Romanism Discussed, Treatise · Article 1 · Section 12
SECT. XII.
The defect of H. T. his Catalogue in the fiftenth and ſixteenth Ages is ſhewed.
IN the fifteenth Age he reckons up thirteen Popes as chief Paſtours, in which number he leaves out Benedict the thirteenth, though reckoned by others, who with Gregory the twelfth upheld a Schiſm of three Popes together, till they with John 22. or 23. for divers intolerable villanies were depoſed, as Eugenius the fourth was after at the Council of Baſil: of the reſt ſcarce any of worth beſides Pius the ſecond, whoſe Writings remain under the name of Aeneas Sylvius, and the laſt is Alexander the ſixth, Roderique Borgia, who with his ſon Caeſar Borgia were ſo infamous for poyſonings, covetouſneſs and uncleanneſs of body, that Rome, though the ſink of wickedneſs, yet yielded few or none worſe in any Age.
H. T. tells us of two general Councils,, that of Conſtance, Anno 1415. againſt John Wickliff, John Hus, and Hierom of Prague, Pope John the two and twentieth, and Martin the fifth preſiding: but the main end of its calling by Sigiſmund the Emperour, was the compoſing of the Troubles by three Popes together, whom it depoſed, and decreed the Council to be above the Pope, which is againſt the now Roman faith. It is true alſo, that they condemned ſundry Articles of John Wickliff, John Hus, and Hierom of Prague, whereof ſome were moſt falſely aſcribed to them, as the Works of John Wickliff and other teſtimonies do ſhew. And notwithſtanding the ſafe conduct given by Sigiſmund the Emperour, to the perpetual infamy of the popiſh party, they judged he was to deliver John Hus to be burned, Seſſ. 19. whereupon the Emperours ſolemn faith was broken, and thereupon they were burned, and Wickliffs bones, as they imagined, forty years after his death were digged up and burned in England, and a moſt impious Decree made, that, notwithſtanding Chriſt's inſtitution and adminiſtring in both kindes, and in the primitive Church it were received by the faithfull in both kindes, yet the cuſtom was confirmed of receiving in one, and the requiring it in both judged an errour, and it was forbidden to be given the people in both kindes, Seſſ. 13. The other Council H. T. mentions is the Council of Florence, (Fathers 145.) Pope Eugenius preſiding, Anno 1439. againſt many Hereſies; which defined Pugatory, the Popes headſhip, Tranſubſtantiation, the Apocryphal books canonical, the Grecians, Jacobites, Armenians, and Patriarch of Conſtantinople ſubſcribing this Council, and being reconciled to the church of Rome. But this Council however it hath a ſhew of great authority, by reaſon of the preſence of the Patriarch of Conſtantinople, and ſome other of the Eaſtern Chriſtian churches, yet indeed it was of no authority, it being gotten together by a Factio… in oppoſition to the Council of Baſil, which was decreed by Pope Martin the fifth, to be ten years after the Council of Conſtance: and the end of it was to divert the Fathers of the Council of Baſil from depoſing Eugenius the fourth from his Popedom, which nevertheleſs they did for his ill Government, and choſe Amadeus Duke of Savoy, who was named Felix the fifth, who is omitted therefore by H. T. though by others counted the lawfull Pope: but H. T. thought it beſt to omit him and the Council of Baſil, which together with the Council of Conſtance had determined that a general Council was above the Pope, and were not bound to obey him, but might depoſe him, as the French churches yet to this day do hold, ſo that they who are termed Catholicks, and owned as children of the church, yet do not profeſs the now-Roman faith of the Popes ſupremacy, which H T. and the Jeſuited party among Papiſts the Popes flatterers aſcribe to him. As for the preſence of the Greeks in the Council of Florence it was of a few needy ones driven out or brought low by the Turks, who yielded to that in the Council for ſome relief to them in their low eſtate, which the Greek churches after would not own, nor do yet to this day. And therefore that which H. T. hath done in ſetting down the Popes and Councils of this Age is done deceitfully, concealing the true ſtate of things, and ſo he hath done of Catholick Profeſſors, mentioning ſome of ſmall worth, but leaving out Gerſon, Picus Mirandulanus, and ſome others, though in communion with the Roman church, and men of more abilities and repute than many of thoſe he ſets down, becauſe Gerſon held that the Church might be without a Pope, in his book de auferibilitate Papae; and he and others differ'd in ſome other points from the now Roman tenets.
As for the Nations converted, which he mentions, they are names of people ſaid to be in Africa; but whether there be ſuch people, or are converted, or what numbers of them have been converted is known onelyonly by the vainglorious Writings of ſome popiſh Writers of that ſort, who for the extolling of the Papacy, either feign that which is not, or it is likely make a Mountain of a Mole-hill, ſuch converſions as they boaſt of being not known to other people, though ſailing into, and trading in all parts of the known world.
H. T. adds his catalogue of chief Paſtors in the ſixteenth Age and half the ſeventeenth to 1654. and ſets down two and twenty Popes as chief Paſtors of the Church. Of them are Julius the ſecond a Warriour; Leo the tenth, who to maintain his Luxury, and for his ſiſter Magdalen's Dowry, ſet Indulgences to ſale, himſelf venting his infidelity to Cardinal Bembus, as if he counted the Gospel a profitable Fable; Paul the third an inceſtuous father of a Sodomitical ſon, whom he cocker'd, full of cruelty and craft, ſending an Army with Farneſius to deſtroy the Proteſtants in Germany; Julius the third that created his Ganymede Innocentius a boy Cardinal, and had for his Nuntio at Venice John Caſa Arch-biſhop of Benevent, who in a book praiſed Sodomy; Paul the fourth hated by the Romans for his cruelty; Pius the fourth that made the new creed of the Roman church; Pius the fifth that excommunicated Queen Elizabeth; Gregory the thirteenth that ſet up Stukely to get Ireland for his baſe ſon; Sixtus the fifth that animated the Spaniard in the Expedition againſt England, 1588. praiſed James Clement the Frier, who murdered Henry the third King of France; Gregory the fourteenth who curſed Henry the fourth of France; Clement the eighth, who afore he abſolved him, proudly laſheth his Embaſſadour with a Rod; Paul the fifth who had the Title of Vicedeus given him, and not diſclaimed, who interdicted the Venetians for not obeying his Monitory to revoke their Laws about Eccleſiaſticks, and to releaſe two Eccleſiaſtick priſoners, one a poyſoner, another that committed uncleanneſs in a Temple, and did forbid the taking the Oath of Allegeance in England by Papiſts, without doing any thing againſt ſome of the prieſts privy to the Gunpowder Treaſon, to ſhew their deteſtation of it. Among them all there is not one that their own ſtories do relate to have been a diligent preacher of the Goſpel, but politicians, medling with the affairs of the Kingdoms and Empires of the World, and ſo no Succeſſors to our Lord Chriſt, or Peter the Apoſtle; but their memories are to be abhorred ſpecially by us Engliſh as the peſts of mankinde.
H. T. mentions two general Councils the laſt Lateran Council Pope Julius the ſecond and Leo the tenth preſiding, 1512. I finde not the certain number of Fathers, it was a general Council. But Bellarmine lib. 2. de concil. auth. cap. 13. ſaith, Some doubt whether it were truly general: and there was reaſon, ſith it was called by a Faction adhering to Julius the ſecond to eſtabliſh his tyranny in oppoſition to another party gathered in France to eſtabliſh the pragmatick Sanction. But what did this Council define? The ſoul of man immortal, and that there be as many humane ſouls as bodies, anathematizing all ſuch as obſtinately defend or hold the contrary in the communion of the Church of Rome, Seſſ 8. A point which a Council of Philoſophers might have decided. However it intimates there were that did then hold or teach the contrary in the communion of the church of Rome, and that Pope John the two and twentieth his Doctrine was not quite extinguiſhed: but this Council is of little account among a great party of the Papiſts themſelves▪ It is the other Council the Council of Trent Pope Paul the third and Pius the fourth preſiding againſt Martin Luther and his fellow Proteſtants, Anno 1546. of which he ſaith, The definitions are conformable to thoſe of all precedent general Councils for us, and againſt Sectaries, as our Adverſaries know, and cannot deny. But this is moſt falſe, it being by Biſhop Jewel, and many other learned Proteſtants averred and proved, that the Decrees of that Council in many points about the Popes power, half communion, tranſubſtantiation, worſhiping Images, and other points are contrary to the Councils and Fathers for the firſt five hundred years at leaſt. And for this Council not onelyonly Sleidan, but alſo Frier Paul, a man greatly honoured by the Venetian Senate for his learning, prudence, and integrity in his Hiſtory of the Trent Council hath ſhewed, that it was nothing but a meer packed and fraudulent conventicle of a crue of prelates, moſt of them Italians, ſome meerly titular, and the Popes penſioners and paraſites, few of them who had any knowledge in the Scripture or Divinity, but canoniſts, courtiers, and ſchool-men, who underſtood not the Proteſtants Doctrine in the great point of juſtification by faith, carried on by Paul the third, Julius the third, Pius the fourth, and their Legates to cheat the World by innumerable artifices, not onelyonly hindring the freedom of ſpeech of the Proteſtants in the Council, but alſo of ſome of the popiſh Biſhops, when they endeavoured to recover the right of Biſhops taken away from them by the Popes, in ſo much that not onelyonly the Proteſtants have proteſted againſt it, but alſo the French Kings, by their Embaſſadours and Parliaments, and it is not owned by the French popiſh churches unto this day, and the vanity and impiety of its Decrees hath been detected by Kemnitius, Calvin, and innumerable learned proteſtants, beſides what may be gathered from the contrary Writings of perſons, who were there, as Catharinus, Soto, Vega, and others; in ſo much that if men were not blinded with prejudice and faction they would eaſily diſcern that Council to have been a corrupt Synod juſtly to be deteſted.
As for the catholick profeſſours he mentions, their profeſſion adds but little credit to their cauſe. For what advantage is it to prove the truth of the Roman Tridentin Doctrine that it was profeſſed by Catharina a woman, or Ignatius Loyola a lame Souldier, the hypocritical Deviſer of the Order of Jeſuits, the Incendiaries of the Chriſtian States, and corrupters of Chriſtian Nobility and people by their abominable Devices in reſolving caſes of conſcience ſutably to the luſts of men rather than the will of God, (as is ſhewed in the late book of the Myſtery of Jeſuitiſm) or by Edmund Campian a bold talkative calumniator, and a traiterous zelot for the Popes tyranny, or by William Allen an Engliſh Fugitive, who wrote ſeditious books to apologize for Stanley's Treachery, and to provoke Queen Elizabeth's Subjects to Rebellion againſt ſo good a Prince? And for the great multitudes converted in Italy, Spain, Germany, India, Japonia, China, by Prieſts and Religious of the Roman Church, and likewiſe ſome conſiderable perſons of the Engliſh Nation, even in the heat of Perſecution, they are ſhort of that which was undertaken of the converſion of Nations. The converſions in the Weſt Indies have been by horrid cruelties of the Spaniards depopulating many countreys, in which were millions of people, to get their Treaſure, not to the faith of Chriſt, but to the Roman yoak and ſuperſtitions againſt their will, which hath made Chriſtian Religion-odious, and the Name of God to be blaſphemed. Thoſe of China and Japonia are fictions, or ſo obſcure, as that they are not conſiderable. The converſions in Spain, France, Germany, Polonia, have been by fire and faggot, the bloody Inquiſition, perſecutions, Maſſacres, and ſuch like arguments fetcht from Hell. The hot perſecution of Papiſts here in England is, as all know that know England, a meer fiction: ſome mulcts and reſtraints have been put on popiſh perſons, but none put to death meerly for being Papiſts, but for that which the Law made Treaſon, being forced to it by their inceſſant traiterous practices, and yet theſe alſo are executed ſparingly. The converſions to Popery in England have been by various artifices upon various inducements, whereof none of them is evidence from the canonical Scripture of the truth of popiſh Doctrine (they dare not ſtick to it without help of unwritten tradition, and the Popes or his Councils explication, which they muſt receive, though contrary to the expoſition of their own moſt learned and judicious Writers in their Commentaries) but the devices which they uſe are calumniating Proteſtant Writers, miſ-repreſenting their Doctrine, forging Writings of the Ancients, purging out of them ſuch paſſages as make againſt them, which do take effect by the levity of ſome, prejudice, diſcontent, or ſome ſuch like ill affection of others. And though Campian after his vain-glorious manner boaſted of turning ten thouſand in one year to the Popiſh party, and the popiſh Prieſts do boaſt of their ſucceſs, as when Musket was reported to have converted Dr. King Biſhop of London, and Weſton reported to the Earl of Warwick unknown his converſion to Popery, when the Earl knew it to be falſe, yet as upon trial there was little cauſe for Campian's glorying, and the reports of Musket's and Fiſher's ſucceſs heretofore; ſo I hope, however in the time of the Wars they have mudded the Waters in England and intangled ſome in their Nets, the Waters being ſettled they will be leſs able to deceive, and ſouls which are now caught by them will by Gods bleſſing eſcape them. However there is great cauſe to ſay, that thoſe who are caught by popiſh Prieſts and joyn to the church of Rome, as now it is, are for want of receiving the love of the truth, that they might be ſaved, given over to believe Lyes, and are in danger to be damned, as the Apoſtle foretold, 2 Theſſ. 2. 10, 11, 12.
What he adds of multitudes of provincial Councils omitted, all eſta…liſhing the Roman tenets over the whole World, it is becauſe they are no where to be found, but the emptineſs of this his Catalogue is a ſure eviction that there is not conſent of Nations or Ages on behalf of the Papiſts.