authority and their incroachments upon the civill power and their pretended independencie from any but the Pope whereby they make regnum in regno another kingdome in every kingdome But although I would not clip their wings so short as Calvin would have yet I wish for your owne good that the Churches of Scotland would yeeld to Bishops as much power as Calvin doth even the power of censures and of presenting and ordaining Priests c Calvin tractat de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Potestatem nominandi ordinandi retincant justum illud serium doctrinae vitae examen restituant quod sanè multis saeculis obsolevit Let Bishops retaine the power of naming and ordaining Priests Let them restore that just and serious examination of doctrine and life which is growne out of use many ages agone It is not then the use but the abuse of Bishops that Calvin and the Reformed Churches of France reject And were it in their power they would not put downe Bishops They onely crave the reformation of Religion and are ready to submit themselves to Episcopall power Zanchius above all the Outlandish Writers is expresse upon that point who indeed is no Frenchman but of the like Discipline This is his Protestation That before God and in his conscience Hier. Zanch. Thesib de vera reformandarum Ecclesiarum ratione Testor me coram Deo in mea conscientia non alio habere loco quà m Schismaticorum illos omnes qui in parte reformationis Ecclesiarum ponunt nullos habere Episcopos qui authoritatis gradu supra fuos compresbyteros emineant ubi liquidò possunt haberi Praeterea cum D. Calvino nullo non anathemate dignos censeo quotquot illi Hierarchiae quae se Domino Jesu submittit subjici nolunt he holds them all for no better then Schismatickes that set this downe as a part of reformation of the Churches to have no Bishops that have any eminence of degree and authoritie above their true fellow-Priests where they may well be had And besides that he holds with * That place cited out of Calvin is in his Treatise de necessitate reformandae Ecclesiae Calvin that they are all worthy of any execration that will not submit themselves unto that Hierarchie that submitteth it selfe unto the Lord Jesus Christ Here is a coard with two strings the authority of two worthy men together The same Zanchius saith a little before Hee that will receive and follow the use and the opinion of the universall Church Ibid. Qui universalis ominium locorum temporum usque ad hanc aetatem usum sensum Ecclesiae certum habet sequiturque interpretem facilè intelligit diversos gradus Presbyterorum Episcoporum in gubernatione Ecclesiastica esse secundum Dei verbum semper fuisse Proinde ubi vigent non esse abolendos ubicunque iniquitas temporum eos abolevit aut non tulit esse restituendos in all times and places unto this age for a certaine interpreter of Gods word will easily understand that the severall degrees of Priests and Bishops in the Ecclesiasticall government are and ever were according to Gods word and therefore where they stand still they must not bee abolished And where the contrarietie of times hath abolished or not suffered them they must bee set up againe This was also the tenet of Martin Bucer who assisted the reverend Bishops of England in the reformation And although he lived in a Church where Ministers were equall hee delivereth himselfe plainly a Bucer tract de reformanda Ecclesia qui invenitur tom 11. constitut Imperial Annitendum itaque ut ea omnino procurationis Ecclesiasticae ratio ordinatio quam Canones Episcopis Metropolitanis praescribunt restituatur servetur We must endeavour that all the manner and distribution of Ecclesiasticall government which the Canons prescribe unto Bishops and Metropolitans bee restored and maintained Beza himselfe who preferred equalitie before superioritie in the Church yet hath declared his dislike of those that resisted Episcopall power where it was established For in an Epistle of his to some brethren of England that would bee ruled by him rather then their Bishops at home hee b Beza Epist 12. ad quosdam Anglicarum Ecclesiarum fratres Hortamur ut omni animorum exacerbatione depositâ salvâ manente doctrinae ipsius veritate sanâ conscientiâ alii alios patienter ferant Regiae Majestati clementissimae omnibus Praesulibus suis ex animo obsequantur exhorteth them that leaving all bitternesse as long as the truth of the doctrine and puritie of conscience was safe they would beare one another with patience and obey the Queenes most gracious Majestie and all their Prelates with a free heart And writing to Bishop Grindall hee commends his c Idem Epist 23. ad Episcop Grindal Quòd tu igitur quorundam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pertulisti Reverendissime vir in eo sanè insigne patientiae lenitatis Christianae specimen edidisti quo majore posthac poenâ digni erunt qui porro authoritatem tuam aspernabuntur Christian lenitie and patience for bearing with the selfe-conceited pride of some and saith that they shall deserve a greater punishment that will reject againe his authoritie I confesse this was much from Beza who was none of the best friends to the Episcopall degree but yet his desire of concord in the Church and obedience to publike order was greater then his aversion from Bishops And I wish that many among you were no worse disposed The latter Divines among the French are very expresse upon this point My Reverend Father Doctor Du Moulin in his * Peter Du Moulin in his Buckler of the faith upon the 30. Article of the French Confession Sect. 124. Buckler of the Faith is altogether for Episcopacie and proveth the Antiquitie of it and that it begun a yeere after our Saviours death And sheweth how the Apostles were the founders of that order sending the Reader to the 32 Chapt. of the booke of Prescriptions by Tertullian where hee reckoneth the Apostolicall Churches whose Bishops were established by the Apostles And whereas it is alledged against the Episcopall degree that there was in the Primitive Church two Bishops in one Towne hee tells you that in all the Antiquitie it is hard to find three or foure examples of two Bishops in one Towne Ibid. for the generall custome was against it as Theodoret Chrysostome and Hierome upon the first to the Philippians witnesse and Saint Austin in his 110th Epistle There also hee complaineth as farre as hee may of the disorders that follow equalitie relating and allowing the just objections of the English Clergie in these words They say AND THAT WITH GOOD REASON that no societie no family no common-wealth can prosper without some degrees of superioritie and that it is so among the Angels and in the government of the universall World That God established degrees
fearing fled by night and when after many invitations hee would not returne the people shut the doore after him not for any difference of Religion but of State Yet the people being thus alienated from their Bishop was more susceptible of that change of Religion which hapned presently after by the comming of Farell and Viret In the mean while the Duke of Savoy being now strengthned with the Bishops right began to annoy them While they were thus tottering both in Religion and State Calvin came who having got great authority in the Citie took in hand the settling of that fluctuation A matter of great difficulty For to receive their Bishop they durst not fearing to indanger their Religion their Liberties and fall into the hands of their perpetuall enemie the Duke of Savoy To make another Bishop they would not and could not their old Bishop being alive Wherefore they chose to be without a Bishop and rule the Citie by the Syndics being perswaded that their Charter gave them no lesse power But whether they had any Charter to rule the Church with a mingled Consistorie of Clergie and Laitie without any Bishop ipsi viderint let them defend their own right My end is onely to shew that in that change of Discipline Necessity bare more sway then Counsell and Policie then Divinitie Howsoever their actions must not be imputed to the French Churches Geneva being a body apart and having interests of their own peculiar to themselves But the French Churches never unbishopped any Prelate and of them also it may be said that it was Necessitie not any Theologicall decision that made them frame a Church without Bishops For Calvin who had the greatest hand in their Discipline was more enclined to the Episcopacie In his Confession made in the name of the Churches of France and presented to the Emperour Anno 1562. hee professeth it Wee would not abolish saith hee the authoritie of the Church Calvin opuscul in confess Eccles Gallic Ecclesiae authoritatem vel Pastorum aut Super intendentium quibus Ecclesiae regendae provincia mandata est sublatam nolumus Fatemur ergo Episcopos sive Pastores reverenter audiendos quatenus pro suae functionis ratione verbum Dei docent that is of Pastours and Superintendents that have the government of the Church committed unto them Wee confesse then that Bishops or Pastours must be reverently heard as farre as they teach the Word of God according to their function Here is for you a publike Declaration of the French Churches that they disallow not the authoritie of Bishops and if they had power would not take them away In that Confession of faith presented to Francis the first of France I see nothing contrarie to the English Discipline if it bee candidly interpreted For the 30th Article that all true Pastors have equall power under their Universall Bishop Jesus Christ is confessed also by the Church of England for the power which Bishops and Priests have under their Universall Bishop Jesus Christ is equall as they are Priests A preheminence and authoritie indeed they have as Bishops and that by Apostolicall and therefore Divine institution But the power which Christ in the Evangelists immediately giveth to Pastours concerneth only the preaching of the Word and administring of the Sacraments and the power of binding and loosing in foro interiori Herein they are all equall and all Vicars of Christ No Bishop in England but in this sense will subscribe willingly to this Canon of the Councell of Carthage * Conc. Carthag Can. 8. Ut sublimior quidem sedeat sed tamen se collegam Presbyterorum agnoscat That the Bishop sits in a higher degree but yet acknowledges himselfe colleague to the Priests But although the Bishop in his consecration receive no new binding and loosing power in foro interiori besides that which he received when hee was made a Priest yet it is of Apostolicall right that great part of that power diffused in the collective bodie of the Clergie should bee confined to the Bishop lest the keyes of the Church being in too many hands should clash one against another and there should be playing at fast and loose And Calvin agreeth to it I never thought it usefull saith hee to commit the power of excommunication to every Pastor Calvin Epist ad Gasparum Lizetum Nunquam utile putavi jus excommunicandi permitti singulis Pastoribus Nam res odiosa est nee exemplum probabile facilis in tyrannidem lapsus alium usum Apostoli tradiderunt For it is an odious thing and an example not to bee approved and which would soone slip into tyrannie and the Apostles have delivered another custome It is true that Calvin in that Epistle will not have Lizetus to meddle alone with Ecclesiasticall censures and he is in the right since Lizetus was no Bishop But hee declareth plainly that the office of censures must be limited to certaine men not promiscuously used by every Clergy-man of his owne head Else there would bee soone as many petty spirituall Tyrants as there are peevish Ministers in the severall Parishes Had it been in the power of every Priest to receive accusations and pronounce excommunications Saint Paul would not have limited to Timothies knowledge the receiving of accusations nor made him alone Judge of the Priests Calvin indeed aimed at no such matter as the generall pulling downe of Bishops Hee acknowledgeth that in the Primitive Church the a Calvin lib. 2. Instit cap. 4. Art 2. Presbyteri ex suo numero in singulis civitatibus unum eligebant cuispecialiter dabant titulum Episcopi ne ex aequalitate ut fieri solet dissidia nascerentur Priests out of their number would chuse one in every Citie to whom they gave the title of Bishop lest that equality as it is ordinary should breed contentions And in his Epistle to the King of * Calvin Epist ad regem Pol. pag. 140. 141. Editionis Genevensis an 1576. Poland about the reformation of that Kingdome he sets downe to the King the order of the Primitive Church for a patterne where there were Patriarchs and Primats and subordinate Bishops to tye the whole bodie together with the bond of concord And adviseth the King to establish Bishops in every Province and over them an Archbishop and Primate of that great Kingdome And if the b Calvin instit lib 4 cap. 12. Art 6. Sanè si veri essent Episcopi aliquid eis hac in parte authoritatis tribuerem non quantum sibi postulant sed quantum ad Politiam Ecclesiae ritè ordinandam requiritur Popish Bishops were true Bishops hee would allow them some authoritie not as much as they challenge but as much as hee thinkes would serve for the right ordering of Church government That hee would not allow them as much power as they claime no man can wonder at it that knoweth the exemptions which they claime from Royall
A LETTER OF A FRENCH PROTESTANT TO A SCOTISHMAN OF THE COVENANT VVherein one of their chiefe pretences is removed which is their conformitie with the French Churches in points of Discipline and Obedience LONDON Printed by R. Young and R. Badger 1640. A LETTER OF A FRENCH PROTESTANT TO A SCOTISHMAN OF THE COVENANT SIR AS there hath been for many ages a great relation between France and Scotland for matters of State the like hath been in matters of Religion betweene the Protestant Churches of both the Kingdomes ever since the reformation But I wish that our example be not mistaken and abused to our disparagement and your mine and the perpetuall disgrace of Christian Religion For whereas in one of your Petitions to his Majestie you are confident Alledged in the large Declaration of his Majestie pag. 417. that your neighbour-Churches will approve all your proceedings your neighbour-Churches of France have solemnly disapproved all your proceedings and herein given good satisfaction to his Majestie For it was ever farre from our wishes that your conformitie with the reformed Churches of France should be mis-applied as a pretence of your expulsing of your Bishops much lesse a president for you to take armes against your gracious Soveraigne Wherefore I will endeavour to remove that false colour set upon the violent counsels of the Covenant and shew to the world that for your differences with Episcopall authoritie which are now broken into a quarrell you had neither president nor incouragement from us And since it pleaseth his Majestie in the beginning of his Royal Declaration to make this one of his two ends to manifest his justice and piety to the reformed Churches abroad these reformed Churches are bound in dutie of thankfulnesse to shew how they rest satisfied of his Majesties justice and pietie For my part although I am happily engrafted into the body of the Church of England I may be admitted in this case to speake as a Frenchman borne that knoweth the tenets of that Church better then strangers that would abuse the example of the French to their owne ends And I am assured in my conscience that when I was adopted by the Church of England I was not removed into another Gospel This also I may affirme of mine owne knowledge that the French Divines and other godly men that travell into England returne home with great satisfaction seeing the soundnesse of doctrine and decencie of order so well matched together and joyne their hearty praises with the Te Deum and Magnificat of our Quires praising God chiefly because they see the puritie of the Gospel and the Royall Authority linked together with a most neere interest in their mutuall conservation The conformitie which you claime with the French is triple with their doctrine with their discipline and in the present quarrell with their actions And the French will heartily embrace a Christian conformity with you so farre as you shall not draw their necessitie into counsell nor their faults into example As for the conformitie in doctrine blessed be God that among all the reformed Churches of Europe there is neither deformity nor difformity in that point All the reformed Churches professe the same holy faith with you and of that faith the Kings Majestie is Defender of which he hath lately published many solemne protestations to the great satisfaction of all good Christians both within and without the Kingdome Here let all that love Gods glorie and the union of his Church upon earth Ezra 7.17 say Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who hath put such a thing as this in the Kings heart Psal 61.7 The Lord prolong the Kings life O prepare mercy and truth that may preserve him It were superfluous to prove the consent of all reformed Churches with the Church of England in points of doctrine None of them but will say as much to the English Prelates as Beza to Bishop Grindall * Beza epist 8. ad Grindal Episcopum Londmensem Gallicas vestras Ecclesias in omnibus fidei capitibus consentire arbitramur Wee hold that the French Churches agree with yours in all points of faith He that set forth all the Confessions of the Reformed Churches in one volume hath not lost his praise for concealing his name Never was a more precious harmonie none more like a heaven upon earth such an evident consent needeth rather praises to God then proofes As for points of Discipline the difference of some Churches from that of England if charity were on both sides ought to set forth the consent in points of faith with more reverence and admiration As Irenaeus writing to Victor about the different Fasting of the Eastern and Western Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The difference of Fasting saith he confirmeth the union in faith For that in such a difference of climats nations manners and policies there should be such an union in faith It is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes A main point of difference pretended by the Covenanters is the superioritie of Bishops for I will not search into your other aimes which you affirme to be Antichristian and contrarie to the Word of God wherein I see not how you can claime conformitie with the French Churches The French indeed have no Bishops but they never put downe Bishops nor induced others to put downe Bishops And you know that our Saviour puts a difference between breaking of commandements Matth. 5.19 and teaching men so Now to have Bishops is a commandement and none of the least for it is an Apostolicall order Suppose then that the French breake it yet they doe not teach men so And I will endeavour to shew you that they teach men otherwise and that it is necessitie not choice that keepeth them from Episcopall order But the Scots break that commandement and teach men so and represent the Antichrist in no other habit then a Rochet and a Miter That the French Divines doe not teach men so and allow not the abolishing of Bishops it may easily bee justified For in the matter of Geneva there was more Politicall then Theologicall reasons for refusing their Bishop The Bishop of Geneva was also their Prince who had such power there as the Duke in Venice and was rather Governour then Soveraigne For the people had that right to elect foure Syndics These you have in a book called Le Citadin Genevois and give them full power It is the 22. Article of their authenticall Charter And without the counsell consent and expresse will of those Syndics and of the Citizens none was to be absolved or condemned in the Citie It is the 14. Article of their Charter Before any Bishop was admitted hee swore to observe and maintaine these liberties and so did the last Bishop Ann. 1523. Who afterwards being found to treat with the Duke of Savoy to deliver the Citie into his hands a great uproare arose in the Citie which the Bishop
of superioritie in his Church under the Old Testament They say that to place a man of little capacitie and newly received into the Ministerie in like degree with an ancient Minister of the Church whom God hath endowed with more gifts and which hath served a long time in the Ministerie with commendation is the way to nourish pride in the younger and to dishonour those whom God hath honoured and to induce confusion As also that thereby the holy Ministery is become contemptible and that the superioritie of the Bishops of England hath been approved by the most worthy Pastours of our Churches How can one say more living under a different Discipline Any man may perceive that hee speaketh feelingly as one that had an especiall knowledge and experience of the inconveniences of his Discipline And that hee thinkes more yet then he saith In the conclusion hee craveth a favourable construction of all that the Reformed Divines of those Churches write against Bishops If sometimes saith he we speake against the authoritie of Bishops we condemne not Episcopall order in it selfe but speak onely of the corruption which the Church of Rome hath brought into the Episcopacie making it a temporall principalitie depending upon the Papall throne As hee teacheth that true doctrine in his bookes hee traineth his Scholars in the same This Thesis was lately defended by him in the Academy of Sedan where hee is Doctor of the Chaire * Petrus Molinaeus Thesib de notis Ecclesiae part 2. Thes 33. Episcopos Angliae post conversionem ad fidem ejuratum Papismum asserimus fuisse fideles Dei servos nec debuisse deseâ—ere munus vel titulum Episcopi Wee affirme that the Bishops of England after their conversion and abjuration of Popery were Gods faithfull servants and that they ought not to forsake the office or title of Bishop In his Bible full of marginall notes written with his owne hand hee expoundeth this Text Titus 1.5 Therefore I left thee in Greece that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordaine Elders in every Citie as I have appointed thee This is his comment upon it a Oportuit Tito datam aliquam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in caeteros symmystas jus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut quod Timotheo dicitur Ne recipe accusationem contra Presbyterum dare videtur Timotheo tribunal supra Ministros Adde illud de Angelo Ephesi Nec si superioritas esset res mala Apostolis data esset potestas in caeteros This imports that some prebeminence was given to Titus above his other colleagues and the right of conferring orders As also that which is said to Timothy Receive no accusation against a Presbyter seemeth to give unto Timothy a tribunall over other Ministers The like is implyed in that Text of the Angell of the Church of Ephesus Revel 2.1 where there is but one Angell mentioned though there were many Priests in the Citie And if superioritie were an evill thing God would not have given power to the Apostles over the rest of the Clergie These are his private and serious thoughts upon that point wherein hee sought no mans satisfaction but his owne This is also the drift of learned Chamier in his Booke of the Papall Monarchie For hee runneth not to extremes as you doe As though because there must bee no Universall Bishop there must bee no Diocesan All his discourse comes to this c Chamier de Papali Monarchia lib. 3. cap. 14. Art 11. In Ecclesiis etiamsi singulos assignari Episcopos consultiùs existimetur tamen omnibus unum imponendum nulla ratio evincit That although it is thought more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches yet it can bee proved with no reason that there must bee one set over all leaving that ground for granted that it is more convenient to assigne Bishops unto the severall Churches It is true he saith Lib. 10. cap. 5. that the government of the Church is not Monarchicall but Aristocraticall Lib. 10. cap. 7. Art 8. Aristocratia Episcoporum regimen quae ne tum quidem sublata est cum inducti sunt Metropolitani qui sibi subjectos Episcopos pro collegis habebant for he cals Aristocracie the government of Bishops which Aristocracie was not taken away when Metropolitanes were brought in that used the Bishops subject unto them as Colleagues He cannot more evidently condemne the Democracie of his Church than by saying that the government of the Church is Aristocraticall and the Bishops of England take not so much upon themselves as he ascribeth unto the first Bishops * Ibid. C. 5. Art 6 Constat igitur ne tum quidem cum hie Episcoporum à Presbyteris distinctorum ordo sive gradus est constitutus Episcopos fuisse tanquam Monarchas qui potestatem haberent in CleruÌ„ sed Principes Electos qui rebus deliberandis praeessent ficut necesse est in omni Aristocratia It is certaine saith he that even when the order or degree of Bishops distinct from that of Priests was established the Bishops were not like Monarchs having power over the Clergie but ELECTED PRINCES set over the deliberation and administration of businesses as it is necessary in all Aristocracies If you object since your countreymen are so good friends unto Episcopacie What is the reason that their practice is quite contrary Why have they no Bishops Why is parity of Ministers commanded in their Discipline Si licet et placidirationem admittitis edam I hope to shew to them that have some charity and equity that the French have such reasons for it which the Church of Scotland cannot borrow from them I. The Protestants of France were forced after a sort to dislike Bishops by the cruell usage which they received from them they will say with the Authour of the Apologie of the Confession of Auspurg Apolog. Confes August Art 14. Nos summâ voluntate cupimus conservare politiam Ecclesiasticam gradus in Ecclesia factos Sed Episcopi Sacerdotes nostros aut cogunt hoc doctrinae genus quod confessi sumus abjicere ac damnare aut novâ inaud itâ crudelitate miser os innocentes occidunt Hae causae impediunt quò minùs agnoscant hos Episcopos nostri Sacerdotes Wee desire with all our heart to preserve the Ecclesiasticall Policie and the degrees established in the Church But the Bishops either constraine our Priests to renounce and condemne the Doctrine of our Confession or kill the poore innocent men with new and unheard of cruelty These are the causes why our Priests will not acknowledge those Bishops And the reformed Churches may say of some of the Popish Bishops what S. Bernard was saying of those of his time * Bern. in Regist. Epist ad Maur. lib. 4. Epist 32. Heu heu Domine Deus Ipsi sunt in persecutione tua primi qui videntur in Ecclesm primatum diligere Alas alas