sanctorum Apostolorum Petri Pauli istorum omnium sanctorum ut illis proficiat ad honorem nobis autem ad salutem illi pro nobis intercedere dignentur in coelis quorum memoriam agimus in terris Amen Receive O holy Trinity this Oblation which we offer to thee for the remembrance of the Passion Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ and in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary of St. John the Baptist of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul of these and of all Saints that it may advance their honour and our salvation and that they may vouchsafe to intercede for us in heaven whose memory we celebrate on earth by the same our Lord Jesus Christ Amen After this their offering of Christ in honour of the Saints we may well think that they judge nothing is too good or too much for them And so when they bless the Images either of Christ or of any Saint they serve them alike sprinkle them with Holy Water burn Incense to them and pray for all in the same manner Omnipotens sempiterne Deus c. O God who dost not dislike that we should paint or carve Images or semblances of thy Saints we beseech thee that this Image made for the honour or memory of thy Son or of such an Apostle or Martyr may by thee be blessed and sanctified and that thou wouldst grant to all that shall supplicate and serve such a Saint before it that they may by that Saints mediation obtain Grace here and Glory herafter Amen But to the Image of the blessed Virgin there are more Prayers and amongst them this is said or sung by the Bishop and assistants whilst he sprinkles it Sub tuum praesidium confugimus sancta Dei Genitrix nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus sed à periculis cunctis libera nos semper virgo gloriosa benedicta We flee to thy protection holy Mother of God despise not our Prayers in our necessities But deliver us from all dangers at all times O glorious and blessed Virgin So at all occasions and in all parts of their publick Worship God hath nothing peculiar to himself And every where with our blessed Saviour some Saint or other is joyned They excommunicate and they absolve Auctoritate Dei omnipotentis Beatorum Apostolorum c. By the authority of God and of his Saints And it is so in all their Ministrations while they live And when they are dying Holy Water is plentifully sprinkled and the Image of that beloved Saint they had most devotion to is set before them as the Ritual appoints and the Soul is bid to go forth in peace in the name of Angels and Archangels of Patriarchs and Pâ—ophets of Apostles and Martyrs of holy Monks and Eremits and of all the Saints And the weak man is taught to say with heart or voice Sancie Angele Dei mihi Custos assiste omnes sancti c. Holy Angel that art my Guardian assist me and pray for me and succour me all ye holy Angels and Saints And then to the blessed Virgin Maria mater gratiae mater misericordiae tu nos ab hoste protege hora mortis suscipe Mary Mother of grace and of mercy protect us from our Enemies and receive us when we die And as in their Prayers so in their Glorifications the Saints must be partners with Almighty God every where as this one instance proves enough Sacrosanctae individuae Trinitati c. Eternal praise honour vertue and glory be by all Creatures evermore rendred to the holy and individual Trinity To the Fruitfulness and integrity of the most blessed and glorious Virgin and universally to all Saints This Magnificat hath an Indulgence annext to it by Pope Leo X. and is daily said by all that recite the Breviary By what hath been said and much more which is to be seen in their publick and most authorized Books and daily practice may appear what credit is to be given to those Romish Emissaries who very confidently deny their praying to Saints or giving them any Worship in the Church of Rome But that I may not be tedious I forbear to give any more proofs to the contrary and conclude with this which is in their ordinary and allowed Manual of English devotions Thus O holy and glorious Virgin Mary I commend my soul and body into thy blessed trust and singular custody and this night and ever especially in the hour of my death I commit to thy merciful charity all my hope and consolation all my distress and miseries my life and the end thereof that by thy most holy Intercession all my works may be directed according to the will of thy blessed Son Amen It is now clear that no Christian that fears to offend God by imparting to others that honour and worship due to him alone can joyn with the Church of Rome in their publick Worship Nor possibly live in a Communion where such a new Creed is imposed as hath been seen before But therefore they make use of Inquisition that where Conscience keeps men from assenting and complying with such Errors Superstitions and Idolatries there Terror may make them submit This is that Popish Religion without which as they say no man shall live in heaven and without which if they can no man shall live upon earth Here it appears that it was not a few tolerable abuses that made a great part of the Christian world so long wish and attempt and at last with great trouble and danger effect a happy Reformation here in the Western Churches wherein the Popes Tyranny had set up and imposed his Religion Their indispensable duty and allegiance to their God and Saviour obliged them to do it The terms of Communion with the Church of Rome were hardly consistent with the profession of Christianity and were most injurious to God and repugnant to that Faith and Worship revealed and appointed in the Gospel by our blessed Saviour God must be obeyed rather than Man And no compleasance no consideration whatever obligeth any man to destroy or venture his own Salvation This was their warrant and upon this they might well expose themselves to those cruel persecutions they endured for being counted Rebels to the Pope But what is there can oblige any man enlightned with the knowledge of the truth to separate from this Church Whereof the Faith is not a new and disputable Creed but that pure Primitive and Catholick Doctrine which is contained in the New Testament and wherein God alone is duly worshipped the Sacraments of Christ rightly administred wherein there are holy Prayers conformable to Gods Word humbly offered to him in the name of his blessed Son wherein the Ceremonies are few and grave and decent fit to express and to encrease our Reverence and Devotion and wherein the great design appears plainly to be Gods glory and mens salvation What man that loves Goodness and Piety and in the profession of
Inquisitores quibus ex officio incumbebat pravitatem Haereticam extirpare volentes prout tenebamur in super his certius informari videre an ambulares in tenebris an in luce diligenter inquisivimus de praedictis teque citantes efficaciter interrogantes reperimus te praedictum N. infectum Haeretica pravitate ac eandem defensantem coram nobis animo pertinaci Sane cum prae cunctis mentis nostrae desiderabilibus cordi nostro insidat sidem Sanctam Catholicam Apostolicam in Populorum praecordiis complantare omni eradicata haeretica pravitate modos diversos varios congruos tam per nos quam per alios adhibuimus quatenus resilires ab Haeresibus erroribus antedictis in quibus steteras atque stabas prout nunc stas contumaciter ac pertinaciter animo indurato Verum cum humani generis inimico tuis praecordiis assistente teque in dictis erroribus volvente involvente nolueris neque velis à saepe dictis Haeresibus resilire plus eligens mortem animae incurrere gehennalem corporis temporalem quam antefactas Haereses abjurare ad gremium Ecclesiae advolare animam lucrari in reprobum sensum datus eapropter cum sis ab Ecclesia sancta Dei excommunicationis vinculo innodatus merito imò à grege domini separatus ac participatione bonorum Ecclesiae privatus Ecclesia non habet circa te ultra quod faciat cum ad te convertendum fecerit juxta posse Nos c. Judices in causa Fidei antedicti sedentes pro Tribunali more judicum judicantium Sanctis Evangeliis positis coram nobis ut de vultu Dei judicium nostrum prodeat ut oculi provideant aequitatem habentes prae occulis solum Deum sanctae fidei veritatem ac extirpationem Haereticae pravitatis hac die hora loco tibi in antea assignatis ad audiendum sententiam definitivam condemnamus ac sententialiter judicamus te esse veraciter Haereticum impoenitentem ut veraciter talem tradendum relinquendum brachio saeculari sicut Haereticum impoenitentem per hanc nostram sententiam de foro Ecclesiastico te projicimus tradimus seu relinquimus brachio saeculari ac potestati curiae saecularis dictam curiam saecularem efficaciter deprecantes quod circa te citra sanguinis effusionem mortis periculum sententiam suam moderetur We c. considering that thou N. hast been accused before us for c. and that thou hadst for many years persisted in those Heresies to the great detriment of thy Soul we Inquisitors to whom by our Office it belongs to extirpate heretical pravity willing as in duty we are bound to be more certainly informed about the premises and to know whether thou dost walk in the light or in darkness have made a diligent inquisition into those matters and having cited thee did find by efficacious interrogations that thou the foresaid N. wert infected with Heretical Pravity which thou didst maintain in our presence with an obstinate mind And also we desiring above all things after the eradication of all Heretical pravity to plant in the hearts of men the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Faith have by our selves and others used and caused to be used divers various and proper means to bring thee off from those the foresaid Errors and Heresies wherein thou wert and still continuest to be with an obstinate incorrigible and hardned heart But now whereas at the instigation of the Devil who possesseth thy heart and doth more and more involve and plunge thee into the said errors thou hast refused and still dost refuse to depart from the said Heresies chusing to endure the damnation of thy Soul and the temporal death of thy Body being given up to a reprobate mind rather than to abjure thy Heresies and save thy Soul by fleeing into the Lap of the Church for this cause thou being justly excommunicated from the Holy Church of God separated from the Lords Flock deprived from the participation of all Church-advantages and the Church after all her endeavours to convert thee having no more what to do towards thee We N. N. the foresaid Judges in causes of Faith sitting upon a Tribunal as absolute Judges having laid before us the Holy Evangils that our Sentence may come forth from Gods presence and our eyes may look upon the thing that is equal having also before our eyes nothing but the glory of God the truth of the Holy Faith and the extirpation of Heretical pravity and having before appointed thee this day hour and place to receive thy final doom we now by this Sentence judg and condemn thee to be truly an impenitent Heretick and as truly such to be left and delivered up to the Secular Power and according as an impenitent Heretick we by this our Sentence cast thee out of the Ecclesiastical Court and leave and deliver thee up to the power and judicature of the Secular Court earnestly beseeching the said Court so to moderate her Sentence towards thee as that thou mayst lose neither bloud nor life CHAP. XIII Of the Enormity and further punishment of the Crime of Heresie POssibly some that have frequented persons of the Communion of the Church of Rome and have found them courteous and obliging in their Converse as many of them are or some that have travelled through some Popish Countries and have observed nothing of what I here relate may be tempted to think that these cruelties of which we complain are Fables or were only in the days of old and now laid aside and so that our lives and fortunes would not be in such great danger under a Popish Government as some are apt to think But the answer is easie and plain that in many persons of that party humanity and natural good dispositions out-weigh the cruel principles of their Religion which are not approved or followed not so much as known by numbers of them That however here amongst us whatever they think and whatever they would do if they had power it is not fit nor prudent they should now threaten and tell us the worst That abroad their greatest cruelties are acted secretly or under a disguise in some Kingdoms where the Popes have long reigned they cannot now find Hereticks and in others they are protected by secular Princes from the worst prosecutions of the Papal power And that whatever any man may have seen or not seen yet the decrees are fixed and in full force and as they themselves tell us have been executed with the utmost rigour at all times and in all places when and where the Popes have had power and opportunity It is not what this or that man knows or says that is to be heeded where there are Laws and standing Rules Our danger lies in this that by the Church of Rome we are declared Hereticks that by the same Church Hereticks are declared to be the greatest the most
make this sanction Qui absque facultate Episcopi aut Inquisitoris sacra Biblia vulgari lingua habere praesumpserit nisi prius Bibliis ordinario redditis peccatorum absolutionem percipere non poterit That whoever shall presume to have the Holy Bible in the vulgar tongue without he have obtained for it a faculty or licence in Form of the Ordinary or Inquisitor shall never have absolution of sins till he have returned the Bibles into the hands of his Superiours This Licence you may be sure is very sparingly granted and sometimes to prevent danger is recalled as was done by Vrban VIII 1631. and not one of ten thousand in those Countries where the Inquisition reigns dares ask for it be he never so true a Roman Catholick or so desirous to see what that Book can have in it which is so kept from the People because it is sufficient to make a man of the Vulgar suspect of Heresie if he but speaks of that dangerous Book which hath made so many Hereticks As for those Books whereof the subject is judged to be good and useful but that they have here and there things that border too much upon Heresie after the faults are amended by the Inquisitors or their Deputies they may be permitted to be read So saith the Eighth Rule Libri quorum principale argumentum bonum est in quibus tamen obiter quaedam inserta sunt quae ad haeresim spectant à Catholicis Theologis Inquisitionis generalis auctoritate expurgati concedi possunt These Cautions and Edicts of Popes and Inquisitors extend also to them that buy or sell any forbidden Books and where the Roman Tribunal is potent enough the penalties against Transgressors are exacted with great rigour And Bzovius himself tells us of one Casper Tauberus 1524. who was adjudged to be burnt at Vienna because after having forsworn the reading any more of Heretical condemned Books he transgressed again SECT III. Of the Honour of being imployed in the Holy Office and the praises of it WE have seen before what mighty priviledges and immunities are granted to all that belong to the Inquisition The Bull of Pius V. Octob. 13. 1570. confirms them all and all Grants and Indulgences given by his Predecessors to all such Societies as undertook Croisadoes to assist against Hereticks the Inquisitors of Heretical Pravity The Officers of the Inquisition are Heirs at Law of all those spiritual Riches A Paramo saith That were the Holy Office well understood by pious Catholicks they would be so far from being frighted with it that they would mightily rejoyce to see the holy Catholick Faith so stoutly and effectually defended and to see the stray Sheep brought again to the Fold so powerfully p. 268. Sixtus V. as we have seen calls it Firmissimum Fidei Catholicae propugnaculum The strongest shield and support of the Faith And Paul IV. would freely own that it was praecipuum nervum arcanum pontificatus the strongest nerve and deepest mystery of the Papacy Padre Paolo Hist Con. Trent l. 5. And as my Author cites the Acts of the Creation of Pius IV. this Paul breathed out his Soul in commending to the Cardinals about him that holy Tribunal which he thought would do more than a Council Sanctissima Inquisitio unum nunc remedium labenti Religioni The most holy Inquisition is now the only remedy to our staggering Religion A Paramo p. 278. The same giving some account of the burning of several great Spanish Doctors Constantinus Aegidius Cazalla Chaplain to Charles V. and many Lutherans with them declares to the great commendation of the Holy Office that had it not been for the great vigour and diligence of the Inquisitors the Catholick faith had been lost in Sqain as it is in the Northern Kingdoms for lack of an Inquisition p. 272. There he tells us also how much Ignatius Loyola used to commend it which well became him for he had passed through it and know what it was Out of a Sermon of Lewis of Granada he cites these words Sanctae Inquisitionis Officium nurus est Ecclesiae columna veritatis fidei custodia Christiana Religionis Thesaurus arma adversus Haereticos contra omnes daemonum fallacias technas lumen fulgentissimum lapis lydius ad doctrinae veritatem dignoscendam examinandam The Office of the Holy Inquisition is the Nurse of the Church and the Pillar of Truth the Store-house of Christian Religion and the Keeper of the Faith the Touch-stone of true Doctrine the best Armour against Hereticks and the clearest light whereby to discern the illusions and frauds of the Devil Accordingly several Writers about this subject make great brags of the great vertues and sanctity of many Inquisitors and are so enamoured with the incomparable beauty of that most sacred Function of butchering Men and with the exemplary goodness of them that faithfully discharge it that they spend upon it and them the greatest lauds and praises they can find That many of them have been patient Confessors for the Truth that many others have gained the Crown of Martyrdom that many by their Devotions and Charity have obtained the title of Blessed and many been Sainted and Canonized by the Pope Qui nunc in aliquot provinciis summa cum pietate coluntur who now are in some Provinces worshipped with the greatest piety Multis miraculis maximis claruerunt A Par. 108. Many Inquisitors have become famous for working most wonderful Miracles Those of St. Dominic are past number St. Peter the Martyr the first and fiercest Inquisitor at Milan would easily drive away Devils when they came to make a noise and disturb him in his Preaching A Boy that had cut off his foot by kicking at his Mother he with few words in Confession made whole which may be Emblematical of such as had kickt against Holy Church and were by him converted and absolved St. Anton. Tom. 3. is here and there very ample upon this subject But what can be said more for the eternal credit of the Holy Office than what A Paramo relates p. 138 c. that about the year 1500. when many thousands of Hereticks were sent to the Gallies as many immured and many more burnt that this severity just and holy as it was yet having somewhat of a resemblance to what men call cruelty staggered a little some soft-hearted Spaniards even Inquisitors and made them doubt whether that Religion and Office which reduced so many human Creatures to so great miseries and shed so much bloud were acceptable to God and whether such proceedings did please him whereupon having made their humble addresses to the blessed Virgin they demanded a sign of her to be resolved in this matter and behold Miracles appeared of all sides not an Image in Town nor hardly an Officer of the Inquisition but were enabled to do wonders and feats so great and so many that the scruple was quite removed and they became persuaded that the Roman Faith and severe
and Canon that you shall be finally and perpetually imprisoned betwixt bare Walls there to perform a salutary Penance with Bread and Water the bread of sorrow and the water of tribulation and that you N. and you N. because you have more grievously offended shall be kept perpetually in Chains and Irons in a more narrow and uneasie place charging and requiring every one of you upon the Oath which you have taken that without delay you transport your selves to the Walls of Tholose which is appointed to such Criminals as you and that therein you descend and shut up your selves And now if you shall neglect to fulfil what we here appoint you by not entring within those Walls or by coming out of them without our licence or the licence of our Successors in this holy Office or if at any time hereafter you any ways transgress against what you have sworn and abjured and shew your selves impenitent and that your Confession was but fained you shall be thenceforth taken for perjured and impenitents and shall return under your former Chains of guilt And by our foresaid Apostolick Authority we Excommunicate you and all them that shall knowingly receive defend counsel or favour you decreeing by these presents that you and they shall for ever after be uncapable of the benefit of Absolution And we reserve to our selves and to our Successors in this Office full and free power to change what we shall think fit in this our Sentence by making it more grievous or easie SECT II. Of the Crimes of the Waldenses THe Sentences against relaps'd and impenitent Hereticks who were delivered to the Secular Power to be burned have the same form mutatis mutandis So have also the Sentences against such as were to wear only the Sanbenit a certain kind of Coat with yellow Crosses upon it But I do not find by what tortures they made their Inquisitions nor how they dealt privately with their Prisoners we have only in this Register what the Inquisitors did publickly in the Cathedral Church of S. Stephen before the general Assembly of the Clergy and people I shall therefore at present out of this Manuscript observe only that the Crimes of such as were to be put to death or otherwise punished were only such wicked heresies and deeds as these That they were obstinate or that they returned as the dog to their vomit or that they had not persecuted and detected Hereticks as they were obliged by their Oaths that they had been made to confess with great difficulty or not till they were accused by others and taken and detained in Jail or that when they came to their Pastors or went away from them they had kneeled and craved their blessing Ter adorabant eos dicentes benedicite and to some Rogate Dominum pro nobis quod perducat nos ad bonum finem pray God to bring us to a happy end or that they believed those whom the Church of Rome called Hereticks to be good men and Professors of the truth and that they had commended their good lives to many believing for so many years that they might be saved in their way or that they had fled or endeavoured to flee into Lombardy or that they had concealed some that were fled from the Inquisitors or privately buried some Hereticks in their Gardens or that when they were sick some Hereticks had been brought to comfort them or else that they had comforted or promised to comfort some dying Hereticks or that they had heard them or read some of their Books or eaten of their blessed Bread or that they believed themselves descended from the Apostles of Christ and that their Pastors had from them that power of binding and loosing which Christ gave to blessed Peter and afterwards to the other Apostles that they did believe there were but three Orders in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons the Church of Rome makes seven That they thought the Excommunications of the Church of Rome would not be their damnation That they did not believe themselves to be subject to the Pope and Prelates of the Roman Church because they persecuted them unjustly or that they had attempted to flee or had not come to confess lest if they came into the Inquisitors hands their Children should starve and perish One or two or more of these were the most abominable Crimes which with many cruelties they made those poor Waldenses to confess and for which they burnt immured or otherwise punished them And nothing can more clear the Innocence of those persecuted people than the accusations and convictions which were then brought against them in the Courts of the Inquisitors their profest and implacable enemies wherein we see nothing of those either silly or impious Errors which many of the Romish Writers are pleased to impute to them So much I thought fit to say concerning those pretended Hereticks who first felt the merciless barbarities of the Papal Inquisition CHAP. V. Of the restoring of the Inquisition NOw I shall give you some account of the setting up or restoring the Sacred Tribunal in several places The Inquisition was so successful in Tholosa and it so well agreed with the principles of the Popish Religion and the genius of the Roman Popes that Frier Lambertus was authorized to be St. Dominic's Coadjutor to help him to promote that work which so well prospered in his hands And that holy Father Innocent III. and his Successors used all their strength and endeavours and watched all opportunities to erect in all places such a Court as holy Dominic did manage In many Cities of France and even in Paris it was erected as appears by a Bull of Pope Alexander 47. 1258. In Hetruria and other parts of Italy the Franciscan Friers were made Inquisitors and appointed to proceed anno 1258. Gregory IX some twenty years before had in Navarra and the adjacent parts committed the judging and punishing of Heresie by way of Inquisition to the Dominicans In Lombardy also which was the refuge of the Waldenses Dominic had at the very first taken care that they should be duly prosecuted and destroyed In the Belgick Provinces Frier Robert and other Inquisitors did burn very many of the Albigenses In many parts of Germany also the like was done by times In Spain and Portugal it is more uncertain when the Inquisition began and some are of opinion there was none in those parts before King Ferdinand But A Paramo tells us that in some Cities in Castile there are extant Bulls of Clement IV. 1267. whereby the Provincial of the Dominicans is impowered to appoint out of his Order Inquisitors against Heretical pravity in all the parts of that Kingdom which the Christians possessed And that Boniface IX granted by a Bull the same power to Vincentius Lisboa and to Tostatus Abulensis who in his works mentions Inquisitors among the Spaniards SECT I. The erecting of the Spanish Inquisition BUt if Spain was free for some time of the Inquisition it