how to Read What will become of those who have no understanding nor any readiness of mind How can all those People examine all those Points the Discussion of the least of which notwithstanding is evidently necessary to make them rationally determine It is easy to see that all that heap of Objections and Difficulties which the Author of the Prejudices has proposed against the way of the Scripture tends only to lead men to the Authority of the Church of Rome to the end they should subject themselves to that as a Soveraign and Infallible Rule But as the Doctrine of the Soveraign Authority of that Church is not one of those first Principles which the light of Nature dictates to all men since of Thirty parts of our known World there are at least nine and twenty who do not acknowledge it and as they cannot also say that it is one of the first and common notions of Christianity since of all those who profess themselves to be Christians there are Three parts which reject it The Author may freely give us leave if he pleases that we should first demand of him upon what Foundation he would build that Doctrine to make us receive it as a point of Divine Faith I say of Divine Faith for if we should hold it only as a matter of human Faith he himself would see well that we could not believe the things which the Church of Rome should teach in vertue of its Authority otherwise then with a humane Faith since the things which depend upon a principle cannot make an impression in us different from that which the principle has made To the end therefore that I should believe with a Divine Faith that which the Church of Rome shall teach me by its Authority it is necessary that I should also believe its Authority with a Divine Faith Thus far methinks we should not have any Controversy Let us see therefore upon what Foundations of Divine Faith he would pretend to establish this Proposition The Authority of the Church of Rome is Soveraign and Infallible He can only do it by these Three ways The first is by a new Revelation that God should have made to us of this Truth the Second in shewing that it is one of the Articles that is contained in the Revelation of the Apostles and the Third in shewing us the Characters of Divinity and Infallibility impressed upon the Church of Rome even after the same manner as every thing proves it self by the marks that distinguish it and thus it is that we pretend that the Scripture forces the acknowledgment of its own Divinity The first of these ways is nullified since they agree with us that since Jesus Christ and his Apostles there has been no new Revelation and that there must not be any expected The second would be proper and necessarily supposes a recourse either to Tradition or the Scripture for there are but these two Channels in which we can seek for the Revelation of the Apostles But that of the Scripture is forbidden us by the Author of the Prejudices by reason of the unconquerable difficulties which he discovers there It is says he a way full of obstacles and difficulties and even those who profess to spend all their days in the Study of Divinity ought to judge that Examination to be above all their abilities He must therefore content himself with the way of Tradition But before he can make use of that he must be first assured and that with a certainty of Divine Faith that that which that Tradition contains is come down from the Revelation of Jesus Christ and his Apostles or at least that this particular point of the Authority of the Roman Church in the state wherein it is at present must have proceeded from thence that the Apostles must have Transmitted it viva voce down to their Successours and that their Successours must have received it and Transmitted it down to those who descended from them in the same sence and every whit the same as the Apostles had given it to them If he cannot be assured of that Transmission all that he would build upon it will be uncertain and if he cannot be assured of it with a Divine Faith that which he would build upon it will not be more so But how can he be assur'd of that He has no more that living Voice of the Apostles to represent it to us he must rely upon Testimonyes would it therefore be the Roman Church that must assure us But her Divine and Infallible Authority is as yet in Question and while it shall be questioned it remains suspended it cannot be believed any further then with a humane Faith Shall it be the Scripture that must give Testimony to that Tradition But there are so many Difficulties in that way says the Author of the Prejudices That it is Evident that it is not that which God has chosen to Instruct us in his Truths Must we learn it from that Tradition it self But to decide that point whether that Tradition came from the Apostles or no Tradition it self can be yet no other than a humane Testimony I mean that the Successors of the Apostles declare to us that they have received such and such Doctrines from the Apostles viva voce and that they have receiv'd them in the same sence in which the Apostles gave them to them we cannot at the most have more then a humane Faith for them for they are men as well as others Hitherto therefore there cannot be had a Divine Faith concerning the point of the Sovereign and Infallible Authority of the Roman Church and nothing by Consequence that can assure the Conscience and set the mind of man at rest Let us therefore pass over to the third means which is that of examining the Characters of Divinity and Infallibility that may be seen in the Roman Church It is in my Judgment in the sight of this that they give us certain external Marks and we have already seen that the Author of the Prejudices establishes upon this that Authority about which we dispute The most eminent Authority says he that can be in the world is easily discover'd to be in the Catholick Church because though there are Sects that dispute with it the Truth of its Tenets yet there are none that can with any Colour contend with it for that eminence of Authority which arises from its External Marks But without entring here far into the Controversy touching those Marks I say that he is very far from being able to establish such a certainty upon them as we ought to have of a Principle of Religion And this will appear from these three Reasons The First is That the greatest part of those marks are common to false Societies and even to Schismatical Churches which not only are not Infallible but which are actually in Errour as I have shewn in the first part of this Treatise The Greek Church for example in
Mystery of Iniquity which had began to work or to form it self could not be conceiv'd of but under the Idea of a secret Plot whose lowest Foundations were laid in the very days of the Apostles and which must at length after a long Train of Ages have come to its utmost pitch and be manifested And as to that other Passage it supposes in the first place a Captivity of the People of God Go out says it of Babylon Secondly a Captivity of that People who did not yet fail to be the People of God Go out of her says it my People And in the third place a Captivity in which while they abode they were in danger of partaking of the sins of their Oppressours Least it adds in partaking of its sins Yee partake also of its plagues All that formed an Idea of a Church that groan'd under the weight of a great Corruption which easily gave way to that thought that it might possibly be the Latin Church as soon as any other and that it might as well fall out in the times of our Fathers as in any other season CHAP. V. More Particular Reflections upon that Priviledge of Infallibility which they ascribe to the Church and of its Authority ANy one may now see methinks from what I have laid down what Judgment ought to be made of that pretended Infallibility that the Latin Church ascribed to it self and by what means they would shut our eyes and reduce us to a slavish Obedience We shall yet nevertheless make here some reflexions upon it and see whether it has any solid Foundation and any Justice in that claim 1. But before we proceed farther it will be necessary to know what they understand by that Infallible Church and examine all the Sences that may be given to this Proposition that the Church cannot err For our Adversaries themselves very differently understand it In the first place then if they would plainly say That that which has been believ'd and universally practis'd by all those who have compos'd the Body of the visible Church throughout the extent of all Ages is Infallibly true I say that it is a very useless Principle since to speak according to men it is impossible to know that which has been so believ'd and universally practis'd So that one need say no more against it but to send back those men to an Infallibility of that nature Who could make a search so just so clear and so general as he ought to assure himself of the unanimous consent of all the particular Members unless he could raise all that were dead and understand them one after another I acknowledge that we have the Books of the Antients but all have not wrote and who can warrant us that those who have not wrote had the same Sentiments with those that have Who can warrant that the many Books that are lost were not in very many points contrary to those that are extant Who can teach us nicely to distingush what those Authors have wrote in Copying out of or in imitating one another from their true and natural Sentiments and that which they have wrote on their own heads from that which they have wrote as Witnesses of the general Belief of their Ages Who can assure us that they were not sometimes deceived in taking for the general Belief or Practise of the Church those things which were not so For the same Case happens in these very days that as to those things that seem so exceeding clear there are yet a sort of men who would perswade us that we do not very well and perfectly know what the General belief of the Church of Rome is and that we may very easily deceive our selves and deceive others how much more then heretofore when those things were by nothing near so clearly decided and so manifest as they are now at this day Who can exactly enough tell us what those Articles were wherein all the Antients were universally agreed and those wherein they did not agree since it has very often fell out that one and the same Author has wrote things very contrary upon one and the same Subject Who can assure us that what three or four Antient Authors had wrote after an agreeable manner was not one of those particular deviations from the Truth which one may often discover in them which does not at all hinder but that the contrary Opinion may be more received and more general In fine there is nothing so vain and so fallacious as that pretended Infallibility of the Church if they restrain it to those Doctrines which shall be found established by the unanimous consent of all Persons and of all Ages Moreover Such a kind of Infallibility would not only have been no hindrance to our Fathers from entring on an examination of the matters of Religion but it would also have obliged them to it For they must always have known whether that which was taught and practis'd in the Church in their days concerning Faith and Worship had been confirm'd by the consent of all the foregoing Ages which they could never have known but by such an examination So that those who in these days dispute with us about the right of the Reformation will never find any reason on their side The Church of Rome must needs be very Infallible with them but it can be so but in one respect I would say in those matters wherein She agrees with the Church throughout all Ages and with all those Persons who Compose it which could not in the least have taken away her possibility of erring in those matters wherein she should withdraw her self from the Antient Church and by consequence she must submit her self her decisions her Doctrines and her Customs to a Rule and an Authority that was superiour according to which they ought to be examined 2. If they understand by it That the Church in every Age cannot err that is to say for Example That that which was believed and generally practis'd and beyond all controversy in the Church in the days of our Fathers could not be otherwise then true and good I say that they make this a Principle which cannot be to any purpose and from which they cannot draw any advantage For how could they assure themselves that all those who made up the Body of the Visible Church a little before the Reformation did well approve of the Doctrines that they then taught and the Worship that was then practis'd and how could they distinctly and precisely affirm that any such thing had been generally received For it cannot be imagin'd under a pretence that some certain Opinions had been ordinarily taught in the Schools or that certain Devotions had been commonly used that they should be brought into the publick Service and spread over their Books under that same pretence It cannot I say be imagin'd that there had not been many in the World who disapprov'd them and look'd on them as errours and abuses altho' they
Fathers an Infallibility It is without doubt the Kings pleasure that we should submit our selves to his Officers and that we should obey them but he does not mean to advance them to be Infallible nor to ordain us to obey them if they shall happen to command us these things that are directly contrary to his service and to that Fidelity which we owe to our Soveraign It is then True that all those Exhortations to hear our Pastors and to obey their words are always to be restrain'd by this clause understood as far as their words shall be conformable to that of God that they can never go beyond that and that they cannot from thence draw any Priviledge of Infallibility 4. As these Gentlemen let slip nothing that may serve for their Interests so they ordinarily make use of that passage in the 18th Chapter of St. Matthew where Jesus Christ ordains that if any one receive an injury from another he is to reprove him between himself and him alone and if that first complaint signifies nothing then he must take witnesses with him and if he neglect to hear those witnesses he is to tell it to the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church he is to be unto us as a Heathen and a Publican All that that follows in the close of that discourse of Jesus Christ shews that he speaks there neither of Faith nor Worship but of some private quarrels that we might have against our Brethren to be taken away and of the use of that Discipline For the mind of our Lord is that before we break off absolutely with our Brethren we should observe all the Rules of Charity and that we should there make use of the Church but if he would refuse to hear the Church that in that case it was allowed us to treat him no longer as a Brother but as a real stranger Who sees not that if they would draw any thing of consequence from that passage they ought to pretend that the Church is Infallible not in matters of Faith for they are not medled with there but in matters of Fact and in the Censures that it gives upon private Quarrels in which nevertheless all the World agrees that she may be deceiv'd And therefore it is that these Gentlemen are wont to alleadge these last words Tell it to the Church and if he will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as the Heathens and Publicans and they alleadge them also as separated from the sequel of that Discourse because otherwise they could not but observe that they would signify nothing to them 5. In fine they produce those words of St. Paul to Timothy These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of the Truth How can say they the Church be the pillar and ground of Truth if it is not Infallible in the Doctrines it proposes as of Faith and in the Worship which it Practises But what likelyhood is there that he would have established an opinion so important as that of the Infallibility of the Latin Church on such Metaphorical terms which St. Paul did not make use of upon the sight of any Infallibility which should respect no other but the Latin Church in particular and which should much rather have respected the Church of Ephesus or the other Churches of Asia where Timothy was then when the Apostle wrote to him which yet did not fail of falling into Error in Terms which may be explained in divers sences and which have been appli'd to divers particular Bishops without yet pretending to raise them up to be Infallible what colour I say is there that they can prove the Infallibility of the Church of Rome It appears in the end of that discourse of St. Paul that he never thought of making the Church Infallible for in all that Chapter he aims at nothing else then to set down the duties of Bishops and Deacons and after having markt out in particular some qualities with which they ought to be endow'd and from what Vices they ought to be more especially exempt after what manner they ought to govern themselves he adds in the close of all That he wrote all that to his disciple to the end he might know how to behave himself in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God the pillar and ground of Truth Who sees not that that Infallibility comes not in at all to the purpose in that close of the Discourse Let the Bishops says he and the Deacons take heed they be wise sober c. That they hold the Mystery of the Faith in a pure Conscience that their Wives should be honest and faithful in all things that their Children should be well educated c. And that which I say in general I apply also to thee Timothy to the end thou mayst live unblameably in the House of God in the Church of the living God Add according to the Interpretation of these Gentlemen Which Church is Infallible and cannot err and there is nothing of any natural Connexion in it On the contrary that conceit of the Infallibility of the Church according to the Principle that our Adversaries makes use of in the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints would harden them in security for let them do as they will all would go well and after whatsoever manner the Pastors govern the Church could never be corrupted nor its Truth be lost Which would seem far more proper to inspire negligence into the Bishops then to animate them to do their duty In effect if they cannot tell how to exhort men by motives of that nature They ought then to confess the Truth to wit that these words The Pillar and Ground of Truth note the end and natural design of the Church that for which she is made and to which she is called which is to sustain and bear the Truth and to make it subsist in the World and so the discourse of the Apostle appears very just and well connected Behold says he after what manner the Bishops ought to frame their course and after what sort thou oughtest to live in the Church of God in behaving thy self in it so as remembring that God has appointed it to be the pillar and ground of his Truth Live therefore in that manner that may answer that end or that natural appointment of the Church Just as if the King exhorting one of the Officers of his Parliament to do his duty should tell him That he liv'd in a body that was the Pillar and Ground of Justice and the Rights of the Crown that is to say which is naturally ordain'd for the maintaining Justice in the State and to defend the Rights of the Crown But as that speech of the Prince would not establish any priviledge of
if you would give to the simpler sort to those Babes for Example whereof Jesus Christ speaks that his Mysteries have been revealed unto them if you give them I say that right and liberty to judge of that important and fundamental Question to wit Whether the Call of a man be Extraordinary and Divine or whether it be not so whether his Miracles are those of a true Minister of God or of a false Prophet whether it be a true Angel of Light or a disguised Angel of darkness and to judge of all those things after the Church and against the Church I see no Reason why they should refuse them the right and liberty of judging also of its Doctrine and the points of Religion whereof the true knowledge is by nothing near so difficult God had forewarned his People that they should not give themselves over to be deceiv'd by the first appearances of Miracles and he had appointed that they should judge of them by the Doctrine they accompanied Whence it follows that the discerning of Miracles and judging of that Doctrine are two inseparable things and that their right belongs to the same persons If there arise saith God among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder And the sign or the wonder come to pass whereof he spake unto thee saying Let us go after other Gods which thou hast not known and let us serve them Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet or that dreamer of dreams For the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart It appears from thence that the way for men to judge well of Miracles is to examine the Doctrine of him that works them So that if they will a gree to give the people a right to discern Miracles they cannot take away from them that of discerning that Doctrine they uphold Jesus Christ supposes the same thing when he says that there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and that they shall work great signs and wonders to seduce if it were possible the very Elect. For how could they otherwise discern those Miracles of the false Prophets but by examining their words So a famous man of the Roman Communion has not scrupled to write that we are bound to reject Miracles and those men who make use of them then when they are joyned with a Doctrine which the Church has condemned his words are considerable and very well deserve to be transcrib'd The Application says he and direction of a miracle to prove the Truth of a Doctrine is an enterprise so rash and so scandalous that it deserves to be punished There is not any Catholic in the World who knows his Creed and understands it that can be capable of such a persuasion What if the appearance of a Miracle is contrary to the definitions of the Church can any one hesitate or doubt whether it would be better to adhere to the Church supported by the truth of a Miracle or to deny the truth of a Miracle founded upon the Authority of the Church Saint Peter has taught us a great while since what we are to do on that occasion He had been an eye Witness of the Transfiguration of our Saviour and of that glory that lay hid under the Vail of a Suffering and Mortal state and yet nevertheless he trusts more in the obscurity of Prophets than to the clear and manifest experience of his Eyes we have a more sure word of Prophesie The Authority of the Church which is in nothing less than that of the Prophets breaks in pieces all those reasons that oppose it and we ought to take to our selves in regard of the Church that which Saint Peter says with respect to the Prophets To which we do well that we take heed gathering together all our attention to know the true sence of the Church and turning aside from all the Miracles and all those Reasons the men propound to us to make us call into question that which we know the Church to have determined We may see clearly by that passage how far one may carry that Principle of the Authority of the Church in the thoughts of those that admit of it that is to say even to make Miracles themselves submit to it He says that we ought to Collect all our attention to know the true Sentiments of the Church and to turn aside from all those Miracles which would make us call into question that which the Church has determined He says that to go about to make use of Miracles for the proving of a Doctrine that is condemned by the Church is a rash and scandalous enterprise and such as deserves to be punished In effect if they suppose that Maxim that we ought to give to the Church an absolute obedience to see with her Eyes and to rest upon her Conduct those Miracles could not make them be heard whom the Church should have condemned and by which they should have been looked on as false Miracles the Consequence is good and just But because that very thing applied to the times of the first rise of Christianity justifies the Unbeleivers condemns the proceedings of Jesus Christ and his Appostles accuses those of rashness who have believed on their preaching destroys the Gospel and overthrows the Christian Church it is a manifest proof that that Maxim it self is false and rash since those Consequences that arise from it are so detestable that they leave neither to Jesus Christ nor to the Apostles any way to make their Gospel to be heard by men with a good Conscience and the care of their Salvation 8. They must give me leave to speak a little earnestly for the interest of our Lord Jesus Christ The more I consider these inevitable Consequences of that Maxim the more I am astonished If those first Christians who had been Jews could not hear the Doctrine of the Son of God nor receive his Miracles without violating of their Duty toward the Church that had condemned them what scruples might not all that cast into all the Christians that are at this day in the World For in fine we are the Successors of that people our Fathers were not Converted but by their Ministry If then we cannot see clearly that they themselves had a right to be Converted if they laid down on the contrary a Principle which of right ought to have hindered their Conversion where then are all we as many as we are The Reasons that the Author of those Prejudices produces to make us devest our selves of our own guidance in favour of the Church that we should see with her Eyes and tread in her steps had as much place with the Jews as they have with us they could not doubt but that their Church was the Church of God none can dispute with them that eminent Authority which had so many external marks To her belonged the Adoption the
us to surrender them but let them give us leave to use them at the least this one time to search whether it be just that we should deprive our selves of them Jesus Christ himself has forbid us to do it the Authour of those Prejudices has commanded it We ought at least to examine which of the two has reason on his side That then shall be the business of this Chapter wherein I propose to my self to shew That the Authority of those Prelats who governed the Latin Church in the time of the Reformation could not be high enough to oblige our Fathers blindly to believe all that they told them nor to hinder them from examining the Doctrines of those Prelats But as we find it frequently fall out that they disguise our Sentiments and that they may render them odious they urge them beyond their due bounds it will be meet before we go farther precisely to determine what is Treated of in that Right to the end that all equitable persons may the more easily judg of it We do not here treat of the use of the Ministry in General We acknowledge that God has appointed it in his Church and that it would be a rashness very criminal to go about to abolish it The Confession of our Faith our practice our Books and the very writings of our Adversaries sufficiently justifie us to make us believe that they will not lay any thing to our charge in that point We do not here also meddle with that order that ought to be observed in the Election and Ordination of Pastors we all agree that when the state of the Church is regulated it ought not to be permitted to any that will to thrust themselves into the Ministry nor to encroach upon their Function without being lawfully called and if there is any difference in this matter it only regards other questions and not that which we handle at present Nor do we further Treat of that respect or that obedience which every one ows to good and lawful Pastors Jesus Christ has said He that heareth you heareth me and he that rejecteth you rejecteth me and St. Paul exhorts the Faithful to submit themselves with all teachableness to their conduct Obey them that are set over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls The word then of good Pastors ought to be received with humility their Functions to be considered with veneration and their persons to be loved and honoured not only in respect of their charge but because they acquit themselves faithfully in it We do not yet further concern our selves to know whether one ought not to give that obedience to these Ministers of the Church who preach to us the Word of God although their lives are impure and scandalous and no ways correspond with their Doctrine We confess that it is not allowable for personal crimes to separate our selves from them nor from those who adhere to them whether they own those crimes or whether they deny them We ought to indeavour to reduce them to their duty and if they are incorrigible or if they have committed Actions which render them unworthy of their Function there are ordinary ways that one ought to take to deprive them if they amend the scandal is repaired and if they do not either because they will elude by Artifices the Ecclesiastical Discipline or because that depravation may become so general that there shall be no more punishment of vice then we may pray God that he would send more faithful Labourers into his Harvest nay we ought to do it but we ought always to own those for Pastors who are in that Charge and to receive the Word of God from their Mouths while they Preach it purely I go yet further and I say that we ought always in General to think well of those Pastors and not lightly to entertain suspicions of their goodness and faithfulness especially when we speak of the whole Body and the disorder that appears to be great and very visible therein that we are not absolutely to form a just prejudice against their Ministry This is what we acknowledge and our fathers acknowledged as well as we But if they will not be contented with that if they will have it yet farther that the faithful are bound blindly to receive the Doctrines of their Pastors without having any right to examine their Nature or their Quality and that it would be a crime but to set upon that examination if they would that the Authority of the Pastors after whatsoever manner we consider it whether separatly or conjunctly or altogether or in the greater number should be without any bounds or measures as to matters of Faith or Worship and the general Rules of Manners and that though they cease to believe the Divine Faith and to practise all that which they say without informing our selves any farther This is a Maxim we deny and which we maintain is contrary to the Word of God to right reason and the true interest of Christianity 1. To begin with the Word of God we may say That there never was any Maxim in the World against which it does more expresly declare it self For first it absolutely forbids Lordship in Pastors The Kings of the Gentiles said Jesus Christ in that passage before alledged exercise Lordship over them and those that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors But it shall not be so with you but he that is great among you let him be as the less and he that is chief as he that doth serve In the same sence Saint Peter bids them Feed the flock of Jesus Christ taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being examples to the Flock St. Paul Preached the same Doctrine with St. Peter We have not says he to the Corinthians Dominion over your Faith but are helpers of your joy We may observe that on purpose to hinder the introducing that Dominion into the Church under the name of Instruction as they have done in these last Ages Jesus Christ goes so far as to forbid his Disciples the name of Masters Be not ye says he called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant And therefore it is that the Scripture gives the Title of chief Shepheard to none but Jesus Christ alone When the chief shepheard shall appear says St. Peter ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away God has brought again from the dead the great shepheard of the sheep says St. Paul But as to other Pastors the Scripture is so farr from giving them any Character of Dominion that on the contrary they are often called Ministers or Servants Stewards of the Mysteries of God Ambassadors Messengers Interpreters to teach us that they ought not to pretend to reign over mens
against the Contentions of that Kingdom For thereby he drew upon his back the demands of a Council which was of great importance especially with a condition to Celebrate it in Germany and had given too much courage to the Princes that they dared not only to send but to print also a Book which they called the Centum Gravamina or Hundred Grievances a writing that was ignominious to all the Ecclesiasticks of Germany but more to the Court of Rome That notwithstanding having considered all things well he resolved that it was necessary to give some satisfaction to Germany yet so that his Authority might not be indangered and that the advantages and profits of the Court of Rome might not any ways be diminished In effect he sent a Legat to Nuremberg where the Princes of Germany were afresh assembled who propounded to them such a Reformation as should only respect the inferiour Clergy So that it was judged that that Reformation would not only foment the evil as light and palliating Medicines usually do but that it would serve to enhance and raise the Dominion of the Court of Rome and the greater Prelats to the Prejudice of the Secular Powers and that it would open a door to a greater Extortion of Money so that it was not received being looked upon meerly as a mockery to elude the Expectations of Germany and to reduce it to a greater Slavery CHAP. II. A Confirmation of the same thing from the History of that which passed in the First Quarrels of Luther with the Court of Rome concerning Indulgences BUt we ought to add something to all that we have said that if so many publick Proofs will not be sufficient to make that Conclusion That there could not be any Reformation hoped for on the part of Rome and its Prelats they may further see if they will something more particular Let us Examine after what manner they received the first complaints that Luther made against the Preachers of Indulgences and the Questors that Leo the Tenth had sent throughout the whole extent of his Empire and especially into Germany there to sell publickly the Pardon of sins under a pretence of the building of the Church of Saint Peter at Rome but in effect to have by that means wherewithal to Enrich his Kindred and satisfy his own profuseness The History of that which is as a Preamble to that of the Reformation of our Fathers must needs give us a great deal of light to judge rightly of their Conduct and to decide the Justice or the Injustice of their Actions See then well near how that business was managed Besides the manifest abuse that there was in the using and in the very Doctrine it self of Indulgences the Questors were constrained to set before the people every day divers Novelties upon that subject to enhance their price and value before them and they lived further and guided themselves in that affair after a very filthy and dishonest manner Luther who was then Professour of Divinity in the University of Witenberg thought himself bound by the duty of his Charge and his Conscience to oppose himself to a Traffick so Mischievous and so destructive of true Piety To effect that he proposed some Theses for the clearing of that matter and wrote them to the Arch-Bishop of Mayence who was also Bishop of Magdeburg beseeching him to make use of his Authority to put a stop to those excesses and representing to him that it was the Duty of Bishops throughly to instruct the people in the Doctrine of the Gospel and not to suffer their credulity to be so abused He wrote also almost to the same sence to the Bishop of Brandenburg under whose Diocess he was and sent him those Theses which he had framed on that Subject with a more large Explication of them which he added to them He wrote the same to Pope Leo he sent him his Writings he complained to him of the Follies that his Questors taught and of the havock that they made reposing themselves upon him and abusing his Authority he cleared himself before him of the false imputations of his Adversaries and was so far from having any ways violated that respect which as yet he believed due to his Dignity and to his See that he stooped even to excessive submissions which his Adversaries did not fail to make use of in the end Hitherto the most rigid Censurers cannot find any thing blameable in the Conduct of Luther For I pray tell me what could any one have done better He beheld a sort of men that dishonoured Religion that made a mockery of the Devotion or rather of the superstition of the People who were a scandal to the whole Church who promoted false and destructive Maxims He opposed himself to them but of the duty of his place he made his Complaints to those to whom ordinarily it belonged to repress those excesses he went even to the Pope himself he acquainted him with the Mischief that his Questors wrought He begg'd of him to give Order about them he used all the Terms of respect that the Pope could desire What can any find to blame in all that They will say it may be that his Complaints against the Preachers of Indulgences were false and ill-grounded To clear this matter we need but to see what his most fiery Enemies wrote Miltitus the Apostolick Nuntio says Ulembert one of the most fiery Enemies of Luther had sufficiently acknowledged that the Questors and Preachers of Indulgences who had first given occasion to Luther to oppose himself were not altogether blameless That therefore he had earnestly reproved Tetzel who was the Chief of the Questors that he had not hindred those abuses that were intolerable to all honest men and that grounding himself on the Authority of the Pope he had done divers things of his own head which could neither be approved of nor defended So that he had brought dishonour on the Holy See and given ground for a most dangerous complaint whereof he must one day give an account to the Pope Florimund of Raymund acknowledged the same that those Questors committed most enormous Crimes in Publishing their Indulgences and taking care for nothing else but to extort Money from the People Belcair Bishop of Mets said That the Impudence of the Popes Ministers was so great that they made amongst themselves a publick Merchandise of Indulgences sometimes debauching themselves in the Taverns they played them away and at Dice and other Games especially in Germany and it was the common talk That the Pope had given away all the Money that should be collected in some Countries of Germany to his sister Magdalen Guicchiardin goes so far as to blame the Pope himself in that following the Counsel of Cardinal Peccius he had published the largest Indulgences without any distinction of Places or Time not only for the living but to draw Souls out of Purgatory also by means of his suffrage That it was