thou dissemblest it These Iuglers in the meane time are nor ashamed to tell vs in bookes printed to that purpose That Antichrist is borne at Babylon with the teeth of a Cat with rowling eyes growen to his full stature in an instant made knowen by his miracles and presently marching towards vs with a huge armie What opinion haue these men either of your sottishnesse or their owne sufficiencie that they should thinke to blind you with these fooleries How long shall they with their brazen faces goe scotfree or you euen with the losse of your owne soules with your leaden minds Shall they alwaies lull you asleepe with these fables and will you neuer find a time to awaken neuer haue vnderstanding to discerne them Let me therefore speake vnto you O ye people why doe ye still make delaies Being so often deluded why doe ye not obey the voyce of God thundering from heauen Apoc. 18. v. 4. 9. Goe out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues And O ye kings so long made drunken why stand ye at a gaze not executing the counsell of the Almightie which cannot be made frustrat nay which in a manner is alreadie fulfilled why doe ye not rather make that beast desolat and naked Apoc. 17. v. 16. and eating her flesh burne her with fire In danger otherwise to lament before her to be partakers of hir punishment her ruine since you haue so long enioyed her pleasures and committed fornication with her But thou O my Sauiour in the middest of this cunctation or rather carelesse securitie awaken and rise vp and come downe and behold the sinnes of this spirituall Sodome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because they are now consummat and come to their ful height Tread the wine presse alone though none of the people none of the kings ioyne with thee Esay 63.3 Gird thy sword vnto thee euen thy two edged sword wherewith that man of sinne shal be slaine the spirit of thy mouth thy holie word And let the wicked at the last cry out standing a farre off for feare of her tormonts Alas alas the great citie Babylon Apoc. 18. v. 10. the mightie citie for in one houre is thy iudgement come Let the godlie sing together and let them repeat it againe and againe Halleluiah Saluation and glorie and honour Apoc. 19. v. 2. and power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his iudgements for he hath condemned the great Whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication and hath auenged the bloud of his seruants shed by her hand And let me O Lord sing with old Symion being wearie of this world full of yeres and thirsting after thee Luk. 2. v. 29.30 Now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes haue seene thy saluation The saluation and deliuerance of thy Church from the hands of her enemies the Lambe victorious and triumphant shortly celebrating the mariage of thine elect with the immaculat Lambe Christ Iesus to whom with the Father and the holie Ghost be all honour and glorie for euer and euer Amen ⧠To the Reader POpe Paule the fift caused himselfe to be pourtrayed in the first page of diuers Bookes dedicated vnto him printed at Rome and at Bolognia as hath beene sayd in the Preface The first words of the Latine inscription are PAVLO V. VICEDEO take the numerall letters and you shall find the number of the Beast Apocal. c. 13. v. 18. PAV 5. L 50. O V 5. V 5. I 1. C 100. ED 500. EO 5. 50. 5. 5. 1. 100. 500. 666. THE MYSTERIE OF INIQVITIE That is to say The Historie of the Papacie Declaring by what degrees it is now mounted to this heigth and what oppositions the better sort from time to time haue made against it THE PREFACE Of the person of Antichrist of the time when and of the place where he was to be reuealed THe Mysterie whose proceedings we here intend to set downe in writing is none other than that which was foretold by S. Paule in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians and the second chapter and more particularly by circumstances and signes described by S. Iohn in the thirteenth fourteenth seuenteenth and eighteenth chapters of his Reuelation which Mysterie time it selfe from age to age hath euer interpreted by euents till now at length all prophesies fulfilled we see it clearely reuealed in these our dayes 2. Thess cap. 2. S. Paule therefore telleth vs That that day of Christ meaning that glorious day of his last comming shall not come vnlesse there first come that Apostasie and notable reuolt that is vnlesse some great part of the Church first fall away from the pure and vndefiled seruice of Christ and vnlesse that man of sinne be first reuealed that sonne of perdition which shall be ringleader and chiefe director in this desperate reuolt lost in himselfe and cause of perdition vnto others and is therefore called by S. Iohn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say a Destroyer Apocal. 9. vers 11. And to the end that none should take offence when these things should come to passe he forewarneth vs of the greatnesse of this reuolt by representing it to our vnderstanding vnder the name of Babylon and of an Horrible confusion comparing him who was to haue the chiefe direction and commaund in this worke Apocal. 17. vers 3. to a woman sitting vpon a Beast of scarlet colour eminent and in euerie respect glorious and consequently admired of all those who should behold her Ibid. vers 8. saue onely those whose names are written in the booke of life insomuch that euen Kings those I meane whom she shall make drunke with the wine of her abhominations shall giue her their authoritie and power to helpe warre vpon the Saints and that Peoples and Nations shall serue her for a seat to sit vpon Ibid. vers 13. The waters sayth he on which she sitteth are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues So that that Apostasie and that man of sinne make both together a kind of Estate or Kingdome whereof the Apostasie is the Bodie euen the Papacie which hath long since degenerated from the true doctrine of Christ drenching the world with Idolatrie and Superstition and that Man of sinne is the Head euen the Pope or Romane Bishop in whose person all this power and authoritie is combined and in his name executed Apocal. ca. 13. vers 12. And for this cause maketh S. Paule mention of an Apostasie and of a man of sinne and S. Iohn of a second Beast and of a Whore By which second Beast which exerciseth the authoritie of the first what can be meant but the Romane Hierarchie which hath deriued vpon her selfe all the authoritie of that ancient Commonwealth making the earth to adore the first Beast in the second that is the old
August de ciuit Dei li. 20. c. 19. Baron Annal. to 1. an 45. art 17. 18. sit vpon the ruines of the Temple of Salomon or rather in the church for the Apostle would neuer call that the temple of the diuell which was Gods temple And therefore saith he some imagine that this Antichrist note well these words is a Prince with the whole bodie of those which belong vnto him and thinke it more proper to expresse it in Latine as it is in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in templum non in templo meaning that he shall sit as if himselfe were The Temple of God and his verie Church it selfe Ireneus l. 5. c. 25 Tertullian cauersus Iudaeos contra Marcio lib. 3. Hieron in Caâ—a in Isai c. 47. Euseb li. 2. c. 25. Ambros in 2. Thess â— c. 2. August lib. â—8 de ciuit Dei c. â— Andâ— Casaâ— in Apocal. c. â— In Beda Oecumen Lyran. Thomas Caiet in 1. Pet. c. vlt. Bellarmin de Romano Pontis lib. 2. c. 2. Tertul. aduersus Iudaeos lib. 3. contra Marciâ— Hieron ad Algasiam quest 17. Aret Andre in Apocal. 〈…〉 Glossa Ordin ibid. Hieron ad Marcellam viduam Idem contra Iouinian lib. 1. Which jumps with that maxime of the Popes adherents That in his person the whole Church resideth and consisteth Wherefore it is now manifest that Antichrist shall haue his seat in the Church Christian Now let vs see whether in the Latine Church or no. Ireneus surely searching after the number of 666 which is the name of the beast in this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in so obscure a point he pronounce nothing definitiuely yet giueth he vs plainely to vnderstand that he thou gâ—â— it to be there For saith he It is verie likely for such is the name of the Empire which now swayeth in the world They call themselues Latines So likewise doe Tertâ—llian Ierome Ambrose Augustine Andrew B. of Caesarea Beda Oecumenius Lyranue Aquinas Caietan and others when by Babylon they vnderstand Rome as well in the first Epistle and last chapter of Saint Peter as in the Reuelations And Bellarmin himselfe is cleere in this opinion and Baronius affirmeth that by Babylon in the places before rehearsed cannot bee meant but Rome much more when by the whore clothed in scarlet which maketh drunke all the kings of the earth they vnderstand Rome as Tertullian Ierome Aretas Andrew of Caesareâ— the Ordinarie Glosse Bellarmin also and Baronius and others doe Nay wee say fâ—â—â— her that the Ancients vnderstand it of the Roman Church whose corruption they saw euen in those dayes to encrease so fast for to her applieth Saint Ierome those words of the Apocalyps Go out of her my people saith the Lord and be not partaker of her sinnes nor of her plagues flye out of Babylon and let euerie one saue his owne soule for she is fallen she is fallen and is made a receptacle for diuels an habitation of all vncleane spirits For surely saith he there is the holie Church there are the trophies and monuments of the Apostles and Martyrs and there is the confession of Christ But withall saith he there is ambition and oppression luxurie of the bellie and of the throat which goe to overthrow the preaching of the Crosse And therefore he summoneth all well disposed people to depart out of her though built vpon Christ the true rocke by the preaching of Saint Peter and though her Prophets which deceiued her cried out Peace peace the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord to lull them asleepe in their owne securitie And he seemeth farther to strike at her verie Hierarchie when as in his preface to the bookes of Didymus of the holie Ghost Idem in Prefati in lib. Dyd de Spir. sancto we find these words When I liued saith he in Babylon an inhabitant of that purple whore after the lawes of the Quirites or citizens of Rome I would haue written something of the holie Ghost and haue dedicated the treatise to the Bishop of that citie and behold that seething pot which was seene in the Prophet Ieremie looking out of the North beginneth alreadie to boyle and the Senat of Pharises cried out at me all at once neither was there so simple and meane a scribe of all that ignorant rabble which conspired not against me Wherefore I am now as it were out of captiuitie returned to Hierusalem and after that cottage of Romulus and those Lupercall sports come to visit againe the hosterie of the Virgine Marie and the sepulchre of our Sauiour c. Had this holie Father liued in the dayes of our fathers and seene what passed in these later ages what would he haue said And truely to vnderstand those passages of the Apocalips of Rome Painim as some would haue it and not of the Church of Rome were to make it of a mysterious prophesie as all acknowledge it to be a meere storie cold and friuolous or was it fitting that the Prophet with so maiesticall a preface speaking in the name of God and by his spirit should aduertise vs that the Roman Empire should persecute the Christians which had alreadie seene the bloud of his brother shed and so many thousand Christians slaughtered in all quarters of the Empire And againe where will a man find vs in Rome Painim those ten kings made drunke with his cup seeing there were in Rome no kings at all And therefore the Iesuites themselues haue beene forced to yeeld this point Ribera Apocalip c. 14. num 42. 57. Viega in 17. Apoc com 1. sect 3. This must saith Ribera bee vnderstood of Rome not onely such as she was vnder the Emperours but also such as she shall be in the later dayes And Viega saith That the name of Babylon must be referred to her and not only to that Rome which serued Idols before it receiued the faith of Christ but also to that Rome which shall be in the dayes of Antichrist By which words what can be meant but the Papacie and the Church of Rome Ca. Proposait extra de prabeÌ„d Gloss ib. Lib. â— cerem Pontis c. 1. But some man will say When was it seene that a Pope called himselfe God And I answer That neither are the Popes themselues ouer sparing in calling themselues Gods on earth and the Canonists are ouer prodigall of such titles and of far greater also if greater may bee whilest they make them to participate of the Deitie and with power to commaund both in heauen and hell as the sequell of this discourse will but too apparantly declare and it were but needlesse to repeat here what I haue long since sufficiently proued in my treatise of the Church cap. 9. But this is the point and this is that which God so often forewarned vs of That Antichrist should enter into the Temple and Church of God with false â—eyes In all deceitfulnesse of iniquitie saith Saint
the old fashion that he shall be deposed for a whole yeare if the Prince be cause of his so liuing that he be excommunicated for two yeares And the 17 Canon forbiddeth Princes and Emperours to be present at Synods vnlesse it be at generall Councels And the 22 disableth them and all Laies whomsoeuer to be present at the election or promotion of anie Patriarch Metropolitan or Bishop vnder paine of excommunication whereby no doubt the Popes Legats thought they had shut the Emperours of the West cleane out of their Conclaues vsing one Emperour as a rod alwaies to scourge the other As for the point of Appeales to Rome they could not effect it for the 26 Canon is plaine That who so findeth himselfe aggrieued with his Bishop shall appeale to his Metropolitan and from the Metropolitan to the Patriarch à quo litibus finis imponatur who shall make a full end of the controuersie and therefore meant not to run to Rome as Nicholas would haue had them And it was euen at the instant when the Articles were offered them to subscribe that they made their protestation against them In this Synod there appeared yet another notable ambition of the Popes for the Bulgarians being formerly Painims receiued Christianitie in the time of Nicholas who sent them Bishops for their instruction Michael their Prince sent his embassadors to the Synod who comming before them That we may not say they seeme to erre in our owne opinions we desire to be informed by you which supplie the places of the Great Patriarches to what Church we are to belong The Popes Legats replied presently That they ought to belong to the Roman Church The Bulgarians requested That the matter might be resolued and agreed vpon with the Legats of other Patriarches there present The Romanists replied That there was no more to be done with them and therefore without euer putting it to the Synod pronounced absolutely That they must belong to Rome The Easterne Bishops put this question to the Bulgarians When you first tooke the countrey said they from whom tooke ye it and the Priests which you found there were they Greekes or Latines They answered That they tooke the countrey from the Grecians and that they found there none but Greeke Bishops Whereuppn the Easterne Bishops inferred That they were doubtlesse ordained at Constantinople and so consequently should belong to that Church Thereupon the Legats replied That Churches were not bounded by the diuersitie of tongues That kingdomes and Sees differed in their jurisdictions That they had the presumption on their side who had giuen them their first Bishops That all Epirus Thassalie and Dardania had bin euer belonging to their jurisdiction The Easterne Bishops on the contrarie demaunded vpon which of these they would principally stand In the end the violence and pride of the Roman Legats ouerswayed who told the Synod That the Church of Rome held not that Councel for a competent Iudge of her controuersies who was her selfe by speciall prerogatiue to iudge of all other Churches That decree they what them lusted it should be as little regarded as it was lightly enacted That from this present time they by the authoritie of the holie Ghost pronounced a nullitie in whatsoeuer they should decree vntill the See of Rome had determined thereof And so the holie Ghost who was to Preside in the Councell Resided onely in their persons And they farther adiured the Patriarch Ignatius by the authoritie of the Apostles and of Adrian who had restored him to his See not to suffer Bulgaria to be taken from them Who made them a doubtfull answer telling them That he was neither so young as to be lightly deceiued neither yet so verie a dotard as to do that himselfe which he found fault withall in others And there rested this contestation betweene them being questionlesse a great scandall to the consciences of these poore conuerts who saw at first that these men sought not the enlargement of Christs kingdome but of their owne jurisdiction and iniurious to the Emperour who offended with these proceedings though dissembling it tooke no order for their passe and safe-conduct into their countrey So that hauing been certaine dayes at sea they fell into the hands of the Sclauons who stript them of all that euer they had took away the original of the Councell with the subscriptions of the Bishops and left them nothing but the copie of Athanasius and had peraduenture lost their liues but that some of their companie escaping the Sclauons feared the matter might come to light and they one day receiue the like measure The issue of all was That doe Adrian what he could the Bulgarians put out the Latine Priests and sent for others in their roomes to Constantinople and so remained they in obedience to that Church Whereupon they grew so odious to the Popes that they called that sinne condemned from heauen after their name Bulgarie thereby to make them odious and abhominable to all men And this was the end of Adrians enterprises in the East 33. PROGRESSION Of the attempts of Pope Adrian both vpon the Clergie and also vpon the kings of France LEt vs now see whether he sped any better in the West Hincmar Bishop of Laon nephew vnto Hincmar Archbishop of Reimes the most learned Bishop of France had surrendred certaine Church goods into the hands of Charles the Bauld to bestow them vpon a certaine Norman captaine Aimon li. 5. c. 24 from whom he would needs shortly after take them away againe and because the Norman would not resigne them but into the hands of the king from whom he had them therefore Hincmar excommunicated him for which in a Synod held at Vernons he was reproued and sharpely censured he thereupon appealed to Rome but they refused to grant him any letters dimissorie yet he continued still in his stubbornnesse vntill at length there was assembled another Councel at Attigni consisting often Prouinces where he was againe condemned and thereupon promised to submit himselfe to the good pleasure of the king and of Hincmar his Metropolitan and vncle and yet vnder hand signified the matter vnto the Pope procuring him to euocate the whole cause to Rome and himselfe to be serued with Processe to appeare there at a day making the best of his owne cause to Adrian Whereupon Adrian wrot vnto king Charles who yet would not license the other to goe to Rome and then did Adrian write him that bloudie letter calling him Tyran periured perfidious and a spoyler of the Church goods and what not And for conclusion as well to him as to Hincmar the Metropolitan We saith he by authoritie Apostolike will and commaund That thou cause Hincmar of Laon and his accusers to come before our Clemencie to the end that we may pronounce our sentence of his cause And wee shall see anone how well he was obeyed But not long after he made a farre more violent attempt vpon him The Emperour Lewis hauing as
The offices themselues saith he of Ecclesiasticall dignitie haue passed into filthie gaine and into the businesse of darknesse neither seeke they in these the saluation of soules but the superfluitie of riches For this are they shorne for this they frequent Churches celebrate Masses sing Psalmes c. They impudently striue in these dayes for Bishopricks Archdeaconries Abbotships and other dignities that they might wast the reuenewes of Churches in such vayne and superfluous vses It remayneth that the man of sinne be reuealed the sonne of perdition the Damon not of the day onely but of the mid-day who not onely transformeth himselfe into an Angell of light but exalteth himselfe aboue all that is called God or that is worshiped c. This shall be indeed an exceeding great assault but from this also the truth shall deliuer the Church of the Elect c. Poore Bernard stayed for him at the doore who had alreadie entred the house Baronius anno 1130. art 6. And thus much be spoken to Baronius who affirmeth that S. Bernard inueighed onely against schimaticall Popes Writing to Pope Eugenius nere vpon the yeare 1151 who had been his disciple and had not obeyed his admonitions Benard Epist 137. being entred into the Popedome Who will let me see before I die the Church as in the dayes of old when the Apostles did cast forth their nets not to take siluer or gold but to take soules O how I desire to see thee inherit thâ— voyce of him whose seat thou hast obtayned Thy money perish with thee In his bookes of consideration Ad Eugen. de consideratione lib. 1. what doth he omit for his amendment Tell me I pray thee saith he when art thou euer free vbi tuus where thine owne Euerie where is tumult euerie where the yoke of thy seruitude presseth thee replie not vnto me in the Apostles voyce who saith When I was free from all I made myselfe a seruant of all That is verie far from thee Was it in this seuritude that he serued men in the getting of filthie gaine Was it in this that from all parts of the world did flock vnto him the ambitious the couetous such as exercise Simonie sacrilegious persons whoremongers and incestuous and such other monsters of men that by his Apostolicke authoritie they might either obtaine or retaine Ecclesiasticall honours This man then hath made thee a seruant to whom Christ was life and death aduauntage that he might win many vnto Christ and not that he might encrease the gaines of his couetousnesse c. And truely euerie day the noyse of Lawes are heard in thy Palace but the Laws of Iustinian not of Christ c. Thou Pastour then and Bishop of soules with what mind dost thou suffer that to be euer silent before thee and these to bable I am deceiued if this peruersnesse moue not in thee some scruple Then for to bring him backe to the auntient bounds Lib. 2. he saith Thy high dignitie need not flatter thee thy care is the greater And if then we would thinke rightly of our selues we shall iudge that a ministerie is imposed vpon vs not a domination giuen Thinke thy selfe as some one of the Prophets Is not that enough for thee yea too much c. If thou be wise thou wilt be contented with the measure that God hath measured vnto thee For what is more is from that wicked one Learne by the example of the Prophet to wit Ieremie to be in authoritie not for to commaund but to doe as the time requireth Learne that hast need of a weeding hooke not a Scepter for to doe the worke of a Prophet c. It was sayd to the Apostles thy predecessors The haruest is great but the labourers are few Take to thee the paternall inheritance for if thou be a sonne thou art an heire That thou mayst proue thy selfe heire watch on this care and bee not ydle least it be sayd vnto thee Why standest thou here all day ydle much lesse to bee found loosse in delights 1. Peter 5.3 or wallowing in pompes The will of the Testator assigneth vnto thee none of these c. Dost thou thinke that he hath giuen thee domination heare him Not as though ye were Lords saith he in clero ouer Gods heritage but as made ensamples to the flocke And thinke not that he saith it onely in humilitie and not also it truth It is the Lords voyce in the Gospell The Kings of Nations rule and haue power of them c. But it shall not be so among you It is plaine that domination is forbidden the Apostles If thou wilt haue both thou shalt loose both Otherwise thinke that thou art not excepted from the number of them of whom God thus complayneth They haue raigned but not by me They haue beene Princes but I knew them not And this speech he extendeth verie long How farre different from the Diuinitie of Hildebrand who would vnite to his Mytre the temporall Monarchie of all the world For Appeales How long dost thou dissemble or not perceius the murmure of the whole earth Lib. 3. How long dost thou slumber How long doth thy consideration sleepe at this great abuse and confusion of Appeales How many haue we knowne to haue appealed that by the helpe thereof they might be suffered to continue the greater wickednesse Against all Law and right against all custome and order they are made There is no discretion had of place of time of the person nor of the cause And this matter he discourseth at large Lib. 4. shewing the inconueniences thereof and illustrateth it by many examples which it sufficeth vs only here by the way to point at There were Pastors afore thee who gaue themselues wholly to the feeding of their sheepe c. Their onely gaine pompe and pleasure to prepare and render them vp to God a perfect people Where is now I pray you this custome There is another vnlike vnto it come in place thereof affections are much changed and would to God it were not into worse Yet care anxietie emulation and ponsiuenesse doe continue but translated not changed I heare you witnes that you spare not your substance no more than before But the difference is in the diuerse imploying of it Great abuse few haue respect to the mouth of the Lawgiuer but all to the hands Yet not without cause they doe all the businesse of the Pope Can you shew me one of all that great Citie that hath receiued thee for Pope without money or without hope of hauing some for it And here let the Reader see that we be not tedious vnto him the description he maketh there of the Romans and especially of the Clergie in all kind of wickednesse far worse than others In the middest of all this saith he Thou Pastour marchest all layed with gold compassed about with so much varietie Thy sheepe what desire they These pastures if I durst so speake rather of Diuels than
it was afterwards printed by it selfe at Basil in 8o. in Italian Latine French The title of the booke is Francisci Guicciardini loci duo c. which it were not labour lost to read Baptista Mantuanus a Carmelite a man famous for his learning in those times in many places but especially in his ninth Eclogue freely describeth the state of the Church of Rome in his time which he saith was in such sort degenerated that the shepheards and their dogs were become rauening wolues and those whom they should feed and defend they deuoured But let that which he hath in his third booke of Calamities be to vs in stead of the rest Petrique domus pollûta fluente Marcescit luxu nulla hîc arcanareuelo Non ignota loquor licet vulgata referre Sic Vrbes populique ferunt sic fama per omnem Iam vetus Europam mores extirpat honestos Sanctus ager scurris venerabilis ara Cynaedis Seruit honor andae Divum Ganimedibus Aedes Quid miramur opes recidiuaque surgere tecta Thuris odorati globulos cinnama vendit Mollis Arabs Tirij vestes venalia nobis Templa Sacerdotes Altaria sacra Coronae Ignis Thura preces coelum est venale Deusque And Peters house defil'd pines with excesse I name not things vnknowne nor secrets I rehearse Things common let me speake all countries say the same Yea through all the parts of Europe it is the same That honestie from Rome is fled that holie place Serues jeasters buggerers the Altars doe disgrace The houses of the gods with Ganimedes are fild Why doe we admire their wealth the houses they build Arabia Frankincense and Cinamon sells The Tirians goodlie garments Rome all things else Temples and Priests Altars and Crownes they fell for pelfe Fire Frankincense prayers heauen and God himselfe And all this in Italie Neither were they silent in Germany for it is noted that about these times the prouerbes were verie common The neerer to Rome the worse Christian In the name of God begins all mischiefe for this was the beginning of their Bulls He that goes once to Rome sees the man of sinne he that goes twice knowes him hee that goes thrice brings him home with him that is to say being neere the man of sinne is made like him But among the learned many haue left behind them a good testimonie of their conscience Iohn of Vesalia a Doctor and Preacher at Wormes was accused before the Inquisitors for holding these propositions That Prelats haue no authoritie to ordaine new lawes in the Church but to persuade the faithfull to the obseruation of the Gospell That the best interpreters of the Scriptures expound one place by another because men obtaine not the spirit of Christ but by the spirit of Christ That the Doctors be they neuer so holy are not to be beleeued for themselues and the Glosse as little That the commaundements of the Church bind not to sinne That the elect are saued by the onely mercie of God That the Popes Indulgences are vaine and so are the Chrisme Lent difference of meats holie-dayes auricular confession pilgrimages to Rome c. But for as much as he impugned the opinions of Thomas the Frier-Preachers who were of the Inquisition were moued against him Diether also Archbishop of Meniz to auoyd that suspition of heresie the Pope had of him was enforced to yeeld vnto them in so much that without any respect of his yeares or his long sicknesse they proceeded against him whereby he was enforced to reuoke his opinions He that writ his examination which bare date the yeare 1479 saith and takes God to witnesse That he was compelled to that recantation that he made and the burning of his bookes Examen Magistrate Iohannis de Vesalia Moguntia 1479. M. Engeline of Brunswic a great Diuine and M. Iohn Keiserberg withstanding it both men learned and free addicted to neither part especially it seemed to M. Iohn Engeline that they had taken too precipitat a course with so great a personage yea he feared not to affirme that most of his articles yea the greatest part might verie well be defended There are many bookes of his extant and among the rest a Treatise of Indulgences where he peremptorily affirmeth That the supremacie of the Pope is a humane inuention That the Church militant may erre That all things necessarie to saluation are contained in the Scriptures There liued at the same time but somewhat younger Doctor Wesellus of Groning called The Light of the world who in a certaine Epistle of his saith That he did expect that the Inquisitors hauing condemned Vesalius would haue come vnto him hauing defended his opinion both at Paris and at Rome against diuers articles of the Church of Rome And he feareth not to say That many of the Court approued it though it differed not much from the opinion of the Waldenses as we may gather by his writings Iohan. Wesellus de subditis superioribus In his booke of Subiects and Superiors he affirmeth That the Pope can erre and that erring we ought to resist him That by his simonie and wicked gouernement he made it to appeare that he had no care either of God or the good of the Church That his commands bind no farther than they are agreeable to the word of God That his excommunications are no more to be feared than those of any other learned and godlie man for so did the Councell of Constance hearken rather to Iohn Gerson than Iohn the 24 and all good and godlie men to S. Bernard sometime than to Pope Eugenius the third Philip. Melancton in vita Rodolfi Agricolae His workes are to be read printed by pieces at Leipsic Antuerpe Basill Also in this countrie his familiar friend Rodolphus Agricola was verie famous a man worthily accounted one of the lights of this darke age who was of the same opinion And Iosquin of Groning then yong witnesseth That he had often seene them both send forth many a sigh and grone to thinke of the doctrine of the Church so much deformed Gocchius Pupperus a Priest and Curat of Malin in Brabant taught the same reformed doctrine almost in all the Articles especially in that of the free justification of a sinner by the bloud of Christ rejecting all the glosses of Sophisters and Schole men betaking himselfe wholly to the Scriptures and namely to that which S. Paule teacheth vs That those interpretations which they commonly alledge differ from the word of God and smel of the heresie of Pelagian That they haue turned Christianitie into Iudaisme and Pharisaisme His bookes are Printed in Germanie namely Of grace faith the dignitie of the holie Scriptures and others In the Vniuersitie of Tubingue Paulus Scriptoris a Doctour in Diuinitie expounding the fourth booke of the Master of sentences openly condemned transubstantiation as not being grounded vpon the holie Scriptures whom the Augustinians the Disciples of Iohn Stauffich Prouinciall followed with diuers
Rome in the new And that Whore there spoken of what is she but the Pope in whom all that abhomination is comprised and as it were incorporated who holdeth the cup in his hand presenting it to Kings and vnto Peoples and making them drunke therewith And as S. Paule describeth that Man of sinne 2. Thess cap. 2. vers 4. Apocal. 17. vers 3. by saying that it is he which opposeth and lifteth himselfe vp aboue all that is called God so that Whore in S. Iohn is described sitting vpon a scarlet coloured Beast full of names of blasphemies and her cup full of abhominations filthinesse and whoredome Now what greater blasphemie than to call himselfe God and to make himselfe aboue his Word or what greater whoredome than Idolatrie stiled by this verie name in the holie Scriptures All which yet must passe vnder a colour of pietie and religion and couered with a maske of the worship of the liuing God And so farre forth must this hypocrisie preuaile that as S. Paule sayth This man of sinne shall sit as God in the Temple of God 2. Thess cap. 2. and shall haue as S. Iohn speaketh two hornes like a Lambe thereby to make at least some shew and apparance of the doctrine of Christ Apocal. 13. vers 11. yet speaking sayth he like a Dragon and teaching the doctrine of the deuill as doe the Pope and Papacie at this day Thus then you see what the person of Antichrist is As touching the place where he shall haue his Seat for that is the terme which they properly vse the case is cleere 2. Thess cap. 2. vers 4. S. Paule telleth vs That he shall sit in the Temple of God that is in the most eminent place of this visible Church and S. Iohn more plainely Vpon seuen Hils Apocal. 17. vers 9. vers 1. vers 15. i. at Rome aunciently surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. a Citie built vpon seuen hils by vertue of which Seat he shall beare rule ouer manie nations for the great whore sayth he sitteth vpon manie Waters and the Angell expoundeth these words in this manner The Waters which thou hast seene on which the Whore sitteth are Peoples and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues As for the Time which is the maine doubt of all S. Paule telleth vs And now sayth he you know 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which withholdeth him to the end he may be reuealed in his due time to wit the Romane Empire whose place Antichrist was to possesse which also was of necessitie first to be dissolued before that other could openly appeare wherefore also it is said in the verse next following 2. Thess cap. 2. vers 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onely vntill he which now withholdeth be taken out of the way or abolished because that the one must build and raise it selfe vpon the ruines of the other in which place by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which withholdeth or hindereth is meant the Romane State and by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he which withholdeth or hindereth their forme of gouernment which was Monarchicall as before by the Apostasie was signified the Romane Church by that man of sinne the head and gouernour thereof was prefigured And S. Iohn speaketh yet more plainely as one that saw Antichrist at a lesser distance and sayth Apocal. 13. vers 3. 12. 15. That this second Beast exerciseth the power of the first Beast in his presence that is that he arrogateth this power to himselfe in the face of the Empire and setleth it in himselfe in such sort that the deadlie wound of the first Beast seemed to be healed to whom also he giueth life and speech making the old estate of Rome to quicken againe and to reuiue in the new All which could not possibly be done by one man not yet in the life of one man certaine ages sometimes passing betweene the first decline and the finall ruine of great Empires but in long continuance of time and succession of manie yeres as the manner of one State is in long time to raise it selfe out of the corruption and ashes of another And so much appeareth by that which followeth in S. Paule for sayth he that mysterie of iniquitie now worketh this thred of Sathan is alreadie set into the loome not by open force but as it is there added According to the effectuall working of Sathan in all power 2. Thess ca. 2. 7 vers 9. 10. Apocal. 13.14 and cap. 14. vers 8. in signes and miracles of lies and in all deceitfulnesse of iniquitie and as S. Iohn sayth seducing the inhabitants of the earth by her signes and wonders which she had power giuen her to doe before the Beast and making all nations to drinke of the wine of her fornications and ensorceling them with idolatrous superstitions And indeed this pestilent Estate and Empire enemie to God and to his Christ is not now as in some measure we see alreadie come to passe begun to be destroyed by force of armes but as S. Paule sayth By the spirit of the Lords mouth 2. Thess cap. 2. vers 8. and by the brightnesse of his comming by the preaching of his Word and cleare light of his doctrine which is to shine in these later dayes which are opposed to the darknesse and mists of Sathan as the comming of Christ in brightnesse i. in truth is opposed to the comming of that man of sinne in all power of lying the Lord proclaiming by his Angell euen by the ministerie of his true seruants with a loud voice vnto all the world If anie one adore the Beast and his Image Apocal. 14. vers 9. 10. and take his marke vpon his forehead and vpon his hand he also shall drinke of the pure wine poured out of the cup of his wrath and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holie Angels and before the Lambe But sayth S. Iohn Here is the patience of the Saints as also S. Paule sayth in the verie beginning of that second chapter to the Thessalonians Be not yee troubled neither by spirit neither yet by word neither by Epistle as if that day were neere at hand his meaning is that this mysterie alreadie set on foot must run on and hold his course and that in the meane time the Saints of God haue much to suffer euen betweene that day wherein that Whore glorying in her wantonnesse should say I sit a Queene and cannot be a widow and that day Apocal. 18. vers 7. 8. cap. 2. vers 10. euen that instant of time when her wounds shall come vpon her that she shall be burned in the fire that the Angell shall crie out saying She is fallen She is fallen Wherefore againe I say that this cannot be meant of one man or of one age but of manie of the waxing and waining of some temporall Monarchie of the infancie youth perfect age decline and finall destruction
bee so muzled by these excommunications for first Cyprian in his Epistle to Pompeius Cypria in Epist ad Pomp. 74. Among other things saith he which our brother Stephen hath written vnto vs either insolently or vnfittingly or contrarie to himselfe hee hath also added this If any man come to vs for what heresie soeuer making no difference betweene heresie and heresie which yet the Councell of Nice afterward thought fit to make let him receiue imposition of hands in penance nay farther saith he his obduratnesse of heart and obstinacie is such as to presume to maintaine That by the baptisme of Marcion Valentin and Appelles children may be borne vnto God Thus he spake and this he maintained in heat of contention contrarie to what the Church afterward defined because these retained not the forme of baptisme But saith he a Bishop should not onely teach but also learne and he is the best teacher of others who is himselfe euerie day a learner As if he had said That Stephen should doe well to learne religion by conferring with his Collegues not to lay his authoritie vpon them vnder a pretence of custome which not grounded vpon truth saith he Cyprian Epist 71 is nought else but an aged errour Saint Peter saith he the first chosen of our Lord vpon whom also hee built his Church when Saint Paul disputed with him vpon the poynt of circumcision carried not himselfe in this manner neither boasted he that the Primacie was giuen vnto him hee told him not that he was an after commer and that foremost must take vp hinder most or disdained him for that he had beene a persecutor of the Church but submitted himselfe with all willingnesse to truth and reason giuing vs thereby an example of patience not to be selfe-willed in louing that which proceedeth from our selues but rather to account all that as our own which our brethren shal teach vs for our good saluation of our soules And vpon these and the like tearmes he euer holdeth him But Stephen staied not here for he had alreadie written to the Easterne Bishops Euseb l. 7. c. 4. who held opinion with Cyprian declaring vnto them That hee could no longer hold communion with them if they persisted in that opinion as appeareth by that Epistle which Dionysius Alexandrinus wrot vnto Xystus who succeeded vnto Stephen and yet more plainly by that which he wrot to Firmilianus Helenus and others to whom also Cyprian had alreadie dispatched Rogatian his Deacon And the Easterne Bishops vpon the intimation giuen them from Cyprian grew much offended with the insolencie and pride of Stephen and therefore in their answer vnto Cyprian We say they haue cause indeed to thanke him for that his inhumanitie hath giuen vs large testimonie of your faith and wisedome yet deserueth not Stephen any thankes for the good he hath done vnto vs no more than did Iudas for that by his treason he became an instrument of saluation vnto all the world But let this fact of Stephen passe least the remembrance of his pride and insolencie put vs farther in mind of his greater impietie And a little after comming to the fact it selfe Although say they in diuers Prouinces many things are diuersly obserued yet no man by occasion thereof euer departed from the vnitie of the Catholike Church which yet Stephen now presumeth to doe breaking that league of peace with vs which his predecessours so inuiolably obserued He markes not what a flaw he makes in this precious gemme of Christian veritie when he betrayeth and forsaketh vnitie And yet say they Stephen all this while vaunteth himselfe to haue Saint Peters chaire by succession And this no doubt was that which animated him to presume so farre vpon the Churches But made they any whit the more reckoning of his excommunications therefore or did they not rather tell him That thereby he had excommunicated himselfe Surely say they a man full of stomacke breedeth strifes and he that is angrie encreaseth sinnes How many quarels hast thou O Stephen set on foot throughout the Churches and how much sinne hast thou heaped vp vnto thy selfe in cutting thy selfe off from so many flockes For so hast thou done seeing he is a right scismatike which departeth voluntarily from the vnitie of the Church Cyprian Ep. 4. And thou whilest thou wentest about to seperat others from thee hast seperated thy selfe from all other Churches c. Walke saith the Apostle in your vocation in all humilitie of mind in meekenesse and patience supporting one another in loue endeuouring to keepe the vnitie of the spirit in the band of peace c. And hath not Stephen well obserued this precept thinke you when hee breakes off now with all the Churches of the East and anone with those of the South Or hath not he with great patience and meekenesse receiued their embassadours who vouchsafed not to admit them to ordinarie talke giuing order with great humilitie that no man should receiue them vnder his roofe and was so farre from giuing them the Pax that he forbad any man to affoord them lodging Can such a man be of one bodie or of one spirit who is scarcely of one soule in himselfe And see whither this grew in the end He is not say they ashamed to call Cyprian false Christ and false Apostle and a deceitfull workeman For finding his owne conscience surcharged with all these imputations he wisely began to obiect that to another which others might farre more iustly haue laid vpon himselfe Thus then wrot the Churches of the East vnto Saint Cyprian as much offended with the insolencie which Stephen had vsed vpon this occasion so that Pamelius had reason I confesse to say as he did That he would willingly haue left out this Epistle as Manutius had done before him but that Morelius i. Turnebus himselfe had printed it in his edition How farre is all this short of that mild and temperat humour of Saint Cyprian Cyprian Epist ad Inbaianum Edit Paris 70. in Edit Pamelij 73. We saith he will not fall at variance with our Collegues and fellow Bishops for the Heretikes sakes We maintaine in patience and meekenesse the loue of heart the honour of our societie the band of faith and Priestlie vnitie And for this cause at this present by the inspiration of God haue we written a treatise of the Benefits of Patience And at the same time for a lenitife of this sharpe humour he wrot another booke of Zeale and Enuie Such were the essayes of the Bishops of Rome euen in the heat of persecution and such were the wiles of Satan to serue his owne turne and to set forward his worke by their ambition and bad carriage of a good cause But Constantine comming shortly after to restore peace vnto the Churches and as it were to shed forth the sweet influence of his liberalitie and fauour vpon them these sparkes of ambition fostered by his bountie and no waies restrained by
to the Communion of the Church Which Church of Carthage the Popes had excommunicated long before for that those 227 Fathers of Afrike assembled in the sixt Councell of Carthage had decreed as hath beene alreadie declared That they had no need of their Legats à Latere nor yet of Appeales to Rome and that they were able ynough by the grace of God and by the assistance of his holie Spirit to decide their owne controuersies by themselues at home For saith he Aurelius Bishop of Carthage that was he which presided in the said sixt Councell of Carthage with his Collegues so many great personages as there were and among them Saint Augustine himselfe by the instigation of the diuell in the time of our predecessors Boniface and Caelestine began to exalt themselues against the Church of Rome But Eulalius now Bishop of Carthage seeing himselfe through the sin of Aurelius to stand separated from the communion of the Roman Church hath repented him therof intreating to be receiued to peace and communion with her And by a certaine writing signed by himselfe and his Collegues hath condemned by the Apostolike authoritie all and euery such books written by what spirit soeuer against the priuiledges of the Church of Rome This poore Eulalius brought to this extremitie by the eagre pursuit of these holie Fathers of Rome who would neuer let goe their hold but tooke their aduantage of the miserable estate which those poore Churches were in being spoyled by the Vandals and oppressed by the Arrians so that they were neuer after able to hold vp their head Bellarmine therefore Bellar. de Rom. Pontif. l. 2. c. 25. who would needs persuade vs that the variance betweene those Popes and these poore Africans was not such as the world taketh it to haue bin let him tell me seeing that by occasion of that variance Rome did excommunicat them whether they could esteeme it as a light occasion and if it were or if they so esteemed of it what conscience then to excommunicat them for it such multitudes of people so many worthie Bishops and Saint Augustine himselfe being all dead in state of excommunication which was thundered our against them in a time when they were alreadie vexed with the heresie of the Pelagians and oppressed with the schisme of the Donatists and wholly ouerrun with that inundation and deluge of the Hunnes and Vandals and other barbarous nations Baronius to saue themselues from this scandal of excommunicating Saint Augustine condemneth this Epistle as forged and consequently staineth the credit of him which compiled all their Councels his reason is onely this That it is directed to Eulalius Bishop of Alexandria whereas Timotheus was at that time Bishop of that See and not Eulalius But Harding one of his strongest pillars Harding de prima Papae sect 28. answereth for vs That it was directed to Eulalius at that time Bishop of Thessalonica Wherefore let them agree among themselues as they will it is ynough for vs that wee haue it from them though indeed to justifie this Epistle we may farther say That it is taken in among their owne Decrees and standeth for good in the late edition of Gregorie the thirteenth ca. Ad hoc 7. with these words This chapter is read word for word in the Epistles of Boniface to Eulalius then Bishop of Thessalonica which may serue for an answer to all these friuolous coniectures of Baronius Moreouer Baronius thinketh that he hath gotten a great catch in that the Emperor Iustine and after him Iustinian sent vnto the Pope a confession of their faith which was a custome vsed by the Emperours vpon their installation in the Empire and not onely to the Pope but also to sundrie other Bishops of the better sort to the end that they should publish to the people That they were of the Orthodox faith because there had beene many Arrian Nestorian and Eutychian Emperors elected who had caused no small trouble in the Church OPPOSITION But that the Emperors meaning was not thereby to acknowledge him as Vniuersall Bishop besides that they did the like to other Patriarches An. 533. appeareth moreouer in this that they speake alwayes with reference to the Councell of Chalcedon which we haue heretofore spoken of as it is euident both out of their confessions and also by the Nouell Constitution 131. But to come to the matter Nouell 131. no law could be a bridle strong ynough to hold in that head-strong and vnrulie ambition of the Popes We haue alreadie scene the lawes of Odoacer and of Theodoric and Athalaric who succeeded after Theodoric was faine to doe the like For when as vpon the death of Boniface there went an open and a violent canuasse throughout the citie wherein some were neither ashame nor afraid to offer the Senators themselues money for their voyces the Seâ—at tooke high displeasure at these proceedings and thereupon they passed a certaine Decree which wee read in Cassiodorus in these tearmes Whosoeuer for the obtaining of a Bishopricke Cassiod li. 9. Epist 15. shall either by himselfe or by any other person be found to haue promised any thing that contract shall be deemed and held as execrable He that shall be found to haue beene partaker in this wicked act shall haue no voyce in the election but shall be accounted a sacrilegious person and shall be forced by course of law to make restitution of it Moreouer the Senat complained of this great abuse to the king Athalaric and the Defendor of the Roman Church joined in petition with them to the king who ratified their Decree by an ordinance of his owne directed to Pope Iohn The Defendor saith he of the Roman Church came lately to vs weeping and shewed vnto vs that in the late election of a Bishop of Rome some men making their benefit of the necessitie of the time by an vngodlie practise had so surcharged the meanes of the poore by extorted promises that the verie vessels of the Church was by that occasion set to sale But the more cruell and vngodlie this act is the more religious and holie is our purpose to cut it off by due course of law And a little after hauing mentioned the aboue named decree he addeth For this cause all that which is contained in that decree we commaund to be obserued and kept to all effects and purposes against all persons which either by themselues or others shall haue anie part or portion in those execrable bargaines What a pitie was it that the Defendor of the Church should be constrained to lay open this filthie nakednesse of the Church vnto an Arrian Baron vol. 7. an 533. art 32. seq But Baronius to make the best of a bad cause sayth That he did it by the exhortation of Pope Iohn but the Reader may obserue that neither in the Historie neither yet in the ordinance it selfe there is anie such mention made The conclusion is as followeth Our will and
owne swords when as by approuing them they rather cut the throat of their owne cause What speake I of their approuing hereof when they receiue it as one of the six sacred Synods and that in these words This picture meaning of the Lambe is receiued by the Canons of the sixt Synod published by humane and diuine ordinance c. As for that which he sayth That Anastasius in his translation of the seuenth Synod testifieth That none of the Patriarchall Sees receiued them besides his proper qualitie as vassall to the Popes this author maketh himselfe otherwise too too much suspect in this businesse when in his Epistle Dedicatorie to Iohn he sticketh not to say That in this Synod meaning the second of Nice there are manie things of the Canons of the Apostles and of the sixt Generall Councell found which with vs saith he are not found either interpreted or receiued of so good dealing were the ministers of this See euen in those dayes to leaue out whatsoeuer might make against them 26. PROGRESSION That Aripert King of the Lumbards bestowed the Cottian Alpes vpon the Pope and that Iustinian the Emperour sent for Pope Constantine to come to Constantinople An. 705. THe greatnesse of the Bishop of Rome at this time was such that the Emperours residing in the East being harassed what with the inuasions of the barbarous abroad what with ciuile dissentions and rebellions at home had need of their fauour to maintaine their credit in the West So had the Exarchs in Italie to make their partie good against the Lumbards And the Lumbards themselues were faine vpon occasion to speake them faire and the Popes as children of this world and wise in their generation made vse of the times for their owne aduancement Anastas in Joh. 7. Paul Diacon l. 6. c. 28. Blond Dec. 1. l. 10. In the yeare therefore 705 Iohn the seuenth entred vpon his See Aripert King of the Lumbards gaue him as Paulus Diaconus reporteth the inheritance of the Cottian Alpes Blondus and Platina say that he gaue him all betweene Turin and Gennes and from thence as farre as France and this they call Giuing to Saint Peter and he made no great difficultie to be liberall of another mans Paulus saith Sigon de Reg. Jtal. l. 2. That all this did formerly belong to the See Apostolike meaning by that pretended donation of Constantine the Great and that they were taken away by the Lumbards and that he sent the Act of the donation in letters of gold to Aripert But Platina marreth all when he sayth Plat. in Ioh. 7. That this is reported without an author and that seeing there is no certainetie of the donation it selfe and that the Canonists reckon it as a Palea or chaffe without corne or substance in it how can the confirmation hold for good Wherefore this was either a meere deuice of the Popes to encroach vpon it or else a humor of Aripert thereby to redeeme the manie enormious cruelties by him committed and mentioned by Sigonius according to the common error of the times but he shortly after pursued by his enemie was drowned in the passing of a riuer On the other part Iustinian the second wearied with his homebred trauerses being now at length restored to the Empire which he had lost purposing to be reuenged of his enemies thought good first to gratifie the Pope and therefore sent him the Acts of the fixt Councell by two Metropolitans exhorting him to receiue them Anastasius the Popes Librarie keeper sayth it was with request to strike out what he thought fit But Platina their Historian sayth That it was absolutely to haue him subscribe vnto them but both of them agree in this that he sent them backe againe as wanting courage to contradict or censure them An. 708. But in the yeare 708 Pope Constantine made better vse of the times for Iustinian hauing made away the chiefe of the aduerse faction and hauing pulled out Callinicus the Patriach of Constantinople his eyes sent him prisoner to Rome thinking thereby to doe the Pope no little pleasure and thereupon sent to him to come into the East with purpose to vse his aduice in matters and to oblige him to himselfe with honors which he means to doe vnto him The Historie sayth That he gaue order to haue him receiued in all places as his owne person That he fell at his feet and kissed them with his diademe vpon his head Paul Diaco de gest Longobard l. 6. c. 31. but withall it letteth vs vnderstand that he vsed his authoritie to make him come Paulus Diaconus saith That he commaunded the Pope Constantine to come vnto him not as Sigonius an author of these dayes that he beseeched him And Anastasius himselfe sayth That he sent his sacred Patent by which he commaunded him to come vp to the royall Citie and that he with all readinesse to obey the Emperours behests Anastas in Constanti caused shipping to be prouided and these are the authors who liued neerer vnto the times so that Baronius is idle when he interpreteth his commaunds to be but prayers and requests Wherefore the rest that the Emperour did was in deuotion and compunction and not in dutie or obedience And indeed Paulus Diaconus reporteth That the Emperour renewed vnto him all the former priuiledges of his Church so that he was to hold them from him in time to come And Anastasius giueth the cause Requesting him saith he to pray for his sinnes for these were the satisfactions which those times required and so saith he the Emperour dismissed him to returne to Rome Who durst speake thus in these daies But Platina after all Iustinian saith he for all these calamities changed nothing of his former life onely he had the Apostolike See in a greater awe and reuerence than before and so long as good friends as might be OPPOSITION Notwithstanding this strong support yet were there alwaies some or other who would not endure this Tyrannie The Church of Rauenna was but lately come to the yoke and that by the commaund of the Emperours Wherefore Felix succeeding vnto Damian came and presented himselfe vnto Pope Constantine to be by him approued and consecrated at Rome but sayth Anastasius he would not enter caution according to the custome that is Anastas Plat. in Constanti Blond lib. 10. Dec. 1. as Platina and Blondus more ingenuously deliuer would not oblige himselfe to a set forme of obedience and to send a certaine summe of money to Rome wherein the magistrats themselues of Rome assisted him The tale goeth that his Caution being layed by the Pope vpon the holie confession of S. Peter that is vpon his Relikes it was found shortly after all blacke and as if it had beene burnt with fire These were the pettie miracles of those times to put to children but the matter stayed not here Blond ib. The Archbishop being thus repulsed by the Pope returned to Rauenna
and forced to crie to Gregorie for helpe Gregorie according to their articles receiued and defended him Luitprand summoned Gregorie to deliuer him into his hands An. 739. if not threatened to take him for an open enemie and when Gregorie refused to doe according to his summons Luitprand moued from Spoletum where he lay tooke by the way sundrie places of the Popes dominion and at length came and encamped before Rome gates Sundrie gentlemen of the citie growen wearie and scorning this new Church gouernment came ouer to Luitprand and offered him their seruice France was too farre off to helpe in time yet Charles intreated Luitprand by an embassador sent vnto him to raise his siege which he did holding onely in his hand what he had alreadie taken Luitprand was no sooner returned to Pauia but Thrasamond supported by Gregorie tooke the field againe surprising many of those cities and places which he had lost But shortly after all in one yeare died the Emperour Leo Charles Martel and Gregorie the Pope An. 741. After Gregorie succeeded Zacharie who redemaunded his places of Luitprand and tooke part as his predecessors had done with the rebels but seeing himselfe in danger entreated a parley and there got of this vertuous prince for so they tearme him what euer he desired who was contented at the Popes entreatie to giue ouer the action which he intended against the Exarch of Rauenna In like sort dealt hee with Rachis successor vnto Luitprand sometimes trying his patience and otherwhiles flying to his mercie but still abusing his deuotion vntill at length building vpon the foundation which his predecessors had laid hee resolued to ruine this ouer powerfull neighbouring Estate of the Lombards by a forreine power which though greater in it selfe yet was lesse dangerous to him and of lesse annoyance to his proceedings And the ambition of the French easily hearkened to such a motion Pepin succeeded his father Martel in his Mairaltie of the houshold and vnder this name in the royall authoritie But not content with the thing vnlesse he might also haue the Title sent to consult Zacharie Whether it were not reason that he which tooke all the paines in administration of all affaires of the kingdome should be king rather than he Aimon l. 4. c. 61. Sigon li. 3. Blond Dec. 2. li. 1. who contenting himselfe with the Title tooke care of nothing but onely in pleasures and pastimes pointing at Chilperic his Lord and Soueraigne whom he would faine haue pulled from his throne by force onely he wanted authoritie cloaked with deuotion Zacharis who vnderstoood by the halfe what the whole meant presently commaunded as saith Aâ—monius by his authoritie That Pepin should be created king who was accordingly that same yeare sacred by the Archbishop Boniface the subiects discharged of their allegeance and Chilperic degraded Pope Zacharie saith Sigonius anteâ—posing his Decree out of the greatnesse of his authoritie What authoritie but that which was foretold vs by the Apostle of that sonne of perdition placed in the Temple of God 2. Thessal 8.4 exaltting himselfe aboue all that is called God and carrying himselfe as if be were God God saith the Prophet to whom alone it appertaineth to set vp and to pull down kings to continue kingdomes or to translate them from one stocke vnto another And Sigonius cannot hold but must needs say That he dyed hauing carried matters more for the behoofe of the Church and of the Apostolike See than according to rules of true pietie and religion And this fell out in the yeare 750. An. 750. Pepin now owed Zacharie a good turne and quickly had occasion to requite his kindnesse Rachis king of the Lombards entring into religion Aistulphus his brother who succeeded in the kingdome set vpon the Exarch of Rauenna tooke the citie made him saue himselfe in Greece And this was the period of the Exarchat after two hundred yeares space that they had borne sway in Italie This done whether Aistulph grew more insolent than before or whether a fright tooke the Pope to see such proceedings Stephen who had now succeeded Zacharie resolued for preuention to flie to Pepin And Aistulph by his predecessors examples grew wise and would not be led with words Stephen knew not whom to trust and to passe himselfe in person ouer the Alpes had beene to runne into the diuels mouth wherefore he vsed the credit of Pepin to make faire weather with him to win him to withdraw his forces and to grant him safeconduct through his countries towards France which he did and receiued him in his journey with all honour at his Court Whence he passed into France where meeting with Pepin at Pontigon An. 754. in the yere 754 exhorted him in remembrance of the kindnesse which he had receiued of Zacharie to stand Saint Peters good friend nothing came amisse vnder so plausible a name And Pepin desired no better office both in regard saith Sigonius of the kindnesse of Zacharie in degrading Chilperic making that iust and lawfull by his sacred authoritie which otherwise seemed vtterly vnlawfull as also because he desired to haue this right of succession established by Stephen vpon his two sonnes Charles and Carloman The conclusion of all was That the next Summer Pepin should passe with his armie into Italie and force Aistolph to surrender the Exarchat and all other places which he had taken And that the Pope should spend the Winter in France to annoint and sacre his two children But vpon the holding of the Parliament in France when he saw all matters sort after his desire he went a step farther and drew a promise from Pepin That he would not restore either the Exarchat or Pentapolis vnto the Emperour of Greece who had made himselfe vnworthie thereof by his cowardise and heresie but that he would bestow them vpon Saint Peter and his successors for euer for the good of his soule and for the remission of his sinnes Which Pepin sware vnto him to performe and made his two children take the same oath and he presently deliuered him a Patent thereof signed with his owne hand Pepin had no sooner set foot in Italie but Aistulph presently promised to yeeld vp the Exarchat and what euer else he had taken for performance whereof he gaue fortie hostages which were presently conueyed into France Pepin had no sooner turned his backe but Aistulph immediatly repented him of his surrender drew his forces into the field and Pepin was faine to repasse the mountaines and to hasten backe into Italie againe Then was Aistulph faine to personne his promise with effect And when the Emperor of Greece required him to restore to him the Exarchat and Pentapolis as to him properly appertaining and not vnto the Pope his answer was That he had bestowed it vpon the Church for his soules health and for the remission of his sinnes And thereupon renewed his grant to Stephen giuing him liuerie and seisin for him and his
Exarchat tooke Ferrara Comachio Faenza and entred verie farre vpon Romagnia and la Marche Adrian hereupon sent an embassage by sea to Charlemaigne in Fraunce and the more to interest him in the quarrell told him That Didier would force him to annoint the sonnes of Carloman his brother that his refusall was the cause of all this trouble Adrian all this while was in a piteous plight for Didier either for or vnder colour of deuotion came before Rome gates when by meanes of an excommunication which Adrian cast out against him his priuat familie and others would not suffer him to passe anie farther But when Charles was once passed the Alpes those of Spoleto and Riete and others came presently and yeelded to the Pope Moreouer those of Didiers owne dominions fell from him by heapes so that he was forced to breake vp the siege Then came Charlemaigne to Rome where he was receiued as the sole author of the life and libertie of the Church the people singing before him by the appointment of Adrian as the children once did at the entrance of our Sauiour into Ierusalem Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord Hosanna c. And after some few dayes spent in pompous deuotions Charles was requested to confirme the donation of the Exarchat Romania and la Marche which his father himselfe and his brother Carloman with all the Iudges of France had long before promised at Creci in Fraunce all which he presently accorded giuing ouer and aboue of that which was none of his the Islands of Corsica Sardinia and Sicilie the territorie of the Sabines with the Duchies of Spoleto and Tuscanie which belonged to the Lumbards reseruing alwaies to himselfe the soueraignetie of them And thus came the kingdome of the Lumbards to an end by the practises of the Popes whereas yet their Kings haue this testimonie affoorded them euen by the Historians of their greatest enemies That from the time they receiued the Christian Religion and Catholike Faith they had euer beene great Iusticers and deuoutly giuen witnesse saith Sigonius their good lawes which so seuerely punished thefts robberies rapes murders and adulteries carefully preseruing euerie man in his owne estate goods and libertie witnesse also the sumptuous Temples and ample Monasteries with which they beautified and adorned Italie the faire and goodlie Cities which they either built or repaired the honours they did to holie persons the Lordships and riches which they bestowed vpon the Popes with the great reuerence they vsed towards them insomuch that some of them at the Popes persuasions left Crowne and Kingdome to confine themselues within a cloister But the Popes ambition was great and the Lumbards payed the price of their deuotion towards that See by the finall ruine of their state and kingdome Neither is Onuphrius ashamed to vaunt Onuphr in Constant that Gregorie the second had chased the Emperour out of Italie That Gregorie the third by the helpe of Pepin had begun the warre vpon the Lumbards which being pursued by his successors must needs as it did end in the ruine of that Kingdome And this fell vpon the yeare 773. Where note also An. 773. for the more perfect view of these proceedings that about the yeare 740 the King of West Saxons in England purposing to take the Frocke vpon him first made his realme tributarie to the Pope binding it to pay yerely a pennie for euerie chimney in the land So likewise in the same Island did Offa King of Northumberland vnder Adrian the first The Author setteth downe the cause which was the feare he had to be punished for his sinnes as thinking he should neuer be able to make sufficient satisfaction to God for them though he had alreadie giuen the tenth of all his goods vnlesse he gaue other mens goods also and made the kingdome to beare the penaltie of his offences so well did the inuention of Purgatorie suit alreadie with their ambition But Gregorie the seuenth called Hildebrand Gregor 7. in ep ad Pet. Alban G. Principem Salernitanum would make the world beleeue That Charlemaigne in humble acknowledgement of S. Peters helpe in his victories vpon the Saxons had giuen the countrey of Saxonie as an offering to the Church of Rome and that he commaunded smoake pence to be payed throughout Fraunce vnto the Pope but he alledgeth no author saue onely his pretended Charters by vertue whereof he commaunded Peter Bishop of Alba and G. Prince of Saleme his Legats to make demaund of those said pence in Fraunce But the French euer laughed at such claimes and Charlemaigne was too wise to fall into such a trap About this time also was it that Boniface falsely surnamed the Martyr a great champion of the Popes and Pope himselfe published the Decree Si Papa containing That if the Pope happen to neglect his owne saluation and others c. he euer draweth with him multitudes of soules to hell Distinct 46. A great mischiefe but what remedie for it followeth This no mortall wight may presume to reproue him for his faults because he himselfe iudgeth all men and is iudged of none vnlesse he be found erring in faith Which doctrine once layed for a ground what wonder if Popes haue alwaies run so headlong to all manner of impietie And the better to see how the Apostasie from true doctrine hath alwaies encreased with the Tyrannie of the Papacie we must further note that the most grosse abuses grew vp in this lamentable time We haue said before that Gregorie the first altered the Liturgie of Rome this was now receiued in Italie by the meanes of Adrian the first in Germanie by the diligence of Boniface and in Fraunce by the authoritie of Charles and where euer they found opposition there they brought it in by force and violence The holie Supper was for the most part left off priuat Masses vsed in stead thereof the Sacrament was turned into a Sacrifice and then began the opinion of Transubstantiation to giue it the greater credit Purgatorie also now came to be vndoubtedly beleeued of the common people hence came those multitudes of foundations the Church euer parting stakes in the reuenues Now began men to flocke to Rome in pilgrimage hoping thereby to purchase remission of all their sinnes insomuch that the Bishops and Fathers of Fraunce in the Councell of Tours began to oppose against it Concil Turoni An. 813. sub Charo Magno Concil Nice 2. and to entreat the Emperour to stay the current of this abuse And lastly in the yeare 788 was held that second Councell of Nice called the seuenth Generall Councell vnder Constantine the seuenth and his mother Irene wherein after strong opposition was finally established the adoration of Images Adrian the first there assisting by his Legats whom Irene the Empresse hoped so to satisfie and content by giuing way to this Decree that by his fauour she might once more set foot in Italie OPPOSITION Neither may
Iohn Bishop of Arezzo the Legats of Pope Iohn and Ansegisus of Sienna by the authoritie Apostolike and his owne ordinance Thus they began contrarie to the auncient custome to joyne the Emperour and the Pope together In this Synod Charles by vertue of a Decretall Epistle of Iohn went about to constitute and appoint Ansegisus Primat with this authoritie which followeth That so often as the profit of the Church should require whether for the calling of a Synod or for the dispatch of other Ecclesiasticall affaires in France and Germanie he should present the Popes person and should acquaint the Bishops with the decrees of the See Apostolike and should report vnto the Pope what had beene done or not by vertue of them and vpon great and important causes should consult the said See Our Bishops requested that since the letter was directed vnto them they might haue a sight of it which the Emperour refused to graunt being such perhaps as he was ashamed to shew it he vrged them only to say what answere they made to these Apostolike commaunds and their answere was That they willingly obeyed thereunto prouided that no Metropolitan be thereby preiudiced in his rights contrarie to the Canons and the decrees of the Popes themselues aunciently pronounced according to the Canons And though the Emperour and the other Legats pressed them verie earnestly for the primacie of Ansegisus yet could they get no other answer from them only one Frotharius Bishop of Bordeaux who had skipt from Bordeaux to Poictiers and from Poictiers to Bourges through the meere fauour of the Prince made such answer as he thought would best please the Emperour who much offended with the answer of the others said That the Pope had committed his place in the Synod vnto him and that he would make them vaile bonnet to him And thereupon taking the Popes Epistle folded vp as it was together with the Legats deliuered it to Ansegisus and presently caused a rich chaire to be set before all the Bishops on this side the Mounts next vnto Iohn of Tuscanie which sat next aboue him on the right hand and bad him sit there aboue the other Bishops though his ancients the Archbishop of Rheims protesting openly that this was contrarie to the Canons But the Emperour persisted in his purpose and when the Bishops a second time requested a sight or a copie of the Epistle they could not obtaine it Our Bishops not long after met againe without the Emperour where were great debates betweene them because of certaine Priests who out of sundrie parishes had recourse to the Popes Legats and so this meeting broke vp likewise A third time also they assembled in the same place whither the Emperor sent vnto them the Popes Legats newly come ouer which brought from the Pope vnto the Emperour a scepter and a staffe of gold and to the Empresse gownes and bracelets all set with pearle These when they came rebuked the Bishops for not appearing the day before but they holding them alwaies to the Canons in their answeres made them giue off hot words yet the Legats still vrged them to accept of Ansegisus for their Primat they answered in generall termes That they would obey the Popes decrees as their predecessors had done the decrees of his predecessors So that the Emperour came thither in person and in great state clothed after the Greeke fashion with a crowne vpon his head accompanied with the Legats all attired after the Romane fashion and there made Iohn Bishop of Arezzo openly to read Quandam scedulam ratione authoritate carentem A certaine paper without authoritie or reason which done there were certaine Articles dictated and set downe in writing without consent of the Synod each crossing the other of them without profit reason or warrantie and therefore saith the Author we haue thought fit to omit them and at last after manie complaints as well of the Emperour as of the Legats concerning the Primacie of Ansegisus he went away hauing done as much at the end of the Synod as he had at the beginning So much was this Prince ouertaken with this fatall Cup more dangerous to him than was that other of Sedechias of which he died so obdurate was he against his owne good hauing his eyes dazeled with vaine shewes and colourable illusions for the present on the contrarie so cleare-sighted were our Bishops of France in these affaires descrying a farre off how great a ruine would one day ensue of this small-seeming breach made vpon the liberties of their Church 35. PROGRESSION That Pope Iohn was the first which graunted Indulgences for the dead AFter the death of Charles An. 878. the Earles of Tusculana got the vpper hand in Rome and in the yeare 878 clapt Pope Iohn vp in prison for excommunicating them but Iohn by the helpe of his faction found meanes to escape and came by sea into Prouence whence he was conducted to Lewis surnamed the Stammerer sonne to Charles the Bald who then lay at Troy Balbus where he assembled a Synod of French Bishops and made them to confirme and ratifie the excommunication which he had hurled out before against his enemies and there also was Formosus in person depriued of all Church dignities and oath taken of him neuer to returne to Rome or to his Bishopricke but aboue all they two bound themselues the Emperour to assist the Pope against his opposites the Pope to crowne him Emperour which he did in Fraunce with great solemnitie and so they parted Iohn at his returne found the Sarasens at Rome gates and shortly after had tidings of Lewis his death so that now he was faine to cast about againe and to take a new course which was to cast the Empire vpon Charles the Grosse King of Germanie who was the first that entred Italie with his armie and this was the third whom he had crowned Emperour vpon promise That he should protect the Church from all her enemies especially from the Sarasens but vnder the generalitie of enemies were principally comprehended the Earles of Tusculana And not long after in the yeare 882 died Pope Iohn An. 882. who besides that which hath beene alreadie said left other goodlie examples behind him for we learne by a certaine Epistle of his to Charles the Grosse Iohan. epist 9. That he adopted for his sonne Prince Bason to ease him of his worldlie cares that he might the more freely attend vpon the seruice of God Whereas S. Peter in the execution of his charge neuer needed a Prince for his coadjutor much lesse a swaggering captaine Also he was the first that euer presumed to graunt Indulgences to those which were alreadie dead or hereafter should die in battaile against Painims and Infidels his words are these Being demaunded by our Bishops of Fraunce Whether those which were alreadie or hereafter should die in defence of the Church might haue indulgence and pardon of their sinnes Iohan. ep 144. we
the onely man in that age famous in Diuinitie who expounding these words Vpon this rocke I will build my Church Theophil in Matth. c. 16. made no mention of the Pope of Rome because sayth he Peter confest him the sonne of God the Lord sayth That that confession that he made should become the foundation of the faithfull in such sort that euerie man that would build the house of faith must necessarily put this confession for his foundation c. Yea saith he euerie one of vs being made the house of God is the Church insomuch that if we be built vpon this confession of Christ the gates of hell nor our sinnes shall preuaile against vs. And to proue that he vnderstood not this priuiledge to belong to the Church of Rome but to euerie Christian that is the house of God and the Church vpon these words To thee I will giue the keyes of heauen c. he saith Ioh. 20. The keyes that bind and lose forgiue and aggrauate our sinnes For they that like Peter are thought worthie Episcopall grace haue power to lose and retaine sinnes for though it were onely said to Peter To thee I will giue yet that power was once giuen to all the Apostles when he said Whose sinnes ye remit shall be remitted for that word I will giue signifieth a future time that is after the resurrection And therefore to shew that he thought the keyes not to be attributed more to Peter than the rest of the Apostles he sayth vpon the Epistle to the Galathians Theophil ad Gal. c. 2. Paule shewed himselfe to be equall to Peter Manie the like places there are in this Author though he were one of those that came last and of those as we haue said elsewhere whose writings some haue taken care to corrupt the better to accommodat them to the controuersies of the times 37. PROGRESSION Of the miserable estate of Italie through the wickednesse of the Popes and the wilfulnesse of the people Of Theodora and her daughters three famous harlots that ruled the Popes and the Citie of Rome at their pleasure Of the abhominable and wicked life of Iohn the thirteenth HEre we enter into an age which is renowmed onely for this That in the state of Italie there was nothing but confusion in the Church darknesse and in the Popes idlenesse and a headlong licentious libertie to commit all sinne that it was no maruell that Baronius began his Historie with these words An yron age barren of all goodnesse and a leaden age abounding with all wickednesse For as touching the State the Emperour Lambert hauing beene traiterously slaine as Berengarius a Prince commended for his great vertue thought he had ouercome all his affaires Benedict the third prouoked by the Marquesse Albert called Lewis the third the sonne of the Emperour Arnulph against him and crowned him at Rome but Berengarius surprised him vpon the sudden at Verona and hauing taken him pluckt out his eyes and setled himselfe in the Empire for manie yeares notwithstanding his prosperous successe was interrupted by the faction of the Popes assisted by the power of the Marquesse Albert then arbitrator at Rome The Hungarians on the other part and the Sarasens without resistance troubled all Italie Neither were there wanting malecontents who called in strange Princes Rodulph K. of Burgoigne Hugh K. of Arles who as it were by turnes entring Italie with their powers crowned themselues at Rome but yet with condition to ratifie the pretended donations and because they had need of the Popes helpe were content to remit much of their authoritie and yet sped neuer the better And as touching the Church it was easie to judge in so great a perturbation of all things how pale the face of it was especially in Italie where all this while there was not a man of fame that appeared nor action that had anie shew of care in it of the Church in such sort that they that haue writ the Historie thinke they haue sufficiently commended a Pope when they haue reported him to haue done nothing so naturall a thing was it for them to haue done euill In the yeare 904 Benedict the fourth died An. 904. and contrarie to all law say they Leo the fift succeeded who after fortie daies was deposed by his chapleine Christopher nouo exemplo Sigon de Reg. Jtal. li. 6. Platina in Benedict 4. Leo. 5. by a new example saith Sigonius malis artibus by deceit and cunning saith Platina setled himselfe in his place Sergius the third being now twice driuen from the Popedome made friendship with the Marquesse Albert and so supplanted him and placed himselfe in his throne and then at his owne pleasure inueighed against the memorie of Formosus and pronounced his Acts to be void insomuch that Bellarmine laboured no lesse in the justifying of him than of Stephen Then was there no more question either of the election of the Clergie or of the consent of the people Here saith Platina consider how much these haue degenerated from their ancestors for they like holie men contemned such dignities as were freely offered them and betooke themselues to prayer and preaching these with corruption and ambition seeking the Popedome and hauing gotten it laying aside all diuine worship no otherwise than cruell tyrans exercise their malice one against the other that with the better securitie they might afterward follow their owne pleasures when there should be no bodie of power to bridle their sinne An. 911. Anastasius in the yeare 911 succeeded Sergius An. 913. and him Landus in the yeare 913 and him succeeded Iohn the eleuenth the Archbishop of Rauenna commendable onely in this that they liued not long Platina in Christoph 1. sequ God saith Platina taking them out of the world as so manie monsters But Sigonius without malice speakes thus of Iohn That the Clergie and people being assembled together for the choice of the Pope there was nothing done in this election according to law for Albertus the Marquesse at the persuasion of Theodora his mother in law not out of the Church of Rome but of Rauenna nor by the voices of the Clergie but his owne riches Luitprand l. 2. c. 13. nominated for a successor Iohn the Archbishop of Rauenna Luitprand who liued in those times speakes somewhat louder He obtained sayth he the Popedome by such horrible wickednesse contra ius fasque against all law both diuine and humane Theodora an impudent harlot obtained Virago-like the Monarchie of the Citie of Rome who had two daughters Marozia and Theodora not onely equall vnto her but farre surpassing her in their lasciuious life of one of these namely Marozia Pope Sergius had in adulterie Iohn who after the death of Iohn of Rauenna got the Popedome that is to say the twelfth of whom we shall speake hereafter and by the Marquesse Albert her husband she had Alberick who afterward vsurped the principalitie of Rome
succession of the Bishops of Rome which they so much boast of may be defended We must not forget that Baronius reprehendeth our Historiographer Glaber in one poynt wherein neuerthelesse hee expresseth to the life the beleefe of our French Church The Earle Foulke of Anjou hauing built a Church went himselfe to Rome with a great summe of money which he deliuered to Iohn the seuenteenth to the end he would send a Legat to consecrate the place Whereunto he agreed and sent thither a Cardinall with direction to doe whatsoeuer Foulk should commaund But saith Glaber the Prelats of France hearing thereof Glaber Historiar lib. 2. c. 4. Baron to 10. an 996. art 21. 22. 23. 24. iudged it to be sacrilegious presumption proceeding from blind ambition c. being a thing too vndecent that he that ruled the See Apostolike should be the first that did transgresse the Apostolicall and Canonical order especially being aunciently confirmed by many authorities Multiplici authoritate that not any Bishop should presume to exercise any such power in anothers Diocesse except it were at the request or by the permission of him to whom it appertained yea not excepting the Bishop of Rome himselfe whose Diocesse they held not to be the whole world But thus he proceedeth An innumerable multitude of people being gathered together in a cleere and quiet day to see the dedication of this Temple a sudden tempest arose out of the South which in a moment beat downe the Temple to the ground Which strange accident being spread abroad through the whole countrey there was no man that doubted that the insolent boldnesse of this presumption had made vaine the vow of Foulk and was a manifest warning to all that were present and to come neuer to attempt the like For though the Bishop of Rome for the dignitie of the Apostolike See was had in greater reuerence than all other in the world yet it was neuer permitted that he should transgresse in any thing the order of the Canonical gouernment For as euerie Bishop and spouse of the true Church hath some vniformitie in his seat with the Image of our Sauiour so generally it becommeth no man to doe any thing ouer boldly in the Diocesse of another Now from the opinion of this Monke let vs know what the judgement of our Church should be 39. PROGRESSION Of Inchantments and the art of Nigromancie practised by the Popes to attaine the Popedome and vsed by them for other wicked and vnlawfull purposes How the diuill deceiued Syluester the second touching the time and place of his death Of Benedict the ninth his sacrifices to the diuell who in the end strangled him in the forest and of his strange apparitions after his death THe Age that followeth mends but a little and therefore a Carthusian noteth That in the yeare 1000 we enter into a monstrous time infamous for Magicke artes and all maner of wickednesse his words are these and not without cause There began about the yeare of our Lord 1000 an effeminat time Fascicul Tempor An. 1000. wherein the Christian Faith began much to decline from her first virilitie as appeareth in the prophesie of S. Hildegard c. men betaking themselues to sorceries and inchantments and the Priest was as the people After Iohn the seuenteenth succeeded Gregorie the fift by countrey a Saxon created by the Emperour Otho the third and chosen out of his companie at Rauenna who being sent to Rome to be consecrated the Emperour not long after receiued the Crowne from his hands But he had no sooner turned his face towards Germanie but that Crescens a Consull constrained him to leaue the citie and set vp against him another Pope in such sort that at the request of Gregorie Otho was enforced to returne to Rome where he vsed much seueritie in punishing the authors of that sedition But shortly after Gregorie being dead Otho the Clergie and people being assembled together chose for his successor that Gerbert of whom we haue spoken so much before who in his youth was his tutor and was called Siluester the second A man as appeareth by many of his owne writings still kept in diuers Libraries that had penetrated euen the depth of all profound learning especially the Mathematikes but yet blamed by many Authors for eleuated spirits neuer keepe a measure in any thing for that his studies extended to Nigromancie it selfe by helpe whereof he made his way to the Popedome A matter so little doubted of by those that were best acquainted with the secrets of those times that they constantly beleeued that whosoeuer affected the Popedome in those dayes made profession of this art and thereby attained thereunto Martinus in Chron. Galfridus in supplement Sigiberti Malmesburiensis l. 2. Hist Angl. Anton. Archiep. tit 16. part 2. sect 18. Vincent l. 24. c. 98. Henric. Erford in Chron. Plat. in Siluestr Iohannes Stella ibid. I should be ashamed to alledge it but that Martinus Polonus Vincent of Beauvois Malmesburiensis Anthonie the Archbishop Henrie of Herford Carthusianus Platina Stella and others goe before me and the most part of them doe absolutely affirme That Gerbert had learnt this art in a booke which he stole from Seuille in Spaine that he did homage to the diuill and had in his closet a brasen head by which the diuell gaue him answers With whom consulting about the time of his continuance in that See answer was giuen him That hee should not die vntill he had celebrated Masse in Hierusalem a voyage farre from his thought to haue euer vndertaken and therefore he promised to himselfe a long life But falling sicke of an ague at Rome in the church of the holie Crosse called Hierusalem whilest he was celebrating Masse in Lent by a strange noyse of diuels he perceiued his death was at hand and began to see the doubtfull meaning of the Oracle Whereupon being moued with the horror of his sinnes he discouered it to some of the Cardinals and desired them that for a satisfaction his carkasse after his death should be put into a chariot drawne with two horses and there buried where the horses of their owne accord should draw him Which desire of his being performed it fell out that the horses carried him to the church of S. Lateran where the Cardinals buried him And his sepulchre say they by the noyse and ratling of the bones and the sweating of the sepulchre did presage a long time after the death of the Popes This historie neuerthelesse by some in these dayes is called into doubt and especially by Baronius because there is no mention made of any such matter by Glaber and Dithmarus but quite contrarie he is commended by them for his almes-deeds and charitie towards the poore But the Monke of Malmesburie speakes thereof as of a matter beyond all controuersie and describeth all the circumstances yea he affirmeth That he had an auncient book by him wherin the names of all the Popes were registred
and Doctors that reprehended the pluralitie of benefices and the pompe of the Clergie vntill occasion was giuen them to part stakes with them and to tast the benefit of such pluralities and then couetousnesse blinded them too It is written of a great learned Master that solemnely disputed against the riches and pride of Prelats as being altogether vnlawfull to liue in such a fashion Which the Pope being giuen to vnderstand merily answered Let vs bestow vpon him some good Priorie and such and such benefices and he will be quiet ynough which was speedily done and so presently he changed his opinion saying Vntill now I neuer vnderstood this matter c. But he compareth the state of the Church in these times to those of Hieroboam when he set vp the golden calues in Israel Many holie men saith he did commonly affirme that the same was to be feared in the Ecclesiasticall State and now we see it performed in many parts of the world The Clergie who should possesse nothing but that which in reason was competent for them nor intermeddle with the affaires of the Temporaltie will take vpon them to possesse and to gouerne all things and therefore as S. Bernard saith such as obserue no order hasten thither where dwelleth eternall horror c. Good Reader take heed thou follow not this dangerous custome neither excuse thy selfe with the Popes dispensation but follow the counsell of those that are in the heauens aboue with God least with the golden calues thou burne in hell fire An. 1046. In the meane time in the yeare 1046 the Emperour Henrie the second taketh his journey into Italie partly to take possession of the Empire partly at the persuasion of diuers to procure some remedie against those confusions which had beene brought into the Church by three Popes Benedict Siluester and Gregorie the one troubling and contending with the other and within the walls of Rome making barricadoes one against the other Siluester at S. Maria major Benedict at the palace of S. Lateran and Gregorie at S. Peters whereupon these verses were sent by a Hermit to Henrie Otho Frisingens l. 6. c. 31. Gregor Hemburg in admonitione de vsurpat Paparum Roman Imperator Henrice Omnipotentis vice Vnica Sunamitis Nupsit tribus maritis Dissolue connubium Et triforme dubium An. 1461. Herman contract Carthusian Sigibert in Chron. Platina in Gregor 6. Siluest 3. Great Emperour Henrie who in Gods stead must be The Church who is but one is maried to three Dissolue thou the knot and the doubt trebled will be Platina calls them three wicked monsters and in his historie of Siluester the third saith We are like to see worse matters than all these if God preuent them not since the good being opprest he onely riseth to promotion that excels in bountie and ambition not in learning and sanctitie of life They vse not saith he in these dayes to enter by the doore but the window like theeues and robbers and of diuers others in this Age hee affirmes as much Now by this onely disorder how many other may we imagine He therefore being receiued King in Lombardie before he came to Rome held a Councell of many Bishops at Sutri wherein Gregorie the sixt being conuicted for obtaining the Popedome with money by consent of them all was deposed and in like sort were the other two reiected being deposed saith Martine Canonica imperiali censura by a Canonicall and Imperiall censure And the Romans being altogether ignorant whom vpon the sudden they might nominat to bee Pope the Emperour proposed vnto them Suitger Bishop of Bamberge one of his owne followers and a man for his honestie and learning well spoken of whom he compelled them to approue This is he that was called Clement the second Sigon l. 8. de regno Ital. Martinus in Chron. The Church saith Sigonius hauing beene now sicke for the space almost of two hundred yeres the disease grew so desperat that it required violent remedies yea sword and fire medicines that belong to diseases incurable Whereupon saith Martin per vim substituit he gaue them a successor by force the Romans promising vnto him and swearing That they would neuer chuse Pope without his consent Leo Ostiens c. 80 Leo the Cardinall of Ostia speaking in his Chronicle of these disorders more briefely saith Pope Benedict hauing held the See at Rome twelue yeares was deposed by the Romans and Iohn Bishop of Sabins who was called Siluester substituted in his place non tamen gratis but yet not freely But three moneths after this Benedict with the aid of the Tusculans his kinsfolke draue away Siluester and by force repossessed the See of Rome But neuerthelesse perceiuing himselfe to be odious to all he deliuered the Popedome to Iohn the Archpriest who was accounted as it were the more religious and retired himselfe to his fathers house that there with better libertie he might fulfill his owne lusts and practise his wickednesse He could not in better words haue affirmed That he that of the three was accounted the best was starke naught But Henrie the Emperour saith he the sonne of Conrade his nefandis auditis hearing of these execrable things in the Apostolike See inspired from heauen in the yeare 1047 comming into Italie went to Rome desirous to purge the Apostolike See of these spots Whereupon he stayed at Sutri where deliberating vpon this great and necessarie businesse statuit he appointed there a general Councell to be called of all Bishops There being therefore gathered together at his commaund a great multitude of Bishops Abbots and other religious men he likewise inuited thither the Pope of Rome to be chiefe in that Councell What should I say more The Councell being held Gregorie being by their Synodall Canons and sentence conuicted of simonie of his owne accord rising from his seat and putting off his Pontificall habit humbly and prostrat vpon the ground asked pardon for that he had prophaned that dignitie Leo therefore we see agreeth not in opinion with Baronius who saith That it is not lawfull for an Emperour to intermeddle with the affaires of the See of Rome for he saith quite contrarie That he came inspired by God to that end yea and he addeth withall That he procured vnto him a successor And because these things were done with so prosperous and good successe Sigon l. 8. de regno Italiae the Romans gaue vnto the sayd Henrie the honour of a Patriciat as they did sometimes to Charles the Great and decreed that besides the Crowne of the Empire he should weare a Chaine This selfesame yeare in hope or rather vnder some shew of a reformation of the Church a Synod was held where first a question was made concerning simonie which sin was then growne to such a height saith Sigonius the Popes either winking at it or no way hindering the course thereof that it was a vsuall thing for Bishops to sel
Simons and Magitians together But they made the signification of this word Simonie to extend verie far including within the compasse of that sinne the Princes who joyned their authoritie in the election of the people and Clergie and inuested Bishops into their dignitie whom they likewise held to be heretikes because they had receiued their inuestiture from Princes thereby stirring vp the ill humors of both States the people to murmure against their Bishops the Nobles to rebell against their Princes The other was the Heresie of the Nicholaits directly whether by errour or subtiltie against the truth of the historie of Nicholas who being a Deacon in the Primitiue Church was therefore reprehended because vnder a colour of continencie he forsooke his wife and afterwards betooke himselfe to a more licentious and vncleane life as we haue elsewhere shewed out of Epiphanius But of that sinne there were none more guiltie than the Roman Clergie the Popes themselues of the precedent world frequenting common brothel-houses at Rome as we haue seene But they wresting it otherwise will haue vs to vnderstand and include vnder the name of Nicholaits those Bishops and Priests who according to the law of God and rule of the Apostles and custome of the Primatiue Church and Decrees of the first generall Nicene Councell and diuers others doe allow of lawfull mariage and liue with those women whom they haue maried in the face of the Church Both the one and the other was the inuention of Hildebrand or rather of his master who sometimes by the one sometimes by the other bewitched the people troubled the Princes traduced the Bishops But the end of all was this to ouerthrow their Empire and to bring all power and authoritie to their See which others afterwards did by this example As touching the first Leo the ninth being chosen Pope by Henrie the second others call him the third and being then in Germanie adorned with his purple robe it hapned that taking his way through France he passed by Clugnie where he saw Hildebrand who told him That it was vnlawfull to enter violently into the gouernement of the Church by the hand of a lay man But if he would follow his counsell he would shew him a way how the libertie of the Church should be preserued in the Canonicall election and yet no occasion of offence giuen to the Imperiall Maiestie and that was To put off his purple robe and to goe to Rome in the habit of a Pilgrim Leo yeelds to his aduice and Hildebrand betakes himselfe to the journey with him and caused him againe to be chosen by the Clergie and the people Some adde that he set before his eyes Damasus the second Otho Frisiâ—g l. 6. c. 2â— who by the just judgement of God liued but a few dayes but he opened not vnto him the mysterie that is That he had found the way to shorten his life which Benno before gaue vs to vnderstand Leo dyeth in the yere 1054 An. 1054. Sigon de Regno Ital. l. 8. and the Romans partly fearing the Emperour and partly saith Sigonius not finding any man amongst them worthie the succession sent Hildebrand vnto him to intreat him in the name of the people and Clergie of Rome to nominat one vnto them This was Guebhardus the Bishop of Eichstat who was Victor the second who by an art familiar in those dayes was poysoned by his Subdeacon in his Challice And so this man left all things in their former state and condition An. 1056. But about the yeare 1056 Henrie the second died leauing Henrie the third his sonne about the age of fiue yeres and vnder the tuition of his mother Agnis and in the yeare 1057 Victor the second died at his returne from Germanie wherupon the Romans assembled themselues to chuse a successor and as it were by force consecrated the Cardinall Fredericke the sonne of the duke of Loraine and presently by a Legat signified all they had done to Agnis who was not hardly intreated to approue their choyce and this was Stephen the ninth according to Baronius the tenth who as he prepared himselfe to goe to Henrie the third to be inuested which they called simonie departed this life and presently there succeeded him by the faction of the Tusculan Earles partly by buying voyces partly by threatning open violence Iohn Bishop of Velitre Sigon de Regno Ital. their kinsman being altogether ignorant as Authors report of all manner of good learning and constrained Petrus Damianus Bishop of Ostia notwithstanding his protestations to consecrat him and afterward offer him to the people corrupted with gifts to be adored This was Benedict the tenth Now consider how much they abused their pretended libertie and by what law they accused the Emperours of simonie whereas contrarily they made choyce of the most worthie men in authoritie and learning they could find out But because the Clergie had promised to Hildebrand That if the See should be void to chuse no man in his absence he shortly after sets vp an Antipope Gerardus Burgundus Bishop of Florence who was Nicholas the second to whom Benedict the tenth rather moued with shame than conscience gaue place But he tooke assistant vnto him Hildebrand by whose helpe he might be eased in his greatest affaires And therefore by his counsell a Synod was held at Lateran vnder pretence to preuent those precedent inconueniences but indeed it was to supplant the Emperours For in that Synod it was ordained D. 23. C. In nomine That the Pope dying first the Cardinall Bishops should diligently inquire and consider of the election of a successor then ioyne vnto them the Cardinall Clerkes and so the rest of the Clergie and people should consent to the new election That he should be chosen out of the bosome of the Church of Rome if any bee found fit if not out of some other But there was added for a fashion Hauing euer a due respect to the honour and reuerence of our beloued sonne Henrie who at this present is held for King and hoped hereafter by Gods permission to be Emperour as we haue granted vnto him and to his successors who from this Apostolike See haue obtained that right Whereas before the approbation of the Pope was in the Emperour and it was necessarie vnder paine of high treason to attend his commaund and consent before he were consecrated and he in the meane time to be accursed and declared Antichrist that by any other meanes shall be placed in that throne After this Decree before attempted by Iohn the ninth but with ill successe the authoritie of the Cardinals began to encrease in so much that Petrus Damianus of these times began to say The Cardinals principally doe both chuse the Bishop of Rome and in some prerogatiues they are not onely aboue the law of all Bishops but of the Patriarchs and Primats too These are the eyes of that onely stone the candles of that onely
candlesticke Were there therefore before no eyes no candles in the Church Againe Nicholas the second Leo Ostiens l. 3. c. 25. that he might extend the signification of the word Simonie in despight of Henrie the third made a law That no man could accept of a Church or any Ecclesiasticall office either freely or for money from the hands of a Lay man An. 1056. Whereas that which is said to be freely giuen doth properly exclude Simonie makes no difference betwixt the Lay and the Clergie This Nicholas did also increase vnder the minoritie of Henrie by another occasion Robert and Richard Guischar who were come from Normandie to follow the warres in Calabria against the Sarasins had there set footing with happie successe Robert called himselfe Duke of Apulia and Calabria Richard held Capua and ouerranne the countrie euen to the gates of the citie of Rome both the one and the other were excommunicated by the See of Rome But Nicholas called in his excommunication vpon condition they should hold their seigniories in fee farme of the Church of Rome swearing faith and loyaltie thereunto and paying for a yerely rent twelue pence for euerie yoke of Oxen from whence there arose matter of new contention with the Empire and the Emperour And these things bring vs to the yere 1060. But the progression was no lesse in the corruption of manners and doctrine than in tyrannie ouer the Church Touching manners the sinne of Sodome by the rigorous execution of those lawes that concerned single life had taken such root in the Roman Clergie Petriâ— Damian Lib. qui inscribitur Gomerrhaeus cui praefixa Epist Leonis 9. Baron an 1049. Art 10. seq that Petrus Damianus enforced to betake himselfe to an Hermitage writ a book intituled Gomorrhaeus in which he deciphers al the kinds therof wherein they did riot and sensually passe their time And he dedicated the book to Leo the 9 whose helpe he imploreth against this great and grieuous sin Wicked brambles thornes and nettles haue filled the field of our Lord and Master which grow out of the strength of the flesh and the doung of corruption for all flesh hath corrupted her wayes insomuch that not onely a floud of waters seemes not sufficient to wash away the filth thereof but this great and grieuous wickednesse cries for that Gomorrhaean fire from heauen that burnt the fiue Cities And hereupon by this admonition of Damianus Leo made some lawes and ordained some punishments for this sinne But presently after it appeared that he lost the grace and fauour of Leo And afterwards Alexander the second obtayning the Popedome gets this booke from the authour thereof vnder colour to lend it to the Abbot of Saint Sauiour but in deed to suppresse it making the reason thereof to be his ouer-plaine dealing in that he had expressed the matter in more obscene or grosse termes than was fitting As if such filthinesse could be stirred but there must rise a stinke Whereupon Damianus in an Epistle to Hildebrand and Stephen Cardinals eagrely complaines yet not without a manifest flout And indeed saith he is this a token of Priestly clenlinesse or rather an argument of papall puritie But as touching doctrine In the time of Victor the second about the yere 1055 was brought in the redemption of Penitentiaries vnder pretence that sins multiplying An. 1055. men were not able to endure a penance for so many yeares deferred And besides sometimes men may dye before the penance be accomplished Wherefore in fauour of the rich it was ordained that either for mony possessions or any thing else equiualent therunto they might buy it out Baron an 1055. Art 9. seq according to the number of the yeres appointed and agreed vpon And of this it was that Damianus saith Thou art not ignorant that when we take lands and possessions of Penitenciaries according to the proportion of the gift we release them in the quantitie of their penance Which he himselfe did to the Archbishop of Millan in his legation whereupon saith Baronius He sheweth that the goods of the church shall increase by these ransomes which in time shall grow to a custome Petrus Damiar in Epist ad fratres Baron an 1056 Art 6. 7. But it pleased him that the poorer sort should redeeme those yeares with corporall afflictions a certaine number of Psalmes sung in the Church fasts with bread and water fillips whips and the like whereupon saith the selfesame Damian Tria scorparum millia three thousand lashes with a whip or a holy-bush with the singing of certaine Psalmes doe supply one yeres penance c. And so he calculates it that twentie Psalters sung with discipline should serue for the penance of a hundred yeres Petrus Damianus in Epist ad Defiderium Cassinatem So farre at the last did this corruption of doctrine proceed that Petrus Damianus prescribed to the Monkes that liued vnder his obedience in the same Hermitage that euerie day with their Canonicall houres they should say the seruice of the virgin Marie And saith Baronius As he was the author hereof in his monasterie so it is manifest that from the same sourse it sprang that in all the West churches not only the Monkes but Clergie and Lay men and women by the admonition of Pope Vrban did euery day their taskes And he acknowledgeth to be of the same age and inuention the custome of whipping themselues in imitation of Dominicus Loricatus The masse vpon Mundaies for the dead that are in Purgatorie vpon Friday in honor of the passion on Saturdaies in the honour of the Virgin to the end that superstition with the Popedome should ascend to their highest pitch Alexander the second succeeded Nicholas the second who taking aduantage of the minoritie of Henrie for he was then about eleuen yeares of age was chosen either by the decree of Nicholas Leo Ostiens L. 3. ca. 20. or the bould counsell of Hildebrand Which Agnis the mother of Henrie vnderstanding to be done without her commaund called a Councell at Basill where by the consent of most of the Bishops of Italie Cadalous Bishop of Parma was created Pope who was called Honorius the second Now was Italie diuided in two parts by these two Popes who raised their forces and bare armes one against the other And Henrie himselfe sent Hanno Archbishop of Collen who in the same Sinod reproched Alexander the second and told him that he had no power to enter into the chaire without the commandement of the Emperour and therefore he was either to leaue it againe or to giue a reason of that he had done But Hildebrand answereth him the interpreter for the most part of the Popes in those daies that Alexander was suddenly consecrated without the authoritie of Henrie to auoyd some imminent tumults And that the church of Rome his spirituall mother tooke more care of his right than his mother Agnis who was tied vnto
herein than the rest That oath which he made Richard Prince of Capua to take Gregor 7. in Epist post 21. l. 1. l. 8. post Epist 10. is verie notable I Richard by the grace of God and Saint Peter Prince of Capua by what diuinitie doth he couple the creature and the Creator together from this houre and euer hereafter will be faithfull to the holie Church of Rome and to the Apostolike See and to thee a helper to hold obtaine and defend the royalties of Saint Peter and his possessions with a true faith against all men and I will giue my best assistance that thou maist securely and honourably hold the Popedome of Rome and the dominions of S. Peter These clauses according to his owne interpretation goe farre And I will neither seeke to inuade or obtaine thy principalities nor presume to rob or wast them without the leaue and licence of thee and thy successors that to the honor of S. Peter shall enter What other words could he vse to a captaine of theeues But to King Henrie when I shall be admonished by thee or thy successors I will sweare alleageance reseruing still my fidelitie to the holie Church of Rome These things fell out about the yeare 1073. And the same oath tooke Robert for Apulia and Calabria doing his homage Gregor l. 2. Epist 71. And if we may beleeue the Epistle of Gregorie the seuenth in the yeare 1073 there came to Rome in pilgrimage the sonne of Demetrius king of Russia whom he inuested into his kingdome in the name of S. Peter Vndoubtedly affirming that this his petition should be ratified and confirmed by the consent of his father if he should possesse his kingdome by the gift of the See of Rome Thus abusing as it appeareth by the stile the sottish deuotion of this young man In like manner in the yeare 1081 was the Earle Bernard besotted who gaue for the remission of his sinnes the earldome of Prouence As for the donation of the Countesse Mathilda we shall speake thereof in his due place But it is worthie the consideration from what ground it should arise that he writes to Philip K. of France daring to promise him remission of his sinnes if he would take part with him We will An. 1080. saith he and in the name of the Apostle we commaund that thou hinder not in any sort that election which the people and Clergie of the Church of Rheimes are to make whereby it may be thought lesse canonicall but if any man shall goe about by any endeuor whatsoeuer to hinder it thou shalt giue thy best helpe to withstand him Goe forward therefore that we may not be thought in vaine to haue spared the sinnes of thy youth and to haue expected thy amendment but especially endeuour to make S. Peter thy debtor that is Hildebrand who makes himselfe Peters successor in whose power is thy kingdome and thy soule who can bind and loosse thee in heauen and in earth by which thy diligence and execution of iustice thou maiest deserue his eternall grace and fauour Here I may aske who discernes not the voyce of the diuell tempting our Sauiour in the Gospell But the Aphorismes which they call the Popes Dictats published by him about the yeare 1076 lay him open to the view of euerie man That the Church of Rome hath no other foundation but from God Why then alledge they Peter That the Bishop of Rome onely is by right called Vniuersall and therefore he alone hath right according to S. Gregorie the Great to be either the forerunner of Antichrist or Antichrist himselfe That he alone may depose and restore Bishops what then shall we say of so many Bishops that in the Church for so many yeares and ages in so many countries haue beene lawfully by good and worthie lawes without any respect of him nay in despight of him placed and displaced That his Legat though otherwise inferiour in degree must take place aboue all other Bishops in Councels and may denounce the sentence of deposition against them The reuerend generall Councels therefore in which diuers Bishops haue beene Presidents and taken the vpper place and pronounced sentence in the presence of his Legats yea many times against them too whither are they now gone That the Pope may depose such as are absent And this saith Baronius is to cut off occasions and excuses from our aduersaries yea the Emperor himselfe who being absent he had excommunicated why then doe they so much wonder that he should vse the same law against him That we must not remaine in the same house with such as he hath excōmunicated What is this but like the Pagan high Priests to interdict fire and water Greg. l. 2. Epist 37. But how happie is it for Christendome that few beleeue it To conclude That it is lawfull for him onely according to the necessitie of the time to make new lawes to ordaine colonies of a religious house to make an Abbie and contrarily to diuide a rich Bishopricke and to vnite the poorer That he onely may vse the Imperiall ensignes That all Princes are to kisse the feet of the Pope onely That his name onely is to be recited in Churches That no generall Synod is to be called without his commaund That no booke may be accounted canonicall without his authoritie That all causes of greatest importance of what Church soeuer must be referred to him That he may absolue subiects of their allegeance towards their Prince That he can iudge of all men and no man can iudge of him And all this because the Church of Rome hath neuer erred nor as the Scripture witnesseth shall euer erre That the Pope of Rome if he be canonically ordained is vndoubtedly made holy by the merits of S. Peter That there is but one onely name in the world that is the Pope he had almost said that which the Apostle speaks of our Sauiour A name aboue euery name Phil. 2.9 Acts 12.4 the onely name vnder heauen whereby we must be saued Now gentle Reader what doest thou expect but that ouer and aboue all this he should adde Because the Pope is Christ he is Antichrist himselfe But before we come to the chiefe Oppositions we are to note some particular things not to be contemned Leo the ninth saith the Abbot of Vrsperg being at Menze and the Archbishop himselfe celebrating Masse An. 1052. it fell out that a certaine Deacon called Hunibert read a lesson that made not for the Pope Leo being admonished hereof by one of his friends commaunded him twice or thrice to bee silent who neuerthelesse proceeded The lesson being ended he called him before him and presently degraded him Wherewith the Archbishop being offended and much moued protested That neither he nor any man else should end the seruice at that time except his Deacon were restored vnto him in the same state he was in before in so much that the Pope to satisfie
humane necessitie directly oppugning the Popes Decree From hence there arose new matter of malice against Henrie because he did not his best endeuour to countenance the Bulls of Gregorie But another thing there was that troubled him more which was the right of inuestiture which Gregorie called simonie for which Alexander the second had already threatned to excommunicat him because according to the manner of his predecessors he confirmed by his authoritie such as were chosen Bishops by the Clergie and people and perhaps tooke some money for those great reuenues they possessed thereby which Gregorie would willingly haue got into his owne purse For let no man thinke he did it out of zeale to discharge the Clergie of that burthen because the historie witnesseth that there was none of his predecessors that made a more publike sale of Church liuings and dignities than he did He giues him therefore to vnderstand That vnder paine of excommunication he must abstaine from inuestitures and presently excommunicated Otho Bishop of Ratisbone Otho of Constance Bernard of Lozanna and the Earles Eberardus and Vlricus his counsellors and he sent presently into Germanie the Bishops of Ostia Prenest Coire and Come to enquire into the matter who meteing the Emperour at Noremberge refused to speake with him because he had beene excommunicated by Alexander But yet neuerthelesse they demaund a generall assemblie in Germanie in which they were to inquire of Simoniacall Bishops and Abbots amongst whom they shut them especially out of the Church that were knowne to be ordained by Henrie and first of all the Bishop of Bamberge An. 1075. And in the yeare 1075 the Emperor hauing appointed a meeting of the Bishops and Princes at Goslaer to deliberat of this businesse in the name of the Pope they let him vnderstand That the second weeke in Lent he must make his personall appearance at Rome to answer to such crimes as should be obiected against him otherwise he was againe to bee cut off from the bodie of the Church Malmesb. l. 3. de Gestis Regum Anglor And this is that which William of Malmesburie said speaking of Gregorie That which precedent Popes spake as it were betweene their teeth this pronounceth with open mouth excommunicating the elect who had receiued their inuestiture into the Churches from the hands of a lay man by the ring the staffe Which the Clergie of Lieg do likewise affirm in their Apologie in the yere 1106 Hildebrand and onely hath offered violence to the sacred Canons c. deriding that zeale which he pretended The Princes therefore and people of Saxonie being for some pretended griefes moued against the Emperour and obiecting against him for the better strengthening of their cause his youthfull lasciuious life craued the helpe of Gregorie who presently sets spurres to those that were forward ynough of themselues to rebell promising to be the first day with them in Germanie and to free them from the power of the Emperour But yet for as much as this was an enterprise of weight and difficultie he joyned himselfe in league with a more strict band than before with the Countesse Mathilda whose possessions and wealth were then great in Italie and also with the Normans then lords of Apulia and Calabria which he performed so much the easier because the diminution of the power of Henrie made much for the increase of both their goods But indeed the Pope had another purpose that once hauing gotten authoritie he might thrust out both Mathilda to whose dominions he chalenged a right and the Normans who defended themselues by no other title than of robbers and theeues Leo Ostiens l. 3. c. 48. And therefore saith Leo of Ostia The Countesse Mathilda fearing the armie of Henrie the Emperour deuoutly offered to Pope Gregorie and the holie Church of Rome the Prouinces of Liguria Tiguria and Tuscia Which was the first ground from whence sprung the seed of hatred and discord betwixt the Pope and the Emperour Whereupon the Pope tooke occasion to excommunicat the Emperour for vsurping the rights of the Church But he addeth in his Epistle That he commaunded Mathilda vpon remission of her sinnes to make warre with the Emperour wherein it shall be necessarie to note the diuinitie of this good man Henrie in the meane time omitting no opportunitie to procure peace Clerus Leodiens in Apolog. an 1106. Auentinus l. 5. Annalium Baior sent Orators to Gregory to justifie himselfe against the calumnies of the Saxons but saith Auentine The Emperours messengers who came to confute those crimes that were obiected by the Saxons and to withstand their attempts he cast into prison tormented them with cold and hunger and thirst and being lead vp and downe through the citie draue them out of Rome because saith he he ought to haue come in his owne person Henrie therefore his patience being so much moued that he could beare no longer commanded a meeting at Wormes to which there came many Bishops out of Italie and out of France and Germanie all except those of Saxonie yea and from Rome it selfe came Cardinall Hugo Blancus with letters from the Cardinals and principall of the people of Rome wherein they accused Hildebrand of ambition and periurie Lambert Schaffnab de rebus Germ. Sigon de Regno Ital. l. 9. Author vitae Henrici 4. complaining that he had done many things couetously and proudly and therefore this their Pastor being reiected they desire another There vpon mature deliberation a sentence is pronounced against Hildebrand Hildebrand who calls himselfe Gregorie is the first that without our consent against the will of the Roman Emperour established by God himselfe against the customes of the Elders against the lawes hath by his ambition long since inuaded the Popedome He will doe whatsoeuer pleaseth him whether by right or by wrong He is an Apostat Monke who by his new opinions adulterateth the sacred diuinitie the Scriptures by his false and forced interpretations he accommodates to his owne affaires and purposes he breakes the peace and concord of the Colledge he mingleth things sacred with prophane diuine with humane and polluteth both the one and the other he lendeth an eare and giues credit to the diabolicall and impure and false accusations of our deadliest enemies to the maledictions of wicked men He is both witnesse and Iudge and accuser and partie himselfe He seperateth husbands from their wiues preferres whores before chast matrons whoredome incest adulterie before chast mariage He stirreth vp the people against the Priests the vulgar sort against the Bishops He teacheth that there is no man truely initiated but he that begs his Priesthood of him or buyes it of his bloud-suckers He studieth how to gratifie the baser sort and deceiueth and circumuenteth the common sort of people Insenatulo muliercularum In a Councell-house of women he discourseth of the holie mysteries of religion the law of God wherewith he hath bound himselfe he loosseth as the Decij and
to the Apostolike See and are or shall be in my power I will so agree with the Pope that I will neuer incurre the danger of sacriledge and the perditition of my owne soule and to God and Saint Peter by the assistance of Christ I will doe all worthie honour and seruice and the first day that I shall see him that is Gregorie I will plight my faith with my hands to be a faithfull souldier of S. Peter and his for euer But Henrie in the meane time gaue him no leaue to doe what pleased him for hauing by his victories and prosperous successe appeased the tumults of Germanie he takes his journey with his armie into Italie And this was the last act of Hildebrands tragedie Henrie therefore who in the Synod held at Brixen had caused Gilbert of Corrigia Archbishop of Rauenna to be named Pope who was called Clement the third was absolued by him and so passed the Alpes and remouing all obstacles that stood in his way or did any way detract from his Empire pitching his tents as the manner is in the Neronian fields he determined to besiege the citie of Rome but being encountred at the first with strange difficulties by reason it was Winter he retired himselfe to Rauenna and there wintered But the yeare following 1082 An. 1082. in the beginning of the Spring he sets forward in the same steps as before An. 1083. and assailes the Vatican and in the yeare 1083 after a long siege he tooke the citie and entring into the Capitoll there fortified himselfe William of Malmesburie and others that writ the historie of Godfrey of Bulloine say That he was the first who with a ladder scaled the citie entred into Rome for which seruice the Emperour granted vnto him the inuestiture of the Duchie of Lorain There remained the fort of Crescentius otherwise called the castle S. Angelo into which Gregorie with some of his deerest friends was fled These wearied by Henrie resolued with themselues to offer twentie hostages and to take day vpon certaine conditions to deliuer the citie But Gregorie vnwilling to fall into his hands whom he had so much offended made choyce rather to hazard the bringing of Robert with his Normans to Rome though it were a course full of danger This Robert therefore being at an appointed time let in by the gate Flaminia by some of Gregories friends tooke the Pope out of the castle and caried him to Cassin Sigebert in Chron. Math. Paris in Histor Angl. and from thence to Salerne Whereupon Henrie returned into the citie by whose authoritie Gregorie was againe condemned and Clement confirmed who crowned and annoynted the Emperour with Bertha his wife But Henrie returning into Germanie to appease some tumults that were newly risen Gregorie making benefit of the occasion though he were absent stirreth vp his followers at Rome to rebellion but in the moneth of May being suddenly taken with a disease An. 1085. he died in the yeare 1085 but yet not without aduice giuen to the Cardinals to chuse either Desiderius Abbot of Cassin or if he refused it Hugh Bishop of Lyons or Otho of Ostia that it might be said That the ambitious enterprises of Gregorie outliued himselfe But Sigebert Abbot of Gembloux a writer of those times saith in expresse words That he called one of the twelue Cardinals whom he loued aboue the rest and confessed himselfe vnto him That by the suggestirn of the diuell he had stirred vp that anger and hatred against mankind hauing neuerthelesse published his Decree throughut the whole world vnder a colour of the encrease of Christianitie Whereupon he sent the aforesaid Confessor to the Emperour and to the whole Church receiuing both him and all Christian people that stood excommunicated into the Church both dead and liuing Clergie and Laitie desiring them and the whole Church to pray for the remission of his sinnes It is now of some importance to know what manner of man this Hildebrand was because the judgement of him throughout all Christendome was diuers some imputing all this to his ambition more than humane some to his zeale of the glorie of God Touching his priuat life therefore Lambert of Schaffnabourg Abbot of Hirtzaw a graue writer speaking of the Countesse Mathilda his good friend saith That she her husband Goselon Duke of Loraine yet liuing pretended a kind of widowhood farre from her husband she refusing to follow her husband to Lorain out of her natiue countrey and he employed about the affaires that belonged to his dukedome tooke no care for the space of three or foure yeares to visit his Marquisat in Italie after whose death she seldome or neuer parted from the Popes side following him with a strange affection And for as much as a great part of Italie obeyed her and she abounded aboue all other Princes with whatsoeuer men most esteemed of whensoeuer the Pope had need of her helpe she was presently at hand and was euer duetifull to doe any office vnto him as to her Father and Lord Whereupon she could not escape the suspition of an incestuous loue the Kings fauourers euerie where reporting and especially the Clergie whom he had forbidden lawfull mariage against their Canons That night and day the Pope did impudently sleepe in her bosome and she preoccupated with the stolne loue of the Pope after the losse of her husband refused to marie againe Others adde That she hauing maried Azo Marquesse of Este the Pope impatient therewith the yeare following dissolued the matrimonie Sigon l. 9. de regno Italiae vnder a pretence of kindred in the fourth degree of consanguinitie Whereby that suspition of adulterie that was before did more appeare to be a manifest truth and deseruedly too nothing in those dayes being more common than dispensations in an equall degree of kindred and neerer And if he loued her not but in the way of honestie what reason had he but to dispence with Mathilda too There is therefore one that speakes yet more freely Tractatus de vnit Eccl. conseruanda By this their frequent and familiar conuersation he ingendred a cruell suspition of dishonestie whilest he obserued not more carefully that diuine precept of Pope Lucius That a Bishop ought not at any time to be without the companie of two Priests and three Deacons as witnesses of his conuersation Which he should so much the more carefully haue obserued by how much the more seuerely he proceeded against lawfull matrimonie In this all Authors consent That Mathilda ruled both Pope and Popedome and by her the goods of the Church were administred Whereupon saith Benno Benno Cardin. in vita Hildeb Rome hath seene and heard how he liues with what persons day and night he conuerseth how he hath remoued the Cardinals from him who should be witnesses of his life and doctrine Neither was Sigonius ashamed to write Sigon l. 9. de regno Ital. Annales Godefrid Monachi That he appoynted
attempts his fortitude in the middest of dangers his incredible courage patience in labours counsell answerable to his magnanimitie and his diligence as farre forth as his age is capable in militarie affaires his knowledge of diuine and humane lawes an euerlasting desire of peace care of religion bountie towards the poore clemencie towards the vanquished benignitie towards his friends beneuolence towards souldiers in all which he hath excelled all the German and Roman Princes that euer were And if he had beene a wicked tyran yet it had beene our dueties to haue obeyed him not to rebell against him and all humane lawes and the decrees of our forefathers doe forbid a mans aduersaries his enemies to be his accusers witnesses and Iudges The Emperour made peace with Hildebrand in Italie whilest by the perfidious treacherie of a few Saxonie fell from him A traiterous tyran who receiued due punishment for his treacherie contemning all oathes and promises and all affinitie and kindred inuaded him At the last he concludeth No man may proceed or pronounce sentence against a man that is depriued vntill he be restored to his former estate See the booke and read the law and so he deliuered it to Wesilus Archbishop of Mence Guebhard Bishop of Saltzbourge being for his age eloquence and learning chosen Prolocutor by the Bishops that tooke part with Hildebrand was mute and answered not a word From that time forward many of the Bishops and Princes of Saxonie abiure the sect of Hildebrand that name they retained in the time of Vrban and repenting themselues of what they had done came to the Emperour Onely foureteene persist obstinat therein who being assigned to appeare the moneth following at Mence at their day of appearance came not There the rest of the Bishops of Germanie being present with the Legats of the Bishops of France and Italie by the common consent of all the sect of Hildebrand is judged to be contrarie to Christian pietie Otho called Vrban being conuicted of sacriledge and irreligion was excommunicated and those foureteene being condemned of rebellion periurie murder were deposed Moreouer Historiographers doe obserue that in one yeare all the Bishops and Princes died that had kindled those ciuile warres wherewith the whole Empire for the space of seuenteene yeares had beene set on fire and they recite them by name which was in the yeare 1090. An. 1090. Waltram in Epist ad Ludouic Comitem It was at this time that Waltram Bishop of Magdeburge writ an Epistle to the Earle Lodowick whom hee calls a glorious Prince wherein he proues out of the Scriptures that obedience is due to lawfull Kings and Princes to the end he might arme him against the imposters of that age who to women and the vulgar sort of people preached contrary doctrines setting likewise before his eyes the judgements of God vpon Rodolph Hildebrand the Marquesse Egbert and diuers other Princes who bare armes for the Pope against the Emperour Sigebert in Chron. At which time likewise Sigebert speaking of Vrban chosen against Clement and of those things that followed thereupon From hence saith he grew scandalls in the Church and diuisions in the State the one disagreeing from the other the Kingdom from the Priesthood one excommunicating another the one contemning the excommunications of the other either out of a preiudicat opinion of the cause or the person and whilest the one abuseth the authoritie of excommunicating against the other by doing it rather according to his owne lusts than with any respect of iustice he that gaue the power of binding and loossing is altogether contemned Doubtlesse this noueltie that I may not say heresie did not till now appeare in the world That his Priests who causeth the hypocrite to raigne for the sinnes of the people should teach the people That they owe no subiection to wicked Kings and though by oath they bind themselues vnto him yet they owe him no fidelitie neither are they to be accounted periured persons who resist the King but rather to be accounted an excommunicat person that obeyes the King and that man to be absolued from all iniustice and periurie that opposeth himselfe against him Others speake more confidently Then did there arise false Prophets Apostles Priests who deceiued the people with a false religion doing great signes and wonders and of some he makes instance who began to sit in the Temple of God and to be extolled aboue all that is worshipped and whilest they goe about to establish their owne power they extinguish all charitie and Christian simplicitie c. As if the decree of the immortall God kept not alwayes one course That no periured persons shall inherit the kingdome of heauen The most part of the best sort of men such as were iust and honest and ingenuous and simple haue left in writing That at that time they foresaw the Empire of Antichrist to be beginning and those things to come to passe that our Sauiour Christ Iesus had long before foretold Sigebert and Auentine after diuers others doe note Auent l. 5. That the prodigious wonders that were obserued in those times did astonish the minds of most men The heauens saith he seene many times to burne the Sunne and Moone to lose their light the starres to fall from heauen to the earth burning torches fierie darts flying through the ayre new starres neuer seene before Sigebert in Chron. Auent l. 5. pitched pauillions and armies in the ayre encountring one another and innumerable the like whereby the people were confirmed in their opininion But especially when they saw the sonne to conspire against the state and life of his father Conrade against Henrie who had appointed him to be his successor An. 1095. and that by the persuasion compulsion and approbation of Pope Vrban instigated or rather bewitched by the cunning of Mathilda his father in the meane time leauing nothing vndone that might regaine him to his duetie obedience who preuailing nothing by his just gentle exhortations was enforced in the Councels and solemne assemblies of the Empire to beg vengeance from heauen and earth euen with teares in his eyes All this in the meane time was couered vnder a pretence of that sacred and plausible expedition to Hierusalem the mysterie whereof William of Malmesburie opened before vnto vs That by that meanes Vrban might recouer his authoritie at Rome or rather diuert the minds of men imployed about remote affaires from those more necessarie businesses that touched them more neerely at home That whilest they bended all their endeuors abroad to persecute the Infidels they might neglect Antichrist freely wasting all at home in the Church Neither wanted he in that impure and darke world a bait whereby to win and allure the simple people to that war which was an absolute absolution from all their sinnes without any penance What greater encitement could there be to men who were to inuade a countrey wherein all things were left to the
giue Lawes to the Church of Rome To what end then are Councels held But contrarily saith he all Councels by the authoritie of the Church of Rome are called and haue their force and in all their Statutes the authoritie thereof is manifestly excepted But where can they shew one sillable OPPOSITION Platina in Paschaū 2. Prodigious spectacles in the ayre the earth and the sea still continued obserued by all the writers of these times Neither was Paschal moued with these saith Platina because he beleeued them to be wrought by nature nay hee could not indure that others should obserue them but there was no prodigious wonder that so much troubled the world as himselfe which no man could deny that saw him entring into his Popedome with this belt whereon hung the seuen keyes and the seuen seales play so formally the part of Antichrist whether it were to attribute vnto himselfe all that was proper vnto Christ alone or to represent in his person that Abbadon described vnto vs in the Apocalyps And this no doubt moued the Bishop of Florence in the yeare 1106 publikely to preach Acta vitae Paschalis that Antichrist was borne which Paschal vnderstanding of and being much grieued therewith tooke the paynes to goe in person to Florence and there held a Councell to stop the mouth of this Bishop being content neuerthelesse fearing to stirre in the matter too much to admonish him openly to desist from this bold enterprise that is to say Sigon l. 9. de regno Jtal. least the matter should more apparently breake out The Emperour Henrie as we haue seene retired himselfe to Liege Sabellici Aenneade 9. Platina in Paschali 2. which Paschal could not endure wherefore vnder a shew of congratuling Robert Earle of Flanders beeing happily returned from Hierusalem to his Countrie he writ this vnto him It is the part of a loyall and lawfull souldier to pursue the enemies of his King by all possible meanes We giue thee therefore thankes for executing our commaund in the Diocesse of Cambray and we commaund thee to doe the like vpon the excommunicated people of Liege who falsly terme themselues Clerkes c. And not onely in those parts but euerie where else when thou canst with thy whole power to persecute Henrie the head of the heretikes and his followers Thou canst offer no sacrifice vnto God more acceptable than to withstand him who rayseth himselfe against God and his church c. This we commaund thee and thy souldiers to doe in remission of your sinnes c. Hereby making this his reuenge equall both in right and merit with that famous expedition to the holie Land But what doe the Bishops Canons and Clergie of the Diocesse of Liege There is the second volume of the Councels both the Epistle of Paschal to them and their aunswere to him Epist Leodiens Cleri in 2. vol. Concilior Edition Coloniens apud Quiritel pag. 809. I crie saith the Church of Liege with sighs and astonishment as the Prophet Esay speaketh who exaggerating the burden of the desart Sea crieth out As the Whirle-windes in the South vse to passe from the wildernesse so shall it come from the horrible Land a grieuous vision was shewed vnto me He that vnderstood not hetherto what this desart Sea was by heresay let him now vnderstand it by the eye It is not onely Babylon but the world and the Church c. The Church sigheth to see herselfe abandoned and forsaken by the holie Councels and Prelats for was there euer greater confusion in Babylon than there is at this day in the Church In Babylon the languages of Nations were confounded in the Church the tongues and minds of beleeuers are diuided S. Peter saith in his Epistle 1. Petr. 5. The Church that is at Babylon elected together with you saluteth you Hetherto I interpreted it that Peter would therefore by Babylon decipher Rome because at that time Rome was confounded with all Idolatrie and all manner of wickednesse But now my griefe enterpreteth it vnto me that Peter by a propheticall spirit foresaw the confusion of that dissention wherewith the Church at this day is torne in pieces c. What those whirle-winds are that come from Africa we rather learne by suffering than by reading from that horrible Land that is the Church of Rome a grieuous vision is shewed vnto me from thence commeth a whirle-wind as a tempest from Africa For the Bishop of Rome the father of all the Churches hath written Letters against vs to Robert Earle of Flanders And so they insert the Epistle What is he whose reynes reading these letters are not filled with sorrow not for the horror of the daunger but the horrible noueltie of the thing That a mother should write such lamentable Letters against her daughters yea though they had offended In that iudgement of Salomon is exprest the greatness of a mothers loue because Salomon giuing sentence that the infant for which they contended should be diuided with a sword the true mother chose rather that her child should liue with a stranger Esay 21. than be slayne with the sword The Prophet Esay saith speaking of Babylon The might of my pleasures is turned into feare vnto me But I say Rome my beloued mother is turned into feare vnto me For what is more fearefull nay what more miserable Dauid saw once the Angell of God standing with his sword drawne ouer Hierusalem wee the daughters of the Church of Rome see the Pope of Rome who is the Angell of the Lord for the place he supplieth with his sword drawne ouer the Church Dauid prayed that his people might not be slayne But our Angell deliuers the sword to Robert and prayes him to kill vs. From whence hath our Angell this sword There is but one sword of the spirit which is the word of God c. There is another sword of the spirit wherewith the sinnes of the flesh beeing mortified we buy the crowne of Martyredome The Apostles therefore receiuing of the Lord onely two swords from whence comes this third to the Apostolicall that is the Pope which he hath deliuered to Robert against vs Ezechiel 21. Perhaps he hath recourse to the Prophet Ezechiel that taking a third sword out of his hand he might goe to the right hand and to the left killing both the righteous and the wicked c. This is the sword of occision with which Ezechiel makes me astonished for what heart faints not to thinke that he that is annointed to giue life should be girt with this third sword to kill vs c And if it be lawfull to speake it with reuerence of the Apostolicall dignitie he seemeth to vs to haue beene a sleepe yea all his Counsellers slept with him when he hired at his charge a destroyer of the Church of God S. Paule commaundeth that the word of a Bishop be sound and irreprehensible we therefore reprehend not the word of the Bishop of
and thy souldiers to doe in remission of your sinnes c. Here I know not what I should say or whether to turne my selfe For if I should turne ouer the whole volume of the old and new Testament and all the auntient expositers that writ thereupon I should neuer find any example of this Apostolike commaund Only Pope Hildebrand hath offered violence to the sacred Canons whom we read commaunded the Marquesse Mathilda in remission of her sinnes to make warre against Henrie the Emperour And so hauing discoursed out of the Scriptures and some places of Gregorie of the true manner and meanes of the remission of sinnes and shewing to a sinner his sinnes and making him to confesse them to feele the burthen of them to bee sorie for them to seeke the remedie by a liuelie faith in Christ Iesus the church of Liege concludeth in these words This manner of binding and loossing thou hast heretofore held and taught vs O my mother the Church of Rome From whence then comes this new authoritie by which there is offered to offendours without confession or repentance an immunitie from all sinnes past and a dispensation for sinnes to come what a window of wickednesse doest thou hereby set open to men The Lord deliuer thee ô mother from all euill Let Iesus be the doore vnto thee let him be the Porter that no man enter into thee but to whom be shall open He deliuer thee I say and thy Bishop from those who as the Prophet Michah speaketh seduce the people of God that bite with their teeth and yet preach peace This was the letter of the church and Clergie of Liege to Pope Paschal the second fortified with the testimonies of the holie Scriptures and authorities of the Fathers Neither need we doubt that such in those times was the voyce of the greatest part of the Churches of Christendome who consequently acknowledged Satan to be let loose wasting the Church of God in the person of Antichrist sitting in his Throne which the Emperour Henrie instructed by his Prelats spake plainely in his Epistle to the Christian Princes exhorting them to haue regard to their posteritie the royall Maiestie Auent l. 5. and the saluation of all Christian people because saith he the Pope vnder the honest title of Christ goeth about to oppresse the publike libertie of all Christian people whom Christ hath bought with his bloud and indeauoureth day and night to bring vpon all Christians a slauish seruitude except the Kings and Princes of the earth preuent it neither will he cease to doe it vntill like Antichrist he sit in the Temple of God and be worshipped of all as if he were God These and the like letters saith Auentine are to be found in many antient Libraries written to the kings of France Denmarke England and to other Kings and Princes of Christendome who neuerthelesse became not the more strange vnto him but being rather sorie for this his condition detested the author An. 1104. It was at this time that Yuo Bishop of Chartres writ a letter to Richard Bishop of Alba the Popes Legat who would censure his Clegie of simonie whom he openly giueth to vnderstand that he had done his best endeauors to mend that fault but all in vayne because they maintained it by the custome of the Church of Rome You Epist 133. If the Deane saith he and Chapter or other officers doe exact any thing of those that are made Canons my selfe forbidding it and persecuting the fault they defend themselues by the custome of the Church of Rome wherein they say the Chamberlaines and other officers of the Palace doe exact much of such Bishops and Abbots as are consecrated which they couer vnder the name of oblations or benedictions for there they say neither penne nor paper will be had without money and with this collop they stop my mouth not hauing any other word to answer them but that of the Gospell Doe that which they say that is to say the Pharisies and not that which they doe If therefore I cannot pluck vp this plague by the root impute it not onely to my weakenesse because from the first growth of the Church of God the Church of Rome hath been sicke of this disease nor to this houre cannot free herselfe of those that seeke their owne gaine Moreouer the same man being much molested by the Clergie at Rome makes a grieuous complaint vnto Paschal against the Appeales to Rome which are the cause of much disorder rebellions in the Clergie against their superiours whom abusing that libertie they slaunder at Rome Epist 75. he neuerthelesse not long before in the cause of Godfrey appealed to Rome whose place by the authority of the Pope he supplied out of the selfesame humor as aboue acknowledging reason and justice when it made for their owne purposes 43. PROGRESSION Of the turbulent estate of the Church and Common-wealth through the factious pride of Pope Paschal NOw to follow againe the course of our Historie Auentine concealeth not ratiunculas some smal reasons as he calleth thē why these Popes since Hildebrand pretended a right to deiect from their Throne vel potentissimum Imperatorem any Emperor how mightie soeuer That all power had been giuen of God to Christ and from Christ vnto S. Peter and to the Bishops of Rome his successors vnto whom by Religion of oath all Christians were bound perpetually to obey and to other Princes onely a limited time and vnder condition so long as it shold please them That therefore it was lawfull for the Pope if the Emperour disobeyed him who represented Christ on earth to excommunicate and depose him no lesse than any other Christian insomuch as he raigneth but by precarie right and holdeth the Empire in homage of him That in case he should rebell he might root him out of the Common-wealth as a Tyran by any meanes whatsoeuer And the people saith he bewitched by Hildebrand with such reasons as they are subiect to let themselues be carried away with euerie wind of doctrine Fraunce Italie and Germanie were pierced to the heart for the space of three and thirtie yeares Namely Paschal following from point to point this instruction who seeing his enemie dead reenforced the rigor of his Decrees and will not receiue to absolution the inhabitants of Liege till they had taken him out of the Sepulcre where they had layed him when Henrie also his sonne demaunded permission of him to giue him buriall he flatly refused him saying that the authoritie of holie Scriptures and of diuine miracles and of the Martyrs receyued vp into heauen repugned thereunto This writeth Peter the Deacon l. 4. ca. 38. And Auentine noteth expresly that till that time the Bishops of Rome had accustomed to date their Bulls Epistles and other affaires from the yeres of the Emperours raigne which he first ceased to doe and began to date from the yeare of his Popedome He was also the first that gaue
to Bishop Benedict that it seemed to be taken from an Epistle euidently supposed to bee Calixtus the first which if we marke either the sence or manner of stile we shall find to sauour of no antiquitie and the like besides was supposed by diuers others and all the learned among them euen before these controuersies were Furthermore that it is likely that this Benedict was he that is mentioned in the first creation of Cardinalls made by Calixtus in the yeare 1120 An. 1120. as we read in Onuphrius With the like credit they attribute the Decree of single life to Calixtus the first which this second Calixtus ended An. 1119. being President of the Councell at Rheimes in the yeare 1119 That all maried Priests should be degraded But let the Reader judge with what spirit these good Bishops were led that in the same Councell they pronounced authentike the historie of Charles the Great Fasciculus Temporum Ann. 1119. Matthaeus Paris in Henric. 1. Rogerus de Houend Huntington in Hen. Ranulph in Polychro l. 7. c. 7. written by the Archbishop Turpin euen and by the judgement of Baronius fabulous and ridiculous In England likewise in a Synodholden at Westminster the Cardinall Iohn of Creme his Legat caused to be published after diuers disputations Summum scelus esse To be a great wickednesse to arise from the side of a harlot for so they called the lawfull wiues of Priests to goe to create the bodie of Christ He notwithstanding hauing the same day made and consecrated the bodie of Christ was the night following surprised in the companie of an harlot as many Authors of that time doe affirme and for the most part Monkes A thing so manifest as could not be denied whereby he changed that great honour he had gotten into the greatest dishonour and reproach and by the iust iudgement of God with shame discredit returned to Rome And so the staine of Discipline doth always accompany the corruption of doctrine Matt. Westmonasteriens in Chron. Baron to 12. an 1125. art 2. sequent Baronius wold call this historie into doubt because Mathew of Westminster addeth that this good Cardinall had for his excuse That he was no Priest but a corrector of Priests who neuerthelesse saith he was a Priest But he did not see that it was spoken in that sence wherin Abbots denied to be Monks because they were the gouernours masters of Monks that is to say they were not Monkes onely And what he addeth besides is all friuolous An. 1124. Now about the later end of the yeare 1124 Lambert Bishop of Ostia succeeded Calixtus who through his diligence had brought the Emperour Henrie vnder the yoke of bondage and was called Honorius the second and not long after died Henrie without heire which caused diuision in the Empire one part holding for Lotharius Duke of Saxonie the other for Conradus Duke of Sucuia who murdered each other with mutuall wounds An. 1125. whilest in the meane time Honorius and his successors lost no time Honorius purposing to inuade the Normans in Apulia the onely obstacles in Italie of his greatnesse Romwal Episc Salernitan in Chron. stirred vp all the nobilitie to armes against them Pardoning all their sinnes that should die in this expedition for him and remission for the one halfe onely that should liue So vsed he his Indulgences to the destruction of Christians An. 1127. And yet neuerthelesse finding the matter full of danger determined with himselfe to make peace with Roger yeelding vnto him the title of Duke of Apulia and Calabria vpon condition he should hold them of the See of Rome And not long after in the yeare 1130 he died Neither would I willingly omit Guilielm Tit. l. 3. c. 23. 25. An. 1130. that at the same time William an Englishman was created Archbishop of Tire in an assemblie of the King and Patriarch and the Peeres of the realme and soone after consecrated by the Patriarch of Hierusalem for hitherto there was no speech to attend the Buls of Rome This William to the end he might get the more authoritie to himselfe goeth to Rome to obtaine the Pall which Honorius was verie readie to giue vnto him But it is expresly noted by the Author that he made this voyage Inuito renitente suo consecratore Against the will and liking of the Patriarch Waremond who can consecrated him And so through the wicked ambition of the Prelats he got power and authoritie in the East countries Neuerthelesse Stephen the successor of Waremond was chosen not long after by the Clergie and people without the helpe of Rome OPPOSITION But among the enterprises of these Popes there were not wanting those who barked at the theefe vndermining the wall of the Church Hildebert Bishop of Mans famous in that Age in a certaine Epistle speaking of the Court of Rome saith Their proper function is Inferre calumnias deferre personas afferre minas auferre substantias that is to say To slander to backbite people to threaten to carrie away other mens goods Their praise is to seeke businesse theft in peace among weapons flight victory in banquets Imploy them in your causes and they delay them imploy them not and they hinder them If you solicite them they scorne you if you inrich them they forget you They buy processe they sell intercessions they depute arbitrators they dictate iudgements and when they are pronounced they reuerse them c. They denie vnto Clergie men their due reuerence to the Nobilitie their originall honour to superiours their place to equalls their familiar meetings and to all iustice They loue not any kind of men of what order or of what age soeuer In the Palace they are Scythians in chambers Vipers in feasts Scullions in exactions Harpies in discourses Statutes in questions Beasts in their treatises Snailes in their bargaines Bankers Stonie in vnderstanding woodden in iudgement firie in stirring vp anger yron in forgiuing In friendship Leopards in their meriments Beares in deceits Foxes in pride Bulls and Minotaures in deuouring Their firmest hopes are in changes they loue best doubtfull times and yet still fearfull of their villanie through a guiltie conscience Lions in their counsells Leuorites in armies They feare peace least they should be shaken off warre least they should fight Whose nosthrils if they vent the ayre of an rustie purse thou shalt presently see the eyes of Argus the hands of Briarius and the wit of Sphynx In another after that he was made Archbishop of Tours he complaineth to Honorius the second Hildebert in Epist ad Honor 2. That all things were brought by Appeale to Rome which we saith he on this side the moutaines haue not yet heard much lesse learnt in our holie ordinances that all Appeales are to be receiued at Rome and if perhaps such a noueltie hath risen That all Appeales without difference be admitted the Pontificall censure will perish and the strength of
of sheepe Thinke you S. Peter did thus or S. Paule played thus Thou seest that all Ecclesiasticall zeale is feruent for the keeping onely of dignitie All is giuen to honour little or nothing to sanctitie If the cause so requiring you endeauor to beare yourselfe a little more humble and sociable Far be it say they it becommeth not it fitteth not the time it agreeth not with Maiestie consider what person thou bearest Of pleasing God is the thing they last of all speake with the losse of soules they trouble not themselues vnlesse we call that salutaris that is high that iust that sauoureth of glorie c. The feare of the Lord is counted simplicitie that I say not foolishnesse What then wilt thou doe c I know where thou dwellest vnbeleeuers and subuerters are with thee Wolues they are and not sheep yet of such art thou Pastour It is good to consider how if it be possible thou mayest conuert them least they subuert thee c. Here here I spare thee not to the end that God may spare thee Eyther denie thy selfe a Pastour to this people or shew thy selfe one Thou wilt not denie it least thou shouldest denie thy selfe to be heire of him whose seat thou holdest It is that S. Peter who was neuer knowne to haue gone adorned with precious stones or with silkes nor couered with gold nor carried on a white horse accompanied with souldiers and a troupe of seruants making a noyse about him Yet without these things he beleeued he might sufficiently fulfill that wholesome commission If thou loue me feed my sheepe In these things thou hast succeeded not Peter but Constantine Though thou goe in purple and gold yet thou shouldest not neglect thy Pastorall worke or charge thou shouldest not be ashamed of the Gospell Howbeit if willingly thou preach the Gospell thou hast glorie among the Apostles To preach the Gospell is to feed doe thou the worke of an Euangelist and thou fulfillest the worke of a Pastour Yea say you thou warnest me to feed Dragons and Scorpions not sheepe Euen for that I say so much the rather vndertake it but with the word not with the sword And hence he enlargeth himselfe seriously to shew vnto him of what weight and moment is the charge that hee pretendeth how largely the same is extended and that if he will well discharge his duetie he hath a greater burthen vpon him than can euer be well home Therefore it better stood with wisedome that he should renounce all other affaires and namely secular which haue their Iudges the Princes and Magistrats of the earth there being no need he should thrust his sickle into other mens haruest A lesson truely far different from that of the Palatines so call they them of the Court of Rome Seeing then neuerthelesse Eugenius sticketh in the mud being so mightily adiured by Bernard and leaueth the true inheritance of Saint Peter for that of Constantine of feeding sheep for to deuoure the world what iudgement hereupon might Saint Bernard make or what might he leaue for vs to make but euen this that this is the second beast that hath taken as S. Iohn had prophecied the place of the first and vnder the name of the seat of S. Peter hath inuaded the throne of Constantine hath changed his sheepe-hooke into his Scepter vnder pretext of the Church of Christ hath stollen into the temporal Monarchie that kingdome which the Apostle had foretold should perish before the man of sinne were reuealed to build vp his ruines and which now sheweth it selfe reuiued and renewed For in many of his Epistles he leaueth vnto vs traces whereby it appeareth that Eugenius was not bettered by his admonitions Whence he oftentimes sayd Ego liberaui animam meam I haue deliuered my soule and discharged my conscience c. But in one Epistle he telleth vs Bernard Epist 125. that the Beast mentioned in the Reuelation to whom is giuen a mouth speaking blasphemies and to make war with the Saints occupieth the Chaire of S. Peter as a Lion prepared for the prey If they will needs haue it that he speaketh of an Anti-Pope yet doth it not remaine firme out of this verie place that it is possible that Antichrist should sit at Rome and hold the Chaire of S. Peter and that S. Bernard hath so beleeued and thought How far is this from the Doctors of these dayes which suppose he is to be exepcted out of Babylon Neither is it hereto be omitted that when by the diligence of good S. Bernard our French Church had held a famous Councell at Poitiers to reduce into a better life by authoritie thereof one Gilbert Porretan Bishop of that place holding an ill opinion concerning the Trinitie and there had conceiued in a certaine writing what ought to be held and beleeued concerning that point the consistorie of Cardinals beeing greatly moued thereat came thus to reproch the same to Pope Eugenius Otho Frisingen de gestis Frederic 1. l. 1. c. 57. What hath that thy Abbot done and with him the French Church with what impudencie haue they dared to erect their heads against the Primacie of the See of Rome For it is this alone that shutteth and no man openeth openeth and no man shutteth Shee alone can discusse of the Catholike faith and in her absence may suffer preiudice of none in this singular honour Surely if the same had beene done in the East as in Alexandria or Antioch before all the Patriarkes yet were their authoritie of no force without ours for to define any thing that might hold firme and stable c. At length Eugenius was brought by them to that passe that he earnestly resolued without delay to punish so great a rebellion and noueltie Insomuch that S. Bernard is constrayned to go to Rome with great submission to purge himselfe And the Symbole of the French Church though it were good and approued of all good men was accounted for none So hard a matter it was at that time to doe well and to please them both together Otho of Frisinghe noteth that S. Bernard disputing with that Gilbert had vttered some words that might displease the Cardinalls whereupon Gilbert had sayd Et hoc scribatur let this also bee written S. Bernard replied Yea and with an yron stile and nayle of Adamant And this perhaps did sting them Petrus venerabilis Abbas Cluniacens 16. Epist 47. Peter Abbot of Clugni who liued in these times could neuer satisfie himselfe with praysing Pope Eugenius especially in his seuen and fortieth Epistle of the sixt Booke of S. Bernard in which neuerthelesse hee ingeniously saith But some man may say the Church hath no sword Christ hath taken it away when he said to Peter Put vp thy sword into the scaberd whosoeuer smiteth with the sword shal perish with the sword Verum est inquam verum est It is true I say it is true The Church hath not the sword of a King but
receiue the Crowne That the Bishops of Italie should giue him oath of fidelitie but not of homage That his Embassadors should not be lodged in the Palaces of Bishops That he should restore the possessions of the Church of Rome and the tributes of Ferrara of Massa Figaruola of all the Land of the Countesse Mathilda and from Aquapendente to Rome of the Duchie of Spoletum and of the Islands of Sardinia and Corsica And when the Emperour constantly offered to doe them iustice in these things if they would doe him iustice in other matters they would onely receiue iustice and doe none alledging that it was not in their power to iudge the Pope And on the contrarie the Emperor made his complaints against him who had broken the concord he had promised him in word of truth That he would not receiue the Grecians Sicilians and Romans but with common consent That he had sent without the Emperours leaue his Cardinals who passed freely throughout his Realme entred into the Royall Palaces of Bishops and vexed the Churches of God with vniust Appeales and many other things which the Pope refusing to satisfie Concordiae verbum saith Radeuicus diu desideratum peccatis nostris exigentibus euacuatum est The word of concord so long desired for our sinnes was made voyd Notwithstanding Frederic to omit no duetie of his side answereth by letters the Articles of Adrian in these words I affect not the homage of the Bishops of Italie If they will hold none of our Royalties But if they take pleasure to heare the Pope say vnto them Quid tibi Regi What hast thou to doe with the King Let him not thinke it strange if consequently the Emperour say vnto them Quid tibi possessioni What need hast thou of the possession I am content that my Embassadours be nat receiued into the Palaces of Bishops prouided that the sayd Palaces stand on their owne ground and not on ours Otherwise if they stand on our ground seeing euerie building solo cedat pertayneth to the ground whereon it standeth they be our Palaces It is therfore an iniurie to forbid our Embassadors from the Royall Palaces Whereas he saith the Emperour is not to send Embassadours to Rome seeing all the Maiestrates there are of S. Peter with all the Royalties This thing I confesse is great and graue and hath need of graue and mature counsell For seeing I am called and am by diuine ordinance Emperour of Rome I haue but the shew of raigning and beare but the vayne Title and name thereof without the thing if the power ouer the Citie of Rome be plucked out of our hands At length it was propounded that sixt Cardinals on the Popes side and six Bishops on the Emperors side should be chosen arbitrators in the matter Radeuicus l. 2. cap. 31. to decide the same But saith he of the Romans part this Councell is sayd to be voyd alledging that the Pope was not subiect to the judgement of any And when Frederic vpon this refusall was earnest by his Embassadours that he would referre himselfe to the judgement of a generall Councell he answered I ought to call not to be called I am to iudge not to be iudged an answer which was verie much detested of all the elder sort that he refused the judgement of the Church Now followeth out of Nauclerus Nauclerus Gener 30 vol. 2. the recipocrall Epistles of Adrian and Frederic That of Adrian began thus The Law of God as it promiseth long life to them that honour their Parents so it pronounceth sentence of death against such as curse them And the voyce of truth teacheth vs that whosoeuer exalteth himselfe shall be humbled And thereupon he reproueth him that he had set his name first against the Loyaltie sworne to S. Peter That he required homage of Bishops who are Gods and all sonnes of the most high and presumed to put their sacred hands within his prophane hands imputing vnto him arrogancie and infidelitie To this Frederic answered vsing this salutation Adriano Ecclesiae Catholicae Pontifici omnibus illis adhaerere quae coeperit Iesus facere docere To Pope Adrian greeting and to cleaue and to sticke vnto all things that Iesus began to doe and teach And whereas Adrian had sayd The diuine Law pronounceth sentence of death c. Frederic likewise beginneth The Law of iustice rendreth vnto euerie man that which belongeth vnto him c. Then he proceedeth I pray you had Siluester in Constantines time any Royalties But by the graunt of his pietie libertie peace is restored to the Church whatsoeuer your Popedome hath of Royaltie that is from the bountie of Princes c. Turne ouer the Annales and you shall find it to be so He reproued him of infidelitie in that he had taken oath and receyued the homage of Bishops whom hee called Gods and sonnes of the most high Whereunto Frederic answereth Why may we not exact homage and royal oaths from them which of God by adoption hold our Royalties seeing that he which is our Authour and your receyuing nothing from any earthly King but bestowing all good things to all men did yet pay tribute to Caesar for himselfe and for Peter giuing you example to doe the like and he teacheth you so saying Learne of me for I am meeke and humble of heart Lastly hauing repeated againe the foresayd clauses he concludeth For we cannot answer reports Sigon de regno Jtal. l. 12. when we see the detestable beast of pride crept to the seat of S. Peter And these two Epistles are written by Nauclerus taken out of the Librarie of Hirsauge And vpon this died Adrian at Anania in September 1159 William of Tyre saith he was taken with the Squinancie Johānes Stella in Pontificib Willihelm Tyr. l. 18. cap. 26. Abbas Vrsperg an 1156. But the Abot of Vrsperg saith that hauing newly excommunicated the Emperour Frederic he went walking to a fountaine where taking some water a flie got into his mouth and strangled him the Phisitians being not able to helpe him Baronius is herewith offended yet is he the Authour he most vseth against the Emperours in fauor of the Popes Now to this is to be referred the conference of Iohn of Sarisburie Bishoppe of Chartres with Pope Adrian which he himselfe hath left vs in writing Johannes Sarisburiensis in Policro l. 6. c. 24. I remember saith he I went into Apulia to visit Pope Adrian the fourth who admitted me into great familiaritie I remayned with him at Beneuent about three moneths When therfore we conferred together often of many things as the manner is betweene friends hee diligently and familiarly inquired of me what opinion men had of him and of the Roman Church I plainely layed open vnto him with libertie of speech the euill words I had heard in diuers Prouinces For thus it is sayd The Church of Rome which is mother of all Churches behaueth herselfe towards others not
his permission That Clerkes accused of any crime being aduertised by the Kings Iustice may come to the place appointed and answere for themselues That the Archbishops Bishops may not depart the realm without the Kings licence and without taking an oth to do nothing either in going staying or returning to his preiudice That the Archbishops Bishops and others who hold of the King in Capite and haue their possessions of the King should answere to the Iustices after the same manner as the Lords and Barons of the realme The vacation of a Church hapning the King sending for the principall persons thereof commandeth them to make choise of a successour in his Chappell with his consent and the Councell of the realme in whose presence the man chosen shall doe homage and loyaltie to the King as to his liege Lord of his life his body and of his worldly preferment except his order and that before he be consecrated and to this are sworne all Archbishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earles Barons and the Nobilitie of the realme viua voce in the word of truth to obserue towards the King and his successours for euer Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterburie who was the first that had taken this oth within few daies after being corrupted by Alexander the third who in a Councell held at Tours placed him vpon his right hand requested his absolution whom Alexander soone discharged both of the oth and the sinne But this is to be noted that the thing that vrged him most was That they of the Clergie that were taken in publico Flagitio in publike wickednesse by the Kings officers might bee deliuered to the Bishop without any punishment inflicted vpon them contrarie to that order the King had ordained that those whom the Bishops themselues should find faultie ought to be degraded in the presence of his officers and afterward be deliuered to the Kings Court to be punished But Thomas did heere exclaime that this was to be punished twice for one and the same thing that is to say degraded by the Bishop and punished by secular authoritie Now good Reader hee that dies for such a cause is he a Saint or a Martyr For what wickednesse will not a man iustifie if only degrading may discharge the punishment Now Thomas hauing wrought with al the Bishops of England his suffragans to renounce their allegiance without the kings knowledge passed the sea towards Alexander into France who from time to time delaied his answere vnto him fearing to offend the King his affaires then hanging but in a wauering and doubtfull manner but as the authour saith pensans periculosa tempora weighing the dangerous times granted to the Archbishop of Yorke by a Bull the office of Legat Insomuch that Thomas displeased with these delayes writing to the Archbishop of Mence Epist Thomae Cantuariens ad Archiepisc Moguntin thus complaineth Matrem Romam factam esse meritricem pro mercede prostitutam Our mother Rome is become a harlot and prostituted to whosoeuer will giue most From this wee may gather what the other Bishops of England might say when Thomas his pretended Martyr had spoken in this sort Now of this Henrie the second whom Thomas had wilfully made his aduersarie Peter of Blois Archdeacon of Bath and Chancellour of Canterburie writing to Gualterus Bishop of Palerme hath left vs this worthie testimonie No man saith he is more wise and subtill in counsell in speech more vehement more carelesse in dangers nor more constant and resolute in aduersitie c. hauing alwaies in his hands either a bow a sword or a iauelin except sitting in counsell or busie at his booke for whensoeuer he had any respite from his important and waightie affaires spent his time in priuate studie and reading or in arguing with learned men his daily life is as if it were a Schole of learning in dissoluing continually difficult questions None more mild than he in speech more temper at in eating more moderat in drinking more bountifull in gifts more liberall in almes c. Our King is peaceable victorious in warre glorious in peace c. None more gentle and meeke to the afflicted more gratious and affable to the poore none more seuere to the proud for he euer studied as it were by an image of diuinitie to beat downe the hauty and proud minded to raise the oppressed and continually to persecute the swelling loftinesse of pride c. But when according to the custome of the realme he had in elections the greatest and most powerfull part neuerthelesse hee would haue his hands euer free from all partiality and corruption For the death of this Thomas who procured his wrath through so many mischiefes and iniuries I tell you saith he in the word of our Lord and by the faith and order of a Deacon that in my conscience he was no way culpable or guilty thereof And thus much the Lord Theodinus Bishop of Port and the Lord Albert Chauncellor who came hether as Legats to examine the truth and haue knowne and reported his innocency can affirme c. which Legats after a canonicall purgation by the commandement of the Pope pronounced him cleare of this crime before God and the World Notwithstanding these Legats made benefit as the manner is of the rebellion of Henrie his sonne through certaine words that he had vttered in some choler whereby the authours of his death were emboldened to attempt the life of the said Thomas who inforced him to purchase his absolution with the hurt of his kingdome abolishing those customes that were brought in against the liberties of the Church and approuing all appellations to the sea of Rome and all this for the remission of his sinnes Mathew Paris discoursing of this Historie Math. Paris in Henr. 2. giueth vs to vnderstand by certaine circumstances that it was the pride of Alexander or at least his Legats The King and the Archbishop saith he being come to Freteuall to be reconciled they twice descended their horses and as often mounted againe and both these times the King held the raines of the Bishops bridle What dutie would the Pope haue looked for when so much was done to his Legat Againe though the King alwaies protested that he neuer commanded nor willed nor by any deuise sought the death of Thomas neuerthelesse because through some of his own words not aduisedly spoken these murtherers had taken occasion thereby to kill him this proud beast inforst him asking his absolution to submit his naked skin to the punishment of the whip and that all the religious people there assembled being a great multitude should euery man giue him three or fiue lashes which the King miserably bewitched by those Romish sorceries submitteth himselfe vnto The saying of one Gratian the Popes Legat is worth the noting in this cause to the King of England who had said somewhat vnto him in threatning manner Sir saith he threaten vs not we feare no threatnings for we
belong to that Court that vseth to commaund both Emperours and Kings And Baronius hath set downe this excellent Apothegme in great letters Baron an 1169. art 11. By the pride of the seruant we may iudge the modestie of the Master Doubtlesse the wisest of this world judge otherwise of the power and authoritie of the Pope Otho Bishop of Frisinghen saith Otho Frisingens in prologo l. 4. Chron. Two persons are constituted in the Church by God the Priestlie and the Princelie the one hath the administration of the Sacraments of Christ and to exercise Ecclesiasticall descipline with the spirituall sword the other carieth the materiall sword against the enemies of the Church defending the poore and the Churches of God from the oppression of the wicked punishing euill doers and exercising secular iudgement These are the two swords whereof we read in the Passion of our Sauiour but Peter is said to vse but onely one Therefore euen as to the spirituall sword spirituall possession belong that is to say the tithes the oblations of the faithfull and others of like sort so to the materiall are subiect all worldlie dignities as Duke domes Earle-domes and the like Now God would that these things should be in his Church orderly and not confusedly that is to say not in one person alone but diuided betweene two as I haue formerly named Euen as these persons therefore that carrie the materiall sword are not to meddle with those things that are spirituall so is it not fit for the spiritual to vsurp the other And to make good this saying many testimonies of the Scriptures and of our Lord himselfe besides the example of Saints may be alledged as that Gospell that saith Giue vnto Caesar the things that belong vnto Caesar and vnto God the things that are Gods That which our Lord Iesus Christ had deliuered in words he declared also by effects when yeelding tribute to whom tribute belonged he gaue tribute for himselfe and Peter And S. Paul acknowledged that we ought to yeeld honour to whom honour belongeth considering that all power is from God who being brought to iudgement did not appeale to Saint Peter who then possest the chaire at Rome but to Nero a most impious and a wicked man ordained by the will of God King of the whole world And thus much touching the honour of Kings But he goeth about to defend the Pope by some poore weake reasons but in the end concludeth I confesse I know no other refage but this that we haue known holie men both of Apostolike faith and merit as Syluester Gregorie Vlric Boniface Lampert Gothard and diuers others that haue had these things but for my selfe to speake my owne opinion I doubt whether this exalting of the Church in these dayes be more acceptable to God than the humilitie of former times Verily it seemeth that state was the better this the happier Neuerthelesse I agree with with the Church of Rome c. That is to say to be rather temporally happie with the one than spiritually happie with the Apostles and the holie Fathers and shortly after he hides not from vs vpon what foundation he groundeth his reason That all scruple saith he of that controuersie being resolued by his authoritie and example is againe secretly signified by that which was sayd to S. Peter Duc in altum lanch into the deepe and cast your nets to take fish Luke 5. yea it is so secret that for the space of 500 of the first and best yeres none of the auntient Doctors could perceiue this mysterie Jdem l. 3. Chron. 1.3 But the same authour speakes more openly in another place After the donation of Constantine the Church of Rome affirmeth that all Realmes of the West belonged to it by the gift of Constantine this he refuteth himselfe In token whereof it doubted not to exact tribute euen to this present of all those except the two Kingdomeâ— of the French that is to say the Gaules and the Germans which hee would gladly draw into his Net if they would suffer him But in our France at the verie same time they that were called Waldenses or Albienses earnestly set against the Church of Rome condemning all the traditions thereof rejecting the ceremonies and declaring it in expresse words to be that Babylon in the Apocalyps the mother of fornications and the Pope verie Antichrist the man of sin foretold by the holie Scriptures These people maintayned the puritie veritie and simplicitie of the Christian Religion in all the Countries both on the mountaines and vallies of Daulphine Prouence Languedoc and Guyan where the corruptions and papall inuentions could not so easily penetrat no otherwise than as we see the Tongues customes and habits of nations to be preserued in Countries more remote against the inundation and mingling of the people as the originall Tongue of Spaine in the mountaines of Biscay and the auntient Tongue of the Brittons in Wales with their manners and customes also and so likewise of others For that so great a multitude of people spread from the Alpes euen to the Pirence by the instruction of Waldo had beene as it were hatcht vp in one day exceedeth all beliefe all reason Contrariwise he that would retire himselfe from the world seriously to contemplate his owne saluation it is likely he rather learned it of them and afterward taught at Lyon where for the renowne of the citie they that were his followers or affected his doctrine were called Waldenses as they who preached in the citie of Alba ware called Albienses and not many yeres before Peter Bruitzius Henrie his disciple publiquely teaching at Tholouse were called Tholousians and so likewise were they called at the Councell of Lateran held vnder Alexander the third Of this antiquitie to the end we need not doubt thereof the aduersaries themselues auouch the truth amongst whom Frier Rainerius who writ about the yeare of our Lord 1250 Among all the sects that are saith he or euer will be none can be more pernitious to the Church of God than that of Lyons An. 1250. Frater Rainerius de Waldensibus for three causes the first because it hath continued a longer time than any some say that it hath beene euer since the time of Syluester others say from the time of the Apostles that is to say inasmuch as integritie euer went before corruption and the same maintayned by them as it is said of the true Church in the Apocalyps that it was preserued euen in the desart The second because it is more generall for there is not almost any Countrie where into this sect hath not crept whereas in the meane time they aske vs where our Church then was The Third because all the other procure horrour by their blasphemies against God this of the Lionists hath a great apparence of pietie in as much as they liue vprightly before men and put their trust in God in all things and obserue all the Articles
contemners of ordinarie Pastors and their supplanters creepers into royall chambers and adulterators of confessions as they that roaming ouer vnknowne Prouinces administred a libertie and boldnesse of sinning All these complaints being heard the Pope commaunded that this new booke which they called The eternall Gospell should secretly and with as little scandall as could be to the Friers be burnt with some other inuentions which were said to proceed from Ioachims erronious braine This execution therefore was closely and priuily performed and with as little scandall as possible might be to the Friers through the speciall diligence of Cardinall Hugo and the Bishop of Messina both which were of the Predicant Order so as this tumult at that time ceased and slept The opinions of this Gospell were these That God the Father raigned vnder the Law and the Sonne vnder Grace but by the rising of the foure Orders Mendicants the holie Ghost began then to raigne and so should doe while the end of the world and that from this time forward they onely should be saued that beleeued in this new Gospell That Christs Gospell was not true perfect nor sufficient to saluation as also his Sacraments were of little esteeme but if this new one were compared with that it as farre exceeded it as the Sunne doth the Moone and so consequently that the Church which should be grounded on this new Gospell would in the same proportion excell the other precedent The authors notwithstanding of these inuentions which were to be extirpated the Pope did tollerat and support because any thing whatsoeuer seemes just and equall to them so it make for their prerogatiue and power and they were afraid especially least these their hucksters should grow out of grace with the people by whose tongues and talons so much good bootie and spoyle came vnto their hands Wherefore that same William of S. Amors one of wonderful estimation amongst good men both preached writ against them declaring in his sermons That he affected aboue all other crimes to be zealous in discouering of hypocrisie because this brought more damage and preiudice to true pietie than all the other besides as also in that the Church was now ouergrowne with the same sinne and no bodie for feare of the Pope and Prelats durst lay hand to the irradication of it Amongst others wee read at this day a booke of his intituled De periculis mundi seu nouissimorum temporum which begins thus Quia nos vacantes sacris Scripturis Matth. Paris in libro de Antichristo c. printed at Basil in the yeare 1555 and no wayes to be suspected of falsitie seeing Mathew Paris in a great volume that he writ against Antichrist comprehends the same wholly and entirely ascribing it to the Vniuersitie of Paris and this questionlesse because it was made and publisht by authoritie thereof especially in that hee alwayes speakes in the Plurall number In which booke he conuinceth them That they preached vnsent or at least without a Mission canonicall against and contrarie to the veritie of the sacred Scriptures and fraudulently concealing that which should most principally be deliuered That they crept into houses and insinuated into the peoples priuities by confessions Gulielmus de Sancto Amore lib. de periculis mundi edito Basileae An. 1555. whom by this means they bring vnder their power the easier to commaund and rule them And they call themselues Generall aiders and supporters of the Church preferring themselues before all men euen before the religious Orders themselues And to appeare the more holy they deuise new and superstitious traditions That they loued the highest places at inuitements the chiefest chaires in Synagogues reuerences and low bowings in the open market places and of men to be called Rabbies That they vaunted of the great good they did in the Church of God boasted of their owne and their followers myracles and chalenging the prayse of that they neuer performed That vnder pretext of humilitie they insinuated themselues into the Courts of Princes and affect to be reputed Courtiers That they smoothed the defects of men and arrogantly assumed a farre greater zeale than that of ordinarie Pastors That at first men entertaine them joyfully but at last they grow wearie of them the which happened quite contrary with the true Apostles That they asked with importunitie and receiued indifferently not to releeue necessities but to prosecute their delights and pleasures To conclude That they solicited and sued to obtaine letters commendatorie from great men And here the Reader may obserue the maners and carriage of these Neotericke Pharisies The same man deliuered in a certaine sermon Duo Conciones Gulielmi de Sancto Amore in Antilogia Basileae edita An. 1555. That Christ chose plaine and simple men to preach but Antichrist on the contrarie for the propagation of his falsities and errours made election of men of a double heart subtile and expert in worldlie policies and not onely Antichrist himselfe made choyce of such but also his members and champions No maruell therefore though they persecute the professors of the Christian faith to death seeing Iohn saith in his Apocalyps I saw a beast rise out of the sea that had seuen heads and seuen hornes this beast was intended by Antichrist and his followers And certaine yeares after Iohn de Poliaco Williams disciple and Laurence an English man defended these propositions publikely in Sorbon In a sermon of his he particularly admonished the Church Laurentius Anglicus in defensione Gulielmi de Sancto Amore Tractat. Cauendum esse à Pseudoprophetis Serm. 2. in die Philippi Jacobi Thomas Cantipratensis in Apibus mysticis That a great danger hung ouer her head by the Monkes That they were the seducers and ministers of Antichrist of Antichrist who was hard at their doores But when the Pope had suppressed the scandall of this new Gospell least it might haue prejudiced his affaires taking an occasion of reuenge against William of S. Omers and some other his like for the denunciation of these truthes whether by right or wrong he published and declared him for an heretike as also he complained of him to our Princes that had need of his helpe and fauour and caused him to be expelled out of the Vniuersitie which remained as it were desart and forsaken exciting in like manner Thomas Bonauentura and others to write against him so as all true Diuinitie yeelded to Sophistrie and Paul to Aristotle But so the Mendicants on the other side euen seazed on the Diuinitie Scholes and the Canonists on the Ciuilians chaire that so all points were decided by Gratian and Lombard and of the holie Scriptures there was not so much as any mention in scholes Out of their studies therefore from this time forward came bookes easie to be smelt by their verie titles as Summae Repertoria Quodlibeta Rosaria Legendae Specula in Sententias Decreta Ordines Monachorum Regulas Confessiones Tractatus de
to goe personally to the Court of Rome to release those that were innocent and guiltlesse out of their prisons Whereunto we may annex That the same Nogaretes father Paulus Aemilius in Philippo Pulchro Guido Perpinian de Haeresib Blondus Decad. 2. l. 9. Gulielmus de Nangiaco Nicholaus Emericus l. 1. Jnquisitionum who by Philip the Fairs iniunction tooke Pope Boniface was burnt in Languedoc for the opinions of the Waldenses for these Waldenses did not only persist and go forward in France but euen out of the bloud which the Inquisitors daily shed their steps and impressions grew more frequent famous ouer all Italia and Germanie In Italie where Boniface with all rigor seueritie rooted out those whom he called Fratricellos The brethren whose principal Doctors were Gerardus disciple to Sagarellus of Parma Dulcinus disciple to one Nouarius Hermannus who while he liued being in Italie esteemed for a Saint was afterwards by Pope Boniface his commandement digged out of his graue at Ferrara whom notwithstanding after their manner they accused of sixe hundred seuerall foule crimes now plainely conuinced to bee false and vntrue because they seriously did inculcat and aboue all other things beat vpon this point the aduersaries themselues bearing witnesse That the Pope was Antichrist the Church of Rome the Apocalypticall Babylon and that they who would faine seeme and appeare to be spirituall were reiected of God And no man will presume there was any just cause why they should vndergoe such impietie and crueltie from Boniface a most vnconscionable and prophane Pope yet we see that at the same time we find them to haue beene in Germanie Hereunto we will annexe That vnder Nicholas the fourth Guido Perpinianus de Haeresibus Peter the sonne of Iohn de Besiers a Franciscan made the Postille vpon the Apocalyps wherein he refers all those speciall places to the Roman Church the which he calls a carnall Church the Synagogue of Sathan and the Pope mysticall Antichrist as also his Prelats Antichrist members For which cause he was condemned of heresie by the Inquisitors and because they could not come by him when he was aliue they pluckt him out of his graue being dead And also Peter Cassiodorus an Italian who writ that vehement and persuasiue Epistile to the English Church Bernard de Lutzemburg de Haeresibus Nicholaus Emericus l. 1. Inquisitionum Super Cathedram Mosis sedent Scribae Pharisaei cuinam illos aequiparabo c. Wherein he exhorts them to shake off the yoke of Antichrist with his vniust and continuall exactions And these things fitly lead vs vnto the fourteenth Age. 56. PROGRESSION Benedict the eleuenth succeeds Boniface he is poysoned and Clement the fifth a French man obtaines his place Henrie sonne to the Count of Lutzemburg going into Italie to be crowned Emperor was poysoned in receiuing the Hoast Clement dyes in the way betwixt Vienna and Bourdeaux BEnedict the eleuenth a Tuscan of the Dominican Order succeeded Boniface being elected by the Cardinals at Perugia whither they were retired vpon Boniface his ouerthrow At his first entrie he excommunicated Nogarete and the inhabitants of Anagnia which assisted his enterprise but so he restored both Iohn and Iames Colonna to be cardinals and yet they were commaunded for a time to refraine wearing of the hat King Philip he absolutely released of all censures restoring to him all those priuiledges that Boniface had taken from him but in the ninth moneth of his Papacie as many write being killed with a poysoned fig he dyed Thomas Walsingham in Chronico Leandro Alber. An. 1305. Wherefore in the yeare 1305 after ten moneths altercation the Cardinalls chose Raymond Goth a Gascoine Archbishop of Bourdeaux who was absent who tooke vpon him the name of Clement the fifth He vnderstanding of his owne election commanded presently all the Cardinals to repaire to Lyons who forthwith obey and he determining to transferre the Papall See into France made choyce for that end of the citie of Auignion which also liked the Cardinals so well as there it continued for seuentie foure yeares Some say the cause was in that there they might more freely wallow in their delights than in another place though this no doubt they might haue done in Italie but this seemes to bee the more solide reason Because at Rome through the supreme authoritie power of the Senators and Nobilitie they were kept within due bounds being oftentimes driuen with their whole Court to remoue to Perugia Viterbe Oruietto Anagnia and Assisia And his predecessors hauing in diuers voyages into France met with a more open courteous conuersation hauing here greater reuerence vouchsafed them than at Rome as not being there yet so plainely discouered and looked into These men also hoped they should more peaceably raigne in Auignion and from hence with lesse opposition extend their authoritie and power ouer other nations Doubtlesse Herman and Occan Friers Minorites who were renowmed Diuines in this contentious age of the Church lay vpon this Pope the notes of wonderfull ambition auarice and sensualitie but more particularly Villanus and Antoninus who peremptorily write That he kept a concubine publikely in Auignion who was daughter to the Count de Foix Moreouer That all the vices crimes sinnes impieties and flagitions which formerly possessed the Roman Church vnder a vale and cloke of vertue and pietie did openly and most impudently in this man habituat and grow shamelesse And hereupon our whole countrey of France brought forth little better fruits Nicholaus Clemangis in l. de corrupto Eccleclesiae statu if you consider loosse and lasciuious liberties for Clemangis Archdeacon of Baieux sayes That Rome might cleerely herein discerne the imminency of her own ruine ouerthrow because leauing that citie for her odious abhominable fornications she fled into Auignion where the more freely the more openly shamelessely she discouered the courses of her simonies and wicked prostitutions and so brought strange and corrupt manners into our France which were the introductors of many other calamities As also for forensiall delayes and trauerses because they taught vs all the wiles and subtilties of the Roman Court and the verie stile and forme of the Rota which vtterly extinguished our naturall simplicitie so as we could neuer afterwards be repurged of these corruptions Neither shall you read of any man who alledged That Rome was S. Peters seat or that wee must goe thither where the holie Ghost had his residence Out of question Auignion which liked and pleased them well was then to them no lesse the same than the other whereas now at this day they referre the vniuersal Church to Rome onely as also onely to Rome this seat and chaire When the Cardinals came to Lyons they crowned Clement with a wonderfull concourse of nobilie from all parts King Philip and his brother Charles were present which Charles was lately returned out of Italie and had not faintly furthered
nor the people them being therefore vnworthie blind leaders of the blind And thus the whole Church may come to be ouerthrowne Fiftly He spake also against Simonie which in the Roman Court so raignes saith he as if it were no sinne Parte 2. tit 2. 11.12.20.21 Titul 32. eiusdem partu 4. Plurarilitie also of benefices he reprehended and Cardinals pensions wherewith the Bishoprickes were charged as also other benefices perpetuated to the Popes nephewes and kinsmen which neuer dye nor are vacant and that Saint Gregorie the Great refused the title of Vniuersall Bishop neither would haue had any other to assume this nomination Further That the old Popes in their Epistles were woont to preferre other Bishops before themselues which hee proueth by examples and therefore the Church of Rome was so to be honoured that the reuerence and honour due to other Churches might not likewise be abridged he auerring That the Canon of the Councell of Miletum was to be confirmed Vt vnaquaque causa in sua prouincia terminetur Sixtly That it seemed very behouefull in this Councel to allow the mariage of Priests seeing hitherto they had idly and in vaine bin vrged to chastitie the Priests of Greece being permitted to marie as also it was vsed in the Apostles time Seuenthly That hand-labour was to bee imposed vpon Monkes conformable to the customes in times past in the Churches of Aegypt who would by no meanes receiue any Monke which had not learnt some trade or mysterie marie aboue all the rest it was no wayes to be suffered that they should discharge pastorall Offices minister the Sacraments visit the sicke or burie the dead Part. 2. Tit. 53 Part. 3. Tit. 16. 28. Part. 2. Tit. 57. Part. 3. Tit. 15. 16. and much lesse therefore the Mendicants Eightly That the abuse of Images was necessarily to be suppressed and the sale of indulgences and penances as also the vagrant libertie and rouing of Monkes in their Sermons who leaue the sacred Scriptures to preach the mere inuentions of men Ninthly Returning euer to the first poynt That there was no hope nor meanes of reforming the Church either in policie discipline or manners except that of Rome would begin with an example whose corruptions in euerie respect he displayed except the Pope before all others prescribed a Law to himselfe and were comprehended within sacred Lawes both diuine and humane affecting nothing in any wise to the contrarie nor performing nothing without the aduise and direction of his fellow Bishops seeing they hold the place of Apostles on whom Christ conferred equall power and dignitie with Peter not on the Roman Courtries Except also the primacie of the Roman Church might be distingusht by Ecclesiasticall and secular Lawes and that the Pope would forbeare to be called the highest Priest of the Church vniuersall taking this person vpon himselfe which Gregorie vtterly forbad But saith he Part. 3. Tit. 32. The Church vniuersall suffers much scandall by the bad examples of the Roman Church and the whole people in generall are infected the rulers of the people according to Esay tollerating by this meanes the name of the Lord to be blasphemed For according to S. Augustine nothing more confounds or hurts the Church of God than when it is sayd That the Clergie is worse than the Laietie And from hence he proceeds to the rapin of Legats Nuntios and of al the Popes Ministers the exactions of indulgences of priuiledges of dispensations the excesse and pride of the Pope and his Prelats by many degrees surmounting that of any King or Prince as also therewithall the ignorance and negligence of a number whereby innumerable soules perish And then here againe he exclaimes casting away all hope as in case of a most desperat disease Part. 3. Tit. 28. seq Oh what a griefe is this saith he for the saying of the Prophet Esay seemes now to be verified euen in the Church it selfe Chap. 34 in the figure of the Citie of Babylon glorious aboue other Kingdome and renouned for the pride of the Chaldees of whom it is sayd It shall be a denne of Dragons a pasture for the Estriges the Diuels shall there meet and the Onocentaures the hairie Hobgoblins shall crie out one to another the Sorceresse shall there haue her couch there the Scrich-Oule shall haue his nest and bring vp his young ones there the Kites assemble meet one with another Also I would the words of the Prophet Esay might not be verified vpon the Clergie when he sayd Part. 3. Tit. 28. 50. This people honors me with the lips but their hearts are far from me with many other places occurrring in this treatise which is verie worthie to be wholly read ouer neither will the Reader repent his paines taken But in the meane while these good admonitions brought forth no fruit Contrariwise in this Councel that Decretall came forth which begins Pastoralis c. wherein Clement magnifies himself far boue the Emperors seeing he was Vicar to the King of kings no other reformation was wrought than that which proceeded from the ridiculous Law whose beginning is set downe in the Clementines I came out of Paradise I sayd I would water the garden of plants saith that heauenlie husbandman who was the true fountaine of wisedome the word of God proceeding from the Father in the Father remayning begotten from all eternitie c. But in vttering these words see what he adds That is to say this garden is the sacred order and institution of the Friers Minorites which being immured round about with the walls of regular obseruance and satisfied onely within it selfe with Gods comforts is wonderfully adorned by the new plantations on initiants and nouices which throughout all this prolixe Bull he studies and contends to ordaine that so those weightie scruples might be remoued wherewith they appeared to be vexed as whether they were bound to obserue all the commaundements comprehended in the Gospell as also whether all the Councels or some onely and particularly the precepts of vestments what stuffe or cloth they should be of what colour what length what breadth what forme Profound mysteries doubtlesse of the Christian religion and worthie the discussion of a generall Councell of which notwithstanding he so ambiguously determined as not long after by new Decrees they were driuen to prescribe and order them Dant the Florentine Poet flourished also in that time who amongst the writers of the same age obtained the prayse both of pietie and learning hee writ a Tractate whose title was Monarchia wherein he proued that the Pope was not superiour to the Emperor hauing no right nor prerogatiue ouer the same which is diametrally opposit to that Clementine Pastoralis wherein the Pope peremptorily arrogates to himselfe both the one and the other hee proceeding thus much further when in his Canto of Purgatorie he sayes Di hoggimai che la Chiesa di Roma Per confonder in
the glorie of Paradise But the Parisian faculties of Diuinitie condemne the Pope of intollerable errour and temeritie There are that referre such an other as you haue heard to Clement the fift Questionlesse all Authors exclaime of wonderfull Symonie in his time and vnusuall reseruations of Benefices throughout the whole Church some of which he reuoaked onely to auoyd publique scandall But gentle Reader while thou seest him here thus commaunding ouer Angels why doest thou not listen to the Apostles prediction in the second to the Thessalonians 2 where he speaks of the man of sinne bearing himselfe as God equall to God and extolling himselfe aboue all that is called God in so manie ages after succeeding to whom may it fitlyer be applied than to him OPPOSITION The oppositions declared throughout this whole Progresse against the Papall Tyrannie may seeme sufficient without adding any other because we see him to haue beene euer mightily oppugned by all the famous men of those ages as also by most commendable and vertuous Princes yet for the Readers better satisfaction we will not thinke it amisse to annexe some thing else The imperiall Decree publisht in the yeare 1338 against the acts of Iohn the two and twentieth as you heard was approued by Edward king of England who also was present at the digesting it For the flanckering and seconding of which the Emperour Lewis dimulged another Edict whose principall heads it will not be altogether impertinent here to insert Lewis the fourth Emperour and by Gods grace Caesar Augustus to all Christians health S. Peter and S. Paule the first Embassadours from the eternall Maiestie declared and foretold long time before seriously informing vs That after their times there should arise false Prophets audatious and subtile and that Priests should become lying messengers plainely deciphering their workes vnto vs In the Temple of God said they that is the Church they shall sit as gods and be exalted aboue all that is reuerenced or worshipped by any Nation as God That those things are most true which the true Prophets of God and the interpreters of his secrets did denuntiat by manifest experience it is confirmed and except we be dull and sencelesse wee cannot but perceiue and euen feele the same We cannot denie but that men now are too superstitious to oppose the abuses of the times though in hipocriticall fraudes delusions wherewith the ignorant vulgar are many times taken and ensnared they are most wittie and craftie brasen-faced to vphold customes and rights receiued and herein abusing the simple credulitie of sillie fooles whereof the number is infinit But it is my part to detect and refell such impostures and digressions to the end they may not affront Christian integritie and plainly mock deride diuine veritie Men gather not grapes from thorns and the Prophet of God receiues no bribes or rewards Christ commanded his messengers that whosoeuer amongst them sought to be highest should be lowest And the Kings of the earth beare domination and rule ouer people but you are the seruants of my flocke that is to say Shepheards you are not Lords Notwithstanding all these things are most true and euident yet Pharisies and pernitious Antichrists sustaine That an Emperour chosen by voyce and custome imperiall and by the suffrages of Princes cannot be Emperour except the high Priest who is Lord ouer all and possessor of both powers allow and confirme him And here he refuted this proposition as being flatly opposit both to the sacred Scriptures to the auntient Laws and Canons and to the customes of all ages further adding For these reasons well rightly and wisely I appeale from the enemie of the Christian Common-wealth to a future generall Councell of all Christendome to be held whereof he is but a member and no head for as S. Ierome sayes The church of the whole world is greater than that of the Citie c. Clement perseuering in this his rage and furie William Ockham incessantly defended Lewis right especially because through his plot and deuise Charles came to be nominated Emperour and in a booke which he publisht vpon this subject He taxed Clement with the note of an heretike calling him verie Antichrist an hater of Christian pouertie an enemie of the Common-wealth a mortall foe to the Germans a most Christian Nation and a follower of Clement the fift and Iohn the two and twentieth false Popes and most deuouring Wolues Charles also he accuseth of periurie treason parricide and of impietie towards his grandfather and nere kinseman in breaking the oath Auent l. 7. wherein he stood bound to Lodouick and perfidiously infringing the Lawes of Constans Franckfort and Longsteine promulged by the Dyets Edict and terming him a vile seruant to the Priests of Auignion of whom he bought the Diadem imperiall Leopald also Bishop of Bamberg and Ockhams Collegues doe no lesse in a Tractate entituled Vindex pacis Christianae wherein they affirme That the Pope except he had rather take vpon him Antichrists pride than emulate Christs and his Apostles pouertie was but a seruant to the meanest Christian much more to soueraigne and supreame power so farre from reason it was that to the singular preiudice of the Christian Commonwealth he should domineere and rule doe whatsoeuer he thinkes good and requiring not onely to be called but to be beleeued a god Indeed Conrade of Magdeberg laboured hard in the answer of these men but seuen yeares after Ockams death who dying anno 1347 and was honourably buried at Franckfort in the Franciscans Colledge together with other two of his companions Bona gratia de Bergamo and Michael de Cesena Some few yeares also before Vlric Hengherohr Lodouikes Chancellor and Secretarie to the Empire deceased who fearing the Auignion Antichristians reuenge so he tearmed them he gaue order in his last Wil and Testament to be buried without the Church least they should haue persecuted him in his verie bones But no man shewes vs more plainly than Florentine Petrarch what opinion all the renowmed men of those troublesome seasons held of the Pope and of the Court of Rome who was Archdeacon of Parma the verie light of that age and greater had beene if he could haue soothed and flattered the Popes of whom he might haue obtained any thing And so much the rather because he writ for the most part as one exempted from the heat and spleene of those present contentions and partialities I omit to set downe how liuely in his Poems he deciphers the Roman Court many times calling her the Babylonian Harlot the Schole of all errour the verie Forge of deceit and the Temple of heresie But here it may be sayd That Poets haue euer beene permitted to speake broadly Let mee request the Reader therefore but onely to read his Latine Epistles full of grauitie zeale and learning wherein he sincerely explaines his opinion In the eighth of those Epistles which are called Sine titulo where he describes the Court of Rome vnder
see Rome againe whether Charles the Emperour with the Empresse came to salute him and then againe to remoue all suspition three moneths after hee departed out of Italie One onely thing Charles performed in this journey for hee caused the Pope to seeke for Peter and Paules heads amongst the old ruines and rubbish which saith our Authour beeing by Gods fauour and furtheraunce found hee put them in an eminent place in Saint Iohn Laterans Church adorned with much siluer gold and many gemmes Let the Reader but marke well this imposture what probabilitie or likelihood there is That after the reuolution of a thousand and three hundred yeares they could be discerned or distinguished from other sculls The Pope during all this was not idle for besides Carillaes erecting of cittadels in all the strong places of Romania Vrban particularly bent his whole studie to build palaces at Oruietto and Montefiascone for the Cardinalls Transalpines thither to retire in time of immoderat heat least complaining of distemperature of ayre they might make this an occasion to depart farre from the citie whither he meant to haue reduced them but that in his returne into France he died at Marselles These things occurred in the yeare 1371 when Peter Beaufort a Lymosine and nephew to Clement the sixt was created Pope by the name of Gregorie the eleuenth At which time Rome was gouerned by a Senator who by the Popes order was to be changed euerie sixt moneth and the gard of the citie was committed to certaine Banderets which is to say to diuers captaines of seuerall wardes or quarters so tearmed of certaine Banners or Colours which euerie one had And this order tooke place since vnder Vrban the fift certaine noble strangers being preferred to the dignitie Senatoriall as Rubeus Tissius a Florentine a Guelph out of Prato and Bolsena and Boniface and Richard out of Pistoria which I deliuer to this end because the Banderets to the yeare 1400 possessed the greatest part of the Roman State Italie moreouer was euerie where tumultuous with factions but especially the Florentines made some signe of affecting libertie whither many cities from all other parts sent their ayd and not being able to maintaine themselues they forraged all ouer the territories of the Church The Popes could not digest the Emperour neither at Rome nor in Italie and therefore Gregorie determed to reduced againe at length his See to Rome Blondus relates That a Bishop being admonished by him to repayre into his owne diocesse he made this answer And you holie Father why goe you not to your owne Church Others say he did this being persuaded in reuelations by S. Briget and Katherine of Sienna But when he saw this was dipleasing to the French Cardinalls and also to his neere kinsmen he caused a number of Tryremes to be priuily built vpon the Rhodan and so with such as he made priuie to his resolution he was in them first conueyed to Genoa from thence to Coruetto and so in the yeare 1376 in the moneth of Ianuarie he came to Rome by land Thus after seuentie yeares continuance his seat at Auignion came to an end But Gregorie not long after dying there began the most grieuous schisme that euer was in the Roman Church And at his first accesse Gregorie was entertained by the Romans with great applause they supposing that together with him wealth and riches would enter into their citie But when Gregorie seemed to terrifie the whole world with his thundrings and excommunications that he sent forth neere at hand among the rest excommunicating the Florentines by the meanes of Bernabo Visconti they drew thither one Iohn Haucut and English captaine a man of great fame for his martiall prowesse with his forces and nothing respecting the Popes interdict but contemning his censures they enforced the Priests to celebrate sacred offices and the Genowayes themselues permitted the vse of all holie functions to those Florentines which were fled into their citie though they were generally interdicted wheresoeuer they liued they therefore called likewise vpon themselues the Popes interdict And Bernabo whom he held for a friend afarre off comming neerer hand draue Gregorie into some suspition and jealousie least vnlookt for hee might procure him one disturbance vpon another Now therefore he began to repent himselfe of his returne and being at poynt of death in the yeare 1378 An. 1378. he aduised the Cardinals that they should no more giue any credit to reuelations seeing he being deceiued by the persuasions of S. Briget and Katherine of Sienna returned into Italie with such disastrous and ominous successe Amongst other Doctors Gerson notes this in his treatise De examine doctrinarum Machiauel l. 3. de Historia Florentino Machiauel is the Author that writes how this Cregorie while he liued in Auignion gouerned Italie by Legats who through their wonderfull auarice and pride ouerthrew many cities one of which had his seat at Bologna who abusing to his owne purposes the famine and dearth of an hard yeare attempted to make himselfe Lord of all Tuscan and namely of Florence by reducing them to such an extreame miserie and famine From whence sprung the originall of that warre aboue mentioned All which his designes notwithstanding fell to the ground For other matters these good Popes were euer hammering of some deepe mysterie Gerson in Tractat de examin doctrinarum for Innocent the sixt instituted a feastiuall day in memoriall of the launce and nailes wherewith our Lord was pierced and by the same Theologie I pray you why may not Caiphas and Pilate be put into the Legend of Saints And Pope Vrban the fift consecrated that Sonday which is called Laetare Rosa which hymne was first sent to Ioan queene of Sicilia that famous harlot who killed her husband Then after him all his successors continued the custome euerie Lent to gratifie one Prince or other with this donatiue Aurea illa Rosa With that golden Rose which they consecrated in a Masse with wonderfull pompe diuers prayers annoynted ouer with Balsamum scattered with powdered Muske sprinkled with holie water and lastly fumed with Frankencense in signe say they both of triumphant and militant Ierusalem in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holie Ghost For Antichrist Christs Ape must needs haue his Sacraments apart which Ierome foresaw would come to passe At the same time also came forth those Sigillaries certaine Formularies in the Roman Church called Agnus Dei which are vsually hallowed of the Popes in the first yeare of their Papacie and are also renewed in the seuenth yeare the prayers by which they are consecrated being altogether execrable and accursed By their veneration and honour blot out the sinnes of vs thy seruants let the spots of our offences be cleansed pardons obtained graces conferred and at length let them deserue to enioy eternall life together with thy Saints and elect Of Christ the true Lambe of God what could be spoken more
shall hate this Strumpet this Beast leaue her desolate naked and forsaken her flesh they shall eat and consume her with fire Petrus Premonstratens in Chron. quod inscribitur Biblia Pauperum This Franciscan writ a propheticall treatise in prison the title whereof was Vade mecum in tribulationem wherein hee auerred That Antichrist raigned in the Papacie and hee presaged the Churches reformation Some there are who say he was burnt at last Vnder Vrban the fift liued one master Nicholas Orem a Doctor of Diuinitie who in the yeare 1363 on Christmas eue An. 1363. before Vrban the fift and his Cardinals made a sermon which we may yet read whole and entire but wee will here onely deduce some principall branches and clauses of the same his text was Iuxta est salus mea vt veniat iustitia mea vt reueletur Esay the 56 where after hee had shewed that the text had reference to Christs comming in the flesh hee proceedeth to his comming in judgement when he would punish the corruption of the Christian Church whereunto he expresly applied the place of Ezechiel cap. 16. In die qua natus es vidi te conculcari in sanguine tuo vnderstanding martyredome in this multiplicata es grandis effecta mundaui sanguinem tuum ex te when persecution came to be somewhat mitigated Et dedi coronam decoris in capite tuo c. which he applies to the more happie times of the Church vnder Christian Emperours Then at length Et habens fiduciam in pulchritudine tua fornicata es in nomine meo Thou hast communicated thy selfe by all meanes by simonie by abuses by sacriledges forgetting the dayes of thy youth thy first and former state Where saith he it seemes rather an historie than a prophesie of the Churches prosperitie Presently after followes the punishment And behold saith the Lord I will yeeld thee into the hands of them that hate thee and they shall destroy thy brothelrie thy stones shall be demolished that is to say the place where thou didst exercise thy vnlawfull courses they shall strip thee of thy garments and take away the vessels of thy glorie and so they shall leaue thee naked full of reproach and infamie Behold saith hee you may easily discerne what shall become of the Church And the Chapter of the prophesie addes saying Thy sister Samaria which was the Israelitish Church committed not halfe thy sinnes thou hast subdued her in thy wickednesse wherefore beare thine owne confusion By the same meanes he applies to this argument the 23 chapter of the same prophesie 2. Hosea 3. of Nahum and many other places of Esay Ieremie and the rest of the Prophets And thus he concludes Because the Prelats did not sticke for price entreaties and depraued actions to defame the venerable chastitie of the Primitiue Church that therefore God would one day reueale his primitiue iudgements vpon this Church It remained to expound whether the time were neere at hand or no because his text was Iuxta est c. And although saith he it belongs not to vs to iudge of times yet peraduenture by some infallible signes which I will demonstrat some things to this purpose may iustly be coniectured As first of all I collect out of the Apostle to the Thessal 2. cap. 2. where he sayes Except a departure and falling away first come the man of sinne the sonne of perdition shall not be reuealed Antichrist he meanes which Ierome in the last question ad inquisitiones Ianuarij allegorically expounds of the desolation of the Roman Empire betweene which and the persecution of the Church by the presence of Antichrist he makes no interposition Now what the present state of that Empire is especially compared with the originall Maiestie thereof let any man iudge The second signe was That the Church should be of worser manners and customes than euer the Synagogue was Our Sauiour saith he reprehended the Pharisies of auarice because they permitted doues to be sold in the Temple of God and because with their lips they onely honoured God and what they sayd and professed they performed not but were hypocrites Doe but therefore examine whether it be not worse to sell benefices and Sacraments than to permit doues to bee sold in the Temple Here be some men that doe not onely not honour God with their lips and not onely performe no good operations but they doe not so much as preach or persuade the same Dumbe dogs not able to barke shamelesse dogs being neuer replenished The shepheards themselues haue no vnderstanding euerie man enclines to his owne wayes euerie one to his auarice from the highest to the lowest When he comes to his text againe So are there also many whose malice and insolencie like fire is spred and kindled so farre as the cloke of hypocrisie can no longer couer it but they are become immodest and brasen faced to whose Church by way of reproach it is sayd Thou hast put on an harlots brow thou wilt not blush nor be ashamed The third signe is taken from the proportion of two great inequalitie because one hungers and starues when another is drunke and full gorged contrarie to all iust harmonie and symetrie c. Some Priests are greater than the Princes of the world and others more abiect than the base vulgar In an humane bodie if nourishment defuse it selfe superfluously to one member and the rest pine and weare away for want of the same that bodie cannot long liue And to this purpose hee doth produce some other places of the Prophets The fourth signe is the pride and insolencie of Prelats c. For by a natural right proportion it is proper for Priests to hold and enioy so much as wherewith to liue more liberally than the popular sort and that the Prelat should be maintained better than the parishioner but yet for all this they are not permitted any superfluous equipage or pompe and magnificence in their families which can hardly be tollerated without pride nor be sustained with integritie of iustice Such pompe and solemnity in the Church of God especially as is now vsed in these dayes not only stirres vp but few to true reuerence and deuotion but rather the contrarie many to indignation and offence and diuers it inuites to the aboue named abuses who would thinke themselues to haue sacrificed vnto God if they could but rob and pillage some fat chopling Priests especially of those that haue neither nobilitie of birth nor any science to make shew of but rather meere lying seruile and fraudulent men to whom the Lord speakes in the fourth of Amos You fat Oxen of Samaria that offer contumelies to the needie and euen breake the hearts of the poore Behold the day shall come c. The fift signe was The tyrannie of rulers and gouernours which being a thing violent could not long be permanent Wise 6. The propertie of a tyrant is to seeke not the good of
his subiects but of his owne Such are those shepheards that feed not the Lords flocke but themselues to whom it is sayd in Ezechiel 24 Mich. 3 You hate good and loue euill You violently flea the skin ouer their eares and teare the flesh from their bones and so they haue eaten the flesh of my people and flead the skins from off their backes The same saith Ezechiel cap. 34 I will cause them to cease from feeding any more my flocke for I will deliuer them from their mouthes and they shall be no longer their bait and food The sixt signe was The promotion of men vnworthie and contempt of the better sort According to Aristotle these things are the speciallest cause of the dissolution of any politicall gouernement and oftentimes in a secular welfare it happens that the dishonour of men famous and meritorious and the exaltation of the base and inferiour sort breeds great mutine and sedition For both in this respect and because of some of the premised reasons wee doe not onely read in Bookes but further haue seene with our eyes diuers kingdomes to haue beene almost ruined and defaced c. But this hath alwayes beene the incredulitie of humane obstinacie that though they doe not onely heare but also see it with their eyes yet will they not beleeue others perished through such and such vyces except they feele it by experience in the destruction of themselues The 7 signe was The tribulation affliction of temporall policie with the commotion and rebellions of people which is alreadie come to passe in diuers parts And because as Seneca saith euils skorn to come vnaccompanied or alone it is to be feared that after this the Ecclesiasticall policie also will not onely suffer and be replenished with these perturbations outwardly but also inwardly within the verie bowels of the Church which is prefigured in the 3 of Ieremie Desolation shall suddenly come in vpon desolation my Tabernacles are wasted and ruined In the 7 of Ezechiel Tumult vpon tumult terrour vpon terrour and the Law shall faile in the Priest and counsell in the Elders The eighth signe was The refusall of correction and amendment when that comes to passe in the principall Prelats of the Church which was writen by Ieremie cap. 7 They would not attend nor harken but made their hearts of Adamant least they should heare the words which the Lord in the spirit vttered vnto them by the mouthes of his Prophets As also by Esayas Lying children children that would not heare the Law who say stop your eares to the words of truth speake vnto vs things pleasing and acceptable And this shall then be fulfilled when the Prelats do maligne learned men and reuealers of truth euen as it is written of them in the 5 of Amos They hated him who reprehended them at the gates and abhorred him that spake truly and therefore to the Church of Hierusalem the Lord speakes in the 4 of Osee Because thou hast reiected knowledge I will reiect thee so as thou shalt not execute thy Priesthood to me for thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God therefore I will change the glorie of thy sonnes into reproach and ignominie and euen as the people are so shall the Priest be And so obseruing well the forementioned signes you may easily iudge whether the present times be secure and whether those doe not now take place which the Lord deliuereth in the Text Iuxta est justicia mea vt reueletur He could not in more plaine and expresse notes haue described the Congregation that was to entertaine Antichrist It then remayned onely for him to aunswer certayne objections which he omits not There are a sort of men saith he too confident and affirming that the Prelats are the Church which the Lord will alwayes keepe and preserue not leauing the same euen as he promised them in the persons of his Apostles he saying in the 28 of Matth. I remaine with you euen vnto the end of the world But this is to be vnderstood in respect of faith which shall remaine for euer continuing alwayes in some few though charitie and zeale wax cold amidst all worldlie disturbances the which the same our Sauiour oftentimes presaged and foretold And because none may suppose themselues secure from tribulation by being of the Church the Lord refells this opinion when he sayth in Ierem. 7. Trust not to the words of lying and vntruth saying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord c. which shall no wayes profit you There is another opinion of those that prorogue and protract Gods iudgements for they grant That the Church indeed shall be disquieted and molested but not so quickly because many reasons haue beene heretofore touched and other signes were made manifest seeing not long since the Prelats were reprehended by the Doctors Gregorie and Bernard for receiuing of bribes for their pompe for promoting the vnworthie and for sundrie other vices which then raigned in the Church nay more than now and yet by Gods grace it still remained in prosperous estate God most fitly preuents all these debatements in an example in Ezech. cap. 12. saying Sonne of man behold the house of Israel who sayd The vision that this man saw he hath prophesied of long time agoe Thou shalt therefore tell them saith the Lord My word shall no longer be protracted but I will performe it in your dayes And in Esay 3. We haue seene things come to passe in our dayes which before seemed incredible and the like hath otherwise happened Others say Come what come will we will conforme our selues to this age we will temporize like those which said in Wisdome 2. Let vs enioy those good things that are and replenish our selues Such are very preiudiciall especially to good men in the Church of God And if Ecclesiasticall Prelats were so base as to retaine these bad cogitations they could not be too deepely plunged in hel c. for herein they incurre the temporall danger which they most feare the Lord speaking thus vnto them in the first of the Prouerbs You haue neglected all my aduertisements and counsels and therefore I will returne to your destruction when tribulation and anguish shall euen violently rush in vpon you Some distrust altogether and it seemes that no due remedie in this case can be applied but euen as other things and former kingdoms haue had their periods according to that of Mathew they haue a time in the irreuocable reuolution of ages and so this gouernement of the Church must likewise haue an end the gouernours iust deserts and obstinacies requiring the same as it is in the eighth of Ieremie There is none that repents euerie one returnes to his owne course like an horse that violently presseth into the battell If an Aethiope can change his skinne or a Leopard his spots then you may doe good hauing learned nothing but euill and in the seuenteenth chapter of Iuda which implies the Church The sinne
was drinking in a banquet at Buda whereunto she had inuited him notwithstanding hee had yeelded vnto her all the rights of the kingdome and had sent to Vrban to gratifie him the sword yet bloudie wherewith his head was smitten off Collenuc l. 5. The historie telleth vs that Vrban receiued it with so great a pleasure that hee could not satisfie himselfe with beholding it And thus much for Vrban him of the two which by Platina Onuphrius and others is put in the Catalogue of Popes as the more lawfull For full encrease of his good deeds he caused a booke to be written by one Iohn de Therano his Chamberlaine the beginning whereof is Giue vnto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods wherein he affirmeth That these words of Christ haue place onely for a time namely vntill his ascention but that from the time of his ascention they should be of no moment seeing that hee himselfe saith Ioh. 12. When I shall be taken vp from the earth I will draw all men vnto me that is all kings and kingdoms vnder the Empire of the Pope whom he therefore concludeth to be King of kings and Lord of lords not fearing in so weightie a matter to abuse the sacred word of God worse than the verie Pasquils As for Clement hee was the first author as Gaguin witnesseth of expectatiue graces and Annates yet because he is held for an Antipope whose acts therefore were the lesse firme the honour of them is attributed to Boniface successor of Vrban by whose care in his obedience they were receiued But Nicholas de Clemangis Archdeacon of Baieux who liued in the time of this schisme in his booke de Corrupto Ecclesiae statu of the corrupt state of the Church describeth Clement vnto vs in few words After saith he that by the insupportable burden of our sinnes the furious euill of schisme hath crept into the Church to omit the mischiefes done through the errour of such as follow the false Pope a man wholly defiled with all impuritie Was there euer man more miserable than our Clement while he liued Who so made himselfe a seruant of seruants to the Princes of France that the threatnings and contumelies daily cast vpon him by the Courtiers were hardly fit to be spoken against the basest slaue He gaue place to furie to the time and to the importunitie of troublesome demanders he fained dissembled promised largely draue off from day to day to these he gaue benefices to those words he chiefely laboured to please all flatterers iesters in the Court and by benefits to deserue well of them that by their helpe he might win the fauour of their Lords and therefore on these neat and trimme young men in whose companie he chiefly delighted he bestowed almost all the vacant Bishopricks and other chiefe dignities Lastly That he might the more easily obtaine and continue the good will of the Princes hee gaue them verie many gifts consented vnto whatsoeuer exactions they would require of the Clergie and often of his owne accord offered them vnasked In this miserable slauerie he passed more than three lustres or twelue yeares with incredible wast of the Church Moreouer there is extant horrible Bulls which these Popes published the one against the other wherein they called each other Schismatike Paulus Aemilius in Carolo Sapiente Heretike sower of tares theefe traitor tyran Antichrist sonne of Belial Iohn de Ligniaco wrot in fauour of Vrban and the Abbot of S. Vaast of Arras Counsellor of king Charles the fift in fauour of Clement After the decease of Vrban the Cardinals that were his followers elected Pope Peter de Thomacellis a Neapolitan who was called Boniface the ninth ignorant saith the Author of writing and singing and so vnfit for administration of the affaires of the Court of Rome Theodor. à Nyem l. 2. c. 6. that whilest he liued he hardly vnderstood the propositions made before him by the Aduocats in his Consistorie in so much that in his time Inscitia ferè venalis facta fuit in ipsa Curia Ignorance was welnigh set to sale in the Court it selfe And yet in all kind of simonie he so farre excelled all his predecessors that he promoted not any Cardinall or bishop without extorting a great summe of mony from them And such a one indeed had Vrban the sixt found him out to be who for his goodlie stature of a vagabond Clerke had made him Cardinall but after he discouered him to be so open an arch-simoniack that it is likely he would haue taken his hat from him if death had not preuented him Of his inuention then as Theodorick his Secretarie teacheth vs are the Annates which hee reserued to himselfe of all the vacant Cathedrall Churches and Abbies so that they which were promoted vnto them were forced beforehand to pay all before they could get the possession of the same Vsurie also whereby they which came to the Court might find money at any rate whatsoeuer which was no more accounted a sinne yea rather was oft exacted before their Iudges and Officials that the saying of the Psalme might be veried Both vsurie and guile wanteth not in their streets The Dates as they call them to wit the prioritie of the time of graces which they sold to such as gaue most and that with such impudencie that this so open a buing and selling became a mocke among the people The Expectatiues which did tread vnder feet those graces commonly Cum clausula Anteferri And innumerable subtile deceits extortions filthie and vnhonest pillages which the Author describeth in the 7 8 9 10 11 chapters of his second booke and would be too long for vs here to recite Out of which may be judged what manifest proceedings forward this Romish robbing had made vnder this Pope But the most vile of all was that of the Iubilie by Vrban appointed Theodor. à Ny l. 1. c. 68. For innumerable strangers out of the diuers kingdomes and Prouinces of his obedience came to the citie and exceeding great offerings were giuen to the Churches and Temples of the citie the greater part of which came to the hands of Boniface and of some others But Boniface himselfe not content with these offerings although they amounted to an exceeding summe for he was an insatiable gulfe and in couetousnesse none like vnto him sent his money-gatherers or chapmen into diuers kingdomes for to sell the sayd Indulgences to such as offered so much as it would cost them to go to Rome to fetch them these extorters or chapmen also subtilly extorted verie great summes of money from simple and barbarous people so that by such sales they sometime brought away out of one kingdome or one Prouince more than an hundred thousand Florins because they remitted all sinnes to all confessing them euen without penance for mony dispensed of all irregularities saying that they had all the power ouer the same that
not so much as the people of Liege but they resolued to forsake Boniface at Rome and to embrace this neutralitie to whom the better to retaine them in their faith and obedience hee sent a Legat but he not daring to passe any farther stayed at Cologne and from thence by a carrier sent letters who was forbid to returne to the Legat except he loued to be cast into the riuer Mosa Thus was the miserable state of the Church knowne to the whole world And this brings vs to the yeare 1399. An. 1399. There passed many yeares in these contentions betwixt these Popes either of them intending vnion whilest neither of them embraced it and both of them in their owne jurisdictions amongst whom they were obeyed laying exactions burthens and exercising tyrannie vpon the Churches violently exacting likewise certain annuities brought in by the inuention of Boniface wheresoeuer their power did extend Whereupon there followed a Decree of our Parliament assisted by the great Councell dated the eleuenth of September in the yeare 1406 An. 1406. the Vniuersitie of Paris requesting the same by which it was forbidden to be payd to the Pope or any of his Cardinals and if afterwards they shall request it not to receiue any thing from him or to haue ought to doe with him In the narration whereof the Vniuersitie feared not to say that it is written Withdraw your selues from euerie brother that walketh inordinatly presently adding that of the Apostle I know that after my departure shal grieuous Wolues enter in amongst you Arrestum Curiae an 1406. impressum cum Nicholao Clemangis not sparing the flocke and that of the Prophet Because my flocke was spoyled and my sheepe were deuoured of the beasts of the field hauing no shepheard neither did my shepheards feed my sheep but the shepheards feed themselues and feed not my sheep therefore sayth the Lord I will cause them to cease from feeding the sheepe neither shall the shepheards feed themselues any more for I will deliuer my sheepe from their mouthes and they shall no more deuour them Which words the Vniuersitie applies to Benedict shewing likewise that Rome receiued the preheminence of her See from Constantine but yet had not therefore any power to command or to impose any thing vpon others There followeth the Edict of Charles the sixt then raigning dated the eighteenth of Februarie in the yeare 1406 whereby both his annuities and his baser seruices as they call them and innumerable the like grieuances and oppressions which are there particularly expressed are vtterly made voyd as being dangerous to the Church and Commonweale causes of pouertie amongst the people and perdition to a million of poore soules that by that meanes are destitute both of corporall and spirituall nourishment The occasion of this Edict was because the later moderne Popes being often admonished made no account thereof but hardened themselues and stopped their eares against all complaints Another cause was because the regall power for the establishing of the Church is ordained of God in so much that the celestiall kingdome may be amended by the terrestriall when the Church is destroyed by them who hold the highest places therein and are to be repressed by the seueritie of Princes to whom in such cases we are only to flie since by their oath made vnto God they are to prouide for the good of the Church otherwise to yeeld an account In this case especially wherein all the Doctors teach That we are to denie obedience to the Pope himselfe And this whole Edict is yet to be read much differing from that their axiome That the Pope hath the chiefest commaund both in heauen and on earth These things fell out in the time of Innocent the seuenth one of the competitors Gregorie his successor thought good at the first to flatter vs and by his Legat sent a Bull to the king wherein he promiseth in good earnest to doe his best endeuour to procure a vnion vpon those conditions before mentioned It bare date the eleuenth of December 1406 and is to be had in Monstrelet Whereupon the king and the Vniuersitie of Paris the matter being deliberated with the chiefe of the Clergie and Councell sent embassadours to Benedict the Patriarch of Alexandria the Bishops of Cambray and Beauvais the Abbots of S. Denis and Mount S. Michael and certaine Doctors of the Vniuersitie who should let him vnderstand That except he would doe his office and come to some reason that the king and the Dolphine would withdraw themselues from his obedience and refuse his Bulls Benedict continuing obstinat in his purposes entertained the embassadours with fayre words and in the meane time without the knowledge of his Cardinals made a constitution which he sent by speciall messengers to the king and Vniuersitie threatening grieuous punishment to all those that should withdraw themselues from the obedience of himselfe and his successors Monstrelet vol. 1. c. 33. And afterwards with doubtfull speeches sent away the Embassadours The king and his Councell began now to perceiue that these Popes abused the world both the one and the other but yet are nothing terrified therewith But the yeare following they sent Iohn de Castro morando and Iohn de Courseno Jdem 1. Cap. â—0 knights to Benedict to let him know That if the vnion were not restored to the Church by Ascention day that he the Clergie Nobles and people of his kingdome and Dolphine would no longer obey him nor his aduersarie To whom he answered without delay That he would send an answer by a speciall messenger who was a certaine man I know not who that came into the palace of S. Paul where the kings Court then was and entring into the kings Oratorie at the beginning of Masse deliuered Benedict his letters and presently departed The letters were read which contained an excommunication against the king and his subiects but the messenger vanished Wherefore the king by the counsell of his Princes and the persuasion of the Vniuersitie of Paris forsooke the Pope and withdrew himselfe from his obedience The letters are to be read in the same Authour wherein the Pope complaineth That the subiects of his kingdome rebell against the Church of Rome in appealing from him against the canonicall constitutions and that the king permitted diuers errours to be sowed therein contrarie to the puritie of the law So he calleth the reprehension of his exactions Furthermore that the vnion which he dreames of is properly a sinne and a perseuerance in a Schisme and that such as exhort him thereunto doe but abuse him Concluding that if he continue in this vaine errour besides those punishments and sentences pronounced in the law he will send constitutions comprehended in his Bull by the tenor whereof both he and all other that shall offend shal be punished These letters neuerthelesse are intermingled with some flatterie but the Bull marres all We excommunicat all those that shall appeale from vs or our
53. 54. There a certaine bishop of Arragon a great Doctour of Diuinitie in a solemne Sermon chose for his text that of the Apostle Purge the old leauen c. wherein he feared not to say That they were no more Popes than his old shooes worse than Annas and Carphas yea to be compared to the Diuels of hell Whereby let the Reader judge of those Archbishops Prelats that he ordayned and of those things that by them were done whom he ordayned The selfesame is to be read in the letters of the Embassadours of the Vniuersitie of Paris to their Lords and Masters That the neutrallitie and subtraction of obedience was good and lawfull and the processe and sentences of the competitors against those that had withdrawne themselues iustly pronounced to be of no force Approuing in all respects the sentence of the Vniuersitie As there is likewise extant the definitiue sentence against both the contendants for their horrible sinnes and a reuocation of all their acts in the yeare last past with the Epistle of Alexander the fifth to the Bishop of Paris Cap. 67. who expresly pronounced them the enemies of God and his Church for their grieuous and horrible notorious sinnes Iohn the foure and twentieth alias the three and twentieth the successour of Alexander in the yeare 1410 sent his Legats namely the Archbishop of Pisa to demaund the Tenthes due in the vacancie procurations and mortuaries An. 1410. Bochell l. 2. Decret Eccles Gallicanae p. 323.324 Jdem l. 4 p. 51.52.53 54.55.56 ex ijsdem The Vniuersitie assembled at the Bernerdins the three and twentieth of Nouember and calling vnto them such Prelats as were then at Paris concluded that those Lawes and ordinances aboue mentioned made in the yeare 1406 were to be defended that is to say That the Church of Fraunce was freed from all tenthes procurations and other subsidies and annuities whatsoeuer And if the Pope or his Legats shall constrain any man by ecclesiastical censure to pay them that it shold be lawfull to appeale from them to a generall Councell And if any of the collectors shall goe about to exact them they are to be punished with the losse of their goods if they haue any if not with imprisonment They humblie besought the king and the Councell thus to determine the matter and his Proctor generall to joyne with the sayd Vniuersitie But if the Pope should alledge some manifest necessitie of the Church that a Councell should be called wherein some charitable subsidie should be determined of which honest men chosen by the Councell should gather and being gathered by the authoritie thereof distribute it The Munday following there was called a royall Councell where the Archbishop deliuered vnto them That what he demaunded was due to the Apostolike chamber by law Diuine canon ciuile and naturall which whomsoeuer should denie to pay was no Christian Let the Reader here note the definition of a Christian The Rector interrupting him affirmed That these words were pronounced to the dishonour of the king and the Vniuersitie and consequently of the whole realme Wherefore the thirtieth of Nouember he called a generall congregation wherein it was agreed to send Orators to the king to request that the Legat might be commaunded to reuoke his words and if he should refuse to doe it that then the professours graduats of Diuinitie and Law should write against him vpon the Articles of the faith That both he and his Colleagues might according to their desart be punished That they would likewise write to all other Vniuersities and Prelats to ioyne with them in this controuersie and to the Archbishop of Rheimes likewise and others of the kings grand Councell to that purpose who haue bin sworne to the sayd Vniuersitie otherwise to be depriued that dignitie Whereupon the Popes Legats departed without taking their leaue Neuerthelesse the Pope is nothing at all herewith discomfited but sendeth his Legats againe to the king to require the Tenths imposed vpon Fraunce who pronounced in the kings Councell the duke of Aquitan being present That not only the Church of Fraunce but all others whatsoeuer were bound to this subsidie not onely by the positiue law but also by the law of God The Vniuersitie withstood it and in a congregation concluded That the manner in demaunding this subsidie was to be reproued as vniust and contrarie to the law before made in the yeare 1406 which they were resolued to defend And if the Pope or his Legats should proceed any farther that they would then appeale to the generall Councell of the Church and if the gouernours of the new king and kingdome should attempt any thing against the sayd law they would appeale to the king and the Lords of his Councell And if any of the Vniuersitie it selfe should goe about to gather these tenthes he was to lose his rights and priuiledges if other his temporalties if he had any if not to suffer imprisonment But if the Pope by way of charitie would gather this money then the Vniuersitie would beseech his Maiestie that the Prelats of the kingdome might be called to deliberat First What was to be handled in the next generall Councell Secondly What answer was to be made to the supplication of the Popes Legats Monstrelet vol. 1. c. 67. So that if a subsidy should be granted that it might be gathered by some chosen honest men of the kingdome for the vnion of the Greekes and Latines the peace of the kingdome of England the recouerie of Palestina and for the preaching of the Gospell to all creatures since these were the ends for which the Pope as his owne Legats did affirme did leuie this subsidie In all which they humbly beseech the Lords of the Parliament and the kings Proctors to yeeld them their helping hand and to joyne with them Whereupon the Archbishop of Pisa carried himselfe more humbly towards the Vniuersitie and began to flatter the principall amongst them that hee might win them to deale more mildly with him but it was to small purpose for the Vniuersitie continued still constant though the greater part of the Nobles yea the Princes themselues began to faint in their resolutions An. 1416. Here is fit place to speake of the Councell of Constance wherein in the yeare 1416 a bill was exhibited in the name of the Church of France and the Vniuersitie of Paris called Apostoli because Charles the sixt by a Decree of the Court of Parliament and an Edict following thereupon had forbid annuities to be paid It was otherwise called De Annatis non soluendis Which bill was so much the more necessarie because the Cardinals going about to put downe the Antipopes endeuoured neuerthelesse to retaine their gaineful arts and inuentions especially these annuities which their promoters with their reasons likewise defended There it was disputed by our Diuines That those annuities were not due either by the law of God or man That they were extraordinarily granted to
with him into hell yet is it lawfull for none to say vnto him what or why doest thou so doe most shamefully flatter him That those decrees are the words of the Popes themseues labouring to enlarge the fringes of their garment That those places also of Scripture Thou shalt be called Cephas c. I will giue vnto thee the keyes c. I haue prayed for thee c. Feed my sheepe c. Launch forth into the deepe and the like are induced against the true meaning of the holie Scripture which they proue both by forcible reasons and by good and well applied places of the Fathers That the Pope if he obey not the Church may be deposed by it seeing he is not the naturall head thereof but grafted in which may no lesse be cut off than the rest of the members if hee ill execute his charge if he be for the destruction or dammage thereof be cast into the fire if he bring not forth good fruit and be troden vnder foot in the street if he be vnprofitable Which is the opinion of S. Hierome interpreting the vnprofitable salt That the Prelat foolish and vnsauorie in preaching chiefely in Peters chaire is to be cast forth of doores that is to be deposed that he may be troden vnder feet of swine that is of Diuels which beare rule ouer the euill Prelat as ouer a beast of their flocke And this not onely for heresie but for whatsoeuer crime whereby the Church is scandalized And this so much the more truely for that the Pope to speake properly is not the Vicar of Christ but of the Church and the Lord and Master may by all right depose his Vicar or Lieutenant whose power ceaseth when the Master is in presence so likewise doth the power of the Pope when a Councell is gathered wherein remaineth fulnesse of power Here this doubt came in their way But the calling of a Councell doth it not belong to the Pope alone Yea saith he if that haue place who seeth not that the ruine of the Church is neere at hand and will presently ensue For who knoweth not that hee which will sinne will sinne without punishment And who wil beleeue that a Pope will assigne a Councell for to represse and reforme himselfe Neither doe I find saith he either by histories or by the Acts of the Apostles themselues that Popes alone haue assembled Councels The first of all Councells where Mathias is substituted in place of Iudas I find to be gathered not by the commaundement of Peter but of Christ who commaunded his Apostles that they should not depart from Hierusalem but should expect the promise of the Father The second for the election of Deacons was not assembled by Peter alone but by the twelue Apostles for it is written Then the twelue called the multitude together The third for the taking away of Circumcision and other legall rites was gathered by commune inspiration as it is written The Apostles and Elders came together The fourth for the permission of certaine legall things seemeth to be assembled by Iames the brother of the Lord. The same was also in the Primitiue Church and since by the authoritie of the Emperours yet so as that the Popes consent was requisit according to reason but on condition that the greater part carrie it away And much more the Councell being once assembled cannot be by the Pope reuoked seeing he himselfe is a part of it which ought to giue place to the greater and from it to depart maketh him guiltie of schisme And thus much for the first Truth whereon the second dependeth That the Pope cannot dissolue a Councell otherwise at the first word he should heare of correction he would bethinke himselfe of this remedie There remained the third Whether this of Catholike faith is so to be beleeued Which they shew affirmatiuely because we are held to beleeue whatsoeuer is in the Gospell now in it say they is dic Ecclesiae on which words the Councel of Constance hath grounded this Decree That the power of a Councell is aboue the Pope vnder paine of heresie And so these three first Conclusions rest most firme by consequence of which the others also are approued Now this decision was to be applied against Eugenius and part of them who had consented in these Truthes desired that the sentence should be deferred some hoping they should haue better of him others by reason that many Bishops yet stayed in the Parliament of Mentz famous men whose Suffrages might seeme to be expected And Panormitan tooke occasion thereupon to inferre That the Bishops ought to be stayed for and that inferiours haue not in Councell a Suffrage decisiue but onely consultatiue Vnto which added Ludouicus Romanus That argument is not to be taken out of the Acts of the Apostles whose examples were rather to be admired than imitated neither is it there manifest that the Apostles had called the Elders out of their duetie there is onely declared that they were present out of which nothing can be inferred Which speech all wondering at in so great a man crie out Blasphemie Then therefore Lewis Cardinall of Arles A man of all other most constant and borne to the gouernement of generall Councels taking vp the words of all the Orators that had spoken declareth That all these doubts were without cause That these Conclusions had beene maturely determined and weighed That the embassadours of all the Princes had giuen vpon these their sentence which were the chiefest men in the Church That the Bishops were in fault that they were not present That to such as were present greater reuerence was giuen than in any Councell before and indeed greater authoritie for so much as their prerogatiues are fully restored vnto them whom they placed in their former state and haue made them which were not Bishops but shadowes to be true Bishops That euen they which now do most draw back haue in their writings auouched the same Truthes meaning by those words of Panormitan and Ludouicus Romanus But saith hee the Presbiters are not so to be put downe who in the Councell of the Apostles had a decisiue voyce and in like sort also in the auncient Councels That in time past the Bishop and the Presbiter or Priest was but one and the same in so much that S. Augustine saith on these words I will giue vnto thee the keyes c. That our Lord gaue judiciariam potestatem iudiciarie power to Bishops and Priests especially seeing they haue more done their duetie in the Councell than the Bishops these fearing to lose their dignities and their delights those for so just a cause not dreading any losse nor yet death it selfe That the Councell hath now sat eight yeares so that there cannot be pretended any headlong proceeding nor any ignorance And moreouer the threats of some Princes are inferred beside the Purpose who are wiser than to attempt any thing in preiudice of the Councell and they themselues also being
first created Bishop of Triesté and after Cardinall by Calixtus and by degrees according to the encrease of his dignities he changed his stile as appeareth to whomsoeuer readeth his Epistles which hee himselfe hath distinguished by degree Till at length being made Pope he thought nothing better than to reuoke his former and more laudable Acts by his Bull set forth concerning that matter bearing the title of Retractation and the things which before he had seemed to detest in other Popes hee himselfe now both praysed and aduanced forward This is manifest by the Bull which beginneth Execrabilis dated in the second yeare of his Popedome whereby he forbiddeth to appeale from the sentences of the Pope to the future Councell pronounceth all such appeales of Emperours Kings Bishops c. to be voyd vaine execrable and pestiferous excommunicateth such as haue appealed not to be absolued but at the poynt of death He also subiecteth Vniuersities Colledges and other corporations to the Interdict and inflicted vpon all the punishments of high treason and heresie and the Notaries or letter-carriers witnesses and others which were at those Acts c. In another Bull also which beginneth In minoribus agentes directed to the Vniuersitie of Colonia An. 1463. in the yeare 1463 hee professeth That it repented him that hee wrot the Dialogue and other bookes for the authoritie of the Councell saying that he had persecuted the Church of God ignorantly as did S. Paul contrariwise affirming the authoritie of the Pope to bee aboue the Church by the same texts which before he had expounded in a farre other sence Wherefore hee declared That the Pope is the soueraigne Monarch of the Church whose sinnes are left to the judgement of God so that no man may take knowledge of them And neuerthelesse at the end he reuerenced saith he the Councell of Constance which had decreed the contrarie But here Bellarmine inuenteth a notable distinction That the later Sessions are approued not the first because in the first the Councel was placed aboue the Pope and yet notwithstanding in that Councell Martin the fift had beene chosen and what hee had caused to be ordained in the later tooke force and vigour onely from the first Sessions whereby it was judged That the Councell may judge the Pope arraigne him condemne depose and punish him and chuse another in his roome all which they had practised on Iohn the foure and twentieth Benedict the thirteenth and Martin the fift deposing the two former and electing the third and both the Sessions former and later proceeding from one same spirit and from one and the same authoritie But it troubleth them that they know not which way to turne themselues when they are demaunded what was the vocation of Martin Eugenius and others which hath no ground but on the onely decision of this Councell and the Councell of Basil And here we might set before the eyes of Syluius what he hath said of this Councell and that of Basil which now he condemneth and that not being a young man as he said but a man of perfect age and honoured with principall dignities Where is there in the world such a companie of Fathers Where so great light of knowledge Where the wisedome Where is the goodnesse that can be equall to the vertues of these Fathers O most perfect fraternitie O true Senat of the world c. So that these things may not honestly now be denied But as the eye of reason is other than the eye of passion so is the judgement of an vpright mind other than of corrupt desire of Syluius sitting in that most honourable assemblie which he describeth vnto vs than of Pius the second raigning in that contagious chaire And he had cast out a speech of an expedition into Asia against the Turkes in the assemblie of Mantua Bulla quae incipit Quoniam vt proxime in summa Constitution Iohan. 5. Stella in Pio 2. whither the embassadours of many Princes were come from all parts and vnder pretence thereof had imposed a tenth on the whole Clergie yea euen vpon all the profits of the Roman Court but he could not bring it to effect perhaps because he arrogated too much to himselfe with the Princes which were of greatest power For saith Stella for the augmentation of the Papall Maiestie he feared neither Kings nor Dukes neither peoples nor tyrants but if they saw any offending that is to say not obeying in all poynts his desire he persecuted them so long both by warre and by censures till he perceiued them to be recouered And for this cause became he an aduersarie to Lewis King of France who went about to diminish the libertie of the Church in his kingdome to Borsio d'Este because he fauoured Sigismund Malatesta and the affaires of France against Ferdinand He persecuted with terrible execrations Sigismund Duke of Austria for that he had chastised the Cardinall of S. Peter ad Vincula Hee deposed also the Archbishop of Mentz iudging ill of the Roman Church and set vp another in his roome He deposed likewise the Archbishop of Beneuent for attempting new matters against his will and for that he would betray Beneuent to the Frenchmen And he brought many townes of Campania into the power of the Church of Rome Neither doe histories conceale that he confirmed the kingdome of Naples to Ferdinand reuoking the Bull of Calixtus the third and that in fauour of the mariage of Anthonie Picolhuomini his nephew with the sister of the wife of Ferdinand whose dowrie was the Earledomes of Maldeburg and Celano Whereby hee began to set himselfe against the rights of our France Monstrelet addeth Monstrelet vol. 3. That it was commonly thought that Ferdinand had giuen Pius a verie great summe of gold partly to be absolued of his crimes and partly that he might peaceably enioy his kingdome But his ambition cannot not better be knowne than in his 396 Epistle where hee offereth and promiseth the Empire of the Greeks to Mahomet king of the Turkes if he would become a Christian and succour the Church that is to say his faction that hee might the more easily rend Christendome which he vexed with continuall warres presuming to persuade him that that Empire depended on him and was in his gift and that so his predecessors had giuen the Empire of Germanie to Charlemaine It seemeth that to him also is to be ascribed that extraordinarie pompe of Corpus Christi day for that which is commonly boasted of the Temple of S. Peter very fitly agreeth with the Roman superstition which neuer is brought to his full height Antoninus Campanus Bishop of Arrezzo in the life of Pius saith He celebrated at Viterbium the feast of the Eucharist with an vnaccustomed brauerie the citie being vnder foot spread with scarlet ouer head couered with linnen in which starres of gold shined as in the firmament so that the procession went not seeing the skie betweene flowres strewed an ynch thick
than milke more splendent than precious stones or polished Saphires but now their face is blacker than a coale and they are not knowne to wit for good By this deformation and spot of the Court and of Clergie-men especially of the Prelats Ecclesiasticall censure seemeth to be weakened and obedience diminished Why is this but for the contemptible life and workes of Prelats because they seeke their owne and not what is Iesus Christs But the reformation and amendment hereof belongeth to the Pope who as head of the rest ought to performe it De Censi Rom. l. ◠Q. 7. Cum Pastoris 6. q. 1. ex merito 1. q. 1. Fertur ver Hinc igitur and diligently looke to it But he that would correct others ought first looke to himselfe and them that be about him Because the life of the Pastour is an example to others And if the head languish the rest of the members are infected and when the Pastor is wounded who will applie the medicine to cure the sheepe Whereupon when the Physitian is sicke it will be said vnto him Cure thy selfe c. And to this purpose he bringeth many Canons Of Indulgences So often as sayth hee the Pope went forth in publike on some feastiuall day was giuen a plenarie Indulgence against the custome of auncient Popes notwithstanding that by such vndiscreet and superfluous Indulgences the keyes of the Chruch are contemned and penitentiall satisfaction weakened De poenis remiss c. Cum ex eo § Ad haec Out of this consideration it followeth that about giuing of expectatiue graces greater consideration ought to be had and not thus giuen euerie where on all sides and indifferently because by so great a multitude and confusion for the most part benefices are granted to persons vnworthie great matter of contention ariseth thereby Againe By the euill example and scandall which they giue to Lay men they seeme that they are come to this that S. Bernard speaketh in his sermon vpon these words of the Gospell I am the good shepheard And because it is verie long let the Reader take the paines to see it in the booke it selfe wherein he discourseth of all the corruptions of the Roman Church in his time At Padoua taught Anthonie Rozel a famous professor of the Ciuile Law who in his booke of Monarchie affirmeth That the Pope is not Lord of the world That he hath no power ouer the Emperor no temporall sword neither any authoritie aboue other Bishops There is extant besides other Treatises of the same Author Of the power of the Emperor and of the Pope and of both the swords and of the authoritie of Councels printed at Venice in the yeare 1487. Neither feared also Roderick Sanchio a Spaniard Bishop of Zamora Roderic Zamorens in speculo vitae humanae excuso Argetorti apud Iohan Pris An. 1507. and Referendarie of Paul the second to say in his booke Of the Myrror of mans life That the Pope doth not applie himselfe to wisedome nor to laudible studies neither for the peace and quiet of Christian people but onely vnto earthlie things That the Prelats doe not neither can teach for that they are altogether vnlearned giuen to their bellie and to whoredome and yet bind on the backes of poore Christians diuers insupportable burdens of traditions which in the Primitiue Church either were not at all or were left to mens libertie In the Primitiue Church saith he the faithfull were not bound with the commandements censures and pains of so many Canons Decrees Neither were there then so many snares of laws constitutions of excommunications or censures from which the faithfull though neuer so careful fearful can by no means be safe or warrant themselues There was not so many fasts cōmanded nor vigils nor silences nor Diuine Seruice for day and night enioyned daily to be sayd Lastly there was not so many feasts to be kept nor so often confession and communication of the bodie of Christ nor so many obediences to be yeelded c. So that of the Prelats of the Church may be rightly sayd that of Christ Which bind vnsupportable burdens c. Whence saith he if any of the like things were obserued in the Primitiue Church it was onely voluntarie which as then was no sinne to transgresse because it was not then forbidden And yet notwithstanding this same wretch was not ashamed to flatter Paul the second in the same booke That the Pope is not onely ordained to humane principalitie but to diuine Jdem cap. 1. l. 2. neither to commaund onely ouer men but also ouer Angels not for to iudge the quicke onely but the dead not in earth alone but in heauen also not to rule ouer the faithfull onely but ouer Infidels Aduanced saith he to that verie same dignitie to that same iurisdiction and power and to the principalitie ouer the whole world So that hee blushed not to applie vnto him the places of tha Prophets and of the Psalmes which the holie Ghost hath onely spoke and meant of the onely Sonne of God and he most highly extolleth him aboue that stammering Moses and his brother Aaron both together So that truth and flatterie two contraties proceed out of one and the same mouth In Germanie Herman Ried wrot a booke wherein he represented the corrupt maners of the Clergie by a comparison of what they ought to bee Herman Ried de vita honestate Clericorum and what in his times they then were There are saith he many Clergie-men who follow not the counsell and sentences of the Fathers receiue not the holie Scripture but despise the canons of the holie Fathers These are They which hate and deride vnderstanding and Catholike men who weigh the grieuousnesse of the crimes of the Clergie and endeauour with watchfulnesse to crie out against their false dealing Yea they affirme them to be fantasticall men Hierome de norma viuendi c. 5. disturbers of the peace hauing corrupt and polluted consciences c. And so is verified of them that saying of S. Hierome There is not a crueller beast in the world than an euill Clergie-man or Priest for he suffereth not himselfe to be corrected neither will he euer heare the truth c. Such and the like are by their Prelats permitted publikely so to liue Prouided that they giue euerie yeare a certaine sum of money to their Officials Moreouer how many are there publikely tainted with Simonie insomuch that not being able to conceale their simonie to shift if off they expresse it with other tearmes persuade themselues that so the word simonie be not heard it wil not be perceiued It is say they an ordinance or statute of the Church Others more subtilly to shift it off doe say That the Pope doth it by his fulnesse of power who may in such things dispence admit and ordaine And that then it is simonie and sinne onely when the Pope did forbid it or ordaine
wishing verie earnestly that hee might bee his disciple A certaine ecclesiastical person in the citie of Coire a countrie of Grisons speaking to his fellowes You haue saith he cast S. Paule vnder the bench but a time shall come when hee shall come forth and put you where yee placed him Andreas Proles the Prior of the Augustines at Leipsic in his Lectures was wont to say You heare bretheren the testimonie of the Scriptures that by grace wee are whatsoeuer wee are and by grace wee haue whatsoeuer wee haue From whence then is there so much darkenesse such horrible superstitions O my brethren the state of Christendome hath need of a great and a seuere reformation which I now see to bee neere at hand But his brethren demaunding of him why hee beganne not this reformation and opposed not himselfe against these errours his aunswere was this You see my brethren that I am old and weake of bodie and I confesse my selfe for my learning industrie and eloquence insufficient to performe so great a worke but the Lord will raise a man fit and able for his age his strength his industrie his learning wit and eloquence who shall beginne the reformation and oppose himselfe against all errours God shall giue him a heart to withstand the mightie men of the world and you shall find his ministrie by the great grace and goodnesse of God profitable vnto you All this is reported by Heningus an Augustine Monke in the monasterie called The gate of heauen neere Weringherad whereof this Proles was Prior whom the Pope afterwards excommunicated because he opposed himselfe in the Councell of Lateran against a certaine new feast alleadging that the people of God deliuered from bondage by the bloud of Christ were too much oppressed with multitudes of traditions from which opinion he could neuer be withdrawne Iohn Hilten a Monke in Henac of Turingia beeing cast into prison for reprehending some Monasticall abuses beeing verie sicke called the Gardian or keeper and said vnto him Philippus Melanthon in Apologia Cap. de votis Monasiticis I haue said little or nothing against our Monkish Societie but there will come one in the yeare 1516 who shall ouerthrow them all whose proceedings they shall not bee able to withstand And that verie yeare Luther began to preach which did farre excell any humane diuination Diuers like vnto him did euerie where appeare who out of the palpable darkenesse of those times as if the dawne of the day did approach began to discrie the light of the Gospell after which all the people of God had a long time longed in such sort that Paulus Langius a Monke of Citique Paulus Langius Citicensis Monachus in in Chron. the disciple of the Abbot Trithemius about the time of Luthers first appearance though he had not yet left his Monasterie gaue him this excellent testimonie Martin saith hee is a perfect diuine profound incomparable he endeauoureth to bring diuinitie to her first fundamental dignitie and puritie and to her Euangelicall sincere and simple innocencie altogether banishing all prophane Philosophie Againe In imitation of that most Christian Diuine Simon de Cassia who florished about the yeare 1340 contemning all Philosophie hee handled and taught the Scriptures purely bringing into the light euerie day many venerable and almost vnknowne mysteries of the word of God beeing for the greatnesse and dexteritie of his wit famous through the whole world notwithstanding with S. Ierome hee wanted not the malice of his Competitors that is the persecution of Schole-diuines who frame the Scriptures to the rule of Philosophie In an other place about the yeare 1503 hee ioined vnto him Carolostadius and Melanthon They handle and teach the studie of Diuinitie and the wheat of the word of God purely without the mixture of any Chaffe that is of humane Philosophie and Syllogismes tying themselues wholy to the Gospell of Christ and to his Apostle S. Paul whom they take for their Patron and foundation with the Studie of learning sowing by their preaching the seed of all vertue and by their example pen in the hearts of their Disciples the feare of God And least thou shouldest replie that this was before Luther began his warre with the Pope heare what he saieth about the yeare 1520 hauing before discoursed of the abuse and excesse of Indulgences Hee saith he by his admirable learning and preaching brought to nothing the force of all Indulgences called them into question and dissuaded the people from buying of them affirming them to bee no way necessarie to saluation that they were no remission of sinnes but a neglect of repentance a hinderance and relaxation from good workes and a vice And that the merits of Christ and the Saints were not the foundation and treasurie of these indulgences since in the primitiue Church and a thousand yeres after we find nothing written of them by the holie Doctors of the true Church neither was there any such opinion or esteeme had of them as now there is for the loue of that money that is gotten by them Moreouer affirming and prouing that the Church of Rome by the law of God is not the head of all others c. And therefore hee saith againe Vntill this time they haue by all meanes like another Athanasius persecuted him especially for defending this Thesis That the Pope by the law of God is not the head of the Church and some other rare and high points of doctrine which not onely the Romans doe still impugne but diuers other learned men especially the Thomists Neuerthelesse this Martin the prince of all the Diuines of this age fortifying and approuing his doctrine with the testimonies of the Scripture and of S. Paul as also with the originall authorities of the auncient fathers hath hitherto continued vnconquered not wanting in the meane time in other nations diuers learned Doctors in Diuinitie who stucke vnto him and consented with him as that most learned and eloquent interpreter of the Scriptures Erasmus Roterodamus Iohn Reuschlin Iacobus Stapulensis Idocus Clithoueus and diuers others And thus much saith the Monke non assertiuè saith hee but admiratiue not by way of affirmation but admiration suspending his iudgement according to the manner of diuers others vntill it were determined by a generall Councell what is to bee held in a matter of this difficultie But it is now time to see what hath passed in our Fraunce in these times Pius the second as wee haue seene before had shaken the Pragmaticall sanction vnder king Lewis the eleuenth which neuerthelesse partly hee liuing the Court of Paris had maintained and partly vnder Paul the second his successor by the mediation of the Vniuersitie did throughly restore Sixtus the fourth comes who againe impugned it for this was then the principall marke they shot at and had beene then quite ouerthrowne had not Lewis the eleuenth being then in his owne power and withall offended with the wicked cariage of Sixtus vndertaken
had forsaken and by appeasing the mind of king Lewis the twelfth whom the other Princes had forsaken suspecting his power Neuerthelesse the Clergie of France stroue against it cleauing fast to their propositions especially of the Pragmaticall sanction as appeareth by the Acts of that Councell till that vnder king Francis his successour in the yeare 1516 notwithstanding the formall Appeale of the Clergie by means of the Concordat the Pragmatical was abolished And of this Couneell where a reformation was expected came none other fruit than an imposition of tenthes on all Europe euer vnder colour of inuading the Turkes which indeed was neuer so much as dreamed on Wherefore many Prelats in giuing their suffrages Concil Lateranens Sess 12. added this clause Placuit quo ad Turcas I am content so it be for the Turkes when the expedition shall be begun the Bishops namely of Durazzo of Salamanca of Taruisino of Grasso of Chio of Montuert of Montmaran of Seruia of Licie of Ferentine of Perousa of Sora of Macerata of Nabia of Algara and others And so the Councell was concluded and dismissed notwithstanding some Bishops tooke it hardly that Christian people should bee so deluded and pronounced with a lowd voyce Non placuit clausura Concilij The shutting vp of the Councell pleaseth vs not as the Bishops of Trane of Salmantica the Generall of the Order of the Iacobines and others The pretence for this dissolution was for that the Councell had now dured fiue yeares which is so much the greater shame for them that in so long time had done nothing but for their owne commoditie That the Prelats might goe visit comfort their Churches And to the end saith Leo that they may returne with greater ioy home to their own filled with some spiritual gifts we bestow vpon them and their families plenarie remission and indulgence of all their sinnes once in their life and at the houre of death In the meane time let the Reader note here the height of his impietie and blasphemie In this Councell Anthonie Puccius in the ninth Session making an Oration feared not to attribute vnto him those words which the Psalmist had pronounced of Christ our Lord Psalm 72. All the Kings of the earth shal worship him all Nations shall serue him and therewithall he addeth All the kings of the earth know what power is giuen thee in heauen and in earth which the Lord had spoken of himselfe Math. 11. Iube impera manda Commaund saith he whatsoeuer it pleaseth thee at all times In the same manner also the Archbishop Stephan in the tenth Session All power is giuen vnto thee c. Hee which said all hath excepted nothing But would you know by what title the sixt Session will shew you Because he is Christ himselfe the Lion of the tribe of Iuda the root of Dauid the Sauiour and Deliuerer Which names Saint Iohn in the Apocalyps attributed to Iesus Christ and to him alone and none other ought it to be attributed Adde these phrases ordinarie euerie where in this Councell The royall race of the Soueraigne Bishops of Rome The Empire of your Holinesse Sess 9. The Pope is the Prince of the Apostles Sess 4. He is Prince and King Sess 3. The Prince of the whole world contending with Sathan himselfe in blasphemies Sess 1. Yea he is made to be God himselfe The aspect of your Diuine Maiestie Sess 9. Most like vnto God and who ought to be adored of all people Sess 3. 10. and with the same adoration wherewith Christ is worshipped for to him they attribute these words of of the Psalme 72. All the Kings of the earth shall worship him namely the eternall sonne of God But Spouse or Bridegroome of the Church that is his ordinarie Epithete often in that Councell What monstrous and audacious boldnesse is here for a pretended Vicar Canst thou Reader expect greater blasphemies than these for the reuealing of Antichrist And thus in the Councell of Lateran all Christendome was deluded But truely in his affaires Leo proceeded verie seriously for he ordayned Laurence his brother Peters sonne gouernour of Tuscanie and established the Common-wealth of Florence in such sort that it depended of him alone hence is the ground of the soueraigne power of the Medices in that citie Alfonsina also the mother of Laurence of the house of the Vrsins was continually instant vpon him to doe her sonne yet some further fauor wherefore for some light occasions by him sought saith Onuphriuâ— he set vpon by armes Frauncis Maria de Roueria Duke of Vrbin whom he suspected and hated and depriued him of his whole Dukedome and set his Nephew vp in his place though his familiars blamed his vngratefull mind towards that Prince who had safely receiued and kept them of his familie in their exile But saith Guicciardine when against all faith and credit he had once begun to offend him he dissembled not that be supposed it a thing necessarie vtterly to ruinat him With the same mind also he draue away Alfonsus Petrucci Cardinall and his brother from Siena Whereupon Alfonsus a while after impatient of griefe conspired against him with many Cardinals Adrian de Corneto Raphaell Riario Bandinello Saule and others but the conspiracie being discouered they were depriued of their Cardinalship and Alfonsus as chiefe was strangled by a Moore in the castle S. Angelo Bandinello condemned to perpetuall imprisonment and a while after for a great sum of money set at libertie yet was it suspected he had first bin poysoned with slow-working poyson Many others redeemed their liues with money among which the Cardinall de Corneto after reconciliation departed secretly from Rome and howsoeuer it happened was neuer seeme more in any place afterward Guicciardine particularly noteth That out of the suspition that Leo had conceiued against Alfonsus by reason of certaine letters intercepted he had called him to Rome hauing giuen him his safe conduct and passed his word and faith to the Embassadour of the king of Spaine that he should safely returne But that Guicciard l. 13. when the Embassadour objected vnto him his violated faith and his perjurie he answered That neuer any crime against the life of the Pope was assured by any safe-conduct how ample soeuer it were and full of pregnant causes although it were namely and indiuidually expressed Now hereby he acknowledged that whether hee had well or ill proceeded in his businesse all the Colledge of Cardinalls was much alienated from him he therefore resolued to get himselfe new friends and in one Morning the Colledge consenting to it for feare not of free will he created one and thirtie Cardinalls among whom were two of his sisters sonnes and some that had serued him before and after his Popedome Who for diuers causes were acceptable and obedient both to him and to the Cardinall de Medicis but were not for any other respect capable of so great dignitie Many of them also he made for money
rageth euerie where and thirsteth after the bloud of the miserable Yee can by no meanes appease this Cerberus but with a golden riuer there is no need of armes nor armies the Tenths will be of more force than troopes of horsemen and regiments of footmen It seemeth vnto me when I diligently consider the matter that a two fold way is proposed on the one side gold is demanded which superstition commandeth on the other side if we refuse it the Popes excommunication is threatned Take which way of them yee please But O foolish and superstitious opinion of them that beleeue That the God of heauen beholding all things with the eyes of iustice will be led and turned at the becke and pleasure of the Florentines will be angrie with him that giueth not and againe pacified with him that giueth The excommunication of the Vicar of Christ is not to be contemned but yet not alwayes to be feared especially when it is done for humane affections I feare the indignation of Christ but of the Florentines I feare not And now indeed is in hand the affaires of Florence not of Christ The last Summer with great expence and charges was warre made against Frauncis Duke of Vrbin who being cast out of his Dukedome but first appeased with money Laurence de Medicis succeeded in his place Iulius the second being not prouident ynough that he left no more gold there was inuented a certaine new fraud against all the Cardinals that were the richest that they had conspired the Popes death and thereupon were their goods confiscat I speake not of the Crosses erected in euerie towne propitious according to the measure of the giuers I omit the comedie of S. Peters Church full both of laughter and of indignation The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord crieth the Prophet but it is not the Temple of the Lord It is Laurence buildeth and not Peter the stones in the night wander away I faine nothing here most excellent Princes of the Roman Empire Why is the world solicited for the Church of S. Peter whereon there is but two Masons onely in that worke and one of them lame sauing that of late in the great concourse of straungers is stirred vp a tumult of artificers there running and shouting there were seene foolish painted Angels receiuing gifts from the giuer and carrying them vp on high c. Consider now what is to be done euerie day will now bring forth new care The Duke of Vrbin being hunted away the like fortune is threatned to the Duke of Ferrara and then shall wee salute Laurence de Medicis or the Florentine Duke of Tuscanie Thus haue yee now briefely the summe of the Tenths and the Ambuscadoes of the Turke to wit of the Pope by meanes of superstition robbing your verie bowels And this was then the iudgement of Germanie The other followeth A solemne Appeale of the Vniuersitie of Paris assembled the seuen and twentieth of March 1517 in which after they had protested that they intend not to speake or doe any thing against the Catholike Church or against the Popes power benè consults well counselled they declared That by this power he the Pope is not made impeccabilis exempt from sinne So that if he commaund any thing to be done that is vniust which hath bin suggested vnto him by naughtie insinuation he ought to beare it patiently if it be not done and if he decree any thing against the commaundements of God he must not be obeyed yea he may be by right resisted But if he be so ayded by the power of the Prince vpon the false suggestion or euill counsell of flatterers or deceiuers that he cannot be resisted and the remedies of resisting be taken away yet by naturall right there remaineth one thing which no Prince can take away namely the remedie of Appeale seeing it is a certaine defence competent to euerie one by diuine natural and human right which cannot be taken away by the Prince And there they approue the Councels of Constance and Basil and vrge the reformations there ordayned which they specifie in particular as the remedies against Simony a prohibition not to raise or pay Annuities and other statutes confirmed by the nationall Councell of Fraunce held at Bourges and consequently strenghthened by the perpetual Edict of Charles the seuenth In preiudice of which things notwithstanding say they Leo the tenth in a certaine assemblie held at Rome which is against vs conuocated we know not how but not in the spirit of the Lord with which nothing can be decreed or ordayned against the law of God and sacred Councells which assemblie gaping after their lusts and commodities and expecting by these meanes gold and siluer to be brought vnto them at their wish out of the kingdome and out of the territories of Dauphinie enuying these Statutes that hindred it they haue laboured to abrogate them And for proofe that this Councell to wit of Lateran is vnlawfull they alledge That against the Catholike Faith it condemned the Councell of Basill and particularly the pragmaticall Sanction and in this deed king Frauncis by cunning meanes was deceiued who then was in Italie amidst the noise of armes and that vnder pretence of certaine Concordats which he commaunded to be published not sufficiently considering how great dammage it would bring to his realme Out of which they conclude Wee the Rector and Vniuersitie of Paris feeling our selues grieued endammaged and oppressed doe appeale from our Lord the Pope not well counselled and from the abrogation of the sayd sacred Councell of Basill and of the Statutes of the pragmaticall Sanction depending vpon it and from the edition of the new Statutes and yeelding consent thereto Vnto a future Councell lawfully assembled c. Protesting instantèr instantiùs instantissimè most instantly to prosecute this Appeale by way of nullitie of abuse of iniquitie or vniustice and otherwise the best we may to reserue the election and choise vnto our selues c. And moreouer all the principalls there present vnder-signed the same in solemne maner with all the formalities requisit thereunto Professio fidei fratrum Waldensium Regi Vladislao in Hungarian missa An. 1508. Responsio excusatoria Fratrum Waldensium contra binas literas R.P. Angustani sacrae Theologiae doctoris ad eundem data Anno 1508. But besides these oppositions among themselues in the kingdome of Bohemia and Prouinces of Morauia and Silesia the Churches in great number continued and openly opposed themselues against the Papacie and by publique preachings impugned the abuses of the Romish Church These same in the yeare 1508 presented againe a confession of their faith to Vladistaus king of Hungarie together with an Apologie wherein they vehemently confuted the Calumnies vsually laid against their doctrine and plainely laid open the reasons for which they had justly and lawfully departed from the Church of Rome which are longer than can be here inserted such notwithstanding as that
alone to the Lambe 2. Thess 2. v. 8. to the spirit of his mouth to the brightnesse of his comming Which things are of so much the more greater weight in as much as our aduersaries the ministers of Antichrist hauing gotten the vpper hand of all haue with all diligence and industrie left nothing vndone whereby they might with continuall care and craft extinguish and deface our proofes by abolishing withholding or corrupting the instruments and writings of good men from time to time in all ages By which meanes we are forced to seeke right out of the instrument of their owne pleading out of their owne writings for to decide and defend our cause to produce witnesses out of their bosom and testimonies from their owne mouth to make seeing Gods will is so euen Balaams Asse to speake the verie beast that carrieth them to vtter their Histories Councels and Decrees to the rebuke and reproofe of themselues and their doings But it remaineth for recapitulation to set before our eyes in what state wee found both the See of Rome and Roman Bishop at first and vnto what state from that by degrees at length we haue brought him and now see him brought As touching therefore their spirituall function the Bishops of Rome in those first ages as we haue seene were indifferently called Bishops and Priests behauing themselues as brethren towards others yea by their neerest neighbours were named Brethren and Collegues they were consulted withall and did themselues also consult with others about the affaires of the Church controuersies schismes and heresies liuing simply in their profession and dying vertuously in the confession of the name of Christ they glittered not in any other purple or scarlet than with their owne bloud the Crosse was their onely glorie But not long after we might perceiue in some that spirit which from Saint Paules time wrought which vnder pretence of the dignitie of the citie drew vnto it selfe the cause of the neighbors would haue their counsels accounted for Decrees and turned the honour voluntarily offered them into right of homage seemelinesse into seruitude That sting notwithstanding of ambition was oftentimes beaten backe by the persecutions and many times also blunted by the vertuous Oppositions of the ancient Fathers But when after that by Constantine peace was restored to the Churches through the fauour of Princes they encreased in honors and riches behold this spirit continually watching ouer the worke and not loosing any moment of time gathereth heart and strength to it selfe by degrees And because that by reason of the dignitie of the citie the first Seat was willingly granted vnto it they contend That their Church ought to haue dominion ouer other Churches That like as Rome I meane the Commonwealth thereof ruled ouer other cities and Prouinces so the Bishop of Rome like as a Monarch ouer other Bishops That therefore from all parts of the world they should appeale vnto him from him expect commaundements which all men were held absolutely to obey Whereas he on the contrarie ought to depend of none might be judged of none neither yet of all together And hereof came those falsifications that wee haue seene of Councels and Decrees those suppositions of Acts and Histories those prophanations of the holie Scriptures and shamelesse wresting of them to a contrarie sence Hence are also those contestations and protestations of some of the greatest men in all ages against that domination which they arrogat to themselues ouer other Churches and Bishops which they on the other side besides and against all right diuine and humane either by none or by a false title complained to be vsurped not sticking to pronounce That it proceeded from none other and pertained to none other than the forerunner of Antichrist or Antichrist himselfe Yet thinke not for all this that they any thing slacked in their purpose By Phocas the murderer of the Emperour Mauritius his Lord was the Bishop of Rome declared Vniuersall Bishop he laboured to be so declared so farre was he off from blushing at it Now from thenceforth carried with full sayles hee maketh no difficultie of any thing As Emperours and Kings in a confused troubled world had need of his helpe or endeuour he got authoritie in their dominions Hee winneth the Archbishops to his side by alluring the most ambitious with commissions and offices and hauing woon them hee bindeth them vnto him by a Pall and that at first was sent them freely and onely as a token of good-will towards them afterward by ordinance made necessarie and a badge of subiection at length by degrees it grew to be sold taxed exacted the price thereof euerie day encreasing of which the Archbishops from time to time complayned After that hee obtained of the Princes That the Clergie the Lords lot sayth hee and inheritance should bee exempt and free from all temporall jurisdiction whereupon followed licence of all vices impunitie of all crimes and so by little and little withdrew from their lawfull and naturall Lords them whom hee had marked with his character by voluntarie seruitude yea and liege homage bound them vnto himselfe By their ministerie and meanes and not without mysterie hee sitteth and presideth in the Councels of Kings exerciseth his kingdome in their realmes and his tyrannie in the consciences of kings and their people whilest he bindeth them to his pleasures by his censures and excommunications and as he will loseth them from all duetie and obedience He setteth Princes one against the other or else bandeth their nobles and people against them and maketh many to sheath their swords in their owne bowels By which and by such like meanes hee obtained at length a Soueraigne Empire in spirituall things throughout the West And because the East yeelded not vnto him hee excommunicated those Churches and chuseth to himselfe from among his owne Patriarches of the Easterne Churches imaginarie indeed but yet future Images of his vniuersall Monarchie which hee arrogateth to himselfe who were resident with him representing the person or vizor rather of the Orientall Church Yea when hee celebrated the Masse Cerem Roman l. 3. Charta 6. 7. hee commaunded the Epistle and Gospell to bee read in Latine and in Greeke signifying both Churches but in Latine first and with seuen candles lighted in Greeke afterward with two onely lighted for to shew the supereminencie of the Latine Church Yet who knoweth not that the Greeke Testament is the originall and the Latine but a translation taken out of the Greeke At last hee pardoneth all sinnes out of his fulnesse of power thereby affecting the Maiestie of God who alone pardoneth and of Christ the Lambe of God who alone taketh away sinnes Yet truely hee giueth not those pardons but selleth and maketh merchandise of them and vnder that pretext wasteth and despoyleth the whole world Then hee instituted Iubilies at certaine set times which by degrees hee shortened being truely his generall Marts and Faires in which he
on the right to be granted to such as die excommunicate or desperate The continuall and ordinarie traffike of all benefices with cure or without cure of Compatible of Incompatible Vancancies Preuentions Resignations Commenda's expectatiue cases reserued expeditions according to certaine clauses and formes infinite farre surpassing them of the antient Law so that hardly would the volume of a Calepine suffice to containe but the names onely And truly how laborious a worke it is to be able to know those intricate turnings and windings and so many cunning subtilties Sure it is needful to bistow more time in them than in the knowledge of all the liberall sciences than in Philosophie or in the whole law And with these are imploied al the bankes of the Money-changers and Vsurers in Europe with the trottings vp and downe of these the Post-horses of al places are wearied hence are so many officers so many brokers both in the Court and dispersed all the world ouer more in number and of more kinds than hath beene euer knowne in the West and East Empires yet out of Simonie alone haue these men not onely their maintenance but excesse and pride Insomuch that they haue brought the Mamelukes and Ianizaries into the Popes Court and thought it not sufficient to haue drawne to themselues all the Romane titles but they must borrow also from Souldans and Infidels both offices and markes of offices And therefore when we consider this traffike of sinne how great a facilitie or facultie of sinning the Pope hath brought in by his dispensations and absolutions for sins either alreadie cōmitted or to be committed euen the most execrable for money shall we not say that he is truely that Man of sinne who at so easie a rate and so lightly giueth leaue and indulgence for all sinnes and also giueth way to all crimes without difference against the law of God and against Nature Seing it is manifest by the Tables of his Mart to euerie man how much each sinne will cost that he may know at what rate to free himselfe from punishment Seeing he would persuade the world that whosoeuer hath satisfied this his Table of Rates hath sufficiently satisfied God and need no more care for Gods justice I pray thee Reader if Sathan himselfe were there in person for to open the floud-gates and sluices of sinne that it might as a deluge ouerflow the whole world could he find any more fit inuention than this This was not the meaning of Saint Paule when he said That sinne hath abounded that grace might superabound who by the justice of God and by the holinesse of the law representeth vnto vs the horrour and filthinesse of sinne and the wrath of God kindled against it yea against those sinnes that seeme vnto vs more light which wrath cannot bee quenched and is not to be appeased by any humane merit by any price but by the bloud alone of the onely begotten Sonne of God shed for sinners vnto whom alone by a right and perfect faith and earnest repentance wee ought to haue recourse How then from one and the same fountaine can there proceed doctrines so contrarie And seeing the one is truely of Christ and the other vnder his name whose can this be but the doctrine of Antichrist Dan. 7. v. 20. Apocal. 13. v. 5.6 Of whom it is sayd Os loquens grandia A mouth speaking presumptuous things c. A mouth opened vnto blasphemie against God c. In this shamefull traffike I say in this infamous selling of sinne whereby the Harlot prostituted vnder euerie greene tree hath engaged all sorts of men Apocal. 13. v. 16.17 doe wee not perceiue it by these words of Saint Iohn Hee made all both small and great rich and poore free and bond to receiue a marke in their right hand or in their foreheads and that no man might buy and sell saue he that had the mark For indeed what condition of men are exempted therefrom for dispensation for absolution for benefit office warfare fraternitie for all occupations of great or of base esteeme for hauing done euill or for to doe euill can free himselfe from this buying and selling Are not these therefore those Merchants of which Saint Iohn speaketh Apoc. 18.3 The Merchants of the earth are waxen rich of the aboundance of her pleasure which distilled from the gulfe of her excesse and from her sacrileges And when we more neerer consider that this Babylon this heape of confusion this loftie building hath none other foundation than absurdities none other matter than iniquities none other morter than impieties may wee not necessarily conclude with the Apostle that God hath sent vnto men a strong delusion 2. Thess 2.10.11 that they should receiue that Man of sinne that Antichrist that they should beleeue lyes because they would not receiue the loue of the truth that they might be saued Whilst that man of sinne therein applaudeth them applying as it were Narcotickes vnto them whereby his pleasing allurements stupefie them without all sence or feeling of conscience or remorse of sinne I omit his other doctrines of the merites of men whereby the merite of Christs passion is brought to nothing his daily sacrifice of the altar whereby that onely and perpetuall sacrifice of our Lord Iesus on the Crosse is abolished Christian Religion swallowed vp and conuerted into Ceremonies into superstition into idolatrie Stations Reliques Agnus dei little Images blessed graines new Lawes new Sacraments new Gospell and if God had not hindered it a new Christ and a meere Alcoran obtruded in stead of the Gospell for of these things haue wee spoken in their place more largely Cerem Roman Chart. 140. 141. 150. But surely if we list to obserue his seate and his furniture he sitteth at Rome on the Citie of seuen hills there ye may see him ride in sollemne manner about the Citie mounted on a white Horse sumptuously caparassoned the Horse led by the hand of an Emperour or a King if any be present if not by the greatest person there he himselfe gorgeously apparelled in scarlet weareth a Tiara or Diadem on his head adorned with a triple Crowne which they commonly call Regnum Kingdome in token say they of supreame dignitie both Sacerdotall and Imperiall enriched with most rare gemmes and pretious stones There followeth him a troupe of Cardinalls glittering also in scarlet But if he goe forth of the Citie he hath his port-mantues ladder couered with red cloth twelue red standards then follow Noblemen carrying the standards of the Citie a Barber and a Taylor then foure Noblemen carrying foure Caps of crimson veluet on the ends of staues some of the measure of three or foure hand-breadth who are called Scutiferi honoris Thus this whole furniture is of scarlet colour When therefore S. Iohn saith in the Apocalyps Come I will shew thee the damnation of the great whoore with whom the Kings of the earth haue committed fornication then presently after
of the Creed onely they blaspheme the Church of Rome and hold it in contempt and therein they are easily beleeued by the people To the end that all accusations may vanish away which were spred against them among the people although Baronius following the report of certain Monkes is not afraid to recite Baron an 1178. vol. 12. art 17.21 that they haue fained thē to be sometimes Arrians sometimes Manichees but wrongfully as he himselfe acknowledgeth although Rainerius was more impatient in his whole discourse against them Iacobus of Riberia in his collections of Tholouse hath these words Jacob. de Riberia in Collectaneis de vrbe Tholosae The Waldenses or Lagdunenses haue continued a long time the first place they liued in was in Narbone in France and in the diocesse of Albie Rhodes Cahors Agen And at the same time there was of little or no estimation such as were called Priests Bishops and Ministers of the Church For beeing verie simple and ignorant almost of all things it was verie casie for them through the excellencie of their learning and doctrine to get vnto themselues the greatest credit among the people and forasmuch as the Waldenses disputed of Religion more subtilly than all others were often admitted by the Priests to teach publiquely not for that they approued their opinions but because they were not comparable vnto them in wit In so great honour was the sect of these men that they were both exempted from all charges impositions and obtayned more benefit by the Willes and Testaments of the dead than the Priests A man would not hurt his enemie if he should meet him vpon the way accompanied with one of these heretikes insomuch that the safetie of all men seemed to consist in their protection What greater testimonie could a man expect from an aduersarie As touching their doctrine we cannot better learne what it was than by their owne confession presented sundrie times to the Kings of Bohemia who after their dissipation in Fraunce fled thither agreeing in substance with the profession of our Churches although according to the rudenesse of the time not so clearely expounded as also by their Catechismes wherein they instructed their children Neither will we refuse to giue credit to the acts of the Court of Inquisition and the writers of those times who for the most part caried away with malice endeuoured to make it odious to the world The aforesayd Rainerius noteth among the causes of their heresies That men and women little and great day and night cease not to learne Rainerius de Waldensibus and to teach I haue heard from the mouth of a credible person that a certaine heretike whom I knew that he might diuert him from our faith and peruert him to his owne did swim ouer the riuer Ibis in winter and euen in the night to come vnto him Let the Doctors of the true Religion blush at their owne negligence who are not so zealous of the truth of the Catholike faith as the Leonists are of the errour of infidelitie Moreouer they haue translated the new and old Testament into the vulgar Tongue and so they teach and learne it so well that I haue seene and heard saith he a Countrie Clowne recite Iob word by word and diuers others that perfectly could deliuer all the new Testament Then he distinguisheth their errors into three parts against the Church of Rome against the doctrine of the Sacraments and of Saints against the honest customes and rites of the sayd Church Of the Church of Rome saith he they teach that it is not the Church of Christ but the Church of the malignant which fell from Christ euer since the time of Syluester when the poison of temporall dominion entred into it that it is that whore described in the Apocalyps that the Pope is the head of all errours his Prelats Scribes his Monkes Pharisies and all turned from the Doctrine of the Gospell to follow their traditions As touching the Sacraments they disallow the administration of them in an vnknowne tongue the Godfathers vnderstanding not what they answere or promise in the Baptisme as also the exorcismes and the signe of the crosse and others the like They hold the Masse as nothing and that the Apostles neuer knew what it meant and as little did they know their Canon holding themselues to the words of the institution of Christ deliuered in a vulgar tongue That the oblation of the Priest serueth to no purpose And as touching the sacrament that it ought to be consecrated in a knowne tongue that for this purpose there needed no altar and that the changing of the formes is not done in the hand of the Priest consecrating but in the mouth of him that worthily receiueth it And all this because they admit nothing into their Church but what is written in the Bible no decrees no epistles decretals not the Legends of Saints nor Traditions of the Church and condemne also the inuocation and praying to Saints and whatsoeuer is comprehended vnder the name of honest customes the feasts of candles the adoration of the Crosse vpon Good friday the consecration of Palmes of Ashes of the Chrisme of fire of the Agnus dei of salt and water of certaine vestments and places of Pilgrimages to Rome and other places They denie also Purgatorie saying there is only but two waies the one heauen for the elect the other hell for the damned they condemne Masses and oblations for the dead besides anniuersaries and other suffrages for the soule These are the points that may be gathered out of that Authour who bestowed much time afterward in refuting them and mingled by the way many false accusations Aeneas Syluius in historia Bohemica ca. 35. from which they were afterward freed by Aeneas Syluius called Pope Pius the second whose doctrine he comprehended in these few words That the Bishop of Rome is equall to other Bishops neither is there any difference between them one Priest being not greater in dignity than another but in holinesse of life That the soules departing the body passe either to paine or to ioy eternall That there in no fire in purgatorie That a man prayeth in vaine for the dead being nothing else but an inuention of the auarice of Priests That the images of God and Saints were fit to be abolished That the halowing of waters and palmes are but mockeries That the religion of begging friers was inuented by some euill spirit That Priests ought to be poore and content to liue by almes That the preaching of the word of God is free to euery man That no man should sinne to auoid any euill whatsoeuer That whosoeuer is guilty of deadly sinne they mean a crime ought not to be admitted either into any secular or ecclesiasticall dignity That the confirmation by the Chrisme and extreme vnction are no Sacraments of the Church That auricular confession is but a friuolous and vaine thing and it is
sufficient for euery man if he confesse his sinnes priuatly to God That Baptisme ought to be done with common water without the mixture of oyle That Churchyards haue been inuented for gaine for the earth is all one euery where to burie in That the world is the temple of God and that they that builded Churches Monasteries and Oratories would reduce the maiestie of God into a narrow strait as if a man should find his diuine goodnesse more propitious there than else where That the Priests vestments that ornaments of the altar robes caps Chalices dishes and other the like vessels are little worth and of no moment That a Priest in what place or time soeuer may consecrate the body of Christ and administer the same to others vsing only the words of the institution of the Sacrament That it is in vaine to implore the fauour of Saints who raigne in heauen with Christ who can no way helpe That a man loseth his time in singing or saying his Canonicall houres That no day a man may cease from his labour except the Sunday and not the feasts of Saints That to obserue the fasts ordained by the Church is of no merit Which opinions the Author who had looked more inwardly into them carried by that malice he bare towards them setteth downe maliciously ynough in his owne words but being rightly vnderstood nothing differed from the true doctrine if distinctly set downe as well in their confession as in ours At the least they free themselues from their false accusations which charge them with errours against the due obedience to Magistrats and against a lawfull oath and diuers others mentioned by Rainerius And much more they defend themselues from the sorceries or diuinations by lots which the malice of the time had blazed abroad although sorcerers wicked persons were and also are in diuers Prouinces called Waldenses and from that putting out of candles to commit whoredome one with another auncient subtilties of the diuel to defame the first Christians and by him renewed againe when it pleased God to send the light of the Gospell Frederick the second therefore in the costitutions which he made against them accused them not but for seperating themselues from the Church of Rome and from the ceremonies and seruices thereof without imputing any other crime vnto them Petrus de Vineis li. 1. c. 25.26.27 as appeareth in the Epistles of Peter of Vineis his Chancelor And also Claudius Seisellienses Archbishop a man of great credit vnder Lewis the twelfth although he had written a booke expresly against them he acknowledgeth them to be a good people vpright and honest innocent and irreprehensible in their conuersation and obseruations of the commandement of God Notwithstanding they were excommunicated by Iohn de Bellamaine Archbishop of Lyon at the commaundement of Alexander the third and soone after were summoned to the Councel of Lateran but they would not appeare because they knew they should haue the Pope both their judge and aduersarie Guido de Perpinian pag. 79. de haeresibus Whereupon he proceeded against them with all persecutions as warres slaughter spoils massacres and whosoeuer could most cruelly pursue them obtained forgiuenesse of all their sinnes But at length through the great prouidence of God it came to passe that through their dissipation and scattering abroad were gathered together a great number of Churches ouer all Europe as shall bee hereafter declared We may adde That some writers of this Age albeit aduersaries tell vs that there was held a conference at Realmont among the Albienses where disputed on their side Ponticus Iordanus Arnoldus Aurisanus Arnoldus Otho Philibertus Caslienus and Benedictus Thermensis On the other side Peter de Castro nouo a Monk of the order of the Cistertians and the Popes Legat and also Rodolphus deputed by the Pope Didacus Bishop of Erenenses and Dominicus a Canon of the same Church both Spaniards And there were chosen as Arbitrators two of the Nobilitie Bernard of Villa noua and Bernard of Arre and of the Comminaltie Raimond Godeus and Arnold Riberia There they say Guilielm de Podio Laurentij Noguier en l'historie Tolouse that these Doctors of the Waldenses did constantly affirme That the Church of Rome was not the holie Church nor the spouse of Christ but a Church polluted with the doctrine of the diuell and that Babylon whom S. Iohn describeth in his Apocalyps the mother of fornications and abhominations ouerwhelmed and drowned in the bloud of Saints That the Masse was not instituted by Christ nor his Apostles but a humane inuention and many the like things and so departed not agreeing vpon any thing 49. PROGRESSION The contentions and seuerall differences betweene the Emperour Frederick Pope Lucius the third Of the voiage to the Holie Land by the Emperour and the Christian Princes for the recouerie of Hierusalem from the Souldan with the death of the said Emperour and of the troubles that afterward arose to his sonne Henrie The solemnitie and manner of the coronation of the Emperour ALexander the third held the seat two and twentie yeares which happeped to few either before or since and in all this time it fell out so happily for him that the Antipopes liued not long so that by these mutations he aduanced not a little his owne affaires Foure the one after the other had opposed themselues against him whereof euerie one being entred the throne labored with new slights either to doe or vndoe The onely power of Frederick made head against him being often disturbed as wel in Germany as in Italie through the rebellions which Alexander had stirred vp against him whereby the cities and Princes tooke occasion vnder the colour of his Ecclesiasticall reformations to reuolt Neither did the ambition of his sonne Henrie lesse troble him who at what price soeuer would be King of Italie yet feared least the death of his father then engaged in the Popes warres might surprise him in that estate and so much the rather because the Popes seemed to be Arbitrators of the greatest part of the Empire of Italie Alexander therefore being dead and Hubald Cardinall of Ostia named Lucius the third elected in his place according to the order decreed in the Councell of Lateran by the Cardinalls onely without the consent of the Clergie and the people Henrie to persuade his father to be at peace with Italie omitted no meanes or opportunitie whatsoeuer but first of all remouing all lets procured the friendship of Lucius the third who hauing a desire to gratifie the citie of Lucca where he was borne Frederick at his request soone granted that no other money should be currant through all Tuscane Marchia Romania and Campania but that which should be coyned in Lucca in the Emperours name Lucius in the meane time did no better agree with the Romans than his predecessors who when hee sought to put downe the Consuls they cruelly chastising his faction and threatning himselfe worse