In the infant Church a grave question about lawful ceremonies,
which troubled the minds of believers, was solved by the
gathering of a Council of Apostles and elders. The Children
believed their parents, the sheep their shepherds, commanding in
their words, _It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us_
(Acts xv). There followed for the extirpation of various heresies
in various several ages, four Oecumenical Councils of the
ancients, the doctrine whereof was so well established that a
thousand years ago (see St. Gregory the Great's Epistles, lib. i.
cap. 24) singular honour was paid to it as to an utterance of
God. I will travel no further abroad. Even in our home, in
Parliament (ann. 1 Elisabeth), the same Councils keep their
former right and their dignity inviolate. These I will cite, and
I will call thee, England, my sweet country, to witness. If, as
thou professest, thou wilt reverence these four Councils, thou
shalt give chief honour to the Bishop of the first See, that is
to Peter: thou shalt recognise on the altar the unbloody
sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ: thou shalt beseech the
blessed martyrs and all the saints to intercede with Christ on
thy behalf: thou shalt restrain womanish apostates from unnatural
vice and public incest: thou shalt do many things that thou art
undoing, and wish undone much that thou art doing. Furthermore, I
promise and undertake to show, when opportunity offers, that the
Synods of other ages, and notably the Synod of Trent, have been
of the same authority and credence as the first. Armed therefore
with the strong and choice support of all the Councils, why
should I not enter into this arena with calmness and presence of
mind, watchful to keep an eye on my adversary and see on what
point he will show himself? I will produce testimonies most
evident that he cannot wrest aside. Possibly he will take to
scolding, and endeavour to talk against time, but he will not
elude the eyes and ears of men who will watch him hard, as you
will do, if you are the men I take you for. But if there shall be
any one found so stark mad as to set his single self up as a
match for the senators of the world, men whose greatness,
holiness, learning and antiquity is beyond all exception, I shall
be glad to look upon that face of impudence; and when I have
shown it to you, I will leave the rest to your own thoughts.
Meanwhile I will say thus much: The man who refuses consideration
and weight to a Plenary Council, brought to a conclusion in due
and orderly fashion, seems to me witless, brainless, a dullard in
theology, and a fool in politics. If ever the Spirit of God has
shone upon the Church, then surely is the time for the sending of
divine aid, when the most manifest religiousness, ripeness of
judgment, science, wisdom, dignity of all the Churches on earth
have flocked together in one city, and with employment of all
means, divine and human, for the investigation of truth, implore
the promised Spirit that they may make wholesome and prudent
decrees. Let there now leap to the front some mannikin master of
an heretical faction, let him arch his eyebrows, turn up his
nose, rub his forehead, and scurrilously take upon himself to
judge his judges, what sport, what ridicule will he excite! There
was found a Luther to say that he preferred to Councils the
opinions of two godly and learned men (say his own and Philip
Melanchthon's) when they agreed in the name of Christ. Oh what
quackery! There was found a Kemnitz to try the Council of Trent
by the standard of his own rude and giddy humour. What gained he
thereby? Infamy. While he, unless he takes care, shall be buried
with Arius, the Synod of Trent, the older it grows, shall
flourish the more, day by day, and year by year. Good God! what
variety of nations, what a choice assembly of Bishops of the
whole world, what a splendid representation of Kings and
Commonwealths, what a quintessence of theologians, what sanctity,
what tears, what fears, what flowers of Universities, what
tongues, what subtlety, what labour, what infinite reading, what
wealth of virtues and of studies filled that august sanctuary! I
have myself heard Bishops, eminent and prudent men,--and among
them Antony, Archbishop of Prague, by whom I was made
Priest,--exulting that they had attended such a school for some
years; so that, much as they owed to Kaiser Ferdinand, they
considered that he had shown them no more royal and abundant
bounty than this of sending them to sit in that Academy of Trent
as Legates from Bohemia. The Kaiser understood this, and on their
return he welcomed them with the words, "We have kept you at a
good school." Invited as our adversaries have been under a safe
conduct, why have they not hastened thither, publicly to refute
those against whom they go on quacking like frogs from their
holes? "They broke their promise to Huss and Jerome," is their
reply. Who broke it? "The Fathers of the Council of Constance."
It is false; they never gave any promise. But anyhow, not even
Huss would have been punished had not the perfidious and
pestilent fellow been brought back from that flight which the
Emperor Sigusmund had forbidden him under pain of death; had he
not violated the conditions which he had agreed to in writing
with the Kaiser and thereby nullified all the value of that
safe-conduct. Huss's hasty wickedness played him false. For,
having instigated deeds of savage violence in his native Bohemia,
and being bidden thereupon to present himself at Constance, he
despised the prerogative of the Council, and sought his
safe-conduct of the Kaiser. Caesar signed it; the Christian
world, greater than Caesar, cancelled the signature. The
heresiarch refused to return to a sound mind, and so perished. As
for Jerome of Prague, he came to Constance protected by no one;
he was detected and arraigned; he spoke in his own behalf, was
treated very kindly, went free whither he would; he was healed,
abjured his heresy, relapsed, and was burnt. Why do they so often
drag out one case in a thousand? Let them read their own annals.
Martin Luther himself, that abomination of God and men, was put
in court at Augsburg before Cardinal Cajetan: there did he not
belch out all he could, and then depart in safety, fortified with
a letter of Maximilian? Likewise, when he was summoned to Worms,
and had against him the Kaiser and most of the Princes of the
Empire, was he not safe under the protection of the Kaiser's
word? Lastly, at the Diet of Augsburg, in presence of Charles V.,
an enemy of heretics, flushed with victory, master of the
situation, did not the heads of the Lutherans and Zwinglians,
under truce, present their Confessions, so frequently re-edited,
and depart in peace? Not otherwise had the letter from Trent
provided most ample safe-guards for the adversary; he would not
take advantage of them. The fact is, he airs his condition in
corners, where he expects to figure as a sage by coming out with
three words of Greek: he shrinks from the light, which should
place him in the number of men of letters [_lilleratorum_
{transcribers note: the Latin is interpolated into the
translation here}] and call him to sit in honourable place. Let
them obtain for English Catholics such a written promise of
impunity, if they love the salvation of souls. We will not raise
the instance of Huss: relying on the Sovereign's word, we will
fly to Court. But, to return to the point whence I digressed, the
General Councils are mine, the first, the last, and those
between. With them I will fight. Let the adversary look for a
javelin hurled with force, which he will never be able to pluck
out. Let Satan be overthrown in him, and Christ live.