OF THE CHURCH FIVE BOOKES BY RICHARD FIELD DOCTOR OF DIVINITY AND SOMETIMES DEANE OF GLOCESTER THE SECOND EDITION VERY MVCH AVGmented in the third booke and the Appendix to the same ·PECCATA·TOLLE·QVI·EMISTI·O·AGNE·DEI·IESV·CHRISTE ECCE·AGN DEI AT OXFORD Imprinted by WILLIAM TVRNER Printer to the famous Vniuersity 1628. TO THE ILLVSTRIOVS PRINCE THE DVKE OF BVCKINGAM HIS GRACE LORD HIGH ADMIRALL OF ENGLAND c. RIGHT HONOURABLE THat especiall fauour which your Grace was pleased to shew vnto the Author of this worke while he liued hath imboldned me to commend the worke it selfe as it is now inlarged vnto your Gracious protection And though the Authors particular obligement had not directed me in my choyce I know not vnto whom I might more fitly haue presented it then vnto your Grace who in a more peculiar manner then others haue vndertaken the protection of Schollers One example amongst many this Author might haue beene had hee liued but a little longer of your honourable care for the aduancement of learning and encouragement of Schollers The volume which I present vnto your Grace for the bulke and bignesse is not great especially if it be compared with the writings of our Aduersaries whose voluminous workes would make the ignorant beleeue that they had ingrossed all learning vnto themselues But asmany times wee may find in little men that strength of body and vigour of mind which is wanting in those of greater stature so experience telleth vs that amongst bookes the greatest are not alwaies the best Saepius in libro memoratur Persius vno Quam leuis in tota Marsus Amazonide And those that are acquainted with the writings of our Aduersaries are not ignorant how for the most part their great volumes are stuffed If a man will take the paines to reade them like those that digge in mines for gold he must expect to finde paruum in magno but a little gold in a great deale of vnprofitable earth Of this worke I thinke I might safely say thus much that it compriseth much in a little but I intend not a Panegyrique in the praise thereof If I giue it not that praise which it deserues my neare relation vnto the Author may be my excuse seeing whatsoeuer I should say would seeme rather to proceede from affection then judgment VVhat my opinion of it is I thinke I haue sufficiently expressed in that I haue thought it not vnworthy your Graces patronage And thus praying for the continuance of your Graces prosperous and happy estate I remaine Your Graces most humbly obliged seruant NATHANIEL FIELD TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD MY VERY GOOD LORD THE LORD Arch-bishop of CANTERBVRY his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all England MOst Reuerend in Christ the consideration of the vnhappie diuisions of the Christian world and the infinite distractions of mens mindes not knowing in soe great variety of opinions what to thinke or to whom to joyne themselues euery faction boasting of the pure sincere profession of heauenly truth challenging to it selfe alone the name of the Church and fastning vpon all that dissent or are otherwise minded the hatefull note of Schisme and Heresie hath made me euer thinke that there is no part of heauenly knowledge more necessary than that which concerneth the Church For seeing the controuersies of Religion in our time are growne in number so many and in nature so intricate that few haue time and leasure fewer strength of vnderstanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which amongst all the societies of men in the world is that blessed company of holy ones that houshold of faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the liuing God which is the Pillar and ground of truth that so they may embrace her communion follow her directions and rest in her iudgement Hence it commeth that all wise and iudicious men do more esteeme bookes of doctrinall principles than those that are written of any other argument and that there was neuer any treasure holden more rich and precious by all them that knew how to prize and value things aright than bookes of prescription against the profane nouelties of Heretiques for that thereby men that are not willing or not able to examine the infinite differences that arise amongst men concerning the faith haue generall directions what to follow and what to avoid Wee admitte no man sayth Tertullian in his booke of prescriptions to any disputation concerning sacred and diuine things or to the scanning and examining of particular questions of Religion vnlesse hee first shew vs of whom he receiued the faith by whose meanes he became a Christian and whether hee admitte and hold the generall principles wherein all Christians do and euer did agree otherwise prescribing against him as a stranger from the common-wealth of the Israel of God and hauing no part nor fellowship in this businesse But as in the daies of the Fathers the Donatists and other Heretickes including the Church within the compasse of Africa and such other parts of the world where they their consorts found best entertainment reiected all other from the vnity of the Church excluded them from hope of saluation and appropriated all the glorious things that are spoken of it to themselues alone soe in our time there are some found so much in loue with the pompe and glory of the Church of Rome that they feare not to condemne all the inhabitants of the world and to pronounce them to be Anathema from the Lord Iesus if they dissent from that Church and the doctrine profession and obseruations of it So casting into hell all the Christians of Graecia Russia Armenia Syria and Aethiopia because they refuse to be subiect to the tyranny of the Pope and the Court of Rome besides the heauie sentence which they haue passed against all the famous States and Kingdomes of Europe which haue freed themselues from the Aegyptiacall bondage they were formerly holden in These men abuse many with the glorious pretences of antiquity Vnity Vniuersality Succession and the like making the simple beleeue that all is ancient which they professe that the consent of all ages is for them and that the Bishops succeeding one another in all the famous Churches of the world neuer taught nor beleeued any other thing than they now doe whereas it is easie to proue that all the things wherein they dissent from vs are nothing else but nouelties and vncertaineties that the greatest part of the Christian world hath beene diuided from them for certaine hundreds of yeares that none of the most famous and greatest Churches euer knew or admitted any of their heresies and that the things they now publish as Articles of faith to be beleeued by all that will bee saued are so farre from being Catholike that they were not the doctrines of that Church wherein they and wee sometimes liued together in one communion but the opinions onely of
ever after restore them againe Hoc est Angelis casus quod hominibus mors saith Damascene The reason why God limited so short a time to them and assigned so long a time to men was because they were spirituall substances all created at once and that in the empyreall heauens and so both in respect of nature condition and place were most readily prepared disposed and fitted for their immediate everlasting glorification so that it was fit there should be set vnto them a short time to make choice of their future state never after to be altered againe to wit till their first deliberate conuersion vnto him or auersion from him But man being created in a naturall body to fill the world with inhabitants by procreation being set in a place farre remooued even in an earthly paradise had a longer time set him before he should be in finall stay or haue his last judgement passe vpon him to wit till death for particular and till the end of the world for generall judgement when the number of mankind shall bee full These are the reasons that mooued Almighty God that spared not the Angels to shew mercie vnto the sonnes of men So that as god in the day of the creation called foorth all both men and Angels from among the rest of his creatures to whom he denied the knowledge enjoying of himselfe that these onely might know feare and worship him in his glorious Temple of the world and be vnto him a selected multitude and holy Church so when there was found amongst these a dangerous Apostasie and departure from him he held of the Angels so many as hee was pleased and suffered them not to decline or goe aside with the rest and raised vp and severed out of the masse of perdition whom hee would among the sonnes of men The Angels now confirmed in grace and those men whom in the multitude of his mercies he deliuereth out of the state of condemnation and reconcileth to himselfe doe make that happie society of blessed ones whom God hath loved with an everlasting loue This society is more properly named the Church of God than the former consisting of men and Angels in the state of that integrity wherein they were created in that they which pertaine to this happie company are called to the participation of eternall happinesse with the calling of a more mighty potent and prevailing grace then the other For whereas they were partakers onely of that grace which gaue them power to attaine vnto and continue in the perfection of all happie good if they would and then In tanta felicitate non peccandi facilitate in so great felicitie and facilitie of not offending left to themselues to doe what they would and to make their choice at their owne perill These are partakers of that grace which winneth infallibly holdeth inseparably and leadeth indeclinably in the wayes of eternall blessednesse CHAP. 4. Of the Church of the Redeemed ALl these aswell Angels that stood by force of grace vpholding them as men restored by renewing mercy haue a most happie fellowship among themselues and therefore make one Church of God yet for that the sonnes of men haue a more full communion and perfect fellowship being all delivered out of the same miseries by the same benefit of gracious mercie Therefore they make that more speciall society which may rightly be named the Church of the redeemed of God This Church began in him in whom sinne beganne euen in Adam the father of all the liuing repenting after his fall and returning to God For we must not thinke that God was without a Church among men at any time but so soone as Adam had offended and was called to giue an account of that he had done hearing that voice of his displeased Lord and Creator Adam where art thou that so he might know in what estate he was by reason of his offence the promise was made vnto him that the seede of the woman should breake the serpents head Yet for that Abel was the first that the Scripture reporteth to haue worshipped God with sacrifice and to haue beene divided from the wicked in whom GOD had no pleasure euen cursed Cain that afterward shed his innocent blood therefore we vsually say the Church or chosē company of the redeemed of the Lord began in Abel who being slaine by Cain God restored his Church again in Seth in whose race and posterity he continued his true worship till Noe. In whose time the wickednesse of men being full hee brought in the flood destroyed the whole world Noe onely and his family excepted whom he made a preacher of righteousnesse to the world before and after the flood and chose from among his children Sem his eldest sonne in whose race hee would continue the pure and sincere knowledge of himselfe and the expectation of that promised seede that should breake the serpents head This Sem was the father of all the sonnes of Heber of whom the people of god were afterwards named Hebrewes who was also as some thinke Melchisedech in whose posterity the true Church continued so that God vouchsafed to be called the God of Sem till the dayes of Abraham in whose time there being a great declining to Idolatry after the flood as there was in the dayes of Noe before the flood so that the defection was found not onely amongst those that descended of Cham and Iaphet but euen among the children of Sem and the sonnes of Heber also of whom Abraham was God called him out from his fathers house and gaue him the promise that he would make his seede as the starres of heaven in number that in his seede all the nations of the world should bee blessed and gaue him the seale of circumcision so that all posterities haue ever honoured him with the name and title of the father of the faithfull This man obtayned a sonne by promise in his old age when Sara his wife was likewise old and it ceased to bee with her after the manner of women and named his name Isaac of whom came Esau and Iacob concerning whom GOD pronounced ere they were yet borne or had done good or euill The Elder shall serue the yonger I haue loued Iacob and hated Esau. Iacob therefore prevailed with God and was named Israel the father of the twelue Patriarches of whom came the twelue Tribes of Israel and that chosen Nation of holy Hebrewes who were also named Iewes of Iudah the Patriarch to whom the Scepter and kingly dignity pertained to whom his fathers sonnes bowed according to the tenour of Iacobs blessing concerning whom the Lord did promise that the Scepter should not depart from Iudah nor a law giuer from betweene his feete till the Shilo were come Great was the honour of this people aboue all the Nations of the World for vnto them were committed the
Symbole contayning a full explication of whatsoever might bee questioned touching the deity of Christ. This forme of Christian profession was called the Nicen creed and was received as a most excellent rule of faith by all right beleeuers throughout the world In this creed there was nothing expressely put downe touching the holy Ghost more then was found in the Apostles creed that wee beleeue in the holy Ghost But when Macedonius and Eunomius denyed the deity of the holy spirit the Fathers assembled in the first Councell of Constantinople added to the Nicen creed these words I beleeue in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father who together with the Father and the Sonne is worshipped and glorified who spake by the Prophets So expressing his proceeding from the Father without any mention of the Sonne This creed or forme of Christian profession was confirmed in the councell of Ephesus and all they accursed that should adde any thing vnto it meaning as it may well be thought to condemne such addition as might make any alteration and not such as might serue for more full and definite explication But howsoeuer this Nicen creed thus enlarged in the Councell of Constantinople without any farther addition was confirmed and proposed to the Christian world for a rule of faith in all the generall councells that ever were holden and was so publickely received in sundry Christian Churches in their liturgies But in time the Bishops of Spaine began to adde the proceeding from the Sonne saying Wee beleeue in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne And the French not long after admitted the same addition but the Romans admitted it not Wherevpon Charles the great in his time called a Councell at Aquisgrane in which it was debated whether the Spaniards and after them the French had done well in adding to the creed the proceeding of the holy Ghost from the Sonne And whether supposing the point of doctrine to bee true it were fit to sing and recite the creed in the publicke service of the Church with this addition the Church of Rome and some other Churches refusing to admitte it Besides this some were sent to Leo the third about that matter but hee would by no meanes allow of this addition but perswaded them that had given way vnto it by litle litle to put it out and to sing the creed without it The same Leo caused the symbole to bee translated and written out in a table of siluer in such sort as it had beene deliuered in the Covncels placed the same behind the altar of S Peter and left it to posterity out of the carefull desire of preseruing the true faith as hee professed And in this Symbol in the article touching the proceeding of the holy Ghost the Father onely is named in this sort and in the holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life who proceedeth from the Father Neither was this the private fancy of Leo only for after his time Iohn the 8th shewed his dislike of this addition likewise for writing vnto Photius patriarch of Constantinople hee hath these words Reverend Sir that wee may giue you satisfaction touching that addition in the creed and from the Sonne wee let you know that not onely wee haue no such addition but also wee condemne them as transgressors of the direct word that were the first authours of this addition And afterwards he addeth wee carefully labour and endevour to bring it to passe that all our Bishops may thinke as wee doe but no man can suddenly alter a thing of such consequence and therefore it seemeth reasonable to vs that no man bee violently constrained by you to leaue out this addition But in the yeare 883 the Romans also made the same addition to the creed in the time of Pope Nicholas the first Heere by the way wee may note the inconstancy irresolution and vncertainty of the Roman Bishops one of them admitting that as right and good which another not long after condemned as a transgression of the direct law And farther that in matters of great importance other Bishops haue gone before them and drawen them to doe that in the end which at first they misliked so that all direction in former times was not sought from Rome By that which hath beene said it appeareth that the difference betweene the Churches touching this point is not such as it should cause any division or breach Yet was this addition no sooner made but so great dislikes grew vpon it many thinking nothing might be added at least without a generall Councell to the creed formerly published in so many generall Councels as a rule of faith that though the difference in trueth and in deede were but verball yet either side endevoured to shew the other erred daungerously and so this verball difference was an occasion amongst other things to cause a schisme and separation between them Thus having cleered this poynt wherein if in any thing the Grecians may be thought to haue erred let vs see what other errours are imputed to them Guido Carmelita and after him Prateolus impute vnto them sundry errours which Lucinianus of Cyprus a learned Dominican and a worthy man as hee is accounted by Possevine sheweth to be falsely ascribed vnto them As first that simple fornication is no sinne 2dly that they condemne second marriages which hee sheweth to bee vntrue likewise though the Priest blesse onely in the first and not in the second Thirdly that they thinke the contract of marriage may bee broken and the band dissolved at the pleasure of the parties Whereas contrariwise hee affirmeth they allow no diuorce so as to permitte a second marriage while both the parties liue Fourthly they are sayd to affirme that the sacrament consecrated on maundy Thursday is of more force vertue and efficacy then consecrated any other day Wherein hee sheweth that they are no lesse wronged then in the other imputations Fiftly they are charged to teach that it is no sinne to lend vpon vsury and which is worse that it is not necessary to make restitution of things vniustly taken away In both which imputations hee sayth they are much wronged For they thinke vsury to bee sinne and vrge the necessity of restitution Sixtly they are said to thinke if a Priests wife die hee ceaseth to bee a Priest any longer which is as meere a slaunder as the rest were So that it is true that Tho à Iesu hath that one of the principall things that maketh the Grecians so averse from the Latines is that they are wronged by them by vntrue reports and vnjust imputations The things wherein they differ indeed from the Church of Rome are these First they deny the Pope to be head of the vniversall Church or to haue any supreame commaunding authority in the Church and over other Bishops they say that there are fiue Patriarches or chiefe bishops of
should follow his example but to beginne the new law as Moses did the old and therefore to take it as imposed vpon vs by Christs example in the nature of a precept and to be done in imitation of Christ and as being in it selfe a thing pleasing vnto GOD for that it is an imitation of his Sonnes action is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Caluin rightly noteth and not voide of superstition and errour Now that the Fathers either erred themselues in this sort or sought to abuse others neither Calvine nor wee euer thought For they neuer imagined that the principall reason that mooued the authours and beginners of this fast to prescribe it was the onely imitation of Christs fast or because they thought it it in it owne nature a thing respected by God meerely as an imitation of his Sonnes action but that whereas it is very fit there bee a solemne time at least once in the yeare wherein men may call themselues to an account for all their negligences repent them of all their euill doings and with prayers fastings and mournings turne vnto the Lord this time was chosen as fittest both because that heerein wee remember the sufferings of Christ for our sinnes which is the strongest and most prevailing motiue that may bee to make vs hate sinne and with teares of repentant sorrow bewaile it which could no otherwise bee taken away but by the bloud shed of the Sonne of GOD as also for that after this meditation of the sufferings of Christ and conforming our selues to them his joyfull resurrection for our justification doth immediatly present it selfe vnto vs in the dayes following in the solemnities whereof men were wont with great devotion to approach to the Lords Table and they which were not yet baptized were by Baptisme admitted into the Church Thus then it was not without great consideration that men made choice of this time wherein to recount all their negligences sinnes and transgressions and to prepare themselues by this solemne act of Fasting both for the better performance of their owne dueties in those ensuing dayes of joyfull solemnitie as also to obtaine at Gods handes the gracious acceptance of such as they offered vnto him to bee entred into his couenant For the manner was in the Primitiue Church neuer to present any vnto Baptisme vnlesse it were in the case of necessity and danger but onely in the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost Thus then these being the reasons mouing to institute a set and solemne Fast and to appoint it at this time and season of the yeare rather than any other for the limitation of the number of dayes men had an eye as to a convenient direction to Christs Fast of forty dayes in the dedication of the new Covenant which number also Moses as being the giuer and Elias as being the restorer of the olde Law kept and obserued before him not as if they had beene precisely and absolutely tyed by force of these examples for then they would precisely haue kept that number which yet they did not for the Saturdayes and Sundayes deducted which were not aunciently fasted neither in the Greeke Church nor in some of the Latine Churches there remaine not forty dayes and if onely the Sondayes bee deducted as in the Latine Church there will want of the number for those in capite Ieiunii which being added to the rest make vp the number of 40. were not obserued from the beginning but added afterwards Our Divines therefore doe teach that Fasting is commaunded by Almighty GOD not as a thing in it selfe regarded but respectiuely to those ends before mentioned that GOD hath set no certaine times of Fasting but that the Church may appoint vpon set and ordinary or speciall and extraordinary occasions and causes times of fasting and that men are bound to obey The Fast of Lent they doe not dislike but thinke it may be kept as a convenient tradition of Antiquity dispensable by authority of the Church vpon due consideration of times and persons so that no false nor superstitious opinions bee added but the practise of the Romanists they condemne for that whereas they pretend to follow the ancient custome of fasting to be tyed vnto it they retaine no shew of the auncient fast but make a meere mocke of God man as their own best friends are forced to confesse besides their erronious opinions of merit satisfaction grosse superstition in the difference of meates Thus then we did not put down the true right vse exercise of fasting but the mockery of it do wish that in the ful establishment of the Churches the ancient discipline of fasting due coÌ„sideratioÌ„ had of times conditioÌ„s of men may be restored again If any of our Diuines seeme to dislike that there should be any set fasts as being Iewish it is not the generall resolution of the reformed Churchs but the priuate opinion only of some particular mâ—… who were carried with the hate of Romish errours and superstition in the set fasts to dislike them wholly which aduisedly I see not how they could doe and I am well assured many of very great esteeme do allow and approue the vse of them The next obiectioÌ„ is most friuolous Caluin saith Lay men long since presumed in times of necessity to baptize werein whether they did well or not the Fathers in those times wherein they were suffered thus to do could not nor did not resolue what can be inferred of this Whether they did well or not Caluin saith the Fathers were not resolute and hee think eth their doing can hardly be excused from vsurpation of that which no way pertained to them therefore saith Bellarmine he dissenteth from all antiquity confesseth the doctrine of the Romish Church to be most ancient Let Bellarmine giue vs leaue to reason from his speeches in the same sort he will soone perceiue he hath wronged Caluine Bellarmine saith the Fathers were doubtfull whether if men not yet baptized should attempt to baptize it were baptisme or not he pronounceth peremtorily it is therefore he dissenteth from all antiquity As likewise they doubted whether baptisme administred sportingly were true baptisme or not he his consorts make no question of it therefore they dissent from all antiquitie But let vs proceed to the next allegation Caluin saith it is most certaine that all antiquity is clearely against the Romish doctrine of the reall sacrificing of Christ in the blessed Sacrament that the Fathers did most rightly conceiue of this sacred mystery without derogating any way from the sufficiencie and plenitude of Christs sacrifice A man would hardly thinke any man would allcage this place to proue that Caluin confesseth the doctrine of the Fathers and the opinion of the Romanists are all one and yet this doth the Iesuite so forcible and powerful he is in reasoning that what a man most constantly denieth he can
did see in the greater Church of Sangalli a chalice guilded with gold that weighed threescore and tenne markes of siluer provided no doubt for the publique communion of the people formerly vsed Beatus Rhenanus saith that Conradus Pellicanus a man of wonderfull sanctity and learning did finde in the first constitution of the Carthusians that they are forbidden to possesse any vessels of price besides a siluer chalice and a pipe with which the lay people might sucke out the bloud of our Lord. Besides the booke written more then foure hundred yeares since concerning the treasures of the Church of Mentz amongst chalices of gold of a greate weight hauing handles and golden Crosses c reckoneth also syluer pipes six in number if I be not deceiued deputed to this vse of sucking out the bloud of our Lord which I suppose sayth hee the Archbishop was wont to vse Ordo Romanus sheweth that when the Bishop of Rome doth celebrate the Archdeacon giueth him to drinke of the holy chalice and afterwards powreth a little out of the same into a greater chalice or cuppe which the acoluth doth hold that the people may be confirmed or receiue the sacrament of the Lords bloud out of the sacred vessell For the wine that was not consecrated being mingled with the blood of Christ is altogether sanctified The Bishops therefore come in order to receiue of the hande of the Pope and aftar them all the Priestes come vp that they may communicate at the alter and while the Archdeacon communicateth the chiefe Bishop that is present holdeth the challice for as Bishops attend the Pope in the Church of Rome so priestes should attend and assist Bishops in other Churches The Archdeacon after hee hath communicated receiueth the chalice back againe from the Bishop and confirmeth all those with the Lords blood to whom the Pope hath giuen the communion of the body of our Lord. This seruice being performed by the altar hauing receiued by the Subdeacon the pipe with which the people are to be confirmed the Archdeacon deliuereth the chalice to be carried to the acoluth to be layed vp by him in the vestery Then doth the pope goe downe to giue the communion to the Princes of the people and their wiues and as the Archdeacon doth confirme those to whom the Pope giueth the Communion of the Lords body so do the other Deacons confirme them to whom after the Pope hath ministred to those of the better sort the other Bishops and Priestes do giue the Communion and as soone as the pope beginneth to minister the Communion to the Clergie and people the schoole of singers beginneth to sing the antheme appointed for the Communion and after that when the Pope thinketh fit Glory be to the Father c. Here wee see a cloud of witnesses testifying for the Communion in both kinds wherevpon â— Cassander feareth not to pronounce that hee verily thinketh it cannot be shewed that the sacrament of the Eucharist was any otherwise ministred in any part of the Catholike Church to the faithfull people in the holy assembly from the Lords table for a thousand yeares and more but vnder both the sacramentall signes of bread and wine Neither can this saying of Cassander be refuted by that in the second of the Acts where the faithfull are sayd to haue continued in the breaking of bread and prayer Nor by that wee reade in antiquity of the Lay communion which Caietan childishly vrgeth For sundry worthy diuines in the Roman Church haue sufficiently shewed the weakenesse of these sillie allegations Let vs see therefore how the Communion in one kind came into the Church It appeareth by Leo the first that the Manichees as they denied Christ to haue beene borne in the truth of our flesh so they denied him to haue truely dyed and risen againe and therefore they vsed to fast vppon that day that is to vs the day of saluation and ioy And whereas to hide their infidelity and heresie they came sometimes to the Churches of Catholikes and were present at the celebration of the sacred mysteries they did so temper the matter that with vnworthy mouthes they receiued the Lords body but declined to drinke the blood of our redemption Leo carefully endeauoured to make this thing knowne to all that by these signes they might bee discried that their sacrilegious dissembling might bee found out and that being discouered they might by sacerdotall auctoritie be cast out of the society of the Saints By this of Leo it appeareth that the Manichees out of an hereticall conceipt began to communicate in one kinde and that all were wont to communicate in both kindes that hereby the Manichees might be discouered and knowne from other right beleeuers in that they would communicate but in one kinde alone Which thing also Andradius doth rightly note In the time of Gelasius there were certain found that out of some superstitious conceipt would not communicate in both kindes Wee haue found saith Gelasius that certaine hauing receiued a portion of the sacred Body onely abstaine from the cup of the most holy bloud Which men because they are saide to be holden with I know not what superstition either let them receiue the whole Sacrament or let them be put and kept frrom the whole seeing there can be no division of one and the same mysterie without grievous sacriledge Thirdly whereas in case of necessity as when children or such as were sicke and weake were to receiue the communion the auncient did sometimes dippe the mysticall bread into the consecrated wine and so gaue it vnto them as it appeareth by the history of Serapion by that which Cyprian and Prosper report and by that which the Councell of Turon prescribeth that the Eucharist which is reserued for the voyage provision of such as are ready to depart hence shall be dipped into the blood of the Lord that so the Priest may truely say The body and blood of our Lord be beneficiall vnto thee vnto eternall life Some beganne to bring in this manner of dipping into the ordinary communion vnder pretence of carefull avoyding the danger of shedding the blood of Christ and greater reuerence towards the same For certaine Monkes brought the same custome into their Monasteries ingenuously confessing that herein they did contrary to the custome of other Churches But that they were forced so to doe by the rudenesse of their novices who they feared would runne into some grosse neglect if they should receiue the blood of Christ apart Neither did this custome stay here but it made an entrance into other Churches abroad also for Ivo Carnotensis about the yeare 1100 hath these wordes Let them not communicate in the bread dipped but according to the decree of the Councell of Toledo let them communicate in the bodie apart and in the blood apart those onely excepted to whom it is not prescribed but permitted to communicate in the bread dipped out of
due consideration of the feare of spilling and shedding the blood of Christ. But this attempt was disliked and resisted for the authour of the booke intituled Micrologus saith It is not authenticall that certaine doe dippe the body of the Lord and hauing so dipped it giue it to the people thinking thereby to make vp vnto them the whole communion But the Roman order is against this and doth prescribe that vpon Good friday when they consecrate not but vse the bread consecrated the day before they shall take wine that is not consecrated and consecrate it with the Lords player and dipping of the Lords body into it that so the people may receiue the whole Sacrament which prescription were superfluous if it were enough to dippe the body of Christ the day before so to keep it to giue it so dipped to the people to cōmunicate in Pope Iulius in order of Popes the 36th writing to the Bishops of Egypt doth altogether forbid any such dipping commandeth the bread cup to be receiued apart What the credit of this Epistle is which the authour of this book citeth as the Epistle of Pope Iulius I know not neither do I thinke that any such custome of giuing the Sacrament to the people in the Church in such sort was so ancient as to be reprehended by Pope Iulius But it appeareth that such dipping when it began to be vsed in the Church found great opposition therfore this supposed constitution of Iulius is renewed cōfirmed in the 3d councel of Bracar Micrologus addes that blessed Gelasius in order of Popes the 51th writing to certaine Bishoppes commandeth them to excommunicate all those that receiuing the Lords body abstained from the participation of the cuppe pronouncing in the same decree that such diuision of the Sacrament cannot bee without horrible sacriledge By this of Micrologus it is evident that they thought in those times that not onely the communicating in one kind alone out of such erroneous conceipts as those of the Manichees and other like but all communicating in one kind alone is sacrilegious And that they could not endure the dipping of the sacramentall bread whereby yet the people did in a sort partake of both kindes Neither doth Micrologus alone shew the dislike that then was of such dipping but the like wee may finde in the writings of sundry worthy men Hildebertus Cenomanensis Hoec ideo tibi frater exaravi vt excitatus evigiles vt videas quoniam traditioni sacramentorum altaris quae in vestro celebris est monasterio nec Evangelica traditio consonat nec decreta concordant In eo enim consuetudinis est eucharistiam nulli nisi intinctam dare quod nec ex dominica institutione nec ex sanctionibus authenticis reperitur assumptum si Mathaeum si Marcum si Lucam consulas seorsim panem traditum invenies seorsim vinum c nam intinctum panem aliis praebuisse Christum non legimus excepto tantummodo illo discipulo quem intincta buccella proditorem ostenderit non quod huius sacramenti institutionem fignaret sic Papa Iulius ait c. That is Brother I haue therefore written these things vnto thee that being stirred by me thou mightest bee awakened to see that the manner of deliuering of the sacrament of the altar which is growne into vse in your monasterie is neither consonant to the evangelicall tradition nor agreeing with the decrees For in your monasterie it is become a custome to giue the mysticall bread to none but dipped which will never be found to haue taken beginning from the Lords institution or authenticall constitutions For if thou consult Mathew or Marke or Luke thou shalt finde that the bread was deliuered apart and the wine apart c. for wee reade not that Christ gaue dipped bread to any other but onely to that disciple whom by the dipped soppe he meant to shew to be the traitour and not that he would haue the sacrament so ministred and so Pope Iulius sayth c. From the custome of dipping the mysticall bread into the blood giving it so dipped vnto the people for feare of shedding the blood of Christ if it should haue beene ministred apart some proceeded farther and began to teach the people that seeing the body blood of Christ cannot be separated in that they partake of the one they partake of the other also and that therefore it is sufficient to receiue in one kinde alone But herein they gaue no satisfaction either to themselues or others For though it be true sayth Durandus that they are not separated and that he that receiueth the one receiueth the other also yet neither part of the sacrament is superfluous but both are to bee receiued For whereas wine breedeth blood wherein the soule life is seated according to that in Leviticus The soule of all flesh is in the blood of it and whereas in the offerings that were of old the flesh of those beasts that were sacrificed was offered for the body and the blood of them for the soule if wee should receiue Christs body and together with it the blood vnder the forme of bread signifying and exhibiting the flesh of Christ and not vnder the forme of wine signifying exhibiting vnto vs the blood of Christ wee might bee thought to neglect the saluation and good of our soules And els-where hee saith that hee that receiueth onely the consecrated bread receiueth not the whole entire Sacrament For howsoeuer it be true that the blood of Christ is in the host or consecrated bread yet is it not there sacramentally seeing bread doth not signifie the blood but the body of Christ neither the wine the body but the blood of Christ. And in the former place hee addeth out of Innocentius tertius that though the blood of Christ be receiued with the body vnder the forme of bread and the body with the blood vnder the forme of wine yet neither can wee drinke the blood of Christ vnder the forme of bread which wee eat nor eat the body of Christ vnder the forme of wine which wee drinke And sundry of the Schoolemen agree with him in this poynt resoluing that though Christ bee whole and entire in either part of the sacrament yet both parts are necessary First because the exhibiting of the body blood of Christ distinctly representeth his passion in which his blood was separated from his body And secondly because in this sorte Christs body is more fitly and significantly exhibited vnto vs in the nature of food and his blood of drinke If this sacrament bee worthily receiued vnder both kinds sayth Alexander of Hales there is a greater efficacy and working of grace causing an vnity betweene the mysticall body Christ the head then when it is receiued in one kinde onely And therefore he sayth though the receiuing vnder one kinde bee sufficient yet that which is vnder both is of more
rightly noteth that there is no merit properly so named to bee attributed to mortall miserable men and that though the ecclesiasticall writers vse the word merit and when they speake of holy mens workes call them merits yet they thinke them not to bee properly so but doe so name the good actions of holy men that proceed from faith and the working of the holy Ghost because Almighty God though they bee his gifts and joyned in them by whom they are wrought with defect imperfection yet is so pleased to accept of them out of his goodnesse that he not onely rewardeth the doers of them with ample great rewards in their owne persons but so as to doe good to others for their sakes So God sayd to Abraham if there were but fifty righteous in the city hee would spare the whole city for their sakes Neither onely doth hee good for their sakes whose workes hee thus rewardeth while they liue but euen after they à re dead also And therefore God promiseth that hee will protect Hierusalem for his owne sake and for Dauid his seruant which he must be vnderstood to doe not onely in respect of the promise made vnto him but with respect had to his vertue according to the which we read 1 Reg. 15. 3. that God left a little light in Hierusalem to Abiam the sonne of Roboam King of Iudah for Dauids sake who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord. This Dauid saith Chrysostome did not only please God while he was in the body but he is found to haue yeelded great comfort after his death to such as he left behinde him aliue The Prophet Esay commeth to Hezekiah and saith vnto him I will defend this city for mine own sake and for Dauid my seruants sake David is dead but his vertues that pleased God do still liue O strange thing O ineffable clemencie a man long since dead patronizeth him that liueth In this sense then it is that the Church desireth God to be gratious vnto her in graunting her petitions for the merit of those his holiest Ones that she remembreth no way derogating from the merites of Christ but putting a great difference betweene them and those of the Saints for Christs merite is the onely price of our redemption by which onely we are redeemed from sinne eternall death and being reconciled to God are adopted to bee sonnes and heires of eternall life but the merites of the Saints here mentioned are nothing but those imperfect good workes which they did while they liued here which God was pleased so to accept that hee promised not onely to reward them with great and ample rewards in their owne persons but to doe good for their sakes that did them to others also Bucer speaking of the publique prayers of the Church which wee call Collects in which the intercession and merites of Saints are commemorated hath these words Seeing in these prayers whatsoeuer is attributed to the intercession and merites of Saints all that is asked not of the Saints but of our mercifull God through Iesus Christ they that so pray doe thereby professe and testifie that they acknowledge that those things which they aske of God by the intercession and for the merites of the Saints are the free gifts of God c And a little after Wee willingly acknowledge and publiquely professe that GOD doth reward the workes of his Saints not onely in their owne persons but in those also that pertaine vnto them and for whom they intercede for hee hath promised to doe good to a thousand generations to them that loue him and study to keepe his Commaundements hence it was that hee would not heale those of the house of Abimelech till Abraham interceded and intreated for them and hence it was that God graunted and gaue the deliuerance and saluation of all the people to Moses when he intreated for the same These are the wordes of Bucer which not being contradicted by any of our profession it is evident that no part of Romish Religion disliked by vs can bee prooued out of this part of the Canon of the Masse Thus hauing cleared that great objection of Mr Brerelie touching the publique Liturgie vsed in the Church in the dayes of our Fathers and made it appeare that the vsing thereof is no proofe that the Church that then was was not a Protestant Church and hauing made it cleare and evident that both the Liturgie it selfe and the profession of such as vsed it shew plainely that the Church that then was neuer allowed any Romish errour howsoeuer some did in the midst of her it remaineth that I now proceed to shew in the particulars that the outward face of Religion at and before Luthers appearing was not as M ◠Brerelie telleth vs the now professed Romane Religion and that whatsoeuer wee haue done in the reformation of the Church was long before wished for and desired by the best men amongst the guides of the Church CHAP. 1. Of the Canon of the Scriptures THat the Church did not admit the Canon of Scripture which the Romanists now doe nor euer accounted those bookes Canonicall which we thinke to be Apocryphall it will easily appeare in that all the most famous Divines from the beginning of the Christian World euen till the time of Luther did reject those bookes as Apocryphall that wee doe The Church of the Iewes to whom as S. Paul saith the oracles of God were committed admitted but onely 22 Bookes as deliuered to them from God to be the Canon of their faith as Iosephus witnesseth Neither did the Christian Church euer admit any more Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to send him a catalogue of the bookes of the old and new Testament writeth thus vnto him Hauing diligently sought out the bookes of the old Testament and put them in order I haue sent them vnto you the names whereof are these the 5 bookes of Moses Genesis Exodus Leuiticus Numbers Deuteronomie then Iesus the sonne of Naue Iudges Ruth the 4 bookes of Kings two bookes of Chronicles the Psalmes of Dauid the Prouerbes which is also called the Wisdome of Salomon Ecclesiastes the Canticles Iob the Prophets Esay Hieremie one booke of the twelue Prophets Daniel Ezechiel Esdras Some soe translate the words of Melito as if hee reckoned the wisdome of Salomon as a seperate booke and so meant the booke that is commonly called the Wisdome of Salomon and is by vs accounted to be apocryphall but Ruffinus translateth as wee doe and that wee haue rightly expressed the meaning of this worthy Bishoppe and that hee onely added this as a glorious title to the booke of Salomons Prouerbs which as Eusebius saith the auncients vsually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reader will soone be satisfied if he peruse that which D. Raynolds hath touching this point in his prelections Eusebius she weth that Iosephus according to the auncient
earnestly to thirst after these waters when hee sayth Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnes but the vngodly having tasted of the wine of mundane joy and temporall riches hate dislike and put from them this water and therefore the Lord sayth well of them by the Prophet Esay 8. Because this people haue refused the waters of Siloe that runne softly and without noyse and haue taken rather Rasin and the sonne of Romelia I will bring upon them the mighty waters of of the floud Siloe is interpreted sent and it signifieth the doctrine of the diuine Law sent vnto vs by Christ the Apostles and other faithfull ones which doctrine the Pastors of the Church are bound vnder the paine of damnation to know and teach whereupon Isidore saith de summo bono lib. 3. c. 46. The Priests shall bee damned for the iniquity of the people if either they neglect to teach them being ignorant or to reproue them when they offend the Lord hauing said by the Prophet I haue set thee as a watch-man ouer the house of Israel and if thou shalt not tell the wicked of his wickednes that hee forsake his euill way he shall dye in his iniquitie but I will require his bloud at thy hand Notwithstanding all this many of the moderne Priests cast from them this learning and say we will none of it because it is not de pane lucrando that is it serueth not to bring in gaine and profite and giue themselues to the study of humane lawes which are not so necessary for the sauing of soules as the law of God because as Odo saith here vpon the Gospell sermone 39. If Christ had knowne that we might more easily attaine saluation by the Lawes of Iustinian he would surely haue taught them vs with his own mouth and haue let that alone which he taught vs and deliuered vnto vs et in quâ continetur implicitè vel explicitè omnis scientia ad salutem necessario requisita and in which is contained expressely or implicitely all knowledge necessarily required to saluation according to that of S. Augustine 2. de doctrinâ Christianâ in fine Whatsoeuer a man learneth without and beside the holy Scripture if it be hurtfull it is there condemned if it bee profitable it may there be found But many Church-men leaue this learning and take vnto them Rasin and the sonne of Romelia Rasin signifieth a picture and Romelia high and mighty thunder so that by Rasin and the sonne of Romelia wee may vnderstand painted and glorious wordes and that wordy thunder of humane lawes which kindes of learning many Ecclesiastical persons assume that they may be by such profession exalted in the courts of great Lords and for this cause as the Prophet addeth the Lord shall bring vpon them the mighty and great waters of the floud that is infernall punishments so saith Odo Hitherto hee hath alleadged the words of Grosthead and Odo In another place he saith concerning them that so contemne the word of God that the Lord complaineth of such by the Prophet Ierem. 2. saying My people hath done two euils they haue forsaken me the fountaine of liuing water and haue digged to themselues broken cisterns to which as Gulielmus Parisiensis saith the decree or canon law may fitly be compared which is a broken cisterne that cannot hold water which though it haue water to day shall haue none to morrow because it shall bee abrogated whereas touching the Law of God it is otherwise and therefore the Psalmist saith thy righteousnesse O Lord is an euerlasting righteousnesse and thy law is trueth Yet is the holy Scripture much contemned by the profession of the Canonists so that the knowledge of holy Scripture and profession of Divinity may say to an ill Advocate or Lawyer as Sara said to Abraham in the 16 of Genesis Thou dealest ill with me I gaue thee my handmaid into thy bosome who seeing that she had conceiued despised me for as Gulielmus Parisiensis saith de vitiis part 4. cap. 6. The profession of Canonists contemneth the profession of Divines and science of holy Scripture because they are not so gainefull as it is When Ismael and Isaack played together Ismael mocked Isaack so that Sarâ—… was forced to intreate Abraham to cast out the bondwoman and her sonne So happily it were behoofefull and profitable for the Church that this Science in a great part should be cast out because it not only contemneth the diuine Science and Law of God but blasphemeth it and in so doing contemneth and blaspheameth God himselfe who is the lawgiuer Here wee haue the opinion of three worthy men touching the sufficiencie of the Scripture and the dangers confusions and horrible euils that followed vppon the multiplying of humane inuentions Many more might be alleadged to the same purpose but these may suffice to let us know what the doctrine of the Church was in the dayes of our Fathers for they deliuer not their priuate conceipts but tel vs what all good and iudicious men conceiued of these things in their times But some men will say wee find often mention of traditions in the writers of former ages soe that it seemeth they did not thinke the Scriptures to containe all things necessary to saluation For the clearing of this doubt wee must obserue that by the name of tradition sometimes all the doctrine of Christ and his blessed Apostles is meant that was first deliuered by liuely voice and afterwards written Sometimes the deliuering of the diuine and canonicall bookes from hand to hand as receiued from the Apostles is named a tradition Sometimes the summe of Christian religion contained in the Apostles creed which the Church receiueth as a rule of her faith is named a tradition but euery one of those articles is found in the Scripture as Waldensis rightly noteth though not together nor in the same forme so that this colection may rightly be named a tradition as hauing beene deliuered from hand to hand in this forme for the direction of the Churches children and yet the Scriptures be sufficient Sometimes by the name of traditions the Fathers vnderstand certaine rites and auncient obseruations And that the Apostles delivered some things in this kind by word and liuely voyce that they wrote not wee easily grant but which they were it can hardly now be knowne as Waldensis rightly noteth But this proueth not the insufficiencie of the Scripture for none of those Fathers speake of points of doctrine that are to be belieued without and besides the Scripture or that cannot be proued from thence though sometimes in a generall sort they name all those points of religion traditions that are not found expressely and in precise tearmes in Scripture and yet may necessarily be deduced from things there expressed Lastly by the name of tradition is vnderstood the sense and meaning of the Scripture receiued from the Apostles and deliuered from hand to hand together with the bookes There are
to the office of Lectors that by the daylie and ordinary vse of reading they may bee fitted to pronounce to the people the wordes of life and with distinction both of vnderstanding and voice to shew vnto the people the things they reade so as that they may bee vnderstood of them that heare them And in the Pontificall wee finde these wordes directed to the Lectors Studete verba Dei videlicet lectiones sacras distinctè apertè ad intelligentiam aedificationem fidelium absque omni mendacio falsitatis proferre That is Bee yee carefull to vtter publish and rehearse the words of God to wit the sacred lessons distinctly and clearely to the vnderstanding and edification of the faithfull without all lying falsehood and vntrueth How generally they vnderstood and spake Latine in Spaine heretofore it may appeare by their present language a barbarisme of Latine as also by the lawes the Gothes gaue vnto them called the Gothique Code written in good Latine And by Lucan Seneca and sundry other principall lights of the Latine tongue So that Marineus Siculus feareth not to say that if the Gothes and Moores and other barbarous nations had not come into Spaine the Spaniards woud still haue spoken as good Latine as the Romans did in the time of Tullie So that it is not vnlikely but that the Spaniards aunciently had their service in Latine but whether they had or not it is evident they had it in a tongue vnderstood by that wee reade in Isidore Oportet vt quando psallitur psallatur ab omnibus cum lectio legitur facta silentio aequè audiatur á cunctis That is It is fitte that when the singing beginneth all should sing when the lesson is read there being a generall silence kept all should equally and in one and the same sorte hearken to that which is read And againe Ideo diaconus clarâ voce silentium admonet vt siue dum psallitur siue dum lectio pronunciatur ab omnibus vnitas conseruetur vt quod omnibus praedicatur aequaliter ab omnibus audiatur That is And therefore doth the deacon also with a cleare and lowd voyce call vpon all to keepe silence that aswell when the singing is as when the lesson is read all may doe one and the same thing that all may heare that which is pronounced equally to all Some other parts there were that had not such vse of the Latine tongue as these had who having Alphabets and characters of their owne so that they could write expresse things in their owne tongues had the whole liturgie and diuine service in their vulgar tongue Of this sort were all those nations kingdomes and people that speake the Slavonian tongue which was the language of more then the third part of Europe besides the Mengrellians Circassians and Gazarites in Asia The characters of this language are of two sorts for there is the Servian character and the Dalmatian All the Christians of Rascia Bosina Servia Bulgaria Moldavia Russia Moscovia and all other nations of the Slavonian language in the Easterne parts that celebrate their liturgies after the Greeke ceremonie and professe obedience to the Patriarch of Constantinople haue the Scriptures in their owne tongue translated as it is sayd by Methodius the companion of Cyrill in preaching the gospell to Gentile nations and written in the Servian character as also their liturgies are The Dalmatian characters are in vse in Dalmatia Liburnia Istria Moravia Silesia Bohemia Polonia c. It is a receiued opinion that Hierome first devised the Dalmatian characters and translated the Scriptures into the Dalmatian tongue but it seemeth that in processe of time his translation was neglected the Latine service brought in and those characters out of vse For Aventinus reporteth that Methodius hauing found out letters and translated the Scripture into the Slavonian tongue perswaded the Dalmatians to explode the Latine tongue to hisse out the Roman rite or ceremonie and make vse of their owne tongue in the holy service of God Eckius confesseth that heretofore the diuine seruice was in the Dalmatian tongue throughout all Illyricum The priests of Liburnia sayth Aventinus which in this our age is subiect to the Archduke of Noricum are yet still ignorant of the Roman tongue and doe say their diuine service in their owne that is in the Slauonian tongue And Iohannes Baptista Palatinus sayth the Slauonians and those of Illyricum haue their service and common prayers in their vulgar tongue and all the people vnderstand it as wee doe our natiue language Auentinus sayth that Methodius went into the kingdome of Boiaria and sought to perswade the inhabitants of Liburnia Noricum Pannonia and Veneda to abandon the Latine and to haue their seruice in the vulgar but Richoualda the Bishop and Adeluinus the Archbishoppe of Salsburge and the priests of 〈◊〉 which successiuely had gouerned the Churches in those parts for the space of 85 yeares according to the decree of Charles the great resisted him and forced him to flie into Morauia But afterwards that which he attempted tooke effect as it appeareth by Auentinus in the words before cited for they of Liburnia had their seruice in the vulgar in his time Hosius confesseth that the seruice in the vulgar tongue was in Bohemia Polonia and that there were some liuing when hee wrote that might remember when in Clepardia in the temple of St Crosse the priests said seruice in the vulgar or Slauon tongue Cromerus sayth that the two Bishoppes Methodius and Cyrillus did good seruice in bringing the people of those parts to the knowledge of God in Christ and that they caused the Slauonians to haue their seruice in their owne tongue the Pope giuing assent and approuing that they did And the same Cromerus sayth the seruice was in the Slauon tongue in Croconia That the Morauians had the seruice in their owne tongue wee haue proofe sufficient for Iohn the eight tooke precise order and commanded it should be soe His Epistle written to the Prince of Morauia is extant in which epistle he hath these words Whereas one Constantine a Philosopher found out letters and characters of the Slauon tongue that so in it they might sound forth the praises that are due to God wee exceedingly commend the same and do commaund that the praises of Christ our God and his workes be vttered and set forth in the same for wee are admonished to praise God not in three tongues only but in all by the sacred authority that commanded saying Praise the Lord all yee Gentiles and praise him together all people Psalme 117. And the Apostles being filled with the holy Ghost spake in all tongues and vttered the great and wonderfull workes of God Act 2. Hence also Paul that heauenly trumpet soundeth forth and exhorteth every tongue to confesse that our Lord Iesus Christ is in the glory
if all haue sinned and haue bin depriued of the glory of God are justified by his grace redeemed then surely Mary was scandalized at that time and that is it that Simeon now prophesieth And even thy soule which knowest that being a virgine and neuer knowing man thou broughtest him forth which heardest of the Angell Gabriel the holy Ghost shall come vpon thee the power of the most high shall ouershadow thee a sword of infidelity shall pierce thou shalt bee stricken with a sword of doubting and thy thoughts shall rent thee into diuerse parts when thou shalt see him whō thou heardest to be the son of God and whom thou knewest to be generated in thee without the seed of man to be crucified to die to be subiect to humane punishments and at the last with teares strong cries complayning saying if it be possible let this cup passe from me Chrysostome vpon the 13 Psalme agreeth with Origen his words are these When Christ was crucified there was none found that did good the Disciples all fledde away Iohn ranne away naked Peter denied him the sword of doubting went through the soule of Mary her selfe And Augustine to the same purpose hath these words And that which hee addeth saying and a sword shall pierce thy soule that the thoughts of many harts may be reuealed thereby doubtlesse hee signified that euen Mary herselfe of whom the sonne of God tooke flesh should doubt in the time of Christs death but soe as to be confirmed in his resurrection And Theophylact vppon the same place of Luke Happily by the sword he vnderstandeth the dolor happily the scandall wherewith Mary was scanalized for seeing him to bee crucified happily shee thought how hee that was borne without the seed of man who had done miracles and raised the dead could be crucified spitte vpon and die and that hee sayth the cogitations of many harts shall bee reuealed importeth no more but the thoughts of many that shall be scandalized shall be reuealed and being reprehended they shall find present remedy and so shalt thou o virgin be reuealed and manifested what thou thoughtest of Christ and then thou shalt be confirmed in the faith so likewise Peter shall bee manifested when hee shall denie him but the power of God shall be shewed when he receaueth him vppon his repentance Chrysostome writing vpon those words behold thy mother and thy brethren c. and those words of Christ Who is my mother and who are my brethren sayth that Christ vttered these words not as being ashamed of his mother or denying her that bare him for had he bin ashamed of her he would not haue passed through her wombe but shewing that it would nothing profit her that she was his mother vnles she did all those things that beseemed her for this that she now attempted argued too much ambition for she would make it known to the people that she had power ouer and could command her sonne not conceauing any greate matter of him and therefore shee came vnseasonably See therefore sayth hee the want of discretion in her and them for it had beene fitte for them to come in and to haue heard with the multitude or if not to haue stayd till hee had ended his speech and then to haue come vnto him but they call him out and this they doe before all shewing too much ambition and willing to shew that with greate power they command him And in another place It is admirable to see how the disciples though very desirous to learne yet knew when it is fitte to aske him for they doe not this in the sight and hearing of all and this Mathew sheweth saying and comming vnto him and Saint Marke they came vnto him priuately or when hee was alone It had beene fitte his mother and his brethren had done so that they should not haue called him out and made such a shew as they did And writing vpon Iohn and intreating of those words of the virgin when the wine began to faile they haue no wine sayth Shee was willing to do them a pleasure and to make herselfe the more illustrious by her child and happily shee was carried with some humane affection as his brethren were when they sayd shew thy selfe to the world desiring to reape glory from his miracles and therefore hee auswereth something sharpely saying what haue I to doe with thee my houre is not yet come a little after speaking of her calling him out mentioned in the former place hee sayth Shee had not that opinion of him that was fitte but because shee had brought him forth shee thought to command him in euery thing after the manner of other mothers whom she should haue honoured and worshipped as her Lord and therefore hee sayth who is my mother And Theophylact writing vpon the same words sayth the mother of Christ would take vpon her to be a mother and shew that shee had power ouer her sonne for as yet shee conceiued noe great thing of him and therefore shee would drawe him out vnto her while hee was yet speaking being a little proud that she had such a sonne at her commaund What doth Christ therefore because he knew her intention heare what hee saith Who is my mother which he said not to wrong his mother but to correct her minde desirous of glory subject to such affections as men are wont to be Euthymius in his Commentaries obserueth the former place in Chrysostome but dareth not reprehend it as Sixtus Senensis telleth vs. But they will say Augustine affirmeth that the Mother of our Lord was without sinne surely it will be found that he saith no such thing the circumstances of that they alleadge out of Augustine are these The Pelagian commemorateth sundry holy ones which are reported not onely not to haue sinned but to haue liued righteously as Abel Enoch Melchizedech Abraham Isaak Iacob c. and addeth to these certaine women as Deborah Anna Samuels mother Iudith Esther another Anna the daughter of Phanuel Elizabeth and the mother of our Lord and Sauiour whom he saith that pietie requireth vs to confesse to haue beene without sinne The words of Augustine in answer to the Pelagian are these except therefore the holy Virgin Mary of whom for the honour of our Lord I will make no question at all now that wee are to speake of sinnes for hence doe we know that more grace was giuen to her wholly to ouer come sinne who was honored so much as to conceiue and beare him whom wee know to haue had no sinne this Virgin therefore excepted if we could gather together all those holy men and women as now liuing and aske of them whether they were without sinne what answer thinke we would they make I pray tell me whether that which this man saith or that which the Apostle Iohn surely how much soeuer they excelled in sanctity while they were in
the more ancient for we intend not to accuse the just but to shew the infirmitie of man and the mercie of GOD vpon and towardes all Enoch as Ecclesiasticus testifieth pleased GOD and was translated into paradise but in that it is written in Genesis hee pleased GOD after he begat Methusalem Basil doth not without cause collect that hee formerly did not so please GOD and the same Basil saith that that great Father of the faithfull is found to haue beene some-where vnfaithfull and not without cause for when God first promised Isaak vnto him though he fell on his face yet he laughed in his heart saying thinkest thou that a sonne shall bee borne to him that is an hundred yeares old and that Sarah who is ninety yeares old shall bring forth Wherevpon Hierome speaketh of Sarah and him in this sort they are reproved for laughing and the very cogitation and thought is reprehended as a part of infidelity yet are they not condemned of infidelity in that they laughed but they receiued the garland of righteousnes in that afterwards they beleeued Besides these the Scripture giueth ample testimony to Noah Daniel Iob who onely in Ezechiel it saith may escape the anger of God ready to come on men yet Noah fell into drâ—…nkennes which is a sinne and Daniel professeth he prayed vnto the Lord and confessed his owne sinne and the sin of his people Iob also is commended in the Scripture and of God himselfe as being a sincere man righteous fearing God and departing from euill and that not in an ordinary sort but so as that none of the most righteous then in the world might be compared vnto him as St Austine rightly collecteth out of the words of God vnto Satan This man though hee were a singular example of innocencie patience and all holines and though hee indured with admirable patience horrible tribulations and trials not for his sinnes but for the manifestation of the righteousnes of God yet as Augustine and Gregorie who as loud sounding trumpets set forth his prayses freely confesse hee was not without veniall sinne Which thing is strongly confirmed in that the same most sincere louer of righteousnes confesseth of himselfe saying I haue sinned what shall I doe vnto thee ô thou â—…eeper of men And being reproued by the Lord and in a most mild sort willed to say what hee could for himselfe hee answered without any circuition that he had spoken foolishly and therefore the Scripture as it were carefully declining the giuing occasion to any one to attribute so great innocencie to Iob as to make him sinles sayd not that he sinned not but that hee sinned not in all those things that hee suffered before that time when he answered his wife if wee haue receiued good things of the hand of the Lord why should we not patiently suffer the evils he bringeth vpon vs Moses beloued of God men and the most meeke of all the inhabitants of the earth doubted something of the promise of the Lord when hee stroke the rocke twise with the rodde to bring out water for the people being distressed for want of water and that his doubting displeased the Lord God and hee let him know so much both by reprouing him and punishing him and therefore presently he sayd to him Aaron because yee beleeued mee not to sanctifie mee before the children of Israel you shall not bring in this people into the land which I will giue them The Scripture also highly commendeth Samuell but as August noteth that neither hee nor Moses nor Aaron were without sin David sufficiently declared when he said thou wast mercifull vnto them and didst punish all their inventions for as August noteth he punisheth them that are appointed to condemnation in his wrath the children of grace in mercy but there is no punishment no correction nor no rod of God due but to sinne Zacharie and Elizabeth are renowmed for eminent righteousnes for they are both sayd to haue beene iust before God walking in all his commandements without reproofe but that Zacharie himselfe was not without fault sinne Gabriel shewed when hee sayd vnto him behold thou shalt be silent and not able to speake And the same may be proved out of Paul who sayth that Christ onely needed not daily as the priests of the law to offer sacrifice first for their owne sinnes and then for the sinnes of the people And it is one thing as the fathers of the councell of Mileuis haue well noted in their epistle to Innocentius to walke without sinne another thing to walke without reproofe for he that walketh so that no man can iustly complaine of him or reprehend him may bee said to walke without reproofe though sometimes thorough humane frailety some lighter sinnes doe seize vpon him because men doe not reproue nor complaine but onely of the more greivous sinnes And to what end should wee runne thorough other examples of the Saints Whereas the lights of the world and salt of the earth the Apostles of Christ that receiued the first fruits of the spirit confessed of themselues that in many things they offended and sinned And therefore the Church taught this euer with great consent Tertullian Quis hominum sine delicto Cyprian proveth by Iob Dauid and Iohn that no man is without sinne and defiling Hilarie vpon those words thou hast despised all them that depart from thy righteousnes If God should despise sinners he should despise all for there is none without sinne Hierome shewing that the Ninivites vpon good ground and for good cause commaunded all to fast both old and young writeth thus The elder age beginneth but the youngger also followeth in the same course for there is none without sinne whether he liue but one day or many yeares for if the starres be not cleane in the sight of God how much lesse a worme rottennes and they that are holden guilty of the sinne of Adam that offended against God And in another place wee follow the authority of the Scripture that no man is without sinne And Saint Augustine whosoeuer are commended in Scripture as hauing a good heart and doing righteously and whosoeuer such after them either now are or shall be hereafter they are all truely great iust and praise worthy but they are not without some sinne nor no one of them is so arrogantly mad as to thinke he hath no need to say the Lords prayer and to aske forgiuenes of his sinnes And in his 31 sermon de verbis Apostoli he hath these words Haehetici Pelagiani Coelestiani dicunt iustos in hac vitâ nullum habere peccatum redi haeretice ad orationem si obsurduisti contra veram fidei rationem Dimitte nobis debita nostra dicis an non dicis Si non dicis etsi praesens fueris corpore foris tamen es ab ecclesiâ Ecclesiae enim oratio est vox est de
that place which the Lord hath chosen shew thee thou shalt obserue to doe according to all that they informe thee according to the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the iudgement which they shall tell thee shalt thou doe thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee neither to the right hand nor to the left And that man that will doe presumptuously not hearkning to the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to minister there or vnto the Iudge that man shall die and thou shalt take away euill from Israel This was the highest Court amongst the Iewes from this there was no appeale and this Court some thinke to haue enjoyed so great and ample priviledges as that it could not erre and thereupon inferre that Popes in their Consistories cannot erre to whom Christ hath made as large promises of assistance and direction as euer he did to the high Priests and Rulers in the time of Moses Law That the Priests and Rulers in the time of the Law could not erre they indeavour to proue because he was to answer it with hisbloud whosoeuer disobeyed the sentence decree of those Iudges God required euery man without declining to the right hand or the left to doe that they commanded If it be objected that the words of Almighty God requiring all men so strictly to obey the sentence and decree of those Rulers are not to bee vnderstood concerning matters of faith but Causes Ciuill and Criminall and that therefore this place maketh not any proofe of the infallibilitie of their judgment in matters of faith it will bee answered that there is no reason to doubt of their judgment in matters of faith of whose right judgment in matters Ciuill and Criminall wee are assured Surely it is true that if those Iudges in the time of the Law could not erre in matters Ciuill and Criminall they were vndoubtedly much more freed from danger of erring in matters of faith but it is one of the strangest paradoxes as I thinke that euer yet was heard of that the Priests and Iudges in the time of the Law were priviledged from danger of erring in matters of fact and that they were so assisted in their proceedings as that they could not bee mis-led by any passions or sinister affections to pervert judgement and doe wrong For besides that it is refuted by sundry instances of sinister and wicked judgments passed by those Iudges against the Seruants and Prophets of Almighty God it maketh the Ministery and government vnder the Law incomparably more glorious and excellent then the Ministerie of the Gospell For it is by all confessed that the Popes and Councels may erre in things of this nature But that the Priests in the time of the Law did sometimes erre in judgment condemning them whō God would not haue had condemned appeareth evidently by that we read in the booke of the Prophesies of Ieremy where when Ieremy had made an end of speaking all that the Lord commanded him to speake then the Priests and the Prophets and al◅ the people took him and said Thou shalt dye the death And when the Princes of Iudah heard of these things they came vp from the Kings house into the house of the Lord sate down in the entry of the new gate of the Lords House Then spake the Priests the Prophets vnto the Princes to all the people saying This man is worthy to dye but the Princes said This man is not worthy to dye for he hath spoken vnto vs in the Name of the Lord our God Here we see the Priests erred and were resisted by the Princes of the Land but elsewhere we reade that the Princes also were angry with Ieremy smote him and layde him in prison in the house of Iehonathan the Scribe and saide unto the King Wee beseech thee let this man be put to death for he weakneth the hands of the men of war that are in the Citie and the hands of all the people So that both Priests and Princes might did sometimes erre in judgment But some man perhaps will say that howsoeuer they might erre in matters of fact yet they could not erre in any matter of substance pertaining to the worship seruice of God This also is clearely demonstrated to be false their errours in things pertaining to the worship and seruice of God proued by sundry examples In the second booke of Kings wee reade that Ahaz k◅ng of Iudah walked in the waies of the kings of Israel made his sonnes goe through the fire after the abominations of the heathen and offered burnt incense in the high places and on the hils and vnder euerie greene tree This wicked Ahaz sent from Damascus to Vrias the Priest the patterne of the Altar he saw at Damascus and the fashion of it and all the workemanship thereof and Vrias the Priest made an Altar in all points like to that which King Ahaz sent from Damascus So did Vrias the Priest before King Ahaz came from Damascus and the King commanded Vrias to offer sacrifice on the Altar and Vrias did whatsoeuer the King commanded him Yea we reade of many Priests especially about the time of the Maccabees that forsooke the law of God and followed the abominations of the heathen Idolaters and many Iudges and Kings likewise so that Dauid Hezekiah Iosias only excepted there was none of the Kings that did not decline more or lesse to Idolatry The meaning therefore of Almighty God according to the iudgment of the best Diuines was not that Priests and Iudges in the the time of the law should be obayed in all things without exception but when they commanded and iudged according to the diuine law and verity and in the same sort must wee vnderstand the words of Christ when he sayth The Scribes and Pharisees sit on the Chaire of Moses and commandeth the people to obserue and doe whatsoeuer they prescribe to be obserued and done For otherwise Christ should be contrary to himselfe who elsewhere willeth men to beware of the leauen of the Pharisees which S. Mathew interpreteth to bee their doctrine teacheth men by his own example to cōtemn their traditiōs Yea it is most certaine that the Pharisees erred dangerously and damnably in many things notwithstanding their sitting on Moses chaire and therefore Christ doth oftentimes sharpely reproue them for mis-interpreting the law of God Some man perhaps will say they taught lesse then is implied in the Law in that they condemned murther adultery and the like crimes but not lust hatred and such other sinister affections of the heart and that therefore Christ did not reproue them as teaching any thing contrary to the Law but as teaching lesse then is contained in it and comming short of it This euasion will not serue for it appeareth euidently that they did not only come
Christ without being beholding to Peter for it or inferiour to him in it but by vertue of their Bishoply authority and offīce which they receiued from Peter Alioqui enim sayth Bellarmine cum omnes Apostoli plurimos Episcopos in varijs locis constituerint si Apostoli ipsi non sint facti Episcopi à Petro certè maxima pars Episcoporum nondeducit originem suam à Petro that is For otherwise seeing all the Apostles constituted exceeding many Bishops in diuerse places if the Apostles themselues were not made Bishops by Peter certainely the greatest part of Bishoppes will not fetch their originall from Peter This his fancie of Peters making the other Apostles Bishoppes immediately after as his manner is like an honest man hee contradicteth confessing that the Apostles were all Bishops and the first Bishops of the Church in that they were Apostles without any such ordination Omnes Apostoli sayth he fuerunt Episcopi imò etiam primi Episcopi Ecclesiae tametsi non sunt ordinati that is All the Apostles were Bishops nay which more is the first Bishops of the Church without any other or new ordination besides their Apostolique mission and calling And in another place he pronoūceth perēptorily that by vertue of these words As my Father sēt me so sēd I you the Apostles were made Vicars of Christ nay that they receiued the very offīce authority of Christ and that in the Apostolique power all Ecclesiasticall power is contained and though in the former place he sayd expressely Non eo ipso quòd aliquis est Apostolus est Episcopus that is A man is not therefore a Bishop because an Apostle for the twelue were Apostles before they were either Bishops or Priests yet in the later place hee sayth it is not to be maruailed at that they were Apostles before the passīon of Christ and yet neither Priests nor Bishops for that the Lord at diuerse times gaue the Apostles diuerse kindes and degrees of power but especiallie in the twentith of Iohn perfected that hee beganne before his passīon Soe that an Apostle perfectly constituted and authorised hath both Priestlie and Episcopall dignitic and power though in the beginning when the Apostles were rather designed then fully constituted not hauing receiued their full Commissīon they vvere neither Priests nor Bishoppes But to leaue BELLARMINE lost in these mazes it is most easie demonstratiuely to proue that the Apostles in that they were Apostles perfectly and fully constituted had both Priestlie and Bishoply dignity and power in most eminent sort For did not CHRIST giue the Apostles power to doe any Ecclesiasticall act that a Bishoppe can doe Did hee not giue them power to preach and baptize vvhen hee sayd vnto them Go teach all nations Baptizing them c to minister the holy Eucharist vvhen hee sayd Doe this as est as ye shall doe it in remembrance of mee Did hee not giue them the power of the Keyes of binding loosing of remitting retaining sinnes consequently all that commeth within the compasse of Ecclesiasticall office and Ministerie doubtlesse hee did Neither is there any that dareth to deny any part of that which hath beene saide And therefore it is an idle fansie that Peter made the rest of his fellowes Bishops the Apostolique power implying in it eminently Episcopall as the greater the lesser But they will say Peter made Iames the lesser Bishop of Hierusalem Indeed Baronius falsifieth Chrysostome and maketh him say that the Doctour of the world made Iames Bishop of Hierusalem whereas hee saith no such thing but asking the question why Peter whom Christ so much fauoured was not preferred to bee Bishop of Hierusalem answereth that Christ made him Doctour of the world which was a greater honour then to haue beene fastened to the Church of Hierusalem to haue beene set in the Episcopall Throne there But it is cleare by the testimonies of Antiquity that Peter Iames the greater Iohn ordained Iames Bishop of Hierusalem So saith Anacletus in his second Epistie if any credit be to be giuen vnto it where hee hath these words A Bishop must be ordained of three Bishops as Peter Iames the greater and Iohn ordained Iames the lesser Bishop of Hierusalem Clemens Alexandrinus also as we reade in Eusebius saith the very same and Hierome de viris illustribus attributeth the ordaining of Iames not to Peter alone but to the Apostles His words are Iacobus statim post passionem Domini ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum Episcopus ordinatur that is Iames presently after the passion of the Lord is ordained Bishop of Hierusalem by the Apostles If any man aske how the Apostles did ordaine or make Iames being an Apostle a Bishop if the Apostolique office imply in it the office and dignitie of a Bishop as the greater the lesser we answere that a Bishop differing from an Apostle as in other things so in this that he is fixed to some certaine place whereof specially hee taketh the care whereas the care imployment of an Apostle is more at large When the Apostles after the conversion of Nations and people began to retire themselues to certaine places there to rest and specially to take care thereof they were in that respect rather Bishops then Apostles and in this sort Iames the lesser being appointed by the Apostles to make his principall abode at Hierusalem a chiefe city of the world whence the faith spread it selfe into all other parts and more specially to take care thereof is rightly said to haue beene constituted Bishop of that place by them not as if they had giuen him any new power and authority that he had not before or not in so perfect sort but that they limited and restrained him more specially to one certaine place where he should vse the same The place in the Acts maketh nothing for the confirmation of the Popish errour for Paul and Barnabas formerly designed by Christ to be Apostles were againe by the ministerie of Prophets revealing the will and pleasure of Almighty GOD separated more specially to bee Apostles of the Gentiles and put forth into that employment with fasting prayer and imposition of hands not thereby receiuing any new power but a speciall limitation and assignation of those parts of the world wherein principally they should be employed Besides these were not Apostles but Prophets such as Agabus was that are mentioned in this place inferiour in degree to Apostles and such as might not make an Apostle to be a Bishop but did onely signifie and reueale what the will of God was and whither he meant to send these worthy Apostles and so with prayer and fasting commended them to the grace of God and therefore this place maketh nothing for proofe of Peters ordaining and appointing the rest of the Apostles to be Bishops CHAP. 24. Of the preeminence that Peter had amongst the Apostles and the reason why Christ directed his speeches specially
confessed the Lord then to giue a sound in the Church in reading the diuine Scriptures of the Lord. The Exorcists were such as tooke care of the Energumenes or men vexed with the Diuell who in ancient times came to the Churches in great companies and were there prouided for and kept vnder rules and disciplinary gouernment These Exorcists receiued of the hands of the Bishop the booke wherein the Exorcismes were written which they were to commit to memory that so by earnest inuocation of the name of CHRIST who is to returne to judge the quicke and the dead and to judge the world in fire they might obtaine of him the repressing of Sathans furies and the ease and deliuerance of such as were disquieted and vexed by him These had power to impose hands on them that were disquieted with Diuels whether baptised or not and in solemne manner to commend them vnto God who onely hath power to rebuke Sathan Acoluthes were so named for that they were to follow and attend the Bishop whithersoeuer he went that so they might not onely be witnesses of his blamelesse conuersation but do vnto him such seruice as he should require stand in need of whereupon in later times for that they were to go before the Bishop in the Churches bearing wax lights in the night watches and other meetings for diuine seruice in the night time they were named Ceroferarij that is Taper-bearers Subdeacons were to assist the Deacons in all things pertaining to them The order of Subdeacons in ancient time was not accounted a sacred order so that they might not touch the sacred vessels nor none might be chosen a Bishop out of their ranke but the later Bishops of Rome decreed that the order of Subdeacons should be reputed a sacred order These were the inferiour orders of ministery in the Church in ancieÌ„t times to which were added Widowes or holy women which being aged and destitute of friends were maintained by the Church and being of good report were chosen and appointed to minister to the women that were baptized to teach and direct them how to answere the Baptizer and how to liue afterwards as also to take care of them that were sicke All these as well Ostiaries Lectors Exorcists and Acoluthes as Subdeacons in ancient times serued for a certaine space in these degrees and therefore the solemne designing of them thereunto was not to be disliked but now when they execute the office of Ostiaries who are no Ostiaries of Lectors who are no Lectors of Psalmists who are worthy to bee driuen not onely out of the Quire but out of the Church also as Bishoppe Lindan rightly noteth when none of these performe the duties their names import and euery man almost is made a Presbyter the first day as if none might bee made the next it is but for shew and fashion onely that men are ordained to the performance of these offices and in truth and in deede nothing else but a meere mockery as the same Bishop Lindan ingenuously confesseth With whom Duarenus agreeth His words are Hodie nec Diaconis nec alijs inferioribus Clericis vllus locus est in Ecclesia vllumue ministerium aut munus quòd exequantur sed quia priscis canonibus statutum est vt nemo Presbyter ordinetur â—…isi per omnes gradus inferiores ascenderit ideo dicis causa vt ita dicam gradatim ordinari solent idque certo quodam solenniqueritu vt ad honorem Presbyterij aut quemuis aliâ—… sublimiorem capessendum idonei reddantur potest que dici imaginaria haec ordinatio that is At this day neither is there any place for Deacons nor other inferiour Clergimen in the Church nor any ministery or function for them to execute but because it is ordained in the ancient Canons that no man be ordained a Presbyter vnlesse hee ascend and climbe vp by all inferiour degrees therefore for names sake they are wont to bee ordained to euery of these degrees in order and that with a certaine solemne rite that they may be made capable of Priestly honour or any other higher dignity And this ordination may rightly be tearmed an Imaginarie ordination or in imagination onely And therefore our Aduersaries cannot justly blame vs who omitting the other inferiour ordinations giue no lower order then that of a Deacon All these both Ostiaries Lectors Acoluthes and Subdeacons in former times were sanctified and set apart to serue God in these meaner employments that they might bee trained vp thereby to performe the duties of higher orders For in those times men were not promoted to the highest roomes but by degrees being found to haue demeaned themselues well in the lower and therefore they were vnder a stricter kinde of gouernment then they of the Laity and both in their conuersation habite and all things beseeming modesty and grauity they were more precisely tyed to the keeping of order then other men Hereupon they were not suffered to weare their haire long like wantons vnciuill men or men of warre but were commanded to polle their whole heads leauing onely a circular crowne in the lower parts thereof And here truly we cannot but condemne the absurd custome of the Romane Church violating old Canons degenerating from auncient vse and exposing her Priests and Leuites to the scorne and contempt of the world by those triobolar shauen crownes which daily shee setteth before our eyes For first whereas the Councell of Toledo in Spaine prouideth that all Cleargie men Lectors Deacons and Priests polling the whole head aboue shall leaue onely a circular crowne below and not as the Lectors hitherto had done in the parts of Galicia who wearing their haire long as Lay-men were polled in a little round compasse in the tops of their heads onely for that this had beene the custome of certaine Heretiques in Spaine the Church of Rome abandoneth the forme of polling prescribed by the Councell and alloweth the obseruation of those auncient Heretiques the Councell condemned Here we see saith Bishop Lindan whence these triobolar crowns in the tops of cleargy mens heads did come namely from certaine auncient Heretiques in Spaine But these lesser things might easily be reformed if the vnspeakable scandals shames dishonours of the Church were first remoued and taken away This is the censure of that learned Bishop Secondly whereas rasure was not vsed in auncient times but condemned by the Fathers as most vnseemely they of the Church of Rome haue left tonsure and brought in rasure in steed thereof That rasure was not vsed in auncient times it appeareth by Clemens Alexandrinus where he saith that the haires are to bee cut off not with the rasoure but with the Barbours sheares and by Optatus Bishop of Mileuis where hee reprehendeth the Donatists that tooke certaine Catholike Priests and by force did shaue their heads Shew vs saith hee where you are commanded to shaue the heads of Priests when as on the
to listen and heare what the Lord will speake vnto vs. Great and glorious are these dignities of the Deacons yet the councell of Carthage maketh them Ministers not of the Bishop alone but of the Presbyters also soe that they might not sit in the presence of the Bishop or Presbyters And when some went about to preferre them before Presbyters Hierome with great violence opposed himselfe against the same saying Quid patitur mensarum viduarum minister vt supra eos se tumidus efferat ad quorum preces Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur that is What passion is this that thus transporteth the Minister of the Tables and Widowes that swelling in pride hee should lift vp himselfe aboue them at whose prayers the body and blood of Christ is consecrated And obiecting to himselfe the custome of the Romane Church where a Presbyter is ordained vpon the testimony of a Deacon hee passionately breaketh into these words Quid mihi profers vnius vrbis consuetudinem Diaconos paucitas honorabiles Presbyteros turba contemptibiles facit Caeterum etiam in Ecclesiâ Romae Presbyteri sedent stant Diaconi licet paulatim increbresentibus vitijs inter Presbyteros absente Episcopo sedere Diaconum viderim that is why dost thou vrge me with the custome of one Citie the fewnesse of Deacons maketh them honorable and the number of Presbyters make theÌ„ to be lesse esteemed Yet eueÌ„ in the Church of Rome Presbyters do sit and Deacons stand although things growing worse and worse by degrees and many things growing out of order I haue seene a Deacon in the absence of the Bishop sit amongst the Presbyters Out of the society and company of the Deacons in each Church there was one chosen who not only was to performe the things pertaining to the Deacons office but also to prescribe vnto others what they should doe The institution of these is not new but very ancient as it appeareth by Hierome who vrging the necessity of order and gouernment sheweth that the heardes of cattel haue their leaders which they follow that Bees haue their King that the Cranes flye after one that leadeth them the way that there is one Emperour and one Iudge of each prouince that Rome could not haue two brethren to reigne in her as Kings but was dedicated in parricide that â—…sau and Iacob were at warre in the wombe of Rebeccah that euery Church hath her Bishop euery company of Presbyters and Deacons their Arch-presbyter and Arch-deacon These chiefe Deacons or Arch-deacons were in processe of time notwithstanding all Canons to the contrary and the violent opposition of Hierome and other Worthies of those times lifted vp not onely aboue the Presbyters but the Arch-presbyters also The reason of which their aduancement was first because the number of Presbyters made them little esteemed and the paucity and fewnesse of Deacons made them honourable as I noted before out of Hierome Secondly because they were busied about money-matters and had the charge of the treasure of the Church which kind of imployments are vsually much set by Thirdly because being Ministers vnto the Bishop they were vsed by him for the viewing of such parts of his Diocese as he could not conueniently come vnto himselfe the dispatch of thinges for him and in the end for the reformation of the lesser and smaller faults which vpon such view they should find Whereupon at the last they obtained a kind of jurisdiction power of correction by prescriptioÌ„ custome whereof I shall haue occasion to speake more hereafter Thus haue we spoken of the inferiour degrees of Ministery by which men were wont to ascend to the higher being trained vp for a certaine space in the lower that they might thereby be fitted for the higher according to that of Hierome touching Nepotian Fit Clericus per solitos gradus Presbyter ordinatur that is Hee is made a Clergie-man and passing through the ordinary degrees he is ordained a Presbyter CHAP. 26. Of the orders and degrees of them that are trusted with the Ministery of the Word and Sacraments and the gouernment of Gods people and particularly of Lay-Elders falsly by some supposed to be Gouernours of the Church NOW it remaineth that we speake of them that are trusted with the ministery of the Word and Sacraments and the gouernment of Gods people comprehended vnder one common name of Presbyters that is Fatherly Guides of Gods Church and people Touching these Presbyters or fatherly Guides of Gods Church some in our time haue a new and strange conceipt making them to be of two sorts whereof some haue charge of gouernment onely and some together therewith the ministery of the Word and Sacraments the one sort Lay-men and the other Clergie-men the one sort gouerning only the other sort preaching teaching ministring Sacraments and gouerning also Touching these newly supposed gouerning Elders that are not Mininisters of the Word and Sacraments I will first set downe the reasons that moue vs to thinke there neuer were any such in the Church and secondly I will shew the weakenesse of their reasons that are induced to thinke there were The first reason that moueth vs to thinke there neuer were any such is because Bishops Presbyters that preach and minister Sacraments and Deacons that assist them howsoeuer they much degenerated in later times yet all still remained in all Christian Churches throughout the world though in many things exceedingly different as Greeke Latine Aethiopian and Armenian in their names and offices also in some sort But of these Lay-elders there are noe foot-steps to be found in any Christian Church in the world nor were not for many hundred yeares whereas there would haue beene some remaines of these as well as of the other had they euer had any institution from Christ and his Apostles as the other had Our second reason is for that S. Paul prescribing Timothy how he should establish the Church and appoint her Pastours and shewing who should be Bishops and Ministers who Deacons yea who Widowes passeth immediately from describing the qualitie of such as were to be Bishops and Ministers of the Word and Sacraments to the Deacons omitting these Lay-elders that are supposed to lye in the midst betweene them no way describing vnto vs of what quality they must bee which in reason hee neither might nor would haue omitted if there had beene any such Our third reason is for that neither Scripture nor practice of the Church bounding the gouernment of such Gouernours nor giuing any direction how farre they may goe in the same and where they must stay lest they meddle with that they haue nothing to doe with men should be left to a most dangerous vncertainty in an office and employment of so great consequence either of not doing that their office and place requireth or presuming beyond that they should which is not to be conceiued seeing Christ our gracious Sauiour by himselfe or his Apostles
Cornelius The fourth in the eighth Epistle of the first booke ad plebem vniversam Out of the first of these places they will proue that hee maketh Peter Head of the whole Church Out of the second that there is one High Priest one supreme Iudge in the Church whom all men are bound to obey Out of the third that Cornelius was Head of all Catholiques Out of the fourth that there is one singular Chaire in the Church wherein he sitteth that must teach all To euery of these allegations I will answere in order and make it most cleare and evident that none of the things imagined by the Cardinall can possibly bee concluded out of any of the fore-named places For to beginne with the first whosoeuer will but reade ouer Cyprians booke of the vnity of the Church shall most certainely and vndoubtedly finde that hee speaketh not in that book of Peters headship of the vniuersall Church as the Iesuite fansieth but of the head originall and first beginning of Pastorall commission Which that it may the better appeare I will as briefely as possibly I can lay downe the most principall and materiall circumstances of the whole discourse of that booke written vpon occasion of the Schisme of the Nouatians The first thing that occurreth in the whole discourse of the booke is the authors obseruation of the endlesse malice of Satan who when he found the Idols of the Gentiles wherein he was wont to be worshipped to be forsaken his Seates Temples deserted almost all professing to belieue in Christ Haereses inuenit Schismata quibus subuerteret fidem veritatem corrumperet scinderet vnitatem that is Found out Heresies and Schismes by which he might subvert the Faith corrupt the verity and cut in sunder the vnity so that Quos detinere non potest in viae veteris coecitate circumscribit decipit noui itineris errore that is Whom he cannot hold in the blindnesse and darkenes of the old way those he circumuenteth and beguileth by making them erre goe aside and not hold on the right course of their journey in the new way that leadeth to life In the second place he sheweth that this so falleth out and that men are soe beguiled and misse-led into Schismes Heresies because they returne not backe to the first origine of truth because they seeke not the head nor keepe the doctrine of the heauenly Maister which if a man would consider and thinke of he should not neede to seeke out many arguments nor fetch any great compasse about but the truth would easily without any great search offer it selfe vnto him For therefore did Christ when hee was to lay the foundations of the Christian Church say specially to Peter Thou art Peter vpon this Rocke will I build my Church I will giue to thee the keyes of the kingdome of heauen and againe after his resurrection Feede my sheepe because though rising againe from the dead he gaue like power to all the Apostles when he sayd As my Father sent me so send I you whose sinnes ye remit they are remitted whose sinnes ye retaine they are retained yet he would by speaking specially to one by appointing one chaire shew what vnity should be in the Church The rest of the Apostles sayth Cypriā were vndoubtedly the same that Peter was equall in honour power but therefore did Christ in the first place giue or at least promise to giue specially particularly to one that Apostolique cōmissiō which he meant also to giueto the rest that hee might thereby shew that the Church must be one and that there must be but one Episcopall chaire in the world All the Apostles say the Cyprian are Pastours but the flock of Christ is but one which they are to feed with vnanimous cōsent There is but one body of the Church one spirit one hope of our calling one Lord one Faith one baptisme one God This vnity all men must endeauour to keepe especially Bishops that they may make it appeare that there is but one Bishoply commission in the Christian Church Cuius a singulis in solidum pars tenetur that is Whereof euery one indifferently and in equall sort hath his part Here is nothing that proueth the vniuersality of the Papall power or that Peter was by Christ made head of the whole Church But this place most mainely ouerthroweth that supposed Headship For Cyprian teacheth that Christ meant to giue equall power and authority to all his Apostles and that the reason why intending no more to one then to the rest yet he more specially directed his speech to one then to the rest was onely to shew that there must be an vnity in the Church which he settled in that beginning with one from him he proceeded to the rest not meaning that the rest should receiue any thing from him but that from himselfe immediately they should receiue that in the second place which he had first and that they should receiue the same commission together with him into which he was first put that they might know him to be the first of their company In this sense Innocentius sayth A Petro ipse Episcopatus tota authoritas nominis huius emersit that is The Bishoply office and the whole authority of this name and title tooke beginning from Peter whom he sayth all Bishops must respect as Sui nominis honoris authorem that is as the first and originall of their name and honour And Leo in like sort Huius muner is sacramentum ita Dominus ad omnium Apostolorum officium voluit pertinere vt in beatissimo Petro Apostolorū omnium summo principaliter collocaret v◅ ab ipso quasi quodam capite dona sua velut in corpus omne diffunderet that is The Lords will was that the mystery of this heauenly gift commission and imployment should so pertaine to the ministery office of all the Apostles that yet he would first and principally place it in most blessed Peter the greatest of all the Apostles that soe beginning with him as the head and first hee might proceede from him to poure forth his gifts into all the body But sayth Bellarmine Cyprian speaketh of another head of the Church besides Christ and maketh the Church that so enlargeth it selfe and hath so many parts yet to be one in this roote and head as the beames are many but the light is one as the boughes are many but the tree is one the riuers are many but the fountaine is one It is strange that a man of his learning and judgement should so mis-conceiue things as he seemeth to doe For it is most euident to any one that will but take the paines to peruse the place that Cyprian speaketh not of a distinct head of the Church different from Christ and appointed by him to gouerne the Church but of the originall first beginning and head of the commission the Pastours of the Church haue
chiefe-fathers of Israel they came to Ierusalem and all the congregation made a couenant with the King said The Kings sonne must reigne as the Lord hath said of the sons of Dauid Hereupon the King is proclaimed Athaliah is slaine the house of Baal destroied the Altars and idols that were in it broken down In all this narration there is nothing that maketh for the chiefe Priests power of deposing lawfull kings if they become heretiques For first Athaliah was an vsurper no lawfull Queene Secondly here was nothing done by Iehoiada alone but by him and the Captaines of hundreths and the chiefe Fathers of Israel that entred into couenant with him Thirdly there is great difference betweene the high Priest in the time of the Lawe and in the time of Christ. For before the comming of Christ the high Priest euen in the managing of the weightiest ciuill affaires and in iudgement of life and death sate in the Councell of State as the second person next vnto the King by Gods owne appointment Whereas our Aduersaries dare not claime any such thing for the Pope And therefore it is not to bee maruailed at if the high Priest beeing the second person in the kingdome of Iudah by Gods owne appointment and the Vnckle and Protectour of the young king whom his wife had saued from destruction bee the first mouer for the bringing of him to his right and when things are resolued on by common consent take on him not onely to commaund and direct the Priests and Leuites but the Captaines souldiers also for the establishing of their King the suppressing of a bloody tyrant and vsurper For all this might be done by Iehoiada as a chiefe man in that state and yet the Pope be so farre from obtaining that he claimeth which is to depose lawfull kings for abusing their authority that hee may not presume to do all that the high Priests lawfully did and might doe as not hauing so great preeminence from Christ in respect of matters of ciuill state in any kingdome of the world as the high Priest had by Gods owne appointment in the kingdome of Iudah Israel In the old Law saith Occā the high Priest meddled in matters of warre in the judgment of life and death the losse of members vengeance of blood it beseemed him well so to do But the Priests of the new Law may not meddle with things of this nature Wherefore from the power dominion which the high Priest of the old Law had it cannot be concluded that the Pope hath any power in tēporal matters The fifth example is of Ambrose repelling Theodosius the Emperour from the communion of the Church after the bloody and horrible murther that was committed at Thessalonica by his commandement The story is this The coach-man of Borherica the Captaine of the souldiers in that towne for some fault was committed to prison Now when the solemne horse-race and sporting fight of horsemen approched the people of Thessalonica desired to haue him set at liberty as one of whom there would be great vse in those ensuing solemne sports which being denied the citty was in an vprore and Botherica and certaine other of the magistrates were stoned to death and most despitefully vsed Theodosius the Emperour hearing of this outrage was exceedingly moued and commaunded a certaine number to be put to the sword without all iudiciall forme of proceeding or putting difference betweene offendors and such as were innocent So that seauen thousand perished by the sword and among them many strangers that were come into the citty vpon diuerse occasions that had no part in the outrage for which Theodosius was so sore displeased were most cruelly and vniustly slaine Saint Ambrose vnderstanding of this violent and vniust proceeding of the Emperour the next time he came to Millaine and was comming to the Church after his wonted manner met him at the doore and stayd him from entring with this speech Thou seemest not to know O Emperour what horrible and bloudy murthers haue beene committed by thee neither dost thou bethinke thy selfe now thy rage is past to what extremities thy fury carried thee perhaps the glory of thine Imperiall power will not let thee take notice of any fault thy greatnesse repelleth all checke of reason controlling thee but thou shouldest know the frailty of mans nature and that the dust was that beginning whence we are taken and and to which we must returne Let not therefore the glory of thy purple robes make thee forget the weakenesse of that body of flesh that is couered with them Thy subjects O Emperour are in nature like thee and in seruice thy fellowes for there is one Lord and commander ouer all the maker of all things Wherefore with what eyes wilt thou behold his temple or with what feete wilt thou treade on the sacred pauement thereof wilt thou lift vp to him those hands from which the bloud yet droppeth wilt thou receiue with them the sacred body of our Lord or wilt thou presume to put to thy mouth the cup replenished with the precious bloud of Christ which hast shed so much innocent bloud by the word of thy mouth vttering the passion of thy furious minde Depart therefore adde not this iniquity to the rest and decline not those bands which God aboue approueth With these speeches the Emperour was much moued and knowing the distinct duties both of Emperours and Bishops for that he had bin trained vp in the knowledge of heauenly doctrine returned to the Court with teares sighes A long time after for eight moneths were first past the solemne feast of the Natiuity of Christ approached and all prepared themselues to solemnize the same with triumphant ioy But the Emperor sate in the Court lamenting powring out riuers of teares which when Ruffinus maister of the pallace perceiued he came vnto him and asked the cause of his weeping to whom weeping more bitterly then before he said O Ruffinus thou makest but a sport of these things for thou art touched with no sence of those euils wherewith I am afflicted but the consideration of my calamity maketh me sigh and lament for that whereas the doores of Gods Temple are open to slaues and beggars and they goe freely into the same to make prayers vnto their Lord they are shut against me and which is yet worse the gates of heauen are shut against me also for I cannot forget the words of our Lord who saith Whomsoeuer ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heauen To whom Ruffinus replied I will runne if it please thee O Emperour to the Bishop and intreate him to vnloose these bands wherewith hee hath bound thee No saith the Emperour it is to no purpose so to doe for he will not bee intreated I know his sentence is right and iust and that he will not transgresse the law of God for any respect of imperiall power Yet when Ruffinus was
before vpon whose answere that he was to be reputed King that could best do the duty of a King the French by a publique decree of the whole nation chose Pipine to be King which thing Zachary approued Otho Frisingensis saith that the French se nt messengers to Rome sciscitandi gratia to aske the Popes aduice and to be resolued by him vpon whose answere and by whose authority warranting them it was lawfull so to do Bonifacius Arch-bishop of Mentz the other Princes of the kingdome met together and chose Pipine King And Rhegino saith Pipine was chosen King according to the manner and custome of the French and being annointed by the hands of Bonifacius Arch-bishop of Mentz was by the French lifted vp into the royall throne and Childericke who was but in title onely a King was shorne and thrust into a Monastery With these agreeth Sigebertus and the rest Wherefore to conclude this point touching the deposition of Childericke we must obserue First that hee was not deposed for heresie or any way going about to hinder the course of religion and that therefore the Pope could not depose him vnlesse Princes be subiect to such censures for defects of nature and negligence in doing their duties Secondly that hee and his predecessours for almost an hundred yeares were put from all gouernement and were but in name onely Kings others hauing the authority and that with the allowance of the whole state So that it is the lesse to be maruelled if the Pope beeing consulted as a Diuine answered it was fit rather that hee should haue the name title and inauguration of a King that was to do the duty then hee that was to be but a shadow onely Yet do I not say that hee spake like a good Diuine Thirdly that in those times the Vniuersity of Paris was not yet founded and the kingdome had few learned men and that therefore they sought to forrainers For otherwise wee know that afterwards the Kings and Princes of France rather beleeued the Diuines of Paris then the Court of Rome in greater matters then this Fourthly that the Bishop of Rome as Patriarch of the West was the chiefe Bishop in these parts of the world and therefore not vnfitly consulted in a matter of such consequence as this was Wherefore let vs now proceed to the fourth instance which is that of the translation of the West Empire from the Emperours of Constantinople to Charles the Great which our Aduersaries say was done by Pope Leo the third But surely whosoeuer shall looke into the course of Histories shall find that this instance maketh rather against them then for them For it is most certaine that the Pope by his papall power did not translate the Empire The Romanes sayth Sigebert who long before in their hearts were fallen away from the Emperour of Constantinople now taking the opportunity of the occasion offered while a woman hauing put out the eyes of Constantine the Emperour her sonne tooke vpon her to rule ouer them with one consent proclaimed Charles the King their Emperour and by the hands of Leo the pope set the Crowne vpon his head and gaue him the title of Caesar and Augustus With Sigebertus the author of the great Chronicle agreeth His words are these In the time of the solemnities of the Masse celebrated vpon Christmas day in S. Peters Church Leo the pope by the decree of the people of Rome at their entreaty crowned Charles proclaimed Emperor of the Romanes set such a Diademe vpon his head as the anciēt Emperors were wont to weare then the people which was present in great number with ioyful acclamation cried out thrise Carolo Augusto á Deo coronato magno et pacifico Imperatori vita victoria So that we see it was the decree of the Romanes that made Charles Emperour and that they vsed Leo for the performance of the solemne rites of his Coronatiō vnction With Sigebert the Authour of the great Chronicle we may joyne Lambertus Schaffnaburgesis His words are Carolus á Romanis Augustus est appellatus That is the Romanes proclaimed Charles Augustus And Nauclerus saith Pontifex populi Romani consensu Carolum Romanorum Imperatorem declarat c. that is The high Bishop with the consent of the people of Rome proclaimeth Charles Emperour of Romanes crowneth him with a Diademe The people with a joyfull shout crying out thrice Carolo Augusto á Deo coronato magno pacifico Imperatori vita victoria But to cleare this point to make it euident to all the world that howsoeuer the Pope Clergy might concurre in this act with the people nobles of Italy as hauing part interest in matters of state as well as other yet the Pope by his Papall power did not translate the Empire three things are to be obserued The first that in the time of Gregory the 2d there was a great rebellion in Italy against the Emperour of Constantinople and a desire to chuse a new Emperour that they of Rauenna Venice proceeded so farre in it that they would haue forced the Bishoppe of Rome and others to concurre with them whereby it appeareth that the act of translation was not proper to the Bishop of Rome but proceeded frō the concurring desires of the Italians and was their act rather then his The second that Charles was a mighty potent great prince hauing vnder him all France Spaine a great part of Germany with many other countries by his sword had subiected to him the Lombards was Lord of the greatest part of Italy before either the people proclaimed him or the Pope crowned him Emperor So that howsoeuer the Italians by Leo the B. proclaimed crowned accounted him Emperour yet it was his right of inheritance his sword that had possessed him of the thing before euer they gaue him the title of the West Empire The third that whether the Italians had right to choose an Emperour or not it mattereth nothing seeing they rebelled against their Emperor thought that in case of such necessity they might so do and that therefore the obiection of Bellarmine against our position is too weake when he saith the people had no power to choose the Emperour For howsoeuer anciently the Emperours were chosen by the souliers or came to it by inheritance yet the people at this time de facto tooke vpon them to choose without curious disputing the question of right The fifth instance of the Popes intermedling in the disposition of the kingdomes of the world is that of Gregory the 5 who as Bellarmine saith appointed the forme of chusing the Emperour by the seauen Princes of Germany and ordained that the Emperour should euer after be chosen by them For the clearing of which point wee must obserue that the Empire of the West being translated from Constantinople into France in the person of Charles
Rome tooke the oath of fealty to the Emperour Ludouicus father to Lotharius This oath was taken in the time of Fredericke the first in Verona The forme of the oath was this I do sweare that frō this time forward I will be faithfull and true to my Lord Fredericke Emperour of Romanes against all men c. And that I will neuer go about to take from him his royalties c. These were the differences betweene Fredericke Barbarossa and the Pope and the opposition grew so great and strong that diuerse of the Cardinals conspired against the Emperour and gaue large summes of money to Adrian the Pope to excommunicate him And this conspiracy was confirmed with oathes that none should draw backe or seeke the Emperours fauour without the rest And that if the Pope should dye they should choose none but one of the conspiring Cardinals to succeede him But as Dauid sayd They shall curse but thou shalt blesse so GOD that spake by the mouth of Dauid turned all that these conspiratours did to a contrary effect For it came to passe that some few dayes after the Pope had denounced excommunication against the Emperour at Anagnia going forth to refresh himselfe with some fewe accompanying him hee dranke of the water of a certaine well and presently a Flye entred into his mouth and stucke so fast in his throat that by no skill of Physitions it could bee drawne out till hee had breathed out his last breath Yet were not the conspirators discouraged by this accident but after his death the greater part of Cardinals chose Rowland the Chancelor a professed enemy to the Empire and one of the conspiratours in contempt of Fredericke and the Germane Nation though there were some other that chose Cardinall Octauian and named him Victor This Rowland naming himselfe Alexander the third after he came to the Popedowe had many dangerous conflicts with the Emperour and was oftentimes put to the worse by him in so much that in the end hee was forced to disguise himselfe and in the habit of a Cooke to flye to Venice where hee liued for a certaine space in base condition till in the end being knowne hee was honourably entertained and kindly intreated by the Venetians which when Fredericke vnderstood of hee was greatly displeased with them for entertaining his enemy and sent his Sonne with a great Nauy and strong army by force and violence to fetch him thence But such was the ill hap of the yong Prince that beeing incountred by the Venetians hee was by them taken prisoner neither could his deliuerance by any meanes be procured vnlesse Fredericke would come in Person to Venice and seeke to be reconciled to the Pope This hard condition the Emperour yeelded to for his Sonnes sake went to Venice in person and was reconciled to the Pope vppon this condition that hee should restore to the Pope the citty of Rome and whatsoeuer belonged to the royalty of it and that hee should do such pennance as hee should inioyne him which beeing yeelded vnto he came to the doore of Saint Markes Church and all the people looking on the Pope commaunded him to prostrate himselfe on the ground and to aske forgiuenesse and then treading on his neck said It is written thou shalt goe vpon the Aspe and Basiliske and thou shalt treade vpon the Lyon and the Dragon and when Fredericke said vnto him Non tibi sed Petro cuius successor es pareo that is I doe not thus submit my self to thee but to Peter the Pope answered mihi Petro that is thou shalt doe it both vnto mee and vnto Peter This storie so liuely describing the insolencie and pride of the Pope which hitherto hath gone for current is now by certaine Romanists called in question so little doe they regard their owne Historians and so freely may they cast aside whatsoeuer standeth in their way Howsoeuer we see how mainely the Popes did striue after they had gotten a kind of ciuill dominiō vnder the Emperours to cast off their yoake wholly and not content therewith sought to be Lords also ouer the Emperours and to make them acknowledge that they holde their Empire from them How and vpon what occasiō Leo the third with the consent of the people of Rome proclaimed annointed Charles the Great King of France by inheritance and of Italy by conquest and Emperour of Rome I haue shewed before Yet as Sabellicus noteth the opinions of men in the world were greatly altered and changed after this new inauguration for whereas before the Empire was thought to be frō Heauen and the gift of God Now many began to think it to be the gift of the Pope Whereupon wee reade that Adrian the fourth vpon the report of some villanies offered to the Bishop of Landa in the parts of Germany as hee returned frō Rome and not so pursued sought out and revenged as was expected by Fredericke Barbarossa then Emperour writeth vnto him and maruailing at his negligence in revenging wrongs offered to men of the Church putteth him in mind what benefites he had receiued frō him and the Church of Rome as namely the fulnesse of Imperiall dignitie and honour the crowne appertaining thereunto and professeth that hee would haue beene willing to haue conferred greater benefites then these vpon him knowing right well how much good he might doe vnto the Church This Letter being brought to the Emperour by two Cardinals Bernard Rowland offended the Emperour Princes exceedingly especially in that it was said in the Letter that the fulnesse of dignitie and honour was cōferred vpon the Emperour by the Pope that hee had receiued the Imperiall crowne of his hand and that it would not grieue him if he had receiued greater benefites of his hand They which heard this Letter read were induced to make a strict construction of the words and to thinke the Pope vttered them in the sense which they conceiued because they knew well that certaine Romanists had not feared to affirme that the Emperours had hitherto possessed the Empire of Rome and the Kingdome of Italy by the Popes gift and that they had not onely vttered such words but that by writing they had affirmed the same and by painting liuely represented it that so it might be transmitted sent ouer to posterities For in the Palace of Lateran they had painted the manner of Lotharius the Emperour his receiuing the Crowne of the Pope and written ouer it these words Rex venit antè fores iurans prius urbis honores post homo fit papae sumit quo dante coronam That is the King doth come before the gate first swearing to the cities state the Popes man then doth hee become and of his gift doth take the Crowne This painting and superscription being reported to the Emperour the yeare before when hee was neare the citty by certaine faithfull and trusty subiects of his greatly displeased him But the
Pope perceiuing his dislike promised that both the writing and the painting should bee taken away that it might giue no occasiō of contention discord These Romish practises making the Emperour and his Nobles to vnderstand the wordes of the Popes Letter in the worst sense caused the message of these Cardinals to bee very offensiue and a generall murmuring against them was heard among the Princes which growing more lowde and being heard and discerned by the Legates one of them adventured in the quarrell of his Master to demaund of whom the Emperour hath his Empire if hee haue it not of the Lord Pope Which speach of the Cardinall so inraged the Princes that one of them to wit Otto the County Palatine of Boiaria had with his sword runne him through had not Fredericke the Emperor interposed his authority pacified the present rage The Emperor seeing in what termes things stood tooke the best course he could for the security of the Legates and commaunded that they should presently bee had to their lodgings that the next morning they should be gon returne directly to him that sent them and not to wander vp downe in the Territories of Bishops Abbots as he thus happily dispatched them away in safety so after they were gonne providently by letters he caused it to be made known throughout the whole Empire what had passed betweene him the Pope The Tenor of his letters was this Whereas the diuine power from which all power proceedeth both in heauen and earth hath committed to vs his annoynted the rule of the Kingdome and Empire and ordayned that by Imperiall armes wee should preserue the peace of the Churches we are forced not without great griefe of heart to complaine vnto you that from the head of the holy Church in which Christ imprinted the Character of his peace loue the causes of dissention the seminary of euils and the poyson of a most pestiferous disease doe seeme to flow by meanes whereof if God turne not away this euill there is danger least the vnity betwixt the Priest-hood kingdome be broken and a schisme follow For of late as we were in the Court of Bisuntium consulting about things concerning the honour of the Empire good of the Churches there came vnto vs certain Legates from the Pope who professed to bring such a message as tended greatly to the increase of the honour of the Empire But when we had the first day honorably entertained them as the manner is and the second day sat with our Princes to heare their message They as it were puffed vp by reason of the Mammō of iniquity out of the height of their pride out of the haughtinesse of their arrogant mindes and out of the execrable elation of their swelling hearts presented vnto vs an Embassage contained in letters written by the Pope the tenor whereof was That wee should alwayes haue before the eyes of our mind in what sort the Lord Pope had conferred vpon vs the Ensigne of the Imperiall crowne and that yet notwithstanding it would no way repent him if he had done vs greater fauours and wee had receiued more benefits of him These thinges not onely much affected but so moued the Princes and inraged them in such sort that if we had not stayed them by our Princely authority the two wicked Priestes the Legates had neuer returned aliue Wherefore seeing they had many schedules sealed to be written in at their pleasure by which as formerly they were wont to doe they might scatter the poyson of their iniquity throughout all the Churches of the Germane kingdome make bare naked the holy Altars carry away with them the vessels of the house of God as a prey that they might proceede no farther in mischief we cōmanded them without wandring or going aside to returne the same way they came For whereas we haue our kingdome by the election of the Princes from God only who in the passion of his son subiected the world to 2 sword◅ and the Apostle Peter informed the world with the same doctrine saying Feare God honour the King We are well assured that whosoeuer shall say that we receiue our Imperiall crowne as a benefit from the Pope he is contrary to the institution of God the doctrine of blessed Peter is a lyar and therefore our hope is that you will not suffer the honor of the Empire which hath continued from the Constitution of the Citty and the Institution of Christian Religion inviolable till our times to be diminished by such vnheard-of nouelties presumptuous pride But howsoeuer know yee that we will rather run into perill of death it self then suffer such a shamefull confusion to fall out in our times After the returne of the Cardinals their complaints made the Pope wrote letters to the Arch-bishops and Bishops of Germany telling them with what indignity the Emperour dismissed his Legates and how he forbad any to come to Rome out of his kingdome and prayed them to aduise him better and to let him know that the Church which is builded vpon a most firme sure rocke shall continue for euer howsoeuer it may bee shaken with windes and tempests The Bishoppes of Germany hauing receiued these letters from the Pope writ backe vnto him that howsoeuer the Church cannot bee moued yet they were greatly shaken by reason of these differences betweene him and the Emperour and tell him that the words of his letter were such as that neither the Emperor and Princes could indure them nor they knew how to defend them as being strange and vnheard-of before these times Notwithstanding they let him know that after the receipt of his letters they communed with the Emperour about these affaires and receiued from him such an answere as beseemed a Catholique Prince to wit that there are two things whereby his Empire must be swayed the Lawes of Emperors and the vse and custome of his ancestors These limits he is resolued not to passe and whatsoeuer will not stand with these he will vtterly refuse and reject he is willing to giue all due reuerence vnto his ghostly father but that he ascribeth the crown of his Empire to the diuine fauour onely the first voyce in the election to the Arch-bishop of Mentz and the rest to the other Princes in order that hee acknowledgeth to haue receiued the vnction of a King from the Arch-bishop of Coleyn and the supreme vnction which is that of an Emperour from the Pope and that whatsoeuer is besides these is more then ynough and proceedeth from that which is euill that hee had not sent away the Cardinals in contempt but forbad them to proceede any further with such writings as they had tending to the dishonour and scandall of the Empire and that hee had not restrained the going of men into Italy vpon necessary occasions to be allowed by their Bishops nor simply inhibited the comming of men from thence
the Councell of Constance Wherefore seeing so many Councells Popes yeelded the power of electing or at least of allowing and confirming the Popes to the Emperours and seeing so good effects followed of it and so ill of the contrary there is no reason why our Aduersaries should dislike it For seeing the people aunciently had their consent in these affaires Fredericke the Emperour had reason when hee said that himselfe as King and ruler of the people ought to bee chiefe in choosing his owne Bishop Neither had the Emperours onely this right in disposing of the Bishopricke of Rome and other dignities Ecclesiasticall but other Christian Kings likewise had a principall stroake in the appointing of Bishops For as Nauclere noteth the French Kings haue had the right of Inuestitures euer since the time of Adrian the first and Duarenus sheweth that howsoeuer Ludouicus renounced the right of choosing the Bishop of Rome yet hee held still the right of Inuestiture of other Bishops into the place whereof came afterwards that right which the King vseth when in the vacancie of a Bishopricke hee giueth power to choose and some other royalties which the Kings of France still retaine It appeareth by the twelfth Councell of Toledo that the Kings had a principall stroake in elections in the Churches of Spaine and touching England Matthew Paris testifieth that Henry the first by William of Warnaste his agent protested to the Pope he would rather loose his kingdome then the right of Inuestitures and added threatning words to the same protestation Neither did he onely make verball protestations but hee really practised that hee spake and gaue the Arch bishopricke of Canterbury to Rodolphe Bishoppe of London inuesting him by Pastoral staffe ring Articuli cleri prescribe that elections shall be free frō force feare or intreaty of Secular powers yet so as that the Kings license bee first asked after the election done his royall assent and confirmation bee added to make it good Whereupon the Statute of prouisors of Benefices made at Westminster the fiue and twentith of Edward the third hath these wordes Our Soueraigne Lord the King and his heires shall haue and enioy for the time the collations to the Archbishoprickes and other dignities electiue which bee of his aduowry such as his progenitors had before free election was granted sith that the first elections were granted by the Kings progenitours vpon a certaine forme and condition as namely to demaund licence of the King to choose after choyce made to haue his royall assent Which condition being not kept the thing ought by reason to returne to his first nature So that we see that at first the Cleargy people were to choose their Bishops Ministers yet so that Princes by their right were to moderate things and nothing was to be done without them But when they endowed Churches with ample revenewes possessions disburdened the people of the charge of maintaining their Pastors they had now a farther reason to sway things then before And thence it is that the Statute aboue-mentioned saith the Kings gaue power of free elections yet vpon condition of seeking their licence confirmation as hauing the right of nomination in themselues in that they were Founders Likewise touching Presbyters the auncient Canon of the Councel of Carthage which was that Bishops should not ordain clearks without the consent of their Cleargie that also they should haue the assent and testimony of the Citizens held while the Cleargy liued together vpon the common contributions and divident but when not onely titles were divided distinguished and men placed in rurall Churches abroad but seuerall allowance made for the maintenance of such as should attend the seruice of God by the Lords of those Countrey townes out of their owne lands and the lands of their tennants they that thus carefully provided for the Church were much respected And it was thought fit they should haue great interest in the choosing and nominating of Clearkes in such places Iustinian the Emperour to reward such as had beene beneficiall in this sort to the Church and to incourage others to doe the like decreed That if any man build a Church or house of Prayer and would haue Clearkes to be placed there if hee allow maintenance for them and name such as are worthy they shall be ordained vpon his nomination But if he shall choose such as bee prohibited by the Canons as vnworthy the Bishop shall take care to promote some whom he thinketh more worthy And the Councell of Toledo about the yeare of Christ 655 made a Canon to the same effect The words of the councell are these We decree that as long as the Founders of Churches doe liue they shall be suffered to haue the chiefe and continuall care of the said Churches shall offer fit Rectors to the Bishop to be ordained And of the Bishop neglecting the Founders shall presume to place any others let him know that his admission shall be voyde and to his shame but if such as they choose be prohibited by the Canons as vnworthy then let the Bishop take care to promote some whom he thinketh more worthy Whereby we see what respect was anciently had to such as founded Churches gaue lands and possessions to the same yet were they not called Lords of such places after such dedication to God but Patrons onely because they were to defend the rights thereof and to protect such as there attended the seruice of God though they had right to nominate men to serue in these places yet might they not judge or punish them if they neglected their duties but onely complaine of them to the Bishop or Magistrate Neither might they dispose of the possessions thus giuen to the Church and dedicated to God but if they fell into poverty they were to be maintained out of the revenewes thereof This power and right of nomination and presentation resting in Princes and other Founders can no way prejudice or hurt the state of the Church if Bishops to whō examination and ordination pertaineth doe their duties in refusing to consecrate ordaine such as the Canons prohibite but very great confusions did follow the Popes intermeddling in bestowing Church-liuings and dignities as wee shall soone finde if wee looke into the practise of them in former times CHAP. 55. Of the Popes disordered intermedling with the elections of Bishoppes and other Ministers of the Church their vsurpation intrusion and preiudicing the right and liberty of others THe Popes informer times greatly preiudiced the right and liberty of other men and hurt the estate of the Church of God three waies first by giuing priuiledges to Fryers a people vnknowne to all antiquity to enter into the Churches and charges of other men to do Ministeriall acts and to get vnto themselues those things which of right should haue beene yeelded to other Secondly by Commendams and Thirdly by reseruations
and prouisions Touching the first Matthew Paris noteth that about the yeare of our Lord 1246 the Preaching Fryers obtained great priuiledges from the Pope to preach to heare confessions and to do other ministeriall acts euery where disgracing the ordinary Pastors as ignorant and insufficient to gouerne the people of God This new found order of Fryers he sayth seemed to many discreet and wise men to tend to the ouerthrow of the order of Pastors and Bishops setled by the blessed Apostles and holy Doctors and that not hauing beene aboue thirty yeares in England they were growne more out of order then the Monkes of S. Austine and Benedictes order were in many ages For such was their impudent and shameles boldnesse that they came to the Synodes of Bishops Prelates Arch-deacons sitting as Presidents in the middest of their Deanes Rectors and other worthy men requiring their letters of commission and priuiledge to be read and themselues to be admitted and commended to preach in their Synodes and Parish Churches as Embassadors and Angels of God with all honour In this insolent sort went they vp and downe from place to place and asked of euery man though of a religious profession to whom he confessed himselfe and if any one answered that hee made his confession to his owne Priest they asked againe what Ideot that was they told him hee was neuer hearer of Diuinity that hee neuer studied the Decrees and that he was not able to discusse any one cōtrouersy adding that such Priests wereblind guides of the blind willed all men to come vnto thē as to men knowing to discern betweene Leprosie and Leprosie to whom the hard and obscure things were knowne and the secrets of God reuealed whereupon many especially Noble-men and Noblewomen betooke themselues to these contemning their owne Pastors soe that the ordinary Ministers grew into great contempt which grieued them not a little nor without cause But of these Fryerly people no man hath written better then Armachanus who excellently deciphereth their intollerable hypocrisie iniustice and couetousnesse joyned with all cunning and coozening practises and deuises Their hypocrisie he discouereth in that though they pretended pouerty yet they had houses like the stately pallaces of Princes Churches more costly then any Cathedrall Churches more and richer Ornaments then all the Prelates of the world more and better bookes then all the Doctors and great learned men of the world cloysters and walking places so sumptuous stately and large that men of armes might fight on horsebacke and encounter one another with their speares in them and their apparell richer then the greatest and most reuerend prelates Their iniustice he sheweth in their iniurious intruding into other mens Churches charges depriuing thē of their authority honor maintenāce their couetousnes in that they sought only to do those things that might bring gaine and insinuated themselues into the fauour and liking of the great ones of the world little regarding those of meane condition Whereupon hee warneth all men to take heede of them as wicked seducers that enter into houses and lead captiue simple women laden with sinnes bringing in sectes of perdition and in couetousnesse making merchandise of men by crafty and fained words of flattery This is that vnprofitable and most dangerous and damnable generation of disguised and masked hypocrites which like Locusts are come out of the bottomlesse pitte in these last ages of the world eating vp and deuouring whatsoeuer is greene and flourishing vpon the earth The Monkes in their beginning were a people of a farre other sort For they tooke not on them to preach or minister Sacraments but were a kind of voluntary penitents according to that of Saint Hierome Monachus Plangentis non Docentis officium habet that is a Monke is a mourner hee is no teacher And againe Alia Monachorum est causa alia Clericorum Clerici pascunt ones Ego pascor Illi de Altari viuunt mihi quasi infructuosae arbor◅ securis ponitur ad radicem si munus ad Altare non defere that is The condition of Monkes and of Clearkes is very different Clearkes feede the sheepe but I am fedde they liue by the Altar but if I bring not my gift to the Altar the Axe is lifted vp against mee and layd as to the roote of an vnfruitfull tree And therefore as Duarenus noteth in ancient times Monkes were meere Lay-men neyther were there any Priestes or Clearkes found in Monasteries but they came all as other of the people did to the common Temples and Churches to bee taught to pray and to receiue the Sacraments Which thing hee sayth Iustinian the Emperour plainely enough expresseth and with him agreeth Bishoppe Lindan who sayth that in ancient time all Monkes were Lay-men and that they were all excluded and shut out of the Quire when they came into the Temple and house of God sometimes they did send for a Priest to do Ministeriall actes among them and in the end some of them were ordained Priests that soe they might haue the Ministration of Sacraments among them and make as it were a certaine Church among themselues and so neither be forced to go to other Churches nor to borrow Priests from other And to the same purpose Hugo de Sancto Victore sayth that by speciall fauour and indulgence the diuine orders of Ministery are granted to Monkes that they might liue more quietly within themselues not that they should exercise Prelacie in the people of God but that they might celebrate the communion of God within their owne priuate retiring places which yet they say in the beginning was not so For Monkes and men dwelling in the wildernesse are sayd to haue had Priests assigned vnto them But as Duarenus noteth hereby the passage was opened and all Monkes began to bee ordained Priestes though they had no gouernement of the Church that they might procure the more dignity to themselues the order and degree of Cleargy-men being more high and honourable then that of Monkes Neyther did they long containe themselues within these bounds after they had attained to be Priestes but gotte authority and iurisdiction ouer Churches abroad eyther because they were founded within their lands or for that it pleased the Pope to take them from Bishops and subiect them to these Monkes At the first as the same Duarenus noteth they liued apart in certaine abiding places which they had in the mountaines and deserts whence they were called not onely Monkes but Heremites and Anchorites though at certaine houres and sette times they mette Afterwards they beganne to liue together and the places where they liued were called Caenobia of the communion of life And when certaine Ecclesiasticall persons remaining in cities and places of resort and teaching the people tyed themselues to like obseruations though haply not altogether so strict as these had done they were called Canonici that is
wife which hee marryed while hee was yet a Lay-man hee should bee put out of the Ministery of the Church Whereas all the most famous Presbyters and Bishoppes also in the East might if they pleased but were no way by any Law constrained to refraine from the company of their wiues So that many of them euen when they were Bishoppes did beget children of their lawfull wiues A particular and most approued example whereof wee haue in the Father of Gregory Nazianzene who beeing a Bishoppe not onely liued with his wife till death divided them but became the Father also of Gregory Nazianzen as worthy and renowned a man as any the Greeke Church euer had after he was entered into the priestly Office as appeareth by his owne wordes reported by Gregory Nazianzen For after many motiues vsed by him to Gregory Nazianzen his sonne to perswade him to assist him in the worke of his Bishoply Ministery the last that hee most insisteth on is taken from the consideration of his olde age dis-inabling him to beare that burden and performe that worke any longer that hitherto hee had done And therefore intreating him to put to his helping hand he breaketh out into thesewords Thou hast not liued so long a time as I haue spent in the priestly office therefore yeeld thus much vnto mee and helpe mee in that little time of my life that is yet behinde or else thou shalt not haue the honour to bury mee but I will giue charge to another to doe it Heere we see Gregory Nazianzens father was employed in the priestly function before hee was borne and that therefore hee became the father of so worthy a sonne after hee was a Bishoppe or at least after hee was a Presbyter Neither was the father of Gregory Nazianzene singular in this behalfe For Athanasius writing to Dracontius who beeing greatly in loue with a retyred and monasticall kinde of life refused the Bishoply Office when hee was chosen vnto it for that hee feared hee might not in that state liue so strictly as formerly hee had done controuleth this his conceit and telleth him that hee may in the Bishoppes office hunger and thirst as Paul did drinke no wine as Timothy and fast often as did the Apostle So that the Bishoppes Office is no cause of doing ill or doing lesse good then may bee done in other states of life and there-upon assureth him that hee hath knowne Bishoppes to fast and Monkes to eate Bishoppes to drinke no wine and Monkes to drinke it Bishoppes to worke miracles and Monkes to doe none lastly many Bishoppes neuer to haue married and Monkes to haue become fathers of children and on the contrary side Bishoppes to haue become fathers of children and Monkes to haue liued altogether as Monkes without desire of posterity Neither can this authority of Athanasius bee avoyded as Bellarmine seeketh to avoyde it namely that those Bishoppes did ill which hee sayth became fathers of children For Clemens Alexandrinus an auncient Greeke Father sayth expressely The Apostle admitteth the husband of one wife to bee a Bispoppe and that though hee bee a Presbyter Deacon or Lay-man if hee vse marriage aright and so as not to incurre iust reprehension hee shall be saued by the procreation of children Chrysostome accordeth with Athanasius and Clemens Alexandrinus and sayth that mariage is in so high a degree honourable that men with it may ascend into the Episcopall chayres euen such as yet liue with their wiues For though it be an hard thing yet it is possible so to performe the duties of marriage as not to be wanting in the performance of the duties of a Bishoppe wherevnto Zozomen agreeth saying of Spiridion that though hee had wife and children yet he was not therefore any whitte the more negligent in performing the duties of his calling and of Gregory Nyssene it is reported that though he were marryed yet he was no way inferiour to his worthy brother that liued single But some haply will obiect that Epiphanius is of another minde and that hee sayth where the strictnesse of the canon is obserued none but such as are vnmarried or resolued to refraine from matrimoniall society with their wiues are admitted into the ministery of the Church Wee deny not but that he sayth so But hee confesseth in the same place that many in the Church did liue with their wiues in his time and beget Children euen after their admission into the ministery Soe that the strictnesse of the Canon hee speaketh of was not generall but in some certaine places onely as I noted before out of Socrates Nay it is euident by Socrates that howsoeuer in Thessalia Thessalonica Macedonia and Hellas this strictnesse preuailed yet all the Bishoppes of the East besides were left to their owne liberty and howsoeuer some in diuerse places went about to take away this liberty yet the worthyest men the Church had stood in defence of it protesting they would not suffer themselues to bee inthralled in this behalfe to which purpose that of the famous and renowned Synesius is most excellent who when they of Ptolemais would needes haue him to be their Bishoppe which thing hee little desired hee made them acquainted with his present condition and resolued purpose for the time to come God sayth hee the Law and the sacred hand of Theophilus hath giuen vnto mee a wife I therefore tell all men afore-hand and testifie vnto all that I will neither suffer my selfe to be altogether estranged and seperated from her neyther will I liue with her secretly as an adulterer For the one of these is no way pious and godly and the other no way lawfull but I will desire and pray vnto God that exceeding many and most good and happy children may be borne vnto mee Neyther will I haue him that is to be chiefe in ordayning of mee to be ignorant hereof This liberty the councel in Trullo impeached in respect of Bishops but in respect of Presbyters it continueth in all the East Churches of the world euen till this day Greeke Armenian and Ethiopian warranted vnto them by the Canons of the Apostles Iudgment of Bishops Decrees of Councels and the consent of all other partes of the World For first the Apostle Saint Paule telleth the Corinthians hee had power to lead about a wife a sister as well as the brethen of the Lord and Cephas Which words Clemens Alexandrinus interpreteth in this sort Paul feareth not in a certaine Epistle to speake to his yoake-fellow which hee did not lead about with him because he had no neede of any great seruice Therefore hee sayth in a certaine Epistle Haue wee not power to lead about a sister a wife as the rest of the Apostles but they truely as it was meete because they could not spare their Ministery attending without distraction to preaching lead their wiues about not as wiues but as sisters which should minister together with them
most blessed ones are who are in that possession it is a great question that the holy Angells are there is no question but concerning holy men departed whether they may be said to be now already in that possession it is doubtfull c. Surely it is maruaile if Saint Augustine escape the censure of Master Higgons who pronounceth it folly to doubt of these thinges Sixtus Senensis saith wee must ciuilly interpret Saint Augustine in these his sayings but Bellarmine saith directly hee sometimes doubted of the place where the soules of the iust are after death and that vpon the 36. Psalme he denyeth them to be there where after the iudgement they shall bee This is that Augustine that Master Higgons in his scurrill and ruffian-like phrase saith was not so easily to bee iaded by me as Ambrose Thinking them all Iades as it seemeth and vnfitte for such a horse-man as hee is to ride on that haue beene doubtfull or found to erre in this point if he doe I would desire to know of him what he thinketh of Irenaus who saith that the soules of men dying shall goe into an invisible place appointed for them by God and shall abide there till the resurrection attending and waiting for it and that after receiuing their bodies and perfitly rising againe that is corporally as Christ rose they shall come into the sight of God Of Iustine Martyr who saith no man receiueth the reward of the thinges he did in this life till the resurrection that the soule of the good theefe that was crucified with Christ entered into Paradise and is kept there till the day of resurrection reward that there the soules of good men doe see the humanity of Christ themselues the thinges that are vnder them and besides the Angels and Diuels Of Tertullian who saith Nulli patet coelum terrâ adhuc salvâ ne dixer im clausa that is heauen is open to none while the earth remaineth safe and whole that I say not shut vp and againe thou hast our booke of Paradise wherein wee determine that euery soule is sequestred apud inferos with them that are in the lower dwellings till the day of the Lord. Of Lactantius who will haue no man thinke that soules are iudged presently after death but that they are all detayned and kept in one common custody till the time come when the greatest iudge shall examine their workes Of Victorinus Martyr who vpon those wordes of Iohn in the Reuelation I saw the soules of the slaine vnder the Altar of God obserueth that in the time of the Law there were two Altars one of Gold within another of brasse without that as heauen is vnderstood by that golden Altar that was within to which the Priests entered onely once in the yeare so by the brasen Altar the earth is vnderstood vnder which is Infernus a region remoued from paines and fire and the resting place of the Saints in which the iust are seene and heard of the vngodly yet they cannot passe one to another Of Bernard whose opinion Alphonsus á Castro confesseth to be as I haue said Sixtus Senensis likewise but thinketh that hee is to be excused with a benigne affection because of the exceeding great number of renowned Fathers of the Church which seemed to giue authority to this opinion by their testimony amongst whom he reckoneth Ambrose for one Lastly of Pope Iohn the 22. who was violent in the maintenance of this opinion These premises considered let the Reader iudge whether Master Higgons had any cause to complaine of want of faithfullnesse and exactnesse in me in that I say that many of the Fathers thought there is no iudgment to passe vpon men till the last day that all men are holdē either in some place vnder the earth or else in some other place appointed for that purpose so that they come not into heauen nor receiue the reward of their labours till the generall iudgement and that many made prayers for the dead out of this conceipt such as that is in Iames his Liturgy that God would remember all the faithfull that are falne a sleepe in the sleepe of death since Abel the Iust till this present time For I doe not make this the ground of the generall practise and intention of the Church in her prayers as this shamelesse companion would make men beleeue SECT 5. FRom the foure Doctors of the Church and the supposed wronges offered to them he proceedeth to shew that I calumniate a worthy person to defend the inexcusable folly of our Geneuian Apostle his meaning is that I wrong Bellarmine to iustifie Calvine but what is the wrong done to the Cardinall Doctour Field saith hee accuseth Bellarmine vniustly of trifeling and sencelesse foolery in the question of prayer for the dead Let the reader take the paines to peruse the place cited by Master Higgons out of my booke and he shall finde him to bee a very false vnhonest trifeling fellow in so saying For first I doe not accuse Bellarmine of sencelesse foolery in the matter of prayer for the dead as hee vntruly reporteth against his owne knowledge but in that he seeketh to calumniate Master Caluine worthy of eternall honor in very childish sort about the name of Merit Caluine saith the Fathers were farre from the Popish errour touching merit and that yet they vsed the word whence men haue since taken occasion of errour therefore saith Bellarm hee dissenteth from all antiquity and acknowledgeth the Romane faith to be the auncient faith religion This is Bellarmines form of reasoning against Caluin if he say any thing which whether it be full of senceles foolery or not I wil refer it to the iudgment of any one that hath his sences Yet notwithstanding M. Higgons goeth on maketh a consolatory conclusion that Bell needeth not to be discontented that I haue thus wronged him seeing I haue likewise vniustly accused the Fathers But if hee may be as justly charged with foolery in his manner of reasoning against Calvin as the Fathers are truely reported to haue holden the opinion imputed to them by me as there is no question but he may I thinke this comfortable conclusion will not be very cordiall vnto him Secondly I doe not say that Bellarmine doth trifle in the question of prayer for the dead as he likewise adding one lye to another sayth I doe but in prouing the doctrine of the Romane Church that now is to be the same with that which was of olde And therefore silly Master Higgons knoweth not what he writeth But that Bellarmine doth indeede whatsoeuer this trifler sayth to the contrary egregiously trifle I will demonstrate to the Reader in such sort that neither Higgons nor any of his new masters shall be able to avoyde it Thus therefore the case standeth Bellarmine in his discourse of the notes of the Church not in the particular question
pray vnto almighty God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ his only begotten Son who continually maketh intercession for vs the holy Spirit wherewith wee haue bin annoynted to be Christians by the grace of God the Sacrament of Baptisme that he will respect his Church now tottering in great danger and that he will moue the hearts of the Prelats of the Church that at last for a little while putting away this most pernitions selfe loue they may be perswaded to correct things manifestly amisse to reforme themselues There needeth no Councell there need no sillogismes there needeth no alledging of places of Scripture for the quieting of these stirres of the Lutherans but there is need of good minds of charity towards God our neighbour and of humility c. Touching the diuisions of thē that haue abandoned the tyrannical gouernment of the Bishoppe of Rome and imbraced the sincere profession of the heauenly truth whom this Lucian calleth pretensed Gospellers they are neither such nor so many as our Aduersaries would make the world beleeue as I haue shewed at large in the place cited by Master Higgons But be they what they may bee I haue truly sayd that the Romanists are the causes of them in that their obstinate resistance against all peaceable publicke proceeding in the worke of reformation in a Generall Councell forced men to take another course and to take this worke in hand seuerally in the seuerall Kingdomes of the world That there was no hope of reformation by a Generall Councell and that seuerall Kingdomes were to take care for the redressing of things amisse within their own compasse I haue shewed out of Gerson his words are these I see that the reformation of the Church will neuer bee brought to passe by a Councell without the presidencie of a well affected guide wise and constant let the members therefore prouide for themselues thorough all Kingdomes and Prouinces when they shall be able and know how to compasse this worke Now that this kinde of proceeding must needes bee accompanied with differences though not of moment nor reall yet in shew greater then were to bee wished euery man I thinke will confesse that hath the sence of a man Against all this M. Hig. hath nothing to say but as if he had gone out of his country passed the Seas of purpose to become a jester amongst our melancholy countrey-men that are abroad to make them merry maketh a jest of it as he doth of all other things and so passeth from it The second part § 1 BVT lette vs giue him leaue to sport himselfe a little we shall haue him in earnest by and by For in the next part of this chapter hee vndertaketh to proue that Gerson whom I bring in as a worthy guide of Gods Church in the time wherein hee liued and one that vvished the reformation of things amisse vtterly detested the reformation that hath beene transacted by Luther Zuinglius the rest But his proofes will be found too weake for though it were granted that he erred in the matter of transubstantiation inuocation of Saints and some such like things yet will it neuer be proued that hee erred heretically or that hee was not willing to yeelde to the trueth in these or any other thinges wherin hee was deceiued when it should be made to appeare vnto him Cyprian erred in the matter of rebaptization Lactantius and sundry other were carried into the errour of the Millenaries many Catholickes in Augustines time thought that all Oxthodoxe and right-beleeuing Christians shall be saued in the end how wickedly soeuer they liue here yet were they of one communion with them that thought otherwise If Master Higgons thinke that I produce Gerson as a man fully professing in euery point of Doctrine as wee doe he wholly mistaketh me for I was not so simple either to thinke so or to goe about to perswade others so but this is that which I said and still constantly affirme that God preserued his true Church in the midst of all the errors and confusions of the Papacy that the errours condemned by vs neuer found generall constant allowance in the daies of our Fathers and that there were many who held the foundation according to the light of knowledge which God vouchsafed them wished the reformatiō of such things as were amisse some of them discerning more of the errors abuses that were then found in the Church other fewer of which number I reckon Gerson to be one of eminent sort ranke For this worthy Diuine beleeued as we doe that all our inherent righteousnesse is imperfit yea that it is like the polluted ragges of a menstruous woman that it cannot endure the triall of Gods seuere iudgement that wee must trust in the only mercy and goodnesse of God if we desire to be surely established against all assaults that all sinnes are by nature mortall that indulgences reach not to the dead that they are but remissions of enjoyned penance that the Pope hath no power to dispose of the Kingdomes of the world that hee is like the Duke of Venice amongst the great Senators of that State greater then each one but inferiour to the whole companie of Bishoppes that hee is subiect to errour and that in case of errour or other scandalous misdemeanour hee may bee iudicially deposed that Christian perfection consisteth neither in pouerty nor riches but in a mind resolued to regard these thinges no farther then they stand with the loue of God and serue for the aduancement of his glory and the good of men So that sometimes it is a matter of more perfection to haue and possesse riches then to cast them from vs contrary to the false conceit of the Mendicantes who made extreame pouerty to bee the height of all perfection and thought that Christ himselfe did liue by begging which hee reiecteth as an absurd errour hee teacheth that the precept of Almighty GOD requireth all the actions of vertue in the best sort they canne bee performed and that therefore they do not rightly discerne betweene the matter of precepts and counsailes who imagine that the precept requireth the inferiour degrees of vertue and the counsaile the more high and excellent whereas counsailes vrge vs not to a higher degree of vertue or morall goodnesse but onely shew vs the meanes whereby most easily if all things bee answerable in the parties wee may attaine to the height of vertue the procept prescribeth so ouer-throwing the opinion of workes of supererogation hee teacheth that there is no more merit of single life then of marriage vnlesse the parties liuing in these different estates otherwise excell one another in the workes of vertue that virginity in that which it addeth aboue coniugal chastity is no vertue nor higher degree of vertue but a splendour of vertue only that the lawes of men binde not
contrary side there are so many examples proposed that it ought not so to be done With Clemens Alexandrinus and Optatus Hierome agreeth who vpon the 44. of Ezekiel saith in expresse words that Priests must neither nourish their haire nor be shaued but so polled that their skinne may still remaine hid and couered and Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that Dionysius Epiphanius Hierome Athanafius Palladius Augustine Isidore Bede and the Councels of Carthage Toledo doe speake of tonsure onely and neuer mention rasure and that the Epistle of Anicetus the Pope alledged for rasure is not indubitate What then will the Cardinall bring for defence of the contrary custome now prevayling in the Church of Rome and what will he answer to these authorities of the ancient We reprehend not saith he the customes of those times neither do they of those times condemne our obseruation For howsoeuer tonsure and not rasure was anciently vsed yet were not they of the Clergie forbidden to vse rasure or to shaue their heads A strange answer of so great a Rabbi and contrary to that he knoweth to be vndoubtedly true For Optatus directly condemneth rasure as wee haue heard and Hierome writing vpon the 44 of Ezekiel hath these words Quod autem sequitur Caput autem suū non radent neque comam nutrient sed tondentes attondebunt capita sua perspicuè demonstratur nec rasis capitibus sicut Sacerdotes cultoresque Isidis atque Serapis nos esse debere nec rursum comam dimittere quod propriè luxuriosorum est barbarorumque militantium c. That is that which followeth They shall not shaue their heads nor let their haire grow long but polling they shall polle their heads doeth clearely demonstrate that wee should neither shaue our heads like the Priests and worshippers of Isis and Serapis nor on the other side let our haire grow long as wantons barbarous men and Souldiers are wont to doe that that which is fitting honest and seemely may appeare in the faces of the Priests The Septnagint reade the wordes of the Prophet somewhat otherwise in this sort They shall not shaue their heads nor cut their haire too neere sed operientes operient capitasua that is but hiding they shall hide their heads whereby wee learne that wee must neither make our selues bald by shauing nor cut the haire of our heads so neere as if wee were shauen but let our haire grow so that the skinne may be hid couered These are the words of Hierome whereby it appeareth that the absurd and ridiculous ceremony of the Romanists in shauing the heads of those of their Clergie is condemned by the Fathers and that Bellarmine speaketh against his owne conscience when hee sayth the contrary Wherefore ceasing any longer to insist vpon the refutation of the absurditie of so ridiculous a ceromonie and leauing those inferiour orders and degrees of Ministerie in the Church of God wherein men in auncient times were trained vp vnder the rules of strict and seuere gouernment discipline and fitted for higher and greater employments let vs come to the office of the Deacons The office of Bishops Presbyters was from Christs owne immediate institution but the institution of Deacons was from the Apostles as Cyprian deliuereth These the Bishop alone may ordaine neither is it necessarie that other impose their hands with him as in the ordination of Presbyters seeing they are consecrated onely to bee assistants to the Bishop Presbyters not admitted into the fellowship of the same power and order with them The Deacons according to the intendment of their first institution were to take care of the poore and the treasure of the Church and therevpon Chrysostome and after him the Fathers of the sixth generall Councell doe thinke they were not the same wee now haue ours being busied in other affaires of the Church But I am of opinion that they were the same and that the end of their first institution being principally to ease the Apostles of the care of prouiding for the poore and to take the charge of the Church-treasure when the treasure of the Church encreasing was committed to certaine Stewards and the poore otherwise provided for they were more specially vsed for the assisting of the Bishoppe and Presbyters in things pertaining to Gods seruice and worship Whereupon wee shall finde in some cases they might baptize reconcile penitents preach and doe sundry other things pertaining to the office of the Bishop and Presbyters That in some cases they might baptize u Tertullian witnesseth That they might reconcile penitents wee haue the authoritie of Saint Cyprian That they might preach wee haue the testimony of Saint z Gregory And that they assisted the Bishops and Presbyters in ministring the Sacrament of the Lords body and bloud and ministred the cup it appeareth by Cyprian And hereupon Hierome amplifieth the dignity of them exceedingly shewing that for avoyding presumption the Presbyters may not take the cup of the Lord from the holy Table vnlesse it be deliuered vnto them by the Deacons These are they saith hee of whom we reade in the Revelation Septem Angeli Ecclesiarum hi sunt septem candelabra aurea hi sunt voces tonitruorum virtutum operatione praeclari humilitate praediti quieti Euangelizantes pacem annunciantes bona dissentiones rixas scandala resecare docentes soli Deo colloquentes in templo nihil penitus de mundo cogitantes dicentes Patri Matri non noui vos filios suos non agnoscentes Sine his Sacerdos nomen non habet ortum non habet officium non habet that is These are the seauen Angels of the Churches these are the seauen golden Candlestickes these are the voyces of the thunders these are renowned for the operation of vertues humble quiet preaching peace publishing good things teaching how to cut away dissentions brawles and scandals communing with God alone in his holy temple hauing no thought of the world saying to Father and Mother I know you not and not acknowledging their own sons without these the priest hath not the name not the beginning not the office of a Priest And a litle after he addeth Sacerdotibus etiam propter praesumptionem non licet de mensa Domini calicem tollere nisi eis traditus fuerit à Diaconis Leuitae componunt mensam Domini Leuitae Sacerdotibus cum Sacramenta benedicunt assistunt Leuitae ante Sacerdotes orant vt aures habeamus ad Dominum Diaconus acclamat that is Euen the Priests themselues for the auoiding of presumption must not take the holy cup from off the Table of the Lord vnlesse it be deliuered to them by the Deacons The Deacons or Leuites prepare the Table of the Lord and make all things ready on the same The Leuites assist the Priests when they blesse and sanctifie the sacramentall elements The Leuites pray before the Priests The Deacon crieth out aloud vnto vs to open our eares and