to any Man This they prove after this following Manner First They say it is clear that when God pardons Sin he doth it not with any respect to the Merit of any Man but of meer Grace whence it follows evidently that the Remission of Sins cannot be attributed to a Man's confessing of them for if it were so we must own that the Remission is no longer of Free-gift but that it is a Recompence given by God to the Merit of him that confesseth Secondly They say if it be Confession that procures a Man the Pardon of his Sins what will become of that Passage in the third Chapter of the Epistle to Titus where it is expresly declared That God hath saved us of his Mercy and not according to the Works of Righteousness that we have done Or how shall we explain that in the ninth of the Romans That it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth Mercy We know that the first Grace that God works in us is the Remission of Sins now if this Grace be absolutely the Effect of the Mercy of God it cannot be the Effect of Confession which by Consequence is not necessary to Salvation And having thus endeavoured to defend their Opinion by Reason they endeavour also to back it by the Authority of the Fathers and quote St. Ambrose who saith upon Luke St. Peter wept because his Sorrow was so great that it did not permit him to speak we find that he wept but not that he said any thing I read his Tears but I find nothing of his Confession The fourth Heresy is of those who acknowledg that we ought to confess but add that we are not to confess to Man What need is there say they to confess to a Man now under the Covenant of Grace seeing that even under the Law it was sufficient to confess to God by a single Act of Contrition They alledg also the Authority of St. Chrysostom who saith upon the Epistle to the Hebrews It is not said that you need publish what your Sins are to the World neither need you accuse your self before all Mankind you are only enjoined to practise the Exhortation of David in the 136 th Psalm That you spread all the Parts of your Life in the Presence of God that you confess to him who is your true Judg and that you rather express your Repentance by the secret Groans of your Conscience than by the abundance of Words this is the true way to obtain Grace from Heaven They make use also of another Passage of the same Father where he saith If thou desirest to have thy Sins blotted out confess them but if thou beest ashamed to discover them to any Body repeat them every Day in the secret of thine Heart It is not necessary to tell them to Men they might it may be afterwards reproach thee with them but declare them rather to God who only can give thee such a Remedy as thou wantest and though thou shouldest not confess them to him yet he still sees thee he was present and look'd upon thee whilst thou didst commit them From all which he concludes That we ought to confess our Sins only to God And this detestable Heresy which is practised in secret Assemblies hath already infected a great number of People The sixth Heresy is of those who maintain that it is not necessary to confess to a Priest when a Man can confess himself to a Layman The seventh Heresy is That we ought to obey none but God alone This is the Error of a certain Arch-Heretick called Waldo from whom the Hereticks that we now call Waldenses derive their Name This miserable Wretch without being sent from God took upon him of his own Head to form a new Sect and without the Permission of any Bishop without Inspiration without Knowledg or Learning set up for a Preacher so that we may well say of him as Alanus doth in his Book against Hereticks that he is a wise Man without Reason a Prophet without a Vision an Apostle without being sent and a Doctor who never had Instruction See here how his Followers undertake to defend his Heresy We see say they in the 5 th Chapter of the Acts that St. Peter and St. John speaking to the Scribes and Pharisees tell them Judg ye-whether it be reasonable to obey you rather than God and not to do what he commands us because you forbid us Moreover these Hereticks maintain That if we obey a Man when we ought not to obey him we commit a Sin because then we don't obey God Samuel say they saith to Saul in the 15 th of the 1 st Book of Samuel that Disobedience or Rebellion is as the Sin of Witchcraft Now he that addicts himself to Witchcraft doth in a manner renounce God but he that refuseth to obey a Man doth not therefore commit the Sin of Witchcraft which Sin is not committed but where a Man refuseth to obey God We ought therefore to obey God and not Man because in disobeying Man we are not guilty of that Sin but only when we disobey God The eighth Heresy is what these same Waldenses profess that supposing we ought to obey any Man it must be such a Man as is not under Sin himself and that good Priests only have the Power of binding and loosing This also was one of the Errors of John Havel that is to say Wicklef an Englishman who amongst many others which he taught maintained that a temporal Lord a Bishop or Prelate have no Authority as long as they are under mortal Sin And he hath been followed by another Fox who asserted the same thing John Huss a Bohemian and by another Viper Jerom of Prague who were both of them condemned for Hereticks in the Council held at Constance in the Year 1414 in the Presence of Martin V. They say therefore that we ought to be obedient to good Prelats that is to say to those who are no less Successors of the Apostles in their Lives and Conversation than in their Charge and Function but as for those whose Life and Conversation has nothing in it Apostolical they are Hirelings and no true Shepherds They endeavour to support this their Error first by the Words of St. Austin in his Book of Baptism That God pardons Sins either immediately by himself or by the Members of his Dove and that the Saints can either absolve us of our Sins or retain them He saith also upon Exodus speaking of the Plate of Gold which was to be always upon the Fore-head of the High Priest This Plate was the Testimony of a good Life and that he only who hath the Testimony of a good Life not in a Figure but in Truth and Reality can forgive Sins So likewise St. Gregory declares That they only in this World have the Power of binding and loosing so as the Apostles had who retain their Doctrine and imitate their Examples And Origen
judging but with a necessity of believing which form the Apostle himself delivered saying Quench not the Spirit despise not Prophecies try all things hold fast what is good abstain from every Appearance of Evil. Which is absolutely false if an infallible Principle has continued in the Church whether in the Person of the Pope or in Councils or that we must of Necessity explain Scripture according to the Sense of the Fathers as the Church of Rome has defined 2. We see with what force he maintains the Canons of the Gallican Church against the Contempt which some cast upon them because they had been made without the Pope's Concurrence 3. We do not find that in his time they applied to the Blessed Virgin the Words of the first Promise by reading Ipsa tuum conteret caput She shall bruise thy Head for he reads Ipse tuum He shall bruise c. when he disputes against Felix Bishop of Vrgel 4. He maintains in the same place that the Notion of a Peoples being without Sin who yet confess themselves to be Sinners out of Humility is pure Pelagianism That if this is the Property of humble Saints why then doth John the Apostle say If we say that we have no Sin we deceive our selves and the Truth is not in us but if we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins Who if like you he had been inclined to have not mean but great Thoughts of himself he had whereof he might glory because he lay in the Bosom of his Lord and was beloved of him above the rest of his Disciples James the Apostle also saith In many things we offend all which if any shall imagine not to be spoke in Truth but by way of Humility let him know that therein he follows Pelagius 5. He plainly declares that our Communion in the Sacrament is the same with that of the Believers of old when he applies that Passage of the 1 st to the Corinthians chap. 10. ver 1 and 2. of the drinking of the Holy Ghost and maintains in these terms that there is no other Difference between the Believers of the Old and New Testament but this That the great Sacraments of Salvation which are wrought by the Mediator for us and for them save us as being already past but them as yet to come because we believe and hold what is past they believed and held what was to come they held them only in their Minds as Figures of future things but we in an open Profession Vows and Declaration of things past under the Signification of sensible Sacraments as those two who carried one Cluster of Grapes upon a Staff did indifferently do the same Work only that the one of them had it behind his Back and the other before his Face I should be obliged to transcribe his whole Book against Pictures and Images if I should go about to extract all that it contains in Opposition to the Opinions of the Church of Rome It will be sufficient for us to observe that the Romish Index Expurgatorius hath forbid this Book as well as the rest till its Errors be expunged and indeed it did deserve no less for it maintains according to the Doctrine of St. Augustin that we ought not to adore any Image of God but only that which is God himself even his eternal Son and that it is a piece of Folly and Sacriledg to vouchsafe any Worship to Images and to call them Holy as the second Council of Nice had done He refutes the Excuse of the Council of Trent which only considers those as Idolaters that attribute something of Divinity to the Image He maintains it to be mere Paganism to have Images for any other use than that of a Memorial and at the same time asserts that Images are of as little Use and Advantage as the Picture of a Mower or of some Hero in Armour can advantage a Mower or Souldier who looks upon those Pictures In a Word he speaks exactly like a true Iconoclast for after he had said that it was impossible any longer to bear with the Abuses against which he had taken Pen in hand he adds From whence we may plainly infer that if Hezekiah a Godly and Religious King brake the brazen Serpent made by God's express Command because the mistaken Multitude began to worship it as an Idol for which his Piety was very much commended much more religiously may and ought the Images of the Saints they themselves approving it be broken and ground to Pouder which were never set up by God's Command but are absolutely human Inventions But besides this there are four other Articles which are as disrelishing to the Church of Rome as these 1. He maintains that there is no other Mediator between God and Men save Jesus Christ God and Man which he proves by the Authority of St. Augustin de Civ Dei l. 9. c. 15. 2. He looks upon those as worthy to be anathematized and excommunicated from the Church of God who should undertake to dedicate a Church to the most excellent of Saints or Angels If any of us saith he should make a Temple of Wood or Stone to any though the most excellent of Saints we ought for doing that to be anathematized from the Truth of Christ and from the Church of God because by so doing we should give that Worship to the Creature which is only due to the Creator 3. Having given a Relation of the manner how the Faithful gathered up the Bones of St. Polycarp and interr'd them in a place where they intended to meet and celebrate his Memory to encourage Believers to imitate the constancy of that Martyr he declares that all manner of Worship or Honour done to them over and above this is unlawful religious Worship being due to God alone 4. He proves that his Judgment concerning these Points is founded upon the Example of the antient Doctors up-their Opinions and upon the Book of the Sacraments of the Church of Rome that it was the ground of the antient Doctors of the Church who rejected the Worship which the Arians gave to Jesus Christ as idolatrous tho they owned him to be no more than a Man The Reader needs not take much pains to apprehend why Rome thought fit to condemn these Books of Agobardus tho he may be at a loss how it comes to pass that notwithstanding all this he is at this day held for a Saint and publickly ador'd at Lions under the Name of St. Agobo This is a Riddle which has strangly perplexed the Learned Jesuit Theophilus Raynaldus as well as le Cointe in his Annals of the Church of France But he is not the only Person that has oppos'd the Belief and Worship of the Church of Rome and is publickly ador'd by her I have another Author to produce who gives us so clear an Idea of the belief of this Diocess wherein he was born
to the Priests of the Church of Rome is wholly unprofitable and that neither the Pope nor any one else in the Romish Church can absolve any Man of Sin but that they have power to absolve all those from their Sins who will join themselves to their Sect by the Laying on of Hands This last Clause is also laid to the charge of the Vaudois viz. That they have Power from God alone as the Apostles had to hear Confessions both of Men and Women that believe them and of imposing Penance upon such as confess to them as Fasting and several Repetitions of the Lord's Prayer whereupon they absolve their Penitents and that this Absolution and Penance is as available to the Salvation of their Souls as if they had been confessed to their own Priest That here is some wresting or mutilation of the Opinion of the Vaudois is manifest from the Confession of a certain Woman who as we read declared her Faith to this purpose That God alone forgives Sin and that he to whom Confession of Sins is made gives only his Advice what the Person ought to do and so enjoins Penance which any wise and prudent Man may do whether he be a Priest or no. That the Opinions of the Albigenses that were proper to them were that there be two Lords the one Good and the other Evil That the Body of Christ is not in the Eucharist but only meer Bread That Baptism is of no use One of the Albigenses was said to believe that the Baptism of Water celebrated by the Church stands Infants in no stead because they did not consent to the Sacrament but cried at the receiving of it I believe saith he who examined these Acts that they denied Baptism to be the Instrument of Regeneration or perhaps they might be against Infant-Baptism That an external Anointing of the Sick with material Oil was of no use That the Orders of the Church of Rome had no Power of binding and loosing since they themselves who conferred them were great Sinners That Marriage is always join'd with Sin and never can be without Sin and that it could never have been instituted by the good God That our Lord did not assume a real humane Body and true Flesh of our Nature and that he did not truly but only in Likeness rise again in the same and perform the other Works of our Salvation and that he never really ascended to the right-hand of the Father They deny the Resurrection of the Body but in the Declaration of Petrus Anterius a chief Teacher amongst them this is more clearly and distinctly explained that they feign that certain spiritual Bodies and a certain internal Man should rise again in such sort of Bodies And elsewhere they express themselves that though the Souls of Men shall come to Judgment yet they shall not come in their own Bodies They said that the Souls of Men were Spirits which fell from Heaven for their Sins so that they seem to have believ'd the pre-existence of Souls Man they say must not worship what he eats Moreover it is ascribed to them that they believe Man is saved by the Laying on of Hands which they confer on their Believers and that by the same means all Sins are forgiven without Confession and Satisfaction That they can bestow the Holy Ghost for Salvation upon those whom they receive That the Virgin Mary never was a carnal Woman but their Church which they say is true Repentance and that this is the Virgin Mary The very Obscurity of these Words shews that this Opinion is wrested because it is better exprest in another place thus That God never entred the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary and that he only is the Mother Brother and Sister of God who keeps the Commandments of God the Father These are said to be the Doctrines of the Albigenses whereof none are ascribed to the Waldenses but others different from these whereof we find no mention made in the Opinions of the Albigenses and they are these That all Judgment is forbid by God and that it is contrary to the divine Prohibition for any Judg in any Cause whatsoever to judg or sentence any Man to Punishment or Death That Indulgencies granted by the Prelats of the Church of Rome are of no use or efficacy That there is no Purgatory for Souls after this Life and that consequently the Prayers and Suffrages of Believers for the Dead are of no use to them That the Soul when it departs from the Body goes either to Paradise or Hell That there are no more than three Orders in the Church of Bishops Priests and Deacons From these Acts it appears how much the Rites and Ceremonies of the Albigenses differed from those practis'd by the Vaudois Besides saith the Author of the Extract the Rites and Institutions of them both were very different Of the Albigenses there were two Sorts some who professed their Faith and Rites and they were called perfect or comforted others who had entred into a Covenant with the former Sort called Perfect which they call la Convenenza the Agreement that at the end of their Life they should be received by them into their Sect. This Reception is frequently called by them Exercise and is performed in this manner The Benedicite or the Blessing conferred upon one Molinerius when he was sick Bernard Goes one of the Albigenses held the Hands of the sick Person between his own Hands and besides held a certain Book over him wherein he read the Gospel of St. John In the Beginning was the Word and deliver'd to the sick Person a fine Thread to tie about him as a Mark that he was admitted into their Heresy upon some others it is said that they laid a white Linen Cloath and besides that many Genuflections were performed by the Bed-side This Reception was supposed to save the Soul of him who was received and was call'd a Spiritual Baptism or Consolation a Reception and a good End and sometimes a Melioration by means of which they believ'd that the Person was sanctified so that it was not lawful for a Woman to touch any one that was thus received Now because it might sometime happen that the Person thus received after his recovery might relapse into his former Defilements therefore they always deferr'd this Reception till the extreamest Weakness when there was no longer hopes of Life for fear they might afterward lose the Good they had received For which reason also some sick Persons amongst them though the Person who thus initiated them was already come yet were not received because they were not believed to be at the point of Death But they who were thus received in their Sickness were commanded to put themselves upon Hardship that is to hasten their own Death by abstaining from all Meat and there are several Examples of those who are said to have kill'd themselves not only with Fasting but by opening of a Vein wounding of themselves yea and
speaking of the Power of St. Peter saith That the same is also granted to those who imitate him because all those that follow the Foot-steps of St. Peter can also lawfully bind and loose Lastly It is said in Malachy Chap. 2. I will curse your Blessings And in Ezekiel Chap. 13. Wo to those that quicken the dead Souls and who declare those dead that don't die If God say the Hereticks do curse the Blessing of wicked Pastors and declares that the Souls which they pretend to quicken do not live how can he communicate his Grace through their Channel The ninth Heresy is professed by the same Hereticks who maintain that it is neither the Office nor the Order but only the Merit of a good Life which confers the Power of binding and loosing of consecrating and blessing so that this is their Conclusion the Merit of a good and holy Life say they is of greater Efficacy to confer upon any one the Right of consecrating and blessing of binding and loosing than the Order or Office and therefore they have not received any Orders yet they believe themselves to be just and to have the Merits of the Apostles and so they take upon them to bless as the Priests do and say That they can consecrate bind and loose because it is the Merit and not the Office that confers this Power And because they pretend to be the Apostles Vicegerents they say that their Merit gives them this Charge In this it is that they chiefly oppose the Faith of the Church and declare themselves to be Hereticks But they endeavour to defend their Heresy by the Authority of Esicius who saith That the Priests do not bless by their own Authority but only because they represent Jesus Christ and that it is because Christ is in them that they can bestow their plenary Benediction And they say moreover that not only a Priest but every one that hath Christ in himself and represents him in his Life as Moses did has the Power of conferring Blessings The tenth Heresy is likewise taught by the same Hereticks who maintain that the Dispensations or Indulgences which a Bishop grants at the Consecration of a Church or upon any other occasion are not of any Value Their Reason is this Suppose say they that a Man be obliged to a Penance of three Years at the Consecration of a Church and one Bishop releases him of a third part of his Penance a second and third Bishop may do the like and thus for three Half-pence a Man shall be released of this three Years Penance And which is more these sorts of Dispensations are unjust for there is no Proportion between a Half-penny or a Crown and one whole Years Penance The eleventh Heresy is That the Prayers which are made for the Dead by those who are in any mortal Sin are unprofitable For say these Hereticks how can these Prayers do any Service to the Dead since they can do none at all to those who make them Can Prayers which are hurtful to them that make them be of any Advantage to the Person for whom they are designed Item in 3 q. in gravioribus it is said When a Judg is sollicited for his Favour to a Malefactor by any one that he hath no liking to it serves only to incense him so much the more and to make him pronounce a more severe Sentence So in like manner if any Man prays without Devotion it is the same thing as if he desired his own Condemnation for how can any Man whose very Prayer is Sin obtain by that Prayer any good thing for his Neighbour Or how can he whose Prayer deserves nothing at the Hand of God but Punishment pray profitably for another seeing God saith to the Sinner Psalm 49. What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes or why dost thou take my Covenant into thy Mouth They call also Reason to their Assistance When a Priest say they celebrates the Mass he being in mortal Sin the Action that he doth is evil and deserves eternal Punishment and by Consequence he cannot merit for another the Pardon of his Sins because it is impossible to merit Good and Evil Reward and Punishment by the self-same Action They quote the Canon-Law also which forbids us to assist at the Mass of a Priest who we are sure keeps a Concubine They prove likewise by another Authority that Men ought not to pray or sing Psalms in the Church as long as they are under mortal Sin The twelfth Heresy is of those who deny Purgatory and who say that it is a meer Invention of the Church to make the People give Alms and Offerings and to be at the charge of pompous Funerals for the Souls of the deceased or other things of that Nature I confess he does not mention the Albigenses by Name and that he confounds these pretended Heresies of the Albigenses with others that are much more hainous and some that were peculiar to some few Monks and that he attributes some of them in particular to the Vaudois as if they had been proper to them only But one may justly imagine that this Monk who compiled this Work from the Writings of other Monks or Doctors of the Church of Rome had his Eye upon the Albigenses because he acquaints us that he follows Alanus and that he copies his Arguments Now we know that Alanus wrote against the Waldenses and Albigenses as the manuscript Titles of his Books inform us though like the Author of the Fortalitium fidei he confounds them in his Treatise with the Arians Manichees and other pernicious Hereticks to render the Waldenses and Albigenses suspected of defending all those Heresies which he opposes It may be thought strange perhaps that this Monk did not imitate Alanus in attributing to the Albigenses the rejecting of Transubstantiation and the Consequents thereof but the Wonder will cease if we consider that he designed hereby to deprive the Jews against whom he disputes of an Advantage which they might reasonably draw from some Christians rejecting that Opinion though they owned Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and the Books of the New Testament to be of Divine Authority at the same time and therefore he rather chose to refute the Arguments against Transubstantiation as coming from the Mouths of the Jews than as Objections made by the Albigenses And indeed except the tenth Argument of the Jews against Transubstantiation which supposes the Christians who teach this Doctrine to be no better than brute Beasts as not having Sense enough to know that Jesus Christ being a Jew by Birth could not by the Circumstances of his Institution of the Eucharist intend any thing but a figurative meaning as opposed to a real and that his Apostles being Jews likewise could not form any other meaning in all this Ceremony but such as was figurative there is scarce any other which this Monk hath not borrowed from the Disputes which the Albigenses and Vaudois have held with those