over Kings the other that his Infallibility in matters of Fact takes away all means from the Kings they please to depose to complain of so rigorous a Sentence For the first 't is an easie matter to convince all the world of it nor ought we to imagine it a Consequence held onely by those who profess themselves enemies to the Iesuites Doctrine and which the Iesuites disavow 't is a Consequence which they themselves derive from it which they every-where acknowledge must needs follow and which does so indeed naturally and of necessity For Popes as Iesuites themselves have learn'd us have so many waies decided that they have power to degrade Kings and dispose of their Kingdoms when-ever they judge it for the interest of Religion that if to be Catholick one is oblig'd to consider all that Popes say in their Chair that is by their Bulls as Decisions of infallible authority and Oracles pronounc'd even by Christ himself Kings their Ministers and Parliaments must either renounce the quality of Catholick or else tamely acknowledge that Kings are Sovereigns independent in respect of their own Subjects and other Princes but nothing so in regard of the Pope but that he has power to make them descend from their Throne and to resolve them into their simple Originals so as exercising a Royalty superiour to theirs it may be said of his Empire as an heathen Poet said of that of God Omne sub regno graviore regnum est All this is an infallible consequent of Infallibility as the Iesuites well prove For who can chuse but believe that Popes have the power to depose Kings if once he be persuaded that their Decisions are so many Articles of Faith when it shall be shew'd him that Gregory the VIIth has decided it in express terms in a Council held at Rome Anno 1067 according to Onuphrius Baronius and all the Iesuites Quòd Papae liceat Imperatores deponere quòd à Fidelitate iniquorum subditos potest absolvere Whence Lessius the Iesuite concludes supposing the Principle of Infallibility That this Doctrine is no problematick Doctrine but a constant Truth not to be deny'd without violation of our very Faith We must absolutely believe says he that this Doctrine viz. that the Pope may depose Kings is an undoubted truth and not such as we may believe what we please of but such an one as is intirely certain not to be contradicted without wounding our Faith And this I prove first Because these Propositions are defin'd in proper terms in the Roman Synod under Gregory the VIIth where it is affirm'd that the Pope may depose Emperours and absolve the Subjects of wicked Princes from their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity Now a Definition made by a Pope in Council is matter of Faith This is clear now without mincing nor can it be more expresly declar'd that the power to depose Kings is a necessary consequent of Infallibility so as those Iesuites must needs be very impudent who shall after this dare to affirm that they are their Enemies who derive this sequel from their Doctrine The Iesuite Cardinal Bellarmine under the feign'd name of Sculkenius writing against Widrington proves in the same manner by this Gregorian Decree that the Pope's Superiority over Kings is an Article of Faith 'T is an Heresie saies he to affirm that the Pope as Pope and ex jure divino has not the power to depose Secular Princes of their States as oft as the publick good or some urgent necessity of the Church does require it I prove this Conclusion An Opinion becomes heretical when its contradictory is de Fide But it is de Fide that the Pope has power to depose Princes since it has been defin'd and concluded by Gregory the VIIth in a Roman Council where it saies expresly That the Pope may depose an Emperour Now who can deny this Conclusion that holds but the Principle which is That what has been defin'd and concluded by a Pope is de Fide Is not this Argument of the Cardinal invincible supposing the Maxime to be true By consequent then who can doubt but that according to the Iesuites opinion and the truth it self the power of deposing Kings is in the Pope a certain Consequence of his Infallibility The same Gregory the VIIth has so often decided the same Point that no man questions his pretence of making it an Article of Faith as may yet be seen in the Bull of the Deposition of the Emperor Henry the IVth made likewise in Council where addressing his speech to S. Peter and S. Paul he thus expostulates Now therefore exert and vindicate your power O great and most holy Princes of the Apostles that all the world may take notice and acknowledg that if you can bind and loose in Heaven you can also on Earth dispose of Empires of Kingdoms Principalities and Marquisates in summe of all mens goods and fortunes whatsoever by taking them away from those who deserve them not and by bestowing them on others For if you judge things Spiritual shall we believe you have not the power to judge of Temporal and Secular Let all the Kings and Princes of the Age learn what your grandeur is and your power and not dare to despise the Commandments of your Church and be sure to leave such prompt and lasting marks in the judgment which you exercise against Henry that his ruine be not attributed to the fate of arms or fortuitous accidents of War but to your sole and almighty power In consequence of this he denounc'd to the Emperor as from God that he should never win battel But if Popes are infallible according to the Iesuites in actions past 't is certain at least that they are not in those which are to come For never did Prince gain so many remaining Victor in more then 50 pitch'd Battels and having at the very first slain the person whom his Holiness had design'd to make Emperor in his place I could recount a number more of Passages relating to the same Pope where he argues for the same Doctrine as visibly founded in the Scripture and annex'd to the Papal dignity For 't is not imaginable that he should pretend onely this right over Emperors because the Popes had so much contributed to the re-establishment of the Western Empire On the contrary 't is perspicuous that his pretence was over all Kings and that it was built on that Supposition of his viz. that the power of the Keys contain'd in it the Temporal Superiority which made him set upon the Crown he sent to Rodulphus Usurper of the Empire this Latin Verse Petra dedit Petro Petrus Diadema Rodulpho To shew that he believ'd he had power to dispose of Kingdoms by a right pretended to be given S. Peter by Iesus Christ himself 'T is likewise on the same basis he threatned Alphonsus King of Arragon to stir up his Subjects against him if he gave him not speedy satisfaction concerning a certain
Feudataries to the holy See and how difficult it would be to wrest it out of these Harpyes talons had they power equal to their will or to the Right they have so insolently forg'd The King of England says Bellarmine is a Vassal to the Bishop of Rome ratione directi dominii What can be more directly said to prove what I assert Nay and as a learned Prelate of ours well observes Masconius transferrs the Title of Fidei Defensor to the Pope also though 't is well known our Princes have a right of more antiquity to it then any Pope's donation and that jure Coronae as were easie to evince though we admitted Leo the Xth to have prophesied that year as his brother Caiaphas had done before him But this is fortified say they by the authority of the Canonists Decretals and what is yet more formidable then all this by the subjects and properties of a new Obediential Vow of an whole Order of King-killers Let us produce a specimen or two to shew with what Secrecy and Religion they proceed The Jesuite Binet told Casaubon at Paris that 't were better all the Kings in Christendom were kill'd then that a Confession should be reveal'd in which the life of a Prince might be concern'd and Emanuel Sà that the Confessor potest jurare se nihil scire may swear and lie too whatever he heard rather then detect the Villany of such a Traitor Eodémque modo potest penitus jurare se nihil tale dixisse c. And upon this it is that Bellarmine celebrates our Garnet for his laudable Obstinacy though the less-perverted Monks of the other Orders have made no scruple to reveal the Treason and prosecute the Traitors to the Gallows I tremble almost to repeat the Instance but 't is his Majestie 's Grandfather of Glorious Memory who affirms it of them That there was not long since a French Jesuite so impudent as to assert That if our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ himself were now conversant on Earth passible and obnoxious to death should any man confess to him that he design'd to murther him he would suffer Jesus Christ to be kill'd rather then reveal the Confession To this Perron's Reply is so impertinent and superficial as one would even blush to see how he shuffles it over The Confessor says he needs not reveal the manner of his Treason 't is enough he give the King warning to take heed of himself So 't is reported did the Augurs to the great Caesar but it prevented not one Stab of the two and thirty nor did their Garnet so much as this nor any one of those reverend Fathers that ever I could learn But let us have a tast of their Politicks Caeso Rege ingens sibi nomen fecit says one of Henry the Third's Murtherer and Emanuel Sà Clerici Rebellio in Regem non est crimen laesae majestatis quia non est Subditus regi The Rebellion of a Church-man against his Prince is no such thing as Treason for he is none of his Subjects An excellent argument to make Kings in love with Jesuites But this is not all Summus Pontifex says Bellarmine Clericos exemit à subjectione Principum plainly Non sunt ampliùs Reges Clericorum superiores Kings are no more their superiors so that upon the matter how many Priests and Jesuites in a State so many Kings and Emperors Who art thou speaking to Princes that judgest another man's servant Domino suo stat aut cadit says the Cardinal And Santarel goes farther yet Papa sine Concilio the Pope does in spite of a Council depose an Emperor quia Papa Christi unum est tribunal they are Collegues in Office but which is more then Bozius it seems allows who speaking in the person of Popes alone says Per me Reges By me Kings reing he may remove them yea and mulct them too with death not for Heresie onely but if they so much as favour it I cannot affirm that all our Roman Catholicks are of this Belief but then I can hardly call them Roman Catholicks indeed my Lord they are not through-pac'd We see how Barclay Watson Widdrington Sheldon Bekinsaw and others have been censur'd hated and reproch'd for maintaining the contrary as of old the more loyal Sorbonists now sinking under this prodigious Tyranny to their everlasting reproch as well as prejudice of the poor Jansenists who with the Church of England are the onely Confessors amongst all the Christian Professors now extant that I could ever reade of or discover And though one might instance in some few honest Papists who were in times past of this Opinion too yet when I seriously reflect how many are now-a-daies devoted to the Jesuite I am amaz'd to consider to what disloyal temptations they are expos'd even by their very Institution Indeed Cardinal Perron denounces severely against any who shall dare to perpetrate the Crimes but in the same breath he ingenuously tells us that he means it whilst they are Kings since being once Excommunicated they are no more so but become Plebeians or but Wild beasts rather made to be taken and destroy'd and therefore that their new Saint Clement who murthered Henry the Third did not kill the King because he was depos'd Which Lesson was well took forth in our late Holy Warr at home when they were by no means to kill the KING forsooth but to shoot at CHARLES STUART For thus have all the malicious Topics and devilish Arguments been made use of by our late Fanatics as if this Cardinal had inspir'd them witness what they borrow of him from the Prophet Abias's deposing Roboam as they call it Azarias's outing Ozias c. Bellarmin affirms that Kings are not only subject to Popes but even to the most inferior Deacons We have a Pack My Lord amongst us that would think themselves much injur'd to be call'd Jesuites yet speaking of the Consistorian Discipline and power of Eldership are bold to say Non hic excipitur Episcopus aut Imperator to omit the famous T. C. and the many others I could bring on the Stage suffragans of this Doctrine had we no worse experience of it But it is not their Passion for God but for the World which makes these men defend their Interest by such pernicious Consequences Adde to these the Crue of Anabaptists and those other truculent Champions of the Fifth Monarchy who have improv'd their Principles to that notorious height and danger that God forbid their Dominion should ever be founded in his Majestie 's Grace For let us but examine what they Teach and what they have practis'd from that infallible Dictator in S. Peter's Chair to the meanest Sectarian their Writings and their Actions from Knipperdolling to Venner from Pope Hildebrand to Pope Henderson are sufficiently instructive what Princes are to expect One would think the divine right of Kings as Superiors Obedience to Governors Relative duty of
and solid grandeur of the holy See it self In this sense it is we shall speak of the Court of Rome in the present Treatise as so many great persons and Saints have already done by opposing themselves to their unjust pretensions without at all thinking they did thereby in the least violate the respect which they ow'd the Pope as Head of the Church to which they on the contrary believ'd these Opinions must needs be most disadvantageous And we have so much the more liberty to doe it now since the moderation of the present Incumbent speaks him very far from these ambitious thoughts Now amongst all these illegitimate Usurpations of the Court of Rome thus considered there has none of them proved more funest to Christian Princes the Church and even to Popes themselves then that by which some of them have been transported to domineer over Kings to make themselves their Superiours and Judges in the administration of their Kingdoms and by pretending of a right when they fansied it for the cause of Religion to depose them of their Empires and give their Estates to others or to abandon them to the first Usurper who had power to make himself Master It 's impossible to describe those horrid Confusions which this pretence of theirs hath brought forth in Italy and in Germany for so many Ages together the Warrs it has kindled the Bloud it has made to be spilt the Provinces it has rendred desolate the Cities it has ruin'd the Scandals and Disorders which it has filled the Church with But one of its worst effects is that it has render'd the holy See which should as well be the centre of the love of Catholicks as of the Unity of the Church odious both to Kings and People by making them to look upon the Vicar of Iesus Christ not as a common Father full of tenderness for all his Children but as a Temporal Prince that would trample all other Princes under his feet and render himself absolute Master of all the Kingdomes of the Earth This is one of the main causes which has made so many people revolt against the Church of Rome and the most usual pretence which they have taken to hinder many Christians from paying that observance to Popes which they are oblig'd to render them by confounding it with these odious excuses For having once anticipated the People with this erroneous opinion That one could not acknowledge in the Pope that real Authority which Iesus Christ has given him without owning that also which these Sycophants attribute to him over Temporals and States they have by an hateful Schism kept them from acknowledging the Pope as Head of the Church for fear lest they should be bound likewise to own him for their King and Master It concerns the Church therefore to take away this color from Schism which is the greatest of all mischiefs by separating the Spiritual power of the Sovereign Bishop as it has been instituted by Iesus Christ and acknowledg'd by all Catholicks from this false and exorbitant power which Ambition and Flattery would adde to it repugnant to the spirit of Iesus Christ and the Doctrine of the Apostles And therefore we must needs confess that the Zeal of the Parliaments of France for the maintenance of the Sovereignty of Kings against the enterprises of those who subverting the Order of God would have it to depend upon this Spiritual Jurisdiction is no less advantageous to the Church then to the State and that on the other part there is nothing more prejudicial to them both then that low and fleshly prudence of these Theologues who think to exalt the divine Grandeur of the prime Minister of the new Law which wholly consists in the love to eternal good things and in the despising of the things of this World by secular and temporal advantages which God did never annex to him or that seek to enlarge their fortunes by this pretended Zeal for the enlargement of the Authority of the Pope 'T is known to the whole World that the Iesuites have within these hundred years been the chief defenders of these ambitious pretences and that their Society has employ'd the most renown'd of its Writers to disseminate this Doctrine every-where It is this which has been taught by Iohn Mariana Gregorie de Valentia Alphonsus Salmeron Ludovicus Richome Louys Molina Robert Bellarmine Iohannes Osorius Carolus Scribanius Andrew Eudemon Iohannes Azor Robert Parsons Francis Suarez Gabriel Vasquez Leonardus Lessius Iacobus Gretserus Martinus Becanus Antonius Santarellus Vincentius Filiutius Stephen Bauny c. On the contrary it is well known what extraordinary care the Parliaments of Paris and the Universities of France have taken to repress the Authors of these pernicious Opinions the one by their Arrests and the other by their Censures It 's above an hundred years since that the Parliament of Paris gave a famous Arrest upon this Subject the 4 of December 1561. against a certain Bachelour in Divinity who had put it into his Thesis That it was in the Power of the Pope to excommunicate Kings to give away their Kingdoms and to absolve their Subjects of their Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity This Proposition was declar'd seditious the Bachelour being not to be found it was order'd that the Bedel of the Sorbon vested in a red Hood should disavow it before a President of the Court and the chief of the Faculty of Divinity and that during four years space there should no publick Disputation be permitted in the College where it was defended This whole affair is twice told us in the Bibliothec du Droit under the words Interdictions p. 4478. and Effigies p. 1110. And Bouchel who is the Author of this Bibliotheca in reciting of this History adds this Remark The plain truth is that within these fifty years past there is come a certain new Sect to be planted amongst us called by the name of Jesuites who maintain Propositions quite contrary to ours to the very ruine of the State The same Parliament testifies its zeal for the Interests of the King and Crown upon several other occasions as when it condemn'd to the fire the 8 of Iune 1610. the Book of the Iesuite Mariana intituled De Rege Regis institutione and that after the same manner Iū 26. 1614. it treated that of Suarez intitul'd Defensio Fidei Catholicae But there was never any thing more celebrious upon this subject then that which pass'd 1626. in the censure of Santarel This Iesuite had written a Book of Heresie Schism Apostasie c. printed at Rome 1625. permissu superiorum in which following the common sentiments of his Society he taught That the Pope might punish Kings and Princes with temporal pains depose and deprive them of their Kingdoms and States for the crime of Heresie and for other causes as when they were culpable of any fault if he find
but of a short continuance yields that with the greatest facility to day which she never resolv'd to agree to yesterday We have an Example of this in that possession which the Pope's Nuntio's have gotten of receiving the Attestations of the Life and manners of those persons who are nominated by the King to Bishopricks and Abbies The late Mons. du Puy has compil'd a Treatise concerning this subject where he shews That by the Ordinance of Blois Anno 1576 by advice of the States General conven'd at Paris 1615 and by the Assembly of the Notables Anno 1627 this information ought to be made by the Ordinaries as conformable to the Council of Trent Sess. 22. ch 2. and Sess. 24. ch 1. That notwithstanding those of Rome had alwaies striven to put the Nuntio's in possession of this Right That they had vainly attempted it when Henry the Great prosecuted his Absolution there That they had begun to usurp this possession during the late King's Minority and that by little and little they had reduc'd things to such a point as to oblige all those who were nominated to have recourse to them till in the year 1639. it happen'd that the Sieur Hugues de l' Aratut nominated to the Bishoprick of Cominges making his Information before the Ordinary and the Pope refusing to admit him the late King of glorious memory resolv'd to oppose this violence and stop its course so as the affair having been sent to the Parliament there was an Arrest given the 12 of December 1639 by which 't was ordain'd That these informations concerning Life and manners should for the future be made by the Diocesan Bishops of the places and not by the Nuntio's Notwithstanding the Nuntio's have still continued to maintain their pretensions in despite of this Arrest nor is there a person of them that does yield obedience by his addressing to the Ordinary because those who are dispos'd to doe it apprehend and not without reason lest their Bulls should be denied them Well known is that famous Arrest given Anno 1648. upon the Remonstrances of the late Advocate-general Mons. Talon against those who would have valid in France the Censures of the Inquisition and Index in the interim they were never more in reputation then since that time and it is hard to comprehend how the Clergy of France which has ever been so generous could endure it without once complaining that the Episcopal Decrees of the Prelates of France have been treated by the Inquisitors of Rome with so much indignity that they have rang'd them amongst the damned Books which they esteem so disgraceful without vouchsafing either to clear it with the Bishops before Censure or to render them any account of what they found amiss therein afterwards See but how they bear all things before them with a perseverance indefatigable and by degrees how the pretences of the Roman Court which have formerly been so odious among us establish themselves in the Kingdom and the ancient Maxims that our Fathers have conserv'd with so much zeal and jealousie are chang'd and come to nothing 'T is not alwaies done at once but sometimes by degrees and insensibly and to give an Instance of it we need goe no farther then to that of the Infallibility of the Pope onely 'T is certain that in the time of the Councils of Constance and of Basil they acknowledg'd no other Infallibility in the Church then that of the Church Universal and the General Council which represented it and that it went for current among all learned men that the Pope might erre in point of Faith It is what may be seen not onely in the Works of the greatest persons of those times as of Gerson Peter d' Ailly Cardinal of Cambray the holy and knowing Carthusian Dionysius Rikel Cardinal Cusa the Abbot of Palermo the Cardinal of Florence Iohn Patriarch of Antioch Alphonsus Tostatus surnam'd the Prodigy of the world Iohannes de Parifiis and of many more but likewise by the contest which sprung up in those times Whither a Council were above a Pope or the Pope above the Council which was decided in favour of the Council by the Fathers of the Council of Constance and Basil who maintaining the Preeminence of the Council made use of this Principle as certain and indisputable That a General Council could not erre in Determinations which regard Faith and good Manners and that the Pope therein might erre So the Council of Basil minding to establish this Preeminence of Oecumenical Councils in its Synodal Letter published after the third Session speaks in this manner This holy Church has receiv'd so great a Privilege of Jesus Christ our Saviour which he has founded by his Bloud that we most firmly believe she cannot erre This is what is agreeable to God alone by nature and to the Church by privilege Nor was this gift imparted to the Sovereign Bishop of some of whom we reade that they fell into Heresie 'T is the Church alone which is without spot or wrinkle which cannot erre in things necessary to Salvation And afterwards If the Council might erre it being certain that Popes may erre all the whole Church would be in an Errour Si errare posset Concilium cùm certum sit Papam errare posse tota erraret Ecclesia See the Voice of the whole Church legitimately assembled by the H. Spirit in General Council For 't is not to be doubted but that then the Council of Basil was Oecumenical since Pope Eugenius the IVth acknowledged by an Authentick Bull recited in the 16 Session that the Council was legitimate and General from the beginning of it to that very moment But what clearly testifies that no body in those times doubted of the preeminence of a Council above a Pope in things concerning Faith which cannot be establish'd but on this of the Council's not erring and that the Pope may is what Pope Eugenius what time he chiefly strove to set himself above a Council was notwithstanding oblig'd to acknowledge That in matters of Faith the opinion of the Council ought to be preferr'd before that of a Pope This we see in the last of the 3 Bulls which he revok'd when he rejoyn'd himself to the Council 1434. in these terms Suppose a Pope or his Legate would doe one thing and that a Council would doe the contrary we ought to follow not the Sentence of the Council but the opinion of the Pope or his Legate who represents him because the Pope 's Iurisdiction is above that of all Councils unless it happen that the things in controversie concern'd the Catholick Faith or that they were such as without the determination thereof the whole State of the Universal Church would be in disorder In such a case there must be had more regard to the opinion of a Council then to that of Popes Nisi fortè quae statuenda forent Catholicam Fidem respicerent vel si non fierent statum universalis Ecclesiae principaliter
perturbarent quia tunc Concilii Sententia esset potiùs attendenda This Pope you see acknowledg'd that in things concerning the Catholick Faith the Pope being of one opinion and the Council of another that of the Council was to be chosen Now this were ridiculous if the Pope were Infallible in Decisions touching Faith since there is no opinion which we ought to prefer before a man that is Infallible And therefore Pope Eugenius what-ever he pretended to place himself above all Councils durst never arrogate that of Infallibility Dionysius Rikel Carthusian term'd the Extatick or Illuminated Doctor as having through all his Works joyn'd an illuminated and inflamed Piety with his profound skill in Divinity in his Treatise of the Authority of the Pope and Councils having in several passages spoken highly of that of the Pope does notwithstanding acknowledge that in Council one cannot dispute the having this advantage above the Pope That a Council cannot erre in matters which pertain to Faith and good manners and that the Pope may erre there The power of a Council saies he is in this greater then the Pope's that Iesus Christ has promis'd to his Church or the Council which is her Representative an infallible direction and divine assistance which shall never fail So as a Council can neither erre in matters of Faith nor in what regards good manners forasmuch as it is immediately led by the Holy Spirit in the Determination of these things And therefore the Pope himself is in these things to adhere to the Churche's Determination that is to the Decrees of the Council as to an Oracle and regulation of the Holy Ghost whereas the Pope being obnoxious to erre in points of Faith good manners and other matters necessary to Salvation methinks men should not acquiesce in his judgement as the onely certain opinion because he is not an infallible rule nor yet a foundation so establish'd but that it may deviate from the Truth This holy Monk saies the same thing in a Sermon upon S. Hilarie and excepting onely those Authors who are notoriously ingag'd in the Interests of the Roman Court all the knowing Divines of that Age spake the same Language I observe onely Pope Adrian the VIth who having taught the same Doctrine before he was exalted to the Pontificate did not onely not retract it afterwards but caus'd his Works to be printed at Rome in which we may yet reade these words namely in his fourth Book of Sentences If by the Roman Church saies he you understand him who is the Head of it 't is certain pray mark the term that this Head of the Roman Church viz. the Pope may erre even in things appertaining to Faith by defending an Heresie by his Determination or Decretal Si per Ecclesiam Romanam intelligatur Caput ejus certum est quòd possit errare etiam in iis quae tangunt Fidem Haeresin per suam Determinationem aut Decretalem asserendo See what this holy and knowing man has written being then a private person and what it was he so approv'd when he was Pope so little did his Advancement blind him as it has done many others or make him forget what he ow'd to Truth to gratifie his new Dignity with advantages which he believed Iesus Christ never imparted to him It is not here necessary to alledge the Parisian Doctors opinions so well known to the World and to the Iesuites themselves who term the opinion against Infallibility Sententia Parisiensium but we must not omit the sense of the whole Faculty in a Body in this celebrious Declaration of the Faith which she made by order of Francis the I st and which was afterwards verified in Parliament so as in France it held a particular force of a Law and a publick Ordinance Having therefore receiv'd a command of the King to reduce into Articles the principal Points of Faith attacqu'd by Hereticks she declares That General Councils cannot erre in Points of Faith and regulation of good manners Certum est Concilium Generale legitimè congregatum universalem Ecclesiam repraesentans in Fide morum determinationibus errare non posse But for the Pope see what she saies of it all It is no less certain that there is one Sovereign Bishop by divine right in the Militant Church to which all Christians ought to submit and who has likewise power to conferre Indulgences Nec minùs certum est unum esse jure Divino Pontificem in Ecclesia Militante cui omnes Christiani parere tenentur qui quidem potestatem habet Indulgentias conferendi This different manner of speaking of Councils and the Pope in two Articles which immediately follow attributing Infallibility to the Council and none to the Pope sufficiently states the different sentiments which these Doctors had both of Councils and Popes upon this subject For I think not my self oblig'd to refute the extravagancies of a certain Writer of these times who pretends to prove by the Obedience which these Doctors teach is due to the Pope as if by that we acknowledg'd his Infallibility By the same argument he may prove that not onely all Bishops in particular but that all Abbots and Abbesses Priors Prioresses are infallible because they are promis'd obedience But he should have learn'd that in promising obedience to the Pope men are so far from acknowledging an entire submission of belief to his Decisions that the Divines say expresly and amongst others Mons. Duval Summo Pontifici parendum esse sive errare possit sive non Which signifies but this That men should not Dogmatize the contrary to what he has decided and with this caution yet nisi Error sit intolerabilis as Gerson affirms Such as has been the common sentiment of our Parisian Divines till Mons. Duval who would have introduc'd Opinions into the Sorbon totally repugnant to these ancient Maxims But as 't is customary with those who engage in quarrells against what is universally receiv'd it has hitherto been with much wariness For he did in that manner assert the Pope to be infallible in matter of Faith that in the same breath he likewise taught 't was no matter of Faith to believe it Non est de fide Summum Pontificem esse infallibilem He holds moreover that the Opinion of his not being infallible is neither rash nor erroneous Non est erroneum neque temerarium temeritate opinionis dicere Summum Pontificem in decernendo errare posse And speaking concerning the Decision of a Pope against a Doctor of Paris he saies That this Definition of Sixtus the IVth is not of Faith but onely very certain because saies he the Definitions of the Sovereign Bishops have not the certitude of the Catholick Faith till they be first received by the Universal Church or a General Council And thus whatever the Doctor 's design be and those of his gang to advance the Authority of the Pope they have been yet oblig'd to acknowledge that a Divine
who should doubt or not believe what has not been decided but by a Pope should neither be accus'd of Errour or Temerity provided he did not contradict the Pope publickly and with Scandal Behold here the very first breach which has been made at least in the Sorbon against its ancient Doctrine But in the mean time this has not hinder'd those very Persons who incourag'd this Doctor and that were ingag'd by Interest with the Court of Rome to reject this personal Infallibility of the Pope whenever they had any regard of their reputation amongst learned men This is evident by Cardinal Perron who in his Reply to the King of Great Britain l. 6. p. 1083. expresly acknowledges that the onely expedient to determine Disputes of Religion with a certainty of Faith is by a General Council Were the Service saies he taken away from the Original Tongue and transferr'd into another all means of celebrating universal Councils and having any certitude or assurance of matters of Faith would cease For there being no certitude of the genuine sense of Scripture by our particular Interpretation since no Interpretation of Scripture is of private inspiration and we having no way left us of resolution with certitude of Faith in debates which rise about Religion upon the meaning of Scripture besides the voice of the Church speaking in General Councils evident it is that whatever it be which takes away from the Church the means of holding General Councils takes away from it all means of deciding the Disputes of Christian Religion with certitude of Faith Cardinal de Richelieu in his Book of Controversies which has been approv'd by the late Mons. Lescot Bishop of Chartres and divers other Divines exceedingly devoted to the Court of Rome acknowledges the same thing Lib. 3. c. 5. p. 424. Since there is saies he no Oecumenical Council which injoyns the use of the Images of the Divine Persons it is evident that 't is no Article of Faith supposing that for the Principle That onely General Councils can frame Articles of Faith Thus we see that the Doctrine of Infallibility which had been promoted by Mons. Duval with some kind of fear and reserve was abandon'd by the most knowing persons of the Church and chiefly by those who defended it against the Hereticks because they would not engage the cause of the Catholick Religion in defence of an Opinion so insupportable and therefore the Favourites of the Roman Court were then contented that this Opinion should pass for problematick onely Whence it came to pass that Mons. Duval who had but just propos'd it in this manner was all his life in so great esteem at Rome that he was look'd upon there as the person in the world who had render'd the greatest services to the holy See and that all the Nuns had order not to doe any thing here without his advice But finding this tentative succeed so happily and that the Iesuites having gain'd the Catholick Universities had fill'd all mens thoughts with this infinite power of the Pope which was highly advantagious to them for the withdrawing of them from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops they no longer remain'd in this moderation They pretended that it was not enough for the French to permit them to say the Pope was infallible but so order'd the matter that no man was suffered to acknowledge him for less They were contented that Mons. Duval should say that it was no matter of Faith to believe the Pope infallible because this reserve was necessary at that point of time for the currenter passage of the Doctrine but having first begun to distribute it in this manner they did not long rest there the design is to make men believe that the Doctrine of the Faculty of Paris opposite to this Infallibility which in Mons. Duval's daies was neither an Errour nor any rash Opinion is since that time though the Church never thought of any change become a manifest Heresie This is what the Iesuites have exceedingly farther'd For 't is about 5 or 6 years past that Father Theophile Raynaud a Iesuite of Lions publish'd a Book with this Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ipse dixit to shew not onely that the Pope is infallible but that it is matter of Faith that he is so and by consequent those that doubt of it Hereticks and he treats Mons. Duval very ill in his Book whom in contempt he calls a certain Doctor for his caution in not so openly venting this false Doctrine as a new Article of Faith And because they saw this enterprise of theirs was not punished as it deserv'd growing daily more insolent they proceeded to that extravagant impiety of their Theses of the College de Clermont which is now the object of the indignation of all France daring publickly to maintain even in the midst of Paris it self and in face of the Parliament That the Catholick Truth which opposes the Heresie of the Greeks concerning the Pope's Primacy is That Jesus Christ has given to all Popes the very same Infallibility which himself had not onely in Questions de Jure but in those also de Facto By this 't is visible to what their boldness may aspire if not timely prevented and repress'd and what progress these monstrous Opinions are like to make to the total destruction of the Liberties of the Gallican Church so precious to our Ancestors unless we be more vigilant in stopping its carreer And in earnest it is very hard it should not be so if we but consider a little those three Expedients which the abettors of the Court of Rome make use of to establish their Maxims The First is the Company of Iesuites spread over the face of the Universe and got to be Masters of the greatest part of the Colleges so as all the World being imbu'd with these Principles from their infancie as 't were Opinions not advantageous to the Church but the Court Politick of Rome they are receiv'd with respect as if they constituted a part of our Religion so as it is quite against the hair of any other because the Iesuites accustom those who have once plac'd their belief in them to look upon men as persons suspected of their Faith who in this are not of their opinion There is the hands of many persons a Treatise of the late Father Eustachius Gault a very knowing and pious Father de l' Oratoire nominated by the late King for Bishop of Marseilles wherein he mentions how dangerous it is for this very reason lest all the Colleges should in time and by degrees fall into the hands of the Iesuites The Second means is the care they take concerning Books blasting all that they find containing any thing of the ancient Maxims of the School of Paris suppressing them all that they can or at least so ordering the matter as to retrench whatever is not in their favour as they have done by a large Discourse of Guicciardin treating of the politick Incroachment of the
was his unworthy Present repay'd But the Abettors of the Court of Rome believe with great reason that they have however gain'd a main Point that there has been nothing positively done against a Work presented to the whole Clergy Where the Doctrine of the authority of a Council above a Pope which is the prime foundation of the Liberties of the Gallican Church and the first Article of the Pragmatick Sanction is every-where styl'd Heretical and Schismatical though it has been decided for a Catholick Truth by no less then two General Councils Where the Council of Basil so rever'd of all France is rent and torn the most outragiously in the world and that in a time when Popes have declar'd it for Oecumenical Where a trifling Scribbler imperiously presumes to decide a difference upon which the Church would never yet pronounce making those to pass for Anti-popes who possess'd the Seat in Avignon during the Schism who are yet the onely ones which France has acknowledg'd though God himself seems to have been willing that this Question should have remain'd undecided since he has permitted very holy Persons to maintain the parties of both these Popes Saint Catharine that of Urban and S. Peter of Luxemburg that of Clement from whom he receiv'd even his Cardinal's Hat as S. Vincent Ferrier who also adhered to the Avignon Popes Where by an abominable Lie they impute to Charles the Seventh that he knew the Gallican Church had made a detestable Schism by pronouncing an impious Sentence in behalf of Clement the VIIth against Urban the VIth Where the Pragmatical Sanction which was contriv'd at Bourges following the Decrees of the Council of Basil by the French Bishops which King Charles the VIIth had assembled there with the Princes Lords and great Persons of the Kingdom of all degrees and qualities is unworthily styl'd the Opprobrium of the King because it declares the Pope inferiour to a Council many waies limits his power and re-establisheth Canonical Elections Where the Mandate de Providendo Expectative graces Reservations Regresses and other like Abuses so justly condemn'd by the Council of Basil and by the whole French Church are maintain'd as legitimate Rights from this strange pretence of a Bull of Eugenius the IVth That the Church of Rome does what she pleases with all Church-Dignities without wrong to any man because she may alledge this word of the Holy Gospel Friend I doe thee no wrong is it not lawful for me to doe what I will with mine own and that the same Pope writing to Alphonsus King of Portugal saies That the free disposition of all Churches appertains to the Apostolical See and that the Popes dispose of them as best they like to which even Kings and Princes submit themselves Where the most Sacred Canons of the Church are so subdued to the Pope's will that he makes a Pope writing to a King of France to say That 't is a ridiculous thing to alledge them to him or demand of him their observation as if he knew nothing of them whereas if he acted aganst the Canons we are not to believe that 't was done out of ignorance but because it pleases him to have it so That he is so far Master that according to his pleasure he might not onely interpret suspend and mitigate them but alter and abolish them likewise as pleased his fansy The whole Book is stuffed with like excesses and greater then these too notwithstanding the fautors of these pernieious Opinions have this advantage that no body having complain'd of them they will one day take this silence for a tacit Approbation beside the gain which they receive when they who would be learned in the Church-History studying it in these Books shall at the same time suck in all these dangerous Maxims Nor have they less perverted the other source of Ecclesiastical Science to wit the study of the Councils The last Collector of them Binnius being but a small Copier of Baronius Bellarmine and Suarez who has stuffed his Notes with all that he thought proper to inspire these new Opinions And what is altogether prodigious is that whereas the King of Spain has never permitted that any man should print in his Dominions any passage of Baronius's Annals prejudicial to his pretences they have in the Louvre it self printed the Collection of the Councils of Binnius and that the Iesuites who have ever had all the government of this Royal Press have left there in the life of Boniface the VIIIth these outragious words against all France Philippum pulchrum Galliae Regem justè excommunicavit This Pope did justly excommunicate Philip the Fair King of France As much as to say that all France was Schismatical in that Age for opposing as she did the Excommunication as judging it very unjust and appealing to the future Council and that she yet continues so for having never since chang'd her opinion You see in the mean time what the Iesuites think fit to print in the King's house under his own nose and at his charges that so they may give the Enemies of France the advantage to reproach her for owning in this period the justice of an Excommunication of one of her Kings against which she has heretofore so vigorously opposed herself The Abridgment of the Councils by Coriolanus printed at Paris and revised by a Doctor of the Faculty is yet in some sort worse all the contrary Maxims to the Liberty of the Gallican Church being set at the Head of the Book as if they were so many Catholick Opinions Nor is there any thing better to be hop'd for from that new Edition of the Councils which they are undertaking now at Paris if the Iesuites continue Masters seeing we find well enough by the Plan which Father L' Abbé has caus'd to be printed that besides all Binnius's Notes if any thing be added it shall be rather more and more to ruine the Liberties of the Gallican Church then to defend them and in effect we see that whereas in Binnius the Council of Basil is call'd Concilium Oecumenicum ex parte reprobatum a General Council in part reprov'd Father L' Abbé in his new project totally suppresses this quality of Oecumenick by simply calling it Basileense Concilium though he be exceedingly exact in giving the title of Oecumenick to all the other General Councils and even to those also which as yet France has never acknowledg'd for such as that of Florence for instance which he styles Florentinum Oecumenicum sive Universale Concilium and that of Lateran under Iulius the II d and Leo the Xth which he calls Lateranense quintum Oecumenicum seu Universale decimumseptimum You see how little they respect the judgment of the Gallican Church degrading the Councils which our Ancestors have ever had in such singular veneration as that of Basil and magnifying those which our Fathers would never receive for Oecumenical as that of Florence concerning which the