we say that it was owing to the eagerness of his temper which being not always well regulated made him commit greater faults than any others of the Apostlâ—s except the perfidious Judas which made him be called Satan by his good Master which none of the other were We ought also to attribute to this temper the blow he gave Malchus with the Sword as well as that warmth that made him promise wonders of Fidelity to his Master and induced him to accompany him to the Emperors Court where he denied his Saviour So that it is with very little reason that they make an argument of this to prove his Royalty in the Church In Spain where the most Honourable walk the last they will not fail to alledg places where St. Peter is named last as in the passage where it is said I am the Disciples of Paul and I of Apollos and I of Caephas who is Peter For I remember that at Paris where they understand Divinity a little better than in Spain a good Bishop and an Abbot did maintain to me that the passage where it is said that James Peter and John are esteemed Pillars of the Church I having alledged against them another where he is named the first they maintained to me I say that this passage confirmed that which they alledged and proved very well the Primacy of St. Peter For said the Bishop when three persons of worth are walking together they always put the most Honourable in the middle This is according to the common saying That a Lawyer well paid shall always find the cause of his Client good His Benefices made him see clear in this passage There are three other passages which the greatest part of our Doctors produce against our Adversaries with a little more colour which are Thou art Peter c. I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Feed my sheep Which passages we shall examine one after another to see if St. Peter had any priviledg above the other Apostles they say that in the first of these passages Jesus Christ doth establish the Church found it and built it upon St. Peter I do not deny but that St. Peter was one of the Pillars of the Church because he is so called as well as James and John. Nor can it be denied but that he was and is one of the foundations of the Church since that he is not excepted out of the number of the Twelve who in Scripture are called the Foundations of the New Jerusalem But I maintain that the Church is no more founded upon him than upon St. Paul and the other Apostles I would fain have these Gentlemen tell me upon whom the Church was founded before St. Peter and why the Church changed its foundation and upon whom Peter himself was founded It was without doubt upon Jesus Christ upon the Rock which is the Christ. And it is without all question that St. Peter and we ought to have no other foundation than that which St. Paul had who says That no man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ. Also we see in this passage that it is upon the Rock upon the Rock of Ages that our Saviour builds his Church and not upon St. Peter The Holy Ghost would have changed neither name nor person if he would have had us to have believed this of St. Peter He would not have said Super hanc Petram sed super te Petrum Vpon this Rock but upon thee Peter To the end that no difficulty may remain we must observe what goes before and what follows after Jesus Christ had demanded of all the Apostles together whom they thought he was Peter either as the eldest or most zealous answers for all and says to him Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God. Whereupon Jesus Christ says to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church c. It is evident that as our Saviour's discourse was directed to all and that Peter answered for all the following part of our Saviours Discourse was directed also to them all and related no more to Peter than to any other particular Apostle And men must have lost their understandings to think that Jesus Christ in this place founded his Church upon Peter whom in the same Chapter he calls Satan What Foundation would the Church have had and what would have become of her when he deni'd his Saviour It must then necessarily be acknowledged that it is not the visible Church that is here spoken of which they pretend St. Peter to be the Head of But the Invisible the Society of the Faithful and the Elect. For the Gates of Hell would have prevailed against the Church not only when St. Peter denied his Master since that the foundation being run to decay that which is built upon it falls to ruin But since that time have they not very often prevailed against this Church which they would have the Bishops of Rome the pretended Successors of St. Peter to be the Heads of For Example when according to the Fathers the whole World was Arian the Bishops of Rome and all their Flock and so many other times as the Popes have been Magicians Sodomites Atheists Hereticks c. And what would have become of the Church in the time of that great Schism that succeeded Gregory the Ninth which lasted fifty years when the French would not have an Italian Pope nor the Italians a French one and many Princes would have neither one nor other to whom at length Charles the Sixth joined himself for three years and the Kingdom of France was very well contented without a Pope and many other Princes for a longer season And what shall we say of that great Schism which the Popes made and caused with the Greek Church by cutting them off out of Devilish pride from the Communion of the Church because they would not submit to their yoke but demanded the observation of the Canons What shall we say also of that great Apostacy that happened about 130 or 140 years since or thereabout when so many States separated themselves from the Church by reason of the Impiety and Tyranny of the Popes Doth not all this prove that Hell hath prevailed against this exterior and visible Church which the Popes govern and whereof St. Peter according to them was the Head It is then the Invisible Church which is here spoken of the Society of the Faithful the Heavenly Jerusalem whereof Jesus Christ is the principal Corner-stone upon which St. Peter himself saith believers are built as living stones He says not it is on himself that they are built but on the contrary he pretends himself as well as others to be one of these living stones which are built upon the Corner-stone which is Christ. It is then upon the Rock confessed by Simon Peter or upon his Confession that the Church is founded on that which he declared
SURE and HONEST MEANS FOR THE CONVERSION OF ALL HERETICKS AND Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the REFORMATION of the CHURCH Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome and Translated from the French Printed at Cologn 1682. With a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England LICENSED GVIL NEEDHAM Novemb. 3. 1687. LONDON Printed and to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall M DC LXXX VIII THE PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH READER AFTER so many excellent Discourses as have of late been publish'd by the Divines of the Church of England upon almost all the Points in Controversy between Us and our Brethren of the Church of Rome it might well be thought a very needless thing to call in this foreign Auxiliary were it not hoped that those Reasons which usually are not so well received when coming from such as they esteem their Enemies might possibly be allow'd the favour of an Examination being offer'd by one of their own Communion It may besides be perhaps no unseasonable design especially at this time to satisfy the World that those things which we chiefly complain of in their Church are after all no other than what divers of those who have lived and died in it have both confessed to be amiss and earnestly wish'd they might see reformed It is not unknown to any at this day what the Complaints have been of many the most considerable Persons of the Church of Rome in the very beginning of our Reformation How much they desired that something might be done to rectify what they could not deny to be amiss both in the Head and in the Members Let the frequent Demands of the Emperor and other Catholick Princes let the Acknowledgment of the Pope Himself and the Proposals of the Colledg of Cardinals expresly set apart for this Consultation let the Remonstrances that were made and the Endeavours that were used both by the French Legats and the Spanish Bishops even in the Council of Trent it self suffice to shew both that something was amiss and that the Protestants tho they might perhaps be censured by them for not proceeding so regularly as they thought they should yet could not be deny'd to have had just grounds in the bottom for their Complaints And what was then more generally own'd as to these things whilst as yet it was hoped that some redress might be had of them many of the best Men of that Church and who have made the most diligent and impartial Enquiries into the differences between us have not ceased tho in a more private manner to confess since and publish to the World their just Resentments of it It were infinite to insist upon all those that have done this Something of that kind has been already offer'd to the World and more perhaps may hereafter be done more fully to confirm it In the mean time the Author here before us and who lived and died in the Roman Communion sufficiently declares that he was so far from esteeming that Church which now pretends to so much Authority over all others to be absolutely exempt from all possibility of erring that on the contrary he judged it to be actually involved in very great Errors It cannot reasonably be doubted by those who know any thing at all of this Book but that he who wrote it was truly a Member of the Church of Rome however dissatisfied with it in many of its pretences His Preface will give a satisfactory account how by the general decay of Piety that he met with in a place which he expected should above all others have deserved the Name of the Holy City he came first to search more fully into his Religion and how the more he read the Holy Scriptures and compared the Pretences of his Church with what he found in them the more he still perceived it to have deviated from the Primitive Rule and to have usurped upon the Consciences and Credulity of its Members But tho by this means therefore he saw that in many of our Disputes we had Reason in our Arguments against them yet in so many other Points he still defends their Errors as plainly shew how far he was at the time that he wrote this Book from being a Deserter of his first Faith. Hence it is that we sometimes find him arguing thus against our Religion That there being no visible Church of our Perswasion at the beginning of the Reformation and yet it being confess'd by us that there ought always to have been a visible Church of Christ in the World we must confess that then ours is not the visible Church of Christ and there being no other that can with so good reason pretend to it as the Roman we ought to acknowledg that to be it Concerning the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist he seems to the last to have stuck to that Interpretation of Christ's words upon which the Church of Rome so much insists against us That this Sacrament being the last Will and Testament of our Blessed Lord we ought to interpret it as all other things of that kind according to the Letter And cannot without Impiety believe that our Lord Jesus Christ in the Institution of it should have made use of Words either obscure or ambiguous Besides that it was never his custom to establish Articles of Faith upon Metaphorical Expressions In a word tho for Peace sake indeed he seems to desire that no ones Conscience should be tied up to any determinate manner of Christ's Presence in this blessed Eucharist yet he plainly enough declares that as for himself he thought him to be really nay corporally present there And that the Calvinists were guilty of Novelty and Error in this matter seeing as he adds all the Christians of Asia and Africk believe the Real Presence and there are none but themselves that do deny it From this Error he elsewhere argues in behalf of the Communion in one kind In which tho he confesses his Church to have departed from the Primitive Institution and therefore wishes is might be redressed yet upon this Principle of the Real Presence he endeavours to shew that it is not so capital a Matter as we pretend nor ought we from hence to conclude that their Church which he calls the Catholick Church is not the true Church I shall add but one Point more and wherein he plainly shews himself to have been far from our Perswasion and that is the Invocation of Saints Which says he we call a Religious Worship and little better than Idolatry But he denies it to be a Religious Worship for any one to pray to a Saint to pray to God for him or any more than to intreat any good Man living to do the same All the difference he thinks is that we are not so secure that the Saint hears our Prayers as we are that our fâ—llow Christian does That for that Passage which from St.
plundering the Church they will perceive the Imposture and believe at length that the other Articles of Religion are no more Divine than that of the Papacy So that if it pleased God that this Tyranny were abolished in the Church this villainous Mask taken off from Religion it would be incomparably more loved and respected and the Impiety Ambition and Dissoluteness wherewith the Papacy hath infected all things would be banished from the Church and we should see all the Schismaticks and Hereticks range themselves under the Standard of the Church and even the Pagans and the other Infidels whose Princes are afraid of the Pride of Rome that would make them her Subjects and Tributaries and dispose of them and their States at her pleasure By this means all hopes would be taken away from the Hereticks of ever seeing the Catholick Religion ruined by it for I know their Ministers have from hence all their hopes and would be sorry to see the Papacy abolished without the Catholick Religion Wherefore it is absolutely necessary to fortifie the Catholicks against this danger and to teach them how to distinguish between the Wisdom of God which they ought always to stand firm to and the folly of men which they ought always to abhor and that this last whatever mixture it may seem to have with Truth by the art of men may never make them contemn the other and that the Truth may never make them receive the Inventions of humane Wisdom sharpened by Ambition and Avarice how specious soever they may appear I shall not be at all surprised if some men think I say too much and that there be many who will call me Extravagant for I know how gross and carnal Ideas they who read not the Scripture have of Religion having been one of that number who as well as others believed that the Church could not subsist without the Pope and that there ought to be a Universal and Visible Head of the whole Church But I shall have reason to think it very strange if people have not other Sentiments after the reading of this work All those who will penetrate and enter a little with me into the knowledg of the Disorders which that Authority causes among Christians will find that I have too much reason and that I speak with a great deal of Moderation if they have any zeal and love for the Church For my part I have been in three different tempers in regard of the Papacy When I first knew what it was I did nothing but sigh like another Heraclitus and afflict my self with grief for the Disorders that shook my Faith After this I fell into another frame wherein like Democritus I did nothing but laugh at the folly and vanity of men who under pretence of Religion suffer'd themselves to be so imposed upon Since that as my Understanding encreased I again fell into the Condition of Heraclitus being more perswaded than I was of the Truths of Religion and bearing a greater part in the calamities of the Church and in the salvation of my neighbour than before I did and this it was that moved me to put these my thoughts in writing So go the thoughts of men succeeding one another pro or con according as they are more enlightned Here I think it proper to represent by what Degrees I came to know the Imposture It is now more than 30. years since I was first at Rome There I began to perceive that there was nothing at all in what people had made me believe of the Pope and Cardinals I did never believe that every thing that was told me of them was true for people would have perswaded me that the Pope received news every 24. hours from Paradise and that he sent whomsoever he pleased to Heaven or Hell. But what I believed of him was his great Sanctity Infallibility and Impeccability in every thing he said as indeed it seems necessary it should be so if it be true that Christ hath given him the Employ that he pretends to a vast and almost infinite Knowledge a perfect abstraction from all frail and earthly things with a continual application for the salvation of all mankind And I believed as much in proportion of the Cardinals I found that to be very true which Tacitus says Major e longinquo Reverentia You must not come near a thing to have a value for it I had the leisure to consider the Maxims and Conduct of these people which I soon found to be contrary to all the Ideas I had formed to my self of them and I wanted but very little of running stark mad I was as full of indignation against those who gave me these impressions as against those who scandalized me I saw nothing throughout but an horrible Licentiousness both in the Court and in the Town without any appearance of the true Worship of God as I had observed in many honest people of France I heard of nothing any where but Horrors and Abominations of all kinds comparing this with the Sentiments that had been instilled into me in France I often cried out O quantum est in Rebus Inane O how the World is abused The mind of man is but vanity and I wished with all my heart that our poor French-men had but seen it that so they might be undeceived The greatest part of the men here pass half the day in the Churches to hear the Musick and the other half among the Curtesans and that was it which they at first commended to me the fine Churches and the fine Curtesans This Nation as well as the Spaniards hath found the secret of Associating their Devotion with a habit of the most enormous vices In one hand they shall hold a long Bead-roll and stick a Dagger into a mans body with the other or else commit the most horrible Impurities nor is there any justice for this nor for Sodomy which is more common there than simple Fornication in our Country nor for poysoning And from all these things the Cardinals and Court of Rome are no more free than others For the Popes their Age ordinarily frees them from these things I reasoned oftentimes thus with my self Is it possible that this here should be the man whom they call His Holiness who gives Pardons and Indulgences to others and who Canonizes Saints Is it possible that these should be the men and this the Court that gives Laws for Religion to the whole Earth I confess that my Respect for Religion sensibly diminished every day that I was tempted to believe that the Christian Religion was made only for them and that I doubted of its Divinity seeing and hearing nothing but inconceivable Dissoluteness every where even in the very Cloisters an Ambition and an excessive Vanity in all the Prelates who were promoted for no other merit than that of a Machiavillian Policy wherein the Disciples out-do their Master I knew not where I was Sometimes I cast my eye upon a person of
of their ingenuity in Defence of the Popes Authority and that I saw not well what Advantage they could draw from the Infallibility of the Church which they maintained with so much ardor that doubled my attention to sound the depth of the matter and I found that by the help of this Infallibility they would conceal every thing so as to save the Popes Authority and all the Temporal Advantages which flow from it and I made no further doubt of it when I saw they applied it particularly to the Clergy excluding all the people and many men to the Pope alone excluding all other Bishops Since these Discoveries I have always held it as a Maxim wherein I have never been deceived which is That when any practice or Custom in the Church brings profit or honour to the Ecclesiasticks I presently suspect and examine it At length having a long time reflected upon all the abuses of this Papal Authority and having observed the Deplorable condition to which it hath reduced the Christian Religion as well without as within the Church and seeing it was that which having driven the Greeks and Protestants out of the Church is still the cause why they return not again unto its Communion and that it even draws strange Persecutions upon the Church from these scattered sheep by reason of the attempts of the Court of Rome and its favourers I at last resolved to publish this little Treatise to disabuse mankind in respect of the unjust and criminal Devotion which they have for the Papacy and also to purge the Church of it as well as of all other vices and misfortunes it hath there caused being perswaded that an Infallible fruit of this Reformation would be the Conversion of the Greeks Protestants Pagans Jews and Mahometans not to mention the Honour it would do to all the Catholick Princes whose Majesty and Greatness are vilified by this shameful subjection to and dependance on the Popes which make them to be despised by other Princes who have freed themselves from their Tyranny A Senator of Sweden told me one day a very good saying of Tacitus to this purpose Viri muliebria patiuntur Men act the parts of women which is as much as to say they are the Catamites of the Popes However since it is in their power to treat those as Hereticks and Enemies of the Church who oppose their Ambition and Interest I prepare my self against it and that doth not at all discourage me It is more Honourable to be hated by such people than loved Illi maledicent at tu Domine Benedices I know the Reader will in this Work of mine presently look after the Caracters of either Jansenist Calvinist or Lutheran or lastly of a man who could not be promoted to Benefices and many times he will think he hath found me As for Benefices I might perhaps have had one if I had had a mind to it but by the Grace of God I will have none nor have I need of any nor was I ever designed for it The Jansenists are as yet too much Papists to speak ill of the Papacy As for the Calvinists and Lutherans I wish they could be brought to own the opinions which I do and which I have no mind to betray in this my Book It is true they have both written often against this power but not with design that the Catholick Religion should be the better for it to which this Work wholly tends Whatever men will judg I think I ought not to renounce any truth because the Hereticks know it nor to put my eyes out rather than see the Injustice of the Papacy because the Hereticks see it If I had not here drawn the Picture of the Jesuits Religion it may be those they call the Jansenists would have suspected them to have been the authors of it as the present times go and for the Calvinists I am sure that in many places they will say that I do but gild over the Pill that they may the more easily swallow down the poyson as some people have said of the Book of Mr. de Condom they may judg of it what they please I have followed the sentiments which the reading of the Holy Scripture hath inspired me with and in which I am confirmed the more by reading the Fathers and the Ecclesiastical History and by making reflection upon all that I have seen in foreign Countries and upon what I see every day here If the Romanists hear this Work spoken of they will say without doubt as heretofore at the Council of Trent when Mr. de Faber made Remonstrances on the Kings behalf concerning the disorders of the Church Gallus Cantat they cried I have no better answer than what he made them Vtinam ad Galli cantum Petrus resipisceret let them come and renounce the Dominion and Tyranny they exercise over the Church and over the World and let our Bishops for time to come behave themselves like worthy Successors of this Apostle This Work shall be divided into Three Parts which will contain so many Chapters In the first I shall prove that the Papacy hath no foundation in the Word of God and shall shew the vanity folly of those arguments which they pretend to draw from the Gospel In the second I shall make it appear that the Primitive Church never knew it and that in the darkest Ages there were ever some who opposed it and I shall confute many human reasons which for want of the Scripture and of the Fathers are made use of for its defence And in the third and last I shall examine all the pretended advantages which this Authority procures to the Church or to States and I shall shew that 't is so far from bringing any real good to the Church or to Catholick States that it is the cause of the Desolations of the Church and of the greatest part of the Disorders among all Christians of Ignorance Heresies Schisms and Irreligion that reign No man ought to be surprised that I conceal who I am in so perverse an age as we live in where Truth and Honesty as well as those who profess it are exposed to cruel Persecutions and wherein I shall have as many mortal enemies as there are worldly Catholicks and Papists and people in possession of Benefices without mentioning the Monks I have no reason to flatter my self with any great success this Book may have by reason of the extream disorder and irreligion of the Age and I do it more to discharge my self of the load lying upon me and for the consolation of my own mind than for any other thing as heretofore Petrarch said upon a like occasion Haec scribo non tam ùt saeculo meo prosim cujus tam desperata miseria est quam ut me conceptis onerem Animum scriptis soler I write these things not so much to profit the age I live in whose misery is so desperate as to unburthen my self of my own thoughts
and to refresh my spirit with writing I have written for my self Haec mihi cecini Musis si nemo Alius Audierit I have sung these things to my self and the Muses tho no body else should hear them Sure and Honest Means TO CONVERT ALL HERETICKS CHAP. I. That the Papacy hath no Divine Title The vanity and nullity of those which it draws from the Gospel WHosoever shall read the New Testament will there find that Jesus Christ alone is established as Head of the Church and that it is not said of any other that she should be his Body or Believers his Members that belonging to none but Jesus Christ who is also the only Spouse of the Church which would be adulterous should she submit to another and this other could not be but an evil person and a reprobate since that in taking the quality of Spouse of the Church he must renounce that of Son of the Church and so could not have God for his Father according to the Maxim That he who hath not the Church for his Mother hath not God for his Father Now no one person can be the Head the Spouse and Son of the Church at the same time Nevertheless it is certain that the Popes do assume these Titles to themselves by a vanity which exceeds all folly and without being able to produce any reason for it Divine or Humane But let us see what they say to maintain their pretensions They say that among the Jews one man only viz. Aaron had the conduct of Divine Service and was Head of the Levites and that by consequence there ought to be in the Christian Church an Authority like unto this Established over the whole Church and that the Bishops of Rome perform the Functions of this charge Whereupon there are many things to be said First of all it was not difficult for Aaron to acquit himself of this in so little a State as Judea and in one only City of this State which was Jerusalem and in one only Tâ—mple of that City for it was not allowed to perform Divine Service nor to Sacrifice elsewhere whereas Christianity is at this time spread over the whole world and therefore one single person only cannot perform these Functions every where It is as if a man should say that because France is well governed by one King he might as well govern all the States of the habitable Earth and yet it would be much more easie for him to do it than for one Bishop to govern the whole Church because as it is well known the Ecclesiastical Ministry cannot inflict Corporal punishments upon Delinquents as the Civil Government may and does Besides Aaron was no way the Figure of the Bishops of Rome for then the Type would have been more excellent than the Original but he was the Figure of our Great and Soveraign High Priest Jesus Christ. Furthermore Aaron was not the Monarch of the Levites but as the Doge is at Venice for according to all the Talmudists he was subject to the Jurisdiction of the Great Sanhedrim and to their Censure whereas the Popes pretend to be not only the Monarchs of the whole Earth but particularly of all the Clergy And besides all this there was an express institution of God for this charge and for the person of Aaron and of his Successors Whereas there is nothing like it for the Papacy nor for the persons of those who exercise it We see in the Old Testament the Institution of Aaron's Charge with many Ceremonies for his Installment and for his anointing many Ordinances for the Exercise of this Charge and for the Succession many Chapters which speak of the Subordination of Priests and Levites But on the contrary we find not one word in the Gospel of this pretended charge of Universal Head of the Church of Vicar-General of Jesus Christ and Successor of St. Peter nor any thing that hath any relation to it and yet it ought to have been there clear and evident since that this Ministry was to be of an extent a thousand times greater and the thing in it self is prodigious and appears quite contrary to the nature of the Messias his Kingdom and to the Gospel We see several Orders of Ministers of the Gospel there often spoken of but not one word that can any ways relate to the Pope when surely that was the place to have spoken of it especially if it be necessary to Salvation to be subject to him as they would have it and if he hath the power as they would perswade us as well over the Temporality as the Spirituality of the whole world St. Paul who without question was of as great ability as the Pope was not of these peoples humour who pretend to govern the whole Church since he who had not the thousandth part of Christians to take care of as the Pope would have according to their supposition declares that no Mortal man was sufficient to perform every thing that was necessary to be done in it and that he was himself overwhelmed with the care he took for all the Churches Nor had St. Peter the courage of our good Popes who believe themselves capable of governing the whole Church and they might do it without difficulty after the method they take since he agreed with St. Paul that St. Paul should go toward the Gentiles and he towards the Jews and so they parted the Ministry between them At least the Popes after Aarons example ought to meddle only in Ecclesiastical and not in Secular affairs as they do pretending to Lord it over the whole world for we see that Aaron applied himself only to the Functions of his Charge and that in things Temporal and Civil he was subject to Moses and left the Absolute direction of them to him Instead of imitating Aaron the Head of the Levites in his Modesty the Popes pretend to be Lords not only of the Temporality but of the Spirituality of all the States of the world and will in this be Vicars of Jesus Christ tho he declared that his Kingdom was not of this world tho he taught his Disciples that he among them who would be the first should be the last though he fled away when they would have made him a King tho he payed Tribute to the Princes of the world when he was himself Lord both of Heaven and Earth tho he expresly forbad his Disciples to bear rule over any one whatsoever The Popes notwithstanding this will govern and pretend that our Saviour did amiss when he spoke thus and that they know better than he how to improve the rights of his Prerogative For my part I believe that such a King as Jesus Christ who holds the Earth in his hand according to the Prophet's expression who upholds all things by the power of his word as St. Paul says who knows the hearts of all men and governs the motions of all the creatures who is Almighty who knows and sees
every thing without whom no man can have neither life motion nor being such a King I say hath no need of a Vicar-General for the Spiritual Government of the Church because he is present in all places no more than an Husband needs a Vicar for his Wife or a living Father for his Children and that he himself assureth us that where two or three are gathered together in his name there will he be in the midst of them If he hath a Vicar-General he can be no other than the Holy Ghost We also see that when he was upon the point of leaving his poor Disciples who were afflicted by reason of his approaching departure from them he tells them not I will leave you the Pope to guide and govern you which had been but a poor consolation But I will send you the Comforter who shall lead you in all truth And if we consider in what the administration of this Spiritual Kingdom doth consist we shall clearly see that no one mortal man can be the Vicar-General of it Can one only man preach the Gospel and administer the Sacraments all the world over They tell you that he will make it be done by others would to God the Popes would do so but these Delegated Preachers would be thus the Popes Vicars who pretends to be the Vicar of Jesus Christ and sometimes of St. Peter which cannot be according to all the Canonists who maintain that one Vicar cannot make another besides that the Ecclesiastical Ministry properly speaking cannot be subdelegated to Vicars for whosoever discharges it ought always to perform it in Preaching or Exâ—rcising the other Episcopal Functions in the name of Jesus Christ and not in the name of any creature and a man must be a fool or a seducer to do otherwise A meer man as the Pope is can he fill the souls of men with peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Can he defâ—nd the Church against all its enemies visible and invisible Can he give the Crown of Righteousness to those who shall be victorious and faithful to God to the death Can he raise them up again These are Acts of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ over his Church What relation hath the Dominion of the Pope to that of Jesus Christ What resemblance between light and darkness between Jesus Christ and Belial Thus it is evident that it is without any foundation that the Bishops of Rome boast of being Vicars of Jesus Christ thâ—y are no more so then the meanest Priest of the Church and it was with reason that the Council of Basil maintained to them that they were not Vicars of Jesus Christ but of the Church as every Curate is in his Parish Pontifex Vicarius Ecclesiae non Christi Nevertheless they maintain that St. Peter had this Employ of Universal Vicar that he was Head of the Apostles and of the whole Church Bishop of Bishops Soveraign both of Spirituality and Temporality Monarch of the Church and of the World. In a word that he had all the Prerogatives that the Popes at this present time enjoy in quality of Successors of St. Peter And that as I have said without being able to produce so much as one word of the Creation and Institution of this Charge so important to the Church if you will believe them nor of the Rights of this Charge nor of the Succession nor of the manner of the Election nor how so marvellous a Charge ought to be Exercised nor of the respect and obedience due to this Vicar nor of the use of his Office. They affirm boldly that St. Peter was at Rome that he was Bishop there That he founded that Church That he died there and left a Successor who was called Clement or Linus or Anacletus of which things tho they make the Salvation of all men to depend upon them they are not able to prove one tittle And they do affirm that this Successor entered into the full possession of all the Priviledges of St. Peter to which all the Bishops of that City have ever since equally succeeded both good and bad unto the present Pope Innocent the Eleventh It must be readily acknowledged that these Gentlemen must have very penetrating understandings to make these discoveries from the Gospel for it is certain that they are wholly imperceptible there I have sometimes read it without ever finding any thing that was at all like it and I think I saw clearly that St. Peter never knew he had this Authority but that on the contrary he believed that no Christian whatever much less a Bishop ought to have it in the Church nor did the other Aâ—ostles know it any more than he for somewhat of it would then appear and they who protest they have made known to us the whole will of God would have been extreamly to blame not only to have declared nothing of it to us but also to have always spoken and acted with their Soveraign Head and Master as with an Equal And St. Paul would have lost all manner of respect for him when he so warmly reproved him It seems probable also that our Saviour was obliged to have given them notice of it for naturally they could not know it and the Modesty Charity and Humility of St. Peter might have hindred him from declaring and exercising this Empire over them yet it is certain that there is nothing like this to be found Nevertheless this doth not hinder but that the Pope and Cardinals whose eyes their own interest opens as it blinds other peoples have in their own opinions found very strong proofs of it in the New Testament They say for example that our Saviour changed only St. Peter's name the reason as you see is without reply for it follows very necessarily from thence that St. Peter was the Head and King of the Church But unluckily he also changed the names of the Children of Zebedee They say also that he is sometimes named the first but if he be not so always this will signifie nothing to them but tho he had been always so this would not prove that he had authority over the others as the Pope hath over the other Bishops Amongst the Presidents the first hath no power over the others nor amongst the Electors of the Empire the Elector of Mentz who hath the first place hath no authority over the other Electors and so in all Societies the Primacy carries no dominion along with it But besides if that reason should take place the Holy Virgin who is sometimes named the last in Scripture would be greatly degraded from the place that belongs to her If St. Peter were always named the first that might have been given to his Age as the Fathers say and in truth we ought to attribute it to this that our Saviour spoke so often to him as well as to the fervency of his zeal which as we ought to admire and commend so also may
to do at Rome nor was he ever there as they imagine There is yet somewhat of greater weight then all this That is that St. Paul tells us he withstood St. Peter to his face because he deserved reproof This looks as if St. Paul had had some Authority over St. Peter We hear not that he reproached him for his Arrogance nor that he Excommunicated him It must be acknowledged that here is a great difference between the proceedings of the Pope and those of St. Peter For it is certain that if a Bishop should at this day dare to displease the Majesty of the Pope he should be soon swallowed up and destroyed by his glory I believe that Origen might have an eye to St. Paul's thus correcting St. Peter when he said that St. Paul was the greatest of all the Apostles Paulus Apostolorum maximus or else he might also have regard to the great extent of St. Pauls Ministry or to what he himself says that he took more pains than all the other Apostles And all the Fatheâ—s looked upon him as he who among all the Apostles wrote the most profoundly and with the greatest light This is what St. Augustin says of him St. Chrysostom looks upon him as the first of all the Saints and if there had been any Preheminence among the Apostles he should have been preferred before any other We may say then that the Popes in that Authority which they usuâ—p have nothing common with St. Peter nor can they be compared together but in one thing which is that as St. Peter being come into Pilates-Hall denyed Christ three times the Popes since they have taken upon themselves the Authority of Pilate and of worldly Princes have denyed him not three times but once for all Vna sol volta in Corte di Pilato entro est Petro e tra rinego Christo. Thus we see that in the Holy Scripture there is not one word that can in the least authorize the Popes Supremacy And we may compare those who establish it there to poor Heralds who to get a little money do very frequently make people meanly descended to derive from the Ancient Greek and Roman Emperors because the Cullyes havâ— gotten an Estate and are become rich tho most usually 't is only by Rogueries and Robberies And it is not difficult thus to deceive people who always admire those that are rich and able to do them a kindness They never enquire how they came by it as the Spaniard says Alcansados los honores quedam Borrados los passos pordende se subio a ellos Since then that the new Testament doth not acknowledg this Authority of the Popes but absolutely condemn it it hath no lawful Institution for a Doctrine of that Importance as the Primacy of the Pope is whereon they make the whole Government of the Church Religion it self and the Salvation of all Christians to depend being not to be found in Scripture cannot be but false For though it be true that there are some Customs and Ceremonies in the Church which are not to be found in Scripture and which the Protestants are greatly in the wrong obstinately to reject because that Tradition and the use or practise of the Church have so long since given them sufficient Authority as they themselves acknowledg yet that cannot be said of this Article which according to the Popes and the greatest part of the Doctors is Capital and so Capital they would willingly perswade us that without it the rest signifies nothing It was very impiously said of Cardinal Palavicim in his Third Book of his History of the Council of Trent Chap. the 15. That the Christian Religion hath no more sure and immediate certainty than the Popes Authority Quella Religione i cui Articoli Vnitamente considerati non hanno Altera Certezza prossima immediata che l' Autorita del Pontifice We see clearly that if this Authority were laid aside they would renounce the profession of Christianity as piety hath been already renounced by them CHAP. II. That the Primitive Church knew not the Papacy The Vanity of some Humane Reasons by which for want of the Scriptures and the Fathers they would establish it LET us now see if the Primitive Church did acknowledg a power in the Church like to that of the Popes Altho that which hath been already alledged from the Holy Fathers proves sufficiently that they knew not the Papacy let us however examine the thing a little more particularly We are told then that St. Peter was Head of the Church that he was at Rome that he was a Bishop there that he died there that he resigned that Charge of Head of the Church and of Bishop but not that of an Apostle to a Successor which Successor he either chose or the Church of Rome did it after his death by the power which he had given her which things are all of them very difficult to prove and certainly very false for a thing of this consequence ought not to be founded upon conjectures of meer probabilities but we ought to have as certain and as exact a knowledg of it as of any other Article of our Religion And yet we see that they who have spoken of St. Peter's coming to Rome and of his Death there have said it upon such miserable grounds and say so many contradictory things as well of it as of his pretended Successor that there is nothing more uncertain in all Antiquity But besides this none of them ever believed no nor so much as suspected that St. Petâ—r was Head of the Universal Church And the contradiction and little certainty that is in these Authors shews sufficiently that in the Primitive times it was not believed that this was necessary to be known nor did they in the least suspect that ever any body would endeavour to lay upon it the foundation of that horrible Authoâ—ity which the Popes do Exercise To give you some Instances of their Contradictions I need only to shew you that some say it was Linus who succeeded Peter others Clement and lastly others say it was Anacletus some will have it that St. Peter founded this Church and was the first that Preached at Rome Others maintain namely Dorotheus that it was Barnabas Barnabas primus Romae praedicavit And St. Paul shews us clearly that it was he himself who founded that Church for he complains that coming to Rome he found that the Jews there who had embraced Christianity were but very little instructed in the Doctrine of the Christian Religion Who can believe that if St. Peter had been there and had founded this Church he would not have instructed them better And what is yet more St. Paul says expresly in another plaâ—e that he would not go and preach whâ—re others had preached before him because he would not build upon the Foundation of others As for the manner of his Death some say he was Crucified with St. Paul Others that he was
beheaded and Linus the pretended successor of St. Peter who writes the History of St. Pauls Death says not one word of St. Peters St. Hierom though a Roman and Nicolas de Lyra assures us that he was Crucified at Hierusalem And St. Hierom says in another place also that his Sepulcher is in Hierusalem Thus we see what reason they have to build an Article of Faith so monstrous as the Popes Supremacy is upon an imaginary Conjecture that hath no Foundation that St. Peter was at Rome But how comes it then to pass may some say that many of the Fathers both believed and said that St. Peter was at Rome It was because they did not examine the thing believing it useless and they did not forsee the dreadful Consequences that the Bishops of Rome would draw from it They grounded it upon that place of St. Peters Epistle where it is said the Church which is at Babylon saluteth you Interpreting Rome by Babylon without any reason because there were two other Babylons the one in Mesopotamia where Bagdet is and the other in Aegypt near Memphis where it is certain there were many Jews who were under St. Peter's Ministry As for the pretended combat between St. Peter and Simon Magus the Learned acknowledg that it was but a fiction But put the case St. Peter had been at Rome what advantage can the Bishops of Rome make of it That he had left at Rome his Charge of Universal Vicar of Jesus Christ But on what do they found this pretence If he had done it it would plainly have been united to his Apostleship rather than to the quality of a Bishop and so by consequence could not have been communicated to any other than an Apostle and so St. James or St. John who continued alive long time after him should have inherited it and not Linus nor any other and they would have transported it to Jerusalem or to Ephesus which were their Churches if the Town of Rome had not had some particular priviledges which no man knows that affixed this Dignity to that City in which case one of these two Apostles ought to have come and resided there However it is likely that St. James or St. John who without all controversie lived a great while after him should rather have succeeded him in this admirable Charge than a simple Priest or Bishop as Linus If the City of Rome pretends to derive this Prerogative from St. Peter's having been there and Preached the Gospel which cannot be proved the Church of Antioch ought to be preferred before it for it is certain both by the Scriptures and by the Fathers that he was there and Preached there before it was possible for him to do it at Rome And upon this it was that they built that Revelation of the See of Peter's being removed from Antioch to Rome which you find in the Decrees of Gratian in the Epistle of Pope Marcellus which Imposture they contrived because they could find nothing in the Scripture that could favour their pretences Besides if St. Peter had had a Successor in this pretended Charge how comes it to pass that the Primitive Church that compiled the Canon of Books which ought to regulate the Faith of the Church hath not comprehended therein the Works of Linus or of Clement who wrote enough and yet hath inserted those of St. James and of St. John who ought to be much inferior in Infallibility and in Sanctity to the Vicar-General of Jesus Christ upon Earth and who ought to have been his Subjects and to have taken the Oath of Fidelity to him as they do at this day to his Holiness But a man may well wonder that Clement who according to some Writers was his Successor and who be he what he will must have lived very near that time knew nothing of it 'T is seen by his first Epistle to St. James where he terms him Bishop of Bishops and in another place he brings in St. Peter saying Jacobus Episcopus accâ—rcitum me inde huc Caesaream mittit That is to say That the Bishop James sent him into Caesarea It is yet a little surprising that the Fathâ—rs of the Primitive Church who composed the Canon of our Faith that is the Creed should forget to place after the Catholick Church the Bishop of Rome who is the Head of it and without whom as they say it is like a Body without a soul or a Vessel exposed to the tempest without a Pilot. That Article doth it self sufficiently exclude all dependance upon any particular See. And the other I believe the Communion of Saints doth also establish Jesus Christ the only Head of the Church and condemns its being subject to an humane Head. And St. Dionysius the Areopagite or some other of those times who in his name composed a Treatise of the Hierarchy and says not one word of a Bishop of Bishops and Head of the Church shews that in those times people did not believe that the Hierarchy could not subsist without him Saint Gregory also Bishop of Rome was wholly ignorant of these pretended Priviledges of his Bishoprick for he acknowledges in his Register to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria that the Bishops of Alexandria and of Antioch are Successors of St. Peter and that they sit in the Chair of Peter as well as the Bishops of Rome Nor was Irenaeus any more perswaded that the Bishops of Rome alone had this advantage when having reproved Victor Bishop of Rome who by a ridiculous rashness had Excommunicated for a matter of small importance all the Churches of Asia which was concerning the difference of the day whereon Easter was to be kept he says to him Presbyteri Ecclesiae cui nunc praesides Anicetum dicimus Ejum Hyginum Telesphorum Christum neque ipsi sic observarunt neque posteris suis sic praeceperunt Observe by the way the modesty of the Bishops of those times they affected no other quality than that of Priest as we also see in the Gospel that Bishops are there sometimes called Priests It was not in contempt that St. Ireneus called them so but because that in those blessed times the Bishops were humble and were ambitious of no other Title But now-a-days a Priest is called My Lord Abbot an Abbot takes the Arms of a Bishop a Bishop of a Cardinal a Cardinal equals himself to Princes and will even take the place of them And the Bishops of Rome who in those times were humble and desired no other Crown than that of Martyrdom now raise themselves above Soveraigns Kings and Emperors wear a Triple Crown which these Villains called Il Regno for a mark of their Royalty tread even Empâ—rors under their feet make them kiss their Slippers and treat them like fools Cardinal Cusan confirms to us what St. Gregory said before In Cathedra Petri says he Patriarchae leguntur sedisse Romanus Alexandrinus Antiochenus cum illis omnes subjecti Episcopi
upon them In St. Hilaries days they endeavoured to bring under the Bishops of France in such sort that St. Hilary opposed their Ambition which made Leo have the Impudence to write of it to the Bishops of the Province of Vienne However that did not hinder him from continually attacking him and his successors who found opposition enough from time to time they always gaining the Victory And we have a Letter which the Churches of France and Germany wrote together in the time of King Clouis to Anastasius the second Bishop of Rome where we see that they were not satisfy'd with the Ambition of that Bishop It is not say they without reason that the Bishops it being grounded upon many Authorities affirm that the Authority of Councils is above that of a Pope St. Paul the Apostle who tells us that we should be his followers resisted Peter the first of the Apostles to his face because he dâ—served reproof For our parts we understand not this new compassion which the Italian Physicians have for our Mâ—ladies of France They would cure our Bishops and are themselves sick of a continued Fever They are themsâ—lves blind and yet thâ—y offâ—r us light They forsake their own Flock suffering it to wander and pretend to lead our Pastors in the right way Thâ—y would make us believe that the Cure for Spiritual Diseases that is to say Absolution is to be found at Rome c. But if the Ark of the Covenant should fall in France it must be our Bishops and not theirs that must take it up again But if they be so rash as to pretend to touch the Ark of our Church they only draw evil upon themselves as well as Uzzah the Levite Let thâ—m fairly undeâ—stand this Sylâ—ogism If thâ—râ— be but one â—nly power in all Bishops it is also in one person alone Now there is one and the same power in all Bishops therefore it resides also in one single person But let us here observe by the by how much the Germans and French are degenerated from that Piety and Love for the Liberty which Jesus Christ hath acquired for his Church It is certain that Bishops were always equal in the first Ages of the Church It was some time after the Death of St. Cyprian before they thought of establishing in every Province one Bishop above the rest They thought it would be advantagious for removing the disorder that sprung up sometimes among them for concurrence and presidency He resided in the Capital City and was called the Metropolitan At first he had no Authority over the others but only the place but afterwards they conferred upon them the power of consecrating Bishops of the Province because they dwelt in the Capital Ciiy where every body came about their Affairs And it is from thence that Bishops became subject to their Metropolitans and have been distinguished from them by the Ordination which they receive from them These Metropolitans were called in the West Arch-bishops After this there was given them the power of calling Provincial Synods who for that Reason were assembled always in the Capital City That was brought in at first only as a Custom and because it looked as though the state of the Civil Government did require it But at length this Custom was confirmed by the Decrees of the Council of Nice and became a Law. After that for the maintenance of Unity among the Churches of divers Provinces it was further thought requisite to establish Exarchs or Primates over these Arch-bishops according to the Idea of the Civil Government These Primates were the Bishops of the chief City of some great Province or of a Diocess that comprehended many Provinces At first they acknowledged no Superior but by little and little they of Constantinople of Antioch of Alexandria and lastly he of Rome did first attempt their Rights and after came the Council of Calcedon who established over these Metropolitans four Patriarchs of Rome of Alexandria of Antioch and of Constantinople to whom afterwards he of Jerusalem was also added for the Honour of that City but he lasted not long The two principal were he of Rome and he of Constantinople because those were two Seats of the Empire and at last they took upon them the Quality of Oecumenical Bishops against all Reason Divine or Humane and against the Decrees of many Councils Since those times every thing hath gone worse and worse It is no hard matter to prove that the Presidence of the Bishop of Rome was purely in consideration of the Dignity of that City The Second Canon of the Council of Constantinople shews it sufficiently where it is said That the Bishops who are established over a Diocess shall not go beyond the bounds which have been set them but that the Bishop of Constantinople shall have the Honour of the Primacy after the Bishop of Rome and not before him because that City is not so ancient as that of Rome After the same manner the 9 th Canon of the Council of Antioch ordains That the Bishops of great Cities shall have the pre-eminence because all men of business repair to the Capital City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And the Council of Calcedon in its 16 th Act gives no other Reason for the City of Rome's having the first place The Fathers says this Council have also given these Priviledges to the See of Old Rome by reason of the Empire of that City c. And for this very reason they have given the same priviledges to the most Holy See of New Rome judging very ratiâ—nally that a City honoured by the Senaâ—e and the Empire ought to enjoy the same priviledges as the Ancient Rome and have the same pre-eminence in Ecclâ—siastical Affairs and be the second after her And the Council of Turin in its first Chapter hath these words That Bishop who can prove that his City is the Capital of the whâ—le Province let him have the honour of the Primacy and the Faculty of conferring Orders upon others And we must not judge of this matter by what we now see For Example That Paris and London which are the Capital Cities of two great States have not the Primacy over the other Bishops of these Kingdoms for besides that they here received the Christian Faith later than the others did the Court of Rome and its Favourers have managed this very politickly not suffering that any great City shoulâ— have this Honour lest the Bishop of it should become their Rival and should cast off their yoke as we see they had all the difficulty in the World to subdue the great City of Milan For in the year 1059. Nicholas the Second having sent thither Peter Damien Bishop of Ostia to make them lay aside the Ambrâ—sian Service and take up the Roman both the Clergy and People answered vigorously That they had never been subject to the Roman Laws and that the Bishop of Rome had
of France hath maintained it self against all their endeavours without being divided and hath still kept some small Remains of Liberty which they daily attempt to rob us of The second device was to engage Princes and great men and those who were very rich in the Croisadoes and Expeditions of the Holy Land and to make them take the Cross which besides the vast Treasures which the Popes got by it augmented greatly their Authority for from hence they invented Indulgences from whence the Court of Rome hath drawn unspeakable Advantages as well in Riches as in Authority The third was by introducing neatly under the pretence of ignorance and the weakness of Princes the use of Cardinals of divers Nations in the Election of the Pope for by this these Nations are for the Spiritual â—art become subject to the See of Rome the Clergy and people of Râ—me as well as the Emperors have lost the Right of Electing the Bishop All these States have thought that the Bishop of Rome was greater than another Bishop and that they had great Interest in his Election and the Popes have gotten many Creatures in all these States It is true that at this time they are almost all Italians because they have of late so well bridled all these Countries by the Infinite number of their Monks and by many other Inventions that they now fear not their casting off the yoke After that Henry the Fourth had been Deposed and the Right of Investing Bishops taken from him the Successors of this Gregory pretended that the Ecclesiasticks were exempt from all Jurisdiction and power of â—ecular Princes even in Civil Affairs And besides that that the Bishop of Rome could Dâ—pose Kings if they did not submit to all his Orders and to fortifie this came forth the Decretals of many Popes of which these people at last made so good use to compose their Bull de Caena Domini and the Directory of the Inquisitors But say they all this does not hinder the Bishop of Rome from being Head of the Church for we see that the Laws and Rules and Roman Discipline have been followed by the other Churches It is true that in the West as there was no other Patriarchal See and as in most places thee Christian Faith had been received by means of the Roman Churâ—h the woâ—ld had a great respect for it and beâ—ides it was by reason of the Dignity of this City As in France we always consult the Sorbonne at Paris concerning matters of Religion not that for this reason the other Universities or Churches depend upon it But it is false that all Christians or the greatest part of them have received the Rules and Discipline of Rome The Greek Churches never owned them nor any of those who are in Asia or in Africa as the Armenian the Ethiopian and others And what we have already alledged from many of the Fathers and Councils from the Gallican Church from the Churches of Ravenna Milan and Toledo who with so much difficulty received the Roman Office even in the Eleventh Century shews sufficiently that they had no dependance on the Bishop of Rome I could bring a thousand other proofs did I not fear being too tedious to the Reader Aventin relates that Gregory the Second sent one Winefred towards the Countries lying upon the Rhine to reform the Churches there and to set them on the Roman bottom but that they vigorously opposed him and many Bishops called him the Author of Lyes and corrupter of the Christian Faith. In the first Tome of the Councils we have a Letter of Damasus Bishop of Rome to Hierome a Priest where we find these words which do sufficiently confute the pretences of our people I intreat Brother thy charity to send us the Greek Psalter with the Notes by which they sing them These are the words Peto charitatem tuam ut Graecorum Psallentiam ad nos dirigere tua Fraternitas delectetur For adds he we are so simple that upon Festival days we do nothing but read a Chapter in the Epistles or in the Gospel and we have no custom of singing Psalms nor is the Grace and Glory of Hymns to be found in our mouths Observe these words Charitas tua and Fraternitas tua from a Bishop of Rome to a Priest and how far they were from endeavouring to make other Churches subject to their Laws since that on the contrary they did correct their own faults by the good example of others We find also at the end of St. Gregory's Works that about the year 593 he sent a Monk called Austin into England who passing through France was surprized to see there another manner of Divine Service than he had seen in Italy with Ceremonies quite different that when he wrote to Gregory he asked him how it came to pass that since there was but one Faith the customs of Churches were so different and that the custom and manner of Masses was not the same at Rome as in France To which St. Gregory answered You know Brother what is the custom of the Roman Church wherein you have been educated But my opinion is that if you find any thing be it in the Roman Church or the Gallican or in any other which may be more agreeable to God you should prâ—fâ—r it for we ought not to love the things for the places but the places for the good things we find in them There are some people also who would make an advantage of this that the Church of Rome is by the Fathers called the Apostolick See. In truth as the Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses as our Saviour says so do the Bishops of Rome also â—it upon the Seat of the Apostles But it is certain that the other Bishops who teach the Doctrine of the Apostles and imitate their example are more Apostolick than they You must know that all the Churches founded by the Apostles were honoured with this Title and particularly famous and Metropolitan Cities which were looked upon as the Mothers of other Churches tho sometimes they had embraced Christianity after others that were less considerable because there Resided the Civil which drew after it the Ecclâ—siastical Jurisdiction And because there were many in the East where Christians were far more numerous than on this side none of those Churches ever raised it self above the others but in the West there being but one which was the Roman and no other having been since erected tho the Germans Spaniards French and othâ—r Nations have embraced the Christian Religion since those times yet Rome alone hath had this Glorious Title and the others have had great respect for it without any manner of dâ—pendance on it however at the beginning as hath already been shewed But that hindereth not but that other Orthodox Churchâ—s may also have it consult Tertullian he says that all Churches that follow the Faith of the Apostles are Apostolick And Pope Pelagius confirms the same
ejusdem loci mihi de more Archidiacono de Cura Parochianorum reddat rationem That is to say That the Cardinal-Priest of this Parish ought according to the custom to give an account of his Parishioners to me and to the Arch-Deacon The same Author called Le Gris a Canon Regular of St. Augustin says That there were Twelve Curates at Soissons who time out of mind had been called Cardinals and it was the same thing in many other places of France And we read in Pasquier that in a Council held at Metz under Charlemagne it was ordained Vt Titulos Cardinales in Vrbibus vel Suburbiis constitutos honestissime Canonice retractatione ordinent disponant That the Bishops should ordain and dispose the Title of Cardinals Honestly and Canonically in Cities and Suburbs If this name and dignity be to be esteemed so highly in the Church it would be very easie to make as many as one would in France without the Bishop of Rome his consent since that evâ—ry Bishop hath the power of making them and without being Reordained there is no Priest who doth now officiate who may not be a Cardinal when you please Thus this signifies nothing no more than the other things which have been already confuted to prove that the Popes Authority is Divine since the Sâ—ripture and the whole Primitive Church are against it But I must here also answer one Humane Reason which they make use of to throw dust in our eyes they take it from an Author whom they esteem as much as St. Paul nay more for they pretend that without him we should fail in many Articles of our Faith this is Aristotle I scarce believe so much can be said of St. Paul who wrote the clearest of all the Apostles Senza Aristotele noi mancarono di molti Articoli di Fide says Cardinal Palavicini Bellarmine also another Cardinal and a Jesuit doth object to us that Aristotle demonstrated Monarchy to be the most excellent of all Governments and by consequence God would have his Church so governed and that this Monarchy belongs to the Pope It is certain that the Spiritual Government of the Church is Monarchical It is Jesus Christ who governs it a Monarch all-wise and Almighty but the external Government of the visible and Universal Church cannot be so and their principle it self is contested by the greatest part of Politicians Aristotle himself their Apostle says in some places that a mixed or compounded Government be it Aristocratical or Democratical is better Quae ex Pluribus constat Respublica melior est And tho a Kingdom may be very well governed by one single person yet it doth not follow that this one person can as well govern all the States and Kingdoms of the World. And he says in another place Huc enim sunt omnia reducenda ut ii â—ui in Imperio sunt non Tyrannum sed patrem Familias agere videantur rem non quasi Dominus sed quasi Procurator Praefectus administrare nec quod nimium est sectari Do the Popes govern after this manner Reason and Experience both convince us of the contrary We see by History that the Empires of the World when they were of too great an extent could not subsist and have been torn in pieces and we have the example of some wise Emperors who made Decrees to hinder the enlargement of their Empire as Augustus made one De Coercendo intra limites Imperio It is a Proverb That he who takes too much into his arms can't hug it close And this is so much the truer in Ecclesiastical Government which cannot inflict Corporal punishments upon Delinquents for St. Paul says expresly that the Arms of the Evangelick Ministry are not according to the Flesh. And the Fathers as well as the Councils do teach us that the Arms of a Bishop ought to be Prayers and Tears The example which they bring of one single Bishop who by Divine Institution governs a Diocess or of a Curate who governs one Church only can signifie to them nothing at all bâ—cause first of all there is a Divine Institution for that but none for this Besides a man may easily manage a Boat upon a little River who knows not how alone to manage a great Vessel upon the Ocean much less a Fleet of Ships And the Example of a Bishop or Curate makes against them for they are not Soveraigns the one presides only among the other Priests and the other in a Parish I foresee that it will be said that though this Authority of the Pope was not Instituted by Jesus Christ that the Church for the first five Centuries knew it not that it hath been since opposed from time to time by many people perhaps of a turbulent or discontented mind yet it must be believed that the Church which did establish it since did it for good Reasons that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have not so precisely Regulated every thing that concerns the Discipline of the Church but that she may according to her own Prudence alter some things according to the times and places or as others say that every time hath its customs or as Cardinal Palavicini Altri tempi Altri costumi That the Church was at that time in its Infancy and that the mature age to which it is now arrived is not to be governed as its tender Infancy I acknowledg that the Church may sometimes vary in its Discipline and in its policy without any great crime but this must be always by a principle of charity and according to the Fathers Quod propter charitatem fit non debet contra Charitatem militare That which is done by a Principle of Charity ought not to militate against Charity It must tend to Edification the Church ought to do nothing against the Commandments of God. Now I have shewn that the Papacy is against the Maxims of the Gospel and is altogether contrary to the Genius of Christianity and more contrary than light is to darkness Furthermore it is not true that the Church hath established the Papacy only some few Councils held in Italy about two or three hundred years since or thereabouts as that at Florence Lateran Bolonia and Trent But we speak not of these dark Ages for those with whom I dispute believe that the Church hath established this power in the Sixth or Seventh Century In this respect the Cardinal Cusan mistakes himself when he says Pâ—patus est de jure Positivo The Papacy is of Positive Right For the Church hath not established it in any Council unless you call that Rabble of Ecclesiasticks and Seculars the Church who assembled themselves together at the desire of Boniface the Third to confirm upon him the Title of Universal Bishop which he got by the Parricide Phocas for the assistance he had given him He himself acknowledgeth that this Authority came to them ex usu Consuetudine
Subjectionalis Obedientiae And he maintains with good reason in another place Si per possibile Treverinus Archiepiscopus per Ecclesiam Congregatam pro Praeside Capite Eligeretur Ille proprie plus Successor esset Beati Petri in Principatu quam Romanus Episcopus That if it were possible that the Arch Bishop of Treves could be chosen Head of the Church by a General Council he would be a more lawful Successor of St. Peter than the Bishop of Rome which shews that in his time no Council had declared the Bishop of Rome as such Besides these words if it were possible shew that he belioved not that the Church could dispose of such a thing Gerson was also of this Opinion for he acknowledgeth very ingeniously that the Papal Authority cannot be conferred by the Church Papalis Authoritas si non a Deo esset immediate instituta a tota Ecclesia institui non poterat If the Papal Authority were not from God immediately it could not be instituted by the whole Church And though it were true that the Church had established it as Pope Innocent the Third pretends when he says Ecclesia non nupsit vacua sed Dotem mihi tribuit absque pretio pretiâ—sam spiritualium plenitudinem latitudinem temporalium illius me constituit vicarium qui habet in vestimento suo scriptum Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium The Church hath not married me without a Fortune but hath given me the invaluable dowry of God the fulness of Spirituals and the latitude of Temporals hath made me the Vicar of him who hath written on his garment King of Kings and Lord of Lords Although that I say were true it would not be less necessary to abolish this power which is the cause of so many disorders because the Church in those days might have created it for the good of the Church as she then thought And having found out that it is to her ruine she ought to destroy it for the Chair of Peter is for the Church and not the Church for the Chair of Peter Petri Cathedra propter Ecclesiam non Ecclesia propter Petri Cathedram Quod propter Charitatem fit non debet contra Charitatem Militare And since that our Faith according to Thomas Aquinas ought to be founded upon the Word of God only and not upon the Eshablishments of the Church as he says Fides nostra innititur Revelationibus Prophetis Apostolis Factis Ecclesia non statuit nisi de non necessariis ad Salutem According to this Truth we are not obliged to believe the Extravagant of Pope Boniface who says That it is necessary to Salvation to submit to the Pope And if the Church according to these People dared to change the Aristocratical Government instituted by Jesus Christ under which the Kingdom of God spread it self so far Piety flourished Idolatry was confounded shall it not be allowable for the Church and for Princes who are its natural Protectors to redeem it out of that Slavery into which the Enemy of Mankind hath reduced it to its first Purity and Simplicity Methinks if Men had any sense of Religion they ought to sigh continually for the deplorable condition of the Church and of the Greeks and Protestants whom we have cast headlong into the Evil they now labour under Some people will have it That because the Greek Patriarchs among themselves hold that Place which the Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine gave to all Patriarchs he of Rome who had the first Place ought still to keep it and as in Place he was the first Bishop and the only Patriarch in the West he ought still to enjoy these Prerogatives But first of all none of the Greek Patriarchs unless it were that John of Constantinople against whom St. Gregory wrote so vehemently ever pretended to bear Rule over the other Bishops nor over the Church much less over Christian Princes as the Popes do and the Patriarch of Rome for above Three Hundred Years after his Institution never attempted it Secondly The Place which the Bishop of Rome held was Propter Principalitatem Vrbis in regard of the Dignity of the City which now hath no weight at all Rome being no longer the Seat of the Empire but the Sink and Common-shore of all filthy Iniquity a Den of Thieves and a Nest of Satan Nido di Satanazzo and the very Habitation of Sloth Laziness and Beggary Paris or London do at this time deserve this Honour a thousand times better Besides it was in a time when there were but very few Christians in the West These great States were not yet converted to the Faith France Germany Poland part of Spain and all the Northern Countries knew not what Christianity was so that one Patriarch might more easily have the inspection of this small number of Christians who resorted also to Rome for their civil Affairs as to the capital City where the Emperor resided How are they now able to govern all the Churches they who cannot govern that at Rome and which is worse that trouble not their Heads about it Add to this a fourth Reason which is That in those days they were not Temporal Princes as they are become since and had not innumerable Legions of Monks and Beneficiaries at their command as now they have which renders this Power the most formidable of any upon Earth among the Catholicks If because Rome had heretofore the first Place for the Spirituality before other Cities she should pretend still to have it it will thence follow that she hath it for the Temporality over these same Cities since the Spiritual Authority of this City as I have already proved was founded upon the Temporal and Civil which she enjoyed as the Seat of the Empire and so in pretending to the Regency of Religion in France Flanders and other Catholick Countries they pretend also to have a Right of treating these States as they please and they have effectually made them their Subjects and Tributaries even to the disposing 〈◊〉 the Crowns of Kings as their fancy leads them There are others who believe they have hit on the right when they say that the Pope is Primus inter Pares and that so he is the first of all Bishops But I ask by what Authority It is true he was so among the Patriarchs whilst that Rome as I have said already was the Seat of the Empire but now I maintain that he is Vltimus inter Pares and unworthy of the Name of either Priest or Bishop being the Tyrant of the Church and of Christian Princes and a Temporal Prince himself Were he not a Temporal Prince all he could lawfully pretend to would be to be the first Bishop of Italy I know it will be said That I ask too much to obtain any thing and I know that it will be neither better nor worse but I will discharge my mind and tell the Truth God Almighty may raise up Princes
the Church instead of being governed is devoured by a Faction of Villains who eat the people of God like bread But say they you speak of abolishing the Primacy in the Church and nevertheless there is no Society no Families no Colledge but hath it Without it these Societies cannot subsist It is not so much the Primacy which I condemn as the Tyranny which hath been joined to it The Primacy of Place might yet be suffered although Jesus Christ hath not instituted it in the Church but that of Pope is a Primacy of Jurisdiction to which the Universal Church and the whole World is subject as they pretend I condemn the Primacy of a Bishop who is a Worldly Prince who hath more than Twenty Millions of Revâ—nue this Primacy which is the Cause of all the Disorders of the Church Whereas the end and ordinary use of Lawful Primacies is to maintain good Order in all Societies And I wish nothing more than to see re-established in the Church that Primacy which Jesus Christ hath there instituted viz. that of Councils and that they should be often assembled as they were in the Primitive Church for it is the want of these Councils which hath undone the Church We see in the Preface of the Eleventh Council of Toledo that the Fathers say That having wanted the Light of Councils for the space of Ten Years the whole World went astray and the Church fell into disorder and confusion How much more reason have we now to complain of that we who for above these Hundred Years have seen none and which is more can never hope to see a Lawful one whilst the Papacy shall subsist Substracta Luce Conciliorum integro decennie Matrem Omnium Errorum ignorantiam otiosas Mentes occupasse adeo ut Babylonicae Confusionis olla succensa purpuratae Meretricis incrementa Sacerdotes sequerentur quia Ecclesiastici Convenius non aderat Disciplina nec erat qui Errantium Corrigeret partes cum Sermo Divinus haberetur Extorris Is not this the cause of so many Superstitions of so many Heresies Schisms and Licentiousness which we see in the Clergy Is it not a ridiculous thing that no more Councils shall be called whilst we see the Monks both Capucins Carthusians and Jesuits often assemble their Congregations for the augmentation of their Societies It is no wonder if the Church daily runs to ruin whilst these Societies fortifie themselves Is it not clear as the day that if Provincial Synods were called every year National every three or four years as heretofore they were under our great Kings and Oecumenical Councils at least once in Ten years that Remedies would be found out for the Calamities of the Church Might not a Patriarch in every State aided by the Secular Power excute the Decrees of the Church with more facility less jealousie and more security for Religion and for the State than a forreign Ambitious and potent Prince who resolves to take no care for Religion but to model every thing to his own Interest If this Patriarch should neglect his Duty or carry it like a Master should not the Prince chastise him nor depose him Experience shews us that the Church never flourished but when she was Aristocratically governed and when there was no other Primacy in the Universal Church than that of Councils and all Primates and Patriarchs were subject to them But since the Patriarch of Rome hath had the sole disposing of Religion in the West we have seen nothing but Confusion Anarchy Schism Heresies Impiety Atheism Cruelty and Barbarity Ipsa Ecclesia Vnus est Princeps Vnitati fidelium non singulis haec Jurisdictio a Domino conceditur c. Quia Vnitas Ecclesiae multo major est atque perfectior quam Vnitas Vnius Regis aut Imperatoris terreni Thus did the Holy Council of Basil answer the false Reasons of Pope Eugenius his Orators who pretended That the Unity of the Church was preserved much better by a Pope than by the Council There are others who would have the Pope's Authority confin'd within the bounds which the Councils of Constance and of Basil had marked out for it but they never understood the Moral Impossibility that there is not only of making the Popes consent to it but suppose they were constrained to consent to these Rules for a season to make them observe them always or for any long time And Experience confirms what I say with reference even to these Councils which have put no stop at all to their career for they live in contempt as well of these as of all other Lawful Councils Have not they called others in Italy who have destroyed whatever these had established even to treat with the Name of Heresie this Holy Doctrine of the Superiority of the Council Have not the Popes been sufficiently Sacrilegious to raze out of the Roman Edition of General Councils the Council of Basil from among the Oecumenical Councils It is then impossible that with the Impiety and Ambition wherewith the Court of Rome is wholly made up and with the enormous power which the Popes at this time have which equals that of the greatest Kings that they should be reduced to submit themselves to the Council of Constance And even that would signifie nothing for this Council gives them too much Authority It gives them the power which belongs to the Emperors of assembling General Councils of presiding in them and concluding and of executing the Canons of Councils in regard of particular Churches and even of making Decrees during the Intervals of Synods and of being judged only by a General Council They ought then to be deprived of this temporal power the Cardinals to be abolished and the Monks to be Enfranchised and Released from the rash Vows they have made to the Popes the disposing of the Palls of Archbishops ought to be taken from him and the faculty of Investing Bishops and of dispencing with them for holding so many Benefices with all the other Simonical Traffick which will still renders him the Tyrant of the Church the Master of all States and the Devil the possessor of many souls It is much more easie to restore all at once the ancient Discipline I promote a Paradox but my reason is that there will never be a good change but it must happen after some strangely surprizing or if I may so say some violent manner such violence as forces its way into the Kingdom of Heaven Whilest we stand upon treating the Popes shall maintain themselves always with the times either by Intriegues or by some Devilish inventions the most zealous shall grow cold upon the business Ministers shall be corrupted either by money or by Cardinals Caps the Prince shall have other affairs found him to look after or shall be killed by the hand of some Monk or other All the Jesuits and the Monks shall be everlastingly for the Papacy whatever shew they at this time make Gerson somewhere says that there will never
be a Reformation if some zealous and resolute Pope doth not procure it by assembling a General Council For my part I say that if God doth not inspire some great Prince to do it I say that a Reformation will come as soon by means of the Devil as the Pope First of all the Court of Rome professeth an abhorrence of calling General Councils Concilio semper aborrito da Pontefici says Palavicini Besides that they have established this fundamental Maxim That the Pope cannot divest himself of the least tittle of his Authority no not for the salvation of the whole world for the Pope say they is not the Master but only the Guardian of this Authority Nay they go so far as to maintain that the Church would commit Simony should she desire to divest the Pope of this Authority or of his profits for the Salvation of Souls Primato Apostolico di cui non era Signiore ma custode says Cardinal Palavicini that he is not the Lord or Patron but only the Guardian of the Apostolick Primacy And in another place he says these words Non Essendo egli arbitro e padrone della sua Maggoranza constituta da Christo e pero non potendo farle alcun prejudicio He can do no wrong to his Authority constituted by Jesus Christ because he is not the Patron and disposer of it And again Far una specie di Simonia vendendo al Papa la recuperatione dell ' anime a prezzo d' entrate e di giuridizzioni ritolte della chieza It would be a kind of Simony to sell the Redemption of Souls to the Pope at the price either of Estates or Jurisdictions taken from the Church If a Pope would really Reform the Church the Court of Rome would murther him But as Peter of Blois says this is the Chair of Pestilence wherein people of the greatest merit are presently corrupted They no sooner ascend this proud Throne but straightways they forget they are men and are by a just judgment of God struck with stupidity We have the example of one Aeneas Silvius who in the Council of Basil was so zealous for the truth and maintained so well the Interest of the Church against the Popes Tyranny and nevertheless so soon as he was Elected Pope he maintained that the Council was inferior to the Pope and Excommunicated those who believed the contrary This Angel was no sooner raised to this mighty grandeur but like Lucifer he became a Devil Aristotle says in one place that it sometimes falls out that a man loseth the habit of vertue by one only act of enormous wickedness that there are men qui uno actu feritatis humanitatem exuunt who lay aside all humanity all at once by one act of barbarousness and inhumanity This befalls the Popes so soon as they are elected they were sometime honest men before but the Miter being fixed upon their head they make themselves he adored by this Sirname of Most Holy Collo pronome di sanctissimo says Cardinal Palavicini they are no more men but the voice of God and not of men as was said of Herod Sixtus Quintus who had been a Keeper of Swine when he became Pope Excommunicated King Henry the Fourth of France This it was that made Marcellinus the Second say that he believed not that a Pope could be saved and Pius Quintus that when he was a Monk he had pretty good hopes of his Salvation that being a Cardinal he began much to fear it but when he was Pope he absolutely despaired of it St. Hierom speaks of a certain young Consul at Rome who said Facite me Vrbis Romanae Episcopum ero protinus Christianus Make me Bishop of Rome and I will be a Christian presently We may say the contrary of those who for this long time have been made Bishops of Rome That as soon as they have been so they have ceased being Christians The reason of that is not only this Tyranny which they exercise in the Church and over the world in contempt of Jesus Christ and of his Gospel but also this Temporal greatness to which they are raised all at once which turns their brain We scarce see a man of a thousand Livres a year whose reason is not blinded by his Estate and he shall be puffed up with pride even tho he were born to it and we see but few rich men who are not insupportable either for their vanity or for their vices but few Princes who have any Religion and in whom power hath not corrupted and defaced all the Idea's of Vertue and of Vice. How then shall a poor fellow behave himself who is raised all at a clap to so high a Dignity that Emperors kiss his Slippers and who so soon as he is chosen is adored like God even upon the Altars This it is that brings down the curse of God upon all the Popes and to speak of a good Pope is like talking of a good Devil Observe this present Pope who is a man the best inclined that we have had a long time to what excess of pride is he arrived against our French King whom he hath threatned to Excommunicate tho St. Augustin whose Disciple they say he is teacheth that no Prince nor his people are ever to be Excommunicated Multitudo non est Excommunicanda nec Princeps populi says he Vbi parabola zizaniorum evolvitur But how say they will you be a Catholick without a Pope Let there be one in Gods name but let him be of the order of Simon Pâ—ter and not of Simon Magus a Pope who makes no Traffick of the Graces of the Holy Ghost and of Holy things and who is not a Prince of this world let him be a Pope who raiseth not himself above other Popes that is to say other Bishops to give them Laws let him be subject to his Prince let him be subject as well to National as General Councils and not turn all Religion to his particular profit but to wish always to have such Popes as for these seven or eight hundred years have wasted the Church a man must have no true Idea of Christianity nay he must have even lost the Idea of good and evil I knew a Prince in Germany who was one of the most Catholick Princes in the world who had abjured Heresie and was really converted having not done it for any carnal advantage like many base people who we see infect instead of edifying the Church This most Catholick Prince abhorred the Papacy and could not endure the Books of our Writers when there was any thing in them favourable to the Popes Authority Those who were a little acquainted with the late Duke of Hanouer know whether I speak truth or no. We know that Charles the Sixth by the advice of the Divines of the Faculty at Paris made no difficulty of withdrawing himself and all his Subjects from the Communion of the Pope which lasted during the Pontificat of
John the 23 d. of Benedict the 13 th and Gregory the 12 th and even to give encouragement to all other Princes to do as he had done and he had much less cause to do it than we have at this time You see his reasons in the Letters of the University of Paris in Theodore a Nyem which were that they would not consent that the disorders of the Church should be regulated by a free Council and that they would not submit themselves to the Decisions of the Church Are not we now again just in the same condition since the Councils of Constance and of Basil For those which have been Assembled since deserve not the name of Councils because there was no liberty in them and every thing was there done by the Inspiration not of God but the Popes France did but half free it self from this yoke for quickly after we suffered our selves to be drawn in and have been like to have been undone many a time since by it Nor do I make any great account of the Conduct of the Venetians which is so highly commended who after having known the nature of the Papacy and the Genius of this power have but half freed themselves from this slavery nay less than half They have behaved themselves in this according to their ordinary custom following moderate Councils where excess was not to be feared and where it could not be committed Consilia media quod inter ancipitia deterrimum est nec ausi sunt satis nec providerunt For they have still this Viper in their bosom which they stupifie as much as they can but he may some time or other revive and devour them They have every day a thousand difficulties with these cunning Romans who will be always spying out occasions to destroy them and to reduce them absolutely under their yoke They should renounce perfectly and for â—ver all dependance upon this See and thus shall they be better able to regulate their Clergy which is as licentious as that of Rome which they dare not reform because it would be to be feared that to maintain themselves in this Roman Libertinism they should give assistance to the Pope to oppress the Republick that they might always enjoy the full liberty of the children of the See of Rome Vulgo dissoluta gratior est quam Temperata vita vivere ut quisque velit permisit quoniam sic magna erit tali Reipublicoe faventium Magnitudo Et hoc Humanitas vocabatur ac ne pars servitutis esset c. Will any man still say Ought we not to be of the Roman Church People are not contented with being in the Catholick and Apostolick Church if they are not in the Roman they seem desirous of having a share in the Abominations of this City and of this Court but the Romans are not at all desirous to be of the Gallican Church I would fain know for what reason we should be rather of the Roman Church than the Romans of the Gallican Church Rome is not as heretofore it was the Seat of the Empire and tho it were we hold no longer of the Empire and it is a contradiction for a man to be in the Catholick Church in the Gallican and in the Roman Churches both together for the first is the General and the other two are particulars You may always have Communion with all the Romans who live in the fear of God with the Pope of Rome himself if he be a Christian but not to depend upon him nor upon Rome You shall be as the Christians of the Primitive Church were for more than six hundred years You shall pay no more Annates you shall buy no more Bulls nor Dispensations You shall be much more Catholick than before for then you may hold Communion with the Greeks and Protestants by drawing them home to the Faith of the Church whereas the See of Rome is at this time a wall of Separation between them and us CHAP. III. That the pretended Authority of the Papacy hath never done any good to the Church A Confutation of whatever is said to the advantage of this Power to prove it necessary to the world by shewing at the same time that it hath been the cause of all the Evils of the Church THEY maintain that the Papacy hath heretofore done and still doth a great deal of good to the Church and to the world this I can confute all at once by a thing which the world knows which is that we have in no place so many true Christians as in those Catholick Countries where this power is least known as in France Flanders and Germany But let us see particularly what good the Papacy doth It is a common saying that there is nothing so bad but that you may make some use of it either in its nature or in conjunction with other things Let us then examine the usefulness of the Papacy omitting nothing that can be said to its advantage It is says Cardinal Perron The Center and the root of Chriâ—tian Vnity These are fine words I confess but we shall find but very little sense in them if we a little consider them for I ask him In what this Unity doth consist and how the Pope is the center and the root of it If this Unity be in the pure service of God methinks that God should be the center of it and not the Pope and that it is also God who is the root of it that is the influencing principle over the will and strength of men to serve him and to do well If this Unity be for doing what is evil it is then but a conspiracy and I do confess that in regard of wicked Clergy-men who are the members of the Pope he is the source of all their Impiety Ambition and Dissoluteness and he is the center of the Unity of these people who belong all to him and as for themselves he is the center of their worship and would be so to all other men Palavicini says that the union and submission of all Catholicks to the Pope makes a band a life perfectly Politick Vna conjunctione di vita perfâ—tta mente Politica He says not a Christian but a Politick life and according to him it is the same thing And in another place he says the Church is the most happy Body Politick in the world Corpo Politico il piu felice che sia in terra This Unity as I said before consists only in their obedience to the Pope whom they all honour for thâ—ir profit looking upon him as the source of Riches of Honours and of all the pleasures whiâ—h they have according to the flesh Secondo la carne This Unity is in the conformity of judgment which they all make of the riches of the Churches Patrimony which is that they are good It is certain that it is not in their opinions for what Clergy-man is there who cares for the Popes
means strengthned I acknowledg that Preachers do instruct the people That to make themselves acceptable unto God and to have a share in the Kingdom of Heaven they must refrain from these evil Passions and they build this Obligation upon the Precepts of the Gospel but men acting exceedingly more by the hope and fear of present good or evil than of that which is future the efficacy of all the loveliness of a God who gave this Precept of the hope of Paradice and fear of Hell becomes extreamly weakened in them by the ill Example of those who by their Habit and Condition seem and ought to make profession of a Life more pure and disengaged from the Interests of this World. For altho they embrace not formally this Opinion That there is neither God nor Heaven nor Hell and that on the contrary they hold these Doctrines to be very true yet nevertheless this ill Example makes them act as if they did wholly reject them this damnable Example having so mortal a poison in it that it makes them believe that their Teachers being able men would themselves live conformable to these Instructions if they thought them Divine and they themselves leading not this life 't is probable that they do not believe what they preach and teach The Scripture also in many places highly enveigheth against Pastors of an ill Life the disorder of their manners being a stumbling-block to those whom they have the care of But tho the Irregularities of Pastors did not make so ill an impression upon the minds of the people whilst persons who desire to be saved and are humbled when they perceive within themselves a repugnancy to follow those ways which the Gospel hath marked out hear speak of able men and of almost whole Orders whom for instance the Gospel enjoyns to be charitable know that no more is employed that way than what remains to him who spares no cost to appear Great and to keep up his Port according to the Custom of the World and other such like Interpretations of all the Precepts of Jesus Christ do not they find themselves inclined to embrace these Explications thereby satisfying their desires and thinking to quiet their Consciences Those who favour the Papacy shall tell you That the Pope is so far from ordering such pernicious Maxims to be taught that he doth abhor them and wish with all his heart that they would teach and promote contrary ones Besides that many Popes have themselves entertained ill Opinions I will grant it for the present but the Pope who pretendeth to be the only Head of the Church and that it belongs to him alone to judge absolutely of Eâ—clesiastical things and persons not reproving them nay oftentimes shutting the mouths of those who would oppose them who sow and spread abroad such dangerous Maxims doth uphold these pernicious Opinâ—ons which we have the greater reason to believe because he withdraws the Monks and many of the Clergy from the Jurisdiction of the Bishops If it be said That he cannot silence them by reason of their too great Authority it is then manifest that the Papacy such as it is doth suffer the ill Example and these pernicious Opinions and is not able to hinder them unless it be in matters of very small importance And thus far it is an Obstacle unto Piety since no body can apply a Remedy whilst the Pope shall be acknowledged the Head and Master of the Church The Second Argument which sheweth That the Papacy is an Obstacle unto true Virtue is that it makes use of such practices as promote a false and only seeming instead of true Piety Some Catholicks do teach That Contrition is necessary to make Confession valid But this Doctrine is not much followed That which hath the Vogue and reigns most in the World is that Attrition is sufficient which is only a simple Sorrow for having sinned and that too occasioned but by the fear of Hell. The people who are instructed in this Opinion believe readily that it is an easie matter to be justified before God and so think that after having sinned a great while they shall at their Death receive Absolution of their sins by saying a Peccavi For what man is there who is not afraid of being Damned The great multitude of Plenary Indulgences and others which are as common as Water doth also marvellously contribute to the casting men into Impenitence and to make them at the same time believe that their Consciences are in safety under pretence of observing those Exercises which pass for Pious tho they are not so I could produce many other Reasons to demonstrate the Truth of what I say but let these suffice The Pope pretending to be the only Soveraign Judge of Religion not silencing these false and pernicious Teachers nay not being able to do it if he would Is not then the Papacy an Obstacle unto true Piety since it introduces a false one in its place There are good people among the Catholicks I confess but the Papacy contributes nothing to that On the contrary those who believe and live well it is God and not the Pope who is the Author of their Piety as well as of their Profession which is rather destroyed than maintained by the usual Pride and Impiety of the Popes from whence it comes that no man now a days believes but what he will so that the whole World is full of Deists Socinians Libertines and impious persons But they say That at least the Papacy doth maintain the External Vnity and that is a great Advantage Yet I deny that For what does it contribute to this outward Unity But besides that it serves only to cheat the World whilst there is no inward Unity If they mean the Unity in Ceremonies First of all this would be no great matter for Ceremonies make not the Essence of Religion but are only the out-side of it and besides they are very different according to the several Countries and the Popes are not the Authors of them If they were it were enough to condemn them Besides all this there are fewer Sects and Factions less Divisions and by consequence more Unity among the Greeks who have many Patriarchs than among us I acknowledge indeed that it is rather Ignorance that unites them than Reason or Piety Bâ—t they tell us that the Popes spare nothing for the Conversion of the Greeks and Protestants they bestow on them both Money and Benefices To that may be added That they have not spared even the Blood of Hereticks for their Conversion as History informs us But if it be their Conversion which they do heartily desire why do not they renounce the Authority which they have usurped in the Church and in the World Why do not they re-establish things in a Christian manner in the same State they were in in the days of the Apostles and of the Primitive Church Why do not they condemn the Blasphemies which are spoken in favour of
Popes but I demand what Good they do us Are there not Clergy-men enough to perform the Service without them Are there not People enough to be maintained who are really poor without the begging Monks who are the most ridiculous and the most vicious Wretches upon Earth If they are necessary to the Church as some say how comes it to pass that in the Primitive Church where there was so much Piety there were none of them or at least very few and they too quite of a contrary Character to those now a days but that now in this languishing State of the Church every place swarms with them How comes it to pass that their numbers are much less in France Flanders Germany and Poland where Christianity flourishes a thousand times more than in Italy Spain and Portugal where it is almost extinguished For tho there be Canonizations and Beatifications oftentimes performed for People of these Countries it signifies nothing else but that the Pope hath finger'd their Mony or that these Saints were in their Life-time greatly devoted to the Holy See. This is done upon false-accounts given of the Lives of these Persons by some Monks of their Order and it is very easy to impose upon People in these Countries by reason of the extream Ignorance among them and of the Inquisition which would burn those who should dare to contradict it In France where People are much more understanding and where there is greater Liberty it is not so easy to impose upon and delude the World. Besides the Protestants would not fail to discover the Cheat and to lay it open from whence also it comes to pass that there are but very few Miracles wrought in France and fewer at Paris than in any other City in the Kingdom because People are not there so easy to be deceived I do maintain and every Man that hath observed it must agree with me that there is incomparably more Vertue and solid Piety in the honest People of the World than among the Monks Converse with them and you shall find nothing but Grimace and false appearances of a Devotion that signifies nothing a base Devotion that hath nothing of true Piety applying themselves to the outward parts of Religion neglecting or else not knowing the true form of Piety and upon this they are puffed up with a value of themselves they are presumptuous full of Contempt one of another ambitious worldly and voluptuous which we see in them where they have a little Liberty as in Spain Portugal and Italy there is nothing so unruly as their Behaviour their Lives are most licentious there is no Villany nor Abomination which they do not commit In France our own Country where they are Saints in comparison there is no roguish Story of a Debauchery and Villany but they are at one end of it Compare them with our Fathers of the Oratory who are Seculars and who yet trouble themselves with Secular Affairs less than they and for Knowledg for Humility Purity and lofty Sentiments of Religion there is as great a difference as can be between a worthy and a judicious Person and a superstitious soft-pated Fellow or rather between an honest Woman and a Whore. I acknowledg that here and there you may find a Man of a great worth among the Monks but it is one among ten thousand and he must have a great deal of Strength and Courage to keep himself innocent in these places where there is so much Corruption I believe that it is much more difficult to obtain Salvation there than in the World tho to those who have not narrowly enquired into their Lives it appears otherwise They among them who are ingenious do own it tho they are ordinarily Hypocrites and would deceive and make us believe that they all agree that Men must have extraordinary measures of Grace and would perswade the World that they themselves have them The most unsufferable of them as I have already said are the Mendicants those Pharisees who act wholly contrary to what St. Paul taught and practised who would have all Christians apply themselves to labour yet they pretend to be of a better sort than the others St. Paul whom St. Augustin calls the first of all Saints says in the 20 th Chapter of the Acts ver 33. that he had coveted no Mans Silver Gold or Apparel and that his Hands had ministred to his Necessities and to those who were with him and makes his Glory to consist in this that he had been a charge to no Man He I say orders all People to labour and repeats what our Saviour had said that it is better to give than to receive Yet our lazy Monks have at this day Maxims that are quite contrary They had rather have nothing at all of their own that they may eat the Bread out of poor Peoples Mouths upon whose Sweat and Blood they live and grow fat Of all the Monks that ever I yet heard of I have a value for no Order of them but those of La Trape by the account the World gives of them First they are all kept to work they trouble not themselves with Confessions no more than the first Monks in the Primitive Times They study they haunt neither Courts nor Cities they are not covetous of Legacies nor do they pry into Peoples Wills they are not Beggars they sell not holy things they live frugally upon a wholsom Diet to keep themselves in Health which makes their Minds more fit for the Service of God they are not desirous of News nor of the Secrets of Families to make advantage by it they read the word of God carefully making holy things their ordinary Entertainment and have no Commerce at all with Women Provided that this could continue without Vanity and without Discontent it is a School of Holiness For the others I find that instead of being advantagious to the Church they dishonour it and give the Protestants just reason to despise us With People that have any Understanding these Fellows Habits make so strongly against them that Men are apt to believe that there is both extravagancy and weakness of Mind in those that wear them these are marks of Distinction which shew them not to be French Men but that they belong to another Prince What good do these ridiculous Singularities do If this Habit be necessary to make a Man really better we ought all to take it if not they are to be laughed at thus that dress up themselves and so much the more when they think they merit by it These People ought all to be reduced to one and the same Habâ—t and this ridiculous variety of diverse Habits and monstrous Fashions ought to be taken away as well as the variety of Institutions that warâ—ant some to beg and allow others to be rich and to be continually â—eâ—ping up oâ— Wealth and others to eat and drink till they buâ—st It is reasonable that they should be well clothed and fed
they were of the Humour of Tiberius who was even vexed at the abject Patience of those who were most suhmissive to his Tyranny Illum qui libertatem publicam nollet says Tacitus jam abjectae Servientium patientiae taedebat But to return to our Modern Romans when they hear the King of France called the Eldest Son of the Church whereof the Pope is the Spouse who calls Kings his Sons they esteem themselves so much the more by half and shew an equal proportion of Disrespect for those Kings For my part I was disgusted I own it when I heard them say that all Christian Kings were the Popes Children and that the King of France was his Eldest Son and my respect for Royal Majesty did as insensibly diminish as theirs for the Popes increased nor could I ever digest that Abuse to hear that such a Cardinal was Protector of France and such a one of Spain c. What thought I must pitiful Priests or Bishops who for the most part are good for nothing by the Humour of People of their own stamp become one day the Monarchs of Monarchs and their Servants Protectors and Guardian Angels of the Kings and Kingdoms of the Earth and that too against all Reason both Divine and Human Yet all the World submits to it as to an Eternal Truth I know not what Protection they give nor in what nor against whom they do protect Never was there any such Folly in the World and yet they are payed for it too But let us examine a little whether the Popes are good for Italy or no the Mischiefs they heretofore did theâ—e are notorious It is known that the Republick of Venice hath been like to be destroyed by them that they have oppressed the Liberty of the City of Rome that they have usurped and gained by Craft and Violence the greatest part of those States which they possess in Italy that which they call the Patrimony of St. Peter Vrbin Ferrara Castro and the Kingdom of Naples which they have made Tributary It is known that they exact a Tribute all over Italy by the same contrivances as from all other Catholick States that by their Inquisition they keep it in Slavery whereby these Provinces are kept in monstrous Ignorance of Religion and in so great corruption of Manners that the Vices of other Nations are Vertues to them and theirs not fit to be so much as mentioned in any other place The Italians may well say what Tacitus said speaking of another sort of Inquisition which reigned in his time at Rome Scilicet illo igne vocem Pop. Rom. libertatem Senatus Conscientiam Generis Humani aboleri arbitrabantur expulsis insuper sapientiae professoribus atque omni bonâ arte in exilium actâ ne quid usquam honestum occurreret Dedimus profectò grande patientiae documentum sicut vetus aetas vidit quid ultimum in libertate esset ita nos quid in servitute adempto per Inquisitiones loquendi audiendique commercio This is the true Representation of the Inquisition and of the Slavery which the Italians now suffer It is clear that this modern Inquisition is taken from the Example of the wicked Roman Emperours from whom they have also borrowed many other things 'T was from the Romans that they took this Maxim of keeping the People in Ignorance for among them there were those who said de actis Deorum reverentius visum est credere quà m scire It seemed a greater piece of Reverence to believe well concerning the Actions of the Gods than to know them The Popes do no good even to the City of Rome but have ruined it tho they pretend that the Romans are obliged to them for many Contrivances which they have found out to make the Water run to their Mills as amongst others the Jubilee which is a general Fair of Pardons and Indulgences but the Popes did this to get by it themselves For if the People make any Profit at this Fair by the innumerable multitude of poor Christians that come there to obtain the Popes Indulgences qui preconan vino y venden vinagro that cry Wine and sell Vinegar all that returns back into the Popes Purse and their Nephews who drain this City by an infinity of Imposts so that it is one of the poorest Towns in all Italy The People at Rome as well as the Popes having been used to live by the Folly of other Nations now know not how to apply themselves to work There remains not in all this Town one spark of their ancient Generosity and Nobleness of Mind that made them be heretofore respected more than all their Power All the greatness of those ancient Heroes is now vanished since the Priests became Governours And all those Vertues which made Rome the Admiration of the whole Earth have been succeeded by Sloth Effeminacy Sodomy the Art of poisoning Treason and all sorts of Artifices of Monkish Tricks a base and knavish Policy and they now reign by nothing but Vice and Debauchery Voluptatibus quibus illi plus adversus subjectos quam armis valent Hitherto we cannot find what the Popes are good for There are some ignorant People who say that the Church is obliged to the Popes for the holding of Councils because that without them there would be none assembled and they insist particularly upon that of Trent wherein the true Catholicks were so well tryed and established and Heresy opposed so that since that time it hath made no progress All they who have read History a little know that the Popes hate Councils more than the Devil does the Cross. We have already seen that Cardinal Julian complains of the Popes that they would not call any Councils Ne auferat says he temporalitatem nostram lest they should take away our Temporality Cardinal Palavicini says enough to confute these People in his History of the Council of Trent that the Popes ever abhorred National Councils Concilio Nationale sempre aborrito da Pontefici and another Jesuit says that in the Mystical Firmament of the Church there cannot be a Conjunction of a more dangerous Influence than that of a General Council Nel Cielo mistico della Chieza non si puo imaginar Conjunzione di piu periculosa influenza che un Synodo Generale Now for the Council of Trent in particular all they who have read the History of those Times know that it was sorely against the Popes Will that it was called and that they never consented to it till the very last extremity having a great while eluded the Instances and Remonstrances made by the Emperor the King of France and other Princes for the assembling of a Council They demanded a free Council for the Reformation of the Church and principally of the Court of Rome and to bring into the Bosom of the Church those who were gone astray from it The Court of Rome who had more reason to fear than
hope from the good Intention that appeared in many Princeâ— so desirous of a Reformation would not consent to the calling a Council till at length having without success employed their utmost skill to hinder it they at last managed the matter so that the Pope was to convene it Charles the Fifth having basely parted with the Right he had to assemble it that it should be called in an Italian Town and that the Popes Legats should have the management of the whole Affair from that time there was no good to be expected from this Assembly In truth the Popes Legates did rule all aâ—cording to their own Fancy almost all the Bishops who assisted at it were Italians and the only Mark they all hit at was more and more to establish the almighty Power of the Pope wherein they easily succeeded except in this one point God did not suffer Heresy to triumph there But as for the Popes who were the Soul and only Organ of it sending every Week the Holy Ghost in a Cloak-Bag if the Heresy of Luther would have served their turn they would have chosen it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay without all doubt if the Mahometan Religion would have conduced to the augmenting of their Power and Riches both they and all their Court would have embraced it presently This Council hath done the Church a thousand times more harm than good for it hath given the Protestants plausible Reasons of Obduracy and to us no greater assurance of the goodness of our Religion for as they carried it they made it a Work perfectly Humane Intrigue and Policy did all The Pope was there a Party and became himself the Judg. The Protestants could not be there seeing the Pope was the manager both of the Convocation and of the Suffrages which he got for Mony distributed about in Germany and Italy before the Assembly began And because he would be master some good Bishops who knew not how to manage it so well inesperti del maneggio as Cardinal Palavicini says of them offering to speak against the Popes Interest were treated many times unworthily by the Legates who gave no sort of Liberty Christian Princes as the Emperour Ferdinand Charles the Ninth and Albert Duke of Bavaria to whom they granted not one of their just Demands had no more reason to be satisfied To convince the World that it was only the advantage of the Popes which the Court of Rome sought after and not the Glory of God nor the Salvation of Men It is not necessary to relate at large all the base Intrigues which were unworthy of the Legates but only to consider the Decree which was there made against the reading of the Holy Scripture By this Decree all People were forbidden to read it without leave given them by their Ordinary who was to allow it to none but Clergy-men that is to say the People who were in possession of Benefices and whose Interest it was to maintain things in the same condition they were in Thus did the Legates forbid what God had commanded generally to the whole World. And as Tyrants live in continual fear they thought themselves not yet secure but fearing that they had granted too much they made another Decree whereby they absolutely forbad all sorts of People to read it All their fear was that by the comparing the Papacy with the Kingdom of Jesus Christ People should discover the Imposture which they have put upon the Church whose Face they have disfigured and changed its very Nature making the Government of the Church a piece of Knavery and a Device to supplant all the Kings and Princes of the World confounding Heaven with Earth and destroying all Order both Divine and Humane The Hereticks make a more Christian Use of it for tho they have been so inconsiderate as to reject many Books of the Old Testament which are Canonical as the Apocrypha yet they do not only allow but recommend the reading of them and we find them bound up with their Bibles to be there read as well as the rest I make no doubt but that if the Legates had dared to do it they would have suppressed the Holy Books or at least razed out or changed all those places that were against them as the Inquisition hath done by many of the Ancient Authors How are they who are gone away from us scandalized at such Conduct as this What shame hath it not brought upon our holy Religion they cannot look upon us without abhorrence because we suffer such Abominations Expediret ut suspenderentur molae asinariae in collis eorum ut non scandalizarent pusillos istos It were expedient that Mill stones were hanged about their Necks that they might not scandalize these little ones This Example alone proves sufficiently that it was a profane and worldly Spirit that reigned in this Councâ—l It was the same Spirit that made them give a Ball at Trent to Philip the Second where it may be said that the Pope also danced in the Persons of his venerable Legates It was also the same Spirit that made them give up Religion wholly to the Popes Fancy which is evident by this because that having made many Decrees they say that they shall be of force without prejudice to the Authority of the Apostolick See that is to say that they shall have place no farther than the Pope himself pleaseth whereby they make the Council subject to the Pope which is a devilish Heresy condemned by the Councils of Constance and Basil. The Popes did in effect get by this Council as well as by the others dispencing both with them and themselves when they pleased as Palavicini says that if the Pope should be bound to observe Laws the Fountain of his Beneficence would be half drawn dry Se'l Papo vuol osservare quelle leggi il fonte della sua Beneficenza asciugarsi per meta He says in another place that the Council would not bind his hands who was able to do all things This Worldly Spirit is yet farther to be discerned by the Ambiguity which they have affected in many places which shews us that they had oftentimes no other design than to throw Dust in our Eyes they have also forbidden that any body should pretend to interpret reserving the knowledg of them only to themselves It is then clear by this account that there is never any good to be expected from any Council which the Pope shall call together or where he or his Creatures shall preside or which shall be assembled in Italy not only because of the multitude of Italian Bishops who would spoil all but because a Council of worthy Men would not be there in safety for the Italians would run to all sorts of Excess and Violence rather than suffer that the Spiritual Empire which they claim over all other Nations should be taken from them because they come all in for a share of the Plunder just as we see the Inhabitants of
the beginning had no other Original than the Tyranny of the Pope for without these Novelties the Church would in all likelihood have joyned with them because that many People saw clearly the Cheat of the Papacy and that it had no Foundation neither in the Scripture nor in Reason but the Opâ—nions which they began then to spread abroad to which from time to time they added somewhat or other new ut nemo fit repente turpissimus put the Catholicks out of all hope and made them continue as they were and it were now foolish enough to think our selves in the wrong to acknowledg that the Protestants are right in this Article and that we have not courage enough to get off this Abuse and to detest it as well as they wherein we do great Prejudice to our selves to Religion and likewise to the Protestants whom we destroy by it for they seeing that they have Reason on their side in this Point cannot believe that we have it in others and so remain obstinante For my part as I am assured that their Religion is contrary to the Gospel so I cannot but confess and I think my self indispencibly bound in Conscience to do it that concerning the Article of the Papacy they have more Reason on their side than can be imagined But if we find that we have too little Courage or Strength to undertake to abolish and utterly destroy this Monster we ought at least to endeavour to send him home to Rome and secure our selves from all the Mischief he is able to do us and not to endure any more his Approaches I say this only to prevent the Objection which People make that it is extream difficult to bring about such an Enterprise that this great Machine is so well joyned together this Babel hath so many Props and Arches that they who should undertake to pull it down would be in danger of being swallowed up in its Ruins Mille annorum fortunâ disciplinâque compages haec coaluit quae convelli sine convellentium exitio non potest It would ever be a glorious thing both before God and Men to undertake so great a thing tho it were without success But I do not think the danger so great as People imagine for I am perswaded that this work doth not exceed the Strength of any great vigorous and zealous Prince who would manage the thing with Prudence I own that no Prince can undertake such a Work who is not assured that his Neighbours shall not oppose him and that his Clergy and People shall not be against him As for his Neighbours he may easily know their Disposition both as to their Will and the Means they have either to assist or hurt him And for the Clergy the Contrivance should be to let them peaceably enjoy their Benefices and to make them understand their Rights that according to the Gospel all Bishops are equal and that they owe to the Pope no more than to any other of their fellow Brethren that the Popes have usurped over them the Authority which they assume to themselves of giving Bulls and the Oath of Fidelity which they exact from them and that these things overturn the Gospel and that for the Oath if they have taken it to the Pope it is null in it self being against the Law of God as St. Austin says si ad peccatum admittendum fides adhibeatur mirum est si fides appelletur And for the People they must be gently used and made to understand if they are capable of Reason that all the Popes of Rome as well as other Bishops have Authority only in their Diocess according to the Gospel and ancient Canons that the Authority which they exercise serves for nothing else but to make them Masters of the whole Earth and turns to nothing but their particular Profit They must also be shewed the Disorders which this Power hath caused both in the Church and in the World as I have represented it in some places of this Work. If once the People were made to comprehend this the Monks could never do any Mischief for they are dangerous only among the People whom they govern provided they do not come nigh Princes This being done a potent and prudent Prince would easily perswade other Princes all that I have said of the Papacy of its uselesness of the Mischiefs it hath caused in the Church and in the World of the Shame which it draweth upon them by keeping them always under the Yoak of the damage which it causeth to their Estates of the Danger they are continually in depending upon the Popes Humour who can excommunicatâ— them when he pleaseth of the Account they will have to give to God for so many Souls that perish as well Catholicks as Hereticks the one by Ignorance and the others by the Obstinacy which the Papacy causeth and that Religion hath no Connection with the Papacy that we should be more Catholicks than we are if there were no Pope and that the Church would be Aristocratically governed as in the first Centuries by the way of Councils There is no Prince who hath common Sense but would joyn with another truly Catholik Prince that would propose this and by this means we should soon see the Prophecy of the Revelation fulfilled which says that the Kingdoms of the World are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign for ever and ever But say they the King and the Bishops have sworn Fidelity to the Holy See. I answer with St. Ambrose That it is ever unjust to observe an Oath made against God or our Neighbour And St. Augustin said above that if an Oath tends to a Crime it is contrary to Faith to keep it I have proved that the Papacy is a Mystery of Iniquity and that so Princes as well as others would make themselves the Instruments of the Popes Crimes of their Sin against God and of the Ruine which they draw upon the Church Seneca says very well Si in omnibus obediendum est patri in eo non est obediendum in quo efficitur ne pater sit Tho we ought in all things to obey our Father yet he is not to be obeyed in those things wherein he ceaseth to be a Father The reason then is much stronger that we ought not to obey a common High-way-man who hath deceived and seduced us to make us Complices of his Crimes When a Vow or an Oath is lawfully made yet where the thing vowed or the Oath taken doth hinder a greater Moral Good Orthodox Divines are of Opinion that the Oath is null because that we owe to God a Progrâ—â— in well doing so that we cannot deprive our selves of the Liberty of making this Progress Besides every Oath of a Christian hath this understood Provided that this be to the greater Glory of God Edification of our Neighbour and our own Salvation So that quod proptâ—r Charitatem fit non debet
thing Whensoever says he there ariseth any question in peoples minds concerning an Vniversal Synod let those who love their own Salvation consult the Apostolick Sees that they may learn the reason of what they understand not And St. Austin speaking of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage condemned by the Donaetists before whom he refused to answer says that he might reserve the whole cognizance of the thing to the judgment of his other fellow Bishops chiefly those of Apostolick Sees We have seen already that the Council of Rheimes assembled under Hugh Capet says that the Apostleship of the Bishop of Rome is not to be prâ—ferred before that of other Bishops and so his See is no more Apostolick Apolâ—inaris gives this account of the Apostleship to Fontelus Bishop of Vaison and says also that the Bishop Tricassin lived forty years in an Apostolick See. Grâ—gory of Tours calleth the Church of Bourdeaux an Apostolick See. The Council of Antioch assembled against Paulus Samosatensis calleth the Church of Antioch the Church Catholick We have say they been obliged to give unto the Catholick Church another Bishop in the room of this Heretick Nevertheless this Catholick Church was not subject to the Bishop of Rome no more than Cecilian Bishop of Carthage of whom the Emperor Constantine also said that he presided over the Church Catholick As for the quality of Bishop of Bishops which the Popes take upon themselves and which the Fathers have sometimes given to the Bishops of Rome it is like that of King of Kings in regard of those who had Kings under them The Metropolitans who were the first Bishops were thus called Chrysostome is called Father of the Fathers and Teacher of the whole World by the Emperors Theodosius And Sydonius calls Lupus Tricassin Bishop of Trequier Father of Fathers and Bishop of Bishops He also calls one Graecus Massiliensis Bishop of Marseilles by the same name and gives also the Title of Soveraign Pontife even to those sort of Bishops and to Aegrotius Bishop of Sens and to Fontelus Bishop of Vaison He says in another place that Evatrix King of the Goths having subdued all Aquitain killed all the Soveraign Pontifes that were there and that there were no other Bishops establiâ—hed in their stead The same Author calls also Mamereus Bishop of Vienne Soveraign Pontife And there also speaking of Lupus Bishop of Trequier he says he is the firâ—t Bishop of the Habitable Earth This same Sydonius having been chosen by the Clergy of Bourges to Elect and in the presence of the Archbishop of Sens to establish a Bishop at Bourges says You have giâ—en me this Commission to Elect a Bishop in the presence of our most Holy Father the Pope a man mâ—st worthy of the Soveraign Priesthood Praesente sacro sancto Papa Pontificatu summo Dignissimo So he calls Aegrotius Bishop of Sens and not the Pope of Rome We see also that St. Ignatius acknowledges no Dignity above that of a Bishop Honour the Bishop as being the chief Priest whâ— beareth the Image of God. And Pope Lâ—o acknowledgeth that above a Bishop there is no other degree The Poet Fortunatus gives St. Germain Bishop of Paris the Title of High Priest Pontifici summo nos commendare Precamur Regibus Dominis forte salutis opus As for the word Pope which these people have affected to distinguish themselves by from other Bishops it is like the word Legate or Nuncio which they give to their Embassadors and Envoys instead of using the ordinary Terms these are singular marks of vanity and pride which however have their effect on silly people who imagin by these words that the Pope is a man of a quite different kind from others You must know that this word in its Original signifies no other thing than a Priest or Bishop and that it was common heretofore to all people of this Character and even now at this day they are so called in Greece and also in Germany and the Motto of the Duke of Brunswick who stiled himself Gottes friend and Paepsten fiend signifies no less that he was an enemy to Priests than to Popes We see in the Life of St. Cyprian written by Pontianus a Deacon that he is there called Pope And in the Epistle of the Roman Clergy to St. Cyprian there are these words Cypriano Papae to Pope Cyprian and at length We desire thee most Hâ—ly and most Glorious Pope And in the Epistle of Calerin which is the 89 th in Cyprian The most Holy Pope Cyprian And Ischyras writing to Athanasius says thus Beato Papae Athanasios To the blessed Pope Athanasius Greeting I need not bring any more proofs since Baronius himself doth acknowledg and attest that this name had been common to all Bishops until the year 1070 that Gregory the Seventh that Able Pope whom we have already mentioned forbad it to be given to any other Bishop than he of Rome As for the Cardinals who are in no other See than that of Rome they in my opinion give so little advantage to it above the Sees of other Bishops speaking like a Christian that they do abase and make it infinitely less than others For what are these people They are worldly men Epicures people of pride vanity and prodigious expence there are but few of them who devour less than Three hundred thousand Livres a year after an Infamous manner and it was not without reason that the Emperor Sigismond represented to the Council of Constance that they were good for nothing in the Church and their Dignity ought to be supprest And of latter days even in the Council of Trent there were men bold enough to propose the abolishment of this Dignity or else to reduce them to their first Functions of Curates As also the Gallican Church demanded in its Remonstrances to the Council of Constance Domini Cardinales My Lords the Cardinals say they are Curates of the Parish Churches of Rome and in this respect are they called Cardinals that is to say thâ— chief of Principals And according to this Institution their chief duty is and ought to be to hear Confâ—ssions Preach and Baptise Besides there were many other Churches who as well as Rome had such like Priests as the Cardinals We see it by a Brief of the Gallican Churâ—h under Charles the Fifth It is not only Rome says this Brief which hath Cardinals but there are many other Churches who have them as that of Ravenna and who call them Cardinals who have the chief Employments in the Church And so it was in many other Churches Kingdoms and Provinces And the Cardinals were in those times under the Bishops as may be seen by the Chronicle of the Abby of St. Jean de Vignes at Soissons where Theobald Bishop of Soissons is brought in speaking of the Curate of St. John de Vignes and says Presbiter vero Cardinalis ipsius