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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	reason_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	35	3	8.7231	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47947	Il cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa, or, The history of the cardinals of the Roman Church from the time of their first creation, to the election of the present Pope, Clement the Ninth, with a full account of his conclave, in three parts / written in Italian by the author of the Nipotismo di Roma ; and faithfully Englished by G.H.; Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa. English	Leti, Gregorio, 1630-1701.; G. H.	1670 (1670)	Wing L1330; ESTC R2263	502,829	344

Roman Court not only Bishopricks and Masterships but even Cardinalships too But those Missionaries who have wit in their heads and zeal in their hearts go in another road and do things with more maturity of judgement For remedy of such disorders as these 't were fit some persons of authority had inspection into the promoting of Religion otherwise the ordinary Clergymen either through ignorance passion or humour spoil all break a sunder what ought to be joyn'd together and joyn what ought to be separated and bring things into confusion and ruine The Roman Church having resolv'd to assume to its self both a Spiritual and a Temporal Dominion and to make Cardinals precede Princes and Priests Magistrates hath thought fit for the more easie preservation of its Grandeur that not only the Cardinals but the Priests too should keep up a certain Majesty and eminent decorum which intention been so diligently pursu'd that they run even into excess without which excess I believe things would not proceed so agreeably to their humour On the other side the Protestants that is to say the Ministers and Ecclesiastical Pastors for the better preserving their Religion in its due decorum are contented to live with modesty suitable to their Pastoral Charge that is to administer the Sacraments to Preach to visit the Sick to instruct the people in the power of the H. Scripture referring Command Authority Temporal Dominion and even the Protection of Religion to the secular arm of Magistrates and Princes and teaching all to know by proofs both Holy and Political the Preheminence of the Majesty of Soveraigns above the Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical and the obligation incumbent upon Ecclesiasticks to obey the Temporal Power And indeed the Protestant Religion flourishes more and shines with more decency in those places where the Magistrates and Secular Governours have their eyes most open over the people taking cognisance of their actions not only so far as concerns the duty of a Subject towards his Prince but also in reference to Spiritual matters and this not only by the assistance of the Pastors but also by their own proper office which suffers not any to exercise their Spiritual Function but by derivative power from the Magistrate as he that is chosen by God to preside in the midst of his people to the end they may not run headlong without such a stay and guide into irremediable and dangerous errors The Magistrates and Princes study and endeavour as much as possibly to advance their Soveraignty more and more above the Jurisdiction of Churchmen but these aware of the design which might prejudice their independency are not asleep in the mean time but strive not only to preserve but likewise to promote their jurisdiction beyond what they have already if it be possible and they would effect it did not Princes and Magistrates make use of Policy whereby without prejudicing the Church's Interests they restrain the ambition which in these dayes seems natural to all the Churchmen of the world to say no more The Ecclesiasticks who take it in disdain when they see Magistrates intermeddle with their Assemblies the Elections to Spiritual Charges and the Orders of Spiritual Functions have no reason at all to complain of a thing so reasonable because to speak truth Churchmen are in these dayes so farr respected by the people as the Magistrates cause them to be respected by their secular power and the people are so farr inflam'd with zeal for their own Religion as they see the Magistrate zealous for it and the preservation of the Common Liberty For my part I firmly believe there can be no better course to destroy the Protestant Religion than to sow discord between the Clergy and the Magistrate and to bring it to pass that the Ecclesiasticks not contented with the degree and limits of their proper charge may rise against the Princes and Governours an instance whereof is to be seen in a certain Kingdom which perhaps bewails the effects of that Policy even to this day But the thing were impossible in these times inasmuch as the Magistrates well aware of the project have provided remedies against it in such sort that the Churchmen glory in their Loyalty and Obedience towards them if for no other reason yet at least to avoid the involving of Religion in some Schism or other and the bringing of themselves into a Labyrinth hard to get out of without first undergoing the consequences wont to arrive upon civil broils In short the Roman Religion continues such as it is that is good for the Church-men and bad for the Laity on this account that the Ecclesiasticks make use of an absolute and independent authority in Spirituals and very much likewise in Temporals and on the contrary the Protestant Religion is so far Protestant as the Magistrates have the supremacy both in Spirituals and Temporals If Liberty of Conscience which is so much talk'd of amongst the Protestants and the principal point of the Reformation should any wise come to be molested by the Supreme Authority upon the Ecclesiasticks ambition and invasion of the same there would no longer be a Liberty but a Slavery for People seeing themselves commanded by the Ecclesiasticks would think their Consciences enslav'd and not free it being proper to Churchmen to proceed with too much Zeal or too much Ambition and to be displeas'd when they see that they are not obey'd like Angels although in their commanding they remember not that themselves are but men And indeed the Protestants desire to serve God not according to the Orders and Precepts of men but according to the Divine Laws registred in the H. Scripture which they daily read in their Assemblies publick and private and therefore they reverence their Ministers as men who are contented to preach without commanding The Protestants doubt I conceive lest the Ecclesiasticks being addicted to study and speculation in case the Supreme Authority should be united in them they would reverse the old Model which is Christs and impose a new one upon them of their own and of a plain Ecclesiastical Ordinance make a new Divine Precept and therefore they are very well pleas'd to see the Magistrate use such great care and diligence for the preservation of that Religion which they pretend to be of Divine Institution without any additions of humane invention although the Catholicks accuse them of pinning their Faith upon Luther and Calvin which is false for neither Luther not Calvin instituted any new Religion The Catholick Religion or rather the Roman as we call it in the Primitive times when the piety of Pastors was as conspicuous to their Flock as the Sun went almost in the same order whilst the Emperors manag'd Ecclesiastical Elections and the Magistrates not only preceeded the Churchmen but besides in case of deficience oblig'd them to their duty and constrain'd them to be diligent in feeding the flock of Christ with Charity yea they permitted them not to exercise any publick Function but

St. Mathew Be not in any case called Masters because there is one that is your Master but be as if you were all Brothers Can any thing be more clear can any thing be of greater proof When Christ spake these words to his Apostles St. Peter was present and therefore like but not Superiour to the rest So as what authority is that the present Divines give to St. Peter over the Apostles and by consequence to the Popes over the Cardinals In my judgement both sides are too blame the Popes to usurp and exalt themselves so much and the Cardinals to prostitute and debase themselves These are the errours that occasion if not the greatest part of our Heresies at least the most stubborn and perverse part of them it being most certain that a great part of their Passion and Acrimony against the Church would be taken away could they but see things honestly administred by an equal concurrence both in Cardinals and Pope But to return from this point from which also we have in some measure been forc'd to digress I will speak now of the infallibility of the Church Let us first examine if there be or ever was such a Church in the world to whom God had vouchsaf'd out of his profound Counsels to bestow any such privilege There is no need of studying or using any long and elaborate arguments to prove that all Churches whatsoever have been subject to Errour dayly experience presenting us with continnal examples that they have fallen into errour as great as can be imagin'd by man The Jewish Church that flourish'd so long under their Patriarchs and Prophets that before the coming of our Saviour had the honour to be call'd the only visible Church of God though it was govern'd by pious and experienc'd Pastors Err notwithstanding and was most miserably involv'd in the puddle of Idolatry so as we read in the Chrenicles That for many days together the Israelites had neither God nor Law nor Priest amongst them all to direct them And the Prophet Esau with Tears in his Eyes and Sorrow in his Heart complains That all their Governors were blind And the Prophet Ezechiel tells us that this Idolatry over-spread the Church as well in Egypt as in Israel But we need not trouble our brains for an instance of their erring the Golden Calf the people made to themselves and worshipp'd as a God in spight of Aaron and Moses who went up into the Mount to receive the Tables of the Law is too sad an evidence Jeremiah complains with great anguish of the miseries of Juda that was fallen into that profound and bottomless impiety it was a question whether there were more Cities or Idols in her Dominions And at the time of our Saviours coming into the world he found the Church infected with an infinite number of Heresies and Innovations introduc'd by the false Doctrines disseminated by those very Scribes and Pharisees that govern'd it Let the Scriptures be look'd over never so seriously let the Ecclesiastical Histories be examin'd never so strictly I am sure there is not any particular Church to be found since the time of the Apostles that retains its proper and Primitive Purity and has not deviated by some corruption or other from its first method and form So as St. Paul had very good reason in the beginning of his Epistle to the Romans to exhort them to have a care they did not wander from the truth The Church of Rome notwithstanding all this believes her self infallible or at least some Divines would perswade her so In Genoa there was a Priest called Father Zachary as I remember I am sure he was a Dominican that Preach'd upon that Subject he was a great Orator and had a vast memory he us'd all the arguments were possible to prove it and amongst the rest this one in St. Mathew And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it which he urg'd with that vehemence that he declar'd that as often and every time the Church did err so often should Christ himself break his promise with the Church The Father being himself both Opponent and Respondent there was no answer given to that position yet it may be very well alleadg d that Christ in those words spake not of any particular Church but only of the Church of his Elect and therefore assures us also in other places that all the Machinations Persecutions and Conspiracres of the three implacable Enemies of mankind united shall not be able to extinguish and irradicate that Church because Gods Foundations are firm and unmoveable and he knows who are his own As it is in the Apostle to Timothy to which may be added those words of our Saviour The Heaven and the Earth shall pass away but my Word shall not fail intending thereby the Church where the word of God is preach'd And if it happens at any time that any particular Church deviates from the right way which is the way of truth the only foundation of the Church and upon which our Salvation is built God of his mercy will raise up another to convince that of the errour it is fallen into Amongst all the Churches since the beginning of the world there has not been found that unconstancy and confusion as in the Church of Rome so many Anti-Popes Schisms Heresies Controversies Confusions Suspensions Persecutions so many false Opinions Scandals Tyrannies and Intestine Quarrels as there Several times have they been known to adore two Popes in the same Province at once at another time three of several Nations the very Colledge of Cardinals being divided some of them favouring one side some another and some of them believing neither of them lawfull This I am sure that at the Election of one Pope there grew such Schism in the Church the people were in great perplexity and confusion and not knowing by reason of the difference amongst the Cardinals which was the true Christian Church they were to follow they remain'd not only months but years in that irresolution as if they had belong'd neither to God nor the Devil Is it not too true Their Ecclesiasticks themselves do not only dispute in their Councels but fall out and quarrel with that vehemence and passion they will sooner leave the Councel than their Opinions so pertinaciously proud are they of any thing that is their own though with the greatest scandal to the people who in that uncertainty of the truth forsake not only their fiery and unreasonable Opinions but their Religion it self But what shall I say Are there not Bishops that Preach false Doctrine in their Diocess chaulking out Rules of living to the people contrary to the meaning of the Gospel and what is taught in Rome And have there not been Popes that have been disclaimed by their Clergy From hence it may be easily concluded that their Opinion that hold the Church infallible is false and erroneous and if the Church be fallible much more the Pope who though Governour

out of the minds of the Cardinals for the scandals of their Church are the edi●ications of ours disturbances in their Church giving ours repose He that has ears to hear let him hear he that has zeal enough to make reflection upon these words let him make it whilst I betake my self to more deep considerations It is not above a hundred and sixty years since this Nipotismo began to Lord it over the Church and the Cardinals in Rome They insinuated by degrees and multiply'd their authority dayly to that pass that at present of a custom it is become a necessity there being little difference either in their Grandeur or Command betwixt a Pope and a Nephew so strangely is their Majesty confounded About the same time Luther and Calvin one after another began to appear preaching with great vehemence against the errors of the Catholick Church and the exorbitant covetousness of those that govern'd it and in a short time putting the whole world into disorder introducing Reformations in those very Kingdoms that were thought the most Catholick Against this Torrent that ran down with great Victory and Triumph the Emperour Charles the fifth thought good to oppose his zeal perhaps more ambitious of gaining Success to his arms than Provinces to the Pope so that with his Sword in his hand Tryumphing thorough Germany he conquer'd their Captains but not their Preachers he subdued their Soldiers but not their Consciences the Reformists increasing every day It was not Luther and Calvin only that oppos'd themselves against the abuses in the Church or that made themselves heads of the Religious and Reformists There were other persons that appear'd of greater learning of better extraction and of more eminence and credit Nevertheless the Popes of those times knew how to find a remedy and with most accurate diligence they hindred its growth crushing the Brat as it were in the Cradle And yet the Popes then had not so many thousands of men were not in that esteem amongst the Princes had not so many Cities and Provinces under their Dominion nor so many thousand Crowns to expend nor in short made use of their Spiritual and Temporal arms so easily And O God who is it that can dive into the secrets of Heaven or understand why the Church should in its poverty be able to oppose it self to the very face of its Persecutors and so weak and unable now the Popes are grown rich to put a stop to an inundation that sprang from so small a beginning Oh God why have the Popes that pretend to an universal Monarchy given place and submitted to too weak and unarmed men that their hearts should be able to endure to see themselves devour'd without so much as speaking a word that they should be contented to condescend though with shame rather than to contend with honour In this condition do things stand though it ought to be otherwise did not our experience teach us all this it would very hardly be believ'd did not example confirm our Faith our Faith would stagger to believe it did not our eyes behold the Enemies of Rome multiply'd daily and Rome it self neglected these relations would be counted false though they be never so true But let admiration cease when reason appears the minds of the faithful are disturb'd and wander in the very sight of that light that directs them Let all amazement cease seeing the cause of these ev●s is so manifest He that would know why the Popes for so many ages have shewn themselves so zealous in defence of the Church that is committed to their custody let him go no further than Rome Let him visit the Coffers of the Popes and he shall see that and the reason why being really besotted and asleep notwithstanding their pretences of vigilance they have been this hundred and fifty years purging the Church of Christ of so many Persecutors to the great scandal of Christendome and the great derision of the Hereticks Before the said hundred and fifty years the Popes had no other thoughts than the espousing the interest of the Church so far have some of them been from preferring their own Families that they would sooner have expos'd all their Kindred to the greatest misfortune than in the least have been deficient in their Pastoral Cure As soon as they were sensible of any new Heresie that was broach'd they stirr'd up immediately zeal in their breasts and indignation in their hearts they united their Prayers sent Ambassadors every where and open'd their Treasures of Indulgences to the Reformists and of Gold to the Soldiers The people being fortify'd in this manner and the Princes excited they cheerfully drew their Swords against the Hereticks postponing their own to defend the interest of Christ They glory'd in exposing themselves to a thousand inconveniencies and disasters and to spend their bloods in the preservation of the Christian Faith They emptied their Chests of their Treasure to replenish the Flock of Christ They rais'd Armies of Christians to destroy the barbarous Enemies of Christendome And in a word they thought of nothing but following the example of those Bishops that follow'd the example of Christ But for these hundred and fifty years last past things have gone clear otherwise the Princes are grown cold the Infidels multiply'd the Hereticks increas'd the Credit of the Clergy diminish'd and the Church on all sides afflicted and why so because the Popes of Pastors of Christs Flock being become Monarchs of the Church have had no other thoughts but to make Princes of their Nephews casting off Gods Interest lest they should destroy the Interest of their Kindred History does shew us as the curious may observe in a hundred places and clearly evince that for the space of fifteen ages the Princes took a pride to spend their Treasure in opposition of those that oppos'd the Religion of Christ the reason that excited them was the example of the Popes who having but little gave all they had notwithstanding to the supply and reimbursement of those Princes that imploy'd theirs against the Enemies of Christ And in truth till within these fifteen hundred years the Emperours Kings Princes and Commonwealths did strive and contend to joyn themselves in Leagues with the Popes against the Hereticks and Infidels and rejoyc'd more to be acknowledg'd Defendors of the Faith and Persecutors of the Infidels with their Swords in their hands than Princes with their Scepters and the same glory the Popes took likewise not spending their dayes in pleasure in their Castle of Gondolfo nor strutting in their Gardens of Monte Cavallo but in solliciting and uniting the Princes in a League against the Infidels offering on their part for their supply not only to sell their Consecrated Vessels from their Altars but their very Clothes from their backs But how comes it things being thus manag'd that the Armes of the Christians advanc'd not victoriously to the farthest extremities of Asia How could Heresie reign so long if the Sword of