" Hie alicmis oves custos bis mulget in hora," Virg. Eel. iii. 5, all this is but the shearing, milking, and slaying of a stranger, the
' An abbreviation for Unde De Piano JjCgi Possint, — " From which they can be plainly read." Siglariura Romanum. — Ed.
APOSTASY OF THE ROMISH CHUrvCII. 233
shepherds being driven mto corners. But have these noisome heresies of your church, think you, passed without control ? Was she not judged, censured, written against, and condemned in the person of her chief pastor ? You must be a very stranger unto all history if you can imagine any such thing. A council assembled by the em- peror at Worms, in German}^, reckons up the miscarriages of tliis Hildebrand, and pronounceth him deposed, with all those that ad- hered unto him. Another synod, anno 1080, at Brixia in Bavaria, condemns him also for the same causes. All the heroic potentates of Europe, especially the emperors of Germany, the kings of England and France, with whole assemblies of their clergy, have always op- posed and condemned this branch of your supremacy. And to this purpose hundreds of their laws, decrees, edicts, and declarations, are at this day extant.
4. Your iwpe's personal infallibility, with the requisite qualifica- tions, is another heretical opinion tliat your church hath fallen by. And herein you are a-jToxardxpiroi, — " condemned of yourselves," — and we need no farther witness against you; you have been often taken I'Tauropw/'w, — " in the very fact." I know there is an opinion secretly advancing amongst some of you, whereby you would cast out of the bounds of your defence this personal infallibility of your pope ; but we have no more reason to esteem that opinion the doctrine of your church than we have to conclude that the Jesuits' new position, asserting him infallible in matter of fact, is so. And though I know not perfectly what your opinion is in this matter, yet I may take a time to show how utterly imserviceable unto your purpose the new way of the explication of infallibility is. For it hath but these two general inconveniences attending it, — first. That it is not the opi- nion of your church ; secondly, If that be the only infallibility we are to rest on, the whole claim of your church, and its interest therein, falls to the ground; — both which I hope to have an opportunity to manifest. In the meantime, we take that for the doctrine of your church which is declared by itself so to be, which is explained and defended by her most famous champions. And, indeed, you in your " Fiat" assert, as I have showed, the pope personally to be an uneiTing guide ; which is that we inquire after. Bellarmine tells us that all CathoUcs agree in these two things: — (1.) "Pontificem, cum generali concilio, non posse errare in condendis decretis fidei, vel generalibus prseceptis morum;" — "That the pope, with a general council, cannot err in making decrees of faith, or general precepts concerning manners." (2.) " Pontificem solum, vel cum suo particulari conciho, aliquid in re dubia statuentem, sive errare possit sive non, esse ab omnibus fidelibus obedienter audiendum;" — "All believers must willingly obey the pope, either alone or with his particular council, determining in doubtful matters, whether he may err or no."
234 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIjVLADVERSIGNS ON FIAT LUX.
I confess, if this be so, and he must be obeyed, whether he do right or wrong, whether he teacheth truly or falsely, it is to no great pur- pose to talk of his infallibility ; for follow him we must whither ever he leads us, though it should be to hell. And the Catholic proposi- tion that he asserts himself is, that, " Summus pontifex, cum totam ecclesiam docet in his quae ad fidem pertinent, nullo casu errare potest;" — "The pope, when he teacheth the whole church, can in no case err in those things which appertain unto faith," De Rom. Pontif., lib. iv. cap. 2, 3. What a blind that is "of teaching the whole church," children can see. The pope can no way teach the whole church but as he declares his opinion or judgment; which may be divulged unto many, as that of another man. Let us see, then, how well they have made good this their infallibility, and how well their judgment hath been approved of by the church of old. I will not here mind you of the decree fathered on Clemens, wherein he determines that " all things among Christians ought to be common ; and among them, wives;" — because I know it \s falsely imposed on him, though you may be justly charged Avith it, who are the authors of those forgeries whereof that is a part. Nor shall I rake the epistles which you ascribe unto divers of the ancient bishops of Rome, that are full of ignorance, errors, and pitiful nonsense, because they are, questionless, pseudepigraphal, though you who own them may be justly charged with their follies. Nor will I much insist on the tes- timony of Tertullian in his book against Praxeas, that the bishop of Rome owned the 'prophecies of Montanus, until Praxeas persuaded him to the contrary ; because, it may be, you will say that perhaps Tertullian spake partially in favour of a sect whereunto he was him- self addicted, — though, for aught I know, he is as sufficient a witness in inatter of fact as any one man upon the roll of antiquity. But what say you to Marcellinus? Did he not sac7'ifice to idols? which, ac- cording unto you, is "a mixed misdemeanour in faith and manners" (Con. torn, i.. Vita Marcel.), and therefore certainly a shrewd im- peachment of his infallibility ; and was he not judged for it? What think you of Liberius? did he not subscribe to Arianism? Sozo- men tells you expressly that he did so, lib. iv. cap. 15; and so doth Athanasius, Epist. ad Solitaries, giving the reason why he did so, — namely, out of fear ; and so doth Jerome, both in Script. Ecclesiast. Fortunat. and in Euseb. Chron. Pope Honorius was solemnly con- demned for a Monothelite heretic in the sixth general council, act. 12, 13; which sentence was afterward ratified by your own darling, the second of Nice, act. 3, 7, and is mentioned in a decretal epistle of Pope Leo II. So infallible was he during his life, so infallible was he thought to be when he was dead, — whilst he lived he taught heresy, and when he was dead he was condemned for a heretic; and with him the principle which is the hinge of your present faith.