Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	according_a	reason_n	see_v	584	5	3.0731	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19310	The copies of certaine discourses, which were extorted from diuers, as their friends desired them, or their aduersaries driue them to purge themselues of the most greeuous crimes of schisme, sedition, rebellion, faction, and such like, most vniustly laid against them for not subscribing to the late authoritie at the first sending thereof into England in which discourses are also many things discouered concerning the proceedings in this matter abroad.	Bishop, William, 1554?-1624, attributed name.	1601 (1601)	STC 5724; ESTC S108677	103,141	192

said that they were made at Rome and by the Contents being conuinced that they were made in England could not deny it which sure cannot choose but make men more doubtfull of what he affirmeth in his owne affaires Now good Sir these reasons well weighed cannot but leaue any indifferent minde doubtfull whether this proceede from supreme authoritie or not which doubt cannot more quietly clearely and orderly be resolued then by sending men of conscience and iudgement to know his holinesse wil if he haue not decreed and appointed it to let him vnderstand the abuse take order for the reforming of it If he haue then to signifie wherein perchance he might be misinformed that therby he may the better redresse what is amisse or if after due information his wisedome shall think the course taken to be for the benefite of our cause and countrey then they carry a mind prostrate both How then could their delay be schisme they being alike ready to obey for themselues and in the name of the rest that ioyned with them in this action to accept and obey whatsoeuer the Apostolicall sea shall herein decree This course I know not what reason any man may haue to condemne as either rash or vncharitable much lesse why these men should be termed for their iust proceeding factious seditious schismaticall or the like Heereby also you may perceiue where the roote and true cause of the scandalous reports which daily come to your eares doth remaine notwithstanding the libertie of speech clamours and vniust exclamations of some who would haue it to be elsewhere I pray God that these men doo build vpon God almighty and not vpon their owne wittes and deuises Heere I say nothing of the iust exceptions that many make against the manner of procuring this authoritie which are neither fewe nor yet of small moment but these wil be deliuered in an other place by them that shall informe his holinesse and if occasion shall require and we be pressed therevnto you shall vnderstand them in an other Letter In the meane while take and peruse this with indifferencie and iudge as reason and conscience shall dictate Fareyewell Maister Champneyes Letter of the same argument to a Reuerend friend of his VEry Reuerend Syr As from my very cradle I acknowledge my self many wayes beholding vnto you for your manifold courtesies both towards me and other of my dearest friends so haue I had alwaies a speciall desire to yeeld such correspondence in my demeanour as I might neither giue you nor any other of my friends iust occasion to withdraw from me their friendly affection Neuerthelesse I gather by some speeches that passed not long since betweene you and a friend of yours and mine that you haue conceiued a worse opinion of mee then wittingly I haue deserued or willingly would deserue The sinister reports of some whose endeuours are different from their professiō hauing caused in you not onely a surmise but as it seemeth a strong and firme opinion that I am disobedient to the See Apostolicke and enemy to the Fathers of the societie and a contemner of the late authoritie of our Arch-priest These be the crymes wherewith I suppose both my selfe and diuers others are taxed or truer most iniuriously slaundered Being therefore very vnwilling to permit you to remaine in that opinion grounded vpon mere fictions and falsities I determined to make mine Apologie with you and to yeeld you reason for all my proceedings in these matters which being weighed in the equal ballance of your indifferent iudgement I nothing doubt but it will yeeld you full satisfaction and giue you some light to see how you haue hitherto beene abused by false informers I know it to be a difficult thing so to take away and remoue out of a mature minde a conceit which hath long without contradiction possessed it so to take it away I say as there remaine no scruple nor doubt thereof Yet when I doo consider on the one side your graue and sincere iudgement voyd as I verily thinke of all partialitie and on the other side the clearenesse and manifest truth of the matter I am to speake of I cannot almost doubt but so to satisfie these obiected crimes as that you will easily see both my selfe and others to haue suffered mightie wrong by the raisers thereof Let me therefore good sir craue onely this of you that you will not measure that which I shall say according to the preiudiciall opinion which you haue already framed of my person for so shall you easily preiudice the equitie of my Plea but let your iudgement proceed of the thing it selfe without respect either to my person or any other and so being voyd of affection shall it bee more free from errour If I say any thing that may leane vppon humaine creditte as matters of narration or fact I desire to bee beleeued no further then I can manifestly proue If I vtter matters of opinion or iudgement as arguments or reasons for any fact I desire no more then that they be measured according to the weight and truth they do containe This is so indifferent a demaund that if I should doubt the graunting thereof I should in mine opinion offer you no small wrong I will therefore Sir deteine you no longer with vnprofitable circuits of wordes but I will come to the matter and whatsoeuer I shall say in mine owne behalfe in this affaire you may vnderstand it of others that bee of the same opinion with mee therein The former accusations to weete that I am disobedient to the see Apostolicke an aduersary to the Fathers and an impugner of our Arch-priests authoritie are all grounded vpon one and the selfe-same foundation which I thinke I shall easily shewe to be both friuolous and false and consequently ouerthrowe whatsoeuer is built therevpon howsoeuer some men do labour to fortifie the same not by the probabilitie of any reason or equall debating the matter but by confidence or rather impudent infaming of such as labour to defend the truth All these accusations therfore are forged vpon this one principle because forsoothe I did not acknowledge M. Blackwells authoritie vpon the receit onely of Cardinall Caietaines Letters wherein he affirmed that the Pope had giuen vnto him authoritie to appoint a gouernment ouer the Seminary Priests in England For this cause I am saide to resist the Popes authoritie and because the Iesuites were the procurers of this delegation therfore am I counted their aduersary because I did not accept of the thing and meanes to establish it which they thought good of And lastly because I did not acknowledge M. Blackwell for my Ecclesiasticall superiour vpon the forementioned testimonie I am said to be an impugner of his authoritie Loe Syr here is the whole ground of all the former accusations neither doo I thinke they laie any thing else to my charge If they doo when I may know it I will either satisfie their obiections or acknowledge

I might make an ende and thinke this sufficient to discouer the falsitie of such grounds as haue bene and are still with some the foundations of such slaunderous reports and opinions of detestable schisme vniustly raised and vnconscionably mainteined against mee and others of my bretheren and that it might also suffice for our defence against such vntrue vnchristian detractions yet seeing I haue begunne I will goe a litle further in declaring our innocency in this matter Our Arch-priests authoritie being now of euery one admitted vpon the receit of his holinesse Breue and thereby all argument or shewe of schisme disobedience or rebellion quite taken away howsoeuer before matter was fained to vpholde so vncredible a fable euery one of vs for peace and concords sake readie to remit the iniuries done vnto vs by publike slaunder of schisme published to the world in written pamphlets and our Arch-priest writing his Letters willing and by his authoritie commaunding that no more speech should be made of matters past but that euery one should compose himselfe to peace and vnitie with his brethren the Fathers who are not subiect to his authoritie albeit they were the procurers thereof for they loue to impose great burdens vpon other mens shoulders which they themselues will not touch with one finger perceiuing belike that by this peaceable composition there was like to ensue a continuall agreement amongst the secular Priests which they feared would be the baine of all their designements they quickly deuised a way to breake this vnitie For it is a principle with those that seek dominion to keep diuision alwaies among such as they intend to bring vnder their regiment To this purpose they renewed as it should seeme the slaunder of schisme in more intollerable manner then before for now they said that we were not only schismatikes but that whosoeuer should dogmatizando say the contrary should incurre the censures of holy church And M. Blackwell himselfe notwithstanding his former prohibition by their suggestion as it is more then probable writ that they had receiued a resolution from the mother Citie that we were schismatikes and that in his opinion we were not to be admitted to the Sacraments without satisfaction done for the same Will any man now say that these men desire and seeke the peace tranquillitie of our afflicted Chuch Can any one bee so shamelesse as to avowe it No no. When therefore we perceiued our late composed peace contrary to all expectation to be thus quickly broken and that our good names began to bleed afresh the old gaules beeing not yet firmly cured we requested of our Arch-priest that we might haue a parley or conference vpon the matters in controuersie with these conditions First that M. Garnet M. Lister and whom and how many soeuer of the societie they should thinke good to choose vnto them to be reasoners debators or disputers on the one side and of the other three such Priests of our company as wee should nominate Secondly that the groundes reasons arguments answeres and reioynders on both sides after full discussion agreement should be set downe in writing Thirdly that the Vmperes or Arbitrators to heare or determine of the weight truth and coherence of all that should be said or alledged by either side should be 2. or 3. of the seniour Assistants and M. Doleman and that it should be in the choise of our Arch-priest to admit such of the Laitie to be hearers of the dispute as to his wisedome for the qualitie of the conference should seeme meete Fourthly that each of the Arbitrators should faithfully promise in the word of a Priest to proceed to the giuing of sentence vpō the proofe or disproofe of either side according to the dictamen of their conscience and inward perswasion without delay colour mittigation or partialitie Fiftly that if the said Arbitrators should iudge that our case was schisme and our selues schismatikes then we most humbly should aske pardon on our knees of our Arch-priest and the societie for hitherto defending the contrary against the veritie of their affirmances If of the other side they should censure or deeme that we were no schismatikes then the societie especially the penner and the approuers of the Pamphlet of schisme should acknowledge their errour reuerse the tract and make vs some ratable satisfaction to the heape of iniuries infamies sustained Sixtly that it should be lawfull without offence or prohibition for either side after sentence giuen and fulfilling of the premisses to seeke if it should so please a resolution in the difference frō the Vniuersities beyond the seas vpon shewe euidence of the said dispute grounds reasons proofes arguments subscribed with the hands of the Vmperes disputants of both sides to the end it might manifestly appeare to be the same and no place left to the other side to suspect any indirect dealing either by adding changing or subtracting ought too or from the originall and that none of the foresaid Arbitrators or disputants refuse or deferre to put too his name being requested therevnto Could you good sir deuise more equall conditions then these Or if these men did not intend to maintaine continuall brawles and strifes would they not haue admitted them there being no more indifferent meanes to end all controuersies Notwithstanding this so reasonable and indifferent an offer they tearmed it a tumultuous or rebellious demand and commaunded that none vnder paine of suspension should either by word or writing defend himselfe from being a schismaticke wherby we were debarred from defending our own good name vniustly taken away Finding therfore our selues in these miseries that we must either loose our good names or by aduenturing to defend them incurre some high displeasure we set downe the state of the controuersie and sent it to the Doctours of the famous Vniuersitie of Paris requesting their opinion and censure therevpon For although wee knew our selues altogether cleare from all contagion of schisme yet because we would not be our owne Iudges least peraduenture wee might bee suspected of partialitie in our owne cause we sent to haue their opinions who are free from suspition of all partialitie The Doctors returned vs answere as followeth Anno Domini Millesimo sexcentessimo die 3. Maij propositum fuit facultati Theologiae Parisiensi quod literis cuiusdam Illmi Cardinalis quidam superior Ecclesiasticus in regno quodam constitutus est cum titulo dignitate Archipresbyteri vt haberet authoritatē iurisdictionem super omnes alios Presbyteros in eodem regno commorantes Cardinalis etiam in illis suis literis declarauit se id fecisse iuxta voluntatem beneplacitum summi Pontificis Multi autem ex illis Presbiteris recusarunt subsignare authoritati eiusdem Archipresbyteri priusquam ipse obtinuisset Literas Apostolicas confirmationis suae tenorem continentes tum quia nouum omnino erat in Ecclesia Catholica hactenus inauditum illud genus regiminis vt

crimes wherof both my selfe and diuers others of our brethren are accused I rereferre the matter to your iudgement to discerne whether we be guiltie of them or no. If you doubt of the truth of my relation I desire none other triall then the testimonie of mine accusers who if they denie any one word that I haue vttered by way of narration I can easily procure such proofe thereof as they shall not denie vnlesse they will denie themselues If my deductions arguments or suppositions vsed in yeelding reason for our not admitting M. Blackwells authoritie vpon the onely receit of Cardinall Caietaines Letters and that for so doing we incurred no note either of schisme or disobedience to his holinesse if they I say need any proofe I will vndertake to make them most euident Wherefore according to these grounds I humbly beseech you to passe your opinion and yeeld your iudgement of our cause And if the grounds prooue true your iudgement conformable therevnto may remaine firme but if they prooue otherwise your iudgement notwithstanding shall not be faultie for he that iudgeth according to his euidence is not culpable of any errour This good Sir I request because I desire to know your opinion of our cause which if you giue according to these grounds I shal easily vnderstand whether you wil condemne or cleare mee my brethren of the crimes obiected for I am sure I haue not erred in declaring the state of the matter If this which I haue said be not sufficient for your full satisfaction I hope it wil suffice at least to suspend your iudgement of vs vntill further triall be had of our cause which being had in any indifferent manner and if we being conuicted do not acknowledge our fault and make competent satisfaction then do not spare to account of vs as Heathens Publicans But our aduersaries purpose not to put the matter to any indifferent tryall or to ende it by any equall meanes but to decide it by strong hand might and violence by perpetuall oppressing vs with infamous slaunders of schisme faction and the like thereby to depriue if it can be our brethren abroad of all conuenient entertainment and to debarre vs in prison of necessary reliefe to the ende that necessitie may compell vs to yeeld to their desires the inequalitie of which proceedings I beseech you with indifferēcy to cōsider Sometime it is seen that a partie wilfully bent to contend is iustly compelled to admit an equall compremise and to stand to the arbitrement of an indifferent Iudge but it was neuer seene where iustice and conscience ruled and muche lesse amongst such as ought to be the rule of other mens consciences that the partie willing to stand to anie indifferent tryall should bee compelled by violence to agree vnto the desire of his aduersary how iust or vniust soeuer it be and that without any further sentence but onely because his aduersary must haue his will Good Sir we are heere in this place diuers in great want in so much that besides our debts to the keeper we haue not to defend vs from the iniury of the winter weather whereof that you may haue some special taste I doo you to vnderstand that since Trinitie Terme wee haue receiued no more from London from whence the chiefest part of our reliefe commeth then will suffice for three weekes charges with him that can husband his matters best And this shal be sufficient to insinuate vnto you our wants hoping that as opportunitie serueth you will concurre to the relieuing thereof confidently hoping withal that God for whose cause we suffer not onely of the cōmon aduersary but also of those who ought to be our friends wil giue vs patiēce whatsoeuer crosses befal vs to beare them to the end For mine owne part they may by their violent proceedings make me yeeld my breath and life which by Gods grace I shall if need require willingly sacrifice for the defence of iustice equitie and mine owne innocencie but my consent to these vniust dealings by Gods assistance they shall neuer extort out of me If any one to whom you shall thinke good to impart this as I am not against the imparting it to any so that you keepe the originall your selfe shall vndertake to improue me of any vntruth I will either satisfie his obiections euen to your own iudgement or else I will acknowledge mine errour Take this good Sir for a taste of our internall and domesticall troubles wherewith I imagine you are not much acquainted and therefore are you worse affected to our cause and as you shall giue me hereafter occasion you shall vnderstand more for this is but a small thing in respect of that which this matter affordeth But I feare I haue bene too tedious in this so disgustfull a discourse but let I pray you the hard tearmes my good name is brought into plead my pardon for my tediousnesse and the equitie of my Plea procure me your fauour and so in all humble sort I take my leaue Yours euer in all true Christian affection Anthony Champney SIr if you do not consider diligently the haynous Post scriptū enormitie of schisme imposed vpon me you will peraduenture condemne me of too much precisenesse if not of contention for labouring to defend my selfe from the note thereof and will thinke that I ought rather to suffer some small infamie then by opposing my selfe so earnestly to repell the same to procure a further breach between mine accusers and my selfe to both our harmes and to the offence of others But if you consider first to admit the infamy of this slaunder though it were of it selfe but small were in some sort to giue occasion to mine accusers to heape vpon my head greater wrongs hereafter for he that will offer wrong in one thing will do the like in an other if occasion serue you shall finde it to be neither wisedome nor pietie to giue place to such beginnings Secondly the condition of mine estate requiring a most entire fame I should both wrong my selfe and slaunder my function if I should admit any blemish or blotte therein which I may by mine owne endeuour wipe away and therefore to purchase peace at such a price I hold it not lawfull for Non est faciendum malum vt eremat bonum Euill is not to be done that good may ensue And as S. Augustine saith Qui famam suam negligit crudelis est Hee that neglecteth his good name is cruell But if thirdly you cōsider the intrinsical enormitie of this crime you will easily excuse mine endeuour in clearing my self therof from all note of contention For amongst all other sinnes against our neighbour schisme is the greatest and the pennalties which the Church hath alwaies inflicted on such as haue bene guiltie therof proue the same to weet excommunication and seperation from all vse of Sacraments as appeareth by diuers auncient Canons also in Bulla caenae which being graunted

soundeth like a verie iniurious report against the Pope if he had such a meaning and much more if he had it not as in reason we should thinke he had not for who can in reason thinke that his holinesse onely vpon newes of the comming of two Priests to him with so great aduenture and daunger of life about matters of the Church would determine to put them in prison before hee heard them what they had to say or sawe them But to auoide his holinesse of blame we wil supply in this place for F. Parsons that if the Nuntios did signifie any such matter vnto his holinesse as most likely they did not they did sende suche informations against the two Priestes as the Pope might purpose to cast them in prison so soone as they came to Ferrara and then let vs demaund where these Informers had their instructions and of whom of themselues they could not being farre asunder each from other and both out of England whence the two Priests came If of any other who were they or were they such parties although religious of the societie who onely can be imagined to haue correspondence with them although it be vnlikely especially with him in France that vpon their bare accusations the Nuntios would write to such purpose to his holinesse as hee should determine vpon this relatiō of the Nuntios to imprison thē so soone as they shuld come to Ferrara without knowing or hauing any further proofe of the accusations made against them by their aduersaries Yet is not this report more iniurious against the Pope whom he vndertaketh in the 5. Paragraffe to deliuer from al false and iniurious reports against all truth equitie then his proofe is insufficient which here he maketh in defence of himselfe for which in the 5. Paragraffe he seemed that he would wholly relie vpon his knowne deeds not vpon his writing his proofe is that F. Bellarmino now Cardinall was willed by his Holi to write to Rome to know F. Parsons opinion of the two Priests therefore F. Parsons had not enformed against them Did F. Parsons imagine that mens wits were so short that whē they saw this Letter of his they would forget that F. Bellarmino his Letter was an answere to a Letter which F. Parsons writ to him concerning these two Priests the effect whereof alghough we do not know yet we may probably cōiecture what it was by F. Bellarmino his Letter which was to enforme F. Parsons that the two Priests were not as yet come and that when they did come there should be such order taken for them as hee should not need to come from Rome to Ferrara What order this was F. Parsons himselfe confesseth and cyteth F. Bellarmino his Letter forsooth they must first be laide in prison and then if there could be any cause found why this infamous iniury should be iustified Doth the Popes commaundement to F. Bellarmino to write to F. Parsons to know his opinion of the two Priests proue that F. Parsons had not sent information against them Or if it be true that the Pope did giue this commaundement to F. Bellarmino doth it conuince that what perswasions F. Bellarmino vsed to the Pope or some other if hee would not be seene in it did not proceed from F. Parsons who had hee not benestaied by this Letter of F. Bellarmino would haue come to Ferrara himselfe as it should seeme by the same Letter If the informations giuen to the Pope against these two Priests by reason whereof they were to be imprisoned for no man but F. Parsons as I thinke would say that without any informations against them his holines vpon a bare hearesay that they were comming to him to deale in matters of the Church would resolue to put them in prison must of necessitie bee giuen as comming from F. Parsons How is it true that his holinesse resolued to put them in prison before he had F. Parsons opinion of them If the same informations were not of necessitie to be giuen as cōming from F. Parsons what proofe is this that F. Parsons had not enformed against them that his holinesse willed the Father to write to Rome to know his opinion of them But these things seeme to proceed from the same vaine from which that which followeth doth proceed where F. Parsons to make the matter more odious doth labour to confound the businesse about which the two Priestes went to Rome with that which was at Rome betweene the Iesuites and the English Students and to that effect in the 8. 13. and 15. Paragraffes maketh the stirres which were in England an appendix of those which were at Rome In the 8. Paragraffe I woonder howe Father Parsons can say that the Iesuites especially had demanded for many yeares that there should be a subordination among the Priests to deliuer themselues from all shewe of that calumniation vsed to be laid against them that they would gouerne the Priests against their wills when as by credible report F. Parsons without whom no English Iesuite durst do any thing laboured mightily against it vntil he saw that the secular Priests went seriously about it and it is so euident that no man may without ouermuch impudencie denie it that all the strife which was openly in England betweene the Iesuites and the Priests began vpon occasion of a gouernment which the Iesuites sought would haue had ouer the Priests who were in durance at Wisbitch against many their wills and for the better effecting of that to which most inordinately they aspired they did not onely endeuour to disgrace them as men that were desirous of libertie but were the occasion also that many Catholiques did send them no reliefe The second vntruth in this 8. Paragraffe is that the man or authoritie was admitted and appointed most willingly by all the body both of Priests and other Catholiques in England and abroad also For F. Parsons confessed himselfe at Rome to the Priests who were sent thither that he himselfe appointed the man least some such other should haue bin chosen by the generall and free suffrages of the Priests as would not runne along with the Iesuites and as for the authoritie I thinke I may boldly say that neither Priest nor Clarke in England euer dreamed of the authoritie of an Arch-priest whose office is cleane out of vse now in England except the complaining part thereof neither can it be said that euer it was willingly approued by the Priests who for the most part had their cōsents wroong frō them by the Iesuites the Archpriest himself if there were no other proofe of the priests not free approouing therof as they are many the qualitie of his authoritie as it was first graunted at what time the Priests were sent to Rome will shewe it manifestly or iustly condemne those who approued it of great haste for without any authoritie to do them the least good or repaire the least harme he might do to them he had