to Excommunicate or deprive them of their Kingdoms What occasion had Iean d' Albret given that for all this was despoil'd of his Estate Really one cannot offer a greater injury either to the Church or Pope himself then this attributing of so odious a power to him And the Church will have reason to say to these preposterous defenders of her Interests as Iacob said to his Children Simeon and Levi upon the Sack of Sichem Turbâstis me odiosam fecistis me Chananaeis Pherezaeis habitatoribus terrae hujus You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the Land Besides in celebrating the first Advent of the Son of God himself she testifies that all the Kings of the Earth and even the most fierce of Tyrants had no reason to have been jealous of the coming of this new King for that he who gives to his the Kingdom of Heaven ravishes not from Princes the Kingdoms of the Earth Non eripit mortalia Qui Regna dat coelestia But our Popes take it for an honour done them when men attribute to them praises quite contrary to what the Church gives Iesus Christ and Kings are in danger of their Empires since they can take from Princes both their States and Kingdoms But doubtless when they shall have consider'd how unfortunate these pretences have prov'd to them and how odious they still are they will easily themselves acknowledge the truth of these excellent words which the Advocate general Mons. du Mesnil has in those Memoirs of his upon the procedures of Rome against the Queen of Navarre inserted amongst the Liberties of the Gallican Church Whilest the Popes of Rome pursu'd the footsteps of Charity and Christian Humility confining their power to the Spiritual Government establish'd by God in his Gospel without arrogating to themselves a magisterial temporal or worldly Dominion so long they received universal reverence and sincere obedience from all men But no sooner did they or any of them exalt themselves by assuming an Authority not onely as Peers but Superiours to Kings but they became in danger of losing their own Authority and that too which they would have usurped from others and have created trouble both to the Kingdom of God and of his Church Certainly those Popes who shall but consider these Christian and pious Reasons will never suffer themselves to be surpris'd with the Flatteries of those about them and will understand that 't is not the Interest of the Holy See which these Sycophants look after but their particular profit Nor do they alwaies dissemble their low and unworthy pretences nor are they afraid sometimes to sooth the Pope as one would do the Turk or great Mogul by those profusions of mony which he spends on his Courtiers Let the Italians saies that Italian Carrerius lift up their heads above all Nations of the Earth for that singular grace and favour which God has done them in bestowing on them a spiritual Prince namely the Bishop of Rome who has chased great Kings and mighty Emperours from their Thrones to set others in their places to whom so many potent Kingdoms pay'd tribute so long as never any thing has been seen like it and who divides such riches amongst those of his Court as never any King or Emperour hath done before But these so lofty Elogies in the eyes of these base and interested spirits appear but Sacrilegious to those who truely honour the grandeur of the Spiritual Authority of the Pope It is the very same in the matter of Infallibility the politick Theologues thinking to procure a great advantage to the Pope by publishing this Doctrine never considering that on one side they put a very great obstacle to the re-uniting of Hereticks who are more scandaliz'd with this pretension then with all those Points of our Faith in which we disagree and on the other that by this Doctrine they make the Pope in danger to deceive himself and expose the Church to Schisms and Divisions For 't is this pretence of Infallibility which may induce Popes to neglect to take the legitimate and ordinary waies of deciding Points of Faith who by the consent even of Cardinal Bellarmine himself ought to assemble Councils and there onely regularly examine Controversies of Religion which they will hardly ever be brought to doe so long as they are persuaded that they are Infallible without obligation to any other forms Nor let them alledge how great an advantage it is the having an infallible Authority in the Church to which there is so easie an access as if the verity of things depended upon their commodiousness Were this so we must also conclude that Popes are impeccable too at least in the Government of the Church for who would question but that were likewise very commodious for hindring the Damnation of so many persons by these unlawful Dispensations which persuade them that what-ever the Pope permits is as truely lawful as if God himself had said it whereas really there is nothing more true then what an Ancient has affirm'd namely That the greatest part of Dispensations are nothing else but a more easie descent into Hell with the Pope's permission Facilis descensus ad inferos cum bona venia Papae But as this Impeccability would be exceedingly advantagious if indeed God had bestow'd it upon Popes so on the contrary there can nothing be more pernicious then the Flattery of those who goe about to attribute it to him since it the more imboldens them blindly to pursue their own Passions without fearing to offend God And this is what those Cardinals and Prelates chosen by Paul the III d for the Reformation of the Church affirm'd really to have succeeded by means of some Persons who would needs persuade some Popes that their Wills were a sufficient Rule for their Actions whence it follow'd that what they pleas'd was lawful and hence say they have as from a source and spring flow'd such an infinity of abuses and intestine maladies as have reduc'd the Church to such a condition as her recovery seems in a manner to be desperate We may affirm the same of Infallibility It would be an extraordinary Priviledge but the Scripture having assur'd us that Every man is a Lier unless some Authority not inferiour to it have exempted us from that Rule 't is a great unhappiness to believe one's self Infallible because there is nothing that we are more propense to then the falling into Errour by presuming we cannot erre And on the other side it may truly be said that the likeliest means of rendring Popes infallible were to persuade them that they are not so to the end a holy fear may alwaies preserve them in an humble and salutary diffidence of their own sense and incline them to a diligent research of those waies and expedients which God has established to assure them of his divine Truths Paris the 1. of February 1662. FINIS An ADVERTISEMENT upon the following
Campianus Capistranus Carrerius Catena Chirlandus Creswell Doleman Duval Eudaemon Fevardentius Gabulius Garnet Greg. of Valentia Gretser Guignard Kellerus Lessius Molina Pacensis Parsons Pelagius Richeome Ribadeneira Rosseus Sà Sadlerus Santarel Scribanius Stapleton Symancha Tesmond Veruna Wendeckius Zodoricus and thousands more who have dipp'd their Pens in the bloud of Kings with a Praeclarè cum rebus humanis ageretur si multi c. as one of these Gallants does not blush to say publickly and in print Velim sciatis says Campian quod ad Societatē nostrā attinet omnes nos qui per totum orbem longè latéque diffusi sumus quorum est continua successio magnus numerus sanctum foedus iniisse neque quamdiu vel unus nostrûm supererit studiū consilia nostra de salute vestra meaning the Subversion of the Government and the Religion profess'd in it intermissuros Jampridem inita ratio est inchoatum certamen nulla vis nullus Anglorum impetus superabit and 't is bravely resolved Nor are these all of one but of several Nations also to shew that 't is not the Vote of private Doctors onely as Creswell would bear us down but of their whole College Divines and Lawyers too Et certum est de Fide That if any Christian Prince deflexerit shall but warp a little he is immediately deposeable possunt debent eum arcere like another Nebuchadnezzar ex hominum Christianorum dominatu and who shall say nay Nos nos Imperia Regna Principatus quicquid habere Mortales possunt auferre dare posse I could not forbear a smile at the pretty Interpretation which Father Creswel gives to a place of Scripture upon this Deflexerit which we mentioned Such a Prince says he does ipso facto forfeit his right of Government according to that of the Apostle Si Infidelis discedit c. If the Unbelieving depart let him depart A Brother or a Sister suppose a Subject He or She is not under bondage in such cases But all this is no news My Lord to those who shall observe how happily they apply that Concession to S. Peter to invade the unclean Beasts whenever his Holinesse's stomach serves him Occîde manduca Christ must reign 'till he have put all his Enemies under his feet That is as one inferrs 'till the Pope have serv'd all Heretical Kings as Barbarossa was To which we adde that of Jer. 1.10 See I have constituted thee over the Nations and over Kingdoms to root out and to pull down to destroy and to throw down to build and to plant for so they interpret that passage of the Prophet as our Author observes And what of all this We must know that the Pope has a faculty beyond any Prophet or Apostle of them all as Antonius Maria blushes not to affirm and Hosius once for all Unless the sense of Scripture says he be expounded juxta sensum Ecclesiae Romanae according to the sense of the Roman Church 't is not the express word of God but the express word of the Devil My hand trembles to proceed to the rest and it was high time My Lord for the Gallican Church as it is for us to lay their hand to the Buckler and to look after these Monsters who have felt the effects of these bold and perverse spirits from their Childeric to their darling Henry his Majestie 's renowned Grandfather not to mention that Henry of our own It would fill an Iliad but to repeat the sad consequences of this exauctorating Doctrine since Gregory the VIIth degraded that Proto-Martyr-Emperor as we may style him to this Idol the Pope And what befel our John of England whose Crown was given away to Philip Augustus K. of France and received again on condition of a sordid Vassalage Nor did Innocentius the IVth pretend less to the Emp. Frederic the II d Bonifacius the VIIIth on King Philip the Fair Julius the II d who deposed John of Navarr Sixtus V tus Henry the III d as a fore-runner of the Knife Who can with patience reade the insolent treatment of Celestine the III ◠crowning an Emperor with one foot and spurning it off with the other And where the neck of a Frederic was proudly trod on we have beheld the very Marble and Inscription justified by that perverted Scripture Super Leonem Aspidem to shew their contempt of Kings Dr. Parry was encouraged to murther Q. Elizabeth from his Holiness by an express Letter of the Cardinal of Como's extolling the design and Perron has celebrated the like pretences to palliate the Odium or at best leaves it problematical when after all that the Third Estate had declared in abhorrence of it and the Parricide committed on the person of the French Henry he tells us the Doctrine which renders Kings indeposable is a Doctrine which opens a gap to no less then Schism and Heresie and is wholly unnecessary advising his Auditors to submit to the Judgment of the Pope as the onely Moderator in the Case and what that is we have in part declar'd Woe be to that Prince whom our Holy Father resigns to Chastisement propter Haeresin or that the Eruditi Graves pronounce for a Tyrant and burthensome to the State as Pope Bradshaw and his Assessors not long since with us Would one think the action of Jehoiada upon Athaliah should be suborn'd to justifie a Popish Regicide But 't was done zelo matris Ecclesiae says Tolet. I omit to speak of the Decrees of the Council of Constance against this accursed Doctrine so worthily vindicated by our illustrious Author and of the Practice as well as Precept of our Blessed Lord himself the Apostles Primitive Fathers and the Ages they liv'd in because they are written with the beams of the Sun And if Tertullian had not long since assured us they wanted neither Strength nor Numbers the duty of our Obedience had been sufficiently described to teach us subjection to our Princes good or bad 'till our modern Fathers did open the eyes of the superstitious World forsooth and obtained a Brief of his Holiness by which subjects were dispens'd withall ut servirent tempori or until as our Country-man explains it they should have vires idoneas sufficient force which Ribadeneira styles Christian Prudence For then Omnium Catholicorum sententia 'T is universally agreed upon that Subjects are not onely to rebell against Heretical Princes but are by divine precept conscientiae vinculo arctissimo and under pain of damnation obliged to it That which I would evince is the peril Kings are in who stop their ears to the Trumpets which are daily sounded to alarm them against a sort of Sycophants and Roman Pensionaries who swarm in their Courts and Kingdoms watching onely for this bloudy signal Let our own incomparable PRINCE but consider how often his Dominions have been claim'd as
and solid grandeur of the holy See it self In this sense it is we shall speak of the Court of Rome in the present Treatise as so many great persons and Saints have already done by opposing themselves to their unjust pretensions without at all thinking they did thereby in the least violate the respect which they ow'd the Pope as Head of the Church to which they on the contrary believ'd these Opinions must needs be most disadvantageous And we have so much the more liberty to doe it now since the moderation of the present Incumbent speaks him very far from these ambitious thoughts Now amongst all these illegitimate Usurpations of the Court of Rome thus considered there has none of them proved more funest to Christian Princes the Church and even to Popes themselves then that by which some of them have been transported to domineer over Kings to make themselves their Superiours and Judges in the administration of their Kingdoms and by pretending of a right when they fansied it for the cause of Religion to depose them of their Empires and give their Estates to others or to abandon them to the first Usurper who had power to make himself Master It 's impossible to describe those horrid Confusions which this pretence of theirs hath brought forth in Italy and in Germany for so many Ages together the Warrs it has kindled the Bloud it has made to be spilt the Provinces it has rendred desolate the Cities it has ruin'd the Scandals and Disorders which it has filled the Church with But one of its worst effects is that it has render'd the holy See which should as well be the centre of the love of Catholicks as of the Unity of the Church odious both to Kings and People by making them to look upon the Vicar of Iesus Christ not as a common Father full of tenderness for all his Children but as a Temporal Prince that would trample all other Princes under his feet and render himself absolute Master of all the Kingdomes of the Earth This is one of the main causes which has made so many people revolt against the Church of Rome and the most usual pretence which they have taken to hinder many Christians from paying that observance to Popes which they are oblig'd to render them by confounding it with these odious excuses For having once anticipated the People with this erroneous opinion That one could not acknowledge in the Pope that real Authority which Iesus Christ has given him without owning that also which these Sycophants attribute to him over Temporals and States they have by an hateful Schism kept them from acknowledging the Pope as Head of the Church for fear lest they should be bound likewise to own him for their King and Master It concerns the Church therefore to take away this color from Schism which is the greatest of all mischiefs by separating the Spiritual power of the Sovereign Bishop as it has been instituted by Iesus Christ and acknowledg'd by all Catholicks from this false and exorbitant power which Ambition and Flattery would adde to it repugnant to the spirit of Iesus Christ and the Doctrine of the Apostles And therefore we must needs confess that the Zeal of the Parliaments of France for the maintenance of the Sovereignty of Kings against the enterprises of those who subverting the Order of God would have it to depend upon this Spiritual Jurisdiction is no less advantageous to the Church then to the State and that on the other part there is nothing more prejudicial to them both then that low and fleshly prudence of these Theologues who think to exalt the divine Grandeur of the prime Minister of the new Law which wholly consists in the love to eternal good things and in the despising of the things of this World by secular and temporal advantages which God did never annex to him or that seek to enlarge their fortunes by this pretended Zeal for the enlargement of the Authority of the Pope 'T is known to the whole World that the Iesuites have within these hundred years been the chief defenders of these ambitious pretences and that their Society has employ'd the most renown'd of its Writers to disseminate this Doctrine every-where It is this which has been taught by Iohn Mariana Gregorie de Valentia Alphonsus Salmeron Ludovicus Richome Louys Molina Robert Bellarmine Iohannes Osorius Carolus Scribanius Andrew Eudemon Iohannes Azor Robert Parsons Francis Suarez Gabriel Vasquez Leonardus Lessius Iacobus Gretserus Martinus Becanus Antonius Santarellus Vincentius Filiutius Stephen Bauny c. On the contrary it is well known what extraordinary care the Parliaments of Paris and the Universities of France have taken to repress the Authors of these pernicious Opinions the one by their Arrests and the other by their Censures It 's above an hundred years since that the Parliament of Paris gave a famous Arrest upon this Subject the 4 of December 1561. against a certain Bachelour in Divinity who had put it into his Thesis That it was in the Power of the Pope to excommunicate Kings to give away their Kingdoms and to absolve their Subjects of their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity This Proposition was declar'd seditious the Bachelour being not to be found it was order'd that the Bedel of the Sorbon vested in a red Hood should disavow it before a President of the Court and the chief of the Faculty of Divinity and that during four years space there should no publick Disputation be permitted in the College where it was defended This whole affair is twice told us in the Bibliothec du Droit under the words Interdictions p. 4478. and Effigies p. 1110. And Bouchel who is the Author of this Bibliotheca in reciting of this History adds this Remark The plain truth is that within these fifty years past there is come a certain new Sect to be planted amongst us called by the name of Jesuites who maintain Propositions quite contrary to ours to the very ruine of the State The same Parliament testifies its zeal for the Interests of the King and Crown upon several other occasions as when it condemn'd to the fire the 8 of Iune 1610. the Book of the Iesuite Mariana intituled De Rege Regis institutione and that after the same manner Iū 26. 1614. it treated that of Suarez intitul'd Defensio Fidei Catholicae But there was never any thing more celebrious upon this subject then that which pass'd 1626. in the censure of Santarel This Iesuite had written a Book of Heresie Schism Apostasie c. printed at Rome 1625. permissu superiorum in which following the common sentiments of his Society he taught That the Pope might punish Kings and Princes with temporal pains depose and deprive them of their Kingdoms and States for the crime of Heresie and for other causes as when they were culpable of any fault if he find
it expedient when they become negligent of their duties when they are incapable to govern and their persons burthensome to their Kingdoms He adds That the Apostles were not subject to the secular Princes but de facto onely not de jure and in summe that since the Pontifical Majesty had been establish'd all other Potentates were become but his Vassals So soon as ever this Book appear'd in France the Sorbon knowing that the Doctrine was invented and publish'd for the universal destruction of Civil Polity and particularly the Monarchy of France which was at that time governed by the most Christian most clement and just King Lewis the XIIIth that in treading the steps of their Ancestors she might testifie her zeal and affection as well towards this Religious Prince as towards the whole most Christian Kingdom and at the same time satisfie that which all honest men requir'd of her resolv'd to examine the two Chapters of this Book of Santarel 30 and 31 where this matter was treated of And on the 1 of April 1626. having first heard the Deputies report and consider'd the several Opinions of all the Doctors she condemn'd the Positions being the common Opinion of the Iesuites for a novel false and erroneous Doctrine repugnant to the Word of God and that renders odious the dignity of the Pope opens a gap to all Schism derogates from the Supreme Authority of Kings which depends on God alone disturbs the publick tranquillity tends to the ruine of Kingdoms States and Republicks debauches Subjects from that Obedience and Submission due to their Sovereigns inciting them to Factions Rebellions Seditions in summe to commit Parricides against the persons of their natural Princes This Censure approved by the whole Body of the University of Paris and the rest of the Universitics of France was authoriz'd also by a famous Decree of Parliament of the 13. March 1626. which declared the Propositions contain'd in this Book of Santarel false scandalous and seditious as tending to the subversion of Sovereign Powers ordain'd and establish'd by God and to the stirring up of Subjects against their Princes withdrawing their Obedience inducing them to attempt against their Persons and States disturbing of the publick peace and order'd that the Book should be torn and burnt and that the Iesuites should be oblig'd to disavow and detest it and to approve the Censure of the Sorbon This vigorous resistence of the Parliament and Sorbon has of late render'd the Iesuites a little more reserv'd in producing to the world this pernicious Doctrine But as they never abandon what they have once undertaken they have invented a way of establishing it after a more dextrous but more dangerous manner for daring no more to propose it grossly and in terminis they work more subtily to introduce the Principles on which it depends by necessary consequence wisely judging that if once by their artifice they can but deceive the vigilancy of our Magistrates and the Sorbon they shall easily make the People swallow it when-ever they please and that as a Truth indubitable which they will shew by a necessary consequence from what they have already made pass for a most Catholick Verity This is that which the Iesuites have done in maintaining that famous Thesis of the 12 December 1661 as a Catholick Truth repugnant to the Greek Heresie concerning the Primacy of the Pope namely That Jesus Christ hath given to all Popes whenever they shall speak è Cathedra the same Infallibility himself had as well in matters of Right as in those of Fact And that we might not imagine there were any great mystery in this condition When they should speak out of their Chair Cùm loquerentur ex Cathedra they expresly declare that this Condition does not concern the Pope's speaking in the head of a General Council And in proposing for example for one Constitution made ex Cathedra the two Constitutions on the Five Propositions they give us clearly to understand that they do not pretend that to the end the Pope should speak from his Chair it were necessary for him to assemble so much as a Council of the Bishops of his Province as the other Popes did or that he should consult the College of Cardinals as they have since done enterprising nothing how inconsiderable soever but by the advice of their Brethren De consilio Fratrum but that 't is sufficient for him to speak in his Bulls or from the Constitutions and Decrees which use to be pasted up on the Gates of S. Peter and in Campo de Fiori this being the onely solemnity which at Rome they pretend does render them sufficiently authentick and that without so much as thinking it necessary they should be receiv'd and publish'd in the Provinces See now to what a height the Iesuites pretensions are come All that the Popes say in their Bulls and Constitutions as well on matters and questions of Fact as those of Right is to be look'd on as indubitably true as if Iesus Christ had himself avow'd it the Pope's Infallibility being still the same according to their reckoning on these occasions and incounters as that of the Son of God himself Now how little so ever one knows of the Fundamentals of Santarellism that is to say of the Doctrine which affirms the Pope has power to depose Kings it must needs be acknowledged that it is establish'd by this Thesis of the Iesuites and that it is after a sort made more pernicious and criminal then ever it has hitherto been For the defenders of this Doctrine so prejudicial to Kings were contented to establish this temporal power in Popes by shewing that they themselves did attribute it to themselves by several Bulls and Decrees and that so we were bound to believe them as being infallible in matters concerning Faith But there was none of them that yet durst deny but that Popes might fail and be mistaken in the exercise of this power because none of them did ever think them infallible in Questions which concern'd the Fact whereas the Iesuites now presume on both They render Popes absolutely Masters of Kings in attributing to them who by so many Bulls have defin'd their Superiority over the Temporalty of Kings the very same Infallibility with Iesus Christ even in matters of Right so as they leave a King whom a Pope had deposed no place of appeal or so much as to complain that the Pope might be mistaken in the matter of Fact upon which they had judged him worthy of so severe a punishment since by this new Doctrine of the College of Clermont he is equally infallible whether he judge in general that he has this power to depose Kings which is the Question de jure or in particular that such a King merits to be so us'd which is the Question de facto We must therefore clear these two points One that the Infallibility of the Pope in matters of Right is according to the Iesuites the establishment of his Power
over Kings the other that his Infallibility in matters of Fact takes away all means from the Kings they please to depose to complain of so rigorous a Sentence For the first 't is an easie matter to convince all the world of it nor ought we to imagine it a Consequence held onely by those who profess themselves enemies to the Iesuites Doctrine and which the Iesuites disavow 't is a Consequence which they themselves derive from it which they every-where acknowledge must needs follow and which does so indeed naturally and of necessity For Popes as Iesuites themselves have learn'd us have so many waies decided that they have power to degrade Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms when-ever they judge it for the interest of Religion that if to be Catholick one is oblig'd to consider all that Popes say in their Chair that is by their Bulls as Decisions of infallible authority and Oracles pronounc'd even by Christ himself Kings their Ministers and Parliaments must either renounce the quality of Catholick or else tamely acknowledge that Kings are Sovereigns independent in respect of their own Subjects and other Princes but nothing so in regard of the Pope but that he has power to make them descend from their Throne and to resolve them into their simple Originals so as exercising a Royalty superiour to theirs it may be said of his Empire as an heathen Poet said of that of God Omne sub regno graviore regnum est All this is an infallible consequent of Infallibility as the Iesuites well prove For who can chuse but believe that Popes have the power to depose Kings if once he be persuaded that their Decisions are so many Articles of Faith when it shall be shew'd him that Gregory the VIIth has decided it in express terms in a Council held at Rome Anno 1067 according to Onuphrius Baronius and all the Iesuites Quòd Papae liceat Imperatores deponere quòd à Fidelitate iniquorum subditos potest absolvere Whence Lessius the Iesuite concludes supposing the Principle of Infallibility That this Doctrine is no problematick Doctrine but a constant Truth not to be deny'd without violation of our very Faith We must absolutely believe says he that this Doctrine viz. that the Pope may depose Kings is an undoubted truth and not such as we may believe what we please of but such an one as is intirely certain not to be contradicted without wounding our Faith And this I prove first Because these Propositions are defin'd in proper terms in the Roman Synod under Gregory the VIIth where it is affirm'd that the Pope may depose Emperours and absolve the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity Now a Definition made by a Pope in Council is matter of Faith This is clear now without mincing nor can it be more expresly declar'd that the power to depose Kings is a necessary consequent of Infallibility so as those Iesuites must needs be very impudent who shall after this dare to affirm that they are their Enemies who derive this sequel from their Doctrine The Iesuite Cardinal Bellarmine under the feign'd name of Sculkenius writing against Widrington proves in the same manner by this Gregorian Decree that the Pope's Superiority over Kings is an Article of Faith 'T is an Heresie saies he to affirm that the Pope as Pope and ex jure divino has not the power to depose Secular Princes of their States as oft as the publick good or some urgent necessity of the Church does require it I prove this Conclusion An Opinion becomes heretical when its contradictory is de Fide But it is de Fide that the Pope has power to depose Princes since it has been defin'd and concluded by Gregory the VIIth in a Roman Council where it saies expresly That the Pope may depose an Emperour Now who can deny this Conclusion that holds but the Principle which is That what has been defin'd and concluded by a Pope is de Fide Is not this Argument of the Cardinal invincible supposing the Maxime to be true By consequent then who can doubt but that according to the Iesuites opinion and the truth it self the power of deposing Kings is in the Pope a certain Consequence of his Infallibility The same Gregory the VIIth has so often decided the same Point that no man questions his pretence of making it an Article of Faith as may yet be seen in the Bull of the Deposition of the Emperor Henry the IVth made likewise in Council where addressing his speech to S. Peter and S. Paul he thus expostulates Now therefore exert and vindicate your power O great and most holy Princes of the Apostles that all the world may take notice and acknowledg that if you can bind and loose in Heaven you can also on Earth dispose of Empires of Kingdoms Principalities and Marquisates in summe of all mens goods and fortunes whatsoever by taking them away from those who deserve them not and by bestowing them on others For if you judge things Spiritual shall we believe you have not the power to judge of Temporal and Secular Let all the Kings and Princes of the Age learn what your grandeur is and your power and not dare to despise the Commandments of your Church and be sure to leave such prompt and lasting marks in the judgment which you exercise against Henry that his ruine be not attributed to the fate of arms or fortuitous accidents of War but to your sole and almighty power In consequence of this he denounc'd to the Emperor as from God that he should never win battel But if Popes are infallible according to the Iesuites in actions past 't is certain at least that they are not in those which are to come For never did Prince gain so many remaining Victor in more then 50 pitch'd Battels and having at the very first slain the person whom his Holiness had design'd to make Emperor in his place I could recount a number more of Passages relating to the same Pope where he argues for the same Doctrine as visibly founded in the Scripture and annex'd to the Papal dignity For 't is not imaginable that he should pretend onely this right over Emperors because the Popes had so much contributed to the re-establishment of the Western Empire On the contrary 't is perspicuous that his pretence was over all Kings and that it was built on that Supposition of his viz. that the power of the Keys contain'd in it the Temporal Superiority which made him set upon the Crown he sent to Rodulphus Usurper of the Empire this Latin Verse Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodulpho To shew that he believ'd he had power to dispose of Kingdoms by a right pretended to be given S. Peter by Iesus Christ himself 'T is likewise on the same basis he threatned Alphonsus King of Arragon to stir up his Subjects against him if he gave him not speedy satisfaction concerning a certain
affair As according to Cardinal Bellarmine he brav'd Philip the I st King of France to shew that he exempted none But nothing does so evidently discover that one cannot acknowledge the Pope to be infallible but that at the same moment we must acknowledge him likewise above Kings in Temporals as that famous Decision of Pope Boniface the VIIIth has done in the Bull Unam Sanctam approv'd by Leo the Xth in the Council of Lateran and the use which the favourers of the Roman Court make of this Bull to establish its pretensions There this Pope defines That both the one and the other Sword appertains to the Church and to the Pope That the Temporal Sword is subordinate to the Spiritual and the Temporal Authority to the Authority Spiritual That if this Spiritual power deviate from the right it must be judg'd by the Spiritual authority That this power was bestow'd on S. Peter and his Successors and That whoever resists this Subordination of Power resists Order in establishing two Principles like the Manichees Whence he concludes that it is necessary to Salvation that every humane power should submit it self to the Bishop of Rome Cardinal Bellarmine a Iesuite in his Book against Barclay concerning the Power of the Pope proves by this Bull that Kings are subject to the Pope in Temporals and this Doctrine is certain and most indubitable Now that it is saies he a thing constant and evident that the Sovereign Bishop may for just causes be Iudge of Temporals and sometimes depose Temporal Princes we prove by the Extravagant Unam Sanctam de majoritate obedientia which shews us that Sword is subordinate to Sword that is that the Temporal Authority is below the Spiritual and that if the Temporal neglect his duty it shall be judged by the Spiritual And for fear it should be objected that Clement the Vth seems to have revok'd this Bull by the Extravagant Meruit de privilegiis he prevents the Objection by saying that Clement the Vâ—h did not revoke the Bull of Pope Boniface but advertis'd onely that this Bull of Boniface had defin'd nothing new and had onely reviv'd the ancient obligation which men have to obey and submit themselves to the Apostolicall See in the manner he had before declar'd and which this Bull does observe that is to say as well in Temporal things as Spiritual Alexander Carrerius of Pavia in a Book intituled De potestate Primi Pontificis adversus impios Politicos Of the power of the Sovereign Bishop against the impious Politicians which is the name he gives to the French and particularly the Parliament proves by the same Bull that the Superiority over Kings in Temporals is an Article of Faith This Power of the Pope saies he over the Temporals of Kings is confirm'd by the testimony of Jeremiah See I have this day set thee over the Nations and Kingdoms to pull down and to destroy c. as 't is also decided by the Extravagant Unam Sanctam where 't is said that if the Temporal power deviate from the right it shall be judged by the Spiritual declaring that every humane creature is subject to the Bishop of Rome and that this is necessary to Salvation Therefore Boniface writ to Philip King of France in these terms Know that you are subordinate to us both in the Temporal and Spiritual and we do hold and declare them Hereticks who maintain the contrary For there are three marks whereby to distinguish matters of Faith The first is When the Decrees of a Synod are couched in these terms If any one affirm such or such a thing let him be accursed The second when it saies that those who maintain the contrary shall be Excommunicate ipso facto And the third when those of the contrary opinion are reputed and held for Hereticks In fine Cardinal Baronius having in a certain place mentioned the very Bull concludes that none do deny this Determination of Boniface unless such as are excluded from the Church Haec Bonifacius saies he cui assentiuntur omnes nisi qui ab Ecclesia excidit And very well argu'd it were if to be a member of the Catholick Church it were necessary to believe the Pope infallible since there is nothing more trifling and absurd then those Subterfuges which some Authors retire to to put themselves under covert from this Bull because they would fain support the Pope's Infallibility but dare not maintain his Temporal Sovereignty in France The chief of these is Doctour Duval who in his Treatise of the Power of the Pope avows that Boniface the Eighth did establish his Superiority over the Temporalty of Kings through the whole body of his Bull but saies that in all the Bulls there is nothing save the Conclusion which is of Faith and that the Conclusion of this in particular imports onely that every creature is subject to the Pope which is true saies he as it relates to Spirituals Certainly if the Authority of Kings had need of so pitiful a Reply one would conclude it built on a very weak foundation Nullas habet spes Troja si tales habet For what appearance of Reason is there in this learned Doctor 's Solution 1. How does he pretend we should believe that a Pope who makes a Bull onely to establish his Superiority over Temporals which is the thing contested and not over the Spirituals which no body does dispute and that he who speaks throughout his whole Bull of this Superiority in Temporals should in the last line form a Conclusion different from the Principles which he has establish'd and that we are onely to regard this last line 2. The word subesse indifferently signifying a subjection in Temporals as well as in Spirituals is it not clearly express'd and determin'd to Temporals by all that precedes it 3. How shall we ever comprehend what a Bull means but by the way it was then understood when it was made as well by those who oppos'd it as those who defended it and do not we know the troubles which then disturb'd all France and the Church caus'd by this pretence of the Pope maintain'd by his Partisans and contested by all the French 4. In fine has not Boniface himself explain'd his own words by another Bull shorter then this which he sent to King Philip in these terms Scire te volumus quòd in Spiritualibus in Temporalibus nobis subes aliud credentes Haereticos deputamus Whence Carrerius as we have already seen concludes well supposing the Pope infallible that those who disagree concerning the Pope's Superiority over the Temporals of Kings are Hereticks And the French of those times without amusing themselves with Monsieur Duval's Sophistry answered after another manner and sufficiently testified that the opinion of Infallibility was not so much as known in France See an Act of the whole Kingdom against these Bulls of Boniface VIIIth as 't is inserted in the first Tome of the Liberties of the Gallican Church
Of You Sir our most Noble Lord by the Grace of God King of France the people of Your Kingdom supplicate and desire because it behoves them so to doe that You preserve the Sovereign Freedom of your Kingdom which is that You own and acknowledge no Sovereign on the Earth over Your Temporals but God alone and that You give all the World to understand that Pope Boniface does manifestly erre and commit a most notorious mortal sin in sending You word by his Letters and Bulls that himself was Sovereign of Your Temporals c. and those who should believe the contrary he esteem'd as Hereticks Also that You cause to be declared that we are bound to hold the Pope himself an Heretick and not You good King and all the liege people of Your Kingdom who have ever believed and do believe the contrary The same Protestation is to be seen in several Acts inserted in that Collection which Mons. du Puy has made of the difference between King Philip the Fair and Pope Boniface where you 'l see how Pope Boniface's Bulls were then explain'd and what was the opinion of France touching Infallibility 'T is in vain to strive to make any other replies to these kind of Popes Decrees then such as the French of that Age did before us For as there 's nothing to which the Court of Rome aspires with greater passion then to this Temporal Empire so neither is there any thing which the Popes have establish'd with so much industry Cardinal Bellarmine summs up no less then 18 since Gregory the VIIth to our times who manifestly attributed to themselves this right as they call'd it of deposing Kings and chastising them temporally even to the privation of their States viz. Victor the III d Urban the II d Paschal the II d Gelasius the II d Calixtus the II d Alexander the III d Innocentius the III d Honorius the III d Gregory the IXth Innocent the IVth Boniface the VIIIth Clement the VIth Paul the II d Iulius the II d Paeul the III d Pius the Vth Gregory the XIIIth and Sixtus the Vth He counts to 16 or 17 Kings and Emperours against whom Popes have pretended this right of Sovereignty as a debt due to them amongst which there are 5 French Kings Philip the I st Philip the Fair Lewis the XIIth Henry the III d and Henry the IVth Baronius mentions also the Excommunication of a world of Germans who are not yet well agreed concerning the Pope's Power by which it appears that they alwaies pretended to make it an Heresie when at any time they were the strongest party Nor is there any thing more frequent in these Bulls then their menacing Kings and Princes to deprive them of their States in case of Disobedience Which universally betraies that Passion which the Court of Rome has to infuse this belief into the minds of the People But if one could forget those other enterprises of Rome against our Kings which are founded upon this pretented Superiority as this Superiority is upon Infallibility since France has so universally hindred their effects yet we cannot but remember that which made us lose Navarre because the wound is yet bleeding Ferdinand had no other pretext to swallow it up from Iohn d' Albret Great-Grandfather to Henry the Great besides a Bull which he obtain'd of Iulius the II d against the King and Queen of Navarre importing Privation of their Kingdom for having assisted Lewis the XIIth whom it call'd Schismatick and as having denied passage to the Army which Ferdinand King of Arragon would have sent into France to assist the King of England in the conquest of Guienne I know very well that Cardinal du Perron to render this Doctrine of the Power of Popes over the Temporals of Kings less odious to the French tells us that the real cause of the loss of the Kingdom of Navarre was the breach of the Alliance which the King of Navarre had with Ferdinand King of Arragon which Ferdinand pretended to have been establish'd on condition that if the Kings of Navarre should violate it the Kingdom of Navarre should again revert to the Spaniards who had render'd it by deed in Writing to the race of Albret and that Pope Iulius's Excommunication was neither the true Cause nor real Pretence but a certain tail of a Pretence which though Ferdinand had made no use of he had notwithstanding pretended that the Kingdom of Navarre appertain'd to him and consequently possess'd it But I know as well too that there is nothing worse founded then this answer as Mons. du Puy has made appear by most invincible proofs in his Treatise of the Right of the King to the Kingdom of Navarre For he does there prove by the Spanish Historians themselves that Ferdinand during the Usurpation and whiles he liv'd had onely the Title by the Pope's Excommunication to justifie his Arms. He shews how Ferdinand having swallow'd up this Kingdom 1512 and being press'd by the King of Navarre 1513 to doe him reason defended his possession by no other right but by that of the Excommunication and that in the two most authentick Acts on this subject one whereof is the Will and Testament of Ferdinand by which he bequeaths the Kingdom of Navarre to his Daughter Iane Queen of Castile and the other of the Union of that Kingdom to that of Castile it is expresly signified that Iohn d' Albret and Catharine his Wife had been depriv'd of it by the Pope for having adher'd to the Schism of the French Kings against Pope Iulius the II d and that the Pope had given him this Kingdom to dispose of as he pleas'd I omit the other proofs Which sufficiently shews that the Pope's Bull was no tail of Pretext but indeed the onely and sole Pretence of that unjust Usurpation which continues to this very day In the second place there is nothing more absurd then to say that the Spaniards had never rendred the Kingdom of Navarre to the race of Albret but with this written Caution That if their Successors should violate the Alliance the Kingdom should revert to the Spaniards For Iean d' Albret on whom was the Usurpation was the first of Albret's race who possess'd the Kingdom How then could it be said that the Spaniards had render'd it to Albret's race who before never enjoy'd it And supposing we did take the word render'd for given it is no less false that the Spaniards were they of Arragon or Castile gave this Kingdom to the race of Albret who in no sort held it of the Spaniards but by the Marriage of Catharine who succeeded King Francis Phoebus his Brother and Francis Phoebus to Elianor his Grandmother wife of Gastion de Foix and sole superviving Daughter of Blanch Queen of Navarre which Lady had espous'd Iohn King of Arragon the Father of Ferdinand who being born of another Venter had nothing to doe with Navarre So as this pretended Caution can be no other then a
mere impertinent Fable without any foundation since the Spaniards having neither render'd nor given the Kingdom of Navarre to the race of Albret they could never appose any caution or condition either in rendring or bestowing it Thirdly The Spaniards themselves could never yet produce any Treaty of Alliance between the Kings of Arragon and those of Navarre where this Condition was appos'd though besides all this it be beyond the power of Kings to annex any such Condition since they are not so Masters of their Kingdoms as to transfer them to any others then those who are their legitimate Successors Fourthly In fine 't is plainly false that ever Iohn d' Albret broke any Alliance with Ferdinand but on the contrary Ferdinand it was who invaded Navarre in the month of Iuly Anno 1512 and who made himself master of Pampelona the capital City of that State before there were any French in Navarre which compell'd Iohn d' Albret to throw himself into the arms of Lewis the XIIth with whom he was before but in ill intelligence to endeavour to maintain himself against this unjust Usurper who four months before this Treaty of Iohn d' Albret with Lewis had obtain'd a Bull of Excommunication of the Pope against the King of Navarre as falsly representing that being joyn'd with the King of France excommunicated by the holy See he deny'd the English free passage to enter into Guienne It is therefore evident that it is onely this pretended Power which the Flatterers of the Pope have of late Ages attributed to him to dispossess Kings and make Donations of their Kingdoms to him that can obtain them which has cost our Kings the Kingdom of Navarre since Ferdinand had but this pretence onely to invade it and all that the Spaniards would add to it since was never so much as in their heads because it was out of all probability And it is still true that this right is annex'd by all those who defend it to this Infallibility We see likewise that ever since this Popes have alwaies favour'd the Usurpation of Navarre as a mark of the Power which they pretend to have for the deposing of Kings This is evident by their shunning as much as possible the qualifying our King with the Title of the King of Navarre as in the Bulls of Barberin's Legation 1625 wherein the King being but simply styl'd King of France it was ordain'd by Parliament that it should be declar'd by the Pope that the quality of the King of Navarre had been omitted by inadvertency in the said Bulls and that till that were rectified the Arrest of Verification should not be delivered and the Bulls continue without execution in France But what they could not then obtain by the wise resistence of the Parliament they have now found an Expedient to obtain by the credit which the Iesuites have at Court for finding they had there wrought so great an aversion against the Iansenists that there was nothing more desir'd then their condemnation they believ'd they could make it be purchased with the loss of the Quality of King of Navarre nor were they at all mistaken in their expectation For Pope Innocent the Xth address'd his Bull to the King by a Breve wherein he onely styles him King of France and all who lov'd the State saw with grief that they receiv'd this Breve so injurious to the King with open arms You see how well the Roman Court knows how to profit on occasions and take her advantage she never lets any escape which she does not manage with a singular address But this Breve will one day prove one of its most memorable examples since under colour of ruining the poor Iansenists she has open'd a gap to establish two of the most considerable points of her Grandeur and which have indeed been the most contested in France The one is That the Pope alone may decide Poins of Faith with an infallible Authority the other That he may give Kingdoms away at pleasure as Iulius the II d gave that of Navarre to the Spaniards By all these proofs 't is evident that the Superiority of Popes above Kings in Temporals is an inseparable Position of Infallibility as to the pretence of all those Theologues who are married to the Interest of the Court of Rome especially the Iesuites 'T is also clear that the subtilty of those who have made as if they would separate them hath so little basis that it were an unworthy and dangerous prevarication in those who are oblig'd to maintain the Supreme Authority of their Prince but to reduce the Right of Kings which is certain and indubitable to so shallow and trifling a defence So as the onely means of hindring the establishment of this pernicious Consequence is to stop that so dangerous a Principle and above all not to permit the Iesuites the impudence of making it an Article of Faith and the carrying it even beyond all sorts of bounds and to an Infallibility in Questions de facto which is in summe to have given the fatal blow to the ruine of the Royal Throne This is easie to prove For Popes being once establish'd superiour to Temporal Princes in Temporals as we have shew'd they cannot fail of obtaining if once we allow them infallible in Questions de jure what defence remains there to a Prince against the stratagems of this Power but the pretence of its being possibly miss-inform'd and that it was mistaken in the grounds on which it proceeded to despoil him of his State But what means is there of opposing that pretence against a person who shall be in possession of the same Infallibility with Iesus Christ in matter of Fact What Christian is there who should dare oppose to Iesus Christ that he is mistaken and what were there more easie for a Pope then to ruine this defence since for that he had onely to declare by a Bull that he has well examin'd the Prince's Cause and that he deserves to be Excommunicated and Depos'd to oblige all the World to believe that he did merit it indeed Nor let any pretend that 't is not in these kinds of Facts that Popes are infallible For both the Principles and Reasons of the Iesuites tend to it And the benefit of the Church which is the sole foundation of this Imagination will rather incline to believe that God is bound to make the Popes as infallible in affairs so important as the subversion of Kingdoms the consequences whereof are so terrible to Religion it self as in the judgments which they make whether there are or are not Errours in a particular Book which is of it self but of very little consequence Now if the Iesuites without any reason and from an humane apprehension and fear should except these Facts they would not in the least diminish of the pernicious subjects of their Doctrine because the spirits of those who are once imbu'd with their Opinions would easily break through these weak restraints in
ought to prefer Religion before their lives their goods and whatever else they injoy if in that they chance to be prepossess'd by an errour of dangerous consequence to the Civil state they maintain and defend it to the utmost Nulla res multitudinem efficaciùs regit quà m Superstitio The League the Guelphs and Gibelines are sanguinary examples of it so as there is not a more mistaken and wicked policy then that of those who minding onely the present Age and their own interest suffer these Opinions to root themselves without considering that it is infinitely more easie to hinder their establishment then to stop their accurs'd effects when once they are confirm'd The next Pretence is to make the world believe that there is no such great reason to apprehend even the Opinion it self of the Pope's Sovereignty over the Temporals of Kings because say they Popes can exercise in so few Instances that they seldom happen as in case a Prince fall into a formal Apostasie from the Faith and the Church to embrace a false Religion But 't is in vain these Authors endeavour to excuse this pernicious Doctrine by this false Colour since those whom they would defend loudly disavow them as not induring that any should prescribe such narrow bounds to this Temporal Monarchy On the contrary there is nothing with these Divines so ordinary as the Occasions for which they give the Pope this right to depose Kings so as there is not one in Europe whom they may not justly depose according to their Maximes had they but as much power in effect as they conceive themselves to have in right Is there any thing more frequent then not to pursue the Pope's intentions in making Warre or Peace It suffices the Pope according to the Iesuites to dispossess a King whenever he shall conceive Peace or Warre necessary for Religion This is what Bellarmine teaches in express terms in his Book against Barclay cap. 19. And what saies Barclay if the Emperour refuse to draw his sword at the command of the Pope or draw it against his will I answer saies Bellarmine that if the Emperour will not draw his sword at the command of the Pope or draw it against his will and it shall be requisite for the Spiritual weal he shall force him to doe it by the spiritual Sword that is by his Censures to draw the material Sword or to sheath it again and if the Emperour be not concern'd with these Censures he shall absolve his Subjects from their obedience the necessity of the Church so requiring and even take away his Empire from him 'T is thus he shall make him know that the Sword is subordinate to the Sword according to the Bull Unam sanctam and that they both belong to the Church though not after the same manner We see likewise in Raynaldus Continuator of Baronius a famous example of this manner of proceeding in Popes For he reports Anno 1458. n. 36. That Calixtus the III d desiring to hinder the Warre 'twixt the King of Navarre and the Prince de Viana Heir of that Kingdom sent them a Legate with order if he could not reconcile them to Peace to dispose them as from the Pope to lay down their arms by menacing them with an Anathema and arming their neighbour Kings against him that should disobey Is not this to subject Kings in the noblest right of their Crowns which is to conclude Peace or Warre as themselves think fit Nor is there any thing more ordinary with the most Catholick Princes then to have Alliances with Princes either Hereticks or Infidels The example of Iohn d' Albret depos'd from the Kingdom of Navarre by Iulius the II d declares again that this pretence is sufficient for a Pope to depose Kings since this King had not been sold but on pretence of an Alliance which he was accus'd to have contracted with Lewis the XIIth whom this Pope pretended to be a Schismatick because he was in warre with him for Temporal interests 'T is a thing of no great consequence to molest a few Monks in the possession of their Privileges yet was that enough to depose a King and deprive him of his State For so it is that Bellarmine explicates the Privilege of S. Medard of Soissons falsly-attributed to S. Gregory and conceiv'd in these terms If either King Prelate Iudge or other Person whatsoever shall violate these Decrees of our Authority Apostolical or but contradict disquiet or trouble the Friers or shall ordain any thing contrary hereunto let him be depriv'd of his Dignity of whatsoever quality he be separated from the Communion of the Faithful and condemn'd to eternal pains in the judgement of God Though there was never any thing more false then this Privilege as all knowing persons understood and albeit it had been true one might say that it only contain'd a menate of God's displeasure very frequent in those Ages and not a severe sentence of downright Deposition yet did this serve the Iesuites turn in favour of Popes to establish them a right of dispossessing Princes and Iudges upon like occasions and they extort this very interpretation from Gregory the VIIth who takes in the same sense certain expressions somewhat resembling them of this Saint concerning the Hospital of Autun The interpretation of the words of S. Gregory saies Bellarmine de Potest Roman Pontif. in Temp. c. 40. is not mine but of another Gregory equal in Dignity and not much inferiour for Sanctity For S. Gregory VIIth in his Epistle to the Bishop of Mets which is the 21 of the 8 Book cites this place of S. Gregory to shew that the Emperour Henry was justly depos'd S. Gregory saies he declares that Kings are fallen from their dignity when they have the boldness to violate the Decrees of the Apostolical See writing in these terms to an Abbot nam'd Senator Si quis verò Regum c. So although one may and with great reason destroy that foundation which is alledg'd from S. Gregory yet one cannot doe it against the testimony of Gregory the VIIth who was no whitless infallible then he if all Popes be infallible and by consequent it must be acknowledg'd that by the Doctrine of Infallibility Popes have right to pronounce Kings to be fallen from their Dignity as often as they molest Monks and Religious men in the injoyment of the Privileges that have been given them by the holy See à fortiori therefore may it suffice to dispossess Chancellors Presidents Councellors and other Magistrates when they have given any judgment or sentence prejudicial to their Privileges But Innocent the III d in the chapter Novit de judiciis has open'd a door that leaves no considerable errour of Princes for which the Pope may not depose them at least if they persist in them For he pretends that granting he had no right to meddle in Secular affairs yet he was to judge of all such wherein there might be any mixture of
sin Ratione peccati cujus ad nos pertinet saies this Pope sine dubitatione censura quam in quemlibet exercere possumus debemus And as in all contests there is commonly some sin on the one side or the other especially when there is Warre there being none of either part just according to the Divines so by this means the Pope becomes sovereign Arbiter of all the Secular differences of Christian Princes Now menaces of Deposition and Privation of all Dignity alwaies march with the judiciary Sentences of Popes against those who do not obey them and so unless Kings were impeccable or blindly resolv'd to obey whatever the Roman Court shall ordain them it is hard if they ever want a pretext to depose a King when they have a mind to undertake and have strength enough to execute it It must then be acknowledg'd that if once Infallibility be establish'd the Pope will alwaies find reasons enough to dispossess a Prince which if he do not put in practice it must be when he wants either will or power But were it reasonable that Kings who are establish'd by God should suffer Maximes to be introduced according to which the acknowledgment of them for Kings by their subjects should depend upon the will of another Does not Christian Prudence and Policy oblige them to banish from their States all the seeds of Division and trouble and not onely to consider the present but enlarge their vigilance for the time to come It is true that by the Grace of God he who now sits on S. Peter's Chair is so wise and moderate that we can expect from him nothing save actions of goodness and sweetness towards all Christian Princes but we have no assurance that it will alwaies be so and the past examples shew us sufficiently how easily things change at the Courts of Princes in a little time which changeing so often their Princes change also their Interests with them I will onely recite what I find recorded in the History of King Henry the Great so judiciously written by my Lord Bishop of Rhodes This Prelate remarks that the League which took birth from the time of Henry the III d and which with reason he styles A powerful Faction which thought to introduce the Spanish dominion in France and which strove to subvert the order of the Succession of the Royal Family under the most specious pretence in the world viz. the maintenance of Religion would needs at first sustain it self by the authority of the holy See which they carried to Rome and presented to Pope Gregory the XIIIth to obtain his approbation but he never would consent to it but as long as he liv'd did altogether disavow it Had Henry the III d any reason for all this to be confident that Rome would never joyn with these Factious persons who desir'd nothing more then to dethrone him themselves If he did believe it he was strangely abus'd For the same Bishop acknowledges that Gregory the XIIIth was no sooner dead but Sixtus Quintus who succeeded him approv'd of the League and fulminated terrible Bulls against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde declaring them Hereticks and Apostates c. and as such obnoxious to the Censures of the Church and the pains denounc'd in the Canons depriv'd both them and their Descendents of all lands and dignities rendred them incapable to succeed in any Principality whatsoever especially that of the Kingdom of France absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance and forbidding them to obey them Notwithstanding this Prelate notes that Sixtus the Vth was shortly after displeas'd with the League and could never be brought to furnish any thing towards the expence of the War which plainly abortiv'd the greatest part of their enterprises But Urban the VIIth holding the Seat but 13 daies after Sixtus Gregory the XIVth succeeded him who being of a vehement spirit and by inclination a Spaniard ardently embraced the party of the League prodigiously lavishing the Treasures which Sixtus Quintus had amass'd to levy an army of twelve thousand men which he put under command of Count Hercules Sfondrati his Nephew and accompany'd it with a Monitory or Bull of Excommunication against the Prelates who follow'd Henry the Great which he sent by Marcellino Landriano his Nuntio with a world of mony to be distributed to the Sixteen of Paris and amongst the Heads of the Caballs in every great City To which this Bishop addes That the Parliament of Tours that is to say that party of the Parliament of Paris which was at Tours having receiv'd intelligence of the Monitory caus'd it to be torn in pieces by the hand of the common Hang-man and decree'd seisure of body against the Nuntio and that on the contrary those of Paris annull'd this Arrest as being given saies he by people without authority ordaining that they should obey his Holiness and his Nuntio These Examples produc'd by a famous Bishop and one whom we cannot doubt to have been most affectionate to the holy See makes us judge that a Wise Politician will never neglect betimes to suppress these strange Opinions which both the Parliament and Sorbon have so often pronounc'd so pernicious to States as tending to the subversion of Sovereign Powers ordain'd and establish'd by God and to the stirring up of Subjects against their Princes under pretext that the present state of the Court of Rome would appear very far from such like enterprises It belongs also to the wisedom of a King so illuminated as ours is and affection'd to the prosperity of this Kingdom not to confine his cares within such narrow limits as the present Age. His own so wonderful Birth and that of a Dauphin which God has so early bless'd his Marriage with should make him hope that his Race which is that of S. Lewis shall reign to the end of the World over this great Monarchy 't is this which yet obliges him farther to extend the thoughts of his Royal providence beyond the bounds of common prudence to prevent the source of those evils which may possibly happen in the Ages long to come and to permit nothing which may one day shake a Throne upon which all his Descendents ought to sit hereafter And truely it were highly necessary that great Kings should labour for themselves and their Successors to establish their Authority since they have to doe with the most crafty and able Politicians in the world who perpetually watch all occasions of more and more amplifying that of their Master who with infinite diligence manage the least occasions of advancing them who take for well-grounded all that escapes and is let pass changing as soon Favours into Right who are not repuls'd at every resistence which sometimes opposes their undertakings but giving place for a while are by the next opportunity ready to make fresh assaults which often succeeds either by change of some Minister of State or the humour of our Nation whose vigour being
was his unworthy Present repay'd But the Abettors of the Court of Rome believe with great reason that they have however gain'd a main Point that there has been nothing positively done against a Work presented to the whole Clergy Where the Doctrine of the authority of a Council above a Pope which is the prime foundation of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the first Article of the Pragmatick Sanction is every-where styl'd Heretical and Schismatical though it has been decided for a Catholick Truth by no less then two General Councils Where the Council of Basil so rever'd of all France is rent and torn the most outragiously in the world and that in a time when Popes have declar'd it for Oecumenical Where a trifling Scribbler imperiously presumes to decide a difference upon which the Church would never yet pronounce making those to pass for Anti-popes who possess'd the Seat in Avignon during the Schism who are yet the onely ones which France has acknowledg'd though God himself seems to have been willing that this Question should have remain'd undecided since he has permitted very holy Persons to maintain the parties of both these Popes Saint Catharine that of Urban and S. Peter of Luxemburg that of Clement from whom he receiv'd even his Cardinal's Hat as S. Vincent Ferrier who also adhered to the Avignon Popes Where by an abominable Lie they impute to Charles the Seventh that he knew the Gallican Church had made a detestable Schism by pronouncing an impious Sentence in behalf of Clement the VIIth against Urban the VIth Where the Pragmatical Sanction which was contriv'd at Bourges following the Decrees of the Council of Basil by the French Bishops which King Charles the VIIth had assembled there with the Princes Lords and great Persons of the Kingdom of all degrees and qualities is unworthily styl'd the Opprobrium of the King because it declares the Pope inferiour to a Council many waies limits his power and re-establisheth Canonical Elections Where the Mandate de Providendo Expectative graces Reservations Regresses and other like Abuses so justly condemn'd by the Council of Basil and by the whole French Church are maintain'd as legitimate Rights from this strange pretence of a Bull of Eugenius the IVth That the Church of Rome does what she pleases with all Church-Dignities without wrong to any man because she may alledge this word of the Holy Gospel Friend I doe thee no wrong is it not lawful for me to doe what I will with mine own and that the same Pope writing to Alphonsus King of Portugal saies That the free disposition of all Churches appertains to the Apostolical See and that the Popes dispose of them as best they like to which even Kings and Princes submit themselves Where the most Sacred Canons of the Church are so subdued to the Pope's will that he makes a Pope writing to a King of France to say That 't is a ridiculous thing to alledge them to him or demand of him their observation as if he knew nothing of them whereas if he acted aganst the Canons we are not to believe that 't was done out of ignorance but because it pleases him to have it so That he is so far Master that according to his pleasure he might not onely interpret suspend and mitigate them but alter and abolish them likewise as pleased his fansy The whole Book is stuffed with like excesses and greater then these too notwithstanding the fautors of these pernieious Opinions have this advantage that no body having complain'd of them they will one day take this silence for a tacit Approbation beside the gain which they receive when they who would be learned in the Church-History studying it in these Books shall at the same time suck in all these dangerous Maxims Nor have they less perverted the other source of Ecclesiastical Science to wit the study of the Councils The last Collector of them Binnius being but a small Copier of Baronius Bellarmine and Suarez who has stuffed his Notes with all that he thought proper to inspire these new Opinions And what is altogether prodigious is that whereas the King of Spain has never permitted that any man should print in his Dominions any passage of Baronius's Annals prejudicial to his pretences they have in the Louvre it self printed the Collection of the Councils of Binnius and that the Iesuites who have ever had all the government of this Royal Press have left there in the life of Boniface the VIIIth these outragious words against all France Philippum pulchrum Galliae Regem justè excommunicavit This Pope did justly excommunicate Philip the Fair King of France As much as to say that all France was Schismatical in that Age for opposing as she did the Excommunication as judging it very unjust and appealing to the future Council and that she yet continues so for having never since chang'd her opinion You see in the mean time what the Iesuites think fit to print in the King's house under his own nose and at his charges that so they may give the Enemies of France the advantage to reproach her for owning in this period the justice of an Excommunication of one of her Kings against which she has heretofore so vigorously opposed herself The Abridgment of the Councils by Coriolanus printed at Paris and revised by a Doctor of the Faculty is yet in some sort worse all the contrary Maxims to the Liberty of the Gallican Church being set at the Head of the Book as if they were so many Catholick Opinions Nor is there any thing better to be hop'd for from that new Edition of the Councils which they are undertaking now at Paris if the Iesuites continue Masters seeing we find well enough by the Plan which Father L' Abbé has caus'd to be printed that besides all Binnius's Notes if any thing be added it shall be rather more and more to ruine the Liberties of the Gallican Church then to defend them and in effect we see that whereas in Binnius the Council of Basil is call'd Concilium Oecumenicum ex parte reprobatum a General Council in part reprov'd Father L' Abbé in his new project totally suppresses this quality of Oecumenick by simply calling it Basileense Concilium though he be exceedingly exact in giving the title of Oecumenick to all the other General Councils and even to those also which as yet France has never acknowledg'd for such as that of Florence for instance which he styles Florentinum Oecumenicum sive Universale Concilium and that of Lateran under Iulius the II d and Leo the Xth which he calls Lateranense quintum Oecumenicum seu Universale decimumseptimum You see how little they respect the judgment of the Gallican Church degrading the Councils which our Ancestors have ever had in such singular veneration as that of Basil and magnifying those which our Fathers would never receive for Oecumenical as that of Florence concerning which the
Cardinal of Lorrain writ to Pope Pius the Vth That in France 't was never receiv'd for Legitimate or General and that all the French would sooner die then affirm the contrary Much more that of Lateran which Bellarmine himself durst not assert Oecumenical as not compos'd but of a few Italian Bishops who had no other mark but the ruine of our Canonical Elections and against which the French have alwaies protested as 't is to be seen by the History of the Concordate de Mons. du Puy and in effect the Council of Constance having decided that a Council is superiour to a Pope and the Council of Lateran the contrary one of the two must necessarily be in an Errour and by consequent one of the two is not Oecumenick and so all the world avowing and the Iesuites themselves that the Council of Constance was General Father L' Abbé calling it Constantiense Concilium Oecumenicum decimum-sextum that of Lateran which is repugnant to it in a certain Decision concerning Faith has not been so But be it what it will we may judge from hence that the Iesuites design is in this new Edition of the Councils to favour the pretences of the Court of Rome in all that possibly they can there being nothing she so much desires as to hinder the Council of Basil from being reputed General insomuch as those of the party have presum'd to falsifie a List of the General Councils at the beginning of the Epitome of Augustinus's Canon Law leaving out that of Basil which this learned Arch-bishop had set down as may be seen where after these words Constantiense sub Martino V there is in these falsified Editions Florentinum sub eodem which is ridiculous that of Florence not having been held under Martin the Vth but it sufficiently shews what there was in the uncorrupted Copies after that of Constance Basileense sub Eugenio IV and then Florentinum sub eodem There are a world of other things in this draught of Father L' Abbé which ought not to be suffered in France but above all 't is a thing insupportable that these Disciples of Santarel should dare to treat as Hereticks and persons suspected for their Faith both Priests and Divines better Catholicks then themselves for defending onely the Sovereignty of Kings establish'd by God against those who would subject them to the Spiritual power Thus this Iesuite injures Roger Widdrington an English Priest whom we may believe a very firm Catholick since some temporal Interests might have else been able to make him quit his Religion had he not held it by a divine obligation But because he had several contestations with Bellarmine in favour of Kings L' Abbé is pleas'd to rank him in the same design with Blondel and to speak of him in these terms Non ignoro Davidem Blondellum Rogerum Widdringtonum quosdam alios aut Haereticos aut de Fide saltem suspectos c. The Third means which the Court of Rome makes use of to establish her Pretensions is to defend and gratifie all those who favour her and to decry yea persecute upon all occasions those that are any waies averse and contrary 'T is so meritorious an action in their judgment to maintain that which they call the Rights of the Holy See that even those whom otherwise they have no esteem of for any sense of Piety become recommendable and 't is on the other side so great a sin to prescribe Canons for a limit of this infinite power that whatever Vertue or Piety one might be acknowledg'd to have had before he becomes wicked and Heretical upon an instant I find two memorable examples of both in the 18 Tome of Raynaldus The one is of Laurentius Valla whom he affirms in a certain place to have been an impious fellow and whom in another place he extolls for having exceedingly praised Eugenius the IVth who is one of those Popes that endeavour'd to advance his Authority to the utmost The other is of an Arch-bishop of Mentz a person of great worth and Piety that had some contest with Calixtus the III d touching Canonical Elections This Arch-bishop complains that the Pope did not observe the Concordate which Eugenius the IVth and Nicolas the Vth his Successor had made on this subject with the Princes of Germany and Aeneas Sylvius who was then Cardinal and who writ about it to this Arch-bishop's Chancellor was not able to deny it since what he saies is that if the Elections were Canonical they ought to be confirm'd in virtue of the Concordate and that they were not to be rejected unless saies he the Pope in Council with his Brethren the Cardinals conceive it fit to put in a Person more advantagious to the Church as if this last Clause were not a visible infraction of the Concordate which this Arch-bishop had great reason to complain of since the right of Elections had no more any thing solid if the Pope refusing to confirm them had been acquitted by saying he onely did it to constitute a more fitting person for the Church in place Be it what-ever 't is certain this Contestation concern'd one onely Point of Church-Discipline and another in which the Pope was visibly in the wrong See yet what Raynaldus teaches us Anno 1457. n. 49. That Pope Calixtus the III d wrote to this Arch-bishop of Mentz upon the complaint he made of the non-observance of the Concordate touching Elections I cannot conceive that you should doe any thing against the Authority of the Sacred Roman Church and Apostolical See knowing you to be a learned and prudent Pastor and one that fears God which are contrary to those who offend the Authority and Power of the Holy Church of Rome and of the Sovereign Bishop since whoever presumes to commit this attempt incurrs not onely the pains ordain'd by Divine and humane right but does also commit the most hainous crime of Heresie Thus a man becomes an Heretick and as he saies a wicked Heretick how knowing prudent or fearing God soever he be if he opposes the Pope in any thing which does purely concern the Discipline of the Church whatever reason he may have so to doe Those of Rome have alwaies pursu'd the same course and Bellarmine though one of the most moderate of them forbears not to speak most outragiously against those who defend the Sovereignty of Kings and to treat them as Calvinists Pagans Publicans and Parasites of Kings to the loss of the Kingdom eternal under pretence of conserving to them their Dignity which is temporal And an Italian Author who styles them in the Title of his Book impios politicos addresses these words to them at the conclusion of his Book Away then with these modern insipid Politicians who led with envy and ambition would derive the Authority of States from that of Pilate and of whom those Saints of God have thus prophesied The Kings of the Earth and the Princes are met together
against the Lord and against his Anointed That is to say The Pope is Iesus Christ and all Christian Kings who maintain their Sovereignty against the Usurpations of Rome are the Herods and the Pontius Pilates This publick decry yet in the Books of these Writers is nothing so considerable as the particular and clandestine traverses that the Court of Rome excites upon all occasions whatsoever against those whom she believes not favourable to her Interests By that it is she stops the mouths and stays the Pens of almost all Learned persons who cannot really possess themselves of that Title that they are not inwardly persuaded of the Hypocrisies of these ambitious pretensions but they chuse rather to be silent then to speak of it Because there are but a very few persons so in love with Truth as in resolving to maintain it will endure to be tormented and barretted all their life-time and to be torn in pieces when they are dead They see that Kings and their great Ministers take not for the most part that care to protect those who maintain and defend their Right by some testimony of their acknowledging it as the Court of Rome does to persecute them or at least to deny them all kind of favour They must be touch'd with an extraordinary Zeal and very disinteress'd to surmount all these considerations and to sacrifice themselves for the Interest of their Prince and Countrey without any hope of advantage or to speak more properly with reason to apprehend all sort of disadvantage by it All those principally who are ty'd to any Community are thereby oblig'd to a silence which they believe to be just as holding themselves responsable for the conservation of their Body And 't is true these vast Bodies have stricter bonds which tie them to Rome and are more expos'd to Persecution because they have more places which expose them to seisure to which one may adde that almost all the Religious and Communities have their Generals resident at Rome who will never permit that the Divines of their Orders should undertake to teach things which would not be well receiv'd there and from which there may lie a grudge against the whole Order They are therefore Private persons onely who are fit upon these encounters to engage for the Truth but then it is necessary that they be furnished with Light to know it with Zeal to love it with Steadiness not to fear the ills it may produce and with Sincerity and Disinterest that so they may have no occasion to be in danger of being thwarted And when there were onely this last how rare a thing it is to be found Well therefore has Iohn Major that renowned Doctor of Paris long since observ'd That it was not to be wonder'd at if they were fewer who declared for a Council then for the Pope since Councils met but seldom and gave no Benefices whereas the Pope does and thence 't is saies he men flatter him with an omnipotent power as well in Spiritual things as temporal Hinc homines ei blandiuntur dicentes quòd solvere potest omnia quadrare rotundata rotundare quadrata tam in Spiritualibus quà m in temporalibus Hence it proceeds that the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the ancient Maxims of the Sorbon are now-a-daies hardly vindicated but by secular persons such as We that have less relation to the Court of Rome then Ecclesiasticks have whereof the wisest of them are rather satisfied to approve them in their heart without defending them in their Books such power have fear and interest upon the spirit of those who should be more free from them by the Sanctity of their Profession But if there be persons disinterested so as not to be touch'd by these temporal considerations it often falls out that having little judgment and less science their Piety it self engages them into these new Opinions because they are publish'd in the World under this artificial veil That 't is forsooth to violate and wound Religion to contest the Pope's Infallibility and temporal Sovereignty over Kings Those in the mean time who have no relation to it but this pretext without any mixture of humane interest may easily be disabus'd if once they but consider that the most pious of all our ancient Doctors as the illustrious Gerson wihtout mentioning Dionysius the Carthusian and the blessed Cardinal d' Arles have oppos'd with greater vigour those ambitious pretences of the Court of Rome and that they have judg'd that on the contrary 't is the sincere Zeal for the Catholick Religion which ought to oblige all judicious Divines courageously to resist this temporal Superiority over Kings and Infallibility as two inseperable Maxims one from the other either of them capable to raise very great mischiefs to the Church For in effect what is there more opposite to the real benefit of the Catholick Religion then this Doctrine of the Pope's Superiority over Kings in Temporals which is a necessary consequence of Infallibility and of the power which they give him to depose them Is not this to render Religion abhorr'd and suspected of all Princes as the Sorbon has judiciously remark'd in the Censure of Santarel to give them cause to believe that 't is impossible they should have Subjects at the same time good Catholicks and faithful to their King What Infidel Prince indeed would permit men to preach Faith in the Countries under his obedience if he knew that all those who embrace it think themselves by that dispens'd with for obedience to him farther then another Sovereign pleases who can at any time cause them to take up arms against their lawful King Were this for example a proper expedient to incline the Americans to receive our Faith to say to them as some Spaniards did that the Pope had bestow'd their Country on the King of Castile And however Barbarians as they were had they not reason to reply as they did That they knew no such thing as a Pope but that if there were he must needs be a wicked man to give away that which was none of his own Were not this also to dispose Heretical Princes not to suffer Catholicks in their States when they shall behold them but as so many subjects to another Prince who has power to command them to depose him in the Country where they live And do not we know that 't is this has so imbitter'd the King of England against the Papists and the almost sole cause of the disturbance which they suffered in Iames's time as being to this day the greatest obstacle to the progress of Religion in that Kingdom In fine what Catholick Prince would be willing that his Dominion which he takes so much pains to preserve both in Peace and War should continually depend upon the judgment of one sole Person who may be possess'd perhaps by his Enemies or transported by his proper passions For 't is a weak confidence to resolve they will give the Pope no occasion