Christ his life and conuersation were inquired vpon by Charles the great the emperor All which things do plainly proue that it is most false that Gratian out of many of them doth affirme that the Emperours Christian did alwaies submit themselues vnto the bishops And the selfe-same examples also doe plainly declare that the clergie may not be accused onely before ciuil magistrats but punished also by them according to the qualitie of their offence Neither did our sauiour Christ whose immunities and exemptions I suppose they will confesse were as great as any may claime when hee was standing before Pilate to be iudge plead that they might not meddle with him neither yet Saint Paul when he stoode before Festus who if there had beene any such priuiledge belonging vnto clergie men would at the least haue claimed it that others might haue by their examples alleaged the like But saint Paul in appealing vnto Cesar dooth giue vs a strong argument to prooue that princes may middle with such as they call clergie men But of the matter it selfe there is no iust cause of doubt Neither can it be proued that such immunities and exemptions are grounded vpon any testimonie of Scripture but rather are most contrarie to that subiection to magistrats that they commaund and God requireth But by those priuileges there came to the ciuil estate dubble damage First because thereby euil subiects were maruelously imboldned to doe whatsoeuer the bishop of Rome that very baine of true christian obedience would set them to doe for inlarging his liberties As among as infinit mumber of examples that one of Thomas Becket that archtraitor of England and yet forsooth a Romish saint and martyr doth sufficiently declare For how traiterously he sought to in fringe the auncient liberties of his and our natiue countrie to the maintenence whereof he was also sworne yea how leudly he stoode in defence of the liberties that they claime vnto clergie men and that in an vnhonest cause for Philip Brocke a canon of Bedford being accused and tried of mâ—rder gaue euil words to the iudges and the archbishop would not suffer him to be punished by the ciuil magistrate how stifly he set himselfe against the king to the mislike of most of the bishops in the land Mathew of Paris though otherwise a well-willer of his doth plainly set downe Yea what safetie may kings haue to their persons or what quietnesse in their dominions if they who are called clergie men may within any princes dominions execute against them the popes rash and vniust decrees without punishment of them that beare the sword If vnquiet heades and rebellious persons may deuise and practise what they thinke good to follow their owne lust and get vnto themselues the raines of libertie and when these things shall any way breake out they may not be examined by princes or magistrates or accused before such authoritie In this respect therefore that by such immunities bad men were much imboldned either to performe the popes commaundements or their owne desires princes had the lesse abilitie and oportunitie to shake off that yoke of more than Egyptiacal bondage which the pope laid vpon them For if they once indeuoured to attempt any such thing they had within their realm euen such as shuld by christian duty and very naturall affection be their strength aid them that vnder pretence of obedience to the vicar of Rome would make faint the hearts of the princes friends and mightily strengtheÌ„ the hands of his worst sort of subiects And no maruell though in the dayes of deepe darknes or ignorance this leprousie did so infect and spread for we among whom the light of Gods trueth doth shine in some reasonable manner in many places and in great abundance in some yet cannot be rid of that scabbe For though God in his tender mercy towards vs hath banished out of this land that prowd authoritie of the pope and giuen vnto vs as an inestimable treasure the true libertie of conscience and ministery of the word yet because our princes and magistrates are farre short of that zeale that was commended in godly kings and should be in christian magistrates and we our selues euen the whole body of the subiects do not walke according to our calling or worke according to our profession but detaine the trueth in vnrighteousnesse euen for our sins I say doubtles it commeth to passe that there are so many Cananites in our land waiting still as occasion may serue to bee prickes in our eyes and thornes to pricke vs in our sides so that though their power will not serue yet to cast vs out of the land yet they can find meanes enough to grieue vs in the land It is our sinne also that bringeth in among vs these that creepe not into widowes houses onely but into the houses of men especially women that are simple and ignorant and laden with sinne many of them withdrawing them from the true knowledge of God and duty towards their magistrates I meane the Iesuits and seminary priests a kind of people as necessary and commodious to liue among good subiects or in any quiet common-wealth as the frogges lice fâ—ies and grashoppers of Egypt were or as caterpillers are for fruit corne or grasse They seeme to be the very locusts that came out of the darke smoke that issued out of the botomlesse pit whose sting is secret like the scorpions teaching rebellion to princes vnder colour of obedience to the pope They are nimble and want no courage like horses prepared to the battell They are crowned with the honourable name of Iesuites and haue faces like men in external profession of obedience and trueth They seeme like vnto women that is not like to do hurt but yet obstinate and stiffe they are in that they take in hand and cruel and mightie to doe much â—urt among them that receaue them They are armed with the habergeon of authoritie from Rome They are lifted vp with the wings of proude conceit of their owne knowledge whereby they make a noise as though they could beare downe all before them Lastly they haue a king set ouer them for the kings that are ouer other subiects are not good enough to rule this crowned companie The pope is their king him they serue to him they yeld their obedience And their trauel is to make other also to become his subiects Whose fiue monethes that is the time of whose contiunance among vs is not yet expired because our sinnes as I haue said and must say againe and again our sinnes prolong the time of our chasticement The second inconuenience that these immunities granted the clergie men did bring vnto ciuil estates was the iâ—finit swarmes of subiects that were accounted of that number For besides their clarkes regular and irregular which grew to maruelous great multitudes they had their lesser orders which had also their part in
Allens which I haue to shew written I suppose with his owne hand to father D. P. Rectour of the English Colledge in Rome hee reporteth that M. George Gilbert came into Fraunce by the reuerend father Robert Parsons and other to kâ—epe himselfe vntill that Day What meane they by that Day What meaneth Allen to write it in great letters as a thing that should bee especially noted and did perchaunce good to him and such other viperlike traitours to thinke of it It was doubtlesse no other day then that which they hoped the rebellion in England the troubles in Ireland the Spanish fleete so long looked for and so much spoken of should haue brought vnto them Against such dayes of mischiefe they seeke to praepare men before by their reconciling as that letter of Bruise before mentioned and many other vnanswerable proofes doe teach vs. And therefore seeing that vnder praetence of reconciling men to God they doe in deede by all meanes possible deuote and tye them to serue the Pope and that insatiable tirant who haue a long time by many wicked and Popelike practises shewed themselues vtter enemies to our estate and Prince what reason can be yeelded why Princes may not by most seuere punishments preuent the perillous purposes of such secret conspiratours and knowen enemies May Popes vse pollicies to get authoritie which by no right they can claime and to keepe it when they haue obtained it as in this treatise it will appeare they did and may not Princes prouide for the safetie of their persons the establishing of their kingdomes and the maintenance of their ancient and lawfull dominions May vsurpers keepe that which wickedly they haue gotten and may not lawfull Kings and Queenes defend their true and right inheritance Or must they suffer such serpents within their kingdomes such snakes as it were in their bosomes Wee cannot let such fugitiue traitours as seeke the ruine of their natiue countrey to wish also that such ready meanes to effect their desires might not be hindred No we cannot hinder their attempting of the same by their seditious pamphlets But wee hope that all Christian princes that knowe these their lewd practises not trusting the songs of those Syrens will before it be too late seeke to preuent the meanes that they vse to bring them to passe Neither need they who cal themselues though vntruely Catholikes and maintaine the Romish religion within their Dominions feare so to doe For Allen himselfe if that bee his answere to the English Iustice dare not say it is a matter yet defined but disputable onely whether the Pope may excommunicate or depriue a Prince in case of haeresie or apostacie and consequently to absolue his subiects from their othe and obedience to him If this be a case yet not ouerruled in the Popes Consistorie or at the least in any general Council then euen Popish princes need not bee afraide to withstand by all meanes that they can such dangerous deceiuers as come in sheepes clothing making shewe of Religion but are in deede rauening wolues secretly working treason In so much as they who fauour but too well the Romish Religion beginne now to know and detest these rouing runnagates whose counsels are mischieuous whose doings are treacherous And because the very ground of this their brag that they suffer for conscience sake is this supremacie of the B. of Rome and his power ouer all not Bishops only but Princes also which they would haue to be an article of religion so to touch the conscience whereas it is in trueth but a matter of Popish pride and ambition for this cause haue I indeuoured in this treatise to proue that it hath no warrant in the word or in the writings of the approued and auncient fathers Neither can al the Iesuites and Seminary priestes in Rome and Rheimes bee able to shew the article of the Popes supremacie to be a Catholique doctrine and therefore it is not to be receiued by their own rules And because it bringeth not a litle light vnto the trueth to know by what practises they are become so great and to what ends they haue bent or how they haue imployed their power which they haue gotten by craft and shifts I haue therefore pointed vnto such meanes as they haue vsed to aduance their seat and to some of their doings whereby it doeth most plainly appeare that their only care hath bin to make themselues great and rich nothing at al regarding the glory of God or y e good of Christs flocke which they say is committed to them And this I haue done by ancient or their owne histories seldome standing vpon the credit onely of our owne writers vnlesse it bee in report of the actes of the later Popes which cannot be reported by any but such as were in or after their dayes But if I had more relied then I doe vpon the reportes of Protestant writers I should haue the example of our aduersaries for my defence This treatise I set forth vnder the defence of your honours name to whom I acknowledge my selfe especially bound in many respects Which to do I am the rather moued that to that inward witnes of a good conscience whereby I knowe your L. is incited with a continual care and vigilant eye to preuent the perilous practises of those busie brokers for that Catholique king as they call him other enemies to this Common wealth might also bee added that outwarde testimonie of trueth confirmed by proofe and practise of the purer times to incourage you with a constant increase in godly zeale to discharge stil the duetie that God who hath called you to that honour hath layde vpon you and requireth of you to the seruice of her Maiestie and safetie of her subiectes Most humbly I craue you to take in good part this simple token of a sincere affection and slender pledge of my vnfained heart And thus committing the happie successe of this my traueile to Gods good blessing to whose direction and defence I also leaue your Lordship in all your doings I humbly take my leaue at my house at Ryton in the Bishopricke of Durham †⧠To such as are learned among our aduersaries who seeme in singlenesse of soule to seeke after the trueth THE Lord is my witnesse whome I serue in my spirite and to whose gaine I am desirous to bestowe my talent and whose glory I studie to aduance by all such meanes as of his mercy he hath affoorded me that I haue not written this or any other treatise because I am desirous to contend for we haue no such custome nor the Churches of God much lesse to purchase prayse of learning wherein vnfainedly I acknowledge my want and weaknesse but onely for defence of the trueth which in this countrey of ours is quite forsaken of many by reason of ignorance in all sortes which hath possessed men through their owne negligence and carelesse securitie of their owne soules health and is
cherished and increased through softnesse and sufferance of some superiors For if such gifts of knowledge or vtterance as God lendeth vs be they great or little be giuen vs to edifie and doe good vnto others then let vs vse the same to his greatest glory and gaine for feare of his heauie displeasure if when hee call vs to a reckoning we bee found not to haue occupied to our masters profite because he will be angry with such as hide their talent in their napkin But if wee abuse these his good graces to darken therewith the light of the trueth and to encrease the mistes of errour how fierce shall be his wrath how hard shall be our iudgement For if to be negligent to maintaine the trueth be blame-worthie how great then is their sinne that impugne the same and that with those weapons that God hath bestowed vpon them to defend it withall Let vs therefore my wandring brethren from the plaine pathes let vs I say remember for what we striue Is it not for the trueth where may it be found In Gods eternall and vndoubted word VVhat is this word we truely affirme it with many of the Fathers to bee contained in the Scriptures of the old and new Testament But of your vnwritten verities you haue iust cause to doubt If therefore there be in you any loue to this trueth for the which you say you striue any care of Gods glory any regard of the ignorant who are the Lord knoweth soone led the wrong way any due respect to your owne soules health or any feare of Gods iust wrath let vs proceed by one rule that wee may minde one thing Folow not I pray you those false apostles those craftie workemen that can transforme themselues into Angels of light Deale plainly and truely in Gods cause yea let vs on both sides waigh the goodnes of the proofes not cauilling about words the trueth of the matter not the maner of handling of it If we speake of antiquitie let it be most ancient For that is truest but by and by came in heresies so that that onely which was first can bee true as vpon good ground Tertullian affirmeth If wee bring the Fathers let them be of the soundest and those not maimed nor mangled Neither must we rest vpon any of their doctrines but such as haue their warrant in the worde and being taught of them by a generall consent doe iustly obtaine the name of Catholique And for sundry points of your religion I can neuer be perswaded but such among you as haue any vnfained desire to attaine to true godlinesse doe euen within your selues confesse and acknowledge that many things which are commended to the simple as holy and helpfull for the sauing of their soules whatsoeuer shewe of godlines they may seeme to haue are yet farre from the power thereof For it cannot be that any man or woman that maketh due account of the price of our redemption the ransome for our sinnes the precious bloud of that lambe without spot Christ Iesus can euer become so sottish as to thinke that obseruing of dayes abstaining from some meates buying of buls pardons halowed graines and Agnus deis offering to Saintes pilgrimages going barefoote with haire-cloth next the skin crossings or any such like bodily and trifling exercises or works may euer be thought of woorth to make any recompence for our offences If without sheading of bloud there could bee no remission and that the bloud of Christ by which wee are freed for euer from the danger of sinne and haue eternall redemption what can these trifling toyes helpe vs therein yea what blasphemie is it to match them in this worke with that inestimable and peerelesse price Nowe therefore as Ambassadours from Christ as though God did beseech you through vs we pray you in Christes stead not onely to be reconciled to God whom you haue grieuously offended but also that you will deale plainly with Gods people and soundly and sincerely in matters of religion returne from whence you haue straied so long and so farre yeeld to the truth giue glory to God Lead them not any longer into the pit of error whom Christ hath bought with so rich a ransome Hide not the trueth from them henceforth with those false visardes of antiquitie and vniuersalitie which can neuer be prooued to be in the Romish religion And seeing your selues if you haue any consciences must confesse that many things are amisse in that you teach bee content to follow the godly and wise counsel which Cyprian giueth that we should goe backe to the head if any thing bee wrong in religion and so try where the fault is As if the water faile we will begin at the conduit and so from thence search where it stoppeth so we must saieth he come to that was taught in the beginning by Christ and his Apostles And this he saieth is the readiest way to leaue errors and to find out the trueth Let vs then I pray you walke in that way let vs vse that man to reforme religion But if you haue sold your tongues pennes to serue the Pope and as much as in you lieth to maintaine superstition you shall find vs by Gods grace ready at all times to answere whatsoeuer you shalbe able to say And although I bee not worthy to cary the bookes of many among vs that are accounted and knowen to be learned yet will I encouraged by the goodnesse of the cause apply my time and studie and slender abilitie to that end knowing those howers to be most happily spent that are imploied to the glory of God the benefit of the Church and the furtherance of the Gospel VVherein that you may ioine with vs I pray God if it bee his good will to turne your hearts open your eies to see know that which now you striue against As for your secret practises against God and his people the Lord for Christ his sake confound them and bring them to naught So be it * The first part of the Suruey of the Popes Supremacie wherein is a triall of his Title ALthough there is not in mine opinion any one Article in controuersie by knowledge whereof lesse benefit redoundeth to the church of Christ or lesse comfort to the afflicted conscience of the sorrowfull sinner than this of the supremacie of the Bishop of Rome yet if I be not deceiued there is not any one point more conuenient to be handled or more necessarie to be intreated vpon of such as sincerely loue the trueth of God or hearty obedience vnto soueraigne magistrates than is the same First for the iustifying of the godly and more than needefull lawes of christian Princes which they are forced to make to banish and abandon all forraine power that themselues may sit faster in that seate and the more quietly and safely inioy that soueraigntie wherein God hath placed them which is much hazarded and
Chrisostome and Cirill but this I trust is sufficient to shew the vanity of his answere which is so flatte against the words of those fathers For they speake of that faith because it hath respect vnto Christ and master Bellarmine would haue it imagined that they commend this faith as it commeth from Peter and because it is his And that master Bellarmine would seeme out of Hillary to confirme wherein yet hee sheweth no plaine dealing For whereas Hillary saith after by the confession of his happie faith hee deserued a high place or rather as the older copies doe read exceeding glorie master Bellarmine doth not only out of this doubtfull reading gather the strength of his argument preferring the new reading before the olde coppie in that paint disclaiming from antiquity but also to better his bad cause whereas Hillary himselfe sheweth in plaine wordes that this exceeding glorie is this that he thrise heard these wordes feede my sheepe yet hee woulde make vs beleeue that it consisteth in this that Peter is the head foundation and key carier Fie vpon poperie that euer it shoulde so stiflie bee maintained and yet cannot bee defended but by lying and falsifying And thus hauing answered the most forcible proofes that master Bellarmine bringeth to proue that the church must bee built vpon Peter I would on the other side wish him to consider how weake a foundation he and his fellowes doe builde vpon For Peter did not only by euill councell seeke to hinder his master Christ in the worke of our redemption for which hee was bitterly reprooued go behinde me Sathan thou art saith Christ an offence vnto me because thou vnderstandest not the thinges that are of God but the thinges that are of men but also afterwardes denie his master Christ and that with cursing and swearing but hauing receiued the spirit of God and beeing inabled as much as euer he was to the worke of the Lord yet by Peters fault Barnabas and other were brought into dissimulation so that they walked not the right waie to the truth of the gospell And therefore he was withstood euen to his face by Paule because hee was worthie to bee blamed So that euen then if there had beene no better or surer foundation to haue builded the church vpon then Peter the building might well haue runne to one side But thankes bee vnto God that we haue a surer rocke But what will he and his fellowes saie to that most grosse absurditie that followeth this their doctrine For if Peter be the foundation of the church what answere will they make to them that thinke the time was when the church was only in the virgin Mary Vpon what foundation was the church then builded Yea what foundation of the church was before Peter was borne or thought of in the time of the law Yea what foundation in all the time before the lawe when there was not so much as a high priest among the people Then was there a church as all men confesse and therefore it must needes also then haue a foundation but it could not be Peter For hee had these wordes spoken vnto him almost 4000. yeares after the church began And could it stand and florish so manie yeares builded only vpon Christ the sure foundation and shall we nowe thinke that this foundation beginneth to shrinke or is lesse able to vphold this building so that it must needes haue Saint Peter to helpe to holde it vppe for feare of falling God forbid that euer christians should haue so foolish thoughts and yet these and such like absurdities must folow this doctrine But to conclude this point I reason thus That only must be the foundation of the church now which was in the time of the lawe and before the law but then there was no other foundation but Christ therefore now there must be no other I meane no other especial or particular foundation My maior or first proposition is grounded vpon Maister Bellarmines wordes For going about to proue that the monarchy must be in the church he yeeldeth this reason because in Christs time it was gouerned by one and if now it be not so gouerned then it is not the same church or the same citty of God Now thus I reason for proofe of my maior If the not hauing of that outward forme of gouernement can make that it is not the same church how much more if any thing be added to the foundation but saith he the not hauing of the same outward gouernment doth make it to be not the same church therfore much more if it be altered in the foundation And to saie that the church now in the time of grace is not all one with that church that was before Christ or that then there was anie other foundation besides Christ is nothing els then to deny Christ to be a corner stone that ioyneth together both sides of the house making of both one By which the minor of my argument is verified Thus I trust to the indifferent reader it may appeare that as this interpretation of these wordes vpon this rocke I will builde my church that is vpon Peter is not catholike so the doctrine that followeth therupon is absurd Let vs now consider what weight there is in his second argument whith hee wringeth out of the word of building Wherein he affirmeth and in truth doth but affirme for he can proue nothing at all that to builde is to rule Indeede he alleadgeth three fathers which say Peter was Pastor of the church or ruled all the church but is this a good argument Peter did rule the whole church therefore to builde is to rule Such a shew of proofe may perchance seeme glorious in the eies of them that haue no loue to the truth but they are too too foolish that will be caught with such baites That to build is not to rule I proue thus A man buildeth to haue a house that he may rule and he cannot rule but that first the house must be made So that indeede building in the house ceaseth when ruling beginneth when the house is made then is it ruled With much like dexterity he will proue that the foundation doth rule the house In the ende if you will heare him he will make you beleeue that the house ruleth the maister not the maister the house But let vs grant Maister Bellarmine this which so earnestly he seeketh for Let vs yeelde that to builde is to rule what is then out of these wordes to be gathered Vpon this rocke I will build that is I will rule my church This we see Christ is the ruler and not Peter of the church Then let vs go forwarde that we may see what help vnto this popish supremacy the wordes following do bring vnto thee will I giue saith Christ the keies of the kingdome of heauen c. Here Maister Bellarmine is very earnest to proue that these keies were deliuered
to Peter but that we deny not But it is Maister Bellarmines bad hap many times to take great paines fortify where y â— enimy assaulteth him not to prooue that which no body denieth That we may ioine in some issue we will easily confesse that the keies were deliuered to Peter What then Were they deliuered to him alone No Maister Bellarmine himselfe confesseth and that oftentimes neither can he deny it if he would the fathers doe so generally affirme it that this great authority was committed to all the Apostles Wherein then do we dissent Forsooth Maister Bellarmine telleth vs that the other Apostles had this authority but as Christes legates or by especiall commission but to be vnder Peter Whereas Peter had it as his ordinary iurisdiction Now this he should proue but he leaueth it with a bare affirmation so that you are not bound to beleeue him But we see that which here is promised vnto Peter alone whether because he alone tooke vpon him to answere Christes question or that Christ therein would signifie the vnity of the church as some of the fathers affirme or because he was a figure of the church as Saint Augustine saith that I say which is here promised to him alone is in Matthewe xviii promised to all and that Maister Bellarmine himselfe cannot deny although he affirme it to be in all but Peter a legantine in him an ordinary power And this promise is perfourmed to all Iohn the xx in these words receiue the holy ghost whose sinnes soeuer ye remit they are remitted and whose sinnes yee retaine they are retained And Theophilact doth expound these wordes of Matthew the sixteenth which here I haue in hand by this place of saint Iohn saying that in that place of saint Mathew that is promised that is here giuen and that this power belongeth vnto all What can be more plaine to prooue that although Christ spake vnto Peter onely in that first place to thee will I giue the keies yet they were giuen to all Why should we then trust the bare assertions of maister Bellarmine or any other that the keies are not in like maner giuen to all when wee see that Gods worde maketh no difference betweene them But master Bellarmine because we goe about trewly with Theophilact to expound this promise to thee I wil giue the keies by that of Iohn whose sinnes so euer ye remit they are remitted c. would faine make vs beleeue if we will trust him of his bare word that Theophilact and we are deceiued and that Christ in these words of saint Iohn doth onely giue power of order whereas in Mathew he promiseth power of Iurisdiction And the better to perswade vs he telleth vs that to keepe a mans sinnes is not a matter of so great power as to bind a mans sinnes And yet saint Ambrose whose credit is far aboue maister Belarmines doth vse the words of remitting loosing retaining and binding indifferently the one for the other And therefore this is but a blinde cauill to keepe the light of the truth vnder a bushell If we prooue out of Cyprian that all the Apostles were of like honour and power They were saith he alike in their apostleship and had all one authoritie ouer christian people but were not alike among themselues The wordes of Cyprian haue no limitation but maketh all of like power and of like honour But maister Bellarmine like false mates that doe wash and clippe the coyne whereby they make it of lesse value so doeth hee by such sâ—eights seeke to diminish the force of such authorities as are brought against him But what reason hath hee so to expound Saint Cyprian Because hee saieth in that Booke that beginning proceedeth from a vnity to shew that the church is one Thus then doeth hee reason The Church proceedeth from one or from vnitie Therefore Peter is aboue all the Apostles Let other iudge of his argument I see not out of this how he can prooue that Peter hath such superioritie ouer the Apostles as that hee may exercise iurisdiction ouer them which is that the church of Rome must prooue if Peters supremacie shal do them good Seeing therefore it appeareth by that which hath beene spoken that not Peter onely but all the apostles in like manner receiued the keies as Saint Hierome testifieth that is power to retaine or remit to binde and loose although it were saide to Peter To thee I will giue the keies yet it is manifest that for his sake onely it was not spoken or the vse of the keies to him onlie was not promised but in and by him Christ spake to all without giuing lesse power to them or more to him And thus much concerning this question to whom the keies were giuen Nowe must we see what these keies are that so we may examine what that is which they say is giuen to Peter in this promise Maister Bellarmine affirmeth that they all vnderstande by the keies the soueraigne or chiefe pnwer ouer the whole church And that it must so be he proueth thus In the Prophet Esay is described the deposing of one high priest and placing of an other by the deliuering of the keies And the keies of the house of Dauid will I lay vpon his shoulder and hee shall open and none shall shut and he shall shut and no man shall open Sincere dealing would become all men especially in Gods cause which is farre from maister Bellarmine as in many other places so heere also For Eliachim of whom the promise was made in this place was not hie priest Indeede Azariah was high priest in the dayes of Ezechiah Neither yet was there euer any such high priest as Shebnah whome God threateneth in that place Whosoeuer marketh either the pedigree of priests in the scriptures or in Iosephus hee shall finde it to bee most false and vntrue that heere maister Bellarmine so boldly affirmeth But this Eliachim was one of the princes whome Ezechiah sent to Rabsache whome in that place the Septuagint do call the Ruler of the house as also in the seuen and thirtieth verse of that chapter And the prophet Esay in the six and thirtie chapter and two and twentieth verse they call him the Maister of the housholde And indeede the Hebrew words do teach him to be one that was ouer the house as also Saint Hierome yea and their owne old translation doe translate those words of Esay And Saint Hierome in his commentaries vppon that place calleth him maister or ouerseer of the house And so Iosephus also doth witnes that he was one of Ezechias especially frends as it may also appeare in that he sent him to Rabsache and his lieutenant or vicegerent or doer for him let the indifferent reader now iudge whether this be good dealing in master Bellarmine thus to abuse the simplicitie of his reader and the credulitie of
borow master Bellarmines spectacles by which hee can spie that one pope is contained in these words one bodie and one spirit as he doth also find out the supremacie plainely set downe in these words hee gaue some to be apostles and yet more plainly if we may beleeue him in the epistle to the Corinthians he hath ordained in the church first apostles then prophets Now let them that can picke that soueraigne Supremacie out of those wordes say so But for my part I confesse my sight is so dimme that I can not see so farre into that mill stone These and such like reasons beeing compared with their proofs out of scripture which make nothing for them vnlesse they be sore wrested from their naturall and true meaning doe euen proclame it to the world that this doctrine of the popes supremacie is nothing else but a deuise of mans braine a fruit of his pride And thus to thinke I am the ealelier perswaded when I see how master Bellarmine toileth himselfe to set downe the state of the question For although in the beginning almost of this twelfth chapter he promised to prooue that the bishop of Rome is by the lawe of God successor vnto Peter in the supremacie of the vniuersall church yet afterwards he confesseth that the church of Rome hath not this succession by Christs first institution of this succession and that perchaunce for so he speaketh to testifie how loth hee is to confesse the truth plainly though he cannot denie it perchance he saith it cannot be proued by the lawe of God that the bishop of Rome as he is bishop of Rome is Peters successor And yet although it cannot be proued to be decreed by Gods lawe it is saith hee a thing that belongeth to the catholike faith For saith hee to be of the fayth and to be by Gods lawe is not all one for it is not by Gods lawe that Paul should haue a cloke hee might haue said as much also for Tobias dog yet this must be beleeued I would not haue thought that Pauls cloke had beene such a necessarie relique but I remember that Balthasar Cossa who was pope Iohn the three and twentieth of that name gained well by Peters cloke when time was for by casting it vpon his owne shoulders he made himselfe pope But can master Bellarmine find no better stuffe to perswade vs to beleeue the popes supremacie They make it a matter of damnation not to beleeue the supremacie of the pope And is it of as great necessitie to beleeue that Paul had a cloke If master Bellarmine be so perswaded I lament his follie If hee thinke otherwise why doth hee bring it to prooue that to beleeue the supremacie of the bishop of Rome is a pointe of the catholike faith although by Gods lawe this supremacie cannot be prooued And as they stagger in setting downe by what authoritie right or lawe they claime this soueraigntie so they haue no great proofe for their manner of this their dignite whether it be personall or not By Christs first institution master Bellarmine telleth vs it was personal If Christ made it personall who could change that estate and make it successionall master Bellmine answereth that it was personall generall or publike so that it belonged to him and his successors Whether that can be called personall that is to say belonging to the person onely which belongeth also to his successours let the indifferent Reader iudge But how is this prooued that Christ gaue this prerogatiue to him and his Master Bellarmine saith so often times especially in the twelfth chapter of his first booke but his proofe is litle else then his affirmation Againe hee saieth that this succession is made both personall and locall by Peters dying bishop of Rome But as alreadie I haue proued that doctrine of Peters beeing at Rome bishop is not so certaine that christians may build their faith thereupon So that we see there building is altogether vpon the sand their proofe weake their reasons obscure and their places nothing pregnant for that they are brought And I maruell that nowe it should be counted heresie not to beleeue the Romish bishop to be by Gods lawe supreame head of the whole church seeing that in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand fiue hundred and twentie Albert by the goodnesse of God cardinall priest of the holy church of Rome of the title of Saint Chrysogon Arbhbishop of the holy churches of Magdeburge and Mentz primat of Germany and prince elector gouernour of Halberstade and marques of Brandenburge for these litles hee giueth himselfe in an epistle writen to Luther sheweth himselfe griued and displeased that some diuines of good accoumpt did so earnestly contend for their friuolous opinions and trifling questions namely of the power of the bishop of Rome whether it be by Gods lawe or by mans lawe And of free will and many other such toyes not much concerning a christian man This cardinall you see thinketh it not worth contending for And I am verely perswaded many moe will bee of his mind vnlesse they see better matter then master Bellarmine canne bring to prooue it to be by Gods lawe But although hee haue no store of Scripture for him yet hath hee great hope in councilles and fathers And I assured my selfe that the councilles if hee will trust them will most plainly decide this question whether that superiority that the church of Rome challengeth ouer all other churches be by Gods law or mans law as hereafter it shall if God will appeare Nowe therefore to examine maister Bellarmines next proofe which is out of the counsels And the first counsel that he alleageth is the Nicen counsel not that which themselues haue deliuered to vs as authenticall and true in the tomes of counsels set foorth by themselues but to serue this turne we must haue a new addition and a strange interpretation not that which agreeth best with the words and is thought most true of them that liued neare vnto the daies of that counsell First therefore we must adde saith maister Bellarmine to the beginning of the sixt canon the church of Rome alwaies had the supremacy And why must those wordes be added Paschasinus forsooth a bishop in the counsell of Chalcedon did so cite that canon He did so but he was legate for Leo then bishop of Rome that did alleadge it by Aetius Archdeacon of Constantinople he was disproued who read not onely the coppy of the canon by a also the approbation of the same counsell and canon by a counsell holden at Constantinople of 150. bishops Nectarius being bishop there But one found out a greeke coppy of that counsellong since and in that saith maister Bellarmine those wordes are If the coppies that we haue haue thus long beene thought true and good I see no reason why for some one greeke coppy which might very well be falsified by some fauorite of the
The greatest bishop and yet not he but Liberius was then bishop of Rome And for this name head as I haue shewed it is nothing strange in all societies to haue a heade man and yet he not to haue iurisdiction ouer them By all which it appeareth howe weake an argument may be drawen from these names which may be common to so many to proue the supremacy which the bishop of Rome challengeth to himselfe onely Nowe maister Bellarmine hauing wrung what he can which is not much out of the fathers of the greeke church commeth to the latin writers to try what gleanings he can get among them Whom I doubt not but we shall finde speaking very reuerently of the church of Rome as in truth it well deserued because that the bishop of Rome although he began very soone to encroche somewhat vpon other mens right and to enlarge his power yet he vsed his greatnesse and authority for a long time to the maintenance of true religion the comfort of the distressed and to withstande by himselfe and other the bishops of the West church the heresies that troubled especially the East churches In al which things we know that by their place for that they were bishops of the Imperiall city and the authority that they were come vnto by fauour of the Emperours they were as it were ringleaders vnto others so that although they were moued sometimes to these good things by a desire that they had to be medling in all matters which was one of the waies whereby they came to their greatnes yet in that they did good vnto the church the godly did both commend them and also beare with them although sometime they were too forward and stept too farre before others But when they would haue had this authority confirmed to them in councils and established as a law of the church then did the ancient fathers wisely withstand their vnlawfull desires as the vi councils of Carthage and the councill of Chalcedon doe plainly proue So that the godly learned fathers of those times partly to incourage them in their well doing did giue them due commendation when they deserued it and partly for quietnesse sake and the peace of the church did wincke at many of their inordinate proceedings and vnorderly attempts so long as they were but their priuate actions yet would not the iurisdiction of the vniuersall church And these things being well remembred I may I trust be shorter in answering to the particular places And first for the place out of Cyprian which maister Bellarmine prosecuteth in many words as he is forced to doe that he may get out of him but a shew of an argument It is answered in few words For indeede maister Bellarmine groundeth vpon a false principle which I dare not say that he could not but see his errour but it is maruell if he can be ignorant of it The wordes wherein he especially trusteth are these This commeth to passe that heresies growe in the church whilst there is no returning to the beginning of the truth neither is the head sought for neither is the doctrine of our heauenly maister kept Nowe by this word head he vnderstandeth the head of the church whom he maketh Peter Whereas it is most certaine that Cyprian doth meane nothing els here then in another place where he endeuoureth to perswade after the same maner and by that very argument where by the head he meaneth that which the apostles taught For saith he if we returne to the head and beginning of the tradition of the apostles mans errour ceaseth And there he teacheth vs by a similitude howe we should come to the heade by the similitude I say of a conduct wherein if the water faile we goe to the head of it that is to the fountaine and so from thence examine the want of the water so saith he must Gods priestes goe to the beginning when there is any question of Religion And that he meaneth that head in this place the very wordes by him alleadged do prooue because the former wordes put vs in minde of returning to the originall or beginning of the trueth and the wordes that follow leade vs to the heauenly doctrine Well then the head in this place doth signifie the spring and fountain from which our doctrine must beginne and so master Bellarmines argument is quite ouerthrowen And hauing proued that he buildeth his reason vpon a false ground I trust I neede not bestow any more labour to prosecute him in his wandering wordes Optatus is the second who speaketh nothing to helpe this desperate cause For although he commend vnto vs that one chaire in respect of the vnitie of doctrine for all the priests nowe saith Chrysostome must sit not vpon Moses chaire but vpon Christs chaire yet in the wordes alleadged by master Bellarmine he addeth and we haue proued that that is ours by Peter Optatus a bishop in Affrike not of Rome sitteth in Peters chaire Therefore Peters chaire and the popes chaire are not all one vnlesse their doctrine be one It is not tied to Rome or to that church But alluding to that place of Moses his chaire which our Sauiour Christ speaketh of because the Scribes and Pharises taught that which Moses did teach Optatus also saith that he doth sit in Peters chaire because hee taught that which Peter did confesse and teach Yea and he prooueth by this argument against the Donatists who taught that they onely were the church that the church is also where he taught because euen there is Peters chaire so that if Optatus your owne witnesse speake truly then you haue maruellously abused the world for many yeares in making them beleeue that S. Peters chaire is at Rome onely But Saint Ambrose seemeth somewhat plainer then the rest in that first place alleadged by maister Bellarmine The church is called Gods house whereof Damasus is a ruler this day But yet the words do not import any such thing as may prooue the Supremacie of the Bishop of Rome For wee will not deny that the Bishop of Rome is a ruler in the church but that he is the only ruler we can not graunt But Saint Ambrose expounding those wordes of Paule wherein he teacheth Timothie how to behaue himself in Gods house takes occasion to shew both what is Gods house namely the church and who they are that are rulers in Gods house namely the bishops or pastours to whom the ministery is committed And to make this plaine by an example he setteth before vs the house of God at Rome which is the church there and the ruler of Gods house there who is Damasus their bishop If any man aske how it commeth to passe that he rather nameth Damasus then any other bishop Sundry reasons of it may be yeelded First Ambrose himselfe was a bishop in Italy for Milaine is in Italy vnder the popes wings and therefore the bishop of Rome was the most
in the church of Rome yet you see we can perfectly enough tel when it beganne to shew it selfe and when it was made an ecclesiasticall drecrees Neither is that of any waight which master Bellarmine alleageth out of Gregorie to the contrarie that the church of Constantinople is vnder the church of Rome For he cannot meane thereby the church of Rome should haue supreame authoritie ouer it and all other churches seeing that no man more then Gregorie inueieth against the name of vniuersall bishop but his meaning is onely this that the church of Constantinople is not of so good account or authoritie in meetings or assemblies as that of Rome Which beeing applied to our question proueth nothing For to prooue that the church of Rome may sit or go or write his name before the bishop of Constantinople is not to prooue him to haue iurisdiction ouer him That which out of Iustinian he alleageth is answered before as that also that hee bringeth out of the epistle of Valentinian to Theodosius sauing that master Bellarmine incrocheth somewhat and taketh more then is giuen him For where Valentinian saith that Antiquitie hath giuen that to Rome master Bellarmine seeth that will not serue his turne to prooue it to haue beene from Christ from whom onely they can claime it if by the lawe of God they will haue it and therefore hee saith not as Valentinian doth that it hath beene of old time but alwayes And so wresteth his words quite out of tune And it is but a foolish shift whereby they seeke to pervert the truth and by these forced gloses to corrupt the words of almost all stories when they denied Phocas first to haue giuen supremacie to the pope he did if you will trust master Bellarmine but declare it and did not giue it Platina saith that the pope obtained this of Phocas to be called and counted head and so doth Sigebert and Eusebius saith that by the consent of Phocas it was so instituted And Beneuenutus Imolensis a storie cōmended by pope Pius the second by his adding to the same the liues of foure emperors saith that Phocas first obtained that Rome should be head of all churches If he First obtained this title to Rome if he did institute it if the pope obtained this of Phocas then let the indifferent reader iudge how vntrewly master Bellarmine saith that Phocas did but declare this thing and that it was before Yea what needed this any declaration of of the emperour if the church had receiued it as a catholike doctrine Or if it be not a catholike doctrine what meaneth master Bellarmine to make so false braggs as he sometimes doth of the consent of fathers in this doctrine And thus I trust I haue layed open the vanitie of the proofe and the weakenesse of the argument whereby they indeuoure to strengthen and establish the tyranous soueraigntie of the church of Rome For if Peter had no such iurisdiction ouer others hee could not giue it to any other If his beeing bishop of Rome haue not any such ground but that it may iustly be doubted of and strong presumptions to the contrarie then is not the popes succession of Peter so certaine as they would haue it thought Yea and if Peter were bishop of Rome and if hee had such soueraigntie howe do they proue that it is bequeathed to them to what person howe in what words at what time in what place befor what witnesses Al which things how weakely they prooue hitherto I haue declared And yet to goe further admitte that Peter had such iurisdiction which cannot bee prooued but I admit I say that hee had it admit also that hee could and did leaue the same to the bishop of Rome which we also iustly denie must it therefore cleaue so fast to that chaire in Rome that it can not for any cause bee altered Must it be so hereditarie to his successours if they had beene his successours that are bishops of Rome that they could not forfet it for any terspasse that it may not be taken from them for any offence God forbid that wee should be so foolish as to tie God to anie place or people to any sect or succession in such sort as that howsoeuer men doe abuse his graces or their owne callings yet still they must haue the place that once they haue gotten and they must serue him in that place whether he will or not as though they had it by euerlasting patent Did not God chuse to be his hie priest Aaron and his sonnes by name Nadab Abihu Eleazar and Ithamar to serue in the priestes office No man can deny it And yet Nadab and Abihu for offering onely with strange fire many greater offences then that are committed in the church of Rome were burnt with fire from heauen to shew that God is not so in bondage to them whome hee hath placed in such roomes that hee must haue their seruice whether hee will or not Yea and didde the priesthoode continue alwayes in Aarons line vntill the very time that the Leuiticall priesthoode was vtterly abolished No verily For Herod set vp priests at his pleasure when he came to be made king of Iewry so that then the line of Aaron was vtterly extinct concerning the priesthoode and they that afterwards were priests were not of the same Where then is the choice that God made of Aarons posteritie to serue him And what greater promise can the church of Rome finde made vnto Peter I say not to them for they had none made then was made vnto Phinehas euen a couenant of the priests office for euer And yet we see this was not onely altered now when the priesthoode was quite gone from Aarons posteritie but also euen long before when the priesthoode was giuen vnto Eli that was the son of Ithamar and taken from the posteritie of Phinehas so that not so much as his sonne succeeded him And concerning Eli the priest the priest the Lord had said that he and his house should haue walked before God for euer meaning in the priestes office But when God saw how Eli did wincke at the great disorders of his sonnes whereby Gods seruice was hindered then hee let Eli to vnderstand that hee would cutte off his authoritie and stirre himselfe vp a faithfull Priest that shoulde doe according to his heart and according to his minde And this was performed when Abiathar was put out of the priesthoode by Salomon and Zadoc was made Priest in his steede And of this Zadoc it is said by God himselfe by that messenger or man of God that was sent to Eli. I will builde him meaning Zadoc a sure house and he shall walke before mine annointed for euer And yet as is before declared the priesthoode was taken from his line also so that there were diuers hie priests that were not of his house If nowe God in his iust iudgement
in iudgement Liberius a pope did not only consent to the condemnation of Athanasius that great learned and catholike father as many ancient histories doe report and our aduersaries deny not but also did communicate with two notable Atrian heretikes which was a great offence to the godly and an incouraging of those heretikes But maister Bellarmine answereth that neither he taught any heresy or was an heretike The question is whether the pope may er or not Now our aduersaries draw vs from the questiō not answering whether Liberius did erre or not but they tell vs that he was no heretike and that he taught no heresie And admit he did neither of these two I meane that he neither became an heretike neither yet taught heresie yet he may erre Yea Liberius did fouly erre in that externall action whereby our aduersaries confesse that he consented to the banishment of Athanasius and in communicating with those two Arrians Valence Visacius and by help of Arrians get again to be bishop of Rome deposing Felix For to er is to wander or go out of the right way whether it be for ignorance or feare or through any other affection he that steppeth aside doth erre And because this giueth great light to al that is to be said of this question it shal not be amisse somewhat more throughly to consider of the same First you see that whereas their doctrine is briefly deliuered that the pope cannot erre they wil haue it thus to be vnderstooed the pope cannot be an heretike that is he cannot continue obstinatly in heresie nor he cannot teach heresie when he giueth generall precepts that should belong to the whole church For that is the meaning both of Melchior Canus in his Theological places and of maister Bellarmine in this place before alleadged The intent also of their doctrine is to commend vnto vs that their Italian head as a fit head for to guide the vniuersal church and able to be ahead to the whole body Nowe therefore let vs see how well their doctrine and their meaning agree together For the head of the church should be such as should in nothing no not for a time leade the body of the church awry But the church may be led into many foolish opinions strange conceites and dangerous doctrines euen by such as cannot be called heretikes For an heretike is he as Saint Augustine telleth vs that being of any euill and corrupt opinion in the church and being reproued or monished to amend resisteth stubbornly and will not reforme his contagious and perilous doctrines but defendeth the same and is drawen to deuise or follow such opinions for his own profit especially for his own glory and to aduance himselfe Now who seeth not that a man in place of credite and authoritie as the bishop of Rome hath beene by such bad means as he hath vsed these many yeares may wonderfully indamage and indanger the church of God before any body wil or dare reprooue him for any opinions that he will holde And when he is found fault withall as he must be before they can count him an heretike how many subtile shifts can euil men haue to continue a long time in their wicked opinions without reuoking the same or reforming themselues and yet to auoide the danger of being accounted stubborne or obstinate The Pelagians against whom saint Augustine writeth many bookes did turne many waies their lewd opinions changed often in some shewe of words their positions and did adde as by reason they were forced and by arguments compelled some such wordes vnto their errours as that thereby they might auoide the note of contumacy and deceiue the more vnder a shew of truth as may appeare by saint Augustine who confesseth plainly that if their meaning were not knowen to be euill their wordes could well enough haue beene borne withall Admit then that a bishop of Rome being of such absolute authority as now they are could as cunningly as did the Pelagians couer and cloake an heresie Might not he be an heretike many yeares before he would be driuen to recant And might not he then by such meanes bring irreparable hurt to the church of God Thus we see that as by this doctrine that the pope cannot erre they goe about to assure vs that the head which they haue set ouer the church cānot deceiue vs if we wil be lead by him so their interpretation of that their position argueth in them great doubtfulnes y t they dare not defend their own fayings vnlesse they may expound their words after this manner that the pope cannot erre that is he cannot obstinately or stubbornly teach as a doctrine to be receiued of the whole church any heresie And I pray you what safety can the godly finde in following such a head as when he hath guided them into many errours yet he will not stubbornly stand in defence of them Such may wel be compared to souldiers that by the rash leading of an vnskilfull captaine are brought into the hands of their enemies and when the captaine seeth his folly he would faine mend it if he coulde and is sory for that he hath done But what helpeth this his late repentance the distressed souldiers nothing at all Euen so that the bishop of Rome cannot continue in his errour if it were true that he had some such priuiledge it might be good for himselfe But such a head is for others very dangerous because y ◠not all they who are seduced by such mens instruction or example are also reduced by their recantation or amendment as appeareth by multitudes of examples And so we see that this their interpretation standeth not with either their common receiued doctrine or with their intent and meaning which is to promise safety from errour vnto them that receiue that head Whereas in truth their meaning is to tell vs that the pope may be of a wrong iudgement but if he be much vrged he cannot be obstinate he wil not stand to it And whereas they defend that the pope cannot teach heresie as a doctrine publikely to be receiued in some respect I thinke it to be most true For seldome or neuer are there any popes that can teach either truth or heresie They cannot preach they cannot with wholesome doctrine feede their flocke they cannot deuide the foode of life and breake the bread of the word vnto Gods houshold seruants For want of knowledge they cannot of themselues doe much either in defence of truth or to maintaine errour But this exposition will not please them They haue another meaning For when they tell vs that the pope cannot be an heretike when he teacheth the whole church their meaning is plaine enough that in particular iudgements they may erre but not in their generall decrees or preachings or instructions Which they are forced to say for the auoiding of such inconueniences as might growe by defending the doing of many
of their popes But if popes may be charged with heresie how can we thinke but that in their talke in their sermons if they did preach and vpon all such occasions as were offered vnto them they would by foure means or other commend that which they liked of and condemne the contrary And their very words when they speake of matters of faith are indeede instructions to all and their examples also are publike instructions to y â— whole church Neither must we imagine that those holy fathers forsooth had one religion in secret and an other that they would publish Therefore if we proue that they did erre I trust also it will followe that this errour was a stumbling blocke to the church and that they may erre when they giue lessons to all the church Lastly let vs consider the foundation whereupon they raise this building Because Christ said vnto Peter Simon Simon behold Sathan hath desired to sift you as wheat But I haue praied for thee that thy faith should not faile To whom was this said To Peter although not to him alone as before out of Theophilact I haue shewed But Peter immediatly after erred so as that he thrise denied his maister as Saint Luke in the same chapter sheweth yea and that as Saint Matthew reporteth with cursing and swearing Whereby it most plainly appeareth that Christ did not pray that Peter or the rest of the apostles should be free from all infirmities and should as it were put of the nature of man but that finally he or they should not fall from the faith But I cannot but maruell here at maister Bellarmine that he cannot see that Peters faith at this time failed For euen handling these words and this fact of Peters we know not saith he that Peters faith euer failed He feared at the question which the damosell asked of him he denied his master and that with cursing and swearing Did he this for feare No doubt he did it for feare What was the cause of so great feare Was it not weaknesse and want of faith Had he litle faith when hee feared drowning in so much as Christ reprouing him said O thou of litle faith why diddest thou doubt And can master Bellarmine find no want of faith in his so excessiue feare that he forswore his master Peter therefore notwithstanding Christs prayer both could and did erre And shall we thinke the pope to be more holy of a more sanctified nature of a sounder iudgement then Peter was They will not so say themselues therefore they also may erre But for master Bellarmines subtill distinction betweene perseuerance and not failing making not failing and not falling all one but perseuerance to be such as that a man may fall and yet by rising againe is said still to perseuere I confesse it is more subtil then sound For perseuering and continuing is all one and continuance hath no ceasing or intermission And further I must put the godly reader in remeÌ„brance that if this were granted to Peter that the pope doth claime that he could not erre yet must he proue himselfe to be Peters successor and that the priuilege is also successiue to that seat before he caÌ„ by these wordes prooue his infallible iudgement And what they can do for these points I haue shewed before their great weaknes if it be but weaknes in so great light and sunshine of truth not to see y â— right way I omit of purpose many popes to whom â—rrour is imputed by some ancient histories I come to Honorius of whome it is written by many histories that he was a Monothelite whose heresie was that Christ God and man had but one will And to omitte all the ancient Records that may be aleadged to prooue him so to be I rest specially vpon Melchior Canus his confession in his theologicall places and one proofe vrged by him amongst many others For hee doth not onely acknowledge Honorius to bee an hereticke but also telleth vs how Adrian the second in the first action of the eighth generall councill confesseth that Honorius was by the Greeke church condemned as a hereticke and that Agathe bishop of Rome consented vnto the same his condemnation In which argument although master Bellarmine dessent vtterly from Melchior Canus yet hee is not any thing able to take away the waight of that reason but that Honorius although a pope must be pronounced and holden for an hereticke euen by the detree of a generall councill What should I speake of the errour that was most apparent in those seditious popes Steuen the sixth and Sergius the third against Formosus another pope now long dead And against the dooings and decrees of pope Theodore and Iohn the tenth Steuen reuoked whatsoeuer Formosus had done vp a councill called belike for that purpose Iohn the tenth afterwards maketh good the dooings of Formosus disamulling that that Steuen did yea their â—â—ntention was so great that they commaunded such as had taken orders of one that they should as if these first orders were nothing worth take orders of another These thinges are reported by all histories and therefore are also confessed of themselues that are our aduersaries If pope Formosus did not erre then Steuen that dâ—â—lt so hardly with him and so disannulled his dooings and decrees did erre If Steuen did right then Iohn who afterwardes vndid all that he had done did wrong Yea they disannulled the very orders that the popes that were their aduersaries had giuen Which thing maister Bellarmine in his fourth Booke and twelfth chapter confesseth to be a matter of faith Therefore heere the pope erred in faith No saith he this is onely a matter of fact it is not decreed by any of them Let vs marke out question that is whether the Pope may erre or not Maister Bellarmine saieth these Popes did wrong but they decreed nothing of disanulling those orders which men booke of their predecessours and therefore erred not in iudgement Sigebert saieth that Steuen decreed that Formosus his ordinations were or should be voyne Platina saieth that Iohn the tenth iudged amisse because hee iudged that they must take orders againe that did take orders of Formosus So Iacob Bergomensis and Stella agree with Platina These therefore condemne Steuen the sixt to erre 〈◊〉 iudgement and so doe manifestly 〈◊〉 that the pope did erre and confute maister Bellarmine his answere to this obiection Iohn the two and 〈◊〉 pope of that name did not beleeue onely but euen teach that the soules should not see God before the latter day as master Bellarmine himself confesseth But it was saith he no heresie in him so to teach because there was not then anie decree or destinction of the church for that point If it true master Bellarmâ—◠〈…〉 heresie 〈…〉 not defined it A thing defined in the scriptures set downe in Gods word and plainly taught in Gods booke may I perceiue
might get the true copies of that Nicen council from those places making no doubt but if those copies did agree which came from thence they must be most true as they all acknowledge writing to pope Boniface When the copies came they could finde no such thing Is it not then very plaine that the Bishop of Rome his legate vsed false writings for proofe of a bad cause But maister Bellarmine telleth vs that Saint Augustine and all they of they council mistooke the matter being deceaued by ignorance because they knew not what the council of Sardis did set downe concerning that point The question is whether the council of Nice did giue superiority ouer all other to the bishop of Rome as his legates did affirme And it is most plaine that it did not And therefore that which is in the councill of Sardis which if we shall beleeue the booke of councils set forth by Peter Crab a frier and a papist was at the least fortie yeares after the councill of Nice it maketh nothing to iustifie them and excuse their falsehoode that for the decrees of the Nicen council doe alleadge that which was ordained in that council of Sardis And of that council of Sardis it may truly be said as in the Lateran council or at the least in the Tripartit worke added vnto it complaint is made that now adaies it is harde to finde either olde or newe councils insomuch as the authour doth there maruell that the church of Rome hath beene so negligent in that pointe as not to take order for the better keeping of them Augustine writeth of that council of Sardis that is was an Arrian council holden against Athanasius The time also when it was kept is very vncertaine Yea almost al the circumstances argue great doubtfulnes of that council They that write the story of that council doe write thereof so diuersly both for the number of bishops assembled there and also concerning the Arrians being there which some affirme some deny that therby we may learn how little credit is to be giuen to it for to ground any vncertain or doubtful doctrine vpon y â— it might haue credit But that which maister Bel. doth afterwards say is yet more absurd For hauing affirmed that he is indeed perswaded that these canons which the church of Rome alleadgeth for her supremacy are not in the Nicen couecil but onely in that of Sardis yet he thinketh that Zozimus and Boniface two bishops of Rome did therefore name them the decrees of the Nicen council because they were both written together in a booke at Rome the ignoraunce whereof did much trouble the fathers as he saith Can master Bellarmine suppose that those fathers whose earnest indeuour was at that time to keepe the decrees of the councill of Nicen were ignorant what was to be accounted of that council or what articles belonged to the same Or is it likely that the copies of the councill of Nice shoulde bee more perfect at Rome so many hundreds of miles distant from Nice then at Constantinople which is hard by it or at Antioch or Alexandria not so far distant from it Or doth he thinke it reason that one Romish and another vnknowen copie writen perchance with that councill of Nice by some that sought thereby to increase the dignitie of the church of Rome of set purpose to bring it to that credit that it should be accounted as parcel of the council of Nice can he I say thinke it reason that those two copies should correct and control so many of better credit by a great deale then they are No these are but shifts to blind mens eies and indeede but bables for fooles to play withall Master Bellarmine doth also labour in this place very earnestly to prooue that the council had many decrees moe then those that are in the first tome of councils set forth by Peter Crab or spoken of by Ruffâ—nus To what end is all this Forsooth to excuse his holy fathers that they should not be thought to giue counters for gold or lead for siluer But how can hee excuse them for that they added to the begining of the sixt canon that the church of Rome hath alwaies had the supremacie in which false tricke Paschasinus Legate vnto the Bishop of Rome was taken in the council of Chalcedon For it is not the translation out of Greeke of Dionyse an Abbat almost three hundred yeares after that council was kept that Alan Cope speaketh of and master Bellarmine before hath aleaged for his defence that can haue credit against so many authenticall copyes so diligently sought and sent for so carefully examined by so many hundreds of learned men and so faithfully deliuered for discussing euen of this controuersie for Paschasinus hauing alleadged in that councill of Chalcedon for his maister the Bishoppe of Rome the wordes before mentioned was by those copies disprooued And whereas maister Bellarmine doth set downe this as the intent of the Bishop of Rome in the Councill of Carthage that he meant to shew that not onely all men might appeale to him but also that it were expedient for the church that so they should do Marke how directly the councill of Carthage doeth oppose it selfe against the Pope therein in their epistle which hath this title The Epistle of the Affrican Council to pope Celestine bishop of the citie of Rome For whereas master Bellarmine did confesse that the causes of inferiour ministers might be heard at home but Bishops must be heard at Rome this councill in this epistle saith directly contrary vsing it as an argument from the lesse to the greater If say they the causes of inferior clarks by the councill of Nice are prouided for how much more is it ordered then that bishops if they be excommunicate in their prouince shall not of your Holinesse be hastily or rashly or against order thought to be restored to the communion Thy will him to banish from him such as seeke such wicked refuges because say they the Nicene decrees haue plainely committed not inferiour clarkes onely but also the Bishops to their metropolitanes They assure themselues that no prouince shall want the grace of Gods spirit to order these things And that euerie man may if he mislike of the iudgement of them that haue heard his cause appeale to a councill either prouinciall or generall no wordes of appealing to the pope Unlesse a man will imagine say they that God will grant his spirite of triall of matters to euery one and deny it to all assembled in a Councill And further they alleadge that the trueth of matters examined farre from home can hardly be found out by reason that witnesses can not well be carried so farre For as for the legates à latere that should come from the popes side for examination of such matters they vtterly mislike as a thing not to be found in any of the synods of the
doth also shew that it was not deuised in the daies of the humble popes the proud cardinalles who are these their stately officers were not yet found Many other exceptions might be made to that pretended donation and many moe reasons might haue beene brought against it but this that is said had beene more then enough in so plaine a matter had it not beene that many of the popish writers haue pleased themselues so well in their forged follie Hetherto we haue seene howe the popes haue made of the voluntarie suites that the godly made to the bishops of Rome beeing forced thereto by some extremities necessarie subiection and out of their requests they gather a profession of obedience Then also how they gote the decree of Phocas one their side And lastly howe they got the right of confirming the bishops of Rome out of the emperours hands pretending for these and all other their fulnesse of power sometimes the words of our Sauiour Christ But to supply the want of helpe which there they find for in trueth they make not for that excessiue pride of the Bishop of Rome they pretend although without any colour of truth a gift of these and other their priuiledges from Constantine the great But nowe let vs looke further into their practises Did they now content themselues when they had the commaunding of all bishops and had gotten this name that is vnfitte for any man to be called Head of the vniuersall Churches Could they content themselues with this excessiue honour No. They must yet goe one steppe higher For hitherto the Bishoppes of Rome were subiect to the Emperours as may very well bee prooued by their owne epistles Gregory who did so bitterly inueigh against the proude name of vniuersall bishop that Iohn patriarch of Constantinople tooke vpon him him selfe being a bishop of Rome giueth many euident testimonies of this subiection which the popes did acknowledge to the emperors As most notably in an Epistle to Mauritius the emperour hee calleth the emperour his lord very often yea he abaseth himselfe as vnworthie to speake to his lord he being but dust and a very worme He acknowledgeth himselfe subiect to the emperours commanndement that he oweth him duetie and obedience his vnworthie suppliant and seruant I omit many other that were afore him And out of an infinite number of testimonies that hee doth afforde I haue taken but one and yet that such a one as doeth sufficiently prooue what reckoning the bishops of Rome at that time made of the emperours And yet now we see some pride beganne to shew it selfe in the church For euen now was that a great strife for the name of vniuersall Bishop And that yet euen then did this learned father and Bishoppe of Rome acknowledge himselfe to bee an vnderling to the Emperours yea and after that Phocas had giuen the Bishop of Rome that priuiledge to bee head of the Church almost a hundreth yeeres Agatho a Bishop of Rome doeth write two godly Letters vnto Constantine the fourth Heraclius and Tyberius Emperours wherein very often hee calleth them his Lordes professeth his obedience excuseth their not sending some from the Councill to them as they had commaunded yea and themselues to bee vnto the Emperours seely or simple seruants But in the end this seemed a grieuous yoke and a heavy burden They said within themselues we will not haue this Emperour to rule ouer vs we are they that ought to speake who is Lord ouer vs. But this because it was a very hard attempt it must needes be long in working As in deede it was many hundred yeares The first that I remember that did disgrace in any respect the Emperour was pope Constantine who was not ashamed to suffer Iustinian the Emperour to kisse his feete which after grewe to be the greatest office of curtesie that the pope woulde shew to the greatest monarchs to admit them to that base intertainment which also continueth to this day Of him writeth Onuphrius in his annotations vpon Platina Constantine first of any bishop of Rome durst withstand Philippicus the greeke Emperour to his face openly Perchance because Iustinian that was Emperour next before Philippicus had kissed his feete it made him the bolder with his successour The pretence that Constantine tooke holde vpon to withstand the emperour was this Philippicus vpon good warrant out of Gods word did forbid images and commande them to be abolished in which the idolatrous bishop Constantine did withstand him Afterward Leo the third being Emperour and maintaining that good cause against images Gregory the second that was successour vnto Constantine tooke greater matters in hand against the emperour For he tooke from Leo whatsoeuer belonging to the empire the Longobards had left in all Italy An. 729. I report these stories out of Onuphrius a great friend to the pope and Romish church He also in the same place speaking of another pope Gregory the third who was next after the second telleth how he sought for aide of the French against those Longobards For indeede he reiecting his natural prince to whom in duty he was bound the Emperour did seeke as already he had gotten to be aboue al bishops so in the end to be aboue al princes and potentates in the earth Whereof Gregory the third in this place layeth a good foundation in reiecting an old maister for a new friend Yea he doth excommunicat Leo the Emperour and depriue him to his empire as Platina reporteth Thus we see how the pope hath by little and little gotten to master the Emperour himselfe For as in these popes the beginning hereof was laid so afterwards it grewe more and more vntil at the length the emperours were but their vassals and at their commandement But how they vsed this their immoderat power must be afterwards declared if God wil. Now as this vnsatiable ambition must needs be odious vnto and hated of that mightiest monarch King of Kings and Lorde of Lordes to whom al power in heauen and earth is giuen for if he could not abide that his apostles should so much as reason among thēselues who should be chiefe howe much lesse can he abide that they should despise his lieutenants to aduance themselus so did they assure themselues that it would be enuied at and spited of men And here therefore they want not their practises to keepe them in this highest estate to controll and command euen whom they wil at their pleasures First because none should be so bold as to speake any thing against their pride it was made by pope Pius the second periury or against the oath of a bishop to speake and thing against the pope be it neuer so true It may be also that his meaning was to make the pope to be esteemed as neere of kinne to God himselfe as might be For the expounder of the creede in Ciprians works saith the like of God
that it is dangerous to speake the truth of him But his meaning is that our weaknes and wants will not let vs so speake of him as we should And the popes feare is that if we speake truth of him we must speake otherwise then he would haue vs or were for his honesty Nowe bishops hauing their tongues and pens thus bridled who durst venture to finde any fault If for them to speak the truth be periury what should it be thought in others And thus because he saw that to haue the truth of popes doings known it would be a burning shame he full wisely laieth this blocke in that way and thus maketh vp that gappe And after commeth in to serue their turne that fulnesse of authority and power of the keies which they would so seeme to haue from Christ as that none but they should rule that sterne none but they should haue that iurisdiction So that if they curse none can blesse if they excommunicate none may absolue if they binde no man may loose Wherein they challenge so great priuiledge that they can worke thereby against the law of God the lawe of nature the law of nations They can if you will that they will tell you release the subiectes from the bond of obedience which they owe to their magistrates and the children they can cause to rebell against their parents A perilons practise is this for all princes estates thus to lead the people on the blind side as to make them beleeue that to rebel is to obey and to dishonour their superiours is an acceptable sacrifice to God By these their powerfull keies they also open the dore of immunities and priuiledges of the clergy whereby they are exempt from all corrections and punishmentes vnlesse forsooth it please his holines to deliuer them to the secular power to make them his hangmen But of their owne authority they may not touch him because they are say they the Lordes annointed By which meanes they grew to great sawcines and the state was not a little indangered thereby in many places They had also another practise to maintaine their pride and hold them in their high seate That is auricular confession or that which we call shrift For vnder colour of being ghostly fathers the Popes subtill and sworne friendes had accesse to princes had conference with their counsellours had knowledge of their secrets had opportunity to practise with their false and faithlesse subiectes and they might and did take al occasions by terrifying the consciences of princes in respect of their sinnes which they made knowne to them as if there were no hope of mercy at the hands of God if first they were not reconciled to the Holy Father the Pope and the holy mother the Church of Rome And thus were they euery way distressed their consciences being intangled and their estates indangered But one of their most subtill shiftes was the taking away of knowledge from the people Whereby they became as men that walked in the darke in an vnknowne way They neuer knewe whether they did right or wrong They knew not their own duty They were taught to beleeue as the church beleeued Now although they heard much of the church of Rome yet for the most parte they were not acquainted with it So that the church that must be their direction must be their parson or vicar or perchance their bishop Who if he would leade them out of the way they must needs go wrong Because their light of knowledge was quite put out The Scriptures were either quite taken from them and mens dreames and deuises deliuered to the lay people insteede of them or els they were so corrupted with foolish gloses and so mingled with mens traditions that the true sence and meaning of them was stil vnder a bushell so that it gaue no light at all to them Nowe they not knowing their duty which God had commaunded them to performe to magistrates howe easily might they be drawen aside from the same Yea they through ignorance not beeing able to put a difference betweene trueth and falsehoode howe readily might they be moued to thinke it to be true that they doe say vnto them who were onely reputed and taken for holy Church that the Pope is Christes Vicar that he is so much more excellent then any worldly potentate as the soule is better then the body that there is no lesse difference betweene the glory of the Emperour and the pope then is betweene the brightnesse of the Sunne and of the Moone The pope being like the Sunne and the Emperour compared to the. Moone which hath her light from the Sunne These and other such like blasphemies against the maiesty whome God hath placed vpon earth were accompted good doctrine and strong proofes through want of knowledge And this very effect that ignorance did worke whereby the very brokers for the church of Rome did see themselues and their masters esteemed halfe as Gods and their messages receiued more readily and more constantly kept and more willingly obeied then gods word by a great deale made them to proclaime so lowde and so stiffly to maintaine that ignorance is the mother of deuotion And why should they not when they see that princes are readye by reason of their ignoraunce in Gods trueth to be led and guided by such blind guides euen to the hazarding of their kingdoms And the people therby are withdrawen from al duty so that they may leade both prince and people as Elisha led the Syrians euen into their enemies hands And as this ignorance hath beene a great cause that the pope hath mightily preuailed and aduaunced his seate farre higher than became one of his coate and yet his pride was neuer spied of many euen so at this day for want of knowledge the people are most easily drawen to worship euen the very name of Holy Father and to sucke the breasts of the holy mother the Romish church Whose doctrines if they could examine whose spirites if they coulde trie whose horrible blasphemies against Gods trueth and vnnaturall cruelties against Gods saints if they could with indifferent iudgement consider of if I say the Lord in mercy would vouchsafe them that knowledge they would euen hate the name of a Romish catholike and feare to be of that company and crew that so plainely and stubburnely reiecteth Gods commaundement despiseth Gods magistrates deceiueth Gods people and leadeth them in the waies of death and damnation There are also some other meanes and practises whereby the popes drawe the people into great admiration of them Namely their pardons and indulgences their agnus Dei and such other trash and trumpery whereby they perswade the simple ones that they can effectually and really pardon their sinnes which is Gods office onely take away their iniquities deliuer them from damnation and shield them from all euill And who would not giue all that he hath if he
stile must be called most holy Yea to doubt whether it be a fit name for his holinesse forsooth or not is a sinne more to be punished then the breach of Gods lawe if it be true that Gentiletus writing against the council of Trent reporteth of a bishop that was put out of his bishopricke because in that council he misliked that the pope should be called most holy and God in the scriptures is called but holie And indeede he might iustly mislike it if he duely considered that in God hee could not see any thing like vnto sinne in the pope almost no sparke of goodnesse in these latter ages And this I take to be the reason why master Bellarmine doth not place among the fifteene names that he hath found out for the pope this name most holy because in respect of his vnholinesse he thinketh it pitie to bestow that name vpon him And therefore he should the rather haue borne with master Luther if hee did maruell that the popes flatterers would so prophane that holy title in bestowing it vpon so vnholy men as for the most parte they haue all beene which these many hundred of yeares haue sit in that seate Or at the least hee would not haue giuen the lie to master Luther for signifying that Saint Gregorie would haue misliked the abuse of that name in these dayes As for the name of Christs vicar which is also one of his common title wee would not much sticke to bestow it vpon him our selues if he would content himselfe with that place wherein he is or else should be if he were as he ought to be the vicar of Christ For euerie pastor is in his owne charge Christs vicar and must in Christs steede be a messenger from God and pray the people to be reconciled to God But this is too small a benefice for this prowd prelate too litle a compasse for his ambitious minde He will be vicar generall All the world must be his diocesse all people are his flocke But wee cannot yeeld him that title we cannot displace him whome Christ hath assigned to that Rome euen whilest he was vpon earth and promised to send in his place euen the spirit of truth that euer abiding comforter His eies see our wants his eares heare all our cries yea our sighes and groanes are not hidden from him He is worthie to be Christs vicar generall because hee is with the church in all places yea if it bee in prisons and dungeons But this vicar of Rome as he can not be euery where if he would so in such places he will not be if he could His predecessors indeede that neuer sought so proud titles suffered much for Christes sake But now the case is altered All men must suffer his wrongs and violence His name of father how it can be bestowed vpon him I cannot see vnlesse it be for getting of bastards and so their own stories will report vnto vs that many of them haue beene fathers as Iohn 12. Alexander the sixt and many other But seeing spirituall fathers must beget children to God by the word of truth and by the seede not mortall but by the immortall seede of the worde of God which seede they loue not to sowe for a preaching pope in our dayes is as a blacke swan they cannot therefore get spirituall children vnto God therefore as I said before I cannot see that they can be spirituall fathers If they be called fathers in respect of their age and so it be vsed as a name of reuernce wee enuie then not that name in such sort so that they take it not from other to make it proper to them And these are the names which are commonly giuen in our days to the B. of Rome As for the rest of his titles because we hear them not attributed to popes now I omit Sauing that I must put you in remembrance of one blasphemous name which although it be not a name by which he is commonly called yet it is giuen to him as his due and master Bellarmine because he would not haue him to leese it doth tel vs it is his name He is therefore called the bridegroome of the church Which name master Bellarmine saith was giuen to him by a generall council holden at Lyons it was Anno. 1215. more then twelue hundreth yeares after Christ But as it seemeth it was neuer worthy to be reckoned among the councils For we haue it not in the tomes of councils Yea and the pope Boniface the eight doth challenge to himselfe that proud name we not minding to neglect our iustice and the iustice of our spouse or wife the church saith he what shall this holy church which is likened to a body because it can haue but one head to a house because it can haue but one foundation to an army because it can haue but one captaine or generall to a turtle doue because it can haue but one mate to a kingdoem because it can haue but one king to a sheepfold because it can haue but one sheepheard to a wife because it can haue but one husbād shall shee I say now forsake the husband of her youth or at the least keepe him and another too Who euer heard that an honest woman could at one time haue two husbands or an honest husband haue together two wiues since Christ his time Or how can the holy church that chast virgine who is coupled to Christ be the wife of that vicar of Rome God is a ielous God Christ is a ielous husband his wife must loue none but him Shee therfore can haue no other husband Saint Bernard telleth pope Eugenius that the church is his masters wife It is for him enough to be the friend of the bridegroome he must not call his masters bestebloued his own prince but a prince Yea saith he thou must challenge in her nothing to be thine But master Bellarmine telleth vs that saint Bernard did let Eugenius to vnderstand that he is not the true and chiefe husband of the church We confesse it neither he is nor any man excepting Christ can be the churches true husband And this is also as true that the church because she is chast can haue but Christ her one only husband And this is it that Iohn the baptist meaneth when he saith that he that hath the bride is the bridegroome I haue her not saith he what am I then The friend of the bridegroome Thus doth S. Augustin bring Iohn the Baptist acknowledging that he hath no right in the bridegoomes wife but is only a friend to the bridegroome As also he maketh the bridegroome him only that is lord ouer the whole earth And he maketh his argument strong against Donatus because the church hath but one husband which is Christ therefore Donatus is not that husband nor can be But if master Bellarmines distinction might serue that Christ is chiefe
some euill dealing and telleth him that hee hath more commoditie out of the Realme of England then out of all countries on this side the Alpes And therefore Innocent the third had woont to say of England It is in truth our garden of delight saieth hee a well that can neuer be drawne drie and where there is great abundance there of much much may be gotten Indeed hee and his fellowes had gotten out of this garden manie sweete poses and were much refreshed with the water that they drew out of this well But where is that pastorall care that these Bishoppes should haue had ouer Christs flocke or which they at the least pretended to haue in their Bulles and writings Where is their reioycing at the zeale and godlinesse of the people As is their studie so is their ioy Their studie is how to get and winne temporall possessions they reioyce when they haue gotten the same I haue hitherto proued this especially by our owne stories because they should most moue vs to consider what bondage and slauerie we haue beene brought vnto and giue vs warning to take heede how wee subiect our selues to them who vnder pretence of holinesse doe not onely deuoure widowes houses but euen infinite treasures yea and princes kingdomes also Other kingdomes were not free from these pollings as may appeare by the stories of Fraunce and other places For what place is there whither the pawes and clawes of that couetous Woolfe haue not reached Charles the fourth keeping a diet at Mentz where were the electours and other Princes of Germanie thither also came the Popes Legat in the name of Innocentius the sixth begging some contribution The Emperour hauing heard what the Legat demaunded aunswered that the pope got much money out of Germanie but he sought not to reforme any thing that was amisse in the cleargie And not long after Gregorie the eleuenth demaunded a tenth of all the cleargie men through the empire but the bishops electours would not yeeld to the pilling of their cleargie in such sort But yet as the Abbat of Ursperg singeth them as it were a song and willeth them to reioyce because that money which so well they loue commeth so fast vnto them and they haue store of that which so much they thirsted euen so by their prolling and pilling in euerie corner they get into their handes infinite treasure Nowe if we looke vpon our Sauiour Christ and compare him and his Vicar of Rome together wee shall easilie finde they are no more like then light and darkenesse Christ hath not whereon to lay his head he had nothing They haue all things euen the worlde at will He tooke great paines to preach the Gospell They liue in all ease and pleasure and neuer preach the most of them He trauelled on foot from place to place from the one side of Iewrie to the other The pope if he goe but to S. Peters church must bee borne vpon the shoulders of the greatest potentates Christ had in his traine but a fewe fishers or men despised Their pallaces and traines exceede in pompe and pride the courts of princes He being requested would not meddle with diuiding of land betweene two brethren The pope intrudeth himselfe yea and chalengeth it to be his right to haue to doe in temporall dominions to throwe downe to set vp to place and displace not in small inheritances onelie but in the greatest Monarchies As is seene in the Empire it selfe which he translated from the Grecians to the French and againe from the French to the Germanes and woulde nowe if possibly he coulde bestowe the same vppon the Spaniard taking it from the Germanes as it seemeth by such aydes as hee yeeldeth vnto him in his most ambitious and tyrannicall attempts To be short our Sauiour Christ himselfe did perfourme all dutie and honour vnto princes by whose example and of whom Saint Peter learned that lesson also which hee faithfully taught and deliuered to other Submit your selues to all manner ordinaunce of man for the Lordes sake whether it be vnto the king as vnto the superiour or chiefe or vnto gouernours And againe in the same chapter Honour the King But what doth Christs bad vicar and Peters proud succesior He seeketh by all meanes that he can to increase his owne glorie and riches and that with the staine and reproch with the decay and impouerishing of the mightiest monarches as hath alreadie beene sufficiently I trust declared and might be prooued by a thousand mo testimonies But if you will behold a true patern of the affections that these holy fathers beare to the emperours and kings set before your eies pope Celestine the third sitting in his chaire of estate making Henry the sixt the emperour cast himselfe downe at his feete And he whose hands perchance were too holy to performe so base an office taking the crowne betweene his feete O scorne of all scornes did with his feete crowne both the emperour and his wife the empresse And when he had so doone with his feete he cast from his head the crowne againe For it is meate and drinke to them not to doe the will of God as it was to Christ to doe the will of him that sent him but so to play with princes to bring them into contempt and to let the world see howe scornefully they can vse them Let such as loue the truth and haue desire to saue their owne soules thinking earnestly of these matters If the doings of the bishops of Rome for many hundred yeares be not plaine contrarie to that which our sauiour Christ and his apostles did and taught I craue no credit But if they be let no man no woman be so simple in a matter of so great importance as by shew of good words in which yet there is no truth no sinceritie nothing but hipocrisie to be carried away and deuoted vnto a church in name holy but indeede most prophane in name a mother but in truth a froward stepmother or to a pope insatiable in couetousnesse proude and ambitions and to all countries and princes pernitious and pestilent Nowe as their arrogancie since they came to such excessiue greatnes was intolerable their greedinesse vnsatiable so their mischieuous malice hath beene vnmesurable This appeareth most plainly not only in their dealings with others but also in their had doings one of them against another Who can without wonder or detestation heare of the cruel parts that were commited by Steuen the sixt against the dead body of pope Formosus For he was not content to reuoke his acts and disanul his decrees although he preferred him to be a bishop but like a cruell and vnthankfull churle hee caused his dead bodie to be taken vp out of the graue O holy charitie and that in his presence he drew it about the citie put on it popelike aparrel set it in Peters chaire
their part for all these things are common to the pope and his white sonne the king of Spaine they are their continuall meditations dooth not this sufficientlie proue their cruell malice So that their proude practises and cruell purposes which are two of the fruits of the supremacie of the popes that I haue spoken of are plaine enough euen in our dayes we may see with our eyes the proofe of the same by almost dayly examples But their greedie mindes and couetous affections doe not appeare to vs so plainely as vnto our fathers vnto whom they were an intollerable burthen as I haue shewed before And although we nothing doubt but the fat morsels which they vnderstand their predecessours haue plucked from this land doe make the popes that haue beene in our dayes more eager to get such like againe yet God hauing deliuered vs from the rauening pawes and iawes of that Romish Lion the Lord make vs truly thankefull and in life fruitfull for this his inestimable mercie we feele not the griefe of his exactions But this I trust sufficeth to decalre that the power which the pope vnlawfully hath gotten he vnreasonably abuseth making it a wicked and vngodly meane to crowe ouer princes to fill his coffers and to execute his reuenges And now that the pope was come to that that hee might doe euen what he would to satisfie his proude greedie and cruell lusts he thought it good for him to dwel and continue alwayes in that lawlesse estate And therefore did he not onely striue by all the power and policie that he had and with all his indeuour to maintaine the same for the time present but also did prouide some meanes to maintaine it as hee hoped for euer And to performe this they haue had no small helpe by priuileges and grauntes from princes who at the first when bishops of Rome and others also did applie themselues in some measure to perfourme their duetie were willing to the better incouraging of them to goe on forwardes in well doings and that those worldly things should not be to them any let or hinderance in their callings that were a burthen vnto other they were willing I say to exempt them from such seruices and duties as they required of other to be don vnto them And because that at the first when Christianity began to increase and grow mightie no doubt many that were secret enemies and yet durst not when the Emperors had by law established the christian profession accuse any man for their religion would then lay other faults to their charges and obiect other crimes to bring the Gospel into contempt as appeareth by Tertullian Iustin the Martyr and others that they did when religion was yet professed in corners Now it is not vnlikely but that godly princes to exempt them from such flaunders and reproches would commit the hearing of those accusations vnto such as were of best credite among themselues that when their enemie did see that their accusations were not like to be fauoured vnlesse they were sufficiently proued they might be discouraged from defaming them with vniust reports But howsoeuer these immunities were graunted vnto them at the first or on what consideration I wil not precisely set downe But afterwards I am sure they tooke them as their owne right and that they did alwayes belong vnto them And therefore when as the Emperour would haue taken vpon him to haue iudged of some causes of cleargie men pope Iohn sheweth that hee must not so doe and telleth him boldly but falsely that the almightie God will haue the clearkes and priests of Christian religion to be ordered examined and receiued when they returne from errour not by publike lawes or powers of this world but of bishops and priests Christian emperors saith he must submit their executions to prelates and not preferre them Whereupon the glosse doth gather that the cleargie was neuer vnder the secular power and therfore that all the constitutions that are made that clearks should not be iudged by any but by bishops are but declarations of that their former right And in the same distinction the verie next chapter that pope Iohn is not ashamed to affirme that Christian princes were woont to be obedient to bishops and to how downe their neckes to them And afterwards there is in Gratian a whole treatise to this purpose to proue that as is their alledged out of Caius the Pope no man must presume so much as to accuse before a secular iudge a bishop or any clearke I need not alledge to this end many testimonies These are as plaine as need to be He that would see mo testimonies to this effect let him looke the first question of the eleueuh cause in Gratian he shall see it affirmed with full mouth But how vntruly in a word may be declared And first how false that is which he affirmeth that princes haue alwaies submitted themselues vnto priests there is no colour of truth in it if we examine the shamelesse lie either by the scriptures or by the examples of the emperors and kings in the primitiue church For Moses was the ciuill magistrate and Aaron was the priest Did Moses submit himselfe to Aaron No did he not rather on the contrarie reprooue him as at other times so especially concerning the golden calfe which he caused to be made And did not Aaron in token of his submission to Moses call him his Lord And why did God deliuer the law and the order for all the sacrifices and ceremonies and all the seruices that were commaunded rather by Moses to Aaron and the people Moses being the ciuill magistrate then by the ministerie of Aaron who was appointed to be the priest Did not God hereby testifie that he would haue the ciuill magistrate to haue a speciall regard vnto the things that belong to Gods seruice Was not Abiathar the high priest at the commaundement of Salomon when at the commaundement of Salomon the king he was put from the office of the high priest and the king made Zadocke high priest in his roome But out of manie examples let these suffice for the time before Christ S. Paul when he saith Let euerie soule be subiect to the higher powers teacheth vs that we must not looke that they should submit them selues vnto vs but how sincerely we should obey them And what is meant by the higher powers saint Peter telleth vs that the king is chiefe then other gouernours vnder him And these are the superiour powers which saint Paul meaneth of as if need were might hee proued by all antiquitie If we looke vpon the bishops that were in the time of Constantine and a good while after their stories will teach vs that they as humbly as they could submitted themselues to Emperours and princes called them Lordes intreated them with all submission Yea and Leo the third pope of that name eight hundred yeares after
if they cannot prooue it to be a doctrine generally receiued at all times euen in the dayes of the apostles and so by continuall succession constantly taught in the ages next folowing and so deliuered vs they do but too much abuse the simple to tel them that is catholike auncient that is but the dreame or late deuise of some later teachers Now I call them whatsoeuer antiquity they seeme to haue that swarue any thing from that which the auncient of daies hath taught or Christ who is our true antiquitie hath deliuered It behooueth therfore al christians to take heede of such as vnder pretence of being popish catholicks and vnder or colour of this glorious name which belongeth neither to them neither yet to their religion creepe into corners deceiue the ignorant seeke to make many of their profession by hauing onely in their mouths this worde catholike faith catholike religion catholike church whereas in truth as it seemeth that they being neither thought worthy of preferment at home neither yet finding that they looked for abroad euen as the cormorants gather where the carkas is to get their prey so these seeke their meate and maintenance by seducing such simple and sillie soules Neither doe I affirme that all are moued by these causes either to leaue their natiue countrie either to returne to sowe amongst her maiesties subiects this seede of seduction and sedition but they that doe trouble this Realme are for the most part such and moued by such reasons But as they can not proue by an catholike grounds their title to the supremacie to bee good so their practise is too bad and farre from that christian modestie and meekenesse which should be in Gods children For if saint Peter said truly that such as himselfe was should not as Lords beare rule ouer the Lords hereâ—age but be as examples to the flocke then howe can the pope claime that soueraigne authoritie ouer all kings and whom saint Peter calleth chiefe If none can enter into anie calling especiallie to haue the charge ouer the flocke of Christ vnlesse he be called therevnto as it is confessed by all men what reason can the bishops of Rome pretend why either they should without any warrant nay contrarie to the worde so exalt themselues aboue all other or so vnlawfully or rather by so vile practises and shifts as by violence and strife by buing and selling by falshood and craft by poisoning and murders by sorcerie and the diuels helpe get to be popes Or being placed in that proude place howe commeth it to passe that with so great boldnesse without feare without shame they prophane the maiestie of God and despise yea tread vnder foote the excellencie of man be he neuer so high Is this the fruit of their catholike doctrine Doe such lewde dealings become Christs vicar or Peters successour But to conclude seeing the popes title vnto the supremacie hath no shew of truth and seeing his exercise of the same is almost nothing else but a blaspheming of God and a defacing of all authoritie ordained by God raise and rouse vp your selues after your long sluggishnes O ye christian princes and magistrates shake off from your neckes this yoke of bondage wherein you serue that Italian priest Ioine your powers and strength togither Gather and call a free Councill in deed where the pope as a partie may plead his cause not sit as iudge Force him to content himselfe with that place which the worde of God will aâ—foord him If any more be giuen vnto him or any other yet let not the godly potentats giue vnto any as they haue done such reines of libertie but that they may knowe that authoritie to be but from man and that their power is not full or absolute but onely limited and that if they abuse the same they may and shall answere for their boldnesse according to the qualitie of their offence So shall you deliuer christendome from a heauie bondage your owne realmes from a most daungerous enemie and the church of God from a most manifest Antichrist So shall you vse your authoritie to the comfort of the godly as you should doe and as in dutie you are bound to Gods glorie and establishing of the Kingdome of Christ Now vnto the king euerlasting immortall inuisible vnto God onelie wise be honour and glorie for euer and euer Amen FINIS Iohn 10. 1 10. Mat. 22. 21 Rom. 13. 1. 1. Pet. 2. 13. Esa 1. 12. Rom. 2. 16. Matâ— 23. Answere to the English Iustice cap. 1. Among the letters taken with Car the Hispauiolised Scot. William Allen his letter Cap. 4. Matth. 25. 26. Philip 3. 16 2. Cor. 11. 13. De praescript 1. Pet. 1. 19. Heb. 9. 22. Heb. 9. 12. 10. 14. 2. Cor. 5. 20. Ad Pompeium contra epistolam Stephan Least necessary to saluation Most necessary in some other respects The popes supremacie an enemie to all princes The religion of Papists The popes suprâ—macie the decay of true religiòn Dist 40. cap. 51. Papa The Popes flattâ—reâ—s Praefat. in lib. dâ— Rom. pontif The Popes claim vniust The Church Triumphant Militant The question Whether monarchicall gouernement be best M. Bellarmines first argument to proue there must be one visible head Lib. de pontif Rom. 1. cap. 5. That is not of necessitie be â— gouernment for the Church that is best for other kingdomes De pontif Rom. liâ— 1. cap. 3. Christ king in his Church Reuel 19. 16. Ephes 1. 22. Dan. 7. 14. Psal 72. 8. A pastour in particular churches a particular head â— Sâ—m 8. 7 10. Two heades Bellar. lib. 1. de pontif Rom. c. 9. Pastors appointed of God The pope not of God De pontif Rom. lib. 2. cap. 12. The Popes pride His contempt of the sword of Gods word The Popes charge infinit Tertull. de praescientia haeretic M. Bellar. his second argument Argument 3. Answere Hebr. 8. 9 10. Aaron no figure of Peter The church not subiect to one hie priest De missa li. 1. c. 2 1. Kin. 17. Ionah 3. Arg. 4. Bellarm. Answere Praefat. in ps 139 De Immunit m. 6. e Quoniam Bell. arg 6. Answere Bell. arg 7. Answer Ruffin hist eccl lib. 1. cap. 9. Bellar. arg 8. Answere Prouer. 29. 2. Popish vnitie Psal 2. 2. Vnitie without supremacie Act. 15. â— De Rom pontif lib. 1. cap. 9. An argument against the visible head ouer the whole church The Papists argument for the supremacie De pontif Rom. lib. 1. cap 10. Whether Christ haue resigned his place Ephes 1. 22 and 4. 15. and 5. 23. Coloss 1. 18. Acts 4. 11. â—ad Popes Mat. 28. 25. Ioh 14. 16 17. De praescript haeretie De simplie prel Concil Carth. 6. Galced Concil Act. 16. Lib. â— cap. 3. Barenes of proofe for the supremacie De pontif Rom. li. 1. cap. 12. Mat. 16. 13. Iohn 1. 42. 1. Cor. 3. 11. Esy 28. 16. Bellarm maketh the Popethis stone or Peter