were grosse indeed to imagine so if these Princes c. were not forced vnto it by danger of incurring otherwise some greater inconuenience because it is not probable that all shal be so far gone that they will glory in Antichrists marke though no doubt many will and others will seem to do so though in their harts they mislike it Neither are we to thinke that Antichrist shall want deuises how to do this without paine or deformity But I would faine know where M. Downam found this imagination of branding for I cannot see why all Catholikes may not be vnderstood to speake only of such a visible marke as the signe of the Crosse which is visible inough and yet we see no man branded with it His second Argument is that if this were Antichrist practize euery man would be able to discerne him But what meaneth M. Downam by discerning No doubt men shall discerne him to be an enemy of Christ and the question in those daies wil be which of them is the true Christ for he will affirme himselfe not only to be the true Christ but also will extoll himselfe aboue all that is called God Thirdly M. Downam obiecteth the ordinary glosse Downam contradicteth him selfe Antoninus and Lira and referreth himselfe to some places of Scripture by all which he only ouerthroweth his owne assertion that all Catholikes agree that Antichrists marke shal be such a visible signe as he impugneth since now he himselfe hath found some who thinke otherwise and besides this is a new confirmation that this Character is yet vnknowne since that Authors are so deuided in their opinions concerning it Finally so farre as these Authors agree See part 2. cap. 8. §. 4. with the heretikes or differ from Bellarmine they are sufficiently confuted by him with the same arguments with which he impugned the heretikes themselues And as for the Scriptures we shall more commodiously discusse them in another place where M. Downam vrgeth them somewhat more in particuler for now he alleadgeth them only in generall and so we answere in generall that though other places cannot without absurdity be vnderstood of visible marks yet that proueth not but that this place is so to be vnderstood since no doubt some markes may be visible and all circumstances argue a visible marke in this place though we cannot in particuler certainely tell what this marke shal be which is a plaine token that Antichrist is not yet come as M. Downam maketh Bellarmine to reason in this place and he himselfe demonstrateth a little before applying it to Antichrist name as we haue seene THE TVVELVTH CHAPTER Of Antichrists Generation AS for the fifth saith Bellarmine of the Generation of Antichrist there are some thinges euidently erroneous affirmed by some some thinges probable and some manifest and certayne First then there were in tymes past many errours of Antichrist The first that Antichrist shal be borne of a Virgin by the worke of the Diuell as Christ was borne of a Virgin by the worke of the holy Ghost This errour is reported by the Author of the Treatise of Antichrist which goeth vnder S. Augustines name in the end of his 9. Tome which seemeth probable to be made by Rabanus certainely it is not S. Augustines This is a manifest errour for it is only the worke of God who can supply all efficient causes to produce a man without the seed of man because he only is of infinite power and contayneth virtually all the perfection of creaâ—ures The Diuell who is a creature can indeed doe meruaylous workes by speedy application of actiue thinges to passiue but he cannot supply the actiuity of causes Wherfore S. Augustine ep 3. ad Volusian saith that to be borne of a Virgin was such a miracle in Christ that there could not be a greater expected from God Yet it were no errour to say that Antichrist shall be borne of the Diuell and a woman in that sort that some are said to be borne of the Diuells which we call Incubi for though the Diuell cannot by himselfe without the seed of man produce a man yet he can in a body assumed in the forme of a woman receaue the seed of man and after in the forme of a man cast that seed into a womans wombe so beget a child This S. Augustine testifieth lib. 15. de ciuitate Dei cap. 23. and addeth that this hath ben proued by so great experience that it may seeme madnes to go about to deny it still The second errour was of the blessed Martyr Hippolytus who in orat de consummatione mundi teacheth that Antichrist shal be the Diuell himselfe who shall assume false flesh of a false Virgin for as the word of God who is truth it selfe tooke true flesh of a true Virgin so S. Hippolytus thought it probable that the Diuell who is the Father of lyes would faigne himselfe to haue taken mans flesh of a Virgin This opinion is refuted both because 2. Thessal 2. Antichrist is called a man as also because the rest of the Fathers with common consent do write that Antichrist shal be truly a man The third errour is that Antichrist shal be a true man indeed but withall a Diuell by the incarnatioÌ„ of the Diuell as Christ by his incarnation is God and man This error is reported and confuted by S. Hierome in cap. 7. Dan. Beda in c. 13. Apoc. and S. Damaseen l. 4. c. 28. Origen thought this opinion possible for Tom. 2. in Ioan. he affirmed that some Angells were truly incarnate whom S. Hierome confuteth in praefat in Malach. in cap. 1. Aggaei And doubtlesse it is erroneous for no created and consequently finite person can sustayne two perfect natures as the Word of God who is infinite can Neither is there any controuersy of this now among Deuines for though some say that it doth altogeather imply a contradiction others teach it doth not vet all agree in this that it cannot be done by the force of only a creature as the Diuell is The fourth errour is that Nero shall rise againe and that he shal be Antichrist or els that he liueth still and is secretly preserued in his youthly vigour and shall appeare in his tyme. Sulpitius lib. 2. sacrae hist insinuateth this errour yet lib. 2. dial de virt S. Martini he writeth plainely that Nero shall not be Antichrist himselfe but that he shall come with Antichrist and at length be slayne by Antichrist But because all these thinges are said without any reason S. Aug. lib. 20. de ciu Dei cap. 19. deseruedly calleth this opinion a meruaylous presumption Besides these errours there are two probable opinions of the holy Fathers of the generation of Antichrist The first is that Antichrist shal be borne of an Harlot and not of any lawfull matrimony So teach S. Damascen lib. 4. c. 28. and some others But since it cannot be proued by Scripture it is probable but not certayne The second
to proue that he is not a true Bishop at this tyme. And to begin with Caluin thus he speaketh lib. 4. Instit cap. 7. § 23. 24. I would know what Episcopall thing the Pope hath First the chiefest thing in a Bishop is to teach the people with the word of God Another and next to this to administer Sacraments the third to admonish and exhort and to correct those who offend and to conteyne the people in holy discipline what of these doth he Yea what doth he seigne himselfe to do Let them say therefore how they will haue him to be accompted a Bishop who toucheth not with his least finger no not so much as in show any part of that office It is not the same of a Bishop and a King For a King although he doth not that which is proper to a King notwithstanding he retayneth his honour and title But in discerning a Bishop Christs commaundement is regarded which ought alway to be of force in the Church VVherefore let the Romanists vnty me this knot I deny that their Pope is Prince of Bishops since he is no Bishop So he If I be not decaued all this discourse may be reduced to this short syllogisme Since this is the difference betwixt a Bishop and a King that a King is a name of power and gouernment to which the office of gouerning the people is annexed but a Bishop is a name of the office only of mynistring the word of God and the Sacraments Certainely if neither King nor the Bishop preforme their office the King shall retaine his name and dignity and the Bishop shall loose his But the Bishop of Rome doth not performe his office so much as in shew since that he neither ministreth the word of God nor the Sacraments to the people wherefore the Pope of Rome hath lost his name and dignity and consequently cannot be called a Bishop Now the Madgeburgenses centur 9. cap. 20. col 500. go about to confirme the same with a coniecture and signe for they say that it was an euident signe of the changing of the Roman Church into the whore of Babylon that God would that aboue those tymes in which this change was made a certaine true Woman and harlot should sit in the Popish seate who was called Iohn 8. This they proue first out of the authors Platina Martinus Polonus Sigebertus and Marianus Scotus Secondly out of the stepps or signe thereof which haue remained to our tymes viz. by a certaine seate of Prophyry hollow within which remayned in the pallace of S. Io. Lateran the vse of which they say was appointed after the discouery of this cryme to wit to discerne whether the new Pope were a man or no. Likewise by a certaine Statua of a woman with childe which hath remayned to our tymes in that place where Iohn 8. is said to haue byn deliuered Finally for that the Popes when they go from the Vatican to S. Io. Laterans are wont to decline that place where this woman is said to haue bene deliuered in detestatioÌ„ of that fact For otherwise that is the right way but it is no hard matter to vnty these knots And first to answere to Caluin either he speaketh of the signification of the name or of the thing it selfe when he saith that a Bishop is a name of an office a King the name of dignitie if he speaketh of the signification of the name he is plainly deceaued for as Episcopus is deryued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of considering or looking vpon and signifieth the office of looking to so also Rex is deriued of gouerning in latin à regendo and signifieth the office of gouerning and as Rex is the name of a Magistrate so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also among the Heathens was the name of a Magistrate viz. of the Pretor as is manifest out of Aristophan in auibus and that which is more the same name of Pastor in the Scripture is attributed to a Bishop and a King as is manifest Ephes 4. Isa 44. And if he speaketh of the thing it selfe he is no lesse deceaued for as Kingly office is not a simple office of iudgging as of other Iudges but a true Prefecture in politicall affayres that is a power of gouerning men that are subiect to him by coÌ„maunding punishing so also a Bishoprick is not a simple office of preaching as it is of many other who preach and are not Pastors but it it a true Ecclesiastical Prefecture that is a power to gouerne men in spirituall diuine affayres and consequently of coÌ„maunding punishing of which we haue said much already and yet will say more in the booke following Now it shall suffice to note a few but most cleere places The Apostle S. Paul 1. Cor. 11. saith I will dispose the rest when I come and 2. Cor. 13. that I deale not more seuerely according to the power which our Lord hath giuen me and Heb. 13. obey your Superiours be subiect vnto them and 1. Tim. 5. Receaue not aceusatioÌ„ against a Priest but vnder 2. or 3. VVItnesses Adde to this also that it is false the Popes performe not the Episcopal function for they are not bouÌ„d to preach and minister Sacraments themselues if they be hindred by some iust cause but it is sufficient if they procure that all this be done by others otherwise Bishops should be bound to impossibilityes for there is no Bishop so little who can be sufficient of himselfe to preach minister Sacraments in all his Diocesse As therfore he satisfieth if in that place where he cannot himselfe he preacheth by another so likewise he satisfieth if in all places he preacheth by another when he cannot do it himselfe in any Neyther want there examples of antiquity for Possidius writeth in the life of S. Augustine that S. Valerius Bishop of Hâ—ppe committed the office of preaching to S. Augustine his Priest because he being a Grecian could not preach himselfe to a Latin people and in the same place Possidius relateth that in the East Church many Bishops were wont to coÌ„mit the office of Preaching to their Priests which they could not exercise themselues And yet we caÌ„not say that eyther S. Valerius or others who preached not the word of God themselues were not Bishops To the argument of the Magdeburgians I say that their history of Pope Iohn the Woman is a fable which Onuphrius refuteth sufficiently in his addition to Platina And first it is conuinced to be a fable by the testimonie of Greek Latin Wryters The first of all who could wryte of this thing and who best knew it was Athanasius Bibliothec. who liued in that very time in which this Iohn â— is feigned to haue bene Pope viz. about the yeare 850. was present at the creation of many Popes who eyther were before or followed this Iohn He therfore writeth that after Leo 4. the Sea was vacaÌ„t 15. daies and presently by common
the name of Constantinople being omitted there remayned the fame and opinion of a woman Bishop and Vniuersall Bishop some began in hatred of the Roman Church to say that that woman had bene Bishop of Rome And it is very like that this fame arose about the tyme of Martin himselfe Certainly Martinus Polonus who first wrote it bringeth no Author but only said It is reported wherfore he only had it by an vncertaine rumour Neither ought it to seeme strange if some feigned this fable in hatred of the Church of Rome that ground of a woman being Bishop supposed and there being so many contentions at that tyme betwixt those which fauoured the Emperours and others which fauoured the Popes for now also we see that the Magdeburgians do feigne more incredible things for wheras Martin only wrote that this was an English woman of Mentz and added nothing of the Parents proper name of the woman and other things the Magdeburgians haue added that the Father of this woman was an English Priest and that she in the beginning was called Gilbert and that she was brought vp in the habite of a man in the Monastery of Fulda and that she wrote bookes of witchcraft which are all meere fancies inuented without witnesse or reason Adde that this Martinue Polonus seemeth to haue bene a most simple man for he writeth many other fables as though they were most authenticall hystories Now that which they obiect of the hollow seate of the womans Statua and the going out of the way is easily solued for as is manifest out of the first booke of sacred Cerimonyes Sect. 2. there were three seates of stone in the Lateran Church in which the new Pope did sit at the tyme of his Coronation The first seate was before the entrance into the Temple which was vile and abiect to which seate the new Pope was first brought and did sit vpon it for a little space that it might be signified by that cerimony that he ascended from a most low place to the highest place that is for lifting him from thence they sung that 1. Reg. 2. Suscitat de puluere egenum de stercore erigit paâ—perem vt sedeat cum Principibus solium gloria teneat and this is the cause why that seate is called Stercoraria Another seate was of Porphiry in the Pallace it selfe and there he sate the second tyme in token of Possession and sitting there he receaued the Keyes of the Church of the Lateran Pallace The third seat was like the second and not farre from it and after sitting a little in it he deliuered the same keyes to him of whome he had receaued them before Perhaps that by that cerimomony he might be admonished of death by which ere long he was to resigne that power to another Of any seate to discouer the sexe there is no mention any where And that Statua of the woman with child without doubt was not of Pope Iohn for if our Aduersaries say that the ancient Historiographers would not make mention of this woman in their bookes in the Popes fauour how is it probable that the Popes themselues would haue memory of it extant in a Statua Besides if it were the Statua of this Iohn it should haue represented a Woman with an infant newly borne but that Image did neither represent a woman nor did carry an infant in her armes but did expresse a good big boy and many yeares old as a seruant going before Wherefore some do coniecture that it was a Status of some heathen Priest prepared to Sacrifice before whom his Minister went Finally it is not in destestation of that cryme why the Popes go not the shorter way to the Lateran but because the way is narrow and steepy and therefore incommodious for the Popes trayne or compaine which alwayes vseth to be very great Adde that as Onuphrius witnesseth there want not Popes who haue oftner then once gone that very way FINIS Omnia Ecclesiae Catholicae Romanae subiecta sunto A TABLE OF THE PARTICVLER MATTERS CONTEYNED IN THIS BOOKE ADORATION of Images the Eucharist vsed before the yeare 606. c. 11. n. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what it signifieth in composition cap. 1. nu 3. Antichrist how taken in the Scriptures other Authors c. 1. n. 4. His members somtime open enemies to Christ cap. 2. n. 11. How he shal be an Apostata c. 2. n. 15. How he shall draw men to follow him c. 2. n. 17. His comming and reuelation all one cap. n. 18. He shal be one particuler man cap. 2. per totum He is signifyed by the former beast Apoc. 13 cap. 5 n. 5. His false Prophet is signified by the latter ibid. Whether he be the wounded head Apoc. 13. ibi His persecution most grieuous cap 7. n. 1. Greater then the calamities of the Iewes cap. 7 n 2. It shal be most manifest c 7 n â— In Antichrists time all the Churches enemies shall ioyne to impugne her c. 7. n. 6. The publike and daily sacrifice shall cease cap. 7. n. 7. The last moneth of Antichrists life is not accouÌ„ted in his raigne cap 8. n. â— He shall reigne yeares a halfe cap. 8. per totum He shal be Prince of all the wicked in generall c. 8. n. 3. The tyme of his reigne very short cap. 8. n. 5. He may rayse an vniuersall persecution at one time cap. 8. n. 6. Two degrees of his destruction c. 9. n. 2. Antichrists comming shall not be long before the end of the world c. 9. per totum He cannot be said to come at all but in the last houre cap. 9. n. 3. His name shal be knowne when he is come cap. 9. n. 1. 2. It is yet vnknowne c. 10. n. 4. He shal be a most potent King c 10. n. 7. His Marke or Character but one cap. 11. n. 4. He shall be receaued of the Iewes for their Messias cap 12. n. 4. seq He shal be Iew cap 12. n. 10. His seat shal be at Ierusalem c. 13. n. 1. seq Why those that follow him are called Gentills cap 13. 1. He shall sit in materiall Churches and not in the Church of Christ as a Bishop cap. 13. n. 10. Whosoeuer vsurpeth more dignity then is due to him is his forerunner ib. He is the head of all the proud ib. He shall openly deny Iesus to be Christ c. 14. n. 2. seq How he shall seduce cap. 14. n 3. He shall exceed all heretikes ibid. He shall deny Christ to be so much as the adopted sonne of God c. 14. n. 4. he shall prohibite the signe of the Crosse in Baptisme ib. he shal be the Iewes Captaine ibid. he shall restore all their cerimonies ibid. he shall cause the Sabaoth to be obserued ibid. he will openly affirme himselfe to be Christ c. 14. n. 7. he will openly name himselfe God cap. 14. n. 9. Why how he shall sit in the Temple ibid. He