all these books Hence it came that I rashly relying on the slaunders of heretikes and not on the Catholike fayth entituled one of my books Of the cause of my departure and another in Italian The rockes of Christian shipwracke and another A certayne sermon which I filled ful of errours and heresies for the most part in hatred of the holy Roman Church and Sea Apostolike and of those Popes by whom I thought my selfe to haue byn iniured and affirmed those and many other things vvhich before I knew to be false and hereticall and after at least in part my selfe misliked and did whils I wrote in England from my hart detest them because they conteyne open heresyes agaynst the Catholike truth and are contrary to sound doctrine I meane to that which the Catholicke Roman Church hath alwayes held and holds at this day agaynst which whatsoeuer or whersoeuer is written or sayd by me that in al and euery part I do condemne and detest and I will better more at large by Gods help condemne and detest the same in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Commonwealth other bookes that I haue written agaynst the truth for I submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Roman and Apostolicall Sea the mistresse and guide of all other Churches 3. In the meane tyme here in this exchange for a new and sounder resolution I most detest the former of my departure the Infamous Rockes of the shipwrackes of my selfe especially and heretikes but not of Catholikes moreouer the Sermon mentioned neither shall I shame by casting of the garments which I had made for myselfe to shew my nakednes because I was not ashamed agaynst all law and conscience to breake forth into vayne fictions open slaunders and filthy heresies Dioscorides l. 6. c. 44. The sting and poyson of the scorpion by bruzing of the same scorpion that stong hath a present remedy If the voluntary breaking and bruzing of my selfe bring remedy to this poysoned wound in case any so wounded haue repented him himselfe I shall esteeme this my bruzing deiection and mortification for happy let the glory of the Catholike Church and Sea Apostolike stand immoueable yea euen with the greatest losse of temporal goods that can befall me and since that so wickedly I haue gone about to weaken and infring it this course cannot at least before God but be glorious vnto me 4. First therfore I confesse in conscience truly sincerly testify that I wrote that booke of the Cause of my departure and the other two to wit the Rocks and Sermon not out of sincerity of hart not good cōscience not out of vnfeygned faith but that I might cast some colourable excuse on my shamefull departur that I might be the more gratfull and welcome vnto the heretickes to whom like a wretch I went or with whome I did conuerse The ten yeares labour which I bragged of in the book of my departure was not imployed in maturity of deliberation grauity of iudgement discussion of truth but all that vvhile I studyed hovv to finish that vaine fruitles and pernicious worke of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth coyne bold and hereticall fictions and withall satisfy the impotent force of myne owne rage in so much as that vocation was not deuine but diabolicall not inspired by the holy Ghost but suggested by a bad spirit vexing me worse then it did Saul with the spirit of giddines 2. Reg. 18 v. 10. but for my returne I doubt not but that it is to be ascribed vnto Gods true vocation his diuine spirit calling me backe to my Mother the holy Catholique Church 5. I sayd that the behauiour of the court of Rome was the cause why I should for euer abhorre it I am not ignorant that herein I spake ill for there were not wanting then nor yet are at Rome very many cōspicuous examples of piety all Christian vertues which are able to delight and allure religious or well disposed mynds I sayd that out of the forbidding of hereticall books to be read do spring euill suspitiōs which get credit to the books of heretiks and induce men to belieue somewhat to be in them vvhich Catholikes could not confute and this I acknowledge to haue been spoken by me not without great iniury to the Catholike saith who haue found in their bookes I meane of heretikes false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous doctrine from reading of which least the Faythfull be infected they are worthily to be restrayned for not vnto priuate men who read those bookes but vnto the Pastours the iudgement of fayth hath euer and doth still appertayne that they may know which are poisoned pasturs and remoue their flockes far from them Moreouer the arguments of heretiks are deceytfull sophisticall and haue most easy solutions I affirmed the doctrine of those who oppose themselues to the Church of Rome nothing at all or very little to degenerate from the pure doctrine of the primitiue Church and this also is false for the opinions in which they differ from Catholiks are all of them most cōtrary to those which that Church held nothing can conuince them more certainly of errour thē the authority of the ancient Church frō which they by these noueltyes haue very far departed in so much as for this cause they are condemned as heretikes by the Church of Rome it is therefore to be detested I doe detest that which I sayd Therefore the religion of Protestants to be condemned of the Church because it is contrary to the sense and corrupted manners of the Court of Rome I said that in Rome by extreme violence were coyned new articles of beliefe and this truly I did say both agaynst my knowledge and conscience for I neuer saw any such matter nor any man else as most certainly I know for none can say that there are new articles coyned when there are only added the true declaratiōs explicatiōs of the true articles those gathered out of the holy scripturs traditiōs of the Fathers very rules of religion Againe I endeuored to depriue the Roman Church of the titles of Catholike and Vniuersall wherin I exceedingly erred for by the Roman Church is not vnderstood that speciall and particuler Church alone which is at Rome but the collection of all other Churches adhering to the Roman in vnity of the same fayth and subiection to the same chiefe Bishop wheresoeuer they be albeit in the vttermost coastes and corners of the earth And doubtles this is most true of me both by word of mouth as England it selfe can testify and in my written treatises of the Eccleclesiasticall commonwealth and in that part which last of all I heare is printed in Germany I haue euinced that there is no other Catholike Church but the Roman vnderstanding thereby that particular with the other adhering thereunto wheras all other companies of Christians are defiled with heresies and being by schisme deuided and separated from the truth are out of the Catholike vniuersall and true Church of Christ and these blind soules with their blynd guides rush and fall headlong into the pit of hell which I in my errour most wickedly and without grieuous iniury affirmed of the Roman Catholikes for from the Roman Church at all times to all other Churchs the most shining light of the pure and incorrupted fayth hath
effect cannot goe before the cause I endeauour to shew that they made a schisme without cause hence I knew them to be true schismatiks and for that I departed from them And further these very Articles which they call new can euidently be demonstrated out of the Scriptures tradition and Fathers and the contrary decreed by themselues to be conuinced of open heresy if we will follow the iudgement of Antiquity howsoeuer some latter Protestants taking a more mild moderate course are wont to bring for some poynt such fauourable explications of which my selfe haue heard many as they seemed not to differ much from the Catholicke opiniō these seeme to admit some pious agreemēt who then without pernicious errour yea true heresy wil place his saluation on only Faith and exclude the necessity of Good works Who will absolutely deny our Merits and that iust men cannot loose their grace and that they are impeccable and cannot sinne And such as stiffly hould these and the like to be Articles of fayth and the contrary to be heresies they vndoubtedly doe erre in matters of fayth and shew themselues to be heretiks and consequently to be well and worthily by the Catholike definitions placed amongst such no heresy therefore of the Church of Rome no Idolatry open or hidden could giue occasion to the schisme of Protestants Neither can they obiect Schisme to the same Catholike Church for it hath made no schisme but suffered it From her hath Luther from her Caluin from her haue their first followers separated themselues whiles stubbornly they refused to stand to her iudgement these haue made a schisme these haue deuided the garmēt of Christ these haue erected altar against Altar finally these haue left and forsaken the Catholike Church 25. Besides the former alleadged and discussed causes they pretend another of Reformation forsooth needful to be made but I amongest them scant euer saw any reformation or to speake more truly saw none at all but as for Deformations I saw many amongst thē For the most part all care of conscience is cast away they are not there excepting a very few of them troubled with any scruples for adulteries robberyes or deceauing theyr neighbours and in like manner for coosenage deceypts and vsuries for they haue wickedly abolished auricular Confession fasting pennance and the like holy meanes for our amendment and if these men had found amongst vs somewhat amisse in conuersation in actions in gouernement in direction and the like that had not argued any defect of the Church but the errours of particuler men which of Catholikes are not allowed but mysliked neyther for these lesser a matters as manners of life and that not in all but some were they to to make this most vgly schisme There remaines in the Roman Church a soūd an immoueable and constant foundation and suppose it were true 1. Cor. 3. that we buylt thereon wood stubble hay yet were we not therby debarred from saluation but the Protestāts haue departed from the foundatiō it self they haue forsaken it and except they build vppon the foundatiō which is Christ gold siluer pretious stones which foolishly they boast to be theirs all are proiecta viliora alga wast weedes all fruiteles labours and nothing auay leable to saluation There is one foūdation not two one Church not two one Christ not two if Christ be our foūdation which they cannot deny he is not certaynly theirs they haue made themselues a new Church deuided and separated from ours and that also cannot be a Church because the Church is one not two he who wil be of their Church he must needes be out of the true Church of Christ 26. I confesse that I was deceaued by the English Protestants before I had considered diligently the nature of schisme for when I obiected this fault vnto them some of them replyed that it was not their fault that they communicated not with the Church of Rome who were ready to make vnion and accorde but that the Pope would not receaue them into communion whom he had cut of from him and his by excommunicatiō This excuse for a while seemed vnto me lawfull and reasonable yet when afterwards vppon this ground I beganne in priuate disputes and publick sermons to vrge an vnion which I tooke not to be farre off from making and whiles I striued to put my finger deeper into this festered vlcer I perceaued in England not the English Cōfession which they commended vnto me as modest but the Confession of Caluin and many doting dreames of Luther to be the common rule of their fayth this I perceaued more clearely by the counterfeyt Synod of Protestants at Dort in the which the opinions of the rigid Caluinists by consent and concurrence of the English sect by their ministers sent thither were confirmed which opinions of the rigid Puritans if the confession of the English Church deuided into certain Articles doe not as they pretend include then why vnder the name of the English Profession did the aforesayd Ministers yield their consent and set their hands to these Caluinian excesses How can it be that those who professe themselues most eager enemies of the Church of Rome should be thought to desire vniō with the same Church and the defect thereof not to proceed from their fault How can they cast the fault of their schisme vppon the Tridentine excommunications who before these Anathema's had deuided themselues by schisme from the Catholicke Church and truly by a schime in some sort farre more worse and foule then was the schisme made by Luther and after confirmed by the instigation of Caluin Because England in the begining refrayned from the opinions of Luther and Caluin and charged not the Roman Church with heresy or Idolatry as Lutherans and Caluinists did to couer their schisme withall and yet notwithstanding long after not with so much as any apparent cause it yielded to the common schisme of heretiks The Englishmen now for the most part doe prayse and defend the diuision and separatiō that is made for that they striue for that they fly vnion for that they cast away Charity they labour all they can that agreement doe not succeede and fraternall vnity be fast knit in the bands of peace and many of them say that they would more willingly and more easily haue vnion society with the Turkes then with Papists Is this to be ready to make concord Is this the truth of their wordes when they sayd that it was not their fault they communicated not with the Church of Rome Truly it cannot possibly be that any vnion which I thought might easily haue beene atchieued be made vnlesse they detest all heresies and heretiks and beleeue aright with the Catholike Roman fayth and be vnited vnto the same by perfect Charity 27. Henry the 8. had in manner only contention with the Pope and out of an hereticall spirit denyed his Supremacy and tossed with many discomposed passions
blaspheming of Christ and saying that he was not the soÌ„ne of God or sent by him seeing the society or Church founded by him doth not subsist but is euer now and then to be dissolued or deuided into partes the Church of Christ is one house and one family he who drawes himselfe from this family that goeth forth out of this house he belongs not to the family of Christ he is depriued of saluation as who were not in the Arke Gen. 3. were lost and perished in the floud The Protestants haue cut themselues from the body of Christ which is the only Catholike Roman Church and those who are inseparably vnited with the same therfore they are not members of Christ and therefore Christ is not their head neyther doth he infuse his holy Spirit and gifts into them they are therefore rotten members and already cut of because they haue cut themselues off wickedly of their own accord from the body Sunt palmites sayth S. Augustine August Epist 50. à vite praecisi nulli vsui nisi igni apti neque potest esse particeps diuinae Caritatis qui est hostis vnitatis they are branches cut off from the vyne fit for no other vse then the fire Ezech. 15.3 neyther can he be partaker of Gods charity who is an enemy of vnity So he 30. Of all spirituall help if they think themselues to haue any they haue made shipwrack by their schisme Si linguis hominum loquar Angelorum sayth S. Paul 1. Cor. 13.1 Caritatem autem non habeam nihil sum nihil mihi prodest If I shall speake with the tongues of men and Angels and haue not Charity I am nothinge it auayles me nothing Out of which wordes of the Apostle S. Augustine prudently admonisheth August de Baptismo Lib. 1. c. 9. no good worke any way to auayle a Schismatike The same and more then once hath S. Cypryan deliuered CypriaÌ„ lib. 4. Epist 2. Etsi occisus propter nomen Christi postmodum fuerit extra Ecclesiam constitutus ab vnitate atque caritate diuisus coronari in morte non poterit although one after that he is out of the Church and is deuided from the vnity and charity of the same be killed for the name of Christ he cannot be crowned in his death The same he vrgeth in other places as Lib. 1. Epist 1. ad Iulianum tract de simp Praelatorum seu de vnitate Ecclesiae de Oratione Dominica whome S. Chrysostome followes in Epist ad Ephesios Hom. 11. 31. Let the Protestants I beseech them consider what an enormous sinne they haue committed by this cursed separation because that schisme destroyes the Church for it is the saying of Christ Luc. 11.17 Omne Regnum in se diuisum desolabitur euery kingdome deuided in it selfe shal be brought to desolation and of S. Paul Galat. 5.15 Videte ne dum inuicem mordetis inuicem consummamini Take head least whiles you bite one another yee be not consumed one of another and this cryme of destroying the Church may be sayd to be that sinne agaynst the holy Ghost that Christ auouched not to be forgiuen in this world nor in the next Math. 12.31 as S. Ambrose sheweth Ambros 2. de Paenit cap. 4. So that most wicked harlot in the booke of Kings had rather that there should be no child theÌ„ that it should be brought vp in the bosome of the true mother and exclaymed against her saying 3. Reg. 3.26 nec mihi nec tibi sed diuidatur let the child neither be giuen to me nor thee but let it be deuided the Schismaticks labour al they can that the true and entier Fayth be not kept in the bosome of the true mother the Church they goe about to dead it that it may neither be kept aliue with them nor vs but they preuayle nothing and let those know that to be spoken of them Ecclesiast 10.8 qui dissipat sepem mordebit eum coluber the serpent shall byte him that breateth down the hedge 32. And it is no meruayle that the Englishmen haue fallen into many Heresies that Puritanisme doth sway so much albeyt when first they made their schisme they were neither infected with the Lutherane or CalumiaÌ„ heresies For as Irenaeus doth notably teach vs Iren. lib. 3. cap. 40. lib. 4. cap. 43. those who are cut of from the Church do not drinke out of the fountayne of the spirit of God but do digg for themselues bylakes and do fall into most grosse errours agaynst the truth of Fayth In like manner S. Cyprian makes the Catholike Church the roote the fountayne the sunne CypriaÌ„ lib. de simplic Praelat that as a branch hath his life froÌ„ the roote the riuer his water from the fountayne the sunne-beame his light spendour from the sunne so the sincerity of true beleefe to be had by our vnion with the Catholike Church they therfore who haue cut themselues from it cannot haue the truth of fayth but must necessarily fall into errours for they are trees without a roote ryuers without a fountayne sunne-beames without a sunne hereof it comes that the Fathers out of these and the like reasons doe coÌ„uince that schisme in the end breaks forth into heresy for he who refuseth to haue vnity with the Catholike Church will also refuse to learne of her the truth of Fayth of which she alone is the treasurer preseruer S. Augustine very well defines this matter when he sayth Augu. lib. 2. contra Crescon c. 7. Inueteratum Schisma esse ipsammet haeresim inueterate schisme to be heresy it selfe And S. Cyprian worthily findeth in euery schisme that heresy at least wherby is taken away one or two articles of our Creed Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam Remissionem peccatorum I belieue the holy Catholike Church the Remission or forgiuenes of sinnes for they who beleeue the holy Catholike Church to be the true Church of Christ they cannot if they thus beleeue depart from her and in case they depart then truly they do not belieue the Catholike Church to be the true Church of Christ So Saint Augustine sayth of the Donatists Aug. haeres 69. ad Quod vult Deum that they had turned their schisme into heresy And S. Ambrose in the funeral Oration had of his brother approuing his fact for that he had fled from the Luciferian Church as I now from the Churches of EnglaÌ„d sayth Non putauit Fidem esse in schismate nam etsi Fidem in Deum tenerent tamen erga Dei Ecclesiam non tenerent cuius patiebantur velut quosdam artus diuidi meÌ„bra lacerari Etenim cùm propter Ecclesiam Christus passâ—… sit Christi corpus Ecclesia sit non videtur ab ijs exhiberi Christo fides à quibus euacuatur eius passio corpusque distrahitur He thought not that there was any fayth in schisme for although they kept their fayht towards God yet they kept it not towards the Church of God of which they permitted certayne ioyntes to be deuided and members to be torne truly whereas Christ suffered his passion for the Church and the Church is the body of Christ they seeme not to beleeue in Christ by whome his Passion is made voyd his body dismembred 33. Was I then with so great domage of my soule to remayne amongst Heretikes and Schimatickes God forbid I am troubled with bitter griefe of mynd that I remayned so long amongst them that I tooke wicked armes and fought agaynst my Mother agaynst the Catholike truth and that I wrote bookes of the Ecclesiastical CoÌ„mon Wealth stuffed with heresyes which I vtterly abhorre and detest that I haue warred in the infamous tents of heretiks not without the perpetuall blot or infamy of my Name I now loath and am ashamed of my so great offence and craue humbly and with al submission pardon for this wickednes of God most good most great of my Sauiour Christ and of his supreme Vicar or Substitute on Earth the Bishop of Rome and submit all my faultes to the singular Clemency of the same chiefe Pastour because that he being to be iudged of none sits as supreme Iudge of al most fully susteining the person of Christ in the militant Church and I confidently hope that as our Lord doth willingly open to his Penitent the bosome of his mercy so I shal be imbraced in the armes of Clemency by his Holynes The exaÌ„ple of S. Cyprian against Pope Stephen the first very much reprehended and condemned also by the Catholike Church confirmed me a while in my naughtynes of resisting the Pope but now my filthy fall hath with myne owne danger taught me how easily Bishops fall from the right path of Fayth who leauing the Cynosura or Pole-starre that is the most certayne and secure direction of the Bishop of Rome follow to their destruction their own foolish fancyes I would to God that as S. Cyprian with the shedding of his own bloud did blot out all the spot of his former animosity so also that there may be graunted vnto me who for the multitude greatnes of my faultes haue incomparably exceeded his fall opportunity grace to blot out also with my bloud those soule spots and by that meanes to testify the Catholike truth which when my inke should fayle me I am most ready by the help of God to his prayse and honour for the aduauncement of the holy Catholike Church and glory of the Sea Apostolike to seale with my bloud Adsit Deus God second and assist me Rome the 24. of Nouember 1622. stylo nouo FINIS
Church not to bind vnder mortall sinne the vnity of the Church not to be taken from one visible head the Pope to be the capitall eenemy of the whole Church the Masse to be no true sacrifice the ceremonies of the Masse to be light Comical gestures no transsubstantiation to be made auricular confession with absolution to be no true Sacrament that there is no purgatory satisfaction for release of the punishment after that the fault is forgiuen not to be necessary no Indulgences to be but of such penaltyes only as are imposed the Saintes not to be inuocated the worship of Relikes and Images not to be lawfull that there is no merit of good workes to euerlasting life These and the the like errours and manifest heresies not so much myne and new as of the auncient and modern heretickes and their bablings and doating dreames condemned alwayes by the Catholike Church in many holy generall Councells are miserable rockes vnto which such as approach make lamentable shipwracke of their faith and euerlastinge saluation and therefore I fly from them as far as I am able and least that I should haue beene cast away vppon them in England I was of necessity to depart from thence and rerurne to the true Church the port and harbour of Catholickes and forsake detest anathematize or accurse all the foresayd errors and whatsoeuer others if there be any other in those bookes which agree not with the faith expressed in the sacred Councells especially in the late Councell of Trent on the other side I imbrace and auer the contrary truthes to wit the chiefe Bishop of Rome by Christs iustitution to be his Vicar on earth to be the visible head of the militant Church which alwayes hath beene visible with full power receaued from God to gouerne and order the same the same Bishopp of Rome to haue power ouer temporall thinges in ordine ad spiritualia the implicite fayth to be profitable and sometymes necescessary as when one without his fault hath no expresse faith or beliefe of some articles the excommunications of the law or deliuered ipso facto to be of force and to be feared as induced by exceeding great reason and lawfull power the Popes to be able to excommunicate all faithfull people of what place or countrey soeuer in case they deserue to be so censured the commaundements of the Church bynd all vnder mortall sinne to obserue them the vnity of the Church chiefly to depend vpon the one visible head thereof the B. of Rome to be the true lawfull towards the sheepe of Christ as it behoueth the profitable Pastor of the whole Church the only eternall saluation of which I desire he may alwayes thirst and seeke with all care in in the Masse to be offered vp vnto God a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice the ceremonies of the Masse ordained by the Fathers and Pastors of the Church by the inspiration of the holy Ghost to be holy mystical profitable and by all meanes to be retayned transubstantiation to be made in the Sacrament of the Aultar that is the conuersion of turning of the whole substance of bread into the body of the whole substance of wine into the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ by Sacramentall absolution wherby the priest absolues the penitent to be exercised a true and proper power of binding and losing sins which our Lord gaue to the ministers of his Sacraments in the Church to be purgatory in that manner as the holy Roman Apostolicke Church teacheth it to be graunted satisfaction to be much avayleable for the releasement of the punishment after that the sinne is forgiuen the vse of pardons in the Catholike Church to whome Christ hath giuē power to bestow them to be most ancient most soueraygne and approued by the authority of holy Councels the Saints not only without all errour of the faithfull to be inuocated but further that it is good profitable to haue recourse to their prayers and help the worship of Reliques and images to be good lawfull and profitable which cannot be abrogated without the spot of heresy the merit of eternall life to depend of our good workes The later General Councels which are of supreame authority in the Church my stomak being ouer charged with ill humours I did often despise especially the Councells of Florence Trent many times also that of Constance and through my procuring a certayn history came forth in print of the Councell of Trent of the truth of which history I had no certainty yea it is worthily suspected of imposture in these thinges also I confesse that I erred very much for I affirme all the most wholsome decrees of these Councells with full fayth to be imbraced by all the Catholikes 6. In a certayn sermon of mine had in Italian at London the first sonday in Aduent and printed I set down these errours which being after repeated agayne in the booke of the Rocks now I haue worthily detested In that sermon I framed a certayn night of papall errours in the Roman Church wheras indeed in the Roman Church alone and others conioyned therewith there is true light the true and only most shining day out of which in England especially is continuall most darke night In the Church of Rome the light of truth the true and sincere vnderstanding of the holy scriptures driues far away from it al the darkenes of errours with which darknes miserable Englād being ouercast groapeth like a blind man at noone day I sayd in the same sermon and reiterated agayne in the booke of the Rocks that S. Peter was neuer at Rome but this as a soule and ignorant lye I freely confesse is to be condemned I made all the Apostles in planting and gouerning the Church to be equall whereas notwithstanding the supremacy of S. Peter ouer them is cleare by the very gospells and Apostolicall traditions I affirmed the Bishops to succeed the Apostles with equall power and to be Bishops in solidum of the Vniuersall Church whereas yet Bishops are but Pastors of particuler Churchs haue but a particuler charge the generall primacy being reserued to him who in the same succeedeth S. Peter who is the B. of Rome and chiefe Pastor I sayd that holy water graynes crosses hallowed images Papal and Episcopall blessings the stations diuersity of habits cords leather girdles visiting Churches and Altars beades processions and the like to be toyes when as it sufficiently appeareth almost all of these thinges to be auncient and allowed in the Catholicke Church which vse is to be cōtinued yea euen in those things which are more fresh inducements to piety deuotion I affirmed that there were only two Sacraments Baptisme and the Supper whereas yet the Catholike Church lightned by the holy ghost doth plainly teach define that there be seauen true Sacraments all which and what other heresyes soeuer condemned by the Catholike Roman Church I doe also condemne and with firme faith belieue