A Looking Glass for Princes and Peoples Delivered, Book 2 · Part 4 · Chapter 26
CHAP. XXVI. That now-Rome is incurable.
GOD hath gone so farre on with them, as to consume Reformation were their happinesse.them in a part, & there restes no more, but to goe on till their finall abolition: In this case it were their happinesse to repent & reforme themselues: But what hope can there be of reformation since they hauehave wedded themselues to their wickednesse, and God hath given them over to it: The vyall is powred out vponupon the seate of the Beast, and his kingdome is full of the darknesse of feare and sorrow, thatApoc. 16. 10 maketh them gnaw their tongues for paine: And they blaspheme the God of Heaven, because of their paines and sores, and raile against his trueth, and yet repent them not of their deeds.The Pope stayes reformation.
There is no greater stay of this reformation than the greatnesse of the Pope: For corruption, hee is as the head of the Item dicet nos ingenuè fateri &c. Hadrian. 6. ad Franc. Chereg. apud▪ Fasc. Rer. 173.fish that rotteth first, and then infecteth all the bodie. So Hadrian the fixt directed his Legate to confesse ingenuouslie in his Name that God had sent persecutiō on his Church for the sinnes of men, and chieflie of the Priestes and Prelats of the Church—for we know (sayth he) that in this holy seat for some yeares many abominations hauehave beene, abuses in spiritualie, excesse in commandements, and in a word, all things perverted. Neither is it to bee wondered if this sicknesse hauehave discended from the head to the members. All wee (to wit, Prelats of the Church) hauehave declined everie one to his owne Omne…nos (id est pralati Ecclesiastici) declin avimus, &c. ibid.way, and for a long space there is none that hath done good, no not one: And for reformation, the Pope is as the head of the Conie, when all the bodie is flaine, the skinne sticks at the head so it is more easie to reforme all the bodie of Popedome than this head. If hee would returne to his primitiue State to bee a preaching Bishop over the Citie, and his Ecclesias suburbicarias, In such a case wee might say of him, as Lactance did of old Rome. If she would lay down her Lactantius.Monarchie, adantiquas casas redundum esset. Then there might bee some hope of a reformation, but hee keepethBernard. the Romane temper of whom justlie it was said, Romani regnare sciunt, regi nesciunt: Hee will not reforme one jot, but verifieth Ambrose, saying, that a continuall and long Continua & diuturna potentia, gignit insolentiam, &c. Ambros. hexam. lib 5 cap. 15.power begetteth insolencie. For what man will wee finde who of his owne accord will lay downe his Impyre, and Ensignes of his Government, and of a first in number can willinglie bee made last.
It is not Religion hee striues for, but his triple crowne, and his exorbitant power over all, is dearer to him thanThe Pope cares not for Religion. his life, and it is the Iesuits doctrine, that they who denie that power would throw Poperie out of the Church. And Paul the fourth made this good, when hee offered to Queene Elizabeth of happie memorie to ratifie the Inglish reformation, Negare non possunt nisi qui Pontificatum plane tollunt, Cydon Consut. An ticot. cap. 2if shee would but acknowledge his Supremacie. So he will rather mixe Heaven and Earth than lay down his greatnesse, & as Menelaus an usurping high Priest, was the greatest impediment to Iudas Machabeus in reforming and purging the Temple, So is the Pope the greatest impediment of Christian reformation. Many inquire what is the greatest controversie that holds vsus and Papists at ods, & some think idolatrie, others the Masse or Transubstantiation. Some free-will, Merite, Iustification, Purgatorie, &c. But this is the greatest, even the Popes Monarchie: For if Protestants would acknowledge him to bee a Spirituall and Temporall Monarch, I make no question but hee would subscriue other controverted points. They pleade that the Pope is the best bond for vnion of the Church, and Canus Can. lib 4. c ult. & 6. 3.affirmeth, that the Apostle speaking of the offices of the Church did forget that whereon her vnion most depends, that is Pope. But beside that blasphemie, the contraire is cleare: For hee is the roote and life of this Schisme.
They talked indeede much of Reformation, and madeThe Con̄cell of Trent a mockerie of the world. Concil. 9. Car. Concil. 3. Ep. Pestremo sancta ynod… omnia—declarat ita decreta esse, &c. Concil. Trid. sess. 25. cap. 22. a fashion by Cardinall Campegius to reforme Germanie, but hee medled with trifles and no substance; and nyne Cardinals offered a plat-forme of reformation to Paul the third, and three Bishops of Bononia gaue him a more full one, but hee suppressed them both, and at the Trent Councell they mocked the world, both promising and pretending reformation, but they strengthened their deformation: They turned private and Schoole opinions in points of Faith, confirmed their owne heresies, and condemned the truth by their Anathemaes: They mended no point of Doctrine but multiplied Chapters of reformation of some abuses, and in end to mocke the world, cast the execution of all in the Popes hand. Lastlie, the holy Synode declareth that all statutes of reformation are so decreed, that the authoritie of the Apostolicke Sea bee safe The meaning of that clause may bee found in the instructions of Iulius the third, to Crescentius one of his Legats in the Councell: That there Neque si quid in praesens largiatur. &c. Hist. Con. Trid. lib. 4.was no great pe…rell, though for the present hee yeelded to some things hurtfull to the Court of Rome: Of which sort some things before were granted: and that because things might easilie bee brought to a former estate so long as the Popes Authoritie was safe and intere. So the Popes Cabinat instructions, & the Councels exemptions of the Popes authoritie doe mutuallie expone other, and both of them are but grosse Iudifications of the world.
Some Popes indeede had good desires of reformation, Hadrian the sixt sought reformation.but they turned to nought: Hadrian the sixt did intend it seriouslie, but by Cardinall Soderinus hee was diswaded, For (said hee) it is not to bee hopped that the Lutherians Animam ad-Ecclesiam fa di… abusibus …corruptam restituend u… adiecrat. On…. vit. Had. 6. Vsu venire—postulata postulatis accumulans, &c. hist or. Concil Trid. lib. 1. So did Marcellus. 2. Post longum in prandio silentium, &c. Onuph Vit. Marcell. 2.can be satisfied by the reformation of the manners of the Court of Rome, and that in all humane things it is found, that when one is satisfied in one desire, hee multiplieth desires vponupon desires—that the former Popes walked in a more sure way for they cutted not away heresies by reformations, but by Cruciatas instirring vp Princes and people by force to oppresse Heretickes as Innocentius the third, destroyed the Albigenses in France; By these and other difficulties Hadrian professed that the condition of …opes was miserable, because they could not doe good when they would most.
Mercellus the second intended also reformation, as is plaine by his speach at dinner after long silence: I see not how they can bee saved, who hauehave this most eminent place But that Seate could not brooke him aboue twentie dayes, it either chocks the verie thoughts of reformation, or else them who breede them. These two are in the Lyne of Popes, as good motions in a naturall man, that beginne and end at once: It was their personall commendation to bee so disposed, but the conviction of that Seate that it is incurable. But as Bernard said to Engenius, non ambigo te ista deplorare, at frustra istud, si non & emendare studueris. Bernard de Consid. Lib. 1.I know thou deploreth these things, but that is for nought, except thou studie to mend them. So say I of these two comparatiuelie good Popes, where was their omnipotencie that they did not exert it as they doe against the Protestants? Are they weaker in good than in evill? But the trueth is that Rome is incurable, and past reclaming.
If any good thoght be in them while they are privatThey are better privat man than Popes. men, it is choaked so soone as they sit on that Seate; As Aeneas Silvius spake and wrote goods things in the Councell of Basile, but beeing Pope Pius the second, hee recantedSeducti, pecca vim… ut Paulu… &c. bul. Retract. Pii. 2. them, saying, That hee had sinned as Paul, and persecuted the Church ignorantlie, &c. But wee say, that hee was rather first Pius, and then impius, for his greatest pietie in his Popedome was to canonize Bernardinus, & Catharine Bulla. 3. Pii.of Senes his countrey woman, and to abrogate appellations to councels. So Paul the fourth when hee was but Petrus Theatinus was an vrger of Hadrian the sixt to reformation, S. Inquisitionis, officium—quo vno niti affirmabat. Apost. sedis authorittatem eis commenda vit Onuph, vit. Paul. 4. In Gregorium 12. invehitur &c. Azor. moral. lib. 5. cap. 15.and had chiefe hand in the Councell of nyne chosen Cardinals, by Paul the third. But thereafter beeing Pope, he was the most cruell vrger of the Inquisition, and on his death-bed recommended it as the speciall prop of the Popes authoritie. And of Gregorie the twelue. Azorius telleth that one inveyed against him, because in the time of a great schisme, before hee was made Pope, hee sware solemnedlie in publicke, that if hee were made Pope, hee would lay downe the Popelie power: But afterward beeing chosen Pope hee would not lay it downe. They are now more like Pius the second, Paulus the fourth, & Gregorie the twelth, than like Hadrian and Marcellus: That Seate infects them with wickednesse, that they are not like these men they were in privat, and since it is the propertie of that Court, that Curia Romana potius recipit, quam facit probos, it must bee the priviledge of that Seate it selfe, the fountaine of that contagion.
I doubt not but many of the best sort wish that theirThey see their errour, but will not mend. Predecessours had not gone so farre on in heresie or tyranny: They are like men by vnskilfull Sailers cast in such a danger as they cannot easilie expede: And with Caesar at the flood of Rubicon, they thinke the Dice is cast, according to Soderinus counsell, they resolue to holde all fast as it stands, and waite vponupon the event. All their doing for reformation is either in trifles, as by Campegius: or else grosse mockerie of the world, as in the Councell of Trent: or if they doe any thing reallie, it is worse than these: so their Franciscans are refined in Capuchins; the Capuchins in Recollects: The Dominicans in Iesuits: The Iesuits in Nerians: A llrefining is but advancing in a greater degree of hypocrisie, crueltie, and what may either blind or destroy man.
Cardinall Boromaeus, Experience can tell how theyBoromeus instance. are set for reformation: Hee intended to reforme ordinem humiliatorum and to reduce them to their first estat: But they tooke that intention so evill, that they stirred vp one Hieronymus Farina to kill him, who discharged a small gunne on him at his prayers, but killed him not. Therefore Pins the fifth abolished the order, In tanti sceleris execrationem totum ordinem abolevit. They cannot indure reformation, but cutted off Hadrian and Marcellus, Thuan. Continuat. Ann. 1610. p. 130.who minded it. Who can tell when their …vtter abolishing shall close all?
Pertinacie in one man maketh him wilfullie to insist in his errours: And pertinacie in a succession of moe men maketh the successours wilfullie to defend the knowne faultes of their Ancestours: So is it now in that Seate of scorners: They know the errours of preceeding Popes, and their owne wilfulnesse, and yet will persist therein, scorning both God and man. Thus now-Rome is incurable and reserved to the punishing hand of God.
I close this point of reformation with Portugalius, writing of the abuses of the Church of Rome, and vrgingPortugal. Aur spec. p. 460. reformation; but considering in humane iudgement, that it was a desperate thing, and craved the hand of God, hee concludeth with this prayer, The onelie begotten Sonne of God reforme his owne Church; reformet vnigenitus Dei filius suam Ecclesiam.