit his incredible ignorance which he discouereth where among other poynts of idle Counsell which he pleaseth to bestow vpon the Pope and the rest of the Bishops of the Catholike Church himselfe being so wyse as to admit no Counsell at all neither from them nor any other he telleth them that he will haue them belieue for certaine that Schisme in the Church is a greater euell then Heresy it selfe Wherin it is to be admyred how he could presume to teach the whole Church such a notable falshood with such arrogant temerity as heere he doth For as he that hath no faith can haue no charity so Heresy that destroyeth Faith bringeth also schisme with it which is opposed to Charity So that albeit there may be schisme in the Church without heresy as faith may remayne without charity yet charity without faith or heresy without schisme there cannot be And therefore all Deuines haue euer held that heresy is far the greater mischiefe which bereaueth a man of all supernatural vertue and maketh him worse then an Infidell The rest of his conclusion is much of the same nature wherein no lesse insolently then ignorantly he taketh vpon him to schoole and to catechize the Pope all his Prelates prescribing vnto them what they ought to belieue and with what tearmes and conditions they may giue him satisfaction make their peace and concord with him Whereunto I thinke no better answere can be giuen in the Popes behalfe then that which S. Cyprian made to Florentius Pupianus of whom we haue spoken before for no man can be thought of so fit as S. Cyprian to rebuke his Pryde whom a little before vnder the colour of much respect he so much abused And in his arrogant and insolent behauiour towards the Pope he doth so perfectly resemble the presumptuous demenour of Pupianus towards S. Cyprian Cyp. ep 65. as that the one seemeth to haue been but the figure of the other the words therefore of S. Cyprian are these that follow What swelling Pryde is this what arrogancy of hart what inflation of mynd to call vnto the trybunall of thy Iudgment the Priests that is to say the Bishops and those that are set ouer thee that vnlesse we can purge ourselues to thee and be absolued by thy sentence now for so many yeares for more then a thousand the Fraternity must be condemned to haue had no Bishop the people no Prelate the flock no Pastour the Church no Gouernour Christ no Antistes and God no Priest Let Pupianus or Marcus Antonius be pleased to help vs let him giue his sentence and be contented to make good the iudgment of God of Christ that so great a number of faythfull people ranged vnder vs may not be thought to haue departed without hope of saluation and that so many Nations of new beleeuers be not accompted to haue receiued from vs no grace at all of the spirit of God that the Communion and reconcilement giuen by vs to so many that haue repented be not dissolued and taken from them by the authority of thy decree vouchsafe at length to grant our request giue vs thy fauourable sentence confirme vs in our place by thy iudiciall authority that God and his Christ may giue thee thanks that by thee their Prelate is restored to their Alter againe and their Rector to the gouernement of their people Truly me thinks these words of S. Cyprian being so applyable to your Bishop as they are should make any man that seemeth to respect him euen to blush and to be ashamed for him And as concerning his Vertue of peace and concord S. Cyprian in the same place doth answer him so fitly as if he had penned the same directly for Marcus Antonius vnder the name of Florentius Pupianus For the which cause it being no way seemly for me to adde any thing
respect S. Augustine said Aug. l. de pasto c. 13. as you haue heard that S. Peter receiued his authority in the person of the Church that is to say present and to come for himselfe and his successors And in the same sense he teacheth els where that all good Pastors are in one Pastor And S. Cyprian affirmed as I haue alleadged Cyp. ep 4◠55. that in the Church there is one God one Christ one Chayre founded vpon Peter one Priest one Iudge for the tyme in the place of Christ. Which is also confirmed by the words of our Sauiour where he sayth There should be one sheepfold and one Pastour Ioan. 10.16 For as we gather thereof that the fold must alwayes be one so also the Pastour thereof being One who was S. Peter must alwayes remayne One in his successors and our Sauiour would thereby signify that the vnity of the fold depended of the vnity of that one Pastor to whom he meant to giue the charge and to commend the feeding of it Which also the Fathers demonstrate to be most necessary for the auoyding and extinguishing of Schismes and Heresyes in the Church of God as you haue seene before And some of the Protestants themselues as Whitgift Protestant Apology vbi supra Melancthon Luther and others do willingly confesse it and especially Doctour Couell who affirmeth that the Church should be in far worse case then the meanest common Wealth nay almost then a den of theeues without it I cannot omit his reason which is also the common reason of the Catholikes That if this Superiority were necessary amongst the Apostles much more was it necessary among other Bishops after their decease neither will I omit that it belonged vnto the charge and Pastorall Office of S. Peter to prouide that the sheep of Christ after his death might not be scattered and deuided for the want of one common and vniuersall Pastour Wherfore by this it is euident that the Pastorall function of S. Peter was to remayne in the Church of God And therefore it descended to the Bishop of Rome his only successour which is a most strong argument in it selfe may serue vs withall for a good step or degree to the rest of the proofes that follow SECTION X. The Supremacy of the Pope and his succession to S. Peter is proued by the titles of his supreme dignity in the ancient Fathers and by the foure first generall Councells VVHEREIN we will begin with those titles appellations which haue byn giuen by the Councells and ancient Fathers to the Bishops of Rome being the same that were giuen to S. Peter alone with many others equiualēt therunto For as in the Cōmonwealth none can haue the title of Cesar but he that succedeth vnto Cesar so also in the Church if the Pope inherite the same titles that were proper to S. Peter in respect of his supreme dignity it must needs be graunted that he succedeth likewise in the place of the same dignity to S. Peter First therefore he is called the head of the Church Chalcedon act 1 which title the whole Councell of Chalcedon for example being one of the foure first and receiued in England by act of Parliament gaue to S. Leo Bishop of Rome in their Epistle to him where also the Church of Rome is called the head of all Churches Secondly Epist ad Dam. S. Hierome calleth Pope Damasus the foundation and Rock of the Church and said that he knew the Church to be buylt vpon him S. Augustine likewise tearmeth the sea of Rome the Rock of the Church Thirdly S. Ambrose intitleth Pope Siricius the Pastour of the flock of our Lord. Fourthly Epist 81. ad Cyril he is tearmed the Apostolicall man his seat the Apostolicall Seat his Office Apostleship and his dignity Apostolicall sanctity as you may easily obserue in the authorityes that follow which words without any other addition of place or person cannot be giuen to any but to him alone For the like supreame authority and Iurisdiction vnto his ouer the whole Church hauing been granted only to the Apostles and after there decease being deriued from S. Peter the Prince of the Apostles vnto the Pope alone in these two respects the excellency of his vniuersall authority descending from the Prince of the Apostles is properly called Apostolicall which tearme by it selfe alone without limitation cannot therefor be giuen to any other Fiftly in the Councell of Chalcedon he was intitled the vniuersall Archbishop and Patriarch of great Rome which stile albeit S. Gregory refused in the sense as it was vsed by Iohn Bishop of Constantinople and that to abate his pryde S. Gregory began to write himselfe neither Patriarch nor Bishop but Seruus seruorum Dei yet he admitted the Councell of Chalcedon Ioan Diac. in eius vita l. 2. cap. 1. in the particuler vse of this tearme signifying that the Pope was Bishop of the vniuersall Church as also many of S. Gregoryes Predecessours had intitled themselues before him Sixthly Greg. l. 4. epist 32. Bern. l. 2. de consid S. Bernard among others called the Pope the Vicar of Christ Stephen Archbishop of Carthage writing to Pope Damasus in the name of three Affrican Councells directeth his Epistle To the most Blessed Lord aduanced with Apostolicall dignity Apostolico culmine sublimato the holy Father of Fathers Damasus Pope and chiefe Bishop of all Prelates Lastly to be short the word Pope without any addition is giuen only to the Pope In which sense we read in the Chalcedon Councell The most blessed and Apostolicall Man the Pope giueth vs this in charge where also he is called Act. 16. Pope of the vniuersall Church And in the Breuiary of Liberatus we read that none is Pope ouer the Church of the whole world but only the Roman Bishop Thirdly the succession of the Pope to S. Peter and the supreame authority of the Roman Church in regard thereof is proued by the Councells wherof a long treatise might be made but for breuityes sake because the Protestants seeme to respect and reuerence with S Gregory the great the foure first generall Councells as the foure Euangelists and that they are also receiued by act of Parliament anno 10. of Queene Elizabeth I will alleadge no other but those and out of them so much alone as may be sufficient to establish the Popes Supremacy and to let you see That if the Catholikes might be admitted to any kind of iust and equall try all how easily it were for them to claime Toleration to iustify the Religion euen by the statutes at the cōmon Law which are now in force in England The sixt Canon therefore of the first Councell of Nice beginneth in this manner The Roman Church hath alwayes had Primacy and lot the ancient custome contynue in Aegypt or Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria haue power ouer them all wherof the reasō followeth quoniam
quidem Episcopo Romano parilis mos est which Bellarmine sheweth very well that it can beare no other sense but only this That the Bishop of Alexandria ought to gouerne those prouinces because the Roman Bishop hath been so accustomed that is to say because the Roman Bishop before this tyme hath alwayes permitted the Bishop of Alexandria to gouerne those Countreyes or because he hath alwayes vsed to gouerne them by the Bishop of Alexandria And so Nicolas the first in his Epistle to Michael vnderstood the same Vpon the reading of which Canon of the Councell of Nice the Iudges in the Calcedon Councell began and sayd That they had well considered perpendimus all Primacy and chiefe honour to be consirued according to the Canons vnto the most beloued of God the Archbishop of old Rome Where you see the Primacy of the Pope acknowledged not only in the Nicen but also in the Calcedon Councells which was another of the foure first wherein this Canon was recyted and allowed as hath been sayd Also in the third booke of the Nicen Councell in the three first Canons taken out of the Epistle of Pope Iulius the first are found these words Councells ought not to be celebrated ConÌ„ Nic. l. 3. Socra l. 2. c. 13. Zozom l. 3. cap 9. Nicepho l. 9. cap. 5. Synod Alexand without the sentence of the Roman Bishop And againe Bishops in more weighty causes may freely appedle to the Apostolike Sea and sly thereunto as to their Mother And lastly While the Bishop of the Apostolike Sea doth iudge againe that is to say vpon appeale the cause of any Bishop no other may be ordayned in his place that is then vpoÌ„ his tryal And the reason is giuen because it is not permitted to end or define such causes before the Roman Bishop be consulted withall For our Lord sayd vnto Peter whatsoeuer thou shalt bynd c. By which words you see that the Pope is acknowledged to be the head of all Councells without whose sentence they cannot be celebrated or confirmed and that he is the supreame head of the Church vnto whome it is lawfull for all other Bishops to make their appeales Which last poynt of appellation is also more fully expressed and confirmed in the foruth and seauenth Canon of the generall Councell of Sardis which was celebrated a very short tyme after the Nicen Councell and is accompted to be as one therwith because the same Fathers for the most part were present in both nothing concerning Faith was added of new in the latter And therefore not only Sozimus but also Iulius Innocentius and Leo seeme to cite these Canons vnder the name of the Canons of the Nicen Councell Lastly in the 39. Canon of those of Nice translated out of Greeke Arabick it is sayd in this mannor A Patriarch is so aboue al those that are vnder his power as he that holdeth the Sea of Rome is head and Prince of all Patriarches because he is the first as Peter was to whome was giuen power ouer all Christian Princes and ouer all their people as he that is the Vicar of Christ our Lord ouer all people the vniuersall ChristiaÌ„ Church And whosoeuer shall coÌ„tradict it is excoÌ„municated by the Synod See the notes vpoÌ„ this Canon in the first Tome of the Councells especially in Binnius And so much for the Nicen CouÌ„cel The second Councell was that of Constantinople where in the 3. alias 5. Canon it is said that the Bishop of CoÌ„stantinople should haue the Primacy of honour after the RomaÌ„ Bishop wherby it is supposed as a thing most certayne and a thing out of question that the RomaÌ„ Bishop had the Primacy not only in honour but also in Gouerment and Iurisdiction wherof the Councell speaketh in that place as appeareth out of the second Canon next preceding The other part of this Canon was not receiued for many hundred yeares after because it was not coÌ„firmed by the Bishop of Rome which also proueth his Primacy vntill at last the Roman Church consented then it began to take offect as is manifest in the CouÌ„cell of Lateran Theod. l. 5. hist c. 9. Also the same Councell in their Epistle to Pope Damasus which is extant in Theodoret do say that they met togeather at Constantinople by the commandement of the Popes letters sent vnto them by the Emperour wherein they further acknowledge the Roman Church to be the head and they the members The third generall Councell was that of Ephesus the Fathers whereof in their Epistle to Pope Celestine acknowledge the Popes care of them for fincerity in matter of Faith to be most gratefull and pleasing vnto the Sauiour of all And say that they imbrare it with all a miration and reuerence and that it was the custome of those in that high place Vobis tam eximijs in more positum to be renowned in all things and to moke their studdyes the solide stayes and grounds of Churches Wherein also they sayd that necessity required they should declare to his Holynes all things which had passed in that Councell shewing thereby their dependance of the Roman Bishop And when the whole Councell had applauded the Popes letters and followed his instructions and that the Legates comming in afterwards had vnderstood the same one of them Tomo 2. cap. 15. called Philip thanked them that with there pious voices and acclamations they had submitted themselues as holy members to their holy head For sayth he your happynes is not ignorant that the Blessed Apostle Peter was the head of the whole Fayth and of all the rest of the Apostles And further he saith that Peter was the Vicar of Christ constituted by him and that he yet liued in his successour and that his successor and holy Vicar was the Roman Bishop which speaches the sacred Synode was so far from detesting that shewing conformity in the same fayth they subscribed with them Euag. lib. 1. hist c. 4. Also the same Councell as Euagrius recordeth affirmed that it deposed Nestorius ex mandato by a commandement of the Popes letters And the Fathers thereof in their Epistle to the Pope do write that they presumed not to determine the cause of Iohn Patriarch of Antioch which was more doubtfull then the cause of Nestorius but that they reserued the same to the Pope himselfe The fourth generall Councell was that of Chalcedon which confirmed the sixth Canon of the Councell of Nice concerning the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome as you haue heard The superscriptions of the letters or petitions to the Councell all or many were in this forme To the most holy and the most Blâ—ssed the vniuersall Archbishop Patriarch of great Rome Leo whereby he was acknowledged the head of the Councell and those superscriptions were recorded by the Notaries togeather with the acts of the sayd Councell In the beginning wherof Paschasius said in this manner we haue in our hands the precepts of
of Alexandria any other singuler ornament of that age inclyned to the opinion of S. Cyprian But then the authority of S. Peter in his successor Pope Steuen did well appeare who with no other armes but with the tradition of his Predecessors sustavned the brunt of so many most famous both Orientall and Occidentall Bishops who excommunicating those that had made a decree against the ancient custome of the Church threatning the rest that taught rebaptization to be lawfull preuailed so much that all the Orientall Churches conspyring togeather mone mind as Dionysius sayd Euseb l. 7. and changing their opinions were reunited againe with the band of peace And Dionysius himselfe changing also his opiniō became so scrupulous that he refused to baptize one that had not beene sufficiently baptized of the Heretiks retourning to the Catholike Church before he had made the Pope acquainted with it And the Bishops of Africa likewise that had followed S. Cypriā made a new decree to the contrary as witnesseth S. Hierome And S. Augustine sayth Hier. cōt Luciferiā August epist 48. that it is very probable that S. Cypriā also corrected himselfe and that his change in opinion was suppressed by the Heretikes And truly who can imagine that such a man as he tendring so much the peace of the Church as he did should remayne obstinate alone in his owne opinion See this more at large in Baronius Vin. cont Lyrin c. 9. in the yeare of our Lord 158. and 159. And Vincentius Lirinensis who notably descrybeth the successe of this victory Lastly Pope Pius the first hauing made a decree that the Feast of Easter should be celebrated only vpon Sunday against those Euseb l. 5. cap. 24. that pretended the example and tradition of S. Iohn to the contrary and 3. of his successors forbearing to cōpell them for quietnes sake Tertul. de praescrip cap. 53. Euseb lib. 5. cap. 14. by Ecclesiasticall censure therunto Pope Victor succeding and perceyuing them to be much confirmed in their opinion called a Councell in Italy and caused others to be assembled in France and also in other Countreys And Theophilus Bishop of Cesarea and Palestina Beda de equinoctiali in verno receiuing his command as Bede our Countreyman recordeth assembled Bishops not only out of his owne Prouince but also out of diuers other countreys and shewed the authority that Pope Victor had sent him and declared quid sibi operis fuit iniunctum and in all the Easterne Councells it being determined that the Feast of Easter should be kept vpon Sunday according to the custome of the Roman Church Euseb l. 5. cap. 24. Niceph. l. 4. c. 38.39 Pope Victor denounced excommunication against all the Churches of Asia that would not conforme themselues thereunto Whereupon though some did thinke it rigourously done not only the greatest part of the Churches of Asia did yield therein but also as Nicephorus testifyeth it was decreed throughout the world that the Feast of Easter should be kept vpon Sunday and they that refused so to do were holden for Heretakes and called Quartadecimani The same Controuersy being growne very great in Britany August haeres 29. Beda lib. 3. hist cap. 2. betwen the English that mantayned the custome of Rome and the Scottish that stood out in schisme and the matter being debated in the presence of King Oswy Colomannus with the Scottish Clergy relyed vpon the authority of Anatolins and Columba his predecessours Wilfrid on the other side answered That Columba albeit a holy man could not be preferred before Peter to whome our Lord sayd thou art Peter and vpon this Rock c. King Oswy that had beene infected with the Scottish schisme asked Colomannus whether he could proue the like authority to haue been giuen to Columba as was giuen to Peter who answering no Nay then quoth the King merily I assure you I will not in any thing contradict that Porter but to my knowledge and power I will obay his comaundements Whereupon all that were present sayth S. Bede allowed therof and yielded to receiue the Catholike custome of keping Easter on the Sunday And now to go forward with the receiued practise and execution of the Popes authority in other Iudiciall matters Leo. Ep. 89. Pope Leo writing vnto the Bishops of France biddeth them remember and acknowledge with him that the Priests of their Prouince had consulted with the Apostolike sea in innumerable matters and according to the diuersity of their causes and appeales their former Iudgments had been retracted or confirmed As touching deposition of Bishops you haue already hard of the deposition of Dioscorus in the fourth generall Councell by the Popes Legates which was done in these formall words Conc. Chal. act 3. Leo the most holy and Blessed Pope and head of the vniuersall Church indued with the dignity of Peter the Apostle who is intituled the foundation of the Church the Rock of Faith and the doore-keper of the Kingdome of Heauen By vs his Legates the holy Synode consenting hath depryued Dioscorus of Episcopall dignity and excluded him from all Priestly function Cypr. lib. 5. epist 13. S. Cyprian wrote to Pope Stephen to excommunicate and depose Marcian the Bishop of Arles in France and to aduertise him who should succeed him that he the Bishops of Affrick might know to whome to direct their letters Peter the Patriarch of Alexandria Soc. lib. 4. hist. cap. 3. as Socrates relateth returning with the letters of Damasus the Roman Bishop the people confiding in them Nicol. ep ad Micha expelled Lucius and receaued Peter into his place Nicolaus the first writing to Michael the Emperour reckoneth vp 8. Patriarches of that Church deposed by the Bishops of Rome before his tyme. Theod. l. 5. hist c. 23. Soc. lib. 5. hist c. 15. Sozom. l. 8. cap. 3. Flauianus Patriarch of Antioch was deposed by Pope Damasus and both S. Chrysostome Bishop of Constantinople and Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria were intercessors for him to the Pope And to conclude Polichronius Patriarch of Hierusalem was deposed by Sixtus the 3. Tom. 2. Concil in actis 60. So that you see the exercise of the Popes authority in the deposition of many of the foure principall Patriarchs of Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Hierusalem And as for those that appealed to the Sea Apostolike and were restored by the same the examples are infinit Let it suffice that Athanasius the great Patriarch of Alexandria Paulus Bishop of Constantinople Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra Asclepas Bishop of Gaza and Lucianus Bishop of Adrianopolis Sozom. l. 3. hist c. 8. Tripart hist l. 4. cap 15. were all at Rome at one tyme iniustly deposed and expelled by the Orientall Synode And that Pope Iulius as Sozomeus hath recorded vnderstanding whereof they were accused receiued them into his communion that the care of all belonging vnto him in respect of the dignity of his sea he restored
treason Especially charging the Pope as he doth with false doctrine which he would haue you belieue to be the cause of his schisme For the Pope being the immouable Rock and the foundation of true Fayth which Christ himselfe hath layd the Bishop in this case fitly resembleth one that launching from the shore whereupon he fixeth his eye should sweare and contest that the land departed from the boat and that the boat it selfe stood still or remayned imoueable In which case I cannot tell whether he in the boat should shew himselfe more ridiculous to the beholders then the Bishop doth manifest himselfe by this occasion to his iudicious Readers And thus much may suffice for the Bishops schisme Heresy is defined by S. Augustine August de vera Rel. c. 5. 6. 7. to be a peruerse doctrine contrary to the rule of truth which himselfe doth better expound where he sayth That it is an opinion declyning from the rule and turning men away from the cōmunion of the Catholike Church where he vnderstandeth the rule of truth to be no other then the doctrine of the Catholike Church for without this ground all other rules are insufficient as hath been shewed and the same if it were necessary might easily be confirmed out of the rest of the Fathers Wherefore the doctrine of the Catholike Church being made knowne and manifested vnto vs either by the common beliefe of all the faithfull or by the vniforme consent and common doctrine of all the Fathers or by a generall Councell or by the definition of the Pope as before I noted hauing conuinced the Bishop of schisme though much against his will let vs see how he can cleare and shift himselfe from the imputation of heresy For first it cannot be denied That whatsoeuer the Catholikes at this day do maintaine to be the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles against the Protestants was the generall beliefe of the vniuersall Church when Luther began to broach his new doctrine And therefore the Bishop condemning the Pope of many errours in poynts of Controuersy betweene him and the Protestants Vbi supra condemneth likewise the vniuersall Church of that tyme which as S. Augustine sayth is most insolent madnes extreme impiety and hayre-braynd or furious ignorance Secondly you haue heard how the auncient Fathers of the primitiue Church haue condemned for heresyes aboue twenty seuerall opinions of the Protestants And therefore the Bishop being now a Protestant is likewise aboue twenty tymes condemned by them And to omit that other seuerall sects of Protestants do all condemne him in like manner the generall Councell of Trent hath defined the doctrine of the Pope against the Protestants to be Orthodoxall and the contrary opinions to be likewise hereticall And the Bishop seeming to belieue that a generall Councell lawfully called and confirmed cannot erre in matter of fayth as hauing the speciall assistance of the holy Ghost leading vnto all truth according to the promise of our Sauiour hath no more reason to contemne the Councel of Trent then to reiect the Councell of Nyce or any other generall Councell Lastly hauing proued by the common doctrine of all the Fathers that the Bishop of Rome being successour of S. Peter cannot erre in defyning of Controuersyes that belong to fayth and that the Fathers put no difference betweene the Catholike and the Roman Church but that the same Church which is surmaned Catholike because it is vniuersall is also called the Roman Church because the Roman Church being founded in the Seat of Peter is alwayes conioyned and vnyted with the Catholike Church it followeth thereof that the Bishop being condemned for an Heretike by the Bishop of Rome successour vnto S. Peter and by the Church of Rome founded in the Seat of Peter according to the iudgment of the auncient Fathers standeth likewise condemned in this respect also by the whole Church And therefore hauing so many dreadfull sentences lying heauily vpon him vnlesse he amend and make peace with his aduersary Mat. 5.25 while he is yet vpon the way what can he expect at the day of iudgement but that Christ himselfe withall his Saints and Angells togeather with the whole world should condemne him And with this we will proceed to his second defence which is the authority and example of S. Cyprian wherein he seemeth to set vp his rest SECTION XXXI VVherein is shewed that the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the Bishop against the Pope ouerthroweth the principall grounds of the Protestant Religion THE words therfore of S. Cyprian in the Councell of Carthage to the Bishops there assembled alleadged by him are these that follow Iudging no man sayth S. Cyprian or depryning no man of our communion though he shal be of a contrary opinion For none of vs doth make himselfe Bishop of Bishops or compelleth his followers with tyrannicall terror to the necessary of yeilding to him whereas euery Bishop is to haue his owne proper iudgement in respect of the liberty and power which is giuen vnto him so that he cannot be iudged of another as he himselfe cannot iudge another But let vs all expect the iudgment of our Lord Iesus Christ who only and alone hath power to place vs in the gouernement of his Church and to iudge of our actions The example of S. Cyprian he propoundeth in such manner as that accusing S. Stephen of indiscretion and that with his excommunications he was falling headlong into the mischiefe of schisme he sayth That S. Cyprian dissenting from the Roman and almost from the vniuersal Church about the Baptisme of Heretikes and being strong in his owne opinion and esteeming Stephen the Pope to erre vehemently and all the rest to be in manifest errour yet notwithstanding he neuer suffered the band of vnion and Christian charity to be broken betweene them but chose to communicate not only with Stephen being of a contrary opinion and indeauour against him but also with those whome he reputed to be altogeather impure being moued thereunto because Stephen had receiued them into communion with him rather then by schisme to make a diuision in the Church of God By which authority and example of S. Cyprian he thinketh to haue clearely discouered where the fault lyeth and to whom the crime of Schisme is to be imputed and so thinke I too And here to curry a little fauour with him or rather to curry him with some fauour because he hath so well deserued it in this allegation of S. Cyprian albeit I cannot learne that euer he read or heard Rhetorike among the Iesuits as he himselfe affirmeth yet I will not deny it but rather I will acknowledge that he hath not been altogeather a Truant in the Schoole of Eloquence For though his booke be very small yet he hath been able to deliuer little or no matter at all in very many words And he seemeth to couer many vntruths vnder the colour of Rhetoricall Hyperboles And in this
did put the Church in danger of pernicious dissention But it is no maruell though his intention were not bad that an ill cause should be no better defended wherein the greatest commendation of S. Cyprian in my opinion is this that as it is most credible he repented himselfe both of the matter and of the manner SECTION XXXIII VVherein the Bishop is manifestly conuinced of schisme out of the Authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by himselfe and the same authority for as much as it seemeth to concerne the Pope is sufficiently answered VVHERFORE this one authority alone produced by the Bishop being almost all the matter of substance and almost the only proofe which he bringeth for any thing he sayth in his whole booke taking vp all things vpon trust as hath been obserued you see notwithstanding how that out of this one place of S. Cyprian alleadged by him we haue proued the Popes Supremacy and the necessity not only of tradition but also of the iudgment of the Church for the defyning of matters in Controuersy and for the condemning of heresy Besides we haue shewed how notoriously he falsifieth the Ecclesiastical history how he cōdemneth not only S Stephen most impiously but also S. Cyprian most absurdly whome he sought most to commend And now that you may perceiue how much this authority of S. Cyprian maketh not only against his cause in generall and his owne credit in particuler but also against himselfe in the very poynt for the proofe and declaration whereof it is inserted by him Thus I argue He that without authority condemneth any other Bishop and refuseth to hold communion with him according to S. Cyprian may be iudged a Schismatike or to giue occasion of schisme but Marcus Antonius condemneth without authority not only his Colleague but also his Superiour the Bishop of Rome not of one errour but of inumerable heresies not of any ordinary fault but of suppressing the Councells of deprauing the Scriptures and ancient Fathers of vsurpation and tyrany ouer the Church of God oppressing pilling and spoyling the same and sucking the bloud of the members thereof And by consequence he condemneth likewise all other Bishops that communicate with him and are subiect to him calleth the vniuersall Church which is vnder the obedience of the Pope by the name of Babylon that is to say the Citty or congregation of the Diuell Therefore Marcus Antonius is a Schismatike according to his owne discourse and according to the words of S. Cyprian which he fondly alleadgeth to proue the contrary Secondly according to the processe of his owne discourse I argue thus He that goeth against the example of S. Cyprian proposed to the vniuersall Church for the auoyding of schisme falleth into the cryme of schisme But Marcus Antonius goeth directly against the example of S. Cyprian propounded by himselfe as a rule for the auoyding of schisme Therfore Marcus Antonius according to his owne rule is falne into the cryme of schisme That Marcus Antonius hath proceeded against his owne rule and the example of S Cyprian which he propoundeth is a thing most manifest For whereas S. Cyprian notwithstanding that he reputed the Pope almost all the vniuersall Church to be in manifest errour would neuer depart from the communion of the Pope but respected him so much that he communicated with those whome he held impure only because the Pope receiued them into his communion Marcus Antonius in the same case hath not only forsaken the Pope but also all those that are vnited with him whome otherwise he thinketh not impur e only because they do not separate themselues from the Pope but still remayne in his communion Wherfore these two arguments produced by himselfe are so conuincing that there needeth nothing els to confound him So that this proofe of his out of S. Cyprian being the substance of his booke and being withall so contrary to his cause to his credit and to himselfe in the poynt of Schisme whereof he intended to cleare himselfe therby may be sufficient to giue you to vnderstand of what substance the matter of his other booke is like to be when it shal be printed For my part I am verily perswaded if it be well vnderstood it wil be found to be more against the Protestants then the Catholikes and more contrary to himselfe then to either of the other And now to draw towards an end of this matter in the allegation of this authority out of S. Cyprian he is so much the more to be blamed in that being of such force against himselfe for as much thereof as concerneth the Popes authority it may full easily be answered For those words of S. Cyprian That none of them made himselfe the Bishop of Bishops c. may very well be vnderstood of those that were present at that Councell and not to conclude in that sentence the Bishop of Rome who truly may be sayd to be the Bishop of Bishops the Father of Fathers the Bishop and Father of the vniuersall Church and the like as hath been shewed That which he sayth A Bishop cannot be iudged but by God alone as he receiueth his authority from God alone ought to be vnderstood that he cannot be iudged in those things which are doubtfull obscure and hidden Aug. l. 3. de baptis cap. 3. For so S. Augustine himselfe doth expound him For hauing recited these words of S. Cyprian As I take it sayth he he meaneth in those questions which are not yet discussed with most cleere perspection And that S. Cyprian belieued that Bishops in cases of heresy or schisme Cyp. lib 5. epist 13. might be iudged and deposed by the Pope is euident in one of his Epistles to Pope Stephen where he exhorteth him that he would commaund the Bishop of Arles in France to be deposed and to appoint another in his place So that you see the childish arrow of this Bishop as it is shot vpward against the Pope doth not aryue vnto him but returneth with greater force to fall vpon his owne head and woundeth him in many places as hath been declared But now to do him a pleasure let vs suppose that Cyprian in these words did glance at S. Stephen and that he meant to taxe him for proceding as he thought too rigorously against him with what conscience or with what honesty I pray you can this strange Bishop alleadge these words of S. Cyprian spoken in the defence of a wrong cause as he knoweth and in his cōmotion anger against the Pope of the which it is most probable and according to S. Augustine we ought to thinke that he repented himselfe against so many playne places expresse doctrine of S. Cyprian as I haue cyted before and which for the full satisfactions of your selfe and the Reader in this poynt I shal be content to repeat in part at this present SECTION XXXIIII Many testimonyes and playne places are produced out of S. Cyprian wherby
was publiquely professed because a great part of the Gentills were not then conuerted not only their bookes and writings were tolerated but their religion it selfe although it were most grosse Idolatry was permitted Besides in England the Catholikes being many wise and learned do not cease by alledging most pregnant proofes important reasons and authenticall testimonyes to mayntaine the truth of their cause and to draw others to imbrace their doctrine In which regard it standeth the Protestants vpon and especially the Ministers to read their bookes thereby to defend themselues and others as well as they can from the force of the Catholike arguments brought against them And for the same cause in France and in Germany and in all other Countreyes where many religions are allowed the Catholike Students and other secular men are vsually permitted to read all kind of bookes the better therby to refute their errours Which this good Bishop thought good to conceale for his owne aduantage But in those other Catholike Countreys which were neuer yet infected with Heresy and where there is no occasion to impugne it there it importeth that the Pastours be very vigilant to keep it out For Heresy being once gotten in it crepeth like a canker and at last breaketh out like a raging fire and burneth so dreadfully that whole Cittyes and Kingdomes and Nations haue been consumed with it in a very short space as may appeare in Greece in Asia in Africa other Countreys And therfore in all ages not only the Fathers Doctours and Prelates but also Men Women and Children of the Catholike Church haue euer concurred with all speed and with might and mayne to quench and ex inguish the least sparke therof By which meanes it is wonderfull to consider in how short a tyme the bookes and writings of all the ancient Heretikes in former ages haue been consumed and abolished by the zeale of Catholikes In so much as of so many millions of their Volumes there is not at this day one left remayning But this good man the Bishop is of another mynd who if it were possible would dig those authours out of hell againe to see whether they were truely cited by chose that wrote against them And for the present he would permit without any occasion such mens workes to be familiarly read whom the Apostle forbiddeth to be saluted Our mother Eue out of a vayne curiosity conferring with the serpent whome she might thinke to be an Angell Gen. 3.2 fell into Heresy but this man out of a curiosity more then monstrous Ioan. 10.3.5 would perswade the sheep of Christ to heare the voyce of a stranger and to conferre with that serpent whome they know and confesse to be the Diuell Wherfore this spirit of his being so contrary to the spirit of the Church to the spirit of the Apostle to the spirit of Christ himselfe and in fine contrary to the light of reason in the Gouernement both of Church and Common Wealth you may easily indge from whence it commeth and to what end it tendeth Whereby you will also coniecture what vnion and coniunction may be of the East and of the West of the North and South with the desire whereof this good Bishop is so much tormented For it can be nothing els but a horrible confusion of them all and the vtter ouerthrow of Christian Religion as we shall see hereafter In the meane tyme that you may the better perceiue his naturall and inborne desire of vnity wherewith his poore hart is so much tormented he wil make it knowne himselfe you vnto by the effects thereof For presently after he tells you that he deuided himself from the vnion of that Society wherunto he was vowed and separated himselfe from the body of that order whereof he was a member like a branch from his vyne from the which being once cut of it was likely he could be good for nothing but to be cast into the fire The great comendations he giueth of his owne learned laborious life whiles he was in Religion I can hardly belieue For writing this booke as he doth to no other end but only to blaze his owne prayses you need not doubt but that euery where he speaketh the most of himselfe or more then the most And supposing it to be true it amounteth God he knoweth but to a very small matter especially being done for humane prayse wherewith he payeth himselfe insteed of others that should reward him for it It may be that in respect of his proud and vnquiet spirit his Superiours were inforced to proue him in many things to see what good they might make of him But in the end it should seeme by his going forth which was like to be vpon some discontentment that they found him fit for nothing The Order of the Society of Iesus may fittly be compared to the sea that casteth forth the dead bodyes or to a vessell of new wine which purgeth all the trash and corrupt matter that is mingled with it and therefore they easily permit such as be not fit for them to depart from them least by staying amongst them being stopt vp close like corruption togeather with the pure wine they should breake the vessell it selfe wherein they are inclosed And albeit for this cause it be more easy for such as are ill disposed to quit themselues of the Society then for any other Religious men to be freed frō other Orders yet the dreadfull iudgments of God haue beene so many and so wonderfull vpon those that haue wrought themselues out of their Company that an honest and a pious mind should be more terrified therewith then with the prisons and fetters of other Orders Whereby also God himselfe hath made manifest to the world that the dispensation which is somtime giuen to those that are dismissed the Society doth acquit them of their vowes according to the cause of their departure which if it be good and sufficient it taketh away the whole obligation but if it be not as I feare me this mans was not they are not discharged before God and their conscience but they remayne still in the laps and in the state of Apostasy from their Religion But you will say he wanted not sufficient cause to depart for he that desireth to be made a Bishop desireth a good worke and this man went forth to be made a Bishop To which I answere that the worke of a Bishop is good but not the desire to be made a Bishop Chry. hom 3. in oper imperf hō 3. in Matt. To desire Primacy in the Church according to S. Chrysostome is neither iust nor profitable And Primacy sayth he desireth those that desire it not and abhorreth those that desire it And the reason is because the worke of a Bishop is a calling of such perfection and such dignity also danger ioyned with it that whosoeuer he be that thinketh himselfe so sufficient for it and so worthy of it as to sue and
defended his Suffragans against him as was no lesse then sufficient to make a man in his state and of his opinion become a formall Heretike This therefore I take to be the last disposition that made him a fit instrument for the spirit of Heresy and whereby his enemy intred into him as he entred into Iudas and tooke full possession of him To the which I am rather induced because a man may easily see that his ouerthrow in his Suite against his Suffragans sticks deeply in his mynd moueth him to seek reuenge by the ouerthrow of that authority which stood against him For afterward page 22. he maketh it one of the principall causes of his departure and complaineth with no lesse vntruth then malicious spirit and extreme bitternes of hart that Bishops now a dayes vnder the Pope haue but the name of Bishops that al their Iurisdiction is taken from thē that they are become vile contemptible and miserable subiect not only to the Pope but also to Cardinalls Congregations Legates Inquisitors and innumerable Orders of Religious men who now haue greater facultyes then Bishops and drowne their authority Where also he sayth that the Pope is now a temporall Monarch and that the Church is become a vineyard to make him drunke and a flocke to feed him with her owne bloud All which considered I do thinke verily that they who intend to write against him and to accuse and calumniate as he sayth his departure from them will hardly be able to produce more pregnant and vehement arguments to shew that he was expulsed and driuen forth by the Diuell then he himselfe hath derected in his owne discourse which he maketh to proue that he was sent away by God Almighty For besides his leuity and inconstancy without any cause suspecting the Catholike Church to be erroneous his disobedience and Apostasy in forsaking his Order his ābition in seeking one preferment after another being most vnworthy of any his vniust contention with those that were vnder him he paynteth out his owne malice and euny against the Pope togeather with the occasions therof in such manner as if he desired the whole world should take notice of it Whereunto if we adde his extreme pride which he discouereth in the manner of his conuersion disdayning to read any booke or to speake with any man about it and in all the passages of his former natration also in that which followeth where he sayth that he hath no Superiour aboue him making himselfe equall with the Pope in spirituall matters and in authority to reprehend and amend all other Bishops What can be imagined that his aduersaries will bring against him which himself vnder the pretence of his own prayse hath not heere confessed Tatianus the authour of the Encratite Heresy as Nicephorus reporteth being blowne great with the swelling opiniō of much learning Niceph. l. 4. hist c. 4. as Superiour to others in knowledge began to promulgate a particuler doctrine This man contemning the counsel or help of others protesteth to promulgate that doctrine which he neuer receiued of any Thebutes one of the seauen first Arch-heretikes depraued the virginity of the Church Euseb l. 5. cap 5. as Eusebius reporteth because he had the repulse in his suit for a Bishopricke This man seeketh to defame the Church because he was ouerthrowne in his sute against the Bishops that were vnder him Nouatus Valentine Niceph. l. 5. cap. 4. and Aerius separated themselues from the Church Tertull. Epiphan her 75. because they could not obtaine to be Bishops of Rome as Nicephorus Tertullian and Epiphanius do record And this man deuydeth himselfe from the same Church because he would not be subiect to the Bishop of Rome Now therefore to go forward this zealous man by those two occasions of discontentment cōming to read the Fathers and other records of the Catholike Church with those spectacles of Pryde Ambition Malice and the rest whereof I haue spoken before let vs see what he findeth in them For now he saith that his eyes were opened and that he saw easily plainely and perfectly that the Churches whome Rome had made her enemyes which are very many saith he did differ little or nothing frō the pure doctrine of the ancient Church That in Rome there are coyned euery day innumerable articles of Faith without any foundation with extreme violence That Rome hath puld out the eyes of the Church of Christ by suppressing the sacred Councells That the Catholike Church is now confined to be made the Court of Rome That in it nay in the Pope alone the whole spirit of Christ promised to the Catholike Church is belieued to reside That whatsoeuer hath been spoken heertofore in honour of the vniuersal Church is now most wrongfully inforced vpon the Court of Rome alone whereof it followeth that the soules of men being thereby miserably deceiued and blinded they fall togeather with their blind guydes into the pit of perdition Thus he these are the principall causes which he setteth downe for the chang of his religiō But what proofe what euidence what instance what reason or probability doth he alledge to persuade his reader of the truth of these things or any of them truely none at all but only this that himselfe sayth it A man altogeather a stranger to you no way recommended either for wisedome honesty or learning but rather if not iustly to be suspected of worse yet at the least to be iustly condemned of that extreme Malice Pryde and Vanity of hart which himselfe discouereth If any man be made of such rotten earth as to suffer this Ignoramus to set in him such leekes as these without any other stick but with his finger or to shew himselfe such an vncouered pot as I said before as to receiue what liquor soeuer this strang Bishop should please to infuse into him such a one is worthy to be guld indeed by this Dalmatian But he that is wise should cōsider at least with what false eyes he found these things if it be true that he hath read any part of the Fathers the Canons and the Councells as himselfe reporteth For he that considereth this will no more belieue him though he should speake as he thinketh which I thinke he doth not then he will belieue the Father of lyes that doth delude him If the question had been whether or no he would haue sayd as much as here he doth he had indeed conuinced his reader and confounded all those that should haue writ against him But the question being not what he could say but what he could proue and whether it be true that he sayth and intending as he doth to arme his reader against the accusations that are like to come against him to make it manifest that his spirit is from God and in fine to edify all the world with his narration you must needes graunt that he sheweth extreme weaknes in making no better defence no
lesse pouerty of meanes and matter in buylding without a foundation as much want of proofe to persuade in giuing you nothing but wordes insteed of other substance But you will reply whatsoeuer he sayth here he promiseth to proue and pursue hereafter in his Booke of Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth I pray you were it fit that when a souldier cometh into the feild to fight he should come without weapons and should thinke either to ouercome his aduersary or to satisfy the beholders of his prowesse by saying that he hath an excellent sword a making Were it not absurd that a Scholler comming to dispute of any Probleme should thinke to satisfy the arguments of his aduersary or to perswade his auditours that the truth were of his side by affirming that he would or that he had composed a great volume of that matter This booke being made by the Bishop to proue his spirit to disproue his aduersaryes and to approue his change of Religion to all those that should here thereof now was the tyme to vse his Weapons to shew his Wisedome and to bring forth his euidence And therefore if he sayle of his proofes it is an euident signe that he is altogeather destitute and vnprouided of them Neither is it true which he sayth That when his worke cometh forth whatsoeuer he hath heere affirmed shal be there proued For how will he proue that Rome hath coyned not a 100. or a 1000. new articles of Fayth in one day but as he sayth innumerable and that euery day How will he proue that the Church of Rome suppresseth the Councells Doth it not make them a rule of Fayth hath it not alwayes preserued them doth it not mayntayne and defend them from the calumniations and contradictions which the Heretikes of these dayes oppose against them How will he proue that we belieue the whole spirit of Christ to remayne in the Pope alone and that all which hath been sayd heretofore in the honour of the vniuersall Church must be applyed to the Court and Pallace of the Pope alone Do we belieue that to be Catholike one holy visible to haue conuerted Nations and Kingdomes which are some of the supernaturall prayses and excellencyes of the Catholike Church whereby she shyneth like the sunne in the Firmament aboue all other Congregations or assemblyes Do we belieue I say as an article of our Fayth that these things agree to the Pope and his Pallace alone That the Pope or his Court is extended ouer al the world That the Vnity Holynes Visibility and Miracles of the Church and of the Pastors and Saints thereof are only to be found in the Pope and his Pallace and that all other Catholike Nations and Kingdomes are excluded from the participation of these graces can this be proued thinke you And can it stand with the grauity and reuerent authority of a Bishop to affirme these things with promise to confirme them making them also the ground of his conuersion Could any ignorant shamelesse Minister whose learning were nothing els but lying Could any Zani or Counterfait that had been hyred to rayle against the Pope haue spoken more fondly more intemperatly or more absurdly The innumerable new articles whereof he speaketh and the whole doctrine of so many Churches impugned by the Church of Rome which he vndertaketh to defend can surely contayne no lesse then all the points in Controuersy betwene you and vs which are so farre from being decided in his Ecclesiasticall cōmon Wealth that for the greater part of them they cannot be so much as mentioned therin For as it appeareth by his owne description therof the 4. first bookes proue only in effect that all Bishops and their Churches by the Law of God are equall And that neither S. Peter nor the Pope nor the Roman Clergy should haue any Primacy or Papacy or Prehemynence aboue the rest In his 5. and 6. Booke he taketh away all kind of iurisdiction from the whole Church not only in temporall but also in Ecclesiasticall matters In his 7. booke he disputeth of the rule of Fayth In the rest that follow he speaketh of nothing els but only of the temporalityes and immunityes of the Church In the 8. he considereth the external gouernemēt of the Church by Lawes and Canons which if he affirme to be lawfull it is directly contrary to his 5. and 6. booke wherein he reiecteth all kind of Iurisdiction from the Church of Christ So that this great booke wherof he braggeth so much contayneth in effect but one Controuersy alone And he that should proue the Popes Primacy and Supreme Iurisdiction ouer the Church of God should ouerthrow the substance of this whole Volume For thereof it would follow directly that the gouernement of Christs church vpon earth is Monarchicall against his first and second booke that the gouernours of the Church are not equall in authority by the Law of God against his third booke That the Pope and Church of Rome hath preheminence ouer other Churches against his fourth booke That the Church of God hath Iurisdiction both Ecclesiasticall directly and temporall indirectly the latter being necessary for the maintaynance of the former against his 5. and 6. booke That the decree of the Pope as Head of the Church in a generall Councell is a sufficient rule of Fayth against his 7. booke The resolution also of the matters contayned in his 3. other bookes is of no great importance and may easily be deduced from the former conclusion Wherefore if he thinke to discharge himselfe of all other poynts in Controuesy by handling the titles of these bookes alone he shall behaue himselfe like a Banquerupt who insteed of the whole debt should scarce make payment of one in the hundred SECTION VI. Concerning the Popes Supremacy The state of the question is proposed and S. Peters Supremacy is proued by Scripture BVT now as oftentymes it falleth out that vnder the fayre shewes of Banquerupt Merchants vnder their goodly inscriptions of many rich commodityes and dissembling text letters vpon pots packs and boxes there is nothing to be found except perhaps some poore refused brockage that is not salable so to make it manifest that vnder these glorious titles of the ten Bookes which the Bishop promiseth there is nothing contayned but false wares and idle tryfles lapt vp in so many bundles of wast paper And to giue you withall some satisfaction in this one point of Controuersy of the Popes Supremacy the occasion being so fit the labour not great the way so well beaten by others I will briefly set you downe some of those euident proofes wherewith the Catholikes are wont to demonstrate the Popes Supremacy in spiritual matters Whereby also it will appeare how well the Bishop hath spent his 10. yeares in reading of the Fathers whether he haue more attended to his study or to his belly For the greater breuity and more perspicuity in handling this ample and copious matter I will reduce all that I
world God is one sayth S. Cyprian and Christ is one and the Church is but one and the Chayre therof but one founded vpon Peter by the voice of our Lord. Where he sheweth that as Christ is one with God so the Church being founded vpon S. Peter is one with Christ and according to the prayer of our Sauiour to his Father saying That they may be one as we are one And then followeth in S. Cyprian No other Altar or Priesthood can be established whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth Lib. de past c. 13. To which purpose S. Augustine also hath these words For Peter himselfe to whome he commended his sheep as one man should do to another he our Sauiour made one with himselfe that so he might commend his sheep vnto him that is to say as to the other part of himselfe that as one was the head the other might beare the figure of the body to wit of the Church and that like the Brydegrome and the Bryde they might be two in one flesh Whereby he meaneth that S. Peter representing the whole Church as the head vnder Christ was made one with Christ the Supreme head thereof according to his owne words in other places saying That Peter the Apostle in respect of the Primacy of his Apostleship did beare the person of the Church by a figuratiue generality And againe Tract vlt. in Ioan. he is acknowledged to beare the person of the Church in respect of his Primacy and as holding the principality of the Apostleship More expresly In psal 108. Ser de verbis Dom. Ser. 2. de an assum S. Leo declareth this vnity saying For so he Peter was ordinated before the rest as while he is called a Rocke whil he is pronoūced to be the foundation while he is constituted the Porter of the kingdome of Heauen we might vnderstand by the misteryes of these appellations the society which he had with Christ. And yet more fully els where Serm. 3. de an assump As my Father manifested vnto thee my diuinity so also I make known vnto thee thy excellency for thou art Peter that is though I be the Rocke inuiolable the stone of the corner which maketh both to be one I the foundation besides which no man can lay another yet thou also art the Rock because by my vertue thou art made solide to the end that those thinges which by my power are proper to me by participation with thee might be made cōmon with thee and me By which wordes these holy Fathers labour to declare the vnspeakable vnity of Christ and his Church teaching how the head thereof in earth is made one by Gods diuine grace in name in place and dignity with the head in heauen For the further explicatiō wherof you shall vnderstād that the vnity which the Church possesseth by this means doth especially consist in 3. thinges the first is vnity of Iurisdiction or Iudiciall power which that it dependeth wholy of one head vpon earth and of the authority giuen to S. Peter is manifestly proued out of those places of the Fathers wherein he is acknowledged to haue the Primacy to be the head Pastour and gouernour of the vniuersall world which also shal be further cōfirmed when we come to speake of the Popes succession to S. Peter The second is vnity and consent in fayth for the mantainance whereof that solidity and strength was giuen to the fayth of Peter vpon which the Fathers according to the Scripture do aknowledg the Church of Christ to be built so strongly as that the gates of hell shall not preuayle against it And therfore S. Cyprian in his booke de vaitate Ecclesiae hauing declared that the Diuell to diminish the great mulutude of the beleeuers increasing so fast had denised Schismes and Heresyes wherby many were blinded and carryed away discouereth the cause therof in these words This is done sayth he beloued brethren because men haue not recourse to the origine of the truth neither seeking the head nor following the doctrine of their celestiall maister And then expounding himselfe he addeth Our Lord speaketh vnto Peter I say vnto thee Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke c. And againe after his resurrection he sayd vnto him Feed my sheep In which words this glorious Martyr sheweth that according to the doctrine of Christ our maister for the finding out of the truth we must haue recourse to Peter the foundation of the Church and the Pastour therof And thereof he concludeth that albeit the Apostles were all equall in honour and power that is to say of Apostleship yet the Primacy was giuen to Peter that there might be one Church and one Chayre one flock fed by many Pastors with one mynd and consent The like words he also vseth in his epistle to Pope Cornelius where he sayth Lib. 1. ep 3. ad Cornel. For neither from any other cause do Heresyes come vp or Schismes do arise but only from this that obedience is not giuen to the Priest of God and that one Priest for the tyme or one Iudge for the tyme is not acknowlelged in the Church in the place of Christ. Whome if according to the diuine documents of their Maister the whole fraternity obeyed no man would or could moue any thing at all against the colledge of Priests that is to say collected vnited vnder one Priest one Iudge vpon earth in the place of Christ Epist 46. inter epist Cypriani And Pope Cornelius himselfe writing to S. Cyprian signifieth that some being repentant of their Schisme which ignorantly they had made against him confessed their errours in these words We know that Cornelius was elected by God almighty and by Christ our Lord to be the Bishop of the holy Catholike Church c. Our mind was alwayes in the Catholike Church For we are not ignorant that there is one God one Christ one holy Ghost and that in the Catholike Church there ought to be one Bishop so they which is the same in effect with the doctrine related out of S. Cyprian himselfe with which confession of theirs Cornelius sayth that he was much moued willed S. Cyprian to send his letters of the relation thereof to other Churches And to conclude this poynt the saying of S. Hierome is common in euery booke of Controuersy Among the twelue one was chosē that an head being established the occasion of schism might be taken away Thirdly therefore the vnity of the Church is increased and perfected by the vnity in power of Ecclesiasticall Order which as it dependeth of one alone to be rightly conferred so it is more then probable that our Sauiour ordayned it should descend from onealone Epist 1. so I vnderstand with Bellarmine those words of Anacletus that in the new Testament after Christ the Sacerdotall Order came from Peter by which he must meane not the order of Priests who were ordayned by our Sauiour himselfe in
his last supper but of Bishops who according to Anacletus receiued their Episcopal ordination from Peter as Peter receiued the same from Christ Which Innocentius doth signify more expresly saying Innocent epist 91. ep 93. inter epist August From whome Peter ipse Episcopatus the Episcopall power it selfe and all the authority of this name proceeded And againe whensoeuer any matter of fayth is called in question I thinke all our brethren and fellow-Bishops should defer the same to none but to Peter that is to the authour of their name and honour The like words hath Iulius the first in his first epist to the Bishops of the East Which fault you should not haue incurred if from whence you receiued the honour of consecration from thence you had taken the law of all obseruance And the seate of the blessed Apostle S. Peter which is the mother vnto vs of sacerdotall dignity was also the Mistresse of Ecclesiastical discipline Which is further confirmed by S. Leo Leo ser 3. de assump saying If his will were that any thing should be common with Peter and the rest of the Princes meaning the Apostles he neuer gaue but by him whatsoeuer he denyed not to others And againe Epist 89. Our Lord would that the sacrament of this function should so appertayne to the office of all the Apostles that in the most blessed Peter Hom. vlt. in illud sequere me the chief of all the Apostles it should be principally placed to the end that his gifts might be diffused froÌ„ him as it were from the head to all the body With these also notably agreeth S. Cyprian saying (a) Ep. 27. Our Lord disposing the manner or forme of his Church speaketh in the Ghospell and sayth to Peter I say vnto thee that thou art Peter c. And a little after from thence with the changes of tymes and successions the ordination of Bishops the state or forme of the Church doth follow If any body aske me sayth S. Chrysostome how Iames got the seat of Hierusalem I answere that Peter the Maister of the whole world did set him therein These three poynts of vnity in gouernment in faith and in the ordination of Bishops are further confirmed out of S. Cyprian (b) Lib. de vnit Eccle. by his comparisons of the Church to many sunne beams many bowes and many brookes proceeding from the same sunne the same tree and the same fountaine For so sayth he that albeit the Church haue many beames and many branches and many riulets diffused through the world yet there is but one head one origen one mother of all this fecundity Likewise out of the authour of the question of the old and new Testament amongst the workes of S. Apud S. Thomam opusc 1. cont err Grec c. 23. §. Habetur Augustine saying As in our Sauiour were all the causes of maistership so also after our Sauiour they were all conteyned in Peter Also out of S. Cyrill who doubted not to say that as Christ receiued most full power from his Father so also most fully he committed the same to Peter and his Successours And againe vnto no other then vnto Peter but to him alone he gaue quod suum est plenum fully that which was his And briefly the same is gathered out of the vnspeakable vnion which the Fathers acknowledge in the Church of Christ with their head on earth and of her head on earth with her head in Heauen SECTION VIII The conclusion of the first poynt of this Controuersy which is also further confirmed by the Confession of the Protestants themselues AND thus much may suffice for the first poynt of this Controuersy wherein I haue shewed how the Catholikes demonstrate the Primacy of S. Peter by two especiall places of holy Scripture and by the vniforme consent and exposition of the holy Fathers who thereupon do giue such titles and appellations to Peter as are giuen to no other Apostle in particuler but were only communicated by Christ to S. Peter alone who do also expresly teach out of the former places that he was the head the Prince and the supreme gouernour of the Church of Christ and that to him alone in particuler manner was committed the care of his brethen of the Churches and of all the faythfull throughout the world And lastly they agree that the cause of the institution of this kind of gouernement in the Church of Christ was for the mantainance and preseruation of perfect vnity therein as well among the members as also of all the members with the head thereof from whence it deriueth that vniformity of Fayth and that singular vnity both of Iudiciall power and Episcopall order wherewith it shyneth like the Sunne throughout the world A thing so euident that albeit the Bishop could not find it in the Fathers because he looked another way and neuer sawe them or neuer vnderstood them yet the greatest part of the Protestant writers being ashamed to deny a matter so manifest haue thought it better to accuse them then to bely them And namely they reprehend S. Hierome Conturiatores S. Hilary S. Gregory Nozianzâ—n S. Cyprian Origen and in one word many Fathers for affirming the Church to be built vpon Peter reprouing also others for calling him the head of the Apostles M. Fulk and affirming that in these poynts the Church then in those pure tymes was corrupted bewitched and made blynde with errour That many of the ancient Fathers were deceiued and in particuler S. Leo and S. Gregory of whome the last liued about the yeare 590. with the long contynuance of this errour And that the mistery of iniquity wrought in the seat of Rome neer 500. or 600. yeares before them And many Protestants proceed so far as that they do not only confesse but also defend the same as doth M. Doctor Whitegift saying Whitegift Among the Apostles there was one chiefe c. that had chiefe authority ouer the rest that Schisms might be compounded Caluin Who also citeth Caluin affirming that the twelue Apostles had one among them to gouerne the rest Musculus and Musculus in these words the celestiall Spirits are not equall the Apostles themselues were not equall Peter is found in many places to haue beene chief among the rest which we deny not Maister Doctour Couell likewise Couel doth not only defend it but also layeth downe the generall receiued reason therof If this sayth he were the prin ipall meanes to preuent Schismes and dissentions in the Primitiue Church when the graces of God were far more abundant and eminent then now they are Nay if the twelue were not like to agree except there had beene one chiefe among them For sayth Hyerome among the twelue one was therefore chosen that a chief being appoynted occasion of dissention might be preuented c. So he And againe how can they thinke sayth he of the Puritans that equality
would keep all the Pastours in the world in peace and vnity c. For in all societyes authority which cannot be where all are equall must procure vnity and obedience Thus Doctor Couell who goeth further and sayth If it concerne all persons and ages in the Church of Christ as surely it doth the gouernement must not cease with the Apostles but so much of that authority must remayne to them who from time to time supply that charge c. Which also is the doctrine of Melancthon who further confesseth Melanthō that as certayn Bishops are presidēt ouer many Churches so the Bishop of Rome is President ouer all Bishops Luther And Luther himselfe is inforced to acknowledge that for the vnity of the Catholike Church consisting of al Nations with infinite diuersity of māners conditions it was necessary that one should be chosen vnto whome and his Successors the whole world being made one fold might belong or pertayne Cart wright M. Cartwright likewise vrgeth the Protestāt Doctors with their owne argument saying that the peace of the whole Church requireth as well a Pope ouer all Archbishops as one Archbishop ouer all Bishops in a Realme Iacob And to conclue M. Iacob another Puritan sayth if a visible Catholike Church be once aknowledged there is no place in all the world so likely as Rome to be the visible and spring head of the gouernement thereof Protestant Apology See the Protestants Apology tract 1. sect 3. subdiu 10. And thus appeareth the force of this truth which God almighty hath caused to be iustifyed euen by the mouthes of our aduersaries themselues And now by the resolution of this first point alone hauing clearly ouer throwne and disproued whatsoeuer the Bishop can say in the fiue first books of his Commonwealth against the Monarchy Primacy and Papacy of the Church of Rome the succession therof the subiection of other Bishops therūto and in fine against all Iurisdictions of the Church of Christ I come to the explication and proofe of the second poynt concerning the succession of the Bishop of Rome to S. Peter wherein the folly and impudency of this man will be more discouered and his whole Volume of Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth either extant or not extant will be sufficiently answered SECTION IX The continuance of S. Peters authority is proued by Scripture and by the Fathers and by the confession of many Protestants and therof is inferred the succession of the Pope to S. Peter IN the beginning of the former point concerning S. Peters authority I shewed how the Catholiks considered and distinguished a double power in the Apostles of Christ the one extraordinary Apostolicall whereby they had equall Iurisdiction ouer the Church of Christ which is therfore called Extraordinary because it dyed with them for if others had succeeded them therin their successours also by vertue therof had beene all Apostles The other ordinary and Episcopall wherein others were to succeed them for the gouernement of the Church and which in S. Peter alone was supreme absolute and independant but in the rest it was limitted to particuler places and therefore albeit as Apostles they had all equall authority ouer the rest of the Church yet they were not equall amongst themselues but S. Peter by vertue of his supreme Episcopall authority was the chiefe Pastour and head of the rest And now likewise for your greater light in the handling of this second poynt we must distinguish in S. Peter a double Episcopall power the one in particuler proper to the diocesse of Rome wherof he was the immediate Bishop the other vniuersall ouer the whole Church of Christ whereby albeit he be not the immediate Bishop of the particuler Churches yet is he the vniuersall supreme Pastour ouer them all As the Bishop of Canterbury for example although he be the immediate Bishop of Canterbury alone yet as he is Archbishop he hath the care of those other Churches and Bishopricks of our Nation which are vnder his charge This distinction therefore being granted first there is no question to be made but that the Bishop of Rome doth succeed vnto S. Peter as he was the immediate Bishop of that Diocesse For this is euident not only by the catalogue of the Bishops of Rome and tradition of the Church but also by the testimony of all Historiographers and ancient Fathers and in particuler of S. Irenaeus Tertullian S. Hierome S. Augustine Optatus and others as we shal see anone Which being commonly granted by all the learned Protestants because if the supreme authority of S. Peter did not dye with him as the generall power of the Apostles ouer the whole Church did cease with them but remayned and continued in the Church after his death thereof it would follow that the Pope who succeeded him in the one should succeed him also in the other as he who is made Bishop of Canterbury is thereby also made Archbishop and Primate of all the kingdome For this cause diuers Protestants haue affirmed that albeit the Pope do succeed to S. Peter as he was Bishop of Rome yet they deny that he succeeded him in his vniuersall Pastorall function because they say it dyed with him And therefore on the other side if the Catholikes can shew that the Primacy of S. Peter doth still remayne in the Church that being proued there will be no difficulty but that the Pope doth succeed to S. Peter as wel in his Primacy ouer the whole Church as in his particuler authority ouer the Church of Rome especially no other Bishop hauing euer pretended or made claime to that Succession but only the Bishop of Rome Wherefore that the Primacy of S. Peter was to descend and remayne to his successors is proued by these two places of Scripture Matt. 16. Ioan. 21. alleadged for the proofe of his Supremacy For in the first place our Sauiour promised that he would make him the foundation and build his Church vpon him in such manner as the gates of Hell should not preuayle against it Whereby as he signifieth that the Church was to remayne and indure perpetually so much more he promised that the Foundation therof was likewise to remayne from whence the Church it selfe was to receiue her perpetuall strength and duration origen in 16. Matt. Which Origen considering sayd very well that it was manifest albeit not expressed that the gates of Hell cannot preuaile neither against Peter nor against the Church for if they preuailed against the Rock whereon the Church is founded they should also preuaile against the Church it selfe The like also may be easily inferred out of the second place where S. Peter was made the vniuersall Pastour of the sheep of Christ and by consequence the sheep of all ages were commended vnto him and therfore not only to him in person but also to his seat and to his successours represented and contayned in him as in theyr seed and foundation In which
the most Blessed and most Apostolike man the Pope of Rome who is head of all Churches whereby his Apostleship hath pleased to cōmaund that Dioscorus the Archbishop of the Alexandrians should not sit in the Councell all the Councell obayed And afterwards the letters of Pope Leo being read Act. 2. all the Fathers of the Councell sayd so we belieue Peter hath spoken so by Leo. And in the third action Leo is often called vniuersall Patriarch and vniuersall Archbishop And Iutianus one of the Bishops sayd vnto one of the Popes Legates that they held the Primacy of the most holy Leo and desired them as holding his place to giue sentence against Dioscorus wherunto the Councell consented and sentence was giuen accordingly in the Popes name against him In which Councell also Theodoretus who was deposed by a Synod of Ephesus being restored by the Pope was admitted to enter with these words Let the most reuerend B. Theodoret come in and be made partaker of the Councell because the most holy Archbishop Leo hath restored his Bishoprick vnto him S. Thomas of Aquin recitoth out of the same Councell the confirmation of appeales of all Bishops accused of any great cryme to the Pope of Rome and that other things defined by him should be held or receiued as from the Vicar of the Apostolike Throne and that the whole Councel made this acclamation to Pope Leo Let the most holy Apostolike and vniuersall Patriarch liue many yeares Lastly the same Coūcell in their Epistle to Leo confesse him to be their head and they the members speaking of the wickednes of Eutiches after all this say they ouer and aboue he extended his madnes euen against him to whom the custody of the vineyard was committed by our Sauiour that is against thy Apostolicall Holynes and he thought to excommunicate thee that doest hasten to vnite the body of the Church And in cōclusion with many faire words they desire him to grant vnto them that the Church of Constantinople might haue the second place after the Apostolike Sea which notwithstanding he would not grant them nor was it granted by his successours for a long tyme after And thus much of the foure first generall Coūcells which they that receiue them according to the Statute must needs grant that the Pope hath always had Primacy that he is the successor to S. Peter the head of the whole fayth of all the rest of the Apostles and the vicar of Christ the like That his care and study is the ground and foundation of the Church that he is the vniuersall Archbishop head of the Church that no Councells ought to be celebrated without his sentence that it is necessary the Councells should declare vnto him what passed in them that whatsoeuer he defined should be receiued as from the vicar of Christ That causes of great difficulty must be referred vnto him that all Bishops may appeale vnto him to the Church of Rome as to their Mother that he commaundeth in Councells that he may depose Patriarches restore them that be deposed And lastly that the decrees of Councells take no effect without his confent and confirmation SECTION XI The Popes Supremacy is proued out of the point of the infallibility of his doctrine by the Authorityes of the ancient Fathers FOVRTHLY therefore the Catholikes in defence of this doctrine of the Popes Supremacy produce the authorityes of all the ancient Fathers nubem testium a bright and great cloud of witnesses to inlighten the obscurity of fayth in this vale of darknes Which if I should go about to set downe at large I should be infinite Wherefore to contract this copious matter I will alleadg some of those who teach that the authority of the Pope of Rome and the Church of Rome as vnited with the Pope ought to be receiued in matters of Faith whereof it must needs follow that the Pope succeedeth S. Peter and that as vpon S. Peter in respect of his faith so also in his place vpon the Pope the Church is so built in such manner as that the gates of Hell shall not preuayle against it But before I begin I would haue you obserue that it is all one to affirme the sea of Rome to be the Rocke of the Church or the Pope to succeed S. Peter in his Pastorall Office or to giue vnto the Pope any of those titles which are proper to S. Peter as to say expresly that neither the one nor the other can fayle in teaching the true faith because these former assertions and the like do imply that the promise made vnto S. Peter doth belong also to the Pope his seat and that the fayth or doctrine which the Pope teacheth can suffer no defect because according to the words of our Sauiour the stability and duration of the Church dependeth of it And therefore it is manifest that the Fathers do signify thereby that the Church of Rome was not only the true Church in their dayes or that the Pope did not teach any false doctrine in their times as some Protestants seeme to vnderstand them but also that the truth was alwayes to continue therein and that the Pope could neuer erre in matter of Fayth grounding themselues as I haue sayd vpon the promise of Christ to S. Peter and that you may not doubt of this I thought good to proue the supremacy of the Pope out of the infalibility of doctrine which the Fathers acknowledge to be inseparable from the Pope and sea of Rome The first that I thinke fit to produce in this matter is the great Athanasius who withstood himselfe alone the force and fury of foure Emperours and sustained the persecution of all the Arian heretikes and a man may say of all the Easterne world against him He was Patriarch of Alexandria at that tyme the second seat after Rome was a principall man both in the Councell of Nice and also in that of Sardis In which sacred Schooles in respect of his excellent vertues it might perchance be truly sayd that he deserued the place of a maister But it is prayse sufficient that he shewed himselfe a most renowned scholer of those renowned maisters He therfore that had receiued the spirit of the Nicen Councell and wrote according to the sense and doctrine of the Fathers therof saluted Marke the Bishop of Rome in this manner Athan. ep ad Marc. To our most holy Lord venerable with Apostolicall dignity Marke the Father of the holy Roman and Apostolicall seat and of the vniuersall Church Athanasius the Bishops of East health and afterwards in his letters he acknowledgeth the Roman Church to be the Mother of all Churches and vseth also these words We are yours and vnto you with all those committed to our charge we are obedient and euer will be And in his epistle to Felix the second he with the other Bishops of Aegipt do say In tom 1. Concil that they suggest
to his holy Apostleship that it would please him according to his custome to haue care of them that they and theirancestors had receiued help from his holy Apostolike seat that according to the decrees of the Canons they beseech the sayd Apostolike highest seat to giue them help from whence their Predecessours had receiued ordinations rules of doctrine and other helpes that they haue recourse vnto the Roman Church as to their Mother that he was Peter and vpon his foundation the pillars of the Church that is the Bishops say they are set and confirmed that they presume not without his counsell to define any matter of fayth the Canons commaunding that without the Roman Bishop in the more weighty causes nothing ought to be determyned that the iudgment of all Bishops is committed to his seat And they expound the place of Matthew 16. of the Primacy thereof and confirme all that they say with the authority of the Nicen Councell whereupon you must needs grant that none can write a better cōment then those excellent men that were present at it After Athanasius shall follow those other Fathers who haue recorded the succession of the Popes of Rome to S. Peter thereupon compare the fayth of the one with the faith of other the fayth of the Catholike Church with that of Rome in regard of the Popes person in whome the immediate gouernement of that sea the supremacy of S. Peter are both vnited Ireneaeus lib. 3. cap. 3. Ancient Irenaeus scholler to Policarp the disciple of S. Iohn teacheth that the Church of Rome is the greatest and the most ancient that it is knowne to all men founded and established by the two glorious Apostles Peter and Paul and that the Catholikes shewing the tradition which it receiued from the Apostles and that faith which was deliuered to all comming downe by succession of the Bishops thereof euen vnto their tyme they did thereby confound all those that gathered otherwise then they ought by selfe conceit or vayne glory or blindnes or false knowledge Wherein you see he supposeth the true fayth to be preserued in the Roman seat by meanes of the succession of the Bishop therof to S. Peter and S. Paul and that all those are confounded thereby that do hold any contrary doctrine whereof immediatly after he giueth the reason saying For necessarily euery Church must haue recourse and accord with the Church of Rome in respect of her more powerfull principality So that all those that do not accord therewith hauing their principality from the Apostles are vtterly confounded by it And a little after The blessed Apostles sayth he founding and instructing the Church deliuered the Episcopall care of the gouernment therof to Linus setting downe successiuely the names of all the Popes vntill his tyme. Where I would haue you note that he maketh no difference betweene the Roman Church and the Church in generall which he sayth the Apostles instructed and left to Linus Epiphanius also relating exactly the same succession of the Popes to S. Peter Epiphan har 27. addeth that no man should meruaile why the same is so particulerly recounted For sayth he by those thinges that is to say In ancorat circaprinc by this particuler succession clarity is alwayes shewed meaning that the knowledge of this succession was necessary for the clarity and knowledge of the Catholike doctrine And therefore els where he sayth that his succession is the firme Rocke vpon the which the Church is built and that the gates of hell which are Heretikes and Arch-heretikes shall not preuayle against it For absolutely the fayth is firmed in him that receiued the keyes and looseth in earth and bindeth in Heauen So Epiphanius who teacheth plainly as you see that the true Fayth cannot be separated from the Seat of S. Peter S. Hierome likewise (a) Lib. de praescript Eccles in Clemen briefly declareth this succession and notably (b) Epist. ad Dam. deliuereth his sentencè concerning his doctrine Although sayth he to Pope Damasus thy greatnes doth feare me yet thy humanity doth inuite me being a sheep I craue the help of my Sheepheard I speake with the successour of the Fisher and with the disciple of the Crosse I following no chiefe but Christ do associate my selfe with the communion of thy Beatitude that is of the Chayre of Peter Vpon that Rocke I know the Church to be buylt whosoeuer out of this house shall eate the lamb he is prophane whosoeuer is not found in the Arke of Noë shall perish with the floud And a little after he that gathereth not with thee scattereth that is he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist Where most euidently he calleth the Chayre of the Pope the Chayre of Peter and the Rocke of that Church out of which there is no saluation and that he who gathereth not with the Pope is not of Christ but of Antichrist Yea so much he grounded him selfe vpon the authority of the Pope that he affirmed he would not be affrayd to say that there were three hypostases in the Trinity if the Pope should bid him And againe in the end of his exposition of the Creed to Pope Damasus This is the Catholike fayth sayth he most blessed Pope which we haue learned of the Catholike Church wherein if any thing be lesse skillfully or lesse warily set downe we desire that it may be corrected by thee that dost hold the fayth and the seat of Peter But if this our confession shall be approued by thy Apostleship whosoeuer will accuse me shall shew himselfe either to be ignorant or maleuolous or perchance no Catholike but me to be an heretike he shall not proue Where he fignifyeth that none can be heretikes Lib. 1. appol cont Ruff. who suffer themselues to be corrected by the Popes authority And concerning the Roman Church speaking against Ruffinus he sayth What fayth is that which he calleth his If he answere the Roman fayth ergo Catholici sumus then are we both Catholikes where he teacheth plainly the Catholike and the Roman fayth to be the same Lib. 3. appol cont Ruff. And in the same treatise know sayth he that the Roman fayth praysed by the voyce of the Apostles doth not receiue any such illusions although an Angell should teach otherwise then hath beene once preached With S. Hierome must go accompanyed S. Augustine who in his answere to the letters of a certaine Donatist vrging the perpetuall duration of the Catholike Church built vpon Peter according to the promisse of our Sauiour recounteth aboue fourty Popes deducing them successiuely from S. Peter to Anastasius who was Pope at that tyme and then concludeth that in all that order of succession Epist 165. no Donatist Bishop could be found by which discourse he would proue that the Donatists were not the true Church because no Pope or head of the Church was euer Donatist Which in the same place he further confirmeth by
answering a secret obiection that the Pope might erre because a wicked man might be Pope For sayth he though some traytor or Iudas should haue entred into that rancke or order yet this could nothing preiudice the Church nor the innocent Christians or beleeuers for whom our Lord had prouided by saying of euill gouernours do what they say but do not what they do for they say and do not to the end that the assured hope of the faythfull relying it selfe not vpon mā but vpon God or vpon the word of our Sauiour they might neuer be deuyded by tempest of sacrilegious Schism Where he proueth that no euill Pope can erre because if that could be the innocent Christians following our Sauiours commaundment should be thereby deceiued Cont. ep Fundamēti cap. 4. and deuyded in Schisme And therfore he also professeth that the succession of Priests from the seat of Peter vnto the Bishop liuing in his time held him in the Catholike Church making that an argument of the true doctrine therof And comparing the communion of the Apostolike head with the members to the vnion of the mystical vine with the branches In psal cont part Donat. he exhorteth the Donatists thereunto in these words Come brethren if you please that you may be grafted in the vyne It is a grief vnto vs when we see you to lye thus cut off Number the Priests euen from the very seat of Peter and in that order of Fathers see who and to whome each one succeeded That seat is the Rocke which the proude gates of Hell do not ouercome vnder standing thereby that they who were cut off from the communion of that seat and succession were also cut off from the Church of Christ and that according to the promise of our Sauiour neither they nor their errours should be able to prouayle against it Lib. 2. cōt duas epist Pelag. Lib. 1. cont lūli cap. 4. And affirming against the Pelagians that the antiquity of the Catholike fayth was cleerly knowne by the letters of venerable Innocentius the Pope he inferreth that to departe from his sentence was to straggle from the Roman Church making it by this inferrence a certaine signe of departure from the Church of Christ And rebuking a certaine Pelagian Me thinkes sayth he that part of the world should suffice thee meaning for his beliefe in matters of fayth wherein our Lord would that the chiefe of his Apostles should be crowned with a most glorious Martyrdome vnto the President of which Church being the blessed Innocentius if thou wouldest haue giuen care long since in the dangerous tyme of thy youth thou hadst freed thy selfe from the snares of Pelagians For what could that holy man answeare to the Affrican Countells but that which the Apostolike seat and the Roman Church doth anciently hold with other Wherein he teacheth that the definition of the Pope ought to suffice vs and that he cannot determine otherwise then according to the ancient Fayth Optatus likewise recounteth the lyneall succession of the Popes and beginneth the same in this manner Therefore the Chayre is vnited which is the first of her gists therein Peter sate the first to whome succeeded Linus c. numbring the rest vnto Siricius who liued in his tyme. And a little before he sayth it ought to be seene who sate first in the Chayre where he sate And afterwards tho◠canst not deny but thou knowest that the Episcopall Chayre was giuen first to S. Peter in the Citty of Rome wherin Peter the head of all the Apostles sate in which one Chayre vnity ought to be kept of all men Signifying therby that Peter the head of all the Apostles sate first therin to shew that all those that are members of the Church are bound to vnite themselues vnto it Tertullian is also one of those that describeth the Catalogue of the Roman Bishops which he composeth in verse beginning with S. Peter and ending with Higinius Pius Anicetus And in his booke of Prescriptions he sayth thou hast Rome whose authority vnto vs also is ready at hand so giuing his reader to vnderstand that the authority of Rome was an argument euer ready to confute an heretike And thē followeth A Church happy in her state to whō the Apostles powred forth or gaue abundantly their whole doctrine togeather with their bloud meaning no doubt that they powred forth their whole doctrine into it to be preserued therin for euer in respect wherof he tearmeth it happy per excellentiam which Irenaeus doth more fully expresse when he sayth that we must not go to others to seeke the truth which we may easily haue from the Church Irenaeus l. 3. cap 3. wherein the Apostles as it were in a most rich treasure haue layd togeather all those things which are of truth that from thence euery one who will may receiue the same And thus much of those Fathers that do not only set downe the Popes succession to S. Peter Tom. 1. Cōcil ante Concil Calced but also plainly teach that his fayth cannot fayle because he holdeth the place of Peter wherein none of the other Fathers disagree or dissent from thē Petrus Chrysologus in his epistle to Euthiches the Heretike condemned afterward in the Calcedon Councel exhorteth him in this māner We exhort thēe venerable brother to attend attentiuely vnto those things which are written from the most blessed Pope of the Citty of Rome For blessed Peter liuing and gouerning in that his proper seat gaue the truth of fayth to all those that secke it which may serue for a cleere exposition of the words of Tertullian and Irenaeus afore sayd Prosper S. Augustines Scholler inferreth as most absurd Prosp cōt Collit cap. 20. that according to the cēsure of his aduersary Pope Innocentius should haue erred a man sayth he most worthy of the Seat of Peter And likewise that the holy Seat of Blessed Peter should haue erred which spake vnto the whole world by the mouth of Pope Sozimus Cap. 41. And againe that Pope Innocentius strock the heads of wicked errour with the Apostolicall dagger And that Pope Sozimus with his sentence gaue force to the Affrican Councells and armed the hands of all the Fathers with the sword of Peter to the cutting off of the wicked And that Rome by the principality of Apostolicall Preisthood De vocat gentium lib. 2. was made greater by the Arke of Religion then by the Throne of secular power S. Ambrose sayth Ambros cap. 3 1. ad Tim. that though all the world be of God yet his house is sayd to be the Church wherof at this day Damasus is the Rector And els where He demaunded the Bishop sayth he whether he agreed with the Catholike Bishops that is whether he agreed with the Roman Church Orat. in Satyrum In which words he maketh it all one to agree with the Church of Rome and with the Catholike Church And againe he saith
Lib. 1. ep 4. ad Imperatores that the clemency of the Pope should be intreated not to suffer the head of the whole Reman world the Romā Church and that inuiolable Fayth of the Apostles to be disquieted because from thence did flow the Lawes of venerable communion vnto all Saint Cyprian besides that he teacheth as you haue heard the cause of an Heresy Schisme to be Epist 55. ad Cornel. Epist 40. Ib. lib. 4. epist 8. for that one Priest and one Iudge for the tyme is not acknowledged in the Church of God And that there is one chayre buylt by the voyce of our Lord vpon S. Peter that whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth which S. Hierome expoundeth as you haue heard not to be with Christ but with Antichrist being to signify vnto the Pope that one to whome he wrote did communicate with the Pope expounding himselfe he sayth Epist 52. that is with the Catholike Church Where he also maketh it all one to communicate with the Pope and to accord with the Catholike Church And complayning of certayne Heretikes he vseth these words Epist 55. ad Cornelium They are so bold as to sayle vnto the chayre of Peter to the principall Church from whence Priestly vnity doth proceed not considering that they are Romanes whose Faith is praysed by the preaching of the Apostle vnto whome no falshood can haue accesse Giuing thereby to vnderstand that it was in vayne for Heretikes to imagine that the Sea of Peter or the Roman Church could be deceiued by them S. Cyril desired to know of Pope Celestine Cyril ep 18. tom 1. Concil Ephes cap. 10. cap. 14. whether he would communicate any longer with Nestorius the Heretike for that he presumed not to separate himselfe frō him without the Popes knowledge vnto whome Pope Celessine answered that with the authority of his Sea the Popes and with the power of his place as his Vicar he should with all diligence execute the sentence of excommunication c. Whereunto S. Cyril obayed Who also in his booke called the booke of Treasury as S. Thomas doth alledge him hath these words as Christ receiued most full power from his Father Opusc 1. cont err Graec. cap. 32. §. Habetur so also most fully he committed the same to S. Peter and his Successours Againe vnto no other then vnto Peter but vnto him alone he gaue quod suum est plenum the fulnes of his power And againe D. Thom. in catena Matt. 16. according to this promise of our Lord meaning that of the 16. of S. Matthew the Apostolike Church of Peter doth remayne immaculate from all seduction and Hereticall circumuention in the Bishops thereof in the most full Faith and authority of Peter ouer all the Primates of the Churches and their people Againe D. Tho. op cōt Graec. all according to the diuine law bow downe their heads to Peter and the Primates of the world obayed him as our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe And S. Thomas sayth further that it is necessary to saluation to be vnder the Roman Bishop prouing the same out of other words of S. Cyril in the same booke saying Therefore brethren if we follow Christ let vs heare his voyce as his sheep remayning in the Church of Peter which testimonyes albeit now they are not found in that volume of S. Cyrils because as it is knowne many bookes thereof haue perished yet in respect of the authority of S. Thomas no question can be made of the true allegation of them Lastly not to be ouer tedious I will conclude with the testimony of S. Bernard who imploring the Popes authority against a new Heresy then arising saith All dangers and scandalls arising in the Kingdome of God especially which concerne Faith ought to be referred to your Apostleship For I thinke it conuenient that the domages of the Faith should there especially be amended where Faith can feele no defect For this is the prerogatiue of that sea c. SECTION XII The Popes Supremacy is proued by his being priuiledged from errour in doctrine of Faith out of the Authorityes of the Popes themselues HAVING thus proued the Popes Supremacy by the foure first general Councells and by the testimonyes of the Fathers not only in generall but also in the particuler poynt of their infallible doctrine which is most in Controuersy betwene you and vs according as your patience and the straitnes of a letter will permit It is now expedient in this place to shew how the Catholikes demonstrate the same by the authorityes of the Popes themselues For how much lesse the protestants esteem of them so much the more the holy Fathers as you haue seen do magnify and extoll them submitting themselues no lesse to their decrees then to the sentences and definitions of generall Councells Suarez in his answere to the Kings booke alleadgeth the authorityes of more then fourty Popes within the first 600. yeares for the power dignity and succession of their Supremacy Who being men chosen by the spirit of God and of the primitiue Church in respect of their wisedome and excellent gifts for the gouerment thereof and the most of them being declared and acknowledged for Saints and Martyrs by the whole Christian world I cannot tell with what face any man that beareth but the name of a Christian can deny their authority For breuities sake omitting the most and greatest part I will first produce some of those Popes that challenge to themselues the like stability in Faith and doctrine as the Fathers grant vnto them according to the word and promise of our Sauiour made to S. Peter their predecessour and afterwards I will likewise proue their Supremacy in gouernment and Iudiciall power ouer the Church of Christ Fabianus acknowledgeth that he was bound by the diuine precepts and Apostolicall ordinations to watch ouer the state of all Churches Epist 1. That others were bound to know the sacred rites of the Roman Church which was called their Mother Epist 3. ad Hilarium And that he was aduanced to that Priestly height to forbid those things which were vnlawfull and to teach those things that were to be followed Lucius the first in his Epistle to the Bishops of Spayne and France saith Epist 1. that the Roman Church is Apostolike and the Mother of all Churches which was proued neuer to haue erred from the path of the Apostolike tradition nor to haue byn depraued with Hereticall nouelty according to the promise of our Lord saying I haue prayed for thee c. which promise you know can neuer fayle and therefore the Roman Church can neuer erre as being vnited to S. Peter and his successours to whome the promise was made Felix the first likewise sayth that as the Roman Church receiued in the beginning Epist ad Benignū the rule of Christian Faith from her authours or founders the Princes of Christs Apostles so it remayneth vntouched
following Melchiades For these meaning Bishops our Lord reserued to his owne iudgment and this priuiledge he committed alone to the Blessed key-bearer Peter in his place which prerogatiue doth iustly accrew to his sea to hold and inherit the same in all future tymes because euen among the Apostles there was some distinction of power Bonifacius in his 2. epistle to the Bishops of France Bonifacius speaking of the iudgment of Bishops In Apol. 2. pro Athans in weighty causes concludeth thus It is necessary that they be confirmed by our authority Iulius the first in his epistle ad Orientales in the cause of Athanasius the Patriarch of Alexandria Iulius asketh them whether they were ignorant that it was the custome to write vnto his Church if any Bishop were called in question of suspition that from thence that which was iust might be defined And a little after he sayth therof Those thinges which we receiued from the blessed Peter the Apostle we fignify vnto you which I would not haue written imagining that they were known vnto you vnles the facts themselues had troubled you Gelasius in his epistle to the Bishops of Dardania sayth Gelasius That the Church of Rome hath the knowledge of all things through the world because the sea of the Blessed Peter the Apostle hath authority to dissolue whatsoeuer hath beene bound by the sentence of any other Bishops as vnto whome it belongeth to iudge of all Churches neither is it lawfull for any other to iudge of her iudgment Sixtus 2. Epist. 1. Sixtus 2. pronounceth that it is lawfull for Bishops to appeale vnto the Apostolike sea to whose disposition the ancient authority of the Apostles and their successours and of the Canons hath reserued all the greater Ecclesiasticall causes and the iudgment of Bishops because Bishops are blamed that deale otherwise with their brethren then is pleasing to the Pope of that seat Damasus Theod. lib. 5. hist c. 1 Damasus in his epistle to the Bishops of Numidia admonisheth them that they should not permit to deferre vnto him as their head all things which might be subiect to disputation or question as the custome sayth he hath alwayes beene Lastly concerning the ordination of Bishops Leo. Epist 82. Leo writing to his vicar in the East the Bishop of Thessalonia commaundeth that the Metropolitan should certify his vicar of the person of the Bishop that was to be consecrated of the consent of the clergy and of the people that with his authority the ordination which was duly celebrated might be confirmed And S. Gregory in his epistle to Constantia the Empresse Gregorius aduertising her that the Bishop of Salonae a Predecessour of this our fugitiue Bishop who is now with you was ordayned without his knowledge or the priuity of his vicar or legate Responsalis addeth concerning the same facta res est and such a thing is done as neuer hapned vnder any of our former Princes SECTION XIIII The Popes Supremacy is proued by the auncient and continuall practise thereof in the Catholike Church THVS hauing proued the Supremacy of the Pope as well in matter of fayth as in iurisdiction and gouernement by the sentences of so many Popes which according to the doctrine of the Fathers are aboue all exceptions and permit no answere from any man that would be accompted a Catholike It remayneth for the conclusion and most full and absolute proofe of this matter to confirme the same by the receiued practise therof and approued execution of this authority in the Church of God which I will do very briefly because I consider that I haue dwelt too long in this matter already Wherefore concerning Councells it shall be sufficient to say that such as haue resisted the Pope or his Legates in their definitions haue alwayes erred as the second Councell of Ephesus and the Councell of Constantinople in the tyme of Nicolaus the first and that such Councells as were reiected by the Pope haue had no authority in the Church of Christ Whereof Gelasius the Pope giueth many examples in his booke de Anathemate and in his epistle to the Bishops of Dardania And in particuler Theodoretus speaking of the Councell of Ariminum sayth That it ought not to haue any force the Bishop of Rome whose sentence before all other was to be expected not consenting thereunto And in the Councell of Chalcedon Dioscorus the Patriarch of Alexandria was commaunded not to sit amongst the Bishops because he presumed to call a Councell without the authority of the Apostolike seat Epist ad Solitar Quod numquam licuit numquam factum est which say they was neuer lawfull was neuer done And the famous Athanasius speaking of Constantius the Arian Emperour who tooke vpon him to be president in a Councell which he assembled at Millane Who sayth he seeing him to make himself Prince of Bishops in their decrees and president in their Ecclesiasticall iudgment may not worthily say that he is the same abhomination of desolation which was fortold by the Prophet Daniel And as for the sentence of the Pope allwayes receiued in matter of fayth that may suffice which Bellarmine sayth That if for the extinguishing of 7. Heresyes the first seauen generall Councells were called aboue a 100. heresyes haue been extinguished by the Apostolike sea alone with the help of particuler Councells yet I cannot omit to confirme the same by some few examples A Cōtrouersy being risen about the dignity of the holy Ghost Zozomenus recordeth That the Bishop of Rome Lib. 6. cap. 22. being aduertised therof wrote his letters to the Bishops of the East that they should belieue togeather with the Bishops and Priests of the West the Blessed Trinity to be consubstantiall and equall in glory Which being done sayth he and the matter being iudged by the Roman Church all men were quiet and so that Cōtrouersy seemed to haue an end Prosper cōt Collat. cap. 41. S. Prosper sayth that Innocentius of blessed memory stroke vpon the head of the wicked Pelagian heresy with his Apostolicall dagger and that Celestine deliuered our Countrey from that disease And a little after that by his care Scotland was made Christian In the second age or Century of the Church in the tyme of those horrible persecutions the Controuersy of rebaptizing those that were baptized by heretikes began to grow hoat and the tempest was so great that if it did not cast downe some principall bulwarkes of the Church it made the strongest Towers to shake At which tyme in hatred of Heretikes Firmilianus an excellent man with the other Bishops of the East decreed rebaptization in the case aforesayd and that those were to be punished that doubted thereof In Africa S. Cyprian and very many other Bishops ioyning with him in sundry Councells declared their opinions in fauour thereof though they would not condemne the rest of the world that practised the contrary In Aegipt also Dionisius Patriarch
tymes their own bloud their friends and nearest kynred to whome in vertue piety they were not comparable against whome no other cryme could be proued but the ancient religion of Christendome commonly either iustified or not condemned euen in the consciences of those that apprehended them prosecuted and executed the former lawes vpon them and if we might shew vnto them how by this means they haue crucifyed our Sauiour not once or twise but againe and againe for so many yeares togeather in his holy members I cannot but thinke that representing these things vnto them in vertue of that Word which deuideth betweene the soule the spirit the ioints and the marrow awaking in them the guilt of their owne consciences and the feare of Gods iugments we should inforce them to knock their breasts with the Iewes conuerted at the Sermon of S. Peter and to cry out vnto vs with teares of repentance Act. 2.17 Quid faciemus viri fratres men and brethren what shal we do SECTION XVI The absurd and pernicious grounds of the Bishops 10. Bookes and his Christian Commonwealth are further discouered and confuted AND now to returne to our Bishop I thinke by this tyme you perceiue that albeit this little booke of his be great bellyed like the Father yet his other ten bookes conceaued therin are but like so many bladders full of wind which if euer they come forth are like to shame not only himselfe but you also Not only because the former proofes of the Popes Supremacy are in themselues vnanswerable especially admitting as he doth the authority of the Councells Canons and Fathers of the Church but also in respect of that most absurd and most pernicious Position which he maketh the argument of his fifth booke and is indeed the very foundation of his Christian Commonwealth and the mayne ground of his Diuinity wherein he professeth to hold that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church of Christ Iurisdictionem omnem ab Ecclesia procul reijcio all Iurisdiction sayth he I cast far away from the Church that is to say all power and authority to commaund or to make spiritual lawes or to impose any punishment for the transgression of them A miserable deuise no lesse furious then dangerous and no more repugnant to the Popes Supremacy then directly contrary to the Councells Fathers and to the practise of the Primitiue Church in making lawes Canons and imposing censures vpon transgressours directly contrary as well to the institution of Christ in the authority which he gaue to S. Peter as you haue seene as also to the doctrine and proceeding of the Apostles themselues wherof no man that can read the Scriptures should be ignorant Let euery soule be subiect to the higher powers sayth S. Paul for there is no power Rom. 13.1 but of God c. Therefore he that resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist purchase to themselues damnation Rom. 13.5 And a little after Therefore be yee subiect of necessity not only for auoyding wrath but also for Conscience sake Out of which place we may argue thus The Church hath receiued power and authority from God and therefore they that resist the same resist and disobey the ordinance of God and purchast to themselues damnation That the Church hath receiued power and authority to gouerne from Almighty God is to too manifest for so all the Fathers expound the words of our Sauiour to S. Peter Whatsoeuer thou shalt bind c. and to the Apostles Matt. 16.19 Matt. 18.18 whatsoeuer you shall bind c. And that binding signifieth the imposing of some law or commaundment we find in the 23. Matt. 23.4 of S. Matthew They bind sayth our Sauiour burdens heauy and importable vpon the shoulders of men but they with their finger will not moue them and in the same manner the Fathers expound those other words Ioan. 21.11.16.17 feed my sheep of the gouernment of Christs sheep as you haue heard And our Sauiour signifying how much we are bound in conscience to obey our Prelates sayd vnto them Luc. 1◠16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me And againe as my Father sent me Ioā 20.21 so send I you and he that will not heare the Church let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican Act. 16.4 According whereunto it is sayd of S. Paul S. Timothy that passing through the Gittyes they deliuered vnto them to keep the precept of the Apostles and of the Elders 1. Thes 2.23 And to the Thessalonians he sayth You know what commaundments I haue giuen vnto you he that despiseth them despiseth not man but God that gaue his holy spirit vnto vs and if any do not obey our word note him by an epistle 1. Tim. 5. and do not accompany with him that he may be confounded So he writeth to Timothy not to receiue my accusation against a Priest vnder 2. or 3. witnesses And to the Corinthians the weapons of our warrefare sayth he are not carnall but mighty to God 1. Cor. 10.7 vnto the destruction of munitions destroying Councells and all loftynes extolling it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringing into captiuity all vnderstanding vnto the obedience of Christ Act. 15.20 and hauing in a readynesse to reuenge all disobedience c. And in the first Coūcell the Church of Hierusalem made this Decree It seemeth good to the holy Ghost and to vs not to impose any other burthen vpon you but only these necessary things to abstayne from meats offered to Idolls from strangled meats from bloud Can. Apost Can. 62. and fornication And the punishment of those that did eate bloud or strangled meat afterward was so great in the Primitiue Church as that Clarks were deposed and lay men were excommunicated for the same Neither is this most pestilent assertion of the Bishop contrary to Scripture alone and to the Fathers and Councells as hath been shewed but also to the practise and doctrine of the Church of England For I would aske this wild Bishop whether the authority the English Bishops in their spirituall Courts be from God or no If it be then according to S. Paul all men are bound to obey them in that which is iust vpon paine of damnation If it be not then it is no small vsurpation in them to take vpon them such authority whereof the Bishop should do well to admonish them as his friends before he go about to reforme the Catholike Bishops whome he supposeth to be his enemyes In conclusion the necessity of Iurisdiction is so euident in it selfe and the institution thereof so palpable in Scripture that the Puritans themselues who deny the same to Bishops are inforced notwithstanding to challenge so much to themselues as may suffice to excommunicate all those who are obstinatly disobedient in their Congregations And therefore I thinke there is
none but himselfe so drunke at this day with heresy in Christendome as to deny the lawfullnes of all Iurisdiction in the Church of God And as this position is most pernicious to all kind of Churches or spirituall Cōgregations whatsoeuer they be in taking away al obligation of obedience from them so also it is most dangerous to kingdomes and commonwealthes for such as in our tyme haue opposed themselues to the Iurisdiction of the Church haue likewise for the most part denyed their band of obedience to all temporall gouernement And their principall ground or reason is the same in both For no man say they that seeth not another mans conscience can bind the conscience of his brother And that all being made free by Baptisme ought to enioy the liberty of the Ghospell Whereof it followeth that neither sonnes nor seruants nor wyues nor subiects are bound to obay their Superiours for conscience sake but only and at the most either for feare or els for the auoyding of some publike scandall which doctrine if it were once receiued would in short space make Christians worse then Heathens And therefore I marueile how your English Bishops could let such doctrine passe being no lesse contrary to their authority then to the Popes Supremacy and no lesse perillous to themselues then to the gouernement of the whole kingdome vnles perhaps finding their case to be desperate they desire more to offend their enemy then to defend themselues would be cōtent their heresy should sinke so the Catholike Religion might be drowned with it But the Bishop being reputed to haue gotten some learning when he was yong and not being yet so old as to dote for age aboue all it is to be marueiled how he could suster himself to be so much deceiued by the Diuell as to ground his 10. yeares studyes the 10. books of his Christian commonwealth and in a word his whole religion and the saluation of his soule vpon an absurdity so grosse so fowle enormous dangerous to Church and Common-wealth as this is and the strangenes of his illusion is so much the greater because he was so blinded therewith that he saw not how manifestly he was inforced to contradict himselfe not only in other places of this his booke where he grāteth that Christian Princes haue power to do many thinges in the Church and challengeth vnto himselfe I know not what authority ouer Bishops in some cases which should make the Bishop of Canterbury to looke about him but also in the very title of his Booke which he calleth his Ecclesiasticall Cōmonwealth because it doth inuolue a manifest contradiction to this his strange position For vnles it be meerly a dreame and much more fantasticall then Platoes Idaea no man can imagine how any Cōmonwealth should be framed or est ablished without some Iurisdiction or power of gouernement giuen thereunto If he had contayned himselfe within any reasonable bounds and relyed his proofes vpon the Scripture alone interpreting the same according to his own sense how strang soeuer he might perhaps haue made some shift therewith for a while as his fellowes haue done before him But to pretend and contend as he doth that according to the Fathers Councells and Canons there is neither superiority of gouernment in the head nor power of Iurisdiction in the body of Christs Church is an euident signe that as he hath forsaken God so also God in his iustice hath not only forsaken him but also in great part hath taken his wits and reason from him For as S. Augustine sayth of the Prophesyes of the Church that they are more cleere in Scripture then the prophesyes of Christ himselfe because the tryall of all other Controuersyes dependeth vpon the knowledge of the Church so also for the same reason God Almighty in his prouidence hath so ordayned that the Iurisdiction of the Church and the authority of the head therof should be more expresly taught and aboundantly proued by the Doctours Pastours and ancient Fathers then any other point in Controuersy So that he might better haue gone about to proue and maintayne out of the Fathers Canons or Councells that the Sonne is not equall with the Father or the holy Ghost not equall to the Sonne or not proceeding from the Father and the Sonne or that our Blessed Lady ought not to be called the Mother of God or some other of those anciently condemned and rotten heresyes then to proue that there is no Iurisdiction in the Church nor any inequality of gouernment amongst the Pastours thereof And therefore as most impudently he denyeth the latter so it is much to be feared that he faltereth also in the former whereof he giueth many shrewd signes and apparant tokens in this little booke and much more is it likely he will bewray himself in the greater whē it cometh forth For being borne vpon the confines of Turky and Greece in which Countrey those ancient heresyes haue tirannized heeretofore and worse succeeded them in latter ages the suspitions wherewith as he professeth he was troubled when he was yong by all reason were more in fauour of the Easterne heresyes which he knew then of these of the West which he knew not And the bookes of the Arian Greciin heresyes being no lesse forbidden in Italy then the hereticall writers of these westerne parts whereby his suspitions were much more increased it is very probable that they swayed his mind more to that side then to this His maisters also do commonly dispute more against them then against these whome they are content to pretermit in these parts there being no vse of the knowledge of them And therefore by al likelihood his suspitions increased most in fauour of those opinions whereunto he was naturally most affected and wherewith he had more to do and which did more belong vnto him to know then the other did And besides all this that which he maketh his chiefe quarrell against the Pope is only the excommunication and condemnation of those opinions for heresyes which he sayth are not sufficiently condemned by the Church although it be manifest and he denyeth it not that they haue byn condemned by generall Councells And that inborne desire of peace Pag. 35. and vnity which he pretendeth of the East and West seemeth to consist in nothing els but only in permitting euery Bishop at the least to abound in his owne sense and to hold what he list as long as he doth not separate himselfe from the rest nor condemne their opinions And lastly to returne to the matter which we haue in hand by taking away all Iurisdiction from the Church of God he maketh voyd and repealeth the Anathema and excommunication of all former heretikes and by condemning the Fathers and Councells for condemning them without iudiciall authority he restoreth them all to their first pretended pleas and old forged titles And the renewing of these ancient censures condemnations of Heretikes by the Churche of Rome at this
the Pelagian they condeÌ„ned the denyall of exercisme and exsufflation vsed in Baptisme In Proclus they condemned the affirming that the sioue of Comupiscence was not taken away by Baptisme but only cast a sleep by Faith In the Donatiste they condemned the euer throwing of Altars and the easting away of sacred Chrisme for what is so sacrilegiaus sayth Optatus as to breake raze Optatus l. 6. cont Donatist and remoue the Altars of God wheren on you your selues haue some tyms offered c. For what is the Altar but the seat of the body and bleud of Christ All these your fury hath razed or broken or remoued c. what had Christ offended you whese body and bloud as tertayne ordinary tymes did dwell opens 〈◊〉 What haue you offended your serues also that you should breake these Altars c Epiphan haer 64. 70. In the Origenists they condeÌ„ned the affirming that Adam had lost the image of God according wherunto he was oreated In the Nouations the deniall of Chrisme or CoÌ„firmation to the baptized by a Bishop And lastely Euseb hist lib. 6. c. 35. Theod. l. 4. haer Pab Aug. in psal 〈◊〉 â—oâ—e 2. not to be ouer tedious with this discourse In the Donatists and Luciferians they coÌ„demned the denyall of the Churches continuing visible wherupon S. Augustine cryeth out and sayth O impudentem vocem o impudent voyce I omit that vnion and communion with the Pope and his sea which the Fathers do teach to be necessary for saluation because I haue treated thereof in sundry places before whereunto I will adde one testimony more in this place out of S. Cyprian the Bishops great friend Cypr. de vnitate Eccles as he pretendeth who teaching as you haue heard that in the Church of God there is one Priest one Priesthood one Altar one Iudge one Chayre built vpon Peter that whosoeuer gathereth els where scattreth which S. Hierome expoundeth not to be of Christ but of Antichrist in his booke de vnitate Ecclesiae he maketh this interrogation He who keepeth not the vnity of the Church doth he thinke that he keepeth his fayth He that resisteth and striueth against the Church he that forsaketh the Chayre of Peter vpon the which the Church is founded doth he presume that he is in the Church Sâ—nce the blessed Apostle S. Paul doth teach and shew this Sacrament of vnity sayings one body one spirit one hope of our vocation one Lord one Fayth one 〈◊〉 one God Where S. Cyprian teacheth notably all these vnityes to be one and the same with the unity of the Church and with the Commâ—â—…on of the Chayre of Peter Thus the Fathers of the first 500. yeares wherein it is also to be noted that none of them was impugned or contradicted by the other wherby it appeareth that it was the generall verdict and sentence of them all and therefore you must needs grant that he is in a very miserable and most fearefull case who standeth so generally cast and deeply condemned by them For of the Fathers of the Catholike Church the words of our Sauiour must needs be specially vnderstood where he sayth He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you Lue. 10.16 despiseth me Wherfore if the sentence of the Fathers be as the iudgment of Christ himselfe Rom. 8.33 then as S. Paul asketh who shall be able to condemne those whome God doth iustify so giue vs leaue to aske you who shall iustify those whome God condemneth They therefore that tell you all is well and that your Religion dissereth little or nothing from the doctrine of the primitiue Church albeit they may haue the name of Bishops yet are they no better theÌ„ wolues in sheeps clothing and so many false Prophets sent out to sow pillowes vnder your elbowes and to lull you so fast a sleep in sinne and heresy that nothing but the fire of hell when it wil be too late shal be able to awake you SECTION XVIII The dissent of the Protestants from the Fathers is proued out of the Protestants themselues condemning the Fathers THIS Condemnation and Censure of the Protestant doctrine by the voyce of the Fathers being of such great force as well for the gayning of any well meaning soule who is not will fully obstinate but of the nuber of those that shal be laued as also for the eternal confusion of others who with intollerable pride of mind and presumption of spirit condemne the vniforme consent of Fathers to iustify their owne opinions it hath pleased God that it should be so confirmed by the testimonyes and confessions of the Protestants themselues that neither the brasen face of this Bishop nor of any other though more shamelesse and impudent then the Diuell himselfe should be able to make doubt of it or to call it againe into question Attend therfore and admire the Luciferian arrogancy of your owne Doctours in condemning the Ancient Fathers on the one side and the obdurate impudency of this out-cast Bishop in affirming that the Fathers dissent not from them on the other And to beginne with the most ancient S. Dionysius Arcopagita is coÌ„demned to haue (a) Luther in Com. ad 1â— 14. Deut. incap Bab. written bookes most like to dreames and most pernicions and for (b) Caus dial 5. 11. a doting old man S. Ignatius to haue (c) Caluin inst l. 1. c. 13. nuÌ„ 29. deformed moales and filthy gigs in his epistles S. Irenaeus that (d) Cent. 2. cap. 5. he set forth a phanaticall or a furious frantick thing and the Fathers of that age (e) Cent. 1. l. cap. 10. sequen to haue left blasphemys and monsters to posterity Tertullian (f) Perkins probl pag. 184. and Cyprian for Montanist Heretikes or at least for hauing erred filthily in making Confirmation a Sacrament S. Irenaeus (g) Middleton Papistom p. 179. 180. Hilary and Epiphanius for Pelagian heretikes in defending Free-will S. Siluester (h) Luther in Colloq mensal wotton in defence of Perkins p. 402. Beza in c. 3. ad Roman that baptized Constantine accused to be Antichrist Origen (i) Caus dial 2. Cartwright in M. Whitgifes deféce pag. 352. for accursed and generally condemned a chosen instrument of the Diuell S. Augustine (k) Middleton Papistom p. 136. 618. numbred for one among other Fathers that were doting foolish men deuoyd of the spirit of God and therefore vnworthy that any man should giue them credit And that to allow S. Augustines rules is to bring in all Popery S. Cyprian (l) Caus dial 8. 11. Cent. 3. cap. 5. to be stupide destitute of God and a deprauer of pennance Nazianzen (m) Caus dial 6.7.8 to be a prating fellow and that he knew not what he sayd S. Ambrose that he had the Diuell dwelling within him and that for teaching Transubstantiation he was guilty of presumtuous and desperate blasphemy S. Hierom (n)
Luther in Coloq c. de Past Eccl. Beza ad cap. 13. act Apost Caus dial 6.7.8 that in his writings he had not one word of Faith true ReligioÌ„ that he was manifestly blasphemous impious and intollerable bold in the detorting of Scriptures that if he perseuered in his opinions he was no lesse damned then Lucifer That (a) Cartwrigh in his Reply pag. 562. Damasus spake in the Dragons voyce That (b) Perkin Probl. p. 93.94 Paulinus Fortunatus Fulgentius Petrus Damianus were stayned with sinne and guilty of Sacriledge That (c) Whitaker de Cone coÌ„t Bell. p. 37. Beza in confes Geneuen c. 7. sect 11. Perkins vbi supra S. Leo was a great Archeretike of the antichristian kingdome that he breatheth out the arrogancy of the Antichristian Roman sea That (d) Luther in Colloq mens c. de patr Eccl. S. Basil was of no worth and was wholy a Monke (e) Luther in Colloq Germ. p. 499. Melauth in cap. 14. ad Rom. That S Gregory was grossly deceiuedly the Diuell and he that fell into open impiety tyranny And of the Fathers in general Schastianus Franeus (b) In epist de abrogandis in vniuersuÌ„ omnibus statis Ecclesiasticis concludeth that presently after the Apostles tyme all things were turned vp side downe c. and that for certayne through the worke of Antichrist the externall Church togeather with the faith and Sacraments vanished cleane away preâ—eÌ„tly after the Apostles departure D. Downham (c) Down treatise of Antichrist 〈◊〉 2. c. 2. affirmeth that the generall defection of the visible Church foretold 2. Thessal 2. began to worke in the Apostles tyme. M. Fulke (d) Fulk answere to a Counterfait Catholike pag. 35. auerreth that the true Church decayed immediatly after the Apostles tyme. Luther (e) Luther l. de seruo arbitrio VVitemb pag. 434. presumed to say that vnlesse the Fathers repented and amended they were neither Saints nor Members of the Church Caluin (f) Lib. 3. inst cap. 3. num 10. saith that the Fathers were carried away with errour Peter Martyr (g) De votis pag. 476. refrained not to say as long as we do insist vpon the Councells and Fathers we shall alwayes be conuersant in the same errours Beza (h) In his preface to the new testameÌ„t dedicated to the Pr. of Condy. affirmeth that in the best tymes Sathan was president euen in their assemblyes and Councells Cartwright (i) Cartwright l. 1. p. 5.13 154. affirmeth that seeking in the Fathers writings is a raking in ditches a mouing and sommoning of hell a mensuring of truth by the crooked yard of tyme. Whitaker (k) Cont. Duraeum l. 6. p. 423. auoucheth the Popish religion to be apatched couerlet of the Fathers errours sowed togeather Doctor (l) HuÌ„ph in vita lewel p. 212. Humfrey did grieuously reprehend M. Iewell for his so bould appealing to the Fathers affirming that M. Iewell herein gaue the Papists too large a scope was iniurious to himselfe and after a manner spoyled himself and the Church And M. Fulk (m) Pulk Reioynder pag. 4. Aug. coÌ„t Iul. l. 1. c. 2. De verbis Apostol serm 14. lib. 2. cout Iul. 6.10 being charged with M. Iewells confession in his reioynder to M. Bristowes reply sayth I answere if he charge me with the contynuing of the Church in incorruption for 600. yeares next after Christ he lieth in his throate Thus as S. Augustine saith they persecute those with hostility whom they should follow with fidelity which we cannot impute to their ignorance but to their impudency Alas they kick against they prick and as he sayth againe they push against that wall which will break them to peeces what the Father 's deliuered that they receiued and therfore as Tertullian noteth very well Tert de praesc c. 28. to condemne them is nothing els but to condemne the Apostles and Christ himselfe that taught them SECTION XIX That the Protestants dissent very much from the doctrine of the pure Church is proued out of the Protestants themselues condemning one another LIKE as a peece of earth deuyding it selfe from a high Mountayne and falling downe is againe deuyded into many peeces wherunto it breaketh or as the Kingdome of this world which was giuen by God to our Father Adam being separated by him from the obedience and from the Kingdome of God fell preent thereupon into many factions and was afflicted with many contrarietyes of Angells and men and beasts and Elements and the foure humours of the body and of sense and reason one against the other so it fareth with those that deuide themselues from the vnity of the Citty set vpon the mountayne and from the Kingdome of God which is the Church of Christ For now being destitute of that publick and inuincible authority which Christ hath ordayned to keep the members of his body in which they must needs deuyde themselues one from another euery man abounding in his owne sense and in the self pleasing loue of his owne iudgement The examples whereof haue been such in this miserable age as nothing is more to be admyred or lamented then to see so many Sects and diuersityes of opinions in these tymes as perchance do surmount the number of all the heresyes of former ages put togeather The most notorious heere with vs are the Lutherans the Protestants the Puritans and the Brownists Protest Apology pag. 502.503 504.684 The Lutherans differ from other Protestants in 33. seuerall articles whereof in particuler haue written Schlusselburg Osiander and Samuel Haberus The Lutherans are againe subdeuided into very many sects and the Protestants into more then seauenty seuerall opinions of most important matters the most of them set downe by M. Doctor Willet in his meditation vpon the 122. Psal printed anno 1603. pag. 91. Wherefore as sinne is punished with it selfe so it is the nature of falshood to ouerthrow and confound it selfe Which as it appeareth to be true in the infinite contrariety and confusion of doctrine among the Protestants themselues so alse it wil be manifest in the bold assertion of this vayne man which we haue now in hand And therefore hauing shewed already that to be most contrary to the Fathers which he sayth he hath found in the Fathers and that both by the testimony of the Fathers condemning the Protestants doctrine for heresy and also by the Protestants themselues who spare not to reuyle and blaspheme the Fathers before I conclude this whole matter you shall also heare both him and them condemned out of their owne mouthes Wherfore supposing that our Bishop is now a perfect English Protestant and that he belieueth his owne words to be true affirming those Charches which Rome hath made her aduersaryes to differ little or nothing from the ancient pure and true doctrine of the Church of Christ I argue in this manner The Church which followeth Luthers doctrine Luth. tom Witemb f. 381.382
differeth little or nothing from the pure doctrine of Christ But Luther his disciples teach that all Sacramentaries or such as deny Christ to be taken with the mouth in the blessed Sacrament are Heretikes alienated from the Church of God who driue away and kill the sheep of Chritt that their errour Ioan. Schutz in 50. Cans in praefat Tigurni in prafat Apol. Tig. tract 3. cont supremam Luth. confes p. 61. is a blasphemous defence of many horrible heresyes an abnegation of the power and truth of Christ and a preparation to Nestorianisme Arianisme and Turcisme That their breast is insathanized supersathanized persathanized that their mouth is oueruled by Sathan being infused perfused and transfused into the same Therefore it differeth little or nothing from the pure doctrine of Christ to hold the Bishop and is fellowes who are Sacramentaryes to be heretiks alienated from God deceiuers and killers of the sheep of Christ c. Secondly I argue in this manner Caluin in admonit vlt. ad Westfalū cont Hesshusiā according to the doctrine of Caluin which differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell Such as refuse to condimne the opinions of Luther are malepers wicked furious heretikes and slaues of the Diuell But the Bishop doth not condemne the opinion of Luther therefore according to that doctrine which differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell the Bishop is a malepert wicked furious heretike c. Thirdly in the behalfe of the Puritans I argue thus The doctrine of the Puritans according to the Bishop differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell But the Puritans affirme (e) Dangerous positions l. 2. c. 9. 11. that the Protestants put no difference betwixt truth and falseshood Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell that their Clergy are an Antichristian swynish rabble and the enemyes of the Ghospell Therefore it differeth nothing from the purity of the Ghospell to affirme that the Bishop being a Protestant putteth no difference betwixt truth and falshood Christ and Antichrist God and the Diuell c. To be short Bernard Minister of VVorsop in his book of the Separists Schisme p. 71. in the behalfe of the Brownists his other yonger brethren I argue thus The Brownists according to the Bishop do not dissent from the purity of the Ghospel But the Brownists affirme that the Ministers of the Church of England are Aegiptian inchanters lymms of the Diuell Sycophants Angels of hell an Antichristian Clergy Therfore it differeth little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell to affirme that the Bishop being now a Minister of the Church of England is an Aegiptian inchanter a limme of the Diuell a Sicophant c. Lastly in the behalfe of the Protestants against the Puritans I argue thus The Protestants doctrine according to the Bishop differeth little or nothing from the purity of the Ghospell But the Protestants affirme Ormerode dis ouery of Puritan Papisme dial 1. f. 5. that the Puritans who are the Bishops brothers in Christ and make one Church with him haue ioyned themselues with the Pharisies Apostolikes Aerians Pepuzians Petrobusians Floriniās Cerinthians Nazarens Begardines Ebionists Catabaptides Euthusiests Donatists Iouinians and Catharists Therfore the Bishop is a Pharisy Aerian c. Neither are these the dissentions of priuate men alone whose quarells the Bishop hath vndertaken Protest Apology pag. 505. but of whole bodyes Countreys and Societyes who haue mutually opposed themselues with such rage and fury as that they not only condemned but also banished ech other for heretiks from their seuerall Dominions prohibiting bookes making articles of Inquisition examining imprisoning entring into open armes one against another the Lutherans in particuler vsing cruelty euen to the dead corps of the Caluinists The Church of England hath decreed as you know that Whosoeuer shall affirme any of the 39. Articles agreed vpon in the yeare of our Lord 1562. to be in any part erroneous or such as may not with a good conscience be subscribed vnto is ipso facto excommunicated and not to be restored but after repentance and publike reuocation of his wicked errour whereunto it is euident that the Lutherans will neuer subscribe Luth. tom 7. Witēb f. 382. Luth. de coena Domini Tom. 2. Germ. fol. 174. their Father Luther hauing layd a curse vpon all Charity and Concord with the Sacramentaryes for euer and euer to all eternity And a little before his death he protested that hauing now one of his feet in the graue he would carry this testimony and glory to the Trybunall of God That he did contemne and eschew the Sacramentayes with all his hart and that he would not haue any familiarity with them neither by letters nor by words nor deeds accordingly as the Lord had commounded And Eccard a Lutheran sayth it is manifest Eccard in fasciculo Cont. in praefat ad Ducē Sax. that the diuinity of the Lutherans Caluinists can neuer be reconciled and that none but a most light Epicure can affirme that the differences betwene them are but light For sayth he they are most weighty and concerne the foundation both of Churth fayth Schlussch l. 2. Theol. Caluinist art 8. And Schlusselburge hath the like with others The like may be sayd of the Puritans in Genena France Flaunders and other places who do all oppose themselues against the Supremacy of the King in spirituall matters and against the Episcopall Hierarchy of the Clergy of Englād Whom also the Puritans of England haue intituled the Reformed Church and prepose them to the Parliament for example of imitation Two of the chiefe articles of the Scottish Puritās be these first Bishops Archbishops haue no authority their very names he antichristian and diabolicall Secondly it is Heresy for any Prince to call himselfe head of the Church T. C. reply p. 144. but he may be excommunicated and deposed by his Ministers Thomas Cartwright sayth that the English Puritans are bound to defend their doctrine with losse of as many liues as they haue hayres on their heads And that Princes must submit their Scepters and throwe downe thir Crownet and licke the dust of their feet Our English Puritans in their admonition to the Parliament Admonit tract 2.3 complaine that there is no right religion nor so much as the outward face of a Church rightly reformed in England That the titles of Bishops were deuised by Antichrist plainely forbiden in Gods word And at last they conclude desiring God to confound all them who will not allowe of their admonitions and holy Eldership That say they his peace may be vpon Israel Tract 23. and his sauing health vpon this Nation So that you see into what straytes this Protheus is brought Into what forme of religion soeuer he shift himselfe of those which he defendeth Lutheran Protestant Caluinist or Puritant he is euery where taken reuiled reiected and condomned Wherefore that from hence forward
is not able to comprehend it yet is it not coÌ„trary vnto reason but so agreable thereunto that it maketh vs euidently to see and confesse how much we are bound in conscience to imbrace it and to captiuate our vnderstanding vnto the obedience of it And therfore it is further to be considered that the ponderations and inducements which make men Catholiks are commonly the same with those that make men Christians In which respect as all Christians are bound to know them more or lesse according to their capacity so none can reâ—ect or coÌ„demne them without contempt of Christianity being of such importance therunto as that ChristiaÌ„ Religion caÌ„not stand without them Wherfore that you may the better conceiue what difference there is betweene shewes and substance truth errour light and darknes hauing examined the Bishops grounds published in fauour of your Religion I will heere propound and declare vnto you some generall motiues in the befalfe of our Catholike doctrine The first thing therfore that we will consider shal be the holynes and sanctity of the Catholike Church which laying a sound foundation of obedience and Humility in the harts of her children teaching them before all thinges to captiuate their vnderstanding and to subiect their will in matters concerning their soule to their spirituall Pastours goeth forward with them prescribing them other lessons first of Contrition which consisteth in the loue of God aboue all things that are to be beloued and in the hatred of their owne sinnes with sorrow for them aboue all things that are to be hated Secondly of confession calling themselues to a strict accompt for all their sinnes past in the bitternes of their soule remembring euery sinne in particuler accusing themselues intierly of them to their spirituall Father Thirdly of satisfaction in doing pennance for their offences against the Maiesty of God in making amends for iniuryes done to others and in restitution of other mens good name whom they may haue defamed or goods which they haue wrongfully taken or detayned By which meanes hauing reobtayned the fauour and loue and grace of God and thereby being inabled and strengthned to do his will and to keep his Commaundements they are afterward exercised in all kind of vertue And lastly such as wil be perfect the Catholike faith leadeth further on and giueth them yet a higher lesson teaching them to renouÌ„ce the riches the pleasures and the vayne glory of this world and to offer themselues vp a perfect Holocaust or Sacrifice to Almighty God by consecrating themselues wholy to his seruice in the state of Chastity voluntary Pouerty and perpetuall Obedience vnder the will of their Superiour From which heauenly doctrine deliuered vnto them by Christ himselfe haue proceded those excellent effects of Godly life which the Protestants themselues haue commended in them Centur. 7. cap. 7. colum 181. As the bestowing of almost the whole day inprayer their obedience to the Magistrate their amity and concord easily remitting iniuryes carefull to spend their tyme in honest vocation and labour curteous and liberall to the poore and to strangers and in their iudgments and contracts most true and faithfull Vpon the same foundations also haue been raised all those notable and famous workes of mercy which some Protestants otherwise no friends of ours haue obserued in our Countrey and propounded them to their Protestant brethren for example of Imitation their memorable buildings and ancient Monuments Churches Chappell 's and other Religious houses numbers of goodly Bridges Almes-houses Hospitalls and Spittles High wayes Pauements and Cawseys Famous Colledges Halls Vniuersityes Scholes and Free-scholes Thus M. Stubs who was such an enemy to Catholikes that rayling against them in very many places among other opprobrious speaches he tearmeth them Blasphemers and sacrilegious Papists From this doctrine also hath proceded the in finite number of those that forsake all they haue abandoning the world and entring into religion and many amongst them haue left their large possessions offices and dignityes Crownes and Septers to take vp their Crosse and follow Christ Hence hath proceded that austerity of life aboue the course of nature which the world admyreth in many of them and could not be otherwise supported but only by the vnspeakable consolations and infinite ioyes wherwith it pleaseth God to 〈◊〉 and require them for there extraordinary seruice And to omit their excellent bookes of piety and deuotion and perfect kynd of knowledge in all kynd of learning hence also procedeth that great zeale of the saluation of others forsaking their Countreys induring great labours and exposing themselues to all kind of imminent daungers in the conuersion of other Countreys though neuer so far remote neuer so cruell fierce on barbarous To conclude out of this Schoole haue proceded those infinit nuÌ„bers of Saints and Martyrs among whom we reckon aboue fourscore of the bloud Royall of England besides infinit numbers of our owne Nation And this age of ours hath not fayled to bring forth great plenty of the same fruites in our owne and in forrayne Countreys whose imminent vertues it hath pleased God to recoÌ„mend to the world with his Letters Pattents and broad Seale of supernaturall effects and the ostension of many myracles These vertues therefore of Humility Obedience Pennance Prayer Amity Liberality Iustice Chastity Pouerty Patience Holinshed last Edit part 1. pag. 100. Austerity vpon there owne bodyes Charity and Zeale in the conuersion of others were the arguments wherewith S. Augustine the Monke conuerred our an cestours and wherewith as the Apostles in the Primitiue Church so now the Iesuits and other Religious men of this tyme do ouercome the ignorance of the barbarous the fallacies of Hereticks the pollicyes pryde and ostentation of worldly wisedome in the conuersion of sundry Nations to the Faith of Christ For being sent by the ordinary meanes which God himselfe hath appoynted in his Church and out of obedience to their superiours to preach the Ghospel which in effect is nothing els but this good news that all men of what state or condition soeuer rich or poore whole or sick at liberty or in thraldome may easily attaine vnto perfect felicity hauing grace abound antly offered vnto them through the Fayth meries of Iesus Christ to become the sons of God in this life by louing him and keping his Commaundements and to enioy him in the next by seing him eternally as he is the absolute perfection of infinit vertue in himselfe and the indeficient fountay no of infynit goodnes to those that behold him all men that heare and see such Preachers may easily know them to be sent from God and as the Propher sayd of them to be the seed whome God hath blessed by the workes of God which they do and by that most diuine doctrine of theirs and most Angelicall perfection of life which they teach and practise And now to turne ouer the leafe and to consider the manners of the Protestants they on the
vnder it if they contemne it This is that great benefit which S. Augustine in his booke de vtilitate Credends acknowledgeth that the world in these latter tymes hath receiued of Almighty God who of his infinit goodnes hath prouided that the Catholike Faith being so austere to the eye of flesh and bloud so much aboue reason and so contrary as it is to our corrupted nature should be recommended vnto vs as it were by the generall consent and common beliefe of all people This saith S. Augustine the diuine prouydence hath brought to passe by the predictions of the Prophets by the humanity and doctrine of Christ by the trauells of the Apostles Aug. de vtil Cred. cap. 7. by the contumelyes crosses bloud and death of Martyrs by the laudable life of Saints and in all these things by such myracles as were fit for matters and vertues so great as these according as the oportunity of times required Wherefore seing the assistance of God to be so great and so great the fruite and benefit thereof shall we doubt to cast our selues into the lap of his Church Considering that now euen by the confession of mankind it selfe she hath receaued the prohemynence of all authority from the Apostolike seat by succession of Bishops the Heretikes in the meane tyme hauing barked about her all in vayne partly by the iudgment of the people themselues partly by the grauity of Councells and partly by the Maiesty of miracles hauing been all condemned To which Church not to grant the highest degree of authority is either extreme impiety or precipitate arrogancy For if our soules haue no certayne way to attayne true wisedome and saluation but where fayth beliefe prepareth and adorneth our reason what is it els to resist authority indued or est abbshed with so great labour but to be vngratefull to this help and assistance of Almighty God Thus far S. Augustine of the notable benefit that our faith hath receiued from the Common consent of so many Nations therein which he calleth the confession of mankind and of the wonderfull meanes which God hath vsed for the procurement of this vniuersall testimony vnto the truth thereof For albeit when the Apostles began first to preach all rules and principles of humayne wisedome were inforced to giue place vnto that diuine authority wherewith they were sent to their gifts of Tongues to the myracles they wrought to the power of that spirit which spake by them and to the splendour of those celestiall vertues which proceded from them yet since that time the sweetnes of Gods prouidence hath so ordayned that both these authorityes Humayne and Diuine the wisedome of God and the wisedome that naturally directeth worldly men should be ioyned togeather to the end that all mens wills might be drawne more easily gently and connaturally to imbrace the doctrine of Christ And that all vnderstandings great or small might either be conuinced or conuicted by it The voice of the most the testimony of those that are true and honest and the iudgment example and practise of the wisest being the best part of that light of nature which God hath lent vs for the direction of our liues his infinit goodnes and perfect iustice could neuer haue permitted this authority of the Catholike Church to haue grownâ— to this vnmeasurable greatnes nor could haue made it so inuincibly victorious against all those that haue opposed themselues vnto it confirming the same with so many Prophesies of Scripture and promises of his owne and not only with the ostension of miracles and heroycall constancy of innumerable Martyrs but also with the glory and splendour of so many other benedictions of excellent learning diuine wisedome admirable vnity piety and perfection of vertue as hath been shewed vnlesse it had been so ordayned by him for the recommendation and preseruation of that Truth which himselfe descended from heauen to teach the world and to dye the death of the Crosse for the eternall memory and fructification of it For if in any thing we should be deceiued by the power and greatnes of his authority we might well say it was no fault of ours but rather as S. Augustine affirmeth it were either extreme impiety or precipitate arrogancy Not to be so deceiued what need there any other reuelations or miracles as S. Augustine also obserueth in a case so cleere as this If so many Nations haue been conuerted to the obedience of this supernaturall faith and for so many ages haue been preserued in vnity therby without signes and miracles this it selfe is a most sufficient apparent and perpetuall miracle for the testimony of the truth thereof SECTION XXVI The same Authority and the grounds of Christian Fayth are further declared AS the obiect of reason doth farre exceed the knowledge of our senses so the truth of things supernaturall and diuine do no lesse surmount the light of reason And therfore the end of man and the meanes to attaine vnto it being both of them supernaturall diuine as it was necessary that God should reueale and deliuer the knowledge thereof to his Prophets and Apostles obliging all men to beleeue them so it was also expedient that there should be some certayne meanes ordained and established by Almighty God wherby we might infallibly know what it was that was so reuealed vnto them For otherwise if there be not such supernaturall and certaine help to attaine the knowledge of those Diuine Misteryes which do so much exceed the power and faculty of human vnderstanding to perswade our selues that we shall be able to arriue to any certaine knowledge of them by any human diligence or naturall endeauour alone were as wise a matter as for a man to go about to read in the darke or for him that hath no eyes to iudge of colours Nay it were much more ridiculous For such a kind of darke reading or blind iudgment might be practised or aduentured for some little wager or to make men pastyme but Christians that make their beliefe the rule of their life and death laying not only their fortunes but also their soules vpon it vnles they haue some Diuine help and infallible assistance of the spirit of God to know those things which they beleeue to haue beene reuealed to the Apostles and can no way be discerned by human reason they can neuer be excused from meer madnes and ridiculous folly Vpon what grounds the Catholiks beleeue the doctrine and preaching of the Apostles which is the Ghospell and the obiect of their fayth to haue beene reuealed from the mouth of God and that the Church is perpetually infallibly assisted by God himself in the preseruation of the foresayd doctrine from all stayne or touch of errours hath beene shewed already Almighty God hauing so magnified and fortifyed the authority of his Church as if the will of man be not too much peruerted it is impossible for his vnderstanding to resist it And therefore as S. Augustine sayd
God yet receiuing it from their Alcaron which is the ground of their fayth and teacheth them many vntruths their perswasion of the vnity of God is no beliefe but errour Or as the Iewes albeit they receiue the old Testament as you know yet because they rely vpon the interpretation of their Rabbins which is subiect to errour their ground being deceitfull their faith is nothing but deceipt and therefore no faith at all So in like manner the Protestants albeit they follow a rule which according as they vse it doth propound vnto them many things that are true yet propounding likewise very many that are false and being thereby deceitfull as hath been declared they belieue the truth it sheweth no more then they belieue the falshood whereof it is manifest they belieue nothing at all And for this cause the authority of the Church being the only ordinary meanes to make vs know the rule of faith Matt. 18.17 our Sauiour himself sayd that such as would not heare the Church were no better then Infidells because consequently depryuing themselues of the rule of Faith they loose all true Faith and diuine fidelity From whence likewise is inferred that common principle of Christendome that out of the Church there is no saluation because without Faith it is impossible to please God and without obedience to the Church in matter of beliefe there can be no faith at all From hence also the Councell of Nyce as witnesseth the Creed of Athanasius read in your Churches euery Sunday togeather with the auncient Fathers hath concluded that denying one article of the Catholike Faith or not belieuing the same wholy and inuiolably no man can be saued Because he that obstinatly denyeth or doubteth of any one poynt of Faith denieth the authority of the Church without which we cannot certainly know the rule of Faith therby loosing his faith is no better thē an Infidel as our Sauiour hath declared SECTION XXVII VVherein two Motiues that is to say Feare of danger and the Instigation of a certayne spirit which induced the Bishop to change the place of his aboad are propounded and examined THESE therfore are some of the reasons which euery Catholike man though neuer so simple is able to giue of his beliefe and are so euident and iustified in themselues that there is no man hauing sense of God if he put them in the Ballance of his Iudgment but he must needs feele their weight in his mind and in his will the diuine power and vertue of them Whereas on the other side this learned man the Bishop after 10. yeares study writing to edify the world with his Motiues can bring forth nothing but that which appeareth at the first sight to be false as you haue heard hath receiued sentence of Iudgment three tymes already being once of old condemned by the auncient Fathers and twyce more in our age by the Protestāts themselues who first condemned the Fathers as being against them and afterwards also condemned the heretical doctrine of one another And this may suffice to haue spoken of those dispositions and other considerations which the Bishop accuseth to haue been the causes and motiues of his change in religion It followeth now to examine the groundes that induced him to change the place of his aboad Which albeit he setteth downe very confusedly I find they may be reduced to 3. principall heads The first therfore was his danger in staying The second his spirit that compelled him to go And the third his zeale forsooth of truth and peace that drew him on As concerning his danger he confesseth that in Rome notice was taken of his writing against the Roman doctrine and that more then once he had been admonished and reprehended for it by the Popes Nuntio or Agent residing in Venice In which respect he had iust cause to feare that the Venetians not to maintayne a manifest heretike in their State might easily be induced to deliuer him vp to the Nuntio especially at that tyme they hauing need of the Pope in respect of their warrs and that the Nuntio would haue sent him vp to the Holy House in Rome where he should haue byn receiued with such kindnes as was agreable to his deserts Wherby it appeareth vpon the matter that being entred so far into Heresy as he could not go back without great infamy he sound Italy to hoat for his foot fled from thencefor no other good respect but only because he could stay no longer without the horrible feare of extreme danger By the way of this discourse he putteth himselfe into a great chafe against the Pope laying aside his disguise of Monsignor fate voi he sheweth himselfe a plaine Italian Facchine without any truth ciuility or modesty And like your Collyer of Croydon being a myte out of Towne he taketh his pleasure of the Pope rayleth against him most despiciously And who is there that hath but soone the state of Germany Spaine France or Italy and thereby knoweth as he must needs the great reputation and authority of the Catholike Clergy and especially of the Bishops the heads of the Clergy but will admire at his impudency to heare him say That Catholike Bishops now adayes haue nothing but the name of Bishops That they are not permitted by the Pope to haue any gouennement of their Churches That they are vilde and contemptible and which is no lesse vntrue then the former That they are made subiect to Religious Orders for Religious men except they be Bishops or indued with Episcopall authority haue no exteriour iurisdiction at all neither ouer Bishops nor any secular persons To the rest where he sayth That the Church of Rome is wholy become a temporall Monarchy a vineyard only to make Noë drunke a flocke whose bloud the Pastours sucke and the like What shall we say but that he sheweth himself to be far worse then one of Noë his accursed children and to be no better then a wilde Boore that would destroy the vineyard of Christ or a rauenous Wolfe that howleth against the Shepheard Neither all that went before being most false will I grant that to be true where he sayth That Christ hath placed him for a dog in his flocke For the truth is that he thrust himselfe in for a dogge as I haue shewed long ago But now at length it hath pleased God to put him out for a Curre and so he sheweth himselfe to be in barking against his Maister In the end making these vntruthes some colour and occasion of his departure at length he concludeth that to auoyd the Popes malice which was so neer vnto him and the ordinary effects therof which he sayth to be poyson and punyards it was altogeather necessary for him to run away Leuit. 26.36 Iob. 15.21 An ill conscience feareth the sound of a flying leafe and the noyse of feare is allwayes in his eare where peace is he suspecteth treason In which respect although it
if he do not open the same he wil be contented to nod and poynt at it with his finger As for his defence of the Protestant doctrine I haue sufficiently declared already that by taking the same vpon him he is not only 20. tymes condemned for an Heretike by the auncient Fathers but also pronounced to be Insathanized supersathanized a slaue of the Diuell one of the Antichristian swynish Rabble and a thousand tymes as bad by the Protestants themselues wherein as in other things the Bishop himselfe will needes contend that you may safely belieue them As touching the second poynt he sheweth that being a Bishop he hath sufficient authority not only to reprehend the mannets vices of the tyme for the which no man perchance would haue blamed him if he had done it with charity and discretion but also to cry as he doth against the errours of the Roman Church and of all other Churches vnited with it For that the vniuersall Church sayth he in some cases is committed to the care of euery particuler Bishop wherof will follow this strange position that it should belong to the office of euery particuler Bishop in some occasion to accuse the whole Church of errour wherunto this Cryer himselfe according to his owne doctrine must haue thought himselfe obliged in conscience if he had beene borne in the tyme of his Father Luther of the absurdity wherof I haue spoken sufficiently already And no lesse strange and absurd is the consequence which he himselfe inferreth that any Bishop whatsouer hath authority to correct and reforme any other Bishop For example That the Bishop of Spalato in Dalmatia hath authority to visit and reforme the Bishop of Canterbury when the Dalmatiā shal iudg esteeme it to be so expedient But because he thought it might seeme to be some new deuise being no lesse contrary to the Protestant then to the Catholike Religion Monsignor fate voi hauing al this while taken vp whatsoeuer he sayd vpon the credit of his reader in this place as fearing at length to be discouered for a counterfeit beginneth a little to proue his assertion and to pay his Reader with such money as he receiued of those that hyred him to play the Episcopall Doctour on your side the mountaynes But I thinke you will easily discerne by the false sound what coyne it is being as far different from any currant proofe as Fate voi from a reuerend Bishop For thus he reasoneth All Bishops togeather haue the gouernment of the whole Church of Christ as he proueth out of the Scripture out of S. Eleutherius and S. Cyprian therefore euery Bishop in particuler hath the like authority As if one should say All the Officers of the Court do gouerne the whole Court vnder the King therefore euery Officer in particuler hath authority ouer the whole Court vnder the King Or thus All the Britans togeather are the Lords of great Britany therefore euery Britan in particuler is Lord ouer all Britany Which miserable argument he likewise confirmeth in this pittifull manner Euery Bishop may counsell help succour the necessityes of any other Church or Bishopricke as it is manifest by the example of many ancient Fathers Therfore euery Bishop hath authority ouer all other Churches As much as to say euery man may help the necessityes of his Neighbour and the seruant of his Maister therfore Euery man hath authority ouer his Neighbour or the seruant ouer his Maister But letting passe the weaknes of his argument because it is the first and because it may be that for want of vse he hath forgotten how to argue let him shew you but one auncient Father that euer reprehēded the Bishop of Rome of any Cathedrall doctrine or erroneous Decree in matter of faith or any holy or laudable Bishop that euer gaue sentence against any other of his Collegues deposed or excommunicated him or called him iuridically to make his defence by vertue of any such generall authority and I will be content you shall belieue this insolent Intruder in all other things and subiect your selfe vnto him Besides though it should be granted that heretofore he had no lesse authority then himselfe pretendeth being now deposed by the Pope that now is as Dioscorus or Eutiches were by the Popes of their tymes or as the Bishop of Arles whome S. Cyprian not presuming to iudge wrote vnto the Pope to excommunicate and appoynt another in his place I would aske him what he can pretend which those Heretikes might not likewise alleadge why he should not confesse that by sentence of deposition against him the authority which he had is iustly taken from him Againe quia Episcopatum eius accepit alter because as it was sayd of Iudas another hath receiued his Bishoprick I would aske him what authority he hath to cry being lawfully deposed from his Bishoprick more then the other hath who did lawfully succeed him And why we should belieue him being an excommunicate Heretike more then the other being an approued Catholike For if he pretend either the Scriptures or the Fathers to be for him it is no more then other Heretikes haue pleaded before him and we haue sufficiently shewed that most manifestly they make against him Wherfore though he cry neuer so loud yet by this it is manifest that he cryeth no other wayes then as the Diuell did when he was cast forth by our Sauiour And I hope vnlesse he cry with better reason then heare he doth alleadge he shall sooner burst with crying then mooue either your selfe or any other to belieue him SECTION XXIX The first obiection of the Bishop against himselfe is discussed VVherin he affirmeth tha albeit the King ought to be feared and may not be reprehended yet that the Pope is not to be feared c. THE obiections which he answereth as supposed to be made against himselfe are 2. in number But the first vnder the colour of an obiection is nothing els but an egregious peece of flattery deriued from the Turkish Diuinity of his Neighbour Coūtrey The obiection may be framed in this manner The Maiesty of an earthly King is to be feared and he ought not to be reprehended or admonished of his fault but by a Prophet sent from God Therfore the Maiesty of the Pope ought likewise to be feared and ought not to be accused of Heresy but by a Prophet raysed vp by God for that purpose The Antecedent that a King ought not to be rebuked or admonished of his fault but by a Prophet sent from heauen he easily admitteth being the poynt of barbarous adulation which he intendeth and thereby as it seemeth would gladly bring in the Turkish manner of Gouernement into our Countrey giuing vnto the King such absolute commaund and Tyrannicall power ouer the liues and fortunes and soules of his subiects that whatsoeuer he did or what Heresy or false worship soeuer he should professe no man might reprehend him for his fault or put him in
mind of his duty Wherein I am sure the gracious Maiesty of our Prince is so farre from applauding his Sycophancy that he detesteth his Diuinity But this proposition your Turkish Doctour doth not only teach out of the Alcaron but also goeth about to proue out of the Bible For King Dauid sayth he hauing committed Adultery and Murther was not rebuked for it by any Priest or Leuit but by Nathan the Prophet From which particuler the silly man not considering that the sinne of Dauid was secret for the which cause a Prophet was sent to reproue him inferreth a generall That no King ought to be reproued but by a Prophet Meaning by all likelyhood that Dauid was not to be corrected but by the Prophet Nathan as the Turkes belieue that their Emperours ought to be reformed by no other but by their Prophet Mahomet when he commeth And his argument is as good as if he should haue sayd Sarah when she laughed was not rebuked by Abraham her husband but by an Angell therefore no marryed woman when she offendeth ought to be reprehended by her husband but by an Angell Which argument if he can make good he might perhaps haue many followers that would reward him well for intituling them with such auncient right to weare the breeches Or to come nearer to him so well he might haue argued in this manner Balaams Asse was beaten by a Prophet and therefore no Asse ought to be beaten but only by a Prophet Which if it were true Monsignor fate voi might haue escaped with fewer blowes then he is like to do if his bookes come forth there being so many that stand ready with Bastinadoes in their hands to wayt vpon him Hauing granted and proued the Antecedent of his flattering Obiection in such māner as you haue heard he denyeth the consequence and saith That the Maiesty of the Pope is not to be feared and that we must not expect Almighty God should send any particuler messenger to reforme him Our Sauiour in the Ghospell teacheth vs not to feare any man Mat. 10.28 that can kill the body but to feare him that can kill the soute Cyp. l 1 ep 11 Deutr. 17. And the auncient Fathers and among the rest Saint Cyprian teacheth vs That while the Circumcision remayned carnall such as would not obay their Priests and Iudges for the tyme were slayne with the materiall sword But now since the Circumcision began to be spirituall such as are proude and obstynate are put to death with the spirituall sword when they are excommunicated and cast forth out of the Church of God Aug. l. 1. cōt aduersarium legis c. cap. 17. Which also S. Augustine affirmeth to be more grieuous then to perish by the sword to be consumed with syre or to be deuoured of wyld beasts In so much as S. Gregory sayd that euen an vniust excōmunication ought to be feared Wherfore this Godly man teaching vs another lesson that he is to be feared who beareth the temporall sword and that he is to be contemned to whome especially the spirituall sword belongeth contrary to the doctrine of Christ and the auncient Fathers iudge I pray you whether the spirit of this man be of Christ or of Antichrist That which he sayth We are not to expect that any Prophet should be sent from God to reforme the Pope if he meant for professing heresy or false doctrine were most true in one respect For in the old Law which was vnperfect we neuer read that any Prophet was sent to reproue the hygh Priest of errour Deut. 17.8 but rather as S. Cyprian obserued a little before such as would not obay him in the decision of all Controuersies brought before him were to dye the death by the sentence of the Iudge that all the people hearing might feare and that none should swell with pryde thence forward And therefore in the new Law which is the perfection of the old and wherin our Sauiour Christ himselfe hath founded his Church vpon S. Peter and his successours with Promise that the Gates of hell which principally are errours and heresies shall not preuaile against it as hath been shewed at large Mat. 16.18 through many Sections of this treatise much lesse can any such Prophet be expected except he be one of those that shall come cloathed like a sheep without Mat. 7.15 but within is a rauening wolfe and must be sent from the Diuell to deceiue the world to oppose himself against the Church and against the foundation of the Church which is the Chayre of Peter But how I pray you doth he proue that the Pope ought not to be feared but that he may be corrected of euery Bishop In truth as wisely as he proued before that the King in no case ought to be told of his fault or to be reproued by any but a Prophet For saith he all Bishops are brothers and fellow-seruants And may not the same be likewise affirmed of all Christians that they are brethren and fellow seruants Wherfore if no brother be to be feared it will follow thereof that the King himselfe is not much to be respected And this is likely to be the Bishops doctrine in priuate howsoeuer in publike with neuer so much flattery and adulation he pretend the contrary For his reason to proue that we ought not to stand in awe of the Pope concludeth that we should not dread the King as before I haue shewed that taking away all spirituall iurisdiction it followeth vpon the same ground that he must likewise deny the temporall All Bishops are brethren indeed but as they are to reuerence our Sauiour their Elder brother so likewise they are to be subiect to the successour of S. Peter whome our Sauiour appoynted to supply his place and to feed them as his sheep in his absence As all Bishops are brethren so likewise it is true that they are fellow seruants but yet notwithstanding one was principally appoynted ouer the family Matth. 24.25 to giue them bread in due season In an army sent forth by the King to warre all the soldiours are fellow seruants but yet there is such great difference betweene the Generall and euery priuate Captayne that they are all obliged vpon payne of death to be obedient vnto him In a ship set forth by a Merchant Aduenturer all those that are hired to conduct the ship may truly be called fellow seruants but yet it doth not follow therof that euery Marriner is as good a man as the Maister or that he may take the gouernement of the ship vpon him And so it is of the Church which is sometyms called the ship of Christ somtyms an army set in order of battell wherin though Bishops be marriners and captaynes yet they ought all to be subiect to their Maister and Generall the head of the Church as hath beene proued Therefore S. Augustine writing to Pope Bonifacius Aug. ad Bonif. l. 1. cap. 1.
forgetteth not to vse tearmes of due reuerence saying in this manner Neither dost thou disdaine that art not proud though thou gouernest in a higher place to be a friend to these of low condition and to returne loue for loue And you haue heard what words of great respect S. Hierom vsed to Pope Damasus Hier. ad Damasum when he sayd Although thy greatnes doth feare me yet thy humanity doth inuite me being a sheep I craue the help of my sheepheard c. And how the great Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria with the Bishops of the East thought it no disgrace to call the Pope their holy Lord venerable with Apostolicall dignity the Father of the vniuersall Church Athan. ad Marcum tom 1. Con. affirming themselues to be his and that vnto him with all those committed to them they were obedient and euer would be Whereof I thought good briefly to remember you that you might perceiue the difference betweene the Christian humility of the ancient Fathers and the saucy presumption of this new contentious Heretike SECTION XXX Of Schisme which is the last obiection of the Bishop against himselfe wherein hee is proued to be not only a Schismatike but also a manifest Heretike HIS second last obiection which he maketh against himselfe is this That forsaking the Church of Rome which he calleth Babylon he may seeme to haue incurred the cryme of Schisme wherunto he answereth saying I will that this my flight or profectiō be free from all suspition of Schisme If Monsignor fate voy when he fell into the hands of the Merchants that had beene deceiued by him should haue sayd I will be free from beating do you thinke it would haue serued his turne Truly both these Monsignors hauing so well deserued their fees as the blowes fell vpon the one notwithstanding his good desire to the contrary so not only the suspition but also the infamy both of Schisme and Heresy whether he will or will not must light vpon the other But because it is manifest that there is a Schisme or diuision betweene the Pope and him he would insinuate that all things considered not himselfe but the Pope must needs be the Schismatike which he seemeth to proue first by reason and secondly by the authority and example of S. Cyprian His reason is this in effect He that maketh new Articles of fayth either cōtrary or not contayned in the Scriptures and ancient Creeds and admitteth for Articles of Fayth such things as are indifferent in themselues and were neuer sufficiently defyned by the Church and condemneth those for heretiks whom the Church hath not sufficiently condemned he is the Schismaticke But such is the Pope who doth these things not the Bishop who detesteth them Ergo c. Wherein what he meaneth by not being sufficiently defined or condemned by the Church I know not But to giue you some light heerin you must vnderstand that according to the Catholike doctrine any Controuersy in matter of Faith may be sufficiently defyned foure manner of wayes That is to say First by the vniuersall consent and generall beliefe of all the Faithfull for as hath been proued it is impossible the vniuersal Church should erre in matter of Faith Aug. l. de haeres in fine And therfore S. Augustine sayth It is sufficient to know that the Church reputeth any doctrine not to be of Fayth that it be not receiued by any of the Faithfull Lib 1 cont Cresc c. 31. 33 ep 48.99 in ep 118. c 5. l. de v◅lit cred c. 17. And you know how he affirmeth that to dispute against the doctrine of the vniuersall Church is most insolent madnes and that not to giue thereunto the first place of authority is either extreme impiety or precipitate ignorance Secondly any thing may be defined to be matter of fayth by the vniforme consent of the Doctours of the Church who if they should erre the whole Church being bound to beleeue them must fall of necessity into errours with them Thirdly by a generall Councell confirmed by the Pope or lastly by the definition of the Pope himselfe decreing the same for the direction of the faythfull and establishment of the peace of the Church as hath been proued at large in the former Sections of the Popes Supremacy And because the question between the Pope and the Bishop in this place concerneth Schisme Heresy you are further to vnderstand that Schism according to the sense of the word signifieth a scissure or diuision of minds which is opposed to vnity and consequently to Charity which doth vnite the minds of the Faythfull And because the greatest vnity in the Church is that of the whole body which proceedeth from all the members with the head and whereunto the vnity and Charity of the particuler members among themselues is naturally referred as the part to the whole from hence it is that Schisme being taken for such a great dissention S. Thom. 2.2 quaest 39. art c. in corpore Hier. in c. 3. ad Tit. as is most contrary to the vnity of the Church is defined to be a rebellion against the head of the Church refusing to communicate with the members therof as they are subiect vnto him According whereunto S. Hierome giueth vs this doctrine between Heresy and Schisme sayth he we make this difference that Heresy holdeth some peruerse opinion Schisme also separateth from the Church by Episcopall dissention Epiph. sect 68. Aug. l de Haer. haer 69. l 2. cont Crese c. 4. 7. or dissention from the Bishop So Miletius making a proper congregation against Peter Bishop of Alexandria his Superiour was accompted a Schismaticke and no Heretike For as Epiphanius sayth his faith was neuer changed from the Catholike Church So likewise Cecilian being made Bishop of Carthage against the will of Donatus who obiected many crimes vnto him and with his followers departed from him the Donatists in the beginning were accōpted Schismatiks And in the same manner Optatus to proue Parmenian not Cecilian to be the Schismatike argueth in this manner For Cecilian sayth he went not out from Maiorinus thy predecessour but Maiorinus from Cecilian Neither did Cecilian depart from the Chayre of Peter or of Cyprian but Maiorinus in whose chayre thou succeedest and which before him had no beginning Wherfore in our case it wil be an easy matter to find out of these two the Pope or this Bishop which is the Scismatike For the Bishop rebelling against the Pope his Superiour if not by diuine yet at least by humaine law as himselfe will confesse dissenting from the chiefe Bishop of the Church of Christ going out and departing from the Chayre of Peter and ioyning himselfe vnto another Congregation most oposite thereunto it is more absurd for him to accuse the Pope of schisme then for a subiect taking armes against his Prince or ioyning with his enemyes to acuse the Prince himselfe of rebellion and
togeather in one decreed the same and from that day to this so many thousand Heretikes in our Prouinces being conuerted to the Church haue not thought much or been vnwilling but rather both reasonably and willingly haue obtayned the grace of baptisme And as this custome had contynued a long while in the Churches of Affrica so in the tyme of S. Cyprian it was not only confirmed by many and sundry Councells in that Countrey Apud Cyp. Epist 75. but also in the East by Firmilianus a man of most excellent tallents with the Councell of other Bishops and in Aegypt by Dionysius Patriarch of Alexandria Hier. de scrip Eccl. in Dionys cont haeres cap. 9. another singular ornament of that age whereof Vincentius Lirinensis writeth thus But perchance sayth he this new inuention wanted defence Noc sayth he but so great was the force of wyt which assisted the same so great the flouds of Eloquence so great the number of the Professors thereof so great the similitude of truth so many the oracles of the Diuine Law cited for the same that in my opinion such a conspiracy and consent could haue no way been distroyed vnlesse c. Thus he Whereby it appeareth that S. Cyprian did neither confide so much in his owne priuate opinion nor did oppose himselfe almost against all others as in this place he is falsely calumniated by his dissembling enemy Nor is it true that he was so strongly perswaded either that S. Stephen or the rest were in a manifest errour or that such as had been conuerted from heresy were altogeather impure as his audacious censurer would make vs belieue For in the very words alleaged by him S. Cyprian professeth to iudge of no man and the cause of his Anger against Pope Stephen was because the Pope had written vnto him that he thought those who rebaptized heretikes were to be condemned of errour Wherefore it is euident that S. Cyprian held it only a matter indifferent albeit in hatred of heretikes he thought it best at that tyme to baptize all those that were conuerted from them So that you see how falsly and how fondly this Moisten of Rhetorike chargeth S. Stephen with no little want of conscience obstinacy in his owne opinion whom he thought to extoll aboue measure Secondly in this allegation he discouereth such malice against the Popes of Rome that it reacheth exrendeth it selfe euen to the Saints of heauen and condemneth S Stephen of indiscretion of importune excoÌ„municating of others of casting himselfe into extreme perill of schisme and diuision and instifyeth S. CypriaÌ„ vndertaking a wrong cause and proceeding more violently against the Pope then was conuenient euen by the iudgment of all antiquity For S Stephen the Pope who liued in the second age after Christ gouerned the Church with great renowne dyed a glorious Martyr and behaued himselfe in such manner in this very Controuersy of rebaptization that hauing the flower of Christendome and so many Bishops both of the East and of the West of Greece Aegypt and of Affrica in such number against him in the tyme of a most terrible persecution he brought them all to renounce their opinions and to make peace and concord in their seuerall Countreys Euseb l. 7. cap. 3.4 Hier. cont Lucif as Dionysius testy fieth of those of the East and S. Hierome relateth of the Bishops of Affrica in these words To conclude those very Bishops who had decreed with S. Cyprian that heretikes ought to be rebaptized made a new decree to the contrary And S. Augustine speaking of S. Cyprian himselfe Aug. Ep. 48. sayth that it is very agreable that we should iudge of such a man that he corrected his opinion And the reason for it is most apparant For who can imagine that all the rest recanting and all the world agreeing in one S. Cyprian alone being a man of such emynent vertue and dying as he did a glorious Martyr should obstinatly persist in his owne opinion So that it may be truly sayd that by the care and indeauour of Pope Stephen this opinion was vniuersally condemned by the whole Church before it receiued sentence in the Nicen Councell as afterward it did Whereof the aforesayd Vincentius Lirinensis writeth with great admiration in this manner Wherefore as all from all parts began to reclayme against the nouelty of the matter and that all Priests euery where each one for his owne part did striue against it so Stephen the Pope of blessed memory the Antistes of the Apostolicall Seat with the rest of his Colleagues but yet more then the rest made resistance thereunto Thinking it agreable as may be imagined to go beyond all others in the deuotion of his faith as he did surpasse them in the authority of his place To conclude in his Epistle which was sent into Affrick he made this solemne Decree Nothing must be innouated only that which was deliuered must be conserued For the holy and prudent man did iudge that nothing was to be admitted vnder the colour of piety but that all things should be consigned with the same faith to the children with which fayth they were receiued from the Fathers And a little after he concludeth But what was the end of all those buysnesses what end could it haue but that which is vsuall and accustomed That is to say antiquity was retayned and nouelty was reiected Thus that famous man Vincentius Liâ—inensis of the proceding of S. Stephen in this matter and of the decree it selfe which S. Cyprian tooke so vnkindly of the finall end of the busines for the which this holy Pope is so impiously condemned by the Bishop against all antiquity as that he deserueth thereby neuer more to be belieued in any matter which may concerne the Pope heereafter For not only the Latins but also the Greekes did annually celebrate his memory which is an honour that few Martyrs of the Westerne Church haue receiued And the Donatists themselues who reuyled the opinion of S. Stephen did so much respect the eminent authority of his holynesse and wisedome that as S. Augustine writeth and admyreth they confessed * Episcopatum illibatègessisse August de vnic bapt cont Petil. cap. 14. he could not be touched with any fault in the discharge of his Office And therefore if S. Augustine were now liuing much more would he admire the audacious presumption of this later heretike in calumniating and condemning his proceedings And as for S. Cyprian whose carriage of himselfe he so much coÌ„mendeth in this cause albeit his care of peace in not breaking with the Pope be laudable yet S. Augustine could not deny August de bapt cont Donat. lib. 5. cap. 25. but that he was too much moued in his anger commotiùs indignabatur and that being irritated he ran out into such termes against Pope Stephen as S. Augustine thought not good to touch quia periculuÌ„ habuerunt perniciosae dissentionis because they gaue occasion or
the Bishop is euidently conuinced both of Schisme and Heresy IN the tyme of S. Cyprian as the Nouatian Heretikes on the one side denyed that such as were once fallen Cyp. ep 55 ad Cornel. were to be receiued into the Church againe vpon any tearmes whatsoeuer so there were other heretikes who affirmed that all were to be receiued without any pennance or satisfaction for their former sinne For the which cause S. Cyprian sayth of them that they endeauored that sinnes might not be redeemed by iust satisfaction lamentation that wounds might not be washed by teares That weeping and wayling might not be heard to proceed from the brest and from the mouth of such as were fallen that such as were inuolued in defrauding and deceyuing or defyled with adultery or polluted with the cōtagion of sacryfiee to Idols might not make confession of their crymes in the Church whereby all hope of satisfaction and pennance being taken away they lost both the sense and the fruit thereof Which heresy whether it be reuiued by the Bishop or by those congregations wherunto he hath vnited himselfe I shall leaue to your iudgment to consider But one of those heretikes called Florentius Pupianus writing vnto S. Cyprian in the same māner as heere the Bishop in the latter end of his booke addresseth his speach to thē Pope to giue them satisfaction and to purge himselfe of his proceeding against them S. Cyprian to abate his Pryde to make him acknowledge that it was the cause of the schisme and heresy wherinto he was fallen vseth these words among others and sayth From hence Schismes and Heresyes haue risen and do arise because the Bishop which is one and gouerneth the Church is cōdemned by the proud presumption of some and the man whome God hath vouchsafed to honour is iudged of men to be vnworthy And after a while he sayth There speaketh Peter vpon whom the Church was buylt shewing and teaching in the name of the Church That albeit the proud stifnecked multitude of those that would not obay departed from Christ yet the Church departeth not wherefore thou oughtest to know sayth he that the Bishop is in the Church and the Church in the Bishop And so he who is not with the Bishop is not in the Church wherof he concludeth that such do flatter themselues in vayne who not hauing peace with the Priests of God thinke it sufficient to communicate with others The like words S. Cyprian vseth in his epistle to Pope Cornelius where he sayth Cyp. lib. 1. epist 3. That there is no other cause of Heresyes and Schismes but that the Priest of God is not obayed and that one Priest and one Iudge is not acknowledged in the place of Christ in the Church for the tyme. Where also hauing sayd as before that the Church was built vpon Peter at length speaking of the former Heretikes that presumed to go and complaine of him to Pope Cornelius he sayth That they were so audacious as to sayle vnto the Chayre of Peter and to the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood did proceed not considering that they were Romans whose fayth was praysed by the mouth of the Apostle and vnto whome perfidiousnes or error in fayth can haue no accesse The like words againe he wrote in his Treatise of the vnity of the Church where he sayth That men are transported by the Diuell into Heresy and Schisme out of the Church of God because they do not returne to the origen of truth nor seeke the head nor follow the doctrine of their heauenly Maister Which if they considered there were no need of any long treatise or argument but that the tryall of Fayth would be very easy And then shewing what was this heauenly doctrine and what the head and origen of truth which is taught vnto vs he addeth immediatly Our Lord sayd vnto Peter I say vnto thee thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke c. and vnto the same man after his resurrection he sayd Feed my sheep and so concludeth that our Sauiour built his Church vpon him alone and committed vnto him his sheep to be fed and gaue him the Primacy that there might be one Church c. And a little after he addeth This vnity of the Church he that doth not keep doth he beleeue that he keepeth the Fayth He that resisteth the Church and striueth against the same he that forsaketh the Chayre of Peter doth he confide that he is in the Church And to the same purpose els where he sayth Epist 8. ad plevē vniuersam God is one Christ one and the Church one and the Chayre one built vpon Enter by the voyce of our Lord any other Altar or new Priesthood beside one Altar and one Priesthood cannot be erected and made Whosoeuer gathereth els where scattereth Out of which places because it is euident that our fugitiue Bishop with proud presumption cōtemneth that one Bishop who hath the chiefe place in the gouernement of Gods Church and likewise that he contemneth the Successor of him vpon whom the Church was built and who is in the Church and the Church in him because the Chuych is nothing els but the people vnited to the Priest and the flocke adhering to the Pastour And againe because it is euident that he disobeyeth the Priest of God and doth not acknowledge one Priest and one iudge for the tyme in the place of Christ and forsaketh the Chayre of Peter and the principall Church from whence the vnity of Priesthood proceedeth and wherunto no falshood in Fayth can haue accesse that he obserueth not the dostrine of our heauēly Maister neither returning to the origen of truth nor seeking the head which is S. Peter vpon whome alone our Sauiour built his Church and committed the feeding of his sheep vnto him which course according to S. Cyprian is the only cause and occasion and only meanes whereby the Diuel transporteth men out of the Church into Schism and Heresy it cannot be denyed but that your Bishop forsaking the successor of S. Peter the Chayr of Peter who holdeth the place of Christ in the Church forsaketh the Church and in vayne beleeueth to be therein and gathereth not with Christ but scattereth with Antichrist And thus much cōcerning the obiections which he pleased to frame against himselfe SECTION XXXV The conclusion of the Bishops booke togeather with a short Conclusion of this whole Treatise THERE remayneth only the conclusion of his booke wherein because I haue wearied my selfe too much already with sweeping a way the cobwebs of his idle discourse whereunto in respect of the sleightnes and vnprofitablenes and foulnes of the matter the substance thereof may fitly be compared I will only note two or three things vnto you very briefly First therefore as Iudas saluted Christ and sayd Marc. 14.45 hayle Maister and kissed him whom a little before be had sould to the Iewes as a false Prophet
place by way of a friendly exhortation to peace and amendement he accuseth the Pope of many foule crymes and addresseth his speach vnto him in this manner Let vs obserue the famous saying of S. Cyprian iudging no man excōmunicating no man let vs imitate Cyprian c. as if he being free from all fault himselfe he had great compassion of the Popes vniust proceeding perswading him with all charity to reforme himselfe only he hath one trick which I know not how it can stand with the art of Rhetorick and it is this that commonly through all his booke he speaketh against himselfe or produceth such matter as most easily and most strongly may be vrged against him Whether it be his ill luck or a fault in Nature or the iudgment of God vpon those that falling from the Catholike Religion attempt to write against it I know not But this I dare say that he neuer learned this poynt of Rhetorike among the Iesuits First therefore as in other passages of his booke you haue seene all that he hath sayd to haue been retorted against him so in the same manner we will examyne in this place how much this allegatiō of S. Cyprian doth make for his purpose For the Cōtrouersy betweene S Stephen and S. Cyprian being about the baptizing of those that were before baptized by heretikes which could not be determyned by Scripture alone the decision thereof by the tradition of the Church and the condemnation of S. Cyprians opinion by the Nicen Coūcell doth euidently proue the necessity of tradition against the Protestants of whome the Bishop hath made himselfe one and that the Scripture alone cannot be in all matters a sufficient Iudge of Cōtrouersyes For as S. Augustine sayth that custome which was opposed to Cyprian Aug. de bapt cont Donat. l. 5. c. 23. ought to be belieued to haue taken his beginning from the tradition of the Apostles as there are many things which the vniuersall Church doth hold and for this cause are rightly belieued to haue been commaunded by the Apostles albeit they be not found to be written Thus S. Augustine Secondly I would know the reason of this great change and strang conuersion of things why as Vincentius sayth the authors of the selfe same opinion should be acknowledged for Catholikes and the followers therfore should be iudged Heretikes the Maisters should be acquitted the disciples condemned The writers of the same bookes should be receiued into heauen and the mayntainers of them shut vp in hell For the latter did no more oppose themselues against the Scripture then the former and both of them seeme to haue alleadged more Scripture in the defence of their opinions then the Catholikes that opposed themselues against them Wherfore no other reason can be giuen thereof but only this That in the time of S. Cyprian and his predecessors who were the authors of this opinion of rebaptizing Hereticks the controuersie was no way defined which being afterwards determined the Donatists that reuiued the same against the beleife of the whole Church were iustly condemned and this kind of condemnation being once admitted the Protestants that haue broached and retayned so many opinions against the generall beleife of the vniuersall Church since the time of Luther and haue been most authentically condemned by the generall Councell of Trent can neuer be secured from the infamy of Heresie which followed the Donatists in this life nor from the same eternall punishment which they receiued in the other Thirdly wheras S. Cyprian sayd to the rest of the Councell that none amongst them did make himselfe the Bishop of Bishops because Marke Anthony would haue it seeme that he taxed Pope Stephen therin who subscribed his letters with that title it must needs be graūted that those words were improuidently alleadged by this Protestant Apologer For as to haue vsurped so great a title had bene as great a crime as could be imagined and such as that all the Bishops in the world had bene bound in conscience to haue opposed themselues against S. Stephen for it more then against any heresie which those times produced so S. Stephen liuing in the 2. age and being a man so renowned for sanctity and martyrdome as he is by the vse of this title affordeth vs a most forcible and inuincible argument of the Popes Supremacy For writing himselfe the Bishop of Bishops he could intend no lesse nor be no otherwise vnderstood then that he professed himselfe the head and the chiefe of all other Bishops Which also may be further confirmed because he inuented not this title of himself but receiued it from his predecessors Wherof his zeale in preseruing the tradition of antiquity against all kind of nouelty may serue for a sufficient argument and Baronius proueth out of Tertullian that it was an ancient custome before the time of S. Stephen which is also confirmed by other titles giuen to the Pope by S. Athanasius and other Bishops in the foure first generall Councels as hath byn shewed SECTION XXXII VVherein is declared how the Bishop in alleadging the example of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen falsfieth the truth of the story against himselfe HAVING shewed how much the authority and example of S. Cyprian alleadged by the Bishop doth make against his owne cause ouerthroweth the principall grounds of all Protestant Religion that you may the better perceiue what a notable Champion he is like to proue of the Protestant faith I may not omit to shew you with what falshood he relateth the story of S. Cyprian and S. Stephen and how much to his owne disgrace For first in my opinion he wrongeth S. Cyprian not a little whom he semeth so much to extoll For he maketh him so stiffe in his owne opinion his words are propria opinione firmatus as to oppose himselfe not onely against the Roman but also against almost the vniuersall Church and so voyd of conscience as both to dissent almost from all others in matter of faith and yet to communicate with them For with what conscience could he eyther perseuere in his owne opinion wherein he condemned almost the whole Church of errour or condemning allmost all the members therof in such manner as this man sayth he did with what conscience could he communicate with them These things therefore as they redound very much to the dishonour of S. Cyprian so in themselues they are not true Cyp. ep 2. but are most vniustly layd vpon him by this back friend of his as may easily be proued For S. Cyprian was not the first that began to defend the baptisme of heretikes to be of no force but he receiued this custome from his predecessour Agrippinus as himselfe declareth in these words But with vs it is no now or sodayne matter that we should thinke that they ought to be baptized which come vnto the Church from heretikes there hauing passed now many years a long age sithence that vnder Agrippinus very many Bishops agreeing