enlarged but the rights of the Roman Bishop ouer you abridged Hence arose Spleene Malice Strife with which whirlewind blowne away you were carried headlong into Apostasy You would not indeed haue gone but you could not stay being once possessed with this passion Euen as weighty things which cast headlong downe make no end of mouing till they lye on the ground These things meane we to make good For that you write pag. 14. I was lifted vp from my Bishoprick to be an Archbishop from whence sprange to me a new and more vrgent occasion of renewing my endeauours and of a more feruent and exact pursuite of them For when I began to be stirred with the molestations of the Suffragan Bishops of my Prouince but much more with the ouer much power of the Courte of Rome disturbing my Metropolitan rightes I was forced to search more narrowly into the roote and origen of all the Ecclesiasticall degrees powers functions offices dignityes and especially of the Popedome So you I cannot tell whether you wot what you say For by this discourse truly you haue wholy dashed your owne cause and defeated your writings of all credit against the Pope which I trust so to demonstrate that perhaps your selfe or at least euery man besides your selfe may see it manifest 23. Your Suffragans I know not nor haue I to do with thē You are their Primate be you also Accuser Witnes Iudge against them They wrought your vexations I excuse them not They enuied your honour they would haue diminishtit T' was ill done The Pope helped you not but rather with his authority oppressed you more See now how fauourable an aduersary I am I do not deny but that it may haue so happened You grieued at it you tooke it hainously You were incensed and set on fire with anger This I allow not yet let it be held a pardonable fault and according to kind to be sensible of iniuries But you should not fret your selfe so much as to leaue the Church for the matter so to boyle as to seeth ouer the pot not to skip as the Prouerbe goes from the frying pan into the fire If you will not learne patience of any Man yet me thinkes you might of that worthie Matrone Paula Romana no lesse renowned for sanctity then for Nobility of bloud She without her fault hauing incurred enuy and being by S. Hierome exhorted to giue place to furie answered Hieron in Epitaph Paul You should say well if Sathan did not in all places molest the seruantes and hand-maydes of God or if I could find my Bethleem in any other part of the world Most wisely piously and aptely spoken to our purpose Sathan is busy euery where That the lesser do enuy the greater that the weaker be oppressed by the mightier is not Roman but humane If you thinke to eschew this mischiefe you must wholy fly from men also and not from Rome only There are troubles euery where iniuryes crosses euery where something to suffer but not euery where Bethleem that House of Bread is not else where to be found but in the Catholike Church The bread of heauenly doctrine that doth satiate vs with Faith The bread of the most sacred Body that feeds vs in the Sacrament you shall find Bread indeed in the Ministers Suppers but profane bread such as those which do take it stick not to share it to the dogges whose crummes and crustes without awe of religion they shake of on the ground Do you thinke this Holy Bread I do not thinke you do although to please his Maiesty of Great Brittanie you may feed of it with shew of much veneration your anger therefore should not haue lead you so farre as to carry you from Bethleem If there had been any such iniuries offered you either by the Suffragans or the Pope which you obiect but proue not they should rather haue been for Bethleems sake togeather with that diuine bread disgested by you 24. But take heed now in the heat of your anger and being so inraged against the Pope that you vtter nothing for which you may after repent you You say that the power of the Pope annoyed you much and that he assaulted you and your Titles also and that from thence arose in you that seruent and burning desire to search out the roote and origen of the Papacie Do you say this You say it certainly your words be witnesses therof nor could you with any other words so much haue wrought the vtter ouerthrow of your owne cause For cōsider I beseech what you do You moued with the wronges which as you perswade your selfe the Pope hath done you oppressed with his power and for that cause now put into heat and distemper set your self to read and write and search into the first beginnings of the Papacy First who can beleeue that you will disclose any truth in fauour of the Pope if happely you find it who burne with such passion against him That you will discouer if you chance to light on the certaine and firme roote of the Popedome the roote wherof to no other end you seeke but to haue it rooted out That you will lay open the vttermost extent of the Roman Bishops authority which by a preiudicate opinion you iudge ouer large now already before you know what it is Secondly can you hope to find out the Truth seeking it in anger and hauing so mighty a beame in your eye as is the power of the Roman Bishop in the sight of the enuier therof Know you not the verse though vulgar yet true Anger doth so the mind bereaue That Truth it can no whit perceaue Could none of these diuines sayings occurre vnto you Anger killeth the Foolish man Iob. 5.2 In your wrath you do loose your soule Iob. 13.4 An angry man raiseth strifes Iac. 1.20 Anger of man worketh not the iustice of God Could you not remember the precepts of the Apostle Giue place to Anger Rom. 12.19 not reuenging your selues Eph. 4.31 Banish from amongst you all Bitternes and Anger and Indignation and Clamour and lastly Blasphemy which is as it were a certaine fume of boyling Choller 25. Now therfore we shall not hereafter so much meruayle though your ten promised Bookes Of the Ecclesiasticall Common Wealth abound with Blasphemous vntruths which the furie of your breast incensed as you confesse your selfe with supposed iniuries done you by the Pope hath powred forth I should wonder indeed if that were true which you witnes of your selfe in perusing the Fathers in such heate of your prouoked passions That with your eyes more opened you easily obserued you saw now and throughly perceaued It is a strang thing that a man should haue a beame in his eye and not feele it that being starke blind yet to himselfe he should seeme quick sighted But tell me Antony what saw you there in that your feruour and passion of reading I saw say you and throughly perceaued that
so that except the Churches reasons do so fully conuince you that it manifestly appeare to you that she proposeth to our beliefe that only which is conteined in the Scriptures except you see this I say you will not yeild nor do you thinke it meet that you should yeild being a man of such yeares Thus to stand vpon reasons drawne from Scripture is I say an hereticall tricke For those ancient Heretikes amongst whome as S. Augustine saith it was ordinarie to oppose their reasons and arguments to countermaund the definitions of the Church these heretikes I say did not vrge reason without Scripture but they boasted that they had and exacted likewise of the Church argumēts out of Scripture so cleere and so perspicuous that mans vnderstanding cannot resist against them And the same kind of conuincing arguments our Nouellestes require of the Catholike Church nor will they graunt any man to be an Heretike but such a oneas being conuinced by testimonies of Scriptures cleerly seeth that to be affirmed in Scriptures which the Church would haue to be beleeued notwithstanding he refuseth to belieue This is their doctrine which if we once admit to be currant t' is impossible there should be any men in the world properlie Heretikes For if that which the Church proposeth to be belieued they find not cleerlie deliuered in Scripture although they disagree from the Church they be not Heretikes as they say And on the other side if they see the doctrines of the Church to be cleerlie contained in Scripture they cannot dissent from them vnles they belieue either that God can lie or that the Scriptures of Christians be not the word of God And if they beleeue either of these two things they be not properly Heretiks For if they beleeue that God can lie they are not Heretikes but Atheists if they beleeue that God is true but thinke that Christian Scriptures be not his word they be not Heretikes but Infidells seing they wholy deny Scriptures and as Tertullian saith There can be no Heretike without Scriptures Praes c. 39. And if you say they be Heretiks that deny the Scriptures not wholy but in part then this followes that there can be no Heretike which doth not refuse some part of Canonicall Scriptures And then I aske of Protestants how they can taxe vs Catholikes for Heresy who from the Canon exclude no booke which they themselues admit nor do we find the doctrines cleerlie deliuered in Scriptures which they so boldly and clamorously contend to be conteined in them But my purpose is not at this time to ouerthrow this proud Tower of Heresy which is not to beleeue the Church vnlesse they see with their owne eys that her doctrine is conteined in Scripture 30. This only I vrge that you Antony were come to this last step towards Apostasy which is not to yield to the Churches authority without she make her word good by weighty reasons that out of presumption of your Wit and Learning but especially out of a great opinion of the ten Bookes you promise to print you haue shamefully reuolted frō the Church That which we read of Agar Sara's handmaide Gen. 16. may very well be applied to you Who perceauing that she had conceaued with child set light by her Mistresse For as soone as you had conceaued in your braine that new forme plot of an Ecclesiasticall gouernement and Christian vnion you forthwith contemned the iudgment of the Roman Church to whō you should haue beene obsequious submitting and captiuating your iudgment But it seemes by your manner of proceeding that you be of opinion that in those your ten Bookes more is conteined then in the whole Catholike world besids For you promise many great wonderfull Benefits which by your Reuolt from the Pope shall redound to the Church to witt the suppression of Schisme the vniting of Churches the extinguishing of Heresies the pacification of Princes from open Hostility and the combining of their forces for the subuersion of the Turke with the infranchisement of Christiā Captiues groaning vnder their yoke These are great and glorious things Let vs now see by what power you will performe them As Dauid with fiue stones encountred Goliah so you with the same number of bookes twice told will enter into combat with the aforenamed Monsters The Church say you shall shortly heare my voyce I will speake to the hart of Ierusalem I will call her forth Thus you and yet if I be not deceaued God only is he that speakes to the hart as for men euen the greatest the most learned and eloquent while they inuite men to heauenly matters of themselues can do no more but knocke at their eares Nor do I see vpon what grounds you may be so sure that your voyce should penetrate into the hart of the Church though I see very well that you imagine there is no small force but rather some diuine efficacy in your voyce Well what is that you will proclayme that shall be heard ouer Christendome Let vs now heare it from you own mouth I will say you shortly put forth my ten Bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth in which principally I endeauour that the Roman Errours may be detected the truth and soundnes both of Doctrine and Discipline may appeare that many of the Churches cast forth and reiected by the Roman Church may be reteyned still in a Catholike sense That the way of vnion betweene the Churches of Christ may be demonstrated or at least pointed at with a nod or finger And that if it be possible that is if it be possible my bookes wil do the deed we may all say and thincke the same thinges and so all Schismes may be repressed that the occasions may be taken away from Christian Princes of oppressing one another that therby the better they may direct their forces in such sort that the Churches of Christ groning vnder Infidel Tyrantes may be recouered to their former liberty Thus you write of your Booke What victories will this your Child yet in wombe get for the Church What ouerthrowes and woes will he worke vpon Heretiks if he may be once happily borne into the world 31. Whose birth therefore you iudge a matter of such consequence that any wickednes may be committed that he may be borne For I pray you is it not a wicked thing to forsake the Church Yes certainly and yet you finding no possibility to print your booke in a Catholike Country rent your self wholy from the Catholike Church that so your ympe finding no other way of passage to life might worke himselfe into the world by renting his mother Againe is it not great wickednes for Pastours to forsake their flock to the continuall tuition whereof the law of God seuerely bindeth them Without question it is Yet you write in this manner It was very necessary for me to leaue my flocke that so hauing broken also these bandes being at more liberty I might be the
you could possibly lay togeather on a heape so many things openly false absurd impious so many things wherein you contradict your selfe wherein you bewray the courses which you would fayne haue hidden wherin you vtterly ouerthrow your owne cause Wherfore you can neuer proceed further except you returne backe to the Catholike Church from which you haue fayled You are gone out of the way you must needs returne before you can make forward 56. The applause wherwith our Adueruersaries intertained you let it not detayne you from this returne Therein they did nothing that swarueth from the nature of Heretikes or from the course that ancient Heretikes held Praesc cap. 40. Being themselues Apostata's saith Tertullian they ioyfully receaue our Apostata's that fly vnto them they bestow on them benefices they aduance them to dignities so tying them fast to their sect by honours whome they cannot bind sure to them by the truth Nor let their exclamations prayses predictions allure you wherwith they shew their great hope conceyued that they shall vanquish the Pope you being their leader These are but bubbles froath which your fall from so high a state into so deep a gulfe hath raysed suddaynly will vanish away Despise them These are the oyle of sinners wherewith wretches appointed for fire euerlasting be in this world anointed that in the next their burning may be the sorer Abhorre them These are but conceits prayses wherwith they make a vaine shew of triumph ouer vs and flatter you to your face who behind your backe play vpon you with scoffes loading you with the disgracefull titles you truly deserue and with some also which perchance you haue not merited when not long ago at S. Dunstans you made a speach in the street do you not know what the people then present vttered against you They called you great-bellied-Doctour made fat vnder Antichrist and some there were also that sayd that before you ranne away from the Pope you got your owne Neece with child and that feare to be punished for it made you trudge away with your great load of flesh in such hast 57. I do not relate these things as beleeuing them or as desiring that they should be beleeued but to shew how vaine be the prayses of Heretikes how vayne a prophet you were in promising to yourselfe that your most beautifull Sara for so you tearme your good Name should remaine pure and vntoucht in the midest of Barbarians For these things were vented against you not in Rome by Catholikes but in London by Protestants openly in the streets Many great Personages also do not sticke to mutter about you that besides grossnes of body you haue brought nothing with you that is answerable to the greatnes of your titles that your booke doth not equall the solemne ostentation and expectation you haue raised therof that you do not performe therein what you promise yea some would not haue it printed at all fearing you may therwith disgrace your selfe and their Ghospell 58. Now then Antony why tarry you in the middest of a depraued and peruerse nation Why do you wretchedly draw on your gray hayres with grief and disgrace to your graue Seeke for true renowne who haue lost the vaine honour that you hūted for irreligiously Enter into your owne hart remember whence you are falne do pennance and turne againe to your first workes Through Gods goodnesse assisting you rayse your self a monument of the diuine mercy which this present age which the future times may admire and make a lasting benefit of Let reioycing posterity to the worlds end be taught by your example this comfortable truth that the bowels of diuine benignity be not so loathing of sinners but that they willingly take in againe euen tepide Apostata's whome they were forced to cast vp Ayme at the dignity of a Penitent seeing you haue lost the state of Innocēcy You that haue let go the sterne you who beaten out of the ship wherein you were Pilot floate in the Ocean lay hold on this board which is reached vnto you whereon you may swimme to a Kingdome You are threescore yeares old very nigh the remnant of your yeares be bad and few Withdraw these your bad yeares from vice that you may see good dayes Bestow these your few yeares in pennance that you may gaine yeares eternall Let not the bitternes of pennāce discourage you which by the dew of diuine Comforts falling from aboue will be sweetned Where sinne hath abounded there grace will more abound The deeper and darker that the dungeon is wherin you are kept by so much more sweet will the breath be that being thence deliuered you shall draw in the lightsome mercies of your Redeemer 59. Nor let it deiect you that you haue shamefully falne but remember that as the depth of the diuine Iustice so likewise the depth of the diuine Mercy is vnsearchable Who knowes the mind of God And whether he hath not ordayned that this your fall be for your owne rising againe and for the rising of many The secret pride wherein you went mounting a loft in your conceyts against your Creatour was to be beaten downe by a mighty thunderclappe that you others might feele it For this your pride standing on foote you could no wayes be saued by him that lookes vpon low things high things knoweth a farre off Wherfore I am not greeued with your defection no not for your owne sake which yet would grieue me could I be persuaded that you should haue byn saued had you continued in the Catholike Church But when I consider the wauering disposition the darke and intangled proceedings of Apostata's both ancient and new I come to be setled in this opinion That none perish by falling from the Church who would not as well haue perished through their secret concealed errours though they had continued outwardly in the Church And these men are by the secret course of diuine Prouidence cast out of the Church to the end that being so forlorne they may reflect on themselues or else that by being out of the Church they may benefit others who by remayning in the Church would neuer haue benefited themselues This to me seemes the opinion of S. Augustine whose golden words I here set downe de vera Relig. c. 8. Seing it is truly sayd that Heresies must needs be to the end that they who are of proofe amongst you may be made manifest let vs make vse of this benefit of the diuine prouidence For Heretikes be made of such kind of men who though they were in the Church would we neuerthelesse erre but being out of the Church they be very beneficial not because they teach the Truth for hereof they are ignorant but because they awake carnall Catholikes to seeke and spirituall Catholikes to declare the truth Thus S. Augustine 60. I could name diuers Apostata's with whome in times past I haue byn acquaynted who euen then when to others yea to themselues they seemed Catholikes were couertly infected with Errours against the Roman Faith and possessed with secret malice against the Roman Sea But you Antony are an example of this truth that may stand insteed of many For to say nothing of your open enimity against the Roman doctrine in your last ten yeares you that still beleeued that the Church of Rome was iustly suspected of errours what could the externall shew and profession of a Roman Catholike haue auayled you to saluation You that still were doubting whether some doctrine more firme then the Catholike did not lye hidden in the writings of Heretikes what good would it haue done you that you kept your eyes from their books your body frō their Conuenticls You had perished secretly nor such was your carelessnes had you perceaued that you did perish Now you erre openly that many may be taught the truth you perish in the sight of the world that diuers affrighted with your example may be moued to work their saluation And why may not this your fall turne to your euerlasting exaltation I will not despayre but when you haue been cloyed with the huskes of swine which now you feed in a farmers house that once were a feeder of sheep in the Church I do not despayre I say but that one day you will call to mind the aboundance of your fathers house and hauing learned by deare experience what a mischiefe secret Pride is retourning to the Catholike Church you will say I had perished vnlesse I had perished FINIS Faultes escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction 6. vlt. of out of 8. 9. hell in hell in 12. 26. vnion vnion 16. 3. your our 19. penult false falne 23. 12. of if Ibid. 21. vnto men vnto you 25. 23. now as this now this 26. 5. prosecuteth persecuteth 31. 20. begon be gone 33. 14. do be to be 53. 3. to rather to Rather Ibid. 4. your selfe You your selfe you Ibid. 6. deeds You deeds you 67. 2. Church Church Ibid. 4. world world 68. 19. guide grudge 72. 19. swarueth swarued 79. 19. one owne 98. 18. fall face 102. 2. so to 111. 6. are were 121. 12. deserue do serue
auerre that I was had in as much esteeme in our Prouinces Churches as any other Modesty requires that men should be bashfull in speaking though with great moderation things tending to their owne praise whereas you proclayme your selfe second to none of the Bishops either of the State of Venice or of the Catholike world besides and this you professe to speake without blushing You say true Shamefastnes is not wont to wayt vpon an Apostata But we howsoeuer you dreame of your being famous had newes of the Archbishop of Spalato his flight before we heard of his name Marke Antony in the Northerne parts was sooner knowne by his face then by his fame he came so fast that he preuented the messenger of his worth and estimation The fugitiue Primate himselfe first declared to many that there was any such Spalatian Primate Notwithstanding you were not more vnknowne to the world then to your self which is the cause you insolently prefixe your name to your booke as already knowne and sufficient to giue it lustre Marke Antony de Dominis Archbishop of Spalato sets downe the reason of his going So you stile your booke as if you were the Pithian Apollo ready to giue Oracles or some Dictator deliuering Lawes vnto the people or Pithagoras prescribing to his schollers Aphorismes or at least some Authour knowne by his former writings able to gaine credit to any worke by the splendour of his name Who notwithstanding were at that time for afterwards you became more notorious through the staine of your fall so vnknowne that many wondred at the title nor were there wanting inquirers who should this Marke Antony be What going is that he speakes of so vncertainly without naming either whither or from whence Is peraduenture that old Marke Antony reuiued againe and fled from Rome to Aegipt that Antony so famous for wine and venery who hauing violated his former faith to his Roman spouse no lesse renowned for chastity then noble of blood ioyned himselfe to that Aegiptian woman infamous for her many foule enormities Thus did men not yet acquainted with your iourney descant vpon the title of your booke framing coniectures of the authour of Marke Antonyes name They could not speake more assuredly of a person wholy vnknowne neither did their rouing discourses much misse of the marke For you hauing left the Roman Spouse and violated your first faith haue matched your selfe to that Lutheran brat who being of her Fathers condition no more able to refrayne from venery then from food differs not much from Cleopatra's manners If you but resemble that drunken Triumuir as well in life as you do in name by this match may that old saying be renewed Bacchus is wedded to Venus THE FIRST PART OF THE SVRVEY OF APOSTASY or the Ladder of Marke Antonies fall consisting of eight steps or degrees SINCE therfore you must be cured by the most true knowledge of your selfe who through your too high a conceite of your selfe haue slid downe into hell in this Suruey I put you in mind of your selfe whom your selfe haue so much forgot and I lay open your Apostasy not so much to the Readers eye that he should detest it as before your owne conscience that you may bewayle it Behould now at last who you were when you seemed a Catholike and by what stepps by litle litle you fell into this abysse The degrees therfore are these secret Pride close Infidelity suspicious Lightnes abandoning the Iesuites Order ambition of holy Dignities audacious Contention for Preheminence open Contumacy against the Pope finally Presumption of your owne iudgment and learning aboue the Church I will handle all these in their order not led by variable rumors but by euident arguments and for the most part taken out of your owne Booke The first degree Secret Pride HERESIES are in number diuers deuided by nations but much more by manners rites and errours amongst themselues Yet all are sisters saith S Augustin borne of the self same mother Pride To which purpose saith S. Gregory Pride is the seat of Heretickes for were they not first puffed vp in their owne conceipt they would neuer fall into strife of peruerse opinions This also Antony was the beginning of al your mischiefe long agoe through a certaine secret Pride you coueted to shew your selfe wise and zealous for the vnion of all Churches aboue all other Catholikes vnder which pretensed zeale you now at last leaue the Church Which pride of yours you discouer in your 9. page in these words I euer cherished in me say you from my first entrance into holy orders a kind of innated desire I had to see the vnion of all the Churches of Christ I could neuer brooke this separation of the West from the East in matters of faith nor of the South from the Northerne parts I was very anxious to vnderstand the cause of so many and so great schismes and to spie out if there could be any way thought vpon to reduce all the Churches of Christ to the true ancient vnion Yea I did burne with desire to behould it and I was vexed with inward grief for so many dissentions which strangely tormented me 2. If you perceaue not the pride that lurketh in these your thoughts I will stirre them vp further I let that passe where you call the Grecian Schisme a Separation of the West from the East when rather you should haue termed it the separation of the East from the West for we left not the Grecians but they departed from vs. We Latines are not the Church which departed but that frō which departure was made What principle of faith euer was common with vs and the Grecians which we haue forsaken They after they had nine times in nine general Councels peace vnion concluded subscribed to the Roman Supremacy so often againe with the note of leuity reuolted With no lesse apparant falshood you call the Lutheran defection a separation of the South from the North as if the South that is Rome Italy had deuided it selfe from the North abiding still in the faith of their auncestours It is not so for what is more knowne then at such time as Luther Zuinglius and Caluin and the first Nouellistes beganne to preach that the North was Catholike and imbraced the Roman doctrine which now they abhor The Roman Church made no diuision but suffereth diursiōs made against her The North falling away into new opinions Rome still remayned immoueable in the faith which before she imbraced nor did the hauen leaue the barke but the barke the hauen But against these your conceits I proceed no further because perhaps they are not so much signes of secret Pride wherwith you were then taynted as of newer errours wherwith now you are blinded 3. I come to your Pride Was it not a part of passing great arrogancy that you being but newly and scarcely yet admitted to holy Orders would take vpon you to be the Iudge of the whole Church
reason teacheth that the bookes contrary to the Roman doctrine should be barred from the students and from those that are well affected to the Catholike faith You plainly confesse by this that you had not only a motion of doubt against faith but an assent also nor were you tempted only but you assented likewise to that which the temptation suggested to wit that the Roman faith was if not false at least wise not free from suspition of falshood 7. From hence is deriued the second Argument of your secret Infidelity You say that you euer haue suspected the Roman Church because she layeth those bookes out of sight which are any waies contrary to her doctrine And by and by you explicate more cleerely your suspition to wit That something there was no doubt in the bookes of heretikes which the Roman doctrine was not able to conuince I take you at your word that you alwaies suspected the Protestants doctrine to be sounder then the Catholikes What may be deduced from this Euen this that you were neuer a Catholike indeed neuer truly indued with the Roman Faith For he that beleeues like a Catholike and a Christian this thing of all other first and chiefly he belieues that nothing may be found surer or holier then his faith And this persuasion if it be vnsteddy and wauering is no Faith nor the substance of thinges hoped for nor the firme and immoueable ground of saluation Tertul. praesc ca. 8. When we beleeue saith Tertullian we desire to belieue no more for this thing we first of all belieue that there is not ought else to be belieued And againe Ibidem c. 11 No man seekes for that which he hath not lost or neuer had If you belieue the things that you ought to belieue and yet imagine something else to be sought for then surely you hope that there is something else to be found which you would neuer do but because either you did not belieue that which you seemed to belieue or else now you haue left to belieue Thus leauing your Faith you are found a denyer Thus Tertullian Who seemes Antony to speake to you your coÌ„science he conuents you say that with reason you haue alwaies esteemed the Roman doctrine to be touched with suspition of infirmity Is this you speake true or false If false who hath so bewitched you to giue the lye to your owne selfe how is it likely that you will speake well of the Pope whome you hate that spare not your owne selfe he that is not good to himselfe to whome will he be good If true how were you euer a Catholike and a Roman Catholike that haue alwaies iudged the Roman doctrine if not openly false yet lying open to suspitions of falshood and no way secure 8. Since then you confesse your Faith to haue been euer so sickly and feeble we trouble not our selues with the searching out of those decrees and mysteries of the Roman Faith wherof you doubted But in reward of your ingenuous confession we do of our owne accord vouchsafe you the graunt of your suite which you so painefully endeauour in this writing to obtayne of vs. For you desire that your departure may breed no admiration in vs Your suite Antony is reasonable and not amisse for vs. For it is the part of a Christian rather to eschewe heresies whereof Christ foretold vs Matth. 24.19 Act 20. then to wonder at them not to wonder I say though the starres should fall from heauen or that from among Bishops whome Christ hath placed to gouerne his Church purchased by his bloud there should arise men lying and speaking peruersly Wonderers as TertulliaÌ„ saith by the fall of certaine persons which were held for learned or holy men are edified to their owne destruction They vnderstand not that we ought to receaue Doctours with the Church and not with Doctours forsake the Church nor to esteeme the Faith for the persons that imbrace it but the persons for the Faith they imbrace But as for you Antony why should we wonder at your fall seeing you confesse that you were neuer stable Cypr. epist 52. ad Anton Graue men saith S. Cyprian and such as are once well soundly founded on the rock are not shaken with wind or stormes much lesse remoued with a silâ—y blast It were a wonder indeed if such men so grounded in the faith should fal but you that neuer stood fast vpon the Rock against which the proud gats of hel cannot preuaile Aug. cont part Donat you that alwaies had the sayles of you high mind spread to the winds of nouelty you that continually suspected the infallible doctrines of the Roman Church for feeble you being so doubtfull and vncertaine no meruayle if at last tossed with diuers fancies as it were with certaine blastes of windes rushing vpon you you were beaten from your first purpose The Faith that in your selfe already was false could not long retayne the semblance of standing The third degree Suspicious Lightnes and Inconstancy BVT now if we do looke into the causes of these your doubts such causes especially which you commit to writing straight appeareth your suspicious Leuitie readily carried away with euery blast You obiect forsooth errours abuses and innumerable nouelties to the Roman Church but they are but words only For in particuler you do not so much as name them much lesse proue them Namely and especially you vrge two incitements of your change two things that scandalized you in the Catholike Church which we will now examine and lay open the vanity you discouer therein The first in your 8. page you set downe in these words That which made me more doubtfull was the exact and rigorous diligence vsed both at Rome and in my owne Countrey Wherby a most vigilant heed is taken that no books contrary to the Roman doctâ—iâ—e be handled or read of any good reason I thought there was that the vulgar sort should be forbidden them But that students and those very well affected to the Catholike faith and well knowne to be sound in doctrine should wholy be depriued of them I haue euer thought it a matter of suspition And in hiding suppressing and destroying of such books so much industry is had that for this cause only a man may well suspect that there is something in them which our doctrine is not able to conuince Two things you say first that you haue always had the Roman Church in suspitioÌ„ because she prohibits the aduersaries books The other is that for this very cause her doctrine may wel be called in question By the first you bewray the instability of your mind but in the second your impiety also 10. For the first then what a lightnes inconstancy is it vpon so vaine a suspition to renounce the Church especially that Church that hath bred you to Christ In whose lap to vse S. Augustins words many iust respects should haue held you Aug. cont Epist rundam
fift generall Synod by an Edict of his which was read in the same Synode actione prima prohibited the writings of Seuerus an Heretike condemned by the Synod In 5. Syno gen act 1. Let not said he the writings of Seuerus remaine with any Christian Et in nouel Const. 42. but be had as prophane and odious by the Catholike Church and let them which haue such bookes Habetur in 5. generali Synodo collat 5. burne them vnles they will abide the perill thereof With like seuerity Theodosius and Valentinian Emperours both first of their names did prosecute Hereticall bookes in these words Let no man presume to reade possesse or write such bookes which withall diligence are to be searched for whersoeuer they be found to be burned in the publicke view of all men but those that are discouered to haue kept such bookes let them be sent to perpetuall banishment Nicepho l. 8. cap. 15. But of al others the Emperour Constantine the Great set forth the sharpest Edict against the bookes of Arius saying Our will is that if any writing of Arius be found it be committed to the fire that not only his wicked doctrine may perish but that also there may remaine no monument thereof yea and moreouer we enact If any man be detected to conceale any booke of his and not to burne it forthwith that he be adiudged to die For such a one being found guilty of the crime shal presently be put to death Behould how rigorous how seuere was Constantine What say you Antony to these decrees of Fathers and Princes Will you now suspect that for as much as the writings of Arius Nestorius Eutiches Seuerus were so roughly intreated that there must needs be something in them which the Christian doctrine could not conuince Be not so blasphemous I speake in a word If you know not the seuerity of the ancient Church in prohibiting the bookes of heretiks you are ignorant If you know it and would suspect thervpon that those Heretiks arguments were stronger then the Catholiks you are impious If you molest the present Church standing in equal termes with the ancient you are vniust 13. But now the other incitement of your suspitions and doubtes is to be looked into which then hapened when you first began being a Bishop to turne the Fathers For before that time you had not so much as saluted them a farre of For thus you declare the matter pag. 13. In the Theoriques I noted certaine sayings of the Fathers in many thinges very repugnant to the common doctrine wherein I was trayned vp in the Schooles and the same either passed ouer by my Maisters or not faithfully alleadged or not sufficiently or else falsly explicated Also the practise and forme of Ecclesiasticall discipline and spirituall gouerment of our times came to be very different from the ancient and thence my new mentioned suspitions were not a little augmented So you But the holy Ghost saith truly of you and your fellowes Prouer. 13. He that will part from his freind seekes occasions For euery where euen in your old manuscriptes did you hunt for calumnies wherewith to charge the Church which you had resolued to forsake And yet after all your diligence vsed with so great desire to find some shew of reason the causes you haue found out be most slender and such indeed as would haue moued no honest or prudent man to leaue a priuate friend much lesse the Catholike Church You found the Fathers sayinges in many thinges very different from the common Schoole learning either passed ouer by your Maisters or not faithfully cited or falsly explicated First you say all these things but neither are you able or do you go about to proue thē and yet faine would you haue your departure allowed euen by Catholikes Shall your bare word be belieued against the Maisters of the Church Shall Catholikes themselues against the Catholike Church giue credit to you a fugitiue an enemy It were impudency to craue this at their hands and folly to hope for it But admit all you obiect were true how slieght is all you say how ridiculous and making nothing at all for the mittigation of the crime of your Apostasy Your Maisters in the Schooles did explicate certaine places of the Fathers not so fully as they should or else vnproperly you perhaps were by their negligence brought into great straytes were there not other men in the Catholike Church learned inough to resolue your doubts put case the Maister had not satisfied you Sometime they did not faithfully alleadge testimonies how common and ordinary a thing is it for Scribes not to take well their Maisters words which they dictate in Schools though also what Maisters deliuer in schooles be not so exact as writings that are prepared for the presse Some things he wholy left out Surely a great fault And are you so great a straunger in schoole matters that know not this that the Maisters cannot possibly in the compasse of foure yeares to which the course of Diuinity is straytened giue full and ample satisfaction to all the testimonies of Fathers which are obiected against the Catholike doctrine by diuers Sectes of necessity many things are omitted which the Schollers afterward are to find out by their priuate industry But there are certaine sayings of Fathers which are very opposite to the doctrine that now is currant in the schooles This spoken in so generall tearmes is true What Catholike schoole man knowes it not Who euer denied it Nor do there want examples The common consent of Deuines is that those seauen days in which God accomplished the frame of the world were true dayes indeed distinguished by the heauens reuolution and the rising and setting of the light But who knows not that S. Augustine is of a contrary mind The Schooles agree that the Angells were not created before the world yet Nazianzen the great Light of Greece esteemes them elder then the world I could alleadge many more but to what end How do they serue to cloke your Apostasy Those Fathers sayings pretermitted or not fully explicated by your Maisters did they patronize your Sect You tell vs not what kind of Sect yours is nor do you plainly say that those Fathers sayings fauour you at all Suppose you should say they make for you might we not iustly put you to your proofe Lastly supposing that were true which you say only but prooue not That the moderne practise in many things now a dayes is different from the discipline of the Church of old what makes this for you Do you not see the times change men with the times with men customes It is the part of Ecclesiasticall wisedome to suite their Lawes Statues with the circumstances of times and persons to which purpose S. Augustine saith very well The former Councells are bettered by the later Therfore Antony you bring nothing that sound is for you excuse what you bring are either bare words
readier to praise the truth and so much the safelier condole the ruines of the Church which it susteynes at the hands of the Roman Marke I beseech you your wordes What is this els but so say let the bands of the diuine Law be broken let soules redeemed by the bloud of Christ perish all is well so that I with my ten stringed Psalter may get liberty to chaunt out the praises of Truth or to deplore the wretched state of Schisme You hold belike the teares you spend for the Roman Church at so high a rate that the Bloud of soules the Law of God must be set at naught and contemned for them Yf you had such a pleasure to singe mourne why would you be a pastour Why entred you not into some Religious family deuoted to the quire and solitude and there haue giuen your selfe to songes and teares Lastly what greater crime then to dissemble in matters of Religiō with body to approach that Church whose faith in your hart you approue not Is not this wickednes Now tell me Antony haue you so soone vomited forth all those Roman doctrines wherewith you were once imbued or haue you suddainly swallowed vp all the articles of the English Faith that you haue so without guide of Conscience imbraced their Communion I cannot thinke it but rather that you dissemble in many points to giue them satisfaction of whom you expect your hire and to get the Kings Protection and assistance for the priuiledge of your Booke that what you could not publish in the light of Christianity you may at last set forth in the darcknesse of Heresie 32. It is reported of a certaine Zoilus that was wont to keep his bed like a sick man when in truth he was not so that he might thereby take occasion to shew forth a purple Couerlet of his wherin he was much delighted Such a kind of languour is it wherein you languish with desire to publish your writings which that you might the better bring to passe you feigne your selfe an Heretike in the English Church you lay your selfe downe at the feet of the Kinges Supremacie ouer the Church as though you were sicke of that Parlamentarian Maladie and all this to get leaue to print your Bookes and shew them to the view of the world and yet alas when these your so highly by you esteemed treasures of learning shall haue passed the print which by committing so many sinnes you haue found out at last there will not want diuers I say not Catholiks but Protestants that hauing read your so much expected Booke will apply to you that which was spoken to Zoilus These riches are but vaine Which make the sicknesse fayne I wish you would rather follow the counsaile that the Angell gaue vnto Agar Genes 16. being great with Child which was Returne home to thy Mistresse againe and humble thy selfe vnder her handes Returne I say home againe to the Church which you haue forsaken Cast prostrate at her feet your selfe your wit your learning your bookes Submit them to the Catholike and Roman Censure As Rachels seruant deliuered her children into her Mistresse lap so do you offer vp your Bookes to the pleasure of the Church But me thinkes I see you turne your head aside at this and say This is base this is seruile this is to become againe a little child It is so indeed But oh noble basenes and high humility whereby a Christian transcending himselfe and his naturall wit comes to be vnited to God reuealing mysteries that surpasse mans capacity by the mouth sometimes euen of vnlearned Prelates Oh happy seruitude that tieth makes men bondeslaues of the Truth which only affoardes true Liberty Oh huge littlenes which only art capable of heauen which only canst intertaine God! So that Antony though you be welnigh threescore yeares of age you shall neuer enter into the Kingdome of Heauen vnles you be conuerted and become as a little child They that scorne to be little ones grow to be great ones indeed not in wisedome but in malice and folly which shal be further demonstrated in the second part of this Suruey of your Apostasy THE SECOND PART OF THE SVRVEY OF MARCVS ANTONIVS de Dominis his Apostasy CONCERNING The state wherein now he is WE will not there being no need vse circumlocutions but plainly set downe the misery of your present state By the former eight degrees not of beatitudes but of maledictions you are falne into eight bottomles Gulfes which within the compasse of Heresy are contayned I will first tell you what they are and then shew that you lye plunged in them These they are Forsaking of the Church of Christ Not to be certaine of any religion Hypocrisy Mendacity against the Church Contumelious speach Arrogancie Inuenting of new flattering doctrine Vayne and idle talking That you are swallowed into these pits belonging to Heresy I will make playne and by no other arguments then such as your owne booke affoardeth This booke now pleadeth against you but more dreadfull euidence will it giue in at the day of doome against your obstinate perseuerance Wherefore Antony rise out of this mayne deep of Heresy wherein as yet you lye not so low but repentance may reclayme you The first Gulfe of Apostasy The forsaking of the Church of Christ TO abandon the Church of Christ and the Catholike Communion is the first though not the shallowest gulfe of Hereticall peruersity All Heretikes saith S. Hierome are Apostata's that is Reuolters The Apostle tearmeth the Heretike peruerse Tit. 3 11. because no man is an Heretike that hath not auerted himselfe and swarueth from the way of Truth wherein once he walked He saith also that the Heretike delinquit proprio iudicio condemnatus that he is a delinquent condemned by his owne iudgment That you are in this Gulfe Antony is a thing so cleare that it need not to be proued yet seeing you deny it I will proue it not by common arguments but such as shall leaue you conuicted out of your owne words 2. He that forsaketh the Church of Christ and the communion of Saintes is peruerse a delinquent an Apostata This you will not deny and that you do it your selfe most manifestly affirme For that you fly from the Roman Church that you depart out of it in the pag. 34. you openly professe This my departing say you this my going out of Babylon or flight I will haue to be cleare from all suspition of schisme You depart then out of the Roman Church which you stile Babilon but the Roman Church is the Church of Christ the Society of Saintes therfore you impiously go from it impiously you call it Babylon If you aske me how I can proue the Roman Church to be the Church of Christ the society of Saintes I answere euen by your owne words which are registred in the 28. page I may not say you be wanting in my charge I being a Bishop in the Church
say for number very many in doctrine all opposite to the Roman and all agreeing among themselues in the pure primitiue truth But pretermitting these questions I only aske when you say that the Churches which being very many Rome hath raysed vp to be her aduersaries do very little swarue from the pure primitiue doctrine whether you speake of all the Churches and Companies that in doctine are opposite to the Roman or of some of them only You cannot with truth speake it of all they being so many and so repugnant the one against the other Grecians Lutherans Caluinistes Libertines Anabaptists Arians Trinitarians How can it be that they all should very little or nothing disagree from the true doctrine whose doctrines disagree mainly and allmost infinitly the one from the other 7. If you say that though not all yet some of the Churches aduersaries to Rome do very little disagree from the primitiue truth then I demaund Why do you not distinguish these pure Churches from the other impure before you prayse them Why do you thus at random rashly not to say impiously cast that great commendation to swarue very litle from the pure primitiue doctrine vpon the confuse multitude of sects disagreeing from the Roman Church in which masse euen your selfe being iudge all be not sincere yea many be corrupt many impious many most food sottish And yet by your words no man can perceaue whether this high prayse be bestowed by you on the Grecians or on the Septentrionals on the Lutherans or on the Anabaptists on the Caluinists or on the Arians Verily you be not the mouth of God Antony you be not the preacher of Truth who to good bad layd togeather on an heape giue your approbation without any distinction not seuering pretious from vile noxious from wholsome hereticall from Catholike impious from Christian doctrine And yet herein you are excusable For what els could you do who had not as yet made choice of any certaine Church you might magnify before al other being vncertaine for the present and ignorant what finally your choice might be you durst not condēne any Church of the many opposite to Rome fearing you should perchance condemne that Church which you might be forced to fly vnto Had you singled one Church out of that number extolling it only aboue all other the rest perchance would with lesse willingnesse haue intertained you taking your singular prayse of that one Church as a disparagement to them all nor durst you commend distinctlie and by name all the sectes that are enemies to the Pope knowing that thereby you might expose your selfe to iust exception that Catholikes might take at you as being a friend of damnable errours Wherfore craftily you resolued to shoot at randome in the praise of Churches that oppose themselues to Rome without specifying the name or doctrine of any that so you might haue both freedome to runne to what sect you pleased and shelter against Catholikes should they except against you as fauouring the errours of any particuler heresy Now Antony perceaue you not that your secret wily deuise is layd open that this your booke brings to light the things which you most of al desired should haue byn hiddē 8. Thirdly so great is your vncertainty that you are not only ignorant to what sect to fly from the Roman Church but also you know not from what doctrine of the Roman Church you should fly I confesse you do particularily mislike the Primacy of the Roman Bishop but you were not ignorant that the hatred of this authority is common to all sorts of Heretikes Whosoeuer are wicked in the world the more egregiously that they are wicked the more mortally do they hate the power of the Pope all being herein combined Grecians Protestants Lutherans Caluinists Anabaptists Arians Turkes Iews Atheists What other article of the Roman beleife do you condemne besides this You name no other but in generall you proclaime that you fly the Roman sinnes errors abuses and innumerable nouelties Why name you them not I will tel you the sects that band against Rome being very many do not all mislike the same doctrines in the Roman Church What one condemneth another prayseth what some approue others abhorre so your religion depending on future euents you could not shew detestation of the Roman errours in particuler till you had made certaine choice of your Church You knew that you were to condemne in the Roman Church other articles did you become a Grecian others did you fall to be a Lutheran others did you turne Caluinist others did you cleaue to the Anabaptists others should you stay in Germany others should you fly to France others should you sayle into Englād Wherfore wauering in vncertainties not able to forsee what shall becom of you without naming any particulers with all your might and mayne you cry out on the Roman Errours When you shall haue made your election for your religion therein set vp your rest then shal the Roman Church erre in those poynts and as damnably as it please that company you liue with to haue you say 9. But I pretermitt say you in the 17. page to set downe particularly the Errours of Rome because in my booke of the Ecclesiasticall Common wealth I do fully prosecute them which booke now a good while ready for the print I haue and will set it forth out of hand and bequeath it to the first printer in Germany that by the way I shal find for the purpose I beseech you Antony why did you not performe what here so solemly you promise Met you with no Printer in Germany that was for the purpose or did the King of great Britany countermand your purpose or did you of your self shrinke from your purpose I search not into this secret This I say that now you shall not print the booke you brought out of Italy with you but another Your selfe growing daily worse and worse will change therein diuers things either taking away some points of Catholike doctrine or adding some new doctrines gotten by your reading in the books of heretikes to say nothing of the things which Ministers by their arguments will winne you to alter And what shall I say of his gracious Maiesty so excellent for his knowledge To change some things in your booke and to adde other things to it he will persuade you by his learning to leaue out diuers doctrins that sauour to much of Rome he may compell you by his authority perchāce also sundry of his sayings though he vrge you not yet you to please him will put them into your booke Know you not what befell Casaub one How much changed he was from that affection and mind that he seemed to carry with him into England which alteration he going about to excuse to his friend plainly confesseth that by entrance into the English Court he was become a slaue not daring in any thing gaynesay the Kings pleasure which basenes
what faith you would be you meane to frame such a profession of faith as might sute with diuers occasions times with sundry countries and sectes Wherein you do no new thing which your ancestors did not practise in S. Hieromes dayes They do saith he so temper their words they range them in such order they so mince the matter with ābiguous speach that they make a confession both of our doctrine and of our aduersaries doctrine that in one sense taken their profession is Hereticall taken in another Catholike Neither hath this our age been without such kind of Prothei and Changelings nor without these Camelion-like confessions of faith which change their colour and sense according to time and place Such was the confession of Ausburge which to Charles the fift Emperour the first Fathers of your Ghospell presented The articles of which confession Philip Melancthon the Authour therof Hospin concordia discord in an Domi 1527. did of set purpose and studiously cloth with doubtfull wordes The reason of which his deed writing to Luther he yields saying that those articles were now and then to be changed and made to sute with occasions So it is your faiths be variable and monthly but the verity of our Lord lasteth for euer The third Gulfe Hypocrisy THE third Gulfe of Heretical naughtines is Hypocrisy Heretikes saith S. Lib. 5. de ciuit c. 8. Augustine be crafty people endued not with the spirit of wisedome but with the spirit of wily deceit wherewith their harts are accustomed to boyle and so trouble the quiet of Saintes And S. Hilary Lib. 5. de Trinitate Vpon defection from the faith saith he wayteth lying Hypocrisy so that they keep the shew of godlines in their words the truth wherof they haue cast out of their conscience But it is not easy within the compasse of the skinne of one Lambe so to shut vp a whole wolfe that no part of him be seen You fayne Piety Antony but you dissemble in such sort that by your owne wordes you may be detected to be counterfaire which I will make euident with fiue examples First in the second page you take vpō you the testimony of a pure cōscience Our glory say you is the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity of hart in the syncerity of God not in carnall wisedome but in the grace of God I haue changed place Thus you appeale from the Iudgement of the Church to the Chancery of your secret Conscience you turne your selfe from publick knowledge to your owne priuity that is Confess lib. 10. saith S. Augustine from truth to falshood Shall I proue that you went away moued by the wisedome of the flesh out of care to sleep in a whole skinne ouer which you feared some punishment was imminent that had not this feare giuen you winges to fly away you might haue been still a Papist at this day in outward shew and haue adored those thinges which you now tearme Idolls In the 23. page Hatred against me say you was conceyued and harboured in their hartes at Rome who now had smelt out my labours in writing against her opinions for more then once by the Nuntius Apostolicus abiding in Venice was I warned hereof rebuked Therfore it was my best course to take the winges of the Done and fly into the wildernesse Behold how clearly you confesse that feare gaue you the winges wherewith you were carried away from vs feare I say not of the Romish Idolatry not feare to offend God or to fall into Hell but feare to feele the sharpenes of Roman seuerity feare lest the Republike would deliuer you vp or permit you to be taken and punished according to your desertes by the Inquisition 14. Secondly you make shew of great loue of crosses and of desire to suffer for Christ apparelling your affections in the words of S. Paul burning with diuine charity For my selfe with Paul I say it is a very small thing for me to be iudged of men let me be a foole for Christ let me be ignoble let me be buffeted and cursed let me endure persecutions let me be blasphemed let me be made the scum of the world an outcast and Anathema so only that I make satisfaction to Christ Thus you speake and forward you goe with the words of the Apostle seeming to long to suffer disgraces and torments for Christ But all is faygned for if persecution be your desire why runne you to a Countrey where you may rather persecute others then endure persecution your selfe Where you may securely rayle on the Pope blaspheme him curse him to the pit of hel as the outcast of the world and Anathema The motiue of this your running away you set downe in the 23. pag. What should I say you haue tarried longer in the midst of a peruerse and crooked Nation If I would haue taught and exercised the true Catholike doctrine I had hastened and brought vpon my head the most terrible Roman stormes and most foule tempests And is it so great a misery tody for Christ Antony doth death endured for the true Catholike doctrine seeme foule and hatefull in your eye it being honorable and pretious in the sight of God for the Pilot being in a storme to abandon his ship is foule and shamefull but for him to encounter with the tempest to venture life for ship and passengers is glorious You desire to be a Pilot you will needs gouerne the ship of the Church but to be in stormes and persecution to liue in perill of your life you cannot endure Verilie you dissemble Antony when you make shew of desire to suffer and little do you feele the affections of S. Paul whose wordes breathing forth a burning desire of Martyrdome you borrow for your self which be no more fit for your desire then is Hercules shoo for a Childes foote 15. Thirdly you make great demonstration of condoling with the Church and deploring the ruines she suffers at the handes of the Pope This griefe and sadnes say you in the 10. page did in wonderfull manner consume me and still day by day more and more consumes me Which wordes I could not read without smiling when I remember how your fall giueth euidence against this your pretended pining away for sorow In your whole body from top to toe there appeare not any signes of the mortification of Christ Iesus nor of any inward griefe either wasting your flesh or drying vp your bones When you write that you were in a consumption by reason of sadnes I wonder whether you smiled not your selfe Nor is this any new fiction but the common mantell of Heretikes Lib. 3. mor. ca. 19. which S. Gregory discouered longe since Heretikes saith he make shew to condole with the Church and with this sayre shew of loue do they bayte their bookes of deceyt You weep the teares of the Crocodile wherewith that rauenous beast moisteneth and maketh slippery the ground that when the passenger
suppression of euery heresy as S. Lib. 4. aduersusduas Ep. Pelag. cap. 13. Augustine writeth You greeue I perceaue that the Roman Bishop is able to condemne you without a generall Councell Vnhappy were the Church could he not do it Out of pride innated to heretiks you ayme at this honour that a Coūcell of the whole Church should be called about you which glory also the Pelagians as being most proud Heretikes sought greiuing exceedingly that euery where by the Roman Bishop and others without any Generall Councell they were condemned accursed They desired saith S. Augustine a generall Coūcell that at least they might trouble and disquiet the Catholike world seing they could not God being against them peruert it 25. The seauenth Vntruth is in the 22. pag. That the Episcopall administratiō of Bishops is wholy perished the whole gouernment of Churches is altogeather translated to Rome the Bishops are scarse the vicars and seruants of our Lord the Pope That Church-busines of most weight should be referred to the Roman Bishop the Fathers in all ages haue ordayned This is now adayes still practised in the Church what besides and aboue this you add is not the Roman custome but your slaunder 26. The eight That Bishops be subiect not only to the Pope Cardinalls c. but also to innumerable Religious Orders of Regulars and to their Friars who by their priuiledges deuoure and swallow vp the power of Bishops Verily Antony you seeme to haue lost all regard of your good name that dare in this manner range without the bounds of truth 27. The ninth That Catholike teachers namely your maisters the Iesuites do not furnish their Diuinity with the sayings of holy Scripture exactly discussed and declared that amongst them and in the Church of Rome there is extreme ignorance of Scripture He that will but peruse some Catholike writers in matters of sacred learning specially the Iesuites will soone see how false a slaunder this is 28. The tenth That the books of our Aduersaries are wholy concealed from vs that such as are excellent for their piety and knowledge yea the learnedst Doctours or Bishops we haue are not permitted in any sort to read them Thus you write shewing that hatred against the Pope so transports you that you mind not what you say How could the Catholiks of all nations confute your hereticall books did none of vs read them Are they in no sort permitted no not to the learnedst of vs all You may see Antony that though your booke be forbiden yet I haue read it Therfore S. Cyprian saith truly Lib. 1. ep 2. Amongst prophan men that are departed from the Church and from whose breasts the holy Ghost is departed what els is to be found but a depraued mind a deceitfull tongue cankred hatred and sacrilegious lying To which whosoeuer giueth credit shall at the day of iudgment be found to stand on their side The fifth Gulfe Contumelious speach against the Pope AFTER the Falshood of Heretiks followeth their railing as being a neere neighbour vnto it Heretikes sayth S. Lib. 16. mor. c. 14. Gregory with violency of words assayle the weake minds of the faithfull and robbe the poore people Not being able to supplant the learned they take from the vnlearned the veyle of faith by their pestiferous preaching I shall not need Antony to search into your booke for stormes of angry and rayling speach which in euery page meet with the Reader and rage against the Pope that so you may take from Catholikes the veyle of faith by furious blastes of words seing you can not with solide reasons persuade them to cast it away In the 16. page thus you thunder out against the Church of Rome At Rome many thinges are made articles of Faith which haue not any institution from Christ yea moreouer the soules of the faithfull be miserably deceaued and consequently being blind togeather with their blind guides be lead and fall headlong into the gulfe of Perdition And in the 22. page you rage yet more angerly against Rome It is not a Church say you but a Vineyard to make Noe drunke it is a flocke which the Pastour doth milke till bloud follow which he pouleth shaueth fleaeth and deuoureth In the 32. page It is not for Prophets to deale with the Roman Bishop that now doth so mainly trouble scandalize robbe oppresse the Church The Maiesty of the Roman Pope is counterfayt temporall proude vsurped nothing at all 30. Finally your splene against this present Pope moueth you to reuile the most holy Pope and Martyr S. Stephen For in the 37. page you say that S. Stephen out of indiscreet zeale by importune excōmunications ranne headlong into a mischeiuous Schisme But Cyprian by his Patience Charity and exceeding great Wisedome was the cause that the separation did not ensue This you charge the most holy Martyr as though he had gone headlong into schisme a sinne in your opinion much worse then Heresy How wrongefully and without any iust cause For no man could proceed more religiously more modestly and more prudently then Pope Stephen did in this Controuersy with S. Cyprian When S. Cyprian impugned mightily a doctrine which as he did not deny was confirmed by the perpetuall custome of the Church what did this most holy Bishop appoynted of God to be Iudge and to giue sentence in this Controuersy where this perpetuall custome of the Church was opposed against by the excellent learning and sanctity of Cyprian He shewed a reuerent respect to them both as farre as truth conscience would permit him That the learning and sanctity of S. Cyprian might not ouerthrow a perpetuall custome without the assent of a generall Councell Vincent Lyrinens com c. 16. he set out that Decree so much commended by the Fathers Nihil innouandum praeterquam quod est traditum That nothing should be innouated contrary to that which had byn deliuered by tradition On the other side to shew the regard he had of S. Cyprians learning and sanctity he would not haue that custome should so preiudicate against S. Cyprians doctrine that thereupon it should be accompted Heretical before a generall Councell but that S. Cyprian though stil cleauing to his opinion should notwithstanding be retayned in the Catholike communion A most prudent and temperate decision 31. Neither did he with any bitter speach prouoke S. Cyprian who yet as S. Augustine saith too much moued against Pope Stephen powred forth such speachs as it were better to bury them in obliuion then to record and reuiue them Wherfore by the iudgment of antiquity not only truth stood on the Popes side but also modesty charity wisedome in his proceedings for the defence of the truth Take heed Antony that you be not a member of him Apoc. 15. to whome was giuen a wide mouth speaking bigge things and to blaspheme the tabernacle of God and the Saints that dwell in heauen You are as good as your word according to your
is without any proofe that they put themselues into the busines of visitation of Churches vpon their owne head and authority 36. Theodoret writeth that Lucifer Bishop of Calaris Eusebius Bishop of Vercells went about visiting the Churches of the East Lib. 3. c. 4. and namely the Churches of Antioch and Alexandria to see whether the Decrees of the Nicen Councell were kept That Lucifer at Antioch ordayned Paulinus Bishop that Eusebius at Alexandria togeather with Athanasius called a Councell to which Lucifer sent a Deacon by whome he signified that he would agree to the things that that Councell should ordayne These things you thinke that those two Bishops but of meane Seas did performe by their owne proper authority that you haue sufficient authority of your selfe to do the like when and whersoeuer you shal iudge it expedient Lib. 6. aduersus Iulian I may with reason exclayme with S. Augustine What dares not the pride of rotten flesh presume You should Antony haue known what S. Gregory Nazianzen writeth Monod in S. Basil that Eusebius Bishop of Vercells and Lucifer of Calaris were sent ex vrbe Româ from the Citty of Rome into the East particularly to appease a sedition and tumult at Cesaraea De viris illustribus in Lucifero and that which S. Hierome left recorded of Lucifer that he was sent Legat into the East to Constantius Emperour from Liberius the Roman Bishop Whence you may gather that by power delegated to them from the Roman Bishop they were able to commaund the East and ordaine such great affaires and not by their owne proper authority Wherefore you haue not Lucifer the Bishop of Calaris but Lucifer prince of Pride for your patterne and president when you go about to rayse your selfe a throne in the coasts of the North that as Christ in the South by the Bishop of Rome gouerneth the Vniuersall Church so in the North he that seeks to be like to the highest may by you as Head send forth and display his counsells and deuises vpon all Christendome 37. And what meant you to match your selfe with those most holy and famous Bishops Worthyes of the Church Contrary things layd togeather deserue to set forth mutually ech other In the practise of these Saintes as in a glasse we may behold how opposite all your proceedings are to the rules of sanctity They going left their Churches prouided and well commended to other pastours You leaue your Church wholy destitute to be deuoured as you conceiue by wolues They either went to the Roman Church for succour and counsell or were sent by the Roman to giue succour and counsell to others you fly from the Roman Sea you detest blaspheme it They being men renowned in the whole Church for their learning and sanctity being earnestly inuited by diuers Bishops and by the secret suffrages of the whole Church for that interprise designed went to put an end to the Church Controuersies you being neither for the dignity of your Sea eminēt aboue the rest nor commendable for Knowledge and Holynes of life a man vtterly vnknowne who by your Apostasy now beginne to haue fame You I say offer your selfe for vniuersal Superintendent and Curate to the world which before this your offer had neuer so much as heard of your name They laboured for that faith which had byn settled and defined by Councells you seeke to bring in Doctrine which you know to haue byn many ages ago condemned by the authority of Councells They stroue against Heretikes that seing they had bin accursed in Coūcells they might likewise be reiected from the Catholike Communion your labours are in fauour of damned Heretikes that though they be proscribed by Councells yet they may be reteyned in the Church if so be that they will professe Christ by the essentiall Creedes as you speake And you seeme to be of the same mind that some Donatists were Epist 48. whome S. Augustine condemns that it is no matter in what part or side a man be a Christian nor do you consider that it is sitting that God should be serued in vnity Thus by comparing your selfe with the ancient holy Bishops your sanctity appeares The seauenth Gulfe New flattering doctrine THIS Gulfe imbraceth two vices and both of them properly belong to Heretiks the one is to coyne new doctrines the other to flatter their auditours specially Princes Lib. 1. ca. 1. Of the first S. Irenaeus saith That later Heretiks do day by day inuent some new thing which neuer any man had thought of before Of the second S. Hierome writeth Lib. 1. cōt Pelag. That flattering properly agreeth to Heretiks and to them that study how to deceaue soules according to the saying of the Apostle such persons serue not Christ our Lord but their owne belly and by sweet speaches and benedictions seduce the harts of the innocent 39. Many new doctrines you haue in your booke Antony as are these 1. That a Bishop for feare of persecution may forsake his flock and leaue it wholy destitute 2. That to euery Bishop is giuen the care of the vniuersall Church so that by his owne proper authority he may intermeddle in the affaires of other Bishoprikes 3. That none who professe Christ by the Creeds essential of the ancient Church are to be repelled from the Catholike Communion 4. That Schisme is a farre greater sinne then Heresy These your new conceits haue been mentioned and refuted already 40. Other foure sayings you haue wherin you make fayre with Kings by depressing the authority of the Church The first is That Kings can do many thinges in the Church The second That the Church can do nothing at all in temporalls specially towards Kings The third That all iurisdiction is to be remoued from the Church These three propositions you haue in the 28. and 29. page In the first the English Parlamētarians agree with you The two other be new not only repugnant to the ancient Fathers but also to the Heretikes of this age to Puritans and Protestants and to the eager defenders of the late English Oath For these deny not the Churches authority ouer Kings yea they graunt that euen in temporalls the Church may commaund them though they mantayne that Kings obstinate rebellious against the Church may not be deposed from their gouernement And what is Iurisdiction but power to appoint what is right to enact Lawes to call the transgressors of their lawes before them to sit vpon them and punish thē being conuinced of punishable offences Now that the Church did in former times exercise this power as deriued to her from Christ is so cleere that he that is ignorant therof or so impudent as to deny it I thinke him not worthy to be disputed with 41. The fourth doctrine I dare say is new and properly yours then which scarse any more base can be deuised to flatter Kings Which doctrine you may seem to haue coyned of purpose that therby