Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	apostle_n	deliver_v	tradition_n	2,968	5	9.1889	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33223	The state of the Church of Rome when the Reformation began as it appears by the advice given to Paul III and Julius III by creatures of their own : with a preface leading to the matter of the book.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1688 (1688)	Wing C4400; ESTC R15337	26,546	43

see no such degeneracy in any other City but in this which is to be an example to all others These Whores live in splendid Houses 'T is a filthy Abuse and ought to be mended In this City also Malice and Animosity reigns amongst private Citizens to bring whom to a right understanding and to make them Friends is a main part of the Bishop Wherefore some of the Cardinals who are fittest for this Service should be appointed to take up Quarrels and to reconcile the Citizens to one another There are Hospitals Pupils and Widows in this City the principal care of which belongs to the Bishop and Prince Wherefore your Holiness may please to take a fit care about all this by some Cardinals that are Men of Probity Now these are the things Most Holy Father which we for the present have brought together as our Capacity would permit that as to us it seems needful they may be Corrected But you in your Goodness and Wisdom will make a more perfect judgment of every thing We indeed thô we have not answered the greatness of the Concern which is too hard for us yet at least have satisfied our own Consciences and cannot but conceive great hope that under your Government we may see the Church of God purged fair as a Dove at Harmony with it self and united into one Body to the never dying Honour of your Name You have taken to your self the Name of of Paul we hope you will imitate the Charity of Paul who was a Chosen Vessel to carry the Name of Christ amongst the Gentiles We hope that you are chosen to restore the Name of Christ forgotten by the Nations and even by us of the Clergy that hereafter it may live in our Hearts and appear in our Actions to heal our Diseases to reduce the Flock of Christ into one Sheep-fold to remove from us that Indignation and Vengeance of God which we deserve which is now ready to fall upon us which now hangs over our Heads The Names of the Cardinals c. Gaspar Card. Contarene Joh. Peter Card. Theatine afterwards Paul IV. James Card. Sodelet Reginald Pole Card. of England Frederic Archbishop of Brundusium Joh. Matthew Gibet Bishop of Verona Gregory Cortese Abbat of St. George at Venice Fryar Thomas Master of the Sacred Palace THE ADVICE Given by some Bishops Assembled at BONONIA TO Pope Julius III. Concerning the Way to Establish the Roman Church Most Holy Father YOUR Legat at Bononia has given Us to understand that 't is your pleasure That We the Bishops lately Assembled in this City by your Command should three by three separately consult about the most effectual means of Establishing and Advaneing the Apostolic See which is at present so much troubled assaulted and weakned by the Perfidious Lutherans And that we should deliver in Writing our Opinions of this matter that your Holiness may compare them together and deliberate with your self about them as you desire We therefore the three Bishops whose Names are to this thô neither our Prudence Learning or Experience in business does avail much will yet in obedience to your Will distinctly declare our Opinions with such submission that yet all shall be referr'd to the Judgment of your Holiness But in the first place with all Reverence imaginable We would admonish your Holiness to take care least the same thing happen to this our Advice which we remember lately happen'd in another Case when some Cardinals with Select Bishops Nine in all consulted about this very thing viz. The Way of Reforming the Church and presented a Paper in which they offer'd their Opinions For the things there that ought to have been suppressed and concealed presently stole abroad and were scatter'd and dispersed even as far as Germany and so all our Counsels were discover'd and laid open to our Enemies the Lutherans And these things were of wonderful advantage to them in the opposition they made against Us and 't is incredible what hatred of Us they raised by the Books they published upon those Advices Affirming that We our selves confess there are many Errours and Abuses in the Church which We are so far from being willing to correct our selves that we do not stick to defend and maintain them by force and persecute with the utmost rigour any one that dares but to open his Lips about the necessary Amendment of them The divulging that Council most holy Father believe Us was a great disadvantage to our Affairs God forgive him by whose fault or negligence it hapned But truly there ought to be all care and diligence used that this our Advice never come abroad otherwise we shall add affliction to affliction and heap evil upon evil for We strike at things of the highest concern and freely without any respect of Persons we fall directly on the main cause first shew the Disease and then offer a convenient Remedy But these we say are to be kept as Secrets When we had well and long considered what was the State of this weighty Controversie recollecting all things from the beginning for we should always run back to the first principles we at last found it to be this The Lutherans hold and confess all the Articles of the Apostles Creed that of Nice and Athanasius This is very certain for we ought not to deny especially amongst our selves what we all know to be so true And these Lutherans refuse to admit of any other Doctrine but that alone of which the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were Authors and wish likewise that all men would be content with those few things that were observed in the Apostles time or immediately after and would imitate the Primitive Churches nor think of receiving any Traditions which it is not apparent as the light were delivered and instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles Thus do our Adversaries judge but indeed they judge ill We on the other hand following the Opinion of your Holiness would have all Traditions Constitutions Rules and Ceremonies which have hitherto been brought into the Church by the Fathers Councils or any Private Man with a good intention believed and received as Doctrine necessary to Salvation But particularly as to Tradition we believe as an Article of Faith what the Council of Trent lawfully Assembled with the Holy Ghost has Decreed in the 3d Session viz. That our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles delivered more Precepts relating both to Manners and Faith by word of Mouth than are in the Scriptures and that these without Writing were handed down to Us And although we can't prove this clearly for amongst our selves we plainly acknowledge that we have no proofs but some sort of conjectures to make out what we teach concerning Tradition yet we confess this to be true because the Roman Church maintains it This in short is the hinge on which the whole Controversie turns hence these Tumults and Contentions proceed But we ought to venture all to keep their Doctrine from

the least Title to that Doctrine which our Saviour delivered to us and the Apostles taught for thus says the Canon Transferat c. 24. q. 3. They change Truth into a Lye who Preach any other thing then what they received from the Apostles This is a down-right Lutheran Maxim for what else do our Adversaries daily inculcate Then that it is not lawful to depart in the least degree from those things that were in use amongst the Apostles But who of us doth not every day often depart from them Indeed in our Churches we scarce retain as we hinted at the beginning the least shadow of that Doctrine and Discipline which flourisht in the times of the Apostles but have brought in quite another of our own Nay we are expresly called Lyars by that Decretum inasmuch as we have done this yet we have done it by the Advise and Instructions of Popes nay by their peremptory Order and Command But we wish there were not so many Canons as there are of this kind that enjoyn things directly contrary to what the Popes and all of us do every day we speak of Matters of Faith and Doctrine not of Manners Take one or two of them for instance Thus says the Canon that begins Contra 25. q. 1. Nothing can be establisht contrary to the Constitutions of the Fathers nor any thing alter'd no not by the Authority of this See. And then another Canon that begins Ideo c. says Thus by the Divine permission we are so made Pastors of Men that we ought not in the least to transgress what ever our Fathers in their Sacred Canons or Civil Laws have appointed for we go against their most wholsome Institutions if we do not keep inviolably what they according to Divine Pleasure have ordained Do not Pope Zosimus and Leo the Third nay and the whole Roman Church plainly here declare aloud that the Authority of this See can do nothing against the Canons against the Law and against the Ordinances of the antient Fathers which ought to be Religiously observed How therefore shall we answer our Adversaries when they press and urge us with this and turn that of the fifth Psalm upon us There is no certainty in their Mouth for they accuse us of lightness and inconstancy who have such express Canons which forbid the Popes to alter the Decrees of the Fathers or to do any thing contrary to them and notwithstanding all this thereis nothing more frequent than the presumption of altering what has been Established by the Antient Fathers and Councils How I say shall we answer this especially since the Book of Decrees is so celebrated and famous and is in all Schools Courts of Judicature and Churches held in the greatest Honour and Esteem And besides those few which we have given you a tast of it contains a great many others that favour the Cause of our Adversaries and favour it in such a manner that they seem to have been pen'd by some of them Moreover we shall consider of some course to be taken with these Decrees for it seems very absurd that any thing should be taught which is contrary to what your Holiness does not only do but commands to be done But we have reserved the most considerable Advice which we could at this time give your Holiness to the last And here you must be awake and exert all your force to hinder as much as you can possibly the Gospel from being read especially in the vulgar Tongue in all the Cities that are under your Dominion Let that little of it which they have in the Mass serve their turn nor suffer any Mortal to read any thing more for as long as Men were contented with that little things went to your mind but grew worse and worse from that time that they commonly read more This in short is the Book that has beyond all others raised those Storms and Tempests in which we are almost driven to destruction And really who ever shall diligently weigh the Scripture and then consider all the things that are usually done in our Churches will find there is great difference betwixt them and that this Doctrine of ours is very unlike and in many things quite repugnant to it And no sooner does any man discover this being set on by some of our Learned Adversaries but he never ceases bawling against us till he has made the whole Matter publick and rendred us odious to all Men. Therefore those Papers are to be stisled but you must use caution and diligence in it least that create us greater disturbance * Author of e Po●n D●ll ur●o D. John Della Casa Archbishop of Beneventum the Legate of your See at Venice behaved himself handsomly in that business for although he did not openly and avowedly condemn that Book of the Gospel or order it to be suppress'd yet in an obscure dissembling manner he insinuated as much whilst in that long Catalogue of Hereticks which he put out he has found fault with part of the Doctrines maintained in it particularly some certain Chapters which seem most to make against us Seriously a renowned Divine Action what ever others chatter for at first blush it seem'd ridiculous to many that he should condemn so many Authors at once who writ about Religion when himself had never read so much as one syllable of Divinity and Publisht I know not what to which he gave this Title Of the Divine Art. But this is nothing and they who censure this in him have little business of their own to employ them and shew themselves to be great Novices in the Court of Rome For he as he is a true and eminent Courtier spake freely what was his Opinion which we think makes much for his credit It now remains Most Holy Father That we should in short make a Reply to what may perhaps be objected by you that having done this we may finish our Epistle Your Holiness therefore perhaps may say If it is at this time so dangerous a thing to hold a Council of these Bishops thô few in number least some of them should dare to raise a clamour and be severe against my Dignity to undermine it How much more dangerous would it be if besides these therewere a hundred others Created We shall offer three things in answer to this First Look as you generally do that those Bishops who are to be created be ignorant and unlearned but very skilful in the Affairs of Court and addicted to the interest of your Family for that alone will suffice Then avoid a Council as much as you can thô Caesar be very urgent clamorous and importunate Lastly If onely to save your fame and reputation you desire or would seem to desire a Council you may reassemble that But as has been hitherto let there onely be admitted who you are certain will go on your side and let the others be kept out and driven away But of all things be most careful that