the rising of the Sunne vnto the setting thereof professing the faith of Christ and offering cleane sacrifices doe especially at this time fulfill that which our Lord spake by the mouth of Malachie saying chap. 1. ver 11. From the rising of the Sunne vnto the goinng downe thereof great is my name amongst the Gentiles and in euery place it is sanctified and a pure oblation is offered vnto my name Neither was it a lesse iniury and slaunder when I said that I clearly saw innumerable nouelties errors in the Court of Rome which nouelties errors I doe neither see nor yet did euer see and I acknowledge and confesse that it was most false that at Rome there was then or now are any errours by which any destruction of soules may follow or the peace of the Church be disturbed or publique scandalls committed For in truth all the peace all the tranquility of the Catholique Church and the eternall saluation of Soules after God is to be attributed to the care and trauell of the Church of Rome I said that the mightier Bishops vnder the Pope were Bishops onely in name and this saying containeth in it both falshood and wrong and therefore I doe condemne it as euill spoken for they be true and lawfull Bishops made by lawfull ordination I said that the others who were not great men and Princes in temporall things had lost the proper dignity and power of Bishops and this truly is a slaunder for the Hierarchicall subordination was alwayes necessarie in the Church much more I condemne as an heresie those words where I said that vnder the Pope was no more a true Church for as I said and seriously affirmed before onely the Church of Rome with her adherents is the true Church of Christ and the others are not Churches And in fewe words to comprehend much I perceiued that in my former intention I chiefly indeauoured to weaken the supremacie of the Pope and in so doing I confesse that I haue spoken against the faith of the whole Catholique Church and haue erred greeuously For it is euident both by the very institution in the Gospell and by the Apostolicke tradition and the dcfinitions of holy Synods and generall Councels and very many decrees of the Pope and also the common testimony of the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall Histories that the Bishop of Rome was instituted chiefe head of the whole Church immediatly by Christ our Lord as a singular Oracle vnto whom both the East and West Churches in all doubts of Faith should haue recourse for instructions definitions and other sound doctrine in matters of Faith as vnto a Master giuen them from heauen who by his office should teach the Church And any one that is but meanly read may easily finde out very many examples where the Popes of Rome established remooued corrected taught condemned absolued deposed restored and reprehended according to ther office euen the Patriarchs and Prymats of the East And thus reprehended they humbly heard and simply obayed the Popes without resistance or repugnance And to be short it is manifest by the confession of the whole Church that all the spirit of Christ for so much as doth belong vnto the decision of matters of faith doth rest vpon one Supreame visible head of the Church which is onely the Pope and chiefe Bishop St. Peters successour 5 I doe ingenuously confesse that the booke which I called The Rockes of Christian shipwracke did much displease me presently after it was set forth for I wrote it in hast without either study or examining what I did The intent which I had in writing of it was onely to flatter allure the English by all meanes possible to conceiue a good opinion of me at my first comming and so I had no regard whither that I writ and printed were true or no But my desire was to say that which might please the Enemies of the Catholicke Church and especially the ignorant common people And when the doctrine contained in this little booke was by the King and some of the Nobility objected against me at my preparing to depart from England I did euen then in expresse words detest it and afterwards prepared my selfe with all my force to resist the greater part of the heresies which were in it All which heresies I doe now againe reject detest and abhorre and they are these That the Pope of Rome is not the Vicar of Christ vpon earth nor visible head of the whole visible Church of Christ That hee hath no power in temporall thinges That an implicit faith profiteth nothing but much hurteth the faithfull That the Excommunications of the Law are vaine threats That the precepts of the Church binde not vpon paine of mortall sinne That the vnity of the Church is not to be sought for from one onely visible head That the Pope is a deadly Enemy of vniuersall Church That the Masse is not a true sacrifice That the Ceremonies of the Masse are Apish toyes That there is no Transubstantiation That Auricular confession with absolution is not a true Sacrament That there is no Purgatory That Satisfaction after the fault forgiuen is not necessary for the remission of the punishment That there be no Indulgences but of things enjoyned for penance That Saints are not to be prayed vnto That the worship of Images and Reliques are not lawfull That there is no merrit of eternall life by workes These and the like errours and manifest heresies not so much mine or newly inuented by me as by the olde and new hereticks whose fancies and madnesse haue beene from time to time by the Church in generall Counsels condemned for they are miserable Rockes vnto which if any approach they are assured to suffer a lamentable shipwracke of faith and eternall saluation And therefore I departed from them as farre as I might and least I should be vtterly destroyed by them in England it was necessary for me to depart from thence and to returne to the Church of Rome the true port of Catholickes with the which Church I reject detest and accurse all the afore said errours and all others opinions whatsoeuer if there be any more in those bookes which doe not agree with the faith expressed in the Church of Rome and in the sacred Counsels especially in the Counsell of Trent and I doe constantly affirme and embrace the contrary verities viz. That the Pope is by the institution of Christ his Vicar vpon earth and the visible head of the whole militant Church which hath alwayes beene visible with full power receiued from God to rule and gouerne her That he hath also indirect power in temporall matters for the better aduancement of spiritual That an implicit faith is profitable and many times necessary viz. when the explicit faith of some articles is not required vnder penalty That the excommunications according to the Law or de facto pronounced are of force and ought to be feared as brought into the Church with great
THE SECOND MANIFESTO OF MARCVS ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS Archbishop of Spalatto wherein for his better satisfaction and the satisfaction of others he publikely repenteth and recanteth his former errors and setteth downe the cause of his leauing ENGLAND and all Protestant Countries to returne vnto the Catholicke Romane Church Written by himselfe in Latine and translated into English by M. G. K. LVKE 22. 26. Egressus foras fleuit amare LIEGE By Guilliaume Houius with permission of Superiours 1623. Marcus Antonius de Dominis Archbishop of Spalatto declareth the cause why he left England MOst excellently as he doth all other things hath the holy Ghost by the mouth of St. Paul numbred vp amongst the works of the flesh contentions emulations anger quarrels discentions and Gal. 5. 20. sects for I haue had too much triall in my selfe of the vnhappy fruit of this vnluckie tree And now hauing receiued a potion of Diuine grace for my recouery must vomit out that filthinesse which before through the sicknesse of my minde and corruption of my taste I had greedily deuoured which that I might the more safely and speedily performe and correct my selfe in publicke before all the world and condemne to the pit of hell my infinite errours sprung from the wicked intention of my first going into England I haue taken that good counsell first to leaue the Schoole of errours lyes and heresies and then of mine owne free will to returne to the holy Romane Church the one and onely piller and excellent ground of Catholicke truth and the Mother of all Catholickes from whom I had most wickedly departed First therefore I will prosecute this my correction condemnation and detestation of my errours and afterwards I will declare the other causes why I left England and all other hereticall Countries whatsoeuer and returned to the holy Catholick Romane Church 2 It is the most auncient disease of our corrupt humane nature descended from our first Father vnto all his posterity that when we fall into any errour or slide into any vice we doe either finde out filthy excuses as the woman which thou gauest me to be my fellow Deu 3. 2. companion gaue me of the tree and I did eate or else we defend our faults and endeuour to couer them with a counterfait cloake of Iustice and honesty and I confesse that this was my case for which I am very sorrie The disease of my minde in which before my departure from the Romane Church I languished was that contrary to the wholesome counsell of the wise man I trusted too much to mine owne prudence and Pro. 3. 5. out of the confidence of my owne wit being no body I would giue very rash iudgement in matters of faith vnto which also was ioyned a certaine frenzie of anger Not that which some weake Schollers at my going out of England imputed vnto me because I was denied vaine pretended dignities but it proceeded altogether out of mine owne vnreasonable impatience by taking in euill part to be made subiect to others of whom I did vndeseruedly complaine in my booke of the cause of my departing These things draue me vpon the quicke sands and shallowes these cast me vpon the Rockes these sharpened my wit to inuent pestiferous cogitations these made me vainely to pittie the errours of the Romane Church thereby to excuse my departure from it these made me to transcend all limits And that I might seeme to haue done well in leauing the Church of Rome and auoide by some meanes the brand of impudencie rashnesse and heresie in defence of my departure I set forth first an exposition of mine intent and afterwards certaine volumes and little bookes into which I thrust what the Art of counterfaiting and dissimulation had inuented and aduice of the flesh suggested And so as long as the inward disease increased and the spurres of anger pricked my exulcerated minde the itching of my tongue and pen brake forth into madnesse and now my vnderstanding being darkened many things which the Enemies of the Apostolicall sea transported with heresie did beleeue affirme and professe seemed vnto me credible and some-things also true as long as I did not try the Doctrine in controuersie by the touchstone of true Diuinity nor perfectly discusse them for at that time I had neither finished nor yet begun some of the parts of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth in which I had purposed to treat of the decrees and rules of faith howsoeuer in the booke of my intent of leauing the Romane Church I affirmed that I had them all ready for the Presse and being thus blinded and relying rashly more vpon the false accusations of the heretickes then vpon the truth of the Catholick faith I wrote the little bookes of the intent of my depaerture from the Romane Church and the Rockes of Christian shipwracke and a certaine Sermon stuffed with errours and heresie and out of my then conceiued hatred which for the most part I bare to the holy Romane Church the Apostolicall sea and the Pope I affirmed these things and many more to be true which before I writ them I knew to be false and hereticall and afterwards in some part corrected them and with my whole heart detested them euen when I writ them and now also I abhorre and detest these little bookes because they containe manifest heresies against Catholicke truthes and are repugnant to sound Doctrine that is to say to the Doctrine which the holy Catholicke Romane Church doth and hath alwayes maintained against which Doctrine whatsoeuer I haue spoken or written that I doe wholy condemne and detest and by the grace of God I will more amply and largely condemne and detest it in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth and of the other bookes which I haue written for I doe wholly submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Romane and Apostolicke sea the chiefe of all Churches whatsoeuer 3 In the meane space it is necessary in this my second and truly sound determination to detest that intention of my vnhappy departing from the Romane Church and the infamous Rockes shipwracks chiefly to my selfe and heretiques and not of Catholicks and also that Sermon Neither will I be ashamed by pulling off my garments which I had forged to my selfe to lay open my nakednesse because I haue not beene ashamed against all right and honesty to breake forth into vaine lyes manifest slaunders and silthy heresies The stinging and venome of the Scorpion is cured by the bruising of the same Scorpion which pricked and if the voluntary contrition and bruising of my selfe Diascor lib. cap. 44. may heale the venomous wounds of others if any be wounded by me I will esteeme this my bruising humiliation and mortification most happy Let the glory of the Catholicke Church and of the Apostolicall sea remaine vnmoueable although it be with the losse of whatsoeuer I haue in this life seeing I
be that Babtlon spoken of in the Apocalips for it is the opinon of many Catholicke Interpreters that in the persecution of Antichrist the Ethnick Idolaters and the Enemies of the Christian name shall perhaps subdue it and of such that prophesie not yet fulfilled may be fitly verified yet in such sort as the faith of the Catholicke Church may continue safe and found Whereby now you see that my applying it to Christian Rome is but a meere calumniation for I know that Christian Rome is not Babylon neither can it be so called without great iniurie and God forbid that by this Prohesie we should vnderstand the same Romane Church which is the Mother and the head of all either to haue beene or hereafter to become Babylon for those things which are spoken of the Citie are not to be transferred vnto the Church I denied that there is a Church at Rome but I did not proue it therefore that negation must be layed vp amongst my euill speeches reproaches and heresies and conuincing my selfe within my selfe being ouercome by reason euen in the same Treatises I constantly affirmed that the Romane Church with her adherents was the only Church of Christ and now I doe most earnestly professe and affirme it I said it made a Schisme when I had not yet exact consideration what a Schisme was and in this I erred grosly this being a manifest falsehood and the proofe which I brought in confirmation is of no force For he who is lawfully appointed head of a Body and calleth and publisheth himselfe for head of the same body doth not seperate himselfe from the body neither casteth away the body from him but ioyneth himselfe vnto the body which hath no coherence with a Schisme yet I will handle this matter more at large in the correction of that worke Now I proceede to declare how it is euident to me that the English Sectaries and much more all the other Sectaries of our age are truly and properly Schismaticks because they haue seperated themselues without any lawfull cause from the true Church of Christ which is the Catholick Romane Church and her adherents 10 There can be onely two causes of a lawfull separation why one or more Churches of Christ and yet not commit Schisme should abandon one or more other Churches from their communion The one is heresie and the other is Schisme it selfe This is well knowne vnto all the faithfull that the hereticall Churches which are incorrigible are to be auoyded by Catholickes and that with such they ought not to haue any Ecclesiasticall communion I enquired often times of the English why they seperated themselues frō the church of Rome her adherents whither for any heresie And truly not none of them could either by words or writing shew me that the Romane Catholicks either of our time or in the time of our auncestors in their generall publi ke profession were at any time stayned with any heresie The Kings Maiestie himselfe of great Eritanie granted to me publickly and plainely and so did the wiser sort of their Ministers of all sorts and not a fewe of their learned men that the Church of Rome did not erre in fundamentall poynts of Faith wherefore the Church of Rome is not hereticall if we will take but that which they graunt Perhaps they will say the Church of Rome doth not erre in fundamentall poynts of faith which thing I also seemed to teach especially in the causes of my departing and in the Sermon I preached at London yet they erre and are fallen into heresie in other articles of faith which be not fundamentall But first I know not what article it may be of true faith which is not fundamentall for neither could I vnderstand nor they explicate vnto me how there may be such a distinction made or admitted that some be fundamentall and some not I haue alwayes thought that all and the sole articles which are truly articles of faith were fundamentall yet I errred when I excluded many true articles from the fundamentall which being true were also fundamentall articles and without heresie could not be denied although they be not of those principall articles of the Trinity incarnation necessity of grace Baptisme in the name of the Trinity c. such as are the Sacraments iustification necessity of workes merrits indulgences and the rest which I haue before rehearsed as already limitted in the Church because those things relye no lesse vpon the reuelation of God then the former and for that cause appertaine no lesse vnto faith then those For he that thinketh God to be a deceiuer in any one article whatsoeuer it be must of necessity also acknowledge him to be a deceiuer in all the rest Then I enquired often times of them who dealt seriously in the businesse to shew some article of faith in which the Church of Rome thought taught erroniously They vse to bring the article of Transubstantion of the bread into the body of Christ frō which they gather as they think some heresies viz. That Christ hath not a true body but a phantasticall if that in the least crum of the bread we put that whole body so that a body should not be a body Item that Christ is not in heauen if he be vpō the Altar on earth which is contrary to the article of the ascension of our Lord. Itē that Christ is not borne of the virgin Mary if that we do make him of bread In these men it is most true that which St. Hierome saith vpon the Epistle vnto Titus cap. 3. There is no Schisme that doth not inuent some heresie vnto it selfe that it may seeme to haue departed frō the Church vpon a iust cause But transubstantiation which the Catholicks professe is very far distant frō those heresies for all the properties of a body in thēselues are safe although they be put in a crum of bread but the same proprieties in order vnto the place which is externall to the body be seperable from it by the diuine omnipotencie which our Schoolmen explicate sufficiently But what heresie can they find in vs if we all doe constantly confesse that we beleeue as an article of faith that Christ had hath a true body with all his naturall proprieties in himself which we beleeue confesse may be kept by the same omnipotencie euen whē the body is brought into the least externall place neither can any impugne this Theologically and humane Philosophy neither can nor ought to measure the diuine power Let naturall Philosophy iudge what may be done by nature but let her reuerence and not iudge those things that be aboue nature Neither doth it follow that the body of Christ is not in heauen if it be vpon the Altar we all confesse that we beleeue by a diuine faith that Christ ascended into heauen and there sitteth continually at the right hand of the Father But yet we say that by dinine power one and the same body may
from Apostolicall Tradition and succession from the most ancient Church which who so followeth cannot erre and he who contemneth and reiecteth such things is to be cast out as an haire-brained enemy of the Church Tertullian lib. de Baptismo setteth downe the vse of hallowed oyle August epist 119. numbereth also oyle amongst holy things The consecration of water for baptisme hath beene kept time out of minde in the Church for Cyprian lib. 1. epist vlt. maketh mention of the water and oyle of consecration and anoynting We haue in Optatus Miliuitanus That the holy Lib. 2. câ—â—e Par ent Temples if they were polluted by any meanes were wont to be hallowed againe with exorcismes and washing of the walls St. Basil deduceth from tradition Lib. de Spirita Sanct. ca. 27. the vsuall rite of annointing the baptized with oyle Antiquity teacheth that the signe of the crosse was wont to be vsed in the hallowings and consecrations of all things Iustin quest 118. Nazianzen Orat 1. against Iulian and in the Orat. at the Funerall of his Father Chrysost 55. in Matheum August tract 118. in Ioan. and serm 3. of the Annunciation and serm de tempore 181. cap. 3. Areopagita and others There are perhaps amongst vs some Rytes not so ancient in which we vse hallowed and consecrated things but seeing the Primatiue Church instructed by the Apostles feared no danger of secret Idolatry when she vsed consecrated oyle and the like why should we now feare who attribute no more vnto these consecrated things then the old Antiquity did vnto theirs Therefore to runne into schisme for these things is great impiety These rites are good seeing most of them are instituted by the Apostles and others sprung forth from the deuotion of Catholicke Churches and all are in no part contrary to faith but rather consonant vnto faith There was in old time diuersity of rytes and ceremonies in diuers Churches and yet they did not therefore depart from a mutuall Communion For as Sozominus saith They esteemed it to be friuolous and that worthily that they who agree together in the principall heads or points of Religion should be seperated one from another for the difference of a Ceremony Therefore the seperation of the English by which they haue deuided themselues from the true Catholicke Church and broken out into a manifest schisme is friuolous rash and impious And to communicate with them in diuine matters is to consent vnto their most wicked and pestiferous schisme 24 I will not here for feare of being too long dispute of the supposed new articles whereupon they ground their complaints and endeuour to excuse their schisme But will reserue this matter to be handled in another place Now I aske them this question Whither they thinke that those which they call new articles be contrary to faith or no if they should be contrary to faith then they should be heresies and should make vs heretickes worthily to be auoyded and to be seperated from the Communion of the catholicke Church But I haue proued already that there is no heresie in the Catholicke Roman Church and the Kings Maiestie of great Britaine and many learned men in that kingdome haue confessed that the Church of Rome doth not faile or erre in fundamentall points of faith and I haue already proued before that there is no true article which is not fundamentall and to be firmely beleeued therefore it maintaineth no articles which are contrary to the Catholicke faith and since they be not contrary to the true faith but containe the true faith they cannot minister a iust cause to begin a schisme But Protestants say the Church of Rome doth seperate and deuide vs from her because we respect those articles But I am sorry and lament that they had made a most foule and grosse schisme before any thing was spoken of concerning these articles which they call new Therefore it is great folly in them to alleage these new articles as a cloake for their schisme for the effect cannot goe before his cause I defend that they haue made a schisme without cause and by this I knew that they were manifest schismatickes and therefore haue departed from them And those same articles which Protestants affirme to be new may be euidently demonstrated out of Scriptures Traditions and Fathers to be true and the contrary articles which they set downe may be conuinced out of them to containe manifest heresies If the sence of the first Authors be retained for some milder Protestants now of late in matters of Controuersie as I haue heard doe vse fauourable explications not much dissonant from Catholicke doctrine by which they seeme to tend to a pious Reconciliation Who without a pernitious errour or rather plaine heresie can put all his saluation in faith only and exclude the necessitie of good workes and absolutely denie our merits and affirme that grace once had cannot be lost and that the iust cannot sinne They who hold with tooth and nayle that these and the like are articles of faith and that the contrary are heresies doe without question erre in matters of faith and declare themselues to be hereticks and by consequence are worthily numbred amongst hereticks by Catholicks in their definitions Therefore not any heresie of the Church of Rome or her manifest or secret Idolatry could giue an occasion vnto the Protestants schisme Neither can they obiect schisme vnto the Roman Church for she made not the schisme but they made it and she endured it for from her Luther and Caluin and the rest seperated themselues first and not she from them When they obstinatly reiected the Iudgement of the Church then they made a schisme Then they deuided the Coate of Christ then they errected one Altar against another then they forsooke the true Church 25 Besides the causes before rehearsed and examined they also pretended for their schisme a necessitie of Reformation in the Church But I could neuer yet see any reformation amongst them but to say the truth I obserued many deformations for the care of conscience is vtterly neglected and cast away amongst them some few accepted the rest haue no scruple of conscience to commit adultery violent extertion treacherie against their neighbours cosenage vsury as people who haue impiously abollished auricular confession fastings penance and such like holy exercises And suppose that they had found amongst vs any thing to be reprehended either in our manners or in our actions or in our gouernment that should not be imputed to the defects of the Church but vnto particular men whose actions are not allowed but reproued by Catholicks neither ought they to haue raised a filthy schisme for those smaller matters when the foundation of faith remained firme stable and vnshaden in the Church of Rome And suppose that we had builded vpon it Wood stubble or Hay as it is said in 1. Cor. 3. 12. Yet we should not be excluded from saluation But the Protestants haue left the
against the true faith And so Gyprian maketh the Catholicke Church a Roote a Lib. de sâ—â—p Pralater â— Fountaine a Sunne so that as the braunch hath life from the roote the Brooke hath water from the Fountaine the rayes light from the Sunne euen so the sincerity of faith cannot be had but by coniunction to the Catholicke Church They therefore who haue seperated themselues from it cannot receiue the verity of faith but of necessity they must fall into errours for they be trees without a roote they be Brookes without a Fountaine and Rayes without a Sunne Wherevpon the Fathers in many places by these and the like reasons doe manifestly proue that Schisme doth at length breake out into heresie For hee who doth refuse to haue communion with the Catholick Church he also will refuse to learne of it the verities of Faith of which shee onely is the keeper and conseuer Therefore very well did Augustine conclude That an inuetterate Cont. Crâ—scon lib. 2. cap. 7. Lib. 1. epist 6. Schisme is euen heresie it selfe And rightly did Cyprian finde in euery Schisme this heresie at least that by it are taken away these two articles out of the Creed I beleeue the holy Catholick Church and the remission of sinnes For they that beleeue the holy Catholicke Church to be the true Church of Christ cannot depart from the same if they so beleeue But if they doe depart certainly they doe not beleeue that the Catholicke Church is the true Church of Christ So Augustine saith that the Donatists had turned the◠〈…〉 Schisme into an heresie And Ambrose approuing his fact who had fled from the Churches of the Luciferites aâ—â— haue now done from the English said Hee thought there was no faith in the Schisme for though they kept the faith to God yet they did not keepe it to the Church whose limbes they suffered as it were to be deuided and members to be rent in pieces for seeing Christ dâ—â— sufer for the Church and the Church is Christs body they seeme not to beleeue Christ who make his passion voyde and teare his body in peeces 33. Should I therefore haue stayed among Schismatickes and hereticks with such danger vnto my soule God forbid I repent me with all my heart that I haue remained so long amongst them and haue taken vp and vsed wicked Armes against my Mother the Catholicke truth and haue written bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth full of heresies which I sincerely hete and detest and was a Souldier in that gracelesse Campe to the perpetuall infamy of mine owne name And now it doth both grieue and vexe me that I haue beene the Author of so great wickednesse Therefore with all humility and reuerence I aske and craue pardon and forgiuenesse for my wicked offence of God Almighty of Christ our Sauiour and of the Pope his Soueraigne and chiefe Viccar vpon earth and doe wholy submit my selfe and faults vnto the great clemency of the same Pope who sitteth supreme Iudge of vs all and not to be iudged of any vpon Earth for that he representeth the person of Christ in his Church And euen as our Lord himselfe doth open willingly his bosome of mercy vnto him that is penitent so am I in good hope that I shall bee receiued into the armes of the Clemency of his holinesse The example of St. Cyprian against Stephen the Pope much reproued and condemned in the Catholicke Church some times confirmed me in my wickednesse of striuing and resisting against the supreme Pastor But now my foule fall hath taught me to my losse that those Bishops wander and goe astray from the right path of Faith who doe refuse to be guided by the only Pole-starre which is the Pope of Rome to follow wandering fiery Meteors to their destruction Would to God euen as the diuine Cyprian by the effusion of his owne blood for Christ did wash away the staine of his former Audacity so I heartily desire that there might be giuen vnto me who in the multitude and hainousnesse of my faults haue surpassed incomparably his fall the oportunitie and grace to deface and blot out my foule staines and filthinesse and beare witnesse of the truth of the Catholicke faith with the shedding of my very blood which staines and filthinesse I am most ready 〈◊〉 the helpe of God when Inke should faile to signe with my proper blood to the praise and glory of God the Exaltation of the holy Catholicke Church and to the honour and dignity of the Apostolike Sea which God grant At Rome 24. Nouembris Anno. 1622. FINIS
haue sought to diminish it for at last that losse must needs before God be glorious to me also Wherefore I doe first confesse and truly and sincerely out of my owne conscience doe giue testimony that I did not write the intent of my departing from the Romane Church and the Rockes and the Sermon out of sincerity of heart or out of a good conscience or faith not fained but that I might couer with some excuse my shamefull departure and be more gratefull and acceptable to hereticks to whom wretch that I was I ranne in hast and with whom I familiarly conuersed The ten yeares labour which in the booke of the intent of my departing I boasted of were not spent in mature deliberations graue and aduised Counsels or other discreete discussions of the truth but contrariwise mispent in vaine vnprofitable and malicious purposes and preparations how I might boldly vent and put in practise my hereticall lyes and inuentions thereby to satisfie my malitious anger insomuch as my vocation to doe it was not a Diuine vocation but a deuillish suggestion stirred vp in me not by the holy Ghost but by a wicked spirit a spirit of giddines worse then was that of Saules And I do not doubt to attribute my returne back againe to a true Diuine vocation the holy Ghost calling me to returne vnto my Mother the Catholicke Romane Church 4 I said that the manners of the Court of Rome did cause mee alwayes to abhorre it This I acknowledge to haue bin wickedly spoken for neither then nor yet is wanting in Rome very many notable examples of piety and all Christian vertues which may both delight and incite religious mindes to further deuotion I said that by forbidding the reading of bookes written against the Doctrine of Rome there arise some euill suspitions which gaue credit to the writing of hereticks and made men beleeue that there is some thing in them secretly which Catholicks are not able to answere This I confesse to haue beene iniuriously spoken of me against the Catholicke faith who found in the bookes of hereticks false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous Doctrine from the reading whereof the faithfull are to be kept least it infect their soules Neither is it a thing befitting priuate men to read such bookes but the iudgement in matters of such alwayes did and now doth belong vnto the Shepheards who finding venomous Pastures should remoue their sheepe as farre from them as they can Moreouer the arguments of hereticks are deceitfull Sophisticall and easie to be answered I said that the Doctrine of those who opposed themselues against the Romane Church did either nothing or little differ from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and this is false for the opinions wherein they differ from Catholicks are wholly differing from the Doctrine of the auncient Church and nothing can more connince them then the authority of the auncient Church from which they by their nouelties haue so farre departed that worthily for this respect they are condemned for hereticks by the Church of Rome It is therefore detestable and I detest that which I said that their Doctrines were therefore condemned onely by the Church of Rome because these things they said were repugnant vnto the sensuality and corrupt manners of the Court of Rome I said also that at Rome they coyned new articles of faith by maine force And this I said truly against my conscience for I neuer obserued it at any time and I certainely know that it cannot be obserued by any man For the declarations and explications made by holy Church touching articles and mysteries of faith collected out of Diuine Scriptures and traditions of the Fathers and out of the very rules of faith cannot any wayes be termed new coyning of articles Moreouer I endeauoured to take away the title of Catholicke and vntuersall from the Church of Rome in which I erred very much for by the Catholicke Romane Church is vnderstood not onely that speciall and perticular Church which is at Rome but also the whole multitude and company of all the Churches adhearing vnto the Church of Rome in the vnity of faith and in obedience to the Pope in what place soeuer they be yea in the vtmost confines of the earth And it is most true and was approued by me both by word of mouth as England it selfe may witnesse and by writing in my Treatises of the Ecclesiasticall Common-wealth in that part which I heare is lately set forth in Germany that no Church is Catholicke but the Romane and such as are vnited vnto her For all other congregations of Christians being stayned with heresies and deuided and seperated by Schisme from the Romane Church are and be excluded from the Catholicke vniuersall and true Church of Christ and being as it were blinded together with their blinde Guides doe rush and runne headlong into the bottomlesse pit of perdition which I wickedly affirmed of the Romanes to their great wrong For from the Church of Rome at all times a most glorious light of pure and incorrupted faith came forth and doth at this present lighten all other Churches of Christ whatsoeuer But I remember that in the preface of the bookes of the Christian Common-wealth among other things I vsed some words in which I seeme to put and place in the Catholicke Church all them who haue receiued Baptisme in the name of the Blessed Trinity and in so saying althought the words sound euill and make the hereticall Churches true and sound members of the true Catholicke Church which is most false and hereticall yet my meaning was vtterly to exclude the Arrian Nestorian and Eutichian heresies and all hereticall Churches condemned in former times and to retaine them onely that were Orthodoxall But herein I was deceiued in that I esteemed that there were many more Orthodoxall Churches then are for I erroniously beleeued that many Churches which are infected with the heresies of these later Times and deuided by Schisme did appertaine vnto the Catholicke Church which although it be called Catholicke for that it is vniuersall yet vniuersality doth not comprehend any but those that be Orthodoxall and true beleeuing and dilated ouer all the world and continuing in the Catholicke vnity with the Romane For the vniuersality of the Romane Church consisteth not onely in the perpetuall and neuer interrupted or to be interrupted continuance and firmenesse of faith but is also vniuersall because her Identicall or selfe same faith and soueraigne gouernement hath beene dilated and spread ouer all places and into Nations after the comming of Christ for which respect euen in these later times and ages it is to be called Catholicke no lesse then it was in the times of the auncient Fathers seeing that the faith of the Romane Church is dilated in these our times into the farthest and most vast or remote Regions of the East and West and euen to the vttermost confines of the earth So that her children trauelling too and fro from