The Accomplishment of the Prophecies, Chapter 2 · Part 10
The second point. That the Pope doth exalt himselfe aboue God.
THE Apostle will tel vsus in the 10. verse of this Chap. that the sonne of perdition shall vse all guile and deceitfulnesse. Whence it follows that we must not think that this man of sinne, this sonne of perdition, shall openly proclaime vntounto vsus, and say. I am more great and powerfull thē the eternall God, which created the world. For who would followe him if hee should speake thus? Or how could any one be seduced therewithall? but rather he must insinuate himselfe through deceipt, and vnderunder the shewe of sanctitie. Hee shall hauehave (saith the holy Ghost in the 13. of the Apocalyps) two hornes like the lambe, but hee shall speake like the Dragon: making a shew of Christianitie, and professing the name of Christ, but teaching divelish doctrine, As S. Hilarie saith against Auxentius; vnderunder the colour of preaching the Gospell he shal be contrary vntounto Christ, so that the Lord Iesus shall bee denied, whilst men thinke hee is preached. It is sufficient therefore for the fulfilling of this prophecy, that the sonne of perdition doth in effect lift himselfe aboue God, although he professe that he is beneath him. And it will be no great labor to proue this.
1 Whosoever shall quit a servant frō the obediēce due to his master, must needs be greater then his master: But the popes dispense with the setvants of God for obaying of God: Whence it followeth that they are greater then God. A horrible thing, yet that which is necessarily inferred out of their doctrine, No man will deny the maior, the minor is verified by a thousand examples.
1 It is Gods will that we should keep our oathes and vowes, but the pope vseth to dispense with them. Say that a man hauehave vowed and promised to God to goe on pilgrimage; the pope if it please him, will dispense with him for it, teaching him how to be periured with a good cōscience. And how knowe I whether God also will free me, or whether hee will condescend to his Holinesse his will.
2 God hath knit man and wife together with a knot, that may not bee losed for any thing but adulterie. But the pope breakes of marriages in many other cases, frustrating the rule of the Gospell, which saith, That which God hath ioined let no man sever.
3 God hath expresly commanded the obedience & fidelitie of subiects towards their Prince, although he bee an infidell: But the Pope will free subiects from this obedience & fealtie towards their Prince, although this Prince bee no infidell, nor tainted with any other crime, nor one that shall withstand the Romish religiō, but only if the pope be of opiniō that he is not fit for governemēt, as pope Zacharie boasted that he dealt with Childericke, and Sixtus the 5 a little after with our K. Henry the 3.
4 God saith in the gospell, Do workes worthy of repentance, This commandement is expresse and generall, with which yet the Pope will dispense by his Indulgences as Cardinall Bellarmin saith in the 13. cha. of his 4. booke of pennance; Indulgences cause that for the paines which are pardoned vsus by the Indulgences, we be not bound to this commandement of bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance.
5 God in his law doeth formally forbid marriage in the 1. degree of affinitie, that is for a man to marry the sister of his deade wife, or for a woman to marry the brother of her dead husband. Levit. 18. & 20. And yet for all this, the taxe of the Popes Chancery fees in the 40. leafe, giues a dispensation and permission for this at a certaine price. The Penitentiarie in the Court of Chancerie may dispense in the first degree of affinitie, and such a letter is sold for 9. ducats, and sixe groates.
6 As for a man to marry his Aunt or his neece, a thing which God also hath expresly forbidden in the 18. and 20. chap. of Levit. The Popes dispēsations are frequēt in this kinde; especially in great families.
7 In all these things, and more such like, the Pope doth exalt himselfe aboue God, since he dispenseth with men not to obay his commandements. And he himselfe & his Doctors do not dissemble this. For in the 8. Title of the grant of Prebēds, he boasteth that by the fulnesse of that power which he hath, he can dispense with the law, & aboue the law. And the Glosse of the Canonists vponupon this place maketh it cleere, where it is said. Papa contra Apostolum dispensat, & contra Canones Apostolorum. Item contra vetus testamentum, Itē in iuramento. The Pope dispenseth against the Apostle, and against the Canons of the Apostles, and against the new Testament, and with oaths. And vponupon the Canon, Lector, in the 34. Distinction. The Pope can dispense against the Apostle; and vponupon the 25. cause, 1. Question. The Pope doth dispēse with the Gospell, by giving it what interpretation he list.
8 How many dispensations for age doth he giuegive contrary to the Apostles wil? Who *1. Tim. 3.6forbiddeth that a bishop should be a young schollar. He bestoweth bishopricks vponupon children; yea, the very Popedome it selfe (into which none are nowe a daies invested, but old men) hath in times past bin given to children. Benedict the 6. was not aboue 9. yeares old when he was chosen pope, as Baronius witnesseth in the yeare, 1033. 6. Article. Hee which as yet knew not what faith meant, could not erre in the faith.
2 To this proofe we may annex an other, which is a demonstration, built vponupon these maximes, that, those faults are greater which are committed against a greater person; so it is a greater iniurie for a man to wrong his king, then his neighbour, & for to strike his father, then his companion, as also vponupon this, that the more grievous the faults bee, they are punished the more grievously: If therefore an offence committed against the Pope, be more severely punished then an offence committed against God; if the Popes Decrees be more authorized, thē the commandemēts God: if a man bee thought to hauehave sinned more hainously in disobaying the Pope, then in disobaying God; how can wee but confesse, that this sin of the two is thought to be the greater, and by a cōsequent that the Pope doth exalt himselfe aboue God? Experience confirmeth this; swear, & blaspheame in Italie, no man is moved at it. Oathes are thought to bee but the flowers of eloquence. But should a man goe to Rome, and there say, that the pope is not head of the Church, it is not the intercession of a king that could deliver him from the stake, or free him frō the clumbs of the Inquisition. The Iewes say that Christ was a deceiver, and yet they are suffered to liue quietly at Rome, but shoulde a man once dare open his mouth to dispute of purgatory, hee would presently bee had to the house of Inquisition. There be certain sins which they call reserued cases, from which no bishop can absolue a man, except it bee only vponupon the point of death. You will imagine perhaps, that these cases are either murder, or parricide, or incest, or atheisme, or sodomie; no such matter. But these great sinnes from which none can absolue a mā except the pope only, are, the stopping of a man vponupon the way as he is going to Rome to purchase him great pardons, the intruding ones selfe in a benefice, the stealing of church goods, to hauehave spoken ill of, or done ill, vntounto the Apostolical seat, &c: such sinnes as these cannot be pardoned on this side the Alpes, except it be by a special permission, and that vponupon the point of death. If you hauehave committed either murder or fornication, the priest will absolue you frō this. But if you hauehave eaten flesh the weeke before Easter, the priest cannot pardō this but must send you to the penitenciarie: and yet notwithstanding, one is the ordinance of God, the other a commandement but of man. In the Taxe of the popes Chancerie, in the chapter of pardons, 36. leafe. Incest with ones mother is fined at fiue groates, but in the page following, the falsifying of the Apostolicall letters are set at tenne groates.
2 Againe, the pope exalteth himselfe aboue God, when he takes vponupon him to be the chiefe iudge in controversies of religion, in steede of deferring this soveraigne iudgement to the holy scripture, which is the word of God. It is said, that it is the church, which doth giuegive force & authority to the scripture, and that the pope is aboue the church: so he is two degrees aboue the word of God, seeing that he is aboue the church, and the church aboue the Scripture.
3 But especiallie the pope exalteth himselfe aboue that, which is called God in the church of Rome, for so do papists at this time, call the bread of the Eucharist; they say, that they holde vp God in the Masse, when they hold vp the bread, that they carry God to the sick when they carry the bread, that they eate God and take their creatour, when they take▪ and eat the bread. Many kinde of waies doth the pope exalt himselfe aboue this God. For in the procession vponupon the day of his coronation, and at other solemne times, they make this God go before him, carryed vponupon a white horse, having a Sansbell about his necke, and a lantherne before, being covered all over with a Canopy, which is carryed vp by the citizens of Rome. But the pope comes after being carried vponupon mens shoulders, vnderunder a Canopie helde vp by princes or princes ambassadors, the Emperor to (if he be there) putting to his helping hand, or if his Holynesse bee on horse backe holding his horses bridle, after that hee hath first held the stirrup for him to mount; as it is described at large in the 1. booke of holy Ceremonies, 2. Section, & 3. cha. compare the popes manner of furniture with that of his God, and yee shall see the Apostles prophecie fulfilled, where it is said, that he shall exalt himself aboue that which is called God, and is worshipped.
4 You shall see the like example to this, in the 1. Section of the 2. booke in the 14. cha. where it is set downe, with what solemnitie the pope doeth celebrate the masse in his owne person. As he is going vp to the Altar, the greatest prince, or the Emperour himselfe (if he be present) holdeth vp his traine: there is a Canopy carried ouer his head, borne vp by 8. princes, or princes ambassadours: being before the Altar, whilst he is singing of the masse, the prelates come, and kneeling downe kisse his right knee: others kisse his feete. He doth bow himselfe, I confesse, before the host; but the standers by doe him ten times more reverence, then they doe God. The greatest prince in the company giues him water 4. times to wash, serving it to him vponupon his knee, as Charles the 8. did to Alexander the 6. He is capt, & vncapt, shod, and vnshod; gloued, & vngloued; ringed, & vnringed, I know not how often. There is his taster by him, as they vse to hauehave at princes tables. There standes one by his side, that points at the words in the booke with his finger, as we vse to serue litle childrē. He sucks wine out of the chalice with a reede. So that all well considered, this whole solēnitie, vnderunder a shew of worshipping the Host, is done farre more for the honour of the pope, then for the honor of his God.
3 Let vsus annex one proofe more; he that giveth authority to the holy scripture hath more authority thē the scripture. But Bishops of Rome take vponupon them to giuegive authority to the holy scripture, & say that wee are to receaue it, because the pope hath so ordained He attributs more authoritie therefore to himselfe, then to the holy scripture. The minor is proved by the words of pope Nicholas in the 19. Distinction, and Canon. Si Romanorum, where he approueth of their saying which said, That the old and new Testament are to bee receaued, not because they are annexed to the Canons, but because holy Pope Innocent hath pronounced that they must be receaued, For there, he doth not only not reprehēd those that speake thus prophanely, but doth herevpon ground the establishment of the popes Decretals, which are not inserted in the Canons. By this reckoning then, wee must beleeue; that God created the world; that Cain killed Abell; that Noah built the Arke; that God made a covenant with Abraham; that God gaue his law vntounto Moyses; wee must belieue all this I say, not because the holy scripture witnesseth as much, but because the pope & the church of Rome doe say that it is true, and that these bookes ought to be receaued; And for to make vsus relie more vponupon the authoritie of the Church of Rome, then of the scripture, they vse commonly to speake thus vntounto vsus. How would you knowe that this were the scripture, if the Church had not told you of it? whence they conclude that the church is aboue the scripture. As if I should say, I should not hauehave knowne that this was the king, but that such a man shewd him to me, therefore this man is aboue the king. A wicked church may informe vsus that this is the scripture. The Iewes made the old Testament knowne to the Apostles, & yet notwithstanding they persecuted our Saviour.
4 Briefly, to take such wordes out of the common forme of Gods law, as doe forbid vsus to make images, or to fall down before them, what is this but to correct God, and by a consequent to exalt himselfe aboue God.