Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	scripture_n	speak_v	14,888	5	5.2608	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21445	The Capucin treated, or The lives of the Capucins with the life of S. Francis their patron. Wherein is described, and examined the original of the Capucins, their vows, rules, and disciplines. Written originally in French by the exquisite pen of that incomparably learned, and pious divine, Mr. Peter du Moulin, and Englished by Philanax Orthodoxus.; Capucin. English	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.	1665 (1665)	Wing D2581; ESTC R215372	45,820	122

describes these Priests after the very same manner It is a grand abuse to make Piety consist in things wherein Christians may be excelled by Heathens There is a proud humility which despiseth it self that it may be valued by others The Apostles and their Disciples did not live so In a simple and ordinary habit and manner of life they lived soberly and laboured in the work which God had committed to them They were famous not for their extravagant and hideous apparel not for whipping themselves nor for eating pottage on their knees but for their zeal and holiness of life CHAP. XV. That the Austerities and Humilities of the Capucins are full of Hypocrisie WE may easily know what to think of the Abstinences Whippings and humilities of the Capucins viz. that in the midst of their Austerities they discover their pride And of this I 'le give you some examples Before the Capucins begin their Lents for they have three Lents they feast and make merry for a whole week during which time there is no frolick or Jovial act which they omit Some of them sing songs of good fellowship others sing Amorous or love songs others shew Hocus pocus tricks others stand upon their heads or act the Tumbler or Juggler c. In fine every one doth such things as he had learned before he was a Monk In great towns there be few Capucins but have their superstitiously devout women who furnish them with all sorts of dainties as sweet meats comfits gellies c. So that some Capucins have more choice of dainties in their Cels then Ladies have in their closets When a Capucin comes from abroad warm linen clothes are put on his body his feet are washed with sweet herbs and when they are wiped with warm napkins every one comes and kisseth them Many of the old Monks who are called Fathers of importance are so carefull of their health that they have a cook for themselves in particular who is alwaies a Monk a groom of the chamber and an Apothecary who follow them from Convent to Convent You shall see very few of these Fathers of importance sick but they are very impatient if they want but the least trifle and then all the town is ransackt from one end to the other to find what they would have The Nuns furnish them with sweet meats the Ladies with rare broths and gellies the Gentlemen of the Country with wild fowle the merchants and other towns-men with Shambles-meat and the wine which they ordinarily drink is the best that is to be had Those Capucins who to save their Souls have left the Order do protest that they have learned of us how to fast and that when they were Capucins they fed more highly and lived more pleasantly and plentifully In great Convents of Capucins such as are at Paris and Roven a most furious ambition and envie discovers it self For to obtain the least preferment in the Convent and to supplant their competitors they have their creatures who cry them up every where and rail on those that aspire to the same Office whence great disorders do oftentimes arise for Princes do more patiently bear contempts and injuries then the Capucins And at the Tables of Dukes Marquesses and Earls the Capucins suffer themselves to be placed at the upper end Their pride appears in this that they profess works of supererogation that is to say better works then God commands so that God may say to a Capucin I would not have thee so holy The same spirit of pride appears in their calling themselves Angels Archangels Spirits Seraphins and Cherubins It appears also by the unworthy submissions which the principal Capucins require of the inferiour who never speak to the Superiours but on their knees which Superiours command them very base things as to lick up the others spittle c. It cannot be said that they wear a barbarous and extravagant habit in humility and mortification For he that will subdue his Flesh may do it as well under a common habit he may under a usual habit wear a hair-shirt and may whip himself secretly as often as he pleaseth and without any one's knowledge But this wild habit differing from that of other men serves onely to be look'd upon and admired for people gaze upon and admire nothing but what is extraordinary To this we may add that he who makes profession of simplicity and humility in his conversation should not be vain in his discourses nor too wantonly nice and delicate in his words for fear of belying his Profession by his Language I speak this because of Father Joseph 〈◊〉 Capucin who in his new Book shews tha● he hath made a great provision of Elegancies As when he calls St. John The Secretary o● Love to the Son of God And of Transubstantion he saith that it is Love's Master-piece And speaking to us he saith That when God shall have brought us into his Wine-cellar there to taste of the excess of his love we shall not find it so difficult to believe That Jesus Christ did eat himself and that together with Christ's body the Devil entred into Judas With the like grace supposing the words of St. Philip to the Eunuch too weak and impertinent as they are set down in the eighth Chapter of the Acts he introduceth him speaking thus Sir will it please you that I presume to ask you a question with all due respect To which he makes the Eunuch answer with the like civility I pray oblige me so much as to come into this Coach Note also that the very first word of his Book is a mistake beginning thus The Apostle St. Philip For this Philip was not an Apostle With the like vanity he talks of preaching in a Ruff and in a Band and of yellow and green Gentlewomen and he brings in speaking I know not what Courtier who praiseth and extolleth him to his face saying That Father Joseph speaks very gracefully and that all the Catholiques have been very much comforted by his Sermons and do admire the force and clearness of his Reasons CHAP. XVI Of the pleasant Process betwixt the Capucins and Recollects about the Tip of their Hoods Also of Masses in Red Green and Violet THe pride of the Minor Fryars did never more clearly appear then in the quarrel which they had and have to this day with the Recollects who are also of St. Francis's Order When we speak of a Process about nothing we say It is a Process about the point of a needle but the Process of these Minor Fryars hath been about the point or Tip of their Hood We must know that the Cordeliers who brag as well as the Capucins that they wear St. Francis's Habit differ from the Capucins in wearing a round Hood and laugh at the Capucins and Recollects for wearing a sharp-pointed Hood calling it in derision * Made like a Pyram●d in which they put such things as they sell by retail A Grocers paper Betwixt these

Rule he alledgeth Scripture so dexterously and pertinently as we shall see anon At last brother Francis dyed having acted a Comedy both before God and man CHAP. XIX The great rewards which St. Francis received for his humility And of his marks A Humility so profound and of s● great a merit was not unrewarde● St. Antonine pag. 728. in the life of St. Francis reports That the people did run after him and did tear his cloathes in pieces every on● striving to carry away a piece believing tha● these rags were of great vertue and a prope● meanes for salvation so that the peopl● left him half naked Bonaventure saith That a certain holy ma● had a vision wherein it seemed to him tha● a golden cross came out of St. Francis'● mouth whose top touched Heaven an● its two armes reached unto the ends of th● Earth In the seventh chapter of the Revelati●● St. John speaks thus I saw another Ang● ascending from the East having the sea● of the living God St. Bonaventure in th● life of St. Francis Bonavent pag. 31. saith That we must believe that without doubt this Angel is St Francis these are his words I saw sait● John in the Revelation another Angel asce●ding from the East having the seal of the living God Whence we gather by an infallible faith that this messenger of God beloved of Christ to be imitated by us and admired by the world is that servant of God Francis The same Bonaventure saith Pag. 40. that a certain holy and devout man being once in St. Francis's company fell into a trance and saw in Heaven divers seats amongst which he saw one more Magnificently adorned then the rest glittering with pretious stones and very glorious And as this holy man was wondering for whom this seat was prepared a voice came to him from Heaven saying This was the seat of one of the lapsed Angels and is kept for the most humble Francis The Legend saith the same and we have already seen that this was the seat of one of the apostate Seraphins and that by this exaltation the most humble Francis is placed above the Archangels and above the Cherubins and consequently above all the Saints except the Virgin Mary who is called The Queen of Heaven All that have written the life and actions of St. Francis say That about two years before his death God intending to recompence the humility and merits of St. Francis sent a Seraphin to him which lying upon him cross-wise imprinted on his hands and feet the marks of the wounds of Jesus Christ After his death there was a great stir and contest about these marks Some laughed at it and said that if St. Francis had really received from God the marks of the wounds of Jesus Christ every one must needs have seen them during the space of those two years seing he went with his feet naked and wore no gloves but that none ever saw them save one Fryar named Elias Antonin Tit. 24. cap. 2. S. 8. Solus hoc frater Elias casu utcunque prospicere meruit who saw them but once and that by chance too They said also that the miracles of Jesus Christ and his Apostles served to some good purpose viz. to cure diseases to give ease and deliverance to the afflicted to raise the dead c. but that the marks of these wounds d● no cure at all and are good for nothing That it is not credible that God would imprint these marks on a mortal body whic● was soon after to putrifie by which putrefaction these marks had been defaced Moreover that although these marks had been really imprinted yet it is a thing which the Devil or men may easily counterfeit That the Apostles who had more worth in them then St. Francis never had these marks But the Pope interposed and in recompence of the services which Brother Francis had done him for he was a great defender of the Popes Authority Canonized him and put him in the Catalogue of the Saints This Canonization was Anno Domini 1228. Moreover Pope Alexander the Fourth Anno Domini 1254. understanding that St. Francis was on Mount Alverno when he received the impression of these wounds took this occasion to augment his Revenue For he declared that all the Ecclesiastical Lands and Goods in that Mountain did belong to the Pope and were directy and immediately subject to the Church of Rome Moreover Antonin cap. 2. s 10. he did personally cite and adjourn those who had maliciously defaced the marks of the Image of S. Francis which was at Gennes in the Church of St. Mary de Vignes About twenty six years since Pope Nicolas the Fourth sent Bulls to all the Churches under the Papal jurisdiction certifying the truth of St. Francis's marks though divers who were hard of belief Antonin pag. 720. laughed at it since which time the memory of St. Francis's marks is sacred in the Church of Rome which as Antonine saith observes the Feast of St. Francis's marks which honour is not done to the marks of Jesus Christ When I consider these things I cannot enough wonder at the blindness of those that give credit to things so full of absurdities and impostures It seems as if the adorers of St. Francis had invented them on purpose to dishonour and mock him for no man who hath any common sense left him will do such things as are attributed to St. Francis who play'd the mad-man that he might be counted a Saint and as much as in him lay kept himself from the usual and ordinary actions of mankind that he might be admired viz. To draw roasted flesh through the ashes to wallow in the dirt with Swine to tumble in the snow to give instruction to Animals and to call them his brethren and Sisters are things which cannot be done by a man that is in his right senses And herein we must admire the just effects of Gods displeasure who hath revenged the contempt of his Word contained in the holy Scriptures for in those days and in the following Ages the holy Scripture was a Book sealed and altogether unknown to the people Nothing was then talked of but Images lying Wonders Croisades Indulgences adoration of Reliques and the power of the Pope was then at the height and absurd and feigned Legends were the ordinary subject of Sermons Wherefore God being provoked strook the people with the spirit of giddiness and with a horrible blindness which grew thicker and thicker until God took the Candle of his Word from under the Bushel and exposed to view the holy Scriptures CHAP. XX. That under the Cloak of Humility Saint Francis hid an unparallel'd pride WHosoever shall rightly consider the actions of St. Francis shall under the Cloak of Humility discover an unparallel'd pride In the beginning of the Legend written by James de Voragine it is reported That Francis being prisoner with divers other persons he onely was merry and all the rest were

Rule obligeth the Minor Fryars to observe the Gospel in things which the Gospel of Jesus Christ commands not for you cannot find that the Gospel of Jesus Christ forbids any one to marry on the contrary Jesus Christ by the mouth of his Apostle commands those who cannot contain to marry and St. Peter was married Jesus Christ forbids us not to possess any thing in particular nor doth he command us to live in beggery by the sweat of other mens brows He commands not to make a Vow of Obedience to a Guardian or Abbot or Superiour of a Monastery for in the dayes of Jesus Christ there were no such people nor in many Ages after Can there be a more manifest mockery then to oblige men by Vow to obey the Gospel in such things whereof the Gospel makes not the least mention and some whereof are contrary to the Gospel But if these things are commanded in the Gospel as this Rule falsly presupposeth why then doth the Pope dispence with this Vow by permitting Monks to marry However he seldome gives this permission except to persons of great Quality In the second Chapter of the same Rule you shall find these words Let those who are received Monks have a Cloak with a Hood and if they will another without a Hood Also let those wear shooes who are constrained by necessity so to do Likewise let all the Fryars wear poor and base cloathes which they may patch with pieces of sack-cloth and such other stuff and shall have the blessing of God with it Must not that man be out of his wits who thinks that the patching of old cloathes can bring down the blessing of God upon any one And seeing the Capucins cloathes are of woollen-cloth St. Francis did very improperly ordain that they should be patched with sack-cloth In the same Chapter of this Rule mention is made of three Lents viz. the Lent before Easter another from All Saints day till Christmass and the other from the day of the Epiphany till the Lent before Easter So that there are five Months of Lent The two first are necessarily enjoyned but the third is left to every ones liberty In this same Chapter the Minor Fryars are forbiden to ride on Horse-back except in case of extreme necessity Also they are commanded when they enter into any house to eat whatsoever is set before them By this Rule they may eat flesh in Lent They are likewise forbidden in the same Chapter to receive money either personally or by Proxie For Pope Nicolas hath already told us that to have a Bag and Money as Jesus Christ and his Apostles had is an action of infirmity but Saint Francis who had neither Bag nor Money attained unto greater perfection In the fifth Chapter of the same Rule Francis d'Assise commands his Monks to labour with their hands if they are able But in his Testament he speake more precisely for he saith that he himself did labour with his hands and he adds I do likewise expresly command all the other Monks to labour This Command is not observed now a dayes for the Capucins and Cordeliers who understand a Trade had rather live in idle beggery by other mens labour And thus they daily break their Vow and transgress their Rule But above all are remarkable the words of the Tenth Chapter of this Rule which are these Let not the Fryars trouble themselves to teach those to read who cannot read but above all things let them desire the Spirit of God St. Francis sayes this because some Monks are very ignorant and cannot read Some such there are now adayes but not so many as there were in St. Francis's time whose opinion it is That no body needs trouble himself to teach them to read that so they may be instructed in the holy Scriptures he had rather they should remain ignorant Onely he would have them desire the Holy Ghost not considering that God gives this Spirit to those who are instructed in his Word For to desire the Holy Spirit and yet to neglect the ordinary means whereby the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of men is to shut the door against him while we desire him it is just as if a man should desire to have a Bell rung without having the Clapper of it moved These are the Commands of Francis d'Assise who is exalted above the Cherubins that stand before the Throne of God to the observation of which Commands he promiseth Life Eternal and by the transgression of them a man incurs the indignation of God and of the Apostles Peter and Paul but not of St. Philip and St. Luke Moreover here are better and more excellent things proposed then those which God commands in his Law viz. Works of Supererogation which merit a super-eminent degree of Glory far above the ordinary sort of Saints who contented themselves with doing what God commands To this Rule are added the Constitutions of the Order whereof I have already spoken which the Capucins observe more exactly and with greater obedience then they do the Law of God and Doctrine of the Gospel CHAP. XXII That the Holy Scripture is falsified and wrested in the Rule of St. Francis WE have heard before that St. Bonaventure saith That St. Franci● had not any science acquired by study but that he had received the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures by divine inspiration Whether this be true or not will appear by the passages of Scripture which Francis d' Assise alledgeth in his Rule In the second Chapter he strictly forbids the Minor Fryars to forsake the Order but will have them continue in it as long as they live And that they ought so to do he proves by a passage of St. Luke in his Ninth Chapter Verse 62. where Jesus Christ speaks thus No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdome of God The connexion of this passage with the preceding Verses shews that by him who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is meant such a one whom Jesus Christ having sent to preach the Gospel and having undertaken that charge doth afterwards leave it to serve his worldly occasions Our Lord speaks not of him who hath vowed never to marry and to wear no shirt and to live by begging and to observe humane Rules and Traditions which ensnare men in unclean lusts and which are given to God for better works then those commanded in his Law as if Man would make him a debtor In a word to forsake the service of Jesus Christ and to transgress the Rule of Francis d' Assise is in his opinion one and the same thing In the Ninth Chapter of the same Rule St. Francis commands the Monks to be brief in their Sermons Quia verbum abbreviatum fecit Dominus super terram that is Because the Lord made his word short upon earth Which is a passage taken from the Tenth Chapter of Isaiah Vers 23. and from the Epistle of