Confutation of the Popes Bull, Part 15
¶This discourse is concluded, and here is shewed that the sentence of Pope Pius the fifth published against the most vertuous Queene of England, and all her whole noble Realme, is vtterly fond and of none effect.
BUt to what purpose serueth so déepe repetyng of these thinges will some man say? Surely all these thinges serue to this purpose, that it may appeare manifestly by them, yea & be perceiued euē of the most simplest sort of all, that this fulnesse of power & souereintie ouer all kings & kyngdomes, which the sayd Pope Pius the fifth braggeth of in hys Bull, to be giuen vntounto himselfe and to all Byshops of Rome, is nothyng els but Bullyng or Bublyng, that is to say nothyng els but a most vayne forgerie, or rather a deuilish and cursed lye deuised, found out, and forced vponupon the people of God, by the Popes themselues and by flattering clawbackes of their owne stamp. For Christ neuer gaue any such thyng either to Peter or to the other Apostles. Neyther did Peter leaue any whit thereof to his successors: so as I may well say, that the Popes are nothing lesse than the successors of Simon Peter, but rather the successors of Simon Magnus. Moreouer the Lord in his Gospell not once nor darckely, but most openly commaundeth byshops to obey kinges, and not to raigne ouer them. And therefore the Apostles and the first byshops of the Romane Church, were ministers of the Church, yea and martyrs, but not Princes of nacions: and they yelded due obedience vntounto Princes. What maner of men the latter byshops of Rome be and hauehave bene, who stepping aside from the footsteppes of the fathers, hauehave both vniustly vsurped and cruelly executed, the sayd fulnesse of power, wherof they now make their boast, they are knowen to all men, not by their vertues but by their unspeakeble outrages. What els remayneth then, but that the sentence of Pope Pius the fift (who as he sayth himselfe is mounted vp into the throne of Iustice to geue iudgement) which he by the fulnesse of his power hath geuen and pronounced definitiuely by publishing it against the most vertuous Quéene of England and the noble Realme of England, is vtterly nothing and of none effect, because it is but a vayne, a fained, and counterfet power, by force wherof this disguised Iudge hath geuen sentence, not as a Iudge, but as a tyraunt, and Antichrst.
Therefore O England (happie euen in the same resspect) when thou séest the Romish thunderbolts which the Bull spreddeth into the whole world, to be throwen and darted agaynst thée: thou must thinke it is but a new Italian Cacus that puffeth out again his vaine flashes of fire, from those his shadie dennes of meant Auentine blinded with much mist, and dazeleth the sight of blearied folke with black fogginesse and darcknes mixt with fire. They that hauehave receiued their eysight by the grace of God, know well inough what that fond Salmonean lightener is, namely euen the man of sinne, & the child of damnation, as the Apostle saith, which is lifted vp against all that is called God or the power of God, in so much as he sitteth in the temple of God, boasting himselfe to be God. Therfore the godly and those that be enlightened beleue that God blesseth their curssages and curseth their blessinges▪ and therefore that his excommunications are nothing to be feared.
Surely from the time that these men executed that vnmeasurable power of theirs in the Church, they hauehave bene so farre from holding Gods people together in the vnitie of the spirit, or from bringing them to their Sauiour, that they rather dispersed them & pulled them away from them their Sauiour. Which thing the matter it self bewrayeth.