places of resort: as if their course of life, far from being disgraceful, was praiseworthy and meritorious.* But enough on this head. Their profligate lives are thoroughly known to the whole world. St. Bernard† thus freely and unreservedly censures not only the Pope's family, but the Pope himself;" Your Palace receiveth good men, but maketh none; the wicked thrive there, the virtuous are neglected." And the author who wrote the Tripartite work annexed to the Lateran Council says; "It is shocking to relate to how great an extent luxury prevails, not only amongst the inferior Clergy and Priests, but also with the Prelates and Bishops. These proceedings moreover are not only common with them, and for that reason (like all their other crimes) approved by custom and long practice, but are now waxed old, and ripe for judgment. For who has not heard what a heinous crime + Peter Aloisius, the Son of Pope Paul the Third, committed against Cosmus Cherius Bishop of Fano? In what disgusting,. * In concilio delectorum Cardinalium, tom. iii.. Johan. Sleidanus, lib. xix. though eloquent language John Casa, Archbishop of Beneventum, the Pope's Legate at Venice, wrote in commendation of crimes the most loathsome and detestable. Who knows not that* Alphonso Diazius, a Spaniard, was dispatched from Rome into Germany to assassinate that most innocent and holy man, John Diazius, his own brother, merely because he had embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and refused to return to Rome? and this dreadful crime the remorseless ruffian absolutely perpetrated!!! They may perhaps answer, that circumstances of this nature will sometimes occur in the best constituted governments, and that salutary laws are enacted against them. We are willing to allow this; but then let us ask, by what laws, by what penalties, have these wretches been condemned? Peter Aloisius, after the nefarious attempt above alluded to, was sheltered in the bosom of his Father, Paul the third, with the most parental tenderness. Diazius was shielded from the vengeance of these salutary laws by the interposition of the Pope; ་ * Johan Sleidanus, lib. xvii. This occurrence took place in the year 1546. even after he had murdered his own Brother. John Casa, Archbishop of Beneventum,* still lives, nay more, resides at Rome, and dwells in his Palace and under the immediate eye of his Holiness. They have slain infinite numbers of our brethren solely because they believed the true and uncorrupted precepts of Jesus Christ. But of that nest of harlots, adulterers, and whoremongers, who, (I will not say has been punished with death, but who) has suffered excommunication, or even penance? Are these fornications, adulteries, lewdnesses, parricides, incest, and all other deadly sins countenanced in Rome? If not, why are they tolerated in a City professedly the Bulwark of Righteousness; and by the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, the Successor of St. Peter: That most Holy Father?† Oh holy Scribes and Pharisees, to whom this Sanctity was unknown! Oh Holiness, and Catho * A. D. 1561. Andreas Alciatus, in his Epistle prefixed to the Life of Paulus Jovius, enters fully into this subject, as does Jovius himself, in his Life of Clement VII. both of whom bare ample testimony to the justice of the Sarcasms levelled throughout this Chapter, at the vices which disgraced the See of Rome. lic Faith! St. Peter taught not these doctrines at Rome: such was not the course of life pursued by St. Paul: they indulged not in these vile practices: the Wages of the Harlot were no source of Revenue to them. They did not suffer adulterers and parricides to escape unpunished; but rejected all intercourse with, and excommunicated them from the Congregation of true Christians. Our adversaries therefore ought not to have cast such violent reflections on our lives. They would have acted more wisely, had they first cleared themselves in the eyes of the world, or at least have been rather more circumspect in their own conduct. We, for our parts, are still regulated by those old laws which were held in such reverence by our ancestors, and, as far as the corruption of the times will allow, adhere strictly to the discipline of the Church. We have no common brothels, no public receptacle for the resort of Harlots and profligates; we prefer not Adultery to Marriage; we are no panders who enrich ourselves with the wages of Iniquity; nor do we suffer incestuous and abandoned wretches, the Aloisii, the Casas, the fratricidal Diazios, to escape the punishment G due to their guilt: for if these proceedings had met our approbation, we need not have encountered hatred, persecution, and even death, by withdrawing ourselves from all communion with those, who not only countenanced, but absolutely patronized such enormities. It is not many months since Paul the IV. committed to prison some Monks of the Augustine order, many Bishops, and a great number of other pious men, on account of their Religion. He subjected them to the torture, exposed them on the Rack, and left nothing untried to extort a confession: and after all, how many profligates, how many adulterers, how many fornicators, how many persons of abandoned character did he discover amongst them?-Thanks be to our gracious God, though we are not as perfect as we ought and profess to be, yet, whatever our errors, when compared with our traducers, the whole tenor of our lives and innocence of our habits will easily refute their Slanders: for we exhort the people to all Virtue and Godliness of life, not only by the distribution of Books, and the preaching of the Word of God, but by our own behaviour and * A. D. 1560. |