CHAP. VIII. The Church of Rome hath discontinued
CHAP. VIII. The Church of Rome hath discontinued.
A rgum. 6. The true Catholic Church hath never ceased or discontinued, since the founding of it to this day. The Church of Rome hath ceased or discontinued: therefore the Church of Rome is not the true Catholic Church.
I prove the Minor (for the Major they will grant.) If the Head which is an Essential part, hath discontinued, then the Church of Rome hath discontinued. But the Head hath discontinued: therefore, &c.
The Minor only needs proof: and that I prove 1. There have been many years interregnum or vacancy, when there was no Pope at all. And where then was the Church when it had no Head?
2. There have been long successions of such as you confess yourselves, were not Apostolical, but Apostatical. 3. Your own Popes and Councils command us to take such for no Popes. For example, Pope Nicolas in his
Decretals (see Caranza p. 393.) saith [He that by money or the favor of men, or popular or military tumults is intruded into the Apostolical seat without the Concordant and Canonical election of the Cardinal and the
following religious Clergy, let him not be taken for a Pope, nor Apostolical, but for Apostatical.] And even of Priests, he commandeth, [Let no man hear
Mass of a Priest whom he certainly knoweth to have a Concubine or woman introduced] Caranza, p. 395, and ibid. he saith, [Priests that commit fornication, cannot have the honor of Priesthood.]
4. But our greater Argument is from the authority of God, and the very nature of the office. An infidel, or notoriously ungodly man, is not capable of being a Pastor of the Church (in sensu composito, while he is such) But the Popes of Rome have been Infidels, and notoriously ungodly men: therefore they were uncapable of being Pastors of the Church (and consequently that Church was Headless, and so no Church.) The Major I prove. 1. Where there is not the necessary matter and disposition of the matter, there can be no reception of the form: But Infidels and notoriously ungodly men, are not matter sufficiently disposed to receive the form of Pastoral Power: therefore they cannot receive it.
The Minor is proved 1. As every true Church is a Christian Church (it being only a Congregation of Christians that we so call, in our present case) so every Pastor is a Christian Pastor: but an Infidel or notoriously ungodly man is not a Christian Pastor: therefore not a true Pastor. 2. Otherwise a Mahometan, Jew, or Heathen may be a true Pope; which I think they will deny themselves. 3. If any Disposition or Qualification at all be necessary to the being of the Pastoral Office (besides manhood) then is it necessary, that he own God the Father, and the Redeemer (that is, be not notoriously an Infidel, or ungodly.) But some qualification is necessary: therefore, &c.
None can be named more necessary than this.
And that Popes have been such as I here mention, is proved before. Not to mention Marcellinus that sacrificed to an Idol, or Liberius that subscribed to
the Arian profession; (for I believe there is a hundred times more hope of their Salvation by Repentance, then of a hundred of their Successors) John the twenty second held that the soul dies with the body, of which the Parisians and others condemned him. John the twenty third, as I shown before, denied the life to come, and so was an Infidel. The Witchcraft,
Poisonings, Simony, Sodomy, Adulteries, Incest, &c. of others, are sufficiently recorded by their own Historians.