Valentinus Gentilis – The Tritheist Put to Death In Bern, Title page – Half title
A short HISTORY OF Valentinus Gentilis THE Tritheist.
Tryed, Condemned, and put to Death by the Protestant Reformed City and Church of Bern in Switzerland, for Asserting the Three Divine Persons of the Trinity, to be [Three Distinct, Eternal Spirits, &c.]
Wrote in Latin, by Benedictus Aretius, a Divine of that Church; and now Translated into English for the use of Dr. Sherlock.
Humbly Tendred to the Consideration of the Arch-bishops and Bishops of this Church and Kingdom.
London, Printed, and Sold by E. Whitlock, near Stationers-Hall, 1696.
TO THE Most Reverend the Archbishops, and the Right Reverend the Bishops of the Church of England.
My Lords,
I Here present your Lordships with a short Account of the Proceedings of an Eminent Protestant Reformed Church and State, against a Noted Tritheist, for asserting Three Eternal Spirits in the Blessed Trinity; induced thereto by the late fatal Growth of Tritheism in our Church; first vented and asserted in the same and yet higher Terms by Dr. Sherlock, in his pretended Vindication of the Doctrine of the Ever Blessed Trinity, in the Year 1690. And since that by one J. B. Minister of Folkstone in Kent, and styling himself, A Presbyter of the Church of England (to the extream Disgrace of it), in a Book written in Defence of the said Dr. Sherlock, and his Tritheistick Notions upon the same Article, in the Year 1695. and since that also openly preached in the very Face of the whole University of Oxon, by one Mr. Joseph Bingham, then a Fellow of University-Colledge there, on the 28th of October, in 1695. And lastly, maintained, and with great and even foaming Vehemence, preached up in one of the most Eminent Cathedrals in England, by one of the Prebendaries of the same, first on the 30th, Nov. 95. and since that on the 12th of January 9. Whose Name, together with the Heterodoxyes then and there delivered by him, are ready to be produc'd, as there shall be occasion. So that your Lordships can need nothing further, either to alarm or convince you, That the Enemy has been sowing his Tares amongst us, while you see them so plentifully coming up even under your Eyes.
As for Dr. Sherlock, he has over and over declared, and lately again renewed *See Dr. Sherlock's Examination of the Oxford Censure, p. 46.the same Declaration, viz. That the Three Divine Persons are Three distinct Infinite Eternal Minds or Spirits; and that it is Heresie and Nonsence to judge otherwise; (For He, it seems, may take upon him to declare Heresie without a Reprimand.) And as for Presbyter I. B. of Folkstone, he asserts the very same in Print. And not only so, but likewise, to the flagrant Scandal of our Church, * professedly owns I am not afraid (says he) to commend Genebrard and Petavius before Calvin and his Followers, who denied the Nicene Faith of [God of God]. See pag. 6. of his Preface against Tritheism Charged, &c.and prefers Genebrard's Tritheistick Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, as better and more Orthodox than that of Calvin and his Followers, whom he charges with denying the Nicene Faith, as to that part of it [God of God]; which yet Bellarmine himself (as much as he hated Calvin) vindicates him from, in his 2d Book de Christo, and 19. Chap. To Note, That this book of Genebrard has not the Numeral Mark upon every Page, but only upon every Leaf of it.whom we may further add Beza, Brentius and Zanchius, with several other Eminent Divines of the Reformation, All of them, with the utmost Calumny reviled and condemned by this Genebrard; while on the other side he positively *Unus ille Spiritus Essentialiter est Tres Spiritus personaliter Geneb. contra Schegkium de Trinitate, fol. 53. p. 2. And again, Tres sunt aeterni Spiritus quorum unusquis que per se Deus est, fol. 54. p. 1.vouches the horrid Opinions of Gentilis for sound and Catholick: And besides all this, at one stroke charges all the Reformed Churches, both of France and Germany, sometimes with Sabellianism, and sometimes with Arianism, as the Reader will perceive by the Quotations here tendred him on the *Tres Personas (says Geneva to Schegkins) Uni essentiae affigis ut Synagogis Gallicis & Germanicis placeas, quos jam Omnes Sabellians Scelere Contaminatas at que Conspurcatas docui. Geneb. fol. 131. And again, Illud est quod Ecclesiam à Te vestris que Synagogis separat, quas omnes Arrtano vel Sabelliano Scelere irretitas meridie ipso clarius demonstravi, & clarissie demonstrabo in Opere quod contra istum Apostatam Zanchium parturio. fol. 144. p. 2.side. This Genebrard, I say, is the Person followed and defended by Dr. Sherlock's Defender, J. B. and that as to his Doctrine of the Trinity; as may be more particularly and fully declared in another place. But in the mean time, how these Encomium's, bestowed by a Presbyter of the Church of England, upon such a Furious Tritheistick Papist (in so foul a manner, traducing the Doctrine of most of the Protestant Divines and Churchis, about the blessed Trinity,) will sound in the ears of the Reformed Churches abroad (whom we have been so long professing to Court) is ☞left to the Bishops of this Reformed Church to judge: For some indeed have shewn themselves very zealous to quit a great part of our Ecclesiastical Constitution, in order to our Union with those Churches beyond Sea; (Tho I confess I could never yet hear, That those Churches alledged the Rites and Ceremonies of our Church as any Bar to their Communion with it.) But howsoever they do, or may stand affected to us, I dare undertake, that our quitting all the Ceremonies hitherto enjoyned and received amongst us (as Ancient, Decent, and Inoffensive, as they certainly are) will not be half so powerful to draw them to us, as the Asserting Three Distinct Infinite, Eternal Minds or Spirits in the Blessed Trinity (or countenancing those who assert them) will be effectual to make them abhor, loath, and fly from our Communion. And when they are once gotten to such a distance from us, I fear we shall hardly get them back again, but by quitting our Church-Livings and Preferments to them, and then we shall be throughly Reformed indeed.
That Tritheism therefore is in a thriving condition amongst us, cannot be denied, nor so much as questioned. And the Causes of it are manifestly these two: First, The great and advantagious Station held by that Person in the Church, who first broached it here: And Secondly, The connivence which has ever since attended him in the Assertion of it. The first of which has created him several Dependencies amongst some poor empty Retainers, acted. by Hope and Hunger (as Hunger and Emptiness generally go together;) who to serve their Interest by his Favour, easily turn Proselytes to his Opinions; it being not Imaginable that they should open their Mouths so wide for him, but to have them fill'd by him. But such mischiefs must always be expected from Heterodoxy in High Place; which is never so formidable for what it holds, as for what it has to give. For this still made the Pope an Over-match for a Council, and may at any time give an overgrown Heretick the vantage ground of Truth. Tho miserable, no doubt, must the state of that Church needs be, where men shall wear her Favours, so much to the prejudice of her Faith.
As for the other Reason of the Fatal spreading of this Poyson, viz. The Connivence and Encouragement attending the Person who first vented it; I shall not stick to affirm, That he who asserts any thing contrary to the Received Doctrine of the Church, (how much soever he may be favoured or abetted, dignified or distinguished) is a scandal to the Gown he wears, and an Insufferable Reproach to the Church he wears it in. I very well know, That the judicial Proceedings of the Church and Senate of Bern against that wretehed Thitheist Gentilis, are no rule for us to proceed by, who have Laws of our own, which allow of no such severity (as I am far from desiring that they should.) Nevertheless, tho they are not a rule for us to proceed by, they may very well be a Rule for us to judg by, so far at least, as to Conclude, That what upon the Maturest deliberation, was accounted Capital in one Reformed Church (and that a very great one too) cannot without scandal continue Uncensured and Unrebuked in Another; which yet this Detestable Tritheism has done for several years; and not only so, but the Publisher and Assertor of it, has been hitherto so far from any thing like Censure, or Rebuke, that he has been Advanced, Countenanced and Abetted to the utmost: And some talk of no less matters than his being mounted shortly to the Episcopal Chair and Dignity; tho some again think that it would be a very odd sight, in a Christian Church, to see a Tritheist in a Bishoprick, and holding his Tritheism with it in Commendam; for let this happen when it will, I dare undertake that the Promotion of the man will be the Degradation of the Office.
However, this is certain, That the wounds which this man has given this poor Church, are deep and dangerous, and have been kept Bleeding so long, that now they begin to Fester and threaten some further mischief; and it is too late to dally any longer with the Cure. For, my Lords, your Lordships cannot but know that Tritheism is worse, and more Reproachful to Christianity, not only than Sabellianism, but even than Socinianism it self, as being contrary to all Natural, as well as Revealed Religion, by destroying the grand, leading and fundamental Article of Both, viz. The Unity of the Godhead; which Socinianism (how much soever it impugns and denies the Revealed Article of three distinct Persons in the Godhead) does not encroach upon. And yet in a further degree is it worse than Arianism; for tho Arianism denies the Essential Deity of the Son, making him only a Glorious Deified Creature, or the First-born of the Creation, yet it still preserves the Unity of the Divine Essence entire and unmultiplied; which the Assertion of Three distinct Infinite, Eternal Minds or Spirits unavoidably multiplies, and by consequence destroys. Whereas the Unity of the Godhead is the very Foundation and Corner Stone of all True Religion, and as Essential an Article of the Christian Faith, as that of a Trinity of Persons it self; Both of them together making up that great Depositum, which God has committed to us to keep inviolably, and to defend resolutely (and in a word) to save, as well as to be saved by.
And therefore. my Lords I shall recommend this important matter to your Lordships, much in those words of Mordecai to Esther. Who knows but that you are come to such high Place, Power and Dignity in our Church for such a Time as This? And that God is now Trying whether you will make good the Zeal you have so often professed for our Religion heretofore, by doing something signal, great, and worthy of those Professions now. In a word, I look upon your Lordships as Persons of that Sincerity and Clearness of Principle, that if you believed this Doctrine of Three Distinct, Infinite, Eternal Minds, Spirits and Substances in the ever Blessed Trinity, to be True, you would boldly and openly Profess it, which since you do not, why should not so Scandalous a Corruption of our Faith, receive a Check by some mark of your Lordships Disapprobation? Hitherto I am sure there has been a Profound Silence in this matter; and I heartily wish, the Enemies of our Religion may not pass that nicking Reflexion upon it, Tacent, Satis Laudant. For in good earnest it is very hard that Heresy should over-run a Church, only because we must not call it Heresie.
But this is not the worst of our Case neither. For a certain Socinian Writer (by a Spirit of Prophecy coming upon him from some above) *When the Nominal Trinitarians have call'd till they are hoarse, weary and asham'd, to Universities and Bishops to espouse their Cause, and Censure the real Trinitarians, &c. All their Appeals notwithstanding, it will not be long e're they are told by their-Superiors in the Church, That it is expedient for them to be quiet, lest themselves be Censured as Sabellians Answer to Dr. Bull, p. 68. col. 1.positively tells the Nominal Trinitarians (as he calls those who assert a Trinity of Divine Persons, in opposition to that of Three distinct, Infinite Minds, Spirits, or Substances) that it will not be long before they be told by their Superiors in the Church, That it will concern them to be Quiet (that is, I suppose, to Write against Dr. Sherlock and his Tribe no more) lest they themselves be censured as Sabellians. Now this, upon my word, is very home, and sounds dreadfully indeed; and having been written about the middle of August last, lets us into a farther Understanding of the late Letter sent to the Vice-chancellor of Oxon, and shews, That there were Reprimands preparing for us long before that scandalous Sermon was Preached there, and consequently before the Oxford Censure could be thought of. And now if this be really so, is not our Church, think we, in a blessed Condition? viz. That first, the Assertors of its received Doctrine are to be censured; next, That They are to be Censured by their Superiors in and of the same Church. And thirdly, That they are to be Censured as Sabellian Hereticks. And lastly, That the Socinians must be made privy to this Design, while our Clergy knows nothing of it. What a dismal Aspect, I say, must all this needs have upon our Church and Clergy? But as for the Charge of Sabellianism, which we are here threatned with, I hope it will be proved against us, before we are Censured for it; and then we desire no greater security against such a Censure. For does not Sabellius hold only one single Subsistence in the Godhead, and no more? And can those then be Sabellians who hold three distinct Subsistences in the Same? And does not Sabellius allow only a Trinity of Names, as of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, and that Founded in a Trinity of Offices, as that the Father is the Creator of all things; the Son the Redeemer of Mankind; and the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier of the Church? The Assumption of which Names and Offices having been a free effect of God's will, might by Consequence (had God so pleased) never have been at all; since nothing in the Divine Nature could make it necessary. But what is this to us, who maintain three such Subsistences in the Divine Nature, as are Eternal, Necessary and Inseparable (even by the Divine Power it self) both from the said Nature, and from one another. I protest I cannot tell whether there be more Malice or Ignorance in such a Charge (as often as some have the face to make it.) But such is the Nature of Malice, that while it opens mens Mouths, it commonly shuts their Eyes. In the mean time I would have this pert, medling Socinian know, That the Assertors of a Trinity of Persons against Three Distinct, Infinite Minds or Spirits are neither grown so hoarse with Appealing to Universities and Bishops, nor yet so weary and ashamed of so doing, but that in case such a censure should pass upon them from those Superiors he speaks of, they would have the Courage to appeal still; not indeed to them, but from them, and that to the whole Nation, and to all the Protestant Churches and Universities in Christendom. But, if what this Socinian has so boldly and positively said and Printed of them, be false (as for their own sakes I trust it is) I hope these Superiors will consider what may be the consequence of sitting down tamely under such a Slander. However, let matters go as they will, The Assertion of Three Divine Persons, in contradiction to Three Distinct, Infinite, Eternal Minds, Spirits or Substances in the ever blessed Trinity, is certainly the Cause of God, and he will not desert it, though others should.
The University of Oxford has appear'd very considerably in this matter already, and would have appeared yet further, and done much more had she not been hindred from doing what she was ready and desirous to do; there being nothing which that Great and Learned Body so ardently wished, and pressed for, as a Liberty ☞to have declared it self Authoritatively against those scandalous Propositions in full Convocation. But if, in the mean time, there is any Failure or Defect (as some contend there is) in the late Censure so worthily passed upon the forementioned Propositions, by that Venerable meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, the Bp. of the Diocess, and other Heads of Colleges and Halls there, it is to be hoped, that your Lordships, to whom the Care of our Religion more immediately and peculiarly belongs, will vouchsafe to supply the said Defect by the greater Authority of your Episcopal Censure: For if so gross a Piece of Paganism as that which holds [Three Distinct Infinite Eternal Minds or Spirits in the Godhead], having been first vented by one in so considerable a Place and Dignity in our Church, and to this very Day persisted in, and moreover defended (to his poor Utmost) by one calling himself a Presbyter of the Church of England; and after that preached publickly before one of our Universities; and lastly, maintained from the Pulpit in one of our greatest Cathedrals Twice, shall continue Uncensured and Uncontrouled by the Governours of our Church; a… … upon these Terms, will be apt to look … Ecclesiastical Authority as serving … else but to upbraid the Non-Ex… … it is further referred to your Lordships, seriously to consider, how Foreign Churches (which will certainly hear of it,) will Resent it; And how Reproachfully it will Reflect upon our Own; which I account a Church as well Reform'd as the best of them; and that without the help of a Further Reformation.
May God direct and assist your Lordships Counsels and Proceedings in so near and Arduous a Concern of our Opposed Religion. For the Eyes of the World are upon you, and their Ears open to hear what you will do. And as all who wish your Lordships and the Church well, hope that you will acquit your selves in so weighty an Affair, sutably to your High Character and Post in the Church, so their next satisfaction will be, That your Lordships have had this matter humbly, fairly and Dutifully laid before you, whether your Lordships shall think fit to do anything in it or no.
So begging your Lordshipp's Paternal Blessing, I am,
My Lords, Your Lordshipp's most Humble, and Obedient Servant,
N. N.
ADVERTISEMENT, Concerning the Publication of the following History.
I Have here presented the Reader with this History, just as I find it published by Aretius, though I am not ignorant, that several Parts and Passages of it will seem foreign to the purpose, I produee it for. However, I thought it more Adviseable to lay it before the Reader intire and unaltered; as the likeliest way to render it the less liable to Exception, which any Abbreviatures, or Decurtations might probably subject it to; especially with some sort of Readers, who will be but too ready to take occasion to Cavil where the least pretence or shadow for it can be laid hold of.
I am not here concerned to make an exact Parallel between the Heresie of Valentinus Gentilis, and the Opinion of Dr. Sherlock, as to all the Particularities and Circumstantials of each; it being enough for my purpose, that they agree, and are the same, as to the main of both; (viz.) The Assertion of Three Eternal Spirits in the Blessed Trinity: But my chief Design is to shew the Noble Concern of a Protestant City and Senate in Vindicating so High an Article as that of the Trinity against this Heretical Tritheistical Innovation upon it.
And accordingly I have given the Reader not the entire History only, but also the Epistle prefixed to it, and Dedicatory of it to the Lords of the Senate, that so it may appear to all, That it was not written and Published at the sole Will and Pleasure of a private Man, but by the Order and Authority of the Governors of the Place, thereby Owning and Avowing their Proceedings against this Heretick, to the whole World: And I cannot but, in Honour to them, wish that all Christian Governours and Governments would shew the same Magnanimous Zeal and Courage in the Defence of their Faith; though I confess, I wish not, that they should do the same way.
A Brief ACCOUNT OF Valentinus Gentilis: CONTAINING Some Passages of his Life and Just Execution.
Together with An Orthodox Defence of the Article of the Holy Trinity against his Blasphemies.