simus &c: Behold," saith he *, speaking of his own advancement to the Bishopric of Rome, "our gracious Lord, the Emperor, hath commanded an ape to be made a lion: and, surely, at his command, it may be called a lion; but it cannot be one: so as he must needs lay all my faults and negligences, not upon me; but upon his own piety, which hath committed this ministry of power to so weak an agent t.”.

The time was, when the Popes of Rome dated their Apostolic letters, with the style of the reign of their Lords, the Emperors : now, ever since Pope Paschal, they care only to note the year of their own Apostleship or Papacy §.

The time was, when the holy Bishops of that See professed to succeed St. Peter, in homely simplicity, in humble obedience, in piety, in zeal, in preaching, in tears, in sufferings: now, since the case is altered, the world sees and blushes at the change. For now, Quanta inter solem et lunam, &c: "Look how much the sun is bigger than the moon, so much is the Papal power greater than the Imperial." Now, Papa est Dominus Imperatoris: "The Pope is the Emperor's Lord;" saith their Capistranus J: and, "The Emperor is subject to the Pope, as his minister or servant;" saith Triumphus **.

And, lest this should seem the fashionable word of some clawing Canonist only, hear what Pope Adrian himself saith ++: Unde habet &c: "Whence hath the Emperor his empire, but from us? all, that he hath, he hath wholly from us. Behold, it is in our power, to give it to whom we list."

And, to the same purpose, is that of Pope Innocent the Fourth ‡‡: Imperator est Advocatus &c: "The Emperor is the Pope's Advocate; and swears to him; and holds his empire of him."

But, perhaps this place is yet too high for an Emperor: a lower will serve §§ Fit Canonicus &c: "The Emperor is," of course, "made a Canon," and brother of the Church of Lateran.

Yet lower, he shall be the Sewer of his Holiness's Table, and set on the first dish, and hold the bason for his hands || ||.

Yet lower, he shall be the Train-bearer to the Pope, in his walking processions ¶¶¶: he shall be the Equerry of his Stable; and hold

* Ecce, serenissimus dominus, Imperator, fieri simiam leonem jussit, &c. Greg. Ep. 5.

+ Qui virtutis ministerium infirmo commisit. Ibid,

Guicciard. I. iv. Hist. Imperante Carolo, domino nostro.

Paschalis, anno Evangelii 1070, primus, omissis Imperatoris annis, sui pontificatus annos subscripsit. In dat. Apostolatús nostri anno 1. dein Pontifi catus. Lib. Sacr. Cerem.

Greg. 1. i. de Major, et Obed. ex-Innoc. **Aug. Triumph. q. 44, 1.

¶ Capistr. 77.

++ Vid. Diatr. Derens. Episc. 1. iv. c. 3. sect. 2. Unde habet Imperator Imperium, nisi à nobis? Imperator quod habet, totum habet à nobis. Ecce, in potestate nostrá est, ut demus illud cui volumus. Hadrian. Epist. apud Aventin. I. vi.

Innoc. IV. in cap. Licet de foro compet. §§ Lib. Sacr. Cerem.

Etiam Imperator aut Rex aquam ad lavandas ejus manus ferre debet; primum item ferculum, &c. Ibid.

¶¶In processionibus, &c. Ib

his stirrup in getting upon his horse*: he shall be, lastly, his very Porter, to carry his Holiness on his shoulder †. And all this, not out of will; but out of duty.

Where now is Augustus, ab Augendo, as Almain derives him ‡, when he suffers himself thus diminished? Although there is more wonder in the other's exaltation: Papa! Men are too base to enter into comparison with him. "His authority is more than of the Saints in heaven," saith one: yet more, " He excelleth the Angels in his jurisdiction," saith another: yet, more once, "The Pope seems to make one and the same Consistory with God himself:" and, which comprehends all the rest, Tu es omnia, et super omnia; "Thou art all, and above all;" as the Council of Lateran under Julius §.

Oh strange alteration, that the great Commanders of the World should be made the drudges of their subjects! that order and so. vereignty should lose themselves, in a pretence of piety! that the professed successor of him, that said Gold and silver have I none, should thus trample upon crowns! that a poor silly worm of the earth should raise up itself above all that is called God, and offer to crawl into the glorious Throne of Heaven!

CHAP XIV.

THE EPILOGUE, BOTH OF EXHORTATION AND APOLOGY.

NOT to weary my reader with more particularities of innovation, let now all Christians know and be assured, that such change as they sensibly find in the head, they may as truly, though not so visibly, note in the body of the Roman Church; yea, rather in that soul of religion, which informeth both.

And if, thereupon, all our endeavour, as we protest before God and his holy angels, hath been, and is, only to reduce Rome to itself; that is, to recal it to that original truth, piety, sincerity, which made it long famous through the world, and happy; how unjustly are we ejected, persecuted, condemned!

But, if that ancient Mistress of the World shall stand upon the terms of her honour; and will needs plead the disparagement of her retractations, and the age and authority of these her impositions; let me have leave to shut up all, with that worthy and religious contestation of St. Ambrose with his Symmachus.

That eloquent patron of idolatry had pleaded hard for the old rites of heathenism; and brings in ancient Rome, speaking thus

* Stapham equi papulis tenet, &c. Ibid.

+ Sellam ipsam cum Pontifice humeris suis aliquantulum portare debet. Ibid. Alm. de Potest. Eccl.

Cassan. 4. part. Consid. 7. C. de libellis 20. Dist. Aug. Triumph. de Pot. Ecc. q. 18. Vid. Derens. ubi suprà. Cassan. Glor. mundi 4. part. Cons. 7. Innocent. et Host. in c. 4. de Transt.

for herself *: Optimi Principes &c: "Excellent Princes, the Fathers of your Country, reverence ye my years, into which my pious rites have brought me. I will use the ceremonies of my ancestors: neither can I repent me. I will live after mine own fashion, because I am free. This religion hath brought the world under the subjection of my laws: these sacred devotions have driven Hannibal from our walls, from our Capitol. Have I been preserved for this, that, in mine old age, I should be reproved? Say, that I did see what were to be altered; yet late and shameful is the amendment of age +." To which that holy Father no less wittily and elegantly answers, by way of retortion, bringing in Rome to speak thus: "Rather, I am not ashamed, in mine old age, to be a convert, with all the rest of the world. It is surely true, that, in no age, it is too late to learn. Let that old age blush, that cannot mend itself. It is not the gravity of years, but of manners, that deserves praise. It is no shame, to go to the better §." And, when Symmachus urges, Majorum servandus est ritus, "We must observe the rites of our forefathers;" Dicant igitur, saith St. Ambrose, "Let them as well say, that all things should remain in their own imperfect principles; that the world, once overcovered with darkness, offends in being shined upon by the glorious brightness of the sun: and how much more happy is it, to have dispelled the darkness of the soul, than of the body; to be shined upon by the beams of faith, than of the sun!" Thus he, most aptly to the present occasion: whereto, did that blessed Father now live, he would, doubtless, no less readily apply it.

Nec erubescas mutare sententiam, saith Jerome to his Ruffinus: "Never blush to change your mind: you are not of such authority, as that you should be ashamed to confess you have erred |].”

Oh, that this meek ingenuity could have found place in that once famous and orthodox Church of Christ! How had the whole Christian World been as a city at unity in itself; and triumphed over all the proud hostilities of Paganism!

But, since we may not be so happy, we must sit down and mourn, for our desolations, for our divisions.

In the mean time, we wash our hands in innocence. There are none of all these instanced particulars, besides many more, wherein the Church of Rome hath not sensibly erred, in corrupt additions to the faith; so as, herein, we may justly, before heaven and earth, warrant our disagreement of judgment from her. The rest is their act, and not ours. We are mere patients in this schism; and therefore go, because we are driven. That we hold not communion with that Church, the fault is theirs; who both have deserved this strangeness by their errors, and made it by their violence. Contrary to that rule, which Cato in Tully gives of unpleasing friend

Inter Epistolas Ambrosii. 1. ii. Ep. 11.

+ Sera tamen et contumeliosa est emendatio senectutis. Ibid.

Ambros. Epist. 1. ii. Ep. 22. § Nullus pudor est ad meliora transire. Ibid. || Non es tantæ authoritatis, ut erasse te pudeat, &c. Hier. Apol. adv. Ruffin,

ship, they have not ripped it in the seam, but torn it in the whole cloth.

Perhaps I shall seem unto some to have spoken too mildly, of the estate of that debauched Church. There are, that stand upon a mere nullity of her being; not resting upon a bare depravation. For me, I dare not go so far. If she be foul, if deadly diseased, (as she is) these qualities cannot utterly take off her essence, or our relations.

Our Divines indeed call us out of Babylon, and we run: so as here is an actual separation on our parts: True; but from the corruptions (wherein there is a true confusion), not from the Church. Their very charge implies their limitation. As it is Babylon, we must come out of it: as it is an Outward Visible Church, we neither did nor would. This dropsy, that hath so swollen up the body, doth not make it cease to be a true body, but a sound one *.

The true principles of Christianity, which it maintains, maintain life in that Church: the errors, which it holds, together with those principles, struggle with that life, and threaten an extinction †. As it is a Visible Church then, we have not detrected to hold communion with it; though the contemptuous repulse of so many admonitions have deserved our alienation: as Babylon, we can have nothing to do with it. Like as, in the course of our life, we freely converse with those men in civil affairs, with whom we hate to partake in wickedness.

But, will not this seem to savour of too much indifferency? "What need we so vehemently labour, to draw from either part, and triumph in winning proselytes, and give them for lost on either side, and brand them for apostates that are won away; if, which way soever we fall, we cannot light out of a True Visible Church of Christ? What such necessity was there of martyrdom, what such danger of relapses, if the Church be with both ?"

Let these sophisters know, that true charity needs not abate any thing of zeal. If they be acquainted with the just value of truth, they shall not enquire so much into the persons, as into the cause.

Whatever the Church be, if the errors be damnable our blood is happily spent in their impugnation; and we must rather choose to undergo a thousand deaths, than offend the Majesty of God, in yielding to a known falsehood in religion, Neither doth the outward visibility of the Church abate ought of the heinousness of misopinions, or the vehemence of our oppositions, Were it St. Peter himself, if he halt in Judaizing, St. Paul must resist him to the face: neither is his fault less, because an Apostle's.

Yea, let me say more, were the Church of Rome and ours laid upon several foundations, these errors should not be altogether so detestable: since the symbolizing in many truths makes gross errors more intolerable; as the Samaritan idolatry was more odious to the

Fr. Jum de Ecclesia.

+ Capitis tem malè sani et delirí contagia vitanda sunt, ne et ipsi artus pestilenti humore lubefierent. F. Pic. Mirand. Theor. 23.

Jews, than merely Paganish. If the dearest daughter of God upon earth should commit spiritual whoredom, her uncleanness is so much more to be hated, as her obligations were greater.

Oh, the glorious crowns therefore of those blessed martyrs of ours, who rather gave their bodies to be burnt to ashes, than they would betray any parcel of divine truth.

Oh, the woeful and dangerous condition of those souls, which, shutting their eyes against so clear a light, either willingly sit down in palpable darkness, or fall back from the sincerity of the Gospel into these miserable enormities both of practice and doctrine. It is not for me to judge them that I leave unto that high and awful tribunal, before which I shall once appear with them: but, this I dare say, that, if that Righteous Judge shall punish either their obstinacy or relapses with eternal damnation, he cannot but be justified in his judgments; while, in the midst of their torments, they shall be forced to say, Thou, O God, art just in all that is befallen us: for thou hast done right; but we have done wickedly; Neh. ix. 33. For us, as we would save our souls, let us carefully preserve them from the contagion of Romish Superstition. Let us never fear, that our discretion can hate error too much. Let us awaken our holy zeal to a serious and fervent opposition, joined with a charitable endeavour of reclamation.

Shortly, let us hate their opinions, strive against their practice, pity their misguiding, neglect their censures, labour their recovery, pray for their salvation.

* Maldon, in iv. Joan.