Sermon Preached 14 February 1607, Part 18
The eighteenth wound.
37The 18. wound: Such priests as be continēt & hauehave no whores, yet must pay a yeerly rent as they that hauehave, because they may hauehave if they will.And no maruell though there bee but few of their Clergy that hauehave not concubines, seeing they take that course they doe with them, which is such as though they would inuite, nay hire, or rather presse and prouoke men to the sinne. For was it not also complained on at the same time by the Germanes, that yGrauamiua 100. Ger. grau. 91.Not onelyonly those Priests that had their whores paid yeerly rent for it, but euē those that were cō tinent and would hauehave no Concubines, yet for al that must pay the rent? for, say they, my Lorde the Bishop hath need of it, and cause to imploy much money: therefore pay you must, and then bee it at your owne choice, whether you wil hauehave a concubine or no.
What is this but euen to try mens strengths, and as it were to presse them to the sinne: for hee that either by constitution is vnfit, or out of morall honesty will not, or out of conscience dare not keepe a concubine, seing he must pay his rent as well as hee that doth, will not this make him say to himselfe, I see this is done by my superiours, they hauehave more learning and knowledge then I: I am to follow them, & may rather trust them then mine owne conceit: and certainely if it were so great a sinne as I hauehave imagined it to be, our Bishops would not take a yeerly rent to suffer it; and if they would, yet his Holinesse, it being so old and so notorious a practise, would hauehave reformed it long ere this. Therefore seeing the case stands thus, and that I must and doo pay, doubtlesse I will not pay for nothing, &c. Surely he must hauehave a great measure of grace, that liuing vnderunder popish subiection, can resist this temptation and the like: and therefore no maruell though, as themselues confess, not one of their Clergie of a great number that hath not his whores in corners, or else publickly in their houses Erasmus liuing about that time, or soone after, complaineth of it, and saith: zErasmus annotat. in 1. Tim. 3.Eee that considereth the state of these times how innumerable the number is of such Monks and Priests as liue in open whoredome & incest, would thinke it perhaps more conuenient to giuegive leaue to such as cannot containe, rather to marry then, &c.
And not long after him florished Cassander, a mā of great name and account in his time, both for wisdome and learning: and hee finding the world still worse in this point, confessethaCassander lib. Consult. art. 23. cap. 1. Now the world is come to this passe, that a man shal not find scarce one of a hundred that keepes himselfe free from this fault.
Thus we see the fruit of this their practise to take rent for concubines, and to make them pay that had none, that almost none of their Clergy, but are stained with this pollution.
But is this healed?38The 18. woūd not healed: for such as hauehave no concubines must pay their rent because they may hauehave, if they will. No, saith Espencaeus, it is too horrible to beleeue. But it is too true, that bEspencaeus de Conti. lib. 2. cap 7.Those that be continent and will hauehave none, yet are compelled to pay the whole taxe or rent, and so hauehave it lawful and in their choice to hauehave a concubine or to hauehave none: Oh execrable abhomination, &c.
Thus here was no amendment for forty yeares after the villanie was discouered, and the grieuance complained of: and that there was nothing done in the daies of Espencaeus, which was for some 10 yeers more, we may see by his words in his other booke. cIdemi… Titum. ca. p. 67.They take the rent not onelyonly of those that hauehave concubines, but in some places euen of thē that hauehave none; for (say they) he may hauehave if he will, therefore let him pay for his liberty: and though there bee so many of these Priests that liue thus, yet where is there any one of them punished otherwise then thus by the purse? &c.
Since the time of Espencaeus, whether this wound be healed or no, I cannot tell: and therefore if any of that side can shew me any good authority that now it is reformed, and that either no Priests pay yeerelie rent for concubines at all, or at least not those that hauehave none; I shall be willing to heare it, and to see that any thing at all is amendeddBut whosoeuer wil but look… into their latest Cas…ists & S…mmists, as be Tollet the Cardinal, lac. de Graffi…s, Loel Zecchius, Baptista Corradus, Berarduccius, Raphael de Caesare, …amas & others, will find it more then suspicious (though now they couer it more cunningly then formerly they did) that this wound is far from being healed.. Meane time I hauehave proued it apparantly that till that time it was not amended: & whosoeuer reades the Low country Bishop Cuickius his booke aforenamed, written but seuen yeeres agoe, will iudge it as ill in these daies still, as it was in the time of Espencaeus the French Bishop.
These Authors I hauehave named, hauing some remorse of conscience and feare of God, ingenuouslie and honestly wished that rather marriage might bee permitted then whoordom should so preuaile ouer the world. But what hath bin done? They for their labour are ill spoken of when they are dead, their bookes partly prohibited to be read at al, partly purged and altered as they list;eOpera Erasmi, Espencaei, Cassandri prohibentur donec expurgentur. Vide Indicem lib. prohibit. per Clem. 8. & Indices expurgatorios. Hisp. & Belg.; and for the matter it selfe, marriage is still forbidden, whooredome still practised and winkt at, if not permitted, stewes still tolerated, & that vnderunder the Popes nose, and no where so much as euen in Rome it selfe: and still this doctrine is Catholike and currant, They had better go to whoores then marry. And why (alas) all this, but because Mariage hath bin an enemy to the Popes Crowne and dignity? but stewes, adulterie and fornication neuer were. Let vsus hasten forward.
I must needes say (if I say truly) I could discouer many more of these particular old festring wounds, not as yet healed; but this time wil not wel permit it: therfore referring it to a further oportunity, I will stand but vppon one particular more, and so come to a generall, which shall conclude all.