Chapter 13: Reformation
Reformation.
The story of the Reformation of Religion he distributes into three parts, and allots to each a particular paragraph, the first is of its occasion and rise in general, the second of its entrance into England, the third of its progress among us. Of the first, he gives us this account: The pastor of Christianity upon some solicitation of Christian Princes for a general compliance to their design, sent forth in the year 1517 a plenary indulgence in favor of the Cruciata against the Turk. Albertus the Archbishop of Ments being delegated by the Pope to see it executed, committed the promulgation of it to the Dominican Fryers; which the Hermits of Saint Augustine in the same place took ill, especially Martin Luther, &c. Who vexed that he was neglected, and undervalued, fell a-writing and preaching first against indulgencies, then against the Pope, &c. He that had no other acquaintance with Christian Religion, but what the Scriptures and ancient Fathers will afford him, could not but be amazed at the canting language of this story; it being impossible for him to understand any thing of it aright. He would admire who this pastor of Christianity should be, what this plenary indulgence should mean, what was the preaching of plenary indulgence by Dominicans, and what all this would avail against the Turk. I cannot but pity such a poor man to think what a loss he would be at — like one taken from home and carried blindfold into the midst of a wilderness, where when he opens his eyes, every thing scares him, nothing gives him guidance or direction. Let him turn again to his Bible, and Fathers of the first 400 or 500 years, and I will undertake he shall come off from them, as wise, as to the true understanding of this story, as he went to them. The scene in Religion is plainly changed, and this appearance of a Universal pastor, plenary indulgences, Dominicans and Cruciatas, all marching against the Turk, must needs affright a man accustomed only to the Scripture-notions of Religion, and those embraced by the Primitive Church. And I do know, that if such a man could get together two or three of the wisest Romanists in the world, which were the likeliest way for him to be resolved in the signification of these hard names, they would never well agree to tell him what this plenary indulgence is. But for the present, as to our concernment, let us take these things, according to the best understanding, which their framers and founders have been pleased to give us of them; the story intended to be told, was indeed neither so, nor so. There was no such solicitation of the Pope by Christian Princes at that time, as is pretended; no Cruciata against the Turk undertaken; no attempt of that nature ensued, not a penny of indulgence-money, laid out to any such purpose. But the short of the matter is, that the Church of Mentz, being not able to pay for the Archiepiscopal Pall of Albertus from Rome, having been much exhausted by the purchase of one or two for other Bishops, that died suddenly before, the Pope grants to Albert a number of pardons, of, to say the truth, I know not what, to be sold in Germany, agreeing with him, that one half of the gain he would have in his own right, and the other for the pall. Now the Pope's merchants that used to sell pardons for him in former days were the Preaching Friers, who upon holy-days, and festivals, were wont to let out their ware to the people, and in plain terms, to cheat them of their money; and well had it been, if that had been all. What share in the dividend, came to the venders, well I know not: probably they had a proportion according to the commodity that they put off; which stirred up their zeal to be earnest and diligent in their work. Among the rest, one Fryer Tecel, was so warm in his employment, and so intent upon the main end that they had all in their eye that preaching in or about Wittenberg, it sufficed him not in general, to make an offer of the pardon of all sins that any had committed, but, to take all scruples from their consciences, coming to particular instances, carried them up to a cursed blasphemous supposition of ravishing the blessed Virgin; so cocksure he made of the forgiveness of any thing beneath it, provided, the price were paid that was set upon the pardon. Sober men being much amazed and grieved at these horrible impieties, one Martin Luther, a Professor of Divinity at Wittenberg, an honest, warm, zealous soul, set himself to oppose the Fryers' blasphemies; wherein his zeal was commended by all, his discretion by few, it being the joint-opinion of most, that the Pope would quickly have stopped his mouth by breaking his neck. But God, as it afterwards appeared, had another work to bring about, and the time of entering upon it was now fully come. At the same time, that Luther set himself to oppose the pardons in Germany, Zwinglius did the same in Switzerland. And both of them, taking occasion from the work, they first engaged in, to search the Scriptures, so to find out the truth of Religion, which they discovered to be horribly abused by the Pope and his agents, proceeded farther in their discovery, than at first they were aware of. Many nations, princes, and people, multitudes of learned and pious men, up and down the world, that had long groaned under the bondage of the Papal yoke, and grieved for the horrible abuse of the worship of God, which they were forced to see and endure, hearing, that God had stirred up some learned men seriously to oppose those corruptions in Religion, which they saw and mourned under, speedily either countenanced them, or joined themselves with them. It fell out indeed, as it was morally impossible it should be otherwise, that multitudes of learned men undertaking, without advising or consulting one with another, in several far distant nations, the discovery of the Papal errors, and the Reformation of Religion, some of them had different apprehensions and persuasions in, and about some points of doctrine, and parts of worship of no great weight and importance. And, he that shall seriously consider, what was the state of things, when they began their work, who they were, how educated, what prejudices they had to wrestle with, and remember withal, that they were all men; will have ten thousand times more cause to admire at their agreement in all fundamentals, than at their difference about some lesser things. However, whatever were their personal failings and infirmities, God was pleased to give testimony to the uprightness and integrity of their hearts; and to bless their endeavours with such success, as answered in some measure the primitive work of planting and propagating the Gospel. The small sallies of our author upon them in some legends about what Luther should say or do, deserve not the least notice from men, who will seriously contemplate the hand, power, and wisdom of God in the work accomplished by them.
The next thing undertaken by our Author, is the ingress of Protestancy into England, and its progress there. The old story of the love of King Henry the Eighth to Ann Bullen, with the divorce of Queen Katharine, told over and over long ago by men of the same principle and design with himself, is that which he chooseth to flourish withall. I shall say no more to the story, but that English-men were not wont to believe the whispers of an unknown Fryer, or two, before the open redoubled Protestation of one of the most famous Kings that ever swaid the Scepter of this Land, before the union of the Crowns of England and Scotland. These men, whatever they pretend, shew what reverence they have to our present Soveraign by their unworthy defamation of his Royal Predecessors. But let men suppose the worst they please of that great Heroick Person: What are his miscarriages to Protestant Religion; for neither was he the Head, Leader, or Author of that Religion; nor did he ever receive it, profess it, or embrace it; but, caused men to be burned to death, for its profession. Should [illegible], by way of Retaliation, return to our Author, the lives and practices; of some, of many, not of the great, or leading men of his Church, but of the Popes themselves, the Head, sum, and, in a manner, whole of their Religion, at least so farre that without him they will not acknowledge any, he knows well enough what double measure, shaken together, pressed down, and running over, may be returned to him. A work this would be, I confess, no way pleasing to my self, for who can delight in raking into such a sink of filth, as the lives of many of them have been; yet because he seems to talk with a confidence of willingness to revive the memory of such ulcers of Christianity, if he proceed in the course he has begun, it will be necessary to mind him of not boxing up his eyes when he looks towards his own home. That Poysonings, Adulteries, Incests, Conjurations, Perjuries, Atheism, have been no strangers to that See; if he knows not, he shall be acquainted from stories, that he has no color to except against. For the present, I shall only mind him, and his friends, of the Comaedian's advice; Dehinc ut quiescunt, porro m[illegible]neo, & desinant Maledicere, malefactae ne noscant su[illegible].
The declaration made in the days of that King, that he was Head of the Church of England, intended no more, but that there was no other person in the world, from whom any jurisdiction to be exercised in this Church over his Subjects might be derived, the Supreme Authority for all exterior government being vested in him alone. That this should be so, the Word of God, the nature of the Kingly Office, and the ant[illegible]ent Laws of this Realm, do require. And I challenge our Author to produce any one testimony of Scripture, or any one word out of any general Council, or any one Catholick Father or Writer, to give the least countenance to his assertion of two heads of the Church in his sense; an head of influence, which is Jesus himself; and an head of government, which is the Pope, in whom all the sacred hierarchy ends. This taking of one half of Christ's rule, and headship out of his hand, and giving it to the Pope, will not be salved, by that expression thrust in by the way, under him; for the headship of influence is distinctly ascribed to Christ; and that of government to the Pope; which evidently asserts, that he is not in the same manner, head to his Church in both these senses, but He in one, and the Pope in another.
But whatever was the cause, or occasion of the dissention between King Henry and the Pope, it's certain, Protestancy came into England, by the same way and means, that Christianity came into the World; the painful, pious Professors, and Teachers of it, sealed its truth with their bloud; and what more honourable entrance it could make, I neither know, nor can it be declared. Nor did England receive this Doctrine from others; in the days of King Henry, it did but revive that light which sprung up among us long before, and by the fury of the Pope, and his adherents, had been a while suppressed. And it was with the blood of English-men, dying patiently and gloriously in the flames, that the truth was sealed in the dayes of that King, who lived and dyed himself, as was said, in the profession of the Roman faith. The truth flourished yet more in the dayes of his pious and hopefull Son. Some stop, our Author tels us, was put to it in the dayes of Queen Mary. But, what stop? of what kind? of no other than that put to Christianity by Trajan, Dioclesian, Julian; a stop by fire and sword, and all exquisite cruelties, which was broken through, by the constant death, and invincible patience and prayers, of Bishops, Ministers, and People numberless; a stop, that Rome has cause to blush in the remembrance of, and all Protestants to rejoyce, having their faith tryed in the fire, and coming forth more pretious than Gold. Nor did Queen Elizabeth, as is falsly pretended, indeavour to continue that stop, but cordially, from the beginning of her Reign, embraced that faith, wherein she had before been instructed. And in the maintenance of it, did God preserve her from all the Plots, Conspiracies, and Rebellions of the Papists; Curses, and Depositions, of the Popes; with Invasions of her Kingdomes by his instigation, as also her renowned Successor, with his whole Regal posterity from their contrivance for their Martyrdom and ruin. During the Reign of those Royal and Magnificent Princes, had the Power and Polity of the Papal world, been able to accomplish what the men of this innocent and quiet Religion, professedly designed, they had not had the advantage of the late miscarriages, of some professing the Protestant Religion, in reference to our late King of glorious Memory, to triumph in; though they had obtained that which would have been very desirable to them, and which we have but sorry evidence that they do not yet aim at, and hope for. As for what he declares in the end of his 10th Paragraph, about the Reformation here, that it followed, wholly, neither Luther, nor Calvin, which he intermixes with many unseemly taunts, and reflexions on our Laws, Government, and Governours, is, as far as it is true, the glory of it. It was not Luther, nor Calvin, but the Word of God, and the practise of the primitive Church, that England proposed for her rule and pattern in her Reformation; and, where any of the Reformers forsook them, she counted it her duty, without reflexions on them, or their wayes, to walk in that safe one, she had chosen out for her self.
Nor shall I insist on his next paragraph, destined to the advancement of his interest, by a proclamation of the late tumults, seditions, and rebellions in these nations, which he ascribes to the Puritans. He has got an advantage, and it is not equal we should persuade him to forego it; only I desire prudent men to consider, what the importance of it is, as to this case in hand; for, as to other considerations of the same things, they fall not within the compass of our present discourse. It's not of professions, but of persons that he treats. The crimes he insists on, attend not any avowed principles, but the men that have professed them. And if a rule of choosing or leaving religion, may from there be gathered, I know not any in the world, that any can embrace, much less can they rest in none at all. Professors of all religions, have in their seasons sinfully miscarried themselves, and troubled the world with their lusts, and those, who have professed none, most of all. And of all, that is called religion, that of the Romanists might by this rule be first cashiered. The abominable bestial lives of very many of their chief guides, in whom they believe; the tumults, seditions, wars, rebellions, they have raised in the world; the treasons, murders, conspiracies, they have countenanced, encouraged, and commended, would take up not a single paragraph of a little treatise, but innumerable volumes, should they be but briefly reported; they do so already; and which renders them abominable, while there is any in the world, that see reason not to submit themselves to the papal sovereignty, their professed principles lead them to the same courses; and when men are brought to all the bestial subjection aimed at; yet pretences will not be wanting to set on foot such practices, they were not in former days, when they had obtained an uncontrollable omnipotency. If our author supposes this a rational way for the handling of differences in religion, that leaving the consideration of the doctrines and principles, we should insist on the vices and crimes of those who have professed them, I can assure him he must expect the least advantage by it to his party, of any in the world; nor need we choose any other scene than England, to try out our contests by this rule. I hope, when he writes next, he will have better considered this matter, and not flatter himself, that the crimes of any Protestants, do enable him to conclude as he does, that the only way for peace, is an extermination of Protestancy, and so his tale about religion is ended; he next brings himself on the stage.
