The True Way of Concord of All the Christian Churches, Part 3 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IV.
Popery (or the Papacie) will never unite the Church.
Sect. I. I Come now to prove the inſufficiency and ineptneſs of the terms of Union which many men have deviſed, and obtruded on the Churches: Repeating, that few things more divide, than falſe Means of uniting, while theſe engage men to ſet againſt all that cannot yield to them. And I ſhall begin with the terms of the Papal party, as being the chief Pretenders.
Sect. II. The Papiſts think, that the way of Union and avoiding Schiſm is, for one Man, the Pope of Rome, to be taken for the Univerſal Vicar of Chriſt on Earth, even the governing Head under Chriſt of all the Chriſtians on Earth, yea, and of all the World, in order to make them Chriſtians; and that the Church on Earth is one ſuch politick Body, of which Chriſt is the inviſible Head of influence, and the Pope is the viſible Head as to Government: And that none are of the viſible Church that are not the Popes Subjects, and that they that refuſe ſuch Subjection are Schiſmaticks or Hereticks or Infidels: And that all that own Chriſt, ſhould be compelled by Sword or torment to own the Pope as his Vicar General.
Sect. III. Campanella, de Regno Dei, openeth the Myſtery of the Fifth Monarchy, and alledgeth the texts that are brought for it, as intending Chriſts Reign on Earth by the Pope as his Viceroy: And indeed it is an Univerſal Kingdom or Monarchy which they plead and ſtrive for, under the name of the Univerſal Church: But in this they greatly differ, whether the Pope have the univerſal Power of both Swords, or but of one, that is, both Civil and Eccleſiaſtical, and be really the King of all the World: And herein they are of three Opinions as to the Subject of this Power, and of three Opinions as to the degree.
Sect. IV. As to the Poſſeſſor of this Authority, 1. One party ſay that the ſumma Poteſtas is in th… Pope; 2. Another ſaith, it is in the Pope preſiding in a General Council, or in the Pope and Council agreeing; 3. And another party hold that it is in a General Council alone, yet ſo as that the Pope is the Head of the Univerſal Church, as the chief Prelate, and Ordidinary Governour, though ſubject to the Legiſlative and Judicial Power of the Council.
Sect. V. And as to the Degree of Power, 1. Some hold that the Pope is the Monarch of all the Earth, having the chief Power of both Swords, and that the World is his Kingdom, as Gods Vicegerent.
2. Others hold, that he hath directly only the Eccleſiaſtical Power, but indirectly and in order to Spirituals he hath alſo the Temporal power (of the Sword): Or, as the moſt hold, that in his own Territories he hath both Powers as to Perſonal exerciſe; but in other Kingdoms, he can himſelf only execute the Church-power, but he may command Kings to execute the power of the Sword for Religion, according to his and his Biſhops decrees: and may force them to it by Anathema's, and releaſing their Subjects from the Bonds of Fidelity, and giving their Kingdoms to others: As ſome ſay, that the King may not be perſonally Judge in the Courts of Juſtice, but he may make Judges, and force them to their duty, and depoſe them if unworthy. This differeth little from the former: The Monarchy is nevertheleſs abſolute, though Kings be the Popes Officers or Lictors.
3. But ſome few hold that the Pope and Biſhops have no Power of the Sword at all, nor of forcing Kings to uſe it; The Controverſie was hotly handled when Popes and Emperors were in Warrs: The Volumes written on both ſides are publiſhed by Goldaſtus, to which William Barkley and ſome others in France have added more.
Sect. VI. Rightly therefore doth the Geograph. Nubienſis call the Pope A King; The Name of a Church maketh not a difference in the thing: There be ſome that think that all Kings ſhould be alſo Prieſts, and the Popes will grant it ſo far as to hold, that all Biſhops ſhould be Magiſtrates, and the Chief Prieſt be Univer…al King… Cardinal Bertram in Biblioth. Patr. ſaith, God had not been wiſe, if he had not ſet up ſuch a Monarch under him over the World. And in … ſeu Bulla Sixti quarti Philippo Palatino Rh…ni in …rehero, Vol. 2. pag. 162. you may ſee their Claim in theſe words: [Univerſos Chriſtianos Principes ac…omnes Chriſti fideles requirere eiſque mandare vice Dei, cuius locum quamvis immeriti tenemus in terris.] To require all Chriſtian Princes, and all faithful Chriſtians, and to command them in Gods ſtead, whoſe place on earth we hold, though unworthy.]
The Twelfth General Council, viz. at the Laterane, ſub Innoc. 3. and ſome at Rome under Greg. 7. and many others, put this Claim of theirs paſt doubt.
Sect. VII. Now that the Univerſal Church will never unite in the Roman Papacy, I prove undeniably as followeth:
1. Becauſe Chriſtians will never unite in an Agreement to forſake the Scriptures as Gods Word and Law: where they will ſtill find that he never inſtituted ſuch a Roman Monarch. The Papiſts contrary Aſſertion will never convince the World, when the Book it ſelf is open before them. They will there find no one man that ruled all the reſt; no one to whom Appeals were made: no one that ever claimed ſuch a power; much leſs that ſettled any ſuch at Rome; or that ever a word was left by Chriſt to direct the Church to center in the Biſhop of Rome: Nor that ever the Apoſtles preached this to the Churches, which they muſt needs have done, had it been eſſential to the Church Catholick, or half as neceſſary as the Papiſts make it.
Sect. VIII. 2. Becauſe in Scripture, Chriſtians will (not only find nothing for it, but) much againſt it: which many Volumes having largely proved, (Chamier, Whitakers, White, and abundance more) it would be vain here to repeat. I commend to the Engliſh Reader now but Dr. Challoners ſmall Book, of the Catholick Church.
Sect. IX. 3. Becauſe, were it but as dark and doubtful and uncertain as common Reaſon and Diſputers experience proveth it, the univerſal Church can never unite in a thing which ſo few can ſee any certainty in, or evident proof of.
Sect. X. 4. Becauſe the greatlyeſt reverenced General Councils are againſt it, limiting the Popes power to his Dioceſe, as Nice firſt doth; and declaring him to be National, and of humane Inſtitution as being Biſhop of the Imperial City, and advancing Conſtantinople, from the ſame Reaſon as doth the Council of Chalcedon: Of which I have largely written againſt Terret.
Sect. XI. 5. Becauſe the Greek Church hath ever held the Papacy to be of humane Inſtitution: Proved briefly; 1. Becauſe they ever held the Popes power to ſtand on the ſame Foundation with the other Patriarchs: But they ever held the other Patriarchs to be of Humane Inſtitution; which needs no proofs to men of Reading. 2. Becauſe they ſet up Conſtantinople firſt next him, and then equal to him, and then above him: which they had never done, had they taken the Papacy to be of Divine Inſtitution: For they never pretended any ſuch foundation for the Biſhop of Conſtantinoples power; and they were never ſo deſperate as to ſet up Mans Ordination above Gods. 3. Becauſe they took his Power to be limited by the Laws of the Empire, and him to be ſubject to the Emperours: All which is known to men that know Church-Hiſtory.
Sect. XII. 6. Becauſe the common Reaſon of Mankind will ſtill diſcern that a humane Monarchy of all the Earth, is a dream and Impoſsibility; and that no man is naturally capable of exerciſing ſuch a power.
Sect. XIII. 7. Becauſe while Baronius, Binius, Crab, Surius, and other Hiſtories of the Councils are extant, and Platina, Anaſtaſius, and other Hiſtories of the Popes, and while all the old Church-Hiſtory is extant, and all the German, French, Italian, Belgick, Engliſh, and other later Hiſtories, the horrid wickedneſs of Popes, and the Miſchiefs they have brought upon the World, and the blood they have ſhed to ſettle their Kingdoms, will be known to Mankind, and will not ſuffer men univerſally to believe that God ever made ſuch Governours eſſential to his Church, or neceſſary to its Unity.
Sect. XIV. 8. Becauſe Kings and States will never become all ſo tame and ſervile, as to reſign their Kingdoms ſo far to an univerſal Monarch, and to become his Subjects, eſpecially after the ſad experience of his Government.
Sect. XV. 9. Becauſe if the people were never …o blind, there will in all generations ariſe wiſe and Learned perſons, who will know all theſe things, and never conſent to Popery.
Sect. XVI. 10. Laſtly from Experience: The Univerſal Church now doth not, nor ever did unite in the Roman Papacy, and therefore never will do. That now they do not, is paſt doubt with thoſe that know the Papiſts are but the third or fourth part of the Chriſtian World. Biſhop Bramhall ſaith they are but a fifth part. The great Empire of Ethiopia, the Chriſtians in Egypt, Syria, Meſopotamia, that are falſly called by them Neſtorians and Eutychians or Jacobites, who parted from the Greeks upon the ejection of Dioſecrus by the Council of Chalcedon, the Armenians, Circaſſians, Mengrelians, Georgians, thoſe ſcattered in the Perſian Empire, the Greeks ſcattered throughout the Turkiſh Empire, the Empire of Moſcovie, the Kingdoms of Sueden, Denmark, England, Scotland and Ireland, the Subjects of the Dukes of Saxony, Brandenburgh, Lunenburgh, Hanover, Oſnaburgh, Holſtein, the Prince of Haſſia, the Palſgrave of the Rhine, Ducal Pruſſia, Curland, Tranſilvania, all the Proteſtant free Cities in Germany, Dantzick, and others tolerated in Poland, thoſe in Hungary, ſome in Walachia and Moldovia; Belgia, called the Low-Countreys, with Frieſland, Embden, Geneva, &c. the Proteſtant Cantons of Helvetia; thoſe in Rhoetia, in Piedmont, &c. and thoſe tolerated in France: Our Plantations in the Weſt-Indies or America, viz. New-England, Virginia, Barbados, Bermudas, Jamaica, and the reſt; All theſe are Chriſtians that unite not in the Pope, nor are ſubject to him.
I know they ſay that theſe are Hereticks and Schiſmaticks, and no parts of the Church: But that is too eaſie a way of arguing, and no Cure at all for Chriſtians diſcord. By this way of reaſoning they may prove that all the Chriſtian Church or World is united in the Pope, if he had but ten Subjects, becauſe all the reſt are no part of the Chriſtian Church or World: as a mad man proved that all the World was his, becauſe he thought his Houſe and Land was all the World. But Chriſt will not ſo eaſily loſe his Church, nor be diſputed out of his Inheritance by ſo groſs a fallacy: If you argue [None are parts of the Chriſtian Church but the Popes Subjects: All the Popes Subjects unite in the Pope: Ergo, all parts of the Chriſtian Church are united in the Pope,] You muſt prove your Major to Chriſt better than ever you did, before he will be ſo depoſed from his Kingdom, and loſe thoſe whom he ſo dearly bought. The Biſhop of Conſtantinople, Alexandria, Epheſus, Canterbury, may ſay the like, that none are Chriſtians but their Subjects, but this is it that I ſay the World of Chriſtians are not united in.
Sect. XVII. And as it is ſo now, it was ſo in the laſt Age: And though ſome of them cheat Women by telling them that all the Chriſtian world before Luther were united in ſubjection to their Popes, they muſt burn all their own Church Hiſtory and Councils, and make men ignorant of what is paſt in former ages, before this will be believed by men that can read Latin and Greek; certainly they do not believe it themſelves: They cannot though they would: Was all the Weſt ſubject to the Pope, when ſo many hundred thouſand were murdered for being againſt him? When the Bohemians were ſo perſecuted by warrs? when Spain it ſelf hath been accuſed of ſuch Hereſie? when moſt of Germany ſtuck to the Emperours, and deſpiſed the Popes? when France and England have been cenſured and Interdicted by him, and obeyed not his Interdicts? when for many Ages moſt of Italy hath been a Field of warr, and fought againſt him? when Rome it ſelf hath ſo oft driven him away? But eſpecially when upon the Conſtantinopolitane Decree de tribus Capitulis, Pope Vigilius was forſaken by much of Italy and the Weſt, and all his Succeſſors for about an hundred years, and the Patriarch of Aquileia ſet up as their Head inſtead of Rome, till Sergius after reconciled them? And all this while were not the Greeks, Moſcovites, Armenians, Syrians, Abaſſines, and all the reſt before mentioned in Aſia and Africa, &c. from under the Pope?
I have oft asked, and ask again, was all Chriſtendome ſubject to the Pope, of whom their Melchior Canus ſaith (Lecd Com. cap. 7. fol. 201.) That not only the Greeks, but almoſt all the reſt of the Biſhops of the whole World have fought to deſtroy the Priviledges of the Church of Rome; and indeed they had on their ſide the Arms of Emperours, and the Greater number of Churches: and yet they could never prevail to ab…gate the Power of the One Pope of Rome?]
Was all the Chriſtian World under him, when their Raynerius ſaith, (cont. Wald. catal. in Bibl. Patr. To. 4. p. 773.) [The Church of the Armenians, and Ethiopians, and Indians, and the reſt which the Apoſtles converted, are not under the Church of Rome?]
Was all the Church under him before the Turks conquered the Greeks? when the Greek Church alone, and the reſt in the Eaſtern Empire, were twice as many as all the Weſtern Churches: and Abaſſia, and all in the Eaſt and South without the Empire, were alſo from under him?
Yea and when their own Jacobus de Vitriaco writeth (Hiſtor. Orient. c. 77.) who dwelt at Jeruſalem, [That the Churches of the Eaſterly parts of Aſia, alone, exceeded in number the Chriſtians either of the Greek or Latine Church.] And their Brochardus, that lived alſo there, ſaith, that [Thoſe called Schiſmaticks by us, are far better men than thoſe of the Roman Church.
Sect. XVIII. If they ſay, that at leaſt for the firſt ſix hundred years all the Church was governed by the Pope? I anſwer, It is more probable which Marnixius and many Proteſtants affirm, that for the firſt ſix hundred years there was not one Papiſt in the world,See all this fally proved in my Books againſt J…hnſon, of the Viſibility of our Church, eſpecially in my laſt called [W…ich is the true Church. that is, One that took the Pope to have the Governing power over all the Church on Earth. The oft cited words of Gregory the firſt and Pelagius plainly ſhew, that they abhorred the Claim: The Pope was from the year 300. till 600. and after the firſt Biſhop in the Roman Empire, 1. Under Councils and Emperours; 2. Not Ruling the other Patriarchates, but ſitting before them in Councils; 3. And this by M…ns Ordination, only in one Empire; 4. And had no Rule in any of the extraimperial Churches in the World: even here with us the Britains rejected them, and the Scots would not eat or converſe with them. The Abaſſine Empire was never under them, nor thoſe of India and Perſia: And the Councils in which they had the firſt ſeat were but of one Empire, as is after proved.
And as for the firſt three hundred years under Pagan Emperours, their own Writers confeſs the Church of Rome was little ſet by; that is, it had no governing power over the reſt, nor is there any pretence to think they had.
The firſt that talk'd very high, was Leo the firſt, who called himſelf the Head of the Catholick Church: But by [Catholick] was then meant uſually the Churches in the Empire only, and by Head he meant the prime Biſhop in order, but not the Governour of all: Nor was his claim, if he meant any, more approved, by the Churches in that Age. Though the Council of Chalcedon highly applauded him and his Epiſtle, as an advantage to carry their Cauſe againſt Dioſcorus (who had excommunicated the Pope) and took him for the prime member of their Council, yet they thought meet in their Canons to declare, that it was but by humane, mutable right in the Roman Empire.
Let them ſhew us if they can, when and where the univerſal Church on Earth ever ſubjected themſelves at all to the Pope. Much leſs can they bring any pretenſe of it for the firſt three hundred yeas: Had they any Meeting in which they agreed for it? Did they all receive Laws, Ordination or Officers from Rome, or from its Emiſſaries? If we were ſo fooliſh as to believe that his precedence in General Councils was a proof of the Popes Monarchy; yet it's eaſie to prove 1. That for 300 years there was no General Council; 2. And that it was not the Pope that preſided at Nice; 3. And that thoſe Councils were but Imperial, and not truly Univerſal.
But if all the Church ever had been ſubject to the Pope, as being at firſt (except Abaſſia) almoſt confined to the Roman Empire, it doth not follow, that it will ever be ſo again when it is diſperſed into ſo many Kingdoms of the World: The Jeſuites at firſt were all under the King of Spain, and the Mahometans at firſt all under one Prince, but they are not ſo now: Is it likely that ever all Chriſtian, Mahometan and Heathen Kings will ſuffer all their Chriſtian Subjects to be under the Government of a Foreign Prieſt?
But their own Writers agree, that the Apoſtles at firſt were diſperſed into many Countreys beſides the Roman Empire, and that Ethiopia was converted by the Eunuch mentioned Acts 8. initially (its like before Rome,) and fullyer by St. Matthew: And you may ſee in Godignus, Alvarez, Damianus a Goez, and others, full evidence that they were never Subjects to the Pope of Rome.
I conclude then, 1. That Rome is not owned this day as the head of Unity by all Chriſtians: 2. That it never was ſo taken for the Governing and Uniting Head; 3. And that the reaſon of the thing fully proveth that it never will be ſo.
I may adde, that indeed it is not known among themſelves who are the conſenting Subjects of the Pope, or Members of their Church: It is indeed Inviſible, or a Church not knowable. For, 1. They are not agreed, nor ever like to be, what is the eſſential qualification of a Member of the Church: Or what that Faith is that muſt make a Member: Some ſay, it muſt be the Belief of all the Creed explicitely; others, of ſome few Articles; others, that no more is neceſſary ad eſſe than to believe explicitly that God is, and that he is a Rewarder of good works, and to believe that the Church is to be believed: Of which ſee Fr. a Sanct. Clara in his Deus, Natura, Gratia.
2. And their forcing men into their Church with Tortures, Fire and Sword, leaveth it utterly uncertain who are Conſenters, and who are in the Church as Priſoners, to ſave Limbs and Life.
And if they ever recover England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the other Reformed Churches, it muſt be by the Sword, and Warrs, and Violence, and never by force of Argument: And if they ſhould conquer us all (which is their hope and truſt) it will not follow, that men are of their minds, becauſe they cannot or dare not contradict them, no more than becauſe they are dead.
Experience, Reaſon and Scripture then do fully prove to men that are willing to know the truth, that the Univerſality of Chriſtians will never be united to the Roman Papacy: Yea, that this Papacy is the greateſt of all Schiſms, 1. By ſetting up a falſe Head of Union; and 2. By cutting off or renouncing three parts of the Chriſtian World, even all Chriſtians except the Subjects of the Pope.