that where of God saith by the mouth of Esay Thou shalt iudge euerie tongue that shall resist thee in iudgement And by his owne The gates of Hell thall not preuaile against her And againe Let him that heares not the Church be vnto thee as a heathen or a publica And by that of S. PAVL God hath placed in the Church Apostles Prophets Pastors and Doctors c. that we may noe longer 〈◊〉 little Children waueringe with euerie winde of doctrine And againe The Church is the Pillar and foundation of trutb doth not RVFFINVS write that Saint Basile and Saint GREGORY Nazianzene tooke the interpretacion of the Scriptures not from theire owne sense but from the tradition of the Fathers And doth not Saint AVGVSTINE crie out within the wombe of the Church is the dwellinge of truth And againe All the fulnesse of authoritie and all the light of reason for reparation of human kinde consistes in the only healthfull name of Christ and in his only Church And doth not VINCENTIVS Lirinensis say because all vnderstand not the holie Scripture by reason of the depth thereof in one sense But one interprets it in one fashion an other in an other so that it seemes there may be as many seuer all opinions drawne out of it as there are seuer all men for Nouatiā expounds it one waie Photinus another waie Sabellius an other Donatus an other Arrius Eunomius Macedonius an other Apollinaris Priscillianus an other Iouinian Pelagius Caelestius and finally Nestorius an other for these causes it is verie necessarie to auoid the perill as so manie great Labyrinths of so diuers errors that the line of the propheticall and apostolicall interpretation should be drawne according to the rule of the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense And háue not the ministers of Geneua themselues noted this in the margent of theire last Bibles The doctrine of Faith requires a domesticall and particular instruction namely in those that are ordained to deliuer it into the Church least they should take it in theire owne particular sense vnder colour of the Scripture And this is it that was anciently called TRADITION in the Church Now if the certainty of the interpretation of the Church ought to be také according to the exposition of the very Geneua Bibles not from the sense of euery particular man but from the traditiō of the Church how can it be that the truth of the vnder standinge of the Scripture should be the only certaine and infallible marke to discerne and know the Church But against these proofes the aduersaries of the Church propound obiections which we had best cōfute before we proceede to an other article The first obiection is that Saint AVSTINE in his writinge against the Manichees after he hath made a longe list of the markes of the Church addes this Among you where no such thing is found as holdes and tyes me there soundes only a promisse of the truth which if it be soe manifestly demonstrated as none can call it in question ought to be preferred before all those things whereby I am retained in the Catholicke Church And from hence they conclude that S. AVGVSTINE held not the other markes for necessary and infallible but onelie for probable and coniecturall since he offered to depart from them if they could demonstrate to him vndoubtedly that the truth was of the other side To this I make two answeres one that the truth whereof Saint AVGVSTINE speakes makes nothing for theire purpose that alleage it For Saint AVGVSTINE speaketh not there of the truth demonstrated by scripture which is that whereof the Protestants vaunt but of the truth demonstrated by the light of naturalle reason which was that that the Manichees promised as it appeares by what he said three lines belowe I would not beleeue the Ghospell if the authoritie of the Catholicke Church did not moue me to it And a little after And therefore if thou must yeeld me a reason set aside the Ghospell if thou wilt tye thy-self to the Ghospell I will tye myself to those by whom I haue beleued in the Ghospell And againe The authoritie of the Catholiks being destroyed I could not beleeue the Ghospell because it is by them that I haue beleeued it And in an other place That which remaines for you is to saie that you will produce areason soe certaine and inuincible as the truth thereof being manifested by it selfe it shall haue noe neede of the authoritie of anie witnes nor of the veritie vertue you must reade of anie miracle The other answer is that Saint AVGVSTINE did not propound this in the forme of a possible condition for contrarywise he disputes of deliberate purpose against the Manichees that the naturall light of reason could not be the waie to come to the knowlege of the truth of saluation but in the forme of an impossible condition and which consequentlie diminisheth nothing from the efficacie of the markes of the Church as it appeares by what he addes immediatelie after But if it be only promised and not exhibited none shall separate me from this Faith which by so manie and so great bondes so calls he the externall and sensible markes of the Church bindes my Spirit to the Christian Religion The second obiection that the aduersaries of the Church oppose is that the externall and sensible marks that the Fathers assigne to the Church as antiquitie perpetuitie eminencie and succession belong not to the Church only for as much as manie other things may claime antiquitie as the Sunne the Sea the mountaines and manie other succession as the Springs the brookes the riuers and manie other vniuersalitie as the aire the earth and the other Elements and euen amougst Religions that of the pagans hath heeretofore had eminencie and vniuersalitie and that of the Iewes hath still antiquitie and perpetuitie Certainlie a childish and ridiculous obiection for first the marks that God hath giuen to his Church haue not bene imposed vpon her to distinguish her frō all kindes of things but to distinguish her only from those things that are contained though equiuocally vnder the same next kinde and may be supposed and taken for Churches that is to saie from other Christian societies to witt from hereticall and Schismaticall Sects which challenge and pretend by false markes the title of the Church no more then the markes that Golodmithes giuen to golde that it will not euaporate in the fire and that it will resist the coupelle and the water of separatiō are not giue it to discerne it from all kinde of bodies for there are other bodies to which these conditions arc common as glasse and diamondes but to discerne it from false gold that is from metalls made and sophisticated that may be supposed and made to passe for golde And this alsoe Saint AVGVSTINE esteemes the Church would insinuate in the Canticle where after she hath demaunded of her
Lord alleadgeth for his testimonie c. But it hath bene receiued by the Church not vnprofitable if it be read or heard soberlie In which passage that saint AVGVSTINE saith that the Iewes hold not the Scripture of the Machabees in the same ranke as the Lawe the Psalmes and the Prophets is not to weaken the authoritie of the Scripture of the Machabees for the Jewes doe no more hold the booke of Wisdome in the same degree of the Lawe the Psalmes and the Prophets and our Lord hath noe more alleadged it amongst the Testimonies then that of the Machabees And neuerthelesse S. AVGVSTINE saith The booke of WISDOME hath merited after so long a continuance of yeares to be read in the Church of Christ by the Readers of the Church of Christ and to be heard by all Christians euen from the Bishops to the lowest laymen faithfull penitents and catechumens with the reuerence of diuine authoritie And againe All the Doctors neere the tyme of the Apostles making vse of the testimonie of the Bookes of WISDOME haue beleeued that they made vse of none but a diuine Testimonie but the reason why saint AVGVSTINE said that the Jewes held not the Scripure of the Machaebees in the ranke of the lawe the Prophetts and the Psalmes was to shew the Donatists who were seperated from the Church and yet made vse of her owne weapons to oppose her that this Scripture hauing bene receiued into the Canon not by the Jewes but by the Church they could not imploy it against the sence and Doctrine of the Church And that he adds that it was receiued by the Church not vnprofitablie prouided it be read soberly it is not to the end to diminishe the credit which ought to be giuen to it but to represse the furious consequences that the Donatists inferred vpon it and signifies no other thing but prouided it be read with setled sences and not with madnesse and frensie as the Donatists read it who tooke occasion from the example of Sampson in the history of the Judges and from the example of Razias in the historie of the Machabees whose zeale and not his act is commended to kill and precipitate themselues which he confirmes a while after in these words Wee ought not then to approue by our consent all things which wee reade in the Scriptures to haue bene done by men euen adorned with prayses by Gods owne testimonie but to mingle our consideration with discretion bringing with vs iudgment not of our authoritie but of the authoritie of the holie and diuine Scriptures which permitt not vs to praise or imitate all the actions euen of those of whom the Scripture giues good and glorious testimonie if they haue done anie thing that hath not bene well done or that agreeth not with the custome of the present time It appeares sifthly by the Catalogue of the Canonicall bookes that Pope Innocēt the first tyme fellowe with S. AVSTINE sēt to Exuperius Bishop of Tholosa where the two Bookes of the Machabees are expressely contained For whereas Pope Gelasius in renewing the decree of the Canonicall bookes makes vse of the history of the Machabees but for one only booke it is because he speakes according to the Stile of S AMBROSE who reckons the first and second of the Machabees for one and the same Booke And whereas saint GREGORIE the great in his commentary vpon Iob compounded neere two hundred yeares after the Canon of the African Fathers cyting the Bookes of the Machabees adds although not canonicall yet written for the edification of the Church that is because the first draught of this comentary was made in the East For saint 〈◊〉 was not yet Pope when he first composed the comentarie vp on Job but a simple deacon exercising the 〈◊〉 of Nuntio at Constantinople amongst the Greekes For this occasion then speaking in the East of the Bookes of the Machabees he added in the forme of a case put and not granted If not canonicall yet written for the edification of the Church that is to 〈◊〉 the which if they were not canonicall neuertheles had bene writtē for the edification of the Church It appeares finally by the very continuance of the African canon inserted into the Greeke Rapsody which is Wee haue learnt from our Fathers that those are the bookes that ought to bee read 〈◊〉 the Church For not only all the ancient African Church but also all the ancient Westerne Church had holden from age to age the Bookes of the Machabees to be canonicall as it appeares in regard of the ancient 〈◊〉 church by the testimonie of saint Cyprian who calls the Machabees 〈◊〉 scriptures and in regard of the other partes of the westerne church by the testimonie of saint AMBROSE who cryes out Moyses saith as it is written in the bookes of the Machabees And by that of the great defender of the Catholick Faith Lucifer Bishop of 〈◊〉 who writt to the emperor 〈◊〉 The holie scripture speakes in the first booke of the 〈◊〉 And by an infinite number of others whose names I will not 〈◊〉 particularly to report Only I will saie in generall that there was 〈◊〉 anie latine Author which tooke liberty to remoue the authoritie of the Booke of the Machabees before saint HIEROME and Ruffinus 〈◊〉 him while he was his disciple Whereupon there are three 〈◊〉 to be made The first obseruation is that as saint HIEROME before the perfect maturitie of is studies for afterward he changed his opinion ecclipsed from the canon of the old testament the historie of the Machabees so did he also shake in the canon of the new testament the epistle to the 〈◊〉 The latine custome saith hee receiues not the Epistle 〈◊〉 Hebrewes amongst the canonicall scriptures And againe If anie one will 〈◊〉 the Epistle which vnder Paules name hath bene written to the Hebrewes And 〈◊〉 where Paule in his Epistle which is written to the Hebrewes though 〈◊〉 of the latines doubt of it By which meanes if the authoritie of saint HIEROME not yet fullie instructed in the sence of the Church be 〈◊〉 for the exclusion of one of these pieces it is also auaileable for the 〈◊〉 of the other The second obseruation is that saint HIEROME 〈◊〉 induced to remoue this stone by the commerce that he had with 〈◊〉 Iewes of Palestina amongst whom hee inhabited and from whom he 〈◊〉 the Hebrew letters For Istdore Bishop of Seuilla who writt a 〈◊〉 yeares agoe reportes that the Iewes in hate of our Lord reiected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Booke of Wisedome The Hebrewes said Isidore as some of 〈◊〉 sages haue noted it receiued the Booke of Wisdome amongst the canonicall 〈◊〉 but after they had taken Christ and putt him to deach remembring that 〈◊〉 were in the same Booke so manie euident testimonies of Christ c. they made 〈◊〉 together and least ours should conuince them of so manifest a 〈◊〉 they
himselfe confest in these wordes The Apostles saith hee in truth haue prescribed nothing of this but this Custome ought to be beleeued to haue taken originall from their tradition as there are manie things that the vniuersall Church obserueth which art with good reason beleeued to haue bene giuen by the Apostles although they be not in writing Was this to pretend to seperate themselues from the Church out of iollitie of hart and without anie cause and neither to blame the faith nor discipline of the Church Of the authoritie of the rest of the Christian people which denied to the Church the title of Catholick Chapt. XXXII The continuance of the Kings Answere THE English haue separated themselues by a cruell necessitie from that Church that infinite Christian people that I may speake as modestly as I possiblie can doe not 〈◊〉 to be the true vniuersall Church THE REPLIE THat the English Church hath bene iustly forced by a cruell necessitie to depart from the Catholicke Church wherein alone the stocke of vnitie doth reside as our very aduersaries dare not saie that the bodie of Catholicke vnitie was to be found in anie other Societie when the English nation deuided themselues from her saint AGVSTINE will not avow who saith that there is no iust necessitie to deuide vnitie And lesse S. DIONISIVS of Alexandria who was much antienter then saint AVGVSTINE who writes Thou oughtest rather to suffer all kinds of death then to deuide the Church of Christ. For whereas his maiestie adds that an infinite number of Christian people doe not grant her to bee the true vniuersall Catholicke Church if these people can shew that there was an other to whom this title belonged when Luther came into the world wee will confesse her not to be soe but if it be not in their power not only to shewe but to faine an other then this must be shee For the Catholicke Church is perpetuall and their contradiction that are departed from her can not raise anie doubt of her title more then the contradiction of the antient Arrians and other hereticks could cause the antient Catholicke Church to loose this title For in that only that they haue departed from her and cannot shew that she hath departed from anie of all the other Societies which are in being they testifie that she only is the true Catholicke Church that is to saie the true stocke and originall roote of the Church from whom all others by their Schismes and diuisions are departed and gone forth Of the testimonies of our writers CHAP. XXXIII The continuance of the King answere AND that maniē of your writers themselues haue a longe while agoe ingeniousliē confessed to haue much varied from the antient in the dogm'as and in the forme of discipline and to haue patched and tacked together manie new thinges to the old manie euill thinges to the good THE REPLIE THOSE writers haue bene such as I haue aboue described as Erasmus Cassander and others who partly in presumption and partlie in ignorance of antiquitie and partlie to gratifie those Princes in whose fauour they haue taken penn in hand haue written thinges which would confound their faces if they were to maintaine them before anie that were versed of purpose in the studie of Antiquitie Of the begging of the principle contained in this hypothesis CHAPT XXXIV The continuance of the Kings answere WHICH is alreadie so knowne to all the world as it is noe longer in thé power of anie to denie it or to be ignorant of it THE REPLIE THIS is to take for a principle of disputation that which is the subiect of the controuersie for not only all Catholickes but also all the Christian Societies in the world more antient then the authors of this diuision and who haue noe interest neither for the one part nor for the other and if they had anie would haue it rather against the Church from which they are separated then for her doe maintaine that all the principall pointes that the pretended reformers calumniate in the Roman Church are of the true faith and of the true discipline of the antient Catholicke Church Of the temporall causes of the separation of England CHAP. XXXV The Continuance of the Kings Answere ADD to this that the Church of England had found the yoake of the Roman Bondage so hard vpō her for some ages past being incrediblie tormented frō daie to day with new vexations oppressions and vnheard of exactions as 〈◊〉 only cause before iust iudges may seeme to be able to free her from suspition of Schisme and as S. AVGVSTINE saith speaking of the Donatists wicked dismembring For sur ely the English haue not separarated themselues for iollitie of heart from brotherly charitie as the 〈◊〉 did THE REPLIE IF it may please your maiestie to call againe to memorie the historie of the Schisme of England you will finde that all those thinges which were alleadged for pretence of the Churches diuision haue noe waie bene the cause thereof contrariwlse that the English Church was more flourishing when this separation happened and the King of England and his clergie more affectionate to maintaine the Faith and communion of the Roman Church then euer they had bene before as appeares by the Booke that he made in defence of the Church against Luther the originall whereof he sent to Rome with these verses such as they are addressed to Pape Leo written with his owne hand Harrie the English King at once doth recommend This worke Leo to thee which publick proofe shall lend To shew which way his faith and friendship both doe bend But that it was the amorous passion of that King who to satisfie the appetite which transported him would cause a iust mariage to be broken and marrie her that he loued his first lawfull wife and by whom he had issue being yet liuing to which the Pope conceaued that he could not with a safe conscience giue consent This was the true and onely cause of all this Iliad of euills From hence gusht all these teares Of the comparison of the English Church with the Iudaicall CHAP. XXXVI The continuance of the Kings answere NOT for feare of the 〈◊〉 which was eminent but did not yet presse them like the tenn tribes of the people of the Iewes but after hauing suffered manie ages after the 〈◊〉 of vnspeakable greeuances they haue finallie shaken from their shoulders that insupportable burthen which neither their strength was longer able to beare nor would their conscience permitt them to doe it THE REPLIE HERE I might content myself with saying that what was ordained and approued by God in the separation of the ten tribes of Israell from the Kingdome of Iuda was the only di uision of State and not that of Religion For God as saint AVGFSTINE saith commaunds neither Schisme nor heresie And by consequence what pretence soeuer is added of present and not future euill there can be noe consequence
Epithete to distinguish the Christian Church from her for as the starr that the authors call Lucifer although it be the same with that that is called Vesper yet when it goes before the Sonne it beares one name and when it followes him it hath an other soe although the Iewish congregation hath bene in some sorte one same societie with the Christiā Congregatiō neuerthelesse whē this societie hath gone Before her SVNNE which is CHRIST she hath borne one name to witt the Synagogue and when she followes him she beares an other to witt the Church And therefore when our Lord said to S. Peter Dic ecclesiae tell it to the Church and if he heare not he Church let him be to thee as an heathen or a publican And when S. LVKE relates that HEROD sett himselfe to Persecute quosdam de ecclesia some of those of the Church and when saint Paul writes I teach it so in all the Churches And againe bee without scandall to the Iewes and to the Gentiles and to the Church of God And when S. Iames proclaimes If anie one be sicke lett him call the priestes of the Church And when S. Ireneus saith there haue bene sacrifices among the people there are sacrifices in the Church they thought they had sufficiently distinguished without anie other additiō the Christian Church frō the Iewish Synagogue And contrariwise when the Church of SMYRNA in an age neighbouringe vpon that of the Apostles intitles her Epistle to the Church of PHILOMILION and to all the a Diocesses of the Catholique Church that are throughout the world And when CLEMENT ALEXANDRINVS writes There needes not manie wordes to shewe that the mocke-Councells of heretickes are after the Catholicke Church And when TERTVLLIAN saieth Marcion gaue his money to the Catholique Church which reiected both it and him when he strayed from our truth to heresie And when sainct CYPRIAN aduertised the Bishops of Africke that passed in to Italie to acknowledge and hold fast the roote and matrice of the Catholicke Church And when Saint EPIPHANIVS reporteth that vnder the persecution of DIOCLESIAN those that held the ancient Churches called themselues the Catholicke Church and the Militians the Church of the martyres And when the Emperor CONSTANTINE ordained that all the Oratories of the Heretickes should be taken from them and presently after deliuered to the Catholicke Church they pretended not by the word Catholicke to distinguish the Christian Church from the Iewish but to distinguish the great and the originall bodie of the Church from the particular and later sectes Yet wee acknowledge that the word Catholicke in distinguishing by hervniuersalitie the true Church from the hereticall and schismaticall sectes distinguisheth her alsoe by accident from the Iewish Synagogue as a speciall difference in distinguishing her species from other species of the same genders doth also distinguish it from that of other genders though that be not her proper office for the word reasonable discerninge men from birds fishes serpentes and other beastes leaves him not vndiscerned accessarily from plantes metalls and stones But we maintaine the expresse and direct end for which the Surname of Catholik hath bene added to the Church I saie to the Church and not to the figures of the Church hath bene to distinguish it from hereticall and Schismaticall sectes If I should this daie by chance enter into a populous towne saith S. PACIANVS an author celebrated by sainct Ierom and finde there Marcionistes and Apolinarians it must be reade Apellecians Cataphrigians Nouatians and other such like which call themselues Christians by what surname should I knowe the Congregation of my people if it were not intitled Catholicke and againe Christian is my name Catholicke is my Surname that names me this markes me out by that I am manifested prodor non probor by this I am distinguished And sainct CYRILL of Ierusalem an author the same age expoundinge the creede For this cause saith he thy faith hath giuen thee this article to holde vndoubtedlie and in the holie Catholicke Church to the end thou 〈◊〉 flie the polluted 〈◊〉 of heretickes And a little after And when thou comst into a towne inquire not simplie where the temple of our Lord is for the other heresies of impious persons doe likewise call theire dens the temples of the Lord neither aske simplie where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church for that name is the proper name of this holie Church And sainct AVGVSTINE in his booke of the Faith and the creede Wee beleeue saith he the holie Church and that Catholicke for the heretickes and Schismatickes name also theire Congregations Churches but heretickes beleeuing in God in a false manner violate the faith and Schismatickes by theire vniust Diuisions seperate themselues from brotherlie Charitie although they beleeue the same thinges that we beleeue therefore the hereticke appartaineth not to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the Schismaticke because she loues her neighbour So that it amazeth me that I haue had soe little industrie to explaine myselfe as to haue giuen his Maiestie occasion to answere that the reason for which I had said in the beginninge of my first obseruation that the word Catholicke was not a title of simple beliefe but of communion was not enough manifest For hauinge alleaged these fower places of sainct AVGVSTINE Schismatickes appertaine not to the Catholicke Church although they beleeue the same thinges with vs. Those that disagree soe from the bodie of Christ which is the Church as theire communion is not with all or that it spread it selfe but is found separate in some part it is manifest they are not in the Catholicke Church There is a Church if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more aboundant in multitude and also as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in truth then all the others but of the truth is an other disputation Diuision and dissention makes you heretickes and peace and vnitie makes vs Catholickes And hauinge accompanied them with these wordes of sainct VINCENTIVS 〈◊〉 O admirable conuersion or change the authors of one selfe opinion are called Catholiques and the followers of it beretickes And with those of sainct PROSPER 〈◊〉 that communicates with the vniuersall church is a christian and a 〈◊〉 catholicke and he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist It seemed to me that I had sufficiently shewed that the title of Catholicke is not a simple title of beliefe but of communion also It is true I expected not that a question that had bene anciently moued and adiuged euen with the interuention of the authoritie of Emperors should againe haue bene contested against and put into dispute For in the controuersie of Catholickes and Donatistes vpon the word Catholicke before the decision whereof as sainct Austin saith the Church was neuer
beginning of these last diuisions either perswaded in some pointes by the innouators or ioyned to the partie of the innouators themselues haue attempted to seeke out some accommodation in matter of doctrine and of the vniuersall Religion of the Church to come to a reunion perswading themselues that as the Poet saith all men doe Sinn Without the walls of Troy and 〈◊〉 within It will bee alwaies easie for vs to shew that the desire of reconciliation rather then the knowledge of antiquitie and truth hath caused them to speake this language Of the agreement or disagreement of the English reformers with the Donatists CHAP. XXXI The continuance of the Kinges answere AND therefore the English Church feareth not that she can seeme in the iudgment of sincere arbitrators to haue done anie thinge like to the 〈◊〉 in this separation They out of a iollitie of harte and without anie cause abandoned the Catholicke 〈◊〉 approued by the consent of all nations whereof they could neither blame the faith nor the discipline THE REPLIE NEITHER was the Catholicke Church then actuallie approued by all nations for these prophecies In thy seede shall all nations be 〈◊〉 and This Ghospell must be preached ouer all the world shall not be fullie accōplisht as S. AVGVSTINE notes till the end of the world But it might well be said by 〈◊〉 in regard of other Christian sectes to be spread ouer all nations because the extent thereof was more eminont as it is nowe then that of anie other Christian Societie Neither was she approued by 〈◊〉 men of all the Christian nations For who knowes not how great the multitude of other heresies was when the sect of the Donatists sprange vp and how much greater then when the passages of the Fathers cited in the beginning of this obseruation were pronounced against them Of one side the Arrians possessed almost all the East of the other side the number of the Donatists was such in Africa as they held all at a time Councells of three hūdred Bishops yea euē in the time of S. AVGVSTINE there where whole natiōs that professed christianitie which did not acknowledg 〈◊〉 Catholick Church as that of the Gothes Vandalls And in breefe elghtie or an hundred other sects of Christiās which were then in the world diuided like Sāpsons Foxes by the heads but tyed together by the tayles did all agree to reproue the Catholicke Church And whereas the excellent king addeth that the Donatists could blame neither the faith nor discipline of the Catholicke Church if by blaming his maiestie intend to blame with reason that is not particular to the Donatistes for neuer anie Sect either Schismaticall or hereticall could blame with reason the faith or discipline of the Church But if by blaming he intend accusing and slandring her and beleeuing that they had iust occasion to doe soe who euer blamed the faith and discipline of the Catholicke Church more then the donatists who called themselues the Bishops of thē Catholicke truth and obiected to the Catholickes that they erred in faith in beleeuing that the holy Ghost resided out of the Church and in holding that Baptisme which cannot be administred but by the operation of the holy Ghost might be conferred out of the Church and in the Societie of hereticks who reprocht it to them thāt they violated these oracles One faith one Baptisme It is lawfull to be baptised if thou dost beleeue be yee euery one of you baptised in the remission of Sinnes Christ purgeth his Church by the washing of water in the word Who heares not the Church lett him be as a publican and as a heathen Baptisme is the washing of the regeneration of the Ghost The Church is the close Garden and the sealed Fountaine Who gathers not with Christ scatters And other such like alleadged by them in so great number as Vincentius Lyrinensis cryes out But perchance this new inuention that is to saie the heresie of the Donatists will want defences nay she was assisted with soe great strength of spirit with so many flouds of Eloquence with so great a number of protectors with so much likelyhood with so manie oracles of diuine lawe but expounded in a new and naughtie manner that it seemes to me that such a conspir aice could neuer haue benē destroyed if this same imbraced this same defended this same extolled profession of noueltie had not in the end left the cause of soe great a motion alone and abandoned And as for the discipline of the Church did not they blame it who taxed the discipline of the Church to haue receiued without expiation of preceding pennance those that in the persecution time had denied Christ and communicated in the sacrifices of the Pagans and consequently to haue bene polluted with the contagion of the Pagans who accused her for hauing receaued conuerted heretickes into her communion without giuing them true Baptisme which could not be giuen according to them but in the Church and consequently to haue polluted her communion with the contagion of vnbaptised or vncircumcised spirituallie and so to haue lost the being of the true Church which could not subsist without the true vse of the sacramēts Who made profession in manners of a conuersation of life much better ruled more reformed then that of the Catholickes from whence it is that S. AVGVSTINE forbidds the catholicks to reproche the Donatists with anie other thing but that they were not Catholickes Who called themselues the little flocke of the lord the two tribes of the Kingdome of Iuda who said we hauing nothing and possessing all things wee account our soule to he our riches and by our paines and our blood we purchase the treasure of heauen And in breese who supposed themselues to haue such reason for their separation as they reputed the Catholickes not to be worthie of so much as the name of Christians as hauing lost the true vse of Baptisme whereby men are made Christiās when they spake to them they said Caius Seius Caia Seia O man 〈◊〉 thou be a Christian O woeman wilt thou be a Christian And cryed to them Come o yee ignorant and wretched people who are commonlie called Catholickes And called the Chaire of Rome the Chaire of pestilence and called the Catholicke Church an Harlott and an Adulteresse and chose rather to suffer all kindes of persecutions and false Martirdomes then to communicate with her If I persecute saith Saint AVGVSTINE iustlie him that detracts from his neighbour why should I not persecute him that detracts from the Church of Christ and saith this is not shee but this is an hatlott And againe If the punishment and not the cause made Martirdome heauen should be full of your martirs And against whom contrariwise the Catholickes in matter of doctrine had not one passage of scripture for them but only the Apostolicall vnwritten tradition as S. AVGVSTINE
Scripture haue bounded her to a little number of Moores of the Cesarian prouince then we must goe to the Rogatists if to a little compaine of Tripolitans Byzacenians and prouincialls the Maximianists haue gotten her If onlie to those of the East we must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others to be found for who can number the particular heresies of euerie nation But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonie of the holie Scriptures she is designed to be in all Nations whatsoeuer is alleadged to vs or from whence soeuer it is alleadged by those that saie heere is Christ there is Christ if we be sheepe lett vs rather heare the voice of our shepheard who saith beleeue them not for these are not tobe found in manie places where she is and she who is euerie where is also wheresoeuer they are And againe My sheepe heare my voice and follow me You haue heard his most manifest voice recommendinge his future Church not only in the psalmes and in the prophets but by his owne mouth alsoe And a little after This is no obscure question and wherein they may deceiue you of whom our Lord hath foretolde that they should come and saie lo heere is Christ behold he is tbere lo he is in the desert that is to saie out of the frequeneie of the multitud beholde him heere in the secret places that is in hidden traditions and darke Doctrines You heare that the Church must be spread ouer all and grow to the haruest you haue the citie of which himselfe that built it said the Cittie built vpon a hill cannot be hidden it is then she that is not in anie single parte of the earth but is well knowne euery where Beholde the markes of the Church that saint AVGVSTINE affirmes to be designed by the voice of the pastor and soe cleerely designed as they neede noe interpreter to the end that the Church beinge knowne by them we may after by the Church be informed of the sense of the other voices of the pastor which neede interpretarion Produce to vs said he something for your cause which cannot be interpreted more truly against you nay which at all needes no interpreter as these wordes In thy seede all nations shall be blest neede no interpreter As these wordes It behoued that Christ should suffer and rise againe the third daie and that in his name there should be preached penāce and remissiō of Sinnes through all nations beginning from Ierusalem haue no neede of an interpreter c. As these wordes And this Ghospell of the kingdome shall be preached through the whole world in testimonie to all people and then the end shall come haue noe neede of an interpreter As these wordes Let both grow together till haruest haue noe neede of an interpretor For when they had neede of an interpretor our Lord himselfe ineerpreted them for euen as when a testator ordaines some one to interpret the difficulties of his testament and that the name o this interpreter being common and equiuocall to manie the testator assignes marks in his 〈◊〉 to make him knowne the clause whereby he designes the markes to know him must be so cleere as they shall need no interpreter since it is by them that he should be knowne to whom it is necessary they should addresse themselues to make them vnderstand those thing that shall neede interpretation So God hauing promised in his testament to giue the interpretatiō of his testamēt to the Church the wordes whereby the markes of the Church are there designed must be so cleere that they shall neede noe interpreter so that by them the Church beinge knowne we may after by the Church learne the vnderstanding of those things that neede an interpreter And therefore the order and course of S. AVGVSTINE was to verifie by places of Scripture which had not need of an interpretor the externall and sensible markes ' of the Church by the externall and sensible markes of the Church the Church itselfe and by the Church the vnderstanding of those places of Scripture which had need of interpretation n This point said he we reade it not plainely and euidētly neither I nor thou but if there were beere some mā indued with wisdome to whom our Lord himselfe had giuen testimonie and that he were consulted with by vs about this question I beleeve we would nothinge doubte to doe as he would 〈◊〉 vs for feare of beinge iudged repugnant not soe much to him as to our Lord Iesus Christ by whom he was recommended Now he giues testimony to his Church And elswhere Whosoeuer then feareth to be deceaued through the obscuritie of this questiō lett him cōsult with that Church which the holy Scripture bath designed without 〈◊〉 ambiguitie But this was when hee disputed with the Donatists who agreed with the Catholicks concerninge the truth of the Scripture for when he disputed with the Manichees or with the Infidells which denied or questioned it then he changed his method and did not proue to them the Church by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Church and to that end he vsed two kindes of proceedinge The one was to put it for a ground that if god haue care of the Saluation of man as without this principle all discourse of Religion is in vaine there can be noe doubt but he hath appointed a meanes howe they might attaine it and that this meanes not cōsisting in thinges knowne by naturall reason for as much as thē naturallie all men would agree in it it is thē of necessity that it should consist in authority and then this ground benig laid to verifie that amonge all the Societies of Religion that bee in the world the onely Catholicke Church hath the true markes of authority The other proceedinge was to propose to them the accomplishment of profecies touching the extirpation of Idolles and the ruyne of the false Gods of the paganes and touchinge the abolishment of the Iewish Ceremonies and the dispersinge of the people of the Iewes and touchinge the comeinge of a newe lawe maker and of a newe Religion and to represent to them that these prophecies were written before the birth of our Lord and kept by the enemies of the Church and were couched in termes soe cleere that it was a wonder that the Iewes which kept them were not persuaded by them but that within the same bookes it was foretolde that theyshould be stricken with blindnes and that in seeinge they should not see And by this meanes to proue to them that these were sacred and inspired from God and then this obtained to shewe them in the same prophecies the markes whereby amongst soe manie Societies which should vsurpe the title of Christian Societies shee was to be discerned to whow appertained the right of beinge the true Common wealth of Christ. And she beinge finally acknowledged to addresse them to
For first the word Ecclesia Church is deriued from a verbe which signifies to call and not to predestinate frō whence S. Paul confirming the vse of this etymology inscribes his first to the Corinthians To the Saints called And in the epistle to the Ephes. he saith One bodie and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocatiō And in the epist. to the Coloss. Lett the peace of Christ rule in your harts by which you are called in one-selfe bodie And secondly the Church is a Societie and there is this difference betweene a simple multitude and a societie that the societie adds to the partes of the multitude a condition and a certaine caracter as it were in vertue whereof they may cōmunicate together Now predestination as it is simple predestination puts nothing into the persons of the predestinate and is not made in them but in God only and by consequent doth not make them actually partes of the Church Our predestination saith S. AVGVST is not made in vs but in God the three other things are made in vs vocation iustification and glorification For that that is alleadged out of saint Paul that God knowes those that are his and hath marked them with his signet must be vnderstood that he hath marked the predestinate in himselfe that is to saie in his eternall determination and not in them as an Architect who designes in his spirit certaine stones that he will imploy in his building markes thē not by this mentall designation in them but in himselfe and makes thē not by this simple determinatiō actuall partes of his building I meane to be briefe that the vniō that cōstitutes men in the Church is in thē now the vnion that the predestinate haue in God as they are simplie predestinate is not in thē but in God alone And so it is not the vnion of predestination but that of vocatiō that cōstitutes men in the Church Thirdly S. Paul teacheth vs that the Church is the bodie of Christ and that by analogie to an organicall body God saith he constituted him head ouer all the Church which is his bodie And againe I accomplish that which wātes of the passions of Christ in my flesh for his bodie which is the Church Now it is of the essence of an organicall bodie as it is organicall to be composed of diuers offices members and parts If all the members saith S. Paul were one member where should the bodie be And by this reason the schoolemen proue that the heauens are not animated or liuing bodies because they are not organicall bodies and they proue they are not organicall bodies because they are not made vp of heterogeneall and different partes in cōposition and cōplexiō And therefore it is of the essence of the Church to haue distinction of members organs and offices is the Church doth not arise from the hidden and eternall predestinatiō for then the not predestinate could not be ministers and pastors of the Church but from externall and tēporall vocation And by consequent it is in the externall visible and temporall vocation and not in predestination which is internall to God hiddē and eternall that the being and essentiall forme of the Church consists Fowrthly the same Saint Paul saith that God hath tempered the honor of the members that there might be no schisme in the body Now the predestinate are not capable of schisme as they are predestinat but as they are called so it is not predestination but vocation that frames the bodie of the Church Fiftly he affirmes the Church to be our mother the superior Ierusalem saith he that is 〈◊〉 saie Ierusalē taken not accordinge to the lowlynes of the legall 〈◊〉 but according to the height of the Euangelicall sense is free which is our mother And he addes that it is of her that 〈◊〉 writes Reioyce thou barren woman that bringst not forth children Now the Church doth not engēder vs by predestination for God alone is the author of predestination and not the Church but by vocation and consequently it is vocation and not predestination that cōstitutes the Church in the state of a Church mother of the faithfull Moreouer the knowledge of being Children to the mother is before the knowledge of being Children to the father by the interposition of the mothers authoritie saith saint AVG wee are perswaded of the true Father For that that Aristotle writes That in certaine partes of the vpper 〈◊〉 where women were common they discerned the children by the resēblance they had to theire fathers was good for those people where that similitude had place but we in whose nature the image of God is soe defaced by the spott of originall sinne as we can noe more be knowne to be his children by vertue of naturall similitude only there is noe other meanes for vs to pretend to this quality but that we are regenerated by him in our spirituall mother which is the Church his only spouse And for this cause the Ancientes are soe carefull to saie that he shall not haue God for his Father that denies the Church for his mother and that if any be out of the Church he shall be excluded out of the mumber of the children and to exhort the Christians to doe like the Xanthians in taking the Surname of theire mother that is to say the title of Catholicke We receiue the holy Ghost saith Saint AVGVSTINE if we loe the Church if we be knitt in one bodie by charitie if we reioyce in the Catholicke name and faith Now the certaintie of being Children to the Church cannot serue vs for a meanes and path way to come to the perswasion of being the children of God if the definition of the Church consist in the hidden and inuisible secret of predestination For by this definitiō contrarywise we must be assured to be Children of God and comprehended in the Rolle of the predestinate before we can be assured that we are the Children of the Church So the definition of the Church ought to consist not in the hidden and inuisiblie condition of predestination but in the externall and visible condicion of vocation Also we see that our Lord who was the God-father of this Societie and gaue it the name of the Church in that sense that she ought to beare it hath neuer vsed that name neither he nor his Apostles but to designe a visible Societie constituted by externall and temporall vocation For when he saith Vpon this rocke I will builde my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against her And I will giue thee the keyes of the the kingdome of heauen this word in the future tense I will build shewes he speakes of a Church constituted not by prestination which was established from all eternitie but by externall and temporall vocation And the word keyes which signifies the authority of the ministery confirmes it
haue alwaies obserued what the authority of the Prelates of the sea Apostolicke hath commaunded And why then when saint GREGORIE the Great to whom I haue brought downe this information as well because the English men deriue from him the originall of their Mission Ecclesiasticall as because Calume propoundes him for true and lawfull modell of the iurisdiction of Popes reprehended 1027. yeares agone Natalis Bishop of Salona in Dalmatia for the fault that he had committed for which he after did penance in deposing Honoratus Archdeacon of Salona notwithstanding Pope Pelagius letters did he write to him that such a disobedience had bene intollerable euen in one of the fower Patriarkes If one of the fower Patriarkes said hee had committed such an act soe great disobedience could not haue escaped without a greeuous scandall And why then when Clementius Primat of Bysacia in Africa had bene accused before the Emperor and sent backe by the Emperor to the Sea Apostolicke doth the same S. GREGORY saie If there be anie faulte in the Bishops I knowe not what Bishop is not subiect to the Sea Apostolicke if a faulte require it not according to the reason of humilitie we are all equall And why then when John Archbishop of Larissa in Thessalia had vniustly and vnworthily condemned Adrian Bishop of Thebes one of the Bishops of his iurisdiction and that the Bishop of Thebes had appealed to Rome from him did S. Gregorie ecclipse the Bishop and Bishopricke of Thebes from the iurisdiction of the Archbishop of Larissa his Metropolitan and declared the Archbishop of Larissa if euer he attempted more to exercise anie act of Metropolitan ouer him interdicted from the sacraments soe as they could not be restored to him except at the howre of death but with the leaue of the Bishop of Rome Wee ordaine said hee that thy brotherhood abstaine from all the iurisdiction which you haue formerly had ouer him and ouer his Church And a while after that if in anie time or for 〈◊〉 occasion whatsoeuer thou shalt attempt to contradict this our statute knowe that we declare thee depriued from the sacred communion soe as it may not be restored to thee except in the article of death but with the leaue of the Bishop of Rome And why then finally when the Patriarke of Constantinople had gotten the vpper hand of the other Patriarkes did he continue to suffer appeals of causes from his iurisdiction to the Popes tribunall and to acknowledge himselfe subiect and inferior to the Pope Iohn priest of Chalcedon saith S. GREGORIE in the cause that he had against our Brother colleague Iohn Bishop of Constantinople hath had recourse according to the Canons to the Sea Apostolicke and the cause hath bene determined by our sentence and againe pronouncing the restitution of Athanasius a priest and a Religious man of Lycaonia who had bene deposed and cast out of his monastery by the same John Patriarke of Constantinople and had appeald to him Wee declare thee said hee to be free from all spott of heresie and a Catholick c. and giue thee free leaue to returne into thy Monasterie and to holde there the same ranke as thou didst before And againe who doubts but the Church of Constantinople is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke which the most Religious Emperor and our brother Bishop of the same towne doe continually protest For as for the word vniuersall Bishop wherein the Bishop of Constantinople desired to participate with the Pope but vnder the Pope and in the Empire of the East forasmuch as Constantinople had bene erected into the title of the second Rome it shall be answered in a chapter by it selfe for the resusall that S. GREGORIE made to vse the title of vniuersall Bishop though it had bene giuen to his Predecessors in the Councell of Chalcedon it shal be satisfied in the same place and shewed that it was because of the euill sence the word vniuersall Bishop might receiue which was to signifie only Bishop and soe exclude the other Prelates from the title of Bishops in chiefe and of ministers and officers of God and to hold them but for committees and deputies of the vniuersall Bishop as the same S. GREGORIE protestes when he faith If there be one that is vniuersall Bishop all the rest are noe more Bishops and not to depriue himselfe from the superintendencie and iurisdictiō ouer all other Bishops of which he cryes cleane contrary If there be anie crime in the Bishops I knowe noe Bishop but is subiect to the Sea Apostolicke if noe crime require it according to the reason of bumilitie we are all equall Of formed letters CHAPT XXVI The continuance of the Kinges answere THEN were alsoe in frequent vse formed letters by the commerce and contexture where of the communion was admirably exercised amongst all the members of the Church how farr soeuer they were distant one from an other in place THE REPLIE IT is true but the center of this communion and of this Ecclesiasticall vnitie which was exercised and entertained by the commerce of formed letters was the Sea Apostolicke and the Roman Church This appeares by S. Ireneus who cryes to the Romā Church because of a principality that is to say as it hath bene aboue manifested because of the principalitie of the Sea Apostolicke it is necessary that euery Church should agree This appeares by S. Cyprian who calls the Roman Church the chaire of PETER and the principall Church and the originall of Sacerdotall vnitie This appeares by the lawe of the Emperor Gratian which ordained that the Churches should be deliuered to those that were in the Popes communion Hee ordained saith Theodoret that the sacred howses should be restored to those that cōmunicated with Damasus And a while after and this lawe was indefinitely executed in all nations This appeares by S. Ambrose who writes speaking of his Brothers comeing into one of the citties of the Isle of Sardinia He asked the Bishop of that place whether he agreed with the Catholicke Bishops that is to saie added he with the Roman Church This appeares by S. IEROME who writes to Pope Damasus I am ioyned in communion with thy Blessednesse that is to saie with Peters chaire I knowe the Church is built vpon that Rocke whosoeuer is not in the Arke he shall perish at the coming of the floud he that eates the lambe out os this howse is profane And a while after Whosoeuer gathers not with thee scatters that is to saie whosoeuer is not of Christ is of Antichrist And againe Send me word with whom I ought to communicate in Antioch for the heretickes of Campes with those of Tharses haue noe other ambition but that they might vnder the authoritie of your communion preache the three hypostosies according to the ancient vnderstanding And in an other place The while I cry if anie of you be ioyned to Peters chaire he
and their Bishop to the Sea of Constantinople are these the Archbishop of Thessalonica the Archbishop of Syracusa the Archbishop of Corinth the Archbishop of Rhegium the Archbishop of Nicopolis the Archbishop of Athens the 〈◊〉 of Patros And finally it appeares by the testimonie of Zonarus the most famous Canonist of the Greekes who interpreting the words of the Councell of Chalcedon that the Bishop of Constantinople should ordaine but onely the metropolitans of Pontus Asia and Thracia adds for the Diocesses to witt those of Macedonia Thessalia Hellada Peloponesus Epirus and Illyria were at that tymestill subiect to the Bishop of Rome And then if the lawe Omni innouatione cessante had bene executed and that the Prouinces of the Easterne Illyria should haue remayned after that disposed to the Bishop of Constantinople would not the consequence haue bene yet worse for the Popes aduersaries for that Pope Leo the first who was made Pope eighteen yeare after this lawe reproues the Archbishop of Thessalonica his vicar in Illyria because hauing called Atticus Metropolitan of the ancient Epirus and he excusing himself vpon his sicknes and vpon the winters colde he had employed the arme of the Easterne Empire to make him come by force and writt to him Wee haue in such sort committed our Vicarship to thy charitie as thou art called to a part of the care and not to the fulnesse of power And that the Emperor Iustinian being willing to exalt the Bishop of the first Iustinianea of Bulgaria ouer diuers Prouinces of the Easterne Illyria alleadgeth for a reason of his ordinance the definition of Pope Vigilius and not that of the Patriark of Constantinople and constitutes him vicar of the Apostolicke Sea of Rome in these very Prouinces doth it not necessarilie shew that either the lawe of the Emperor Theodosius the second had remained without effect or that the Pope had iurisdiction out of his Patriarship and that before the Councell of Nicea saint CYPRIAN solicited Pope Steuen to write to the Gaules that Marcian Bishop of Arles might be discharged and reproued the same Steuen for that he had vpon a false reporte restored Basilides and Martial Bishop of Spaine deposed for hauing abiured in the persecution time And that a while after the Councell of Nicea Valens Bishop of Murses in Pannonia and Vrsatius Bishop of Singidon in Mysia asked the Popes pardon for the slaunders they had published against saint ATHANASIVS and that Socrates saith that Perigenes Bishop of Patros in Achaya was by the Popes commaundement made Bishop of Corinth And that saint PROSPER writes that Pope Celestine sent Germanus Bishop of Auxera his vicar into Scotland and that the Bishop of Thessalonica had bene from time to time till Pope Leo the first and from Pope Leo the first to the time of Pope GREGORIE the great vicars of the Sea Apostolicke in Macedonian Achaya Epirus and other Greeke Prouinces and not vicars of simple negotiation as Balsamon pretends but Vicars of iurisdiction as Zonarus and the Greeke Emperor Leo more learned and more ancient then hee and the very Epistle of Pope Leo beare witnes shew they not plainely either that the Pope had iurisdiction out of his Patriarkship or that his Patriarkship extended further then the Prouostship of Rome For as for the new Critickes that obiect that the Emperor Valentinian the third commaunded by one of his lawes the prefect of the Cittie that he should banish those which were not in the Popes Communion from the space of an hund red thousand paces about the Cittie of Rome and inferr from thence that the Popes authoritie did then extend but an hundred thousand paces about Rome they shew themselues blinde with two more then Tiresian blindnesses the one not to see that there was difference betweene this that the Emperor Valentinian the third did which was to beare so great a respect to the Popes as not to permit to those that were out of their Communion the very temporall dwelling within the Prouostships of the Cittie of Rome and the consequence that they inferr from it which is to saie that the Popes had not power to exclude those which were not in their communion from the spirituall communion of all the Church And the other not to perceiue that the bound of an hundred thousand paces is fitted to the lawe not because the Popes iurisdiction extended no further but because the ordinarie iurisdiction of the Prouost of the Cittie of Rome to whom the lawe was directed extended no further then ouer the next hundred thousand paces to the Cittie of Rome Otherwise how could saint PROSPER haue said speaking of Pope Celestins proceedinges against Coelestius he commaunded Coelestius should be driuen from the vtmost endes of Italie and how could saint AVSTIN haue written that Pope Innocent and Pope Zosimus condemned Pelagius and Coelestius through all the Christian world and how should the same Emperor Valentinian the third haue said in an other lawe Wee ordaine by a perpetuall sanction that neither to the Bishops of the Gaules nor to those of other prouinces it shall be lawfull against the ancient custome to attempt anie thing without the authoritie of the Reuerend Pope of the eternall Cittie but that to them and to all that be for a lawe that the authoritie of the Sea Apostolick shall haue ordained But why should wee haue recourse to reason to confute that which ruins and destroies it selfe by the proper hippothesis thereof for had not the Cittie of Constantinople bene formed and made by the patterne of the ancient Rome had she not the same offices priuiledges and politicke orders with the ancient Rome from whencet he ancient Rome saith by the mouth of Claudian Cum subito par Roma mihi diuisaque sumpsit Aequales aurora togas Had she not a Senat as Rome had had she not one of the Consulls as Rome had had she not a Prouost of the Cittie whose ordinarie iurisdiction was inclosed within the next hundred thousand paces to the Cittie of Constantinople as Rome had and when they would honor her with spirituall priuiledges and erect her into the title of a Patriarkship did they not rule her by the square and by the modell of the Patriarkship of Rome alleadging that as she was honored with like temporall priuiledges as Rome was so it was reasonable to honor her that is to saie in a Patriarchall degree with like Ecclesiasticall priuiledges If then the Patriarkship of Constantinople were squared by that of Rome and Constantinople had her Prouost of the Cittie whose ordinary iurisdiction was contained within the next hundred thousand paces to the Cittie of Constantinople as well as that of Rome who sees not that either the Patriarchall iurisdiction of the Pope must not be restrained within the ordinary territory of the Prouostship of the Cittie of Rome that is to
of the Councell intitled the 8 th Occumenicall the Bishop of Rome and him of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and homothronall that is to saie vnited in one selfe-same 〈◊〉 and set in one selfe-same Sea And therefore the Fathers of the Coūcell of Chalcedon did noly alleage in their Canō that it was reasonable that Constātinople being adorned by the Empire and the Senate should enioyalsoin the secōd place after the Cittie of Rome the same priuiledges in Ecclesiasticall causes but addeth thereto in their relation two other reasons taken frō the spirituall affinitie of the Church of Constantinople with that of Rome The one the facilitie of the influence of the gouernment of the Church of Rome into that of Constātinople for as much as the beames of the Sea Apostolicke might spread more commodiouslie from Rome to Constantinople then to the other Patriarchall Seas because of the communication that those two cities which made one selfe same head of the Empire had together By meanes whereof it was more conuenient that the rules which the other Patriarkships should take from the Roman Church the Church of Cāstantinople where resided in ordinary the Nuncios of the Sea Apostolicke and which was neerer the Patriarkship of Rome should receiue them first and immediatly from the Roman Church and then communicate them to the other Seas which were farther off The other that the Church of Constantinople was daughter and extract frō the Roman Church wee haue said they bene incouraged to doe this for that the Beame Apostolicke raigning amidst you and you by your ordinary gouernment 〈◊〉 it to the Church of Constantinople you may cause it to shine the 〈◊〉 into these partes because you are wonted without enuie to inriche those of your linage with the participation of your Goods And therefore Pope Leo with a purpose to cutt off in a word all their hope of this pretence writt to the Emperor that Constantinople what soeuer Anatotius might attempt could neuer be made a Sea Apostolick Let Anatolius said he not disdaine the imperiall 〈◊〉 which he cannot make a Sea Apostolicke which moued the latter Greekes to add another deuise For considering that the pretence of the vnitie of their Sea with that of saint PETER could not serue for a good Colour of a Spirituall title to perserue thereto the second place in the Church they haue had recourse to deriue by a fabulous list and which hath noe testimonie in antiquity the Succession of the Bishops of Bizantium from saint ANDREW brother to saint PETER to maintaine to the Church of Constantinople built vpon the foundation of Byzantium the second Sea after that of saint PETER The third Answere is what soeuer the ayme and sence of this Canon may be there can noething be inferred from it either lawfull or Canonicall forasmuch as it was a surreptitious Canon and obtained by fraude and by surprize and against which there were thirteen nullities whereof the least is sufficient to impose a perpetuall silence to all those that alleadge it The first nullitie is that they were neither the presidents of the Councell nor the Bishops of the Councell which propounded and particularized this Canon but the Clerkes of the Church of Constantinople and particularly Aetius Archdeacon of Constantinople as it appeares both from the eleuenth action in which one of the clauses which was after entered into this Canon to witt that the Metropolitans of Asia minor should receiue their ordination from the Bishop of Constantinople hauing bene contested by the Bishops of Asia the onely Clerkes of the Church of Constantinople with lowde voices cried out Lett the ordinance of the hundred and fiftie fathers so called they the Canon of the Councell of Constautinople falsely alleadged to that purpose stand let not the priuiledges of Constantinople perish lett the ordinations be made according to the custome by our Bishop And from the words of Aetius Archdeacon of Constantinople when he would haue excused the obreption of this Canon which were It is a thing accustomed in Synods after principall matters haue bene defined to questiō and decide some other necessary things Now we haue to witt the holy Church of Constantinople some articles to propound And from the excuse that Anatolius Bishop of Constantinople made when he departed from this canon which was that he had bene set on to solicit it by the importunitie of his clergie This thy fault saith Pope Leo answering Anatolius which to augment thy power thou hadst committed as thou saist by the exhortation of others thou hadst better and more sincerelie blotted out if thou hadst not imputed to the onely councell of thy clergie that which could not be attempted without thy consent The second nullitie is that this decree was made at an vndue hower and after the assemblie of the Councell had bene separated and when the Popes Legates and the Senators which assisted there on the Emperors part were retired as it appeares both by the complaint that the Popes 〈◊〉 made thereof the morrowe after to the Emperors officers 〈◊〉 to keepe order in the Councell which contained these words 〈◊〉 after the departure of your excellencie and of our humilitie they saie there were made certaine articles that we pretend to be contrarie to the canons and to 〈◊〉 discipline And by the answere of the Emperors officers which was If there were anie articles framed after our departure let them be read And by these words of Liberatus There was that daie another session wherein after the departure of the Judges and the Senat and the Legats of the Sea Apostolicke certaine priuiledges were adiudged to the Church of Constantinople taking aduantage of the condemnation of Dioscorus And to that is not 〈◊〉 the excuse that Actius Archdeacon of Constantinople alleadged to the Emperors officers in these words Wee requested my Lords the Bishops of Rome to assist to it they refused saying they had noe commaundement to that effect Weereported it also to your magnificence you commaunded the Synod should examine it when your excellencie was gone forth the holie Bishops which are heere risinge as for a common businesse required that the action should be made now it is in our hands nothing hath bene done in a corner or by stealth but the action hath bene competent and canonicall For either the clerks of Constantinople had made no such request to the Popes Legates the Emperors officers or it was not that daie nor vpon the point of the action otherwise the Emperors officers would not haue answered the Popes Legats as being ignorant of the historie If there be anie article framed since our departure let it le read The third nullitie is that this canon was made the Bishops of all the other Patriarkships being absent in the onely presence of the Bishops of the Patriarkship of Antioch and of the prouinces neere Constantinople That it was so besides that the Bishops of
Eustathius he begins the twentith chapter of his second booke with these words In this time Marcus hauing for a short space holden the Bishops Sea of Rome after Syluester Iulius tooke the gouernment of the Sea of Rome and Maximus after Macarius of that of Ierusalem From whence it appeares manifestly either that the word Iulius which is in the precedent booke where Sozomene saith speaking of the Councell of Nicea Iulius Bishop of Rome because of his age was not there is a note which slipt out of the margent into the text and that Sozomene had simplie said as Eusebius The Bishop of Rome because of his age was not there or that insteede of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee must reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to saie ancient or venerable But because we haue handled this matter more at large elsewhere to witt in the preface composed by vs at Rome but published without our name before Gelasius of Cyzica wee will heere content ourselues to remitt the Readers to that and the while wee will examine the place of Sozomene Sozomene then saith 〈◊〉 writes At this Councell assisted of the Seas Apostolicke Macarius Bishop of Ierusalem Eustathius Bishop of Antioch Alexander Bishop of Alexandria and as for the Bishop of Rome he was not there because of his age but in his steede there assisted Vito and Uincentius Priests of the same Church This is true but so farr of is it that from hence it followes that Sozomene puts the Popes Legats in the fourth place As contrarywise it is euident euen there that he attribures to them the first For being constrained to followe the tract of his discourse which obliged him since he had purposed to speake of the Apostolicke Prelate which assisted at the Councell to beginne with those that were there in person before he would make mention of those which were there but by their Legats he â—â—erted of set purpose the order of the enumeration and began with the fourth and last of all the Patriarkes which was the Bishop of Ierusalem who was then but a Patriarcke of honor and then went vp increasing to him of Antioch who was the third and then came to him of Alexandria who was the second to the end to keepe the last place of the progresse for the Popes Legates Now what could be done more expressely and with more note to testifie the primacie of the Pope A man that being to describe an Emperiall diet where the Emperor assisted but representatiuelie would begin with the Princes of the Empire who had assisted there in person but to keepe the greater dignitie to the Emperor would inuert the order of the other Princes and would saie rising from the last to the first of the Princes of the Empire there assisted at the Emperiall diet the Marquese of Brandenbourg the Count Palatine the Duke of Saxony the Archbishop of Collen the Archbishop of 〈◊〉 the Archbishop of Ments and the Kinge of Bohemia and as for the Emperor he was not there but deputed two Vicars there to hold his place should hee in doeing so giue the last ranke to the Emperor or the first For that the order reported in Sozomene was the inuerted order and not the direct order of the Sea of the Patriarkes it appeares both by the confession of Caluin who cryes out Amongst the Patriarks Ierusalem hath â—enâ— the last and by all the Ecclesiasticall histories which teach vs that Ierusalem was the fourth of the patriarkships and Antioch the third and Alexandria the second And by the Canons of the Councell of Nicoa it self which setts Alexandria before Antioch and Antioch before Ierusalem And by the expresse report that Socrates made of the direct order of the Councell taken by the very synodicall booke of S. ATHANASIVS which is thus Osius Bishop of 〈◊〉 Uito and Vincentius Priests Alexander of Egipt Eustathius of great Antioch Macarius of Ierusalem In which Catalogue Sainct ATHANASIVS and Socrates put Osius the Bishop and Uito and Uincentius Priests as holding but one and the same place in the first ranke And Alexander Patriarke of Alexandria who was the second Patriarke in the second place and Eustachius Patriarke of Antioch who was the third Patriarke in the third And Macarius Patriarke of Ierusalem who was the fourth Patriarke in the fourth place But they will replie that Eusebius and after him Theodoret and Soâ—omene make mention but of two Legats of the Pope Vito and Vin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently that S. ATHANASIVS and Socrates could not place Osius Vito and Vincentius as being all three Legats to the Pope in one same place to this replie then the answere shall be that the Popes 〈◊〉 accustomed to send two sortes of Legates to the generall Councells celebrated in the East the one Bishops taken out of the bodie of the Roman Patriarchall Church As Arcadius and Proiectas Bishops to the first Councell of Ephesus Iulian Bishop of Pozzoly to the second Paschasinus Bishop of Lilybea to the Councell of Chalcedon and the other Priests taken out of the body of the particular Roman Church 〈◊〉 Vito and Vincentius to the Councell of Nicea Archidamus and Philoâ—elius to the Councell of Sardica Phillip to the first Councell of Epheâ—â—â—â— Boniface to the Councell of Chalcedon And the reason of this was that the body of the 〈◊〉 Church was neuer at the generall councells celebrated out of the 〈◊〉 of the West but the Pope held at Rome a Councell of the Bishops of the West whose resolution he sent by a legation to the Councell of the other Patriarchall diuisions assembled in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 confirmed by a Councell holden afterward that which had bene decided at the Councells of the other patriarchall diuisions assembled in the East And from this concourse arose the absolute title of generall Councell The Legats then that the Pope sent to 〈◊〉 the voice of the 〈◊〉 Church to the 〈◊〉 Councells assembled in the East were of two sortes the one taken from the body of the Bishops to represent in generall the whole bodie of the 〈◊〉 Church that is to saie 〈◊〉 the person of the Pope as of the other Bishops of the West and the other Priests and Deacons taken from the 〈◊〉 Clergie of the Roman Church to represent particularly the 〈◊〉 and person of the Pope And this was some times the practise of those of the East in the westerne ex pedition For when Flauianus Patriarke of Antioch sent his embassage to Rome to recouer the grace of the Pope hee added to it besides the Priests and Deacons of the Church of Antioch Acacius Bishop of Beroe in Syria one of the Bishops of his patriarkship who was saith Theodoret head of the legation and some other Bishops of the same diuision to the end to shew the consent of his patriarchall Church with his particular Church But let vs leaue those of the East and returne to the Pope The Pope then
had bene brought out of the East and that when they should come they whould assemble a councell to aduise vpon it From whence it appeares that the sixth councell of Carthage was finished the same yeare wherein it began and lasted but till the copies came out of the East which arriued in the month of Nouember of the consulship of Monaxius and Plinta and the other that when there was question of the last processe of Apiarius and of the second voyage of Faustinus into Africa the Bishops of Africa writt to Pope Celestine that they had assembled a councell expressly vpon the occurrence of this Businesse from it may be gathered that the sixth councell of Carthage had not continued till then Our holy brother fellowe Bishop Faustinus said they coming to vs wee haue assēbled a councell Whereto there may yet be added that betweene the first appeale of Apiarius when he was pursued by the inhabitants of Sicca which was determined in the sixth councell of Carthage in the presence of Flauianus and the second appeale of the same Apiarius when he was pusued by the inhabitants of Thabraca which was determined in the Councell holden after the returne of Faustinus into Africa there did againe interuene an other Councell by which he had bene depriued a second time of the 〈◊〉 of all the Bishops of Africa And it is not to bee replied that the sixth Councell of Carthage chose twentie two deputiesto finish what had not bene determined in the generall assemblie of the Councell for it was an ordinarie thing for the generall Councells of Africa when they had bene some daies together to auoide the wearysomnes and the expences of so great a multitude of Bishops to choose three or fower 〈◊〉 from euerie prouince who should prepare and put into forme the actes of the Councell as in the Councell holden the yeare before vnder the twelfth Consulship of Honorius after the constitution of the 〈◊〉 there was chosen three deputies of euery prouince to determine the other businesse of the Councell and to reduce into forme the actes of what had bene there resolued And neuerthelesse soe farr is it from appearing from thence that this Councell lasted to the yeare following as contrarywise the yeare followinge which was the yeare after the twelfth consulship of Honorius there was assembled a newe Councell the eigth of the calends of June which was that that we call the sixth of Carthage The seauenth skirmish is about the collection intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage which is a gathering of thirtie three of the principall canons of the former Councells of Carthage which manie thinke to haue bene made in the sixth Coūcell of Carthage and we cōntrarywise pretend it to be compiled by some impertinent Rapsodist whether an African during the last and most barbarous tyme of the dominion of the Uandalls in Africa or an Europian while the heresie and tyrannie of the Vandalls hindred the catholickes on this side the Sea from beinge able to haue exact communication and knowledge of the ecclesiasticall things of Africa And we are grounded in this beliefe by infinite reasons The first reason is that Fulgentius Ferandus an African deacon and very conuersant in the African antiquitie who writ a little before the expulsion of the Uandalls out of Africa not onely makes noe mention of this collecton that they intitle the sixth councell of Carthage but also citinge some of the canons that are there alleadgeth them vnder the title of canons of the former Councells of Carthage As when he citeth the canon of the canonicall Bookes he cites it from the Councell of Carthage where there was added the permission to reade the Passions of the martyrs which is the third Councell of Carthage and doth not note that this canon hath bene published in anie other Councell of Carthage when he registers the prohibition of ordayninge Bishops without the consent of their Primate he alleadgeth it with these quotations 〈◊〉 Councell of Carthage vnder the Prelate Genetlius title tenth the Generall Councell of Carthage title fortie fowerth And the Councell of Zelles in the recitall of the Popes Epistle and maketh noe mention amongst the places where this canon of the Councell is that we call the sixth Councell of Carthage which was holden the yeare after that of Zelles When he inrolls the canon of the celibate of Bishops Priests and deacons he inserts it with this quotation The Councell of Carthage title the first and Councell of Zelles And of the Coūcell of Carthage holden after that of Zelles which is that which we call the sixth he speakes not one word And it is not to be obiected that these fragments are found in the collection of Dionisius Exiguus For besides that the collection of Dionisius Exiguus was compiled not by a naturall African as was Fulgentius Ferandus but by a Scythian it was made after the Register of Ferandus as it appeares both by the canons of the Apostles which are there inserted which in Pope Gelasius his tyme and in Fulgentius Ferandus his tyme who were both Africans were neither receuied in the church of Rome nor in the African church and for this cause are not mentioned in the Register of Ferandus and by the diuision of the last canon of the seauenth councell of carthage which the collection of Dionisius and the Greeke edition that followes it doe diuide inpertinently into two canons whereas Fulgentius Ferandus and the originall text of the seauenth Councell of Carthage doe place them vnder one onely title And to this there is noe opposition in this that Victor Bishop of Tununes or according to others Tunnes extendes the 〈◊〉 of Fulgentius Ferandus if the quotations be not transposed to the one twētith yeare of the Empire of Justinian For it is certaine that Fulgentius Ferandus writt from the tyme of the Emperor Anastasius and of Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspa to whom he dedicated the Epistle of the fiue questions The second reason is that these fragments intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage are not in the collection of Jsidorus Mercator and in the ordinary volumes of the Coūcells where the Coūcells of Africa in chiefe are reported and all the other ancient Councells of the latine church whereof wee make vse Contrarywise that the sixth Councell of Carthage which is there inserted containes noe canons and comprehends but the verball processe of what passed betweene the Popes legates and the Bishops of Africa about the matter of appeales which verball processe is reduced onely to tenn Chapters after which immediatly followes in the ordinarie copies the seauenth Councell of Carthage The third reason is that the sixth Councell of Carthage and the seauenth were not two different Councells but two actions of one and the same Councell the one celebrated the eigth of the calends of June vnder the twelfth consulship of Honorius and the
both by the copies of Dionisius Exiguus that the edition of Schoffer the Almaigne Printer hath followed by the Epitomy of Cresconius who cites them vnder two titles the one of the nintie ninth canō the other of the hūdredth And by the words of the Greeke trāslatiō which distinguisheth and diuideth thē into two Canons The seauenth reason is that at the end of the same canon follow these words Be it registred in the acts of the Church the treatie of all the title designed and digested this daie and as for the things which haue not yet bene expressed we will write thē the daie following by our bretheren Fauctinus Bishop and Phillip and Asellus priests to our 〈◊〉 brother and fellow Bishop Boniface Which wordes besides that they are couched after the canon of the rash excōmunications which is the hūdredth of the Rapsodie that is to saie the fiftith last of the seauenth Councell of Carthage could not if they be authenticall be pronoūcedanie other where then in the seauēth Coūcell of Carthage for they testifie that the Popes Legates which were yet present in the seauēth Councell of Carthage departed the next daie after they had bene pronoūced And neuerthelesse not only they are not in the seauenth councell of Carthage but also in some copies they are sett after the fortie or according to others the thirtie three canōs attributed seuerallie to the sixth Councell of Carthage after the prohibition to alienate ecclesiasticall Goods The eigth reason is that at the end of the signatures of the last coūcell of the Rapsody which is the se auenth coūcell of Carthage it is said And the other two hundred seauenteen Bishops subscribed Which is a manifest ignorāce in the cōpiler who remēbred not that in the seauenth Coūcell of Carthage there were but twentie two Bishops For to ease the two hūdred seauenteen Bishops which were at the sixth Coūcell of Carthage they were sēt backe a while after into their Prouinces only twētie two chosen in their places to finish the rest of the affaires of the Coūcell This appeares both by the signatures of the 〈◊〉 Councell of Carthage where there did but twentie two Bishops signe by the inscription of the same seauēth Councell of Carthage inserted into the Greeke latine Rapsody in these words Manie of the Bishops cōplayning that they could not attend at the lēgth of the other expeditiōs were prest to returne into their prouinces it pleased all the Councell that by the whole assemblie there might be deputies chosen from euerie of the prouinces which should remaine to finish the rest Frō whence it happened that those assisted there whose signatures testifie thē to haue bene there present A thing which manifestly shewes that this clause And the two hundred seauenteen other Bishops signed likewise is of the compilers stile not of the acts of anie Councell The ninth reason is that if this Rapsody had bene cōpiled by the Fathers of the seauēth Coūcell of Carthage or anie other later as the vse that is there made of the Canons at the seauēth of Carthage other subsequent pieces do suppose they would neuer haue forgottē tosett downe the extract of the sixt coūcell of Carthage the thirtie three Canōs which are attributed to it if at least they be iustlie attributed to it For with what colour should the extract of the Canōs of the seauenth Coūcell of Carthage which were made by the deputies that remained of the sixth Councell of Carthage after the rest were dismissed haue bene inserted into the Rapsody the Canōs of the sixth councell of Carthage which had bene made by the whole councell not haue bene inserted And it will not serue to saie that the sixth Councell of Carthage is in an act a part for so is the seauenth also which neuerthelesse is registred in the Rapsodie Lesse will it auaile to saie that the Canons of the sixth Councell of Carthage are inrolled in the Greeke Rapsody For besides that the ancient originall Rapsody is the latine and not the Greeke as it appeares amongst other meanes by the quotations of Cresconius which answere to the numbers of the latine and not or the Greeke they are not inserted into the Bodie of the Greeke Rapsodie that is to saie into the order and chronologicall clew of the Rapsody which begins at the Councell of Hippo and ends at the Epistles of the Bishops of Africa to Pope Celestine but in the extract and particular collection of the Canons of the sixth Councell of Carthage that the Greekes haue tacked annexed to the head of their Rapsody which had not happened if it had bene cōpiled in an actuall Councell for as much as the Fathers of the Councell whould haue sett the extract the Canons of the sixth Coūcell of Carthage in their true place which is betweene the Councell holden vnder the twelfth consulship of Theodosius the seauenth Councell of Carthage and not in a place anticipated The tenth reason is that if this Rapsody were a reading of diuers former Councells of Africa which had bene made in a later Coūcell there would haue bene in the same Councell some ordinance to reade them as in the third Coūcell of Carthage reported by the rapsody it was ordayned that the Canons of the Coūcell of Hippo should be read there in the first Mileuitan Coūcell incorporated into the same Rapsody it was ordained that the Canōs composed in the Councell of Hippo after confirmed in the Councell of Carthage should be read there A thing neuerthelesse whereof there is no tracke to be foūd And this may be said of the reasons which inuite me to beleeue that the Africā Rapsody hath bene compiled by some particular canonist it remaines to examine the proofes of the contrary opinion The foundatiō thē of those that thinke that the African Rapsodie hath bene collected in an actuall Councell is that at the head of the century it is said In this Councell were also recited diuers Councells of the prouinces of Africa holden in the times past of Aurelius Which clause some pretend to be relatiue to the sixth and others to the seauenth Councell of Carthage but this foundation it selfe hath neede of a foundation for first it is not certaine whether this clause bee of the originall text of the Rapsodie or whether it be a note of some exemplifier who thought that the African century that is to saie the Rapsody of the hūdred African Canōs that wee call the African Councell had bene made in the sixth Councell of Carthage contrary wise that at the head of the collection intituled by some the sixth Councell of Garthage precedes such a like clause in these wordes Then were read the Canons of the Coūcell of Nicea as they haue aboue bene inserted After also were registred in the presēt Acts the things that had bene published in the
of Appeales that had bene sent them vnder the title of the Canons of the Councell of Nicea were not in the copies of the Councell of Nicea that had bene brought out of the East and not knowing that they were in those of the Councell of Sardica which was the Appendix and the seale of the Councell of Nicea they tooke licence to write an Epistle to Pope Celestine to beseeche him no more so easily to receaue the Appeales of the Clergie men of Africa Now some might call in question the credit of this Epistle as well because it is a peece out of the worke and annexed to the continuance of the sixth Councell of Carthage which had bene held three yeare before as a foundling without anie mention of the date or of the actes or of the history of the Councell where it was written as because it was full of clauses and cannot be compatible with the discipline of the Africans for it takes for a first foundation that if the Councell of Nicea excluded Priests from being to be adiudged by Appeale out of their Prouinces the Bishops may by stronger reason be excluded And the foundation of the Africans contrarywise in the question that they had against the Donatists was that Cecilanus after he had bene deposed by the Bishops of Africa might haue reserued the iudgment of his cause to the beyond sea Churches for as much as he was not of the number of Priests or other inferior Clerkes which the Coūcell of Nicea 〈◊〉 Cecilianus assisted could not be ignorant of It takes for a second foundation that ecclesiasticalls condemned might appeale to the Councell of their Prouince yea euen to the generall Councell of all Africa which is manifestly against the history and discipline of the Councells of Africa and principally for the inferior Clerkes as Priests deacons and Subdeacōs For the holding of the anniuersary Councells of all Africa had bene suppressed twelue yeares before Celestine in the Coūcell holden vnder the seauenth Consuslhip of Honorius where it had bene ordained that the vniuersall Councells of Africa should no more be ordinary and anniuersary and should no more be holden but for extraordinary and vniuersall causes And that the causes that were not common should be iudged in their Prouinces And that if there were an appeale the appealant and the partie should choose Iudges from whom it should not be lawfull to appeale And finally it takes for a third foundation that there was no difference of priuiledge betweene Clerkes of the Superior order in the matter of passiue iurisdiction and that the same which had bene ordained concerning the one ought by a stronger reason to haue place concerning the others which is directly contrary to the African discipline which makes so great difference betweene the one and the other as to iudge Priests in the second instance there needed but six Bishops with the Diocesan and to iudge a Bishop in the first instance there must be twelue with the Archbishop of the Prouince But for as much as this Epistle is in the collection of Dionisius whether it haue bene added since or whether it were inserted from the beginning and that after Dionisius Pope Adrian and the Emperor Charlemaine made mention thereof although there be ancient copies where neither of these Epistles are to be found I will not resist it Only I will saie that S. AVGVSTIN assisted not at the Councell where it was written as appeares as well because there is no mention made of him neither at the beginning nor end of the Epistle a thing which would neuer haue bene forgotten to authorise and fortifie the action as well as it had bene in the Epistle to Boniface as because those that were after him in order of promotion and which were wont to be enrolled after him in publicke actions and amongst others The asius 〈◊〉 and Fortunatianus are named in the inscription of the Epistle and not he For that S. AVGVSTINE did vse to precede The asius appeares by the fortie fifth and two and sixtith Canon of the councell intitled African and that hee vsed to precede Uincentius and Fortunatianus appeares by the collation of Carthage where the deputies for the Catholickes vere Aurelius Alipius Augustinus Uincentius Fortunatus Fortunatianus and Possidius Now this Epistle containes two partes to witt a narration and a supplication which wee report from the Greeke text for as much as the Greeke edition as wee haue aboue shewed is more intire and correct in matter of Epistles then the latine The narration then it Our holy brother and colleague Faustinus coming to vs wee beleeued that hee had bene sent with Apiarius to the end that as by his meanes Apiarius had bene formerly restored to his Priesthood so now by his labour hee might be purged of so manie crimes as had hene obiected against him by the Tabracenians But the multitude of our Synod running ouer the crimes of Apiarius found them to bee so great and in so great number as they haue surmounted the protectiō rather then iudgment and affection of a defender rather then the iustice of a Judge of the same Faustinus for first he hath throughly resisted all the assemblie charging it with diuers contumelies vnder colour of pursuing the priuiledges of the Roman Church and willing to cause himselfe to be receiued vnto our Communion because your Holynesse beleeuing he had appealed to you which yet he could not proue had restored him to the Cōmunion 〈◊〉 this succeeded not with him as you may know better by the verball processe of the actes cōtrarywise after a laborious inquiry of three daies during which wee examined with much anguish the diuers charges which were obiected to him God a iust iudge powerfull patiēt hath cut off by a great abridgemēt the delaies of our colleague Faust. ād the tergiuersatiōs of the same Apiarius by which he attēpted to hide his infamous villanies c. For our God pressing the conscience of this fraudulent denyer and his will beinge to publish to men the Crimes that his prouidence condemned being yet hidden in his hart as in a bogge of vices he hath blased out and sufferd himselfe to fall into a confessiō of all the vices which were obiected against him c. and hath cōuerted our hope by which wee beleeued and desired that he might purge himselfe from these so shamefull blotts and staines into greef but that our greefe hath bene eased by this only confort that wee haue bene deliuered from the affliction of a longer labour After the narration marcheth the supplication which consists in three requests The first request is that the Pope should noe more so easily receiue those that should appeale to him from Africa Premised then said they the office of a due salutation wee beseech you with all our affection that you doe no more so easily admitt these to your 〈◊〉 that shall come from hence and
carnally that Peter that should tell them knew them 〈◊〉 FOR that in the sixth of S. IOHN S. PETER answeres in common for all the Apostles Wee beleeue and knowe thou art Christ the Sonn of the liuing God besides that the Latine editions haue not the word liuing Wee saie it was a later thing for as much as when sainct PETER answered Wee beleeue and know that thou art Christ the Sonne of the liuing God hee had bene alreadie constituted head and Prince of the other Apostles and in this qualitie he answered alone for all the rest as sainct CYRILL testifies in these wordes By one that presided or that was preeminent all answered and had alreadie receiued the promisses of our Lord that vpon him he would build his Church As S. CYPRIAN declares in these wordes Peter speakes heere vpon whom the Church had bene built And therefore as the Apostles had part in the primacie of this confession only by adherence and non-repugnancie so our Lord gaue them part in the authotitie he had giuen to S Peter by adherence and communication with S. PETER that is to saie vnder condition of cōmunicating and adhearing and remayning in vnitie with saint PETER And yet this part that he promised and gaue them in the rule and ministrie of the Church was afterward to witt as in right in the eighteenth of saint MATHEW What yee bind on earth shall be bound in heauen And as the installment into the possession in the twentith of saint IOHN Receiue the holie Ghost whose sinns yee forgiue shall be forgiuen to the end to shewthat to sainct PETER ōly the cōditiō of being a Rock that is to sa rule and foundation of the building of the Church had bene principallie and originally giuen and that afterwards it was extended to the other Apostles it was by aggregation and association and by communicating and adhering with him and as hauing relation and correspondence to him as to the Center and middle forme of the veritie of the Church For as God gaue first his spiritt to Moyses and after tooke of the Spiritt that he had giuen to Moyses and gaue thereof to the seauen tie two Elders not that God tooke awaie from Moyses anie portion of the spiritt that he had giuen him not that the spirit of God was diuisible but to the end to establish and shew a relation of vnitie dependencie and adherencie of the seauentie two Elders to Moyses Soe in some sort for I compare not the two histories wholie our Lord gaue first the whole authoritie of the ministrie and the Chaire Apostolicke to saint PETER alone I intend as in right and not in actuall possession which he receaued not till after the Resurrection and after 〈◊〉 it to all the twelue Apostles in common to the end to shew the relation of dependencie vnitié and adherence that they ought to haue with saint PETER whom vpon this occasion Macharius an antient Egiptian diuine calls the successor of Moyses Afterward said hee to Moyses succeeded Peter to whom the new Church of Christ and the true priesthood hath bene committed Which hath caused the Fathers to saie that there was but one Chaire which was the Chaire of PETER but that in this Chaire all the Apostles were placed to witt by the adherence communion and vnitie that they had with S. PETER In the Episcopall Chaire saith saint OPTATVS Mileuitanus there is sett the head of all the Apostles Peter from whence he also hath bene called Cephas to the end that in this only Chaire vnitie might be preserued in all least the other Apostles should attribute to themselues euery one his Chaire a parte but that he might be a Schismaticke 〈◊〉 that against this onelie Chaire should erect an other And therefore also the surname of PETER by which this Condition of being the foundation of the rule of the Church is designed hath bene giuen to him only to beare it in the title of a proper name and not to anie other Apostle to show that to him by excellencie and eminencie ouer all the rest appertained the thing whereof he alone bore the name For since our Lord should by the word PETER designe the condition of being the ministeriall foūdation of the Church for what cause should he affect it to Peter alone to beare it in the title of a proper and ordinarie name and not giue it to anie other if he were not to bea foundation of the Church in an other manner then the rest Which S. BASILL hath in such sort acknowledged as desiring to shew the difference which is betweene the substance and the hipostaticall proprieties of anie subiect he alleadgeth for example of the substance the substāce of humanitie which is commō to PETER PAVL although said he the appellations be different yet the substance of Peter and Paule and of all men is one and alleadgeth amongst the examples of the hypostaticall indiuiduall and incommunicable conditions of PETER that is to saie which are particular to him onely and are not common to him with saint PAVL nor with anie other the condition of being the foundation of the Church Because said he the names of men signifie not their substances but the proprieties whereby each of them is designed in particular From thence it is that when wee heare the name of Peter we vnderstand not his substance c. but conceiue the sence of the proprieties which are perticular to him For as soone as wee heare this word wee vnderstand Peter the Sonne of Ionas he that was of Bethsaida he that was Brother to Andrew he that of a Fisherman was made an Apostle he that 〈◊〉 reason of the supereminencie of his Faith receiued vpon him the edification of the Church AND for this same cause to saint PETER onely there hath bene conferred singularlie separately and apart the authoritie of the rule of the Church and to all the rest onely in common and ioyntlie with him to the end to shew that he was the originall the source the center and the beginning of the vnitie of the Church and that no other out of his Communion could exercise the rule and ministrie thereof but that the rest had right to exercise it it is onely as associated and aggregated with him and as grafted and inserted vpon him For our Lord neuer said singularly to anie of the Eleuen Thou art Peter and vpon this Rocke I will build my Church and I will giue thee the keies of the Kingdome of heauen nor I haue praied for thee that thy faith shall not faile And finallie Thou being conuerted confirme thy Bretheren nor louest thou me more then these feede my sheepe But only hath said in generall to all the Bodie of the Apostles sainct PETER being Colleague present and comprehended therein that which he had said before to saint PETER alone as to the head That which yee shall binde on earth shall be bound in heauen and they
acknowledge that our Lord in calling Peter Cephas did intend to call him Rock and to constitute him for the foundation of the Church as appeares by these words of Rabbi Helias in his Tisbi vpon the exposition of the word Cephas Iesus the Nazarean saith hee called Simon sonn of Bariona Cephas which signifies fortitude for the interpretation of the Hebrew word sela is Cepha which signifies in manie places fortitude meaning that he was the head and fortitude of his religion and therefore he called him Cephas And to this there doe agree all the famous editions of scriptures in what tongue soeuer as well printed as manuscripts For not only the Hebrew editiō of the Ghospell of saint MATTHEW published by Munster saith Thou art Cepha and vpon this Cepha Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock And the Syriack publisht by Moses of Merdin in Mesopotamia and republisht by Tremellius Thou art Kipho and vpon this Kipho thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock But also the Arabicke hath it Thou art Ascara and vpon this Ascara thou art the stone and vpon this stone And the Persian Thou art zeng and vpon this zeng thou art the Rock and vpon this Rock And the Armenian thou art Vimi and vpon this Vimi thou art the stone and vpon this stone And the Ruthenian Egiptian and Ethiopian euen the same Neuerthelesse though the want of the Hebrew and Syriack tongues suffered S AVGVSTINE to fall into this mistake to thinke that the primitiue word Rocke was not there attributed to sainct PETER but only the deriuatiue and that Petrus signifieth not Rock but Rockey or Stonie he hath alwaies acknowledged be it by vertue of the other places of the scripture or be it by vertue of the perpetuall traditiō of the Church the same thing that wee conclude out of this passage to witt the Primacie of saint PETER For interpretating a while after these wordes And I will giue thee the keyes of the Kingdome of heauen of the donation of the keyes made to the Church in the person of PETER he saith the Church did then receaue in the person of PETER the keyes because PETER figured the Church And yeelding elsewhere a reason why the person of PETER figured the Church he declares that it is because of his Primacie Hee beares saith hee by a figur atiue generalitie the person of the Church because of the primacie he had amongst the rest of the disciples By which word Primacie he intends according to the stile of the scripture the superintendencie and principalitie as it appeares by these words of Wisedome I haue had Primacie in all nations And by these wordes of the same saint AVGVSTINE Peter denominated from the Rock happie bearing the figure of the Church holding the principallitie of the Apostleshipp And againe who knowes not that this Principallitie of the Apostleship ought to be preferred before whatsoeuer other Bishoprick And elsewhere in the Roman Church hath alwaies flourisht the Principalitie of the Sea Apostolicke Of the indiuisibilitie of the Church CHAP. IV. The continuance of the Kinges answere BVT it hath begun to diminish in luster as being deuided into manie partes as for externall Communion wholie seperate one from an other THE REPLIE Two Opuntine Bretheren deuided the inheritance of their Father with such rigor as they deuided euen to a cupp and to a Coate It is in a sorte thus with the heretickes they doe indeede deuide the Chalice that our Father hath left vs by Testament and where of Dauid singeth The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my Chalice that is to saie they doe indeede diuide the Sacraments of Christ but the coate of Christ which is his Church they cannot diuide for it is alone and indiuisible When the raigne of Israell saith S. CYPRIAN should be diuided the Prophet Achias diuided his Rayment But because the poeple of Christ cannot bee diuided his coate woven of a peece and keeping it selfe whole was not diuided by those that possessed it The coate of Christ indiuisibly vnited preseruing itself whole shewed the indissoluble Concord of our poeple of vs who haue put on Christ. By the Sacrament signe of his coate he hath declared the vnitie if his Church Who then is he so impious so faithlesse and so disturbed with the fury of discord that beleeues that the vnitie of God the Coate of our Lord the Church of Christ can be deuided or dare to deuide it Not but that the multitude of the persons whereof the Church is compounded and which analogicallie is in steede of matter to it may be deuided but this diuision is but a materiall diuision of the Church and not a formall diuision no more then the diuision that the false mother would haue made of the Child had bene a formall diuision for as much as the being and the forme of the whole had not remained in either of the partes but a materiall diuision For the Church as well as naturall organicall bodies may be materiallie diuided but formallie it cannot be diuided that is to saie the members and parts may indeede be seperated from their whole but after the seperation they are noe more members and parts of the Church but 〈◊〉 and by abuse of language euen as the members and partes of a Bodie indued with a life animall and sensitiue when they come to be seperated from their whole are noe more members and partes but equiuocally forth as much as they participate noe more of the forme of the bodie wich cannot be possessed but in vnitie nor reside but in one only masse vnited and continued By meanes whereof the Church after the diuision of the externall communion resides only in one of the partes to witt in that from which the others haue diuided themselues and not in the others for the Church is either one or none My Doue saith the Spouse is an onelie one And Dauid Hierusalem that is builded as a Cittie whose participation is in vnitie And saint PAVL One bodie and one Spirit as you are called in one hope of your vocation Optatus Mileuitanus There is one Church which can not be at once amongst you and amongst vs. It resteth then that it be in one place And saint CHRISOSTOME The name of the Church is not a name of diuision but a name of vnion and agreement And saint AVGVSTINE He is one the Church is vnitie nothing answeres to one but vnitie And elsewhere Let euerie other inheritance be deūided amongst coheires the inheritance of peace cannot be diuided And therefore when the Fathers saie that hereticks and Schismaticks deuide the Church they intend either that they deuide it as much as lyes in them that is to saie that they indeuor to diuide it or that they deuide it materiallie and not formallie that is to saie that they make thereof manie Societies but not manie Churches Of the effect that diuision brings
stranger askes an hereticke where they assemble to communicate in the Catholicke Church none of them dares to shew his Temple or his howse And the reason the title of catholick was not an allurement wherewith heretickes drewe ignorant persons to them but the firme bond by which the true Church drewe to her and retained in her communion all the true faithfull called to the hope of life eternall and amongst other this Eágle of doctors S. AVGVSTINE who saith That I omitt this sincere wisedome which you beleeue not to be in the catholicke church There be manie other reasons which doe most iustlie retaine me in her lappe the consent of people and nations retaines me the authoritie begunn by miracles 〈◊〉 by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me the succession of Prelates euen from the Sea of Peter to whom our lord committed his sheepe to be fedd after his resurrection vntill the present Bishop detaines me And finallie the verie name of Catholicke retaines me And a little after these so manie and so great most deare bondes of the Christian name doe iustlie detaine faithfull men in the Catholick Church although for the slownes of our vnderstanding of the defect of meritts in our liues truth doth not yet shew her else with manifest euidence Of the cases wherein the Communion in vow with the Catholick Church may be imputed as actuall CHAP. XV. The continuance of the Kinges answere BVT this notable calamitie is particular to the last times whereto wee are arriued that the Catholick Church which must bee communicated with either reallie and by effect or at the least voluntarily and in vowe is 〈◊〉 illustrious at this daie then antiently she was and lesse exposed to the view of men and more subiect to bee contested THE REPLIE ARISTOTLE that great Philosopher which steeped his pen say the Greekes in sece in steede of inke teacheth vs that the cittie is before the cittizen to witt not in prioritie of time for a cōmon-weale can not be without a cittizen but in prioritie of nature that is to saie that the being of the cittizen dependes from that of the cittie and not the being of the cittie from that of the cittizen from whence it appeares that the forme that giues being in the first place to the cittie and then by participation to the cittizen must reside in the cittie in the most perfect manner that it can reside and not in the most imperfect And soe although it suffice to preserue to a cittizen the being of a cittizē that in default of being able to participate actuallie in the communion of the common wealth as when he is hindred by anie locall obstacle either of beeing in a strange prison or remayning in a strange countrie he commnicate there habituallie and in desire which is an imperfect manner of communicating it sufficeth not that the communion where by the common wealth is framed and preserued in being should be a simple habituall communion and in vowe but it is necessarie that it should be a true and actuall communion For when a Cittizen is hindred by anie locall impossibilitie from communicating actuallie with his Common wealth he leaues not to preserue the being of a cittizen prouided that hee communicate therewith habituallie that is to saie in vowe and in desire and communicate not in a politicke communion with anie contrarie societie But when the communion of the bodie of a common-wealth comes to be dispersed and that there is noe more anie comerce or actuall communion in the estate then the common wealth is extinct and hath noe more being and the communion that is habituall and in desire of the cittizens dispersed and noe more communicating one with an other cannot preserue it Now euen that ought to be said of the Church whereof the Psalmist singes propheticallie Hierusalem which is built as a cittie whose participatiō is in vnitie to witt that although the cōmunion habituall and in vow sussice for a particular person in case of impossibilitie for the actuall to make him imputatiuelie a member of the Church that is to saie to cause this imperfect communion to serue him to saluation in default of the other Neuerthelesse the Church cannot be framed nor preserued in the beeing of a Church by a communion only habituall and in vowe but by a reall and actuall communion The which as soone as it comes wholie to cease and to perishe in the Church the Church perisheth and ceaseth to be And therefore this distinction of actuall communion and communion in vowe serues well to shewe that anie one may be imputatiuelie in the Church without participating actuallie in the visible communion of the Church prouided that this defect come from an imposibilitie of participating therein actualie but not to shew that the bodie of the Church can subsist and preserue the being and true title of a Church without visible and actuall communion For contrariwise that this imperfect manner of being in the Church serues to his saluation that is hindred by anie locall obstacle from being able to be there actually it is because the true and actuall communion which as in the Church is imputed to him by the desire that he hath to participate thereof which could not be imputed to him if it were not reallie some where and besides this desire of participation must be stript from all other impediments sauing that which proceedes from loand corporall imposibilities in such sort as all those which are not withheld by distance of place or other like obstacle ineuitable to them from participating in the actuall communion of the Church cannot be said to communicate there in vow nor to be there imputatiuely For nothing dispenceth with men for communicating with the Catholicke Church onely in vow and in will and not reallie and by effect if it be not the exclusion of time and place and besides in the article of death noe more then anie thing can excuse a man from being baptised onelie in vow and in will and not reallie and by effect but the condition of being excluded by the impossibilitie of time and of place and also in the Article of death from the meanes how to be baptised And because when the obstacle proceedes from externall impediments onely that if there were local or temporall commoditie he that communicates with the Church in vowe would communicate therewith actuallie this desire of communion may be imputed for true communion and called a communion in vow But when the obstacle proceedes from internall impediments from him that pretendes to communicate there in vow as of repugnancie to the beleefe and to the discipline and the lawes vnder the conditions whereof the Catholick Church receiues into her communion those that she receaues thereinto in such sort as all corporall obstacles being taken awaie and hee being in place where hee may assist at the Catholicke Church communicate with her hee will not doe it this conditionall
the contrarie heresie confuted by Scripture only destitute of the helpe of tradition And although Optatus Mileuitus in the beginning had attempted it neuerthelesse the successe hath made saint AVGVSTINE who hath gone further in this question see and confesse that to compose it there was a necessitie of hauing recourse to the vnwritten Apostolicke tradition And what saint AVGVSTINE alleadgeth in generáll against Petilianus must not be obiected against this If anie one of Christ or of the Church or of ought belonging to the faith or to life declare 〈◊〉 then this that you haue receaued in the legall and Euange licall scriptures let him be anathema For himselfe declares elsewhere as it shall appeare hereafter that this word of S. PAVL further signifies against or to the preiudice of The Apostle faith hee hath not said more then but further for if he had said more then hee had condemned himselfe He that desired to come to the Thessalonians to supplie what was wanting in their Faith Now hee that supplies adds that which was not in the thing but takes not awaie what was therein before Of the vnderstanding of the words of S. Chrysostome in the thirtie third homilie vpon the Acts. CHAP. XIX The continuance of the Kinges answere EVEN soe S. CHRISOSTOME as well elsewhere as of deliberate purpose in the thirtie third homilie vpon the Acts handling this question how the true Church may be discerned amongst manie Societies which attribute this name to themselues doth teach that there are two instruments to iudge and decide this question First the word of God and afterward the antiquitie of the doctrine not inuented by anie late bodie but alwaies knowne since the beginning of the Church when she was but breeding THE REPLIE THERE are fowre 〈◊〉 to be made vpon this Article the first that sainct CRYSOSTOME giues not this Rule to discerne the true Church from all societies that differ from her in what point soeuer but onlie to discerne her from those that differ from her in the point of Christs diuinitie wherein it is noe wonder if the scripture be more cleere and expresse then in anie other The second that this marke to discerne the Church he giues not to those that are alreadie preoccupated with the opinion of anie of the Christian sects but to the Pagans which were not anticipated with passion for anie of the parties that combated about the pointes of Christs diuinitie and for this reason might seeme to iudge the more impartiallie The third that sainct CHRYSOSTOMES ayme is not to treate seriouslie there of the markes of the Church with the Pagans but to stopp their mouthes and to shew that whereas they said that they would turne Christians but that they knew not on which part to range themselues these were but pretences and not true language The fowrth that hee stopps not there but acknowledging that this meanes because of the subtletie and shiftes of hereticks is not sufficient requires and exactes an other that is to saie that hee reduceth in the last instance all the summe of the question to this point that that is the true Church which hath remained stedfast and immutable in her communion and from whence all the others are gone forth and that came forth from none A Pagan saith hee comes and saith I would turne Christian but I know not to whom I ought to adhere for there are amongst you manie strifes seditions and tumultes I know not which opinion I should choose nor which I ought to preferr euerie one saith I followe the truth whom shall I that am vtterlie ignorant in the Scriptures beleeue seeing both sides as well the Catholickes as the Sects of the Arrians as it shall appeare heereafter protest the same thinge That certainly answereth hee makes much for vs for if wee saie wee must beleeue reasons thou shalt not without cause be troubled but if wee saie wee must beleeue the Scriptures and they be simple and true it is easie for thee to iudge thereof if anie one conforme himselfe to them he is a Christian if anie striue against them he is farr from this rule But what will become of it saith the Gentile if the other coming also saie the scripture affirmes this thinge and thou saist it affirmes an other thinge and that you wrest the scripture into diuers parts each drawing the vnderstanding of the words thereof to his owne side c. Then saith S. CHRISOSTOME we will inquire of the Pagan if what he saith be pretences and excuses and aske him ifhe condemne the Gentiles Hee must saie some thinge for he will not desire to come to vs till first he condemne them wee will aske him then for what cause 〈◊〉 condemnes them for he will not condemne them without cause It is manifest that he will saie because their Gods are Creatures and are not the vncreated God This 〈◊〉 well answere wee for if this 〈◊〉 found in other heresies a clause which euidently shewes that he spoke onely of those heresies which opposed the 〈◊〉 of Christ which were those where with the East was afflicted and wee affirme the contrarie what neede more words Wee all confesse that Christ is God but see who combats against it and who combates not against it wee call him God and pronounce of him thinges worthie of God that he hath power that he is not seruile that he is sree that he doth all thinges of himself and they the contrary And then finallie seeing that this attempt succeeded not sufficiently It is not possible saith hee but he that heares without preoccupation should be perswaded For as if there were a Rule according to which all thinges should be squared there were noe neede of great consideration but it would be easie to discerne him that should make wrye lines Euen soe is it nowe But wheresore then would he saie doe they not see it Preiudication and human causes doe manie thinges that replies 〈◊〉 they saie also of vs. And how can they saie it for wee haue not seperated ourselues nor haue made noe schisme nor diuision in the Church Wee haue noe heresiarchs wee name not ourselues after the name of anie man wee haue noe leaders as to one Marcion to another Manicheus to an other Arius to an other an other heresi-founder But if wee take the appellatiō of anie particular it is not from those that began anie heresie but of those that preside ouer vs and gouerne the Church Wee haue noe doctors vpon earth God forbid wee haue one alone in heauen This also will hee saie the others likewise affirme it but the name that they beare answereth hee to witt of Marcionites or of Manichees or of Arrians conuinceth them and stopps their mouthes By which words it appeares that the last analysis and resolution of the question is all determined in this point that that is the true Church which hath remained vnmouable and stedfast in her communion from whom all the
others haue gone forth and is gone forth from none which is also the marke that S. AVGVSTINE 〈◊〉 it when he saith The Catholicke Church combating against all heresies may be opposed but she cannot be ouerthrowne all 〈◊〉 are come forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt off from their Vine but she remaines in her vine in her roote in her Charitie And S. PACIAN Bishop of Barcelona before him when he writes Now to knowe whether she hath bene principallie built vpon the foundation of the prophetts and of the Apostles in Iesus Christ the corner stone Consider whether she began before thee whither she hath growne before thee if she be not withdrawne from her first foundation whether in separating herselfe from the rest of the Bodie she haue not constituted to herselfe her Masters and her particular instructions if she haue argued anie thing vnaccustomedlie if she haue formed anie point of new right if she haue declared to her Bodie the diuorce of peace then lett her be esteemed to be departed from Christ and to be constituted forth of the prophetts and Apostles And therefore although the point of the assentiall deitie of Christ deserue to be more cleerelie exprest in Scripture then anie other as the qualitie of the Testator ought to bee more cleerelie exprest in the Testament then anie other neuerthelesse for as much as the heretickes by their malice and subtletie shift off the places of Scripture alleadged to this purpose the Fathers after they had tried all their strength to bring them backe to reason by Scripture were constrained seeing they could not make them yeeld vp their weapons by that waie to chāgetheir battery haue recourse to the authoritie of the Church Behold saith saint ATHANASVS wee haue shewed the succession of our doctrine from father to sonn you new Cayphas what Progenitors of your phrases and your termes will you bringe vs And saint HILARIE Lett vs consider soe manie holie fathers what will become of vs if wee anathematize them for we bringe thinges to this point that if they haue not 〈◊〉 Bishops we are none since we haue bene ordained by them And the same saint ATHANASIVS It is sufficient that these things are not of the Catholicke Church and that the Fathers were not of that beleefe From whence it appeareth that if the point of Christs diuinitie had neuer bene exprest in Scripture they held the light of the perpetuall testimonie of the Church for a sufficient proofe of this article For whereas saint CHRISOSTOME compares the Scripture to a Rule according whereto all things should be squared besides this that according signifies there not against he intéds that Scriptures rule all thinges either mediately or immediately that is to saie either by it selfe or by the meanes whereto it remitts vs as hee testifies himselfe in these wordes From whence it appeares that the Apostles deliuered not all thinges in vriting but also manie thinges vnwritten Now either of these are worthie of equall credit Of the Rules to iudge admitted by sainct Chrysostome and S. Augustine CHAP. XX. The continuance of the Kings answere THese two Rules to iudge the King with the English Church embracing them with an earnest desire pronounceth that hee acknowledgeth that doctrine finall ie both to be true and also necessarie to saluation that running from the Springe of the holie Scripture by the consent of the ancient Church as by a channell hath bene deriued downe to this time THE REPLIE NEither doe saint CHRISOSTOME and saint AVGVSTINE restraine the meanes to iudge of all the doctrine of the Church to these two onelie meanes by exclusion of the third to witt of Apostolicke Tradition since saint AVGVSTINE saith this is plainelie read neither by thee nor by me And againe The Apostles haue prescribed nothing in this yet the custome opposit to Cyprian ought to bee beleeued to haue taken originall out of their tradition as it is in manie thinges that the vniuersall Church doth obserue And for this cause indeede well beleeued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles though they haue not bene written And that saint CHRYSOSTOME saith that from thence it appeares that the 〈◊〉 haue not giuen all thinges in writinge but some also without writinge whereof both sortes are in like manner worthie of creditt And elsewhere It is not in vaine that the Apostles haue giuen it by tradition to offer sacrifice for the dead they know how much aduantage and profitt encreaseth to them thereby Neither is the question in the disputation which is now handled betweene his maiestie and vs of the examination of the right but of the examination of the fact that is to saie wee are not to inquire by conferring the conclusions of Faith with their principles which of the English doctrine or ours is the truth which is a question of right whose triall besides that it must be long goes out of the listes frō the state of the questiō that we treate of But to inquire by the continuāce cōformitie with the aunciēt Catholicke Church whether our Church be the same Church as was in the time of S. AVGVSTINE and of the fowre first Councells which is a question of fact in which must be handled not what ought to be beleeued but what hath bene beleeued For his maiestie being of agreement that there was an obligation of communicatiō with the antient Catholicke Church which flourisht in the time of the foure first Councells and that whosoeuer was separate from the communion of that Church was an hereticke or a Schismaticke And the question is whether I might except from the praises of his maiestie the title of Catholicke which is the first cause of this comparison consisting in the knowing not whether the Church of those ages had beleeued well or euill which is a question of right but whether the Church of the last ages from which his maiestie or those that haue bene before him haue separated themselues be the same Church by an vninterrupted succession both of persons and of doctrine as that was in the time of S. AVGVSTINE which is a question of fact and capable of being proued by historie alone soe as the subtletie of spiritts can finde noe shift for it now to leapefrom the question of fact to the question of right And in steede of examining whether the Catholicke Church of this time had the same beleefe in the pointes controuerted betweene vs and our aduersaries as the Church in the time of the foure first Councells had to dispute whether the Church of those ages hath beleeued well and with what reseruations and mollifications her beleefe must 〈◊〉 receiued it is to goe forth from the state of the question and to change the order and meanes of the disputation Of the application of the Thesis of this obseruation to his Hipothesis CHAP. XXI The continuance of the Kinges answere THen to make an end of this discourse the
besides that antiquitie affirmes that the Apostles haue giuen manie thinges by tradition vnwritten to their disciples his maiestie himselfe testifies that he is farr frō their opinion that beleeue the vniuersall historie of the primitiue Church to be all contained in the sacred but onlie little Booke of the Actes of the Apostles Of the indefectibilitie of the Church CHAP. XXVII The continuance of the Kings answere THE King Confesseth that his Church hath separated her selfe in manie points from the faith and discipline that the Roman Bishop doth at this daie hold and defēd with might and mayne But the King and the English Church 〈◊〉 not interpret that to be a defection from the antient Catholicke saith but rather a returne to the antient Catholicke faith which in the Roman Church had bene admirablie deformed in manie kindes and a conuersion to Christ the only master of the Church THE REPLIE AND euen this confirmes our intention to know that there is at this daie noe Catholicke Church a thing directly against Gods promises or that this that wee haue is shee For there could be noe other Catholicke Church but her that was in the time of the first 〈◊〉 Councells Now shee if shee haue bene interrupted and she hath bene soe if ours which hath succeeded her haue bene wanting in faith and in vnion with Christ without which a Societie cannot be a Church the English Church which succeedes her not by an vninterrupted continuance cannot be the same Church For what Aristotle saith of Common-wealths may also be said of the Church to witt that when a common-wealth hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her being it is noe more one common wealth in number but an other common-wealth Soe if the antient Catholicke Church hath interrupted the successiue continuance of her beeing she is noe more one and not being one shee is noe more a Church for the Church is one or none And therefore the Fathers cry out that if the Church be once perished she can noe more be borne againe If in S. CYPRIANS time saith saint AVGVSTINE the Church perished from what Heauen it Donatus fallen from what Sea came hee forth what earth hath sprunge him vp For to saie that the English Church accounts not her separation from the faith and from the discipline of the Pope a defection from the antient Catholicke faith but a returne to the antient Catholicke faith and a conuersion to Christ is not the question viz. whether the English Church be conuerted to the antient Catholicke Faith For as it hath bene aboue shewed the name of catholicke is not a name of simple beleefe but of cōmunion By meanes whereof the English Church might haue all Faith euen to the remouing of mountaines yet if she communicated not with the Catholicke Church she could neither obtaine the title of Catholicke nor the reward of life eternall but should be schismaticall and excluded from saluation And therefore the state of the question in this which is presented is not whether the English Church be return'd to the true faith but whether the Church which possesseth at this daie the name of the Catholicke Church hath lost the being of the Catholicke Church which she cannot haue done if in things important to saluation and constructiue or destructiue to the being of a Church she haue not varied from that of the time of the fowre first Councells which wee on both sides confesse to haue bene the true Church that is to saie if she haue not taken awaie from the practise of the Church of those ages some thing necessarie to saluation and without which saluation cannot be obtained or if she haue not added to the practise of that Church something repugnant to saluation and with which life eternall cannot be obtained From whence it appeares that the office of the English Church in this question is to shew not that she hath returned to the ancient Faith which would alwaies exact the necessitie of a preceding dispute to witt that the Church from whence she went out hath diuerted her selfe from it for the proofe of the auersion should precede the proofe of reuersion but that the Church which wee at this daie intitle Catholicke hath soe diuerted her selfe from the faith of the Church of the time of the fowre first Councells which both they and wee hold to haue bene the true Church as she hath lost being and the iust title of a Church and that saluation can noe more be obtained in her And our office is contrariwise to maintaine that the Church which is at this daie differs not in anie thinge that can destroy saluation and make her loose the beeing and the title of a true Church from the ancient Catholicke Church and that all the points that our Aduersaries obiect against vs as such and for which they take occasion to separate themselues from vs vnder pretence that in our communion Saluation cannot be obtained haue bene holden by the ancient Church Of the sense wherein the Fathers haue intended that their doctrine had bene holden from the beginning CHAP. XXVIII The continuance of the Kinges answere AND therefore if anie one in consequence of this obseruation Will inferr from thence that the English Church because she reiects some of the decrees of the Roman Church is departed from the antient Catholicke Church the King Will not graunt him that till hee haue first proued by solid reasons that all things that the Roman teach haue bene approued from the beginning and ordained by the antient Catholicke Church And that noe man can doe this now nor in the time to come at the least that till nowe noe bodie hath done it is a thing é as certaine to the king and to the Prelats of the English Church as that the Sunn shines à t noone daies THE REPLIE NEITHER is it the question as I haue alreadie manie times said whether the English Church haue departed from the doctrine of the antient Catholicke Church but whether our Church be soe farr strayed from the doctrine of the antient Church as she can noe more be reputed one felfe same Church with the antient Church and that we can noe more communicate with her without losse of Saluation For if she be still the same Church and that amongst the conditions vnder the obligation whereof her communion is participated there be noe doctrine nor custome which is opposite to Saluation it is certaine that out of her Societie though one should haue Faith sufficient to remoue mountaines yet they can neither possessé the Saluation nor title of the Catholicke Church Neither is it the question to knowe whether all thinges that the Roman Church holdes and principallie those which she holdes to be necessary for Saluation haue bene holden by antiquitie and in this qualitie which would be a longe and thornie disputation because of the diuersitie of the acceptions of the word necessarie vnder the ambiguitie whereof there would alwaies remaine a thousand cauills and
shiftes But whether all thinges that they obiect to vs as repugnant to saluation and as occasions sufficient to cause separation from our communion haue bene holden by the Catholicke Church from the time of the first fowre Councells For in case they haue bene so it is cleere that it is sacriledge in them to separate themselues for their occasion from our communion Not but that if this point were once cleered it would be easier for vs then his maiestie conceaues to proue that all thinges that the moderne Catholicke Church holdes as necessary to saluation haue bene holden for such and in the same ranke of necessitie by the antient Catholicke Church in the time of the first fowre Councells but because the lawes of disputation doe not permitt vs to ingage our selues to the triall of this point before the cleering of the other for feare of goeing out of the listes of the question and of confounding the order 〈◊〉 the conference For whereas his Maiestie adds that they haue bene approued ordained frō the beginning it hath bene manifested in the third obseruation of our Epistle that to conuince that a thing haue had place from first ages it is sufficient because of the fowre writinges of of that date that persecutions haue suffered to come downe to vs to proue that it hath bene holden by the Church of the first fowre Councells and that the Fathers that then liued testifie to haue receiued it not as a thinge of a newe institution but as a thing deriued to them by an vninterrupted succession from the age of the Apostles to the Church of their time and that none of the preceding authors saie the contrary His Maiesties owne selfe being agreed with vs in this as hath often alreadie bene repeated that the only little Booke of the Acts of the Apostles is verie farr from contayning all the historie of the primitiue Church Of the exceptions that the Kinge produceth to shewe that he hath not separated himselfe from the Church CHAP. XXIX The continuance of the Kings answere FInallie the King adds that it is a great crime to separate ones selfe from the Church but that he hath anie thing common with that crime either hee or his Churchh ee 〈◊〉 denes for saith his maiestie wee fly not but we are driuen away THE REPLIE AND why then doe Ministers soe earnestly exhort their hearers rather to indure all kindes of death then to communicate in our Synaxes And why then when they would dehort those of their partie from marrying with Catholickes doe they alleadge those words of sainct PAVL What communion is there of the faithfull with an Infidell And ioyne also in their prayers the Turkes Papists and other Infidells And why then doth his maiestie alleadge for a reason not to communicate with vs these words of the reuelation Goe forth of Babilon my people for feare of communicating with her sinns For to offer to communicate with vs when wee shall haue corrected those thinges that our Aduersaries pretend to haue bene deformed in our Church who sees not that that is not to offer to returne to vs but to desire that wee should returne to them And what sect hath there bene in the world that hath not offered to communicate with the Catholicke Church prouided that the Catholicke Church would renounce those pointes for which they were at difference that is to saie soe she would loose the condition of being the Catholicke Church Of the demaunds made for Reformations since the fiue last ages Chapt. XXX The continuance of the Kings Answere AND your illustrious dignitie knowes as he that is well informed thereof how manie and how great personages in pietie and doctrine haue desired at least for this last fiue hundred yeares the reformation of the Church in the head and in the members How manie greuous complaints of good kinges and princes haue there bene heard deploring the estate of the Church in their ages But what hath it auailed For wee see not that hitherto there hath bene anie one of those thinges corrected which were esteemed before all others to bee fitt for correction THE REPLIE THOSE demaundes of reformation in the head and in the members propounded before the last deuisiōs of the Church haue bene demaundes of reformation not in the doctrine of Faith and of the sacraments or vniuersall ceremonies of the Church but in manners and in the practise of ecclesiasticall discipline which euen these words of reformation both in the head and members principallie vsed in the time of the Councells of Constance and of Basile testifie Now as there is great difference betweene complayning of the personall practise of Iustice and of the exercise of the Officers of a Kingdome and desiring the reformation thereof and betweene complayning of the lawes ordinances and constitutions of the state soe there is great difference betweene complayning of the conuersation and manners of Ecclesiasticall persons betweene complayning of the doctrine and institutions of the Church For when the corruption to speake by hypothesis is in the doctrine or in the sacraments or vniuersall ceremonies of the Church none can remaine in the communion of the Church without participating in that contagion but when it is in the manners and in the practise of discipline those onely that committ the faultes are culpable therein and not the rest who tolerate them as sainct AVGVSTINE saith for the good of vnitie that which they detest for the good of equitie And to whom the more frequent and fowle such scandalls are by soe much the more is the meritt of their perseuerance in the communion of the Church and the martir-dome of their patience as sainct AVGVSTINE calls it For this only Sacrifice of choosing rather to support the remayning in communion with such persons then to rent the coate of Christ and to separate themselues from his Church to auoid their Societie is the most pleasing Sacrifice that can be offered vp to God Now the Church hath alwaies not only since the last ages but from all antiquitie bene filled with such like complaints For while she shall remaine in this world she shall alwaies singe this verse of the Canticle I am black but I am louelie That is to saie black in manners 〈◊〉 louelie in doctrine our Lord hauing deferred till his second Coming the making her glorious and without sport And not only so but euerie one in his time hath alwaies beleeued himselfe to bee in the worst age of the Church for manners and for the practise of discipline because they sawe the euills of their owne time and did but heare the historie of other times whereof the relation doth not soe liuely touch the eares as the sight touches the eyes But neuerthelesse neither the euill hath alwaies gone on increasing nor the good alwaies diminishing but according to the diuersitie of the ages the Church hath bene either more or lesse pure in manners For as for those that in the
drawne from this example for the desertion of the Catholicke Church God saith saint AVGVSTINE bad that these tribes should be separated not to diuide the Religion but the Kingdome and that 〈◊〉 this meanes vengeance might be taken vpon the Kingdome of Iuda But for as much as the ordinarie refuge of those that separate themselues from vs is to haue recourse to the Symptomes of the Iewish people and to inferr from thence the same conclusions of possibilitie of errour and licence of separation for the Christian Church and that to contradict this wee haue not onely promised to shew that there neuer happened anie accident to the visible Iewish Church wherefore they either ought or could separate themselues from her communion but also that if anie such thing had happened the cōsequence thereof could not bee applied to the Christian Church which is grounded vpon other contracts and vpon other prerogatiues It is best for vs here to quitt vs of our promise and to search the question to the bottome both concerning the Thesis and the Hypothesis In regard then of the Thesis the aduersaries 〈◊〉 Catholick religion set this foundation that the Church in all times is subiect to the same Symptomes and to the same accidents there vpon argue thus The visible Church hath had three periods the first vnder nature the second vnder the lawe and the third vnder Grace Now vnder the two first she hath bene corrupted and consequētly vnder the third she may be soe Which is as if one should saie there are three periods in the progresse of the generation of man The first during the which man liues onlie the life of plantes and is yet touched with noe other instinct then simple appetite which the Philosophers call naturall common to herbes aud trees which seemes to correspond to the condition of the first period of the Church wherein she had yet noe lawe or rule but the simple lawe of nature The second during which he liues an animated and sensitiue life which is proportioned to the state of the people of the Jewes because as man in this second progresse harh noe other knowing facultie but that of the sence which is common to him with beastes so all the obiects which were manifestlie propounded to the Iewes and all the promises which were literallie made to them were of sensible thinges And the last wherein man takes possession of the life trulie human and reasonable and is adorned and enobled with intellectuall knowledge which hath analogy with the state of the Christiā Church where the faithfull are consecrated to God by a perfect lawfull forme of religion and sticke noe longer in terrestriall and materiall obiectes but exalting their thoughtes and their hopes doe nourish intertaine themselues with spirituall and incorruptible promises Now vnder the first and second of those periods the imperfect soule of man which wee call an Embricn is subiect to perish corruptible and mortall the soule of man therefore vnder the third period is not incorruptible immortall For to preduce for a reason of exception and dissimilitude that the forme of a man during all the three periods of this progresse is not one selfe same forme the reason of the 〈◊〉 is void for as much as the diuersitie of Gods promises where it so falls out hath noe lesse power to varie the Symptomes of the Church during the three periods of her being then the diuersity of formes to varie the conditions which accompanie the three periods of the generation of man Now that the promises made to the Church vnder the last period which hath bene establisht as S. PAVL saith vpon better promises then the former be wholie different both in eminencie perpetuitie from those that haue bene made to her vnder the two first what Christian can call it in question God first in regard of eminencie and multitude did he not saie to Abraham in thy seede that is to saie as S. PAVL expoundes it in Christ shall all generations be blessed And againe thy seede shal be as the starrs of heauen and as the sands of the Sea And Aggeus describing the future estate of the Church vnder the Enigma of the re-edification of the temple doth hee not saie The glorie of this last howse shall be much greater then that of the first And the Spouse in the canticles speaking of the Jewish Church doth she not singe our Sister is little and she hath yet noe breasts that 〈◊〉 to saie is not yet in state to bringe forth and nurse vp children And doth not 〈◊〉 crie out Reioyce thou barren woman that bearest not children and thou that art no mother cast forth cryes of ioy For the children of the forsaken shall be much more in number then hers that hath a husband And a while after Lengthen the cords of thy pauillions and settle their posts for thou shalt penetrate on the right band and on the left and thy seede shall inheritt the nations And againe Cast thine eyes about thee and behold all these are assembled for thee they are come for thee thy sonns shall come from farr and thy daughters shall be borne vpon shoulders And doth not S. AVGVSTINE disputing against the Donatists crie out Feare you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Jews should aske you where is that accomplished that your Paul hath 〈◊〉 of your Church reioyce thou barren woeman that thou bearest not and cast out cryes of ioy that thou hast noe children for the children of the forsaken are more in number then hers that hath a husband Preserring the multitude of the Christians before that of Iewes if your little number be the Church of Christ. And S. HIEROME against the Luciferians Where are these too Religious or rather too prophane persons that affirme there are more Synagogues then Churches And therefore doth not the same S. AVGVSTINE elegantlie compare the historie of the different times of the Church to that of the birth of Iacob for as much that as Jacob in his Birth thrust forth first one arme and then his head and then all his Bodie so the Church before she was borne first thrust forth one arme that is to saie a little part of her societie which was the Synagogue and then her head which is Christ and then all her Bodie which is the Christian Church But against that the aduersaries of the multitude of the Church alleadge that our Lord calls his Church A little flocke cōmaūds to enter into the straight gate it is true but it makes nothing for them for that our Lord calls his Church a little Flocke it is in regarde of her birth at the time where of she was the least the basest and most contemptible of all societies and not in regard of her progresse which himselfe compareth to that of a graine of mustard-seede which being at the beginning the least of all seedes becomes in the increase the greatest of all plantes We
of the Anathema But God himselfe pronounceth Israel hath sinned and hath transgressed against my alliance they haue taken of the anathema and haue stollen it and haue lyed and haue hidden it amongst their stuffe and Israel cannot subsist before his enemies but shall fly before them for he is polluted with the anathema And notwithstanding there was but one onely man in al Israell and he yet vnkowne that had committed this crime to witt Acham And whereas it is said in the first of Samuel that in the time of Eli the word of God was precious that is to saie rare the author speakes not there in anie sort of the lawe or of the written word but of the oracles and visible predictions that God had accustomed to giue by the prophets as by these words And there was noe manifest vision may appeare And whereas it is said in the first to the cronicles that in the time of Saule the Arke was not required that is to saie according to the innouators glosse that God was not consulted with in this word This is a wrong interpretation of the word requisiuimus which intends not there inquired of but required and hath not reference to the word of God but to the Arke and signifies noe other thing but that in the time of Saule they had not yet required the Arke from the cittie of Kiriath Jearim The third obiection is taken from the complaint of Elias Elias said the Aduersaries of the Church complained to God that his Altars were beaten downe and his prophetts slaine with the sword and that he was left alone and they likewise sought him to put him to death And God answered him that he had reserued to 〈◊〉 seauen thousand Whereof Elias conceaued he had knowne none And this when God could not be serued visible but in Iudea the Church as they conclude was then inuisible But how longe will they stūble at one 〈◊〉 stone and not learne to distinguish betweene the kingdome of Israel were was the seate of schisme and heresie the kingdome of Iuda where was the seate of the true Church It is writtē that the herbe called Eringus hath this hidden propertie that if amongst a companie of Goates there be anie one that takes a leafe of it betweene his teeth that Goate will immediatlie stopp and with him all the Flocke so as it is not possible to make anie one of thē goe forward till first the leafe be pluckt out of his mouth Soe after one of the aduersaries of the Church hath apprehended anie falshood or absurditie all the rest as by a certaine charme doe soe stopp and stumble at it as it is not possible to make them goe forward vnlesse you call back the first author yea out of his graue to contradict himself and to recant publickly Melancton being inquired off 〈◊〉 the Church was twelue or thirteen hundred yeare agoe since from that time by his accompt our communion was corrupted with Idolatrie and impietie had recourse to the historie of Elias to whom said hee for a while the true Church was vnknowne and iuuisible After this all those that haue handled the same questiō without inquiring whether this solution were true or false without taking care to examin the place haue soe tied themselues to it as at this daie it is their onely and common refuge in this extreamitie It doth not importe vs answere they to knowe where the residence of the Church was in the ages whereof you inquire Elias who was a prophet was also ignorant for a time where she subsisted wee then may well be ignorant of it who are neither Prophets nor the children of Prophets For he complained that he was left alone but of whom did Elias speake when he said They haue 〈◊〉 thy Prophets with the sword Was it not of Achab and of Iesabel and where was it that he said he was left alone was it not in the Kingdome of Israel Now if saint AVGVSTINE speaking of the Christian Church it selse hath had reason to saie what an absurditie is it not to consider that the Church increasing and multiplying ouer all the world might suffer persecution by the kinges of some Nations when she did not suffer it by the rest wherefore may not wee cry out What an absurditie is it to transferr what belōges to the Kingdome of Israel where the true Church was persecuted to the Kingdome of Iuda where she was visible florishing and eminent For so fart of was the Church then from being tied and restrained to the Kingdome of Israel as contrariwise the true Seate the only seate the soueraigne seat of the seruice of God and of the visible exercise of Religion wherein only sacrifices might be lawfullie celebrated the center of vnion and ecclesiasticall communion the heart if I may saie so and roote of the Church was Situate out of the iurisdiction of Israel Nay more then so all the sacerdotall order all the 〈◊〉 of Leui all the high-priests priests and ministers to whom onely belonged the dispensation of the misteries and ceremonies all the magistrates and officers of the Church all the Pastors and ordinarie Doctors without which she could not be visible nor retaine her iust markes and Sacraments then made their residence out of the Kingdom of Israel And to proue this threescore yeares and more before Elias began to prophecie the Kingdome of Israel had bene deuided into two Kingdomes the one contayning the tribe of Iuda which was without comparison the greatest and most principall that of Beniamin to which was also ioyned the linage of Leui all intire with infinite particulars of the other Tribes who desired to serue God purelie holding the title of the Kingdome of Iuda vnder the dominion of Roboam the true and naturall heire the other cōprehending the rest of the tribes possessed by Jeroboam a rebell an vsurper possessed vnder the restrained name of the Kingdome of Israel By meanes whereof these two peoples haue alwaies had their estates and their kings aparte yea their religiōs also for the more part deuided For to Jeroboam succeeded Nadab to Nadab Baasa to Baasa Ela to Ela Zambri to Zambri Amri to Amri Achab All not only schismatickes but Idolators and infidells Elias then as subiect to Achab complained that these Relickes of the Church which remayned in Israel these fewe of the faithfull which were left in the territorie of Achab and which were wont euerie yeare to goe vp to professe and to exercise their Religion in the Kingdome of Iuda where the Temple and Priesthood was had bene rooted out by the tyrannie of Queene Iesabel And frō the departing frō thence there are men which cōclude without scruple of this feare there was thē noe visible Church in the world But heare the historie of the seperatiō of these two kingdomes He raigned saith the historie of the chronicles speaking of Roboā ouer Iuda ouer Beniamin The Priests also the Leuites which