Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	catholic_a	church_n	faith_n	4,551	5	5.8936	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01567	A declaration made by the Archbishop of Collen, vpon the deede of his mariage, sent to the states of his archbishoprike VVith the letter of Pope Gregorie the. 13 against the celebration of the same mariage, and the Bishops aunswer therevnto. According to the coppie imprinted at Collen. 1583.	Gebhard, Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, 1547-1601.; Deloney, Thomas, 1543?-1600.; Gregory XIII, Pope, 1502-1585.	1583 (1583)	STC 11693; ESTC S102953	12,394	38

of our Apostolique cōfirmation by reason whereof we are persuaded that there is none which ought to beare greater reuerence to the holie seate of Rome nor that ought to be a greater obseruer of the ecclesiasticall discipline then you hoping that we should haue had great helpe through your constancie fidelitie But it doth greatly displease vs and merueilously grieue vs that our hope therein is not onely weakned and made lesse but also vtterly lost And further we vnderstand from day to day by the letters of many and the report of diuerse such thinges of you so vnworthy the dignitie degrée wherein you are that without great shame we are not able to expresse it And although verilie we haue oftentimes refused to beléeue such vnworthy reportes yet the daylie clamor hath constrained vs greatlie to doubte thereof being afraid of your fall which now we wil no lōger dissemble wherfore we doo admonishe you that you would haue a regard and a foresight to your honour and saluation while it is time and if possible you haue gone any further then reason required spéedilie withdraw your selfe that those things which heretofore hath béen declared of you may be proued false which is our onlie desire that you will openly manifest your mind ful intent inwardlie cōceiued in your hart to y e end that your good name princelie parentage the ecclesiasticall order be not by your means for euer stained w t ignominius reproch by y e aduersaries of our honor Againe consider your duty towards God which hath raised you to the dignitie and degrée of the sea Apostolique which you should cherish with singuler affection and fauour and for the same it is that you ought to spend your blood in all christian profession For by how much the more you are of hie calling and honourable estate by so much the more is your fault greater then any others when you fall from any parte of your duety And by so much the more wil your fault be greater as you were of honour and dignitie in the church of God and in great aucthoritie with the Princes of the Empire Consider then what troubles and daūgers procéedeth from such new remoouings of thinges and how héedfull the prudent and godlie man ought to be from hazarding so lightly his honour state dignitie and his soule whereof there hath béen so many straunge and wonderfull examples in our time which may make vs to be better aduised in our dealings but if we haue possible suffered somewhat to much in former time attribute the same to our affection towards you and to the desire we haue had of your honor and dignitie Neither doo we any thing doubt but that this our fatherly kindnes shall be receaued of you with that effect which it ought to be for many good reasons and iust causes and that you will not forgette to shew due reuerence towardes this holy seate that we maye acknowledge you for our déere and beloued sonne as heretofore we haue done which wil be an occasion to vs greatly to reioyce and because we haue not thought it sufficient to send our letters onely we haue sent our reuerend Brother the Archbishop of Treues to take his iourney towardes you to conferre more at large of these our affaires who shall more cléerelye discouer vnto you our will counsayle and intent to whome we are assured that you will giue both faith and credite Giuen at Rome at saint Peters in the yéere of our Lord 1582. the 17. day of December and in the 11. yéere of our Pontificalitie Io. Baptista Canobius To Pope Gregorie the .13 Ghebbard Archbishop of Collon Prince and Elector of the Empire sendeth greeting I Haue vnderstood by your letter your fatherlie affection and worthinesse of such a Prelate but in this principally that you will not lightlie giue place to vntrue tales neither faith to the euill reports spread abroad of my actions and déeds For if it were sufficient to accuse who should be in these corrupted dayes excused wherein the most godliest men are assailed with enuie ● and what is he that can defend himselfe against the conspiracies of euil willers I acknowledge you as a good father exhorting me to perseuere in the faith integrete good discipline and obedience vnto the Chatholique Apostolique and true beléeuing Church Giuing me aduertisement of the great and manifold daungers falling on those which are desirous of nouelties which folowing their disordinate lustes and affections are drawne from the company of the Apostolique church Wherefore my duty is to accept of your charitable holie admonitions knowing that which is said by Salomon that he which refuseth discipline hath no regarde of his owne soule but he that harkeneth to correction shall obtaine knowledge I must néedes confesse that I haue béene ouer slacke and negligent in thinges appertaining to the saluatiō of my soule the rest of my conscience and the duetie I owe to the glorie of God and the dignitie of the Church But your letters hath serued me as a spurre pricking me forward greatly prouoking me y t all dissimulation laid aside all superstition by me reiected I am minded openly to declare euen as you haue admonished me y t which I haue conceaued in my heart considering the faith I owe vnto GOD that hath called me to this his degrée that which I owe to the church Apostolique to my countrey the publique wealth thereof and also to my selfe knowing the saying of that great and holie man Augustine to be true and worthy to be had in memory that there is none that doth more harme to the flocke of Christ then such as coūterfetteth the lambe in the roome and office of the ministerie the same is cited 83. distinction the second cannon For as much then I am come to the age wherein I am able without the aduice of others to gouern my selfe and by the onely will of our Lord Iesus Christe which hath vouchsaued to call me to the great charge of an Archbishop and as it is a thing proper to the nature of a christian man to inquire and followe after the trueth I am setled in the furtheraunce of this good worke without musing at all on any custome or humaine authority finding by the holie scriptures and amōg the ecclesiasticall histories y t this which we haue commaunded to be done becōmeth him which is the child of God and which is also required in the office himself hath already established y t is to say Iesus Christ which is y e only way the trueth and the life in whose name as also with the Father and the holie Ghost we are baptised to whome appertaineth y e catholique church hauing redéemed y e same by his precious blood Upon this foundation is the church sustained being also beautified and inriched with most excellent tytles which he hath giuen by S. Paule in the first to Timothy the third chapter calling her the house of y e liuing God the fortitude strength of the trueth Then the Romane church which was in the time of S. Paule and certaine yéeres after was of great renoume and estimation for the faith they

had in Iesus Christ and at that time taught through the whole world the which faith was her onelie ornament insomuch that the Priests Elders of the same Romane Church plainly cōfessed writing to S. Ciprian in his 7. epistle of his 2. booke in these words That letting the honor praise decay which S. Paule gaue to the Romanes was a great grieuous crime and y t it had béene lesse shame neuer to haue had those prayses spoke of or preached abroade then after the publishing thereof to lose the honour of such high commendations Therfore as often as it comes in question to speake of the pure true Apostolique and vniuersall church reason requireth and all wise men giueth counsaile that we ought to discerne betwéene that which is groūded vpon the head corner stone Christ vpon the holy Gospell the honour and name wherof shal endure euerlastingly and that which is y e bastard church going against the trueth worshippeth God in vaine following after the commaūdements traditions of men And therfore y e goldē rule of Tertullian hath euer pleased al good and vertuous men saying that the first hath béen alwayes the truth that which came afterward corrupted and that is it which hindeth mee to the othe which I haue made which othe dooth cōmaund that I must acknowledge the sayde Apostolique church which holdes the ancient beléefe of the Romane church agréeing to the beléefe of Nice and of Constantinople which dooth acknowledge and beléeue one baptisme for remission of sinnes by y e blood of our Lord Iesus Christ which is our onely purgatorie that cleanseth vs of all our sinnes which receaueth no other traditions then this only that are appointed by the Apostles leauing deliuering faithfully that which they receiued from our Lord Iesus Christ. After whose example I am bounde by my othe to take the holy scriptures interpreting and vnderstāding the same not after the sence or interpretation of any Bishop or Councell whatsoeuer but after the vnderstanding and exposition of the true Apostolique and holy mother Church that I say which hath followed the steps of the holy Apostles Whervnto the auncient Fathers hath from time to time consented so that without any blemish to the othe which I haue made I am addressed after this rule bound to this foūdation neither will I receyue or beléeue any thing which is not brought from the same wheresoeuer it was writtē whether at Rome or at Trent being reasonable to prefer these aunciēt things with new the truth with falsehood the traditiōs of the Apostles with y e cōmaūdements of men For our lawes as it dooth euidently appeare in the 15. distinctiō of y e third canon doth not alowe these auncient and most renoumed Councelles the like aucthority as they do to the holie Scriptures Apostles which sayth thus The holy church of Rome after the writinges of the old and new Testament which we receiue for certaine rules doth not forbid but that we may receiue the Councell of Nice of Constantinople Ephesus and of Chalcedonae Thus haue I hytherto shewed what was the band and foundation of y t othe which I lent vpō the which I protest that by the grace of God I will not starte nor turne from the true faith in Iesus Christe nor seperate my selfe from the holy and Apostolique church to the which I do owe all reuerence as I wil doo all my life in remembrance of that which I did vowe in baptisme to God and promised to the Church For the rest it is out of doubt betwéene all good and learned men that whatsoeuer we haue promised or sworne if it be wrong contrarie to our first faith receyued in baptisme that it bindeth vs not at all this I saye is to be seene by the rule of the right cannon Lawe that is to say that an oth taken against good and godlie workes bindeth not and following the right cannon the othes that are made against good déeds drawes vs vnto sinne Wherevpon the Maister of Sentences hath wiselie sayd in the 39. Distinction after Saint Hierome that an othe hath three proper companiens veritie iudgement and iustice and if any of these lacke it is not a true othe but a false othe But Gratiā giueth these aduertisemēts vpō the déede of an oth Euil promises saith he breakes faith chaunge therfore the the ordinaunce of euill and dishonest thinges and do not that which thou hast vnwiselie promised for that promise is against God which is accomplished with wickednesse In the seuenth cannon of our lawe we haue a rule giuen which we ought straitlie to obserue not onely for the regard of othes but in all the actions of our life that is to say that if by the sutteltie of our craftie enimie we are falling into any faulte we must séeke to escape it by that meanes which we sée is least hurtfull and daungerous thus you sée that the olde and auncient Fathers hath generally concluded that all vndiscrete and vnlawfull othes ought not to be obserued and kept and that it is more tollerable for to breake an othe then to perseuere in the sinne of fornication The same is also learned by the aucthority of S. Augustine that if faith be not obserued to the intent to returne to the right waye it cannot be called y e violating of faith for as much that the same is not true faith which is requisite to commit sinne It is easie to shew by many learned men and also by the holie scriptures and by the auncient Doctors that partly the slacknes and slouthfulnes and partly by the couetousnes and malice of many Popes sundrie things hath crept in y e Romane church as Platinus though otherwise greatly affectionated to y e Roman seat certifieth that those things do not agree to the Apostolique catholique church but they are notably iniurious against Iesus Christ which is established for to be the redéemer of peace by the faith in his blood also most idolatrous which whosoeuer should followe of a trueth should sinne greeuouslie against God and yet as Arnobius sayeth in his seuenth booke against the Gentiles that we ought to forgiue liberally and fréely though it were against the Church and against our owne conscience For these thinges then I am not drawne through any cause by you as many other great woorthy personages hath taken occasiō to withdraw themselues not from the catholique church but frō the corruption abuses which turneth vpside downe the foundation thereof I wil not for this time enter into long disputation but I would rather come to the crime wherein I fell my selfe by you most accused I sée I sée or at the least I féele a certaine smell that cannot be lesse then a sinnefull thing the