but it is 〈◊〉 that they should beg at least if it be voluntary and for that 〈◊〉 their number ought to be diminished and they of them that aâ—e â—ich should keep them that are poor let them all apply themselves to work and to study as heretofore they did It would be very well done abâ—olutely to retrench some of these Orders that are so chargeable to the People Pope Alexander the Seventh did very well in suppressing two Orders that were as good as those that are now remaining the one was called the Order of the Cross and the other of â—he Holy Ghost And in Spain they have done very well never to endure among them the Capucins The Council of Toledo did heretofore ordain that no new Religious Order should be suffered to be established in the Church ne nimia Religionum diversitas gravem in Ecclesia Dei confusionem parturiat There are no People that hate or destroy one another more than the different Orders of the Mendicants because they hinder one anothers Trade and there are no People in the World that debauch the Women more than they the Secular Priests are Angels in comparison they are in so good Credit and Esteem that they are not endured in the Court of our Kings and they have no access to it Their Principle of blind Obedience is both foolish and impious which may cause and many times hath been the occasion of horrible Disorders in the Estates and Families of our Kings It is a Principle which makes the Pope whom their Superiors implicitly obey Master of our Lives and of the State for these Superiors are always as ready to inspire the Monks with all sorts of Opinions how horrible soever they be provided they serve the Pope his Designs for this reason I have often wondered that some Law hath not been made in the State against the perfidiousness of the Monks and Jesuits from the example of two of our French Kings whom they have murthered and that it hath not been declared that if any such thing shall happen for time to come all these People should be driven out of the Kingdom There is no other means to hinder the Court of Rome from doing the same things hereafter The Parliament of England hath lately enacted somewhat like this to secure the Life of their King against the Monks No Clergy-man ought to be received without subscribing the Condemnation of the impious Bull de Coenâ Domini which is a bottomless Gulf of Impieties Heresies and Inhumanities And till the Monks and Jesuits shall solemnly renounce and condemn this accursed Bull it will be no great Injustice done them to accuse them of attempting against the Lives of Kings If any Man did suspect me to be an Arrian and I knew it and could justify my self from such cursed Opinions and did it not the World would have reason to impute to me all the Consequences of thâ—s pernicious Heresy It is well known that all the Monks and particularly the Jesuits have by their fourth Vow obliged themselves to the Execution of this infernal Bull. It was the Monks who living in Idleness corrupted and falsified many Ecclesiastical Books they have counterfeited many other Books full of Lies and set them out under the Names of good Authors They are every where known for People who by their Artifices under pretext of Religion are the ruine of most Families whose Substance they cunningly suck in themselves It is they who have vilified and discredited the true Orthodox Priests drawing the People after themselves by false appearances of Mortifications They are good for nothing but to move Seditions and to bring People to Disobedienee and when ever the Interest of their Monarch the Pâ—pe is concerned they think the Blood of their Enemies as meritorious as that of the Cross. The Humility they boast of is a very pleasant thing when at the same time they take place of their Elders and of People of Quality They pretend to have renounced Vanity more strictly than the Secular Priests and yet these Asses are called Father Father as heretofore the Pharisees Rabbi Rabbi they cause themselves also to be stiled Reverend Fathers and pretend to have Merit enough besides to obtain their own Salvation and to impart the overplus to others They call themselves Father Raphaels Father Cherubims and Father Seraphims with such like Names which are Marks of Vanity and Folly with which there can be neither Humility nor Piety Their Generals also manage the matter fairly to have the same Respect shewed them in the Courts of Princes as the Ambassadours of the greatest Kings These Gentlemen are all sworn Enemies to the Holy Scripture as well as to the Court and they do all they can to render the reading of it suspicious they heretofore did what they could to abolish it because it made as much against them as the Popes In the Year 1192. they made a new Gospel upon the Dreams of a Carmelite named Cyrill this was to suppress the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their own they called the Eternal Gospel wherein they taught that God the Father reigned under the Law God the Son under Grace and that the Holy Ghost was now going to reign by the Establishment of four Orders of Mendicants and that for the future Men could not be saved but by this Gospel that that of Jesus Christ was imperfect and that the Sacraments were of no great use This Gospel was preached almost all Europe over by the Jacobines and Franciscans and it was very near being received in the University of Paris but there remained yet some worthy Men who opposed and made it be condemned but seeing these new Evangelists had the favour of the Holy Father the Doctors of the University were forced to go to Rome where at length they obtained that this Book should be condemned and burned but privately for fear of decrying the four Orders of Mendicants and also that the Book of the University of Paris should be burned much after the same manner as heretofore at Bezancon at the beginning of Luther's Revolt which drew many Towns after it the Magistraâ—e of Bezancon fearing that this Fire should reach thither forbad all sorts of People to speak of God either Good or Evil. And there falling out lately a Dispute between some Divines of the Sorbonne at Paris some of whom do hold with the Jesuits that we may be saved without loving God and others on the contrary that we ought to love God whereupon both the one and the other were forbidden to speak of it so that the matter yet remains undecided whither we ought to love God or no or whither the Gospel of the Monks or of Jesus Christ be the true one The Author of the Book against this new Gospel is called William de St. Amour de periculis novissimorum Temporum See in Matthew Paris At length the Monks had Credit enough having procured several Bulls to be given out against the Book to
we say that it was owing to the eagerness of his temper which being not always well regulated made him commit greater faults than any others of the Apostlâ—s except the perfidious Judas which made him be called Satan by his good Master which none of the other were We ought also to attribute to this temper the blow he gave Malchus with the Sword as well as that warmth that made him promise wonders of Fidelity to his Master and induced him to accompany him to the Emperors Court where he denied his Saviour So that it is with very little reason that they make an argument of this to prove his Royalty in the Church In Spain where the most Honourable walk the last they will not fail to alledg places where St. Peter is named last as in the passage where it is said I am the Disciples of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Caephas who is Peter For I remember that at Paris where they understand Divinity a little better than in Spain a good Bishop and an Abbot did maintain to me that the passage where it is said that James Peter and John are esteemed Pillars of the Church I having alledged against them another where he is named the first they maintained to me I say that this passage confirmed that which they alledged and proved very well the Primacy of St. Peter For said the Bishop when three persons of worth are walking together they always put the most Honourable in the middle This is according to the common saying That a Lawyer well paid shall always find the cause of his Client good His Benefices made him see clear in this passage There are three other passages which the greatest part of our Doctors produce against our Adversaries with a little more colour which are Thou art Peter c. I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Feed my sheep Which passages we shall examine one after another to see if St. Peter had any priviledg above the other Apostles they say that in the first of these passages Jesus Christ doth establish the Church found it and built it upon St. Peter I do not deny but that St. Peter was one of the Pillars of the Church because he is so called as well as James and John. Nor can it be denied but that he was and is one of the foundations of the Church since that he is not excepted out of the number of the Twelve who in Scripture are called the Foundations of the New Jerusalem But I maintain that the Church is no more founded upon him than upon St. Paul and the other Apostles I would fain have these Gentlemen tell me upon whom the Church was founded before St. Peter and why the Church changed its foundation and upon whom Peter himself was founded It was without doubt upon Jesus Christ upon the Rock which is the Christ. And it is without all question that St. Peter and we ought to have no other foundation than that which St. Paul had who says That no man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Also we see in this passage that it is upon the Rock upon the Rock of Ages that our Saviour builds his Church and not upon St. Peter The Holy Ghost would have changed neither name nor person if he would have had us to have believed this of St. Peter He would not have said Super hanc Petram sed super te Petrum Vpon this Rock but upon thee Peter To the end that no difficulty may remain we must observe what goes before and what follows after Jesus Christ had demanded of all the Apostles together whom they thought he was Peter either as the eldest or most zealous answers for all and says to him Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. Whereupon Jesus Christ says to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. It is evident that as our Saviour's discourse was directed to all and that Peter answered for all the following part of our Saviours Discourse was directed also to them all and related no more to Peter than to any other particular Apostle And men must have lost their understandings to think that Jesus Christ in this place founded his Church upon Peter whom in the same Chapter he calls Satan What Foundation would the Church have had and what would have become of her when he deni'd his Saviour It must then necessarily be acknowledged that it is not the visible Church that is here spoken of which they pretend St. Peter to be the Head of But the Invisible the Society of the Faithful and the Elect. For the Gates of Hell would have prevailed against the Church not only when St. Peter denied his Master since that the foundation being run to decay that which is built upon it falls to ruin But since that time have they not very often prevailed against this Church which they would have the Bishops of Rome the pretended Successors of St. Peter to be the Heads of For Example when according to the Fathers the whole World was Arian the Bishops of Rome and all their Flock and so many other times as the Popes have been Magicians Sodomites Atheists Hereticks c. And what would have become of the Church in the time of that great Schism that succeeded Gregory the Ninth which lasted fifty years when the French would not have an Italian Pope nor the Italians a French one and many Princes would have neither one nor other to whom at length Charles the Sixth joined himself for three years and the Kingdom of France was very well contented without a Pope and many other Princes for a longer season And what shall we say of that great Schism which the Popes made and caused with the Greek Church by cutting them off out of Devilish pride from the Communion of the Church because they would not submit to their yoke but demanded the observation of the Canons What shall we say also of that great Apostacy that happened about 130 or 140 years since or thereabout when so many States separated themselves from the Church by reason of the Impiety and Tyranny of the Popes Doth not all this prove that Hell hath prevailed against this exterior and visible Church which the Popes govern and whereof St. Peter according to them was the Head It is then the Invisible Church which is here spoken of the Society of the Faithful the Heavenly Jerusalem whereof Jesus Christ is the principal Corner-stone upon which St. Peter himself saith believers are built as living stones He says not it is on himself that they are built but on the contrary he pretends himself as well as others to be one of these living stones which are built upon the Corner-stone which is Christ. It is then upon the Rock confessed by Simon Peter or upon his Confession that the Church is founded on that which he declared
they were of the Humour of Tiberius who was even vexed at the abject Patience of those who were most suhmissive to his Tyranny Illum qui libertatem publicam nollet says Tacitus jam abjectae Servientium patientiae taedebat But to return to our Modern Romans when they hear the King of France called the Eldest Son of the Church whereof the Pope is the Spouse who calls Kings his Sons they esteem themselves so much the more by half and shew an equal proportion of Disrespect for those Kings For my part I was disgusted I own it when I heard them say that all Christian Kings were the Popes Children and that the King of France was his Eldest Son and my respect for Royal Majesty did as insensibly diminish as theirs for the Popes increased nor could I ever digest that Abuse to hear that such a Cardinal was Protector of France and such a one of Spain c. What thought I must pitiful Priests or Bishops who for the most part are good for nothing by the Humour of People of their own stamp become one day the Monarchs of Monarchs and their Servants Protectors and Guardian Angels of the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth and that too against all Reason both Divine and Human Yet all the World submits to it as to an Eternal Truth I know not what Protection they give nor in what nor against whom they do protect Never was there any such Folly in the World and yet they are payed for it too But let us examine a little whether the Popes are good for Italy or no the Mischiefs they heretofore did theâ—e are notorious It is known that the Republick of Venice hath been like to be destroyed by them that they have oppressed the Liberty of the City of Rome that they have usurped and gained by Craft and Violence the greatest part of those States which they possess in Italy that which they call the Patrimony of St. Peter Vrbin Ferrara Castro and the Kingdom of Naples which they have made Tributary It is known that they exact a Tribute all over Italy by the same contrivances as from all other Catholick States that by their Inquisition they keep it in Slavery whereby these Provinces are kept in monstrous Ignorance of Religion and in so great corruption of Manners that the Vices of other Nations are Vertues to them and theirs not fit to be so much as mentioned in any other place The Italians may well say what Tacitus said speaking of another sort of Inquisition which reigned in his time at Rome Scilicet illo igne vocem Pop. Rom. libertatem Senatus Conscientiam Generis Humani aboleri arbitrabantur expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus atque omni bonâ arte in exilium actâ ne quid usquam honestum occurreret Dedimus profectò grande patientiae documentum sicut vetus aetas vidit quid ultimum in libertate esset ita nos quid in servitute adempto per Inquisitiones loquendi audiendique commercio This is the true Representation of the Inquisition and of the Slavery which the Italians now suffer It is clear that this modern Inquisition is taken from the Example of the wicked Roman Emperours from whom they have also borrowed many other things 'T was from the Romans that they took this Maxim of keeping the People in Ignorance for among them there were those who said de actis Deorum reverentius visum est credere quà m scire It seemed a greater piece of Reverence to believe well concerning the Actions of the Gods than to know them The Popes do no good even to the City of Rome but have ruined it tho they pretend that the Romans are obliged to them for many Contrivances which they have found out to make the Water run to their Mills as amongst others the Jubilee which is a general Fair of Pardons and Indulgences but the Popes did this to get by it themselves For if the People make any Profit at this Fair by the innumerable multitude of poor Christians that come there to obtain the Popes Indulgences qui preconan vino y venden vinagro that cry Wine and sell Vinegar all that returns back into the Popes Purse and their Nephews who drain this City by an infinity of Imposts so that it is one of the poorest Towns in all Italy The People at Rome as well as the Popes having been used to live by the Folly of other Nations now know not how to apply themselves to work There remains not in all this Town one spark of their ancient Generosity and Nobleness of Mind that made them be heretofore respected more than all their Power All the greatness of those ancient Heroes is now vanished since the Priests became Governours And all those Vertues which made Rome the Admiration of the whole Earth have been succeeded by Sloth Effeminacy Sodomy the Art of poisoning Treason and all sorts of Artifices of Monkish Tricks a base and knavish Policy and they now reign by nothing but Vice and Debauchery Voluptatibus quibus illi plus adversus subjectos quam armis valent Hitherto we cannot find what the Popes are good for There are some ignorant People who say that the Church is obliged to the Popes for the holding of Councils because that without them there would be none assembled and they insist particularly upon that of Trent wherein the true Catholicks were so well tryed and established and Heresy opposed so that since that time it hath made no progress All they who have read History a little know that the Popes hate Councils more than the Devil does the Cross. We have already seen that Cardinal Julian complains of the Popes that they would not call any Councils Ne auferat says he temporalitatem nostram lest they should take away our Temporality Cardinal Palavicini says enough to confute these People in his History of the Council of Trent that the Popes ever abhorred National Councils Concilio Nationale sempre aborrito da Pontefici and another Jesuit says that in the Mystical Firmament of the Church there cannot be a Conjunction of a more dangerous Influence than that of a General Council Nel Cielo mistico della Chieza non si puo imaginar Conjunzione di piu periculosa influenza che un Synodo Generale Now for the Council of Trent in particular all they who have read the History of those Times know that it was sorely against the Popes Will that it was called and that they never consented to it till the very last extremity having a great while eluded the Instances and Remonstrances made by the Emperor the King of France and other Princes for the assembling of a Council They demanded a free Council for the Reformation of the Church and principally of the Court of Rome and to bring into the Bosom of the Church those who were gone astray from it The Court of Rome who had more reason to fear than