them by Christian Kings and Emperors And shewing that they haue no reason to complaine therof he saith (q) Tract 11. in Ioan. They the Donatists will do such things and yet will not suffer such punishments See what they do and what they suffer They kill soules and are punished in their bodies They cause euerlasting deathes and complaine that they suffer temporall deathes And againe (r) Cont. ep Parmē l. 1. c. 8. What do not these men iustly suffer seing they suffer deseruedly for their offences by lawfull power and by the iudgement of God gouerning from aboue and admonishing them by such punishments to beware of euerlasting fyre Let them first proue themselues not to be Heretikes or Schismatikes and then let them complaine that they suffer iniustly And els where he sayth (s) Conc. 2. in Psal 34. The Physician is somtymes inforced to cut and lance and desisteth not though the Patient curse and rayle They that are in a letargy are wakened and they that are in a phrensy are bound yet both of them are loued Let no man therfore say I suffer persecution let him not proclayme his punishment but let him proue his cause lest if he proue not his cause he be reckoned among the wicked And answering the arguments of the Donatists who desiring to be freed from the punishment due to their Heresy argued out of Terence that it is better to refraine men frō euill by shame and freedome then by feare of punishment he answereth (t) Ep. 50. that albeit those which are drawne with loue be better yet more come by feare which he proueth 1. out of the same Poet saying Thou knowest not how to do well vnlesse thou be enforced with punishment 2. with a Prouerbe of Salomon that A stif-necked seruant will not be amended with words for though he vnderstand he will not obey 3. by experience for saith he it is superfluous to proue this with words seing it is manifest by many examples that not these or those men but that many Cities of Heretikes are now become Catholike for feare of the Imperiall lawes from Constantine to the present lawes These are the lawes M. Doctor which you storme at for the Inquisitors nether pronounce sentence of death against any nor execute it If any man be accused they examine his cause as with iustice so with great meekenesse If he be found guilty of heresy they vse all meanes both by themselues and by other learned men to reclayme him If he acknowledge his error he is deliuered vp to religious persōs to be instructed and with charitable vsage gayned to God But if they find him to stand out obstinatly against all persuasions they deliuer him vp with his whole processe to the secular Magistrates beseeching them to deale mercifully with him And if the Magistrates iudge him worthy of death punish him according to the Imperiall lawes I know no reason you haue to blame them for as S. Augustine saith with the Apostle (u) Ep. 164. l. 1. cont ep Parmen c. 8. l 2. cont Petil. c. 83. they beare not the sword without cause for they are Gods Ministers reuengers vnto wrath to them that do euill Nor do I see what you haue in all this to quarrell at vnlesse you thinke that theeues and murderers of mens bodies ought to be punished with death and that murderers of mens soules ought to be spared And so much the more inconsiderate you are in this your cauill because your selues vse the same proceeding against heretikes for haue you not burnt Dauid George in Holland Hacket Coppinger and others in England But you complaine (x) Pag. 85. 86. that not only heretikes are punished but also Beleeuers Receauers Defenders and Fauorers of heretikes namely such as commend their learning wit Zeale constancy or simplicity which any Christian may do in a Pagan Sir I know not how to excuse you either from imposture or impiety for as Suarez (y) De trip virt Theol. disp 24. n. 2. and Azor (z) Part. 1. l. 8. c. 15. the very authors whom you obiect haue declared Beleeuers are they that giue credit to the Doctrine of heretickes and make profession therof or prayse the same as no way dissonant to the Catholike fayth May a Christian do this to a Pagan Defenders are not they that praise the learning wit or eloquence of heretikes but that commend or maintaine their doctrine or praise their pertinacy which you call zeale in defending their errors Say now were it not impiety to do this to a Pagan And so it is in you to say that any Christian may lawfully do it to an heretike Fauorers or receauers are not they that receaue heretikes into their howses or shew loue or fauor vnto them as to their freinds or kinsfolkes this any man may do to a Pagan but that receaue cōceale or assist them that they may perseuer in their heresy and teach it to others also officers that ought to concurre to the apprehension of heretikes and do it not but ayd them to escape the hands of the lawfull iudges that so they may not be punished but remaine free to peruert others This is the Doctrine of Suarez and Azor whom you obiect no Catholike Diuines speake otherwise against him that hauing abiured his heresy before a Iudge relapseth into the same for if he talke with an heretike or visit him as his neighbour or reuerence him as his Superior or reward him for any fauor receaued or commend him for his wit or other talents of nature or learning he is not therfore thought to haue relapsed into heresy But if he visit reuerence reward or commend him because he is an heretike and for his hereticall Doctrine he is then by the law of Frederike the Emperor to be deliuered to the secular Magistrate as a relaps to be executed as one that by reason of his inconstancy is held morally incorrigible that by his example and Doctrine may infect others But yet if he repent the Church like a pious mother receaues him into her bosome allowing him the Sacrament of Alsolution and Eucharist and affords him all instruction and helpe for the good of his soule that so he may dye in state of saluation Against this your choler riseth saying (a) Pag. 87. Bubalus was neuer so stupid as to iudge them morally incorrigible which do repent so as to make themselues capable of Absolution but Syr Bubalus was neuer so stupid as not to vnderstand that a relapsed heretike being condemned to death may by the helpe of Gods grace open his eyes to see and acknowledge his error and thereby make himselfe capable of the Sacraments and yet that neuerthelesse the Church may iustly feare that as he became a relaps after he had once solemnly abuired his heresy so if he be permitted to liue he may fall the third and fourth tyme againe which is to be morally incorrigible And wheras you
adde (b) Ibid. that there was neuer any Rhadamanthus so extreme as at once to pardon and kill and that therfore such mercy is to be cursed because it is cruell by these words you condemne the practice of all Christian Common wealths which when they put Malefactors to death grant them accesse to the Sacraments of Pennance and Eucharist afford them all help and instruction to dye well as the Church doth to Heretikes if they will accept therof for with them she dealeth no otherwise in this case then all Christian Princes do with other malefactors But belike nether heretikes nor other Malefactors must be put to death or if they be the Church must deny them the holy Sacraments that so their soules may perish with their bodies or els you will compare her to Rhadamanthus you will say she pardons and kils at once and curse her mercy canonizing it for cruelty What may we say or thinke of such a man Small reason therfore you had (c) Pâ—g 85. 86. to call the Inquisitions proceeding against heretikes Tyrannous Romish cruelty and Barbarous Romish cruelty And so much the reader will yet better vnderstand if he consider that nether the Inquisitors nor any other Ecclesiasticall persons pronounce nor much lesse execute sentence of death against heretikes and what the secular Magistrate doth in that kinde against Lutherans Caluinists is not by force of any new lawes made against them but according to the lawes which the most godly Christian Emperors haue anciently prouided before any Protestants were exstant in the world for the preseruation of Christian Religion against Iewes Mahumetans and Heretikes But if I were disposed to deale with you by retorsion which kind of argument is familiar to you in this Grand Imposture I cold put you in mind how without any warrant of law for at that tyme you had made no lawes against Catholikes yea and contrary to all lawes of this kingdome and of Christianity in the dayes of K. Henry the eight and Queene Elizabeth you partly sent and forced into banishment and partly consumed with the loathsomnesse of prisons and stench of dungeons many Catholikes of all degrees aswell Ecclesiasticks as Laicks I cold write of your racking and many other wayes cruelly torturing of Priests and lay Catholikes and of your putting to death many of them for crimes composed and maliciously forged against them by your selues you hauing then no lawes wherby to condemne them And I cold reckon the number and specify the cruelty of your Parlament Statutes made since that tyme against all sortes of Catholikes and the seuerity vsed in the execution of them with continuall vexation of innocent people especially by the inferior sort of your officers But for the honor of our Countrey I forbeare the rehearsall of them and wish that the Christian world abroad had not taken so much notice of them as their Histories shew them to haue done But if leauing England I passe to other nations what pen is able to expresse the neuer before heard of inhumane barbarous sacrilegious cruelties of your Geuses in the Iow Countries and your good brethren the Huguenots in France which whosoeuer desires to know more in particular may see liuely presented to his view by M. Richard Verstegan in a booke of pictures intituled Theatrum crudelicatum haereâ—icorum nostri temporis printed at Antwerp Apud Adrianum Huberti Anno 1592. with so many particulars of the tyme place persons and torments that no man euer had the face to question the truth therof nor the relation which Doctor Harding In his proofe of certayne articles of religion against Maister Iuell (d) Fol. 129.130 hath made of the Caluinists at Patâ—é not farre from Orleans throwing 25. infants quick into the fire of their burying of Catholikes aliue at S. Macarius of cutting infants in two of ripping vp the bellies of Priests aliue of drawing out their entrailes by litle and litle and winding them about stakes of cutting of the priuy parts of a Priest then frying them after causing him by violence to swallow them downe and last of all ripping vp his stomach being yet aliue to see what was become of them of their dragging other Priests after their horses then picking out their eyes cutting off their eares noses and priuy parts wearing their eares in their hats as iewels to glory in their malice hanging vp the carcasses of some yet striuing for life dispatching others at once with their pistols hacking and mangling the faces of some cleauing the heads of others in two at a stroke to make tryall of their strength To which you may adde the horible sacriledges the vnspeakeable cruelties fitter for Tygers then men and the monstruous beastlinesse of your French and Holland Brethren at Tillemont in Brabrant Anno 1635. I pretermit the particulars not to soyle my paper with the rehearsall of them If you desire to know them the famous Vniuersity of Louayne next neighbour to Tillemont hath depainted them in liuely colours in their relation you may read them If you had consired these and many other most horrible cruelties of your Ghospelling Bretheren the like wherof haue neuer bene heard among any people neuer so inhumane and sauage and added vnto them your owne outrages committed both in England and Ireland some of which Verstegans Theatrum representeth vnto you you wold surely haue bene ashamed to instile the iust proceedings of the Inquisition or the sentences pronounced against them by Catholike Magistrates Tyrannous Romish cruelty Barbarous Romish cruelty CHAP. XV. Of the signification of the word Catholike and the iudgment of diuers Fathers obiected by Doctor Morton against the Roman Church SECT I. That the word Catholike proues the Roman Church to be the true Church YOv demand (e) Pag. 88. 89 how the Roman Church seing it is Roman that is a particular Church can be called Catholike that is vniuersall or the whole Church And if it be the whole Church how can it be a particular Church distinct from the Church of Greece or Church of France will you make vs beleeue that the thumbe of the hand can be the whole body Syr as we are not so witlesse as to thinke that the thumbe of the hand can be the whole body so nether are we so foolish as to beleeue that the particular Church of the Roman Dioces can be the vniuersall Church We know and so do you to and it hath bene already proued (f) Chap. 1. Sect. 2. 3. that not only the particular Church of Rome may in a true proper acception be called the Catholike Church as Head of all Churches but also that the Roman Church taken as often it is for the collection of all Churches in the world consisting of the Roman as Head and the rest as members may be and is truly and vsually called The Catholike Church and the vniuersall Church Yea it is euident that if according to the Etimology of the name
the Church and confesse how little constant Errour is to it selfe That Innocency from Lust which so many of your Writers affirme impossible to preserue your owne single and I hope incorrupt life hath approued possible for vnlesse you will endanger your selfe to a Censure in the high Commission you must acknowledge flesh and bloud may be kept in order by the spirit But what discouers the bodies of all Churches which oppose the Catholike most misshapen is the diuision among your selues now and euer so apparent that I dare confidently auerre were there a Councell called of all those you reckon yours his Holinesse might suspend his Censure each one of you prepar'd to pronounce the other Heretike And for your Lo. p though reputed most Orthodoxall vnlesse you quit that most reuerend Title which is your honor to make good I suspect you would by the Maior voyce be condemned without the guilt of any other crime though Truth and all Antiquity teach vs that Episcopall dignity hath euer bene most eminent and necessary in the Church and ought to be held in veneration where lawfully conferred not vsurped But I feare I keep no good time when I strike on this harsh string I will not therfore further afflict your eare Let me only intreat and if possible preuaile with your Lo. p to cast vp the accompt of those many yeares you haue numbred heere on earth And if you haue prouided a Marble hereafter to inclose your dust looke not on the flattering Epitaph which betrayes the Reader but listen to the silent sad Oratory in which it pleads to you your condition It tells you that euery path of life how crooked soeuer in mans purposes leads streight to death That all the pompe of wealth and honour for acquisition of which he doubts not often to stake a Soule is but an euening shadow soone to be lost in an euerlasting darknesse That youth doth oftentimes breake promise when it proposeth length of life but that age is frantick if it hope long to hold out against the assault of death It therfore imports your Lo. p who opprest with yeares bow downward to the graue seriously to looke inward turne your sight frō those vanities which haue hitherto bewicht you For pardon me if to pride vanity I ascribe a long continuance in error and that I want credulity to thinke an able Scholler can belieue Vntruth though for the designes of his owne Ambition he obtrude it to the world May your Lop. take courage and gaine an entire Conquest ouer Sense by subscribing to that Church in which only is safty and which your many vnlucky Labors haue slaundered not iniured So signall a Conuersion will add◠ioy and triumph to the Angells and make me who haue bene hitherto your Aduersary not Enemy hereafter Your true Admirer and humble Seruant I. S. TO THE READER GOOD READER The Author of the Grand Imposture in his first Epistle dedicated to his Maiesty sets only forth in generall the heads of that doctrine he afterwards endeauors though vnluckily to make good But Error without apparence of proofe confutes it selfe And it would anticipate the designe of my study if here I should labor thy satisfaction since the whole ensuing Treatise discouers euery of his mistakes in particuler which at the first entrance to his Booke he affirmes in grosse Yet could I wish that only truth should dare to approach the throne of Maiesty and that a conscience guilty of deceipt should not be able to pretend the confidence of the innocent for the falsest doctrine may easily winne beliefe vpon the Laity whom either much busines diuerts from the search of truth or an vnwillingnesse to be disturbed encourageth to follow that easy path they from their infancy haue beaten especially when it appeares in publike asseuered by them who haue their large stipend and high honor only on condition to be sincere in what they teach But howeuer he may flatter himselfe that hs Reader will neuer arriue to patience inough to trauaile beyond his Epistles or that his authority will be sufficient though his proofes are defectiue I hope he will find his comfort to haue betrayd him for the businesse which here we controuert being of value far beyond the whole world beside I meane the soule of man and the Church in which only that can expect safety I doubt not good Reader but thou wilt be so charitable to thy selfe as to reade distinguish and then reiect error how plausible soeuer it may appeare to sense Nor though his reputation may haue gained heretofore much vpon thee wilt thou belieue that Truth is by couenant bound to christen all the abortiues of his Opinion And wheras in his second Epistle directed to all Romish Priests whether Iesuits or others he seemes by a Rhethoricall figure to heare them censuring his charging the Church of Rome with Imposture the bold assumption or rather impudent and impious presumption of an Heretike I cannot but commend the iudgment he instructs them to pronounce for how could the wit of Iustice inuent a more proper or seuerer Or to speake more truly how could Mercy vse a gentler And though in that single word Heretike all Impiety is comprehended yet how can he deserue any other sentence who hath dared to defame thy innocency O thou Immaculate Spouse of our great Redeemer Who hath termed thy doctrine which threw downe the Statues of the Heathens and rooted vp all false worship Idolatrous Sacrilegious Thy doctrine which planted the fayth of Christ with the bloud of Martyrs and tyed vp the common enemy of man Satanicall and Antichristian Thy doctrine which is the only safety of the soule Execrable and Pernicious which teacheth the true adoration of God Blasphemous Impious which neuer varied in the least article from the truth Schismaticall and Hereticall But how farre vnable are these weake calumnies to wound thy strength which hath triumpht ouer all the opposition of heresy and hell Thou art built vpon a Rock of Diamond which yields the brightest lustre when impure slander raifeth the blackest night A Rock which neuer moued since Christ designed it as a foundation for his greatest worke on earth A rock against which her many Aduersaries haue battered with continuall tempests but still ended in froth and noise But all these fowle aspersions might be interpreted the wild expressions of an extrauagant zeale and perhaps challenge that pitty we throw away vpon the franticke Neither can any man be enraged with such infamous language who considers it is that spirit which possest the first professors of this pretended reformation who created a Religion in contempt of iurisdiction And as euery where they derogated from the spirituall so spared they not the temporall where feare of punishment restraind not their tongues to modesty But what euen amazeth my Vnderstanding is that so well practis'd a man in controuersy so iealous of honor and such a pretender to integrity should fall into that deceitfull
and vntruthes you breake forth into such intemperate railing (s) Impost pag. 177. ser pag. 28. that I disdaine to passe it vnder my pen and I suppose that euery honest minded reader though neuer so zealous a Protestant will be ashamed to see such venime together with so shamefull vntruthes to fall from the mouth of a man of your yeares especially since what here you write hath no other ground but your vnconscionable slandering of Vrban the second whom you nickname Turbane (t) Serm. pag. â—9 as if by a Rescript of his he had authorized Assassines to inuade kill excommunicated persons at their pleasure The case is this Certaine lewd and dissolute Clergy men excommunicated by the Church tooke armes were â—laine in the feild in a battaile fought betweene the sacrilegious Emperor Henry the fourth and Eghert Marques of Saxony Vrban being consulted declared the soldiers that killed them not to be murtherers nor to haue incurred the sentence of excommunication pronounced against such as lay violent hands on Clergy-men From whence it followeth that it is no sinne to kill excommunicated persons be they Priests or other Ecclesiasticks in a iust warre and when they inuade our liues But your inference that it is lawfull for any man to kill excommunicated persons by Assassines or any other way by his owne priuate authority is not allowed by Vrban nor asserted by any Catholike Diuine but an Imposture of yours to enrage the mindes of Protestants against Catholikes Yea to shew your Imposture Innocentius the fourth and the whole Church assembled in the generall Councell of Lions haue ordeyned Excommunication and other most grieuous punishments for all persons whatsoeuer that shall murther or goe about to murther any one by Assassines The decree is extant in the Canon Law which I shall set downe to the end the reader may see your dealing and learne neuer to credit your words hereafter Wheras sayth Innocentius (u) Sext. Decret de homicid tit 4. they that with such horrible inhumanity and barbarous cruelty so thirst after the death of others as that they cause them to be slaine by Assassines procure not only the death of their bodies but also of their soules if they be not fensed with abundant grace of God as with spirituall armor c. We being desirous to preuent so great a danger of soules and to beate downe such impious presumptions with the sword of Ecclesiasticall censure to the end that feare of punishment may be a stop to so great audaciousnesse ordayne with the approbation of the holy Councell that whatsoeuer Prince Prelate or other Ecclesiasticall or secular person shall cause or command any Christian to be killed by assassines although death follow not therby or that shall receaue defend or conceale them do ipso facto incurre the sentences of Excommunication and deposition from his dignity honor order office or benefice which therfore may freely be conferred an others by them to whom the gift of these thinges belongeth And let him with all his worldly goods as an enemy to Christian religion be cast out for euer from among Christian people And if sufficient proofe he made against any one that he hath committed so execrable a wickednesse let no other sentence of Excommunication deposition or dissidation against him be required This is the decree of Innocentius and of the whole Church assembled in the generall Councell of Lions Nor is it any obscure thing but a Canon published and inserted in forme of a Law into the Decretals of the RomaÌ„ Church Goe now and raile against the Pope for quitting the consciences of them that shall kill others by Assassines Tell vs Can the Church possibly deuise any punishments more grieuous for any malefactors theÌ„ these which she inflicteth on all them that shall ether kill or endeuor to kill others by Assassines although the effect follow not Doth she grant any exemption from these punishments to them that shall kill excommunicated persons Is not the Decree generall and in fauor of all men without exception aswell Heretikes and Schismatikes as Catholikes And as well excommunicate as not excommunicate Let the reader then iudge of your conscience what censure you deserue for slandering Vrban Pope as allowing the murther of excommunicated persons by Assasines SECT V. Doctor Morton obiecteth the Bull of Maunday Thursday TO make good your slanderous doctrine of our allowing excommunicated persons to be murthered by Assassines you say (x) Impost pag. 177. sermon pag. 30. Goe you now and complaine that you are vniustly persecuted or banished by Protestants out of seuerall Kingdomes when as they are all yearely excommunicate at Rome for Heretikes and Schismatikes by the Bull of Maundy thursday consequently made obnoxious vnto the blinde deuotion of euery Romish bloudy assassine who may be perswaded that he shall merit of God by the slaying of those supposed Schismatikes Two things may here be questioned the one whether heretikes are to be excommunicated the other whether Protestants be comprehended in the number of heretikes excommunicated in the Bull of Maundy Thursday What your opinion is concerning the former I know not but I know the practise of the Catholike Church hath euer bene to excommunicate Heretikes Why els did she in her Primitiue tymes Excommunicate the Arians in the Councell of Nice the Eunomians in the first of Constantinople the Nestorians in that of Ephesus the Eutychians in that of Chalcedon and others in other Councells Againe I know that the Church hath learned this from Christ commanding (y) Math. 18.18 that he who being thrice warned will not beare the Church be to vs as the Heathen and the Publican I know that S. Paul hath said (z) Tit. 3.10 Auoid a man that is an heretike after the first and second admonition And againe (a) 2. Cor. 6.14 what participation hath iustice with iniquity or what society is there betweene light and darkenesse and what agreement with Christ and Beliall or what part hath the faythfull with the Infidell I know that S. Iohn speaking of an heretike sayth (b) Ep. 2. vers 10. If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine receaue him not into the house nor say vnto him God saue you for he that sayth vnto him God saue you communicateth with his wicked workes Wherfore it cannot be denied but that the now Church of Rome in excommunicating heretikes doth nothing but what Christ and his blessed Apostles haue commanded and what the primitiue Church and Councells haue taught her to do But then the second question is who be heretikes and who not S. Augustine (c) De vtilit credendi c. 1. distinguisheth between an heretike and one that belieueth heretikes An heretike he defineth (d) De ciuit Dei l. 18. c. 51. to be one that vnder the name of a Christian professeth obstinatly erroneous doctrine in matter of Fayth For my part I cannot conceaue but that this definition adequately agreeth to
ouer the world as well in Europe where Protestants are as in all other parts of the world where they are not either she is the Catholike Church or els that there is no Catholike Church on earth And therfore with great reason all antiquity hath held the Roman Church and the Catholike Church to be termes conuertible and that whosoeuer is diuided from her is a schismatike and incapable of saluation The testimonies of the ancient Fathers in this behalfe I haue copiously alleaged in the first Chapter of this Apology which to repeate heere were actum agere And this sheweth how falsly you slander the Roman Church with diuiding herselfe proudly and impiously from all other Churches of the world S. Augustine said to the Donatists (l) L. 2. cont lit Petil. c. 52. that with sacrilegious fury they had separated themselues from the Chaire of S. Peter and I wish the same might not be truly said of you That Church when you began was and still is and shall euer be spread ouer all the world where Christ is knowne You first liued in her and afterwards diuided your selues from her as all Heretikes haue done she sayth S. Augustine (m) De Symb. ad Catechum l. 1. c. 6. remaining still in her roote in her Vine in her charity From hence it is that the same Father hauing reckoned by name all the Popes from S. Peter to Anastasius who was then B. of Rome compareth that Church to a Vine and the Donatists to branches cut off from her as you likewise are Wherfore as he said to them (n) Psal cont part Donat. so we say to you Come brethren if you please that you may be ingrafted into the Vine It is a griefe toys to see you lye so cut off Number the Priests from the very seat of Peter c. That is the Rock which the proud gates of hell ouercome not And you must remember that the same S. Augustine is he that said (o) Tract 8â— in Ioan. A branch cut off from the Vine is fit for nothing but the fire CHAP. XLIII Of the Head of the Roman Church compared to the Body therof YOv compare the B. of Rome who is Head of the Roman Church with the Body thereof in many respects (p) Pag. 343. 344. 345. all which you attribute to vs as Articles of our fayth to be belieued necessarily vnder paine of damnation SECT I. Whether it be matter of Fayth that the Pope is aboue a Councell VVE belieue that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on Earth and Gouernour of the Vniuersall Church to which you adde (q) Pag. 344. that according to our fayth there is a necessity of belieuing that the Pope is aboue a Councell In proofe of this you alleadge (r) Ibid. marg Bellarmine l. 1. de concil c. 7. who in that very place expresly teacheth the contrary and you afterwards contradicting your selfe acknowledge so much (s) Pag. 355. lit e. setting downe these words of his The matter is still questionable vntill this day which also you proue (t) Pag. 116. init out of Stapleton saying It is not yet defined by any publike Decree And in confirmation hereof you adde (u) Pag. 115. fin that the contrary is mantained by our Doctors of Paris When therfore it is for your purpose it is an Article of our fayth necessarily to be belieued with diuine fayth that the Pope is aboue a Councell and when the contrary is more for your purpose then it is no Article of our fayth nor yet defined by any publike decree but matter of opinion and questionable vntill this day These are your propositions Reconcile them SECT II. Whether it be matter of fayth that this indiuidual person v. g. Vrban the eight is true Pope and true Head of the Church YOu set downe here (x) Pag. 345. and afterwards againe (y) Pag. 351. 353. as a receaued Article of our fayth that it is necessary for euery man to belieue with diuine fayth that this determinate man for example Vrban the eight which now sitteth in the Chaire of S. Peter is true Bishop and true Head of the Church In proofe of this you alleage Salmeron and Suarez but very deceiptfully for although that be the peculiar opinion of Salmeron and Suarez whose proofes you mention not because it passeth your skill to answeare them yet they deliuer it not as matter of fayth defined by the Church or taught by all Catholike Diuines which you cold not be ignorant of for Suarez in that very place which you cite (z) Pag. 24. 345. professeth the contrary opinion to be taught by Turrecremata Albertinus Caietan Bannes Canus Vega Corduba Castro and other Catholike Diuines mantaining that we cannot haue diuine fayth of this indiuiduall man that he is true Head of the Church but morall certainty only And this they hold sufficient to oblige all men to yield perfect obedience vnto him and to belieue his definitions ex Cathedra And you contradicting your selfe had formerly acknowledged (a) Pag. 2â— this to be the opinion of many of our Schole-Doctors With what conscience then do you now charge all Catholikes with holding the contrary as necessary to be belieued with diuine fayth and vnder paine of damnation which so many of our learned Schole-Doctors deny and which in them was neuer censured by the Church nor euen by their aduersaries as any way opposite to fayth But what censure you deserue for doubting of the ordination or election of Gods Priests not I but S. Cyprian shall tell you who sayth (b) L. 4. Ep. 9. that it is no other thing but to belieue that Priests are not appointed in the Church from God nor for God that it is not to belieue in God but to be rebellious against Christ and his Ghospell SECT III. Whether the Church of Rome be at any time a Body headlesse It is a Thesis of yours (c) Pag. 34â— that the Church of Rome is a Body headlesse so long as there is a vacancy in the See betweene the death of one Pope and the election of another Which to affirme is as ridiculous as if you should call the Empire An headlesse Empire because there is no Emperor betweene the death of one and the election of an other And by the same argument you may proue Bohemia Polonia and other kingdoms and States whose Princes are electiue to be headlesse kingdoms and states There is not alwaies so precise necessity of a Pope in the Church but that as it was gouerned 300. yeares without Councels so if by reason of schismes or other difficulties it fal out that after the death of one Pope some tyme passe before the election of another God may not for that time gouerne his Church without a Pope especially all other Bishops and inferior Pastors remaining in full possession of their authority ouer their seuerall flocks Nor is the Church for that time left