grantors And yet hereupon my Prelats cary their heads too high and lay claime to exempt from the ciuill Magistrate all Clearkes and Monkes with their very hangbyes and lickspits And this Rocke is very dangerous euen to my Clergy themselues who not onely are heereby emboldened openly to disobey the Magistrate in his ciuill gouerment but also hide vnder this cloake of exemption a foule heape of heynous sins and enormities liuing as they doe debauchedly and without feare either of God or of the ciuill sword the execution of iustice in such cases by my Ministers being either too too gentle slacke and sleepy as it is ordinarily or on the contrary sometimes too cruell bloudy and barbarous This Rocke is so much the more harmefull and dangerous in that the Bishops of Rome cloaking themselues with my mantle thereby make pretension to mount aboue Princes Kings and Emperours and to bee iudges ouer them arrogating to themselues authority to ouerrule them at their pleasure in their ciuill gouerment and in their lawes nay moreouer to depriue them of their kingdomes and free their subiects from their bounden duty and oath of fealty and this not onely in case of heresie but vpon any other occasion which the Popes in their humor shall conclude to be important and sufficient An horrible and abominable pretension and altogether contrary to the law of God This Rocke surely is founded by the Diuell himselfe wherat so many of my children split themselues and for the maintenance of the Pope's ambitions forfeit their goods honours fame liberty life and soule By this hellish pretension rebellions are raysed vp in Kingdomes infamous and execrable murthers of Kings are plotted the peace of the whole world is troubled brutish enormities are committed and all this springeth only from Papall ambition It is most certaine and notorious that by the law of God and of nature expresly confirmed in the holy Scriptures euery one ought in conscience vnder the guilt of most heynous mortall sin to obey his lawfull Prince in matters concerning the ciuill estate whether the same Prince be good or euill Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers Rom. 13.1 1. Pet. 2.18 Bee subiect to your Masters not onely to the good and gentle but also to the froward And for certaine I neuer receiued any power to disanull the bond of God's lawes Whence therefore hath the Pope gotten such power that he presumeth to disoblige subiects from that naturall bond which tyeth them to be entirely subiect to their lawfull Prince in ciuill maters and those things which concerne the temporall gouerment It is a meere gull foppery that hee should pretend to depose Kings from their thrones and depriue them of their crownes and in this wise to let loose their subiects from their obedience whenas without all dobut such depriuations and depositions are meere temporall businesses and no power of mine extendeth it selfe beyond spirituals The Pope's arch-flatterers confesse that it followeth hence that he cannot directly depose Kings yet will they haue him enhabled to doe it indirectly namely as such matters are occasion of some spirituall good or euill But this say I is impossible For a thing is said to be done indirectly when it necessarily followeth vpon another thing which is done directly As for example when a thiefe robbeth a trayuailer of his cloathes and he thus left naked dieth with cold this thiefe hath robbed the man directly but killed him indirectly In like maner it should be shewen what spirituall action the Pope doth directly by his spirituall power whereupon necessarily but indirectly the deposition of a King or depriuing him of his temporals doth ensue But it is impossible that any such action should bee shewed For there cannot be any greater spirituall action atchieued by my proper power then Excommunication And who would euer come to that height of absurdity as to say and yet some haue said it and beleeued it that a Prince being excommunicated is held in the same instant to be also depriued of his kingdome and deposed And yet my very nouices know that excommunication medleth not with any temporalls A rich man beeing excommunicated doth not thereby lose his possessions nor a noble man his nobility why then should a King by excommunication lose his crowne Now therefore see what a terrible Rocke this is A toy takes the Pope in the head to beare the people in hand that their Prince is an heretique and excommunicate and so depriued of his kingdome and that they are to rise against him and to call in another to reigne ouer them These simple wretches being misled by the Popes false doctrine will needes disobey God to obey the Pope And thus first they herein sinne mortally and cast away their soules then are they also most iustly punished for traytors as they are and so farewell goods life and all Neither will the matter bee salued vp by that which the Romanists reply saying Obey your Prince and sweare fealty to him in ciuill obedience but when the case so falleth out that the Pope commandeth you otherwise then renounce this obedience Nay but obedience due to Princes is perpetuall absolute and without any reseruation or condition for God so commandeth Act. 5. And wee must obey God rather then men It behooueth therefore by God's law to sweare obedience and fealty in matters concerning the temporall gouernment vnto euery naturall liege Lord without any reseruation and consequently euery subiect ought to declare himselfe when hee is so required that hee sweares and promises perpetuall and absolute obedience any whatsoeuer or whosesoeuer declaration commandement excommunication or sentence to the contrary notwithstanding For in this world there is no power that can disoblige a man frō this perpetuall and absolute obedience commanded by the law of God himselfe And in like manner the deposing or depriuing Soueraigne Princes is to bee attempted by none but God's immediate hand to whom onely it belongeth to translate kingdomes Dan. 4.25 And as for any power of mine especially that cannot in any maner neither direct nor indirect lawfully attempt any such depriuations Let euery one therefore remaine subiect and obedient vnto his owne Prince in things concerning temporall gouernment nor let him thinke that hee euer can bee assoyled by any power on earth though Ecclesiasticall from such his entire obedience ¶ The third Rocke Implicite Faith CRuell and pestilent ambition The Pope to the end that his vsurped tyrannie may not be discouered and that he may be taken for a god vpon earth by simple seduced people or rather that they may be made pliable and capable to admit for good any falshood and forgery which the Pope for the aduancing his owne greatnesse shall propound to them causeth them to be perswaded and taught that in matter of faith it is sufficient for euery of them to beleeue whatsoeuer the holy Catholike Romane mother-Church doth hold and beleeue Verely I that am the vniuersall Church I
daughter the Church of Rome hauing bene courteously enterteined ennobled enriched and exalted by diuers deuout Emperours vsing the aduantages which by little and little she gained partly by temporall greatnesse which then shined faire vpon her partly for that I had often good vse of her helpe in the midst of my troubles and garboiles which heresies brought vpon me wherein she stood me in good stead by procuring mee fauour and countenance of Catholique Emperours as also by the credit and reputation she had abroad froÌ„ those great Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul which were her fosterers and breeders vp yet she I say impudently abusing all this did about a thousand yeeres agoe enter into a bold rebellion against me not vouchsafing to remaine still my daughter nor acknowledging me for her mother in any wise but seeking to make herselfe my mistresse and to domineere ouer me But most of all about 550. yeeres after since the times of that firebrand Hildebrand and since the totall ruine of the Romane Empire this daughter of mine being high-growne in greatnesse and pride as shee began to withdraw her necke from the yoke of a temporall Lord who with his rod might hold her in obedience to me so would she needs also abandon her due place which she held with me of being a member of my body from which she rent herselfe by an horrible schisme and disdeyning to bee a member of it would haue no nay but perke aboue me and make herselfe my Head by tyrannicall vsurpation And whereas first according to the appointment of my Spouse she should receiue life and vigor from me as euery member of the Body doeth from its coniunction with the whole as being a part thereof she by tearing herselfe off from being a member to put forward for the Headship hath instantly lost all that spirit and vigor which euery particular Church partaketh with and from mee Cypr. de vnit eccles euen as branches deriue their vigor from the roote streames from the fountaine and beames from the Sunne which is S. Cyprians comparison And moreouer she hath bene so bold with me as to dispoile me of my robes and ornaments and to rob me of my proper name and now shee she onely must be stiled the vniuersall Church the Catholique Church the mother of the faithfull the pillar of trueth the Spouse of Christ c. Behold therefore here an infamous and dreadfull rocke For whosoeuer abandoneth me to cleaue to her hee is out of the Arke of Noah he not hauing me to his mother Cypr. ibidem hath not God to his father Whosoeuer is a follower of that tyrant which vsurpeth my dignity and trampleth downe my authoritie he certainely followeth not Christ my true Spouse but Antichrist No Church can be vnder Christ vnlesse it be first vnited to me and all Churches that enioy the graces flowing from Christ doe partake them by my meanes and so farre forth as they are my daughters and limmes growing vnto me who am the Body of Christ Therefore the Romane Church inasmuch as a daughter or member she will not be and mother or Head which faine she would she cannot be betweene both sure she hath no part in me And whosoeuer danceth after such a schismatical and rebellious ring-leader must needs himselfe be a schismatique and rebel and who so followeth the vsurping Pope must engage himselfe to beleeue euery falshood and fiction that is thrust vpon him and so shall be sure to tumble downe headlong after such a guide Thus the Papacie sheweth it selfe to bee the grand and most dangerous rocke of all the rest against which so many poore Christian soules daily dash themselues And so much for this mother-Rocke The rest I shall passe ouer more briefly ¶ The second Rocke Temporall Power SO farre haue my Churchmen bene puffed vp with Ambition that they haue not onely claimed but also professed and exercised temporall power in many meerely ciuill and temporall affaires challenging to themselues as in my right a power ouer Clerkes to imprison and banish them and to inflict reall forfeits and corporall paines vpon them yet can none of my Prelats pretend for any power otherwise then as the same belongeth to mee And I for my part from my conscience confesse that I haue not receiued from my Spouse any the least temporall power concerning any temporall affaire whatsoeuer but all the power I haue is wholly and meerely Spirituall For the end whereto I am ordeined being wholly and onely spirituall namely to guide the soules of my children vnto eternall blessednes which is supernaturall and spirituall it followeth that all the meanes which I am to worke by must be of their owne nature Spirituall and supernaturall and therefore mine owne and proper power can extend it selfe no further then to things Spirituall onely My Lord Christ himselfe what other power did he exercise then meerely Spirituall Did hee euer thrust himselfe into any temporall affaire S. Paul saith that Those that are set ouer my children Heb. 13.17 are to watch ouer their soules and to render accompt of them My care therefore properly and wholly concerneth mens soules As for their bodies and bodily or ciuill affaires they haue other gouernours namely temporall Princes The same S. Paul saith also that No man 2. Tim. 2.4 that warreth vnto God entangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life Moreouer by the ioynt acknowledgement of my holy doctors it is manifest that my employment is wholly and onely in cure of soule which also is not denied by diuers the most renowmed Bishops of Rome as Hormisda Epist 21. Gelasius de Anath vinc Epist 10. Symmachus in Apologet. Nicolas the 1. Epist 8. And why I pray you is my power described ordinarily in holy writ by the name of a Chaire â—â—â—th 23.2 but that it consisteth in teaching and directing this power of mine being principally instructiue and doctrinall Christ said to his Apostles Luke 22.25 that The Kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship ouer them But ye shall not be so thereby inferring that it belongeth not to the officers of my family to exercise dominion or ciuill coactiue iurisdiction S. Hierome saith that Kings rule ouer men Hieron ep 3. will they nill they but the priest ruleth onely those that are willing to be subiect to him The reason is for that it is not in my reach to enforce any man S. Chrysostome very well saith of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys hom 3. in Act. Apo. that I cannot impose any thing by authoritie that is in such maner as pretending power to compell others to obey me True it is that religious and deuout Princes to doe mee honour and for my sake to vouchsafe some priuiledge to my officers haue afforded mee the fauour to haue the exercise of a certaine ciuil and criminall Iurisdiction ouer my owne Ministers but such grants as these are at the courtesie and in the liberty of the
open neither vntill they come vnto my notice and yet these men would most fondly inflict actuall punishments for faults vnreuealed to them and vpon Delinquents vtterly vnknowen Let no man therefore bee afraid of these Excommunications iniure although they bee ipso facto vpon the very deede or latae sententiae vpon the generall sentence which is an errour nor is it possible that such Excommunications should worke ipso facto neither doth God hold any man for excommunicate vntill hee be namely bound and actually excommunicate Let euery one bee affraid of sinne though neuer so secret and let him looke for punishment from God but let him not feare any excommunication of mine vnlesse it be actually brandished out against him by his lawfull Prelate and that vpon good cause nor can this third Excommunication otherwise worke any whit vpon the soule Moreouer I aduise you that if a Prelate excommunicate any of you and that vpon iust cause for some offence deseruing excommunication if he doe not either by word or deede declare with which of these three Excommunications he doth strike you this his excommunicating though it be speciall and actuall is either none at all or at the most it is to bee vnderstood of the second and not of the third Neither can that stand which the new Canonists auouch that by the indefinite name of Excommunication the greater is to be vnderstood For they confound the second with the third which notwithstanding are most different one from anothers and they would haue the second to bee the greater because it taketh away Ecclesiasticall conuersation from the excommunicate party It must be vnderstood therefore of the second but as not amounting vnto the third which third is the true Excommunicatio maior the grand excommunication For it is true that in the later the former are included but not the later in the former Besides this you are to vnderstand that by my rules taught me by my Spouse none of these Excommunications especially the third can be of force but when the crime is grieuous publique notorious and very scandalous and such as giueth first very great offence to God and moreouer much scandall to the Church And hee that is cleere in his owne conscience and knoweth that hee doth not offend in the sight of God and that the act for which he is excommunicated especially by the Excommunication in iure onely is not of it selfe abhominable nor repugnant to Gods Law let him neuer feare any excommunication at all as making him guilty before God Whilst therefore a Prelate commandeth or forbiddeth any act of its own nature indifferent which is neither commanded nor forbidden by the word of God and imposeth this his command vnder paine of Excommunication you may laugh in your sleeues at it For the not obeying a Prelate in such things as in their owne nature are indifferent seldome amounteth to a mortall sinne and though it were mortall yet it is not such as can deserue the third Excommunication And so when you heare Excommunications thundred out for reading of bookes for not paying of pensions for punishing Priests and wicked Friars according to law with ciuill punishments and such like causes you may take such Excommunications to be made in iest and neede not bee afraid of them for I hold them to bee nothing worth neither was it euer my mind that this sword of mine should euer serue the turne either for temporall affaires or for the priuate ends of my Prelats Take also this with you which is one of my principall ordinances concerning Excommunications that none can excommunicate any other then those that bee in proper subiected to him and of his Diocesse And so the Bishoppe of Rome cannot excommunicate those that are out of the Diocesse of Rome And whosoeuer excommunicateth any that are not subiect vnto him his Excommunication holds not and in this case the Popes thunderbolt is of no more force then that of the Bishop of * A pety Bishopricke in Italy in the dominions of Venice Caurole Indeede any Bishop vpon great cause may deny to another Bishop his communion that is his communication and brotherly complying and spirituall correspondence So also may any particular Church deny its communion to another and this may bee called a fourth kinde of Excommunication but it hath no operation vpon the soule nor is exercised with any power or iurisdiction of one Church ouer another and the action it selfe is meerely negatiue not positiue nor operatiue namely when vpon euidence or deepe suspicion of anothers spirituall corruption mutuall correspondence is shunned And yet in this sort of Excommunication there is very great danger inasmuch as vpon it foule turbulent schismes doe ensue This Rocke as you see becommeth very dangerous vnto you whilest it makes you stumble vpon feares and terrors which withhold you from many actions that would bee profitable and commodious to you and also it maketh you run headlong into the actions of blindefold obedience whence indeede commeth your ruine seeing they will not suffer you to walke in the high-way of your saluation but amuse you in the by-wayes of eternall perdition and hold you in subiection to an Idoll and to him that would haue you deeme him a god vpon earth ¶ The fift Rocke The Commandements of the Church THis is a very great Rocke or rather a maine Sea of Rocks and shelfes heaped vp together and appointed for the spirituall ruine of you my deere Children The ambition of Popes hath hitherto vsurped a Law-making power through my whole family and would haue me bound vnder paine of mortall sinne to obserue their lawes Verely it belongeth to mee in my Synods and Councels to set down certaine practicall rules concerning rites and outward worship which rules are nothing else then certaine good directions and publique instructions requisite and necessary for the establishing of good order for the preuenting of confusion and for the increase of piety But I neuer pretended that they should haue the very nature of lawes but onely of good ordinances and therefore my will was to call them Canons that is to say Rules but not Lawes nor Commandements vnlesse I procure the secular power to giue them the force of lawes From which secular powers Christ hath not freed either mee or any of you as hee hath freed vs from the legall Ceremonies and from the yoake and burden of that law which beeing no part of the Decalogue perteyneth to the gouernment of the soule there yet remayning most full power in Princes and Magistrates as farre as concerneth temporall gouernment whereto all the sort of you are subiect not onely by constraint and for feare but also for conscience-sake as Saint Paul instructeth you True it is Rom. 13.5 that there is also an obedience due vnto the spiritual Ouerseers but this is to be vnderstood of following their good instructions in matter of faith and concerning Christian life Neither was it the minde of Christ to
no lesse then formall Idolatry And therefore on all hands all religious worship of Statues and Images euen of the Crosse and of Christ himselfe would be altogether banished out of Christendome much more those of Our Lady and of other Saints beeing that no religious worship at all is due vnto those Images or to those Saints whom they represent Remember how Saint Iohn the Euangelist when hee would haue worshipped the Angell was by the Angell himselfe forbidden with this Caueat See thou do it not for I am thy fellow-seruant Reuel 22.9 And surely Saint Iohn neuer meant to adore that Angell as God with the worship called latria proper to God onely for he well knew that this was an Angell but because hee bowed himselfe to him with a religious act the Angell hindered him knowing that such an act was vnlawfull how much more vnlawfull were it to bee done to an Image But if you would cleere the matter whether this worship be vsed to be giuen to the Image it selfe as an Image or to the prototype in the Image looke into your Churches houses whether the same adoration be yeelded to all Crucifixes to all the Images of the Virgin Mary equally of all which the prototype or principall is the same or whether there bee not rather a difference in the adoring thē Surely you shall find very great difference between one Image and another both being of the same principall Of Our Ladie 's Images you shall haue in the same Citie in diuers Churches and houses some that are not so much as looked after and yet one of them in some other Church shall bee frequented with infinite concourse of people That of Loretto shall haue farre better doings then that of Mont-ferrate and so likewise of others Therefore the vsuall worship is proper vnto the Image and not to the prototype or originall which it represents Obserue also the disorders which are to bee found not onely in the common people and simple women but also in those that are reputed discreet and graue when they come into a Church if there be there any famous Statue or Image of Our Lady loaden with vowes glistering with tapers richly clad in gold and siluer shut vp in shrines and such like this must bee the first that is visited after they haue adored the Image of the Virgin Mary then for fashion sake they goe to the Altar of the most blessed Sacrament as they call it where they suppose that Christ himselfe is really and corporally present or if there bee no such Altar there then they first worship Our Lady dight in that man̄er and goe afterwards to the Crucifixe or rather for the most part doe not at all visite it How many huge tapers and whole torches shall you see burning before the Image of St. Francis of St. George of St. Charles or some other Saint but before the Crucifixe either none at all or a petty farthing-candle Is this to reflect from the Image to the prototype Is not this to commit Idolatry and to preferre the seruant before the Master the creature before the Creator Is not this to put more affiance in a Saint then in Christ and to expect more helpe from a Saint then from Christ himselfe There is no one thing whereby poore I am more defamed and shamed among the Iewes Turkes and Pagans then by these Idolatries Fly therefore from them The Reliques of Saincts if they be true and proued so to bee are to bee layed vp in honourable buriall and kept in decent places and are to serue your turne my Children as a memoriall of the holy actions of that Sainct for your imitation Yee are therefore to respect them with ciuill honour as the members of God's principall seruants but as for religious and spirituall worship as it cannot without Idolatry be afforded to their soules now glorified in heauen so is it much lesse due vnto their ashes and dead bones and least of all to their Images those Reliques hauing in themselues no diuine power at all nor any Spirituall qualitie whereby they may doe you any helpe And if God in loue vnto his Saincts that remaine with him in glory vouchsafe to do you any fauour it is he himselfe that doth it and not the Sainct much lesse any Relique or image of a Sainct So also when God did patiently beare with the sinnes of the children of Israel euen to the pardoning them their Idolatries for the loue which he bare to Abraham Isaac and Iacob and when hee deferred the dismembring of Salomon's Kingdome and pardoned many faults to his successors Kings of Iudah for his beloued Dauid's sake the thanks then were not due nor rendered to Abraham Isaac and Iacob nor to Dauid but to God So also may you intreate God to graunt you some fauours for the loue which he beareth vnto his Saincts but yee are not to begge those fauours of the Saints themselues nor of their Reliques nor of their Images and hauing obteined those fauours you are to repay your thanks and shew your gratitude to God onely not vnto the Saincts nor to any their Reliques or Images But besides all this you may be sure that there are innumerable impostures put vpon you concerning Reliques and that perhaps for the most part the bones of knaues are shewed to you for the bones of Saincts ¶ The sixt Rocke Merits THe Popish Masters extoll Meritorious workes especially Almes and will haue them deserue eternall life but their intent is that you being drawne on with the hope of so great gaine may put out your money to vse into their handes to bring in a most plentifull interest of an hundred for one but in the meane time they themselues take the money and make God your debtor both for the principall for the vse in the life to come And this their bearing you in hand with hope of so certaine and infallible gaine makes the Priests and Friars to ruffle it out vpon your purses and you for your parts if you be not the wiser and take not heed of this dangerous Rocke shall loose both your stocke and interest and suffering shipwracke are like to bee drowned in the gulfe of eternall punishment Know ye therefore that the principal works which are necessary next after faith to obtaine remission of sinnes and God's grace in this life with eternall glory in the next doe consist in the due obseruation of Gods Commandements that so by God's helpe hee may keepe sinne aloofe from him These workes therefore which consist in keeping the Commandements are necessary in asmuch as God will not iustifie nor saue any man that obstinately remaineth in sinne and resolutely holdeth on his way in offending his heauenly Maiestie Therefore a true and liuely faith whereby a Christian layeth hold on Christ hath this operation that it mollifieth and sweetneth his affection and loue towards God and so it holdeth him off from sinne and maketh him hate it But these workes being
would giue you a full pardon both of fault and punishment for you deeme their Absolutiō to bee sufficient for you and that it doth without faile make riddance of your fault and as for the backe-reckoning of punishment ye cheere vp your selues that a little tast of Purgatory shall make you free-men and so it falls out that you passe to another life perhaps which God forefend with your whole load both of fault and also of obligation vnto eternall punishment But when you know there is no Purgatory at all you will for the scaping of hell looke better to your tacklings and you will not then say as I heare many among you now speake I will not performe the penance that is inioyned me I am content rather to make it vp afterward in Purgatory And your instructers teach you that you may lawfully say and doe thus The other hidden Rocke that groweth to this Rocke of Purgatory are Indulgences It is a shamelesse boldnesse to say that Christ indeede hath fully satisfied for all the punishments due to euery sinner which addresseth himselfe vnto him but yet that the applying of Christ's merits goes in this man̄er the Confessor when he absolueth thee applieth the merits of Christ vnto thee onely in respect of the fault and the eternall punishment but as for temporall punishment that lies still at thy doore and that therefore in respect of this punishment it is in the Popes power to apply the said merits of Christ for the remitting the said punishment in part or in whole as he shall thinke good But I say if the Confessor absolue by the power of the keyes who hath restrayned him in this Absolutiō to the fault not to the entire punishment who hath halfed out vnto him the power of the keyes that by them hee should apply the merits of Christ for the taking away onely of the fault and of the eternall punishment but not of the temporall Surely the keyes containe entire remission who then thus hath minced it out And if the Confessor can impose such satisfaction whereby all kind of punishment may beecancelled and certainely as the Papists teach this satisfaction worketh by the power of the keyes being Sacramentall then his power extendeth also to the whole punishment and by absoluing and by Absolution applying Christ's Satisfactions vnto the penitent hee doth apply them with all the power and vertue which is either in Christ's merits or in the keyes or in the Minister himselfe that worketh by them there is therefore no kind of punishment which he hath not remitted and what then remaines behinde for Indulgences to worke vpon I say nothing of the merits of the Saints Supererogation which they shuffle into this Treasure among Christ's merits with as great falsehood as wrong and iniury done to Christ himselfe The falsehood lies in this for that the workes of any Saints whatsoeuer both as they are maritorious if they may bee called meritorious at all and also as satisfactory are wholly pay'd for the Saints owne debt nor is there any ouerplus left for others in case they were sufficient for the Saint himselfe as I shall afterward declare To Christ himselfe great wrong is done as if a man should poure a drop of water into the Sea and should say that this drop carries euery ship to the hauen but especially he is wronged in that onely he and none else beeing appointed of God the Mediator both for faults and punishments of the world and all men in it it must needes bee an odious blasphemy to say that the merits of Saints doe serue for the taking away of the punishments of sinnes for the cancelling whereof God accepteth nothing else but the blood of his onely-begotten Sonne as also hee hath sent none other nor chosen any other for that office then this his only Sonne neither is any other money currant in Gods Treasury for our complete redemption either from fault or from punishment then the treasure of the blood merits of Christ stamped with the image of Christ himselfe all other money vsed for this purchase is false coine and is reiected by the mint-master of heauen But besides this how is the Pope inabled to apply the treasure of Christ's merits who hath made him Master of it who hath put into his hands onely the keyes of it I haue heard that the principall key which leads to this treasure lieth open in publicke to be vsed by euery one that will take it and that the hand by which euery one may take it is true and liuely faith nor is there any neede to aske this key of the Pope or of any other man it lying open to all nor to beg of any man the fauour to bee made partaker of this treasure which Christ hath made common without giuing the custody thereof to any man in the world I haue indeede a particular key committed vnto mee by him but without any preiudice to the common key which lyeth open to all and this is that key by which I binde and loose and this is equally in the hands of euery of my Ministers and specially of my Bishops and this key doth after a sort apply vnto the penitent that treasure namely the merits of Christ according to the promise of Christ himselfe who whensoeuer he remits the fault remitteth also all kinde of punishment neither is it in my power or in the power of any that vseth this key of mine to separate the punishment or any part thereof from the fault for the money of this treasure payes all in the totall and that is the currant rate of it It is therefore open tyrannie in the Pope to incroach this key into his owne hands onely and to impart it to whomsoeuer he please and in what degree hee thinkes good whereas this key was giuen to me and I haue committed it to the handes of all and euery my Ministers equally without distinction And if there were any true Indulgences to bee had it were a great folly in you to seeke them of the Pope when as your owne Bishops can aswell graunt them as the Pope himselfe and this is not denied by the doctors of his owne side namely those that yeeld that Bishops haue all their authoritie power and Episcopall Iurisdiction from God and not from the Pope To comprise this briefly There are onely three Keyes which keepe the treasury of my house The one is common to all my children lying open to euery man as I said and not committed specially to the hands of any the other two are in the hands of my Officers and of euery of them for by them onely are they to be imployed but to the benefit of all the faithfull One is of the holy Sacraments namely of Baptisme and the Eucharist the other is for binding and loosing as I haue declared And whosoeuer brags that he hath another key besides these as the Pope vaunteth that he hath the key of Indulgences hee both is deceiued