A Censure of Simony, Chapter 7
CHAP. VII.
Simonie demonstrated by our positiue Lawes, and by Ecclesiasticall Canons: and in fine, by the conuiction, and confession of the Simonist himselfe.
BEsides all the former conuictions, yea, euen without them all, the same Lawes which hauehave appointed and imposed the Oath of Simonie, may serue for sufficient and competent Iudges in the case of Simonie. And it stands with good reason, that the same Law which forbids and punisheth Simonie, should bee its owne Interpreter, what it meaneth by Simonie. And so, That is iustly censured for Simonie, which the Law vnderstands to be Simonie. Now the words of the Statute shewing what Simony is, be these: And for the auoyding of Simonie and Corruptions in Presentations, 31. Elizab…th. Chap. 6.Collations, and Donations, of, and, to Benefices, Dignities, Prebends, and other liuings and Promotions Ecclesiasticall, and in admissions, institutions and inductions to the same: Be it further enacted, &c. See here what our Statutes call Simonie. And according to the Interpretation of this Statute, doth the Oath take place. For vponupon this impregnable Bulwarke of the Law positiue, is mounted the Canon of the Church, full charged vponupon Simonists with powder and shot, to batter downe this high towring conceite of all those, that stand out in defiance of all opposition, and in defence of their vngodly merchandise. The charge of this Canon is heauier then Lead, and harder then Iron, and so planted against the Simonist, that hee m…st of force receiue it into his verie mouth; I meane, that most fearefull Oath of Simonie. But the Simonists Motto is, Iuraui lingua, mentem iniuratam gero: The Oath may well touch the tip of his tongue, but it shall not come neere his heart; he hath some euasion, some reseruation, or tricke … elude the Oath, either by giuing it a false glosse, o… by looking the face of his conscience in a false glasse, vnlesse by way▪ of commutation he decline it, as other offenders doe the wearing of the White Sheete; but neuer any by commuting, or call it what you will, is able to shift off his winding sheet: Many may auoide the mouth of the Canon, but when it comes once to the ryding of the Canon, that will bee sure to pay his ryder. For to bring it home to the conscience, let mee borrow an example of a Simoniacall Bishop from Rome, whereof that now step-mother Church is fruitfull, and may spare enow to stand for sea-markes for our better direction. Imagine you see him entring the Chancell of Saint Peters in Rome, to receiue his consecration in all his Pontificalls, and standing in the middest of such a congregation as at least themselues account most sacred: To this man let that dreadfull and direfull Oath (which our Church hath religiously prouided as a wholsome remedie and preseruatiue against this dangerous disease of Simonie) be administred. And before hee take it, let some powerfull voyce (such as came to Balaam, to forbid him to goe to Balack for the wages of iniquitie, or as came to Abimelech, to forbid him to touch Abrahams wife) summon and rowse his conscience, as on this wife. Come now, O Roman Prelate, who hast purchased a Bishopricke, as the Centurion did his Burgeship, for a great summe: I dispute not now about the manner, it makes no matter a purchase it is: But now thou art come to the place of thy Consecration (take heed it proue not thy Execration:) Now thou standest in the middest of an assembly of Prelats and Priests, on a day, in a place, all sacred: the seruice sacred, praying, praising, preaching, communicating; expecting also the presence of the Holy Ghost, with his manifold gifts to bee conferred vponupon thee by imposition of hands: now thou art set in the presence of Men and Angels, who stand about thee as so many eye and eare witnesses of this dayes deed. All these weightie circumstances considered, might be of force to put thee to a stand; and because I hauehave knowne that a desperate fellow comming before a Iudge in open Court, armed with a strong and obstinate resolution to take a solemne oath in the maintenance of a wrong cause, which the Iudge hauing smelled out, first, wisely admonished him to bee well aduised what hee would doe, laying before him the fearefulnesse of an oath wrongfully taken: Hee thereupon, feeling the remorse of conscience, openly confessed the whole truth of the businesse: Therefore bee aduised before thou commest to take thine oath; first to read the Oath, that weighing the tenure of it, thou mayest rather timely preuent the danger, then afterwards repent thee when it is too late. The wordes of the Canon prefixed stand thus: To auoyd the detestable sinne of Simonie, Canons and Constitutions 40.because buying and selling of Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall Functions, Offices, Promotions, Dignities, and Liuings, is execrable before God: Therefore the Archbishop, and all and eueryevery Bishop or Bishops, or any other person or persons, hauing authoritie to admit, institute, collate, install, or to confirme the election of any Archbishop, Bishop, or any other person or persons to any Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Function, Dignitie, Promotion, Title, Office, Iurisdiction, Place, or Benefice, with Cure, or without Cure, or to any Ecclesiasticall Liuing whatsoeuer, shall before eueryevery such Admission, Institution, Collation, Installation, or Confirmation of election, respectiuely minister to eueryevery person hereafter to bee admitted, instituted, collated, installed, or confirmed, in, or to, any Archbishopricke, Bishopricke, or other Spirituall or Ecclesiasticall Function, Dignitie, Promotion, Title, Office, Iurisdiction, Place or Benefice, with Cure, or without Cure, or in any Ecclesiasticall liuing whatsoeuer; This Oath in manner and forme following, The same to be taken by eueryevery one whom it concerneth in his owne person, and not by a Proctor: The words of the Oath. I N. N. doe sweare, That I hauehave made no Simoniacall payment, contract, or promise, directly or indirectly, by my selfe, or by any other to my knowledge, or with my consent, to any person, or persons whatsoeuer, for, or concerning the procuring and obtaining of this Ecclesiasticall dignitie (to wit, the Bishopricke of, &c.) Nor will at any time hereafter performe, or satisfie any such kind of payment, contract or promise made by any other, without my knowledge or consent; So helpe mee God, through Iesus Christ.
Hast thou now duely and seriously weighed the substance and circumstances of this most solemne Oath? Then let it summon and assemble thy saddest thoughts in counsell together, all mouing thee thus to argue with thy selfe. I am now in a place sacred, in the open view of Men and Angels, all Spectators, all Expecters of what I am to doe: Here I come to bee consecrated a Bishop, a great honour, but a greater burthen, which taking vponupon mee, I must ouer-top many here present, and many more absent, all deseruing this honour farre before mee; So that I pull vponupon my selfe, and that iustly, the most insupportable burthen of Enuy: yea more, if this Bishopricke had fallen vntounto mee by Lot, as that fell vponupon Mathias, or had beene cast or inforced vponupon mee, as *Vide Esp…nsaeum de Episcopatus suga & recusatiou…, Lib. 3. digr…ssionum. cap. 4.5▪ …. & 7.Bishoprickes were once wont to bee vponupon good men in the time of the Churches innocencie, I might better beare and brooke it, yea, it would diminish all the Enuy: But my conscience tells mee, yea, and others also can too well witnesse (for ambition is not hid in a corner) how eagerly? how ambitiously, how vnbeseeming the grauitie and modestie of a Priest, yea, the ingenuitie of any honest man, by cap and knee, by soothing and flattery, by often visiting and long attending the Court, when I should hauehave beene at my sheepe-coat, hauehave I at length attained to this reuerent Dignitie: Nay more, though the world perhaps know it not (as yet) my conscience failes not to charge me, what a summe of money I hauehave and am to pay for it (that which my kindred and friends may one day rue, if the lease of my momentanie lent life be not all the longer) besides the faire and goodly liuings I hauehave parted withall into the bargaine: yet if this were all, it were the more tolerable. But alas? here is an Oath, a direfull, a dreadfull Oath (alas!) which I must take: I must, there is no euasion, no redemption, no baulking of it, I can no more escape it, then a dead man his winding sheet, and taking it vponupon mee, it will bee worse then Deianira's inchanted shirt, sitting close to my conscience, and tormenting it with the fire of hell. This will be worse vntounto mee then the ryding of the Cannon, for it will shake and shatter my soule and conscience all to pieces. How should I then take this fearefull Oath, and so sinne against God, the Iudge: sinne against this sacred Assembly, the Grand Iury passing vponupon mee? sinne against the Church? against my profession, which is sacred, against the dignitie of a Bishop, which is venerable; and lastly against my owne soule, the subiect of all this sinne, and the obiect of all those ineuitable iudgements of that iust God hanging ouer my head? And what shall it aduantage me, thus to win a Bishopricke, and lose mine owne soule? What aduantage? Nay what disaduantage will it bring vntounto me? For what ioy or inioyment can I hauehave in my Bishoprick, when my conscience shall be still dogging mee at the heeles, yea biting me at the heart, and vpbraiding me with Simonie & Periury: what honor shall the title of Lord be vntounto me, when my Simonie and Periury (too manifest to the world) shal make me a table talke, a byword, a scornfull Parable in eueryevery mans mouth, a contemptible obiect in eueryevery mans eyes? The Rotchet being an embl…me of the pure linnen righteousnesse and innocencie of Saints, so often as I shall put it on, what doth it but put mee in minde to apply that saying to my selfe, being one of those false Apostles, who transforme my selfe into the Apostle of Christ, 1. Cor. 11.13.as Satan is transformed into an Angel of Light? And what benefit shall my Bishopricke be vntounto me, being so deerely bought, that I must lay the burthen of my Simonie, vponupon my poore Clergie, racke my rents, sell my Presentations, keepe a miserable house, and all, and more then all these, to patch vp a poore bargaine, and to heape more burthens vponupon my conscience, enduring more already, then I am able to beare? were it not much better for mee rather to forgoe Bishopricke and all, and to preuent all those matchlesse mischiefes, that depend and attend vponupon the conditions of accepting it: then by going on, to plunge my soule into infinite calamities, and wrap my selfe in endlesse and remedilesse miseries? For that Oath, that Oath, O that fearefull Oath (alas) admitting no euasion, no mentall reseruation, no equiuocation; that Oath, being once taken, becomes a great gulfe for euer set between my conscience, & comfort, between my soule, and saluation, betweene mee and blisse: And what can I exspect, but that my tongue, for being but an instrument in pronouncing this Oath, shall be tormented in a greater flame then that of poore Diues in hell fire? And then, and there, what shall it boote me to disclaime the name of Simonie, when I now suffer for it? or to say, I bought the benefit, and dignitie, not the Office of a Bishop, when now my false and foolish equiuocation is found out? when as my conscious Agents, and all that confederate crew, the Vsurer, the Scriuener, the Solicitor, and the like, shall vpbraid and accuse me, for being an accessary, yea, a principall occasion of their sin? For had not I beene so forward to giuegive, they had not participated with mee in my sin, and so not in my punishment; mine owne conscience neuer ceasing her hideous and hellish clamors vponupon mee, tormenting mee for my desperate periurie, for my deepe hypocrisie, for playing the Chop-Church, which my punishment shall then tell me, is either Simonie, or some other crime worse then it, if worse can be imagined.
Now shall not these considerations moue such a man, yea, euen a Romish Simonist, to a timely preuention of Simoniacall periurie, or of becomming a periured Simoniack? And rather then desparately proceed to take the direfull Oath, bee content to remaine stript of all his other promotions, and bidding adue to Bishopricke and all, goe vow himselfe to a perpetuall monasticke life, there to doe penance, if it were onelyonly for making such a bold attempt.