Touchstone to Determine the True Catholic Faith, Part 28
Text. Verse 8.Likewise notwithstanding, these dreamers also defile the flesh, and despise gouernment, and speake euill of them that are in authoritie.] Here the chiefe word dreamers or sleepers, is left out in their olde translation, and it doth verie narrowlie touch them. It may seeme their single life and their good cheere, and their aboundance of idlenesse (all which in the Popes church raigned,) made them like Sodome, made them by dreames in the night defile the flesh, made them in the daie burne in lust. For as the olde verse saith, Without corne and wine Venus starueth: But where Ceres and Bacchus is, there Venus raigneth. And take idlenesse away, Cupids bowe must néedes decay. But in their Abbaies and Frieries, in their whole cleargie, at those daies all these thinges abounded. They had plentie of all thinges, they did swim in idlenesse: Therefore it is like that Venus with her handmaides, that Sodome with her sinnes, dwelt among them: That in the night they were polluted by dreames, in the daie by déedes: that, ye generall axiome was verified in those daies,aSi non caste tamen caute. They despise gouernment. If not chastly; yet if charily, it maketh no matter. Neither doe these followe the Sodomites onelyonly in their fleshly pleasures, but in their obstinacie and frowardnes. Let comming to Sodome to dwell among them, reproued their wicked liues, vsed authoritie in correcting & admonishing them, as it should séeme by their spéeches vntounto him: Hee alone came but to soiourne with vsus (saie they) and nowe continually hee plaieth the iudge amongst vsus: Gen. 19 9.We cannot followe our olde vse and trade for him. And they despised him. It should seeme God had sent him to execute his authoritie, and to punish sinne amongst the Sodomites, as he did Moses amongst the Israelites in Egypt, if they would hauehave vnderstood. Or rather these followe Lucifer herein, whome S. Iude maketh mention of before, who despised the maiesty of God himselfe: So these despise magistrates vponupon earth, whom the scripture calleth Gods;Exod. 22.28. Thou shalt not despise (saieth God) or make light account of or curse the Gods (that is the princes) of thy people: neither shalt thou slander, or in worde or in deede hurt him, that is exalted in thy people. The iudges also and other inferiour magistrates, are called Gods.Psal. 82.6. Ye are Gods (saith the psalme) speaking of iudges: and ye are all children of the most highest.
Let vsus marke, what reuerence the verie Barbarians hauehave giuen vntounto magistrates. That historie of Fabritius the Romane Consull is worth the marking in our desperate and wicked daies, where almost nothing else is, but poisoning and murthering of princes: When as Pyrrhus phisition had sent him a letter, that hee would poison the king, his vtter enemy: Fabritius sent Pyrrhus the letter. He would not hauehave his very enemy poisoned, Eras. Apophth.being voluntarily offered to him. And now a daies, some will hire wicked persons, to kill and poison princes their soueraignes. Oh more then heathenish crueltie and disloyaltie! And the reason also is worth the marking, that Fabritius alleageth, why he sent Pyrrhus the letter, not for the louelove he owed to Pyrrhus (for he had not learned to louelove his enemies as the gospell teacheth:) but for the name of the Romanes, that they should not be said, by such vnlawfull means, to conquere their enemies. If Fabritius, had such a care of the good name of the Romanes, how much more should wee hauehave a care of the name of Christians? That the Turkes, enemies of christian religion, hearing our poysoning and such like dealings, shoulde not speake euill of our religion. What religion can this be, that vseth such practises?
Chrysostome vponupon these wordes, Let eueryevery soule bee subiect to the higher powers, concerning the authoritie of ye ciuill magistrat, and the obedience of euerie one to ye same whosoeuer he be, writes …s: Shewing that these thinges are commanded to all men, both to Priestes and Monkes, not onelyonly to secular men, the which also hee declares by and by in the beginning, when as hee saieth: Let eueryevery soule be subiect to the higher powers, whether thou beest an Apostle, or an Euangelist, or a Prophet, or whosoeuer thou shalt be: For this obedience, is not against religion. Let vsus marke here, howe Chrysostome would hauehave all men subiect to the authoritie of the ciuill magistrate, yea the Apostles, and then Peter himselfe, and then the Pope also, which the papistes will not grant; for Chrysostome excepts none. And this obedience consistes in praying for their liues,1. Tim. 2.1. Mat. 22.17. 2. King. 23 2. 1. Sam. 24.5. as S. Paul commandes: in paying them tributes, as Christ himselfe practised: in obeying their godly lawes and decrees, in the purging & reformation of Gods house, as the priests in the olde lawe performed; yea though they were our vtter enemies (as Saul was Dauids:) yet if their liues laie in our hands, to saue them, protect them, and defend them.
And here also marke how the force of the wordes which the holy ghost vseth, besides the euident practise of their works, doe declare who these are, whom S. Iude here meaneth. They shall not denie authoritie or gouernment, as doe the Anabaptiss (foreign) but they shall despise it, they shall put it out of his place, and they shall not onelie despise or put rulers out of their places: but to signifie the greatnesse of their pride, the holie ghost saieth, that they shall take awaie euen*foreign gouernment it selfe, challenging it, as it were, to themselues, and they shall disgrace and blaspheme those that be excellent, those whome God hath aduanced. And hath not the Pope done thus? Doe not the Canonistes write thus of the Pope?Decret. lib. 2. Tit. de iudiciis. It seemeth that the Pope is greater then the Emperour. For the right of the heauenly and earthly empire, were committed of God to Peter. He had both the swordes, as saith the Euangelist. Beholde here are two swordes: the which hee hath conueied to his successors. But the execution of the temporall sword, the church hath committed to Emperours and kings: and yet sometime he hath exercised the iurisdiction of ciuill causes by priestes. If this bee true, the Emperour and all kinges, are but the Popes seruants, they carrie his sword.Rom. 13.4. But S. Paul saith, that the ciuill magistrate is the minister of God: and he repeateth it twise, & no doubt he carrieth his sword. And Ferus, one of their owne side, thus writeth concerning these swordes:Ferus in Io. cap. 18. fol. 472. 473 Peter (saieth he) tooke the sworde, because he vnderstood not that which Christ said: he that hath not a sworde, let him sell his coate and buy one. This Peter vnderstood of the externall sworde, when as Christ spoke of the sworde of the spirit, that is the worde of God. And after: Away with this sworde that killeth men, my sworde which I hauehave committed to thee, cutteth off vices, saues the men. Returne the externall sworde into his sheath: or as some others saie, into his place. The proper place of the sworde, is the power (meaning the magistrate) let the power vse it, not thou. So that then by Ferus iudgment, Peter had not the materiall sword committed to him, nor the secular iurisdiction: That (saieth hee) is proper to the magistrate. And of the authoritie of the church he writeth thus: Christ preferreth the church before the minister. Ferus in Io. ca. 19. fol. 523For he saith, He that is greatest amōg you, let him be as your seruant. And S. Paul: Thus let a man esteem vsus, as the ministers of God and stewardes, &c. Therefore if the pope bee a minister, hee is vnderunder the church: and yet he chalengeth to be aboue the councell. And Peter, who (they say) did giuegive this authority to his successors, writeth thus to all christians. Be ye subiect to all the ordinances of man, 1. Pet. 2.13for the Lords sake, whether it be to the king as to the aforeign.most excellēt, (where hee vseth the same word that S. Paul vsed before) or to other rulers, which are sent of him. And afterwards, honor the king: This authoritie Peter himselfe giueth to the ciuill magistrate, hee calleth him chiefe aboue all: and yet the papistes imagine against this his plaine writing, that he should make all his successors aboue him. The Pope (saie they) hath Gods power, he can make something of nothing. In those things that please him: Lib. 1. decret. tit. 8. de vsu pallii.his onelyonly will is a sufficient reason. No man may say to him, why do you so? Hee can dispence aboue all law, he can make of vniustice, iustice, by correcting and changing lawes, he hath fulnesse of authoritie. He translateth Empires and kingdomes at his pleasure. For thus we read: When the church of Rome was oppressed of Astulphus, Decret. lib. 10 tit. 6. ca. 34king of the Lombards: she asked aide of Constantine and Leo his sonne, Emperors of Constātinople; & when as they would not defend the church of Rome, Stephen the second, being a Romaine borne, translated the Empire to Charles the great, who was son of Pipin, whom also Zacharie his predecessor had placed in the place of Lewes, whom hee had deposed. So that to depose kinges, to translate Empires, if they be not obedient at word and becke (as they saie) is nothing to the pope. Pope Zacharie deposed Lewes king of France, and placed Pipin in his place; and Stephen translated the Empire from Greece to France: and after Iohn the 12. translated the Empire from France to Germanie. Thus they hauehave tossed the Emperours vp and downe, and hauehave put them out of their places, and hauehave taken their authoritie vponupon them; whom before Chysostome, and Tertullian, calleth the chiefe man vponupon earth, and nexte to God.
Neither hath the pope onelie abrogated the Emperors authoritie, by translating and deposing him at his pleasure,Lib. 1. cor. sect. …3 ca. 2. but also hath dealt most reprochfullie with him, and with others that bee in authoritie: He maketh him his man to hold his stirrup, to beare his chaste on his shoulder, to hold vp his traine. Henry the fourth was contented to waite on Pope Hildebrand, at Canusium, and thrée daies together,Sabel. en. 9 li. 3 to stand bare headed and bare foot in the hard frost at his gate:Carion. chron. So was the Emperor Fridericus Aenobarbus content willinglie, to laie his necke vnderunder the popes féete. The pope tooke the crowne from off the heade of Henry the second king of England, and compelled him to put aside all his princelie estate, and maiestie, and like a meane priuate man, to come to his Legate with great humilitie and submission.Iohānes paris. de potestate reg. & pap. ca. 1 Innocentius the third called king Iohn of England vassallum suum, that is, his feod man, or his tenant. And they gaue not this name to kings only: but to Emperors also. For thus they write, If the Emperour hauehave his authority immediately from the Pope, then the Emperor is the Popes seruaunt. And pope Innocentius saith the same: The Emperor (saith he) holdeth his Empire of the pope: therefore he is bounde to sweare homage and fealtie to the pope, as the vassall is bounde to his Lord. Our latter papistes in their writings follow the same vaine: They call the ciuill magistrates, carnall Lordes, humane creatures: And is not this to take awaie foreign, soueraigne and supreame ciuill authoritie, or Lordship from them that ought to hauehave it, and to attribute it to those which ought not to hauehave it? which Iesus Christ denieth to his ministers and seruants. For the kings of the Gentiles, Luk. 22.25.foreign, beare rule ouer them (saith he) and they that beare rule ouer them are called gracious Lordes or benefactors: aforeign.but you shall not so. And doth not the pope apparantlie declare himselfe herein to bee antichrist, in challenging that to himselfe which Christ Iesus denieth to all his ministers and seruants? And my kingdom is not of this world (saith our Sauior) Christ himselfe would not be made a king heere on earth: Ioh. 18.36. Ioh. 6.15.and may his vicegerent or vicar? To call Emperours and kinges vassalles, his seruants, to make them hold his stirrup, is not this to blaspheme, to reproch them that bee in authoritie? What néede I vse manie wordes. The thing it selfe is too manifest. Christ Iesus himselfe acknowledged this authoritie to the Emperour in saying,Mat. 22.21. giuegive to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar: and to God that which belongeth to God. And not onlie in worde but in deede, He paied tribute for himselfe & for Peter: he washed his disciples feet: 17.24. Ion. 13.4.But the pope taketh and exacteth tribute of Emperours, of kinges, hee maketh them kisse his feete, and doth hee not manifestlie prooue himselfe hereby to be Antichrist? fulfilleth he not S. Iudes prophesse in this place?