the matter of Fact and then to discover the imperfections and mistakes therein It is the Papal Power which was challenged in Ecclesiastical Affairs and which was by Act of Parliament and Convocation cast out of this Kingdom but the method used therein was solemn and regular For it was debated in the Vniversities and chief Monasteries An aliquid Authoritatis c. Whether any Authority did of right belong to the Pope more than to any other Forreign Bishop in this Kingdom of England It was resolved in the negative which resolution was soon after concluded in (a) An. 1537. and validly asserted in a Book Entituled The Institution of a Christian Man the Convocation in which also a rude draught of Reformation was chalked out as may be seen in the (b) And the Kings Injunctions by the Lord Cromwel Fox Acts and Monuments in Henr. 8. p. 1104. Records whereupon some Superstitious abuses were suppressed For we find a Letter of Henry the eighth directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he was commanded to suppress the Worship of Images Reliques and Superstitious Pilgrimages as being contrary to his Injunctions and accordingly the Images of the Lady of Walsingham and and the Lady of Ipswich were burned (c) Speed in Hen. 8. n. 100. and l. 6. c. 9. n. 13. Sand. de Schis Angl. l. 1. p. 165. 166. at Chelsey and more than so that King declared esse sibi c. He and the King of France were thinking to abolish the Mass in their respective Dominions About this time a Tract was written de vera differentia c. Of the true difference of Regal and Ecclesiastical Power Composed by John Stokesley Bishop of London Cuthbert Tunstal Bishop of Durham Stephen Gardiner of Winchester and Dr. Thirlby after of Westminster in which the Resolution of the Vniversities Monasteries and Convocation was asserted from the practice of the Saxon and first Norman Kings and then what was thus concluded and asserted was confirmed by Act of Parliament All which is agreeable to the Canon-Law which fully settles the Kings Supremacy Inter personas Ecclesiasticas intro Regni sui terminos Rex est Supremus Gubernator qui in Ecclesia summum potestatis culmen obtinet c. citante Drezouch de Script Jur. Jud. Eccles Part. 1. Sect. 2. p. 3. This being premised and the main of it acknowledged by Learned Romanists the cavils which N. N. hath framed are next to be considered 1. He tells us Henry the eighth first gained c. If by gaining he mean this Title was not assumed by the former Kings of England or that Henry the eighth acquired a right thereto by the bounty of the Pope he may be mistaken for our Kings have a right thereto (d) From a Parliament in the Conquerours time the first words of Magna Charta and the Kings Coronation Oath and Stat. of 24 Henr. 8. c. 12. Jure Coronae and it was anciently used by them as appears by several Charters by former Kings to the University of Oxford particularly that of Richard the second and long before in Ann. 435 Guithilinus Archbishop of London in his speech to Constantine then King of England stiles him the Defender and Restorer of the Faith assuring him he was Christs immediate Vicar and Vicegerent in his Kingdom by for and under whom he should Reign and Conquer as well as Constantine the great He that would be farther satisfied in this particular may consult Sir Isaak Wake his (e) And the Present State of England first Treatise p. 88. Rex Platonicus Certain it is all this King gained by this Complement of Pope Leo was just as much as his Daughter Queen Mary gained by the courtship and cunning of Paul the fourth who forsooth for her sake would undertake to form Ireland into a Kingdom which had been one long before and would bestow on her the Title of Queen of Ireland which her Father had assumed and her Brother enjoyed 2. He talks of his lawful Wife c. This is but one Doctors opinion he may give his betters leave to speak who were not of N. N's private judgment For this matter was debated at Oxon before the Bishop of Lincoln and at Cambridge before Stephen Gardiner and Dr. Fox who concluded the Kings marriage with Katherine to be unlawful so did the Universities of Paris Orleans Anjou Burges Padua but none of them more fully than that of Bononia the Popes retiring place and part of St. Peters Patrimony confidently averring the Marriage was horrible accursed and abominable c. and that the Pope had no power to grant a Dispensation in that case Our own Historians report that the Pope privately gave out a Bull to declare the Marriage unlawful if his Legat Cardinal Campeius could have obtained his desires from the King but the Author of the History of the Council of Trent fol. 68. confidently affirmes that there was a Brief framed in which the King was declared free from that Marriage with the most ample Clauses that were put into any Popes Bull. Whereas therefore N. N. saith King Henry borrowed of the New Religion his Supremacy to marry Ann Bullen it is most false For Stephen Gandiner assures us that whereas the Sentence of Gods Word that is the Old Religion had been sufficient in that affair yet his Majesty disdained not to use the censures of the gravest men and most famous Vniversities and Guicciardine (f) Lib. 19. p. 891. relates that the Pope himself thought that the Divorce of King Henry was lawful 3. N. N. is offended that the Popes Jurisdiction is taken away by the extinguishing Act. This he misunderstands That Power which the Pope was devested of was termed Spiritual but not in that sense that the Power of the Keys is Spiritual for this is properly and formally Spiritual extending only to the Conscience but in that sence the Courts of the Church are stiled Spiritual Courts because of their Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Those words in the Act No Forreign Prelate shall exercise any Spiritual Power c. any Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction are not meant of Power properly such but external and coactive which as Rivet distinguisheth is Spiritual Objective though not formaliter That this is the true sense is evident from (g) 25 Hen. 8. cap. 21. provis 1. and in the extinguishing Act. 28 Hen. 8. c. 10. the Act it self which is a purely Political Ordinance framed upon reasons and respecting only such ends and uses as are meerly civil viz. to preserve this Realm from Rapin c. as it is declared Proviso the first Hereupon the Title of Supreme was (h) By the King 26 Hen. 8. c. 1. Staplet de tribus Thom. in Thom. Cant. complained and cryed out that Henry the second clandestinely demanded what Henr. 8. openly usurped reassumed by the King which signifies only a Political Governing Head as Saul was of the Tribes of Israel 1 Sam. 15.17 to see that all Subjects
to be scandalous because he was of that Order To clear this Proposition N. N. thus sets out SECT II. N. N. ANno 1517. Leo the tenth granted Indulgences to such as voluntarily contributed towards the War against the Turk who at that time threatned all Christendom having added Syria and Egypt to the Ottoman Empire The business of divulging these Indulgences in Germany was committed to the Arch-Bishop of Mentz who appointed John Tetizel a Dominican Friar to Preach which Office long time before had been given to the Augustine Friars amongst whom Martin Luther a Famous Preacher expected the place but seeing his hopes frustrated he resolved now to write against Indulgencies and the Pope as he had prepared to Preach in favour of both before The first occasion which offered it self were certain abuses unavoidable in things which pass through many hands in the management of this affair against which or rather Indulgencies he framed certain Libels and Conclusions which were condemned and burnt as heretical by John Titzell his Competitor who then exercised the Office of Inquisitor in Germany This fire did so warm Luther and added such flames to his hot disposition that most part of Europe felt the smart of it for being once engaged and enraged by Titzell's declaration against him he would not recant his first error but added others denying Purgatory the Pope's Authority Merits the necessity of good Works c. SECT II. J. S. 1. THis Narrative concerns not the Church of England they who desire to be informed how the Affairs were managed in Germany may consult Sleidan and Guicciardine It will not be amiss to recite one testimony from him ad An. 1520. where he chargeth N. N's certain not as he suggesteth unavoidable abuses on Leo the tenth affirming he was the cause of what was done in Germany because he after complaint upon complaint that his Indulgencies and Bulls were sold in Shops the Buyers and the Sellers playing the money at Dice did not redress those faults nor attempted to redress them further adding all the World knew the Money was not gathered as was pretended to make War against the Turk but indeed to maintain the Pomp and Lust of the Pope's Sister Magdalen See the Author of the Hist. of the Council of Trent fol. 5. and withal reporting that Adrian the sixth immediate Successor to Leo the tenth intended to reform the abuses fol. 22. c. but first he would reform the corrupt manners of the Court of Rome because he saw all the World desired it earnestly fol. 26. 2. Be it so for once that Luther was engaged and enraged yet this was no bad Argument of the Cause he had undertaken for to satisfy N. N. that which engaged him was the sorry shifting defences the Indulgence-mongers framed for themselves for they finding themselves too weak for Luther in the particular case of Indulgencies which had no other foundation than the Bull of Clement the sixth made for the Jubilee an 1350. betook themselves for shelter to common-places such as the Pope's Authority the Churches Treasury of Merits the Doctrine of Penance and Purgatory (r) Hist Coun. Trent fol. 6. Thus Tetzel and Eckius managed their Plea and would have avoided Luther's objections but Sylvester Prierias (Å¿) Contra Lutherum Jewel def of Apol. fol. 49. Master of the Pope's Palace above all other gave Martin the occasion to pass from Indulgencies to the Authority of the Pope for he having upon a forced-put delivered that Indulgentiae scripturarum c. Indulgencies are not warranted by Authority of Scripture but of the Roman Church and Popes which is greater put Luther upon it to examine and discuss this bold Affirmation That which enraged Luther if it were so oppression maketh a wise man mad was that he knew very well what counsel Friar Hogostrate (t) Hist Counc of Trent fol. 7. had given to Pope Leo not to meddle with him by Argument but to confute him with Chains Fire and Flames and he knew this would be his Fate if he fell into the Pope's Power Neither could he expect to find further favour from Adrian his Successor for the Cardinal of Praenestâ— who had been employed in Civil Affairs in the Papacies of Alex. Julius and Leo and was then Adrian's Confident told him No man ever extinguished Heresies by Reformation the Council of Trent it seems was not convened for that end whatsoever was pretended but by Crusadoes and by exciting Princes and People to vote them out That Innocent the third did by such means a sure evidence of Usurpation by the known measures of Tyranny and that their Religion cannot endure a fair trial happily suppress the Albigenses in the Province of Languedock and the next Popes by the same means in other places rooted the Waldenses Picards poor people of Lions Arnoldists Speronists and Patavines so that now there remaineth no (u) Hist. Coun. Trent fol. 23. more of them but the name only And Adrian himself exhorted the Princes themselves assembled at the Diet of Noremberge 1522. to reduce Martin and his followers into the right way by fair means if they could but if not to proceed to sharp and fiery remedies to cut the dead members from the body as anciently was done to Dathan and Abiram to Ananias and Saphira to Jovinian and Vigilantius and finally as their Predecessors had done to John Huss and Hierom of Prague whose example in case they cannot otherwise do (w) Hist. Counc of Trent fol. 25. they ought to imitate The forementioned Cardinal declared no Reformation could be made that would not totally diminish the Rents of the Church for that if Indulgencies were stopped one quarter of the Revenues of the Church would be cut off there being but four Fountains whereof this was one CHAP. II. SECT I. N. N. HENRY the Eighth among others who writ against Luther composed a Learned Book in defence of the Seven Sacraments the Pope's Authority c. which gained him the Title of Defender of the Faith But being weary of his lawful Wife Q. Katherine despairing to have issue-male by her and enamoured of Ann Bullen cast off all obedience to the Pope because he would not declare his Marriage with Q. Katherine invalid and by Act of Parliament made it Treason to acknowledg any Spiritual Jurisdiction of the Pope in his Dominions himself being proclaimed Spiritual Head of the Church This was the occasion and beginning of the pretended Reformation in England Notwithstanding Henry the Eighth observed the old Religion in all Points except the Pope's Supremacy which he borrowed of the new to marry Ann Bullen and enrich himself by the spoils of the Monasteries and persecuted all other Novelties and Heresies in such degree that though many crept into England in his Reign yet very few durst profess them because as many as did were burnt by his command SECT I. J. S. TO this suggestion it will be seasonable to premise a general Narrative of
have confessed Imposition of Hands and the solemn words of Investiture Receive ye the Holy Ghost The Scripture knows no other Essentials but these which is also acknowledged by some of your Learned Partizans and these are constantly used by our Bishops who received their Ordinations from their Predecessors by an uninterrupted line of succession whether from British or French or Roman Bishops is not material because each of these had their Mission in your expression by a continued succession from the Apostles who planted the Faith and laid hands on their first Successors of these Nations Cardinal Pole the Papal Legat by his Dispensation and Pope Paul the 4th by his Ratification setled the Ordinations in King Edw. the 6th his Reign with this only Proviso that those then so Ordained would return to the Vnity of the Church that 's sure in their and your sense to adhere to the Pope and acknowledg his begged Sovereign Monarchical Power This they could not have granted neither would they if they had suspected any defect in the Essentials of their Ordination It is not in the power of the Pope or Cardinals to ratify their Orders who had none or dispence with them to execute any Function in the Church who had no Authority from Christ or his Apostles for it if they did your Church hath concluded the Act sacrilegious and null if we may believe some of your Controvertists 2. By the Constitutions of the Church what hath been universally observed and was decreed by the Councel of Carthage in St. Aug. time hath been and is still retained in the Church of England 3. By the Laws of the Kingdom both this and the others will appear by the Records upon both these accounts Bishop Jewel defended this Church against Mr. Harding Fol. 129. I am a Priest by the same Order c you were and after our Bishops succeed the Bishops before our days being Elected Confirmed Consecrated and admitted as they were Mr. Mason hath proved this beyond all cavil your own Associates Mr. Higgins Mr. Hart Father Garnet and Father Old-corn took the pains to search the Registers and after that Arch-Bishop Abbot caused them to be shewed to four more who after they had perused did acknowledg them Authentical and undeniable Ex abundanti Cudsemius the Jesuit Lib. 11. de Desp Cal. causa hath freely confessed the English Nation are not Hereticks because they remain in a perpetual succession of Bishops Monsieur Militiere in his Letter to his Majesty Charles the Second hath declared the same Lastly look to your own Succession in which by your own Laws there be several Nullities by Vacancies Schisms and Simonies which if they were fully charged upon you would puzzel you to clear Having dispatched your Questions the Texts of Scripture are to be considered No man taketh this Honour c. True but this Honour is to be had in any Apostolical Church as well as yours which hath Elder Sisters particularly the British here in England confitente Baronio Faith cometh c. Very good But the Object of Hearing is not the Pope's decrees or Trent definitions but the word of Faith as before Gal. 118. The rest were true before there was a Church at Rome were true when she became an holy Church are true now it is an unsound rotten member of the Church would be eternally true if there were no Church at Rome nor Roman Bishop The Church shall not fail but Christ never setled this priviledg on the Roman or any Church of one denomination Christ's Church never faileth so long as there are Confessors through the World who contend for the Faith once delivered to the Saints BEWARE OF FALSE PROPHETS FINIS Some Books Printed for Henry Brome in Defence of the Church of England since the Year 1666. A Companion to the Temple or an Help to Devotion being an Exposition on the Common-Prayer in two Voll By Tho. Comber A. M. Lex Tallionis or an Answer to Naked Truth The Popish Apology reprinted and Answered A Seasonable Discourse against Popery and the Defence on 't The Difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome considered Considerations touching the true way to suppress Popery to which is added an Historical Account of the Reformation in England Friendly Advice to the Roman Cath. of England enlarged Dr. Du Moulin's Answer to the Lord Castlemain his Papal Tyrannie in England With two Sermons on Novemb. 5th Fourteen Controversial Lords for and against Popery in quarto Beware of two Extremes Popery and Presbytery octav The Reformed Monasterie or the Love of Jesus or a Sure Way to Heaven A Guide to Eternitie by John Bona. Extracted out of the Writings of the Holy Fathers and Ancient Philosophers
2. The Queen saith he did resolve c. This is most false for thus she expressed and declared her self (a) Cambden Ann. p. 35 36. England embraceth no new Religion nor any other than that which Christ hath commanded the Primitive and Catholick Church hath practised and the Ancient Fathers have always with one mind and will approved If N. N. hath another Catholick Religion let him keep it to himself 3. The Pope did declare her a Bastard c. Perhaps this may be true but if he did so he declared against his own Conscience if Guicciardine say true but whether this were so or no the Pope hath a faculty to determine and declare contradictions If once he did declare her a Bastard he hath a cleanly conveyance to call in his Declaration and pronounce her Legitimate Our English Authors of good account probably upon common report have written that Pius the fourth as he offered very large Concessions so if the terms could be agreed on which were proposed to revoke the â—cateace against â—rer Mothers Marriage This seems to Mr. Fuller to be a light conjecture but others as modest and more knowing than himself in that point have averred it Bishop Babington on Num. the seventh affirms of Clement the eighth and Bishop Andrews Tort. Torti p. 142. is very positive in it Certe illâ—â—d rentatum constat de cuteris si ut vero Primatus c. Mr. Fuller himself relates the Pope sent by his Nuntio the Abbot of St. Saviours a Letter to her in which he promised to grant her whatsoever she would desire for the establishing and confirming of her Princely Dignity and assured her having furnished the Abbot with secret Instructions he should deal more largely with her intreating her to give the same credit to his Speeches which she would do to himself If these Instructions contrived for that pretence and profer were not publickly to be seen this was but a piece of Pope-crafe for the matter was so to be managed that nothing was to be concluded till the Abbot certainly found the Letter would take and produce the designed effect But before this Paul the fourth promised though not so frankly yet home enough that if she would refer her self wholly to his free crooked disposition he would do whatsoever might be done with the (b) Hist Counc of Trent fol. 411. ad An. 1558. honour of the Apostolick See and we know that the Popes have ready inventions they can any time off-hand find an expedient to salve its honour This Pope in the year 1554 being a moderate good man by a Letter to Queen Mary whom he knew to be zealously addicted to the Papal Interest granted a close Dispensation to confirm and ratify the alienation of the Possessions and Revenues of the Church and forged six reasons to satisfy the World that such a Dispensation might be granted with honour and conscience This Letter with the reasons was found in the Offices of the King's Papers the original whereof was there preserved but the next year following the tender-conscienced man changed his mind and in private discourse often told the English Embassadors with deep protestations that he could not profane the things dedicated to God and that his Authority reached not so far as to approve Sacriledg and therefore under an Anathema restitution must be made of Church-Goods and Revenues adding withal they could not hope that St. Peter would open Heaven to them so long as they usurped his Goods upon Earth Hist Counc of Trent fol. 392 393. ad An. 1555. This was a pure piece of Pope-craft to get Peter-pence from the people and Annates from the Crown for himself which he gained by this Artifice and let the Church shift for her Rights as well as she could The Pope and his Adherents do generally charge the Greeks with Heresy and Schism yet by an accord the Greeks may have his good leave to be Hereticks and Schismaticks let them but acknowledg his Supremacy they may keep their Religion and be either Hereticks or Schismaticks but if they prove refractory and refuse then presently they are pronounced Hereticks and Schismaticks For in Ann. 1594 Articles were drawn and concluded betwixt the Pope and the Bishops of South-Russia the main whereof was he was to permit to them the liberty of the exercise of their Religion and they were in lieu of that to acknowledg his Supremacy which they submitted to but with special reservation of their Religion and Rites Brerewood Inquiries p. 138. taken out of Th. a Jesu What Arts the Popes have used to maintain their Reputation the Author of the Hist of the Couno of Trent hath reported for fine stories of Reconciliation fol. 382 and 383 which he truly and properly stiles shadows of Obedience For Saligniacus the Pope's Protonotary Itenr to 8. c. 2. refert Brerewood p. 161. expresly affirmeth that the Christians in Egypt never yielded obedience to the Pope Let the Pope's Interest be either bettered or secured he can with honour allow Heresy and Schism and so sober and moderate a man is he he will not stand with you upon the strict account of Religion Neither is N. N. certain that all the Catholicks did take the Queen of Scots to be true Heir to the Crown yea it is false for not those sure who concluded the Marriage of King Henr. the eighth with Katharine to be unlawful and Divorce lawful not those sure who owned Elizabeth their natural Liege-Prince as Heath Arch-Bishop of York and Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle who Crowned her not those who judged the Act of Succession valid neither the Secular Priests who in their Book entituled Important Considerations Printed An. 1601 and now re-Printed An. 1675 bound with the other Treatises did acknowledg her their true and lawful Queen and themselves her Highness natural born Subjects p. 53. and 64 and as such did profess their Allegiance to her as highly as the most Loyal Subjects could or should do p. 85 86. Nay nor Father Parsons and his Comrades who entituled the King of Spain and the Infanta his Daughter to the Crown in his Book entituled Dolman and as the Secular Priests affirm Import Consid p. 82. Philip King of Spain treated with Queen Elizabeth to Marry his Son Charles which he would not have done if he either valued the Pope's Declaration (f) Which none of those Roman-Church and there are great store of them do who deny his Infallibility in matters of Fact and Right or thought the Queen of Scots to be true Heir unless he had been assured of a Dispensation and by vertue thereof disseize and debar the right Heir But this project failing he gave out words he would take her for his own Wife insomuch that the King of France feared a Marriage betwixt them which moved many of the more inquisitive and considering sort to believe that the reason why the Pope did not draw in his Declaration proceeded only from the practices of
In the year 1378 upon the death of Gregory the eleventh a grievous (q) Caran p. 823. Theodoric de Niem Bishop of Perda Vrban's Secretary wrote the History of this Schism so did Bonin Segino in the Florentine History c. Friar John de Pineda l. 22. c. 37. Sect. 3 4. Schism began which continued more or less till Ann. 1414. the Italians created Vrban the sixth Pope who (r) England Almain and Italy favoured him resided at Rome The French elected Clement the seventh who (s) France Castile Arragon and Catalonia owned him betook himself to Avignion The Abbot of St. Pedest endeavoured to prove Vrban was the true undoubted Pope Joh. de Bigniaco and the Council of Paris defended Clement's title Vrban during this Schism had three Successors Bon. the ninth Innocent the seventh and Gregory the twelfth Clement had but one Ben. the thirteenth in Ann. 1409 a Council of Cardinals met at Pisa who thought fit for the peace of the Church to depose the two surviving Popes and set up another but for all the Cardinals could do to repair the breach it proved wider the two contesting Popes Gregory the twelfth and Ben. the thirteenth being unwilling to be so dishonourably ejected kept their ground till at last in Ann. 1414 the three Popes the Italian French and Pisan were Deposed by the Council of Constance and Martin the fifth was Created All this while even in the judgment of observing learned Ramanists none could know which of the broken Heads was the true Head of the Church and lawful (t) Marian de reb Hisp l. 18. c. 1. Naucler Val. 2. Gener 46. for that every one of them had learned Patrons id ibid. Gener. 480. Successor to St. Peter Azor (v) Instit Moral part 2. lib. 25. c. 14. saith It was doubtful and uncertain which of the claiming Popes had the right title Caran saith ut supra It was not known who was the true Pope and Bellarm. (w) Lib. 4. de Rom. Pont. c. 14. So doth Aemil. de Gest Franc. lib. 9. Aut. Sum. Hist part 3. tit 22. c. 2. adds It was not easy to be determined and the famous Chancellor of Paris John (x) Lib de signis ruinae Eccl. Sign of which the same is to be found in Otho Fris Hist. l. 6. Baron Tom. 11. Ann. 1044. n. 2. Gerson goes higher The Church it self saith he was then so full of doubts in this case that She could not know on what side or party the Roman See was unless God himself had been pleased to reveal it to her It then being proved that a doubtful Pope makes a doubtful Church and that there hath been a doubtful Pope in the Romish Church the conclusion is irrefragable the Roman Church hath been for a long space of time a Doubtful Church and by N. N.'s Logick and Peremptory Position the Church of Rome was then a no Church 2. There are many Doubts and uncertainties harboured in the Romish Church concerning the Church it self as whether their Virtual Church the Pope be that Church they would commend to us for it's well-grounded Credibility and Infallibility or their Representative a General Council or the Essential the diffused body of the Faithful all the world over or a body compounded of some of these or any others Some will be contented that the Pope and his Conclave should be that Infallible thing others will have him to sit in the Assembly of the Bishops of his Province others will go no less than he must Head a General Council to pronounce an Infallible Sentence If it be put to the Vote and most Voices must carry it the Pope runs loose away with it he hath the Patronage of the best and most Ecclesiastical Dignities and Preferments But be it so for once upon this a fresh Fry of Doubts and uncertainties appears in this very foundation of their Faith and Vnity whether this Man be Pope or no Whether Gregory the twelfth or Bâ—n the thirteenth or Alexander the fifth or Martin the fifth Let Martin be the Man presently a new Covy of Doubts spring up whether he be an Infallible Judg and if so whether as a Doctor or the Pope If as Pope whether when he gives Laws de Concilio Fratrum by the advice of his Colledg of Cardinals passing his Decrees upon the Gates of St. Peter at Rome and in Campo de Flori or when he speaks E Cathedral which is as it is commonly interpreted when he Proclaims his Decrees however he be assisted for a general reception with an intention to Teach and Govern the whole Church though this be very uncertain Let this also be presumed another Set of Doubts is started wherein is he Infallible Whether in matters of Right and Fact or of Faith The Jesuits of late will have him Universally Infallible upon all these accounts as they determined at Clermont Ann. 1661. but suppose with the soberer sort his Infallibility extends only to Definitions of Faith yet another Doubt remains unsatisfied Whether this his restrained Faith be conditional or absolute some conceive an absolute Infallibility is too high an intrenching upon God's Prerogative but others of them will not have him tied to Conditions viz. To observe the Order of the Primitive Church and use such holy and needful means as God by his Son Jesus Christ hath appointed for the finding out the Truth For (y) De Pont. Rom. lib. 4. c. 2. Stapl. relect c. 4. qu. 3. art 3. conclus 5. say they if Conditions be required to Perfect and Legitimate the Popes Definitions besides his own Act of decreeing them the Faithful which is very remarkable and apposite would be Doubtful whether he had observed them or no and so their Faith would be wavering and so it must needs be if Doubts do the feat 3. It is the Doctrine of their new-founded Church that the intention of the Bishop or Priest Officiating is so necessary to any Sacrament that without it none of them is perfected but to receive the Sacraments from such of whom we can have no assurance that their intentions be serious and sincere and there be many evident reasons and motives to perswade us the Priests are oft Formal in their Ministeries and False in their intentions is certainly to expose the reverence in N. N.'s Language of the Sacraments and remedy of our Souls to a manifest hazard For we are informed by their own Historians that in some Centuries the Clergy were so ignorant and wicked that many of them knew not what to do others cared not what they did In what a perplexed condition would a prudent man be cast who being married by a Popish Priest soon after detected to be a Villain should consider with himself very likely this wicked man had no Intention to marry him or an Intention not to marry him It is a wonder those Trent-Assemblers should be so rash and yet so Magisterial in their Definition when they would not