dubble power of gouerning the Church one particular in the Citie of Rome an other general ouer al Bisshoppes Now such a primate of al Bisshoppes S. Iames was not albeit he was a Bishop of some Bishops To end this mater let vs heare the iudgement of S. Gregorie Certè Petrus Apostolus primum membrū sanctae Lib 4. ep 38. vniuersalis Ecclesiae est Paulus Andreas Ioannes quid aliud quâm singularum sunt plebium capita Surely Peter the Apostle is the chiefe member of the holy and vniuersal Churche Paule Andrew Iohn what other thing are they then eche one the heades of particular Churches Here S. Gregory meaneth not to saie that Saint Paul or S. Andrew coulde not preache in all the worlde God forbid but onely that as Bisshoppes they coulde haue but this or that flocke vnder them In 1. Reg. lib. 4. c. 4. totius Ecclesiae principatū obtinuit whereas otherwise Sainte Gregorie him selfe confesseth that S. Paule obteined the chiefe gouernmēt of the whol Church And the like all the other Apostles obteined by their Apostleshippe without anye diuision of flockes or Churches assigned by Christe But Peter hadde the charge of the whole Churche not onely as an Apostle but also as a high Bisshop And therein onlie S. Gregorie meaneth that he passed Paule Andrew or Iohn This much I trust may suffise them who will be satisfied for proufe that whereas euery Apostle had in him the whole right of the Apostleshippe and also the right of being a particular Bissshoppe Saint Peter had not only those two Authorities but also he had the right of the highest Bisshoppe in respect of all other Bisshoppes He as a Bisshoppe vvas the chiefe member of the whole militant Church that is to saie to the head thereof as S. Gregorie teacheth a Lib. 4. ep 38. He was the bisshop of bisshops saith Arnobius b in Psal 138. and the Primate of al prelates saith Leo. c. serm 2. in aniuers d lib. 2. ad Eugen. the pastor of al pastors saith S. Bernard He alone by the iudgement of Arnobius was called of Christ a Pastor because there was none other aduaunced to that power of feedinge which he receiued He was preferred a greate way before the Apostles in authoritie lib. 2. de Sacerdotio saith d lib. 2. ad Eugen. S. Chrysostome In him being one Pastour vnitie was signified saith S. e in Psal 138. e Homil. de pastor Augustine He was the vicare of Christes loue in feeding vs as S. f in Lucae 24. Ambrose affirmed Cōcerning this primacie of his Bisshoply power in that sense he was much more properly the guide toppe mouth chief and head of the Apostles then in the Apostolike function For whereas they were chosen Apostles aequally with him he alone was chosen high Pastour aboue them Al these things haue ben proued out of Gods word and out of the holy Fathers Order now requireth that I should shew S. Peters prerogatiue also by the continuance of his authoritie That the pastoral or chiefe Bisshops authoritie of s Peter was an ordinary authoritie and therefore it must goe for euer vnto his successours whereas the Apostolike authoritie being extraordinarie hath no successours in it The Xiij THe Apostles were instituted for a certain purpose Matth. 23 Act. 1. verilie to publish the Gospel and to plant the faith of Christe in al nations with a most absolute power and with an autoritie which neuer should be controlled For seing S. Peter being one man alone was not able to preach the Gospel at once in al places nor by and by to gouern diuerse nations newly conuerted as whose commission from Christ was not as then sufficientlie knowen Christ gaue him twelue Companions with as full authoritie ouer the sheepe for the time as he had who hauing conuerted manie countries to the faith might commend them all as sheep to be fedde of many pastours vnder one perpetuall chiefe shepheard S. Peter Who knoweth not that it is muche easier for one mā to gouern al the faith full being once conuerted and wel instructed by the helpe of many inferiour officers then it is for him to subdue al those vnto the faith which being as yet infidels are also dispersed into diuerse quarters But when the Apostles had spread the faith into all partes of the world with the death of them the Apostolike authoritie likewise was at an end And that being confessed by our Aduersaries euen this last yere in a Confession printed at Zurich needeth no farther proufe An. 1566. tit 18. For they saie when the Churches wer now stablished the Apostles ceased to be But that S. Peter must haue successours not in his Apostleship but in his supremacie of being chiefe Bisshop aboue al Bisshops that now is to be declared Who so marketh the peculiar names of a Rock of a Pastour Matth. 16. Ioan. 21. Luc. 22. and of a Cōfirmer of his brethern whiche are geuen by Christ to S. Peter alone may wel perceiue that S. Peters supremacie being meant by those names must necessarilie continue for euer If a rock be laid in the foundation of the house to staie it vp out of al question the rock must not be taken awaie if we will haue the house to stand The Rocke wherevpon the whole Church is built from the beginning of the world to the end 1. Cor. 3. 10. Dan. 7. is Christ himself but not onlie the whole Churche but also that part which liueth in the earth for the tyme wherin vessels both of honour and of cōtumelie are which vessels of contumelie are not in heauē that part I 2. Tim. 2. 1. Tim. 3. say liuing on the earth is called the house of God as S. Paule teacheth Therefore it also must haue a rock of his own sort and nature to leane vnto For as Christ alone is the vniuersal Rocke of that vniuersal howse and the vniuersal shepheard of that great flocke so besyde him God alwaies erected some certain particular stones ād certain smal Rockes in the earth which might stay vp that part of his house which for the time wandered in this worlde Such were Adam Enos Henoch Noe Abraham Isaac Iacob Math. 23. Moyses Aaron and his successours who sate in the chaire of Moyses vntil the cōming of Christ For alwaies there was some visible Rocke of the Churche in this life Deut. 17. who might be so strongly fastened in the faith of Christ the great Rocke that he though not for his own yet for the Churches sake might be able to staie vp other small stones which leaned vnto him Christ at the length hauing taken flesh and walkīg visibly in this world ād preachīg in the lād of Iewrie did not only stay his vniuersal house vpon his Godhead as he had euer done before but nowe also he staied the militant Church vpon the visible example of his own life and vpon the
of those wordes but expresly of the other words which went â—fore when Peter said False conueiance Thou art Christ the Son of the liuing God And that would haue appeared plainâ— if you had not cut of the sentence For after S. Hilarie had said this is â—e only happy Rock confessed by Peters â—outh it followeth immediately Tu â—s filius Dei viui Thou art the Son â—f the liuing God And whereas the â—ronoune Haec petra this Rock was â—eferred to these wordes False diuision Thou arte Christ the Son of the liuing God â—he falsifier of al good writers diuided â—he Pronoune Demonstratiue Haec â—rom the Proposition which it should â—oint vnto and did cut of the sentence â—n the middest making the ignorante â—eleue that S. Hilarie spake of the rock wherevpon Christ promised to builde his Church whereas he speaketh of the â—onely Rock which is the Sonne of God To make the mater plaine Peter saith to Christ Thou art the Sonne of the liuing God Matth. 16 this Rocke whâ—â—â— the Son of God is Peter out of al coÌ„trâ—uersie is not Neither did euer any Catholike say that Peter was the nature Sonne of God by whom al things weâ— made But after that Peter had confessed this only blessed rock then Christ said vnto Peter Thou art Peter aÌ„d vpon this Rocke wil I builde my Church Of this later sentence oâ— disputation is And surely S. Hilarie denieth not Peter to be this kind of Rocke which we last spake of but expresly confesseth it in his CoÌ„mentaries vpoÌ„ S. Mathew as I haue shewed already In the V. chap. But now S. Hilarie speaketh only of that Rock which the Son of God is So wheras there are two rocks Christ and Peter M. Iewel would deceiue vs by conueying the one in stede of the other But God hath detected his vnhonest dealing Ievvel Again he saith vpoÌ„ this Rock of Peters coÌ„fession is the building of the Church Sander This place is abused as the â—ormer was De Trinitate lib. 6 For S. Hilarie there inâ—reateth of these wordes Thou art Christ the Son of the liuing God And sheweth that Peter both beleued and confessed Christes Godhead The confession of which Godhead is in deed the foundation of the Church but that confession is one thing and the answer to it is an other thing The confession toucheth the honor of Christ saying Thou art the Sonne of God The answere toucheth the honour of Peter saying Thou art Peter and vppon this Rock I wil build my Church Christ is the Rocke that Peter confesseth Tvvo Rocks and Peter is the Rocke which Christ maketh The confession concerning the thing confessed is a greater Rock then Peter But concerning the thing who coÌ„fessed Peter is no lesse a rock then his own act of coÌ„fession was Now when Christ saith Vppon this Rock I wil build my Church he meaneth not only nor first of al literally that he will hereafter build his Church vppon the thing confessed to wit vpon the Godhead of Christ which Petâ—â—â—onfessed for therevpon it was built already Tvvo buildings euen from the beginning of the world but he meaneth that he wil build that Church which was for euer built vpon his Godhead and was built vpon his manhood euer sith his incarnation that Church I say he wil hereafter build vpon the inward faith aÌ„d outward confessioÌ„ of S. Peter whiles he by confessing the truth shal vphold staie aÌ„d stablish al other faithful meÌ„ So that S. Hilarie includeth S. Peters person most necessarily vnder the coÌ„fession of S. Peter And so M. Iewel telleth the tale alwaies against him self as liers do Ievvel Dial. 4. de trinit S. Cyrillus The Rocke is nothing els but the strong and assured faith of the Disciple Sander This is that I would haue M. Iewel for I said before that Christ in saying Vppon this Rock I will build my Church did not now onely or most literallie meane so muche vppon the thing confessed as vppon the faith of the confessour and now M. Iewel confirmeth my saying For the Rocke is the faith of the Disciple But the Disciple is S. Peter therefore the faith which is the Rock is the faith of S. Peter Who hiered M. Iewel to bewraye his owne cause When I say that Saint Peter is this Rocke I meane S. Peter beleeuing Saint Peter confessing Saint Peter feeding his sheepe S. Peter strengthning his brethern But yet euery way S. Peter is the rocke And so it is true Dial. 4. de trinit that Cyrillus saith the rock is nothing els but S. Peters strong and assured faith But S. Peters faith is not Christ therefore Christe who is somewhat els beside the faith of the Disciple is not now said to be that Rocke wherevppon he wil build his Church And yet M. Iewel saith that and nothing els O trustie preacher to build a mans sowle vpon Thus he reasoneth not Peter but Christ is this rocke because the Rocke is nothing els but the faith of the disciple as though the faith were not in Peter who is the disciples Ievvel So likewise Chrysostom vpoÌ„ this Rock that is to saie vpoÌ„ this faith and this confession I wil build mie Church Sander But he that beleued and confessed was Peter and not Christ and Peters faith and confession was in himselfe as being reuealed to him by God the Father ergo S. Peter is the rocke in that God gaue him grace to confesse Christ to be the Sonne of God You confound your self M. Iewel not caring how your words agree so that a shew of sumwhat be made In the v. Chap. I shewed also before that S. Chrysostom nameth S. Peter himself a strong confession so â—hat the name of confession doth neâ—essarily include S. Peter within the meaning thereof Ievvel S. Augustine De verbis Domini Christ was the â—ock vpon which foundation Peter himself vvas also built Sander Did you neuer know M. Iewel that one Rocke might be built vpoÌ„ an other 1. Pet. 2. the lesser vpon the greater is not the house of God built of many stones Christ is the chiefe Rocke 1. Cor. 10. the corner stone vpoÌ„ him lieth S. Peter a rock in comparison of Christ verie smal in comparison of vs verie great Vpon Saint Peter the rest of the Church which liued vnder him was built which also is a Rocke aswel through Christ the Rocke of Rocks as through Peter the second Rocke and through it self sith euery man is according to his degree a liuelie stone concurring to the building vp of the whole Church which stones being ioyned together and fastened by faith and charitie make also a Rocke of themselues Ephes 2. besyde that they are built vpon the foundations of the Prophets and of the Apostles One of these verities doth not imbarre the other Ievvel S. Augustine addeth in Christes person I wil not build my self vpoÌ„ the but I wil build thee vpon me
was called campus Martius And so by the changing of the place the Protestants haue lost their argument The pope also doth sitte for the most part on the other side of the riuer vppon the hilnamed Vatican hard by S. Peters Churche The seueÌ„ hils by whom he holdeth his chaire not at all deriuing his power from the seuen hils whereupon the seuen Kings dwelt or from the Roman Empire But in dede the seuen hils are well meant the fulnes of pride and vaine glorie which is in all the worlde and specially in secular princes Herof I shal speak in the next chapiter to whom yet the protestants committ the supreame gouernment of the Church being therby nere to the state of Antichrist then they are ware of But lette all our new brethern bring but one holy Father or auncient doctour who hath ben alwaies accompted Catholike who euer said that the bishop of Rome should be Antichrist or if none can be alleaged let this doctrine of theirs be accompted a ê“phane nouelty of words 1. Tim. 6. which S. Paule would haue to be auoided among good Christians Not the Pope of Rome but the Protestants themselues are the members of Antichrist by forsaking the Catholike Church by setting vp a new Church and by teaching false doctrine against the Gospel of Iesus Christ The XVIII chap. THis being once cleered that the Pope of Rome can not be that notable Antichrist who was so loÌ„g before prophecied of the next shift of the Protestants must be to say that the Pope is at the lest a forerunner of that principal Antichrist 1. Ioan. 2 Of which sort all such are as by teaching false doctrine do promote his kingdoÌ„ who is the head and capitaine of all errour and heresie I am not ignorant that if I should exactly handle this argument I should runne ouer all the articles which are at this day in controuersie For in euery of them he that holdeth the false part is a meÌ„ber of Antichrist aÌ„d he that defendeth the truthe is of Christ But for so much as that were an infinite labour it shall suffise by a few generall reasons to shew the way vnto him who list to prosecute the said argumeÌ„t more fully The first mark of an Antichristian SEing we now speak not of Panims or Iewes who are without the Church but of heretikes who were once of the Church the first way to know this kind of Antichristes is if we can shew that any man departed from the Catholike Churche For when Christ intreated of false Prophetes and erroneouse teachers he said to his faithfull Disciples nolite exire Matth. 24 goe ye not out As who should say you are at this tyme within If ye can tarrie where you are no daunger can come to you But al the peril is in going out after them who preache otherwise then the Church beleueth 1. Ioan. 2. Of them S. Iohn said exierunt ex nobis they went forth from vs. Act. 15. Likewise the Apostles coÌ„plain of them who went out from theÌ„ and preached the necessity of circumcision Homil. de Pastor And S. Augustine saith generally exire haereticorum est It is the point of heretiks to goe out Who then went from the Churche of these two Did the Pope go out of the true Church or did the Protestants If the Pope weÌ„t forth whoÌ„ did he leaue behind him where dwelt they whoÌ„ he forsoke Let the country the City the town the village the Church the chappel the cumpany of neuer so fewe men be named from whom being members of the true Churche the Pope went For he that goeth out goeth from some and leaueth some behiÌ„d him But it can neuer be named whom the pope left behind him in the true Church when he went out of the said Church because in deed he neuer went forth but dwelt in the middest of all faithfull Nations being their guide and Pastour Neither did he depart froÌ„ the Grecians but some of the GreciaÌ„s for a tyme departed from him vpon the quarel of the proceding of the holy Ghost from God the son Which truthe the Grecians vniustlie denied And therfore after a tyme vppon better aduise and confereÌ„ce some of them came into that Church againe An. Dom. 1440. where the Pope remained head as at the Councel of FloreÌ„ce And some other taried without stil and died in the schism But al this while the pope went not out of the Church On the otherside we can al tell wheÌ„ a An. Do. 1044. Berengarius b 1350. Wiclef c 1410. Hus d 1517. Luther e 1522. Zuinglius f 1540. Caluin and such others professed to goe out the Roman Church We know whom they left behind them within the Church verily they left all Italy al Fraunce al Spaine al Polonia all Hungary all England all Sicily and so much of Germany in the Church as went not out after them If now it be the point of an hereticall Antichrist to goe out of the faithfull company of Christ who is liker to be Antichrist the Pope who departed from no company of Christ or the Protestants who departed from so many Christian natioÌ„s as now I named and most of al the Sacramentaries who departed also both from the Pope and from the verie Lutherans themselues An obiection As for that vaine bragge wherein they are wont to say the pope departed froÌ„ the Apostles and prophets is it not as easie for vs to say the selfe same thing vnto them The anâ—vver when we speak of departing we speake of the departing from the vnity of such as once liued together with vs in one house of God For then some goe out and some tarrie within As Arrius and Eusebius of Nicomedia departed out and his bishop Alexander with good Athanasius taried stil in the Church Nouatus went out Cornelius taried within Pelagius wente out Saint Augustine and Saint Hierom followed him not but taried within Euen so Luther went out from the company with whom he once liued peaceably aÌ„d the pope taried stil within Therefore Luther and his adhearents are hereticks and the members of Antichrist If it be said here An other obiection ansvvered that the Apostles and disciples departed from the Chaire of Moyses and yet were not heretiks I answere that such examples make nothing for the departing of the Protestantes from vs except they can bring such prophecies and such euident miracles for their departing from vs as the Apostles brought aÌ„d wrought for their departing from the Iewes There should be but one suche change of Religion in all the world aÌ„d because it was so hard a matter to make men forsake their former trade of seruing God it was not done without the comming doune of the Sonne of God from heauen into the earth Luc. 24. who shewed by the Prophets and by his very workes that the same one change of the whole religion
THE ROCKE OF THE CHVRCHE Wherein the Primacy of S. Peter and of his Successours the Bishops of Rome is proued out of Gods Worde By Nicolas Sander D. of diuinity The eternal Rock of the vniuersal Church Christ was the rock an other foundatiō no man is hable is put 1. Cor. 3. 10. The temporal Rock of the militant Church Thou art Peter and vppon this Rocke I wil build my Church Matth. 16. The continuance of this temporal Rocke In the Church of Rome the primacy of the Apostolike chaier hath alwaies florished August in Epist 162. Recken euen from the very seate of Peter and in that rew of Fathers consyder who succeded the other That is the rock which the proud gates of hel doe not ouercome In Psal cōt part Don. Tom. 7. LOVANII Apud Ioannem Foulerum Anno D. 1567. REgiae Maiestatis Priuilegio concessum est Nicolao Sandro Sacrae Theologiae Professori vt librum inscriptum The Rocke of the Church per Typographum aliquem iuratum imprimere ac impunè distrahere liceat Datum Bruxellis 27. Febr. 1566. Subsig Prats TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull M. Doctor Parker bearing the name of the Archbisshop of Canterbury and to al other protestants in the realme of England Nicolas Sander wissheth perfect faith and charity in our Lord declaring in this Preface that the Catholiks whom they cal Papists doe passe the Protestants in al manner of Signes or Marks of Christes true Church I Besech your worshippe not to mislike with me for omitting any parte of your accustomed title in this my letter sithēs I doe it not of any contempt but onely of conscience grounded vppon Gods worde as who am persuaded the religiō presently authorized in the realm and consequently your ministery therin to be so far of from Christes true religiō as it is far from Christ to haue his Church which after the publication of the Gospell ought Genes 22.26.28 Psal 2.44 75.88.144 Philip. 2. according to the prophecies to be openly spread through out the world and her Citizēs ought to shyne in the middest of the peruerse nation Isai 54.60 Math. 28. of infideles like starres and to remayn gloriouse for euer in many natiōs togeather now first after nine hūdred yeres oppression as your own brethern doe confesse to shewe it selfe abrode and openly to be professed So that although it could be shewed that your faith had bene alwaies in the world as it was not yet in that if at all it were it lay hydden Math. 5. it could not be the faith of Christes true Church which neuer ceased to be a City built vpon a hil which can not be hidden And he did sette his candel vpon a candelstick not only to geue light for a few hundred yeres but to geue light to all Luc. 8. that either should come into his house or tarie in his house And seing at al momentes men in diuerse countries came into Gods house by faith and baptisme Isai 2. 62. Math. 28. and seing likewise he is with his disciples al daies vntil the end of the world and not only liueth but reigneth for euer Luc. 1. regnabit that is to say abideth gloriously and roially in the house of Iacob which is the Church doutlesse his Church is for euer built vpon a hil and therefore it can not be hidden any one moment and his light neuer can cease to shyne to thend it may euer be true which Malachias the Prophet saied Malac. 1. From the rising of the sonne to his going downe my name is great among the gentils And yet seing Christes name is not great by them who beleue falselie for they must nedes also haue naughty woorkes and so the name of God Heb. 11. Isai 52. Rom. 2. as Saint Paule saith is rather blasphemed amonge the Gentiles then glorified by euil men it remaineth that Christes name must be great among the Gentills throughe a good faith openly geuing light by the good works of true Christians who may thereby cause Gods name to be glorified Math. 5. and by their good conuersation may cause the Infidels to be conuerted vnto Christ 1. Cor. 7. 2. Pet. 3. Now for asmuch as your faith was not openly alwaies professed in many nations together but was altogether hidden before these fifty yeres and so hidden A Church vnder a bushel that no history or Chronicle doth make mention of any congregatiō at all professing your faith from tyme to tyme in any Cities Townes Villages or priuate houses of diuerse prouinces and countries at once nothing can be iustly said or alleaged why you should not renounce this obscure religion of yours which is so slaunderouse to Gods gloriouse name and returne again to that our Churche A Church vpō a hil which stode for euer vpon the hil and whose light was neuer so dimmed or darkened but that the very Iewes Turks Saracēs Moores and Tartariās knewe where we dwelt and what we professed I chose at this tyme to intreat with al sober Protestants the rather by your person M. D. Parker because I haue heard of so much good nature in your worshippe that it was not vnlike but he woulde voutesafe to heare what so euer should be reasonably said specially touching Gods worde and the practise of the primatiue Churche of which pointes my chiefe talke shal be at this tyme. Many men haue laboured to geue diuerse Signes and Markes of the true Church to thintēt it being ones knowē al other controuersies may geue place to the pillor and sure stay of truth 1. Tim. 3. But that it may appear to them who do not willingly stop their eares against the truth what notable aduantage the Catholiks haue ouer and aboue the Protestants in this behalf I wil shew the truth of our Churche to be so safe and clere that hitherto it was not possible for the Protestants themselues to deuise any such marke or signe of a true Churche the which doth not much rather make for vs then for them Gods vvord is not a sufficient mark of the true Church They teach Gods word to be the chiefe mark whereby the true Church may be knowen which yet can not wel be so because the marke whereby an other thing is knowen ought it selfe to be most exactly knowen whereas we are not agreed what Gods woorde is For some call onely the writen letter and the meaning thereof Gods woorde others thinck many things to be Gods woorde which are not expresly writen but are reuealed from God to the Church by the tradition of the Apostles 2. Thess 2 Heb. 8. 10. 2. Cor. 3. and by the holy ghost who hath writen Gods lawes in our harts and there hath imprīted them Also we are not agreed vppon the writen woorde of God because the Protestantes doe not admitte so many bookes of the olde Testament as the Catholikes doe Thirdly the meaning of those bookes which we are agreed vppon
was in dede an increase of outward Sacraments and Cerimonies in diuerse ages But there was no change â—t all of the solemne and publike Saâ—rifice Genes 14. For albeit Melchisedech â—rought foorth his vnbloody oblation and blessed Abraham yet it was don â—o shew afore hand after what sorte Christ should make sacrifice in his supper and not to abrogate the order and kinde of bloody Sacrifices Gene. 4.8 17. for they continued still as Abel hadde begun with them Likewise the Altars remained in vse as Noe had erected theÌ„ Circuncision was kepte with the law And the law with the Temple of Salomon So that from the beginning of the world til Christ there was increasing of Ceremonies but no taking away no changing no newe making or altering of the publike sacrifice For the change thereof is of such importance that God would his owne Son to take flesh for the working of such a weighty matter to theÌ„d al meÌ„ should vnderstand that God reserueth to his owne self the appointment of the Religion wherwith he wil be serued And the Religion as I shewed before consisteth chiefly in the publike sacrifice and priesthood Heb. 7. Psal 109. Christ therefore being a priest after the order of Melchisedech when he had proued his commission froÌ„ God the Father by diuerse notable miracles Math. 26. in his last supper toke bread and wine accordingly as Melchisedech had foresheweÌ„ in a figure He blessed brake Genes 14. and gaue saying take eate this is my body which is geuen for you Luc. 22. doe or make this thing for the remeÌ„brance of me Facite By which woordes the Apostles and their successours in priesthod haue commissioÌ„ to make of bread and wine the bodie and blood of Christ euen till the worldes end Hiero. ad HeliodoruÌ„ 1. Cor. 11. This then is the publike and externall sacrifice of the new testament Ireneus li. 4. c. 32. August in Psal 33. Con. 1. De ciuit Dei li. 17. c. 20 Cont. aduers legis lib. 1. c. 18. the which Sacrifice saith S. Augustine is now spread in the whole circuit of the earth and it is come in place saith he of al the sacrifices of the old testament and is the Sacrifice of the Churche And all the world doth know that both the Greek and Latin Church hath euer vsed this blessed mystery as the Sacrifice prophecied of by Malachy and belonging peculiarly to the Christian peple gathered out of all nations Malac. 1. Now to thinck that Luter and Caluin haue power to alter and abrogate this publike sacrifice called now the Masse it is to thinck that Luther and Caluin are the same toward Christe which Christ was toward Moyses For that is it which Christ meaneth saying False Christes Math. 24 False Prophets and false Christes shal arise Verily because some shall come who wil arrogate that to them selues which no creature caÌ„ do besyde Christ the Son of God whose proper office and honour it is to be of power to change the state and order of the publike priesthood and sacrifice in Gods Church Idolatries They then are Idolatours who supposing Luther and Caluin to be able to abrogate the former sacrifice and maner of seruice and to sette vp a new foorm of publike prayer do therein make them to be fellowes with Christ himselfe But certainly they are false brethern and false Christes And whereas the Protestants pretend that Luâ—â—er and â—aluin do all things according to Gods Worde to omit now that the one of them techeth cleane contrarie doctrine to the other they are so much the more to be abhorred for as Christe in verie truthe in chaunging the Law fulfilled the old figures and the old prophecies eueÌ„ so they taking Christes power vpoÌ„ them pretend falsly by changing ReligioÌ„ Math. 5. to haue their doings figured and prophecied of in the Gospell But if there can be but one Christ and he can be but once borne and died but once be ye assured these men haue no power to abrogate the Masse or to take away the keye of our auncient Religion If any man say that our Masse is not that in deede which we saie it is I answere that as we neuer reade the Iewish Priestes to haue erred concerning the substaunce of theire publique Sacrifice because all the people Exod. 23. were bound to frequent it by Gods own commandement so it is much lesse possible that the vniuersall Churche of Christ should erre in that publike act wherein Christ himself saith S. Cyprian is the Sacrifice Li. 2. epi. 3 in Sacrificio quod Christus est Math. 28. No no masters Antichrists yee may be Christ ye can not be He is with his Apostles aÌ„d their successours the bishops al dayes vntil the worlds end This being so reason would that all nouelties layed a syde men should return to the old faith and Church again Wherevnto if I am so bolde as to exhort you M. D. Parker before al other I trust you wil not take it in euil part For as my exhortation commeth of my wel wishing to your worship so I consyder no Ecclesiasticall person in al our Country is able to doe more good in that behalf then you Consyder then for Gods loue in whose chaire you sitte consyder whence the first Bisshop came who satte there yea â—â—rther consyder what all your predeâ—ssours taught only one excepted of whome all good and zealons men must â—eedes be ashamed Cranmer as who at the enâ—ing into his bishoprike was wilfullie â—orsworn to the Pope of Rome It appereth so by his Catechism And afâ—erward changed his religion from Luâ—heranisme to the Sacramentary hereâ—ie And a little before his death for a â—ew houres of temporall life sold his â—oore faith twise a day Neither was he otherwise a witâ—esse of your doctrine then that despeâ—ation made him pretend to suffer that for religion which he must needes suffer though he had changed his religion That one desperat man then excepted who seemeth to haue ben of no religioÌ„ â—l your predecessours were of our faith What speake I of your predecessours Al â—he bishops of the realme yea al of the whole world were of the same belefe with vs as it may right wel appere for â—hat all the Catholikes in the world coÌ„municated with S. Gregorie as witâ— the best man the greatest Doctour the highest Bisshop that liued in those daies Beda in histor eccle Gentis An glorum Now S. Gregorie sent S. Augustine to our Auncestours froÌ„ whosâ— time till the chaÌ„ge which began a late all Christian men are knowen to hauâ— beleued and professed that which we doe presently defend If this holy felowship be not that Catholike and Apostolik Church which iâ— al times and couÌ„tries professed Christes Gospel then goe into the desert after Wiclef and Hus goe into the corners and priuie inmoste places of the house after the poore men of Lions
Sander It is but reason trulie that Peter be builded vpon Christ and that we also beleue But for asmuch as we are in the metaphore of building doth not reason teache vs that when we haue layed in the foundation of a house a mightie great stone that the next which we laye vpon it should be also a verie great one yea after the lowest the very greatest of all Doth any wise man hauing laid in the foundation a stone of twentie cubittes place next vpon it a stone of one or two ynches If not so by all proportion the second stone shal be the greatest that can be gotten next vnto the first Dan. 7. Christ is so great a stone that he hath filled the whole earth I ask of M. Iewel who shal be next vnto Christ Mie verdit is that in respect of the militant Church which is dayly a building on the earth S. Peter is the next stone Because God who geueth his benefits most freelie voutsafed first of all men to graunt S. Peter this grace Ioan. 21. to be the Pastour of his flocke Matth. 10 and the porter of his kingdom next vnto himself Saint Peter being the next stone in building of the Church vnto Christ is therefore a Rocke because he is built immediatlie vppon the Rocke For in a bodie compacted together euerie thing partaketh most intierlie the nature of that wherevnto it is next ioyned Note good Reader that we speake 〈◊〉 the whole Church which hath 〈◊〉 the beginning of the worlde but onely of that portion which liueth on the earth for the time For thereof onely Peter and his successours are the Rocks whereas Christ is the Rocke of Rockes which vphouldeth the whole Church and al the rocks that euer haue ben or shal be in the Church from the beginning of the worlde to the ende thereof Ievvel Al these Fathers be plaine Sander Against you for as none of them denie Peter to be this Rocke which thing you haue denied so many affirme that the confession of S. Peter and his faith is the Rock whereof Christ spake And yet seeng the faith of S. Peter is no greater then himselfe is if his faith be the Rock him selfe is also the Rock Ievvel In 16. Matth. None is so plaine as Origen he is the Rock vvhosoeuer is the disciple of Christ Sander In the 3. Chap. This kind of sense is not literal as I shewed before But admit it were literal yet seeng S. Peter is the disciple yea the chef disciple of Christ as S. Mathew saith Primus SimoÌ„ qui dicitur Petrus Simon is the first Matth. 10 who is called Peter surely M. Iewel by your confession Peter next vnto Christ is the chief Rock A man would thinke you were frantike when you denying a mortal man as Peter was to be this Rock yet afterward proued that euery mortal man who is Christes Disciple is the Rocke Ievvel Vppon such a Rock al Ecclesiastical learning is built as Origen saith Sander But S. Peter is such a rock therefore vppon S. Peter al Ecclesiastical learning is built Who could wissh such an aduersarie as M. Iewel is who proueth altogether against himself Ievvel If thou think that the vvhol Church is built only vpoÌ„ Peter vvhat then vvilt thou say of Iohn the sonne of the thunder Metth. 1â— and of euery of the Apostles saith origen Sander Maister Iewel left out in his English this woorde illum Petrum A vvord left out If thou thincke the whole Churche to be onelie built vppon that Peter to witte that Rocke of stone what wilt thou saie of Iohn and of euerie of the Apostles Origen saith Peter is a Rocke which thing Maister Iewel denieth But he is not only a Rocke and that we graunt But Maister Iewel saith no mortal man but Christ himself is this rocke therefore I aske him what he saith of S. Iohn and of al the Apostles Was not Saint Iohn a mortal man wo to this cause M. Iewel whereof you are become the patrone God kepe me from such an aduocate who shall nede none other euidence against him to lese my cause withal besides his owne words You saie the old Fathers haue writen not anie mortal man but Christ himselfe the Sonne of God to be this Rock Ex ore tuo te iudico serue nequam But S. Iohn and S. Peter and euerie one of the Apostles is called here this rock whereof being named in the sixtenth of S. Matthew we dispute and yet no Apostle is Christ the Son of God therefore some mortal man is this Rocke besyde Christ the Sonne of God Ievvel Shall we dare to saie that the gates of hell shall not preuaile onlie against Peter or are the keyes of the kingdome of heauen geuen only vnto Peter saith Origen Sander It is inowgh that the gates of hell shall least of all preuaile against Peter And he hath chefelie the keyes of heauen For as S. Peter of all the Apostles first confessed in the name of the whole Churche August in Ioan. tractat 124. so al that confesse after him and by him for all were in him as in their primate and chiefe pastour enioye both his confession and his reward That as he was sette ouer al the Church for euer so others for their parte were called into parte of the care To conclude this matter M. Iewel should haue proued that S. Peter is not the Rocke wherevpon Christ promised to build his Churche But he hath not done it neither was he able to bring any one syllable out of the holie scriptures nor anie one saying out of the Doctours which denied Peter to be this Rocke But he only hath ministred matter to me for the prouf of the contrarie assertion The conclusion of the former discourse and the order of the other which followeth The VIII Chap. HItherto it hath bene proued by moste euident reasons of Gods promise of the circumstance and of the conference of the holy scriptures of the authoritie of the Fathers and of the special reasons which moued them to thinck and write so and last of all by the refutation of M. Iewels own words that Saint Peter with such qualities and conditions as Christ indued him withal is this rock wherevpon the Church was built And because looke what kinde of building the Churche was once ê“mised to haue that must still continue seing the Churche doth still tarie the same howse of God there must be alwaies some one mortal man like vnto Peter who being first made a rock by election may afterward by Gods reuelation stil confesse the faith for the whol Church when so euer he is demaunded or consulted what is to be thought and beleued in maters belonging to Christian religion If then there must be some one such Rock vpon whose authoritie the faithfull menne may grounde them selues it is not possible that it should be any other manne besides the Bisshoppe of Rome First because he
other Apostles standing by S. Peter alone is both shewed to haue loued Christ more then they and he is alone cōmaūded to feed Christes shepe Ioan. 21. August ibidem and to rule his lābs yea for somuch as it is said to Peter alone not ablie Extendes manus tuas and again tu me sequere Ioan. 21. thou shalt stretch foorth thy hands and follow thou mee so that his particular kind of death by stretching foorth his hands vpon the crosse was principally prophecied of by Christ himself Seing Peter answered alwaies for the Apostles Ioan. 6. Matth 16. as being the mouth of them al and seing after Christes ascension Act 1. Chrysost in Acta Hom. 3. Peter alone gaue sentēce vpon Iudas and pronounced him deposed from his Bisshoprike and that an other must be chosen in his place seing when the holy Ghost came downe Peter aboue al the rest first of al Act. 2. taught the faith Act. 2. ād the multitude being cōuerted said to Peter and to the other Apostles but to Peter by name what shal we doe Act. 2. Seing Peter made answere for al that they should repent and be baptized Act. 3. seing Peter did the first miracle after the comming of the holy Ghost Ambros serm 68. and first healed the feete of the lame because he being the Rocke shewed mysticallie that he stablissheth the feet of others seing Peter confessed Christ first Act. 4. not only before priuate men but olso at the seat of Iudgement seing Peter saw the secretes of hartes and whereas menne laied their goods at the other Apostles feet also Act. 5. yet Peter alone gaue with fulnesse of power sentence vppon Ananias and Saphyra cutting of their life with a word Gregor lib. 1. ep 24. and thereby shewing as S. Gregorie noteth Quanta potentia super caeteros excreuisset With how great power he had encreased aboue the rest seeing Act. 5. although al the Apostles did also miracles yet Feter was so famouse aboue the reast that men did putte the sicke and the weake in the streats to the end at the least the shadow of Peter might come ouer them which was the greatest miracle that euer is thought to haue bene done of man seeing Peter did excommunicate and enioyne penance to Simon Magus the first heretike Act. 8. Seeing he was the first after Christes Ascension who reised a dead person to life as he did Tabitha Seeing he had first by vision Act. 9. Act. 10. that the Gentils also were called to beleue in Christ and God chose that the Gentils shoulde first of al heare the vvorde of the Gospell by Peters mouth and should beleue Actor 15. Seeing when Peter was in the prison Act. 14. prayer was made in the Church for him with out intermission which thing we read to haue ben so earnestly done for none other Apostle albeit many were also in prison Seing when a sedition was among the Disciples Act. 15. Theod. in ep ad leonem in so much that Paul and Barnabas not for their own learning but to signifie what other Bishops should do afterward came to the Apostles to Ierusalē to set a solutiō frō Peter as Theodoretus noteth and told the controuersie in the Councell then Peter did not only speake first but also he gaue a determinate sentence Galat. 1. In cōment c. 1. ad gal that the Gentils should not be burthened with the law and the whole multitude held their peace for a time Chrysost in acta homil 21. Seing S. Paul himself came to Ierusalem to see Peter and that as S. Ambrose saith because he was Primus first or chiefe among the Apostles ad Solitar vit agent August de Sà nctis serm 27. Leo Serm. 1. in Natt Pet. Pau. to whom the Lord had committed the care of Churches seing Peter was either alone or first and chief in the greatest affaires as S. Chrysostom noteth most singularly seing he was sent to occupie with his chaire Rome the mother Church of the Romaine prouince as Athanasius calleth it and the head Citie of all the world Concil Chalced. act 3. and there to conquere all hereticks by vāquisshing Simon Magus the head of al Heretikes whom with his prayer he destroyed seing his Chayer and succession hath ben acknowleged of al the Aūcient Fathers Bernard epist 190. and hath florished there till this hower without interruption of that faith whiche S. Peter confessed and taught as the verie experience doth beare witnesse so many things so singularlie belonging to the gouernement of the whole Churche could neuer aboue al the other Apostles haue bene so speciallie done or spoken about Saint Peter alone if he bare not some other more excellent person then euerie of the other Apostles did For as Christ is proued by S. Paule to excell the Angels because God neuer saied to anye Angell as he saied to Christ Heb. 1. Thou art my Sonne this daie I haue begotten thee euen so seeing Christ neuer saied to anie other Apostle as he saied to Peter Thou shalt be called Peter or vpon this rock wil I build my church or Matth. 16 to thée I will geue the keies of the kingdome of heauen or paie for thee and me or I haue desiered for thee that thy faith faile not Luc. 22. Ioan. 21. or seed my sheepe and rule my lambes doubtlesse we may boldelie conclude therevppon that S. Peter in these praeeminences farre excelled any other Apostle For what so euer any other Apostle had whether it were by vocation Ioan. 1. Matth 10 18. 28 Ioan. 20. or election or authoritie to preache to binde to loose to baptise to be a Bisshoppe to make a Bisshoppe or to doe any thing els Serm. 3. in aniuers assumpt multa solus accepit Peter had al that as wel as any of them as also Leo the Great hath noted Seing then beside al that he had many things which none other had may they not seme to haue lost their cōmon senses who wil haue S. Peter to be no greater a prelate then any other Apostle was If any wrāgler not ioyning al these priuileges together but separating som one or two of thē frō the rest do scoffe at these proufs let hī know aforehād that albe it some few alone would not haue made a perfit proufe yet as they now are ioyned together they proue exactly that S. Peter had som greater dignity then any other Apostle had That the Apostles besyde the prerogatiue of their Apostleship had also the authoritie to be particular bishops which thing their name also did signifie in the old tyme. The X. Chap. FOR the better opening of that which followeth I must declare the double office which the first prelates had Marci 3. Lucae 9. Christ called twelue vnto him whome he made Apostles and he sent them to preache and gaue them power te heale
preaching of his own sensible doctrine according to his manhod euen after the same rate Deut. 18. as Moyses did whiles he liued Now in consyderation that Christ would forsake this world concerning his visible conuersation and that he would goe in his manhood to raigne in heauen gloriously ouer the glorious part of his Church he instituted an other particular Rock and shepheard Ioan. 21. who by the outward preaching and confessing of his faith might for his life tyme stay the militant Church of God in a right belefe as Abraham or Moyses had don whiles they liued Matth. 16 This particular militant Rocke was S. Peter for the tyme. But when he died he left behind him still a particular militant Church I call it particular in respect of the vniuersall Church which for euer was and shal be therfore some mortal man ought still to be in the earth who may so vphold the militant Church by the assurance of his faith and confessioÌ„ as S. Peter did once vphold the same who likewise may stil so confirm his brethern as S. Peter was once willed to confirm them Matth. 23. Al Christians are brethern among themselues but al bishops are brethern in a nigher degree of holy gouernment The Rocke therefore which shall strengthen both al the Christians and namely al the bishops must continew so long as there are either bishoppes or ChristiaÌ„s in the earth The same reason is also fouÌ„d in the name of a pastor For as the flocke of shepe continueth after S. Peters death euen so must such an other pastour as S. Peter was be made who may stil fede and rule the flock of Christ wherevpon S. Chrysostom saith Lib. 2. de Sacerdot Christus sanguinem fudit vt pecudes eas acquireret quarum curam tum Petro tum Petri Successoribus committebat Christ hath shed his blood to gette vnto him those shepe the cure of whome he did committe both to Peter Peters successours and to the successours of Peter In that verie place it was were S. Chrysostom said that Peter being indowed LoÌ„gè praecellere with authority passed the other Apostles a great waie As therefore Peter in the authoritie of feeding passed the other Apostles so must the successours of Peter passe a great way the successors of the other Apostles which are al Bisshops For now Chrysostome confesseth that the same care is committed to the successours of Peter which was committed to Peter himself Serm 2 in aniuers assumpt With S. Chrysostom Pope Leo agreeeth saying Soliditas illius fidei quae in ApostoloruÌ„ priÌ„cipe est laudata perpetua est Et sicut permanet ê™ in Christo Petrus credidit ita permanet quod in Petro Christus instituit The streÌ„gth of that faith which was praised in the prince of th' Apostles is euerlasting And as that remaineth which Peter beleued in Christ that is to say the Godhed of Christ so doth that remain which Christ instituted in Peter that is to say a sure rock which may alwaies coÌ„fesse the true faith of Christ. And Leo shewing afterward how that remaineth which was ordeined in S. Peter Ibidem he saith In sede Petri sua viuit potestas excellit authoritas In the seat of Peter his power liueth his authoritie exelleth Therefore the authoritie of S. Peter is an ordinarie power which hath an ordinary succession in Christes Church These reasons are so plaine so stroÌ„g so true so forceable that I muse what vnderstanding what wit or sense they haue who graunting Peter to haue ben the rock wherevpon the Churche was built for the time which thing they must needs graunt vnlesse they will denie the expresse word of God aÌ„d the perpetual consent of all the Fathers yet will not graunt that an other like Rocke shoulde be substituted after S. Peter Verely seing the reason of S. Peters confession Vbi eadem ratio ideÌ„ iuâ— and of his power is such as agreeth to an ordinary office of the Churche the office also of S. Peters being a rock of streÌ„gthning his brethren and of feediÌ„g Christes sheep is an ordinary office which hath aÌ„d must coÌ„tinue so loÌ„g as there is a Militant house of God in earth and so long as either any brethern are who may be confirmed or any shepe who nede to be fed And verily if S. Peter haue no successours in his pastorall office what meane a li. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus b lib. 2. de schismate Optatus and c Ep. 165. S. Augustine by name to reckon vp such successours of S. Peter as had liued til euery of their age and tyme. Moreouer whereas noman exceptiÌ„g the cases of necessity may rightly preache to them to whom he is not sent Rom. 10. if as euerie particular pastour hath as S. Cyprian teacheth a portion of the flocke assigned to his gouerment lib. 1. ep 3 for which he shal be accoÌ„ptable vnto our Lord so there be not some general pastour alwaies in the Churche who beside his particular charge may send others to preache vnto them which are not yet conuerted and who when they are conuerted may erect new Churches and plant new bishoprikes in those parties as S. Gregorie did in England if there be not some Beda li. 1. c. 23. 27. Tit. 1. who maie as Paule saieth correct the things which lack and also controll other Bisshoppes when they are negligent and who may excommunicate euen those Christians which liue in no particular diocese but being conuersant among the Iewes or painims do there teache false doctrine and thence do write hereticall bookes or treatises if I say there be not some general pastours who may sommon all other Bisshoppes to Generall or prouinciall Councels and maie change the former positiue lawes of the Churche when either necessititie or charitie requireth it and who maie either make two Bisshoppes where one was before or vnite two into one Greg. li. 2. epist 31. 35. or commit the cure of any See or chaire vacant to the next bishop and so in all cases may prouide for the benefite of Christes flock it will come to passe that the house of God shall not be so well prouided for as other meane States and coÌ„mon weales are But if there be a power in Gods Churche whereby all the former cases maie be well prouided for seing it is clere that the Apostolike power is ended it must nedes be the high pastoral power of S. Peter which shall procure these affaires And consequently the high pastoral office of S. Peter is an ordinary office which ceased not with his own death but is tranferred to his Successours as it shal farther appere in the next chapiter sauing one That the ordinarie authority of S. Peters primacy belongeâ—h to one Bisshop alone The XIIII Chap. SAint Peter had not only the same power of binding and loosing committed to him alone which was geuen in common to all the Apostles but also
he as the head of all Bishops had it specified to him before they had it For whereas their authority is shewed to haue ben geuen in the eighteÌ„th chapiter of S. Matthew Matth. 18. and in the twenteth of S. Ihon Ioan. 20. the authority of S. Peter is described and promised in the sixtenth of S. Matthew Matth. 16 and it depended of the promise of Christ wherin he said thou shalt be called Peter or the rock the which promise was made as it appereth in S. Ihon not only before the Apostles were chosen Ioan. 1. but also before they were called to be the Disciples of Christ Ad iubaianum In consideration whereof S. Cyprian might boldly say Petro primus Dominus super quem aedificauit Ecclesiam vnde vnitatis originem instituit ostendit potestatem istam dedit vt id solueretur in terris quod ille soluisset Our Lord did first geue vnto Peter vpon whome he built his Church and from whome he did institute and shew the original or beginning of vnity this power that what soeuer he did loose it should be loosed in the earth Notevvel When one hath first that right and power alone which afterward others haue if there be any ordinary power of that thing at al it must nedes be in him who hath it first Ordinary Order For whereas all ordinary power dependeth chefelie of order and whereas in order nothing can be before that which is first First one seing S. Peter had first of all the right of the keyes of the kingdom of heaueÌ„ in himself alone Matth. 16. and seing the power of the keyes that is to saie of forgeuing and of reteining synnes is ordinarily in the Church it caÌ„not be otherwise but that ordinary power was first in S. Peter alone Augustin in Ioan Tract 124. If the pordinary power of binding aÌ„d loosing be once in one pastour alone it must stil coÌ„tinue coÌ„cerniÌ„g that degree in one alone if it shal at the least remaine stil the same power For if it be geuen to many and be equal in them al it is not now the same which was promised and geuen first to Peter alone Monarchie aristocratie democratie but an other kinde of power euen as the gouernment of one prince differreth in kind froÌ„ the gouernment which is equally common either to manie or to the whole people Seing it is cleere that the Apostles had the same power ouer the sheep which S. Peter had coÌ„cerning the exercise of all manner of binding loosing Ioan. 20. preaching and baptising and yet their autoritie could not be the ordinarie power which is in the Church because they were manie wheras the ordinary power was ê“mised before to one alone it doth insue Mat. 16. that they had their authority delegated aÌ„d specially appointed to them extraordinarily The Apostles povver vvas delegated for their liues only Therefore although they fed the flock of Christ as wel as S. Peter yet they did it by delegatioÌ„ and by special coÌ„missioÌ„ wheras S. Peter alone was the ordinarie chiefe shepheard according to whose patern there must still be some one appointed to feed Christes whole flock No man is at this day that which the Apostles were No man is able to write vs an other Gospel or to increase the Canonical Epistles or to warrant that he receiued the first fruits of the holy Ghost Rom. 8. as the Apostles did That authority died with them and came to none other after them aÌ„d consequentlie it was not ordinarie but onely was committed to a few during their owne liues But the ordinary authoritie of this highe administration beganne in one alone and therefore it must continew still in one alone There must be still one Rock Matth. 16 beside and aboue all petite Rockes There must be still one shepheard Ioan. 21. besyde and aboue many petite shepheards There must be still one greater then other Luc. 22. who may be made as the yonger and for whose faith Christ hath prayed to the end he may strengthen his brethern And verily seing as S. Bernard saith there is most perfection in vnitie De consid lib. 2. and in al diuision some imperfection is included shal we thinck that Christ hath chosen to gouern his Churche in earth rather in an vnperfit then in a perfit sort Again sitheÌ„s the state of the new testament must needs be more perfit then the state of the Lawe which brought nothing to perfection Heb. 7. and yet seing in the Law the ordinary Pastour was one high Priest aÌ„d Bishop as Aaron and his sede after him hauing manie synagoges and Leuits vnder his supreme gouernmeÌ„t Num. 3. what reason can beare that the state of our visible Church should lacke also in earth one highe priest and bishop ouer manie particular parishes and dioceses Thus haue we both natural reason the exaÌ„ple of the Law and the institution of Christ for one cheefe Bishop And that this was the mind of all the auncient Fathers also it appeareth most euidentlie because they geue such a reason whie the Church was built vpon S. Peter the which reason without an extraordinarie appointement of God caÌ„ neuer agree but onlie to one shepheard who may be aboue the rest I say without an extraordinarie appointment of God for that the Apostles being manie vvhy tvvelue Apostles gouerned equally and being all equal did gouern the church in a maruelouse vnitie and concord as if thei had ben al but one man The which spirit of vnity Christ gaue them that his institution of twelue equall gouernours for the time might wel appere not to be slaunderouse or hurtful vnto his Churche For he would neuer haue sent manie with equal authoritie into the whole world except he had ben able to make them gouern with one minde spirit aÌ„d hart But seing it were stil a miraculouse thing to see twelue and much more to see manie thousand bisshops and rulers being al equal stil to gouern the whole Church in their equal authoritie without schisme as the Apostles did that Apostolike authority being only instituted for the better publishing of the faith doth now cease and one shepherd is ordinarily alone set ouer al by whose general power it may appere that Christes Churche is but one For that is the reason which S. Cyprian bringeth why Christ built his Churche vppon S. Peter Ecclesia quae vna est super vnuÌ„ qui claues eius accepit Ad Iubaianum voce DnÌ„i fundata est The church which is one was fouÌ„ded by our Lords voice vpon one who toke the keies therof De simplicitate praelatorum And againe QuaÌ„uis Apostolis omnibus c. tamen vt vnitatem manifestaret vnitatis eiusdem origineÌ„ ab vno incipienteÌ„ sua authoritate disposuit Although Christ after his resurrection geueth to al the Apostles like power and saith As my Father sent
mee Ioan. 20. and I send you take ye the holy Ghoste iâ— you doe remitte to anie man his sinnes they shal be remitted and to whom you shall retaine them they shal be reteined yet to the end he myght make vnitie manifest he disposed by his authority the original of the same Vnitie beginning froÌ„ one Note good Reader that the Church was built vpon one both that it might be one by the institution and ordinaÌ„ce of Christ and also that it might appere â—ne That it might be one Vnitatem disposuit vt vnitateÌ„ manifestae ret that is to say that all the faithful might be in this â—ife one visible flocke because they haue â—n this life one visible chief shepheard â—o whome if al obey Cyprian lib. 1. ep 3. no schismes can â—e in the Churche that it might apâ—eare one because this externall vâ—itie of one flocke vnder one shepâ—eard in this world is a signe that the â—niuersall Churche whiche was is â—nd shall be is in deed for euer one â—hrough the one shepheard Iesus Christ â—ho is alone the vniuersal shepheard whereas Peter had no more but that â—eece of the flocke coÌ„mitted vnto him whiche was in the earth whiles he liâ—ed But if Peters chiefe authoritie â—hall be now diuided into manie Bishoppes of aequall power then the Militante Churche neither is one â—isible flocke vnder one visible shepâ—eard nor it dooth not signifie that the vniuersal Church was and is and shal be one by Iesus Christ but rather it most falselie signifieth that as in earth there are thowsands of flocks all equal and al seueral Note so there are as manie Christs and as manie shepheards ouer the vniuersal Church Which significatioÌ„ seing it is impiouse aÌ„d meete for hereticks only Matt. 24. who being many and comming al in Christes name do make so many Christs as they are meÌ„ I exhorte all men who fauour the only one vniuersal head Iesus Christ to beleue and professe only one general head of thiâ— flock of his which is in earth For 〈◊〉 this militant flock is one by one militaÌ„t shepheard so is the vniuersal Church one flock and one body through Iesuâ— Christ alone the vniuersal shepheard and head Lib. 2. de schism Optatus sheweth likewise that S. Peters chaire was singularis that is to say such a one as had no fellow and why so vt in vna cathedra in qua sedit Petrus vnitas ab omnibus seruaretur ne caeteri Apostoli singulas sibi quisque defenderent vt iaÌ„ schismaticus peccator esset qui contra singularem cathedram alteram collocaret Ergo cathedra vnica quae est prima de dotibê° sedit prior Petrus Peters chaire was singularlie one to th end vnity might be kept of all men in that one chaire Vnitie kept in one chair wherin Peter sat And that the other Apostles might not chalenge euery man a chaire to himself so that he should now be a schismatik and a synner who shuld place an other chaire against the chaire which hath no fellowes Peter then satte in the onely chaire which is the chiefe dourie of those that belong to the Church Could any thing be deuised more plaine the Chaire of Peter is one singularis vnae vnica and onely and singular wherein he being formost satte to thend none other Apostle might erect a contrarie chaire to Peters chaire Whereby he meaneth not that any Apostle would so much as indeauour any such thing but it was don to thend no successour of the Apostles might take any occasion to say Mie chaire is as good as Peters For an Apostle also did sitte in my chaire For this cause I say Peter alone had the first chaire and the singular chaire which had no fellow at all S. Hierom also bringeth the selfe same reason why S. Peter alone was the head and chief of all Aduersus Iouinian lib. 1. saying Propterea inter duodecim vnus eligitur vt capite constituto schismatis tollatur occasio Therefore among twelue one is chosen that a head being made the occasion of schism might be taken away But who was that one Aetati delatum est quia Petrus senior erat ne magister bonus in Ioannem adolescentem causam praebere videretur inuidiae The age was preferred because Peter was the elder lest the good master Christ should seme to geue occasion of enuie if he had chosen the yong man Saint Iohn If then Peter was the one who was chosen and if he was chosen of Christ to take away the occasion of schisme one chiefe pastour must still continew stil to take away the occasion of schism for S. Peter was not made the Apostles head as though the Apostles themselues had ben in daunger to make a schisme it were a madnes to thinck so of those blessed vessels of God but his primacie as Leo doth record was a plat foorme for other bisshoppes Serm. 3. in anniuers assump cuÌ„ctis rectoribus Petri forma proponitur who should haue lesse grace and would haue more pride that they might vnderstand how themselues ought not to disdaine to haue one head sette ouer theÌ„ if the very Apostles had a head among them For their dedes are our instruction If then a head was set ouer the Apostles for their sakes who should be pastours afterward what extreamitie of follie is it to make S. Peter alone a head ouer them A fortiore who least of al needed a head and to leaue our weake prelats al without a head Who many of them neede not only a head but also a diligeÌ„t and a seuere head Here might I worthely fall into a commoÌ„ place and shew that according to the saying of S. Cyprian heresies haue sprong of none other cause so much Lib. 1. epistol 3. as for that one iudge hath not bene acknowledged in the steede of Christ for the tyme to whoÌ„ the whole brotherhod might obey The which saying if it be verified euen by M. Iewels and M. Nowels confession in euery particular diocese how much more is it true that the whole Churche conteining certaine thowsands of dioceses must haue one iudge for the tyme to whome the whole brotherhod should obeie to thend heresies and schismes may be auoided For if one iudge be so necessarie that one litle shere and diocese can not lack him but that whiles one parish priest disdaineth an other the diocese falleth straight into a schism â–ª can the whole Church being spread throughout the world lack the same one iudge A fortiore and yet not fall into schismes Or shall the part be prouided for and shall the whole remain without so good a prouision But this argument is begon alredie betwene M. Dorman and M. Nowel And we haue manie a day looked what M. Nowel wil answere to it Farthermore we neuer found nor shall finde one woorde or syllable in the whole new testament where it maie appeare that euer
Christ committed anie particular companie of the faithfull men who then liued to any one apostle or disciple who might be resideÌ„t with theÌ„ alone as their only Pastor The partes and meÌ„bers of Christes whol militaÌ„t flock which are now made here aÌ„d there were instituted by th'Apostolike and Ecclesiastical authoritie not surely without the special prouidence and inspiration of the holy Ghost Tit. 1. Act. 14. Leo. ep 87 but yet not immediately by Christ but through his wil by mans authoritie And therefore the bounds of any parrissh or diocese may for probable causes be changed againe by an other man Greg. li. 2 ep 31. who hath such like authoritie to change the bounds of parisshes as they had who first made them Particular flocks then are voluntarie and likewise particular pastours But one flock and one pastour is of absolute necessitie in the earth aÌ„d so doth S. Cyprian witnesse Deus vnus est Christus vnus L. ep 8. vna Ecclesia Cathedra vna super PetruÌ„ Domini voce fundata There is one God and one Christ and one Church aÌ„d one chaire fouÌ„ded vpoÌ„ Peter by our Lords voice Behold One Chaire this one chair which is fouÌ„ded vpon Peter must nedes be ment of the one pastoral preeminence which Christ him self did institute in the militant Church This mater standing so shal we say that the Church of Christ continueth in the earth or no If it doe continue shal Christes owne absolute institution continue aboue the vertuouse but yet voluntarie institution of men or shal the good and voluntarie institution of maÌ„ preuail more theÌ„ the most perfit institutioÌ„ of Christ Men made many particular flocks according as they thought most conuenient for this or that place and they did set ouer them many particular pastours somwhere a Priest and somewhere a Bishop Christe made in al but one militant flock which should consist both of Iewes and Gentils and did set ouer it Saint Peter one general shepheard And there was made euen in earth after Christes ascension one sheepcote Ioan. 21. Ioan 10. and one shepheard Shall now these many flocks and manie shepheards which men appointed coÌ„tinue stil aÌ„d shal not the one flock and the one shepherd which Christ assigned much more continue Forasmuch as a flock of sheep is one by the force of one pastor if the pastor in earth be not one the flock in earth is not one Credo vnam Ecclesiam But al meÌ„ beleue one militaÌ„t church which is the flock of Christ in earth therfore al men ought to coÌ„fesse one militaÌ„t shepheard of the same flock in earth also For although the Churche be one moe wayes then by one shepherd yet if Christ had not meant that his Churche should be one flock not only for hauing one faith one baptisme Ephes 4. or one spirit but also for hauing one shepheard he would neuer haue said There shal be made one sheepcote and one shepheard Ioan. 10. But now seing he faith I haue other sheepe which are not of this fold to wit of the Iewes synagog and I must bring those and they shal heare my voice and there shal be made one fold or flocke and one shepheard it is euident that as the Iewes and the Gentils beside the vnitie to come in heauen are one fold and one flock in this world euen so that they haue one temporal shepheard in this world beside Christe the euerlasting shepheard Which thing sith it is so is it possible that any Protestant wil be so iniuriouse to Christ as to preferre the good institution of S. Paule who planted one Church at Corinth Rom. 16. Act. 14. an other at Ephesus and the third at Athens before the absolute and perelesse institution of Christ who in the whole earth plaÌ„ted one great Church wherof he made one great shepheard vnder himself the vniuersal shepheard I see that the Protestantes talke much of Gods word but the word they speak of is writen in no Gospel They will haue many flockes and many shepheards to continue stil neither doe we denie it because it was so instituted by the Apostles but the Catholikes wil much more haue all these flocks to be only one church in earth because thei are al to be reduced vnto the obedience of one chiefe shepheard in earth which was the institution of Christ Either let the text be named where Christe did institute many parishes aÌ„d many dioceses or seing there is none such and on the other side seing we bring a plain text where it is said to one pastour Ioan. 21. feed my sheep let not the order vertuouslie taken afterward by the Apostles be so mainteined that the former appointment of the Sonne of God be thereby made voide Either let both orders take place as with the Catholikes they doe or if one of the two shal needs be disapointed let vs rather haue in al but one chiefe shepheard as Christ immediatly left the mater then to haue many and not to haue one Moreuer to what other thing doth al the whole order of the Church tend in earth but only to an vnity The vvhol gouernmeÌ„t of the militant Churche teÌ„deth to vnitie Why is one Curate in a parish set ouer many families and houses Why is one Bishop in a diocese set ouer many parishes Why is one Primate or Metropolitane in a prouince set ouer many Bishops Why are al the primates of one quarter of the world reduced vnder one Patriarch but only euermore to shew that the gouernmeÌ„t of the Church teÌ„deth by many midle vnities Ep 82. ad AnastasiuÌ„ Thessal to one supream pastoral vnity in this life WhervpoÌ„ Leo saith Magna dispositione ê“uisuÌ„ est vt esseÌ„t in singulis prouincijs singuli quoruÌ„ inter fratres haberetur prima senteÌ„tia rursus quidaÌ„ in maâ—oribus vrbibus coÌ„stituti sollicitudineÌ„ suscipereÌ„t amplioreÌ„ per quos ad vnaÌ„ Petri sedeÌ„ vniuersalis Ecclesiae cura conflueret nihil vnquam a suo capite dissideret It was ordeined with great prouidence that there should be in euery prouince one whose iudgemeÌ„t or senteÌ„ce might be chief among the brethern And again that certain being apoiÌ„ted in the greater Cities See M. Ievvel vvho hath the cure of the vniuersal Church should take greater charge by whom the cure of the vniuersal Churche might flow togeather to the one seat of Peter and that nothing might at any time dissent froÌ„ his head Lo by may primates the cure of the whole cometh to him who sitteth in S. Peters See which is at Rome Again seing al Ecclesiastical inâ—â—itutioÌ„ and gouernmeÌ„t of the Church came from Christ one way or other it must needs be Cyp. lâ—b 1. epist 3. that euery bishop hath the portioÌ„ of the flock which he gouerneth assigned to him by some order or other takeÌ„ by Christ himself But Christ by his own expres worâ— assigned not that S.
Peter should rule any one peece of the Militant flocke and S. Iames an other and S. Iohn the third but rather by his appointment S. Peter might rule the self same flock whiche S. Iohn or S. Paule or S. Iames might and contrariwise they might rule the same flock which S. Peter did For all were sente aequallie into the whole world Matth. 28 Therefore except beside this cōmon commending of the flock indifferentlie to al S. Peter alone had bene made the chiefe Pastour and head of the whole flock as in deed he was and that not onely as an Apostle Ioan. 21. but as a Bisshoppe and as one ordinarie officer the like wherof should for euer cōtinue in the Church we might boldlie saie that the exāple of hauing any one ordinary Curate Bisshop or Metropolitane in anie one parrissh or Diocese or Prouince were vtterly without anie example of Christes institution in the Apostles themselues And therefore that aequall institution of many pastours ouer on◠flock only standing which thīg the protestants doe maintein it should inuincibly folow that seing no deuise of man is able to controll the institution o◠Christ it were at this day much better to haue twelue or thirten curates in one parish and so many bishoppes in one diocese then to haue one alone For Christ if Peter alone were not aboue the Apostles in the chiefe pastoral dignitie made thirteen Apostles to be equal pastours and gouerners of the self same flock Math. 18. 2◠and that foorm of gouernment which Christ ordeined ought stil to continue in euery particular Church for who dare change our Lords institution Cypri lib. 1. epi. 3. li. 4. epi. 2 Hieron in 1. c. epist ad Titum But on the other side if all the world confesse that now in one Church there ought to be at one time but one bishop or one pastour in so much that S. Hierom saith in vna ciuitate plures vt nun cupantur Episcopi esse non poterant In one city there could not be manie bishops according as a bishop is now taken to signifie one that is aboue common priests If whereas once manie priests according to S. Hieroms minde ruled one Church for a tyme equally In. 1. epist ad Titum vt dissensicnū plantaria euelletentur yet for the better auoiding of schismes that gouernment was chāged and one bishop was set ouer them al seing S. Hierom alloweth well the change as being made for the better and yet it could not haue ben for the better if it had wholy lacked a foorm and patern in that gouernment which Christ hīself appointed to the Churche seing the same S. Hierom saith Lib. 1. aduersus Iouianum that among twelue one was chosen ād that by the good master Christ to thend the occasion of schisme might be taken away al these thīgs I say well weighed and conferred togeather I may most certainly conclude that Christ did not only institute S. Peter to be as one chiefe pastour in the whole militant Church according to S. Hieroms expresse meaning but that also he did institute him alone as an ordinarie officer according to whose vnity euery other Church should be at the lēgth ruled by one curate or bishop For as the twelue Apostles gouerned the flock for a tyme togeather with S. Peter extraordinarily AEqualiter inter piures Ecclesiae cura diuiditur and S. Peter alone gouerned the whole flock ordinarily so whiles the Apostles yet liued some few parishes were gouerned extraordinarily by many pastours at once as S. Hierom thinketh But as we see most clerely that the equall gouernment of many pastours in any one parish or diocese in the whole world lōg before S. Hieroms tyme was wholy expired so we may as euidently perceaue if we be not geuen ouer to a blind hart that the extraordinarie gouernment of the twelue Apostles or of any other prelates with equal power was fiften hundred yeres past expired And that now the onely ordinarie meane to gouerne Gods Churche as well in the whole as in the parts is to haue one pastour alone in euery parish and one chefe pastour alone ouer the whole militant Church the which one chiefe pastour is the bisshop of Rome as now it shal be proued by Gods grace That the Bishop of Rome is that one ordinarie pastour who succedeth in S. Peters chaire and is aboue al bishops according to the meaning of Gods word The XV. Chap. AS Sina being a mountaine in in Arabia Galat. 4. is said of the Apostle to be ioyned or to be nighe vnto the earthly city of Ierusalem not so much for the nighnes or affinity of the place as for the likenes of conditiō because the self same Law of Moyses which had ben geuen in Sina was afterward continued and preserued in Ierusalem And as by that meane the Iewes who at the tyme of the Lawe first receaued were not bound to Ierusalem at all as the which was then full of Idolatrie were afterward boūd to come thyther thrise euery yeare Exod. 23. because the highe priesthood and temple was setled there Deut. 17. as in the place which God chose euen so fareth it betwene the chiefe power which Christ gaue to S. Peter and the Church or bisshop of Rome Ioan. 21. For albeit when the Church was built vpon Peter and when he was made chiefe pastour of the same he were in Palestina and not in Rome ād for that tyme was rather accompted the highe bishop of the Circūcision Galat. 2. that is to say of the faithfull Iewes then of the Gentils who were not then cōuerted frō their Idolatrie yet for asmuch as the same S. Peter whose primacie is plentifully set foorth in Gods worde at the length setled himselfe at Rome by Gods appointment Iren. lib. 3 cap. 3. Tertul. de praescript and left a successour there for this respect I may wel affirm that the Bishop of Romes Primacy is cōmended and warranted by Gods own worde And seing it hath ben already declared that S. Peter alone according to the first litteral sense was both the rock Matth. 16 wherevpon Christ promised to build his Church and also the pastour Ioan. 21. who as he loued Christ more then other so he had authoritie to feede Christes flocke more then anie other Bisshop Item that the power of Peter was ordinarie and must continue still in the Church of God Item that it must continue in one chiefe shepheard onlie Now if I shew that the Bisshop of Rome is that one ordinarie chiefe Shepheard who succedeth in the said Authoritie of Saint Peter how can it be auoided but that the Supremacie of the Bishop of Rome is auouched and taught by Gods owne word Egesippus lib. 3 c. 2. Iren. lib. 3 cap. 3. Euseb histor lib. 2. c. 14. First not only al the histories all holy writers and the general tradition of all ages haue testified
S. Paul or said to sit in his chair but onely in the Chaire of Peter as the whole practise of the Church and all the writings of the Fathers doe witnesse Whereby we are infourmed that Rome is the place chosen by Christ him selfe where S. Peters Chaire shoulde reast Ambros lib. 5. post ep 32. In Pontificali For S. Peter retourninge to Rome vppon the former vision didde before his death consecrate S. Clement Bisshoppe cui Cathedram saieth Damasus vel Ecclesiam omnem commisit dicens To whome he committed also his chaire or al the Churche sayinge Sicut mihi gubernandi tradita est à Domino meo Iesu Christo potestas ligandi soluendique ita ego tibi committo c. As the power of gouerning of binding and loosing is committed to mée of my Lord Iesus Christ euen so I commit to thée also that thou maist ordein others by whom diuerse causes maie be disposed and such acts as be not meet for the Church may be repelled and thou must not be found geuen to the cares of this world but onely endeuour to geue most leisure to prayer and to preaching vnto the people Clemens in epist 1. The like report S. Clement himselfe maketh of this commission whiche S. Peter gaue to him whose Epistle Ruffinus turned into Latine aboue eleuen hundred yeres past Ruffinus in Praefatione Recognit and in the preface whiche he maketh to the Recognitions of S. Clement he so wel declareth that Epistle of S. Clement to haue bene of ful credit in his time and before that he answereth such obiections as might seme to make against that which is said in it Tertullian also coÌ„fesseth De praescript aduersus haeret that the Church of Rome doth shew euidence that S. Clement was ordeined of Peter And S. Hierom namely saith In Catalogo Plerique LatinoruÌ„ secunduÌ„ post PetruÌ„ ApostoluÌ„ putant fuisse ClemeÌ„tem The most part of the Latins think Clement to haue ben second or next after Peter the Apostle And in an other place he saith Aduersus Iouin Clemens successor Apostoli Petri scribit epistolas Clemens the successour of Peter the Apostle writeth Epistles Leo the second Marianus Scotus and diuers other are of the same iudgement Now wheras Linus and Cletus by the life time of S. Peter as Damasus and Ruffinus do witnesse did administer many things belonging to the Bisshoprike as being in the exterior matters coadiutours of S. Peter the Grecians who were farther absent Vbi supra and were lesse expert in the Romaine affaires supposed Linus to haue bene chosen next after S. Peter Whereas Clement was onely chosen but Clement as other think yelded to Linus for a time as to his elder Howsoeuer that be whether Linus or Clement practised that high autoritie once S. Peters Chaire was setled at Rome not without the special prouidence of Christ In so much that Athanasius writeth that S. Peter and Paule audieruÌ„t In Apologia de fuga sua oportere se Romae Martyrium subire heard that they must suffer martyrdom at Rome And what so euer hearing he meaneth surely he meaneth it of a hearing which came from God either by their owne vision or by some prophetical reuelation such as both they did wel beleue and we also ought to credite But to come neare to our present purpose S. Irenaeus speaking of the successions of Bisshoppes in those Churches whiche the Apostles had first instituted calleth the Church of Rome Maximam antiquissimam Lib. 3. aduersus hereses c. 3. omnibus cognitam à gloriosissimis duobus Apostolis Petro Paulo fundatam constitutam The greatest Churche and most aunciente and knowen to all menne being planted and setteled by twoo moste gloriouse Apostles Peter and Paule Ibidem Ad hanc Ecclesiam propter potentiorem principalitatem necesse est omnem conuenire Ecclesiam hoc est eos qui sunt vndique fideles To this Church for the mightier principalitie or authoritie of gouernement euery Churche that is to saie the faithful which are round about must needes come or agree Whereas then euerie Churche hath a certaine principalitie or authoritie of gouernemente committed to it by Christe throughe whiche principalitie it maie preache the faith Tit. 3. ouercom synnes and heresies and excommunicat open synners and hereticks The Church of Rome being founded and planted by the most gloriouse Apostles hath potentiorem principalitatem a mightier principalitie then any other Church For it is a wilfull ignorance whereas Ireneus speaketh only of the successours and traditions of faithfull Churches In his Reply 244. for M. Iewel to say as he hath don that the mightier principalty here mentioned is meant of the Ciuil DominioÌ„ and of the Roman Empire as though Ireneus had spoken any syllable in that place of the Roman Empire He spake of the Churches which the Apostles had founded and instituted The Churche of Rome is the greatest among which he calleth the Church of Rome maximaÌ„ the graetest Why so but because it was founded of the greatest Apostle aÌ„d how fouÌ„ded For if S. Peter had only made a bishop thereof as he did of diuerse other Churches surely therby it had not ben greater then the other But because he being the graetest of th' Apostles as a Hist lib. 2. cap. 14. Eusebiê° aÌ„d S. b In epist ad Galat. cap. 2. HieroÌ„ speake left in Rome a Successour in his own primacy that is to say a rock aÌ„d a chief shepherd as great as hiÌ„self had beÌ„ therfore it was the greatest Church in the worlde And thence cometh the priÌ„pality wherof this auÌ„cieÌ„t father speaketh Rome is the most auncient Churche S. Ireneus calleth the same Churche of Rome aÌ„tiquissimaÌ„ the most auÌ„cient Church how so was not IerusaleÌ„ and Antioche before it Yeas verily in time of hauiÌ„g a bishop aÌ„d of ê“fessing the faith but not in the ê‘petual honor aÌ„d resideÌ„ce of the chief bishop For Peter was the first aÌ„d chief bishop of the new testameÌ„t In him was the roote the fountain the head of al bishoply power De simplicitate praelatorum aÌ„d froÌ„ hiÌ„ as S Cyprian witnesseth priestly vnity toke his beginning touching the ministery of the new testament and for that cause his successors being reckoned as in deede they are one with him concerning his office of feeding Christes sheepe cause the Church of Rome stil to be the most auncient and the mother Church of the Romaine circuit Metropolis ad Solitariam vitam agent as also Athanasius doth name it For this cause the mightier principalitie is in the Church of Rome And for as much as the same succession of Peter is now at Rome which was in the tyme of Ireneus the same Church is still the greatest and the most auncient Church wherunto all other faithful meÌ„ ought to resort by reson of the mightier principality or preemineÌ„ce therof S.
Iam cùm ista scriberem Epist 94. cognoueramus in Ecclesia Carthaginensi aduersus eos Episcopalis Concilij conditum fuisse Decretum per epistolam sancto venerabili Papae Innocentio dirigendum nos de Concilio Numidiae ad eandem Apostolicam sedem iam similiter scripseramus Now whiles I wrote these things we vnderstode a Decree to haue bē made in the Church of Carthage by a Councel of bishops which was to be directed by an epistle vnto the holy and reuerend Pope Innocentius And we likewise had writen from the Councel of Numidia to the same Apostolike See It is then euident that these two Councels sent their Decrees to the See Apostolike as also all other Councels were wont to doe according to the most auncient tradition and that as wel because the See Apostolike was assured not to erre as being the Rocke of the faith which was prayed for by Christ himselfe as also to th' intent all Churches might receaue the soner that Decree which were deriued to them from the authority of their own head vnder Christ and of their chiefe shepheard and again because the heretiks and theier followers might the soner be either reconciled or kept downe when it were once knowen that the highest court in earth had condemned their opinions Wherupon the Fathers of the Mileuitan Councel say Epist 92. Arbitramus adiuuante misericordia Domini Dei nostri Iesu Christi qui te regere consulentem orantem exaudire dignatur auctoritati sanctitatis tuae de sanctarum scripturarū authoritate depromptae facilius eos qui tā peruersa perniciosa sentiunt esse cessuros We thinck these men who haue so euil and froward opinions the popes autority is taken out of the holy scriptures wil the soner yeld to the authority of your holinesse being takē out of the authority of the holy scriptures by the help of the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ who voutsafeth both to rule you whiles you consulte and to heare you when you pray Two things are specially to be noted in these words one that the authority of Pope Innocentius is taken out of the authoritie of the holy scriptures verily because it maie be proued by the woorde of God that the bishop of Rome who succedeth S. Peter is the highe shepheard whose voice al the faithful are boūd to heare The other point is in that these Fathers affirm that Christ ruleth the Pope at his consultatiō alluding therein to the faith of S. Peter which was praied for Luc. 22. to thend al his successours might not erre in consulting about matters of Religion To which epistle pope Innocentius made answer praising them because in doutfull matters they asked him what sentence or iudgement was to be followed Ep. 93. antiquae scilicet regulae formā secuti quam toto semper ab orbe mecum nostis esse seruatam Yee followed saith Innocentius the paterne of the auncient rule which ye know as wel as I Note vvel to haue ben alwaies kept of the whole world Marke that Innocentius douteth not to affirme that the Fathers of the Councell of Miliuite among whome Saint Augustine was did know that the whole worlde alwayes vsed to referre doutfull matters to the See Apostolike and that as it followeth praesertim quoties fidei ratio ventilatur specially so oft as the matter of faith is discussed If anie man saie that the Pope in dede wrote so but that he said not true lette him consyder that Saint Augustine doth also acknowledge and praise the Popes answer in these words Epist 106. Scripsimus ad B. memoriae Papam Innocentium c. We wrote to Pope Innocentius of blessed memorie Ad omnia ille nobis rescripsit eodem modo quo fas erat atque oportebat Apostolicae sedis Antistitem He wrote again to vs to euery point in such sort as it was right and as it became the Bisshop of the Apostolike See What can be now required more Saint Augustine acknowlegdeth the answere to haue ben mete for Saint Peters successour and yet shal the Protestants now a dayes be suffered to raile at that epistle which Saint Augustine estemed so much that he maketh mention thereof with great commendation Saint Augustine then doth confesse that from all quarters of the worlde the Pope of Rome was wont euē in the old tyme to be consulted as being the general pastour whose duty it was to prouide for the whole militant flocke the particular bishops them selues being comprised therein I haue ben somewhat long about S. Augustines doctrine partlie for the worthines of the man partly because I perceaue that our Aduersaries pretend to geue more credit to him then to any other Father But if S. Augustine be not cleere for the Supremacy of the bisshops of Rome ther was neuer nothing cleere in him Let this one place be added for a surpluse to the rest The bisshop of Carthage saith he needed not to care for the multitude of his ennemies for so much as he saw hīselfe to be ioyned in communion as wel with other countries whence the Gospel came to Afrike it self as also with the Church of Rome in qua semper Apostolicae Cathedrae viguit prīcipatus Epist 162. in the which Roman Church the principate or primacy of the Apostolike chaire hath alwaies florished not only the chair of the Apostle S. Peter but also the principal power of the Apostolik chaire did not only stand in the Roman Church but it florished there and that not only during S. Peters life or a litle after but semper alwaies Happy then are we who til this day cōmunicate in faith with that Apostolike chaire And wo to them that cal the Apostolik chaire the Seat of Antichrist To goe forward with some other holy Fathers In Lib. de ingratis Prosper the Bishop of Regium being of the same tyme though sumwhat yoūger then S. Augustine and speaking of the condemnation of the heretike Pelagius writeth thus touching the See of Rome Pestem subeuntem prima recidit Sedes Roma Petri quae pastoralis honoris facta caput mundo quicquid non possicet armis Religione tenet Rome the See of Peter did first cut of Pelagius being a pestilence which then began to crepe into the Churche The which Rome being made the head of pastoral honour vnto the world holdeth al that by religion what so euer it doth not possesse by the sword Rome then is the Seate of Peter the head of Bisshoplie honour or of Pastoral power the which reacheth farther and hath moe Christians subiect to it because the Vicare of Christe sitteth there then euer it had through the mightie Empire thereof The selfe same thing Prosper saith in an other place De vocat gentium lib. 2. c. 16 Roma per Apostolici sacerdotij principatum amplior facta est arce religionis quā solio potestatis Rome through the chiefedome or primacie of the
etiam vestrae innotescat sanctitati Caput quae caput est omnium sanctarum EcclesiaruÌ„ Neither doe we suffer anie thing that doth apperteine to the state of the Churches how manifest aÌ„d vndoubted so euer it be which is called in question but the same is also notified to your holines The Pope is head of all holie Churches who is the head of al holy Churches If the Pope be head of al holy Churches and therfore be made priuie to all ordinances aÌ„d lawes which apperteine to the state of Churches it must needes follow that the Church wherof a King or Emperour shal be suprem head is no holy Church but a profane Synagog aÌ„d a malignaÌ„t congregation such as those of the Arrians Donatists and Pelagians were who obeyed not the Bisshop of Rome nor suche bisshops as were of his fellowship Vvho vvas the supreme head of the Heretikes but either Iulianus the Renegate or Valens or the Kings of the Gothes and of the Vandals as the Histories of the Church doe witnesse Here the order and place requireth that I should declare also how Phocas the Emperour An. Dom. 609. in the time of Pope Bonifacius the third pronounced the See of Rome head of al churches but the Protestants not able to deny the storie sai that now first the See of Rome began to be accoÌ„pted the head of al Churches A false assertion Which thiÌ„g shal appere as true as the rest of their doctrine is For S. Gregorie being before Bonifacius An. Dom. 607. Lib. 11. epist 54. saith of the See of Rome Apostolica sedes omnium ecclesiarum caput est The Apostolike See is Head of all Churches Before him also the Bishop of Patara An. 538. being a Grecian said of Syluerius the Pope Ille Papa est super Ecclesiam muÌ„di totius He is Pope ouer the Church of the whole world An. 534. IustiniaÌ„ writing to Ioannes the Pope as I alleged before calleth his holines caput omnium Ecclesiarum Head of al Churches An. 486. Eugenius the Bishop of Carthage being an African had said before Iustinians time as Victor writeth Romana ecclesia caput eÌ„ omniuÌ„ ecclesiaruÌ„ Lib. 2. de persecut Vandal The Roman Churche is the head of all Churches Yea Prosper had writeÌ„ before Eugenius Sedes Roma Petri An. 460. De ingratis quae pastoralis honoris facta caput muÌ„do Rome the See of Peter which is made vnto the world An. 446. In natiuit Petri Paull the head of pastoral honour Leo the great being elder theÌ„ Prosper preached thus Roma per sacraÌ„ B. Petri sedeÌ„ caput orbis effecta Rome by the holy seat of Peter is made the head of the world â–ª and again ê‘quos vniuersalis ecclesiae cura ad vnaÌ„ b. Petri sedeÌ„ coÌ„fluit Ad Anastas ep 82 By whoÌ„ the cure of the vniuersal church floweth to the one See of Peter that nothiÌ„g might at any time dissent from his head Now the fourth general CouÌ„cel An. 456. albeit it was not elder in yeres then Leo yet coÌ„sisting of 630. Bisshops gathered out of the whol world it is worthy to be harkened vnto of al the ChristiaÌ„ flock as of most auÌ„cient and perelesse authoritie This great Councel making relatioÌ„ to Pope Leo of such things as had bene done there Act. 3. Sancta magna c. writeth to him Tu quidem sicut membris caput praeeras Thou wast ouer vs as the head is ouer his meÌ„bers And wheras the Church is coÌ„pared to a vineyard Isai 5. they there coÌ„fesse that vnto Pope Leo vineae custodia à Saluatore commissa est The keping of the vineyeard is committed of our Sauiour Note here gentle Readers that this famouse great and learned Councell referreth the matter to our Sauiour and not vnto Phocas or to any mortal man The keeping of the vineyard is committed to the Pope of Rome by our Sauiour himself An. D. 426 Lib. 12. in Ioan. c. 64 If we shal goe yet higher when Cyrillus confesseth S. Peter to haue ben caput Apostolorum the head of the Apostles doth he not confesse the successors of S. Peter who are the Bishops of Rome to be much more the heads of the successours of the Apostles which al bishops are Shall we goe from Cyrillus to S. Ambrose An. D. 308 who writing vpon S. Pauls epistle to Timothe In c. 3. 1. epistol ad Timoth. calleth Damasus the bisshop of Rome the ruler or gouernour of that Church in his tyme which Church is named of S. Paul the howse of God the pillour of truthe meaning that Pope Damasus was gouernour of the whole Militant Church and not only of any one parish or Diocese And what other thing is it to be a teÌ„poral ruler of Gods whole Church Tripar li. 4. c. 15. but to be the temporal head thereof Saith not Sozomenus that pope Iulius curaÌ„ gessit omniuÌ„ propter sedis propriae dignitatem He toke the cure of all for the worthinesse of his own See where al is comprised what can be excepted Optatus An. D 370 Lib. 2. de schism Donatist who proueth S. Peter to haue beÌ„ head because he was called of Christ Cephas a rock for the rock or foundation is that vnto the house which the head is to the body doth thereby refer the primacie of S. Peter and of his successours to Christ him selfe An. 300. If I shal goe now to the Councel of 300. Bisshops held at Sinuessa where although Marcellinus had confessed him selfe to haue done Idolatrie yet all the Bisshops answered Prima sedes non iudicabitur à quoquam Tom. 1. Concil the first See shal be iudged of no man wil it not therby appere that the See of Rome beig the first See was not preferred to that honor by any mortal maÌ„ otherwise he that had pÌ„ferred it might also haue iudged it but was made head of al churches by him who said to S. Peter vpon this rock I wil build my Churche Matt. 16. It is not therefore Phocas but Iesus Christ who making S. Peter the temporal fouÌ„dation and head Pastor of the church made the Bisshop of Rome his successour as I haue declared before Let vs now goe forward with other good Emperours aÌ„d KiÌ„gs shewing that not Phocas alone but others also after hiÌ„ honoured the See Apostolike as the highest power in the church of God ConstaÌ„tinus the fourth being a most Catholike Prince Beda de sex aetat mundi procured the sixth general Councel to be called aÌ„d therin coÌ„fessed himself to haue woÌ„dred at the relation of Pope Agatho as if it had beÌ„ the voice of Peter Act. 18. Synod 6. The same Emperor in the time of Benedictus the second Pope of that name decreed An 688. Platina in vita Benedict 2 vt deinceps queÌ„ clerus populus exercitusque Romanus in PontificeÌ„ delegisset
of our Lords supper I know you beleue his doctrine to be starck false in that behalfe Wel was he not warned thereof not onlie by his owne Catholike bisshop but also by Zuinglius a man of God as you saie Did he not after a sharppe warning or two yet still defend his false doctrine manie yeeres togeather most stubburnlie Tit. 3. Therefore by Saint Paules doctrine Luther was an heretike and was to be auoided as a man condemned by his own iudgement How do you auoid him when in your Apologie of the Church of of Englād you iustifie him as a man whome God reised after long darknes to geue fresh light vnto the world Cal you then an errour in religion the light of the Gospel What was there I pray you whie the old false Prophets of the primitiue Churche were accompted heretiques the which is not also founde in Martin Luther Luther had al the properties of the old Heretikes Did they teache erronious doctrine So did he euen by your confession Did they stand in it being warned So did he Did they die in it So did he Made they a schism for it So did he Left they scholars behind them who bare their names As though the Martinists and Lutherans be not named of Martin Luther Did their Schism hurt the peace of the Church So doth this Was their heresie condemned by General or Prouincial Councels So was the doctrine of the Lutherans condemned at Trent at Rome at Magunce at Colon at Cambray and where not To be short define an heretique for your life how euer you can and Luther shal be within the cūpasse of your definition And yet shal you that iustifie him be saued No surely no more thē they that iustifie the Nicolaits or Monothelits It wil not now serue to saie that S. Cyprian died in his opinion of rebaptising those who were baptized of heretikes For then partly the Catholique faith in that point was not fully and vniuersally reuealed in any General Coūcel partly S. Cypriā did not die wtih such a stubbornes in this behalf that he was ready to iudge or to excōmunicate the contrary teachers as his own a ad Quītum ad Iubaianū Epistles and S. b lib. 2. 3. de baptismo cōt Donat. Augustin doth wel proue at large Neither would he haue refused a iudge euen in earth if occasion had ben geuen to haue come to the tryall of the mater But the questiō of our Lords supper was vniuersally knowē and fiue hundred yeres past it was defined in iudgement at certain Councels euen to the recantation of Berengarius the first publike mainteinour therof And when the great general Councel of Lateran had ended it the whole Church was confirmed in their former belefe Now the definitiō of that great Coūcel doth cōdēne both Luther ād Zuīglius Moreouer Luther and Zuinglius died with suche a presumptuouse stubbornes that eche of them refused anie Iudge in the whole earth because eche of them said him selfe to be sure of the word of God beside the which eche of them refused any iudge at al. So that now no excuse in the world remaineth but that either Luther or Zuinglius must be an Antichrist And that who so iustifieth them both as the Protestants and Sacramentaries doe is vtterlie damned for allowing one Antichrist at the least The fourth marck of an Antichristian The Fourth mark of an Antichrist is in that God suffereth as not Antichrist himself in his own person so neither his ministers ād false Prophets to continue or tarie long For as Christe said Matth. 24. where he intreated of these matters Except those daies had ben shortened 2. Pet. 2. no flesh should be saued And S. Peter saith The perdition of false teachers sleepeth not For in deed except God prouided that heresies might haue a short reign the whole faith would be in danger to be corrupted by them And I pray you The short reigne of Luther see how short a reigne Luther had who was the first false Prophet of our age His heresie and doctrine is in maner nowe come to remaine onely in two or three persons For whereas his sect is onelie that whiche he him selfe taught he was no soner dead but Philip Melancthon beganne to change his doctrine The which thing so displeased Flaccus Illyricus with a few others that they toke vpō them the defense of their Master Luther and thereby they are so hated in al the states and Cities of the Ciuile Lutherans who are spread through moste parts of Germanie that now it is not lawful for the said Illyricus so muche as to appere in those quarters nor his bookes may not be openly sold at Lipsia or Wittenberge except some fewe of them which are by name permitted The short reigne of Hosiander Hosiander a Protestant taught in Prussia at Coninsperg That God iustifieth man onely by his diuine nature And that the man iustified must be iust with the very same iustice wherewith God is iust in his owne nature and substance And whiles this Hosiander liued Duke Albertus was altogether of his opinion and fauoured him aboue measure But now at my being in Prussia I learned there were scant three men left who openlie mainteined this sect And the Duke was saied to care now no more for it And good reason why for their heresies die with the inuentours of them As for Zuinglius opinion The short reigne of zuinglius it is vtterlie extinguisshed by the Caluinists For Zuinglius and Oecolampadius thought these woordes This is my bodie directlie to concerne and to appertaine to the bread and onlie to make it a figure of Christes bodie Whereby he that should receiue the same bread might be put in minde of Christes death But Caluin hath affirmed the said words of Christ not to be directed to the bread but onlie to be a sermon and a preaching made to the audience which is present Whereby the bodie of Christe is consecrated not now in the bread as in a signe whiche Zuinglius beleued but in euery mans hart by faith and by the remembrance of Christes death And in the hart Christ is present saith Caluin not onlie by faith as Zuinglius had taught but reallie and in very deed whiles certaine beames come from the flesh of Christ in heauen into his hart who eateth with Caluins phantastical faith The short reigne of Caluin Now as for Caluins own doctrine it shal decay euery hower sithens he is once dead Euen alreadie in Polonia it is ouerwhelmed with Trinitaries Iosephits and with those who circumcide them selues and with diuerse other blasphemies wherevnto those are nowe fallen who were once Caluins Scholars In England it is forsaken by his own scholers who allow defend and both doe sweare themselues and make other men to sweare vnto the supreame gouernement of temporall Princes ouer the spirituall Pastours in all things and causes by Act of parliamēt In Amos.
not of that King who is also a bishop is greater then a bishoppes power which is spiriritual and heauenly What is this to say but onlie that the bodie is aboue the sowle the ciuill pollicy aboue the Church of Christ and the temporal reigne aboue the Kingdom of heauen This is a vehement marck to betraie our new brethern by For we speake not now of workes or maners that is to say whether a man loue the world more then God or whether a pope be more gredy of his temporal iurisdistion then of his spirituall dutie We speake not I say of these abuses lette him that hath them yea though he be a pope looke well to himself in that behalf but we speake of doctrine at this tyme. The Pope teacheth that euery spiritual pastour is of a higher dignity theÌ„ any temporal officer whatsoeuer he be And that because he is instituted of Christ for to help vs toward life euerlasting The Protestantes teache Ephes 4. that a Christian Emperour or Kinge is aboue all spiritual pastours in his own realm and may depose them by his own power which is the very doctrine of Antichrist For the Emperours and Kinges though they be Christians may not yet in spiritual matters rule the bishoppes and pastours of Gods people VVhat povver the ChristiaÌ„ pricÌ„e hath but onely they may with their teÌ„poral lawes and power defend the lawes and ordinances which the bisshops haue already made as Theodosius and al other good Emperours vsed to doe But if they wil vse their princelie power to change the old lawes of the Church or to make new lawes in spiritual matters which were not before made by the priests or to depose the auÌ„cient bishops who haue cure of their sowles then they are the members of Antichrist as great Athanasius hath at large declared in describing the heinouse factes of the Arrians in his tyme In epist ad Solitar vi tam agentes who reporteth that when Constantius the Emperour called Paulinus the Bishop of Treuers Lucifer the bishop of Sardinia Eusebius the bishop of Marcels and Dionysius the bishop of Millan before him willing them to subscribe against Athanasius because it was his pleasure and his procedings those blessed bishoppes exhorted him ne ecclesiastica corrumperet neue Romanum imperium ecclesiasticis constitutionibus immisceret that he should not corrupt Church matters and that he should not mingle the Roman Empire with the Ecclesiastical ordinances Here you see that the RomaÌ„ empire is discharged froÌ„ meddling with Church matters It is not onely saied Arrians or heretiks but it is said the Roman Empire ought not to mingle it selfe with Ecclesiasticall causes Euen a Bishoppe being an heretike is remoued from Churche matters but an Emperour is not onelie remoued from them if he be an hereticke but also because he is an Emperour onelie and not a Bisshop Onely this hath bene alwaies the custom that Emperors shuld be careful to maintaine the former coÌ„stitutions of Bisshoppes and the ciuil peace of the Church For they being Christians ought to vse the sword whiche they beare by Gods appointment for the Churche But the outward and ciuil peace aÌ„d the Ecclesiastical constitutions which towche the belefe and the inward direction of the sowle are two things much different Apud Athan. ibidem in so much that Pope Liberiê° said to the messinger of the same Emperour Constantius as Athanasius also doth witnesse after this sort If the Emperour will needes interpose his care for the Ecclesiasticall peace Ecclesiastical peace lette an Ecclesiasticall synode be made longè à palatio vbi nec Imperator praesto est nec Comes se ingerit nec iudex minatur Ecclesiastical synod caet Let the Ecclesiasticall meeting be made a great way of from the palaice where neither an Emperour is at hand nor a County thrusteth in himself nor a iudge threateneth but where the only feare of God and the institution of the Apostles is sufficient Thus he said not that an Emperour might in no case be at a Councel of bishops but because he might not be there to vse his Emperial authority in iudging the bishops or in prescribing what the Church shall decree or beleue but onely in maynteining that which the bishops according to the Apostolike institution either haue or shall agree vpon That Reuerend Father Hosius who after that he had suffered persecution for Christes faith vnder Maximian liued threescore yeres in the Churche being tempted by the same Constantius to subscribe againste Athanasius In epi ad Solitar vit ageÌ„t asketh first of him by letters whether his brother Constans the good and Catholik Emperour did vse to banish bishops or no and then whether ConstaÌ„s his brother aliquando iudicijs Ecclesiasticis intersuit was at any tyme a medler with the Ecclesiasticall iudgements Ibidem Last of all he saith to him Ne te misceas Ecclesiasticis neque nobis in hoc genere praecipe sed potius ea à nobis disce Tibi Deus imperiuÌ„ commisit nobis quae sunt Ecclesiae coÌ„credidit quemad modum qui tuum etiam imperium malignis oculis carpit contradicit ordinationi diuinae ita tu caue ne quae sunt Ecclesiae ad te trahens magno crimini obnoxius fias Date scriptum est quae sunt Caesaris Caesari quae Dei Deo neque igitur fas est nobis in terris imperiuÌ„ tenere neque tu thymiamatum sacroruÌ„ potestateÌ„ habes Imperator Doe thou not intermedle with Ecclesiastical matters neither do thou coÌ„mauÌ„d what we shal doe in this kind of matters but rather lern theÌ„ of vs. God hath committed the Empire vnto thee aÌ„d he hath put vs in trust with â—hose things which concern the Church and like as he that malignly â—arpeth thy Empire doth gainesay the â—rdinaunce of God so doe thow take â—hede lest in takiÌ„g vnto thee those things which beloÌ„g to the Church thow be made gilty of a great crime It is writen Math. 22. geue vnto Caesar those things which are Cesars and vnto God those things that are Gods Therfore it is neither lauful for vs to haue the rule of the Empire in earth neither hast thou ô Emperour any power ouer the holy incense and sacrifices Mark that it is rehersed for a praise in the Catholike Emperour Constans not to haue medled with Ecclesiastical iudgements Also Athanasius himself saith thus for his own part In epist vt antè Si istud est iudicium Episcoporum quid commune cum eo habet Imperator caet quando iudicium Ecclesiae authoritatem suam ab Imperatore cepit caet Paulus Apostolus habebat amicos in Caesaris familia per eos in literis salutabat Philippenses Philip. 4. non tamen eos in iudidicio socios assumpsit If this be the iudgemeÌ„t of bishops what hath the Emperor to doe with it aÌ„d coÌ„trarywise if these iudgements are gathered by the
The woorde of God which saith this is my body is the fire which deuoureth the earthlie substance of bread and wine brought vnto the altar the which word worketh that which it souÌ„deth aÌ„d is honorable 16 They are cursed who hauing a beast of the male kind doe not offer it but rather doe offer a spotted or weake one as the reiected Iewes did 16 We shuld likewise be cursed it hauiÌ„g Christes bodiwe shuld not offer it but rather should saâ— our own righteousnes 〈◊〉 be most principally thâ— cleane oblation wherâ— of the prophet speakeâ— â–ª Which yet the member of Antichrist doe say â–ª Read the prophet Malachie witâ— diligence and see whether the conference of the holy scripture doth not necessarily import this sense which 〈◊〉 haue now geuen And I haue geueÌ„ it according to the vniforme interpretatiâ— of the auncient fathers of whome noâ— one denyeth the body aÌ„d blood of Christ to be here meant albeit some of them expound some part of this chapiter of praiers and of inward righteousnes the which inward sacrifice is alwaies to be ioyned with the vnblodie outward sacrifice or consecration and oblation of Christes body and blood which is the new oblation of the new testament with a Lib. 4. cap. â— Ireneus with whome b DemoÌ„st euange li. 1. c. 10. Eusebiâ— c In Malach 1. S. Hierom d Orat. 2. aduersus Iudaeos S. Chrysostom e Lib. 4. c. 14. Daâ—ascene agree Neither doth this our vnbloody sacrifice derogate any iote to that one â—loody sacrifice of Christes crosse For we â—onour that one sacrifice so much that through the power of it we beleue the daily remembraunce thereof being made by the outward consecration of bread and wine into the same bodie and blood which was once offered vppon the crosse to be necessarily a publike sacrifice because it is not possible Note but that euery publicke and external fact which is made by Gods authority to put vs in minde of that great sacrifice once fulfilled on the crosse must also partake the nature of that sacrifice whereof it is the remembraunce For if euen the killing and burning of a calf was an external aÌ„d publike sacrifice because it signified that Christ should die for vs how infinitely more shal the body and blood of Christ being made of bread and wine to signifie his owne death be a publick and an external sacrifice And because in the saied body of Christ the whole merit of his priesthod and crosse is stil really conteined for he is a priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech whensoeuer that body is made present by consecration as it is alwaies at Masse then Heb. 7. seing that substance is made present which euen till this day whersoeuer it be 2. Ioan. 2. or in earth maketh God merciful to vs a propitiatory sacrifice in his kind is made hable to be applied to the vse of the liue and of the dead Which doctrine who so denieth vpoÌ„ pretence of a zeale to Christes death let him be wel assured he dishonoureth his death aboue measure if whereas euery signe externally made in calues or gotes which went before his death was therfore a publik external sacrifice he will now deny the same honour to a signe of the same deathe appointed to be made euen by Christes owne mouth and exaÌ„ple in the self same body which died for vs. I can not tarie any longer vpon this matter because it is not my principal purpose The eight mark of an Antichristian THE viij mark of the false prophets of Antichrist is to spoile Christ of his inheritaunce which God gaue him in all nations For so a Psal 2. Dauid b 60. 61 Isaias yea the c Luc. 14. Gospell doth teache Neither is it only meant that in diuerse natioÌ„s some or other shal some at one aÌ„d other at an other tyme priuily beleue in Christ but it is meant Isai 2. Psal 44. Malac. 1. that many nations together shal professe Christes religioÌ„ and name outwardly and openly for his name is great among the Gentils not in one nation only but among many nor surely by those who lie priuie but by those who are not ashamed to be knowen for Christians and for Catholikes For such only doe honour the name of God as be knowen to be of his Churche Math. 5. Isai 2. Hereof it is called a city which can not be hidden a hil built in the toppe of hils Psal 18. Matth. 5. a tabernacle sette in the son a candle being light and sette vppon the candlesticke the children of light Luc. 16. Matth. 13. the kingdom of Christ who reigneth in the house of the spiritual Iacob for euer Yea it is called the croune of glory in the hand of God Isai 62. and the pride or magnificent ioy of all ages from generation to generation Al which texts notwithstanding the protestants will make vs beleue that they are Christes Church whereas fifty yeres a goe there were not onlie not many nations of them which professed their faith openly so that Gods name might therby be great among the Gentils but there was not one nation no not one city not one towne not one whole village in al the wyde world where it may be shewed that they had one Church or chappel or howse of publike praier vnder the son And yet though they shewed half a dosen such it could not serue Is this the gloriouse kingdome and common weale which Christ doth inherit O vnspeakeable blasphemy vnto his gloriouse name Isai 54. Gal. 4. The Iewish synagoge was neuer half so base wheras Christes Churche among the Gentils was prophecied to passe it in nuÌ„ber and greatnes And yet this misery of the Church say they dured eight or nine huÌ„dred yeres Math. 16. Ergo so long hel gates preuailed against the Church of Christ But on the other side there can no moment of an hower be named in the which we are not ready to shew that many Note the true Churche yea very many natioÌ„s professed openly and outwardly practised Christes true religion together with the pope of Rome from S. Peters tyme to this hower O gloriouse City of God and a kingdoÌ„ prophecied of in all ages before Christ worthy of his Son Iesus ageinst which hel gates neuer did nor neuer shall preuaile To this City and kingdom yee must all resort who looke to inherit the kingdom of heauen The ninth Mark of an Antichristian THE ninth marke of Antichristes brotherhod is the intolerable pride whereby they make themselues onelie the supreame iudges of the right vnderstanding of Gods woorde yea of the text also and of the letter thereof For whereas it is not possible for any resonable man to cite with good conscience any one text of holy scripture for his purpose vnlesse he iudge first the same text to be conuenient and agreable to his intent and therefore whereas nothing
speaketh false Greeke or the words haue crept out of the margent into the text or if Iames be contrarie to Paul he must be reiected or the Machabees is no scripture with the Christians because it is not in the Canon of the Iewes but he keepeth all thing as he receaued them without any maner of change The tenth marck of an Antichristian WHat an infinite disputation would this be if I should shew particularly how the Protestants agree in doctrine with all the members of Antichrist Eunomius as s. Augustine witnesseth said Ad quod vult her 54. no synne should hurt a man if he were partaker of the faith which he taught And are not the Protestāts secure of their saluation whatsoeuer their works be if they haue that presumptuouse faith which Luther taught them We reade in the Tripartite history Lib. 2. c. 13 that Acesius the bisshops of the Nouatians affirmed that who so had synned mortally after baptism he might hot hoape for remision of his synnes by the priests De Poenit. lib. 1. ca. 7. but by God alone Against which heresie of the Nouatians S. Ambrose raesoneth shewīg that the priests haue no lesse right geuen them to remit synnes by penaūce then by baptism Vnū in vtorque mysterium there is one mystery or sacrament in both cases Doe not now all the Protestantes deny the priests to haue any right geuen them to forgeue synnes Panopl li. 2. tit 22 Euthymius writeth that the Massalians denied baptism to pluck vp the roote of synnes Is not the same the opinion of the Protestants Tawght not Aêrius that we must not pray for the dead nor kepe solemly the appointed fastings and that there is no difference betwen a priest and a Bisshop August ber 53. Epiphan haer 75. which things both Epiphanius and S. Augustine with the consent of al the Catholiks of their tyme and all that followed after witnesse to be hereticall And yet our Protestants teach the self same S. Augustine reckoneth it an heresie in Iouinian Her 22. because virginitatē sanctimonialium continentiam sexus virilis in sanctis eligentibus celibem vitam coniugiorum castorum atque fidelium meritis a daequabat Iouinian did make the virginity of Nunnes and the continence of men in those who chose to liue chast aequall with the merits of chast ād faith ful mariages wheras S. Augustine doth accompt virginity the higher state But our Protestants hold the same heresie word for word S. Hierom reputeth Vigilantius an heretik for denying praiers to Saints In lib. aduersus Vigilantium and the geuinge of honor to holy relikes Are not these men of the same minde with Vigilantius The Arrians would not beleue the consubstātiality of the son Hilar. de Synod aduersus Arrianos because that word was not written in Gods worde and how many things by the same pretense doe the Protestants deny Euseb lib. 6. cap. 33. It is recited for a heinouse impiety in Nouatus the heretik quòd Chrismatis signaculo non est consummatus Because he was not consummated with the seale or signe of Chrism doe not our Protestants abhor Chrism calling it greasing Ruffin lib. 11. cap. 3. Lucius the Arrian pesecuted the holy Monkes as our Protestants now doe Euseb lib. 5. cap. 16. Hieron The Montanistes blasphemed the whole Church throughout the world and the followers of Lucifer said there was a stues made of the Churche Is not this the talke of our Protestāts Aug. haer 69. The Donatists said the Church was lost from the whole world and preserued in Africk alone say not the Protestants worse that the Church was once lost form the open face of the world ād was not preserued but reised in Germany againe Neither wil their most absurd opinion be excused by saying that some in euery contrie were priuily of their opinion Rom. 10. For that is noe true Church of Christ which doth not so professe his faith that it may be knowen to be Christes Churche Rom. 1. for his Church is not a shamed of Christ and of his Gospel The heretiks called Seueriani vsed the Law the Prophets and the Gospels Euseb lib. 5. cap. 16. sed propria quadam interpretatione scripturarum sensum peruerterūt But they peruerted the sense of the scriptures by a certain peculiar interpretation The same doe the Protestants who wil neither admitte the practise of the Church nor the consent of the Fathers against their owne peculiar interpretation It hath ben alwaies a trick of Iewes and hereticks to be still in hand with translating the holy scriptures to th end by much changing Hieron in Catal. in verbo Origenes they might gette some apparence to haue the scriptures on their side Such were Theodotion Aquila Symachus all who forsoke the Catholike faith and translated the old bible vpon a stomak conceaued against the Churche of God ▪ and what end is there now of translating the scriptures into euery tonge Wherof although they that are learned take great profit as also S. Hierom and S. Augustine then did yet it bringeth the word of God into an vncertainty and to a confusion with them who not being lerned see so great changes that they know not what to take for the word of God Vvhy the Catholikes cōfirmed at Trent the olde latin trāslation Against which mischief the Catholiks iudged it necessary without preiudice to other copies either of Hebrew or of Greeke to confirm the translatiō which hath ben alwaies vsed in the Latin Church as wherof it self hath ben a most faithfull and diligent keper But whiles the Protestants pretend to appeale to the originals and by many translations make the meaning of the originals more doutfull daie by daie it must needes come shortly to passe that none of them all wil be hable to know how the woorde of God is either pointed or meant It were a thing without end thus to prosecute euerie particular agreance of our new Protestants with the old prophets of Antichrist But this one thing seemeth to gather all into one The eleuenth marck of an Antichristian SEing that Antichrist is contrary to Christ and Christ came to replenish men with grace geuing them diuerse gifts and spreading charitie in their harts Antichrist on the otherside must goe about and alwaies hath endeuoured by his members to deny to take away and to make voide the supernaturall graces which God hath geuen to his Church Christ came to build Tertull. de praescript aduersu◠haeret Antichrist to puldown Christ to gather into one Antichrist to scatter abrode Christ to enriche vs. Antichrist to rob and spoile vs of our heauenly treasures If then it appeare that the Protestants doe spoile Gods Church of certaine graces which the Pope doth diligently mainteine it must nedes be that the Protestantes are the members of Antichrist and that the Pope with his company is the flock of Christ. De
praescript It hath ben alwaies the fashion of all heretikes as Tertullian saith to destroye other mens buildings as to vndoe that which other men doe Ipsum opus eorum non de suo proprio aedificio venit sed de veritatis destructione nostra suffodiuÌ„t vt sua aedificent Their very worck riseth not of their own building but from the destroying of the truthe They vndermine our things that they may build vp their owne And Hippolytus thinketh the seale of Antichrist to be nego In Homi. de consum mat sec I deny For as saith he the deuil did exhort the Martyrs to deny their God who was crucified so at the last day the seale of Antichrist and of his members shal be Nego creatorem coeli terrae nego baptisma nego adorationem à me Deo praestarisoliatam I deny the maker of heauen and of earth I denie baptisme I deny the adoration which I was wont to doe vnto God Thus in the old tyme whereas the Apostles preached Christ to be true God and man VVHat the old hereticke deny Arrius denied his true Godhead Marcion and Valentinus and Manicheus denied his true manhood Apollinaris is denied his true sowle the Monothelits denied his doble will the Donatists the Continuance of the vniuersality of his Church the Pelagians the necessity of Gods grace and the like may be said of all other heretiks whose opinions alwaies detracted some perfection from Christ or from his Church Now I will shew that the Protestants doe the like in our tyme. For whereas the vniuersal Church as wel by the preaching of the Apostles as by the witnesse of Gods writen word was in possession of a publike sacrifice of priesthood of seuen Sacramentes as of most vndoubted instrumentes of grace and of diuerse other godly and diuine orders and Canons haue they any other Gospell any other Churche or any other doctrine then that which consisteth in deniyng Hovv many things the Protestants take avvay froÌ„ the Churche Ioan. 1. and in taking away that which was before The holy scriptures and Churche tawght that a man being iustified is both really deliuered from his synnes and really receaueth faith hoape and charity Thei deny our synnes to be taken away by the lamb of God who came for that purpose saying they tary still but onely that they are not imputed They teache also that no iustice is at all made in vs by spreading charity in our harts Rom. 5. whereas S. Paul saith iusti coÌ„stituentur multi many shal be made iust But they only say iustice is imputed to vs. Again they fiue Sacraments of the seuen They deny that baptism remitteth our synnes or that baptisme is necessarie to children which are born of Ghristian parents Augustin epist 106. Which was the heresie of the Pelagians They deny the vse of holy oyle and of chrism They deny the reall presence of Christes body the adoration and reseruation thereof the transubstantiation of the bread into his body the vnblody sacrifice of Christes supper the communion of one kinde to be sufficient and consequently they deny that whole Christ in vnder eche kinde and the mingling of water with the wine And that one may receaue alone that Aultars are lawfull that there are Priestes of the newe Testament that Bishops are of any higher degree then Priestes that there is any one bisshoppe chief of all other that Priests can forgeue synnes but onelie may preache that they are forgeuen that it is lawfull to appoint certaine daies of fasting or the abstinence from certain meates for obedience although God both willed Adam to absteine from a certain frute Genes 2. and the Iewes to absteine from certain meates They deny that it is lawfull to pray to the Saints in heaueÌ„ or to pray for the faithful which died in Christ wherein they deny any communioÌ„ of praier betwene the faithful which are aliue and their brethern who liue out of this worlde with Christ They deny the infallible authority of generall CouÌ„cels the visible succession of bishoppes the place of purgation after this life the remaining of paine after the synne is forgeuen the chaÌ„ging or pardoming of the said paine by the high bisshop the vse and moderate honour of Images the signe of the healthfull crosse the making of a vowe to liue chaste or to renounce all propriety of goods or to liue in obedience the reuerence don the reliques of the blessed Martyrs the vse of praier in the holy tungs the vniuersall tradition of vnwriten verities and to be short theiÌ„ deny the bookes of the old Bible such as are not in the Canon of the Iewes These things and many other like whiles they deny what other thing do thei theÌ„ pul down the religioÌ„ of Christ which hath ben a building these fiften hundred yeeres And therein they prepare a way to Antichrist who in the end must deny all that they as yet leaue vndenied For if they should openly deny euery whit 2 Thes â— then the mystery of iniquity should not be a working and many simple men should not haue bene deceaued by them who now are deceaued because they pretend to refoorme and not to take away Christes religion But when the tyme is ripe then the iniquity which is now begun must be fulfilled and so is the whole religioÌ„ destroied I would this were not true And yet it is possible that euery Protestant knoweth not so much because Satan the great capitaine of their army keepeth his Counsel to himselfe knowing that how much the closer he worketh the more hurt he is like to doe But God through mercy detecteth his snares aÌ„d warneth them Genes 1â— 6. who wil be saued to flee into the hil with Loth and to the ship of the Churche with Noe there to prouide for their eternal saluatioÌ„ which our Lord graunt through his bitter passion Amen Finis Librum istum de primatu Romani Pontificis Petra Ecclesiae vniuersalis legerunt viri sacrae Theologiae Auglici idiomatis peritissimi quibus iudico meritò tutò credendum esse vt fine periculo imo summa cum vtilitate euul gari possit Cunerus Petri P.S. Petri Louanij 25. Februa Anno. 1566. A BRIEF SOME OF THE chief points of this treatise THE preface conteineth the marks of the true Church The difference betwen a dominion and a primacy 17. The Apostles strife coÌ„cerning superiority is declared 25. 26. 27. That there was one greater among the Apostles 20. vsque 37. To be a ruler and as a minister do not repugne 46. 47. The preeminence of priests aboue Kings 51. 52. caet A King can not be supreme gouernor in all ecclesiasticall causes because by right and Law he can not practise al ecclesiastical causes 61. 64. 67. The highe priest is preferred before the King by Gods lawe 72. 74. 76. The euil life of a bishop taketh not away his authority 78. 79. The differences betweÌ„ the bisshop of Rome and temporal princes 80. vsque 88. That Moises was a priest 83. 84. 85. The literal sense of holy scripture 96. The promise to be called Peter was the first cause why the church was built vpon him 110. The Protestants can not tell which is the first literal sense of these words vpon this rock I will build my Churche 135. How Peter beareth the person of the Church 165. The obiections against S. Peters supremacy are answered 219. vsque 230. How Christ loued Peter aboue others 237. The Church neuer lacked a visible rock 270. 271. The whole gouernment of the Church tendeth to vnity 299. Why S. Peter died at Rome 313. 313. S. Augustins minde touching the supremacy of the Pope of Rome 348. vsque 372. A priest aboue the Emperour in Eeclesiasticall causes 378. The oth of the roial supremacy is intolerable 383. CoÌ„staÌ„tine baptized at Rome 391 Phocas did not first make the See of Rome head of al Churches 405. vsque 410. Why Antichrist is permitted to come 423. Hereticks depart from the Catholik Church 469. Hereticks being once departed out of the Churche haue newe names 471. Why amoÌ„g the Catholiks some are called Franciscans Dominicans caet 477. Heretiks can neuer agree 479. The short reigne of heretickes 489 caet Hereticks preache without coÌ„mission 496. Heretiks doe prefer the temporal reign or sword before the spiritual 499. They are the members of Antichrist who withstand the external and publike sacrifice of Christes Church 518. Hereticks depriue Christ of his glorious inheritaunce in many nations together 517. The intolerable pride of heretikes in making themselues onely iudges of the right sense of Gods word 530. The ProtestaÌ„ts teache the same doctrine which the old hereticks did 553. The Protestantes are the right meÌ„bers of Antichrist in that they spoile Gods Church of very many gifts and graces and articles of the faith 560. FINIS Faultes escaped in the printing Page Line Faultes Corrections 10. 10. shephead shepheard 23. 22. them because them but because 98. 22. resurrection by resurrection by 103. 24. confession Being confession being 106. 13. stedfastnes of stedfastnes or of â—16 9. and promised aÌ„d being promised 145. 8. and in that and that 177. 21. the thing the man 186. 6. rocke of rock or 195. 14. sbme some 208. 23. vvhen Augustine vvhen Augustine 209. 11. hy me by me 214. 1. to true to be true 2â—9 17. in omnibus in ouibus 26â— 1. to the the 273. 15. vvas vvere vvas vvhere 281. 6. the pordinary the ordinary 382. 7. can gouern can not gouern 426. 14. CoÌ„essours Confessours 430. 13. teache teache 432. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 408. 1. out the out of the 496. 2. rom from 516. â— hauen heauen 539. 22. S. Saule S. Paul 553. 21. bishops bishop I F RESPâ—â—ITE VOLATILIA COELI ET PVLLOS CORVORVM