Selected quad for the lemma: power_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
B21181
|
The Jesuites policy to suppress monarchy proving out of their own writings that the Protestant religion is a sure foundation and principle of a true Christian / written by a person of honor.
|
Derby, Charles Stanley, Earl of, 1628-1672.
|
1678
(1678)
|
Wing D1088
|
39,304
|
36
|
THE JESUITES POLICY TO Suppress Monarchy Proving out of their own WRITINGS THAT THE Protestant Religion IS A SURE FOUNDATION AND PRINCIPLE OF A True Christian Written by a Person of Honor. LONDON Printed for William Cademan at the Pope's Head in the Lower Walls of the New-Exchange 1678. To all Supreme Powers by what Titles soever Dignified or Distinguished i. e. To Emperors Kings Sovereign Princes Re-publicks c. TO You Gods Vice-gerents on Earth over all Persons whether Ecclesiastical or Temporal next under god within Your own respective Dominions Supreme Governors I conceive fittest to Dedicate and Direct the ensuing Papers to You Most Illustrious they address themselves as to persons most concern'd in the Subject they treat about whereby is endeavored the Vindication of Gods Honor wherein as his Vice-gerents You are highly concern'd also Your own Supreme Powers and Authorities which in former Ages and yet still in the Doctrinal part have been often Invaded by the Bishop of Rome and their Abettors amongst whom the Jesuites have been still in the Front as the principal Champions against You and for those Bishops from whom all Anti-Monarchical Principles have proceeded under the veil and cover of other Religions as Quakers Anabaptists Independents c. which several Sects have been Abetted by several of the Roman Clergy thereunto Authorized and commanded by the Bishops of Rome to prevent a Reformation amongst themselves always a terror to them and the better to dâ—vide the Reformed Churches over the World according to that Maxim Divide Impera whereby they have not a little impeded the Christian Profession in the Inlargement of the Kingdom of Christ and thereby given occasion to the Enemies of God the Turks c. to Blaspheme and enlarge their Dominions and Territories hereby the Isle of Rhodes and Candie has been lost to the Eternal reproach of the Christian Profession for while Christians are disjoyned the common Enemy takes the advantage which by a happy Vnion ho would lose I shall here add a few particulars out of the History of France in the Life of Lewis the Thirteenth Fol. 1295. Vpon occasion of the Murther of Henry the Fourth of France by Ravilliac the words be these This wicked Murtherer confessed no other motive of his crime but the Book of Mariana a Spanish Jesuite which Book by a decree made by the Colledge of Sorbonne and confirmed by a Sentence from the Courts of Parliament was for that cause condemned to be publickly burnt before our Lady Church in Paris the tenor of the Sentence was The Court the great Chamber the Turnelle and the Chamber of the Edict being Assembled having seen the decree of the faculty of Divinity assembled the Fourth of this Month of June according to a Sentence given in May last upon the renewing of the censure in matter of Doctrine made by the said faculty in the Year 1413. Confirmed by the Holy Council of Constance that it is an Heresie full of Impiety to maintain that it is lawful for Subjects or Strangers upon any pretence or cause whatsoever to attempt against the Sacred Person of Kings and Sovereign Princes the Book of John Mariana Intitled De Rege Regis Institutione Printed as well at Mentz as in other places containing many execrable Blasphemies against the Deceased King Henry the Third of most happy Memory the persons and Estates of Kings and Sovereign Princes and other propositions contrary to the said decree upon the conclusion of the Kings Atturney General the matter being propounded the said Court hath and doth ordain that the said decree of the Fourth of this present month of June shall be entered into the Registers thereof and heard at the instance of the Kings Atturny General and read every year on the like day on Sunday in the Parishes of this City and Suburbs of Paris it doth also ordain that the Book of Mariana shall be burnt by the Executioner of Justice before our Lady Church in Paris forbidding all men of what Estates Quality and Condition soever they be upon pain of High Treason to write or cause any Books to be Printed against the said Decree and Sentence it doth also enjoyn that Copies taken out of the Originals of the said Decree and this present Sentence shall be sent unto the Bailewicks and Seneshaushes of this Jurisdiction there to be read and published after the accustomed manner and form And moreover at Evensong in Parishes in Towns Suburbs and other Burroughs the first Sunday of June enjoyning all Bayliffs and Seneshalls to proceed to the said publication and the substitutes of the Kings Atturny General to have a care of the Execution and to certifie the Court of their Diligence Vpon A Declaration or Letter from one Cotton the Jesuite to the Queen Regent to wipe off that Aspersion from their Society An Answr is framed unto it by the name of Anti-Cotton which you will find in Fol. 1298. The words be as follow Anti-Cotton the Doctrine of Jesuites for Murthering Kings Francis Ribadinera writing of the parricide of James Clement he saith forasmuch as the resolution Henry the Third took upon him was the advice of a Polititian and a Machiavilist not conformable to the rules of our Saviour behold the reason that by the judgment of God the said Henry was kill'd by a young Monk and dyed by the stroke of a Knife Carolus Scribanius a Flemish Jesuite who calls himself Clarus Bonarscius in his Book Entituled Amphitheatrum honoris sayes that if it so fall out that a Denis a Machonidas or an Aristotimus Monsters of their Age oppress France shall not the Pope have absolute power to animate against them some Dion Timoleon or Philâ—poemen that is to say tamers and suppressers of Monsters And afterwards speaking of a Tyrant wasting France will no man sayes he take Armes against that Tyrant wasting France Will no Pope set free that Noble Kingdom from the stroke of the Axe He cites Bellarmine who although he condemneth Treason against Princes yet in ambiguous terms he seems to approve it by commending Garnet the Jesuite in these words Wherefore was Henry Garnet a man unmatchable in all kinds of Learning and Holiness of Life so punished in the highest Degree but only for that he would not detect that which with a safe conscience he could not And the same Author in his Book De Pontifice Romano sayes the Pope may dispose of Kingdoms taking from one and giving to another as being the Superior Prince Ecclesiastical and the Jesuite Gretzer sayes we are not such Dastards as that we fear to affirm openly that the Pope of Rome may if necessity so require free his Catholick Subjects from their Oath of Obedience if their Sovereign intreat them Tyrannically yea he adds in the same place that if the Pope do it discreetly and warily it is a meritorious work after all this he quotes the Doctrine of Tolet Mariana and John Guignard a Jesuite Priest residing in Paris who had written a
another Opinion In the first place I will lay down for an infallible Truth That never any Protestant i. e. a Son of the Church of England did ever draw his Sword against the King or any other their Sovereign Prince since the Reformation begun by King Henry the Eighth Caco Oh Monstrum horrendum Sure you do not believe what you say Ortho. Yes and I 'le prove what I say thus That the late Rebels Cromwel your Friend President Bradshaw and the rest of those that were of their Party were not Protestants that is they were not Sons of the Church of England you may as well call those People Royalists as Protestants or Sons of the Church of England Did they not overthrow the Hierarchy of the Church as well as Monarchy How then can you call them Protestants When indeed they do not deserve without a great deal of Charity the name of Men so Monstrous were their Actions Thus much to vindicate Protestants whose Tenet is this that if their Sovereign were a Tyrant and a Turk which our Sovereign is far from I thank God yet in such a case we allow of no other Arms than what the Primitive Christians did use against their Persecutors that is Prayers and Tears Caco Thus far I confess you have well proved that Protestants in a strict sense so called i. e. true Sons of the Church of England may be very good Subjects and that if they deviate from their Lovalty to their Sovereign it is not from any ill Principle in their Relâ—gion which they suck in with their Milk and that such deviations do rather proceed from the ill Principles of Sin and frailties of humane Nature All this I acknowledge for a great truth but what have you to say against Papists that they should not be as good Subjects as any the best Protestants in the World Ortho. In a word the Rebellion of Ireland accompanied with an universal Massacre without all distinction of Ages and Sexes which as it preceeded the Rebellion of England so did it also exceed it in Inhumanity and Bloodshed and for ought I know might occasion the English Rebellion Caco I did expect no less from you who are so great an assertor of the Protestants so much an adversary to the Papists and so Loyal to the Prince but all this while I hear nothing of any Principle in the Popish Religion that should lead them into such horrid actions which I do by no means justifie Ortho. Have patience and I shall give enough of that you know what our Saviour said No man can serve two Masters which possibly might be a Prophecy of the Popes Sovereignty over the Kings and Protentates of the World How can the Papists serve God Honor the King which two are but one in reality and Serve Worship and Obey the Pope for he is as our Saviour says the other Master Caco Well enough for the Pope as the Papists tell me pretends to no other Soverelgnty but in Spiritualibus Ortho. In Temporalibus also I assure you and yet it is a wonder how an Opinion so Diametrically opposite to the truth of God delivered in the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Antients both Councils and Fathers should ever get up among such as profess Christianity And surely were not the Interests of the Court of Rome in greater esteem than the truths of the Gospel and the Peace of the Catholick Church it were not possible that your Popes should be so presumptuous as to assume this Power or the Doctors of Rome so impudent as to assert it For to enlarge a little on this particular of such concernment to the peace of the Church and all Christendom Is it not St. Peter's Exhortation 1. Pet. 2.13 Submit your selves to every Ordinance of Man for the Lords sake to the King as Supreme and St. Paul is of the same mind Rom. 13.1 Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers and v. 5. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for Conscience sake and St. Chrysostom's gloss upon the Text answers all your pretences against this truth Etiamsi Apostolus sis c. Although you be an Apostle or an Evangelist or a Prophet yet you must be subject And such was St. Paul's own practice He submits himself to the judgment of Felix Acts 24 and to Festus and from him Acts 25. makes his appeal to Caesar Appellatio autem non nisi ad legitimum sit judicem And this incontroulable Power did the Primitive Christians acknowledge in their Emperors and submit to it though Heathens Hereticks and Persecutors Athanasius being unjustly banished from Alexandria where he was Bishop by Constantius and afterwards falsly accused of Disobedience to his Decree makes this mild defence to him though an Arian and a Persecutor Epist ad Constantium Nequaquam restiti mandatis tuae Pietatis c. I no way resisted the Commands of your Piety neither shall I ever endeavor to enter into Alexandria till your Piety give me leave And thus St. Augustin in Psal 128. Apostata erat Julianus iniquus Idololatra milites tamen Christiani servierunt Imperatori c. Julian was an Apostate a wicked Man an Idolater yet the Christians obeyed him When it concern'd the cause of Christ then indeed they acknowledged him only that was in Heaven but when the Emperour commanded other things they obeyed him I may also ask by what Law the Pope can challenge this Power to himself to dispose of the Temporal Affairs or Estates of Princes Not by any human Law for the Prince is above the coactive or coercive Power of humane Laws solo Deo minor If by Divine Law let him shew any Text of Scripture or Tradition of the Apostle surely they are both against it The weapons of our Warfare saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 10. are not carnal but Spiritual and our Saviour determines against it Mat. 20.25.26 The Princes of the Gentiles exerise Dominion and Authority over them but it shall not be so among you Hence St. Hicrom Epist 3. ad Heliodor speaking of the King and the Bishop saith Ille nolentibus praeest hic volentibus The King hath Power over the refractory and disobedient the Bishop over such as are willing to obey him His Power compulsory the Bishops but precarious And thus the second General Nicene Council Act 3. discoursing of the Regal and Sacerdotal Power speaks to the same purpose Sacordos Coelestiâ— curat Rex autem legibus aequis justis omma quae in terris siunt procurat The Priest takes care for what may bring us to Heaven The King by just and equitable Laws orders all Affairs on Earth And this is answerable to the terms and boundaries of both powers which we see appointed by Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 19.11 Ananias the chief Friest is over you in all matters of the Lord and Zebadiah the Ruler or Prince for all the Kings matters If therefore the King be over all and orders all