by their Acts and Deedes that Popes anciently were no Monarks at all Then will you conclude that we haue iust reason to challenge your Authors of great vnconscionablenesse in their defence and by the vanity of their proofes to perswade your selues of the Truth of our Cause Your Second kinde of Obiections are taken from Titles attributed by Ancient Fathers to the Bishop or Church of Rome The Vanitie of the Consequence hereof discouered First by Equiualences SECT 2. YOur Cardinall to proue his former Conclusion concerning the Succession of the Pope in the Ecclesiasticall Monarchie flieth againe after Titles as namely such as haue beene attributed vnto Popes long since by Ancient Fathers Wee are to discouer the falsehood of this Consequence knowing that the Foundation is too weake to carry so great a weight as is a Monarchie and sole Dominion of one Atlas the Pope ouer all the Catholike Church of Christ and to answer the most of those by like Parallels and Equiualences First The Popes Primacie is proued say you by the word Papa that is Pope Three wayes One because though it had bin giuen commonly to others yet was it attributed to the Bishop of Rome by way of Excellencie thus THE Pope Ergo Monarke False for it was bestowed as well vpon Saint Cyprian by the way of Excellencie insomuch that at the point of his Martyrdome when the Paganish Proconsull askt him Art thou he whom Christians call their Pope Saint Cyprian answered yea IAME Next because say you he is also called The Pope of the Vniuersall Church Ergò hee is a Monarke False for Athanasius also who is called Pope had his Church called by Constantine The Vniuersall Church Lastly because say you The Bishop of Rome himselfe calleth no other Bishop Pope but Sonne or Brother Ergo hee is Monarch False for Pope Cornelius likewise as is confessed called Cyprian Pope yea and Cyprian called Pope Cornelius Brother as also Epiphanius as is further confessed called Pope Hormisda Brother so little doth the name of Brother or Title of Pope auoid the Equalitie among Bishops The Second name is The Father of Fathers giuen to Damasus Ergo he was Monarch False for if Others were called Popes as you haue heard all is one because as is confessed Papa and Pater Patrum Pope and Father of Fathers is the same And also Saint Polycarpus was called The Father of Christians Thirdly Fourthly and Fifthly the Bishop of Rome say you was called The high Priest of Christians yea The Chiefe Priest yea The Prince of Priests Ergo Monarch False for Basil who was no Pope was called Great Priest Athanasius also was called The Master of Priests and you haue many in the Church of Rome vnder Monarchs yea or Bishops that are called Arch Priests and whatsoeuer your phrase be it cannot be higher or chiefer than Summus or Chiefe which by your owne Confâ—ssions hath bin communicated to Non-popes Sixthly the Bishop of Rome say you was called The Vicar of Christ. Ergo Monarch False for Pope Eusebius alluding to that of the Apostle concerning all the Apostles Wee are the Embassadours in Christi vice in Christ his stead and applying it to Bishops saith There is one Head of the Church Christ but the Vicars of Christ are they that in Christ his stead are Embassadours for Christ. Seauenthly the Bishop of Rome say you was called The Head of the Church and his Seate or Church The Head of Churches Ergo the Pope is Monarch False for Athanasius was likewise called The topp of the Head of all and Cyril in a Councell The Head of the Assembly and Antioch is called The Head of the whole world The Eight and Ninth The Bishop of Rome is called The Foundation of the Church and Pastor of the Lords flocke Ergo Monarch False for Athanasius also is called The Foundation of the Church of God And if you speake De iure the word Pastor of the whole flocke was proper to the Apostles who receiued in their ioynt Commission a power and Authoritie of Preaching throughout the world to euery humane creature without any limitation insomuch that as Saint Augustine saith Peter was a Pastor and Paul was a Pastor and the other Apostles were also Pastors But there could not be so many Monarchs ouer the whole Church But if you vnderstand thereby Curam Studium Care Studie which by the Office of Pastorship euery one is bound vnto according to his possibility towards the good of the Vniuersall Church in this all other Bishops are Pastors as well as the Pope as hath bin confessed The Tenth The Bishop of Rome say you is called The Rector or Gouernour of the house of God Ergo Monarch False for it is not spoken Vniuersally but Indefinitely In materiâ contingenti with allusion to the words of Saint Paul to Timothie thus That thou maist know how to conuerse in the house of God which is the Church of the liuing God namely with an vniuersall care ouer All but a Particular power ouer that his Church of Ephesus which was his Bishopricke and yet Timothie was no Monarch The Eleuenth The Bishop of Rome say you is called Hee to whom the Lords Vineyard is committed Ergo hee is Monarch False for Pope Eleutherius as you know writ to the Bishops of France thus The vniuersall Church saith hee is committed vnto you yet hee ment nothing lesse than to iudge them Spirituall Monarchs The Twelfth The Bishop of Rome is called say you The Father and Doctor of all Christians Ergo Monarch False for the First of these was Attributed vnto Polycarpus a Bishop of Asia who was called The Father of Christians And because the Second concerneth your Faith and the iudgement of the Bishop of Rome as an Oracle for the full determination of Faith as being therefore worthy to bee held Monarchicall wee say that your Consequence from this Title The Doctor of Christians and the like is as false as any of the rest because of the Equiualencie of Attributes giuen to other learned and Orthodox Fathers as followeth Our second discouery of the falshood and vanity of your Papall Defence from Titles borrowed from Ancient Fathers by our like Equiualences SECT 3. IF your Consequence from Titles must needs conclude a Monarchicall Pope then marke we pray you how many Monarches must be acknowledged in the purest times of Christ his Church after the Apostles who notwithstanding neuer were lifted in the Catalogue of your Popes wherein we make bold to call your owne Authors to witnesse First then to answer you as Logicians speake in your very Termes looke into the Marginalls and you shall finde 1 Origen called by Didymus The Master of the Churches and by Saint Hierom Most excellent expounder of
acknowledged that Gregory by impugning the Title of vniuersall Bishop would haue no Bishop so principall as to make all other members subiect vnto him So he Than which what can bee more apposite in this Cause and opposite vnto the now Romane Profession concerning the Title of Vniuersall Romane Bishop the Foundation of the sence of your owne Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church Yet this is not all but we furthermore auerre that Gregory condemned the Title of Vniuersall Bishop then vsed by the Patriarch of Constantinople in no other sence than it was after the daies of Gregory assumed and vsed by your Romane Popes whereunto such of your owne Historians who are very many beare full witnesse For they record that Pope Boniface the next Successour to Gregorie saue one did obtaine of the Emperour Phocas that Rome should haue the same Title of Head-ship ouer all other Churches which the Bishop of Constantinople had challenged to his See The onely difference will be this that the Head of the Popes vniuersall Iurisdiction vnder that Title as it were vnder a poysoned Miter hath growne farre more loathsome by impostumes and swolne with tyrannie than it could possibly be at the first vsurpation thereof being become no lesse intollerable than was that Emperour Phocas of whom Pope Boniface with much importunity receiued that Title Which Emperour your Cardinall Baronius noteth to haue beene A bloudy Tyrant So then we see that this Title of Vniuersall Bishop was abandoned by Gregory as extremely Impious But some peraduenture would bee willing to know his reason heereof Saint Gregory will satisfie any one that shall bee desirous to vnderstand the mischiefe heereof Because the Vniuersall Church saith hee must needs goe to ruine whensoeuer hee that is the Vniuersall Bishop thereof shall chance to fall VVhich Assertion of Saint Gregory doth brand your Church with Two blacke Notes of Apostasie and Antichristianitie CHALLENGE CAtholike or Vniuersall Church and Vniuersall Bishop of the same Church are in your doctrine as truely Relatiues as Master and Seruant the one cannot be denied without the other Goe too now then blazon your Papall Inscription in the highest stile that you can inuent more than Vniuersall it cannot be and animate it with the perfectest spirit that can be infused into it more absolute none can expect than that which you ascribe vnto your Pope of Rome which is that The Popes iudgement is infallible in defining of any doctrine of faith But why Because say you if he as a publike person and Iudge of the Church should erre by concluding any thing against faith then the vniuersall Church which is bound to follow him should likewise erre So hee This is your Romane Profession which may bee vnto vs a perfect Argument of your Apostasie from the ancient Romane faith maintained in the dayes of Saint Gregorie as thus The now Romane Article is to beleeue that the Pope of Rome is the Vniuersall Bishop of the Church Catholike and therefore cannot erre in any doctrine of faith insomuch that the Church subiect to this Romane Bishop must be accounted the Onely Church on earth without which there is no saluation But the faith of Saint Gregorie contrarily standeth thus Whatsoeuer Bishop he be Romane or other that professeth himselfe the Vniuersall Bishop or Head is subiect to Error Therefore none ought to assent to any such Assumption lest that that one erring the whole Church of Christ should erre with him So then you forsooth see an Infallibility in the vsurpation of that Title as proper to the Pope wherein Saint Gregorie did foresee the baine of an Vniuersall Erring and falling from the faith To conclude Saint Gregorie held the title which betokeneth an Vniuersall Dominion ouer the whole Church to be so direfully pernicious that hee consequently condemned the Vniuersall Subiection vnto one Bishop the now Article of the Romane Church as Pernicious and Antichristian To whom also your Iesuites haue taught you to adde two other Popes Pelagius and Leo who in like manner condemned and disclaimed that Title CHAP. VII Our second Argument against the Article of necessitie of Subiection to the Romane Church and Pope is taken from Comparisons made betweene the Bishop and Church of Rome with other Bishops and Churches by the ancient Fathers SECT 1. AGainst an Article of an vsurped Dominion of one Church ouer all other there can be no better Argument than from the Comparison of other Churches with that one which pretendeth her selfe to be the Mother and Mistris of all the rest Vpon this consideration you haue beene vrged by One who for learning and iudgement in Antiquitie was hardly to be seconded by any He posed you from the testimonies of the writings of Dionysius Areopagita and Ignatius the most ancient of Fathers Where supposing That Dionysius to be as truely that great Areopagita and as worthy an Author as you would haue him to be hee spurreth you a necessary question Why Dionysius was so vtterly silent in not mentioning the Vniuersall visible Head of the Church reigning at Rome if at that time there had beene any such Monarchicall Head there especially seeing hee professedly writ of the Ecclesiasticall Hieâ—archie and gouernment or is it credible and not rather monstrous that hee writing of the mysticall rites of the Church should omit all mention of this chiefe mysterie of one supreame Head and Monarch of the Church at Rome being so pertinently inuited thereunto by that matter subiect which hee had there in hand to wit by the Hierarchie of the Church if this doctrine had beene of faith in that age This saith hee remoueth your friuolous Obiection By the same reason hee obiecteth against you the Epistles of Ignatius the most ancient Martyr and Bishop of Antioch that hee being frequent in setting forth the Order Ecclesiastical and dignitie of Bishops vpon diuers occasions should forbeare all mention of the Monarchie of Saint Peter or any Romane Pope But we returne to our owne Obseruations out of Antiquitie by equall Comparisons of other Bishops with the Bishop of Rome beginning at the same Ignatius 1 He writing to the Church of Trallis and exhorting them vnto obedience to Bishops as to the Apostles instanceth equally in Timothie Saint Paul's Scholler as in Anacletus Successor to Saint Peter 2 Irenaeus liued next to the Apostles times who referreth his Reader for direction in the right of Traditions as well to Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna in the East as to Linus Bishop of Rome in the West 3 Tertullian to secure Christians in the Doctrine of the Apostles prescribeth vnto them that they consult with the Mother-Churches immediately founded by the Apostles naming aswell Ephesus in Asia and Corinth in Achaia as Rome in Italie And againe for the persons mentioning to the same purpose aswell Polycarpus ordained by Saint Iohn as Clemens by Peter Wee shall not neede to make any Notes or Comments vpon the
of faith Now wee haue proued by your owne Witnesses as by your owne eyes that aboue 2280. Bishops in their VIII Generall Councels and euery Generall Councell you call the Catholike Church haue opposed your Article of pretended Subiection The first by proportioning aswell the limits of the Romane Dioces as of other Patriarks The second by iudging the Romane Primacie not to stand vpon any Diuine authoritie and setting vp a Patriarke of Constantinople contrary to the Popes will The third by inhibiting any Bishop whatsoeuer from Ordaining Bishops within the Isle of Cyprus The fourth by aduancing the Bishops of Constantinople and establishing them in equall Priuiledges with the Bishops of Rome notwitstanding the Popes earnest opposition against it The fift in Condemning the Sentence of Pope Vigilius albeit one extreamely vehement in that Cause The Sixt and Seauenth in condemning Pope Honorius of Heresie And the Eighth by imposing a Canon vpon the Church of Rome and challenging Obedience thereunto Any man therefore although destitute of good Conscience if but endued with common ingenuitie will iudge and confesse that this Article which thus Condemneth aboue 2280. Bishops of the first Eighth Generall Councels whereof most were as Catholike as they were ancient and learned together with all their Beleeuers for the space of aboue 540. yeares Professours of the Christian faith is iustly to be condemned as Scandalous Schismaticall Hereticall Blasphemous Respectiuely and euery way damnable CHAP. IX Our fourth Argument taken from the Examples of particular Churches Catholike which contemning the Excommunication of the Bishop of Rome were notwithstanding acknowledged to be in the state of Saluation SECT 1. THree things there are which your new Romane Article requireth as Necessary to Saluation of Christians throughout the World I. Is to haue Vnion with the Church of Rome and Head thereof II. Because there are two kindes of Vnions one in Equalitie as is betweene the Members of the same Body and another in an Inequalitie like as is betweene the Head and the Body your Article exacteth Vnion of subiection also The III. is the Necessitie of faith concerning both these as namely that euery Christian doe beleeue the truth of the Article in both to wit that they are indeede Necessary to Saluation Therefore haue wee singled out Examples of ancient Churches which you your selues note as Excommunicate by the Popo which notwithstanding all the Christian world haue held to haue beene in the state of Saluation Our first Instance is in the ancient Churches of Asia which notwithstanding the Excommunication of Pope Victor were in the state of Saluation SECT 2. YOur owne Authors boastingly relate that in the yeare 197. Pope Victor did excommunicate all the Easterne Churches for not obseruing the feast of Easter vpon the Lords day which Excommunication say they is not found to haue beene afterwards reuoked or retracted wherein notwithstanding those that were auerse continued a long time So they A storie certainly worthy your double consideration whereof you cannot be ignorant it being recorded by Eusebius at large that namely Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus in Asia pleaded the Cause of the Churches of Asia against the Excommunication of Victor in that his Epistle whereunto the other Bishops in Asia gaue their Consent Prouing that their Custome contrary to the Romane was receiued from Saint Iohn who leaned vpon our Lords brest that it was practised by Philip the Apostle who died in Asia that it was continued by Saint Polycarpus Martyr and Bishop of Smyrna by Thraseas Bishop and Martyr by Sagonius Bishop and Martyr and that then Polycrates being animated by these so worthy Examples and the vnanimous Consent of their Bishops in Asia stood in defiance with that Pope Victor and contemned his Excommunications saying I who haue now liued sixtie fiue yeares in the Lord and haue had communion in the faith with all the Brethren dispersed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout the world and nothing moued with these terrors meaning of Ezcommunication which are vrged against vs. Thus farre the Ecclesiasticall Storie wherein appeareth this Conclusion as manifest as if it had beene deliuered in expresse termes viz. That a Christian may haue Communion generally with the Catholike Church else-where throughout the world notwithstanding the Excommunication of the Pope and See of Rome and therefore cannot the Romane Church be called the Catholike Church as the Head whereunto all others ought to professe Vnion and yeeld Subiection Yea but your Question will be whether these Asian Churches being thus Excommunicate by the Pope of Rome and so without the Vnion of your Church could therefore be said to be without the state of Saluation This is the maine point for satisfaction whereunto first if you will respect the faith of those Churches it is plaine that they beleeued that the Excommunication of the Bishop of Rome had no further power than to seperate them from his owne Romane Societie and Communion but extended not to the Church Catholike and Separation from it And this will appeare to bee true by better testimonies from the same knowne Storie it selfe where you may read that This Act of Victor did not well please all other Bishops who did greatly reproue him for troubling the peace of the Church And among others Father Irenaeus in the person of his Brethren in France wrote Letters to Pope Victor Dehorting him from his purpose This is enough to proue that Pope Victor was the Schismatike that troubled the peace of the Church and not the Asian Bishops whom these other holy Bishops did so far iustifie as not to deserue Excommunication But to appeale to your owne Consciences shew vnto vs in all your reading if you can that Polycrates and other Asian Bishops so Excommunicate by Pope Victor were held by any other Catholike Bishops of those times to be thereby without the state of Saluation For this you know is the very soule of your Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no Saluation Nay but you full well know that Contrarily Saint Hierome in his Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall Writers numbred Polycrates among those who did aduance the Catholike faith And againe relating this his opposition against Victor This I therefore mention saith hee to make knowne what was his meaning Polycrates Authoritie And yet againe Reporting the behauiâ—ur of Irenaeus and other Bishops in the same Case These saith hee albeit they differed in opinion from the Asian Bishops yet did they not consent to Pope Victor in the act of Excommunication So hee Where Not Consenting to the Popes Excommunication doth plainly inferre their inward Communion with the Bishops of Asia CHALLENGE THis one Case if there were no other were enough to strangle your Romane faith in that Article viz. The Romane Church without vnion wherewith there is no Saluation Wherein we finde the Bishops and Churches of Asia Excommunicated by the Romane Bishop and so separated from the Communion of his See
THE GRAND IMPOSTVRE OF THE now CHVRCH OF ROME Manifested in this one Article of the new Romane Creede viz The Holy Catholike and Apostolike Romane Church Mother and Mistresse of all other Churches without which there is no Saluation Proued to be a New False Sacrilegious Scandalous Schismaticall Hereticall and Blasphemous Article respectiuely and euerie way Damnable The Last Chapter containeth a Determination of the whole Question concerning the Separation of Protestants from the present Church of Rome whereby may be discerned whether Side is to be accounted Schismaticall or may more iustly pleade SOVLES SALVATION By the B. of Couentrie Lichfield LONDON Printed by George Miller for ROBERT MYLBOVRNE TO THE HIGH And Mighty PRINCE CHARLES By the Grace of God King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the FAITH c. YOur Maiesty may bee pleased most gratious Soueraigne to call to minde the Dedicatory Preface of Saint Luke by him prefixed before the Gospell of Christ and directed to a Lay-Magistrate in these words I thought good to write vnto thee most excellent Theophilus Where the name THEOPHILVS signifying a Louer of God manifesteth the interest that euery Deuout Christian as well Laick as Ecclesiastick hath in the Gospell of Christ to reade and enioy the comfort therof as the foundation of his Faith and diuine Charter of his Saluation And the Attribute of MOST EXCELLENT being ascribed to Temporall Gouernors pointeth out his Magistracie to note the Obligation that bindeth euery Christian Gouernor to professe the same Gospel and according to his power to promote and protect it As soone therefore as I thought to finde a Parallell to this so honourable an Example no-one appeared in this age of Christianity either more Worthie for religious Deuotion of the name of THEOPILVS or for Protecting the Gospell of Christ more deseruing the Attribute of MOST EXCELLENT than your Sacred Maiesty For I could not conceiue where to finde a more faithfull Professor among I say not onely Princes but euen Persons Christians than Him who in a time of Iealouzie and greatest extremity resolued to resigne his dearest Choice his inheritance of a Regall Scepter yea and life it selfe rather than to inthrall his precious Soule to Romish Superstition And as for the protection of the same Gospell of Faith to none can this be more proper than to Him who not to question the first beginning thereof most iustly possesseth the Royall Title of DEFENDER OF THE FAITH Now hauing said thus much of this Right I beseech your Maiestie gratiously to vouchsafe a briefe yet cleare Representation thereof The same THE FAITH so called by the Apostle is taken by way of Excellencie to signifie onely that Profession of Christianity which containeth all things Necessary to Saluation euen as he calleth it The Gospell of Faith And this Faith which is called but One Saint Iude in his Catholike Epistle will haue knowne to be onely that which was when he writ but Once deliuered vnto the Saints Which one particle Once must necessarily condemne euery diuers After Faith for euer For Saint Paul against all other Gospels Besides that which then had been Preached is peremptory pronouncing Euery one be he Man or Angel that should suggest or teach it Anathema and Accursed To which Apostolicall Censure Antient Fathers against the Heretikes of their times haue All subscribed according to that Comment made by one of them vpon the same words of the Apostle thus To deliuer any thing among Christians BESIDES that which was once receiued neither was nor is lawfull nor yet euer wil be This one speculation may be as good as a thousand to discerne which kinde of Professors at this day may most properly be said to professe THE FAITH The now Church of Rome hath composed a new Romane Creed Faith consisting by exact disquisition of moe than twenty Articles each one of which is prescribed to be beeleeued vpon Necessity of Saluation Among which are mentioned Transubstantiation Worship of Images Indulgences the like notwithstanding they be as newly-old as were the Gibeonites pretences of torne-shooes and mouldy-bread by which they feined themselues to haue come from farre For Some of these doctrines were not Deliuered vntill fiue or sixe hundred and some not till more than a Thousand yeeres after that Once-prescribed Time of the holy Apostles as diuers Doctors of the same Church are ready to confesse from point to point And although Some few of Them had obtained an opinion of Probability in the daies of antiquity yet can it not be shewed that any one of them had stamped on it the opinion of Necessity of Beleefe vpon losse of Saluation Which is a Character as proper to the Gospell of Christ as was to Caesar's coyne the Image of Caesar. Wherfore euery new Article of Faith by S. Pauls Anathema being no better than a new Heresie although the Romish Opposites dart against our Professors as they did in the Councel of Trent their many Anathema's and Curses yet stand we secure knowing that as the Serpent of Aaron deuoured the Serpents of the Magitians in Aegypt euen so That one Anathema of S. Paul must needs cōdemne all the Anathema's which they denounce in Defence of That which is not THE FAITH once deliuered to the Saints in the dayes of the Apostles But because as the first mooueable Sphere aboue turneth by it's rapture all the inferior Orbes daily about the world so one Romish Article to wit The Catholike ROMANE Mother and Mistresse Church without which there is no Saluation carrieth and maketh current by the violence thereof all other Romish Articles albeit otherwise neuer so New False Idolatrous or Pernicious and for that this One is found by Experience to bee in that Profession their strongest Enchantment This this ARTICLE therefore haue I selected to be the Subiect of this Treatise Proouing her Addition of the word ROMANE to the CATHOLIKE or Vniuersall CHVRCH to be by many confessed Propositions the Deprauation of that our Christian Article in the Apostles Creed viz. THE CATHOLIKE CHVRCH Her pretence of an Vniuersall Motherhood to all Catholike Churches to be a manifest Derogation to diuerse ancient Churches among others the Church of Britaine which are confessed to haue bene before that euer Rome had so much as any face or name of a Church and her Challenge of Vniuersall Mistris-ship and Dominion thorow-out all Christendome to bee in effect a blasphemous Condemnation of most godly Generall Councels Churches and Bishops of Primitiue ages diuers whereof are by name Registred for Saints and Martyrs in the Calendar of the now Church of Rome it selfe who as is Confessed haue consented Some to impose Lawes vpon the Romane Church Some to contemne her Excommunications and All to haue denyed absolute Subiection vnto Her euen in the times of her purest Integrity And because all Temporall Estates at this day are included in the same Romish Article of Vniuersall
to iudicious Professors To trie all things and retaine that which is good that is to say True For if Truth were not good no Goodnesse could be True Next is the Bond of your Profession who will be thought to be the onely Catholikes that is the Professors of the Catholike Faith and possessors of that Fold of Christ which in the Apostles Creed is called the CATHOLIKE CHVRCH the defence of which truly called Catholike Church without which there no Saluation is the Subiect of this whole Treatise Wherein you may finde that your Romane Church quà Romane is excluded from the Prerogatiue of The Catholike Mother Church as by the Iudgement of the Catholike Church it selfe so also by the same Catholike Theoreme which you so Commonly obiect and glorie in viz. HE HATH NOT GOD FOR HIS FATHER WHO HATH NOT THE CHVRCH FOR HIS MOTHER according to the plaine and euident Sence of that Catholike Father who was the first Author thereof A Third Obligation ariseth from your owne Practise who are so vrgent vehement and in a sort violent in defending a Necessarie Vnion with the Romane Church and in inueighing against our Separation from it as against a deadly and damnable Schisme Wherefore it were in you a perfidious Tergiuersation to heare as hath beene partly pointed at your Answers refuted and your Obiections retorted vpon you and not to make Triall whether you haue beene able to stand vnto your Defence and Defiance or no. Lastly in your asking HOVV this Assertion can be made good your owne Interrogatorie exacteth of you a Diligence to vnderstand the Answer to the same HOVV Whereunto for this Present I shall Answer but in a Generality to wit that I haue endeuored to Insist 1. Concerning the Antecedents vpon Grounds immoouable such as are the Common Rules of Faith and good Conscience 2. Vpon Consequences vndeniable such as are your owne Principles and Conclusions 3. For Testification of both the former vpon Witnesses least partiall to vs-ward such as are for the most part your owne Writers and 4. Concerning the Credit which you may require in alleaging your Authors vpon such an oculata fides as whereunto you will take no Exception and although some of them may happen to bee vrged Iudicio errante yet sure I am animo reluctante not One. But What needs more Prefacing These and the like Questions which may appertaine to the Article in hand may bee more particularly satisfied in the Discourse it selfe which I shall desire you to accept with the same Right-hand of Christian Affection wherewith it is offered vnto you and that if Any shall addresse an Answer thereunto that then he iudge and censure it vpon the same Caution and Condition wherewith it is written and tendred vnto him euen as for his Sayings or Gain-Sayings he will answer God at the day of Iudgement Fare-you well Yours still a Debter vnto you in Christ Iesus THO. COVEN LICHF A SVMMARIE OF THE seuerall CHAPTERS CHAP. I. THe Profession of the Romish Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church c. imposed by the Romane Popes confessed by their Councels Catechismes and Iesuites Sect. 1.2.3.4 c. CHAP. II. OVR FIRST CONSIDERATION is of the Generall Foundation of our Confutation of that Romane Article by prouing it to be a sacrilegious Deprauation of the Common Article of our Christian Creede THE CATHOLIKE CHVRCH Sect. 1.2.3 I. Argument Because the Word ROMANE excludeth that part of the Catholike Church which is called the Triumphant Confessed Sect. 4. II. In respect of the Essentiall Parts of the Church Militant by comprizing in it those that are but Excrements and no true Members thereof Confessed Sect. 5. III. In respect as the Church Catholike is Visible by Excluding the Essentiall Members thereof viz. faithfull Catechumenists and vniustly Excommunicated Persons Confessed Sect. 6. IV. Because the Article of Catholike Roman Church as ROMANE is voide of all Catholike foundation which is Diuine authoritie Confessed Sect. 7. V. In respect of the Time Past because the Catholike Church was long before there was so much as a Romane Church Confessed Sect. 8. VI. In respect of the Time to Come because the Church Romane as it is ROMANE may possibly be altered from the Catholike Church Confessed Sect. 9. VII In respect of any Time Present because alwayes vncertaine of her true Romane Head Confessed Sect. 10. VIII Because this Romane Article is to all that Beleeue it Necessarily a matter of Heresie and of Periurie to All that which all Romish Priests are compelled vnto sweare vnto it Sect. 11. CHAP. III. A SECOND CONSIDERATION of the Catholike Church is by obseruing a Second general Head of Confutation from the Iudgement of seuerall Councels Churches and Fathers in a Different Respect of Time Sect. 1. I. In Respect of the Time Before the foundation of the Church of Rome that Church is falsly called the Mother-Church of all Others Sect. 2. 1. Proofe from the rottennes of the foundation of her Mother-hood which is the false Pretence of Peter his Ordaining all other Apostles to be Pastors Confessed Sect. 3. 2. Proofe by Instancing in the Examples of Churches which were Mother-Churches before Rome and some also to Rome Sect. 4. As Hierusalem Sect. 5. Caesarea Sect. 6. Antioch Sect. 7. c. The Greeke Church in Generall Sect. 8. And the Church of Britaine Sect. 9. CHAP. IV. II. IN Respect of the Time about When the Church of Rome was first founded because 1. The Romane Article of the Catholike Romane Church is Contrarie to the faith of Saint Peter the pretended Founder of that Church Sect. 1. to Sect. 8. 2. Contrary to the Faith of Saint Paul the supposed Co-founder of the same Church with Saint Peter Sect. 8.9.10 His account of the Romane Church Sect. 11.12.13.14 3. Contrary to the Faith of Saint Iohn who taught that the Citie of Rome was to be the Seat of Antichrist before the second Comming of Christ. Sect. 15. And because he could not be accounted Subiect to the Pope § 16. CHAP V. III. IN Respect of the Time When the Church of Rome was first founded the same Article is found Contrary to the faith of the Church of Christ. Sect. 1. An Argument from the Tyrannous Domineering of the Church of Rome by Two Instances Sect. 2.3 CHAP. VI. IIII. IN Respest of the Time After the foundation of the Romane Church Sect. 1. First in the Primitiue age Prouing that the now Romane Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church c. is Contrarie to the Iudgement of Antiquity Sect. 2. I. Argument from the Contrarie ancient Sence of the Word Catholike Church Sect. 3. By the iudgement of Saint Augustine Sect. 4. of Saint Hierome Sect. 5. of S. Gregory Sect. 6 CHAP. VII II. ARgument is taken from the Comparisons betweene the other Churches and Bishops with the Church of Rome and her Bishops by the iudgement of Irenaeus Tertullian Athanasius Vinc. Lyrinensis Sect. 1. The same Comparisons proued by
ancient Councels Churches Sect. 2. CHAP. VIII III. ARgument is taken from the Iudgement of the Catholike Church it selfe in her Generall Councels Sect. 1. Proouing that the now Romane Article falsly damneth the Fathers of the Councell of Nice Sect. 2. The Fathers of the first Councell of Constantinople Sect. 3. The Fathers of the Councell of Ephesus Sect. 4. The Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon Sect. 5. The Fathers of the second Councell of Constantinople Sect. 6. The Fathers of the Sixt and Seauenth Generall Councels which condemned Pope Honorius for an Heretike Sect. 7. The Fathers of the Eighth Generall Councell Sect. 8. CHAP. IX IV. ARgument is taken from the iudgement of Particular ancient and godly Churches which were opposite to the pretended Iurisdiction of Rome and concerning her Excommunication by diuerse Instances § 1. 1. Instance Proouing that shee by her now Romane Article falsly damneth the Churches of Asia and their Catholike Bishops in the daies of Pope Victor Sect. 2. 2. Falsly damneth the Catholike Churches of Africke Numidia Mauritania in the dayes of Saint Cyprian Sect. 3. Yea and Saint Cyprian himselfe Sect. 4.5.6.7 3. Falsly damneth the Churches of Africke in the dayes of S. Augustine yea and Saint Augustine himselfe Sect. 8.9.10.11.12 4. Falsly damneth the Catholike Church of Britaine with the Scottish Irish c. in the dayes of S. Gregory Sect. 15.16 CHAP. X. V. A Argument is because by this now Romane Article are falsly Damned the most Catholike Emperours who anciently opposed the now pretended Papall Dominion Confessed Sect. 1. Instances in the Confessed Oppositions of Constantine the Great Theodosius the elder Theodosius the younger and Iustinian Sect. 2.3 c. The due estimation of these Emperours Sect. 4. CHAP. XI VI. ARgument because the same Romane Article falsly damneth the First and Best and indeed most Catholike Popes of Rome who acknowledged Subiection to the Emperours of their Times as well Ethnikes as Christian. Sect. 1.2.3.4.5 CHAP. XII VII ARgument because the same Romane Article falsly Damneth the most worthie Seruants of God whose names are Registred for Martyrs and Saints in the now Calendar of the Church of Rome or in the Romane Martyrologe viz. S. Polycarpus Sect. 1. S. Cyprian Sect. 2. S. Athanasius Sect. 3. S. Basil. Sect. 4. S. Hilary of Poictou Sect. 5. Saint Hierome Sect. 6. S. Ambrose Sect. 7. S. August § 8. S. Hilary of Arles § 9. CHAP. XIII VIII ARgument because of the Vanity of the Romane Defence in the behalfe of their Romane Article of Catholike Iurisdiction Discouered by Parallels 1. The Romish Pretence froÌ„ Titles anciently attributed to the Romane Chaire by Councels Confuted by Equiualences Sect. 1. 2. From the Titles attributed by ancient Fathers Confuted first by Equiualences Sect. 2.3 Next by their owne Contradictions Sect. 4. Thirdly by the Blasphemousnesse of sundry Titles attributed to the Pope Sect. 5. 3. The Romish PreteÌ„ce of Supreme Iurisdiction from the Sentences of ancient Greeke Fathers Sect. 6. Among Others are the memorable Examples of Theophilus and S. Cyril Patriarks of Alexandria Atticus and Acatius Patriarkes of Constantinople All neglecting the Popes Excommunieation Sect. 7. The same from the Latine Fathers Confuted Sect. 8.9 A Generall Confutation of the former Falshood Sect. 10. 4. The same Romish Pretence of supreme Iurisdiction from the Authoritie of ancient Popes Confuted Sect. 11.12.13 As also from their Acts. Sect. 14. The same Pretence first taken from the Councell of Sardis for Right of Appeales to Rome Confuted Sect. 15. The same opposed by Examples of Antiquity And secondly confuted by an Argument taken from the Councell of Chalcedon Sect. 16. Thirdly from S. Cyprian Sect. 17. Fourthly from Pope Damasus Sect. 18. Fiftly from the Councell of Mileuis Sect. 19. Sixtly from S. Augustine Sect. 20. CHAP. XIV THE THIRD CONSIDERATION of the Church Catholike is in respect of the latter ages of the world Confuting the now Romane Article of the Catholike Church by Instances of three kinds First of Remote Nations 1. Because it falsly damneth the Greeke Church from age to age Sect. 1. Notwithstanding that it continued still a true Christian Church Sect. 2.3.4 And be now in extent wonderfull spatious and for multitudes innumerable Sect. 5 The extremitie of the Romish Article Sect. 6. A Particular Instance in Ignatius Patriarke of Constantinople neglecting the Popes Excommunication Sect. 7. 2. Because it falsly damneth the Churches of the Assyrians Sect. 8. 3. Because it falsly damneth the Churches of other remote Nations Aegyptians Aethiopians Armenians c. Sect. 9. Secondly in Churches more neare Because it as falsly damneth all Protestant Churches although more Orthodox than Rome it selfe and for number infinite Sect. 10. Third Instance in the Church of Rome it selfe Because it condemneth the Church of Rome it selfe in the latter ages thereof proouing either Pope or Church of Rome Schismaticall in themselues Sect. 11.12 Prooued by manifold and ineuitable Necessities as hauing sometimes bene a Church Head-les Sect. 13. Sometimes with a false Head Sect. 14. Sometimes with many Heads Sect. 15. Sometimes Counter-Headed Sect. 16. Sometimes doubtfully Headed Sect. 17 18 19 20. CHAP. XV. THe Determination of the whole Question concerning the Separation of Protestants from the Romane Church to discerne whether Side is to be accounted Schismaticall or may more iustly pleade Soules Saluation Discussed by certaine Theses consisting of foure Parts Sect. 1. The first Part consisting of VII Theses I. Thesis An absolute decay of the whole Catholike Church was neuer defended by any Protestant Sect. 2. II. Thesis The Church Symbolical properly called Catholike cannot erre in Faith Sect. 3. III. Thesis How the Church Representatiue improperly called Catholike may be said to be subiect to error Sect. 4. IV. Protestants hold not any greater Inuisibility or rather Obscuritie of the Church Catholike than that which the Romanists themselues aâ—e forced to confesse Sect. 5. V. Thesis All Particular Churches are not to be forsaken for euery vnsoundnesse either in manners worship or doctrine Sect. 6. VI. Thesis Some vnsound Churches are necessarily to bee auoided and iust Causes why Sect. 7. VII No vniust Excommunication out of a true Church can preiudice the Saluation of the Excommunicate Sect. 8. The second Part is concerning Departure from the Church of Rome comparing the Church of Rome with other Churches I. Thesis The Cburch of Rome is as subiect to error as any other Church Sect. 9. II. Thesis The Church of Rome is more subiect to Error then any other Church Christian. Sect. 10. III. Thesis There is not in all Scripture any Prophecie of the fall of any Christian Church but onely of the Church of Rome from which it may sometime be necessary to depart Sect. 11. IV. Thesis The Church of Rome hath long bene and still is the most Schismaticall Church of all other Christian Churches that carrie in them a Visible face of a Church § 12. The third Part of this Determination concerneth the
Departure of Protestants from the Church of Rome occasioned by M. Luther I. Thesis Luther was vniustly Excommunicated out of the Romane Church Sect. 15. II. Thesis Luther had necessary Cause to depart from the Church of Rome Sect. 15. III. Thesis Luther and his Followers are farre more safe for their Soules state in that Separation from the Church of Rome and lesse Schismatikes than They whom they forsooke Sect. 16. IV. Thesis The Romish Obiections vrged against the Separation of Luther are notably friuolous Sect. 17. V. Thesis Their first Oiection in respect of Luthers former Vow to the Pope or Church of Rome is vaine and idle Sect. 18. VI. Thesis The second and most Popular Obiection against Luther in his Opposition to the Romane Church vrging him to prooue his Doctrine by immediate Succession and by naming his Teachers before him is as fond as the other Sect. 19. VII Thesis The Obiection That all Changes of Doctrines haue bene notorious in the Persons and Places of their Beginnings is false Sect. 20. VIII Thesis The last Obiection Of Cōtinuall and personall Succession in all ages is frustrate Sect. 21. The fourth and last Part of this Determination concerneth the state of the Churches of Protestants after the daies of Luther and their more iust Cause of continuing this Separation from the Church of Rome Sect. 22. I. Thesis Protestants are Generally Excommunicated by the Church of Rome Sect. 23. II. Thesis Protestants are vniustly Excommunicated Sect. 24. III. Thesis In the Continuance of this Separation Papists are rather Schismatikes than Protestants and consequently in the Heresie of the Donatists Sect. 25. IV. Thesis In the Continuance of this Separation the Vnion of the Protestants with the Catholike Church is both more true and more Vniuersall thā is the Vnion of the Romanists § 26 V. Thesis The Protestants granting it possible for some to be saued within the Church of Rome and the Papists denying that any can be saued in the Churches of the Protestants is but a Sophisticall proofe that there is more safety in the Romane Church Sect. 27 VI. Your common Obiection what is then become of the soules of our fore-Fathers more iustifieth the Protestants Separation from Papists than it can the Separation of Papists from Protestants Sect. 28. VII The Protestants at this day stand more Iustifiable in their Separation from Rome than did either the ancient Primitiue Churches in her Excommunicating of Them or yet Luther and his Followers in their Departure from Her Sect. 29. THE GRAND IMPOSTVRE Of the now Church of Rome Manifested in this ARTICLE of the new Romane Creed Viz. The Catholike Romane Church c. Without which there is no SALVATION THat this is the fundamentall ARTICLE of your Romane Church as it is called Romane We cannot bee better enformed than by the Bishops of Rome Heads of the same Church than by the Bodie thereof which is the Church of Rome it selfe in her Councell of Trent together with the Confirmation of the same by Pope Pius the IV than by your publike Catechisme ratified by the like authority Lastly than by her principall Doctors and Diuines in their most approoued and priuileged Books written vpon this Argument of THE CATHOLIKE CHVRCH All which you may read in their owne expresse words CHAP. I. The expresse Profession of the now Church of Rome concerning this her Article vz. The Catholike Romane Church c. without Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation is absolutely and peremptorily proclaimed by the Authority of the Popes SECT 1. IT wil be a good Decorum that in this case we begin to consult with the Heads of your Church the Popes of Rome themselues Gregory the VII in the yeere 1073 decreed thus The Church of Rome saith he was founded only by God and the Pope thereof is rightly stiled The vniuersall Bishop insomuch that whosoeuer consenteth not with the Church of Rome cannot be a Catholike After him in the yeere 1192. Pope Innocēt the 3. distinguishing of the Word Catholike or Vniuersall decreed as followeth If the Church saith he be called Catholike as a cōpany consisting of al Christian Churches so the Church of Rome is not to be termed The Catholike Church but a part therof but take the word Catholike a◠God is called vniuersall Lord because al things are vnder his dominiō so we say that the Church of Rome only hath al other Churches vniuersally subiect vnto it So he More than an hundred yeeres after him Boniface the 8. would needs be heard not speake but roare thunder by peremptory decree in this tenor viz. We declare define pronounce that it is Necessary for euery one that is to be saued to be subiect to the Pope of Rome Thus much for the testimonies of the Popes The iudgement of the late Romane Church SECT 2. SInce those times the Church of Rome her selfe in her Councell of Trent and by the Bull of Pope Pius the IV. set forth for the Confirmation of the same Councell in the yeere 1556. did impose vpon her Professors a new CREED consisting of more than twentie Articles of the now Romane Faith which shee hath prescribed vnto you and all other Ecclesiasticall persons of what denomination or Title soeuer to be professed vnder the tenor and forme of an Oath to wit I N. doe firmely beleeue sweare and professe that the Catholike and Apostolique Romane Church is the Mother and Mistresse of all Churches and I doe vowe promise and sweare true obedience to the Pope of Rome the Vicar of Christ Successour of S. Peter c. And this I hold to be the true Catholike Faith which whosoeuer beleeueth not cannot bee saued So your new Creed The now Romane Catechisme SECT 3. VPon this ground was founded that which you call the Romane Catechisme and published by the authoritie of the same Pope Pius and his Councell of Trent whereby yours as well as other Catechumenists are instructed to beleeue that The Catholike Church is One both because of one Faith also for that it is subiect to one inuisible Gouernour which is Christ and to one visible Head the Pope So your Catechisme The iudgement of Romane Doctors of singular Note SECT 4. IN the last place we are to consult with your publicke Readers in Schooles where by the testimonies of Three you may iudge of the faith of the rest especially these being as fully accomplished with all furniture of learning as any other The first thus The Church of Rome is the vniuersall Catholike Church not as it is a particular Bishopprick but as it comprehendeth all Beleeuers vnder the subiection of the Bishop of Rome And againe Wee must saith he hold it as a point of our Catholike Faith that this indiuiduall Congregation which professeth the Romane Faith and is vnited to the Pope of Rome is the true Catholike Church which I proue first by the Apostles Creed c. The Second thus We define saith
he the Church to be a Companie of men obedient to the Bishop of Rome for the time being and we affirme the Church of Rome to be alone the Catholike and Apostolike Church The Third and last thus None doth communicate saith he with the Catholike Church except he subiect himselfe vnto the Pope yea although otherwise he professe the Catholike Faith For vnion with the Head is a note of the Church So standeth the now Article of your Romane Faith Foure remarkeable Points more distinctly to be obserued in your former Romane Profession concerning the Article of The Catholike Romane Church SECT 5. FIrst obserue that the word ROMANE is not added only for distinction-sake to discerne it from other Churches which in respect of the Catholike doctrine of Faith professed in them haue equally had that Addition as to bee called the Catholike Corinthian or the Catholike Ephesian the Catholike Thessalonian or as we now the Catholike English Church because so it could be no more Catholike than other particular Churches as your Iesuite confesseth and consequently there could be no matter of controuersie But now the word ROMANE is added to the Article of the Catholike Church by way of Transcendencie and as the same Iesuite resolueth supreamly comprehending all other Churches professing the Catholike faith vnder the obedience of the Pope of Rome as the vniuersall Vicar of Christ. So that this Article is become not onely one point of Controuersie but indeede the chiefe Head of all the Controuersies which are between the said Romane Church and all other Churches at this day Secondly you conceiue this Appropriation to be Diuini Iuris in a strict sence ordained by Christ himselfe and not onely by Ecclesiasticall Institution Thirdly vpon this pretended Ordinance you exact from all other Churches Christian a Necessitie of Vnion with your Church of Rome and the Bishop thereof both in Faith Subiection Fourthly this Necessity of Subiection you beleeue to be Absolute as to exclude from hope of Saluation not onely all them that shall refuse to be subiect to the Romane Primacie but euen all them also that do not beleeue euery soule of man to be vtterly Damned that is not subiect thereunto The GENERALL CHALLENGE against this your former Romane Profession and the Summe of our contrarie Defence SECT 6. IF therefore wee may giue credit vnto your now Romane Church to your later Romane Bishops to your Romane Councels and Creed to your selues and other sworne Professors of the same Romane faith then must wee beleeue all the seuerall points and as it were the Particles of this one Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no saluation Which notwithstanding wee hold and beleeue to be respectiuely False Vnconscionable Scandalous Schismaticall Hereticall Blasphemous and euery way Damnable And this we coÌ„fidently hope God assisting vs to proue from such your owne Grounds and from so manifest Demonstrations as that you shall fully perceiue vs to plead not so much our owne Cause as the Cause of the holy Apostles of the renowned Martyrs and Confessors of Christ of the most Orthodoxe Christian Professors of the holy Faith euen in the Primitiue Times of other innumerable Churches of Christendoâ—e still partakers of the Common Saluation yea and of the Catholike and Vniuersall Church of Christ it selfe Our proofes for the maintaining of this Challenge may be reduced vnto two heads The first is the Consideration of the common Article of our Christian faith to wit The holy Catholike Church The second from the state of the Visible Church of Christ it selfe as well Primitiue as Successiue CHAP. II. The first Generall Foundation of our CHALLENGE is taken from the Article in the Apostles Creed viz. The Catholike Church SECT 1. WE lay the first ground of our Challenge vpon the Apostles Creed and Symbol so called you know as being A forme of Faith composed by the Apostles accordingly as the ancient Fathers haue commonly taught Which the Schollers of Christ ought to get by hart as a watch-word in our Christian discipline whereby the faithfull Professors as by a perfect Shibboleth may be distinguished from the Iewish and Hereticall Which Christian Symbol although it be called the Apostles Creed yet it is so termed not because they were Deuisers but onely Collectors thereof by reducing the fundamentall Articles into one Briefe euen as a posie is called his that gathered trimmed it not that he created the flowers but because he composed the bundle and like as the writers of the Gospell were not Inuentors and Dictators but onely Pen-men of the holy Ghost and Scribes of Christ as the Fathers vse to speake Which the Euangelists themselues do sufficiently teach by inscribing their worke The Gospell of Iesus Christ. And accordingly all the Apostles in receiuing the doctrine of saluation are called Disciples not Doctors or Masters in respect of Christ. So then we haue in this posie a briefe Collection of those flowers of sauing truth which spring in the Paradise of God the Gospell of Iesus Christ. That the Church hath no power to ordaine any new Article of faith SECT 2. HE onely can make an Article of faith as necessarily belonging vnto the saluation of soules who can create a soule and after make a Gospell or Testament to saue this soule and then giue vnto that soule the gift of faith to beleeue this Gospell and next institute a Sacrament for confirmation of that faith and in the end bestow saluation vpon the same faithfull beleeuer This we should prooue from Scriptures and from the constant iudgement of the Fathers if it were not a doctrine acknowledged in your owne Schooles and professed by all Christians I proceed to that which followeth That the false Additions to the Creed are new Articles SECT 3. THere are two kinds of additions vnto the Apostolicall Creed the one is of Explication the other is of Deprauation The addition onely of Explication is iustifiable as appeareth by the addition of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consubstantiall filioque which haue bene set downe in Declaratiue Creeds composed by ancient Councels for the clearer vnderstanding of the great mysterie of the Trinitie In which case those additions may be truly called as Lirinensis saith of the like Non noua sed nouè dicta But the Addition of Deprauation of the sence of the Creed in any essentiall and fundamentall part thereof which is to be beleeued as necessary to saluation must needs be a new Article and euery such new Article in true construction a new Heresie Now what one Professor is there in the Romane Church who whensoeuer he repeateth that one Article of our Christian Creed The Catholike Church doth not vnderstand thereby the Romane onely And againe what one is there among you that hearing mention made of the Romane Catholike Church doth not take the addition of the word ROMANE to be a Declaration and exposition of the
so seeming members of the Catholike Church yet are they no true and proper but onely equiuocall and titularie members of Christs Church like as spittle flegme and other excrementall humours are said to be in the body of a man whereof notwithstanding they are no essentiall parts All this agreeth with the Doctrine of ancient Fathers among whom Saint Ambrose All that are in the Church saith he fight for Christ intimating that the wicked fight against Christ. Likewise Saint Augustine The Catholike Church saith he is so called because it is in euery part perfect And againe Onely the Predestinate cannot be diuided from this body Whereunto the aboue-cited testimonies of Hierome and Chrysostome doe consent And in this Harmonie Clemens Alexandrinus will be knowne to beare a part calling the Catholike Church a Catalogue of iust men according to the purpose of God and a Congregation of the Predestinate Of which Church of Christ as his Spouse S. Bernard arguing from the Apostle inferreth as a thing without doubt that the Elect are the Church of Christ. Lastly lest that we may seeme to neglect the iudgement of the Fathers of the Romane Church and the Bishops of Rome Pope Gregorie for his singular wisedome and deuotion calâ—ed The Great obseruing a proportion betwixt Christ the Head and his Mysticall Body called the Catholike Church As Christ saith he was coÌ„ceiued by the holy Ghost so is his Church which is his body replenished with the same spirit and addeth that All the Elect are within the compasse of this Church and all Reprobates without it The very same doctrine for which Iohn Husse was condemned in the Councell of Constance So that Augustine Chrysostome Ambrose Bernard yea and Pope Gregorie himselfe may seeme to haue beene condemned and burned with him Thus much be said in Thesi to prooue that the Catholike Church as it is considered in the essence thereof is an inuisible Obiect of Faith and not a visible Obiect of Sence CHALLENGE AN Addition which hath no other consideration of the Church than as it is Visible cannot be a Declaration of a Church which is in the essence thereof considered as Inuisible But the Addition of the word ROMANE is vsed only in consideration of the Church as it is Visible that is consisting of a number of persons visibly knowne and discerned to professe the Christian Faith and subiect to a Visible Romane Pope as the visible and essentiall Head of the same Church So as to vse the words of your Cardinall Bellarmine If wicked and carnall Professors are not to be esteemed properly but equiuocally and onely in name the members of the Catholike Church then must it follow What Heare I beseech you the Consequence of your Cardinall that a wicked Pope cannot be the Head of the Church So he But that all carnall Professors of the Catholike Faith are no essentiall members of the Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed you haue heard it already prooued by plaine places of Scriptures by the expresse iudgement of ancient Fathers by your owne Confessions by the nature of Faith which beleeueth that which it seeth not yea and by the tenure of the Apostles Creed which teacheth vs to beleeue with a diuine Faith onely Them to be infallibly the members of this Church who as it is in the Creed can Beleeue according to the Article to obtaine Remission of sinnes in this life and after death Life euerlasting Whilest that therefore you doe discerne the Catholike Church by the eye so farre onely as it is visible Subiect to one visible Head the Pope who may happen to be as All of you will confesse as wicked and monstrous in his life as any in the line of Caiphas as desperate in his death as Iudas and after as damned in hell as that Glutton in the Gospel who cried out I am tormented in this flame and seeing that the profession of the Church as it is onely Visible and an obiect of sence can be no true Declaration or Exposition of an Article signifying the Church of Christ as it is also and that more principally Inuisible it plainely appeareth from these Premises that your word ROMANE depraueth the Article of the Apostles Creed by incorporating the limbes of Sathan together with the vitall members of Christ in that one mysticall body which is his Catholike Church and consequently that you haue forfeited your Head of the Romane Church in euery damned Pope that hath at any time professed that Romane Chaire The third Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE cannot be any Declaration of the Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed is in respect of the visible parts of the same SECT 6. TWo sorts of persons there are within your Romane Church which you your selues denie to bee any visible members thereof one is of them you call Catechumenists who as it falleth out in the Conuersion of Heathen and Iewes before they can be baptized are exercised in learning the principles and rudiments of Faith The other are Excommunicates who by the publike censure of your Church happen to bee vniustly Anathematized and disioyned from all Communion therewith Of the Catechumenists who are instructed in the Catholike Faith and bring forth the fruits of Repentance and yet depart this life without Baptisme you pronounce saying that They are saued albeit they are not in the Church In like manner haue you resolued concerning such kinde of Excommunicates who may happen to be vniustly Excommunicated saying that Because the Church cannot iudge of things that are secret it may happen that some are vniustly Excommunicated and excluded out of the visible Church and neuerthelesse receiued of God and certainely saued So you We cannot but approue of both your Positions as hauing Instances in both for in the number of Catechumenists is reckoned that Christian Emperour Valentinian a zealous Professor and Patrone of the Catholike Faith who died vnexpectedly before he was baptized whose Exequies and funeralls notwithstanding Saint Ambrose did solemnize and in his Sermon did honour the memory of that renoumed Emperour as one who had beene as the same Father speaketh Indewed with the spirit of God in his life-time and now after his death aduanced vnto ioyes eternall Touching Excommunicates we reade in the Gospell of the Blind man healed by Christ and by the malice of the Priests against Christ Cast out of their Synagogue whom neuerthelesse Christ did visit and take into his grace protection and Saluation Tell vs now if your Romane Church be that Catholike Church without which as you beleeue none can be saued how then it commeth to passe that these two sorts of Christians are saued albeit they be without the said Romane Church Your Iesuites doe answer that Such Excommunicates although they are not of the Communion which maketh a man to be properly of the Visible Church yet neuerthelesse they are saued by their
desire to be vnited with the Church So they which is full enough for your fuller conuiction CHALLENGE IF without the Romane Church some may bee actually saued then the Addition of the word ROMANE caonot be a Declaration of The Catholike Church without which there is no Saluation But the Romane Church is such without which as you confesse some may be actually saued Ergo the Addition of the word ROMANE to the Catholike Church cannot bee a Declaration thereof For although All agree in this as your selues confesse that Without the Catholike Church there is no saluation yet haue you confessed two sorts of Christian Professors namely Excommunicates and Catechumenists to bee actually saued albeit no Members of your Romane Church As for being Saued only by Desire or Vâ—we of being in your Church it is but a wilde and extrauagant piece of learning in the iudgement of your owne Iesuite But we will reason the matter with you Know you not that the Church Catholike is compared by Saint Petor to the Arke of Noah that as all which were within that Arke were saued all without it were drowned although they Desired neuer so much to haue been admitted into the Arke so it is in the Church Catholike whosoeuer are essentiall members thereof cannot possibly perish and contrarily whoseuer is not a reall and vitall member therein cannot but perish The fourth Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE cannot be a Declaration of the Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed In respect of the Diuine Authority of the Article SECT 7. IT hath alwaies beene the Profession of the Catholike Church it selfe not to esteeme any Doctrine an Article of Faith which is not constituted and to speake with better Emphasis Created by Diuine authority This being a Truth vniuersally consented vnto you if you will make good the Addition of the word ROMANE to the Article of the Catholike Church are iustly challengable either to proue that the Romane Church as it is the Romane Church was constituted by diuine Authority to be rather than any other transcendently THE Catholike Church or else to confesse your Article of Romane Church without which there is no Saluation to be but new and consequently a Doctrine rather of fancie than of Faith The necessity of this Consequence was well foreseene of those your Popes who were the first Authors and Patrons of this Article and therefore haue published in their writings and decrees that The Romane Church was by Diuine Authority ordained to be the Catholike Church This Question dependeth vpon the reason of the Pope of Rome his succession to Saint Peter to wit whether it were allotted to the Bishop of Rome to succed Saint Peter as Head of the Catholike Church by the institution of Christ or else by the fact of Saint Peter himselfe For if it were by command and appointment of Christ then it must be allowed as a Diuine Ordinance but if it issued onely from the fact of Saint Peter then by your owne Confessions it is no doctrine of Faith This being the state of the Question as it is propounded by your selues hereunto we desire to receiue your owne Resolutions To this purpose when wee consult with your choisest Doctors as namely Bellarmine Suarez Soto Paludanus Bannes Augustinus Triumphus Cordubensis Armachanus Waldensis and Others they that speake more ingenuously doe freely grant that the pretended Pontificall Dignity Romane as it is Romane is not from diuine authority because onely from the fact of Peter They that are more affectionate to the Romane See although they attribute it to the Institution of Christ yet dare they not say that this is to be beleeued vpon certainty of Faith but onely as a matter Probable and Coniecturall Nay if you shall haue but a little patience vntill we descend to that point you shall perceiue by the iudgement of the Catholike Church it selfe in a generall Councell of primatiue Antiquity that The Prerogatiue which the Church of Rome then had was but from Humane authority CHALLENGE AN Addition standing onely vpon Probability and Coniecture cannot be infallibly a Declaration of an Article of Faith founded vpon Diuine and Infallible authority But your Addition of the word ROMANE standeth as you confesse vpon probability and Coniecture onely Ergo it cannot be an infallible Declaration of the Apostolicall Article The Catholike Church without which there is no saluation And consequently your word ROMANE added to the Christian Creed thereby to make the Romane Church The Catholike Church without which there is no saluation must necessarily be iudged Antichristian The fift Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE cannot be a Declaration of the Article The Catholike Church as it is Visible in respect of the Time past whereunto the word CATHOLIKE hath relation euen before Rome was founded a Church SECT 8. WHo knoweth not that your Addition of the word ROMANE vnto the Apostolicall Article of The Catholike Church is to infuse an opinion into the mindes of Christians that Catholike and Romane are termes vniuocall and conuertible which is as much as to say that whensoeuer there was a Romane Church it was The Catholike Church and whensoeuer there was a Catholike Church it was Romane Scarce shall you finde any Romish Professor especially among the vulgar who haue not this conceit of that Article of Christian Faith Notwithstanding your more learned Doctors are not ignorant that this Apostolicall Article The Catholike Church was published before that in Rome was founded a Church and that the Apostolicall Church it selfe was Catholike before the Article of the Catholike Church was proclaimed Which name CATHOLIKE or vniuersall was first attributed to the Church Christian To distinguishit as you know from the Synagogue of the Iewes which was circumscribed and confined to one only nation whereas the Church Catholike is not limited to any one place but is as broad in succession of place as is the whole world Now concerning the Catholike Church in the time of the Apostles Card. Baronius whose History you honour as an heauenly Lampe or torch telleth you that The Creed of the Apostles wherein is the Article of The Catholike Church was composed by them in the yeere of Christ XLIV and that the Catholike Church was extant sometime before this Article was put into the tenor of the Creed Which he demonstrateth from the act of Saint Peter who in the yeere of our Sauiour XXXIX is found Visiting the Churches in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia c. That the same Apostle Saint Peter Constituted the Church of Antioch in the same yeere and after that he had gouerned the See of Antioch seuen yeeres hee in the yeere XLV translated his See from Antioch to Rome Your other Chronologer Genebrard yeeldeth vnto vs eleuen yeeres betweene the Composing of the Apostles Creed and the first foundation of the Church of Rome by the Apostle Saint
Peter We adde that S. Paul whom all the Romanists teach to haue beene a Co-founder with Saint Peter of the Church of Rome had been before that time A Persecuter of the Church of Christ as he himselfe confesseth when Saint Steuen suffered Martyrdome But the Church of Christ as it is called Catholike comprehendeth say you all times CHALLENGE THe addition of a word which betokeneth onely a part of Time of the Churches being cannot be a Declaration of the Church which is called Catholike on respect of the whole and vniuersall Time of the being of the Church But the addition of the word ROMANE doth betoken but a part of Time of the being of the Church namely after the first constitution of the Church of Christ Catholike Ergo It cannot be any true Explication of the Article properly called the Catholike Church except you will exclude out of the Church of Christ without which there is no saluation S. Stephen the first Christian Martyr and all other blessed primitiue Martyrs and Confessors who died the faithfull members of Christ before the Church of Rome had receiued her first life or breath Wherefore the word ROMANE cannot be added to our Christian Creed as a Declaration of that Article The Catholike Church without which there is no saluation without intolerable blasphemie against Apostles Martyrs and other Confessors and blessed Saints of God vnder the persecution of Saul afterwards Paul who because they were before the Church of Rome and consequently without it must be iudged by your Article to haue beene at that time without the state of Grace Of whom notwithstanding our Sauiour Christ gaue testimonie by this voice from heauen saying to Saul in their behalfe Why persecutest thou Mee So false and impious is your Addition of the word ROMANE to that Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed The sixt Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE cannot be a Declaration of that Article in the Apostles Creed The Catholike Church In respect of the Time to come SECT 9. AGaine the word Catholike or vniuersall mentioned in the Apostles Creed as it comprehendeth as you haue said the Time past so doth it you know implie The time to come vntill the ends of the world according to the promise of Christ Mat. 28.20 Whereâ—ore our next Question must be whether the Church of Rome which will needs be the Catholike Church can infallibly professe a Prerogatiue of continuing the the same pretended Catholike Church vntill the ends of the world and whether her owne principles doe not vtterly confute this vsurpation It is a generall principle of your Doctors aswell Iesuites as others that If the succession in the gouernement of the Catholike Church were not allotted to the Bishop of Rome by diuine authority then the same gouernement may bee transported from the same Bishop and the Church of Rome may depart from the Faith as well as other Churches and by name the Church of Constantinople haue done This Consequence being so vniuersally receiued and approued in your owne Schooles our next endeauour will be to proue that it cannot appeare infallibly that the Church of Rome hath a Priuiledge of continuing The Catholike Church to the end of the world by any diuine authority This hath bene briefly touched already but here is the place to handle it more at large Your Canus with some Others lest they should bee compelled to confesse that the Church of Rome may possibly Apostate in future times haue contended to defend that It was constituted the Catholike Church by the Institution of Christ. Which if it were true then would there appeare some euidence thereof either before or else after the Ascension of Christ. But Before the Ascention of Christ saith your Iesuite Suarez Nothing appeareth of any such Ordinance either in Scripture or from Tradition And that which is commonly alledged out of Egesippus of Christ his appearance after his Ascension vnto Peter Commanding him to fixe his seate at Rome vntill his death in the iudgement of your Iesuite Valentianus is of no force to proue that the Romane Church was to continue Catholike We draw nearer our marke There is no certaintie of faith saith Bellarmine with whom the Iesuite Suarez consenteth that the Sea Apostolike is so fixed at Rome as that it cannot be separated and remoued from that Church because there is neither Scripture nor Tradition to proue this Nor these onely but Sotus with diuers other Schoole-men directly and peremptorily consent that The Priuilege which Rome doth challenge is onely by the ordinance of Saint Peter and therefore from humane authority Yea and Some yeeld not so much as the Institution by S. Peter but by the Church so farre that If the Church in a Councell should choose the Arch-bishop of Treuers or of any other place to be Head of the Church he should be rather the Successor of Peter than the Bishop of Rome Furthermore we reserue vnto it's due place your Confession that The Citie of Rome shall vndoubtedly bee the Seate of Antichrist CHALLENGE AN Addition which notifieth a Church that may possibly be translated else-whither and depart from the Faith cannot bee a Declaration of that Article in our Christian Creed which signifieth a Church infallibly continuing in the Faith to the end of the world But the word ROMANE as it signifieth the Romane Church betokeneth a Church which may possibly be Translated and depart from the Faith Ergo it cannot be a Declaration of the Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed So then to make the word Catholike hereditarie to that Romane Church which possibly may be as truly Antichristian as Rome it selfe is sure to be by your owne Confessions The Seate of Antichrist doth plainly discouer an Article New False Antichristian and Blasphemous The seuenth Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE to the Catholike Church cannot be a Declaration of the Christian Faith mentioned in the Apostles Creed in respect of any Present Time SECT 10. THe Certainty whatsoeuer it is of your Article The Catholike Romane Church is built vpon this foundation that the Pope of Rome is the Catholike and Vniuersall Bishop of the Church of Christ as the Popes themselues haue formerly defined Now because no structure can be more firme than is the foundation vpon which it is built wee make bold to demand with what faith any of you can beleeue any Pope whatsoeuer he be that is elected to be the True Pope that is as you call him The Catholike Bishop of Rome without which the Church of Rome cannot be acknowledged The Catholike Church This Consequence Two of your Iesuites did truly discerne which made Them resolue thus As the visible Church saith the one is this indiuiduall Church so the visible Head thereof must needs be this visible Pope who by the common consent is so ordained vnto whom we owe obedience as
to the true Successor of Peter or otherwise we could not know that this is a true Councell and iustly confirmed by the Pope c. But with what degree of Faith do you beleeue this With that Diuine Faith saith the Other wherewith we beleeue Iesus Christ with the same ought we to beleeue this Paul the IV. to be the true Pope and not with any humane Faith which is subiect to be deceiued Behold a Iesuiticall Faith both grosly false and also wickedly blasphemous because that there cannot be an Infallibilitie in the Election of any Pope is manifest by two confessed and vncontrollable Consequences taken from two possible defects the one in the Popes Ordination the second in his Election First for his Ordination your Councell of Florence defineth That the truth of euery Sacrament dependeth vpon the intention of the Minister But None can be sure by certaintie of Faith saith Bellarmine that any such receiued the Sacrament of Ordination because none infallibly knoweth the intention of him that Ordaineth And Vega more vehemently It is as certaine saith he that we are not infallibly certaine of the receiuing of any Sacrament as it is certaine that we now liue Thus of the Popes Ordination Alphonsus à Castro is as bold with the Pope about his Election Which because it may not be Canonicall we are not to beleeue it saith he with a Catholike Faith Whereof your Cardinall giueth some Examples In which two respects many of your Schoole Doctors haue concluded that In the knowledge of this man to be a true Pope you haue no more but a morall certitude Whereof we shall speake more hereafter CHALLENGE THat Addition the beliefe whereof is onely humane morall and fallible cannot be a Declaration of an Article of Diuine and Infallible faith such as is that of the Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed But the word ROMANE is an Addition the Beliefe whereof is onely humane morall and fallible Ergo the Addition of the word ROMANE to the Catholike Church cannot be a proper Declaration of that Article in the Creed So vaine and vniust is your appropriation of the word Catholike to your Romane Church The eight Argument to proue that the Addition of the word ROMANE can be no Declaration of the Article of The Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed because it makes all periured that do professe it vpon Oath besides the heresie and blasphemie thereof SECT 11. THat in your profession of the Catholike Romane Church the word Romane is an Article of Faith challenging thereby a necessary subiection to the Bishop of Rome we haue heard already both in the Decrees of Popes and also in that Forme of an Oath which euery Ecclesiasticall person in your Church of what condition soeuer he be is enioyned to take swearing that The Romane Church is the Catholike Mother and Mistris Church vowing Obedience to the Bishop thereof and in the same Oath that this Romane Article with others is The Catholike faith without which there is none can be saued which is the proper tenor of an essentiall Article of faith Now in as much as the word CREDO in the Apostles Creed doth import A constant and infallible persuasion of the Christian Beleeuer as your owne Romane Catechisme doth truly instruct you and because to speake in the words of your owne Bozius These things which are propounded in the Creed are the Principles or foundations of all other things that are to be beleeued and ought at all times to be in themselues infallibly true in euery part otherwise they should be no Principles in as much as their truth is but doubtfull We by this your appropriating of the Article The Church without which none can be saued are constrained to pronounce you guiltie of a new Heresie in your faith Periurie in your Oath and Blasphemie in your excluding out of the state of Saluation the most vndoubted members of the mysticall body of Christ which is his Church I. CHALLENGE EVery new Article of Faith that is to say new Doctrine made necessary to saluation is an Heresie as you your selues will confesse But this Article The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no Saluation is a new Article as hath bene amply prooued because it is repugnant to the Article of The Catholike Church professed in the Apostolike Creed as hath bene made manifest in the Premisses by many Arguments Therefore your Article of The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no saluation must needs be esteemed Hereticall II. CHALLENGE EVery one bound to beleeue and to auouch vpon Oath any Doctrine as necessary to Saluation which is not of an infallible truth is thereby made guilty of Periurie But euery Romish Priest by the Bull of Pope Pius 4. is bound to beleeue vpon Oath that the Romane Church is the Catholike Church without which there is no saluation Albeit you yourselues haue confessed at large that this your doctrine standeth not vpon any infallible grounds of truth either in respect of Time past at the founding of the Church of Rome which was not instituted by any Diuine Ordinance or in respect of the Time present wherein you haue no full assurance of your Catholike Head the Pope or yet in respect of the Time to come when as you Confesse a Possibilitie that the Catholike Church may cease to be Romane because it may possibly be translated to another place Therefore are all Romish Priests necessarily inuolued in the crime of Periurie by swearing that to be a necessarie Article of Faith which is in so many respects defectiue and commeth short of all the Essentiall grounds of Faith III. CHALLENGE THat Article which excludeth from Saluation the vndoubtedly essentiall and liuely members of the Mysticall bodie of Christ which is his Church that is a doctrine vndoubtedly Blasphemous But your Article The Romane Church without which there is no saluation doth exclude from Saluation both those which before the Church of Rome was a Catholike Church suffered bonds imprisonment and Martyrdome it selfe for the profession of Christ next all Catechumenists and persons vniustly Excommunicated albeit departing this life in true faith and repentance and lastly all them who in the dayes of Antichrist when the Church as it is Romane as you say may peraduenture but as we thinke will Apostate from the Faith shall persist the constant and glorious Martyrs of Christ Iesus c. Therefore this Article cannot but be manifestly Blasphemous Thus much concerning our Proofes taken from the Consideration of the Article of Christian Faith in the Apostles Creed viz. The Catholike Church By which we haue euicted your Additiō of the word ROMANE to make an Article of Faith to be New False Scandalous Pernitious Hereticall and Blasphemous respectiuely CHAP. III. A Second generall Head of Confutation of the former Article is from the Consideration of the Iudgement of the Church by Examples of seuerall
Churches Councels and Fathers SECT 1. AFter our Proofe that the now Romane Article The Catholike Romane Church without Vnion and Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation is New Imposterous Scandalous c. taken from the tenor and sence of the Apostolicall Article The Catholike Church expressed in our Catholike Creed We proceed to confirme our former Proofe by like euidence from currant Examples taken from the Catholike Church it selfe And for our more expedite Method passage herein We shall proportion our Treatise according to three Distinctions of Tyme the Tyme before the Tyme when and the Tyme after that the Church of Rome had her first foundation and being I. Of the Time before the Church of Rome was founded First setting downe the Romane Article intituling the Church of Rome The Mother Church SECT 2. WEE need not tell you that it is an Article in your Church to beleeue that the Church of Rome is The Mother and Mistris Church of all other Churches where by Mother you vnderstand her ancient Prerogatiue of spirituall Generation and by Mistris her Iurisdiction and Supreme Authority of directing all other Churches as Members of the Church Catholike seeing that the Fathers of the Councell of Trent in their Canons and Decrees haue fiue times published the same Article in expresse words calling her The Common Mother on earth which cannot forget whom shee hath begotten As if all the Faithfull on earth were her ofspring Instantly vpon this Decree of the Councell the Father of all these Trent-Fathers Pope Pius the 4. for Confirmation of that Councell enioyned euery Ecclesiasticke to professe among other points the same Romane Article vpon Oath thus I N. sweare that I acknowledge the Church of Rome to be the Mother and Mistris of all other Churches without which faith none can be saued So then this Article is become as Catholike among you as is your Church Which opinion of her Vniuersal Motherhood hath beene the greatest fascination and witcherie that of long time hath blinded the eyes of most of her Professors and which we shall prooue to bee no better than a False and Imposterous inchantment voide of all light of truth and repugnant vnto the confessed Examples of illustrious Churches more ancient than her selfe The first Confutation of that Article of Romane Mother-hood is taken from the rottennesse of the Foundation thereof SECT 3. IF there bee any sound ground of truth in the Article viz. that The Church of Rome is Mother of all other Churches sure we are that your two Cardinals for learning and deuotion towards that Church most Eminent viz. Baronius and Bellarmine will be most able and willing to expresse it especially where they professedly determine the very point Baronius teaching that Saint Peter being constituted by Christ the ordinary Pastor of the whole Church did fixe his seate at Rome doth thereupon resolue saying Hence it is that the Romane Church is called the Mother-Church of all others And lest any might deny this Consequence as being that which it is indeed fond and absurd Bellarmine addeth the reason thereof The Church of Rome saith he could not be called the Mother-Church except that all the Apostles had had their ordination of Pastorship from Saint Peter And for proofe heereof the Cardinall referreth vs to the Epistles of Pope Anacletus witnessing that The order of Priesthood had its ' beginning from Peter So he whereas notwithstanding Sacerdotall Order doth but coniecturally inferre the Episcopall Howsoeuer these testimonies from the Epistles of Anacletus which your Cardinall Cusanus beleeueth to be Apocryphall and vnworthy of beleefe Two of your most priuileged Iesuites Azorius and Suarez denie That the other Apostles receiued their Episcopall Ordination from Saint Peter Which they maintaine vpon better grounds than the Counterfeit Epistles of a Pope can be euen vpon the Oracles of God's Word where it appeareth say they that Matthias had his Ordination to the Bishopprick which Iudas lost not by the hands of Peter but by lott immediately from God and Saint Paul his not by Saint Peter but by a voice from heauen euen immediately from Christ. They adde other Reasons in the end adioyne the Consent of S. Augustine of many other Diuines Yet were it admitted that Peter as ordinarie Pastor of the Catholike Church had ordained other Apostles Byshops and by their Ministry begotten those innumerable Churches which the same Apostles as you Confesse constituted seauen yeeres before the Church of Rome was erected yet were it a mad point of Genealogizing to conclude that Rome must be Mother to those daughters of Saint Peter which were begotten seauen yeeres before shee was borne whereas shee could be to them but a Sister at the most and that but a younger Sister too CHALLENGE GIue vs leaue to dispute from your owne Confessions thus If all the other Apostles were not ordained Byshops by Saint Peter there can be no apparent reason why the Church of Rome should be called the Mother-Church Thus Bellarmine But all the other Apostles were not ordained Byshops by Saint Peter Thus your Iesuites out of direct Scriptures accompanied with the Consent of Saint Augustine and many other Diuines Ergo there is not sufficient ground to cal the Church of Rome the Mother of al other Churches Twice miserable therefore is the state of your Priests both because they are tied periuriously to sweare That to be an Article of Faith which is a manifest false-hood as also for that they and all that Sect being entangled in this error of beleeuing the Romane Church to be the Mother of all other Churches are thereby consequently entangled in all other her errors and Idolatries The second Confutation of the same Article ariseth from the Respect of many illustrious Mother-Churches more ancient than Rome SECT 4. WE furthermore endeauour to impugne your former infatuation in beleeuing the Vniuersall Mother-hood of the Church of Rome by the faith of Fathers of Primitiue times farre more Reuerend for antiquity and more credible for impartiality than were your Fathers or rather Step-Fathers of Trent Not but that we as willingly as worthily doe acknowledge the Ancient Church of Rome to haue beene in former times an happie Mother of many renouned Christian Churches in the world and we accordingly blesse the wombe of that sincere Faith and Piety which then brought forth so innumerable an of-spring of so many holy Professors which notwithstanding shee might content her selfe to haue deserued the Title of a Mother-Church as other ancient Churches were and not of THE MOTHER-CHVRCH OF ALL OTHERS For we are verily perswaded that no reasonable man can allowe any childe so to honour his Mother as that he must necessarily thereby disparage all others his honourable Progenitresses and that we may so speake his owne Grand-mother and Great-grand-mother together with others of his kindred more ancient than Shee Such was the state of the Church of Rome in
respect of other Churches as by seuerall Instances will clearely appeare The first Instance of Mother-hood before Rome is in the most ancient Church of Hierusalem SECT 5. EVe was not more truely named the Mother of all liuing than the Church of Hierusalem may be said to haue beene the Mother of all Churches beleeuing In which respect the whole Christian world hath giuen vnto her the due and honourable Title of Mother-hood For almost a thousand and 300 yeeres agoe an hundred and fiftie Orthodoxe Fathers assembled in a Councell at Constantinople acknowledged as you know that Hierusalem was the first Church which to vse the words of Saint Hierome engendred all the Churches of the world After in the daies of Saint Augustine when certaine Heretikes refused to haue Communion with Hierusalem because our Lord Christ was Crucified in that Citie that learned Father did both wisely and wittily confute them No maruell saith he if you are cut off from the Church who hate that roote Hierusalem where the Church had her originall and whither the holy Ghost was first sent Another time the same Father being opposed by Petilian a Donatist and asked Whence first he had his Communion Answereth that he had it originally from Hierusalem Could Saint Augustine in this Question about the Mother-Church against an Heretike haue so negligently passed by Rome without sacrilege if the Faith of the Church of Christ in his daies had beene to beleeue that Romane Church to haue beene then the sole Soueraigne Mother-Church ouer all Churches in the world as your Councell of Trent hath so often decreed The second Instance of Mother-hood is in the Church of Caesarea SECT 6. THe Church of Hierusalem did beare as her first daughter the Church of Caesarea the Metropolis of Palestina which afterwards was made the Patriarchall Seate within that Prouince The Motherhood of which Church S. Basil and S. Nazianzene did both proclaime and preferre before Rome as by their owne testimonies may appeare We must haue ample estimation say They of euery Church as the body of Christ but especially of this our Church of Caesarea which the Christian Common-Weale doth obserue as the Circumference doth a center From which place meaning after Hierusalem the Gospell first arose and passed through the World So they What greater Encomium would you if you could passe vpon your Church of Rome than by instiling her the Mother-Church to account her as the Center and call all other Churches as her Circumferences Which Attributes those Orthodoxe Fathers would not haue ascribed to Caesarea if in their Faith the Church of Rome had in their daies had the Prerogatiue of the Mother-Church ouer all other Churches in the world The third Instance of Mother-hood before Rome is in the Church of Antioch SECT 7. ANtioch was a Church by your owne Confessions diuers yeeres when as yet the Church of Rome was without note or name a meere non-ens in Christianity Of which Church of Antioch Saint Chrysostome out of the Acts This our Citie of Antioch saith he is most deare to Christ for its ' Progenitors where Saint Peter did first preach which first receiued as an admirable Crowne the name of CHISTIANS So he Whether therefore you shall be pleased to call the Church of Antioch Mother or because the name of Christians was first deriued from her God-Mother to all other Churches after her sure it is that shee may iustly claime the Birth-right before Rome Which Saint Chrysostome defended now euen when the Church of Rome and that worthily was famous and renouned in the world The fourth Instance of Mother-hood before Rome is in the Greeke Church in Generall SECT 8. THe Easterne Greeke Churches themselues challenged this Prerogatiue in their Letters to Pope Iulius to wit that They came from the East that first brought Christian Religion to Rome But none neede require a more prompt or large acknowledgement of the antiquity of the Greeke Church in respect of the Latine than that which was publikely pronounced by your owne Byshop of Bitontum in a solemne assembly of Byshops euen in your Councell of Trent briefly thus O Greece our Mother saith he to whom the Latine Church oweth all that shee hath So he We reade of the Crosse of Christ that it had an Inscription written on it in Hebrew Greeke and Latine The same order may we obserue in the principall propagation of Churches in the Christian world the Hebrew Church before the Greeke and the Greeke Church constituted before the Latine Hierusalem before Antioch and Antioch with others before Rome Wherefore that you should make Rome the Mother-Church ouer all others which oweth to the Greeke Church no lesse than All that shee hath is in true apprehension a wonderfull Imposture The fift Instance of Mother-hood before Rome is in the Britaine Church SECT 9. YOur Church is in the next place to be prouoked and conuinced by a remote Nation of Brittaine which by your owne accompts receiued the Gospell Cardinall Baronius and your Iesuite Suarez acknowledging thus much out of most ancient Records By the preaching of Ioseph of Arimathea in the 35 yeere of Christ two yeeres before Peter did found the Church of Antioch where hee was seated seuen yeeres before he founded the Church of Rome That is to say in Brittaine was planted a Church nine yeeres before Rome and is hereby so much her elder Sister CHALLENGE THus much being granted by the most zealous Aduocates for your Romane Church giue vs leaue to reason the matter with you in few words You still defend that the Church of Rome is the Mother-Church of all other Churches of Christ and that not as a Case of probability but as an Article of Faith nor this in any implicit beleefe but such without which none can be saued nor yet in the ordinarie manner of Profession but by your Priests and Ecclesiastikes vnder the Forme of an oath Ought you not therefore to haue stood vpon infallible principles for the making good of this Conclusion than which you haue not any one more vulgar pressing and binding among all the Tenents in your Romane Church And yet behold an opinion of Peter's Ordaining the other Apostles Bishops impugned by your owne most iudicious Diuines and this grounded vpon a bastard Epistle of Anacletus Next that the inference from the same opinion is a Consequence which must prooue the Sister Rome to haue begotten her Sisters or rather indeed her Mothers and Aunts namely the Churches of Hierusalem Caesarea Antioch whole Greece together with our Isle of Brittaine And all this against the confessed euidence of Scripture and the expresse testimonie of Reuerend Antiquity which attributed that Mother-hood to the forenamed Churches before Rome Wherefore we can doe no lesse than hisse at your illogicall Consequences blush at the impudence of your Aduocates abhorre the periurie of your Priests Iesuites and all Ecclesiastikes and pittie the miserable thraldome of your
Professors who are kept hood-winck't in the beleefe of so Imposterous Schismaticall and Damnable an Article by which all the Churches begot by the preaching of Saint Peter and all the other Apostles in the compasse of seauen yeers before the begetting of Rome must be iudged Damned for not beleeuing the Romane Church as you teach to haue beene the Catholike Mother-Church without which Faith there is no saluation Thus much in respect of the Time BEFORE Rome was a Church CHAP. IV. Of the Time about when the Church of Rome had her Foundation Arguing from the Faith of three Apostles Saint Peter S. Paul and S. Iohn and of the Apostolicall Churches in their daies SECT I. THese three Apostles than whom what witnesses can be more competent in this case Wee appeale to your selues The Popes of Rome say you acknowledge both Peter and Paul for their Predecessors because both of them did found and gouerne the Romane Church And as for Saint Iohn his long continuance in the Church Militant will Minister some matter of resolution heerein I. That Saint Peter the conceiued founder of the Church of Rome was not of the now Romane Faith concerning the Article of the Catholike Romane Church SECT 2. WE not to interrupt you by questioning the truth of Saint Peter's residence in that See as Bishop thereof doe punctually inquire whether it entred into his Faith to Beleeue the same Roman Church to be The Catholike Church without which there is no saluation nothing doubting but that you will thinke that He of all others would haue plainely vnfolded thus much whom your Popes assume to haue bene the Founder of that Church together with Saint Paul And because all the pretended Soueraigntie of the Romane Mother-Church is according to your faith deriued from the supreme Father-hood of your Romane Pope and this is as originally descended from the transcendent ordinarie Pastorship of S. Peter ouer all the other Apostles we begin to enquire into the faith of S. Peter Whatsoeuer Prerogatiue Saint Peter might challenge ouer all the other Apostles must appeare either by some promise made singularly to him by Christ or else by some practise of Saint Peter himselfe in the exercise and execution of such his Iurisdiction The due examination of both these would easily cleare the Cause That the Faith of Saint Peter did not conceiue any Monarchicall or supreme Iurisdiction promised vnto himselfe by Christ in the most pretended speech of Christ saying Matth. 16. Vpon this Rocke will I build my Church SECT 3. THis this Scripture in it the word ROCK you haue still obiected as the rocke and fortresse of your now Romane Faith concerning the Article of your Romane Catholike Church because From hence say your Iesuites is proued that Monarchie of S. Peter Insomuch as that whē Luther Caluine and others aduentured to expound this of Christ and Faith in him as the Sonne of God your two grand Cardinals oppose the One his owne passion calling it an Impudent madnesse in Protestants to expound the Rocke to signifie Christ The other obtrudeth the Consent of your owne Schoole saying That by Rocke is meant Peter it is the Common opinion of all Catholikes An Exposition approoued by your Bishop and that not without some insultation saying In this Truth triumpheth as if it were as cleare as the Sunne which Sunne-shine as some call it we Protestants alas our blindnesse cannot discerne but rather iudge that it hath bene and is mistaken by you for Moone-shine through some defect in your faculties or instruments of sight A large Librarie I suppose would scarce containe the bookes that haue bene written vpon this Text whereas the briefe of all that need be said may farre more easily than Homers Iliads be comprized within the shell of a wallnut The Protestants Exposition vpon this Scripture auouched by many excellent Witnesses in the Romane Church yea euen by the Popes themselues SECT 4. OVr Exposition hath euer bene to vnderstand that by ROCK is meant the Confession of Peter when he said of the Godhead of Christ Thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God and consequently signified by a metonymie Christ himselfe Where we meane not the Confession of Peter in Concreto as you would haue it vnderstood With relation vnto Peter but as the said Confession of the Godhead of Christ may be the Confession of euery Christian to which truth many of your owne Authors will beare witnesse To which purpose we alleage among your Preachers Ferus saying Vpon this Rocke That is the Confession of Peter and not vpon Peter Among your Glossers the Romane Glosse it selfe saying That is vpon the Article then Confessed concerning Christ and so our Lord Christ built it vpon himselfe Among your Friers Lyranus Vpon the Rock Christ. Among your Iesuites Pererius Christ is the Rock vpon which the Church is builded Among your Bishops Abulensis Not vpon Peter but vpon his Confession and he speaketh absolutely of the Confession it selfe in Abstracto without relation to Peter and giueth this reason because after this Confession thus made Peter himselfe failed in his faith by denying his Lord. Among your Cardinals Hugo and Cusanus By the Rocke is signified Christ. Among your Councels the last Councell of Trent speaking of the Nicene Christian Creed and pointing in the margent at this Text it saith that It is the foundation against which the gates of Hell shall not preuaile Therefore faith in Christ in Abstracto is the foundation for there is in that Creed no mention of Peter Lastly and chiefly among your Popes for now we are clymed vp to the pinnacle of your Temple no fewer than Foure Leo the first Agatho the first Nicolaüs the first and Adrian the first all of them Firsts and therefore more ancient than all others of their names haue as your selues witnesse expounded the Rock to meane the Confession of Saint Peter in acknowledging Christ to be the Sonne of God I. CHALLENGE from the iudgements of the fore-cited Authors IN these former Allegations although most of the Testimonies themselues do sufficiently shew that by ROCK is meant the Confession deliuered by Saint Peter really in it selfe and not personally as it had Relation to him yet for the better clearing of your iudgements you may take these Confirmations I. None will denie but that there was meant in Peters Confession that matter which he confessed but Peter confessed not himselfe but Christ saying Thou art the Sonne of the liuing God Ergo his Confession had Relation to Christ and not to himselfe II. You grant that Saint Peter confessed no more than that which he knew The other Disciples to haue beleeued before he spake because Christs question being generall What say yee He answered as the mouth of the rest True as may fully appeare in our Margent But the Apostles before he spake beleeued Christ confessed and
so behaued himselfe among them that he might seeme in a manner to haue neglected his Pastorship by carrying himselfe as a Brother and Equall with them and not as either Head or Rector ouer them So he And he giueth you a Reason hereof for If Peter saith he had written as a Pope then might he be thought to haue published rather Pontificall than Diuine Lawes c. Which is no more in effect but that which a French Lawyer hath said before him namely that In the Apostles time as often as any was ordained Bishop or Deacon or any thing was to be decreed which appertained to the Church Peter neuer tooke that vpon himselfe but permitted it to the whole Church So hee How then shall any imagine that you can truely obiect any one act of Peter which might but probably proue his Dominion and Iurisdiction ouer the other Apostles as the Pope challengeth to doe ouer all other Bishops seeing that you are constrained to grant that he made himselfe Equall with them so farre as that he might seeme in a sort to haue neglected his Pastorship Although indeede this could not Saint Peter doe without exceeding iniurie to his place and Gouernment if he had any such because it belongeth to euery one in his degree to maintaine and magnifie the dignitie of his Ministrie as Saint Paul teacheth saying I will magnifie my office inasmuch as I am Doctor of the Gentiles Vpon which Text Pope Gregory collecteth a generall lesson for the defence of his owne Iurisdiction The Apostle saith hee teacheth vs so to carrie humilitie in our heart that we doe keepe and preserue the dignitie of that order whereunto we are called So he CHALLENGE WHat shall we say then will you haue vs beleeue that Peter held his whole Monarchie for so you call it which he had ouer the Apostles for the space of fifteene yeeres without any expression of any of those Notes of Catholike Iurisdiction which you account to be proper vnto Papall Monarchie ouer all Bishops and Pastors As for Example Not the Crowne vpon his head to shew his Empire nor the Miter to shew his Pastorall Dominion ouer the other Apostles No Legate à latere to carrie his Mandates no person admitted a pride which Saint Peter abhorred to kisse his feet No one Canon of directing them No Claime or yet Admittance of any Appeale from them No Reseruation of any great Case as by speciall Prerogatiue proper to himselfe such as you attribute to the Pope to wit of Admitting any out of the Dioces of another of Absoluing those that are Excommunicate by another of Canonizing Saints of Confirming Synods of Granting plenarie Indulgences of Pardoning Simonie and almost an hundred the like sinnes Teach vs this when you can perswade your selues that there euer was Temporall Monarch diligent in the Execution of his office that would neuer be distinguished from his Nobles either by his Guard or Coine or Habit or Commands or publike Edicts and Constitutions or at least by some one Note and Character of Imperiall eminencie and Authoritie I onely adde making bold to aske you a Question If that the Addition of the word ROMANE to the article of the Catholike Church be so necessary for the directing of the faith of Christians to the acknowledgement of the Seat of Saint Peter at Rome as the infallible ground of their faith and center of their Saluation why within the whole seauen yeares during which time as you say Saint Peter had his Seat at Antioch before it was translated to Rome cannot you finde in all Antiquitie the Addition of the word ANTIOCHIAN and the like Article of The Antiochian Catholike Church without vnion and subiection whereunto there is no saluation Farre be it from vs to thinke that the blessed Apostle Saint Peter who was caught of our Lord that The Catholike Church wheresoeuer for Place or whensoeuer for Time was built vpon the Rocke of the Confession of Christ the Sonne of God should euer haue entertained such a fancie of confining the supreme residence of Gods infallible spirit to any one singular Place Thus much of Saint Peter himselfe We proceed to the Pope That Saint Peter neuer beleeued the Priuileges which he receiued from Christ by the obiected Scriptures to be deriued from himselfe and conferred vpon any Pope SECT 6. NEuer had we heard you alleage any of these Scriptures to make Peter such a Rocke as must signifie a predominancie ouer all other Apostles except you had sought out of that Rocke to carue a Pope who should likewise haue a transcendent power ouer all other Bishops But seeing that as hath beene prooued the primitiue Peter had no such Prerogatiue surely your deriuatiue Peter must needs proue a Nullity But to the point The first Scripture Luke 22. CHRIST said indeed directly to S. Peter I haue prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not wherefore thou being conuerted strengthen thy Brethren Which we confesse doth signifie as great a priuilege granted to S. Peter as any mortall man can desire to enioy namely an infalllible assurance of sauing grace in this world and of saluation it selfe after his departure out of this life Matter we say of Saluation nothing of Dominion and that also proper to the primitiue person of Saint Peter but making nothing for any person deriuatiue and Successor of his be he Pope or whosoeuer If you could proue this we should need no more for our satisfaction Christ saith your Cardinall obtained two Priuileges for S. Peter in promising that his Faith should not faile and that he should neuer depart from the true Faith in himselfe the second that he should not teach others any thing contrary to the true Faith Thus of Saint Peter How can you deriue any part of this from Saint Peter to the Pope The first of these saith he peraduenture doth not but the second without all doubt redoundeth to his Successors So he Which is so vndoubtedly an vnconscionable Answer that it is subiect to a threefold Confutation the first is by retorting the Cardinal 's owne Assertion vpon himselfe for whereas your Parisian Doctors will haue Peter in his answer to Crist to haue beene the figure of the Church of Christ and not the sole Gouernor thereof himselfe the same your Cardinall will needs confute that Glosse in this manner Because Christ saith he did expresse one singular person saying Simon Simon adding the Pronoune of the second person in these words I haue prayed for THEE that THY Faith faile not and therefore THOV being conuerted strengthen THY Brethren Surely if he had spoken of the whole Church he would haue said I haue prayed for YOV that YOVR Faith faile not So he Which is a true and sound Collection indeed and by the Law of Retorsion confirmeth our defence that this Scripture doth not intend any other Prerogatiue than that which was onely proper to that Thou Simon and I haue prayed
for Thee that is for Peter himselfe But the now Pope you know is not Simon but Clemens or Vrbane or the like and Christ his prayer was for one person and not for a whole bodie of Successors for then it should haue beene said for You or for Thee and Thine Nor hath euery Pope a Priuilege as you All grant that falling into Temptation he must rise againe Our second Confutation is taken from the nature of a Priuilege A personall and singular Priuilege saith your Iesuite is that which is granted vnto an Indiuiduall person with expression of his name and this Priuilege doth not extend to any other but dieth with the person to whom it is granted So he The Case then is plaine You therefore must first raise vp Saint Peter from death and place him againe in the Romane Chaire before you can challenge the Priuilege of Peter Our third Confutation ariseth from the Law of true exposition The Priuilege granted vnto Saint Peter whatsoeuer it was deliuered it was in one tenure of words namely that his Faith faile not without any note of distinction and it is the Law of all Lawes Non distinguendum vbi lex non distinguit So that whereas you ascribe two Priuileges conferred vpon Saint Peter by the words of Christ one not to erre from the Faith which was In himselfe as a priuate Doctor the other not to erre publikely to seduce Others you are necessarily chargeable either to claime both these Priuileges in the behalfe of your Popes or else to confesse that he hath no more interest in the second that is not to erre as Pope in his publike Conclusions to the seducing of Others then he hath in the first which is as a priuate Doctor not to erre in himselfe the Cardinall himselfe confessing that The Pope as a priuate Doctor may erre in Questions concerning as well Faith as manners as well as other Doctors and that this hath sometime happened to your Pope And this you call an opinion wherein All Catholikes doe consent And therefore your Iesuite doth reprooue those who write against this Common Consent CHALLENGE ONe would maruaile that learned men for the defence of a periurious Paradoxe of the Popes Primacie as The Catholike Bishop and the Soueraigntie and Infallibility of his See as the Catholike Church should intangle themselues in so grosse assertions as are so easily confuted by the Common Lawes of the exposition of Scriptures by the nature of a Priuilege and by their owne palpable Contradictions but that it is the wisedome of God to prooue the wisedome of a man against God to be no better than errant follie The Second Scripture obiected for the Deriuatiue Primacie and Iurisdiction of the Pope from Saint Peter is Matth. 16. SECT 7. WE haue heard of this Text alreadie as it concerneth Peter himselfe when Christ said vnto him Blessed art thou Simon Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it Wherein againe we see Peter but where shall we see the Pope The Rhemists by their Marginall note vpon this Text as it were by a fore-finger point him out vnto vs willing vs to obserue that this Text Is the Gospel vpon the Creation and Coronation of the Pope and on the Anniuersary thereof So they As though it were as true as the Gospel that what was heere spoken to Peter doth accordingly belong to the Pope by the right of Succession Which being the same error that was committed in your expounding of the former Scripture is now refelled by the same Confutations but especially by your owne exposition vpon this place wherein as your Bishop truely commenteth There was granted to Saint Peter an vnfallible certainty of his soules eternall blessednesse which is an excellent Priuilege So he Which also the other words do more Emphatically import where Christ saith that The gates of hell shall not preuaile against it Where by gates of hell are meant you know Temptations of Satan Vices Heresies and Persecutions So you CHALLENGE SO then it should haue concerned your Doctors if they had beene men of either Faith or Front to haue made good the Iurisdiction of your Popes deriuatiuely from Saint Peter and not thus to haue beene void of both conscience and modestie in violating the sacred Writ For say we pray you are all your Popes by virtue of their Succession from Saint Peter so blessed now in their hopes as to be infallibly perswaded that no Temptation of Satan shall preuaile against their persons But that they shall be blessed euerlastingly Will you haue vs to be thus perswaded of those who either haue beene or may be desperately wicked in their liues Heretikes Apostates Atheists the damned limbs of Sathan Them we say of whom your Massonius witnesseth thus Now a daies none requireth Sanctity in Popes who are then held to be the best Popes when either there is a little goodnesse in them or else when they are not worse than other sorts of men are vsually Or of whom your Cardinall Baronius There haue beene intruded into Saint Peters Throne monstrous and most beastly men and of most desperate condition Or of whom your Genebrard thus For an hundred and fiftie yeeres space haue 50 Popes beene rather Apostaticall than Apostolicall Or of whom Cardinall Bellarmine thus Pope Iohn the 23 was of so dissolute a life that common people conceiued that he thought there was no life eternall Or of whom your Iesuite Costerus thus We confesse it possible saith he that Popes may become Idolatrous and giue themselues to Diabolicall arts So they We haue not vrged you with the proofes of Protestants but with the plaine Confessions of the most zealous Proctors and Aduocates of the Romane Church Thus much of the Faith of Saint Peter who being ioynt-founder of the Church with S. Paul may not be thought disioyned in beleefe from him Of whom we are now to treate That Saint Paul the Co-founder of the Church of Rome with Saint Peter was not of the now Romane Faith either concerning the Father-hood or Mother-hood which is now pretended thereof SECT 8. ALwaies you are to remember that you haue not attributed to the Church of Rome the title of Catholike and Vniuersall Mother further than that the Pope as Catholike Father is to be acknowledged the Successor vnto S. Peter in the ordinary Pastorship and iurisdiction ouer the Catholike and Vniuersall Church of Christ. Our Assertion is that Saint Paul had no such Beleefe concerning either the pretended Dominion of Peter and consequently of your Romane Pope or of the Vniuersall power of the Romane Church aboue all others or yet of the absolute Continuance thereof in the faith of Christ. That Saint Paul beleeued not the supreme Pastorship of Saint Peter aboue himselfe proued by his comparing of S. Peter with himselfe SECT 9. AT what time as Saint Paul was
vexed with false Apostles who as Saint Hierome you know commenteth Affirmed that Peter Iames and all the Churches of the Iewes did mingle the Ceremoniall Law and Gospell together and all to this end that they might lessen and vilifie the authoritie of S. Paul in respect of them as though they had bene the Disciples of Christ and he the Disciple of the Apostles Hereupon Saint Paul who was otherwise the most humble among men in so much that he standing vpon comparison would be held the Greatest but yet of sinners and The least of all the Apostles notwithstanding when it stood him vpon to maintaine his Calling which he had from Christ against all malicious Detractors he professeth saying In as much as I am an Apostle of the Gentiles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I magnifie mine office So that vpon a Compulsarie comparison prouoked by the Calumniation of others he esteemed it no arrogancie but direct iustice to auouch his owne worthinesse for the aduancing of the worke of his Ministrie A long time after the exercise of his Apostleship he would not Go to Hierusalem to Peter or any of the Apostles lest he might haue seemed to haue bene authorized by them yet three yeares after that he taketh a iourney thither To see Peter doubtlesse for honor sake as one in order of Apostleship most eminent but this he did voluntarily in discretion and brotherly communion and not in subiection as the Context sheweth Foureteene yeares also after this he maketh a second voyage to Ierusalem where he meeteth with Peter and others What then I conferred or communicated vnto them saith he that Gospell which I preached It is one thing to conferre saith Saint Hierome another thing to learne for among them that conferre there is Equalitie We heare not as yet of any authotitie which he receiued either from Peter alone or ioyntly together with the College of the other Apostles or of any thing that might betoken his subiection No he vtterly disclaimeth this for speaking of the Chiefest he saith Those who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing vnto me NOTHING namely Neither concerning doctrine nor authoritie as very well saith Aquinas In a word I saith Saint Paul am not inferiour vnto the chiefe of the Apostles What then obtained Paul of Peter and of the other chiefe Apostles Heare S. Paul himselfe They gaue vnto me the right hand of fellowship which was onely a testimonie of Communion in one Profession and Apostleship no imposition of subministration or subjection Hitherto we haue kept in the Negatiue of his not Inferioritie but Saint Paul doth further instance in the Affirmatiue of his Equalitie They saw that the Gospell of the vncircumcision was committed vnto me as the Gospell of the Circumcision was vnto Peter Where to seeke no further than your Rhemists Notes It is plaine by this place and others that to them that is Peter and Paul as the most renouned Apostles the charge of all Nations was giuen as diuided into two parts that is Iewes and Gentiles So they Their Dioces therefore was diuided yet not exclusiuely for the authoritie of the Apostles was vnlimited and often did as well Peter notwithstanding this diuision preach to the Gentiles as S. Paul to the Iewes but yet differently namely so that the ordinarie course of their Ministration was distinguished Peter to the Iewes and Paul to the Gentiles which was of infinite extent larger than the other In which respect Saint Chrysostome doth not sticke to say that The Vniuersall dispensation was committed to Saint Paul I. CHALLENGE from Reason IN all this we see not in Saint Paul any acknowledgement of Subiection or Substitution to Saint Peter but a plaine Plea of Equalitie or else tell vs what Pope since Gregorie the first would not hold it a Derogation from his Popedome to heare any Bishop in the Church stand in Contestation and say that The Pope could adde nothing to his authoritie nor that he was any whit inferiour to the chiefe of all the Bishops in Rome among whom the Pope himselfe was one What boldnesse and indeed contumely would this be iudged not onely to make many Chiefes with your Monarch but also to account himselfe Nothing inferior to the Chiefe of them Adde hereunto his next Assumption that he had as good and absolute right in his Dioces as the Pope had in his Your Iesuite Azorius saith that When there were two Emperours one in the East the other in the West both of them holding equall authoritie throughout the whole Empire it could not be but the authoritie of the one must needs diminish the authoritie of the other in some part and yet neither should be subiect to the other So he And indeed it could not otherwise be Neuer was there heard of Monarch as you instile the Pope in Imperio Diuiso that is in an Empire diuided in an equalitie with any other For Diuision and Equalitie is of moe whereas Monarchie can be but of one So impossible it is that Saint Paul should haue bene of the now Romane Faith concerning Subiection to the Pastor of the Romane Church II. CHALLENGE from the Fathers MVch time need not be spent in collecting the Testimonies of Antiquitie among whom Saint Ambrose saith that Paul was not lesse in dignitie than Peter Saint Maximus that Whether Paul or Peter were to be preferred it is vncertaine Chrysostome saith Paul that I say no more was equall to Peter Saint Hierome The titles of these two Apostles are equall saith he they are Chiefe of the Church S. Basil They are the Pillars of the Church Eucherius Peter and Paul two Princes of the Christians You will not we presume so much preiudice these Fathers as to thinke that they could not discerne betweene a Monarch such as you held Saint Peter to haue bene ouer all the other Apostles and a Subiect or so vniust as to haue thus equalled these Two if they had beleeued All the Apostles to haue bene subiect to the Dominion and Iurisdiction of Saint Peter much lesse could they haue attributed to S. Paul Titles of so great eminence as to instile him One To whom was committed the administration of the whole Church and One obeying the gouernment of the Church Vniuersall and One made the Head of Nations Saint Pauls Comparison of Others with S. Peter against the pretended Primacie of Peter his Iurisdiction ouer the other Apostles SECT 10. FIrst Saint Paul distinguisheth Iames Peter and Iohn from the other Disciples and ioyneth them in one Chiefedome among themselues saying I conferred with them of reputation and againe in the title They that seemed to be Pillars and yet againe They that were Chiefe of the Apostles Lastly his last vale with them They gaue to me the right hand of societie and fellowship Ergo he accounted them Equall in authoritie
which ancient Fathers haue collected from thence yet so as in alleaging their names Iames Peter and Iohn he preferreth Iames before Peter Do you aske why You can answer your selues Because say you Iames was Bishop of Hierusalem where the Apostles were at this time when S. Paul writ Be it so It must then follow that Iames was in that respect superior to Peter Lastly whiles Paul is earnest in vindicating the dignitie of his Pastorship euen then when he would stop the mouthes of false Apostles who obiected that he had no sufficient Commission to preach as not hauing bene authorized by the other Apostles hee answereth that hee had receiued his Calling Not of men neither by man but immediatly from and by Iesus Christ. And for proofe hereof he addeth a reason saying of the time when he was at Ierusalem I indeed saw Peter but other of the Apostles saw I none saue Iames the Lords brother His Consequent is Ergo he receiued not any authoritie of his Ministration from the Apostles Which had bene a seelie and indeed a sencelesse Reason if the spirit of Papistry had reigned in those dayes because his Aduersaries might readily haue replyed What is that you say Saw you none but Peter as though Peter were not sufficient in himselfe to authorize you seeing that Peter being the Vicar of Christ and the Ordinarie and Vniuersall Pastor of his Church is All in all because the Gouernor of all others without exception But Saint Paul we know spake by the Spirit of God the Author and Fountaine of Diuine reason and could not therefore argue absurdly yet notwithstanding he answered saying I saw none but Peter except Iames. Plainly signifying that Peter at that time could not challenge Iurisdiction ouer the College of all the other Apostles I. CHALLENGE SEt before your eyes any Bishop as for example the Bishop of Toledo who should defend that he was a Bishop extraordinarie and needed not at all to be authorized from Rome and when it should thereupon be obiected that he had bene at Rome with the Pope and other Bishops and Cardinals there and therefore it must needs be thought that he was established in his Calling by them then the Bishop of Toledo should answer semblably as did Saint Paul saying I confesse indeed that I went to Rome to visite the Pope and aboad with him certaine daies but other of the Bishops or Cardinals there I saw none except the Bishop of Cullen and therefore you may not obiect vnto me that I receiued any authoritie from the Conclaue and College at Rome Can you conceiue that any answer could more derogate from the now Popedome than to BVT and except against his authoritie in ordaining or establishing that Bishop of Cullen Yet such like was the Answer and Apologie of Saint Paul for himselfe II. CHALLENGE THe Cause is waightie and may require a further application as thus whiles you giue to the Pope an absolute Iurisdiction cum plenitudine potestatis ouer all other Bishops how can you suffer him to be mated or equalled with other Bishops as Paul did Peter by ioyning in societie with him Iames Iohn Much lesse would you permit that the name of the Bishop of Cullen should be preferred before the name of the Bishop of Rome whose Dioces you extend To the ends of the world as to marshall them thus viz. The Bishop of Cullen the Bishop of Rome and the Bishop of Millan as Saint Paul did in alleaging the name of Iames before Peter For for you to say that this was done In respect that Iames was Bishop of Ierusalem and the Cause had relation to his Dioces is as much as to feigne that the Arch-bishop of Auignon whilest the Pope resided there had beene put in Catalogue before the Pope himselfe or that the name of some King must bee placed before the name of the Emperour euen within his owne Empire Next to talke that the Bishop of Toledo or any other Bishop came to visit the Pope and was dismissed by receiuing from him The right hand of fellowship as Paul did of Peter how if perhaps the phrase had such a literall sence would you thinke this good manners in a Bishop since you do tutor and instruct your Kings and Emperours to do homage to the Pope In kissing his foote But especially to heare any Bishop with a BVT to intimate the No-authoritie of the Pope in his Creation and Ordination as S. Paul did of Peter might this seeme tolerable vnto you who still honour him with the supreme Titles of n The Vniuersall Father The Catholike Bishop and Pastor ouer the whole Christian world III. CHALLENGE WIllingly shall we passe by other Obiections taken from the comparison of Paul or other Apostles with Saint Peter although we know that if Saint Peter had giuen sentence in the Apostolicall Synod at Hierusalem as Iames did in his presence If Peter had beene a Sender of any of the Apostles as he was himselfe one that was Sent by others If Peter had leaned on Christ his brest as Iohn did and had therefore beene solicited by Iohn to aske a question of secrecie as Iohn was by Peter If Peter had beene called by a voice from heauen as Saint Paul was If Peter had made as bold with Paul as Paul did with Peter by Reprouing him publikely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before them all which farre differs from the Papall Prerogatiue set downe in the Canon Law saying If the Pope be negligent c. So as thereby innumerable are led to Hell yet is there none that may say Why doe you soe If Peter alone as did Saint Paul had written To the Romanes If it had beene said of Peter's ship as it was of that wherein S. Paul was God hath giuen vnto thee all them that Saile with thee And Except those remaine in the ship you cannot be saued Finally and principally if Saint Peter had written of himselfe as Saint Paul did saying I haue the care of all the Churches This one to omit the rest would haue seemed to you a firmer Foundation than the word ROCKE and haue caused you to lay downe your former iô paean and insultation raised from the depraued sence of those Scriptures Blessed art thou Simon or I haue prayed for thee or Feede thou my Flocke or any other the like whereby you labour to erect a Monarch of Peter and by your Consequence vpon the Pope ouer all Churches in the world Wherein we challenge you of preiudice and rashnes Hitherto we haue spoken of the Faith of Saint Paul concerning the authority of Saint Peter and but consequently of the Romane Bishop We are in the next place to trie S. Paul's Faith directly concerning the Romane Church it selfe That Saint Paul was not of the now Romane Faith concerning the former Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church c. as may appeare by
Church and inscribed his Epistle CATHOLIKE Secondly the Inscription of that Epistle standeth thus To all that are at Rome the Beloued of GOD Saints by calling c. Wherein wee cannot discerne so much as one Syllable of the word Church as wee finde in his Prefaces to the Corinthians To the Church that is at Corinth To the Galathians To the Churches of Galatia to the Thessalonians To the Church of the Thessalonians But in this Epistle hee saith onely To them at Rome Saints by calling to wit the same tenure which hee vsed in his Epistles to the Ephesiaâ—â— Philippians and Colossians Whereunto your Iesuitâ— Salmeron giues this answer There was at this time saith he Factions in Rome betweene Iewes and Gentiles both Christians when Peter the Pastor thereof was expelled out of Rome so that it had scarce the forme of a Church and therefore may it fitly bee said that Paul forbore to call the Romanes a Church If this were the meaning of Saint Paul then are wee sure that hee who would not vouchsafe to call it a Church did thinke Rome to bee as other Churches subiect to the alterations and Changes of Schismes and Factions so farre as not to deserue the name of a Church how much lesse of The Catholike Church Now bethinke your selues what the Apostle would haue called your Rome of after-times when not onely your Professors among themselues but also Popes and Antipopes were distracted into tedious and pernicious Schismes and Factions one against another so that the true Pope sometimes could not bee knowne Which thing your owne deuout Doctors haue greatly deplored One reckoning the number of these Schismes to haue beene Twenty Another accounting the Continuance of one of them to haue endured Fifty yeeres when as the Pope quitting the Citie of Rome for many yeeres together kept his residence at Auignon in France Our third Proofe of Saint Pauls indifferent estimation of the Church of Rome SECT 13. THe third point concerneth the Prerogatiue which you assume to your Romane Church before others Wee shall desire you to consult once againe with Saint Paul in the same Epistle Chap. 1. Ver. 13. saying I haue oftentimes purposed to come vnto you Romanes that I might haue some fruite among you â—lso 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euen as also among other Gentiles That one wor◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euen as also among Others must needs prooue a prick in your eye who can looke vpon nothing that can more equall the condition of other Churches with the Church of Rome than that word doth by the confession of your Cardinall Tolet and he would haue you to Marke it and we also pray you to Marke what he saith MARRKE saith he the indifferencie of the Gospel because although the Romanes were farre more eminent than other Nations and had the Primacie neuerthelesse in the preaching of the Word and soules-businesse belonging to saluation the Apostle maketh Others equall with the Romanes Among you saith the Apostle as also among other Gentiles of what Nation soeuer So he Heere your Cardinall not to dissemble maketh the Comparison to stand betweene the Romanes and the Grecians as they were before their calling vnto Christianity namely in the equality of Sinne not any one deseruing to be partaker of Grace by the Gospell more than another Neuerthelesse if you shall Marke a little better nothing can be more cleare than that the Apostle compareth these Romanes as they were Christians with other Christian Gentiles conuerted to the Faith because of the same Romanes to whom he said Ver. 6. You are called of Iesus Christ and Ver. 8. You whose Faith is spoken of through-out the World and Ver. 11. I long to see you that I may impart vnto you some spirituall gift to the end you may be established of the Same he saith here in this 13 Verse That I might haue some fruit among you these you know could not bee other than Christians whom he thus commended as already called to the Faith therefore in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of other Gentiles he meant the Churches of the Gentiles committed vnto Christ Those saith Aquinas vnto whom he had preached So that the labour of the Apostle was vnpartiall vnto the Churches of Christ further than they should bring forth the Fruites of the Gospell of Christ CHALLENGE TWo things there are by which the estimation which Writers haue of Persons or Incorporations to whom they Dedicate their Epistles may bee discerned to wit Inscriptions and Comparisons The Apostle by the Inscription of his Epistle to the Romanes hath giuen vs iust presumption to thinke that he held not the Church of Rome then The Catholike Church which as then he had cause to forbeare to call so much as a Church and that the said Church by Comparison is subiect to alteration as well as Others And so much the rather because the Indifferencie of the Gospell is such as is not to be tied to one place or people more than to another but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equall to all Churches so farre forth as they shall walke worthie of the same Gospell of Christ accordingly as we haue beene directed by the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romanes The Confirmation of the same Faith of Saint Paul by your owne Confessions equalling Saint Paul and Saint Peter in their diuers Relations to the Church of Rome SECT 14. WHat shall we say to your owne free grants 1. That Saint Peter and Saint Paul were both Co-founders of the Romane Church 2. That both were called Bishops of the same Church by Epiphanius 3. That the Authority of Both is cited in the Popes Breeues for Confirmation of Papall Ordinances 4. That both haue their Images ingrauen in your Popes Bulls yea and that in such sort that Paul sometime hath the right hand of Peter as well as other while Peter of Paul Thus farre your Popes and Iesuites CHALLENGE WHich being so how may it not perswade you that your Popes anciently iudged that Saint Paul did not beleeue himselfe subiect to the Iurisdiction of Saint Peter and his Roman See except you will thinke it possible to extract a Primacy of Authoritie out of Aequalitie as well of Titles as of Ordinances or else to conceiue one to be subiect vnto him of whom he hath the vpper-hand especially knowing that to be placed on the Right hand was held an Argument of greater honour among all people the Persians onely excepted If your Popes at this day should see any Bishops picture stamped ioyntly on his Seale that wee may appeale to your selues in this Case guesse wee pray you whether hee could behold any other matched in such an equipage with himselfe without high indignation and extreame Cause of Anathematization So iustly is your new Faith of your now Popes condemned by ancient Attributes Authorities and Seales Thus farre of the faith of Saint Paul your supposed Co-founder of the
Church of Rome about the time when it was first erected That Saint Iohn his Faith did not conceiue the same Article of Subiection to the Catholike Romane Church c. SECT 15. NOt long after the same Time of the foundation of the Church of Rome did Saint Iohn write his Booke of Reuelation wherein he reuealeth that the Citie of Rome is Babylon according to the generall consent of your owne Iesuites and other Diuines directed not onely by the iudgement of Ancient Fathers but especially and inuincibly by Saint Iohn in the clearenesse of that Scripture So iust Cause had the most iudicious of Kings Christian IAMES our late Soueraigne of famous memorie to auerre saying This place viz. Reuel chapp 17. 18. doth clearely and vndeniably declare that Rome is or shall be the seat of that Antichrist For no Papist now denieth that by Babylon here Rome is directly meant c. Next that it signifieth Rome not onely as it was Ethnicall Rome in the dayes of heathenish Emperours by which mist many of your Doctors a long time gulled and deceiued their Disciples lest your Papall Rome might haue come within their ken but also noteth Rome as it shall be in the later age of the World the Seat of Antichrist And not thus onely but that the same Citie shall be burnt with fire A Truth so euident that your Rhemists who otherwise of all others are most bleare-eyd at the sight of any light that may any way make against Rome doe thus farre grant as to say The great Antichrist shall haue his seat at Rome as it may well be thought but others thinke Ierusalem rather shall be his seat But your Iesuites Ribera and Viega both of â—hem Spanish Doctors and publike Professors doe confidently auerre that They dare hold him for A MOST NOTABLE FOOLE that shall denie it as being a matter without all doubt So say they nor so onely but also proue it by conuincing Arguments 1 Because that the Text saith expresly of this Babylon that It shall be burned 2 They that shall then liue shall see the smoke of her fire and lament her destruction 3 Because the spirit warneth all them that are in her to depart Come out of her my people that yee receiue not of her plagues But there were then nâ— Faithfull in the heathenish Rome or if any were yet are they commanded to Come out of her for feare of being consumed with fire And lastly they adde to the euidence of the text the Oracles of Sibyl as it were a torch vnto the Sunne viz. that The seauen-hild Rome shall be destroyed with fire Thus farre your owne Authors not once questioned for this doctrine and although professing it in the fierie Region of the Spanish Inquisition yet not so much as an heire of their beards scorched therefore yea these their bookes are publikely allowed by the iudgement of besides others the Prouinciall of the Iesuites Marry yet the foresaid Authors lest they might hereby seeme to yeeld any matter of insultation to vs Heretikes as they call vs or hereby preiudice the Church of Rome they doe againe and againe admonish their Readers that this Prophecie although it point out the destruction of the Citie of Rome for her Apostacie from the faith by her Idolatrie yet aimeth it not at the Church of Rome or the Bishop thereof because the Apostacie shall be say they from the faith of that Church and Obedience to that Bishop Who though he abandon Rome and Rome it selfe be destroid yet is hee still Bishop of Rome So they I. CHALLENGE GOD himselfe by his owne example in his first dayes worke taught vs to diuide the light from the darknesse Thus then That the people of the Citie of Rome in the later age of the world must generally depart from the faith that whatsoeuer faithfull remaining must Depart out of the Citie that the Citie her selfe for her wickednesse and Idolatry must be consumed by fire seemeth now at length euen to our Romish Aduersaries themselues a truth as cleare as the day and that iustly as hath bin shewed But that to free their Church and Pope of Rome from the preiudice of defection and reuolt from the faith wee must forsooth beleeue that The Pope when all Christian people are departed out of the Citie and the Citie it selfe vtterly extinct shall still remaine the Bishop of Rome this we take to be as darke as darknesse it selfe We shall therefore call for a Torch for so you call Baronius his writings to discouer this darknesse He sheweth that The Church of Rome was constituted first by Peter at Rome where saith he his Pontificall seat or chaire was made of wood Then hee sheweth the ancient custome of Erecting Chaires or Seats for Bishops in their Churches placing them aloft and adorning them with ornaments where they did sit c. This was the originall of Episcopall Chaires and Seats so that Patriarks and Bishops had their denominations from the Churches wherein they tooke possession and where they had their first Chaires or seats Hence came the distinct Appellations of the Patriarcal Church or seat of Antioch the Seat of Constantinople and this now specified as they say the Pontificall Seat of Rome Albeit therefore that it cannot be denied that the Bishop of Rome being excluded from his Church and Seat is notwithstanding to bâ— accounted the Bishop of that people and place yet when hee is so departed from them that they are also departed from him so as there shall be no people in Rome professing his faith nor yet that Seat which is the Citie of Rome extant at all but wholly consumed with fire then to be called the Bishop of the Church or Seat of Rome is but a man in the moone and Titulus sine re namely as it is written of Hierusalem How is that faithfull Citie become a whore The Citie is called faithfull not as being now faithfull but onely because it had bin so Saint Paul in his Inscriptions to diuers Churches taketh their denominations from the places where the faithfull Professors were thus To the Churches of Galatia To the Church of God in Corinth and elsewhere to shew that the Church rather doth consist in the Professors then in the places and omitting the name of Church he doth mention onely the Persons To the Saints at Colosse and faithfull brethren in Christ To all the Saints in Christ at Philippi and also for Rome To them at Rome beloued of God called Saints And must wee notwithstanding conceit of a Bishop of a Church of Rome wherein there is neither people professing nor place of profession As if they should call one the Shepheard of Vtopia where there is neither Sheepe in the Countrey nor Countrey for Sheepe except 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be the Shepheard and they speak the language of Babel where None shall heare Nothing of Nobody at all
That which we now contend for in the Popes of Rome may be cleared by an example of him that is called Emperour of Rome who because hee hath neither a foot of possession in Rome nor in the Territories thereof nor yet any professed Subiect inhabiting therein but the whole Princedome is belonging to the Pope your owne Diuines hold it a kinde of Soloecisme to name any at this day The Romane Emperour Therefore to alleadge a few of many that may be produced Lyra The Empire of Rome saith he hath for a long time beene without an Emperour Faber What obedience I pray you saith he doth Rome yeeld to her Monarch meaning the Emperour So to Now saith he is that temporall Dominion of the Citie of Rome ceased and your Iesuite Salmeron The Romane Emperour saith hee was ouerthrowne long agoe II. CHALLENGE THe Romish Babylon then by the Reuelation of Saint Iohn is that Citie of Rome whose place and people must be destroyed No people can be called Romane without they haue relation to Rome nor any people called The Church of Rome except they be Professors of the faith in Rome Therefore Saint Iohn prophecying of these things could not but beleeue that before the end of the world that Church which is now called The Church of Rome shall depart from the faith euen because this Departure must be from the sincere doctrine and worship of God vnto errour and Idolatrie Oh! that this were not at this day a iust Cause to challenge euery one to Come out of Babylon Both which we shall be ready in due time to proue by as true grounds as any haue hitherto beene deliuered That Saint Iohn's faith did not conceiue the now pretended Monarchie of the Pope aboue all other Bishops and Pastors in the Catholike Church SECT 16. WHat that Papall Monarchie is in your faith and how it is deriued we haue heard namely that because Saint Peter was the Vicar of Christ vpon earth as his ordinary Pastor ouer all the other Apostles therefore the Successors of Saint Peter in the same See are of the same authoritie and Iurisdiction ouer the whole Church of Christ and euery member thereof Hence issueth the Article of your now Romane faith that Without obedience and subiection to the Pope as the Catholike Bishop of the Catholike Church None can be saued The meditation vpon this Article begetteth a Probleme viz. whether Saint Iohn the Euangelist who liued 20. yeares after Saint Peter were indeede subordinate and subiect to the Iurisdiction of Linus or Cletus the immediate Successours of Saint Peter Either Saint Iohn was subiect to the Pope or he was not What say you It seemeth vnto mee saith your Iesuite that the Apostles who suruiued Peter were subiect to the Pope because the power of the Pope was alwayes ordinary and to continue in the Church Haue you any ground for this I cannot remember saith hee that I haue read in any Author any thing of this point So he CHALLENGE SAint Paul as hath beene proued reckoned these Three Peter Iames and Iohn equally Columnas that is The Pillars and as it were equally the three Chiefe Worthies among the Disciples who concerning the offices of their Apostleship receiued from Christ as your Cardinall Cusanus hath taught you Euery way an equall charge And without Controuersie the faith of Iohn and Paul was both the same Is it then possible for a Christian man to thinke that Iohn being that Apostle who was immediately chosen by Christ and equall to Peter should thinke himselfe subiect to Linus the Successour of Peter that he who for his sublimitie of knowledge in the mysteries of Christ was called The Diuine who was made the Pen-man of the holy Ghost in writing the Gospell and one for whose infallibility in the truth Christ offered vp praiers to his Father ought hee now to submit his iudgement vnto Linus one of the line of those Popes whereof Some haue beene by Generall Councels and by Popes themselues iudged for Heretikes And againe that Iohn who at the time of the Supper of our Lord leaned vpon the brest of our Sauiour when Peter you know was but next after Iohn should now prostrate himselfe before Linus the Successor of Peter and if this Ceremonie had beene so old to doe him the honour as to Kisse his feet And not this onely but to beleeue this Article of due Subiection to the Pope Without which none can be saued which indeede is more than to Kisse the feet or to licke the dust of the feet of Saint Peter's Successor Sure we are that the Disciples of Saint Iohn to wit the Christians of the Easterne Church were not of your beliefe who to adhere to the orders of Saint Iohn refused to obserue the Easter of the Latine Church which they would not haue done if they had beleeued Saint Iohn to haue beene subiect to those Romane Bishops or yet to Peter himselfe Before we can conclude you are to be exhorted to obserue the Iesuiticall front of Suarez who in a matter of this nature concerning Saluation durst make this Conclusion of the Apostles Subiection and subordination vnder a Pope namely as you haue heard him confesse without any Author besides himselfe Whereby you may discerne with what vntempered morter these men daube vp the Consciences of their Followers CHAP. V. That the Catholike and Apostolike Church of Christ it selfe at or about the Time of the foundation of the Church of Rome had no such Article of faith viz. The Catholike Romane Church without vnion wherewith there is no Saluation SECT 1. THe Churches vnto which Saint Paul writ for we name not the Romanes of whom wee haue intreated before were the Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians Thessalonians and the dispersed Hebrewes As for the other Apostles Iames Peter Iohn Iude each one writ to Diuers those their Epistles which are intitled Catholike Epistles And the seauen Churches of Asia were they to whom the booke of the Apoealips or Reuelation was directed Among these the Apostles are instant and vrgent in inueying 1 against the Heresies of Iudaisme Saducisme of worshipping Angels 2 Against Apostasie and Antichristianitie 3 Against Diuisions and Schismes in the Church and abuse of Ecclesiasticall Orders therein And yet in all these there appeareth not any one Syllable or Iota to proue your Article of The Catholike Romane Church without vnion and subiection whereunto and to the Head thereof there is no saluation No nor yet so much as to intimate any one of the particles of this Article as first not to signifie that the Church of Rome was a Catholike much lesse THE Catholike Church as being in right which you say The Mother and Mistris of all others Not to note that in the conuincing of Heretikes Christians ought to looke as to their Cynosura to the Faith of the Romane Church nor that for the discouering
and auoiding of Antichrist Christians ought to subiect themselues to the Pope of Rome as the Vicar of Christ. Finally nor yet that for the preuenting of dissentions and Schismes in the Church Christians ought to adhere and to be vnited to the same Monarchicall Head of the same Romane Church All which those holy Apostles the faithfull Embassadours of our Lord Christ without Controuersie ought and would haue done if according to the now Romane Faith either the name CATHOLIKE had bene then Antonomastically to be appropriated to Rome or the Infallibilitie of Faith to be ascribed to the iudgement of her Bishop or that the Necessitie of Vnion and Subiection to the authoritie of the same Head had bene so necessarie as without which no Christian could be saued To begin at the word CATHOLIKE We desire to vnderstand why the Epistles of Iames and Iohn and Iude were called Catholike or Vniuersall as well as the two Epistles of Peter if the word Catholike were so proper to the Romane Chaire Seeing that the Epistle of Saint Iames and so of the rest was no more sent to or from Rome nor had any relation to Peter there than the Epistles of Peter had to Iames at Hierusalem Secondly why Paul was so sole as of himselfe to Anathemize the false Apostles saying If wee or an Angell from heauen preach any other Gospell vnto you let him be accursed or in admonishing the Irresolute saying Behold I Paul tell you and I testifie againe vnto you And that no otherwise than he did in absoluing the penitent Incestuous saying I haue pardoned him in the person of Christ that is to say As the Vicar of Christ as your Rhemists obserue in their Annotations vpon this place If so as you pretend The name of Vicar of Christ be wholly belonging to the Pope as an argument of his Succession from Saint Peter in the Monarchie ouer the whole Church But principally doth Saint Paul shew himselfe in preuenting and repressing of Schismes once among the people whom he will not haue to adhere to any one man no more to Cephas that is Peter than to Paul or Apollos Whereas your Roman Cephas would haue taught Saint Paul a contrarie lesson saying that They who adhere vnto Cephas cannot be called Schismatikes as those who hold of Apollos because Cephas was that ROCKE whereupon the Church was built and such a Visible Head is now as necessary on earth to auoide Schisme as to beleeue on Christ the inuisible Head now glorious in heauen Againe among the Ecclesiasticall Orders twice first to the Corinthians where he alleageth them thus First Apostles then Prophets after Doctors and accordingly to the Ephesians He gaue some Apostles and some Prophets and some Euangelists c. Here wee should haue had good reason to haue expected the mention of Saint Peter as the visible Head among the Apostles if we had bene of your Faith to beleeue that the Pope of Rome as Successor of Saint Peter is the Head of the visible Church and that therefore The vnion with the Bishop of Rome as the Head thereof is a true Note of the Church Whereby it may be infallibly discerned whether or no a Christian man be a member of the Catholike Church without which there is no Saluation Which what were it but to call into question the iudgement of Saint Paul the most profoundest Disputant that euer writ as though he had bene ignorant of the maine and onely Argument for the confuting of Schismatikes and auoyding of Schisme by keeping forsooth the Vnion with the Pope and Church of Rome As for the Seauen Churches in Asia vnto whom Saint Iohn writ concerning the dayes of Antichrist when the great Departure from the sincere Faith of Christ must be herein notwithstanding you could neuer yet find one particle to prooue either the Right of Monarchie in the Pope or Infallibilitie of his iudgement or Necessitie that the Faithfull be Vnited and Subiected vnto him But many Characters may you find at least of an Antichrist as well of his person in the Pope as you haue done of his particular Seate confessing ingenuously that it must be at Rome Saint Peter in his Catholike Epistle To the dispersed Christians in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bithynia exhorting the Presbyters whom he after calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Superintendents or Byshops saith The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder Feede the flocke of God not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 domineiring ouer Gods heritage that when our chiefe Shepheard shall appeare c. What may be inferred from hence you may vnderstand in the third Challenge I. CHALLENGE NOne will make doubt but that the Churches to whom the Apostles haue written were of the same faith with their Teachers the holy Apostles and that therefore in the point of Heresie it was not more requisite that the Church of Thessalonîca should subscribe to the Faith of the Church of Rome than that the Romanes should be guided by the Faith of the Thessalonians or that in the point of Schisme the Church of Corinth should be compelled to keepe Vnion with the Church Romane more than the Romane with the Colossian or yet that among the Churches to whom the Catholike Epistles of Peter Iude Iohn and Iames were directed some should be thought to owe more Subiection to the Letters of Peter than to the other of Iames or Iohn Else would some Items haue bene giuen out to signifie your pretended respects due to the Romane Church especially euery one of them being required in your Faith vpon Necessitie of saluation All men would wonder for example sake that the Bishops of Italy being al within the Romane Iurisdiction should write letters farre and neare vpon all occasion of Heresie and Schisme to diuerse Churches within the same Romane Dioces and yet neuer make mention nay nor so much as giue intimation of the necessary dependance they haue and ought to acknowledge themselues to haue of the Pope and Sea of Rome II. CHALLENGE IF it had bene as manifestly reuealed by Saint Iohn that England was Prophesied off to be the Seate of Antichrist in the latter times as according to your Iesuites Expositions and Demonstrations he did of Rome in the word Babylon from whence all the faithfull are commanded to depart except they will be Partakers of her plagues sure we are that your Iesuites and Professors would neede no seueritie of Lawes to quit England and to abhorre it especially now when the Controuersie whether Antichrist be alreadie come is so daily and duly debated III. CHALLENGE SAint Peter albeit an Apostle of Iesus Christ yet in the exercise of his Iurisdiction in the ordaining the Bishops of Pontus Cappadocia and other Churches doth intitle himselfe A Fellow-Priest or Bishop a stile not to be found in your Popes Breues For we speake not now of termes of Humiliation as that of SERVVS SERVORVM but of Office and
Church of Rome saith he not as a particular Dioces or Bishopricke is called the Catholike Church but as it comprehendeth and containeth all Beleeuers in Christ vnder the obedience of the Pope of Rome So they This counterfeit Glosse vpon these termes The Catholike Church as vnder the Obedience of the Pope as Catholike and Vniuersall Head wee shall bring to the Test of the Antient Faith by the witnesse of more than three Fathers I. The iudgement of Saint Augustine SECT 8. WHat was meant by the Catholike Church in the Sence of Antiquity Saint Augustine may be vnto vs herein as the mouth of the whole Church seeing that he had more occasions to discusse this Article than any Other especially because in his time the Donatists did no lesse falsly than arrogantly appropriate the name of the Whole Church vnto their Church in Africke euen as you although in a different Sence hold it proper to the Church of Rome at this day But Saint Augustine The word in Greeke saith he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Totum aut Vniuersale that is whole or vniuersall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not one but the whole whence the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Catholike is deriued Thus by distinguishing Whole Church from One Church he sheweth that it is as vnconceiuable that the Catholike Vniuersall or Whole should bee but one One part as it is impossible for one part to be the Whole Which is your Paradoxe to call the Head the whole Body whilest as in your Article you make ROMANE as the Head The Catholike and Vniuersall Church it selfe Thus haue we heard Saint Augustine will you now see him Then behold Rem gestam For when by that busie fellow Petilian the Donatist a publike Conference was held at Carthage betweene seuen Orthodoxe Bishops on the one part and seuen Donatists on the other concerning the Catholike Church Saint Augustine was singled out by the Disputer and posed in these words Whence art thou Who is thy Father Is the Bishop Caecilian he This was the Obiection challenging Augustine to answer whence hee receiued his Religion and vpon whom he depended Heare now his answer My communion saith he began first at Hierusalem and from remote places came nearer vntill it entred into Africke and so disperst it selfe through-out all the World From this my Father God and my Mother-Church will I neuer be separated for the calumnies of any man CHALLENGE SAy now if either Petilian the Heretike could haue questioned Saint Augustine professing himselfe a Catholike whether hee had his dependance vpon CAECILIAN Bishop of Carthage as his spirituall Father if it had beene a currant profession among the Churches of those times to haue held the Bishop of Rome The Catholike Father or the Church of Rome The Catholike Mother-Church without which there is no saluation Or whether it could haue stood with the Conscience of Saint Augustine if he had beene of your now Romish Faith in a question about the Father-hood What Bishop and Mother-hood what Church he professed fo◠to passing by all mention of the B. of Rome acknowledge no Head but Christ and neglecting the Romane Church adhere to the Whole Church dispersed throughout the whole Christian World as indeed the properly called Mother-Church How should not Saint Augustine although neuer so admirable a Saint haue beene held a Schismatike and Heretike if he had liued in these daies either for his ignorance or Contempt of the now Romish resolution of Faith in all such Questions to wit that the Spirituall Father of the Church is the Pope of Rome and the Church of Rome is the Catholike Church is selfe because Head of all the rest As for the prime Mother-Church by spirituall procreation wee see that Saint Augustine acknowledgeth no other than Hierusalem which verefieth that which hath been largely prooued to wit that although the ancient Romane Church might in many respects be called A Mother Church of many other Churches in Christendome especially in respect of her admirable care for the preseruation of diuine truth and peace in the Christian world Yet now since first by vsurping an Originall Prerogatiue of the Vniuersall Mother she is become the Mother of Arrogance and Falsehood 2. By preiudicing the Birth-right of other Churches more ancient than her selfe She may be called the Mother of Schisme 3. By excluding All from hope of Saluation that beleeue her not to bee the Mother-Church shee may iustly bee iudged the Mother of damnable Heresie Of Saint Augustines iudgement more hereafter II. The Iudgement of Saint Hierome concerning the Church Catholike SECT 5. SAint Hierome was a professed and deuoute Childe of the Church of Rome when Rome was yet a true and naturall Mother and no Step-dame who notwithstanding when the Custome of Rome was obiected against him in a Case of difference betweene Deacon and Priest calling the Aduerse part An arrogant paucity he maketh an answer full of indignity As though sayth he there were more authority in Vrbe quà m in Orbe that is in one Citie the Seate of the Bishop of Rome than in the whole Catholike Church besides This is the Testimonie of Saint Hierome wherein the Fathers of the Councell of Basil did in a manner triumph in opposition to the Papall Claime saying O Hierome what meane you Is there therefore greatnes in the Pope because he gouerneth the Church His authority is great indeed but not so great as the authority of the Catholike Church which is not conteined in one Citie but comprehendeth in it selfe the whole World CHALLENGE APply you to this former sentence of Saint Hierome if you can your former distinction namely that the Church of Rome is a Particular Church in it selfe but Catholike as the Head hauing Vniuersal Dominion ouer the whole Church and see whether it will abide the test of Saint Hierome who speaking of the Customes of the Church of Rome calleth the Custome of that Church Vrbem meaning the custome but of one Particular Church whose seate is at Rome and opposeth vnto it the Custome of the Catholike Church which hee calleth Orbem the whole world Shewing thereby with whom also doth accord the iudgement of the Fathers of the Councell of Basil that the Authority of the Church Catholike and of the Church of Rome are not equiualent much lesse the same for in Identity there can be no opposition or comparison None can compare a mans head with it selfe And what furthermore Saint Hierome did conceiue heereof will afterwards appeare in due Place III. The Iudgement of Saint Gregory Bishop of Rome Concerning the Head Catholike In denying the Title of Vniuersall Bishop as did likewise Pelagius and Leo both Bishops of the same See SECT 6. ALthough it can be no sufficient Argument for concluding a Papall authority to obiect vnto vs the testimonies of Popes which is your ordinarie guize in their owne Cause yet will it be vnto vs Armour of Proofe to oppose
against you the authority albeit but of one Pope disclayming that your pretended Vniuersall Head-ship in that Article which you call The Catholike Romane Church He who being Head and Bishop of the Church of Rome shall denie the Title of Vniuersall or Catholike Bishop to be properly belonging to himselfe doth Consequently denie that his Church of Rome can properly be called The Catholike that is to say The Vniuersall Church This is a Consequence in your owne iudgement so vndeniable that your Cardinall Bellarmine the great Achilles in this Cause is in nothing more studious zealous or instant than in the defence of this Head and this Title of Vniuersall Bishop as proper to the Pope and a speciall Note of Papall Primacie ouer the whole Church of Christ. Which your Faith or rather infatuation commeth now to be confuted by the iudgement of Saint Gregory worthily commended by your selues for a man Excellent in Morall Positions and in the Vnderstanding of the holy Scriptures This being so honourable a Witnesse wee call vpon him to testifie two points first the Noueltie secondly the Iniquity of this Title of Vniuersall Bishop within the Church In the first place he expressely calleth this Title of Vniuersall Bishop A new Title which saith he None of my Predecessors euer vsed It is but idle and impertinent to obiect vnto vs that Leo Pope before him was inscribed Vniuersall in the Councell of Chalcedon because it was not absolutely there ascribed to Pope Leo but with a grand Restriction as thus Vniuersall to wit of Great Rome which is as much as to denie him to bee the Bishop of the Vniuersall Chuch euen as when you shall instile your now Romane Emperour thus The Vniuersall Emperour of Rome you thereby distinguish him from the Emperour of Turkie the Emperour of Persia the Emperour of Mosco and others and consequently denie him to be Emperor of the whole world As vaine and indeed ridiculous is it now after a thousand two hundred yeeres to pretend that The Title was by that Councel set downe at large The Bishop of the Vniuersall Church because it is so read in the Epistle of Pope Leo but was altered by the Greeke Scribe in enuie to the Church of Rome This you should alleage to them that can be perswaded that any priuate man could or durst alter the stile of a publike and Generall Councell against the dignity of the Pope where the Popes Legates were present And not rather that some Latine Scribe hath added that Inscription to the Epistle of Pope Leo in honour of the Church of Rome as is Confessed to haue beene done vnto the Epistles of other Popes and by three Popes themselues vnto the Councell of Nice As for the point in question we stand to the ioynt testimonies of Pelagius and Gregorie both Popes who haue witnessed to all Posterity as your owne Iesuite confesseth that No Bishop of Rome before them had euer vsed the Title of Vniuersall Bishop Which notwithstanding scarce any one Pope since the age of Saint Gregorie hath not assumed as proper to himselfe But how iustly we shall vnderstand by the said Pope Gregorie who after the branding of this Title with the note of Nouelty doth further discouer the Impiety thereof This he expresseth first by bidding this Title of Vniuersall Bishop AVANT as being Vaine Prophane q Hainously wicked and Blasphemous Words of high indignation and detestation When any of you shall answer this Obiection without either manifest falsehood or else intollerable iniurie to Pope Gregory then may you bragge that Saint Gregory was that thing which you call a Pope Some of your Doctors who are said to be Many would shift off this matter as though it were but a Verball skirmish and contention onely about words But this were to make Pope Gregory Pelagius and Leo the Ninth three Popes very childish who did earnestly gaine-say this Title aâ— your Iesuite confesseth who might from the mouth of Gregory himselfe haue stopped these other Many mouthes were they neuer so wide For when the Emperour Mauritius in the behalfe of the Bishop of Constantinople who vsed this Title Vniuersall was offended with Gregory for being so vehement In taking a scandall at the Appellation of so friuolous a Name Gregory himselfe made answer that It was very friuolous but withall too too pernicious and that he who desired to be called Vniuersall Priest did by so aduancing himselfe aboue others shew himselfe to be the fore-runner of ANTICHRIST Yea and so wicked hee iudged it to be that hee would haue all the world to know that neither Hee nor any of his Predecessors else had euer assumed the same Yea but this was not saith your Cardinall for that Gregory might not haue vsed this Title but because he would not vse it And why In humility forsooth That hee might hereby more easily represse the insolencie of Iohn Bishop of Constantinople who at that time vniustly vsurped the same Thus he Which is as much as to say that a King would renounce his Royall Title of Soueraigntie to the end that some notorious Rebell challenging it might thereby the more willingly disclaime it Were not this a profound piece of policie trow you if not rather grosse foppery Wee choose rather to beleeue Gregory himselfe who professeth To bee humble in minde but still so as to preserue the honour and dignity of his place So farre was hee from disclaiming any right that belonged to his Chaire Againe for Gregory in word to abhorre with an Absit that Title as impious and blasphemous which he thought might notwithstanding be iustly vsed by him what would you call this otherwise than an egregious Hypocrisie A Third answer you haue which you should as much shame to vtter as wee loath to heare to wit that Gregory did abhorre the Title of Vniuersall Bishop but onely in the same sence wherein it was then vsed by the Bishop of Constantinople How wee beseech you So to bee called Vniuersall Bishop ouer others say you as to bee sole Bishop and to make all others vnder him to bee no Bishops but onely Vicars vnto him Where by Vicars you meane such as haue no Order or Iurisdiction proper to Bishops at all VVhich is so incredible a figment that it is confuted by all those Bishops who are very many which submitted themselues vnto this Bishop of Constantinople and approoued his Title yet notwithstanding held and exercised their ancient Iurisdictions of their seuerall Archiepiscopall Sees VVho doubtlesse would neuer haue allowed the Title of Vniuersalitie to that Patriarch of Constantinople as you know they did if that thereupon they should haue beene compelled of Bishops to become plaine Vicars and cast out of the Parlour into the Kitchin The true and vndoubted Sence then of Gregory is that which your Cardinall Cusan euen one of the Popes eyes hath seene and
words of Tert. your owne Beatus Rhenanus hath published as much as we can require Tertullian saith hee doth not confine the Catholike and Apostolike Church to one place and although hee giue an honourable testimonie to the Church of Rome yet did he not esteeme her so highly as we see her accounted of at this day He reckoneth her with other Churches yet doth not make her the onely Church but admonisheth his Readers as well to enquire what milke the Church of Corinth gaue as Rome So Rhenanus who addeth that If Tertullian were now aliue and should say so much hee could not escape without punishment Thus your Rhenanus whiles that hee had the vse of his tongue but since you haue Gagged him by your Index Ezpurgatorius a Booke which we may call the Martyrologe of many innocent bookes But no maruaile for this testimonie of Rhenanus was as a poyniard sticking fast in the very bowels of this Cause Notwithstanding Tertullian will be Tertullian still whom whosoeuer shall reade he will be able to auouch as much as Rhenanus hath obserued namely that Tertullian euen whilest hee was a true childe of the Church neuer allowed the Apostolike which we commonly call the Catholike Church to be appropriated vnto any one place nor had he further respect to Rome than he had to Corinth and other Apostolicall Churches which hee calleth Original Mother-Churches for directing of Christians in the Apostolike faith 4 Athanasius reckoneth vp to the Emperour Constantine the Churches that consented to the Councell of Nice thus The Churches of Spain of Britaine of France of whole Italie of Dalmatia without any precise mention of Rome otherwise than it was comprized in whole Italie A great Contempt doubtlesse if your Article had beene then hatch't because the Consent of Rome onely had been more perswasiue to the Emperour than all the rest 5 Vincentius Lirinensis likewise an ancient Father and greatly approued on all sides in his booke written in defence of the Catholike Truth against all prophane Nouelties aduiseth Christians to trie the Truth equally by the ioynt consent as well of the East as of the West-Church and to consult as well with Petrus Alexandrinus and Athanasius in the one Church as with Felix and Iulius Bishops of Rome in the other Concerning whom more hereafter 6 Saint Augustine against Iulian the Pelagian in the question of Baptisme speaking of Chrysostome the Bishop of Constantinople saith Farre be it from him that hee should dissent from his fellow-Bishops Innocentius Bishop of Rome Cyprian Bishop of Carthage Basil Bishop of Cappadocia Gregory Bishop of Nazianzum Hilary a French Bishop and Ambrose Bishop of Milan Is it possible that these orthodoxe Fathers should in this manner and vpon such occasions haue giuen the Bishop of Rome so many Mates in equalizing others with him if your Article of Monarchicall Dominion had entred into their breasts or braines The same comparisons proued by ancient Churches SECT 2. THe generall Councell of Constantinople in the East to make known their Consent in the Faith with the Church in the West doe endite an Epistle and inscribe it thus To their Reuerend brethren and fellowes as well to Damasus of Rome as to Ambrose of Milan and others The Church of Egypt gathered in Councell in their letters vnto the Emperour Leo professe Their Consent in the Catholike faith with the chiefe Priests in the Christian world naming as well Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople Basil Bishop of Antioch Iuuenall Bishop of Hierusalem as Leo Bishop of Rome The Decree of the Church of Carthage in her third Councell standeth thus It is decreed that we consult hereupon with our brethren Syricius viz. Bishop of Rome and Simplician viz. Bishop of Milane Not to omit how you confesse that The Bishops of Constantinople did sometime enioy the title of Vniuersall Bishops equally with the Bishops of Rome but this they did say you by permission of the Bishops of Rome and vpon conniuence Tell you this to them who know not that Maiestie brooking no Corriuall the Monarchie of Popes would neuer dispense or continue at any One vsurping equall Title of Monarchicall Iurisdiction which is as much as to snatch their Papall Miters from of their heads CHALLENGE THe distinction of East and West is not more familiarly knowne to euery vulgar man than is the distinction of East and West-Church by euery babe in Historicall learning vnderstanding thereby that they were anciently held as two generall parts of the Catholike Church and not as one subordinate to another as will afterwards more plainly appeare Againe vnlesse you shall except against the most ancient and vniuersally approued Instructors and guides of the Catholike Church we must conclude that the East part of the world is not more opposite vnto the West than is your now Romane Article to wit The Catholike Romane Church contrary to Catholike Antiquitie Insomuch that as when Protestants are controlled condemned tormented or put to death for renouncing this your Article Ignatius Ireneus to omit the authoritie of Councels and Others Tertullian Athanasius Vinc. Lirinensis and Augustine may seeme to suffer in them because it may be said of the rest which your Rhenanus spake of one saying Tertullian if he were aliue should not escape vnpunished for such his Praescriptions So False and Imposterous is your Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church as hauing Dominion ouer all Others CHAP. VIII Our third Argument taken from the iudgement of the Catholike Church it selfe in the first Six Generall Councels after the Apostles Besides a Seuenth and Eight Councell in Your estimation Generall SECT 1. EVery true Generall Councell you will esteeme to be the Representatiue Church Catholike than which after the euidence of diuine Scriptures the Oracles of God no better proofe can be required by the Professors of the Christian faith For this cause we hold it our duetie for your better satisfaction to giue you Instances in the first Six Generall Councels beginning at the first Generall Councell of Nice I. That the Beliefe of the Romish Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without which c. damneth all the Catholike Fathers of the Councell of Nice and their Beleeuers SECT 2. THe first Generall Councell in Christianitie after the Synod of the Apostles was that famous first Councell of Nice consisting of CCCXVIII Bishops by whom were made two Decrees vtterly preiudiciall to the now Article of the Dominion of the Romane Church and Pope aboue all other Churches and their Bishops One is against the Appeales of persons Excommunicate in any Dioces vnto remote Churches which the Bishops of the Church of Africke in their Councell wherein Saint Augustine was an Actor did absolutely denie by virtue of the Canon of the Councell of Nice The second Instance in the sixt Canon of the same Nicene Synod decreeing thus That the Bishops of Alexandria should haue the Gouernment ouer Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the Greek because also the Bishop of Rome hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same custome thereby distinguishing and limiting their Prouinces so as the Bishop of Alexandria may still haue gouernment within his Prouinces As also the Bishop of Rome hath in his And that because of prescription of Custome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say they that is LET THE ANCIENT COVRSE HOLD and adde As also let Antioch and other Prouinces hold their ancient Priuiledges c. Which taketh away all Subordination of the authoritie of Alexandria to Rome This was the current sence of this Canon in the dayes of Antiquitie vntill the boldnesse of your Authors thinking to carry the matter by out-facing deuised a strange Answer The sence is saith Bellarmine that the Bishop of Alexandria should haue these Prouinces there mentioned because the Bishop of Rome was accustomed to permitt it so to be So he As though they were not words of Comparison that the Bishop of Alexandria should enioy his Priuileges accordingly as the Bishop of Rome held anciently his but that the Prerogatiue forsooth of the Bishop of Rome was and had beene then to Permitt or dispose of the Prouinces of the Patriarkes of Alexandria and Antioch and of other Bishops at his owne pleasure A Glosse both sencelesse and shamelesse Sencelesse for that it carrieth with it a Confluence of Absurdities First because it had beene an impietie for the Accusers to haue called the Case of the Bishop of Alexandria and Antioch into question to be determined in that Councell if it had beene the Catholike faith then to beleeue that it was in the power of the Bishop of Rome to order all such matters of Iurisdiction of other Patriarks as he should thinke good Next the Councell had bene guilty of vnpardonable remissenesse when they heard a Case so preiudiciall to the Authority of the Monarch of the Church the Pope of Rome and yet would not seuerely rebuke the Accusers as scandalous and Schismaticall fellowes nor reiect the Case it selfe with indignation and detestation as that which they could not take vpon them to decide without the danger of their soules against the Ordinance of Christ in the Bishop of Rome But much more for determining contrarily as they did saying LET ANCIENT CVSTOMES HOLD whereas they should rather haue expresly acknowledged in the Bishop of Rome the Ordinance of Christ as the life and soule of euery Custome which comprehendeth any matter of Faith necessary to Saluation And that this Answer is also shamelesse is prooued by the Sun-shine light of storie For that those words Because also the Bishop of Rome hath the same Custome are words of Comparison betwixt the Churches of Alexandria and Rome in the point of maintaining their ancient Priuileges Which not onely the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because also do plainly prooue As when one shall say I will giue this man a Crowne because also I gaue a Crowne to his fellow but furthermore the three Editions now set downe in the body of your Councels by your Binius wherein the words are Because the Church of Rome hath the like Custome without any word of Permission Yet were all this but a kind of Modesty if you did not know that the Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon vpon the same ground namely that it was but matter of Custome and no Diuine Ordinance did against the will of the Bishop of Rome aduance the Prerogatiue of the Bishop of Constantinople If you did not know that three of your Popes of Rome for the giuing of an high point of Dominion euen the Prerogatiue of Appeales to Rome from other Prouinces alleaged though forgedly and fraudulently the authority of the Councell of Nice And if you did not further know it Confessed by a Cardinall of farre more ancient note and greater ingenuity than his fellowes that the direct Sence of the Nicene Canon is that As the Bishop of Rome had power and authority ouer all his Bishops so the Bishop of Alexandria according to Custome should haue thorow-out Lybia c. The same Cardinall proceeds in shewing how much Rome hath since encroached beyond her ancient limits Wee see saith he how much the Bishop of Rome by vse and custome of Subiectionall Obedience hath at this day got beyond the ancient Constitutions But how shall we expect good conscience from your Bellarmine in acknowledging the true iudgement of the Councell of Nice who when it is obiected against the latter Romane Councels to prooue them bastardly and illegitimate that it is required as a necessary Condition in a Councell in all Diuine Constitutions to stand vpon Diuine grounds the holy Scriptures onely answereth that This is no equall condition And notwithstanding that the thrice-renoumed Emperour Constantine the GREAT required in this Synod of Nice that Because the bookes of the Apostles do plainly instruct vs in Diuine matters therefore we ought to make our Determinations vpon questions from words which are so diuinely inspired yet answereth the same Bellarmine thus Constantine saith he was a great Emperour indeed but yet no great Doctour of the Church who was yet vnbaptized and therefore vnderstood not the mysteries of Religion Thus doth this your Cardinall twit and taunt the iudgement of that godly Emperour witnessed by Theodoret where expressing his testimonie and citing the place yet as the Steward in the Gospell vniustly concealeth from his Reader that which followeth in Theodoret namely that The greater part of that Councell of Nice obeyed the voice of Constantine and Concluded matters accordingly So little regard haue the now Romanists to the authority of the Councell of Nice which hath bene euer since worthily honourable in the memorie of all true worshippers of Christ Iesus By which notwithstanding we see two Articles of Popery quite ouerthrowne One of the pretended Papall Dominion ouer the whole Church the oâ—her the Equalling of Traditions with Scriptures for the deciding of matters of Faith CHALLENGE THe Canons of those CCCXVIII Fathers of that Generall Councell of Nice who haue thus infirmed your Article of Vniuersall Subiection to the Romane Church found beleefe with all the syncere Professors throughout the Christian world Whether therefore you will haue your Article to damne so many Catholike Bishops the admirable lights of Gods Church or rather to esteeme your Romane Article Damnable and blasphemous in it selfe iudge you II. That the beleefe of the Romish Article The Catholike Romane Church c. Damneth the CL. Catholike Bishops in the second Generall Councell being the first at Constantinople Anno 380. SECT 3. WEE present before you the CL. Catholike Bishops in the second Generall Councell of Constantinople whereunto it may seeme that both you and we do willingly referre our selues First then we shall heare Your Obiections The second Generall Councell saith your Cardinall in their Epistle to Pope Damasus say that they
were gathered by the Mandate of Pope Damasus and confesse also that the Church of Rome is the Head and they the members So he And this is all that is obiected but vpon a mistake the Cardinall himselfe confessing that It was not the Epistle of the Councell but of certaine Bishops that had bene at the Councell And therefore for the first part of the Popes Mandate he referreth himselfe to another Councell against the Vniuersall Current of Histories which with generall consent set downe the Mandates of Emperours as the supreme and first compulsarie Causes for the collecting of Councels But that which he looseth in mis-citing his true Authors he studieth to gaine by mis-interpreting of the testimonie of Theodoret. For whereas Theodoret saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is letters the yeare past He against all Lexâ—cons readeth The Mandate of letters Is not this fine art trow yee For take your owne Translation of 2. Cor. 8. ver 10. whether the vulgar Latine or the English This is profitable for you who haue begun not onely to do but also to be willing Gr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vulg. Ab anno superiori Rhemists English from the yeare past If any should translate the yeare past into Mandate might it not be suspected that the mans wits were now in the waine as being ignorant of the common Prouerb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Last yeare the better to signifie the more and more worthie Is there here any sound of a Commander As for the Similitude of the Head and Members it hath no more colour of Superiority than that which we haue alwaies acknowledged namely of Order that is of Priority of Place of Voice and the like but neuer of Dominion That which the Inscription of the Epistle doth coÌ„fute which was not to Damasus alone but ioyntly to others thus Most honourable and Reuerend Brethren and Colleagues This is the Inscription and the Epistle it selfe is of the same thred We declare say they our selues to be your proper members but how that your raigning we may raigne with you Members therefore of Colleagueship as Cor-regnants We haue heard your Pretence be you as ready to heare our contrary proofe Our Opposition The said Generall Councell of Constantinople in the second Canon decreeth thus The Bishop of the Citie of Constantinople ought to haue the honour of Primacie next after the Bishop of Rome because it is new Rome Yeelding to Rome her birth-right of Primacie which whatsoeuer it was they iudge to haue bene established not by any Diuine Ordinance but by occasion of the Imperiall Seate which was at first the Citie of Rome as your Binius acknowledgeth to be collected from that ground Who therefore cannot digest this Canon but why This Canon saith he out of Baronius was not receiued by the Church of Rome Truly it were more then maruaile that the Church of Rome should admit any Canon that may any way derogate from her presumption Albeit your owne Cardinall Cusanus hath confessed her former Encroachments But to proceed punctually Which of the Fathers for the space of 60. yeares after opposed against this Canon what one Bishop before Pope Leo thought it not most equall Albeit there were present in that Councell Cyril Bishop of Hierusalem Timothy Bishop of Alexandria and Miletus Bishop of Antioch Bishops of three seuerall Patriarchall Seas who consented vnto it notwithstanding that they themselues receiued some preiudice by that Decree This Canon you know is of great force to beate downe your whole bul-warke which is your Article of Romane-Catholike and Vniuersall Dominion ouer the whole Church and therefore we must expect some Obiection against it One we find and that a foule one too that namely This is a surreptitious Canon without the generall consent of that Synod Which we shall then confesse as soone as you shall perswade any reasonable man to thinke thâ—t to be a Supposititious and forged Canon purposely against the dignitie of the Church of Rome which the Bishops of Rome themselues when they oppugned it as being vnequall yet neuer excepted against as Surreptitious and false Not Leo not Gelasius not Gregorie although that they tooke the Sanction of that Canon indignely Or that the Legates of the Pope in the Councell of Chalcedon stifly opposing against the subiect matter of this Canon would not haue branded it with the Note of Forgerie when they made expresse mention of it if they had so conceiued thereof Or which is beyond all that can be opposed that the Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon in their letters to Leo Pope of Rome would be there knowne vnto him that they with mutuall consent Confirmed the Rule and Canon of the CL. Bishops in the Councell of Constantinople notwithstanding standing that his Bishops and Legates Paschasinus and Lucentius did dissent therefrom if they had not iudged the said Canon to be absolutely true So false is your obiection of Falshood against that Canon of the Councell of Constantinople CHALLENGE A Canon then you see of a Generall Councell albeit neuer receiued as you say by the Church of Rome because preiudiciall thereunto which is an euident argument of their No Subiection to the Bishop of Rome Execrable therefore is your Article of The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no Saluation whereby C L. Bishops accounted Catholikes throughout the Christian world must be necessarily excluded from Saluation That the beleefe of the Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no Saluation damneth the C C. Bishops in the third Generall Councell at Ephesus Anno 434. SECT 4. IN this Generall Councell CC. Bishops at Ephesus some things there are which you obiect and some things which you must haue the patience to haue obiected vnto you Your Obiections You would proue out of this Councell an acknowledgement of The supreme authoritie of the Popes aboue them but how first They confessed that they deposed Nestorius by the command of Pope Celestine False there is not the word Command vsed by the Councell If that word had beene vsed you should haue proued it out of the Popes owne Letters themselues which we should not haue needed to put you to if any such word could appeare in the Councell obiected No you well know that to Command was not the stile of Popes in primitiue and ancient times Saint Gregory Bishop of Rome about an C L. yeares after Celestine did vtterly abhorre it I COMMAND saith he away with the word COMMAND I haue not commanded Yet thus you labour to frame and fashion your old Popes after the models of your new to the end your new ones may not seeme to haue degenerated from the old Yet something there is in the words of the Councell namely that They were mooued and compelled by his letters meaning by the perswasions of that Orthodoxe Bishop and that but onely tùm tùm in part for
so they say Both by the Canons and also by your letters and both these had relation to another part of Reasons and inducements premised in that place And is not this then slie Sophistrie to conclude an whole from a Part Yea but the same Councell say that They durst not iudge Iohn the Bishop of Antioch and therefore reserued him to the iudgement of Pope Celestine which plainly sheweth the supreme authority of the Pope So you What signifie these words that They durst not iudge Iohn of Antioch why they do plainly relate in the same Epistle that they had already deposed him We haue say they deuested him of all his Sacerdotall power So after this referring him to the iudgement of the Pope That for so they say they might with lenity ouercome his rashnesse This was not to preferre him to another Censure for there had bene no lenity in that but to the aduise of Celestine that by his perswasion he might be first reclaimed from error and afterwards restored to his place For a further discouerie of the Ecclipse of the Conscience in your Cardinall let vs consider what Supreme authority he would insinuate to wit that if the Councell could not depose Nestorius Patriarch of Constantinople without the Popes Mandate nor durst depose Iohn Patriarch of Antioch but referred the Cause to the iudgement of the Pope the issue hereof must be directly this viz. That the Pope is absolutely aboue a Generall Councell as the Cardinall defendeth else-where This were a Supreme authority indeed but in truth it is a falshood and long since condemned as you know by your owne Councels of Constance and Basil for a flat Heresie Which your Doctors of Paris haue alwaies disclaimed as contrary to antiquity and which no Councell since the beginning of the Christian Faith did as yet expresly decree as your Doctor Stapleton a great Champion in this Cause doth not denie and therefore betaketh himselfe to the Late tacit and silent consent of the Doctors of your Church Was not this then more than boldnesse in your Cardinall to inferre this Supreme authority out of this Councell Our Opposition First this Councell called Celestine Bishop of Rome Fellow-Minister and did as you haue heard Excommunicate and depose the Patriarch of Antioch before they made any Relation thereof vnto Celestine the Bishop of Rome Ergo It did not acknowledge the now pretended Supreme authority and priuilege of the Pope which is to haue Cases of that nature soly Reserued to his owne Determination Secondly looke into the Councell it selfe and into the Epistle alleaged wherein concerning the points which Pope Celestine had constituted Wee say they haue iudged them to stand firme wherefore we agree with you in one sentence and doe hold them meaning Pelagius and others to be deposed Ergo Consent to the Confirmation of the Popes sentence doth gaine-say his Supreme authority But principally we oppose the Acts of this Councell of Ephesus in decreeing that Neither the Patriarch of Antioch who made claime Nor any other should assume authority of ordaining any Bishop within the Isle of Cyprus The Arguments and Reasons whereupon the Synod made this Decree shew that as well the Authority of the Bishop of Rome as of any other is thereby excluded And they adde more peremptorily It is to be obserued say they in all Prouinces and Dioces that no Bishop drawe vnder his subiection any Prouince which was not his from the beginning lest that vnder pretence of Priest-hood he bring into the Church Arrogance and Pride The very selfe-same disease which Saint Basil and Saint Augustine with the whole Councell of Africke haue both expressely noted and openly detested in the Romane Popes euen of their times CHALLENGE NOne of you euer doubted that this Councell of Ephesus was Generall and the Bishops therein truely Catholikes wherein notwithstanding you see diuers Arguments although not of disunion yet of no Subiection And therefore You except you will condemne CC. holy Bishops must needs iudge your Romane Article to be damnably false IV. That the Beleefe of the Romane Article of The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no saluation Damneth aboue CCCC Catholike Bishops in the fourth Generall Councell of Chalcedon SECT 5. FOure hundred and thirty Bishops were assembled in this Councell of Chalcedon with whom we are to aduize concerning your Article of Necessary Subiection to the Bishop of Rome and his Church But first wee are ready to answer and then to replie Your Obiection THis Councell saith your Cardinall said that The custodie of the Vine that is of the Catholike Church is committed to the Pope by God It saith so and so doth that godly primitiue Pope Eleutherius say to the Bishops in France as you know that The whole Catholike Church is committed by Christ vnto them Were They therefore thinke you all Popes What say you The meaning of Eleutherius is say you that for as much as Heretikes doe oppugne the Catholike and Vniuersall Church it belongeth vnto euery Bishop to haue an vniuersal care to defend support it And this is a true Answer indeed else must you grant that Saint Paul was a Pope ouer Saint Peter because he tooke vpon him The cure or care of the whole Church and that Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria was Pope aboue the then Bishop of Rome because Gregory Nazianzene saith of him that He hauing the presidence of the Church of Alexandria may be said thereby to haue the Gouernement of the whole Christian World By these Euidences we are compelled to aske with what Conscience you could make such Obiections in good earnest to busie your Aduersaries and seduce your Disciples with all whereunto you-your-selues could so easily make answer But thus Catchitiue haue you beene at the shadow let vs trie whether we can apprehend the substantiall Truth Our Opposition For what is that which you will say belongeth really to the Supreame and Papall Dominion of the Bishop of Rome Because say you with common consent the Pope hath supreme authority in gouerning the Church therefore can hee change the Canons and decrees of General Councels So you But what then say you to the equalling of other Patriarchall Seates with Rome The Fathers of the Councel of Chalcedon say you did giue Priuileges to the Patriarkeship of Constantinople equall to the Church of Rome but Pope Leo did oppose against the Decree of the Councell and disclaimed it You say true but yet let vs come to the ground of beleefe as well of the Fathers of that Councell in opposing your pretended Papall dignity and authority as of your Doctors in contradicting them Secondly therefore The Pope of Rome say you hath his Monarchie and sole gouernment of the Church from diuine right And The Romane Church was founded by God What Prouince then in the world is free from her Iurisdiction So
dissenting from the Pope and his Apostolicall See in this whole Cause and not thus onely but in condemning him also It must therefore follow that these 165 Bishops of this Generall Councell and the Catholike Church in them not onely in not beleeuing this Article but also in withstanding it were damned or elâ—e that your Article and the defenders thereof are iustly damnable Consider we pray you in what a snare of Heresie and Blasphemie you are intangled seeing that you cannot but see that your owne Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no saluation is Contradicted by the truely Catholike Church it selfe in her purer and more primitiue age of the first 500 yeeres by those fiue Generall Councels the first fower whereof Saint Gregory himselfe professed To imbrace as the bookeâ— of the Gospell And the Fift saith he I also reuerence Idle therefore and vaine is your Obiection out of that Synod from one word Obedience which they professed to the Catholike See by not discerning betweene a Logicall and a Morall Obedience For they promised Obedience to that See in all her Orthodoxe and reasonable Perswasions but not to her peremptory Commands and Conclusions For you may Obey Saint Augustine by subscribing to his iudgement without submitting to his Iurisdiction If you know not this then may you learne ìt namely that a Superior may be said to obey his Inferior when he yeeldeth to his reasonable perswasion As a sicke man to the Physitian VI. That the beleefe of the Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no saluation doth damne all the Fathers of the Sixt Seuenth and Eighth Councels in your owne estimation Generall SECT 7. THese three Councels which you call Generall and which doe containe aboue the compasse of 300 yeeres more giue vs iust Cause to iudge this your Romane Article to bee Imposterous Wee instance first in the first Two The Sixt and Seuenth Councels in the Cause of Pope Honorìus condemning him for an Heretike THe Sixt vniuersall Synod saith your Cardinall was in the yeere 681 or according to others 685 Celebrated at Constantinople by 289 Bishops The Seuenth Vniuersall Councell was held at Nice in the yeere 781 wherin were 350 Bishops So he Well in both these was Honorius Pope of Rome condemned for an Heretike How will you free your Pope from being a Monothelite Namely The Fathers of both these Generall Councels say you were deceiued as they might easily be in a matter of Fact to iudge whether Honorius were a Monothelite not in a matter of Faith So your Cardinall Is it a matter of Fact then and were these Fathers deceiued therein Who can say so Why Cardinall Bellarmine doth affirme it Good God! The rare modestie of this man who wil haue vs to beleeue that one Bellarmine liuing now a 1000 yeeres since that matter was in agitation should iudge better by his Coniectures of the Circumstances of a matter of Fact than could 639 Bishops for so many there were in all in their publike Synods iam flagrante crimine when-as yet the Cause was fresh and greene their Witnesses liuing and all Circumstances which are the perfect Intelligencers visibly before their eyes This Condemnation of Pope Honorius by two Councels doth vndermine the Fox-hole wherein your great Clerkes commonly lurke by telling vs that Popes may be Heretikes as Priuate Doctors but not in their publike Persons as Popes An Answer most friuolous 1. Because those Bishops condemning Him in their publike Councell did iudge him according to his publike person 2. Because they Condemned Honorius Bishop of Rome in the same tenor wherein vpon the same Heresie they condemned Sergius Bishop of Constantinople Anathematizing them both for their Heresie of Monothelitisme It would much better haue become your Cardinall to haue Confessed in the spirit of Ingenuitie as your Canus hath done that Howsoeuer other Popes may be excused from Heresie yet I see not saith he how Honorius can be vindicated and freed from this guilt whom Psellus Tharasius Epiphanius Beda whom Adrian and Agatho both Popes whom the seauenth he might haue also alleaged the VI. Generall Councell hath branded with the Note of Haeresie So he CHALLENGE CALL this as you do but a matter of Fact if you will which caused those Councels to condemne Pope Honorius for an Heretike after his death yet doth this plainely and ineuitably tell vs that they were of this beliefe that the Pope of Rome may be an Heretike and that They who would excommunicate that Bishop of Rome being dead would not haue Communicated with him if persisting an Heretike he had beene aliue no more than they would with his fellow Heretike Sergius Bishop of Constantinople And if they would denie vnion with him certainly they would not haue acknowledged spirituall Subiection vnto him Which flatly gain-sayeth your Article of beleeuing The Catholike Romane Church and the Bishop thereof without subiection vnto whom there is no saluation Therefore all those 639. Bishops besides two Popes and all their Beleeuers must necessarily be damned or else your Romish Article as a most execrable Paradox must vtterly be abandoned VII That the Beliefe of the Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no Saluation damneth the Eighth Councell which you call Generall consisting of 383. Bishops in the yeare 870. SECT 8. WHat was done in this fourth Synod of Constantinople you may vnderstand from your owne Men. These Bishops saith your Binius condemned a Custome of the Sabboth-fast in Lent then vsed in the Church of Rome and thereupon made they a Canon inhibiting the Church of Rome from keeping that Custome any longer Their words are these Wee will that this Canon be constantly obserued in the Church of Rome Would the Church of Rome swallow and disgest such an hot morsell at this day wee trowe not for This Canon saith your Surius is not receiued because it reprehendeth the Church of Rome the MOTHER-CHVRCH of all other Churches So he CHALLENGE YEa rather it condemneth your presumption in calling the Church of Rome the CATHOLIKE MOTHER-CHVRCH aboue all others As though a Generall Councell were not rather to be called the Catholike Church than Shee So then those 383. Bishops prescribe a Canon and impose it vpon her and thereby sufficiently disclaime all Subiection vnto her as Any albeit but halfe-witted may easily discerne Where againe wee are constrained to iudge your fore-said Article Execrable rather than to giue those 383. Bishops ouer for damned soules Our generall CHALLENGES concerning the formerly cited Eight Generall Councels Remember by this your Article The Catholike Romane Church without subiection whereunto there is no Saluation and without the beliefe whereof none can be saued are damned not onely all those that shall oppose themselues against the Church of Rome but also all they that do not beleeue the same as an Article
and yet notwithstanding were reputed still in the Church of Christ Catholike Bishops and so farre in the Communion of the Church Catholike that many godly Bishops in the Latine Church would not seuer themselues from their Communion Yet Bishop Christopherson that you might beleeue the Excommunication of Pope Victor to be of an vniuersall power extent translateth the Greeke sentence of Eusebius thus Irenaeus exhorted Pope Victor not vtterly to cut off so many Churches from the body of the vniuersall Church of Christ. Which Interpretation if true might seeme to make the Church of Rome the Catholike Church But as it became a sworne Scribe for the Pope he peruerts the Text which is to be rendred thus Irenaeus exhorted Pope Victor not to cut off whole Churches of God without any mention of the Bodie of the Church Ergò it cannot import an Excommunication from the Vniuersall bodie of the Church but onely from the Church of Rome as from a particular member of that vniuersall as hath beene proued What then may be thought of your new Article but as of a barbarous and Antichristian Paradox which separateth from all hope of life all the Christians of the Easterly parts of Asia who In multitude exceeded the Christians of the Greeke and Latine Churches But God be thanked that by the doctrine of those Primitiue times the Excommunication of the Romane Church made no mortall wound for the Asian Bishops esteemed no better of it than of a Brutum Fulmen And if you will suffer vs to bee somewhat more equally minded to Victor Bishop of Rome than you your selues can be we may perswade our selues that hee did not by this his Excommunication intend to shew or arrogate any Iurisdiction ouer the Greeke Churches as Pastor ouer his flocke but onely to denie participation of brotherly Communion with them as they might if they had beene so forward haue dealt with him this being an Act of Diuision Inter Pares which likewise doth conclude the no-absolute Necessitie of Vnion with the Romane Church Our Second Instance is in the Churches of Africke Numidia and Mauritania in the dayes of Saint Cyprian by 87. Bishops in the Councell of Carthage Anno 256. Who notwithstanding the Excommunication of the Pope of Rome were euer held by the Catholike Church the Essentiall members thereof and in state of Saluation SECT 3. WHen the Case of Basilides and Martial was on foot concerning Appeales from the Church of Carthage to Rome and the Quaestion of Rebaptization of those persons that had renounced their Haeresies was in agitation betweene Stephen Bishop of Rome and Cyprian Bishop of Carthage The Church of Africke and others of that Primitiue age gaue so infallible testimonies of denying the Popes Catholike Iurisdiction ouer other Churches and of despising his now pretended Catholike power of Excommunication as may sâ—ffice for the full determination of this whole Cause in confutation of your new Article to wit The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no saluation This Case therefore being so pertinent and pregnant wee will proceede therein methodically I. The full Opposition of Saint Cyprian and other Bishops against Stephen then Bishop of Rome SECT 4. SVch was the Opposition of Saint Cyprian and others against Stephen Bishop of Rome that euen by your owne Confessions Cyprian gathered a Councell of 87. Bishops out of Africke Numidia and Mauritania which concluded contrary to the Pope and his Councell celebrated in Italy Secondly such that Cyprian iudged the same Pope to erre proudly ignorantly and blindly Thirdly such that he impugned the Popes pretended power of Appeales to Rome accompting the Appellants to wit Basilides and Martial Renegados and desperate Delinquents challenging his right of Iudicature for the proceeding against those notoriously wicked Companions who therefore ought to be sent backe againe saith he to be censured by their owne Bishop Fourthly such that this Councell of Carthage did deny to any whomsoeuer the Title of Bishop of Bishops Fiftly such that Cyprian would not acknowledge the name of POPE per Antonomasiam that is By way of Excellency to be proper to the Bishop of Rome as you teach Insomuch that at the instant when as Cyprian was to lay downe his life to Martyrdome for the profession of the holy Faith Being demanded of the Pro-Consull who then had charge to put him to death saying Art thou Hee who shewed thy selfe POPE among the Christians He answered I am Which may be enough to dash that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you appropriate vnto the Bishop of Rome by the name of Pope Great therefore was the Opposition of Cyprian against Stephen namely Bishop against Bishop Chaire against Chaire Councell against Councell as flat Diameter as possibly might be II. That Saint Cyprian and Others were Excommunicated by Pope Stephen SECT 5. IT were friuolous to stand vpon presumptions when we haue your owne Confessions You grant that at the same time when Saint Cyprian did contend with Stephen Bishop of Rome the same Pope Excommunicated the Easterne Bishops of Cappadocia Cilicia and Galatia for the same cause of Rebaptization Secondly that th' aforesaid Pope Stephen did also as much as lay in him cast off Cyprian insomuch that Hee would not admit vnto his speach them that were sent from Cyprian vnto him Nor this onely but also commanded them that were of his owne profession not to haue any peace or communion with them nor yet to allow them so much as house-roome or lodging Yea and Pope Stephen signified by writing that no Communion was to be held with them that did rebaptize Not to insist vpon the Popes lauish and reproachfull speach in calling Cyprian a Counterfait Christ and a deceitfull worker All which are prooued out of the Epistle of Firmilianus Bishop of Caesara in Cappadocea which almost in euery point doth manifest the Excommunication of Saint Cyprian CHALLENGE FOR what better proofe of the Excommunication of Saint Cyprian and other Bishops of his Fraternity than denying by writing All communion with them that were of the same Opinion with Cyprian and after in Act Forbidding all communion First by speach and conference Secondly by conuersation and company Thirdly by eating or hospitality Each one of these being according to your owne positiue Conclusions a proper Character of that which is called The Greater Excommunication and consequently in your sense a Separation from the Body of the Romane Church III. That Saint Cyprian held not the Excommunication of the Pope to be anâ— valid Separation from the Catholike Church or hazardous to the state of Saluation SECT 6. NOne euer was more Christianly affected to the Catholike Church than was Saint Cyprian nor more firmly belieued that the Vnion with the Catholike Church is necessary to saluation whose profession was this Although a man saith he were slaine for the name of Christ yet if he be without the Vnion of the Church he cannot
be crowned with Martyrdome after his death Againe this was that Father of Saint Cyprian who first vttered that excellent saying No man hath God for his Father who hath not the Church for his Mother a speech twice vsed and that worthily by the same Father Saint Cyprian Hardly can a Protestant change three words with any of you in Conference concerning the Church of Rome but you are ready to vsurpe vrge and inculcate this Sentence of Saint Cyprian as a full Conuiction in it selfe thereby to proue and conclude all Protestants to be therefore without God because they acknowledge not the Church of Rome to be according to your now Romane Article The Catholike Mother Church Which Obiection hath bene already prooued from the generall voyce of Antiquity and many Examples from thence to be as farre from Truth as Antiquity is from Noueltie and plaine dealing from meere Sophistication and iugling But now are we to try what is the sense of this Sentence from Saint Cyprian himselfe the first Author thereof The question then will be whether by MOTHER Church without which none can haue God for a Father he meant the Church of Rome or not or rather whether he spake it not then in Opposition to the Church of Rome The due examination hereof may be vnto vs an absolute decision of this whole Cause concerning the pretended Motherhood of the Church of Rome Saint Cyprian then at the second time when hee made vse of this speech He hath not God for his Father that hath not the Church for his Mother wrote to Pompeius in reprehension of Pope Stephen for endeuouring as he saith to defend the cause of Heretikes wherein the same Stephen threatened Excommunication against Cyprian which occasioned him to say What meaneth our Stephen to breake out into so vengible an obstinacy As for the Excommunication threatened by Pope Stephen against Cyprian and Others that were of a contrary opinion he doth contemne it yea and condemne it too when Alluding as your selues confesse vnto the same Decree of the Pope he said None of all vs Bishops in Africke doth compell any of his fellowes that are contrary minded with any tyrannicall terror Often was the Opposition of Saint Cyprian against Stephen obiected against Sainst Augustine by the Donatists for patronage of their owne opinion who taught that the Catholike Church as it is Visible consisteth onely of perfit and sanctified men Saint Augustine so argueth with the those Donatists as if Hee Cyprian and Pope Stephen had bene vnited together but this hee did in such manner that we may say with your Baronius speaking of the same contention betweene Cyprian and Stephen Hee vsed a kind of laudable euasion or escape being willing to conceale their iarres For indeed Saint Augustine elsewhere albeit enclinable enough to suppose that Cyprian did recant his error of Rebaptization before his death confesseth in direct termes that It is no where found that Cyprian did euer change his opinion For our better satisfaction herein we should aduise in this case rather with Firmilianus a Bishop liuing in the dayes of Saint Cyprian than with Saint Augustine who came some hundred and fifty yeares after This ancient Father Firmilianus being of the same iudgement with Saint Cyprian speaking of the aboue named Excommunication giuen out by Pope Stephen concludeth not Cyprian but Pope Stephen to be the Schismatike in this contention because The Pope hereby saith he cutteth himselfe off from the flocke of Christ. As for Saint Cyprian although he notwithstanding the Excommunication held for his part a Christian and brotherly affection to the Church of Rome yet did he still persist in his contrary opinion neuerthelesse so as holding it vnlawfull for either side to Excommunicate the other for this question I passe ouer your other Obiections as a vaine presumption and so it is proued to be CHALLENGE HEre againe we appeale to your owne consciences to iudge whether Saint Cyprian when he contended against Pope Stephen and in a Councell both renounced his Decree and contemned his Excommunication and at the same time held it impossible for any to haue God to his Father for Saluation who had not the Church to his Mother for Direction could possibly by Mother-Church vnderstand the Church of Rome by which all of his opinion were Excommunicated except you would make Cyprian so vtterly forlorne of grace as wilfully to damne himselfe by an obstinate Separation from the Church of Rome So infallible it is that the Church of Rome in those times was held to be onely a Member of the Catholike Church and not The Catholike Mother-Church it selfe IV. That Saint Cyprian hath bene euer since his death esteemed a blessed Saint and Martyr notwithstanding his continuall Opposition to the Pope of Rome SECT 7. ALthough it could be supposed that Cyprian did recant his opinion before his death yet would not this any way prop or support that your Romane Claime except it might further appeare that he sought the Absolution of the Church of Rome for his error Neither yet would this suffice vnlesse you could proue it an Absolution of Iurisdiction and not of Charity euen as contrarily the Excommunication was held by Firmilianus and Cyprian to be an Excommunication proceeding rather from Pride than good discretion Nor were this enough for if you will make Cyprian a Saint you are further to prooue that he acknowledged Subiection of his Church of Carthage to the Church or Pope of Rome in case of Appeales in which cause Saint Augustine did take part with Saint Cyprian against your Romane Church We conclude therefore from your Confessions that Cyprian was alwaies reckoned in the number of Catholikes as also that he is still instiled A most glorious Martyr yea and registred in your Romane Calendar by the Title of Cyprian Saint and Martyr notwithstanding his continuall Opposition against the Romane Church CHALLENGE THis blessed man of God Saint Cyprian who for his exceeding learning care diligence and power in preseruing the Faith of Christ and peace of his Church Did say you as witnesseth Saint Nazianzene gouerne not onely Africke but also the East yea and West Churches of Christendome himselfe who was so happy at his death as that he was crowned with the glorious Diadem of Martyrdome for his Testimony of our Lord Iesus who was so honourable in his memory as to be accompted throughout the Christian world an excellent Saint of God may be lawfully yea laudably produced for an excellent Patron against the titular tyrannie of Popedome Whose example in his Opposition against the Pope of Rome may be vnto vs as a sharpe axe to cut off by the very necke the now vsurped Fatherhood or Headship and Motherhood of the Pope and Church of Rome because if you shall remember the Premisses you may perceiue that 〈…〉 Opposition of Cyprian and other Churches of Christ the Bishop of Rome in
those dayes was not esteemed to be The Catholike or Vniuersall Pope not The Catholike Bishop of Bishops his Iurisdiction not to haue any Catholike or Vniuersall Right for Appeales his Iudgement not to be a Catholike Rule of Faith his Church not to be The Catholike Mother-Church his Excommunication not to be a Separation from the properly called Catholike Church and much lesse a Catholike and Vniuersall Separation from the state of life So damnable is your Article of The Catholike Roman Mother-Church without subiection whereunto as you say there is no Saluation whereby with one breath you damne not onely Cyprian that glorious Saint of Christ but also all other his Associates and Colleagues Bishops in Africa Numidia and Mauritania of whom some were Martyrs some Confessors all Professors of the true Faith of Christ against the persecuting Infidels of those times It would nothing now auaile you to obiect that Cyprian in his Contention against Pope Stephen was in an Error in the Question of Rebaptization because euery error is not eradicant to roote out or cut off a Member from the Bodie of the Church Catholike else what shall we think of Pope Stephen himselfe who was in an error in the other Question concerning the vsurpation of the Right of Appeales to Rome which not onely Cyprian in his Councell of Carthage but Augustine also in the Councell of Africke resolutely withstood But what need many words Cyprian say you was alwaies held a Catholike Wee adde that if this Obiection were of force it would much more fortifie the Cause of Protestants For if Cyprian being Excommunicated by the Pope for an error was notwithstanding still held for a Catholike as hath beene confessed and hath euer since bene Registred for a Saint then doubtlesse Protestants stand much more secure who are excommunicate for withstanding not onely the grosse Idolatry but also as many Heresies of that Church of Rome as she hath new Articles of Faith among which this to wit The Catholike Roman Church without Vnion whereunto there is no Saluation 〈◊〉 not be held the least being as you see so Imposterous Schismaticall and Execrable as euery Instance yet giuen doth manifestly conuince Our third Instance in the Churches of Africke in the dayes of Saint Augustine in two Councels fully preiudiciall to this now Article viz. The Romane Catholike Church without which there is no Saluation SECT 8. THE first Councell was that of Mileuis Anno 402. concluding against the pretended Prerogatiue of Appeales to Rome This Case is handled at large afterwards The summe of all is This Councell wherein Saint Augustine was present consisted of threescore Bishops which had beene esteemed alwaies Orthodoxe in the Catholike Church albeit that their conclusion of denying any Right of Appeales from Africke to the Church of Rome which Iurisdiction of Appeales is held to be a principall part of the Article viz. The Romane Catholike Church in the Church of Rome at this day Which one Article consisting of foure points of Necessitie first Necessity of Vnion with the Church of Rome secondly Necessity of Subiection vnto it thirdly Necessity of Beleefe of both the former fourthly Necessitie of Saluation in them All is now rent in pieces by that one Prohibition of that Councell which denying any Right of Appeales from Africke to Rome did thereby deny the pretended Catholike Subiection to the Romane Chaire Secondly decreeing Excommunication against those African Priests that should dare to Appeale to Rome thereby they deny an absolute Necessity of Vnion with Rome Thirdly this Excommunication being to be extended against them that should Thinke it necessary to Appeale to Rome they thereby deny Necessity of Beliefe of the Prerogatiue of Rome And lastly condemning this Beliefe among themselues they thereby deny it to be an Vniuersall Right necessary to be belieued of all Others All this is euidently prooued in the place alleaged The second Instance in the Churches of Africke in the daies of Saint Augustine was the African Councell by name against the Church of Rome in the Case of Appeales concerning which for methods sake we are to lay open first the Occasion of Opposition betweene the Churches of Africke and Rome secondly the Discussion thereof thirdly the Separation of the Church of Afrike from Rome fourthly the honorable estimation had of the African Bishops as of the Saints of God notwithstanding their not acknowledging of Subiection to the Romane Church I. The Occasion of the Opposition by Saint Augustine and the Africans against the Iurisdiction of the Church of Rome in the supreme Case of Appeales SECT 9. COnsult you with your owne Chronologers in the body of the Councels of old and you shall find that the Case standeth thus One Apiarius a leud Priest and as you know of a scandalous flagitious and abhominable life being Excommunicated by the Bishops of Africke fleeth to Rome and as it were taketh Sanctuary there by Appealing to Pope Boniface then Bishop of that Sea The Pope sought by his owne Authority to haue this infamous Priest restored againe auouching for the ground of his Authority the Canon of the Councell of Nice which as he pretended declared the power due to the Bishop of Rome to take hold of all Appeales made vnto the Pope from all other Christian Churches and Prouinces and to order matters according to his owne wisedome II. The Discussion of the Cause SECT 10. THE Bishops of Africke and among them Saint Augustine hauing read the Popes Claime of Appeale by virtue as was alleaged of a Canon of the Councell of Nice fell first to demurre with themselues suspecting that the Pope had suggested a false pretence and therefore sought first to satisfie themselues by sight of the Copies of the Councell of Nice before they would returne the Pope any full answer and after diligent search into all the ancient Copies which they could finde they yeelded this Answer to the Bishop of Rome We haue read say they manie Copies of the Canons of Nice both Greeke and Latine and yet finde we among them no such Canon for Appeales to Rome as you alleage In this case of doubt it was agreed on both sides that messengers should be sent vnto Cyrill Patriarch of Alexandria and vnto Atticus Patriarch of Constantinople to the end that vpon search of their Records they might bee certified of the Truth of this matter These two Patriarchs send them faithfull Transcripts which they themselues did auouch to be The most true and authenticall Copies wherein that Canon which Three Popes to wit Boniface Zozimus and Caelestinus successiuely had alleaged as their onely euidence for their right of Appeales could not be found nor any syllable therof Vpon this Answer of those graue Patriarchs these Africane Bishops in number 217 perceiuing the falshood of the Popes Allegation and finding that no such Canon appeared in those ancient Copies of the Councell of Nice which could aduantage that their pretence of Appeales to
Rome from Carthage but rather that there was a Canon to controll it they descended in the end to a flat and peremptory resolution Yet before wee set downe their Conclusion faine would we know how your Aduocates can quit and free your three Popes from forgery of a Canon of Nice They tell vs first that the Two Greeke Patriarchs were deceiued by giuing credit vnto their Greeke Copies which were Corrupted by Heretikes Next that the Popes themselues were deceiued in alleaging the Councell of Nice instead of the Councell of Sardis wherein saith your Cardinall The Canon was extant And lastly that the Bishops of Africke were deceiued in not acknowleging any Generall and Catholike Councell of Sardis by name S. Augustine affirming that He knew no Sardican Councell which was not Hereticall I. CHALLENGE WHich Answer of your Cardinalls importeth thus much to wit that we are to belieue that two hundred and seuenteene Bishops two Reuerend Patriarchs and three ancient Popes erred in their ignorance of a Generall Councell of Sardis in those daies wherein the matter was aduisedly and exactly discussed rather than these Two Cardinals which are but of yesterdaies birth in their coniecturall presumptions which is in effect as much as to tell vs that those Archers canot discerne so well of a true aime who are an hundred and fifty paces distant from the marke as they who are of a thousand and two hundred for such was the difference betwâ—ene the yeeres of those ancient Fathers and of these Cardinalls from the time of the Councell of Nice Which Answer wee haue else-where proued to be no solution but a fiction rather and meere Illusion Yet that we may deale liberally with you so as not onely to suppose but if you will to confesse also that there was a Generall Councell called Sardican as such your Testimonies delare and therefore to yeeld so farre to Baronius and Binius as to thinke that Augustine and the Africane Bishops could not be ignorant of the Sardican Councell which Saint Augustine himselfe calleth Plenarium vniuersae Ecclesiae Concilium An Vniuersall Councell Neuerthelesse heereupon must we likewise make bold to tell you that the Canons which you cite for your Appeales must bee iudged fictions because else the African Bishops with Saint Augustine could not haue answered your Pope that No Synod had ordained that any might come from his Holinesse to order these matters Nor could those Popes haue omitted the mention of such a Canon if any such had been when now it so much stood them vpon both for keeping themselues free from crime of forging a false Canon of the Councell of Nice and also for aduantaging their pretended Claime of Appeales by virtue of a Canon of Sardis Howsoeuer let vs proceed to that which followeth III. The decision and peremptory resolution of the Africans in Opposition against the Papall Claime of Appeales SECT II. FIrst 217 Bishops Saint Augustine being a principall one doe addresse their letters to the Pope of Rome shewing the false-hood of the Claime of Appeales made by your Three Popes Zozimus Boniface and Celestinus that it had no Patronage from the Councell of Nice but rather that there was in that Councell another Canon making much against such Appeales by determining that Popes being so farre remote from Africk could not be so competent Iudges in such Causes l Except say the Africans Some will thinke that God will inspire some One singular man with Iustice and denie that grace to innumerable persons assembled together in one Synod And therefore in plaine termes they desire the Pope not to admit heereafter of any such Appeale and in conclusion they call that Papall presumption a Smoakie secular arrogancy which say they we will not indure Furthermore the same Councell of Africk made Two Canons by the one as it were taking the Crowne of Pope-dome from the Head of your Bishop of Rome by the other piercing and wounding the Papall Primacie to the very heart For what fairer Crowne can you put vpon that Head than the Supreme title of Monarch ouer the whole Church or of Chiefe Priest and Bishop of Bishops wherewith you professedly adorne and in a manner adore your Romane Pope But these African Fathers vpon occasion of this contention with your Popes decreed That the Bishop of the Primary Sea should not bee called the Head of Bishops or chiefe Priest but onely the Bishop of the Primary Sea Secondly what greater Prerogatiue or higher token of Monarchie could your Popes couet than that which you challeng as A matter knowne to the Catholike Church which is that Appeales are to bee made to Rome from all the coasts of the world against which the same holy Bishops made this peremptory decree viz. If any Priest shall thinke that hee ought to Appeale beyond the Sea meaning to Rome let him not bee receiued any longer into the Communion of the Church of Africk So they All that your Cardinals can say to helpe your Popes at a dead lift is that the former pretended Canon of Nice insisted vpon was to be found in the Councell of Sardis which Antiquity hath denied And yet if that were granted your Monarchy standeth still vpon humane Authority For that Synod of Sardis sheweth plainely that their grant of Appeales to Iulius Pope of Rome was but vpon fauour and not vpon duty being not an old Custome but a new Constitution If it please you say they so much to honour the memory of Peter let vs write to Iulius Bishop of Rome c. And againe If you all bee pleased whence nothing can be gathered but that the same pretended Grant was no more than Ad placitum and might by the same Authority be as easily repealed We add that albeit you challenge a right that All causes of great moment among which these of Appeales is a principall one should bee Reserued to the Bishop of Rome you notwithstanding confesse that In the dayes of Saint Cyprian there was no Reseruation of any such Cases in vse II. CHALLENGE HEre haue we a faire and cleare glasse wherein any one that doth not wilfully close his eyes may see the full face of the vsurped and conunterfeit Monarchie of the Church of Rome For in your Romane profession your latter Popes proclaimed the Papall Monarchie to bee founded vpon Diuine Authority Whereas your ancient Romane Popes at the time of the African Councell when if euer they were to make good Appeales from all the parts of Christendome to Rome their principall part of Supreme power they themselues notwithstanding argued not from any diuine Law but onely from the humane decree of the Canon of Nice which the Fathers of that Councell discouered to be notoriously false For if the then Popes had thought that they could for this Papall pretension draw a sharpe two-edged sword ex iure diuino what needed they to haue fought with this wooden
dagger of humane Constitution which because of the false pretence thereof was shattered in pieces with the very drawing thereof IV. That the Bishops of Africk were in the state of Saluation notwihstanding either their not Vnion with the Pope of Rome by reason of his Excommunication or of their no Subiection vnto him by reason of their diuers Oppositions against him First of their not Vnion SECT 12. IN the Bodie of your Councels there is extant the Epistle of Pope Boniface the Second wherein about the yeere 606 the same Pope complaineth that Aurelius and his fellow Bishops of Africk with whom Saint Augustine did consent had by the instigation of Satan for so the Epistle speaketh beene separated from the Church of Rome vntill that now after an hundred yeeres space Eulalius Bishop of Carthage acknowledging his offence seeketh and desireth to be reconciled to the Church of Rome Thus farre the Epistle of your Pope Doe you beleeue this Epistle concerning the Excommunication of the Churches of Africk Then had you best stand aside a while for feare of knockes for behold there are at hand children of the Tribe of Dan angry fellowes that lay about them 1. Bellarmine I greatly suspect saith he that this Epistle is counterfeit 2. It is full of fraud saith Binius 3. Which saith Baronius some wicked Impostor hath fained because if this Epistle goe for currant then must we blot out of the Table or Booke of Monuments whole Troopes and Armies of Martyrs within the Church of Africk together suffering persecution within the space of an hundred yeeres vnder those bloodie Vandalls all which were crowned with Martyrdome and in like manner must we wipe out the memory of famous and godly professors of the same time So he But do you not beleeue that Epistle of Boniface to be true and that these holy Martyrs stood so long Excommunicate and separated from the Church of Rome Then hearken first to your Lindanus That this Epistle is not supposititious but true saith he this may be a sufficient argument that 500 yeeres since it was held and beleeued to be true as Antonius of Florence doth witnesse which if it should be counterfeit then can wee not haue confidence in the truth of any History of Antiquitie So he Your Costerus and Turrian both Iesuites and also Master Harding doe greatly magnifie your Popes for Discharging their office in excommunicating the Bishops of Africke and alleage this Epistle for their ground Your Iesuite Salmeron and Sanders doe confidently hold that All the African Bishops were seuered from the Church of Rome from the daies of Saint Cyprian vntill the time of the said Boniface the Author of this Epistle III. CHALLENGE WE doubt not but you stand halfe agast to heare the Contradictory spirits of your owne Authors as well Cardinals as Iesuites in a matter of so great moment The one side rather than the aforesaid Bishops of Africke should seeme to perish by their Separation from the Church of Rome will suffer all the Epistles of ancient Popes set downe in the body of the Councels to incurre as Counterfeits the suspition of forgery The other part rather than that one Epistle of the Pope which so much aduanceth the authrity of the Popedome in Excommunicating other Churches and illustrateth the necesity of Vnion with the Church of Rome vpon danger of damnation should want Authority care not although as your Baronius calleth them whole Troopes and armies of holy Martyrs and godly Confessors doe damnably perish But pacifie your selues my good friends the matteâ— vpon on due consideration will not proue worth your iarring For if as the one part will haue it these and all other Bishops of Africke for the space of an hundred yeeres were excommunicate by the Pope for their Opposition against the Church of Rome And that as the other side is constrained to confesse these foresaid Bishops and others made vp whole Troopes and Armies of Martyrs and holy Professors then this intestine Warre among your selues hath made this peace among vs to beleeue that the Popes Excommunication could inferre no mortall danger of Separation Take vnto you this This Syllogisme to ruminate vpon No true Christian Martyrs dye out of the state of Saluation Diuers true Christian Martyrs dye out of obedience to the Romane Church Ergo. Diuers dying out of obedience to the Romane Church dye not out of the state of Saluation Thus ought your grand Clerkes to haue framed their Argument for the stablishing of a true Conclusion and not by their coniecturall Opination to lay the forgerie vpon that Papall Epistle which in truth is to be laid vpon the Papall vsurpation it selfe Thus much concerning the no-necessitie of Vnion with the Church of Rome Secondly of their no Subiection SECT 13. WHatsoeuer that Vnion was which the Bishops of Africke and Professours among them had with rhe Church of Rome sure wee are that by denying Appeales to Rome they denied that Subiection without which your Church will acknowledge no Vnion and consequently no Saluation except you shall imagine that the Pope of Rome whom you intitle Monarch of the Church Catholike and Bishop of Bishops to whose absolute Iurisdiction you sweare Obedience as an Article of Faith without which none can be saued would accept it as a matter of Subiection for Protestants with Saint Augustine and those other African Bishops to deny that any ought to be called Bishop of Bishops and not to yeeld to his demands in point of Iurisdiction vpon any pretence of Diuine Law but to exact of him proofe by a Canon of an ancient Councell to gain-say his challenge of Right of Appeales to Rome from remote Nations calling this A smoakie secular pride to inhibit their Clergie from Appealing to the Romane See and to denounce Excommunication against them if they should transgresse in that Case IV. CHALLENGE WHerefore if any as some of your Church haue beene shall be so impudent as to adiudge these Bishops and Professors in the Churches of Africke which is a part of the world Thrice as great as Europe to haue beene without the state of saluation we can say no lesse than that which your Cardinall Baronius hath already put in our mouthes to wit Then must we blot out of the Table and bookes of Monuments whole Troopes and Armies of Martyrs within the Church of Africke for the space of an Hundred yeares wee might haue said many more suffering persecution for the faith of Christ and in like manner must wee wipe out the memorie of famous and godly Professors of the same time This Collection you must grant to be infallibly true which doth as iustly and irrefragably teach vs that your Papall-Article which seuereth all from Saluation that professe not Subiection to the Pope and Church of Rome is New False Scandalous and Schismaticall for which Article whosoeuer shall dye may be indeed called the Popes Martyr but no waies
the Martyr of Christ. You may not forget the Councell of Mileuis and the Threescore vniuersally reputed Orthodox Bishops therein denouncing Excommunication against all African Priests which should so much as hold it lawfull for them to Appeale to Rome They that were thus bold to Excommunicate them that should beleeue any such Roman Iurisdiction did plainly professe their contempt of the Papall Excommunication against themselues in such a case and consequently their no beliefe of necessary Subiection or Vnion to the Romane Chaire Except therefore all these so many so learned and Orthodox so godly and constant professors of Christ Iesus were damned this Article The Romane Catholike Church without subiection whereunto there is no Saluation is iustly to be condemned as most false and pernicious Our Fourth Instance is in the Ancient Church of Britaine SECT 14. MVch adoe haue you made about this your Article viz. The Catholike Roman Mother-Church as though the Church of Rome had this prerogatiue aboue and before all others which we haue proued to be a meere delusion by many Examples out of the Catholike and Apostolike Churches more ancient than Rome and among others we gaue Instance in this Isle of the Church of Britaine and now we proceed to the libertie of the Britane Churches That the Britaines and Scots although separated anciently from the Church of Rome were notwithstanding accounted truely Religious and holy men First of their Separation SECT 15. CArdinall Baronius commeth on roundly saying Both Britaines and Scots were schismatically and obstinately separated from the Church of Rome You say Schismatically not Haeretically for you cannot impute vnto them any errour in Faith who as One of your selues hath written Did not differ from the Church of Rome in those dayes but onely in matters of smaller importance For how could they be called Haeretikes for following the Iewish Rite in the obseruation of Easter without the Iewish opinion more than the Romanists themselues who together with vs obserue the Feast of Pentecost yet not Iewishly for as your Genebrard answereth Iudaei Pentecostam typicè nos mysticè verè celebramus How much more Orthodoxally the Britaine Church which followed the steps of Saint Iohns Disciples and kept the Pasche of the Easterne Churches whence it is as One saith that the name of our Easter is probably deriued rather vpon custome than vpon any conceit of Mysterie much lesse in an opinion of Iewish seruitude Yet as your Cardinall Baronius hath truely said they were separated from the Subiection of the Church of Rome the necessitie of which Subiection you haue since made an Article of faith The right Estimation that ought to be had of the aforesaid Britaine Scottish yea and Irish Churches notwithstanding their Separation from Rome SECT 16. BE it that these Scottish and Brittish Churches were Schismatikes as you call them because not subiect to the Romane Church will you therefore haue no better estimation of them than of soules separated from the Catholike and Vniuersall Church and consequently depriued of Saluation So charitable indeede is your Baronius in his censure against the Britanes But Galfridus giueth vs better hopes of them calling the Praelates then in Wales in the time of Augustine the Monke Most religious Bishops telling vs of Two thousand Monkes vnder the Abbot Dinoth who getting their liuing with their owne hands stood out with others and denied subiection to the Church of Rome of which number A thousand two hundred died vnder the bloudy hands of Pagans and were thereby saith he crowned with Martyrdome and made inhabitants of the kingdome of heauen As for the Scots your Baronius will plead for them because saith hee Although they did not celebrate the Feast of Easter at the time obserued by the Church of Rome yet did they not keepe that Feast at the time vsed by the Iewes and therefore were not separated from the communion of the Church of Rome With as good reason might hee haue iustified the Britaines who though they did celebrate Easter after the manner of the Iewes in respect of the day yet did they it not with the same minde and Faith of the Iewes as thinking it necessary But the Cardinall regardeth not what hee saith being herein contradicted by Beda who witnesseth that the Scots were in Opposition against Rome herein and also contradicting himselfe in that he hath already called the Scots Schismatikes As for Bede hee reckoneth among other Scots the Bishop Aidanus and although Condemning and detesting his Opposition against the Church of Rome in the point of Celebration of Easter yet notwithstanding he testifieth of him that Hee was a mercifull Bishop indued with the spirit of Prophecie and famous for his miracles done after his death So he You may read of the like Opposition of the Irish Bishops against the See of Rome about the same time in the very same Question of Easter in a late Treatise set out by a learned Seruant of God excellently verst and professed in the Mysteries of Antiquitie CHALLENGE IVstly therefore may we conclude that no Doctrin or Article can be more Scandalous than this to taxe so infinite soules truely professing the Faith of Christ nor more Schismaticall than to hold them Schismatikes who being vnited to the Church Catholike were onely not subiect to the Church of Rome nor more Damnable than to condemne them whom all Christians are to honour in their memories as the holy and blessed Saints of God CHAP. X. Our Fifth Argument is because that the Beliefe of this Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no Saluation damneth the soules of the most ancient and godly Emperours whom Christianitie hath alwaies honoured SECT 1. LET vs in the next place ioyne the First Generall Councels together with those ancient Christian Emperours by whose command the said Councels were gathered so shall we fight with Two weapons Spirituall and Temporall yet both Christian. These in respect of the Analogie of times are set downe by your selues For concerning the Approued Generall Councels you obserue that the First Generall Councell of Nice was vnder the Emperour Constantine The Second called the First Generall Constantinople Councell was vnder the Emperrur Theodosius the Elder The Third Generall Councell at Ephesus was vnder the Emperour Theodosius the Yonger The Fourth Generall Councell of Chalcedon was vnder the said Emperour Theodosius and Martianus The Fifth Generall Councell called the Second of Constantinople was vnder the Emperour Iustinian From these few wee shall easily vnderstand what value your Article can be of in all the rest after that we haue discussed these three points First what Subiection it is that you would hold due from Emperours to your Popes and Church Secondly whether the same godly Emperors haue held themselues bound to performe such dueties Thirdly whether notwithstanding their Opposition against your Tenure of Subiection they haue not deserued the estimation of Catholike Emperors
vnto them Much lesse can we be perswaded that the first Catholike Emperors albeit otherwise most godly and humble were knowne to performe it If it had bene so then would not your Massonius when he sought to shew the Antiquity of it send you to seeke it He knoweth not where much lesse would your great Antiquary Polydore abhor this as A new and naughty custome of Imperiousnesse deuised first by the Popes themselues But of all others your Bozius one so transported with zeale towards the Pope and this his honour that he held it an Iniustice in the Pope to refuse this kind of Submission from any Christian whomsoeuer will giue you the best and worst satisfaction touching the practise of ancient Emperours where speaking of this Ceremony of Kissing the Popes feet and answering this doubt why in those Ages all sorts of Bishops gaue greater honour vnto Kings and Emperours than they receiued from them Then saith he whilest that the affaires of Christianity were not as yet established Kings and Emperours swelling with Arrogancy and as yet breathing the Pride of Gentiles were not to be prouoked by Bishops by denying them outward honour Can you haue a better Answer for confirming the Ancient practise of Emperours in receiuing honour or a worse satisfaction than is this his sawcy and malepart boldnesse in blurring the estimation of those Emperours which were first as in time so in excellency of all virtues with the false imputation of Pride for receiuing Honour from all others as an homage due to their state and so prescribed by God as Saint Peter and Saint Paul do both witnesse The Estimation of those forenamed Christian Emperours SECT 4. MVch need not be spoken in the commendation of the former Emperours whom your owne Cardinall produceth both for Examples of Godlinesse and Catholike Beliefe and also as Monuments of Gods miraculous Protection vpon them for their Catholike profession sake euen Because they did heartily and sincerely cleaue vnto God The Emperours whom he nameth are Constantine the Great Theodosius the elder Honorius Theodosius the younger and Iustinian But the last with some detraction Prosperous was the Emperour Iustinian saith he so long as he was a Catholike Also Bozius The Emperour Iustinian saith he was of a sound iudgement in the Doctrine of Christianity for his first ten yeares and was so long prosperous but forthwith he handled two Popes viz. Syluerius and Vigilius so roughly that after he was afflicted with all kind of calamities and in the end fell into the Heresie of the Apthartodocites How long Iustinian was both a Catholike in his Faith and Prosperous in his affaires notwithstanding his withstanding your now Romish Subiection required of Popes of later times from their Emperours we shall willingly commit to the report of your owne Cardinall by whom you may vnderstand that the Emperour Iustinian began his Reigne in the yeare after Christ his Incarnation 528 whom vntill ten yeares after Bozius himselfe acknowledgeth to haue bene a glorious Catholike Within which compasse of yeares we reade concerning Iustinian of nothing but of Building of Churches conuersions of Idolaters Constitutions against Heretiks Edicts for the Faith and whereunto you haue taken such exceptions his booke of the Code and Paudects wherein because he medleth with Ecclesiasticall businesse he hath therefore bene censured by you for an Intruder Inuader and Vsurper of an Authoritie superiour vnto his owne Notwithstanding whatsoeuer Decrees and Constitutions Iustinian published concerning the Catholike Faith and Ecclesiasticall discipline if we may belieue your Baronius they were made by the aduise and counsell of Two Bishops and Patriarkes of Constantinople Now are we come to the Tenth yeare of his Empire being the 538. yeare of our Lord Christ wherein Iustinian sent Pope Syluerius into Exile Betweene which time and his exiling of Pope Vigilius are sixteene yeares in all which space is registred Iustinian his Confession of Faith commended by Pope Vigilius his Patronage of Antiquity and his Sanctions and Contestations against Heretikes Then cometh in the Banishment of Vigilius before the time of Iustinian his Heresie containing the space of fiue yeares in which Interim is reported vnto vs Iustinian his Peace with Vigilius his Reparation of the Temple of Sophia his Erecting a most goodly communion Table and his Discouery of treasons that were plotted against him And now at length Iustinian falleth into an Heresie which although it may be some exception to his person yet can it be none to our Cause who dispute from the Acts and Constitutions of Iustinian whilest hee was a Catholike Neuerthelesse we may not let passe the Testimonies of Such as giue vs better hope of him than to thinke that he died an Heretike who by your owne Confessions after this Emperours death esteemed otherwise of him as namely The Fathers of the sixt Generall Councell honouring his memory with the title of PIETIE So Pope Gregory accordingly calling him an Emperour of holy memory And Agatho the Pope accompting his name to be still Worthy of all religious reuerence famous vnto all for the truth so largely dispersed by his Edicts throughout the world We may conclude with your owne Spanish writer who vpon like proofes hath concluded thus It is now euident by that which hath bene said that they are not to be hearkened vnto who vniustly call Iustinian the Emperour an Heretike So he If any desire to see a iust and full Confutation of all the Obiections made against the Faith and piety of Iustinian he may throughly satisfie himselfe by reading of two worthy Authors who haue lately written both copiously and learnedly of this Subiect CHALLENGE SO many tokens of no Subiection from so famously-pious and Catholike Emperours in so high a degree of Vsurpation and Inuasion as you call it vpon the Iurisdiction of Bishops and Popes in Gathering of Councels in prescribing them Lawes in Commanding their Presence in arresting Exiling their persons and all this in times so ancient and in so admirably-glorious state of the Church of Christ when so many hundreds of most learned and godly Fathers and illustrious Lights of the Church Catholike chiefly flourished and preuailed in Generall Councels for the determining of the Doctrine of Faith All these we say do sufficiently exclaime against the falshood arrogancy and iniquity of your Romish claime by an Article by force whereof all the aforesaid pious and Catholike Emperours Constantine the Great Theodosius the Elder Theodosius the Younger and Iustinian with such others must needs forfait their saluation Is it credible if this your Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church and Pope without Subiection whereunto and beliefe of the same Subiection there is no Saluation had bene then of Faith that no one of all those Catholike Bishops would haue Catechized their godly Disciples and taught them not to Inuade and Intrude vpon the Pope his Iurisdiction Or that no
Catholike wherein no such Subiection was exacted by Popes from Emperours is a faire time we thinke and a strong Argument to Challenge your Church of Heresie in prescribing to Christians a new Article of Faith as necessary to Saluation by which you againe condemne the Faith of all the Members of the Catholike Church as well Popes as other Bishops and Christian Doctors and People who with vniuersall consent beleeued and taught Obedience to Ciuill Magistracie whereas you now proclaime Armes and open resistance And what can you now suggest for the modesty of your Cardinall who blushed not to say that Christians anciently wanted force to resist all vnbeleeuing tyrannous and turbulent Emperors Being so euidently confuted as well concerning the open force which latter Popes haue maintained as also concerning all secret violence whereof you haue giuen vs many Examples For as wee haue heard touching Emperours of midle age so haue we lately seene in our daies your secret practises of Mischiefe against Kings and Queenes without any open warre by armies or troupes of enemies If â—he practice of Assassines and Traytors by Dagges Daggers Poysons POVVDER-PLOTS or your Cardinalls Quacunque ratione that is by what meanes soeuer may make any proofe Who if they can doe it we haue little reason to doubt of their wills so long as the Rescript of Pope Vrban the Second is in force concerning them that shall kill Schismatikes Excommunicate For although he command Penance to be inioyned them because of the doubt that may be had of the sincerity of their Intentions whether they did but double and onely seeme to slay them vpon zeale for the Catholike Cause when-as peraduenture they did it to satisfie their selfe-malice which Penance it may bee shall amount to no more than comming to Rome in the daies of Iubile or else to visit such a next Shrine and to say a few Aue-Marie's and Pater-noster's in honour of such a Saint Yet notwithstanding doth he acquit the conscience of euery such zealous Killer saying If any shall chance to kill Schismatikes whomsoeuer that are Excommunicate vpon an ardent zeale to their Catholike Mother meaning the Church of Rome wee doe not iudge them to be Murtherers Goe you now and complaine that you are vniustly persecuted or abandoned by Protestants out of seuerall Kingdomes seeing that they are all yearely Excommunicate at Rome for Heretikes and Schismatiks by the Bull of MAVNDY-THVRSDAY and consequently made Obnoxious vnto the blinde deuotion of euery Romish bloudy Assassine who may bee perswaded that he shal mâ—rit of God by the slaying of those supposed Schismatikes Thus much of the No-Resistance of Ancient Popes against Temporall gouernment II. Of the Reuerence acknowledged by holy Popes vnto Kings and Emperours as to their Superiors SECT 5. SVbiection challenged by Popes from Emperors as their Inferiors is the maine Subiect your later Popes haue insisted vpon as a Materiall Article of Faith euen in the point of Outward Reuerence as necessarily due vnto them by acknowledgment of a personall Subordination and Subiection vnto them But when we looke beyond this midle Region of After-times vnto the vpper spheare of Antiquitie we finde as great a difference betweene your later Popes and those Ancients as there is betweene Vp and Downe Then and Now Deposing of Emperours and yeelding Reuerence vnto them We seeke no other witnesses than your Binius and Baronius against whom we are sure you will take no exception In whom we finde Pope Liberius the First professing Patience in suffering indignities from the Emperour and intreating for mercie Pope Simplicius the First promising Continuall Reuerence to Christian Princes and supplicating the Emperour for fauour by this Legat Pope Leo the First making by the Empresse a supplication to the Emperour To command a Synod to be celebrated in Italy and yet he could not obtaine it Pope Gelasius the First confessing that Bishops are to obey the Lawes of Emperours Pope Hormisda the First taking notice of the Emperors Command of gathering a Councell as a motion from God and further acknowledging that hee had receiued warning and that he ought to be present thereat Pope Vigilius the First banished by the Emperour and suing for peace and fauour Pope Pelagius the First confessing and saying Holy Scripture commandeth vs to be subiect vnto Kings Pope Gregorie the First auowing himselfe to the Emperour in these words As for mee I performe obedience vnto your Commands whereunto I am subiect Pope Martyn the First praying the Emperour to Vouchsafe to read his letters Pope Agatho the First talking of the bending of the knees of his minde vnto the Emperour by Supplicating his Clemencie for Others Finally Pope Adrian the First Deuoting himselfe to the Emperour by Letters as one in supplication Fallen downe prostrate at the soles of his feet So your First Popes When we earnestly sought for some though but shadow of excuse of these Popes for betraying their right of Dominion and Soueraigntie ouer Kings and Emperours if any had bin due vnto themselues as is now challenged by your Popes at length wee light vpon your Bozius who would gladly say something but alas yeeldeth not so much as we haue sought for a shadow of excuse and yet whatsoeuer it is hee after his manner cannot deliuer it without much insultation If any Obiect saith hee that excellent honours haue sometimes beene yeelded of Popes vnto Kings and Emperours hee speaketh absurdly because these might and ought then to be performed in those dayes when Heathens were ignorant of the dignitie of the Church and were then by honour and dishonour to be won by Bishops to the Faith So he III. CHALLENGE IS it then absurd to obiect the Reuerence performed by ancient Popes vnto Emperours of their times is not rather the Answer now made fraught with many absurdities First because we haue not insisted onely vpon Examples of Heathenish times but of the times of Christian Emperors also Secondly because the Times whereof wee haue alleaged examples were not such wherein the dignitie of the Church of Rome was so ecclipsed obscured that it could not appeare to Infidels but contained the Ages from the persecuting Emperours for the space of 420. yeares down-ward within which time the Church of Rome was in her perfectest luster concerning which time the same Bozius propoundeth such is his modestie the Reuerence giuen by Emperours vnto the Bishops of the Church of Rome to be a note of the true Church Thirdly humility of Popes and Subiecting themselues to the Emperours was then a Motiue and Argument of drawing soules to the Romane Church how then shall not their after-Pride bee a meanes to alienate the hearts of Christians from it Doth the same Tree bring forth Figges and Thistles But lastly and principally because your Bozius hath altogether forgotten his Catechisme and the Article whereunto hee and you are both sworne namely The Church of
Rome and Bishâ—p thereof without subiection whereunto according to your Faith there is no saluation nor can any be saued that doth not beleeue the truth of this Article If therefore those ancient Popes beliefe had bin of a Subiection due vnto them from Emperours in such Causes wherein they by their practise of Humilitie Reuerence and Obedience denyed all such Right then should their Fact haue betrayed their Faith a faithlesnesse which wee you will pardon vs dare not impute vnto those holy ancient Popes In all these Instances you may obserue that wee haue alleaged onely such Popes who were the FIRST of their owne name because we would not be found superfluous yet these First because they must be so much the more aduantagious to warrant our Conclusion to wit that either must your Article of beleeuing such a Necessitie of Subiection damne so many and in your owne iudgements excellently godly and learned Popes of Ancient times or else must their profession condemne your Article of Noueltie and you consequently of Haeresie in beleeuing a Doctrine so Imposterous Scandalous Schismaticall and so manifoldly Blasphemous against so holy Emperours and Popes CHAP. XII Our Seauenth Argument is because this Article The Catholike Romane Church without beliefe whereof there is no Saluation damneth the most learned Saints and Martyrs that are placed in the Romane Calendar for Saints or Martyrs of Christs Church First from Saint Polycarpus SECT 1. POlycarpus Bishop of Smyrna is Registred a Saint in your Roman Calendar and indeede he was an excellent Saint of whom Ecclesiasticall Historie you know giueth so notable a Testimonie as shewing that hee was the Disciple of Iohn the Euangelist who being now brought to Martyrdome by the Proconsull his persecutor and being moued to sweare Heathenishly By Caesar answered saying I AM A CHRISTIAN being then threatned to be cast into the fire said This fire now flameth and will shortly be extinguished but there is an eternall fire prepared for the torment of the wicked which thou artignorant of being burnt in the fire he yeelded a smell as fragrant as the sweetest spices whom when the Iewes and Gentiles heard professing himselfe a Christian they cried out in their wrath saying This is the Doctor of Asia this is the Father of Christians c. Lastly this Polycarpus is hee by whose authoritie Polycrates in the fury of Pope Victor then Excommunicating all the Bishops of Asia that would not celebrate Easter according to the Romane Custome defended and iustified himselfe saying When Polycarpus came to Rome in the dayes of Anicetus Bishop of that See and fell into dispute about the time of Obseruation of the Feast of Easter yet could not Anicetus perswade Polycarpus to alter his Custome which he had kept with Saint Iohn and with other Apostles with whom he himselfe had beene conuersant and in the end both Anicetus and Polycarpus notwithstanding their dispute about these Rites did mutually communicate with each other Thus farre the Ecclesiasticall Storie CHALLENGE BY this it appeareth that Polycarpus and Polycrates were both of the same spirit to maintaine their old Custome of Easter notwithstanding whatsoeuer Opposition of the Bishop of Rome because they both tooke their Resolution from the same ground to wit an Apostolicall Custome of their Church so that Pope Anicetus could no more preuaile with Polycarpus by perswasion for Alteration thereof than Pope Victor could ouercome Polycrates by his Excommunication The difference then is not betweene the Two Asian Bishops Polycarpus and Palycrates for both had the same Resolution the onely difference is betweene the Two Popes viz. Anicetus notwithstanding this Contrarietie will hold Communion with Polycarpus but Victor will needs breake out into Excommunication against Polycrates and was freely reproued for his presumption by godly Fathers of those times You will say this was but a Question of Rites and a matter of small importance be it so But the meaner the matter is they contended about the mainer and more forcible is our Consequence by good Law of Logicke as for example your whole claime is that the Pope is the Bishop of Bishops and Spirituall Monarch in the whole Christian world and ouer Kings and Monarchs You know that in them Impetrare est Imperare their Couetings and desires are Commands If therefore Saint Polycarpus would not yeeld his consent at the much instancing of Pope Anicetus in as wee may so call it a trifle in respect it plainly argueth that hee ought the same Pope no Canonicall Obedience by Law of Discipline much lesse by Doctrine of Faith if any of the now new Romane Articles had beene imposed vpon him seeing that for all the perswasion which the Pope could vse he kept his owne Conclusion still Nor is it altogether nothing which you may obserue that when both Iewes and Heathen cryed out vpon him calling him in despight The Father of Christians as though there were no Bishop in Christianitie as Monarch aboue him he did not vtter one word in behalfe of the Pope and his Supreme Dignity aboue All other Bishops which doubtlesse hee ought to haue acknowledged if that this kinde of Appellation were as you teach so proper to the Pope as to be an Argument of his Primacie aboue all other Christian Bishops II. Saint Cyprian was Exoommunicated by Stephen Bishop of Rome for not beleeuing the Necessitie of Vnion with him SECT 2. SAint Cyprian is also one of the Saints inrolled in your Romane Calendar vnder the title of Confessor and Martyr This witnesse you doe as vehemently Obiect for defence of your former Romane Article as wee doe to impugne and confute it Your Obiection answered It is an horrour to any man of iudgement to see the violence which is offered by your Doctors vnto Saint Cyprian by racking his sentences and inforcing him to say in defence of Papall Primacy that which he neuer ment nor yet dreamed of For that which hee spake of his owne onely Authority against Schismatikes who troubled his Iurisdiction That soundeth in the preoccupation of your iudgements as though it concerned onely the Pope of Rome and where hee maketh One Vniuersall Bishopricke consisting of All Bishops equally one with another without any respect to Rome more than to any other Church That also ringeth in your eares the onely Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome All which your futilily is exactly confuted by an Author who will surely satisfie any confcionable Reader But Saint Cyprian writing to Pope Cornelius doubtlesse a godly Bishop among other allurements hee inserteth this Perfidiousnesse saith he cannot haue accesse to Rome the chaire of Peter Ergo saith your Cardinall Cyprian affirmed that neither the Pope nor the Church of Rome could possibly erre No Father of the Primitiue times is more vrged by you for proofe of this Conclusion than Saint Cyprian no Epistle more insisted vpon than this now cited no words more inculcated than these which we haue alleaged and
for wee may iustly adde thus much no Father no Epistle no Sentence more egregiously abused and peruerted For first he speaketh not of Perfidiousnesse in Doctrine but onely in Discipline by the false and perfidious reports of Schismaticall fellowes who being Excommunicated by Cyprian had notwithstanding their extrauagant recourse to Rome seeking there before Cornelius to defame and traduce all the proceedings which Cyprian had iudiciously against them Secondly wee shall earnestly desire you to ponder seriously the Circumstances of the whole frame of that Epistle and then tell vs whether that Sentence were not rather spoken Rhetorically to perswade and moue Cornelius what he should doe than absolutely and asseuerantly to proue what he could not but doe For the whole endeauor of Cyprian in that same place is to admonish incourage and fortifie the faint languishing heart of that Pope and to arme him least he should be vndermined by the cunning and Perfidiousnesse of those irregular companions as his owne words doe plainly manifest by exhorting Cornelius Not to be moued with the threats and terrors that they could suggest reasoning the point Because saith he it connot consist with the power and vigor of any Christian Bishop to be affraid of the craftie dealings of impious men whereas a Bishop ought to be fore-armed with confidence against the assault and force of all floods of violence whatsoeuer So hee No otherwise than if any of you writing to a Captain of some Fort and standing in danger of being surprised by some Stratagem of the enemie and reported to be somewhat amated by apprehension of feare should reason from the experience of his former good circumspection and valour of his men saying Bee you of good courage your care and resolution is knowne to all men that no treacherie can haue accesse to your Fort. Who knoweth not that this is that peece of Oratory which is called of Rhetoricians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is an Admonition by way of praising insinuated when we admonish him whom we seeme to praise which is by praise of his former worthinesse to premonish him to maintaine with constancie so good a Resolution But if you will needes haue it Prophetically spoken of the Infallabilitie of the Pope of Rome then must you as necessarily make Saint Cyprian a False Prophet who in this Epistle commended Pope Cornelius but in another Epistle doth as much condemne Pope Stephen a Successor to Cornelius euen for his rashnesse in entertaining these forenamed Perfidious out-lopers who by gadding to Rome abused his credulitie and occasioned dissention betweene him and Pope Stephen as hath bin largely declared And we wish that Thousands of Examples of like Perfidiousnesse could not be showne which for these last Thousand yeares haue possessed the Romane Chaire Yet not knowing the appetite of euery Reader whether he may haue a desire to know if there were any the like Example in Antiquitie wee instance in that which your Cardinall Baronius hath related Saint Basil saith hee writing to Damasus Bishop of Rome doth wish him to take heede least he bring that mischiefe vpon the Easterne Church which Pope Liberius had done by admitting of Eustathius and his fellowes being Heretikes but craftily pretending themselues to beleeue the Nicene Faith Thus haue you a fourefold satisfaction Pope Liberius was deceiued by the Perfidiousnesse of Heretikes Pope Damasus was fore-warned by that Example lest he should be likewise deceiued Pope Stephen was circumuented by like craft and accordingly Pope Cornelius was instantly by many Arguments perswaded by Cyprian to beware of the like delusion by persidious Schismatikes Ergo the Romane Sea is no more priuiledged from the accesse of Impostors than the Mediterranean Sea is from false Pirats You haue posed vs with the straine of the words of Saint Cyprian and we shall reply vpon you with his visible Acts and Deeds Our Opposition from the practise and profession of Saint Cyprian If Saint Cyprian his reuiling of the person of Pope Stephen if his Contradicting in his Councell the Popes Decrees enacted in his Councell if gain-saying the Popes pretended supreme Title viz. Bishop of Bishops if Interdicting the greatest Prerogatiue of Papall Monarchy which is Appeales to Rome be sufficient Arguments of disclaime of Subiection to the Pope all which haue bene proued from point to point then are we sure that Saint Cyprian did not belieue the Article of Necessary Subiection to the Sea of Rome If the Excommunication of others who were of Saint Cyprian his opinion if not admitting the Legats of Cyprian to his speach if forbidding all Communication with them and hospitality vnto them if despightfull words against Cyprian as against an intollerable Aduersary may be held proofes of the Excommunication of Cyprian by the Pope all which likewise haue bene expresly declared than are we assured that Cyprian was so much as lay in the Popes power separated from the Church of Rome If that Cyprian had this Faith that None hath God for his Father which hath not the Church for his Mother if he notwithstanding the same Faith was contented to be Excommunicated by the Pope and persisted in that his Opposition for ought that euer could appeare euen to the giuing vp of his spirit to God by Martyrdome all which haue accordingly bene confessed then may we be bold to assume that Saint Cyprian was not of your Faith to belieue that Subiection or visible Vnion with the Pope of Rome is necessary to saluation If lastly Saint Cyprian as you haue said were alwaies held to be Catholike in Faith godly in life glorious in his death and euen since his death reckoned in the Calendar of Saints then stand we secure that the Beleefe of your Article of Necessary Vnion and Subiection to the Romane Sea is not necessary to Saluation So that the more blessed a Saint Cyprian is the more cursed and damnable this your Romane Article must needs be III. Saint Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria beleeued not the Necessity of this Romane Article concerning Vnion and Subiection to the Sea of Rome SECT 3. SAint Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria must be thought to haue bene a Saint as to all Christian Churches so to the Church of Rome it selfe who as you know in his greatest extremities and persecutions by Arian Heretikes found support and refuge at Rome by the godly Pope Iulius the Bishop of that Sea whose Symbol or Creed the monument of his Faith called the ATHANASIAN CREED not onely Rome but the whole Catholike Church doth professe vnto whose honour Gregory the thirteenth say you built a goodly Church being desirous to draw the East-Church vnto his Vnion and whose name is Calendred for a Saint in your Romane Missall at this day This is the Saint whom we propound vnto you as one who hath taught vs by his example not to regard the Papall Vnion in our iust Cause But whether and why did the Pope of Rome Excommunicate such a
Saint Saint Athanasius was Excommunicated by Pope Liberius and notwithstanding remained a Saint The very names of Baronius and Bellarmine we know carry such Authority with you that they will preponderate whatsoeuer can be said against them who ioyntly consent in this that followeth Pope Liberius say they through the faction of Arian Heretikes is by the Authority of Constantius the Emperour sent into banishment By the same Hereticall Arian Bishops is Felix made Bishop and placed in the Romane Sea When Liberius perceiued Felix to be intruded into his Chaire he after two yeares Banishment enuying and grieuing hereat doth ioyne communion with those Heretikes and gaue consent to the condemnation of Athanasius So they Our Assumption will be this that Athanasius neither before nor after the death of Felix did regard this Excommunication of Liberius Immediatly after this you esteeme Felix to be the Legitimate Pope but pronounce Liberius a Schismatike and one remooued from the societie of Catholikes and from his Papall function Which your Conclusions do notably fight against your owne Principles First this that There cannot be two Popes together in one Sea because this were as horrible a monster as a body with two heads One Pope then must be acknowledged Your next Principle is that No Pope can be deposed except he appeare to be a manifest Heretike whereby he ceasseth ipso facto to be a Pope without any other iudgement at all Yet grant you concerning Liberius that He was a Catholike in his inward iudgement notwithstanding his outward communion with Heretikes Your last Principle is that The Pope cannot be iudged of any on earth because he is Prince and therefore superior vnto the whole Church Catholike throughout the earth All these Premises being reduced into a Logicall forme will make vp our Conclusion thus No Catholike Bishop of Rome can be iudged or deposed But Liberius notwithstanding his consenting to the Condemnation of Athanasius and Communicating with Heretikes was a Catholike Bishop Ergo He could not be iudged or deposed from his Popedome If therefore Athanasius being Excommunicated by Liberius neuer sought as you all know any Vnion either with him or yet with Felix in his stead it must follow that he all that time contemned his Excommunication After the death of Felix who was Pope one yeare and some few moneths Liberius obtaineth againe your good reputation for presenly he was accompted the Legitimate Pope Why It is euident saith your Cardinall that Felix being dead Liberius vnited the Church of Rome which was then rent and diuided into a Schisme and became one Sheapheard of one sheepefold So they Where it will be as euident that during the time of Felix Athanasius if hee would haue sought Vnion with the Church of Rome could not know where to find it because the Catholike Church being but One Body One Spouse One Sheepfold how could now the Romane Church be called the Catholike which was as is confessed rent by a Schisme from it selfe But why stand wee wrestling with you for that which of your owne accord you are ready to grant willingly vnto vs It is a matter worthy consideration saith your Cardinall and so indeed it is to know what Liberius did after the death of Felix about the time of the Councell of Arimine which happened to be some two yeares after the departure of Felix And what this is he will haue vs vnderstand from the Epistle of Liberius vnto Athanasius principally thus This is our Confession most wished Athanasius wherein if you consent with me I pray you euen before our Iudge God and Christ to subscribe thereunto that I may be made the more secure thereby and readily performe your Command So the Pope to Athanasius Which Profession of Liberius saith your Cardinall was a solliciter for the repayring of the rent of that Communion which had bene formerly betweene them So he CHALLENGE IF therefore you will not regard our Inferences yet Liberius his owne Epistle and your Cardinall his Comment must giue light to any that shall not wilfully stupifie and blindfold himselfe namely to discerne That there was a breach of Communion betweene Pope Liberius and Athanasius That this continued two yeares for so long it was betweene the death of Felix and that Councell of Arimine whilest that Liberius was throughout the Church of Rome vniuersally acknowledged the Ligitimate Pope That the Seeker for this Communion was not Athanasius who had bene Excommunicate but Liberius who was the Excommunicator euen now being the true Pope That the tenor of the same Epistle is written in all submission both of his vnderstanding to the iudgment of Athanasius if he should happily consent also in the same behalfe to his will whatsoeuer he should Command If the like Epistle had bene written by Athanasius to Liberius we know how diligently and exactly and with what boldnesse you would haue pressed euery syllable thereof scarce could you examine any one word which should not haue seemed to weigh the weight of a Pope We conclude Athanasius being diuided from the Communion of the Pope so long time and not seeking to be reconciled before he was sought vnto by the Pope himselfe doth euidently shew that he belieued not at all your Article of Vnion with the Pope of Rome as with the Head of the Catholike Church vpon Necessity of Saluation Must we therefore iudge Athanasius therein damned nay rather damned be this your Article as Imposterous Scandalous Schismaticall and Hereticall whereby such a Saint should be damned who as your Author confesseth was so excellent an Organ of Truth that If all the commendations of ancient Fathers should be gathered together yet were they not sufficient to set forth the conflicts which this one hath had for defence of the Faith because no one I speake confidently sayth your Lippelous hath after the Apostles vndergone more continuall and grieuous conflicts for the patronage of Truth than he whom Gregory Nazianzene therefore calleth the Eie of the world the chiefe Captaine and Master of Priests and the stay and pillar of Faith So he So admirable was his Faith and Constancy in impugning their Obiections and induring their infinite Calumniations and persecutions IV. Saint Basil Bishop of Caesarea belieued not the Article of necessary Subiection to Rome SECT 4. LOoke againe into your Romane Calendar and you shall reade thus Saint Basil Bishop and Confessor A Saint then he was without exception in whom you will seeme to haue some Interest as though he would beare witnesse to the Antiquity of your Article of Vniuersall Romish Iurisdiction ouer all other Churches of Christ. Your Obiection SAint Basil writ an Epistle to Saint Athanasius whence if we belieue your Cardinall you may conclude that Saint Basil attributed vnto the Bishop of Rome authority of visiting the Churches in the East by whom he pleased and of making Decrees by his Authority and disanulling Generall Councels such as
was the Councell of Arimine So he And why must not this be true if you will allow your Cardinall Bellarmine to make this Greeke Father to speake what Papall Romane Language he shall impose by his Sophisticall translation But your Cardinall Baronius one otherwise as partiall as any Writer euer was and catching at euery shadow of proofe for the aduancement of Papall Monarchy hath made another interpretation of the words of Saint Basil which may be a iust confutation of your other Cardinall from point to point For Bellarmine talketh of the Popes Seeing the Easterne Bishops by a Visitation of Iurisdiction But Baronius alloweth no more than a Seeing by Consideration of their estate but euery Care and Consideration of other mens estate doth not inferre a Iurisdiction ouer them Secondly Bellarmine will needs haue Saint Basil to desire the Popes Decree another tenure of Papall Authority Baronius readeth the word Councell or Aduise which may agree with a Co-equall Thirdly Bellarmine interpreteth Basil as though he yeelded to the Pope a peremptory power of Cutting off and disanulling the Acts of Generall Councels such as was that of Arimine Baronius saith that the motion of Basil was they should Bring with them such things as had bene done namely by some Orthodox at Arimine which might make for the necessary solution of that Councell which all Catholikes haue iudged Hereticall But this argueth not an Authoritatiue power proper to the Pope of dissoluing of Decrees of any Generall Councell which for the space of sixe hundred yeares he neuer had but an Arbitrary Authority granted vnto him by consent of the Easterne Bishops to exercise his fatherly and graue iudgement for the better establishing of the East-Churches which were now rent into sixe seuerall Schismes through the difference of sixe diuerse Heresies Howsoeuer what Authority this was we may best know from Saint Basill himselfe who deploring the State of the East-Churches now pestered with diuers pernitious Heretikes desireth helpe from the Bishops of the West how To comfort the afflicted and to set right and restore those that are broken Helpe then of Confortation it was not of Dominion Secondly shewing that he desireth no more helpe from the Westerne Bishops than the Bishops of the East both ought and would requite in the like case he calleth it A mutuall helpe of louing and brotherly Visitation or Consideration Thirdly his reason why he is so importunate to haue the helpe of the Westerne Bishops he expresseth to be this Because that priuate grudges among the Bishops of the East hindered the fruit of their doctrine and therefore the Westerne Bishops the farther distant they were so much the more Authority would they haue with the people and he addeth that Accustomed speach is not so preualent as that which proceedeth from Strangers chiefly if they were such as were more specially indued with Gods grace as you are euery where knowne to be saith Saint Basil speaking of the Westerne Bishops because you haue preserued the Faith in all sincerity among you So Saint Basil who would neuer haue vsed so often so great and sometimes indeed so crosse and thwarting reasons to moue the Westerne Bishops to compassionate their case and helping them for composing of such and so pernicious distractions by reasons taken onely from Brotherly loue Mutuall duty and Facility of effectuating that great good because of the Remotenesse of their dwelling and therefore to be esteemed persons more indifferent because of their Constancie in preseruation of sincere Faith and consequently beetter witnesses for the ancient Truth without any mention at all of the Prerogatiue of the Bishop of Rome as their Pope or of their Church of Rome as their Mother and Mistresse as you haue pretended if he had any beleefe of this Article Because this one reason taken from the Papall Romane Iurisdiction and dominion if it had bene a matter of Faith had bene more perswasiue and would haue bene more preualent than whatsoeuer hath hitherto bene mentioned by S. Basil. Besides which will be worthy your remarking after fowre seuerall Legations and Messages from the Greeke Church deliuered vnto the Bishops of the Latine Church for their help the Greekes as Baronius is perswaded neuer receiued any Answer Now therefore consult with your best iudgments whether the Church of Rome and her Chiefe Bishop whom Saint Basil more than once condemneth of Pride which Pride was also condemned by a Councellin Africke vnder Saint Cyprian and another wherein Saint Augustine was present for intruding craftily and iniustly vpon the Iurisdiction of other Churches would in humility refuse the offer of Subiection of the whole Greeke Church or he not haue exercised his Visitation ouer them if any such authority had beene intended by Saint Basil. For so should Rome haue beene marked with a greater note of infamy than was her Pride euen her deserting of the flocke of Christ committed vnto her and in a manner betraying the Cause of Catholikes vnto their many and most mischieuous Aduersaries the Sects of Heretikes But wee shall shew that Saint Basil was of a flat contrarie Faith Our Opposition shewing that Saint Basil did not beleeue your Article of Necessity of Subiection to the Romane Pope or Church Baronius would you should know that Saint Basil hauing written diuers letters and sent many Messages vnto Pope Damasus and to other Westerne Bishops yet receiuing no Answer from them in so vexatious and perilous times when the Greeke Church seemed as a ship almost split asunder by the continuall billowes of most pestilent Heresies He thereupon fell into distrust and if he might so say hatred with the Church of Rome So he We had rather you should heare Saint Basil expressing his owne Cordolium and hearts-griefe What helpe can we expect saith he from the supercilious Pride and haughtinesse of the Westerne Bishops who neither know the truth themselues nor yet will Baronius negligently rendereth it Tell learne it Againe I meant to write vnto the Chiefe of them meanig Pope Damasus to signifie by letters that Pride ought not to be accompted a Dignity And againe the same holy Father Saint Basil speaking of the Church of Rome as you know said I hate the Pride and arrogancie of that Church Yea but wee heare him call the Bishop of Rome CHIEFE True but with this limitation their Chiefe And yet if it had beene Chiefe of all others could this inferre a Popedome and Dominion aboue others Then must you confesse that Athanasius was more Pope than Damasus For Basill that calleth Damasus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calleth Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying The Crowne of the Head The chiefe of all Wee are saith he to flie vnto thy integrity as to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Top or Crowne of All others CHALLENGE SAint Basil Bishop of Caesarea speaking of the Bishops of the West saith distinctly I meant to write
vnto Their Chiefe meaning the Pope of Rome and addeth saying I hate the Pride of That Church meaning the Church of Rome Marke wee pray you Their Chiefe and That Church are these notes of his Subiection to the Pope or Church of Rome Nay are they not direct demonstrations of his no Subiection or Subordination to either of both can you conceiue any to bee a true and loyall Subiect who writing to others concerning his owne King and Soueraigne and his Soueraignty should say I writ to their King and I hate the pride of that Kingdome Yet you heare what Saint Basil writ concerning the Pope and his Church and notwithstanding was he â—hen a reall Member of the Catholike Church Nor is this all but he hath furthermore imputed besides the vice of Pride Ignorance vnto them Notwithstanding all which Saint Basil was euen then a Saint Militant and hath beene euer since held in God's Church a Saint Triumphant who for his excellent learning iudgement piety and industrie in protecting and propagating the Catholike Truth obtained in the Church of Christ the attribute of THE GREAT and in the Elegie of Ephrem to be called Chiefe Priest of the Lord. Which may serue as an instrument to launce the Papall Impostume of your Romane Pope who neuer heareth of any such Adiunct ascribed vnto himselfe but he presently swelleth with Pride and taketh it as Appropriate to his person as he is Successor to Saint Peter Although therefore we denie not but that notwithstanding this Opposition made by Saint Basil against the Romane Church hee held Communion with the Church of Rome both in Faith and Charity because at that time Rome was in her integrity Yet that Necessity of Subiection and the Beleefe thereof which your Article requireth of All that shall be saued is a doctrine as you see abandoned by Saint Basil. We therefore choose rather to abhorre your new Article as Imposterous and Impious than to suffer that blessed Father to be razed out of the number of Saints V. Saint Hilary of Poictou did not beleeue the Romane Article of Necessity of Vnion with the Pope of Rome SECT 5. WHat and how great a Saint this Hilary Bishop of Poictou was your Romane Church doth shew in her Kalendar as it were in her Church-Booke wherein is Registred his name as a Prime Saint and that worthily For as your Lippelous truely saith he for his learning and Sanctity was Admirable both in the Greeke and Latine Churches liuing in the yeere 356 in the daies of the Emperour Constantius and of Pope Liberius So he Well then wee are to enquire what was his iudgement concerning this Pope Liberius and the necessity of Communion with him This being a part of that your Article concerning The Catholike Romane Church to beleeue that In matters of Faith the iudgement of the Pope is infallible Saint Hilary no sooner vnderstood that Pope Liberius as your Cardinall hath confessed had subscribed to haue communion with the Arian Heretikes but hee made bold to Excommunicate the Pope out of his Communion and fellowship saying I Anathematize thee Liberius and thy fellowes This you will thinke was too liberally spoken and will iudge it rather not spoken at all But why I pray you was it not alwaies lawfull for any Catholike Bishop to Excommunicate any Hereticall Bishop that is abandon his fellowship and Communion or had not Hilarius iust cause so to vse Liberius at this time This is that Liberius who two yeeres after Banishment for his Catholike Faith became an Heretike Interpretatiuè saith your Cardinall that is in the vnderstanding of men iudging of him by his outward Act of Subscribing to the Condemnation of Saint Athanasius and communicating with knowne Heretikes nor so onely but euen expressely an Heretike If to bee of opinion with Heretikes If to bee made an Heretike If to be ouercome and to consent vnto Arian Heresie may be Testimonies of an expresse Heretike as your owne Platina Alphonsus de Castro Cardinall Turrecremata and out of the words of Saint Hierome Cardinall Cusanus haue confessed Which was the very cause that moued Saint Hilary also to bid the same Pope Auant else could hee not haue complained of the Hereticall Emperour Constantius for releasing of the same Liberius out of Banishment namely vpon such conditions as that Emperour inioyned the said Pope saying I know not O Emperour whether thou hast shewed more impiety in Banishing of Liberius or in releasing him from his Banishment What other sense could this haue than that Liberius was now as full an Heretike in his Releasement as he had beene before a Catholike in his Banishment CHALLENGE SCanne you this matter a right and then you must confesse that the Faith of Saint Hilary was to beleeue that a Pope might become an Heretike in his Publike person as for example Pope Liberius did by his publike Subscribing vnto Heresie and that therefore no Christian is bound to haue further Vnion of Faith with any Pope than a Pope doth stand in the Vnion of the true and Catholike Faith Which beeing the beleefe of all Protestants and the Cause of dis Vnion from the Pope of Rome at this day is therefore censured by you as a note of Heresie in it selfe and as you thinke a sufficient cause of Separation from all hope of Saluation As though Saint Hilary a Father of the same profession were no more to be esteemed a Saint But a Saint you acknowledge him to be know then that he who abandoned the Popes Vnion would neuer haue submitted to his Dominion VI. Saint Hierome beleeued not the now Romane Article concerning the Necessity of Subiection to the Romane Church and Bishop thereof SECT 6. SAint Hierom whom the Church of Rome hath dignified and honoured with the place of a Saint in her Calendar vnder the Title of Confessor and Doctor of the Church liued about the yeere of our Lord 390 and was aboue all the Fathers that we can name of those times the most deuout childe of the Church of Rome Neuerthelesse dare we in the examination of this Fundamentall Article of the same or rather the foundation it selfe referre our selues vnto the iudgement of this Saint And we proceed in this disquisition according to our former Method of your Obiections and our Answer and Reply from the same Father Your Obiection SAint Hierom writing vnto the Pope Damasus acknowledgeth himselfe his Sheepe although hee was vnder the Patriarch of Antioch nameth the same Pope Successor of Peter professeth himselfe to haue Communion with the Chaire of Peter mentioneth as a reason the Rocke whereupon the Church of Christ is built the House without which none may eate the Lambe that is Offer Sacrifice and the Arke of Noah without which whosoeuer is must needs perish So Saint Hierom. Vpon this Foundation some of your Master-Builders would erect an Infallibility of the Popes Iudgement an Vniuersality of his
Iurisdiction and a Necessity of Subordination to his Sea as whereunto All other Churches are subiect But all this by a meere fallacy in taking the words of Saint Hierom simply and absolutely which he meant in a respectiue and restrained sense whether you consider Damasus Bishop of Rome or the Church of Rome it selfe For first You Obiect concerning Pope Damasus that Saint Hierom calleth himselfe his Sheepe being notwithstanding vnder the Iurisdiction of Paulinus Patriarch of Antioch As though that he might not be held a Sheepe of the Bishop of Rome in respect of his Baptisme the signe and as it were eare-marke of Christianity being as you know Baptized at Rome in his full age Or as though when the Faith of Paulinus his Bishop was questionable it were not lawfull to submit to the iudgement of another Bishop of knowne constancie in the Truth Secondly That Hierom calleth Damasus The Successor of Peter As though euery Successor in Peters Seat had an hereditary Right to be Successor in Peters Faith which contradicteth the iudgement of Saint Hierom who condemned Pope Liberius who was as lawfull a Successor in the Seate of Peter as was Damasus for Consenting vnto Heresie Thirdly That Saint Hierom addresseth himselfe to Pope Damasus alone As though Damasus were the onely man to resolue him in all the Mysteries of Faith whereas in other Doctrines Saint Hierom ingenuously confesseth that he trauelled to remote Countries as Greece to Gregory Nazianzene whom he calleth his Master Of whom saith he I learned to interpret the Scriptures After that he iourneyed to Alexandria in Aegypt To see Didymus that I might saith he consult with him touching the doubts that I had in all Scriptures This needed not Saint Hierom to haue done if the Oracle of all Truth had resided at Rome and had beene personated in Damasus the Bishop of that See Fourthly Yet that Saint Hierom in this question concerning the vse of the word Hypostasis sought satisfaction onely from Pope Damasus and relyed onely vpon his iudgement for the sense of the word As though Saint Hierom did not for his Resolution ioyne vnto Damasus Bishop of Rome Peter the Bishop of Alexandria as depending vpon Both and professing either to be absolued or else condemned with both Or as though Pope Damasus in points of Diuinity had not more need to be instructed by Hierom than this Saint by Pope Damasus This were to giue Pope Damasus himselfe the lie who desired to haue conference with Saint Hierom that so I may aske questions saith Damasus and Thou mayst answer that is as Baronius confesseth that Hierom might teach and the Pope learne yea and as though if you require the sense of this word Hypostasis Saint Hierom did not teach Damasus yes he did So doth your Espensaeus confesse Hieronymus consuluit Damasum imò consuluit Damaso That is He rather instructed Pope Damasus than was instructed by him For he told Damasus that the word Hypostasis might haue a double sense the one was Catholike to signifie Persons the other Hereticall to signifie Essentiall nature The not vnderstanding of which word Hypostasis was the reason that Basil imputed Ignorance to the Church of Rome as hath beene said You will aske what then was the Resolution which Saint Hierom sought from Pope Damasus concerning the vse of that word seeing that S. Hierom could not be ignorant of the true sence This you may know by the Answer of Pope Damasus which was as your Baronius collecteth to let Hierom vnderstand that He might lawfully communicate with Paulinus the Bishop of Antioch So that your last error is as though you would conclude that he that could determine what person was most like to vse the word Hypostasis in the Catholike sense must therefore bee accompted the onely Competent Iudge of the Catholike sense Concerning the Second Subiect in this Obiection which is the Church of Rome we complaine of your Authors for the like Sophistry For you obiect for the Prerogatiue of your Church First these words of S. Hierom I am vnited to the Beatitude that is to the Chaire of Peter As though by Chaire he meant the See and Bishopricke of Rome and not the true doctrine of Faith then preached in Rome euen as Christ spake of the Chaire of Moses that is saith Saint Hierom the Law of Moses Secondly But Hierom saith of this Chaire that Christ hath built his Church vpon this Rocke As though by Rocke is not meant the same doctrine of Faith which was confessed by Saint Peter as hath beene proued and which was at that time truly and faithfully professed by Damasus and the whole Church of Rome or as though because that Rome was then faithfull shee therefore had a priuilege neuer to turne Apostate which is a pernicious Paradoxe voide of all ground of Faith as hath beene also largely declared and which can haue no support by this sentence of Hierom where by Rocke he meaneth not Rome saith Erasmus because Rome may degenerate but he vnderstandeth the Faith which Peter professed Bring vs now this Faith of Saint Peter and then challenge our Faith to beleeue you This is the Rocke vpon which Christ saith Hierom built his Church He saith not Built the Church of Rome but the whole Vniuersall Church This we confesse with Saint Hierom to bee The House of God without which whosoeuer eateth the Paschall Lambe is profane This is the Arke of Noah within which whosoeuer is not perisheth as well Romane as Grecian as well Bishop of Rome as Bishop of Thessaly Thus many waies haue you depraued the Orthodoxe meaning of Saint Hierome by expounding that which was spoken particularly of Damasus and of the Church of Rome then sound in the Faith and applying it vnto Rome and all the Bishops of Rome from time to time as though Virgine Ierusalem might not at length become an Whore Secondly by peruerting his speach concerning the Rocke and Building that is Faith and Church generally taken and appropriating it vnto the Faith and Church of Rome at all times and in all Causes Which in the next place we are to shew to be diametrally opposite to the iudgement of Saint Hierom. Saint Hierom his Opposition to the pretended Soueraignty and Infallibility of the Church and Pope of Rome What Saint Hierom hath taught vs to conceiue of the Pope Clergie and Church of Rome we shall shew from S. Hierom himselfe not sophistically but plainely and truly For when we aske you of what stature euery Pope ought to bee for his dignity and Authority You answer that hee can bee no lesse than a Monarch and sole Head of the Catholike Church But Saint Hierom in the same Epistle that was obiected speaking to Pope Damasus saith I desire of you my Pastor that you would preserue your sheepe and addeth immediately as followeth Put away enuie and let the ambition of the Romane height
depart from you Your Cardinall who vrged the former words leapt ouer these it may be because they were not so much for his purpose as they are for ours to proue that if Saint Hierome had beleeued the pretended Monarchie of Popedome in your after Popes hee would not thus haue twitted and taunted Damasus otherwise an excellent godly Pope not so much for his owne pride as for the pride of the Romane Top or height namely the ambition of his Seat In which reprehension of Papall pride the Councell of Carthage vnder Cyprian the Councell of Africke in the time of Saint Augustine Saint Basil yea and other holy Fathers haue bin most frequent when as yet the Top thereof was not so high as hath bin the after-ambition of Popedome by the one halfe Wee in the next place desire to know what you beleeue concerning the iudgement of the Pope of Rome in matter of Faith and we haue heard you call it Infallible yet did Saint Hierome note Liberius once Pope of Rome that Hee was perswaded to subscribe vnto Haeresie Your Cardinall answereth that Liberius indeede consented vnto Haeresie but Hee consented thereunto saith he not Expresly but Interpretatiuely because in Fact he subscribed to the condemnation of Athanasius whom he knew to be persecuted for his Catholike Faith As though this poore ragge were sufficient to couer that nakednesse No for you looke still vpon the Pope as vpon the Visible Head of the Visible Church If therefore hee Visibly communicated with Haeretikes as hath beene confessed and so Visibly subscribed vnto Haeresie Interpretatiuely that is so that none could Interpret his Fact otherwise than as to thinke it a plaine approbation of Haeresie then wee are perswaded that that holy Father who was so zealous of Gods truth as not to indure an ambiguous word which might any way relish of Haeresie and condemned that Pope Liberius of an Interpretatiue Haeresie would not if hee were aliue at this day suffer such a Deluge of Innouations by your 20. new Articles of the Romane Faith neuer so much as fancied of in his dayes In the next place the same Father expresseth his dislike of the Clergie of Rome crying out vpon them in the words following When I was in Babylon and liued an inhabitant of that purple Whore something I desired to chirpe concerning the holy Ghost and to dedicate the Worke vnto the Bishop of the same Citie And behold the assembly of Pharisees exclaimed vpon mee among whom there was not any learned Scribe but the whole faction of ignorance conspired against mee as if I had proclaimed some Doctrinall warre and strife against them Damasus who first moued me to this worke is asleepe in the Lord so that the song that I could not sing in a strange Countrey I now must murmure and noyse among you here in Iudaea So S. Hierome What one of you is there if not acquainted with the Bookes of Saint Hierome who will not iudge these words to haue beene the Exclamation and Inuectiue of some Protestant in your opinion Schismaticall and a professed Aduersary to the Church of Rome to call Rome in indignation and despight Babylon and Land of Captiuitie to tearme it a Purple whore and strange land wherein it was not lawfull To sing the Lords Song concerning the Holy Ghost yea to bespot the whole Clergie of that Citie with the note of Ignorance and at last after the death of Damasus to quit ROME as a Land of Bondage that he might inioy his libertie in Iudaea among the Christian Iewes Could this be said of a Citie priuiledged with a perpetuall Residence of the Holy Ghost and deseruing the Title of Motherhood ouer the whole Catholique Church of the Citie of the Popes Holinesse and of the Oracle of Truth Passe we from the Clergie of that Citie and come wee to the Romane Church it selfe there we finde a Custome of preferring Deacons before Priests Which Saint Hierome condemneth and aduanceth the dignitie of a Presbyter vpon which occasion he falleth into a Comparison of the Church of Rome with the whole CATHOLIKE CHVRCH and with other Parts thereof And comparing it with the whole Church he saith The Authoritie of the whole world is greater than of one Citie Meaning that the Authoritie of the Church Catholike is more than the Authoritie of the Church of ROME Which as hath bin proued from the iudgement of the Fathers in the Councell of Basil is a perfect demonstration that the Church of ROME cannot be called The Catholike Church And least any by that Example and Custome of the Church of ROME should prescribe vnto other Churches as though ROME being as you call her the Mistresse of all others All others should subscribe to her Saint Hierome immediately addeth Why doe you obiect vnto mee saith hee the Custome of one Citie and challenge that for a Law which is done of so few in respect whence haughtinesse hath sprung A plaine proofe that your now Doctrine of making one Particular Church to be in Iurisdiction Vniuersall is an Argument of a Sacrilegious Pride and no sound Article of Faith The next Comparison is betweene the Church of Rome other particular Churches in respect of the Iurisdictions of Bishops in their seuerall diocesses according to Diuine Law Wheresoeuer there shall be a Bishop saith hee whether it be at Rome or at Eugubium whether at Constantinople or at Rhegium whether at Alexandria or at Tanais hee is of the same worthinesse and Priesthood What may bee collected from hence you may know from him who being most conuersant in the writings of Saint Hierome is best able to diue into his meaning namely that Saint Hierome hereby seemeth to equall all Bishops among themselues as being equally the Successours of the Apostles who are therefore not to be measured by the amplitude of their Diocesse but by the worthinesse of their deseruings In which comparison Saint Hierome hath vsed singular art to expresse his meaning more Emphatically For whereas there are Three most famous Patriarchships viz. Rome Constantinople and Alexandria hee parallelleth the little Bishopricks vnder the same Patriarchships with the Patriarchall Seats as Eugubium in Italy with Rome Rhegium in Brutia with Constantinople in Thrace and Tanais in Aegypt with Alexandria in the same Prouince So that whatsoeuer Iurisdiction any Metropolitane Primate or Patriarke hath ouer other Bishops it is from Humane Constitution and not from Diuine Law So farre then was Saint Hierome from making Rome the Catholike Bishoprick that he accounted it as distinct from Eugubium as is Constantinople from Rhegium and Alexandria from Tanais After our Comparison of the Church of Rome with others in the Question of Iurisdiction we proceede with Saint Hierome to compare her in matter of Necessary and Catholike Doctrine But tell you vs First what is that Prerogatiue which is included in your Article of The Catholike Romane Church as properly belonging to the Church of
Rome as it is tearmed Catholike Your answer is that Among the Causes which by Diuine Law are referred vnto the Pope one is to decree what Scriptures are Canonicall Well then let this bee our First Question whether the Church of Rome in the dayes of Saint Hierome decreed the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrewes to be Canonicall And Saint Hierome saith that Although formerly all other Churches in the East did account it Canonicall yet it was not receiued as Canonicall in the Latine or Romane Church In the Second place it is inquirable whether vpon this difference Saint Hierome will yeelde to the iudgement of the East and Greeke Church rather than of the West and Latine Church in a Cause of so great moment And Saint Hierome resolueth saying Although the Latine Church doth not admit of this Epistle as Canonicall wee notwithstanding saith hee doe receiue it Say now was Saint Hierome herein a Catholike or not you must needs grant he was a Catholike seeing that since his dayes your Church hath decreed that Epistle to the Hebrewes to be held Canonicall whence it will irresistibly follow that Saint Hierome who held herein with the rest of the Catholike Church against the Church of Rome in discerning of a part of Canonicall Scripture did thereby iudge the Church of Rome not to bee The Catholike Church Wee may see the same concerning the Canon of Scriptures of the Old Testament whereof your Church of Rome hath decreed in the last Councell of Trent as followeth If any doe not receiue as Canonicall the booke of Hester Daniell Baruch Ecclesiasticus Wisdome Iudith Tobias and the Two Bookes of Maccabees with all their parts as they are in the Vulgar edition let him be Anathema and accursed But say now was Saint Hierome of this Faith did he beleeue all those Bookes and their parts now mentioned to be Canonicall Nay did he not abandon them as Apocrypha and not properly Diuine Scriptures Yes saith your Cardinall Saint Hierome said of these that they were not within the Canon of Scriptures where he speaketh not of the Canon of the Iewes onely So he meaning that hee spake of the Canon of Christians If therefore the Church of Rome at that time were of the opinion of Saint Hierome then doth That ancient Church of Rome in reiecting those Bookes as Apocrypha condemne This now Romane Church which hath Canonized them for true Scriptures And if Saint Hierome in iudging these Apocrypha Bookes worthy to be excluded out of the Canon of Christians did herein dissent from the Church Rome in his dayes then did he againe beleeue that the Church of Rome was not The Catholike and Vniuersall Christian Church CHALLENGE WHereas your Obiectors haue dealt like a sort of Trades-men who shew not their wares but in darke lights whereby their Chapmen are often mistaken in their Trafficke we contrarily haue set before you the best kinde of Illustration namely the Comparison of things ioyntly one with another As for Example 1. Comparing Pope with Pope as Damasus a true Catholike with Liberius in apparance an Heretike Wee inferre Saint Hierome his no-beliefe of Gods perpetuall Assistance by Diuine Direction of the Pope 2. Comparing Pope with Bishop as Damasus with Petrus Bishop of Alexandria in Aegypt vpon whom Saint Hierome ioyntly relied in his Opposition against Heretikes Wee inferre that Saint Hierome beleeued not a Necessity of a singular Communion with the Pope 3. Comparing the Pope with Saint Hierome himselfe who although hee had beene a Scribe to the Pope and therefore so neere to the supposed fountaine of Oracles yet was glad to take long iournies and spend much time to Learne the Interpretation of Scriptures from Gregorie of Nazianzum and Didymus of Antioch and not so onely but did also instruct Pope Damasus in the knowledge of Scriptures Wee inferre that Saint Hierome did not beleeue your now Romane Principle which is to referre the last and safest Resolution for vnderstanding of the Sense of Scriptures to the iudgement of the Pope 4 Comparing the Citie of Rome and his Clergie with Palestine and hirs and Hierome not doubting to call Rome Babylon purple Whore strange Land and her Clergie Factious Ignorants and shewing his great contentment which hee found else-where We inferre that Rome is not alwayes to containe that Schoole of learning that Theatre of Sanctitie that Temple of perfit Worship which you vsually boast off 5 Comparing Bishopricke with Bishopricke Saint Hierome equalling the greatest as Rome with the least as Eugubium In honore Sacerdotij In honour of Priesthood And what Saint Hierome meaneth by Sacerdotium who knoweth not Wee inferre that Saint Hierome neuer beleeued the Prae-potency of the Bishop of Rome ouer other Bishops which you call Popedome to be founded vpon Diuine Ordinance 6 Comparing Church with Church as the Westerne or Latine Church whereof Rome is a chiefest member with the East or Greeke Church and all other Churches besides and Saint Hierome forsaking the Custome and iudgement of the West and Latine Church and yeelding to the East and Greeke Churches in a Doctrine which is the Foundation of all Fundamentall Articles to wit the true Canon of Scriptures both in the New Testament and in the Old We inferre that Saint Hierome did not beleeue either a Necessitie of all Vnion with the Romane Church in Doctrine or yet an absolute Dominion of the Romane Church aboue all others Whatsoeuer your reply be you must either expunge your now Romane Article out of the Canon of Faith or else raze the name of Saint Hierome out of your Calendar of Saints VII Saint Ambrose beleeued not the now Romane Article of Necessitie of Vnion and Subiection to the Romane Church SECT 7. SAint Ambrose Bishop of Milane is honored by your Memoriall of him in your Romane Calendar but much more in his owne Bookes and in the mindes of all Orthodox Christians in all ages since he liued for Confessor and Doctor of the Church of whom Saint Augustine could say I haue had experience of his graue constancie labours and perils for the Catholike Cause which the whole Romane world doth commend and report as well as I. This Saint the more excellent hee is the more forcible his Testimony ought to be whether it be on your side or on ours We are willing first to vnderstand what you can obiect Your Obiection out of Saint Ambrose answered Your Cardinall his Argument is this Ambrose calleth Pope Damasus the Rector of the whole Church and his Brother Satyrus would not admit of a Bishop to heare him before he vnderstood that he consented with Catholike Bishops That is saith he with the Church of Rome Ergo the Church of Rome is the Head of the Church Catholike Wherein your Cardinall laboureth of the same Elench whiles hee mistakes the words respectiuely spoken to one person Pope Damasus and circumstantially for one time as if they were absolutely so ment
for the persons of al Popes at all times Againe if the bare Title of Rector of the Catholike Church ascribed to Damasus must needs argue your Pope to be Head of the Church then must you inlarge the Catalogue of your Popes and inrolle among them as many other Bishops as haue receiued Titles equiualent if not more excellent than that For as you your-selues well know Athanasius was intitled the Propp and Foundation of the Church Saint Basil the Mouth of the Church Saint Nazianzene the golden Pillar and Foundation of the whole Church and Saint Ambrose himselfe was commended by the Emperour Theodosius as THE ONELY BISHOP VVHOME HE KNEVV VVORTHY THE NAME OF A BISHOP These few Parallells may serue to allay your appetite vntill we shall be occasioned to satisfie you in this sort to the full In which kinde of Ascriptions there is not any acknowledgement of Authority but a commendation of their care and diligence iudgement and directions in behalfe of the whole Catholike Church Concerning the Second Saint Ambrose addeth a reason of his speach wisely dissembled by your Cardinall to wit The Bishopricke of that Bishop was in a Region diuided into diuers Schismes by Hereticall Spirits whereas the Church of Rome professed constantly the Catholike Faith No maruell therefore though Satyrus aske of a Bishop whose Faith hee suspected whether hee beleeued as that Church did whose Faith was knowne to be truely Catholike As it sometimes cometh to passe in the Common-Wealth in cases of violent ruptures into many Factions repugnant each to other and all to the Loyall and faithfull Subiects of the King among whom some one City as for Example YORK shall bee knowne more generall than any others to professe loyaltie to their Soueraigne if thereupon an honest man aske of a Souldier liuing in one of the factious Countries whether he were a true Subiect and consented with the Citizens of Yorke would you iudge it a Politicke Inference to say that therefore Yorke is the Head ouer all other Cities in the Kigdome And that you may know the due proportion of this Comparison remember we pray you that euen in the same age of Pope Damasus and in the time of the same Schismes many Greeke Bishops were as truly Catholike as was Pope Damasus and yet were not subiect vnto his Iurisdiction as hath beene manifestly proued out of Saint Basil and is heereafter to bee more copiously yea and Confessedly declared Our Opposition from the Example of Saint Ambrose his Opposing against the Church of Rome Sixe hundred and seuenty yeares after the death of Saint Ambrose his Church of Milan was visited by Petrus Damianus Legat vnto Pope Leo the ninth assuming Iurisdiction ouer them when the Clergie of Milan withstood the Legat alleaging that The Church of Ambrose had bene alwaies free in it selfe and neuer was subiect to the lawes of the Pope of Rome The veines of those Clergie-men must haue bene voyd of all tincture of bloud in making a most shamelesse Answer if that it had bene a knowne Catholike Article then that all Churches Christian are necessarily Subordinate vnto the Authority of the Papall and Romane Iurisdiction And why did they in challenging their libertie call their Bishopricke of Milan Ambrose his Church but onely that they knew that Saint Ambrose did preserue the liberty thereof neuer acknowledging Subiection vnto the Bishop of Rome Whereof we haue more than a presumption in the writings of Ambrose himselfe in the Question touching Washing of the feet of Infants baptized which the Church of Rome iudged to be superfluous but contrariwise Ambrose and the Church of Milan held to be necessary The same Father lest the Authority of that Church might preiudice their custome pre-occupateth in this manner I wish in all things saith Ambrose to follow the Church of Rome but yet be it knowne that we being Men haue sense also in continuing this Custome which is likewise more rightly obserued else-where CHALLENGE THis one short sentence is as a Canon full charged to batter downe your great Bulwarke that we may to call your Article of Papall Monarchy For first Ambrose speaking of his owne Church of Milan in opposition vnto the Church of Rome and saying Sed tamen Nos c. BVT YET VVEE c. Ergò he held not his Church of Milan to be a member subordinate to the Romane Church as to the Head thereof But wherein is he opposite Tamen nos homines sensum habemus But we men haue sense As if he had said We in Milan hold this Ceremony necessary They of Rome iudge it superfluous and ridiculous as though we were Asses or Blocks but neither so for we are men nor so for we haue sense and hold that which is more rightly obserued Ergò Ambrose held no Necessity of inthralling his iudgment to the Pope of Rome which is a part of your Article of Faith And in that he saith Cupio I wish to follow the Church of Rome in all things yet this TAMEN or Non obstante doth againe confirme both our former Collections because by calling it The Church of Rome he maketh it no Vniuersall Church in essence and in refusing to follow it where he thinketh hee hath iust cause so to do prooueth that he belieued not her iudgement to be Vniuersally and Necessarily Catholike nor her power and Iurisdiction absolute The Prouerbe is A Lyon is knowne by his claw As well may we discerne Saint Ambrose his Faith by this Clause who in this one Resolution teacheth all Christian Churches to follow the Church of Rome in nothing wherein they are perswaded as Saint Ambrose was in this Case that the Church of Rome hath denyed to follow the Church of Christ. Now for you to answer that his meaning was To follow the Church of Rome in all things necessary though not in a Rite This Answer as it is false for Saint Ambrose held this Rite Necessary so it is also friuolous because if it be iust to withstand the Church of Rome in a Rite and Ceremony as it were in a Mite then how much more may it be lawfull not to follow or belieue her in her many new Articles of Faith whereof among other this is a Principall to wit The Catholike Romane Church without Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation which can neuer be credible as long as Saint Ambrose is belieued to haue bene a Saint VIII Saint Augustine belieued not the now Romane Article of Necessary Subiection to the Church of Rome and Pope thereof SECT 8. SAint Augustine as All will confesse deserued to haue his memory Registred not onely as it is in your Romane Calendar in paper monuments but in the minds and hearts of all Christians so excellent a Saint was He. It is not long since one of your Priests published a booke entituled Saint Augustines Religion wherein he will needs be thought to haue himselfe collected all the materials of
that his Treatise out of the writings of Saint Augustine whereas poore man he oweth his whole worke vnto your Iesuite Hieronymus Torrensis who many yeares since set out a large volume diuided into foure Bookes containing all the particulars which Maister Breerly hath diuulged in his owne name without so much as giuing notice of any such Author But they differ in their Titles Hieronymus Torrensis styleth his booke Augustines Confessions Maister Breerly his Augustines Religion Verifying herein that saying of Tully concerning such kind of Plagiaries that as Theeues change the notes and markes of stolne stuffe so They that father other mens workes vpon themselues vse to change the names and Titles as it were the markes and property thereof Is it not sufficient that you haue dealt thus with Protestant Authors but that you must play such parts among your selues But I shall haue more occasion to put Maister Breerly in mind of himselfe else-where For at this present we haue but one Article of Saint Augustine in hand touching the Necessity of Vnion and Subiection to the Church of Rome as The Catholike Church and are to attend whether either He or your Iesuite or Cardinall can euince so Imposterous a Doctrine out of the Volumes of Saint Augustine Your Obiections out of Saint Augustine Saint Augustine one-where attributeth to the Church of Rome A Principalitie of the Apostolicall Sea Else-where he desireth of the Pope of Rome his Pastorall diligence for the repressing of the Heresie of the Pelagians in Palaestine and Africke In the third place he acknowledgeth A necessary obedience to the Popes Iurisdictions and lastly he confesseth that The Pope of Rome is set in a more high Pastorall watch-tower than others Now what of all these Ergo say you the Church of Rome is the chiefe of all Churches and the Pope thereof hath Iurisdiction ouer all other Churches all other Bishops being subiect vnto him vpon paine of Damnation But if these words Principality or Highest Pastorall watch-tower or Charge or Apostolicall Church or Power to represse Heretikes or an acknowledgment of Necessary Obedience must inforce a Iurisdiction of Popedome ouer all others then ought we to admit of many Popedomes For euery Patriarch hath a Principality and height of a Pastorall watch-tower by reason of the greatnesse dignity of his Patriarchship aboue all Metropolitans and Bishops whatsoeuer and yet haue they not ouer all Bishops power of Iurisdiction but onely Principality of Order And looke into the Epistle of Iohn the first Bishop of Rome written to an Arch-Bishop and you shall find him grant that that Archbishop had as well The charge of the Church committed vnto him for the helpe of all in repressing of Heresies as to himselfe And that also therein there is a Necessity Rationis of Cause and Reason to performe such Admonitions namely as a Patient obeyeth the Physitian for the preuenting of imminent danger and not a Necessity Imperij of Compulsion by right of Authority as a souldier obeyeth his Captaine And if that the Title of Apostolicall Church could carry a Monarchicall Chiefedome then was Saint Augustine farre wrong when in the same Epistle where he called the Church of Rome The Apostolicall Seat he called other Churches and Seats also Apostolicall Lastly remember but what hath bene prooued out of Saint Basil and you shall not need to question why the helpe of the Pope of Rome was sometime desired in some Prouinces rather than other shewing that the Popes exercising of his Office in such Cases proceeded not from his Coactiue Authority but from the Arbitrary consent of other Bishops In a word we haue receiued from you out of Saint Augustine nothing but specious colours of words which we shall recompence with his Acts and Deeds Our Opposition of S. Augustine his no Subiection either in Discipline or in Doctrine to the Church of Rome Nothing can better illuminate our vnderstandings in this case than the light of Comparison You therefore whose Article of Faith is to belieue that although the Church of Rome be a Particular Church and so a distinct member from the other Churches Militant yet in respect of the Vniuersall gouernment which it hath throughout the Christian world it is The Catholike and Vniuersall Church as is the Head ouer all other parts of mans bodie hearken to Saint Augustine comparing the Church of Rome with another Particular Church There are two Bishops saith he of two most eminent Churches Stephen of Rome and Cyprian of Carthage being of diuerse opinions in the point of Baptisme Therefore did not Saint Augustine hold the Church of Rome to be the Catholike Head for there cannot be properly Two Most Eminents of the Catholike Church whereof you say there is but One Head One may say that there are Two Bishops of Two most Eminent Bishopricks in England George of Canterbury and Tobias of York because these are so distant that one is not Subordinate or subiect to the other But to say there are two Bishops of two most Eminent Bishopricks George of Canterbury and Lancelot of Winchester were absurd because making the Bishoprick of Winchester to be one of the Two most Eminents it doth abate and pull downe the true Eminency of Canterbury which is an Arch-Bishopricke and Metropolitan Seate and hath Iurisdiction ouer the other But Saint Augustine you know was iudicious and would not reason absurdly Now you whose Faith requireth Vnion and Subiection vnto the Sea of Rome in all Causes as well Rituall as Criminall or Doctrinall lend your attention vnto Saint Augustine in his Comparisons concerning each one In the point of Rites and Ceremonies the question was whether the Church should weekely obserue a Saturday-fast or no The one side which is brought in as for the Affirmatiue part alleaging that Saint Iames at Ierusalem Saint Iohn at Ephesus and others taught the same which Saint Peter did at Rome viz. that The Saturday-fast is to be kept but other Countries forsooke this Tradition The parties for the Negatiue are supposed to answer saying Yea rather some parts of the West Church wherein Rome is seated haue not obserued the Tradition of the Apostles Saint Peter and others who taught that a Fast ought not to be kept vpon that day Here you haue the East and West-Churches compared together and the credit of them both balanced If we should now aske you whether Church East or West deserueth more credit in this Case you would abhorre the question as men bound by Oath to belieue rather the Westerne Church of Rome than all other Churches in the world in point of Tradition But Saint Augustine what This contention saith he is endlesse and indeterminable And Saint Augustines words Aliqua loca in quibus Roma est that is Some places among which Rome is haue a sting which wounds the Papacy For can the Imperiall Ladie of all Churches be thus sleightly brought in among the Manie Surely if S. Augustine had
made her the patterne of all other Christian Churches his stile should haue arrayed her otherwise than by inuoluing her among Loca Occidentis Secondly in Criminall Causes you belieue that the Supreme Right of Appeale to the Sea of Rome is a Iurisdiction whereinto the Bishop of Rome is inuested by virtue of his Succession from Saint Peter so that all other Churches Christian ought to acknowledge this Right of Appeale vpon all iust occasions and the Cause being there determined all parties are vtterly precluded hauing no power to Appeale from it to any Superior Iudicature This is your pretended Prerogatiue of the Church of Rome consisting of two Termes Appealing to Rome and not Appealing from Rome Will you admit of Saint Augustines determination in both these Saint Augustine as hath bene confessed was one of that Councell of Africke which abandoned the Claime of Right of Appeales from all Churches to Rome which was then challenged by three Popes successiuely to wit Zozimus Boniface and Celestine and yet concluded against them that it should not be lawfull for any within the Churches of Africke to make their Appeale to Rome Accordingly you that would thinke it an intolerable and sacrilegious derogation from the Papall Iurisdiction if in a Criminall Cause after the Pope with his whole Consistory of Cardinals had giuen iudgement any Bishop within the Romane Iurisdiction should be so audacious as to Appeale from that Sentence to an higher Iudicature where you that are my Iudges shall be iudged whether you haue giuen right iudgement or not remember that Saint Augustine concerning the Case of the Bishop Caecilian which was referred to the Arbitrement of Pope Iulius and others doubted not to giue such a Resolution I suppose saith he the Bishops that were at Rome were not good Iudges there then remained a Generall Councell where the Cause may be discussed so that if it shall appeare that those Iudges iudged wrongfully their sentence may be reuersed and disanulled Thirdly from Criminall we proceed to a Doctrinall point You that haue told vs that it is a peculiar Prerogatiue belonging to the Church of Rome as she is The Catholike Church to direct all other Churches which is the true Canon of Diuine Scriptures and that she by her Councell may pronounce euery one Anathema and Accursed that shall not giue beliefe to his Decree touching the right Canon of Scriptures obserue that Saint Augustine perceiuing how the Latine or Romane Church did not in those daies constantly hold the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrewes to be Canonicall and of Diuine Authority resolueth thus Notwithstanding I saith he am rather mooued by the Authority of the East Churches So Saint Augustine which is so much that a conscionable man we thinke should need no more For now we are in a Doctrinall point euen what and which is the Scripture and written Word of God the Principle and Doctrine of all other Principles and Doctrines Whereof when we enquire we are directed by Saint Augustine to consult with the Primitiue Churches as well East as West and wherein these do differ in their Customes therein to yeeld rather to the iudgement of the Greeke and Easterne Churches according as Saint Hierom also determined than to the Romane in the West And lest this Decision of Saint Augustine might seeme to proceed from some voluntary inclination to the Greeke Church rather than to the Latine he addeth that he is so moued by the Authority of the Easterne Churches Now how all these particulars will agree with your Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church Mistris of all other Churches without full Vnion and Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation do you your-selues deliberate Sure we are that this Resolution of Saint Augustine will easily interpret the meaning of his other sentence so often obiected by you to wit I should not haue belieued the Gospell except the Authority of the Church had moued mee that by Church he meant not the then present Church of Rome as you pretend which is as you see another vanity After this discussion of the Doctrinall Cause we adde a Consideration of the Schismaticall state of that Church according as our iudicious Casaubon hath obserued You who accompt it the onely note of Schisme to be diuided from the Romane Church and the Pope thereof as the onely Head of all Churches Answer vs Why Saint Augustine who in seauen Books besides many other places confuted the Schismaticall Donatists yet neuer spake word of the Monarchy of the Pope or of the Infallibility of his iudgement whereby to reduce them to the Vnity of the Church and Truth Lastly as for the Title of The Catholike Church you that appropriate it in your Article to the Church of Rome aduise againe with Saint Augustine who as he hath already defined that Catholike is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole as a Comprehension of all Parts and therefore that no Part can be called The Whole so doth he further illustrate the same in his Expositions vpon those words of the Psalmist The Kings daughters were among thine honourable women vpon thy right hand did stand the Queene in a Vesture of gold of Ophir Behold Rome saith he behold Carthage behold other Cities as Kings daughters of all which is made one certaine Queene speaking of the Catholike Church whereunto euery one ought to bee vnited in Faith and Hope So he You see that in Saint Augustines time when Rome was indeed Rome and truely glorious for Faith and Holinesse yet Behold Rome what The Queene which is the Catholike Church it selfe No but Behold Rome a daughter of the King And againe Behold Carthage and other Cities How Namely so and no otherwise than Rome and others all daughters of the King that is Particular Churches professing Christ. But the Catholike Church as Queene what must shee be any one of these bee it the Church of Milan Carthage or Rome No but One Vniuersall Church consisting of these and All others CHALLENGE SEe you now with what obliquity of iudgement your Authors haue obiected these colourable sayings of Saint Augustine out of his Epistles vnto Pope Zozimus and Pope Boniface and others Whereas when we come to his deeds he doth freely demonstrate his Faith contrary to your sense when Comparing Particular Bishopricke with Bishopricke as Rome with Carthage hee maketh them and their Bishops both Most Eminent Comparing Churches with Churches as Rome with the Churches of Africke he defendeth euen against the forenamed Popes Zozimus and Boniface both that it is not lawfull for Remote Churches to Appeale to Rome and that it is also lawfull for Churches that are subordinate to the Romane Iurisdiction to Appeale from Rome By which the very pinnacle of the pretended Authority of the Romane Iurisdiction is quite ouerthrowne and cast to the ground Againe Saint Augustine comparing the Two Moities of the whole Catholike Church commonly diuided into the East otherwise called the
Greeke Church and the West or Latine wherein the Church of Rome hath the greatest preeminence He in the Case of Apostolicall Tradition concerning Rites and Ceremonies hath made their credit equall but in the Doctrinall as namely a Tradition Apostolicall concerning the true and Canonicall Scriptures he preferreth the Authority of the Greeke and East-Churches and confesseth that it shouldereth out in this maine Case the Authority of the Romane Lastly comparing any One part with All Churches as by name Rome with Carthage and All others hee proueth that Rome can bee no more The Vniuersall or Catholike Church than Carthage No nor both together but that the Catholike Church as the Queene is the Whole Church of Christ by an Aggregation and Comprehension of All together in One. So direct and absolute a Doctor was Saint Augustine of the no-Necessity of vniuersall Vnion or Subiection vnto the same Church in poynts of Controuersie whether Rituall or Doctrinall and consequently of the no-Necessity of Beleefe of either of both all which your Article doth require and exact and yet we notwithstanding your damning Article must still beleeue that Saint Augustine is a blessed Saint IX Saint Hilary Bishop of Arles in France beleeued not your Article of Necessary Subiection to the Pope and Church of Rome SECT 9. THis Saint albeit he haue no place in the Romane Calendar of your Masse wil notwithstanding challenge a place among our honourable Witnesses because he is reckoned in your Martyrologe of Saints He in the yeere 445 seemed to vsurpe vpon the Iurisdiction of the Prouince of Vienna notwithstanding the Inhibition of Pope Leo who taketh it very haynously that Hilary heerein refused to be subiect vnto him This Hilarius as you without any proofe would make vs beleeue yeelded at length vnto the Pope making no further Apologie for the defence of his Cause Which were it so it mattereth not for that will suffice for his Apologie which is confessed by your Baronius namely that Although Hilarius did incurre the displeasure of Pope Leo in the defence as he was perswaded of the Right of his Episcopall Sea Yet notwithstanding was he worthy saith the Cardinall for his singular sanctity to be registred in the Romane Martyrologe of Saints CHALLENGE LEo the then Pope complaineth against this Saint for refusing to bee Subiect to his iudiciall determination the which this Saint did saith your Cardinall in presumption that his cause was iust Yet Gennadius Prosper and others that set downe his life doe not note in him any iniquity in this Case What need many words He that in a Question of Ecclesiasticall Rites could not but doubt of the uniuersall authority of the Pope could not bee of the now Romane Faith Therefore this Saint Hilary was confidently perswaded that in some case it was lawfull to denie Subiection to the Pope Wherefore it will belong to you either to renounce this sacrilegious Article or to vn-hallow and vn-saint this holy man The Generall CHALLENGE concerning the forenamed Saints ALl this while that wee haue laboured to confute your former Romane Article from the iudgements of ancient Fathers and holy Saints we haue insisted onely in them whose names are celebrated in your Romane Church and recorded in the publike Calendar thereof or in your Martyrologe of Saints to wit Saint Polycarpus Saint Cyprian Saint Athanasius Saint Basil Saint Hilary of Poictou Saint Hierom Saint Ambrose Saint Augustine and Saint Hilary of Arles all of them in the opinion of all Christians deseruing of the Church of Christ the most Honourable Title of SAINTS besides the other Attributes which for further Amplification of their worthinesse are ascribed vnto them as adorning Saint Polycarp with the Title of the Doctor of Asia Cyprian the most famous Doctor Saint Hilary of Arles with the Title of Sanctity And as for the rest you shall need no more than that which your Cardinall Baronius testifieth in his Dedicatory Epistle vnto Pope Clement the Eight I present before you saith he Athanasius the Great and Basil the Great two Chiefes or eminent Topps of the East-Church and Hilary Hierom Ambrose and Augustine the Foure Principalls of the Westerne Church Pillars of the Faith and Miracles of the World with this company of so excellent Fathers your throne is crowned So he What larger Assumption could your Cardinall haue made in Ostentation of the Papall Monarchy from the Authority of these Fathers then to boast vnto the Pope of the establishing of his Throne by the Testimonies of the same Saints Wherefore seeing we likewise doe ioyntly Appeale vnto these holy Fathers as vnto most impartiall witnesses of Truth you are by your amplifications of their Learning Wisedome Constancie in the Faith and Sanctity as by so many Obligations bound to stand to their iudgements by which the sinewes of your Romane Article are broken asunder First of Necessity of Vnion with Secondly of Subiection vnto the Church and Bishop of Rome as The Catholike Church and Bishop Thirdly the Beleefe of the Necessity of both these And each of those Three vpon losse of Saluation to All them that are not of this Beleefe Recall to minde the former Passages concerning the behauiour of these Saints in whom you haue seene professed Opposition in matter of Doctrine against the Pope and Church of Rome by setting Councell against Councell by taxing the Romane Church of Pride and Ignorance by contempt of the Popes Excommunication by condemning his Condemnation by Anathematizing his person by preferring the iudgement of the East-Church before hers in the great Question of the Canon of Scriptures as well of the Old as of the New Testament Can you desire a more cleare Demonstration of a Beleefe of no Necessity of Vnion with the Pope or Sea of Rome than this is But because you hold it not sufficient to Saluation that a man professe Vnion in Faith with the Church of Rome except also he acknowledge an absolute Subiection in Discipline vnto her Iurisdiction it may not be held superfluous to repeate vnto you the liuely Characters of their no Subiection by denying of Conformitie with Rome in so little as in a Rite whether of a Fast or of Washing of Feete by inhibiting foraine Prouinces to Appeale To Rome and permitting of Appeales sometimes From Rome to a Councell by equalling other Bishops with the Bishop of Rome and making Rome so A Church that it cannot be The Catholike Church any more than Carthage or any other Particular Church is and by maintaining of Iurisdiction against the Bishop of Rome Lastly for as much as neither Vnion in Faith with the Church of Rome nor Subiection in Discipline vnto her doth by your Romane Article satisfie except a Christian haue also beleefe of the Necessity of both the former in euery one that shall seeke to be saued ponder with your selues whether these Fathers if they were as both you and wee proclaime them Saints could beleeue in their hearts and mindes that
Necessity either of Vnion with or Subiection vnto that Church which they gaine-sayd and renounced in their writings and deeds But you will say Is it possible that the Church of Rome should honour for Saints those who vpon due examination are Aduersaries to this her supreme Hierarchie Yes why not as well as it was possible you know for the Sects among the Iewes to murther the Prophets and yet after their death to build them goodly Sepulchers and Monuments as Christ saith But you will pardon vs if wee imabracing their more renowned Monuments which are their Writings professe to imitate them in their doctrine the chiefest honour belonging to these Saints by whom wee are taught to condemne your now Romane Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church and beleefe of Necessity of Vnion and Subiestion thereunto without which say you there is no Saluation as both Imposterous and Impious because derogating from the iudgements of so admirably holy Saints If we were to speake of other Saints not specified in the Romane Martyrologe or Catalogue of Saints we might be infinite but we are contented with these adding in their due places Those who are proued to haue beene Excommunicated by the Popes and notwithstanding acknowledged holy Bishops after their death as namely Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria Atticus Patriarch of Constantinople Cyril and Acatius Patriarchs of Alexandria all little regarding the Popes Excommunication together with Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople CHAP. XIII Our Eight and last Argument to confute this Romane Article of beleeuing The Catholâ—ke Romane Church and Bishop thereof c. is by discouering the Falshood Vanity and Nullity of your Defence in your Obiections from Antiquity NOt but that we willingly confesse that your Doctors and defenders of this Article are and haue beene great Schollers Professors of all Arts diligent in the studie of Diuine knowledge and conuersant in the Volumes of Ancient Fathers Notwithstanding haue you not heard of a Creature that was the wisest of all Beasts but alas wilie withall euen to the circumuenting of all Mankinde Doe you not reade of a Wise Steward but yet vniust And is it not written that there are some More wise but respectiuely in their generation who neuerthelesse are Children of darkenesse The Authors of the most absurd Paradoxes ought to haue beene men of singular wit were it hee that defended that the Snow is blacke But whether your Doctors haue any affinity with these wee shall in the end permit to your iudgements Sure we are that when Truth shall bee manifest true Wisedome shall be iustified of her children Your first kinde of Obiections which are taken from Titles attributed to the Pope or to his Sea by Councels and the falshood and vanity of the Consequence thereof discouered by Parallels SECT 1. LAy you downe first your Generall Conclusion what you meane to proue That say you the Pope of Rome doth succeed Saint Peter in the Monarchy or Supreme Dominion of the Church Now then seeing you know the marke looke that you keepe true aime still directing all your Premises to this Conclusion One Generall Councell saith say you that The Church of Rome hath alwaies had the Primacy Another that They met by the commandement of the Pope of Rome and that the Church of Rome is the Head and they the members A third that They deposed a Bishop by the command of the Pope A fourth calleth the Pope The Vniuersall Bishop of the Church to whom is committed the Vineyard of the Lord A fifth professeth to Obey the Bishop of Rome A sixt yeeldeth Primacy to the Romane Church and calleth it the Head of all other Churches So you Your Enthymeme from hence is this These Titles haue beene giuen by Councells vnto the Pope and Sea of Rome Ergo the Pope and Church of Rome haue Monarchicall power that is sole Dominion ouer all Others Your Antecedents are to bee denyed as wee shall finde iust occasion thereunto but your Consequences and Arguments wee doe absolutely renounce and that most truly and necâ—ssarily as will bee euident from point to point and that by Parallelling and comparing other Churches and Bishops adorned with the equiualent Termes and Titles whereby you seeme to erect your Papall Monarchy Did then the Councell mention that they receiued Mandates from the Popes which is indeede an egregious Falsehood or did one in the Councell say that they did Obey the Apostolike Sea of Rome And did not also Pope Liberius as you know writing to Bishop Athanasius say I desire to heare from you that I may speedily execute your Mandates and Commands Ought you not therefore to haue distinguished of tearmes of Courtesie familiar in the Latine speech as Cicero teacheth in his familiar Epistle to his Brother Quintus I saith hee shall diligently performe your Mandates Is there any phrase more frequent in our English Complement than to shew our respects to our friends by calling our yeelding to their good and wholesome admonitions directions and aduises our Obeying and their requests vnto vs their Commands Will you needs draw an Argumâ—nt of your Popes Monarchie out of a bare phrase of courtesie ordinarily vsed among Equals and not thus onely but in the rigid and exact sense thereof contrary to the discretion of one of the best Popes For whereas the Bishop of Alexandria writing to Pope Gregorie did signifie that he had receiued his Commands I command saith Gregorie I commanded not Let not mee heare of the word Command as proceeding from me The same Pope acknowledged his Subiection and Obedience to the Emperour Mauritius and your Cardinall answereth These saith hee were words of humilitie according to the common tenour of speech wherein we vse to say wee obey when we performe another mans desire So hee Where wee are compelled to challenge the conscience of your Cardinall who hearing of Obedience to the Pope extendeth it to the highest note of Monarchie and reading of the Popes Obedience to the Emperour abaseth it to the lowest straine of humilitie especially seeing that those Councels could not be said in exact sence to haue Obeyed the Pope as Subiects all which as hath bin proued concluded some things preiudiciall to this pretended Monarchie Againe Pope Gregorie acknowledged his Obedience in the proper sense of Subiection and performed it also as much as any Subiect possibly could euer do As for example The Emperour commandeth that holy Pope Gregorie to divulge his Edict and Proclamation touching a matter which in the iudgment of the same Gregorie himselfe was contrary to the Law of God the Pope admonisheth the Emperour how repugnant his Law was to the Law of God but performeth the Emperours Command in publishing and diuulging his Edict and hereupon writeth to the Emperour as followeth I your vnworthy seruant subiect to your Command haue published your Law and caused it to be transferred throughout diuers parts Wherein I
haue done that which I ought both in performing Obedience to the Emperour namely by publishing the Decree and also to God by reuealing vnto you his will So hee Hardly shall any finde a more expresse example of direct Subiection and Obedience from any Subiect than this is of that holy Pope vnto the Emperour Mauritius Nor are all of your side so blinde as not able to discerne this Midday-light For Gregorie called the First and the Great saith your Espencaeus doth ingenuously acknowledge that Emperours haue from God a Dominion ouer Priests Your Second Title is calling the Sea of Rome HEAD yea The Head of all Churches Must they therefore meane a Monarchicall Head according to your Conclusion ouer all other Churches by way of Dominion If so to omit your Additament of Falsehood then was Chrysostome to blame to call Antioch The Head of the whole World then was Iustinian vniust to require all to Follow Constantinople the regall Citie as the Head of all Cities And so by pressing Titles you see your Monarchie turned into a Triarchie A Third Title is the calling of the Pope The Bishop of the Vniuersall Church which though they were not the words of the Councell but of Two Deacons writing to the Councell and of Paschasius the Popes Legate in the same Councell which the Councell being content with the Popes Subscription to their Act would not question for the forme Yet may you not make of this an Argument of Monarchicall power of the Church and Bishop of Rome except you will set more Heads and Monarchs than One vpon the shoulders of the Church because the Bishops of Syria instiled Iohn the Bishop of Constantinople The Vniuersall Patriarke and the Bishop of Rome also intitled Tharasius The Vniuersall Patriarke The whole errour lurketh vnder an Equiuocation in the word Bishop of the Vniuersall Church which what it may signifie your owne Authors tell you The Bishop of the Vniuersall Church say you doth signifie one possessed with a Care and studie for the good of the Vniuersall Church So they which is common to euery Religious Bishop in the Church of Christ but in a more eminent degree and larger extent it belongeth to euery Patriarke and this sense we doe approue of Or else it may signifie One hauing All the Bishops of All other Churches vnder his Subiection which sense is here seriously and zealously obiected by your Cardinall to proue the Monarchie of the Pope of Rome and which hath bin by S. Gregorie Pope of Rome as earnestly abhorred and detested and as much as his godly heart could execrated for so he speaketh of it as a New naughtie proud prophane blasphemous and Antichristian Title which saith hee none of my Predecessors euer vsed The next Title attributed vnto the Bishop of Rome by a Generall Councell is that The Vineyard of the Lord which is his Church is said to be committed vnto him which serueth for another post to support the ruinous Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome But all in vaine For Pope Eleutherius himselfe writing to the Bishops in France The Vniuersall Church of Christ saith hee is committed vnto you that you may labour for the good of all men It were more than Monstrous that this your Monarch should create so many Monarches ouer the Church Catholike as were all the Bishops of France No these kinde of Attributes haue not other signification than the Care that euery Bishop should haue in wishing and to his power endeauouring the Vniuersall good of the whole Church In which sense Saint Nazianzene speaking in the praise of Athanasius To him is committed the Praesidencie of the people of Alexandria which is as much as to say saith hee the gouernment of the whole world So hee How should not this equall if not exceede whatsoeuer can be ascribed to the Pope of Rome and yet this is no vniuersall power of Iurisdiction but onely of Prouidence and Care namely Sic quibusdam praeesse vt prodesse possit vniuersis The last Title is that which is set downe in the First and last place That the Primacie aboue all Bishops is yeelded vnto the Bishop of the Church of Rome True and this Truth was neuer denied by any Protestant But what Primacie of Monarchie and Dominion Noe but of Order and Honour For haue you neuer heard of Two Cities in one Kingdome Two Sheriffes in one Citie Two Bayliffes in one Burrough one of them being Head and Chiefe and hauing Superioritie and Prioritie that is Primacie aboue another and yet without any right of Authoritie and Dominion one ouer one another Our next Answer shall be by Retorsion Foure Generall Councels haue bin produced by your side to proue the Church of Rome and Bishop thereof to haue Monarchicall power ouer all other Churches and Bishops in an ambiguitie of phrases Albeit not onely these Foure but also Foure more haue notably impugned your pretended Monarchie as well in the Ecclesiasticall as in the Temporall power and Prerogatiue thereof For you may remember that the First Generall Councell limited the Dioces as well of Rome as of Alexandria The Second erected a new Patriarkship with the no good liking of the Church of Rome The Third excluded the Pope from all Iurisdiction in Cyprus The Fourth established the former Patriarkship erected by the Second Councell with priuileges equall to Rome and held the Romane Primacie not to be founded by any Diuine Law The Fifth condemned Pope Vigilius as Schismaticall The Sixt and Seauenth condemned Pope Honorius as Haereticall The Eight prescribed a Law to Rome inioyning her to Obserue it And againe these Eight Generall Councels were disposed at their Assemblies to preferre the Emperours of their Times in place and throne of dignitie aboue the Popes of Rome CHALLENGE IS then the Popedome of Rome a Monarchie why answer vs First is a Monarch limited of his Subiects Secondly doth a Monarch suffer others to create Honours within his kingdome Thirdly Will a Monarch indure Corriuals or Equals Fourthly Can a Monarch the supreme Iudge be subiect to the iudgement and condemnation of his people Fiftly Must not a Monarch challenge the possession of his chiefe Throne in his Parliament and be so acknowledged by the whole state If therefore you shall further obserue what hath bin opposed against your Titles you may easily vnderstand that not any one which hath bin obiected doth inferre your Conclusion to proue the Pope of Rome a Monarch except you shall acknowledge Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria Chrysostome Bishop of Antioch Iohn Bishop of Constantinople and All the Bishops of France together with all other Bishops to whom the same Titles were ascribed to haue bin which breaketh the necke of Monarchie Monarkes as well as the Bishop of Rome And if in the Second place you consider the Testimonies which we haue alleaged out of twice Foure Generall Councels directly concluding not by any speciousnesse of Words but
Scriptures Chrysostome called by Pope Innocentius The Great Doctor of the whole world Augustine called The most singular Doctor of all Churches And Hilarius by your Cardinall worthily accompted The greatest Doctor and Pillar of the Catholike Church Next if you would haue Metaphoricall phrases of like efficacy and Emphasis you may obserue Athanasius anciently called The stay and foundation of the Church Basil the mouth of the Church the eye of the world the light of the world and the Sunne among the Starres Lastly if you require a further expression and commendation of the credit and Authority of the forenamed Fathers in the Truth of their Doctrines then may you happen vpon some which will more Emphatically and significantly giue your Papall Monarches the mate as namely that the Doctrines of Athanasius were of that credit that they were held for A Rule of the Orthodoxe Faith Nazianzene to haue bene of so great estimation for his Doctrine that he obtained the surname of Diuine primitiuely ascribed to the Euangelist Saint Iohn insomuch that whosoeuer dissented from him in any point of Doctrine was thereupon so much rather iudged an Heretike euery one being deemed not to be sound in the Faith that accorded not to him in beliefe Ambrose to haue receiued and gouerned the helme of the Faith in the ship of Christ which is his Church Augustine to haue bene honoured of all as the builder againe of the ancient Faith and Cyril of Alexandria to haue bene called The Iudge of the whole world Thus much of the twelfth Title The Thirteenth The Bishop of Rome say you was called by Saint Augustine The Bishop of the Apostolike Sea meaning the Romane without addition of the word Romane Ergò by way of Excellency it argueth him to be Monarch False for so the Bishop of Alexandria was in like manner called by Saint Hierome The Bishop of the Apostolicall Sea without any addition of the word Alexandrian Yea but you say the Bishop of Rome is further said to hold the Principality or Chiefedome of the Apostolicall Sea Ergò Monarch False for the Bishop of Antioch also was said to possesse The Primacy of the Apostolike Sea yea and Others also Oh but further say you the office of the Bishop of Rome is called an Apostleship Ergò Monarch False for if this Consequence be extended to the times of the Apostles then must Iudas Iscariot haue bene a Monarch who had an Apostleship Act. 1.25 And Matthias after him should haue bene another Monarch who was chosen into the same Apostleship from which Iudas fell And if you restraine it to after-times then can no Bishop properly arrogate an Apostleship which was an Office as your selues confesse Proper vnto the immediate Apostles of Christ. Lastly the Bishop of Rome say you was called The Vniuersall Bishop Ergò Monarch False for as is confessed the Popes of Rome by conniuency yeelded to the Bishop of Constantinople that the Bishop of that Sea should vse the same Title of Vniuersall Bishop as well as the Bishop of Rome and yet was he no more Monarch than Cyril the now Patriarch of Alexandria who is instiled Pope and Vniuersall Iudge at this day Our third Discouery of the Falshood and Vanity of the Papall Defence from bare Titles is by your owne Contradictions SECT 4. HItherto haue we examined your Titles giuen to the Popes of Rome in the equall scales of Comparison with other Bishops and find them all too light neither scale being able to carry the weight of a Monarch We now proceed to a further Confutation of your Arguments Consequences in many of them from your owne Confessions and Reasons You haue first obiected the Title of Pope of Rome as The most ancient name of the Bishop of Rome yet you confesse that there was a time so Ancient when Neither the name of Papa or Pontifex were attributed to the Bishop of Rome but onely the bare Title of Bishop of Rome Againe of this name you haue affirmed that it was Anciently giuen to the Bishop of Rome Per Antonomasiam by way of Excellence as proper vnto him and yet you grant that The name of Pope was appropriated onely to the Bishop of Rome by the Decree of Pope Gregory the seauenth in a Councell at Rome about the yeare 1073. Againe you noted the Bishop of Rome to be called Papa Ecclesiae Father of the Church as if he were altogether Father and could not by any Relation be Filius Ecclesiae the Child of the Church or Subiect to a Councell Which bladder of pride was pricked by the Fathers of the Councell of Basil arguing thus If the Church Catholike be the Mother of all the faithfull then the Bishop of Rome ought to be Child vnto her else according to that saying of blessed Augustine he cannot haue God for his Father that hath not the Church for his Mother So they Haue you not now by your propriety of the name Papa spunne a faire threed whereby you strangle your Popes and Popedome it selfe As for the fourth Title of Summus Pontifex or Chiefe Priest you haue auouched from thence that the Pope of Rome is the onely Monareh And yet yeeld that there may be Two Chiefes in euery kind namely Negatiuely as that which hath none aboue it although not Affirmatiuely chiefe as that which is aboue all others So then it is not necessary that the word Chiefe should inferre a Supremacy else Pope Leo was farre ouershot when speaking of Bishops in Generall he called them Summi Pontifices Chiefe Priests and so making All other Popes made himselfe none at all because still the Monarchy can be but of One. Nor thus onely but further you who by one Cardinall haue made these words Pontifex Maximus and Sacerdos Summus to be Notes of Monarchie in the Popes do by another Cardinall contradict it saying that The name of Pontifex Maximus may admit of Equality with others except there be ioyned with this another Title of Bishop of Bishops Which also as you know is insufficient because Pope Clemens in the Epistle which you call his called the Apostle Saint Iames The Bishop of Bishops euen in the dayes of Saint Peter The ninth Title you contended for as proper to the Pope was the name of Pastor or Sheapheard of the flocke of Christ Notwithstanding of all other Bishops in the Christian Church the Pope hath least right to be called Pastor except it be Per Antiphrasim à non pascendo because you cannot reckon for some hundreds of yeares scarce any One Pope that professedly discharged his Function of Preaching albeit Preaching be acknowledged more than once by your Fathers of the Councell of Trent to be The Chiefe office of a Bishop If therefore as your Cardinall himselfe preached He deserueth not the name of
see notably Blasphemous Then which what better manifestation can there be of the vanity and impiety of your Papisticall Defence Hauing spoken of the Attributes wee now come to the Sentences of Ancient Fathers Your Obiection from Ancient Fathers is taken from their Sentences both Greeke and Latine First of the Greeke Fathers by discouering the Falshood and Vanity of your Papall Defence SECT 6. POpes of Rome in Primitiue Times by their constancy in the Faith by their integrity of life by the Primacy of their place in their priority of Order and by the Generall estimation which was held of them in each of these respects obtained an Authority of credit to helpe all Bishops and Patriarchs in their extremities onely they had no Vniuersall Iurisdiction or Dominion ouer them Hence are the Sentences of Fathers Obiected in the Margent which doe appeare so notably abused by your Obiections The absurdities of whose Consequence we choose in this place to discouer by Similitudes as the Prophet Nathan dealt with Dauid The Case then standeth thus as if they would haue taught those holy Fathers to haue argued Absurdly As from the First namely Ignatius thus The Church of York hath a Seat of Primacy in the Prouince of York therefore that Church is the Head of all Churches within this Kingdome From the Second to wit Iraeneus as if thus It is now necessary for all sorts of Tradesmen to haue recourse to London for their wares for the abundant store which is in that City therefore this Necessity is absolute no-where but at London and perpetuall neuer any where else can it be but at London From the Third viz. Epiphanius and the Fourth viz. Athanasius as if thus A.R. in the County of Suffolke craued pardon of the Shiriffe of Middlesex for a notorious offence done vnto him Ergo he accounted that Shiriffe to haue Authority of a Shiriffe in the County of Suffolke From the Fifth that is Dionysius Alexandrinus as if thus Two Gentlemen one being Iustice of Peace agreed to haue their difference to be ordered by another Iustice of Peace Ergo one of these Iustices of Peace hath Dominion ouer the other Of the Sixt which is Basil much hath beene said already somewhat more presently after From the Seuenth which is Gregory Nazianzene and the Eight namely Zozomene as if thus The Parish within the Tower of London liueth in peace as becommeth that place which commandeth the whole City As though the word Command in this place did note the Ecclesiasticall part that is the Parish to be Commander and not the Tower it selfe Politickely vnderstood From the Ninth to wit Crysostome as if a King of Poland vniustly deposed by his people and flying to the King of Hungary for helpe to preserue the Law of Nations for rhe Regality of Kings and thanking him for his Fatherly loue and care did thereby acknowledge the King of Hungary to bee a King ouer the King of Poland Of the Tenth to wit Cyrill of Alexandria presently after From the Eleuenth that is Theodoret some-what differing from the former thus As if the Bishop of Arles in France being deposed by a Synod of his fellow Bishops for Heresie desiring helpe for his Restitution from the Bishop of Paris and also from other Bishops within his owne Prouince by auouching vnto him and them his Orthodoxe Faith and being thereupon restored by the same Synod by which hee was repulsed did therefore iudge the Bishop of Paris the Supreme Iudge of all the other Bishops From the Twelfth who was Acacius as if one should argue thus The King of Great Brittaine might haue beene surnamed Pacificus because hee had a Care of the Peace of all Christendome therefore he ought to bee held Supreme aboue the Emperour Or thus that Saint Paul who vsed the same speech now Obiected of hauing the care of all Churches must therefore be esteemed to haue had a Gouernement aboue Peter and all the other Apostles From the Thirteenth viz. Liberatus as if thus Although Liberatus who was an Author that had beene deceiued by Heretikes in giuing credit to their false and forged writings doth thus report yet we must not distrust him when he reporteth for the Pope Or else thus We must beleeue that of the Bishop of Patara which he himselfe could not beleeue The last who is Iustinian hath beene already answered by a Parallel of other Bishops and Bishoprickes which haue beene called Heads of all Churches without any colour of a Crowne of Monarchie Our Second discouery of the falshood and Vanity of your former Consequence taken from the Testimonies of some of the Ancient Fathers aboue mentioned SECT 7. THe Fathers that haue beene alleadged were of the Easterne Church and therefore doubtlesse were of the Faith of those Generall Councels in the East which haue beene knowne to oppose themselues to the pretended Papall Iurisdiction as oft as they had iust Cause so to doe Which one Consideration ought to be your full satisfaction in this point Notwithstanding for a clearer conuiction of that falshood which we haue beene constrained so often to complaine of in your Obiectors We proceed to a Second Answer which is by Retorsion in auouching your owne witnesses against you Saint Basil is the Sixth Witnesse which your Cardinall produced one so aduerse to your Cause as that hee you know fell into an extreme distrust of the Church of Rome which be iustly condemned of Pride and Ignorance and also accompted Athanasius Bishop of Antioch to be in his time in respect of his sound and sincere iudgement The Chiefe Head of all others If now Saint Basil cannot be called a Subiect to your Monarch the Pope of Rome then ought you to haue patience with Protestants who haue tenne-fold more iust cause aginst the Church of Rome than he at that time possibly could haue Saint Cyrill Patriarch of Alexandria hath beene cited for the Ninth witnesse whom because his Testimonie requireth a larger discussion we haue reserued to this place The Story concerning him as you may collect out of your Baronius consisteth of Three parts 1. In behalfe of Theophilus Predecessor to Cyrill the 2. Touching Atticus Patriarch of Constantinople an Admonisher of Cyrill the 3. Is acted by Cyrill himselfe Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria and Predecessor to Cyrill was Excommunicated by Pope Innocentius for not admitting of the name of Chrysostome now dead into the Dyptickes or Tables of publike Commemorations in which Excommunication the same Theophilus continued vntill the last houre of his death And how little support you can haue for that which your Cardinall addeth touching his altering of his opinion at the very point of death will appeare in handling the Second and Third part Secondly therefore Atticus Patriarch of Constantinople who had runne the same course of Opposition with Theophilus against the Restoring of the Name of Chrysostome now after the
death of Theophilus inclineth to the other side and vnderstanding that Cyrill was chosen Patriarch of Alexandria in succession of Theophilus he writeth to Cyril an Epistle wherein he recompteth Theophilus in the number of Saints and seeketh to perswade Cyrill to the Restoring of Chrysostomes name into the publike Records But will you know by what Reasons euen by the Conference had with the Emperour Theodosius and signifying that he was Vrged vnto it by the necessity of the present distraction and tumultuousnesse of the people but not so much as in one syllable to haue any consideration of the Popes will and Command or of the danger of his Excommunication belike the stinch of that his Thunderbolt was not so rancke and noysome in his daies Nay contrarily as Baronius will haue vs to obserue Atticus euen at this time of his yeelding to the restoring of the name of Chrysostome being extremely displeased with the Church of Rome by which he himselfe had beene excommunicated called other two Easterne Bishops Schismatickes euen because they had ioyned in Communion with her What call men Schismatickes for ioyning Communion with the Church of Rome Then it is plaine that he yeeldeth not to the Restoring of Chrysostome's Name by compulsion of the Pope as hath beene fained And it is as cleare that Theophilus did not recant his former iudgement at the point of death else would Atticus haue vsed this as an Argument to perswade Cyrill in behalfe of Chrysostome especially making mention of Theophilus in the same Epistle and whether rather Atticus that liued in the same Time with Theophilus know better the manner thereof or a Relator that came many hundred yeeres after iudge you But which is most euident of all Atticus although hee did now That which was desired of the Pope of Rome concerning Chrysostome notwithstanding calling those Bishops Schismatickes who for their respect to Chrysostome ioyned Communion with that Excommunicating Church of Rome and yet naming Theophilus a Saint doth proue sufficiently that Theophilus whom the Pope had Excommunicated neuer sought to haue Vnion with him before his death Neuerthelesse this Atticus Eighteene yeeres after his death was acknowledged by Pope Celestinus to haue beene A most strong Champion for the Catholike Faith Now entereth Cyrill himselfe to act his owne part Hee after hee had professed his defence of the Canon of Nice against Chrysostome returneth this Answer to Atticus Since the time that you Atticus saith he haue beene Bishop in the Sea of Constantinople no man resisted your meetings or Synods in the Church or if any wilfully separated themselues yet by the grace of Christ they were recalled And who was there among the Magistrates that was not obedient vnto you Or what one man for this cause is now without the Church Surely none But you tell me that since your relenting much peace hath insued in the Churches be it so yet there being so many Churches with vs which stand out against the restoring of the name of Chrysostome we may not dissent from them Thus Saint Cyrill in his Epistle as your Cardinall hath related Where hee speaketh of the Churches of Constantinople and Antioch of Constantinople hee affirmeth that at all times therefore in the time when Atticus himselfe the Bishop of Constantinople was Excommunicated by the Church of Rome as hath beene confessed both Clergie Magistrates and people within those Churches did notwithstanding the Papall dis-vnion and Separation Communicate with Atticus And now concerning his owne Patriarchall Church of Alexandria Cyril himselfe professeth that hee must not dissent from it and many other Churches in Greece that yeelded not to the Decree of the Church of Rome which againe ouerthroweth your Article of absolute Necessity of Subiection to the Romane Church Cyrill proceedeth in his Answer to Atticus But wee condemne them saith he that obey not the power of God vsing that saying of the Prophet we haue cured Babylon and shee is not healed let vs forsake her For we may not because of the speaches of some if any such speaches be suffer the Canons of the Church to be abolished So he By which words he laboureth to perswade Atticus againe to gaine-say the Commemoration of Chrysostome which the Pope by all his meanes of threats of Excommunications and perswasions sought to effect But what of all this will you say What hearken to your Cardinall Reader I would haue thee Consider saith he that in this bitternesse of contention which Cyrill now had against the Restitution of the name of Chrysostome against whom he inueigheth in this Epistle yet for Reuerence sake hee durst not say any thing openly and expressely against Pope Innocentius who was the Author and chiefe cause of restoring Chrysostomes name into the Dyptickes and reuenged himselfe vpon those that withstood it as did Theophilus Predecessor to Cyril whom for that cause the Pope depriued of his Communion Thus farre reacheth your Cardinals Consideration From whence you may be pleased to consider with vs how slily and smoothly your Cardinall slydeth ouer this piece of ice for feare breaking it and of falling in Cyrill forsooth for Reuerence durst not say any thing openly against Pope Innocentius who authorized the restoring of Chrysostome c. As though it might not be said Quid verba audiam cùm facta videam words are but shadowes deeds are substantialls And Cyrill did more and that openly than your Cardinall saith he durst say For knowing that Theophilus had beene Excommunicate for Opposing the Decree of the Pope yet doth Cyrill persist in the same Opposition which may be a second Argument vnto vs that Theophilus had not recanted before his death Secondly knowing that Atticus Patriarch of Constantinople had beene likewise depriued of the Popes Communion notwithstanding doth Cyrill perswade Atticus by his letters to stand in the defence of the same Cause Thirdly knowing that Pope Innocentius did still vrge the aduancing of the Memory of Chrysostome neuerthelesse doth Cyrill actually resist it Can a man interpret it a point of Reuerence toward a Monarch to say nothing and yet openly to withstand his Monarchy So false in those daies was your Article of Necessity of Subiection to the Church of Rome in the iudgement of Saint Cyrill who indeed deserued of the Church of Christ the Title of a Saint and is so acknowledged by your selues Gladly would your Baronius if it might bee support your Cause by the Testimony of Nicephorus who sheweth that Cyrill reformed his iudgement before his death But if were it reasonable to beleeue a Tale of Nicephorus an Author often reprooued by your selues for his Fabulousnesse being made more than Eight hundred yeere after the party is dead yet can it not any whit serue your turne because hee telleth that Cyrill corrected his errour concerning his dis-estimation of Chrysostome moued thereunto by a Vision that hee had wherein He thought he saw Chrysostome expelling him
out of the Church and therefore he assembled a Prouinciall Synod for the restoring of the name of Chrysostome into the publike Tables of the Church We should haue expected in a Case concerning your Papall Monarchy that Cyrill that was thus moued by a Vision of Chrysostome to repent the not-restoring of his name should haue much more beene moued by his certaine knowledge of the displeasure of your Supreme Monarch the Pope of Rome who did nothing but flash and thunder out Excommunications against all Opposites and that the Restitution of Chrysostomes name should haue beene done simply by Submission to the same Popes Decree and not onely according to Cyrill his determination by the consent of his owne Prouinciall Councell or that the Cause of alteration should haue beene if Nicephorus may deserue any credit onely by vertue of a Vision in a dreame The Eleuenth and for wee should bee two tedious to pursue your Cardinalls vnconscionablenesse in each one the last that we shall insist in is Acacius Bishop of Constantinople He is brought in to witnesse in his Epistle to Pope Simplicius that the same Pope had The Care of all Churches as if the word Vniuersall Care of all Churches did conclude an Vniuersall power and Monarchy ouer them all The Vanity of which Consequence hath beene discouered by diuers Instances in Others to whom the like Vniuersall Care of all Churches was applied as vnto Saint Paul in the dayes of Peter to Athanasius in the dayes of Pope Iulius and to the Bishops of France in the dayes of Pope Eleutherius in whom you will sweare wee know there was nothing lesse intended than a Monarchicall Popedome But that this sense should be collected out of the words of Acacius it exceedeth all limits of modesty For what one Bishop can you name of those times that euer opposed himself more against the Iurisdiction of the Pope of Rome than did this Patriarch of Constantinople Acacius This you may easily try by the manifold out-cries of Baronius vpon him for his defence of Peter Mogge by him established in the Bishopricke of Alexandria against the will of the same Pope Simplicius calling him a Franticke man violently opposite vnto the Bishop of Rome insomuch that the Pope did Excommunicate him but hee shewed his contempt of that Censure sufficiently by liuing and dying therein Was not this Witnesse worthily selected by your Cardinall trow you who in that hee saith doth nothing aduantage Papall claime and in that which he publikely worketh and acteth doth quite ouerthrow it Wee may not let passe the publike Sanction and Decree of the Emperour Leo whereby hee authorized and ratified the great dignitie of the Patriarchship of Constantinople and the Patriarch thereof For therein he calleth Acacius A most blessed and religious Patriarke the Church of Constantinople hee nameth The Mother of all Christians that professe the Orthodox Religion the Priuileges of that Church hee requireth and decreeth to be as ample as euer they at any time had beene before or in the time of his Empire and to continue in the same latitude and extent perpetually to all future ages This is the effect of this Emperors Decree and can this accord with your Romish Monarchie Your Baronius the chiefe Herald that we can read of for the blazoning and magnifying of it will say No for he fretteth at the very heart in reading of it and therefore vpon his owne sole coniecture will haue his Reader thinke that the frame of this Sanction was stiled by Acacius himselfe that called the Church of Constantinople The Mother of all Christians professing the Orthodox Faith and that therefore these were not saith he the words of that godly Emperor So he As though the Church of Constantinople so large in its own Ecclesiasticall Dioces and by reason of the Emperiall Seat in that Citie so potent in the discharge of Patriarchall Function might not be called the Mother of All Orthodoxall Churches although not as Rome falsely and ridiculously stileth her selfe as if she were the Procreating Mother of all Churches since Christ and so for many Churches Christian were planted before Rome a Mother before she was borne a Childe yet a Nursing Mother might Constantinople be then iustly named so farre as her care and endeauor sought and laboured the Conseruation of all others in pietie and Religion But not to stand vpon the Stile looke vpon the Matter it selfe and then will this Godly Emperour proue as Theodosius and other Predecessours before him a Patron of the Priuiledges of the Church of Constantinople Equall with the Prerogatiues of ROME according to the Decree of the Generall Councell of Chalcedon notwithstanding the much fuming and fretting of your Popes thereat to this day And who can blame your later and Monarchicall Popes who know right well that Monarchie brooketh no Aequalitie Caesar if hee will be Monarch must be either Solus or Nullus onely One or None at all CHALLENGE IF the importunitie of the Cause had not exacted of vs so large a discourse we might haue spared thus much paines which wee haue bestowed in this disquisition for the discouery of the Vanitie of your Romish Claime by the Testimony of the Ancient Fathers in the Greeke Church wherein haue bin laid open so many falsehoods of your Proctor as that hee may be iustly suspected to haue pleaded your Romane Cause Strenuè sanè feruently enough but according to the Prouerbe Graecâ fide Your Obiections from the Sentences of Latine Fathers for your Papall Defence and the Falshood and Vanitie thereof discouered First from Saint Cyprian SECT 8. THE First Father whom your Cardinall produceth for proofe that the Church of ROME and Bishop thereof is sole Monarke ouer all other Churches and Bishops is Cyprian wee say Cyprian that Pole-starre of true Bishops and admirable Martyr of Christ whom wee haue proued to haue beene by his writings as an Ecclesiasticall Hanniball at the gates of Rome crying defiance to the presumed Monarchie thereof And sooner shall your Cardinall pull the Club of Hercules out of his hands than wrest away from Cyprians writings the Patronage which Protestants thence haue for defence of this present Cause The Obiection of your Cardinall is onely a racking of certaine phrases of Cyprian as namely One Church one Root one Priest in Christ his stead one Chaire one Bishopricke one Bishop c. Euery one of these Ones hee expoundeth to point out in speciall the Proper Church of Rome and not to be either vsed Generally for what soeuer Church or Bishop else nor yet particularly for Cyprian himselfe or for the Church of Carthage whereof he was Bishop This is the maine issue of this Cause concerning the Testimonies of Cyprian Two Formes of Answering lye directly before vs First is that Cyprian may be expounded by his owne Words Secondly that his Words may be interpreted by his Workes One Chaire saith hee beginning at Peter
but to signifie that hee ment not the Chaire of Iurisdiction in One but of Vnion equally in Many he addeth The other Apostles were the same with Peter indued with equall honour and power Therefore by Chaire hee meant not any particular See of Peter but the Vnion of one Vniuersall Church gouerned by an Aristocraticall Equality of many We leaue the true Peter and come to the counterfeit whom you call your Pope and see if you can take any better hold either at the word Episcopatus Bishoprick or Episcopus Bishop There is one Bishopricke saith Cyprian dispersed throughout the world consisting of the vnanimous multitude of many Bishops If by One Bishopricke were meant onely the See of Rome then should there be so many Bishops of Rome as there are Bishops throughout the world This one Sentence of Cyprian breaketh the necke of your Cardinals conceit that will haue vs to vnderstand by Bishopricke in Cyprian the Indiuiduall Bishopricke of the Pope of Rome and not a generall Complexion and Comprehension of All. But that you may further know that Cyprian himselfe will challenge a part in this Bishopricke as well as the Pope Wee saith he that gouerne in the Church ought to hold Vnity that so we may proue the Bishopricke to be but one The Bishopricke is but one a portion whereof is wholly and fully held of Euery Bishop To signifie that in the Essentiall nature of a Bishop euery Bishop is equall and the Collection of All doth equally make vp this One Vniuersall Bishopricke Which can no more agree as your Cardinall would haue it to the Particular Bishopricke of Rome than if hee would conclude that because there is One Man-hood whereof euery man whatsoeuer in the world hath equally a portion therefore this Man-hood is proper to Clement Pope of Rome If your Plea faile in the word One Bishopricke it will neuer preuaile in the word One Bishop for Bishopricke and Bishop are Relatiues and inferre the same Consequence Cyprian writing to Pope Cornelius saith that There ought to be but One Bishop in the Catholike Church which soundeth in the braines of your Teachers that by Catholike Church is ment the Vniuersall Church of Christ and by One Bishop particularly Cornelius the then Bishop of Rome A Glosse which neither Cyprian nor Cornelius himselfe will admit Not Cornelius who describing the lewd properties of Nouatus who sought to snatch the Bishopricke of Rome from him Nouatus saith he would haue vs to thinke forsooth that hee did forget that there ought to be but One Bishop in the Catholike Church wherein there are six and forty Priests and seauen Deacons where the word Catholike Church is not taken in the proper sense of Vniuersall Church as you would haue it to make him an Vniuersall Bishop but it is taken for a Church professing the Catholike Faith in which signification the word Catholike Church doth agree as well with any Orthodox Church as with the Church of Rome You discerne this as well as we for hee speaketh expresly of a Catholike Church which hath but Fortie and six Priests and but seauen Deacons You are wee thinke already ashamed to heare of such a paucitie of Priests and Deacons within albeit but the Suburbs of the Citie of Rome which to pronounce of the whole and Vniuersall Church Catholike throughout the world seemeth to be as loud a lye almost as can be in the Vniuersall world and as little truth then can there be in your Obiections Wee returne to Cyprian who sometimes speaketh of One Bishop at large and sometimes with Relation to himselfe Nouatian saith hee could not obtaine the Bishopricke meaning of Rome although hee had bin made Bishop namely thereof by his fellow Bishops that is to say Nouatian Bâ—shops Who then should haue the Bishopricke Who but Cornelius who was made Bishop of Rome for this is implied by his Orthodox fellow Bishops If in this place Bishop must signifie One onely Bishop how commeth the Bishop of Rome to haue Fellow-Bishops Doe not Onely and Also make a plaine Solecisme And other Bishops there alwayes were except when you make onely the Pope the One Bishop as the onely Vicar of Christ you make all other Bishops against your owne Conclusions to be but the Vicars of the Pope At the length Cyprian commeth to plead his owne Cause Once writing to Pope Cornelius I cannot but speake with griefe saith hee and I am constrained to say it when a Bishop elected in peace and approued of his people Foure yeares c. Where by Bishop hee could not vnderstand Cornelius Pope of Rome who liued Bishop but Two yeares but ment indeede himselfe Againe writing to his Aduersary Pupianus who sought to ouertop him Hence sprang Schismes and Haeresies saith Cyprian when that one Bishop that gouerneth the Church is insolently contemned as who should say the Fraternitie hath not had a Bishop these sixe yeares nor the Flocke a Shepheard nor God a Priest Which words the iniurie hee receiued of his Aduersary compelled him to speake of himselfe and his owne modestie to speake in the Third person as not of himselfe Lastly when hee calleth the Church One which saith hee possesseth all the grace of Christ the spouse of the Church wherein speaking of himselfe we haue authoritie and rule must the word Church here also Indiuidually point out the Particular Church of Rome So should Cyprian be said to haue gouerned the Particular See of Rome which whether it were alone or with Cornelius it dissolueth his Monarchie What shall wee say to the sayings of Cyprian if hee had beleeued your Article of Papall Monarchie as a Doctrine of Faith hee that laid downe his life for the Profession of our true Monarke and Head Christ the Lord of life was hâ—e either such a Coward that hee durst not plainely professe this Faith or else such an Infant as that hee could not expresse it in the proper style of that Article concerning the Pope of Rome the Bishop of Bishops the Father of Fathers the High-Priest of Christ and Monarch of the Vniuersall Church or at least some one Syllable to that effect of which Attributes your Cardinall hath made a faire Diademe and fitted it onely to your Head the Pope And so indeede Cyprian would haue instiled Pope Cornelius if he had bin of your Faith For Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Yet what Faith did that holy mouth of Saint Cyprian vtter in his inscribing of Pope Cornelius In all his Epistles to that Pope hee saluteth him with onely Charissime Frater Most deare Brother and taketh his Vale with the same Most deare Brother Farewell And in his Epistles vnto others falling into mention of the same Pope Cornelius whom hee indeede both much loued and honoured yet hee exceedeth not these Epithets Our fellow-Bishop Cornelius our Collegue or fellow in office Cornelius and O Brother Antonianus
our Brother Cornelius c. Behold this in a secular glasse and conceiue what a despight it were vnto a King to heare his Vassall salute him with a Farewell fellow Henrie Fie fie what will you make of the Fathers will you iudge them so witlesse or senselesse as not to haue vnderstood their Morals Yet so you propound them For some where they giue glorious Titles to the Popes of Rome and in euery such one you point out the Pope the Monarch of the Church notwithstanding the same Fathers gaue the like Titles also to others Sometime they ioyne more familiarly with Popes by Tearmes of Fellowship and Brotherhood and yet euen then also you will haue them to beleeue your Pope to be their Monarch What Solecismes must these be The First as if one should put the Diadem vpon the Kings foot the Second as if hee should put the Kings shooe vpon his head This is not spoken by vs to note the holy Fathers of such default farre be it from vs but to condemne your Authors and Disputers of want of sobrietie that thus reason beyond all reason Thus haue you heard Cyprian interpret his Words by his owne Word Will you now heare Cyprian speake by his Acts and Deeds wee shall but be your remembrancers of that which hath bin largely proued already as namely Cyprian his Reprehending and taunting the person of Stephen the Pope of Rome and Successour to Cornelius contradicting his Decrees opposing his Romane Councell disclaiming his claime of Appeales contemning his threats of Excommunication Can you perswade your selues that Cyprian could haue escaped the crueltie of your Romish Inquisition if hee had liued and so behaued himselfe a Bishop among you at this day All this while we haue said nothing of the Corruptions of the writings of Cyprian which your Papalists feede vpon Our like Discouerie of the like Vanitie of your Proofes out of other the Latine Fathers SECT 9. THE Second Father is OPTATVS Concerning whom your Obiection maketh fâ—r vs a good Answere For if Optatus as hee saith followed the iudgement of Cyprian than it followeth that the foresaid Iudgement of Cyprian may resolue vs of the Doctrine of Optatus to wit that by One Chaire or Church hee ment the whole Vniuersall Church professing the same Catholike Faith and that the Particular Church of Rome as it then stood was an excellent Portion thereof built vpon the same Faith of Peter which all Christians professe but onely a Portion because the same Father obiecteth against the Donatists their want of Vnion with the Churches of Asia commended by Saint Iohn in his Reuelation as well as with Rome You haue no fellowship saith hee with the seauen Angels of Asia whatsoeuer is without these Seauen Churches is an alien namely from the Catholike Church and Saluation Which Doctrine of Optatus is sufficient to proue all Appropriators of an Infallible and Perpetuall Church to onely Rome to be little better then Donatists If you require a further Answer you may receiue it from a farre more elegant penne which will tell you that Optatus who required a necessary Vnion with the Romane Chaire yet neuer taught any Necessity of Vniuersall Subiection vnto it Nay so farre was he from acknowledgement of Monarchicall Dominion in the Pope that he calleth him absolutely his Fellow So he As for Necessity of Vnion it is no more than he required to be had as you haue heard vnto the Churches of Asia so that whensoeuer Rome as Asia hath done shall depart from the sincerity of the Apostolicall profession the departure from that must dissolue the Necessity of Vnion The third Latine Father is Ambrose the fourth Hierom the fifth Augustine If we thought it not an iniury vnto you to repeat the former Answers which haue beene made to all these Obiections it were an easie matter for vs to be superfluous When you shall reuiew the places then we doubt not but it will seeme as well to you as vnto vs an hatefull thing to see what violence your Obiections haue offered to these witnesses of Antiquity but much more to their owne consciences in inforcing these witnesses to speake the language of Babell and conspiring together to build the Tower of Papall Monarchy which both their words and Acts as you haue already heard do in a manner confound The sixt is Prosper whose meaning might haue bene better knowne if he had written in prose and not assumed vnto him the liberty of a Poet. Yet he and the seauenth namely Victor Vticensis call the Church of Rome The Head of all Churches But how in power and Iurisdiction you could neuer prooue this out of any ancient Father No but euen as Antioch and Constantinople with other Churches haue bene so called in other respects The eight is Vincentius Lyrinensis in whose Testimonie your Cardinall doth first mistake a mountaine for a man and secondly painting for person For Lyrinensis called not the Popes of Rome namely Felix and Iulius nor the Church of Rome but the Citie of Rome The Head of all the world What is more frequent than Rome to be called the Head of the Church Caput orbis after an Ethnick stile because of the Ciuill Dominion thereof ouer other Nations Hee called also Carthage on the North and Milan on the South the Sides by reason of their situations onely figuratiuely And although he had in like manner called the Bishop of Rome the Head and the other two Bishops his Sides must therefore the Pope of Rome be truly and absolutly iudged to be the Monarchicall Head of the Church in the meaning of Lyrinensis Then must you as absolutely beleeue that Cyprian of Carthage and Ambrose of Milan and their Successors were alwaies to continue the Sides of the Catholike Church Is this good learning thus to snatch at aduantages of naked Metaphors and with Michol to present vnto vs an image for a man But who is there that knoweth not how little the Church of Rome is beholden to Vincentius Lyrinensis who writing a Booke which you your selues call Little in bulke but most great in weight and worth wherein he giueth Resolution to all Catholikes how they should discerne the True Church yet neuer remembred your Romane Article of making the Church of Rome the Mother Mistris and Monarch of all the Churches in the world without Subiection whereunto as you say there is no Saluation But how should a man remember that which hee neuer forgot or forget that which he neuer learnt For if this had bene his Faith his booke of Resolutions which you say was so Little might haue bene comprehended in one leafe and almost in one line to wit There is but one Catholike Church which is the Roman which hath the Promise of perpetuall infallibility stand euer to this and then you cannot but be a good Catholike Nay he matcheth the Easterne Church with the Westerne as
you haue heard And in the same Book entituled Against all profane Innouations he doth throughout condemne all your new Articles of the now Romane Church by one infallible and inuiolable Rule which is this that No Article as of Faith should be admitted into the Church which was not taught and professed in the dayes of the Apostles Your last Father for due Antiquity is Cassidore who because he saith no more than hath bene formerly said we forbeare to answer more than hath bene answered that from Particular Answers we may now speedily addresse our selues to the more Generall Our Generall Discouery of the Falshood and Vanity of the former Obiections out of the Ancient Fathers SECT 10. DIstingue tempora is a necessary Aphorisme and Caution especially in historicall Obseruations Right glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God saith Dauid of Ierusalem but when when the Inhabitants professed the true worship of God But assoone as they reuolted from God then Bethel became Bethauen and the Virgin Sion an Adulterous whore So say wee Right admirable commendations haue bene often Anciently attributed to the Church and Bishops of Rome for their Integritie of life Constancie in the Faith Care and Conscience for the preseruation of all Churches in the Christian profession But not to distinguish in both these the differences of Times by Was from Is were to confound Chastity with Adultery God with Belial Christ with Antichrist Apply we this to the point in Question Take vnto you this Position When the Fathers say that the Church of Rome cannot erre the word Cannot is not to be taken absolutely and simply How like you this Thesis Do you approue of it Then do all your proofes from Testimonies of Ancient Fathers concerning the power dignity and integrity of the Ancient Church of Rome vanish with their times because the Church of Rome is long since farre degenerated from her first integrity But do you not allow it why it is the Confession of Bellarmine the greatest Champion that your Church hath had in these later Ages He onely addeth to the Thesis this Caution So long as the Apostolicall Sea continueth at Rome he should haue said with vs according to the Generall Doctrine of the Fathers So long as the ancient and sincere Faith and diuine worship is preserued at Rome for it is not Sedes but Fides that defineth a Church And for your further knowledge that the Commendations giuen vnto Rome and other Churches in the dayes of Antiquity were not absolutly and simply vnderstood call but to mind how often Tertullian Irenaeus Augustine Optatus and other Fathers for the proofe of Orthodox Doctrines did instance in the Churches of Corinth Thessaly Antioch Asia and other Churches as well as in Rome To giue you one Example for all in the last of Asia because it commeth first to hand it is that which you receiued but euen now out of Optatus who speaking of the Churches of Asia Whosoeuer saith he is without these Churches namely concerning the Faith professed is an Alien and without Saluation This was then as iustly said of Asia as now it cannot be said thereof and what one Encomium of Presidence onely that of Order excepted or Iudgment or Sanctity hath bene euer exhibited to Ancient Popes by any Excellency of Titles which as you haue heard by iust Parallells haue not bene communicated vnto Athanasius Basil Augustine and some other Fathers Yet are we not contented with this Answer although otherwise most true but add for clearer Demonstration of this Truth and auerre that the glorious Phrases which were anciently ascribed to the Church of Rome and her Bishops were not giuen as absolutely and simply belonging to her no not in those very times of Antiquity when they were more proper vnto her For Cyprian that said in his Epistle to Pope Cornelius that No perfidiousnesse could haue accesse to Rome meant not that this his Commendation should continue in Succession with their Popes who himselfe in his Epistle to Pope Stephen one who a yeare after the death of Cornelius succeeded in the same Popedome did vehemently reproue yea and reproach him for admitting the very same kind of Perfidiousnesse before mentioned euen by his allowing of False and perfidious Excommunicates and Incorrigible persons Appealing to his See And Hierom who accompted euery one Prophane and execrable that did not Communicate with Pope Damasus would not haue so farre honoured Pope Liberius whom hee himselfe brandeth with a blacke marke of Subscribing to Arian Heresie Lastly Saint Augustine that magnified Rome in this style saying The Principality of the Romane Chaire did alwaies flourish extended not this to an Absolute Monarchy who himselfe was one of them that in the Councell of Africke clipped the wings thereof by decreeing that Transmarine Appeales should not be made meaning to Rome The speed we make to new matter will not suffer vs to multiply Instances from other former Examples I. CHALLENGE AS often therefore as you haue obiected vnto vs the Encomiasticall speaches of Ancient Fathers we may challenge you to obserue the difference betweene your Obiections and our Retorsions You vrge onely the Phrase and we the Reason of the speach Againe you haue obtruded the sound of Words of the Fathers we haue opposed their euident Acts and Deeds the best Interpreters of their sayings From their Acts therefore we take confidence to argue that to omit the great and weightier matters if S. Polycarpus would not yeeld to the Church and Pope of Rome no not so much as in a Feast-day Saint Augustine not so much as in a Fast Saint Basil not so much as in exception against onely the word Hypostasis Saint Ambrose not so much as in a Ceremony of Washing of feet which are you will thinke in respect but matters of Mint annise and cummin how shall not our Opposition stand iustifiable who refuse Vnion and Subiection vnto her for the great matter of the Law word of God If vilification of the Sufficiency of his written Testaments if Mutilation of a true Sacrament and which is worse the Addition of fiue false ones if babling in vnknowne prayer if forging of new Faiths and not to speake of the daily tyrannie vpon mens Consciences by her strange 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or New Constitutions if in some respects as absurd as Heathenish Idolatrie may seeme vnto you iust cause of exception against her wherein our Profession is iustified from point to point by the same Fathers So damnable is your now Romane Article of Absolute Necessity of Vnion and Subiection vnto the Church and Bishop of Rome as without which there is no Saluation by which together with your Aduersaries you damne those whom euery where you assume to haue bene your owne Ancient Fathers on earth and now acknowledge them Saints in heauen II. CHALLENGE A Second Consideration which is to be had in this point is to obserue the list
of all the Fathers whom your Cardinall in the strength of his learning and iudgement hath produced to guard and defend this your Monarchy of the Church of Rome or Bishop thereof The number of the Greeke Fathers are but Thirteene and of the Latine but Eleuen within the space of the first sixe hundred yeares which we call the extent of Primitiue Antiquitie But he omitteth Origen Tertullian Iustin Martyr Ruffinus and aboue fiftie Fathers more whom he citeth in his Catalogue of Ecclesiasticall writers to haue written Bookes of Apologies Prescriptions and Treatises against the Heretickes and Schismatickes of those former ages Now would we but demand of your ingenuitie whether you can thinke it a matter we say not credible but euen so much as fanciable to thinke that of almost an hundred Witnesses of the Truth of Antiquity so many as haue bene omitted and had as great conflicts with Heretickes and Schismatickes should say iust nothing at all for the dignifying of the Monarchicall Iurisdiction of Rome when the very acknowledgement thereof might if true haue bene in their Time the Decision of the whole Cause and almost of all other Controuersies in Religion yea and a Reparation of all Schismes in the Church of Christ. And that they also that are alleaged for proofe of the same Attributes should say nothing more in effect for Rome and her Bishop than vpon the like occasions they haue said of other Orthodox Churches and Bishops and not thus onely but that furthermore some of the same Fathers haue wrestled and iustled with that your pretended Monarch and oftentimes giuen him the foyle To whom we might adde Tertullian of whom it hath bene confessed that in the time of his Catholicisme he did not giue that respect to Rome as is done at this day but marshalled her with the Church of Corinth Others insomuch that if he had bene now aliue he could not haue escaped vnpunished And after his defection vnto Montanisme he called indeed the then Pope High Pope and Bishop of Bishops but as is also Confessed by way of Ironie and scorne so obseruable euen in his daies which were about the yeare 217. after Christ was the Presumption of the Romane Pope III. The last CHALLENGE concerning the Testimonies of Ancient Fathers IT will be Obiected that the Popes of these daies do still retaine the Places and Titles which were of their Predecessors This we deny not no more than we do that many Noble mens Heires enioy the houses Escucheons and Robes of their Ancestors who haue little inheritance in their Fathers virtues You your selues can giue vs Examples in the former who confesse that the Denomination of your Pope to instile him thus Your Holinesse was first giuen to Pope Leo about the yeare 440. for his Holinesse sake and sanctitie of life Yet is this you know continued if we may belieue euen your most Popish Authors to Popes who haue bene Most wicked yea sometimes Apostaticall rather than Apostolicall and retained onely in respect of their Functions Or if this will not serue yet haue you another Engine whereby to hooke in those Titles whiles you teach that A Pope who in his life defiled his Sea with most leud and beastly actions notwithstanding after his death may not be intitled Pope of bad but of BLESSED MEMORY Why because hereby say you is considered not what he did but what he ought to haue done In which sense we shall as easily yeeld vnto your Romane Church in respect of Faith the Appellation of Catholike as could belong to such Popes the Title of Holinesse Your fourth kind of Obiections are taken from the Testimonies of Ancient Popes as well from their Titles as in their Acts and Deeds First of their Titles and a Discouery of the Vanity of this Defence out of the Testimonies of Popes of the first three hundred yeares after Christ. SECT 11. OVR Inquisition is concerning the iudgement of Antiquity and Antiquity properly so called may be confined within the Circumference of the first sixe hundred yeares In the first three hundred yeares whereof are produced among the Popes by your Cardinall for the proofe of Papal Monarchie ouer the Catholike Church the names of these Popes to wit Clemens Anacletus Euaristus Alexander Pius Anicetus Victor Zepherinus Calixtus Lucius Marcellus Eusebius Miltiades Marcus somewhat more than the full number of an Inquest of men it were well if it might be said Good and true Foâ— although these Popes were iust and holy men in themselues and blessed Professors of Christ most of them sealing their Faith with their bloud Yet seeing that the Epistles which are cited in their names for witnessing your Romane Article were falsely fathered vpon them it must needes be confessed that you haue not all those Popes but onely the Names of so many Popes to patronize your Cause For albeit that Stapleton Turrian and some other of your late Schoolemen propound these Epistles and Testimonies as Most authenticall and no-way to be suspected Yet your Cardinall euen when he iudgeth them to be most Ancient sheweth how little repose he could haue in them when as he is compelled to grant saying I cannot denie but some errors haue crept into these Epistles which I dare not affirme to haue beene vndoubtedly the Epistles namely which were written by those Popes In this point a learned man in our Church one singularly studied in the disquisition of Antiquity for discerning of the proper workes of Fathers from the forged and counterfeit hath giuen you sufficient Reasons in his Censure of Writers to proue the obiected Epistles which your Cardinall himselfe confesseth to be Doubtfull to bee vndoubtedly Bastard and adulterate Partly by the errors that are apparant in them no lesse absurd than to turne Cephas into Caput a Stone in an Head and the like Partly by the Confession of your owne Learned Authors accompting diuers of them Suppositions and bastardly false Thus haue almost all of these by some of your Doctors as namely Cardinall Cusanus Cardinall Turrecremata Cardinall Baronius and by your leaue Cardinall Bellarmine himselfe together with Contius Binius and other learned men selected for the correcting of Gratian beene excepted against Wee might adde heereunto that whereas among infinite multitudes of men each man is distinguished and discernable from another in face and countenance in gesture and voice yet these Epistles now obiected haue all the same style and for Stylus est orationis quasi Nasus as it were the same Nose and that as you cannot but know an horrid barbarous one too whereas the Writings of these Popes were doubtlesse polished and elegant as were the workes of other Authors in those daies And is not this good arguing Did not the Maid finde out Peter to bee a Galilean by his Language when shee said Thy speach betrayeth thee and did not the Gileadites discerne their enemies the Ephraimites by their
defect of pronouncing Shibboleth euen as the Character of a man is seene by his speach CHALLENGE IN Examination of these Premises you may finde iust matter for Challenge of your owne Proctors and Pleaders for the Popes Primacy from these Popes by reason of their fourefold Iniurie First to their Aduersaries the Protestants whom they traduce as enemies to Antiquity in not admitting the Testimonies of so holy Popes of the Primitiue age which all Christians ought to beleeue and reuerence But in this clamour they abuse their Readers by deliuering vnto them onely the names of Popes Epistles as is vsuall in false Certificates wherein a man shall reade a Catalogue of names of men whereunto the parties themselues neuer yeelded their consent or as in a Stage-play wherein are presented Personates instead of Persons themselues and to the chins of boyes are fixed the beards of old men Is not this a theatricall forgery Secondly to your Popes by vrging writings in their nameâ— which if they were theirs must proue them to haue beene foolish false and barbarous Our zeale therefore to those blessed Popes doth challenge your Obiectors of extreme iniury to their memory Thirdly to the Church of Rome as well Ancient as Successiue that when you boast so much of the truth of your Traditions as a Nuncupatiue Testament of Christ wherein your Chiefest Article is your Doctrine of Papall Monarchy yet when we are to consult with the first witnesses that should testifie this Article in tht Romane Church it selfe namely those Ancient Popes we can haue no better assurance of their Testimonies than as of such as are confessed to bee both fraught with Errors and also falsely imposed vpon those Popes Which is in effect to condemne your Romane Church of sacrilegious negligence and vnfaithfulnesse in not preseruing that sacrum Depositum as you call the Ancient Tradition of Popes from hand to hand and consequently must inferre a iust suspition of Falshood in the Chiefest ground of your Romish Faith the pretended Law of Tradition Is not this also an iniury But the greatest Iniury that we lament is the wrong which your Obiectors doe vnto their own Consciences when some will haue all those Epistles to be Authenticall and worthy of absolute Beleefe without Exception yet are condemned by the most learned among you who confesse and proue that they are mixed both with Theologicall Chronologicall falshoods Some againe especially your Cardinal obtruding Epistles in the names of Popes and yet doubting whether they be truely the Epistles of these Popes or no and some other-where also reiecting some of them as Counterfeits So foolish is his Obiection in alleaging them for Ancient who could not be ignorant that there haue beene Ancient forgeries of which stampe your owne iudicious Authors haue noted these to bee And that which exceedeth almost the highest note of to speake mildely Inconsideration to proue your Doctrine of Romish Primacy from the word Primatus mentioned sometimes by the Bishops of Rome in their Epistles which as your owne Contius teacheth is an Argument to iudge them not to be so Ancient because that that word was not of currant stampe in that age And what great iniurie can any man doe than that which he doth to his owne Conscience Finally pardon vs if we cannot impute such a degree of Impiety to those holy Popes that they who liued in the times of those bloudy Massacres wherin most of them with infinite other godly Professors in the same Church of Rome bequeathed their bodies to the sword for the Faith of Christ and their soules and spirits by Martyrdome to his armes of blessednesse should be wholly busyed in their Epistles about poynts of Ordination of Priests Inuention of Ceremonies and aduancing the Prerogatiues of the Romane Church but neuer to vtter any syllable of Exhortation and Consolation in behalfe of the Flocke of Christ dayly in the iawes of the Wooluish Persecutors of these times as those Epistles by you obiected do make appeare Your Obiections from the Testimonies of Ancient Popes of the Second Three hundred yeeres and the Vanity thereof discouered SECT 12. FOr the Second Three hundred yeeres are presented before vs a Second Iury of Twelue Popes to giue their Verdicts for proofe of the extent of their owne Papall and Monarchicall power and Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall ouer the whole Church of Christ throughout the world Manifold haue been the Answers of Many to these Testimonies which the breuity that we haue propounded to our selues in this Treatise will not suffer vs to relate our Answers shall be no lesse plaine and yet more compendious 1. Almost all of these Testimonies may be denied in that sense of absolute Monarchie for the which they are propounded As for the first man of the Inquest viz. Pope Iulius he plainely speaketh of Document Instruction receiued from Peter and not of Dominion or Iurisdiction which may be an Answer to many of the rest 2. Some speake not but their Counterfeits as the last Iurist Pope Gregory in an Epistle wherein Eusebius Bishop of Constantinople is said to haue beene Subiect vnto him when as as our Doctor Reynolds hath proued there was no Eusebius Bishop of Constantinople in the daies of Saint Gregory This tricke of corrupting the writings of Antient Popes as you haue seene in their Epistles for the first Three hundred yeeres giue vs iuster cause to suspect the Popish Scribes in the Second Three hundred yeeres 3. Some haue beene already satisfied by Parallels 4. Reuerence say some Popes is due to the Apostolike See So you know Saint Peter doth require of the Husband Honour towards his Wife and Saint Paul of a Bishop Reuerence vnto Widowes Reuerence therefore which is nothing else but a due estimation of all persons according to their Order and Degree may bee exacted without any Note of Dominion 5. Nine of these Popes call the Church of Rome and Bishop thereof either Head of all Churches or One that hath the Care of all Churches or one hauing Principality Euery of which as you know were antiently ascribed to other Churches and Bishops besides the Romane 6. Some may be checked by Retorsion as in the first and last witnesse For the first if from the words obiected out of that Epistle of Iulius you shall inferre that he had Vniuersall Monarchy throughout the Catholike Church then may wee more iustly conclude that the same Pope being challenged by the Bishops of the East whom he calleth Most dearely beloued both for writing to them Alone and from his owne Authority and also for transgressing the Canons of the Church by admitting men vnto his Communion that had beene by them deposed and answering to the one that Although he wrote alone vnto them yet that he did it by consent of his fellow Bishops and to the other standing onely vpon his iustification in not transgressing the Canons of Ancient Councels
hee was neither accompted of them not yet esteemed himselfe the Vniuersall Pope and Monarch of the Church As for the last to wit Gregory if in some tearmes he seeme to speake somewhat lowd as though he were very great yet by confining himselfe to the Constitution of Iustinian and disclaiming as you know the Title of Vniuersall Bishop of the Church as most odious euen in the now Romane signification of Vniuersall Iurisdiction hee was too little to become in that Sense a Romane Pope Againe Damasus say you called the Easterne Bishops Sonnes belike it was in loue Yet the same Easterne Bishops called Damasus Brother and Fellow Lastly Some may be confuted and indeed confounded by as Antient Oppositions as of the Orientalls against the Authority of Pope Iulius of the Bishops of Africke against the pretended Authority of Pope Zozimus and of Cyrill against Pope Innocentius Our Generall Discouery of the Vanity of your Proofes of Papall Monarchy from the mouthes of Popes themseluos who haue beene anciently noted of Pride SECT 13. OVr Sauiour Christ obseruing the equity of humane Law applied it to himselfe saying If I giue testimony of my selfe my testimonie were not true And why then should not this Consequence vsed by Christ be of force against your Consequences taken from the testimonies of those Popes who boast themselues to be the onely Vicars of Christ Yes verily because there is such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Selfe-loue in euery man so bewitching him that he can discerne Any sooner than himselfe Yea and if in all Courts of Pleas greatest exception is taken against selfe-Testimony in a mans owne Cause then ought not this our Answer seeme harsh vnto you if we should denie the Assumptions which the Popes of Rome euen of more Primitiue times haue made for the aduantage of their Romane Iurisdiction and that so much the lesse by how much the more many Popes of that age are noted to haue beene taxed for their great Arrogancy by the Ancient Fahers of their owne Times Whereupon it is that we haue heard Tertullian girding at the Pope as if hee would bee Bishop of Bishops Polycrates contemning his threats of Excommunication as Vaine Terrors Cyprian noting the Popes Pride and scorning his Tyrannicall terror The Fathers of the Councell of Africke among whom Saint Augustine was one branding Three Popes with the note of Smoakie Arrogance and Saint Augustine himselfe poynting at the vaine Boasting of Rome nay euen Saint Hierom also durst say concerning the Ecclesiasticall State of that City Away with Ambition And how did Saint Basil beard the same Church with the termes of Westerne superciliousnesse Pride Others likewise albeit more couertly and closely ' twitted other Popes Cyrill We may not saith he for the speaches of Some meaning the Pope with others suffer our Canons to bee infringed and Saint Ambrose We also haue our senses about vs speaking in Opposition to Rome and intimating that shee conceited too highly of her own Iudgement Thus these holy Fathers concerning the Popes of their daies being otherwise holy Fathers also For we forbeare to Oppose against you the iudgement of Authors of after-ages who speake against the Romane Pride as liberally as did Nicephorus who condemned Pope Vigilius of Insolency in Excommunicating Mennas the Patriarch of Constantinople Nay and did not one of your owne Prophets in defence of the Superiority of the Councell aboue the Pope say that Popes doe commonly stretch their fringes too much arrogating that to themselues which is proper to a Councell CHALLENGE WHat holy Popes wil you say and yet proud arrogant and challenging Dominion aboue others without the limits of their owne Iurisdiction Yes why not They were the holy Disciples of Christ that ambitiously wished by the solicitation of their Mother that They might sit the one on the right hand of Christ and the other on the left in his Kingdome they were also holy Apostles that sought among themselues without any Ordinance of their Lord Who should be Chiefe They were likewise zealously-holy seruants of Christ that beyond their Commission would haue had fire from heauen vpon the Samaritans And certainely many of the Popes especially of the Second Classis and rancke within the compasse of the Second Three hundred yeeres may be said to haue beene Successors of those Disciples and Apostles as in many virtues so in these kinde of defects also And if this may be said of holy and Primitiue Popes what shall we thinke of those Popes who a Thousand yeeres after them haue degenerated both from the holinesse and sincere Religion of their Predecessors What but as of Gyants in respect whose thumbs of Pride were greater than their Fathers Loynes When the particulars of these our Answers together with theis more Generall are summed vp and due subtraction made of those Obiections which are satisfied thereby you shall finde that the Remainder for your aduantage will be iust nothing at all So vaine and friuolous is the pretence for your Romane Article of Vniuersall Iurisdiction ouer the Church of Christ. Your Second kinde of Obiections from the Testimonies of Popes is from their Acts in exercising of their pretended Papall Authority and our Discouerie of the Vanity thereof SECT 14. THis Vniuersall Exercise of Papall Authority your Cardinall will haue vs discerne in three points 1. Of Confirming 2. Of Deposing 3. Of Restoring other Bishops wheresoeuer by his owne Authority Euery which act saith he may be of it selfe a sufficient proofe of his Primacy ouer all other Bishops You may take for your first Answer that anciently Institutions of Metropolitans and Patriarchs were done by Communicatory letters to the Chiefe Patriarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ergò for Order-sake by Communicatory Letters we say or as we may call them Letters of Correspondence to shew their agreement in the Faith in which case the Bishop of Rome sent his Pall in token of his Assent So likewise the Popes Deposing of other Bishops without the Romane Dioces was but an Expression of his Assent to others that hee thought them iustly deposed The same may be said of his power in Restitution of others that had beene deposed that it was the like manifestation of his Consent to haue such and such restored euen as other Patriarchs often did So that your Proofe fayleth in Two maine points 1. You produce no one Example wherein it can appeare that the Pope could either Institute Confirme Depose or Restore any such Bishop by his owne Authority alone without the helpe of a Councell 2. That infinite Examples are Recorded of Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs which haue beene Instituted Deposed and Restored without the Consent of the Bishop of Rome Your Cardinall himselfe foreseeing thus much seeketh to preuent it by a Second Opposition Although saith he the Pope did not himselfe Confirme all other Remote Bishops
yet hee might allow that power vnto other Patriarkes and Primates as it seemeth hee did some-where Marke Hee might that is to say peraduenture hee did and As it seemeth which is as if hee had said It is but probable Doe you not see with what rotten Timber this your Master-builder frameth the Arch-pillar of your Romane Faith and with what vntempered morter hee daubeth it when hee hath done Notwithstanding it be without all Peraduenture that if wee must beleeue Pope Agapet There was not from the Ascention of Christ vntill the yeare 535. any one Bishop in all the East ordained by the hands of any Bishop of Rome before Mennas who was now so ordained by Agapetus Secondly know that your Cardinall to proue that the Bishop of Rome exercised his Authoritie of Instituting Deposing and Restoring of Bishops within the Bishopricks of other Patriarkes giueth instance in some Bishops which the Popes themselues haue challenged to be within their owne Romane Dioces as namely the Bishops of Thessaly of France of Spaine of Africke of Salonia and some others If any should take vpon him to proue the Bishop of Durham to be Primate of the Prouince of Yorke and to haue authoritie ouer the Bishop of Chester because he exerciseth his Episcopall Iurisdiction of Instituting Admonishing Suspending and Restoring Ministers within his owne Bishopricke of Durham were this tolerable arguing trow you Thirdly there is not a greater degree of futilitie saith Tullie than for any man to obiect that to which when it shall be retorted vpon himselfe he shall not tell what to say We shall therefore deale with you herein by the Art of Retorsion Cyprian as Primate of the Primates within Africke did as Pamelius witnesseth of him Institute whom he would within the Prouinces of the other Primates The same Cyprian Constituted Sabinus Bishop instead of Basilides whom hee had deposed without the consent of Stephen the Pope of Rome and after professed to hold the same Sabinus in his Bishopricke notwithstanding the dislike and as it were in despight of the same Pope Nor thus onely but Cyprian againe will bee knowne to haue Confirmed the Election of Pope Cornelius whose Communion both hee as himselfe speaketh and his Collegues and Fellow-Bishops gaue approbation vnto Besides Pope Gregorie the First vpon his Election sent his Synodicall and Communicatorie Letters vnto the Foure Patriarks viz. Iohn of Constantinople Eulogius of Alexandria Gregorie of Antioch and Iohn of Hierusalem with testification of his Orthodox Faith in beleeuing the Foure First Generall Councels And lest that you may thinke hee was the First Pope that sought this kinde of Approbation by such Synodicall and Circular Epistles you are to obserue with your Baronious how hee in expresse words confesseth that hee did this According to the ancient Custome of his Predecessours as was also obserued by the Bishop of Segouia in the Councell of Trent As for Excommunicating of Others this being but a denying to haue Communion with them other Patriarks and Churches thought it as proper to themselues to denie their Communion to the Pope as the Pope could by dis-uniting himselfe from them Else could not the Easterne Bishops among whom there were many Orthodoxe Capitulate with Pope Iulius to haue Communion with him but vpon this Condition that he should haue Communion with those Bishops whom they had ordeined otherwise they professed Contrarily to haue no Communion with him Not to tell you that Dioscorus did Excommunicate Pope Leo. Yea will you say an Heretike an Orâ—hodoxe It is true yet did hee this vpon the knowne iudgement of the east-East-Church vpon a Common right and abilitie in all Churches to denie their Communion to what other Churches soeuer that they were perswaded to deserue their dis-union Vpon which ground Mennas Patriarch of Constantinople Excommunicated Vigilius Bishop of Rome which though it were in an vniust Cause such as in the Papall Excommunications often happen to be yet doth it inferre this Truth that vpon a iust cause it was lawfull so to doe We leaue other Examples of Retorsion and come to the last Answer by Opposition of your owne Popes against you and such as were most zealous Exactors of all Rights belonging to the Papall Sea The matter standeth thus After the period of iust Antiquitie which we prefix about the yeare Six hundred after Christ Pope Hadrian the First about the yeare 777. writing to the Emperour Constantine and to his Empresse Irene layeth Claime to Two things First to the Temporall Patrimonie of Saint Peter Secondly to an Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction within some part of the Patriarkship of Constantinople which hee desireth them to restore to the See of Rome and he expresseth in his Petition the Consecration of Bishops Archbishops Fourescore yeeres after him succeedeth Pope Nicolas the First who reneweth the same Claime in his Epistle vnto Michael the Emperour propounding vnto him the Challenge formerly made by his Predecessour Hadrian and specially and by name hee setteth downe the particular Prouinces and Dioces which were with-held or as your Iesuite out of Leo Sapiens saith had bin pulled away from the Bishopricke of Rome to wit the Bishopricke of Thessalonica the Bishop whereof had bin but the Popes Vicar therein together with the Regions of Achaia Mysia Dardania c. wherein were the Metropolitanes of Thessalie Corinth Athens Nicopolis and Patarae But to what end maketh all this his Plea namely that hee might exercise therein as from his owne Authoritie the Consecration of Bishops and Arch-Bishops and to vse the words of your Iesuite moderate all things throughout all those Regions according to his owne Institutions and Ordinances And for further Confirmation of his Right hee pleadeth the Ancient possession which his Ancestours had held from the time of Pope Damasus vnto Pope Hormisda that is to say for the tearme of 154. yeares so that now they had bin aboue Three hundred yeares depriued of these Bishopricks Wee now hereupon demand Doe your Popes after so long processe of time require a Restitution of Right and power of Ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction in certaine Prouinces Christian then doubtlesse all this time was not their power Vniuersall in All others wheresoeuer And furthermore the Patriarcke of Constantinople hauing Iurisdiction ouer the Metropolitanes of Pontus Asia and Thracia consisting of 28. Prouinces and your Popes making claime onely vnto Eight of those for the execution of their Ecclesiasticall and Papall power is it not euident that they outted themselues from all such Iurisdiction in any of the rest And what shall be further said of the other Patriarkships of Alexandria Antioch and Ierusalem Some of them hauing Seauen and some Ten Metropolitanes vnder them and were as exempt from the Iurisdiction of the Pope of Rome as any within the Patriarkship of Constantinople could be CHALLENGE NOW from your former Argument according to the lawes of a Syllogisme It must be thus
What Bishop soeuer doth exercise any Authoritie ouer others to Institute them by Confirmation of their Election by Letters Communicatorie or otherwise and to Depose them he hath Ecclesiasticall power ouer them and they are vnder his Iurisdiction But Popes of Rome haue accordingly Instituted Deposed and Restored Bishops in all Prouinces in the Christian world Therefore are they to be acknowledged the Vniuersall Monarchs therein and are not subiect to Any nor are any-way to be equalled with Others So you Now apply the Examples which haue bin granted and then see how often you shall vn-Monarke your Popes and set vp many vnexpected Anti-popes First by the power exercised by Cyprian both in Confirming the Popes Election and in withstanding dis Restitution next by the power assumed by those Patriarks which Excommunicated your Popes but principally by the Testimonies of your owne Popes Pope Gregorie confessing it to haue bin an Ancient custome in your Popes to submit their Elections to the Approbation of other Patriarks by their Synodicall letters and so to be acknowledged to be in their Communion and lastly by the Claime made by Two Popes Hadrian and Nicolas for the Restoring vnto them a power of exercising their Ecclesiasticall Functions in certaine Prouinces within the Patriarkship of Constantinople If A. B. challenge absolute Royaltie in Eight Towneships onely within the Manor of C. D. that Manor consisting of 28. Towneships wherein saith A. B. my Predecessours haue long since had Fishing Fowling Waifes Strayes Deodants and such like Prerogatiues what can be the issue of this Plea but that whatsoeuer his Right hath bin to these Eight yet his power for Fishing Fowling and the like hath not of a long time bin exercised accordingly and againe that pleading but for Eight it is an acknowledgement that he renounceth all Claime to any of the Twentie besides So then your Popes Monarchicall Prerogatiue of Instituting Deposing and Restoring of all Bishops and Patriarkes throughout the Christian World is now come to be somewhat abated being confined within his owne Peculiars as well as A. B. by his Plea for Fishing and Fowling To conclude whatsoeuer example of the Popes Confirmation of Bishops of other Dioces can be brought in such Cases is not an Act essentiall or proper vnto him but accidentall and of common Congruitie rather than of Necessitie Your Fifth ground of Obiections taken from a pretended Vniuersall Right of Appeales to the Church and Pope of Rome as a Principall part of your Romane Article Our first Discouerie of the Falsehood and Vanitie of the First Pretences taken from the Councell of Sardice SECT 15. POwer of Appeale in any is indeede as your Cardinall saith A most certaine Argument of Dominion to wit if it be right and proper otherwise it is not Power but Oppression nor Right but Vsurpation There were many Causes why the Catholike Bishops in the East should yeeld great Authoritie to the Bishops of Rome in the West before others but specially because of the Distractions and Schismes among themselues by manifold Heretikes and of the Vnion which in the Romane Church had continued and beene maintained by the Bishops thereof with great wisedome and constancie besides the aduantage that the See of Rome had gotten in the time of the Imperialtie of that Citie Notwithstanding neuer shall you proue your Article of Necessitie of Subiection to the Church of Rome vpon Necessitie of Saluation by any Right of Appeale to the Bishop thereof which is the maine scope of your Cardinall in this place The First Testimonie which hee propoundeth is out of the Councell of Sardis This Councell he produceth in this place as a sound Argument which else-where hee ranketh among those Councels that are to be partly allowed and partly reiected As if Coyne partly mixed and Counterfeit ought to be taken for good paiment Againe in this hee alleageth such a Canon which another Cardinall questioneth saying Wee may lawfully doubt whether there be any such Constitution extant And this againe is vrged to proue your Article of an Absolute Monarchicall power and Diuine Right thereunto in the Pope of Rome concerning the Prerogatiue of Appeales from all Christian Churches A doctrine quite ouerthrowne by the same Witnesse whom your Proctor hath produced for this Cause euen the Synod of Sardis it selfe and that Two manner of wayes as your Cardinall Cusanus will testifie One is that the same Synod doth limit his power giuing him Authoritie to approue any thing concluded by a Particular Synod but not to disallow it without the assistance of a new Synod the Other that the Right which the Pope can claime for Appeales dependeth Greatly vpon humane Constitutions Hee might as truely haue said Altogether as wee haue already proued and the Tenor of the Councell of Sardis it selfe doth fully purport If it please you say they speaking of a new Constitution let it be Ordeined c. Would it haue become Orthodox Fathers so to haue spoken if in their iudgement they had conceiued that power of Appeales to Rome to haue beene the Ordinance of God Wee confesse that the Supreame Right of Appeales is proper to a Monarrh it being as Essentiall a part of his Monarchie to haue the Right of Appeales as it is for him to be a Monarch Wherefore bethinke your selues if the Nobles in any Kingdome should write vnto their Soueraigne concerning the Exercising of his Authoritie receiued from his Ancestors as the Pope pretendeth to haue from Saint Peter and should say Wee are pleased and contented that Appeales should be made vnto your Maiestie whether this would not imply in the eares of the Monarch as much as Laesa Maiestas as though he were now to receiue an Authoritie from their Grant and beneuolence wherein hee was inuested and established by his Primarie Right vnto the Crowne By this your Cardinals beginning you may guesse with what conscience hee is like to proceede Examine well the Marginals First If you remoue from his witnesses Parties themselues many being the Testimonies of your Popes themselues For if Adoniah say hee is King will Solomon or any wise and faithfull Counsellour of State take his word for it and yet he was a Kings Sonne whereas the Pope neuer was either Sonne or Successour to such a Monarch as hee faineth to himselfe Secondly If you except the Examples of those who Appeale to the Bishop of Rome as being within his Patriarkship and therefore rather subiect vnto him than others this is as though a Procter would say My Client had Tithe in his owne Parish therefore doe the next Parishes adioyning owe their Tithes vnto him Thirdly If you passe by Appeales that were notoriously Impious such as were made by Fortunatus Felix and Basilides in this Case you that plead so much for the Romane Bishop could not haue allowed Romulus to say thus Fugitiues and Runnagates flye vnto mee for succour in Opposition to their naturall Kings
that euery mans Cause be heard where the crime is committed And which words your Cardinall thought good to pretermit euery Pastor hath committed vnto him a portion of the flocke of Christ which he is to gouern wherof he is to giue an account vnto God And doubtlesse they who are vnder our gouernment ought not to gad and wander nor rashly and cunningly to make a difference betweene Bishops that are at Vnity and Concord but they should pleade their cause there where both accusers and witnesses may be had except some few desperate and naughty fellowes thinke the Authority of the Bishops of Africke to be of lesse power or might who haue iudged and by the grauity of their iudgement haue condemned men whose consciences are fettered in the cords of their owne offences their cause is already knowne and tried and iudgement is giuen already vnto them nor can it agree with the censure of Bishops to deserue the reprehension of lightnesse and inconstancy So he Than which what could be said more to the strangling of your pretended Right of Appeales to Rome Your Cardinals Answeres are many and various it will be the most expedite way for vs to follow him step by step 1. Cyprian saith he albeit he did vnwillingly endure yet did he not altogether abrogate Appeales True if you meane simply the Abrogation of All Appeales within Africke but if you vnderstand that he abrogated not All Appeales beyond the Seas and consequently to Rome then is your Answer most false Secondly your Cardinall instanceth in an Example of One Appealing from Spaine vnto Rome many hundred miles distant yet Cyprian writing hereof saith he said Non tà m quà m the Pope was not so much too blame who was deceiued by the Appellant as was the Appellant himselfe that deceiued him As though this were not a full Reprehension of both If one say that he is not so fellonious that receiueth stolne goods as the man that did steale them your Non tà m quà m doth distinguish them in the degree of more or lesse fellony but maketh no difference in their nature and kind for both are felonies So then the Pope was lesse blameable Ergo he was blameable but the other more because the Appellant would needs Appeale in the consciousnes of his Crime but the Pope entertained it in a presumption of the mans integrity and therefore Both blameable because as Cyprian argueth against equity and iustice Thirdly but The decree which Cyprian speaketh of saith your Cardinall was against the First iudgement which is to be made in the place where the crime is committed but he forbiddeth not Second iudgements else-where by way of Appeale Than which what can be more false I had almost said faithlesse for the Cardinall himselfe knoweth that Cyprian vseth this as a Reason against their flying to Rome for a second Iudgment euen Because saith Cyprian they had bene already iudged by me and my Bishops by whom they were condemned Fourthly but Cyprian saith he argueth from this Decree as it implyeth most notorious and manifest crimes What did your Cardinall meane by this his Ipse dixit to infascinate his Reader and to depriue him both of reason and sense For ordinary reason teacheth in points of Law first that A man must not distinguish where the Law doth not distinguish although then it happened that these Crimes of the Appellant were indeed notorious yet in the Decree it selfe there is no such Distinction Secondly it is a vaine thing to thinke that any Crime can appeare so Notorious to a Iudge who is many hundred miles off but one report will encounter another and the Appellant will still make faire pretence of innocency for himselfe vntill the matter be tryed And that we may Appeale to common sense in reading of the Canon and Decree it selfe it is Generall thus It is iust that euery mans Cause be heard there where the crime is committed It seemeth then that your Cardinall dreamed of a Cause implyed in this Decree which could not be any mans Cause else he would haue considered that where Euery mans Cause is expressed No cause of any man could be excepted Fifthly but If Cyprian saith he should here deny Appeales then should he take away all Appeales not onely to Rome but euen to euery place else which Answer how vnworthy it is the iudgement of any man of learning you will easily perceiue Cyprian as your Pamelius noteth was the Chiefe Primate in Africke who held a Councell of his Bishops to Excommunicate Fortunatus and to depose him the Councell fore-seeing the factiousnesse of Fortunatus that he would seeke to Rome to trouble the Church of Christ by working distraction betweene the Churches of Rome and Carthage made the former Decree expressing the iniquity of any Appeale to Remote places where the Cause could not be iustly tryed Heereby the said Councell tooke not away All Appeales within Africke for it was then lawfull for a Clerke to Appeale from his Bishop to an Arch-Bishop from a Metropolitan to a Councell and behold here was a Councell of Bishops which put the Period to all further Appeales expressely forbidding Appealing to places so remote as Rome was which none in Africke could come vnto without Transmigration ouer Sea Your Cardinal's Answer would teach a man to argue thus There lyeth an Appeale from th◠Bishop of Chester to the Arch-Bishop of York and from the Court of York to the Delegates but the State of England denieth Transalpinari Appeales from England ouer the Alpes to Rome Ergò the State of England abrogateth all manner of Appeales whether from Chester to York or from York to the Delegates Moreouer Cyprian speaking of those Schismaticall Appellants Except saith he some few desperate and wretched fellowes thinke the Authority of the Bishop of Africke lesse Insinuating as we may truly iustly and according to their Intention interpret it than the Authority of the Bishop of Rome thereby impairing the power of the Bishop of Rome in respect of the iudgement of a Nationall Councell No saith your Cardinall but the words lesse Authority haue Relation to the Cause and not to the Bishop of Rome as signifying that the Bishops of Africke had authority sufficient to iudge that Cause Here againe he feigneth Cyprian to haue thought those few desperate and wretched Appellants to haue beene so absurd as to thinke they could not be iudged by a Prouinciall Councell whereunto they were subiect An absurdity which none i◠Christianitie could truely imagine Besides the words Lesse Authoritie of them that haue iudged haue Relation to him whom those Fellowes desired to re-iudge their Cause namely the Pope therefore it was as much as if Cyprian had said Least those few naughty fellowes may thinke the Bishops of Africke haue lesse Authority than is that which they Appeale vnto and their Appeale was to the Bishop of Rome So apparant it is that Cyprian thus twitting those Few desperate
Appellants did imply that there were in Africke but few that would so much derogate from the Authority of the Bishops within that Prouince CHALLENGE HItherto haue wee pursued our Aduersay in his owne Tract who all this while hath beene but beating of the aire and as it were catching of Butterflies as you may perceiue For this matter of Right of Appealing or Not Right of Appealing being of that importance as that it must either make or marre your Papall Monarch and Romane Article of his Vniuersall Dominion ouer all Churches The Author Saint Cyprian being so antient in time liuing in the 250 yeere after Christ so singular for his learning and iudgement and for his Sanctity and Constancie in the Faith euen vnto death for the name of Christ so admirable a Saint we shall desire you to take an exact Reuiew of the Case and to iudge accordingly You remember that the Epistle is directed vnto Pope Cornelius a godly Pope but yet very timerous and some-what dismayed at the threats of Heretickes and Schismatickes whom therefore Cyprian laboureth to support and consolidate The very scope of the letter in that part thereof is to disswade him from giuing any eare or Admission vnto Fortunatus and Felicissimus both Excommunicate persons and already condemned by a Councel in Africke and seeking now by way of Appeale to finde redresse with the same Pope His Sentence containeth no lesse than Eight Arguments sufficient to confute your pretended Right of Appeales to Rome which we may reduce to these Three Heads The First concerneth the Decree it selfe the Second the Iudges the Third the Appellants and Delinquents 1. The Decree defineth plainely that It is vnequall and vniust to haue an Ecclesiasticall Cause iudged but where the Crime is committed But the Crime was not committed in the Romane Dioces Therefore it is ment that they ought not to Appeale to Rome 2. A Reason is giuen for this Because it is vniust to iudge where Witnesses and Accusers could not be had But at Rome out of Africke whence all parties must haue taken a long iourney both by Land and by Sea Accusers and Witnesses could not bee had Therefore Cyprian meant they ought not to Appeale to Rome Next here is the Consideration of the Iudges that had condemned these Excommunicates namely Cyprian and the Bishops of Africke 1. Cyprian telleth the Pope that Euery Bishop in his owne Dioces hath a porâ—ion of the flocke of Christ committed vnto him Which being vsed as a Reason to disswade the Pope from entertainiâ—g any Appeale doth conclude that therefore the Whole Flocke of Christ is not subiect to the Pope and consequently your pretended Right of Appeale to Rome is but a Romane Pigment 2. As the charge ouer a portion of the Flocke of Christ is vpon euery Bishop so in the discharge thereof Euery Bishop saith Cyprian is to giue accompt vnto God namely as Supreme Which againe being vrged as a Motiue to withdraw the Pope from intermedling in that businesse doth proue that therefore the Pope is not Monarch of the Church to call All other Bishops to Accompt and Consequently hath not the Vniuersall power of Appeales 3. The cause of these men saith Cyprian is already iudged and wee may not incurre the reproofe of leuity in giuing our Sentence heereby intimating vnto the Pope that though hee should oppose they notwithstanding must bee found Constant in withstanding him which doth argue that although Appeales from those parts were admitted at Rome yet might they iustly bee opposed against The last Head is the Obseruation of Cyprian his Taxation of the Appellants or parties Delinquent now flying for succour to Rome 1. He telleth the Pope Those saith he whom we rule ouer oportet non circumcursitare ought not thus to gadd about calling their contumacious forsaking of the iudgement of their Ordinary and seeking Restitution at Rome a Gadding and vagrant kinde of wandering which had beene a Contumacy against the Pope by Cyprian if Appeales to Rome had beene inherent in the Romane Mitre and Monarchie 2. Hee calleth them and their Accomplices that thus laboured an Appeale A few desperate Fellowes that thereby vndermined the Authority of the Bishops of Africke ouer them being Africans as Lesse meaning as hath beene proued Lesse than the Authority of the Bishop of Rome And would not your now Pope haue held this also a Contumely if he had thought himselfe such a Monarch to heare one of his vnderlings to call men Desperate fellowes and A few for acknowleging his Soueraignty and Monarchy by Appealing vnto him and thereby to signifie that there were but Few that would thinke this power of Appeales to belong of Right to the Pope of Rome Lastly he chargeth them that by this their Act of Appealing thus irregularly to the Bishop of Rome they did but thereby goe about Episcoporum concordiam collidere to burst the Vnion and concord of Bishops But the suffering of any one to make his iust Appeale could be no breach of Vnity betweene a Substitute Bishop and a predominant Bishop to whom Appeales doe of right appertaine nay it were an iniurie and sufficient cause of breach of Concord not to suffer such Appeales to passe and take place Therefore Cyprian alleaging this vnto the Pope as a matter of their iust reproofe did not beleeue that they could iustly Appeale vnto Rome Who is ther now but must conclude that as long as the Article of your Romane Faith concerning the Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome and Appeales vnto him as the principall note of his Monarchie shall bee examined by the Decree of Cyprian and the other Bishops of Africke which thus oppose against Them who as they say Nauigârunt Romam sayled to Rome by way of Appeale your pretence of so Appealing must needs be split vpon the same Decree as vpon a Rocke and suffer shipwracke Our Fourth Discouery of the Vanity of your former Pretonce of Vniuersall Right of Appeales to Rome from the Testimonie of Pope Damasus SECT 18. ABout the yeere of our Lord God 367 one offered an Appeale to Damasus Pope of Rome and receiueth this Answer In as much saith the Pope as the Councell of Capua hath so iudged this matter already that those who were next adioyning should be Iudges both to Bonosus and his Accusers We obserue that the forme of iudging Nobis competere non potest cannot appertaine vnto vs. Whereby we conceiue the Pope confesseth his no Right of admitting an Appeale after the Sentence and Iudgement of a Prouniciall Councell And we are answered by your Cardinall thus that Non competere in this place is no more than Non conuenire it is not conuenient because that when a Prouinciall Synod had iudged a Cause it could not be conuenient for Damasus to iudge it without cause And this is all the Answer which Protestants could by whatsoeuer importunity wrest from the professed Aduocate of your Popes which say wee fighteth against all forme and
stile of Law For the very word Competit in the stile of the Iudiciall Court signifieth one that is Sufficient as Iudex competens vsed by Vlpian A Competent Iudge and not onely a Conuenient Iudge And for the strict sense of the word in the point of Appeale we may iustly Appeale to all Courts to Christendome whether Ecclesiasticall or Ciuill which may challenge any Right of Appeale Because if for example the Iudge of the Audience or Arches should answer an Appellant Sir the matter hath beene iudged by the Court of York and I know the Chancellor there to be a learned and a iust man therefore to vse your Cardinalls phrase It cannot be â—onuenient for mee to iudge that which hath receiued a former iudgement might not the Appellant reioyne What Sir Not conuenient for you to receiue an Appeale Why you are therefore appointed Iudge in Cases of Appeale yea and sworne to discharge your Office of Iudgement and not to preiudice any Cause by saying you see no cause to admit it before you haue heard it For bee you assured that I shall either shew iust proofe of iniustice offered vnto me by my former Iudge or else I must submit my selfe to the Censure of your Court Such an incongruity and absurdity it is to modifie the word Competere with the bare sense of Conueniency as though it were not Conuenient for one to performe that which hee is bound in Conscience to discharge Wee therefore contend for the strict sense of Non Competere that is to say Not appertaining in the Sentence of Pope Damasus as may furthermore appeare clearely by the Sentence it selfe wherein Damasus will haue the man vnderstand Two things One is Forma iudicandi non competit The Forme of iudging doth not belong vnto me hee saith not Causa iudicandi non competit The Cause of iudging belongeth not vnto me But you know that no true Court of Appeale can say that it hath not a Forme of iudging the Second is the Cause why he said Non competit to wit because the Cause had beene iudged by a Prouinciall Synod as by those who were Finitimi Neere to the parties as well Accusers as Accused as if he had taken his reason from the very Decree of the Councell of Carthage set downe by Saint Cyprian whereof you haue heard at large calling it Vnequall and Vniust that a Cause should bee iudged in Remote Courts where the parties cannot appeare but especially that any one Iudge should take vpon him to re-iudge that which was preiudged by a Prouinciall Councell Otherwise how easie a matter had it beene for the man that tendered his Appeale to haue pushed the Popes Answer away with the hornes of a Dilemma thus Eitheir haue you a Right of iudging in this Case of Appeales after a Prouinciall Councell or you haue not If you haue then do me right and iustice to heare it If you haue not then it is but a false Delusion in men to Attribute to the See of Rome an Vniuersall power of iudging all Iudges as being the Supreme Monarch ouer all Bishops and their Prouinciall Counsells Damasus therefore in this Answering to wit The forme of Iudging Non potest nobis competere did meane that he could not in such a Cause be held a Competent sufficient or lawfull Iudge Behold now your Vniuersall Iudge behold your Monarch controlled and confuted out of the mouth of your Iudge himselfe Our Fifth Discouery of the Falshood of your Pretence of Vniuersall Right of Appeales to Rome from the Councell of Mileuis SECT 19. IN the yere of Christ 416 Threescore Bishops in a Councell at Mileuis where Saint Augustine was present decreed in the words following If Priests or Deacons or Inferior Clerkes shall haue complaint against their Bishops let their next bordering Bishops heare their Cause and determine it but if they shall Appeale from those Bishops yet let them not Appeale any whither but to an African Councell or to the Primates of the Prouinces wherein they are And whosoeuer shall thinke he may Appeale beyond the Seas let none within Africke admit him into their Communion Two points are considerable in this Inhibition of Appeales First concerneth the Place the Second the Persons Touching the Place it is at length granted by your great Aduocate in this Cause to wit that by those words If any Appeale beyond the Sea let none in Africke admit him into his communion is forbidden Appeales vnto Rome Where by the way is to bee taxed â—he impudencie of your Gratian who whereas the Canon was made purposely against Appeales to Rome yet shamed he not to add to that Canon of himselfe this exception Except the Appeale be made to the Apostolike See of Rome Which is in Musicke Discantus contra punctum and in your Law Statuimus i. e. Abrogamus But thus much being granted how is not this a prohibition against your pretended Right of Appeales to Rome Satisfie this point or else yeeld the Cause Although saith your Cardinall the Councell prohibited and forbad that Priests and inferior Clerkes should Appeale to the Bishop of Rome yet did they not forbid that the Pope of Rome should admit of Appeales made vnto him nor had they any power or authority so to doe So he This being the onely Answer which after his perusall of all other Answers hee thought to haue any colour of satisfaction in we take it to be in effect the losse of the cause For our Question is whether the Bishop of Rome haue a sole and Soueraigne Right ouer the whole Church of Christ to iudge all Causes by his absolute Prerogatiue of Popedome And an Appeale being A remouing of a Cause from an inferior Iudge to a Superior we reply that where there lieth a Prohibition against Appealing to a Iudge that Iudge is not held a Superior Iudge But this Councell granted a Prohibition against the Appealing of Priests within Africke vnto the Pope of Rome therefore was not the Pope of Rome in this Case of Priests held a Superiour Iudge much lesse the Supreme of all others as you pretend And although that Councel could not forbid the Pope who was in a Transmarine Prouince to admit of such Appeales yet in forbidding the Appeales vnto the Pope they thereby denyed that he had lawfull power to receiue them As heere in England the prohibiting of euery person to Appeale vnto any without the Kings Dominions doth by vndenyable Consequence shew that none without the Kings Dominions hath iust power to admit of any such Appellants How victorious then is Truth in this one Cause which by the euidence thereof haâ—h inforced her aduersary by necessary Sequele thus farre to professe it Which Answer of his notwithstanding hee would gladly patch vp with an Addition of a meere falshood saying Pope Zozimus did command this Canon of the non-Appeales of Priests to be confirmed False for Pope Zozimus is knowne by the whole processe of the
Councell of Africke to haue admitted of the Appeale of Apiarius a Priest but not without a shamefull repulse giuen him by the same Councell for his bold vsurpation Which your other Cardinall could not dissemble For It is euident saith he that Zozimus did not allow that Decree concerning Priests not Appealing vnto places beyond the Sea So triumphant is Truth The Second point that your Cardinall insisteth vpon is to giue vs to weet that the Decree forbad onely the Priests and Inferior sort of the Clergie to Appeale to Rome but not the Bishops this he saith is proued by Saint Augustine who was present in this Councell and yet saith in one of his Epistles that it is lawfull for the Bishops of Africke to Appeale beyond the Sea So he yet so still as though hee were scarce able to report a Truth For Augustine in the place alleged doth not iustifie Appeales beyond the Sea to Rome but onely speaketh of one Case of Cecilian which was not a Case of Appeale but of Delegation by the Authority of the Emperour to the Pope and after to other Bishops as our next Discouery will proue As for Saint Augustine who was present in this Synod he was also present in the African Councell at Carthage assenting to that which was there concluded by the Fathers of that Councell in their Epistle to Pope Celestine wherein grounding their Caution vpon the Councell of Nice Your Reuerence knoweth right well say they that if they haue so cautelously prouided decreed concerning Clerkes of Inferior Orders how much more would they haue this obserued in respect of Bishops By this you may discerne the Logique taught them at Carthage by those Fathers arguing thus The Bishops of Africke prouided for the conueniencie of their Priests and Inferior Clergie to hinder them from vexatious courses and wastfull expences in the point of Appeale by sauing them from vnnecessary trauels beyond the Sea therefore they intended much more that they themselues should be freed Euen as an householder that doth compound with a Captaine in behalfe of his seruant to free him from being pressed for a Souldier doth much more intend thereby his owne freedome although hee make no expresse mention thereof CHALLENGE THe same Decree that forbiddeth that No Priest or Deacon shall Appeale to Rome out of Africke awardeth also a penalty of Excommunication vpon euery Priest or Deacon that shall transgresse heerein saying Let none within Africk ioyne in Communion with him Now then that we may close with you those holy Fathers who Excommunicated them that should Appeale to Rome would not haue regarded the Excommunication of the Pope if he should haue Excommunicated them for denying such Appeales vnto Rome This woundeth your Cause to the very heart For if those godly Fathers of that Councell of Mileuis did denie that which you accompt to be the Principall Character of your Article of Subiection to the Pope euen his pretended Right of Appeale as being Supreme Iudge if also by their Decree of the Excommunication of them that should but Thinke of the contrary they therefore doubtlesse would haue contemned the Excommunication of the Pope if peraduenture he had returned the Dint of his Excommunication against them Then reuiew againe your now Romane Article viz. The Catholike Romane Church and the foure pillars of Necessity whereupon it standeth to wit 1. Necessity of Vnion with it 2. Necessity of Subiection vnto it 3. Necessity of Faith to beleeue both these and 4. All these to be Necessary to Saluation and trie then whether this Councell of Mileuis haue not vnder-mined and ouerthrowne each one For 1. They forbid Appeales to Rome therefore they acknowledged no absolute Subiection vnto it 2. They Excommunicate all African Priests Appealing to Rome Ergò they held no absolute Necessity of Vnion with it 3. They Excommunicate all such Qui put auerint as should but Thinke it lawfull to Appeale to Rome Therefore they had no Necessity of Beleefe either of Subiection or Vnion with that Church 4. That which they thought iust in themselues to oppose the same they could not think Necessary for others to beleeue Except therefore we shall condemne at once Threescore Antient Godly Orthodoxe Bishops and euery way without exception among whom Saint Augustine was one to be depriued of spirituall life wee must conclude that your Romane Article is most Schismaticall and Damnable Our Sixt Discouery of the Falshood of the pretended Vniuersall Right of Appeales to Rome by opposing Two other Cases out of Saint Augustine SECT 20. NE quid nimis is an Aphorisme which ought to take place in euery kinde of discourse for enough is enough and Noli actum agere not to doe one thing twice is as necessary as the former You will therefore excuse vs if to preuent tediousnesse we referre you to that which hath beene already as exactly argued from both as the Cases themselues did require The first was the Case of the Bishop Cecilian The Second Case is betweene the Church of Africke in a Prouinciall Councell and Three Popes successiuely in the Cause of Apiarius The summe of both is this that because Appealing as hath beene said is a Remouing of a Cause from an Inferiour Court to an Higher the first Case Transferring a Cause iudged by Pope Iulius vnto another Iudge by way of Delegation proueth that the Pope was not by his owne place the Supreme Iudge The Second Inhibiting Appeales to Rome proueth that concerning the Right of Appeales in Africke the Pope was no Iudge at all Wherefore willingly pretermitting many other your Answers in these kindes of Disputes farre more friuolous and vaine than any of the former we proceed to that which followeth Our Generall CHALLENGE concerning your Romish Answers to the Testimonies obiected against your pretended Right of Appeales to Rome VNiuersall Right of Appeales is indeed as you haue said A most strong Argument for proofe of an Vniuersall Iurisdiction in any one that is truely inuested there in And as truely is the No-Vniuersall Right as strong an Argument of false Vsurpation to proue the No-Vniuersall Iurisdiction of Any that shall falsely pretend such a Right For as it is true that the Sunne is the Vniuersall light of the World because it giueth light vnto all other Starres and Planets so is it as true that neither Moone nor Mercurie nor any Planet or Starre besides can be called such an Vniuersall light because it hath not that Vniuersall power of giuing light to all others This Vniuersall Right of Appeale you haue appropriated vnto your Bishop of Rome and his See which all Churches Christian now not subiect to the same See doe as absolutely gaine-say Now commeth in your choice Champion furnished with the Panoply of learning and subtilitie as well offensiue to obiect as defensiue to answer whatsoeuer force of Argument made against all pretence of that Right But you cannot but discerne in his Obiections that he could
obiect nothing but either the parties themselues namely the Popes for Witnesses in their owne Cause or the exorbitant Examples of Factious and Criminall Persons Appellant in stead of regular and Conformable or in the Examples of some Godly Fathers that sought helpe at the Pope of Rome a power Arbitrarie for Iudicatorie or a friendly support issuing from the Estimation and grace that some Popes then had to perswade in stead of Authoritie of Iurisdiction or lastly a restrained power and that onely by humane and Ecclesiasticall Canon and Custome which is alterable instead of a pretended proper and Diuine Right Such we haue proued to be the vanitie of his Proofes As easily may you obserue that notwithstanding his Answers he furthermore lyeth open to manifold Exceptions For Anno 216. Restraint of Appeales to Rome was made by the Councell of Carthage Anno 337. a Delogation was made by a godly Emperor Constantine to Pope Iulius and transferred from him to other Bishops Anno 367. Pope Damasus disclaimeth all Right of Appeale to Rome after the Iudgement of a Prouinciall Synod Anno 416. the Councell of Mileuis denieth Appeales out of Africke to Rome and Anno 420. the Councell of Africke is as peremptorie against this pretence of Papall Priuiledge of Appeale Among which Three Councels to wit that of Carthage vnder Cyprian the other of Mileuis and the Third of Africke all African Councels are challenged by your Authors to haue bin within the Patriarkship of the Bishop of Rome and yet they denied vnto him the Prerogatiue of Right of Appeale from Africke to Rome Than which what can be a more euident Discouery of the Falsehood of your Article Wee conclude Either must 600. Bishops in the Councell of Chalcedon 87. Bishops in the Councell of Carthage 60. in the Councell of Mileuis 217. in the Councell of Africke and among them Saint Cyprian Saint Augustin who All may seeme to haue conspired to pull downe this great Pinacle of the Romanâ— Babel and principall part of her Article of Catholike Iurisdiction bee iudged depriued of Saluation or else must wee say and professe Cursed is this your Article of The Catholike Romane Church without which there is no Saluation And now haue we finished the Consideration of the Romane Church after her first Foundation in the Ancient ages thereof within the compasse of the First Six hundred years after Christ and Antiquity in Doctrine you know is of all humane proofs the best Argument for Christian Resolution This Treatise would grow into a vast Volume if we should proceed throughout all former Successiue ages we therefore rather choose for breuitie-sake to hasten to the Consideration of the Later ages of the Church CHAP. XIV Our Fourth Generall Consideration is of the Churches Catholike in the Last ages thereof manifesting thereby the Impietie of your Article The Romane Catholike Church without which there is no Saluation BY this Consideration wee shall be occasioned to giue Instances in diuers Christian Churches which professe not either that Subiection or else that Vnion with the Pope or Church of Rome as your Article viz. The Romane Catholike Church c. doth exact These Instances are of Three kinds 1. In Churches of Nations Remote from the Church of Rome 2. In Churches of neerer Countries wherein are the Churches of Protestants 3. In the Romane Church it selfe Our First Instance concerning Remote Churches not Subiect nor vnited to Rome is in the Greeke Church SECT 1. BVt First be it knowne vnto you that there are Foure Patriarkships Christian at this day dis-united from Rome to wit Constantinople Antioch Alexandria and Ierusalem the Patriarkes whereof haue of later Times their Ancient Patriarchall stile as thus Hieremias by the mercie of God Arch-Bishop of Constantinople Oecumenicall Patriarch Michael by the Mercy of God Patriarch of Great Theopolis or Antiochia Ioachim by the Mercy of God Patriarch of the Great Citie of Alexandria Sophronius by the Mercie of God Patriarch of Ierusalem and all Palaestina Whatsoeuer Christians are vnder these Patriarkships or in other remote Nations and haue not ruinated any Fundamentall Article of sauing Truth set downe in our ancient Creeds and are vnited vnto the true Catholike Head Christ Iesus our Lord by a liuing Faith all Protestants esteeme Them as true members of the Catholike Church and notwithstanding diuers their more tolerable Errors and superstitions to be in the state of Saluation albeit no-way subiect or Subordinate to the Romane Church And from this Generall Consideration wee descend vnto our Particular Instances For our more expedite passage and your expert apprehension of the Validitie of this Instance wee shall Methodically lay downe before you Fiue obseruable points First the Continuance of the No-Subiection of the Greeke Church to the Romane Secondly the Dis-union and Opposition thereof vnto this day Thirdly the Estimation which is to be had of it in respect of their Religion notwithstanding their said Dis-union from Rome Fourthly the extent of the said Greeke Church shewing the innumerable Multitudes of them and Lastly vpon these Premises a Manifestation by way of Challenge and discouery of the Iniquitie of your now Romane Article which pronounceth Damnation vpon all such as professe not Subiestion and Vnion with the Church of Rome I. The Continuance of the No-Subiection of the Greeke Church to Rome SECT 2. BEsides all that which hath bin copiously already deliuered concerning the Greek Church we shal in this place rest much vpon your Confessions Wherefore wee would First demand of you how many yeares you thinke the Church of Greece hath bin diuided from the Church of Rome as a Church distinct and not subiect to the Iurisdiction thereof Some of you indefinitely set downe Many Hundreds of yeares Whereas your Cardinall more precisely doth although in his indignation note how the Greeke Church opposed it selfe to the Latine in the yeare 381. in a Generall Councell wherein contrary to the likeing of the Pope of Rome a Hundred and Fiftie Bishops constituted a Patriarke of Constantinople and placed him next to the Bishop of Rome And being not content with this saith hee in the yeare 451. in the Fourth Generall Councell of Chalcedon by the Consent of Six hundred Bishops they endeuored to make the Patriarke of Constantinople equall with the Bishop of Rome in the Priuiledges of his Patriarkship All this argueth no Subiection of the Greeke Church vnto Rome And albeit some would scrape acquaintance with the Greek Church in the yeere 1549 at the Councell of Florence as though all then had become Subiects to the Pope yet vpon due examination you your selues finde the Grecians there to haue beene so farre from Subiection to the Pope that They would not permit him to constitute a Patriarch among them professing that they could doe nothing without the consent of their owne Church And as farre were they from Subiecting themselues in Doctrine for when some few points were propounded the Greekes answered the
Pope that They had no license to treat of such matters Yea and their Emperour Palaeologus that was so earnest to piece them together was himselfe but hardly welcomed home to the Greeke Church which was now much more exasperated against the Romane Church insomuch that as you say They did now Pronounce their Patriarch of Constantinople the Supreme and Chiefe of all Bishops Thus farre therefore haue you confessed the no-Subiection of the Greeke Church from the first foure hundred yeeres vnto the yeere 1549 which make vp 1149 yeeres Yet are we not content with this short reckoning but rather hearken vnto your Iesuite Maldonate and Prateolus the first The Greekes saith he alwaies enuied and disliked the supreme dignity of the Pope The other thus And they were good words good friend so rebelliously aduerse to the Church of Rome that they neuer would obey his Decrees So they This is enough to shew the Vniuersall freedome they still challenged from the Dominion and Iurisdiction of Rome II. The Dis-vnion and Separation of the Latter Greeke Church from Rome SECT 3. THe No-Subiection doth not alwaies argue necessarily a Dis-vnion of Separation for the King of France and King of Spaine are vnited in league albeit neither of them subiect to other but then onely when-as Subiection is due as it is seene in all Cases of Rebellion Now this Dis-vnion in Churches is most commonly either in Faith or in Affection What kinde of Separation hath beene a long time between the Greek and Latine Church we neede not tell you your owne Complaints and cries are loud enough against them The Greekes say you hold the Pope of Rome and all Latines vnder him to be Excommunicate Yea and So farre forth doe they abhorre the Church of Rome as your Lateran Councell at Rome noteth that if the Priests of the Romane Church shall chance to celebrate vpon any of their Altars they themselues would not celebrate vpon the same Altars before they had washed them as thinking them polluted by the others sacrificing Nay and furthermore they Rebaptize them that had bin baptized in the Church of Rome Will you know one maine reason of this the Greeke Opposition Harken then to Nilus the Greeke Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica The Latines saith hee giue vs cause to dissent from them whiles that they take vpon them to be Masters of the Church and vse as if wee were but their Schollers Contrarie to the Decrees of ancient Fathers which are extant in their writings at this day And the Latines affirme that it is the office of their Popes to call Synods and to determine of all matters Ecclesiasticall which if it be true then to what end were the assemblies of holy Fathers in former Councels these were all but superfluous So he But yet shall wee thinke that there can be so great distance betweene the Greeke Church and Protestants as to Excommunicate them or to Rebaptize any of their Profession Certes no. For Anno 1584. Ieremias Patriarke of Constantinople in his Answer to the Protestants of Wittenberge did thus farre congratulate with them saying Wee giue thankes to God the giuer of grace and reioyce with many Others that your Doctrine is in many things so consonant vnto the Doctrine of our Church And it is not long since the most Reuerend Father in God GEORGE by the Diuine Prouidence Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterburie Primate and Metropolitan of all England receiued Letters from the Greeke Patriarke of Alexandria instiling himselfe Cyrill by the Mercie of God Pope and Patriarke of the great Citie Alexandria commending one of his Monkes called Metrophanes Chrysopulus vnto the said Lord Arch Bishop of Canterburie that vnder his Patronage he â—hough otherwise learned might be exercised in our Vniuersities of England and instituted in the Rudiments of our Profession Who purposely auoiding the Romish Sect did daily frequent the publike Seruice of our Church euen as other Graecians in their trauels through England willingly vse to doe Which may iustly confute the fabulous report of Baronius concerning a late Reconciliation of the Church of Alexandria to the See of Rome And you haue no doubt heard of the Epistle to the Patriarke of Constantinople vnto the Protestant Church at Prague in Bohemia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Wherefore louing Brethren and Children if it be so as wee heare and hope make haste that wee may ioyne together in Vnitie So then the Graecians seeme to be as accordant with Protestants in Communion as they are dissenting from you Romans III. The Estimation which is to be had of the Greeke Church in respest of their Religion SECT 4. OVr next Question will be whether in your owne Estimation the Greeke Ghurch be worthy of Christian Communion or no. The greatest exception that some of you haue taken against them is the deniall of the Article touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Sonne But another Iesuite and Cardinall will free them from the crime of Haeresie in this point The vnderstanding Greekes saith hee saying that the Holy Ghost proceedeth by the Sonne signifie thereby nothing but that which wee our selues professe So hee And indeede Faith consisteth not in the outward Syllables but in the true meaning of an Article Another Iesuite saith The Graecians are properly called Schismatikes by being dis-united from the Church meaning of Rome albeit they also become Haeretikes by denying Vnion with the Head Others doe more fauourably say that The Graecians are to be iudged Schismatikes because they withdraw themselues from the Iurisdiction of the Pope of Rome but not Haeretikes because they agree in the aforesaid Articles of Faith IV. The Extent of the Greeke Church Opposite vnto Rome as well in respect of Time as of Place SECT 5. IF you enquire into the length of Time since the Greeks haue denyed Subiection to the Church of Rome this as you haue heard confessed hath bene Alwaies If how long they haue denyed Vnion also with the same Church this is as hath bene likewise confessed about 200. yeares agoe If lastly you seeke to know the Latitude of the Greeke Church whereby you may the better guesse at their number A faithfull Seruant of God and one excellently studied in this Argument of Diuersities of Religions hath deliuered vnto vs the iust extent thereof obseruing that the Grecians acknowledge Obedience vnto the Patriarch of Constantinople vnder whose Iurisdiction are in Asia the Churches of Greece Macedonia Epirus Thracia Bulgaria Podolia Moscouia Walachia Russia together with the Ilands of the Aegean Sea a good part of Polonia Dalmatia and Croatia Countries subiect to the Turke Grecians dispersed in all these Countries together with other Greeke Churches deny the Primacy of Rome Besides the same Author addeth that the Melchytes are of the same Religion of the Grecians and the greatest Sect of Christians in the East and after a iust view taken of the number
of the Countries wherein the Greeke Religion is professed he concludeth that If the Greeke Church be compared with the now Romane excepting the new Addition of the Indians the Greeke Church would farre exceed V. Our Discouery of the extreme Impiety of your Article by way of Challenge SECT 6. YOur Article requireth a Necessity both of Subiection and of Vnion vnto the Church of Rome vpon infallible danger of Damnation In the Premises you haue before you the same Necessity of Subiection to Rome denyed by the Ancient Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon about the yeare 450. after Christ and so continuing in the Greeke Church vnto this day and the Necessity of Vnion denyed by the same Greeke Church 200. yeares together and all this by Professors in your owne iudgement excepting for the denying of this Romish Article no Heretikes and in number Exceeding the Multitudes of them the Indians excepted and yet the Indian Conuerts if you examine their Faith are but poore Catholikes God wot who call themselues the Romane Catholikes How then shall we not accompt it a Luciferian pride in your Romane Pope to take vpon him to ascend vnto the Throne of God and to pronounce Sentence of Damnation vpon so infinite Christian soules who while your Bishops excepting their raysing of Persecutions against Protestants liue in peace and fare deliciously euery day do suffer daily grieuous and lamentable Persecutions and Oppressions vnder the Turkish tyrannie for the Gospell of Christ. What man is there in whom there are any bowells of Christianity who will not rather condemne your Article as a Praesumptuous Pernicious Sacrilegious Schismaticall Delusion and execrable Fascination of mens soules by the which they are held fast vnder that Romane thraldome A particular Instance for the Corroboration of the former Argument in Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople SECT 7. BAronius doth present before you Ignatius the Patriarch of Constantinople who liued about the yeare of our Lord 869. in your owne iudgement An excellent man Whom notwithstanding Iohn the then Pope pronounced Excommunicate except within 30. dayes the said Ignatius should Excommunicate certaine Bishops in Bulgaria for that the Pope then made claime to that Prouince as belonging to the Romaine Church But the Popes Excommunication against Ignatius was contradicted by the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch and as for Ignatius himselfe Hee is not found saith your said Cardinall to haue obeyed the Popes command Neuerthelesse God graced this Ignatius with Miracles after his death All this you haue in Baronius CHALLENGE HEre you haue to omit the Opposition of the Two other Patriarches Ignatius the Patriarch of Constantinople for ought that can be prooued to the contrary liuing and dying a person Excommunicate from the Church of Rome and notwithstanding acknowledged by you to be one worthy whose life should be Registred in the Body of your publike volume of Councells and after his death hauing the witnesse of God by his Seale of Miracles that he was his owne seruant and Saint As if you would teach vs this Syllogisme Euery one that dyeth Excommunicate out of the Church of Rome dyeth out of the Catholike Church and is consequently Damned But Ignatius a godly man in his life and blessed after his death dyed Excommunicate out of the Church of Rome Ergo the same man godly in his life time and Blessed after his death is immortally Damned Either must you thus conclude or else condemne your Article of Necessity of Subiection and Vnion to the Romane Church without which None can be saued to be iustly damnable For as for the Comment of Baronius who acknowledging him thus Excommunicate and so dying yet notwithstanding saith that he departed this life in the Popes Communion we haue nothing to say but onely Ridle me this Ridle because we are to yeeld to the truth of the Story and not vnto the figment and fancy of a Papall Commentator Our second Instance is in the Churches Christian in Assyria dis-united from Rome SECT 8. YOu haue a Narration commended by Pope Pius the 4. vnto the Councell of Trent concerning Abdisu Patriarch of the Assyrians and all Churches vnder him subiecting themselues to the Church and Pope of Rome Our intended Breuity will not permit the Repetition of so large a Narration Take vnto you summarily those Aduertisements which are proper to this Cause in hand It giueth vs to know 1. That the Nation of the Assyrians was so farre remote from Rome that At Rome it was scarce knowne that there was any Church there 2. That there was Two hundred thousand Christian Professors within the Patriarchship of Abdisu 3. That their Faith was sound and forme of worship pure and so had continued as they had receiued it in the beginning from Saint Thomas the Apostle And 4. that many of them oftentimes had suffered Martyrdome by the malice of Infidels for the profession of our Lord Christ. This and much more in the Narration made in the Councell of Trent by your Cardinall CHALLENGE THis Story is noted by our Gentillettus to be meerely Fabulous Not that there are not Christian Churches in Assyria professing the Catholike Faith and to haue so continued from the Apostolike times but that there was no such Submission of the said Churches made by Abdisu to the Pope of Rome Notwithstanding supposing the Tale of Robin-Hood to be true and granting vnto you that the said Churches of Assyria had subiected themselues to the Pope according to the Tenure of the Narration it selfe then may we lawfully dispute as Saint Paul often did though not from the truth of the thing belieued yâ—t from the Faith and credulity of the Beleeuer You therefore that belieue as the Story teacheth this Narration of a Nation of Christians continuing in the syncere Faith and holy Worship as they had receiued it from the Apostles for the space of 1500. yeares down-wards yea many of them with Constancy euen vnto death Tell vs do you beleeue that so many thousand thousands which had bene within the compasse of those times are notwithstanding Damned because they did not formally professe Subiection to the Church of Rome or not If you say they are Damned This were impiously calumnious against the Apostle Saint Thomas that taught them not your Article of the now Romane Faith If you say they are not Damned then are you damned in that your Romane Article which denounceth Damnation against all them that do not belieue that without Subiection to the Romane Catholike Church there can be no Saluation Howsoeuer you yet farre be it from vs who are Ministers of His Gospell that pronounced Saluation to them of little Faith that we should open where he shutteth by setting broad-wide the Gates of Hell to swallow vp in despaire such as hee hath called to the Profession of the Gospell of Life Our third Instance concerning Remote Nations is in other Churches Christian viz. Aegyptians Aethiopians Armenians Russians and the like
from the Head the Pope as the Successor of Peter and not the Pope from the Church Your Article of beleeuing The Catholike Church of Rome c. consisteth of many other Articles and ioynts which ought to bee obserued because euery one containeth in it according to your Faith a Necessity of Beleefe As 1. The Necessity of Beleeuing that there ought to bee An Vniuersall Iudge vpon earth as the distinct Vicar of Christ 2. The Necessity of Beleeuing that this Iudge ought to be but One Alone because Two Heads vpon One Body would make it Monstrous 3. The Necessity of Beleeuing that this One Head is Aboue a Councell and you may haue as good Reason for that if as you fondly conclude there be the same Reason of the Ecclesiasticall Body as there is of the Naturall because it is Necessary that the Head be predominant ouer the Body 4. The Necessity of Beleeuing that this predominant Head must be Romane so farre as to hold that by virtue of this Head Not onely the Romane Church taken at large but euen the Partiâ—ular Romane Church as it is in the City of Rome ouer-ruleth throughout the world 5. The Necessity of Beleeuing that this Romane Head must bee Visible because it is the Head of a Visible Church 6. The Necessity of Beleeuing this Visible Head to be so Visible in one Indiuidual person that It is as necessary for euery one to beleeue THIS man as if you should say This Clement or this Vrban to be the Head as it was necessary for the Iewes to beleeue THIS IESVS when he was reuealed vnto them because if there be not infallible beleefe of his person there can be no certainty in his Decrees And therefore it is requisite that you beleeue This man to bee the true Head with an infallible Faith 7. The Necessity of Beleeuing the Iudgement of this Visible Head to bee Infalliby true 8. The Necessity of Beleeuing that the Vnion of this Infallibly-true Head and the Body thereof as also the Vnion of the Members one with another are A true and proper note of the true and Catholike Church That so many Necessities of Beeleefe doe inforce as many Necessities oâ— Damnation partly vpon your pretended Head partly vpon your Body and Members thereof All that can bee said to this purpose may bee reduced to these Obseruations concerning the Head and Body and Members of your Church viz. as it may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Body without an Head or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hauing a False Head or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Multitudes of Heads or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Head repugnant vnto the whole Body or to the Essentiall Members thereof or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doubtfully Headed I. The Church of Rome sometimes a Body Head-lesse SECT 13. THis happeneth as often and as long as there is a Vacancy in that See by reason of the death of the former Pope which hath beene often for One or Two and sometimes for Eight yeeres space Where then is your Tibi dabo claues what becommeth of the Keyes of your Romane Catholike Church These saith your Cardinall the Pope being dead continue not formally in the Church will you see a iugler except as they are committed vnto the Inferior Ministers but are in the hands of Christ and after that a new Pope is Chosen the Keyes are deliuered vnto him not by the Church but by the hands of Christ. CHALLENGE 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the Depth of Delusion Doe then indeed Saint Peters Keyes flie into heauen at the death of euery Pope If so we demand what you vnderstand by those Keys which were promised by Christ to Peter Mat. 16. saying To thee will I giue the Keyes of the Kingdome of heauen Keyes in this place saith hee signifie principalitie of Ecclesiasticall power ouer all the Church and not remission of sinnes because Christ addeth saying Whatsoeuer thou bindest vpon earth c. Where by Binding is ment power of Praecept and of punishment by Excommunication So hee What power then is that which remaineth formally in the Inferior Ministers of the Church at the death of the Pope if it be the Keyes of Principality then is euery Inferior Priest a Pope if it be the Keyes onely of Order and Absolution then shall it not be lawfull for any Bishop to exercise any power of Iurisdiction by Praecept or punishing by Excommunication during all the time of the Vacancie be this for the space of Two Three Foure or as it is said to haue hapned Eight yeares together You will easily guesse what it was that drew your Answerer into this most vncouth and extreme corner wherein neuer any ancient Father before him set so much as the least print of his shooe for your owne Binius will tell you a story to some good purpose In the Interregnum or Vacancy betweene the death of Pope Agapetus and his Successor was celebrated saith he the Councell of Constantinople wherein there were present Two Legates of the Church of Rome together with Menna the Bishop of Constantinople and Vicar of meaning Romane the Apostolicall See So he Heere you see the Pope is dead notwithstanding you obserue a Generall Councell gathered which is an act that you haue called Proper to the Papall Primacy and Principality and in Councells are commonly Acts both of Generall Decrees and Precepts as also of punishments by Excommunication in the name of the Catholike Church Besides you may behold heere Legates yet not of the dead Pope but of the Romane Church liuing If then your Article take place in that sense as to denie any Formall power of Keys vnto Inferior Bishops then is heereby condemned the whole Romane Church not onely ancient in the Councell of Constantinople but also at all times of Interim betweene the death of one Pope and Election of another whensoeuer they execute any Act of Iurisdiction Answer then we pray you doe you vpon this conceit of Bellarmine iudge all these condemned then may and must we most iustly renounce your Article as execrable Or doe you beleeue that in the Church there remaineth Formally the power of the Keyes for the execution of all functions belonging to the necessary preseruation of the Church and Members thereof then must it follow which your Cardinall fore-saw right well that the Pope receiueth his Authority from the Church and not immediately from Christ and that therefore the Church hath no absolute necessity of a Pope And so may you bury your Article of Necessary Obedience to the Papall Monarchy in the graue of euery dead Pope and instead of that Article you may frame another De Anferibilitate Papae ab Ecclesiâ out of Gersons Instructions which may serue you for a Catechisme Because if the Church may consist sufficiently in that which you call her Widow-hood destitute of her Monarchical Head for Six or Eight yeeres why
not also for Eighty yea and Eighty times Eighty if shee would so Decree II. That the Church of Rome hath sometimes a False Head SECT 14. WHich false Head may bee easily seene thorrow many holes as First to make him as you do Vniuersall Head ouer the Whole Church of Christ throughout the world is to erect a False Head as Saint Gregory once Head of the Particular Church of Rome did often teach by calling the Title and Doctrine of Vniuersall Bishop Prophane Sacrilegious Blasphemous and Antichristian 2. God neuer ordained an Head no bigger then of a wren to stand vpon the shoulders of a man and so little in respect is One Bishop of One City of Rome to bee set ouer the Church Vniâ—ersally dispersed throughout the whole world as you may guesse by the exceptions which Saint Cyprian and after him S. Augustine and the Churches wherein they liued tooke against the Bishops of Rome accompting them Incompetent Iudges in Cases of Appeale from Remote Nations by reason of the distance of places and yet their Churches in Africke might be said to be neare neighbours to Rome in respect of many farre more distant from thence therefore an Head extreamely disproportionate is a False Head 3. None call that a Necessary and liuing Head which was not created by God no more can that Ecclesiasticall Head be iudged Necessary for the Church of Christ which was not instituted by Diuine Ordinance But that the Head of the Church of Rome was not ordained by Diuinâ— Authority you haue for proofe not onely the Church Catholike in the Councell of Chalcedon but also the Romane Church it selfe in the Councell of Constance Therefore an Humane Head in pretence of a Diuine one is a False Head 4. An Head subiect to Heresie cannot be truely adequate and proper to a Body which dependeth vpon Infallibility in matters of Faith But he that will be called Vniuersall Head is obnoxious to Heresie as Pope Gregory excellently taught when he denied that either He or any Bishop in the Church ought to be called Vniuersall Bishop of the whole Church lest that the same Vniuersall Bishop falling into error the whole Church saith he might erre with him An Example of an Hereticall Pope you haue had Confessed in Honorius from the Testimonies of Romish Doctors of Ancient Fathers of Councells and of Popes themselues And certainely that cannot be but a False Head which cannot be a True Member of the Body of the Church Catholike which no Heretike as you haue confessed can be 5. You your selues admit of no Head on earth of the Visible Body of Christ that is his Church which is not also so Visible that a man may point at it vndoubtedly and Indiuidually saying of it This is the Bishop of Rome But you can haue no such Certainty of any Bishop of Rome both because his Ordination without which he cannot be truely Pope dependeth vpon the Intention of the Ordeinour than which what can be more vncertaine vnto you as also because you are often constrained to doubt of the truth of his Election For you cannot be ignorant how plentifull a matter wee haue now in hand if we intended to prosecuâ—e the manifold Examples that are extant in your owne Bookes of Popes who haue taken possession of the Romane Chaire by Intrusion One you may receiue from the Relation of your Baronius viz. of Iohn the Twelfth who was no manner of way saith he to be termed a legitimate and lawfull Pope because no law was obserued in his Election but all things carryed with terror and Violence who although by reason of his young yeeres he could not be made so much as Deacon yet did the Church honour him for her Pope accompting it a Lesse euill to tolerate one although a Monstrous Head than to be diuided into many Heads So he This is plaine dealing openly confessing what kinde of Heads your Romane Church is sometimes vnited vnto One for his life Monstrous and therefore a braine-sicke Head One for his yeeres not fit to be so much as a Deacon that is as wee may so say an Elbow of the Church is made Head Chiefe Pastor thereof therefore a braine-lesse Head One that is an Intruder and No-way a lawfull Pope and therefore nothing lesse than a true Head because an Example differing from your Rule which your Iesuite Salmeron confesseth to be this To beleeue with a Diuine or Infallible Faith THIS singular and Indiuidual man to bee our Pope who is defined by the Electors yet so that it doth not appeare that there was any defect or fault in his Election But behold heere is one with a Constat that there was nothing but Defects in his entrance because no law of iust Election was obserued therein and yet notwithstanding acknowledged and honoured as true Pope of your Romane Church 6. As the Body cannot boast of Vnion with a Head that is Headlesse no more can an Head be truely so called which is Bodilesse But we haue proued that that which you call Principally the Church of Rome as resident at Rome shall haue no being and therefore be no Bodie in Rome namely when-as the City of Rome shall be the Seate of Antichrist CHALLENGE ALas my Masters what meane you will you needs condemne your selues and your whole Romane Church by your owne Faith Your Article is to Beleeue with an Infallible Faith One singular man to be the True Pope of Rome and Vniuersall Pastor hauing Monarchicall power in the Church wherein by the word Vniuersall you condemne the Romane Church as it was in the daies of Pope Pelagius the Second and Pope Gregory the First both which held the Title of Vniuersall as execrable and Anti-christian By Monarchicall and absolute power you condemne the Romane Church in the daies of Pope Damasus who held himselfe no Competent Iudge in Cases fore-iudged by a Prouinciall Councell By True you condemne the Romane Church in the daies of Pope Iohn the Twelfth which acknowledged for her Pope Him whom shee knew to bee euery way Vnlawfully possessed of the Popedome and therefore no True Pope Yet what maruell if they doubt not to obey false Pastors who daily Worship false Saints By Romane you condemne that Christian Church which shall be in the daies of Antichrist when-as the City of Rome from whence the Denomination of Romane is deriued shall be the Seate of Antichrist And by beleeuing Hunc This Indiuiduall Pope to bee verily the Pope with that Infallible Faith wherewith you beleeue any thing necessary to Saluation you condemne here-in the Romane Church throughout the whole Succession thereof from Saint Peter to this day and therein also your owne soules in professing that to bee Infallible which by reason of many defects both in the Ordination and Election of any Pope is knowne to be full of Fallibilities and vncertainties as all your owne Historians doe proue and as will bee further euident
De Facto in that which followeth in the nex Section III. The Church of Rome was often diuided into Many Heads SECT 15. SChisme as the Apostle teacheth is when the Body is diuided and depending vpon many Heads as if some held of Paul some of Cephas and but some of Christ. So hath it often hapned in your Church some depending of one and some of another and some of the Third Pope and among all these yet could but one sort hold of the True You your owne selues can reck on for vs Twentie yea Thirty Schismes and Diuisions among your Popes yet is this but a sparing Accompt But wee stand not vpon the number of their Diuisions but vpon their Duration Of which your Onuphrius hath Registred One for The most pernicious and pestilent betweene Vrban the 6. and Clement the 7. which continued and lasted for Fiftie yeares in the Church of Rome During which Schisme what Parts taking and factions there were on foot amongst the Members of that Church throughout the most Countries in Europe it is easie to imagine Your Cardinall telleth vs of Three Popes at one time euery one whereof would be accounted the Pope so that hardly could any discerne which was the true Pope So you What Resolution can your Church haue in such a Case your Iesuite would haue vs to note that The Councell of Constance put them All downe and this stood with good reason saith hee because when the true Pope was not certaine it was as much as if there had beene none at all So hee Moreouer Baronius hath found out another matter of wonderment how that When Sergius the Third an illegitimate Pope intruded himselfe into that Seat by monstrous sacriledge and most beastly filthinesse yet such was the Reuerence saith hee which all faithfull Professours especially the remote Northerne People had vnto the Church of Rome that whomsoeuer they heard to sit in that See although Pope onely in name without any further inquirie concerning his manner of entrance they reuerenced him as S. Peter himselfe So hee CHALLENGE LOoke againe to your Article of Beliefe concerning This One Romane Pope without which Faith none can be saued Now your Church of Rome being diuided into Two Factions one halfe adhering to One Pope and another halfe to a Second your Article requiring Beliefe of Hunc This onely One doth damne halfe the Romane Church for the space of aboue twice Fortie yeares And afterwards so long as it was diuided into Three Factions adhering vnto Three seuerall Heads your Article of Hunc This singular Pope damneth Two of the Three Parts of your Romane Church at that time At which time the Councell of Constance the Representatiue Body of the Romane Church in this distraction vsing no other remedie but abscission and cutting off euery Head by remouing All the Three and choosing a Fourth your Article challenging the acknowledgement of Hunc doth necessarily damne the whole Romane Church either in admitting any of the Three or else in preferring a Fourth As for our Northerne Professours of those dayes whose Faith your Baronius extolleth for their Beliefe of any Pope whomsoeuer they heard named Pope were hee neuer so illegitimate and indeede no Pope at all as for Example Sergius the Third wee are in a great straight which rather to admire to wit whether the Foolishnesse of those Northerne people in beleeuing an Ape to be a Man or the Faithlesnesse of your Cardinall who against the Article of his Faith requiring Hunc Verum that is the acknowledgement of This true Pope and none else notwithstanding commendeth men for entertaining and honouring a False one But alas what will they not beleeue that will needes follow such Guides as leade them by the nose and make them to beleeue not that which God prescribeth but what they please albeit herein also condemned by your owne Article And moreouer you your selues that are sworne to beleeue Infallibly Hunc when as it is possible for that which hath hapned may happen that your whole Church cannot discerne between Hunc and Hunc by the same Article stand you continually condemned in your owne Consciences IV. That the Church of Rome is oftentimes troubled with an Head repugnant sometime to the whole Body and sometimes to the Seuerall Members thereof SECT 16. THe First worke in a building is laying a right Foundation which in euery Dispute is the true state of the Question and then Dimidium facti qui bene cepit habet The Forme of your owne Oath will giue vs good light for this First point IN. doe beleeue the Catholike Romane Church to be the Mother and Mistresse ouer all other Churches and I sweare Obedience to the Pope as to the Vicar of Christ. You professe then in this to honour the Church of Rome as Mother and Mistresse ouer All Churches and the Bishop and Pope of Rome as Chiefe Pastor and Head of it It onely remaineth to know whether as you haue made all other Churches diuided from this Head to be Schismatikes out of the Church and destitute of spirituall life so also there may not be a Schisme betweene this Romane Head and Body so that the One being diuided from the other in some Cases either of them may become Schismaticall Your publike Professor and Iesuite Suarez is at hand to resolue you Schisme saith hee as it is distinguished from Haeresie is a separation either from the Head or from the Body so as the Body if it denie its Head This true Pope it is Schismaticall and the Pope the Head if hee denie due Communion with the Body as to Excommunicate the whole Church is also Schismaticall So he Whose ingenuitie we must commend in that hee confesseth it possible for the Pope in some Case to be a Schismatike It will be our part to giue some Instance hereof That your Church commonly is Doubtfully-Headed proued by an Instance made in the state of the great Question of the Supreame Iudge in your Church whether it must be the Romane Pope or Councell And First for the Pope SECT 17. IT is necessâ—ry that that Church which will needes be Iudge of all other Churches should first determine with it selfe who is the Supreme Iudge nor should she euer take vpon her to determine of other Controuersies in Faith against Protestants before shee haue satisfied Protestants in this whether Pope or Councell be indeede the Supreame Iudge In this Question Romane Doctors of all sorts haue bin distracted in their iudgements To leaue all other Disputes we desire to know how this hath bin determined by any Councell Bellarmine although the sworne Proctor for the Pope yet against such as laboured to deduce a Confirmation of the Popes Iudgement aboue a Councell from the Councels either of Florence or Lateran doth reiect both So that saith he the matter is still questionable vnto this day Is not this Acknowledgement worthy your thrice rumination to vnderstand that
the Romane Church which boasteth her selfe to be the Mistresse of all Churches and Iudge of all matters of Faith is not after a Thousand Six hundred yeares fully assured whether Comparison being made betweene her Pope and her selfe Hic or Haec Hee or Shee be the Supreme Iudge When then and how will you resolue in this so principall a Case must the Scales still stand euen that neither of them shall ouer-poise Not so for you teach if One as your fore-man may speake for you all that Although this case haue not beene decided by any absolute Decree yet it is defined saith hee by the tacit and secret censent of the Doctors of the Church scarce any one Diuine holding any other opinion herein than that which before that of late this Controuersie was moued was anciently in force namely that the Pope is aboue a Councell as the Head is aboue the Body As if he should say Sirs if the Question be whether Iohn an Oake or Iohn a Stile be heire to that Land because the Witnesses conceale their meaning without question they by a tacit Consent are for the Complainant that Iohn an Oake must carry the Land O Quacksaluer Consider you not now that the Subiect of all this Dispute is The Catholike Visible Church whose Consent likewise is to be discerned onely by Visible Characters whether it be by word or by writing And are you now come to this passe as that in a Cause of so great moment you must depend vpon the iudgement of the Tacit Consent of your Doctors Wee doe not therefore maruell why they must needes be blinde Guides who themselues haue no better Direction than dumbe Iudges All other Christian Churches in the world stand for the Authoritie of a Generall Councell against whatsoeuer Pope which the Cause of your Pope hauing now bin heard we are to proue from the Romane Church it selfe That the Romane Church is rather Iudge than the Romane Pope in all Causes of that Church by the publike Decree of the same Church in it selfe First in the Councell of Constance SECT 18. IN the yeare of Christ our Lord 1415. was celebrated the Councell of Constance in Germanie a place then most fit consisting as you know of almost a Thousand Fathers whereof more then Three hundred were Bishops This Synod with an Inprimis beginneth with this Article The Holy Synod inspired with the Holy Ghost being lawfully assembled making vp a Generall Councell which representeth the whole Catholike Church hath immediate power from Christ whereunto euery state and condition be it the Papall or whatsoeuer is bound to obey in all things which concerne either Faith or Generall reformation of the Church whether in the Head or Members thereof Thus farre that Councell which was expresly confirmed by Pope Martin to be held Inuiolable in matter of Faith CHALLENGE TEll vs now whether euer the Church of Rome had a Councell more ample for multitude of Fathers being almost a Thousand whether euer any Councell could assume more Infallibilitie to it selfe than to be congregated by the Holy Ghost thereby making her Degrees Authenticall or whether euer any Councell could Derogate more from the Papall Power as it is now beleeued and Attributed to your Popes than to subiect him to the Determination of a Councell in matters both of Direction in Faith and Reformation of manners or can any of you require a more fundamentall reason thereof than that which is intimated in the Decree it selfe saying that The Councell hath its Authoritie immediately from Christ The meaning whereof is as you are taught that the Popes Authoritie is not of Diuine but onely of Humane Institution or Lastly can you expect a stronger confirmation of all this than is the Ratification thereof by the then Lawfull Pope Now then for now wee are come to our conflict by Comparison If as your Cardinall and others answer The Pope confirmed other matters of Faith decreed in that Councell but would not ratifie this Decree as being so derogatiue to his Headship and supreme Iudicature then behold that which wee assumed to proue as great a Difference betweene that Assembly of Fathers which was as much the Representatiue Body of the Romane Church as any can be named Whence it must as well follow that your Pope if hee had hereupon Excommunicated the Fathers of that Councell had bin a Schismatike as it doth follow that diuiding himselfe from their Decree hee could by your Romane Principles be no lesse than an Haeretike For the Decree is peremptorie as a matter of Faith the Reason they gaue was concluded against the Pope namely that the Pope of Rome is not Head of the Church by any Diuine Ordinance euen as a Thousand yeares before this the Fathers of the Councell of Chalcedon anciently beleeued Another like Example in the Councell of Basil. SECT 19. IN the yeare 1431. there was a Councell gathered at Basil by the Authoritie of Pope Martin the Fift and after confirmed by Eugenius wherein were 90. Fathers who hauing confirmed the Decrees of the Councell of Constance whereby the Pope is made subiect vnto a Councell and the Censure thereof now at the length Pope Eugenius perceiuing they held this course will needes dissolue the Councell and translate it to Florence The Councell it selfe withstandeth this and Commandeth the contrary shewing thereby that The Pope sought nothing but by abrogating of Councels the destruction of the Church Therefore they fairely suspend the Pope and in the end according to the iudgement of the Councell of Constance they Decree as an Vniuersall Truth that the Pope hath no Authoritie aboue a Councell nor power of himselfe to dissolue it which truth whosoeuer say they shall obstinately contradict is to be iudged an Heretike So They. Will you now see the Pope and the Councell grapple together The Councell hath suspended the Pope and iudgeth him no better than a Schismatike The Pope pronounceth the Fathers of the Councell Schismatikes Separated from the Mother Church of Rome meaning the Conclaue of some Cardinals at Rome and the Head thereof for the space of seauen yeares last past The Councell answereth saying What will the Pope then damne for Schismatikes all the Cardinals Bishops and the Emperour himselfe with Kings and Princes there present yea and the whole Church which doth approue of this Councell In the end to end the fray The Pope saith the Councell did yeeld to the Admonition made vnto him of not dissoluing the Councell Here is presented before you the Romane Head and in the Opinion of the Fathers of that Councell the Catholike Bodie of the Romane Church in a Distraction and Separation either from the other for Seauen yeares space As for the Popes Pretence of his Romane Church which were but a few Domesticall Cardinals the Councell did not accompt them worthy the name of the Members of the Church This being
the Case whether shall we call the Schismatikes for so the one party necessarily must be That in this Case the Pope is the Schismaticke SECT 20. SOme would thinke that the Pope could not be the Schismatike because which is your common Argument the Head although it be diseased yet it is not separated without the destruction of the Body If there be any peircing sharpnesse in the point of this Reason it may to your owne mischiefe easily be turned backe into your owne bowels as the Fathers of the same Councell wisely did because say they If the Case could be the same in a Naturall Body as it is in a Body Ecclesiasticall that assoone as one Head is remoued another might be had then in many head-aches would men make often changes of their Heads And indeed if there were not this difference betweene the Ecclesiasticall and Naturall Head it should follow that as oft as the Ecclesiasticall Head the Pope should die the Ecclesiasticall Body and Church of Christ should perish also So they Come we to their other Reason That which Christ promised to his Church doth more especially agree to a Generall Councell now Christ said vnto Peter if he should take any offence Dic Ecclesiae Tell the Church the Complainant is not of equall Authority with the Iudge It were ridiculous to interpret that by Church was meant Peter himselfe and as fond to send him vnto any Inferiour to himselfe and no lesse absurd had it bene to send him to the whole Church diffused euery-where therefore Christ meant the assembly in a Councell Besides The Pope is Minister and but one part in Comparison to the whole therefore lesse yea in Authority for the greatnesse of the Authority dependeth vpon the Maior pars the greater part of suffrages and voyces So that Synod of Basil. We might adde hereunto the Argument of Nilus the Greek Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica If that saith he the Pope had Infallibility of Iudgement to what end were the cost and labour of troubling all parts of Christendome for gathering Generall Councels Nor he alone but another more Romish than he could be If so saith he why should the learned in Lawes be sought for Why so many Vniuersities vexed by discussing of Questions belonging to Faith c. So he CHALLENGE AFter your perusall of these Premises remember but your Iesuites Assertion If the Pope should diuide himselfe from the whole Church Hee should be iudged a Schismatike But whether the guilt of Schisme be in Pope or Councell your owne guilt in such a Case can be no lesse than Periury who by your Article are bound to belieue that both Subiection and Vnion vnto both Romane Church and Pope are Necessary to Saluation You haue now a Woolfe by the eares whether you hold him or let him loose you are sure to be bit Thus much of the Dis-union betweene the Head and Body of the Romane Church The fourth Instance of the Dis-union betweene the Romane Church and some Members thereof in the Examples of France and England SECT 21. AN Appeale was made about the same time of the Councell of Basil against Pope Leo the tenth by the Vniuersitie of Paris in Defence of the Authority of the same Councell wherein the same Vniuersity taxeth the Session of the Pope and his Cardinalls as Not gathered together by the Spirit of God professing herein that Not the Popes particular Assembly in the Citie but the Congregation in the publicke Councell is to be called The Church of Rome And this Right of Appeale from the Pope is a liberty which the Vniuersity of Paris hath alwaies challenged to this day yea and the whole Church of France whose King by his Orator in the Councell of Trent made knowne the Vniuersall Tenet of that Church namely that The Pope is not Superiour to a Councell Which they still maintaine notwithstanding Pope Pius the fourth his contention by Arguments in his letters to the contrary And how little accompt they make of the Trent-Canons which are the Articles of Faith whereunto you are sworne is more than manifest seeing they haue not yet admitted of that Councell within the Kingdome of France and therefore are yet at libertie to beleeue as much thereof as they list Not long after this in the dayes of Henry the Eight then King of England Stephen Gardiner being of the Romane Religion yet withstood the Romane Dominion in this kingdome saying as followeth The Authority which the Bishop of Rome would be thought to haue by Gods Law is no Authoritie with vs like as no manner of forraine Bishop hath Authority among vs. Afterwards he descanteth vpon the Title of Head as it is attributed to the Church and Pope of Rome and denyeth him to be the Head by Dominion but by Order in like respect as Appelles was called the Head of Painters and Lutetia or Paris the Head of Vniuersities As for the other Supremacy which the Pope challengeth it is that which Pope Boniface the second begged of the Emperour Phocas It is an ambitious vanity for them to be called Supremes who are Postremes in that which is least All sorts of people in England are agreed vpon this point with most stedfast consent learned and vnlearned both men and women that no manner of person bred or brought vp in England hath ought to do with Rome So he This was the Faith of the Church of England then notwithstanding the Excommunication of the Pope against the King and All his Adherents CHALLENGE IN these Examples to omit others you haue two most potent Kingdomes excepting the Article now in Question vnited in Faith and the one also professing Subiection to your Church of Rome as noble Members thereof who all in all the time of their Opposition if your Article of Necessary Subiection and Vnion to the Church of Rome and Pope thereof bee of Faith are made liable with all their people vnto eternall Damnation Wherefore as we do complaine of the maliciousnesse of your Romane Article which denounceth Curses vpon all Protestants and Others of a different Religion from Rome so may wee cry out vpon the madnesse thereof by which she strangleth the children of her owne wombe yea and her whole Representatiue Bodie in her late Generall Councels as hath bene proued CHAP. XV. The Determination of the whole Controuersie betweene the Church of Rome and the Church of England together with other Protestant Churches concerning the CHVRCH CATHOLIKE to discerne whether Side is rather to be accounted Schismaticall or may more iustly pleade Soule 's Saluation First by Generall THESES SECT 1. THE word CATHOLIKE CHVRCH is that which you oppose vnto vs in euery Dispute as it were a Gorgons head able to terrifie Protestants at the first mention thereof Which name as it is appropriated to the Romane Church we haue prooued to be but a bare name and indeed Medusa's head painted in a shield a meere delusion able to feare
none but Ignorants For your fuller Satisfaction herein We thought good vpon Contemplation of the Premisses to descend vnto this DETERMINATION of the Cause which wee shall performe punctually by certaine Theses or Positions by which are repelled those Popular Obiections which you vsually cast as Impediments in our way This Tractate then we diuide into foure parts I. Concerning All Churches in generall II. Particularly comparing the Romane Church with other now Remote Churches III. Comparing her with the Churches of Protestants at the time of LVTHERS departure from her IV. Comparing her with the Churches of Protestants at this day The first part of Comparison which is by Generall Theses I. THESIS An Absolute Decay of the Catholike Church was neuer defended by any Protestants SECT 2. MAny Papists in their aduersnesse to Protestants whom they seeke to traduce do impute vnto them this faithlesse Paradox as to say that the Catholike Church is sometime extinguished whereas Caluine and other Protestants grant saith your Cardinall that the Catholike Church cannot perish And therefore he telleth those MANY that they do but Loose their time in proouing the perpetuall existence of the Catholike Church Hee might as well haue noted in them a Losse of good Conscience by their falsly imposing vpon Protestants a false Doctrine which they neuer taught as you may more perfectly see afterwards by a Sentence of Caluin himselfe II. THESIS The Church Symbolicall and properly called Catholike cannot erre in Faith SECT 3. THat wee call the Symbolicall and properly Catholike Church as it is Militant which is set downe in the Apostles Symbol or Creed beleeued of all Christians viz. The multitude of all Christian Beleeuers whensoeuer and wheresoeuer dispersed through-out the world vnto which belong all those Royall Promises made by Christ vnto her of being Led into all truth Ioh. 16. Of hauing his residence with it Vnto the ends of the world Matth. 28. Of Hell-gates not preuailing against it Matth. 16. Neuer shall you find any Protestant gain-saying this Truth III. THESIS How the Church Representatiue improperly called the Catholike Church may bee said to be subiect to Errour SECT 4. THe Church improperly called Catholike is the Congregation of Christians assembled in a Generall Synod as being the Representatiue body of the Church in the Symbol properly called Catholike whereof wee say no more than Saint Augustine spake to wit that Sometimes former Generall Councels may be corrected by the latter Vnto which sentence of Augustine you could not hitherto giue any Answer but that which Saint Augustine if he were aliue would say is directly contradictory to his meaning For Augustine saith your Cardinall spake not of matter of Faith but of Fact nor of a point of Doctrine but of Manners Whereas the whole dispute of Augustine in that place is about a Doctrine of Faith Whether there can be true Baptisme in a false Church And what hath Saint Augustine said herein which Some of your owne Romish Schoole haue not thorowly auouched viz. that Generall Councels rightly gathered haue erred and that A Generall Councell so erring doth not preiudice the Catholike Church Because A Generall Councell is not the Catholike Church but onely a part thereof Which erring yet notwithstanding Some of the Church shall be still assisted to vphold the truth So they Nor doth this any whit impeach the Promise of Christ to wit * Whensoeuer two or three shall be gathered together in my Name there I will be in the middest of them For Christ promising his presence to all Christians Assembled in his Name did not thereby promise that all Christian Assemblies should be gathered in his Name duly that is with sincere hearts to inuocate him and to subscribe to his reuealed Truth It was an Academicall and Scepticall Paradox to say that because one Sense might be deceiued therefore no Sense was to be belieued Whereunto the Answer was that euery Sense as it might be deceiued so might it also be not deceiued if requisite Circumstances were duely obserued as namely if the Organ and Instrument were sound the Medium rightly disposed the Obiect proper the Distance due and proportionable Accordingly in Councels if the persons assembled as it were the Organs be sincerely affected to Gods glorie with desire of Truth as their proper Obiect and in the maior part thereof not led with the spirit of Contention and Faction which is the Cause of vnequall difference and Distance and if their Diaphanum and Medium be illuminated with the true light as Saint Peter calleth the holy Scripture Then is it not possible for such an Assembly to erre in any principle of Faith So then the difference betweene the Romane Church and the Church of the Protestants is no more but this that the Romanists say that all Generall Councels may erre except they bee confirmed and authorized by the Pope but Protestants say that all Generall Councels may erre except they be directed by the Spirit of Gods word as our Church of England hath truly defined In which difference we seeke no other moderation than the iudgement of the first fiue Generall Councels which in points of Faith propounded to themselues the holy Scripture as the onely Rule of their Doctrines esteemed of the Popes iudgement no otherwise than of a particular suffrage and in it selfe but equall excepting the Dignitie of Order vnto the voices of other Patriarches and Bishops as hath bene prooued IV. THESIS Protestants hold not any greater Inuisibilitie or rather Obscuritie of the Church Catholike than that which the Romanists themselues are forced to confesse SECT 5. NOt but that many of you pretend and boast of a Catholike Church not onely Visible but also Conspicuously and notoriously Visible alwaies both in the Amplitude of compasse and in the Multitude of Beleeuers as the Perpetuall note of the Church which our Sauiour Christ compareth to a Citie set vpon a hill And you are not ignorant of the Epistle which Mr. Fisher a Iesuite presented not long agoe vnto our late Soueraigne King Iames of blessed memorie wherein he professeth a Catholike Church to be alwaies so conspicuous that The whole knowne world may take notice of her yea euen in the dayes of Antichrist shall she be visibly vniuersall for she shall be then euery-where persecuted which she could not bee except she were euery where Visible So He Who neuer regarded that the Church of Christ as it is sometime in lustre glorious as the Sunne so againe it is according to the iudgement of Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose sometime as the Moone which hath her encreases and decreases In which respect we are to obserue two Seasons of the Church the one long since past in the dayes of that Deluge of the Arian Heresie the other prophesied to happen in the dayes of Antichrist Of both which as well Fathers as your owne Authors say as much concerning the Ecclipse and obscurity of
hath beene prooued by the Testimonies of Catholike and General Councels Fathers and Martyrs to be an Errour in it selfe The other Principle is that whereon the former dependeth to wit that the Bishop or Pope of Rome is the Vniuersall Head of the Catholike Church which in the iudgement of a most ancient and holy Pope is not onely a Prophane and Antichristian errour in it selfe but also the high-way of erring vniuersally Because saith hee if that One Vniuersall Bishop erre then must the whole and Vniuersall Church erre with him Where the same Saint Gregorie vpon a particular occasion taken at Iohn the Patriarke of Constantinople who ambitiously sought the Title of Vniuersall Bishop gaue this his foresaid generall Doctrine concerning any Bishop whatsouer whether in the See of Constantinople or Rome or wheresoeuer Euen as the Apostle vpon occasion of confuting of one new error among the Galatians giueth them a generall lesson against all other the like Nouelties of Doctrin If we or an Angel from heauen preach otherwise than hath been preached vnto you let him be Anathema or Accursed And that diuerse Popes haue beene Heretikes your owne Histories doe sufficiently proclaime especially in the example of Pope Honorius whom two Generall Councels three Romane Popes his Successours and diuers others your owne zealous Popish Writers haue reckoned among the Monothelites But you will say albeit that Pope were a Monothelite yet did not the whole Catholike Church fall into that Heresie with him True which manifesteth the falshood of your now Romane Article in as much as in those ancient times neither did the Church truely called Catholike hold the Pope to be the Catholike or Vniuersall Head of the Church neither yet did that which you abusiuely absurdly and falsely call the Catholike Church to wit the Church of Rome it selfe beleeue your Article of Infallibilitie of iudgement in your Popes A memorable example wee haue in your Pope Liberius who professing himselfe an Arian and seeking by his Arian faction to returne to his See found a bloudy resistance by both the Clergie and people of the Church of Rome as your selues well know But now when as the falsly-vsurped Title of Vniuersall Head carrieth in the beliefe of the new Church of Rome a confidence of an Vniuersall truth in whatsoeuer new Doctrine of faith in this Case that saying of Christ is verified If the blinde such is hee that in the opinion of his Vniversall Headship presumeth vpon an Infallibilitie of iudgement leade the blinde such are all they who by an Implicit and blind beliefe adhere vnto him as to an Oracle of Diuine truth Both shall fall into the ditch THESIS III. There is not in all Scripture any Prophecie of the fall of any Church Christian from the faith but onely of the Church of Rome from which it may sometime be Necessary to depart SECT 11. FOr where can you finde in all Scripture tell vs that the Spirit of God brandeth any Citie Christian with the note of certaine Apostasie from the truth but onely the Citie of Rome Your owne Iesuites haue confessed Themselues being compelled thereunto by the light of the Reuelation of the holy Ghost in the booke of Reuelation Apoc. 12. to acknowledge saying The Citie of Rome is Babylon there prophesied of to become before the end of the world The Seat of Antichrist and after to be suddenly and visibly Destroyed by the vengeance of God And although they are not more ingenuous in this Confession concerning the Citie of Rome in the dayes of Antichrist to come than they are not to dissemble with you zealous and indeede obstinate in denying that it can be ment of the Church of Rome yet would we faine know what you would thinke of the Church of England if the like Prophecie were extant in God's booke pointing out the Citie of London to be in times to come The Seat of Antichrist Would you desire a more Popular argument especially in these times wherein the ends of the world are come vpon vs to perswade your people to abhorre and detest the Church of England euen for that Citie sake But you are further to remember that which hath beene already prooued that your Church cannot be called The Church of Rome but by reason of the Seate thereof which is in the Citie of Rome Which wee now moreouer Confirme by the Apostle Saint Paul who writing to the Romanes maketh this the Inscription of his Epistle Chap. 1.7 To all you that are at Rome And againe ver 15. I am ready to preach vnto you that are at Rome Signifying that it cannot hereby be called the Church of Rome without relation to a company of Professours in the Citie of Rome Whensoeuer therefore Rome as is confessed shall become that Babylon and Seate of Antichrist whereof the Spirit saith to the faithfull Come out of Babylon my people Apoc. 18.4 then the necessitie of Departure must needes follow THESIS IV. The Church of Rome hath long beene and still is the most Schismaticall Church of all other Churches Christian that carry in them a Visible face of a Church SECT 12. OH that this could be iustly doubted of your owne supreame Article doth abundantly proue it to wit The Catholike Romane Church without Vnion and Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation By which one Article as you haue heard doe stand Excommunicate as much as lyeth in your Romane Church and depriued of all hope of Saluation the most renoumed godly Emperors the most ancient and Reuerend Popes the most graue and Orthodoxe Patriarkes and Fathers of the first Eight in your owne estimation Generall Councels the most famous Christian Churches the most constant Martyrs Confessours and Saints of God that the primitiue times of Christ his Church haue knowne and recorded to posteritie many whereof are at this day registred in the Romane Martyrologe and Calendar of Saints All which hath beene fully proued than which what Doctrine of Schismatikes can be more Schismaticall And what shall wee say of the After-ages of the Church wherein wee haue obserued the Church of the Graecians Aethiopians Aegyptians Assyrians not to mention as yet the Churches of Protestants Armenians Russians and others for extent more large than Rome for worship more pure for faith more sound and for profession thereof more constant by sustaining daily iniuries and thraldomes vnder the Mahumetans and other Pagan Enemies all which Churches amount to innumerable numbers of Christian soules who being by your Article of The Catholike Romane Church excluded from your Communion must accordingly be held to perish euerlastingly But pardon vs if wee from the Example of these so many Churches Christian of so large extent and long Continuance make bold to vse a little Logicke with you in this manner That Church which onely diuideth it selfe from the Communion of all other truely professed Christian Churches in the world the same is the most Schismaticall Church in the Christian
call Papisticall Faith Take vnto you an Answer which may reciprocally satisfie both you and vs accordingly as we are both directed by Saint Augustine and Saint Cyprian two ancient and godly Fathers They saith Saint Augustine concerning the Donatists who were knowne to be notorious Schismatikes that do defend their false opinion without pertinacie especially if it be such as they are no Authors of themselues but which they haue receiued from their seduced Ancestors yet cautelously seeking after the Truth and prepared to embrace the same so soone as it shall be reuealed Such saith he will not I account Heretikes Accordingly Saint Cyprian If any of our Elders saith he haue not obserued thus much either through their ignorance or simplicity not holding that which Christ hath taught and commanded vs such may through the mercie of God find pardon whereas we stand without pardon if against our knowledge we shall reiect the admonitions of Christ. This agreeth with that of holy writ spoken of them who were ignorantly plunged in rebellion and therefore as being excusable are said to haue gone in Simplicitie If hereuponn we shall enter into Comparison with you by supposing an error in both Churches yet cannot the ignorancee of the Protestants be called Affected because they are willing as the Apostle directeth To trie all things and ready to keepe that which is good Nor are they stupidly and wilfully ignorant led by the nose hood-winked through an Implicit Faith as your Profession teacheth Which one point maketh the state of Protestants far more iustifiable than yours can be Come we now seeing that you will needs to the Censuring of fore-Fathers wherein three points will be very considerable for our Iustification in comparison of you I. Is by examining whether side is more peremptorie in damning of any other Christian Churches II. Whether are guiltie in condemning the more sincere ancient and Orthodoxe Fathers III. Whether do by their Profession iudge and deliuer ouer to Sathan greater multitudes of fore-fathers and professed Christians The first point is more than euident for the Article of your Creed is absolutely to iudge as damned without all possibility of Absolution all Christians whatsoeuer that are not professedly Papists We farre more Christianly display Christ opening his armes of mercy vnto all that beleeue in him without wilfull blindnesse in erring and obstinacie in transgressing and also we beleeue that All such as seeke the knowledge of the Truth with a simple heart are not secluded from life which issueth from Christ to all who shall by Faith Touch but the hemme of his garment Secondly well it were you would vnderstand what fore-Fathers ye or we condemne for some may be more condemnable than others as may be discerned by that Testamentarie Exhortation which Ioshuah gaue to Gods people immediatly before his death Feare ye the Lord saith Ioshuah and serue him in sincerity and Truth and put away the gods which your Fathers serued on the other side of the flood and in Egypt and serue you the LORD The people to whom he spake had three kind of Fore-fathers some immediate and those were of the same profession with Ioshuah Some rather mediate and as it were once remoued namely they that had Apostated from Gods worship to Idolatry in seruing strange Gods And some Primitiue such as were Abraham and the other Patriarchs in the direct line of the Messiah The first and last ranke of Fathers they were taught to heare and imitate onely from the middle sort that had declined from God the people were commanded to depart as from Fathers of a damnable condition Will you bee tried by this Example Your Proselites are taught to condemne their Protestant Parents and Progenitors being of the Reformed Religion and the Articles of your New Creede haue condemned the ancient Fathers of Primitiue times as hath bene prooued to the full We honouring the memorie of all Fathers of the Primitiue ages yea of the Popes of the Church of Rome for more than 600. yeares space do onely condemne them although not absolutely who were the fore-Fathers of the middle order who degenerated from their first integritie and were drowned in Superstition Thirdly as for the numbers of fore-Fathers damned by your new Romane Creed they are innumerable For what millions of millions of the truly ancient Fathers were not as hath bene prooued Subiect to your Romane Church and therefore haue incurred your sentence of Damnation What myriads of myriads of soules of Grecians Assyrians Aegyptians and others professing the same Christian Faith do not your cursing and cursed Romish Mount Ebal daily damne to the pit of hell And yet you blush not to obiect vnto Protestants their Damning of their fore-Fathers God grant that this make not to your greater Damnation THESIS VII The Protestants at this day stand more Iustifiable in their Separation from Rome than did either the Ancient Primitiue Churches in her Excommunicating of Them or yet LVTHER and his FOLLOVVERS in their Departure from Her SECT 29. IT is high time Wee end this Taske which We conclude in this Thesis for Proofe whereof be you pleased to call to mind the Romish Excommunications denounced first against the Asian Churches and that onely for a matter of Ceremonie next against Saint Cyprian and the Africane and Numidian Byshops and Churches in a Question of Rebaptization which was but One and that no fundamentall Error then against Theophilus and Cyrill both Bishops of Alexandria together with Acacius and Atticus both Bishops of Constantinople onely about Admitting or not Admitting of the Name of Chrysostome into the Diptikes or Tables of Commemoration then against the Opposition of the Churches of Africke in the dayes of Saint Augustine onely against the pretended Iurisdiction of Rome in the Case of Appeales All which with many other Catholike Churches and Fathers as well Greeke as Latine haue contemned the Pride of the Church of Rome in Primitiue Ages when-as other wise the Bishops of Rome were Godly and Orthodox But LVTHER contented with Rome not about Ceremonies or Iurisdictions but about the Soule 's life both in the point of the Iustification of a Sinner before God and of the religious and spirituall Worship properly due to our Iealous God which Contention was begun before the Councell of Trent Secondly after that was a Generall free Councell desired as a Remedie for all Diseases in the Church but alas whiles Rome would needs be that Catholike Church the Remedie was turned presently into a Poison so desperate is her Case 1. By enthralling All to the pleasure of the Pope which is a depriuing of the Church of Christ of her Liberty 2. By authorizing her Idolatrie 3. By giuing Safe-Conduct to Protestants for the discussion of their Opinions and yet not suffering Them to Dispute in their Councell an Argument of their Obstinacie 4. By Decreeing and Creating a CREED consisting of aboue XX. new Articles of Faith as Necessary to
his owne Accompt of the Romane Church Our first Proofe SECT 11. GReat was the estimation doubtles which Saint Paul had of the Christian Professors of his time in the Church of Rome yet not so great by farre as you would make the world beleeue For first we haue heard your vaunting of the Preheheminence of Rome because It was founded both by Peter and Paul the two most renouned among the Apostles which boast is as easily blowne away by propounding a confessed Parallell out of your Bozius from Ecclesiasticall Records shewing that Peter and Paul both founded the Church of Corinth Yet was Corinth neuer knowne to haue preheminence aboue Alexandria or other Churches of Asia or elsewhere Oh! but there is a second place which will stop all mouthes of Contradiction in the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Romanes Chap. 1. ver 8. I thanke my God through Iesus Christ for you all that your Faith is published through-out the World Vpon this Commendation of the Faith of those Romanes the Professors of the now Romane Faith vse in a manner to triumph as though that Encomium with the same Faith were hereditary to that Church or as if at that day CATHOLIKE and ROMANE had beene all one An Obiction now-adaies breathed into the mouth of euery Vulgar Papist Whereas first if you will permit your owne Cardinall Tolet and your Iesuit SÃ to be our Expositors both will say that These words through-out the world are to be taken as Hyperbolically spoken and by way of excesse Yea One of them resolueth that by the words Your Faith is not meant What the Romanes beleeued but onely That they beleeued their Faith being now published through-out the World So that it appeareth not by this that the Faith then was held Catholike because the Romanes beleeued it but that it was now a common fame thorow out the whole World that the Romanes had receiued the Christian Faith And no maruell seeing that Rome was then the publike stage of the World by reason of the Imperiall Seate there whither all sorts of people vnder that vast Empire had recourse for the discharge of Tributes and Accounts for their Offices and the like So that it was not possible that things done publikely in Rome should not be knowne to the whole visible World as your owne Iesuite Pererius doth obserue Easily therefore might that newes be spread abroad through-out all quarters that the Romanes had receiued the Faith This is all Secondly your former Insultation is easily checked with a Parallel of the like if not of a larger Commendation of the same Apostle vnto the Church of Thessalonica 1 Thess. 1.2 We giue thankes alwaies to God for you all making mention of you in our prayers Remembring without ceasing your worke of Faith And againe ver 8. From you saith he sounded out the Word of the Lord not onely in Macedonia and Achaia but also in euery place your Faith to God-ward is spread abroade c. And least you may peraduenture thinke that Rome hauing had the preheminence of Commendation before Thessalonica therefore the Church of Thessalonica receiued their Faith from the Romanes this Obiection will rebound vpon the Authors themselues for although the Epistle to the Romanes haue the first place by the Ordinance of the Church it is not because of the Dignity of the Church of Rome but for the excellencie and necessity of the matter and Argument of the Epistle it selfe which is the Doctrine of Iustification For if we consider the order of times wherein the Apostle Saint Paul Writ his Epistles your owne Authors willingly consent to the iudgement of Theodoret that According to the order obserued by Saint Paul first were published the I. and II. Epistles to the Thessalonians after them the I. and II. Epistles to the Corinthians c. and the Epistle to the Romanes come not in till your seuenth place or rather according to your Onuphrius his computation not vntill the last CHALLENGE SEeing that the Commendation of the Faith of the Thessalolonians and the Encomium of the Faith of the Romanes are both almost in words and in sence fully the same as your owne Cardinall and Iesuite Tolet doth tell you this sheweth the vanity of your obiections from point to point For first to argue Ergo the Faith of the Romanes was first it is crossed by the Church of Thessalonica which had priority in Saint Pauls Commendation Secondly to argue Ergo Romane Faith and the Catholike or Vniuersall Faith in respect of Vniuersality of Place was then conuertible and al one this is likewise Conttadicted by the like Commendations of the Thessalonians because by the same Argument you must grant that before that the Thessalonike Faith and Catholike Faith in the like respect was also all one Thirdly to argue that therefore the Faith of Rome shall perpetually continue in that Citie this in like manner is confuted by the former Instance in Thessalonica which hauing long since lost her Faith doth warne Rome not to presume of any priuilege of Time or Place But we are to Consult further with Saint Paul to know what account he had of Rome at this time when he wrote this Epistle Our second Proofe of Saint Paul's Account of the then Romane Church SECT 12. AS oft as we heare of your Article The Romane Catholike Church without which there is no saluation We if we should beleeue this to be true should expect that S. Paul writing to the Romanes especially now when with so diuine Oratorie he insinuateth himselfe into their affections by commending of their Faith so published through the World should yeeld some such albeit but implicit Note of the eminence of that Church ouer others which you your-selues doe vsually attribute vnto it But if it shall appeare that he doth not call it The Catholike Church aboue others nor a Church hauing any Prerogatiue before others no nor yet at all so much as a Church as he doth others but rather the Contrarie then may we haue more reason to suspect your Cause and you lesse to ostentate First then your Rhemists to this Question why the Epistles of Saint Paul are not enstiled Catholike Epistles as well as the Epistles of Saint Iames Peter Iude and Iohn are doe answer Because Saint Paul say they writeth not any Epistle at all howbeit euery one of them is for all the Church but to some particular Churches as to the Galathians Romanes c. So they Which Reason is insufficient because the first Catholike Epistle of Peter is directed expressely to the Churches in Pontus Galatia c. and two of the Catholike Epistles of Saint Iohn are inscribed to particular persons The Elect Ladie and Gaius Howbeit in this Answer of the Rhemists we finde Rome to bee but a Particular Church when surely if the Apostle had beene possessed with the spirit of the now Bishop of Rome hee would haue instiled it The Catholike
very Baud of all Impietie Whence to vse your owne words Adulteries Incests Periuries Homicides and the spawne of all euils did arise THESIS II. LVTHER had necessary Cause to Depart from the Church of Rome SECT 15. IT is not as you haue heard the corruption of a Doctrine which can alwaies driue a man out of the Church except other properties of necessary Remoouing do concurre What these are you may call to your remembrance Which may be obserued in this Case of Luther and iustifie him before God and Man As first the generall Obstinacie of contrary Teachers such as were the Romish of whom Luther complained saying They Alto fastu with high disdaine contemned my Preaching against Indulgences Secondly Luthers hearing if he had stayed the way of Truth often blasphemed Thirdly Luthers complaining of violent forcing of men to subscribe vnto New Articles this is Tyrannie And lastly he further chargeth them with Compelling him to submit to Satanicall Doctrines speaking both of the vilenesse of Indulgences and the Idolatrie of and in the Romish Masse Albeit any One of all these had bene a sufficient cause for him to warrant his Departure out of Romish Babylon THESIS III. LVTHER and his Followers were farre more safe for their Soules state in that Separation from the Church of Rome and lesse Schismatikes than They whom he forsooke SECT 16. ALL sound knowledge is by vnderstanding of the true Causes of things It is the Cause that distinguisheth a Martyr from an Heretike and the same iust Cause also truely and essentially vniteth one with the true Catholike Church discerneth him both from an Excommunicate properly so called and from a Schismatike Attend then to that which your Cardinall would haue you to MARKE Marke saith he that an vniust sentence of Excommunication is of no force at all Accordingly Saint Augustine Iniusta vincula iustitia disrumpit Vniust bonds are more iustly broken then kept Of this somewhat more hath bene said in a former Thesis This knowne it wil be no hard matter to find out the true Schismatike For as it is the vnlawfull Agent and not the Innocent Patient that maketh the Fray so in Excommunication Whosoeuer Excommunicateth another vniustly condemneth not that other but himselfe Accordingly in Separation from any Church the Actiue if vniust and not the partie Passiue is the Schismatike vpon which Suppositition Firmilianus Concluded against Stephen Pope of Rome that the said Stephen was the Schismatike by his Excommunicating and separating S. Cyprian with many Others in the Africane Chuches and else-where from his Communion In like Case well said once your Cardinall Benno that Eusebius did binde Liberius by forsaking his Communion Euen as did also the Africane Bishops in their Synod by Excluding Pope Vigilius out of their Communion in the dayes of Iustinian Now that Luther was vniustly Excommunicate by your Pope the first Thesis hath fully prooued And that Luther was a Passiue in this Separation appeareth not onely by his owne Complaints saying I was Compelled Constrained c. but also by the Proceedings of Pope Leo against him Else why is it that your owne Thuanus speaking of this Separation said that Some in those dayes layd the fault vpon Pope Leo More fully your Cassander an Author selected in those dayes by the King of the Romanes as the chiefest Diuine of his time and one most fit to be Consulted with concerning the same Separation of Protestants I cannot saith he denie many of them in the beginning to haue bene mooued and prouoked with a pious zeale to a sharpe reprehension of manifest Abuses and that the principall cause of this calamity and Disunion is to be imputed to them who superciliously and disdainefully contemned such godly Admonitions Neither yet euer had there bene as I am perswaded any Contention about the externall Vnitie of the Church except the Popes had abused their authority to an ambitious and Domineiring manner of Rule aboue the limits which Christ prescribed to his Church So He. But it will be said Why did not Luther seeke remedie and redresse of his wrong somewhere where we pray you should he haue sought it can you tell By Appealing to a Generall Councell why that meanes was barred by the Popes Extrauagant denouncing him to be Anathema whosoeuer shall so much as consult or deliberate to Appeale from the Pope to a future Generall Councell Albeit this preferring the Popes iudgement before a Councel's is by the sentence of two Romish Councels as namely Constance and Basil held a Doctrine of all others most Schismaticall Oh! but he being but a Sheepe cited to Rome should haue appeared before Leo his Pastor notwithstanding the Popes high indignation against him As though you could be ignorant of the Apologue of the Sheepe and the Lion at their meeting the end whereof could be no other then this Ora Leonis habes for the sheepe to run head-long into the Lions mouth A Fable which of later times the Venetian Fulgentius the French Abbot of Boys and after them the Dalmatian Spalatensis verified seelie Sheepe with the losse of their liues THESIS IV. The Romish Obiections vrged against this Separation of LVTHER are notably friuolous SECT 17. STill we say that an ill Cause oftentimes bewrayeth it selfe as much by the friuolous Obiections of an Opponent as it is discouered by the iust Euidences of a Defendant There are but foure kinde of Obiections besides such as haue bene alreadie answered which you do usually vrge against Luther THESIS V. The I. Obiection in respect of LVTHER'S former Vow to the Pope or Church of Rome is vaine and idle SECT 18. IT is true Luther had bene a Vowed and if you will a sworne Vassall to the Pope and to the Romane Church And so was once your owne Stephen Gardiner sometimes Bishop of Winchester whose answer in like case may satisfie your Curiositie and controlle your scurrilitie in this point Hee in his booke of True Obedience to the King notwithstanding the Popes Breeues to the contrary enlargeth himselfe in his Answer after this manner following Some saith he pull me backward asking why I enterprize so to teach Obedience as that I do disclose my owne Disobedience to the authority and power meaning of the Pope for whose Defence I was bound by my Oath to defend his authority to my possible Power Where is his keeping of Oaths become say they where is his fidelitie He was sworne to defend the Rights of the Church of Rome and now professeth himselfe an open enemie ther-unto But this their talke no more mooueth me than the bumbling sound of an old barrell because where vnlawfull Oathes there also vnlawfull Vowes are not to be kept for none are to sweare to any wickednesse Thus your owne Bishop and after illustrateth this by an elegant Similitude A certaine married man saith he when he thought by iust likely-hoods his first wife was dead
did as one that had bene freed take another wife by the authority of the Church and consent of her Parents by which wife after some yeares he had children But loe his former wife vnlooked for returneth againe and requireth to haue her husband againe that had done ill in marrying another The man maruailing hereat and being loath to be diuorced from his latter wife maketh long delaies yet at length brought into Law and being cast gaue way to the Truth and taketh his first wife againe by the iudgement of the Church When now the Parents friends of the latter wife made the like wonderment as these men do against me saying vnto him thou hel-hound thou wicked couenāt-breaker c. And if a man would consider this businesse shall he not see as it were in a glasse the very image of that Husband in me For indeed I seeing I beleeued that no such Truth of obedience had bene c. I compelled my selfe in a second Couenant and thereto plighted my troth Wherefore I thought that I had kept lawfull Companie but when the TRVTH came which is euery mans first wife maried to him in publike Baptisme which wil require the first Promise at al mens hands to her I applyed to her I cleaued and from my second knot as of none effect by the iudgement of my Church I departed And shall any man thinke it indifferent that I shall be called a Liar because I obey the Truth c. I am by most graue iudgement of the Truth diuorced from the Church of Rome which it was not lawfull for me to keepe still and am compelled to take my wife TRVTH to me when she cometh againe Thus farre B. Gardiner The right and accurate Sence of this Similitude may as the beames of the Sunne dispell the foggie myst of Romish error concerning the Question we now haue in hand it being taken from the consideration of our Christian Vow made in Baptisme Wherein we are to obserue the Parties betrothed together which are the Soule of a Christian and the Truth of God in Christ and secondly the Parties and if I may so say Parents by whose consent and Authoritie this mariage is made which in the inward is our Father euen GOD in the vnity of Three persons Father Sonne and holy Ghost and in the outward is our spirituall Mother mentioned in our Creed at the rime of our Vow in Baptisme The holy Catholike Church It especially therefore concerneth euery Votarie that hath vowed himselfe in Baptisme to learne to acknowledge his true Father his true Mother and his owne true Wife For Father he is baptized in the name of the Blessed Trinitie in the vnity of one God euerlasting not in the name of any man whatsoeuer as Saint Paul prooueth against the Schismatikes in the Church of Corinth that would seeme Some to hold of Cephas that is Peter Some of Paul as though the Gospell or Truth were Pauls or Peters he answereth them No his Reason is interrogatiuely Were you baptized in the name of Paul As much as to say He onely is essentially your spirituall Father in whose Name you are baptized Secondly the Mother is mentioned in our Vow at Baptisme to be The holy Catholike or Vniuersall Church not any particular Church though by the particular Church I am brought into the Catholike We say not any Particular Church because euery Particular Church as hath beene Confessed may possibly erre and Apostate from Truth But the Catholike is built vpon a Rocke immoueable as the earth yea or the highest heauens Lastly the Wife whereunto euery Soule is betroathed in Baptisme is onely that Truth which was first reuealed by Christ vnto his Apostles as the Apostle teacheth If any preach any other Gospell than that which you haue receiued that is to say already hold him Accursed Now giue vs leaue to trie what kind of Mariage is made by your Votaries in the Church of Rome First by beleeuing the Infallibility of the Pope in whatsoeuer Reuelations which he shall propound to be beleeued of all Christians it is to assume a new Father which is thus prooued If I saith Saint Paul or an Angel from heauen preach otherwise let him be Accursed but who in all the Church of Rome will say Though the Pope teach vs otherwise then was Apostolically and Primitiuely taught from the immediate Doctrine of Christ I shall account him Anathema Next the Partie baptized in your Church is Catechized to beleeue the Church of Rome to be The Catholike and Mother-Church of all other Churches which wee through-out this Treatise haue prooued to be an Imposterous Schismaticall and Blasphemous Article First Imposterous because The Catholike Church mentioned in the Apostles Creed was extant in the dayes of the Apostles diuerse yeares before Rome was that we may so say Baptized to haue the name of a Church Secondly Schismaticall because it being as hath bene shewed but a Particular Church and vsurping the Title of The Catholike Church doth thereby peremptorily diuide her selfe from All other Churches of Christ which both for Truth and Extent make a farre more Catholike Church than she is Thirdly Blasphemous in Damning by this Article of the Catholike Romane Church all the most glorious Christian Fathers Martyrs Professors and Churches as well Primitiue as Successiue which are infinite that haue denyed Subiection to the Romane Church All which Particulars haue bene prooued at large In the last place each Christian in Baptisme being espoused to his wife Truth which can be but One euen that whereof Saint Paul spoke saying That which you haue receiued before and accordingly Saint Iude Contend for the Faith which once was deliuered to the Saints therefore euery other New Article of Faith as it were a later Consort and wife that shall bee admitted is no true loyall wife but an vnlawfull Concubine and strumpet So then so many Concubines may the Church of Rome be said to betroath her Children vnto as she hath set downe New Articles in her Romane Creed and imposed vpon all her Ecclesiastikes vnder the bond of an Oath Among which is your Article of Indulgences from which as from a supposititious wife Luther necessarily made his diuorce returning vnto the Primitiue Truth whereunto in holy Baptisme he had formerly plighted his Troth THESIS VI. Your Second and most Popular Obiection against LVTHER in his Opposition to your Romane Church vrging in him to prooue his Doctrine by immediate Succession and by Naming his Teachers Before him is as fond as the other SECT 19. I. FOr the no-Necessitie of Name we reade first that our Sauiour Christ answering a question concerning Diuorce whether it were lawfull for the husband to put away his wife at his pleasure or no an Abuse which by the hardnesse of the Iewes hearts had continued among them many hundred yeares sendeth them to Gods first Institution of Marriage set downe in the beginning of Scripture saying From the beginning it