Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	power_n	spiritual_a	temporal_a	1,927	5	9.8031	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25228	Some queries to Protestants answered and an explanation of the Roman Catholick's belief in four great points considered : I. concerning their church, II. their worship, III. justification, IV. civil government.	Altham, Michael, 1633-1705.	1686 (1686)	Wing A2934; ESTC R8650	37,328	44

King may with impunity be deposed or killed by any one saith Suarez Desens Fid. l. 6. c. 6. Sect. 24. The Pope can make that he who is a King shall be no King and then you are disobliged saith Bellarm. contr Barcl c. 7. The Secular power is subject to the Spiritual The Pope hath a sovereign power over Christian Kings and Princes to correct depose and appoint others in their places If a King be guilty of Heresie Schism or any intolerable crime against his People if he be guilty of negligence or sloth in his government if he fail in the performance of his Oaths and Promises or oppress the Church the Pope may divest him of his Royal Dignity saith Abrah Brovius de Pontif. Roman c. 46. p. 621. Col. 2. Which Book was printed at Cologne Anno 1619. and solemnly recommended and approved by his Superiours and Licensed by the Apostolick Inquisitor I might be infinite in instances of this kind but having almost wearied my self with raking in such a Dunghill I am not willing to tire my Reader too I shall therefore only produce one unexceptionable Witness more and that shall be their great and renowned Champion Bellarmine out of whose 5th Book De Romano Pontifice I shall take the pains to transcribe some passages and having subjoyned thereunto some instances of their practices suitable to their declared principles I shall then leave it to the judgment of any indifferent person what kind of Loyalty and Fidelity Sovereign Princes especially those who are of a different persuasion may hope to find from their Roman Catholick Subjects Bellarmine in the first Chapter of his fifth Book De Romano Pontifice having rejected two extreme Opinions concerning the Pope's power the one taught and maintained by Augustinus Triumphus Alvarus Pelagius Hostiensis and others of his own Communion viz. That the Pope by a Divine Right hath a most plenary power over all the World as well in Political as Ecclesiastical affairs And the other delivered by Calvin Peter Martyr Brentius and others whom he calls Hereticks viz. That the Pope as Pope hath not by Divine Right any Temporal power at all nor upon any account can command Secular Princes much less deprive them of their Kingdoms and Principalities and that Spiritual persons ought not to exercise Temporal Dominion He at last lays down a middle Opinion between both which he tells us is the common Opinion of Catholick Divines viz. That the Pope as Pope hath not directly and immediately any Temporal power but only a spiritual yet by virtue of that Spiritual power he hath indirectly at least a supreme power in Temporals This Opinion he undertakes to explain in his Sixth Chapter where he tells us That in Order to a Spiritual good he hath a Supreme Power of disposing all the Temporal things of all Christian People Which Power is just such over Princes as the Soul hath over the Body or sensitive Appetite by Virtue of this Power he may change Kingdoms and take them from one and give them to another he may make and alter suspend and abrogate Civil Laws as the Chief Spiritual Prince if it be for the safety of Souls In his Seventh Chapter he endeavours to prove this Exorbitant Power of the Pope by reasons all which are founded in the Subordination and Subjection of the Temporal to the Spiritual Sword which is a Foundation that will certainly fail him However upon this Foundation he thus builds The Ecclesiastical Republick can command and compel the Temporal which is indeed its Subject to change the Administration and to depose Princes and to appoint others when it cannot otherwise defend the Spiritual good And again it is not lawfull for Christians to suffer an Infidel or Heretical King if he endeavour to draw his Subjects to his Heresie or Unbelief But to judge whether a King do draw to Heresie or not belongeth to the Pope to whom the Care of Religion is committed therefore it belongs to the Pope to judge whether a King be to be deposed or not And if any one ask why the Christians of old did not depose Nero and Diocletian and Julian the Apostate and Valens the Arian He roundly answers it was not because they wanted Right but because they wanted Power to do it But lest any scrupulous Christian should boggle at those horrid things which these declared Principles must of necessity lead them to as Rebellion Murder Breach of Faith Violation of Oaths c. He will tell them that they are not answerable for any of these things For if the Pope should mistake and command Vice and forbid Vertue yet it were a sin against Conscience for the Church not to believe those Vices to be good and those Vertues to be evil All these instances that I have now laid before you were of men who lived and died in the Communion of the Church of Rome and most of them men of great Eminency both for their Parts and Places and therefore very likely to understand the Religion they professed Now either these men or our Explainer must be very much out and strangely unacquainted with the Principles of their Religion or else the Explainer must industriously design to put a chear upon those Persons of Quality to whom he presents his Scheme For nothing can be more different than his Explanation and this Declaration which these men have left upon Record But I think the choice is very easie which of these ought to be believed in this case and if this Cloud of Witnesses carry it as undoubtedly they will against one single unauthorized Explainer then certainly he was in the wrong box when the so much boasted of the Loyalty of the Roman Catholicks And now I shall only subjoyn an account of some few of their Practices correspondent to these Principles and they being put together will I suppose sufficiently discover the mistake of our Explainer Leo Isaurus Emperour of Constantinople was excommunicated by Pope Gregory the II d. his Country given away to the Lombards by which means he and his Successors lost all the Western Empire which the Pope and the French King afterwards shared between them Henry the IV th Emperour of Germany was excommunicated by Pope Gregory the VII th his Subjects absolved from their Obedience Rodulph Duke of Sueden and Burgundy set up against him to whom a Crown was sent by the Pope with this Inscription The Rock gave the Crown to Peter and Peter gives it to Rodulph Childericus King of France by the Advice and Authority of Pope Zachary the I st had his Head shaven was thrust into a Monastery and Pipinus Son of Carolus Martellus who was but a Subject and Servant to the King was anointed King in his stead Henry the III d. King of France was killed at the Siege of Paris with an empoysoned Knife by a Jacobine Fryar called Jaques Clement Which Murther Pope Sixtus the V th by a solemn Oration in the Consistory September the 2d 1589. commended to the Skies as Rarum insigne memorablile facinus So publickly was the King killing Doctrine owned by them at that time And what effect this Papal approbation did produce is evident for upon this encouragement King Henry the IV th Successor to Henry the III d. was also stabbed with a consecrated Dagger by a Jesuite named Ravilliac How frequent the excommunicating and deposing of Princes the absolving of Subjects from their Duty and Obedience and the stirring up of Tumults and Seditions against them by Popes and Papalins hath heretofore been History is so full that it would be an Herculean labour to transcribe all the instances thereof Now these declared Principles and avowed Practices of Roman Catholicks being put together and compared with our Explainer's profession may sufficiently evince how much he hath abused those Persons of Quality and how unfairly and dishonestly he hath dealt with them in his Explanation of the Roman Catholick's Belief in this Point But one would think he durst not deal thus considering what a solemn Protestation he makes in the Close of his Explanation For thus he concludes These we sincerely and solemnly profess as in the sight of God the searcher of all Hearts taking the words plainly and simply in their usual and familiar sense without any Equivocation or Mental Reservation whatsoever Were we not so well acquainted with the Power of Dispensations and the force of Mental Reservation among them did we not know that by these Artifices they can elude the most solemn Protestations make void all Oaths and Promises and dissolve any the most sacred Bonds which can be invented to oblige men it would look very uncharitably to suspect any man after such a solemn Protestation But that they can do all this and think they can do it with a safe Conscience notwithstanding their Protestation to the contrary is a ruled Case among their Casuists I shall only at present trouble you with one instance which is very applicable to the case in hand and with that conclude On occasion of the Powder-plot here in England an Oath of Allegiance was thought necessary to prevent such horrid attempts in time to come which a Roman Doctor cited by Arch-Bpishop Usher under this Character B. P. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epistol I. R. Impres An. 1609. taking notice of laughs aloud at the simplicity of it His words are worth remembring Sed vide in tanta astutia quanta simplicitas c. But see what simplicity here is in so great Craft When he had placed all his security in that Oath he thought he had framed such a manner of Oath with so many Circumstances which no man could any way dissolve with a safe Conscience But he could not see that if the Pope dissolve the Oath all its Knots whether of being faithfull to the King or of admitting no Dispensation are accordingly dissolved Yea I will say a thing more admirable you know I believe that an unjust Oath if it be evidently known to be such or openly declared such it obligeth no man That the King's Oath is un●… is sufficiently declared by the Pastor of the Church himself You see now that the Obligatian of it is vanished into smoke and that the ●…nd which so many wise men thought was made of Iron was 〈…〉 Straw FINIS

I say will outweigh any Authority which this Explanation can pretend to then what becomes of all this goodly Profession which he here makes where shall we find all that faithfulness and sincerity which he here boasts of if making and breaking of promises if swearing and forswearing if the violation of all the most sacred Bonds wherewith mankind can be obliged may pass for faithfulness and sincerity we may expect great store of it amongst them And indeed whilst there is a power given to the Pope to dispense with Oaths and Promises and a liberty given to the People to make good all they say or swear by the Law of directing the Intentions by the Power of Equivocation and the force of Mental Reservation I cannot see any reason why we should expect better But if this be the Faithfulness and Sincerity they boast of we bless God that we know none such amongst us and we hope this will never prove an Argument sufficient to perswade any of ours to desert the Communion they are of for a Communion that allows such things as these And thus have I given you an account of their Faithfulness and Sincerity 2. The other thing which he boasts of is their Loyalty For he tells us They are most strictly and absolutely bound to an exact and entire performance of their promises made to the Magistrates and Civil Powers under whose protection they live whom they are taught by the word of God to obey not only for fear but Conscience sake and to whom they will most faithfully observe their promises and duty of Obedience notwithstanding any dispensation absolution or other proceedings of any foreign Power or Authority whatsoever We do indeed firmly believe That both they and we and all Subjects are most strictly and absolutely bound to an exact and entire performance of all those promises which we make to Magistrates and Civil Powers and that there is no power on earth either Foreign or Domestick that can dispence with our Oaths and Promises or absolve us from our Duty and Allegiance But whether this be the Belief of Roman Catholick we are not so well assured If we will take it upon the bare word of our Explainer it is but having found him faulty and disingenuous in the former points we may suspect him in this and therefore must not swallow all that he saith for Gospel till we have examined it We very well know that the Doctrines of learned and allowed Casuists and Practices of those who have greatest authority in the Roman Church have been quite contrary to this Explanation and we never found any disposition in them to so great a condescension nor ever heard that there was any such Reformation made in their principles and practices by any publick Authority among them If our Explainer had produced any authentick Records of any such thing we should with a great deal of readiness and rejoycing have embraced them but we cannot admit of his bare word as a sufficient evidence in this case Our blessed Saviour assureth us that no man can serve two Masters Matth. 6.24 Whilst therefore those of the Roman Communion do own the Pope as Supreme Head of the Church and allow him a sovereign and uncontrollable power over them both in Temporals and Spirituals by virtue of which he can dispense with their Oaths and Promises when he pleaseth we cannot see how they can be so exact in the performance of their promises made to Civil Powers For it is not only possble but often happens that the Civil Power under whose protection they live doth not own the Papacy nor hath any regard for the pretended power and dominion thereof and in such a case it is very likely their commands will interfere which if they do as we know they very often do how a Roman Catholick will carry himself even and so exactly divide his obedience to these different Sovereigns and their different commands as to please both I cannot as yet imagine How our Explainer will resolve this case I know not but I very well know that the Doctors and Casuists of the Roman Church and their Popes too will roundly tell us That the Power of the Pope is superiour to that of the Prince and therefore he is to be obeyed in the first place And if so then what becomes of all that Loyalty and Fidelity to Civil Powers which our Explainer so much boasts of To shew you therefore that notwithstanding this so specious Explanation of their Faith in this point we have sufficient reason to suspect the candour and ingenuity of the Explainer and the truth of what he says I shall only confront him with the declared Doctrines and avowed Practices of their own Church in this case All the Jurisdiction of all the Kings and Princes of the World dependeth on the Pope saith P. Clem. 5. in Concil Vienn And Pope Pius 5. in his Bull against Queen Elizabeth doth strictly will and command all her Subjects to take Arms against that Heretical and Excommunicate Queen The Deposing and King killing Doctrine dispensing with Oaths of Allegiance c. were made Articles of their Faith by the fourth General Council at Lateran under Pope Innocent 3. And it is pleasant to observe how nicely scrupulous some of their great men are in resolving this case gravely telling us That private men may not kill a King till he be deposed but if once he be excommunicate then he is no King and then they may kill him without scruple Or if he be an Heretick which the Pope can make him when he pleaseth then they may kill the Heretick but not the King Thus Suarez advers Sect. Anglic. l. 6. c. 4. Sect. 14. And c. 6. Sect. 22.24 Thus also Azorius the Jesuite Instit Moral part 1. l. 8. c. 13 And thus Mariana de Reg. Instit l. 1. c. 7 c. The Rebellion of a Clergyman against his Prince is not Treason because he is not his Prince's Subject saith Emman Sá Aphor. verb. Clericus When a Prince is Excommunicate before the Denunciation the Subjects are not absolved from their Oath of Allegiance as Cajetan says well yet when it is denounced they are not only absolved from their Obedience but are bound not to obey unless the fear of Death or loss of Goods excuse them which was the case of the English Catholicks in the time of Henry the Eighth saith Card. Tolet. conc●r Eccles in Angl. fol. 336. It is the Sentence of all Catholicks that Subjects are bound to expell Heretical Princes if they have strength enough and that to this they are tyed by the Commandment of God the most strict tye of Conscience and the extreme danger of their Souls saith F. Creswel in Philopat Sect. 2. n. 160 161. Nay even before the Sentence is declared though the Subjects are not bound to it yet lawfully they may deny Obedience to an Heretical Prince saith Greg. de Valentia Tom. 3 disp 1. q. 12. punct 2. An Excommunicate