A Defence of the Right of Kings (4)

THE third Inconuenience pretended by the L. Cardinall[*] to grow by admitting this Article of the third Estate, is flourished in these colours: It would breed and bring foorth an open and vnauoydeable schisme against his Holinesse, and the rest of the whole Ecclesiasticall body: For thereby the doctrine long approued and ratified by the Pope and the rest of the Church, should now be taxed and condemned of impious and most detestable consequence; yea the Pope and the Church, euen in faith and in points of saluation, should be reputed and beleeued to be erroniously per- swaded. Hereupon his Lordship giues himselfe a large scope of the raines, to frame his elegant amplifications against schismes and schismatikes.

Now to mount so high, and to flie in such place vpon the wings of amplifica- tion for this Inconuenience, what is it else but magnifically to report and imagine a mischiefe by many degrees greater then the mischiefe is ? The L. Cardinal is in a great errour, if hee make himselfe beleeue, that other nations wil make a rent or separation from the communion of the French, because the French stand to it tooth and naile, that French Crownes are not liable or obnoxious to Papall de- position; howsoeuer there is no schisme that importeth not separation of com- munion. The most illustrious Republike of Venice, hath imbarked hereselfe in this quarrell against his Holinesse, hath played her prize, and caried away the weapons with great honour. Doeth she, notwithstanding her triumph in the cause, forbeare to participate with all her neighbours in the same Sacraments ? doeth she liue in schisme with all the rest of the Romane Church ? No such matter. When the L. Cardinal himselfe not many yeeres past, maintained the Kings cause, and stood honourably for the Kings right against the Popes Tem- porall vsurpations, did he then take other Churches to be schismaticall, or the rotten members of Antichrist ? Beleeue it who list, I beleeue my Creed. Nay his Lordship telleth vs himselfe a little after, that his Holinesse giues the French

free scope, to maintaine either the affimatiue or negatiue of this question. And will his Holinesse hold them schismatikes, that dissent from his opinion and iudgement in a subiect or cause esteemed problematicall ? Farre be it from his Holinesse. The King of Spaine, reputed the Popes right arme, neuer gaue the Pope cause by any acte or other declaration, to conceiue that he acknowledged himselfe deposeable by the Pope for heresie, or Tyrannie, or stupiditie. But being well assured the Pope standeth in greater feare of his arme, then hee doeth of the Popes head and shoulders, he neuer troubles his owne head about our question. More, when the booke of Cardinall Baronius was come foorth, in which booke the Kingdome of Naples is descried and publiquely discredited (like false money) touching the qualitie of a Kingdome, and attributed to the King of Spaine, not as trew proprietary thereof, but onely as an Estate held in fee of the Romane Church; the King made no bones to condemne and to banish the said booke out of his dominions. The holy Father was contented to put vp his Catho- like sonnes proceeding to the Cardinals disgrace, neuer opened his mouth against the King, neuer declared or noted the King to be schismaticall. He waits perhaps for some fitter opportunitie; when the Kingdome of Spaine groaning vnder the burthens of intestine dissentions and troubles, hee may without any danger to himselfe giue the Catholike King a Bishops mate. Yea, the L. Cardinal himselfe is better seene in the humors and inclinations of the Christian world, then to be grosly perswaded, that in the Kingdome of Spaine, and in the very heart of Rome it selfe there be not many, which either make it but a ieast, or else take it in fowle scorne, to heare the Popes power ouer the Crownes of Kings once named: espe- cially since the Venetian Republic hath put his Holinesse to the worse in the same cause, and cast him in Law.

What needed the L. Cardinall then, by casting vp such mounts and trenches, by heaping one amplification vpon an other, to make schisme looke with such a terrible and hideous aspect ? Who knowes not how great an offence, how heinous a crime it is to quarter not IESVS CHRISTS coat, but his body, which is the Church ? And what needed such terrifying of the Church with vglinesse of schisme, whereof there is neither colourable shew, nor possibilitie ?

The next vgly monster, after schisme, shaped by the L. Cardinall [*] in the third supposed and pretended inconuenience, is heresie. His Lordship saith for the purpose: By this Article we are cast headlong into a manifest heresie, as binding vs to confesse, that for many aages past, the Catholike Church hath bene banished out of the whole world. For if the champions of the doctrine contrary to this Article, doe hold an impious and a detestable opinion, repugnant vnto Gods word, then doubtlesse the Pope for so many hundred yeeres expired, hath not bene the head of the Church, but an heretike and the Antichrist. He addeth moreouer; That the Church long agoe hath lost her name of Catholike, and that in France there hath no Church flourished, nor so much as appeared these many and more then many yeeres: for as much as all

the French doctors for many yeeres together, haue stood for the contrary opinion. We can erect and set vp no trophey more honorable for heretikes in token of their victory, then to auow that Christs visible Kingdom is perished from the face of the earth, and that for so many hundred yeres that there hath not beene any Temple of God, nor any spouse of Christ, but euery where, and all the world ouer, the kingdom of Antichrist, the synagogue of Satan, the spouse of the diuel, hath mightily preuailed and borne all the sway. Lastly, what stronger engines can these heretikes wish or desire, for the battering and the demolishing of transubstantiation, of auricular confession, and other like towers of our Catholike Religion, then if it should bee granted the Church hath decided the said points without any authoritie ? &c.

Mee thinkes the L. Cardinal in the whole draught and course of these words doeth seeke not a little to blemish the honour of his Church, and to marke his religion with a blacke coale: For the whole frame of his Mother-Church is very easie to be shaken, if by the establishing of this Article she shall come to finall ruine, and shall become the Synagogue of Satan. Likewise, Kings are brought into a very miserable state and condition, if their Souereigntie shall not stand, if they shall not bee without danger of deposition, but by the totall ruine of the Church, and by holding the Pope, whom they serue, to be Antichrist. The L. Cardinall himselfe (let him be well sifted) herein doeth not credit his owne words: For doeth not his Lordship tell vs plaine, that neither by Diuine testimony, nor by any sentence of the ancient Church, the knot of this controuersie hath bene vntied? againe, that some of the French, by the Popes fauourable indulgence, are licensed or tolerated to say their mind, to deliuer their opinion of this question, though contrary to the iudgement of his Holinesse; prouided they hold it onely as problematicall, and not as necessary ? What ? Can there be any assurance for the Pope, that hee is not Antichrist; for the Church of Rome, that she is not a Synagogue of Satan, when a mans assurance is grounded vpon wauering and wilde vncertainties, without Canon of Scripture, without consent or countenance of antiquitie, and in a cause which the Pope by good leaue suffereth some to tosse with winds of problematicall opinion ? It hath beene shewed before, that by Gods word, whereof small reckoning perhaps is made, by venerable antiquitie, and by the French Church in those times when the Popes power was mounted aloft, the doctrine which teacheth deposing of Kings by the Pope, hath bene checked and countermanded. What, did the French in those dayes beleeue the Church was then swallowed vp, and no where visible or extant in the world ? No verely; Those that make the Pope of Soueraigne authoritie for matters of Faith, are not perswaded that in this cause they are bound ab- solutely to beleeue and credit his doctrine. Why so ? Because they take it not for any decree or determination of Faith; but for a point perteining to the mys- teries of State, and a pillar of the Popes Temporall Monarchie; who hath not receiued any promise from God, that in causes of this nature hee shall not erre: For they hold, that errour by no meanes can crawle or scramble vp to the Papall

See, so highly mounted; but grant ambition can scale the highest walls, and climbe the loftiest pinacles of the same See. They hold withall, that in case of so speciall aduantage to the Pope, whereby he is made King of Kings, and as it were the pay-master or distributer of Crownes, it is against all reason that hee should sit as Iudge, to carue out Kingdomes for his owne share. To bee short, let his Lordship be assured that he meeteth with notorious blockeheads, more blunt- witted then a whetstone, when they are drawne to beleeue by his perswasion, that whosoeuer beleeues the Pope hath no right nor power to put Kings beside their Thrones, to giue and take away Crownes, are all excluded and barred out of the heauenly Kingdome.

But now followes a worse matter: For they whom the Cardinall reproachfully calls heretikes, haue wrought and wonne his Lordship (as to mee seemeth) to plead their cause at the barre, and to betray his owne cause to these heretikes: For what is it in his Lordship, but plaine playing the Praeuaricator, when he crieth so lowd, that by admitting and establishing of this Article, the doctrine of Cake-incarnation and priuie Confession to a Priest, is vtterly subuerted ? Let vs heare his reason, and willingly accept the trewth from his lips. The Articles (as his Lordship granteth) of Transubstantiation, auricular Confession, and the Popes power to depose Kings, are all grounded alike vpon the same authoritie. Now he hath acknowledged the Article of the Popes power to depose Kings, is not decided by the Scripture, not by the ancient Church, but within the compasse of certaine aages past, by the authoritie of Popes and Councils. Then he goes on well, and inferres with good reason, that in case the point of the Popes power be weakened, then the other two points must needs bee shaken, and easily ouer- throwen: So that hee doeth confesse the monstrous birth of the breaden-God, and the blind Sacrament or vaine fantasie of auricular confession, are no more con- ueyed into the Church by pipes from the springs of sacred Scripture, or from the riuers of the ancient Church, then that other point of the Popes power ouer Kings and their Crownes. Very good: For were they indeed deriued from either of those two heads, that is to say, were they grounded vpon the foundation of the first or second authoritie; then they could neuer bee shaken by the downefall of the Popes power to depose Kings. I am well assured, that for vsing so good a reason, the world will hold his Lordship in suspicion, that he still hath some smacke of his fathers discipline and instruction, who in times past had the honour to be a Minister of the holy Gospel.

Howbeit he playeth not faire, nor vseth sincere dealing in his proceeding against such as he calls heretikes; when hee casts in their dish, and beares them in hand they frowardly wrangle for the inuisibilitie of the Church in earth: For indeed the matter is nothing so. They freely acknowledge a visible Church: For howsoeuer the assembly of Gods elect, doth make a body not discerneable by mans eye; yet we assuredly beleeue, and gladly professe, there neuer wanted a visible Church in the world; yet onely visible to such as make a part of the same.

All that are without, see no more but men, they doe not see the said men to be the trew Church. Wee beleeue moreouer of the vniuersall Church visible, that it is composed of many particular Churches, whereof some are better fined and more cleane from lees and dregs then other: and withall, we denie the purest Churches to be alwayes the greatest and most visible.