Sermon Preached 14 February 1607, Part 14

Sermon Preached 14 February 1607 · Part 14

p. 132The fourteenth Wound.

TOuching the honorable estate of marriage, and the dishonor of it, which is adultery & fornicatiō, it is lamentable to see what is the doctrine & practice of the Romish Church. For first, they giuegive a publick and open toleration of the stewes, wherein whoredome is practiced as dayly and commonly, as other ciuile and lawfull actions2929The 14. wound; Romish Reliligiō permits stewes publickelie.: nay their rent is rated and duely paide, (a part of it) to the Pope, or as hee shal appoint it: Thus complaines and cries out Agrippa, a man of no meane place, nor ordinary vnderstanding, among themselues.eeCornel. Agrippa de vanitate scient. cap. 64. The Corinthians (saith he) and Cyprians, and Babylonians, & other heathen Graecians did increase their reuenue, by the gain of the stewes, which in Italie also is at this day no rare nor vnusual matter: for the whores of Rome do paie weekelie to the pope a Iulio a piece (about sixe pence sterling) the whole reuenue whereof in the yeare, doth often exceed the summe of twenty thousand Duckets, &c.

p. 133Alas will some say, the pope cannot hinder this: therefore seeing he cannot helpe, he hath vsed (such was the wisedome of elder ages) to make the best vse he can of an ill matter.

But I answere; first the holy Ghost commands vsus to hauehave nothing to doe with an ill matter, but keepe vsus farre from it ffExod. 23. 7. Ephes, 5. 11.Exod 23:7, though we cannot hinder it. Again, if the pope could not hinder it, yet he can refuse to hauehave any gaine from it; and so hee would, but that he thinkes it sweete: but if he were of Dauids religion who would not drinke that drinke, that cost men the venture of their liues gg2. Sam. 23. 14.2 Sam 23:14, surely hee would not take that gain that costs men and women their soules.

But I answere further, He could and might hinder it, and will not. If he himselfe and his fauorites speak trueth; he wants no power for nothing that hee will doe: therefore for reforming the stewes, it is cleere he wants wil, but no power. Hee whose power stretcheth through purgatorie, reacheth euen to hel, doth it not reache to Rome his owne seate? Can hee empty purgatory and not the stewes? can he command the diuels, & not whores? can he dispose of kingdoms and depose kings when he seeth cause, and cannot he or seeth hee no cause to depose the stewes? Against Gods truth, and vsus the professors of it, whom he calls heretikes, he wants no will, and therefore hee wants no power. Let him punish whoredome, as hee doth that, that he calls heresie (tho it be the trueth): let it be as vnlawful in Rome to keepe or frequent stewes, as to hauehave a Protestant Church, and then we should soone see as fewe, and fewer whores in Rome, then there be good Protestants. But whoredome is none p. 134of the vnderminers of his State, nor enemies of his Crown as our religion is: therfore our religion must downe when stewes must stand. But some wil further obiect, If this hauehave bin so, it is the fault or corruption of his officers, and not to be imputed to his Holines. But I answer: the pope vseth not to be so negligent of his estate, as not to looke at a reueneue of 20000. duckets a yeere. And to take away al cause of this cauill, & to make it more apparant that the pope is the head of the whore of Babylon; Pope Sixtus 4. scarce 120… yeares agoe,Ad perpetuamrei memoriam: to his euerlasting honour. built a stewes in Rome, of his owne erection & foundation, so saith the same Agrippa. hhCornel. Agrip. de vanit. scient. cap. 64.Licurgus & Solon, heathe… law-giuers, erected publick stews: but that is no maruel, for of late yeers, pope Sixtus the fourth builded a goodlie stewes Rome.

Lo heer, the Popes Holines, the founder of a Colledge of diuels, a stewes for whores: surely because he scorned ordinary company, he built that for himselfe & his Princes & his peers, the Cardinals: who if their owne brethren say true, make it nothing dainty to be conuersant with courtizans. Thus we see it confessed and proued by a learned papist, that a 100. yeeres ago stewes were maintained, nay erected by the pope: & that he takes gain & rent of them. If any man obiect against Agrippa, as no competent witnesse: I answer, the pope indeede hath prohibitediiVide indicem. lib prohibit. Clementis 8. in litera. H. his bookes to be read; but it had beene more reason to hauehave disproued and confuted his assertions: but let the pope condemne him as he wil, for his bold speaking of truth; it is knowen to all that know him, or his books, he was a papist for the most part: & whatsoeuer hee was, he p. 135had no reason to bely the pope; we hired him not, we thanke him not for any thing but truth: yet for more certainty hereof, hearken to another, who being an Inquisitor, is beyond all exception that way.

Thus complains Oleaster (a Spanish Doctor), vponupon that text of Deuteronomy kkDeut. 23. 18.Deut 23:18thou shalt not bring into my house the hire of a whore; for it is abhominable. llOleaster in Comment. suis in Pentateu. in Deut. cap. 23. fol. 270.Deut 23Filthy gaines, saith he, were euer abhominable to God, & therfore he forbids to bring into his house the hire of a whore. But now in the new Testamēt, when the Church and Ministers therof should bee much more cleane, and pure then afore, al manner of filthy gaines are accepted and taken; how vile so euer they be, and whencesoeuer they come.

Thus all gaine is sweete, & al rent welcome to the Pope, tho it come frō whores: so true a frend to stews and whores is the whore of Babylon.

But wil some say, this might be so in the elder times that were of more liberty, because al was quiet: but now since Luther rose, & the Church hath bin wakened by heretikes, this wound is healed.

No, this wound is not healed: as I will proue by their late and moderne writers.3030The 14. woūd not healed: for the Romish religion, doctrine and practise tolerate stewes still.

Nauarrus one of their greatest Canonists of this last age, & one whom the popes held worthy to bee cald to Rome, for his continual aduise & direction mmMartinus Azp…l. Nauar. Hisp. Iuris canonici sciētis. idemque theolog. insignis &c. Haec Poss… in apparatu sac. tom 2. lit. M.deals very plainly in this matter, and saith, that nnNau Manuāl. c. 17. nu. 195.It is lawful for the magistrate to permit whores and stewes to be in some conuenient part of the city. And in some places he saith that patrōs & officers are appointed for them, and houses are let & rented to them deerer then to honest women. And hee confe…eth, that in Rome, houses are daylie let p. 136out to whoors; the Pope both seeing it & suffring it, and that of long time it hath been so. And that the confessors do absolue and so hauehave euer done those Land-lords so disposing of their houses to whores, yea thogh they hauehave no purpose to abstain from letting them to these vile persons.

See heere a peece of spanish deuotion & modesty: Surely, no maruell though this man were sent for, from Spain to Rome: for it seemes by this doctrin he was for the Popes tooth, & much more for his Cardinalls.

Alphonsus Viualdus, another learned Spaniarde, wrote a booke of matters of conscience not long agoe, of so greate account amongst them that they call it the golden Candlesticke. It hath been often printed, and within these 7. yeares was by the popes speciall commission purged, and reprinted: hee writes thus ooMartinus Alphonsus Vivaldus, the ol… Iuris canon, professor, & poenitentiarius maior, &c. In Candelabro aureo. tit. de Confessione, numero 60.. First, he makes a question, whether in the yeerly excommunication pronoūced by the Bishop, against thē that do not confess & communicate, whores in the stewes be comprehended, or no: and hee resolueth that they be not, tho they neither confesse nor do communicate; and giues his reasons. 1. For that whores in the Romish Church, be neuer published nor denounced excommunicate. 2. No man refuseth their companie, notwithstanding that yeerely excommunication: and concludeth further, that though one continue a whore for twentie yeeres long, yet doth shee not incurre the Cens…ures of the Romish Church.

p. 137Oh excellent doctrine, and fit for the Romish Church! but al this wil some say is salued by this that followeth. Nay, cōtrariwise say I, the wound is made worse; & by the craft of that that followeth, obserue the subtilty, and iniquity of Romish teachers: for this is done (saith hee) in detestation of their ill life: the Church doth so detest their manner of life, that shee will not thinke them worthy of her censures; oh notable shift! are they too bad to be punished, and not too bad to be suffered? doth the Romish Clergy think them so vile that way, & yet allow them? see the iniquity & filthines of this religion.

Thus its apparant by the great Confessor Viualdus, that the Romish Church excommunicats not common whoores, nor them that go to them: & another as greate a Clark as himselfe, saith, it is the common opinionpplac. de Graffijs. tom. 1. lib 1 cap 9. art. 8. & 9..

But yet to shew better that this wound is not healed, harke a little what the grand penitentiary, Iacobus de Graffijs, saith; qqIacobus de Graffiis decisaur. cas. cons. tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 75. art, 3. et 4. pag 348.But if fornication be a sinne, then why doth the Church her …elfe permit stewes, & consequently fornication, which is a mortall sinne? I answer (saith he) that the Church sometime tolerateth a lesse euill present that she may auoide a greater euil to come, that is probable to fall out: and this hee proues out of the Canon law; and so concludes that the Church doth tolerate stewes and whores, to auoide greater sinnes: not approuing the sinne of fornication; but by conniuence, or dissimulation tolerates it, that so shee may restraine and keepe yoong men from adulteries, p. 138incests, and other crimes of that kind: then he goeth further to proue his conclusion; which he doth out of the practise of heathen lawgiuers, & by the ciuile law, & would proue it out of the Fathers and then to make vp the measure of his iniquitie, he addeth that the law doth so far foorth tolerate fornications in stewes that it takes order to compell the whoores to refuse no man, if he offer her, her pay: the words are too bad to be repeated in english.

And to shew that he is a true child of that Babylon that wil neuer be healed, & that hee is as gracelesse in this point as his mother, afterward in his 2. tome (which he put out in his more mature yeeres) he hath againe the same doctrine in as ill or worse words;rrIdem Graffius ibid. tom. 2. li. 3. c. 28. art. 36.

And to conclude, the better to encourage women to be whores, and the better to please their carnall & wicked mindes, Cardinall Tollet a Iesuite, out of his Iesuitical modesty, and his Cardinallike respect to the stewes, deliuers this doctrine;ssFrā Tolletus Ies. Cardinall. Instructio sacerdotum. lib. 5. cap. 17. art. 3 That Whores, taking money of men, for their sin, be they maried or vnmaried, tho it be neuer somuch aboue their due, are not bound to restore any of it againe, if it be once giuen them; and giues a reason for it because, saith hee, this action is not against iustice, &c.

Certainly the stewes are much beholden to Cardinal Tollet for this doctrine: but, what Iustice & modesty, and the Church, and the truth and God himselfe do owe him for it, hee feeles afore this time, except he repented.ttObijt Tolletus. Romae. 1596

Thus it is the present doctrin of the Romish Church p. 139that she alloweth stewes by publick toleration, to auoide greater euills, and censureth not the whores for it; nay, ties them by a lawe to refuse no man, and tyes men by a law to pay the hire; and for this ende allowes them Courts, Iudges, and Officers, and takes part of the benefit arising. Now, that their practice is according to this doctrine, I appeale to all that hauehave trauelled in those parts where poperie reigneth; as Spaine, Italy, &c. And further to giuegive one euidence out of my owne reading for the practice, Iacobus de Graffijs telles vsus plainely in these words,uuIacobus de Graff decis. aur. cas. cons. tom. 1. lib. 1. c. 28. art. 20. It is lawfull for Lords and owners of houses to let out their houses to whores, euen whom they know so to be, so it be with this mind, not purposelie that they may sin, but with this that the women may get their liuing, & be able to pay them good rents. Now tho they know they wil get their own liuing, and paie them their rent out of whordom, yet if they hauehave a dislike of the sin, they may do it lawfully: and such, saith hee, is the common practise at Rome.

Thus both for Romish doctrine & practice, it is apparant that stewes are allowed to this day, & common whores not censured.

Against al this but one thing can be obiected; namely, that al these be priuate doctors that teach the doctrin, & secular princes that allow the practise, I answer, thē let vsus see what the pope doth. Doth he supply the negligence of other Bishops? they do not excō municate thē: doth he? No, no, he is as bad or worse then the worst. Princes tolerate them, so doth hewwNay, by the places alleged afore, it is manifest that it is not princes, but the Pope & the Church that tolerates and permittes thē, & princes permitt them, because the Church doth.; p. 140they in their kingdoms, he in Rome: they build them houses, so did he: they take part of their gain, so doth he: the Bishops excommunicate them not, no more doth he to this day. For this end wee are to knowe, that besides all particular and personall excommunications, hee vseth once a yeere, that he may meete with all his enemies at once, and pay them at one payment, to excommunicate together all such sorts and kindes of people, as hee holds his enemies. But are whoores any of them? no such matter: nay these be they;xxVide Bullam Coenae in Cō stit. Rom. pōt. per Petrū Mathaeū ed. inter Cōstitut. Sixti quinti pa. 883.

1. Caluinists, Lutherans, and such heretikes.

2. All that appeal from the Pope to a general Councell.

3. Forgers and Falsifiers of the popes hande, or seale.

4. All that hurt and hinder Pilgrimes that come to Rome.

5. Al lay men that draw Clergymen to their Courts, or would bring them vnderunder their iurisdiction.

6. All that hinder the iurisdiction of the Clergy.

7. All that seize vponupon any lands belonging to the Pope, &c.

These and such other like to the number of 17. or 18. be the enemies against whō the Pope hath cause to plant his ordinaunce; but as for whores, & stewes and such other hainous transgressors of the morall law, these neuer hurt the Romish Church, and therefore she bends not her power against them.

So then, seeing popery and the stewes are so linked, that (we perceiue) do what wee can; man cannot separate those whome the diuel hath ioyned together: p. 141let vsus then leaue the stewes in Rome, and the Pope in his stewes; and mourning for their miserie, let vsus proceed.