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A30330 A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.; Selections. 1685 Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 (1685) Wing B5770; ESTC R214762 83,014 140

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opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man and upon such ill motives If this be a good Argument against the Reformation it was as good against Christianity upon Constantine's turning Christian for the Heathen Writers represent him with as black a character as they can do King Henry But we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man and upon an ill Principle Otherwise if we had lived in Iehu's days the same Plea would have been as strong for keeping up the Idolatry of Baal since Iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it and yet God rewarded him for what he had done But whatever might have been King Henry's secret motives his proceedings were regular and justifiable He found himself married to her that had been his own Brothers Wife contrary to the express words of the Law of God The Popes Legat and his own Confessor and all the Bishops of England except one thought his scruples were well grounded Upon which according to the superstition of that time he made his applications to the Court of Rome for a Divorce which were at first well received and a Bull was granted Afterwards some defects being found in that a more ample one was desired which was also granted and Legats were appointed to try the matter But the Pope soon after turned over to the Emperors Party whose Aunt the Queen was and was thereupon prevailed with to recal the Legats Commission destroy the Bull and cite the King to appear at Rome where all things and persons were at the Emperors devotion Upon all this the King did expostulate with the Pope that either his business was just or unjust if it was just why did he recall what he had granted and put him off with such delays If it was not just why did he at first grant the Bull for the Divorce This was unanswerable but the Pope did still feed him with false hopes yet would do nothing Upon which he consulted the chief Universities and the most learned men in Christendom about his Marriage Twelve famous Universities and above an hundred learned Doctors did declare under their hands and Seals some writing larger Treatises about it that his Marriage was against the Law of God And that in that case the Popes Dispensation which had allowed the Marriage was void of it self So after the King had been kept in suspence from December 1527 till February 1533 4. above six years he set his Divines to examin what authority the Pope had in England either by the Law of God or the practice of the Primitive Church or the Law of the Land and after a long and accurate search they found He had no authority at all in England neither by the Laws of God of the Church nor of the Land so this Decision was not made rashly nor of a sudden The Popes Authority being thus cast off it was Natural in the next place to Consider what Doctrines were then held in England upon no other grounds than Papal Decrees For it was absurd to reject the Popes power and yet to retain these Opinions which had no better Foundation than his Authority Upon this many of the things which had been for some Ages received in the Church of Rome fell under debate And a great many particulars were reformed Yet that King was so leavened with the Old Superstition that the progress of the Reformation was but slow during his Reign But it was carried on to a further perfection under King Edward and Queen Elizabeth In all their Methods of proceeding there is nothing that can be reasonably censured if it be confessed that the Pope is not Infallible and the whole Church of Rome acknowledges that it is no Heresie to deny his Infallibility And for the Sale of the Abby-lands they only spoiled the spoilers For the Monks and Fryers had put these publick cheats on the Nation of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory going on Pilgrimages with the worship of Saints and Images which were infused in the vulgar by many lying Stories pretended Apparitions the false shew of Miracles with other such like Arts. And the credulous and superstitious Multitudes were thereby wrought on to endow these Houses with their best Lands and adorn their Churches with their Plate and richest Furniture It was not to be expected that when their Impostures were discovered they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them nor was it for the publick interest of the Nation to give such encouragement to idleness as the converting all these Houses to Foundations for an unactive life would have been Many of them were applied to good Uses Bishopricks Cathedral and Collegiat Churches Hospitals and free Schools And more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends But the excesses of King Henry and his Courtiers must not be charged on the Reformers who did all they could to hinder them And thus all these prejudices with which the Vulgar are misled appear to be very unjust and ill grounded In conclusion If by these or such like considerations any that are now of that Communion can be brought to mind Religion in earnest considering it as a Design to save their Souls by making them truly pure and holy and so reconciling them to God through Christ And if they will examine Matters without Partiality seeking the truth and resolving to follow it wherever they find it and joyn with their Enquiries earnest Prayers to God the Father of lights to open their eyes and grant them his Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth there is little doubt to be made but the great Evidence that is in Truth will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists which Education implicite Faith and Superstition have raised by which they have hitherto darkened FINIS A RELATION Of the Barbarous and Bloody MASSACRE Of about an hundred thousand PROTESTANTS BEGUN At PARIS and carried on over all FRANCE by the PAPISTS in the Year 1572. Collected out of Mezeray Thuanus and other approved Authors LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. A Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants begun in Paris and carried on over all France in the Year 1572. THere are no Principles of Morality more universally received and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all Men that are more necessary for the good of humane Society and do more resemble the Divine Perfections than Truth and Goodness So that if our Saviour denounced a Woe against those who teach Men to break the least of his Commandments what may they look for who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them That the Church of Rome teaches Barbarity and Cruelty against all who receive not their Opinions and that Hereticks are to be delivered to secular Princes who must burn them without mercy or if they have either Bowels or Conscience so
of Brenne had the Kingdom of Ierusalem by that same Popes Gift who took it from Almeric King of Cyprus and gave it him But Almeric had no cause to complain since he held Cyprus only by the same Copy of the Popes Gift So they both were at the Popes Mercy Our Iohn of England was his Vassal as he usually called him But his Successour went higher calling the King of England not only his Vassal but his Slave and Declared That at his beck he could procure him to be Imprisoned and Disgraced Iames King of Arragon who was also the Popes Ward had no less reason to be afraid of the Pope who had Deposed his Father for Assisting the Count of Tholouse Philip Augustus King of France had his Kingdom twice put under an Interdict worse things being also threatned The like Threatnings had been made to Andrew King of Hungary but upon his Submission he was received into favour And now is it any wonder that those Princes gave way to such a Decree when they knew not how to help themselves by Opposing it which would have raised a Storm that they could not hope to weather Anothet thing is remarkable concerning this time by which the Belief of the Deposing Doctrine in that Age will better appear Other Princes whom Popes had Deposed procured some Civilians to write for them and got Synods of Bishops sometimes on their side against the Pope Because it was evident the Pope proceeded not upon the Account of Heresie but of private spite and hatred But in the case of the Count of Tholouse who was a manifest Favourer of that which was esteemed Heresie the Opinions of the Albigenses that were his Subjects not a Writer in all that Age durst undertake to defend his cause nor could he procure one Bishop to be of his side So universally was it received that in the case of Heresie a Prince might be Deposed by the Pope The 3d General Council that Confirmed this Power was the Council of Lions held by Innocent the 4th against the forementioned Frederick the 2d where as the Sentence bears The Pope having Consulted with his Brethren and the Holy Council being Christs Vicar on Earth to whom it was said in the person of St. Peter whatsoever ye bind on Earth c. Declares the Emperor bound in his sins and thereupon Deprived by God of his Dominions Whereupon he by his Sentence does Depose him and absolves all from their Oaths of Fidellty to him Straitly charging all persons to acknowledge him no more either Emperor or King Declaring all that did otherwise Excommunicated ipso facto There are in this Process several things very remarkable It is grounded on a pretence to a Divine Tradition So here the whole Council concur with the Pope in asserting this power to flow from that Conveyance And thus either that Tradition is true or the Councils are not to be believed when they Declare a Tradition 2ly Tho this is but a Decree in one particular Instance yet it is founded on the General Rule And so is a Confirmation of it by which it is put out of doubt that the 4th Council of Lateran included Soveraign Princes within their Decree 3ly When the Emperors Advocate appeared to plead for him He did not at all except to their Jurisdiction over him or Power of Deposing in the case of Heresie but denyed that the Emperor was guilty of the crimes Objected namely Heresie whereby he at least waved the denial of their Power in that case He also desired some time might be granted for the Emperor to appear and plead for himself in person Whereby he plainly acknowledged their Jurisdiction 4ly When the Ambassadors of France and England Interceded that the Emperors desire might be granted the Council gave him near two weeks time to appear in which was so incompetent a time and all had declared themselves so prepossest or rather so overawed by the Pope that hated him Mortally That the Emperor would not appear because they were his professed Adversaries And upon that and other grounds none of them touching on the power of Deposing in cases of Heresie He appealed from them to the next General Council Upon which the Pope and Prelates sitting in Council with Candles burning in their hands thundred out the Sentence against him Here were three very publick Judgments of three General Councils on this Head within the compass of sixty years But it may be imagined these were Councils that wholly depended on the Pope and so their Decrees are to be looked on only as a Ceremony used by the Pope to make his own Sentence look more solemn But when upon the long Schism in the See of Rome the power of that See was much shaken and a Council met at Constance to heal that Breach in which the Bishops taking advantage from that Conjuncture to recover their former Dignity began to Regulate many matters It may be upon such an occasion expected that if any Party in the Church had disliked these practices they should have been now condemned and that the rather since by so doing the Bishops might have hoped to get the Princes to be of their side in their Contests with the Pope But it fell out quite otherwise For as the Murtherers of his late Sacred Majesty pretended when the King was killed that all his power was devolved on them and would have even the same precedence allowed their Ambassadors in forreign parts that his had So the Council of Constance reckoned that whatever Rights the Popes had assumed did now rest with them as the Supreme Power of the Church For in one of their Sessions a Decree was framed made up of all the severe Decrees that had ever been made against those who violated the Rights of the Church And this Clause often returns That all the Breakers of these Priviledges whether they were Emperors Kings or whatsoever other Degree were thereby ipso facto subjected to the B●…nns Punishments and Censures set down in the Council of Lateran And tho they do not call it the Fourth Council yet we are sure it could be no other for they relate to that in which Frederick the 2d was consenting to which was the fourth in the Lateran And in another Decree by which they hoped to have set up a Succession of General Councils at evety ten years end this Clause is added That if any person whether of the Papal for they had subjected the Pope to the Council and had more reason to fear his opposing this Decree than any Bodies else Imperial or Regal Dignity c. should presume to hinder any to come to the next General Council he is declared to be first Excommunicated then under an Interdict and then to be subject to further punishment both Temporal and Spiritual And in the Pass they gave the King of the Romans to go to the King of Arragon they add this Sanction That whatever person whether King Cardinal c.
these Words We will have none to be ignorant or doubtful what we intend to do upon it for by the help of God we will endeavour by all Means to wrest the Kingdom of France out of his Possession But upon the submission of that King these Threatnings came not to any effect Yet he went on against the Emperor Hen. the 4th at the rate he had threatned the King of France I need not tell what all the World knows That he first Excommunicated and Deposed the Emperor in the Year 1076. Then upon his doing of Penance he received him into his Favour But upon new provocations he deposed him a second a third and fourth time in the years 1080 1081 and 1083. In all which he had the concurrence of so many Roman Councils and set up against him first Rodolph after that Herman as his Successors did first Conrade and then Henry that Emperor 's unnatural Sons The prosecution of the History is needless to my Design But in his Letter to Herman Bishop of Mets we meet with that which is more considerable For there he largely justifies his Proceedings which he grounds on the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven being given to St. Peter and the power of Binding and Loosing joined to them More places of Scripture he sought not but his Successor Boniface the 8th made use of Ecce duo Gladii and the power given to the Prophet Ieremiah Over Kingdoms to Root out Pull down Destroy Throw down to Build and to plant And they took it in great dudgeon if any would compare a single Prophet under the Law to Christ's Vicar under the Gospel But Gregory goes on in his Proofs to the Tradition of the Church And says The Fathers had often both in General Councils and in their particular Writings acknowledged That this Power was in the See of Rome That it was the Mother and Head of all other Churches That all matters were to be judged by it from whose Sentence no Appeal could lye Nor could there be a Review made of the Judgments passed in that See And to confirm what he had asserted he cites some Passages out of Gelasius and Iulius and that Clause in the Priviledges granted by Gregory the Great formerly mentioned So here he very fully and formally delivers the Tradition of the Church and builds upon it He also cites the Precedent of Pope Zacharias his Deposing Childeric not for any fault he found in him but because he thought him not fit to Govern From that he goes on to some Reasons such as they are for the justification of his Proceedings The Pope having thus declared the Tradition and Doctrine of the Church it is not to be wondred at if both the Schoolmen mixt it with the Instructions they gave their Scholars and the Canonists made it a part of the Law of the Church Hugo de Sancto Victore Alexander Alensis Bonaventure Durand Peter of Aliac Iohn of Paris Almain Gabriel Biel Henry of Ghant Iohn Driodo Iohn de Terre iremata Albert Pighius Thomas Waldensis Petrus de Palude Cajetan Franciscus Victoria Dominicus a Soto and many others in all 70 are reckoned by Bellarmin but Foulis enlarges the number to 177 whom he cites who did formally assert it Aquinas also taught it tho' in some places he contradicted himself But Boniface the 8th thought his Predecessors had proceeded in this matter too cautiously and therefore he went more roundly to work In the Jubilee in the year 1300 He shewed himself the first day in the Pontifical Habit but the second day he was clothed with the Imperial Habit a naked Sword being carried before him and cried out with a loud voice I am Pope and Emperor and have both the Earthly and Heavenly Empire This upon so publick an occasion looks very like the Teaching the Church Ex Cathedra But because words vanished into Air he left it in writing in these terms We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation for every humane creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome This being put into the Text of the Canon Law in which it is continued to this day we cannot think it Strange that Panorimitan Ostiensis Silvester with all the other Canonists assert the Popes direct Dominion over all the World And what can they say less Believing him to be Christs Vicar on Earth to whom all Power in heaven and earth was given of his Father therefore the power in Heaven being judged enough for Christ to manage himself they thought all the power in Earth was Committed to the Vicar This passed down without Contradiction among them but was not received by the rest of the Church yet the Indirect or as they termed it the Ecclesiastical power in cases of Heresie was Universally agreed to not one person Opposing it till Luther and his Followers came sawcily to look into the Popes Title to this and many other pretended Rights of the See of Rome But because the Plea for an Indirect Power was not Sufficient Since if a Prince did not Favour Heresie it was of no use And the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound Therefore a Title of another kind was set up It was pretended That all the Kingdoms in the Western and Northern parts of Europe were by formal Surrenders offered up to St. Peter and St. Paul And therefore whatever the Popes did was said to be done in Defence of their Rights which made Gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting Address with which he begins his Sentences against the Emperor First of all the Donation of Constantine the Great was forged By which the Power of all the West Italy Sicily Sardinia Germany France Spain and England were given to the Pope This was put into the Text of the Canon Law and was stood to by all the Canonists It is true the Civilians wrote generally against it Among whom Bartholus may be reckoned for in his Preface to the Digests having mentioned the Opinions of some against it when it comes to his own he delivers it thus Take notice that we are now in the Territory of the Church for he taught at Bulloigne and therefore I say that Donation is valid But till Valla discovered the Impostures of it so manifestly that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer their plea from it was never laid down But Augustinus Steuchus who undertakes the Vindication of that Donation against Valla does likewise alledge from some Instruments in the Vatican that both the Kingdoms of Spain Arragon France England Denmark Muscovy Sicily and Croatia and Dalmatia did Subject their Crowns to the See of Rome Kranizius tells us that Lakold King of Poland made it Tributary to Rome And for the German Empire tho Steuchus says nothing of it perhaps that he might not offend Charles the 5th yet there is both in the Canon Law and the Letters of Popes more to be