without obliging him-selfe to the doctrine whereof it makes profession And therefore saint EPIPHAN interpretes iudicially these gates of hell that shall not preuaile against the Church to be heresies the gates of hell said he are heresies and heresieMasters To the second which is that saint PAVL writes you are arriued to heauenly Ierusalem to the Church of the first-borne which are inrolled in heauen Wee answere he speaketh of the Church triumphant to which he writes that we are arriued in the same sorte as he writes our conuerfation is in heauen that is to saie in hope as when a shipp hath cast his ankor on land which is saith saint AVGVSTINE the symbole of hope it is said to be arriued to land though it be yet in the sea and let vs add that the word first-borne signifies there euen by Caluins owne confession the holy Fathers and 〈◊〉 of the old testament Or if saint PAVL speake there of the Church militant and that by the first-borne he intends the predestinate we 〈◊〉 he calls it the Church of the first-borne not because it containes only the elect but because the elect are no where els I meane the elect inuested in the temporall grace of theire election as we call the parliament of Paris the Court of the Peeres not because it containes none but Peeres but because there is noe place els wherein the Peeres are inuested in theire qualitie of Peeres To the third which is taken from this article of the Creede I beleeue in the Catholicke Church we saie it sufficeth that faith be either of inuisible things or of things apprehended vnder inuisible conditions as those are vnder which wee consider the Church when we beleeue her to be the spouse of Christ the temple of God the mansion of the holy Ghost the gate of heauen the treasuresse of spirituall graces Otherwise to beleeue in Christ had not bene an article of faith while our lord was in this world And neuerthelesse he saith Who beleeues not in the sonne is alreadie iudged And when the Councell of Constantinople puts this confession of Faith amongst the articles of the Creede of the Church I beleeue one baptisme in remission of sinnes they must conclude baptisme to be inuisible against the vniuersall condition of Sacraments which is to be visible signes of inuisible graces To the fourth obiection to witt that saint AVGVSTINF writeth that only predestinate Catholiques are true partes of the Church and true members of the bodie of Christ and distinguisheth betweene them which are in the howse and them which are of the howse and betweene the people knowne in the eyes of God and knowne in the eyes of man we haue three solutions The first solution is that saint AVGVSTINE intended not that only Catholiques predestinate were true partes of the Church according to the formall beinge of the Church which is common to all that are called but according to the finall being of the Church that is to the end and in the fruits for which the Church is instituted I meane saint AVGVSTINE did not intend in those places to define the Church formally and by what she is in this world but finally and by what she shall be in the other Euen as he that saith only good Citizens are true partes of a common wealth doth not define a common wealth formally and by what it is in it selfe but finally and by what it is in the intention of the law-maker And he that saith a true haruest is only the corne that is gathered from the strawe and not the strawe wherewth it is mingled defines not a haruest formally and by what it is in the feild or in the barne but finally and by what it will be in the garner We confesse saith saint AVGVST that whicked men are together with the good in the Catholick Church but as Corne and strawe And againe Wicked men may be with vs in the barne but they cannot be with vs in the garner For that sainct AVGVST doth not esteeme that the formall and precise condition that constitutes men in the Church is that of predestination internall to God and eternall but that of externall and temporall vocation he shewes it when he saith vpon saint IOHN None can enter by the gates that is by Christ to life eternall which is in vision if by the same gate that is to saie by the same Christ he be not first entred into his Church which is his sheepefolde to the temporall life which is in faith And in the place already alleadged vpon the psalmes Our predestination is made not in vs but in God the other three things are wrought in vs vocation iustification and glorification And in his writings against Faustus Men can be inserted into noe name of Religion whether true or false but they must be tied by the common participation of some signes or visible Sacraments Contrarywise the verie same saint AVGVST which distinguisheth betweene those in the howse and those of the howse teacheth vs that all Catholickes both predestinate and reprobate are in the howse that is to saie in the Church Those saith he we cannot denie but that they are likewise in the howse and then that the formall condition which 〈◊〉 the Church is vocation and not predestination but that there are none but the predestinate Catholickes which are of the howse that is to 〈◊〉 that are finall peeces inalienable and inseparable from the howse or to speake in termes of lawe that are goodes that the father of the familie vouchsafes to put into the Inuentory of his howse the other being there but for a tyme and as by waie of loane and not to dwell there 〈◊〉 euer For when the Church shall passe from earth to heauen and from the state of mortalitie to immortalitie only predestinate Catholickes shall remaine there and not the others The Church saith he is the 〈◊〉 the seruant is the Sinner now many sinners enter into the Church and therefore our Lord did not saie the Seruant enters not into the howse but he dwelles not for euer in the howse And againe None can blott from heauen the constitution of God nor can anie blott from the earth the Church of God c. She containes good and euill but she looseth none on earth but the euill and admitts none into heauen but the good The second solution is that this distinction of partes of the Church true and not true and of vessells which are in the howse and not of the howse and of people knowne in the eyes of God and knowne in the eyes of men is not a distinction of Religion but a simple distinction of manners which puts difference betweene the one and the other in regarde of the formall being of the Church and of the externall meanes of vocation which are the profession of the true faith the sincere administration of the Sacramentes and the adherence to lawfull
his father who wil not haue the Church for his mother That Christ is not with those that assemble out of the Church That although they should be slaine for the confession of Christ this spot is not washt awaie euen with bloud That he cannot be à martyr that is not in the Church That out of the Catholicke Church one may haue Faith Sacraments Orders and in summe euery thing except saluation That he that communicates not with the Catholicke Church is an hereticke and Antichrist That noe hereticke nor Schismaticke that is not restored to the Catholicke church before the end of this life can be saued if they had belieued that all the Sectes that professe the name of Christ both heretickes and Schismatickes had bene in the Catholicke Church THIRDLY by the word Catholicke Church they did not intend a Church interrupted and intermitting as that of the protestantes which is borne and dyes by fittes like the Tyndarides but such a Church as these wordes of the prophet describe As in in the daies of Noe I swore that I would no more bring the waters of the floud vpon the earth soe haue I sworne I will no more be angrie against thee Thou shalt noe more be called the forsaken I will place my sanctification in the midst of them for euer I will noe more doe to the rest of this people as in tymes past And these of our Lord The gates of hell shall not preuaile against her I am with you vntill the consummation of all ages The Spirit of truth shall dwell with you eternally Let the one growe with the other vntill the haruest that is to saie a Church permanent eternall and not capeable of ruine Wee acknowledge said that great ALEXANDER Bishop of Alexandria one only Catholicke and Apostolicke Church which as she can neuer bee rooted out though all the world should vndertake to oppose her soe she outhrowes disperseth all the wicked assaulth of heretickes And Sainct ATHANASIVS The Church is inuincible though hell it selfe should arise with all the power thereof against her And THEOPHILVS God in all tymes grants one selfe grace to his Church to witt that that Bodie should be kept intire and that the venome of the Doctrine of heretickes shall haue noe power ouer her And Sainct AVGVSTINE in the comentary vpon the 47. psalme God saith he hath founded her eternallie let not heretickes deuided into factions boaste let them not lift themselues vp that saie heere is Christ and there is Christ. And againe But perchance this Cittie that hath possessed the whole world shall be one daie ruined neuer may it happen God hath founded her eternallie If then God hath founded her eternally wherefore fearest thou that her foundation should fall And in the Comentary vpon the 101. psalme But his Church which hath bene of all nations is noe more she is perished soe saie they that are not in her O impudent voice And a little after this voice soe abominable soe detestable soe full of presumption and falshood which is sustained with noe truth illuminated with noe wisedome seasoned with noe salt vaine rash headie pernicious the holy Ghost hath foreseene it And in the treatie of the Christian combate They saie the whole Church is perished and the relickes remaine only on Donatus his side O prowde and impious tongue And in the worke of Baptisme against the Donatists If the Church vere perished in Cyprians tyme from whence did Donatus appeare from what earth is he sprung vp from what Sea is he come forth from what heauen is he fallen And in the third booke against Parmenian How can they vaunt to haue anie Church if she haue ceased from those tymes And in the explication of the Creede to the Cathecumenistes The Catholicke Church is she that sighting with all heresies may be opposed but cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come out from her as vnprofitable branches cut from the vine but she staies in her vine in her roote in her Charitie And the gates of hell shall neuer ouerthrow her Behold without colour or fraud what the Father 's vnderstood by the word Catholicke Church to witt a Church visible and eminent aboue all other Christian societies A Church pure from all contagion of schisme and heresie A Church perpetuall and which had neuer suffered nor neuer could suffer anie interruption neither in her faith in her Communion nor in her visibilitie This Church if the most excellent King haue let hin giue her to vs if not lett him receiue her from vs Aut det as saint AVSTINE said to the Donatists aut accipiat Of the proceeding of the Father for the preseruation of the vnitie of the Church CHAP. III. The pursute of the Kinges Answere THe Kinge commendes also the prudence of the religious Bishops who in the 4 Councell of Carthage as it is heere truly obserued added to the forme of the examination of Bishops a particular interrogatory vpon this point And his Maiestie is not ignorant that the Fathers of the ancient Church haue oftentymes done manie thinges by forme of accommodation for the good of peace and to the end to preuent the breach of vnitie and mutuall Communion whose example he protesteth he is 〈◊〉 to imitate and to followe the steps of those that procure peace euen to the Altars that is to saie as much as in the present estate of the Church the integritie of his Conscience will permitt him For he will giue place to none either in extreame griefe he suffers for the separation of the members of the Churdh which the good Fathers haue soe much detested or in his dosire to communicate if it were possible for him with all the members of the mysticall bodie of our Lord Iesus-Christ THE REPLIE IT was not by way of prudence as prudence signifies a human vertue that the Fathers pronounced this decree that out of the Catholicke Church saluation could not bee obtained but by way of decision and as an article of faith For this cause saith sainct AVGVSTINE vpon the Creede The Conclusion of this Sacrament is determined by the holie Church for as much as if anie one be found on t of it he shall be excluded from the number of the Children And he shall not haue God for his Father that will not haue the Church for his Mother and it shall serue him for nothing to haue belieued or done soe manie and soe manie good workes without the true end or butte of the souer aigne good And sainct FVLGENTIVS in his booke of the Faith Holde this firmely and doubt it not that euery hereticke and Schismaticke haptized in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost if before the end of this life he be not revnited to the Church Catholicke whatsoeuer almes he distribute yea though he should shed his bloud for the name
the confession of PETER and the Church was built vpon the person of PETER are both ioyntly true but in different sence for the confession of PETER is the causall foundation of the Church that is to saie it is the cause for which the Church is built vpon the person of PETER rather then vpon that of anie other Apostle for as much as the primacie of this confession not proceeding nor preuented from or by anie humane instruction but proceeding immediatlie frō the pure reuelation of God the other Apostles being silent not knowing what to answere was the cause in fauour whereof Christ chose preferring him before all others saint PETER to constitute him the foundation of his Church And the person of Peter is the formall foundation of the Church that is to saie him vpon whose ministrie by preferring him before all others Christ hath built and edified his Church But the differenc of these two expositions is that the one is immediate and the other mediate the one direct and the other collaterall the one literall and the other morall the one originall and perpetuall and the other accessorie and temporall the one consigned from the beginning and the other introduced by occasion For before the Arrians were risen vp that is to saie before the age of Constantine and of the first Councell of Nicea the interpretation that was current in the Church was that not of the confession of PETER but of the person of PETER As when 〈◊〉 saith in his Booke of Prescriptions against heretikes Was there anie thing cōcealed from Peter who was called the stone of the building of the Church And ORIGEN See what is said to the great foundatiō of the Church and the solid stone vpon which Christ hath built his Church And elsewhere Peter vpon whō the Church of Christ hath bene built against which the gates of hell shall not preuaile And in the comentarie vpon the Epistle to the Romans trāslated by saint HIEROME When the Soueraigne authoritie of feeding the Sheepe was giuen to Peter and that vpon him as vpon a stone the Church was built the confessiō of anie other vertue was not exacted of him but onlie that of Charitie And S. CYPRIAN Peter whom the Lord chose first and vpon whom he built his Church And againe God is one and Christ is one and the Church is one and the Chaire is one built by the voyce of our Lord vpon Peter But after the coming of Constantine when the Arrians had lifted themselues vp against the diuinitie of Christ the Fathers finding no passage in the scripture more expresse to proue vnto them that IESVS CHRIST was the sonn of God not by adoption but by nature then this Confession of sainct PETER Thou art Christ the Sōne of the liuing God in which they held that the word liuing had bene expressely inserted to shew that IESVS CHRIST was the sonn of God by generation for as much as to engender as saie the Philosophers is proper to liuing thinges they tooke care as much as was possible for them to 〈◊〉 the dignitie of this confession And because that in fauour thereof and for it S. PETER had bene constituted foundation of the Church they licensed themselues to call it by Metonimy that is to say by translation of the name from the effect to the cause the foundation of the Church that they might haue the more occasion to declaime against those that destroyed it in reproching thē that they ruined the foundatiō of the Church that is to saie the confession in fauour whereof and for whose cause he that had made it had bene constituted foundation of the Church but neuerthelesse to shew that they intended not in doeing this to exclude the person of PETER from being the formall foundation of the Church that which the same fathers had said in one place of the confession of PETER as causall foundation of the Church they said it in an other yea often times in the same place of the person of PETER as formall foundation of the Church This appeares by saint HILARIE who disputing in his workes of the Trinitie against the Arrians after he had said This faith is the foundation of the Church by this faith the gates of hell are disabled against her this faith hath the keyes of the heauenlie Kingdome Adds immediately after to declare that this should be intended of the saith of sainct PETER causallie and meritoriouslie but of his person formallie that is to saie that this confession hath only bene the meritorious cause for which sainct PETER hath receiued these things but that it is the person of PETER that hath properly and formallie receiued them This is hee that in the silence of all the other Apostles acknowledging beyond the capacitie of human infirmitie the Sonn of God by the Reuelation of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Confession of his blessed faith a supereminent place And a little after Hee hath confessed Christ to be the Sonn of God and for that he is called blessed This is the Reuelation of the Father this is the foundation of the Church this is the assurauce of eternitie from hence he had the keyes of the Kingdome of 〈◊〉 from hence his earthly iudgments become heauenly And a little before After the confession of the Sacrament the blessed Symon is submitted to the edification of the Church receiuing the keyes of the heauenly Kingdome And in his comentaries vpon the verie place of the words of IESVS CHRIST The confession of Peter hath receaued a trulie worthiereward And a little after in the title of a new name blessed foundation of the Church and worthie Stone of her edification that destroyed the lawes of 〈◊〉 and the gates of the deepes and all the prisons of Death O blessed Porter of heauen to whose arbitrement the keyes of the eternall entrie are deliuered whose iudgments on earth haue authoritie to preiudge in heauen And elsewhere Christ had so great a zeale to suffer for the Saluation of human kinde as Peter the first Confessor of the Sonn of God the foundation of the Church the Porter of the heauenly kingdome the iudge of heauen vpon earth disswading him he called him by the name of Satan And soe sainct CHRYSOSTOME interprets it that is to saie sometimes of his faith Upon this stone said hee that is to say vpon the faith of this confession And sometimes of his person Hee promiseth saith he to make a fisherman more solid then anie kinde of stones And vpon the fiftith Psalme heare what he saith to PETER That Pillar that foundation and therefore called Peter as made a Rocke by faith And againe that Pillar of the Church that basis of the faith that be ad of the Apostolick flock And saint CYRILL doth euen the same sometimes of his faith He hath said hee called the immutable faith of Peter his disciple a Rocke and sometimes of his
besides that antiquitie affirmes that the Apostles haue giuen manie thinges by tradition vnwritten to their disciples his maiestie himselfe testifies that he is farr frō their opinion that beleeue the vniuersall historie of the primitiue Church to be all contained in the sacred but onlie little Booke of the Actes of the Apostles Of the indefectibilitie of the Church CHAP. XXVII The continuance of the Kings answere THE King Confesseth that his Church hath separated her selfe in manie points from the faith and discipline that the Roman Bishop doth at this daie hold and defēd with might and mayne But the King and the English Church 〈◊〉 not interpret that to be a defection from the antient Catholicke saith but rather a returne to the antient Catholicke faith which in the Roman Church had bene admirablie deformed in manie kindes and a conuersion to Christ the only master of the Church THE REPLIE AND euen this confirmes our intention to know that there is at this daie noe Catholicke Church a thing directly against Gods promises or that this that wee haue is shee For there could be noe other Catholicke Church but her that was in the time of the first 〈◊〉 Councells Now shee if shee haue bene interrupted and she hath bene soe if ours which hath succeeded her haue bene wanting in faith and in vnion with Christ without which a Societie cannot be a Church the English Church which succeedes her not by an vninterrupted continuance cannot be the same Church For what Aristotle saith of Common-wealths may also be said of the Church to witt that when a common-wealth hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her being it is noe more one common wealth in number but an other common-wealth Soe if the antient Catholicke Church hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her beeing she is noe more one and not being one shee is noe more a Church for the Church is one or none And therefore the Fathers cry out that if the Church be once perished she can noe more be borne againe If in S. CYPRIANS time saith saint AVGVSTINE the Church perished from what Heauen it Donatus fallen from what Sea came hee forth what earth hath sprunge him vp For to saie that the English Church accounts not her separation from the faith and from the discipline of the Pope a defection from the antient Catholicke faith but a returne to the antient Catholicke faith and a conuersion to Christ is not the question viz. whether the English Church be conuerted to the antient Catholicke Faith For as it hath bene aboue shewed the name of catholicke is not a name of simple beleefe but of cōmunion By meanes whereof the English Church might haue all Faith euen to the remouing of mountaines yet if she communicated not with the Catholicke Church she could neither obtaine the title of Catholicke nor the reward of life eternall but should be schismaticall and excluded from saluation And therefore the state of the question in this which is presented is not whether the English Church be return'd to the true faith but whether the Church which possesseth at this daie the name of the Catholicke Church hath lost the being of the Catholicke Church which she cannot haue done if in things important to saluation and constructiue or destructiue to the being of a Church she haue not varied from that of the time of the fowre first Councells which wee on both sides confesse to haue bene the true Church that is to saie if she haue not taken awaie from the practise of the Church of those ages some thing necessarie to saluation and without which saluation cannot be obtained or if she haue not added to the practise of that Church something repugnant to saluation and with which life eternall cannot be obtained From whence it appeares that the office of the English Church in this question is to shew not that she hath returned to the ancient Faith which would alwaies exact the necessitie of a preceding dispute to witt that the Church from whence she went out hath diuerted her selfe from it for the proofe of the auersion should precede the proofe of reuersion but that the Church which wee at this daie intitle Catholicke hath soe diuerted her selfe from the faith of the Church of the time of the fowre first Councells which both they and wee hold to haue bene the true Church as she hath lost being and the iust title of a Church and that saluation can noe more be obtained in her And our office is contrariwise to maintaine that the Church which is at this daie differs not in anie thinge that can destroy saluation and make her loose the beeing and the title of a true Church from the ancient Catholicke Church and that all the points that our Aduersaries obiect against vs as such and for which they take occasion to separate themselues from vs vnder pretence that in our communion Saluation cannot be obtained haue bene holden by the ancient Church Of the sense wherein the Fathers haue intended that their doctrine had bene holden from the beginning CHAP. XXVIII The continuance of the Kinges answere AND therefore if anie one in consequence of this obseruation Will inferr from thence that the English Church because she reiects some of the decrees of the Roman Church is departed from the antient Catholicke Church the King Will not graunt him that till hee haue first proued by solid reasons that all things that the Roman teach haue bene approued from the beginning and ordained by the antient Catholicke Church And that noe man can doe this now nor in the time to come at the least that till nowe noe bodie hath done it is a thing é as certaine to the king and to the Prelats of the English Church as that the Sunn shines à t noone daies THE REPLIE NEITHER is it the question as I haue alreadie manie times said whether the English Church haue departed from the doctrine of the antient Catholicke Church but whether our Church be soe farr strayed from the doctrine of the antient Church as she can noe more be reputed one felfe same Church with the antient Church and that we can noe more communicate with her without losse of Saluation For if she be still the same Church and that amongst the conditions vnder the obligation whereof her communion is participated there be noe doctrine nor custome which is opposite to Saluation it is certaine that out of her Societie though one should haue Faith sufficient to remoue mountaines yet they can neither possessé the Saluation nor title of the Catholicke Church Neither is it the question to knowe whether all thinges that the Roman Church holdes and principallie those which she holdes to be necessary for Saluation haue bene holden by antiquitie and in this qualitie which would be a longe and thornie disputation because of the diuersitie of the acceptions of the word necessarie vnder the ambiguitie whereof there would alwaies remaine a thousand cauills and
the Catholick Church with the state of the ancient Church wee should looke to take such a time wherein not only our competitors might agree with vs that the Church of the Fathers was still the true Church the true Spouse of Christ she in whom resided the lawfull authoritie to iudge questions in Religion but also those monuments doe sufficiently remaine to vs to manifest throughly all her doctrines and all her obseruations Which can neuer be better chosen for both partes then in the time wherein the fower first Councells were holden that is to saie from the Emperour Constantine who was the first Emperour that was publicklie a Christian to the Emperour Marcian And it seemes to me that his Maiestie hath yielded to this and also more liberallie in some of his writinges hauing extended this space to the first fiue ages For besides that the deliuerie from the yoake and subiection of the Pagans then gaue the Church meanes to speake lowder and to haue more communication with all her partes situated in so manie different regions of the earth and to flourish in a greater multitude of learned and excellent writers which is the cause that there remaine to vs without comparison more monuments of those ages wherein to view the entire forme of the ancient Christian Religion then of the former ages Besides this I saie our aduersaries cannot denie but that church which nursed vp the first Christian Emperours which rooted out the Temples and seruices of the false Gods which exercised the Soue raigne Tribunall of Spirituall authoritie vpon earth by the condemnation which she denounced vpon the fowre most famous heresies in the fowre first generall Councells which were the fowre first Parliaments and Estates generall of Christs Kingdome must bee she of whom it hath bene foretold that Kinges should be her nursing Fathers that the nations should walke in her light and Kings in the brightnes of her rising that euery engine sett vp against her should be destroyed that she should iudge euery tongue that should resist her in iudgment that God had sett watchmen vpon her walles which neuer should be silent by daie or night that the gates of hell should not preuaile against her that whosoeuer should not obey her should be holden for a heathen and a publican and in breefe that she was the Pillar and foundation of truth Shall we loubt Sayth S. Augustin who liued in the betweene-times of these first fowre Councells to sett our-selnes in the lapp of that Church which by succession of Bishops from the seate of the Apostles euen to the confession of all mankinde the hereticks in vaine barking about her and being condemned partlie by the iudgment of the people themselues part lie by the grauitie of Councells and partlie by the maiestie of Miracles hath obtained full authoritie to whom not to giue the preheminence must be an act of extreame impietie or of a headie arrogancie And againe The Catholick Church fighting against all heresies may be opposed but she cannot be ouerthrowne all heresies are come forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt From their vine but she remains in her roote in her vine in her charitie Let that then bee holden for trulie anciēt and marked with the character of the primitiue Church which shall be found to haue bene beleeued and practised vniuersallie by the Fathers which liued in the time of the first fowre Councells and principallie when it shall appeare to vs that the things testified to vs by the authors of those ages were not holden by them for doctrines or obseruations sprung vp in their time but for doctrines or obseruations which had bene perpetuallie practised in the Church from the age of the Apostles although perchance there can not be found for euerie of them in particular so expresse testimonies in the former ages as in those of the first fowre Councells because of the fewe writinges which the persecution of those times haue suffered to come to our handes For it sufficeth to assure vs of the perpetuall vse of such thinges that the Fathers of the first fower Councells who had more knowledge of the ages before them then wee can haue doe testifie to vs to haue beleeued and practised them not as thinges instituted in their age but as thinges that haue alwaies had place in the Church and had come to them by a succession of obseruation from the Apostles downe to their time and that there is not to be found in former authors anie testimony against them but contrariwise in all places where there is occasion to mention them agreable and fauorable testimonies that is to saie in breefe that is to be holden ancient by vs which those whom we account ancient haue themselues holden to be ancient The fifth obseruation is vpon the consent of the beleefe of the Fathers which some contentious spirits would haue to be when one selfesame thing is actuallie found in the writings of all the Fathers which is an vniust and impertinent pretence For to haue a doctrine or obseruation to bee trulie holden by the Fathers for vniuersall and Catholicke it is not necessarie it should be in the writinges of all the Fathers who haue not all written of the same matters and of whose writinges all haue not come to our handes but there are two other lawfull waies to secure our selues of them The one is when the most eminent Fathers of euery country agree in the affirmation of the same doctrine or practise and that none of the others that haue bene without note of dissention from the Church haue opposed it As when S. Augustin hath cited against the Pelagians the testimonie of eleuen eminent Fathers all consenting in one and the same doctrine he supposeth hee hath sufficientlie produced against them the Common beleefe of the Catholicke Church and when the Councell of Ephesus had produced tenn Fathers of former ages they conceiued they had sufficiently expressed the consent of the former Church against Nestorius his doctrine Because none saith Vincentius Lerinensis doubtetb but that those tenn did trulie hold the same with al their other bretheren The other is when the Fathers speake not as Doctors but as witnesses of the Customes and practise of the Curch of their times and doe not saie I beleeue this should be soe holden or so vnderstood or so obserued but that the Church from one end of the earth to the other beleeues it so or obserues it soe For then we noe longer hold what they saie for a thing said by them but as a thing said by the whole Church and principallie when it is in pointes whereof they could not be ignorant either because of the Condition of the thinges as in matters of fact or because of the sufficiencie of the persons and in this case wee argue noe more vpon their wordes probablie as wee doe when they speake in the qualitie of particular Doctors but we argue therevpon demonstratiuelie That then
shall remaine trulie vniuersall and Catholicke that the most eminent Fathers of the times of the fowre first Councells haue taught in seuerall regions of the earth and against which none except some persons noted for dissention from the Church hath resisted or that the Fathers of those ages doe testifie to haue bin beleeued and practised by the whole Church in their times And that shall remaine trulie antient and Apostolicke that the Fathers of those ages doe testisie to haue bin obserued by the whole Church not as a thing sprung vp in their time but as a thing deriued downe to them either from the immemorial succession of former ages or from the expresse tradition of the Apostles For these thinges hauing bin holden vniuersallie by the Catholicke Church in the time of the first fowre Councells they could haue noe other originall but from an vniuersall authoritie for as much as in the Catholicke Church which did then so strictlie obserue the rule mentioned by Saint Vincentius Lirinensis of opposing vniuersalitie to particularitie a doctrine or obseruation from a particular beginning could not be slipt in ād spread into an vniforme and vniuersall beleefe ād Custome through all partes of the Earth and principallie soe as the Fathers that were next after these vniuersall innouations could not perceiue it but it must needes be that all that was then vniuersallie obserued in the Church must haue come from an vniuersall beginning Now there were in those ages according to the beleefe of your ministers but two beginnings of vniuersall authoritie in the Church to wit either the Apostles or the generall Councells for they Will not yeild that the Sea Apostolicke had then anie vniversall authoritie And therefore whatsoeuer was vniuersallie and vniformly obserued in the Church by all the Prouinces of the Earth in the time of the first fowre generall Councells and had not begun in that time but had bin before practised that is to saie before there had bin anie generall Councell in the Church must necessarilie haue bin from the tradition of the Apostles following these rules of S. Augustin Those thinges said hee which we obserue not by writeing but by tradition which are kept ouer all the extent of the earth must be vnderstood to haue bin retained from the appointemēt and institution either of the Apostles themselues or from the generall Councells whose authoritie is most wholsome in the Church And elsewhere what custome soeuer men looking vpward can not discerne to haue bene instituted by those of later times is rightlie beleeued to haue bin instituted by the Apostles and there are manie such which would bee too longe to repeate And againe If anie one herein seeke for diuine authoritie that which the vniuersall Church obserues and which hath not bin instituted by the Councells but hath alwaies bin held is iustly beleeued not to haue bin giuen by tradition but by Apostolicall authoritie c. Which Rules of S. Augustin if they haue place in those things which the Fathers of the time of the first fowre Councells testifie to haue bin obserued iu the Church before the fowre first Councells how much more ought they to haue it in those things that the same Fathers affirme not in termes equiualent but expresslie to haue bin instituted and ordained by the Apostles These fiue obseruations then made vpon the theses I will saie to passe vnto the hypothesis that your ministers to whose societie his Maiestie outwardlie adheres are so farr from holding all the same thinges that the Fathers haue beleeued and practised as necessarie to Saluation that in the only Synaxis or Church Lirurgie which is the Seale of Ecclesiasticall Communion the fowre principall thinges for which they haue seperated themselues from vs which are the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament the Oblation of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist prayer and oblation for the dead and the prayers of the Saints the Fathers haue all vniuersallie and vniformely beleeued holden and practised as things necessarie but in different kindes of necessitie vnto saluation By which meanes if your ministers had bene in the time of the Fathers as 〈◊〉 haue for these thinges renounced our Seruice and our Communion so must they for the same causes haue renounced the Seruice and Communion of the Fathers and Consequently the title and Societie of the Catholicke Church I haue said the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament not but that I could haue gone farther and said the Substantiall transition of the Sacrament into the Bodie of Christ which wee call transubstantiation but I haue been content to saie the reall presence because it is not precisely and particularlie vpon the transubstantiation but vpon the reall presence of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacrament that we ground the importance and necessitie of this Sacrament to Saluation to witt the Communion and Substantiall vnion to the Bodie of Christ which S. Cyrill calls the knott of our vnion with god Nor is it particularly and precisely vpon transubstantiation but vpon the reall presence that the two inconueniences depend for which your ministers in this article seperate themselues from our Lyturgies which are one the adoration of the Bodie of Christ in the Sacramēt which they will haue to be only sought and adored in heauen and the other the pretended distraction of the vnitie of the Bodie of Christ by existence in manie places in the Sacrament Neither haue I spocken of the prerogatiue of the Roman Church which all the Fathers haue holden for the center and roote of Episcopall vnitie and of Ecclesiasticall Communion because I will beleeue you are sufficientlie read in antiquitie to knowe that the first Fathers Councells and Christian Emperors haue perpetuallie granted therevnto the primacie and supereminent ouersight ouer all religions and ecclesiasticall things which is all that the church exacts as a point of Faith from their confession that enter into her communion to the end to discerne her societie from that of the Greekes and other complices of their Sect wich haue deuided themselues for some ages from the visible and ministeriall head of the Church These fowre points then which are the principall Springes of our dissention and which being agreed vpon it would be easie for vs to agree vpon the rest I saye that the Fathers of the time of the fowre first Councels haue all holden and practised as necessary to Saluation though with diuers kindes of necessitie The reall Presence of the Bodie of Christ and the oblation of the sacrifice they haue holden as necessary with necessitie of meanes for the Bodie of the Church absolutely and for euery particuler person conditionnallie Prayer and oblation for the dead they haue holden as necessarie by necessitie of meanes for those for whom it is done that soe their deliuerace from temporall paines which remaine after this life for sinne cōmitted after baptisme ād for which thy haue not done such penances
as it hath pleased God whollie to accept may be hastned by the prayers and sacrifices of the Church and necessarie with necessitie of precept and to exercise christian charitie and pietie both to the Church that offers them and to the ministers and Pastors by whom she offers them The prayer of the Saintes they haue holden as necessarie to the bodie of the Church and to the ministers by whō they are made with necessitie of precept to exercise the commerce betweene the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant and to particular persons out of the offices of the Church and in their priuate deuotions not neeessary with necessitie of act but only profitable that they may the more easilie obtaine pardon for their sinnes by the concourse of their prayers who are alreadie in the per fect and assured possession of the grace of God but necessary to them and all others with nessitie of approbation that is to saie they are obliged not to contradict them and not to condemne the custome and doctrine of the Church in that article and not to separate themselues from her vpon this occasion vnder paine of falling into Anathema and to be holden for heretickes All which things I will not now stand to proue least I make a Booke of a letter but I doe oblige myselfe to iustifie them when soeuer you shall desire it and to make it appeare both by the vnanimous consent of the Fathers that haue flourished in the time of the first fowre councel's and by the formes which remaine to vs in their writings of the ancient Church Seruice that all the Catholicke Church of their times hath vninersallie and vniformely beleeued holden and practised them throughout all the regions and prouinces of the earth I oblige myself I saie to make it appeare to you that she hath holden these fower thinges in the same sence and in the same forme and for the same end as our Lyturgies are and not as obseruations that then sprung vp but as things that the same Fathers testified to haue bene beleeued and practised from all antiquitie and to be deriued to them by an vninterrupted continuance from the tradition or approbation of the Apostles Soe as they cannot renounce the Communion of our Church vnder pretence of anie of these fowre points without renoūcing the Communion of the ancient catholick Church and consequently the inheritance of saluation and that by authors and testimonies all able to abide the touch as you know I am curious to make vse of noe other and with cleare and ingenuous answeres to all obiections collected out of the Fathers of the same ages or of ages before them A thing that will be the more easie for me because the proofes that wee will avouch out of the Fathers are proofes which containe in expresse termes the affirmatiue of what wee saie whereas our aduersaries cannot finde one only passage which containes in expresse terme the negatiue but only in termes from whence they pretend to inferr it by consequence and which at a iust tribunall would not merit so much as to be heard For who knowes not that it is too great an iniustice to alleadge consequences from passages and euen those euill interpreted and misvnderstood and in whose illation there is alwaies some paralogisme hidd against the expresse wordes and the liuely and actuall practise of the same fathers from whom they are collected and that may be good to take the Fathers for Aduersaries and to accuse them for want of Sence or memorie but not to take them for Iudges and to submitt themselues to the obseruation of what they haue beleeued and practised To this I will also adde whensoeuer you shall desire it the present Conformitie of all the other Patriarchall Churches in these fowre cases with the Roman and of all those which haue remained euen to this daie vnder their iurisdiction to witt those that are vnder the Patriarchall iurisdiction of the Patriarck of Constantinople as the Grecians Russians Muscouites and Asians of Asia-minor separate from vs neere eight hundred yeares Of those that are vnde the Greeke Patriarch of Antioch as the Syrians Mesopotamians and others yet more Easterne nations for those that obey the Syrian Patriarch as the Maronites perseuer in the Communion of the Roman Church of those that relye vpon the Egiptian Patriarch of Alexandria as the Egiptians whom they call Cophtites and the Ethiopians which haue bene diuided both from vs and from the greekes more then eleuen hundred yeares euen from the time of one of the fowre first Councells to witt of the Councell of Chalcedon For all these hold these fower pointes yea with more iealousie if it be possible then the latine Churches and particularlie the article of the Sacrament where of they doe not only beleeue transubstantiation which the greekes at this daie call in the very self same sence and phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also exercise the adoration with externall gesture more full of humilitie then ours A manifest proof that these fowre pointes were vniformely holden and obserued by the ancient Cahtholicke Church since all the partes whereinto the ancient Catholicke Church is dismēbred doe retaine them vniformly to this daie notwithstanding soe manie distances separations and diuisions through all the regions of the Earth These are in generall the causes that haue moued me to vse that exception in my letter that you obiect to me in yours whereof if the Excellent King of great Brittaine had as well leasure to heare the particularities as he hath capacitie to comprehend them I assure myselfe he would not thinke it strange that I should desire in him the title of Catholique but he would desire it himsefe and put himsefe in state to obtaine it and to cause it to be obtained by those that are depriued of it that is to saie he would add yet to is other Crownes that of making himsefe a mediator of the peace of the Church which would be to him a more triumphant glorie then that of all the Alexanders and of all the Caesars and which would gaine to his Isle noe lesse an honor in hauing bredd him thē to haue bredd great Constantine the first deliuerer and pacifier of the christian Church I praie god that he will one daie Crowne all the other graces wherewith he hath indowed him with that and heare to this effect the prayers of his late Queene Mother whose teares like those of S. Augustins Mother doe not onlie intercede for him in heauen but her blood also And likewise keepe you Sr. in his safe and holie protection From Paris 15. Iulij 1611. AN ADMONITION TO THE READER This letter to Mons. Casaubon occasiond the whole discourse ensuing For the letter being shewed to his most excellent maiesty our Souuerain Lord king Iames of glorious memory it pleased him not only to read it but to take paines to answer it as he thought most conuenient To which answer of his maiesty the Cardinall replieth
with that modesty and submission which is due to the person and worth of so high and mighty a Monarch and with that learning and solidyty that might be expected from so great a maister of truth as that most eminent Cardinall was in behalf of so glorious a cause as is the doctrine of the catholique Church THE L. CARDIN PERRONS REPLIE TO HIS MAIESTIES ANSWER TO THE LETTER WRITTEN TO MONS CASAVBON THE FIRST OBSERVATION Reduced into an abridgement by the Kinge THE name of Catholicke doth not simplie designe Faith but also Communion with the Catholicke Church for this Cause the Fathers would not suffer that those should bee Called Catholickes which had separated themselues from the communion of the Church though they retained the Faith thereof For there is one only Catholicke Church out of the which Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation To this end there are manie places alleaged out of S. AVGTSTIN OF THE VSE OF THE WORD CATHOLIQVE THE ANSVVERE OF THE KINGE CHAPITRE I. TO beleeue the Catholicko Church and to beleeue the Communion of Saintes are put distinctly as diuers thinges in the Creede and it seemes the first was ptincipallie inserted to discerne the Iewish Synagogue from the Christian Church which ought not to be as that was inclosed within the lymittes of one only nation but to be spread in length and breadth through all the regions of the world And therefore the reason is not manifest enough why in the beginning of this obseruation it is said that the title of Catholicke designeth Communion These two thinges are very neere one an other but different notwithstandinge as wee haue shewed THE REPLIE WHEN the Philosopher FAVORINVS disputed against the Emperor ADRIAN and that his hearers were amazed and reproached it to him that he suffered the Emperor to confute him and yielded to him he answered them should not I yield to a man tha commaundes twentie legions Soe if there were noe question in this worke but of humane philosophie secular learninge it should be easie for me to stop my selfe at FAVORINVS boundes and to abstaine to contest with his maiestie or to resist him But since heere wee treate of his interest who hath not legions of men but of Angells and which hath for his title THE KINGE OF KINGES AND LORD OF LORDES and from whom this excellent Kinge himselfe makes profession to holde in Fee his life and Crownes that is to saie the cause of IESVS CHRIST and of his Kingdome which is the Church I will promise myselfe from his Maiesties bountie that he will not mislike where it shall be needefull that I resist and contradict him with all the respectiue libertie that the lawes of disputation yield me Then for the argument of the Creede I will saie after I haue kist my weapones three thinges for my defence FIRST that it is vncertaine whither the cause of the Communion of Saintes be an article aparte or an explication of the precedinge cause and a declaration that the Catholicke Church consistes not in the simple number of the faithfull euery one considered a parte but in the ioinct Communion of all the bodie of the faithfull in such sorte as both clauses make but one article as it seemeth sainct IEROM RVFFINVS and Sainct AVGVSTINE who haue omitted the latter haue esteemed it The SECOND that it is vncertaine whether it signifie the Communion that the faithfull liuinge haue one with an other or the Commerce that the Saintes of the triumphant Church doe exercise with the Saintes of the militant Church by the prayers that the Saints of the triumphant offer for the Saints of the militant and the commemoration that the saints of the militant make of the saints of the triumphant which is that that wee in our Liturgie call to communicate with the memory of the Saintes And the THIRD that whatsoeuer it signifie it is most certaine that the word CATHOLICKE was not added to that of the Church to distinguish the Christian Church from the Iewish Synagogue which had neuer borne the name of Church in qualitie of a title of a Religion when the creed was Composed and by consequence did not oblige the Christian Church to take the Epithete of Catholicke to bee discerned from that from which in all cases she had bene suffieientlie distinguished by the title of Christian but it was added to discerne the true Church from hereticall and schismaticall Societies which vsurpe equiuocally and by false markes the name of Church for that our Lord was the first that affected and consecrated the word ECCLESIA which we vsually translate in Englishe Church to signifie a societie of Religion whereas before neither it nor the Hebrewe word that answeres to it had anie other vse but that which prophane authors giue it which is to signifie Assemblies conuocations Generall Estates as when DEMOSTHENES said to ESCHINES thou wert dumbe to the assemblies where the greeke word is Ecclesijs the conuocations or general meetings And as when Aristotle called the conuocations of Creete ecclesias And as when the Scholiast of HOMER said Iupiter gathered together Ecclesias the Assemblies of the Gods It appeares first by the testimonie of MOSES who forbids bastardes to enter into the Church of Israell And of DAVID who singes I hate the Church of the malignant And of S. STEPHEN who said MOSES was in the Church in the solitarie place that is to saie with the multitude of the people in the desert It appeares secondlie by the testimonie of S. IEROM and of S. CYRILLVS who interpretinge this verse of ESAY Thou shalt bee called by a new name that the mouth of our Lord shall pronounce Doe affirme that this new name must be the name of Church It shall noe more saith S. IEROM be called Ierusalem and Sion but it shall receiue a new name that the Lord shall impose vpon it sayinge to the Apostle PETER thou art PETER and vpon this PETRA or rock I will build my Church And S. CYRILL It shall be noe more called Synagogue but the Church of the liuinge God And finallie it appeares by the verie testimonie of our aduersaries that not only in all the textes of the old Testament where the Greeke translation of the Seuentie vse the word Ecclesia but also in all those of the new where that word hath relation to anie other multitude beside the Christian Church they expresse it by Congregation or Assemblies And if since the cōminge of IESVS CHRIST and the edition of the creede the Fathers haue sometymes called the Synagogue by the name of Ecclesia or Church it hath bene by anticipation to shew the successiue vnitie of the one and other societie but not that the Iewish Church while it lasted hath euer vndertaken to attribute to herselfe the title of a Church in the qualitie of a title of Religion Neither consequently when the creede was composed was there neede of an
that where of God saith by the mouth of Esay Thou shalt iudge euerie tongue that shall resist thee in iudgement And by his owne The gates of Hell thall not preuaile against her And againe Let him that heares not the Church be vnto thee as a heathen or a publica And by that of S. PAVL God hath placed in the Church Apostles Prophets Pastors and Doctors c. that we may noe longer 〈◊〉 little Children waueringe with euerie winde of doctrine And againe The Church is the Pillar and foundation of trutb doth not RVFFINVS write that Saint Basile and Saint GREGORY Nazianzene tooke the interpretacion of the Scriptures not from theire owne sense but from the tradition of the Fathers And doth not Saint AVGVSTINE crie out within the wombe of the Church is the dwellinge of truth And againe All the fulnesse of authoritie and all the light of reason for reparation of human kinde consistes in the only healthfull name of Christ and in his only Church And doth not VINCENTIVS Lirinensis say because all vnderstand not the holie Scripture by reason of the depth thereof in one sense But one interprets it in one fashion an other in an other so that it seemes there may be as many seuer all opinions drawne out of it as there are seuer all men for Nouatiā expounds it one waie Photinus another waie Sabellius an other Donatus an other Arrius Eunomius Macedonius an other Apollinaris Priscillianus an other Iouinian Pelagius Caelestius and finally Nestorius an other for these causes it is verie necessarie to auoid the perill as so manie great Labyrinths of so diuers errors that the line of the propheticall and apostolicall interpretation should be drawne according to the rule of the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense And háue not the ministers of Geneua themselues noted this in the margent of theire last Bibles The doctrine of Faith requires a domesticall and particular instruction namely in those that are ordained to deliuer it into the Church least they should take it in theire owne particular sense vnder colour of the Scripture And this is it that was anciently called TRADITION in the Church Now if the certainty of the interpretation of the Church ought to be také according to the exposition of the very Geneua Bibles not from the sense of euery particular man but from the traditiō of the Church how can it be that the truth of the vnder standinge of the Scripture should be the only certaine and infallible marke to discerne and know the Church But against these proofes the aduersaries of the Church propound obiections which we had best cōfute before we proceede to an other article The first obiection is that Saint AVSTINE in his writinge against the Manichees after he hath made a longe list of the markes of the Church addes this Among you where no such thing is found as holdes and tyes me there soundes only a promisse of the truth which if it be soe manifestly demonstrated as none can call it in question ought to be preferred before all those things whereby I am retained in the Catholicke Church And from hence they conclude that S. AVGVSTINE held not the other markes for necessary and infallible but onelie for probable and coniecturall since he offered to depart from them if they could demonstrate to him vndoubtedly that the truth was of the other side To this I make two answeres one that the truth whereof Saint AVGVSTINE speakes makes nothing for theire purpose that alleage it For Saint AVGVSTINE speaketh not there of the truth demonstrated by scripture which is that whereof the Protestants vaunt but of the truth demonstrated by the light of naturalle reason which was that that the Manichees promised as it appeares by what he said three lines belowe I would not beleeue the Ghospell if the authoritie of the Catholicke Church did not moue me to it And a little after And therefore if thou must yeeld me a reason set aside the Ghospell if thou wilt tye thy-self to the Ghospell I will tye myself to those by whom I haue beleued in the Ghospell And againe The authoritie of the Catholiks being destroyed I could not beleeue the Ghospell because it is by them that I haue beleeued it And in an other place That which remaines for you is to saie that you will produce areason soe certaine and inuincible as the truth thereof being manifested by it selfe it shall haue noe neede of the authoritie of anie witnes nor of the veritie vertue you must reade of anie miracle The other answer is that Saint AVGVSTINE did not propound this in the forme of a possible condition for contrarywise he disputes of deliberate purpose against the Manichees that the naturall light of reason could not be the waie to come to the knowlege of the truth of saluation but in the forme of an impossible condition and which consequentlie diminisheth nothing from the efficacie of the markes of the Church as it appeares by what he addes immediatelie after But if it be only promised and not exhibited none shall separate me from this Faith which by so manie and so great bondes so calls he the externall and sensible markes of the Church bindes my Spirit to the Christian Religion The second obiection that the aduersaries of the Church oppose is that the externall and sensible marks that the Fathers assigne to the Church as antiquitie perpetuitie eminencie and succession belong not to the Church only for as much as manie other things may claime antiquitie as the Sunne the Sea the mountaines and manie other succession as the Springs the brookes the riuers and manie other vniuersalitie as the aire the earth and the other Elements and euen amougst Religions that of the pagans hath heeretofore had eminencie and vniuersalitie and that of the Iewes hath still antiquitie and perpetuitie Certainlie a childish and ridiculous obiection for first the marks that God hath giuen to his Church haue not bene imposed vpon her to distinguish her frō all kindes of things but to distinguish her only from those things that are contained though equiuocally vnder the same next kinde and may be supposed and taken for Churches that is to saie from other Christian societies to witt from hereticall and Schismaticall Sects which challenge and pretend by false markes the title of the Church no more then the markes that Golodmithes giuen to golde that it will not euaporate in the fire and that it will resist the coupelle and the water of separatiō are not giue it to discerne it from all kinde of bodies for there are other bodies to which these conditions arc common as glasse and diamondes but to discerne it from false gold that is from metalls made and sophisticated that may be supposed and made to passe for golde And this alsoe Saint AVGVSTINE esteemes the Church would insinuate in the Canticle where after she hath demaunded of her
Scripture haue bounded her to a little number of Moores of the Cesarian prouince then we must goe to the Rogatists if to a little compaine of Tripolitans Byzacenians and prouincialls the Maximianists haue gotten her If onlie to those of the East we must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others to be found for who can number the particular heresies of euerie nation But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonie of the holie Scriptures she is designed to be in all Nations whatsoeuer is alleadged to vs or from whence soeuer it is alleadged by those that saie heere is Christ there is Christ if we be sheepe lett vs rather heare the voice of our shepheard who saith beleeue them not for these are not tobe found in manie places where she is and she who is euerie where is also wheresoeuer they are And againe My sheepe heare my voice and follow me You haue heard his most manifest voice recommendinge his future Church not only in the psalmes and in the prophets but by his owne mouth alsoe And a little after This is no obscure question and wherein they may deceiue you of whom our Lord hath foretolde that they should come and saie lo heere is Christ behold he is tbere lo he is in the desert that is to saie out of the frequeneie of the multitud beholde him heere in the secret places that is in hidden traditions and darke Doctrines You heare that the Church must be spread ouer all and grow to the haruest you haue the citie of which himselfe that built it said the Cittie built vpon a hill cannot be hidden it is then she that is not in anie single parte of the earth but is well knowne euery where Beholde the markes of the Church that saint AVGVSTINE affirmes to be designed by the voice of the pastor and soe cleerely designed as they neede noe interpreter to the end that the Church beinge knowne by them we may after by the Church be informed of the sense of the other voices of the pastor which neede interpretarion Produce to vs said he something for your cause which cannot be interpreted more truly against you nay which at all needes no interpreter as these wordes In thy seede all nations shall be blest neede no interpreter As these wordes It behoued that Christ should suffer and rise againe the third daie and that in his name there should be preached penāce and remissiō of Sinnes through all nations beginning from Ierusalem haue no neede of an interpreter c. As these wordes And this Ghospell of the kingdome shall be preached through the whole world in testimonie to all people and then the end shall come haue noe neede of an interpreter As these wordes Let both grow together till haruest haue noe neede of an interpretor For when they had neede of an interpretor our Lord himselfe ineerpreted them for euen as when a testator ordaines some one to interpret the difficulties of his testament and that the name o this interpreter being common and equiuocall to manie the testator assignes marks in his 〈◊〉 to make him knowne the clause whereby he designes the markes to know him must be so cleere as they shall need no interpreter since it is by them that he should be knowne to whom it is necessary they should addresse themselues to make them vnderstand those thing that shall neede interpretation So God hauing promised in his testament to giue the interpretatiō of his testamēt to the Church the wordes whereby the markes of the Church are there designed must be so cleere that they shall neede noe interpreter so that by them the Church beinge knowne we may after by the Church learne the vnderstanding of those things that neede an interpreter And therefore the order and course of S. AVGVSTINE was to verifie by places of Scripture which had not need of an interpretor the externall and sensible markes ' of the Church by the externall and sensible markes of the Church the Church itselfe and by the Church the vnderstanding of those places of Scripture which had need of interpretation n This point said he we reade it not plainely and euidētly neither I nor thou but if there were beere some mā indued with wisdome to whom our Lord himselfe had giuen testimonie and that he were consulted with by vs about this question I beleeve we would nothinge doubte to doe as he would 〈◊〉 vs for feare of beinge iudged repugnant not soe much to him as to our Lord Iesus Christ by whom he was recommended Now he giues testimony to his Church And elswhere Whosoeuer then feareth to be deceaued through the obscuritie of this questiō lett him cōsult with that Church which the holy Scripture bath designed without 〈◊〉 ambiguitie But this was when hee disputed with the Donatists who agreed with the Catholicks concerninge the truth of the Scripture for when he disputed with the Manichees or with the Infidells which denied or questioned it then he changed his method and did not proue to them the Church by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Church and to that end he vsed two kindes of proceedinge The one was to put it for a ground that if god haue care of the Saluation of man as without this principle all discourse of Religion is in vaine there can be noe doubt but he hath appointed a meanes howe they might attaine it and that this meanes not cōsisting in thinges knowne by naturall reason for as much as thē naturallie all men would agree in it it is thē of necessity that it should consist in authority and then this ground benig laid to verifie that amonge all the Societies of Religion that bee in the world the onely Catholicke Church hath the true markes of authority The other proceedinge was to propose to them the accomplishment of profecies touching the extirpation of Idolles and the ruyne of the false Gods of the paganes and touchinge the abolishment of the Iewish Ceremonies and the dispersinge of the people of the Iewes and touchinge the comeinge of a newe lawe maker and of a newe Religion and to represent to them that these prophecies were written before the birth of our Lord and kept by the enemies of the Church and were couched in termes soe cleere that it was a wonder that the Iewes which kept them were not persuaded by them but that within the same bookes it was foretolde that theyshould be stricken with blindnes and that in seeinge they should not see And by this meanes to proue to them that these were sacred and inspired from God and then this obtained to shewe them in the same prophecies the markes whereby amongst soe manie Societies which should vsurpe the title of Christian Societies shee was to be discerned to whow appertained the right of beinge the true Common wealth of Christ. And she beinge finally acknowledged to addresse them to
And when he saith Tell it to the Church and if he heare not the Church let him be to thee as a heathen or a publican And againe the Cittie set vpon a mountaine cannot be hid And in an other place I will pray not onlie for these heere present but for all those that by theire word shall beleeue in me that they may be all one because the world may know that thou hast sent me Euen a blinde man may see that he speakes of an externall and visible Church And when he expresseth the Church by the parable of the barne where the corne is mingled with the strawe and by the parable of the fielde where the corne and the tares should growe together till haruest And by the parable of the nett cast into the Sea where the euill fishes were inclosed with the good And by the parable of the wedding where the hall was full of guests aswell good as badd and by the parable of the wise and foolish virgins which staied for the Spouse in one howse there needes noe Oedipus to vnderstand that he speakes of a visible Church constituted by externall and temporall vocation And when S. Paul saith to Timothee I write these things to thee that thou maist know how thou oughtest to conuerse in the howse of God which is the Church of the liuing God the pillar and foundation of truth And againe In a great howse there are not onely vessells of gold and siluer but also of wood and earth This word to conuerse which cannot haue relation to an inuisible Societie and this word foundation which is not relatiue to truth which hath no neede of foundation but to men to whom the Church serues for a foundation of truth And these wordes of wood and earth doe visibly shew that he speaketh of an externall and visible Church And when he saith in the 6. Chapter of the first to she Corinthians What haue I to doe to iudge those that are without And in the 11. We haue not this custome neither the Church of God And in the 12. God had placed in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Doctors And in the Epistle to the Ephesians The truth of the wisedome of God is manifested to the principalities and powers in the heauenly places by the Church And againe Christ clenseth his Church by the waching of water in the word And in the exhortation of the Priests of Ephesus Take heede to your selues and to all the flocke ouer which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to rule the Church of God And when Saint Iames saith is his Catholicke epistle If anie one of you be sicke lett him call the Priests of the Church and let them anointe him with oyle It is more cleere then the sunne that they spake of an externall and visible 〈◊〉 And in truth how could it be that these prophesies alreadie soe often repeated In the last daies the mountaine of the Lord shall be aboue all the mountaines The Nations shall come to her and saie lett vs goe vp to the Mountaine of the Lord and into the howse of the God of Iacob and he will teach vs his waies The people shall walke in her light and kings in the brightnes of her Oriēt Thine eyes shall see Ierusalem a plentifull habitation and a tabernacle that cannot be remoued Theire seede shall be knowne among the people and thire posteritie amongst the generations All those that shall see them shall know that they are the seed blessed by the Lord the nations shall know that I am the holie one of Israel when my sanctification shall be in the middle of them for euer had not bene iliusions and oracles of the Spirit of lyes if the Church should haue consisted only in the hidden and inuisible number of the predestinate into whose knowledge neither men nor angells can penetrate And our Lord himselfe who is the eternall wisedome of the Father had not he bene the most imprudent of all lawemakers to haue left his law exposed to soe manie suppositions deprauations and false expositions whereto the malice of the heretickes of all ages hath subiected it without leauing a depositary to keepe it and a iudge to interpret it or to haue left it an inuisible depositary and an inuisible interpreter But against this inuincible truth there doe arise fiue principall obiectiōs The first is that our Lord said The gates of hell shall not preuaile against my Church frō whence it seemes to followe that the reprobate are noe partes of the Church because the gates of hell doe preuaile against them The Second that sainct PAVL writheth you are arriued to the heauenly Ierusalem to the Church of the primitiues or first borne which are inrolled in heauen from whence it seemes to follow that the Church is only of the predestinate The third that we protest in the Creede I beleeue the Church from whence it is inferred that the Church is inuisible because faith is of inuisible things The fourth that Saint AVGVSTINE saith in some place that onely predestinat Catholicks are true partes of the Church and the true members of the bodie of Christ and puts a distinction betweene those which are in the howse and those that are of the howse and betweene the people knowne in the eyes of God and the people knowne in the eyes of men And the fift That Saint IEROME writes He that is a Sinner and soiled with anie spott cannot be said to be of the Church of Christ. To the first then of these obiections which is that the gates of hell shall not be victorious ouer the Church we saie That the victories which the gates of hell obtaine against particular persons by the vices of theire manners preuaile but against those particular persons that are spotted there with and not against the bodie of the Church for as much as the vices of manners are but iu the persons that commit or approue them and not in the Communion of the Church Those saith saint AVGVST whom the wicked please in theire vnitie communicate with the wicked but those that are therewith displeased communicate not with the wicked in theire actions but with the altar of Christ. For the Church exacts from none of her membres the condition of being vitious to receiue him into her Communion as she exacts from them the profession of the Faith and of the vniuersall ceremonies that she prescribeth to them the participation of her Sacraments and the adherence to her pastors By meanes whereof there is nothing but heresie and profession of error or infidelitie that can be pretended to make the gates of hell victorious ouer the body of the Church because those only cortupt the conditions vnder which the congregation is contracted or gathered and infect the body and masse of the societie for none can enter into anie hereticall societie
loue and there is noe spott in thee And in the exposition of Ieremy Thou seest how manie places the Church hath and that this sentence of the Apostle that shee maiebe without spott or wrinkle is reserued for the time to come and for the celestiall places And in the same Commentary vpon the Epistle to the Ephesians Our Lord Iesus accountethe for his members all that are assembled in the Church both Saintes and Sinners but the Saints are his 〈◊〉 voluntarily and the Sinners by necessitie And therefore to the consequence that the Protctestates gather from this place of Saint IEROM when they inferr from hence that the Church consistes only in the mumber of the good we oppose these expresse wordes of the fame Saint IEROM As in the Arke of Noe there were liuing creatures of all kindes so in the Church there are men of all nations of all manners as there where together the Leopard and the Goates the wolfe and the lambes so heere are together the iust and Sinner to witt the vessells of gold and the vessells of wood and earth And againe if the Church be alreadie purified what doe we reserue for our Lord And to the consequence that they gather thence that the Church is inuisible we oppose these followinge That is no Church which hath noe priests And againe I could dry vp all the riuers of thy arguments with the only Sun-shine of the Church And a little after We must remaine in that Church which hauing bene founded by the Apostles indureth till this present And in an other place I am ioyned in communion with thy blessednesse that is to saie with the Chaire of Peeter I know the Cburch it built vpon that rocke whosoeuer eates the lambe out of that howse is prophane Of the vnitie of internall faith CHAPT X. The continuance of the Kings Answere THey are vnited in vnitie of Faith at least in those pointes which are necessarie for saluation THE REPLIE THere are seuen batailles to be giuen vpon this article but against a King that will glorie in suffering himselfe to be ouercome by truth and in saying with Darius his Chamberlaines that kings are verie strong but truth is yet more strong And therefore I feare not to incurr Homers sentence When a great king is angrie with his seruant The first bataile is that an vnitie in things necessarie for the Saluation of euery particular man is not sufficient for the constitution of the Church For there are pointes of faith which are necessarie euen with an ineuitable necessitie for the bodie of the Church which are not necessary with the like necessitie in regard of euery particular man as we haue shewed in our sirst Epistle and those which are sufficient for a man 〈◊〉 by death and in case of impossibilitie of better instruction are not sufficient for him that can haue commoditie to be more throughly 〈◊〉 and those that may suffice for a simple handy craftes man or a labourer cannot suftize for the bodie of the Pastors and the vniuersall Societie of the Church The second bataile is that besides the thinges which particular men are bound to belieue with a distinct and explicite faith there are manie other which they are obliged to belieue with a faith of adherencie and non 〈◊〉 which Schoolemen call implicit faith As all the articles that Councells ordaine to be belieued or forbidd to be belieued vpon paine of anathema A vine dresser a laborer an artificer is not bound to belieue them by retaile and with a distinct and explicit faith but it suffizeth that they beleeue thē in the faith of the Church to witt that they adhere and consent with the Church which beleeueth them For making profession to beleeue all that the Church where-into they are in corporared beleeues faith embraceth in generall by the meritt of theire obedience all that the same Church beleeues distinctlie though theire knowlege 〈◊〉 it not And therefore euen as while children are in theire mothers wombe or sucking at her brestes they liue by the foode and nourishment of theire mother but when they are parted from her they can no longer liue with that communicated nourishment or that infused foode so while simple persons remaine within the bosome and Communion of the Church they liue in those things which are aboue theire capacitie by the faith of the Church which is imputed ahd applied to them by the adherence that they haue with her Such saith Saint AVGVSTINE if before they arriue to the spirituall age of the Soule where they shall noe more be nourisht with milke but with solid meate the last daie of theire life surprise them he that dwells in them shall supplie what they want in theire 〈◊〉 because they haue not separated themselues from the vnitie of the bodie of Christ which bad bene made the waie to vs and haue not withdrawne themselues from the societie of the Temple of God And therefore it is necessary that the Church to whom they ought to adhere to obtaine this supplie should be first knowne and visible to them and more ouer that she not only liue with the doctrine which is answerable to milke as is the profession of the articles which simple persons are bound to belieue with a distinct and explicite faith which Saint AVGVSTINE calles the rule of Faith common to little and great but with that which is answerable to solid meate The third battaile is that it is not sufficient to saie in forme of an 〈◊〉 proposition they are vnited in points necessary for saluation but it must be said in forme of an vniuersall proposition They are vnited in all points necessary for saluation For as it will not serue a man to liue that he hath all his other partes sounde if he be deadlie wounded in anie member necessarie to life so it will nothing auaile to these societies we talk of to be vnited in other things necessary to saluation if they be wanting in anie one If a man be brought saith saint AVGVSTINE to a Physician grieuonsly wounded in some necessary parte of his bodie and the Physician saie if he be not dressed he will dye I thinke they which present him will not be soe senselesse as to answere the Physician after they haue considered and reckoned his other sound partes what shall not so manie sound partes haue power to 〈◊〉 him aliue and shall one wounded parte haue powre to bringe him to his death Now amongst things necessarie to saluation the principall and most necessary is the knowledge and acknowledgement of the Catholicke Church What profitts it a man saith saint AVGVSTINE either sound faith or it may be the onely Sacrament of sound faith when the soundnes of Charitie is wounded with the wound of schisme the only distruction whereof drawhes all the other partes to death And in an other place We had both one baptisme in that they were with me we both read
Catholicke Church Saint AVGVST and the other Bishops of Africa answered them that the separation intended by that passage was the morall separation of faith and breach of Communion It was saith S. AVGVST represented what ought to be the separation of the good from the bad in this world that they might not communicate in theire sinnes to witt separation of hart by dissimilitude of life and manners and that otherwise ought not to be vnderstood that which is written goe out from the middle of them and withdrawe from them and touch not theire vncle annesse that is to saie be distinguished in liuing in an other sorte and consent not to theire vncleannesse But the excellent kinge saith that there are other places of scripture whereby is proued that which he pretendes to gather from the allegoricall wordes of the reuelation to witt that the visible Church should become soe corrupt as the faithfull should be obliged to leaue her communion Now the obiections that his Maiestie reserues for vs in this regard are either taken from this interrogatory of our Lord In your opinion the sonne of man when he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth or from these wordes the moone shall not giue vs her light Which S. AVGVST interpretes of the Church or from this prophecie of Saint Paule the Sonne of perdition shall be seated in the temple of God Or out of these words of the same booke of the reuelation two winges of a great Eagle were giuen to the woeman that she might flye into the wildernesse Or from the examples of the pretended ecclipses and sincopes of the Iewish Church And therefore settinge aside the obiection of the symptomes of the Iewish Church which we remitt to treate of heereafter it is fitt that we solue all the rest presently To the first obiection then which is to the interrogatory that our Lord made to his disciples when he asketh them In your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith on the earth Wee saie saint IEROM and S. AVG. haue answered it longe agoe the one against the Luciferians and the other against the Donatists And haue shewed that this passage is intended not of confessed and doctrinall faith but of iustifiynge faith workinge by charitie and yet not of the extinction but of the diminution of this iustifiynge faith The Donatists saith saint AVG. alleadge that this that our Lord asketh in your opinion the Sonne of man vhen he comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth is to be expounded of the reuolte of all the earth which we vnderstand to be said either in regarde of the perfection of faith which is soe oifficult to men that in the very Saintes who where to be admired as in Moses there was found some thinge wherein they haue staggered or might stagger or for the aboundance of the wicked and the smalle number of the good And saint IEROM speakinge of the Luciferians If they flatter themselues said hee with this sentence written in the Ghospell in your opinion when the Sonne of man comes shall he finde faith vpon the earth let them know that the faith there mentioned is that whereof the same Lord said Thy faith hath saued thee And agaiue of the Centurion I haue not found so great faith in Israell And a little after it is this faith that our Lord hath foretoulde shall be rarelie found it is this faith that euen in those that belieue well is hardlie found perfect Let it be done to thee said hee accordinge to thy faith I would not haue that word pronounced to me for if it be done to me accordinge to my faith I shall perish and yet I belieue in God the father I belieue in God the Sonne and I belieue in God the holy Ghost To the second obiection which is that sainct AVGVSTINE interpretes allegorically these other wordes of the Ghospell then the moone shall 〈◊〉 more giue her light to be meant of the Church which in tyme of persecutions whereof he speakes shall not appeare we answere sainct AVGVSTIN meanes that she should not appeare in her carnall and weake members but not that she shall not appeare in her strong and spirituall Champions that she shall not appeare or lesse appeare in her 〈◊〉 parte in her strawe in her drosse because that parte will yeild to persecutions but not that she shall not appeare in her more excellent parte in her corne in her golde which contrarywise will then shine more then before This appeares by what he writes in his Epistle to 〈◊〉 It is shee said hee that is sometimes obscured and as it were shadowed with 〈◊〉 by the multitude of scandalls that is to saie persecutions when the Sinners 〈◊〉 theire bowe to wound it the obscuritie of the moone the lawes of theire heart but euen then she is eminent in her moste firme champions And a little after It is not in vaine that it was said of the seede of Abraham that is should be as the starrs of heauen and as the sand vpon the Sea-shore that by the starrs of heauen might be meant the faithfull lesse in number more steddie and more cleere and by the sand which is on the Sea-shore the multitude of weake and carnall men who some-times in calme weather appeare free and quiet and sometimes are couered and troubled with the waues of tribulations and temptations And therefore after he hath said she shall not appeare he adds for as much as manie which seemed to shine in grace shall yeilde to persecutions and fall awaie and some faithfull persons verie firme shall be troubled And againe persecution shall so precede as that defection of some shall followe that he might shew that he meanes not to saie that the Church shall not appeare in her whole bodie otherwise how coulde he crye out in an other place she hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden but that she shall not appeare in some of those that had bene her partes Which neuerthelesse in matter of application of allegories where it is permitted to bow the sense of the wordes to accommodate it to the grace of the application and where interpretors content themselues if the thinge signified answere in anie parte to that signifiyinge it sufficeth to make him say to the end to appropriate the 〈◊〉 of the moone to the Church that the Church then shall not appeare that is shall not appeare in some of her partes The third obiection followes which is that saint Paul writes that the daie of the Lord shall not come till the reuolte be first made and till the man of sinne be reuealed and the sonne of perdition who shall oppose and exalte himselfe aboue all that is called God or esteemed an obiect worthie of whorship euen to sitt in the temple of God shewinge himselfe as if he where God Now I will not heere stand to dispute what saint Paul meanes by this reuolte or
apostasy to wit whether hee meane the reuolte of the people from the Roman Empire or the reuolte of 〈◊〉 Christians from the Religion of Christ to that of Mahomet or the reuolte of the Iewes from vnder all the temporall principalities within whose estates they are dispersed to revnite themselues in a newe monarchie vnder theire pretended Messias that is to saie vnder Antichrist As little will I stand to examine whether this temple of God wherein the sonne of perdition shall sitt be to be vnderstood by the materiall temple of Ierusalem when Antichrist shall haue caused it to be reedified as Sainct IRENEVS cont haeres lib. 5. cap. 30. protestes in these wordes When Antichrist shall haue laied desolate all things heere in this world and shal haue raigned three yeares and a halfe and shall be sett in the temple at Ierusalem then the Lord shall come from Heauen And as it seemes to be gathered from the relation of the speech of Sainct PAVLE to those wordes of DANIEL spoken of the Iewish temple and cited by our Lord vpon the speeche of the locall temple of Ierusalem the abhomination of desolation shall be in the temple from whence it is that auntient writers note that Iulian the Apostata one of the figures of Antichrist would haue attempted to reedifie it Or whether it be to bee vnderstood by the Iewish nation whom God had first chosen for his liuinge temple in which Antichrist shall place his throne followinge this prophecy of our Lord to the Iewes I am come in the name of my father and you haue not receiued me if an other come in his owne name you will receiue him Or whether it be to be vnderstood of nations heeretofore Christian in who temples now turned into mosqueas now there Mahomet the fore-runner of Antichrist sitts and that one daie shall ioyne with the Iewes to receiue Antichrist It is sufficīet that all the fathers are agreed vpon two thinges the one that Antichrist shall be the pretended Christ and Messias of the Iewes Antichrist saith Saint HILLARIE shall be receiued by the Iewes And Saint CYRILL of Ierusalem saith he shall deceiue the Iewes as beinge the Christ expected by them And Saint IEROM Wee know that Antichrist shall be the Christ of the Iewes And S. CHRYSOSTOME Christ argues the imposture of the Iewes by the expectation of Antichrist in that they not receiued him that qualified himselfe as sent from God and him that shall not acknowledge God but glorifie himselfe to be the soueraigne God they will adore And Saint AVGVSTINE Christ by these words if an other come in his owne name you will receiue him signifies that the Iewes shall receiue Antichrist And againe The Iewes shall fall into his nett of whom our Lord hath said I am come in my fathers name and you haue not receiued me an other shall come in his owne name and you shall receiue him And of whom the Apostle writes that the man of sinne and the Sonne of perdition shall be reuealed who shall oppose and exalte himselfe aboue all that shall be called God And S. CYRILL of Alexandria speakinge to the Iewes in the person of our Lord you shall receiue for as God I know all things him that shall come vnder a selfe title And THEODORET The Iewes which haue crucified our Lord because he called himself the Sonne of God shall giue creditt to Antichrist that shall call himselfe h the great God From whence it appeares that neither Antichrist shall take the title of a Christian nor his faction the title of a Church although they possesse many peoples and nations which haue before possessed the name of a Church since all the Fathers agree that he shall be receined by the Iewes The other thinge wherein the Fathers agree is that this apostacie shall bringe noe interruption to the course and visible succession of the Catholicke Church that is to saie it shall not hinder but that there shall be alwaies a Christian Societie illustrious and eminent aboue all false and pretended Churches from whose communion it shall be forbidden to departe as Saint AVGVSTINE declares in these wordes If the Church should not be heere till the end of the world why did Christ saie I ame with you to the end of the world And in an other place speakeinge of the very comeinge of Antichrist whose raigne hee deemed should be but three yeares and a halfe Let none imagine saith he that that little while that the Diuell shall be vnbounde there shall be noe Church vpon the earth And shortly after disputinge whether while that short space of tyme lasted the diuell should be so vnbound as that he should hinder anie from entringe into the Church either Children by baptisme or men by Conuersion but said he We should rather belieue that euen then there will not want people both to goe out of the Church and to come into the Church for certainly both fathers will be soe couragious as to giue baptisme to theire children and those that then beginn first to beleeue will be soe constāt as they will cōquer this stronge one euen although he be vnboūd Whereby he shewes plainely that he speakes not of a Church hidden and vnknowne but of a Church visible and exposed to the eyes and knowledge of men The sowrth obiectiō is that the woeman that had brought forth him that ought to rule the nations fledd into the wildernesse And againe that two winges of a great Eagle were giuen to the woeman to flye into the wildernesse For these two retreates into the wildernesse are but one retreate repeated by two seuerall descriptions betweene the which is inserted the fall of the diuell to shewe the the cause of the reuenge that he would haue exercised vpon the woeman From this retreate then they conclude that the Church shall then be inuisible But besides that the same answeres alreadie propounded against the argumentes which are drawne from the allegoricall expositions of the reuelation are alsoe of force against this allegation what shall hinder vs from interpretinge this passage with Saint AVGV of the blessed virgin who brought forth him that ought to rule the nations and who is described crowned with starrs because she was descended from the race of the twelue Patriarches who in Iosephs dreame were sigured by ste starrs and who is represented enuironed by the Sunne because according to the translation of the seuentie which is that the Apostles haue followed the Psalmist singeth He hath pitched his tabernacle in the Sunn And who shall hinder vs from sayinge the wildernesse wither she flew was heauen into which she was assumed after her death which the Grecians call wildernesse because it is exempt from all generation wherefore Pindarus calleth the heauen a desert or wildernesse in these verses If thou of combates honor mean'st to singe Seeke not when daie on the horizon stayes A
CHAP. XIX The continuance of the Kinges answere IN how differing sense the Church is now called Catholicke from what it was then THE REPLIE I haue drawne out this clause from betweene the two that precede it because I would frame an answere by itselfe for as much as I beleiued the intention of the excellent King was as it is of other protestantes to saie that the Church beares the name of Catholicke now in an other sense then she bare it in S. AVST tyme because then she possessed all nations and now she possesses them not To this then I answere that S. AVG. neuer pretended that the Catholicke Church in his tyme did absolutely possesse all nations but onely by 〈◊〉 that is to say by applicatiō of the name of all to the greater part and in comparison of other Christian sectes and societies in regarde of which the Catholicke Church was soe large as it was called for eminencie the Church of all the nations Contrarywise where the Donatistes sett this errour on soote that the Church hadceased and was perished the principall reason that S. AVGVST opposed to them was that she was not yet spread ouer all the natiōs and that she must last without interruptiō from the first preaching in Ierusalem till the Ghospell had bene preached throughout the earth and then should be the end of the world Soe as it were to giue the lye to all the promises and prophesies of God to suppose she were perished since there were yet manie nations to which she had not yet extended herselfe And therefore the Church bore the title of Catholicke then in noe other sense then she doth nowe For soe farr was she from being called Catholicke from the atiuall possession of all Nations that not onely heresies whose numbers were very great were excluded but there were likewise an infinite Company of pagan Nations to which she was not yet arriued There are saith Saint AVGVSTINE amongst vs that is in Africa innumerable barbarous nations to whom the Ghospell hath not yet been preached Which was soe confessed amongst the Catholickes and Donatistes as the Donatistes made vse of it against the Catholicke Church to question her Catholicke title If you pretend saith Petilian the Donatist that you holde the Catholick Church beholde you are not inpossession of all for you are past into a parte And Saint AVGVSTINE confuting the wordes of Cresconius Thou arguest vainely saith he against the euident truth that all the worlde communicates not with vs because there are yet manie barbarous nations which haue not 〈◊〉 iued in Christ. And againe how is the world saist thou full of your communion where there are soe manie heresies whereof there is noe one that communicates with you And againe reporting these wordes of Vincentius Thou saist that as for the partes of the earth that wherein the Christian faith is named is but a little portion in comparison of the world And the Catholickes on the other side made vse of it against the Donatistes to proue that the Church had neuer receiued interruption But that Church said the donatistes is noe more she is perished soe saie they said Saint AVG that are not in her ô impudent voice c. This abominable and detestable voice full of presūption and falshood which is vnder propt with noe truth illuminated with noe wisedome seasoned with noe salte vaine rash headie pernicious the spiritt of God hath foreseene it And a litle after this Ghospell shall be preached where In all the world to whom in testimome to all nations and what after and then the end shall come Seest thou not that there are still nations to whom the Ghospell hath not been preached c. and soe how is it that thou saist that the Church is alreadie perisht from all nations since it is therefore that the Ghospell is preached to witt that it might be in all nations The Church thē in S. AVS tyme was not called Catholicke for her actuall extent into all natiōs but she was called Catholicke for two other causes the one that as more aboundant and the other that as radicall originall Church she held the place of all in regarde of other Christian Societies For in all the diuisiōs which were made from the first beginning of the Christian name not onely she remayned soe full in regarde of euery sect that came out from her that she held the place of the whole and the seperated sect the place of a part but alsoe in the act of seperation she still remayned immoueable I meane to say that the change for which the seperation happened was made not in her but in the hereticall sect Soe as it was the hereticall sect that was seperated frō her and not she from the hereticall sect And by cōsequēce to her as perseuering in the same profession in the same Estate wherein the whole Church was before the seperatiō apertained the right to holde the place of the whole and to inherite the being and aduantages of the whole And to the other to be reduced into the cōdition of a parte and to be cutt of and 〈◊〉 from the appellation and 〈◊〉 of the whole noe more nor lesse then in the deuisiō of a tree that parte wherein the trunke the stocke and the roote remaine keepes the name of the whole and the parte which is cutt of the name of a branche and of a part seperated from the whole They vnderstād not saith S. AVST speakeing generally of heretickes that there is one certaine true holsome and as I may saie germinall radicall societie from whence they are seperated in an other place Whosoeuer is separated from the whole and defēds a part cut off from the masse or bodie it selfe lett him not vsurpe the name of Catholicke And againe The Catholicke Church fighting with all heresies may be opposed but she cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt off from theire vine but she remaines in her vine in her roote in her charitie and the gates of hell shall not conquer her And as OPTATVS Mileuit before him Wee must consider who staies in the roote with the whole worlde and who is gone forth For these causes thē and also that the Catholicke Church was soe eminent both for perpetuitie and extent aboue all others as it was easie to iudge that it was to her onely and to noe other that the promise had bene made that in her seede all nations should be blessed and that in her should be denounced the remission of sinnes through all nations beginninge from Ierusalem for these causes I say S. AVG. affirmed that to her onely belonged the title of Catholique Thou 〈◊〉 saith he against Crescomius the Donatist the rest of the nations that the Church hath not yet possessed and takest noe heede how manie she hath 〈◊〉 from whence she dailie spreades to finish the possession of the
rest For how dost not thou denie the future perfection of these prophecies thou that fearest not to denie soe great in 〈◊〉 to which the perfection is due And in an other place Although there are manie kindes of heresies amongst Christians and that all would 〈◊〉 to be Catholickes and call the rest except themselue heretickes there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church if you cast your eyes ouer the whole worlde more aboundant in multitude and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in truth then all the rest but of the truth that is an other question That which sufficeth for this dispute is that there is one Catholicke Church to which different heresies impose different names they beinge neuerthelesse all called by their particular 〈◊〉 that they dare not disauowe from whence it appeares in the iudgement of arbiters not possessed with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed By which wordes S. AVG. elegantly declares that the Church was not called Catholicke because she was actually and at one selfe same tyme ouer all Natiōs but for this cause amongst others that in multitude of people and in extent of nations she exceeded each one of other Christian societies Of the comparison of the Church with the Cittie builte vpon a Mountaine CHAP. XX. The continuance of the Kinges answere FOr heretofore the Catholicke Church like the Cittie built vpon a Mountaine which could not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not way subiect to be called in question but was euident and certaine to all in such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noe bodie of an vndistracted spirit could doubt of it THE REPLIE IT seemes that the excellent King holdes this word that cannot be hidden to haue reference onely to the Cittie built vpon a Mountaine and will not haue it belong to the Church but by accident that is when she resēbles the 〈◊〉 builte vpon a Mountaine That is to say it seemes that his Maiestie vnderstandes not that this condition to be like a cittie built vpon a Mountaine and by consequent not to be hidden belongs perpetually to the Church but will haue it that the Church sometymes enioyes this condition as when Saint AVGVSTINE writ and sometymes is depriued of it as afterwardes Neuertelesse Saint AVGVSTINE who is the best interpreter that can be of his owne wordes saith that the Church hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidd And againe that of her it is said The cittie built vpon the Mountaine cannot bee hidd From whence it appeareth that this Epithete of beeing vnconcealeable belongs not by accidēt to the Church when she shall be found like the cittie built vpon a hill but appartaines to her properly directly and perpetually For where his Maiestie adds that the Church was then soe manifest as noe man in his right wittes could doubt of her that was true and soe is she still at this day in regarde of all those that agree vpon the true markes of the Church that is to saie in regarde of those that accordinge to Gods promises designe the Catholicke Church by the perpetuitie of her continuance and by the eminencie of multitude and extent ouer nations aboue all other Christian Sectes But to all heretickes and schismatickes who reiected those markes and would receiue noe signe for a note of the Church but onely puritie of manners or triall of doctrine of which they attributed to themselues the iudgement by interpretation of Scripture made accordinge to theire sense the Church was not onely doubtfull but altogether hidden It is saith S. AVG. a condition cōmon to all heretickes not to see that thinge which is in the world the most apparent an t built in the light of all nations out of whose vnitie all that they doe though they seeme to doe it with great care cannoe more warrant them from the wrath of God then the spiders webbs against the extremity of colde Of the conformitie or inconformitie of the Donatists and Protestantes in the question of the Church CHAPT XXI The continuance of the kinges answere FOR she vvas not shutt vp in anie corner of the vvorld liyng I knowe not vvhere in the South as the foolish Donatistes affirmed but she vvas spread in leught and breadth ouer all the space of the Earth THE REPLIE THE Donatistes held not that theire Church was inclosed by right and for euer into Africa but onely in fact and for a certaine tyme noe more then the Caluinistes who haue pretended that the true visible Church had bene reduced for manie ages into the Prouince of Albigeois and other boundes and afterward in some valleys of Dolphiny And yet the Donatistes did not make this confession with theire good will but in theire owne defence by constraint Contrarywise they attempted with all theire power to shewe that theire Church was not restrained onely into Africa For this cause they kept a Bishop at Rome whom they had sent to a fewe African Donatistes that dwelt there They had plented a pretended Church in Spanie in the territory of a Lady called Lucilla that fauored them They had made the false Actes of the mock Councell of the Arrians holden at Philipopolis neere Sardica to passe current insteede of the true Councell of Sardica because in the letters of those Bishops amongst the names of the Bishops to whom they were addressed theire was the name of Donatus the false Bishop of Carthage one of the Bishops of the Donatistes party thereby to make it credible that the Councell of Sardica had communicated with them yea when they entered into conference with the Catholickes they grewe to be soe impudent but that it was confounded at the instant as to maintaine that theire communion was spread ouer all the earth Heere first saith Saint AVGVSTINE speaking of the conference that he had with Fortunius the Donatist did he attemps to 〈◊〉 that his Communion was ouer the extent of the earth I asked him there 〈◊〉 whether he could addresse cōmunicatorie letters which we call formall whither I 〈◊〉 appoint and I affirmed as it was manifest to all that by this meanes the 〈◊〉 might be easilie determined c. but because the thinge was euidently false 〈◊〉 out of this discourse by confusion of 〈◊〉 And finally when they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the visible 〈◊〉 of the Church they had recourse to the 〈◊〉 vniuersality and said they communicated inuisibly with all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hidden members of Christ which were spread ouer all the world for it is against them that saint AVG. disputes when he writes It 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God hath other sheepe which I know not but God 〈◊〉 care of them he is too absurde in humane sense that imagins such things By 〈◊〉 whereof theire cause who haue separated them-selues from vs in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ages can be noe waie distinguished in the point of the Church from that of the Donatistes Of the extent of the ancient Catholicke Church
that were instituted in the Churches without the sentence of the Bishop of Rome And the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian Wee decree that accoding to the ancient custome nothing shall be innouated in the Churches without that sentence of the reuerend Pope of the Cittie of Rome Now how was this anie other thing but to make the Pope what the same lawe of Theodosius and Valectinian calls him to witt the Rector of the vniuer salitie of Churches and what the Councell of Chalcedō intitles him to witt the Guardian of the Lords Vine and what the Councell of Sardica the Councell of Chalcedon and the Emperor Iustinian qualifie him to wit the head of Bishops For if as the Prouinciall Nationall or Patriarchall Councells could not be reputed perfect nor decide the affaires of the 〈◊〉 or of the nation or of the Prouince without the Metropolitan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the generall Councells could not be generall nor decide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which concerned the vniuersall Church without the assistance and 〈◊〉 of the Bishop of Rome And if as S. IEROM saith that the Councell of 〈◊〉 had ordained that Antioch should be the metropolitan 〈◊〉 spirituall of all the East so not only saint ATHANASIVS calls Rome the Sea 〈◊〉 and metropolitan of Romania that is of all the Roman Empire beates the Arrians with the epistle which they had writen to the Pope in the which though fainedly irronically they had called the Roman Church the Schoole of the Apostles and the Metropolitan of religion but also S. GREGORIE Nazianzene cries out the ancient Rome marcheth right in the saith 〈◊〉 all the west tied by the healthfull word as it is conuenient that 〈◊〉 should doe which rules all the world And if as the Bishops of Egipt protested at the Councell of Chalcedon that it was the custome in the prouinces of the 〈◊〉 of Egipt to doe nothing without the sentence ordinance of the Archbishop of Alexandria So Socrates saith that the Coucell of Antioch was argued of nullitie for as much as the ancient Ecclesiasticall law bare that the Churches could not bee ruled without the 〈◊〉 of the Bishop of Rome how is it that the Bishop of Rome was not metropolita of the vniuersall Church such in regard of the whole Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriark Metropolitan was in regard of his diuision And if the Pope reciprocallie as heire to the principall Sea of S. PETER Metropolitan of the vniuersall Church was Rector of the vniuersality of Churches how could it be that the originall Patriarks which were heires of the 〈◊〉 Chaires of S. PETER the Metropolitans of the secōd 〈◊〉 of the Empire were not by proportion in the behalfe of their diuisions that which the Pope was ouer the whole extent of the Church It appeares thirdlie by the proceeding of the same Councell of Nicea and in the same Canon For what cause had the Councell of Nicea to represse the rebellion of Meletius Bishop of Sycopolis in Egipt who refused to obey the Bishop of Alexandria his Patriarke alledged the custome of the Pope not that of the Patriark of Antioch The Patriark of Antioch was in person at the Councell which the Pope was not hee was neerer both to the cittie of Nicea wherein the Councell wae holden to the Sea of Alexandria in whose fauour this Canō was made then the Pope he had the 〈◊〉 ouer fifteene great prouinces where of the least conteined more countries then the Protestants attribute to the Patriarkship of the Pope For what cause doth the Councell to suppresse Meletius alledge the custome of the Bishop of Rome and not that of the Bishop of Antioch but because the Bishop of Antioch his authoritie was of positiue right as well as that of the Bishop of Alexandria by which meanes the same 〈◊〉 that carried Meletius to denie the one might likewise haue carried him to denie the other where the Popes authoritie was of diuine right that is to saie as S. AVSTIN the Mileu Councell speake drawne 〈◊〉 the authoritie of the holie scriptures Moreouer for what cause did the Coūcell of Nicea confirme the custome of the Patriark of Alexandria that of the Patriark of Antioch not confirme that of the Pope but because the Popes authoritie depends not of the authoritie of Councells but proceeded from the verie mouth of our Lord as Pope Gelasius whō S. 〈◊〉 the secōd S. AVS or rather the second Oracle of the African Church calleth the Reuerēd Prelat of the Sea Apostolicke hath since expressed it in there words The holie Romā Catholicke Apostolick Church hath not bene preferred before other Churches by anie synodicall constitutions but hath obtained the primacie Euāgelicall voice of our Lord and Sauiour when he said Thou art Peter and vpō this rocke I will builde my Church Now this being so how is it not manifest that the intention of the Councell was not to restraine the authoritie of the Pope to the limits of a simple particular Patriarkship as that of the other Patriarkes but to propound the authoritie that the Pope had in regard of the vniuersall Church for a type and patterne of the authoritie of the other Patriarkes in regard of their patriarkships for either the law diuine gaue nothing to the Pope ouer the other Bishops or if it gaue him anie thinge it was giuen him ouer all the Earth although for the cōmoditie of the vniuersall gouernement of the Church the Pope abstained from the immediate administratiō of the other Patriarkships cōtented himselfe with the onely immediate gouernement of the patriarkship of the West and with the mediate generall superintendencie ouer the rest It appeares fowthly by the possession wherein the Pope remained after the Canon of the Councell of Nicea of iudging the persons and iudgements of the other Patriarkes and that in the view with the applause euen of those that had made the canon of their successors without that anie euer murmured that this practise contradicted it for how had Pope Iulius the first who was created Pope fiue yeares after the Coúcell of Nicea restored those great Champions of the Councell of Nicea saint ATHANASIVS Patriark of Alexandria Marcellus Primat of Ancyra in Galatia Asclepas Bishop of Gaza in Palestina because to him saith Sozomen for the dignitie of his Sea the care of all things apperteyned if the intentiō of the Councell of Nicea had bene to restraine the authoritie of the Pope into the onely limitts of a particular Patriarkship as well as that of the other Patriarkes And how had those great Chāpions defendors of the Coūcell of Nicea made vse of the Popes restitution to re-enter their Seas if it had bene contrary to the canon of the Councell of Nicea the which themselues had helped to compose S. ATHANASIVS amongst the rest who had bene the soule and pen thereof was then heire
to the blessednesse of the most holy Pope for as much as he is the head of all the most holy Ministers of God And by the places aboue cited of saint GREGORIE the great which witnesse that the Pope confirmed euen then that is to saie fiftie yeare after Iulian the former the election of the Bishop of the first Iustinianea and sent him the Archiepiscopall mantle and the reuocation of the Vicarship of the Sea Apostolicke and iudged by appeale of the causes of his Bishops chasticed him himselfe when he had misiudged But in summe whatsoeuer the sence of this addition of Russinus bee it imports little to knowe it For hauing bene excommunicated for his errors in saith by the Pope and the Roman Church who doubtes but if he could insert into his translation anie thing to the Popes preiudice he hath done it It 〈◊〉 before the Councell of Nicea which wills that to euery Church the prerogatiues thereof be preserued the Roman Church was she whereof S. IRENEVS cryes out to this Church because of a more mightie principalitie that is to saie because of a principalitie more mightie then the temporall it is necessary that all the Churches should agree It was she that S. CYPRIAN called the Chaire of Peter and the principall Church from whence the 〈◊〉 all vnitie proceeded It was she of whom S. IEROM writt I know the Church is built vpon this stone whosoeuer eates the lambe out of this howse is prophane It was she of whom S. AVSTIN said In the Roman Church hath alwaies 〈◊〉 the principalitie of the Sea Apostolicke It sufficeth that before the Councell of Nicea which ordaineth that the ancient customes should remaine entire the law Ecclesiasticall sorbad to canonize Churches that is to 〈◊〉 to make canons touching the generalitie of Churches without the sentence of the Bishop of Rome that the Ecclesiasticall custome bare that the finall depositions of Bishops could not be proceeded to without attending the decision from Rome and that from the tyme of the Emperor Gallienus that is to saie more then sixtie yeares before the Councell of Nicea the Churchmen of Egipt desiring to accuse Dionisius Bishop of Alexandria their Patriarke went vp saith saint ATHANASIVS Patriarke of the same Sea of Alexandria to Rome and accused him before 〈◊〉 Bishop of Rome It sufficeth that presently after the same Councell of Nicea when S. ATHANASIVS Patriarke of Alexandria Paul Bishop of Constantiuople Marcellus Primate of Galatia Asclepas Bishop of Gaza in Palestina had bene deposed by diuers Councells of the East Iulius Bishop of Rome restored to euery one his Church because to him saith Sozomene for the dignitie of his Sea the care of all things appertayned It sufficeth that after the death of ATHANASIVS Pope Damasus confirmed the ordination of Peter Patriarke of Alexandria successor to the same saint ATHANASIVS and restored him to his Sea of Alexandria It sufficeth that in the Councell of Sardica holden for the defence of the Councell of 〈◊〉 whereat assisted besides more then three hundred other Bishops the same Osius that was President at the Councell of Nicea the same saint ATHANASIVS which had helped to frame the acts of the Councell of Nicea the same Protogenes Bishop of Sardica which was at the Councell of Nicea the Episcopall appeales to the Pope were authorized by a written lawe and the Bishops of all the prouinces exhorted to referr the affaires to their head that is to saie to the Sea of the Apostle PETER It sufficeth that in the Councell of Lampsacus in Asia the Macedonians purposing to returne to the Catholicke Church sent their Legats from Asia to Rome to protest obedience to the Pope to oblige themselues to come vp to his Tribunall or to the iudges delegated by him in all causes that should be attempted against them It sufficeth that in the Councell of Tyana in Cappadocia Eustachius Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia who had bene deposed by the Councell of Melitina the Metropolitan cittie of Armenia bringing letters of restitution from Pope Liberius was receiued without forme of processe and had place as a Bishop in the Councell It 〈◊〉 that when the Emperor Constantius had caused S. ATHANAS Patriarke of Alexandria to be deposed in a Councell of more then three hundred Bishops of the East and West he thought he had not satisfied his desire if the thing saith Amianus Marcellinus were not confirmed by the authority whereof the Bishops of the eternall cittie are superiors It sufficeth that when the same Canon of the Councell of Nicea which is now in question was renewed in the Councell of Constantinople the other Patriarkes and Primats were forbidden to meddle beyond their diuisions Let the Bishop of Alexandria said the Synod gouerne onely what belongs to Egipt and let the Bishops of the East that is to saie of the patriarkship of Antioch admister onely to the East where neuer Coūcell interdicted the Pope from medling in matters which were out of his patriarkship Cōtrariwise the Pope in importāt occasiōs hath alwaies takē notice of the ecclesiasticall affaires of the Empire of the East iudged by appeale the causes of other patriarkships the Catholicke Councells of the East thēselues yeilding to be solicitors executors of his sentences oppositely neuer anie of the other Patriarks once attempted to examine the Ecclesiasticall causes of the Empire of the West and of the patriarchall diuision of the Pope It sufficeth that in the Mileuitan Councell holden by the Bishops of Asrica and by S. AVSTIN amongst others it was affirmed that the Popes authoritie was of diuine right and drawne from the authoritie of the holy Scriptures and then not to be restrained to the simple patriarkship of Rome but vniuersall and such as the law of the Emperor Valentinian the third describes it when it calls the Pope the Rector of the vniuersalitie of Churches And the Emperor Iustinian when he writes that the Pope is the head of all the most holy ministers of God And the Bishop of Patara in Lycia one of the prouinces in Asia when he saith to the same Emperor Iustinian that there were many kings and princes in the world but there was noe one of them that was ouer all the earth as the Pope was ouer the Church of all the world It sufficeth that in the generall Councell of Ephesus when the Fathers had executed the sentence of deposition that the Pope had pronounced at Rome against Nestorius when they should haue passed to the cause of Iohn Patriark of Antioch the Councell reserued the iudgement thereof to the Pope and that according to the ancient custome and tradition Apostolicall It sufficeth that in the false Councell of Ephesus after Dioscorus Patriarke of Alexandria and his pretended generall Councell had deposed Flauianus Archbishop of Constantinople and Theodoret Bishop of Syre Flauianus saith the Emperor Valentinian
imprinted this title of prowd nomination Calling me Uniuersall Pope which I praie your most deare holynesse noe more to doe And a little after And certainely your holynesse knowes that this title was offered in the Councell of Chalcedon and since againe by the Fathers followinge to my Predecessors but none of them would euer vse this word because in preseruing in this world the honor of all Bishops they might maiutaine their owne toward God Almightie To this then to make an end wee answere that the word Oecumenicall or vniuersall hath two meaninges the one proper litterall and grammaticall whereby it signifies onelie Bishop And the other transferred and metaphoricall wherby it signifies superintendment ouer all Bishops And saint GREGORIE censered this title in the first sence forasmuch as it would haue ensued from the vse of this word grammaticallie taken and measured by the letter that there had bene but one Bishop onely be it in all the Empire or be it in the particular Empire of Constantinople and that all the rest had bene but his commissioners and deputies and not true Bishops in title and true offices of Christ. If there be one that is vniuersall Bishop saith saint GREGORIE all the rest are noe more Bishops Now saint GREGORIE maintained that all Bishops were true titularie Bishops and true ministers and officers of Christ although concerning iurisdiction they were subordinate one to an other as the inferior iudges of a Kingdom although concerning iurisdiction they be subalterne to the superior Iudges and that there be appeales from the one to the other yet are they not their commissioners or their deputies but are also themselues Iudges in title and ministers and officers to the Prince And therefore he opposed this title as a title full of sacriledge and arrogancie by which he that vsurpes it putts himself into the place of God makeing of Gods officers and euen in that by which they are Gods officers and exalting himfelfe for that which is of the Episcopoll order aboue his Bretheren that is to saie denying to his Bretheren the Essence and the proprietie of Bishops and holding them but for commissioners and substitutes in the Bishops Sea and not for true Bishops in title and true ministers and officers of Christ And in briefe reputing himselfe not as Seruant constituted ouer his fellowe seruants whereof the Ghospell speakes but as the Master and Lord of his fellowe seruants And it is not to be said that the Bishop of Constantinople pretēded not to the title of vniuersal Bishop in this first sence for when a title hath two sences whereof the one is euill and pernicious it is easie for him that is in possession of such a title to transferr it abusiuelie from one sence to the other And therefore saint GREGORIE reiected absolutelie the vse of the word Vniuersall for feare least vnder pretence of an acception in processe of time it might be captiouslie drawne to the other And for this cause he withstood it not according to the metaphoricall sence which was giuen it but according to the naturall and originall sence which it had For that it was in this sence that saint GREGORIE cried out That he that intituled himselfe Uniuersall Bishop exalted himselfe licke Lucifer aboue his Bretheren and was a fore-runner of Antichrist to wittin as much as the word Uniuersall Bishop tooke from others the qualitie of Bishops and the title of officers of Christ And not to deny in case of iurisdiction the prelature and superioritie of one Bishop ouer others he shewes it sufficiently when hee writes For as much as it is notorious that the Sea Apostolicke by Gods institution is preferred before all other Churches so much amongst manie cares we are most diligent in that which we must haue when for the consecration of a Bishop they attend our will And when he alleadges to distinguish betweene these words Principalitie and Vniuersalitie the example of S. PETER who was indeede Prince of the Apostles and head of the vniuersall Church and notwitstanding was not vniuersall Apostle The care of the Church said hee hath bene committed to the holie Apostle and Prince of all the Apostles Peter the care and principalitie of the vniuersall Church hath bene committed to him and yet he is not called vniuersall Apostle And when he adds that none of the Saints vnder the lawe was euer called vniuersall The Saints before the lawe said hee the Saints vnder the lawe and the Saints vnder grace compounding one Bodie of Christ haue all bene constituted amongst the members of the Church and none would euer be called Vniuersall Certaine proofes that by the vniuersalitie that S. GREGORIE opposed he intended not to exclude the principality and superintendence of one Bishop ouer others not to depriue himselfe of the qualitie of head of the Church noe more then in denying that saint PETER was vniuersall Apostle he denied him to be head of the Apostles that the principalitie superintendēcie of the vniuersall Church was committed to him he that contrarywise came from saying The principalitie of the vniuersall Church is committed to Peter nor in denying that any vnder the lawe was called vniuersall hee meanes not to denie that the highest Priest of the lawe was head of the Iewish Church had the superintendencie ouer all the other Priests Leuites And therefore what pretence is left to the Ministers of the excellent King to abuse this passage to calumniate the Sea Apostolicke They saie S. GREGORIE cries out That a Bishop that intitles himselfe Vniuersall Bishop exalts himself like Lucifer aboue his bretheren and is a forerunner of Antichrist it is true but besides this is so too that S. ATHANASIVS cries yet with a stronger voice That an Emperor that makes himself Prince of Bishops and presides in iudgments Ecclesiasticall is the abhomination foretolde by Daniel Who knowes not that there is great difference betweene Forerunner and Predecessor And that Antichrist should not sit in the Seate of his Forerunners for fo are all hereticks and schismaticks noe more then our Lord sate in the Seate of S. IOHN who was yet his Forerunner but not his Predecessor otherwise Antichrist must sit in the Episcopall Seate of Constantinople for it was the Bishop of Constantinople that S. GREGORIE pretended by this clause to qualifie the Forerunner of Antichrist And then what blindnes is it to strike vpon the refusall that S GREGORIE made of the title of Vniuersall and not to see that the same S. GREGORIE protests that by the refusall of this word hee intends not to refuse the qualitie of head of the Church nor superintendencie iurisdiction ouer all the other Bishops Archbishops and Patriarks for what age of S. GREGORYS epistles is not full of testimonies that the Roman Church is the head of all the Churches Heauen in her bosome not so manie Starrs embow'rs The Sea so manie sailes th' Earth so manie Flow'rs He writt
the troupe of the Councell was not he there S. NICHOLAS Bishop of Myra in Lycia a man for manners and for miracles Apostolicall was not he there And if wee speake of credit and estimation with the Emperor euen he whose credit wee learne from Osius to witt Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea in Palestina whō the Emperor from his childhood had knowne in the East and whom he testified in his conceit to be worthie of the Bishopricke of the whole earth and to whom besides so manie other letters and markes of familiaritie he directed the first commission for the re-establishment of the Churches in the East and the charge of the transcription of the sacred bookes for the Churches of Constantinople was not he there Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia who afterward baptized the Emperor and who was Metropolitan of the prouinces where the Councell was held and Bishop of the Seate of the Empire in the East and of the cittie where the Emperor resided a man say Socrates and Sozomene indued with great authoritie and very prudent and honored in the pallace of the Emperor for the ecclipse of his fauour with the Emperor happened not till after the Councell and lasted but a moment was not he there Alexander Bishop of the future Imperiall cittie of Byzantium conuerted by exchange of name into Constantinople was not he there Paphnutius of whom Socrates saith the Emperor honored him extraordinarily and kept him ordinarily in his Court was not he there Protogenes Bishop of Sardica to whom the Emperor had addressed his first lawe for the manumission in Churches and to Osius the second lawe was not he there And if wee speake of learninge the same Eusebius Bishop of Cesarea of whom the Emperor said that he more then admired his knowledge and his studies was not he there Alexander Patriarke of Alexandria whom Theodoret calls the admirable Bishop was not he there Eustachius Patriarke of Antioch who made the oration of the Councell and whom Sozomene intitles the miracle of eloquence was not he there And if wee speake of reuerence for age the same Alexander of Alexandria whom the histories of the Councell call the old man and whom the epistle of the Councell exalts for hauing at that age sustained so manie labours was not he there Alexander Bishop of Constantinople of threescore and three yeares of age whether he were then Bishop in cheife or as the Patriarkes of the Church of Constantinople will haue it Coadiutor and Legate of Metrophanes yet elder then himself was not he there And if we must speake of the antiquitie of promotion Zeno whom saint EPIPHANIVS calls antique Bishop of Phenicia euill qualified by the lists of the signatures of the Councell Bishop of Tyre was not he there Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia before Bishop of Berith whom saint EPIPHANIVS calls the ancient old-man of Nicomedia was not he there And in briefe an infinite number of other Bishops that Eusebius for the antiquitie aswell of their age as of their promotion comprehends in the first clause of this passage some where honored because of their length of tyme others flourished in the rigor of their age and spirits others were newly entred into the course of their charges were not they there For that in the Councell of Sardica the age of Osius was accompted amongst those things that purchased him Reuerence that was more then twentie yeare after the Councell of Nicea And that saint ATHANASIVS calls him the Father of Bishops and saith he died a centenarie it was neere fortie yeare after the Councell of Nicea But if none of these what personall qualitie soeuer he had noe not Alexander Patriarke of Alexandria whom the Epistle of the Councell calls the master of the Councell that is to saie Master for sufficiencie did aduance himselfe a finger breadth beyond the degree of his dignity for what cause should Osius for his particular cōditiōs haue bene President of all the Assemblie For to saie Osius presided there as the Emperors deputie the Emperor was in person at the Councell and so could haue noe deputy and besides that he presided not there but was sett there beneath the Bishops and in a lower Seate and after he had attended and desired the leaue of the Bishops to shew that in matter of Religion he was of the number not of the Iudges but of those that were to be iudged And in the sirst Councell of Arles where the Emperor Constantine assisted also in person and Osius with him as it appeares by the reproches of the Donatists against the Iudges of that Councell wherein Osius was inwrapped not onely Osius who was alreadie then in as great Credit with that Emperor witnesse the Epistle of the iudowing the Churches of Africa did not preside there but euen in the letter of the Councell was not placed amongst the first Bishops but comprehended vnder the curtaine of silence with the troupe and multitude of the Bishops And in the Councell of Sardica where Osius presided aswell as at the Councell of Nicea he was so euill willed by Constantius the Lord of the Empire who was an Arrian that he could not be said there to preside in qualitie neither of a fauorite or of a Deputie to the Emperor contrarywise the care he had to make himself Procurator and Promoter of the Popes Rights and the instance he made for the appeales to the Pope and for the honor of saint PETERS memory and the iustificatiue relation of the Councells which Protogenes Bishop of Sardica and he dedicated to the Pope and the protestation that he and the other Bishops inserted into the Epistle of the Councell to the Pope to hold him for head of the Church and to acknowledge That it was a conuenient thing that from all Prouinces of the earth the Prelats of God should referr all affaires to their head that is to saie to the Sea of the Apostle Peter shew sufficiently that it was from the part of the Pope and not of the Emperors that he presided there And from this it derogates not that saint ATHANASIVS makeing the recitall of the signatures of the Councell of Sardica puts the signatures of Osius without a title of Legation and before that of the Pope in those words Osius of Spaine Iulius of Rome by Archidamas and Philoxemus For besides that this recitall followes not the rankes of the dignities as it appeares by Nessus an African Bishop who is placed there before Gratus Archbishop of Carthage And moreouer that hee vseth this order for as much as Osius signed the Epistle of the Councell immediately and by himselfe and the Pope mediatelie and by another the legates of the Pope who were Bishops had a vote of their owne in the Councell and the Priests not From whence it is that when the legations of the Pope and of the Councell of Rome were
cast out of his Sea gaue vp the mantle that he had to the Emperors and retired himself to a place where the Empresse tooke him into her protection And then the Pope infauour of the Emperor ordained Menas Bishop in his steede consecrating him with his owne hand And Victor of Tunes of the same time with Liberatus Agapet Archbishop of Rome came to Constantinople and deposed Anthymus Bishop of Constantinople vsurper of the Church and enemie to the Councell of Chalcedon and excommunicated the Empresse and made Menas Bishop of the Church of Constantinople An admirable effect of the power of S. PETERS Successor in the time that the Church of Constantinople was most flourishing and triumphant the Church of Rome contrariwise most abated afflicted when Constantinople was the Seate of the Empire the mansion of Iustinian the Emperor conquering and victorious and that Rome on the other side was noe more a cittie but a tombe and carkasse of a cittie a seruant and slaue of the Gothes a barbarous and Arrian people a poore Pope that the tyrannie of Theodat king of the Gothes who otherwise threatned him to roote out the Roman Church had forced to transport himself into the East to solicite the Emperor Iustinian to withdrawe his armes out of Italie and so poore as he was faine to sell the sacred Vessells of his Church to performe his voyage beeing in Constantinople a stranger and without support yea euill receiued and entertained by the Emperor neuerthelesse deposeth and casts out of his Sea Anthymus Patriarke of Constantinople powerfull in meanes and fauour about the Emperor and whom the Emperor and the Empresse had exalted from the Bishopricke of Trebizond to the Patriarkship of Constantinople and pardons the Bishops of the East who had communicated with him and excommunicates the Empresse who obstinately defended him and established Menas in his place And Caluin will haue it that Menas who was Agapets creature preceded Agapet in the Councell of Constantinople in whose time Agapet was already dead and wherein there is neuer mention made of him but with this title of Agapet of holy memory What an Argus is he in antiquitie But at the least will Caluin replie the Bishops of Italie that assisted with Menas at the Councell of Constantinople after the death of Agapet did not preside there It is true But what will this replie serue him for but to increase his shame for these Bishops were noe more the Popes deputies when the Councell was holden and had noe commission to be there but were Bishops Priests and Deacons which were long before come out of Italie for other businesses and whose legation was finisht both by the arriuall and by the death of Agapet and who assisted not at the Synod which was noe generall Councell but a simple councell of the Patriarkship of Constantinople and of some strange Bishops resident at Constantinople but for honor sake and by vertue of the Emperors commaundement as exlegates and not as Legates Neither must he hope to escape by this excuse that he pretended to speake of Uigilius and not of Agapet for Vigilius was neither Pope nor present at Constantinople when the councell of Constantinople holden vnder Menas was celebrated Lesse yet can Caluin saue himselfe by sayinge that his intention was to speake of the councell holden vnder Eutychius for Uigilius who was then Pope was neither present by himselfe nor by his Legates and consequently had not occasion to hold the second place but confirmed it by writing Vigilius saith Euagrius consented by letters with the Councell And Photius Vigilius approued by writing the faith of the Fathers And that he refused to assist there it was not as Nicephorus a Schismaticall author and later by manie ages pretends because hee disdayned to receiue the Bishop of Constantinople into one Seate with him that is to saie that he would haue sate in a seate more exalted For how should that haue bene put in dispute since the same Nicephorus saith it had bene practised twentie eight yeares before by Pope Iohn who had sate within Constantinople in a throne exalted aboue Epiphanius Patriarke of the place and that adds he not to abandon the prerogatiue of the Sea Apostolicke But forasmuch as he sawe the Emperor resolute to cause the three chapters to be condemned so were called certaine writinges of Theodorus of Mopsuestia of Ibas and of Theodoret which had bene read in the councell of Chalcedon and feared that if this condemnation should be made the Bishops of the Prouinces of the West not being present it might begett a schisme betweene those of the West and those of the East For those of the West held that to condemne those three chapters it was to giue aduantage to the Entychians and to make a breach in the Councell of Chalcedon who had receiued into their communion Ibas and Theodoret authors of those writinges and defendor of Theodorus of Mopsuestia and those of the East contrarywise held that to maintaine them was to giue aduantage to the Nestorians and to oppose the Councell of Ephesus which had condemned the doctrine therein contained and denied that to censure them was to doe wronge to the Councell of Chalcedon who had indeede receiued Theodoret and Ibas into their communion but after they had made them detest the doctrine of Nestorius For this occasion though Pope Uigilius in his particuler condemned these three chapters yet he would not assist at a Councell wherein they should goe about to condemne them publicklie vnlesse it had bene a generall Councell and wherein the Bishops of the West had bene present aswell as those of the East And he admitted not the reason alleadged by the Legates of the Councell that in the other generall Councells there had bene fewe Bishops of the West forasmuch as those fewe Bishops of the West which had bene in other generall Councells went thither after Councells holden vpon the same matter in the West whose resolution they bearing with them they carried the voice of all the westerne Church into the East To this feare there concurred also that that Vigilius had to renew the opinion that was held of him during his Antipapacie I saie during his Antipapacie because in the beginning Uigilius was intruded into the Papacie by the priuate sute of the Empresse who was an Eutychian his predecessor Siluerius a true and lawfull Pope still liuing with this simoniacall and hereticall couenant not onely to condemne the three chapters but to approue the faith of Anthymus which he did and therefore sometymes as false Pope and sometymes as an abettor of heretickes he was excommunicated by the true Pope Siluerius and by the Bishops that adhered to him and amongst others by the Prelates of Africa For those that suspect that Liberatus the most exact monument that we haue of antiquity hath bene depraued in the fall of Uigilius are mistaken seeing Victor
forasmuch as the one contributed to the vniuersalitie of the Councells the authoritie of those that sent them and the others conferred noe more but that of their owne persons or their particular Prouinces And therefore the assistance of Basilius Bishop of Gortyna at the Councell surnamed Trullian wherein he held not the place of the Pope but signed after all the other Patriarkes yea after some Metropolitans did nothing auaile to make it generall And as for the Archbishop of Rauenna he signed not from whence it is that Balsamon could not tell his name but because his predecessor had assisted by Atturney at the sixth Councell whereof the Councell Trullian pretended ro be a supplie a place to signe in was reserued for him as one absent in these words The place of the Bishop of Heraclea of him of Rauenna and of him of Corinth Therefore euen from that from whence Balsamon inferrs that the Bishop of Rauenna assisted at the Councell surnamed Trullian to witt from the Rolle of the subscriptions wee collect the contrarie that hee assisted not there at all And indeede if the Bishop of Rauenna or anie other Westerne Bishop had assisted there how could that Councell haue commtited the error it did committ besides 〈◊〉 others in approueing the Councell of Carthage holden vnder saint CYPRIAN for the rebaptisation of Heretickes For there was not a Bishop in the West soe ignorant as not to knowe that the Councell holden vnder saint CYPRIAN was an erroneous Councell whose doctrine was condemned by the Roman Church and had bene the seede and originall of the Donatists here sies For if they obiect with Balsamon and 〈◊〉 that the Councell surnamed Trullian that would be taken for a supplie of the sixth generall Councell and passe the Canons thereof for canons of the sixth Generall Councell attributes to it selfe in the forefrōt of their decrees the title of Generall Coūcell we answere that it was not because it was soe but because it expected to be soe by the addition of the Westerne Church and of the Pope for whom there was a blanke left to signe in aboue all the Patriarkes in these wordes A place for the most bolie Pope of Rome A thing that plainlie shewes that the Pope had noe deputies there Now soe farr was the Pope and the Westerne Church from signing to it as contrarywise they prepared themselues rather to indure Martyrdome For the Emperor hauing sent the copie of the Councell 〈◊〉 to Rome to praie the Pope to sett to his subscription the Pope rather chose to incurre all the Emperors hatred and persecution then to cōsent to it as BEDA an author of the same age testifies in these wordes The Emperor Iustinian the second saith he hauing sent Zacharie his Constable commaunded him to confine Pope Sergius to Constantinople because he would not fauour the 〈◊〉 Councell that he had made at Constantinople and had refused to signe it But the Garrison of Rauenna and of the neighboring place preuented the impious commaunds of the Emperor and repulsed 〈◊〉 with outrages and iniuries from the Cittie of Rome And it is not to be said either that Pope Adrian praised the allegation that Tarhasius Patriarke of Constantinople had made in his synodicall Epistle of the eightith two canon of that Coūcell against the Iconoclasts Or that the legates of the same Pope Adrian did not oppose themselues against the apologie that Tarhasius Patriarke of Constan tinople made for the canons of that Councell at the second Councell of Nicea For that Pope Adrian praised the allegation of Tarhasius it was not because of the authoritie of this Councell that Tarhasius had cited vnder the title of the sixth Councell but because of the doctrine of the canon which was sound and orthodoxall and that not onely the Popes legates did not oppose themselues against it but alsoe some Popes haue alleadged it against the Iconoclasts it was because the arguments taken from those canons were good in regard of the Greekes that had receiued them And besides that if the authoritie of the Sea Apostolicke had bene wounded in the Councell Trullian by the proceedings of the Emperor Iustinian Rhinotmete this wound had bene in some measure repaired by the same Emperor with his other crymes when at Pope Constantines arriuall in the East He prostrated himselfe saith BEDA on the Earth before him and praying him to intercede for his Sinnes renewed to him all the priuiledges of his Church But against this prescription the aduersaries to the Sea Apostolicke frame three principall obiections The first that Ruffinus speakeing of the Councell of Nicea saith that the Emperor by aduise of the Churchmen called a 〈◊〉 at Nicea and maketh noe particular mention of the Pope The second that Iulius reproached the Bishops of the Councell of Antioch That they had not called him to their Councell And the third that saint IEROM treating of a Councell holden amongst the Gaules cries What Emperor commaunded this Synod to be called To the first then of these obiections which is that Ruffinus saith That the Emperor by the aduise of the Clergie called a Councell at Nicea Wee answere that although Ruffinus because of the hate he bore to the Roman Church from whence he had bene excommunicated for his errors whould not expresse the historie but in generall termes and by these words by the aduise of the Church-men Neuerthelesse he alwaies giues it to be inferred from thence that the ecclesiasticall authoritie preceded the Emperiall conuocation and that the Emperiall conuocation was but an execution of the Ecclesiasticall aduise For whereas saint EPIPHANIVS saith That the care of Alexander Bishop of Alexandria moued Constantine to assemble the Councell this word moued excludeth not the meanes and interuention of the Pope to whom Alexander had written of it by especiall letters as Liberius testifies to the Emperor Constantius in these termes Wee haue the letters of the Bishop Alexander to Siluester of holie memorie by consequent is not incompatible with these words of the third generall Councell of Constantinople Constantine Augustus and Pope Siluester of Reuerend memorie called the famous Councell of Nicea To the second opposition which is that Iulius reproached it to the Bishops of the Synod of Antioch that they had not called him to their Councell from whence the Aduersaries of the Sea Apostolicke inferre that it did not belong to the Pope to call Councells Wee answere that the obiection is not valide and the reason of the nullitie is that this was not a generall Councell to which the conuocation of the Pope either mediate or immediate was necessary but a particular Councell of the Bishops of the Patriarkship of Antioch which the Patriarke of Antioch might call alone and at which the other Bishops who were but in small number assisted but by aggregation And therefore the Pope doth not reproach it to them that their Councell was not
called by him or at his instance but for 〈◊〉 much as that Councell which was a particular Councell had vndertaken as compounded of Arrian Bishops who violated all order and discipline to decide things that concerned the vniuersall Church ordayning in hate to saint ATHANASIVS That euery Bishop that after he had bene deposed by a Synod should continue still to performe episcopall functions without hauing bene first reestablisht by an other greater Synod should be incapable of restitution and that the lawes of the Church bore that there could noe decrees be made in the Churches that is to saie as Caluin himself interprets it for things regarding the vniuersall Church without the Sentence of the Bishop of Rome he reproacheth it to them that they had exceeded the power of a particular Councell That is to saie had decided the affaires which concerned the generall gouernement of the Church without hauing inuited him to assiste at it either by himself or by his Legats A thing that if we were stript of all other argumentes would sufficiently shewe the Popes authoritie for if the absence of the Pope alone and not of anie other Patriarke or Metropolitan were an impediment to the makeing of decrees to oblige the vniuersall Church how can it bee but the Pope must be head of the Church and Superior of the other Patriarkes To the third obiection which is that saint IEROM speaking of a certaine Councell holden amongst the Gaules cryes What Emperor hath commaunded this Synod to he assembled From whence they inferre that the Emperors onely called the generall Councells Wee answere it is a very Sophisme for the Councell whereof saint IEROM spake was not a generall Councell but a particular that Ruffinus pretends to haue bene holden in Gaule against saint HILLARY Nowe wee agree of all sides and Caluin himselfe confesses it that the Metropolitans Primates and Patriarkes called particular Councells And the Councells of the westerne Church holden at Rome by Pope DAMASVS in the tyme of the heresie of the Macedonians by Pope Celestine against the heresie of the Nestorians by Pope LEO against the heresie of the Eutychians by Pope Agatho against the heresie of the Monothelites inforced the most obstinate to confesse that the Pope if not as head of the vniuersall Church yet at least as Patriarke of the West called the Patriarchall Councells of the westerne Church and not onely called the Patriarchall Councells of the Westerne Church but alsoe when there was neede caused to be called extraordinarily the nationall or prouinciall Coūcells of such a Natiō or Prouince of the West as he thought to be necessarie as it appeares for Africa frō these wordos S. AVGVSTINE The Ecclesiasticall necessitie enioyned vs by the Reuerēd Pope Zosime Bishop of the Sea Apostolicke had drawne vs to Caesaria And for Macedonia Achaia and Thessalia from these of Pope LEO to Anastasius Bishop of Thessalonica his Legat in those prouinces If There be anie maior cause moued for which it shal be necessarie to cause an Episcopall assemblie to be called let it suffice thee to call two Bishops of euery Prouince such as the Metropolitans shall choose And for Spaine from these of the same LEO Wee haue sent letters to our bretheren and fellow Bishops of Arragon of Carthagena of Portugall and of Galitia and baue declared to them the assemblie of a generall Councell that is to saie generall for Spaine In which place they must not cauill vpon the word Councell and conuert it into Counsell For the first Councell of Bracara reporting the same historie saith By the commaundement of Leo the Bishops of Arragon Carthagena Portugall and Andaluzia held a Councell amongst them But besides the spirituall authoritie were it of Metropolitans Primates and Patriarkes for the calling of particular Councells be it of the Popes as wee pretend for the calling of generall Councells the temporall authoritie of the Emperors was alsoe requisite aswell to auoid state iealousies and hinder suspitions of conspiracies against the Empire as to take order for the Charge of transportations Staples and prouisions and to furnish the costes of the voyages which the Churches then newlie out of the persecution of the Pagans could yet hardlie beare And therefore when there was question of calling not onely generall Councells of all the Earth but alsoe the generall Councell of the Westerne Church the temporall authoritie of the Emperors concurred with the Spirituall authoritie of Popes for the execution of the conuocation The Emperor Valentinian saith Pope Sixtus the third tymefellowe to saint CYRILL hath commaunded by our authority that the Synod should be called And when there was question of calling Nationall Synods if it were within the countries of the Empire the authoritie of Emperors or of their lieuetenans was allso required and if it were within the ecclipsed countries or not depending from the Empire that of the Kings of the nations where it was to be celebrated must be ioyned thereto as when the first Councell of Bracara in Spaine was called it is said it was called by the commaundement of the glorious King Ariamira or according to others Theodomina And when the second Councell of Tours speakes of the first Councell of Orleans holden vnder Clouis it is said it was done at the request of the most inuincible king Clouis And when the second Councell of Mascon was holden vnder King Gontran it was ordained that the ordinarie Nationall Councells should be celebrated from three yeare to three yeare and that the care to cause them to be assembled appertained to the Bishop of Lion and the disposition to the most magnificent Prince Now if the temporall conuocation of Nationall Councells made by the Emperors or by the Princes of the Nations were 〈◊〉 impediment but that the spirituall conuocation of the same Councells might be due to the Primats of the Nations Why should the temporall conuocation of generall Councells made by the Emperor be an impediment why the authoritie to call them spiritually that is to saie in behalfe of spirituall and ecclesiasticall power might not belong to the Pope For that then as we haue newlie said the authoritie of Emperors was necessary and 〈◊〉 to make the decisions of Councells executorie by the Secular arme and by the ministers and officers of temporall iustice who otherwise would not haue labored to punish corporallie those that should contradict And that is the cause wherefore the Fathers of the Councells were soe carefull to sett this title in the forefront of their acts The most holie and generall Councell called by the authoritie of the most religious Emperor to the end to make their decrees executorie temporallie and by the ministrie of the Secular Tribunall but not to make them obligatorie in conscience and spirituallie For when was it saith saint ATHANASIVS that the iudgement of the Church hath euer taken authoritie from the Emperor And indeede who can doubt but that
done well in cutting of from the bodie of vnitie soe manie and soe great Churches of God And in truth how could S. IRENEVS haue reprehended the Pope for wante of power he that cries To the Roman Church because of a more powerfull principalitie that is to saie as aboue appeareth because of a principalitie more powerfull then the temporall or as we haue expounded otherwhere because of a more powerfull Originall it is necessarie that euerie Church should agree And therefore alsoe S. IRENEVS alleadgeth not to Pope Victor the example of him and of the other Bishops of the Gaules assembled in a councell holden expresselie for this effect who had not excommunicated the Asians nor the example of Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem and of the Bishops of Palestina assembled in an other Councell holden expressely for the same effect who had not excommunicated them nor the example of Palmas and of the other Bishops of Pontus assembled in the same manner and for the same cause in the Region of Pontus who had not excommunicoted them but onely alleadges to him the example of the Popes his predecessors The Prelates saith hee who haue presided before Soter in the Church where thou presidest Anisius Pius Hyginus Telesphorus and Sixtus haue not obserued this custome c. and neuerthelesse none of those that obserued it haue bene excommunicated And yet ô admirable prouidence of God the successe of the after ages shewed that euen in the vse of his power the Popes proceeding was iust For after the death of Victor the Councells of Nicea of Constantinople and of Ephesus excommunicated againe those that held the same custome with the prouinces that the Pope had excommunicated and placed them in the Catalogue of heretickes vnder the titles of heretickes Quarto decumans But to this instance Caluins Sect doe annexe two new obseruations the first that the Pope hauing threatned the Bishops of Asia to excōmunicate them Polycrates the Bishop of Ephesus and Metropolitan of Asia despised the Popes threates as it appeares by the answere of the same Polycrates to Pope Uictor which is inserted in the writings of Eusehius and of S. IEROM which S IEROM seemeth to approue when he saith hee reportes it to shewe the spirit and authoritie of the man And the second that when the Pope pronounced anciently his excommunications he did noe other thing but separate himselfe from the communion of those that he excommunicated and did not thereby separate them from the vniuersall communion of the Church To the first then we saie that soe farr is this epistle of Polycrates from abating and diminishing the Popes authority that contrary wise it greatly magnifies and exaltes it For although Polycrates blinded with the loue of the custome of his nation which he beleeued to be grounded vpon the word of God who had assigned the of the Month of March for the obseruation of the Pasche and vpon the example of saint IOHNS tradition maintaines it obstinately Neuertheles this that he answeres speaking in his owne name and in the name of the Councell of the Bishops of Asia to whom he presided I feare not those that threaten vs for my elders haue said it is better to obaie God then man Doth it not shew that had it not bene that he belieued the Popes threate was against the expresse word of God there had bene cause to feare it and he had bene obliged to obaie him for who knowes not that this answere it is better to obaie God then men is not to be made but to those whom we were obliged to obaie if their commaundements were not contrarie to the commaundments of God And that he adds that hee had called the Bishops of Asia to a Nationall Councell being summoned to it by the Pope doth it not insinuate that the other Councells where of Eusebius speakes that were holden about this matter through all the prouinces of the Earth and particularly that of Palestina which if you beleiue the act that Beda said came to his handes Theophilus Archbishop of Cesarea had called by the auctoritie of Victor were holden at the instance of the Pope and consequently that the Pope was the first mouer of the vniuersall Church And that the Councells of Nicea of Constantinople of Ephesus embraced the censure of Victor and excommunicated those that obserued the custome of Polycrates doth it not proue that it was not the Pope but Polycrates that was deceiued in beleiuing that the Popes commaundement was against Gods commaundement And that saint IEROM himselfe celebrates the Paschall homelyes of Theophilus Patriarke of Alexandria which followed the order of Nicea concerning the Pasche Doth it not iustifie that when saint IEROM saith that he reportes the Epistle of Policrates to shew the spirit and authoritie of the man he intends by authoritie not authoritie of right but of fact that is to saie the credit that Polycrates had amongst the Asians and other Quartodecumans To the second obseruation which is that when the Pope excommucated other Bishops Archbishops or Patriarkes he seperated himselfe from their communion but did not thereby seperate them from the communion of the Church Wee will doe noe other thing then examine examples that they alleadged for proofe of their hypothesis And yet we will not examine them all for we haue alreadie confuted the most part of them in the Chapters preceding as that of saint HILARY against Liberius and others the like We will onely treat of those that they propound to vs a newe which consist in three principall heades The first is that the fifth Coūcell of Carthage ordained that euery Bishop that should fall into the cases mentioned by the tenth and thirteenth canons of the same Councell should content himselfe with the communion of his one Church alone from whence they conclude that euerie excommunication did not import priuation of Sacraments The second that Nicephorus writes that Pope Vigilius hauing excommunicated Menas Patriarke of Constantinople for fower moneths Menas yeilded him the same measure And the third that Sigesbert speaking of the proceeding of Pope Innocent in the cause of saint CHRISOSTOME saith that Pope Innocent and the Bishops of the West suspended themselues from the communion of those of the East To the first then of these examples which is That the fifth Councell of Carthage odaines thà t euerie Bishop that should fall into the case of Canons aboue mentioned should content himself with the communion of his owne Church onelie Wee answere two things The one that the censure whereof the Canons of this Councell speake was not an excommunication but a restitution of communion by which those that did fall into the cases whereof there is question might administer the 〈◊〉 in their owne Diocesses and to their owne People but not out of their diocesses And the other that the Pope himselfe often vsed 〈◊〉 restriction as it appeares by the Epistle of
cutt it of frō the propheticall volumes and prohibited theirs from reading Now the Jewes could haue no faire colour to cutt of the Booke of 〈◊〉 from the rolle of the Canonicall Bookes but because it was not in 〈◊〉 Canon of Esdras a thing which likewise obliged them to cutt of all 〈◊〉 other Posthume bookes from the old restament so call I all the 〈◊〉 of the olde Testament which had bene writtē or published since 〈◊〉 of Esdras and after the death of Esdras as Ecclesiasticus the 〈◊〉 of Tobias the Booke of Iudith and the two Bookes of Machabees 〈◊〉 these causes then saint HIEROME tying himselfe to the catalogue of the Iewes vpon whose text and with whose helpe and particularly of a certaine Rabbin called Barabanus or Barhanina whom Ruffinus by way of reproch calls Barrabas he had made the translation of his Bible not only excludes in his prologue vpon the booke of Kings that he intitles the armed prologue and in his prologue vpon the Prouerbs all the whole bookes which were not in the canon of Esdras as were Wisedome Ecclesiacticus Tobias Iudith and the Machabees but also in his prologue vpon Daniell reiects all the partes of the canonicall Bookes not comprehended in the text of the Hebrowes as were the Canticle of the three Children and the historie of Susanna and that of Bel. The Booke of Daniell saith he amongst the Hebrewes containes neiter the history of Susanna nor the Himne of the three Children nor the fables of the Dragon of 〈◊〉 which neuerthelesse because they are spread ouer all the world we haue annexed thereto but after hauing marked them with an obeliske which precedes them and cutts their throate From whence it is that Ruffinus being growne his enemie reprocheth him thus All those then that supposed Susanna had furnished all married and vnmarried woemen with an example of Chastitie haue erred it is not true all those that conceaued that Daniel yet a child had bene fulfilled with the Spirit of God and had 〈◊〉 the adulterous Elders haue erred it is not true And the whole Church throughout the extent of the world as well as those that are still vpon the Earth as of those that are before our Lord be they holy coufessors be they holy Martyrs who haue sung in the Church of our Lord the Hymne of the thre Children haue all erred and sunge false things Now then after foure hundred yeares doth the truth of the Lawe bought with Siluer Soe he saith because saint HIEROM had giuen money to the Iewes to be helped by them in the edition of this Bible come to vs from the Synagogue And the third obseruation finally is that saint HIEROME being afterward more exactly instructed in the truth of the sence of the Church changed his opinion and retracted both in generall and particular all that he had written in these three prologues For in his Apologie against Ruffinus answering to his reproach about the historie of Susanna and of the Dragon of Bel and of the canticle of the three Children he saith Whereas I haue reported what the Hebrewes vsed to obiect against the historie of Susanna and the Hymne of the three Children and the fables of the Dragon of Bell which are not in the Hebrew volume c. I haue not explicated what I thought but what the Iewes were accustomed to saie against vs. And in his preface vpon the booke of Tobias The Hebrewes saith hee cutt of the booke of Toby from the Catalogue of the diuine Scriptures And againe The ie alousie of the Hebrewes doth accuse vs and imputes it to vs that against their Canon we transferr the booke of Toby into the latine eares but I iudge that it is better to displease the iudgement of the Pharises and to obay the commaundements of the Bishops And in the exposition vpon the fortie fourth Psalme Ruth Hester and Iudith haue bene so glorious as they haue giuen their names into the sacred volumes And in his preface vpon the historie of Indith The booke of Iudith said hee is read by the Hebrewes amongst the Hagiographs whose authoritie is esteemed lesse sufficient to decide contentious things c. but for as much as the Councell of Nicea is read to haue reckoned it amongst the holy Scriptures I haue obeyed your demaund Words which plainly retract what he had said in his Prologue vpon the Prouerbs As then the Church reads Iudith and Toby and the Machabees but receaues them not amongst the canonicall Bookes so may she reade Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the people but not for the confirmation of Ecclesiasticall Doctrines And which cannot be auoided by answering that the word holy Scriptures doth not there signifie Canonicall for the opposition that he makes of the Councell of Nicea to the Iewes which esteemed the Booke of Iudith amongst the Hagiograph bookes whose authoritie is reputed lesse sufficient to diuide contentious things stopps the mouth of that delusion And finallie in his commentarie vpon the Prophet Esay compounded long after the prologue armed he setts the historie of the Machabees amōgst the canonicall Bookes The Scripture saith he reportes that Alexāder king of the Macedonians came out from the land of Cethim Which some Latins that followed being ignorant of it befell that they were seperated from the common voyce of the westerne Church For although the greater part of the later Latine Doctors as Alcimus Bellator 〈◊〉 Isidorus haue followed the catalogue of S. AVS of the third Councell of Carthage and sett the historie of the Machabees amongst the canonicall Bookes yea that some of them as Bellator who liued in the tyme of the Emperor Iustinian the first haue illustrated it with cōmentaries neuerthelesse some others not knowing that S. HIEROME had chāged his opinion haue tyed themselues to that of S. HIEROME But in summe whatsoeuer the later Latine doctors haue done it is certaine that in the Latine Church neuer anie before S. HIEROME had remoued the authoritie of the six posthume bookes of the old Testamēt For whereas S. HILARIE in his commentary vpon the Psalmes cōposed or rather as S. HIEROME saith translated by him out of Origene whilst he was in the East writes that the nūber of the canonicall bookes of the old Testamēt is reduced according to the tradition of the Elders either to the number of the twétie two letters of the Hebrew alphabet or by the additiō of the Bookes of Iudith of Tobias to the nūber of twentie foure letters of the Greeke Alphabet besides that these markes are not the notes of S. HILARY but the notes of Origene in his cōmentary vpō the first psalme that S. HILARY hath transcribed in part into his prologue vpon the psalmes Hee meanes by the traditiō of the Elders not the traditiō of the Church but the traditions of the Iewes whereof some to wit
PERRONS REPLIE TO THE KING OF GREAT BRITAINE THE FOVRTH BOOKE THE ESTATE OF THE CHVRCH IN THE EAST CHAPT I. The continuance of the Kings answere HAd anie one presumed to alter or disguise euer so little the faith approued by the vvhole world it vvas easie euen for a Child to surprise and discouer in his noueltie him that should bring in a different doctrine and the robber of the truth being surprised all the pastors of the vvorld if it vvere needefull roused themselues vp and being once stirred vp gaue themselues noe rest till they had taken avvay the euill from amongst them and had prouided for the securitie of Christs flocke This vvas heeretofore the designation and felicitie of the Catholicke church but vvhich indured nōt manie ages THE REPLIE APPELLES answered one daie to one of this Schollers that had painted a Venus loaded with pearles carkanets and iewells because thou couldst not paint her faire thou hast painted her rich so though this discription be not adorned with truth which is the simple naked and naturall beautie of historie it is eloquent and adorned with rich and magnificent wordes But S. BASILL and S. HIEROM paint out the estate of Religion in their time in the east much otherwise S. BASILL when he saith To what shall we compare the state of the present times certainlie to a Sea-fight when Sea Captaines chased with the warr and inflamed to the combate set one vpon an other with a violent hate and nourisht with old iniuries And a while after The troubles stirred vp by the Princes of the earth swallow vp the people more horribly then all kinds of 〈◊〉 windes and tempests and a darke and sad night possesses the Churches the lights that God had placed to illuminate the soules of men being banisht from their Seas And S. HIEROME when he writes Because the East striking against it selfe by the antient furie of the people teares in little morsells the vndeuided coate of our lord wouen on high and that the foxes destroie the vine of Christ in such sort as it is difficult amongst the drie pitts that haue noe water to discerne where the sealed fouutaine and the inclosed garden is for this cause I haue thought that I ought to consult whith the Chaire of Peter and the faith praised by the mouth of the Apostle And a while after Now in the west the sunn of iustice is risen and in the East that Lucifer which was fallen hath sett vp his Throne aboue the starrs you are the light of the world you are the salt of the earth you are the vessells of gold of Syluer and the vessells of earth or wood doe here attend the rod of iron and the eternall And the historie of the following ages doth euen the same For when 〈◊〉 rose vp and after he had bene iudged in the first instance by Flanianus Bishop of Constantinople appealed or pretended to haue appealed to the Pope and was againe iudged and deposed in the second instance by him what came of it The Emperor Theodosius gouerned by 〈◊〉 an abettor of Eutyches caused a Councell to be held vnder the title of Generall at Ephesus where by force and by strong hand he caused Dioscorus the Patrō of Eutyches heresie to preside the legates of the Pope for this cause quitting the place fled In that Coūcell Eutyches was restored Flauianus deposed and slaine after he had neuerthelesse appealed from his condemnation to the Pope and the Eutychian heresie was subscribed by Dioscorus Patriarke of Alexandria Maximus Patriarke of Antioch Iuutnall Patriarke of Hierusalem and almost by all the Bishops of the Councell some by their good wills and others by force The Pope againe takes the cause of the faith in hand pursues the holding of a new Councell which was that of Chalcedon were that heresie is condemned and Dioscorus and Eutyches and all his abettors deposed and excommunicated and in Dioscorus steed there was substituted in the patriarkshipp of Alexandria Proterius a catolicke and partaker with the Councell of Chalcedon to Proterius there succeeded Timothie an 〈◊〉 and paracide of his Predecessor who againe sett on foote the Eutychian heresie in the Sea of Alexandria and in Egipt and disannulled there the decrees of the Councell of Chalcedon a while after into the Sea of Antioch there entred PETER surnamed the Tanner likewise an enemie to the Councell of Chalcedon and professor of the heresie of 〈◊〉 Likewise there came to Constantinople Acacius who communicated with Peter Bishop of Antioch and there was installed in the Empire Zeno an Eutychian and disannuller of the Councell of Chalcedon and all the Easterne Church miserablie rent by the factions of those that held some for the Councell and some against it and others neither for nor against it whom they called neuters so longe that after some changes of Patriarks sometimes Catholicks and some times Eutychians all the naturall Churches of Egypt and those of Ethiopia that is to saie all that acknowledged the Egiptian Patriarke of Alexandria haue remained and perseuered still to this daie in the profession of the Eutychian heresie Such was then in the east vnder the Emperors abusing their authoritie the designation and felicitie of the Church and such was the facilitie euen for Children except those that cast their eyes vpon the communion of the Roman Church to knowe the robbers of the truth and for pastors to driue awaie the euill from among them For as for the west the Patriarshipp of the Roman Church hath alwaies had this particular blessing that within the 〈◊〉 of the extent thereof the Catholicke Church notwithstanding the infidelitie of the Emperors had bene without comparison more visible and more eminent as being the Ensigne Colonell and that where to the others ought to haue regard and vnder which they should gather themselues then in the other Patriarkships From whence it is that what S. HIEROM writes in the forme of a historie of former times when he saith to Pope Damasus The wicked children hauing dispersed their patrimonie amongst you 〈◊〉 is preserued vncorrupted the inheritance of the fathers S. LEO seemeth to saie it informe of a prophecie of those that are to followe who pronounces That none of the Patriarchall 〈◊〉 sauing that of Rome shall remaine firme and stable What the diuision of the Empire hath wrought to the diuision of the Church CHAP. II. The continuance of the Kinges answere FOR after the Empire being ouerthrowne and the forme of the common wealth changed new gouernments haue risen vp manie in number different in manners distinct in languages lawes and institutions The diuision of the Empire hath drawne after it the diuision of the Catholicke Church and all those thinges that wee saie nowe to haue serued 〈◊〉 to the preseruation of the vnion and externall Communion of the Catholicke Church haue ceased by little and little THE REPLIE THE diuision of the Empire hath not
carnally that Peter that should tell them knew them 〈◊〉 FOR that in the sixth of S. IOHN S. PETER answeres in common for all the Apostles Wee beleeue and knowe thou art Christ the Sonn of the liuing God besides that the Latine editions haue not the word liuing Wee saie it was a later thing for as much as when sainct PETER answered Wee beleeue and know that thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God hee had bene alreadie constituted head and Prince of the other Apostles and in this qualitie he answered alone for all the rest as sainct CYRILL testifies in these wordes By one that presided or that was preeminent all answered and had alreadie receiued the promisses of our Lord that vpon him he would build his Church As S. CYPRIAN declares in these wordes Peter speakes heere vpon whom the Church had bene built And therefore as the Apostles had part in the primacie of this confession only by adherence and non-repugnancie so our Lord gaue them part in the authotitie he had giuen to S Peter by adherence and communication with S. PETER that is to saie vnder condition of cōmunicating and adhearing and remayning in vnitie with saint PETER And yet this part that he promised and gaue them in the rule and ministrie of the Church was afterward to witt as in right in the eighteenth of saint MATHEW What yee bind on earth shall be bound in heauen And as the installment into the possession in the twentith of saint IOHN Receiue the holie Ghost whose sinns yee forgiue shall be forgiuen to the end to shewthat to sainct PETER ōly the cōditiō of being a Rock that is to sa rule and foundation of the building of the Church had bene principallie and originally giuen and that afterwards it was extended to the other Apostles it was by aggregation and association and by communicating and adhering with him and as hauing relation and correspondence to him as to the Center and middle forme of the veritie of the Church For as God gaue first his spiritt to Moyses and after tooke of the Spiritt that he had giuen to Moyses and gaue thereof to the seauen tie two Elders not that God tooke awaie from Moyses anie portion of the spiritt that he had giuen him not that the spirit of God was diuisible but to the end to establish and shew a relation of vnitie dependencie and adherencie of the seauentie two Elders to Moyses Soe in some sort for I compare not the two histories wholie our Lord gaue first the whole authoritie of the ministrie and the Chaire Apostolicke to saint PETER alone I intend as in right and not in actuall possession which he receaued not till after the Resurrection and after 〈◊〉 it to all the twelue Apostles in common to the end to shew the relation of dependencie vnitié and adherence that they ought to haue with saint PETER whom vpon this occasion Macharius an antient Egiptian diuine calls the successor of Moyses Afterward said hee to Moyses succeeded Peter to whom the new Church of Christ and the true priesthood hath bene committed Which hath caused the Fathers to saie that there was but one Chaire which was the Chaire of PETER but that in this Chaire all the Apostles were placed to witt by the adherence communion and vnitie that they had with S. PETER In the Episcopall Chaire saith saint OPTATVS Mileuitanus there is sett the head of all the Apostles Peter from whence he also hath bene called Cephas to the end that in this only Chaire vnitie might be preserued in all least the other Apostles should attribute to themselues euery one his Chaire a parte but that he might be a Schismaticke 〈◊〉 that against this onelie Chaire should erect an other And therefore also the surname of PETER by which this Condition of being the foundation of the rule of the Church is designed hath bene giuen to him only to beare it in the title of a proper name and not to anie other Apostle to show that to him by excellencie and eminencie ouer all the rest appertained the thing whereof he alone bore the name For since our Lord should by the word PETER designe the condition of being the ministeriall foūdation of the Church for what cause should he affect it to Peter alone to beare it in the title of a proper and ordinarie name and not giue it to anie other if he were not to bea foundation of the Church in an other manner then the rest Which S. BASILL hath in such sort acknowledged as desiring to shew the difference which is betweene the substance and the hipostaticall proprieties of anie subiect he alleadgeth for example of the substance the substāce of humanitie which is commō to PETER PAVL although said he the appellations be different yet the substance of Peter and Paule and of all men is one and alleadgeth amongst the examples of the hypostaticall indiuiduall and incommunicable conditions of PETER that is to saie which are particular to him onely and are not common to him with saint PAVL nor with anie other the condition of being the foundation of the Church Because said he the names of men signifie not their substances but the proprieties whereby each of them is designed in particular From thence it is that when wee heare the name of Peter we vnderstand not his substance c. but conceiue the sence of the proprieties which are perticular to him For as soone as wee heare this word wee vnderstand Peter the Sonne of Ionas he that was of Bethsaida he that was Brother to Andrew he that of a Fisherman was made an Apostle he that 〈◊〉 reason of the supereminencie of his Faith receiued vpon him the edification of the Church AND for this same cause to saint PETER onely there hath bene conferred singularlie separately and apart the authoritie of the rule of the Church and to all the rest onely in common and ioyntlie with him to the end to shew that he was the originall the source the center and the beginning of the vnitie of the Church and that no other out of his Communion could exercise the rule and ministrie thereof but that the rest had right to exercise it it is onely as associated and aggregated with him and as grafted and inserted vpon him For our Lord neuer said singularly to anie of the Eleuen Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke I will build my Church and I will giue thee the keies of the Kingdome of heauen nor I haue praied for thee that thy faith shall not faile And finallie Thou being conuerted confirme thy Bretheren nor louest thou me more then these feede my sheepe But only hath said in generall to all the Bodie of the Apostles sainct PETER being Colleague present and comprehended therein that which he had said before to saint PETER alone as to the head That which yee shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and they
of the Church his mother the cursed and vncleane birds shall peck it out Of the exclusion of hereticks from the Bodie of the Catholick Church CHAPT VII The continuance of the Kings answere THE Roman Church then the Greeke the Antiochian the Egyptian the Abyssine the Musco uite and manie others are members more excellent in truth in doctrine and sinceritie of faith the one then the other but yet members of the Catholicke Church whereof the Masseand contexture as for externall forme is alreadie long agoe dissolued and disassembled THE REPLIE AND what shall then become of that his maiestie lately said that the specificall forme and essentiall marke of the Church is truth of doctrine and that there is noe communion betweene light and darknes and betweene Christ and Belial And that he that leaues Christ who is truth it self leaues the Church which is the foundation of truth if not onlie the Greekes Antiochians and Muscouites who are hereticks in the point of the processio of the holie Ghost which the most excellēt King doth with vs hold for an article of Faith which in this qualitie is inserted into ATHANASIVS his Creede and into the Creede of the Coūcell of Cōstātinople as it is read in the westerne Church which his maiestie professeth to imbrace but also the Egiptians and Ethiopians which followe the sect of Eutyches anathematised and cast out of the Church by the Councell of Chalcedon neere twelue hundred yeares ag oeād 〈◊〉 in the doctrine of the person of Christ which is the fundamentall doctrine of the Church and that whereof S. PAVLE saith None can laie 〈◊〉 other foundation besides Christ are Churches and partes of the Catholicke Church A Lacedemonian answered an inhabitant of the Isle of Delphos who told him that the woemen were not deliuered of Child in their Isle but trauelled out of it to be brought to bed and that their dead were not buried there but that they were carried forth of it to their Sepulcher And how then is it your countrie said hee if you be neither borne nor buried there Soe how is it that the Sect of hereticks and namely those of the Egiptians and Ethiopians with whom the Coūcell of Chalcedon forbidds vs to communicate vpon paine of Anathema and of whom saint Iohn himself tells vs If anie one confesse not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh he is a seducer and Antichrist And againe If anie one bring not this Doctrine receiue him not into your howses and saie not to him well be it with thee for whosoeuer saith vnto him well be it with thee communicates in his wicked workes should obtaine the being and title of the Church that is to faie of the Spirituall countrie of the Faithfull if to be borne in the grace of God and to breathe their first aire of spirituall life wee must first goe forth of their Societie and if to obtaine Saluation and to rest in peace after death wee must first renounce their communion God said to the Church by the mouth of Salomon Thou art wholie faire and there is noe spott in thee that is to saie as for doctrine and conditions of communion And by the mouth of Esaie None incircumcised or vncleane shall anie more passe through thee that is to saie None that publickly professe a polluted or impure doctrine Hee saith by the mouth of Ezechiell describinge the future state of the christiā church I will establish an alliāce of peace with my sheepe and will cause the euill beastes of the Earth to cease Which the Sibilla seemes to haue expressed in these words repeated by Virgill and that sainct AVGVSTINE saith might fitlie be applied to the Church Serpents shall cease swoll'n vp with th'impure blood Of poysenous herbes in their deceiptfull bud And how then should the mock Councells of hereticks which sainct HIEROME calls Denens of wilt beasts whose doctrine he calls the wine of 〈◊〉 mingled witd the gall of Aspes be Churches partes of the Church or how should the Church to whom God hath spirituallie giuē the same prerogatiue thar the historians attribute corporallie to the Isle of Creete to witt that it can suffer noe venomous beast in it that is to saie noe dogmatizing heretick communicate her name and societie with the venemous sects of heteticks Hee saith by the mouth of Osea I will espouse 〈◊〉 in faith And by that of Sainct PAVLE the edification of God is in faith And the most Excellent King himselfe protesteth that the essentiall forme of the Church is faith And how then can the sects not only of the Egiptians and Ethiopians but of all the hereticks which makes as saith S. PAVLE a Shipwracke of faith be Churches and in the Church Hee saith by his owne mouth the gates of hell shall not haue victorie ouer the Church And S. EPIPHANIVS and S. HIEROME interpret those Gates of Hell to be heresies And how then can it be that the hereticall societies into whose communion wee cannot enter without yeelding our selues tributarie to the gates of hell should be Churches and partes of the Church For though vices in manners belong also to the powers of hell neuerthelesse because the vices are but in the persons of those that committ them and not in the communion of the Church for as much as the Church exacts not from anie of her members the condition of being vicious to receaue them into her communiō they shall but conquer those particular persons that are spotted therewith and not the Church of the which God hath said by the Prophets Hierusalem shal be called the cittie of truth and the mountaine of the Lord of Hostes and the sanctified hill And by an other the howse of Israel shall noe more from 〈◊〉 forward be foyled whereas heresie infects the communions of the Societie where it remaines none being to enter into anie hereticall societie without obliging themselues to the doctrine where of she makes profession and vnder whose condition she receaues men into her communion and by consequent makes the gates of Hell victorious ouer the congregatiō wherein shee remaines He cōmaūds vs to hold those that heare not the Church for Heathens and Publicās he forbidds vs then from accounting the societies of heŕeticks which heare not the Catholique Church for Churches and partes of the Church but for Societies of 〈◊〉 and Heathens He saith to vs That whosoeuer gathers not with him scatters the hereticks then that gather not with him gather not but scatteŕ and so their assemblies are noe more Churches but dispertions He cries out to vs by the Organ of saint PAVLE That whosoeuer declares against what we haue receiued should be an anathema Hee wills then that heretickes should be held by the Church for anathema and consequently excluded from the communion both internall and externall of the Church He teacheth vs by the same Oracle that the Church is our mother
and not our mother as the first Eue was who engendred her children dead to Saluation but as the second Eue who engendred her children liuing From whence it is that saint AMBROSE and saint HIEROME call the Church the true Eue mother of the liuing And how then is it that hereticall sects who amongst the conditions vnder which they receiue men into their communion oblige them to hold killing doctrines should attribute to thēselues the title of a Church Hee teacheth vs that the Fathers of the Earth will not giue their children a Scorpion for an egge or a Serpent for a Fishe And how then is it that the Church should giue hers poyson insteede of wholesome food or that hereticall sects whose wine saith saint HIEROM is the furie of Dragons and the incurable furie of Aspes should bee Churches Hee teacheth vs that the Church is the Waie the Gate and Entrie into the Kingdome of Heauen yea for this cause himself often calls it the Kingdome of Heauen it is then of the Essence of the Church that Saluation might be therein obtained and the waie howe to come to the Kingdome of Heauen and consequently that amongst the conditions vnder whose obligation she receiues men into her communion there be none repugnant to Saluation Now contrarywise it is of the Essence and of the definition of hereticall and Schismaticall Societies that amongst the conditions vnder which they receiue men into their communion there are conditions repugnant to Saluation otherwise they could not be hereticall Schismaticall And so it is of the Essence and of the definition of the Church not to be hereticall and it is of the Essence and of the definition of hereticall Societies contrarywise not to be Churches nor partes of the Church and they cannot be called Churches nor members of the Church but falselie and equiuocallie as a dead member that is cutt off from the Bodie is noe member but equiuocallie and by abuse of speeche of as a dead man or a man either formed in picture or raised in a Sculpture is noe man but equiuocally by abuse of speech By meanes whereof it is to erre against the Essence and definition of the Church to hold them for Churches or to reckon them in the totalitie of the catholick Church and to this all the Fathers agree Heresies saith Clemens Alexandrinus are equiuocallie called Churches And saint CYPRIAN Nouatianus doth as Apes doe who would seeme to be men though they be not soe so will he seeme to haue a Church though he haue none And againe When the Nouatians demaunded beleeuest thou the remission of sinns by the holie Church they lye in their Interrogatorie for they haue noe Church And the Elibertine Councell If anie one passe from the Catholick Church vnto heresie and returne againe to the Church c. And the Councell of Sardica Wee cast out of the limtts of the Catholicke Church those that affirme Christ to be God and not verie God And saint HIEROME Heretick make in their Church by false appellation that which they made when they were yet heathen And againe Noe hereticall congregation can be called the Church os Christ. And elsewhere In what Church hath he beleeued in that of the Arrians but they haue none And in the same worke If thou hearest in anie place of men denominated from anie other then from Christ as Marcionites Ualentinians Montagniers or Campites knowe that there is not the Church of Christ. And Optatus Mileuitanus Out of the onelie Church which is the true Catholick Church others amongst hereticks are esteemed to be and are not And againe There is one onely Church which cannot be amongst you and amongst vs it remaines then that she must be in one place And S. AVGVSTINE you are with vs in the creede and in the other Sacraments of our Lord c but you are not with vs in the Catholique Church And againe There is one Catholique Church vpon which other 〈◊〉 impose other names although themselues be all called by particular names which they dare not disauowe From whence it appeares in the iudgement of Iudges not preoccupate with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed And elsewhere The Church of the saints is the Catholique Church the Church of the Saints is not the church of Hereticks She hath bene predesigned before she was seene and hath bene exhibited that she might bee seene And in the Booke of Faith and of the creede Neither do the Hereticks belonge to the Catholick church because she loues God nor the Schismatickes because She loues her neighbour And in the Booke against the Fundamentall Epistle In this Church finallie the name of Catholique detaines me which this Church alone amongst so manie and so great heresies hath so preserued as when a stranger askes where they assemble to the Catholick Church there is noe hereticke dare she we his Temple or his howse And in his Treatise vpon saint IOHN All hereticks and Schismaticks are gone out from vs that is to saie are gone out from the Church Faustinus was not President to a Church but to a faction The holie Ghost hath not glorified Christ with a true glorie but in the Catholick Church for elsewhere addeth hee be it amongst hereticks be it amongst Pagans his true glorie vpon earth cannot bee And vpon sainct MATTHEW Jewes and all other hereticks which doe indeede confesse that there is a holy Ghost but denie that he is in the bodie of Christ which is his onely Church no other certainelie but onely the Catholicke are without doubt like the Pharises who though they did confesse that there was an holie Ghost yet denied him to be in Christ. And in the Booke of the method to cathecise the not instructed Wee must saith hee garnish and animate the infirmitie of man against temptations and scandalls be it without or be it within the Church 〈◊〉 against Gentiles or 〈◊〉 or hereticks and within against the Strawe in the Barne of our Lord. And againe Let not the Enemie seduce thee not only by those that are without the Church whether Pagans or Iewes or Hereticks but euen by those that thou seest in the Church euill liuers And in the fowrth Councell of Carthage where he assisted in person Let not the Conuenticles of Hereticks be called Churches but mock-Councells And the verie lawe of the Emperors Hereticks rashlie presume to call their Conuenticles Churches Now if this haue place in other heresies to witt that the beeing and title of a Church is denied to them how much more in that of the Eutychians that is to saie of the Egyptians and Ethiopians which destroy not the walles the roofe and the couering onely but the foundation of the Edifice of Faith vpon the which all the other partes of the doctrine are built to witt Christ the corner stone and maintaine
this cause soe abhor Achaz as being dead although his owne sonn succeeded him they did not 〈◊〉 him in the sepulcher of his Fathers THE fifth obiection is taken from the foure hundred Prophetts that Achab caused to come and prophecie before Josaphat who were all found false prophetts and Micheas alone a true Prophet But neither did this fall out in the kingdome of Iuda where was the seate of the Church but in the kingdome of Israel neither were those Prophets of the colledge of the Prophetts of Baal and of the qualitie of those of whom before Elias had said Take all the Prophetts of Baal and let not one man escape And of whom afterward Elias said to Ioram sonn of the same Achab What is there betweene me and thee Goe to the Prophets of thy Father and of thy mother And therefore when Iosaphat would cause Micheas to come hee asked him is there not heere one Prophet of the Lord to distinguish him from the Prophetts of Baal by this word of the Lord which is the same difference which Iehu afterwards vsed when being desirous to put Baal's Priests to death he said Take beede least there be anie of the seruantes of the Lord amongst you but lett the seruant of Baal be only heere The sixth obiection is taken from the historie of Manasses an Idolatrous Prince and who caused all manner of abominations and false worshipp to be practised in Hierusalem and Iuda But besides this that hee came afterward to repentance and then draue awaie all the Idolls and all the false Gods from Hierusalem and commaunded the people of Iuda to serue God euen then when he exercised his greatest impieties the church and the multitude of Gods true seruants were not for all that inuisible Contrariwise the scripture saith that he shedd so much innocent blood as Hierusalem was filled there with euen vp to the throate By meanes whereof although there had then bene no solemne assemblies in the Synagogues of Iuda and that all publicke exercise had bene suspended there yet the slaughter of the faithfull yet warme still breathing and the voyce of their blood which smoaked and cryed for vengeance as that of Abel before heauen and earth permitied not that the true Religion should be vnknowne and inuisible there For as manie executions and martirdomes as there were so manie sacrifices of praise and sweete smell were they soe manie professions of Faith soe manie sermons so manie seales and sacraments of the true beleefe which refresht and confirmed the memorie of the doctrine of saluation euen in the spiritts of those that persecuted it for as much as all men knew and themselues protested the cause wherefore they were banisht pursued and martyred For the Church is not only illustrated by her Lillies but also by her roses that is to saie she is not only euident by her quiet and peaceable exercises which are the congregations to heare and adore the word of God and to communicate in the sacramentes but also by her militarie exercises dyed in blood which are the martyrdomes and the executions suffered for the defence of the Faith which doe often no lesse increase her fame and renowne in the times wherein she is oppressed then in the seasons wherein she enioyes more calme quiet and fulfills without hindrance her ordinarie and accustomed workes Soe as S. AVGVSTINE saith she is then eminent in her most stedfast champions THE seauenth obiection is taken from the transmigration of Babilon during with time they pretend that the visible communion of the Iewish Church was interrupted But who knowes not that the Iewes during this exile had the true externall exercise of their religion wherein they wrought their Saluation performed the visible obseruation of all their worships seruices and ceremonies except of the Sacrifice alone which could not be offered but in the Temple and were euidently distinguished from other nations witnes these wordes of Aman to Assuerus There is a people 〈◊〉 ouer all the Prouinces of thy Kingdome and diuided into manie partes that practises new lawes and ceremonies And these of the historian Manie other nations and sects ioyned themselues to their religion and to their ceremonies For that this historie fell out in the time of the transmigration it appeares by this that it is said that Mardocheus was one of those that had bene transported from Hierusalem in the time of Nabuchodonosor and of Iechonias And it is not cōtradictorie to this that Assuerus writes that Amā was a Macedonian and would haue betraied the Empire to the Macedonians For the copie of the same epistle reported by Iosephus sixteene hundred yeares a gone hath it Allophilus that is to saie a stranger And that the Greeke Latine Edition saith a Macedonian it proceedes from the Syriacke translation of the same Epistle made after the death of Alexander after which all strangers in Asia were called Macedonians as at this daie all those of the west are called Frankes there From whence it is that the Syriacke edition saith that Assicerus was cloathed in a Macedonian habit that is to saie in the habit of a stranger THE eight obiection is taken from the writings of the Prophetts who often deplored the dessolation of the seruice of God in their people But either they spake of the portion of the Kingdome of Israel diuided from that of Iuda and of the faction of the schismaticall Israelites who were no more the Church and to whom God protested by the mouth of Ieremie that he had giuen the libell of diuorce Or if they spake of that of the Kingdome of Iuda S. AVGVSTINE teacheth vs that they spake prophetically and by an analogie of time of the future Estate of the Iewish people such as they should be after the death of our Lord Or if they spake by Synecdoche and according to the stile of preachers who censure the vices of particular persons in generall termes to the end to reproue as S. AVGVSTINE saith of S. HILARY the more seuerelie that which they reproue more vniuersallie that is to saie that they spake of certaine particular persons who either abandoned the Religion of their Fathers some to followe that of the Pagans that sacrificed to Idolls some to followe that of the Schismatickes who sacrificed in the high places or if they remained in the true religion and communion liued wickedlie there as concerning manners They collect saith S. AVGVSTINE speaking of the Donatists he might haue added the Caluinists to them either ignor antlie or fraudulentlie the places of Scripture which are spoken either of the wicked which are nimgled with the good vntill the end or of the destruction of the first people of the Iewes and would wrest them against the Church of God that she may seeme to haue failed and to be perisht from the whole earth The ninth and finall obiection is taken from the comdemnation that the Iewish Church made of the Sauiour of
in the epistle to Iohn Bishop of Syracusa Who doubts but the Church of Constantinople is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke which the most Religious Lord the Emperor and our brother the Bishop of the same cittie protest continuallie Hee writes in the Epistle following to the same Bishop If there be anie cryme found in Bishops I know noe Bishop but is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke but when crimes exact it not all according to the condition of humilitie are equall He writes in the Epistle to Iohn the defendant correcting the iudgement which had bene giuen against the Bishop Steuen If they answere he had neither Metropolitan nor Patriarke it must be replied that the cause should haue bene heard and determined by the Sea Apostolicke which is the head of all the Churches He writes in the Fpistle to Iohn Bishop of Panormus Wee admonish thee that the Reuerence of the Sea Apostolicke be not troubled by the presumption of anie For then the state of the members remaines intire when 〈◊〉 iniurie is done to the head of the faith He writes in the Epistle to Natalis Bishop of Salona If one of the fower Patriarks had committed such an act so great a disobedience could not haue passed without a grieuous scandall He annulled in his Epistles to Iohn Bishop of Constantinople the Iudgement of the Church of Constantinople against Iohn Priest of Chalcedon Reprouing said he the sentence of the foresaid Iudges we declare him by our definition to be Catholicke and free from all hereticall crime And elsewhere Knowst 〈◊〉 not that in the cause of Iohn the Priest against our brother and Colleague John of Constantinople He had recourse according to the Canons to the Sea Apostolicke and it hath bene defined by our sentence He abrogated in his Epistle to Athanasius 〈◊〉 Regular of Lycaonia the decree of Iohn Bishop of Constantinople against him and restored him to his place Wee decree thee said he to be exempted from all blott of hereticall frowardnes and doe grant thee free leaue to returne into thy Monasterie and to holde the same place and ranke as thou didst before He abrogated in the Epistle to Iohn Archbishop of Larissa in Thessalia the sentence of the same Archbishop of Larissa against Adrian Bishop of Thebes and one of the fuffragans of the Archbishopricke of Larissa and ecclipsed the Bishopricke of Thebes from the iurisdiction of the Archbishopricke of Larissa and ordained that if the Archbishop of Larissa should euer more vndertake to exercise iurisdiction ouer the Bishop of Thebes he should be depriued of the communion of the Body of Christ and that it might not be restored to him except at the point of death but by the leaue of the Bishop of Rome Wee ordaine said hee that thy brotherhood obtaine from the power thou hadst before ouer the Bishop of Thebes and ouer his Church and according to the letters of our Predecessor for if anie cause either of faith or of crime or of money be pretended against our said Colleague Adrian it may be iudged if it be a matter of meane importance by our Nuncios which are or shall be in the Royall Cittie that is to saie in Constantinople and if it be a matter of Weight that it should be reported bither to the Sea Apostolicke to be decided by the sentence of our audience And if at anie time or for what occasion 〈◊〉 thou doe attempt to contradict this our decree know that we declare thee 〈◊〉 from the sacred Communion soe as it maie not be restored to thee vnlesse in the article of death but with the leaue of the Bishop of Rome And finally he abrogated in his Epistle to John Patriarke of the first Iustinianea who had confirmed the sentence of the Archbishop of Larissa the iudgement of the said Iohn Primate of the first Iustinianea and condemnes him to remaine depriued of the communion of the Bodie of Christ for the space of thirtie daies Abrogating said hee and annulling the decrees of thy sentence Wee decree by the authoritie of the blessed Prince of the Apostles that thou shalt be depriued of the sacred communion for the space of thirtie daies Nowe what was this but to crye with a lowde voice that in refusinge the title of Vniuersall he refused not therefore the title of Head of the Church and the Iurisdiction and superintendency ouer all other Bishops Archbishops and Patriarks Of the Order of sitting in the Councell of Nicea CHAPT VIII BVT Caluin to fight against this doctrine and to proue that the Pope is not head of the Church nor Superior to the other Patriarkes vseth fower principall meanes first that the Popes legates haue not presided in the ancient Generall Councells The secōd that the Pope called them not The third that the appeales of Bishops were not to the Pope And the fourth that the Canons of Africa forbadd the Bishop of the first Sea by which Caluin impertinently 〈◊〉 the Pope to call himselfe Prince of Bishops and the first meanes he striues to proue by Seauen examples which wee had best confute all at a clapp for 〈◊〉 they will obiect them to vs in a second Answere He produceth then before all things the order of the Councell of Nicea which he ignorantly calls the Councell of Nice not knowing that the Councell of Nice was an hereticall Councell that the Arrians held at Nicé in Thrace to deceiue the Catholicks by the affinitie of the words Nice and Nicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compounded almost of the same letters The Arrians saith the Epistle of the Asians to Liberius caused to be signed by fraude and periuries at Constantinople a faith contrarie to that of the holy Councell of Nicea which had bene brought from Nice in Thrace And Socrates They transported themselues into a cittie of Trace called Nice and after a longe st aie held there an other Councell c. to surprise the simple by the affinitie of the words For the simple people belieued that it was the faith of Nicea in Bithinia And Theodoret They brought manie Bishops against their wills into a Towne of Thrace whose name was Nice And Sozomene Passing through Thrace they came into a cittie of the Countrie called Nice 〈◊〉 there kept a Conuenticle c. And this they did expressely at Nice to the end to perswade the simple people to cōsent to it 〈◊〉 by the neerenes of the words and belieuing it to be the decree which was made at Nicea For although Stephanus doe indeede put in a Cittie of Nicea in Thrace neuerthelesse besides that Ammianus Marcellinus saith that the 〈◊〉 of Thrace situate vpon the passage from Italie to Constantinople which was the same wherein the Arrians had held their false Councell was called Nice The Greciā Ecclesiasticall historians very notablie marke this difference betweene the Councell of the Catholiques and that of the Annians vpon
whose sinns yee forgiue shall be forgiuen Which hath moued saint CYPRIAN to saie that Christ hath instituted saint PETER the originall of vnitie PETER saith he vpon whom Christ hath built his Church and instituted him the originall of vnitie And againe One chaire built vpon Peter by the voyce of our Lord. And for this occasion as although in a tree there be but the stocke and the bodie of the tree only that succeedes and is tied by direct continuance with the roote neuerthelesse the other branches are tied to it by oblique and collaterall succession and continuance Soe though there bee but only the Bishop of Rome that is saint PETERS successor in direct succession neuerthelesse all the Bishops are esteemed in some sort to be sett in saint PETERS Chaire and to be in a manner saint PETERS successors to witt by oblique and indirect succession because of the communication that they haue with the Chaire of S PETER But the Bishops are neuer said neither in their whole bodie nor separately to be successor to anie other particular Apostle but are said either in generall to bee the Apostles successors or in particular successors to S. PETER as to him that for being the head of the Apostleship containes in vertue all the Apostolicke Bodie so as neuer anie one Bishop hath called himself successor to anie other Apostle except those that haue succeded locallie to anie one of the other Apostles as the Bishops of Hierusalem are in title successors to saint IAMES BVT against this exposition the aduersaries to the Primacie forme thriteen oppositions the first that our Lord adds presently after speaking to Peter Got behind me Sathan The seconde that he cries out If anie one amongst you desire to bee greatest he shall be the least The third that S. PETER forbids from domineering ouer the flockes The fourth that the Apostles sent PETER and IOHN into Samaria The fifth that S. IAMES voted last in the Councell of Hierusalem The sixth that S. PAVLE names S. IAMES before S. PETER The seauenth that the same S. PAVL saith that the Ghospell of the Gentiles was committed to him as that of the circumcision to PETER The eighth that he saith S PETER walked not right in the Ghospell The ninth that he saith he resisted him to his face because he was reproueable The tenth that S. CYPRIAN writes that the other Apostles were the same that Peter was The eleauenth that EVSEBIVS reportes out of S. CLEMENT Alexandrinus that PETER IAMES and IOHN contested not amongst themselues for the honor but made IAMES Bishop of the Apostles The twelfth that Sainct CHRISOSTOME writeth that the other Apostles yeelded the Throne to IAMES And the thirteenth That the same S. CHRISOSTOME writes that the Principalitie was committed to IAMES To the first then of these obiections which is that our Lord said a while after to S. PETER Goe behind me Satan Wee answere S. HIEROME hath solued it in these words This blessing beatitude and edification of the Church vpon Peter is promised to Peter in future times and not giuen to him in time present I will build said he my Church vpon thee To the seconde which is that our Lord cryes elsewhere If anie one amongst you desire to be greatest let him be the least Wee answere he doth there forbidd the desire and not the effect of the Primacie the Ambition and not the thing the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 witnes this traine that followes as the Sonn of man is come into the world not to be serued but to serue By which he pro pounds himself to his disciples for an example not of an Anarchy but of Superioritie accompanied with humilitie To the third Which is that S. PETER writes not domineering ouer the flocks Wee answere that the Greeke word signifieth a violent Dominion such as that whereof our Lord said The kings of the nations domineere ouer them And such as S. HIEROME representeth it in these words The Princes of the Churches are wont to oppresse the People with arrogance of whom it is written they haue constituted thee Prince be not puft vp but be amongst them as one of them And not a presidencie and fatherlie direction such as was that of Samuell ouer the people of Israell who after he had exercised the Gouernment of Israell and iudged the people many yeares iustified himself in the end saying I haue conuersed with you from my youth to this 〈◊〉 answere me in the presence of God and of his annoynted if I haue taken anie mans bullock or his Asse or if I haue commaunded by force and oppressed any one of you And such as that whereof sainct PAVL said Obey your prelats and be subiect to them And elsewhere Let him that presides preside in all diligence And our Lord himself which is the wise and faithfull seruant that our Lord hath constituted ouer his familie It is Peter saith sainct AMBROSE chosen by the iudgement of our Lord to feede his flocke who hath merited to heare feede my lambes feede my sheepe To the fourth which is that the historie of the Actes testifies that the Apostles when it was in agitation to forme the Church of Samaria sent thither PETER and IOHN wee answere it was a mission of request as that when the Israelites sent Phinees their high priest and the princes of the tribes and not a mission of authority To the fifth which is that S. IAMES voted last in the Councell of 〈◊〉 Wee answere that in Councells contrary to the order of secular companies those that preside vote first And namely saint HIEROME saith that saint PETER from whose words S. IAMES tooke his Rule was the Prince of this decree To the sixth which is that S. Paule writes that Iames Cephas and Iohn seeing the grace that God had conferred vpon him gaue to him and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowshipp Wee answere that the greeke edition of Complutum and manie seuerall Readings Greeke and Latine haue it Cephas Iames and Iohn Witnesse S. CHRISOSTOME who in his comentarie vpon the Epistle to the Galatians reades Cephas Iames and Iohn and Theodoret who in his comentarie vpon the fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans alleadging this passage reports it in these words The Apostle teacheth this manifestly in the Epistle to the Galatians for he saith Peter Iames and Iohn who seeme to be the pillars gaue the right hands of fellowship to me and to Barnabas And saint AVGVSTINE who as well in the text as in the comentarie reades Cephas Iames and Iohn And saint HIEROME who not only both in the text and the comentarie reades Cephas Iames and Iohn but euen in his writings against Heluidius citeth the text of saint PAVLE in these words Cephas Iames and Ishn. And moreouer elswhere speaking of saint PAVLS Ordination to the Apostleship saith Paule was ordained Apostle of