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soul_n	body_n	death_n	separation_n	20,420	5	10.8447	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07809	The grand imposture of the (now) Church of Rome manifested in this one article of the new Romane creede, viz: the holy, catholike, and apostolike Romane Church, mother and mistresse of all other churches, without which there is no saluation. Proued to ba a new, false, sacrilegious, scandalous, schismaticall, hereticall, and blasphemous article (respectiuely) and euerie way damnable. The last chapter containeth a determination of the whole question, concerning the separation of Protestants from the present Church of Rome: whereby may be discerned whether side is to be accounted schismaticall, or may more iustly pleade soules saluation. By the B. of Couentrie & Lichfield.	Morton, Thomas, 1564-1659.	1626 (1626)	STC 18186; ESTC S112909	370,200	394

In which difference the Paynime may seeme to haue the aduantage Is there therefore more safetie in the Conuersation of the Infidell because there is lesse truth in his exception against the Christian A mad man thinketh that all other men are beasts a sober man confesseth that mad man to be a man Hence then by Romish sophistrie the mad man must bee iudged to be in the better Case But how farre and why do Protestants conceiue hope of Saluation in Some dying in the Church of Rome both these points are very considerable They say that Some for their beliefe in Christ although otherwise intangled in Antichristian blindnesse yet by reason of Inuincible ignorance being both without Affectation of ignorance and voide of the meanes of receiuing the light of Truth may neuerthelesse be in the state of life But as ●or Them that may heare the preaching of the word for their Conuersion and will not vpon all such in the iudgement of Protestants is the saying of our Sauiour Christ spoken of the Iewes verified If I had not come and spoken vnto them they should not haue had sinne that is their Damnation is now more iust Hence it is that Protestants teach that of two Papists professing the same Romish doctrine the one in Spaine the other in England the Spanish may be saued and the English damned The reason is plaine the first desired light of iudgement in necessary doctrines the other may possibly see the light but loueth the darkenesse of errour and superstition more than the light of Truth The error of the first being purae negationis or incapacitie to come to the knowledge of the Truth the error of the other being prauae dispositionis through the peruersenesse of their will If you demand why Protestants haue so charitable an opinion of some Romanists you are to vnderstand that it is in regard of that without which they cannot be saued that they died in the beliefe of this Protestant Article of Faith which is To be iustified by remission of all their sinnes through the satisfactorie righteousnesse of Christ apprehended by Faith and not by the legall iustice of Perfection of inherent righteousnesse in themselues as your Councell of Trent hath decreed And this opinion we finde verified in the experience of many Papists who howsoeuer in their life time they professe and magnifie your doctrine of Perfection of workes yet on their death-bed as soone as the least glimpse of the Maiesty of Gods Tribunall is reuealed to their consciences and the bookes of their Consciences begin to be vnclasped and so layd open that they cannot but reade their sinnes which in their life time they held as Venial to be written in capitall letters and to bee Deadly then they take Sanctuary in the wounds of Christ from whence flyeth the Ocean of all Expiatorie merit and satisfaction by which it is impossible but euery faithfull Penitent should receiue life Euen as did of late Cardinall Bellarmine who writing his owne last Will and Testament casteth the anchor of his hope vpon the same Rocke which we do saying I pray God to receiue me into the number of his Elect not as weighing my merits but as pardoning my offences So iust cause haue you to thanke God that the doctrine of Protestants concerning Iustification hath brought Some of you as it did your Ecchius and others to their Iustifying Faith and by it to Saluation Neither yet do Protestants a point to be obserued In this their former Grant yeeld more safety to the Members of the Church of Rome in such a Case than they do to whatsoeuer Heretikes whose beliefe doth not vndermine the Fundamentall Doctrine of Faith Will you see in a Similitude what we conceiue of your Church Of many men that are in a Pest-house infected with the Plague some happily may be saued and yet it were but a damnable Presumption for sound men to runne head-long into the Pest-house thereby as much as in them lyeth making themselues guilty of their owne deaths And whether your Romane Articles of a New Faith whether Idolatrie whether professed Obstinacie in errors whether Tyrannie ouer both bodies and soules of men and whether necessarie Periurie in swearing to your foresaid false Articles be plaguy diseases or no iudge you THESIS VI. Your common Obiection What is then become of the soules of our fore-Fathers more iustifieth the Protestants Separation from Papists than it can the Separation of Papists from Protestants SECT 28. HOnour and loue which man naturally oweth to his Parents and Progenitors is felt in euery mans heart as a forcible motiue to draw on a conceite in the Child both of their godlinesse and also of their after-blessednesse and consequently to inforce an inclination to adhere to their Religion whatsoeuer it was Which we in our experience find in your Disciples to be the greatest barre and hinderance vnto vs for their Conuersion Which Motiue if it be alone is onely preualent in them who consult onely with flesh and bloud yea verily and this your Iesuites will not denie who tell vs from their experience among the Indian Pagans that the like conceit of the soules of their fore-fathers was the greatest reason of their obstinacie in Paganisme Whereas if the matter be rightly discerned the whole interest that man hath in his naturall Parents is bodily onely for man's Soule is not by Traduction in which respect the Apostle setteth a plaine Antithesis betweene our naturall Fathers whom he calleth the Fathers of our flesh and God whom he nameth The Father of Spirits saying We haue had fathers of our flesh which corrected vs and we gaue them Reuerence shall we not much rather be in subiection vnto the Father of Spirits and liue Howsoeuer it be in me as a man surely as I am a Christian man this is not by generation naturall but by spirituall Regenaration and Faith is a gift of this Spirit Therefore do the Fathers of our flesh after our naturall birth send vs to the Priest to be baptized and to receiue a spirituall birth wherein we are not baptized in the name of our Parents nor do we vow to professe the faith of our naturall Progenitors but in the name and to the profession of Christ for The iust shall liue by his owne Faith Not but that we ought to haue a reuerend estimation of the state of our Ancestors to imitate them in faith and godlinesse as it is written Be you Imitators of them who in faith and puritie obtained the promised inheritance Yet not simply Imitators neither but with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Quatenus Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ. Let vs now descend from the Thesis to our Hypothesis First to answer your Obiection against Protestants which standeth thus If your Religion be the Truth what then is become thinke you of all our and your Ancestors who for many ages liued in that which you

Departure of Protestants from the Church of Rome occasioned by M. Luther I. Thesis Luther was vniustly Excommunicated out of the Romane Church Sect. 15. II. Thesis Luther had necessary Cause to depart from the Church of Rome Sect. 15. III. Thesis Luther and his Followers are farre more safe for their Soules state in that Separation from the Church of Rome and lesse Schismatikes than They whom they forsooke Sect. 16. IV. Thesis The Romish Obiections vrged against the Separation of Luther are notably friuolous Sect. 17. V. Thesis Their first Oiection in respect of Luthers former Vow to the Pope or Church of Rome is vaine and idle Sect. 18. VI. Thesis The second and most Popular Obiection against Luther in his Opposition to the Romane Church vrging him to prooue his Doctrine by immediate Succession and by naming his Teachers before him is as fond as the other Sect. 19. VII Thesis The Obiection That all Changes of Doctrines haue bene notorious in the Persons and Places of their Beginnings is false Sect. 20. VIII Thesis The last Obiection Of Cōtinuall and personall Succession in all ages is frustrate Sect. 21. The fourth and last Part of this Determination concerneth the state of the Churches of Protestants after the daies of Luther and their more iust Cause of continuing this Separation from the Church of Rome Sect. 22. I. Thesis Protestants are Generally Excommunicated by the Church of Rome Sect. 23. II. Thesis Protestants are vniustly Excommunicated Sect. 24. III. Thesis In the Continuance of this Separation Papists are rather Schismatikes than Protestants and consequently in the Heresie of the Donatists Sect. 25. IV. Thesis In the Continuance of this Separation the Vnion of the Protestants with the Catholike Church is both more true and more Vniuersall thā is the Vnion of the Romanists § 26 V. Thesis The Protestants granting it possible for some to be saued within the Church of Rome and the Papists denying that any can be saued in the Churches of the Protestants is but a Sophisticall proofe that there is more safety in the Romane Church Sect. 27 VI. Your common Obiection what is then become of the soules of our fore-Fathers more iustifieth the Protestants Separation from Papists than it can the Separation of Papists from Protestants Sect. 28. VII The Protestants at this day stand more Iustifiable in their Separation from Rome than did either the ancient Primitiue Churches in her Excommunicating of Them or yet Luther and his Followers in their Departure from Her Sect. 29. THE GRAND IMPOSTVRE Of the now Church of Rome Manifested in this ARTICLE of the new Romane Creed Viz. The Catholike Romane Church c. Without which there is no SALVATION THat this is the fundamentall ARTICLE of your Romane Church as it is called Romane We cannot bee better enformed than by the Bishops of Rome Heads of the same Church than by the Bodie thereof which is the Church of Rome it selfe in her Councell of Trent together with the Confirmation of the same by Pope Pius the IV than by your publike Catechisme ratified by the like authority Lastly than by her principall Doctors and Diuines in their most approoued and priuileged Books written vpon this Argument of THE CATHOLIKE CHVRCH All which you may read in their owne expresse words CHAP. I. The expresse Profession of the now Church of Rome concerning this her Article vz. The Catholike Romane Church c. without Subiection whereunto there is no Saluation is absolutely and peremptorily proclaimed by the Authority of the Popes SECT 1. IT wil be a good Decorum that in this case we begin to consult with the Heads of your Church the Popes of Rome themselues Gregory the VII in the yeere 1073 decreed thus The Church of Rome saith he was founded only by God and the Pope thereof is rightly stiled The vniuersall Bishop insomuch that whosoeuer consenteth not with the Church of Rome cannot be a Catholike After him in the yeere 1192. Pope Innocēt the 3. distinguishing of the Word Catholike or Vniuersall decreed as followeth If the Church saith he be called Catholike as a cōpany consisting of al Christian Churches so the Church of Rome is not to be termed The Catholike Church but a part therof but take the word Catholike a● God is called vniuersall Lord because al things are vnder his dominiō so we say that the Church of Rome only hath al other Churches vniuersally subiect vnto it So he More than an hundred yeeres after him Boniface the 8. would needs be heard not speake but roare thunder by peremptory decree in this tenor viz. We declare define pronounce that it is Necessary for euery one that is to be saued to be subiect to the Pope of Rome Thus much for the testimonies of the Popes The iudgement of the late Romane Church SECT 2. SInce those times the Church of Rome her selfe in her Councell of Trent and by the Bull of Pope Pius the IV. set forth for the Confirmation of the same Councell in the yeere 1556. did impose vpon her Professors a new CREED consisting of more than twentie Articles of the now Romane Faith which shee hath prescribed vnto you and all other Ecclesiasticall persons of what denomination or Title soeuer to be professed vnder the tenor and forme of an Oath to wit I N. doe firmely beleeue sweare and professe that the Catholike and Apostolique Romane Church is the Mother and Mistresse of all Churches and I doe vowe promise and sweare true obedience to the Pope of Rome the Vicar of Christ Successour of S. Peter c. And this I hold to be the true Catholike Faith which whosoeuer beleeueth not cannot bee saued So your new Creed The now Romane Catechisme SECT 3. VPon this ground was founded that which you call the Romane Catechisme and published by the authoritie of the same Pope Pius and his Councell of Trent whereby yours as well as other Catechumenists are instructed to beleeue that The Catholike Church is One both because of one Faith also for that it is subiect to one inuisible Gouernour which is Christ and to one visible Head the Pope So your Catechisme The iudgement of Romane Doctors of singular Note SECT 4. IN the last place we are to consult with your publicke Readers in Schooles where by the testimonies of Three you may iudge of the faith of the rest especially these being as fully accomplished with all furniture of learning as any other The first thus The Church of Rome is the vniuersall Catholike Church not as it is a particular Bishopprick but as it comprehendeth all Beleeuers vnder the subiection of the Bishop of Rome And againe Wee must saith he hold it as a point of our Catholike Faith that this indiuiduall Congregation which professeth the Romane Faith and is vnited to the Pope of Rome is the true Catholike Church which I proue first by the Apostles Creed c. The Second thus We define saith

a Pastòr who doth not personally attend his flocke and if as the same Cardinall proceedeth Euery Bishop ought to preach except he haue lawfull impediments nor is it sufficient to performe this by others because saith he Christ said not to Peter haue a care that others feed but feed Thou my sheepe This then your Cardinals one Reason alone of it selfe doth most iustly vntitle your Bishop of Rome of the most proper Attribute of a Bishop and if no Bishop then no Bishop of Bishops or Chiefe Bishop because there cannot be a greater Soloecisme than to call one a Chiefe in any calling the Chiefe duty whereof he chiefly and specially neglecteth You will say the Exception Except he be lawfully hindered will excuse him Nay but it doth accuse him rather because we must not imagine that there was not almost any one Pope for the space of many hundred yeares who could not in his whole life time find iust leasure to studie and preach one Sermon The thirteenth which onely hath bene hitherto omitted is Sponsus Ecclesiae The Bride-groome of the Church This likewise you contend for as for a Pearle proper to the Crowne of a Papall Monarch Albeit you know that this was not put into the Popes Miter vntill the yeare 1●00 And what more the Pope with you must be forsooth The Vicar of Christ who is the High Pastor of the Church and he must be also the Spouse of the same Church which is called by Saint Iohn The Spouse of Christ. How did Saint Bernard like of this Diuinity He writing to Pope Eugenius admonisheth him not to call himselfe The Bridegroome of the Church which is the Spouse of Christ For No man saith he will commit his Spouse to his Vicar Let your Cardinall Glosse hereupon as he doth by distinguishing betweene Principall and Inferior Bridegroome and of Intrinsecall and Extrinsecall generation all will not satisfie Saint Bernard his Reprehension of the Popes abuse of the word For we demand did the Pope vse the Title aright why then needed he this Admonition of Saint Bernard but did he need this Admonition then did he in the iudgement of Saint Bernard falsly arrogate the Title We belieue your Iesuite who saith There is but one Bridegroome of the Church but more S. Bernard yet neither of both in respect of Saint Iohn who saith He that hath the Bride is the Bride-groome but the friend of the Bride is he that standeth by and heareth Which dissolueth your former distinction for Bride and Bride-groome are Relatiues the Bride therfore which is the Church is affianced vnto the Bride-groome Christ how onely in Soule Is she not betrothed in Body also Else what meaneth that saying Yee are bought with a price glorifie therefore God in your bodies and in your soules Ergo the Relation is both Outward and Inward euery other were he the best of Christians is but a Paranymph and a friend of the Bride at the most as Theophylact and Bede do both teach In the foureteenth of the name Apostleship you seeme to glory and boast notwithstanding you are not ignorant that it could not be properly ascribed vnto him knowing that there is as much difference betweene Apostleship and Bishopricke as there is betweene one that hath a Generall Commission to go where he will and him that hath a Particular Charge fixed to a certaine place As for the last Title of Vniuersall Bishop which you say was giuen to the Pope by a Councell as implying a Monarchie we answer that there is a falshood in the Antecedent For it was not the Synod but the Popes owne Legats that vented out that Vanity And for the Consequence and sense of the word betokening a Monarchie ouer All Others as Subiects this hath bene proued from Pope Gregory to be a detestable and Antichristian falshood And your Gratian hath it in expresse words as the direct sense of the Councell of Africke wherein Saint Augustine had his voyce saying Neither may the Pope of Rome be called Vniuersall Our fourth Discouery of the Falshood and Vanity of the Papall Defence taken from ancient Titles by the Blasphemousnesse of some Titles which haue bene newly conferred vpon Popes SECT 5. IF your Popes had thought these former Titles sufficient then questionlesse would they not haue affected other Attributes farre more transcendent which of later times are giuen vnto them by their Parasites and swallowed vp of themselues as their spirit and vitall breath which you may find in the Marginals as I. Pope Innocentius the eight to be called in Royaltie and Vnction CHRIST aboue his fellowes an Attribute proper vnto Iesus Christ himselfe Heb. 1.9 II. Pope Paulus the second to be called a Coelestiall Maiestie which all know to be proper to God III. Pope Pius the fourth to be called The voyce and Oracle of Truth proper also to Christ who saith I am the truth Ioh 14.6 IV. Againe Pope Innocent the eight to be called One aboue all Principalities and powers and whatsoeuer is named in this or in the other world plainly proper to Christ Ephes. 1. V. Pope Sixtus Quintus called The corner-stone in Sion prooued pretious and chiefe foundation proper to Christ Isa. 28.14 and 1. Pet. 2. as is confessed by your owne Expositors VI. Pope Gregory the thirteenth stop your eares called Power Might or Maiesty of God vpon earth and againe Our Lord God the Pope Wee pretermit many the like Blasphemies Yea but will you say Others gaue vnto them those Titles they required them not Then let Herod excuse himselfe that the people cryed aloud in magnifying his wisedome and saying The voyce of God and not of man yet became hee in the end but a lowzie god Moreouer Simon Magus is not read to haue required that estimation as to be called The mighty power of God Nor can you deny that these Titles were vsed of Authors in their Dedicatory Epistles and in their personall Orations vnto Popes and this last authorized by Pope Gregory the thirteenth in the Papall Glosse it selfe A fifth answer remaineth which we shall referre to the Section next following the Challenge CHALLENGE THE Fable of the Chough or Daw is not vnknowne vnto you which plumed himselfe with the stolne feathers of other Birds of all sorts in the end when all the other Birds had challenged each one her owne feather and pulled it from her she poore and naked Cornicula became a matter of scorne and laughter vnto them all Semblably this your strange and monstrous creature Papall Monarch haue you adorned and bedecked with fifteene Titles as it were so many Feathers which vpon due Examination by iust Parallels your owne Confessions and Reasons are found some of them very new most of them common to other Bishops as well as to the Pope and almost all in your Papall sense very vniustifiable besides your later additament of other Epithets Transcendent and as you

defect of pronouncing Shibboleth euen as the Character of a man is seene by his speach CHALLENGE IN Examination of these Premises you may finde iust matter for Challenge of your owne Proctors and Pleaders for the Popes Primacy from these Popes by reason of their fourefold Iniurie First to their Aduersaries the Protestants whom they traduce as enemies to Antiquity in not admitting the Testimonies of so holy Popes of the Primitiue age which all Christians ought to beleeue and reuerence But in this clamour they abuse their Readers by deliuering vnto them onely the names of Popes Epistles as is vsuall in false Certificates wherein a man shall reade a Catalogue of names of men whereunto the parties themselues neuer yeelded their consent or as in a Stage-play wherein are presented Personates instead of Persons themselues and to the chins of boyes are fixed the beards of old men Is not this a theatricall forgery Secondly to your Popes by vrging writings in their name● which if they were theirs must proue them to haue beene foolish false and barbarous Our zeale therefore to those blessed Popes doth challenge your Obiectors of extreme iniury to their memory Thirdly to the Church of Rome as well Ancient as Successiue that when you boast so much of the truth of your Traditions as a Nuncupatiue Testament of Christ wherein your Chiefest Article is your Doctrine of Papall Monarchy yet when we are to consult with the first witnesses that should testifie this Article in tht Romane Church it selfe namely those Ancient Popes we can haue no better assurance of their Testimonies than as of such as are confessed to bee both fraught with Errors and also falsely imposed vpon those Popes Which is in effect to condemne your Romane Church of sacrilegious negligence and vnfaithfulnesse in not preseruing that sacrum Depositum as you call the Ancient Tradition of Popes from hand to hand and consequently must inferre a iust suspition of Falshood in the Chiefest ground of your Romish Faith the pretended Law of Tradition Is not this also an iniury But the greatest Iniury that we lament is the wrong which your Obiectors doe vnto their own Consciences when some will haue all those Epistles to be Authenticall and worthy of absolute Beleefe without Exception yet are condemned by the most learned among you who confesse and proue that they are mixed both with Theologicall Chronologicall falshoods Some againe especially your Cardinal obtruding Epistles in the names of Popes and yet doubting whether they be truely the Epistles of these Popes or no and some other-where also reiecting some of them as Counterfeits So foolish is his Obiection in alleaging them for Ancient who could not be ignorant that there haue beene Ancient forgeries of which stampe your owne iudicious Authors haue noted these to bee And that which exceedeth almost the highest note of to speake mildely Inconsideration to proue your Doctrine of Romish Primacy from the word Primatus mentioned sometimes by the Bishops of Rome in their Epistles which as your owne Contius teacheth is an Argument to iudge them not to be so Ancient because that that word was not of currant stampe in that age And what great iniurie can any man doe than that which he doth to his owne Conscience Finally pardon vs if we cannot impute such a degree of Impiety to those holy Popes that they who liued in the times of those bloudy Massacres wherin most of them with infinite other godly Professors in the same Church of Rome bequeathed their bodies to the sword for the Faith of Christ and their soules and spirits by Martyrdome to his armes of blessednesse should be wholly busyed in their Epistles about poynts of Ordination of Priests Inuention of Ceremonies and aduancing the Prerogatiues of the Romane Church but neuer to vtter any syllable of Exhortation and Consolation in behalfe of the Flocke of Christ dayly in the iawes of the Wooluish Persecutors of these times as those Epistles by you obiected do make appeare Your Obiections from the Testimonies of Ancient Popes of the Second Three hundred yeeres and the Vanity thereof discouered SECT 12. FOr the Second Three hundred yeeres are presented before vs a Second Iury of Twelue Popes to giue their Verdicts for proofe of the extent of their owne Papall and Monarchicall power and Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall ouer the whole Church of Christ throughout the world Manifold haue been the Answers of Many to these Testimonies which the breuity that we haue propounded to our selues in this Treatise will not suffer vs to relate our Answers shall be no lesse plaine and yet more compendious 1. Almost all of these Testimonies may be denied in that sense of absolute Monarchie for the which they are propounded As for the first man of the Inquest viz. Pope Iulius he plainely speaketh of Document Instruction receiued from Peter and not of Dominion or Iurisdiction which may be an Answer to many of the rest 2. Some speake not but their Counterfeits as the last Iurist Pope Gregory in an Epistle wherein Eusebius Bishop of Constantinople is said to haue beene Subiect vnto him when as as our Doctor Reynolds hath proued there was no Eusebius Bishop of Constantinople in the daies of Saint Gregory This tricke of corrupting the writings of Antient Popes as you haue seene in their Epistles for the first Three hundred yeeres giue vs iuster cause to suspect the Popish Scribes in the Second Three hundred yeeres 3. Some haue beene already satisfied by Parallels 4. Reuerence say some Popes is due to the Apostolike See So you know Saint Peter doth require of the Husband Honour towards his Wife and Saint Paul of a Bishop Reuerence vnto Widowes Reuerence therefore which is nothing else but a due estimation of all persons according to their Order and Degree may bee exacted without any Note of Dominion 5. Nine of these Popes call the Church of Rome and Bishop thereof either Head of all Churches or One that hath the Care of all Churches or one hauing Principality Euery of which as you know were antiently ascribed to other Churches and Bishops besides the Romane 6. Some may be checked by Retorsion as in the first and last witnesse For the first if from the words obiected out of that Epistle of Iulius you shall inferre that he had Vniuersall Monarchy throughout the Catholike Church then may wee more iustly conclude that the same Pope being challenged by the Bishops of the East whom he calleth Most dearely beloued both for writing to them Alone and from his owne Authority and also for transgressing the Canons of the Church by admitting men vnto his Communion that had beene by them deposed and answering to the one that Although he wrote alone vnto them yet that he did it by consent of his fellow Bishops and to the other standing onely vpon his iustification in not transgressing the Canons of Ancient Councels

very Baud of all Impietie Whence to vse your owne words Adulteries Incests Periuries Homicides and the spawne of all euils did arise THESIS II. LVTHER had necessary Cause to Depart from the Church of Rome SECT 15. IT is not as you haue heard the corruption of a Doctrine which can alwaies driue a man out of the Church except other properties of necessary Remoouing do concurre What these are you may call to your remembrance Which may be obserued in this Case of Luther and iustifie him before God and Man As first the generall Obstinacie of contrary Teachers such as were the Romish of whom Luther complained saying They Alto fastu with high disdaine contemned my Preaching against Indulgences Secondly Luthers hearing if he had stayed the way of Truth often blasphemed Thirdly Luthers complaining of violent forcing of men to subscribe vnto New Articles this is Tyrannie And lastly he further chargeth them with Compelling him to submit to Satanicall Doctrines speaking both of the vilenesse of Indulgences and the Idolatrie of and in the Romish Masse Albeit any One of all these had bene a sufficient cause for him to warrant his Departure out of Romish Babylon THESIS III. LVTHER and his Followers were farre more safe for their Soules state in that Separation from the Church of Rome and lesse Schismatikes than They whom he forsooke SECT 16. ALL sound knowledge is by vnderstanding of the true Causes of things It is the Cause that distinguisheth a Martyr from an Heretike and the same iust Cause also truely and essentially vniteth one with the true Catholike Church discerneth him both from an Excommunicate properly so called and from a Schismatike Attend then to that which your Cardinall would haue you to MARKE Marke saith he that an vniust sentence of Excommunication is of no force at all Accordingly Saint Augustine Iniusta vincula iustitia disrumpit Vniust bonds are more iustly broken then kept Of this somewhat more hath bene said in a former Thesis This knowne it wil be no hard matter to find out the true Schismatike For as it is the vnlawfull Agent and not the Innocent Patient that maketh the Fray so in Excommunication Whosoeuer Excommunicateth another vniustly condemneth not that other but himselfe Accordingly in Separation from any Church the Actiue if vniust and not the partie Passiue is the Schismatike vpon which Suppositition Firmilianus Concluded against Stephen Pope of Rome that the said Stephen was the Schismatike by his Excommunicating and separating S. Cyprian with many Others in the Africane Chuches and else-where from his Communion In like Case well said once your Cardinall Benno that Eusebius did binde Liberius by forsaking his Communion Euen as did also the Africane Bishops in their Synod by Excluding Pope Vigilius out of their Communion in the dayes of Iustinian Now that Luther was vniustly Excommunicate by your Pope the first Thesis hath fully prooued And that Luther was a Passiue in this Separation appeareth not onely by his owne Complaints saying I was Compelled Constrained c. but also by the Proceedings of Pope Leo against him Else why is it that your owne Thuanus speaking of this Separation said that Some in those dayes layd the fault vpon Pope Leo More fully your Cassander an Author selected in those dayes by the King of the Romanes as the chiefest Diuine of his time and one most fit to be Consulted with concerning the same Separation of Protestants I cannot saith he denie many of them in the beginning to haue bene mooued and prouoked with a pious zeale to a sharpe reprehension of manifest Abuses and that the principall cause of this calamity and Disunion is to be imputed to them who superciliously and disdainefully contemned such godly Admonitions Neither yet euer had there bene as I am perswaded any Contention about the externall Vnitie of the Church except the Popes had abused their authority to an ambitious and Domineiring manner of Rule aboue the limits which Christ prescribed to his Church So He. But it will be said Why did not Luther seeke remedie and redresse of his wrong somewhere where we pray you should he haue sought it can you tell By Appealing to a Generall Councell why that meanes was barred by the Popes Extrauagant denouncing him to be Anathema whosoeuer shall so much as consult or deliberate to Appeale from the Pope to a future Generall Councell Albeit this preferring the Popes iudgement before a Councel's is by the sentence of two Romish Councels as namely Constance and Basil held a Doctrine of all others most Schismaticall Oh! but he being but a Sheepe cited to Rome should haue appeared before Leo his Pastor notwithstanding the Popes high indignation against him As though you could be ignorant of the Apologue of the Sheepe and the Lion at their meeting the end whereof could be no other then this Ora Leonis habes for the sheepe to run head-long into the Lions mouth A Fable which of later times the Venetian Fulgentius the French Abbot of Boys and after them the Dalmatian Spalatensis verified seelie Sheepe with the losse of their liues THESIS IV. The Romish Obiections vrged against this Separation of LVTHER are notably friuolous SECT 17. STill we say that an ill Cause oftentimes bewrayeth it selfe as much by the friuolous Obiections of an Opponent as it is discouered by the iust Euidences of a Defendant There are but foure kinde of Obiections besides such as haue bene alreadie answered which you do usually vrge against Luther THESIS V. The I. Obiection in respect of LVTHER'S former Vow to the Pope or Church of Rome is vaine and idle SECT 18. IT is true Luther had bene a Vowed and if you will a sworne Vassall to the Pope and to the Romane Church And so was once your owne Stephen Gardiner sometimes Bishop of Winchester whose answer in like case may satisfie your Curiositie and controlle your scurrilitie in this point Hee in his booke of True Obedience to the King notwithstanding the Popes Breeues to the contrary enlargeth himselfe in his Answer after this manner following Some saith he pull me backward asking why I enterprize so to teach Obedience as that I do disclose my owne Disobedience to the authority and power meaning of the Pope for whose Defence I was bound by my Oath to defend his authority to my possible Power Where is his keeping of Oaths become say they where is his fidelitie He was sworne to defend the Rights of the Church of Rome and now professeth himselfe an open enemie ther-unto But this their talke no more mooueth me than the bumbling sound of an old barrell because where vnlawfull Oathes there also vnlawfull Vowes are not to be kept for none are to sweare to any wickednesse Thus your owne Bishop and after illustrateth this by an elegant Similitude A certaine married man saith he when he thought by iust likely-hoods his first wife was dead