Antichrist Pointed and Painted Out in His True Colors, Chapter 16
CHAP. XVI. Of Antichrists or the Popes lawlesse and most wicked Life, 2. Thess. 2.3.
FOR which respect Anchrist is called (foreign) That Man of sin, by way of Eminencie or excesse therein, and v. 8. That lawlesse and wicked one, who as he professeth in his Cannon Law, (dist. 40 cap. 6. Si Papa &c.) Is to judge all but to be judged by none, altho hee should not only go to Hell himself, but also leade innumerable troups of People with him.
Whence it is that of Benedict the ninth, Platina and Onuphrius reporteth,Plat. in vitae benedict 9. after his death he appeared to sundrie in an horrid and monstrous shape telling hee had beene such a Pope, and being asked how, or why he did so appeare, hee answered, Quia in vita Exlex & sine ratione vixi, that is, because I lived lawlesse, and as an unreasonable beast (said he) whence it is also, that Laurentius Valla that noble and learned Roman before cited, and channon of S. Lateran, speaketh thus, Nulla itaque usquam religio, nulla sanctitas, nullus Dei timor, De donatione Constantini.& quod referens quoque horresco, omnium scelerum impii homines a Papa sumunt excusationem, That is, There is no religion at all to bee seene, no holienes, no feare of God, and which I tremble also to speake of al sort of wickednes, wicked men from the Pope himself maketh their excuse.
To come then in particular, to the sins whereby it is evident that the Pope is that lawlesse and awlesse wicked one, or man of sin foreprophecied: in place of many (alreadie spoken of) I shall mention two onlie maine ones, whereby hee resembleth Satan, (the vicar of whose power hee is) to wit, crueltie and uncleannesse, as satan is called an uncleane Spirit, and Murtherer from the beginning, of the which sin of crueltie and blood-thristines, having spoken before, It resteth now onelie to speake of the other, the sin of uncleanesse, wherof their own Carmelite Frier Baptista Mantuanus thus speaketh.
Roma ipsa lupanar
Reddita, faemineo Petri domus oblita fluxu
Ad stygios olet us que lares, incestat olympū,
Nidore hoc, facta toto execrablis ore.
Englished thus, Rom's now a stew's wher Peter once did dwel infect with femal flux, it doth most beasty smel Doun to the hellish vaults, & up unto the skys And is so loathsō grown in al the worlds eyes.
Which made also their owne most noble Petrarch in his Epistle, intituled, De inameno occiduae Babylonis statu, speak thus of that bestiall (and scarce to bee named amongst Christians) sin of Sodome, Hic Tauro supposita pasiphae mixtum que genus (quod Maro ait) prolesque biformis, veneris monumenta nefandae &c. Qui jam pontificalis lasciviae ludi sunt (saith he)
Particular instances of which sins of uncleanesse I shall onlie relate out of their owne most famous Authors, as first, Sergius the Third who succeeded Formosus, whose dead bodie (as hath beene said) hee untombed, beheaded, and cast into Tyber, was a most uncleane beast, abusing his bodie with a most famous strumpet Marozia upon whom hee begot, (as Onuphrius telleth us) Iohn who afterward succeeded Pope, by the name of Iohn 11. or as Platiua counteth Iohn the 10.
After which forenamed Sergius succeeded Iohn the Tenth, (or as Platinae counteth the Nynth, elected to be Pope (by their owne Onuphrius testimonie) by the meanes of a most notable strumpet, Theodora daughter of Marozia, who burnt in excessive lust with him, &c who was thereafter strangled by the means of Marozia, Sergius harlot, that so her son Iohn the eleventh, (or as Platina counteth the tenth) might come to the Popedome.
This Iohn likewise son to Pope Sergius by his harlot Marozia, by her meanes comming to the Popedome, had his life suteable also to his birth and entrie, his life being wicked and his death violent. Which maketh their own Cardinall Baeronius in his tenth Tome of his Annalls, anno 912. art. 3. cry out thus, Quae tunc facies Ecclesiae Romans? quam foedissima, cum Romae dominarentur potentissimae aeque ac sordidissimae meretrices? quarum arbitrio mutarentur sedes, darentur Episcopi, & quod auditu nefandum est, intruderentur in sedem Petri earum amaesii, That is, O what face then had the Church of Rome, how filthie? wherein did rule and domin most powerfull and most filthie Whoores, at whose pleasure Bishops were made, and transplantation from one sea to another, and which is most horrible either to bee heard or spoken that their Whoore. masters should be by them intruded even into Peters chayre.
After this wicked Monster Iohn the eleventh, succeeded in short time Iohn the twelth a boy of eyghteen yeares of age (as Baronius reporteth) by simonie of his parents, who from his youth (as both Platina and Onuphrius reporteth) Was defyled with all manner of wickednesse, being given (sayth Platina) only to dycing, hunting, and whooring, so that it is reported that this wicked Monster (sayeth he) was stricken thorow in the very act of Adulterie by the womans Husband, whom he had abused, a famous husband indeed himself to the spouse of CHRISTS Church upon earth.
After this Monster of wickednes, succeeded shortlie Boniface the Seventh, by strangling (as Onuphrius reporteth) of his predecessour, a most sacrilegious Theefe and Monster of crueltie (as Platina calleth him,) aswell as of uncleannesse. (a famous Pope indeed, to be called his holienesse.)
After whom in short time stept up to the Popedome, Sylvester the Second, Who (as Platina and others do witnesse) gaue himself whollie by paction to the Devil to attayne to the Popedom, whose Bodie at last being rent and torne in pieces by the Devil, at his own direction beforehand, was laid upon a Cart and carried to the Church of S. LATERAN, where it was buried, and where before the death of any Pope since, his tomb is seene to sweate, (sayeth Platina) and a collision or rumbling of his bones is heard. (A worthie head indeed of such a bodie as is the Church of CHRIST.)
Afterward succeeded Benedict the ninth Who was a Monster of all sorts of wickednesse, and who after his death (as hath beene said) appeared in so monstrous and uglie a shape, and declared that it was, because he had lived lawlesse and awles: and (as Baronius reporteth) who attayned to the Popedome by simonie of his parents, being onelie twelve yeares of age.
After Benedict the ninth, succeeded Sylvester the Third, Who entered (sayeth Platinae) not by the doore, but like a Theefe and Robber came in by the posterne.
After him in likemanner succeeded Gregorie the sixt, whom Platina with the former two, calleth Tria teterrima Monstra, and Cardinall Baronius the three headed Cerberus, and yet heads of the Church of CHRIST.
After this Gregorie the sixt, in short time succeeded Gregorie the seventh, called before Hildebrand, or more rightlie, a Hells-brand, Whom the Councell of Brixia accused of these wicked crymes following, (as the Abbot of Vrsperg reporteth) to wit,In vit… Hērici 4. Imp. f. 237. Simonie and intrusion, sedition, adulterie, sacriledge, murther. perjurie, witchcraft, & necromancie, & therfore accordinglie adjudged him worthie to be deposed.
Thereafter did Boniface the Eight succeed in the Papall sea, who (sayeth Platina) Strove more to shake with terrour Emperours, Kings, Princes, Nations, & people, then any wayes make them religious, (farre contrare to CHRISTS example or PETERS, whose vicar or successour he… claimeth to bee) and of whome that Charter Monk, author of Fasciculus temporum, sayeth, That he entered like a fox, he lived like a lyon, and dyed as a dog.
But what shall I say of that notable Whoore and craftie Strumpet, who was Pope under the name of Iohn the sevēth▪ whose villanie & vyle uncleānes, was discovered by her bearing her birth on the very opē streets of Rome, by Gods speciall providence, while she was going in procession to the church of Lateran, betweene the Theater called Colossum, & S. Clements Church, which thereafter since that time, Detestandi facinoris causa (sayeth Platina) never any Pope went, and for preventing the like whereof in time comming that hole in the Chayre wherein the Pope elected is first set, was devised, that by the last Deacon his genetalls may be handled for declaring him to be of the Masculine sex, as is reported by Platina, Martinus Polonus, Sigebert, Fasciculus temporum, and a cloud of many more popish historians.
Likewise may be added that incestous Monster. Alexander the sixth with his owne daughter Lucretia, Whose Epitaph was this.
Hoc jacet in tumulo Lucretia nomine, sed re
Thais, Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus.
Whose life, as Guicciardin testifieth in his historie of Italie was nothing else, But an acting of all monstrous uncleannesse, Lib. 6. p. 202.immoderate ambition, pestiferous perfidie, unheard of avarice, (sayeth hee) & most horrible crueltie.
I could recite many more examples, but these may suffice, so that it is most true which the Iesuite Pererius speaketh of Antichrist,In dan. 9. lib. 4. § …ecpriora. that inwardlie and in secret Super omnes voluptuarius & libidinosus erit, externa vero conversatione castitate mentietur, That is, aboue all men hee shall be given to voluptuousnes & lecherie, but in outward conversion hee shall counterfite chastitie.