these summes which they got by ecclesiasticall liuings they had many other wayes to picke mens purses Purgatorie was a gainfull deuise the fire therof did much good to the popes kitchin Pardons were good to no vse but to make them rich that gaue them or carried them Especially those pardons which Leo the the tenth sent abroad They which caried them made the world beleeue that whosoeuer would giue tenne shillings for a pardon should for the same deliuer what soule soeuer he would out of purgatorie Vnder pretence also of fighting against the Turke and recouering the holy land they gathered great summes What should I speake of licenses qualifications dispensations and such like meanes to get money If I should but out of our English histories paint out the greedie worme of that church of Rome you would thinke it were a gulf vnsatiable both the horsleaches daughters in one that alwayes crieth giue giue and can neuer haue enough It is a bitter and grieuous complaint that Frederick the second emperour of that name maketh against the church of Rome shewing how the fire of her auarice is so kindled that the goods of the clargie not being able to suffice they feare not to disinherit and make to pay tribute to them emperours kings and princes Whose words hee saith are sweete as hony and as soft as oyle but they are insatiable bloudsuckers He doth put our countrimen in rememberance of that which Innocent the third a pope had done swalowing after the Romish fashion with an vntoward gaping whatsoeuer was fattest And with many such words hee setteth forth the miserable estate of England which was saith he the prince of all prouinces He speaketh of the time of king Iohn as himselfe sheweth of the which dayes also did the nobles of England complaine bitterly because he did subiect himselfe to the pope and so brought their land into a miserable slauerie And as it were speaking vnto the pope they charge him that he beareth with king Iohn to the ende that all things might be swallowed vp of the gulfe of the Romish auarice Neither is the pope Honorius the third ashamed to confesse this fault by his Otho For in his letters hee confesseth that there can be no dispatch in the court of Rome without great expences and gifts and acknowledgeth that this is an old staine to that church And for to take away this slaunder he his cardinals had deuised a good way as he thought which is that he might haue in euery cathedrall church two prebends and such like of abbeis And this is an other way that the pope hath to inrich himselfe by And very often did the bishoppes of Rome seeke by such means to prouide for their friends or such as would buy their letters So did Innocent the fourth write to the abbat of S. Albans for a kinsman of his for a benefice in Lincolne diocesse belonging to the gift of that church of saint Albans called Wengraue and for the next besides it that shuld fall Yea he did sometime write for children Whereupon there grew a great contention betweene the bishop of Lincolne Robert Grosted and the pope Innocent the fourth whome Alexander the fourth his next successour called the seller of benefices Pope Innocent was so offended with this Bishop of Lincolne for withstanding his lewd and wicked couetousnesse that when he heard that the Bishop of Lincolne was dead hee purposed presently to write to the king of England not to suffer him to be buried in the church but to be cast out thereby to disgrace him as much as he possibly could Besides these they haue yet other wayes to get money They send in their ambassadours or legates which when they are once well setled within the land they send to bishops abbates or such as they knew to be of wealth for so much money as they thought good to get But the least gaine came not to the church of Rome by that vniust decree of Innocent the fourth whereby it was prouided that the goods of clarkes that died intestate should go to the bishop of Rome But it were too tedious a matter to come particularly to euery point of the popes greedines It was a thing generally misliked and spoken against yea this their miserable greedinesse as Mat. of Paris witnesseth was the chiefe cause why the Greeke church departed from the Latine church For an archbishop of the Greeke church comming to pope Gregory the ninth to be confirmed in his archbishopricke by him coulde not obtaine his desire vnlesse he would promise much money He seeing that detesting their greedinesse departed and tolde this to sundry of the nobilitie There were other also that reported as euill or worse of that they had seene and knowen at Rome and so they would haue no more to do with the west church In like manner did the same pope behaue himselfe in hearing the matter betweene Walter elect archbishop of Canterbury on the one side and the king and sundry bishops on the other side And although it were obiected against the archbishop by the king and the bishops that in sundry respectes hee was vnfit namely that hee had defloured a Nunne and gotten children by her and the king was very earnestly bent against him the pope also confessed that he was vnlearned yet coulde not the king and the bishops get the pope to be fauorable in that good cause vntill such time as the kings embassadors fearing lest the pope would make him archbishop of Canterbury that was altogether vnworthy of such a place promised to the pope the tenth of all moueables through England Whereupon the pope being so well hired was content not to place a wicked man in the sea of Canterbury And the pope to shew that it was the reward that made him and that he looked for perfourmance thereof he sent into England to demaund the same and it was graunted according to the promise that was made vnto him These and such other corruptions and extortions of the Bishops of Rome made them so odious to the king of England and his nobles that they thought be defiled and polluted the place where he dwelt And therefore when pope Innocentius the fourth requested the king that hee woulde permit him to lie at Burdeaur in Gascoigne which then belonged to the king of England he and his Nobles thought that it was too neere to England and that corruptions would come thence into England And Robert Grosted B. of Lincolne durst boldly say to the pope and in his hearing O money money how much canst thou doe especially in the court of Rome which as it is said in another place is alwaies gaping alwaies greedie But indeed great sums haue him gathered out of this realme which haue gone to the pope insomuch that king Iohn did affirme to the pope Innocent the third almost threatning him for
Cardinals to please the people promised to do what they could and asking aduise of one Bartholomew bishop of Bar he gaue counsel that they should choose one for the present to pacifie them that they might haue the name And then going to another place they should chuse another that should be pope in deede Whereupon they chose him to be pope in name Which when they had done hee kept it in deed And therefore Stella and others call him craftie But in craft Paul the third was not inferiour to any who as is reported by Francis Guicciardine a papist too in his historie of Italie that the Cardinals might be the more willing to chuse him to be pope in hope that he would soone be dead did by art iucrease the opinion of weaknesse which by reason of his age for he was lxvii yeares olde they had conceiued of him But for all his feigned weakenesse he liued pope more then xv yeares A longer time then commonly the popes of these latter times are suffered to liue An other kind of cunning also there is when by bribery and gifts they will buy that which their desert can neuer procure vnto them And this symonicall subtiltie was sometime their ladder whereby they must climbe vp into that chaire which is set higher then they otherwise would be able to get into Platina writeth that Formosus gâ—t to be pope by bribery rather then vertue But what speake I of Formosus Bergomates and Stella writing vpon Romanus that was pope soone after Formosus doe shew the practise of popes of those times to get the popedome For of Romanus they say that he came not to it by ambition and briberie as did many of the popes of those dayes I haue spoken before of Boniface the seuenth who stole the treasure and most precious iewels out of S. Peters church that he might be the better able to bride as all stories report As for Benedict the ninth if he solde the popedome Gregorie the sixth bought it In deed Platina and other doe say that he sold it or gaue it ouer let the indifferent reader iudge whether is more likely that he did But Sigebert doeth psaiulie say that this Benedict was a Symoniacke or got the popedome by simonie And in Eusebius his Chronicle it is written that Theophylact belike that was Benedicts name did sell the Papacie to Iohn a Priest And this bargaining and badde dealing made plentie of Popes at this good time For some write that Henrie the Emperour deposed at this time fiue Popes and made a sixth And that the world may see howe good choise they made It is written that one of them Sigebert saith Benedict but Fasciculus temporuÌ„ saith Gregorie the sixt was so vnlearned that hee was faine to get one chosen to say Masse and play the Pope in the church while himselfe might play the pope abroad Now I pray you which of these popes was the heade of the church the praying pope or the playing pope The church that hath so bad heades must needes be sicke of the headach and troubled with a phrensie or gidiâ—es as indeede the Romish church is For it would not otherwise so manifestly oppose it selfe against Christ as it doth By what meanes Clement the third came to be pope I cannot tell But Richard the first king of England made a great complaint of the pope and his court for their symonie And Mathew of Paris reporteth how he emptied the bags and lightned the cariages of Iohn the bishop of Norwich who sought to him to be dispensed withall for a vowe as it seemeth that he had made to go to the holy land But of that kinde of symonie that author complaineth bitterly in many places against many popes I might also speake of the euil entrance of Iulius the second who by his great power which men feared and his bribes that he gaue and promises of bishopricks and such other promotions which he made got to be pope although otherwise a man for sturdie and surly nature loued of none misliked of all But let vs see what other meanes they haue when violence craft and simonie will not serue They haue an Italian figge to hasten them that are popes to giue place to them that would be It is reported by the writers of histories that Damasus the second sent such a hastie messenger to call away Clement the second his predecessour For he thought he taried too long and yet he stayed in that seat scarse nine monthes A litle before Clement was Iohn the ninteenth sommoned in such sort when he had beene pope litle more then three monethes But for Clement Benno the cardinall writeth that hee was rather poysoned by Brazutus that godlesse wretch and that Heldebrand that firebrand of much mischiefe procured to doe many such feats For within thirteene yeares he poisoned six popes Clement the second Damasus the second Leo the ninth Victor the second Steuen the tenth and Nicolas the second So that if any but Gregorie were chosen this Gerard Brazutus was readie straight way to giue him a drinke that did them litle good So â—hat poysoning seemeth at that time to be but a popelike practise if wee will beleeue Cardinall Benno But master Bellarmine endeuoureth as much as hee can to impaire the credit of that history And to that end he gathereth all that he can find out of other histories either in disprayse of Henry the fourth the emperour against whom pope Gregory the seuenth did vndutifully and vnchristianly oppose himselfe And also picketh out all the prayses of Gregory the seuenth to make him seeme another manner of man then Benno reporteth him to be But Benno liued in the time of Gregorie and therefore he could be an eye-witnes of many things He was a cardinall and therefore by likelihood howsoeuer he misliked of the doings of the man yet he would not vntrewly report any thing that might be a staine to that church But if he had written any thing falsly it is not to be thought but that some or other historiographer of those times would haue proued that cardinall Benno had but slaundered and would haue written against him Which master Bellarmine hath not shewed there And therefore that which he hath said doth onely prooue that the emperour had his faults and that the writers of those times would rather lay the cause of Gregories immoderate pride and tyrannie vpon the wicked doings of the emperour then vpon the proud and vnruly affections of the pope Pope Alexander the sixth a sea and sincke of sinne and as it were nothing but a masse of wickednesse was belike very skilfull in this tricke And yet I neuer heard that euer he poysoned any popes but one onely and that was himselfe He came to be pope as other in those dayes by indirect and euill meanes For he bought with mony and obtained by promising the
of Rome But howe will they excuse the slauish seruitude wherunto they brought the greatest princes Saint Iohn offered to fall downe before the Angell but the angell would not suffer him to worship him I am saith he thy fellow seruant worship God But these vile wretches will suffer kings and emperours to kisse their feete Constantine the pope was the first that euer accepted of this honour done to him by Iustinian the emperour And then Stephan the second whose feete Pipin the french king did kisse But afterwards this grew to be so ordinarie a matter that the kissing of an old fooles foule feete is the greatest honour that can be done to the greatest prince at Rome And Pope Steuen hauing gotten into his handes the exarchie of Rauenna whereby he became great in Italy and al by the meanes of the said Pipin whom he also rewarded by making him king of Fraunce thrusting Childrick the true lawfull king into a monastery and intruding Pipin in his roome he now in triumphing manner is carried vpon mens shoulders And he is the first that I knew of any of the popes that thought the earth too good to beare so wicked a lumpe as himselfe was For I trust hee thought it not too base to touch his sacred feet Well the reason of his doings is not for vs to search but he was first carried of mens shoulders Neither will I here inquire of the cause of deposing the right king of Fraunce whether it were iust or not although no cause could make it a iust fact in him that had nothing to doe with it Onely this will I say that where master Bellar. would make the insufficiencie of the French kings to be the cause why either Zachary or Steuen that was next after him did depose the French king from his rightfull crowne yet Platina whose words I rather beleeue then master Bellarmine confesseth that Pipin being greedie of a kingdome sent his embassadours to the pope that he would by his authoritie confirme vnto him the kingdome of Fraunce Whereunto the pope agreed in respect of such former good turnes as hee had receiued of that house And so by the popes authoritie the kingdome of Fraunce is adiudged to Pipin the yeare of our Lord seuen hundred fiftie and three Thus much Platina Whereby it appeareth that the ambition of Pipin and wrong dealing of the bishop of Rome was a cause that Childerick was deposed But to returne to my matter againe we see what pope it was that was first so proude that he could not let his owne legs carrie him But it was set downe afterwards for a lawe vnto which the emperour must be also obedient if he will not be rebellious to the decrees of the church And it is decreed that the emperour himselfe if he be by must helpe to carry that loytring lubber For thus I reade it cited out of their owne booke of ceremonies Although the emperour or any other be he neuer so great a personage be by hee shall carry vpon his shoulders a litle while the chaire and the pope And againe it is decreed in the same place that the most noble lay man shall carry the end or traine of the pluuiall that the pope weareth be it the emperour or any king What a slauerie is this that he by his vngodly and wicked ordinances doth tie princes vnto as though they were his very staues Why should he looke that emperours should be his hacknie horses to cadge him vp and downe Or what reason hath he what warrant out of the scripture What example in Gods booke or of any good man so to disgâ—ace and deface the anointed of the Lord whom he as well as others should seeke by all meanes to honour and reuerence Yet let vs see what more reuerence these proud prelats can suffer to be done vnto them Pipin the new made Frence king did teach the pope a very euill vse For he slattering the pope that hee might make him more frendly to him in assuring him of his kingdome meeting him three miles from his lodging alighteth from his horse and leadeth the popes horse all the way not leauing him vntill he had brought the pope to his lodging It is also recorded that another time the king of England on the one side and the French king on the other performed him that seruice But what neede I seeke for the particular examples This is also a booke case It is alreadie ordered That the emperour shall leade his horse and kings shall goe before him as performing their seruice to this earthly God or God on earth But yet we haue not seene his fullnesse in pride For the emperour if he be by when the pope alighteth must hold his stirop So did Frederick Barbarossa the emperour vnto the pope Adrian the fourth although he had no great thankes for his labour For hee chanced to hold the the wrong stirop the pope was so offended thereat that when the bishop of Bamberg in the name of the emperour had by a pithy oration signified his ioy for the popes presence the pope replied that he heard indeede words of gladnesse but he could not by deedes perceaue any such thing And his reason was because the emperour held not his right stirrop The emperour although angry yet smiling answered that he vsed not to hold any bodies stirrop and that made him the lesse skilfull For he was the first whose stirrop he held And for that time they parted neither of them being well pleased But the next day the emperour made amends for his former offence holding the right stirrop And the same emperour Frederick did afterwards also hold the stirrop to pope Alexander the third a cruel and shamelesse enemie to the said emperour as appeareth by a letter which master Fox in his Actes and Monuments aleadgeth out of Roger Houeden and William of Gisborough In which Letter it doeth most plainely appeare not onely that the Emperour did holde his stirrop for the pope confesseth so much in writing vnto the Archebishoppe of Yorke and to the Bishop of Durham and would haue them to reioyce for the good successe of the church for the church is much increased when the popes stirrop is holden by such but also he cause they said to Moses and Aaron that they tooke too much on them seeing all the people were holy howe great then shall their iudgement be that abuse all euen the mightiest Monarchees at their pleasure Doest thou see O Peter thy successour and thou O sauing Christ behold thy vicar Marke well howe farr the pride of the seruant of thy seruants is gone vp saith an Abbat long since and therefore I trust no Lutheran no Caluenist no Hugonot but a flat papist and yet speaketh this in detestation of the pride of popes and namely of pope Boniface the eight who the second day of his Iubilie apparelled like an
some euill dealing and telleth him that hee hath more commoditie out of the Realme of England then out of all countries on this side the Alpes And therefore Innocent the third had woont to say of England It is in truth our garden of delight saieth hee a well that can neuer be drawne drie and where there is great abundance there of much much may be gotten Indeed hee and his fellowes had gotten out of this garden manie sweete poses and were much refreshed with the water that they drew out of this well But where is that pastorall care that these Bishoppes should haue had ouer Christs flocke or which they at the least pretended to haue in their Bulles and writings Where is their reioycing at the zeale and godlinesse of the people As is their studie so is their ioy Their studie is how to get and winne temporall possessions they reioyce when they haue gotten the same I haue hitherto proued this especially by our owne stories because they should most moue vs to consider what bondage and slauerie we haue beene brought vnto and giue vs warning to take heede how wee subiect our selues to them who vnder pretence of holinesse doe not onely deuoure widowes houses but euen infinite treasures yea and princes kingdomes also Other kingdomes were not free from these pollings as may appeare by the stories of Fraunce and other places For what place is there whither the pawes and clawes of that couetous Woolfe haue not reached Charles the fourth keeping a diet at Mentz where were the electours and other Princes of Germanie thither also came the Popes Legat in the name of Innocentius the sixth begging some contribution The Emperour hauing heard what the Legat demaunded aunswered that the pope got much money out of Germanie but he sought not to reforme any thing that was amisse in the cleargie And not long after Gregorie the eleuenth demaunded a tenth of all the cleargie men through the empire but the bishops electours would not yeeld to the pilling of their cleargie in such sort But yet as the Abbat of Ursperg singeth them as it were a song and willeth them to reioyce because that money which so well they loue commeth so fast vnto them and they haue store of that which so much they thirsted euen so by their prolling and pilling in euerie corner they get into their handes infinite treasure Nowe if we looke vpon our Sauiour Christ and compare him and his Vicar of Rome together wee shall easilie finde they are no more like then light and darkenesse Christ hath not whereon to lay his head he had nothing They haue all things euen the worlde at will He tooke great paines to preach the Gospell They liue in all ease and pleasure and neuer preach the most of them He trauelled on foot from place to place from the one side of Iewrie to the other The pope if he goe but to S. Peters church must bee borne vpon the shoulders of the greatest potentates Christ had in his traine but a fewe fishers or men despised Their pallaces and traines exceede in pompe and pride the courts of princes He being requested would not meddle with diuiding of land betweene two brethren The pope intrudeth himselfe yea and chalengeth it to be his right to haue to doe in temporall dominions to throwe downe to set vp to place and displace not in small inheritances onelie but in the greatest Monarchies As is seene in the Empire it selfe which he translated from the Grecians to the French and againe from the French to the Germanes and woulde nowe if possibly he coulde bestowe the same vppon the Spaniard taking it from the Germanes as it seemeth by such aydes as hee yeeldeth vnto him in his most ambitious and tyrannicall attempts To be short our Sauiour Christ himselfe did perfourme all dutie and honour vnto princes by whose example and of whom Saint Peter learned that lesson also which hee faithfully taught and deliuered to other Submit your selues to all manner ordinaunce of man for the Lordes sake whether it be vnto the king as vnto the superiour or chiefe or vnto gouernours And againe in the same chapter Honour the King But what doth Christs bad vicar and Peters proud succesior He seeketh by all meanes that he can to increase his owne glorie and riches and that with the staine and reproch with the decay and impouerishing of the mightiest monarches as hath alreadie beene sufficiently I trust declared and might be prooued by a thousand mo testimonies But if you will behold a true patern of the affections that these holy fathers beare to the emperours and kings set before your eies pope Celestine the third sitting in his chaire of estate making Henry the sixt the emperour cast himselfe downe at his feete And he whose hands perchance were too holy to performe so base an office taking the crowne betweene his feete O scorne of all scornes did with his feete crowne both the emperour and his wife the empresse And when he had so doone with his feete he cast from his head the crowne againe For it is meate and drinke to them not to doe the will of God as it was to Christ to doe the will of him that sent him but so to play with princes to bring them into contempt and to let the world see howe scornefully they can vse them Let such as loue the truth and haue desire to saue their owne soules thinking earnestly of these matters If the doings of the bishops of Rome for many hundred yeares be not plaine contrarie to that which our sauiour Christ and his apostles did and taught I craue no credit But if they be let no man no woman be so simple in a matter of so great importance as by shew of good words in which yet there is no truth no sinceritie nothing but hipocrisie to be carried away and deuoted vnto a church in name holy but indeede most prophane in name a mother but in truth a froward stepmother or to a pope insatiable in couetousnesse proude and ambitions and to all countries and princes pernitious and pestilent Nowe as their arrogancie since they came to such excessiue greatnes was intolerable their greedinesse vnsatiable so their mischieuous malice hath beene vnmesurable This appeareth most plainly not only in their dealings with others but also in their had doings one of them against another Who can without wonder or detestation heare of the cruel parts that were commited by Steuen the sixt against the dead body of pope Formosus For he was not content to reuoke his acts and disanul his decrees although he preferred him to be a bishop but like a cruell and vnthankfull churle hee caused his dead bodie to be taken vp out of the graue O holy charitie and that in his presence he drew it about the citie put on it popelike aparrel set it in Peters chaire