auerre that I was had in as much esteeme in our Prouinces Churches as any other Modesty requires that men should be bashfull in speaking though with great moderation things tending to their owne praise whereas you proclayme your selfe second to none of the Bishops either of the State of Venice or of the Catholike world besides and this you professe to speake without blushing You say true Shamefastnes is not wont to wayt vpon an Apostata But we howsoeuer you dreame of your being famous had newes of the Archbishop of Spalato his flight before we heard of his name Marke Antony in the Northerne parts was sooner knowne by his face then by his fame he came so fast that he preuented the messenger of his worth and estimation The fugitiue Primate himselfe first declared to many that there was any such Spalatian Primate Notwithstanding you were not more vnknowne to the world then to your self which is the cause you insolently prefixe your name to your booke as already knowne and sufficient to giue it lustre Marke Antony de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato sets downe the reason of his going So you stile your booke as if you were the Pithian Apollo ready to giue Oracles or some Dictator deliuering Lawes vnto the people or Pithagoras prescribing to his schollers Aphorismes or at least some Authour knowne by his former writings able to gaine credit to any worke by the splendour of his name Who notwithstanding were at that time for afterwards you became more notorious through the staine of your fall so vnknowne that many wondred at the title nor were there wanting inquirers who should this Marke Antony be What going is that he speakes of so vncertainly without naming either whither or from whence Is peraduenture that old Marke Antony reuiued againe and fled from Rome to Aegipt that Antony so famous for wine and venery who hauing violated his former faith to his Roman spouse no lesse renowned for chastity then noble of blood ioyned himselfe to that Aegiptian woman infamous for her many foule enormities Thus did men not yet acquainted with your iourney descant vpon the title of your booke framing coniectures of the authour of Marke Antonyes name They could not speake more assuredly of a person wholy vnknowne neither did their rouing discourses much misse of the marke For you hauing left the Roman Spouse and violated your first faith haue matched your selfe to that Lutheran brat who being of her Fathers condition no more able to refrayne from venery then from food differs not much from Cleopatra's manners If you but resemble that drunken Triumuir as well in life as you do in name by this match may that old saying be renewed Bacchus is wedded to Venus THE FIRST PART OF THE SVRVEY OF APOSTASY or the Ladder of Marke Antonies fall consisting of eight steps or degrees SINCE therfore you must be cured by the most true knowledge of your selfe who through your too high a conceite of your selfe haue slid downe into hell in this Suruey I put you in mind of your selfe whom your selfe haue so much forgot and I lay open your Apostasy not so much to the Readers eye that he should detest it as before your owne conscience that you may bewayle it Behould now at last who you were when you seemed a Catholike and by what stepps by litle litle you fell into this abysse The degrees therfore are these secret Pride close Infidelity suspicious Lightnes abandoning the Iesuites Order ambition of holy Dignities audacious Contention for Preheminence open Contumacy against the Pope finally Presumption of your owne iudgment and learning aboue the Church I will handle all these in their order not led by variable rumors but by euident arguments and for the most part taken out of your owne Booke The first degree Secret Pride HERESIES are in number diuers deuided by nations but much more by manners rites and errours amongst themselues Yet all are sisters saith S Augustin borne of the self same mother Pride To which purpose saith S. Gregory Pride is the seat of Heretickes for were they not first puffed vp in their owne conceipt they would neuer fall into strife of peruerse opinions This also Antony was the beginning of al your mischiefe long agoe through a certaine secret Pride you coueted to shew your selfe wise and zealous for the vnion of all Churches aboue all other Catholikes vnder which pretensed zeale you now at last leaue the Church Which pride of yours you discouer in your 9. page in these words I euer cherished in me say you from my first entrance into holy orders a kind of innated desire I had to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ I could neuer brooke this separation of the West from the East in matters of faith nor of the South from the Northerne parts I was very anxious to vnderstand the cause of so many and so great schismes and to spie out if there could be any way thought vpon to reduce all the Churches of Christ to the true ancient vnion Yea I did burne with desire to behould it and I was vexed with inward grief for so many dissentions which strangely tormented me 2. If you perceaue not the pride that lurketh in these your thoughts I will stirre them vp further I let that passe where you call the Grecian Schisme a Separation of the West from the East when rather you should haue termed it the separation of the East from the West for we left not the Grecians but they departed from vs. We Latines are not the Church which departed but that frō which departure was made What principle of faith euer was common with vs and the Grecians which we haue forsaken They after they had nine times in nine general Councels peace vnion concluded subscribed to the Roman Supremacy so often againe with the note of leuity reuolted With no lesse apparant falshood you call the Lutheran defection a separation of the South from the North as if the South that is Rome Italy had deuided it selfe from the North abiding still in the faith of their auncestours It is not so for what is more knowne then at such time as Luther Zuinglius and Caluin and the first Nouellistes beganne to preach that the North was Catholike and imbraced the Roman doctrine which now they abhor The Roman Church made no diuision but suffereth diursiōs made against her The North falling away into new opinions Rome still remayned immoueable in the faith which before she imbraced nor did the hauen leaue the barke but the barke the hauen But against these your conceits I proceed no further because perhaps they are not so much signes of secret Pride wherwith you were then taynted as of newer errours wherwith now you are blinded 3. I come to your Pride Was it not a part of passing great arrogancy that you being but newly and scarcely yet admitted to holy Orders would take vpon you to be the Iudge of the whole Church
That you would cite before your Tribunall as guilty of Schisme as well the Latin Church as the Greeke no lesse the Roman whereof you were a member then the Lutheran I would say you faine haue knowne the cause of the diuision and Schismes of all Churches and find out some meanes to bring them vnto the true ancient vnity A great piece of worke Antony and hardly to be dispacht in a generall Councell of the Church much lesse are the shoulders of a puny Clergy man as you were then able to sustaine the burthen thereof But what necessity was it for you to intrude your selfe into the search of this cause Generall Councells had already heard this controuersie of schisms they had before hand condēned both Greeks and Lutherans Cyprian l. 4. Epist 6. they had concluded with Cyprian That Schismes Heresies do and haue euer sprunge vp from no other cause then this that the Bishop which is one and gouernes the Church by the proud presumption of some is set at naught and the man by Gods ordinance honoured by most vnworthy men is adiudged nor that there is any other way of vnion and of extinguishing heresies then that they returne to the fountaine of vnity and imbrace that Catholike proofe a short an easie way of belief cōteyning the Epitome of truth which our Lord appoynted Matth. 16. when he spake to Peter Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock will I build my Church That he that forsaketh Peters Chaire whereupon the Church is founded cannot be of the Church This is the only cause of Schisme this the only way to vnity this the definition of the Fathers and of the Church This you being then a Iesuite and a Clergy man could not be ignorant of nor doubt of being a Catholike if you were so indeed why therefore did not this iudgment of the Church quiet you Why did you vexe your selfe in the search of another cause of Schismes and another way of vnion 3. Certainly you then beganne to breed that which you haue now at last brought forth or at least you leaue the Church to the end you may bring it forth which is a certaine strange and wonderfull deuice to vnite all the Churches in one whereby all Christian societyes although differing in Religion among themselues from Peters Seate are thrust vp into one Body of a Church without any vniuersal Head or Prince to gouerne them This is the speciall new doctrine you come to preach this the great supposed light wherein you now exult a glimps wherof Sathan transfiguring himselfe into an Angell of light long ago presented vnto you And what was this else but to make your selfe wiser then all Catholikes besides then Councells Fathers and the vniuersall Church yea which is more wiser then Christ himselfe who when he saw that the peace of his Church could not otherwise stand without a Gouernour Leo ep 84. he made Peter the chiefe of his Apostles That in fellow-ship of honour there might be a certaine difference of power Hier. cont Iouin and that by appointing a head the occasion of schisme might be vtterly taken away 4. If as you would make vs belieue you had byn inflamed with the true zeale of soules you would neuer haue so anxiously searched into new causes of schismes but rather haue laboured to remoue those which are now already discouered by Fathers and Councells pestering the world to the ruine of many You would not haue byn so prodigall of your vaine and proud teares for the Christian Churches and for the Roman it self with the rest whose child you were but rather taking compassion of nations wādring from the Roman Church you would haue studied to reduce them to the head-spring of vnity by word example writing labours perills and lastly with your life laid downe in pawne for testimony therof This had beene the part of a wise man of one burning in Charity of a Iesuite But whilest your fellowes the Iesuites with other Preachers of the Faith sweat out their bloud for the vnion of Churches and the vtter racing of schisme you forsooth burning with zeale innated not infused humane not diuine at home in your idle and imaginary trauelles discouer new found wayes of conuersions such as were neuer trod on by any foote before Thus you vanished away in your owne cogitations whilst you toyled your selfe in seeking out new and vnused wayes you lost the auncient and ready way whilest in the Catholike way with the foote of pride you stroue to go beyond the rest from the Catholike truth were you cast away could not stand The second degree Secret Infidelity FOR whiles you sit in your throne vmpiere of Churches you begin your selfe to stagger in the Catholike faith that you might at last become an Apostata it was needfull that you should first doubt of your faith that so the saying of Hilary might stand for good Hilar. l. 6. de Trin. Well may heresy tempt an vnperfect man but it cannot supplant the perfect Cyprian saith Let no man thinke Cyprian de vnit Eccles ca. 7. that good men can departe from the Church The wind blowes not away the Corne nor doth the tempest ouerthrow the Tree that is well rooted in the ground The slighter chaffe is carried away with the winde the weaker trees by force of stormes are ouerthrowne These are those whom the Apostle Iohn noteth Ioan. 2. cap. 19. saying They went out from vs but they were not of vs For had they beene of vs they would no doubt haue stayed with vs. It is so indeed Antony you were none of ours euen when you seemed most to be ours you were euer of a doubtfull Faith and of a wit propense to heresy This those that know you testify this you seeme not to deny of your selfe and this will I demonstrate with a double argument out of your owne speaches 6. First in your eight page you write that continually you felt temptations which now you terme sparckles of the inward spirit about certaine supposed doctrines of the Roman faith wherwith say you I could neuer rest satisfied nor free my selfe wholy from a vehement suspition which euer held me perplexed as I grew more auncient in the studies of sacred diuinity What those temptations were and against what articles of the Roman faith you set not downe you leaue it to our choyce to thinke that you allways had a doubt of the mysteries of the most holy Trinity of the Incarnation and the Eucharist with others for these also are the articles of the proper Roman faith which it constantly manteynes against the old heretikes and many of the reformed or deformed rather of this vpstart Ghospell Nor can you say that you signified your temptations only but gaue no assent or consent thereunto For this is confuted out of that which you write in the same pag. 8. I haue truly alwaies thought it say you a matter not voyde of suspition as
fift generall Synod by an Edict of his which was read in the same Synode actione prima prohibited the writings of Seuerus an Heretike condemned by the Synod In 5. Syno gen act 1. Let not said he the writings of Seuerus remaine with any Christian Et in nouel Const. 42. but be had as prophane and odious by the Catholike Church and let them which haue such bookes Habetur in 5. generali Synodo collat 5. burne them vnles they will abide the perill thereof With like seuerity Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours both first of their names did prosecute Hereticall bookes in these words Let no man presume to reade possesse or write such bookes which withall diligence are to be searched for whersoeuer they be found to be burned in the publicke view of all men but those that are discouered to haue kept such bookes let them be sent to perpetuall banishment Nicepho l. 8. cap. 15. But of al others the Emperour Constantine the Great set forth the sharpest Edict against the bookes of Arius saying Our will is that if any writing of Arius be found it be committed to the fire that not only his wicked doctrine may perish but that also there may remaine no monument thereof yea and moreouer we enact If any man be detected to conceale any booke of his and not to burne it forthwith that he be adiudged to die For such a one being found guilty of the crime shal presently be put to death Behould how rigorous how seuere was Constantine What say you Antony to these decrees of Fathers and Princes Will you now suspect that for as much as the writings of Arius Nestorius Eutiches Seuerus were so roughly intreated that there must needs be something in them which the Christian doctrine could not conuince Be not so blasphemous I speake in a word If you know not the seuerity of the ancient Church in prohibiting the bookes of heretiks you are ignorant If you know it and would suspect thervpon that those Heretiks arguments were stronger then the Catholiks you are impious If you molest the present Church standing in equal termes with the ancient you are vniust 13. But now the other incitement of your suspitions and doubtes is to be looked into which then hapened when you first began being a Bishop to turne the Fathers For before that time you had not so much as saluted them a farre of For thus you declare the matter pag. 13. In the Theoriques I noted certaine sayings of the Fathers in many thinges very repugnant to the common doctrine wherein I was trayned vp in the Schooles and the same either passed ouer by my Maisters or not faithfully alleadged or not sufficiently or else falsly explicated Also the practise and forme of Ecclesiasticall discipline and spirituall gouerment of our times came to be very different from the ancient and thence my new mentioned suspitions were not a little augmented So you But the holy Ghost saith truly of you and your fellowes Prouer. 13. He that will part from his freind seekes occasions For euery where euen in your old manuscriptes did you hunt for calumnies wherewith to charge the Church which you had resolued to forsake And yet after all your diligence vsed with so great desire to find some shew of reason the causes you haue found out be most slender and such indeed as would haue moued no honest or prudent man to leaue a priuate friend much lesse the Catholike Church You found the Fathers sayinges in many thinges very different from the common Schoole learning either passed ouer by your Maisters or not faithfully cited or falsly explicated First you say all these things but neither are you able or do you go about to proue thē and yet faine would you haue your departure allowed euen by Catholikes Shall your bare word be belieued against the Maisters of the Church Shall Catholikes themselues against the Catholike Church giue credit to you a fugitiue an enemy It were impudency to craue this at their hands and folly to hope for it But admit all you obiect were true how slieght is all you say how ridiculous and making nothing at all for the mittigation of the crime of your Apostasy Your Maisters in the Schooles did explicate certaine places of the Fathers not so fully as they should or else vnproperly you perhaps were by their negligence brought into great straytes were there not other men in the Catholike Church learned inough to resolue your doubts put case the Maister had not satisfied you Sometime they did not faithfully alleadge testimonies how common and ordinary a thing is it for Scribes not to take well their Maisters words which they dictate in Schools though also what Maisters deliuer in schooles be not so exact as writings that are prepared for the presse Some things he wholy left out Surely a great fault And are you so great a straunger in schoole matters that know not this that the Maisters cannot possibly in the compasse of foure yeares to which the course of Diuinity is straytened giue full and ample satisfaction to all the testimonies of Fathers which are obiected against the Catholike doctrine by diuers Sectes of necessity many things are omitted which the Schollers afterward are to find out by their priuate industry But there are certaine sayings of Fathers which are very opposite to the doctrine that now is currant in the schooles This spoken in so generall tearmes is true What Catholike schoole man knowes it not Who euer denied it Nor do there want examples The common consent of Deuines is that those seauen days in which God accomplished the frame of the world were true dayes indeed distinguished by the heauens reuolution and the rising and setting of the light But who knows not that S. Augustine is of a contrary mind The Schooles agree that the Angells were not created before the world yet Nazianzen the great Light of Greece esteemes them elder then the world I could alleadge many more but to what end How do they serue to cloke your Apostasy Those Fathers sayings pretermitted or not fully explicated by your Maisters did they patronize your Sect You tell vs not what kind of Sect yours is nor do you plainly say that those Fathers sayings fauour you at all Suppose you should say they make for you might we not iustly put you to your proofe Lastly supposing that were true which you say only but prooue not That the moderne practise in many things now a dayes is different from the discipline of the Church of old what makes this for you Do you not see the times change men with the times with men customes It is the part of Ecclesiasticall wisedome to suite their Lawes Statues with the circumstances of times and persons to which purpose S. Augustine saith very well The former Councells are bettered by the later Therfore Antony you bring nothing that sound is for you excuse what you bring are either bare words
with passion you read them ten yeares togeather In these say you I fully found out what I sought for much more then I sought for How wel you set downe the māner of your fal You hated Heresie but affected Cōtumacy against the Pope and whilest you will not leaue what you loued you are falne into that which you abhorred You would faine without losse of your religion haue remained an obstinate and stubborne Catholike but behould you haue made wracke of your faith and are become a rebellious heretike You sought for Catholike contumacy contempt of the Pope a thing not to be found but in lieu therof you haue found heretical perfidiousnes Verily that haue you found which by such an inquiry you deserued to find Lib. 3. ep 9. which al that haue sought in this same māner haue found For the beginning of Heretikes saith S. Cyprian is to take delight in themselues with a swelling pride to contemne their Superiours Hereupon they rush into schismes and prophane Altars are reared vp out of the Church Malignant feuers neere neighbours to the Pestilence when the Plague is rife alwayes turne to this mischief so neere of kinne vnto them so when Heresies abound the Contempt of the supreme Pastour a sin neerly allied to Heresie can scarcely be conteined but that at least it will empty it selfe into Heresie Let them learne by your exāple that go about to be rebellious what they are like to find at last And let this be the conclusion That very orderly you descended on the steps of the ladder of Apostasy which I set you in the beginning You grow more sinfull one day then other you still more and more fleet away from the Church and euery step you make brings you neerer to Hell The eight Degree Presumption of proper Iudgment against the Church THERE now remaines the eight and last degree in the ladder of your descent a degree and step not only neighbouring vpon heresy but also neere allied vnto it which it doth not only touch immediatly but is the very beginning and head thereof This is too much presuming of your owne learning and wit aboue the Church S. de vera Relig cap. 16. Augustine saith excellently That no errour can be in the Christian religion did not mans soule worship her selfe for God For it were impossible that a Christian should be an Heretike did he still submit himselfe and inthrall his vnderstanding to God and giue him leaue by the voyce of his Church to ouersway their wits which are blind rashe erroneous not only when they wander without diuine Scriptures through the works of Nature but thē also when within the boundes of sacred Writ they discourse according to their owne fense arbitrement Hitherto before you openly fled from vs were you fallen Antony and being in that case you did not so much tend towards Apostasy but rather were you arriued at your iourneyes end You cannot abide Subiection of vnderstanding to the obedience of Faith euery where you impugne it and at last conclude I am no child now whome being nigh threescore yeares of age euery man should perswade what he listeth without weight of reasons This your girding at the Roman Church contaynes either a grosse calumniation or a vast arrogancy For if you meane to taxe the Roman Church as though she did vse to propose to be beleeued of her children with true submission of their vnderstanding whatsoeuer a priuate man or Doctour or Prelate listeth to teach truly you hatefully charge her with that she neuer doth But if by whatsoeuer listeth any man you meane those points of doctrine which you call proper decrees of the Roman Church namely the Supremacy of Peter and his Successour the doctrine that most of all offends you If by euery one you vnderstand the witnesses authours vnto whose iudgment the Romā Church would haue her childen submit the supposed weight of their reasons If I say you meane this doctrine and intend to shew your cōtempt of the authorities that are by the Church alleadged for it refusing to submit your iudgment to them then are you come to this last step which consumates an Apostata For you know all Catholikes all Bishops through out the world and the vniuersall Church now spread through Europe and the new found Indies acknowledge the Romā Supremacy I will not presse you with the old Councells I wil not vrge you with any thing that you may or will deny Only I say that this doctrine was defined by the Tridentine Councell by the Florentine by the Lateran which Lateran for the generall concourse of all Christendome and for the number of Bishops that were in it was the greatest of all Christian councells that haue beene hitherto assembled Will you then submit your iudgment to the censure of these councells You will not The assembly of so many so great and so worthy men by you is tearmed quisque euery one ordinary fellowes Their iudgmēts you accompt no more then quod quisque libuerit you reckon them as trifles Behould now appeares the arrogancy of your speach which though you harboured in your mind yet you sought to cloake with ambiguous words 29. You say that euery man shall not make you belieue what they list being a man as you are of almost three score yeares of age you say that you haue reasons of weight that the Church shal giue you better or as good before you will beleeue her O craft of Heresy what doth not she inuent to saue her selfe she sees that if the matter come to be tried by authority she will not be able to stand nor shew her selfe in comparison with the Catholike Church that her vpstart paucity will blush to appeare before the Catholike authority which in former ages was and now is spatiously enlarged ouer the world What shift then doth Heresy make With full mouth she cryes that she hath weighty reasons on her side hoping by the promise of reasons to counterballance the Churches authority If you will not credit me that this is the tricke of heresie then heare S. Epist 56. Augustine that long ago noted and discouered this fraud Heretiks saith he perceauing that they are vtterly ouerthrowne if the authority of their Conuenticles be brought to compare with the Catholik authority they endeauour by making shew promises of reason in some sort to ouercome the most graue and grounded authority of the Church For this kind of boldnes is the common and ordinary tricke almost of all Heretikes So S. Augustine which in truth toucheth your right who go about to poise the weight of your reasōs against the authority of the Church Nor do I captiously intend to wrest your words to a sense perhaps from your own meaning as if before you will beleeue you demaund of vs weighty reasons drawne out of Philosophy naturall Knowledge I deale not so hardly with you for you meane perhaps reasons grounded on Scriptures but
verily you will misse of your purpose Theft shall be theft murder murder Schisme schisme will you nill you Antony Well but I fly say you from errors I fly from abuses I fly that I may not be partaker of her sins not haue part in her punishments O how liuely did the holy Ghost describe you long agoe The wicked sonne saith Prouerb 30 ver 12. as S. Augustine readeth that he is iust yet doth he not wash cleere his going out You say the Church swarmeth with errours is ful of abuses loaden with sinnes that you are pure iust and thereupon fly not to be partaker of the punishments due to our sinnes who haue no sinns forsooth of your owne to be punished You say you are iust but you do not proue it notwithstanding though you should in your owne cause say the very truth yet could not you therby cleere your selfe from the crime of Schisme which I will make manifest euen by your owne words In the 37. page touching S. Cyprian you write in this māner Cyprian made no doubt but that Stephen the Roman Bishop did erre very grieuously yet rather then to make a Schisme in the Church he chose to communicate not only with Pope Stephen whose beliefe and practise was contrary to his but also with others whome he iudged impure for this cause only because Pope Stephē did admit them into his Communion which example S. Augustine as he sets it before the Donatists so likewise he sets it before vs for imitation Now I will iudge you by your one euidence For why do you not imitate this example which you say is layd before you a purpose that you should imitate it If S. Cyprian could not deuide himselfe from Pope Stephen whome he most assuredly iudged to erre without being guilty of the crime of Schisme may you reuolt from Pope Paul the fifth vnder pretence that he errs and not be a Schismaticke If S. Cyprian had he forsaken Pope Stephen could not haue iustified his departure by saying put case he might truly haue sayd so I fly his errours his abuses his sinnes do you thinke that your defection frō the Roman Church can be washed cleane from the note of Apostasy by your loud exclaiming that you fly errour A protestation vaine though it were true and indeed false vttered without any proofe You go about Antony to wash a bricke you loose your labour your crime cannot be washed away without teares of repentance The second Gulfe Wandring vncertainty about Religion THE second Gulfe wherein you are drowned I call Nullity of fayth because you abandoned the Roman Church and Faith before you had made choice of any other Church or religion that should succeed in lieu thereof You seemed at your departure from vs to be a blanke ready to preceaue any Religion or faith that should be written therin so it were contrary to the Roman A deepe pit of impiety which heretikes do fall into whos property it is not to establish but to ouerthrow fayth to beate downe Christian Churches that stand not to reare vp Christian Churches amongst Pagans They ioyne friendship and communion indifferently with all Sectes sayth Tertullian nor do they regard though they be different from them in opinion Praese cap. 40. so they will concurre with them to ouerthrow the truth This want of sound and solide faith you shew Antony by many signes and tokens First by your perpetuall silence not declaring either in the title or in the body of your booke to what sect or Religiō you meane to passe from the Roman In the title you pretend to shew the reasons of your going but you tell vs neither whence nor whither you take your iourney Motion as Philosophers say receaues forme and shape of the end and marke wherein finally the same resteth which being true your going to which your title prescribes not any end nor restraynes within the compasse of any markes what may it seeme but a vast vncertaine blind and inconsiderate wandering This your omitting to set down in your title the finall marke of your iourney is the more blame-worthy because straight in the very beginning of your discourse you require that euen we Catholikes should approue your departure For how can any prudent man possibly approue your iourney before he know in what Country Church or Religion you meane to take vp your rest We that know not for what place you are bound can we know or approue your course Seing then this circumstance whither is the chiefe thing that giues light to them that are to iudge in the vndertaking of a iourney and therfore is the first thing to be declared in the very beginning of the deliberation why did not you Antony expresse it in the Title of your Booke why haue you not once thoughout your whole pamphlet tould it vs in playne and direct termes The answere is easy you tould it not because you were certaine neither of the Church nor of the Religion wherein you should make your finall abode You compare your selfe forsaking the Church of Rome with the great Patriarke Abraham who following God left his Countrey which comparison though in the mayne point it be very idle yet heerein you are not vnlike to Abraham that as he departed from his natiue soyle not knowing whither he went so you abandoned the Roman Church and Religion before you could tell what other Church or Religion you should imbrace vpon the forsaking therof 6. Secondly of this your doubtfullnesse in choice of Religion which you did but insinuate in the title you make open demonstration in your booke in the 15. pa. wherof you write Now myne eyes being more opened I might easely perceaue that the doctrines of the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries which Churches though we sharply censure our Deuines maynly impugne do little or nothing at all swarue from the true primitiue doctrine of the pure Church So you write nor could you haue more disclosed the vast pit of vncertainty in your breast gaping for any doctrine so it be opposite to the Roman For let vs search into the matter I demaund of you Antony whither are you going to Churches say you that swarue very little or nothing from the true Primitiue doctrine I heare you But shew me these Churches which are they they be those Churchs which being very many Rome hath raised vp to be her aduersaries O what a deale of vncertainty and confusiō lyeth couched togeather in these words I let passe that vncertainty very little which how much or little it is no man knowes you only may determine and at your pleasure stretch or contract it I do not enquire where about in the world those Churches are to be seen which you so highly cōmend Which questiō should I propose I could pursue you from country to country and you would sweat to find such Churches in the world as you describe in your booke Churches I
say for number very many in doctrine all opposite to the Roman and all agreeing among themselues in the pure primitiue truth But pretermitting these questions I only aske when you say that the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries do very little swarue from the pure primitiue doctrine whether you speake of all the Churches and Companies that in doctine are opposite to the Roman or of some of them only You cannot with truth speake it of all they being so many and so repugnant the one against the other Grecians Lutherans Caluinistes Libertines Anabaptists Arians Trinitarians How can it be that they all should very little or nothing disagree from the true doctrine whose doctrines disagree mainly and allmost infinitly the one from the other 7. If you say that though not all yet some of the Churches aduersaries to Rome do very little disagree from the primitiue truth then I demaund Why do you not distinguish these pure Churches from the other impure before you prayse them Why do you thus at random rashly not to say impiously cast that great commendation to swarue very litle from the pure primitiue doctrine vpon the confuse multitude of sects disagreeing from the Roman Church in which masse euen your selfe being iudge all be not sincere yea many be corrupt many impious many most food sottish And yet by your words no man can perceaue whether this high prayse be bestowed by you on the Grecians or on the Septentrionals on the Lutherans or on the Anabaptists on the Caluinists or on the Arians Verily you be not the mouth of God Antony you be not the preacher of Truth who to good bad layd togeather on an heape giue your approbation without any distinction not seuering pretious from vile noxious from wholsome hereticall from Catholike impious from Christian doctrine And yet herein you are excusable For what els could you do who had not as yet made choice of any certaine Church you might magnify before al other being vncertaine for the present and ignorant what finally your choice might be you durst not condēne any Church of the many opposite to Rome fearing you should perchance condemne that Church which you might be forced to fly vnto Had you singled one Church out of that number extolling it only aboue all other the rest perchance would with lesse willingnesse haue intertained you taking your singular prayse of that one Church as a disparagement to them all nor durst you commend distinctlie and by name all the sectes that are enemies to the Pope knowing that thereby you might expose your selfe to iust exception that Catholikes might take at you as being a friend of damnable errours Wherfore craftily you resolued to shoot at randome in the praise of Churches that oppose themselues to Rome without specifying the name or doctrine of any that so you might haue both freedome to runne to what sect you pleased and shelter against Catholikes should they except against you as fauouring the errours of any particuler heresy Now Antony perceaue you not that your secret wily deuise is layd open that this your booke brings to light the things which you most of al desired should haue byn hiddē 8. Thirdly so great is your vncertainty that you are not only ignorant to what sect to fly from the Roman Church but also you know not from what doctrine of the Roman Church you should fly I confesse you do particularily mislike the Primacy of the Roman Bishop but you were not ignorant that the hatred of this authority is common to all sorts of Heretikes Whosoeuer are wicked in the world the more egregiously that they are wicked the more mortally do they hate the power of the Pope all being herein combined Grecians Protestants Lutherans Caluinists Anabaptists Arians Turkes Iews Atheists What other article of the Roman beleife do you condemne besides this You name no other but in generall you proclaime that you fly the Roman sinnes errors abuses and innumerable nouelties Why name you them not I will tel you the sects that band against Rome being very many do not all mislike the same doctrines in the Roman Church What one condemneth another prayseth what some approue others abhorre so your religion depending on future euents you could not shew detestation of the Roman errours in particuler till you had made certaine choice of your Church You knew that you were to condemne in the Roman Church other articles did you become a Grecian others did you fall to be a Lutheran others did you turne Caluinist others did you cleaue to the Anabaptists others should you stay in Germany others should you fly to France others should you sayle into Englād Wherfore wauering in vncertainties not able to forsee what shall becom of you without naming any particulers with all your might and mayne you cry out on the Roman Errours When you shall haue made your election for your religion therein set vp your rest then shal the Roman Church erre in those poynts and as damnably as it please that company you liue with to haue you say 9. But I pretermitt say you in the 17. page to set downe particularly the Errours of Rome because in my booke of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth I do fully prosecute them which booke now a good while ready for the print I haue and will set it forth out of hand and bequeath it to the first printer in Germany that by the way I shal find for the purpose I beseech you Antony why did you not performe what here so solemly you promise Met you with no Printer in Germany that was for the purpose or did the King of great Britany countermand your purpose or did you of your self shrinke from your purpose I search not into this secret This I say that now you shall not print the booke you brought out of Italy with you but another Your selfe growing daily worse and worse will change therein diuers things either taking away some points of Catholike doctrine or adding some new doctrines gotten by your reading in the books of heretikes to say nothing of the things which Ministers by their arguments will winne you to alter And what shall I say of his gracious Maiesty so excellent for his knowledge To change some things in your booke and to adde other things to it he will persuade you by his learning to leaue out diuers doctrins that sauour to much of Rome he may compell you by his authority perchāce also sundry of his sayings though he vrge you not yet you to please him will put them into your booke Know you not what befell Casaub one How much changed he was from that affection and mind that he seemed to carry with him into England which alteration he going about to excuse to his friend plainly confesseth that by entrance into the English Court he was become a slaue not daring in any thing gaynesay the Kings pleasure which basenes
suppression of euery heresy as S. Lib. 4. aduersusduas Ep. Pelag. cap. 13. Augustine writeth You greeue I perceaue that the Roman Bishop is able to condemne you without a generall Councell Vnhappy were the Church could he not do it Out of pride innated to heretiks you ayme at this honour that a Coūcell of the whole Church should be called about you which glory also the Pelagians as being most proud Heretikes sought greiuing exceedingly that euery where by the Roman Bishop and others without any Generall Councell they were condemned accursed They desired saith S. Augustine a generall Coūcell that at least they might trouble and disquiet the Catholike world seing they could not God being against them peruert it 25. The seauenth Vntruth is in the 22. pag. That the Episcopall administratiō of Bishops is wholy perished the whole gouernment of Churches is altogeather translated to Rome the Bishops are scarse the vicars and seruants of our Lord the Pope That Church-busines of most weight should be referred to the Roman Bishop the Fathers in all ages haue ordayned This is now adayes still practised in the Church what besides and aboue this you add is not the Roman custome but your slaunder 26. The eight That Bishops be subiect not only to the Pope Cardinalls c. but also to innumerable Religious Orders of Regulars and to their Friars who by their priuiledges deuoure and swallow vp the power of Bishops Verily Antony you seeme to haue lost all regard of your good name that dare in this manner range without the bounds of truth 27. The ninth That Catholike teachers namely your maisters the Iesuites do not furnish their Diuinity with the sayings of holy Scripture exactly discussed and declared that amongst them and in the Church of Rome there is extreme ignorance of Scripture He that will but peruse some Catholike writers in matters of sacred learning specially the Iesuites will soone see how false a slaunder this is 28. The tenth That the books of our Aduersaries are wholy concealed from vs that such as are excellent for their piety and knowledge yea the learnedst Doctours or Bishops we haue are not permitted in any sort to read them Thus you write shewing that hatred against the Pope so transports you that you mind not what you say How could the Catholiks of all nations confute your hereticall books did none of vs read them Are they in no sort permitted no not to the learnedst of vs all You may see Antony that though your booke be forbiden yet I haue read it Therfore S. Cyprian saith truly Lib. 1. ep 2. Amongst prophan men that are departed from the Church and from whose breasts the holy Ghost is departed what els is to be found but a depraued mind a deceitfull tongue cankred hatred and sacrilegious lying To which whosoeuer giueth credit shall at the day of iudgment be found to stand on their side The fifth Gulfe Contumelious speach against the Pope AFTER the Falshood of Heretiks followeth their railing as being a neere neighbour vnto it Heretikes sayth S. Lib. 16. mor. c. 14. Gregory with violency of words assayle the weake minds of the faithfull and robbe the poore people Not being able to supplant the learned they take from the vnlearned the veyle of faith by their pestiferous preaching I shall not need Antony to search into your booke for stormes of angry and rayling speach which in euery page meet with the Reader and rage against the Pope that so you may take from Catholikes the veyle of faith by furious blastes of words seing you can not with solide reasons persuade them to cast it away In the 16. page thus you thunder out against the Church of Rome At Rome many thinges are made articles of Faith which haue not any institution from Christ yea moreouer the soules of the faithfull be miserably deceaued and consequently being blind togeather with their blind guides be lead and fall headlong into the gulfe of Perdition And in the 22. page you rage yet more angerly against Rome It is not a Church say you but a Vineyard to make Noe drunke it is a flocke which the Pastour doth milke till bloud follow which he pouleth shaueth fleaeth and deuoureth In the 32. page It is not for Prophets to deale with the Roman Bishop that now doth so mainly trouble scandalize robbe oppresse the Church The Maiesty of the Roman Pope is counterfayt temporall proude vsurped nothing at all 30. Finally your splene against this present Pope moueth you to reuile the most holy Pope and Martyr S. Stephen For in the 37. page you say that S. Stephen out of indiscreet zeale by importune excōmunications ranne headlong into a mischeiuous Schisme But Cyprian by his Patience Charity and exceeding great Wisedome was the cause that the separation did not ensue This you charge the most holy Martyr as though he had gone headlong into schisme a sinne in your opinion much worse then Heresy How wrongefully and without any iust cause For no man could proceed more religiously more modestly and more prudently then Pope Stephen did in this Controuersy with S. Cyprian When S. Cyprian impugned mightily a doctrine which as he did not deny was confirmed by the perpetuall custome of the Church what did this most holy Bishop appoynted of God to be Iudge and to giue sentence in this Controuersy where this perpetuall custome of the Church was opposed against by the excellent learning and sanctity of Cyprian He shewed a reuerent respect to them both as farre as truth conscience would permit him That the learning and sanctity of S. Cyprian might not ouerthrow a perpetuall custome without the assent of a generall Councell Vincent Lyrinens com c. 16. he set out that Decree so much commended by the Fathers Nihil innouandum praeterquam quod est traditum That nothing should be innouated contrary to that which had byn deliuered by tradition On the other side to shew the regard he had of S. Cyprians learning and sanctity he would not haue that custome should so preiudicate against S. Cyprians doctrine that thereupon it should be accompted Heretical before a generall Councell but that S. Cyprian though stil cleauing to his opinion should notwithstanding be retayned in the Catholike communion A most prudent and temperate decision 31. Neither did he with any bitter speach prouoke S. Cyprian who yet as S. Augustine saith too much moued against Pope Stephen powred forth such speachs as it were better to bury them in obliuion then to record and reuiue them Wherfore by the iudgment of antiquity not only truth stood on the Popes side but also modesty charity wisedome in his proceedings for the defence of the truth Take heed Antony that you be not a member of him Apoc. 15. to whome was giuen a wide mouth speaking bigge things and to blaspheme the tabernacle of God and the Saints that dwell in heauen You are as good as your word according to your
do they concerne Who requires that doctrines questionable be admitted as articles of Faith before they be fully and sufficiently defined Who would haue any to be accomted Heretikes before the Church instructed by the holy Ghost hath-censured them We Catholikes hold the Primacy of the Roman Bishop as a doctrine of Faith the denyers therof who haue byn accursed in diuers generall Councells we detest as Heretikes This grieueth you so many Councells be not full because you the Pastour forsooke of the vniuersall Church haue not subscribed vnto them And in the 38. page you thunder againe without any bolt and giue vs idle prescripts Let vs say you hold different doctrines let vs be of contrary opinions till things be fully defined which are not yet fully defined but in the meane time let vs continue in vnity Do not make the schisme greater then it is Thus you idly spend pen inke and paper What doctrine do we demaund that you should beleeue which hath not byn established by the Decrees of general Coūcels Well saith Marcian the Emperour that they call in question and dare publikely dispute against that which is already iudged and rightly ordayned offer great wronge to the iudgmēt of the most Reuerend Synodes The doctrine which most you mislike to wit that the Pope is appoynted of God Head and Pastour of the whole Church the Orient and Occident hath defined in nine Generall Councells What fuller Councells can you desire Are you yet fully satisfied No but you puffe and go forward blowing still demanding fuller definitions till you come to conclude your Pamphlet with this sentence which to me seemes wholy deuoyd of any good sense Let vs driue away by the light of the truth Euangelicall without firme obstinacy the darkenes of errours and falsities 50. Secondly that you not only beate the ayre with idle words but also fight against your selfe denying in one place what in another you affirme these fiue examples of your contradictions may make manifest 51. The first contradiction In the page 8. and 9. you say that the Roman diligence in forbidding the bookes of her aduersaries did euer displease you This practise say you not to be voyd of suspition as reason doth shew so did I euer Iudge Euer Antony did you neuer dislike the reading bookes that impugne the Roman doctrine did you neuer aboue measure detest it In the 4. page to proue that you tooke not your resolution to depart from vs by reading our aduersaries bookes thus you write I Religiously call God to witnesse that I did vehemently abhorre from the reading of the bookes that the Roman diligence had forbidden Which bookes if any Prelate addicted to the Roman Court hath detested then I by reason of vayne feares conceaued against this reading in my childhood did aboue measure detest 52. The second Contradiction In the 9. page you say That you still suspected the Roman Church by reason of her forbidding of her aduersaries bookes that her doctrine was weake and not able to ouerthrow her aduersaries arguments But in the 7. page you say the contrary to wit that the proper decrees doctrines of Rome were with true captiuity of your vnderstanding wholy imprinted and rooted in your mind How were they wholy imprinted in your mind if you euer supected them if you still imbraced them not without feare staggering 53. The third Contradiction You say in the 2. and 5. page That by going from Rome you incurre great losse of wealth and dignity And in the 25. page That vnder the Pope you had honorable dignities and commodities not to be contemned But in the page 22. you say that Bishops vnder the Pope that are not Temporall Lords and such a meere Bishop were you are scarse so much as seruantes of our Lord the Pope base contemptible oppressed troden vnder foote miserably subiect Now Antony make these things agree base seruitude and honorable dignity cōmodityes not to be contemned miserable subiection 54. The fourth contradiction In the 22. page you write That the Church vnder the Pope is no Church but a certaine Common-wealth vnder his Monarchy meerly temporall These wordes import that the Church of Rome is no Church but else where you call it a Church yea the Church of Christ Pag. 29. I am Bishop in the Church of Christ who then were Bishop in no Church but in the Roman And in the 35. page you call the Roman Bishops your Colleages and fellow-Bishops And againe page 39. you thus commaund the Catholike-Roman Bishops Offer your communion readily to all that still retayne their opinions against you yet so that falsityes be driuen away None can make that common with another which they haue not themselues If the Roman Church be not a Christian Communion and society how can they offer readily their Christian Society and communion to others If it be meerely and wholy a temporall Common-wealth what can it affoard to her friends but meere human peace and temporall communion 55. The fifth Cōtradiction In the 39. pag. you cōmand Bishops to restore peace and charity to all that professe Christ by the Creeds essentiall In these words you require no more then the profession of the Creeds essentiall but within three lines after this sentence followes Offer readily your cōmunion to all sauing their opinions yet driuing away falsityes Here you will haue them that communicate togeather to agree not only in the profession of your essentiall Creeds but also in the abnegation of falsities wherof you expresse neither the quality nor the number And yet also herein you agree not with your selfe for in the 36. page you praise S. Cyprian because he did cōmunicate with such as erred and whome he iudged to erre most grieuously Here you will haue errours to be tolerated and communion not to be broken for errours but in the former speach you allow not communion but with this condition that on both sides falsities be driuen away I demand of you Antony whether errours grieuous errours be not falsities If they be then how is communion to be giuen without reiecting of errours and yet not to be exhibited without driuing away falsities Here you shamfully contradict your selfe The Conclusion I will now end I haue shewed who you were before you fell and by what stepps and degrees you came to fall into the depth of Apostasy I haue also declared who now you are and into what a low gulfe of Hereticall Impiety you be plunged Why then may I not conclude and in few wordes foretell what will finally become of you laying vpon you the Censure of the Apostle 2. Timoth. c. 3.9 You shall not further proceed for your folly shall be manifest vnto almen You being thus discouered by this Suruey if you will not see your selfe yet Protestants wil easily see who you are and what great want of iudgment you haue bewrayed in your writings They will wonder that into so little a Pamphlet written in your owne defence