pretended to confirm them by Confessions which the Cruelty of their Tortures have forced from them Neither is it only in this Work of his that St. Irenaeus informs us what in his time was the Faith of these Churches planted in Gaul for he hath left us five Books and Eusebius has preserved for us some Epistles of that ancient Bishop altogether refulgent with the Purity of the Faith delivered by the Apostles 1. St. Irenaeus gives us this for one Character of the Gnosticks that they embraced Doctrines which were not to be found in the Writings of the Prophets or the Apostles Lib. 1. cap. 1. p. 33. And 't is with the same Spirit that he attributes to Hereticks the accusing of the Scripture for being unintelligible without the Help of Tradition whereas he maintains that that which had been preached was committed to Writing by the special Will of God to the end it might be the Ground and Pillar of our Faith Lib. 3. c. 1 2. And that it is to make the Apostles Hypocrites to suppose that they taught some things in publick and others in private whence it appears clearly that when he makes use of Tradition he only does it with respect to those scriptural Doctrines which the Hereticks opposed and whereof they pretended that the Apostles had left the contrary to those that succeeded them Lib. 3. c. 2. 'T is upon this occasion that he alledgeth the Testimony of the Church of Rome founded by the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul as of one that was most known Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam saith he propter potentiorem Principalitatem necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt undique fideles in quo semper ab his qui sunt undique conservata est ea quae est ab Apostolis Traditio For to this Church because of its more powerful Superiority it behoves the whole Church to come that is the Believers of all Parts for as much as therein the Tradition from the Apostles has always peen preserved by the Believers of all parts It is apparent that whatsoever Design he may have had to raise the Authority of the Church of Rome he makes no other use of it than to make out that it was impossible those Doctrines which the Hereticks gave out for Apostolical should be really so seeing they were unknown to a Church which had had the Apostles and their Successors for her Guides more especially seeing that Church was placed in the very Seat of the Empire which continually drew to Rome a vast number of Believers from all the different places of the Empire from whence they brought not along with them a different Tradition from that which they found in the Bosom of the Church of Rome That St. Irenaeus had no other aim but this is owned by F. Quesnel in his Notes upon the tenth Epistle of St. Leo pag. 809. And this appears evidently because after all that Esteem which he had for the Church of Rome he was not afraid to write to her Bishop very censuring Letters upon the account of his having excommunicated the Churches of Asia that celebrated Easter the fourteenth of the Moon of March as also because he continued in the Communion of those Churches of Asia without being concerned at the Excommunication of the Pope of Rome 2. He reduces the whole Faith of Christians throughout the World to that which we call the Apostles Creed without mentioning so much as a Word of those Doctrines which the Church of Rome has superadded to it pretending to confirm them by Tradition Lib. 1. c. 2. 3. He maintains the Scriptures to be both clear and perfect Lib. 2. c. 47. 4. He rejects the Doctrines which the Hereticks grounded upon the Explication of some Parables maintaining that nothing ought to be established but upon clear and evident places of Scripture Lib. 2. c. 46. 5. It appears by his Writings that Penance at that time was publick without dispensing with Women that were overtaken with the Sins of Uncleanness by which means being exposed to extream Confusion it made some of them abjure Christianity Lib. 1. c. 9. 6. He makes it appear that Caelibat was not yet known in Asia whence these first Christians of the Gauls derived their Original which is acknowledged by the Fevardentius Lib. 1. c. 9. 7. He assigns to the Marcosians the custom of anointing those they received into their Communion with Balm Opobalsamo which shews that at that time extream Unction was not known And we may make the same Observation from his imputing to other Hereticks the anointing of Persons at the Point of Death with Oil and Water Lib. 1. c. 18. 8. He attributes to the Gnosticks the Imitation of the Heathens because they had the Images of Jesus Christ Lib. 1. c. 24. which makes it evident that the Christians had no Images much less that they gave to them any religious Worship And indeed we find him reasoning lib. 2. c. 6. after such a manner as shews that the Christians were yet in full Possession of a Right to reproach the Heathens with all those Absurdities that arise from the Use of Images The same may also be gathered from lib. 2. c. 42. where he divides the Law into two Tables in a manner very different from that of the Doctors of the Roman Church and altogether conformable to the Judgment of Josephus and other Jewish Doctors 9. He makes it appear that he knew nothing of the Separability of Accidents from their Subjects which is the sole Support of Transubstantiation lib. 2. c. 14. 10. He in plain terms â—ejects the Invocation of Angels instead thereof recommending that of our Saviour Jesus Christ lib. 2. c. 57. 11. He asserts that the Blessed Virgin had unseasonable Motions intempestivam festinationem John 2.3 so far was he from believing her wholly free from Sin lib. 2. c. 18. This shews that when he saith cap. 33. Quod alligavit Virgo Eva per incredulitatem hoc Virgo Maria solvit per fidem What the Virgin Eve bound up by her Unbelief that the Virgin Mary set free by her Faith he doth not own the Virgin for the Person that saved Men but his meaning is like that of Hesychius who said speaking of the Women to whom Jesus Christ appeared after his Resurrection Invenêre enim saith he mulieres quod olim amisere per Evam lucrum invenit ea quae damni occasionem praebuerat For the Women found what formerly they lost by Eve she found the Gain who had been an occasion of the Loss T. 15. B. P. p. 823. col 1. And this is the sense likewise of that other Passage of St. Irenaeus which we find lib. 5. c. 19. for though he calls the Virgin Eve's Advocate it plainly appears that he meant nothing else but what is express'd by St. Chrysostom in Ps 44. T. 3. p. 221. Virgo nos Paradiso expulit per Virginem vitam aternam invenimus A Virgin drove us
therein referred to his Bishoprick Testis est dies bodierna Beati Petri Cathedra Episcopatus exposita in qua fidei merito revelationis mysterium filium Dei confitendo Praelatus Apostolus ordinatur In cujus confessione est fundamentum Ecclesiae nec adversus hanc Petram portae inferi praevalent St. Peter's Episcopal Chair which is shewn to this Day can testify this wherein by reason of his Faith when he confessed that Mystery that was then revealed even the Son of God he was ordained a Bishop In whose Confession is the Foundation of the Church neither shall the Gates of Hell prevail against this Rock 6. We read there that the Gates of Hell do not signify Errors as the Church of Rome will have it but the State of the Dead from whence the Faith which St. Peter hath professed delivers those who imitate him Let us pray saith he that the Souls of the deceased being brought up out of Hell the infernal Gates may not prevail over the Dead because of their Crimes which the Church believes are overcome by the Faith of the Apostle 7. We find there as in the Romish Mass an high Abjuration of the Doctrine of the Merit of Works And though we find the Word Merit often used in it yet we also meet with those necessary Explications of it as are sufficient to hinder any wrong Impression that may be made by a Word of an ambiguous sense 8. I do own that we find in it the Prayer for the Dead but there are a hundred other Passages which speak them to be in Peace in the Peace of God that they are at rest and other Expressions which very plainly import that they had not received the Notion of Purgatory no more than the Authors of the Roman Liturgy had at that time I know there are some Passages in it which seem to suppose the Souls departed to be in a place of Torment but I have two things to say to this Point the one is that those Missals whose Stile comes near to the Belief of the Church of Rome are of a later Date the other is that the ordinary Article pro pausantibus for those who are at rest imports nothing like a place of Torment To these two Considerations we may add That what is ordinarily requested for them is either that they may have a part in the first that is to say a more early Resurrection which is the same with the Opinion of the Millennium or that they may be written in the Book of Life or carried into Abraham's Bosom which shews that the State of Souls after Death was not more certainly determined by those who governed these Churches at this time than by the Members of the Catholick Church any where else We read that there are divers Flocks whereof each Bishop is the Pastor as well St. Cyprian as Cornelius Indeed we find that to every Bishop is given the Title of summus Pontifex and summus Sacerdos Grant unto us Lord who this Day are celebrating the Anniversary of the Decease of thy high Priest and our Father Bishop Martin We see there the manner of administring Baptism with the Unction or anointing called the Chrismation but we do not find that they made two Sacraments of them as the Church of Rome has since done We find there also the Consecration of Wax Tapers but yet without ascribing to them all those Virtues which the Church of Rome attributes to her consecrated Tapers in the Roman Order But I go on to that which is most considerable in this Liturgy Mabillon who hath published it in France according to the Copy printed at Rome pretends that it expresly shews that the Churches which made use of this Liturgy held the Doctrine of the Real Presence If instead of some Passages that he quotes we could find there a precise Order for adoring the Sacrament after Consecration as being become the Body of Jesus Christ which we do not find in any part of it there would indeed be some ground for his Pretension but there is not so much as a Word to this purpose which makes it evident that in these Diocesses they had not received this Doctrine nor the natural Consequences of it any more than in any other part of the Catholick Church for we find that as soon as ever this Opinion was entertained it was immediately followed with supreme Adoration Neither do we find any thing therein of the Sacrifice of the Mass any more than of the Adoration of the Sacrament which is another Consequence of the Real Presence We do not find any Masses there without Communicants St. Caesarius whom I have already cited would have accounted them ridiculous and a mere Profanation Lastly We do not find that the Communion under one kind was there thought to be a Consequent as it hath been in the Church of Rome of the Real Presence And yet one would think that the Fear of prophaning the Blood of Jesus Christ as being very subject to be spilt ought to have obliged them to take the same Precautions as the Church of Rome has since done to prevent such dreadful and yet such common Inconveniencies If Mabillon had well considered these essential Defects which a Papist cannot but naturally meet with in this Gothick Liturgy in all Appearance he would not have been so lavish of his Judgment But without making use of these just Anticipations upon the matter in hand let us consider a little whether the attentive Examination of the Liturgy be not sufficient to clear these Prejudices and oblige him to put another sense upon the Words which he hath wrested to confirm his Assertion The Characters we meet with in this Liturgy are these 1. It makes a great Distinction between that which is taken with the Mouth and that which is received by the Heart Grant O Lord that what we have taken with our Mouths we may receive with our Minds and that the temporal Gift may be to us an eternal Remedy This Observation is decretory for the Transubstantiators own that both Good and Bad receive the Body of Christ Goffridus Vindocinensis expresly asserts it notwithstanding that St. Augustin has rejected it as a great Absurdity 2. It supposeth likewise that Jesus Christ is above the Heavens and that he is no otherwise near to us than by the Communion of our Nature which he hath taken to himself Vt qui te consortem in carnis propinquitate laetantur ad summorum Civium unitatem super quos corpus assumptum evexisti perducantur That they who rejoice to see thee their Brother in the Nearness of thy Flesh may be brought up to the Unity of those highest Citizens above whom thou hast carried up thy assumed Body 3. It supposeth the Sacrament to be only a Commemoration We remember thy Suffering and thy Body broken for the Remission of our Sins Which is a plain Allusion to the Words of St. Paul
had reduced them to the single Canon which they pretended was the best Piece of the Mass where he proved that the Holy Supper of the Lord was not the Mass saying that if the Mass were the Lord's Supper there would be all after Consecration that there was before in the Lord's Supper Whereas said he in your Mass there is no Bread for by Transubstantiation the Bread vanisheth wherefore the Mass being without Bread cannot be the Supper of the Lord wherein all know there is Bread Jesus Christ brake Bread Saint Paul brake Bread the Priest breaks the Body not Bread therefore the Priest neither doth what Jesus Christ nor what St. Paul did As Arnaud was about to proceed in these Antitheses between the Lord's Supper and the Mass to prove that it was neither of Christ's nor of the Apostles Institution the Monks Bishops Legats and Priests thought fit to withdraw themselves being resolved to hear no more for fear they might fix Impressions on those that were by which might extreamly shake their Belief of the Mass The Monk of Vaux Cernay indeavoured to render this Action suspected in saying that when these heretical Judges perceived the Weakness of their Cause and the Misfortune of ingaging in such a Dispute they refused to pronounce any Judgment concerning it as likewise to restore us our own Writings for fear adds he they might come to be published but restored the Hereticks theirs But how could two of the Pope's Legats and so many Bishops Abbots Monks and Priests suffer themselves to be drawn into a Place there to be thus abused and trick'd The Monk himself saith in the same place that the Heads of the Hereticks came to meet with the Catholicks at the Castle of Montreal to dispute with them the Catholicks therefore were in Possession of the Castle there could be therefore no Opportunity of foul Play nor of any such Violence neither was it necessary that the Moderators should pronounce their Judgment in a Case of Dispute seeing they hold that no other Judgment is necessary but that of the Pope who cannot err Besides how could this Monk know that the Albigenses were overcome seeing that no Sentence was given Perrin could have given us a faithful Extract of this Conference because himself observes that it had been brought to him from the Albigenses by Mr. Rafur Minister of the Church of Montreal in an old Manuscript From whence though he doth not express it in so many Words I judg that he reduced the Points in Question between the Albigenses and the Church of Rome to six Articles I. Article The Doctrines which they asserted in opposition to the Church of Rome were That the Church of Rome was not the Holy Church nor the Spouse of Christ but that it was a Church which had drunk in the Doctrine of Devils the Whore of Babylon which St. John describes in the Revelations the Mother of Fornications and Abominations covered with the Blood of the Saints II. That the Mass was neither instituted by Christ nor his Apostles but a humane Invention III. That the Prayers of the Living are unprofitable for the Dead IV. That the Purgatory maintained in the Church of Rome is no better than a human Invention to satisfy the Avarice of the Priests V. That the Saints ought not to be prayed unto VI. That Transubstantiation is a human Invention and erroneous Doctrine and that the worshipping of the Bread is manifest Idolatry That therefore it was necessary to separate from the Church of Rome in which the contrary was said and taught because one cannot assist at the Mass without partaking of the Idolatry there practised nor expect Salvation by any other means than by Jesus Christ nor transfer to Creatures the Honour which is due to the Creator nor say concerning the Bread that it is God and worship it as such without incurring the Pain of eternal Damnation because Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven For all these things therefore which they asserted they have been hated and persecuted to Death This Account of the Conference of Montreal which I have copied from Perrin is enough in my Judgment fully to refute any Scruple that might remain in the Mind of a Reader who reads in Roger Hoveden the Letters of Peter Cardinal of St. Chrysogon writ in the Year 1178 which testify that the Manichees of Tholouse had been convicted by the Confession which many of them had made of the greatest part of the Articles of that Heresy It is very visible that it was upon the Authority of these Letters or upon some Informations of this Nature that Alanus who was born at Lisle in Flanders and who had spent the greatest part of his time at the University of Paris has built his Catalogue of the Heresies which he refutes in his Treatise against the Albigenses whereof I have given an Extract in the foregoing Chapter So that it is necessary to suppose one of these three things Either that the Earl Raymond of Tholouse and those whom he protected were really Manichees as they are accused to be by the Pope's Legats by the Bishops and by Peter of Vaux Cernay who sets down this Accusation and the forced Confessions of the Albigenses who own themselves to be Manichees or that the Albigenses who were the Disciples of Peter de Bruys and of Henry that were no Manichees had gone over to that Sect towards the End of the 12 th Century and afterwards again become Petrobusians and Henricians at the Beginning of the 13 th as it plainly appears they then were from the Conference of Montreal where they freely proposed their Opinions intirely opposite to Manicheism or that the Legats and Monks that persecuted them with Fire and Sword were great Impostors in taking Advantage against them from some Confessions extorted from Manichees who were here and there scattered in those Diocesses and which they made use of to animate the People of the Roman Communion and to ingage the Princes and Bishops of all places to exterminate without Mercy a sort of People who utterly subverted all the Rules of Morality which is the Band of Society and all the Principles of both natural and Christian Religion CHAP. XVIII Reflections on the Convictions of Manicheism which were said to be proved upon the Albigenses ONE of the most plausible Objections that can be made against the Purity of the Faith of the Albigenses is the Testimony of the Inquisitors who have filled their Trials with plain Confessions which several Albigenses judged and condemned by them have made of sundry Errors of the Manichees I shall produce an Extract of the Acts of the Inquisition of Tholouse which are in the Hands of Mr. Wetstein Bookseller at Amsterdam as it was sent me out of Holland and which was made by a Man of great Reputation The Albigenses saith he held some Opinions in common with the Vaudois as That to a Christian all Oaths are unlawful that the Confession of Sins made
be wholly uncertain Gregorius Turonensis who often mentions him as his Friend never gives him any other Title but that of Priest However it be it appears by his Writings that he was very far from Popery in these following Articles 1. He never in the Life of St. Martin attributes to that holy Man that upon any occasion he prayed to the Saints for the working of his Miracles This we may see in his Relation of St. Martin's raising a Child to Life 2. He looks upon all Bishops as the Vicars of St. Peter accordingly he saith to the Bishop of Metz Apparet Petri vos meruisse vices It appears you have deserved to be St. Peter's Vicar 3. We meet with nothing more commonly in the Epitaphs which he made than this Notion that deceased Believers are in Heaven from such Expressions as these Hunc tenet ulna Dei Inter Apostolicos credimus esse choros Non hanc flere decet quam Paradisus habet Accordingly also he maintains that Abraham's Bosom is the Heavenly Glory Lastly It appears from an Exposition he hath made on the Apostles Creed that he owned no Doctrines besides those contained in that ancient Formulary as Articles of his Faith because he makes no mention at all of those new Articles which the Church of Rome hath added to that Creed and which she imposeth on her People as another part of that which makes the Object of Faith It cannot be denied but that the Spirit of Superstition had already made a considerable Progress in all places we meet with an illustrious Example thereof in the Diocess of Marseilles which joined to Gallia Narbonensis The People there began to render a religious Worship to Images whereupon Serenus the Bishop of Marseilles was forced to follow the Method of St. Epiphanius in breaking the Images to pieces which drew upon him the Censures of Gregory I. who exhorts him to erect them again though he commends him for having opposed himself to their Adoration and exhorts him carefully to instruct the People to prevent their falling again into Idolatry And it is natural to conclude that this Excess of the People met with the same Checks in many other places CHAP. VII The State of the Diocesses of Aquitain and Narbon in the Seventh Century I am come to the Seventh Century of which I have two pieces of great Authority to produce The first concerns the Purity of these Diocesses in regard to their Faith There was a Council held at Toledo in the Year 633 whereat Silva Bishop of Narbon assisted in the Name of the Bishops of Gallia Narbonensis and they began the Synod with a Confession of Faith which shews beyond all Controversy that nothing was look'd upon by them as an Article of Faith that was not received for such in the Creed of the ancient Christians for there was not so much as one Word to be found there of all those Articles which the Church of Rome imposeth upon those of her Communion as an Addition to the primitive Faith The second regards the Practice of the publick Acts of Religion and that is the Gothick Liturgy which of a long time was used in these Diocesses wherefore to make a fuller Discovery of the Religion of these Provinces it will be of Importance to make some Remarks upon this Liturgy which was in use there It is not probable that all the Parts of it are of equal Antiquity as may be seen by the Office of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Soul and Body which was rejected in France as a thing uncertain towards the end of the 9 th Century according to the Testimony of Vsuardus One may make the same Judgment of divers other Offices which are found in this Gothick Liturgy the Barbarism which appears in all its parts sufficiently shows its Age In the mean time such as it is it does not want the Marks of a considerable Purity which it seems obliged Gregory VII to abolish and suppress it with all his Might 1. We find in it the Recital of the Apostles Creed as the only Profession of Faith which the Churches of these Provinces required of those who would be Partakers of her Communion 2. We don't find in it any Prayer address'd to Saints It supposeth all along from one end to the other that the Saints pray in general for the Church and on this Ground it is that therein they desire God to have regard to their Prayers and to receive their Intercession their Suffrages and so forth There is no greater stress laid upon the Power of the Blessed Virgin with God than on that of the Patriarchs and Apostles yea of the Anchorets and Virgins True it is that there is a solemn Commemoration of divers Saints but it may easily be perceived that it is only done out of a Design to glorify God by representing to themselves their Examples and forming or disposing themselves to imitate them This is done in the Office of St. Forrestus and Ferucio We find divers Confessions to God before the Liturgy but none at all made to Angels to the Blessed Virgin or Saints as at this day is done in the Romish Mass 3. We find there no particular Distinction for the Bishop of Rome only that the Bishop of the City of Rome is called the first of Bishops Mabillon in his Preface triumphs because of this Title but he is extreamly out in his account for hath the first Bishop any Jurisdiction over the second the second over the third We find there the Prayer for the Feast of St. Peter but with a Clause which Mabillon owns to be found in all the ancient Missals and is struck out of the Roman Liturgy in order to extend the Papal Monarchy over all the Earth We do not find therein the least Foot-step of Prayers for the Pope which shews that the Decree of the Council of Vaison wherein it was ordained that Prayers should be made to God for the Bishop of Rome was not observed throughout Gaul yea what is more the same Liturgy gives the Title of Head of the Church to St. Paul as well as to St. Peter We find therein no Adoration of the Cross on Good-Friday 4. We find therein an Office for St. Saturninus Bishop of Tholouse who is looked upon as come from the Eastern Parts in the place of St. Peter which shews that all the Bishops of France considered themselves as the Vicars of St. Peter as well as the Bishop of Rome Si quidem ipse Pontifex tuus ab Orientis partibus in urbem Tolosatium destinatus Roma Garonae invicem Petri tui tam Cathedram quam Martyrium consummavit For this your Bishop being sent from the East to Tholouse instead of Rome has now upon the Garonne filled the Chair and consummated the Martyrdom of your Peter 5. We find therein that the Confession of St. Peter was the Foundation of the Church and the Festival of his Chair is
Man and Wife cannot be saved if they know one another carnally by striving to preach up the Study of Virginity saith he they seem to derogate from the State of Marriage and to condemn it which he refutes by the common Proofs In the sixth place saith he We convict and judg by the Authorities of the New Testament that they are Hereticks and separated from the Unity of the Church for we say that the Lord hath given the Power to St. Peter of binding and absolving saying Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound c. and St. James says If any one among you be sick let him call for the Priests of the Church c. and again Behold I send unto you wise Men and Scribes but as our Lord saith All Men cannot comprehend this Saying Moreover We say that they ought to have stood up in Answering and Disputing concerning the Gospel because all Christians stand when the Gospels are read now if we ought to stand when they are read much more ought we to stand when they are read and expounded together Neither ought they to have sat down after that they had once chosen to stand Besides We have many Authorities by which it plainly appears that we ought to be standing when the Gospel is reading as that where it is said And Jesus stood in the Plain and again Jesus stood and cry'd saying and again There stands one in the midst of you whom ye know not Moreover Jesus was in a standing Posture when after his Resurrection he confirmed his Disciples and preached unto them as it is written Jesus stood in the midst of his Disciples and said Peace be with you And as for them saith the Bishop they have no right to judg but only to answer for the Lord ought to sit to whom all Judgment is committed by the Father But as for them they judg not but are judged and it is not permitted to them to preach in the Churches These Hereticks are such as St. Paul foretels of when he saith that there shall be wicked Men and Seducers who will go on to grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived for the time shall come that they will not bear sound Doctrine but will turn their Ears away from the Truth to Fables And again From which some going astray have given themselves to vain things who desiring to be Teachers of the Law understand not what they say or affirm He maintains that they ought to punish the Disobedience of those Hereticks and to give them publick Correction according to St. Paul's saying That Sinners should be reproved openly in the Presence of all for their Amendment St. Paul also speaking to Bishops saith Being always ready to reprove every Disobedience and having Power to confute those that gainsay and again Exhort rebuke and reprove with all Authority and again I have delivered them to Satan c. Moreover Being absent I have already judged c. And lastly Who ever shall preach any other thing let him be accursed In the seventh place the said Bishop questioned them concerning Repentance whether it were saving when performed at the last Gasp or whether Souldiers mortally wounded may be saved if they repent at last or whether every one ought to confess their Sins to the Priest and Ministers of the Church or to some Lay-man or to those of whom St. James says Confess your Sins one to another To which they answered that it was sufficient for those that were sick to confess to whom they would As for Souldiers they would answer nothing because St. James there speaks only of the Sick It was also asked them whether one single Act of Contrition of Heart and one Confession of the Mouth were sufficient or whether Satisfaction were necessary after Penance had been enjoined in deploring their Sins by Fasting Alms and Affliction if they had opportunity To which they answered saying that St. James said Confess your Sins one to another that you may be healed so that by these Words they knew that the Apostle did not enjoin any thing else but only to confess to one another and that so they should be saved and that they would not be better than the Apostle by adding any thing thereto of their own as the Bishops do The Hereticks added besides that the Bishop who pronounced Sentence was an Heretick and not they and that he was their Enemy and a ravening Wolf a Hypocrite and an Enemy of God and that he had not judged rightly and that they would not answer any thing concerning their Faith because they mistrusted him as our Lord had commanded them in the Gospel Beware of false Prophets who come unto you in Sheeps Clothing but inwardly are ravening Wolves And that he was their malicious Persecutor and they were ready to make it appear from the Gospels and the Epistles that he was not a good Pastor neither he nor all the rest of the Bishops and Priests but rather Hirelings The Bishop answered That the Sentence had been duly pronounced against them and that he was ready to verify the same either in the Court of Ld. Alexander the Catholick Pope or in the Court of Lewis King of France or of Raimond Earl of Tholouse or of his Wife who was present or in the Court of Frenkwel who was there present that he had passed a right Judgment and that they were evidently Hereticks and branded as such He promised also that he would indict them for Heresy and that he would denounce them to be such in all Catholick Courts The Hereticks seeing themselves convicted and confounded turned themselves towards all the People saying Good People the Faith which we now confess we confess for your Sakes The Bishop answered You say That you speak for the Sake of the People and not for God's Sake And they said We believe that there is one only God in three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost and that the Son of God hath taken our Flesh upon him that he was baptized in Jordan that he fasted in the Wilderness that he hath preached our Salvation that he suffered died and was buried that he descended into Hell that he rose again the third Day that he ascended into Heaven that he sent the Holy Ghost on the Day of Pentecost that he shall come at the Day of Judgment to judg both the Quick and the Dead and that All shall rise again We know also that what we believe with our Heart we ought to confess with our Mouth We believe that he is not saved who doth not eat the Body of Jesus Christ and that the Body of Jesus Christ is not consecrated but in the Church and by the Priest be he good or bad and that it is no better consecrated by a good than by a bad one We believe also that none can be saved but those that are baptized and that little Children are saved by Baptism We believe also that Man and Wife are saved
to any Man This they prove after this following Manner First They say it is clear that when God pardons Sin he doth it not with any respect to the Merit of any Man but of meer Grace whence it follows evidently that the Remission of Sins cannot be attributed to a Man's confessing of them for if it were so we must own that the Remission is no longer of Free-gift but that it is a Recompence given by God to the Merit of him that confesseth Secondly They say if it be Confession that procures a Man the Pardon of his Sins what will become of that Passage in the third Chapter of the Epistle to Titus where it is expresly declared That God hath saved us of his Mercy and not according to the Works of Righteousness that we have done Or how shall we explain that in the ninth of the Romans That it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy We know that the first Grace that God works in us is the Remission of Sins now if this Grace be absolutely the Effect of the Mercy of God it cannot be the Effect of Confession which by Consequence is not necessary to Salvation And having thus endeavoured to defend their Opinion by Reason they endeavour also to back it by the Authority of the Fathers and quote St. Ambrose who saith upon Luke St. Peter wept because his Sorrow was so great that it did not permit him to speak we find that he wept but not that he said any thing I read his Tears but I find nothing of his Confession The fourth Heresy is of those who acknowledg that we ought to confess but add that we are not to confess to Man What need is there say they to confess to a Man now under the Covenant of Grace seeing that even under the Law it was sufficient to confess to God by a single Act of Contrition They alledg also the Authority of St. Chrysostom who saith upon the Epistle to the Hebrews It is not said that you need publish what your Sins are to the World neither need you accuse your self before all Mankind you are only enjoined to practise the Exhortation of David in the 136 th Psalm That you spread all the Parts of your Life in the Presence of God that you confess to him who is your true Judg and that you rather express your Repentance by the secret Groans of your Conscience than by the abundance of Words this is the true way to obtain Grace from Heaven They make use also of another Passage of the same Father where he saith If thou desirest to have thy Sins blotted out confess them but if thou beest ashamed to discover them to any Body repeat them every Day in the secret of thine Heart It is not necessary to tell them to Men they might it may be afterwards reproach thee with them but declare them rather to God who only can give thee such a Remedy as thou wantest and though thou shouldest not confess them to him yet he still sees thee he was present and look'd upon thee whilst thou didst commit them From all which he concludes That we ought to confess our Sins only to God And this detestable Heresy which is practised in secret Assemblies hath already infected a great number of People The sixth Heresy is of those who maintain that it is not necessary to confess to a Priest when a Man can confess himself to a Layman The seventh Heresy is That we ought to obey none but God alone This is the Error of a certain Arch-Heretick called Waldo from whom the Hereticks that we now call Waldenses derive their Name This miserable Wretch without being sent from God took upon him of his own Head to form a new Sect and without the Permission of any Bishop without Inspiration without Knowledg or Learning set up for a Preacher so that we may well say of him as Alanus doth in his Book against Hereticks that he is a wise Man without Reason a Prophet without a Vision an Apostle without being sent and a Doctor who never had Instruction See here how his Followers undertake to defend his Heresy We see say they in the 5 th Chapter of the Acts that St. Peter and St. John speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees tell them Judg ye-whether it be reasonable to obey you rather than God and not to do what he commands us because you forbid us Moreover these Hereticks maintain That if we obey a Man when we ought not to obey him we commit a Sin because then we don't obey God Samuel say they saith to Saul in the 15 th of the 1 st Book of Samuel that Disobedience or Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft Now he that addicts himself to Witchcraft doth in a manner renounce God but he that refuseth to obey a Man doth not therefore commit the Sin of Witchcraft which Sin is not committed but where a Man refuseth to obey God We ought therefore to obey God and not Man because in disobeying Man we are not guilty of that Sin but only when we disobey God The eighth Heresy is what these same Waldenses profess that supposing we ought to obey any Man it must be such a Man as is not under Sin himself and that good Priests only have the Power of binding and loosing This also was one of the Errors of John Havel that is to say Wicklef an Englishman who amongst many others which he taught maintained that a temporal Lord a Bishop or Prelate have no Authority as long as they are under mortal Sin And he hath been followed by another Fox who asserted the same thing John Huss a Bohemian and by another Viper Jerom of Prague who were both of them condemned for Hereticks in the Council held at Constance in the Year 1414 in the Presence of Martin V. They say therefore that we ought to be obedient to good Prelats that is to say to those who are no less Successors of the Apostles in their Lives and Conversation than in their Charge and Function but as for those whose Life and Conversation has nothing in it Apostolical they are Hirelings and no true Shepherds They endeavour to support this their Error first by the Words of St. Austin in his Book of Baptism That God pardons Sins either immediately by himself or by the Members of his Dove and that the Saints can either absolve us of our Sins or retain them He saith also upon Exodus speaking of the Plate of Gold which was to be always upon the Fore-head of the High Priest This Plate was the Testimony of a good Life and that he only who hath the Testimony of a good Life not in a Figure but in Truth and Reality can forgive Sins So likewise St. Gregory declares That they only in this World have the Power of binding and loosing so as the Apostles had who retain their Doctrine and imitate their Examples And Origen