catholic church, reckon the bishops as the last and supreme, beyond whom there is no spiritual power but in Christ. For, "as the whole hierarchy ends in Jesus, so does every particular one in its own bishop." Beyond the bishop there is no step, till you rest in the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Under him every bishop is supreme in spirituals, and in all power, which to any bishop is given by Christ. St. Ignatius, therefore, exhorts, that "all should obey their bishop, and the bishop obey Christ, as Christ obeyed his Father." There are no other intermedial degrees of Divine institution. But, as Origen teaches, "The apostles, and they, who, after them, are ordained by God, that is, the bishops, have the supreme place in the church, and the prophets have the second place." The same also is taught by Pope Gelasius*, by St. Jerome', and Fulgentius", and indeed by all the fathers who spake any thing in this matter: insomuch, that when Bellarmine is, in this question, pressed, out of the book of Nilus, by the authority of the fathers standing against him, he answers, " Papam patres non habere in ecclesiâ, sed filios omnes:"" The pope acknowledges no fathers in the church, for they are all his sons."

Now although we suppose this to be greatly sufficient to declare the doctrine of the primitive catholic church, concerning the equality of power in all bishops by Divine right : yet the fathers have also expressly declared themselves, that one bishop is not superior to another, and ought not to judge another, or force another to obedience. They are the words of St. Cyprian to a council of bishops", "None of us makes himself a bishop of bishops, or, by tyrannical power, drives his colleagues to a necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the license of his own liberty and power, hath his own choice, and cannot be judged by another, not yet himself judge another; but let us all expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who only and alone hath the power of setting us in the government of his church, and judging of what we do." This was spoken and intended against pope Stephen, who did then begin dominari in clero,'' to

6

b Dionys. Areop. de Eccles. Hierarch, de Sacer. perfect.

Epist. ad Smyrnens. et ad Philadel.

In Jerem. hom. 7. et adver. Lucif.

In Concil. Carthag.

Dist. 97. c. Duo sunt. m In Concil. Paris. lib. i. c. 3.

lord it over God's heritage,' and to excommunicate his brethren, as Demetrius did in the time of the apostles themselves but they both found their reprovers; Demetrius was chastised by St. John for his usurpation, and Stephen by St. Cyprian; and this also was approved by St. Austin. We conclude this particular with the words of St. Gregory', bishop of Rome; who, because the patriarch of Constantinople called himself universal bishop, said, it was a "proud title, profane, sacrilegious, and antichristian:" and, therefore, he little thought that his successors in the same see should so fiercely challenge that antichristian title: much less did the then bishop of Rome, in those ages, challenge it as their own peculiar; for they had no mind to be, or to be esteemed antichristian. "Romano pontifici oblatum est, sed nullus unquam eorum hoc singularitatis nomen assumpsit." His predecessors, it seems, had been tempted with an offer of that title, but none of them ever assumed that name of singularity, as being against the law of the Gospel, and the canons of the church .'

Now this being a matter, of which Christ spake not one word to St. Peter, if it be a matter of faith and salvation, as it is now pretended, it is not imaginable he would have been so perfectly silent. But though he was silent of any intention to do this, yet St. Paul was not silent that Christ did otherwise; for he hath set in his church' primùm apostolos,' first of all apostles;' not, first, St. Peter, and secondarily, apostles; but all the apostles were first. It is also evident that St. Peter did not carry himself so as to give the least overture or umbrage to make any one suspect he had any such preeminence; but he was, as St. Chrysostom truly says ', μετὰ κοινῆς πάντα ποιῶν γνώμης, he did all things with the common consent;” οὐδὲν αὐθεντικῶς οὐδὲ ἀρχικῶς, nothing by special authority or principality:' and if he had any such, it is more than probable that the apostles who survived him,

De Bapt. contr. Donat. lib. iii, c. 3.

? Lib. iv. ep. 76, 78, 31, 34, 38, 39, &c. Lib. vi. ep. 24.

Lib. iv. ep. 32. Quis est iste, qui contra statuta evangelica, contra canonum decreta, novum sibi usurpare nomen præsumit? Videatur epistola S. Hieron. ad Evagrium, Concil. Chalced. action 16. Concil. Nicen. can. 6. et can. 7. et Concil. Constantinopol. can. 3. et Novel. Justin. 131.

r In Act. Apost. hom. 3.

had succeeded him in it, rather than the bishop of Rome: and it being certain, as the bishop of Canaries confesses', “That there is, in Scripture, no revelation that the bishop of Rome should succeed Peter in it;" and we being there told that St. Peter was at Antioch, but never that he was at Rome; it being confessed by some of their own parties', by cardinal Cusanus, Soto, Driedo, Canus, and Segovius, that this succession was not addicted to any particular church, nor that Christ's institution of this does any other way appear; that it cannot be proved that the bishop of Rome is prince of the church: it being also certain, that there was no such thing known in the primitive church, but that the holy fathers, both of Africa and the East, did oppose pope Victor and pope Stephen, when they began to interpose with a presumptive authority, in the affairs of other churches; and that the bishops of the church did treat with the Roman bishop as with a brother, not as their superior: and that the general council, held at Chalcedon, did give to the bishops of Constantinople equal rights and preeminence with the bishops of Rome; and that the Greek churches are, at this day, and have been a long time, great opponents of this pretension of the bishops of Rome: and after all this, since it is certain that Christ, who foreknows all things, did also know that there would be great disputes and challenges of this preeminence1 did indeed suppress it in his apostles, and said not it should be otherwise in succession, and did not give any command to his church to obey the bishops of Rome as his vicars, more than what he commanded concerning all bishops; it must be certain, that it cannot be necessary to salvation to do so; but that it is more than probable, that he never intended any such thing, and that the bishops of Rome have, to the great prejudice of Christendom, made a great schism, and usurped a title which is not their due, and challenged an authority to which they have no right, and have, set themselves above others, who are their equals, and impose an

Canus Loc. lib. vi. c. 8. p. 235. Ed. Salmant. 1563.

Concor. Cath. lib. ii. c. 34. Sent. lib. iv. dist. 24. q. 2. art. 5. De Eccl. Dogm. lib. iv. c. 3.

Luke, xxii. 25. Matt. xx. 26, 27.

article of faith of their own contriving, and have made great preparation for antichrist, if he ever get into that seat, or be in already; and made it necessary for all of the Roman communion to believe and obey him in all things.

SECTION XI.

THERE are very many more things, in which the church of Rome hath greatly turned aside from the doctrines of Scripture, and the practice of the catholic apostolic and primitive church.

Such are these: The invocation of saints; the insufficiency of Scriptures without traditions of faith unto salvation; their absolving sinners before they have, by canonical penances and the fruits of a good life, testified their repentance; their giving leave to simple presbyters, by papal dispensation, to give confirmation or chrism; selling masses for nine-pences; circumgestation of the eucharist to be adored; the dangerous doctrine of the necessity of the priest's intention in collating sacraments, by which device they have put into the power of the priest to damn whom he please of his own parish; their affirming that the mass is a proper and propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and dead; private masses, or the Lord's supper without communion, which is against the doctrine and practice of the ancient church of Rome itself, and contrary to the tradition of the apostles, if we may believe pope Calixtus, and is also forbidden under pain of excommunication: "Peractâ consecratione omnes communicent, qui noluerint ecclesiasticis carere liminibus; sic autem etiam apostoli statuerunt, et sancta Romana tenet ecclesia:" "When the consecration is finished, let all communicate that will not be thrust from the bounds of the church; for so the apostles appointed, and so the holy church of Rome does hold "." The same also was decreed by pope Soter, and pope Martin, in a council of

* De Consecrat. dist. 2. cap. Peracta. Vide etiam ib. cap. In Cœna, et cap. Si quis.

bishops, and most severely enjoined by the canons of the apostles, as they are cited in the canon law b.

There are divers others; but we suppose that those innovations, which we have already noted, may be sufficient to verify this charge of novelty. But we have done this the rather, because the Roman emissaries endeavour to prevail amongst the ignorant and prejudicate, by boasting of antiquity, and calling their religion the old religion and the catholic;' so ensnaring others by ignorant words, in which is no truth; their religion, as it is distinguished from the religion of the church of England and Ireland, being neither the old nor the catholic religion; but new and superinduced by arts known to all, who, with sincerity and diligence, have looked into their pretences.

But they have taught every priest, that can scarce understand his breviary (of which, in Ireland, there are but too many), and very many of the people, to ask, 'Where our religion was before Luther?' Whereas it appears by the premises, that it is much more easy for us to show our religion before Luther, than for them to show theirs before Trent. And although they can show too much practice of their religion in the degenerate ages of the church, yet we can, and do, clearly show ours in the purest and first ages; and can and do draw lines, pointing to the times and places where the several rooms and stories of their Babel was builded, and where polished, and where furnished.

But when the keepers of the field slept, and the enemy had sown tares, and they had choked the wheat, and almost destroyed it: when the world complained of the infinite errors in the church, and being oppressed by a violent power, durst not complain so much as they had cause: and when they, who had cause to complain, were yet themselves very much abused, and did not complain in all they might: when divers excellent persons, St. Bernard, Clemangis Grosthead, Marsilius, Ocham, Alvarus, Abbot Joachim, Petrarch, Savanarola, Valla, Erasmus, Mantuan, Gerson, Ferus, Gas

b De Consecr. dist. 1. c. Omnes fidel. Omnes fideles qui conveniunt in solennitatibus sacris ad ecclesiam, et Scripturas apostolorum et evangelia audiant. Qui autem non perseverant in oratione usque dum missa peragatur, nec sanctam communionem percipiunt, velut inquietudinis ecclesiæ commoventes convenit communione privari.