doctrins and countersayting a faygned obedience did notwithstanding transgresse his commandement to the notable scandall of Gods Church the ruine of his own conscience Lastly you may observe some laudable opposition made againsterror false doctrin by the accusation of the Prior of the Dominicans and the superiour of the Iesuites Now I would know of our Friars and especially of Friar Francis Wolf Guardian of the Franciscans of Limericke what priviledge or indult they have from the Pope to preach such doctrines as are inhibited them by the Bishop in whose Diocesse they live contrary to the decree of the Councell of Trent sess 5. cap. 2. Si vero And both the rule of S. Francis cap. 9. and the aforesaid Councell forbidding them at all to preach contradicente Episcopo the Bishop not giving way thereunto sess 24. cap. 4. But experience from time to time hath taught us that they be too violent and head-strong to be ruled by any Church law Neither let the Reverend Bishop of Limericke be troubled with their disobedience unto him For the Pope himselfe shall not be able to commaund them further then stands with their own good liking To which purpose it shall not be from the purpose to set down what that reverend pious and learned Bishop of Bellay in France Iohannes Petrus Camus observed at his being in Rome in the late dayes of Clement 1. And I will use his own words as they lye in the 32. Cap. of his booke De operibus Monachorum Being on a time in Rome in the dayes of Pope Clement 8. whose memory is in benediction and in a sweet odour of sanctity for his verity equity and mansuetude who being much urged not to say importuned with many questions and disputes touching the Habits and Beards of Cloyster-men he had a resolution to bring unto the rasor and unto the hood all such as call themselves Regulars and who live in communityes observe Monastick vowes This gave such an Alarme to them who had taken the Cap the Habit of secular Clergy the Iesuites and Theatines an other sort who had made choyce for their character the long Beard I mean the Conventualls Carthufians and Capuchins that it was much to be feared that the good Pope whose name is in veneration thorough all Christianity had not felt the effect of those mortall Litanyes with which some Monkes doe threaten those who are not favourable unto them For sure had he but touched the checkes of the one with the razor had thrust the heads of the other into an hood he had tryed their resignation obedience to the quick but to avoyde troubles jealousies the good Pope held it better to let that businesse sleep then to tast the humours of his froward discontented children So the Bishop But of much more terrible consequence was that other case which hapned in the same most blessed Popes dayes my selfe being then in Spaine in Sevil of Andalusia about the yeare 1600 for Pope Clement 8. being to determine the Controversy De Anxiliâ—s so long debated and yet depending undecided twixt the Dominicans and the Iesuites The Iesuites to give a disturbance to that work to cast it quite from off the Hingells lest it should be judged against themselves cause it to be disputed thorough all their Colledges of Spaine Portugall and that in printed and publick conclusions Quod non erat de fids Quod Clement Papa octaâ—â—â— craâ— caput Ecclesiae That it was no point of faith That Pope Clement 8. was head of the Church And because the Spaniards in their disputes make use of their owne language yea much more then of the Latin and there being many Cavallero's aed men of great fashion then present as well as of the vulgar according to the manner of solemne disputations there went a tumultuous buz among the Laity in their meetings and conversations Quâ— Diabolo El santo padre no es Cabeza de Iglesia What the diâ—ell is not the holy Father the Head of the Church So as the Inquisition held it necessary under paine of Censures to inhibit those questions and disputes And in truth the good old Pope fearing by such disputations to be disputed out of his chayre was contented to surcease from any further processe in that assayre CAP. IV. That the Regulars of this Kingdome are neither Roman Catholiques Protestants nor good Subjects and therefore neither by the Church nor common-wealth to be permitted to live among them FIrst that the Regulars are no Roman Catholiques it may appeare by what hath already bin disputed in the matter of the Habit Scapular and the Luissian Fast ascribing salvation unto them contrary to the faith of holy Church besides the maintenance of the Eleven Propositions of which they have bin both convicted judged in their booke lately made by Edmundus Vrsulanus censured condemned at Rome contrary to which censure the said book is allowed approved of by all the Friars of this Kingdome And for so much as the Friars are not conformable on the other side unto the Protestant Religion established in this Kingdome And I could never learne that his Majesty was pleased to allow of any third Religion within his Dominions I say more then the approbation of the Protestants and some gratious tolleration of the Catholicke no more then he is pleased to allow of Arianisme Nestorianisme Pelagianisme and the like heresies In consideration whereof whensoever it may seem good unto the King and the State what cause can be imagined why the Friars of this Kingdome may not be prosequuted as most pestilent hereticks and seducers Neither is there want of presidents and examples in the Protestant Churches of such proceedings against infamous heretickes For so in Berne of Helvetia was Valentinus Gentilis an Italian heretick adjudged unto the fire Servetus a Spaniard in Geneva In the dayes of Queen Elizabeth Hacket Legat executed in London for Arianisme others in Norwich Penry hanged at Thâ—â—ford Greenwood and Barâ— in Lincolnes-Inn-fields all of them for maintayning and publishing of Brownisme But if it bee thought better to those that sit at the helme of Government to shew more mercy then may they bee sent out into exile after their predecessors those false Monkes Prebinus Milianus Probinianus who by Pelagius the Pope were banished into remote Ilands as we read in Gratians decres 16. q. 1. Prebinum For one way or other it seemes necessary that the Kingdome should be purged of them who to enrich themselves and make-up their Monarchy regard not what slyding stayres they make the people to descend from Christianity to Atheisme And albeit the beginnings have bin marvailously neglected and neither the cookarice crushed in the egg nor these Harpyes in their first hatch yet better late then never before they grow to a stronger head and not so easie to be suppressed And so much briefly for the exorbitant heresies of our Regulars condemned both by the Catholick and Protestant
reported how the same S. Francis had a revelation from heaven that the aforesaid Friar Helias should doe pennance for his sinnes and not be damned at all This shall you reade in the Chronicle of the Friar Minors tom 1. cap. 118. And such as will take paines to peruse S. Brigids revelations conserre them with our legends of Saints lives shall finde innumerable examples of like kind One Saint having a revelation directly contrary to what hath beene revealed unto another Notwithstanding that there is but one God one truth And we may be enduced or rather enforced to beleeve that these revelations visions and apparitions of S. Francis and Simon Stoc if any such were were meere satanicall illusions no divine revelations for that they promise that certitude and assurance of salvation in this life which is repugnant to sacred Writt the uniforme consent of the Primitive Fathers the uniforme consent of Generall Councells and the beliefe both of our holy Mother the Church and all her obedient children even unto these times as I have aboundantly proved in my Epistle to Pope Vrbanns and not necessary heere to be repeated againe And therefore I will conclude this first point with that of the Apostle Golat. 1. That if an Angell from heaven shall come and preach unto us contrary to what we have received Anathema sir But yet to give scope to a more full and ample discourse of this Argument let us admit for the present that S. Francis and Simon Stoc had received by divine revelation That whosoever shall dye in the habit of the one and the scapular of the other should undoubtedly be saved for it may not bee denyed but such certitude may be had by divine revelation Examples we have of the Scriptures of the two glorious Apostles S. Peter S. Paul of S. Mary Magdalen some others for the arme of our Lord is not shortned nor his power abridged Yet say I conformable to the doctrine of holy Church as afterward shall bee prooved that this can be no assurance or security unto others who are not partakers of the said visions and revelations to beleeve that doctrine because what is of divine authority unto one is but of humane and sallible authority unto another For say that Peter knoweth a thing to come by certaine divine revelation yet the same shall be to Patrick but onely a humane relation received from the lips of Peter a mortall man subject to error and mistaking to deceive and to be deceived and being but in via non in termine peccable in thought word and deed and therefore we see the Church whose wisdome is from the holy Ghost never to canonize any person though reputed never so holy while they are in the flesh and till such time as their sanctity be attested by signes and wonders from heaven As then S. Francis before his conversion was of life conversation like unto others of his rank quality not much scrupulous of the offence of God till he came unto the age of twenty five as may appeare both by the first words of his Testament Quia cùm essem in peccatis c. as also by his life written by Bonaveniure So albeit I confesse the a d and better part of his life after his conversion dedicating himselfe unto the service of God was as a threed more evenly ipun then the former yet not altogether without some knotes as may be knowne by his own confession when on a time so journing in the pallace of the Cardinall De S ta Cruce and in the night-time being beaten of the Devills he repayred in the morning to the presence of the aforesaid Cardinall to whom he related what he had endured and then added Men that know me not repute me as a Saint but behold how the devills who know me well doe handle and chastice me for my sinnes So he Chron fras minor toni I cap. 13. Out of all which I doe inferre that a vision or revclation is not therefore authenticall or to be believed because such a person who after â—is death was canonized for a Saint did in his life-time avouch the same either by word or writing because it is necessary for my pâ—ucent assent unto such visions or revelations that the same be canonized for supernaturall infallible truths which cannot be but by authority of holy Church which hath canonized for certaine and infallible verities no other mens workes sayings or writings then those of the Prophets and Apostles as that Angelical Doctor S. Thomas hath in these words Innititur fide nostra rev Lationi Apostolis prophetis factae qui canoricâ—s linos scripserunt non autem revelationi si qua fuit aliis doctoribus facta 1 2 q. 1.8 2 d. 2 dum Our faith is grounded upon revelation made unto the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the canonicall bookes not to revelation if any such was made to other Doctors For which doctrine he cites also S. Aug. in his Epistle unto S. Hierom Epist 14. in these words Solis enim scripturarum libris qui canonici appellaneny didici hune honorem deferre â—t unllum autherum corum in scribendo errasse aliquid firmissime credam Alios autem it a lego ut quantalibet fanctitato doctrinaque prepolleant non ideo verum putem quod ipsi it a senserunt vel scripserunt Onely to the books of Scripture which are called canonicall I have learned to give that honour that I most firmely believe that none of the Authors thereof have erred in writing but other writers I so read that with how great sanctity or learning so ever they doe excell I doe not therefore believe a thing to be true because they have so judged or so written So S. Aug. Now future glory in Heaven being a supernaturall object cannot by humane knowledge or morall certitude be assured unto us but either not all or by divine faith which though not cleare and evident yet excelleth in certitude and infallibility all scientificall knowledge whatsoever And this I say to answere those who happily in defence of their errors in the aforesaid revelations will say that albeit indeed they be not to be believed by a divine and a supernaturall faith yet may they be certaine unto us exáio tapite that is from some other topicall argument which in truth is as much as if they said nothing preaching an infallibility of the aforesaid visions and revelations then brought unto cheir justification they answere us with nothing but historicall legends and I pray God not rather fabulous and meere humane possibilityes When the poore soule in the meane time trusting unto habits and scapulats as Oracles of truth rockes of a sure foundation at the evening and perclose of life findes it selfe irreparably deceived in puncto descondit in infernum in a moment for misbeliefe siukes downe to hell whence neither the habit of S. Francis nor the scapular of the Carmelites nor the saturday
the desunct somerev ealed to be in glory some in Purgatory others damned As whosoever will peruse that large vo umt of S. Brigids revelations or Casarius or Speculum exemplorum or Capgravins or the Chronicle of S. Francis or any of our later legendary collectors will witnesse with me But setting all these aside which for mine own part as I doe not wholly reject depriving them of all credit authority So neither is my faith so strong as to admit into my Creed very much of what I read of that kind Considering that if the belly hath in all times bin a great Master of Art according to that of the Poet Venter magister artis ingenijque largitor The belly is a Master of Art a supplyer of Invention So above all other in the schoole of our Monkes Mendicants hath the same bin not onely a Master of Art but even Doctor Cathedrations A Doctor of the Chayre pablishing both by voyce writing whatsoever might be serviceable unto the Genius of the place Omitting then all Visions Revelations Apparitions I heare our Saviour saying that there is Spiritus blasphemia there is a sin against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven I heare the voyce of the same truth saying Iohn 3. Such as believe not are judged already I heare the beloved Disciple saying 1. Iohn 5. Est peccatum ad mortem there is a sin unto death for which I say that none doe pray I heare S. Aug. saying De Civitate Deilib 21. cap. 24. If there be any that persist till death in impenitency of heart doth the Church now pray for them that is for the soules of them that are departed I heare also Concilium Braccarense primum cap. 34. forbidding to pray for such as dye in desperation or misbeliefe or kill themselves Tell me then you who pretend to be observantes and the most strict imitators of S. Francis what shall we say of such of your order as have bin mnrdered in flagranti delicte you know my meaning Of so many as have bin executed for Iudaisme by sentence of the Inquisition especially in Spaine Portugall of which sort in Lisboa there was a Friar Minor in the yeare 1610. who was burned in his habit upon a stage dying obstinate in his infidelity till the last breath cryed loude often in a lamentable dying voyce Deus Deus mens ad te de luce vigilo O God O my God from the light doe I wake unto thee What say you to others of your Order who preventing the course of nature have murdered themselves Have you forgotten or can you ever forget that wofull spectacle which hapned in the person of Thomas Barnwel a Franciscan Friar who upon S. Iohn day in Christmasse in the yeare 1630 hanged himselfe in the Orchard of Temple Og scarse two miles distant from the city of Dublin upon the bough of an apple-tree not onely in the habit of his order but using for that execrable service the cord of his habit with which he girt his loyns What voyce is there then so wicked or pen so prophane as to publish these men the like to have dved happily No rather may they say Quid profuit nobis habitus aut scapulare What hath the habit or the scapular prosited us or wherein have they helped us for save that in our life-time they were beneficiall unto cur bellyes the confidence that we had in them after death hath deprived both our bodyes of Christian buriall our soules of the prayers suffrages of the Church and of all faithfull people Now then to conclude this Chap. with are capirulation of such argunents as have bin alledged in the precedent discourse against the doctrine of certaintie of salvation by Habits Scapulars the Luissian fast First then gentle reader thou hast scene the same refuted à priore from authority of the Church Scriptures Councells Fathers Secondly à posteriore thou hast beheld the absurdity falsity thereof layd open before thee ad oculum by very sense experience in all such kindes sorts varietyes of death as by Christians in all times have bin held miserable unhappy ignominious of all which Friars in their Habits have bin sensible sufferers And therefore that doctrine of theirs must needes remaine voyde of all truth That whosoever dyes in their habit shall never be prevented with an unhappy death And yet these be our Apostles Missionaryes sent from Rome to convert Nations and to reduce them to the Catholick faith Such Apostles Preachers as doubtlesse shall never turne any unlesse it be fooles into mad men Truly Friar Missionaryes if these be the signes of your Apostleship this the Gospell you preach sooner shall you catch a Hare with a Tabor then convert a Protestant into a Roman Catholicke If among the savage Indyes you preach these doctrines I know not what credulity you may purchase but if in these parts you seeke to gaine soules to bring such as are astray into the right way doubt lesse it must be by other doctrines then Habits and Scapulars Non obtusa adoo gestamus corda Britanni We Britans live not in so grosse anayre though much unto the North but that we can discerne of colours who preacheth Christ who themselves and if the former had bin till this day as well applyed as the latter happily that lapis scandali that rock of offence at which so many have stumbled had bin before this time removed You Mendicants enter heere among us with specious glorious titles of Legantine Missionary power You tell us you are sent to labour in the Vineyard to worke in the harvest but what sayes the Protestant when he sees all you labour is but to eat the grapes to cull out the best sheaves when they finde all your preaching turned into begging or at least there unto tending Mary say they These be those who preach themselves and not Christ Iesus And say they not truly You tell us you are sent from Rome to assist the Priests and the Pastours ingoverning and feeding of their flocks but verily in all parts of this Kingdome it is well understood what slockes you looke after O how well it becomes the Francisean the Dominican after they have shamed the poore people on a Sunday morning out of their meanes the weeke after to gadd thorough the Parishes to gather in their muttons and hearde them together Compulerantque greges Coridon Thirsis in unum and after to expose them to sale one with another at 12. pence the head in every Barony of this Kingdome Gentlemen expecting when the Friars sheep passe by or where they keepe the market hoping what they got so easily they will not rate too highly And as dextrous as they be in bringing home the strayed sheep so no lesse diligent are they in seeking the lost groat It is a laudable custome of the Church commanded by
concernes him not because he is not charged with them But the true Pastor who understands that the blood of his sheep must be required at his hands and that their salvation becomes a part of his owne amazed with so many threats uttered by the Prophets against the bad Pastors who abandon their flockes in time of necessity he awakes his sollicitude he revives his courage he exposeth himselfe to labour and danger inclining his heart to all the justifications of our Lord for the retribution which he expects from him alone Let us now observe how our Regulars behave themselves who are sent unto this worke onely by delegation by mission of assistance by extraordinary commission as troopes of reliefe and voluntary labourers This last sufficiently declares Mercenarius autem fugit c. The hireling flyes because he is a hireling hath no care of the the sheep So as if he do labor in feeding of them his labour is but voluntary mercenary accordingly as it often happens most pittifully performed For as the Regulars onely governe such soules as of their owne election without any obligation commit themselves unto their conduct so on their part have they the choyse in this great harvest of what eares of corne they please in this great draught of fishes which they like best casting the reft into the water to send them back unto their proper Pastors In so much as the people doe make use of them so long as they please so doe not they serve the persons of the world but so long in such sort as they think best the place of their residence being that which is conformable unto their liking like unto wandring stars to use the phrase of the Apostle whose influences worke not so strong impressions forsomuch as they cast not their beames but by way of passage whereas the sixed starrs are the ayme whereby all Mariners direct their Navigations So this most learned holy Bishop Well then understanding reader Odi enim prophanum vulgar weceo Thou seest what authors how many and of what quality who all flourished since the comming in of the Mendicants have sharpned both their tongues pens against their disordered and wicked lives Whereas then some those not of vulgar apprehensions have taxed me of indiscretion for inveighiug in my bookes against the faults of Ecclesiasticall persons my selfe being of the same rank profession for my part I undersland not their language For I have alwayes heard that the maintaining of pubsique errours in doctrine not the refuting of them the committing of manifest impieties and not the reproving of them to be scandalous And the Apostle gave this charge unto Timothy Peccantes coram omnibus argue ut et caeteri timorem habeant I. Timoth. 5. Such as sin publickly reprove that others may feare These men I see doe wish me much good for they would have meo more wise more learned more vertuous then S. Bonaventure then S. Vincent then S. Anthony of Padua then S. Richard of Dundalke then Thomas Walsingham then Lanspergius then Laurentius Instinianus then Cardinall Bellarmine then Petrus Camus Bishop of Bellay then many others who have laboured in this kind and whom for brevityes sake I am forced to omit Might these then make to the life pictures of our deformed Regulats with their black pencills of a deep reproofe shall not I be permitted to draw one small line in their tables Shall these to the face of the world in the eyes of this sun strip whip the Friar at their pleasure shall not I be licensed to lay on one single lash Or is it that they have received already their 40. stripes save one Might these spirituall Physicians make deep incisions lance them with words more piercing then any two-edged sword may not I be allowed to rub their galled backs with one dramme of vinegar Might these Prelars Priests thunder in every pulpit against their errors abuses not so contented leave their invectives in their workes monuments to be read of posterity Mene mutire nefas And may not I utter one little word but presently I shall beserved with a citation from the spirituall Court the Court of conscience Nolite annunciate in Geth neque annuncietis in compitis Ascalon c. O publish it not in Geth nor preach it in the streetes of Ascalon lest peradventure the daughters of the Philistines do rejoyce the daughters of the unci cumcised triumph For Lord who sees not how mistaken misapplyed that text is to the purpose that these men would draw it Wist not David that the death of Saul Lonathas that victory in which the Philistines prevayled against the house of Israel could not be concealed from Goth nor Ascalon or any other City or habitation of the Churches enemies But David the more emphatically to expresse his griefe in that desolation heavinesse of the synagogue in the slaughter other Princes people useth that manner of threane or lamentation aggravating that dayes calamity in consideration of the great content joy triumph that it would minister unto the Philistines their victorious enemyes So let us never perswade our selves that our publique errors either in doctrine or manners can be concealed from those who are of a diverse beliefe from us neither theirs from our knowledge so long as we live together in the same common-wealth or border one upon another I speak of publick notorious excessâ—s for I never was of opinion that any personall or privat delict the concealment whereof is neither prejudiciall unto the Church Common-wealth or a third person may be manifested or disclosed to which doctrine all divines applaud grounding the same upon divers texts of holy writ among which this is one Prov. 11. Qui ambulat fraudulenter revelat arcana qui autem fidelis est celat amici commissum He who walkes fraudulently reveales secrets but he that is faithfull conceales the fault of his friend And in the Gospell Math. 18. Si peccaverit in to frater c. If thy brother shall offend fend thee goe rebuke him between thee him alone c. See for this S. Thomas 2 2 2 ae q. 68.1.3 q. 70.1.2 And in this sence no donbt it was that Constant in the Great that first Christian Emperor most Christianly said That if he saw an Ecclesiasticall man to doe what was indecent or amisse he would cover him with his purple robe meaning he would so conceale his faults as neither the delinquent should receive dishonour nor the Church scandall thereby As for manifest knowne offences we heare what almighty God hath said by his Prophet Esay 58. Clama necesses quasi tuba exalta vecem tuam c. Cry out cease not advance thy voyce like a Trumpet declare unto my people their wickednesse and unto the house of Iacob their offences still by his Prophets complaying of such Pastors who
his Fryats so to triumph over those who to their power have alwayes will endeavour to maintaine that harmony concord which time out of mind hath beene twixt the Lawes of the Kingdome the Canons of holy Church And verily our hope is in God and next in those to whose hands the Sword of Iustice is committed that they will not see the Church in her ancient Lawes the King in his honour or the subject in his right any longer prejudised by such our Circumcelliones wandring limitours as are able by their busie insinuations perswasions negotiations if they be no sooner suppressed c. towards whom to use lenity would be but cruelty and the severity of Iustice the greatest benefite of Mercy CAP. VI. An Apology of the Author for the sharpnesse of his stile SOme say there is too much gall in my Inke especially writing against those that be domestici fidei of the houshold of faith who albeit they had wronged me my friends or the Clergy yet ought not I to exceed moderamen incul patae tutela the moderation of a faultlesse defence that is so defending my selfe as not unnecessarily offending others c. Alas will not these men yet understand that I write not at al against any of the Churches children or family but only such as S. Peter inveigheth against in his 2. Epist 2. allwing unstable soules having their hearts â—xeâ—cised with avarice the children of male diction leaving the right way have erred following the way of Balâ—am of Bosor which loved the reward of iniquity c. Such wandring stars of which S. Iude speaketh who retaine nothing but their erraticall motion having lost both light heat influence Such as S. Iohn in his first Epist chap. 2 discovereth saying They went out from us but they were not of us Search the Scriptures and tell me were not the Prophets of the Old Testament sharp even to scoffing and bitter taunting against the false Prophets Did not our bleffed Saviour in the Gospell reproying both the doctrine lives of the Seribes and Pharisees eight times in one chapter cryout Vae vobis Scriba Pharisei hypocritae Woe be to you Scribes Pharisees hypocrites calling them serpents and generation of vipers Read the Epistles of S. Paul the rest of the Apostles unto the Churches consider what stile they used against the enemies of the Faith which they planted how edgy how galling how biting I Come down to the Fathers peruse S. Aug. against the Mantschees Calestius or Iovinian S. Hierom against Vigilantins Helvidius and Ruffinus tell me Whether they bang them not with a stile more stinging then a whip of Scorpions Alas gentle reader What I have brought in this or any other of my bookes is but ale and cakes to what the Fathers and other champions of the Church even to these times have written against the enemyes of our holy faith But some will say That all the Friars are not such as I have reported them to be for which cause I ought to have made a distinctioÌ„ twixt the good bad the corne chaff the sheep wolves c. And not send them all to the devill together in one bagg as I have done For God forbid say these men then they thinke they speak very wifely but there be some good holy vertuous men among them both orthodox in beliefe irreprehenfible of life No by the rood say I not one there is not a right believer among them consequently not a good liver for if vertue and falle worship can walk together then both Turk Iew may be good holy I confesse there are indeed a number of smooth fellowes to be tound among the Regulars who have nothing but Euge Obelle in their monthes such as can dexterously act Gâ—â—to the Parasits part on every stage praysing what you prayse disliking what you mislike who in the presence or in the procuring of a benefactor si dixerit astuo sudant If he by whom they expect a benefit shall say he is very warme the Friar will swearâ— by his hood that for his own part he sweates down-right knowing that a benefactor is a most delicate piece must be tenderly handled I confesse also some of them to be very morall in the outward man not to be reproved and yet being infected with herefie are farre from true piety Neither heerein do they goe beyond Ariâ—s and thousands of his sect What vice or corruption of manners can be layd to the charge of Novatus or his disciples Pelagius Vigilantius and many moe whose lives we find little or nothing taxed by such as in their writings have condemned them yet were they most vile wretched heretiques notwithstanding what morality or seeming holinesse so ever appeared in their outward conversations according to that of S. Aug. in Psal 4. Vbi sana fides non est non potest esse vera justitia where there is not a sound faith there can be no true justice And it hath bin the custome of heretickes from time to time observed by the Fathers under the vaile of formall sanctity to shadow their wicked doctrines Now our Friars be of two sorts both naught and both misbelievers Either the Inventors and publishers of those damnable doctrines above refuted or such as being their disciples do adhere unto them partakers of the same misbeliefe For if I could find but one Friar among them that would disclay me those errors that would either write or preach or any way publish in his perambulations the errors of his fellowes Oh how I would stroke his head and embrace him how I would exempt him from the leaven corruption of his fellowes would glory in his conversion But O fearefull is that saying of the Apostle S. Iohn in his second Epistle speaking of the doctrine of the Church Si quis venit ad vos hanc doctrinam non affert c. If any man come unto you bring not this doctrine receive him not into thy house nor say God save you unto him For he that sayth unto him God save you Note the consenting unto others in sin communicateth with his wicked workes Now experience teacheth us that not only the learned Friar but the unlearned and the lay-brother yea the more unlearned the more zealous itchy busie are they in divulging among the ignorant people these salvations of habits scapulars hawkes bells and hobby-horses How then can the one be more excused then the other Or why should they not all bee put in one faggot and sent to the fire together So much then for the Friar But yet my scrupulous reader desires to be further satisfyed and that is in a second point demaunding as thus How can you Paul Harris be excused for being so harsh in your writings and so disrespective unto your Ordinary as may appeare by sundry passages both of this and other of your Bookes especially being a
and divulgeth me both in publick and private assemblys to be excommunicate and why forsooth for bringing the Priest Brangan by a warrant in the cause of my bookes before a secular Tribunall Vpon this no man hence forward must eat or drinke with Paul Harris no man may converse with him no man must salute him or bid God save him For why Incidit in canonem He is fallen within the penalty of the Canon Nay rather Incidit in latrones He fell into the hands of a company of the eves who wounding him and leaving him halfe dead he had utterly perished had not the good Samaritan taken compassion of him Now albeit I have handled this matter in my late answer unto Thom. Flemming his Excommunication yet for that this discourse drawes me so aptly into the same controversie a point of such debate at this day twixt the Clergy and the Regulars it shall not be from the purpose to enlarge my selfe with some few additions to what in my former bookes hath beene delivered upon this Argument as in the Chap. following CAP. VII The state of the Question is this Whether in these Kingdomes under the government of the King of Great Brittainy A man conventing an Ecclesiasticall person in a cause meerely civill before the tempotall Magistrate hath ipso facto incurred Excom De Iurc THe Bishop I will not say with all his Clerks but with all his Friars maintaynes the Artirmative In confirmation wherof they allâ—dge those known texts of the Canon and Councels cap. sivero lo. primo de sont excom e si Index leisus co tit Lib. 6. in extr Martim ad reprimendum 11. q. 1. where it is said that no Clarke may be convented before a secular judge either for cause civill or criminall So Concil Chalcedonsan 9. â—dgathènse can 32. Carthag 3. can 9. c. Bulla cene For answer herennto I say that those and diverse other texts out of the Canon may be alledged to that purpose For I acknowledge as in my booke unto the Excommunication that regularly speaking no ecclefiasticall person may be convented or empleaded before a temporall Iudge in any cause ecclesiasticall civill or oriminall Yet since humane lawes are not obligatory till such time as they be received according to that Leges institnuntur cum promulgantur confirmantur dum approbantur Distinct in istis § prox Lawes are then ordayned when they are published but confirmed when they are approved yea and being received and approved may not only by the Law-makers bee repealed or by priviledge dispensed withall but also by a contrary custome abrogated according to that Dilect 4. de Arbitris cap. 2. Extra de Consuetudinibus Locorum consuetudines ubirationabiles sunt juri scripto derogare possunt The customes of places being reasonable may derogate from the law written and such is the doctrine of S. Aug. in his epistle ad Casulanum cited by S. Tho. 1.2 q. 97. ar 3. Mos populi Dei instituta majorum prolege sunt tenenda sicut prevaricatores legum divinarum it a contemptores consuetudinum ecclesiasticarum coercendi sunt The custome of Gods people and the ordinances of our ancestors are to be held for a law and as the transgressors of divine lawes so the contemners of ecclesiasticall customes are to be punished They who desire more reason and authority for the confirmation of this point let them read the Angelicall Doctor 1. 2. q. 97.3 Also 2.2 q. 79.2 and q. 100. 2. and it hath the consent of all Divines First then since it appeareth by the Registers of spiritual courts that ecclesiasticall persons from time to time have beene convented in cases ecclesiasticall before ecclesiasticall Iudges as in matter of doctrine sacraments benefices tents c. And secondly since it appeareth by the Registers of the same courts to such as will looke into them that ecclesiasticall persons have usually beene convented in causes criminall before the said Tribunals as felonies rapes murthers c. and either found innocent cleered or guilty punished and in crimes capitall degraded and so delivered unto the secular arme And thirdly since it doth not appeare by any Register or other testimony to be produced for these thousand yeares and upward that any civill cause as matter of lands In heritances debts leases sales rents purchases c. have beene sued or sentenced in any court of Bishops Archdeacons or their officialls by vertue of any ecclesiasticall power or jurisdiction whatsoever But of the contrary is manifest and will well appeare by the records of the Kings Courts by bookes of the common law and their reports in every Kings raigne that in the cases above mentioned both Bishops Priests Abbots Priors Superiours of Convents in behalfe of their subjects and all sorts of ecclesiasticall persons both male and female have had their trialls in the aforesaid cases before the secular Tribunalls witnesse both the Canonist and the Common Lawyer I say these grounds considered It is evident to any man of common sence and understanding that either that Canon which in these civill actions drawes the plea unto the ecclesiasticall court of Bishops or any other spirituall Iudges was either in these kingdomes never received or if it were at any time in observance by custome beyond all memory was abrogated Neither neede wee to marvaile thereat for so much as there wants not examples as well as doctrines leading us thereunto For first not to speake of the Canons of the late counsell of Trent We see the Bull of Pius quintus de Censibus in few places besides Italy and Spaine in viridi observantia in due observance And why because it is not received What Canon or Law of the Church more generall then that diparitas cultus derimit matrimonium Difference of religion that is where one party is a true beleever the other an Infidell or heretique dissolveth matrimony And yet Becannâ— the Iesuit tells us that the Catholickes of Germany marrying with the Lutherans incurre no such impediment neither before nor after matrimony And why Because saith he that law of the Church was either among them never received or if so by contrary custome abolished Againe Panor with Felinus in e vniver sitabis As also Decius in e. dilectis num 3. de Appell tells us that such lay men as by command of the Ecclesiasticall ludge shall torture those whose persons are priviledged from violence by that Canon Si quir suadome diabola c. or for correction and punishment of their offences shall beat such Monkes or Friars with rods staves or clubs as well the ecclesiasticall Iudge so commanding as the lay persons executing his sentence doe both of them incurre the Canon and are excommunicated ipso facto de Iure And yet Graphius a grave writter and a monke of S. Benets order in his decisionibus aureislib 2. cap. 49. excuseth as well the one as the other the Iudge as the executioners by reason of a contrary custome practised in