essential forme doth shewe it to the vnderstandinge the marke designes the thing in the existence the essentiall forme designes it in the offence The marke teacheth where the thinge is and the essentiall forme teacheth what it is the marke is sooner knowne then the thing and contrarywise the thing is sooner knowne then the essentiall forme of the thing for the thing defined as Aristotle saith preceedes in knowledge the definition that is to saie the whole is knowne before the resolution of the thing into his essentiall partes And therefore to saie that the eminencie of the Communion is not the essentiall forme of the Church hinders it not from being a marke of the Church and a marke likewise not only greatlie necessary but absolutely necessary She hath saith Saint AVGVSTINE this most certaine marke that shee cannot be hidden shee is then knowne to all nations the Sect of Donatus is vnknowne to many nations therefore that is not shee Againe on the other side to saie that the doctrine is the essentiall forme or belongeth to the essentiall forme of the Church makes not that 〈◊〉 it should be a marke of the Church for a marke must haue three conditions The first is to be more knowne then the thing since it is it that makes the thing knowne the second that the thing neuer bee found without it And the third as we haue said elswhere that it be neuer found either alone if it be a totall marke or with its fellowes if it be a marke in part without the thing Now the truth of doctrine in all instances thereof is much harder to be knowne then the societie of the Church I said in all instances thereof because to know the right of the cause of the Church in one particular question with one or other Sect sufficeth not to knowe the Church by the doctrin but it is necessary to know the truth of the doctrine of the Church in all her particularities contested by heresies as well past as present before we can 〈◊〉 by vertue of the examination of the doctrine where the true Church is For there needes no more but that shee goe wrong in anie one controuersie to make her fall from the title of the true Church Now who is he that can vaunt to know the integritie of the doctrine of the Church in all her instances and to haue made the examination against euery one of the other societies by infallible and insoluble proofes to all theire answeres and by inuincible and irrefutable answeres to all theire obiections And if anie could doe this who knowes not that the simple people and ignorant and rusticall persons of whose Saluation neuerthelesse God hath the same care that he hath of the learned and to whom the markes of the Church should be equally common since they are equallie obliged to obay her are not capable of this examination For the rest of the people saith Saint AVGVSTINE it is not the quicknes of vnderstandinge but the simplicity of beliefe that secures them And by consequent who seeth not that they must haue other markes to know the Church by then that of her doctrine to wit markes proportionable to theire capacitie that is to saie externall and sensible markes as 〈◊〉 antiquitie perpetuitie and such like euen as children and ignorant persons must haue externall and sensible markes and other then the essentiall forme of a man to know and discerne a man from other liuing creatures By what manifest marke cries out Saint AVGVSTINE speaking in the person of a Catechumenist by what demonstration shall I that am yet little and weake and cannot discerne the pure truth from the manie errors know the Church of Christ to which I am constrained to belieue by the euent of soe manie things heeretofore presaged for these causes saith he the Prophet goes forward and as it were collecting methodically the motions of that spiritt saith that she is foretolde to be that Church which is eminent and apparent to all And a little after and also because of the motions of these little ones who may be seduced and diuerted by men from the brightnes of of the Church our Lord goes before them saying The Citie built vpon the Mountaine cannot be hidd And indeede how is it that Esaie should prophecy that In the last daies the Mountaine of the Lord should be on the topp of all the Mountaines and that all the hills should flow to her and that the Nations should come and saie let vs goe vp into the Mountaine of our Lord and into the howse of the God of Iacob and he will 〈◊〉 vs his waies if the only marke to know assuredly the howse of the Lord that is to saie the Church were the especiall knowledge of his waies And how should Sainct PAVL say God hath placed in the Church Apostles Prophetes Euangelists Pastors and Doctors c. to the end we should be noe more little children blowne about with euery winde of doctrine if he had not giuen vs other markes to know the Church then the puritie of doctrine Besides suppose the doctrine to be the marke of the Church it must be either the doctrine contested betweene the parties that pretend the title of the Church or the doctrine not contested now it cannot be the doctrine not contested because both sides haue it And lesse yet the doctrine contested for while the truth of the doctrine is contested it remaines vndecided of which side it is and the certaine and assured decision cannot be made but by the Church by which meanes it is necessary that duringe the cōtestation of the doctrine there must be other markes to know the Church by which being acknowledged the question of the doctrine may be decided And you cannot saie that the contested doctrine can be decided by Scripture only for besides that there are matters of Religion which are not anie waie touched by the Scripture ās that whereof Saint AVGVST speaketh The Apostles in truth haue prescribed nothing of that but this custome which was opposite to Cyprian ought to be belieued to haue taken its originall from theire tradition Saint IEROME protests that the Scriptures consist not in the reading but in the vnderstanding and that by a wrong interpretation the Ghospell of God may be made the Ghospell of a man nay which is worse the Ghospell of the diuell Wherefore to iudge surely of the doctrine by the Scripture it is necessarie to be first assured of the interpretation of the Scripture and that by an infallible meanes For all the conclusions of Faith which are not found in termes expresse and incapable of ambiguitie in the Scripture but are drawne by interpretations to make them conclusions of Faith and decisions infallible and equall to the authoritie of theire principles must be drawne from it by an infallible meane Now there are but three waies whereby we may pretend to be assured that a conclusion drawne from
spouse markes of the place where he dwells she saith Least I be as hidden amougst the flockes of thy competitors that is to saie saith saint AVGVSTINE of those that being in the beginninge with thee would assemble without not thy flocke but theire stocks For what is this but to saie that the Church demaundes marks of her spouse not to be discerned from all kinde of things but to be discerned only from the societie of heretickes which beare by false markes the name of Christ and the title of Churches And secondly it is not necessary that the markes in parte that is to saie those that taken separatlie haue not the entire office of markes may not be found euery one a parte without the thing marked but that the thing may not be found without euery one of them nor they taken iointly and altogether without the thing whose marke they are And therefor the argument of the markes in parte separated is good to argue negatiuely and to saie with sainct Austine against the Donatistes The Church hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is then knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nations then that is not she Or with saint IEROM against the Luciferians Hilarius being dead a deacon he could ordaine no Priest after him now that is noe Church that hath noe Priestes or with the same saint AVGVSTINE against all heresies in generall euerie heresie that sitts in corners is a concubine and no matron But the argument of the markes in part taken iointlie is good to argue both negatiuely and affirmatiuely and to conclude with saint AVGVSTINE Suppose then that I omitt this wisedome that you denie to be in the Catholicke Church there are many other thinges that retaine me most iustlie in her lappe The consent of people and nations retaines me The authoritie begun by miracles nourished by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me The Succession of Prelates since the sea of Peter to whom or Lord consigned the feeding of his sheepe after his resurrection to the present Bishops Sea retaines me and finallie the very name of Catholicke retaines me which not without cause this Church alone amongst soe manie and soe great heresies hath so maintained as when a stranger askes where they assemble to comunicate in the Catholicke Church there is no hereticke tha dare shew him his owne temple or his owne howse From what places of the voice of the sheepeheard the markes of the Church ought to be taken CHAPTER VI. The continuance of the Kinges answere The king hath learnt from the reading of the holie Scripture and all the Fathers heretofore none excepted held noe otherwise that the true and essentiall forme of the Church is that the sheepe of Christ doe heare the voice of theire pastor THE REPLIE To heare the voice of the Pastor is the office of the sheepe but not the essentiall forme either of the Church or of the sheepe For the essentiall forme of the Church I meane essentiall forme analogically as that of the supposts constituted by aggregation is vnitie in the meanes of vocation to saluation and the essentiall forme of the flocke is the communion and participation to this vnitie The name of Church saith saint CHRISOSTOM is a name of agreement and vnion And saint AVGVSTINE God is one the Church is vnitie nothing agreeth with this one ' but vnitie But if the essentiall forme of the flocke were to heare the voice of the Pastor doth not he heare the voice of the Pastor that heares her voice of whom the Pastor said by the mouth of Esay Thou shalt iudge euerie tongue that resisteth thee in Iudgement And by his owne mouth The gates of Hell shall not preuaile against her And whosoeuer heares her not shall be held as a heathen and a Publican And by the mouth of saint PAVL He hath placed in the Church Apostles Prophets Euangelists Pastors and Doctors c. that we may no more be little children fleeting and wauering with euerie wind of Doctrine And doth not saint AVGVSTINE cry out The truth of Scripture is held by vs when we doe that which pleaseth the vniuersall Church whom the authoritie of the same scriptures recommends And againe There are manie thinges that the vniuersall Church obserueth and which therefore are lawfullie belieued to haue bene deliuered by tradition of the Apostles although we finde them not written And then againe to heare the voice of the Pastor is it not to heare it according to true vnderstanding for doth not TERTVLLIAN pronounce An adulterate glosse doth as much outrage to the truth as a false penne And doth not Saint Hilarie saie The heresie is in the vnderstanding and not in the Scripture the sense and not the word becomes the crime And doth not saint Ierome write The Ghospell is not in the words but in the sense And doth not saint AVGVSTINE cty out All the heretickes which receiue the scriptures thincke to follow them when they follow theire owne errors And in an other place Heretickes were no heretickes but that misvnderstanding the Scripture they defend obstinately theire owne false opinions against the truth thereof And againe Manie things are spoken by Christ in the Scriptures in such a manner as the impions Spirits of heretickes who will needs teach before they are taught are thereby lead into error And vpon saint Iohn The heresies and peruerse doctrines which intangle Soules and cast them headlong into hell haue theire birth no where but from good Scriptures euilly vnderstood And so is not the question still to whom it belongs to iudge infalliblie of the true sense of the Scripture Moreouer the first voice of the shepheard that the Fathers summond the sheepe to heare is it not that whereby he designes the markes of his Sheepefolde that is of his Church I haue said saint AVGVSTINE the most manifest voice of my pastor who recommends and expresses to me his Church without anie ambigiutie I must blame myself if for the wordes of men I straie from his floke which is the Church since principallie he admonishes me saying My sheepe heare my voyce Now which is this voice of the pastor wherein Saint AVGVSTINE will haue vs seeke for the markes of the Church but that wich expresses not the doctrine contested betweene him and his aduersaries which was that of the truth of the baptisme giuen by hereticks but the prerogatiues of eminencie perpetuitie vniuersalitie and other externall and sensible markes and conditions promised to the Church If the holie Scriptures saith saint AVGVSTINE haue designed the 〈◊〉 only in Africa and in a little medly of men dwelling in the rockes and Mountaines neere Rome and in the howse and territorie of a spanish Ladie though whatsoeuer other pamphlets may be produced there are none but the Donatists that haue the Church if the
of the Church his mother the cursed and vncleane birds shall peck it out Of the exclusion of hereticks from the Bodie of the Catholick Church CHAPT VII The continuance of the Kings answere THE Roman Church then the Greeke the Antiochian the Egyptian the Abyssine the Musco uite and manie others are members more excellent in truth in doctrine and sinceritie of faith the one then the other but yet members of the Catholicke Church whereof the Masseand contexture as for externall forme is alreadie long agoe dissolued and disassembled THE REPLIE AND what shall then become of that his maiestie lately said that the specificall forme and essentiall marke of the Church is truth of doctrine and that there is noe communion betweene light and darknes and betweene Christ and Belial And that he that leaues Christ who is truth it self leaues the Church which is the foundation of truth if not onlie the Greekes Antiochians and Muscouites who are hereticks in the point of the processio of the holie Ghost which the most excellēt King doth with vs hold for an article of Faith which in this qualitie is inserted into ATHANASIVS his Creede and into the Creede of the Coūcell of Cōstātinople as it is read in the westerne Church which his maiestie professeth to imbrace but also the Egiptians and Ethiopians which followe the sect of Eutyches anathematised and cast out of the Church by the Councell of Chalcedon neere twelue hundred yeares ag oeād 〈◊〉 in the doctrine of the person of Christ which is the fundamentall doctrine of the Church and that whereof S. PAVLE saith None can laie 〈◊〉 other foundation besides Christ are Churches and partes of the Catholicke Church A Lacedemonian answered an inhabitant of the Isle of Delphos who told him that the woemen were not deliuered of Child in their Isle but trauelled out of it to be brought to bed and that their dead were not buried there but that they were carried forth of it to their Sepulcher And how then is it your countrie said hee if you be neither borne nor buried there Soe how is it that the Sect of hereticks and namely those of the Egiptians and Ethiopians with whom the Coūcell of Chalcedon forbidds vs to communicate vpon paine of Anathema and of whom saint Iohn himself tells vs If anie one confesse not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh he is a seducer and Antichrist And againe If anie one bring not this Doctrine receiue him not into your howses and saie not to him well be it with thee for whosoeuer saith vnto him well be it with thee communicates in his wicked workes should obtaine the being and title of the Church that is to faie of the Spirituall countrie of the Faithfull if to be borne in the grace of God and to breathe their first aire of spirituall life wee must first goe forth of their Societie and if to obtaine Saluation and to rest in peace after death wee must first renounce their communion God said to the Church by the mouth of Salomon Thou art wholie faire and there is noe spott in thee that is to saie as for doctrine and conditions of communion And by the mouth of Esaie None incircumcised or vncleane shall anie more passe through thee that is to saie None that publickly professe a polluted or impure doctrine Hee saith by the mouth of Ezechiell describinge the future state of the christiā church I will establish an alliāce of peace with my sheepe and will cause the euill beastes of the Earth to cease Which the Sibilla seemes to haue expressed in these words repeated by Virgill and that sainct AVGVSTINE saith might fitlie be applied to the Church Serpents shall cease swoll'n vp with th'impure blood Of poysenous herbes in their deceiptfull bud And how then should the mock Councells of hereticks which sainct HIEROME calls Denens of wilt beasts whose doctrine he calls the wine of 〈◊〉 mingled witd the gall of Aspes be Churches partes of the Church or how should the Church to whom God hath spirituallie giuē the same prerogatiue thar the historians attribute corporallie to the Isle of Creete to witt that it can suffer noe venomous beast in it that is to saie noe dogmatizing heretick communicate her name and societie with the venemous sects of heteticks Hee saith by the mouth of Osea I will espouse 〈◊〉 in faith And by that of Sainct PAVLE the edification of God is in faith And the most Excellent King himselfe protesteth that the essentiall forme of the Church is faith And how then can the sects not only of the Egiptians and Ethiopians but of all the hereticks which makes as saith S. PAVLE a Shipwracke of faith be Churches and in the Church Hee saith by his owne mouth the gates of hell shall not haue victorie ouer the Church And S. EPIPHANIVS and S. HIEROME interpret those Gates of Hell to be heresies And how then can it be that the hereticall societies into whose communion wee cannot enter without yeelding our selues tributarie to the gates of hell should be Churches and partes of the Church For though vices in manners belong also to the powers of hell neuerthelesse because the vices are but in the persons of those that committ them and not in the communion of the Church for as much as the Church exacts not from anie of her members the condition of being vicious to receaue them into her communiō they shall but conquer those particular persons that are spotted therewith and not the Church of the which God hath said by the Prophets Hierusalem shal be called the cittie of truth and the mountaine of the Lord of Hostes and the sanctified hill And by an other the howse of Israel shall noe more from 〈◊〉 forward be foyled whereas heresie infects the communions of the Societie where it remaines none being to enter into anie hereticall societie without obliging themselues to the doctrine where of she makes profession and vnder whose condition she receaues men into her communion and by consequent makes the gates of Hell victorious ouer the congregatiō wherein shee remaines He cōmaūds vs to hold those that heare not the Church for Heathens and Publicās he forbidds vs then from accounting the societies of heŕeticks which heare not the Catholique Church for Churches and partes of the Church but for Societies of 〈◊〉 and Heathens He saith to vs That whosoeuer gathers not with him scatters the hereticks then that gather not with him gather not but scatteŕ and so their assemblies are noe more Churches but dispertions He cries out to vs by the Organ of saint PAVLE That whosoeuer declares against what we haue receiued should be an anathema Hee wills then that heretickes should be held by the Church for anathema and consequently excluded from the communion both internall and externall of the Church He teacheth vs by the same Oracle that the Church is our mother
in our owne wordes or in the wordes of her head our Lord Iesus Christ I thinke wee ought rather to seeke her in his word from him that is truth and well knowes his owne Bodie And a while after I would not haue the Church demonstrated by humane instructions but by diuine or acles And againe Let vs then seeke her in the canonicall scriptures He did not intend that to seeke the Church in the scriptures betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists was to seeke the doctrine of the Church in the scriptures that is to saie to examin by the scriptures the point of doctrine which was contested betweene the Church and the Donatists but to seeke the markes and externall and visible characters of the Church in the scriptures to the end that the Church being discerned by those markes the truth of the doctrine contested might be after knowne by the disposition of the Church For the vnderstanding whereof it must be noted that there were two questions betweene the Catholickes and the Donatistes the one of the Bodie of the Church to know on what party either of the Catholickes or of them the true societie of the Church resided The other of the doctrine of the Church to witt the which they or the Catholickes held the true doctrine concerning the Baptisme of heretickes The first question then which is of the Bodie of the Church saint AVGVSTINE wills it should be iudged by the scripture alone for as much as in the precise controuersie wherein the question was which of the two societies was the Church the voice of the true Church cannot be discerned But the second question which is that of the doctrine contested betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists he would haue it decided by the onlie deposition of the Church as a faith full guardian and depositarie of the Apostolicke tradition To seeke then according to saint AVGVSTINE betweene the Catholickes and the Donatists the Church in the Scriptures was not to search the doctrine of the Church in the contentious points of Faith in the Scripture but to seeke the visible markes and notes by which the Church ought to be exteriorly discerned in the Scripture For the Donatists to proue that their Church was the true Church and not the Catholicke Church alleadged human actes and human proofes to witt that the Catholicke Church had receaued into her communion without anie expiation and purgation of preceding pennance those that had deliured the holie Bookes to be burnt and had sacrificed to the false Gods in the time of persecution and therfore that she was polluted with their contagion and was perished And then that the onely faction of Donatus which had remained pure from this contagion was the true Church And saint AVGVSTINE contrariwise saith that against all these words which were human proofes and words for if he that ordained Cecilianus had deliuered vp the holy Bookes in persecution time it was a thing to be proued by human testimonies that is to saie by actes of notaries and clerkes euen prophane the Catholickes had the wordes of Christ wherein the workes of the Church were described to witt that she ought to be visible eminent vniuersall perpetuall and that to examin the Church according to these markes it was to seeke her in the words of Christ and to examine her according to the production of the Donatists it was to seeke her in humane wordes What are saith hee our words wherein wee must not seeke her c. All that wee obiect one against an other of the deliuerie of the holie Bookes of the sacrificing to Jdolls and of the persecutions those are our wordes And a while after I would not that the Church should be demonstrated by human instructions but by diuine oracles for if the holse Scriptures haue designed the Church to be in Africa alone and in a smalle number of Roman inhabitants making their conuenticles in Rockes and mount 〈◊〉 and in the howse and territorie of a certaine Spanish Ladie then whatsoeuer records can be produced there are none but the Donatists that haue the Church If the Scripture assigne it to a little number of Mauritanians in the 〈◊〉 prouince you must goe to the Rogatists If in a smalle troupe of Bizacenians and Tripolitans prouincialls the Maximinianists haue mett with her If those of the East alone wee must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others for who can number the heresies as proper and particular of euerie particular Prouince But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonies of the Canonicall scriptures she be designed in all nations whatsoeuer they produce and whensoeuer it be produced by those that saie there is Christ if wee be 〈◊〉 let vs 〈◊〉 heare the voice of our Shepheard saying beleeue them not For euerie one of those is not to be found but this which is ouer all is to bee found in the selfe same places where the others are And therefore lett vs seeke her in the holie Canonicall scriptures The places the of the scripture where S. AVGVSTINE would haue the Donatists to seeke the Church are these In thy seede all the nations vpon the earth shal be blessed The children of the forsaken shal be in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 number then those of her that hath a husband This Ghospell must be declared ouer the whole world and then the end shall bee I am with you to the consummation of ages And other such like And the arguments that he bringes to manifest the Church by the Scriptures are these The cittie of God saith he hath this for a certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is thē knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nations then that is not shee Item You haue the Church which ought to be spread ouer all and to growe till the haruest You haue the Cittie whereof hee that built it hath said the Cittie built vpon the mountaine cannot be hidd It is she then that is most euident not in anie one part of the world but ouer all And other the like But as for the point of doctrine I saie againe and I saie it boldlie that saint AVGVSTINE neuer intended either that the question of the Church betweene the Catholiques and the Donatists should be tryed by the doctrine nor that the article of the doctrine contested betweene thē should be decided by scripture but that the point of the Church should be examined by the externall and visible markes that of the externall and visible markes by the Scripture and the difference of doctrine by the reporte of the Church that is to saie by the tradition of the Apostles is to denie that in disputatiōs against other heresies whē pointes are handled which are heere esteemed to be expresselie treated of by the canonicall Scriptures but that hee often called vpon their iudgment For who doubtes but that where the Scripture is cleere
2. Decemb. 1631 F. Leander de S. Martino sacrae Theologiae Doctor Hebraeae linguae in alma Academia Duacena professor Regius Benedictinorum conuentus S. Gregorij Angliae Prior. THE LETTER OF THE LORD CARDINALL OF PERRON SENT TO MONSIEVR CASAVBON INTO ENGLAND SIR the letter that you deliuered to Monsieur de la Bodery was deliuered to me by him euen as I was vpon my departure for a voyage into Normandy and since my returne from thence I haue bene almost perpetuallie sicke which hindered me from answering with more speede Now that my disease begins to be at some truce with me I will paie the arrerages of this delaie and will first thanke you for the good office that you haue done me in shewing the letter I writt to you to the most excellent king of great Brittaine and in procuring me an interest in his fauour I will striue so to husband it by my humble seruice s and particularlye by celebrating his prayses which is the only fruite that good and vertuons kinges such as hee doe gather from allthe labours and thornie cares that the burden of a kingdome loades them with as his maiestie shall haue noe cause to be sorrie that it be declared to after ages how he hath honord mee with his well wishes ād how I haue had his 〈◊〉 in reuerence and admiration As for the translation of the verses of Virgill whereof you writt to me that he desires a Copie that which I sent you being lost I deferr yet for some daies to acquit myself of that dutie because I haue put it to the presse with the addition of a part of the fowrth which I haue ended expresselie for his maiestie sake to inlarge my presēte to him As soone as those few Copies which are in doing shall be finished I will not faile to addresse one of them to you to offer vp to him on my behalfe The third point of your letter yet remaines which is that his Maiestie was astonisht at those wordes in my letter That excepting the title of Catholicke I knew nothing wanting in him to expresse the figure of a perfect and compleate Prince and that he pretendes that since he beleeues all thinges that the Ancientes haue with an vnanimous consent esteemed necessarie to saluation the title of Catholique cannot bee donied him Now as on the one side I can not but greatlie praise his maiesties pietie and Christian humilitie in not disdayning to submitt his iudgement adorned with so manie lightes naturall ād acquired to that of those cleare beames of antiquitie imitating therein the wisdome of that great Emperor Thodosius who thought there was noebetter meanes to agree the dissentions which disturbed the Church of his time then to exact from either part an answere whither thy beleeued that the Fathers which had flourish'd in the Church before the separation had bene orthodoxall and that being confessed to summon them to submitt themselues to whatsoeuer they should be found to haue beleeued so on the other side there are manie obseruations `to be made vpon this Thesis before wee passe to the hypothesis which since I Cannot represent to his maiestie I shall be gladd to informe you of them for your particular satisfaction The first is that the name of Catholicke is not a name of beleefe simplie but of Communion also else antiquitie would not haue refused that title to those Which were not separated from the beleefe but from the Communion of the Church nor would they haue protested that out of the Catholicke Church the Faith and Sacramentes may be had but not Saluation Out of the Catholicke Church saith S. Augustin in his treatie of Conference with Emeritus a man may haue orders hee maie haue Sacraments he may sing Alleluya he may answere A men he may keepe the Gospell he may haue and preach the faith in the name of the Father of the Sonn and of the holie Ghost but he can no where finde Saluation but in the Catholicke Church And in the Booke De vtilit credendi There is a Church as all men graunt if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more full in multitude then all the rest and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in the doctrine of truth But of the truth that is an other question that will suffice for this search that there is one Catholicke Church vpon which seuer all heresies impose seuerall names whereas they are all call called euery one by his particular name which they dare not disauow from whence it may appeare to the iudgment of anie arbiter that is not prepossessed by fauour to whom the name of Catholicke where of all are ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the Booke against the fundamentall Epistle Then to omitt this wisdome which you denie to bee in the Catholicke Church there are manie other things which doe most iustlie retaine me in her bosome the consent of people and nations retaine me therein the authoritie begūn by miracles nourished by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me therein the succession of Prelates euen from the verie seate of Peter to whom our Lord deliuered his sheepe to be fedd after his Resurrection euen to the present Bishops seate retaines me therein and finallie the verie name of Catholick retaines me therein which not without cause this Church alone amongst so manie heresies hath in such sorte obtained as though all heretickes would be called Catholiques neuerthelesse when a stranger askes where the Catholicke Church doth assemble there is not one 〈◊〉 that dares shew his 〈◊〉 or his howse And in his treatise of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue the holie Church and that Catholick for heretickes and schismatickes call their Congregations Churches but hereticks beleeuing of God false thinges violate faith and Schismatickes separate themselues from brotherly charitie by vniust diuisions allthough they beleeue the same things that we beleeue and therefore neither can the hereticke belonge to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the schismaticke because she loues her neightour And in the Booke Of the vnitie of the Church All those that beleeue as hath bene said that ouer Lord IESVS is come in the flesh and is risen againe in the same flesh wherein he was borne and hath suffered and that he is the sōne of god god with god ād one with the Father and the onlie immoueable word of the Father by which all things haue bene made but yet dissent so from his bodie which is the Church that theire communion is not with the whole or is spread in deed but yet is in some part found to be separate it is manifest they are not in the Catholick Church And Prosper his scholler Hee saith hee that Communicates with this vniuersall Church is a Christian and a Catholicke but he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist And for this cause wee see that the Fathers denied the title
that where of God saith by the mouth of Esay Thou shalt iudge euerie tongue that shall resist thee in iudgement And by his owne The gates of Hell thall not preuaile against her And againe Let him that heares not the Church be vnto thee as a heathen or a publica And by that of S. PAVL God hath placed in the Church Apostles Prophets Pastors and Doctors c. that we may noe longer 〈◊〉 little Children waueringe with euerie winde of doctrine And againe The Church is the Pillar and foundation of trutb doth not RVFFINVS write that Saint Basile and Saint GREGORY Nazianzene tooke the interpretacion of the Scriptures not from theire owne sense but from the tradition of the Fathers And doth not Saint AVGVSTINE crie out within the wombe of the Church is the dwellinge of truth And againe All the fulnesse of authoritie and all the light of reason for reparation of human kinde consistes in the only healthfull name of Christ and in his only Church And doth not VINCENTIVS Lirinensis say because all vnderstand not the holie Scripture by reason of the depth thereof in one sense But one interprets it in one fashion an other in an other so that it seemes there may be as many seuer all opinions drawne out of it as there are seuer all men for Nouatiā expounds it one waie Photinus another waie Sabellius an other Donatus an other Arrius Eunomius Macedonius an other Apollinaris Priscillianus an other Iouinian Pelagius Caelestius and finally Nestorius an other for these causes it is verie necessarie to auoid the perill as so manie great Labyrinths of so diuers errors that the line of the propheticall and apostolicall interpretation should be drawne according to the rule of the Ecclesiasticall and Catholique sense And háue not the ministers of Geneua themselues noted this in the margent of theire last Bibles The doctrine of Faith requires a domesticall and particular instruction namely in those that are ordained to deliuer it into the Church least they should take it in theire owne particular sense vnder colour of the Scripture And this is it that was anciently called TRADITION in the Church Now if the certainty of the interpretation of the Church ought to be také according to the exposition of the very Geneua Bibles not from the sense of euery particular man but from the traditiō of the Church how can it be that the truth of the vnder standinge of the Scripture should be the only certaine and infallible marke to discerne and know the Church But against these proofes the aduersaries of the Church propound obiections which we had best cōfute before we proceede to an other article The first obiection is that Saint AVSTINE in his writinge against the Manichees after he hath made a longe list of the markes of the Church addes this Among you where no such thing is found as holdes and tyes me there soundes only a promisse of the truth which if it be soe manifestly demonstrated as none can call it in question ought to be preferred before all those things whereby I am retained in the Catholicke Church And from hence they conclude that S. AVGVSTINE held not the other markes for necessary and infallible but onelie for probable and coniecturall since he offered to depart from them if they could demonstrate to him vndoubtedly that the truth was of the other side To this I make two answeres one that the truth whereof Saint AVGVSTINE speakes makes nothing for theire purpose that alleage it For Saint AVGVSTINE speaketh not there of the truth demonstrated by scripture which is that whereof the Protestants vaunt but of the truth demonstrated by the light of naturalle reason which was that that the Manichees promised as it appeares by what he said three lines belowe I would not beleeue the Ghospell if the authoritie of the Catholicke Church did not moue me to it And a little after And therefore if thou must yeeld me a reason set aside the Ghospell if thou wilt tye thy-self to the Ghospell I will tye myself to those by whom I haue beleued in the Ghospell And againe The authoritie of the Catholiks being destroyed I could not beleeue the Ghospell because it is by them that I haue beleeued it And in an other place That which remaines for you is to saie that you will produce areason soe certaine and inuincible as the truth thereof being manifested by it selfe it shall haue noe neede of the authoritie of anie witnes nor of the veritie vertue you must reade of anie miracle The other answer is that Saint AVGVSTINE did not propound this in the forme of a possible condition for contrarywise he disputes of deliberate purpose against the Manichees that the naturall light of reason could not be the waie to come to the knowlege of the truth of saluation but in the forme of an impossible condition and which consequentlie diminisheth nothing from the efficacie of the markes of the Church as it appeares by what he addes immediatelie after But if it be only promised and not exhibited none shall separate me from this Faith which by so manie and so great bondes so calls he the externall and sensible markes of the Church bindes my Spirit to the Christian Religion The second obiection that the aduersaries of the Church oppose is that the externall and sensible marks that the Fathers assigne to the Church as antiquitie perpetuitie eminencie and succession belong not to the Church only for as much as manie other things may claime antiquitie as the Sunne the Sea the mountaines and manie other succession as the Springs the brookes the riuers and manie other vniuersalitie as the aire the earth and the other Elements and euen amougst Religions that of the pagans hath heeretofore had eminencie and vniuersalitie and that of the Iewes hath still antiquitie and perpetuitie Certainlie a childish and ridiculous obiection for first the marks that God hath giuen to his Church haue not bene imposed vpon her to distinguish her frō all kindes of things but to distinguish her only from those things that are contained though equiuocally vnder the same next kinde and may be supposed and taken for Churches that is to saie from other Christian societies to witt from hereticall and Schismaticall Sects which challenge and pretend by false markes the title of the Church no more then the markes that Golodmithes giuen to golde that it will not euaporate in the fire and that it will resist the coupelle and the water of separatiō are not giue it to discerne it from all kinde of bodies for there are other bodies to which these conditions arc common as glasse and diamondes but to discerne it from false gold that is from metalls made and sophisticated that may be supposed and made to passe for golde And this alsoe Saint AVGVSTINE esteemes the Church would insinuate in the Canticle where after she hath demaunded of her
if anie of her members departe from the rule of faith will preferre the loue of truth before the loue of vnitie She knowes that the supreme lawe in the howse of God is the sinceritie of heauélie doctrine which if anie one forsake he forsakes Christ who is truth it self he forsakes the Church which is the 〈◊〉 foundation of truth VVith such separatistes a man truly Catholique neither will nor maic communicate Far what agreement is there betweene Christ and 〈◊〉 THE REPLIE HEERE his Maiestie must giue me leaue to saie that he changeth the way of his disputation and goes out of the lists quite from the state of the question For the question is not whether to obtaine the name of Catholicke to attaine to saluation it be necessary to be vnited with anie one of the members of the Church when it comes to be separated frō truth but whether to obtaine the name of Catholicke attaine to saluation it be necessatie to be vnited with the whole masse vniuersall Bodie of this Church which the Fathers haue called Catholick Neither is it the question whether there may be anie externall and visible societie wherewith it is vnlawfull to commuuicate but whether such a tyme can be wherein there is noe externall and visible Societie wherewith it is necessary to communicate For to saic that all Communion are not to be desired and that there are Congregations wherewith it is not lawfull to Communicate whieh of vs euer doubted it Nay contrarily doe we not daily pronounce anathema against those that Communicate with heretickes or Schismatickes and in that we 〈◊〉 his maiestie to returne to the Communion of the Catholicke Church from that of the Caluinists doth it not proue sufficiently that we holde not that there should be Cōm union helde with all kinde of sects The state thē of the questiō to ouerthrowe our Thesis and cōclude some thinge against vs requires not to proue that there may be Societies wherewith we ought to haue noe Cōmunion for who denies that but to proue that there may come a tyme wherein there can be found noe externall and visible Societie wherewith it is lawfull to communicate and that this tyme beinge come as Luther supposed it to be when he began to pitch his ensignes in the fielde it is necessary to goe forth from all the Religions that are then to be found visible in the world and to make a new Communion and a congregation a parte See heere what is needefull to be proued and in steede of this the excellent kinge aleageth that if anie member of the Church departe from the rule of Faith the Church must preserr the loue of veritie before the loue of vnitie To this answere of his 〈◊〉 we will answere two thinges the first that there is noe incompatibilitie beweene this thesis we must be vnited with the vniuersall bodie of the Catholicke Church And this antithesis if anie member departe from the rule of faith we must not be vnited with it For the one speakes of the bodie of the Church and the other speakes of some one of the members of the Church and the speciall mention os some one of the Church departing from the true faith supposes the staie and perseuerāce of the rest of the bodie of the Church in the faith Now it is with that bodie from whence that parte that forsakes the faith deuides it selfe that wee say we must haue Communion and vnitie and not with the parte that separates it selfe from the bodie for it is not a meanes to maintaine vnitie to haue vnitie with those that deuide themselues from vnitie The second that there is great difference betweene the rightes and 〈◊〉 of the Catholicke Church the preuiledges of particular Churches For the infallible assistance of the holy Ghost was neuer promised to euery particular Church but to the bodie of the Catholicke Church And therefore as the elements are corruptible in their partes but incorruptible in their all soe the Church is corruptible in her parts but incorruptible in her all in such sorte that though some particular Churches may erre in faith and consequentlie cease from beinge Churches neuerthelesse there alwaies remaines one masse of a Churche exempt 〈◊〉 corruptiō soe greate and eminent that she representes and conserues in herselfe the beinge rightes and prerogatiues of all the whole And soe the obligation that we haue to Communicate with the Catholicke Church is one thinge and an other the obligation that we haue to Communicate with particular Churches For with her wee are bound to Communicate necessarily and absolutely vnder paine of anathema and damnation because out of her Communion none can be saued and with others onely whiles they Communicate with her And the pretence of truth cannot be alleadged to make this obligation conditionall since Saint Paule saith the Church is the fouudation of truth And Saint AVGVSTINE within the wombe of the Church truth hath her dwellinge Nor can it be obiected that the supreme lawe in the howse of God is the sinceritie of heauenly Doctrine For besides that this lawe hath her Statutes written and vnwritten following this precept of S. PAVL followe the traditions that you haue receiued from vs whether by wordes or by Epistles And this testimonie of Eusebius The Apostles haue giuen some things by writing and others by vnwritten lawes And this obseruation of sainct CHRYSOSTOME From whence it appeares that the Apostles haue not deliuered all things by writinges but manie things alsoe without writing it is not only necessary in matters contested to haue a lawe but it is needefull besides the lawe to haue a iudge with authoritie able to oblige and subdue the sense of particular persons to interpret the wordes of the lawe which Iudge as we haue alreadie demonstrated cā be noe other but the Church How to vnderstand these wordes of sainct Gregory Nazianzene There is a sacred warre CHAP. XIV The continuance of the Kings Answere THE Church then must flye the communion of those and saie with sainct Gregory Nazianzene that a 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 is better then an infected vnitie And will not doubt to pronoūce with the same blessed Father that there is a sacred warie THE REPLIE THERE is noe doubt of prouing that there may be some societie whose communion must be auoided for none denies it but of prouing that there may come such a tyme wherein there is noe externall and visible societie wherewith we are bounde to cōmunicate Now the places that his Maiestie citeth out of S. GREGORIE NAZIANZENE are soe farre from insinuatinge anie such thing as they affirme the quite contrary For S. GREGORIE saith not these wordes against the externall and visible Communion of the Church of his tyme but against the craftie practises of the Arrians which demaūded vnder pretence of peace to be receiued into the communion of the Church with Confessions of the faith ambiguous and
light more splendid then the Sunn whose rayes From the ethereall desert first doe springe And that the rest of the seede of the woman were those of whom our Lord said shewing his disciples See heere my mother and my bretheren For though Saint Iohn make mention of the paines of childbirth neuerthelesse those wordes may be vnderstood to be spoken accordinge to the ordinarie custome of the childbirth of wemen as it is written that the daies of the purification of the childbirth of the virgin were accomplished and that she presented our Lord in the temple to obserue the lawe that commaunded that euery male that opens the wombe shall be holy to the Lord. Now if the mention of the paines of childbirth keepe vs from expoundinge this passage of the virgin and obligeth vs to transferr it to the Church what shall hinder vs from interpretinge still the wildernesse to be heauen and from sayinge that the wildernesse whither the woman fled was heauen into which the first of the faithfull persecuted and martyred fled euery day by theire death and the Church in theire persons from before the face of the serpent and were deliuered from his Snares persecutions and temptations followeinge this exclamation of Saint IOHN Blessed are those that dye for the cause for the Lord for they shall rest from thence forward from theire labors Or if wee will not by the word Wildernesse vnderstand heauen who shall hinder vs frō sayinge that this woman was the Church who haueinge bene once amongst the Iewes after she had brought forth Christ by the preachinge of the Ghospell was persecuted by the Iewes that is to saie the people of the Gentiles which is often vnderstood by the wildernesse from whence it is that S. AVG. interpretinge these wordes of the Psalmist Whē I passed through the wildernesse the earth trēbled writes the wildernesse were the natiōs that 〈◊〉 ignorant of God the wildernesse was there where there was noe lawe giuen from God where noe Prophetes had dwelt which had foretolde that the Lord should come And who can hinder vs from Supposeinge that the relicks of the seede of the woman were the Iewes who were conuerred to the Christian Religion and whose generall reunion with the Church shall be made before the end of the world or who can forbidd vs to interpret this wildernesse to be the exclusion from ciuill and politicke charges from which the Church was soe banished vnder the pagan Emperors that the Christians were not admitted to anie parte of the administration of the Common wealth For our aduersaries will not haue that the number of three yeares and a halfe to which this flight is limitted should be taken accordinge to the ordinary and literall accompt Or finally if it permitted to the last commers to hope to finde the diuination of the passages of the Reuelation in theire coniectures as the cupp of prophecie in Beniamins Sacke Who shall hinder vs from applyinge this allegory to the Conuersion of the Countries newly discouered and to in terpret the wildernesse to be the Indias and the other hemispheare which had bene soe longe tyme left waste and desert from the knowledge of the true God and from saying that the two wings are the two nauigation of the East and west by which the Church that the diuell vnder the ensignes of Mahomet striues to driue from our hemispheare is gone to visite those regions conformable to the stile of the Grecians which call the sailes of shipps wings and say winge a shippe in steede of settinge to the sailes and who shall hinder vs from interpretinge the Eagle from whence these two winges preceede to be the westerne part of the Roman Empire whereof these two nauigations are partes and from expoundinge the relickes of the woman to be the Catholickes that remaine vnder the tiranny of Mahomet For to expound the woman to be the secret mumber of the predestinate and the wildernesse to be inuisibilitie and obscurity how can it agree with that that our Lord Cryes If they tell you heere is Christ beholde him in the desart goe not forth beholde him in the secret places belieue them not And S. AVGVSTINE after him It is not an obscure question and wherein they can deceiue you of whom our Lord foretolde that they should come and saie see heere is Christ beholde he is there see heere hee is in the wildernesse that is out of the frequency of the multitude And a while after that is then the Church that is not in anie one parte of the earth but which is well knowne ouer all And how can it be that the woman beinge retired into the wildernesse that is to saie the Societie of the predestinate beinge shadowed hidden and obscured from before the face of the Dragon shall quit the pursuite of the woman to goe make warr with the relickes of the seede of the woman for if the woman be inuisible how can the relickes of the woman be visible And if from that that is said that the woman flied into the desert it be permitted to conclude that the Church shall be inuisible wherefore shall we not by the same reason conclude that the Babylon of the Reuelation shall be inuisible seeinge Saint IOHN writes And he carried me in the spirit into the desert and I saw the woman sitt vpon the beast And this wee saie not that we pretend to warrant this interpretation more then the rest but to shew how weake foundation such allegoricall allegations are to builde a reuolt and an alteration of Religion vpon and to ouerthrowe soe manie euident and literall promises of perpetuall beinge visibilitie eminencie and purity as God hath made to his Church Of the consequence of the places alleadged by the fathers for the aucthoritie of the Catholicke Church CHAPT XVI The continuance of the Kinges answere NOw to come neerer the point the kinge denies that this exact collection of places out of Saint AVGVSTINE doth in anie sorte touch him THE REPLIE IN truth if the most excellent Kinge can proue that the Church to which he adheares hath bene perpetually visible and eminent aboue all other Christian Societies as Saint AVGVSTINE puts this condition for one of the necessary markes of the Church when he saith she hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is then knowne to all nations the sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie nation then that cannot be she And if he can shew that she hath bene not onely perpetuallie visible and eminent but also perpetuallie pure from all contagion of Schisme and heresie as Saint AVGVSTINE protestes that to be of the essence of the Catholicke Church when he writes noe hereticke belonges to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor noe Schismaticke because she loues her neighbour And againe The Church of the Saintes is the Catholicke Church the Church of the Saintes is not the Church of the hereticke she was
intended in deede and not in Right for we doe not denie but that the heretickes belong by right to the Church that is to saie that the Church hath to exercise her authority ouer them and to iudge censure and excommunicate them but wee saie that they belonge not in deede to the Catholick church that is to saie that they are not actually comprehended and contained in the catholicke Church and are not members and partes thereof And it is not wee that saie this but saint AVGVSTINE who writes it in these words And therefore neither the heretick belongs to the Catholick Church because she loues God nor the Schismatick because she loues her neighbour Of the proceeding of the other sects CHAP. XII The continuance of the Kings answere AND it is not you alone that attribute to yourselues this right others also doe the same for at this daie a word the king cannot speake without groaning there are manie particular Churches which beleeue themselues onelie to be the particular people that they call the Church if you giue them strength like the Romans they would alreadie haue done as that hath done and would iudge the rest no lesse seuerelie THE REPLIE WHAT those are wee are not to Answere let the dead bury their dead only wee maie saie their conclusion would be good if their hypothesis were true for if they were true churches euery Societie which should be excluded out of their communion should be excluded from the title of the Church and from the right of being able to call thēselues a part of the Catholick Church for as much as the Church as hath bene aboue said is either one or none Of the perswasion that the other sects pretend to haue of the truth of their Church by scriptures CHAP. XIII The Continuance of the Kings Answere WHAT shall I saie more that there are at this daie many sects which are celebrated the sectaries whereof are most stedfastlie persuaded that they alone see some thing into holie writt and as saieth the Poet that they alone are vnderstanding and that the rest hunt after a shaddowe THE REPLIE HARPASTE 〈◊〉 domestical foole hauing lost her sight would not beleeue it was she that was become blinde but perswaded herselfe that it was growne darke It is iust soe with all heretickes they thinke it is the Church that is become darke and full of obscuritie and not themselues which are become blinde To finde anie thing answered the Pelagians to saint AVGVSTINE when he alleadged the multitude of Authors for the Catholicke Church A multitude of blind persons serue to no vse And by that only his maiestie may iudge how necessarie it is not to abandon nor prostitute the exposition of the scripture to the iudgement of euery particular person since there is not that man that when he will make himselfe iudge of it doth not beleeue himselfe only cleere sighted and that the rest as Homer saith embrace nothing but darknes For the Scripture consisting according to saint HIEROME not in the reading but in the vnderstanding and men not being able to assure themselues of the vnderstanding of the Scripture by their particular Spirit for as much as saith saint PETER as the exposition of the Scripture is not made by priuate interpretation it is necessarie to determine the differences that are bredd by the interpretation of the Scripture to haue besides the Scripture a Iudge externall and interposed betweene that and vs who may secure vs of the true sence thereof and that this iudge should haue other markes and be notable by other externall meanes then by that of the doctrine contested since it is from that iudgement that wee ought to learne the decision of the true sence of Scripture in pointes disputable otherwise questions in Religion could neuer be determined no more then differences in ciuill controuersies if wee should leaue the deciding of the sence of the wordes of the lawe to the preoccupated vnderstanding of the Aduocates and parties that there were noe iudge ordained aboue them and sett betweene the lawe and them to interpret it Of the sence wherein hereticks haue disputed the word Catholicke CHAP. XIV The continuance of the Kinges answere IT is verie true that there hath bene noe age wherein there hath not bene conuenticles to raise Sectes parasynaxes which haue bragged of the name of the Catholicke Church and haue drawne ignorant persons to them by this allurement THE REPLIE THAT the ancient Sectes and Parasynaxes of heretickes haue effected the title of Catholicke it was not to pretend in good earnest that it belonged to them nor to drawe ignorant persons to them by that allurement but to dispute it with the catholicke Church and to hinder least by the possession of this name she should preserue her menbers from being defrauded and seduced by hereticks And euen so not to dispute it with her in that sence wherein she attributes it to herselfe to witt as an Epethete of communion but to dispute it in the qualitie of an Epithete of doctrine For heretickes haue alwaies sufficiently knowne that this taken in the true sence could neither be giuen nor maintained to their Sects And therefore they spake not of this word but either in seeming to mocke and scorne at it as when Sympronion saith to saint PACIAN that none vnder the Apostles were called Catholickes And when Fulgentius the Donatist said that the word Catholicke was an human fiction And that the Donatists according to the report of Vincentius Lirinensis cryed out to the Catholicks Come come o you miserable madd people commonlie called Catholicks or in disguising the sence of the word and applying it to signifie the qualitie of doctrine and not the communion of the Church as the Donatists which called themselues Bishops of the Catholicke truth and to whom S. AVGVSTINE said you are those that hold the Catholicke faith not from the communion of the whole world but from the integritie of the diuine Sacraments For when they suffered it to bee admitted in a true sēce they were as speedilie as shamefullie driuen from it I asked him saith S. AVGVSTINE speaking of Fortunatus the Donatist if hee could giue letters cōmunicatory which wee called formed whither I would c. But because the thinge was manifestly false they shifted from it by confusion of language And elsewhere Wee must saith hee hold the Christian Religion and the communion of that Church which is called Catholick not onlie by themselues but by their Enemies For whether the hereticks themselues and the foster children of schismes will or nil not when they speake not with those of their Sects but with others they call the Catholick Church noe otherwise then Catholick Neither could they be vnderstood if they did not discerne it by that name by which the whole world calls it And againe This Church alone amongst soe manie and soe great heresies hath so maintayned this name as when a
desire of communicating with her in case she would change the conditions of her communion cannot be called communion in vowe but discommunion otherwise there would be no heretickes that would not communicate with the Catholick Church for there is noe hereticke but would offer to communicate with her prouided she would change the clauses and conditions of her communion and would reforme her self to the conditions of his Sect. To communicate then in vowe with the Catholicke Church is not to be hindred from communicating reallie therewith by any obstacle proceeding from him that communicates therewith in vowe nor by anie condition that he reproues in the Catholicke Church nor by being vnited in communion with anie other Sect whose cōmunion is repugnāt to the doctrine of the Catholicke Church For whosoeuer cōmunicates with another sect wherewith the catholike Church communicates not can not be said to cōmunicate in vowe with the Catholicke Church And therefore S. AVGVSTINE speaking of some good people who sometimes are vniustlie excōmunicated cast sorth of the Church affirmes that they cease not to enioy the friute of the communion of the Church that is to saie that they are reputed to communicate with the Church in vow when there is on their parte noe obstacle from communicating actuallie therewith and that they make noe congregation of 〈◊〉 out of the Church Often times also saith hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 permitts that honest people should be cast out of the Christian congregation by some ouer turbulent sedition of carnall men which 〈◊〉 to them done when they 〈◊〉 it patientlie for the peace of the Church and attempt no innouation of Schismes nor of 〈◊〉 they teache men with how true affection and with how great sinceritie and charitie God must be serued Of such men then the purpose is either to returne the tempest being ceased or if they be not permitted whether because the same tempest continues or whether least by their returne there may arise the like or one more cruell they yet preserue the will to serue euen those to whose motions and perturbations they haue giuen 〈◊〉 defending without anie congregation of Conuenticles to the death and helping by their testimonie the faith which they know to bee preached in the Catholicke Church Those the Father which sees them in secrett will crowne in secret From whence it appeares that those which cōmunicate with anie other Societie separate from the Church and hold anie other doctrine but that which is held in the Catholicke Church who are hindred from communicating with the Catholicke Church by obstacles proceeding on this part and by repugnancie to the conditions vnder the obligation whereof people are receiued into the Catholicke Church cannot bee said to communicate in vow with the Catholick Church Of the equiuocation of termes diminutiue imployed for negatiues CHAP. XVI The continuance of the Kings answere BOTH lesse exposed to the viewe of men and most subiect to 〈◊〉 THE REPLIE THE Poets faine that the Cyanian or Simplegade Islandes which are two Isles in the Mediteranean Sea doe sometimes meete together and ioyne themselues in such sorte as they seeme to bee but one therefore Homer calls them wandring and Pindar animated because they are described so moueable and vagabond The same may be said of the visible and inuisible Church of the Protestants to witt that sometimes they propoūd them as two Churches distinct separate sometimes they drawe them together and make them communicate together and compound of them one selfe-Bodie and Societie For when the oracles of the Prophetts Apostles are produced to thē touching the perpetuall puritie and integritie of the Church and that they are demaunded where all these promises haue bene fulfilled since soe manie and soe manie ages their 〈◊〉 refuge is to frame two Churches the one visible and the other inuisible and to saie that the puritie of Religion hath alwaies bene preserued in the inuisible which hath remained exempt from the contagion and from the abhominations of the visible but that it hath bene extinguished and abolished for a longe time in the visible And then as this ecclipse according to them is ceased and that they come to cast their eyes vpon anie companie which begins to hold visible that which they beleeue their inuisible Church inuisiblie to haue held then they constitute noe more but one Church and one communion of the visible Church and of the inuisible Church Now what other Protestants doe vnder the terme of inuisible Church his maiestie is brought to doe it vnder these wordes lesse exposed to mans viewe and more subiect to contestation by which noe other thing can be seriouslie vnderstood but that when Luther came into the world the true Church was wholie inuisible and not only that she was wholie inuisible but that she was wholie perished For if when Luther came into the world amongst manie Societies that contested for the title of the Church there had bene one lesse illustrious and eminent then she had antiently bene but yet visible which ought to be discerned from the rest by this essentiall marke that in the pointes wherein she differed from them she hath for her the worde of God Where did that Church reside Lett them giue it to vs that wee may giue ourselues to it But if she were inuisible and that before the coming of Luther there were a flocke vnknowne in the eyes of men but knowne to God which held the same doctrine that Luther brought besides that I will aske how the members of that Church could be saued not making anie profession of their Faith since our Lord saith who shall denie me before men I will denie him before God my Father And sainct PAVL Wee beleeue with our hartes to iustice but wee confesse with our mouthes to Saluation This Church then when Luther rose vp had no neede to receaue anie change in the pointes which are at this daie in controuersie nor to take anie instruction from Luther or his disciples but onelie to declare her self and with her Gyges Ring to make herselfe from inuisible visible And to cry out this is my beleefe this was the doctrine that I held before Luther spake Now this is soe farr from benig soe as Luther protests that none before him euer discouered the truth 〈◊〉 the doctrine that he hath declared And all those that came thither perswaded by the preaching of him and of his disciples and without euer bragging of the precedent possession of the same doctrine neither had this sufficed for the same Church must haue said Luther hath not yet passed forward enough hee is not yet arriued to the whole summe of my doctrine For wee know how much 〈◊〉 and Zuinglius haue added to the doctrine of Luther And so there not being when Luther came into the world a Societie neither visible nor inuisible which held Luthers doctrine and much lesse Caluins in the 〈◊〉 controuerted betweene them and vs it must necessarily followe
in as high fame As was the first inuentour of the same Nor can your worke bee any whit disgrac't By those who think it done with too much 〈◊〉 For had it beene in Michaell Angells power To perfect his great iudgment in one hower Hee who for that should valew it the lesse His owne weake iudgment would therein expresse And though wee in a common Prouerb fay That Rome was not built all vp in one day Yet could wee see a Citty great as Rome In all her 〈◊〉 in one minute come To such perfection wee might more expresse Our wonders and not make the glory lesse So I conclude with modest truth and dare All their free Censures who can but compare And whosoere shall try may spend his Age Ere in your whole work hee shall mend one Page A TABLE OF THE TITLES AND SVMMARIES OF THE CHAPTERS CONTAYNED IN THESE FOWER FIRST BOOKES OF THE REPLIE TO THE MOST EXCELLENT KING OF GREAT BRITAINE THE FIRST BOOKE CHAP. I. OF the vse of the word Cathòlicke fol. 13. II. Of the conditions of the Catholicke Church 17 III. Of the proceeding of the fathers for the preseruation of the vnitie of the Church 21 IV. Of the necessitie of communicating with the Catholicke Church 23 V. Of the markes of the Church 25 VI From what places of the voyce of the Shepheard the markes of the Church ought to be taken 32 VII Of the examples which we haue from the practise of the Apostles 35 VIII Of the definition of the Church and in what vnion it consists 36 IX Of the vnion of the predestinate and by way of adiunction of the visibilitie or inuisibilitie of the Church 39 X. Of the vnitie of eternall faith 48 XI Of other inuisible vnions 51 XII Of the knowledge that the Predestinate haue of their predestination 52 XIII Of the inequalitie of these two phrases to communicate with the Catholick Church and to communicate with some member of the Church departing from the rule of faith 55 XIV How to vnderstand the words of S. Gregory NazianZene there is a sacred warre 57 XV. Of the pretended precepts to goe forth from the visible communion of the Church 58 XVI Of the consequence of the places alledged by the Fathers for the authoritie of the Catholick Church 68 XUII. Of the distinction of the heretickes and schismatickes 69 XVIII Of the agreement of the auncient Catholicke Church with the moderne 70 XIX Of the conformitie or inconformitie of the sence wherein the word Catholick hath been common to the auncient Catholick Church and to the moderne 74 XX Of the comparison of the Church with the citie built vpon a mountaine 76 XXI Of the conformitie or inconformitie of the Donatists and Protestants in the question of the Church 77 XXII Of the extent of the ancient Catholick Church and the moderne 78 78 XXIII Of the communion that the Bishops of the East had by letters with those of the west 79 XXIV Of these words of the constitution of S. Clement the vniuersall Episcopate is committed to Bishops 80 XXV Of the comparison of the Pope with other Bishops 81 XXVI Of formed letters 113 XXVII Of pretended excommunications attempted against the Pope 116 THE SECOND BOOKE CHAP. I. OF Councells 125 II. Of the effect of Councells for the visibilitie of the Church 127 III. Of the comparison of the Pope with the other Patriarkes 128 IV. Of the difficulties of Scripture concerning the time of S. Peters 〈◊〉 at Antioch and at Rome 137 V. Of the Canon of the Councell of Nicea touching the gouernment of the Patriarches 147 VI. Of the addition of the word Churches suburbicarie made by Ruffinus in the Latine translation of the Councell of Nicea 161 VII Of the claime of the Bishops of Constantinople 178 VIII Of the order of sitting in the Councell of Nicea 204 IX Of the order of the sittings in the first Councell of Ephesus 217 X. Of the order of the sittings in the second Councell of Ephesus 219 XI Of the order of sittings in the Councell of Calcedon 220 XII Of the order of the sittings of the fifth Councell of Constantinople 222 XIII Of the order of sitting in the sixt Councell of Carthage 229 XIV Of the order of the sittings in the Councell of Aquilea 231 XV. Of the calling of Councells 232 THE THIRD BOOKE CHAP. I. OF Appeales 244 II. Of the opposition of sainct Ireneus to Pope Uictor 249 III. Of the opposition of S. Cyprian 251 IV. Of the commission of the Emperor Constantine the great for the iudgment of Cecilianus Archbishop of Carthage 264 V. Of the decree of the Mileuitan Councell concerning the beyond-sea Appeales 273 VI. Of the order and distinction of the Councell of Carthage 281 VII Of the African Councell 309 VIII Whether the Latine edition of the African Canons be more faithfull then the Greeke rapsodie 315 IX Of the difficultie touching the Epistles that are at the end of the African Councell 326 X. Of the question of Appeales treated off in the sixt Councell of Carthage 329 XI Of the Councell of Sardica 348 THE FOVRTH BOOKE CHAP. I. THE Estate of the Easterne Church 376 II. What the deuision of the Empire hath wrought to the diuision of the Church 378 III. Of the interpretation of those words Thou art Peter and vppon this Rock I will build my Church 379 IV. Of the indiuisibilitie of the Church 398 U. Of the effect that diuision brings to the Church 399 VI. Of the pretended corruption of the Church 400 VII Of the exclusiō of hereticks frō the bodie of the Catholick Church 402 VIII Of the qualitie wherein the Catholicke Church attributes to herself the name of whole 410 IX Of the sence where in the Roman Church is called Catholick 411 X. Of the causes wherefore the Roman Church hath cutt off the rest from her communion 413 XI Of the sence wherein the Hereticks belong not to the Catholick Church ibid. XII Of the proceeding of other sects 414 XIII Of the perswasion that other sects pretend to haue of the truth of their Church by scriptures ibid. XIV Of the sence wherein Hereticks haue disputed the word Catholicke 415 XV. Of the cases wherein the communion in vow with the Catholick Church may be imputed as actuall 417 XVI Of the equiuocation of termes diminutiues imployed for negatiues 419 XVII Of the authoritie of the worke iutituled imperfect 422 XVIII Of the vnderstanding of these words of sainct Augustine To seeke the Church in the words of Christ. 423 XIX Of the vnderstanding of the words of sainct Chrisostome in the thirtie third Homelie vpon the Acts. 427 XX. Of the rules to iudge admitted by sainct Chrysostome and sainct Augustine 429 XXI Of the application of the Thesis of this obseruation to his Hipothesis 430 XXII Of the personall succession of the Bishops 431 XXIII Of the succession of doctrine 434 XXIV Of the holding of a Councell 436 XXV Of the reduction of the disputation to
the state of the Question 437 XXVI Of the inuention of order in the iustification of the reformation before the proofe of the deformation 438 XXVII Of the indefectibilitie of the Church 439 XXVIII Of the sense wherein the Fathers haue intended that their doctrine had bene holden from the beginning 441 XXIX Of the exceptions that the Kinge produceth to shewe that he hath not separated himselfe from the Church 442 XXX Of the demannds made for Reformations since the fiue last ages 443 XXXI Of the agreement of the English reformers with the Donatists 444 XXXII Of the authoritie of the rest of the Christian people which denied to the Church the title of Catholick 446 XXXIII Of the testimonies of our writers 447 XXXIV Of the begging of the principle contained in this hypothesis ibid. XXXU Of the temporall causes of the separation of England 448 XXXVI Of the comparison of the English Church with the Iudaicall ibid. XXXVII Of the comparison of the Charitie of the antient African Church and the moderne Roman Church 462 XXXVIII Of the innocencie of the Church in the matter of conspiracies against his maiestie ibid XXXIX Of the writings of the illustrious Cardinall Bellarmin 463 An admonition to the Reader COurteous reader for so I will esteeme of thee whosoeuer out of a true desire of vnderstāding the truth takest this learned work into thy hands to peruse it with iudgment and yet without preiudice vouchsafe before thou begin the perusall thereof to take these few obseruations from me First whereas the most eminent authour thereof had proiected to diuide it into twelue seuerall bookes or partiall treatises and died before he could make a compleat end thereof being often diuerted from it by manifold employments which his high estate calling was subiect vnto by some more necessary dispute writings which the cōdition of France did then affoord his frinds either not marking this his proiect or because all the work was not ended neglecting that diuision set is foorth reparted into six bookes only and those so vnequally sorted that the first book alone is in the French edition farre bigger then all the other ensuing fiue bookes taken together This vnproportionable partition we haue amended in this English translation as we might easily do by the citations or quotations with which the authour himself bordered his margent for in them he sometimes referres him self to such a chapter of the second seuenth eleuenth twelft booke whereby he sufficiently insinuates into how many bookes he intended to diuide this his excellent worke at what matter euery booke should take its beginning which his intention we haue obserued in this that now we present to thy view that the fit diuision of matters therein handled may make it more intelligible and lesse tedious Secondly the humour of the French demanded for their satisfaction that the many places which are cited out of learned holy and classicall autours hould not only be faithfully translated in the text but also placed at large in their originall languages in the margen that the learned reader might without recourse to the seuerall volumes which required a copious library whereof few are furnished out of hand examin the faithfullnes of the trāslatiō cōsequētly how fitly the alleged authority made for the purpose But this humour not yet for ought I haue seen much raigning in our country we haue thought it sufficient to cite the places only in the margen which are fully expressed in the text the rather because the excellent translatresse copy which we haue faithfully expressed contayned no more and more beseemed not her translation as not desiring to make shew of skill in greek and other such learned languages but only of that which was sufficient for her assumpt that it is of a faithfull translation according to the significant expressement of the French Thirdly we haue not presumed to alter or change any one word of her translation but in some few places where the French allusions could not be so well vnderstood if they were expressed in English properly corresponding thereunto for euery tongue hath some peculiar graces and elegancies which be lost in the translation yf they be put word for word And yet this haue we done as we sayde very seldome and that especially in the word Church wich we English men vse deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the house dedicated to our Lords seruice which tropically we vse also to signify the congregation of the faithfull most solemnly and vsually made in the Church The French expresse it by the name of Eglise from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocatus ad professionem fidei the company of the faithfull called by Christ to professe his lawe by which word they secundarily or tropically vnderstand and call the Church or house of prayer So in the name of S. Peter in Frenche S. Pierre which word also signifies a rock or stone in French as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greek and Cephas in Syriak do but in our English we haue no such allusion No other change but in these few and such like haue we made neither was it needfull the translatresse hauing so fittly and significantly expressed the autours meaning that it would haue been lost labour to striue to do it better and rather marring then mending so perfect an expression Lastly I desire thee gentle reader to beare with the faults of the presse The printers being Wallons and our English strange vnto them it was incredible to see how may faults they committed in setting so that in ouerlooking the proofes for the print the margins had not roome enough to hold our corrections and do what we could yet the number of our corrections being so many a great many of them remayned vncorrected by the fastidious fantasy of our workman Yet we iudge there is no fault that may hinder or change the sence but is amended and for the rest we desire thee to pardon vs considering how hard it is to make a stranger here to expresse our ortography Farewell in our Lord and he of his goodnes giue thee grace to take profit by reading these learned discourses Thy Wellwisher in Christ Iesus F. L. D. S. M. APPROBATIO TRanslatio haec operis excellentissimi quod eminentissimus Cardinalis Perronius pro fides catholicae doctrina ad potentissimum Regem ac Dominum nostrum Jacobum totius Britanniae Franciae Hiberniae Monarcham summa cum cruditione pariter modestia conscripsit facta a nobilissima quadam Heroina prouinciae nostrae serenissimae Reginae Dominae nostrae Mariae 〈◊〉 Borboniae dicata per omnia fideliter concordat cum ipsa autoris mente verbis sententiis Qua propter dignā eam 〈◊〉 quae typis tradatur vtex tanti Praeceptoris accuratissimis cloquentiaque incomparabili vestitis disputationihus fructum copiosum capiatur Anglia nostra qualem vniuersa Gallia cum perpetua Magni autoris veneratione se percepisse protestatur
of Catholique to the Donatists because of the separation of Communion and yet graunted it to those from whom the Donatists had taken their doctrine because of the vnitie of Communion Cyprians people saith S. Pacian hath neuer bene called otherwise then Catholicke And Sainct Vincentius Lerinensis O admirable change the authors of one selfe same opinion are adiudged Catholickes and the Sectaries heretickes And S. Augustin Dissention and diuision saith hee makes you heretickes and peace and vnitìe makes Catholiques And that in the fowrth Coūcell of Carthage this article was inserted into the triall of the promotion of Bishops whither they beleeue that out of the Catholicke Church none cā be saued And that in the Epistle of the Councell of Cyrtha it was repeated by S. Augustin who was Secretarie thereto in theses wordes Whosoeuer is separated from this Catholicke Church how praise-worthie soeuer he conceaue his life to bee by this onlie crime that he is separated from the vnitie of Christ he shall not haue life but the wrath of God shall remaine vpon him And after by Fulgentius in these wordes Beleeue firmelie and doubt it not at all that no hereticke or Schismaticke baptized in the name of the Father of the sonne and of the only Ghost if he be not reconciled to the Catholicke Church what almes soeuer he may giue yea though he should shedde his blood for the name of Christ can in any sort be saued That I say was against or principallie against the Donatists And neuerthelesse the Donatists agreed in all the doctrine of the Creede and of the Scripture with the Catholicks Your are with vs saith S. Augustine in Baptisme in the Creede and in all the other Sacraments of our Lord but in the spirit of vnitie and in the bond of peace and finallie in the Catholicke Church you are not with vs And yet they differed only in one pointe of vnwritten tradition which as S. Augustin himself who principallie triumphes ouer this heresie confessed could not be demonstrated by Scripture This saith hee in the Booke of the vnitie of the Church neither thou nor I doe euidentlie reade And in the first Booke against Cresconius though for this there be noe example in the scriptures yet euen in this wee follow the truth of the Scriptures when wee doe that which hath pleased the vniuersall Church which the authoritie of the same scriptures doth recommend And in the secōd Booke of Baptisme against the Donatists And ourselues saith hee durst affirme no such thing but that we are upheld by the vnanimous authoritie of the Church And in the fift The Apostles haue in this prescribed vs nothing but this custome which was opposite to Cyprian ought to be beleeued to haue taken it's originall from their tradition as manie other things which the vniuersall Church obserues and for this cause are with good right beleeued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles although they haue not bene vvritten From whence it appeares that to obtaine the name of Catholicke it sufficeth not to hold or rather to suppose to hold the same beleefe that the Fathers held vnlesse they communicate with the same Catholicke Church wherewith the Fathers did communicate and which by succession of persons and as wee pretend of doctrine is deriued downe to vs and if she haue lost anie thing of her extent in our hemisphere she recouers as much and more daily in the other hemisphere that these prophecies may be fulfilled In thy seede shall all the nations of the earth be blessed In the last daies the mountaine of the howse of our Lord shall bee vpon the topp of mountaines and shall be exalted aboue all the highe hills and all nations shall come vp to her This Ghospell of the Kingdome must be preached ouer all the world and then the end shall come and such like in right whereof the Church as saith S. Augustin hath obtained the title and the marke of Catholicke The SECOND obseruation is vpon the restriction in Cases necessarie to saluation For besides pointes necessarie to saluation there are two other degrees of thinges the one sort profitable to saluation as it is according to the opinion of your owne ministers to sell all our goods and giue it to the poore to fast in affliction to appease the wrath of God to pray our Bretheren in the faith to praie to God for vs and the other sort lawfull and not repugnant to saluation as to fly from persecution to liue by the Altar since we serue at the Altar to putt awaie our wiues for adulterie and other the like for I alleadge these for examples and not for instances Now it is needefull to be cōformable to the integritie of the beleefe of the Fathers to beleeue all thinges that they haue beleeued according to that degree wherein they haue beleeued them to witt to beleeue for thinges necessarie to saluation those thinges that they haue esteemed to be necessarie for saluation and for thinges profitable to saluation those things that they haue esteemed to be profitable to saluation and for things lawfull and not repugnant to saluation those thinges that they haue holden to be lawfull and not repugnant to saluation and not vnder colour that the two last kindes are not things necessarie to saluation but only profitable or lawfull to condemne them and to separate ourselues for their occasion from the Church which then had thē in practise and still practiseth thē to this day The third obseruation is vpon the ambiguitie of the word necessarie to saluation which because of the diuers kindes of necessitie which haue place in matters of religion is capable of diuers sences for there is an absolute necessitie and a conditionall necessitie a necessitie of meanes and a necessitie of precept a necessitie of speciall beleefe and a necessitie of generall beleefe a necessitie of act and a necessitie of approbatio I call an absolute necessitie not simplie but by vertue of Gods institution that which receiues no excuse of impossibilitie nor anie exception of place time or persons as in regard of those that are of age capable of knowledge the beleefe in Christ mediator betweene God and man for neither the circumstance of being in a place where wee cannot be instructed in that article nor the preuention of time in dying before wee are informed thereof nor the condition of being an ignorant person vnlearned dull not apt to comprehend a sheepe and not a shepheard can warrant those from damnation that beleeue it not actually for as much as who beleeues not in the onlie Sonn of Gods is alreadie iudged And in regard of little Children baptisme only according to our doctrine may supplie the defect of Faith in Christ in their behalfe agreeing with that sentence of S. Augustin Doe not beleeue doe not saie doe not teache if thou wilt be a Catholick that little children which are 〈◊〉 by death from being
Epithete to distinguish the Christian Church from her for as the starr that the authors call Lucifer although it be the same with that that is called Vesper yet when it goes before the Sonne it beares one name and when it followes him it hath an other soe although the Iewish congregation hath bene in some sorte one same societie with the Christiā Congregatiō neuerthelesse whē this societie hath gone Before her SVNNE which is CHRIST she hath borne one name to witt the Synagogue and when she followes him she beares an other to witt the Church And therefore when our Lord said to S. Peter Dic ecclesiae tell it to the Church and if he heare not he Church let him be to thee as an heathen or a publican And when S. LVKE relates that HEROD sett himselfe to Persecute quosdam de ecclesia some of those of the Church and when saint Paul writes I teach it so in all the Churches And againe bee without scandall to the Iewes and to the Gentiles and to the Church of God And when S. Iames proclaimes If anie one be sicke lett him call the priestes of the Church And when S. Ireneus saith there haue bene sacrifices among the people there are sacrifices in the Church they thought they had sufficiently distinguished without anie other additiō the Christian Church frō the Iewish Synagogue And contrariwise when the Church of SMYRNA in an age neighbouringe vpon that of the Apostles intitles her Epistle to the Church of PHILOMILION and to all the a Diocesses of the Catholique Church that are throughout the world And when CLEMENT ALEXANDRINVS writes There needes not manie wordes to shewe that the mocke-Councells of heretickes are after the Catholicke Church And when TERTVLLIAN saieth Marcion gaue his money to the Catholique Church which reiected both it and him when he strayed from our truth to heresie And when sainct CYPRIAN aduertised the Bishops of Africke that passed in to Italie to acknowledge and hold fast the roote and matrice of the Catholicke Church And when Saint EPIPHANIVS reporteth that vnder the persecution of DIOCLESIAN those that held the ancient Churches called themselues the Catholicke Church and the Militians the Church of the martyres And when the Emperor CONSTANTINE ordained that all the Oratories of the Heretickes should be taken from them and presently after deliuered to the Catholicke Church they pretended not by the word Catholicke to distinguish the Christian Church from the Iewish but to distinguish the great and the originall bodie of the Church from the particular and later sectes Yet wee acknowledge that the word Catholicke in distinguishing by hervniuersalitie the true Church from the hereticall and schismaticall sectes distinguisheth her alsoe by accident from the Iewish Synagogue as a speciall difference in distinguishing her species from other species of the same genders doth also distinguish it from that of other genders though that be not her proper office for the word reasonable discerninge men from birds fishes serpentes and other beastes leaves him not vndiscerned accessarily from plantes metalls and stones But we maintaine the expresse and direct end for which the Surname of Catholik hath bene added to the Church I saie to the Church and not to the figures of the Church hath bene to distinguish it from hereticall and Schismaticall sectes If I should this daie by chance enter into a populous towne saith S. PACIANVS an author celebrated by sainct Ierom and finde there Marcionistes and Apolinarians it must be reade Apellecians Cataphrigians Nouatians and other such like which call themselues Christians by what surname should I knowe the Congregation of my people if it were not intitled Catholicke and againe Christian is my name Catholicke is my Surname that names me this markes me out by that I am manifested prodor non probor by this I am distinguished And sainct CYRILL of Ierusalem an author the same age expoundinge the creede For this cause saith he thy faith hath giuen thee this article to holde vndoubtedlie and in the holie Catholicke Church to the end thou 〈◊〉 flie the polluted 〈◊〉 of heretickes And a little after And when thou comst into a towne inquire not simplie where the temple of our Lord is for the other heresies of impious persons doe likewise call theire dens the temples of the Lord neither aske simplie where the Church is but where is the Catholique Church for that name is the proper name of this holie Church And sainct AVGVSTINE in his booke of the Faith and the creede Wee beleeue saith he the holie Church and that Catholicke for the heretickes and Schismatickes name also theire Congregations Churches but heretickes beleeuing in God in a false manner violate the faith and Schismatickes by theire vniust Diuisions seperate themselues from brotherlie Charitie although they beleeue the same thinges that we beleeue therefore the hereticke appartaineth not to the Catholicke Church because she loues God nor the Schismaticke because she loues her neighbour So that it amazeth me that I haue had soe little industrie to explaine myselfe as to haue giuen his Maiestie occasion to answere that the reason for which I had said in the beginninge of my first obseruation that the word Catholicke was not a title of simple beliefe but of communion was not enough manifest For hauinge alleaged these fower places of sainct AVGVSTINE Schismatickes appertaine not to the Catholicke Church although they beleeue the same thinges with vs. Those that disagree soe from the bodie of Christ which is the Church as theire communion is not with all or that it spread it selfe but is found separate in some part it is manifest they are not in the Catholicke Church There is a Church if you cast your eyes ouer the extent of the whole world more aboundant in multitude and also as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in truth then all the others but of the truth is an other disputation Diuision and dissention makes you heretickes and peace and vnitie makes vs Catholickes And hauinge accompanied them with these wordes of sainct VINCENTIVS 〈◊〉 O admirable conuersion or change the authors of one selfe opinion are called Catholiques and the followers of it beretickes And with those of sainct PROSPER 〈◊〉 that communicates with the vniuersall church is a christian and a 〈◊〉 catholicke and he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichrist It seemed to me that I had sufficiently shewed that the title of Catholicke is not a simple title of beliefe but of communion also It is true I expected not that a question that had bene anciently moued and adiuged euen with the interuention of the authoritie of Emperors should againe haue bene contested against and put into dispute For in the controuersie of Catholickes and Donatistes vpon the word Catholicke before the decision whereof as sainct Austin saith the Church was neuer
a heathen or publican that is to saie a Church visible manifest and eminent and not a Church either perpetually inuisible or as if she had Giges ring now visible and now inuisible The Church saith Sainct CYPRIAN clothed with the light of our Lord sheds her beames through the whole world And S. CRISOSTOME g It is more easie to extinguish the Sunne then to obscure the Church And againe h The Sunne 〈◊〉 not soe manifest nor the ligh thereof as the actions of the Church And Sainct AVGVSTINE a The Church is not hidden for she is not put vnder a bushell but in a Candlesticke that she may giue light to all those which are in the house And of her our Lord hath said The Cittie built vpon the Mountaine cannot be hidd And in an other place b It is a condition common to all heretickes not to see the thinge that is in the world the most manifest and built in the light of all the Nations out of the vnitie whereof all that they doe though they seeme to doe it very exactly can noe more warrant them against the wrath of God then the Spiders webb against the rigor of the cold And againe he hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidden she is then knowne to all nations The sect of Donatus is vnknowne to manie Nations then that cannot be she And in deede how could it be that the Fathers had not had neede to be purged with Hellebore who imployed these sentences against the here tickes and Schismatickes of theire ages to presse them to returne to the Church That he shall neuer come to the rewardes of Iesus Christ that hath abandoned the Church of Christ d that he shall not haue God sor his Father that hath not the Church for his Mother e That he cannot liue that withdrawes himselfe from the Church and buildes to himselfe other seates and other dwellinges f That Christ is not with those who assemble themselues out of the Church g That he who shall not be in the Arcke shall perishe at the comminge of the floud h that he which eates the lambe out of his howse is prophane i That out of the Catholicke Church none can be saued k whosoeuer is separate from the Catholicke Church cannot haue life l That the Catholicke Church alone is the body of Christ m That out of this bodie the holy Ghost quickens none n That whosoeuer then will haue the holy Ghost should take heede of beinge separated from her and likewise take heede of entring into her fainedly if they had beleeued that the Catholicke Church had bene an inuisible flocke of predestinate persons knowne only to God and into whose Rolle as appointed from all eternitie none could enter or be added thereu nto SECONDLY by the word Catholicke Church the Fathers did not intend the Chaos and generall Masse of all Christian Sectes Societies as well pure as impure as well heretickes as Schismatickes as our aduersaries doe when they feele themselues excluded from theire refuge of an inuisible Church but by the word Cacholicke Church the Fathers intended a Societie such both for doctrine and Communion as these propheticall Oracles painted her forth o Thou art wholie faire and there is noe spott in thee p Thou shalt be called the citie of Iustice the faithfull citie q Through thee shall noe more passe anie that is vncircumcised or vncleane r I will espouse thee in faith and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. And these Euangelicall decrees s The gates of Hell shall not preuaile against her t The Church is the pillar and soundation of truth u There is noe communion of Christ with Belial nor of light with darknesse x If anie one bring not this doctrine saie not to him so much as well be it with thee for whosoeuer shall saie to him well be it with thee communicates in his wicked workes that is to saie they vnderstood by that terme socitie of Christians extracted and contracted by the iust and sufficient meanes of externall vocation to saluation and distinct and purified from the impurity and contagion of all the hereticall schismatical sectes y If thou hearest in any parte saith saint IEROM of men denominated from anie but from Christ as Marcionites 〈◊〉 Montayners or Campites know that it is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist OPTATVS Mileuitanus z besides the only Church which is truly Catholicke the others amongst the heretickes are esteemed to be but are not soe indeed And againe The Church is one which cannot be amongst vs and amongst you it remaines then that it be in one only place And Sainct AVGVSTINE to Honoratus Although there be manie heresies of Christians and that all would be called Catholickes yet there is alwaies one Church if you cast your eies vpon the extent of the whole worlde more abundant in multitude and also as those that know themselues to be of it more sincere in truth then all the rest but of the truth that is an other Dispute That which sufficeth for the question is that there is one Church to which different heresies impose different names whereas they are all called by there particular names that they dare not disauow from whence it appeares in the indgment of anie not preoccupate with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitions ought to bee attributed And in the booke of the true Religion Wee must holde the Christian Religion and the Communion of that Church that is called Catholicke both by her owne and by strangers for whether heretickes and Schismatickes will or will not when they speake not with theires but with stranges they call the Catholickes noe otherwise then Catholickes And in the Comentary vpon the 149. Psalme The Church of the Saints is the Catholicke Church The Church of the Saintes is not the Church of heretickes she hath bene marked out hefore she was seene and she hath bene exhibited to the end she should be seene And in the booke of Faith and of the Creede Wee beleeue one Church and that the Catholicke for the heretickes and Schismatickes call also theire congregations Churches but the hereticke beleeuinge of God false things violate the Faith And Schismatickes by vniust dissentions separate themselues from brotherly Charitie although they belieue the same thinges that we belieue and therefore neither the heretickes doe appertaine to the Catholique Church because she loues God nor the Schismatickes because she loues her neighbour And certainly how could the Fathers without making themselues ridiculous te theire auditors beate downe the heretickes and Schismatickes with these sentences That out of the Catholicke Church there is noe Saluation that whosoeuer is not in the Catholique Church canot haue life that he shall not haue God for
his father who wil not haue the Church for his mother That Christ is not with those that assemble out of the Church That although they should be slaine for the confession of Christ this spot is not washt awaie euen with bloud That he cannot be à martyr that is not in the Church That out of the Catholicke Church one may haue Faith Sacraments Orders and in summe euery thing except saluation That he that communicates not with the Catholicke Church is an hereticke and Antichrist That noe hereticke nor Schismaticke that is not restored to the Catholicke church before the end of this life can be saued if they had belieued that all the Sectes that professe the name of Christ both heretickes and Schismatickes had bene in the Catholicke Church THIRDLY by the word Catholicke Church they did not intend a Church interrupted and intermitting as that of the protestantes which is borne and dyes by fittes like the Tyndarides but such a Church as these wordes of the prophet describe As in in the daies of Noe I swore that I would no more bring the waters of the floud vpon the earth soe haue I sworne I will no more be angrie against thee Thou shalt noe more be called the forsaken I will place my sanctification in the midst of them for euer I will noe more doe to the rest of this people as in tymes past And these of our Lord The gates of hell shall not preuaile against her I am with you vntill the consummation of all ages The Spirit of truth shall dwell with you eternally Let the one growe with the other vntill the haruest that is to saie a Church permanent eternall and not capeable of ruine Wee acknowledge said that great ALEXANDER Bishop of Alexandria one only Catholicke and Apostolicke Church which as she can neuer bee rooted out though all the world should vndertake to oppose her soe she outhrowes disperseth all the wicked assaulth of heretickes And Sainct ATHANASIVS The Church is inuincible though hell it selfe should arise with all the power thereof against her And THEOPHILVS God in all tymes grants one selfe grace to his Church to witt that that Bodie should be kept intire and that the venome of the Doctrine of heretickes shall haue noe power ouer her And Sainct AVGVSTINE in the comentary vpon the 47. psalme God saith he hath founded her eternallie let not heretickes deuided into factions boaste let them not lift themselues vp that saie heere is Christ and there is Christ. And againe But perchance this Cittie that hath possessed the whole world shall be one daie ruined neuer may it happen God hath founded her eternallie If then God hath founded her eternally wherefore fearest thou that her foundation should fall And in the Comentary vpon the 101. psalme But his Church which hath bene of all nations is noe more she is perished soe saie they that are not in her O impudent voice And a little after this voice soe abominable soe detestable soe full of presumption and falshood which is sustained with noe truth illuminated with noe wisedome seasoned with noe salt vaine rash headie pernicious the holy Ghost hath foreseene it And in the treatie of the Christian combate They saie the whole Church is perished and the relickes remaine only on Donatus his side O prowde and impious tongue And in the worke of Baptisme against the Donatists If the Church vere perished in Cyprians tyme from whence did Donatus appeare from what earth is he sprung vp from what Sea is he come forth from what heauen is he fallen And in the third booke against Parmenian How can they vaunt to haue anie Church if she haue ceased from those tymes And in the explication of the Creede to the Cathecumenistes The Catholicke Church is she that sighting with all heresies may be opposed but cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come out from her as vnprofitable branches cut from the vine but she staies in her vine in her roote in her Charitie And the gates of hell shall neuer ouerthrow her Behold without colour or fraud what the Father 's vnderstood by the word Catholicke Church to witt a Church visible and eminent aboue all other Christian societies A Church pure from all contagion of schisme and heresie A Church perpetuall and which had neuer suffered nor neuer could suffer anie interruption neither in her faith in her Communion nor in her visibilitie This Church if the most excellent King haue let hin giue her to vs if not lett him receiue her from vs Aut det as saint AVSTINE said to the Donatists aut accipiat Of the proceeding of the Father for the preseruation of the vnitie of the Church CHAP. III. The pursute of the Kinges Answere THe Kinge commendes also the prudence of the religious Bishops who in the 4 Councell of Carthage as it is heere truly obserued added to the forme of the examination of Bishops a particular interrogatory vpon this point And his Maiestie is not ignorant that the Fathers of the ancient Church haue oftentymes done manie thinges by forme of accommodation for the good of peace and to the end to preuent the breach of vnitie and mutuall Communion whose example he protesteth he is 〈◊〉 to imitate and to followe the steps of those that procure peace euen to the Altars that is to saie as much as in the present estate of the Church the integritie of his Conscience will permitt him For he will giue place to none either in extreame griefe he suffers for the separation of the members of the Churdh which the good Fathers haue soe much detested or in his dosire to communicate if it were possible for him with all the members of the mysticall bodie of our Lord Iesus-Christ THE REPLIE IT was not by way of prudence as prudence signifies a human vertue that the Fathers pronounced this decree that out of the Catholicke Church saluation could not bee obtained but by way of decision and as an article of faith For this cause saith sainct AVGVSTINE vpon the Creede The Conclusion of this Sacrament is determined by the holie Church for as much as if anie one be found on t of it he shall be excluded from the number of the Children And he shall not haue God for his Father that will not haue the Church for his Mother and it shall serue him for nothing to haue belieued or done soe manie and soe manie good workes without the true end or butte of the souer aigne good And sainct FVLGENTIVS in his booke of the Faith Holde this firmely and doubt it not that euery hereticke and Schismaticke haptized in the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost if before the end of this life he be not revnited to the Church Catholicke whatsoeuer almes he distribute yea though he should shed his bloud for the name
Scripture haue bounded her to a little number of Moores of the Cesarian prouince then we must goe to the Rogatists if to a little compaine of Tripolitans Byzacenians and prouincialls the Maximianists haue gotten her If onlie to those of the East we must seeke her amongst the Arrians Macedonians Eunomians and others if there be others to be found for who can number the particular heresies of euerie nation But if by the diuine and most certaine testimonie of the holie Scriptures she is designed to be in all Nations whatsoeuer is alleadged to vs or from whence soeuer it is alleadged by those that saie heere is Christ there is Christ if we be sheepe lett vs rather heare the voice of our shepheard who saith beleeue them not for these are not tobe found in manie places where she is and she who is euerie where is also wheresoeuer they are And againe My sheepe heare my voice and follow me You haue heard his most manifest voice recommendinge his future Church not only in the psalmes and in the prophets but by his owne mouth alsoe And a little after This is no obscure question and wherein they may deceiue you of whom our Lord hath foretolde that they should come and saie lo heere is Christ behold he is tbere lo he is in the desert that is to saie out of the frequeneie of the multitud beholde him heere in the secret places that is in hidden traditions and darke Doctrines You heare that the Church must be spread ouer all and grow to the haruest you haue the citie of which himselfe that built it said the Cittie built vpon a hill cannot be hidden it is then she that is not in anie single parte of the earth but is well knowne euery where Beholde the markes of the Church that saint AVGVSTINE affirmes to be designed by the voice of the pastor and soe cleerely designed as they neede noe interpreter to the end that the Church beinge knowne by them we may after by the Church be informed of the sense of the other voices of the pastor which neede interpretarion Produce to vs said he something for your cause which cannot be interpreted more truly against you nay which at all needes no interpreter as these wordes In thy seede all nations shall be blest neede no interpreter As these wordes It behoued that Christ should suffer and rise againe the third daie and that in his name there should be preached penāce and remissiō of Sinnes through all nations beginning from Ierusalem haue no neede of an interpreter c. As these wordes And this Ghospell of the kingdome shall be preached through the whole world in testimonie to all people and then the end shall come haue noe neede of an interpreter As these wordes Let both grow together till haruest haue noe neede of an interpretor For when they had neede of an interpretor our Lord himselfe ineerpreted them for euen as when a testator ordaines some one to interpret the difficulties of his testament and that the name o this interpreter being common and equiuocall to manie the testator assignes marks in his 〈◊〉 to make him knowne the clause whereby he designes the markes to know him must be so cleere as they shall need no interpreter since it is by them that he should be knowne to whom it is necessary they should addresse themselues to make them vnderstand those thing that shall neede interpretation So God hauing promised in his testament to giue the interpretatiō of his testamēt to the Church the wordes whereby the markes of the Church are there designed must be so cleere that they shall neede noe interpreter so that by them the Church beinge knowne we may after by the Church learne the vnderstanding of those things that neede an interpreter And therefore the order and course of S. AVGVSTINE was to verifie by places of Scripture which had not need of an interpretor the externall and sensible markes ' of the Church by the externall and sensible markes of the Church the Church itselfe and by the Church the vnderstanding of those places of Scripture which had need of interpretation n This point said he we reade it not plainely and euidētly neither I nor thou but if there were beere some mā indued with wisdome to whom our Lord himselfe had giuen testimonie and that he were consulted with by vs about this question I beleeve we would nothinge doubte to doe as he would 〈◊〉 vs for feare of beinge iudged repugnant not soe much to him as to our Lord Iesus Christ by whom he was recommended Now he giues testimony to his Church And elswhere Whosoeuer then feareth to be deceaued through the obscuritie of this questiō lett him cōsult with that Church which the holy Scripture bath designed without 〈◊〉 ambiguitie But this was when hee disputed with the Donatists who agreed with the Catholicks concerninge the truth of the Scripture for when he disputed with the Manichees or with the Infidells which denied or questioned it then he changed his method and did not proue to them the Church by the Scripture but the Scripture by the Church and to that end he vsed two kindes of proceedinge The one was to put it for a ground that if god haue care of the Saluation of man as without this principle all discourse of Religion is in vaine there can be noe doubt but he hath appointed a meanes howe they might attaine it and that this meanes not cōsisting in thinges knowne by naturall reason for as much as thē naturallie all men would agree in it it is thē of necessity that it should consist in authority and then this ground benig laid to verifie that amonge all the Societies of Religion that bee in the world the onely Catholicke Church hath the true markes of authority The other proceedinge was to propose to them the accomplishment of profecies touching the extirpation of Idolles and the ruyne of the false Gods of the paganes and touchinge the abolishment of the Iewish Ceremonies and the dispersinge of the people of the Iewes and touchinge the comeinge of a newe lawe maker and of a newe Religion and to represent to them that these prophecies were written before the birth of our Lord and kept by the enemies of the Church and were couched in termes soe cleere that it was a wonder that the Iewes which kept them were not persuaded by them but that within the same bookes it was foretolde that theyshould be stricken with blindnes and that in seeinge they should not see And by this meanes to proue to them that these were sacred and inspired from God and then this obtained to shewe them in the same prophecies the markes whereby amongst soe manie Societies which should vsurpe the title of Christian Societies shee was to be discerned to whow appertained the right of beinge the true Common wealth of Christ. And she beinge finally acknowledged to addresse them to
the definition is a spring of errors and deceites Now if this be graunted in other controuersies experience teacheth vs it must principally be graunted in that of the Church from the false definitions of which are bred all the sophismes and paralogismes which fall out in the rest of the disputation For from the too strict definition that the protestants giue to the Church when they restraine her to the only number of the predestinate proceede the illusions of the obscurity and inuisibilitie of this societie by which all the markes promises and prerogatiues that God hath appropriated to his Church to haue power to iudge all tongues that shall resist her in iudgement not to be ouerthrowne by the powres of hell to be heard vnder paine of anathema to be the pillar and 〈◊〉 of truth are turned into smoke for to haue them in this manner that is inuisiblie is to haue them without vse or rather not to haue them at all And from the definitiō too vaste and indeterminate which they giue her whē they say she is the multitude of those that liue vnder the profession of seruing God in Christ without adding by lawfull and sufficient meanes there ariseth in steede of the Church a medly and chaos of all kinde of heresies Now this they doe as hath bene said to delude the questiōs of the perpetuitie and succession of theire Church for when you demaunde of them where that Church hath bene these 1000. or 1200. yeares whereof God had said That he would build her for perpetuitie that he would espouse her for euer that he would neuer roote her out of the earth that she should noe more be called the for sakē that 〈◊〉 engine addressed against her should be without effect that she should be a plentifull 〈◊〉 atiō a tabernacle that can neuer be carried awaie and whose nailes 〈◊〉 neuer be vnsastned nor her cordes broken in anie time to come that the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against her that he would be with her to the and of the world They fly to the obscuritie and darknes of the first definition and saie that the Church is the compagnie of the predestinate and consequently that they are not bound to proue her succession because she hath bene inuisible Then when they 〈◊〉 themselues excluded from this refuge and that it is demonstrated to them that the same contracts of God which promised perpetuitie to the Christian Church haue also promised her brightnesse and eminencie that it is declared that in the daies of the new alliance the mountaine of the Lord shall be vpon the topp of all the mountainos and all the hills shall flow to her and shall saie let vs goe vp into the mountaine of the Lord and into the howse of the the God of Iacob and he will teache vs his waies That it is written That the 〈◊〉 should walke in her light and the people in the splendor of her Orient That her seede should be knowne among the people and her posteritie in the middest of the generations That all that should see her should know she was the seede blessed by the Lord. And that the nations should know that God is the sanctifier of Israel when his sanctification should be in the midst of her for perpetuitie Then they haue recourse to the medly and confusion of the second and answere that the Church is the multitude of those that make profession to serue God in Iesus Chr. and by consequence that to maintaine the perpetuitie thereof it sufficeth that there hath alwaies bene a multitude of men making profession to serue God in Christ be it pure or impure Now this shift is one of the shifts that Saint AVGVST witnesseth to be common to foxes and heretickes For as foxes saith S. AVG. haue two holes in theire terriers to saue themselues by one when they are driuen from the other soe heretickes whom the Scripture figures out by foxes when the spouse doth sing Let vs take the young foxes that destroy the vines haue a double issue in theire solutions to scape by one when they are prest and assaulted in the other soe as who will catch them must sett theire netts before both issues and must besiege both theire passages To the end then we may take them and hinder the excellent king from being taken by them we will sett the nettes before both the breaches of this definition and will examine first the 4. inuisible vnions wherein his Maiestie conceiues the essentiall forme of the Church may consist and we will shew that that vnitie which constitutes the formall being of the Church is that of externall vocation and not that either of predestination or of internall faith or of the coniunction of spirits by the offices of charitie and mutuall prayer or of the participatiō of one same hope secōdlie we will make it appeare that this vocatiō in the vnitie of which the essentiall forme of the Church consistes is not the simple professiō of the name of Christ but it is the vocation to saluation by iust and sufficient meanes which are the professiō of the true faith the sincere administratiō of the Sacraments and the adherence to lawfull pastors So as the definition of the Church shall be the Societie of those that God hath called to saluation by the prosession of the true saith the sincere administration of Sacraments and the 〈◊〉 to lawfull pastors Now of this definition the first part to witt that the 〈◊〉 of the Church cōsistes in the vnitie of externall vocation and not in the vnitie of anie inuisible condition we will treat of in the examinatiō of the three articles following where his Maiestie propoundes the internall vnions in the which he pretendes that the essence of the Church may be cōserued And the 2. to witt that the vocatiō wherein the essentiall forme of the Church consistes is not the simple professiō of the name of Chr. but it is the vocatiō by iust and sufficiēt meanes we will reserue to the article of false externall vnions where his Maiesty esteemes that the hereticall societies as the Egyptiās Ethiopiās which denie the distinctiō of two natures in Christ and by this meanes destroy the foundation of the faith are neuerthelesse members and partes of the Catholique Church Of the vnion of the predestinate and byway of adiunction of the visibility or inuisibilitie of the Church CHAP. IX The continuance of the Kings answere THEY are vnited in Christ theire head who is the fountaine of life in the which all those liue that the Father hath elected to redeeme them by the precious blood of his Sonne and freely to giue them life eternall THE REPLIE THE vnion that the predestinate haue in God as they are only predestinate doth not constitute anie actuall Church amongst them but only the vnion they haue one with an other as they are called
And when he saith Tell it to the Church and if he heare not the Church let him be to thee as a heathen or a publican And againe the Cittie set vpon a mountaine cannot be hid And in an other place I will pray not onlie for these heere present but for all those that by theire word shall beleeue in me that they may be all one because the world may know that thou hast sent me Euen a blinde man may see that he speakes of an externall and visible Church And when he expresseth the Church by the parable of the barne where the corne is mingled with the strawe and by the parable of the fielde where the corne and the tares should growe together till haruest And by the parable of the nett cast into the Sea where the euill fishes were inclosed with the good And by the parable of the wedding where the hall was full of guests aswell good as badd and by the parable of the wise and foolish virgins which staied for the Spouse in one howse there needes noe Oedipus to vnderstand that he speakes of a visible Church constituted by externall and temporall vocation And when S. Paul saith to Timothee I write these things to thee that thou maist know how thou oughtest to conuerse in the howse of God which is the Church of the liuing God the pillar and foundation of truth And againe In a great howse there are not onely vessells of gold and siluer but also of wood and earth This word to conuerse which cannot haue relation to an inuisible Societie and this word foundation which is not relatiue to truth which hath no neede of foundation but to men to whom the Church serues for a foundation of truth And these wordes of wood and earth doe visibly shew that he speaketh of an externall and visible Church And when he saith in the 6. Chapter of the first to she Corinthians What haue I to doe to iudge those that are without And in the 11. We haue not this custome neither the Church of God And in the 12. God had placed in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets thirdly Doctors And in the Epistle to the Ephesians The truth of the wisedome of God is manifested to the principalities and powers in the heauenly places by the Church And againe Christ clenseth his Church by the waching of water in the word And in the exhortation of the Priests of Ephesus Take heede to your selues and to all the flocke ouer which the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops to rule the Church of God And when Saint Iames saith is his Catholicke epistle If anie one of you be sicke lett him call the Priests of the Church and let them anointe him with oyle It is more cleere then the sunne that they spake of an externall and visible 〈◊〉 And in truth how could it be that these prophesies alreadie soe often repeated In the last daies the mountaine of the Lord shall be aboue all the mountaines The Nations shall come to her and saie lett vs goe vp to the Mountaine of the Lord and into the howse of the God of Iacob and he will teach vs his waies The people shall walke in her light and kings in the brightnes of her Oriēt Thine eyes shall see Ierusalem a plentifull habitation and a tabernacle that cannot be remoued Theire seede shall be knowne among the people and thire posteritie amongst the generations All those that shall see them shall know that they are the seed blessed by the Lord the nations shall know that I am the holie one of Israel when my sanctification shall be in the middle of them for euer had not bene iliusions and oracles of the Spirit of lyes if the Church should haue consisted only in the hidden and inuisible number of the predestinate into whose knowledge neither men nor angells can penetrate And our Lord himselfe who is the eternall wisedome of the Father had not he bene the most imprudent of all lawemakers to haue left his law exposed to soe manie suppositions deprauations and false expositions whereto the malice of the heretickes of all ages hath subiected it without leauing a depositary to keepe it and a iudge to interpret it or to haue left it an inuisible depositary and an inuisible interpreter But against this inuincible truth there doe arise fiue principall obiectiōs The first is that our Lord said The gates of hell shall not preuaile against my Church frō whence it seemes to followe that the reprobate are noe partes of the Church because the gates of hell doe preuaile against them The Second that sainct PAVL writheth you are arriued to the heauenly Ierusalem to the Church of the primitiues or first borne which are inrolled in heauen from whence it seemes to follow that the Church is only of the predestinate The third that we protest in the Creede I beleeue the Church from whence it is inferred that the Church is inuisible because faith is of inuisible things The fourth that Saint AVGVSTINE saith in some place that onely predestinat Catholicks are true partes of the Church and the true members of the bodie of Christ and puts a distinction betweene those which are in the howse and those that are of the howse and betweene the people knowne in the eyes of God and the people knowne in the eyes of men And the fift That Saint IEROME writes He that is a Sinner and soiled with anie spott cannot be said to be of the Church of Christ. To the first then of these obiections which is that the gates of hell shall not be victorious ouer the Church we saie That the victories which the gates of hell obtaine against particular persons by the vices of theire manners preuaile but against those particular persons that are spotted there with and not against the bodie of the Church for as much as the vices of manners are but iu the persons that commit or approue them and not in the Communion of the Church Those saith saint AVGVST whom the wicked please in theire vnitie communicate with the wicked but those that are therewith displeased communicate not with the wicked in theire actions but with the altar of Christ. For the Church exacts from none of her membres the condition of being vitious to receiue him into her Communion as she exacts from them the profession of the Faith and of the vniuersall ceremonies that she prescribeth to them the participation of her Sacraments and the adherence to her pastors By meanes whereof there is nothing but heresie and profession of error or infidelitie that can be pretended to make the gates of hell victorious ouer the body of the Church because those only cortupt the conditions vnder which the congregation is contracted or gathered and infect the body and masse of the societie for none can enter into anie hereticall societie
predesigned that she might be discerned and hath bene exbibited that she might be seene And if he can proue that she neuer went forth from the Communion of anie other but that all other went forth from her and shee alwaies remained in her roote visible eminent perpetuall immutable and exempt from all interruption which is a marke which Saint AVGVSTINE testifies to be inseperable from the Church when he writes The Catholicke Church fightinge with all heresies may be opposed but she cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come out from her as vnprofitable branches out from the vine but she remaines in her vine in her roote in her Charity In truth I saie if the excellent kinge can shewe these 3. thinges I confesse freely that this Collection of passages that out of the Catholick Church none can be saued that whosoeuer is separate from the Catholicke Cburch how laudable soeuer he presumes his life to be for this only Crime that he is separated from the vnitie of Christ he shall not haue life but the wrath of God shall remaine vpō him that he shall not haue God for his Father that will not haue the Church for his mother and that it shall nothinge auaile him to haue 〈◊〉 or done such and soe many good workes without the end of the soueraigne good that out of the Catholicke Church all thinges may be had but saluation that he that Communicates with the the generall Church is a Christian and a Catholicke and he that communicates not therewith is an hereticke and Antichriste that it must be 〈◊〉 and vndoubtedly held that euery hereticke or Schismaticke baptised in the name of the father the Sonn and the holy Ghost if before the end of his life he doe not 〈◊〉 himselfe to the Catholicke Church what almesdeedes soeuer he doe yea though he should 〈◊〉 his blood for the name of Christ can in noe sorte be saued makes not against his Maiestie But if contrarily the excellent kinge cannot proue that the Church to which he adheres hath taken the originall of her visible Communion continued and not interrupted from aboue 60. or 80. yeares and that betweene the tyme of the Fathers from whom that collection of passages hath bene extracted and the tyme of Caluins pretended reformation there hath neuer bene anie Church anie communion anie Societie anie person that hath held iointlie vniuersally those thinges for which England hath deuided herselfe from the visible Communion of that Church wherein she was before then I had need be instructed to apprehend how these passages make not against his maiestie Of the distinction of heretickes and Schis matickes CHAPT XVI The continuance of the kinges answere FOr from all these testimonies there followes onely this consequently that there remaines noe hope of saluation for those who are seperated from the faith of the Catholicke Church or from the Communion of the same Catholicke Church which the kinge as we haue said before grauntes himselfe THE REPLIE THe Collection of the passages that I haue produced doe not put this alternatiuely that amongst those that are seperated either from the faith of the Catholicke Church or from her Communiō there is noe saluation Otherwise in a thinge that the Fathers would should be cleere and manifest they had a perpetuall ambiguitie to witt what it were to be seperated from the faith of the Catholicke Church For there would remaine alwaies this questiō whether the pointes of separatiō were pointes of Faith and the separation might be made vpon such a pointe as the one side would say it were a pointe of Faith and the other that it were not As the Pellagians disputinge against the Catholickes said theire difference was not in a pointe of Faith And the Catholicks said the contrary and as yet to this daie the Zuinglians and the Caluinistes disputinge against the Lutherans theire contestation is not about a point of faith and the Lutheranes saie the contrary But the Fathers absolutely sett Downe this Maxime that out of the Communion of the Catholicke Church there is nōe saluation reducinge all the certainly and euidence of this proposition that out of the Church there is noe saluation to the seperation of Communion It is true that the seperation of Communion may proceede from either of these two causes to witt either from an error in faith in which case those that forsake the Church are called heretickes or from defect in Charity in which case they are called Scismaticks But because those that sinne either in the one or in the other cannot be soe easily conuinced either of the one or of the other as of the seperation of the Communion of this visible Church eminent aboue all hereticall and Schismaticall sectes whom God would be exposed to the view of all Nations and called Catholicke and to whom he hath affected the promises and prerogatiues of the perpetuall assistance of his holy Spirit For this cause the Fathers and the Councells of Africa Saint AVGVSEINE beinge theire Secretary haue pronounced this sentence soe often before particulariz'd by the penns of the precedinge authors that out of the Catholicke Church there is noe saluation without makinge distinction betweene those that seperate 〈◊〉 from the faith of the Church and those that seperate themselues from her communion for as much as all those that seperate themselues visiblie from the faith of the Church seperate themselues also frō her Cōmunion For there are noe declar'd heretickes but they are withall Schismatickes also Onely there is this difference that heretickes seperate themselues from the Faith and Communion of the Church both together and the Schismatickes onely seperate themselues from her communion although there are fewe Schismatickes who to the separation of communion add not the separation of some pointe of faith For as Sea-crabbs when they see oysters open cast in litle stones within theire shells to keepe them from shuttinge againe that they may haue tyme to deuowre them soe when Schismatickes see a breache made in the Church to hinder it from closeinge againe they caste pointes of heresie into theire Schisme and from Schismaticks become accessorily heretickes Wee esteeme said Saint IEROM the difference betweene heresie and Schisme to be that heresie holdes a peruerse doctrine and Schisme for Episcop all dissention seperates men equallie from the Church which difference may well haue place a while in the beginninge but in tract of time there is noe Schisme that doth not forge to it-selfe some heresie to seeme to haue the iuster cause to seperate it selfe from the Church And therefore when the Emperors speake of the Donatists who are those principally for whom his Maiestie added this clause or haue seperated themselues from her communion they taxe them accessorilie of heresie From thence saith the lawe it is happened that from Schisme heresie is bred And when Saint AVGVSTINE disputes against them he proues to thē that they are not onely
CHAP. XIX The continuance of the Kinges answere IN how differing sense the Church is now called Catholicke from what it was then THE REPLIE I haue drawne out this clause from betweene the two that precede it because I would frame an answere by itselfe for as much as I beleiued the intention of the excellent King was as it is of other protestantes to saie that the Church beares the name of Catholicke now in an other sense then she bare it in S. AVST tyme because then she possessed all nations and now she possesses them not To this then I answere that S. AVG. neuer pretended that the Catholicke Church in his tyme did absolutely possesse all nations but onely by 〈◊〉 that is to say by applicatiō of the name of all to the greater part and in comparison of other Christian sectes and societies in regarde of which the Catholicke Church was soe large as it was called for eminencie the Church of all the nations Contrarywise where the Donatistes sett this errour on soote that the Church hadceased and was perished the principall reason that S. AVGVST opposed to them was that she was not yet spread ouer all the natiōs and that she must last without interruptiō from the first preaching in Ierusalem till the Ghospell had bene preached throughout the earth and then should be the end of the world Soe as it were to giue the lye to all the promises and prophesies of God to suppose she were perished since there were yet manie nations to which she had not yet extended herselfe And therefore the Church bore the title of Catholicke then in noe other sense then she doth nowe For soe farr was she from being called Catholicke from the atiuall possession of all Nations that not onely heresies whose numbers were very great were excluded but there were likewise an infinite Company of pagan Nations to which she was not yet arriued There are saith Saint AVGVSTINE amongst vs that is in Africa innumerable barbarous nations to whom the Ghospell hath not yet been preached Which was soe confessed amongst the Catholickes and Donatistes as the Donatistes made vse of it against the Catholicke Church to question her Catholicke title If you pretend saith Petilian the Donatist that you holde the Catholick Church beholde you are not inpossession of all for you are past into a parte And Saint AVGVSTINE confuting the wordes of Cresconius Thou arguest vainely saith he against the euident truth that all the worlde communicates not with vs because there are yet manie barbarous nations which haue not 〈◊〉 iued in Christ. And againe how is the world saist thou full of your communion where there are soe manie heresies whereof there is noe one that communicates with you And againe reporting these wordes of Vincentius Thou saist that as for the partes of the earth that wherein the Christian faith is named is but a little portion in comparison of the world And the Catholickes on the other side made vse of it against the Donatistes to proue that the Church had neuer receiued interruption But that Church said the donatistes is noe more she is perished soe saie they said Saint AVG that are not in her ô impudent voice c. This abominable and detestable voice full of presūption and falshood which is vnder propt with noe truth illuminated with noe wisedome seasoned with noe salte vaine rash headie pernicious the spiritt of God hath foreseene it And a litle after this Ghospell shall be preached where In all the world to whom in testimome to all nations and what after and then the end shall come Seest thou not that there are still nations to whom the Ghospell hath not been preached c. and soe how is it that thou saist that the Church is alreadie perisht from all nations since it is therefore that the Ghospell is preached to witt that it might be in all nations The Church thē in S. AVS tyme was not called Catholicke for her actuall extent into all natiōs but she was called Catholicke for two other causes the one that as more aboundant and the other that as radicall originall Church she held the place of all in regarde of other Christian Societies For in all the diuisiōs which were made from the first beginning of the Christian name not onely she remayned soe full in regarde of euery sect that came out from her that she held the place of the whole and the seperated sect the place of a part but alsoe in the act of seperation she still remayned immoueable I meane to say that the change for which the seperation happened was made not in her but in the hereticall sect Soe as it was the hereticall sect that was seperated frō her and not she from the hereticall sect And by cōsequēce to her as perseuering in the same profession in the same Estate wherein the whole Church was before the seperatiō apertained the right to holde the place of the whole and to inherite the being and aduantages of the whole And to the other to be reduced into the cōdition of a parte and to be cutt of and 〈◊〉 from the appellation and 〈◊〉 of the whole noe more nor lesse then in the deuisiō of a tree that parte wherein the trunke the stocke and the roote remaine keepes the name of the whole and the parte which is cutt of the name of a branche and of a part seperated from the whole They vnderstād not saith S. AVST speakeing generally of heretickes that there is one certaine true holsome and as I may saie germinall radicall societie from whence they are seperated in an other place Whosoeuer is separated from the whole and defēds a part cut off from the masse or bodie it selfe lett him not vsurpe the name of Catholicke And againe The Catholicke Church fighting with all heresies may be opposed but she cannot be ouerthrowne All heresies are come forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt off from theire vine but she remaines in her vine in her roote in her charitie and the gates of hell shall not conquer her And as OPTATVS Mileuit before him Wee must consider who staies in the roote with the whole worlde and who is gone forth For these causes thē and also that the Catholicke Church was soe eminent both for perpetuitie and extent aboue all others as it was easie to iudge that it was to her onely and to noe other that the promise had bene made that in her seede all nations should be blessed and that in her should be denounced the remission of sinnes through all nations beginninge from Ierusalem for these causes I say S. AVG. affirmed that to her onely belonged the title of Catholique Thou 〈◊〉 saith he against Crescomius the Donatist the rest of the nations that the Church hath not yet possessed and takest noe heede how manie she hath 〈◊〉 from whence she dailie spreades to finish the possession of the
rest For how dost not thou denie the future perfection of these prophecies thou that fearest not to denie soe great in 〈◊〉 to which the perfection is due And in an other place Although there are manie kindes of heresies amongst Christians and that all would 〈◊〉 to be Catholickes and call the rest except themselue heretickes there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church if you cast your eyes ouer the whole worlde more aboundant in multitude and as those that know themselues to be of it affirme more sincere in truth then all the rest but of the truth that is an other question That which sufficeth for this dispute is that there is one Catholicke Church to which different heresies impose different names they beinge neuerthelesse all called by their particular 〈◊〉 that they dare not disauowe from whence it appeares in the iudgement of arbiters not possessed with fauour to whom the name of Catholicke whereof they are all ambitious ought to be attributed By which wordes S. AVG. elegantly declares that the Church was not called Catholicke because she was actually and at one selfe same tyme ouer all Natiōs but for this cause amongst others that in multitude of people and in extent of nations she exceeded each one of other Christian societies Of the comparison of the Church with the Cittie builte vpon a Mountaine CHAP. XX. The continuance of the Kinges answere FOr heretofore the Catholicke Church like the Cittie built vpon a Mountaine which could not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was not way subiect to be called in question but was euident and certaine to all in such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noe bodie of an vndistracted spirit could doubt of it THE REPLIE IT seemes that the excellent King holdes this word that cannot be hidden to haue reference onely to the Cittie built vpon a Mountaine and will not haue it belong to the Church but by accident that is when she resēbles the 〈◊〉 builte vpon a Mountaine That is to say it seemes that his Maiestie vnderstandes not that this condition to be like a cittie built vpon a Mountaine and by consequent not to be hidden belongs perpetually to the Church but will haue it that the Church sometymes enioyes this condition as when Saint AVGVSTINE writ and sometymes is depriued of it as afterwardes Neuertelesse Saint AVGVSTINE who is the best interpreter that can be of his owne wordes saith that the Church hath this most certaine marke that she cannot be hidd And againe that of her it is said The cittie built vpon the Mountaine cannot bee hidd From whence it appeareth that this Epithete of beeing vnconcealeable belongs not by accidēt to the Church when she shall be found like the cittie built vpon a hill but appartaines to her properly directly and perpetually For where his Maiestie adds that the Church was then soe manifest as noe man in his right wittes could doubt of her that was true and soe is she still at this day in regarde of all those that agree vpon the true markes of the Church that is to saie in regarde of those that accordinge to Gods promises designe the Catholicke Church by the perpetuitie of her continuance and by the eminencie of multitude and extent ouer nations aboue all other Christian Sectes But to all heretickes and schismatickes who reiected those markes and would receiue noe signe for a note of the Church but onely puritie of manners or triall of doctrine of which they attributed to themselues the iudgement by interpretation of Scripture made accordinge to theire sense the Church was not onely doubtfull but altogether hidden It is saith S. AVG. a condition cōmon to all heretickes not to see that thinge which is in the world the most apparent an t built in the light of all nations out of whose vnitie all that they doe though they seeme to doe it with great care cannoe more warrant them from the wrath of God then the spiders webbs against the extremity of colde Of the conformitie or inconformitie of the Donatists and Protestantes in the question of the Church CHAPT XXI The continuance of the kinges answere FOR she vvas not shutt vp in anie corner of the vvorld liyng I knowe not vvhere in the South as the foolish Donatistes affirmed but she vvas spread in leught and breadth ouer all the space of the Earth THE REPLIE THE Donatistes held not that theire Church was inclosed by right and for euer into Africa but onely in fact and for a certaine tyme noe more then the Caluinistes who haue pretended that the true visible Church had bene reduced for manie ages into the Prouince of Albigeois and other boundes and afterward in some valleys of Dolphiny And yet the Donatistes did not make this confession with theire good will but in theire owne defence by constraint Contrarywise they attempted with all theire power to shewe that theire Church was not restrained onely into Africa For this cause they kept a Bishop at Rome whom they had sent to a fewe African Donatistes that dwelt there They had plented a pretended Church in Spanie in the territory of a Lady called Lucilla that fauored them They had made the false Actes of the mock Councell of the Arrians holden at Philipopolis neere Sardica to passe current insteede of the true Councell of Sardica because in the letters of those Bishops amongst the names of the Bishops to whom they were addressed theire was the name of Donatus the false Bishop of Carthage one of the Bishops of the Donatistes party thereby to make it credible that the Councell of Sardica had communicated with them yea when they entered into conference with the Catholickes they grewe to be soe impudent but that it was confounded at the instant as to maintaine that theire communion was spread ouer all the earth Heere first saith Saint AVGVSTINE speaking of the conference that he had with Fortunius the Donatist did he attemps to 〈◊〉 that his Communion was ouer the extent of the earth I asked him there 〈◊〉 whether he could addresse cōmunicatorie letters which we call formall whither I 〈◊〉 appoint and I affirmed as it was manifest to all that by this meanes the 〈◊〉 might be easilie determined c. but because the thinge was euidently false 〈◊〉 out of this discourse by confusion of 〈◊〉 And finally when they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the visible 〈◊〉 of the Church they had recourse to the 〈◊〉 vniuersality and said they communicated inuisibly with all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and hidden members of Christ which were spread ouer all the world for it is against them that saint AVG. disputes when he writes It 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God hath other sheepe which I know not but God 〈◊〉 care of them he is too absurde in humane sense that imagins such things By 〈◊〉 whereof theire cause who haue separated them-selues from vs in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ages can be noe waie distinguished in the point of the Church from that of the Donatistes Of the extent of the ancient Catholicke Church
of Alexandria did saint AMBROSE write to him that hee should after he had iudged it procure his iudgement to be confirmed by the Pope Certainly said hee wee conceaue that you should relate the affaire to our holie brother the Bishop of the Roman Church for we presume that you will make noe iudgement that can displease him And a litle after To the end that we hauing receaued the tenor of your acts when we shall see that you haue iudged soe as the Roman Church will vndoutedly approue it we may reape with ioy the fruite of your examination And why then when it appeared that EVAGRIVS Successor to PAVLINVS had bene euill ordained for as much as Paulinus only had imposed his handes vpon him and that Flauianus by this occasion remained without a competitor did Theophilus send a legation to Rome to put Flauianus againe into the Popes grace and Flauianus an other to obtaine the restitution of communion with the Pope THEOPHILVS saith Socrates hauing sent the priest I sidorus appeased Damasus you must reade Anastasius that was offended and represented to him that it was profitable for the concord of the people to forgett the fault of Flauianus and soe the communion being restored to Flauianus the factions of the people of Antioch a while after that is to saie vnder Pope Innocent the first were reconciled And Sozomene speakinge of saint IOHN CHSOSTOME Archbishop of Constantinople who had a little before bene a priest of Flauianus and for that cause affected him IOHN saith he praied Theophilus to labour with him and to helpe him to make the Bishop os of Rome to be propitious to Flauianus and to this end there were deputed Acacius Bishop of Beroe and Isidorus And THEODORET although for his partiality he be not altogether to be credited in this cause speaking of the Emperor THEODOSIVS his voyage to Rome The Emperor said he exhorted them to extinguish this vnprofitable contention for you must reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and represented to them that Paulinus was alreadie dead and that Euagrius came not by lawfull meanes to the Prelacye And a little after Then vpon the exhortation of the Emperor those of the west promised to lay aside all bitternesse and to receaue the Ambassadors that Flauianus should send which the diuine Flauianus hauing learnt he sent to Rome a legation of most famous Bishops and priests and Deacons of Antioch for all which the chiefe was Acacius Bishop of 〈◊〉 in Syria renowned through all parts of Sea and land But here is too much of this historie lett vs passe on to the rest And why then when Saint AMBROSE Archbishop of Milan a cittie where the Emperors of the west made their residence speakes of his brother Satyrus doth he saie that when he had escaped Shipwracke and was cast vpon the Isle of Sardinia he inquired of the Bishop of that place whether he agreed with the Catholicke Bishops that is to saie as himselfe adds with the Roman Church And why then when he excuseth the custome of washing of feet which was practised in the Church of Milan although it was not vsed in the Church of Rome doth he crye We follow in all things the type and the forme of the Roman Church And againe The same Peter is our warrant for this obseruation who hath bene Bishop of the Roman Church And why then when he or the author that was of his tyme of the comētary that is attributed to him vpon the first Fpistle to Timothie explaines these wordes of the Apostle to conuerse in the howse of God Doth he write that Pope DAMASVS was the Rector of the Church Although saith he the whole world belonges to God neuerthelesse the Church is called the howse of God of which at this day Damasus is the Tector And why then when OPTATVS Mileuitanus that is Bishop of 〈◊〉 in Africa whom saint AVSTIN calls a Bishop of reuerend memory and whom Fulgentius honors with the title of a Saint disputes Thou against the Donatists doth he saie to Parmenian a Donatist Bishop canst not denie but that thou knowest that the Episcopall chaire was first sett vp in Rome for Peter in which seate wassett the head of all the Apostles Peter whereof also he hath bene called Cephas soe saith he to allude to the greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies he head ressembles the Hebrow Cephas that is to saie a stone from whence this Apostle was named to the end that in this onely chaire vnitie should be preserued to all least the other Apostles might attribute to themselues each one his particular chaire but that he should be a Schismaticke and a Sinner that would against the onely chaire set vp an other And for what cause after he had cited the catalogue of Popes from saint PETER euen to his tyme doth he inferr from thence the Donatists could haue noe chaire and consequently noe Church since they had noe communion with the Bishop of Rome Giue vs said he an accompt of the originall of your chaire you that will attribute to your selues the holy Church But you 〈◊〉 quoth hee that you haue alsoe some parte at Rome but this is a braunch of your Error sprunge out of a lye and not from the roote of truth for in the end if Macrobius be inquired of soe was the name of the false Bishop that the Donatists kept at Rome where he sitts there can he answere in the chaire of Peter which 〈◊〉 he knowes not soe much as by sight And a while after From whence is it then that you attempt to vsurpe to yourselues the keyes of the Kingdome you that fight against the chaire of Peter by your bould and sacrilegious presumptions And why then when saint AVSTIN an African as well as he pressed the same Donatistes did he saie to them In the Roman Church there hath alwaies flourished the principalitie of the Apostolique Sea And againe Reckon the 〈◊〉 euen since the seate of Peter and in this order of the Fathers see who hath succeeded one an other this is the Rocke that the prowde gates of Hell shall neuer ouercome And in an other place considering the Popes as successors of saint PETER according to the other interpretation to witt according to that of the figure of the Church In this order of Fathers said he that is to saie from Saint Peter to Pope Athanasius there is not one Donatist And in his disputations against the Manichees In the Catholicke Church I am detained by the Successiion of Prelates from the Seate of Peter to whom our Lord gaue his sheepe to feede after his resurrection vnto the present Bishops seate And why then when the Empresse Eudoxia wife to Arcadius Emperor of the East seeing her husband would cause Theophilus to be degraded from the Patriarkship of Alexandria but delaied because saith the Emperor
done well in cutting of from the bodie of vnitie soe manie and soe great Churches of God And in truth how could S. IRENEVS haue reprehended the Pope for wante of power he that cries To the Roman Church because of a more powerfull principalitie that is to saie as aboue appeareth because of a principalitie more powerfull then the temporall or as we haue expounded otherwhere because of a more powerfull Originall it is necessarie that euerie Church should agree And therefore alsoe S. IRENEVS alleadgeth not to Pope Victor the example of him and of the other Bishops of the Gaules assembled in a councell holden expresselie for this effect who had not excommunicated the Asians nor the example of Narcissus Bishop of Ierusalem and of the Bishops of Palestina assembled in an other Councell holden expressely for the same effect who had not excommunicated them nor the example of Palmas and of the other Bishops of Pontus assembled in the same manner and for the same cause in the Region of Pontus who had not excommunicoted them but onely alleadges to him the example of the Popes his predecessors The Prelates saith hee who haue presided before Soter in the Church where thou presidest Anisius Pius Hyginus Telesphorus and Sixtus haue not obserued this custome c. and neuerthelesse none of those that obserued it haue bene excommunicated And yet ô admirable prouidence of God the successe of the after ages shewed that euen in the vse of his power the Popes proceeding was iust For after the death of Victor the Councells of Nicea of Constantinople and of Ephesus excommunicated againe those that held the same custome with the prouinces that the Pope had excommunicated and placed them in the Catalogue of heretickes vnder the titles of heretickes Quarto decumans But to this instance Caluins Sect doe annexe two new obseruations the first that the Pope hauing threatned the Bishops of Asia to excōmunicate them Polycrates the Bishop of Ephesus and Metropolitan of Asia despised the Popes threates as it appeares by the answere of the same Polycrates to Pope Uictor which is inserted in the writings of Eusehius and of S. IEROM which S IEROM seemeth to approue when he saith hee reportes it to shewe the spirit and authoritie of the man And the second that when the Pope pronounced anciently his excommunications he did noe other thing but separate himselfe from the communion of those that he excommunicated and did not thereby separate them from the vniuersall communion of the Church To the first then we saie that soe farr is this epistle of Polycrates from abating and diminishing the Popes authority that contrary wise it greatly magnifies and exaltes it For although Polycrates blinded with the loue of the custome of his nation which he beleeued to be grounded vpon the word of God who had assigned the of the Month of March for the obseruation of the Pasche and vpon the example of saint IOHNS tradition maintaines it obstinately Neuertheles this that he answeres speaking in his owne name and in the name of the Councell of the Bishops of Asia to whom he presided I feare not those that threaten vs for my elders haue said it is better to obaie God then man Doth it not shew that had it not bene that he belieued the Popes threate was against the expresse word of God there had bene cause to feare it and he had bene obliged to obaie him for who knowes not that this answere it is better to obaie God then men is not to be made but to those whom we were obliged to obaie if their commaundements were not contrarie to the commaundments of God And that he adds that hee had called the Bishops of Asia to a Nationall Councell being summoned to it by the Pope doth it not insinuate that the other Councells where of Eusebius speakes that were holden about this matter through all the prouinces of the Earth and particularly that of Palestina which if you beleiue the act that Beda said came to his handes Theophilus Archbishop of Cesarea had called by the auctoritie of Victor were holden at the instance of the Pope and consequently that the Pope was the first mouer of the vniuersall Church And that the Councells of Nicea of Constantinople of Ephesus embraced the censure of Victor and excommunicated those that obserued the custome of Polycrates doth it not proue that it was not the Pope but Polycrates that was deceiued in beleiuing that the Popes commaundement was against Gods commaundement And that saint IEROM himselfe celebrates the Paschall homelyes of Theophilus Patriarke of Alexandria which followed the order of Nicea concerning the Pasche Doth it not iustifie that when saint IEROM saith that he reportes the Epistle of Policrates to shew the spirit and authoritie of the man he intends by authoritie not authoritie of right but of fact that is to saie the credit that Polycrates had amongst the Asians and other Quartodecumans To the second obseruation which is that when the Pope excommucated other Bishops Archbishops or Patriarkes he seperated himselfe from their communion but did not thereby seperate them from the communion of the Church Wee will doe noe other thing then examine examples that they alleadged for proofe of their hypothesis And yet we will not examine them all for we haue alreadie confuted the most part of them in the Chapters preceding as that of saint HILARY against Liberius and others the like We will onely treat of those that they propound to vs a newe which consist in three principall heades The first is that the fifth Coūcell of Carthage ordained that euery Bishop that should fall into the cases mentioned by the tenth and thirteenth canons of the same Councell should content himselfe with the communion of his one Church alone from whence they conclude that euerie excommunication did not import priuation of Sacraments The second that Nicephorus writes that Pope Vigilius hauing excommunicated Menas Patriarke of Constantinople for fower moneths Menas yeilded him the same measure And the third that Sigesbert speaking of the proceeding of Pope Innocent in the cause of saint CHRISOSTOME saith that Pope Innocent and the Bishops of the West suspended themselues from the communion of those of the East To the first then of these examples which is That the fifth Councell of Carthage odaines thà t euerie Bishop that should fall into the case of Canons aboue mentioned should content himself with the communion of his owne Church onelie Wee answere two things The one that the censure whereof the Canons of this Councell speake was not an excommunication but a restitution of communion by which those that did fall into the cases whereof there is question might administer the 〈◊〉 in their owne Diocesses and to their owne People but not out of their diocesses And the other that the Pope himselfe often vsed 〈◊〉 restriction as it appeares by the Epistle of
that the Bishops which iudged at Rome had not bene good Iudges yet there remained the vniuersall Councell of the whole Catholicke Church Doth it not verisie that after the Popes iudgement supposing and not graunting that it had bene subiect to appeale there remaines noe other iudgement but that of the generall Councell of the whole Church But let vs returne to the Councell of Arles From this Councell then the Donatists had againe recourse to the Emperor and forced him to examine the cause himselfe And this was the fowrth irregularitie as it appeares by the protestation that the Emperor made for which he would aske pardon of the Bishops He gaue waie saith saint AVGVSTINE to their importunitie to stopp their mouthes and yeilded 〈◊〉 sarr as to iudge this cause after the Bishops but with an intent afterward to craue pardon of the holie Bishops Now how can an example for which the emperor protests that himselfe will craue the Bishops pardon serue for a lawe to the Bishops yet this was not all for the Donatists did noe more obey the iudgement of the Emperor then they had done to that of the Councell of Rome holden in the Popes presence or to that of the Councell of Arles holden in the presence of the Popes legates but disavowed the Petitions that they had presented to the Emperor Constantine and said that that busines was not for the emperors examination and that it was not their solicitation that brought it before him and cast this imputation vpon the Catholickes soe as the last dispute was whether the Catholickes or the Donatistes had caused the Emperór to intervene in this cause both disavowing it If he be culpable saith saint AVSTIN speaking of the Bishop Felix who ordained Cecllianus whō the Emperor had caused to be heard before the Procōsull of Africa that hath bene absolued by an earthlie iudge not hauing demaunded it how much more are those 〈◊〉 that wouldhaue an earthlie king to be iudge of their cause For if it be noe crime to haue appealed to the Empero rit is noe crime to haue bene heard by the Emperor neither thē by him to whom the Emperor had delegated the cause that is to saie by the Proconsull And againe know that your superiors haue first brought Cecilianus his cause before Constantine oblige vs to proue it to you and if wee proue it not doe with vs what you can Now let vs recapitnlate all the heades of this historie The first head saie the Caluinists was that the Donatists addressed themselues to the Emperor Constantine to aske Iudges of him it is true but what consequence can you drawe frō this exāple For were not the Donatistes alreadie Schismatickes and separated from the obedience and from the communion of the Church And besides had not they recourse afterward to the Emperor Iulian the Apostata a pagan and insidell Prince to recouer their Churches that the Christian and Catholicke Princes had taken from them and with this Elogie that in him onely all iustice remained And did not saint AVGVSTINE crie out to them If it were in your power you would not now call against vs the Emperor Constantine because he fauors the truth but you would rather call Iulian the Apostata out of hell The second head was that the Emperor partlie yeilding to their importunitie graunted them Iudges from the prouince that they had demaunded that is to saie from the Gaules it is true but did not the Emperor protest before he graunted this to them that it belonged not to him who attended the iudgement of Christ to meddle with the iudgements of Christ's Ministers And after he had graunted them this did he not remitt them to Rome to iudge the cause with the Pope and vnder the Presidencie and direction of the Pope The third head was that the Donatists appealed from the Popes iudgement to the Emperors iudgement it is true But doth not the Emperor crie out that this appeale was a thing not fitt to be spoken or heard that it was a madd impudence of furie that it was a recourse from he auenlie to earthlie iudgement and a manifest contempt of Christ's authoritie The fowrth head was that notwithstanding this protestation the Emperor graunted them a Councell at Arks it is true but doth not saint AVGVSTINE testifie that it was an irregular action when he saith that the Emperor did it giuing waie to the peruersues of the Donatists And that the Popes legates and the assistants that were with him at the Councell of Rome were present at that of Arles And that the Fathers of the Councell bewailed that the Pope could not assist there and said that if he had bene there present they had pronounced a more severe sentence against the Donatists doth it not proue that it was not a iudgement of appeale but a more ample reuiew of the cause which the Donatists said was not fullie heard The fift head was that the Donatists had recourse againe from the councell of Arles to the Emperor and prayed him to take the examination of the cause himselfe which he did it is true but doth not saint AVGVSTIN saie that he protested the he would afterward craue pardō of the holy Bishops And doth he not further testifie that the Donatists did noe more agree to the Emperors iudgement then to the former The Emperor saith hee is chosen iudge the Emperor iudging is dispised With what ingenuitie then can Caluin and his disciples saie that this historie is enough to end the question and fully to cleere the busines for who sees not that these proceedings not hauing bene at the instance of the Catholicke partie and according to the ordinary formes of the Church but at the instāce of the hereticall partie and by extraordinarie waies and against which the Emperor himself protests for iniustice for furie for impietie and obligeth himselfe to aske the Prelates pardon And hauing finally bene reiected and disauowed euen by those that had solicited for them and as it were snatched it out of the Emperors handes there is noe more iustice in makinge vse of them to the preiudice of the ordinarie lawes of the Church and to propound them for copies and paternes of the anciēt forme and ecclesiasticall discipline then to alleadge against the present authoritie of the Pope and the Councell the audience and conference that King Charles the ninth graunted at Poissy to the Protestants of his Kingdome after the councell of Sens and Trent to the end to proue to bring them backe to the church by way of mildenes and accommodation and to inferr from thence that the Conference of Poissy was giuen aboue the Councells of Sens and Trent Of the decree of the Mileuitan Councell concerning the beyond Sea Appeales CHAPT V. THE fowrth instance of Caluin is that in the Mileuitan Councell holden vnder Pope Innocent the first thousand two hundred yeares agoe the Bishops
beholde how it is couched at the end of the first Councell of Carthage Gratus Episcopus dixit Iuxta statuta concilij meae mediocritatis sententiam placet facere rerum omnium conclusionem vniuersi tituli disignati digesti teneant sententias suas In which place the Rapsodists of the collection intituled the sixth Councell of Carthage haue impertinentlie taken the word tituli in the genitiue singular and the greeke interpretors euen the same and haue expressed the period in this sence Be it registred in the actes of the Church the treatie of all the title designed digested this daie Not considering that in Gratus his proposition it is a nominatiue plurall and not remembring that tituli in the Statutes of the first Councell of Carthage signified Canons and besides 〈◊〉 perceiuing that the word Uniuersi in the same first Councell of Carthage hath reference to the Bishops and not to the decrees For the order of the Sence sheweth that Gratus his proposition must be read by waie of interrogation and expounding it in these wordes Doth it please you according to the Statutes of all the Councell the sentence of my mediocritie to make the cōclusion of all things And in the second clause after the word Vniuersi to sett in as in all the other canons of the same Councell dixerunt and to interpret it in this sence all the Bishops did saie that the canons designed and digested maintaine their sentences and this done to repeate Gratus Bishop saith I know well neuerthelesse that in the verball processe of the sixth Councell of Carthage inserted into the ordinarie volumes of the Coūcells there were some articles ordained to be registred as it appeares by the wordes of the Councell to Aurelius which are these The copies of the faith and of the Statutēs of the Councell of Nicea which were brought to our Councell by the Bishop Cecilian late predecessor to your Hollinesse which had assisted there and also the thinges that our Fathers constituted heere following the same copies and those that we by a common Synod constitute now remaine registred in the present Ecclesiasticall acts But that these wordes the things that we constitute now by a common Councell are meant of the determination to send to seeke the Councell of Nicea into the East and to obserue it treated in the eight chapters preceding the verball processe which the 〈◊〉 would should be reduced into writing and not of anie other decrees the rest of the speeche shewes it which is To witt that as it hath bene aboue said your Blessednesse should vouchsafe to write to the Reuerend Bishops of the Churches of Antioch Alexandria and Constantinople to send vnder the testimonie of their letters the most certaine copies of the Councell of Nicea whereby the truth being cleered the chapters that our brother and fellowe Bishop Faustinus heere present and our fellowe Priests Phillipus and Asellus haue brought with them in their instruction either if they bee found they shall be confirmed by vs or if they be not found we will assemble a Synod to aduise vpon it And as for these wordes and also the thinges that our Fathers constituted heere following the same copies they are meant by the confirmatiue decrees of the Councell of Nicea made by the Councell of Carthage holden vnder Cecelianus and other 〈◊〉 of the Bishops of the sixth Councell of Carthage where the Statutes of the Councell of Nicea had bene imposed both in grosse and in retaile to all the ecclesiasticall Orders of Africa and not of the canons of the collection intitled the sixth Councell of Carthage whereof the more parte had bene made in the Councell holden vnder Aurelius and are not contayned neither in Sense nor in wordes in the canons of the Councells of Nicea Well doe I know againe that the decrees of this collection are alleadged both by the Epitomy of the Councells sent in Pope Adrians name to Charlemaine and by Hinckmarus Archbishop of Rheims in the worke of the fiftie fiue Chapters and by manie others But the misreckoning being come from a higher roote and hauing had place from the tyme of Dionisius and Cresconius and of the Greeke translation it must not to be thought strange if from one absurditie manie others haue ensued It sufficeth that Fulgentius Ferandus who was both before them and more versed in the knowledged of the Councells of Africa then they represents no track of the collection of the thirtie three Canons intitled the sixth Councell of Carthage for that Fnlgentius Ferandus hath preceded all the other collectors of this kinde in anti quitie whether it were that Ferandus deacō of Carthage that writt the workes of the fiue Questions to saint FVLGENTIVS Bishop of Ruspia in the time of the Emperor Anastasius Or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an other deacō of Carthage yet more ancient which hath borne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Fulgentius Ferrandus it appeares as well because hee speakes not neither of the Canons of the Apostles nor of the Epistles of the Popes later then Syricius as because he makes mention of infinite Councells of Africa as of the Councell of Suffetula of the Councell of Septimunica of the Councell of Marazan of the Councell of Tusdra of the Councell of Macria of the Councell of Tenis of the Councell of Iuca of many Councells of Carthage whereof there is found no track neither in Dionisius nor in Cresconius And that he hath surpassed them in the knowledg of the Councell of Africa it is manifested aswell by the same citations as by the testimonie that Cresconius giues of him in the Epistle to Liberinus which containes these wordes I did remonstrate to you that the Epitomy of the Canons had bene alreadie made by Ferandus most Reuerend 〈◊〉 of Carthage and that it ought to suffice for our instruction least vndertaking to 〈◊〉 an other it may seeme that we would steale from his wisdome And therefore also those that haue collected the bodie of the Councell in forme haue passed ouer the medley of the thirtie three canons intitled by some the sixth Councell of Carthage in silence Of the African Councell CHAPT VII NOW as for this medley and rapsody of the Councells of Africa that we call the African Councell which is a century of African canons gathered from diuers coūcells there are therin two difficulties The first difficultie concernes the author of the Rapsodie cōsists in this to witt whether this composition hath bene made by anie particular canonist or whether it hath bene gathered in a Councell The Greekes the Protestants who follow them and some Catholickes as well ancient as moderne belieue it to be made in a councell which some suppose to haue bene the sixth Councell of Carthage and others the seauenth I contrarywise incline to beleeue that it hath bene made by some African canonist and whilst the Uandalls possest Africa in which tyme there could no
cutt it of frō the propheticall volumes and prohibited theirs from reading Now the Jewes could haue no faire colour to cutt of the Booke of 〈◊〉 from the rolle of the Canonicall Bookes but because it was not in 〈◊〉 Canon of Esdras a thing which likewise obliged them to cutt of all 〈◊〉 other Posthume bookes from the old restament so call I all the 〈◊〉 of the olde Testament which had bene writtē or published since 〈◊〉 of Esdras and after the death of Esdras as Ecclesiasticus the 〈◊〉 of Tobias the Booke of Iudith and the two Bookes of Machabees 〈◊〉 these causes then saint HIEROME tying himselfe to the catalogue of the Iewes vpon whose text and with whose helpe and particularly of a certaine Rabbin called Barabanus or Barhanina whom Ruffinus by way of reproch calls Barrabas he had made the translation of his Bible not only excludes in his prologue vpon the booke of Kings that he intitles the armed prologue and in his prologue vpon the Prouerbs all the whole bookes which were not in the canon of Esdras as were Wisedome Ecclesiacticus Tobias Iudith and the Machabees but also in his prologue vpon Daniell reiects all the partes of the canonicall Bookes not comprehended in the text of the Hebrowes as were the Canticle of the three Children and the historie of Susanna and that of Bel. The Booke of Daniell saith he amongst the Hebrewes containes neiter the history of Susanna nor the Himne of the three Children nor the fables of the Dragon of 〈◊〉 which neuerthelesse because they are spread ouer all the world we haue annexed thereto but after hauing marked them with an obeliske which precedes them and cutts their throate From whence it is that Ruffinus being growne his enemie reprocheth him thus All those then that supposed Susanna had furnished all married and vnmarried woemen with an example of Chastitie haue erred it is not true all those that conceaued that Daniel yet a child had bene fulfilled with the Spirit of God and had 〈◊〉 the adulterous Elders haue erred it is not true And the whole Church throughout the extent of the world as well as those that are still vpon the Earth as of those that are before our Lord be they holy coufessors be they holy Martyrs who haue sung in the Church of our Lord the Hymne of the thre Children haue all erred and sunge false things Now then after foure hundred yeares doth the truth of the Lawe bought with Siluer Soe he saith because saint HIEROM had giuen money to the Iewes to be helped by them in the edition of this Bible come to vs from the Synagogue And the third obseruation finally is that saint HIEROME being afterward more exactly instructed in the truth of the sence of the Church changed his opinion and retracted both in generall and particular all that he had written in these three prologues For in his Apologie against Ruffinus answering to his reproach about the historie of Susanna and of the Dragon of Bel and of the canticle of the three Children he saith Whereas I haue reported what the Hebrewes vsed to obiect against the historie of Susanna and the Hymne of the three Children and the fables of the Dragon of Bell which are not in the Hebrew volume c. I haue not explicated what I thought but what the Iewes were accustomed to saie against vs. And in his preface vpon the booke of Tobias The Hebrewes saith hee cutt of the booke of Toby from the Catalogue of the diuine Scriptures And againe The ie alousie of the Hebrewes doth accuse vs and imputes it to vs that against their Canon we transferr the booke of Toby into the latine eares but I iudge that it is better to displease the iudgement of the Pharises and to obay the commaundements of the Bishops And in the exposition vpon the fortie fourth Psalme Ruth Hester and Iudith haue bene so glorious as they haue giuen their names into the sacred volumes And in his preface vpon the historie of Indith The booke of Iudith said hee is read by the Hebrewes amongst the Hagiographs whose authoritie is esteemed lesse sufficient to decide contentious things c. but for as much as the Councell of Nicea is read to haue reckoned it amongst the holy Scriptures I haue obeyed your demaund Words which plainly retract what he had said in his Prologue vpon the Prouerbs As then the Church reads Iudith and Toby and the Machabees but receaues them not amongst the canonicall Bookes so may she reade Wisedome and Ecclesiasticus for the edification of the people but not for the confirmation of Ecclesiasticall Doctrines And which cannot be auoided by answering that the word holy Scriptures doth not there signifie Canonicall for the opposition that he makes of the Councell of Nicea to the Iewes which esteemed the Booke of Iudith amongst the Hagiograph bookes whose authoritie is reputed lesse sufficient to diuide contentious things stopps the mouth of that delusion And finallie in his commentarie vpon the Prophet Esay compounded long after the prologue armed he setts the historie of the Machabees amōgst the canonicall Bookes The Scripture saith he reportes that Alexāder king of the Macedonians came out from the land of Cethim Which some Latins that followed being ignorant of it befell that they were seperated from the common voyce of the westerne Church For although the greater part of the later Latine Doctors as Alcimus Bellator 〈◊〉 Isidorus haue followed the catalogue of S. AVS of the third Councell of Carthage and sett the historie of the Machabees amongst the canonicall Bookes yea that some of them as Bellator who liued in the tyme of the Emperor Iustinian the first haue illustrated it with cōmentaries neuerthelesse some others not knowing that S. HIEROME had chāged his opinion haue tyed themselues to that of S. HIEROME But in summe whatsoeuer the later Latine doctors haue done it is certaine that in the Latine Church neuer anie before S. HIEROME had remoued the authoritie of the six posthume bookes of the old Testamēt For whereas S. HILARIE in his commentary vpon the Psalmes cōposed or rather as S. HIEROME saith translated by him out of Origene whilst he was in the East writes that the nūber of the canonicall bookes of the old Testamēt is reduced according to the tradition of the Elders either to the number of the twétie two letters of the Hebrew alphabet or by the additiō of the Bookes of Iudith of Tobias to the nūber of twentie foure letters of the Greeke Alphabet besides that these markes are not the notes of S. HILARY but the notes of Origene in his cōmentary vpō the first psalme that S. HILARY hath transcribed in part into his prologue vpon the psalmes Hee meanes by the traditiō of the Elders not the traditiō of the Church but the traditions of the Iewes whereof some to wit
execute the iudgements of the Sea Apostolike Secular typhe for this is that which the marriage of these two words Typhe of the age signifies to witt the furious and violent manner with which the worldly and secular powers were accustomed to cause themselues to be obeyed as when the author of the life of Fulgentius saith That Fulgentius commaunded nothing with the Typhe of secular dominion And as when the Councell of Ephesus calls the vse that Iohn Patriarke of Antioche had made of the letters of Dionisius Gouernor of Syria to the Captaine of the Garrison and of the souldiers of Cyprus to hinder the Bishops of Cyprus from electing to themselues an Archbishop without the permission of the Patriarke of Antioch Secular Typhse and drawing from this particular case a generall lawe ordaines That noe Bishop vsurpe the Prouinces which haue not bene from all antiquitie vnder his predecessors c And vnder pretence of the execution of sacred thinges introduce not the Typhe of secular power And a little after And that all letters obtained to the contrarie may remaine disannulled and of no effect And finallie the third and last request but expressed in termes of Confidence and assurance is that the Pope will not suffer that Apiarius to whom by the first Iudgement it had bene permitted to remaine in Africa and exercise his Priesthood where he would prouided it were not at Sicca should remaine anie longer in Africa and that he would not cause him to be assisted with Secular authoritie to this effect Behold the words of the clause which containe also the end and conclusion of the Epistle which I haue translated from the Greeke text because the Greek edition of the Epistles as hath bene aboue shewed is more correct then the latine For as for the wretched Apiarius hauing alreadie bene condemned for his infamous crimes by our Brother Faustinus wee are no more in care for it as much as by the meanes of the approbation and moderation of your Holynesse for the preseruation of brotherly charitie Africa will no longer indure him Now vpon this what answere the Pope made them wee haue it not but that it is easie to be iudged by the successe that he satisfied them of the mistaking of the Councell of Nicea for that of Sardica and made it appeare to them that what they found not in the Councell of Nicea had bene ordained yea euen by their predecessors in the Councell of Sardica For the Appeales of the African Bishops to the Pope continued as before as it appeares both by the Rule that Pope LEO onely eight yeare later then CELESTINE made vpon the appeale that Lucifrinus a Bishop of Africa had cast into the Sea Apostolike and by the care that the Africans had afterward to insert into their Canon law the Canons of the Councell of Sardica vpon the matter of Appeales to the Pope For Fulgentius Ferandus deacō of Carthage a little later then S. AVGVSTINE and tyme-fellow with S. FVLGENTIVS registers into the collection that he made of the Canons these decrees vnder the title of the fixth and sifth Canon of the Councell of Sardica That a condemned Bishop may appeale if he will to the sea Apostolike and that during the appeals an other cannot be ordained in his Chaire By meanes whereof this question brought no interruption to the possession wherein the Pope was of appeales euen in minor causes and by consequent much lesse in maior causes as those of Faith were for which Theodoret Bishop of Cyre a Cittie neere vpon Persia appealed in the same tyme to pope 〈◊〉 and was iudged and restored by him all the Generall Coūcell of Chalcedon holden a while after the Councell of Carthage approuing and confirming it For I will not alleadge the Epistle of S. AVGVSTINE to Celestine which is in the supplie of S. AVGVSTINS Epistles imprinted by Plantine where the same S. AVGVSTINE pursues in the behalfe of Celestine the iudgment of the appeale made by Anthony Bishop of 〈◊〉 to Pope Boniface and represents to him to iustifie the sentence of the bishops of Africa who had left him his title and depriued him of this Bishops Sea That there had bene manie like 〈◊〉 in Africa euē the Sea 〈◊〉 iudgeing it or confirming the iudgement of others as particularly of 〈◊〉 Uictor and Laurence Bishop of the Cesarian 〈◊〉 because it seemes that this Epistle was written before that of the Councell of Africa to Celestine It sufficeth that neither the possession of the appeales from Africa to Rome were interrupted by this question neither did the Bishops of Africa cease to remaine in the same Communion and reuerence of the Sea Apostolike as they were before as the words of S AVGVSTINE to Pope Boniface written in the current of the difference testifies Thou disdainest not thou which presumest not 〈◊〉 though thou presidest highlie to be a friend to the 〈◊〉 And these of Pope Celestine after the death of S. AVGVSTINE Wee haue alwaies had Augustine of holie 〈◊〉 in our cōmunion which Prosper citeth to iustifie to the Bishops of the Gaules S. Augustins doctrine against the Pelagiās And these of Capreolus Archbishop of Carthage immediate successor to Aurelius vnder whom the sixth Councell of Carthage was holden writing to the fathers of the Councell of Ephesus 〈◊〉 praie you to resist 〈◊〉 with such constancie at the authoritie of the sea Apostolicke and the seuerltie of the Prelates assembled in 〈◊〉 seeme not to permitt that the doctrine of those that the Church hath long since 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come to be borne againe And these of Eugenius one of the other successors to the same Aurelius to the Lieutenant of Hunnericus Lord of Africa The Roman Church is the head of all the Churches And these of Fulgentius and of the Bishops of Africas the Roman Church which is the head of the world Of the Councell of Sardica CHAPT XI I Remember that I promised in the former chapter to handle in this the truth and authoritie of the Canons of the Councell of Sardica the time summons me now to performe my promise and with so much the more neede because the Popes aduersaries haue a while agoe caused a Greeke Code of Canōs to be imprinted which they haue intituled A Code of the 〈◊〉 of the Vniuersall Church from whence they haue ecclipsed and cutt off the Canons of the Councell of Sardica against the credit of all the Greeke Canonists Photius Zonara Balsamon Harmonopolus and against the Greeke impressions euen of Basle Wittenbourg and other Protestant Citties and in summe against the truth of all the Greeke codes as well printed as manuscript of all the westerne and Easterne libraries Then to compasse this designe with some method I will aduertise the readers that there past two things in the Councell of Nicea which gaue an occasion soone after for the holding of the Councell of Sardica the one was
please your charitie that we should honor the memorie of the Apostle Peter lett it be written to Iulius Bishop of Rome by the same Bishops that haue giuen the iudgemēt to the end that if it be needefull it may be renewed by the next Bishops and lett the Bishop of Rome giue the Judges but if the affaire be such as there is no neede of a new iudgement lett not the things once iudged be disabled but remaine firme The second was propounded by Gaudentius and authorized by all the Councell in these wordes If it seeme to you necessarie to add to this sentence full of sincere charitie that you haue propounded That if anie Bishop be deposed by the next Bishops and saie that his affaire ought to be iudged a new lett no other be installed in his sea till the Bishop of Rome haue pronounced vpon it with examinatiōs of the cause Which Canō was made as Balsamon notes to disanull the Canō that the Arriās had published in the Councell of Antioch against S. ATHAN which ordained that it should not be lawfull for a Bishop after he had bene deposed by all the votes of a Synod to exercise anie Episcopall functiō nor to hope for restitutiō and to condēne the intrusiō the Arians had made of Gregorie in steede of S. ATHAN without attending the reuiew of the processe And the third was againe propounded by Osius and confirmed by all the councell in these words It hath pleased that if a Bishop haue bene accused and that he haue recourse by waie of Appeale to the Blessed Bishop of the Roman Church and that he will heare him and doē esteeme it iust that the examinatiō of the affaire should be renewed let him vouchsafe to write to the Bishops neighbouring that prouince that they should carefullie and with diligence examine all things and iudge the affaire according to the creditt of the truth and if anie one demaund that his cause should be heard againe and seeme to moue the Bishop of Rome by his prayer that he should send Priests from his owne side it shall be in the power of the Bishops of Rome to doe what he shall think fit and if he conceiue that he should send to iudge with the Bishops persons hauing the authoritie of him that sends them lett it be so done and if he thinke it will suffice that those that are alreadie vpon the place should examine the affaire and the iudgment of the Bishop lett him doe what shall seeme best in his most wise iudgment Now these words do so dazle the eyes of the Popes aduersaries as they cannot supporte their light and therefore they attempt to resist and weaken them with seauen obiections The first that the Councell of Sardica propounds the ouerture of Appeales to the Pope not as a thing before practised but as put to deliberation and instituted at that present tyme and in words of the future tense from whence they inferr that the Right of Episcopall appeales was not from all Antiquitie yielded to the Pope but only since the Councell of Sardica and add that the Councell specifying the name of Pope Julius and say ing let it be written to Iulius Bishop of Rome shewes that this institūtion began only in the Papacie of Julius and had no place in his predecessors tymes To this obiection then wee saie that it is ordinary to antient Councells when they renew vnwritten customes yea euen the verie written lawes of the Church to propound them as if they did new institute them and to take the notes of the assistants to conclude them and to declare them by words of the future tense As in the same Councell of Sardica the prohibition to passe from one Cittie to an other renewed because of Eusebius of Nicomedia head of the Arrian faction who was past from the Bishoprik of Nicomedia to that of Constantinople and the prohibition to a Bishop to receaiue a Clerke from an other Bishop excommunicated by him and others the like were propounded in future words and with receauing the votes of the assistants although the custome were tyme out of mynde in the Church and that they had bene euen sett downe in writinge in the Councell of Nicea And Pope Julius after he had cited the Canon of the Councell of Nicea for the reuiew of the iudgements of Synods adds that this Canon had bene formerly practised by custome in the Church and after reduced into writing at the Councell of Nicea And the Councell of Constantinople writing to Pope Damasus Doth it not saie of the ordination of Bishops by the metropolitans It is as you know both 〈◊〉 grounded vpon ancient custome and decision of the Councell of Nicea For as for the name of Pope Iulius which is specified in the first of the three canons of the Councell of Sardica besides that it is not found in the ancient latine Editions which were produced in the Councell of Africa in saint AVGVSTINES tyme where the text saith simplie as in the other following canons The Bishop of Rome and not Iulius Bishop of Rome By meanes whereof there is a Ground for suspition that it is a quotation of the exemplifiers which is slipt out of the margent into the Text there can be nothing inferred from it but this that the Fathers of the Councell of Sardica inserted the name of Iulius there to shew that the Councell by this canon ratified not only in generall Appeales to the Pope but iustified and ratified in particular the restitution that Pope Iulius had made of saint ATHANASIVS Paule of Constantinople Marcellus of 〈◊〉 Asclepas of Gaza and other Bishops that the Arrians had deposed in their false Councells agreeably to the Answere that they had made to the Arrians that they could not reiect the comunion of Athanasius and the other Bishops deposed by the Councells of Tyre Antioch and Constantinople because Iulius Bishop of Rome hauing examined their cause had not condemned them And indeede if the Councell of Sardica had giuen beginning to the Right of Appeales how could Pope Iulius manie yeares before haue written to the Arrians Are you ignorant that it is the custome that wee be first written to that from hence may proceede the iust decision of things and therefore if there were anie suspition conceiued against the Bishop there that is to saie against the Bishop of Alexādria you should haue written to the church heere that is to saie to the church of Rome how could Socrates Sozomene haue said that Pope Iulius many yeares before the Coūcell of Sardica restored 〈◊〉 Patriarke of Alexandria Paule Bishop of Constantinople Marcellus Primat of Galatia and other Bishops deposed by the Councells of the East because to him for the diginty of his Sea the care of all things belonged The second obiectiō is that the Councell of Sardica grounds the canon of appeales to the Pope not vpō diuine right but vpon the
desire of honoring of saint Peters memory from whence they inferr that the attributiō of the Episcopall appeales to the Pope is not by diuine Right but who sees not that euē this is to ground it vpon diuine Right for tosaie that to honor the memory of S. PETER it was to purpose to yield Episcopall Appeales to the Pope what is it but to saie that the Pope was S. PETERS successor and that in this qualitie Appeales ought to be yielded to him as to him that had the succession of head of the church and by this succession was himfelse made head thereof And in truth what the Fathers of the councell of Sardica expresse in their Canon by these words That we may houor the memorie of Peter lett it be written to Julius the Bishop of Rome do they not expresse in their Epistle to the same Iulius by these It is verie good and fitt that from all the prouinces the Bishops haue reference to their head that is to saie to the sea of the Apostle Peter And doth it not from thence appeare that to honor in the persons of the Bishops of Rome the memory of Peter and to ackdowledge the sea of Peter in the persons of the Bishops of Rome for head of the Church is according to the Councell of Sardica one and the same thinge and by consequent that the right of Appeales which was implicitly contained in the title of Head of the Church had belonged to the Pope by diuine right from all antiquitie although the custome had bene first reduced into an expresse lawe but in the Councell of Sardica For who knowes not that all the prerogatiues that are implicitly contained in anie Title belong to him to whom the Title is giuen from the verie tyme it is giuen him though the lawes 〈◊〉 are made for the explicit declaration of anie of those prerogatiues 〈◊〉 later The third obiection is that saint HILARIE and saint EPIPHANIVS and the second Councell of Constautinople call the Councell of Sardica the Councell of those of the west From whence Zonara Hormenopolus and some other later Greekes and Schismaticks and the Protestants who ioyne with them conclude that the Councell of 〈◊〉 was not Generall To this obiection then we answere two thinges the one that the word of the west did then extend much farther then it doth now for by the word of the West the fathers intended not onely all the Prouinces of Africa of Italie of Spaine of the Gaules of England of Germanie of Hungaria of Dalmatia but also all the Prouinces of Greece as Achaia Peloponesus Macedonia the Isle of Creete and left nothing for the East but Thrace Egipt and Asia And the other that their calling the Councell of Sardica the Councell of the west is not to distinguish it from the Generall Councells as some late Greekes haue supposed but to distinguish it from the false Councell of Sardica which was called the Councell of those of the East For after the whole Councell composed of three hundred Cotholicke Bishops and of seauentie six Arrian Bishops was arriued at Sardica the seauētie six Arrians seperated themselues from the Bodie of the Councell and retired them selues to Philopopolis a cittie neere Sardica where they kept an Anti-councell which was called the Councell of those of the East Not that all the Bishops of the East assisted there but for two other causes the one for as much as the principall Bishops of this mock-councell were Steuen Patriarke of Antioch and the other Bishops of his Patriarkship which was called the Patriarkship of the East And the other because of the two citties whereinto this Councell was diuided situate on the two sides of the mountaine of Thuscis which was the bound of the two Empires of the East of the west the cittie of Sardica wherein the catholicks remayned was situat in the westerne side of the mountaine and the cittie of Philopopolis into which the Arians retired themselues was situate on the Easterne side For so farr of were all the Bishops of the East from assisting at this Anti-synod as the Arrians themselues confest that held it that there were but eightie of them there and auowed that the Bishops of the Empire of the East which were present at the true Councell of Sardica were an immense number There came saie they to Sardica an immense number of wicked and lost Bishops flowing from Constantinople and from Alexandria whom Osius and Protogenes held assembled with them in their Conuenticle And yet euen to take the East particularly for the Patriarkship of Antioch many of the Bishops of the East though taken in this sence assisted not at the false Councell of Sardica Contrarywise all the Catholick Bishops as well of the Patriarkship of Antioch as of the neighbouring Prouinces as Diodorus Bishop of Asia minors Asterius Bishop of 〈◊〉 in Arabia Maximus Bishop of Hierusalem 〈◊〉 Bishop of Lydda Arius Bishop of Petra in Judea Theodosius Germanus Siluanus Paul Claudius Patrick Elpidus Germanus 〈◊〉 Zenobius Paule and Peter Bishop of Palestina assisted and subscribed with the body of the catholicke Bishops at the true Councell of Sardica By meanes whereof this distraction consisting in so small a number of Bishops and being made by the Arrians only could not hinder the true Councell of Sardica which represented all that were catholicke Bishops in the world from preseruing the title of Generall which had bene imposed vpon it at the calling it no more then the distraction of those of the East that is to saie the Bishops of the Patriarkship of Antioch which maintained Nestorius and held an Antisynod in his fauour at Ephesus hindred the true Councell of Ephesus from being perfectlie and absolutely generall and from taking this qualitie euen then when those of the East that is to saie the Bishops of the patriar kship of Antioch held their mockcouncell a part And therfore saint ATHANASIVS not only calls it the Great Councell of Sardica and Socrates and Iustinian a Generall Councell but also saint ATHANASIVS and after him Sulpitius 〈◊〉 Theodoret and Vigilius ancient Bishop of Trent affirme that it was composed from all the christian Prouinces of the Earth The holie Councell of Sardica saith saint ATHANASIUS assembled from more then thirtie fiue Prouinces knowing the malice of the Arrians receaued vs in our iustifiable acts And elsewhere explicating the list of the same Prouinces In the Great Councell of sardica called by the commaundement of the Religious Emperors Constantius and Constans There subscribed for vs more then three hundred Bishops of the Prouinces of Egipt of Libia of Pentapolis of Palestina of Isauria of Ciprus of Phamphilia of Licia of Galatia of Dacia of Misia of Thracia of Dardaniae of Micedonia of the 〈◊〉 of Thessalia of Achaya of Creete of Dalmatia of Siccia of Pannonia of Horica of Italie so they called the Prouostship
PERRONS REPLIE TO THE KING OF GREAT BRITAINE THE FOVRTH BOOKE THE ESTATE OF THE CHVRCH IN THE EAST CHAPT I. The continuance of the Kings answere HAd anie one presumed to alter or disguise euer so little the faith approued by the vvhole world it vvas easie euen for a Child to surprise and discouer in his noueltie him that should bring in a different doctrine and the robber of the truth being surprised all the pastors of the vvorld if it vvere needefull roused themselues vp and being once stirred vp gaue themselues noe rest till they had taken avvay the euill from amongst them and had prouided for the securitie of Christs flocke This vvas heeretofore the designation and felicitie of the Catholicke church but vvhich indured nōt manie ages THE REPLIE APPELLES answered one daie to one of this Schollers that had painted a Venus loaded with pearles carkanets and iewells because thou couldst not paint her faire thou hast painted her rich so though this discription be not adorned with truth which is the simple naked and naturall beautie of historie it is eloquent and adorned with rich and magnificent wordes But S. BASILL and S. HIEROM paint out the estate of Religion in their time in the east much otherwise S. BASILL when he saith To what shall we compare the state of the present times certainlie to a Sea-fight when Sea Captaines chased with the warr and inflamed to the combate set one vpon an other with a violent hate and nourisht with old iniuries And a while after The troubles stirred vp by the Princes of the earth swallow vp the people more horribly then all kinds of 〈◊〉 windes and tempests and a darke and sad night possesses the Churches the lights that God had placed to illuminate the soules of men being banisht from their Seas And S. HIEROME when he writes Because the East striking against it selfe by the antient furie of the people teares in little morsells the vndeuided coate of our lord wouen on high and that the foxes destroie the vine of Christ in such sort as it is difficult amongst the drie pitts that haue noe water to discerne where the sealed fouutaine and the inclosed garden is for this cause I haue thought that I ought to consult whith the Chaire of Peter and the faith praised by the mouth of the Apostle And a while after Now in the west the sunn of iustice is risen and in the East that Lucifer which was fallen hath sett vp his Throne aboue the starrs you are the light of the world you are the salt of the earth you are the vessells of gold of Syluer and the vessells of earth or wood doe here attend the rod of iron and the eternall And the historie of the following ages doth euen the same For when 〈◊〉 rose vp and after he had bene iudged in the first instance by Flanianus Bishop of Constantinople appealed or pretended to haue appealed to the Pope and was againe iudged and deposed in the second instance by him what came of it The Emperor Theodosius gouerned by 〈◊〉 an abettor of Eutyches caused a Councell to be held vnder the title of Generall at Ephesus where by force and by strong hand he caused Dioscorus the Patrō of Eutyches heresie to preside the legates of the Pope for this cause quitting the place fled In that Coūcell Eutyches was restored Flauianus deposed and slaine after he had neuerthelesse appealed from his condemnation to the Pope and the Eutychian heresie was subscribed by Dioscorus Patriarke of Alexandria Maximus Patriarke of Antioch Iuutnall Patriarke of Hierusalem and almost by all the Bishops of the Councell some by their good wills and others by force The Pope againe takes the cause of the faith in hand pursues the holding of a new Councell which was that of Chalcedon were that heresie is condemned and Dioscorus and Eutyches and all his abettors deposed and excommunicated and in Dioscorus steed there was substituted in the patriarkshipp of Alexandria Proterius a catolicke and partaker with the Councell of Chalcedon to Proterius there succeeded Timothie an 〈◊〉 and paracide of his Predecessor who againe sett on foote the Eutychian heresie in the Sea of Alexandria and in Egipt and disannulled there the decrees of the Councell of Chalcedon a while after into the Sea of Antioch there entred PETER surnamed the Tanner likewise an enemie to the Councell of Chalcedon and professor of the heresie of 〈◊〉 Likewise there came to Constantinople Acacius who communicated with Peter Bishop of Antioch and there was installed in the Empire Zeno an Eutychian and disannuller of the Councell of Chalcedon and all the Easterne Church miserablie rent by the factions of those that held some for the Councell and some against it and others neither for nor against it whom they called neuters so longe that after some changes of Patriarks sometimes Catholicks and some times Eutychians all the naturall Churches of Egypt and those of Ethiopia that is to saie all that acknowledged the Egiptian Patriarke of Alexandria haue remained and perseuered still to this daie in the profession of the Eutychian heresie Such was then in the east vnder the Emperors abusing their authoritie the designation and felicitie of the Church and such was the facilitie euen for Children except those that cast their eyes vpon the communion of the Roman Church to knowe the robbers of the truth and for pastors to driue awaie the euill from among them For as for the west the Patriarshipp of the Roman Church hath alwaies had this particular blessing that within the 〈◊〉 of the extent thereof the Catholicke Church notwithstanding the infidelitie of the Emperors had bene without comparison more visible and more eminent as being the Ensigne Colonell and that where to the others ought to haue regard and vnder which they should gather themselues then in the other Patriarkships From whence it is that what S. HIEROM writes in the forme of a historie of former times when he saith to Pope Damasus The wicked children hauing dispersed their patrimonie amongst you 〈◊〉 is preserued vncorrupted the inheritance of the fathers S. LEO seemeth to saie it informe of a prophecie of those that are to followe who pronounces That none of the Patriarchall 〈◊〉 sauing that of Rome shall remaine firme and stable What the diuision of the Empire hath wrought to the diuision of the Church CHAP. II. The continuance of the Kinges answere FOR after the Empire being ouerthrowne and the forme of the common wealth changed new gouernments haue risen vp manie in number different in manners distinct in languages lawes and institutions The diuision of the Empire hath drawne after it the diuision of the Catholicke Church and all those thinges that wee saie nowe to haue serued 〈◊〉 to the preseruation of the vnion and externall Communion of the Catholicke Church haue ceased by little and little THE REPLIE THE diuision of the Empire hath not
caused the diuision of the Church especiallie in the West for whatsoeuer multitude of gouernments haue had place there vnder the title of Empire Kindome Principalitie and Common wealth and whatsoeuer difference of manners languages lawes and institutions that haue raigned there the Church hath bene no more visible in the tyme when the Empire was one and ruled ouer all the East and west then it hath bene vnder this diuersitie of Princes and gouernments Also the vnitie of the Church was not foretold by the Prophets only for the time wherein there should be but one tēporall monarcke in the world if euer that title could haue belonged to anie Prince but also for that tyme wherein there should bee seuerall kinges and Administrators of Estates according to this Prophecie of the Psalmist The Kings and Kingdomes shall agree in one to serue our Lord. Which caused S. AVGVSTINE to saie vnder colour that in the whole world Kingdomes are often deuided yet for all that Christian vnitie is not 〈◊〉 for as much as the Catholicke Church remaines on either part And indeede that the vnitie of the Church depends not from the vnitie of the Empire but from the relation to a visible center of the Ecclesiasticall communion it appeared sufficiently euen in the time of the greatest vnitie and extent of the Empire when the Christians which were vnder Firmus King of the Barbarians in Africa vnder Mania Queene of the Sarazins vnder Cosroes King of Persia states all distinct yea the most part of the time enemies to the Romane Empire And after in Damascus and other neighbouring Prouinces vnder the Kings of the Agarenians did all agree in the vnion and communion of the Catholicke Church For as for the deuisions which are at this daie in the East euery one knowes that that of Egypt and Ethiopia hath begun from the time of the vnitie of the Empire And that of the Armenians likewise as appeares by the decisiōs made against them in the Canōs of the Coūcell holden vnder Iustinian 〈◊〉 And that of the Nestorians and Iacobites which haue yet to this day their sect in Mesopotamia other partes of Asia likewise And as for the Greeke Church it is certaine that although it began to be diuided since the separation of the Empire neuerthelesse the cause of the diuision was not the diuision of the Empire vnder which it perseuered yet manie yeares in vnitie with the Latine but the Schisme betweene the two competitors of the Patriarkship of Constantinople Ignatius and Photius to which to make it the more lasting heresie was added and which the Emperors according as they haue bene good or euill haue indeuoured themselues to fomēt or stopp and there haue not wanted generall Councells euen of the two seuerall Churches to extinguish this diuision when they haue desired it For histories are full of these examples witnes that which was holden at Constantinople vnder the Emperor Basilius for the restitution of Ignatius that which was holden vnder Pope Innocent the third which wee call the great Councell of Lateran to reunite the Greeke church with the Latine and that which was holden for the same effect at Florence vnder Eugenius the fourth at which the Emperor and the Patriarke of Greece assisted in person As also the diuision of the Empire and the rule of the Greeke Emperors after of the Mahometan Princes did not hinder the Churches that acknowledged the Patriarke of the Syrian tongue whom we call Maronites from perseuering in the communion of the Roman Church In such sort as this varietie and diuision of sects in the East can not be attributed to the defect of the vnitie of the Empire since in the time that the Empyre was most vnited these troubles and innouations had such place therein as Socrates and Sozomene doe in the tyme of the Emperor Constantius set the mount Tuscis in Illiria for a bound betweene the quiet peace of the Church and the tempest and turbulencie of hereticks But it ought to be attributed to the want of constancie of the Easterne people or rather to the blessing of God vpon the Roman church which would shew that this prophecie Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against it hath had some more speciall effect for the Sea of S. PETER then for those of the other Patriarkes according to that oracle of the great Leo Besides the stone that our Lord hatt sett for a foundation noe other building shall be stedfast Of the interpretation of these vvords Thou art Peter and vpon this Rock I will build my Church CHAPT III. The continuance of the Kings answere SINCE that time the Catholicke Church in truth hath not ceast to be for it shall allwaies bee and the gates of hell shall not preuaile against her who is founded on Christ the true stone and in the faith of PEETER and of the other Apostles THE REPLIE THat some times the Fathers expound these words Vpon this Rock I will build my Church of the Faith of S. PETER and say that the Church was built vpon the confession of PETER And that some times they expound it of the person of PETER and saie that the Church hath bene founded vpon the person of PETER they are not contrarie expositions the one excluding the other but conioynt the one including the other for they intend the Church to speake the Schoole language is built causallie vpon the confession of PETER and formallie vpon the ministrie of the person of PETER that is to saie the confession of PETER was the cause werefore Christ chose him to constitute him for the foundation of the ministrie of his Church By that saith saint HILLARIE the blessed Confession hath obtained his reward and that the person of saint Peter hath bene that vpon which our Lord hath properlie built his Church Soe as to saie that his Church is built vpon the confessio of PETER is not to denie that it is built vpō the person of PETER but it is to expresse the cause wherefore it is built vpon him noe more then to sale with saint HIEROME that PETER walked not vpon the waters but Faith is not to denie that saint PETER walked trulie properly and formallie vpon the water but it is to expresse that the cause that made him walke there was not the actiuitie or naturall vertue of his person but the faith that he had giuen to the words of Christ. And therefore as these two propositions the faith of PETER walked vpon the waters and the person of PETER walked vpon the waters are both true but in a different sence for the faith of PETER walked vpon the waters causallie as the Schooleme sare that is to saie it was the cause that the person of saint PETER walked there and the person of saint PETER walked there trulie properlie and formallie so these two propositions the Church was built vpon
man that is to saie a veritable man and then that a Church leaues not to be truly a Church although she be not a true Church it is a Sophisme of the truth of the essence to the truth of the word and of the word verus to the word Verax there being none so young a scholler but knowes that to speake vniuocallie whosoeuer is truly a man is a true man for as much as being and truth are conuertible from whence it is that sainct AMBROSE vseth these wordes true Israelite and trulie Israelite as termes equiualent And that sainct AVGVSTINE saith Euerie soule is by that a soule by which it is a true soule And therefore as the Fathers affirme that there is none but the Catholicke Church that is a true Church From thence saith sainct AVGVSTINE it appeares that the true Church is concealed from noe bodie Soe they also saie that there is none but the Catholicke Church that is truly a Church If you did teach saith sainct AVGVSTINE to the Manichees that mariage were good but virginitie better as doth the Church which is trulie the Church of Christ the bolie Ghost had not predesigned you And whereas it is replied that a man for being lesse or more sound leaues not to be a man and soe that a Church for being lesse or more pure leaues not to be a Church it is an other manifest Sophisme for health is not the essentiall forme of a man nor sicknes the priuation of the essentiall forme of a man but an accident which consequentlie may receaue more and lesse whereas puritie of faith according to his maiesties owne confession is the essentiall forme of the Church and the impuritie of Faith the priuation of the essentiall forme of the Church By meanes whereof noe Societie can hold among the conditions of her Communion and doctrine impure in Faith and contrarie to saluation but shee looseth at the same time the being and title of a Church And therefore the diuersitie of the communions whereinto the Church was deuided when Luther rose must not be alleadged for a pretence to be ignorant where the true Church then was For since the Church ought to be perpetually visible and eminent and that then there were noe Christiā communions visible in the world but ours that of the Grecians vnder which are cōprehended the Muscouites the Antiochians that of the Egiptians Ethiopians which is but one that of the Armenians that of the Nestorians that it is of the essence of the necessirie of the Church that she should be pure and impolluted in faith and that all those others by the common confession of vs and of the Protestants are heretickes and corrupt it is not needefull to goe to Delphus to learne that either the Church was perished which as wee haue aboue shewed could not be or that it was our communion which was the Church Of the qualitie wherein the Catholick Church attributes to herself the name of the whole CHAP. VIII The continuance of the Kings answere AND therefore the most excellent King is much amazed when hee sees the Churches which haue bene members of the whole Bodie drawe to themselues all the right of vniniuersalitie THE REPLIE IT hath alreadie bene aboue shewed that by the Catholicke Church the Fathers neuer intended the Masse and totall conclusion of the multitude of Christians but a speciall societie distinct from the beleefe and from the communion of all hereticall and schismaticall sects and which in regard of the Masse and generall confusion of all the multitude of Christians held actuallie but the place of a part and held only the place of the whole actuallie in regard of the particular Churches which were comprehended in deede in her communiō For there was neuer anie age since the apostles built the church but there haue bene some heretickes which haue gone forth from the Bodie of the Church neuerthelesse making profession of the name of Christ They haue gone forth from vs saith S IOHN but they were not of vs. And S. IVDE Cursed bee they for they perish in the contradiction of Chore people which separated them selues men animalls hauiug not spiritt And S. AVGVSTINE All hereticks and Schismaticks are gone forth from vs that 〈◊〉 to saie saith hee are gone sorth of the Church But amongst this difference of societies making profession of Christian Religion there was alwaies one more eminent in multitude then the rest which hath alwaies remained in her stocke and roote and from whence all the rest are gone forth to whom also the name of Catholicke nath bene preserued not because she held actuallie the place of whole in regard of the rest but onlie of all habituallie as the stocke in regard of the boughes which haue bene pluckt off for as much as in all the separations she remained in the same estate wherein all the Bodie was before the separation and consequentlie hath iustlie inherited the name of totall Church and succeeded onelie in the right and application of the whole as being she alone that represents it The Church saith S. AVGVSTINE Combating against all heresies may be resisted but she cannot be ouerthrowne all heresies are gone forth from her as vnprofitable branches cutt off from their vine but she remaines in her roote in her vine in her charitie the gates of hell shall not preuaile against her Which amazeth me that is maiestie should be amazed that the Churches which haue heretofore bene members of the whole Bodie should drawe to themselues all the Right of the vniuersalitie For the word Catholicke was neuer common to all Christians but onely to a part of Christians to witt to that wherein there remained the actuall totalitie of that which rested in the iust possession of the title of the Church and which in regard of the partes separated retained noe more the effect but only the right of the whole as representing her that before each separation was the whole And therefore so farr was S. AVGVSTINE from extending the totalitie of the Catholicke Church to the multitude of all the sectes of Christians as contrariwise after hauing reported the opinions of the eightie eight heresies he adds What the Catholicke Church holdes against all these thinges is a superfluous demaund since it is sufficient for to knowe that she holdes the contrary to these thinges And a while after There may also be or be made other heresies besides these which are reported in this worke of ours whereof who shall holde anie one shall be noe Catholick Christiā And elsewhere The Catholick and the heretick are deuided the one against the other And againe They cannot beginn to be Catholick till they haue left to be hereticke And therefore when the hereticall Sects separate themselues from the Catholicke Church and deuide themselues from the part that consents not to heresie they hinder not the title os Catholicke nor the Right of vniuersalitie from being preserued in her
stranger askes an hereticke where they assemble to communicate in the Catholicke Church none of them dares to shew his Temple or his howse And the reason the title of catholick was not an allurement wherewith heretickes drewe ignorant persons to them but the firme bond by which the true Church drewe to her and retained in her communion all the true faithfull called to the hope of life eternall and amongst other this Eágle of doctors S. AVGVSTINE who saith That I omitt this sincere wisedome which you beleeue not to be in the catholicke church There be manie other reasons which doe most iustlie retaine me in her lappe the consent of people and nations retaines me the authoritie begunn by miracles 〈◊〉 by hope increased by charitie confirmed by antiquitie retaines me the succession of Prelates euen from the Sea of Peter to whom our lord committed his sheepe to be fedd after his resurrection vntill the present Bishop detaines me And finallie the verie name of Catholicke retaines me And a little after these so manie and so great most deare bondes of the Christian name doe iustlie detaine faithfull men in the Catholick Church although for the slownes of our vnderstanding of the defect of meritts in our liues truth doth not yet shew her else with manifest euidence Of the cases wherein the Communion in vow with the Catholick Church may be imputed as actuall CHAP. XV. The continuance of the Kinges answere BVT this notable calamitie is particular to the last times whereto wee are arriued that the Catholick Church which must bee communicated with either reallie and by effect or at the least voluntarily and in vowe is 〈◊〉 illustrious at this daie then antiently she was and lesse exposed to the view of men and more subiect to bee contested THE REPLIE ARISTOTLE that great Philosopher which steeped his pen say the Greekes in sece in steede of inke teacheth vs that the cittie is before the cittizen to witt not in prioritie of time for a cōmon-weale can not be without a cittizen but in prioritie of nature that is to saie that the being of the cittizen dependes from that of the cittie and not the being of the cittie from that of the cittizen from whence it appeares that the forme that giues being in the first place to the cittie and then by participation to the cittizen must reside in the cittie in the most perfect manner that it can reside and not in the most imperfect And soe although it suffice to preserue to a cittizen the being of a cittizē that in default of being able to participate actuallie in the communion of the common wealth as when he is hindred by anie locall obstacle either of beeing in a strange prison or remayning in a strange countrie he commnicate there habituallie and in desire which is an imperfect manner of communicating it sufficeth not that the communion where by the common wealth is framed and preserued in being should be a simple habituall communion and in vowe but it is necessarie that it should be a true and actuall communion For when a Cittizen is hindred by anie locall impossibilitie from communicating actuallie with his Common wealth he leaues not to preserue the being of a cittizen prouided that hee communicate therewith habituallie that is to saie in vowe and in desire and communicate not in a politicke communion with anie contrarie societie But when the communion of the bodie of a common-wealth comes to be dispersed and that there is noe more anie comerce or actuall communion in the estate then the common wealth is extinct and hath noe more being and the communion that is habituall and in desire of the cittizens dispersed and noe more communicating one with an other cannot preserue it Now euen that ought to be said of the Church whereof the Psalmist singes propheticallie Hierusalem which is built as a cittie whose participatiō is in vnitie to witt that although the cōmunion habituall and in vow sussice for a particular person in case of impossibilitie for the actuall to make him imputatiuelie a member of the Church that is to saie to cause this imperfect communion to serue him to saluation in default of the other Neuerthelesse the Church cannot be framed nor preserued in the beeing of a Church by a communion only habituall and in vowe but by a reall and actuall communion The which as soone as it comes wholie to cease and to perishe in the Church the Church perisheth and ceaseth to be And therefore this distinction of actuall communion and communion in vowe serues well to shewe that anie one may be imputatiuelie in the Church without participating actuallie in the visible communion of the Church prouided that this defect come from an imposibilitie of participating therein actualie but not to shew that the bodie of the Church can subsist and preserue the being and true title of a Church without visible and actuall communion For contrariwise that this imperfect manner of being in the Church serues to his saluation that is hindred by anie locall obstacle from being able to be there actually it is because the true and actuall communion which as in the Church is imputed to him by the desire that he hath to participate thereof which could not be imputed to him if it were not reallie some where and besides this desire of participation must be stript from all other impediments sauing that which proceedes from loand corporall imposibilities in such sort as all those which are not withheld by distance of place or other like obstacle ineuitable to them from participating in the actuall communion of the Church cannot be said to communicate there in vow nor to be there imputatiuely For nothing dispenceth with men for communicating with the Catholicke Church onely in vow and in will and not reallie and by effect if it be not the exclusion of time and place and besides in the article of death noe more then anie thing can excuse a man from being baptised onelie in vow and in will and not reallie and by effect but the condition of being excluded by the impossibilitie of time and of place and also in the Article of death from the meanes how to be baptised And because when the obstacle proceedes from externall impediments onely that if there were local or temporall commoditie he that communicates with the Church in vowe would communicate therewith actuallie this desire of communion may be imputed for true communion and called a communion in vow But when the obstacle proceedes from internall impediments from him that pretendes to communicate there in vow as of repugnancie to the beleefe and to the discipline and the lawes vnder the conditions whereof the Catholick Church receiues into her communion those that she receaues thereinto in such sort as all corporall obstacles being taken awaie and hee being in place where hee may assist at the Catholicke Church communicate with her hee will not doe it this conditionall
expresse wee must haue recourse thereto But wee said that he neuer thought neither in generall that all things belonging to Religion were treated off in scripture nor in particular that the contention betweene the Catholickes and the Donatists concerning Baptisme was of that quality And wee maintaine that for soe manie yeares wherein hee combated with them about this article when there was quēstion of Searching the cause to the bottome hee neuer produced one proofe out of Canonicall scripture Indeede he hath often alleadged places of Scripture to make some approaches to it and to beate downe certaine defences to solue by scripture the arguments that the Donatists brought out of Scripture to maintaine that the custome of the Church in the point contested was according to Scripture in as much as According signifies not against the Scripture to establie generall theses and preparatiues to proue the propositions that had some simpathy and affinitie with that which hee disputed As for example he doth indeede proue by scripture that what is sound and intire amongst heretickes must not be repeated againe when they returne to the Church but that Baptisme is sound and intire amongst them he doth noe were proue by Scripture He proues indeede by Scripture that there may be ecclesiasticall thinges out of the Church but that Baptisme is of that number he nether doth nor can proue by Scripture He proues indeede by scripture that it is against the commaun dement of God if heretickes haue receaued the Baptisme of Christ in their owne partie to rebaptise them for wee also reade that our Lord answered Sainct PETER Hee that is wholie washt neede washe but his feete But that heretickes receiue the Baptisme of Christ in their Sects and not 〈◊〉 polluted and prophane washing which is all the knott of the question he noe were proues by scripture For as hee notes elsewhere Peter of whom this is written had not bene baptised by heretickes he prooues indeede by scripture that they who are out of the interior and Spirituall vnitie of the Church as Judas and wicked Catholickes doe not for that leaue to conferr true Baptisme but that they who are neither inwardlie nor outwardlie in the Church who are out of the vnitie of the profession of Faith and of the communion of the Sacraments of the ecclesiasticall bodie can conferr it he proues noe where by scripture And in Summe the thinges which belong to the Solutions of arguments to probable and coniecturall preparatiues to shewes of possibilitie and non repugnancie to soften and dispose the spiritt of the Readers he doth indeede prooue by scripture but the impression of the last forme the assumption and hypothesis of the sillogisme the proofe of this precise and speciall point that Baptisme whereof Sainct IOHN cryes None may receaue anie thinge except it be giuen him from heauen That Sainct PETER saith to be administred into remission of Sinnes That Sainct PAVL calls the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holie Ghost and whereof hee writes One faith and one Baptisme And againe All they that are baptized haue put on Christ That this Sacrament I saie may be conferred out of the Church which is the fullnes of Christ which is the sealed Fountaine which is the only dwelling of the holie Ghost which is shee alone that hath receiued the keyes and the authoritie to remitt sinnes that this can subsist amongst hereticks who haue neither faith nor guift from heauen nor the holie Ghost you can neuer finde that in soe maine yeares as saint AVGVSTINE the principall opposite and ouerthrowe of this heresie hath contested her he hath neuer manifested nor could hee nor he hath not pretended to proue by anie passage of Scripture but by the only vnwritten traditions of the Apostles and the generall practise and vniuersall attestation of the Church Wee must saith hee obserue in these thinges what the Church of God obserues The question now betweene you and vs is which of yours or ours is the Church of God And againe Wherefore although in truth there be noe example to be produced of this out of the 〈◊〉 Scripture yet we leaue not to maintaine euen in this case the truth of the Scriptures when we obserue what hath bene approued by all that Church that the authoritie of the canonicall Scripture recommendeth And in an other place This is neither openlie nor euidentlie read neither by you nor by me c. But if anie one indued with wisdome and recommended by the testimonie of our Lord Iesus Christ were to be found in the world and that hee had bene consulted by vs vpon this question wee ought noe waie to doubt to doe what he should tell vs for feare of being iudged repugnant not so much to him as to our Lord Jesus Christ by whose testimonie hee had bene recommended Now he giues testimonie to his Church And in the worke of Baptisme against the same Donatists The Apostles saith hee haue prescribed nothing in this matter but this custome ought to be beleeued to haue taken the originall there of from their tradition as there are manie thinges which the vniuersall Church obserues and which are therefore not without cause beleeued to haue bene commaunded by the Apostles although they be not written From whence the contrarie appeares to what his maiestie pretends to inferr from this passage to witt that the scripture only destitute of the vnwritten Apostolicke tradition cannot decidè all pointes of Faith nor refute all heresies For the point in agitation betweene the Catholicks and the Donatists concerning the truth realitie of the baptisme giuen by hereticks was a point of faith and wherein obstinate error would make an heresie The proofe of this is first that the doctrine of Baptisme importes so much to the faith as where there is noe true baptisme there is noe true Church S PAVL teaching vs that God clenseth his Church through the washing of water in the word Now there where the Church is destroyed there is destroyed this article of the Faith of the Creede I beleeue the bolie Catholick Church And secondlie that the vnitie of Baptisme belonges so to faith as S. PAVL saith there is one faith and one Baptisme And that the creede of Cōstātinople setts amōgst the Articles of the Confession of the Faith We 〈◊〉 one baptisme in the remission of sinns in such sort as if the Donatists erred in disanulling the baptisme of heretickes and rebaptizing them they destroyed the faith of the vnitie of baptisme and anathematised the character of Christ which had alreadie bene imprinted in the baptized by baptisme And if the Catholicks erre in approuing the baptisme of heretickes and in not rebaptisinge them when they came to them they sinned against the Faith of the necessitie of Baptisme for the constitution of the Church and consequently had noe Church And neuerthelesse neither could this point of Faith be proued nor
beginning of these last diuisions either perswaded in some pointes by the innouators or ioyned to the partie of the innouators themselues haue attempted to seeke out some accommodation in matter of doctrine and of the vniuersall Religion of the Church to come to a reunion perswading themselues that as the Poet saith all men doe Sinn Without the walls of Troy and 〈◊〉 within It will bee alwaies easie for vs to shew that the desire of reconciliation rather then the knowledge of antiquitie and truth hath caused them to speake this language Of the agreement or disagreement of the English reformers with the Donatists CHAP. XXXI The continuance of the Kinges answere AND therefore the English Church feareth not that she can seeme in the iudgment of sincere arbitrators to haue done anie thinge like to the 〈◊〉 in this separation They out of a iollitie of harte and without anie cause abandoned the Catholicke 〈◊〉 approued by the consent of all nations whereof they could neither blame the faith nor the discipline THE REPLIE NEITHER was the Catholicke Church then actuallie approued by all nations for these prophecies In thy seede shall all nations be 〈◊〉 and This Ghospell must be preached ouer all the world shall not be fullie accōplisht as S. AVGVSTINE notes till the end of the world But it might well be said by 〈◊〉 in regard of other Christian sectes to be spread ouer all nations because the extent thereof was more eminont as it is nowe then that of anie other Christian Societie Neither was she approued by 〈◊〉 men of all the Christian nations For who knowes not how great the multitude of other heresies was when the sect of the Donatists sprange vp and how much greater then when the passages of the Fathers cited in the beginning of this obseruation were pronounced against them Of one side the Arrians possessed almost all the East of the other side the number of the Donatists was such in Africa as they held all at a time Councells of three hūdred Bishops yea euē in the time of S. AVGVSTINE there where whole natiōs that professed christianitie which did not acknowledg 〈◊〉 Catholick Church as that of the Gothes Vandalls And in breefe elghtie or an hundred other sects of Christiās which were then in the world diuided like Sāpsons Foxes by the heads but tyed together by the tayles did all agree to reproue the Catholicke Church And whereas the excellent king addeth that the Donatists could blame neither the faith nor discipline of the Catholicke Church if by blaming his maiestie intend to blame with reason that is not particular to the Donatistes for neuer anie Sect either Schismaticall or hereticall could blame with reason the faith or discipline of the Church But if by blaming he intend accusing and slandring her and beleeuing that they had iust occasion to doe soe who euer blamed the faith and discipline of the Catholicke Church more then the donatists who called themselues the Bishops of thē Catholicke truth and obiected to the Catholickes that they erred in faith in beleeuing that the holy Ghost resided out of the Church and in holding that Baptisme which cannot be administred but by the operation of the holy Ghost might be conferred out of the Church and in the Societie of hereticks who reprocht it to them thāt they violated these oracles One faith one Baptisme It is lawfull to be baptised if thou dost beleeue be yee euery one of you baptised in the remission of Sinnes Christ purgeth his Church by the washing of water in the word Who heares not the Church lett him be as a publican and as a heathen Baptisme is the washing of the regeneration of the Ghost The Church is the close Garden and the sealed Fountaine Who gathers not with Christ scatters And other such like alleadged by them in so great number as Vincentius Lyrinensis cryes out But perchance this new inuention that is to saie the heresie of the Donatists will want defences nay she was assisted with soe great strength of spirit with so many flouds of Eloquence with so great a number of protectors with so much likelyhood with so manie oracles of diuine lawe but expounded in a new and naughtie manner that it seemes to me that such a conspir aice could neuer haue benē destroyed if this same imbraced this same defended this same extolled profession of noueltie had not in the end left the cause of soe great a motion alone and abandoned And as for the discipline of the Church did not they blame it who taxed the discipline of the Church to haue receiued without expiation of preceding pennance those that in the persecution time had denied Christ and communicated in the sacrifices of the Pagans and consequently to haue bene polluted with the contagion of the Pagans who accused her for hauing receaued conuerted heretickes into her communion without giuing them true Baptisme which could not be giuen according to them but in the Church and consequently to haue polluted her communion with the contagion of vnbaptised or vncircumcised spirituallie and so to haue lost the being of the true Church which could not subsist without the true vse of the sacramēts Who made profession in manners of a conuersation of life much better ruled more reformed then that of the Catholickes from whence it is that S. AVGVSTINE forbidds the catholicks to reproche the Donatists with anie other thing but that they were not Catholickes Who called themselues the little flocke of the lord the two tribes of the Kingdome of Iuda who said we hauing nothing and possessing all things wee account our soule to he our riches and by our paines and our blood we purchase the treasure of heauen And in breese who supposed themselues to haue such reason for their separation as they reputed the Catholickes not to be worthie of so much as the name of Christians as hauing lost the true vse of Baptisme whereby men are made Christiās when they spake to them they said Caius Seius Caia Seia O man 〈◊〉 thou be a Christian O woeman wilt thou be a Christian And cryed to them Come o yee ignorant and wretched people who are commonlie called Catholickes And called the Chaire of Rome the Chaire of pestilence and called the Catholicke Church an Harlott and an Adulteresse and chose rather to suffer all kindes of persecutions and false Martirdomes then to communicate with her If I persecute saith Saint AVGVSTINE iustlie him that detracts from his neighbour why should I not persecute him that detracts from the Church of Christ and saith this is not shee but this is an hatlott And againe If the punishment and not the cause made Martirdome heauen should be full of your martirs And against whom contrariwise the Catholickes in matter of doctrine had not one passage of scripture for them but only the Apostolicall vnwritten tradition as S. AVGVSTINE
are borne in that age saith S. AVGVSTINE and associated with the people of God in that time wherein this plant bredd from the graine of mustarde-seede hath alreadie stretched forth her branches And that hee saith Enter in at the straight gate it is in respect of the conuersation of manners and not of the profession of doctrine as appeares by these wordes Manie called and few chosen And by these and the mariage chamber was full of inuited persons that is to saie of those that were called For though the number of the chosen be little in regard of the 〈◊〉 neuerthelesse considered in it self it is 〈◊〉 great It is this Church saith saint AVGVSTINE of the little number whereof in comparison of the multitude of the wicked it is said that the waie that leades to life is straight and close and that those that walke it are few in number And yet it is she againe of whose multitude it is said Thy seede shal be as the starrs of heauen and 〈◊〉 the sands of the sea For the same faithfull holy and good in comparison of the great multitude of the wicked are a little number and considered in themselues are manie for it is said that of the children of the forsaken are in greater number then hers that hath a husband And elsewhere Wherefore is it o yee hereticks that you glorie in your small number if Christ died to the end to possesse the multitude for his inheritance But if the prerogatiues of the Christian Church be much other as for eminencie and multitude then that of the Church of the Iewes how much more in regard of lasting and perpetuitie which are as often promised to the Christian Church as denied to the Church of the Iewes for who is ignorant that the Iewish Church had not receaued the same promises of lasting and perpetuitie as haue bene made to the Christian Church contrary-wise if anie promises of lasting and perpetuitie haue seemed to bee literallie addressed to the Jewish Church they were made to her conditionallie and not absolutely 〈◊〉 if anie haue bene made to her absolutely they were made to her onely in shadowe and in figure but the truth like the truth of the promises of eternitie made to the Raigne of Salomon belonged to him of whose Raigne Salomons was the figure Hieremie saith and saint PAVL after him that the daies would come wherein God would knitt vp a newe alliance with the familie of Iuda and with the familie of Israell not according to the alliance that he contracted with their Fathers when he tooke them by the hands and drewe them out of the land of Egipt Hec adds that if this contract once perisht from before the eyes of the Lord then all the seede of Israell should faile for euer and there should be noe more people before him 〈◊〉 anie age but that the heavens on high should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 measured and the foundations of the earth belowe be sooner sounded Then finallie he concludes with these wordes the sanctuarie of the eternall shall noe more be pluckt vp and shall neuer more be destroyed and desolate in anie time to come EZECHIEL saith I will make a treatie of peace with them I will haue an eternall confederacie with them I will build them and multiplie them and establish my sanctification in the middest of them for euer my tabernacle shall bee amongst them and I will be their God and they shall bee my people and the Nations shall knowe that I sanctifie Israel when they shall see my sanctification in the middest of them for perpetuitie ESAY cryes out As in the daies of Noe I swore that I would noe more powre downe the waters vpon the earth soe I haue protested that I will noe more 〈◊〉 angrie with thee and that I will noe more looke vppon thee in my wrath The mountaines shall be moued and the hills shall shake but my mercie shall not estrange it self from thee and the peace of my alliance shall neuer be transported from thee And in an other place When he that is driuen with the spirit of our Lord shall become as an impetuous floud and that the Sauiour shall arriue at Sion to turne away the iniquities of Iacob behold the alliance that shall be betweene them and me saith our Lord my Spirit which is thy mouth and the words which I haue put in thy mouth shall neuer depart from thy mouth nor from the mouth of they posterity nor from the posteritie of thy posteritie saith our Lord from this time forth for euer more And a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will contract a perpetuall confederacie with them and the people shall knowe their posteritie and their linage shall bee manifest in the middest of the Nations and all that shall see it shall knowe that this shall be the seede cherisht and fauourd by our Lord. Now to what purpose were all these 〈◊〉 of contracts and alliances all these mentions of preheminencies and prerogatiues if the Sincops and interruptions of the Church of the Iewes ought to make the lawe and president for the Christian Church To what purpose are all these clauses that the Gates of the Church should be continually open that they shall be shutt neither daie nor night that the multitude of nations may be brought in That whereas she hath bene abandoned and odious and that none frequented her she shall be made the glorie of the wourld and shall become the delight of generations That she shall noe more be called the forsaken and that her land shall noe more be called the desolate but her name shall be the fauoritie of our Lord and her land shall bee peopled and inhabited If the Christian Church should be exposed to the same ruines and desolations as the Iewish which neuer receaued anie promises of perpetuitie or if anie promises of perpetuitie may seeme to haue bene made to her literallie they haue bene made to her onlie in shadowe and in figure but their truth belonged to the Christian Church To what purpose were all these promises of our Lord Both by the mouth of Esaie As in the daies of Noe I swoare I would noe more bring the waters of the flood againe vpon the earth soe I haue sworne that I will noe more be angrie with thee And by that of Zachary I will noe more doe to this people as I haue done in times past And by his owne The cittie built vpon a mountaine can not be hidden the gates of hell shall neuer preuaile against her This Ghospell of the Kingdome must first be preached ouer all the world and then the end shall come I am with you to the consummation of ages and other the like if the Christian Church haue not quite other prerogatiues then the Iewish Church not only in eminencie and multitude but also in lasting and perpetuitie Philosophers teach that passion is a waie tending and leading
the world But who sees not that this was in the time wherein 〈◊〉 contract was expired and that of the Christian Church did beginne The lawe and the prophetts saith our Sauiour Vntill Iohn And sainct PAVLE Blindnes is partlie fallen vpon Israel that the fullnes of the Gentiles might be introduced Now the lease that God had made of his vine to the Iewish Church hauing bene but for a time what wonder is it that when this lease is come to expire the prerogatiue that she had by vertue of her contract should cease and that the master of the vineyard should lett forth his Vineyard to other 〈◊〉 and this fufficeth for the comparison of the Christian Church with the Iewish For to ascend to the time before the lawe of Moyses and to alleadge the little mention that is made there of the continuance of the Church it is clere that it had bene a thinge superfluous for the Scripture to haue represented particularlie the estate of the Church of those ages the knowledge of the succession of the Church not hauing bene necessarie but after the last institution of the lawe for the seruice whereof she is establisht as to the Iewes after the institution of the lawe of Moyses and to the Christians after the institution of the Euangelicall lawe Although both before and after the floud there are manie monuments of it For both before the floud this that the sonns of God knew the daughters of men shewes that there was an especiall people which boare the title of the children of God which title the interpretors would haue to be taken by the posteritie of Seth to distinguish themselues from the posteritie of Cain when Seth had begotten Enos and that they began saith the Scripture to all chemselues by the name of the Lord And the vniuersall corruption which fell out in the end vpon all the other families descended from Seth except that of Noe was a corruption of manners and for which if wee beleeue saint HIEROME all those that perish with a temporall death in the floud perisht not with an eternall death And after the floud that Noe liued almost to the sixtith yeare of Abraham And Sem the Sonn of Noe whom Luther calls the Pope of his Age till after the death of Iacob And that Melchisedech kinge of Salem was priest of the most high and in his qualitie blest Abraham that Rebecca wife of Isaach wēt to enquire of God vpon the misterie of her childrē shewes that euē thē the true worship visible seruice of God had place both before elsewhere thē in the familie of Abrahā Butto cōclude grant all the hypothesis to be such as the Protestāts pretend that the Church had bene interrupted both before the lawe vnder thelawe what would that make against the christiā church to whō Christ held this language As in the daies of Noe I swore that I would neuer againe bringe the waters of the Floud vpon the Earth soe I haue sworne that I will noe more be angrie against thee Thou shalt noe more be called the forsaken I will noe more doe to this people as in former daies I will contract a new alliance with them not according to the alliance I contracted with their Fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egipt The cittie of the Lord shall noe more be pulled vp nor destroyed The glorie of this second howse shall bee much greater then that of the first The cittie built vpon the mountaine cannot be hidden The gates of Hell shall not preuaile against my Church I am with you to the consummation of ages This Ghospell of the Kingdome must be preached through the whole world and then the end shall come Hee hath placed in his Church the Apostles Prophetts Pastors and Doctors c till wee all shall meete in the vnitie of faith The Church is the firmament of truth and other such like Of the comparison of the Charitie of the antient African Church and the moderne Roman Church CHAP. XXXVII The continuance of the Kinges answere AND surely the antient Church to recall the Donatists that were refractory to her communiō had accustomed by an admirable Charitie to prouide euen for the te mporall commodities of the Bishops that should be conuerted and of others also And the Roman Church to knitt againe the loue and good will betweene her and the English Church hath first employed the thunderboltes of Bulls and afterward of force sometimes openly and sometimes vnder-hand THE REPLIE THE antient Catholicke Church of Africa offered for the good of Charitie and of the Ecclesiasticall communion to yeeld vp the Bishoprickes of Africa not to those Donatist Bishops which still remained on Donatus his partie but to those that would returne to the communion of the Catholicke Church And the Roman Church hath excommunicated by her Bulls not those that will returne from the English diuision to the Catholick communion but those that after many admonitions are obstinate still to remaine in the separation And therefore there is in this no Antithesis betweene the proceedings of the antient Catholicke Church and those of the moderne For as concerning this word the thunderboltes of Bulls by which some thinke to make the Popes censures the more odious his maiestie may remember if 〈◊〉 please that it is an antient phrase of speeche that the Grecians vse who called the condemnations euen of secular iudgementes thunderboltes and to expresse that one was condemned in iudgment they would saie he was Thunder-strucken Of the innocencie of the Church in the matter of conspiracies against his maiestie CHAP. XXXVIII The continuance of the Kings answere TRAYTORS manifestlie culpable of the paricide vndertaken in this prouince she hath receiued into her lapp and still wholie protects them those that haue suffered iudgemēt for the same cause she Inrolles in the Catalogue of martyrs and propugneth from daie to daie their innocencie against all lawes diuine and humane THE REPLIE IF anie of those that were partakers of the abhominable cōspiracie proiected against his maiestie be receiued at Rome it is an error of fact and not of Right founded vpon a false information that is to saie vpon the beleefe that they haue imprinted there that they are not culpable of that attempt as Princes are accustomed to receaue in the qualitie of innocent persons those that haue recourse to them out of other Prouinces if the verball processe of the crime be not sent to them that they may informe themselues of the truth or falshood of the imputation And this lawe is a lawe of resuge and freedome cōmon to the Estates of all Princes But to beleeue that the Pope protects them in the qualitie of being culpable of this conspiracie I know to well how much I haue heard him detest it with his owne mouth For as touching those that haue bene excluded in England that that
is for whose innocencie not with standing diuers write is alwaies grounded vpon the fact and not vpon the right that is to saie pretending they were not complices nor consenting thereto and not maintayning the action to be other then damnable and detestable Contrarywise that they are iustified by this waie be it true be it false for it is hard in such a case to impose a lawe vpon the suspition of absent persons it is a manifest testimonie that the action is abhorred and comdemned And when as his maiestie adds that the Roman Church enrolls them in the catalogue of martyrs if anie pariicular men defend their supposed innocencie hyperbolically it is alwaies vpon this supposition whether true or false that they were not complices in the fact But as for the Roman Church I neuer yet heard tell that she hath canonized anie martir of the seauenteenth age Of the writings of the illustrious Cardinall Bellarmin CHAP. XXXIX The continuance of the King answere THe Cardinall Bellarmine himself I will saie it against my will but I saie truth amongst the protectors of the Paricides holdes the rancke of the head of a faction who newlie againe to the end to allure the excellent King hath imployed this argument of wondrous efficacie to perswade that the Kingdome of England belonges to the Pope and that the kinge of England is subiect to the Pope euen in temporall thinges and in his Feodary I omitt the other complaintes of the kinge and the English Church as well old as newe which now haue noe neede of commemoratiō THE REPLIE THE protestation that I haue made non to handle anie thing in this worke but what is purely spirituall obligeth me not to vndertake the defence of the Illustrious and most learned cardinall Bellarmine but in cases of this qualitie It sufficeth me for the rest to saie that himselfe aduertises the Readers that what he propounds os the indirect authoritie of the Pope in temporalls he propounds it not as a doctrine of faith and whereof either side must be held vnder the paine of excommunication or anathema by meanes where of this question should not hinder the reunion of those who desire to returne to the Church For as for the annuall present that it is written England waswont to make to the Sea Apostolicke if his maiesties Predecessors would by anie marke of publicke acknowledgment testifie their particular deuotion towards saint PETERS Sea that could bring noe more dimunition to their temporall glory then the submission of Alexander the great brought to him when he prostrated himselfe before the high Priest of the 〈◊〉 lawe or that of the Emperor Iustinian the second when hee prostrated himselfe in Asia before Pope Constantine making this acknowledgement not to men but to God who saith by the mouth of Esay to his Church whereof saint PETER in his Successors is the head and visible figure Kings shall worship thee with their face on the ground Contrarywise it will be found that the kings of England haue bene more esteemed and feared since then then euer they were before Iointlie that whensoeuer it shall please this great king to make so faire a present to the Church as to giue her his heart and person I assure my selfe the Pope will shewe if these temporall acknowledgements bee displeasing to his Maiestie that it is himselfe as S. PAVL saith that he desires and not the things that belong to him The end of the first Part. Contra literas Petil l 2. c 95 Epist. 1 52 De side ad Petr. c. 39. Epist. 48. Cap. 29. Cap. 33. Cap 4. Cap. 23. a Gen. 12. 26. b Gal 3. l sa 2. c Matt 14. De vnit Eccles. ca. 2. 3. alibi Isa. 60. 62. 54. a Matth. 16. 18. 1. 〈◊〉 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c 〈◊〉 b De Symb. Catec l. 1 c. 5. Contr. Iul. l. 5. 2. Vincent Lirin c. 42 Epist. 118. De Bapt. cont Don. l. 4. c. 6. 〈◊〉 c. 24. In Ioan. lib. 11. cap. 27. a Hier. adu Luciser b Ruffin in Symbol c August de fide symbol de Symb. ad Catec d Demost e Arist. polit 2. Deuteron 23. Psal. 25. Act. 17. Hieron in Esai c. 62. Cyril ibid. Matth. 18. Act. 12. 1. Cor. 4 1. Cor. 10. Iacob 5. Iren. cont Valen. lib. 4. c. 34. Euseb. histor eod l. 4. cap. 13. b Tertull. cōtra Marcion lib. 4. c. 4. Clem. Alex Strō lib. 27. Tertull. cont Marc. lib. 4. cap. 4. a Epiph. haer 65. b Euseb. de vita Constant l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sympr 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cateches 15. 〈◊〉 Aug. de 〈◊〉 Symb c. 10. De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Symb c. 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. c. 〈◊〉 Vm. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 9. Prosp. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ang. Collat Carth. l 3 August ibid. Aug. ib id g Aug. Epist 48. g. Aug ibid a Optat. Mileuit cont Parm 〈◊〉 1. b. Aug. b reuin col l. 3. c. In Ioan. ttact 6. d Aug. Psal. 57. e. Aug. de pastor c. 13 Esai 2. 〈◊〉 60. 〈◊〉 61. Matth. 5. Matth. 18. 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chris in Esai hom 4. idem in Esai c. 2. Aug. de vnit Eccles c. 14. Aug. cont Parm. l. 2. cap 3. Cont. lit Petil lib. 1. cap. 104. Cypr. de vnit Eccles. Ibid. Ibidem Ibidem Ibid. Hier. cont Lucifèr Hler. cont Lucif 1. 〈◊〉 Carth. 4. c. 1. Aug. ep 152. Idem ep 50 Ibidem Ibidem Cant. 4. Esai 1. Esai 52. Ose. 2. Matth. 16. Tim 3. 2. Corinth 6. 2. Ioan. Hier. cont Lucifer 〈◊〉 l. 1. Idem l. 2. De 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 7. De vera relig cap. 6. De side symb c. 10. a Concil Carth 4. 〈◊〉 1. b Aug. ep 15 2. c De 〈◊〉 ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4 d Cyp de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 g Aug de gest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h Prosp promis 〈◊〉 i 〈◊〉 de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 19. 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 5 a 〈◊〉 54. b 〈◊〉 92 c 〈◊〉 37 d 〈◊〉 8. e 〈◊〉 16. f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i Alex. ep ad Alex. Theodoret 〈◊〉 k E Eulex l 1. cap. 4. l. Athan. orat n Theof ad Epiph apud Hierom. Ep. 67. Ang. Psal. 101. Ang. de agō Christ c. 29. 1. De bap cont Dol 3. c. 2. Cont. Parm. l. 3. capt 3. De Symbol ad Catech l. 〈◊〉 c. 5. Anguso de vnit Eul. c. 6. Aug. de Symb ad Cathech l. 4. c. 10. Fulg. de sid ad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 39. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aug 〈◊〉 50. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. 〈◊〉 d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 122. 〈◊〉 epist ad Pupp Aug de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 3 c. 101. De Pastor c. 13. a Cont. Parm. l. 2 cap 11 b Cont. Parm. l 3. cap. 4. c De vnit Eccl c. 10 c De vnit Eccl c. 〈◊〉 d Ibid. c 20 e
presumption aboue their fellowes of whose predestination they haue not the like certaintie and makes them lesse diligent to stand vpon theire guarde and to practise this commaundement of our Lord watch and pray for feare least you enter into temptation And therefore as the prince of the Roman harpe sings God by his wisdome from wans nature frayle The whole successe of future thinges doth vaile The fowrth that S. AVGVST the greatest doctor in the point of predestinatiō that hath bene since the Apostles yea the organ and the voice of the primitiue Church in this questiom teacheth vs that this beliefe is full of presumption and preiudiciall to saluation Although saith he that the iust are assured of thereward os 〈◊〉 perseuerance yet they are incertaine of their perseuerance for who is he 〈◊〉 men that knowes he shall perseuere in the workes and progresse of iustice to the end if he be not made certaine thereof by some reuelation from him who by a iust and secret iudgement instructs not all but deceiues none And in an other place Who is he among the faithfull that will presume during this mortall life to be of the number of the predestinate for it is needefull that that be concealed in this world And a little after Many like things are said for the profit of this secret least peraduenture some might be puft vp and that euen those that runn well might feare while it is vncertaine whither they shall arriue And againe Such presumption is not profitable in this place of temptations where the infirmitie is soe great as assurance might begett pride And thus much is said in regarde of 〈◊〉 It restes nowe to solue the obiections of the places of Scripture that the aduersaryes of the Church alleage against this doctrine They saie thē that Saint Paule writes the spirit of God giues testimonie to our Spirit or accordinge to the greekes helpes our Spirit to testifie to vs that we are the children of God and if children heires It is true but they tell vs not that he addes presently after this conditionall clause if we goe forwarde in our sufferings They saie he writes I am certaine or accordinge to the greeke I am persuaded that neither death nor life etc. can seperate vs from the charitie of Christ. It is true but they tell vs not that he speakes there of all the predestinate in generall into whose number he putts himselfe and those to whome he writes by a figure which the grāmarians call syllepsis and accordinge to the rule not of Faith but of Charitie which wills that in all thinges concealed from vs we should iudge in the better parte They saie he writes The vocation and the guiftes of God are without repentance It is true but there he speakes of the generall calling of the people of the Iewes made in the olde Testament were of he saith God hath not 〈◊〉 because yet one daie he will recall their nation into the bosome of the Church And euen those that stretch this passage by analogy to the callinge of particular persons either explicate it of vocation accordinge to predestination which is as much vnknowne as predestination it selfe or they intend that the guifts and vocation of god are without tepentance on his parte that is to saie that God neuer withdrawes himselfe from vs vnlesse wee withdrawe ourselues from him And therefore as Saint Paule saith the vocation and the guists of god are without repentance soe Saint Peter saith take paines to secure your vocation and election by good workes They saie he writes we haue the pledge of the holie Ghost in our hartes It is true but it is not sufficient for our assurance to obtaine the inheritance of life eternall that we haue this pledge if we be not as well assured not to loose it a thinge that Saint Paul is soe farr from assuringe vs that contrarily he cryes out quenche not the spirit They saie Saint Iohn writes perfect charitie driues awaieseare It is true but besides that Saint Iohn speakes there of perfect Charitie which euery particular man ought to desire but not presume he hath it for feare of loosinge it in loosinge humilitie the feare that saint Iohn pretendes to be excluded by this excellent Charity is as Sanit AVGVSTINE saith 〈◊〉 feare that is the feare of loosinge the grace of God for feare of the paine of eternall fire and not the filiall feare which is the feare of looseinge the grace of God for the loue of God himselfe and for feare of being depriued and seperated from his presence And therefore as S. Iohn saith in the place cited by them perfect charitie castes out feare Soe he saith in an other place Thou hast lost thy first charitie remember from whence 〈◊〉 art salien and doe thy first workes And againe Holde that thou hast least thy 〈◊〉 be taken from thee And from this is nothinge derogatory that which they obiect that the 〈◊〉 of this certaintie makes men despaire of theire saluation For betweene the certaintie of saluation and despaire there is a middle way which is hope that while it lastes as it ought alwaies to laste in a Christian man is incompatible with dispaire and sussizeth to comforte vs and hinder vs if we perseuer in it from being confounded And although it imprint not in vs an infallible certainty of our saluation for then it were theologicall saith and noe more hope yet it causeth in vs morall faith which we call confidence by the meanes of likelyhoodes coniectures that the good motions wherewith god inspires vs giue vs of our predestination Learne in part saith Saint AVGVSTINE condiscite as S. PAVL 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the goodnesse and straightnes of your course that you belonge to the predestination of diuine grace And againe you thē alsoe ought to hope from the father of lightes from whom descendes euerie excellent guift and euerie perfect present the perseuerance to obaie and aske it of him with dailie prayers and doeing so confide not to be excluded from the predestination of his people since it is himselfe that giues vs grace to doe it And a little after Of life eternall saith he which God who is noe lyer hath 〈◊〉 before all times to the Children of promise none can be assured till this life be finished but he will make vs perseuer in him to whom we saie euerie daie leade vs not into temptation that is to saie as it ariseth from the protestation of the preceding period but we ought to hope that he will make vs perseuer in him to whom we saie euerie daie leade vs not into temptation Of the inequalitie of these two phrases to communicate with the Catholicke Church and to communicate with some member of the Church departing from the rule of faith CHAP. XIII The continuance of the Kinges answere BVT the king adds that this very Church
who had bene iudged in the first instance by the Archbishop of Constantinople and in the 〈◊〉 instance by the Pope did the Councell of Chalcedon cry out that Dioscorus and the false Councell of Ephesus had restored to Eutyches the dignitie that the Pope had depriued him of He hath said they declared Eutyches in 〈◊〉 and hath restored to him the dignitie taken from him by your Holynesse And wherefore then when John Patriarke of Alexandria had bene deposed from his patriarkship and Peter surnamed Mongus established in his place did John appeale to Pope Simplicius and tooke Synodicall letters from Calendion Patriarke of Antioch to accompanie his appeale John saith Liberatus addressed himselfe to Calendion Patriarke of Antioch and hauing gotten from him Synodic all letters of intercession appealed to Pope Simplicius And wherefore then when Pope Felix successor to Simplicius had deposed the same Peter Mongus Patriarke of Alexandria and Acacius Patriarke of Constantinople and Peter surnamed the Tanner Patriarke of Antioch and that these three Patriarkes trusting vpon the support of the Emperor Zeno who was an hereticke like themselues dispised the Popes sentence doth Victor of Tunes saie that they dyed all three vnder damnation And wherefore then when the Emperor Justin a Catholicke Prince was come to the Empire was the sentence that the Pope had pronounced against them executed soe exactlie that their names euen after their deathes were blotted out of the records of the Churches of Alexandria of Antioch and of Constantinople And that for the rest that had communicated with them but were not comprehended by name within the Popes letters the Emperor was faine to demaund pardon of the Pope for them Wee aske grace saith the Emperor writing to Pope Hormisdas for the names not of Acacius not of either Peter that is to saie not of Peter Patriarke of Antioch and of Peter Patriarke of Alexandria not of Dioscorus or Timotheus of whom your Holynesse letters to vs directed made especiall mention but of those whom the Episcopall Reuereuce hath celebrated in the other citties And wherefore then when Pope Agapet deposed within Constantinople itselfe Anthimus Patriarke of Constantinople doth Liberatus saie The Empresse Theodora wife to the Emperor Iustinian on the one side secretlie offered great presents to Pope Agapet and one the other side tried him with threates to hinder him from deposing Anthimus but the Pope persisted in not hearing her request And Anthimus seeing himselfe cast out of his Sea rendred vp the Archiepiscopall mantle to the Emperors and retired himselfe into a place where the Empresse tooke him into her protection And for what cause when the Councell of Constan 〈◊〉 holden vnder Menas speakes of the deposition of the same 〈◊〉 Patriarke of Constantinople doth it saie that the Pope had pardoned Peter Patriarke of Ierusalem and the other Bishops of the East that had communicated with him It must not be wondred at saith the Councell if the great Sea Apostolicke still continue to followe the first tract preseruing the Rights of the Church inuiolate and maintayning the faith and granting pardon to those that haue sinned And againe The blessed Pope Agapet of holie and Reuerend memorie comeing into this Royall Cittie hath next God giuen his helping hand to the sacred Canons and hath cast Anthimus out of the Sea which appertained not to him and hath pardoned those who had participated or communicated with him And wherefore then when John Archbishop of Larissa and Iohn Primate of the first Justinianea had iniustly condemned the one in the first and the other in thè second instance Adrian Bishop of Thebes in Thessalia did Sainct GREGORIE depriue the Bishop of the first Iustinianea of the communion for the space of thirtie daies and Ecclipsed the Bishopricke of Thebes from the iurisdiction of the Archbishopricke of Larissa and ordained that if the Archbishop of Larissa should anie more attempt to enterprise anie thing vpon the Bishop of Thebes he should remaine depriued of the sacred communion soe as it might not be restored to him except at the point of death without the leaue of the Bishop of Rome And wherefore then when the same S. GREGORIE restored Athanasius Abbot of Tamnaca in Lycaonia who had bene deposed by John Patriarke of Constantinople and had appealed from him to the Sea Apostolicke did he saie to him Wee declare thee free from all crime of heresie and giue thee free le aue to repaire to thy Monasterie and there to holde the same place as thou didst before But for as much as these shiftes are more then sufficiently confuted by the onely Canons of the Councell of Sardica which were framed to iustifie the restitution of S. ATHANASIVS and in the presence of S. ATHANASIVS himselfe wee remitt the Reader to the Chapter wee shall heereafter make thereof And the while we will examine the obiections that Caluin alleadges against the appeales to the Sea Apostolicke which consist in fiue principall instances which though they are treated of vnder two titles the one of corrections the other of appeales Neuerthelesse for as much as the right of appeales dependes from that of corrections and besides that Caluin mingles the instances of the one with the instances of the other we will treate of them vnder one Title to witt vnder that of Appeales Of the opposition of S. Ireneus to Pope Victor CHAPT II. THE first instance then that Caluin alleageth against the Popes censures is taken from Eusebius an Arrian author and from Ruffinus enemie to the Roman Church his translator who writt that S. IRENEVS reprehended Pope Uictor for hauing excommunicated the Churches of Asia for the question of the daie of Pasche which they obserued according to a particular tradition that S. IOHN had introduced for a tyme in their prouinces because of the neighbourhood of the Iewes and to bury the Synagogue with honor and not according to the vniuersall tradition of the Apostles Jreneus saith Caluin reprehended Pope Victor bitterlie because for a light cause he had moued a great and perillous contention in the Church There is this in the text that Caluin produceth He reprehended him that he had not done well to cutt of from the bodie of vnitie soe manie and soe great Churches But against whom maketh this but against those that obiect it for who sees not that S. IRENEVS doth not there reprehend the Pope for the wante of power but for the ill vse of his power and doth not reproache to the Pope that he could not excomcommunicate the Asians but admonisheth him that for soe smale a cause he should not haue cutt of soe manie prouinces from the bodie of the Church Jreneus saith Eusebius did fitlie exhort Pope Victor that he should not cutt of all the Churches of God which held this ancient tradition And Ruffinus translating and enuenoming Eusebius saith He questioned Victor that he had not
that the Church was then perished for since the excellent King will haue it that the only assured marke to discerne which either of the Church which hee calls English or of ours is the true Church be it that which is the essentiall forme of the Church and that he pretends to be doctrine it is necessary that he suppose that the difference which are betweene the Church that hee calls English and ours be questions which take awaie the essentiall forme of the Church and destroy the being of a Church And by consequence that that of the one or other Societie which errs in these pointes shall bee depriued of the essentiall 〈◊〉 of a Church and destitute from the being of a Church And then if when Luther came into the world there were noe Societie neither visible nor inuisible which held that that the English Church holdes at this daie in the pointes disputed betweene her and vs it followes there was then noe Church Of the authoritie of the worke intituled imperfect CHAP. XVII The Continuance of the Kings Answere AND therefore the excellent King thinkes that he ought with soe much the more Care in so great a floud of different opinions withdrawe himselfe into the mountaines of the holie Scripture THE REPLIE WHEN Nauplius King of the Island of Euboea now called Negrepont would at the returne frō the Seige of Troy cause the fleete of the Greekes to be shipwrackt to reuenge the death of his Sonn Palamides hee sett by night torches in forme of a beacon vpon one of the mountaines of his Island at the foote whereof the Sea was full of bankes cliffes and rockes so to drawe their shipps by the hope of a safe hauen to runn hazard and perish in those shores Soe whenantient heretickes whom saint AVGVSTINE calls mountaines for Shipwracke would cause the Catholickes to make shipwracke in Faith the more their doctrines haue bene pernicious and mortall the more they haue adorned and illustrated them with texts and lampes of the scripture This appeares in the heresie of the Arrians who painted and coloured their error with more then fortie passages of the Bible and by this art attempted to call men backe from the externall and sensible markes of the Church which could not bee pretended by false ensignes by those who had them not to reduce them to the only marke of the scripture the interpretation whereof by their subtletie they made subiect to as manie deceipts as there were wordes But aboue all this is verified in the writer from whom his Maiestie borrowes this language who was one of the most passionate Champions of the Arrians For though he cites these wordes without naming the Father neuerthelesse both the termes wherein they are couched and the tracke of those who haue alleadged them before him to witt Caluin in some of the prefaces to his institution the author of the Booke of the Eucharist in the preface to his worke cannot suffer vs to doubt but that they were taken from the author of the worke intituled Imperfect falselie attributed to Sainct CHRYSOSTOME Now that this Author was not onelie an open Arrian but one of the most eager and violent Champions of the Arrians it appeares by this that he calls the Trinitie triangular impietie and the doctrine of the homousians that is to saie of those that held the Consubstantialitie of the Father and the sonne Heresie Not but that I knew well that he is sometimes alleadged euen by Catholickes with the title of saint CHRISOSTOME vnder whose name he had bene first printed at Basle But because it is one thinge to alleadge him in places where hee disputes not against the Church wherein he is excellent and aboue all in the discourse of manners and an other to alleadge him in the places where hee combates with deliberate purpose against the doctrine of the Catholicke Church of his age as he doth in that from whence the words are taken which his maiestie produceth For behold the expresse termes of the passage When you shall see the impious heresie which is the armie of Antichrist sett in the holie places of the Church then let them which are in Iudea flie into the Mountaines that is to saie let them that are in the christian Societie haue recourse to the scriptures And a little after The Lord then knowinge that so great a confusion of things should arriue in the last daies for this cause commaunds that the Christians who are in the Christian Societie being willing to receaue the stedfastnes of the true faith should haue recourse to noe other thing but to the Scriptures otherwise if they cast their eyes elsewhere they shall be scandalized and perish not discerning which is the true Church Now that by this impious heresie and by this Armie of Antichrist he intends the Catholicke Church and the communion of them which beleeue the equalitie of the Father and the sonne he plainelie shewes when he saith in the same Homilie that the great spirituall euills which haue come vpon the Church haue happened in the time of Constantine and Theodosius and that the armie of Antichrist is the heresie and the abhomination of desolation which hath since them possest the holie places of the Church that is to saie the Basilickes that Theodosius cōmaunded to be deliuered vp to the Catholickes And whē he saith in the former Homilie that the heresie of the Homousians that is to saie of those that hold Christ to be consubstantiall which his Father Fights not only against the Church of Christ but euen against the other heresies which hold not the like And in the nineteneth Homilie when hee calls the worshippers the Trinitie Those that honor the triangular impietie Whereby it appeares that this passage if so farre from giuing fauour to his Maiesties intention as contrariwise it manifestes how dangerous a thing it is to seeke to reduce the markes of the Church to the onelie doctrine drawne from the scripture by the interpretation of euerie particular person since the Arrians in the point which of all others should be most expresse in the scriptures for the catholickes to witt in the point of the diuinitie of Christ for if there be anie thing cleree in a Testament it should be the qualitie of the testator refused all the other markes of the Church and all the other waies of disputation and burnt with desire to fight by the onely texts of the Scripture disarmed from the traditions of the Church Of the vnderstanding of these words of S. Augustine to seeke the Church in the words of Christ. CHAP. XVIII The continuance of the Kings answere AND to seeke according to the Councell that S AVGVSTINE heretofore gaue to the Deuatists the Church in the Words of Christ. THE REPLIE WHEN S. AVGVSTINE said in the booke of the vnitie of the Church there is a question betweene the Donatists and vs where the Church is what shall wee thē doe shall wee seeke her