Confutation of the Popes Bull, Part 1
¶That the foresayd vnmeasurable power of the Romish Bishop, is not proued by these wordes of the Lord vntounto Peter: Peter louest thou me? feede my sheepe.
HItherto you hauehave patiently heard the Popes sentence or declaration by his Bull, against the most vertuous Quéene of England. &c. and now I pray you be so good as gently to heare me also. I will bréefly and plainly shew, how there is no truth, substance, or soundnesse in this Bull, and that the cause which the Hope maintaineth and pleadeth against the most noble Quéene, is euill and vniust: but the case on the Quéenes side very good and rightfull. And I will begin at that vnmeasurable power of the Pope, which he boasteth of, and by force whereof he taketh vponupon him to be iudge in this case. For that being once ouerthrowen: all the whole Bull falleth to the ground, together with the iudgement builded vponupon this ruinous foundation, and so shall ye Pope sit in that seate of his, not a terrible or iust iudge, but an Idoll, to be despised, yea and to be spit at of all good men, and his sentences shall be no more the thunderboltes of Iupiter, but counterfait flashes glistering out of a basen, in no wise worthy to be regarded.What ye Popes beare men in hand concerning their infinite power. Then let that most holy or rather most prophane father tell vsus, where or by what wordes, our Lord deliuered vntounto Peter alone, and vntounto Peters successor the Bishop of Rome, that his fulnesse of power: that is to say, his supreme and most absolute power, as well in spirituall as in temporall matters. Let him tell vsus where or by what wordes, the Lord created the Bishop of Rome prince ouer all nations and ouer all kingdomes. I am not ignorant of your stincking and vnsauerie fables in this behalfe. I am not ignorant what Decretalls hauehave béene put forth by Gregory the ix. Boniface the viij. Innocent the 4. Clement the v. Iohn the xxij. and such other like to these, cōspirators & Catilines companions. As for me, I will not heare those decrées or Decretalls, which ye famous Lawyer Marsilius of Padwa, no lesse aptly than truely sayd to be neither Gods lawes nor mans lawes, but proclamations of plaine vniuersall souereintie. You say that without any parable at all, Christ our Lord gaue the fulnesse of power which ye brag of, to Peter, and to Peters successor the Pope. Bring forth therfore some euident record of this your allegation, out of the new Testament. Truely ye be not able to bring forth one tittle, or one iote of this your allegation. And therfore with most wicked lyes, and forgeries hauehave both you and your predecessors now certaine hundred yeares, scared and seduced good men, that leaned too much vntounto you through too light beléef, and ouermuch fearfulnesse.
For where as they hauehave alledged the wordes which our Lord after his Resurrection did thrise repeate and vrge vponupon Peter, namely, Peter louest thou me? feede my sheepe: Certes I wonder that both they, and you are so past all shame, that ye dare bring these thinges for the stablishing of your kingdome, or rather your tyranny. As who would say, we be all of vsus blind, or blockes, voyde of common reason, and not able to perceaue how those wordes perteine not to souereintie, but to seruice. Peter was by this meane to be comforted by the Lord, and to be restored to the name and office of Apostle, which he séemed to hauehave lost at the Lordes passion, chéefly in this respect, because he had a fowler fall then the rest of the Apostles, insomuch as he had thrée times denied, yea and also forsworne his Lorde and Master. Therefore least by his thrise denying he might séeme put out of his office of Apostleship: the Lord on the other side by his thrise cōfessing of his louelove, and enioyning him his charge, receaueth him againe and admitteth him to the office of Apostleship, to féede the Lordes flocke together with the rest of the Lordes Apostles. For who can say, that the féeding of the Lordes shéepe was committed to Peter onelyonly, and not to the other Apostles also?
An obiection.But Peter was inflamed with singular louelove, both toward the Lord, and toward his Church. The same louelove doth the Lord require of eueryevery shepheard of the flocke.The answere. But what (I pray you) perteineth that to the Bishop of Rome, who (to speake no worse of him) burneth in desire of dominion, riches, & voluptuousnesse? The Lord bad Peter féede the Lordes flocke. He hath also committed the charge of his flocke, to all faythfull ministers that louelove him vnfainedly.
Againe, what maketh this to the ratifying of the tyranny of the Romish Bishop? To féede, is not to aduance mans selfe aboue all power, to make kinges and princes subiecte to him, and to vsurpe fulnesse of power ouer all mē and all things: but to féede,To feede. is to teach, to exhort, to rebuke, to comfort, and to gouerne Christes flocke according to Gods word.Shepeheards, Pastors, or Feeders. Shepeheardes therfore are the teachers in the Church, which féede the Lordes flock by preaching the Gospell. For the foode of Christes shéepe is his word.Foode. And the shéepe, are Christes chosen, and the people of God. Hereof the shepeheardes are ministers and not lordes,Sheepe. subiecte to the chéefe shepeheard Iesus Christ, whose onelyonly is, and continueth all souereintie, all power, and all glory: as the Lord him selfe expoundeth this matter of the flocke, or of the shéepe, & of the shepeheardes, and the maner of féeding, in the x. chapt. of Iohn: and as Peter him selfe also accordeth, saying:1. Pet. 5. I which am also an elder & a witnesse of Christes afflictions, and also a partener of the glory that shall be reuealed, beseech the elders that are among you, Harken to this ye Romish Monarkes.feede Christes flocke as much as in you is, playing the Bishops, or taking care of it, not constrainedly, but willingly, not seeking filthely after gaine, but of an earnestly affected mind: not as though ye were Lordes ouer the parishes, but so as ye may be patterns to the flocke.
Lift vp your eares here ye Romish Monarkes, harken, and marke what your owne Peter sayth. He nameth not him selfe Lord, head, or prince, but fellowe elder: yea and as for the Lordlinesse and other fowle vices wherwith you be so bespotted, or rather allberayed: he forbiddeth the desire of them. And Christ he hath set forth the high shepeheard in singular humilitie, and faith to be looked at, and him to be serued. &c.
After the same maner speaketh also the Apostle Paule in the Actes of the Apostles, to the shepeheardes that were assembled in the Synod of Miletum, Act. 20.saying: Take heede to your selues, and to the whole flocke wherein the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops (whom Luke a little before called priestes or elders) to feede the congregation of God, which he hath purchased with his bloud. Againe, the same Paule a little afore in the same oration of his, declareth after what sort he him selfe had hitherto in that vocation of his fed the Lordes flocke cōmitted vntounto him, and sayth: I hauehave shunned none of those things that were for your profit, but hauehave preached vntounto you, and taught you openly and priuately, witnessing both to the Iewes and to the Grekes, the repentaunce towardes God, and the fayth toward our Lord Iesus Christ. It appeareth then by this plaine expositiō of the Apostle,What ye sheepe or flocke be. more cleerly then the light, that (according as I hauehave sayd a litle erst, and now againe am glad in repeating the same do gather it out of the Apostles wordes, to the end I may the better beate the truth into all mens heades, against most shamefull leasinges) the flocke or shéepe are the Lordes people or Church. For the Apostle sayd: Take heede to your selues, and to the whole flocke, wherin the holy Ghost hath made you Bishops, to feede the Church of God. And so the shepeheardes are the teachers,Teachers. ministers that féede the flocke by teaching and preaching openly and priuately. And so the foode is rightly sayd to be doctrine:Doctrine. and yet not eueryevery doctrine, but the doctrine which (as Paul sayth) teacheth repentaunce to Godward, and beleefe in Iesus Christ.
This I say is the sound, simple, and not any strange, racked, or wrested exposition of Christes wordes [feede my sheepe:] but taken out of the very own wordes of the Lord him selfe and of his Apostles, and therefore to be preferred before all other interpretations, and none other that disagréeth with this (what interpreter soeuer be the author therof, be he olde or be he new) is to be admitted or receaued. Therfore no man néede now to dout that it is out of all dout, that by these the Lordes wordes, feede my sheepe, there is not graunted neither to Peter, nor to the Bishop of Rome, that fulnesse of power which these men boast of, and which they beare the world in hand to be geuen by those wordes.
I could also alledge other testimonies for our side concerning this maner of féeding out of the Prophets, as out of the iii. chapt. of Ieremy, and the xxxiiii. of Ezechiell, but that I labour to be short.The maner of the Bishop of Romes feeding. Yet, because I will not dissemblingly skippe ouer any thing in this matter, I confesse that the Romish Bishop hath also very euident witnesse in the Prophets of his gouernmēt, and of his maner of féeding. For Zacharie protesteth and sayth:Zach. 11. The Lorde sayd vntounto me, yet take vntounto thee the tooles of a foolish shepeheard. For beholde I raise vp a shepeheard vponupon the earth, which shall not visite the thing that is cut vp, nor seeke the thing that is youthfull or foolishe, nor heale the thing that is broozed, nor feede the thing that standeth: and shall eate the fleshe of the fatter sort, & breake of their hoofes. Woe be to the idoll shepeheard, and which forsaketh his flocke: and so forth as followeth in the xi. chapt. of Zacharie. Here hauehave ye a looking glasse ye Romane Bishops, wherin ye may beholde and discerne your own phisnomie.