Romes Ruin(1), Answer · Paragraph 1
PARAGRAPH. I. Concerning the name catholike.
CHALLENGE.
We catholikes say, &c.
Answer.
IF I mistake not in my guesse, you seem to be some mendicant fryer, and according to that profession you begin with begging; for in the very first words you beg the main point in question; to wit, that you are catholikes, saying, We catholikes; prove your selvs to be so, and then speak so; win the name and bear it; mean while, say not, we catholikes, but we papists; or, if you have a months mind to the name catholike, qualifie it, and allay it with your distinctive term Roman, and speak as your fellowes do, we of the *Papists call themselvs catholik romans, as the followers of Andias the heretick called themselvs Christiani Andiani, Christians Andians. Epiph l. 3. heres. 70. Aug cont ep. Manic. c. 4. haretici se catholicos dici volunt. Salv de guber. dei l 6 apud nos sunt hareretici, apud se non sunt, nam tantum se catholicos esse judicant, ut nos ipsos titulo hereticae appellationis infament.catholike Roman church, that is, we of the universall particular church; for, if catholike be universall, surely roman is particular. Or rather, say not, we catholikes say, but we say that we are catholikes, for this hath been the say of all hereticks and schismaticks. The Arrians, saith Salvianus (and all other mis-beleevers) are hereticks in our account, but not in their own. nay they so farre over w… …n themselvs catholikes, that they stick not to def… us who are truly, catholikes with the title and brand of hereticks. As S… Magus stiled himself the great power of God; Theod. hist. Trip foreign.and Iezabel called her selfe a prophetesse; and Nestorius, a notorious heretick covered himself with a vail of an orthodox professour; and the Turks, though it appear out of all stories that they came from Hagar the bond-…o…n and are truly Hagar…ns, yet give themselves the names of …: so you papists generally, though you are a medley or cento of many hereticks, both ancient and latter, yet you voyce your selvs catholikes, and your own testimony Whitaker. Append to his book of the church Rivet. prof to his cathol. orthodox The Church dispersed over the whole earth. Vin Ly… cont. …aret Arrian… venen ū ja… non por…nculam quandam, sed pene orbem totum contaminaverat; a… …t prope cunctis latinis episcop…s, partim v…, partim …aude deceptis caligo quadam mentibus offunderetur.is the best, if not the onelyonly plea you have to that title. For if any other, whom you hove not taught to speak, give you that title, it is out os ignorance, or in derision, as the Athenians made a decree to deine Alexander, quia Alexander vult esse deus, sit Deus; because Alexander will be a god, let him be a god. The term catholike cannot be taken but in one of these two senses, either properly for universall, and so it is opposed to particular: or improperly, for orthodoxall, and so it is opposed to hereticall, or schismaticall. When this epithere is applyed to the church, it is taken in the first sense foreign, supple foreign; but when it is applyed to faith, it is for the most part taken in the latter sense as in the creed of Athanasius, whosoever will be saved must hold the catholike faith; that is, the orthodox faith which he there setteth down: for at that time when he wrote, that creed of his was not catholike in the first sense, that is generally and u… versally received, if that be true which Vincentius writeth, the p… son of the Arrians did not infect only a portion of the church, but … a manner …ain…ed the whole world, insomuch that almost all the la…n bishops being surprised by fraud or by force had a mist cast before their eys. In neither of these two senses of the word can either your church, or your faith, or your persons be termed catholike. Not your church, for Dr. Reynolds hath long ago demonstrated in his second Thesis, tha… present Roman church is neither the Ep. 1. ad Sy… pron christiaanus mihi nomen est, catholicus cognomen… illud me nuncupat, istud ostendit: hoc probor, inde signi….catholike church of Christ, nor a sound member thereof: not your faith; for that, as I said before, (so farre as it differs from ours) is patcht up of many heresies: not your persons, for they are singular, or individuall, and therefore cannot be catholikes, that is, …iversall. Here you use to alledge for your selvs a passage out of Pacianus, christian is my name, and catholike is my sirname. But what is this to you, unlesse you could prove that Pacianus held your Trent faith (when you prove that, I will immediatly turn Roman catholike;) till you shew some affinity between your faith and his, you cannot challenge his sirname catholike. As for his meaning in this his elegant motto, christian is my name, and catholike is my sirname, he alludeth evidently to the manner of the Romans and some other nations, who used to give their children two names at least, one common, as Marcus, or Cneius, or Caius; the other proper, as Cicero, or Crassus, or Anthony, or Pompey; and the sense his words carry is this, christian is a name which I have in common with all that in any sort beleeve the gospel, and are neither Jews not Paynims: but catholike is my proper name, whereby I am distinguished from divers sorts of christians, to wit, all those who professe christianity in generall; yet not purely, but with mixture of some heresie, or schismatically sever themselvs from the communion of the catholike, that is, the universall church: and truly the name catholike in his days, as also in the days of S. Austin (when the hereticks were but a handfull, and lurked but in corners here and there) was a distinctive term: for then the hereticks in regard of their paucitie could not with any colour pretend to the name catholike, but afterwards when heresies became catholike, that is, spread over the whole face of the church, and the orthodox christians were far fewer in number, the title catholike ceased to be a note of distinction, and the word orthodox was used in stead thereof to distinguish true beleevers from all miscreants hereticall or schismaticall.