But you lay more weight on what you cull out in the next place, which as you have laid it down is, " That these now christened Pagans advanced the pope's authority, when Christian religion was now grown degenerate;" and say, " Now we come to know how the Roman bishop became a patriarch above the rest, — by means, namely, of the new-converted Pagans." But I wonder you speak so nicely in their chief affair; as though that were the question, whether the bishop of Rome, according unto some ecclesiastical constitution.s, were made a patriarch or no? and that, whether he were not esteemed to have some kind of pre-eminence in respect of those other bishops who upon the same accoimt were so styled ? When we have occasion to speak of the question we shall not be backward to declare our
PROGRESS AND DECLENSION OF RELIGI02':. 401
thoughts on it. For the present, yon represent the pope unto us as the absolute head of the church catholic, the supreme judge of all controversies in religion, the sole fountain of unity, and spring of all ecclesiastical jurisdiction, etc. Nor did I say that your pope was l)y these nations, after their conversion, advanced unto the height you labour now to fix him in ; but only that his authority was signally advanced by them : which is so certain a truth, that your own histo- rians and annalists openly proclaim it ; and you cannot deny it unless you would be esteemed the most ungrateful person in the world. But this is your way and manner: all that is done for you is mere duty; which when it is done you will thank no man for. Are all the grants of power, privileges, and possessions made unto your papal see by the kings of this nation, both before and since the Conquest, by the kings of France, and emperors of the posterity of Charles the Great, by the kings of Poland, Denmark, and Sweden, by the Longo- bards in Italy, not worth your thanks? It is well you have got your ends ; — the net may be cast away when the fish is caught.
" But an odd chance," you say, " it was, that they should think of advancing him to what they never heard either himself or any other advanced unto before among Christians." But yet this was done, and no such " odd chance" neither. Your popes had for a season before been aspiring to greater heights than formerly they had attained unto, and used all ways possible to commend themselves and their authority, — not what truly it was, but what they would have it to be, — unto all with whom they had to do ; and thereupon, by sundry means and artifices, imposed upon the nations some undue conceits of it ; though it was not fully nor so easily admitted of as it may be you may imagine. But in many things they were willing to gratify him in his pretensions, little knowing the tendency of them ; many things he took the advantage oi their straits and divisions to impose upon them ; many things he obtained from them by flattery and carnal compliances ; — until, by sundry serpentine advances, he had brought them all unto his hoiu, and some of the greatest of them to his stirrup.
" It was yet more odd," say you, " and strange, that all Christendom should calmly submit unto a power set up anew by young converted Pagans; no prince or bishop, either here or of any other Christian kingdom, either then or ever after to this day, excepting against it. Had not all the bishops and priests of Africa, Egypt, Syria, Thrace, Greece, and all the Christian world, acknowledged, by a hundred experiments, the supreme spiritual authority of the Roman patriarch in all times before this deluge of Goths and Vandals? But why do I expostulate with you, who write these things not to judicious readers, but to fools and children, who are not iiiore apt to tell a truth than
VOL. XIV. 26
402 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
to believe a lie ?" But, sir, you shall quickly see whose discourse, yours or mine, stands in need of weak and credulous readers. That which you have in this place to oppose is only this, " That your papal authority received a signal advancement by and among the northern nations, who, after long wars, divided the . provinces of the western empire among them." Now, this is so broad a truth, that nothing but brutish ignorance or obstinate perverseness can possibly cause any man to call it into question. It was not absolutely the setting up of the Papacy, but an accession unto the papal power and authority, which I ascribed unto that original ; and this if you dare to deny, it were easy, out of your own annalists, to overwhelm you with instances in the confirmation of it. But yet neither were your concessions made nor his assumptions carried on in that silence which you fancy when you imagine that his aspirings were neither taken notice of nor op- posed, but that all Christendom should calmly submit unto them. Where do you think you are, that you talk at this rate? Did you never read of any opposition made in former days unto your pre- tended pa2:)al power ? none at all ? from no kings, no princes, no bishops, no parts of Christendom? Happy man, who hath lived so quietly as you seem to have done, and so little concerned in things past or present ! Did you never read or hear of the declarations and edicts of emperors and kings, of determinations of councils, writings of learned men, in all ages, against your papal usurpations? Did you never hear how, before the times that we now talk of, Irenasus reproved Victor ; how Cyprian opposed Cornelius and Stephen ; how the coun- cils of Africa admonished Celestine and Boniface of their miscarriages in their claims of power and jurisdiction? Are you an utter stranger unto the opposition made by the German emperors unto your Hilde- brandine supremacy, with the books written against your pretensions to that purpose? Have you not read your own Baronms, a great pait of whose voluminous annals consists in his endeavours to vindi- cate your papal power from the open opposition that was made to its introduction in every age? You must needs sleep quietly, seeing you lie so far from noise. I have already in part let you see the fondness of this dream, that your papal supremacy was ever calmly submitted unto, and have manifested that it was j^ublicly condemned before it was born. But because I then confined myself unto more ancient times than those which are now under discourse, I shall mind you of a few instances of the opposition made unto it, either about or presently after that signal advancement which I affinned that it received from the newly-converted nations of the west.