Jesuits wheresoever: but some others; as Gregory of Valentia, have fastened this upon him, without any care or study required on his part. O happy chair of Peter, firm, eternal, full of prodigious virtue! which if we might imagine a wooden one, I should sure think were made of Irish oak: there is no spider of error can touch it, but presently dies. Behold, the tables, written with God's own hand, were soon broken and gone; but the bars of thy frame can feel no age, cannot incur the danger of any miscarriage. Sure I think Vibius Rufus is alive again; which, because he sat in the same seat wherein Julius Cæsar had sat, and married Cicero's wife, had wont to vaunt of both: as if he should sure be Cæsar, for his seat; or, for his wife, Cicero. Belike, all the virtue of it is from Peter. It is well, that his other successors conferred nothing towards it: lest, perhaps, Alexander the VIth., should have turned the succeeding popes into letchers; Clement, into sacrilegious churchrobbers; Julius, into swaggerers; Benedict, Gregory, Sylvester, into simonists; Pascalis, into perjurers; Pope Joan of Mentz, into women; Martin, and that other Sylvester, into magicians; the two Johns, into devils incarnate. Now, on the other part, can any man be so foolish, to hope that our Church will ever be so mad, as thus basely to bolster up the great bridge-maker of Tiber: as though we could be ignorant, how Christ never either performed or promised them any such privilege? For where is it written, as Luther jested well, unless perhaps at Rome, in St. Peter's, upon some chimney, with a coal? Christ said, indeed, Thou art Peter: Matt. xvi. 18; but, "Thou art Paul the Fifth," he never said. He said, I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : Matt. xxvi. 32; so he said too, Go behind me, Satan, thou savourest not the things of God: Matt. xvi. 23. Now, let this Oracle of the Chair teach us, how he can, at once, make himself full heir of the promise, and yet shift off the censure at pleasure. Yet, to tread in the steps of the times, as though we could not know that the following ages knew not of this; not Policrates and Irenæus, which resisted Victor the Pope; not Cyprian, which opposed Stephen; not the Fathers of Chalcedon, which would not yield to Leo; nor the Eastern Bishops, which would not yield to Julius; nor the Fathers of Constantinople, which refused to yield to Vigilius and Honorius: yea, of the latter days, those, which have had either sense or shame, as John Gerson, Chancellor of Paris, Turrecremata, Almaine, G. Valentia. Analys. Fidei. 1. viii. de Vi et Usu Auctorit. Romani Pontific. in Fide. Quæst. Sexta. Respondeo, sive Pontifex in definiendo studium adhibeat, sive non adhibeat; modò tamen controversiam definiat, infallibiliter certè definiet, atque adeò re ipsá utitur authoritate sibi à Christo concessá. Addit statim: Eadem fide credere debemus illum, quandò rem controversam definit, sufficientem adhibuisse diligentiam. Jesuitæ ; sed et Greg. Valentianus, sine curâ et studio. Euge Cathedram Petri stabilem, æternam, plenam prodigiosæ virtutis! quam si mihi fas ligneam fingere, abietario non malo è quercu Hibernicâ proculdubio dolatam autumem; ita nulla illam tangit erroris aranea, quin occidit illicò. Ecce tabulæ, divinâ manu exaratæ, statim confractæ perierunt; asserculi verò tui ætatem non sentiunt, nec quo hæreseos vitio maculantur scilicet. Vibius profectò Rufus mihi nunc redivivus est, qui in sellâ semper sedebat, in quâ Julius Cæsar, uxoremque duxit Ciceronis, de utroque gloriari solitus, quasi aut propter sellam Cæsar, aut propter uxorem Orator futurus. Omnis nempe hinc à Petro virtus. Bene est reliquos proavorum nihil quicquam contulisse: ne fortè Alexander Sextus successores suos in cinædos; Clemens in sacrilegos; Julius in sicarios; Benedictus, Gregorius, Sylvester in simoniacos; Pascalis in perjuros; Joanna Moguntina in fœminas; Martinus, et Sylvester alter, in magos; Joannes uterque in diabolos incarnatos, transmutâsseth. Ex alterâ autem parte, quenquamne hominum subire potest spes, eò unquam insaniæ pervenire posse Ecclesiam nostram, ut sublicium hoc demùm substernat Pontifici Tyberino? Quasi nos latere possit, quàm nusquam hoc illis Christus vel præstiterit, vel promiserit. Ubi enim hoc scriptum, ut meritò jocatur Lutherus? An fortè Romæ, apud Sanctum Petrum, in camino quopiam? Dixit quidem, Tu es Petrus: Matt. xvi. 18; at, Tu es Paulus Quintus, nullus unquam dixerit: Dixit, Rogavi pro te, ne deficeret tibi fides: Matt. xxii. 32; dixit et, Vade post me, Satana, non sapis quæ Dei sunt: Matt. xvi. 23. Doceat nos nunc Oraculum illud Cathedralitium, quî tandem, hæres ex asse promissi, censuram abdicaverit. Etiam, ut temporis vestigia premamus, quàm non nôrit hoc ætas succedanea; non Polycrates et Irenæus qui Victori, non Cyprianus qui Stephano, non Chalcedonenses qui Leoni, non Orientales Episcopi qui Julio, non Constantinopolitani Patres qui Vigilio et Honorio cedere noluerunt: sed et è nuperis, qui vel nasum habuêre, vel frontem, Joannes ille Cancellarius Parisiensis, Turrecremata, Almainius, Alphonsus de Castro', * Xiphilin. Epit. Dionis. Tiberio. Δίφρῳ τῷ Καίσαρος, ἐφ' οὗ ἀει πότε ἐκαθέζετο, &c. σεμνυνόμενος ἐφ' ἑκατέρῳ, ώσπερ ἡ διὰ τὴν γυναῖκα ῥήτωρ, ἢ διὰ τὸν δίφρον Καῖσαρ, ἐσόμενος. Quær. Plat. de Vitis horum Pontif. Clem. VI. Jul. II. Ben. IX. Greg. VI. Sylvest. III. Mart. II. Sylvest. II. Joh. XXII. et XXIII. Luth. advers. falso nomine Episc. * Alm. lib. de Potest. Eccles. Alphons. de Castro, contra Hæres. 1. i. c. 2. Alphonsus de Castro, Pope Adrian the VIth, Archbishop Catharinus, Cardinal Cajetan, Franciscus à Victoria; and who not, of the best rank of their Doctors, have not feared openly to deny and disclaim this fancy. And Alphonsus shall give a reason thereof, for all: "There are many unlearned Popes," saith he, "that know not so much as the rules of grammar: how then should they be able to interpret the Holy Scriptures?" As though we knew not which of their Popes favoured Arius, which Montanus, which Nestorius, which Acacius, which the Monothelites, which the Sadducees, and which were in league with Devils; which of them have defined contrary to their fellows, and which contrary to God; and, that I may use Jerome's words, how silly a pilot hath ofttimes steered the leaking vessel of the Church! As though every tapster and tinker, now-a-days, could not point their finger to the long bead-roll of Popes; and say, "Such and such were the monsters of men: such," as Platina, Lyra, Genebrard confess, "were Apotactical and Apostatical miscreants." I wis, their life hath been long the table-talk of the world, as Bernard speaks. There can, therefore, be no peace possible, unless they will be content to be headless, or we can be content to be the slaves of Rome. Imagine they could be so ingenuous, as to confess that the same serpent, which insinuated himself of old into paradise, might perhaps creep closely into Peter's chair; yet there would be no less controversy de facto, than of the possibility of error. SECT. 3. From other Opinions of the Romanists. I. Those which chiefly respect Men :-The Roman Heresy concerning (1.) Justification: (2.) Free-will: (3.) Merits: (4.) Satisfaction: (5.) Purgatory: (6.) Indulgences and Pardons (7.) The Distinction of Mortal and Venial Sins. BESIDES, there are other Popish opinions of the same stamp, but more pragmatical; which are not more pernicious to the Church, than to Commonweals: as those of the power of both swords, of the deposition of princes, disposing of kingdoms, absolving of subjects, frustration of oaths (sufficiently canvassed of late, both by the Venetian Divines, and French, and ours) which are so palpably opposite to the liberty of Christian go m Adr. VI. in Quæst. de Confirmatione. " Cathar. de Certit. Gratiæ. ass. 13. Relect. 4. de Potest. Papæ. Bellar. plerosque horum recenset. De Pontif. 1. iv. c. 2. Adrianus Sextus Papam, Archiepiscopus Catharinus", Cardinalis Cajetanus, Franciscus à Victoria, aliique passim complures non infimæ classis Theologi, palam istud negare non dubitârunt. Instar omnium, rationem hujus rei reddiderit Alphonsus: "Multi Papæ, adeò," inquit, "illiterati, ut Grammaticam penitus ignorent, qui fit ut Sacras Literas interpretari possint"?" Quasi nos fugiat, quinam Pontificum Ario, qui Montano, qui Nestorio, qui Acacio, qui Monothelitis, qui Sadducæis, qui Dæmonibus favere non dedignati fuerint; quæ sibi contraria edixerint, quæ Deo; quàmque perforatam navim (Hieronymi verbis) debilis sæpe rexerit gubernator! Quasi è tam longâ Pontificum serie, quæ portenta hominum, qui Apotactici, Apostaticique olim fuerint, (Platinæ verbis, ac Genebrardi, sed et Lyrani" libenter utor) lippis jamdiu et tonsoribus non satis innotuerit. Scilicet horum vita fabula mundi, ut Bernardus *. Pax ergo hîc nulla, nisi aut illi axepáλot, aut nos Romæ mancipia fieri mavelimus. Cedo mihi tamen candorem hunc Pontificium; Fateantur ingenui, ut qui se olim in Paradisum insinuaverit serpens, possit aliquando in Cathedram Petri callidè surrepere; non minor certè de facto, quàm de potentiâ lis erit. SECT. 3. Ex reliquis Romanæ Ecclesiæ Opinionibus. I. Quæ ad homines præsertim:-Hæresis Romana, (1.) De Justificatione: (2.) De Libero Arbitrio: (3.) De Merito: (4.) De Satisfactionibus: (5.) De Purgatorio: (6.) De Indulgentiis et Absolutionibus: (7.) De Distinctione Peccati Mortalis et Venialis. SED et hujus furfuris alia sunt, quæ πрayμатelav quandam sapiunt, Papistarum dogmata, non Ecclesiæ magis quàm Rebuspublicis perniciosa; de gladii utriusque jure, de abdicatione principum, regnorum dispositione, exautoratione subditorum, frustratione juramentorum; abundè satis à Venetis', à nostris jam pridem ventilata; quæ Christianæ administrationis Alii, à Cano, Loc. Com. lib. vi. cap. 8. • Plat. in Vit. Bened. IV. et Christoph. I. * Decret. Dist. 93. Nulla. u Lyra in Matt. xvi. Inter alios, Manual. Navar. 15. q. 6. c. 27. vernment, that those princes and people, which can stoop to such a yoke, are well worthy of their servitude. And can they hope, that the great commanders of the world will come to this bent? "We all," as the Comic Poet said truly, "would rather be free than serve ;" but much more princes. Or, on the contrary, can we hope, that the tyrants of the Church will be content to leave this hold? What a foppery were this! For both those princes are grown more wise, and these tyrants more arrogant; and, as Ruffinus speaks of George the Arian gallant, they insolently govern an usurped bishopric; as if they thought they had the managing of a proud empire, and not of a religious priesthood. But, let us be so liberal, as to grant this to ourselves, which certainly they will never grant us: for, this old grandam of cities thinks herself born to command; and will either fall, or rule. Neither doth that mitred moderator of the world affect any other emblem, than that which Julian jestingly ascribes to Julius Cæsar; то πрWтеÚεш: "to rule all:" or to Alexander the Great; Távтa viкâv: “to conquer all." It was a degenerating spirit of Adrian the Sixth, which caused to be written upon his tomb, in the Church of St. Peter; "That nothing, in all his life, fell out so unhappily to him, as that he governed." Let this, I say, be granted us. There want not, I know, some milder spirits (Theodosians, that can play with both hands) which think, if these busy points were, by the moderation of both parts, quietly composed, it might be safe for any man, so it be without noise, to think what he list concerning the other differences of religion. These are the ghosts of that heretic Apelles, whose speech it was, That it is sufficient to believe in Christ crucified, and that there should be no discussing of the particular warrants and reason of our faith or the brood of Leonas, one of the courtiers of Constantius, and his deputy in the Seleucian Council; which, when the Fathers hotly contended, as there was good cause, for the consubstantiality of the Son; "Get you home;" said he, "and trouble not the Church still with these trifles." St. Basil was of another mind from these men; who, as Theodoret reports, when the lieutenant of Valens, the Emperor, persuaded him to remit but one letter for peace sake, answered, "Those, that are nursed with the sincere milk of God's word, may not abide one syllable of his sacred truth to be corrupted; but rather than they will endure it, are ready to receive any kind of torment or death." |