Concerning Idolatry in the Church of Rome, Chapter 4

Concerning Idolatry in the Church of Rome · Chapter 4

p. 235CHAP. IV. Of the Fanaticism of the Roman Church.

The unreasonableness of objecting Sects and Fanaticisms to us as the effects of reading the Scriptures. Fanaticism countenanced in the Roman Church, but condemned by ours. Private revelations made among them the grounds of believing some points of doctrine, proved from their own Authors. Of the Revelations pleaded for the immaculate Conception. The Revelations of S. Brigitt and S. Catharin directly contrary in this point, yet both owned in the Church of Rome. The large approbations of S. Brigitts by Popes and Councils; and both their revelations acknowledged to be divine in the lessons read upon their dayes. S. Catharines wonderful faculty of smelling souls, a gift peculiar to her and Philip Nerius. The vain attempts of reconciling those Revelations. The great number of female Revelations approved in the Roman Church. Purgatory, Transubstantiation, Auricular Confession proved by Visions and Revelations. Festivals appointed p. 236upon the credit of Revelations: the Feast of Corpus Christi on the Revelation made to Juliana, the Story of it related from their own Writers: No such things can be objected to our Church. Revelations still owned by them; proved from the Fanatick Revelations of Mother Juliana very lately published by Mr. Cressy: Some instances of the blasphemous Nonsense contained in them. The Monastick Orders founded in Enthusiasm. An account of the great Fanaticism of S. Benedict, and S. Romoaldus: their hatred of Humane Learning, and strange Visions and Revelations. The Carthusian Order founded upon a Vision. The Carmelites Vision of their habit. The Franciscan and Dominican Orders founded on Fanaticism, and seen in a Vision of Innocent the third to be the great supporters of the Roman Church. The Quakerism of S. Francis described from their best Authors. His Ignorance, Extasies and Fanatick Preaching. The Vision of Dominicus. The blasphemous Enthusiasm of the Mendicant Fryers. The History of it related at large. Of the Evangelium aeternum, and the blasphemies contained in it. The Author of it supposed to be the General of the Franciscan Order, however owned by the Fryers, and read and preached at Paris. The opposition to it by the Vniversity: but favoured p. 337by the Popes. Gul. S. Amour writing against it, his Book publickly burnt, by order of the Court of Rome. The Popes horrible partiality to the Fryers. The Fanaticism of the Franciscans afterwards. Of the followers of Petrus Johannis de Oliva. The Spiritual State began (say they) from S. Francis. The story of his wounds, and Maria Visitationis paralleld. The canting language used by the spiritual Brethren, called Beguini, Fraticelli, and Begardi. Of their doctrines about Poverty, Swearing, Perfection, the Carnal Church and Inspiration: by all which, they appear to be a Sect of Quakers after the Order of S. Francis. Of the Schism made by them. The large spreading and long continuance of them. Of the Apostolici and Dulcinistae. Of their numerous Conventicles. Their high opinion of themselves. Their Zeal against the Clergy and Tythes; their doctrine of Christian Liberty. Of the Alumbrado's in Spain: their disobedience to Bishops, obstinate adhering to their own fancies, calling them Inspirations, their being above Ordinances. Ignatius Loyola suspected to be one of the Illuminati, proved from Melchior Canus. The Iesuites Order founded in Fanaticism; a particular account of the Romantick Enthusiasm of Ignatius, from the Writers of his own Order. p. 238Whereby it is proved, that he was the greatest pretender to Enthusiasm, since the dayes of Mahomet and S. Francis. Ignatius gave no respect to men by words or putting off his Hat; his great Ignorance and Preaching in the Streets: his glorying in his sufferings for it; his pretence to mortification; the wayes he used to get disciples. Their way of resolution of difficulties by seeking God; their itinerant preaching in the Cities of Italy. The Sect of Quakers a new Order of Disciples of Ignatius, only wanting confirmation from the Pope, which Ignatius obtained. Of the Fanatick way of devotion in the Roman Church. Of Superstitious and Enthusiastical Fanaticism among them. Of their mystical Divinity. Mr. Cressy's canting in his Preface to Sancta Sophia. Of the Deiform fund of the soul; a superessential life, and the way to it. Of contemplating with the will. Of passive Vnions. The method of self-Annihilation. Of the Vnion of nothing with nothing. Of the feeling of not-being. The mischief of an unintelligible way of devotion. The utmost effect of this way is gross Enthusiasm. Mr. Cressy's Vindication of it examined. The last sort of Fanatioism among them, resisting authority under pretence of Religion. Their principles and practices compared with the Fanaticks. How far p. 239they are disowned ai present by them. Of the Vindication of the Irish Remonstrance. The Court of Rome hath alwayes favoured that party, which is most destructive to Civil Government, proved by particular and late Instances.

§. 1. 2. WE come to consider whether the reading the Scriptures be the cause of all the Sects and Fanaticisms which have been in England? The unreasonableness of objecting Sects and Fanaticism to us, as the effect of reading the Scriptures.He might much better have charged the Philosophers, especially Aristotle, with all the disputes in the world; for they not only by their writings have occasioned many, but have taught men the pernicious use of reasoning, without which, the world might be as quiet as a Flock of Sheep. If they could but perswade men to lay aside that mischievous faculty, I dare undertake for them, that let the people have the Bible never so much among them; they shall never hurt the Church of Rome. Do they not tell us, that the words of Scripture are plain for Transubstantiation, This is my body, Why do not then the people as readily believe that, as any other proposition? By which we see, it is not meerly reading, but a more dangerous thing, called considering or reasoning which make them embrace some things as they lye in words, and interpret others according to p. 240the clearest evidence, which the nature of the thing, the comparing with other places, and the common sense of mankind will give. But why are we not all of a mind? I would fain know the time when men were so. This variety of Sects was objected against the Philosophers, and thought no argument then; it was objected against the primitive Christians, and thought of no force then; why must it signifie more in England, than ever it did in any other age or place? But say they, It was otherwise in England before the Scriptures came to be read by all, it was and is otherwise in all Churches where they are not read, therefore these Sects and Fanaticisms are the dire effects of the promiscuous reading the Scriptures. This is the common and popular argument. All things were well with us when we offered up Cakes to the Queen of Heaven; when all joyned in the communion of the Roman Church, then there were no Fanaticisms, nor New Lights, no Sects, as there are now in England; therefore why should any one make any doubt, but he ought to return to the Church of Rome? This necessarily leads me into the examination of these two things. 1. Whether there be no danger of Fanaticism in the Roman Church? 2. Whether the Vnity of that Church be so admirable to tempt all persons, who prize the Churches Vnity, to return to it?

p. 241§. 2. Concerning the danger of Fanaticism in the Roman Church. Fanaticism countenanced in the Roman Church.By Fanaticism we understand either an Enthusiastick way of Religion, or resisting authority under a pretence of Religion. In either sense it shall appear, that the Church of Rome is so far from being cleared from it, that it hath given great encouragement to it.

1. As to an Enthusiastick way of Religion; I shall now prove, that there have not been greater Enthusiasts among us in England, than have been in the Roman Church; all the difference is, they have been some alwayes, others for a time, allowed and countenanced and encouraged by those of the Church of Rome; but among us they have been decryed and opposed by all the members of the Church of England. I shall not insist upon the resolution of faith, and the infallibility of the Church, which must be carried to Enthusiasm at last; but I shall prove it by plain revelations which have been made the grounds among them of believing some doctrines in dispute, and the reasons of setting up a more perfect way of life, which in the highest strain of their devotion, is meer Enthusiasm.

1. Revelations have been pleaded by them in matters of doctrine;Private Revelations pleaded for matters of doctrine. such I mean which depend upon immediate impulses and inspirations since the Canon of Scripture and Apostolical Traditions. Of this we have a p. 242remarkable instance in a late controversie managed with great heat and interest on both sides, viz. of the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary: about the ending of which, a solemn Embassy was sent from the Kings of Spain, Philip the third, and Philip the fourth to the Popes Paul the fifth and Gregory the thirteenth, and an account is given of it by one concerned himself in the management of the Theological part of it,Iucas Waddi…g us Legation, de concept. which, he saith, is therefore published, that the world may understand upon what grounds the doctrines of faith are established among them. Virg. Mariae. pre…at.One of the chief whereof insisted upon was, some private revelations made to some Saints about the immaculate conception, Sect. 3. Tract. 11. Sect. 1. n. 3.which being once received in the Church, adds no small strength, he saith, to any doctrine, and gives a solid foundation for a definition: i. e. that the matter may be defined to be of faith, and necessary to be believed by all Christians. Upon this he reckons up several revelations publickly received in the Church, one, mentioned by Anselm, being a divine apparition to an Abbot in a storm (a fit time for apparitions) whereby he was admonished to keep the Feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin, upon which,Baron. not. in Martyrolog. Rom. 8. Decemb.Rom 8 as Baronius observes, that Feast was first kept in England. Which revelation Wadding tells us, is publickly recited in the office for the day, and was not only extant in p. 243several Breviaries of England, France, Spain and Italy; but he had divers himself authorized by the Pope, wherein it was recommended as true and piously to be believed, and accordingly have been publickly sung and used in the Church about an hundred years. And what, saith he, is the consequence of disbelieving this, but to say in effect, that the Pope and the Roman Church are easily cheated and abused by impostures, and forgers of false revelations to institute new Festival Solemnities upon the credit of them? Another revelation was made to Norbertus the founder of the Order of the Praemonstratenses, in which, the Virgin Mary appeared and commended her veneration to him, and gave him a white garment in token of her Original Innocency; which revelation is believed by all of that Order, and taken as the reason of their habit. Besides these, there are several other revelations to S. Gertrude, and others to the same purpose reckoned up by several Catholick Authors, which no man ought to reject, unless he intends to be as great a Heretick (or therein as wise a man) as Erasmus was. Nay, these revelations were so frequent, he saith, that there hath been no age since the tenth Century, wherein there hath not been some made to devout men or women about this matter. But above all these, most remarkable were those to S. Brigitt, who had not one or two, but many to this purpose; and p. 244the latest were of Joanna a Cruce, which, it seems, were at first eagerly opposed, but at last came out with the approbation of two Cardinals and several Bishops of the Inquisition in Spain. But now who could imagine a thing so often revealed, so publickly allowed, so many times attested from Heaven, should not be generally received? but the mischief of it was, the contrary doctrine had revelations for it too. For Antoninus and Cajetan say, S. Catharine of Siena had it revealed to her, that she was conceived with Original sin. What is to be done now? Here we have Saint against Saint, Revelation against Revelation, S. Catharine against S. Brigitt, and all the rest of them. Here to speak truth, they are somewhat hard put to it; for they grant God cannot contradict himself, and therefore of one these must be false, but which of them is all the question. Here they examine which of these doctrines is most consonant to Scripture and Tradition, which is most for the benefit of the Church, which were persons of the greater sanctity, and whose revelations were the most approved. For. S. Brigitts they plead stoutly, that when they were delivered by her to her Confessors, they were strictly examined, and after them by the Bishops and Divines of Sweden, and approved as divine revelations; from them they were sent as such to the p. 245Council of Basil; from thence they were examined over again at Naples, and there allowed and preached in the presence and by command of the Queen and Archbishop before all the people of the City; again examined at Rome by Prelats and Cardinals, A. D. 1377. by the Popes appointment, and there approved: and A. D. 1379. they are declared by those Vrban the sixth committed the new examination of them to, to be authentick, and to come from the Spirit of God: and so much is declared by Boniface the ninth in the Bull of her Canonization, and at last approved, saith Wadding, at the General Council of Basil. What could be expected less after this; than that they should have been received as Canonical Scriptures, they having never taken so much pains in examining and approving any controverted Books of the Bible, as they had done about these revelations? And no man knows how far their authority might have prevailed, if the whole Sect of Dominicans had not been engaged in the opposite opinion. For nothing else that I can find, hath given any discredit to her revelations but this; which makes Cajetan call them old Wives dreams, as Wadding confesseth.Wadding. l. c. Sect. 24. p. 35…. But it falls out very conveniently, that S. Catharines revelation was just in the Dominican way in which she had been educated; and for p. 246all that I can see, wants little of the reputation of St. Brigitt. For they were both very wonderful persons, and had more familiar reyelations, than any of the Prophets we read of. S. Brigitt in her Childhood (if we believe the account given of her in the Bull of Canonization by Bonifacius, and her life by Vastavius) had Visions as frequently as other Children have Babyes, and was as well pleased with them; the Virgin Mary was once her Midwife, as the Pope very gravely tells us; but her revelations (after Christ took her for his Spouse) have filled a great Volume.Revelationes S. Bri…ittae. A…tw. 1611. Wherein a person that hath leisure enough, may see strange effects of the power of imagination, or a Religious Melancholy; and to that Book the Pope in his Bull refers us: and if any thing can be more considerable than the Popes authority, the whole Roman Church in the prayers upon S. Brigitts day,Brevi…r. Rom. …. Octobr. p. 1017. do confess these revelations to have come immediately from God to her; and in one of the Lessons for that day, do magnifie the multitude of her divine revelations. But to say truth, the Church of Rome allows fair play in the case,Brev. Rom. Apr. 30. p. 808. for it magnifies S. Catharine as much as S. Brigitt: for her holy Extasies are mentioned in the Lessons upon her day, in one of which, were five rayes coming from the five wounds of our Saviour to five parts of her body; and she (being wonderfull p. 247humble) prayed our Lord, that the wounds might not appear (for fear she should have been thought as holy as S. Francis) and immediately the colour of the blood was changed into pure light upon her hands, and feet, and heart. And her Confessor Raimund (who is alwayes a principal man in these things, as Matthias a Suecia was to S. Brigitt) without whom she was advised from Heaven to do nothing, saw these splendid wounds upon her body; (but by what instrument did he see the wound in her heart?) Well, though we Hereticks are not apt to be too credulous in these cases, the Church of Rome very gravely tells us in the next Lesson; that her learning was not acquired, but infused, by which she answered the most profound Doctors in the most difficult speculations in Divinity; but these were nothing to her revelations and the service she did the Church of Rome by them in a time of Schisme. But one gift she had above S. Brigitt, which was that while she was on earth she could not only see, but smell souls too, and could not endure the stench of wicked souls, Raynald. Annales Ecclesiast. A. D. 1380. n. 25.as Raynaldus tells us from her Confessor Raimund: a gift very few had besides her and Philip Nerius the Father of the Oratorians, for Raynaldus one of his Order, tells us from Bacius the Writer of his life, that he was sometimes so offended with the smells of filthy souls, Raynald. ib…that p. 248he would desire the persons to empty the Iakes of their souls. Such divine Noses had these two Saints among them! A degree of Enthusiasme above the Spirit of discerning any Quakers among us have ever pretended to. Pope Pius the second in the Bull of Canonization of S. Catharine, Bzov. Annales A. D. 1370. n. 20.not only acknowledgeth a gift of Prophecy to have been in her, but that sometimes her Extasies were so great, that she was sensible of no kind of pain in them. And S. Brigitt was often seen much above ground in her devotions, and one saw Rivers and another Fire came out of her mouth; but I think not at the same time. These are things we rake not the old Kennells of the Golden Legends for, but are at this day allowed and approved of in the Roman Church; and their dayes kept, and they prayed to, upon the account of such things as these are.

§. 3. Yet still we are to seek what is to be done,Revelations contrary to each other approved by the Roman Church. when two Revelations contradict each other? for the Dominicans are as peremptory for the revelation of S. Catharine, as their adversaries are for that of S. Brigitt. Two bold Fellows called Henricus de Hassia and Sybillanus knew no other way,Del: Rio disquis. but to reject both as illusions and fancies; but what becomes then of the Popes and Councils infallibility,Mag. l. 4. c. 1. q. 3. Sect. 4. who have approved both? Franciscus Picus Mirandula p. 249being a Learned and Ingenuous man,Ioh. Francis. Picus Mirand. de rerum praenot. l. 9. c. 2. confesseth himself at a loss, both being concerning a thing passed, there must be truth on one side, and falshood on the other: for the case is not the same, saith he, as to past and future things, in which a condition may be understood. By which means St. Bernard escaped, when he promised great success to an expedition into the Holy Land, and they who went in it found the quite contrary. But at last gives us leave to conjecture his meaning when he saith, That if any thing be false in a prophecy, though some prove true, we have cause to suspect all; especially if it come from women, whose judgements are weak, and their passions vehement, and imaginations easily possessed with what they are most desirous of, and least able to distinguish between the strength of imagination, and a divine revelation: but as to that particular case of S. Catharine and S. Brigitt, C. 4.where both were women; he saith, The Divines were generally for the former, and the Monks for the latter; but which was in the truth, he thinks cannot be known upon earth.

Martin Del Rio discoursing of the Revelations of Canonized Saints who were women in the Church of Rome, Del Rio ib.reckons up S. Angela a Carmelitess, whose Book of Revelations came out above four hundred years ago, S. Gertrude A. D. 664. S. Hildegardis p. 250in Germany, A. D. 1180. and about the same time S. Elizabeth of Sconaugh, all whose revelations were published, and the last collected by Roger an English Cistertian; and in latter times he mentions S. Brigitt, and S. Catharine whose revelations, he saith, were opposed by some, but he declares for his part, that he is not at all moved with their arguments, for that would diminish too much the honour due to those holy Spouses of Christ, as he calls them; but in truth he confesses, the honour of their Church is concerned in it; for, saith he, several Popes upon diligent examination have allowed and approved these revelations, as Eugenius the third did those of Hildegardis as well as Boniface the ninth, those of S. Brigitt. For the argument from the contradiction of these revelations, he knows not how to come off, but by a charge of Forgery on the Dominican side; and why might not they as well return it on the other; unless Matthias a Suetia Confessor to S. Brigitt were more infallible than Raimundus, or those who believed S. Catharine.

But this is not the only case, wherein these female revelations so much approved by the Church of Rome are contradictory to each other in those things whereon the proof of a point of doctrine depends. For who knows not to what end the revelation of S. Gregoryes delivering the soul of Trajan p. 251by his prayers, is so frequently urged? and this is confirmed by a revelation of S. Brigitt to that purpose;Brigittae Revel. l. 4. c. 13. from whence Salmeron calls it an unanswerable argument, and Alphonsus Ciacconius published by the Popes authority an Apology for that revelation. Salmero in 1. ad Cor. 15. disp. 27.Yet Baronius tells us, that S. Mathildis had a revelation to the contrary, Baron. Annal. A. D. 604. n. 59.and if it were not contradictory to S. Brigitts, it must be contradictory to it self. And therefore he very fairly rejects them all, but with what honour to his Church (which had before approved them) I can by no means understand.Bell. de Purgat. l. 2. c. 8. And Bellarmin to the revelation of Mathildis, (wherein she desired to know what became of the souls of Sampson, Solomon, Origen and Trajan, and God answered her that none should know what he had done with them) opposes another revelation wherein the soul of Origen was seen together with that of Arius and Nestorius in Hell. So infallible are these revelations, even when they contradict each other.

How often have visions and apparitions of souls been made use of to prove the doctrine of Purgatory? Bellarm. de Purg. l. 1. c. 7.Witness the famous testimonies to this purpose out of S. Gregories Dialogues, and Bedes History; which latter is at large recited (being very proper for it) in the late great Legend published by Mr. Cressy under the name of a Church History; Cressy's Church-History. l. 20. c. 10.who justifies the substance p. 252of the story as far as it concerns the Doctrine of Purgatory, although he doth not think the person really dead but only in a Trance; which is all one to our purpose as long as such arguments as these, are made use of to prove matters of faith by.

We need not go so far back as Gabriel Biel, Biel in Cano…. Miss…e lect. 51.to shew that the doctrine of Transubstantiation hath been proved by the appearance of a Child in a Host, such an argument hath been lately published to the World;Bellar. de Sa…ram. Euchar. l. 3. c. 8. and Bellarmin reckons up several to this purpose, one, wherein instead of Bread was seen real Flesh, and another, wherein Christ was seen in the form of a Child. Which are well attended, with St. Anthony of Padua's Horse, which would never have left his Provender to Worship the Host, unless he had seen some notable sight there.

And he very doughtily proves Auricular Confession, Bell. de poenit. l 3. cap. 12.by a certain Vision of a tall and terrible man with his Book in his hand, which blotted out presently all the sins which the humble Thief confessed upon his knees to the Priest; but he hath not proved that terrible man did not represent the Devil, who by that Ceremony might shew that he turned over the keeping of his Books of Accompts to the Priest, who upon Confession, might tell mens sins, as well as he could do without.

p. 253But they have not only attempted to prove matters of Doctrine by these things,Festivals appointed on tho credit of Revelations. but things have been defined in the Church meerly upon the credit of private revelations. So the Spanish Ambassadour urges the Pope smartly upon the Revelations of St. Bridgitt, Legatio de Concept. V. Mariae Sect. 3. n. 42. p. 371.That there were many of his predecessors that had determined more things in the Church partly relying upon private Revelations therein, whose authority was not greater than hers were. Pius. 1. he saith, determined the Controversie of Easter-day upon the credit of a Revelation made to Hermes.Bullar. Rom. Tom. 1. p. 147. Cherubini. Urban 4. Instituted the Festival of Corpus Christi in opposition to the denyers of Transubstantiation upon the instinct and revelation of a certain Woman. Paul the Hermite was Canonized for a Saint upon the Authority of a Vision and Revelation to Anthony, the one of his soul flying to Heaven, the other of his being there. The Feast of the apparition of the Arch-angel Michael, which is constantly observed in the Church of Rome, depended upon a revelation to the Bishop of Siponto and a few Drovers upon the Mountain Garganus. These are things briefly touched by the Ambassadour, but it will not be amiss to give a more particular account of those instances which concern the Institution of Festival Solemnities, by which it will appear that they are Fanatical even in their Superstitions. Pope Vrban p. 2544. in the Bull still extant for the Celebration of Corpus Christi day, mentions that as one of the great reasons of appointing it, that while he was in a lower capacity he understood that a revelation had been made to certain Catholicks that this Feast should be observed in the Church. This which is only intimated here is at large explained by Ioh. Diestemius Blaerus Prior of St. Iames in Liege, where these things happened.Apud Bzov. Annal. To. 13. A. D. 1230. n. 16. In an Hospital hard by the Town he tells us, there was a famous Virgin called Iuliana, which had many Extasies and Raptures, and so Prophetical a Spirit as to discern the thoughts and intentions of her Neighbours Hearts; she wrestled with Devils, discoursed with the Apostles, and wrought many Miracles. But one thing peculiar to her was, that in her Prayers she almost alwayes saw the Moon in her brightness, but with a snip taken off from her roundness: at which she was much troubled, but by no means could get it out of her Phancy. At last God was pleased to reveal it to her, that the Moon signified the present Church, and that fraction the want of one solemnity more to be observed in it: upon which she received a command from Heaven to proclaim the observation of this solemnity. For twenty years, she prayed that God would excuse p. 255her, and make choice of a more worthy person; but none being found she communicates it to Iohannes de Lausenna, and he to Iacobus de Trecis then Arch-deacon of Liege, and afterwards, Vrban 4. But although all the persons to whom it was communicated highly approved it; yet she was not satisfied till (one of her Gossips,) named Isabella, after a whole years praying for it had the same thing revealed to her, with that circumstance, that this Feast had alwayes been among the Secrets of the B. Trinity, but now the time was come that it should be published to the World; and she in one of her extasies saw very distinctly all the heavenly orders upon their faces, supplicating God, that to confirm the faith of Christians; this day might be speedily observed. This Isabella was so much intoxicated by this Vision, saith the Author, that out of the abundance of her spiritual drunkenness (they are his own words) she declared she would promote the observing this Feast, although the whole world should oppose her. Which (we may well think) Iuliana rejoyced to hear, and hence forwards they joyned counsels to advance this solemnity. Iuliana gets an ignorant young Priest to draw up an Office for it, and while he writ, she prayed, p. 256by which the Office was so well composed; that it would melt (saith he) the hardest hearts into devotion: and when it was seen by Divines, they said it was not written by man, but inspired by God himself. And yet when Pope Vrban published his Bull upon the credit of these revelations, for the Celebration of this Feast, he appointed Tho. Aquinas to compose an Office for it, and rejected that divine Office of Iuliana. The Epistle of Vrban to Eva one of the Nuns of Liege, and a companion of the two Virgins is still extant in Diestemius and Binius about the institution of this Feast of Corpus Christi. And that this was the occasion of this Festival, is not delivered alone by Diestemius, but by Arnoldus Bostius and Petrus Praemonstratensis, by Vignier and Molanus, (as Binius confesseth of this last,) who can no more be suspected of partiality in this case than. Diestemius; but we need no other evidence than the Popes own Bull. Breviar. Roman 8. Maij p. 825.The story of the other is remarkable too, for it is read constantly in the Roman Breviary upon the eighth of May. It came to pass that among the Droves of Cattle, the Bull of a certain inhabitant wandred from the rest, which having long sought for, they found in the entrance of a Cave. And when one shot an arrow at him to destroy him, the arrow was p. 257driven back again to him that shot it. Which thing so affrighted them all, that they durst not come near the Cave, the Sipontines consult their Bishop, who appointed three dayes fasting and Prayer to seek God in the case; after the three dayes the Arch-angel Gabriel admonisheth the Bishop, that place was in his custody, and by that act he shewed, that they ought to worship God there in remembrance of him and his fellow Angels. The Bishop and people go accordingly thither, and they find the place already formed into the fashion of a Temple, and there they perform divine Offices, where many Miracles were afterwards wrought. Not long after Pope Boniface Dedicated the Church of St. Michael the third of the Calends of October in which the Church celebrates the memory of all Angels, but this day is consecrated to the apparition of Michael the Arch-angel. Thus far the 5 or 6 Lessons of the present Roman Breviary, whereby we understand what infallible grounds the Church of Rome proceeds upon in all her definitions and observations.

§. 5. And is it not a hard case now,Revelations still owned by them. we should be so often told of Fanaticism among us, by the members of the Roman Church? Where are the Visions and Revelations ever pleaded by us in any matter of Doctrine? Did we never discard any of the Roman opinions or practices upon p. 258the account of Revelations made to Women or to any private persons? Do we resolve the grounds of any doctrine of ours into any Visions and Extasies? have we any Festivals kept upon such occasions? Do we collect Fanatical Revelations, and set them out with comments upon them, as Gonsalvus Durantus hath done those of St. Bridgitt? Have we any mother Iuliana's among us? or do we publish to the world the Fanatick Revelations of distempered brains as Mr. Cressy hath very lately done, to the great honour and service of the Roman Church, the sixteen Revelations of Divine Love shewed to a devout servant of our Lord (and Lady too) called Mother Juliana? We have, we thank God, other wayes of imploying our devout retirements, than by reading such fopperies as those are. Excellent men! that debarr the people reading the Scriptures in their own tongue, and instead of them put them off with such Fooleries, which deserve no other name at the best than the efforts of Religious madness. Were we to take an estimate of Christian Religion from such Raptures and Extasies, such Visions and Entertainments as those are, how much must we befool our selves to think it sense? Did ever H. N. Iacob Behmen, or the highest Enthusiasts talk at a more extravagant rate than this Iuliana doth? p. 259As when she speaks of our being beclosed in the mid-head of God, 16 Revelations of divine love. ch. 49. p. 112. Ch. 5. p. 12. Ch. 46 p. 105.and in his meek-head, and in his benignity, and in his buxomness, though we feel in us wrath, debate, and strife: Of being substantially united to God; and that, God is that goodness which may not be wrath, for God is not but goodness: our soul is oned to him, unchangeable goodness; and between God and our soul is neither wrath nor forgiveness in his sight, for our soul is so fulsomely oned to God of his own goodness, that between God and our soul may be right naught. Ch. 9. p. 24.That in mankind that shall be saved is comprehended all; that is to say, all that is made and the maker of all; for in man is God, and God is all, and he that loveth thus he loveth all: Ch. 56. p. 144.That our soul is so deep grounded in God, and so endlesly treasured that we may not come to the knowing thereof, till we have first knowing of God; which is the maker to whom it is oned, and therefore if we will have knowing of our soul, and commoning, and dalliance therewith, it behooveth to seek into our Lord God in whom it is inclosed: and that worshipful City that our Lord Iesu sitteth in, it is our sensuality in which he is inclosed; P. 145.and our kindly substance is beclosed in Iesu with the blessed soul of Christ, resting in the Godhead: and notwithstanding all this we may never come to the full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own soul; for into p. 260the time that it is in the full mights, we may not be all holy; and that is, that our sensuality by the vertue of Christs passion be brought up into the substance, with all the profits of our tribulation, that our Lord shall make us to get by mercy and grace. I had in party touching, and it is grounded in kind; that is to say, our reason is grounded in God which is substantially kindness. Afterwards she discourseth of three properties in the Holy Trinity, Ch. 58 p. 151.of the Fatherhead, of the Motherhood, and of the Lordship, and she further saw that the second person which is our Mother substantially, the same dear worthy person is now become our Mother sensual; for we be double of Gods making, substantial and sensual. We may justly admire what esteem Mr. Cressy had of that Lady to whose devout retirements he so gravely commends the blasphemous and senseless tittle tattle of this Hysterical Gossip. It were endless to repeat the Canting and Enthusiastick expressions, which signifie nothing in Mother Iuliana's Revelations; and one would wonder to what end such a Book were published among us, unless it were to convince us of this great truth, that we have not had so great Fanaticks and Enthusiasts among us, but they have had greater in the Roman Church. And by this means they may think to prevail upon the Fanaticks among us, by perswading them, p. 261that they have been strangely mistaken concerning the Church of Rome in these matters; that she is no such enemy to Enthusiams and Revelations as some believe; but that in truth she hath not only alwayes had such, but given great approbation and encouragement to them. So that among all their visions they do but mix some that confirm their particular Doctrines; as the Visions of Iuliana concerning the great Worship of the B. Virgin from her son, the holy Vernacle at Rome, and such like fopperies; these make all the rest very acceptable among them.

§. 6. 2. That which they account the most perfect way of life, The Monastick orders founded on Enthusiasm.hath been instituted by Enthusiastick persons, and upon the credit of visions and revelations, and the highest way of devotion in that Church is meer Enthusiasme.

1. That the Religious orders were instituted among them by Enthusiastick persons upon the credit of their visions and revelations. The most celebrated orders at this day in the Roman Church are the Benedictines, Carthusians, Dominicans, Franciscans and Iesuites, and if I can prove this concerning each of these, we shall see how much Fanaticism hath contributed to the support of the Roman Church. And it is a very fair way towards the proof of it, that Bellarmin confesseth concerning the four first and that of Romoaldus, that they were p. 262at first instituted by St. Benedict,Bellar. de Pontif. Rom. l. 3. c. 18. St. Romoaldus, St. Bruno, St. Dominick, St. Francis, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and for Ignatius Loyola if he do not appear as great a Fanatick as ever hath been in the world, we shall be contented to be upbraided with the charge of Fanaticism among us. It is observable in the life of St. Benedict, Gregor. Dial. l. 2.as St. Gregory relates in the second Book of his Dialogues, that he was a great hater of humane learning, and that was the first occasion of his retiring from the World: being very much afraid a little knowledge should have destroyed him. He therefore forsook not only his Studies, but his Fathers house and business, being as St. Gregory saith, knowingly ignorant, and wisely unlearned: he might as well have said ignorantly learned, and foolishly wise. One might have suspected it had been rather hatred of his Book, than devotion at his age, which made him run away from School and his Fathers house; but one of his Visions in his Cave makes it more probable there was some other occasion of it. But however away he goes, and only an old Nurse with him, and he requited her soon for it, for he by his Prayers set together the winnowing Sieve which she had broken in pieces, which was after hanged up before the doors of the Church to the Lombards times. But this is nothing to p. 263his being three years in a Cave without the knowledge of any but St. Roman, who let him down victuals by a rope and a Bell; and the Devil owing him a great spight, threw a huge stone and broke the Bell. Here he lay so close, that he was fain to be discovered by a vision, and was so devout that he had forgotten Easter day, till he was put in mind of it by the person, who by a vision was sent to him: and was so little like a man that the shepherds took him for a beast lying in a den. But at last he is brought to light, and found to be a wonderful person; (for among superstitious people, ignorance and devotion are most admired together) and now many are sent to him for education; having conquered his amorous passions by rowling himself naked among thornes and nettles: which thorns a long time after St. Francis grafted Roses upon,Bollandi Acta Sanctorum Martii. 21. not. in. vit. Bened. c. 1. (as Bollandus well observes) which bear in the coldest part of Winter, and of them Rose water is made which is sent as a present to the greatest Princes. He had an admirable Sagacity in spying Devils; Cap. 4.for he saw a little black Devil which led away a Monk from Prayers; and was fain to pray two dayes with Pompeianus and Maurus that God would afford them the Grace to see him too: and at last Maurus being young, and his sight good, saw him; but Pompeianus being older and p. 264wiser could not. However St. Bennet sent the little Devil packing with a stroke of his rod, as he did at other times with the sign of the cross: and easily caused a stone to be lifted up whereon the Devil sate,C. 9. which could not be stirred before his coming. It would take up too much time to tell of his Miracles, my business is only with his visions and revelations, by which he could not only foretell things to come, but could discover absent things; so that the Monks could not eat out of his sight,C. 12, 13. but he could tell as well as if he saw the meat in their teeth when they denyed it. He discovered Riggo's fraud when he came to him in Totila's habit,C. 14, 15. and told Totilas how long he should raign; nay, if we believe St. Gregory, C. 16.he knew the secrets of the Divinity, being one Spirit with God: no wonder then the unhappy Boy could not hide one Flask of Wine, nor the Monks receive handkerchiefs of the Women,C. 18, 19. but he found it out, but most admirable was his sight of his Sister Scholastica's soul entring into Heaven in the shape of a Dove:C. 34. and another time the soul of Germanus Bishop of Capua in a fiery Circle carryed by Angels to Heaven;C. 35. but above all was his seeing all the world under one ray of the Sun, which he could not do, Gregory concludes without a Divine internal light; upon which a dispute hath been raised in p. 265the Schooles, whether St. Benedict saw the divine Essence or no?Possevin. A par. v. S. Benedict. Aquinas thinks not, but only that he had an extraordinary revelation;Aquin. Sum. 2. 2. qu. 180. art. 5… ad. 3. Vasquez doth not seem much to oppose it, but upon two grounds, the one very considerable, that we never read the Virgin Mary did it,Vasquez in 1, a. d'sp. 56. n. 5. Joh. 1. 18.John 1:18 who ought to have the highest share in revelations and visions: the other only a plain place of Scripture; No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son of the Father he hath revealed him. As though that were intended to exclude St. Benedict and other Founders of Religious orders and not rather the Patriarchs, Prophets and Apostles who came not near them in Visions and Miracles. But no one hath handled this profound question with that care and accuracy which Angelus de Nuce hath done,ChronicoN. Monast. Cassiaens. p. 65. Lut. Paris. 1668. in his Notes upon St. Gregories life of St. Benedict: he tells us therefore the Question is not concerning the highest sort of abstractive contemplation of any thing short of the Divine essence, for that, he saith, none doubt of; but of an intuitive vision, by which the divine essence is seen clearly in it self immediately, and not in any created image: the Negative he grants is held by Aquinas and many of the Schoolmen: but yet he saith, many Schoolmen of great note are for the affirmative, and he deduces many arguments to prove it from St. Gregories words: but p. 266that which addes most weight to it, besides the number of authors quoted by him, is that Vrban 8. in a Bull upon the feast of St. Benedict, A. D. 1632. doth expresly assert it.Ioh. Bona de divinâ Psalmodia. cap. 18. s. 3. And Ioh. Bona a present Cardinal at Rome, saith, that St. Benedict was rapt up into the third Heavens, where he heard the Choire of Angels, and saw God face to face: for which besides Gregory, he cites St. Bernard, Rupertus Tuitiensis, Bonaventure, Dionysius Carthusianus, Maximilian Sandaeus, and others. And addes to this as extraordinary a thing as any hath been yet said of him, that he and his Sister Scholastica sung very distinctly in their Mothers Wombs, a presage (saith he) of the chearful singing of their Order. For which he quotes several Authors of the Benedictines, and although he grants it may be suspected, because it doth not occurr in the more ancient writers, yet he justifies it by many parellel Stories. These things are enough for St. Benedicts Enthusiasme. St. Romoaldus was as happy as St. Benedict in his ignorance. For as Petrus Damiani reports in his life,Petr. Damiani vit. S. Romoaldi cap. 4. when he first entred himself under the discipline of Marinus the Eremite, he could hardly read his Psalter, though he had been a Monk three years before; and he adds it as a great instance of his patience, that when Marinus in teaching him, did often p. 267beat him with a wand upon the left side of his head, for his dulness, he desired his Master that he would now change his side, for he had by his strokes quite lost his hearing in his left eare: and yet he met with a worse companion than Marinus; Cap. 7.for, for five years together he saith, the Devil lay upon his feet and his leggs in the night, that he could not easily stirr himself. He was so possessed with the thoughts of him, that a Monk could not knock at his Cell door, but he asked the Devil, what he did there in the Wilderness? and was ready to encounter with the Devil, when he found him to be one of his Brethren. But the Devil once got him down (as he imagined) while he was saying his Psalms, Cap. 16.and wounded him, and bruised him sadly; but of a sudden he rose up as sound as ever, and went on just where he left. All the crows and ugly birds he saw in the Wilderness,Cap. 17. he fancied to be Devils, and challenged to fight with them; and exceedingly triumphed when at his loud cries they flew away. He was converted by a vision of St. Apollinaris, C. 2.as his Father Sergius ran stark mad with a vision of the Holy Ghost, C. 14.he wept so abundantly that he never durst say Mass in publick,C. 31. and bid his Brethren have a care of shedding too many tears, because they hurt the sight and the brain. Yet by immediate revelation he writ an p. 268excellent commentary saith Mugnotius on the Book of Psalms, Andreas Mugnotius de Eremo Camaldulensi. lib. 1. Pet. Damiani vit. S. Romualdi c. 50.though not very agreeable to Grammar saith Petrus Damiani; and being led by the Divine Spirit to the top of a Mountain, in his sleep he saw Ladders reaching from thence to Heaven, and a great many Monks going up to Heaven upon them. A divine vision indeed! and he meeting with Maldulus who by great fortune had the same vision, they presently agreed about erecting a Monastery there. If the order of Carthusians did not begin upon the story of the Doctor of Paris speaking those dreadful words after his death, which is delivered, say the defenders of it, by sixty authors of the Roman Church; Launoy de verâ causâ seccssus Brunonis in Erem…m c. … p. 165.yet it is agreed on all hands among them, that Hugo who joyned with Bruno in laying the foundations of that order, had a vision of Gods building a house of seven stars conducting them, Launoy ib. p. 32, 69, 71, &c.to the place called la grand Chartreuse, from whence the whole order hath taken its name. The Carmelites have an especial vision of Simon Stock, wherein the B. Virgin upon his devout prayers to her appeared with the habit in her hand, which she would have them wear, with a promise greater than ever her son made,Launoy d… viso Simo…is Stockii. cap. 1. that whosoever dyed in that habit, should not perish by everlasting flames.

p. 269§. 7. But S. Francis and S. Dominick were the persons whom Innocent the third saw in a Vision supporting the tottering Fabrick of the Lateran Church; The Franciscan and Dominican Orders founded in Fanatisism.whereby he understood what Props and Supporters those two Orders would be to the Church of Rome. Rainald.From hence those high Elogiums are given of those two persons by Bonaventure, Annal.Antoninus, Eccles. A. D. 1215. n. 17.Bozius and others, that they were the two great lights of Heaven, Bonavent. vit. Francisci, c. 3. Sect. 8.the two Trumpets of Moses, the two Cheru…ims, (or rather the two Calves of Dan and …ethel,) the two breasts of the Spouse, the two Olive branches, Sedulius in Elogiis S. Franc.the two Candlesticks, the two Witnesses; almost all the noted two's of the Bible, but the two Thieves, and the two Testaments; and these, as will appear presently, were in no great esteem among them. But S. Francis got the start of the other; for (if a Canonized Saint may be believed upon his Oath) Bonaventure did publickly swear at Paris, Bernard. a Bustis Rosar. p. 2. serm. 27.saith Bernardinus a Bustis, that Christ did reveal it to him, that S. John (Apocalyps. 7. 2.) by the Angel ascending from the East having the seal of the living God, meant no other than S. Francis. And therefore that is the Motto placed under his Picture; and is applyed the same way by Pope Leo the tenth. Sedul. 16.I shall not take the advantage that is sufficiently given us by the Book of Conformities, the Alcoran of the Franciscans, nor the declared enemies of p. 270those Orders, to represent S. Francis by but only take the account given of him by persons of greatest reputation in the Roman-Church. Cardinal Vitriaco, who saith,Iac. de Vitriaco Hist. Occident. c. 32. Rainald. A. 1219. n. 14. he saw him when he went to Damiata, calls him a simple and illiterate man. Cardinal Bonaventure is received as the most approved Writer of his life; and he describes him as an ignorant Enthusiast; being bred a kind of Woollen draper, as appears by the selling his Cloth and his Horse at Foligno, Bonav. vit. Francis c. 2.after he left off trading upon the Vision of building Churches. His first conversion to Quakerism was by Dreams and Visions, Cap. 1. sect. 6.in which he was sometimes swallowed up in God, as Bonaventures expression is, and his soul melted at the sight of Christ; and was so tender hearted to the poor, that he sometimes put off his clothes to give them, sometimes unript them, sometimes cut them in pieces, I suppose that he might give to the more.Cap. 2. sect. 1. All this while he had no Teacher but Christ, and learnt all by inspiration, but went besides himself at hearing the voice come from a Crucifix (as any one almost would have done) and it seems he was not well recovered when he came from the Cave,Sect. 2. for the people flocked about him as a mad man, and gave him the common Civility to such persons of dirt and stones: and his Father entertained him with dark rooms and chains, as the fittest for him, p. 271whom neither words nor blows could bring to himself. But finding no amendment, he made him renounce his Patrimony, and so discharged him,Sect. 4. which S. Francis did so readily that he would not so much as keep the Clothes on his back.Brev. Roman. 4. Octob. Lect. 4. Whereby; saith Bonaventure, in a wonderful zeal, and being drunk in the Spirit, casting away his very Breeches, and being stark naked before them all, said thus to his Father, Hitherto I called thee Father on earth; but hence forward I can securely say, Our Father which art in Heaven. As though his duty to God and his Parents had been inconsistent. The Bishop, in whose presence all this was done, gave order to have his nakedness covered, highly admiring his zeal; and he no sooner had got some rags about him, but he falls to makeing Crucifixes in Mortar with his own hands, as Children do Babies in the dirt. In this height of Fanaticism he goes about, and preaches to the people,Cap. 3. sect. 1. whose words pierced their hearts, much sooner than sense and reason would have done; and he soon brought the superstitious and ignorant multitude to a great admiration of him, for his very way of saluting the people, he pretended, he had by revelation. At last one Bernard joyns with him, but S. Francis tells him,Sect. 2. They must seek God for direction what to do; and after prayers, he being a great worshipper of the Trinity, in honour to p. 272it opens the Gospel three times, and the first three sentences he met with, were to be the rule of their Order: their second Brother was F. Gyles, who though an Idiot and a simple man, Sect. 3.was full of God, as he saith, and had so many extasies and raptures that he seemed to live rather among Angels than men. One day when S. Francis was alone in a solitary place,Sect. 5. He fell into an extasie of joy, and had full assurance of the remission of his sins; and being transported beyond himself, he was catched up into a wonderful light, wherein his mind being inlarged, he foresaw all that should come to pass concerning his Order. His number being increased,Sect. 7. to Rome he goes to confirm his Order; but the Pope rejected him with scorn; but in the night he saw a Palm growing between his feet into a goodly Tree; which he wisely interpreting to be S. Francis, sent for him, and promised him fair things, and upon the other Vision of his supporting the Lateran Church, he approves his Rule, and establishes his Order. And his whole life afterwards was agreeable to this beginning … and the Rule of his Order he called,Possevin. Appar. v. Franciscus. as Possevine tells us, The Book of life, the hope of salvation, the marrow of the Gospel, the ladder of Heaven, the key of Paradise, the Eternal Covenant. Let any Fanaticks be produced among us, (though we are far from looking on them as the p. 273supporters of our Church) who have exceeded S. Francis in their actions or expressions.Brigittae Revel. l. 7. c. 20 p. 559 Col. 1.Col 1 S. Brigitt saith of the Rule of S. Francis, That it was not dictated, or composed by the wisdom of man, but by God himself; nay, every word therein was inspired by the Holy Ghost, which, she saith likewise, of all the other Rules of Religious Orders. What horrible blasphemy is this, which is so solemnly approved in the Church of Rome for divine Revelations? But lest Dominicus should seem to come behind S. Francis in …sions, Ra…nald. A. D. 1216. n. 48.he tells him at Rome where they met, That it was revealed to him in a Vision, that Christ was just coming to destroy the world for the wickedness of it, and his Mother stopt him, and told him she had two servants would reform it, whereof himself was one, and Christ approved of him, as one that would do his work, but his companion he did not know, till he met S. Francis, and so they embraced one another. Which Vision out of his great humility S. Francis reported, having it from the others own mouth. I shall not insist on any more of Dominicus, nor on the blasphemous Images set up in S. Marks Church at Venice, Wolfii Lection. Memorab. cent. 13. p. 509.one of which was of S. Paul with this Inscription, By him we go to Christ; the other of Dominicus with this, but by him we go easier to Christ; but I shall proceed to their followers, among whom we meet with p. 274one of the most blasphemous pieces of Enthusiasm the world hath ever known.

§. 8. For which we are to understand that in the beginning of the thirteenth Century one Almaricus a Student in Paris was suspected for some dangerous Opinions,The blasphemous Enthusiasm of the Meadicant Fryers. for which he was sentenced to recant;Nauc…ur. and soon after dyed. Among these. Opinions he broached this blasphemy,Chronogr. Vol. 2. Gen. 40. p. 900.Gen 40 which was privately instilled into his followers; That every person of the Trinity had his successive time of ruling the world;Spondani Angales Eccles. A. D. 1204. n 17. that the Law of the Father continued till Christs comeing; the Law of the Son to their time, and then the time of the Holy Ghost was to begin. Bellarm. Chronol. ad A. D. 1209.In which the use of Sacraments was to cease, and all internal administrations, Caesar. Bulaeus in Histor. Unive…s. Paris. Tom. 3 p. 49.and every one then was to be saved by the inspiration and inward grace of the Holy Ghost, without any external actions. They so highly extolled Love, that what would have been a sin without it, they thought to be nothing with it; as Fornication, Adultery, &c. and promised impunity to the women with whom they committed these things, Rigo…d in vita Philip…. August. A. D. 1109.because they said God was only good, and not just. That these were their opinions,Eym…ric. Dir…ct. Inquisit. p. 2. …. 7. is delivered by Rigordus who lived in that age, and was upon the place, being a Monk of S. Denys and Physitian to the King of France, F…a…is…. Pegna. No…. in Direct. p. 1. pag. 6.and by Eymericus and Pegna, and many others. But by the care and endeavour of the Bishop and p. 275Vniversity of Paris, though they had spread very far abroad, and with a great deal of secrecy, yet by the fraud and artifice of one imployed among them, who pretended to revelations and the Spirit as highly as they could do, they were convicted, condemned, and some of them executed. Notwithstanding which severity about fifty years after this came forth a Book with the Title of Evangelium aeternum, or the Eternal Gospel published by the Mendicant Fryers, and supposed to be written by Iohannes de Parma about A. D. 1254. who was General of the Franciscan Order; but the Book was received and defended by both Orders, as will presently appear. But it will be first necessary to consider what the doctrines are, which are contained in this Book; and if ever there were higher Fanaticism than is therein, or rather greater blasphemies, let them have leave to triumph. The most perfect account we have of it,Eymeric. Direct. Inquisit. p. 2. c. 9. is from Nicol. Eymericus, who was himself an Inquisitor, and tells us these Heresies or Errors are contained in it.

1. That the doctrine of Abbot Ioachim (a great Fanatick) excelled the doctrine of Christ, Bulaei Hist. Universit. Paris. To. 3. s. 5. p. 330.and consequently the New and Old Testament.

2. That the Gospel of Christ is not the Gospel of the Kingdom, and therefore is not edifying.

3. That the New Testament is to be evacuated, p. 276or lose its force, as the Old hath already.

4. That the New Testament shall not remain in force above six years longer; viz. to A. D. 1260.

5. That they which shall live beyond that time, shall be in the state of perfection.

6. That the Gospel of Christ shall give way to another Gospel, and so instead of the Priesthood of Christ, another Gospel shall succeed.

7. That no simple man is fit to instruct men in spiritual and eternal things, but they that walk barefoot.

8. That although God afflict the Iews in this world, yet he will save them, though they remain in Iudaism, and will in the end deliver them from all the opposition of men, remaining such as they are.

9. That the Church hath not yet brought forth Children, nor will do before the end of the temporal reign: which shall be after six years; and by this we are to understand, that the Christian Religion, which hath brought forth many called to the faith of Christ, is not the Church.

10. That the Gospel of Christ brings no man to perfection.

11. That the Gospel of the Holy Ghost coming, or Ioachims work obtaining (called the Everlasting Gospel or of the Holy Ghost) the Gospel of Christ shall be done away.

12. That no man in Religious Orders is bound to expose his life for defence of the p. 277faith, or preserving the worship of Christ, but other men are.

13. That as when Iohn Baptist came, the things that were before must needs be confuted, because of new things coming in their place; so when the time of the Holy Ghost shall come, or the third state of the world, the things that were before must be confuted, for the sake of the New which are to come; from whence it must be understood, that the New Testament must be refuted, and the old cast away.

14. That Christ and his Apostles were not perfect in the contemplative life.

15. That the Order of the Clergy shall perish; but one of a Religious Order shall be perferred above all in dignity and honour; and that as the authority under the Father was committed to one of the married order, so under the Holy Ghost to one or some of the order of Monks.

16. That those who are over the Colledges of Monks, ought in those dayes to think of departing from the Seculars, and prepare themselves to return to the ancient people of the Iews.

17. That the Preachers which shall be in the last state of the world, shall be of greater dignity and authority, than the Preachers of the Primitive Church.

18. That the Preachers and Doctors of Religious Orders, when they shall be infested p. 278by the Clergy, shall go over to the Infidels; and it is to be feared, lest they go thither for that end to bring them in battel against the Roman Church, according to the doctrine of S. Iohn, Apocalyps. 15.

These may suffice out of twenty seven, to let the world know, where the height of Blasphemy and Fanaticism was first hatched; and no one could imagine, that any who had the face or name of Christians should own these things; yet they came from those excellent and inspired persons of the newly founded Religious Orders. And if it had not been for the mortal hatred that then was between the University of Paris, and the Mendicant Fryers (who usurped the Professors places in the Vniversity against their will) God knows how far this doctrine might have prevailed without the least censure. For the Popes were extreamly partial to the Fryers, and would hear no ill of them; they now finding them their most useful instruments in all their quarrels with Princes,Matth. Paris. Hist. ad A. D. 1255. p. 909. the Secular Clergy and the People. So Matth. Paris relating the Story of the quarrels between the University and the Fryers, tells, That though the King and the City were for preserving the priviledges of the Vniversity; yet the Fryers being at the Popes devotion, and doing them a great deal of service, were more acceptable in the Court of Rome, and therefore p. 279got the better of the Vniversity. Nay, so zealous was Alexander the fourth in the cause of the Fryers against the Vniversity, that in the six years of his Popedom, he sent out near forty Bulls against the Vniversity, of which not one now appears in the Bullarium: but most of them are preserved in that accurate Preface before the Works of Gul. de Sancto Amore the zealous Defender of the Vniversity against the encroachments of the Fryers, Oper. Gul. de S. Amore. prefat. p 63, Bulaei Hist. Universit. Paris. A. D. 1255. To…. 3.and in the late History of the Vniversity of Paris. In the midst of these heats, some intimation was given the Divines of the Vniversity of such a Book, which was in great esteem among the Fryers, called Evangelium aeternum, wherein were very dangerous doctrines,Matth Paris, ibid. which were (saith Matthew Paris) preached, read and taught by the Fryers: and were put together by them in a Book called Evangelium aeternum, and taken, (saith he) chiefly out of the Books of Abbot Joachim;Richerii Chron. S… nonens. l. 4. c 37. and Richerius acknowledgeth, that the Book was composed by the Fryers, and that the Divines of Paris by some art got a Copy of it, and extracted some Heads out of it, which were contrary to faith: and upon that (as Du Bouley saith) they caused it to be burnt publickly at Paris. Bulaei Hist. p. 299.But not being satisfied herewith; they preached against it, as appears by a Sermon of Gul. de Sancto Amore, Gul. de S. Amore oper. p. 500.at the end of his Works, wherein he saith, p. 280That he had seen no small part of that Book; and he had heard that it doth in all contain more than the Bible; and therein, he saith, it is taught, that the Sacraments of the Church are nothing, that the Gospel of Christ is not the true Gospel; and that the Book it self is the Gospel of the Holy Ghost, and the everlasting Gospel; and that the Gospel of Christ should be preached but for five years to come; that then men shall have another Rule of life, and the Church shall be otherwise managed. Which, saith he, is execrable and abominable to be spoken. But not content with bare preaching against them, he writ a very smart Book in the name of the Vniversity of Paris, de periculo novissimorum temporum, of the dangers of the last times, wherein he doth at large set forth the hypocrisie, Gul. de S. Amore de peric. novis. temp. c. 8. p. 38.idleness, flattery and baseness of the Fryers; but coming to shew the near approach of the dangers he mentions, he saith, It is now fifty five years (for about that time Almaric broached his doctrine) that some have endeavoured to change the Gospel of Christ into another Gospel, which they said would be better, more perfect and worthy, which they call the Gospel of the Holy Ghost, or the everlasting Gospel; which will by its coming turn the Gospel of Christ out of doors; as, saith he, we are ready to prove, out of that cursed Gospel; and a little after he adds, That this Everlasting Gospel p. 281was publickly explained at Paris, A. D. 1254. from whence it is certain, that it would be preached, unless there were some other thing which hindered. And afterwards he saith, That in that Book, this Everlasting Gospel is said to exceed the Gospel of Christ, as much as the light of the Sun doth that of the Moon, or the Kernel doth the Shell. This Book of his extreamly incensed the Fryers, and they presently sent informations against him to the Pope; and by their interest got his Book to be condemned and burnt publickly before the Pope and the Court at Anagnia, and afterwards at Paris: to which purpose the Pope published a Bull, and denounced the sentence of excommunication against any who should presume to defend it: and the Write of it was deprived of his Ecclesiastical Promotions and banished France, Chronicon. Nicol. Trivetti ad A. D. 1256.as far as the Popes power could do it. All this was done in great haste, before the Legats from the Vniversity could appear; and when they came, three of them recanted and returned; only Gul. de S. Amore resolved to stand it out, and answered all their objections, and persisted still in the accusation of that horrible Book: and at last prevailed so much, that the Pope was fain to condemn the Evangelium aeternum together with S. Amours Book; but it appears how unwillingly he did it, by his carriage in it, which is related by p. 282Matth. Paris; Matth. Paris A. D. 1257. p. 939.for he condemned the other Book solemnly, and caused the sentence to be publickly executed; but he gave order that this Book should be secretly burnt, and as much as might be without any offence to the Fryers. Lo here the true zeal of the Head of the Church! A Book only writ against the Mendicant Fryers is condemned as impious, wicked, execrable, and what not, in the Bull against it; and a Book against Christian Religion in the highest manner hardly procured to be condemned; and when it is, with great fear of displeasing the Authors and approvers of it. And since that time, they have been very careful to suppress the least mention of the latter, but very forward to set forth the other. For in the Roman Bullarium, Bullar. Rom. Tom. 1.the Bull against S. Amours Book is set forth at large;Alex. 4. Bull. 8. p. 137. but not the least intimation of any such Book condemned as the Evangelium aeternum. So much dearer to the Pope is the honour of Fryers, than of Christ and the Christian Religion! And therefore S. Amour said well in the University of Paris before they went,Bulae. p. 330. That it was to no purpose to go about to procure the condemning that Book at Rome, where it had so many Favourers; the design of it being to advance the honour of Religious Orders, though to the overthrow of the Gospel of Christ. It is well these things were written and preserved by p. 283Writers of their own Church, and persons of the same Age (out of whom only I have given account of them) for otherwise according to their usual Method of confuting things which do not please them, they would be denyed with a mighty confidence, and the world should be told, that these are only the Lyes and Forgeries of Hereticks. But these are to their shame preserved in their own Books, and we can shew them the very words, if occasion requires it.

§. 9. Yet we are not to think,The Fanaticism of the Franciscans afterwards. that only the preaching Fryers sell into these extravagancies; for the Franciscans had a great hand in them too, and were as forward to promote that which they accounted their common interest. And notwithstanding the Popes condemning the Book, said to be taken out of Abbot Ioachims Writings,Guido Carmelit. de haeres. Abb. Ioachim & Pet. Ioh. yet his doctrine did in no long time after break forth again in the Franciscan Order. For toward the latter end of the same Century, or as most think,Alphonsus a Castro advers. haeres. v. Apost. haer. 1. in the beginning of the next in the time of Clement the fifth appeared one Petrus Iohannis de Oliva a great Disciple of Ioachims, as Guido Carmelita, Alphonsus a Castro, and Franciscus Pegna affirm. All the difference saith Alphonsus, Pegna in direct. Inquisit. p. 2. q. 9.between them was, that Ioachim made the spiritual State to commence from the founding p. 284the Benedictine Order, but Petrus Iohannis would have it begin only from S. Francis: Which State, Eymeric. ib.as Eymericus relates, where he recounts his errors, began with the Franciscan Order, when the Angel of Christ, that is, Haeres. 6.S. Francis, did set his mark upon all his Souldiers; and that S. Francis appeared as Christ did with his wounds upon him. For we are to understand, that S. Francis in one of his Visions upon the very day of the exaltation of the Cross, had the same bleeding wounds on his hands, feet and side, which Christ had upon the Cross, and carried them for two years together before his death; and lest this should be suspected, Pope Alexander the fourth preached it in S. Bonaventures hearing, that himself saw them, as the sixth Lesson on S. Francis day in the Roman Breviary, Brev. Rom. 4. Octob. Lect. 6.Rom 4and Bonaventure assure us. And who dares question the infallibility of the Popes eye-sight? Unless the Story in latter times of Maria Visitationis, Bonavent. vit. Francis. c. 18. Sect. 9.as she was called, Abbesse of the Annuntiation in Lisbon, may give some suspicion of it. For this Virgin had gained so great a reputation for sanctity, not only in Portugal, but in Spain, Italy and the East Indies, that she seemed to be a fit match for S. Francis. And she out-did him in the number of her wounds, for she had thirty two upon her head, caused by Christs putting his Crown of Thorns upon her, and in her hands, and p. 285…eet, and side, they were as exact as in St. Francis, she made no difficulty of shewing them, if her Confessor bid her, but never otherwise; lest she should seem too much to glory in the honour which Christ had done her. This Confessor was no less a man, than Ludovicus Granatensis, a man highly commended for learning and piety, who as verily believed them, as Pope Alexander did those of S. Francis. One day in the Week she laid raggs to her wounds, upon which the print of the wounds was made. These rags with incredible devotion, saith the Writer of the Story, were sent to the Pope himself, and to the greatest and most religious persons in all parts, by whom they were received with great Veneration. And when he was Inquisitor in Sicily, he saith, he saw many of them with her Picture, and a Book of her life and eminent sanctity by a person of great authority, which were preserved as precious things by the Vice-roy's Lady. But this is nothing to Gregory the thirteenth then Pope, who writ a Letter of encouragement to her, to go on in the same way of sanctity she had begun. She had been examined by the Inquisition, and her wounds were allowed by them after diligent search: But at last they found what she aimed at, which was the Revolt of Portugall from Spain; which being once suspected, she is brought p. 286before the Inquisition, and her Sanctity is condemned, her wounds declared to be a meer Imposture, being artificially made by red Lead, and her self sentenced by the Inquisitors to a very severe pennance all her dayes Decemb. 8. A. D. 1588. I suppose, my Adversary having been upon the place, hath often heard the truth of this; but if he doubts it,Lud. a Paramo de Origine Inquisit. l. 2. tit. 2. c. 15. n. 11. tit. 3. c. 5. n. 16. he may find it, as I have related it, in Ludovicus a Paramo. By which it is very easie to ghess what it is, which gives and preserves the reputation of these things in the Roman Church; for if this Saint had dyed before her design brake forth, we might have heard of her wounds in the Roman Breviary, as well as those of St. Francis, and a Festival might have been kept in commemoration of her sanctity, and her self as religiously invocated as the rest of the Popes making. But supposing Pope Alexander the fourths authority prevailed so much upon the people, to believe that S. Francis had the same wounds which Christ had, &c. No wonder then, it should be written in the Book called,Wolfii Lect. Memor. Cent. 13. p. 522. The Flowers of S Francis, that those only were saved by the blood of Christ, who lived before S. Francis; but all that followed, were redeemed by the blood of S. Francis. No wonder, this Petrus Iohannis made the Rule of S. Francis, to be the very same with the Gospel, and that which Christ and his Apostles p. 287lived by: of which S. Francis was the greatest observer next to Christ and his Mother; and that as Christ when he was to reform the world chose twelve Apostles; so S. Francis had twelve Brethren, by whom the Evangelical Order was founded; that those who opposed this Order, were the carnal persecuting Clergy, in whom the Seat of the Beast is much more, than in the people; that in the time of this Mystical Antichrist, the Carnal Church shall oppose the doctrine, life and zeal of the Saints, and burn as it were with fire against them; but it shall be dryed up from all spiritual Wisdom, and Grace, and the riches of Christ, and be exposed to errors and delusion as it was with the Iews and Greeks. Those who will not take the pains to see how faithfully I have translated these words out of Eymericus, would imagine I have borrowed some of the canting language of the modern Quakers. But he goes on: saying, That as Vasthi the Queen being cast off from the Kingdom and Marriage of Ahassuerus, the humble Esther was chosen to succeed in her place, and the King made a great Feast to his Princes and Servants: so in this last state of the Church, the adulterous Babylon, the carnal Church being rejected, the spiritual Church must be exalted, and a great and spiritual Feast be kept to celebrate these Nuptials with, that under the Mystical Antichrist, there shall be overturnings and commotions, by p. 288which the Carnal Church shall be terribly stirred up and moved against the Evangelical Spirit of Christ; but that, the Whore of Babylon, the Carnal Church shall fall; in which time the Saints shall preach, saying, from this time it is no longer the Church of Christ, but the Synagogue of Satan, and the Habitation of Devils, which before said in the pride of her heart, I sit as a Queen in great honour and glory, I rule over my Kingdom, I sit at ease, I am no Widow, i. e. I have Bishops and Kings on my side: that, the Roman Church is that great Whore spoken of in the Revelations, which hath committed fornication with this world, having departed from the worship, and sincere love, and the delights of Christ her Spouse; and embraced the world, the riches and pleasures of it, and the Devil, and Kings, and Princes, and Prelates, and all the lovers of this world. That, the Teachers of this spiritual State, are more properly the Gates to lead men into the wisdom of Christ, than the Apostles themselves. These things are expresly delivered concerning the doctrine of this Franciscan Fryer by the Inquisitor Eymericus; I know, Wadding in his Franciscan Annals to preserve the reputation of his Order,Wadding. Annales Minorum ad A. D. 1297. would clear him from all suspicion of Heresie, but I suppose the credit of an Inquisitor having such opportunities to know the truth, so near his own time, and having the p. 289examination of many of his followers, is to be relyed on rather than the testimony of one at such a distance, and partial for the honour of his order. Especially that being considered which Possevin saith of Eymericus, Possevin. Appar. v. Nicol. Eymeric.that most of his accounts of the times a little before his own were the very same with what was contained in a Manuscript in the Vatican Library both as to order and words; which is though to have been brought from Avignon to Rome, where he was made Inquisitour General by Gregory 11. A. D. 1358. But it is not denyed by Wadding or others, that the Beguini and Fratricelli, the Beguardi and others were his followers; and we shall find so great an agreement in their opinions, that it would be strange they should be accounted the Disciples of any other.Eymeric. dir…ct. Inquisit. p. 2. quaest. 15. Eymericus gives this account of them, that in the time of Clement 5. there arose in the Province of Narbonne, one Petrus Iohannis a Franciscan Fryer, who published by Writing and Preaching a great many Errours and Heresies in the same Province, and drew many after him, who had spread themselves over France, Italy, Germany, and other places, and continued in his time, being daily searched for, condemned by the Inquisitours. They all agreed that their doctrine was from God by immediate inspiration; Error. 36.and that all the writings of Petrus Johannis were p. 290revealed to him from the Lord and that he had declared this to some of his Friends; that he was so great a Doctor that from the time of the Apostles and Evangelists, there have been none greater than he in Learning and Holiness: and that his writings, theirs only excepted (wherein they fell short of the former Sect) were the most useful to the Church.

§. 10. Their doctrines may be reduced to these four heads,Of the Doctrines of the spiritual Brethren. 1. Evangelical poverty. 2. Unlawfulness of Swearing. 3. The Doctrine of perfection. 4. Opposition to the carnal Church. Which being joyned with that greater degree of light which they supposed themselves to have above all the rest of the world, makes up a Sect of Quakers after the Order of St. Francis.

1. Their Doctrine of Evangelical poverty; about which they said, That our Lord Iesus Christ as man, and his Apostles had nothing in proper, or in common, because they were perfectly poor in this world; and that this is perfect Evangelical poverty; but the enjoying any thing though in common takes off from the perfection of it; and that the Apostles themselves could not without sin have any property in any thing, and that it is Heresie to say otherwise; therefore the rule of St. Francis prescribing this poverty was that which Christ observed and prescribed to his Apostles, and was the same with the Gospel p. 291of Christ, and therefore whosoever addes to it, or takes from it (be it the Pope himself) he is a Heretick in so doing: on which account they condemned Iohn 22. and all the Prelates and Fryers for Heresie, who opposed this Doctrine. For we are not to imagine a Doctrine so contrary to the beloved interests of the Roman Church, should escape opposition: nay it was so far from it, that it immediately caused a breach in their own order.Papir. Masson. de Episc. Urbis, l. 6. v. Ioh. 22. For as Papirius Massonus well observes from Petrarch, none hate poverty more than they who profess it most; and the Franciscan order had gotten into their hands goodly possessions, and built magnificent houses, and laid up great provisions of Corn and Wine; which these followers of Petrus Iohannis declare against as directly contrary to the rule which they professed, being the strictest poverty; which this was as like as hypocrisie is to sincerity, or St. Francis to Christ. Upon this a great division happens in the Order: between the Brethren that followed Petrus Iohannis de Oliva, who were called the Spiritual men, and the Brethren of the community; both parties appeal to Clement 5. Alexander de Alexandriâ, General of the Order appears in behalf of the Community, and Vbertinus de Casali on the other side: But the spiritual Brethren, fearing hard usage at Rome and from their other superiours choose new p. 292ones to themselves and so make an open Schisme. In the Council of Vienna, A. D. 1311. a Decree was made to declare the rule of St. Francis, Clementin. l. 5. tit. 11.which is extant in the Canon Law under the title of Clementines but this by no means effected a cure; for the people favouring the dissenters in the Province of Narbon, Bulaei histor. universit. Paris. Tom. 4. p. 152.they turned out all the Brethren of the community; and took upon themselves new habits to be distinguished from the rest. During this heat Gonsalvus General of the Order, favouring the stricter Fryers dyed at Paris, P. 166.not without suspicion of poison from the looser Brethren. Iohn 22. being Pope resolves to take a severer course with the dissenters, and A. D. 1318. imployes the Inquisitours for that end; the fruit of which was, that they brake out into a more open Schisme and chose one Henricus de Ceva, or de Sena for their General; and kept their Conventicles as Iohn 22. in his constitution, Sancta Romana, declares, and every day added to their Sect. And the more constitutions he published, the greater opposition was made, in so much that Michael de Caesena, Gul. Ockam and others found out Heresies at last in them, and plain contradictions to those of his predecessours, especially that of Nicolaus 4. which Bellarmin confesseth cannot in all things be reconciled.B…ll. de Po… ti…. Rom. l. 4. … 14. No fewer than eighteen errours Francisc. Pegna confesseth p. 293he was charged with in one constitution, Fran. Pegna in direct. Inquis. comment. 42. Gul. Ockam Compend. error. Papae.to which he answered in another decretal not published, in which they found 32 Errours, but William Ockam went farther, and charged him with no fewer than 90. A goodly number for an infallible Head of the Church! in which there ought to be some allowance for humane frailty, as Benedict 12. his successour pleaded in behalf of Nicolaus 4. when he answered the objections of the Fraticelli against Iohn 22, as may be seen in Eymericus. Direct. Inq…isit. c. 17. l. 5.And his answers are thought so insufficient by Pegna, that he saith there are some doubtful and some false which ought not to be passed over without animadversion, and therefore solemnly invocates God, that he may be able to answer them better: and yet this Benedict was accounted a notable Divine, for a Pope; which made the dissenters, saith Pegna, hate him the more. The substance of his answer which Pegna is so much displeased with is, that though Nicolaus 4. had determined contrary to John 22. yet the former definition being contrary to Scripture ought not to stand. Thus when Popes fall out, the Scripture comes by its own; which is, to be the standing rule of all Controversies.

2. They thought it unlawful upon any occasion to swear; this Iohn 22. in his decretal, Gloriosam Ecclesiam, charges them with, and that those were guilty of mortal p. 294sin, and lyable to punishment, who were under the obligation of any Oath whatsoever: the same is reported by Wadding and others concerning them.

3. The Doctrine of perfection was stiffly maintained by them.Spondan. Annales Eccles A. D. 1311. n. 7. This Spondanus would have to be one of the opinions of the Beguardi, whom he distinguishes from the Beguini; but not only Eymericus and Pegna make them to be the same, but Iohn 22. in the Extravagant Sancta Romana condemns both together, as the title is in Eymericus; and in the body of it, it appears that they went under divers names in several places, being sometimes called Fraticelli, sometimes Fratres de poenitentia, sometimes Fratres de paupere vitâ, sometimes Bizochi, sometimes Beghini and sometimes Beguardi, Eymeric. p. 2. q. 11. Alvarus de pla…ctu Eccles. l. 2. c. 52.Sir 50:2which latter seems to be the name that they were known in Germany most by. Eymericus speaking of Petrus Olerii and Bononatus two of the Begardi in Spain, that were burnt for their Heresie by the Inquisitour and Bishop of Barcelona, Tur cremata S…m. l. 4. c. 36. part. 2.saith, that they held the opinion mentioned before concerning Evangelical poverty, Bzov. Annal. A. D. 1309. n. 12.which Spondanus thinks peculiar to the Beguini. About perfection their opinions were these as Alvarus Pelagius, S…ondan. Annal. A. D. 1311. n. 7.Ioh. Turrecremata, Bzovius, Spondanus, and Raynaldus all agree that a man in this life may attain to so great perfection as to live without sin, Raynald. Annal. A. D. 1312. n. 17.that a man p. 295who hath attained to such a degree he is above ordinances, i. e. he need not fast and pray as others do; that, such as are perfect, have the spirit of liberty and are not subject to any humane Ordinances either of Church or State. That, every intellectual Being hath enough within it self to make it happy, or a light within; so that it doth not need any external light of Glory in order thereto. That, to live in the exercise of moral vertues is an argument of a State of imperfection; and that, one truly perfect is above them. From hence they accounted all actions which were designed to satisfie natural inclinations to be indifferent and so looked on unclean mixtures as no sins. Alvarus saith, he saw one of them who was a German, and seemed a very spiritual man, in a very mean habit and looking sowrely with tears in his eyes, and full of raptures, and thought himself a Contemplator and a Taster; Names not yet taken up by any Fanaticks among us. And to let others understand how easily men were imposed upon by visions and raptures among them; he saith,Alvarus l. 2. c. 45. p. 87. that he knew a woman who was afterwards known to be naught, that had raptures at her pleasure, whom he had honoured as a Saint himself, and the very ground she stood on; and not only he, but many others, even Prelats and Cardinals too: by which he saw evidently how easily the Devil, could transform himself p. 292duplicate page p. 293duplicate page p. 294duplicate page p. 295duplicate page p. 296into an Angel of Light; and after saith of the Beguinae, that under the shew of sanctity they committed many vile things. A strange instance of the impostures of one of the Beguinae, who gained a great reputation for sanctity by her constancy and devotion at prayers, her pretending to raptures and extasies wherein her soul was carried to Heaven, her long fastings whereby she imposed upon the Bishop, the Fryers, and all the people to so great a degree that the Bishop was about building a Church on purpose to lay her in, that all comers might behold her who led such an Angelical life, and how accidentally the imposture was discovered, to the great dissatisfaction of them all,… Chronic. Sen…nerse l. 4 cap 18. but especially the Bishop, is at large related by Richerius.

4. But notwithstanding all this, they had a mighty zeal against the carnal Church; and called all those blind who were not of their way, as Eymericus saith of them; in these ma…ters they followed Petrus Iohannis of whose opinions about the Church we have already spoken;Eym…. p. 2. q. 15. err. 41. any that suffered among them were cryed up as Martyrs; Error. 20.and four of the Brethren suffering at Marseilles A. D. 1316. they said they were so far from suffering as Hereticks, that they were as good Martyrs as St. Laurence, or Vincentius; that Christ was spiritually Crucified in them; that all who approved or consented to their death, Pope, Prelats or others were all Hereticks for it, and p. 297lost all right of governing the Church or administring Sacraments, and are out of the Church and therefore not in a state of Salvation, Q. 16. s. 2.and they only are the true Church. These are the chief of their doctrines, although Eymericus reckons up no fewer than fifty five Errours and Heresies among them. And notwithstanding all the care used by Popes and Inquisitours against them in the time of Clement 5. Iohn 22. Benedict 12. Clement 6. Innocent 6. and afterwards,Gerson. oper. To. 1. p. 1. pag. 574. they not only continued but spread themselves still further. Iohn Gerson who lived in the beginning of the next Century, mentions not only the doctrines of the everlasting Gospel, but those of the Begardi, the substance of which he saith is, that a perfect soul being reduced to God, loseth its own will, so that it hath no other will but the divine will, which it had from eternity in that Ideal being which it had in God: which being supposed, they say they may do any thing which their affection puts them upon without sin, because they have no will of their own. The way of renouncing their own wills was somewhat different, he tells us; for the more cunning pretended to do it only to God; but these prevailed upon the other to renounce their own wills before them; which when they had done, they told them they could now sin no longer: and so did what they pleased together. p. 298Under which pretext of renouncing their own wills, all manner of wickedness was committed among them. Neither were they only in France, Italy, Sicily and Germany; but they prevailed much in Spain too; for in the time of Benedict 12 in Catalonia there were many Beguardi saith Eymericus, Eymeric. p. …. q. 11. s. 5.the chief of whom was Fryer Bonanatus who was burnt for his Heresie; in the time of Clement 6. there arose many of them in the Province of Valencia whose leader was Iacobus Iusti, and was therefore immured and so dyed. In the time of Innocent 6. Vrban 5. Gregory 11. appeared in Catalonia, one Arnoldus Montanerius, who publickly Preached for nineteen years together, the opinions of the Begardi about poverty, and added these of his own, that no one can be damned who wears the habit of St. Francis, that St. Francis once a year goes down into Purgatory, and thence draws the souls of all that have been of his order, and carries them to Paradise. These we have from Eymericus, who saith that by order of Vrban 5. and Greg. 11. he sate as Inquisitour upon him. And lest we should think this Sect inconsiderable among them, Ludovicus de Paramo the Inquisitour of Sicily declares that the Fratricelli, Lud. de Paramo de orig. sa…ctae Inquis. l. 2. tit. 3. cap. 4. n. 23.carrying an appearance of Sanctity with great poverty drew the hearts of all men to them, and drove John 22. into great straights, and by the p. 299Schisme they raised gave a great disturbance to the whole Church. Neither was it of any short continuance, if we consider the fundamental principles of this Sect, which were immediate revelations, renouncing property, and liberty of actions: for so it began with Almerick at Paris, and we have seen how much afterwards promoted by the Mendicant Fryers, and especially by those who called themselves of the third Order of St. Francis, Spondan. Annal…s A.D. 1294. n. 9.and pretended to far greater strictness as to their rule than others: on which account Celestine 5. A. D. 1294. gave them first liberty to separate themselves from the Community, Bulae histor. universit.which was afterwards pleaded by the Fratricelli, Paris. Tom. 3 p. 510.against Clement 5. and Iohn 22.

§. 11. But besides these who before were of this order, Of the continuance of this Sect.others took up the same way and opinions which were never originally of it; as the followers of Geraldus Segarelli and Dulcinus in Italy,Platina in vit. Clem. 5. Spondan. who are called Fratricelli by Platina, by others Pseudo-Apostolici and Dulcinistae. Spondanus confesseth those in Italy,Annales. A.D. 1297. n. 9. who were the followers of one Hermannus of Ferrara to be the same with the Fraticelli and Beguini;Prateolus de haeres. l. 8 v. Herman. whose body saith Prateolus, after he had been twenty years worshipped for a Saint, was by the command of Boniface 8. taken up and burnt for an Heretick:Paramo de orig. inquisit. l. 2. tit. 3. c. 4. v. 38. Ludovicus de Paramo saith that it was thirty years after, he p. 300had been publickly worshipped by the people of Ferrara; and he reckons up this as one of the great blessings which comes by the Inquisition, that they are thereby undeceived in many whom they worship for Saints, of which he gives several other instances. But the burning of Hermannus bones, did not extinguish the Sect of Fraticelli there; the only effect of this severity was, that they grew more numerous and bold, as Patreolus and Spondanus confess. They kept their Conventicles more frequently, and spread the further, insomuch that great multitudes of people fell in with them. Among whom as their chief leaders were several of the order of St. Francis, as Spondanus proves from the Extravagant Sancta Romana of Iohn 22. And of the same Sect were the Pseud-Apostolici, whose chief leaders were Geraldus Segarelli and Dulcinus one of his Disciples, Direct. Inquisit. p. 2. §. 12.the one of Parma, the other of Novara, these filled all the Countrey thereabout with their errours, saith Eymericus; and made an Independent Congregation among themselves, which acknowledged obedience and subjection, as he adds, to none but God himself, and said that they followed the Apostolical rule in a very singular manner. Paramo l 2. tit. 3. c 4 n. 19.This Geraldus saith Paramo and his followers by a shew of extraordinary sanctity, drew many to their party: but Friar Salimbenus (in a Manuscript seen p. 301by Pegna in the Library of Cardinal Savelli at Rome) being himself a Franciscan,Pegn. not. in direct p. 2. q. 12. gives this account of him, whom he calls Gherardinus Segalellus, that being desirous to be admitted into their order, he was refused by them, after which he spent some time in the Franciscans Church, where observing the pictures of the Apostles, and the habits they were drawn in; he put himself as exactly as he could into the very same habit; and having sold his house and received the money for it, he distributed it all among the people; and afterwards got a companion who was a servant to the Franciscans; but by degrees their number increased, so that in a short time they spread over many Cities in Italy: and from thence were dispersed over almost all Europe: They went up and down in the Streets, saith Eymericus, Preaching repentance with a white Mantel, a white Coat, and long hair, barefoot and bareheaded, and what they eat was publickly in the Streets, and only what was given to them: after forty years in which they mightily prevailed, Boniface 8. caused Gerald to be taken and burnt; upon this Dulcinus with six thousand of his companions retired into the Alps, where they increased so much, saith Pegna, that Clement 5. was forced to send a Croisado against them: where they starved a great part of them; but Dulcinus and his Wife Margareta, as Patreolus calls p. 302her, were taken and burnt. It is not credible saith Bzovius,Bzov. Annales A. D. 1309. n. 13. how long they endured upon the Alps all extremities of hunger and cold, rather than they would yield to their Adversaries. But notwithstanding all the endeavours could be used, they could not wholly extinguish that Sect, Prateolus de haer. l. 4. v. Dulcinus.saith Prateolus, but the remainders of it were still left in the Mountains about Trent, and continued to his time, which was about A. D. 1560. These were of the same opinions with the Fratricelli before mentioned as to the Roman Church, that by reason of the wickedness of the Clergy and Religious Orders, it was a reprobate Church; and the Whore of Babylon; but being no more content with this, than the greatest Fanaticks of our Age, they pretended to great things themselves, that they were the only spiritual Congregation, sent, and chosen out by God to bear testimony to his truth, in the last ages; and that they, and only they, had the power which St. Peter had; that Geraldus Segarelli, was a plant of Gods own planting, growing up from the root of faith; by whom God began the work of Reformation of his Church, to the purity, perfection, life, state and poverty of the primitive Church, in that state wherein Christ committed his Church to St. Peter. That they only are the Church of God, and in that perfection wherein the Apostles were, and therefore are bound to live in subjection to p. 303none, because their rule which was immediately from Christ, is free, and hath the greatest perfection, that no one can be saved who is not of their Order, that it is a sign any one is in a state of damnation to persecute them: that all the Popes from Sylvester downward, and all the Prelats were impostours and deceivers, excepting only Celestine 5. who renounced his Popedome, and gave leave to the spiritual Brotherhood to separate from the rest in the Franciscan Order. That the Orders of Clergy and Religion are dangerous to the Church. That no lay-men ought to pay any tithes to Priest or Prelat, who lives not in the same perfection and poverty which the Apostles did. That it was as well to Worship God in Woods, or Stables, or Barnes, as in consecrated Churches: That it was unlawful for Christians to swear at all, saith Prateolus, or never but in case of the Articles of faith, or the divine commands, say, Turrecremata and Eymericus, but in all other cases it was lawful to use all aequivocations and mental reservations, and to deny their Sect with their mouths, as long as they kept true to them in their hearts. That nothing was unlawful which was done out of a principle of Love: and that all things, in the worst sense, were to be common among them; and therefore they are charged with allowing and practising promiscuous mixtures among themselves, if their Adversaries do not charge p. 304them as unjustly in this point as the Prmitive Christians were charged by the Heathen. This is the summ of their Principles and practices as they are reported by Turrecremata,Turrecremata Sum. de Eccles. l. 4. p. 2. c. 37.Sir 50:4 Eymericus, Prateolus, Spondanus, Raynaldus, and others. But that which is still observable to our purpose is, that these were looked on as a sort of Fryers in the Roman Church;Eymeric. p. 2. q. 12. for when Honorius 4.Prateolus l 14. n. 41. condemned them by his Bull extant in Eymericus, he doth it upon this account, Spondan. A.D. 1370. n. 16.that they were a sort of Mendicant Fryers not approved by the Roman See; whereas Greg. 10.Raynald. A.D. 1311. n. 66. in the Council of Lyons had absolutely forbid all Orders of Mendicants after the Lateran Council,Naucler. Gen. 44. p. 986.Gen 44 that should not receive express confirmation from the Pope; but his Holiness was informed, that some who called themselves of the Apostolical Order,Gaulticri Chronol. sec. 1300. c. 8. had since that time assumed to themselves a new habit of Religion without due applications being made to his See, and a great number of these went up and down, as Mendicants into many parts of the world, doing unseemly things to their own peril and the scandal of others; especially some among them being guilty of Heresie: therefore all Ecclesiastical Officers, are required to admonish and compell them to lay down their habits, and to enter themselves among some of the approved Religious Orders; and in case of refusal they ought to proceed judicially against p. 305them and to deliver them over to the secular power. By which we understand the true ground of the quarrel against them, viz. not yielding subjection enough to the Roman See, and how easily all their Blasphemies and Villanies might be forgiven, if they entred themselves into any of the approved Religious Orders.

§. 12. As we see all the care used could not root out this Sect wholly,Of the Alumbrado's in Spain. but the remainders of them continued in some of the Mountains of Italy, so I am very much mistaken if the Alumbrado's in Spain, or the Sect of Illuminati, were any other than a remainder of the Beguini and Fraticelli whom we observed before to have got footing there. Spondan. Annales. A.D. 1623. n. 7.Spondanus indeed and some others from him, say, they were detected in the Diocesses of Sevil and Cadiz, A. D. 1623. and were condemned by Andreas Pachecus the general Inquisitour in Spain, in twenty six Articles, and the seven chief of them were burnt: but withall he saith, they were not so much a new Sect, as a renewal of an old one with some additions. Nay we meet with the very same name of the Sect long before that: Lud. de Paramo de origine Inquisit. l. 2. tit. 3. c. 5. n. 15.For Ludovicus de Paramo saith, that several Priests were taken by order of the Inquisition in the Town of Lerena, who under pretence of extraordinary illumination from God, did gain upon the people, and spread dangerous opinions among them. And afterwards p. 306he particularly describes them under the names of the Illuminati,Lib 3. q. 5. n. 189, &c. by their pride and disobedience to their Superiours, by their obstinate adhering to their Illusions, and indulging themselves in their sensual lusts; all which fully agree to the Character already given of the Fraticelli,N. 192. and Begardi. For the first, he saith they chose rather to be broken in pieces, than give obedience to their Bishops; for the second he proves, that as long as they gave way to sensual lusts, their illumination could not be from God; for they who would sleep in the divine light, as he speaks, must have their eye-lids shut as to all worldly vanities and pleasures, therefore we ought to shun such illuminated,N. 211. or rather blind persons, who transform themselves into Angels of light, spreading divers doctrines and revelations which they have;N. 238. of whom he interprets the Epistle of St. Iude. By all that hath been said, this Sect seems to be nothing else but Gnosticism revived under new shapes and names; and with a difference of opinions suitable to the age wherein it appeared. Spondanus gives this account of the opinions and practices of the modern Alumbrado's, that under a pretence of mental Prayer and divine contemplation, and union with God; they despised the use of Sacraments, Preaching the Word of God, and all holy exercises; and did extol the other so highly, that they said those things would not be sins in them, which p. 307were so in others, and by this means committed all impurities. Of this Sect Ignatius Loyola was vehemently suspected to be, and upon that account was cast into prison by the Inquisition in Spain. Which Maffeius himself doth not deny, Maffeius in vit. Ignatii l. 1. cap. 17.that it was upon the account of the Illuminati, and his Enthusiastical Preaching in the Streets, that he was Questioned. But Melchior Canus that learned Bishop of the Canaries puts the matter out of dispute, for in a discourse of his concerning the foundation of the Society of Iesus, preserved entire in the hands of Dominicus Canus Bishop of Cadiz his Nephew, and published in part by Schioppius,Schiopp. Infam. Famiani p. 62. he saith, that the General of that Order was one Innico who fled out of Spain, lest he should be laid hold on by the Inquisition, being suspected for the Heresie of the Illuminati; and coming to Rome he desired to be judged by the Pope, where no accuser appearing he was absolved. He gives him the Character of a vain man; for, being once in his company at Rome, he presently without any occasion began to boast of his righteousness, and the unjust persecution he had suffered in Spain: and spake many and great things of the revelations he had from God, without any necessity; upon which account he saith, he believed not anything at all concerning them. Another day, he adds, when he went to dine with him, he commended one of his Brethren p. 308for a great Saint, who coming into the room where they were, he presently suspected the man to be mad: and when he talked with him about matters of Religion, he answered heretically, not out of design, but because he was an Ideot, a rude, ignorant fellow. Ignatius being confounded at this, said he was no Heretick, but a Fool; but he believed he had some lucid intervals; and at that time by reason of the conjunction of the Moon, he was not a very sound Catholick. See from what Man, the Iesuits derive the infallibility of their faith! But although Canus was a person of more learning and judgement than a thousand Ignatius's; yet the Iesuits decry him as very partial against them: for Orlandinus in his history of the Society complains of him as one of the bitterest enemies they had in the beginning of their Society;Orlandin. hist. Societ. Iesu l. 8. n. 46. for he every where set them forth as the fore-runners of Antichrist, and explained the Prophecy of them, concerning the men that should be in the last times.2 Tim 3. 1. to the 8. v.2 Tim 3:1 Wherein it is said, Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, blasphemers, &c. Traytours, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God, having a Form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof: For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead Captive silly Women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, &c. The same thing (saith Orlandinus and p. 309truly) was charged upon the Orders of Dominicans and Franciscans as well as them: and we shall not quarrel with them which order of them all hath the greatest share in the accomplishment of this Prophecy.

§. 13. That which is our present business,The Jesuites Order founded in Fanaticism. is to shew that this Order was instituted as the other were upon the credit of visions and revelations; for Ignatius was certainly as Ignorant and Enthusiastical as St. Francis himself; and to prove this, I shall only make use of those of his own Order, who have writ his life, (Maffeius, Orlandinus and Ribadeneira) and pursue it no farther than the institution of the Order, as I have done with the other. The first remarkable thing in him was that he was converted by reading the Legends of the Saints, as Don Quixot began his Errantry by reading the old Romances: I wonder how Ignatius did to read them, for Maffeius describes him,Maff…ius vit. Ignat. l. 1. c. 1. as one that had hardly ever learnt his letters: but it is possible St. Peter taught him, for they all write that St. Peter appeared to him, Ribadene…ra vit. Ignat. c. 1.before he was so far recovered as to be able to read. But his Country-man was not more moved with the adventures of former Knights; than Ignatius was with the stories of St. Dominick and St. Francis, for these Maffeius tells us, did particularly work upon him; in so much that before he took p. 310up a firm resolution of Religious Errantry, he would put cases to himself of the difficult Adventures of those two illustrious Heroes, and found himself to have mettle enough to undertake any of them: and therefore in a fit of zeal one night he gets out of his bed and fell down upon his knees before an Image of the B. Virgin, Ribadencira c. 1.and in that posture vowed himself her Knight. Orlandin. hist. l. 1. …. 12.Which is a circumstance so considerable, I admire that Maffeius omits it; as he doth likewise the strange noise in the house, the trembling of the room and the breaking of the glass windows that time: an argument saith Orlandinus, that the Devil then took his leave of him, although there be some reason to doubt it. After this the V. Mary appeared to him with a great deal of glory with her Child in her lap (and all this while, for the vision continued for some time, he thought himself awake) by which sight he was hugely animated for all his future adventures. The first whereof was to a place of great devotion to the B. Virgin, called Montserrat, and in the way thither he was like to have begun his first adventure with a Moore who allowed the B. Virgin to have been so till her delivery, but would not yield it afterwards; at which Ignatius, considering whose Knight he was, began to be so inraged, that he thought it necessary to revenge her quarrel p. 311upon him, but disputing with himself what to do, and the Moore being gone another way, he leaves the cause to the wisdome of the Mule, and puts the Reines in his neck, that if he followed the Moores way at the parting of the two wayes he would have his life, but the good Mule understanding his Riders mind, left the beaten road and went on to Montserrat; where a remarkable Ceremony was performed by him; for as Orlandinus and Maffeius expresly say,Orla…din. hist. l. 1. n. 18. Ignatius having read in Books of Chivalry, that the ancient Knights at their first entring upon that hononourable imployment, were wont to watch all night in their arms; he thought it fit to begin his Errantry in the same manner, he therefore hangs up his Sword and Dagger before the Altar of the B. Virgin, and puts on his habiliments, but instead of his shining Armour, he had gotten a long Coat of Sack-cloth, with a cord about it, at which he hangs his bottle for water, and instead of his Lance a plain Crab-tree staffe, with a wicker shooe upon one foot and the other naked, having no Morrion on his head, but exposed that to the violence of the weather. All these habiliments (having procured them by the way,) he hung at the pummel of his Saddle when he entred the Town saith Maffeius, Maffei…s l. 1. c. 3.(for fear the people should think him in his wits) but he puts them p. 312not on till he came to the sacred place where he was by the Laws of Chivalry to watch in them, and so he did, say they, sometimes standing, sometimes kneeling, and devoting himself with all his might to the service of the B. Virgin. Which having done, early the next morning (for that is a necessary circumstance too in the adventures of Chivalry) away he goes for Manresa, where he takes up his lodging in the Town-Hospital, and lets his Haire and Nailes grow, and beggs from door to door (and yet fasted six dayes in the week) he whipps himself thrice a day, was seven houres every day in vocal prayer, lay upon the bare ground, and all to prepare himself for his adventures to Ierusalem. Which sort of life growing very uneasie to him, he was once near saith Maffeius, Maffeius l. 1. c. 6.throwing himself out of a Window to put an end to it; but God (having designed his order for a further punishment to the world) not permitting that; not long after he had such clear divine revelations, C. 7.that in a moment of time, saith Maffeius, he understood the greatest mysteries of Religion, and the most subtle speculations in Philosophy (especially the way of Gods making the World, made clear to him, but not expressible to others) which other men cannot attain to with the hardest study and p. 313pains.Orland. l. 1. n. 27. In one of his Visions, saith Orlandinus, while he was repeating the Horary Prayers of the B. Virgin, he saw the B. Trinity, as plainly as we do one another, under a corporeal representation, and was so full of joy at it, that he could not hold weeping before all the people, and was so enlightned by it, that although he was yet very ignorant, he began to write a Book of the glories of the B. Trinity. In one of his extasies he continued eight dayes, in which it is probable, saith the same Author,N. 28. he saw the frame and model of the Society of Iesuites. A Blessed sight! if he saw all the consequences of it too. After this in order to his voyage to Hierusalem, away he goes for Barcelona where Elizabeth Rosella espying him at Church sitting among the Boyes,N. 32. she saw a great shining about his mouth, and heard a voice within her, which bid her call that man to her house.Ribadeneira c. 4. While he was in Italy in his way to Hierusalem, Christ appeared to him again at Padua, as he was wont to do at Manresa: Orland. l. 1. n. 34.at Venice one of the Senatours had a vision concerning him, checking him for lying in so much state, while that holy man Ignatius lay in the open aire.N 35. Visions were grown so familiar with him now, that it is to no purpose to recount those which he had at Hierusalem, and elsewhere. In his return through Italy, p. 314the Spanish Souldiers used him hardly, taking him for a Spy, and carryed him to their Commander;N. 44. now saith Orlandinus, it had been his custome not to give men any titles of respect, but to call them only by their common names; and he questioned a little with himself whether he ought to break that custome now he was to appear before the Commander, and resolves it in the Negative, because to do it proceeded from too great fear of men: therefore being brought before him, he gives him no testimony of respect either in his words or actions; and (both Maffeius and Orlandinus testifie) he would not put off his Hat to him. Maff. c. 16.By which we understand, who was the first Founder of that Fanatick Sect among us, which is distinguished so much from others, by denying common civilities to men. Upon this the Commander severely rebuked the Souldiers, for bringing a mad man to him, at which they were so enraged, that he might have saved himself the labour of whipping himself that day; they doing him that office very effectually. Being returned to Barcelona at thirty three years of Age he begins to learn his Grammar, but as Maffeius observes,Maff. l. 1. c. 16. he could not have Amo in his mouth, but his mind was carried he knew not whither, and was so full of visions all that while, that he could not remember one word that he learnt; p. 315upon which he beggs his Master, falling in great humility at his feet (having it seems more reverence for him, than he had for the Spanish Officer) that he would tye him punctually as he did the Boys to his Lessons,Orland. hist. l. 1. n. 47. and if he could not say them, that he might be whipt as they were. But as dull as he was at his Book, he had so great elevations in his Prayers, that (if we believe him) one Iohn Paschal, N. 49.saith Orlandinus, saw him raised up from the ground in a dark night; but that being a suspicious circumstance, he addes that the room at the same time was filled with a great light. Having stayed out his two years at School in Barcelona, to the Vniversity he goes, where he privately studies Logick, Physicks, and Divinity together, to very little purpose, as Maffeius confesseth,Maffei. l. 1. c. 17. and in the mean time Preaches and Beggs in the Streets. Orland. l. 1. n. 56.Here he was several times under examination by the Inquisition, and once imprisoned for forty one dayes, out of which he was not dismissed, till they had commanded him not to Discourse of Divinity again till he had studied four years, and to wear the same habit with other Students. Upon this he removes to Salamanca, where he finds no kinder entertainment, being put into chains in the Dungeon and strictly examined;N. 61. For here he follows his former course; he and his p. 316companions in an Enthusiastical manner (being meer lay-men, Maffei. l. 1. c. 17.as Maffeius acknowledgeth) going up and down the Streets, Preaching in all places, and to all sorts of persons; and being examined by the Sub-prior of the Dominicans what Studies they followed, Ignatius very fairly confessed the truth, that they were unlearned. He then asked him, why they took upon them to Preach; Ignatius very subtilly told him, they did not Preach; they did only hold forth to the people in a familiar manner concerning vertue and vice, and thereby endeavoured to bring them to the hatred of one and love of the other. The Sub-prior told him this was Preaching, which no one could pretend to do, but either by learning, or immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost; and since you do not pretend to learning, you must pretend to be inspired. Here Ignatius finding himself caught; resolutely denyed to give him any answer, unless he were legally impowred to examine him. Say you so, said the Dominican? I will take care of that suddenly: So they were three dayes kept in the Convent, and after that by order of the Bishop of Salamanca, were committed to close Prison, where he Preached to the people with great zeal, who now flocked in great numbers to him; and gloried as much in his sufferings, and talked at the same rate, that p. 317the Ring-leaders of the Quakers are wont to do among us. And just with the same resolution, when the rest of the Prisoners made their escape by the negligence of the keepers, Ignatius and his companions would not stirr: When they were called to answer, Ignatius Preached at large upon several points of Divinity to them, under pretence of answering questions. After twenty two dayes promising to submit themselves to the judgement of the Church, they are dismissed, but with a charge in four years time not to meddle with nice Cases of Conscience, which Ignatius took with so much indignation, that he had a present impulse upon his mind to be gone; and no consideration whatever could hinder him, but away he must go to Paris, to see if he could meet with any better success there. And accordingly he begins his journey, driving all his learning before him, which was an Asse laden with Books, Maffei. l. 1. c. 18.as Maffeius relates, and so reaches Barcelona, and afterwards arrived safe at Paris. Where being sensible of his own ignorance and dulness, he resolves to ply his Book better, and to that end enters himself among the Boyes in the School and begins his Grammar again. A sad case! that after two years Schooling at Barcelona, being at two Vniversities in Spain, and having so many revelations, he should be p. 318yet so great a Dunce that he could not tell the rules of Grammar. Now he finds it necessary to pray and whip less and to study more. Here he finds so cold a reception, that Hospitals, Begging, help from Countrey men, were all little enough to keep him at first from starving; but however after eighteen months spent in learning a little Latin, he applyes himself to Philosophy, but the Enthusiastick heat of his brain was so great, that he had much adoe to keep his mind to it, but at last he obtained his Degree in Philosophy after three years and a half study, or at least so much time spent there. Then he goes to the Dominican School to learn Divinity, where he got just enough to keep him from being a Heretick; for so much Maffeius his words imply. All this while his Enthusiastick head was full of projects in order to the drawing Disciples to himself, that he might in imitation of former Heroes, Found a new order: for this it is apparent he aimed at, and for the sake of this he went through so many difficulties, and pretended so much to Enthusiasm, without which he knew his design could not be compassed.Orlandin. hist. Soc. Ies. l. 1. …. 66. Orlandinus therefore tells us, that being at Antwerp, (as he used to make excursions sometimes from Panis to beg a subsistence) being in a company of Merchants he looked stedfastly upon a young Merchant, and (not p. 319knowing what effect such words might have upon him afterwards) he called him aside, and told him he ought to thank God who had chosen him to build a Colledge for the Society of Iesus in his own Countrey. By which it is plain what he designed at that time, before he had yet formed any thing like a Society; and the same Author would have men believe that God had then revealed it to him that he should found that Society, otherwise, he saith well, no man would have taken so much pains as he did, unless he had such a thing in his head. During his abode at Paris, he had prevailed upon three Students, and the first thing he perswaded them to, was to give away all that they had and their Books too, and to beg their bread; which caused a great heat in the Vniversity, he being suspected to have made them mad, and by force they took them away from the Hospital whither he had drawn them. I omit his flying, or rather being carryed as it were in a rapture from Paris to Rouen, Orland. n. 68, 69.and the joy and extatick expressions he had in it; his standing up in dirt and mire to the neck, to represent to his companion the filthiness of the sin he lived in, his so narrowly escaping being publickly whipt in the University for seducing the Students, that Orlandinus makes it almost a Miracle:N. 71. But we are now to take notice that his design p. 320being to form a Society, he had for that purpose used himself to all the arts of insinuation imaginable,Maffeius l. 1. c. 21. accommodating himself to the humours of the persons he had to do with, endeavouring to oblige all men with expressions of the greatest kindness,Orland. n. 75. bearing all affronts with a wonderful dissimulation, as Maffeius describes him. By these arts he labours to get some of the most hopeful Students in the University to him, and at last prevailes upon nine to joyne with him: he studies their humours and applies himself accordingly, not acquainting them at first with his design, but by degrees prepares them for it;N. 84. among them Xaverius at first laughed at him and despised him, but was at last won by his obsequiousness, flattery, and insinuation. And finding his former Disciples soon grew weary of him and forsook him, he resolves to tye these faster, and to that end appoints a meeting in a Church, dedicated to the B. Virgin in the Suburbs of Paris; where they all solemnly vow before receiving the Eucharist (none but themselves being present) either to go to Ierusalem, or to offer themselves to the Popes service; which was done A. D. 1534. upon the day of Assumption of the B. Virgin to whose Patronage they particularly devoted themselves. After this Ignatius fearing their relapse, kept them together as much as might be, p. 321and used all means to prevent any differences happening among them, having now gotten persons to his mind, and for fear the Friends of some of his chief confidents in Spain should take them off,N. 96. he offers to go himself and dispatch their business for them.Maffeius l. 2. cap. 1. In his return to Spain he observes his former course of Preaching and Begging, and was followed by such a multitude of people that he was fain to Preach in the Fields, where (which deserves admiration in so weak and mortified a man) though he could not raise his voice, yet it was heard distinctly above a quarter of a mile, Orlandin. l▪ 1. n. 116.say Orlandinus and Ribadeneira, but Maffeius more prudently omits it.Ribad. n. c. 8. But he helps us with as good a passage instead of it,Maff. l. 2. c. 1. Ignatius was prevailed upon now by his Disciples to make use of a horse in his journey to Spain, which when he was come thither he left to an H…spital, which the people looked on with so much reverence that no man durst use him afterwards, but as a consecrated horse was preserved in ease and good pasture all his life time. At Venice, at the time appointed, his companions meet him, where they debate their voyage to Hierusalem; Orland. l. 1. n. 111.and their custome Orlandinus saith was this, in any matter of debate, they were to joyne together in Prayer, and after seeking God, what opinion the most were of that they resolve upon, which they observed, saith he, till the self-denying Ignatius, was, after much p. 322seeking God in their way made the General; and then his Will was to rule them: after a years stay about Venice (their courage being now cooled as to Hierusalem) wherein Ignatius and the rest that were yet Laymen entred into Orders, they determine to go to Rome, and submit themselves wholly to the Popes pleasure: and in the mean time wander about the Countrey, Preaching in the Streets and Market places, Maff. l. 2. c. 4.and making use of the Bulks of Shops for their Pulpits, and invited the people to hear them, saith Maffeius, with a loud voice and whirling their Caps over their heads; and though few understood them, being strangers, yet all admired and commended them, and no doubt they converted many, as their followers have done, from the use of Laces and Ribbands. All this while, since Ignatius began to have any smattering of Learning, we read little of his visions and revelations; but the time coming near that he hoped for a confirmation of his Order from the Pope; L. 2. C. 5.now saith Maffeius, he began to have them again as frequently as he had at Manresa (which in a kind of a religious jest, he saith, he was wont to call his primitive Church) nay he exceeded them: for what he now saw, being above humane nature cannot be expressed; only one Vision did him a great deal of service, which was, that lying in a trance p. 323which was frequent with him as well as Mahomet, he saw God the Father commending Ignatius and his Brethren to his Son Iesus bearing his Cross; whom he very kindly received, and spake these words with a smile to Ignatius, I will be favourable to you at Rome: which gave him and his companions great comfort. At Rome, hearing the fame of St. Benedict and his Revelations, or remembring them in the Legends, he withdraws to the same place, Monte Cassino, and there it fell out luckily (that he might come behind none of them in visions) as St. Benedict saw the soul of Germanus go to Heaven, so did he in the very same manner the soul of Hozius one of his Society; and a little after as he was praying to the Saints he saw Hozius among them all. Notwithstanding all this, they met with great difficulties at Rome; but Pope Paul 3. being throughly satisfied in the main point, of their being serviceable to the interest of that Church, all other difficulties were soon conquered, and the Pope himself became Enthusiastical too,Maff. l. 2. c. 12. and cryed out, having read, saith Maffeius, the first draught of the rules of the Society made by Ignatius, The Spirit of the Lord is here, and many things to the same purpose. But one of the Cardinals to whom the examination of them was committed still opposing the establishing this Order, Ignatius flyes to his usual refuges, p. 324for besides fastings, prayers, keeping of dayes, &c. he and his Friends offered three thousand Masses for this end alone: (and it must be a hard heart indeed that would not yield with so much suppling) this Cardinal all of a sudden quite changed his mind and commended the business himself to the Pope: and so the Society of Iesus was confirmed by the Popes Bull, 3 Octob. A. D. 1540. to the joy of Ignatius his heart, and soon after he was made General of the Order, which he accepted with as many tears and protestations, and intreaties (till he plainly saw it was the will of God it must be so) as ever any Vsurper took the Government into his hands, which he had most eagerly sought after. And now let the world judge, whether there hath appeared a greater Enthusiast or pretender to revelations than Ignatius was, since the dayes of Mahomet, and St. Francis? Methinks they might be ashamed to upbraid us with the Fanaticism of the Quakers and such persons, the chiefest of whom fall very much short of Ignatius, in those very things for which they are condemned by us, yet any one who compares them would imagine, the life of Ignatius had been their great exemplar. I know not whether any of that innocent and religious order of Iesuits, had any hand in forming this new Society among us (as hath been frequently suggested) p. 325but if one may guesse the Father by the Childs likeness, Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Iesuits, was at least the Grandfather of the Quakers.

§. 14. Thus I have gone through the most illustrious Orders of the Church of Rome, Of the Fanatick way of devotion among them.and shewed how they have been founded on Fanaticism, and given encouragement thereby unto it. It remains now that I consider the way of devotion in greatest request among them, and prove that it doth encourage and promote Enthusiasme. For this, we are to take notice that those of the Church of Rome, who have set themselves to the Writing Books of Devotion, have with great zeal recommended so mystical and unintelligible a way of devotion, as though their design had been only to amuse and confound the minds of devout persons, and to prepare them for the most gross Enthusiasme and extravagant illusions of Fancy. But this is the fruit of leaving the Scriptures and that most plain and certain way of Religion delivered therein; there can be no end of Phantastical modes of devotion, and every superstitious Fanatick will be still inventing more, or reviving old ones. No Laws or Rules publickly allowed can serve their turn, they must have something peculiar to themselves to gain a reputation of greater sanctity by; and it is hard, if they do not light upon some p. 326affected phrases, unintelligible notions, ridiculous or singular postures, that they may be sure to charge those with following carnal reason who condemn them. And they triumph in nothing more, than when they can handsomely revenge themselves on that bitter enemy of theirs called Reason, which they never do with greater pleasure than when they pretend it to be upon the account of Religion. In the Church of Rome the case hath been thus; among them as in all Religions and places in the World, there are some persons of a temper naturally disposed more to Religion than others are; being melancholy, thoughtful, tender, and easily moved by hopes and fears. These do more easily receive the impressions of Religion, which they being possessed with, if they be not carefully governed, are more lyable to fall into the dotages of superstition, or to be transported by the heats of Enthusiasme. Against both of them there can be no better cure imaginable than the true understanding the nature and reasonableness of the Christian Religion, which fills our minds with a true sense of God and goodness, and so arms us against superstition, and withall acquaints us that the conduct of the Spirit of God is in the use of the greatest reason and prudence, and so prevents the follies of Enthusiasme. But it being so much the design of that Church to p. 327keep the members of it from knowing any thing against her interest, so much as the true practice of Christianity is, and therefore keeping the Bible out of the hands of the people, they must substitute some other wayes in the room of that, to gratifie the earthy dulness of a superstitious temper, and the airiness and warmth of the Enthusiastical. For the former, they are abundantly provided by a tedious and ceremonious way of external devotion as dull and as cold as the earth it self; to the other they commend abstractedness of life, mental prayer, passive unions, a Deiform fund of the soul, a state of introversion, divine inspirations, which must either end in Enthusiasme or madness. And the perfection of this state lying in an intime Vnion with God (as they speak) whereby the soul is Deified, is to be attained only in the way of unknowing, (for nothing so dangerous as the use of reason) and self-annihilation and many other things as impossible to be understood as practised. Which makes it difficult to give any account of such unintelligible stuffe, for we must only grope in obscurity and profound darkness, and draw a Night piece without lights. This way came first into request in the Monastick orders by the examples of their founders, as will easily appear by our former discourse; but the men who most solemnly preached and divulged it were p. 328Rusbrochius, Suso, Harphius, &c. and he who in these latter ages hath gathered together most that had been said before him, and is commended by Balthasar Corderius and others as a most sublime interpreter of mystical Divinity,Corderii Isagog. in mystis. Theolog. D…onys. c. 7. Ludovicus Blosius, from these it were not difficult to put together some of their words and phrases as an account of their Divinity; but I rather choose to do it, chiefly from a late Author published by Mr. Cressy not many years since, who after his many turnings and changes of opinions sits down at last (as appears by his publishing Mother Iuliana's revelations and the Preface to Sancta Sophia) with the deserved Character of a Popish Fanatick. Which Book of Sancta Sophia being compiled by Mr. Cressy out of many writings of Father Augustin Baker, and set forth A. D. 1657. with large approbations at the beginning and end of it, I hope no doctrine contained therein will be thought a scandal to their Church. The design of it is as the title tells us, To give directions for the Prayer of Contemplation, &c. I would they had given directions for understanding it in the first place, for if we have no other help than what Mr. Cressy gives in his Preface, we may as well hope to understand the Quakers Canting as Mr. Cressy's. Let the Reader judge by these few passages in his Preface. p. 329The only proper disposition towards the receiving supernatural irradiations from Gods holy Spirit is an abstraction of life, Preface to Sancta Sophia. s. 33.a sequestration from all business that concern others (though it be their salvation) and an attendance to God alone in the depth of the Spirit: and a little after, the lights here desired and prayed for are such as do expel all images of creatures, and do calm all manner of passions, to the end that the soul being in a vacuity, may be more capable of receiving and entertaining God in the pure fund of the Spirit. What this pure fund of the Spirit means, I had been somewhat to seek for, had not Lud. Blosius in the Preface to his spiritual Institution told us, that the Deiform fund of the soul, is the simple essence of the soul stamped with a divine impress, or if this be not plain enough, that from whence ariseth a super-essential life: but if yet it cannot be understood, we may be the less troubled at it, since the same Author saith afterward, that very few do know that hidden fund of their souls, Lud. Blo…ii. Instit. Spirit. cap. 12.or believe that they have such a thing within them. It being, it seems, like some very cunning drawer in a Cabinet where the main treasure lyes, which the owner himself cannot find out, till it be broken to pieces; for self-annihilation is necessarily required in order to it. And this super-essential life, as he admirably describes it, is a way of knowing without p. 330thoughts, of seeing in darkness, of understanding without reason, of unknowing God by perceiving him, of being melted and brought to nothing first, and then being lost and swallowed up in God; by which means all created being is put off, and that which is only divine put on, being changed into God, as iron heated into the nature of fire. This being the state of perfection aimed at here in this world, we must now consider the directions given in order to it. To this end in the first place, a contemplative state is commended above an active as more perfect, Sancta Sophia treat. 1. c. 3. s. 1, 2.and more easie, more simple and more secure from all errours and illusions which may be occasioned by an indiscreet use of Prayer. Where by an active and contemplative state we must not understand what we commonly do by those terms,Treat. 1. c. 1. s. 4, 5. but the active-state is, the use of reasoning and internal discourse to fix our affections upon God, and expressing it self in sensible devotion and outward acts of obedience to Gods will; the contemplative in the Authors language is, seeking God in the obscurity of faith with a more profound introversion of Spirit, and with less activity and motion in sensitive nature, and without the use of grosser images; and such souls are not of themselves, he saith, much inclined to external works; but they seek rather to purifie themselves and inflame their hearts to p. 331the love of God by internal, quiet and pure actuations in spirit, by a total abstraction from creatures, by solitude both external and especially internal, so disposing themselves to receive the influxes and inspirations of God, whose guidance chiefly they endeavour to follow in all things. Now, he saith, the security of such a state above the other lyes in this; Sancta Sophia. cap. 3. S. 2.that a contemplative soul tending to God, and working almost only with the heart and blind affections of the will, pouring themselves upon God apprehended only in the obscure notion of faith, not enquiring what he is, but believing him to be that incomprehensible being which he is, and which can only be comprehended by himself, rejecting and striving to forget all Images and representations of him, or any thing else; yea transcending all operations of the imagination, and all subtlety and curiosity of reasoning, and lastly seeking an union with God only by the most pure and most intime affections of the spirit, what possibility of illusion or errour can there be to such a soul? none doubtless: for this is more than a meer sleep of the soul, for all reasoning and images of things being wholly laid aside, there is not so much as a possibility of dreaming left. The next thing he takes notice of, which is very well observed,S. 3. is that men given to sublime speculations (or I suppose any who have the use of reason) are not so capable p. 332of it as unlearned persons and Women, and therefore Father Leander à Sancto Martino, approves the Book as containing very sound and wholesome doctrine for the direction of devout souls, The approbations. pag. 319.and fit and agreeable to our calling and rule, and especially for the use of our Dames; because they might more easily swallow it, as they do pills, without chewing; and so find not any bitterness in it: which is to the same purpose with that reason Baker himself gives, viz. that the perfection of contemplation scarcely at all lyes in the operations of the understanding. A most admirable way of contemplating with the will: but why might it not consist as well in the volition of the understanding as in the contemplation of the Will? The proper end of this contemplative life, he addes, is the attaining to an habitual and almost uninterrupted perfect union with God in the supream point of the spirit (or rather fund as Mr. Cressy more mystically calls it) and such an union as gives the soul a fruitive possession of him and a real experimental perception of his divine presence in the depth and center of the spirit, S. 6.which is fully possessed and filled with him alone. And lest we should think this were all to be hoped for in this contemplative state, he saith further,S. 11. that besides this active union wherein the soul her self concurrs, there are others meerly passive, in which God after a wonderful p. 333and inconceivable manner affords them interiour illuminations and touches, yet far more efficacious and Divine; in all which the soul is a meer patient and only suffers God to work his divine pleasure in her, being neither able to further or hinder it. The which unions though they last but even as it were a moment of time, yet do more illuminate and purifie the soul, than many years spent in active exercises of spiritual Prayer or Mortification could do.

The steps he sets down in order to this state of perfection, Cap. 4. S. 11.are, 1. The way of external and imaginary exercises of Prayer, in which without a discreet diligence and constancy in them, the soul may perhaps end her dayes therein. A sad case, to end our dayes as Christ and his Apostles did, who used this low dispensation of praying to the last! But alas, they never understood these passive unions with God in the fund of the spirit, they taught men a plain and intelligible way of serving God, and bid them look for perfection in another world. 2. Aspirations and pure elevations of the superiour Will. 3. The divine inaction. 4. Then when one would least expect them, follow, woful obscurities and desolations: and after them; 5. Comes the State of perfection.Treat. 3. Sect. 11. cap. 1. S. 10. Elsewhere he describes the progress towards this State of perfection thus, that he who would come to it p. 334must practise the drawing of his external senses inwardly to his internal, there losing and as it were annihilating them; then he must draw his internal senses into the superiour powers of the soul: and there annihilate them likewise; and those powers of the intellectual soul he must draw into that which is called their unity, and lastly that Vnity which alone is capable of perfect union with God must be applied and firmly fixed on God; wherein the perfect divine contemplation lyes. In which union, he saith, all is vacuity or emptiness,S, 15. as if nothing were existent but God and the soul; yea so far is the soul from reflecting on her own existence, that it seems to her, God and she are not distinct, but one only thing. This is called by some mystick Authors the state of Nothingness; by others (it being indifferent it seems among them) the state of Totality; but the most sublime description of it, is that of the Vnion of nothing with nothing:Treat. 3. sect. 4 cap. 6. which being hard terms to be understood he explains them thus, S. 8.that the soul being no where corporally or sensibly, is every where spiritually and immediatly united to God this infinite nothing. By which it is just as intelligible as it was before. Nay; which I think is the highest state of all, it is, that the soul comes to a feeling of her not being,S. 9. and by consequence of the not being of creatures; the which is indeed a real truth: or else p. 335intolerable nonsense; as we cannot think it otherwise, who know we have cause to thank God, we are yet in our Wits, and are not possessed with such a Spiritual Frenzy,Treat. 3. sect. 4. as this Author saith, Fryer Bernard one of the disciples of St. Francis had;S. 19, 20. neither was the other free from it, who as Baker related, in the heat of his interiour affection, could usually cry out nothing but V. V. V. Neither can any persons who have any use of their understandings left, think such discourses the effect of any thing but the height of Enthusiasm or a Religious Madness. I do not think such expressions as those I have already produced can be paralleld by the most frantick Enthusiasts that have been since the beginning of the Family of love. Yet these Books are licensed, approved, nay admired in the Roman Church, whereas we have alwayes disowned, disproved, and condemned any such Writers among us, and have used all care to suppress and confute them. The plain effect of such Enthusiastick fooleries is to make Religion laughed at by some, despised by others, and neglected by all, who take no other measures of it, than from such confounded Writers. If once an unintelligible way of practical Religion, become the standard of devotion, no men of sense and reason will ever set themselves about it, but leave it to be understood by mad-men and practised by Fools.

p. 336§. 15. But supposing this way were intelligible and practicable which it is not; The utmost effect of this way is gross Enthusiasm.yet what would the effect of it be but the highest Enthusiasm? For the same Author layes it down, Treat. 1. sect. 2. cap. 1.as a fundamental rule, that God only by his holy Inspirations is the guide and directour,S. 6. in an Internal contemplative life, and that all the light they have therein is from immediate divine illumination: as well as our strength from the divine operation:S. 7. and that this light doth extend further and to more and other more particular objects than the divine light or Grace, by which good Christians living common lives in the world are lead, extends to, yea than it does even in those that seek perfection by the exercises of an active life. But which is very extraordinary in this supernatural light, he saith that generally when there is proposed the not doing or doing of an external work,S. 12. and both of them are lawfull, the divine inspiration moves to the not doing; but this is not all, but among the impediments to divine Inspirations he reckons, not only all external duties of Religion,Cap. 5. S. 10. but the doing things meerly for Edification. A most excellent and Apostolical doctrine! but it is happy for the Christian world the Apostles had other kind of Inspirations from these: or else they had never done much good in the World, or been such eminent examples of holy life and actions. What p. 337becomes of all the precepts they have left us of doing good, of mutual edification, of constant business, besides the commands for the outward duties of Worship, if these be the hinderances in the way to perfection? Sact. 2. c. 1. S. 14.And although he would not have his spiritual, internal liver to pretend to extraordinary apparitions, voices, conversations with spirits, message from Heaven, &c. Yet in his Discourse of Passive Vnions,Treat. 3. sect 4 cap 3. he saith, that God reveals himself to the soul by a supernatural species impressed in her,S. 2. which revelations are either sensible as apparitions, words, &c. or intellectual either immediately or by Angels; the effects of which supernatural inactions of God are Rapts or Extasies,S. 6. internal visions,S. 36. &c. in which, he saith, that the less experienced and imperfect are to advise with their directour about them, but those who were more eminently perfect have followed their own light in judging of those things and practising accordingly, without consulting others;S. 37. and withall addes, that such souls which receive these things must carefully observe her internal direction: and that they are not so absolutely obliged to resign their judgements and wills to others, as to neglect their own proper call received from God. And doth this doctrine now differ from that of the Fanatick Sectaries which have swarmed in England? Yes. Mr. Cressy in his Preface undertakes at large to shew the difference: p. 338by answering the objection taken from thence against the publishing this doctrine, because it would justifie them in all their frenzies and disorders: Cressy's Preface to Sancta Sophia. S. 23.and in order to this; 1. He very foolishly goes about to prove the necessity of divine Inspirations; from the necessity of divine Grace, for the doing good actions; which is not denyed by the greatest enemies to Enthusiasme.S. 24. 2. He saith, we ought to correspond to those Divine Inspirations which stirr us up to good actions, if he means by them nothing but the assistance of Divine Grace,S. 25. no one questions it. 3. That there may be false suggestions of the Devil, which may appear like the motions of Gods Spirit.S. 27. 4. That, it being necessary these should be distinguished from each other; the only means imaginable, that can be proper, natural, and efficacious to obtain such a supernatural light to discern Gods will in all things as pure spiritual prayer exercised by a soul living an abstracted, internal, recollected life, spent in a continual attendance on God, &c. i. e. in short, the directions of F. Augustin Baker. And is not this, think we, a very cunning way of vindicating his doctrine from Fanaticism, to make Enthusiasm necessary to distinguish the motions of the good, and bad Spirit in our minds? I have already shewed that he teaches the highest Enthusiasm, and it seems those who made the objection were sensible of it. But p. 339how doth Mr. Cressy answer it? by shewing what they condemn, to be necessary; and in effect that no man can know the difference between the motions of the Holy Ghost and the Devil, but by Enthusiasme; nay, that is the plain meaning of his words; for this contemplative prayer, he saith, is the only means to gain such a supernatural light whereby we can distinguish one from the other. An admirable way! to tell men they must first be mad, before they can know whether they be in their wits or no. But since this contemplative state, hath besides the common though immediate illuminations, many passive unions, or extraordinary revelations attending it, suppose the Question were put how one should know whether these came from God, or the Devil, what answer will Mr. Cressy then give? will he return back again to try illuminations by inspirations (as he calls them) and so inspirations by illuminations, which is just like the Scripture by the Church, and the Church by Scripture?

But here, S. 29.saith Mr. Cressy, is no pretending to new or strange revelations, no walking in mirabilibus super se: yes I think he doth so, when he utters these things; for what are passive unions, but new revelations, and as great as ever any Fanatick Sectary pretended to? Did not they deliver this for their Doctrine, that men ought to hearken to p. 340the immediate impulses of the Spirit of God within them, and that now God doth acquaint his own people with his mind and will in a way peculiar to themselves? And what have they done of the mystical way, but only changed a few terms, and asserted the thing it self higher than our Enthusiasts did, who did not boast of so many raptures, visions, and revelations as those of the Church of Rome have done.Lud. Blosii Monile Spirit. p. 78. Lud. Blosius in his works hath one Book called Monile Spirituale, which consists of nothing but the new and strange revelations which were made to four Women Saints St. Gertrude, St. Mathildis, St. Bridgitt, and St. Catharine; and in his Preface saith, it is a sign of a carnal mind to despise such revelations as these are: for the Church of God is wonderfully enlightned by them. What, saith he, did not the Prophets and Apostles receive truth from Heaven by Revelations? As though the case were the very same in these melancholy Women and in the holy Prophets and Apostles: and we had just as much reason to believe the effects of hysterical vapours and the divine Spirit. And lest we should imagine these were only the Fancies of some Women, which their Church would not be concerned for the credit of, he concludes with saying, that these Revelations were known to the world and approved. For those of St. Bridgitt we have p. 341before shewed how much they were approved; For St. Gertrudes, he saith the same; and that one very learned and illuminate man did say after the accurate reading of them, that man could not have the Spirit of God, who Questioned whether those revelations came from it or no. And therefore Blosius is so far from denying any new or strange revelations among them, that, being a devout man, he prays God to pardon those who questioned the authority of these revelations. But if no new revelations are allowed among them, what means that saying in the spiritual exercises of the Iesuits, p. 31, 32. of the Impression, A. D. 1574. It is the great perfection of a Christian to keep himself indifferent to do what God shall reveal to him, and not to determine himself to do what he hath already revealed and taught in the Gospel. This is speaking to the purpose; and lest I should seem to charge any unjustly, (this passage not appearing in the latter impressions) it may be found in the Moral practice of the Iesuits, Moral Practice of Iesuits. p 379.from the Bishop of Malaga. But the Iesuits are not so much Mr. Cressy's Friends that he should be concerned in their Vindication: I can tell him therefore of a Friend of his, whom I am sure he is concerned for, that is for new and strange revelations too, and that is the worthy publisher of the sixteen Revelations of Mother Iuliana: and p. 342if those be not new and strange, I think none ever ought to be accounted so.

But supposing they have new and strange revelations among them, yet Mr. Cressy saith, they are not seditious and troublesome to the World, S. 33.no dissolving unity or crossing lawful authority by them; because these are enjoyed in solitude and retirements, and supposing they be mistaken, no harm would accrew to others by it. As though persons were ever the less mad for being chained, and having a keeper assigned them: such in effect do they make the office of a confessour to these contemplatives. The mischief to the world is not so great while they are kept up, but that to Religion is unsufferable, while they lead devout persons in such an unintelligible way, that the highest degree of their perfection is Madness. But I have already proved at large, that they have not been able in some cases, or willing in others to keep up these Enthusiastical persons among them, but they have done as much to the disturbance of the peace, and been as unreclaimable among them, as ever any Fanatick Sectaries have done or been in England. And we are not to think that the Principles of their Church are such quiet, meek and obedient things, that not a man among them would ever lift up his finger to give any disturbance to the peace of a Nation: For,

p. 343§. 16. I now come to prove that they are as much guilty of the second sort of Fanaticism as any Sectaries among us have been,Of their Fanaticism in resisting Authority under a pretence of Religion. which is the resisting authority under a pretence of Religion. This I shall prove by two things. 1. That the Principles and practices of the Iesuitical party in the Roman Church are as destructive to Government, as of the most Fanatick Sectaries which ever have been among us. 2. That this party is the most countenanced and encouraged by the Court of Rome.

1. That the Principles and Practices of the Iesuitical party in the Roman Church are as destructive to Government as of the most Fanatick Sectaries which ever have been among us. What effects of Fanaticism have we seen in England so dreadful which may not be paralled with examples, or justified by the principles of that party? Is it, that so many mens lives have been destroyed under a pretence of Religion? and do they think the Massacre at Paris and the Rebellion in Ireland can ever be forgotten by us? Is it, that Government was supposed by them to be so originally in the people, that they by their representatives may call their Soveraign to an account, and alter the form of Government? This is the express doctrine of the Iesuits: Bellar. de l…i is, l. 3. c. 6.for, saith Bellarmin, Civil power is immediately in the people as the immediate subject of it: and p. 344is indifferently transferred by them either to one or many; and if they see cause may change it as they see good from a Monarchy, to an Aristocratie or a Democratie. But because after the writing that Book, some persons had published a doctrine contrary to his,Recognit. p. 56. therefore in the recognition of his works he endeavours to strengthen what he had delivered, and produces a saying of Navarre, that the people never do transferr their power so far to the King, but they retain it habitually in themselves, and may in certain cases resume it into their own hands. Marian. de Regis I…stit. l. 1. c. 6.Iohn Mariana, whose name will never be forgotten in these matters, determines the case plainly, That if there be no hope of a Princes amendment, the Common-wealth may take away his Kingdom, and because that cannot be done without War, they may raise armies against him, and having proclaimed the King their publick enemy may take away his life. De justâ abdicatione Hen. 3. l 3. c. 8.Reynolds in his Book of the just abdication of Henry 3. of France, saith that all the Majesty of the Kingdom is in the assembly of the states, to whom it belongs to bridle the Kingly power, and to settle all things that belong to the publick Government. This is a doctrine fitted for such a season wherein there is hopes to prevail upon a considerable party (as in the League in France) to do their business, but in case the States of the Kingdom be faithful to p. 345their Prince, they have easier wayes of dispatch. And to this end they declare it lawful for any person to take away the life of a Prince excommunicated by the Pope. But here their juggling and shuffling shew their meaning is not good, for they who mean honestly are not afraid to speak plainly. If any one ask them, Whether it be lawful to kill their Soveraign? they will tell you by no means, and that none of them ever said so; but being excommunicated they do not account him their Soveraign, Philopater c. edictum. Elizab. p. 149.and so they may lawfully do it. Nay it is avowed by some of them, that it is a point of faith to believe it is in the Popes power to depose Heretical Princes, and that subjects are upon their being declared heretical thereby absolved from all duty of obedience to them. Nay that there needs no sentence of the Pope to be pronounced against him: and Mariana makes an intention of publick good, or, the advice of grave men sufficient, such as the Jesuites in France were to Clement, Chastel, and Ravaillac, the first and last the actual Murtherers of Henry 3. and Henry 4. and the second shewed his good intention when he stabbed Henry 4. in the mouth. If any Priest or Fryer should attempt it, they have an excellent salvo for him, that being a spiritual person (acording to their doctrine of exemption) he is no Subject to the King. p. 346If the Authority of the Council of Constance be objected by them as the doctrine of their Church against these Principles, they have withall given us an answer, that it meddles not with the case of Soveraign Heretical Princes excommunicated by the Pope. I need not produce the particular testimonies in this matter of Bellarmin, Suarez, Valentia, Vasquez, with the herd of the Iesuitical order who follow these, having been produced by so many already, and particularly by the two worthy Authors of the Answer to Philanax, Answ. to Philan. chap. 5. p. 111.and the Papists Apology, from the latter of whom, we shortly expect a more accurate examination of these things:Answ. to Apology. p. 6. and by the former, may appear what influence the Iesuitical party had upon the most barbarous effects of Fanaticism here,Answ. to Philan. p. 53. to 65. in the Murther of a most excellent Prince. To whose observations I shall only adde this, that A. D. 1648. a Book was Printed with this Title Several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the Power of Parliament to proceed against their King for misgovernment, licensed by Gilb. Mabbot, which is, word for word, taken out of Parsons the Iesuites Book of succession to the Crown of England, (purposely designed against our Kings title) as will appear to any one who will take the pains to compare them. By which we may see to whom our Fanaticks p. 347owed their principles and their precedents, and how much Father Parsons (though at that distance) contributed to the cutting off the Kings Head. But it may be now they have changed their principles and renounced all these Doctrines; we should like them so much the better if they once did this freely and sincerely, and not with sly tricks and aequivocations which they use in these matters whenever they are pinched with them. Let them without mental reservations declare but these two points, that the Pope cannot absolve the Kings Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance they make to him, and that though the Pope should excommunicate the King as a Heretick and raise War against him, they are bound to defend the King against the Pope; and by the owning these two Propositions, they will gain more upon our belief of their fidelity, than the large volumn in vindication of the Irish Remonstrance hath done;Remonstr. Hibernor…. p. 1. cap 4. S. 2. For there they falter in the very entrance; for being charged from Rome, that by their Remonstrance they had fallen under the condemnation of the Bull of Paul 5. against the Oath of Allegiance, they give these three Answers which ought to be considered by us. 1. That in the Oath of Allegiance they swear and testifie in their Consciences before God and the World, that King Charles is their lawful King, and that the Pope hath no power p. 348to depose, &c. Whereas they only acknowledge it. 2. That in the Oath of Allegiance, the contrary opinion is condemned which is not in theirs. 3. That in the Oath of Allegiance, they declare that they believe that the Pope cannot dispense with that Oath or any part of it; but this is omitted by them: and surely not without reason on their parts, but with little satisfaction on ours. And it is easie to observe that this Remonstrance was grounded upon this, that the Pope owned our King to be lawful King of England (a great kindness) and this being supposed all the rest follows naturally as they well prove against the Divines of Lovain; Romanstr. Hib. p. 1. c. 2. art. 2. 5.but suppose it should come into his Holiness's head, to be of another opinion, we see no assurance but they will be so too. And it may make the Pope more cautious for the future, how he declares himself when such ill use is made of it; and others how they rely upon such Remonstrances which have still a tacit reservation of the Popes power to declare and dispense. But will they declare it unlawful to resist Authority when the cause of their Church is concerned;Caron. p. 1. c. 5. S. 24. p. 25. and supposing that thereby they can settle the Pope in the full exercise of his spiritual Authority among us? No, this is their good old Cause that undermines Parliaments, that Sanctifies Rebellion, and turns Nuptials into Massacres. This is that p. 349which changes blood into Holy water, and dying for Treason into Martyrdome; this is that which gives the glory at Rome to Regicides, and makes the Pictures of Gueret, Guignard and Garnet so much valued there; of which we have a sufficient testimony from Mons. S. Amour; S. Amour's Iournal part. 2. ch. 11. p. 58.who tells us that among the several pourtraicts of Jesuits publickly sold there with permission of the Superiour, he saw one of Garnet, with this Inscription, Pater Henricus Garnetus Anglus Londini pro fide Catholicâ suspensus & sectus 3 Maii 1606. Father Henry Garnet hanged and quartered at London for the Catholick Faith: by which we see that Treason and the Catholick faith are all one at Rome; for nothing can be more notorious than that Garnet suffered only on the account of the Gunpowder-treason; of which as M. S. Amour observes, he acknowledged himself guilty before he dyed. The most dangerous Sect among us, is of those who under pretence of setting up the Kingdom of Christ, think it lawful to overturn the Kingdoms of the World. But herein they have mightily the advantage of those of the Church of Rome, that what they do for Christ, the other do it only for his Vicar: and surely if either were lawful, it is much fitter to do it for one, than for the other. We are of opinion that it is somewhat better being under Christs p. 350own Government than the Popes whatever they think; but we condemn any opposition to Government under any pretence whatsoever; and though Venner and his company acted to the height of Fanaticism among our Sectaries, yet Guido Faux with his companions in their Church went beyond them.

2. That party which hath been most destructive to Civil Government, hath had the most countenance and encouragement from Rome. Of which I shall give but two instances but sufficient to prove the thing, A. D. 1594. 27 of December Iohn Chastel a Citizens Son of Paris, and disciple of the Iesuites, having been three years in the School, watched his opportunity to stabb Henry 4. but by his stooping just at the time of the blow, he struck him only into the mouth; upon which the Iesuits were banished France, and a Pyramid erected in their place of his Fathers house, in the Front whereof towards the Palace gate, the Arrest of the Court of Parliament against the Traitor was engraven, containing his examination and confession of being a Scholler of the Iesuits, a Disciple of Guerets, and the sentence passed upon him because he believed it lawful to Kill Kings, that Henry 4. was not in the Church till he was approved by the Pope, &c. This Arrest continued without notice taken of it p. 351at Rome, till October 9. A. D. 1609. and on that day it was condemned by the Order of the Inquisition and put into the Index Expurgatorius, Index Expurg. Alex. 7. p. 205.as it is at this day to be seen. Which was a time wherein many reports were fled abroad in many parts of the Murther of Henry 4. and Letters came to Paris from several places to know the truth of it; and the consequence of this was, that it being found how careful the Court of Rome was to preserve the honour of Regicides, it was but seven months and twenty four dayes, before Ravaillac perfected that work which the other had begun.Ioh. Launoy Epistol. par. 6. pag. 358. This observation I owe to an ingenuous and learned Doctor of the Sorbon yet living, who detests these practices and doctrines, and himself lyes under the same censure there. And the more to abuse the world, on the same day a Book of Mariana's was suspended, which those who look no farther than the name might imagine, was the dangerous Book so much complained of; but upon search it appears to be a Book quite of another nature concerning Coynes.

The latter instance concerns the Irish Remonstrance, the account of which I take from Caron the publisher of it.Remonstr. Hib. p. 1. c. 5. p. 27. The Popish Clergy of Ireland (a very few excepted) were accused of Rebellion, for opposing themselves to the Kings Authority, by the p. 352instigation of the Popes Nuncio, after which followed a meeting of the Popish Bishops, where they banished the Kings Lieutenant and took the Royal Authority upon themselves, almost all the Clergy and a great part of the people joyned with them: and therefore it was necessary since the Kings return to give him better satisfaction concerning their Allegiance, and to decline the Oath of Allegiance, which they must otherwise have taken, some of them agree upon this Remonstrance to present to the King, the news of which was no sooner come to Rome, but Cardinal Barberin sends a Letter to the Irish Nobility 8 July A. D. 1662. to bid them take heed of being drawn into the ditch by those blind guides; who had subscribed to some propositions testifying their Loyalty to the King, which had been before condemned by the Apostolick See. After this the Popes Nuncio at Brussels, Iuly 21. 1662. sends them word how displeasing their Remonstrance was at Rome,Cap. 3. p. 6. and that after diligent examination by the Cardinals and Divines, they found it contained Propositions already condemned by Paul 5. and Innocent 10. and therefore the Pope gave him order to publish this among them, that he was so far from approving their Remonstrance, that he did not so much as permit it, or connive at it, and was extremely grieved that the Irish Nobility were drawn into it, and therefore p. 353condemned it in this form, That it could not be kept without breach of faith, according to the Decree of Paul 5. and that it denyed the Popes Authority in matters of faith according to that of Innocent 10. By this very late instance we see what little countenance they receive from Rome who offer to give any reasonable security to the King of their Loyalty; and by the Popes own Declaration, the giving of it is an injury to the faith, and a denying his Supremacy. For which we are to understand that A. D. 1648. when the Papists were willing to make as good terms for themselves as they could, and it was objected to them, that they held Principles inconsistent with Civil Government, viz. that the Pope can absolve them from their obedience, that he can depose and destroy Heretical Magistrates, that he can dispense with all Oaths and contracts they make with those whom they call Hereticks; upon which they met together and to save themselves from banishment resolved them in the Negative, but no sooner was this heard at Rome, but the sacred Congregation condemned this resolution as heretical, and the subscribers as lyable to the penalties against those who deny the Popes Authority in matters of faith, upon which they are cited to appear at Rome, and Censures and Prisons are there prepared for them. The summ of it then, is, that they can give p. 354no security of their Loyalty to the King against the Popes power to depose him, and absolve his Subjects from whatever Oaths they make to him, or they must be accounted Hereticks at Rome for so doing. For this good old Cause is as much still in request at Rome, as ever: and it is in their power to be accounted Hereticks at Rome, or bad Subjects in their own Countrey; but one of them they cannot avoid. So much may suffice to shew that the most dangerous Principles of Fanaticism either as to Enthusiasm or Civil Government are owned and allowed in the Church of Rome; and therefore the number of Fanaticks among us is very unjustly charged upon the Reading the Scriptures in our own Language.