but all is one for that, they believe it nevertheless: but there are enough to help it out; and if they be not firmly true, yet, if they be firmly believed, all is well enough. In the 'speculum exemplorum' it is said, that a certain priest, in an ecstacy, saw the soul of Constantinus Turritanus in the eaves of his house, tormented with frosts and cold rains, and afterwards climbing up to heaven upon a shining pillar. And a certain monk saw some souls roasted upon spits like pigs, and some devils basting them with scalding lard; but a while after, they were carried to a cool place, and so proved purgatory. But bishop Theobald, standing upon a piece of ice to cool his feet, was nearer purgatory than he was aware, and was convinced of it, when he heard a poor soul telling him, that under that ice he was tormented: and that he should be delivered, if for thirty days continual, he would say for him thirty masses: and some such thing was seen by Conrade and Udalric in a pool of waterp: for the place of purgatory was not yet resolved on, till St. Patrick had the key of it delivered to him; which when one Nicholas borrowed of him, he saw as strange and true things there, as ever Virgil dreamed of in his purgatory, or Cicero, in his dream of Scipio; or Plato, in his Gorgias, or Phædo, who indeed are the surest authors to prove purgatory. But because to preach false stories was forbidden by the council of Trent, there are yet remaining more certain arguments, even revelations made by angels, and the testimony of St. Odilio himself, who heard the devil complain (and he had great reason surely) that the souls of dead men were daily snatched out of his hands, by the alms and prayers of the living; and the sister of St. Damianus being too much pleased with hearing of a piper, told her brother, that she was to be tormented for fifteen days in purgatory.

We do not think, that the wise men in the church of Rome believe these narratives; for if they did, they were not wise but this we know, that by such stories the people were brought into a belief of it; and having served their

• Hæc descripsimus, ut tamen in iis nulla velut canonica constituatur autoritas. lib. de 8. quæst. Dulcitii. c. 1. Dist. 3. exem. 4. Exempl. 60. Histor. Lomb.

» Legend. 185.

turn of them, the master-builders used them as false arches and centries, taking them away when the parts of the building were made firm and stable by authority. But even the better sort of them do believe them; or else they do worse, for they urge and cite the dialogues of St. Gregory, the oration of St. John Damascen de Defunctis,' the sermons of St. Austin upon the feast of the commemoration of All-souls (which nevertheless was instituted after St. Austin's death); and divers other citations, which the Greeks in their apology call Διαφθορὰς καὶ παρεμβολὰς αἱρετιζόντων, ' the holds and the castles, the corruptions and insinuations of heretical persons.' But in this they are the less to be blamed, because better arguments than they have, no men are tied to make use of.

But, against this way of proceeding, we think fit to admonish the people of our charges, that, besides that the Scriptures expressly forbid us to inquire of the dead for truth; the holy doctors of the church, particularly, Tertullian, St. Athanasius, St. Chrysostom, Isidor, and Theophylact, deny that the souls of the dead ever do appear; and bring many reasons to prove, that it is unfitting they should; saying, if they did, it would be the cause of many errors; and the devils under that pretence, might easily abuse the world with notices and revelations of their own: and because Christ would have us content with Moses and the prophets, and especially, to hear that prophet, whom the Lord our God hath raised up' amongst us, our blessed Jesus, who never taught any such doctrine to his church.

But, because we are now representing the novelty of this doctrine, and proving, that anciently it was not the doctrine of the church, nor at all esteemed a matter of faith, whether there was or was not any such place or state, we add this, that the Greek church did always dissent from the Latins in this particular, since they had forged this new doctrine in the laboratories of Rome; and, in the council of Basil, published an apology, directly disapproving the Roman doctrine of purgatory. How, afterwards, they were pressed in the council of Florence, by Pope Eugenius, and by their necessity, how unwillingly they consented; how ambiguously they answered; how they protested against having that half

a Deut. xviii. 11, &c. Isai. viii. 19. Vide Maldonat. in xvi. cap. S. Lucæ.

consent put into the instrument of union; how they were yet constrained to it by their chiefs, being obnoxious to the pope; how a while after, they dissolved that union, and to this day refuse to own this doctrine ;- are things so no→ toriously known, that they need no further declaration.

We add this only, to make the conviction more manifest: we have thought fit to annex some few, but very clear testimonies of antiquity, expressly destroying the new doctrine of purgatory. St. Cyprian saith", "Quando istinc excessum fuerit, nullus jam locus pœnitentiæ est, nullus satisfactionis effectus:" "When we are gone from hence, there is no place left for repentance, and no effect of satisfaction." St. Dionysius calls the extremity of death, τέλος ἱερῶν ἀγώνων, "The end of all our agonies ;" and affirms, "That the holy men of God rest in joy, and in never-failing hopes, and are come to the end of their holy combats."-St. Justin Martyr affirms', "That when the soul is departed from the body, Eubùs vívetα, presently there is' a separation made of the just and unjust the unjust are, by angels, borne into places which they have deserved; but the souls of the just into Paradise, where they have the conversation of angels and archangels."St. Ambrose saith", "That death is a haven of rest, and makes not our condition worse; but, according as it finds every man, so it reserves him to the judgment that is to come." The same is affirmed by St. Hilary *, St. Macarius', and divers others; they speak but of two states after death, of the just and the unjust: these are placed in horrible regions, reserved to the judgment of the great day; the other have their souls carried by choirs of angels into places of rest. St. Gregory Nazianzen expressly affirms, “That after this life there is no purgation."-" For after Christ's ascension into Heaven, the souls of all saints are with Christ," saith Gennadius ; and going from the body, they go to Christ, expecting the resurrection of their body, with it to pass into the perfection of perpetual bliss; and this he delivers

Ad Demetrian. sect. 16.

s Eccles. Hier. c. 7.

t Quæst. et Respons. ad Orthod. qu. 5. Justino imputat.

u De bono mortis, c. 4.

* In Psal. 2.

y Homil. 22.

2 Orat. 5. in Plagam grandinis et orat. 42. in Pascha. de Eccles. doginat. c. 79.

a In Eccles. c. 11.

as the doctrine of the catholic church:-"In what place soever a man is taken at his death, of light or darkness, of wickedness or virtue, ἐν ἐκείνῳ μένει τῷ βαθμῷ καὶ τάξει, “ in the same order, and in the same degree;' either in light with the just, and with Christ, the great king; or in darkness with the unjust, and with the prince of darkness," said Olympiodorus. And, lastly, we recite the words of St. Leo', one of the popes of Rome, speaking of the penitents who had not performed all their penances; "but if any one of them, for whom we pray unto the Lord, being interrupted by any obstacles, falls from the gift of the present indulgence (viz. ecclesiastical absolution), and, before he arrive at the appointed remedies (that is, before he hath performed his penances or satisfactions), ends his temporal life, that which remaining in the body he hath not received, when he is divested of his body, he cannot obtain." He knew not of the new devices of paying in purgatory, what they paid not here; and of being cleansed there, who were not clean here and how these words, or any of the precedent, are reconcilable with the doctrines of purgatory, hath not yet entered into our imagination.

To conclude this particular, we complain greatly, that this doctrine, which, in all the parts of it, is uncertain, and in the late additions to it in Rome is certainly false, is yet, with all the faults of it, passed into an article of faith by the council of Trent. But, besides what hath been said, it will be more than sufficient to oppose against it these clearest words of Scripture, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; even so saith the Spirit; that they may rest from their labours "." If all the dead that die in Christ, be at rest, and are in no more affliction or labours; then the doctrine of the horrible pains of purgatory is as false as it is uncomfortable. To these words we add the saying of Christ, and we rely upon it; "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but passeth from death unto life"." If so, then not into the judgment of purgatory: if the servant of Christ passeth from death to life, then not from death to the terminable pains of a part of hell. d John, v. 24.

b Epist. 59.

e Rev. xiv. 15.

They that have eternal life, suffer no intermedial punishment, judgment, or condemnation after death; for death and life are the whole progression, according to the doctrine of Christ: and Him we choose to follow.

SECTION V.

THE doctrine of transubstantiation is so far from being primitive and apostolic, that we know the very time it began to be owned publicly for an opinion, and the very council in which it was said to be passed into a public doctrine, and by what arts it was promoted, and by what persons it was introduced.

For all the world knows, that by their own parties, by Scotus, Ocham, Briel, Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and divers others, whom Bellarmine calls most learned and most acute men,' it was declared, that the doctrine of transubstantiation is not expressed in the canon of the Bible; that in the Scriptures there is no place so express, as (without the church's declaration) to compel us to admit of transubstantiation, and, therefore, at least, it is to be suspected of novelty. But further, we know it was but a disputable question in the ninth and tenth ages after Christ; that it was not pretended to be an article of faith, till the Lateran council in the time of pope Innocent III., one thousand two hundred years, and more, after Christ; that since that pretended determination, divers of the chiefest teachers of their own side have been no more satisfied of the ground of it, than they were before; but still have publicly affirmed, that the article is not expressed in Scripture; particularly, Johannes de Bassolis, cardinal Cajetan, and Melchior Camus", besides those above reckoned: and, therefore, if it was not

a In 4. lib. sent. d. 11. q. 3.

• Lect. 40. in can. missæ.

b Ibid. q. 6.

Cap. 1. contr. Captiv. Babyl.

* De Enchar. lib. iii. cap. 23. sect. Secundo dicit.

! Venêre tum quidem multi in consultationem, nec decerni tamen quicquam apertè potuit. Platina in vita Innocen. III.

Apud Suar. Tom. 3. disp. 46. sect. 3.

b Loc. com. lib. ii. c. com. fund. 2.