had once thoroughly imbibed the Gospel, and that neither from man, nor by man, but only by the will of God, deliberated not with flesh and blood (Gal. i. 12, 16); nor did he refer the thing to his kinsmen and brethren, but straightway went into Arabia, that he might there publish the divine mysteries which he had learned of God himself.

3. We do not despise councils, nor the meetings and consultations of bishops and learned men; nor have we done what we have done without bishops and a council: the thing was debated a long time in a full assembly of the states. But what we may expect from that council which is now pretended to be held by Pope Pius IV. in which men are with such facility condemned, uncalled, unheard, and unseen, is not mighty difficult to conjecture. When Nazianzen in his time saw men in these meetings so blind and obstinate that they were wholly led by their affections, and that they sought victory more than truth, he confidently said, that he never saw a good end put to any of the councils.-What would he now say if he were living, and understood their transactions? for then, although there was some faction and partiality, yet causes were heard and considered, and manifest apparent errors were taken away by their united suffrages. But our adversaries will not so much as suffer the cause to be freely debated, nor will they suffer any one of the many errors that are crept into the church to be changed; for they are wont frequently and impudently to boast that their church cannot err; that there is not the least fault in it; that nothing was to be yielded to us; or that, if any thing were granted, it was to be at the discretion of the bishops and abbots; that they were the sole moderators of affairs, and that they were the church of God. Aristotle saith, that bastards cannot make a civil society or state, and

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they may consider whether they be any better quali fied for the making of a church of God; for certainly they are neither lawful abbots, nor genuine bishops. But suppose they are in the church, suppose they are to be heard in councils, and that they have the sole right of voting, yet in ancient time, when the church of God was well governed, espe cially if it be compared with their church, as St. Cyprian acquaints us, the presbyters and deacons, and some part also of the laity, were then called to assist at the hearing of ecclesiastical causes.

4. But what now if those abbots and bishops know nothing? what if they know not what_reli'gion is, nor what they ought to believe of God? what if the law hath perished from the priests, and counsel from the elders? what if, as Micah saith (iii. 6), the night be unto them instead of a vision, and darkness instead of a divination? what if, as Isaiah saith (lvi. 10), "the watchmen of the city are all blind, they are all ignorant?" and what if the salt (as Christ saith, Matt. v. 13) hath lost its force and savour, and is become good for nothing, not fit even to be cast upon the dunghill? for they defer all to the Pope, who cannot err: but then this in the first place is ridiculous, that the Holy Ghost should be sent by a carrier from the holy council to Rome, that if any doubt or stop happens which he cannot expedite, he may take better instruction and counsel from I know not what more -learned spirit; for if it must come to this at last, what need is there that so many bishops should with such great expense be called from very distant places at this time to Trent? It had certainly been more -prudent, and much better, a shorter and an easier way, to have at first turned over all this business to the Pope, and have gone directly to the oracle of his sacred breast; besides, it is unjust to devolve

our cause from so many bishops and abbots to the judgment of any one man, and, above all others, to the judgment of the Pope, who is accused by us of many very great crimes; and though he hath not answered for his own misdemeanors, yet hath presumed to condemn us before we were called, and that without any trial.

Now do we invent all this? or is it not now the manners of our late councils? Are not all things referred to the Pope by the council; so that as if nothing were done by so many sentences and subscriptions, he alone may add, diminish, abrogate, approve, relax, and restrain whatsoever he please? Whose words are these? why did the bishops and abbots, in the end of the late council at Trent, put in these words as a part of their decree: Saving in all things the authority of the apostolical see? or why did Pope Pascal write thus insolently of himself: As if (saith he) any councils could prescribe a law to the church of Rome, when all councils are held by the authority of the church of Rome, and derive their force from it too; and whereas they do patiently in their decrees except the authority of the Pope of Rome? If they will confirm and approve these things, why are councils called? but, if they are indeed repealed and abrogated, why are they still left in their books as if they were in force?

5. Well, but suppose, in the next place, that the Pope, though one, is above all councils, that is, that he is a part greater than the whole, has more power, yea, and more wisdom too, than all his party besides; and that, in spite of St. Jerome's judgment, the authority of this one city is greater than that of the whole world-what if he has seen none of these things, and has neither read the holy Scriptures, nor the ancient fathers, nor so much as any of his own councils-what if, like Pope Liberius of old, he becomes

an Arian; or, like Pope John who lived not many years since, thinks very lewdly and wickedly of the immortality of the soul, and of the life to come; or, as Pope Zosimus heretofore corrupted the council of Nice, so he, for the enlarging of his own power, should corrupt the other councils, and aver, that those things were deliberated and constituted by the holy fathers, in them which were never so much as thought of; and that, as Camotensis saith the Popes do frequently, he should offer violence to the holy Scriptures, that he might thereby possess himself of a plenitude of power?-what if he renounce the Christian faith, and become an apostate, as Lyranus saith many Popes have done?-what! will the Holy Spirit, for all these things, knock at the cabin of his breast, and obtrude such a light upon him contrary to his inclinations, and against his will, that he shall not err though he would? or shall such a Pope as this be the fountain of all laws, and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a cabinet? or, if these things be not in him, can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight? or, if he be not qualified to judge of them, does he yet desire that all things should be referred to him alone? What now, if the Pope's advocates, the abbots and bishops, dissemble nothing, but declare themselves openly to be the enemies of the Gospel, and will not see what they do see, but wrest the Scriptures, and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the word of God, and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ, and cannot be applied to any other mortal? What if they say, the Pope is all and above all, or that he can do all those things which Christ can do, or that the tribunal and consistory of the Pope is the same with Christ, or that the Pope is that light which

came into the world, which Christ spake of himself only, and that he that doth evil hateth that light, and fleeth from it, or that all other bishops have received of his fulness? Or, lastly, what if they do without dissimulation or obscurity clearly and manifestly determine contrary to the word of God? Shall whatever they say nevertheless presently become Gospel? shall such as these be the army of God? will Christ be present with such men? will the Spirit of God move upon their tongues, or may they say truly, It seems good to the Holy Ghost, and to us? (Acts, xv. 28.)

6. Petrus a Soto, and his voucher Hosius, make no scruple to affirm that that very council which condemned our Saviour to death, had then the spirit of prophecy and truth, and the Holy Ghost, with them; and what those high priests said was not false and vain, when they said, We have a law, and by that law he ought to die; that in this (according to Hosius), they gave a true judgment, and that their decree was perfectly just by which Christ was adjudged worthy of death. It is a wonder, in the mean time, these men cannot defend themselves, and propagate their own cause, except at the same time they undertake the patronage of Annas and Caiaphas. For what council will these men ever acknowledge to be vicious and erroneous, who say that it was a lawful and good council in which the Son of God was most ignomipiously condemned to the death of the cross? and yet considering what almost all these councils have been, it was necessary for them thus to pronounce of the council held by Annas and Caiaphas. But are they ever like to be the men which are to reform the church, who are at once the judges and the criminals? Will they ever lessen their pride and ambition? will they depose themselves, and give judgment against themselves, that the bishops shall not be unlearned, slow bellies, multiply benefices, carry theinselves