these expurgatory tables, what they have done is known to learned men. In St. Chrysostom's works printed at Basil, these words, "The church is not built upon the man, but upon the faith," are commanded to be blotted out: and these, "There is no merit, but what is given us by Christ;" and yet these words are in his sermon upon Pentecost, and the former words are in his first homily upon that of St. John, "Ye are my friends," &c. The like they have done to him in many other places, and to St. Ambrose, and to St. Austin, and to them allm; insomuch that Ludovicus Saurius, the corrector of the press at Lyons, showed and complained of it to Junius, that he was forced to cancellate or blot out many sayings of St. Ambrose, in that edition of his works, which was printed at Lyons, 1559. So that what they say on occasion of Bertram's book, "In the old catholic writers we suffer very many errors, and extenuate and excuse them; and finding out some commentary, we feign some convenient sense when they are opposed in disputations"-they do indeed practise, but esteem it not sufficient; for the words. which make against them, they wholly leave out of their editions. Nay, they correct the very tables or indices made by the printers or correctors; insomuch, that out of one of Froben's indices they have commanded these words to be blotted, "The use of images forbidden :"-" The eucharist no sacrifice, but the memory of a sacrifice:"-" Works, although they do not justify, yet are necessary to salvation". "Marriage is granted to all that cannot contain”—“ Venial sins damn"-"The dead saints, after this life, cannot help us:" nay, out of the index, of St. Austin's works by Claudius Chevallonius at Paris, 1531, there is a very strange deleatur; Dele, "Solus Deus adorandus," "that God alone is to be worshipped," is commanded to be blotted out, as being a dangerous doctrine". These instances may serve instead of multitudes, which might be brought, of their corrupting the witnesses, and razing the records of antiquity, that the errors and novelties of the church of Rome might not be so easily reproved. Now if the fathers were not against them, what

m Sixtus Senensis epist. dedicat, ad Pium Quin. laudat Pontificem in hæc verba: expurgari et emaculari curasti omnium Catholicorum Scriptorum, ac præcipue veterum patrum, scripta.

n Index expurgator. Madrii. 1612, in indice libror, expurgator. p. 39.

need these arts? Why should they use them thus? Their own expurgatory indices are infinite testimony against them, both that they do so and that they need it.

But besides these things, we have thought it fit to represent, in one aspect, some of their chief doctrines of difference from the church of England, and make it evident, that they are indeed new, and brought into the church, first by way of opinion, and afterwards by power, and at last, by their own authority, decreed into laws and articles.

SECTION II.

FIRST, we allege that this very power of making new articles is a novelty, and expressly against the doctrine of the primitive church; and we prove it, first, by the words of the apostle, saying, "If we, or an angel from heaven, shall' preach unto you any other Gospel,” (viz. in whole or in part, for there is the same reason of them both) "than that which we have preached, let him be anathema:" and secondly, by the sentence of the fathers in the third general council, that at Ephesus: "That it should not be lawful for any man to publish or compose another faith or creed than that which was defined by the Nicene council: and that whosoever shall dare to compose or offer any such to any persons willing to be converted from Paganism, Judaism, or heresy, if they were bishops or clerks, they should be deposed; if laymen, they should be accursed." And yet in the church of Rome, faith and christianity increase like the moon; Bromyard complained of it long since, and the mischief increases daily. They have now a new article of faith, ready for the stamp, which may very shortly become necessary to salvation; we mean, that of the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mary. Whether the pope be above a council or no; we are not sure, whether it be an article of faith amongst them or not it is very near one if it be not. Bellarmine would fain have us believe, that the council of Constance approving the bull of pope Martin V. declared for the pope's supre macy. But John Gerson, who was at the council, says,

a Gal. i. 8.

Part ii. act. 6. c. 7.

e De Potest. Eccles. Concil. 12.

that the council did abate those heights, to which flattery had advanced the pope; and that before that council, they spoke such great things of the pope, which afterwards moderate men durst not speak; but yet some others spake them so confidently before it, that he that should then have spoken to the contrary, would hardly have escaped the note of heresy and that these men continued the same pretensions even after the council. But the council of Basil decreed for the council against the pope; and the council of Lateran under Leo X. decreed for the pope against the council. So that it is Cross and Pile; and whether for a penny, when it can be done; it is now a known case, it shall become an article of faith. But for the present it is a probationary article, and according to Bellarmine's expression is "ferè de fide," "it is almost an article of faith;" they want a little age, and then they may go alone. But the council of Trent hath produced a strange new article; but it is "sine controversiâ credendum," it must be believed, and must not be controverted: that "although the ancient fathers did give the communion to infants, yet they did not believe it necessary to salvation." Now this being a matter of fact, whether they did or did not believe it, every man that reads their writings, can be able to inform himself: and besides that it is strange that this should be determined by a council, and determined against evident truth (it being notorious, that divers of the fathers did say it is necessary to salvation); the decree itself is beyond all bounds of modesty, and a strange pretension of empire over the Christian belief. But we proceed to other instances.

SECTION III.

THE Roman doctrine of indulgences was the first occasion of the great change and reformation of the western churches began by the preachings of Martin Luther, and others; and besides that it grew to that intolerable abuse, that it became a shame to itself, and a reproach to Christendom, it was also so very an innovation, that their great

De Concil. Autor. lib. ii. c. 17. Sect. 1.

e Sess. 21..c. 4.

Antoninus confesses, that "concerning them we have nothing expressly, either in the Scriptures, or in the sayings of the ancient doctors:" and the same is affirmed by Sylvester Prierias. Bishop Fisher, of Rochester, says, that, in the beginning of the church, there was no use of indulgences; and that they began, after the people were awhile affrighted with the torments of purgatory; and many of the schoolmen confess, that the use of indulgences began in the time of pope Alexander III. towards the end of the twelfth century: but Agrippa imputes the beginning of them to Boniface VIII. who lived in the reign of King Edward I. of England; one thousand three hundred years after Christ. But that, in his time, the first jubilee was kept, we are assured by Crantzius. This pope lived and died with great infamy, and therefore was not likely from himself to transfer much honour and reputation to the new institution. But that about this time. indulgences began, is more than probable; much before, it is certain they were not. For, in the whole canon-law written by Gratian, and in the Sentences of Peter Lombard, there is nothing spoken of indulgences. Now because they lived in the time of pope Alexander III., if he had introduced them, and much rather if they had been as ancient as St. Gregory (as some vainly and weakly pretend, from no greater authority than their own legends), it is probable that these great men, writing bodies of divinity and law, would have made mention of so considerable a point, and so great a part of the Roman religion, as things are now ordered. If they had been doctrines of the church then, as they are now, it is certain they must have come under their cognizance and discourses.

Now lest the Roman emissaries should deceive any of the good sons of the church, we think fit to acquaint them, that, in the primitive church', when the bishops imposed severe penances, and that they were almost quite performed, and a great cause of pity intervened, or danger of death, or an

a Part i. Sum. tit. 10. c. 3.

b In art. 18. Luther.

e. Intravit ut vulpes, regnavit ut leo, moriebatur ut canis,' de eo sæpius dictum.

d Tertul. i. ad Martyr. c. 1. S. Cyprian. lib. iii. ep. 15. apud Pamelium 11. Concil. Nicen. 1. can. 12. Concil. Ancir. c. 5. Concil. Laod. c. 2. S. Basil. in Ep. canonicis habentur in Nomocanone Photii, can. 73.

excellent repentance, or that the martyrs interceded, the bishop did sometimes indulge the penitent, and relax some of the remaining parts of his penance; and, according to the example of St. Paul, in the case of the incestuous Corinthian, gave them ease, lest they should be swallowed up with too much sorrow. But the Roman doctrine of indulgences is wholly another thing; nothing of it but the abused name remains. For in the church of Rome they now pretend, that there is an infinite of degrees of Christ's merits and satisfaction beyond what is necessary for the salvation of his servants and (for fear Christ should not have enough) the saints have a surplusage of merits, or at least of satisfactions,more than they can spend, or themselves do need; and out of these the church hath made her a treasure, a kind of poor man's box; and out of this, a power to take as much as they list, to apply to the poor souls in purgatory; who,— because they did not satisfy for their venial sins, or perform all their penances which were imposed, or which might have been imposed, and which were due to be paid to God, for the temporal pains reserved upon them, after he had forgiven them the guilt of their deadly sins,-are forced sadly to roar in pains not inferior to the pains of hell, excepting only that they are not eternal. That this is the true state of their article of indulgences, we appeal to Bellarmine.

Now, concerning their new foundation of indulgences, the first stone of it was laid by Pope Clement VI. in his extravagant Unigenitus, de pœnitentiis et remissionibus,' A. D. 1350. This constitution was published fifty years after the first jubilee, and was a new device to bring in customers to Rome at the second jubilee, which was kept in Rome in this pope's time. What ends of profit and interest it served, we are not much concerned to inquire: but this we know, that it had not yet passed into a catholic doctrine, for it was disputed against by Franciscus de Mayroniss, and Durandus", not long before this extravagant; and that it was not rightly given to the church, besides that which the apostles received

Communis opinio doctorum, tam Theologorum, quam Canonicorum, quod sunt ex abundantia meritorum, quæ ultra mensuram demeritorum suorum sancti sustinuerunt, et Christi, Sum. Angel. v. Indulg. 9.

Lib. i. de Indulgent. c. 2. et 3.
Ibid. dist. 20. q. 3.

In 4. lib. sen. dist. 19. q. 2.