A General View of Papistry, Book 1 · Controversy 4 · Question 6
THE SIXT QVESTION, WHETHER THE Pope may erre, or not.
The Papists.
THey denye not but that both the Pope by himselfe, and together with a error 47 whole Councel, may bee deceiued in matters of fact, that is, in historicall poynts, and the truth of things that are done, because it dependeth of the testimonie and information of men: But in matters of faith and doctrine, the Pope determining with the Councel, is not subiect to error: yea, the Pope by himselfe alone decreeing any thing concerning faith cannot bee deceiued, Bellar. lib. 4. de pontific. cap. 1…. No nor yet in precepts of manners prescribed to the Church by the Pope, is there any feare or daunger of error, cap. 5. Yea, it is probable (sayth he) that the Pope, not onelyonly as Pope, cannot erre, but not as a priuate person, is it like he should fall into heresie, or hold any obstinate opinion contrarie to the faith? cap. 6.
1 Luke 22.31. Simon, I hauehave prayed for thee, that thy faith faile not. Christ here prayeth for Peter, and his successors, that they might not at any time erre, or be deceiued in matters of faith, Bellar. cap. 3. Rhem. annot. in Luk. 22. sect. 11.
We answere: First, this was a particular prayer for Peter, that his fayth should not fayle in that great and dangerous tentation, into the which, our Sauiour foresaw, hee should fall: For if it were to be vnderstood of Peters successors, they also must first be sifted by Sathan as Peter was, and deny Christ, and so being conuerted strengthen their brethren: if they will vnderstand one parte of Peters successors, I pray you, why not all? Secondly, Our Sauiour prayeth likewise for all his Apostles, that they might be sanctified in the truth, yea for al, that should beleeue by their preaching: yet is not eueryevery Christian priuiledged from all error of fayth. Thirdly, after this Peter himselfe erred, and was reprehended of Saint Paul. Fulk. annot. in Luk. 22. sect. 11.
2. The high Priests that sate in Moses chayre were priuiledged not to erre. Ergo, much more now are the chiefe pastors of the Church free from error, Bellarm. cap. 3. Rhemist. Luk. 22. sect. 11.
We answer: the high Priests had no such priuiledge, for some of them fell into strange errors: Vriah the high Priest set vp an idolatrous altar at the Kinges commaundement, 2. King. 16. Eliashib was ioyned in Affinitie with Tobiah the Ammonite, contrary to the law of God, Fulk. ibid.
The Protestantes.
THat the Popes and Bishops of Rome hauehave not onelyonly erred in manners, but euen in fayth; and not onelyonly priuately and personally as men, but pulikely and iudicially as Popes; that they hauehave by their publike and open preaching, defence, allowance, and consent approued and established erronious, and some hereticall opinions: thus we trust to make it playne and euident to all men.
1. Peter erred: Ergo, the Pope may, though he were Peters successor. First, Peter erred in denying of Christ: the Iesuite answereth: First, he began not yet to be the chiefe Bishop, which he entred not into till after the resurrection, when Christ sayd vntounto him, Feede my sheepe, Iohn 21. therefore all this while he might erre. A goodly answere: I pray you tell me, was not the Church before Christs passion, and after, built vponupon the same rocke? I trow they cannot denie it: but Peter was not the rock before, therefore not after.
If he were therefore called a rock because of his confession of Christ, why should he not then rather, straight after his confession, take possession of his office, then immediately after his deniall of Christ? Surely this is but a silly shift. Secondly, sayth the Iesuite, Peter fayled in charitie when he denied Christ, not in fayth, cap. 3. and if he fayled in fayth, he lost the confession of fayth, and not fayth it selfe. We answere: First, and can a true fayth then bee separated from louelove by your doctrine? The Apostles knew no such fayth: Saint Iames sayth, it is a dead fayth that is without the works of louelove, and the fayth of diuels, that is, no faith, Iames 2.17.19. If then Peters louelove failed, his fayth also fayled. Secondly, we doe not say that Peters fayth was lost and vtterly extinguished, for Christ prayed for him, but whether it were an error in fayth which Peter fell into: for it is not all one to erre in fayth, or cleane to lose fayth. Thirdly, hee lost the confession of fayth, he denied Christ in word, Ergo: he denied the fayth, howsoeuer he thought in heart: for these two are the principall fruites of fayth, to Beleeue with the heart, and Confesse with the mouth, Rom. 10. and where either of these is wanting, there can not be a right fayth: for he that putteth away a good conscience, maketh shipwrack also of faith, 1. Tim. 1.19. But the Iesuite I see hath a queazie stomack, let him cough vp lustily, and say with one of his fellowes, Petrus non fidem Christi, Alan. Cop.sed Christum salua fide negauit. Peter denied not the fayth of Christ, but, his fayth remayning sound and whole, hee onelyonly denied Christ. Loe, here is newe popish diuinitie, that a man may denie Christ, and yet not denie the faith.
Secondly, Peter erred in constraining the Gentiles to doe as the Iewes. Bellarmine saith, it was an error in example & conuersation, not in fayth or doctrine, cap. 7. We answere: First, in this example of Peter there was also included an error in fayth, for how should the Gentiles better know Peters iudgement, then by his example, by the which they fell into an error of fayth, and were constrayned to conforme themselues like to the Iewes: thinking that the Iewish ceremonies were necessary to bee retayned? Secondly, Saint Paul himselfe sayth, they went not the right way to the truth of the Gospell: Ergo, they erred from the trueth of the Gospell, and so in fayth. Thirdly, the diuines of Paris doe attribute to Peter an error in fayth, Fulk. annot. 4. Galat. sect. 9.
2. We can produce many examples of the Popes, which hauehave erred iudicially, namely, openly hauehave maintayned errors. To let passe Marcellinus, who sacrificed to Idols, as a slippe of his person, and he afterward repented him of his fall: yet by the way the Iesuite is deceiued, that thinketh it probable, that the Popes particular person cannot fall into heresie: here you see Marcellinus fell into Idolatrie.
Liberius subscribed to the Arrians, consented to the condemnation of Athanasius: as testifieth Ierome, confessed by Nicolaus Cusanus, and Alphonsus de castro, both papists, Iuel. pag. 164. defens. Apolog.
Honorius 1. consented to the heresie of Sergius Bishop of Constantinople, who was a Monothelite, and held, that there were not two wills or operations in Christ,Lib. 6. de loc. cap. vl. and so destroyed the two natures. That Honorius was a Monothelite, Melchior Canus a papist confesseth: hee was condemned for an heretike in the 6.7. and 8. generall synodes. Bellarmine answereth, that the Councels are corrupted, or they might be deceiued in iudgement, as in a matter of facte: or that Honorius onelyonly misliked the speech, to say there were two willes in Christ, and not the thing. See what poore shiftes heere bee to make Honorius no heretike, and yet all will not be.
Pope Stephen the sixt tooke vp Formosus body, and cut off two fingers of his right hande, and buried him againe in a lay-mans Sepulchre: Then followed Rhomanus the first, Theodorus the second, Iohannes the ninth, and restored Formosus with his decrees, iudging him to bee lawfull Bishop. After them commeth Sergius the third, who tooke vp the body agayne, cutte off the head, and cast it into Tiber. The Iesuite answereth, that Stephanus and Sergius erred onelyonly in a matter of fact. A goodly cloke to couer the filthines of their Ghostly fathers withall.
But by your leaue a little: doe you not holde it to bee an article of fayth to beleeue the Pope to bee heade of Christes Church? Then was it an article of fayth to hold that Formosus was right Pope, for at that time there was no other. Ergo, Stephanus and Sergius erred in fayth, defining the contrary. All that you can say, is this: that it was not yet determined and decreed for an article of fayth, so to beleeue: see I pray you, these mennes fayth is pinned vponupon Popes sleeues. Why masters, the rule of fayth is certaine, you cannot make new articles of fayth now, but onelyonly declare and explane those that are. But doe you not thinke that these iollie Popes, that would rake the dead out of their graues, for their holines might deserue at GODS hand, to hauehave a priuiledge not to erre in fayth?
Siluester the second was a Necromancer and a Coniurer, and therefore fallen from the fayth. Bellarmine sayth: hee was a good man, and all are fables and lyes that are tolde of him: and because hee was cunning in Geometrie, that ignorant age straightwayes iudged him to bee giuen to Necromancie.
Thus wee may take the Iesuites worde, if wee will. But the storie is reported by authors of better credit then Bellarmine: as Iohannes Stella, Platina, Petrus Premonstratens. Nauclerus, Antoninus. Fox. pag. 167.
Anastasius was a Nestorian heretike, whose heresie was this, that there are, as two natures, so also two persons in Christ, Alphons. de castro. lib. 1. de haeresib. cap. 4.
Celestinus is reported by Laurentius Valla a Canon of Rome, to hauehave been a Nestorian heretike, de donation. Constantin.
Now commeth in Pope Hildebrand, or rather Heldebrand, for hee was a very brand of hell fire: called Gregory the seuenth: Of whome Benno writeth thus: that hee poysoned sixe Popes his predecessors to make himselfe a way to the popedome: that hee was a Coniurer, a raiser of Diuels, and in his rage hee cast the sacrament into the fier. But sayth Harding our countrey man, though vnworthily, Benno was his enemie, and wrote of displeasure: and Bellarmine thinketh that some Lutherane was the author of the booke, which goeth vnderunder the name of Benno, who was Cardinall in this Hildebrands time. But Benno onelyonly doth not thus report of him: he was openly twise for the same crimes condēned in Councel: first at Wormes: thē after deposed in the Coūcel at Brixia in Italy, & Pope Clement 3. elected to succeed him.Vrspergens. And the said Gregory died in exile, of whom Antonius reporteth, that before his death, he repented him of his insolencie shewed toward the Emperour Henrie the 4. whom with his wife and young child bare foote, and bare legd, hee had caused three dayes together, in extreame frost and colde, to waite at his palace gates at Canusium, Fox. p. 179. Iuel. p. 168. defen. apol.before he could speake with him. Yet this Hildebrand for all these insolent, cruell, and dishonest partes, is commended by our papists, Harding, Bellarmine and other, for a deuout Catholike man, who did all things of a zeale to the Church. By this you may iudge, whome our aduersaries count a Catholike man.
Pope Iohn the 22. affirmed, that the soules lie in a traunce till the day of iudgement, and feele neither payne nor ioye. Harding, and likewise Bellarmine answere, that this was an error, but no heresie. Yet in the Vniuersitie of Paris, it was condemned for heresie, as Gerson writeth. Againe sayth Harding, he held it only as a priuate opinion. But Massaeus sayth, that Pope Iohn preached this heresie and sent out preachers to maintaine it. Hee was condemned (sayth he) with his error by the diuines of Paris in the presence of Philip the French King, before he was Pope, when he was yet but a priuate Doctor. But the contrary is proued by B. Iewel, that he was Pope 13. yeares before Philip was king, Iuell. defens. apolog. p. 667.
Pope Iohn the 23. denied the life to come, and the resurrection of the body: And this heresie was openly obiected against him in the Councel of Constance. Bellarmine and Harding before him, answere, that he was not the rightful Pope, for there were three at that time, and therefore might erre. But Platina sayth, that he was chosen at Bonoma, by the consent of all the Cardinals, ex Iuel. pag. 671.
Lastly, Pope Eugenius the 4. was condemned and deposed as an heretike in the Councel of Basile. Where the Iesuite hath no other answer, then by condemning the Councel as Schismatical, to acquite the Pope, Lib. 3. de pontif. cap. 14.
By these examples it may appeare to the indifferent reader, that it is no rare nor impossible thing, for the Popes of Rome to erre, yea become playne heretikes: And as for that shift of the Iesuite, that they are no longer Popes, whē they openly begin to teach heresie, this is, as Alphonsus sayth, In re seria verbis velle iocari, De haeresib. lib. 1. cap. 4.to dallie with words in a serious and earnest matter. And so eueryevery Bishop shal be as well priuiledged as the Pope, and cannot fall into heresie: for why may we not say that a Bishop, when he is knowen to bee an heretike, ceaseth to bee Bishop any longer, as the Pope is no longer Pope, and so as long as he remayneth Bishop, cannot possiblie bee an heretike? Surely this is but paltrie and beggarly stuffe.
De baptis. lib. 2. cap. 3.4. Augustine is not a whit afrayd to say, Episcoporum literas per sermonem sapientiorem cuiuslibet in eare peritioris, & per aliorum episcoporum grauiorem authoritatem, & per concilia licere reprehendi, si in eis à veritate deuiatum sit. That the decrees of all Bishops whatsoeuer (not excluding Popes) may be corrected either by the sentence of wiser men in that poynt, wherein they erred, or by the better aduised sentence of other Bishops, or by Councels may be reuersed, where they doe erre. Ergo, it is possible for Popes, by his iudgement, to erre.
A PART OR APPENDIX OF THIS QVEstion, whether the Church of Rome may erre or not.
The Papists.
THey doe not onelyonly affirme that the Pope cannot erre, but that the Church error 48 of Rome also cānot be deceiued in matters of faith, so long as the Apostolike See remayneth there, which they say is like there to remaine to the ende of the world. Bellarm. lib. 3. de pontif. cap. 4. Hereupon Panormitane doubteth not to say, that he would preferre the iudgement of the Cardinals of Rome, before the iudgement of the whole world: this he sayd, standing vp in the Councel of Basile, Fox. pag. 669. ex Aenea Syluio.
1. The Rhemists vponupon those words of Saint Paul, Rom. 1.5. your fayth is published through the whole world, doe thus inferre: See (say they) the great prouidence of God in the preseruation of the Romane common faith. In times past the Romane fayth and Catholike all one: Ergo, that See cannot erre in faith.
We answere: they must proue their Romish faith and popish religion, to be the same which was praysed and commended by the Apostle, or els they gayne nothing: but that shall they neuer doe.
2. So long as the Apostolike See remayneth at Rome, it shall be preserued from error, but that is like there to remaine till the worlds end: for it onelyonly remayneth, when all other Apostolique Sees are gone: and it is very probable, that if this See could hauehave been ouerthrowen, it should hauehave been done by the incursion and inuasion of the Gothes, Vandals, Turkes, the emulation of Princes, diuisions and schismes of Popes themselues: yet for all this it standeth still, and hath so continued almost 1600. yeres, and shall so continue still. Ergo, the Romane Church can not erre. Bellarmin. lib. 2. cap. 4. Rhemist. annot. in Thessal. 2. sect. 7.
We answere: First, it is a great vntruth, that all other Apostolike Sees are gone, for there is a succession at Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Ephesus, euen at this day. Secondly, it is false, that the See of Rome hath continued in that religion it now professeth, which indeed is no religion, but superstition and heresie, these 1600. yeres: for first till Gregories time, which was 600. yeeres after Christ, none of the popes would be called vniuersall Bishops: and it was more then 300. yeeres, from Gregorie the 1. to Siluester the 2. when sathan is thought fully to be let loose: for he by the diuel was aduanced to the papacie: All these yeeres therefore you must strike off in your account. Thirdly, that the See of Rome, which is the seate of Antichrist, hath continued many yeeres we graunt: for it is the iust iudgement of God vponupon the world, because they loued not the trueth, that they should be deluded a long time, and deceiued by Antichrist, and beleeue lies: so did Saint Paul prophesie, 2. Thessalonians 2.10, 11. And wee grant also that that Antichristian See shall in some sorte remayne till the comming of Christ, whom hee shall destroie with the brightnes of his appearing, as Saint Paul sayth. You hauehave gayned therefore nothing by this, but that Rome is the seate of Antichrist, Fulk. annotat. in 2. Thessalonians 2. sect. 7.
The Prot…tants.
IT is euident and plaine, and neede not much proofe, that the Romane Church, as also any particular visible Church, maie not onelyonly erre in faith, but fall cleane away into heresie and Idolatrie, as we see it come to passe in the Church of Rome.
1. The Church of Rome hath no better assurance of their continuance, then the Church of the Iewes had before Christ, no nor yet so great, for they were a peculiar and chosen nation. But Iudah fell and transgressed, and committed Idolatrie in the raigne of Ahaz, and therefore the Prophet Esay complayneth and sayth, From the sole of the foote to the head, there is nothing sound, cap. 1. ver. 6.
Neither are they better then the Church of Ephesus was in Saint Iohns time, who was as able (I think) to keepe that Church from error, as the Pope is to keepe Rome: yet the Lord threatneth to remoue his candlestick frō amongst them, vnles they did amend, Reue. 2.5. Ergo, the Church of Rome may erre.
2. The Pope may erre, as we hauehave before shewed, Ergo the Church of Rome: for the Apostolike See, as they say, is the cause that no error can approch or come neere them. Therefore (me thinketh) the Iesuite committeth a foule absurditie, in saying, the Church of Rome cannot so much as erre personally, and yet they grant that the Pope may erre personally. So by this reason the body shuld hauehave a greater priuiledge then the head: the Church of Rome should bee freer from error then the Pope, who should preserue it from error: this sure is a great absurditie in Popish diuinitie, Bellarmin. cap. 4.
3. It is confessed by our aduersaries themselues, that the Church of Rome may erre: as the Councel at Rome vnderunder Adriane the second erred, sayth the Iesuite, in determining Honorius to bee an heretick, one of his predecessors. cap. 11.
The Councel of the Italian Bishops at Brixia erred in condemning Gregory the seuenth, who was, if you will beleeue Harding, a vertuous and an holy man. Nay Paulus Iouius a popish Bishop confesseth, that Adrianus 6. was made Pope, mira & pudenda Senatorum factiosorum suffragatione, through the strange and shamefull suffrages of factious Cardinals,Lib. 20. fine. because they preferred a stranger before their owne order.
But our aduersaries hauehave a trick, to shift off all this that hath been saide: They erred in a matter of fact, not in any poynt of fayth. Yet they cannot so closely conuey the matter away: for Panormitane euen in such questions also preferreth the iudgement of the Cardinals before the whole world, speaking in the defence of Eugenius, who was challenged in the Councel of Basile, for the dissolution of the Councel, which he did (saith Panormitane) with the aduice of the Cardinals: whose iudgement he so much esteemeth in this matter, which concerned not faith, namely, for the dissoluing of the Councel.Fox. p. 669.