had it on it would not have protected the Emperour's neck from being trampled upon by the foot of that insulting Prelate For the Popes have as well made Foot-balls of the Crowns of Emperours as Foot-stools of their Necks Cuph. I know not what you mean Euistor Euist. I reflect upon the manner of Henry the sixth and his Emperesse's Coronation by Pope Celestine the third who put on the Crown upon the Emperour and Emperesse's head with his feet sitting on his Pontifical Chair and as soon as it was on the Emperour's head he kick'd it off again though the Cardinals that stood by were so civil Gentlemen as to reach it up for the Emperour and put it again on his head Cuph. But however he was not so rude to the Emperess as to kick the Crown off of her head I hope Euist. No he was not Cuph. It was a great Civility to that Sex Philop. But do you not see in the mean time O Cuphophron what a lively Picture the Pope is of that Man of sin that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped Cuph. He exalts himself against and above the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Emperours with a witness but how above God Philop. He exalts himself against and above God in autoritatively opposing and cancelling his Laws as is manifest in abundance of Examples of that Religion which he has established as a Law expresly against the Law of God Euist. Bell. de Rom. Pontif lib. 4. cap. 5. And his great Creatures no less then Bellarmine avow this Right of his declaring that he has a power to make that no Sin that is Sin and that if the Pope command Vices and prohibit Vertues the Church ought to believe Vices good and Vertues evil Cuph. This is a most enormous Elation of the Pope to pretend that he can change the immutable nature of Good and Evil. Hyl. He that can transubstantiate Bread into the living Body and real humane presence of Christ so that his natural Body may be totally present in a million of places at once what cannot he doe Philop. I tell you Hylobares he cannot clear himself before any intelligent and impartial Judge from being the most daring and bold Impostour that ever appeared upon the face of the earth Euist. But to satisfie Cuphophron's curiosity a little more palpably If the Pope exalt his own throne above the Throne of Christ does he not manifestly exalt himself above God in the grossest manner one can imagine or expect Cuph. I pray you how is that Euistor Euist. Whose Throne is the Holy Table O Cuphophron if it be not the Throne of Christ's Body Cuph. Indeed they that hold the Bread once consecrated to be the very Body of Christ as the Romanists do must of necessity hold the Holy Table to be the Throne of Christ or his Royal Seat on which his Body resteth Euist. But the feet of the Pope's Chair of State trample upon this Throne of Christ at his Inauguration whence he receives also at that time the Adoration of the astonish'd people and that in the Temple of God materially understood as well as figuratively Cuph. History and Prophecy strangely shake hands together in these things Hyl. XXVII Emperours and Princes how frequently excommunicated by the Pope But I believe in the mean time Euistor you are diverted from pursuing the Examples of the Pope's Insolencies against Emperours in his Excommunicating of them and Deposing them I am so little versed in History my self that I desire to hear you farther on that Subject For these things seem of that hideous consequence in setting all Christendome on broils that methinks the Bishop of Rome should very rarely venture on such exploits Euist. How the Popes of Rome are minded in this point that one Clause in the Bull of Pope Pius Quintus against Elizabeth Queen of England will inform you at once viz. That God hath made the Bishop of Rome Prince over all people and all Kingdoms to pluck up destroy scatter consume plant and build He pretends this Charter from God And I 'll assure you Hylobares he has not spared to make use of the Privilege as often as he had but any hopes that it would serve his worldly Interest For after Pope Hildebrand had given that outragious example upon the Emperour Henry the fourth both Vrban and Paschal followed that wicked Precedent against the same person and with such hideous circumstances as I above intimated And after this many examples of like Insolency succeeded Calixtus the second excommunicated Henry the fifth Alexander the third Frederick the first as I told you before Innocent the third excommunicated and deposed Iohn King of England and gave his Kingdome to Philip of France as Celestine the third gave the Kingdome of both the Sicilies from Tancred to the Emperour Henry the sixth But for Henry the third King of England never was any man's Superstition so basely abused as his His fear and Superstition kept him indeed from incurring Excommunication but his Submission was such as was below the condition of the vilest person or the pettiest and most contemptible School-boy Cuph. Why I pray Euistor what was it I long to know Was it worse then what Frederick Barbarossa suffered Euist. You shall judge of it Cuphophron your self The fear of the Pope and the awe of Superstition debased the King so far as that so soon as he was within the sight of the Cathedral of Canterbury where that Martyr and Saint Thomas a Beckett lay whom the King was accused to have slain by an angry countenance he put off his shoes as if all the ground at that distance had been holy and in the form of a poor beggar bare-foot and bare-legged and bare-bodied too saving a vile Coat cast about him passed through the City in the sight of the people in this sad habit beating the bare hoof on the stones and dirt of the street till he came to the Sepulchre of the Saint which he had occasioned where he did his Devotions to his Saintship with prayer and fasting in most humble manner Cuph. Verily Euistor I know not whether the Humiliation of Frederick Barbarossa or this of Henry the third be the more tolerable Euist. But you will know Cuphophron For King Henry after he had fasted there a day and a night having not yet satisfied the expectation of his hard Masters and his own Superstition gave his bare body to the Rod of Discipline and the Covent of the Monks of Canterbury being assembled he received of each of them a Lash The Writer of the Life of this rigid Saint saies There were no less then fourscore Monks and that the King received of each of them three stripes Cuph. If this be the difference betwixt the Humiliation of Kings and Emperours for my part I had rather be an Emperour then a King I wonder in my heart how so sour a soul as this Thomas a Beckett if you
call him so ever came to be canonized for a Saint Euist. Spondanus will tell you Deo utique gratissimam navare operam coronis dignam non solùm qui pro Fide Catholica illibata servanda à persecutoribus necantur sed etiam qui pro juribus bonisque Ecclesiae conservandis repetundis ablatis occiduntur Bath This indeed is at the bottom of all the Pope's Canonizations the Wealth and Interest of the Church for which they have framed and contrived their Religion that whole mass of Superstitions and Idolatries Whence I should think that Thomas a Beckket and Thomas Aquinas are Saints altogether upon the same score because they advanced the worldly Interest of the Church Hyl. That 's likely enough Bathynous But I pray you Euistor goe on Euist. The same Pope Innocent the third excommunicated also the Emperour Otho the fourth and deprived him of the Titles of the Empire And Pope Honorius the third excommunicated and deposed the Emperour Frederick the second as also did Gregory the ninth after him and that in most abominable Circumstances For the Emperour being gone into Palaestine upon the Pope's own errand yet he takes this opportunity of anathematizing of him and by his Preaching Friars of raising him enemies in Germany that taking the advantage of the Emperour's absence and those Combustions he might with better success send an Armie into Apulia and seize there on his Land Pope Innocent the fourth also excommunicated this Emperour and after his death gave away the Kingdome of Sicily from his Son to Richard Brother to Henry the third of England Boniface the eighth excommunicated King Philip the Fair of France and by a Decree of a Council deprived him of his Kingdome and gave it to the Emperour Albert. Philop. This is that Philip that answered that insolent Letter of the Pope with this couragious Preamble To Boniface calling himself Sovereign Pontif but little greeting or rather none at all Let thy most egregious Folly know that in Temporal things we are subject to no man Cuph. I believe the King spoke truth and declared but the Right of all the Secular Princes of Christendome as well as his own But did not that Vejovis of Rome shatter him all a-pieces with his Thunderbolts Euist. No such matter Cuphophron Resist the Devil and he will flee from you Philip the Fair held his own and made such friends in Italy that the Pope was surprised at Anagnia and disgracefully mounted on a poor Jade was brought Prisoner to Rome no man rescuing this terrible Thunderer either out of fear or love but Pride and Regret taking vengeance of him burst his swollen heart within a few daies and thus ingloriously he died his Successour Benedict the eleventh not onely absolving Philip but highly complementing him For the Popes use to fawn on those Princes whom they cannot bite without manifest danger of breaking their Fangs But to proceed The Emperour Ludovicus Bavarus was excommunicated by Pope Iohn the twenty third and deprived of his Empire which Sentence was also renew'd by his Successour Benedict the twelfth but so vehemently pursued by Clement the sixth that the Electours were at last prevail'd with to chuse a new Emperour Philop. That was Charles Son to Iohn King of Bohemia which was the occasion of great and bloudy Wars But what is most observable the Election of this Emperour was the very breaking of the back of the Empire Charles pawning the Tributes of the Empire to the Electours and swearing also that he would never disengage that Pawn Moreover he made that authentick Capitulation with them whereby without the crime of Rebellion or Disloyalty they were enabled to take up Arms against the Emperour and his Successours in defence of their own Rights This huge weakning of the Empire had the strong working Policy of the Popes at length brought about they ever phansying that the bringing down of the Power of the Emperour was an exaltation of their own But the wicked were here taken in their own Nets For the Power thus invested in the Princes of Germany proved at last mainly serviceable for the Reformation there and the Humiliation of the Pope it being not in the Emperour's power to succour him against that noble and Heroical Champion for the Truth Martin Luther But let me not interrupt you in your progress Euistor Euist. This is a very material Interpellation O Philopolis and such as I dare say Hylobares will thank you for who by this time surely is glutted with my so copious recitall of Instances Hyl. I do thank Philopolis for his so judicious Note on the Capitulation of Charles the fourth but desire you to hold on in your recitall till I say I am glutted Euist. That I will not promise However I will add some few Examples more seeing you have not yet said that you satisfied as that of Benedict the thirteenth who sent a Bull of Excommunication against Charles the sixth King of France But the bearers of the Bull were very coursly disgraced and sent back again to their Master with a flea in their ear Iulius the second laid about him like mad with both Swords and particularly against Lewis the twelfth of France whom the excommunicated and put his Kingdome to Interdict as Pope Innocent served Iohn King of England But he came off much better then this For the Emperour and the King of France having called a General Council at Lions which yet presently removed to Pisa Iulius was there condemn'd for an Incendiarie and deprived of his Papal Chair Philop. Was it not there that the King coined golden Crowns with this Motto Perdam nomen Babylonis Euist. It was so Philopolis and a well-boding Omen towards the Reformation For Truth was a-dawning afar off and at last rose to broad day But in Henry the eighth's time King of England it was but as yet a dim Twylight in comparison of after-years And yet that King could discern that the Pope's Excommunications were but a flash without a bolt and therefore contemned the Thunderings of both Clement the seventh and Paul the third How Pius Quintus excommunicated Queen Elizabeth and deprived her of her Kingdomes I intimated before And Gregory the thirteenth drove on the same designs against the Queen which his Predecessour had begun The memory of that Pope will for ever stink in the nostrills of all posterity for the abetting and applauding that devillish Contrivance against the poor innocent Protestants under the colour of celebrating the Nuptials of Henry King of Navarr and the Sister of Charles the ninth of France This Gregory sent Cardinal Vrsin as Legat into France to return thanks and bestow Blessings and spiritual Graces upon the King and the rest of his ungracious Complices for their successfull acting this worse-then Thyestean Tragedie Philop. You mean that horrible Massacre in France Euist. I do so which yet I think that train of Villany laid in the Gunpowder-treason-plot if it had taken effect would have far
exceeded But I cannot get out of Queen Elizabeth's time against whom Sixtus Quintus renew'd the Excommunication in favour of the enterprize of Philip the second upon England This Pope also excommunicated Henry the third of France as Gregory the fourteenth Henry the fourth which Excommunication Clement the eighth renewed against him I have wittingly omitted many Deprivations and Excommunications of the Pope against lesser Princes and will close all with that remarkable Observation That the Gunpowder-plot which was in Paul the fifth's time was the effect of the Pope's Excommunications and Interdicts as was acknowledged by the very Conspiratours Have I not wearied you by this time Hylobares Hyl. XXVIII The Bishop of Rome how bugely guilty of the effusion of bloud in Christendome You have satisfied me Euistor but not wearied me But is it possible there should be such frequent Excommunications and Deprivements of Kings and Emperours but a world of War and bloudshed must follow Euist. Therefore that is very remarkable in History that the Pope's Thunderings were usually accompanied with great showrs of bloud For how can it possibly be otherwise when the Excommunicated Princes Territories are ipso facto given up by the Pope to the Invasion of others or to the Insurrection of their own Subjects as being absolved from their Oaths of Fidelity thereby At least he does what in him lies to set all together by the ears Iulius the second by his pragmatical planting and plucking up and transplanting is said to have been the occasion of the slaughter of two hundred thousand Christians in the space of seven years And it is observed by Historians that those two Emperours alone Henry the fourth and Frederick the first were enforced to fight at least threescore bloudly Battels against the enemies of the Empire stirred up to Arms by the Popes of Rome If two or three Instances amount to so much what will the compute of the whole what will all the Massacres committed upon the poor Protestants adjoyned to that summe when that one Massacre of France within the space of three months amounted to an hundred thousand Nay P. Perionius averrs that in France alone in that great Persecution against the Albigenses and Waldenses there were murthered no less then ten hundred thousand men From that time to the Reformation no small number was made away by Sword by Fire and other Tortures From the beginning of the Order of the Iesuites till the year 1580 Balduinus reports there were about nine hundred thousand of the Orthodox Christians murthered that is within the space of thirty or forty years Within a few years in the Low-Countreys alone the Duke of Alva cut off by the hand of the Hangman thirty six thousand souls of the Protestants And the Holy Inquisition as Vergerius witnesses one well acquainted therewith in less then thirty years space consumed an hundred and fifty thousand with all manner of cruelties Insomuch as that learned and Judicious person M r. Ioseph Mede is of opinion that the Papal Persecution does either equalize or exceed the destruction of men made upon the Church by those Ten famous Persecutions under the Pagan Emperours and yet there has been a considerable Accession made since to this bloudy Catalogue in Piedmont and Ireland if not in other places Bath The consideration of this horrible destructive Tragedie Philopolis acted by the Pope has many times cast me into a confidence that that bloudy Bishop is as well concerned in the Vision of the King of Babylon as of the Whore Isa. 14.19 20. But thou art cast out of thy Grave as an abominable branch as a carcass troden under foot because thou hast destroy'd thy Land and slain thy People Philop. Like that touching the Whore of Babylon Apoc. 18.24 And in her was found the bloud of Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth As if the Pope were the very Pest and Trouble of Christendom Cuph. Certainly Philopolis if there be any truth in History the Pope is a very Sinful man at the least if not that Man of sin Philop. XXIX Their murtherous attempts by Poisoning and Stabbing of Princes And if he cannot have his will on Princes by this Thundering and Lightening and raising of War then their Attempts are by a closer way by Poisoning and Stabbing Some venomous Serpent is sent crawling out of the shades of their Monasteries to poison or sting a Prince to death Thus was King Iohn poison'd by a Monk and Ludovicus Bavarus as they say by some secret Minister of the Pope And more and more pertinent Instances of the like nature might be produced could I so easily recall them to minde Euist. But this way of Poisoning of Princes Philopolis is managed with a great deal of niceness and caution Philop. What do you mean Euistor that they are very careful and circumspect that in tampering with such mortiferous Poisons they unawares mischieve not themselves Euist. That they poison not the Soul of the Prince by making him accessory to his own death And therefore that King-killing Jesuite Mariana advises not to poison his Meat or Drink because by putting the Cup or Meat to his own mouth he would become guilty of Self-murther but rather infuse some strong and subtil Poison into some Garment of his or into his Saddle Bath As if the Prince were not as guilty of Self-murther by putting on his Cloaths or mounting into his Saddle as by lifting his hand to his mouth to feed himself O the execrable Hypocrisy of accursed murtherous Villains or rather the damnable Contempt of the bloud and life of Princes when they stand in competition with the Interest of the Papal Tyranny What is this but to flear and to jear and tacitly to insult in that false and detestable liberty they think they have in behalf of their Holy Father the Pope to kill and murther the most Sacred Persons in the world Philop. I profess Bathynous I think you have light upon the right sense of that passage of Mariana It seems to smell rankly of an affected Hypocrisy and base Contempt of the Sacred bloud of Princes Cuph. But is it possible Philopolis that they should stab thus as you talk of That is not the garb of Religious persons but of Hectors and of High-way men Philop. You know Cuphophron whose saying that was Joh. 10.10 The thief cometh not but to steal and to kill and to destroy Christ the good Shepherd lays down his own life for the sheep It is no wonder then that Antichrist in opposition to Christ murthers the sheep for his own gain and Interest Cuph. But these Examples surely Philopolis are very rare Philop. The attempts of this kinde against that glorious and blessed Queen Elizabeth were many though through the protection of the Almighty they took no effect But it is notoriously known in History that Iames Clement a Dominican Friar stabb'd Henry the third of France with a poison'd Knife Peter