Confutation of the Popes Bull, Part 13
¶Also that the latter Byshops of Rome vntill Gregorie the first, vaunted not of any fulnesse of power, nor of their supremacie ouer beyng aduaunced aboue kinges and kingdomes.
NEuerthelesse we must néedes graunt, that from the tyme of Constantine the great, who did set the Churches in peace, not onelyonly the Bishops of Rome, but also the Bishops of other Churches through the worlde began to step aside from the playne footesteppes of their predecessors, and claue not so carefully to the simple doctrine of the Apostles, and therfore admitted mo ceremonies into the Church, then beséemed, and furthermore intermeddled them selues in worldly affaires and applyed them selues to much vntounto them, yea & inuēted new names and offices of dignitie, and brought such other thinges of the same sort into the Church, which made way for worser thinges. This saw that famous Poet Baptista Mātuanus, who intreatyng of the times of Constantine the great among other thinges wrate thus.
Most noysom poyson sprang of honny sweete.
A right faire word is Rest, a pleasaunt name is peace.
But yet from peace shall flowe more losse,
Dishonour, shame, reproche and miserie,
Then could from cruell warre. For out of kynde
the auncient vertue shall degenerate &c.
But howsoeuer the Bishops as well of Rome as of other Churches began to grow worse and worse, yet were they still ignorant of that Romish Monarchie or rather tyrannie which is defended at this day. For that I may alledge nothing hether out of the aunciēter writers of Gods Church: doth not S. Hierome in his Epistle to Euagrius, and in his Commentaries vponupon S. Paules Epistle to Titus, most manisfestly make the Bishop of Rome and the very Church of Rome it selfe, equall with all other Byshops and Chuches in the world? Doth he not openly say, that the Churches in old time were gouerned by the common aduise of the elders? Doth he not most piththely shew out of the Scriptures, that elders and bishops be all one thing? and that the one is not the name of age and the other of office? Doth he not playnly say that Bishops were preferred before elders, & elders made subiect to Bishops, by custome of the Church and not by appointment of God? Wherfore it were truly a wonder, why Epiphanius agaynst the Arrians should recken vp this thing for an heresie, which Ierome vrgeth with so many and so piththy wordes: but that others giuegive me warnyng that Epiphanius was to gentle in charging other folkes with heresie. Truly in this case (to speake with reuerence of so great a learned mā) he wrongfully misreported the giltlesse, contrarie without authoritie of the holy Scripture. But if any man list to heare Ieromes owne wordes, behold I will briefly rehearse the thinges that make to this purpose. We must not (sayth he to Euagrius) esteme the Church of Rome to be one, & the Church of the whole world to be another. Both Fraunce, and Britaine, and Affrike, and Persia, and the Eastcountreys, and Inde, and all the barbarous natiōs, worshyp one Christ, & obserue one rule of truth. If authoritie be sought, the world is greater than a Citie. Where soeuer is a Byshop, whether he be of Rome, or of Eugubie, or of Alexandrie, or of Tanais, he is all one in merite, all one in Priesthode. The statelinesse of riches or the basenesse of pouertie maketh not a Bishop either higher or lower? but all of them are successors of the Apostles.
And vponupon the Epistle of S. Paul vntounto Titus: An Elder (sayth he) and a Byshop are both one. And before such tyme as by the instinct of the deuill there were sectes in religion, and it was sayd among folke, I hold of Paule, I of Apollo, and I of Cephas: the Churches were gouerned by the common aduise of the Elders. But after the time that eueryevery man imagined those whom he had baptised to be his owne and not Christes: it was decréed through the whole world▪ that one (he speaketh not of the bishop of Rome onelyonly, but of all other Metropolitanes through the whole world) should be chosen from among the Elders, and set ouer the rest, vntounto whom the charge of the whole Church should belong, and so the séedes of schismes and variances be taken away. Againe when the same Ierome had proued and shewed by many textes of Scripture, that Elders and Byshops are all one thing he addeth byanby: I hauehave therfore mencioned these thinges, that I might shew how Elders and Bishops were all one thing, and that for the plucking vp of the plantes of dissention, the charge of all things was by little put vntounto one. Therfore like as Priests know that by the custome of the Church they be subiect to him that is set ouer them: so also let the Bishops vnderstand that they be greater than the Priestes rather by custome than by truth of Christes ordinaūce, and that they ought to gouerne the Church in common. And so forth.
And although I thinke not that any man will looke for plainer & fuller matter in this present case than this which I hauehave rehearsed already out of Ierome: yet will I adde somewhat more out of Gregorie, who was himselfe a Bishop of Rome, placed in that sea the yeare of our Lord. 591. in which he dyed the yeare of our Lord 64. He alone wilbe a sufficient able witnesse, that in his time the sayd tyrannicall and Popish Monarchie was not yet either placed in that sea, nor graūted to it. Before this Gregorie was chosen to the Byshoprik of Rome, he was Pretor or Maior of the Citie of Rome, as he himselfe witnesseth in his booke of Epistles the second Epistle. Beyng chosen Byshop & confirmed in his Bishoprike or sea by the Emperour Morice who kept his residence at Constantinople: he calleth him Emperour & acknowledgeth him to be his souerein Lord ordeined by God, and himselfe to be his subiect & seruaunt. Yea and he faithfully obeyed his Exarkes and Captaines that were placed through Italie, calling them his Lordes. He obeyed their lawes, yea and their Ecclesiasticall lawes to. All which thinges are to be read in his Epistles, Lib. 2. Epist. 61. Againe, Lib. 4. Epist. 31. & Lib. 1. Epist. 43. Also, Lib. 7. Epist. 11. Besides this Paulus Diaconus in his 4. booke & 9. chap. of the doyngs of the Lombardes, witnesseth that Gregorie submitted himselfe to be iudged by ye Emperour Maurice, for ye murther of Malchus a byshop, wherof he was appeached. And Gregorie him selfe maketh mentiō of the same matter in the seuenth booke of his Epistles.
But these thinges will séeme light and small, if they be compared with those which he himselfe hath left in writyng. For when as one Iohn Bishop of Constantinople would néedes be called oeconomicall Bishop and be acknowledged for vniuersall Bishop to hauehave supremacie, iurisdiction, and dominion ouer all Churches and Byshops of Churches in the whole world: Gregorie withstode him sharpely and stoutly, like as Bishop Pelagius had done afore him. He wrate many and sundry Epistles concernyng that matter to Maurice the Emperour, to Constance the Empresse, to Iohn himselfe the Bishop of Constantinople, and to the Bishops of Antioche and Alexandria. Among other thinges he denieth that any man ought to be an vniuersall Bishop sauing Christ, & that any Bishops vsurped that title afore him. For he sayth, that the title is, straunge, foolish, proude, péeuish, wicked, and heathenish, wherunto to consent, were euen as much as to renounce the fayth. Agayne speakyng of Iohn of Constantinople, Out of the same dust (sayth he) in which he sate, and out of the same lowlynesse which he pretended, he hath taken presumptuousnesse, so as he assayeth to ascribe all thinges to himselfe, and by haultinesse of stately spéech indeuereth to subdue all Christes members to himselfe, which cleaue alonely to their owne head, that is to say, to the same Christ. Anon after comparing with Lucifer, he writeth: Lucifer sayd, I will clymb into heauen, I will exalt my throne aboue the starres of the skie. For what els are all thy brethren the Byshops of the vniuersall Church, but starres of heauen? whose life together with their toung shineth among mens sinnes & errours, as it were in the dareknesse of the night. Before whom when thou couetest to preferre thy selfe by title of preheminence, and to treade their name vnderunder foote in comparison of thine owne, what els sayest thou, but I will clymb vp into heauen &c. Finally writing to the same Iohn Byshop of Constantinople, all thinges (sayth he) that were forespoken, do come to passe. The kyng of pride is néere at hand, and (which is a shame to be spoken) there is an army of Priestes in preparing for him. For they which were set to be lodesmen of lowlynesse serue as souldiers vnderunder the necke of loftinesse. And the same man agayne in his 6. booke of Epistles and the xxx. Epist. But I say boldly, that who soeuer termeth himselfe or desireth to be termed the vniuersall Bishop, is in his pride the forerunner of Antichrist, bycause he preferreth himselfe by his proudnesse before the residue, and by like pryde is led into errour. And certes Gregorie hath spoken these thynges most truly. For the sayd Iohn Bishop of Constantinople was the very forerunner of Antichrist, as who by his wicked and importunate demaund of highest preheminence, gaue occasion to the Byshops of Rome to aspire to the top of supremacie. Among them after the death of Gregorie, Boniface the third obteyned of the Emperour Phocas that he should proclaime the Church of Rome to the head of all other Churches, as Bede sayth: to be the first Church, as Paulus Diaconus sayth: or to be the mother Church, as Vrspergensis and Crantzius say. Whereupon the Bishops of Rome as beyng Byshops of the souerein S…a, immediatly proclaymed themselues both souerein and vniuersall Shepheardes of all Churches, to whom all ought of dewtie to obey. For the Emperour Phocas (sayth Nauclerus in his hystorie) by the Byshop of Romes persuasion sent abroad proclamations openly and to the whole world, ordeinyng that all the Churches of the world should obey the Church and Byshop of Rome. The same History writer addeth further that in tymes forepast, the same proclamation was not obserued in all pointes, and specially not of the Greekes &c. The sayd Phocas that made this law was a monster of mankynd, a most vnthrifty Prince, a most cruell murtherer, a thrall of lecherie, and all wickednesse as histories beare witnesse, and of all kynges the wretcheddest. Therfore least the pot might not hauehave a co…fit for it, or least like lippes might not alwayes finde lyke lettice, he made a constitution euen méete for hym selfe.