they had been particularly named in it If then all the Violators of this Bull are ipso Facto Excommunicated and all or at least almost all the Popish Princes of Christendom together with the greatest part of their Subjects are open and manifest Violators of it it follows that we have very false Notions of Popery when we imagine it a large and diffusive Sect that vast and numerous Schisms are entertained and lay undiscerned in the Bosom of the Church of Rome that the Primacy of the Pope instead of being the Center of Unity is indeed the Fountain of Schism and that among many Papists there are few Catholicks For if as our Adversaries commonly define it the Catholick Church be the Collection of all Christians in Communion with the particular Church of Rome whosoever are Excommunicated by the Pope cease to be in Communion with the Church of Rome and consequently in their Opinion cease to be Catholicks They may indeed still remain Members of the truly Catholick Church but then a true Notion of Catholick Church must be allowed and the former must be discarded But then the Church of England may also put in her claim for Catholick and the grand Argument of our Adversaries against her Reformation will be totally dissolved However it manifestly appears that this Bull hath shut most Papists out of the Bosom of the Church and reduced the Church of Rome to very narrow Limits Whenever therefore our zealous Missionaries exaggerate to us the extent of their Church and urge the glorious Title of Amplitude in favour of it we may justly reject it it not certainly appearing who may be properly called Roman Catholicks since this and other Bulls of the like Nature which inflict ipso Facto Excommunications deprive vast numbers of Men whole Societies and perhaps Kingdoms of Communion with the Church of Rome or if we in any manner allow their Argument we must first require them to substract from their account all whom the Pope in this Bull doth Excommunicate and thereby puts in the same Condition with Turks Infidels and Hereticks We have one request more to them that to facilitate the Conversion of three Kingdoms they would obtain of the Pope an Abolition of this Bull or at least of that Clause of it which Excommunicates all Secular Persons who possess Church Lands For since out of the abundance of their Generosity they have been pleased to assure to us the quiet Possession of Abby-Lands it remains to compleat their kindness that they set us right in the Court of Rome as well as that of Westminster Otherwise it will be an eternal Obstacle to the Conversion of the Possessors of these Lands if the Curses of our Holy Father the Pope be plentifully showred down upon them every Maunday-Thursday and they must entrust their Souls to the Pope for no other end than that he may deliver them up to the Devil Ex Bullario Laertii Cherubini Romae 1638. TOM III. p. 183. Constitutio Pauli V. 63. EXcommunicatio Anathematizatio quorumcunque Haereticorum eorumque fautorum ac Schismaticorum vel Ecclesiasticam Libertatem laedentium aut quoquo modo dispositis in hac Bulla de more in die Caena Domini publicare solita contravenientium Quoad omnia quasi Capitula hujus Bullae ultra Extravagan 3. Pauli II. Extravagan 5. Sixti IV. in tit de Paenitentia Remissionibus habes supra Constitut 1. Vrbani V. fol. 215. Constitut 25. Julii II. f. 482. Constitut 10. Pauli III. f. 522. necnon Constitut 81. Gregorii XIII f. 348. l. 2. Aliorum autem Bullas ejusmodi Caenae Domini nuncupatas volens praetermisi his duntaxat contentus ex quibus pro temporum conditione Romanos Pontifices aliquid immutasse cognoscatur Non tamen posthabui proxime indicandas uti apprime necessarias super hujus Bullae capitibus specialiter editas Extat ergo in hoc Opere specialis edita sanctio Nicolai III. circa § primum hujus Bullae in ejus Const 2. sup fol. 143. circa § 2. extat Const 5. Pii II. f. 290. l. 1. Circa § 4. extat Const 7. Pii V. f. 137. l. 2. Circa § 7. extat Const 3. Nicolai V. f. 283. l. 1. Circa § 10. extat Canon Callisti I. in c. 23. caus 24. q. 3. Circa § 11. respectu Cardinalium extat Const 16. Leonis X. f. 420. l. 1. alia 93. Pii V. f. 222. l. 2. Circa § 12 extat Const 11. Alexandri VI. f. 352. Circa § 14. extat Const 2. Martini V. f. 239 alia 17. Innocentii VIII f. 343. ac altera 30. Leonis X. f. 440. necnon alia 39. Clementis VII f. 505. l. 1. altera 19. Gregorii XIII f. 290. l. 2. Circa § 15. multi sunt Canones in Corpore Juris extat Const 10. Martini V. f. 247. Circa § 19. extat Const 3. Vrbani VI. f. 222. Et Circa § 20. extat Const 〈◊〉 Joannis XXII f. 174. alia 3. Clementis VI. f. 212. alia 13. Leonis X. f. 314. altera 11. Pauli IV. f. 595. Alia hujusmodi Excommunicatio in die Coenae Domini Promulgari solita est in S. D. N. Vrbani VIII Const 62. Pastoralis infr Tom. 4. Paulus Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad perpetuam rei memoriam PAstoralis Romani Pontificis vigilantia sollicitudo cum in omni Reipublicae Christianae pace tranquillitate procuranda pro fui muneris officio assidue versatur tum potissimum in Catholicae fidei sine qua impossibile est placere Deo unitate atque integritate retinenda maxime elucet Nimirum ut fideles Christi non sint parvuli fluctuantes neque circumferantur omni vento doctrinae in nequitia hominum ad circumventionem erroris sed omnes occurrant in unitate fidei agnitionis Filii Dei in virum perfectum neque se in hujus vitae societate communione laedant aut inter se alter alteri offensionem praebeat sed potius in vinculo caritatis conjuncti tanquam unius corporis membra sub Christo capite ejusque in terris Vicario Romano Pontifice Beatissimi Petri Successore a quo totius Ecclesiae unitas dimanat augeantur in aedificatione atque ita divina gratia adjutrice sic praesentis vitae quiete gaudeant ut sutura quoque beatitudine perfruantur Ob quas sane causas Romani Pontifices praedecessores nostri hodierna die quae anniversaria DominicaeCoenae commemoratione solennis est spiritualem Ecclesiasticae disciplinae gladium salutaria justitiae arma per ministerium summi Apostolatus ad Dei gloriam animarum salutem solenniter exercere consueverunt Nos igitur quibus nihil optabilius est quam fidei inviolatam integritatem publicam Pacem Justitiam deo autore tueri vetustum solennem hunc morem sequentes § 1. Excommunicamus anathematizamus ex parte Dei Omnipotentis Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti auctoritate quoque
The Famous Bull IN CAENA DOMINI Published at ROME every Maunday Thursday against Hereticks and all Infringers of Ecclesiastical Liberties With a PREFACE containing some Reflections on the Bull and Animadversions on the late Account of the Proceedings of the PARLIAMENT of PARIS Printed in the Year 1688. PREFACE AFTER so many and so loud Out-cries against that just and necessary distinction of Old and New Popery which the late Artifices and shiftings of our Adversaries have enforced the Divines of our Church to observe and publish after so many vehement Protestations against the reality of any such distinction and confident assertions of the entire Conformity between the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome or rather some few Emissaries of it and that of the immediately precedent Ages so many new Systems Representations and Expositions of the pretended Catholick Doctrine it might have been justly expected that the Faith and Doctrine if not of the present and precedent Age yet at least of all National Churches at this day in Communion with the Church of Rome should be perfectly conformable and invariable For the Opinions of the precedent Age may be indeed falsly represented to us the truth of them may be obscured by cunning Artifices and Illusions or evaded by a bold and obstinate Denial but the Doctrines and Practice of the present Time cannot be dissembled nor without too manifest an affront to Truth be denied by these Gentlemen of the Mission who may perhaps confound our Reason but can never delude our Senses That this distinction is both just and real needs no other Argument than the known and confess'd distinction between French and Italian Popery For since the Patrons and Defenders of both these Parties appeal to the belief of the Church in the precedent Age since both propose Tradition as the Rule of their Faith and challenge to themselves the Consent and Suffrage of that Rule since both their Pleas cannot be allowed and one Party must necessarily have departed from the true ancient and genuine Popery it evidently follows that as one Party conserves the Old so the other hath framed a New sort of Popery I know it is commonly pretended that these differences are of small moment neither essential to Christianity nor to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome that either side may be safely believed and neither renders any Man either less Orthodox or more Heretical But certainly these Pretences are no other than Protestations against matters of Faith since not only the Subjects of these different Doctrines are Matters of the greatest moment and concern but attended with all the solemn Characters and evident Marks of the most momentous Articles of Faith I mean an infinite Zeal and Concern of each Party for the defence and propagation of their own Opinion and condemning the contrary Doctrine as a Crime worthy of Excommunication and Anathema which are never supposed to be inflicted on Opinions of an indifferent nature and free from all Contagion of Heresy or Schism If then the Pope and Italian Divines will not allow those of France to be truly Orthodox and Catholick if they think them unworthy and incapable of Ecclesiastical Dignities and Promotions and daily issue out Excommunications against such Practices as the Church of France is manifestly known to act allow and command if on the other side the French Clergy so far return the Accusation as to attaint the Pope of Heresy to declare his Censures rash unchristian and destructive of the Church and himself ipso facto excommunicate certainly we must renounce all Sense and Reason to imagined these to be no more than verbal Differences Scholastick Niceties and Opinions of private Divines which may be safely either rejected or received That Differences of this nature have arose between the Church of France and See of Rome and those continued with great Heat and Animosity through several Ages is manifest both from Ecclesiastical and Civil History This indeed our Adversaries deny but surely by the assistance of that wonderful Secret which can enable them confidently to propose the greatest Contradictions and Falsities and then effectually secure them from blushing at them The Violence and Cruelties practised upon many thousand Protestants of France have been acted within a few Months in the view of the World and the face of Mankind yet there are not wanting who decry all Relations of these Cruelties and Barbarities as the Calumnies and Fictions of Hereticks and have added this to the other glorious Titles of Lovis le Grand that he hath reduced his Subjects to the Profession of one Religion by methods of Mercy and Gentleness The present differences between the Courts of Rome and France how conspicuous soever might have suffered the same fate and with equal Reason have been denied if Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador had not by endeavouring to vindicate his Master's Honour and the Justice of his Cause obliged us with an Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament of Paris upon the Pope's Bull an Account which as it is undeniable and unexceptionable to our Adversaries so it abundantly evinceth what I have hitherto advanced The whole Church of France and after them the Sorbon have within a few Years defined and asserted the Fallibility of the Pope and herein acted consonantly to the Principles and Doctrines of their Ancestors who had constantly taught the same Doctrine but never solemnly defined it However this Article is beyond the Alpes rejected with a no less contrary Zeal and Infallibility of the Pope ranked among the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion For proof of this we need go no farther than the forementioned Account of the Proceedings of the Parliament at Paris which assures us that not only the Italian Doctors and Emissaries of the Court of Rome are employed carefully to propagate the Opinion of the Papal Infallibility as if the belief of that Point were wanting to render France truly Catholick but also that one third of the Episcopal Sees of France being now vacant and the King having nominated to them some of those who assisted at the late National Assembly wherein the Papal Infallibility was rejected Persons as well recommendable for their Piety and Vertue as for their Knowledg and Learning the Pope refuseth to grant Bulls of Confirmation to them on pretence that they do not make Profession of a sound or Orthodox Doctrine because they do Pag. 5 23. not believe him to be Infallible nor like the Italian Doctors attribute to him the Title of Universal Monarch Which evidently demonstrates that the Papal Infallibility is esteemed a necessary Doctrine in Italy and the denial of it incompatible with a sound and Orthodox Belief of the Catholick Faith since Scholastick Niceties were never known to incapacitate Men for Ecclesiastical Preferments or cast them out of the number of Orthodox Christians The Primacy of the Pope is a matter of no less moment How far it extends is indeed controverted among Roman Catholicks but
that some Power was assigned by Christ to St. Peter and his Successors over all Members of the Christian Church is the common Principle of all proposed by them as the only Center of Unity and a Doctrine necessarily to be received by all Catholicks Whatsoever this Power is it being of Divine Institution cannot be annulled or restrained by any General Council much less by the Laws and Edicts of the Civil Power but may be exercised independently from both If then any Church refuseth any Obedience or Submission to the Commands of the Pope unless they be conformable to the Canons of Councils and ratified in the first place by the Civil Power they thereby declare an intire Disbelief of any Power committed to the Pope by Divine Institution For however they may pretend Councils to be Infallible and consequently inerrable in fixing the limits of the Papal Power although even according to this supposition the Papal Power not being antecedent to General Councils could have no existence in the three first Centuries when no such Councils were held yet this Infallibility cannot be pretended to be inherent in the Civil Power The Temporal Prince may possibly be an Atheist an Apostate or an Heretick may forbid all Obedience to be paid even to the most just Commands of the Pope and deny to ratify such Orders as do naturally flow from the execution of that Commission which Christ hath given to the Pope If the Pope hath indeed any such Divine Commission he may and ought to execute it in spight of all opposition of the Civil Power and if he exceeds not the bounds of his Commission he ought to be obeyed by all faithful Christians although the Civil Power far from ratifying his Commands should even forbid them to be obeyed No priviledg can exempt us from this Duty nor any humane Law dispense with the Obligation of it yet the Church of France pretends and constantly averrs that no Obedience is due to any Commands of the Pope of what nature soever until they be first ratified and confirmed by their Prince This pretence was not started of late but hath been introduced and continued for several Ages being the grand Principle of the so much famed Liberties of the Gallican Church a Principle which can no otherwise be maintained than by disowning and disclaiming all Divine Institution of the least Papal Power and accordingly we are told in this account that the boundless and arbitrary Authority of the Pope hath been the Source of almost all the incurable mischief with which the Church is afflicted that his Power Pag. 13 15 22 9. reacheth no farther than the Diocess of Rome and his Patriarchship than the neighbouring Provinces stiled Suburbicarian that it would be very advantageous that all Ecclesiastical Matters were transacted in the Kingdom without ever being obliged to have recourse to Rome and that an Ambassador of France executing his Master's Orders cannot thereby incur Ecclesiastical Censures although none will deny that Ambassadour may possibly in obedience to his Master's Commands oppose even that Authority of the Pope which was lawfully invested in him by Christ if any such there be But not only doth the Church of France hereby disown the Divine Institution of any Papal Power not only doth she declare the Thunders of the Vatican to have nothing formidable to be transitory Fires which exhale into Smoke and do neither hurt Vid. pag. 19. nor prejudice save to those who darted them but affirms the Pope to be a Favourer and Patron of Hereticks ipso facto excommunicate and no Member much less Head of the Catholick Church He is accused to have maintained converse and correspondence with the condemned Disciples of Jansenius ever since Pag. 27. he hath been seated in S. Peter's Chair to have spoken in the highest degree in their praise and declared himself their Protector â—nd thereby so far to have endangered the Peace of the Church that nothing less than the foresight and cares of Lovis le Grand could restore or conserve it that he favours the Quietists and connives at their Heresy underhand espouseth their Party and protects their Persons He is denounced Excommunicate upon this ground That he who without lawful cause and through humane motives undertakes to suspend one of the Members of Jesus Christ from the Communion of the Church doth Pag. 12. separate himself from it by such an unjust Attempt Nay farther he is declared by the ill exercise of his Power to have lost Pag. 37. the Power of binding and unbinding and thereby in effect to have fallen from the Papacy and to be deposed Alas that Innocent XI whom our Missionaries represent to us as the grand Pattern of Apostolick Vertue and Holiness should at last be convicted of Heresy and proved to be no Member of the Church He hardly escaped last year from being condemned as a Quietist in the Inquisition of Rome and now alas poor Man instead of enjoying that Honour which he hath so ambitiously courted of suffering Martyrdom in defence of the Church he may perhaps be burnt for an Heretick as soon as Lovis le Grand shall please Pag. 7. to execute that Right which he pretends to have to make himself known in the quality of his Sovereign It cannot be pretended that these are matters of light moment in themselves but unhappily at this time heightned into great differences by the ill Conduct and false Zeal of an ignorant and stupid Pope since his Actions are grounded upon and upheld by the famous Bull in Coenâ Domini which himself refers to and the Parliament of Paris upon that account decrieth with so much indignation telling us that if this Decree whereby the Popes declare themselves Sovereign Monarchs of the World be legitimate Pag. 11. the Majesty Royal will then depend upon their humour all their Liberties will be abolished the Secular Judges will no longer have the Power to try the possession of Benefices nor the civil and criminal Cause of Ecclesiastical Persons All this is indeed literally true and the natural consequence of that Bull. But then this alone abundantly manifests the Justice of our Charge and the real difference of the Doctrines of the Churches of France and Italy in matters of the greatest moment In France this Bull is esteemed impious unjust and uncanonical derogatory to the Rights of Princes and Priviledges of national Churches contrary to the Laws and destructive of the Christian Church At Rome it is accounted sacred and inviolable ratified and confirmed by more than twenty Popes whose Names and Constitutions are prefixed to the Bull published with the greatest Solemnity imaginable every Maunday Thursday the Infringers and Violators of it declared ipso facto excommunicate and Priviledges and Dispensations to the contrary annulled and made void and all this as the Preface of the Bull assureth us to preserve the Unity and Integrity of the Faith to teach all private Christians what they are certainly to
believe and by preventing their Fluctuation and Mistakes in Faith to secure to them the attainment of eternal Salvation After this Bull hath been Enacted and confirmed by so many Popes promulged so often and so solemnly so exactly executed and put in practise by the Church of Rome proposed as the Standard of Catholick Doctrine and appealed to by this present Pope in the Controversies depending between him and the Court of France it cannot be any longer doubted that all matters whether of belief or practise contained in it are esteemed necessary to Salvation by the particular Church of Rome This also the punishments annexed to it evidently demonstrates Excommunication and Anathema being ipso facto incurred by the violation of any part of it For the very nature of these Excommunications supposeth that the persons offending do by that very act cease to be Christians or Catholicks and disown themselves to be so and that the action to which this punishment is declared to be annexed is directly contrary to Faith and destructive of it If after all the Doctrines of this Bull be denied to be justly charged upon the Church of Rome it might with equal reason be pretended that the ancient Commonwealth of Rome could not be justly accused of Idolatry or the worship of false gods altho she established that worship with severe Laws maintained the exercise of it with the publick Revenues punisht the neglect of it with great strictness and severity and made her addresses to those false Deities upon all great occasions and affairs of State because some few Philosophers opposed the general opinion contemned their Ceremonies and disapproved their worship Many and large Observations might be drawn from this Bull disadvantageous to the Doctrine and Discipline of the present Church of Rome But I will here take notice of no more than two And first Popery is commonly represented by the Reformed Divines as injurious to the Rights of Princes and promoting Sedition and Rebellion That the lawfulness of the Deposition of Princes hath been often defined by Popes and Councils and put in practice by them cannot be denied but then it is pretended that it was not defined dogmatically nor as a matter of faith that their definitions are misrepresented by us and were never received nor allowed by the Universal Church However the justice of our Charge is sufficiently manifested by this Bull which asserteth and maintaineth the Independency of the Clergy from the Secular Prince by forbidding the Civil Power to apprehend imprison vex summon tax fine or exercise any Act of Authority over Ecclesiastical persons upon pain of Excommunication and Anathema Now Deposition of Princes by the Papal Authority and exemption of the Clergy from any obedience to them by reason of their immediate subjection to the Pope being both founded upon the same principle of injustice and usurpation do mutually infer each other Nay to exempt the whole Clergy from the obedience of their Natural Prince doth actually devest him of all authority of one part of his subjects and deprive him of one half of his Kingdom especially in those Countries where the Clergy and Regulars are vastly numerous as in all places where Popery obtains or where they possess a great part of the Revenues of the Kingdom the Secular Prince being not only forbidden to impose any Taxes upon the Clergy or their Revenues but also even to receive them when voluntarily offered without an express License from the Court of Rome If after all this the Romish Emissaries will pretend to true and real Loyalty and acknowledg their subjection to their Natural Prince they must first own themselves to be Excommunicated persons and lay down the name of Roman Catholicks But we have reason to believe that our English Missionaries intend no such acknowledgment since they have with so much pomp lately revived the Festival of St. Thomas Becket who died in defence of this Trayterous Position That the Clergy owe no Subjection to the Secular Power In the next place it may be observed that the greatest part of this Bull is employed in Excommunicating and Anathematâ—zing all those who any ways presume to intermeddle in the cognizance of Ecclesiastical matters or interrupt the proceedings of Ecclesiastical Courts by Prohibitions Appeals or any Evasions of the like nature or who give aid advice or consent thereto All this is worded with such scrupulous nicety and exactness that it is impossible to be avoided by any subtile Evasions and then the Excommunication incurred can be taken off and absolved only by the Pope himself except at the point of death and then only when eminent signs of true repentance and assurance of full satisfaction are given Notwithstanding such express prohibition and denunciation of Anathema's it is notoriously known that all Popish Princes do intermeddle in judging Ecclesiastical Causes that particularly in France the Spiritual Courts are almost wholly rendred useless and debarred from exercising their Authority by frequent Prohibitions from the Secular Court and that in Sicily all Ecclesiastical Matters and Causes are decided by the sole Authority of the King of Spain and his Commissioners not to mention examples and practises of the like nature in other Popish Countries From whence it follows that by vertue of this Bull all these Princes their Counsellors Parliaments Lawyers and Adherents together with all who procure execute or consent to these Prohibitions and Impediments of Ecclesiastical Justice stand Excommunicate by the Pope and are really no Members of the Church of Rome No Priviledg or Exemption can in this case be drawn from ancient Immunities Pragmaticks or Concordats which the Parliament of Paris so much insist on since the Bull proceeds with a Non obstante to all these and declares them Null whensoever they oppose the Contents of the Bull. Nay decreeth that whoever recurs to them thereby to elude the Obligation of the Bull shall thereby ipso Facto become Excommunicate altho he should in no other case have incurred that Punishment In vain therefore doth the Parliament of Paris oppose the Liberties of the Gallican Church the Pragmatick of St. Lewis and Concordat of Lewis the XI and Francis to the present Attempts of the Pope and his Excommunication of the Marquis of Lavardin For the Pope having wisely grounded his Proceedings upon the Bull in Caena Domini which annuls and abolisheth them all the Parliament must either forego their Plea or their pretence of retaining Communion with the Church of Rome By the same Artifice the Pope hath cut off the Advocates Appeal to a future Council For the Bull declareth that all who make admit favour or countenance any such Appeal shall incur Excommunication Thus also the Argument of the Invalidity of the Excommunication of the Embassador drawn from the Omission of his Name in the Papal Instrument falls to ground For the Bull hath particularly provided for this Case and decreeth that all Violators of it of what Dignity soever shall be as effectually Excommunicated as if