Councils have Condemn'd of Error the Opinion of those who maintain'd that the particular Churches of Alexandria or of Constantinople were true Churches without being United to the Bishop of Rome the common Head of the Catholick Church out of which have descended in a continual Succession all the Popes from St. Peter to this day who by the relation of St. Marcellus the Martyr fix'd his Chair at Rome by order from Jesus Christ and cemented it with his own Blood These Popes have been held without Controversie to be the Vicars of Jesus Christ by innumerable holy Doctors Greek and Latin and of all Nations they have been acknowledg'd by Anchortes Bishops and other Confessors Illustrious for Sanctity Lastly they have been Authenticated by an infinity of Miracles and by innumerable Martyrs who have dy'd in the Union and for the Faith of the holy Roman Church It was therefore with good reason that in the Council of Calcedon all the Bishops cry'd with one Voice in Saluting the holy Pope St. Leo Most Holy Apostolick Universal and that in the Council of Constance those were Anathematiz'd who deny'd the Primacy and Authority of the Bishop of Rome over all the Churches of the World These Decrees so Express and so Authentick are farther confirm'd by the Council of Florence which was held under Eugenius the Fourth and in which were present the Greeks the Armenians the Jacobites and other Nations We Define say the Fathers of this Council that the holy See Apostolick and the Bishop of Rome hath the Primacy over all the Churches in the World that he is Successor of St. Peter the Vicar of Jesus Christ the Head of the whole Church the Father and Doctor of all the Faithful that our Lord Jesus Christ hath given him in the person of St. Peter a full power to instruct to direct and to govern the Universal Church Wherefore the most Serene King David Father to your Highness with great right did formerly acknowledge by a sollemn Embassy the Church of Rome for the Mother and Mistress of all Churches And amongst the many illustrious Actions by which both he and you have recommended your Names to Posterity two there are which will outshine all the rest and for which your People ought to render immortal thanks to God Your Father is the first King of the Abyssins who put himself under the Obedience of him who holds the place of Jesus Christ upon Earth and you are the first who hath brought into your Dominions a true Patriarch a Legitimate Son of the holy See and deputed by the Vicar of Jesus Christ For if it ought to be reckon'd the highest Blessing as in effect it is to be United to the Mystical Body of the Catholick Church which is enliven'd and directed by the Holy Ghost teaching her all Truths according to the Testimony of the Evangelist If it be a great happiness to be enlightned with sound Doctrine to be settl'd and to rest upon the Foundations of the Church which the Apostle St. Paul writing to Timothy calls the House of God the Pillar and Basis of Truth to which our Lord Jesus Christ hath promis'd an Everlasting Assistance when he said to his Apostles Behold I am always with you to the end of the World as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew These Nations have certainly great reason to thank their Saviour and Creator whose merciful Providence has made use of your Father and of your self to bestow such benefits upon them and their acknowledgment should the more shew it self in regard also of the Temporal Advantages which are likely to follow these Spiritual Blessings For we may justly hope that by the means of this Reunion with the Church your Enemies will soon be vanquish'd and your Empire enlarg'd The Priests which are sent you are indeed all but principally the Patriarch and the two Bishops of try'd Vertue and selected out of our Society for so important a Function in regard of their eminent Learning and of their perfect Charity They want neither Courage nor Zeal well to acquit themselves of their Ministry hoping that they shall Labour usefully for the Glory of God for the Conversion of Souls and for the Service of your Highness Their only desire is to imitate in some sort the Son of God who willingly suffer'd death to redeem Mankind from Eternal Damnation and who saith by the Mouth of the Evangelist I am the good Shepherd the good Shepherd gives his Life for his Sheep The Patriarch and the rest animated by the Example of our Saviour come dispos'd to relieve and gain Souls by their Counsels by their Labours and even by their Death if need shall require The more freely your Highness shall be pleas'd to open your mind and to communicate your thoughts to them the greater I hope your inward Consolation will be And for what regards the Credit to be given to what they shall say either in private or in publick your Highness is not Ignorant that the words of these Missioners sent by the Holy See and chiefly those of the Patriarch have Apostolical Authority and in some sort are no less to be credited then the voice of the Church whose Interpreters they are And in regard that all the Faithful ought to adhere to the Sentiments of the Church obey her Decrees and consult her in doubtful Cases I am perswaded that your Piety will lead you to make an Edict which may oblige all your Subjects to follow without resistance the Orders and Constitutions both of the Patriarch and of those whom he shall substitute in his place The Deuteronomy teaches us that it was the Custom among the Jews in the Controversies and Difficulties which occur'd to have recourse to the Synagogue which was the Figure and Forerunner of the Christian Church For this reason it was that Jesus Christ said in the Gospel the Scribes and Pharisees are seated on the Chair of Moses the wise Man teaches the same thing in the Proverbs Do not neglect the Precepts of your Mother This Mother is the Church And in another place pass not the bounds which your Fathers have set these Fathers are the Prelates of the Church In conclusion Jesus Christ requires of us to have so great deference to his Church that he plainly tells us by the Evangelist St. Luke He who hears you hears me and he who contemns you contemns me And by St. Matthew If he hears not the Church let him be to you as a Heathen and a Publican Hence it follows that we must not hearken to those who hold forth any thing that is not conformable to the Sense and the Interpretation of the Catholick Church of which we are admonish'd by those words of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians But altho ' we or any Angel from Heaven should Evangelize to you otherwise then we have Evangeliz'd to you be he Anathema In fine the Testimony of the Holy Doctors the Canons of Councils the Consent and
our Ladies of Montserrat out of the Devotion which he always conserv'd towards the miraculous Image which is honor'd at the Place of Montserrat where he made his Renunciation of secular Warfare He Preach'd very feelingly and his Talent was to make the Truths of the Gospel enter into the Heart by laying them forth in a plain manner such as they are in themselves and as he himself relish'd them so that pious Persons and of good sence who us'd to hear his Sermons were wont to say That the Word of God naked and plain had in the Mouth of Ignatius its full Majesty and force Faber Xaverius Laynez and the rest did also Preach with great fervour and with no other aim but the good of Souls From their first Sermons there was observ'd a remarkable change in the Manners of the People The frequentation of the Sacraments which was then little in use was restor'd according to the Model of the first Ages of Christianity and 't is since that time that so holy a Custom has been introduced into all Catholick Countries as well as that of making Catechisms to the Children and Sermons to the People every Sunday and Holy-day This Eavngelical Ministry did not hinder Ignatius from often Treating with his Companions concerning the Project of his Institute for tho' he had the Model of it within him yet he would do nothing in it without their concurrence Being employ'd all the day either in instructing the People in publick or in directing Consciences in private they took the Night for the time of their Consults They resolv'd in one of their Assemblies by the direction of Ignatius that besides the Vows of Poverty and Chastity which they had made at Venice they should make another of perpetual Obedience the more to conform themselves to the Son of God who was obedient even to death That to this end they should elect a Superior General whom they must all obey as God himself That this Superior should be perpetual and that his Authority should be absolute At another Meeting they agree'd That such as were Profess'd in their Society should add to the three Vows of Poverty Chastity and Obedience an express Vow of going wheresoever the Vicar of Jesus Christ should send them to labour in the Salvation of Souls and even to go without any Viaticum and living upon Alms if his Holiness should think it fit They had also other Conferences where they resolv'd That the Profess'd should possess nothing neither in particular nor in common but that in the Universities they might have Colleges with Revenues and Rents for the subsistence of those who Study After this manner they were employ'd in expectation of the Pope's return and the Blessing which God bestow'd upon their Labours made them hope for a happy success in their grand Design when on the sudden a Tempest was rais'd which almost over-turn'd all their hopes There was at Rome a famous Preacher by Nation a Piemontese and a Religious of the Order of the Augustine Hermits a reform'd Man in appearance but unworthy of the holy Habit which he wore and a Lutheran in his heart The absence of his Holiness gave him confidence from his Pulpit to vent the Errors of that Heresiarch The better to surprize the People he mightily lamented the relaxation of Discipline and of Doctrine in point of Manners and Christian Morals And thereupon he would insinuate some ambiguous Proposition which he fail'd not seemingly to back with the Authority of holy Fathers and with the Example of the first Ages Ignatius could not imagine that a Religious Man should be capable of Preaching Heresie in the middle of Rome and he believ'd at first that they had put a wrong sence upon the words of the Preacher or that the Propositions which made so much noise had negligently slipt from him without design However to be throughly inform'd of the truth he order'd Salmeron and Laynez who had formerly Disputed with the Hereticks in Germany and knew the bottom of Lutheranism to go at several times to hear him Being ascertain'd by them that he taught the very Doctrine of Luther under a specious pretence of teaching that of the Primitive Church he procur'd him to be admonish'd in secret that his Doctrine had caus'd a great deal of scandal and this Advice was given him with all the precautions which Prudence and Charity require But 't is the nature of Heresie to affect Moderation when 't is undisturb'd and let alone and to be violent in the highest degree upon any opposition made against it The Preacher whom all Rome follow'd as an Oracle made haughty by his Reputation and so much the more irritated by the Remonstrances which had been made him by how much they were founded upon Truth he vented his rage against those who suspected his Doctrine and boldly maintain'd all those Propositions which he had advanced Ignatius seeing that a secret Admonition had been unprofitable and that sweet Remedies increased the Disease thought it his duty publickly to oppose the Enterprize of a Man who made it his Business to corrupt the purity of Faith in the Capital City of Christendom Wherefore he and his Companions went into the Pulpit and with all their might confuted his Errors by defending the necessity of Good-works the Vows of Religion the Authority of the Church and such other Catholick Articles as are Impugned by the Lutherans The ten Preachers did not Preach in vain the Fryar became suspected of Heresie but being a Man very dextrous and intriguing he wanted neither Artifice to justifie himself nor Credit to be supported His first Address was to retort upon Ignatius the suspicion of Heresie saying aloud That it was the custom of cunning Hereticks to impute Errors to whom they pleas'd that by raising a dust they might undiscover'd and with Impunity vent worse themselves But the better to corroborate what he would have believ'd he drew into his Cabal three Spaniards who had an honest and sober out-side very proper to authorize a Calumny One of them was call'd Mudarra another Barrera and the third Castilla They were not contented to defame Ignatius only as a Lutheran and a wicked Man but they suborn'd Michael Navarr and engag'd him to depose something of a heinous nature against him This is that Navarr who at Paris being inrag'd at the Conversion of Xaverius made an attempt upon the Life of Ignatius He was come to Rome after he had run about the greatest part of Europe and he hated Ignatius the more for that having offer'd himself to be one of his Disciples he was not judg'd worthy This Man then declar'd before the Governor of Rome that the Ring-leader of certain Spanish Priests was an Heretick and a Sorcerer who had been burnt in Effigie at Alcala at Paris and at Venice He protested upon Oath That nothing but his Conscience forc'd him to accuse a Man of his own Nation that he averr'd nothing but what he had
Joan as to hold forth That in this Coming of Jesus Christ which according to his Predictions was to happen in few years she should be the Redeemeress of Women as Jesus Christ was to be the Redeemer of Men and he compos'd a Book on this Subject Entituled De Virgine Veneta As we wander without end when we leave the straight Line of Truth and whereas Fanaticism borders upon Phrenzy Postel publish'd in his other Books That all Sects should be saved by Jesus Christ That the greatest part of the Mysteries of Christianity were only Fables That the Angel Raphael had reveal'd to him the Divine Secrets and that his Writings were the Dictates of Jesus Christ himself So many Impieties would perhaps have cost him his Life if he had not been judg'd Distracted He was shut up for his Extravagances and remain'd several years in Prison at last he made his escape and after having a long while roam'd about he return'd into France by the way of Geneva more Libertine and more Extravagant then ever Yet at last it pleas'd God to give him his Wits and the Grace to acknowledge his Impieties in an extream old Age and to die in the Communion of the Church It is said that he liv'd an hundred years and that about the end of his days he in a manner grew young again so that his white Hairs return'd to be black About the time that Father Ignatius Expell'd Doctor Postel his Holiness Paul the Third who ever since his Promotion still had it in his thoughts to remedy the Evils of Christendom and who had lately made Peace between the Emperor and the King of France demanded two Divines of the Society who should Assist in his Name with his Legats at the General Council to be held at Trent The Father chose James Laynez and Alphonsus Salmeron both of them indeed very young the first being Four and thirty and the other but Thirty years old but both of them so Learned and so Instructed in the Matters of Religion that the old Divines look'd upon them as their Masters Laynez whom the Venetians obtain'd from the time that the Institute was first Approv'd by the Holy See was Employ'd over the whole State of the Signiory and the chief of his Business was to preserve Venice Padua and the other Towns from the Errors of Germany where they had insensibly crept in Salmeron did the same at Modena whither after his return from Ireland he had been call'd by the Cardinal John Moron Bishop of the Town into which Place those new Heresies had also found their way Tho' Father Ignatius did much relie upon the Vertue both of the one and the other yet the fear he had least the Title of The Pope's Divines in the most August Assembly of the World should a little dazle Men so young oblig'd him to give them before their departure some Advertisements and Instructions for their Conduct After recommending to them in general to seek in all things during the Council the greatest Glory of God and the common Good of the Church without neglecting their Neighbours Souls and their own Perfection he prescribes to them in Particular these following Rules Always to give their Opinions with modesty and in those occasions to shew more Humility then Learning To observe with great attention the Sentiments and Reasons of those who first Opine that afterwards they may either speak or be silent as the Matter requires When any Points are Debated always to set forth the Reasons on both sides that they may not appear wedded to their own Judgment and never to quote any living Author for a Guarrantie of their Opinions that they may not seem to be ty'd up to any Man's Judgment To Visit Hospitals at least every Fourth day to Catechize Children to Preach Pennance to the People but without touching in their Sermons upon any Point of Controversie which may perplex their Understandings but only in general exhorting them to submit their Judgments to the Decisions of the Church Lastly to excite their Auditors incessantly to pray for the good success of the Council This farther Advertisement he gives them That as in the Assemblies where Questions of Faith are Treated a moderate and concise Discourse is most suitable so when they come into the Chair they should be more diffuse and vehement He afterwards declar'd to them that these Directions did as well regard Claude le Jay who was at that time in Germany much employ'd in making head against the Hereticks and whom Cardinal Otho Bishop of Ausburg was upon sending to Trent in Quality of his Divine and of his Legat. He added That when they should be all three together they should live in a perfect Concord without interfering in Opinions and Judgments That every Night they should confer upon what had pass'd that Day and deliberate every Morning upon what they had to do the rest of the Day That they should let slip no occasion of doing good Offices to every body and to themselves in admonishing one another of their Faults in not leaving any thing uncorrected and in mutually animating one another to lead an unblameable Life The satisfaction which Father Ignatius had to see the Council open'd at last after so many Lets and Delays was much allay'd by the Misunderstanding then happening between the Pope and the King of Portugal which arose upon the account of the famous Michael de Silva This Portuguez descended from the Illustrious House of the Counts de Portalegre and Son of Don Diego de Silva who had been Governor to the King Don Emanuel having resided a long time with the Popes Leo the Tenth Adrian the Sixth and Clement the Seventh was call'd back from his Embassy of Italy by Don John the Third Successor to Don Emanuel and provided at his return not only with the Bishoprick of Viseu but also with the Office of Protonotury of Secretary of the Kingdom He was afterwards nominated Cardinal by Paul the Third who had known him in the former Pontificates Whereas his Promotion was properly the Work of Cardinal Alexander Farnesius his Friend and the Pope's Nephew Portugal being wholly a Stranger to it it shockt the King who would not have his Subjects owe their Preferment to any but himself So that this Prince would never be induc'd to give way that the Bishop of Viseu should receive his Cap. The Bishop perswaded that Princes do not easily recede and that having lost the good Graces of his Master he had more yet to fear departed secretly out of Portugal and went into Italy whither Fortune seem'd to call him Being come to Rome he was made Cardinal with great Solemnity and his Disgrace in Portugal joyn'd with his great Merit were the occasion of extraordinary Honors done him The King irritated with the Flight and with the Reception of the Bishop began his Resentment by depriving him of the Revenue of his Bishoprick and by forbidding his Subjects under grievous Penalties to