The Accomplishment of the Prophecies, Chapter 2 · Part 21 – Part 24
The fourth Policie. The meanes how to keepe that which they hauehave gotten.
THe Popes being thus enriched, and exalted to this height of honour, did wisely cōsider, that it was to little purpose to get, if they were not able to keepe that which they had gotten; & this is the maine point aboue others in which they hauehave beaten their braines, and laboured to the vtmost of their power.
1 The first meanes, to preserue that which they had gotten, was to forbid men of the church to marry, for feare lest bishops and Curates, should encroach vponupon church goods, and least they should turne little streames out of the common channel to their private families; Gregory the 1. hath told vsus as much aboue, saying, that he was therefore vnwilling to admit of a marryed bishop, because a wife and children, doe vse commonly to consume the church goods.
2 And for feare that Princes might come to finger their substaunce, and that their lands (for treason or other such like crimes) might chaunce to be confiscate to the crowne, they hauehave got to hauehave their iudges, their officers, & their prisons apart yea they hauehave so farre forth prevailed with our ancient kings, (which were intente to nothing else but to draw the sworde, and followe the game) that their civill causes were altogither decided at Rome; they did also obtaine that the church shoulde euer be held to be vnderunder age, that so they might not be bound to stand to any bargaine, if it were their lucke at any time to be overtaken.
3 And to the ende that kings & princes should not put their noses in their affaires, by medling with the choosing of *De electione Papae vide 1. sect. 1. lib. sacr. Ceremon.Popes, as they did heretofore, they hauehave not only confined this election to the suffrages of a fewe Cardinals, but they shut them vp also within the Conclaue, damme vp the windowes, put in their meat vntounto them at a little hole; giuegive them their bread cut in small peeces, their wine in cleere glasses, for feare least there should be any ticket inclosed, wherby they might receaue some information from without; They dine every one apart, without helping one another. And to make them dispatch their businesse the sooner, their cō mons are diminished, and their ordinarie made lesse from day to day; yea Princes now adaies thinke themselues highly favored if they can buy the Cardinals voyces for huge summes of mony, to the ende they may hauehave a Pope that will not handle them too rigorously; And there is scarse ever a Pope made but by such meanes as these.
4. The same politicke wisdome of theirs hath suggested this maxime vntounto them, that for the strengthning of their state they must of necessitie oblige great families, and let them hauehave a share in the pray. Wherefore if a Prince or Lord hauehave a house overcharged with children, they will bestow a Cardinallship on the youngest, and make him an Abbot, or a Prior, this makes the house the lighter. A father hauing put his daughter into some religious order, is not troubled to provide her a dowrie against her marriage day. They giuegive civill magistrates leaue, and make them capable of holding benefices, although they be married, so to make them obliged.
5 The chiefest point of their policie, is their thrusting of Prelates, and other churchmen into Councels, & into Courts of Parliament, to the end they may know all the affaires of a Realme; which is more; Cardinals promoted to this honour by Popes, sit in the Councels of kings, against all the rules of state, that a king should admit such into his Councel, as are the creatures of a stranger; By the like reasō, kings should also for their parts hauehave some lay men in all Ecclesiasticall assemblies, and generall Councels, which should hauehave an eie over their actions, and knowe what they did; but they are to wise to suffer this.
6 This is not sufficient: For because amongst Prelats, Bishops, Abbots, and the most quallified men of the clergie, there are ever a great many honest, & well minded persons, which doe louelove their countrie and the liberty of their Kings, the Pope hath therefore here and there dispersed a great rabblement of petty Monks which should preach the obedience due to him; who meriting for themselues, and others, hauehave receaued certaine prerogatiues of holinesse from the Pope, which others hauehave not; The fraternitie of the Cordeliers hauehave the privilege to drawe a soule out of Purgatory vponupon certaine daies. The Carmelites hauehave the prerogatiue not to be in purgatory beyond the Saturday after their deaths. To weare the cowle, & make the vow of S. Francis & S. Dominick, doth confer the same grace that baptisme doth as Bernardine telleth vsus in his Rosarie, and Thomas of Aquine, in his 4. booke of Sentences, and fourth Distinction.
7 But aboue all, their greatest policy, and all the depths of the mysterie of iniquitie hauehave beene discouered in their inventing the order of the Iesuites; which leaue the honour of keeping the vowe of pouertie, and chastitie to other orders, binding themselues chiefly to the vow of obedience, being tied in particular by an oath to the pope, whom they sweare to obay, In omnibus, & per omnia, with an obedience, which they call a blind obedience, such as doth execute the commandements of a superiour, without inquiring why; which are sent to run over the whole earth even to the Indies, which hauehave a permissito goe in Lay mens apparell, and to vse equivocation in iudgement, and not to reveale the confessions of traytours, & conspiratours against the life of their Kings: which take nothing from any by parcels, but catch by grosse, & swallow vp whole families together.
All these tricks, and devises, tend chiefly to the ruine and reproach of kings, whō his Holinesse doth cause to bee whipt most shamefully, and with whose crownes hee dispenseth at his pleasure.
8 It is true indeed that the pope doth recompense them; For hee giueth them of his spirituall graces, an Holy Rose, a Standard, or a sacred sword, a Boxe full of holy Graines, of little crosses, and beads, which in kissing and carrying about them, they shall gaine an hundred yeares of pardon. As also the priviledge of communicating vnderunder both kinds. Whoe will not stand amazed to behold these things? Or who will be so obstinate as not to be forced by the evidence of the truth? Although al this which I hauehave said is little, or nothing; I had need of better eies to looke downe in to the bottome of this so deepe a mystery. Wee hauehave produced nothing of this but what we hauehave knowne by experience. But how much more is that which lies hid, and which we doe not knowe? All other policie is but blockishnesse in respect of this, and I am of opinion that they which are the contrivers of it, can hardly look vponupon one another without laughing. Finally this is altogether such a subiect, as God doth demand for to shew that he doth cō found the wisdomes of men, and take the subtill in their own devises. But the Apostle calls vntounto vsus, intending to make the matter more cleere yet.
The fourth part of this prophecy.
7 Only he which now withholdeth, shall let till he be taken out of the way.
8 And then shall that wicked man bee revealed, whome the Lord shal consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall abolish with the brightnesse of his comming.
The explication of this prophecy.
7 There is nothing but one that hinders the disclosing of this Bishop. That is, that the Roman Empire (which doth now oversway the whole world) must remaine yet for a time, and afterwards be abolished.
8 And when this Roman Empire shall bee destroyed, then shall this Bishop bee fully disclosed, and the Papall see shall bee exalted by the ruines of the Empire, which Bishop God shall beat downe, & weaken by the preaching of his word, but shall not destroy him vtterly till the last day of iudgement, then when Iesus Christ shall come in his glory.
The proofe of this exposition.
FOr the proofe of this interpretation, we are to shew, 1. That the papacie is encreased, and exalted by the ruines of the Empire, 2. That God hath weakned the papacie by the preaching of his word.