Church History of the Government of Bishops and Their Councils, Chapter 13

Church History of the Government of Bishops and Their Councils · Chapter 13

p. 430CHAP. XIII.

The Council of Constance, Basil, and some others.

§. 1. CCCCLXX. AN. 1414. the Council of Constance was called by the means of the Emperour Sigismund, and the consent of Pope Iohn, who the more trusted the Emperour because he had promoted him: There were then three Popes, Bened. 13. in France, whom the Kingdomes of France, Spain, Arragon, England, and Scotland followed; and Greg. 12. and Iohn 23. at Rome, that divided the rest of the Papalines. It was not certainly to represent the Trinity, but to profane the Name, and abuse the Kingdome of the blessed Trinity. Oct. 28. P. Iohn called by them Sanctissimus Dominus Noster, entereth the City, Nov. 5. The Pope began the Council. Nov. 16. was the first Session, the Pope speaking to them, and his Bull being read, shewing that he would have had the Council at Rome, but the miserable case of Rome (by contention and confusion) hindering, it was agreed with the Emperour to be at Constance, commanding to be there for the peace of the Church, and appointing a Weekly Mass to be said for obtaining Gods blessing, and pardoning a years penance for every Mass to every Mass-Priest that said it, exhorting all to fasting and prayer for good success, charging them to look after Errours, especially those that rose from one Iohn Wickliff, and also to reform the Church, &c.

March 2. 1415. The Pope took an Oath, for the peace of the Church, to lay down his Popedome, if the other two Popes would do the same, and the Emperour kist his feet.

The Cardinal of Florence read these Decrees: 1. That the Council was lawfully called. 2. That it will not be dissolved by the departure of the Pope, or other Prelates. 3. That it be not dissolved till the present Schisme be healed, and the Church reformed in Faith and Manners, in Head and Members. 4. That it be not removed but on just cause. 5. That the Bishops depart not.

p. 431§ 2. In the fourth Session they decreed that the general Council representing the militant Catholick Church, hath its power immediately from Christ, to which every man of what State or dignity soever, though it be Papal, is bound to obey in the things that belong to Faith, and the extirpation of the said Schism and the general reformation of the Church in head and members. 2. That the Pope withdraw not himself or the Officers, and if he should, or should thunder out Church censures against them or any adhering to the Council, they are void. 3. That no Translations, Promotions, or Cardinals be made to the prejudice of the Council. 4. That three of each Nations be chosen to judge of departures, &c. But the Pope fled and sent them word that it was not for fears, but for his health.

§ 3. Sess. 5.☜ The Emperor being among them, they decreed again the Power of the Council as immediately from Christ, which the Pope and all must obey; and that the Pope is punishable if he disobey; that he is bound to surrender in any case of great and evident profit to the Church; that he unlawfully departed; that if he will return and perform his promise, he shall be safe.

Next, they proceeded to condemn the Books of Iohn Wickliff, and to prosecute Iohn Huss.

Next they applied themselves to the Emperour to reduce the Pope, who told them he was in the hands of the Duke of Austria; but if they pleased he would write to him, or try to fetch him by force, &c.

§. 4. Sess. 6. They order the Procuration for the Popes Resignation to be demanded, and Process to be made against Iohn Huss, and Hierome of Prague. A Letter is read from the University of Paris to the Pope, to submit to the Council.

§. 5. Sess. 7. They accused Hierome of Prague for not appearing, and summoned the Pope, promising him safe Conduct, sed salvâ Iustitiâ &c.

§. 6. Sess. 8▪ They condemned Wickliff's Bones to be dig'd up,☜ upon 45 Articles, instead of 260 which they had gathered. Art. 1. was:

1. That the substance material of Bread and Wine remain in the Sacrament of the Altar.

2. The Accidents of Bread remain not without the substance.

3. Christ is not identically and really in his proper bodily presence in the Sacrament.

4. If a Bishop or Priest live in mortal sin, he Ordaineth not, Baptizeth not, Consecrateth not.

5. The Gospel saith not that Christ instituted the Mass.

6. God ought to obey the Devil.**A calum….

7. If a man be contrite aright, outward confession is needless and unprofitable.

8. If the Pope be a Reprobate, and wicked, and so a Member of the Devil, he hath no power over the faithful given him by any but Caesar.

9. Since Vrban the 6. none is to be taken for Pope, but we must live as the Greeks, ††V…der the Turks.under our own Laws.

10. It is against Scripture that Church-men have possession (that is, they should not labour to be rich.)

11. No Prelate should excommunicate any one, unless he know that God hath first excommunicated him: And he that so excommunicateth, is thereby a Heretick, or Excommunicate.

12. A Prelate that excommunicateth a Clerk who appealed to the King, or to the Council of the Kingdome, is thereby a Traytor to the King and Kingdome.

13.☞ They that give over Preaching, or hearing Gods Word, for mens Excommunication, are Excommunicate, and in the Day of Judgment shall be judged Traytors to Christ.

14. It is lawful for a Deacon or Presbyter to preach the Word of God without the Authority of the Apostolick Seal, or a Catholick Bishop.

15. No one is a Civil Lord, or a Prelate, or a Bishop, while he liveth in mortal sin. (The meaning of this is, no open wicked man is a Subject capable of such Authority given by Christ, as shall warrant him to use the place, but his acts may be valued to others in many cases) Dispositio materiae est necessaria ad formam recipiendam: As an Infidel can be no Bishop or Pastor.)

16. Temporal Lords may take away temporal goods from the Church, from a Possessor habitually criminal, and not only in act. (Not from the sacred use in general,but from that man that forfeiteth them.)

17. The people may correct their Delinquent Lords (This is not to be believed to be Wickliff's sense, till they cite his own words, which no doubt limit it to the cases.)

18. Tythes are meer Alms, and the Parishioners may take them away for their Prelates sins.

19. The special prayers applied by Prelates and Religious men to one person, profit him no more than the general ones, caeteris paribus.

20. He that giveth Alms to Fryars is thereby Excommunicate (that is, he sins by cherishing wilful idleness.)

21. He that enters the private Religion, either of the Possessing or the Mendicant Fryars, becomes less fit and able to keep the Commandments of God.

22. Holy men that made private Religions, thereby sinned.

23. The Religious living in private Religion, are not (therein) of the Christian Religion.

24. Fryars are bound to get their living by the labour of their hands, and not by begging.

25. They are Simoniacal that bind themselves to pray for others for a temporal reward (or price.)

26. The prayers of Reprobates (wicked men) availeth not to any.

27. All things come to pass by necessity.

28. The Confirmation of Youth, the Ordination of Clerks, the Consecration of Places, are reserved to the Pope and Bishops for covetousness of temporal gain and honour.

p. 43329. Universities, Studies, Colledges, Degrees, and Masterships in them, are introduced by vain Gentility, and profit the Church as much as the Devil doth.

30. The Excommunication of a Pope, or any Prelate, is not to be feared, because it is the Censure of Antichrist.

31. They that found Cloysters sin, and they are Diabolical that enter them.

32. To enrich the Clergy is against Christs Rule.

33. Pope Sylvester, and the Emperour Constantine, erred in inriching the Church.

34. All the Order of Begging Fryars are Hereticks; and those that give to them are Excommunicate.

35. They that enter Religion (as Fryars) or any Order (of them) are thereby disabled from keeping Gods Commands, and so of coming to Heaven, unless they forsake them.

36. The Pope, and all his Clergy that have Possessions, are therefore Hereticks, and the Secular Lords and Laicks that consent to them (to their great riches.)

37. The Church of Rome is the Synagogue of Satan; and the Pope is not the immediate and nearest Vicar of Christ and the Apostles.

38. The Decretal Epistles are Apocryphal, and seduce from the Faith of Christ, and the Clerks that study them are fools.

39. The Emperour and Secular Lords were seduced by the Devil to inrich the Church (excessively he meaneth) with temporal goods.

40. The Election of the Pope by Cardinals was introduced by the Devil.

41. It is not necessary to Salvation to believe the Church of Rome to be the Supreme among other Churches.

42. It is foolish to trust to the Indulgences of the Pope and Bishops.

43. Oaths made to strengthen humane Contracts and Civil Commerce, are unlawful.

44. Augustine, Benedict, Bernard are damned, unless they repented of having possessions, and instituting and entering (private) Religions; and so from the Pope to the lowest Religious (Fryar) they are all Hereticks.

45. All Religions (that is Orders of Fryars) were introduced by the Devil.

This Article about Necessity of Events, I see in Wickliff's Books is his own, and many here cited are true; but no doubt but many of them are perverted by their wording them, and leaving out the Explicatory Context.

The Council forbad his Books, and condemned them to be burnt, and reprobated every one of all these foresaid Articles, with all the 260.

The Duke of Austria most humbly begged the Emperours pardon for receiving the Pope.

§. 7. Sess. 9. The Citation of the Pope is read, and Commissaries and p. 434Judges appointed; and a Letter read from the University of Paris, instigating the Council to their duty (for their honest Chancellour Gerson was here.)

§. 8. Sess. 10. The Popes Suspension was read. The Sess. 11. the Articles against the Pope are read, which were proved; which were in sum as followeth.

Art. 1. That the Pope Iohn from his Youth was of a naughty disposition, impudent a lyar, rebellious against his Parents, given to most Vices, and so was, and still is accounted of all that know him; Cardinals, Arch-Bishops, Bishops, &c. witness it.

2. He gathered riches by Symony, and wicked means.

3. By these Symoniacal riches he purchased a Cardinals place at great rates.

4. Possessing Bononia as Legate by tyranny and cruel exactions, inhumanely and impiously he ruined the people, without all Justice or Piety, &c.

5. Getting thus to be Pope, like a Pagan he contemned all Divine Offices.

6. That he is the oppressor of the poor, the persecutor of Justice, the Pillar of the unjust, the Statue of Simoniacks, the servant of the Flesh, the dregs of Vices, a stranger to Virtue, flying publick Consistories, wholly given to sleep, and other fleshly desires; wholly contrary to Christ in life and manners, the Glass of Infamy, and the profound Inventer of all wickednesses (or malice) so scandalous to the Church, that among faithful Christians that knew him, he was commonly called THE DEVIL INCARNATE.

7. That as a Vessel of all sins, he repulsed the worthy, and gave all Offices, Benefices and Church-promotions to the bad that would give most Money for them.**What was the Church then. …

8. Hereby the whole Church, Clergy and People, fell under infamy and scandal.

9. That of all these he was oft admonished and humbly intreated.

10. That he was worse after than before, laying all pretence of Justice, and openly selling all to the worst that would give him money.

11. That growing yet stronger in Vices, he made divers Officers purposely to manage his Simony (as his Bailiffs) for all fat Cathedrals, Abbeys Monasteries, Priorles, and vacant Benefices reserved, &c.

12. That he charged his Registers to receive all the money before they granted, &c.

13. That he appointed certain Merchants to put vacant Benefices in the Balance, and grant their Petitions that offered most for them.

14. He ordered that no Petition for a Benefice be offered him, till it were signed by the Refundary, who then was to pay it out of his own Estate if he took too little.

15. That against God and his Conscience he oft sold his Bulls to Eminent men, in which he wrote, that they that had Benefices had resigned them to him, and that by lying forged Resignation, which never was made, sold them again for great sums, and beggar'd many.

p. 43516. By this it came to pass, that without all difficulty he that gave most, carried it: And the same course was held in Sacraments, Indulgences, Dispensations, and other Ecclesiastical and Spiritual Gifts.

17. That he usually sold the same Benefice divers times over to divers persons, or to the same, silencing Claims of Right; whereby the whole Church was defiled with Simony,**Which Councils have judged Heresie. filled with the unworthy, both in higher and lower Prelacies, &c.

18. That he refused to Confirm those that were Canonically Elected, unless even to satiety they glutted him with Money, putting the unworthy in their stead, and translated men against their wills from their Churches, that he might sell them dearer.

19. That promising Church-Reformation in the Council at Pisa, he called one at Rome, and being there publickly admonished, being incorrigible by the Devils instinct, did worse.

20. That he sold for Money Indulgences at the hour of death, the Predication of the Cross, Absolutions from fault and punishment, Concessions of Churches and portable Altars, Consecrations of Bishops, Benedictions of Abbots, Relicks of Saints, Holy Orders, power in Confession to absolve from sins, and Acts that may be ministred only by the Operations of the Holy Ghost for Grace.

21. That one Nic. Pistorius, a Florence Merchant, and the Popes Secretary, a Lay married man, was made by the Pope his Legate Apostolical, sent into Brabant to exact and receive a Subsidy, which was the tenth part of the fruit of all Benefices in divers Cities and Diocesses, and to excommunicate the refusers by a certain deputed Sublegate,††Like a Lay Chancellour and his Surrogate. and suspend Colledges, Covents, Chapters, &c.

22. That he authorized this Nicholas to grant to all persons, of each Sex, for Money to choose their Confessors, that might absolve from fault and punishment, by which the Merchant got vast sums of Money, seducing the people.

23. That all the Premises are known, true, proved, &c.

24. That Anno 1412. Ambassadors from the King, Bishops, and Universities of France, admonished him charitably of this scandalous, infamous Simony.

25. That he amended not by it, but did worse.

26. That he is defamed of all this in all Kingdomes of the Christian World.

27. That he abused Rome and the Churches Patrimony, exhausting the people, and imbursing it himself, by Taxes, Gabels, &c. Many instances are added.

28. For these things many Crimes, Sacriledges, Adulteries, Murders, Spoils, Rapine and Thefts were committed in Rome, through his fault.

29. It is the common voice, opinion, assertion and belief, that in these, and innumerable other evils, he is the greatest Dilapidator and Dissipator of the Church Affairs that ever was, scandalous to the Universal Church, a p. 436Witch, a Murderer, a Killer of his Brethren, Incontinent, in all things serving the Vices of the flesh, of infinite crimes, called infamously Balderinus.

30. That all this is notorious by common fame, repute, &c.

31. That he hath sold the goods of Cardinals, Bishopricks, Parishes, Colledges, Priories, &c.

32. And this not only in the City about (many instances named.)

33. That he destroyed University Studies, by taking the Salaries to himself.

34. Besides, he laid such burdens on the Parsons, as forced them to sell the Church-goods, Ornaments, and Books.

35. That hereby the whole Church was notoriously scandalized.

36. The Infamy was so great, that Princes and the Emperour besought him to amend.

37. Hereupon he promised to amend, and to call this Council.

38. But he went on, and did worse than before.

39. He forbad the righting of the injured in judgment.

40. That the Bishop of Salisbury, and other English Embassadours, admonished him to amend, and he gave them ill words, and threatned, and abused them.

41. That at Constance he swore to resign for Peace.

42. And he promised to submit to the judgment of the Council.

43. He bid all say what they would against him.

44. He was humbly intreated by the Council to perform his word.

45. Yet thought by hiding himself to evade.

46. Yet he professed before that he intended not to depart.

47. And when the Church longed for peace, by the Council he plotted to dissolve the Council, and so fled in a disguized habit.

48. He fled to Schafhausen, and commanded some Cardinals and Bishops to come to him.

49. Thence he fled to Lauffenberge, and towards Brisac.

50. The Council desired his return.

51. He denied to answer, but fled to Nurenburg to frustrate the Council.

52. He is an obdurate sinner, and incorrigible Fautor of Schism, &c.

53. That all this is notorious, and the common repute of men.

54. And all the premises are the common fame and voice. Here somewhat is left out.

And they begin as anew; 1. Declaring his wickedness from his Youth.

2. That he is notoriously suspected to have poysoned Pope Alexander, and h…s Physitian Daniel.

3. That he committed Incest with his Brothers Wife, and with the holy Nuns, and ravished Maids, and committed Adultery with Wives, and other crimes of Incontinence.

3. That he Simonaically sold six Parish Churches in Bononia to Lay men, who set Priests in them at their pleasure.

p. 4374. That for Money he sold the Mastership of the Order of S. Iohn of Ierusalem in Cyprus to a Child of five years old, Bastard to the King of Cyprus, with the fruits of Vacancies, and spoils of the last Master, &c.

5. That he would not recall this, but on condition.

1. That the K. of Cyprus should be paid (by them that succeeded) all the Money back which he gave to the Pope.

2. That the Pope should have more, six thousand Florins of Gold, which the Prior of Rhodes paid, and for which the Hospitallers are yet in debt.

3. He reserved for the said Bastard the Magistral Chamber, worth two thousand Florins.

4. That the said Pope Iohn gave Fryar Iacobus de Vitriaco, an ancient man, and expresly professing the Hospitallers Religion, an Absolution from his Vows, Rule and habit of Religion, and reduced him to a Secular life, and Marriage, &c. for six hundred Ducats.

Many other Articles I pass by, as tedious to be repeated: One was, That he was a notorious Simoniack, and a pertinacious Heretick: Another was, That often before divers Prelates, and other honest men, by the Devils perswasion be pertinaciously said, asserted, dogmatized, and maintained, that there is no Life Eternal, nor any after this: And he said, and pertinaciously believed, that mans Soul dieth with the body, and is extinct, as are the Bruits: And be said, that the Dead rise not, contrary to the Article of the Resurrection, &c.

He sent an Epistle to the Emperour to beg mercy &c.

§. 9. Sess. 12. The Articles being shewed the Pope, his Answer is recited: Viz. That he repented of his filthy departure, and ratified all the Councils Process against him, and would give no other Answer to their Charge, affirming, that the Council of Constance was most holy, and could not err; and was the Pisane Council continued, and he would never contradict the Council, but publickly confess that he had no right in the Papacy: That he would be much pleased that the Sentence against him might be quickly passed, and sent him, which with all reverence he would receive, and as much as in him lay confirm, ratifie, approve, and divulge; and did then ratifie, approve, and confirm all their Process against him, and promise never to gainsay them.

The Council decreed, that when the Papacy was void, none should be chosen without them, and they that attempted it should be punished, and the Election be void.

Next the Definitive Sentence of Deposition was past against him.

Next they decreed, that none of the three present Popes should ever be elected again.

§. 10. Sess. 13. The Council decreed, that though Christ after Supper instituted, and to his Disciples administred the Sacrament in both kinds, Bread and Wine, &c. And though in the Primitive Church the faithful received it in both kinds, &c. yet the contrary custome of the Church should be a Law, which may not be reprobated without the Churches Authority, or changed: And to say that this is sacrilegious and unlawful, is erroneous, p. 438and the pertinacious Assertors to be proceeded against as Hereticks (that is, burnt.)

Thus they take power to change Christs Sacrament, and that when they suppose it to be his very blood that they deny men, and make it Heresie and death to obey God before them. This was the Reforming Council.

Next they decree, that any Priest that giveth the Sacrament in both kinds shall be excommunicated, and used as a Heretick, even by Secular Power, that is, burnt.

§. 11. Sess. 14. Carolus de Malatestis recited in the name of Gregory 12. his Renunciation of the Papacy, and Greg. approved the Council. The Council absolveth all men from his obedience, &c. confirm some of his Acts, require the third Pope to resign, and declare him, if he refuse, a notorious Schismatick, and pertinacious Heretick.

§. 12. Sess. 15. After a severe Decree for silence, and no contradiction, the Articles of Heresie charged on Iohn Huss were read, the sum of many is as followeth.

1. As Christ is both God and Man, so the consecrated Host is the Body of Christ, at least in Figure, and true Bread in Nature.

2. That he declareth to the heretical lyars about the consecrated Host, that they can never declare or understand an accident without a subject.

3. This is my body, is such a figurative speech, as John was Elias.

4. The madness of feigning an accident without a subject, blasphemeth God, scandalizeth the Saints, and deceiveth the Church.

5. Its foolish and presumptuous to desine, that the Infants of the faithful are not saved, dying without the Sacrament of Baptism.

6. The light and brief Confirmation by Bishops, solemnized only by the Rites said over, was introduced by the Devil, and to delude the people in the belief of the Church, and that the solemnity and necessity of Bishops may be the more believed.

7. Against Oyl, anointing Children, and the Linnen Cloth, as a light Ceremony, &c.

8. Vocal Confession made to a Priest, introduced by Innocent, is not so necessary as he defineth: He that by thought, word or deed offendeth his Brother, it sufficeth him to repent by thought, word or deed.

9. The Priest hearing Confession as the Latines do, is grievous and groundless, &c.

A good life is a good sign of a true Minister.

The ill life of a Prelate substracteth the Subjects acceptation of Orders, and other Sacraments; and yet in case of necessity they may receive of such, piously praying that God will make up himself by these his Diabolical Ministers, the work or end of the Office which they are sworn to.

Ancient persons that despair of children may lawfully marry for temporal commodity, or mutual help, or to excuse Lust.

Words of Marriage, de praesenti, I take thee for my Wife, frustrate words de futuro, to another, I will take thee for a Wife.

p. 439The Pope that falsly calls himself the servant of the servants of God, is in no degree of Evangelical service, but worldly; and if he be in any order, it is in that of Devils, serving God more culpably by sin.

The Pope dispenseth not with Simony, being the Capital Simonist, vowing rashly to keep a most damnable state.

That the Pope is summus Pontifex is ridiculous: Christ never approved such a Dignity in Peter, or in any other.

The Pope is the Patron of Antichrist; not only that single person, but the multitude of Popes from the time of the Churches Donation, the Cardinals, Bishops, and other their Complices, is the compounded monstrous person of Antichrist: And yet Gregory, and other Popes that did good in their lives fruitfully repented at last: Peter, and Clement, and other helpers in the Faith, were not Popes, but Gods helpers to edifie the Church of Christ.

That this Papal Preeminence had its rise from the Gospel, is as false, as that all Errour arose from the first Truth.

There are twelve Procurators and Disciples of Antichrists, the Pope, Cardinals, Patriarchs, Arch-bishops, Bishops, Arch-deacons, Officials, Deans, Monks, forked Canons, false Fryars, and Questors.

Its as clear as the light, that he is greatest, and next Christ in the Church Militant, that is most humble, most serviceable, and most loveth the Church in the love of Christ.

He that unjustly possesseth any good thing of God, taketh anothers by theft.

Grace is necessary to dominion: (He meaneth, 1. Not of right before men, but God. 2. Nor of special grace only, I suppose,

Without the Law of Christ inwarldly, Charters and Papers give not ability and justice.

We must not by gifts cherish a known sinner, being a Traytor to God.

Divers are against temporal power or right in wicked men in mortal sin: But I suppose that he meaneth only such a defect as will disable himself before God to receive his approbation and reward, but not such as will disoblige th… Subject, or lose his property in foro humano.

Many more there be, that Fryars and the foresaid twelve Orders of Antichrist are not of God, and some Philosophical Opinions; which how far Huss held them, I take this Catalogue for no proof without his words, the Context and Explication.

All these are mentioned as taken out of Wickliff; but Huss is condemned for these following Articles.

§. 13. 1. That there is one holy Vniversal Church of all the Predestinate.

2. That Paul was never a Member of the Devil.

3. That Reprobates are not parts of the Church, for no part of it finally falleth away, Predestinating Love never forsaking him.

4. Two Natures, the Divinity and Humanity, are one Christ.

5. The same as afore.

6. Taking the Church for the Predestinate, it is an Article of Faith.

7. Peter was not, nor is the Head of the Catholick Church.

p. 4408. Priests of wicked lives polute the Priestly power.

9. The Papal dignity arose from the Emperour, and the Popes prefecture and institution flowed from Caesars power.☞

Divers of Popes and Priests that live wickedly are not the Apostles Successors.

Delivering men to Secular powers (because excommunicate) is to imitate the Scribes and Pharisees above Christ.

Ecclesiastical obedience is obedience after the Priests invention without any express authority of Scripture.

All humane Acts are distinguished into virtuous and vicious.

A Priest of Christ living after his Law and understanding the Scripture, and desirous to Edifie the people, ought not to obey the Pope or any Prelate that forbids him to preach, and excommunicateth him.

Every one made a Priest hath a command to preach and must obey it,☞ notwithstanding excommunication.

By Church Censures of excommunication, suspension and interdict, the Clergy keeps the Laity under their feet for their own exaltation, and multiply avarice, protect malice, and prepare the way to Antichrist; It is an evident sign that such Censure, proceed from Antichrist, in which the Clergy principally proceed against those that open the nakedness of Antichrists wickedness, which the Clergy will for themselves usurp.

If the Popes be wicked men and reprobates, then as Judas an Apostle was a thief and traitor and son of perdition, so they are no heads of the Church, when they are no members.

The grace of predestination is the bond of the Churches union with the head.

A wicked and reprobate Pope and Prelate is equivocally a Pastor, and truly a thief and robber.

The Pope should not be called most holy.

Right election makes not him that cometh not in by Christ to have right.

Wickliffs 40 Articles were unjustly condemned.

There is no spark of appearance that there must be one head in spirituals to rule the wh…l…e Church,☞ that must alwayes converse with it, and be conserved.

Christ Ruled his Church better throughout the world by his true Disciples dispersed, than it is by such mo…strous heads.

The Apostles and faithful Priests of the Lord, did strenuously regulate the Church in things necessary to salvation, before the Office of a Pope was introduced, and so would do, were there no Pope, to the end of the world.

There is no Civil Lord, no Prelate, no Bishop, while in mortal sin. (Of which oft before.)

These Articles are mentioned which they say were proved against him.

It is to be noted that Huss called God to witness that he never preached nor owned many of these Articles which false witnesses brought in against him,☞ and yet renounceth nothing that he held. And whether he or his accusers, better knew his mind and faith its easie to conjecture.

p. 441They condemned Huss to be burnt; and condemned another Article, that any Subject may kill a Tyrant (that is, an Usurper) by any secret or open means.

Then they made an Order against Robbers of such as came to the Council, and went back.

§. 14. Sess. 16. Deputies are appointed to go to Arragon to the third remaining Pope Bend. 13. to resign; and other matters.

The Sess. 17. was an honourable dimission of the Emperour.

The Sess. 18. about the Councils Bulls, &c.

The 19. Sess. was against Hierome of Prague, where they recite a long Recantation which they say he made, and from which they said he afterward revolted.

Also the Council decreed that they might proceed against Hereticks, notwithstanding the safe conducts and promises of the Emperour,☜ Kings, or Princes, by what Bond soever they tyed themselves therein, though the Hereticks had not appeared, but trusting herein: And that the said Emperour, Kings, &c. having done what in them lieth, are no way obliged by their promises.

The 20. Sess. Decreed a monitory against the Duke of Austria on behalf of the Bishop of Trent, about estate.

The rest was about the Ejection of Pope Benedict the 13th. They swore to certain Capitula about it.

§ 15. Hierome of Prague having recanted through fear, repented and openly professed, that he dissembled and stood to his former doctrine and was condemned.

§ 16. Many following Sessions are against Pet. Luna, or Bened. the 13th. and treating with the Arragonians about him: He refused to resign, being lest sole Pope (I think chosen by more Cardinals than the rest) in the 37 Sess. they pass Sentence against him.

§ 17. Sess. 39. It is decreed that there should be henceforth General Councils celebrated, One five years after this, another seven years after that, and thence forward every ten years one: Or if there fall out another Schism, then within a year, none of the contending Popes being presidents; with much more about the Councils.

Next they frame a Profession which every Elected Pope must make, viz. [That he firmly believeth and holdeth the holy Catholick Faith, according to the Traditions of the Apostles, of General Councils, and other holy Fathers, especially the eight holy General Councils, viz. Nice, Const. 2. Eph. 3. Calced. 4. Constant. 5. and 6. Nic. 7. Constant. 8. As also the Laterane, Lugdune, and Vien. and to hold that faith unchanged in every title, and to confirm even to life and blood, defend it and predicate it, and every way to prosecute and observe the rite of Ecclesiastical Sacraments delivered the Catholick Church.

Sess. 40. There are eighteen heads of reformation named: And the form of Electing Popes decreed. Sess. 41. An Oath for the Electors. p. 442Otho Columna Cardinal is made Pope: Wickliffes errors again repeated, and Husses, some Constitutions of Frederic. 2. Confirmed, and the Council dissolved.

§ 18. Platina tells us, that Pope Iohn was deposed only by those that had adhered to him,☞ before the other parties came. He was kept Prisoner three years, none but Germanes, whom he understood not, attending him: Gregory died of grief, that Carolus Malatesta had too hastily published his resignation, which he hoped to frustrate by delay. Benedict refusing to resign, the Arragonians and Spaniards forsook him as obstinate. The Scot stuck last to him: Platina saith Huss and Hierome were burnt for saying that Church men should imitate Christ in poverty, when their wealth and luxury was the common Scandal. There was great joy at the choice of Martin. 5. but Rome and Italy were still in Wars and confusion.

§ 19. Gregory was preferred till he died, and this P. Iohn so odiously described by the Council is yet after some years imprisonment made Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum. O what Bishops then had the Church!

§ 20. For all the confirmations of this Council the decrees of a Council being above the Pope, are said by most Papists to be unapproved, because the Council of Florence and Laterane judged the contrary to be true.

§ 21. Pope Martin found Rome decayed, Italy in Wars, and at five years end summoned his promised Council at Papia: Few came, and the plague forced them to remove to Senae, when Alphonsus King of Arragon sent Orators to plead the Cause of Bened. 13. whereby Martin for fear of a Schism was fain to dissolve the Council; and appointed the next seven years after at Basil, not trusting Italy; where he had long Wars himself, as afterward he stirred up against the Bohemian Hussites, after 14 years, aged 63 died of an Apoplexy; much praised.

§ 22. CCCCLXXI. This Concilium Senense we need say no more of.

§ 23. One would have thought that after this stir one more sober Pope should have been chosen: Eugenius 4th. was the next, of whom more after. He hath presently a War and much bloodshed in the streets of Rome, with the Columnenses. Italy is still in Wars: The Pope is again assaulted: The Romans set up seven agistrates: Eugenius flyeth: they pursue him with stones; he escapeth to Florence; leaveth the Castle garded, which continued the City-War a while. The Emperor coming into Italy he would have resisted but could not, who peaceably came and went. It were tedious to relate all his and others Wars in Italy; Platina and many others do it.

The Council at Basil beginning, he would have removed it to Bononia: The Emperour and Council resist, and threaten him, and he confirmeth it; for, saith Platina, he had scarce breathing time from vexing Wars. He recovereth Rome (and other places) Pulcellus a Leader he hanged, when he had pull'd off his flesh with hot Pincers: He turneth his War against Alphonsus p. 443King of Arragon; the City of Preneste he utterly destroyed, as rebellious: The Council at Basil frightened him; but Sigismund dying, and Albert D. of Austria chosen Emperour, he ventured to call it away to Ferraria. Ioh. Paleologus contrived thither, in false hope of succour from the West, put some Reputation on his Council: The Plague drove them to Florence; there the pretended Reconciliation of the Greeks and Latines was made, of which many Histories speak at large, especially the Greek Edition of that Flor. Council. The Wars still continued round about him: The Council at Basil deposed Eugenius, and made Amadeus D. of Savoy (a Pious man) Pope, called Faelix 5. Eugenius held on and yielded not; Blood and Murders still filling Italy: He died aged 64. An. 1447. making first twenty seven Cardinals, &c.

§. 24. CCCCLXXII. This great Council at Basil began 1431. and ended 1442. the History of it is too large to be much recited. The Bohemians exasperated by the burning of their Teachers, and the Popes Excommunications, and the Decrees to burn them, defended themselves by Arms under Zisca, and were usually victorious: They were therefore invited to the Synod, which they received with tears of joy; but for the sake of the case of Huss and Hierome, durst not trust their safe Conduct, till after the promise of many Princes, and the Synod. They sent fifteen; the Bohemians four daies pleaded their four Articles: 1. For the Sacrament in both kinds.☜ 2. For correcting and eliminating publick sins, or crimes. 3. For liberty to preach Gods Word. 4. Of the Civil Power of the Clergy.

Ioh. Rag…sinus answered the first, calling them Hereticks; and others tediously (many daies upon one point) answered the rest; and dispute begat dispute, and so some motioned a reconciling Conference: But they could not agree, and the Bohemians returned, and the Council sent many of their Members with them to Prague, whom the City received civilly, and heard them, exhorting them to their Opinions; but they still desired satisfaction in their four Articles. Many Debates there were, and by explication of the terms they came to understand each other, and a fair beginning of reconciliation was made; but the first Article of the Sacrament in both kinds stuck so, that they could not get over it, though the Council confessed that they had power to dispense in it. But though there be reason enough for all these reque…s (for the opposing publick wickedness, for leave to preach Gods Word, and for Church-mens forbearing Civil coercive Government, unless made the Magistrates Officers) yet such reasonable things are hardlier obtained than more disputable matters; because flesh and blood, worldly interest, and the Devil, is most against them: And of this great famous Council of Bishops, after Petitions, and some good words, and hopeful approaches, they could never one of them be obtained, but tricks were devised to elude their hopes, and inconveniences pleaded that would follow such Concessions; (the ordinary way of the carnal Clergies hindering Reformation.)

§. 25. The first Session being for introduction, to shew their lawfulness, p. 444in the second Session they decreed, as did that at Constance, that a General Council is above the Pope, in matters of Faith, Schisme, and Reformation: And Sess. 3. that the Council may not be dissolved: And they admonish the Pope to retract his Revocation, and to own and assist the Council.

After they declare, that the Pope may not make Cardinals, &c. during the Council.

§. 26. Sess. 22. They condemned a Book of Augustinus de Roma, a Bishop of Nazareth, that had many Phanatick Expressions; as that Christ daily sinnet… in us, because of our Union with him, though sinless in himself; that only the Elect, and not all the Justified, are Members of Christ; that besides the Union of Love, there must be another Union with Christ; that the Humane Nature in Christ is truly Christ, and the Person of Christ, and the Person of the Word; that Christ loveth his Humane Nature as much as his Divine; that the two Natures are equally lovely; that the Soul of Christ seeth God as clearly as the Godhead, &c. Thus worketh the temerarious mind of man.

§. 27. Sess. 24. There is a Treaty for a more General Council and Union with the Greeks; and the place assigned at Basil, Avignion, or Savoy; and to defray the charges, money to be gathered of Christians, who, if they give as much as will keep their houses a Week,☞ are rewarded with the pardon of all their sins, where the liberality of their Pardons is expounded; viz. it is only the pardon of such sins de quibus corde contriti, & ore confessi fuerint, which their hearts are contrite for, and their mouths confess; and these are pardoned on a further condition, that besides this money given, they do for a year fast one day every Week more than else they were obliged to do by the Church; and if they be Clerks, say every such day seven Psalms, or a Mass; if Laicks, seven Pater Nosters, and seven Ave Maries: And if it had not been for the Bishops, might not a contrite Confessor have been certainly pardoned without such formalities.

§. 28. In divers following Sessions they prosecute Pope Eugenius, and declare the Council at Ferrary to be but a Schismatical Conventicle, and they establish these Catholick Verities, or Articles of Faith.

Sess. 33. 1. That a General Council representeth the whole Church,☞ and hath its power immediately from Christ, and that over the Pope, and every other person; and that this is a truth of Catholick Faith.

2. That such a Council lawfully congregate, may not without their own consent be dissolved, prorogued, or transferred; and that this is an Article of Catholick Faith.

3. That a pertinacious repugner of these Verities is to be judged a Heretick.

§. 29. Sess. 34. They depose Pope Eugenius as a sentenced, notorious, obstinate persisting Rebel against the Precepts of the Vniversal Church, and a daily violater and contemner of the Canons, a notorious perturber of the Peace and Vnity of the Church of God, and a notorious scandalizer of the whole Church, a notorious Simonist, incorrigible perjured person, devious from the Faith, a pertinacious Heretick, with much more sucb.

p. 445§. 30. Here I would crave the Readers consideration:☜ 1. If this extraordinary Great Council erred in all these matters of fact, whether the judgment of a Council be a good proof of the Papists sort of Tradition?

2. If they erred in these Articles of Faith, whether it weaken not both their Tradition and grounds of their faith; and whether such an heretical perjured Popes consent would have made them Infallible?

3. Whether their General Councils be not contradictory de …ide, as this, and that at Florence and Lateran expresly are.

4. Whether a great part of the Church of Rome, and their last named Councils, be not Hereticks in the judgment of this Council?

5. Seeing Pope Eugenius continued when the Council had deposed him as a Simonist, and perjured pertinacious Heretick, and all their following succession is from him, is there not a nulli…y in that succession?

§. 31. Sess. 36. They decreed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, ☜as a point of Faith; and yet many of their Doctors take it yet as undetermined, and many still are of the contrary mind.

§. 32. After this follow Decrees about Election of a Pope, and they make the Duke of Savoy Pope, Faelix 5. and so we have two Popes again.

Onuphrius calls this the thirtieth Schisme: He continued Pope above nine years, and then resigned to Eugenius for Peace. Sess. last: They recite the Heresies of Pope Eugenius, as against the foresaid Verities.

§. 33. Next is added the Bull of Pope Nicholas the 5. approving the Acts and deeds of the Council at Basil: And then are divers Synodical Epistles and Answers, specially proving Councils above the Pope, and against his Crimes, and of the justness of his deposition, very large; as also against his Conventicle Council, and against his Adherents, that is, most of their Church since, with Answers to his Invectives, and Monitories to draw men from his obedience. In the Appendix are many more Epistles and Orations, and a Treatise of the Patriarch of Antioch, to prove the Pope above Councils. There are many Epistles of the Pope against the Council, and of the Emperour to the Council, and of many other Princes.

§. 34. The Bohemians Epistles place their main cause upon the four forementioned Articles: I. The Sacrament in both kinds. II. That the Word of God may be freely, publickly, and truly preached by those that it belongeth to. (for they were silenced, &c.) III. That Civil Dominion they mean not all Propriety, but Power of the Sword, or force over mens Estates and persons, which is the Magistrates) as a deadly poyson be taken from the Clergy, (they spake from feeling.) IV. That publick, and great or heynous sins, may be extirpated from among the vulgar of the faithful by lawful Powers. This was the Religion of the Bohemians, and the denying of these was the cause of all their cruel Persecutions, and the blood there shed.

§. 35. In confutation of these Demands are adjoyned four Treatises of the four Preachers that spake against them: What Cause so great or plain, that men cannot talk against with many and confident words. I. Ioh. Ragusius acknowledged▪ the regulating sufficiency of the Scripture,☜ hath p. 446hath an Oration (a Treatise) against the Sacrament in both kinds.

II. Aegidius Carberius Decanus Cameracensis hath a Treatise (four days Oration) against their request, for correcting heynous publick sins; where much learning and reading is poured out, to save sin: And in particular it is maintained,☞ that the Clergy may not be punished by the Laity (some few cases excepted) not being therein their Subjects. (It seems the Bohemians would have had wicked Priests punished) And it is specially pleaded, that no wickedness of Clergy or Laity will warrant any Nation to separate from their Unity (that is, Roman Government;) and to that end, the badness of the Church Militant to be endured is described.

When he cometh to the Popes pardons, he denieth that Pardons à culpâ & poena are usually the Popes stile; whereas I have before cited their express words so speaking often:☞ And he honestly maintaineth out of the School-men,Bin pag. 319. that God only can give pardon à culpâ, save as any Priest as instrumentum animatum may vi clavium dispose the receiver, and declare Gods pardon, and remit part of the temporal punishment; but sometimes the Pope remitteth part of the Church-penances, and so it is that Priests are said to forgive sins. (Mark this, against our present Papists, that reproach the Protestants for this Doctrine.)

III. Next is Henr. Kalteisen, a Dominican Inquisitors Oration against the free preaching of Gods Word by Ministers: (for this would have undone the Pope and his Clergy:)☞ The Bohemians, whom he confuteth, maintained: 1. That Gods Word is so perfect,See the old Reformers Doctrine. that nothing should be added or diminished. 2. That the wickedness of Priests is the great cause of the peoples ruine. 3. Against Venial sin as against Gods Counsels differing from Laws. 4. That every Priest and Deacon is bound to preach Gods Word freely, or else sins mortally; and after Ordination he should not cease (that is, when he was forbidden by silencing Bishops, or others) no not when excommunicated, because he must obey God rather than man; and that Bishops are bound to preach as well as Presbyters.

The Answer first noteth, that Papa non est nomen Ordinis sed Iurisdictionis; that Gods Word is Incarnate, inspired, written; that it is expounded by the same Spirit that inspired it: (But hath the Pope the same gifts of that Spirit?) That the Inspired Word is publick or private; that the Bishops Decrees in Councils are Gods publick inspired Word: (see here the Enthusiastical pretence of Episcopal Inspiration, is the ground of all the Roman Usurpations and tyrannies, and deposition of Princes) to them he applieth, He that heareth you, heareth me; whence he gathereth the danger of disobeying that Council (and so the Popes Heresie.) The rest is worth the reading, but too long for me to repeat:☞ Much of it is to shew, that Reading and Massing is more needful than Preaching, and that every Priest that Masseth is not bound to Preach; there needeth many Mass-Priests, and not so many Preachers; and that silenced excommunicated Priests are bound to cease preaching, and obey the Prelates: But he had the wit to add (if silenced for a reasonable cause) ☞and to confess that Sententia injuste lata à suo judice si errorem p. 447inducat, vel poceatum mortale afferet, nec timenda est nec tenenda.

Pag. 364. He denieth that it is any Precept of Christ: 1. To receive the Cup, 2. Or that Priests Preach, 3. Orto abolish all mortal sin, 4. Or for the Clergy not to be Civil Governours, &c.

IV. Ioh. de Pole…nar Archdiacon. Barcinon. hath a Treatise of three days speech for the Civil Power of the Clergy, in which he mis-spendeth much time in disputing for their Propriety, when as the Bohemians took Dominion for Empire, or civil forcing power of Government, and for inordinate possessions of Lordships and great wealth.

§. 36. The Papists confess that this Council was Vniversal, and rightly called and confirmed; but they pretend that it was partly reprobate by the Popes removal of the Council, and that Pope Nicholas 5. approved it but in part. It began 1431. and continued above eleven years.

§. 37. CCCCLXXIII. An. …438. A Council at Bridges concurred with this at Basil, making the Pragmatical Sanction, decreeing that a General Council be called every ten years, and confirming the Council at Basil.

§. 38. CCCCLXXIV. Next cometh the Anti-Council at Ferrary and Florence, where the attempt for Union with the distressed Greeks was made, all the passages whereof are so fully opened in the Greeks History, published by Dr. Creighton, that I shall say no more of it.

Here note, that there were two General Councils at once; and how could they both (or either of them) be truly Universal:☜ The Papists call it the sixteenth.

§. 39. After many Wars, Eugenius the deposed Pope died, An. 1447. (having made twenty seven Cardinals (against the Council of Basils Decrees) from whom is their succession) and Nicholas the 5. succeeded him: Italy still continued in bloody Wars; Pope Faelix at last resigned; and so there was once more but one Pope. And that you may see still how far the Pope was from governing all the World, the City of Rome was again seeking to recover their Liberties,☜ and had a Plot against him, one Steph. Hircanius being the Chief, and the Pope secured himself by hanging many of them.

§ 40 The Emperour of Constantinople, and those Bishops that pretended a Union with Rome, in hope of help, found the people and Clergy there utterly averse to come under the Pope, and they had no help from him, nor any of their desired successes; for now the Turks took the City, and killed the Emperour, and many thousands more, and 1455. the Pope died.

§. 41. CCCCLXXV. A Council at Tours about Church Orders decreed praying oft for the dead, forbad Clandestine Marriages, and Massing in unconsecrated places, &c.

§. 42. CCCCLXXVI. A Synod at Lyons to end the Schisms between the two Popes done by the Emperour Frederick, who desired King Charles concurrence.

§. 43. An▪ 1455: Calixtus the 3. is made Pope; he raiseth a Sea Army against the Turks, the Patriarch of Aquil…ia being Captain: Rome was still p. 448in War: He claimed the Kingdome of Naples to the Church for want of Heirs; an Anti-Pope was also made, called Clement 8. but being perswaded to resign, he accepted a Bishoprick: Many Cities in Italy ruined by Earthquakes, whose ruines Platina saith he saw with admiration: He made a new Holy-day for Christs Transfiguration.

§. 44. Next cometh Aeneas Sylvius, called Pius 2. one of the most learned of all the Popes, especially an Orator: He was against the Pope for the superiority of Councils at Basil; but when he was made Pope, he recanted it. In his Epistle to his Father he excuseth himself for having a Bastard, and for fornication, (particularly with an English Woman that lodged in the same house with him) telling him, that he was not an Eunuch, and remembering his Father what a Cock of the Game he had been himself; but among the Popes he was a wonder of worthiness: He was vehement for a War with the Turks, but could not so far quench the flames of War at his own doors in Italy, and other Christian Countries, as to accomplish it. Platina recordeth many of his Sentences, ☞among which are: [Every Sect established by Authority, is void of humane reason: If the Christian Religion had not been approved by Miracles, it should have been received for its honesty: The Mortals measures of Heaven and Earth are more bold than true: Astronomy is more pleasant than profitable: The Friends of God are happy here and hereafter: There is no solid joy without virtue: They that know most, doubt most: Artificial Orations move fools, not wise men: As all Rivers flow into the Sea, so all Vices into great mens Courts: Flatterers rule Kings as they list: Princes hear none so readily as accusers: The tongue of a flatterer is the worst plague to a King: He that ruleth many, is ruled by many: He is unworthy the name of a King, who measureth the publick affairs by his own commodity, &c. Ill Physitians kill bodies, and unskilful Priests souls:☞ Virtues enrich the Clergy, Vice impoverisheth them: Marriage was for great reasons forbidden Priests, and for greater is to be restored to them: He that too much pardoneth his Son, cherisheth his Enemy: The covetous never please men, but by dying: Lying is a servile vice, &c.

You may see his R…cantation in Binius, where his Dignity raised him so high as to say, That the Greek and Latin Doctors with one voice say, that he cannot be saved that holdeth not the Vnity of the Roman Church, and all those Virtues are maimed to him that refuseth to obey the Pope, though lying in sackcloth and ashes he fast and pray day and night, and seem in other things to fulfill the Law of God, because obedience is better than sacrifice, and every soul must be subject to the higher power; and it is manifest that the Pope of Rome is placed in the top (or Crown) of the Church, from which (his power of Government) we know that no Sheep of Christ at all is exempted.

O then how much worse is the case of the Abassines, Armenians, Greeks, Protestants, even three fourth parts of the Christian World, than of the Heathens, being all certainly damned for not believing in the Pope: How much more necessary to Salvation is it to please and honour the Pope, than any Angel or Saint in Heaven? But how false is it that the Greek and Latine Fathers all agree in this?

p. 449§. 45. Paulus 2. succeedeth Pius, a man just and clement, saith Platina himself; yet, saith he, before he was Pope, he could get what he would by begging, even with tears, of the Pope and great men: And when he was Pope, all about him sounded with Wars, and Benefices were theirs that would give most for them; and in his fears some-body muttering, that one Callimachus had a Plot against him, he set all on tumult to find out the Conspirators, when there was no such thing: He had before cast out of their places all the Colledge of Abbreviates that had bought their places under Pius, of whom Platina being one, and not getting Audience and relief, wrote him a Letter, that they would go to Princes, and get a Council called to relieve them: For this he was accused of Treason, and laid in Irons by a long imprisonment: And after his release, upon this Dream of a Plot, he and many more were not only imprisoned, but tortured and tormented to force them to confess that which never was: Many died of the torments, even of the worthiest young men of the City. After a long time poor Platina with a broken body is delivered, but the Prisoners at last were accused of Heresie, that they might not seem to have suffered for nothing: Platina's Heresie was, that he had praised Plato, and the Gentile Learning, and had disputed about the Godhead, which was a questioning it; and the Pope himself was so much against Learning, that he used to call studious men Hereticks, and to perswade men that their Sons must learn no more than to read and write. Here Platin… endeth his History; and had he known other Popes as well as he did this, perhaps he would have praised their Iustice and Clemency, as he doth this Pope, by the effects.

§. 46. Sixtus 4. is next, who also spent his days in Italian War and bloodshed: Wonderful! that our late Papists think that all the Christian World hath still obeyed the Pope, when none have so much fought against him as the City of Rome, and the Italians: Onuphrius (who here beginneth the Supplement of Platina) tells you modestly of his Wars, and his horrid treachery against the Florentines, when to get his will on them, he appointeth Conspirators to murder the two Brothers, Iulian and Laurence Medices, of whom the Archbishop of Pisa was one: They assault them in Gods Worship in the Temple, and kill Iulian; but Laurence wounded, is lockt up by the Church-Wardens in the Vestry; The Citizens rose before the Execution could be finished, and hanged the Archbishop, and Poggius and all their Companions in Ropes out at the Windows, strangling also the rest of the Conspirators. The Popes Plot being disappointed, he maketh War against the Florentines, and interdicteth them all publick worship: (the Popes ordinary profane Usurpation, forbidding whole Cities and Kingdomes all such publick worship of God, which Robert Groshead said was the part of Antichrist, and the Devil.) The wisdome of Laurence Medices ended the War when it seemed near the consuming flames; and the Turks invading Italy, terrified the Pope into a peace with the Florentines: But still Italy was imbrued in Wars.

§. 47. Though the Council of Basil had determined the Immaculate p. 450Conception of the Virgin Mary, ☞yet this Pope to reconcile the Dominicans and Franciscans that preached against each other as Hereticks for differing about it▪ did decree, that on pain of Excommunication neither Party should call one another Hereticks for it: By which it appeareth how little indeed the Decrees de fide of General Councils signifie with Popes themselves when their Interest is against them.

§. 48. CCCCLXXVIII. A Toletane Synod renewed divers good Canons for reforming the Clergy; as that none be ordained that cannot speak Latine; to dimini…h the Priests maintenance that still publickly keep Concubines; that Clergy-men play not at Tables, and such like.

§. 49. Next comes Innocent 8. the Italian Wars continuing: He raised an Army to get the Kingdome of Naples as his own; but being beaten,☞ and repenting, he made peace; yet after again deposed the King for not paying him his Rent: He ruled those at Rome and Italy that he could conquer, as the rest of the Popes did before him.

§. 50. Alexander the 6. is next, who (saith Onuphrius) having four Bastard-Sons, and two Daughters, set himself wholly to make them great: The Cardinals bribed, chose him that was the worst of them all, and justly were destroyed by him:See Paul. Iovius, and Gui… c…ardine. The old Italian Wars now ran in the proper Channel: Caesar Borgia, one of the Popes Bastards, being a Cardinal, laid by his holy Order, and set himself to conquer all the Princes of Italy: Historians fill a Volume with his Acts, the cruel murders of Princes and people, surprize of Cities, basest treachery, too long to be by me recited: He murdered his own Brother, many of the chief of Rome, and got possession of most of Italy, killing the former Lords, and their Sons: The Vrsin▪ overthrew his Army, and the Pope flattered them with confident promises into a Peace, till they foolishly trusting him, he got them into his power, and murdered them: Some Cardinals the Pope commanded to drink poyson, and at last having more great men to dispatch, Cardinals and Citizens at a purposed Feast, the Pope ordered his Butler to prepare poysoned Wine for them, and mistaking the Cup, he gave it to the Pope, and his Son Caesar: The Pope died of it; but Caesar being young, and diluting his Wine, was recovered, but his Army hereby scattered. If you would see the History of this Monsters cruelties, read Paulus Iovius: I recite now but what Onuphrius saith, who concludeth that this Popes Virtues were equal to his Vices, (so far goeth a little in a Pope) and yet that he had the greatest perfidiousness, savage cruelty, unmeasurable covetousness and rapacity, inexhausted lust of getting Empire to his Son by right or wrong, when business permitted, giving up himself to all pleasure without difference, but most given to Women, by whom he had four Sons, and two Daughters; the chief was Vannocia Romana, whom he kept as his lawful Wife, for her beauty, alluring manners, and marvellous fruitfulnes: His Comedies, Sports, Gladiators, he mentioneth more fully: Never was there greater license to Hackers and Murderers, and never less liberty to the people: A huge number of Informers (or Accusers;) death was the punishment of the least ill word (against him;) all places were full of robbers or assaulters, p. 451so that there was no safe going in the City by night, nor out of it by day; Rome …hat was the refuge and sanctuary of all other people heretofore, was now become a Slaughter-house, or Butchery. Thus Onuphrius of a virtuous Pope.

§. 51. The Pope being dead, Caesar Borgia seizeth on the Castle, and would have forced the Cardinals (being yet sick of his poyson himself;) but by the rising of the people his Souldiers are stopt, and he agreed to depart, and Pius 3. is chosen, said to be one of the better sort, but lived but 26 days, and died of a sore Leg, suspected to be poysoned.

§. 52. Next cometh Iulius 2. a Military Pope, who spent his days in Italian Wars, especially against Alphonsus Duke of Ferrary, and Ludovicus King of France: In a cruel Battel 20000 are said to be …lain near Ravenna, the French having the Victory, but losing their General, and multitudes of Nobles and Commanders, and were so weakened, that by hired Helvetians, and the English and Spanish that invaded them at home, they were driven and drawn back.

§. 53. CCCCLXXVIII. A Council at Tours in France met against the Pope.

§. 54. CCCCLXXIX. A General Council at Pisa 1511. gathered against him to call him to account: He had sworn to call a Counc…l within two years, and did not; and so some Cardinals call it, by the Emperour Maximilian and Ludov. K. of France his will (as they said.) The Pope excommunicateth the King of France, and calleth an Anti-Council to Rome; this of Pisa removed first to Millan, and then to Lyons in France.

§. 55. CCCCLXXX. Now cometh the great Anti-Council at the Lateran, which they call the seventeenth approved General one, 1512. begun by Iulius against the Pisane Council, and ended 1517. under Leo 10. The Pope thought Rome the safest place to rule them, and obtain his will; and for all the numerous Bishops of Italy, this General Council had but 114. Bishops: Qu. Whether any of them came from Abassia, Egypt, Armenia, Greece, or the Antipodes, and were the Representatives of all the Christian World? yet they had a dull cheat herein to deceive the ignorant, and put the name of the Alexandrinian and Antiochian Patriarch on two Fellows of their own, as in a Play the parts of Princes are acted by the Stage-players: But when the Monothelites had a Council of innumerable Bishops under Philippicus, that was not to be called General. He that is so idle may read a Volumn of the twelve Sessions of this Council, and there find who said Mass such a day, and who such a day, and who sung a Gospel and Te Deum, and such like: And he may read divers Orations, among which their great learned Cajetane's is the chief, condemning the Pisane Council, and confessing that of the three Popes, Nullus eorum aut certus quidem aut absque ambiguitate verus Petri successor existimaretur: Another Oration by Christopher Marcellus, Sess. 4. tells the Pope that he is, [Vnus Princeps qui summam in terris habet potestatem, teque omnis aevi, omnium saeculorum, omnium gentium Principem & caput appellat] tantae reipublicae unicus & supremus Princeps es, cui summa data poiestas, ad divinum injunctum imperium, tuum est. He calls the p. 452Church his Spouse, and saith, he hath given satutem vitam & spiritum, and saith, that he is alter Dens in terris. You see what Popes are.

Stephen, Archbishop Patracens, and Bishop Torcell…n, doth Poetize … Saphicks.

Omnium splendor, decus & peren…

Virginum lumen, genitrix superni,

Gloria humani generis Maria, Vnica nostri.

Sola tu Virgo Dominaris astris,

Sola tu Ter…e, Maris atque Coeli

Lumen, inceptis faveas Inclyt… nostris.

Vt queam sacros resecare sensus,

Qui latent chartis nimium severis;

Ingredi & celsae, duce te, benigna Maenia terrae.

The business of that Council was to frustrate that at Pisa, and condemn it; and so to save the Pope, and to condemn the French pragmatical Sanction, as injurious to the Roman power; to which end they read a Renunciation of it, of Ludovic…s 2. to Pope Pius 2.

Pope Iulius died, and Leo 10. was chosen in the midst of the Councils Sessions: They pretended War against the Turks, but in vain.

§. 56. One Decree here past which nulleth utterly the Papal Succession,☞ viz: Sess. 5. (That a Simoniacal Election of a Roman Pope is plainly null, and doth confer no Right or Authority to the elected) which is plainly declarative; therefore when they confess the Simoniacal Election of so great a number of their Popes successively, where is the true succession.

§. 57. In the eighth Sess. a Decree past against them that say the Soul is mortal, or that it is but one in all or many: And they confute the truth, by pretending to confirm it, saying, that the Soul is per se & essentialiter forma corporis; For then the separated Soul loseth its essence, and so is no Soul, or else is forma corporis, when corpus is not corpus organicum.

For the cure of this, they decree that none study Philosophy above five years, unless they joyn Divinity with it: And they forbid Printing and Preaching unlicensed.

§. 58. This Leo the tenth was excellently prepared for the Papacy; Wars had dipossest his Father at Florence, and the King of France, Lewis 11. for his Fathers sake,☞ had honoured (or dishonoured) him with an excellent and rich Archbishoprick, when he was a Child: You may conjecture at what age, when as he was scarce thirteen when Innocent 8. made him a Cardinal, to gratifie his Father Laurence Mediees, who had given his Daughter to Francis the Popes Son; but because of his Non-age, he staid yet from Rome: when he was Pope, he would fain have had peace in Italy if he could, being p. 453wholly addicted to ease and voluptuousness: He hired the Helvetians for his Militia against Francis King of France, but they were destroyed by the French, and the Pope was glad at last to beg a peace. Having unbounded desires of Empire, he pickt a quarrel with the Duke of Vrbane, and assaulted him with Arms, and dispossest him of his Country, whence he fled, and ungratefully banished D…rista…s, and his Brother Alphonsus a Cardinal, who studying revenge, was destroyed by him: The Pope sought to insnare the Duke of Ferrary, but failed; the French in Italy conquer the Emperour and Helvetians; the Turk winneth Syria and Egypt; the Pope sits bare-foot to pray against him, bringing forth all the Consecrated Dishes, the Saints Relicks, Images, &c. in pomp, and the Tyrant presently died of a Cance… The Pope falleth on divers Cardinals; Cardinal Alphonsus he imprisoneth, and appointeth a Blackamoor to break out his Chamber, and strangle him: Having hereby lost the love of many of the old ones, in one day he maketh one and thirty new Cardinals, that he may be sure of help; Paulus Baleon he beheaded, Amadeus Ricinatius he hanged: It was this Pope that is commonly said to have said to Pet. Bembus his Secretary, What profit doth this Fable of Iesus bring us in.

§. 59. But now begins the fatal time, Anno 1517. Martin Luther began to cry down their sin, and draw the people of Germany from them; and Zuinglius, and many others doing the same, the light brake forth, and the darkness vanished. I need not write the History of it, which is so commonly known or published: The Pope published a Bull against him, in which he numbereth his supposed Errours; you may see them in Binius, pag. 653. in Leo the tenths life, how Iohn Frederick Elector of Saxony bore Luther out, how Philip of Hassia seconded him, how the University of Wittenberge clave to him, and especially Philip Melancthon, that excellent man; how the Free Cities, with many Princes, came in to them, and joyned; how many Petitions and Disputations there were about it; how the Augustine Confession was written, and the Apology for it; how it turned to a War; how the Elector of Saxony, and Philip Landgrave of Hass…a, were taken prisoners; how Maurice of Saxony, siding with the Emperour, was made Elector, and Iohn Frederick dispossest; how the same Maurice after, to vindicate Philip of Hassia, took Arms against the Emperour, and forced him to flight, and finally to some degree of toleration for the Protestants. All these things the History of the Reformation, written by divers, telleth you at large; as also how many great and excellent Divines were suddenly raised up to stand for Reformation, as soon as Tyranny was so far abated as that men might freely shew their minds, it soon appeared that most had been long subjugated to the Pope more by violence than by consent: when the Emperour was necessitated to a Toleration, he consulted for some abatement to procure Concord, and by Agricola, Sidonius, and Iulius Pflug (an Antinomian turned back to Popery) drew up a middle form of worship, called the Interim, which he would have all conform to till a General Council, which divided the Reformers among themselves, while some as moderate; p. 454and to avoid total ruine of the Church, yielded to part, and others refused, and multitudes of Ministers were therefore ejected and persecuted. This great Emperour, Charles the Fifth, after long Wars, and many Victories, and sharp Persecutions, was at last weary of all, and resigned his Empire,See the History of Charles, Prin…e of Spains's death. and betook himself to a private life in Spain, where he died, strongly suspected of repentance and inclination to the Reformed Doctrine himself: He bequeathed nothing (as was usual) to any Religious House, or Order: There were found papers about him for the Protestant Doctrine of Justification; his Confessor, and another Doctor that attended him, were hereupon suspected of Heresie, and one persecuted, and the other put to death by the Inquisition. Thus errour, sin, and worldly violence are never true to themselves, but must be repented of at last, and none can stand to them when the light prevaileth.

§. 60. But to return to Pope Leo, when he had made above forty Cardinals, exercised many cruelties, and made a League with the Emperour against the French, to drive them out of Italy, when his Arms had prevailed, and the French were expelled, and Milan recovered, and some Cities restored to the Church (that is, to the Pope) the excessive joy for the Victory so …oved him,☞ that (saith Onuphrius) he fell into a Fev…r, of which he died, but not without suspition of poyson. The same Onuphrius (whom I follow) saith, that (he was a diligent observer of divine things, given to the sacred Ceremonies, but he was profusely given to Voluptuousness, Hunting, Hawking, Luxury, splendid Feastings, Musick, and to get money sold Cardinalships, invented Offices, &c. and yet was the most liberal of all the Popes that ever had lived to that day, excessively loving Musick, &c.) This was Papal Piety, by which he merited a Monument inscribed OPTIMO PRINCIPI LEONIX. &c. saith Onuphrius: (In all his life he desired nothing more ardently than the highest glory of liberality, from which other Priests use to be very far off.) Perhaps for this glory Tecelius must get money by selling Pardons, which began his fall: Verily they have their reward, saith Christ of Hypocrites, that do their Alms to be seen of men.

§. 61. It is to be noted, that as the great ignorance and wicked lives of the Roman Clergy were the great advantage to Luthers success,☞ (as the gross idolatry and wickedness of Heathens was to Christianity of old) and the Learning and Piety of the Reformers were the means of their common acceptance; so hereupon the Papacy perceived a necessity of greater Learning, and some Reformation, for its own defence from utter ruine: whereupon many were awakened, and addicted to seek Learning, and some Provincial Councils made some Canons for amending the Clergies lives; so that their encrease of Learning▪ and some amendment of manners, was occasioned by the Protestants; yea, the Popes themselves have since then been far less vicious and turbulent than before.

§. 62. And all Christian Princes have cause to be thankful to the Reformers,☞ and to acknowledge that from them they have now the safety of their Crowns and Dignities, and their peace; and by them, of Subjects, p. 455they are restored to a great degree of freedome, I mean even those that yet are Papists, the Pope dare not now damn them as Henrician Hereticks, as he long had done; he dare not be so bold in taking away, and giving Kingdomes; he dare not execute his Laws against Princes Investitu…es, nor excommunicate them, and depose them, and absolve their Subjects, nor interdict whole Kingdomes▪ and shut up Church doors, nor so much as openly profess that he hath power from God, and S. Peter, to depose Kings according to their Merits, and to set up others in their stead. O how much quieter is Italy, Spain, France, Germany, &c. since the Reformation, and how much less troubled with Papal terrours and wars, than heretofore; and all is for fear lest if the Pope should anger them, the rest of the Princes should forsake him. Heretofore if one Kingdome stood up against the Pope, the rest were ready blindly to obey his Commands, to fall upon them and destroy them: But now the Reformed Nations have more strength to defend themselves, and those that shall joyn with them: The truth is, it is Reformation that hath made even the Papists Princes Free-men.

§ 63. The History of all the Roman horrid bloody cruelties, by which they laboured to suppress Reformation, I here omit, because (as it well deserveth) it is written in many large volumns by it self: I mean the bloody murders of the Albigenses, Waldenses, Bohemians, the cruelties of the Inquisition in Spain, Belgia and other parts: The Massacre in France. The burning people in England and the murders in Ireland, and in other countries: you may read them at large in many Histories: In Thuanus, Sleidan, Illericus, Morney, Perin, Moreland, the Belgian, and French Histories: Foxe's Acts and Monuments, and summarily in Mr. Sam. Clerks Martyrology: And Carion, M… lancton, Micreleus, D. Paraeus, Vignerius, Scull…tus, Bucholcer, Fuactius, and many others give you an account of the Reformation. And the Lives of the German Divines, written by Melchior Adaunes, yea and of their Lawyers, Physicians and Philosophers, giveth not an unpleasant light into that History: So that for me here to treat of the Reformation in a large volumn (to do what is so often done already) would be incougruous.

The making of Vrban the 6th. the Emperours Schoolmaster Pope, and the Wars in his time; The Succession of Clement the 7th. and the Italian Wars in his time, between the Emperour and the French and others, and the taking of Rome by the Emperour (Charles the 5th.) army under Charles Duke of Bourbon, and all the progress of their broils, Historians have at large recorded; and therefore I shall pretermit.

§ 64. The day before Charles the 5th. was chosen Emperour, the Senate of Electas chose Iohn Frederick Duke of Saxony; but he ingenti animo recusavit, refused it; and being asked whom he thought most eligible, he said none but Charles was fit. For this noble mind, he was offered 30000 Florens of money, which he constantly rejected: And when they urged him that 10000 might be given to his servants, he said, let them that will take it, but he that taketh any shall not stay to morrow with me, and taking horse went his waies, lest they further troubled him: Thus saith Erasmus, Epist. l 13. p. 456…p. 4. I was assured of by the Bishop of Liege that was presen…t] See B… zar Chronol. p. 533.

§ 65. The Reformation forced the German Bishops to make many reforming Canons, at Colen, &c. Among those of an Augustine Synod our own strife about communicating maketh me think of no loss of time to recite their Catalogue of persons that were to be denied the Sacrament of Communion, viz. as followeth.

1. Heathens, Infidels and Hereticks. 2. The Excommunicate. 3. All men at a time of common Interdict. 4. Men that go from their own Parishes for it. 5. Those that are under age: And distracted, possessed, Ideots. 6. Those that are troubled with crudity of stomacks (till cured.) 7. Infamous persons, as Juglers, Players, Jesters, &c. 8. Women that wear Mens apparel. 9. Separatists and Conventiclers. 10. The Sect of the Beggars of Lyons. 11. The superstitious. 12. Those that have not contrition and confession, living in sin. 13. That live in notorious wickedness, as Adultery, Usury, &c. till their actual reformation. 14. Deserters of Marriage unallowed. 15. Those that play much at Dice. 16. That are given to drunkenness, gluttony, comessations, spend daies in Taverns; And if they amend not they are to be put to death. 17. That detain other mens goods. 18. That break and spoil Temples. 19. That encroach on others lands and grounds. 20. Servants that being corrected refuse their duty to their Master after it. 21. They that use false weights and measures. 22. That pay not Tythes. 23. That delay to execute Testaments. 24. That obstinately despise the Customes of the Church, and meet elsewhere. 25. That disturb the Preachers, or go out of Church contemptuously. 26. That will not hear Mass and stay the end. 27. That use unnecessary labour on the Lords day or holy daies. 28. That marry secretly. 29. That slothfully or contemptuously refuse to learn the Lords prayer, and Creed. 30. That blaspheme or prophanely swear. 31. That reproach and dishonour Priests. 32. Murderers, Enemies, revengeful and oppressors. 33. That preserve not carefully their Childrens Lives. 34. That make Laws against Church Liberties, or Judge by such Laws, or lay burdens and exactions on Churchmens persons or goods. 35. Those that judge that money received on Usury is not to be restored.

§ 66. The Reformers accusations of the Popish Clergy had this effect, to make them confess many of their faults, especially drunkenness, and Whoredome, as being the cause of the peoples distaste and desertion; see the Orations at the Councils of Augusta, and Trevers; and the Council at Trevers made strict Canons against them, especially for removing Concubines from the Priests. And one at Colen 1549. is large for some reformation; but especially careful to keep out true Reformation, forbidding the books of Protestants by name. Among other things they forbid baptizing Children in private houses, except Kings Children, &c. And another Council at Mentz hath the whole sum of the Roman Doctrine and Discipline at the best, save the matters of the Papacy; and these late provincial Councils made Canons p. 457in the frame of them, not much of our English Canons and our Articles of Religion set together. And another Council at Trevers repeateth their disciplinary Canons in part, and addeth more.

§ 67. The History and Canons of the Council of Trent are sufficiently published; and Pope Pius his Oath conjoyned; so that I need not speak of that which I intend not to make any part of the matter of this Epitome, which extendeth but to the time of Luthers Reformation.

68. Even after the Reformation, the Pope could not live in Italy without fighting: Pope Iulius the 3d, fought with Octavius Farnesius at Parma; Pope Paul sought with the King of Spain: but was beaten: He set sixteen Cardinals over the Inquisition (the defence of his Kingdome): He imprisoned Cardinal Morrovius suspected of heresie, absolved after by Pope Pius the 4th. who yet strangled Caraffa, and beheaded Cardinal Leonard, Count Montarius, &c.

§ 69. Cardinal Charles Borrhomeus (sainted by them) at divers Millane Councils shewed a great deal of Reforming, and some deforming zeal. In the first Council I shall note that they decreed that men once admitted to the Communion, and returning to their sin, be no more admitted till the Priest see that they have actually reformed their lives. And that before any young persons first receive, they shall some dayes be examined, and taught the use and reason of the Sacrament, Priests notoriously criminal must not say Mass till they amend their lives. No Physician must give physick to any after four dayes sickness that is not confest to the Priest (on pain of excommunication). Bishops are forbidden to stand when Princes sit, no not for saying Grace at meat: nor otherwise to depress and abject themselves to Princes. Parish Priests must have a book of the Names, Sex, Age, and State of every Parishioner. Whores are to dwell in their assigned places, and to be known by their apparel from others. Dancing, Playes, Dice, Selling, &c. forbidden on the Lords dayes and holy dayes. Indeed the Roman Religion was never set out with greater advantage of piety and reformation than in the copious Decrees of Carolus Borrhomeus in the Milan Councils: To which a Council at Aquileia added, endeth Binnius his History of Councils.

§ 70. In all this History of Councils, Bishops and Patriarchs it appeareth that Corruptio optimi est pessima; As the sacred Ministry in pious humble wise, peaceable and sincere men, hath been Gods great means of planting, ordering, preserving and encreasing his Church, and converting, edifying, and saving Souls, and such to this day are as Paul called Timothy (not the Church) (A Pillar and Basis of the truth in the Church, which is the House of the Living God) the Husbandmen that still cultivate the Vineyard of the Lord, while with self-denial, and faith, and heavenly minds, they labour to promote holy WISDOME, LOVE, SPIRITUALITY and PEACE, abhorring pride and worldly designs, and being mostly little noted in the Histories of the Church, as not appearing in the turbulent and publick affairs of the world: so contrarily Pride, and worldliness, seeking Dominion, p. 458favour and wealth, to feed also sensuality with fleshly pleasure, by Satans great diligence have corrupted sacred Societies, Doctrine, Worship, Discipline and Conversation, and when the Prince of pride and darkness, the God of this World, could not directly expugne Christianity, he hath under pretence of Government, Unity, and Advancement to the Church, set his Malignant Ministers in the Chairs and Pulpits of the Church to do his work, and fight down piety, love and peace in the name of Christ, and as it were by his Authority; and instead of persecuting Heathens, Satan hath set up contentions, dividing, and silencing, and persecuting Prelates, to smite the true Shepherds, and scatter the Flocks; and as for Faith and Order, to tread down the true life of Faith, Love and Order, and to be the Capital Enemies of the Church, while they would make themselves its Heads, Advancers and Defenders; so that the chief good and the chief mischief hath come to the Church by the means of the Pastors: And no Schismes, no Heresies, no Persecutions have been more grievous, than those that have been caused by a tyrannical and contentious Clergy; witness all the Conciliary Episcopal Schismes, Wars, and Bloodshed mentioned in this Collection; witness the many hundred thousand Albigenses, Waldenses, and Bohemians murdered, as for the Faith and Church; witness the 30000. or 40000. at once murdered at the French Massacre; witness the horrid cruelties of the Inquisition; witness the Volumes of burned and otherwise murdered Protestants; and witness the Irish Zeal stirr'd up by their Clergy, that murdered two hundred thousand in so narrow a room as that small Country, and in so few Weeks: And whoever is the Antichrist, certainly in Rome, and the Militant Tyrannical Church-Clergy is found the blood of the Saints, and Martyrs of Jesus; and as proud contentious Patriarchs and Prelates ruined Religion and the Empire in the East, and gave it up to Mahometan darkness and cruelty, so have they under the name of Christianity impugned the Christian Interest in the West. I end with G. Heebert:

Only the West and Rome do keep them free

From this contagious infidelity:

And this is all the Rock whereof they boast,

As Rome will one day find unto her cost;

Sin being not able to extirpate quite

The Churches here, bravely resolv'd one night

To be a Church…man, and to wear a Mitre,

The old debauched Ruffian would turn Writer:

I saw him in his Study, where he sate

Busie in controversie sprung of late:

A Gown and Pen became him wondrous well,

His grave aspect had more of Heaven than Hell;

Only there was a handsome picture by,

To which he lent a corner of his eye:

As Sin in Greece a Prophet was before,

And in old Rome a mighty Emperour;

p. 459So now being Priest, he plainly did profess

To make a Jest of Christs three Offices;

The rather since his scattered juglings were

United now in one, both time and sphere:

From Egypt he took petty Deities,

From Greece Oracular Infallibilities;

And from old Rome the liberty of pleasure,

By free dispensing of the Churches Treasure:

Then in memorial of his Ancient Throne,

He did sirname his Palace Babylon:

Yet that he might the better gain all Nations,

And make that name good by their transmigrations,

From all these places, but at divers times,

He took five Vizards to conceal his Crimes.

From Egypt Anchorisme, and retiredness,

Learning from Greece, from old Rome stateliness;

And blending these, he carried all mens eyes,

While Truth sate by, counting his Victories;

Whereby he grew apace, and scorn'd to use

Such force as once did captivate the Iews;

But did bewitch, and finely work each Nation

Into a voluntary transmigration:

All post to Rome; Princes submit their Necks,

Either to his publick Foot, or private Tricks:

It did not fit his Gravity to stir,

Nor his long Journey, nor his Gout and Fur;

Therefore he sent out ABLE MINISTERS,

States-men wi…in,Councils by Anathema's. without door Cloysterers;

Who without Spear, or Sword, or other Drum,

Than what was in their Tongue, did overcome;

And having conquer'd did so strangely rule,

That the whole World did seem but the Popes Mule:

As new and old Rome did one Empire twist,

So both together are one ANTICHRIST;

Yet with two Faces, as their Ianus was,

Being in this their old crackt Looking-glass:

How dear to me, O God, thy Counsels are!

Who may with thee compare!

Thus Sin triumphs in Westerns-Babylon,

Yet not as Sin, but as Religion;

Of his two Thrones he made the later best,

And to defray his journey from the East,

Old and new Babylon are to Hell and Night,

As is the Moon and Sun to Heaven and Light.