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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	bishop_n	church_n	rome_n	9,289	5	7.3911	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53493	Politicall reflections upon the government of the Turks ... by the author of the late Advice to a son.	Osborne, Francis, 1593-1659.	1656 (1656)	Wing O518; ESTC R23027	74,574	208

earthly Felicity Universality and Consent as the Papacy Neither do they want as great an Antiquity for some of their Tenets the which if they once come to be washed over by the varnish of Learning the Mufty may assisted by his Master's force turne his Holinesse out of Rome as that Bishop did the Emperours and so avenge Europe and Asia both for the rent the subtill Priests made between the East and the West Churches for no more religious respect than to beautifie their own habit and increase their Power And if the Virgin City of Venice comes to be wholly prostituted to the lust of this Monster who hath already intangled his Sword in one of her strongest Locks it is possible the Catholick King shall not be able long to injoy those Concubinary Principalities made his by no juster Contract than the Procuration of his Chaplain the Pope his own Subtilty and the impertinent Quarrels of lesse advised Neighbours But to give the Pope his due looked upon by the dazled eyes of our Zelots for a more terrible Devil than it may be he is were he confined within a narrower Circle in relation to temporall power Christian Princes are apt to take so much advantage from the harping irons Luther Calvin and other Divines perhaps better skill'd in subverting Errors than reconciling of Truth have fastned in the sides of this Ecclesiastical Leviathan not to be kept floating in a narrower Sea than that of Rome formerly as Magisteriall in things temporall as now she remaines in spirituals which prudence might manage to as universall a tranquility as appeared in the dayes of Augustus that he hath no leisure to look abroad for feare the same Spirit that troubled the waters in Germany should dry up those in Italy c. It being in the power of every Prince to cut the banks of the Church which in France is the feare of Schisme and in the Catholick King's Dominions the Inquisition Yet in case his Holinesse should make it a cordiall endeavour to foment a League against the Turk France and Spaine would fall out who should head it and endeavour to spoile the others Subjects in the meane time Such incomparable Charity resides among Christian Princes that value Religion no higher than the profit it brings so as the Roman Bishop with all his Emissaries have full imployment by adding and taking away to keep the scales even between these two tottering Princes and to heighten their spirits against England and other Nations at enmity with Rome least we should have a Great Turk of our own that is an Universal Monarch under whose absolute power the Pope and all other Christian Princes could expect no higher places than those of Vassals And though a Combination were feasible small advantage would accrue since every considerable confederate must have a Generall of their own from whence would proceed more Cry than Wooll by perplexing Counsels with contrary commands Because if it were probable Kings should so far forget their Honour as to lay down all disputes about precedence yet their particular Interest could not but remember them that the strength designed against the Turke might after successe recoile upon themselves not without a president in Story and therefore not likely to employ any other in Chiefe but their own Subjects And what contrary affections ends and endeavours are covered under a Force patched up of so many Nations is manifest in the Maritime battell of Lepanto where though the desire of all might be to ecclips the Ottoman Moon yet it was in many so faint as they could not endure it should be removed quite out of its Sphere or lose the Interest it doth exercise within the Christian Pale which by a through persecution of that naval victory might easily have been brought about out of feare the greater Princes by that secured should after have made it their endeavour to devour the less And this with some Un brages of Jealousies the Catbolick King had of his Brother Don John of Austria made the Confederates return without doing more than shew the Grand Segnior wherein he was defective and by this chastizing to make him mend the fault he had committed in being no better provided of Commanders and Provisions for Sea which he hath since repaired at our cost by maintaining an Arcenall in Algeers of which the King of Spain denyed his Brother to be Governour so jealous are Christians one of the other that they have more confidence in Turks than those of their own Religion yet to speak Gods troth whosoever shall command an Army against this Epidemicall Enemy with such successe as Don John had will be owner of too popular an Honour to be less than superlative whereever he comes and therefore liable like him to receive a Fig out of the venemous hand of Jealousie Which warrants me to think the fittest for such an imployment as the heading an Army raised by a League is the Pope who lying within gun-shot himselfe is the most likely to take the truest aime at the finishing of the work But this the Lutherans and Protestants would oppose no lesse than the Princes of Italy who cannot but feare that the power of the Ottoman Family being sufficiently moderated he could have no better employment for the Army than to face them with it looked upon perhaps in his esteem as greater enemies Yet if there were an unity in Religion and a totall abatement of his Holinesse pretences to any secular power farther than the extent of Peters Patrimony it might with more probability be brought about than any temporall Prince is able to give caution for And thus Policy might not onely make use of him in opposing the Turk but in reconciling such Kings as when they are weary of their inconsiderat Quarrels know no other way to bring about peace than by the mediation of the Bishop of Rome But as things now stand Experience hath taught us how vain a Composition of Force is in the attempt of moderating the Ottoman Grandure Nor is any Prince yet in a capacity to undertake him alone The Emperour being shackled by the links of contrary Opinions and now utterly disabled since the Swedes Ineursion I confesse the Catholick King upon whose skirts he sits were the most likely to get ground upon the Turks Dominions did not the French perplex him with the feare of losing his own Between which Nations there can be no reconciliation so long as the Pope's greatnesse is supported by Division An Universall Monarchy in Europe being more against the graine of the Court of Rome than it yet apprehends danger from that in Asia so as it is no improbable Paradox to maintain That the Turk by accident supports his Holinesse And if the Pope and Inquisition were put down Atheisme would break in like a Torrent or which is worse Religion would be divided into such destructive bloudy and hypocriticall streames as her name would be quite lost in the dilatation or render her professors

Court of Rome it was managed by them with so much Policy that it did rather much strengthen confirm the exorbitant power of that See The greatest things in dispute between Papist and Protestant are matters concerning Profit or Honour which may satisfy any not delighted with blindnesse that they were brought in by the diligence of the Priests taking advantage from the ignorance of preceding Ages From all which I may conclude that such amongst them as are wise conversant in history acquainted with the present practise of the Court of Rome are souly to be suspected of Atheisme because Conscience can never be perswaded against a convincing experience which is also made good by the irreligious Italians from whom comes this Proverb The neerer the Church the farther from God For such abhor Religion because they see the Pope makes but a politick robe of it taking the liberty himselfe to put it on or off as becomes his occasions A DISCOURSE UPON THE ELECTION OF POPE LEO the XI IN the Negotiations of Cardinall Peron may be found a perfect Journall of so much of the Election of Leo the Eleventh as was possible to bee knowne by one side to which Discours I shall refer all those that do believe the Pope can be the true Successor of Peter It being incongruous both to Prudence Religion to imagine the Holy Ghost should mingle Interests with the ambitious ends of Princes who shun no impious means to make him succeed that is thought the truest friend to their Occasions I know it is not onely in the power but the practise of God to raise his ends out of ill means Yet it were presumption in men to shape out his work though he be able to fit our endeavours to his own Honour But the Court of Rome seeks to make the people believe that notwithstanding these Considerations after the Masse of the HolyGhost is said he is as really present in the Conclave as he was with the eleven Disciples when they chose a Successor to Judas who betrayed Christ In which they acknowledge themselves either Atheists or presumptuous fighters against God For if the Choice be his how dare they interpole their mediation or hope the French or Spanish Factions can possibly prevail one side ever interrupting because both cannot be pleased They have of late been made sometimes by the other which must conclude the Holy Spirit subservient to humane Endeavours or no more friend to this Choice than to that of the Grand Seignior Here you may see how they labour to hire or force the HolyGhost to fix upon sōe such subject as may be most auspicious to the prevalent Party who is invoked out of Ceremony leaving the rest to be hewed out by themselves Before these Monarchs grew so potent the troubles in the Conclave were rather more than lesse For the Cardinalls made Elections so tedious by their towsing that sometimes the Romans sometimes other Princes forced them to resolve And to avoid such constraint they did often pitch upon Impotent men such as for Age or Weakness were not likely to hold out long as this Leo who died in few weks after his assumption during whose time the Pretenders are at leisure to concoct their Designes better which is ordinarily done by Bribes or in case they prevaile not by Poyson nay the Devill is not left unsought to So as Balzac saith None on this side the Alpes labour more to look well than some of them to seem-sickly and weake hoping by that means to obtain the Chaire which is able of a gouty Cardinall to make a sound Pope In antient time the Bishops of Rome were chosen by the Parish Priests of that City And how since Cardinals came in is no more known though not antient thā the date of many Novelties that have most shamefully been imposed upō the Church Yet to this day no Ecclesiasticall Cardinall for they have others but retains among his titles the name of one of the Parish Churches in Rome though he be ordinarily called by his own name or else some other Bishoprick or Dignity he hath in Cōmendā By the institutions of a former Pope which for shame they dare not revoke all his Actions that gets into the Chaire by Simony are null Now what are all these sinister Endeavours but so many severall sorts of Simony If Simon Magus had attempted by Policy mediation of Friends or Flattery to have obtained the Gift of the HolyGhost should his fault have been lesse or not rather greater Money being the richest offer he could make and most suitable to the Apostles wants which he saw others indued with the same Spirit daily cast at their feet And if this be granted when had the Church a Head able to utter any thing but Falshoods or Nullities All Popes having for many yeares entered at one of these Gates In Civil Kingdoms the Crowne is to be obeyed without questioning how the Wearer came by it but to tie the Ecclesiasticall power to these conditions were to binde the Holy Ghost to the Popes Chaire The Bishop of Rome layes an absolute claim to an unerring Spirit but is not able to demonstrate the time when he had it If it were alwaies the Errors found inherent in the persons were uncapable of blame or retraction Yet out of this Cloud of uncertainety say they the Holy Ghost dictates onely to his Church such as deny it are Hereticks If at any time he hath the Spirit of infallibility it is perhaps at his first entrance into the Chaire as Saul had a greater measure upon his new anointing than in all his Raign besides yet in the Election of this Leo the XI of the House of Medici and before his Assumption known by the Title of Cardinall of Florence appeares no such matter which would not have been omitted by the penner of the passages of their Conclave being an eye witnesse a Cardinall who doth pride himselfe much in his fortune the policy both he the French Party had used in his advance But it may be Paul the Fifth who succeeded this Leo had it when he made so great a present to the Devill as at once to excommunicate the whole State of Venice with all the territories belonging unto it But this was afterwards condemned by himselfe as rash inconsiderate terms most unbefitting a thing done by God And wise men may here justly take occasion to conclude that no Pope doth think or ever thought he had a power of not erring For if such a Spirit were an usuall companion of that See Paul the Fifth would have expected the operation of it and not have troubled a State to so little purpose without the assistance at least of a Revelation He that desires to be informed of the Illnesse of Modern Popes may be abundantly satisfied if he Consult Historians who are not dumb in declaring the faults of the Court of Rome The truth is were it not for the strict or