in his Bed (y) Oecolampadius cum vesperi sanus cubitum ivisset mane inventus est ab Uxore mortuus in Lecto Bellar. For this also he quotes Cochlaeus though he says not that he went well to Bed. And so far is it from being true that he had for a long time been ill and for fifteen days before confin'd to his Bed But grant it true I have said enough before in answer to it in the Vindication of Luther I shall only add That before the Cardinal had brought this for an Instance of an unhappy Death in Protestants he should have prov'd that Papists are not as subject to Apoplexies or any other Disease which causes a sudden stoppage of the Circulation in the Heart as Protestants are For Carolostadius the Ministers of Basil he tells us in an Epistle they publish't concerning his Death write that he was kill'd by the Devil (z) Andream Carolostadium a Daemone intersectum Ministri Basileenses scribunt in Epistola quam ediderunt de morte Carolostadii Bellarm. He has not told us where this Epistle is and I despair of ever finding it I shall therefore send the Reader to Petrus Boquinus a Student at Basil when Carolostadius died and attended his Funeral who hath given an account of his Death and exposed this impudent Forgery as I find him quoted by Melchior Adams (a) In vita Carolostadii I am now come to the fifth and last Act of this Tragedy which is so lewd a Calumny that any Man but an Advocate for their Church might be ashamed to own it viz. John Calvin was eaten up of Worms as Antiochus Herod Maximinus and Hunricus were and not only so but invoking the Devils he died blaspheming and cursing (b) Joannes Calvinus vermibus consumptus expiravit ut Antiochus Herodes Maximinus Hunricus testatur Hieronymus Bolsecus in ejus vita Qui etiam addit eum Daemonibus invocatis blasphemantem execrantem ociâ—â—e Bellarm. But what Authority has the Cardinal for this the Testimony of Bolsec a Man of so prostituted a Fame and whose Lies are so gross that many Popish Writers who have studied to blacken Calvin have been ashamed to own him The Charge is twofold 1. That he was eaten up of Worms 2. That involking the Devils he died blaspheming and cursing both which are as false as any thing ever forged by the Father of Lies 1. That he was eaten up of Wolms by which is meant the lowsy Evil as may be seen by Bolsec's Words quoted in the Margin (c) Sed ad Calvinum nostrum ad gravissimos ejus variosque morbos quiâ—us uâ—serâ— ad extremum usque Spiritum excruciatus fuit revertamur quem praeâ—er eos quos Beza reference commemoravimus eo quoque moâ—bi genere afflictum constat quo justo Dei judicio quosdam manifestos apertos Dei hostes qui divinum Honorem atque Gloriam invaserant sibique usurparant vexatos punâ—tosque legimus is est pedicularis Nam hâ— Vermes c. Vita Joan. Caâ—v c. 22. Now were this true yet if we may believe a Learned Man of the Church of Rome who was one of Calvin's irreconcileable Enemies it is not to be look'd upon as so strange a thing for he has undertaken to prove that nothing is more natural than for the Body of Man to breed Vermine and Lice and produc'd many famous Men who have died of this Disease (d) Vasseur Annal de l' Eglise Cathed de Noyon p. 720 721. It must indeed be acknowledged that the lowsy-Evil is not always a Sympton meerly natural but a vindicative Effect of the Almighty when without any Reason in the Humours or state of the Body sufficient to cause that loathsom Disease it appears to the Destruction of some notorious Sinner Yet it is certain that this Distemper is naturally incident to humane Bodies since Lice do seem to consist chiefly of that Salt which together with other Humours does copiously breath through their Pores This Truth may be reasonably gathered from the Chymical Resolution of Lice and from their medicinal Powers and Effects in some Distempers Besides that I have been assured by a Learned Gentleman much addicted to Physical Experiments that he formerly having three or four days together visited Glass-furnaces attending on some Experiments there made has taken from the Backs of the Glass-makers after they had sweated profusely in the same Shirts three days together a great quantity of dry Salt which was caked on the outside of their Shirts and that this Salt being put into a Glass and set two or three days in a sunny Window did all become a body of little creeping things like Lice If therefore the Salt which exhales through the Pores of Mans Body be the matter of Lice the considering Phisician may give good Reason why and how the Disease may be produced as it often happens to be in Bodies first decayed and disposed to such a Malady by other Diseases where the Putrefaction of Humours and the Resolution of the animal Salts being very great and the internal Heat and Motion which should carry them through the Pores being too little this unctuous and saline matter stops in them and there stays long enough to be animated into Lice which as soon as unlivened creep forth in abundance and are successively followed by dreadful numbers of the same Generation so long as the Patient lives But I shall say no more of the natural Causes from whence this Evil may sometimes proceed but supposing it now to be as certain a Token of the Divine Vengeance as Bellarmine would have it I shall shew these two things 1. That Calvin did not die of this Disease 2. In case he did the Church of Rome hath no reason to triumph in it 1. That Calvin did not die of this Disease This will I think be manifest 1. By reflecting upon the first Author of this Story 2. By considering what others both Papists and Protestants of unquestionable Authority have written concerning Calvin's Diseases and Death 1. By reflecting upon the first Author of this Story Bolsec was the Man who first told this Tale to the World and not till thirteen years after Calvin's Death All the rest Surius Lingeus Lessius c. are beholden to him for it Nor do I wonder that they licked up his Vomit but it may seem more strange that Cardinal Bellarmine should if we consider these two things 1. That he was Calvin's mortal Enemy 2. That many Papists who have made it their Study to defame Calvin are ashamed of him 1. That he was Calvin's mortal Enemy One main occasion of his Enmity was this Bolsec having quitted his Habit for he was a Carmelite Frier at Paris turn'd Quack and came to Geneva where finding himself in no esteem among the learned Physicians he resolved to set up for a Divine for something he delivered about Predestination he was first gently reproved by Calvin but he
the unquestionably Divine Predictions of the Old and New Testament when God poured out the Spirit of Prophecy upon his Servants there have been now and then in the Church some sprinklings of it and that several Persons have foretold Things by Divine Revelation which had no Evidence of it comparable to what the great strokes of Scripture-Prophecy have Such a Prediction I would allow that of Benedict to be which the Cardinal cites if one had good reason to believe it And I would not much quarrel with that which Gofrid tells of St. Bernard though I have no great Opinion of it But for St. Francis I desire to be wholly excused Which I do not say as if there were any danger of granting that there has been something of this lower degree of Prophecy amongst some in the Roman Communion for if Prophetick Light were a Note of the Church 't is not the foretelling of a few Events that happen not long after the Prediction which will amount to it tho there may be more reason upon the account of the Holiness of the Person or some such other Consideration to ascribe it to a Divine Revelation than to any other Cause As there are some Divine Miracles that have the Finger of God while others are hard to be distinguished from Delusions and Lying Wonders So some Divine Predictions there are which have the Characters of God's Omniscience upon them while others are capable of being resolved into other Causes But he must be at a great loss for Church-Marks that would mark his Church by Prophetick Light without the former As for the latter I have said once already and I say it again that they may nay I am apt to think that they have had some such in the Roman Communion But the Cardinal is very unlucky in his Instances as some others of that Church are whom I have consulted I cannot see why such a-doe should be made about the Predictions of Philippus Nerius the Florentine that care must be taken to preserve the Attestations of them Vita Phil. Ner. p. 76. Mog When he could not perswade a Jew to pray to Christ for himself he desired the Standers-by to pray for him promising them that he would be converted which came to pass as we are told in a few Days Again P. 100. when one of his Converts had lent a sum of Mony to a Banker he made him go and fetch it back before Night tho he knew not the Man and within a few Days the Banker broke Sometimes he foretold that such a Sick Man would dye and sometimes that such an one would recover Which Predictions are as modest as may be but no other reason can be given I think why Nerius must for such Things as these pass for a Prophet but that they cannot write the Lives of their Saints without stuffing them as with Miracles and Visions and Extasies so sometimes with Prophecies too and then they must be content with such as can be had S. Rosae Vita c. 18. The Good Writer of St. Rose's Life took great pains to make her a Prophetess not long before her Death For she forsooth knew by Divine Inspiration that a Convent of St. Catherine of Siena would be built and this ten Years before the Foundation was laid she had it shewn sometimes by Signs and Figures sometimes in the exact Fashion and Model and would talk of it as if she had it before her Eyes she drew it out upon a Paper and she could tell who would be the first Abbess there knew her by Face and after a sort consecrated her by a Kiss insomuch that some thought she was mad It is as hard to believe that the Spirit of Prophecy should be given to a Maid for no other end as it should seem by this Story but to get her the Fame of a Prophetess as that the Ludicrous Miracles that do no manner of Good are the Marks of Divine Power It may be reasonable to believe that some measure of this Gift is imparted when not only the Event answers the Prediction but when the End aimed at is Great and Good and of General Use as when God sent Prophets to his People to bring them back to the Law. I should therefore make no Difficulty to allow that Hieronymus Savonarola a very Religious Friar in Florence was sometimes enlightned with Prophetick Knowledg because he did not only foretell several Things that happened some in his Life-time some after his Death and others that are yet to come to pass but his Business was plainly this to awaken Men to Repentance and to forewarn the Great Ones themselves of the Judgments of God hanging over them if they would not do their parts to restore good Discipline and good Manners to the Church Thus as Philip de Comminees tells us Chron. du Roy c. ch 25. p. 338. he assured Charles the VIII that he should be very prosperous in his Voyage into Italy and this that he might reform the corrupt State of the Church which if he should neglect to do he should return with Dishonour and God would reserve that Work for another and so it happened He was a Man of singular Vertue and Piety and obtain'd the Reputation of a Prophet not only with †Guicciard Hist lib. ii p. 42. the greatest part of the People but with such Men as Philip de Comminees who knew him well and that Noble Earl Jo. Franciscus Picus who wrote his Life To which we may add that he was served as God's Prophets sometimes have been being put to Death at the Instigation of the Pope And for what reason do we think but because he prophesied against the Simony Whoredoms and Prophaneness that reigned in the Church for which he was accus'd of Preaching scandalously against the Manners of the Clergy and Court of Rome Lib. iii. p. 94. In short he was silenced by Pope Alexander the VIth and at length upon the Pope's Process against him he with two of his Companions were tormented and all to make him deny that he had received those things from God which he had said Vita Savonar and after horrible Tortures which he endured with great Patience he and they were at once hanged and burned to the everlasting Infamy of some-body and no less to their Confusion who will needs have it believed that there have been Prophets in the Roman Communion Savonarola was put to Death in the Year 1498 a little before the Reformation It was about an 150 Years before that that Joannes de Rupe Scissa such an other Man as Savonarola and a Monk prophesied to the same purpose that he did after-him foretelling several Things that happened afterwards in the Kingdom of France but running out into the Reproof of the Luxury and Vices of the Pope and the Great Church-men Pope Innocent laid hold on him Frossard Chron. Tom. 1 2. and kept him in Prison as Frossard acquaints us who
Apostolicum solium annos decem menses septem tenuisset praecipiti morbo ex humanis ereptus est Raynald ad an 1352. n. 21. as their own Writers witness But Luther had eat a lusty Supper and was merry and jocular the Evening before And so had several of their Popes the next Evening before they died Pope Paul II after he had supp'd most jollily and perswaded himself that he had many Years to live the same Night died of an Apoplexy (o) Et cum annos plurimos vivere sibi persuaderet anno salutis nostrae 1471. v. Kal. Augusti hora secunda noctis cum eo die laetum consistorium habuisset jocundissime caenasset Apoplexia correptus vitam cum morte mutavit Johan Stell Anno 1464. p. 262. Pope Leo X led constantly a merry Life but his Death happen'd in the highest excess of Feasting Mirth and Jollity and so suddenly that there was not time afforded for Absolution and Extreme Unction (p) Ex hujus victoriae nuncio Leonem Pontificem ingenti diffusum gaudio referunt in qua Apoplexia correptus nullis perceptis Sacramentis aetatis anno quadragesimo sexto nondum exacto decessit inopina morte Raynald ad an 1521. n. 108. Die insequenti laetitiae pompam sua morte clausit inopina quidem adeâ— ut ne Sacramentis quidem munitus suerit N. 109. And if Luther jested the Day before he died methinks it might have passed without any severe Censure since Sir Tho. More the Pope's Martyr was so sportful upon the Scaffold and died with a Jest in his Mouth But what credit is to be given to his Enemies we may learn from those monstrous Tales they spread concerning his Death not only after but long before it Such as that horrible Miracle wrought at his Funeral for the Conviction of Hereticks which he confuted with his own Hand And it is not unpleasant to read how they contradict one another One says That he purged out his Entrails like Arius Another That his Mouth was distorted and his whole right Side turned to a duskish Colour But above all commend me to Thyraeus the Jesuit He confidently tells us That in a Town of Brabant named Cheol there were many Persons possess'd with Devils who were brought thither to be cured by the Intercessions and Prayers of the Saint of the Place That these poor Creatures were on a sudden deliver'd from these Evil Spirits and that this was the very Day that Luther died That the day after the Devils return'd again into the same Bodies and being asked whither they were gon the day before answer'd That by the Commandment of their Prince they were call'd forth to attend the Soul of their Grand Prophet and Companion Luther This Fable as ridiculous as it is malicious is quoted at large and credited by as considerable a Man as Florimond de Ramond (r) De la Naissance de l' Heresie l. 3. c. 11. p. 332. He I say that shall reflect upon these things will not be apt to believe the Reports of his Adversaries If we take the account of his Death from Sleidan we shall find it very different and such as was every way becoming a most pious and devout Christian (s) Jo. Sleid. Comment l. 17. But it will be said that he was his Friend and therefore as little to be credited as his Enemies Hear therefore what many Learned Men of the Church of Rome say who cannot be suspected of any partiality in Favour of him The Fathers in Trent saith Father Paul and the Court of Rome conceived great hope seeing that so potent an Instrument to contradict the Doctrine and Rites of the Church of Rome was dead c. and the rather because that Death was divulged throughout Italy with many prodigious and fabulous Circumstances which were ascribed to Miracle and the Vengeance of God tho there were but the usual accidents which do ordinarily happen in the Deaths of Men of sixty three Years of Age (t) Hist of the Counc of Trent l. 2. p. 149. So that in Father Paul's judgment there was nothing in his Death but what was common Yea that the very worst Circumstances were no other than such Accidents which happen also many times to VERY GOOD CHRISTIANS is acknowledged by a late Adversary (u) Spirit of Mart. Luth. p. 104. who hath written a Book on purpose to disparage him Yea that he died in great Honour as well as piously another hath informed us After Supper says Thuanus immediately before the Night in which he departed when he was ask'd Whether in the Eternal Life we shall know one ather he said that we should and confirmed it by Testimonies of Scripture As many strove who should best express their Love to him while he lived so neither by Death could they be drawn from loving him The Citizens of Mansfield contended that he ought to be buried with them because that was his Native Soil but the Authority of Frederick the Prince Elector prevail'd that he should be carried to Wittenberg and there honourably Interr'd (w) Post caenani proxime ante noctem qua decessit cum rogaretur num in illa sempiterna vita simus alter alterum agnituri ita esse aiebat Scripturae testimoniis confirmabat Ut certatim eum vivum c. Thuan. Hist l. 2. And indeed the transcendent Honour that was done to his Memory seems to be that which chiefly provoked his Enemies to set their Inventions on work to defame him The Cardinal 's next Instance of an unhappy End is Zuinglius And why is his Death reckon'd unhappy Because he was slain in a War against Catholicks (x) Zuinglius in bello contra Catholicos trucidatus est Bellarm. But is it a strange thing for a Man to be kill'd in a War Does every one that so ends his Days die miserably If so How many Millions hath the Pope brought to a miserable End in sending them to the Wars against Saracens and Hereticks O that they 'l say is a glorious Death that merits the brightest Crown in Heaven But Zuinglius was kill'd in a War against Catholicks But stay the Cardinal makes them Catholicks too soon he supposes them Catholicks before Zuinglius was kill'd whereas he was to prove them Catholicks by his being kill'd for his unhappy Death is the Note now under debate by which they were to be known to be of the true Church But that his Death could be no Argument that God disapproved the cause in which he died is evident because to the great grief of our Adversaries the Reformed Religion which they hoped would have died together with him made a greater Progress after his Death than it had done before I shall speak but a word to the two next because the Cardinal's Spite is chiefly against Calvin who brings up the rear Oecolampadius says Bellarmin in the Evening went well to Bed and in the Morning was by his Wife found dead
eodem sit vulnere mortuus Stella tells us that he was Stabb'd by the Husband of the Adulteress (x) Stella ad an 958. p. 133. Martin that he died in Adultery suddenly without Repentanoe (y) Chron. l. 4. p. 353. In this they all agree that he receiv'd his Death's Wound in the very act of Lewdness the Devil well rewarded him for the honour he was wont to do him in drinking his Health (z) Luitprand l. 6. c. 7. Pope Boniface VII (a) Plat. Stella and Boniface VIII (b) Mart. Polon l. 4. p. 439. Stella an 1291. Plat. both died as shamefully as they lived wickedly Benedict IX the Writers of his Life tell us was seen after Death in a monstrous Likeness and being asked after he had told who he was why he appeared in such a horrid shape he answered Because I lived like a Beast without Law and Reason it is the Will of God and of St. Peter that I should bear the shape of a Beast rather than of a Man (c) Plat. Mart. Polon Stella I should not have mention'd this had I not found it confirm'd by Cardinal Baronius (d) Baron Annal. an 1054 n. 54 55. Who also gives the Reasons from Petrus Damiani why he appeared in the compounded shape of a Bear and an Ass and adds the reason himself why he appeared by a Mill (e) Ibid. n. 56. Alexander VI by the mistake of his Cup-bearer drank himself that deadly Wine which he had prepared for the poisoning of his Cardinals and died forthwith (f) Papir Masson l. 6. fol. 374. Richer Hist Conc. general l. 4. par 1. p. 144. Paul IV went off the Stage with as much Infamy as his Enemies could desire scarce was the Breath out of his Body when the People mad with Fury ran through the City to destroy whatsoever had been done by him cursed the Memory of the Pope and of all Carafaes the Name of the Pope's Family burnt the new Prison of the Inquisition he had made for Hereticks Then running to the Capitol demolish'd his Marble Statue drew the Head of it through the Streets of the City and after many Contumelies threw it into Tiber. In fine an Edict was promulgated by which all were commanded under the heaviest Penalty to deface the Arms of the Caraffian Family in what place soever of the City they were found (g) Onuphr in vit This may I think suffice for Popes It were easy to observe several Circumstances in the Deaths of Morgan Gardiner Sanders and others which Men would be apt to conclude were special Indications of God's Displeasure against the Cause but it is needless because the advantage of the Protestants as to their Church-Men is already sufficiently manifest I might now proceed to Secular Persons and shew that their advantage is as great with respect to them It was before observ'd that the Cardinal has not produc'd so much as one unhappy Death of a Protestant Prince There has been one indeed here in England since the Cardinal's Death I mean King Charles I. But what is one to the many that might be mention'd of Popish Princes In France alone within the space of threescore Years we meet with no fewer than five immediately succeeding one the other without so much as one happy Death between viz. Hen. II Francis II Charles IX Hen. III and Hen. IV. I now leave the Romanists themselves to make the Conclusion which most naturally follows from the Premises And for a Conclusion of this Discourse desire them to observe the difference between Bellarmin's Authorities and mine Whereas what he reports of the unhappy Deaths of Protestants he has taken it from Papists and from such Papists who were their most implacable Enemies I have not said a Word of the unhappy Ends of Cardinals Popes and Popish Princes but what I have borrow'd from their own Writers THE END LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1687. ERRATA PAg. 335. l. 5. for there r. them P. 336. l. 22. r. Diocletian P. 344. l. last for found r. forc'd P. 349. Marg. l. 7. for caenani r. caenam P. 352. l. 27. for Phisician r. Physitian P. 354. Marg. for Vondra r. Voudra l. 6. for beaucomp r. beaucoup P. 358. Marg. l. 13. for pons r. pous The Fifteenth Note of the CHURCH EXAMINED VIZ TEMPORAL FELICITY Vltima Nota est Felicitas Temporalis divinitàs iis collata qui Ecclesiam defenderunt Bellarm. de Notis Ecclesiae Cap. 18. IMPRIMATUR August 12. 1687. Guil. Needham WE are now come to the Last of those Notes by which the Cardinal would perswade us the true Church may be easily known He had laboured hard to make them up so many but he was resolved never to leave raising of Notes till he had his full Complement of Fifteen And in this he seems to have been put to such a Shift as some Generals sometimes are who finding themselves in Streights draw out their Front to a great Length and fill up their Ranks with Suttlers Boyes and other weak Attendants on the Camp meerly to make a Shew and amuse the Enemy with a vain appearance of Numbers when they have reason to dread the Issue of the Battel It is certain no Man before him ever counted up so many Notes as he has done Some he tells us make but Two some Three Bellarm. de Not. Eccl. c. 3. some Four some Six some Ten or Eleven as they please and one he thinks reckons up a Dozen which is the most that any ever durst venture upon till he himself came on the Stage And then he at last makes a new Discovery that they were all short in their Account for that the Notes of the Church are just Fifteen So that here must be Three at least purely his own that were never heard of before and for which they that like them must stand for ever obliged to Cardinal Bellarmin's happy Invention But then what a miserable Condition was the Church in for many Ages For if there be no Salvation out of their Church as they of the Romish Persuasion confidently affirm and if this Church is to be known by certain Notes as they endeavour to prove and if these Notes be dubious and arbitrary and often differing according to the Fancy of their several Writers as cannot be denied then what hopes can there ever be of finding out the true Church and ending the Controversy this way And if two or three Notes are sufficient to determine the Matter as some have thought to what purpose are we troubled with all the rest But if the whole Number be judged necessary to make it evident what a hazardous Estate were Men in before this great Author had perfected the List And their danger continued a long time for they were never acquainted with divers of these Notes till towards the latter end of the Sixteenth Century But the Cardinal