Cap. 7. sect 2. Petenda est haec per suasio ab arcano spiritus testimonto c sect 2. Non aliud loquor quà m quod apud se expetitur fideltum unusquisque c. sect 5. for our instruction I cannot deny there is great difficulty in believing that every thing which the Church proposeth as revealed is Gods revelation yet this pill must be swallowed if we resolve to believe God who cannot be believed if he speakes in his owne voice and tone because it is evidently inseparable from truth and we cannot believe what by force of cleare evidence we cannot deny Hence by the way it followeth that no Protestant or Puritan doth believe God if they ground their faith upon the evidence they pretend to have of Scriptures being Gods Word or upon that of their private spirit both which saith Calvin are discerned as clearly by himselfe and his brethren to be Divine evidences and not Diabolicall as white is discerned from black sweete from soure and light from darknesse It s very improbable that God deprived himselfe of his right and was contented not to be believed that Calvin and his Protestant crue might be eased of a duty which they exact and receive from every person that hath a good opinion of their honesty 3 Supposing it is as evident that there is a Church of God upon earth as it is reasonable he ought to be believed by men we must endeavour to finde it our The Church is an infallible Guide to lead us to God but who is the infallible Guide to had us to the Church Reason But reason in obscurity may be mistaken and what is more obscure then the way to the true Church environed with so many false Sects If our bel efe were limited to naturall verities reason might make some shift every man might pretend that his owne wit would be a sufficient guide for himselfe but seeing Christian Faith must stretch further then humane capacity there must be some supernaturall helpe In obscure matters saith Aristotle with all wise men reason must be contented with cleare signes and not expect evidence of the truth And because the Church or God doth propose supernaturall truths the signes must be also supernaturall And because there is so great difference betweene humane understandings God hath beene pleased to make his Church discernable by sensible and visible supernaturall signes that they who have least understanding may not have lesse faith then the most witty and learned if they will but open their eyes and reflect upon what they see This is the reason why so few can pretend ignorance of the true Church if they have any sense in them they may easily distinguish it from all hereticall Congregations The evident signes therefore whereby the true and Catholick Church is knowne consisteth not in exteriour formalities that may take their beginning from humane policy or from a naturall inclination to decency and good order The Protestant Church of England had as few signes of supernaturall grace as any other pretending Reformation yet in the eyes of some it lookt pretily and was more decent in the service then other Northerne Churches of Lutherans and some of their Nags-bead Ministers affected a certaine Ecclesiasticall gravity in their garb and habit notwithstanding in my opinion a secular dresse would better become their meere secularity and want of ordination The Ministers in Germany looke more Protestantlike in their short cloakes spade beards and blew starcht ruffs then our English Common-prayer Ministers doe in their long cloakes and surplises which they weare more for policy then Religion 4 Seeing Reason must be contented with cleare signes when the truth is not evident and that no evident or cleare supernaturall signes appeare in any Congregation of men but in the Roman Catholick it must be concluded that the true Church is that onely Congregation of men which professe the Roman Catholick Faith That no signes of grace doe appeare in any Church pretending Reformation is as cleare as it is that all the world is not blind for as yet neither themselves nor any other could see in any of their Sects one miracle or any other thing that lookt like supernaturall though they tell us of some Divine motions and impulses of the private spirit they are as incredible as it is impossible that God should oblige any man to take a Protestants bare word against the tradition and testimony of the Christian world informer ages confirmed with undeniable miracles and sanctity of life But some seeing the private spirit is ridiculous would faine perswade us that we may read their Reformation in Scripture so evidently declared that they wonder how we can have the least doubt against it We Catholicks have beene above a hundred yeares turning and tossing the Bible with as great care and study as the matter required and yet we could never hit upon one Protestant Tenet â—n Scripture though we have reason to thinke that we understand it as well as our neighbours which is very strange if their Doctrine be evidently contained in it But there is nothing more obscure the evidence wherein men equally learned and honest doe not agree Nothing can make them disagree in the interprettation and sense of Scripture but the obscurity thereof or obstinacy or ignorance if they be obstinate they are not honest if ignorant thâ—y are not as learned as their adversaries and its certain we doe Pro estants a favour in comparing or making them equall w th Catholick Doctors in either but when men dispute he that hath evident truth on his side may grace his adversary with any advantage as I doe at the present supposing not granting that Protestant Ministers were equall with Catholick Doctors in learning and vertue that thereby it may appeare how obscure the Scripture is wh re Protestants pretend it to be cleare and the sense most manifest 5 I will not make a long Litanies of the supernaturall and visible signes which app are in the Roman Catholick Church Miracles have beene in all ages and are now so frequent amongst us that there is not a Countrey or Province wherein the Roman Religion is professed which doth not produce testimonies so prudently credible of true and supernaturall miracles that to deny them were to destroy all human faith and reduce men to credit nothing that is affirmed by men however so well qualified with sound judgement great learning and knowne integrity Yet Protestants object its strange themselves never see any miracle being so desirous and miracles so frequent as we pretend Herod was also very desirous to see a miracle but his curiosity excluded him from that favour men who belive nothing but what they see deserve not to see miracles because they are obstinate Yet there are few Protestants who doe not see miracles what greater miracle then that all Catholicks turne not Protestants If tâ—e continuall victory over naturall and vehement inclinations doth require a miracle of supernaturall grace we are
progresse SECT I. Of Lutheranisme 2 Martin Luther was a Saxon borne in a Lordship of Count Mansfeld Sur. in Commentar alij I will not affirme that his father was an Incubus though others seeme to doubt little of it I believe their best proofe was his intimacy with the devil which himselfe doth acknowledge in his writings The 22. yeare of his age he was frighted into the Order of Saint Augustin by a thunderbolt that killed his Camerade both being in the fields for recreation He taught Philosophy to his owne Friers and Divinity in the University of Wittemberg which Frederike Elector of Saxony Luthers greatest Protector had founded Pope Leo the Tenth in the yeare 1517. granted Indulgences to all that would voluntarily contribute money against the Turke who threatned all Christendome committed the charge of it to Albert Elector of Mentz that had no good correspondency with him of Saxonny this coldnesse betweene the two Electors was that which made Frederike so hot in maintaining Luther and his Doctrine against Indulgences which first he preached and afterwards printed because he was not chosen to preach for them having a good talent and it being the custome in Germany to make use of Augustin Friars to publish Indulgences But the next yeare after Luther writ to the Pope excusing his Doctrine and submitting himselfe to his judgement yet when he was certainly informed that his Holinesse would condemne it he appealed from the Pope to the next Generall Councell◠which is the ordinary shift of Hereticks and Polititians seeing at length that the Universities of Paris Lovaine Cullen and others had commanded his writings to be burnt and that his errours did not take much with the people because he had not as yet broached any inelining to lust and liberty he resolved to retire into Bohemia amongst the Hussits this resolution was stopt by the Elector or Saxony and some of the prime Nobility of Franconia who doubted not to make good use of Luther against the Clergy whose lands and goods they coveted promising him their protection Whereupon he to gratifie his benefactors and strengthen himselfe by a popular faction printed a booke and dedicated the same to the German Nobility exhorting them and all good people to joyne with himselfe in reforming the Catholick Church so much neglected and notoriously corrupted in Doctrine by the present and ancient Clergy Cochlaeus de act Luth. Vlen berg in vita Lutheri Florim de orig haeres Prateol de haeres alij 3 And that they might not seeme to intermedle in matter which did not belong to their jurisdiction and function he assured them in his booke that every Christian was a Priest because in the new Testament there was no distinction betweene Baptisme and Priesthood from whence he concluded all that which they aymed at to wit that seculars had as much right to Church-livings by their Baptisme as Bishops or Priests by their Ordination And to the end that the Emperour and Christian Princes might be engaged in his quarell against the Pope and Bishops he inculcated to them that they were subject to none even in spirituall matters but to God that the Popes supremacy was an usurpation and that Episcopacy was against Gods Law incompatible with true Religion in confirmation whereof he printed this Bull the Preface was Attendite Episcopi c. Attend ye ô Bishops nay rather marks of the devil Doctor Martin Luther readeth to ye a Bull which will not be gratefull Doctor Luthers Bull and Reformation Whosoever doe contribute their endeavours with body goods and fame to destroy Bishopricks and abolish the government of Bishops they are children of God and true Christians observing the commandements and resisting the Devils ordinations or if they cannot doe this at least they must condemne and shunne that government On the other side whosoever doe defend Bishops government or voluntarily obey them they are the Devils proper Ministers and resist Gods Law and Ordinations dinations Besides this Bull he writ a booke intitled Adversus falso nominatum Ecclesiasitcorum statum Papae Episcoporum Against the false Ecclesiasticall state of Pope and Bishops 4 Now that he had fitted as he imagined the humour of Kings and Princes and awakened their passions of coveteousnesse and ambition against the Church-livings and dignity of the Clergy he thought it necessary for the carrying on of his designe to comply with the genius and liberty of the vulgar people and make his Religion plausible amongst the ignorant multitude by assuring them that Faith alone without good workes was sufficient to save men putting the word alone in the very text and not in the margen of Scripture Not content with this he resolved to drawe many of the vicious and ignorant Clergy to his side by writing a booke De vita conjugali Of a married life wherein he condemneth vowes of chastity exhorteth Priests and Religious to marriage and married men to make use of the serving mayde in case the wife be humorsome if either party commit adultery the innocent may immediatly choose another husband or wife and if there be no hopes of children by the husband his brother or next kinsman may supply the defect The ground of all this Doctrine was Crescite multiplicamini Gen. 1. Encrease and multiply So that by this text fondly applied and by corrupting another and adding the word alone to Faith honest Martin Luther framed his new Protestant Religion and cited Scripture for his Reformation according to the custome of Hereticks 5 And that men might be the more inclined to embrace and more obstinate in adhering to these heresies Luther with the helpe of Philip Melanchton published the new Testament in high Dutch rejecting altering and adding whatsoever he thought fit for his purpose by which device he engaged the ignorant as much to their errours as to their owne proper judgements making themselves judges of Scripture and Controversies and at length or their Lords for taking themselves to be learned and well versed in Gods written Word they raised an Army for defence of the Euangelicall liberty of Luthers Ghospel which they conceived was not granted them by their Masters and therefore the Clownes drew their Remonstrance Cothlae de act Luth. Sur in Comment Erasm in Hyperasp and demands in twelve articles which Luther approved of and caused to be proclaimed in Saxony exhorting the Lords to grant all which the Clownes desired and laying to their charge the fault of all inconveniences which were like to ensue if they did oppose his Ghospel and the Clownes designes but seeing that this failed and that the Lords had the better he writ against the Clownes upbraiding them for their rebellion and exhorted their Masters to punish their disobedience the conclusion was that he embroyled all Germany and that in Franconia alone above two hundred Noblemens Castles and Monasteries were destroyed and in few moneths more then a hundred and fourty thousand peasants lost their
established their perfidious Reformation brought up King Iames in their errours the first Protestant King or Prince that by heresy stained the royall bloud and name of the Stewards There is not a family in the world that ought to hate heresy and love Catholick Religion more then his posterity none was so much persecuted by our pretended Reformers and in particular by the English Church as theirs and no Subjects were more faithfull to their Soveraigne then the Catholicks of Scotland were to their Queene Mary Steward But the education of few and tender yeares doth destroy the obligation of many ages and blot out of Princes mindes the memory of their most famous Ancestors CHAP. VI. That no Policy could heretofore or can for the future give any supernaturall appearance to the reformed Churches whereby any rationall persons may be mistaken in their way to heaven by confounding them with the true Catholick Church 1 WHat a great hand Policy had in destroying Religion and setting up Reformation hath beene demonstrated in the former Chapter and Sections I doubt not but the most vulgar apprehensions that did see the change might easily perceive the difference which was betweene the old and new Religion I am also confident all sober men of the last age did looke upon Luther Calvin Cranmer Knox and all their Reformados just as we doe upon Iames Naylor and his Quakers though now many silly soules doe reverence their memories because distance of time makes things looke as unlike themselves as distance of place A brute beast at a distance may be taken for a rationall creature and a beastly reformation may by the helpe of time and policy gaine the credit of a rationall Religion amongst misinformed and weake understandings but it can never looke like supernaturall Faith to any rationall person that will examine the grounds and fundation of it notwithstanding that wicked Clergy and Polititians have endeavoured to dabe it over with the private spirit and their owne interpretation of Scripture 2 There is the same proportion betweene Catholick Religion and Reformation as is betweene ancient Gentry and upstarts Kings out of policy or favour may bestowe titles of honour but all the policy upon earth cannot make a man an ancient Gentleman if he be not one by descent A Nobleman that derives his pedigree from Citizens cannot compare in quality with men whose Ancestors have beene time out of memory knowne Gentlemen It s just so in Religions Men may give to their Reformations very glorious titles as Mount Sion Assembly of Saints Beauteous discipline and what they please but all will not doe The ancient name of Catholick comes by descent and continuall succession not by policy to the Roman Church and not to any other pretending Reformation These new Religions may well become upstarts and new families raised by heresy but methinks the ancient Nobility and Gentry looke odly in this new fashioned faith and seeme to staine their bloud by renouncing and persecuting that Religion which their noble Progenitors for so many ages did constantly professe and gloriously maintaine both at home and abroad 3 Catholick Religion doth not onely sympathise with ancient Gentry in descent and succession but also in their Coates of armes The armes of the Catholick Religion are the supernaturall signes of the true Church visible to the world Put case that a Cheate or Mountebanck disguised like a Gentleman should intrude himselfe into the company of persons of quality in Whitehall and brag much of his Gentry but when he is desired to prove it he should ingenuously confesse that he hath no other evidence for his extraction but certaine interiour motions and impulses to heroike actions questionlesse this Mountebank would be laught at by the whole company This is the case of all reformed Churches that pretend to be the true one or part thereof without any further proofe or evidence for their Religion and interpretation of Scripture then their owne word for a private spirit as invisible in it selfe as in any effect that lookes like supernaturall It s true that many noble families whose Ancestors have beene lions as their Coates of armes testify even to this day have by degrees degenerated into lambes yet they prove by tradition and records that they descend from warlike lions Though the Roman Catholick Church had no miracles nor persons of eminent sanctity of life at the present to shew for their Religion that onely of their Ancestors in former ages would be proofe enough that they professe the right Faith because they have evidence of tradition and records that it is the same with the Faith of those who worked miracles and were Saints but reformed Churches want all such evidences and though records may be forged by Master Mason and others of the English Church neither they nor any private spirit can by all their politick devises counterfeit tradition which must goe further up into antiquity then they can reach by all humane industry But the Lord be praised for it the Roman Catholick Church hath now and had in every age evident miracles and eminent sanctity of life much resembling that of the Apostles and our primitive Fathers whereby our spirit and faith is confirmed to be truly Catholick These armes and signes of Gods Church cannot be counterfeited by Reformers because they are supernaturall and above the spheare of hypocrisy and policy A Puritan may shew the white of his eyes by lifting them up to the Lord and looke very demurely and devoutly a Nags-head Minister may walke in roba longa and weare his suplise black scarfe and square cap but none of them can attaine to an eminent degree of supernaturall sanctity or worke a miracle untill they forsake the Reformation and become Roman Catholicks 4 The pretended evidence of Scripture in favour of Reformation is not lesse ridiculous then the private spirit Let us track our Mountebank Gentleman and follow him to the Courts of Westminster after his being repulsed and laught at in Whitehall for proving his Nobility onely by interiour impulses Suppose he should in the open Court lay claime to some ancient Gentlemans inheritance descended from father to sonne for many ages and should produce no other evidence or proofe for this pretended right but his adversaries owne patent in vertue whereof the ancient Gentlemans Ancestors and himselfe possessed the estate but because some words in the patent may be interpreted by the Mountebanks ambition and coveteousnesse in a different sense then ever they were before that time understood by the learned Judges of the Land our Mountebank must needs be the right heire and dispossesse the Gentleman of his ancient inheritance by misinterpreting the words of the patent absurdly and contrary to their knowne sense and to sentences and practise of the Court since ever Law was of force in England This is the case of all Protestants who pretend that there are cleare texts of Scripture against Catholick Tenets and practises The sense of Scripture which
Christianity either altogether or by halfe Hobbes saith Subjects may renounce all Christian Religion by words so they believe in their heart our Doctors of the English Church say Subjects may deny such points of Christian Religion as have beene renounced by their Soveraignes And when the Soveraigne will if ever that should happen deny all Christianity and believe no more then Turkes or Jewes it evidently followeth out of their principles though hitherto they durst not say it that the Subject may doe the same by an exteriour acquiescence untill the contrary be decreed in an imaginary generall Councell of their owne making and morally impossible to come together as hath beene said in the 7. Chapt. sect 8. for what reason can they have to accommodate themselves to their Prince and Church in denying some articles of Christian Religion and not all They have none I am sure to be angry with Master Hobbes who sayes nothing but what they also must say if they will sticke and be consequent to Protestant principles and particularly to the doctrine of the Church of England 3 That Protestancy doth incline the Subject to rebellion against his law full Prince is more evident then I wish it were by so many woefull experiences Their Reformation begunne in all places with rebellion and is like so to continue notwithstanding the vigilant care of wise Princes and Counsellours The reason is manifest because it s morally impossible that the conveniency of the Court should alwayes agree with the interest of the people and many times the Lawes of the Land being made to favour both are not so cleare in the behalfe of either The contrary being railed who must decide it Not the people saith the Prince because they are Subjects Not the Prince say the people because he is a part and Subject to Gods Law Both appeale to Scripture the sole Judge of Protestants controversies If the Scripture could speake and pronounce the sentence without an Interpreter all might end in peace and quiet but amongst Protestants every Subject speakes for Scripture and consequently for himselfe If every man be naturally inclined to favour himselfe and looke with a partiall eye upon his owne interest it s more then probable that Scripture interpreted by the Subjects will second their owne inclination and conveniency against that of Prince and Court neither is it lesse evident that the Prince and his adherents will not submit their judgements and wills to the finall and scripturall sentence of every Subject so that the sword and rebellion must end the controversy in that Religion where all men are supreme Judges and Interpreters of Scripture 4 And though the Prince may endeavour to incorporate the legistative power and the interpretation of the Lawes of the Land into his owne prerogative the Protestant Subjects will oppose it not onely as unreasonable but also as Antichristian pride and tyranny inconsistent with their Euangelicall liberty They will inferre this consequence If God hath made us Interpreters of his divine Law how can a Creature exclude us from interpreting the Lawes of the Land wherein we are so much concerned and which ought to be subordinate to Scripture Truly seeing no Protestant Prince or Church doth pretend to be infallible in declaring the true sense of Gods Word they can hardly condemne the Subjects private interpretation as contrary to Gods meaning all their Synodicall Decrees and legall Declarations against the Subjects fancy or pretended inspiration in favour of the Prince will be lookt upon by them who oppose his designes as suggestions of obsequious Courtiours and flattering Clergy and the people will stick to their owne interpretation of Scripture backing it with the words of the Apostles Act. 5. God ought to be more obeyed then men And if the Prince should declare that their text is but a pretext of rebellion they will retort his argument and say that his texts are but pretexts of tyranny and proclaime him a Rebell against God for the meanest of Protestant Subjects with a Bible in his hand is as absolute as his King with a Scepter nay more because he lookes upon the Scepter as subordinate to his Bible Thus you see how the liberty of interpreting Scripture is no lesse the ground of rebellion then of Protestant Faith and how politick Princes by undermining the ancient Catholick sense of Scripture with new fancies and interpretations have plotted their owne ruine and their posterities destruction And that this may appeare yet more evidently I will endeavour to prove Chap. IX That the Popes spirituall jurisdiction is nothing dangerous to Soveraignes but rather that the ground of fidelity and obedience due to them is utterly destroyed by denying the Popes supremacy and that it is a greater foppery in Protestants then in Catholicks to deny his infallibility 1 PRotestant Princes looke upon their Subjects with as jealous an eye as Spaniards or Italians doe looke to their wives The word forreigne jurisdiction though onely spirituall sounds to them as harshly and troubles them no lesse then the most injurious terme doth a suspicious husband This jealousy of Protestant Princes is no lesse fomented by the stupidity of some of their Writers then by the ambition of others Some as Master Hobbes for one looketh so dully upon man Leviathan part 3. ch 39. and government that he maketh no distinction betweene Spiritualists and Temporalists betweene the Church and State betweene the sword of Iustice and the shield of Faith betweene Christian and Man and is of opinion that out of such distinctions must needs follow faction and civill warre in the Commonwealth But other Protestant Writers admit these distinctions because they hope by them to reape some benefit or benefice Doctor Bramhall in his replication pag. 163. Nay of late some have printed that the King notwithstanding his supremacy is subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury in spirituall affaires and under the jurisdiction of his ordinary Ecclesiasticall Pastors but by no meanes under that of the Pope thinking it to be more for their Soveraignes honour to obey his Subjects then Saint Peters successor 2 That God should commit the charge of soules or any spirituall jurisdiction to temporall Princes is as incredible as it is evident that he did foresee what an ill accompt they would give of their Subjects Religion if they had the management of their owne consciences If they be so jealous of the Pope that notwithstanding he being a stranger and so farre of yet they feare he may reduce all temporall matters to his spirituall jurisdiction how doe they thinke it possible that God should not he jealous of trusting them with the soules of their owne Subjects seeing they may reduce all spirituall matters to temporall and abuse their power with much more ease and successe then the Pope can misapply his spirituall jurisdiction I am sure they ought to be more jealous of any of their owne Subjects supremacy then of the Popes spirituall jurisdiction and authority because
it is more easy for an Archbishop of Canterbury or any other in the Realme to make ill use of his supreme spirituall jurisdiction in England then it is for the Pope at so great a distance and with so little acquaintance Experience doth demonstrate that the Popes spirituall jurisdiction over all Christendome is not so dangerous as Protestant Lawes and petty Preachers doe pretend Histories doe testify that Popes have restored twenty Kings for one that they are said to depose neither did they ever pretend to depose any King untill his owne Subjects were weary of his tyrannicall government or all the world scandalized at his wicked heresies and in those very cases the Popes never tooke the Kingdome to themselves an evident argument that Religion not interest moved them to take so rigourous wayes whether warrantable or not let others dispute I cannot Yet this much I can assure Protestant Princes that Popes have exhorted their Subjects to obedience and patience when they were most persecuted In case any of his Ministers should be misinformed indiscrete or exceed his commission that fault cannot be attributed to his Master nor to the Religion of Catholick Subjects but rather to the ignorance of Catholick Tenets and of Canonicall Doctrine which commands Subjects to obey though their Soveraignes be not of their owne Religion 3 Kings and Princes by denying obedience to the Pope teach their Subjects to rebell against themselves and doe dispense with oath of alleageance The ground of fidelity and obedience due to hereditary Soveraignes is a constant tradition that he who actually resignes is lawfull successour to one whose right and jurisdiction was undoubtedly acknowledged and indeed there cannot be a more rationall and secure ground of obedience then tradition and a continuall succession of lawfull witnesses from one age to another Writings may be counterfeited Tradition cannot because its impossible to stop so many mouthes as deliver it to posterity or to contradict the testimony of whole Provinces and Nations This is the reason why Hereticks cannot gainesay the tradition of the Popes supremacy though they deny the supremacy it selfe and the truth of that Doctrine yet they are not so madly impudent as to deny what is evident to all Christendome to wit that there was a constant tradition when Luther revolted from the Church that the Bishop of Rome is Christs Vicar upon earth They onely pretend that this tradition is not a sufficient ground to oblige men to believe what it delivered or to acknowledge the Popes supremacy If it be not how can the tradition of one onely Nation be a sufficient ground to oblige Subjects to believe that their Soveraigne is lawfull King of France or Spaine or that they are bound in conscience to obey him There is not any King or Prince in Europe that hath so universall and constant a tradition for his temporall soveraignty as the Bishop of Rome hath to be Saint Peters lawfull successour and of Saint Peters being head of the Church under Christ by divine institution Pasce oves meas Feed my sheepe Joan. 21. and many other texts of Scripture have never beene otherwise understood in the Church by any but by declared Hereticks whose contradicting the tradition and ancient sense of Gods Word can as little prejudice the Popes right and supremacy as a declared Rebell can prejudice his Soveraigns right by calling in question his discent or royall authority When Saint Peters chaire is shaken by Protestant Princes their owne thrones must fall because it is not onely the fundation of the Catholick Church but the support of Christian Monarchy 4 Here I cannot omit to advertise my Reader what poore shifts some of the most learned Protestants are brought to they renew that so often and solidly refuted errour of making the Pope Patriarch onely of the West by misapplying the words of the Nicen Councell Baron an 325. Sirmondus Guther Card. Perron my râ—sp ad Object Reg. Brit. lib. 1 c. 32. 33. and concealing the true translation of the Canon as every man may see in the Authors cited in the margen The title of Patriarch of the West doth no more exclude the Popes supreme dignity of head of the Church under Christ then the title of Earle of Flanders doth exclude that of King of Spaine If the Bishops of Rome were not universall Patriarchs but Patriarchs onely of the West why did Saint Victor Pope in the second age of Christianity excommunicate all the Churches of Asia Euseb 5. hist 24. cap. 25. Spond 198. upon the difference of celebrating Easter for not accommodating themselves to the Roman Sea And though Saint Iretaeus did not approve of so great severity yet neither he nor any other called in question his authority They are also pleased to make the Pope Speaker in the generall Councells but not President they allowe him the place of first Bishop and call him exordium unitatis with Saint Cyprian but by no meanes will they grant him the title of infallible and supreme Pastor These are but weake and pittifull shifts whereunto Protestants are driven by the evidence of Councells Fathers Tradition and Catholick arguments contrary to the Tenets and Doctrine of their brethren of the late Church of England If the Pope be exordium unitatis he must be infallible in deciding the controversy proposed otherwise he will be exordium divisionis because no learned persons will submit their judgements in matters of Faith to a Judge that may be mistaken they will be as farre from his sentence and thoughts as from any other and the unity of Faith whereof Saint Cyprian speakes consists more in an unity of thoughts of judgements then of speech or exteriour acquiescence Such a dumb unity of Faith hath its beginning from Policy not Religion 5 They excuse themselves from the guilt and crime of Schisme as ridiculously as they impugne the Popes supremacy They accuse us Catholicks for the fault themselves committed because forsooth they left not our communion untill we thrust them out of doores It may be as well said that the Judge and not the thiefe is the malefactour because the Judge pronounced sentence against the thiefe The Roman Catholick Church had no more part in the Schisme of England then to declare Henry the VIII and Queene Elizabeth Schismaticks and Hereticks They committed the crime and the Pope pronounced the sentence Therefore the Roman Church or Court is guilty of Schisme is an excellent Protestant consequence But such fopperies we must expect from obstinate Hereticks that with a perverse will oppose no lesse their owne understandings then Catholick verities The Pope say they imposed new articles of Faith upon their tender consciences he made a new Creed and declared it was necessary to believe the same Therefore he was cause of the Schisme The same argument that the Arrians made against the Councell of Nice and Saint Athanasius his Creed doe these Hereticks now object against the Councell of Trent and Pope