M. ANTONIVS DE DOMINIS ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATO Declares the cause of his Returne out of England Translated out of the Latin Copy printed at Rome this preseÌ„t yeare Vnus Dominus Vna Fides Vnum Baptisma Ephes 4. One Lord One Fayth One Baptisme Permissu Superiorum M.DC.XXIII To the Reader THIS may seeme a small worke good Reader for so great a scaÌ„dall as hath beene giuen by the Authour but it is an abridgement only of another more large ample that is to ensue and yet in this thou mayst perceiue how men may so farre be transported by vnbridled passions as to fall into open schisme heresy on the other side thou mayst see also the force and efficacy of Gods grace in recalling of sinners by true repeÌ„tance to his loue and fauour Let the one of these ballance the other and let the latter cancell the fault of his committed errour 1 CoÌ„silium Profectionis 2. CoÌ„silium Reditus That was wicked pernicious and detestable this is vertuous exemplar and laudable The latter counsayle is alwayes wont to be more ponderous graue and iudicious then the former especially when as the forformer is recalled by the latter His reuolt you will say was scandalous True But now Vna eadeÌ„que manus vulnê° opeÌ„que tulit He hath in part made ameÌ„ds for his former fault by his submissiue confession and this learned Prelate as an vnlearned Mynister stiled him Hall in his honour of the maryed clergy pag. â—5 that had honoured the English Church with a Dalmatian Pall that had passed ouer the Alpes to leaue Rome that was so potent a Protestant as none of al our Bandogges durst fasten vpon him hath now withdrawn both Pall Honour from that Church hath left EnglaÌ„d is returned ouer the Alpes to Rome againe like a bandog indeed hath fastened himselfe on the English wolues bites so hard as he makes them bleed further makes all Protestants to see their weaknes if yet they haue eyes to see Hall ibid. in the answer to the aduertisment that the whole Region of Deuines and those so incomparable that may set Rome to schoole could not defend themselues from open Schisme and Heresy nor perswade one man he such a one as offered himselfe freely into their hands to remaine continue amongst them Magna est veritas praeualet Thou mayst further see with what care and sincerity our Aduersaries write agaynst vs how they examine the matters they handle how little truth learning how much lies detractioÌ„s forgeries passionate fancies are regarded By these base means shameful shifts must heresy be mantained Catholiks impugned iniured all vertue depressed troden vnder foote Let the example of one be a warning vnto all let the Retreate of this seduced Bishop make men looke on what ground they stand not hazard their saluation bought with the ransome of our Sauiours bloud vpon the false Heretical and Schismaticall opinions of these times The Cause of M. Antonius de Dominis his Returne out of England EXCELLENTLY as all other thinges doth the holy Ghost by the mouth of Saint Paul reckon amongst the works of the flesh contentions emulations angers debates dissentions and sects these vnfortunate fruits of this wicked tree I hauing tasted or rather out of the corrupt disease of my minde greedily deuoured haue now thought requisite after the holesome receite of Gods grace to cast vp agayne and make a perfect euacuation of this contracted filth This that I might the more safely and readily doe and my selfe openly reprehend and condemne the manifold errours that haue ensued of the wicked resolution of my former bad departure I resolued with my selfe the best course to be leauing the schoole of errours falsities and heresies to returne of myne owne accord to the holy Roman Church the one only pillar and singular foundation of truth and mother of all Catholikes froÌ„ which so wickedly I had departed therefore first of all I will explicate this reprehension condemning and detestation of my errours past after that I will recount other causes for which I was to leaue England and other hereticall countreyes and to returne agayne to the holy Catholike Roman Church 2. It is a most ancient disease of our corrupt nature as it were by inheritance conueighed from our first parent vnto all his posterity that when we erre and doe agaynst that which is commaunded we eyther coyne friuolous excuses Genes 3. The woman whome thou hast giuen me c. or else defend our faultes and with the counterfeit garment of iustice and vertue labour all we can to maske and couer them This to haue befallen vnto me I doe both confesse lament The disease of my soule wherewith I was sicke before my departure was in that I trusted to much to my own prudence agaynst that wholesome counsayle of the Wise-man Prouerb 3. ne innitaris prudentiae tuae and out of the confidence of my small wit being of so small reach I iudged too rashly of matters of Fayth besides this a certaine frenzy of rage not that which some ignorant companions only wise in their owne conceit obiected vnto me when I was to returne out of England for that forsooth certayne Promotions which in vayne I thirsted after were denyed me but altogeather caused of my vnreasonable impatience whiles I tooke it most grieuously to be vnder them of whome in the Booke of the causes of my departure I haue without all cause complayned these things carryed me vpon the shelfs and sands these did beate my barke agaynst the rocks these sharpened my wit to pestiferous thoughts these were the cause why I fondly feigned errours of the Roman Church wherby I might excuse my departure these finally cast me on those extreme coastes vvhere I went and that I might seeme to haue done well and in some sort endeauour to auoyd the imputation of imprudency and rashnes and of heresy also first for defence of my departure I set forth my purpose and intention in the same then other volumes and bookes fraught with such things as eyther the art of feigning or forging suggested or the wisdome of the flesh did prompt vnto me and vvhiles the sicknes boyled in my brest within and the stings of wrath did pricke my exulcerated mynd the itch of my tongue and pen did breake forth into an impostume Many things which heretikes enemyes of the Sea Apostolike did belieue affirme and professe seemed to me now blinded by my selfe to be credible some to be true when as yet I had neuer brought these controuersies to the touchstone of true diuinity nor had throughly discussed them for I had not ended any part of the Ecclesiasticall Commonwealth in which I had determined to treat of points of religion and rules of fayth nor yet had I so much as begunne it howsoeuer in the booke of the cause of my departure I sayd that I had already finished
Church not to bind vnder mortall sinne the vnity of the Church not to be taken from one visible head the Pope to be the capitall eenemy of the whole Church the Masse to be no true sacrifice the ceremonies of the Masse to be light Comical gestures no transsubstantiation to be made auricular confession with absolution to be no true Sacrament that there is no purgatory satisfaction for release of the punishment after that the fault is forgiuen not to be necessary no Indulgences to be but of such penaltyes only as are imposed the Saintes not to be inuocated the worship of Relikes and Images not to be lawfull that there is no merit of good workes to euerlasting life These and the the like errours and manifest heresies not so much myne and new as of the auncient and modern heretickes and their bablings and doating dreames condemned alwayes by the Catholike Church in many holy generall Councells are miserable rockes vnto which such as approach make lamentable shipwracke of their faith and euerlastinge saluation and therefore I fly from them as far as I am able and least that I should haue beene cast away vppon them in England I was of necessity to depart from thence and rerurne to the true Church the port and harbour of Catholickes and forsake detest anathematize or accurse all the foresayd errors and whatsoeuer others if there be any other in those bookes which agree not with the faith expressed in the sacred Councells especially in the late Councell of Trent on the other side I imbrace and auer the contrary truthes to wit the chiefe Bishop of Rome by Christs iustitution to be his Vicar on earth to be the visible head of the militant Church which alwayes hath beene visible with full power receaued from God to gouerne and order the same the same Bishopp of Rome to haue power ouer temporall thinges in ordine ad spiritualia the implicite fayth to be profitable and sometymes necescessary as when one without his fault hath no expresse faith or beliefe of some articles the excommunications of the law or deliuered ipso facto to be of force and to be feared as induced by exceeding great reason and lawfull power the Popes to be able to excommunicate all faithfull people of what place or countrey soeuer in case they deserue to be so censured the commaundements of the Church bynd all vnder mortall sinne to obserue them the vnity of the Church chiefly to depend vpon the one visible head thereof the B. of Rome to be the true lawfull towards the sheepe of Christ as it behoueth the profitable Pastor of the whole Church the only eternall saluation of which I desire he may alwayes thirst and seeke with all care in in the Masse to be offered vp vnto God a true proper and propitiatory sacrifice the ceremonies of the Masse ordained by the Fathers and Pastors of the Church by the inspiration of the holy Ghost to be holy mystical profitable and by all meanes to be retayned transubstantiation to be made in the Sacrament of the Aultar that is the conuersion of turning of the whole substance of bread into the body of the whole substance of wine into the bloud of our Lord Iesus Christ by Sacramentall absolution wherby the priest absolues the penitent to be exercised a true and proper power of binding and losing sins which our Lord gaue to the ministers of his Sacraments in the Church to be purgatory in that manner as the holy Roman Apostolicke Church teacheth it to be graunted satisfaction to be much avayleable for the releasement of the punishment after that the sinne is forgiuen the vse of pardons in the Catholike Church to whome Christ hath giuē power to bestow them to be most ancient most soueraygne and approued by the authority of holy Councels the Saints not only without all errour of the faithfull to be inuocated but further that it is good profitable to haue recourse to their prayers and help the worship of Reliques and images to be good lawfull and profitable which cannot be abrogated without the spot of heresy the merit of eternall life to depend of our good workes The later General Councels which are of supreame authority in the Church my stomak being ouer charged with ill humours I did often despise especially the Councells of Florence Trent many times also that of Constance and through my procuring a certayn history came forth in print of the Councell of Trent of the truth of which history I had no certainty yea it is worthily suspected of imposture in these thinges also I confesse that I erred very much for I affirme all the most wholsome decrees of these Councells with full fayth to be imbraced by all the Catholikes 6. In a certayn sermon of mine had in Italian at London the first sonday in Aduent and printed I set down these errours which being after repeated agayne in the booke of the Rocks now I haue worthily detested In that sermon I framed a certayn night of papall errours in the Roman Church wheras indeed in the Roman Church alone and others conioyned therewith there is true light the true and only most shining day out of which in England especially is continuall most darke night In the Church of Rome the light of truth the true and sincere vnderstanding of the holy scriptures driues far away from it al the darkenes of errours with which darknes miserable Englād being ouercast groapeth like a blind man at noone day I sayd in the same sermon and reiterated agayne in the booke of the Rocks that S. Peter was neuer at Rome but this as a soule and ignorant lye I freely confesse is to be condemned I made all the Apostles in planting and gouerning the Church to be equall whereas notwithstanding the supremacy of S. Peter ouer them is cleare by the very gospells and Apostolicall traditions I affirmed the Bishops to succeed the Apostles with equall power and to be Bishops in solidum of the Vniuersall Church whereas yet Bishops are but Pastors of particuler Churchs haue but a particuler charge the generall primacy being reserued to him who in the same succeedeth S. Peter who is the B. of Rome and chiefe Pastor I sayd that holy water graynes crosses hallowed images Papal and Episcopall blessings the stations diuersity of habits cords leather girdles visiting Churches and Altars beades processions and the like to be toyes when as it sufficiently appeareth almost all of these thinges to be auncient and allowed in the Catholicke Church which vse is to be cōtinued yea euen in those things which are more fresh inducements to piety deuotion I affirmed that there were only two Sacraments Baptisme and the Supper whereas yet the Catholike Church lightned by the holy ghost doth plainly teach define that there be seauen true Sacraments all which and what other heresyes soeuer condemned by the Catholike Roman Church I doe also condemne and with firme faith belieue
blaspheming of Christ and saying that he was not the soÌ„ne of God or sent by him seeing the society or Church founded by him doth not subsist but is euer now and then to be dissolued or deuided into partes the Church of Christ is one house and one family he who drawes himselfe from this family that goeth forth out of this house he belongs not to the family of Christ he is depriued of saluation as who were not in the Arke Gen. 3. were lost and perished in the floud The Protestants haue cut themselues from the body of Christ which is the only Catholike Roman Church and those who are inseparably vnited with the same therfore they are not members of Christ and therefore Christ is not their head neyther doth he infuse his holy Spirit and gifts into them they are therefore rotten members and already cut of because they haue cut themselues off wickedly of their own accord from the body Sunt palmites sayth S. Augustine August Epist 50. à vite praecisi nulli vsui nisi igni apti neque potest esse particeps diuinae Caritatis qui est hostis vnitatis they are branches cut off from the vyne fit for no other vse then the fire Ezech. 15.3 neyther can he be partaker of Gods charity who is an enemy of vnity So he 30. Of all spirituall help if they think themselues to haue any they haue made shipwrack by their schisme Si linguis hominum loquar Angelorum sayth S. Paul 1. Cor. 13.1 Caritatem autem non habeam nihil sum nihil mihi prodest If I shall speake with the tongues of men and Angels and haue not Charity I am nothinge it auayles me nothing Out of which wordes of the Apostle S. Augustine prudently admonisheth August de Baptismo Lib. 1. c. 9. no good worke any way to auayle a Schismatike The same and more then once hath S. Cypryan deliuered CypriaÌ„ lib. 4. Epist 2. Etsi occisus propter nomen Christi postmodum fuerit extra Ecclesiam constitutus ab vnitate atque caritate diuisus coronari in morte non poterit although one after that he is out of the Church and is deuided from the vnity and charity of the same be killed for the name of Christ he cannot be crowned in his death The same he vrgeth in other places as Lib. 1. Epist 1. ad Iulianum tract de simp Praelatorum seu de vnitate Ecclesiae de Oratione Dominica whome S. Chrysostome followes in Epist ad Ephesios Hom. 11. 31. Let the Protestants I beseech them consider what an enormous sinne they haue committed by this cursed separation because that schisme destroyes the Church for it is the saying of Christ Luc. 11.17 Omne Regnum in se diuisum desolabitur euery kingdome deuided in it selfe shal be brought to desolation and of S. Paul Galat. 5.15 Videte ne dum inuicem mordetis inuicem consummamini Take head least whiles you bite one another yee be not consumed one of another and this cryme of destroying the Church may be sayd to be that sinne agaynst the holy Ghost that Christ auouched not to be forgiuen in this world nor in the next Math. 12.31 as S. Ambrose sheweth Ambros 2. de Paenit cap. 4. So that most wicked harlot in the booke of Kings had rather that there should be no child theÌ„ that it should be brought vp in the bosome of the true mother and exclaymed against her saying 3. Reg. 3.26 nec mihi nec tibi sed diuidatur let the child neither be giuen to me nor thee but let it be deuided the Schismaticks labour al they can that the true and entier Fayth be not kept in the bosome of the true mother the Church they goe about to dead it that it may neither be kept aliue with them nor vs but they preuayle nothing and let those know that to be spoken of them Ecclesiast 10.8 qui dissipat sepem mordebit eum coluber the serpent shall byte him that breateth down the hedge 32. And it is no meruayle that the Englishmen haue fallen into many Heresies that Puritanisme doth sway so much albeyt when first they made their schisme they were neither infected with the Lutherane or CalumiaÌ„ heresies For as Irenaeus doth notably teach vs Iren. lib. 3. cap. 40. lib. 4. cap. 43. those who are cut of from the Church do not drinke out of the fountayne of the spirit of God but do digg for themselues bylakes and do fall into most grosse errours agaynst the truth of Fayth In like manner S. Cyprian makes the Catholike Church the roote the fountayne the sunne CypriaÌ„ lib. de simplic Praelat that as a branch hath his life froÌ„ the roote the riuer his water from the fountayne the sunne-beame his light spendour from the sunne so the sincerity of true beleefe to be had by our vnion with the Catholike Church they therfore who haue cut themselues from it cannot haue the truth of fayth but must necessarily fall into errours for they are trees without a roote ryuers without a fountayne sunne-beames without a sunne hereof it comes that the Fathers out of these and the like reasons doe coÌ„uince that schisme in the end breaks forth into heresy for he who refuseth to haue vnity with the Catholike Church will also refuse to learne of her the truth of Fayth of which she alone is the treasurer preseruer S. Augustine very well defines this matter when he sayth Augu. lib. 2. contra Crescon c. 7. Inueteratum Schisma esse ipsammet haeresim inueterate schisme to be heresy it selfe And S. Cyprian worthily findeth in euery schisme that heresy at least wherby is taken away one or two articles of our Creed Credo Sanctam Ecclesiam Catholicam Remissionem peccatorum I belieue the holy Catholike Church the Remission or forgiuenes of sinnes for they who beleeue the holy Catholike Church to be the true Church of Christ they cannot if they thus beleeue depart from her and in case they depart then truly they do not belieue the Catholike Church to be the true Church of Christ So Saint Augustine sayth of the Donatists Aug. haeres 69. ad Quod vult Deum that they had turned their schisme into heresy And S. Ambrose in the funeral Oration had of his brother approuing his fact for that he had fled from the Luciferian Church as I now from the Churches of EnglaÌ„d sayth Non putauit Fidem esse in schismate nam etsi Fidem in Deum tenerent tamen erga Dei Ecclesiam non tenerent cuius patiebantur velut quosdam artus diuidi meÌ„bra lacerari Etenim cùm propter Ecclesiam Christus passâ—… sit Christi corpus Ecclesia sit non videtur ab ijs exhiberi Christo fides à quibus euacuatur eius passio corpusque distrahitur He thought not that there was any fayth in schisme for although they kept their fayht towards God yet they kept it not towards the Church of God of which they permitted certayne ioyntes to be deuided and members to be torne truly whereas Christ suffered his passion for the Church and the Church is the body of Christ they seeme not to beleeue in Christ by whome his Passion is made voyd his body dismembred 33. Was I then with so great domage of my soule to remayne amongst Heretikes and Schimatickes God forbid I am troubled with bitter griefe of mynd that I remayned so long amongst them that I tooke wicked armes and fought agaynst my Mother agaynst the Catholike truth and that I wrote bookes of the Ecclesiastical CoÌ„mon Wealth stuffed with heresyes which I vtterly abhorre and detest that I haue warred in the infamous tents of heretiks not without the perpetuall blot or infamy of my Name I now loath and am ashamed of my so great offence and craue humbly and with al submission pardon for this wickednes of God most good most great of my Sauiour Christ and of his supreme Vicar or Substitute on Earth the Bishop of Rome and submit all my faultes to the singular Clemency of the same chiefe Pastour because that he being to be iudged of none sits as supreme Iudge of al most fully susteining the person of Christ in the militant Church and I confidently hope that as our Lord doth willingly open to his Penitent the bosome of his mercy so I shal be imbraced in the armes of Clemency by his Holynes The exaÌ„ple of S. Cyprian against Pope Stephen the first very much reprehended and condemned also by the Catholike Church confirmed me a while in my naughtynes of resisting the Pope but now my filthy fall hath with myne owne danger taught me how easily Bishops fall from the right path of Fayth who leauing the Cynosura or Pole-starre that is the most certayne and secure direction of the Bishop of Rome follow to their destruction their own foolish fancyes I would to God that as S. Cyprian with the shedding of his own bloud did blot out all the spot of his former animosity so also that there may be graunted vnto me who for the multitude greatnes of my faultes haue incomparably exceeded his fall opportunity grace to blot out also with my bloud those soule spots and by that meanes to testify the Catholike truth which when my inke should fayle me I am most ready by the help of God to his prayse and honour for the aduauncement of the holy Catholike Church and glory of the Sea Apostolike to seale with my bloud Adsit Deus God second and assist me Rome the 24. of Nouember 1622. stylo nouo FINIS
all these books Hence it came that I rashly relying on the slaunders of heretikes and not on the Catholike fayth entituled one of my books Of the cause of my departure and another in Italian The rockes of Christian shipwracke and another A certayne sermon which I filled ful of errours and heresies for the most part in hatred of the holy Roman Church and Sea Apostolike and of those Popes by whom I thought my selfe to haue byn iniured and affirmed those and many other things vvhich before I knew to be false and hereticall and after at least in part my selfe misliked and did whils I wrote in England from my hart detest them because they conteyne open heresyes agaynst the Catholike truth and are contrary to sound doctrine I meane to that which the Catholicke Roman Church hath alwayes held and holds at this day agaynst which whatsoeuer or whersoeuer is written or sayd by me that in al and euery part I do condemne and detest and I will better more at large by Gods help condemne and detest the same in the confutation of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall Commonwealth other bookes that I haue written agaynst the truth for I submit my selfe and all my bookes to the most holy iudgement and censure of the holy Roman and Apostolicall Sea the mistresse and guide of all other Churches 3. In the meane tyme here in this exchange for a new and sounder resolution I most detest the former of my departure the Infamous Rockes of the shipwrackes of my selfe especially and heretikes but not of Catholikes moreouer the Sermon mentioned neither shall I shame by casting of the garments which I had made for myselfe to shew my nakednes because I was not ashamed agaynst all law and conscience to breake forth into vayne fictions open slaunders and filthy heresies Dioscorides l. 6. c. 44. The sting and poyson of the scorpion by bruzing of the same scorpion that stong hath a present remedy If the voluntary breaking and bruzing of my selfe bring remedy to this poysoned wound in case any so wounded haue repented him himselfe I shall esteeme this my bruzing deiection and mortification for happy let the glory of the Catholike Church and Sea Apostolike stand immoueable yea euen with the greatest losse of temporal goods that can befall me and since that so wickedly I haue gone about to weaken and infring it this course cannot at least before God but be glorious vnto me 4. First therfore I confesse in conscience truly sincerly testify that I wrote that booke of the Cause of my departure and the other two to wit the Rocks and Sermon not out of sincerity of hart not good cōscience not out of vnfeygned faith but that I might cast some colourable excuse on my shamefull departur that I might be the more gratfull and welcome vnto the heretickes to whom like a wretch I went or with whome I did conuerse The ten yeares labour which I bragged of in the book of my departure was not imployed in maturity of deliberation grauity of iudgement discussion of truth but all that vvhile I studyed hovv to finish that vaine fruitles and pernicious worke of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth coyne bold and hereticall fictions and withall satisfy the impotent force of myne owne rage in so much as that vocation was not deuine but diabolicall not inspired by the holy Ghost but suggested by a bad spirit vexing me worse then it did Saul with the spirit of giddines 2. Reg. 18 v. 10. but for my returne I doubt not but that it is to be ascribed vnto Gods true vocation his diuine spirit calling me backe to my Mother the holy Catholique Church 5. I sayd that the behauiour of the court of Rome was the cause why I should for euer abhorre it I am not ignorant that herein I spake ill for there were not wanting then nor yet are at Rome very many cōspicuous examples of piety all Christian vertues which are able to delight and allure religious or well disposed mynds I sayd that out of the forbidding of hereticall books to be read do spring euill suspitiōs which get credit to the books of heretiks and induce men to belieue somewhat to be in them vvhich Catholikes could not confute and this I acknowledge to haue been spoken by me not without great iniury to the Catholike saith who haue found in their bookes I meane of heretikes false hereticall scandalous and pestiferous doctrine from reading of which least the Faythfull be infected they are worthily to be restrayned for not vnto priuate men who read those bookes but vnto the Pastours the iudgement of fayth hath euer and doth still appertayne that they may know which are poisoned pasturs and remoue their flockes far from them Moreouer the arguments of heretiks are deceytfull sophisticall and haue most easy solutions I affirmed the doctrine of those who oppose themselues to the Church of Rome nothing at all or very little to degenerate from the pure doctrine of the primitiue Church and this also is false for the opinions in which they differ from Catholiks are all of them most cōtrary to those which that Church held nothing can conuince them more certainly of errour thē the authority of the ancient Church frō which they by these noueltyes haue very far departed in so much as for this cause they are condemned as heretikes by the Church of Rome it is therefore to be detested I doe detest that which I sayd Therefore the religion of Protestants to be condemned of the Church because it is contrary to the sense and corrupted manners of the Court of Rome I said that in Rome by extreme violence were coyned new articles of beliefe and this truly I did say both agaynst my knowledge and conscience for I neuer saw any such matter nor any man else as most certainly I know for none can say that there are new articles coyned when there are only added the true declaratiōs explicatiōs of the true articles those gathered out of the holy scripturs traditiōs of the Fathers very rules of religion Againe I endeuored to depriue the Roman Church of the titles of Catholike and Vniuersall wherin I exceedingly erred for by the Roman Church is not vnderstood that speciall and particuler Church alone which is at Rome but the collection of all other Churches adhering to the Roman in vnity of the same fayth and subiection to the same chiefe Bishop wheresoeuer they be albeit in the vttermost coastes and corners of the earth And doubtles this is most true of me both by word of mouth as England it selfe can testify and in my written treatises of the Eccleclesiasticall commonwealth and in that part which last of all I heare is printed in Germany I haue euinced that there is no other Catholike Church but the Roman vnderstanding thereby that particular with the other adhering thereunto wheras all other companies of Christians are defiled
with heresies and being by schisme deuided and separated from the truth are out of the Catholike vniuersall and true Church of Christ and these blind soules with their blynd guides rush and fall headlong into the pit of hell which I in my errour most wickedly and without grieuous iniury affirmed of the Roman Catholikes for from the Roman Church at all times to all other Churchs the most shining light of the pure and incorrupted fayth hath flowed and at this present flowes I remember also that in the preface of my bookes of the Ecclesiasticall commonwealth I vsed certayne wordes by which I insinuated all such to be in the Catholike Church who had receaued baptisme in the name of the Trinity but albeit the words haue an ill sound make all hereticall Churches true sound mēbers of the true Catholike Church which is most false and hereticall yet my meaning was that the Arian Nestorian Eutichian all hereticall and condemned Churches in tymes past should be excluded and only the true belieuers to be retayned which true belieuers I thought then to be many more then indeed they are and many Churches tainted with these latter Heresyes and by Schisme deuided I erroneously iudged to pertaine to the Catholike but though the Catholike Church be so denominated for her Vniuersality yet this Vniuersality includes no other then the true orthodoxe or right belieuing Churches spread ouer the whole world which remayne in vnity with the Roman And truly the vniuersality of the Roman Church doth consist not only in the cōtinual durance neuer yet interrupted or euer after to be and constance of sound beliefe but also is vniuersall because the selfe same fayth of Rome and supreme gouernement are extended after the cōming of Christ to all places and all Nations for which respect euen in these latter ages it is no lesse to be tearmed Catholike then it was in the tyme of the ancient Fathers because the fayth of the Roman Church euen at this tyme is propagated in the most remote vast regions of the East and West Indyes euen vnto the furthest corners of the earth in so much as the children of this Church euen in these dayes passing by continuall trauel from the rising of the Sunne vnto the setting and carrying with them the Fayth of Christ offering cleane sacrifices that now may be sayd especially to be fulfilled which God pronounced by the mouth of Malachy Malach. 1. v. 11. Ab ortu solis vsque ad occasum magnum est nomen meum in gentibus in omni loco sacrificatur offertur nominimeo oblatio munda From the rising of the sunne vnto the setting my name is great amongst the Gentills in euery place there is sacrificed and offered vnto my name a pure oblation Neither was it a lesse iniury and slaunder when I said that I had noted very many noueltyes and errors of the Court of Rome which nouelties which errors I neyther now or euer yet noted and I acknowledge it to be most false confesse it for such that euer there were or are in Rome such errors out of which the ruine and slaughter of soules doth proceed the peace of the Church is troubled or publick scandalls haue or doe arise truly next after God all peace of the Catholike Church her totall tranquillity and the euerlasting saluation of soules is to be ascribed to the care and sollicitude of the Roman Church I sayd that the more potent Bishops vnder the Bishop of Rome were but equiuocall or counterfeit Bishops and this saying cōteins no lesse falshood then iniury in it and therefore as raylatiue I condemne it for they are true and lawfull Bishops made by lawfull ordination I affirmed others who were not Potentates and Princes to haue lost the proper dignity and power of Bishops and truly this is also a slaunder for hierarchical subordinatiō in the Church hath been alwaies necessary much more doe I cōdemne as an heresy that which I said the Church no longer to remayn vnder the Bishop of Rome for as before I specifyed and earnestly auouched only the Church of Rome with the rest adhering therunto is the true Church of Christ that others are no Churchs at all And to conclude much in few I perceyue that in the first booke of my departure I specially endeauoured to infringe the primacy of the B. of Rome in which poynt I deny not but that I spake against the fayth of the whole Catholike Church and therefore greatly to haue erred for both by the Euangelicall ordinance traditions of the Apostles definitions of the holy Synods Generall Councells by very many decrees of Popes and common testimony of Fathers and ecclesiasticall histories it is manifest and cleere the B. of Rome alwayes to haue been taken for head of the whole Church to haue beene so appointed by Christ our Lord and alwayes to haue been taken for a singular oracle to whome no lesse the East then the West in all doubts of fayth should sue for instruction of beliefe definition secure doctrine as a maister appointed vs by God who should by his office teach and direct his Church any scholler may obserue very many examples in which the Bishops of Rome direct the Patriarkes and Bishops of the East they warne them rebuke them teach them condemne them absolue them depose them restore them controle them and that euen out of their office and power ouer them and the others checked by the Popes humbly gaue them eare obeyed resisted not or reclaymed and briefely it is cleare by the confession of all the Catholike Church the whole spirit of Christ for determining of these things which belong vnto fayth to reside in the sole and one visible supreme head of the same Church which is only the Pope the chiefe Bishop and S. Peters succcessor 5. I freely confesse that the booke which I called the Rockes of Christiā shipwrack did exceedingly displease me presently after that it was set forth for without all choyce had of the matter without all discussion or search of truth I hudled it vp that I might some way or other please the Englishmē after my arriuall amongst them in writing of which I considered and layd open not what was true but what pleased best the enemies of the Church especially the vulgar and vnlearned multitude and this booke whiles I was in England preparing for my departure being obiected vnto me by the King and other men I did in plain wordes detest it and my selfe withstood the greater part of heresyes which it conteynes and as far as I was able impugned them al which here agayne I reiect abhorre and detest The heresies were these The B. of Rome not to be Christs vicar on earth and visible head of his Church that he had no power ouer temporall things implicite fayth to auayle nothing but much to hurt the faithfull the excommunications of the law to be vain buggs the cōmandements of the