obserued where he exclaimes against that pompous title of vniuersall saying It is euident to all who know the Gospell that the care of the whole Church is committed by our Lords voyce to S. Peter the Apostle the Prince of all the Apostles for to him it was said Peter doest thou loue me feede my sheepe c. beholde he receiues the keyes of the kingdome of heauen the power of binding ad loosing is giuen to him the care and principalitie principatus soueraigntie or dominion of the whole Church is committed to him and yet he is not called vniuersall Apostle OBSERVATION Receiue from saint Gregories owne mouth then that the Sea Apostolique is the head of all the Churches That all Bishops found in fault are subiect to it That Peter was placed ouer all the Churches That the Roman Church is the head of all the Churches That it is knowne to all that know the Gospell that the Care of the whole Church is committed by our Lord himselfe to Peter the Prince of all the Apostles and that yet he is not called vniuersall Apostle What other thing is this I pray then to crye out with a lowde voyce and to make open demonstration to all the world that while he exclaymes against the title of vniuersall Bishop he refuses not the headship of all the Churches but professeth to haue iurisdiction and superintendencie ouer all the other Bishops Archbishops and Patriarkes as doth partly appeare by what I haue alreadie cited out of him and more fully shall yet appeare in my ensuing discourse THE II. TITLE WHEREBY saint Gregorie makes good the supremacie is The exercice of such power all ouer the Christian world FIRST ouer the Bishops of Europe l. 12. Ep. 15. to s. Aug. in particular ouer the Bishops of England Let the Bishop of Yorke order 12. Bishops and enioy the honour of a Metropolitane but let all the Bishops of England be subiect to thy brotherhood Secondly l. 7. Ep. 112. ouer the Bishops of France Granting the vse of the Pall to the Bishop of Auston he saith And withall we perceiued we were to grant that the Church of the cittie of Auston should be after the Church of Lions and to challenge to it selfe this place and rancke by the fauour indulgentia of our Authoritie Thirdly ouer the Bishops of Spayne saying Let him who presumed while the innocent Bishop was yet aliue to be ordered in his Church against the Canons being depriued of priesthood be cast out of all Church-ministerie and withall let him be kept in safe custodie or els be sent vnto vs. Let the Bishops who ordered him being depriued of the Communion of the body and bloud of our Lord for the space of six monthes be appointed to doe pennance in a Monasterie Fourthly l. 7. Ep. 32. Ouer the Bishops of Africa In particular thus to the Bishop of Carthage By louing the Sea Apostolique you baue recourse to the source of your office or dignitie knowing whence priestly ordination had its beginning in Africa Againe l. 10. Ep. 2. Writing to Columbus a Bishop of Numidie c. he saith You are diligently to examine all the contents of his Petition to witt Donadeus Deacon degraded by Victor a Bishop of Numidie and if his complaint be accompanied with truth let canonicall rigour be vsed against his Bishop Victor Fiftly l. 2. Ep. 6. Ouer the Bishops of Greece In particular ouer Iohn Bishop of Iustiniana prima in these words As for the present hauing first disannulled and made of no effect the Decrees of thy sentence we decree by the authoritie of Blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles that for thirtie dayes space thou shalt be depriued of the holy Communion that with verie great pennance and teares thou mayst preuayle with Almightie God to pardon thy so great an excesse And if we shall come to perceiue that thou doest coldly performe our sentence know that then not barely thy iniustice but the contumacie also of thy brotherhood shall be more seuerely punished Againe l. 5. Ep. 7. Writing to the Bishops of Epirus he saith Know that we haue sent a Pall to Andrew our brother and fellow-Bishop and haue graunted or confirmed him all the priuiledges which our predecessours conferred vpon his Againe Writing to Iohn Bishop of Corinth l. 4. Ep. 51. touching Secūdinus a Bishop whom he had deputed to examine and depose one Anastasius Bishop quam causam ei examinandam iniunximus he saith And because in that sentence whereby it is euident that the fore named Anastasius was iustly condemned and deposed our fore-mentioned brother and fellow Bishop so punished certaine persons that he reserued them to our arbitrimēet And a litle after speaking of another we pardō him this fault and we appoint that he should be receiued in his rancke and place Againe We will haue them to witt Euphemius and Thomas to remayne deposed as they are and we decree that they shall neuer more be receiued into holy orders vnder what pretext of excuse soeuer Sixtly l. 5. Ep. 14. Writing to Marinianus Bishop of Rauenna vpō the difference which was betweene his Church and Claudius the Abbot he saith And doe not you your selfe know that in the cause which was agitated by Iohn Priest against Iohn of Constantinople our brother and fellow Bishop recourse was made to the Sea Apostolique following the Canons and the cause was ended definita by our Sentence And thence saint Gregorie frames an argument a fortiori in these words which immediatly follow If therfore the cause be deuolued to our knowledge euen from the Cittie where the Prince to witt the Emperour resides how much more is the busines which is against you to be determined or iudged here the trueth being knowne The like speeches bearing a face of authoritie with them are all his Epistles so full of as may with ease be seene in Dr. Sander's visible Monarchie that who would take the paines could hardly light vpon an Epistle where he should not meete with thē If he should looke vpon the 11. booke and 10. Epistle he would finde him instile the kings his sonnes saying according to the writing of our sonnes the most excellent kings c. And in the end of the same Ep. And we command that all these things shall be obserued for euer which are contayned in this our Decree as well by thy selfe he speakes to a certaine Abbot as by all those who shall succeede in thy place and rancke or whom it may otherwise concerne And if any king Priest Iudge or secular person hauing knowledge of this our Constitution shall offer to oppose it let him be depriued of his honour and dignitie and acknowledge that he stands guiltie of the iniquitie committed in the sight of the diuine iudgement And vnlesse he doe either restore the things which he wickedly tooke away or expiate his iniquitie with the teares of worthy repentance let him be kept from the most sacred body
the Almner A certaine man was lead captiue to the Persians and was shut vp in prison But some flying thence and coming in to Cyprus and being asked by his parents whether they had seene him there they made answer and said we buried him with our owne hands It was not indeed the man where of they were asked but another not vnlike to him and withall they signified the moneth and day of his death And they his parents as if he had bene deceased indeed made three Collects be made for him euery yeare But after three yeares making a scape from the Persians he returned into Cyprus whre upon his friends said to him truly brother we heard you were dead and we made à memorie of you thrice a yeare When he heard they had made memories of him thrice a yeare he asked them in what moneth they celebrated theÌ„ and they answering c. he said that in those three tymes a yeare there came one as bright as the sun and freed me from my iron chaynes and prison c. OBSERVATION The custome of praying for the dead in the beginning of the 7 â—h Age proued and approued from heauen by miracle Maximus The prayers of the iust doe onely profit those who are worthy of mercy whether they be aliue or dead c. From this place he begins to expound that prayers doe profit the dead and declares that this question had bene agitated before that tyme. S. Damascene And who is able to declare the multitude of restimonies touching these things in order as they are put in the liues and diuine reuelations of Saints wherby it is euidently showen that those prayers Masses and Almes which are offered for them doe greatly profit the dead euen after death This is the will of that mercifull Lord and it is acceptable to him that all of vs as well in our life tyme as after the end of our labours should one helpe another nor had he otherwise afforded vs this occasion that in the vnbloudie sacrifice memorie should be made of those that are departed this life Nor that we should celebrate Masse sacra in memorie of them in the third ninth and fortieth day or at the yeares end which yet the Catholike and Apostolike Church constantly obserues without all controuersie vnlesse it were aggreable in his sight OBSERVATION That it is an vndoubted custome in the Catholike and Apostolicall Church to make memorie of the dead in the vnbloudie sacrifice as a thing which doth greatly profit them No such memorie is made at all in the Protestant Church of England Theophylact. c. 12. vpon S. Luke The sinners which dye are not alwayes sent into Hell Gehennam but they are in Gods power to be dismissed and this I affirme in respect of the oblations and distributions which are made for the dead which doe not a little conduce euen to such as dyed in great sinnes He doth not therefore hauing killed alwayes send into Hell he hath power indeed to send yet makes not still vse of this power c. but remittes certaine sinnes c. Will you rather heare the sense of the later and present Greeke Church vpon this subiect to see if they contradict their ancient Fathers as you doe Heare it then speake first as it is put downe in the Councell of Florence in the 3. Decree in these tearmes Item we define that if persons truly penitent departed this life in the loue of God before they had yet done satisfaction for commissions and omissions by worthy fruites of repentance their soules shall be purged with purging paynes And that they are helped to be freed from such paynes by the suffrages of the faithfull yet liuing to witt by the Sacrifices of Masses prayers Almes and other offices of pietie which are wont to be performed by the faithfull for the faithfull according to the Churches institutions OBSERVATION Behold a generall Councell aboue 200. yeares agoe consisting of 141. Bishops as well of the Greeke as Latine Church called by Pope Eugenius the 4. at the instance of the Emperour of the East who presided in person the Patriarke of Constantinople being also present Defines that soules departing this life without doing full satisfaction for their sinnes suffer purging paynes and are thence released by Masses c. according to the custome and Institution of the Church Secondly as it is deliuered by Hieremi Patriarke of Constantinople in his answers to the Diuines of Wirtemberg about the yeare 1578. as followes It is not in vaine established by the Apostles Taken out of Chrysost hom 69. ad pop Ant. 3. vpon the Philip. that in the dreadfull mysteries mention should be made of the Dead They know that heÌ„ce great prosit and great vtilitie doth accrue vnto them for when all the people doth stand with hands lifted vp and all the companie of the Priests and the dreadfull Sacrifice is proposed how is it possible that we should not worke their Lord to take pittie on them or be mercifull vnto them by praying for theÌ„ OBSERVATION Loe mention or commemoration made of the dead in the dreadfull mysteries or Masse and that with much profit as being the meanes whereby God is moued to mercy And marke that we haue not this from a priuate man or a man of small note or vpon some light and slight accompt but euen from the great Patriarke of Constantinople the second or new Rome vpon an occasion most pregnant to produce a precise profession of the faith of the Greeke Church since it was sent to another part of the world where it was not like to passe in priuate but was lyable and likely to be discussed to the full by a people to witt the Diuines of Wittemberg who in lieu of being admitted into their communion found their expectatioÌ„s foâ—â—lely frustrated their profession of faith which they sent to be approued opposed and affronted and their Doctrine reiected as not aggreeing with the Greeke Church Thirdly as it is expressed in the Synodicall Decree of Parthenius present Patriarke of CoÌ„stantinople vpon the renets of Caluin printed in Paris 1643 Lastly saith he to find a pretext to reiect the fire of Purgatorie he Caluin goes about to repudiate or reproue our ordinarie and lawfull CoÌ„memorations for the dead whereby we hope that God will grant rest to them and a refreshing or tyme of breathing from the vexations or torments acerbitates which doe afflict them The same is deliuered by the Liturgies or Masses of S. Basile the great and S. Iohn Chrysostome The first in these tearmes The Priest with a loude voyce beseeches God to be myndfull of all who haue departed this life Let him recreate them in his Tabernacle let him lead them through horrid Mansions and place them in lightsome Tabernacles Let him deliuer them out of most thicke darknesses tribulatioÌ„ and dolour least he should enter into iudgement with them Let him pardon them what euer as men they may haue offended while they
pardonable in other questions which are not yet maturely digested De verbis Apost Serm. 14. nor confirmed by the full authoritie of the Church their errour is to be borne with but it must not aduance so farre as to endeauour to shake the verie foundation of the Church Of the Popes supremacie Against the Popes supremacie Mr Cosen 's vsed 4. or fiue arguments which I will put downe as they past The first Cos S. Gregorie being demanded certaine questiōs of Augustine Achb. of Canterburie answered him that he was to learne of neighbour Churches how he was to behaue himselfe seeming thereby to say in effect why doest thou aske me who haue noe such authoritie learne of the neerest Churches c. Carre To this it was answered that this obiection was nothing to the purpose because S. Augustins demaund was in matter of ceremonie not of Faith of particular obseruance of a small part of the Church not of the generall gouernment of the whole wherein the Popes supreme power is especially and properly exercised and knowne For these are the words of his third demaund Why there being but one faith are the customes of Churches so diuers And there is one custome of Masses in the Romane Church and another is obserued in the Churches of France So that it appeares euidently that saint Augustins demand to saint Gregorie was onely about the diuers customes of saying Masse the verie word will hardly now be welcome and was indeed like to that of Ianuarius to the great saint Augustine Doctor of the Church Epist 209. and saint Gregories answer againe entirely consonant to the great S. Augustines speaking of an indifferent no necessarie obseruation Le ts heare them both Saint Gregory Your brotherhood is acquainted with the custome of the Church wherein you will remember you were bred But it pleaseth me that if you haue found any thing either in the holy Romane Church that of France or in what other soeuer which may be more agreeable to Almightie God you carefully make choyce of it and powre out by speciall institution in the English Church which is as yet young in faith the choycest things which you can cull out of diuers Churches for the things ought not to be loued in respect of the places but the places by reason of good things Cull therfore what is religious pious and right out of what Church soeuer and hauing gathered them as it were into a bundle settle them as a custome in the heart of the English Saint Augustine vpon the like occasion But other things which are diuersified in diuers places and regions as is that that some fast saturday some not some dayly communicate the body and bloud of our Lord others receiue certaine dayes onely in some place no day is omitted wherein it is not offered in others on saturday and sunday onely in others againe on sunday alone or what euer may be obserued of this nature the whole kind of them haue free obseruances nor can a graue and prudent Christian obserue any better rule or discipline herein then to behaue himselfe according to the Church where he chanceth for the time to light for what is neither enioyned against faith nor good manners may be indifferently obserued and may be kept for their societie amongst whom we liue Now how out of these premises of Saint Gregorie this conclusion which was in question Ergo saint Gregorie did not acknowledge himselfe the Head of the Church can be inferred I confesse I am not able to diuine It will belong to him who made vse of it to make it appeare or els to cease with his to bragge of a victorie when the weakest may discouer he falls so farre short of all shew of a proofe and consequenly as was replyed in his presence that passage alleadged made nothing at all to the purpose pretended which was to conclude against the Popes supremacie For the rest how truly saint Gregorie did acknowledge vindicate and exercise the supreme authoritie of the Church of Rome shall be made manifestly and plentifully appeare vpon occasions of answer to Mr Doctors other obiections as they occurre Though the same might be partly obserued too euen out of his said replyes to saint Augustins questions as when he saith to the 9th quest We giue thee no authoritie ouer the Bishops of France because the Bishop of Arles receiued the Pall from ancient tymes of my predecessours whom we ought not to depriue of the authoritie receiued Againe in the same place But we committ the care of all the Brittain Bishops to thy brotherhood that the vnlearned may be taught the infirme strengthened by persuasion the peruerse corrected by authoritie Againe in the answer to the 8. quest We will haue thy Brotherhood so to order Bishops in England c. OBSERVATION Marke how he giues him authoritie ouer the Bishops of Britanie denyes him authoritie ouer the Bishops of France as hauing formerly receiued authoritie from the same sea by the gift of a pall which is practised by the Romane Church till this day finally how he expresses himselfe by Volumus we will c. all which are the words of a master and speake his power to the life at least if we make him the iudge of the Controuersie as Mr Cosens his argument will haue it Cos Againe the same saint Gregorie cryed out against Iohn Patriar of Constantinople for proudly assuming to himselfe the pompous name of vniuersall Bishop c. ergo he did not allow the supremacie of Rome Carre This was his seconde medium and I confesse it were specious enough had it neuer before bene heard of but being too obuious and euen worne thread-bare with euery ones frequent handling it is transparent to vulgar eyes and he walkes but in a nett who makes vse of it for a cloke To this my answer was that therfore saint Gregorie exclaimed against the proud and pompous title of VNIVERSALL BISHOP vhich Iohn Patriarke of Constantinople assumed to himselfe because he apprchended that thereby all the office or dignitie of Bishop was absorpt or exhausted so as none should be Bishop but himselfe Now whether this apprehension was true we labour not it is sufficiēt to shew that saint Gregorie at least made such a conceipt or feared so much Which is euident by these passages drawen out of his owne Epistles 1. l. 4. Epist 32. If therfore saith he that name of vniuersall Bishop be assumed by any to himselfe in that Church c. the vniuersall Church therfore which God forbid doth fall from its state when he falls which is called vniuersall But may that name of blasphemy be farre from the hearts of Christians wherein the honour of all priests is taken away while one doth madly arrogate it wholly to himselfe 2. And it is very hard to be patiently endured in so much as despising all Epist 34. l. 4. Indict 13. my said Brother fellow Bishop should only endeauour to be called The Bishop
and bloud of our Lord God Iesus Christ our Redeemer and be lyable to a strict punishment at the day of Doome If vpon the 4. booke 34. Chap. there he excommunicates or suspends from Masse the Bishop of Salonitane who was made without his knowledge against custome as he complaynes The Bishop of the Cittie of Salonitane was ordered without my owne or my Nuncius his knowledge wherein a thing was done which neuer happened vnder the reigne of any the preceeding Princes And concludes with a couered reflection or reprehension against the Emperours themselues And saith he if the causes of Bishops who are committed to me are carried with my most pious Lords by syding and the supportation of others what doe I vnhappie man in this Church But I giue thankes to God and impute it to myne owne sinnes that my Bishops should contemne me and flie to secular Iudges for refuge against me In conclusion fearing to trespasse vpon the patience of my gentle Reader I omitt a number of other cleare passages and appeale to euery Christian heart whether it be not euen industriously to endeauour ones owne losse to dwell vpon the words of an Authour which manifestly contayne some doubtfull and odious sense and thence force the conclusion to what our passion aymes at without going on with the same Authour to heare him out and to take along with vs what he plainely positiuely and frequently deliuers vpon the same subiect It is true sainct Gregorie cryes out against the proud title of vniuersall Bishop yet speakes he not in a limited sense and points he not particularly at what he feares in it saying Least all priests should be thereby depriued of due honour Least he should endeauour to be called Bishop alone c. as I haue intimated from himselfe aboue pag. 123. But is it not also true that he more then any such is God's prouidence preaches proclaimes practises the power of supreme Head of the vniuersall Church Tearming the Sea of Rome THE HEAD OF ALL THE CHVRCHES NOT KNOWING WHAT BISHOP IS NOT SVBIECT TO IT WHERE PETER WAS APPOINTED BY ALMIGHTY GOD TO BE OVER ALL THE CHVRCH THAT NO COMMVNION IS LAWFVLL WHICH THAT CHVRCH ADMITTS NOT. THAT IT IS THE MOTHER CHVRCH THAT THEY ARE PERVERSE MEN WHO WILL NOT BE SVBIECT TO IT Will you heare these propositions secōded and confirmed by his publique practices which suffer no glosse Is it not he who gouernes and giues lawes to Europe Afrique and Asia Doth he not order all the Bishops of England to be vnder saint Augustine Doth he not sende the Pall to Auston in France and by the fauour of his authoritie rancke it next to Lions Doth he not in Spayne depriue a Bishop ordered against the Canons of Priesthoode and all Ecclesiasticall ministerie depriuing the Bishops too who consecrated him of the body and blood of Christ c. Doth he not in Afrique command Columbus to vse canonicall rigour against Bishop Victor if Donadeus Deacon whom he Victor had degraded had right on his side Doth he not in Greece by the authoritie of Blessed Peter prince of the Apostles disannulle what the Bishop of Iustiniana Prima had done and depriue him of the holy Communion for thirtie dayes Doth he not professe openly that the cause of the Patriarch of Constantinople though the Emperour resided there was according to the Canons deuolued to the Sea of Rome and was ended by his SENTENCE If we will then heare Gregorie le ts heare him throughly If we fly to his authoritie let vs stand to his verdict Let not his word be taken where it pleases you and reiected where it displeases you for so I shall haue cause to make vse of a passage of saint Augustine against the Manichees in in Ep. Fundam and say Doe you conceiue me a foole in such a measure that without giuing any reason at all I should beleeue what you please and what you please not I should not beleeue Noe that were not to deale fairely and ingenuously If Gregorie must be our vmpire LET ROME BE TEARMED THE HEAD OF ALL THE CHVRCHES as he stiles it and exercise iurisdiction ouer all the Churches as we haue seene him practise and let not VNIVERSALL BISHOP which we cannot or will not vnderstand aright stand betwixt vs as a wall of diuision a seed-plott of irreconcileable discorde The fortunes of Greece depend not vpon it nor Christian Beatitude If it signifie head or chiefe-bishop of the VNIVERSALL CHVRCH it is but ROMES DVE if it would entayle the whole right power and dignitie of Bishop vpon Rome alone Rome reiects it as sacrilegious and blasphemous and so doe we Mr Cosens his third Mediū or argument was that appeales to Rome were prohibited in the Mileuitane and 6th Carthaginean Councell and that vnder paine of excommunication Ergo the Africans did not acknowledge the Supremacie of Rome Carre My answer was that for minor or lesser persons or minor and lesser causes appeales were prohibited I granted it That Appeales were forbidden for Maior or greater persons at least in maior or greater Causes I denyed it And consequently I denyed the Conclusion intended to witt Ergo the Africans did not acknowledge the Supremacie of Rome And the reason is because the Supremacie of Rome is discerned and exercised in greater causes as in matter of faith or the generall gouernment of the vniuersall Church For such they precisely are which Rome did alwayes challenge as properly belonging to her owne iurisdiction Heare in confirmation of this what saint Gregorie writes to the Bishop of Iustiniana prima l. 2. ep 46. If any cause of faith or crime or Money-matter be commenced against our fellow-Bishop Adrian Bishop of Thebes if it be a thing of little importance let it be iudged by our Nuncio'es Responsales who are or shall be in the Royall Cittie Constantinople but if it be a matter of weight let it be referred hither to the Sea Apostolique And such Africa neuer denyed to Rome to witt aknowledgment of iurisdiction and subiection in GREATER CAVSES but contrarily had frequent recourse to the Popes of Rome with due submission and aknowledgment Yea the verie Fathers to the nūber of 61. of the Mileuitane Councell wrote to Pope Innocētius in these tearmes Wheras God by his speciall grace hath placed thee in the Sea Apostolique and hath giuen vs thee such an one talē one so qualified or so good in our dayes that it would rather be imputed to our negligence if we should conceale from thy veneration what we iudge ought to be represented for the Churches aduantage then that we neede to apprehend that thou wouldst esteeme it importune or otherwise slight the same we beseech thee daigne to employe thy pastorall care in the great dangers of the infirme members of Christ for a new and most pernicious heresie c. Againe in the same place while we intimate these things to thy Apostolicall heart we neede not vse many words to exaggerate so great
excommunication by the Bishops and after a yeeres contempt of making satisfaction and then there is added this reseruation also Saluo iure Domini principalis c. sauing the right of the principall Lord so that he giue no obstacle hereunto nor oppose any impâ—diment Now this power of the Pope whatsoeuer it be is farre from that which your confused words insinuate which to your weaker readers I suppose will sound as if the Pope had power to absolue the subiects of any kings from their fidelity and dispose of their kingdomes when to whom and for what cause so euer they pleas'd which is nothing so Yet if this power of the Popes were so vast as you belieue it or would haue others to belieue it why should it trouble you And why should you be more tender of the interest of Princes than they themselues and all their courts about them who either receiued this Canon immediatly from the Councell as I haue sayd and proued or else suffered it to be coseningly thrust vpon them as you haue sayd but not proued And I wonder that you a Protestant should fasten vpon this decree of deposing of Princes by the Pope to make the decrees of this Councell odious and incredible when as it is well knowne that the Popes in sixteene hundred yeeres haue not deposed so many as Protestants in one hundred for almost whersoere the gangrene of that heresy hath spread it selfe they haue either actually deposed and expelled their Princes as in Swede Denmarke Scotland Netherlands Geneua or diuers times atteÌ„pted by violence to doe it as in France often in Bohemia in Poland and now it is feared in England And if you say that though these Puritane Protestants haue both taught and done these things yet the true Protestant of the Church of England he neuer taught such doctrine he caÌ„not thinke such a thought without horror surely wee haue nothing but your bare and often broken word for our security For what experience hath the king or his few predecessors of your religion had that in case they should haue depriued you of your desires as they denyed to graunt the desires of the Puritanes if they should haue turned you out of your Bishoppricks and Deaneries taken from you the Church vsurped Liuings set vp a religion that would not haue endured wiuing preachers what experience haue they had that in these or the like cases your Protestants of the Church of England would not attempt their destruction and if they were able lay the axe on their necks as your Supreme Gouuernour of your Church of England Queene Elizabeth and her instruments did on the necke of the renowned Mary Queene of Scotland and Dowager of France Can you then thinke much that the Pope a person of an other quality and more dis-interessed than the subiects of Princes should haue some kinde of power by all conuenient wayes to reduce and correct hereticall Princes Especially seeing the Emperours Kings and Princes gaue their votes vnto this Decree and were for so much as concerned themselues the makers thereof But you will not belieue that this decree was made in the Councell but thinke that you haue proued the contrary My aduice then is that you acquaint the Kings and Princes on this side the seas with this strange cheat that is put vpon them it is like to be a matter of high acceptation to them of great reproach to their vnfaithfull seruants that would not discouer that which you haue done and of great prayse and preferment to your selfe You further obiect against the Act of the expedition for the recouery of the Holy Land which you call the 71. Canon but no body else doth so that I know because it runnes say you in a Popes stile not in the stile of à Councell By which I perceiue that though you are one of the Court yet you are none of the Councell for you are not skild in the stiles of Popes and Councells Otherwise you would haue knowne that it is the manner in those Councells where the Pope himselfe is present to decree things in his name with this addition sacro approbante Concilio as in the Councell of Florence inlueris vnionis euen as Acts of Parliament of England are made in the kings name with the aduice or consent of the two houses You say moreouer that Card. Bella mine and Eudaemon Cidonius doe confesse out of Platina that there was no such decree made Your Eudaemon Cidonius I cannot meet with heere nor is it much materiall for that answer which serues your quotation of Bell will serue him also seeing as you say it is both their confessions out of Platina For the finding of your citatioÌ„s out of Bell you vse vs very ill giuing vs no direction but a booke of perhaps twenty leaues in folio to finde out tweÌ„ty words which wheÌ„ wee haue found to recoÌ„pence our paynes we finde your mistake and falshood For Bellarm. doth not speake directly of the particular chapter of the expedition whether that were made in the Councell or no but of the buisinesse of the Holy Warre in generall de hoc articulo cuÌ„ multa disputata fuissent nihil certi definiri potuit and there is a difference sure betwixt nihil certi and nihil omnino nothing certaine and nothing at all as you would haue it And I suppose this nihil certi is meant in regard of the further and more particular managing of the warre from which they were hindred by the present warre in ChristeÌ„dome and which is no denyall of the Decree of the expedition which consists of a few generall heads concerning the raysing of contributions to this great worke from the clergy wherein the Pope himselfe gaue a great example of punishments on those that hindred it and indulgence to them that aduanced it with the like All which though they were vndoubtedly decreed yet it may be sayd with Bell out of Platina that after much disputation there was nothing certaine defined in regard of the neerer and more particular articles for the managing of the warre being put froÌ„ it by the present warre in Christendo me Yea it might be sayd nihil certi in regard of this decree it selfe not of the letter and intention of it but of the wars at home yea rather the contrary was certaine namely that it was not executed And if Platina or Bellarmine out of him had intended to exclude this Decree of the expedition which is all that wee affirme to be done in that kinde why did they expresse it with these reseruations of apertè and certi and not say directly and without limitation nihil as you doe which had beene more plaine and agreeable to the grauity of those writers Therfore by these reseruations they must needs intend some thing which as I conceiue is that which I haue expressed Howsoeuer certaine wee are that this Decree was made in the Councell by all that proofe whereby wee haue proued the whole Councell