will persist in them And yet further if there be any doubt he must manifest unto me which is the Catholick Church Thirdly to make it full Apostasie he should have convinced me to have swarved and backslidden as you know the Greek Word signifies like Iulian renouncing his Baptism and forsaken totally all Christian Religion a horrible imputation though false nor so easily proved as declaimed But I thank God daily that I am become Catholick as all our Ancestors were till of late years and as the most of Christendome still be at this present day with whom I had rather be miscalled a Papist a Traytor an Apostata or Idolater or what he will than to remain a Protestant with him still For in Protestant Religion I could never find Uniformity of a settled Faith and so no quietness of Conscience especially for three or four years before my coming away although by reading studying praying and conferring I did most carefully and diligently labour to find it among them But your contrariety of Sects and Opinions of Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists â—rotestants Puritans Cartwrightists and Brownists some of them damning each other many of them avouching their Positions to be matters of Faith for if they made them but School Questions of Opinion only they should not so much have disquieted me and all these being so contrary yet every one pretending Scriptures and arrogating the Holy Ghost in his favour And above all which did most of all trouble me about the deciding of these and all other Controversies which might arise I could not find among all these Sects any certain humane external Iudge so infallibly to interpret Scriptures and by them and by the assistance of the Holy Ghost so undoubtedly to define questions of Faith that I could assure my self and my Soul This Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in Conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his determinations of Faith for he cannot erre in those Points And note that I speak now of an external humane infallible Iudge For I know the Holy Ghost is the Divine internal and principal Iudge and the Scriptures be the Law or Rule by which that humane external Judge must proceed But the Holy Scriptures being often the Matter of Controversie and sometime questioned which be Scriptures and which be not they alone of themselves cannot be Judges And for the Holy Ghost likewise every one pretending him to be his Patron how should I certainly know by whom he speaketh or not For to Men we must go to learn and not to Angels nor to God himself immediately The Head of your Church was the Queen an excellent notable Prince but a Woman not to speak much less to be Iudge in the Church and since a learned King like King Henry the Eighth who was the first temporal Prince that ever made himself Ex Regio jure Head of the Church in Spiritual matters a new strange Doctrine and therefore justly condemned by Calvin for monstrous But suppose he were such a Head yet you all confess that he may erre in matters of Faith And so you acknowledge may your Archbishops and Bishops and your whole Clergy in their Convocation-House even making Articles and Decrees yea though a Council of all your Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. of Germany France England c. were all joyned together and should agree all which they never will do to compound and determine the differences among themselves yet by the ordinary Doctrine of most Protestants they might in such a Council err and it were possible in their Decrees to be deceived But if they may err how should I know and be sure when and wherein they did or did not err for though on the one side Aposse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquanâ—o valet and on the other side frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum So that if neither in general nor in particular in publick nor private in Head nor Members joyntly nor severally you have no visible external humane infallible Iudge who cannot err and to whom I might have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith I pray let Mr. Hall tell me Where should I have fixed my foot for God is my Witness my Soul was like Noah's Dove a long time hovering and desirous to discover Land but seeing nothing but moveable and troublesome deceivable Water I could find no quiet center for my Conscience nor any firm Foundation for my Faith in Protestant Religion Wherefore hearing a sound of Harmony and Consent That the Catholick Church could not err and that only in the Catholick Church as in Noah's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation I was so occasioned and I think had important reason like Noah's Dove to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah Hereupon I was occasioned to doubt Whether the Church of England were the true Church or not For by consent of all the true Church cannot err but the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People as before is said yea a whole Council of Protestants by their own grant may err ergo no true Church If no true Church no salvation in it therefore come out of it but that I was loth to do Rather I laboured mightily to defend it both against the Puritans and against the Catholicks But the best Arguments I could use against the Puritans from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient Doctors interpreting Scriptures against them when they could not answer them they would reject them for Popish and flye to their own arrogant spirit by which forsooth they must control others This I found on the one side most absurd and to breed an Anarchy of confusion and yet when I came to answer the Catholick Arguments on the other side against Protestants urging the like Authority and Vniformity of the Church I perceived the most Protestants did frame evasions in effect like those of the Puritans inclining to their private Spirit and other uncertainties Next therefore I applyed my self to follow their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in essental Points and the differences to be accidential confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed and to this end I laboured much to reconcile most of our particular controversies But in truth I found such contrarieties not only between Catholicks and Protestants but even among Protestants themselves that I could never settle my self fully in this Opinion of some reconciliation which I know many great Scholars in England did favour For considering so many opposite great Points for which they did excommunicate and put to death each other and making the Pope to be Antichrist proper or improper it could never sink into my Brain how these two could be descendent or Members sound nor unsound
first it must be declared whether you mean the Catholick Church or a true part of the Catholick Church For there is not the like reason of these to error Against the Catholick Church Hell Gates shall not prevail against particular when Christ doth remove the Candlestick out of his place they do Witness the Churches of Africk sometimes most Catholick And thus it seems you must take this term since your doubt was Whether the Church of England be of the true Church or no. Besides I must desire to know what manner of Errors you mean whether even the least or only deadly and such as bar from salvation which the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 heresies of perdition 2 Pet. 2.1 Take now your own choice for if you speak of every errour the Proposition is false even of the Catholick Church much more of any particular Church Yea I add further not only of the Catholick Church by denomination from the greatest part or by representation as the Pastors or Prelates thereof met in a Council which is still the mixt Church but even that which is Christs true body whereof he is the Saviour and which shall be with him for ever As for deadly and damnable errors this true and properly called Church both in the whole and every part of the mixt Church is yet priviledged from them finally For it is kept by the power of God to salvation it is not possible the Elect should thus be seduced Truth it is That by such errors particular visible Assemblies universally and obstinately defending them become falsly called Churches from which we are to separate our selves Example in the Synagogue and in Churches of the Arians Now let us see your Assumption But the Church of England Head and Members King Clergy and People yea a whole Council of Protestants may err by your own grant I answer The Church of England that is the Elect in the Church of England which only are truly called the Church can never deadly err This no Protestant will grant ye The mixt Church of England Head Members King Clergy and the residue of the people and a whole Council of Protestants may err damnably and therefore much more fall into lesser errors This they grant And if they shall so err obstinately they shall deservedly lose the name of a trâ—e Church But they deny they do thus err yea they deny that they err de facto at all What follows in Conclusion Ergo No true Church This shortness in suppressing the Verb would make a Man think you meant to cover the fault of your Discourse And indeed you might by that means easily beguile another but I cannot be perswaded you would willingly beguile your self Sure you were beguiled if you meant it thus Ergo it is no true Church See your Argument in the like A faithful Witness cannot lye But Socrates or Aristides may lye by his own grant Ergo no faithful Witness He that stands upright cannot fall But you Mr. Waddesworth by your own grant may fall Ergo stand not upright Perhaps your meaning was Ergo it may become no â—rue Church to wit when it shall so err damnably But then it follows not There is now no salvation in it and therefore come out of it now When you shew that I shall account â—ou have done wisely to go out of it Shew â—â—at in any one Point and take me with â—ou In the mean while for my part I shall sooner trust that Chapman that shall say to me Lo here is a perfect Yard I will measure as truly as I can and when I have done take the Yard and measure it your self than him that shall say here is thus much ye shall not need to measure it but take it on my Word Yea though one of his Apprentices should stand by and say he could not deceive me though he would as Benedictus à Benedictis tells the present Pope Volens nolens errare non potâ—s Where you relate your endeavour to defend the Church of England and tell of the Puritans rejecting those Arguments you could use from the Authority of the Church and of the ancient â—octors interpreting Scriptures against them flying to their own arrogant Spirit I cannot excuse them for the former nor subscribe to your accusation in the latter Perhaps you have met with some more fanatical Brownists or Anabaptists whom here you call Puritans But these that are commonly so called which differ from the Church of England about Church Government and Ceremonies only give indeed too little to the Authority of Men how holy learned or ancient soever Which is their fault and their great fault especially in matters of this nature yet they fly not to their own Spirit as you charge them That which you add That you perceived the most Protestants did frame the like evasions when you came to answer the Arguments against them on the other side When you shall shew this in particulars I shall believe it In the mean while I believe you thought so for commonly mediocrities are aggravated with the hatred and slandered with the names of both extreams But in the question between the Popish faction and us you might easily have discerned why the Argument from bare Authority is not of such validity For Ceremonies and matters of order may be ordered by wise Men and are not the worse but the better if they be ancient yea if they be common to us with Rome which Puritans will by no means allow In Doctrine if holy Men yea if an Angel from Heaven shall innovate any thing we are not to admit it Now the Controversies between the Romanists and us are most about Doctrine and they exceed as much in extolling the authority of the Ancients in their private Opinions and incommodious and strained speeches as the Puritans in depressing them We hold the mean and give as much to the Authority and Testimonies of the Fathers as may stand with the truth of Holy Scriptures and as themselves defer to the writing of others or require to be given to their own Next you tell of your following their Opinion who would make the Church of England and the Church of Rome still to be all one in Essential Points and the differences to be accidental Confessing the Church of Rome to be a true Church though sick or corrupted and the Protestants to be derived from it and reformed This Opinion is not only as you write favoured of many great Scholars in England but is the common Opinion of all the best Divines of the reformed Churches that are or have been in the World as I shewed in part of another Work which as I remember you had a sight of Wherein yet I fear you mistake the term accidental which doth not import that our differences are but slight and of small consideration but that all those Opinions and Abuses which we reform and cut off are not of the Faith but superfluous and foreign yea
to go and second their desire They found the Bishop lying in his own Vomit and saw a sad change in that House which was before a House of Prayer and of Good Works but was now a Den of Thieves and a Nest of uncleanness The Bishop when he was awakened out of his Drunkenness excepted a little to it and said The Church-Yard was holy Ground and was no more to be defiled with Heretick's Bodies yet he consented to it at last So on the 9 th of February he was buried according to the direction himself had given next his Wife's Coffin The Irish did him unusual honours at his Burial for the chief of the Rebells gathered their Forces together and with them accompanyed his Body from Mr. Shereden's House to the Church-yard of Kilmore in great solemnity and they desired Mr. Clogy to bury him according to the Office prescribed by the Church but though the Gentlemen were so civil as to offer it yet it was not thought adviseable to provoke the Rabble so much as perhaps that might have done so it was past over But the Irish discharged a Volley of Shot at his Interment and cryed out in Latin Requiescat in pace ultimus Anglorum May the last of the English rest in peace for they had often said That as they esteemed him the best of the English Bishops so he should be the last that should be left among them Thus lived and dyed this excellent Bishop in whom so many of the greatest Characters of a Primitive and Apostolical Bishop did shew themselves so eminently that it seemed fit that he should still speak to the World though dead both for convincing the unjust enemies of that venerable Order and for the instruction of those that succeed him in it since great Patterns give the easiest notions of eminent Vertues and teach in a way that has much more authority with it than all speculative Discourses can possibly have And as the Lives of the Primitive Christians were a speaking Apology for their Religion as well as a direction to those that grew up so it is to be hoped that the solemn though silent language of so bright an Example will have the desired effect both wayes And then my Author will have a noble reward for his Labours To this I shall add a little of his Character He was a tall and graceful person there was something in his looks and carriage that discovered what was within and created a veneration for him He had an unaffected Gravity in his Deportment and decent Simplicity in his Dress and Apparel He had a long and broad Beard for my Author never saw a Razor pass upon his Face His grey Hairs were a Crown to him both for Beauty and Honour His Strength continued firm to the last so that the Week before his last sickness he walked about as vigorously and nimbly as any of the Company and leapt over a broad Ditch so that his Sons were amazed at it and could scarce follow him His Eyes continued so good that he never used Spectacles nor did he suffer any decay in any of his natural Powers only by a fall in his Childhood he had contracted a deafness in his left Ear. He had great Strength and Health of Body except that a few years before his death he had some severe Fits of the Stone that his sedentary course of life seemed to have brought on him which he bore with wonderful patience The best Remedy that he found for it was to dig in his Garden till he had very much heated himself by which he found a mitigation of his Pain He took much pleasure in a Garden and having brought over some curious Instruments out of Italy for Racemation Engrafting and Inoculating he was a great Master in the use of them His Judgment and Memory as they were very extraordinary so they remained with him to the last He alwayes preached without Notes but often writ down his Meditations after he had preached them He did not affect to shew any other learning in his Sermons but what was proper for opening his Text and clearing the difficulties in it which he did by comparing the Originals with the most ancient Versions His Stile was clear and full but plain and simple for he abhorred all affectations of pompous Rhetorick in Sermons as contrary to the simplicity of Christ. His Sermons did all drive at the great design of infusing in the Hearts of his Hearers right apprehensions and warm thoughts of the great things of the Christian Religion which he did with so much the more authority because it appeared that he was much moved himself with those things that he delivered to others He was always at work in his Study when the affairs of his Function did not lead him out of it In which his chief imployment was the study of the Text of the Scripture He read the Hebrew and the Septuagint so much that they were as familiar to him as the English Translation He read every Morning the Psalms appointed by the Common Prayer for the day in Hebrew or if his Son or any other that was skilled in the Hebrew was present he read one Verse out of the Hebrew turning it into Latin and the other read the next and so by turns till they went through them He had gathered a vast heap of critical Expositions of Scripture All this with his other Manuscripts of which there was a great Trunk full fell into the Hands of the Irish. He had writ very learned Paraphrases and Sermons on all those parts of Scripture that were prescribed to be read in the second Service but all these are lost His great Hebrew Manuscript was happily rescued out of the hands of those devourers of all sacred Things and is to this day preserved in the Library of Emmanuel Colledge for an Irishman whom he had converted went among his Country Men and brought out that and a few other Books to him Every day after Dinner and Supper there was a Chapter of the Bible read at his Table whosoever were present Protestants or Papists and Bibles were laid down before every one of the Company and before himself either the Hebrew or Greek and in his last years the Irish Translation was laid and he usually explained the difficulties that occurred He writ many Books of Controversie which was chiefly occasioned by the engagements that lay on him to labour much in the conversion of persons of the Roman Communion and the knowledge he had of that Church and their way of Worship by what he had seen and observed while he was at Venice raised in him a great zeal against their corruptions He not only look'd on that Church as Idolatrous but as the Antichristian Babylon concerning which S. Iohn saw all those Visions in the Revelation And of this the Sermon out of which I have made some extracts gives Evidence He writ a large Treatise in answer to those two Questions in which the Missionaries of
fall to challenge not only the infallibility but which were more dangerous the Authority of their Judge If it be thought better to leave scope to Opinions opposition it self profitably serving to the boulting out of the Truth If Unity in all things be as it seems despaired of by this your Gellius himself why are we not content with Vnity in things necessary to Salvation expresly set down in Holy Scripture And anciently thought to suffice reserving Infallibility as an honour proper to God speaking there Why should it not be thought to suffice that every Man having imbraced that necessary Truth which is the Rule of our Faith thereby try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. If he meet with any that hath not that Doctrine receive him not to House nor salute him If consenting to that but otherwise infirm or erring yet charitably bear with him This for every private Man As for the publick order and peace of the Church God hath given Pastors and Teachers that we should not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine and amongst them appointed Bishops to command that Men teach no other or foreign Doctrine which was the end of Timothy his leaving at Ephesus 1 Tim. 1.3 Then the Apostles themselves by their example have commended to the Church the wholesome use of Synods to determine of such controversies as cannot by the former means be composed but still by the Holy Scriptures the Law or Rule as you say well by which all these Iudges must proceed Which if they do not then may they be deceived themselves and deceive others as experience hath shewed yet never be able to extinguish the truth To come to Antiquity There is not any one thing belonging to Christian Religion if we consider well of more importance than how the purity of the whole may be maintained The Ancients that write of the rest of Christian Doctrine is it not a miracle had they known any such infallible Judge in whose Oracle the security of all with the perpetual tranquillity of the Church is contained they should say nothing of him There was never any Age wherein there have not been Heresies and Sects to which of them was it ever objected that they had no infallible Judge How soon would they have sought to amend that defect if it had been a currant Doctrine in those times that the true Church cannot be without such an Officer The Fathers that dealt with them why did they not lay aside all disputing and appeal them only to this Barr Unless perhaps that were the lett which Cardinal Bellarmine tells the Venetians hindred S. Paul from appealing to S. Peter Lest they should have made their Adversaries to laugh at them for their labour Well howsoever the Cardinal hath found out a merry reason for S. Paul's appealing to Caesars Judgment not Peter's lest he should expose himself to the laughter of Pagans what shall we say when the Fathers write professedly to instruct Catholick Men of the forepleadings and advantages to be used against Hereticks even without descending to tryal by Scriptures or of some certain general and ordinary way to discern the Truth of the Catholick Faith from the prophane novelties of Heresies Had they known of this infallible Judge should we not have heard of him in this so proper a place and as it were in a cause belonging to his own Court Nay doth not the writing it self of such Books shew that this matter was wholly unknown to Antiquity For had the Church been in possession of so easie and sure a course to discover and discard heresies they should not have needded to task themselves to find out any other But the truth is infallibility is and ever hath been accounted proper to Christs judgment And as hath been said all necessary Truth to Salvation he hath delivered us in his Word That Word himself tells us shall judge at the last day Yea in all true decisions of Faith that word even now judgeth Christ judgeth the Apostle sits Iudge Christ speaks in the Apostle Thus Antiquity Neither are they moved a whit with that Objection That the Scriptures are often the matter of Controversies For in that case the remedy was easie which S. Augustine shews to have recourse to the plain places and manifest such as should need no interpreter for such there be by which the other may be cleared The same may be said if sometimes it be questioned Which be Scriptures which not I think it was never heard of in the Church that there was an external infallible Judge who could determine that question Arguments may be brought from the consent or dissent with other Scriptures from the attestation of Antiquity and inherent signs of Divine Authority or humane infirmity but if the Auditor or Adversary yield not to these such parts of necessity must needs be laid aside If all Scripture be denied which is as it were exceptio in judicem ante litis contestationem Faith hath no place only reason remains To which I think it will scarce seem reasonable if you should say Though all Men are lyers yet this Iudge is infallible and to him thou oughtest in conscience to obey and yield thy understanding in all his Determinations for he cannot err No not if all Men in the World should say it Unless you first set down there is a God and stablish the authority of the Books of Holy Scripture as his voice and thence shew if you can the warrant of this priviledge Where you affirm The Scriptures to be the Law and the Rule but alone of themselves cannot be Iudges If you mean without being produced applied and heard you say truth Yet Nicodemus spake not amiss when he demanded Doth our Law judge any Man unless it hear him first he meant the same which S. Paul when he said of the High Priest thou sittest to judge me according to the Law and so do we when we say the same Neither do we send you to Angels or God himself immediately but speaking by his Spirit in the Scriptures and as I have right now said alledged and by discourse applyed to the matters in question As for Princes since it pleased you to make an excursion to them if we should make them infallible Judges or give them Authority to decree in Religion as they list as Gardiner did to King Henry the Eight it might well be condemned for monstrous as it was by Calvin As for the purpose Licere Regi interdicere populo usum calicis in Coena Quare Potestas n. summa est penes Regem quoth Gardiner This was to make the King as absolute a Tyrant in the Church as the Pope claimed to be But that Princes which obey the truth have commandment from God to command good things and forbid evil not only in matters pertaining to humane society but also the Religion of God This is no new strange Doctrine but Calvins and
might have cleared all controversies and put all Heresies to silence How durst sundry holy and learned Men have rejected his decisions whether right or wrong is not now the question unchristianly out of doubt on their parts if he had been then holden the infallible Oracle of our Religion As when Polycrates with the Bishops of Asia and Irenaeus also yielded not to Victor excommunicating the Eastern Churches about the celebration of Easter when S. Cyprian with the first Council of Carthage of eighty six Bishops had Decreed That such as were baptized by Hereticks should be rebaptized and certified Stephanus of this Decree and he opposed it and would have nothing innovated would Cyprian after that have resisted and confuted Stephanus his Letter had he known him for infallible And how doth he confute him as erring writing impertinently contrary to himself Yea let it be observed that he doth not only not account Stephanus infallible but not so much as a Judge over any Bishop See the Vote of Cyprian and note those Words Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se esse Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigit quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis potestatis suae arbitrium proprium tanquam judicari ab alio non possit cum nec ipse possit alterum judicare Sed exspectemus universi judicium Domini nostri Iesu Christi qui unus solus habet potestatem praeponendi in Ecclesiae suae gubernatione de actu nostro judicandi A passage worthy to be noted also for the clearing of the independence of Episcopal Authority from the Pope which I now let pass Neither was S. Cyprian herein alone Firmilianus and the Eastern Bishops resisted Stephanus no less as appears by his Epistle which in the Roman Edition of Manutius set forth by the command of Pius the Fourth with the survey of four Cardinals whereof one is now a Saint with exquisite diligence is wholly left out And Pamelius saith he thinks purposely for himself is of the mind that it had been better it had never come forth But to return to our purpose The Fathers of the Council of Africk and S. Augustine amongst them resist three Popes succeeding each other Zosimus Boniface and Coelestinus about appeals to Rome shall we think they would ever have done it if they had known or imagined them to be the supream and infallible Judges in the Church I let pass the Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church which had not happened if this Doctrine had been anciently received Nay it is very plain in Story that the Bishop of Rome's lifting up himself to be universal Bishop chiefly caused it To conclude neither Liberius nor Honorius to omit many other Bishops of Rome had ever been taxed of heresie if this had anciently been currant that the Pope is infallible I will not stand now to examine the shameful defence that Bellarmine makes for the latter of these bearing down Fathers Councils Stories Popes themselves as all falsified or deceived herein Wherein because he is learnedly refuted by Dr. Raynolds I insist not upon it This I press That all those Writers and Councils and amongst them Pope Leo the Second accursing Honorius did not then hold that which by Pighius and the Iesuites is undertaken that the Pope is infallible Even the Council of Basil deposing Eugenius for obstinately resisting this Truth of the Catholick Faith That the Council is above the Pope as an Heretick doth shew the sense of Christendom even in these latter times how corrupt soever both in Rule and Practice And because you make this infallible Judge to be also an infallible Interpreter of Holy Scripture how happens it that Damasus Bishop of Rome consults with Hierome about the meaning of sundry Texts of Scripture when it seems himself might have taken his Pen and set him down quickly that which should have taught both him and the whole Church not only without danger but even possibility of error Sure we are little beholding to the diligence of our Ancestors that have not more carefully registred the Comentaries or because they have had for sundry Ages small time to write just Commentaries the Expositions which in their Sermons or otherwise the Bishops of Rome have made of Holy Scripture A work which if this Doctrine were true were more worth than all the Fathers and would justifie that blasphemy of the Canon Law where by a shameful corruption of S. Augustine the Decretals of Popes are inrolled amongst the Canonical Scriptures I am already too long in so plain a matter Yet one proof more which is of all most sensible Being admonished by this your conceit of an infallible Interpreter I chanced to turn over the Popes Decretals and observed the interpretation of Scriptures What shall I say I find them so lewd and clean beside the purpose yea oftentimes so childish and ridiculous both in giving the sense and in the application that I protest to you in the presence of God nothing doth more loath me of Popery than the handling of Holy Scripture by your infallible Interpreter alone Consider a few of the particulars and especially such as concern the Popes own Authority To justifie his exacting an Oath of Fealty of an Archbishop to whom he grants the Pall is brought our Lord Iesus Christ who committing the care of his Sheep to Peter did put too a condition saying Si diligis me pasce oves meas Christ said If thou lovest me feed my Sheep Why may not the Pope say If you will swear me fealty you shall have the Pall. But first he corrupts the Text Christ said not If thou lovest me Then Christ puts not Peters love as a condition of Feeding but feeding as a proof and effect of his love And if the feeding of Christs sheep were sought love to him and them might suffice to be professed or if he would needs have more than Christ required to be sworn What is this to the Oath of Fealty Straight after to the Objection that all Oaths are prohibited by Christ nor any such thing can be found appointed by the Apostles after the Lord or in the Councils he urges the Words following in the Text Swear not at all quod amplius est à malo est that is saith he Evil compels us by Christs permission to exact more Is it not evil to go from the Popes obedience to condemn Bishops without his privity to translate Bishops by the Kings commandment See the place and tell me of your Interpreters Infallibility Treating of the Translation of Bishops or such as are elected unto other Sees he saith That since the spiritual Band is stronger than the carnal it cannot be doubted but Almighty God hath reserved the dissolution of the spiritual Marriage that is betwixt a Bishop and his Church to his own judgment alone charging that whom God hath joyned man
as Pope in his own Law intending to inform and bind the Church and that in matters with him of the greatest importance that may be touching his own Authority and as he pretends absolutely necessary to Salvation to all the Sons of Adam I might heap up many more but these may suffice for a sample You may and so do by your self I beseech you observe these kind of Interpretations in other Points also and in other the Decretals and Breves of Popes which as I hear are lately come forth in great Volumes You shall find many Mysteries in your Faith that perhaps you know not of as That you cannot please God because you are married for so is that place of the Apostle interpreted qui in carne vivunt Deo placere non possunt That not only the Wine in the Chalice but the Water also is transubstantiated first into Wine then into Christs blood That it was not watry moisture but the true element of Water which issued out of Christs side You shall find confession of sins to the Priest proved by the Text Corde creditur ad justitiam ore autem fit confessio ad salutem That the good Ground that received the Seed in the Gospel is the Religion of the Friers Minors That this is that pure and immaculate Religion with God and the Father which descending from the Father of Lights delivered exemplariter verbaliter by the Son to his Apostles and then inspired by the Holy Ghost into S. Francis and his Followers contains in it self the Testimony of the Trinity This is that which as S. Paul witnesseth no Man must be troublesome unto which Christ hath confirmed with the prints of his Passion The Text is de caetero nemo mihi molestus sit ego n. stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore meo porto It is marvel if S. Paul were not of the Order of S. Francis That when Christ said Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus dicbus he meant it of remaining and being with them even by his bodily presence S. Augustine upon the same Text denies this and saith that according to the presence of his Body he is ascended into Heaven and is not here That the Father of the Child Christned and his Godfathers Wife may not marry because according to the Lords Word the Husband and the Wife are made one flesh by marriage That the number of Four doth well agree to the degrees prohibited in corporal marriage of which the Apostle saith The Man hath not the power of his own body but the Woman nor the Woman power of her body but the Man because there are four humours in the body which consist of the four Elements For Conclusion you shall find it by a commodious interpretation concluded contrary to many Texts of Scripture out of Scripture it self that no simple and unlearned Man presume to reach to the subtlety of the Scripture because well it was enacted in the law of God that the Beast which should touch the Mountain should be stoned For it is written Seek not things higher than thy self For which cause the Apostle saith Be not more wise than it behoveth but be wise to sobriety One thing more also you shall find that now adays this spiritual Man and sole infallible Interpreter of Scripture seldom interprets Scripture or uses it in his Decretals and Breves Nay the stile of his Court hath no manner of smack or savor of it A long compass of a Sentence intricate to understand yea even to remember to the end full of swelling Words of Vanity with I know not how many ampliations and alternatives after the fashion of Lawyers in Civil Courts not of sober Divines much less of the Spirit of God in his Word Some Man would perhaps think this proceeds from an affectation of greatness and the desire of retaining Authority which seems to be embased by alledging reason or Scripture and interpreting Texts For my part I account it comes as much from necessity For it is notorious That neither the Popes themselves nor those of the Court the Secretaries and Dataries which pen their Bulls and Breves have any use or exercise in Holy Scripture or soundness in the knowledge of Divinity or skill in the Original Tongues wherein Gods Word is written all which are necessary to an able Interpreter And therefore it is a wise reservedness in them not to intermeddle with that wherein they might easily fault especially in a learned Age and wherein so many watchful Eyes are continually upon them And to this very poverty and cautelousness I do impute it That the present Pope in his Breves about the Oath of Allegiance useth not a Word of Scripture But tells his Faction that they cannot without most evident and grievous injury of Gods honour take the Oath the tenour whereof he sets down Word for Word and that done adds Quae cum ita sint c. Which things saith he since they be so it must needs be clear unto you out of the Words themselves that such an Oath cannot be taken with the safety of the Catholick Faith and of your Souls sith it containeth many things which are apparently contrary to Faith and salvation He instances in no one thing brings neither Scripture nor Reason but a Quae cum ita sint without any premisses Which loose and undergrounded Proceeding when as it is occasioned the Arch-Priest here and many other of that side to think these Letters forged or gotten by surreption he sends another of the same tenor with this further Reason Haec autem est mora pura integraque voluntas nostra This is now to be more than an Interpreter even to be a Lord over the Faith of his Followers to make his Will a Reason What would you have him do to alledge a better he could not a weak and unsufficient one he was ashamed he thought it best to resolve the matter into his sole Authority Whereby he hath proved himself a fallible both Iudge and Interpreter yea a false witness against God and the Truth commanding by the Apostle Christian Men to be subject and to give every Man their dues fear to whom fear honour to whom honour and much more if there be any difference Allegiance to whom Allegiance CHAP. IV. Of the state of the Church of England and whether it may be reconciled with Rome BUt of your Interpreters Infallibility enough Your next doubt Whether the Church of England were of the true Church or no was resolved with a Paralogism partly by reason of equivâ—â—â—tion and diverse acception of the terms The Church and to err partly by composition and division in the connexion of these by those Verbs can or may Let us examine the several parts of your Syllogisme The Proposition The true Church cannot â—rr is confirmed by the consent of all Excuse me Sir if I withhold my consent without some Declaration and Limitation I say
of the Leaves the number he saith will rise to thirty thousand by which Iohn Fox his Book will as much exceed Iohn Sleidans Story in number of lyes in which were found only eleven thousand as it doth in bulk and bigness This manner of writing of these Men brings to my mind that which Sir Thomas More writes of Tyndals New Testament wherein he saith Were founden and noted wrong and falsely translated above a thousand Texts by tale The Language is like and the cause is the same Men were loth these Books should be read The substance of them was such as could not be controlled The next remedy was to forestal the Readers minds with a prejudice of falsification that so they might not regard them but cast them out of their Hands of their own accord The Vulgar sort would be brought out of conceit at the first hearing with vehement accusation Even wise Men would suppose though there should not be any thing near so many wilful faults yet surely there must needs be a very great number and that could not happen but with a very bad meaning this admitted who would vouchsafe them the reading And in truth among those that favour the reformed part I have met with some that out of this buz of falsification in the Lord of Plessis Book cared not for reading it whereby may be thought in what account it should be with all those who esteem all F. Parsons Libels to be Oracles But shortly Sith neither the Cardinal Perone nor F. Parsons have had the means or will to decypher those hundreds and thousands of falsifications in Sleidan Bishop Iewel Mr. Fox or Plessis in these so many years as have run since they wrote and as for the last he hath set forth the Book again with all the Authorities at large in the Margent in the Authors own Words and hath answered all those that bayed at it till they are silent what remains but that we count this multiplying of F. Parsons may be joyned with Aequivocation to make up the art of Falshood wherein he and his Faction may justly claim to be the worthiest Professors in the World But without any multiplication or other Arithmetick in the fifth page of that Relation of his in the seven first Lines are four notorious I will not say lyes or falsifications but falshoods by tale The First That the tryal being begun upon the first place that was found false The French Discourse printed at Antwerp Cum privilegio and approbation of the Visitor of Books saith And as to the said first Article nothing was judged thereabout by the said Commissioners nor pronounced by my said Lord the Chancellor and the King said that it should be remitted to another time to deliberate thereabout The Second He that is Plessis would have passed to the second but the Bishop refused so to do except the Ministers and Protestants there present would first subscribe and testifie that this first place was falsified He said in the page before that Plessis appeared at last with some four or five Ministers on his side There were no Ministers appeared with him on his side No Protestants no creature did subscribe or was required so to do The third Which at length they did viz. subscribe this place was falsified An utter untruth Whereof there is not a Word in the said printed Narration The fourth As well in this as in all the rest There was no subscription as I said at all The Commissioners were all of the Roman profession saving Casaubon and he no Minister They never pronounced much less subscribed that any of those places examined were falsified Of the first place of Scotus they pronounced nothing Of the second of Durand That the opposition of Durand was alledged for the resolution And this they would have remitted also as the former to another time save that the Bishop insisted saying it was in vain to dispute if they would not judge Addressing his Speech divers times to the King to the intent he should signifie his pleasure to the Commissioners and then his Majesty drawing near to them they gave their Opinions upon that Article as before This was that which F. Parsons stumbled at when he wrote The Ministers and Protestants there present subscribed and testified that it was falsified and so all the rest For being overjoyed with this News which he did not well understand to think the charitablest of him he thought the Commissioners had been part at least Protestants and Ministers And had subscribed whereas they pronounced their Sentence vivâ voce by the Mouth of the Chancellor never using the term falsification yea in some of the rest they acquitted the Lord of Plessis as in the passage of P. Crinitus though they said Crinitus was deceived In that of Bernard that it had been good to distinguish the two passages of S. Bernard out of the same Book with an caetera Not to stand now upon that that in the rest of the places he hath a reasonable and just defence with indifferent Men for the omissions he was charged with in Chrysostome Hierome Bernard and Theodoret And in that of Cyril the King himself said aloud tha both sides had reason But F. Parsons not having as it appears received perfect information of the particularities of this affair was so hasty to write according to the partial intelligence he received at Rome that he faults himself in the same kind that he imputes to another And if he should meet with some severe Adversary that would multiply his falshoods by his leaves and lines as he dealeth with Mr. Fox and then extend by proportion his Pamphlet to the bigness of Mr. Fox his Book of Martyrs he would find that he provides very ill for himself that is too rigorous and censorious to other Men. But I leave him and come to the fidelity of the Popish Faction whereof I shall desire you to take a taste in one of the questions which you name about the Church even that which is indeed cardo negotii as you say the controversie of the Popes authority For the establishing whereof First the Epistles of the ancient Bishops of Rome for the space of about three hundred years after Christ are counterfeited The Barbarous not Latine but lead of the stile and the likeness of them all one to another the deep silence of Antiquity concerning them the Scriptures alledged after Hierom's translation do convince them of Falshood and by whose practice and procurement we cannot doubt if we ask but as Cassius was wont cui bono For at every bout the Authority of the Pope and priviledges of the Roman See are extolled and magnified Next the Donation of Constantine is a senseless forgery and so blazed by some of the learnedest of the Roman Church Read it advisedly either in Gratian or in the Decrees of Sylvester with the Confession and Legend of Constantines baptism and say out of your own judgment if ever any thing
or Soul and Faith of the Receiver Sometimes they will bear down the unexpert Souldier their Reader that he sees the Fathers fight for them as Pighius and Bellarmine come in often with their Vides in the end and application of a Testimony Whereby it comes to pass that the Scholar if he be of a plyable disposition or loth to be counted dim-sighted yields himself to his Teacher and sees in the Fathers that which they never dreamed of But surely Sir had you given that honour to the Holy Scriptures which of the Jews was given to them and our Lord Jesus Christ allows it in them and then employed as much travel in the searching and looking into them as you profess to have done in the perusing the Councils and Fathers perhaps God had opened your Eyes as those of Elisha his Servant to have seen that there are more on our side than against us Horses indeed and Chariots of Fire able to put to flight and scatter never so great Armies of humane Authorities and Opinions But this place of the Scriptures hath no place amongst all your Motives As touching that which you say of the Centurists often censuring and rejecting the plain Testimonies of the Antients It is true that in the title De Doctrina they note apart The singular and incommodious Opinions the Stubble and Errors of the Doctors Wherein to tell you my fancy If they commit any fault it is That they are too rigid and strict referring into this Catalogue every improper and excessive Speech which being severed from the rest of the discourse may often seem absurd As it may also seem strange that our Saviour should teach a Man to hate his Father and Mother or pull out his Eyes or give him his Cloak that hath bereaved him of his Coat Whereas these and the like have in the place where they stand admirable force and grace being taken with an equal and commodious Interpretation But it is as clear as the Noon day that sundry such errors and singular Opinions there be in the Fathers as cannot be justified They speak not alwayes to your own Minds not only prima facie and in sound of Words but being never so well examined and salved Witness Sixtus Senensis in the fifth and sixth Books of his Bibliotheca Witness Pamelius Medina though blamed for confessing so much by Bellarmine yea witness Bellarmine himself Wherefore if the bare Authority of the Fathers must bind us undergo the same Law ye give if as your Belgick Index confesseth you bear in them with many errors extenuate them excuse them by devising some shift often deny them and give them a commodious sense when they are opposed in Disputations give the liberty ye take Or if as we think these be base courses and unbeseeming the ingenuity of true Christian minds acknowledge this honour as proper to the Scriptures to be without controversie received examine by the true Touchstone of Divine Authority all humane Writings how holy soever their Authors have been Try all things as the Apostle commands hold fast that which is good Your instance in Danaeus his Commentaries super D. Aug. Enchiridon ad Laurentium was not all the best chosen For neither doth S. Augustine in that Book treating professedly of Purgatory avouch it plainly or yet obscurely Nor doth Danaeus reject his Opinion with those Words Hic est naevus Augustini or the like The Heads of S. Augustines Discourse are these I. That whereas some thought that such as are baptized and hold the Faith of Christ though they live and dye never so wickedly shall be saved and punished with a long but not eternal fire he thinks them to be deceived out of a certain humane pity for this Opinion is flatly contrary to other Scriptures II. He interprets the place of S. Paul touching the trying of every Mans Work by fire of the fire of tribulation through which as well he that builds Gold and Silver that is minds the things of God as he that builds Hay and Stubble that is too much minds the things of this life must pass III. He saith that it is not incredible that some such thing is done after this life also and whether it be so or not may be enquired of IV. But whether it be found or no that some faithful people according as they have more or less loved these perishing things are later or sooner saved yet not such as of whom it is said that they shall not possess the Kingdom of God unless repenting as they ought they obtain forgiveness as for the purpose be fruitful in Almes which yet will not serve to purchase a licence to commit sin V. That the daily and lighter sins without which we are never in this life are blotted out by the Lords Prayer And so the greater also if a Man leave them and forgive others his Enemies which is a worthy kind of alms But the best of all is a sinners amending of his life Lo how plainly S. Augustine avoucheth Purgatory of which he doubts whether any such thing can be found or no Expounds that Scripture that seems most strong for it all otherwise and so as it cannot agree thereunto If it be found is sure it will not serve for greater sins And for lesser defects yea the greatest shews another a surer Remedy which in truth makes Purgatory superfluous In this Doctrine Danaeus is so far from controuling S. Augustine that he applauds him and saith That declaring his own Opinion of Purgatory he pronounceth plainly that the whole defining of this matter is uncertain doubtful and rash which since that Augustine wrote being now an old Man certainly it cannot be doubted but that he did altogether reject Purgatory Yea and he shews this fire it self to be unprofitable Thus Danaeus there But the censure that was in your mind I believe is that upon another passage of S. Augustine in the same Book where he treats whether the Souls of the Dead are eased by the Piety of their Friends that are living And thus he determines it That when the Sacrifices either of the Altar or of whatsoever Alms are offered for all such as are deceased after Baptism for such as are very good folk they are Thanksgivings for such as are not very evil they are Propitiations For those that are very evil though they be no helps to the Dead yet they are Consolations such as they be to the Living And to such as they are profitable unto it is either that they may have full remission or that their very damnation may be more tolerable Upon this Chapter thus saith Danaeus Hoc totum caput continet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Augustini and after he adds Itaque hic foenum stipulam aedificat vir pius magnus But you ye say had rather follow S. Augustine 's Opinion than his Censure Perhaps as one saith rather erre with Plato than hold the truth with others If that be your resolution what should we
use any more Words Believe then if you please that the Commemoration of Christs Sacrifice in the Lords Supper or the Oblations of the faithful are to be made for all that decease after Baptism in the attempting of whatsoever sin they dye yea suppose in final impenitence of any deadly crime That such as be damned may thereby have their damnation made more tolerable Believe that without any impropriety of Speech the same form of Words may be a thanksgiving for one and an appeasing of Gods wrath for another Believe also if you can beieve what you will that S. Tecla delivered the Soul of Falconilla out of Hell and S. Gregory the Soul of Trajan and that as may seem saying Mass for him sith he was forbidden thenceforth to offer any Host for any wicked Man Believe that Macarius continually praying for the Dead and very desirous to know whether his Prayers did them any good had answer by miracle from the Scull of a dead Man an Idolater that by chance was tumbled in the way O Macarius when thou offerest Prayers for the Dead we feel some ease for the time Believe that on Easter even all the damned Spirits in Hell keep Holy day and are free from their torments S. Augustine such is his modesty will give you leave to believe this as well as Purgatory if you please as he is not unwilling to give as large scope to other Mens Opinions as may be so they reverse not the plain and certain grounds of Holy Scripture In all these you may if you please follow Authors also as S. Damascene Paladius Prudentius Sigebert and others But give the same liberty to others that ye take Compel no Man to follow your Opinion if he had rather follow Danaeus's Reasons For my self I would sooner with S. Augustine himself whose words touching S. Cyprian Danaeus here borrowed confess this to be naevum candidissimi pectoris coopertum ubere Charitatis than be bound to justifie his conceit touching the commemoration of the Dead in the Lords Supper And as he saith of S. Cyprian so would I add Ego hujus libri Authoritate non teneor quia literas Augustini non ut Canonicas habeo sed eas ex Canonicis considero quod in iis divinarum Scripturarum authoritati congruit cum laude ejus accipio quod non congruit cum pace ejus respuo Which Words I do the rather set down that they may be Luthers justification also against F. Parsons who thinks he hath laid sore to his charge when he cites very solemnly his Epistle ad Equitem Germ. Anno Domini 1521. where he saith He was tyed by the authority of no Father though never so holy if he were not approved by the judgment of Holy Scripture Surely this is not to deny and contemn as he calls it or as you to controll the Fathers to account them subject to humane infirmities which themselves acknowledge But the contrary is to boast against the Truth to seek to forejudge it with their mistakings which needs not so much as require their Testimonies I will forbear to multiply words about that whether the testimonies of Antiquity which favour the Protestants be many or few whether they do indeed so or onely seem prima facie whether they be wrested or to the purpose whether all this may not by juster reason be affirmed of the passages cited by the Romanists out of Antiquity setting aside matters of ceremony and government which your self confess by and by may be divers without impeaching unity in Faith and opinions ever to be subjected to the trial of Scriptures by their own free consent and desire Judge by an instance or two that this matter may not be a meer skirmish of generalities Tertullian in his latter times whether as Saint Hierome writes through the envy and reproach of the Roman Clergy or out of the too much admiring chastity and fasting became a Montanist and wrote a Book de Pudicitia blaming the reconciling of Adulterers and Fornicators In the very entrance almost thereof he hath these words Audio etiam edictum esse propositum quidem peremptorium Pontifex scil Maximus Episcopus Episcoporum dicit Ego moechiae fornicationis delicta poenitentia functis dimitto Pamelius in his note upon this place writes thus Bene habet annotatu dignum quod etiam jam in haerest constitutus adversus Ecclesiam scribens Pontificem Romanum Episcopum Episcoporum nuncupet infra Cap. 13. bonum Pastorem benedictum Papam Cap. 21. Apostolicum Thus Pamelius and presently lanches forth into the Priviledges of the See of Rome and brings a number of testimonies for that forgery of Constantines donation The like note he hath in the life of Tertullian where he makes the Pope thus set forth the former Edict to have been Zephyrinus's quem saith he Pontificem Maximum etiam jam haereticus Episcopum Episcoporum appellat Baronius also makes no small account of this place and saith The title of the Pope is here to be noted And indeed prima facie as you say they have reason But he that shall well examine the whole web of Tertullians discourse shall find that he speaks by a most bitter and scornful Ironie as Elias doth of Baal when he saith he is a God The word scilicet might have taught them thus much Yea the title Pontifex Maximus which in those days and almost two ages after was a Pagan term never attributed to a Christian Bishop first laid down by Gratian the Emperour as Baronius also notes in the year of our Lord 383. because it savoured of Heathenish superstition though it had been as a title of Royalty used by the former Christian Emperours till that time This title I say might have made them perceive Tertullians meaning unless the immoderate desire of exalting the Papacy did so blind their eyes that seeing they saw and yet perceived not In the same character though with more mildness and moderation is the same title for the other part of it used by Saint Cyprian in his Vote in the Council of Carthage Neque n. quisquam nostrum se esse Episcopum Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem Collegas suos adigit Bellarmine saith he speaks here of those Bishops that were in the Council of Carthage and that the Bishop of Rome is not included in that sentence who is indeed Bishop of Bishops What! and doth he tyrannously inforce his Colleagues to obedience also For it is plain that Cyprian joyns these together the one as the presumptuous title the other as the injurious act answering thereto which he calls plain tyranny And as plain it is out of Firmilianus's Epistle which I vouched before that Stephanus Bishop of Rome heard ill for his arrogancy and presuming upon the place of his Bishoprick Peters Chair to sever himself from so many Churches and break the bond of peace now with the Churches of the
of your induction though it matters little whether you do or no since Father Parsons will needs aver that he lived and dyed of your Religion Here first you mention his violent divorceing himself from his lawful Wife We will not now debate the Question How his Brothers Wise could be his lawful Wife You must now say so Whatsoever the Scriptures Councils almost all Universities of Christendom determined Yet methinks it should move you that Pope Clement himself had consigned to Cardinal Campegius a Breve formed to sentence for the King in as ample manner as could be howsoever upon the success of the Emperours affairs in Italy and his own occasions he sent a special Messenger to him to burn it But what violence was this that you speak of The matter was orderly and judiciously by the Archbishop of Canterbury with the assistance of the learnedest of the Clergy according to the antient Canons of the Church and Laws of the Realm heard and determined That indeed is more to be marvelled at What moved him to fall out with the Pope his Friend in whose quarrel he had so far engaged himself as to write against Luther of whom also he was so rudely handled as you mention before having received also for some part of recompence the title of The Defender of the Faith having been so chargeably thankful to the Pope for it All these things considered it must be said this unkindness and slippery dealing of Clement with him was from the Lord that he might have an occasion against the Pope and that it might appear that it was not Humane Counsel but Divine Providence that brought about the banishment of the Popes Tyranny from among us His marriage with the Lady Anne Bullen her death and the rest which you mention of the abling or disabling her Issue to inherit the Crown I see not what it makes to our purpose The suppression of the Monasteries was not his sole Act but of the whole State with the consent also of the Clergy and taken out of Cardinal Wolsey his example yea founded upon the Popes Authority granted to him To dissolve the smaller Houses of Religion on pretence to defray the charges of his sumptuous Buildings at Oxford and Ipswich wherein if it pity you as I confess it hath sometimes me that such goodly Buildings are defaced and ruined we must remember what God did to Shiloh yea to Jerusalem it self and his Temple there And that Oracle Every tree that beareth not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire You demand If this Man King Henry were a good Head of Gods Church What if I should demand the same touching Alexander the Sixth Iulius the Second Leo the Tenth or twenty more of the Catalogue of Popes in respect of whom King Henry might be canonized for a Saint But there is a Story in Tullies Offices of one Lucatius that laid a Wager that he was bonus vir a good Man and would be judged by one Fimbria a Man of Consular Dignity He when he understood the case said He would never judge that matter lest either he should diminish the reputation of a Man well esteemed of or set down that any Man was a good Man which he accounted to consist in an innumerable sort of Excellencies and Praises That which he said of a good Man with much more reason may I say of a good King one of whose highest excellencies is to be a good Head of the Church And therefore it is a Question which I will never take upon me to answer Whether King Henry were such or no unless you will beforehand interpret this Word as favourably as Guicciardine doth tell us Men are wont to do in the censuring your heads of the Church For Popes he saith now a-days are praised for their goodness when they exceed not the wickedness of other men After this description of a good head of the Church or if ye will that of Cominaeus which saith he is to be counted a good King whose vertues exceed his vices I will not doubt to say King Henry may be enrolled among the number of good Kings In special for his executing that highest duty of a good King the imploying his Authority in his Kingdom to command good things and forbid evil not only concerning the civil Estate of Men but the Religion also of God Witness his authorizing the Scriptures to be had and read in Churches in our Vulgar Tongue enjoyning the Lords Prayer the Creed and ten Commandments to be taught the people in English abolishing superfluous Holy-days pulling down those jugling Idols whereby the people were seduced namely the Rood of Grace whose Eyes and Lips were moved with wires openly shewed at Pauls Cross and pulled asunder by the people Above all the abolishing of the Popes Tyranny and Merchandise of Indulgences and such like Chafer out of England Which Acts of his whosoever shall unpartially consider of may well esteem him a better Head to the Church of England than any Pope these thousand years In the last place you come to the Hugenots and Geuses of France and Holland You lay to their Charge the raising of Civil Warrs shedding of Blood occasioning Rebellion Rapine Desolations principally for their new Religion In the latter part you write I confess somewhat reservedly when you say occasioning not causing and principally not only and wholly for Religion But the Words going before and the exigence of your Argument require that your meaning should be they were the causers of these disorders You bring to my mind a Story whether of the same Fimbria that I mentioned before or another which having caused Quintus Scavola to be stabbed as Father Paulo was while I was at Venice after he understood that he escaped with his life brought his Action against him for not having received the Weapon wholly into his Body These poor people having endured such barbarous Cruelties Massacres and Martyrdoms as scarce the like can be shewed in all Stories are now accused by you as the Authors of all they suffered No no Mr. Waddesworth they be the Laws of the Roman Religion that are written in Blood It is the bloody Inquisition and the perfidious violating of the Edicts of Pacification that have set France and Flanders in combustion An evident Argument whereof may be for Flanders that those Genses that you mention were not all Calvinists as you are mis-informed the chief of them were Roman Catholicks as namely Count Egmond and Horne who lost their Heads for standing and yet only by Petition against the new Impositions and the Inquisition which was sought to be brought in upon those Countries The which when the Vice-roy of Naples D. Petro de Toledo would have once brought in there also the people would by no means abide but rose up in Arms to the number of fifty thousand which sedition could not be appeased but by delivering them of that fear The like resistance though more