6. You exempt all the clergy from under their ride and power. See your Bellarmine sweating to prove that they are not bound to their laws, so as to be judged by them without their leave, if they transgress, or to pay any tribute, De Cleric, lib. i. cap. 28. They
892 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX,
are all reserved to the power and jurisdiction of the pope. And he that shall consider into what a vast and boundless multitude, by reason of the several disorderly orders of your city monies and friars, your clergy is swelled into in most places of Europe, will easily per- ceive what your interest is in every kingdom of it. I am persuaded there is scarce a considerable nation wherem the profession of your religion is enthroned, in which the pope hath not a hundred thousand able fighting men, that are his peculiar subjects, exempted from the power and jurisdiction of kings themselves; which you must needs conceive to be a blessed interpretation of that of the apostle, " Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." And, —
7. You extend the papal power to things as well as persons in the dominions of all kings and commonwealths; for the lands and pos- sessions that are given unto any of the pope's esjiecial subjects, you will have to be exempted from tributes and public burdens of the state. And you farther contend, that it is not in the power of any kings or rulers to hinder such alienations of lands and possessions from their dominions. By this means no small part of the territories of many princes is subduced from under their power. The dreadful consequences of which principles so startled the wise state of Venice, that you know they disputed it to the utmost with your vice-god Paul V. In dealing with them, as I remember, their attempt was successless; for, notwithstanding the defence made of the papal pro- cess against them by Baronius, Bellarmine, and others, yet the actings of that sober state in forbidding such alienation of lands and fees from their rule and power without their consent, with their plea for the subjection of ecclesiastics unto them in their own dominions, was so vindicated by Dr Paul Suave/ Marsilius of Padua, and others, that the horns of the bull, which had been thrust forth against them unto so great a length, were pulled in again.
I told you, in the entrance of this discourse, how unwilling I should have been to have given you the least disquietment in your way, had you only attempted to set off your own respects unto royal power unto the best advantage you could ; but your setting up your prin- ciples and practices in competition with those of Protestants of any sort whatever, and preferring them before and above them, as unto your deference unto kings, and that in matters ecclesiastical, hath made these few instances, expressive of the real sense of your church in this matter, as I suppose, necessary and equal.
' The common foi'm of the name is Paul Sarpi. The History of the Council of Trent by the learned doctor was publislied under the assumed name of Pietro Hoave Polano; an anagram of his real name, I'aolo Saqii Veneto, — Paul Sai-pi of Venice. — Ed.
PROGRESS AND DECLENSION OF RELIGION, 303
CHAPTER XVIL
Scripture — Story of the progress and declension of religion vindicated — Papal artifices for the promotion of then* power and interest — Advantages made by them on the Western Empire.
You proceed, p. 70, uuto the animadversions on your 13th para- graph, entitled " Scripture," wherein how greatly and causelessly it is by you undervalued is fully declared ; but whatever is offered in it for the discovery of your miscarriage and your own conviction, you wisely pass over without taking notice of it at all, and only repeat again your case to the same purpose, and almost in the very same words you had done before. Now, this I have already considered and removed out of our way, so that it is altogether needless to divert again to the discussion of it. That which we have to do, for the an- swering of all your cavils and objections in and about the case you frame and propose, is, to declare and manifest the Scripture's suffi- ciency for the revelation of all necessary truths, therein affording us a stable rule of faith, every way suited to the decision of all differences in and about religion, and to keep Christians in perfect peace, as it did of old ; and this Ave have already done. Why this proper work of the Scripture is not in all places and at all times effected, proceeds from the lusts and prejudices of men; which when, by the grace of God, they shall be removed, it will no longer be obstructed.
Your next attempt, j^. 72, is upon my " story of the progress and coriTiption of Christian religion in the world," with respect unto that of your own. Yours, you tell us, "is serious, temperate, and sober;" every way as excellent as Suffenus thought his verses. Mine, you say, " is fraught with defamation and wrath against all ages and people." Very good ! I doubt not but you thought it was fit you should say so, though you knew no reason why, nor could fix on any thing in it for your warrant in these intemperate reproaches. Do I say any thing but what the stories of all ages and the experience of Christendom do proclaim? Is it now a defamation, to report what the learned men of those days have recorded, what good men be- wailed, and the sad effects whereof the world long groaned under, and was at length ruined by? What "wrath" is in all this? May not men be warned to take heed of falling into the like evils, by the miscarriages of them that went before them, without "wrath and defamation?" Are the books of the Kings, Chronicles, and Prophets " fraught with wrath and defamation," because they report, complain of, and reprove, the sad apostasies of the church in those days, with the wickedness of the kings, priests, and people that it was composed of, and declare the abomination of those ways of false worship, licen-