would not be mistaken I do not say that all who now do or for this Six hundred years last past have liv'd in the Communion of the Church of Rome either do or did approve such Papal Positions or Practices I know the Sorbon and Vniversity of Paris and many in other Countries have publickly Declared their disbelief and dislike of them Especially in Germany in the time of Hen. III. Hen. IV. Friderick II. c. not only private Persons but some Synods declared the Papal Excommunications and Depositions of their Emperors not only Injust and Impious but Antichristian I grant also That Father Caron in his Remonstrantiâ Hibernorum if some have rightly told the Number has cited Two hundred and fifty Popish Authors who deny the Popes Power to depose Kings And though I know that many of his Citations are Impertinent yet I shall neither deny nor doubt but that there are many thousand honest Papists in the outward Communion of the Church of Rome who dislike this Doctrine But this will neither Justifie or Excuse the Church of Rome so long as her Governing and Ruling part publickly approves and maintains it For 1. Father Caron himself tells us that notwithstanding his Book and all his Authorities for Loyalty to Kings The Divines of Lovane The Pope's Nuncio the Cardinals four or five Popes Paulus V. Pius V. Alexander VII Innocentius X. he might easily have reckon'd many more did condemn his Doctrine The Inquisitors damn'd his Book and his Superiors Excommunicate him 2. It is confessed That the Supream Infallible Power of their Church resides either in the Pope or Council or both together And 't is also certain That their Popes in their approved and in publick use received Canon Law in their Authentick Bulls publish'd by themselves in their General Councils and with their Consent have approved and for this Six hundred years last past many times practis'd this Doctrine of Deposing Kings nor has the Church of Rome I mean the Governing and Ruling part of it by any Publick Act or Declaration disown'd or censur'd it as doubtless she would had she indeed disliked it Quae non prohibet cum possit jubet If any man think otherwise and can really shew me that their Popes and General Councils have not formerly approved or since have disown'd and disapprov'd this Doctrine I shall willingly acknowledge my mistake and be thankful to him for a Civility which at present I really believe I shall never receive However Grata supervenient quae non sperantur 3. Seing it is Evident that Pope Pius V. and his Predecessors in the like Cases calls the Anathema and Curse contain'd in this Bull The Damnation of Q. Elizabeth The next Query will be What that hard word signifies and what they mean by it in their Bulls For the Solution of which doubt and Satisfaction to the Query 1. I take it to be certain and confess'd That the word Damnum from whence Damnation comes signifies a diminution or loss of some good things had and enjoyed before or of a right to future good things and then Damnation as to our present Case will be a judicial sentence which by way of punishment imposes such loss and diminution 2. As the Damnum or loss may be either of Temporal things here as loss of Honours Liberty Lands or Life or of Spiritual and Eternal things as Heaven and Salvation hereafter so the Damnation also according to the Nature of the sentence and the mischief intended by it may be Temporal or Eternal or both if it penally inflict the loss both of Goods Temporal and Eternal 3. I say then and I hope to make it evident that the mischief intended by this Papal Bull and Excommunication so far as the malice and injustice of an Usurped Power could endeavoured to be brought upon that good Queen was not only Temporal but also Spiritual and Eternal This the word Damnation in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Title of the Bull in their Popish Construction intends and signifies For the Temporal mischiefs intended to be brought upon that Good Queen there is no question they are all particularly named in the Bull it self as we shall see anon For the Spiritual that is a seclusion out of Heaven and Happiness and Eternal Damnation of Body and Soul that these also were the intended and designed Effects of this Impious Bull and Excommunication is now to be proved And here it is to be Considered 1. That they constantly say and having strong Delusion possibly may believe it That Hereticks and such the Queen is declared to be in the Bull dying Excommunicate as that Queen did and all true Protestants do are Eternally Damn'd For 1. A very great Canonist of our own Nation while Popish Superstition unhappily prevail'd here tells us That every Excommunicate Person is a Member of the Devil And for farther proof of this he Cites Gratian and their Canon Law and he might have Cited other as pertinent places in Gratian who tells us in another Canon That Excommunication is a Damnation to Eternal Death And John Semeca the Glossator gives us their meaning of it That it is certainly true when the Person Excommunicate is incorrigible and contemns the Excommunication as for my part I really do contemn all their Excommunications as Bruta fulmina which neither do nor can hurt any honest Protestant so that by their Injust Law and most uncharitable Divinity not only Queen Elizabeth but all Protestants who are every Year Excommunicated by the Pope in their Bulla Coenae Domini are Eternally damned and that è Cathedra A Sentence Erroneous and Impious and though it be the Popes whom they miscall Infallible inconsistent with Truth or Christian Charity 2. But we have both for Learning and Authority a far greater Author than Lindwood or Gratian and in our days long after them I mean Cardinal Baronius who tells us That Pope Gregory VII did not only depose the Emperor Hen. IV. but Excommunicate and Decree him to be Eternally Damn'd And for this he Cites Pope Gregory's own Epistles who surely best knew his own mind and the meaning of his own Decree 3. But we have greater Authors and Authority for this than Baronius for Pope Paschal II. tells us That he had Excommunicated the Emperor Hen. IV. in a Council and adds That by the Judgment of the whole Church he lay bound under An Eternal Anathema And after this Pope Paul III. Damns that 's the word and Excommunicates our King Hen. VIII and all his Favourers and Adherents And we smite them saith he with the Sword of an Anathema Malediction and Eternal Damnation In the Year 1459. Pius II. with the Vnanimous Consent of his Council at Mantua Excommunicates and Damns all those even Kings and Emperors who shall Appeal from the Pope to a General Council and that they shall be punish'd as Traytors and
irrationally and without any Sense or Consequence they infer That Peter and every Successor of his was Constituted Supream Head Prince and Monarch of the Vniversal Church So that what Peter or his Successor shall è Cathedrâ Determine and Decree is to be received as if God himself had decreed it So Tirinus and their Canon Law in their most Correct Editions Though this be Erroneous and evidently Impious yet Tirinus Gratian and their Canonists are not singular in this point another Learned Jesuit in his Commentary on this Place tells us That when our blessed Saviour says On this Rock will I build my Church he speaks of Peter as the Fundamental Rock on which the Church is built And he adds That though our blessed Saviour was chiefly that Fundamental Rock yet Peter and the Popes of Rome succeeded him as his Vicars with Supream Power c. This place they conceive concerns no Apostle but Peter and proves his and his Successors Supremacy To this I say 1. That all they say in this particular is gratis dictum for they only say it without any pretence of proof If we will take their bare word we may otherwise we may chuse for they bring no proof to prove their Exposition of this Text such as might command and necessitate our Assent And then a bare denial is Answer enough to a bare Assertion For as St. Hierome says in the like case an unproved Position eâdem facilitate rejicitur quâ Affirmatur 2. When they say our blessed Saviour was the chief Fundamental Rock on which the Church was built and that St. Peter and the Popes succeeded him with Supream Power They consequently must say Two things 1. That our blessed Saviour left his Place and Office of being the Fundamental Rock to Peter when he left this World For if he kept it and still do keep it neither the Pope nor Peter could be his Successors No man can be Successor and succeed into a Place till his Predecessor leave it Linus neither did nor could succeed Peter in the Bishoprick of Rome whilst Peter liv'd and possess'd it himself so that by this Erroneous and Impious Doctrine they have displac'd our blessed Saviour from being the Fundamental Rock on which the Church is built and instead of him have plac'd Peter first and then particular Popes successively And then let the World judge in what a miserable Condition the Church of Christ must be 1. When the Fundamental Rock on which it was built was an Idolater as Marcellinus was 2. Or an Heretick as Liberius Honorius Vigilius c. were 3. Or an Impudent whorish Woman as Johannes Anglicus or Pope Joan certainly was 4. Or when many Popes together no less than Fifty by the Confession of their own Learned men were Apostatici potiùs quam Apostolici 5. Or when the Popes were such Monstrous Villains as were put into and out of St. Peter ' s Chair by Impudent Whores made Popes by Violence and Simony such as even in Baronius his Judgment none should or dared call true Popes whose names were recorded only to fill up the Catalogues of the Roman Bishops 6. Or in the Vacancies when for two or three years and if some Writers say true sometime for Eight years there was no Pope at all and so by this Doctrine the Church had no Fundamental Rock at all for several years together 7. Lastly Or when they had for near Fifty years together two or three Popes at the same time when it was Impossible they should be all Legitimate and true Successors of St. Peter and what they pretend to Vicars of Christ our blessed Saviour and which or whether any of them were such indeed none did or could know Nay 't is certain and must by our Adversaries be confess'd unless they will deny their own received Principles that sometimes all of the Pretenders were Impious Usurpers of the Papal Chair without any Just Right or Title to it Then the first Council of Pisa met and it was a General One consisting of above 600. Fathers there were Two Popes in being such as they were Gregory XII and Benedict XIII who were both Damn'd and Deposed as Perjur'd Persons Schismaticks and Hereticks c. and that by an unanimous Consent and Decree of that Great Council At the Council at Constance four or five years after there were three Popes the two beforenamed Gregory and Benedict who would not sit down though damn'd at Pisa and John XXIII For the two former what Villains they were the Council of Pisa has told us For John XXIII the Council of Constance gives him this Character That he was a Person all the time he was Pope notoriously Scandalous to the Church that his Life was damnable and he in his Conversation guilty of Impieties not to be nam'd And the Council adds in their Definitive Sentence of his Deposition That he had broke his Vow his Oath and Promise made to God and his Church that he was Notoriously Simoniacal and by his dishonest and detestable Life and Manners notoriously Scandalous c. Now if these and such other Popes be the Fundamental Rock upon which the Church is built and this they say and would have us believe it She must of necessity be in a miserable Condition and the Gates of Hell must prevail against Her when they evidently prevail against the Rock upon which they say she is built for if the Rock and Foundation fail that which is built upon it must evidently fall and come to Ruin This is the first Consequence of their Doctrine manifestly Erroneous but this is not all For there is a second Consequence of it both Erroneous and indeed Blasphemous For 2. when they say that our blessed Saviour was the Fundamental Rock on which the Church was built and that Peter and the Popes aftâ—r did succeed him in that Place and Office cum Potestatis plenitudine says Pius V. here Cum Summâ Potestate as others Generally Hence it follows That the present Pope has and every one of his Predecessors had the same Power required to the being of a Fundamental Rock which our blessed Saviour had For if they succeed him in the same Place and with a Supream Power then they have the same Place and Power our blessed Saviour had His Power neither was nor could be greater then Potestas summa summo non datur Superius there can be nothing higher then the highest nor superior to the Supream and if Peter had and every pitiful Pope has potestatem summam Then they have a Power as great and equal to that our Blessed Saviour had before he Resigned it to his Successors But I might have saved the Labour of proving this for 't is Acknowledg'd and expresly Affirm'd in their Roman Catechism ex Decreto Concilij Tridentini juslu Pii V. Edito in which they say that Peter was Caput
denounc'd against the Assassins as well as those who procur'd or hired them to Assassinate any Christians But the man is miserably mistaken for 't is Evident and Confess'd That the Punishments contain'd in the Constitution are denounced only against those Christians who hire and imploy those Impious Assassins Excommunication and the Consequents of it is the Punishment mention'd in that Constitution which neither did nor possibly could concern those Mahometan Assassins For although the said Author of the Gloss elsewhere tells us That the Pope is more then a pure man and Gods Vice-Roy yet certainly he cannot do Impossibilities and Excommunicate Mahometans and Infidels unless he can turn those out of the Christian Church who never were nor would be in it and deprive them of that Communion which they never had But although Pope Innocent the Fourth in the afore-mention'd Constitution speaks only of the Infidel and Mahometan Assassins and of those Christians who procure or hire them to Murder Princes and has nothing of any other who are not of that Mahometan Society though they undertake and act the same Villanies yet those Great and Learned Canonists and Writers of the Popish Church before-named upon proportion and parity of Reason justly Condemn all Christians who shall undertake and effect or indeavour such Assassinations Of these Christian Assassins Cardinal Cajetan says That though they be not comprehended under the Censures of that Constitution yet they Deserve both a Temporal and Eternal Death And to the same purpose Covarruvias tells us and he says it is the Common Opinion That whosoever he be Christian or Mahometan who for Money given or promised undertakes the Assassination of any Christian in this Case both the Mandans and Mandatarius both he that hires and he who is hired to do such Villany are highly guilty and under the Censures and the Severity of them though he who is hired do not actually effect the Assassination if he really indeavour it Nor is it only these I have named who Damn this Impious Mahometan and Turkish Doctrine of Assassinating Kings and Princes I believe and from good Authority know that many thousands more in the Communion of the Church of Rome do equally abhorr and detest it especially in France where their Divines and Parliaments famous for Learning and their General Defence of the Liberties of the Gallican Church against the Usurpations and Tyranny of Rome in the year 1594. publickly Condemn'd this Mahometan and Jesuitical Doctrine and declared it to be what indeed it is Heretical Prodigious and Diabolical 4. But all this notwithstanding the Jesuites and others of their Party and Principles did and do approve and practise that Diabolical Doctrine and when they conceive Princes to be Enemies to their Interest or the Catholick Cause as they call it indeavour by Lying Calumnies to disaffect the People and to raise Rebellions against those Princes that so they may cut them off by Publick War and Seditions and when this succeeds not by private Assassinations This is by sad Experience notoriously known to our Western World as may appear by the Premisses and further Testimonies of their own Roman Catholick Historians in this Case of Indubitable Truth and Veracity Thuanus tell us That in those Bloody Wars in France in the Reign of Henry the Third it was some of the Religious and Regulars especially the Jesuites who by an Industrious and I add Impious Diligence did first Alienate the People from their Obedience to their Prince and then sollicited them to Rebellion I know that those words Ac Jesuitarum Patrum Imprimis are not to be found in those Editions of Thuanus we have being left out by the Arts and Frauds of those who corrupt all Authors who have any thing against their Errors or Impieties but we are assured that those words were in the Original Copy of Thuanus his History But when this would not do and they saw the King could not be cut off by a Rebellious War and publickly they perswade and incourage Jaques Clement a Desperate Villain to Assassinate his Prince who August the First 1589. did the Execrable Act and Murder'd his King Thuanus tells us That Friar Clement was incouraged to Commit that Prodigious Parricide by the furious Sermons and Declamations of their New Divines Especially of the Jesuites who publickly taught them That it was lawful nay Meritorious to kill a Tyrant and if he outlived the Fact he should be a Cardinal at Rome and if he died a Saint in Heaven And accordingly when he was dead by a Death he deserved his Party caused his Picture to be cut in Brass adorned their Churches and Chambers with it counted him a Saint and Martyr and as such made their Addresses and Prayers to him Horrid Superstition and Popish blindness not to put a vast difference between a Martyr of Jesus Christ and an Impious Traytor and Murtherer of his King 2. After this in the year 1594. Johan Chastell undertakes and indeavours the Assassination of Henry the Fourth of France struck him in the Mouth but the good Providence of Heaven protecting that Prince did not effect his Impious Design Now if you ask How any who pretends to be a Christian could have a Conscience so seared or a Soul possess'd with so Prodigious an Insensibility as not to tremble at the very thought of Committing such a horrid and inhuman Villany Davila will tell you That he was a Disciple of the Jesuites That he himself freely confessed that he was bred up in the Schools of the Jesuites and had often heard it discours'd and disputed That it was not Only Lawful but Meritorious to Kill Henry of Bourbon a Relapsed Heretick and Persecutor of the Holy Church That Father Gueret a Jesuite was his Confessor c. so that being possess'd with their Impious Principles and Perswasions he undertook that prodigious and damnable Parricide In short it was notoriously known to all France that the Jesuites both approved and designed the Execrable Assassination of their King Whence it was as Davila goes on that the Parliament of Paris pass'd this Sentence That Father Guignard and Gueret Jesuites should be Condemned to the Gallows that the rest of the Jesuites profess'd or not profess'd should be banished out of France as Enemies to the Crown and publick Tranquility their Goods and Revenues Jeiz'd and distributed to pious Vses c. And it had been well for France had they stood banished still and never return'd For about Sixteen years after what Johan Chastell impiously indeavour'd that bloody Villain Raviliac May the Fourteenth 1610. effected and with Monstrous Impiety and a Cursed hand Murder'd his King Henry the Fourth And it was the Jesuites and their Traiterous Principles which moved and incouraged him to Commit that Monstrous Unchristian and Antichristian Parricide For after the Fact was done Raviliac freely and publickly confessed That it was the Jesuite Mariana's
Supream Princes are Subjects may totally and absolutely depose and deprive them of all their Dominions and right to Govern 4. When the Pope has pass'd such Sentence and deprived them of their Dominions if afterwards they meddle with the Government they become every way Tyrants both Titulo Administratione And then 5. After such Sentence pass'd by the Pope such Kings or Supream Princes may be dealt with as Altogether and Every Way Tyrants and Consequently may be kill'd by Any Private Person 4. And though these be Prodigious Errors Unchristian and indeed Antichristian Impieties such as neither ours nor any Language can fully express yet this is not all The Jesuite further declares That though Pagans anciently had and still have Power to Depose their Tyrannical Kings yet in Christian Commonwealths they have such dependence upon the Pope that without his Knowledge and Authority they should not depose their King For he may Command and Prohibit the People to do it And he gives Instances when People have consulted the Popes and by their Counsel and Consent Deposed their Kings So he says Chilperick was Deposed in France and Sancius Secundus in Portugal And to make up their Errors and Impieties full he further tells us That all Christian Kingdoms and Commonwealths do so far depend upon the Pope that he may not only Counsel the People and Consent to their Deposition and Assassination of their Tyrannical Princes But he may Command and Compel them to do it when he shall think it sit for avoiding Schisms and Heresies That is indeed for the rooting out and ruine of the true Protestant Religion and establishing their Roman Superstition and Idolatry And to conclude he further declares That in such Cases the Popes Command to Murder a Deposed King is so far from being any Crime that it is Superlatively Just. I might here cite Cardinal Tolet Guliel Rossaeus and a hundred such others who approve and in their Publicks Writings Approved and Licenced according to the Decree of their Trent Council by the Auhority of their Church justifie this Impious and Antichristian Doctrine of Deposing and Assassinating Heretical Kings but this I conceive a needless work For 1. Suarez himself declares it to be the received Doctrine of their Church and cites many of their Eminent Writers to prove it which any may see who is not satisfied with those before cited 2. The Licencers of Suarez and his Book are for Dignity in their Church and for Learning so great and for Number so many and the Commendations they give Suarez and his Work so high that there neither is nor can be any just Reason to doubt but this Doctrine was approved at Rome and by the Ruling part of that Church the Pope and his Party believed and incouraged as a Doctrine asserting the Popes Extravagant and as they call it Supernatural Power and so their Common Interest Let the Reader consult the Censures prefix'd to Suarez his Book and he will find all these following to Approve and Licence it First Three great Bishops all of them Counsellors to his Catholick Majesty 2. Two Provincials of the Society one of the Jesuites in Portugal the other of those in Germany 3. Academia Complutensis the University of Alcala de Henares approves it too 4. Lastâ—â— the Supream Senate Court or Congregation of the Inquisitors do also approve and licence it and this they do by Commission from Peter de Castello Vice-Roy of Portugal and in Matters of Faith Supream inquisitor The Premisses impartially consider'd I think we may truly say That it is not only Suarez or some particular or private Persons but the Church of Rome and her Ruling part which approves this Impious and Trayterous Doctrine Which may further appear besides their Approbations and Licences from the great Commendations they give Suarez and his Book and Doctrine And here 1. For Suarez They say That he was a Contemner of Humane things and a most Valiant Desender only of Piety and Catholick Religion And for his Excellent Wisdom the Common Master and another Augustine of that Age. That for his great Zeal for the Catholick Faith he was a most Famous Author and a most Eminent Divine That he was a Most Grave and most Religious Writer whose Works the World the Popish World does Honour Admire and Love c. 2. And for his Book and the Doctrine contained in it They say That all things in his Book are Religiously Consonant to Sacred Scripture to Apostolical Traditions General Councils and Papal Decrees this last we admit and they profess it to be true And hence if they may be believed who expresly affirm it themselves it evidently follows That this Traiterous Doctrine is approved by the Pope and is Consonant to his Decrees And those Publick Censors of Suarez his Book severally add That they find Nothing and therefore not the Assassinations of Kings in it against the Orthodox Faith the Roman Faith they mean but many things which do defend the Faith The University of Alcala de Henares to omit the rest more fully testifies That they read Suarez his Book with all possible Diligence and found Nothing in it repugnant to the Catholick Faith nor was there Any Thing in it which ought not to be Approved and Commended And then add that we may be sure they spoke cordially and deliberately That there was Nothing in that whole Work which All of them did not approve so that they were All of the same Mind and Judgment Nay we are further told That he had Composed that Work by More then Human Helps and therefore they Judge it Most Worthy to be Published for the Publick and Common Benesit of the Whole Christian World and a Signal Victory of their Faith over Heresies Such are the Commendations of Suarez his Book and Doctrine so that we may be sure that it is Approved and Received at Rome And here let me further add that when King James had Published his Apology for the Oath of Allegiance and Sir Henry Savil Translated it into Latin the Latin Copy was by the Popish Party immediately sent to Rome and by the Pope Condemned there as Impious and Heretical From Rome it was sent to Suarez who by the Popes Command was to Confute and Answer it He undertook and finished the Answer sent it to Rome where it was highly approved and afterwards Printed and Published with all those Approbations and Commendations before mention'd But these Positions need no further proof that they are own'd and publickly approved by the Pope and his Party I shall only add When King James had charged Bellarmine and the Church of Rome with this Rebellious and Impious Doctrine of deposing Kings absolving Subjects from all Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity c. Gretser in his Answer has these memorable words We do not deny says he
trust and diligently examin Things till we be assured of truth yet his pretended Vicar with an Antichristian Pride and Impiety Contradicts this and Commands the contrary He forbids all Examination Those under his Tyranny at least the unlearned and Common people must believe as the Church believes that is all that he proposeth though it be Transubstantiation or any thing evidently repugnant to their Reason and Senses too They must renounce their own Reason and if he say that is white which they see black they are to believe what he says and not their own Senses All means for the People to examin whether it be truth or error which the Pope and his Church proposes is prohibited and deny'd them nor is it only the Books of Protestants which write of Religion but the Bible and Sacred Scripture too even the whole Law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ in any vulgar Language which the People can understand come amongst prohibited Books and damn'd at Rome and the reason they give of such prohibition is impious and blasphemous For they say horresco referens the reading of the Holy Scripture by the People in any vulgar Tongue is more pernicious then profitable and brings more loss then benefit to the Reader Although this Doctrine be as I said impious and against God and his Holy Word blasphemous yet it is publickly own'd amongst those Rules for prohibited Books contrived by a Deputation or Committee of the Trent Fathers according to the Decree of that Council and afterwards approved and confirmed by Pius the Fourth Sixtus the Fifth and Clemens the Eighth as the Title of the Trent Index assures us After them that we may be sure they continue their Antichristian Tyranny to prohibit and damne the Bible and all Books which make against them Gregory the Fifteenth and Urban the Eighth do further approve and confirm the Impious Rules and Doctrine afore-mention'd and both of them expresly declare and in the same words 1. That it is known that the Reading prohibited Books the Bible is one of them brings great detriment to the Professors of the sincere Faith Roman Errors and Popery they mean which they miscall sincere Faith And what they say is most certain for there is no Book under Heaven so destructive of their Popish Superstition and Idolatry which they call sincere Faith as the Bible as it has been truly explain'd and preached by Protestants since Luther ' s time Which is evident in this that so many Kingdoms and Provinces by the help of Scriptures and Knowledge of the Gospel have clearly seen the Errors of Rome and justly abhorring her and them are come out of Babylon 2. All Licences to read any prohibited Books whosoever gave them to whomsoever they were given they recall cassate and declare null 3. Then they Command under severest punishments that all those who have any prohibited Books the Bible is one if it be in any Vulgar Tongue they are to bring them to the Bishop or Inquisitor and they are presently to Burn them 4. And then they declare That no man shall have any Licence for the future to read or have any prohibited Book no Bible or Protestant Book concerning Religion in any Vulgar Tongue save only from the Congregation of the Sacred Office the supream Office of the Inquisitors which sits every week before the Pope at Rome By the Premisses I think 't is certain that these Papers of mine are in Antecessum and already prohibited and damn'd at Rome and if their Papal Constitutions be obligatory and obeyed not to be read or had by any Papist save only such as have a faculty and licence from the Congregation of the Sacred Office as they call it the Roman Inquisitors and we may be sure that those watchful Fathers who guard the Capitol and industriously study to preserve and promote the Papal Greatness and Interest on which their own depends will give licence to none to read such Protestant Writings save to those who for fidelity to their Catholick Cause and Learning they judge able and willing to Answer and Confute them That is None shall have Licence to read such to them dangerous and damned Books save such as have solemnly Promised Vow'd and Sworn firmly to believe and constantly to hold and profess to their last breath and to the utmost of their Power indeavour that others under them do so too their new Trent-Creed and so the whole Mass of their Popish Errors and Idolatries contained and commanded in it The Case being evidently this that if their Papal Constitutions be obligatory and obey'd none are to read or have these Papers save such as have promised vow'd and sworn never to believe them as I have little reason to desire or hope for their favour so be it known unto them I do as little fear their Confutation or what I am like enough to have their Calumnies 4. Although I well know to say nothing of others that all our English Papists both in their Words and Writings do constantly call themselves Catholicks and Roman Catholicks yet they must pardon me if in these Papers I neither do nor justly can call them so Papists I do call them and I hope they will not be offended or take it ill that I do so For Baronius their great Cardinal and Annalist having said That the Hereticks we know whom he means call'd them Papists he adds That we could not honour them with a more glorious Title then that of Papists and therefore he desires that they may have the honour of that Title while they live and that after death it may be writ upon their Tombs and Sepulchral Monuments For my part so long as they believe and profess their new Trent-Creed and the Popes Monarchical Supremacy I shall according to the Cardinal's desire call them Papists and if it be so honourable a Title as he saies it is let them have it I shall not envy them that honour but pity their error who glory in that which is indeed their sin and shame For the other Title of Catholick which our Adversaries without and against reason appropriate to themselves we grant and know that anciently it was and when rightly used is a word of a good sound signification when it was applied to persons as a Catholick Bishop or Catholick Doctor c. it signified such persons as were 1. In respect of their Faith Orthodox who intirely believed and profess'd the true Christian Faith rejecting all pernicious and dangerous errors and so were no Hereticks 2. In respect of their Charity such as were in Communion with the Church of Christ without any uncharitable Separation from it and so no Schismaticks Now that our Adversaries of Rome are as they pretend such Catholicks is absolutely deny'd not only by Protestants but except themselves by all Christians in the World and that upon evident and great reason Considering
Faith and for our amendment suffered to be punished with so great Afflictions might be preserved uncorrupt But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power there is now no place left in the whole World which they have not assayed to corrupt with their most wicked Doctrines Amongst others Elizabeth the pretended Queen of England a Slave of Wickedness lending thereunto her helping hand with whom as in a Sanctuary the most pernicious of all men have found a Refuge This very Woman having seized on the Kingdom and monstrously usurping the place of Supream Head of the Church in all England and the chief Authority and Jurisdiction thereof hath again brought back the said Kingdom into miserable destruction which was then newly reduced to the most Catholick Faith and good Fruits Sect. 2. For having by strong hand inhibited the exercise of the true Religion which Mary lawful Queen of famous memory had by the help of this See restored after it had been formerly overthrown by Henry the Eighth a Revolter therefrom and following and embracing the Errors of Hereticks she hath removed the Royal Council consisting of the English Nobility and filled it with obscure men being Hereticks oppressed the Embracers of the Catholick Faith placed impious Preachers Ministers of Iniquity abolished the Sacrifice of the Mass Prayers Fastings choice of Meats unmarried Life and the Catholick Rites and Ceremonies Commanded Books to be read in the whole Realm containing manifest Heresie and impious Mysteries and Institutions by her self entertained and observed according to the Prescript of Calvin to be likewise observed by her Subjects presumed to throw Bishops Parsons of Churches and other Catholick Priests out of their Churches and Benefices and to bestow them and other Church Livings upon Hereticks and to determine of Church Causes prohibited the Prelates Clergy People to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey the Precepts and Canonical Sanctions thereof compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked Laws and to abjure the Authority and Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and to acknowledge her to besole Lady in Temporal and Spiritual matters and this by Oath imposed Penalties and Punishments upon those which obeyed not and exacted them of those which persevered in the Unity of the Faith and their Obedience aforesaid cast the Catholick Prelates and Rectors of Churches in Prison where many of them being spent with long languishing and sorrow miserably ended their lives All which things seeing they are manifest and notorious to all Nations and by the gravest Testimony of very many so substantially proved that there is no place at all left for Excuse Defence or Evasion Sect. 3. We seeing that impieties and wicked actions are multiplied one upon another moreover that the persecution of the faithful affliction for Religion groweth every day heavier heavier through the instigation and means of the said Elizabeth because we understand her Mind to be so hardned and indurate that she hath not only contemned the godly Requests and Admonitions of Catholick Princes concerning her healing and conversion but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the Seas into England are strained of necessity to betake our selves to the Weapons of Justice against her not being able to mitigate our sorrow that we are drawn to take punishment upon one to whose Ancestors the whole State of Christendom hath been so much bounden Being therefore supported with his Authority whose pleasure it was to place Us though unable for so great a burthen in this Supream Throne of Justice we do out of the fulness of our Apostolick power declare the aforesaid Elizabeth being an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and her Adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of Anathema and to be cut off from the Unity of the Body of Christ. Sect. 4. And moreover we do declare Her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdom aforesaid of all Dominion Dignity and Priviledge whatsoever Sect. 5. And also the Nobility Subjects and People of the said Kingdom and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her to be forever absolved from any such Oath and all manner of Duty of Dominion Allegiance and Obedience As we also do by Authority of these presents absolve them and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended Title to the Kingdom and all other things abovesaid And we do Command and Interdict all and every the Noblemen Subjects people and others aforesaid that they presume not to obey her or her Monitions Mandates and Laws And those which shall do the contrary We do innodate with the like Sentence of Anathema Sect. 6. And because it were a matter of too much difficulty to convey these presents to all places wheresoever it shall be needful our will is that the Copies thereof under a publick Notaries hand and sealed with the Seal of an Ecclesiastical Prelate or of his Court shall carry altogether the same credit with all people Judicial and Extrajudicial as these presents should do if they were exhibited or shewed Given at Rome at St. Peters in the Year of the Incarnation of our Lord 1570. the Fifth of the Calends of May and of our Popedom the Fifth year Damnatio Excommunicatio Elizabethae Reginae Angliae eique Adhaerentium cum aliarum poenarum Adjectione Pius Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ad perpetuam Rei memoriam REgrans in Excelsis cui data est Omnis in Coelo in Terra Potestas unam Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam Ecclesiam extra quam nulla est salus soli in terris videlicet Apostolorum Principi Petro Petrique Successori Romano Pontifici in Potestatis plenitudine tradidit Gubernandam Hunc unum super omnes Gentes omnia Regna Principem constituit qui evellat destruat dissipet disperdat plantet aedisicet ut fidelem populum mutuae Charitatis nexu constrictum in unitate Spiritus contineat salvumque incolumem suo exhibeat salvatori Sect. 1. Quo quidem in munere obeundo Nos ad praedictae Ecclesiae gubernacula Dei Benignitate vocati nullum laborem intermittimus omni operà contendentes ut ipsa Vnitas Catholica Religio quam illius Auctor ad probandam suorum fidem correctionem nostram tantis procellis conslictari permisit integra conservetur Sed Impiorum numerus tantum potentia invaluit ut nullus jam in Orbe locus sit relictus quem illi pessimis doctrinis corrumpere non tentârint adnitente inter caeteros flagitiorum servâ Elizabeth praetensâ Angliae Reginâ ad quam veluti ad asylum omnium infestissimi profugium invenerunt Haec eadem Regno occupato supremi Ecclesiae capitis locum in omni Angliâ ejusque praecipuam Auctoritatem atque Jurisdictionem monstruose sibi usurpans regnum ipsum jam tum ad Fidem Catholicam bonam frugem reductum rursus in exitium miserum revocavit Sect. 2.
that what Erasmus Observes out of Hierome is true is this The Spanish Inquisitors have damn'd it and in their Index Expurgatorius Commanded it to be blotted out But Erasmus adds further That it cannot Logically and firmly be concluded from the Order wherein the Apostles are number'd which of them is to be preferr'd before the rest because where many are number'd there is a necessity we begin with some one and 't is not material which we begin with And This the Inquisitors let pass without a Deleatur they do not condemn it to be blotted out and so seem to approve it otherwise it had not pass'd so that even by our Adversaries consent all that can be rationally Inferr'd from that Text where in numbering the Apostles Peter is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first is only a Primacy of Order which we willingly grant but no Primacy much less a Supremacy of Authority Dominion and Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles which the Pope and his Party desire and we justly deny 2. And as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Primus so Princeps or Prince amongst the best Latin Authors usually signifies Order Only or some Excellent Quality in those who are call'd Principes without any Authority or Jurisdiction over those in relation to whom they are so call'd And that the Rest of the Apostles were call'd Principes as well as Peter I have Authentick warrant even the Roman Breviary restored according to the Decree of the Council of Trent publish'd by Pius V. The very Pope who publish'd this Impious Bull a-against Queen Elizabeth and then Revised by the Authority of Clement VIII and Vrban VIII and Printed at Antverp 1660. In this Breviary we have this Hymn in the Office for the Feast of St. Peter and Paul Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. Now in this Hymn Peter and Paul too are call'd Ecclesiarum Principes Princes of the Churches For being a Hymn for the Feast of those two Apostles Ecclesiarum Principes cannot relate to less than two nor Properly to any but them two in that Place Though elsewhere it relates to all the Apostles as in the Place cited in the Margent when after the Invitatory as they call it Come let us adore the Lord King of the Apostles it follows thus Aeterna Christi munera Apostolorum Gloria Palmas Hymnos debitos Laetis canamus mentibus Ecclesiarum Principes Belli Triumphales Duces Coelestis Aulae Milites Et vera Mundi Lumina c. So that if we may believe their own Authentick Breviary Publish'd and Carefully Revised by these Popes according to the Decree of the Trent Council All the other Apostles under our blessed Saviour and by his Authority were Princes of the Christian Church as well as Peter Now I desire to know how these things will Consist Pius V. in this Bull against Queen Elizabeth says That our blessed Saviour Committed the Government of his Church to One Only to Peter and Constituted him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms so he in his Bull and yet the same Pope in this Roman Breviary for it was Approved and Published by him and the Hymn here cited says That all the Apostles were Ecclesiarum Principes and if so then Peter was not the Only Prince to whom the Government of the Church was Committed no the Commission of every Apostle given by our blessed Saviour was as unlimited and as large as Peters This will appear in all the Particulars of it equally given to all as they are expresly set down in Scripture from whence alone we can surely know what their Authority and Commission was Our blessed Saviour tells them and us 1. As my Father sent me so send I you There we have the Author and Authority of their Commission The same blessed Saviour of the World sends them all 2. Then he breath'd upon them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost There we have the Principle inabling them to discharge that great Office and Trust reposed in them It was that Holy Spirit which gave them 1. Infallibility in their Doctrine 2. Power to work Miracles for Confirmation of it 3. Then he adds whose sins ye retain they are retained c. Here we have the great Spiritual Power given them for the calling and governing the Church which is elsewhere called The Power of the Keys which Consists in binding and loosing retaining and remitting sins For so 't is Explain'd by our blessed Saviour in the Place last cited and is by our Adversaries confess'd So that 't is Evident that the Power of the Keys the Power of binding and loosing of retaining and remitting sins is Equally given to all the Apostles to every One as well as Peter 4. He Assigns them their Place and Province where and the way how they were to Exercise their Apostolical Power Go and Teach All Nations baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have Commanded you Their Diocese was the World Go ye into All The World and preach the Gospel to every Creature every man And the administring the Sacraments and teaching men to believe and observe the whole Goâ—pel was the business they were to do in that their Diocese 5. And to incourage them to this great and difficult Work he graciously promises his Presence and Divine Assistance Lo I am with you Always even to the End of the World These are the Powers and Promises given to the Apostles and which to me seems Evident without difference or distinction Equally to all to Simon the Cannite for so it should be writ as well and as much as to Simon Peter If any think otherwise if he can and will by any Cogent Reason make it appear either 1. That the foregoing Powers and Promises were not Equally given to all the Apostles 2. Or that some other Power or Promise was in Scripture given peculiarly to Peter whereby he had an Authority and Dominion over the other Apostles and the whole Church to make him Only a Prince over all Nations and Kingdoms as Pope Pius V. in this his wild Bull confidently affirms I say he who can and will make both or either of these appear shall have my hearty thanks for the Discovery and I shall for the future have a better Opinion of Peter's Supremacy which at present I take to be a groundless Error without any proof or probability I know that the Popes in their Constitutions and their Party usually urge that place in Matthew to prove Peter's and thence their own vast and Monarchical Supremacy over the whole Church even the Apostles themselves not excepted the words These Thou art Peter and upon This Rock I will build my Church And I give unto thee The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven From this Place most
or probability I have indeavoured to prove before sic transeat cum caeteris erroribus 2. As to the second point What is Heresie and who is the Heretick who is to be persecuted with such fearful Damnations and Excommunications I say in short 1. That it is agreed amongst their Casuists and Canonists That Heresie is an Error against that Faith which they ought to believe joyned with pertinacy or it is a pertinacious Error in Points of Faith and he who so holds such an Opinion is an Heretick 2. And he is pertinacious they say who holds such an Opinion which he does or might and ought to know to be against Scripture or the Church By the way I desire to be inform'd how it is possible for their Lay-people and unlearned to know with any certainty or assurance what Truths are approved or Errors damn'd in Scripture when they are prohibited under pain of Excommunication ever to read or have Scripture in any Tongue they understand Nor are Bibles only in any Vulgar Tongue prohibited but all Books of Controversie between Protestants and Papists in any Vulgar Tongue are equally prohibited So that they are absolutely deprived of the principal means to know Truth and Error what Doctrines are Evangelical what Heretical 3. And although they are pleased sometimes to mention Scripture in the Definition of Heresie yet 't is not really by them meant For by their receiv'd Principles a man may hold a hundred Errors which he Does or Might and Ought to know to be against Scripture and the Articles of Faith and yet be no Heretick For thus Cardinal Tolet tells us Many Rusticks or Country Clowns having Errors against the Articles of Faith are excused from Heresie because they are Ignorant of those Articles and are ready to Obey The Church And a little before If any man err in those things he is bound to know yet so as it is without pertinacy because he Knows it not to be against The Church and is ready to believe as the Church believes he is no Heretick So that by their Principles let a man believe as many things as he will contrary to Scripture yet if he have the Colliers faith and implicitly believe as the Church believes all is well he is by them esteemed no Heretick 4. And hence it is that they have of late left the word Scripture out of their definition of Heresie and they only pass for Hereticks at Rome not who hold Opinions contrary to Scripture but who receive not or contradict what is believed to be de fide by the Pope and his Party And therefore they plainly tell us That None can be an Heretick who believes that Article of our Creed The Holy Catholick Church you may be sure they mean their own Popish Church not only without but against all reason For so their Trent-Catechism tells us not only in the Text but least we should not take notice of it in the Margent too where they say Verus 9. Articuli Professor that is he who will believe what their Church believes Nequit dici Haereticus That is he who believes the Church of Rome to be the Catholick Church in the Creed and that Church Infallibly assisted by the Holy Ghost he shall not we may be sure be call'd an Heretick at Rome Nay so far are they in Love with their most irrational Hypothesis That to believe as the Church believes excuses their Laicks and the Vnlearned from Heresie that they expresly say That such men may in some Cases not only Lawfully but Meritoriously believe an Error contrary to Scripture which in another more knowing Person would be a real and formal Heresie The Case is this as Cardinal Tolet and Robert Holkott propose it If a Rustick or Ignorant Person concerning Articles of Faith do believe his Bishop proposing some Heretical Opinion he does Merit by believing although it be an Heretical Error because he is Bound to believe till it appear to him to be against The Church So that in the mean time he is no Heretick For 1. He may lawfully do it 2 He is Bound to do it to believe his Bishop and the Doctrines proposed by him 3. Nay it is a Meritorious action to believe such Heretical Errors though it be contrary to Scripture and the word of our gracious God This is strange Doctrine yet publickly maintain'd by their Casuists and Schoolmen and approved by their Church For I do not find it Condemn'd in any Index Expurgatorius nor in any publick declaration disown'd by their Church quae non prohibet peccare aut errare cum possit Jubet And here in relation to the Premisses I shall further propose two things and leave them to the Judgment of the Impartial Reader 1. That seeing it is their Received Doctrine that an Implicite Faith in their Church and a profession and resolution to believe as she believes is enough to free a Papist from Heresie and the punishment of it though otherwise through Ignorance he hold some heretical Errors contrary to what his Church believes why may not a Protestants Implicite Faith in Scripture with a Profession and Resolution to believe every thing in it as it comes to his knowledge free him from Heresie and the punishment of it though otherwise in the mean time he may believe some things contrary to Scripture Certainly if an Implicite Faith in the Doctrines taught by the Pope and his Party for they are the Roman Church with a resolution to believe them all when they come to their knowledge be sufficient to free a Papist from Heresie and the Punishment of it much more will an Implicite Faith in the Doctrines taught by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles in Scripture with a Resolution to believe them all when they really come to their knowledge be sufficient to free a Protestant from Heresie and the punishment of it Because the Doctrines taught by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles are Divine and in such a measure and degree Infallible as the Doctrines taught by the Pope and his Party without great Error and Impudence cannot pretend to 2. Seeing it is their Received Doctrine as may appear by the Premisses that if any Bishop preach to his People the Laity and Unlearned Rusticks some Heretical Doctrine they are bound to believe it and may not only Lawfully but Meritoriously do so till it appear that their Church is against it Hence it evidently follows That if the Bishop preach'd this Doctrine That 't is lawful to kill an Heretical King who is actually Anathematiz'd and Deposed by the Pope they were bound to believe it and might lawfully and meritoriously do so and then if it was meritorious to believe such a Doctrine then to put it in Execution and actually kill such a King could not be unlawful and vitious So that we need not wonder that those prodigious Popish Villains who were hired to Assassinate our Gracious