Knowledge were yet imperfect suitable to the Age in which he lived if he did not all of the sudden emancipate himself All these things might induce Cranmer to continue in the exercise of many Rites to which he had been long accustomed after they were softned with some Corrections and Explanations hoping at last to engage the whole Nation into an unanimous Reformation If in all these things the grounds he went on are not so sure as to warrant all he did yet in that dawn of Light a complyance upon such Considerations is not so heinous a thing but that he who was guilty of it may yet be well reckon'd among the greatest Men that have been in the Church Since the Judgments that we make of Men ought to be formed neither upon some slips they may have made on the one hand nor upon some great Actions on the other but upon the whole thread and course of their Lives And as to Cranmer there appeared in him so much Candor and Sincerity so great a contempt of the World and such a neglect of his Family such a Spirit of Gentleness and Charity both to those who differed from him and even to his Enemies such a simplicity of Spirit that he would never enter into the Intrigues and Factions of Court. Such a constant application to the finding out of Truth and such a plainness in acknowledging Mistakes and submitting himself to the Correction of others so much Humility and Modesty during one and twenty years Greatness and such an unblemished Purity as to his Personal Deportment that even the Libels of that time durst not attempt upon it All these of which I had such copious Discoveries appeared so extraordinary to me that I was not affraid to mix with them all the instances of Humane Frailty that I found in him If I had writ as most of those in the Church of Rome do that publish Lives I should have assumed the Impudence to have denied some things and to have passed over others And at least I should have suppressed a great many things that were never known before I published them But I write not for Parties or Persons I write for Truth 's Sake and so was not affraid to shew even the weak sides of our Reformers This is one of the unsearchable depths of Divine Providence to let the Man appear even when God shews himself And with how much indignation soever Mr. de Meaux rejects the consideration that I offered of S Peter's Denial to soften the Censure of Cranmer's fall yet I return to it and take the Liberty to say that considering it was in our Saviour's own Presence who had so lately warned him of it and who had parted with his Disciples in so ravishing a manner giving them such elevating Instructions and ending these with so inflaming a Prayer who was also upon the point of Offering up himself a Sacrifice for the Sins of the World And whose ill usage from his Persecutors ought in a most particular manner to have softned and melted his Disciples who saw it Besides that nothing could more betray the Reputation of our Saviour's Innocency than his being denied by one of his Disciples which lookt as if he was ashamed of him And after all that the Temptation was so weak the Accusation of a Maid and some that stood near her and that the Denial was confirmed with Oaths and Imprecations I still doubt if Cranmer's Fall is capable of so many aggravations and therefore as the meanness of Man and the greatness of God and of his Grace appeared in S. Peter's Fall and in his Repentance and his being afterwards restored to that sublime Dignity from which he had fallen so I doubt not but that God suffered Cranmer in his old Age after a long and hard Imprisonment and that he had seen some of his Brethren burnt before his Eyes to fall that so he might by his Mighty Power raise him again and in him teach us to cease from Man for wherein is he to be accounted of and that such as glory might glory in the Lord and not in Man. As for the difference that is alledged as to the Time that the one was but for a moment and that the other lasted longer it is to be consider'd that our Saviour lookt presently at Saint Peter and the Authority of that look together with the Divine Vertue that might accompany it and the Crowing of the Cock were such extraordinary Motives that it had been a wonder indeed if Saint Peter had resisted them and we may Charitably believe that if Cranmer had been blessed with such awakening Motives he had likewise Repented sooner than he did So that upon the whole matter I do not see any one Action in all Cranmer's Life unless it be his consenting to the Divorce of Anne of Cleve in which it does not appear that he adhered strictly to a Principle of Conscience tho' it is a question if that Principle was always well measured or not But that is nothing to the probity of the man so long as he adheres to that which he thinks right And even in that of Anne of Cleve as it was the body of the Popish Clergy that did it so that his part was only a giving a too feeble consent so he believing that Marriage was no Sacrament might think it subject to Political Regulations especially when it was not consummated so that the rights of Nature did not seem concerned Whether this is to be defended or not I will not determine But certainly this is not so odious a matter as Mr. de Meaux would make it appear to be And for his dissolving the Marriage of Anne Bullen the Record of that Sentence is lost so that we do not know what it was that she confessed and therefore here Mr. de Meaux studies to defame Cranmer upon conjecture and yet I suppose that he himself would think that he met with hard measure if he were censured much less condemned upon Reports Presumptions or Conjectures As for all the good Characters that Mr. de Meaux gives of our Sinods I shall only crave leave to tell him that if one would examine not only the Councils of Trent and Florence or to go a little higher the second Council of Nice and some antienter Assemblies as he has done ours they would find not only Intrigues Weaknesses and Passions but down right Impostures in them In short it has appeared that Man was Man even in the best Ages and in the most Celebrated Assemblies of the Church and I will not stick to own it freely that if I had not a great Veneration for the first four General Councils for the sake of the Truths that they decreed I should never pay them much when I consider their Method of Proceeding which appears but too evidently to those who have read the Journals of the third and fourth and if we Judge of the first by the mutual Complaints which they exhibited to Constantine and
all we live under a Legal Government by which even our Kings are bound so that any Order that comes from them whether in Matters Temporal or Spiritual that is not founded on Law or that is contrary to it is null of it self The King's Supremacy among us amounts to no more than that the Execution of the laws that relate to Religion and to the Persons of Church men belongs to our Kings And all the difference between the French Constitution and ours as to this is that whereas the French King Acts Arbitrarily in those Matters ours are limited by Law. So that if a Clergy-man is legally proved to be guilty of a Crime our King indeed orders the Law to pass upon him in his Courts of Justice But the King can shut up no Clergy-men in Prisons or detain them there during Pleasure We do not know what those Letters of the Cachet are nor the Exiles or Imprisonments which go according to the Pleasure of a King and the Directions of a Father Confessor We retain the Freedome of the Elections of our Bishops there being only a Temporal punishment laid on us by Law if we do not follow the King's Recommendation And except in Matters of Marriages an Appeal from the Spiritual Court is scarce ever heard of in England And even when an Appeal is brought it is to be Judged by Delegates that are named by the King's Authority a considerable number of whom are always Bishops Nor have our Parliaments or our Princes medled any other way in Matters of Religion but that they have given the Civil Sanction to the Propositions made by the Church and this is that which all Christian Princes do in all places so that after all the Clamour that is made on our being Subjected to the Civil Power it is certain that the Gallican Church is much more Subject to it than we are And yet these Men who have abandoned all the Immunities of the Church Reproach us with Thomas Becket tho' there is not one of them that dares make any one of those steps which procured to him his Saintship These Men do also swear the Oath that is in the Pontifical to the Pope of which Mr. Claud put Mr. de Meaux in mind long ago but he is Wiser than to take any notice of a thing which he knows he cannot answer for I would gladly see how they observe any one of all the Articles that are in that Oath Mr. de Meaux is offended at Cranmer for the Protestation that he made explaining to what degree he thought himself bound to observe it and yet tho' he and his Brethren swore it it does not appear that it makes any great impression on their Consciences They are resolved to have no regard to it only they cannot endure Cranmer's Honesty for protesting to that purpose But if they fail in this part of their Oath they have been most exactly true to another Branch of it which obliges them to Persecute Hereticks to the utmost of their Power Thus it appears how just it was for Mr. de Meaux to apprehend that we should Recriminate And that in all points the Recrimination falls much heavier on their Church than the Charge it self can fall on ours He takes notice of an Objection that he finds I made upon the Subject of those prejudices which is that if we enter on a Personal Dispute concerning the Reformers the worst things that even their Enemies can lay to their charge come far short of those Enormous Crimes of which even their own Historians confess their Popes to have been Guilty and that some times in a Series of many Ages together in which not so much as one good Pope Interveened so uninterrupted was that Succession Now Popes being according to the general Doctrine of that Church the Infallible Oracles of Truth and the Universal Bishops and according to all the rest of their Communion they being the Heads of the Church Christ's Vicars and the Centers of Unity they are much more concerned in all that relates personally to their Popes than we are in the Lives of our Reformers All that Mr. de Meaux says to this is that the Reformers are the Authors of our Sect and that therefore we are more immediately concerned in them But it seems Mr. de Meaux understands the Principles of the Reformation very ill We own no Sect but that of which Jesus Christ is the Author And we have no other Interest in the Reformers but that they were Instruments by whose Means the World was awakened to Read the Scriptures and to examine Matters of Religion And that they discovered many things of which the World was formerly ignorant and in which the Clergy studied still to keep them in a blind Subjection to them and since they found too much advantage in those Corruptions to be willing to part with them the Reformers went on in their Discoveries and at length by the Blessing of God and the Labours of the Reformers as well as by the Persecution of their Enemies this Work had so great a Progress that it will still be reckoned one of the wonders of Providence But after all the Reformers were only the Instruments of opening this Light but not at all the Authors of our Sect so that we are no other way concerned in them but that we gratefully acknowledge their Labours and honour their Memory And what Mistakes Weaknesses or Passions soever may have mixed with their Conduct this proves nothing but that they were Men and were Subject both to Sin and to Errour Mr. de Meaux is also at a great deal of pains to shew how unsteady the Protestants have been in setling some Notions in particular the manner of Christ's Presence in the Sacrament and the true Notion of a Church on which he enlarges himself very copiously But is it possible that he is so ignorant either of Antiquity or of the Age of the School-Men as not to know how long they were before they setled on almost all the Notions of Divinity F. Petaw can inform him how dark the Fathers of the first three Centuries were even in their Idea's of the Trinity and it were easie to shew that even after the Definition of the Council of Nice it was long before they setled on the same Notion of the Unity of the Divine Essence with that which has been received now for many Ages in the Church It were easy to shew how even the so much cited and admired Saint Austin differed from himself in his Disputes with the Manicheans the Donatists and the Pelagians and that one sees in his works very different Notions not only of the Freedom of the Will but even of the Nature of the Church When he writ against the Donatists who had contrary to all Reason broke the Peace of the Church he raised the Unity of the Church and the submission to the visible Authority that was in it very high But when he writ against the Pelagians the
the Holy Eucharist in two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host in Answer to Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject with a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument by W. Wake Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead By W. Wake M. A. An Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4to An Abridgment of the Prerogatives of St. Ann Mother of the Mother of God with the Approbations of the Doctors of Paris thence done into English with a PREFACE concerning the Original of the Story The Primitive Fathers no Papists in Answer to the Vindication of the Nubes Testium to which is added a Discourse concerning Invocation of Saints in Answer to the Challenge of F. Sabran the Jesuit wherein is shewn That Invocation of Saints was so far from being the Practice that it was expresly against the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers 4to An Answer to a Discourse concerning the Coelibacy of the Clergy lately Printed at Oxford 4to The Virgin Mary Misrepresented by the Roman Church in the Traditions of that Church concerning her Life and Glory and in the Devotions paid to her as the Mother of God. Both shewed out of the Offices of that Church the Lessons on her Festivals and from their allowed Authors Dr. Tenison's Sermon of Discretion in giving Alms. 12mo A Discourse concerning the Merit of Good Works The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome demonstrated in some Observations upon the Life of Ignatius Loyola Founder of the Order of Jesus A Vindication of the Answer to the Popish Address presented to the Ministers of the Church of England 4to The Texts which the Papists cite out of the Bible for Proof of the Points of their Religion Examined and shew'd to be alledged without Ground In twenty five distinct Discourses viz. Popery not founded in Scripture The Introduction Texts concerning the Obscurity of Holy Scriptures Of the Insufficiency of Scripture and Necessity of Tradition Of the Supremacy of St. Peter and the Pope over the whole Church In two Parts Of Infallibility Of the Worship of Angels and Saints departed In two parts Of the Worship of Images and Reliques Of the Seven Sacraments and the Efficacy of them In two Parts Of the Sacrifice of the Mass In two Parts Of Transubstantiation Of Auricular Confession Of Satisfactions In two Parts Of Purgatory In two Parts Of Prayer in an unknown Tongue In two Parts Of Coelibacy of Priests and Vows of Continence In two Parts Of the Visibility of the Church Of Merit of Good Works Two Tables to the whole will shortly be published A Brief Declaration of the Lords Supper Written by Dr. Nocholas Ridley Bishop of London during his Imprisonment with some other Determinations and Disputations concerning the same Argument by the same Author To which is annexed an Extract of several Passages to the same purpose out of a Book Intituled Diallaction written by Dr. Iohn Poynet Bishop of Winchester in the Reigns of Ed. 6. and Q. Mary 4to An Historical Discourse concerning the Necessity of the Minister's Intention in Administring the Sacraments A Discourse concerning Penance shewing how the Doctrine of it in the Church of Rome makes void true Repentance A Continuation of the state of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome Being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on both sides By William Wake M. A. 4to A Discourse of the Pope's Supremacy Part I. in answer to a Treatise intituled St. Peter's Supremacy faithfully discuss'd according to the Holy Scripture and Greek and Latine Fathers and to a Sermon of St. Peter preached before the Queen Dowager on St. Peter and St Paul's day by Tho. Godden D. D. IVLIAN the Apostate Being a short account of his Life the Sense of the Primitive Christians about his Succession and their Behaviour towards him Together with a Comparison of Popery and Paganism By Sam. Iohnson Iulian's Arts to undermine and extirpate Christianity Together with Answers to Constantius the Apostate and Iovian by Sam. Iohnson The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuites Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By William Cawley Esq fol. Books Written by Dr. Gilbert Burnet His History of the Reformation of the Church of England in II. Vol. fol. Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England 40. History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church Lands 120. Life of William Bedell Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland together with the Letters betwixt Him and Wadsworth about Religion A Collection of Seventeen Tracts and Sermons written betwixt the years 1678. and 1685. to which is added Two Tracts by another Hand Viz. The History of the Powder Treason and an Impartial Consideration of the Five Jesuites dying Speeches who were Executed for the Popish Plot 1679. Lately Published Reflexions on the Relation of the English Reformation put out by Ob. Walker at Oxon. Animadversions on the Reflexions upon Dr. Burnet's Travels 120. Reflexions on a Paper intitled his Majesties Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester Enquiry into the present State of Affairs and in particular whether we owe Allegiance to the King in these Circumstances And whether we are bound to Treat with Him and call Him back or no His Sermon before the Prince of Orange 23d Decem. 1688. His Thanksgiving Sermon before the Commons for the Deliverance of the Kingdom from Popery and Arbitrary Power by the Prince of Orange's Means A LETTER to Mr. THEVENOT Containing a CENSURE of Mr. Le Grand's HISTORY of King Henry the Eighth's Divorce To which is added a CENSURE of Mr. de Meaux's HISTORY of the Variations of the Protestant Churches Together with some further Reflections on Mr. Le Grand A Collection of Eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of King Iames the Second Seventeen whereof written in Holland and first Printed singly there now published here by the Author to distinguish them from those falsly attributed to his Name Dr. Iohn Lightfoot's Works in II. Vol. fol. together with his Life An Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England viz. The Creed Lords Prayer Ten Commandments and the Sacraments in 4. Volumes Folio By Gabr. Towerson D. D. Disquisitiones Criticae de variis per diversa Loca Tempora Bibliorum editionibus 4o Dr William Cave's Lives of the Ancient Fathers in the IV. first Centuries in II. Vol. Primitive Christianity or the Religion of the Ancient Christians in the first Ages of the Gospel A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops Metropolitans and Patriarchs Dr. William Burton's several Discourses of Purity Charity Repentance and other Practical Subjects in 2 Vol. Oct. Reflexions upon the Books of the Holy Scripture to establish the Truth of the Christian Religion in Two Parts Oct. By. Mr. Alix Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria à Christo nato usque ad Saeculum XIV Facili Methodo digesta Qua de Vita illorum ac Rebus gestis de Secta Dogmatibus Elogio Stylo de Scriptis genuinis dubiis suppositiis ineditis deperditis Fragmentis deque variis Operum Editionibus perspicue agitur Accedunt Scriptores Gentiles Christianae Religionis Oppugnatores 〈◊〉 Saculi Breviarium Inseruntur suis locis Veterum aliquot Opuscula Fragmenta tum Graeca tum Latina hactenus inedita Praemissa denique Prologomena quibus plurima ad Antiquitatis Ecclesiasticae studium spectantia 〈◊〉 Opus Indicibus necessariis instructum Autore GVILIELMO CAVE SS Theol Profes Caâ—â—ico Windesoriensi Accedit ab Alia Manu Appendix ab 〈◊〉 Saculo XIV ad Annum usque MDXVII Fol. 1689.
a little strange at this time in which the Thunders of the Vatican are so little regarded at Versailles And when an Appeal from a Pope to a General Council is after so long an intermission again made use of in so critical a time It might have been expected that this Matter should have been handled with a little more decency at least unless this is one of the Artifices of a sort of Men whom Mr. Talon has mentioned more freely than I will do who perhaps intend to blast what Lewis the Great is doing by representing Henry the 8th in ill Colours But perhaps our Author is not a Man of so much Intriegue as to have such remote Speculations and this being his first Essay it is possible he thought that less application was necessary since he reckoned that he had to do with a Man of so small a Capacity as mine is I will at present only single out six of the Errours that he has committed which are a very small proportion as to their number since you will find a much longer List if I enter upon a more Crititical Enquiry into this History but as these are all of great consequence so I have limited my self to this number that I may not inlarge at present beyond those narrow bounds to which I restrain my self in a Paper of this Nature 1. He questions much the Contents of the Decretal Bull Pag. 89. 10 92. that Cardinal Campegio brought over and thinks that since it was only shewn to the King and Cardinal Wolsey no body can affirm what it was and if it was a Bull that determined the whole Matter he does not see how there could be any more occasion for the Legats and he fancies that upon a Bull the King would have proceeded to a second Marriage without giving himself any further trouble as Lewis the 12th had done If Mr. le Grand had given himself the trouble to have Read the Decretal Bull which I have Published Collect. 2. lib. Num. 10. he would have seen that all this Discourse was to no purpose The Bull was drawn in England and sent to Rome and tho' some few Clauses were altered yet by all the Letters that passed between Rome and England it appears that it was upon the Matter the same Bull that was sent over by Campegio Now the Bull declared indeed the justice of the King's Pretensions and empowered the Cardinal Legates to examine the Truth of these Pretensions and upon the Proofs of that it Authorized them to Judge the Cause so that tho' the Pope did by this Decretal give a definitive Sentence in case the Pretensions were found to be true yet here was still matter left for the Legates to proceed upon To wit whether the King had himself desired the Marriage whether there was any danger of War at that time between England and Spain whether the Dispensation was not annulled by the Protestation the King had made when he came of age against the Marriage and whether those Princes or any of them upon whose account the Dispensation was granted dyed before the Marriage took effect And till all these things were found true the Bull dissolving the Marriage that was granted upon that supposition could have no effect So that all his Reasoning upon this matter is in the Air. P. 85. But since I have named Cardinal Campegio I acknowledge that Mr. le Grand seems to be in the right as to his Son whom I had called a Bastard but he proves him Legitimate from Sigonius's Life of Campegio which I confess I never saw and Sigonius is so good an Author that I acquiesce in his Authority But Mr. le Grand ought to have taken notice that I cite an Author for what I say of that Bastard Pelerin Iuglese which was a Discourse writ by Sir William Thomas a Clerk of the Council at that time and it seems he took Cardinal Campegio's Son for his Bastard So if Mr. le Grand had pleased to have looked to the English Edition he might have rectified this Errour with less acrimony of Stile since it is no forgery of mine and indeed this is the only omission that seems to be well grounded of all those for which he accuses me 2. Mr. le Grand makes much ado to shake the credit of the Decision made by the Sorbon P. 179. to 184. in Favours of King Henry tho' after all the Printing the Decision it self the next year and its passing for genuine no Man having in that Age pretended that it was a Forgery is so concluding a Proof for it that no Insinuation to the contrary can be received Neither Cardinal Pool who was at Paris when it past nor any other Writer of the Roman Communion accused the King of an Imposture in this Matter And as the Bishop of Tarbe's continuing to advance the King's Interests in the Court of Rome when he was promoted to be a Cardinal and his not disowning the share that King Henry laid on him in publick before the Legates of his Scruples concerning his Marriage is an evident confirmation of it notwithstanding all our Author's suggestions to the contrary So the Sorbonnes never disavowing this matter p. 135. is an evident proof that the Judgment was truely given by them and all the presumptions that our Author offers to the contrary amount to no more but that great opposition was made and that Beda behaved himself very factiously in it It is also to be considered that as the whole Gallican Church was highly dissatisfied with Francis the 1st for his having destroyed their Liberties by the Concordat so the University of Paris was too much concerned in that matter which stuck still deep with them not to be full of Malecontents and perhaps this might have contributed to make the opposition the greater since the King supported King Henry's Concerns with much Zeal yet after all our Author owns that in the Scrutiny there were fifty three for the Divorce and only forty two against it and five were for the referring it to the Pope so here was enough for justifying the Judgment as it is Printed which bears only that the greater number gave it for the Divorce and against the lawfulness of the Marriage And this justifies likewise those words of the first President 's Letter that it would rather prejudice than advance the King's Affair since the whole Bodies in other Universities had judged for the King whereas it was carried only by a plurality of Voices in the Sorbonne 3. Mr. le Grand pretends to give an Abstract of the Reasons that were brought against the Marriage of King Henry Page 189. to p. 2â—â— and yet he does not mention that which was the strength of the Cause which was that according to the main hinge upon which all the Decisions in the Roman Church turn Scripture expounded by Tradition is that by which all Controversies ought to be decided So here they brought a Series
the King's Matter but after all our Author cannot enough aggravate Crammer's taking the Oath of Obedience to the Pope at his Consecration with the Protestation that limited it with several restrictions Which he also reports upon the credit of some spiteful Authors quite contrary to what appears upon Record For he made the Protestation to be twice Read at the Altar when he was Consecrated So it is plain he had no mind to equivocate for he owned publickly all that he did And Protestations renouncing all Clauses that were in Bulls contrary to the King's Prerogative having been ordinarily made by Bishops it seems the Canonists who were accustomed to double dealing prevailed so far on Cranmer as to make him take the method of Swearing the Oath and then limiting it by a Protestation made at the same time In which it is plain that if he committed an Errour it was rather a mistake in his Judgment than a want of Sincerity 6. Mr. le Grand saies that the King pardoned More and Fisher the business of the Maid of Kent p. 280. to 282. and tho' he owns that More calls her in a Letter the silly Nun yet he takes no notice of that long Letter of Mores which I published among the Instruments of my second Volume in which he treats that matter as one of the horridest Impostures that ever was and for which Fisher tho' our Author denies it was Condemn'd for concealing Treason To this he adds that the Chancellor having asked Fisher and More what they thought of the Acts of the last Parliament they answered nothing but said that being cut off from all Civil Society they thought of nothing but our Saviour's Passion and this cost them their life This is such a corrupting of History that I forbear to give it its true name And indeed a prevarication in this matter is the less excusable because our Author might have found advantage enough by representing the matter truly as I had done from the Records They were Condemn'd first in a Premunire that imports loss of Estate and perpetual Imprisonment for refusing to swear the Oath for the Succession by the King's Marriage Enacted by Parliament And after that they were prosecuted for having spoken against the King's Supremacy and there is one Incident in More 's Process which perhaps would be thought enough at present for Condemning a Man as Guilty of High Treason for he said that as the Parliament could make a King so it could likewise Depose him But I limited my self to six Heads and I will not go beyond them The abundance of Matter that is before me makes it uneasie for me to pass over many important things which our Author has left out of his History tho' they are in that Collection of Letters published by Camusat and which I never saw till he himself not only shewed it me but did me the Honour to present it to me He does not tell us that the Pope promised to Cardinal de Tournon Melanges Hist. 1532. folio 8. M. that he would do all that was in his Power for the King of England and that the thing should be done tho' he must take such a Method in the point of Form as not to seem too partial to him And that the Cardinal thought he was sure of the Pope in that Matter The same Cardinal writes the 17 of Aug. 1533. that tho' the Cardinals of the Imperial Faction forced the Pope to what he had done fol. 9. N. yet if the King of England would save his Honour he would with all his Heart do what he desired and did not doubt but he should propose Expedients for this at the Interview that was to be at Marseilles fol. 19. O. By another Letter it appears that Francis the First owned to the English Ambassadours that the Pope had said to himself that he knew the King's Cause was just and he only stood upon a Procuration For the King being cited to appear at Rome in Person or by Proxy the King would take no notice of this fol. 177. and so Karne was sent over Excusator to excuse the King's Appearance But it appears by that Collection that he was sent over in the Name of the Nation and not in the King's Name So the King 's refusing to appear being thought a great Contempt the Pope promised to grant the Divorce if the King would so far acknowledge his Authority as to appear at Rome by a Proxy upon his Summons And in this Francis the First thought the King was in the right and he approved of his Marriage so far that he ordered his Ambassadour to Christen the Child in his Name fol. 140. P Q R. fol. 174 175 176 177. if it proved a Son. The French Ambassadour at Rome did also in many Letters to the Court of France write that the Pope would do all that was desired for the King of England and much more if he durst but he was so hard pressed by the Imperialists that against God and Reason and even against the Opinion of many of the Imperialists themselves he was forced to do whatsoever the Cardinal Dosme asked of him And that they wanted much the Cardinal Grandmont who was Bishop of Tarbes for no man durst speak Truth to the Pope It is true the Ambassadour who was then the Bishop of Auxerre says that he expected no good of the Pope and that all was but dissimulation Yet to shew that crafty Ambassadours change their Stile so that it is hard to know how much one ought to trust to their Letters the same day in which he had writ the former Letter to the Legate that was in France he wrote another to the Great Master in which he tells him that the Pope had said that the King of England 's Matter had been now four years in his hands and was not yet touched by him and that if he could do as he would it should be as they all would And he writes that he spoke this in such a manner to him that he believes he said what he thought fol. 177. S. These Letters bear all Date the 7th of February 1532. But the 13th of Iuly thereafter he writes that the Pope said to him that he resolved to put off the Business to a good time and he saw clearly what he meant by a good time and adds that if the thing had been then judged the Old and Learned Cardinals would have been for the King of England but the Imperialists were so much the stronger Party that it would have been carried clear against them And tho' Mr. le Grand speaks doubtfully of that Critical Matter that a Currier came from England within a day or two after the Sentence was given and passes over the haste in which it was given as a thing of which he knew nothing yet in that Collection there is a Letter writ from Lyons by Pompone Trivulce fol. 177. T. Cardinal Trivulce's Brother Dated
which he to their Reproach destroyed or of the second by their way of treating St. Gregory of Nazianze who was one of the greatest Men of the Age and that had done the most for the Truth in the former Persecution under Valens we will not form a very favourable Opinion neither of the one nor the other of those two great Assemblies But since I have named that Great Man I will let Mr. de Meaux see how easie it is to give an ill Character even of the greatest Men. I will not mention his indecent Invectives against Iulian nor his high Eloges of Constance But if we consider his Life after he was a Bishop he despised Zasim where he was first setled and was offended with his Friend S. Basil for putting him in it and in the end he forsook it for it was a mean place and a Town full of disorders as being situated on the great Road. After that he came and assisted his old Father at Nazianze but upon his Death he left that and without any Canonical Vocation he came to Constantinople where he acted long as Bishop And in conclusion when he saw it was like to be questioned by the Council he withdrew indeed But as appears by his Letter to Procopius he grew upon that so disgusted at all Councils that he could neither think nor write of them with patience Here are many Blots in a Life of which we have very little left us and yet after all this he was one of the greatest Men that not only his Age but the Greek Church ever produced But here Mr. de Meaux will complain that I am doing that which he apprehends so much and that I am recriminating He had Reason to apprehend this for the Subject is Copious and the Matter is Obvious only with this difference that a just Recrimination destroys the whole bottom on which the Roman Church is founded for the certainty of Tradition and the Infallbility of the Church being their Foundation if Variations are proved among them these are shaken and so their whole Fabrick falls but Variations even proved among us signifie nothing they only prove that the Reformers were Men subject to mistakes that in some things they might bend matters too far in opposition to that which they saw Reason to Condemn before they had so clearly discovered the Truth that was wrapped up in so much Corruption that it was to discern the Truths which might have carried Cranmer in opposition to the Ecclesiastical Tyranny to raise the Power of the Civil Magistrate too high In other points they thought they might retain some received expressions giving them sound Explanations and so change the Ideas of things without changeing the Language And thus tho' they retained the Real Presence with some other Phrases that were consonant to it yet they gave it another Sense And Mr. de Meaux ought not to make so much as he does of their Submission to some Princes when not to mention the base compliances of some Bishops in this Age who are indeed a Reproach to their Character nor what was mentioned formerly of Gregory and Remy even the Apostle of France S. Martin himself complied with the Tyrant Maximus in such a manner that as Sulpitius Severus sets it out it does little Honour to his Memory Only in this he differed from the Bishops of this present Age that he interposed vigorously to hinder the Persecution of a Sect that had neither Laws nor Edicts in their Favours and that are represented in History as a very odious sort of Men and indeed not worthy to live whereas in our days we have seen Bishops not only pushing on a Prince to an Infamous violation of Edicts and to an unheard of Cruelty but making Panegyricks upon it while others were most Impudently denying it even at the same time that they were writing private Letters in defence of it These are indeed unworthy and scandalous Compliances and yet those who are guilty of them have the Face to Reproach us for things that are not to be once named in comparison with them So true does the Character of a Pharisee remain to this day of warning others to take the Mote out of their Eye while there is a Beam in their own Among all the Compliances in Henry the 8th's Reign is there any one that carries with it such a Reproach to Religion as it is for the Bishops of a whole Church one or two perhaps only excepted to see Men required to Receive the Sacrament by the force of Royal Edicts in particular by that Famous Monument of the Impiety and Inhumanity of the Age against those who refused to receive it in their Sickness By which those from whom the violences of Dragoons had extorted a Signature are required to do that which in the Opinion of all Christians is a high Profanation of the Sacrament but in the Opinion of that Church is a Prophanation without a name and beyond all that can be set out in words This is an Edict relating to the Sacredest of all the Acts of Worship and is a higher Invasion of the Sanctuary than any that can be found in all King Henry's Reign And yet those who Reproach us so severely have not had the Honesty nor the Courage to interpose and require their Clergy not to give the Sacrament to any but to such as were duely prepared for it that believed their Doctrine and came to Receive it with that disposition of Mind which became them The Silence of those Bishops upon so Sacrilegious an Attempt is an indication of a Slavish compliance far above all that they can Charge on Cranmer As for those Tragical Exclamations that Mr. de Meaux makes on the Supremacy that was declared to be in our Kings as well in Queen Elizabeth's time as in King Henry's and King Edward's this is also very unjustly urged by a Clergy that suffer under a much greater Invasion of the Rights of the Church than any that we can complain of By the Concordate the Kings of France have Invaded the Liberties of that Church and have assumed to themselves the Nomination of all the Bishops of France and by the Pretensions to the Regale they have assumed also a right of conferring Spiritual Employments to which a care of Souls is annexed and that pleno jure Their Courts of Parliament are the last resort even of all Spiritual Matters and receive all Appeals under the pretence of some abuse in the Sentence so that the whole Exercise of the Episcopal Power is subject to the Secular Court. And whatsoever they may talk of their Union with the Holy See even in this they are also Subject to the Secular Court since no Bull or Breve can be Executed in France without an approbation from thence And yet these are the men that complain of the King's Supremacy among us tho' there is nothing clearer than that this Servitude lies much heavier on them than it does on us For after
invisible Assembly of the Elect was the Church Any Man that has been at the pains to Read all that he has writ on these Heads from end to end and that has not only pickt up here and there some quotations that are drawn out of him must needs find so much confusion in him that they will easily pardon others if any such disorder appears in the Writings of the Reformers And for the Notion of the Presence in the Sacrament there has appeared of late such a History of the Disorders of the Schoolmen before they came to settle on the Notion of Transubstantiation and even in the explanation of that after the fourth Council of the Lateran that it will give no great Reputation to any Man that will take advantage from the Variations that may have been among us when it appears that there have been Changes of another Nature among them Mr. de Meaux is so pleased with this Prospect of the Variations among us that he will even make the suppressing of a more copious condemnation of the Corporal Presence that had been made in King Edward's time but was left out in Queen Elizabeth's to pass likewise for one The Matter of Fact was this in King Edward's time both Transubstantiation and the Corporal Presence were expresly rejected in our Articles and it was declared that Christ was present only in a Spiritual Manner and that he was received by Faith alone when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown it was thought enough to reject both Transubstantiation and the Adoration of the Sacrament it was also declared that the Wicked did not receive Christ's Body or Blood in the Sacrament That he was present only after a Heavenly and Spiritual manner and that the Means by which he was Received was Faith only the rejecting the Corporal Presence with the Reasons upon which it was rejected was left out The Church did not at all change its Doctrine but it being fit to put nothing in the Articles of the Church but what is necessary it had been an unseasonable rigour to put in them a long explanation of a Negative Article The positive Articles can only be necessary and tho' some Negative Articles ought to be kept in Confessions if the Errour rejected by them is very dangerous yet no Man can say that all Negatives ought at all times to be proposed So that this is a matter of Discretion and Prudence and therefore the Adoration of the Sacrament being according to us Idolatry and Transubstantiation leading Naturally to that these were still Condemned that so the Purity of the Worship might be secured but this being done if our Church had carried the matter further and had imposed on every one the more particular and disputable Opinions concerning the Presence she had approached too near to the Rigour of that Church from which she had separated her self And therefore she shewed that Regard both to Lutherans and others who might have peculiar Notions of a Corporal Presence as not to put such a Definition in the body of her Articles as might drive them out of her Society And if she went too far in King Edward's Time we are so far from being ashamed of the Moderation that she shewed in Queen Elizabeth's Time that we rather Glory in it We are neither affraid nor ashamed to follow Saint Paul who Circumcised Timothy that by such a compliance he might gain the Iews and that went to Purifie himself in the Temple in which there was always a Sacrifice of one sort or another which he did long after the Vertue and the Obligation of those Rites was extinguished and if he went so far in positive Compliances the Silence of our Church in a Negative Article when done upon the considerations of Charity and Prudence is rather an Honour than a Reproach to it Indeed it is no wonder to see those of a Church that has thundred with her Anathema's upon the smallest Matters and has followed these with all the Cruelties that either the Rage of Dragoons or the Fury of Inquisitors could invent it is no wonder I say to see them censure us for our Gentleness since by this it appears that ours is the true Mother that cannot see her Children cut to pieces But here I stop I will not go further upon a Subject that is like to be handled by so able a Pen that I am only sorry that such a man should imploy so much time upon so Barren a Subject since it it must be confessed that this Age has scarce produced a Book that has been writ with so much pains but to so little purpose and with so little sincerity Yet since one has resolved to undertake it who I know will manage it with much force as well as with great Truth that so his Book may be in all Respects the reverse of that which he answers I will not anticipate further upon him But will now add only a little in Vindication of the short Account which I gave of the Troubles of France on design to justify the Assistance which Queen Elizabeth gave to the Protestants there upon which Mr. de Meaux thinks that he has great advantages He Reproaches me for my Ignorance of the Affairs of France which he shews first in my calling the Union of the Cardinal of Lorrain and the King of Navarre the Triumvirat but this could have only made a Duumvirate yet I named the Constable whom he has thought fit to pass over and I said not one word of a Triumvirat but only mentioned the Union of these three with Queen Catherine It is true the Translator has thought fit to add beyond what I had said par une espece de Triumvirat which shews that as I am not at all concerned in this matter so even my Translator himself had a mind to distinguish this from the famous Triumvirat He also charges me for having accused the Duke of Guise as having designed the Business of Vassy but in my English there is not a word of any premeditated Design and I am only accountable for the English nor is this plain in the Translation tho' there is more in it than in the Original Executer leur dessein does not import that the Business of Vassy was premeditated but only that the Design being laid the occasion offered at Vassy was laid hold on It is true I do not know how I came to say that the King of Navarre was declared Regent I had reason to say that the Regency fell to him by Law and that appeared as Mr. de Thou observes in the Famous Decision in the Case of Philip le Valois I had also Reason to say that the Power of the Regent was limited and so I only erred in setting the word Regent for Governour or Lieutenant of the Kingdom I am not ashamed to own mistakes when I am convinced that I have made them But it will soon appear whether he or I have committed more Errours in Treating of the Affairs of