A DISCOURSES HAPPENED. BETWEEN AN HERMIT called Nicephorus & a young lover called Tristan, who for that his Mistress Petronilla entered into Religion would fain become an Hermit. All faithfully drawn out of the History of Petronilla, composed in French by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN PETER CAMUS Bishop of Belie. And Translated into English by P. S. P. Printed with Permission. 1630. Academioe Gantabrigiensis Liber TO THE CATHOLICS of Irland. RENOWNED Catholics the Histoire of Petronilla Coming to my hands, composed by the Right Reverend Father in God john Peter Camus Bishop of Belie a man of Known learning, eminent He wrote many books. piety & of an Apostolical life, the fancy took me to employ some time in the reading of it, not doubting but coming from so famous an Author, I should find some thing in it worth my labour. Going then forward in the reading thereof, amongst many other good things, I lighted upon this Treatise, which when I considered, I said thus to myself: it might be thought, that this man had revelation, or some notice given him of the emulation & variance which is between the hierarchical Clergy and the Regulars in Irland, & that in consequens thereof he framed this Discourse. For it is said, that the Regulars there, thinking thereby to magnify and extol themselves (for I know no other reason they can have for it) make no conscience nor scruple both in their public sermons, and in their private conversations amongst you, to say and affirm, that Priests are but mere Seculars, that themselues are true Pastors, that it belongs to them only to be called Fathers, that they are the choice and best part of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, & which is more absurd, that their Regular Superiors are more worthy than Bishops. All which assertions manifestly false, and ill becoming men whose institution is chiefly grounded in humility and contempt of worldly honour and respects, being touched and discussed in this Treatise, I thought in my love and natural affection towards you, my dear Country men, that I was in a manner bound, fearing these things should give you some erroneous impressions, to impart it unto you. Whereupon I took the pains to translate it out of French into English & to have it printed. And if I shall understand that it takes effect, & cause the Delinquents reflect upon their error, herein & upon that saying of S. james the Apostle: If any man think himself to be Religious jac. 5. v. 26 not bridling his tongue, but seducing his hart, this man's Religion is vain, then will I think my labour well employed. And that which is most to be desired of them is, that they do consider first, that such assertions and comparisons do more hurt then good, do rather destroy then edify, rather pervert than convert the people from their evil courses, & rather breed hate & envy, than love or charity: and secondly that they consider, that Priesthood, which is the fontaine and foundation of all Ecclesiasticàll functions, is the same in Secular Priests (as they term them) and in Regulars, whence Priests may justly say to the Regulars with saint Paul, that if they be Hebrews so are they, if they be 2. Cor. 11. v. 22. Israëlites so are they, if they be the seed of Abraham so are they, if they be Ministers of CHRIST so are they; yea more, that they are their elders and have higher offices and dignities in the Church than they have. And for you worthy champions I shall desire you not to be scandalised to see one Catholic writ against an other, believing that Catholics as Catholics do agree in matters of Faith, but as men that they may in other opinions. S. Peter and S. Paul, S. Austin Gal. 3. Act. 15. Hieron. ep. 86. Aug. ep. 8 & sequ. Eus. lib. 5. cap. 24. & 25 Bedal. 3. Histor. Angl. cap. 24. & 25. lib. 5. c. 16. Dan. 20. and S. Hierome disagreed in some opinions without breach of faith or charity. About the observation of Easter there was great debate betwixt Saints & Saints till the Church decided the controversy; yea Angels have dissented in opinions. But this you may note in this controversy, that learned Doctors in these Countries, and some of them Religious men, with whom I did confer of the same, do much admeere that the Regulars in Irland do contest with the Clergy for the said points, whereas in no Catholic Countries do the Regulars speak of the like, but contain themselves within the precinct of their Monasteries, and the observance of their Rules, which teach the quit contrary of all that they do in this kind And if they will allege that having no Monasteries in Irland they must go up & down amongst you, like other Priests, me thinks they should the less claim any perfection or respect over other Priests, and my warrant for this is S. Hierome, who speaking of such Monks and Religious men saith: Sicut piscis extra aquam caret vita sic Monachus extra Monasterium. As fish being out of the water doth want life, so doth a Monk or Religious man being out of his Monastery. For the life of a Religious man, as such, is to observe his Rules, and keep his vows, which he cannot do so well, if he do it at all, being cóuersant in the world, & not doing it, what prerogative can he claim over others? To conclude if the Regulars be true Pastors as is above said, how can they excuse themselves that they take no more care of their flock then some odd times like passengers to preach unto them, God knows with little fruit? Who will not say but the good Priest is more like to be the true Pastor: Who giveth his life for his sheep, serving them, not by starts but all the year long, by day and by night, in heat and in cold, in rain and in tempest, with much misery & little profit? Lastly who can believe that the Regulars are true or proper Pastors whenas they cannot take any such charge upon them if first they be not dispensed with all in their vows. Add that in Catholic Countries, where all Clergy men get their due, they cannot preach nor Minister any Sacrament out of their own Conuents without the express leave of the Bishop of the Diocese, and of the Pastor of the place, conformable to the Council Sess. 24. of Trent? Howsoever they will answer to all these things, I make no doubt but after their accustomed manner, some of them will say (for I Know that many good men amongst them do not approve such things) that he is no friend of Religious men that doth propound them. But God is my witness, I do honour & respect all Religious men, and wish all others to do the same, as long as they contain themselves within the limits of their Rules, & that they do not prefer the honour of their order, as many seem to do, to the honour and service of God, to whose divine protection I commit you, and pray him, to give us all the Spirit of union and charity, & so rest Your devoted servant in CHRIST JESUS P. S. P. A DISCOURSES HAPPENED. Between an Hermit called Nicephorus and a young lover called Tristan, who for that his Mistress Petronilla entered into Religion would fain become an Hermit. OMitting the history of all that past between Tristan and petronilla, and the tragical end which came of their love, I will only rehearse the discourse passed between Tristan & Nicephorus, containing many points much disputed of in these our days. Tristan a proper and well bred young gentleman much grieved that his mistress petronilla whom he pursued so long time (of displeasure that she could not obtain her parents consent to marry him) went into Religion, resolved also to retire himself from the world in some religious Monastery; but after communicating his resolution therein to several Religious men of diverse orders and getting their opinions thereof, at length he followed his own fancy & inclination, which was to go to the wilderness and lead an Heremitical life; and the Perinean mountains which separate France from spain being the nearest unto him, he went thither, taking with him a good purse of money and his lute, at which he was very skilful. But neither his lute nor his solitariness did any thing assuage his passion, or make him forget the creature which brought him to that anxiety of mind, but rather inflamed him more, especially the lute conformable to the old proverb, which saith, that music is an importunate gest to a hart afflicted. Being then in this perplexity he was told that not far from him there was a devote and well built Hermitage wherein dwelled a venerable Hermit whose sanctity of life gave a good odour to all the Country about, and who by long experience did learn how to guide himself to perfection by the way of solitariness in that wilderness. His good Angel made Tristan draw towards this sainctly old man, who received him with the same charity wherewith he was accustomed to receive and entertain other passing Pilgrims (for he was in pilgrims weed) who straying from their way in those dreadful deserts, fell sometimes upon the little path which lead to his cell. Tristan beholding him did take him for an Angel of God, and believed that he was the Raphaël which would conduct him to Rages, I would say, to the perfection of the contemplative life. Having then briefly declared his intent to the good Hermit, he gave him for answer, that to love a thing it is necessary to know it before, and that the Heremitical life as well as the Monastical doth require a good approbation of a man before he be admitted to it. Tristan having submitted himself to him in all things. My child, quoth father Nicephorus, for so they called this religious man, it is nothing for a man to undertake such a life if he be not called to it by God, & amongst many that are called, few are choosen. I know well that it doth not appertain but to God, to know perfectly and weigh justly the hearts of men, yet his will is that his servants do see and try whether they be of true or false coin: the touchstone of such as are called to the service of God is, the renunciation of all things, and of themselves also. Father, quoth Tristan, if that be the mark of the elect I have it; for I do freely quit the world, the subject which retained me in it being separated from me, & it will be easy likewise for me to forsake myself seeing I have relinquished an object of which I did esteem much more than of myself. My child, quoth Nicephorus, the wars seem sweet, according the proverb, to such as did not try it, do not triumph before the victory, and do not proclaim victory before the battle; none shall be crowned, saith the word of verity, that will not reasonably and valorouslie fight, and the battle which we have with ourself Self love engraven in our nature. love doth last as long as our very lives: for that error is so deeply engraven in our nature, as it doth subsist after we renounce ourselves; we may mortify it, but not make it die, contrary wise it seems like the fabulous Giant, to take new forces from it prostration and overthrow, and like great trees, the more they be shaked, the faster the fix their roots. It may be assaulted but rarely overcomed, & never rooted out: the walls of that rebellious Hiëricho, although they be undermined and sometimes razed to the ground, yet do they get up again of themselves. I do not say this to discourage you, nor to imitat those timorous spies, which would fain dissuade the children of Israël from undertaking the conquest of the land of promise; I know there be difficulties in it, but I tell you with josüe and Caleb, that you may boldly enter in the power of our lord, who, if he be for you, nothing can prevail against you, for who can resist the will of the highest power, of this Lord of armies, who is terrible over all powers, if he undertake to fight with you? But you must not hope that he will put himself of your side, if you do not put all your trust and confidence in him, by a perfect distrust of yourself, which may not consist with those lofty terms, which promise marvels, and carrying you upon the wings of the wind make you aspire to great matters, which surpass the reach of a man that is not yet a Novice. It is not, that I do lightly judge of your soul, which I believe is more perfect than my own, who serves God so negligently and love him so coldly, nor that I am ignorant but in the confusion of the Babylon of the world, God hath servants and secret disciples, which do not bow their knees to Baal, and that keep their hearts pure amongst the impurity of the world, of which number you may be; add that the extraordinary effects of grace do produce in an instant admirable conversions, which puts those that are replenished with it, in a state of great perfection, conformable to that which is written, that the works of God are perfect and without repentance, that is to say, without defect. Tristan, who believed that this discourse of the Hermit did tend to defer and put of his reception, esteeming (as he was full of worldly maxims) that the Hermit did fear that charging himself with him, his alms would be too short to furnish him a portion said, Father the time will make known whether I be touched with true or feigned charitle, & the trial will make manifest the force or the weakness of my vocation. but to the end that you may not think that I come hither to incommodat, or importune you, I will show unto you that it is rather to occommodat you, & to draw you from the pain of going here and there to search your living, which must bring much interruption to your contemplation, which require repose & silence, and may not be had but in the wilderness. Know then that being left an orphan without father and mother I was emancipated by public authority a little before the term of my majority & consequently put in the possession of my goods which are not so small but they are sufficient to nourish twenty Hermits as you are, & I believe that not making the vow of poverty in any Religious order, that I may keep them and dispose of them as God shall inspire me. We shall then live together & what reversion we shall have we will bestow it in alms, & in such other pious works as you shall think good, without troubling ourselves to beg for our maintenance. And to show that it is true, that I came not hither with empty hands, or unfurnished of things necessary to nourish and clothe myself, behold a scantlet of the matter. Then did he show the Hermit a great purse full of pistols, and also some precious stones more worth than gold, and yet did occupy less place. Good Nicephorus, who did not see while he kept in this wilderness such great quantity of this yealove mettle, whose lustre doth dazzle the eyes of many men in the world, did firmly believe in his mind that he was the Tentator, who under a humane shape came to divert him from the way of perfection, which is that of holy poverty, which he traced for many years within his little cave. Whereupon arming himself with the mark of our salvation and uttering the name of our Saviour with a low voice, seeing that Tristan did not vanish away, to clear himself of his doubt, he took him softly by the arm and said to him; If I had not known that spirits have neither flesh nor bones, as I do feel you to have, I would say that it is the Devil that came to solicit me to my ruin, offering me richesse, as he did to the son of God when he assaulted him in the wilderness. But I fear that not taking upon him the form of man he doth possess your hearr to produce in mine the same effect, & to slide into it the death of grace by the venom of avarice. I will then say unto you the same that the Apostle said to Simon Magus, away with your gold & silver from me, which I know are the I dolls of the world, to which they are like, that do adore them, and that put their confidence in them: that man is abondantly rich that is poor in JESUS CHRIST. I love my begging, by which I conquer heaven for myself (& make others to conquer it for them, making them to merit everlasting goods when they give me of their earthly goods) better then all your treasure: It is long since I have put of that shirt of earthly possession, and how should I put it on again? I have washed my feet & chased from my mind those gross affections, and how should I contaminat them of the new? I will never call back again what I have once quitted and renounced with a good will for the love of my Master; he hath nourished me so many years in these deserts, both with the dew of heaven, which is the Manna of his consolations, and with the fat of the earth, which is the daily bread of the necessity of the body, as I have all subject to bless his providence, & to confirm myself in this truth that such as seek for God and his kingdom can never want any thing. For my part, I will promise you no gold nor silver, but that only which God will send me by the hands of such as he shall inspire to do me charity, I will impart it to you. In the mean time I will tell you, that if you will do as jacob did, quit the house of the traitor Laban, which is the world, to enjoy the embracing of Lia and Rachel, to wit, Action and Contemplation, it is necessary that you bury those Idols at the foot of the Terebinthe of the cross, and that glorifying in nothing but in JESUS CHRIST crucified, you will imitat him in his nudity, gloriously ignominious, by depriving your self of the care of temporal richesses, according the Counsel, which he gave to that young gentleman, who was like to you, to quit all, that Matt. 19 v. 21. he might be perfect, not admitting him of his train if first he would not distribute to the poor all that he possessed. But my son quoth the good Hermitte, I fear you resemble too much this young man, & that like unto him you will retire yourself with a heavy heart, not being able to digest the bitterness of this drug, which make men forsake all the goods of the earth, that they may aspire to heavenly goods, and that you will not so easily dispossess yourself of them as jacob did put of the skins which covered his hands, & good joseph his cloak. That I may not lie unto you, quoth Tristan, I could never believe that for being an Hermit a man must have renounced the inheritance of his forefathers, but well I knew it to be necessary for to be admitted of those religious orders, in which is made the solemn Vow of poverty; a thing not only necessary, but also very easy in those great Commonalties whether they be rich The vow of poverty very easy in Commonalties. or begging Commonalties because the Religion doth oblige itself to entertain the Religious as they do consecreate themselves to the observance of the rules of the Religion. But an Hermitte that life's alone without support is oftentimes trusting to a bad dinner while he exspects Manna or larks to fall from heaven to him; as they did to the Israëlites; for God doth not show such favours to all nations nor work such miracles upon all occasions. Such as put their trust in God, quoth the Hermit, are not shaked no more than is Mount Zion: He that dwells in Jerusalem, which is in the protection of the God of heaven, & whose very gates he doth love, is no more moved when he is in want, then when he hath plenty of all things, being assured that the hand of God is not shortened, nor his power diminished. He that hath care of the crows little ones being abandonned by their Dames, and of the least sparrow; yea, of the least fly, will never abandon him that life's just before him all his life time. The sun will sooner fail to lighten the world, than his providence to shine upon such as he love's; he that spreads his beams and povers his rain equally upon the just and the unjust, that gives nourishment to all flesh, and that need do no more but open his hand to replenish all creatures with benediction. All that may be good, quoth Tristan, in the pulpit but the practice is quit otherwise. For my part, I would make no difficulty to renounce to the inheritance of my forefathers, nor to make a vow of poverty in a good Convent, which should be well rent, or being of a begging order, that should be situated in a good city, where they eat the sins of the people, where all men labour for you while you pray for all men, where they find the bread ready baked, the wine all pure, the meat ready dressed, where they have no care of any thing, nor think of tomorrow, practising, simply & in good earnest these words of the Scripture: Ask and thou shalt Matth. 7. vers. 7. have, seek and thou shalt find; But without, that, to renounce my own, it is a thing that all the eloquence of men and of the Angels may not persuade me to do, for I do see but too much every day how sottish and ridiculous it is, to be a poor priest. So it is without doubt according It is a glorious thing before God to be a poor priest. the world, said the Hermit, but before God it is a glorious thing, yea, before that great God, who makes but folly of the wisdom of the world, & of the folly of the cross wisdom, and who doth confound the fast and pomp of richesse by humble poverty, before him that came to evangelise the poor, who doth hear their prayers, who calls himself their father and tutor, who doth extol them in his judgement as much as they are vilipended and held abject in the judgements of worldlings. But those that are instructed in the school of the cross, which is folly to the Gentiles, and scandal to the jews, but the virtue and sapience of God to the faithful are of an other belief, they hold the poor to be very happy, according the sentence pronounced by the proper mouth of the son of God: but the children of the word do not understand that problem of strong Samson, because they do not glory but in the multitude of their richesses. I must for all that grant unto you, Monastical poverty very easy. that the poverty of Monastical persons hath this advantage of the poverty of Hermit's and secular priests (as they call them) that it is well shrouded from all pressing necessities within a well governed commonalty. You know I speak of begging orders, for to speak of Conuentuall friars which live by their revenues, they are not poor but in particular, in common they are rich, and they are poor enough in as much as they have no propriety of any thing; in this fashion than may they be said to be poor in the midst of their richesses, and rich in the midst of their poverty. But the others albeit they be poor not only in particular but also in common, yet their poverty is always supported, succoured and applauded, or at leastwise honoured and esteemed, in sort that their sufferances are regarded, and their wants glorious; they are rich in honour, yea, in the midst of their sufferances. In stead that a poor Hermit is despised by every body, his complaints are rejected, his wants unknown, his necessities do not appear to any but to God: He is all alone, he is forsaken, and abandoned, having no body to comfort him, nor to take compassion of his miseries, none to cast him into the pond wherein he might fish some relief. The same, I say of a priest that is in necessity, every body doth laugh at him, and in stead of succouring him they upbraid and flood him, they charge him with false reprochesse and calumnies, so that he may well say with the Psalmist: O lord the reprochesse of those that Disdain your dear Virtue of poverty, with which you have been borne, you lived and died, making yourself needy and poor to replenish us with the inestimable richesses and treasures of your merits; these reprochesse o Lord are fallen upon me, and confusion hath covered my face: I am Psal. 68 made a stranger to my own brothers; and a vagabond to the children of my own mother. Father, quoth Tristan, that is the thing which I find least supportable of the infinite evils, which accompany poverty: for honour of all the goods which doth environ us being most precious, I would sooner suffer that they should touch the ball of mine eye, then engage me in that point. And. I do grant unto you that I am not yet come to that point of mortification, that I may suffer and endure jests and contumelies no more than did the Prophet Eliseus, much more holy and more patiented than I am, that could not endure the little children to reproach unto him that he was bald, an imperfection very light and natural. and which as it should seem he should acknowledge, and mock the weakness of those little souls, rather than destroy them by the imprecation and curses wihich he fulminated against them. My son, quoth Nicephorus, you take this example by a bad bias, & handle the brone where it burns. The Prophet did not regard the outrage which those children did unto him, as an injury done to his own person, he was too humble to take it in that sort: but he did it to magnify his office, for he would be esteemed of men as the Minister of God, and the dispenser of his Mysteries; and because he carried the ambassade of God, and that an affront or disgrace done to an Ambassador doth hurt the honour of his Master, and return to the prejudice of his glory that sent him, according that which is written: He that hears you hears me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Luca 10. v. 16. me. For this reason the Prophet prayed God that he would chastise those insolent boys with exemplar punishment, to teach great men what the fire of God's choler would do being once kindled in dry wood, if it did consume the green wood with so great ardour; and what do you know but the corporal evil which he procured to them boys was cause of their spiritual good, and of the Salvation of their souls, making them to taste of death in an age more capable of innocence then of malice, and consequently more susceptible of God's grace then of his wrath? in stead that had they in an age more reepe filled up the measure of their sins, and gone forward in their vice, they might perchance acquire their damnation. In this sort did S. Paul deliver to Satan the body of that fornicator, who made the living temple of God the members of a lecher to save his soul from everlasting damnation. O my child how young thou art yet in the warfare of the cross, which in itself is no more dolorous than ignominious & shameful, yea, execrable, according that saying: Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. How far you stray from the standard of him who for us was Gal. 3. loaden with reprochesse, who did not turn his face from those that spett upon it, nor his cheeks from those that did buffet them, nor his chinne-from those that pulled of his beard; how far, I say, you go from him who was made a spectacle before his eternal father, before the Angels and before men, who was exposed to be a mocking stock to those that saw him nailed upon the cross, to be jested by them & to nod and shake their heads on him? How bad a disciple wouldst thou be to those great Apostles, those high montaignes whereon is laid the foundation of the city of God, who departed frolic and joyful from the great assemblies where they were flouted and contumeliously handled; for the publication of the sacred name and holy doctrine of JESUS CHRIST? Verily you must change your style and language, and also your thoughts and maxims, if you persevere in that holy desire of a religious life, especially that which regard the mortification of honour: for as I have already told you, the Conuentuall poverty is respected and reverenced, but our poverty is mocked and flouted. So I believe, quoth Tristan, that you Hermit's are not poor but of necessity; and not of free will, by reason of which your poverty may not have the glory of the voluntary which the Evangelicall poverty doth deserve. This is the cause why men put you not in the rank of regular but of secular beggars, who are reduced to necessity by the desaster of fortune, which if they support with patience, I believe they shall have honour befote God who sees their hearts, but not before men. And that I do not lie unto you, I would not esteem it an act of prudence of him that hath à patrimony and makes himself an Hermit, to renounce to that which he doth possess, to make himself afterwards by begging odious and importune to the common wealth, persuading myself that a man should drink of the water of his own cistern, and draw the last drop of it, before he would go to the well or fontaine of his neighbour, being that it is reasonable that every man live of the goods which God gave him, or at leastwise, that he eat his bread by the sweat of his brows. Dear sir, quoth the Hermit, the holy Apostle doth say, that being a little one he spoke according his age but coming to be more great, he had thoughts and discourses of a higher kind. I know well by your song that you are yet in a spiritual infancy, but when you shall be more advanced in it, you will change those humane maxims into Evangelicall axioms, which are of a higher note, and of a more excellent accent; if thou hadst been a Religious man thou wouldst learn to speak according the precepts of Religion, which consist in the practice of the Evangelicall counsels. That is good, quoth Tristan, for those Religious men which oblige themselves by vows, but not for you Hermit's, who do nothing but what you please, who live after your own fancy, and who are your own masters. I will reply unto you, quoth the Hermit, that which an ancient painture said to a great lord, who The saying of an ancient painteur. took upon himself within his shop to discourse of the art of painting, as many words as you speak are so many solecisms against my art, hold your peace or else my apprentices will mock your ignorance. It is true that your ignorance is pardonable, considering that being a soildiour (for Tristan had a sword at his side) you speak of Religious affairs, even as a Churchman would speak of matters of wars. But if thou wilt inrolle thyself in the holy and spiritual warfare of Religion you will discourse more netely and more correctly of these things. Father, quoth Tristan, I told you already that I desire much to be an Hermit, but not a Religious man. And I, quoth Nicephorus, do answer unto you, that that is as if you would say, I would fain be a reasonable creature but not a man, or otherwise, I would fain be a Monk and no Religious man; or thus, I would be a Religious man and no Monk, considering that a Monk & a Religious A Monk & a Religious man is the same thing. man is the same thing, as is a man and a reasonable creature. But many, saith Tristan, do not understand it so, for I have seen many Religious men which would take it for an injury, & for a kind of disgrace to be called Monks, and such as confess themselves to be Monks and are so named in their rules are glad to be called Religious men, so much this holy mame of Monk, so venerable The name Monk now out of request in ancient time is become disagreeable to the ears of this our age, and that without doubt, through the fault of those that did profane and dishonour it by their bad lives. You say true, quoth the Hermit, and this imaginary distinction hath been invented of late years, and that only in France, because of the heresy which defamed that holy name of Monk, as she did open her unpure mouth against the church, corrupting that which she knew, and blaspeming that which she knew not, or was ignorant of, and lancing out quips & tants (in which she puts all the force of her arguments) against the most sacred mysteries of our holy faith. And when I say that this distinction of a Monk and a Religious man is of a new impression, and came lately out of the brains of some which ground themselves upon imaginations distilled. I know not how, I do not say it of any contempt of their subtility, but to maintain the truth, of which I have for witnesses all those that are beyond the Alps & the Perinean montaignes, as the Italians and Spaniards, The word religious is not used in Spain nor in Iralie. among which the word Religious is not known, albeit those Countries do abound more with Monks, then doth our Country of France. The Italians do call Religious men 1. Monachi, or 1. Fratti, the Spaniards call then Los Monies, or los frails, which is as much to say, as the Monks or Friars of such an order. As for the name Father, which the vulgar sort do give to the Regulars, who are honoured with the Sacerdotal character, and with the dignity of priesthood, it was not attributed in the beginning of Monastical institution but to the Superiors of every Monastery, who as such, were called abbots, which is as much to say as father, and all the rest that were their children and subjects were called brothers. And to speak as I think, if those that are married folk have not the quality or title of Fathers and mothers but when they have issue, and that the heavens do favour, them with the benediction to have children; so this appellation of spiritual Fathers doth Pastors only are to be called Fathers. not seem to appertain but to Pastors only, be they Prelates or inferior priests, who have charge of souls, and watch over them, as being bound to render an account of them to God. who is the Prince of Pastors, the Bishop of our souls, and the grand Master of the vinuersall flock of the world. Which appellation of Father, if it be appropriated to simple priests, principally in the administration of the Sacraments, it is because that in the dispensation of the Divine mysteries they hold the place of the Pastors, who can not do all things by their own proper hands and in proper person; and to speak with the Canons, who do administer the Sacraments by the allowance and permission of the proper Pastor, leaving to our Doctors to decide who that is properly speaking, for there is a controversy of it, which should not be decided by a poor Hermit as I am. Nevertheless such as I am, in my youth, I made some voyages, and principally into Italy, and made some stay & seiour in the Court of Rome, following a great Cardinal, I say great in rank, as they are all, and greater in blood and sanctity, as they are not all. You know the eminency of the quality which those famous Signior have, and to which the sea Apostolic hath raised them: Yet when the Popes do draw them out of Cloisters, taking their lamps from under the bushel, and putting it upon the candlestick, to the end that the light of their merits do lighten all the house of God, which is the church, they never forsake the quality of brothers, or Friars, as the mark of their regularity, no more than they forsake the colour of the habit of the order wherein they made their profession. Their titles are most renowned lord and right reverend father in God, if he be a Bishop, brother such a one, Cardinal of the holy church of Rome, Bishop of such a place, or priest or Deacon of such a title. As for Bishops, when out of Religious Orders they are assumpted to Episcopal dignities, for a mark of their ancient regularity, from the observance of which they are exempted passing to an other obedience & discipline, they carry always the colour, and in some sort, the form of their habit, albeit they pass from the state of perfection to be acquired, to the state of perfection acquired, Bishops the successors of the Apost. as the successors of the Apostles, yet be it of humility, or of affection to their oder, to the title of Right Reverend father in God, they add that of brother or Friar such a Bishop, of such a church: in which is seen that they take the name Father as they are Pastors, and the name brother as they are Monks or Friars. Whence it may be concluded that the name Father doth not properly Of what should Friars be called fathers. belong to Friars or Monks as such, but to Pastors and Priests who have Chardg of souls. Add that the vulgar sort speaking of a Bishop that hath been a Religious man do say; that Bishop is a Friar or Monk, and those Prelates do not take it to scorn to be called Monks or Friars, as do in those parts some simple Conuentuall Friars, otherwise called Religious men. I confess unto you, quoth Tristan, that I have as little skill in those Monastical matters, as I have experience in that kind of life, which is sequestered from the world; Wherefore I went still with the common opinion, which as I perceive is a popular error. Yet cannot I well yield or assent to what you propose, when I consider that this word Monk doth signify a man who of devotion doth lead a solitary life, which Conuentuall friars do not, living in Community, and if I may so term it, in troops within their Convents, having all their exercises in common, & being almost still together, be it in the choir, or in the refectory, at their Chapter, or at their corporal labours, at their lessons and at their conferences, and also at their conversations with the neighbours, in sort that me thinks they have reason to call themselves Religious men, as it were men tied together by a society Reason why they may be called Religious men drawn out of the french word relié. of an uniform life, which makes, that albeit their companies consist of diverse members, they are nevertheless conducted by one & the same spirit and mind, which is the plaster and mortar by which they are tied and joined in God the one to the other, according to that which is written of the first Christians, that they had not amongst, them but one hart and one soul. And the most pressing knots which bind them together, besides the knot of charity, which bind the most perfect of them, and is the great tie of perfection, are the solemn vows, by which those that be professed do oblige themselves to the order in which they are incorporated, & the order in like manner doth oblige itself to such as it receiveth. And the are those vows, as far as I could learn of learned & devote Religious men, that put them Their solemn vows puts then in the state of perfection. in the state of perfection: in which are not the Anacorits who make not these vows; at leastwise solemn, but lead a private and particular life, without having any other society with their neighbours, but that which tie all Christians one to an other, as children of the same church. In the time of our Saviour, saith the Hermit, Martha murmured against Marie. I see well that you have learned all those things out of the mouth of some Conuentuall friar animated by a kind of zeal, which if it be not indiscrite and without science, at leastwise, it is sharp, and bitter against us poor Monks, the outcast and sweeping of the world, and who are nothing else but voices, which by their groans and sighs do make the Echoes of these deserts ring and sound. But blessed by God, who in this quality made us, at leastwise imitators and followers of that great forerunner of the Messiah declared to have been the greatest amongst the children of men by the proper mouth of the son of God, & placed us upon Mary's portion, which he said to be the best, notwithstanding the complaints and going about of Martha. There is Friars approve nothing but their own actions. nothing more injust than those kind of people which approve nothing but their own actions, and find nothing good but what they do themselves. Happy is he that can escape their censures. In the mean time there is no charity in these reprehensions, for that virtue is not jealous, and in those kind of people nothing is seen but emulation, not of the best grace, as the Apostle saith, but such as tend to certain particularities, which breed partialities and these partialities engendereth false imaginations of devotion, which hath but the bark and not the true pith of piety: for true piety is good for all things, and all these contentions are good for nothing. Charity doth no idle nor evil thing, and the effects which are engendered of those subtle questions, of those states of perfection, of these comparisons of lives, and of Comparisons of lives & orders are good for nothing. the diversities of rules and Orders, are good for nothing, but very hurtful some times to the reputation of many. Charity is not puff up with pride, nor ambition, but humble and respective of all men, never preferring herself to any. The hart which she doth possess is never puffed up with presumption, never lifts up it brows with scorn of any body, nor make it aspire to great things; albeit she be herself very perfect, yet doth she apprehend this great word of perfection. She never seeks her own proper interest nor profit, but that of JESUS CHRIST, & in him that of the neighbour. Notwithstanding it is a disease common enough within Cloisters, and I dare say, in a manner contagious (not to despise those of other orders; for that had been manifest folly) but so to esteem of the order wherein they are themselues enrolled, as if there were none but it worthy of consideration in the church of God. It is a Pharisaical speech to say, I am not like other men, especially like this Publican. I do not say but a Monk or Friar may, yea ought, as he is tied in body & habit to his Order, so ought he to have a particular inclination to it, & to love it with a love of preference, and singular preference: But this esteem should remain with in his own breast, without suffering it to pass out of his mouth, in sort that the account which he makes of it may not obfuscat the merits of other Regular companies. For even as all particular men, so all societies have received of God diverse graces and favours, some this way, & some that way, as they received so many liniaments of their visages, as do distinguiths them one from an other, and so many allurements to call them from the world that would give themselves to piety with more perfection. But, that they should think to exclude, either from the state of perfection, or from pretending to perfection (which is most desirable) such as do not make profession of that kind of Conuentuall and Monastical life, it would not be only to offend our faith, but also to swerve from the common opinion, and fall into absurdities which may not be admitted by any of judgement. For if the state of perfection by tied to certain observations without which men may not be perfect; or depend of an habit made after a certain fashion, and of vows, yea solemn, more than of the practice of those heroical virtues, which are counselled in the Gospel, who doth not see that it must be concluded that our Saviour himself, the pattern Our Saviour did not make the vows of Religion. of the mountain, and not the model only of perfection, but perfection itself, hath not been in this state, considering that we do not read that ever he made those vows in which they put the essence of the state of perfection? The same may be said of his holy mother, who by the imitation of her son having perfectly observed obedience, poverty and chastity, ought necessarily to be held very perfect, albeit we do not read in express terms, that by vows solemnly made, she promised to practise these Counsels. But if the church doth piously believe with S. Hierosme, that by these words, which she said to the Angel who saluted her, how shall that be which thou sayest, that I shall be a mother whenas, I know no man? She doth witness that she resolved in her heart to keep her integrity, and promised to God perpetual virginity; it is certain that this interpretation is not yet proposed to the faithful, as an article of faith, no more than is to this present her immaculate Conception, but well is proposed, that she was a Virgin before, during, & after her childbirth, and in some, that she remained always a Virgin until her death. It would follow also that the Apostles, Apostles and Patriaches did not make the vows of Religion. and if we please to ascend higher, the Patriaches and Prophets, and he that participated of the graces and qualities of the one and the other, S. john Baptist the greatest amongst the children of men, should not have been in the state of perfection, because we do not read that ever they made these vows in which they put the essence of the Regular life, albeit they had the practice of those virtues in an eminent & high degree. It would follow moreover that so many millions of Monks which peopled the deserts, and whose actions almost inimitable we cannot read without admiration, should not have been in this blessed state, being that they were many years before these two great lawmakers of regularity, S. Basile in the Orient, S. Basile, & S. Benet the first authors of Regular cemmonalties. and S. Benet in the Occident, who first established laws & rules, for the government of those whom the desire of perfecting themselves in the Monastical discipline made to live together in common. And then the vows of these two rules were but simple vows, dispensable according Solemn vows introduced but of late day as, the will of the Superiors, the solemn vows being not introduced in the church, but in those later ages, for a more sure bond and tie of Regular Orders. Even so did the Popes decide in our days in consideration of the regular Clarks of the society of JESUS, that simple vows are sufficient to put him that makes them in the state of perfection which regularity doth promise, to the end that the young Novices of this holy society, who make but the first vows should have the consolation to believe that they are in this honorall state. But to dive more deeply into the matter, if the vows which give precepts to such as observe the Evangelicall counsels put them in the state of perfection, how shall the Monks of S. Benet, S. Bernard and the The vows of Benedictins, bernardin's & Carthusians. Carthusians, which make but vows of stability, & of correcting their manners, without specifying the vows of chastity, poverty or obedience, be in this state of perfection? I know that the school Doctors do answer, that the promises of these three Counsels are implicitè, as they speak, contained in the two vows aforesaid. But if so be, that in a contract there is no more force, according the proverb, than such as men put in it, and that words are worth no more than as they sound, how shall the state of perfection be amongst the Benedictins, the Carthusians and the Bernardins? We may say, that properly speaking, that happy state is not descended from heaven but since the Conuentuall Friars are divided into more branches than ever Xerxes divided the river Gindes, & that as many as will not put themselves within their Ark shall remain in the Deluge of imperfection. I know well they will reply, that for calling themselues Regulars they do not hold that all other Christians are irregular, that for calling themselves brothers, they do not separat themselves from the Fraternity of Christianity, nor do not take from the laity that title which the In the primitive Church all Christians were called brothers. first Christians in the primitive Church gave to themselves, that for calling themselves Religious they do not hold other men to be irreligious & impious, that for being enrolled in particular Orders, they do not hold that other children of the Church do live in disorder; but that their vows putting them in a state which doth oblige them to tend to a higher perfection, then that of the common sort, they have reason to think that they are in the state of perfection. To which I answer, that the state of perfection is that, which approach nearest to the imitation of the son of God, of his most holy mother, & of the holy Apostles, and that this imitation consisting rather in the practice of the Evangelicall Counsels then in the vows of them, that such as are most advanced in those virtues are most perfect, & in a more perfect estate then those that only make vows of them, and not practise them. And if they will say that a vow doth oblige him that makes it, to embrace also the practice of it, & to run in that sort, as the Apostle saith, that he may arrive to the butt of perfection; I will reply that oftentimes it had been better not to have vowed, then after vowing to perform so ill their promise, as many do, for they may not mock God, but in the end they shall be punished for it: and the punishment which he takes is so much the more severe that it comes but slow. But they will say, that a vow added to the practice of the Counsels hath the same advantage that fair apparel, and precious stones have being added to an excellent beauty, which is never so excessive in it own nature but the art of garments doth always bring it more lustre; so a vow besides the grace which it gives to a man, gives him also a certain stableness & firmness, when he sees himself engaged by these holy bonds to the service of God, from which he may not withdraw himself without incurring, or as S. Paul saith, without acquiring his damnation. And I confess so much, that a vow is a most holy and Religious action, & that it is a strong motive, and a pressing sting to make a man run the race of perfection: but for a man to Many did practise the Evangelicall virtues as well without vows as with vows. deny also that many men did as perfectly practise these virtues without vows, it would be to draw upon his own back the examples, which we have already produced of our Saviour, of his holy mother, of the Apostles, patriarchs, Prophets, and of the first Christians, who were so perfect without that vow being before the foundation of Monachisme and Conuentuall life. Witness that ancient Monk, who having consumed many years to perfect himself in the exercise of the Evangelicall Counsels, had revelation that the Emperor Theodosius was equal to Theodosius perfect without vow. him in merit, albeit according the Rule of Regulars he was not in the state of their perfection: but he was a good Prince in the perfection of his own estate, and whosoever is so, according my simple judgement may be said to be in the state of perfection. And that which doth fortify me in this thought is, that I do not find that the Scripture doth attribute perfection but to the practice of poverty where it saith: If thou wilt Matt. 19 v. 21. be perfect, go, sell the things that thou hast, & give to the poor, and come, follow me. And S. Peter saying to our Saviour that he had executed the counsel which he gave to him and to his Condisciples, doth not speak of any vow, but of the effect of it by these words: Behold we have left all tbings, and have followed thee: what therefore shall we have? To whom for reward our Saviour did promise a hundred fold in this world, & everlasting glory in the other. I know well that a vow doth oblige a man to the practice of it, and also that it doth deprive a man of all propriety, leaving him nothing but the simple use of things necessary, according the saying of the Apostle: Having food, and wherewith to be 1. Tim. 6. covered, with these we are content. And also I grant that practice made in virtue of a vow, is like unto trees graffed, whose fruit are more sweet, & savorous, then that of other trees, but I know also, that as he that vow and effect it, shall be much rewarded, so he that doth not execute what he promiseth shall be doublie punished for having engaged himself in a combat which did not succeed with him, or to speak with the Apostle, for having broken his word. And he that follows the Counsels without obligation, if he be but simply rewarded, he is not at all punished when he fails, in sort that it is written: Let him take it that can, he that embraceth it doth well, & he that doth not, doth not ill, in which consisteth the difference between Counsels and precepts. And meditating with myself upon this subject, I did often admeere, how it happened that perfection was attributed in express terms to poverty, and not to chastity, nor to obedience, considering that these two last virtues seem to be so much the more excellent, by how much their subject and object doth excel that of poverty: for there is no doubt among men of judgement, but that corporal goods, which are the pleasures, to which men renounce by chastity, and the goods of the soul, to which men bid farewell by renouncing themselves and their proper wills, are of far greater esteemation and worth then are the goods of fortune, whereof men deprive themselves by poverty: for who will deny that the soul is more precious than meat, and the body more worth than it apparel without he contradict, not only the Scripture but also common sens? But if perfection consist in following our Saviour, doth not he say? He that will fallo w me let him renounce Luca 9 v. 23. himself, take up his cross and folo w me? And who is he that would not easier quit what he doth possess then himself? tooth for tooth, and eye for eye, saith job, will man give in counterchange of his soul, whose Sacrifice is made by obedience, obedience, which is better than all the Sacrifices of body and goods? That the practice of chastity is a most perfect thing, it is very evident by that which the wiseman saith: That there is no price which can equalla chaste Sap. 4. and continent soul. O what a fair & excellent thing is, a generation full of purity! And he that is more than Solomon, speaking of those voluntary Eunuches who gelded themselves that they might the easier aspire to heaven, doth not he say: That few Matth. 19 v. 11. doth understand, and fewer doth exercise this word, showing by the rarity of the practice the excellence of this virtue? In like manner, if I durst say so, it seemeth that the vow and exercise of poverty which is made out of a Commonalty (which otherwise A vow of poverty made out of a Commonalty what it. hath great merit, because of the obedience which double the goodness of the action by the force of her influence) is more complete, as she is more difficile and hard, then that which is made within a society, where the one carrieth the burden of the other, where they encourage & comfort one an other, and to speak with the Scripure, where the one doth heat the other in devotion, and secure his brother in his necessity by a mutual aid; in stead that a solitary Monk, who sells all that he hath, & distribute it in alms, & renounce all that he had, or might pretend in the world, to follow our Saviour in that nakedness, remaining with this prop without any other prop but the eternal providence, doth exercise more according the letter (I cannot tell what he doth according the Spirit) the Counsel of poverty after the manner that it is laid down in the Gospel, than the other, where it is said, that a man must quit all that he hath and follow the son of God in this absolute nudity, which hath no prop in earth, and makes a man cast all his thoughts on God. And who doth not see that he who renounceth his patrimony, and puts himself into a Monastery well rent, or to a Convent of begging friars, which probably hath her maintenance at the gate for demanding it; doth not often times pass from a little and poor secular family into a rich and well supported regular Monastery, where he is more assured that he shall want nothing that is necessary for his maintenance, then if he had remained in the world, where such as are most favoured by fortune, and that are most advanced in honours The state of favourites. and richesses are subject to overthrows, to great falls, and to strange desasters, and are like unto those false stars which fall and never get up again? In one word, it is very clear to such as have eyes, that as Conuentuall poverty hath a lustre and an advantage because of the vow of it, so is she also well rampared against the assaults of all misfortune, well refresched by the help of many assistances, though those many times may be more ceremonious than compassionate. True poverty is that which endure with patience True poverty what is it. the want of things necessary; and to desire to have the glory of this virtue without feeling the other points of necessity, it is to desire triumph and victory without combat, laurel and palm crownes without putting himself to any hazard. Every body knows that Ananias and Saphira for having ambitiously desired the honour to seem poor like other Christians, who did cast all their goods without reserving any thing, at the feet of the Apostles, were strucken with the anatheme of death by the Spirit of God passing out of the mouth of the Prince of the 〈◊〉. I know that the subtility 〈◊〉 hole divinity, where the virtues, are refined as within a cruset, hath found out a number of fair reasons to colour with a lively, and precious enamel the Conuentuall poverty, which, when all is said, doth consist in disappropriating a man of the possession of the goods whereof he retains the usage: but it happens often that these determinations so distilled, do ressemble those quintessens which turn into vapours as soon as they see the air. For in No man in this world hath but the use of things. fine who in this world can say that he is proprietaire of any thing, considering that life itself, without which all other goods, movable and immovable are unprofitable, is not given to us but in usufruict, and not in propriety? And to say that a man doth renounce to his life, but keeps only the use of it, is it not to say that he quits that which he keeps, seeing that life as well as richesse doth not consist but in usage? By this reckoning Princes 〈◊〉 lords who are inglutted in 〈◊〉 and wealth over head and shoulders should be without vow in the state of poverty, seeing that like unto the Conuentuall friars they have but the use of their treasures, & that they do not handle it but by the hands of their treasoriers, and such other officers; and the greatest kings of the earth what have they but their living in this world, and the use of the same sun and the same elements which the simplest Countryman doth participate equally with them? Yet for all that the regular Doctors do not grant unto them to be in the state of perfection, albeit that in the Scripture the sovereign powers of the earth are put in a state of sublimity. O how the first Monks proceeded after an other fashion, if not in vow, at leastwise in the practice of poverty, for after having sold & distributed to the poor their patrimony, they did cast themselves into the deserts, flying from the world as well in body as in hart and mind, and there afflicted, necessitous and miserable, to use Apostolic terms, they retired themselues into caves and holes within the earth, imitating our Saviour, who during his life had not a place to put in his head, having no house of his own, no Cloister, no cell, no Convent nor any other thing, which he might call his own, but the cross, which he carried upon his shoulders to Mont Caluaire. Alas! when shall that happy time come, in which the Monks, Anacorites and friars will resuscitat in themselves the Spirit of that great Apostle, which may induce them to gain their living by the labours of their hands, and to eat their bread with ashes, by the sweat of their brows, without molesting Monks & friars should rather work for their living then beg this man or that man, some times by begging of alms from door to door, some times importunately demanding fundations for their Monasteries, and some times taking dowries, as they do in Nunneries; & to speak in sacred terms, and therefore irreprehensible, making lucre of piety & busying the simpler sort to Titi 1. v. 12. draw profit to themselues & doing like the liver, which doth not become fat, but by the leanness of other members? I have not been a burden Act. 20. to any man, saith S. Paul glorifying 1. Cor. 4. himsef in God, but teaching, preaching and labouring, I have by 1. Thes. 2. the work of my hands provided what 1. Cor. 9 was needful for me. So did, so lived these ancient Anacoretes, who made basketts & other small works which they carried to the market to be sold, to nourrish themselves with the price of them, & to give the surplus to the poor. So did also the ancient Regulars, as may be easily seen in Ancient regulars lived by their labour. the Chronicles of the Orders, who lived in the service of God, and in the observance of their rules, tilling the earth, digging and labouring the vine-yards, gaining their daily wages during the harvest and the ventage, and bringing all to the commonalty, without reserving any thing to themselves in particular, under pain of excommunication, and to be buried, if they were found dying, possessors of any thing whatsoever, in the sepulchres of beasts▪ cutting the woods, drying up marish grounds, playing the joiners, and the carpenters, building of houses, keeping of cattle and doing all other Country husbandry: the weaker sort giving themselves to those arts which are less painful, as to play the tailors, the paintures, working, of wool, & coppying of books, before printing became so common. In this sort every one did contribut his pain without any other reward to himself, but the abondance which is promised in heaven. The millions of Monks which lived in Monasteries did infinite good to the neighbours about them, in steed of incommodating & oppressing them as now some do, they made themselves by their laborious industries the Fathers of the poor, being themselves poor in all respects. I do not intent by this to blame the revenues of the church (knowing that all extremities are vicious and incline to error) so they be moderate: for if moderation in all things is to be esteemed, in this kind it is not only praise worthy, but in some sort necessary, the experience of so many ages making us to see and feel that excess doth carry men to abuses and licentiousness, that I say no worse; and as S. Bernard saith, that if so be devotion doth engender richesses, these bad daughters when they become great doth suffocat & stifle their mother, and induce her to sin, as Loath that was so holy was induced by his own daughters. Much less do I intent to blame mendicitie or begging, considering that myself doth make profession of it, and knowing that it hath been devoutly permitted in the church, and that such as cried against the begging Orders of S. Francis and S. Dominick when they were newly instituted, were constrained to embrace the silence which was imposed to them by the sovereign Bishop the Pope. But it is to be wished, that this mendicitie should not be used but to supply the default of manuel labour, when Begging is to be used when men cannot get their living by their labour. after a diligent employ they should find themselves short of means to nourish the Commonalty: for in that case they might use the privilege of the law of nature, which permit every man to ask his living when he cannot labour for it. But to reduce that to a form or fashion, which is ordained by the rules of the Monastery touching corporal labour, towards the enclosures of gardens, which they till rather, for the health and pleasure of particular persons, then for the profit and utility of the house, and rather to have flowers to deck and adorn the altars then to have fruit to put upon the tables; is in my opinion to make a Sabath at the charges of the common wealth, whom it concerns that every body labour, and make use and profit of his talon, and industry, in manuring the vigneyard, that is to say, in following the vocation which fell to his lot, according the line of divine distribution. The Emperor Diocletian having put of The Emperor Diocletian did work the Empire, took great pains to trim and dress his little garden, passing sweetly his time in the innocent employ of tilling the ground, and after that fashion he saw himself as rich in his poverty, as before being in his Imperial dignity, he found himself poor in the midst of his richesses, having not always whereby to recompense worthily such as served him well, nor to pay his armies. It is not that in this occasion, I would justify myself, considering that I was conceived in iniquity, and that I am all rotten with vicious cicatrices, and much less would I prefer myself to those whose shoe latchets, I am not worthy to lose. But I may assure you, that I do not beg in these quarters but in as much as my infirmities do take from my arms the pover to travail, having seen myself sometimes of that force and vigour, that I had by my own industry the means, not only to entertain myself without charging any other, but also to entertain others that came to visit this cell. And if now necessity doth constrain me to have recours sometimes to the charity of those to whom, I gain heaven through the good which they do unto me, my age and my weakness doth plead my cause before their piety, & make them hearken to my petition. Here Tristan, as in a place which to him seemed very proper to offer his goods to Nicephorus, breaking the course of his long discourse; Father, saith he, the providence of God hath conducted me hither, and to speak otherwise, hath lead me by the hand of his will, to draw you out of all pain, and your old years from care and labour. I have by the grace of God abondantly to maintain you without suffocating your Spirit by bodily labour, and putting yourself to trouble to search your living. Sir, quoth the Hermit, if I had not known in your face your ingenuity, and the sincerity of your intention in the offer which you make unto me, I would make you the same answer which our Saviour made to S. Peter, who would fain dissuade him from going to suffer to Jerusalem whereof he heard him speak to Moses & Elias upon mont Thabor: Retire from me Satan. What? you are then come hither to tempt me to descend from the cross of holy poverty, in which I desire to die, in the nudity and nakedness of my Saviour. Ha! not so Sir, nothing shall separat me if I can from the charity of JESUS CHRIST, not death nor life, not hunger, not cold, not nudity, not poverty nor want, not men nor Angels, not the powers of the earth nor that of hell, not the time past, nor the time present, nor the time to come: For I am certain with the help of his grace to remain constant in my resolution, and never to relent in any one point of it: I mean to die poor with him that being rich made himself poor for our sakes, to the end to enrich us by his want. Labour taken for him is no labour, for he made the yoke of his cross so sweet and easy by the oil of his blood which is balm shed for us, that his burden is rather a solagement then a charge, resembling the feathers of birds which lift them up to the air in steed of weighing them down to the earth. There is no pain where there is love, or if there be any, it is but a dear and desirable pain; for to labour for that which a man loveth, of all delices it is the sweetest. And if you think that manuel labour doth dissipat the Spirits (that which some fellows said, unworthy members of a head all torn with thorns) contrariwise, I hold that it doth rather fortify it, witness the Apostle 2 Cor. 12. v. 10. saying, that his Spirit was then most vigorours' and strong when his body was overcomed and weakened by infirmities, or by voluntary mortifications; and I fear much that such as say that manuel labour might cause the dissipation of their Spirit do apprehended more the dissipation of their bodies, and as S. Paul saith, the dissipation of this machine & terrestrial habitation which invirone the soul. For even as the nobility which in peace time do reserve for themselues sloth & idleness, and in war time the exercise of arms. In like manner it seemeth that these fathers more contemplative than active do confine themselves to the singing of Psalms, as if it were a function very laborious to sing, or that it had been the harp of David to chase away the Devils of vice by her melody, which possess sinners, or that it had the force of the Sacerdotal trumpets, at whose sound did fall the walls of Hiericho, or of the hands of Moses which gave victory to the children of israel against Amalec. Certes, if by the effects we may judge of the vigour and force of the cause, we may well say of their Congregations that which the sacred Cantique doth say of the Sulamite, what will you see in her but Quires of combatants and squadrons of Choristers? It is there they take that sweet and pleasant sleep upon the breast of our Saviour, from which, no less than the Amant and lover of the same spouse would they be drawn or waked, until it please themselves to pass from the ease and contentment of this sacred contemplation to the action, & from the sweet attention of Marie to the tumultuous labours of Martha; in the mean time the little ones demand bread, & few do break it unto them; the neighbours do groan and wail, & few do secure them: many are wounded upon the way of Hiëricho and there are but few Samaritans that would solace joan. 4. v. 34. and comfort them. The Countries are white to harvest, and there are but few harvest-men: the vigneyard is desert and untilled, and there are but few venteners', much work and few workmen. The three principal functions of an Ecclesiastical person. Of the three principal functions of the Ecclesiastical state, which are to preach, to administer the Sacraments, and to pray, be it in particular mentally, or vocally; be it in public by singing of the public office, the greatest part of the friars took this last, which is the most speciouse and less profitable, for the lot of their inheritance, and for their employment saying with the Psalmist: I will sing your justices o lord, in this sejour of my pilgrimage. And in effect, when all shall be well counted, for three or four which announce to the people the word of God, which is the bread of life and understanding, for the administration of which the Apostles themselves did cease from distributing the sacred communion, which the holy text doth call to serve to the tables, there are fifty or three score in great Conuents deputed only for the Choir, and fifteen or twenty lay brothers tied to the domestical functions. But perchance they will say that they employ the Friars according the talents which they received from God, it being very reasonable that in the Church which is a terrestrial Paradis, the trees do bear fruit according their kind, & that men do work according their qualities, and that the talent of preaching or of helping souls, which require great science and prudence in discerning of Spirits, being given but to a few, there are many more that are capable of the Choir then of the chair. To which I answer that such as are proper for the Choir cannot be unproper for manuel labour, and that perchance the weal public would be as much content and solaged by their labour as by their singing. It is not that I call in doubt the excellency of prayer, and that I do not know that men may say of her what that ancient painteur said of his own work, that she labours for the eternity, and that she hath this advantage over mechanical things, that these being visible are consequently temporal as the Apostle saith, & that the other which is invisible, as that of prayer; is eternal. But if in this age men esteem more of sinsible than of spiritual things, none being in it which doth not prefer almesdeeds to prayer, & also to fasting; it may be said that manuel labour which doth necessarily nourish a poor man, as he is, that work of necessity, shall not be less estimable than prayer, and that the work of those hands whereof the great Apostle did glorify himself, shall not be less esteemed than was his ravishment to the third heaven, a favour which served him rather for recompense then for merit. Hence is it, that he doth name himself in the one and not in the other, as having some part in the one and none in the other, which arrived to him by a gratuity grace, such as revelation is, and the gift of Prophecy. By reason of which the Psalmist doth call happy, not those that are everieday in ecstasy, but those that maintain themselves by the sweat of their brows. Peradventure some will say that the particular office of Monks, according The particular office of a Monk. S. Hierome, is to weep & to pray, and that the functions to preach and to administer the Sacraments are not for them but in way of supererogation, that they might not fall into the reproach which is made in the Gospel to the priest and Levite, who did not secure him that was left for dead by the thiefs that thought to murder him in the high way. But seeing that the difference which men put between Monks & Religious men, is drawn from that, that Monks do not apply themselves, or ought not to apply themselves by their institution but to the solitary and pure contemplative life, and that the Religious do not apply themselves to prayer only, but also to contemplation, making as our Saviour and the Apostles did, a kind of life called a mixed life, of action and contemplation, by which, as by jacobs' ladder, some times they lift themselves up to God by prayer, sometimes they descend towards the neighbour by the works of mercy; a life which the scholastical divinity, grounded upon great reasons, esteemeth the most perfect; it should follow that such as call themselves Religious men, and that obtained of the sovereign Bishop so many exemptions and privileges, that they might exercise clerical or Ecclesiastical functions for the service of souls, should attend more to sow the sacred word, & to administer the Sacraments, then to the exercise of the Choir, which is more convenient for Monks then for them. And seeing that none doth enter their Orders, but by the choice and trial which they make of such as present themselves to them, they should not receive any but such as should have the talents necessary for the functions of the mixed life, which they say, as the most perfect, to be conformable to their institution, and to their state of perfection. In this manner the commonwealth should be more solaged by their labours then by their clamours; for to tell no lie, it seemeth, as said great S. Charles of his own time, that as the Church of this our age tormented by Libertins and Heretics, hath more need of good Pastors then of good Religious The church hath more need of good Pastors then of good Religious men. men, so hath she more need among Religious men of those that are people of action, then of singers & contemplatives, and of Champions then of Choristers: for albeit Marie choosed the best part for her, it is not for all that the best always for the neighbour, & albeit it is the most eminent part, yet is it not the most profitable. And if they should allege Moses' praying, and josüé with so many thousands Israëlites fight, the objection will carry it own answer with itself, seeing that for one that lift up his hands praying, thousands of others do exercise their hands against the enemies. Which is contrary with the Regulars, who for a hundred that sing in the Choir have not two that take pains to descend to the succour of the neighbour and of the church, forsaking the mountain of prayer, a fat mountain, a mountain of cream, a mountain all of honey, where it pleaseth them to remain with God in peace, rather than in war among the encumbrances which are found in the Regulars would not take the pains that Pastors do. tabernacles of seculars and Pastors. Even so some sinners who cannot draw themselves from their bad habitudes, and who defer their conversion till the time of their death do make a bad buckler of the example of the good thief, who converted himself upon the cross, and the very same day entered into Paradis according the promise of our Saviour: because, that for that one man that was saved in that point, thousands and thousands are lost and damned, it being very reasonable saith S. Austin, that he doth forget himself dying, who living did not remember to return to God. Even so the Spaniards in their Solemnities, because that David danced once before the Ark by an excess of piety, and by an extraordinary motion of the holy Ghost, would not think to make a good procession if there were not dancers in it. That is the same thing, quoth Tristan, which some Religious men said to me, to whom I did communicate the design which I had to retire myself to an Hermitage; that Monks were not good but for themselves, but Religious men are necessary for the Christian common wealth, which is the church. To which Nicephorus replied, if by Monks they understand the Hermit's which apply themselves solely & simply to contemplation, and of which men call Anacorites, they have some appearance of reason, but if to preach, to catechise, to visit the sick, to attend to the conversion of the strayed, to administer the Sacraments of penance and the Eucharist, & to do all things according the command of the Ordinary, and under the employ of the Pastors, do make a Religious man, many Hermit's will be found, which will be no more Monks, but Religious men, and many Conuentuall Friars, which do nothing of all these things, shall be no Religious men but Monks. And to show unto you that it is not in that point that this blessed distinction of a Monk & a Religious man doth consist; But in I know not what imagination, which I conceive as little as I do the Ideas of Plato, and the atoms of Dimocrites; The Benedictins, the Bernardins, the Celestins, the Fueillantins, and those of the Order of S. Basile, to whom they give the name of Monks, as being attributed to them by their rules, do not they live in Conuents, do not they preach, do not they teach the Christian doctrine, do not they administer the Sacraments in virtue of so many indults and so many immunities, and Bulls as they have from the Sea Apostolic? in sort as I do not see, neither in their lives, nor in their Monks do not differ from Conuentuall Friars. functions in what they differ from the Conuentuall Friars who call themselues Religious men. The difference is not in mendicitie for there are Conuentuall Friars which call themselves Religious men who are not beggars: it is not in abstinence from meat, for in that the Minims are more austere than the Benedictins or Celestins, yea, or the Carthusians themselves: it is not in mendicitie & abstinence together, for in that the Reformed Dominicans and the bare The Reformed dominicans differ much from the Mitigate. footed Carmelits are admirable in abstaining from the use of flesh, they living but by alms. And to say what I think, I see so little difference, between those whom they call Monks above named, and the Conuentuall Friars be they beggars, or not beggars, shod or not shod, that I think men may call Monks Religious men by as just a title, as they call Religious men Monks; and I must grant unto you that, I am not so subtle nor so penetrative as he that found seventeen essential differences between the habit of the Capucins and that of the Tertiarians which men call Regular Penitens of the third order Seuētin● essential differences found between the habit of the Capucins & that of the Tiertiarians. of S. Francis of strict Observance. To say that the difference doth consist in the vows, I see no appearance of it, because the three essential vows of Religion, which are the three Evangelicall consells, are common to all orders as well Monks as Religious men. In this sort I do not see that the name Monk may be properly attributed to any but to the Carthusians, to the Friars of the Congregation of Camaldoli, and to some shut up Anacoretes, because of their silence, of their enclosure, and of their solitariness, which interdicting them the commerce of men, doth also take from them all clerical functions, for which the Conuentuall Friars called themselves Religious men. And for the word Regular, it is certain that as many as make profession of any rule do assume it to themselues, as do these new Congregations of Clerks which are called Regulars to the imitation of the Cannon Regulars which live under the rule of S. Austin, Whereof I remember being in Rome, which is the nursery of all these Orders as being the matrice of the Church, to have observed seven sorts, without counting the priests of the Oratory, Sevensorts of Clekes Regulars called of our lady of the white-well, or of Vallicelles, instituted by saint Philip Nerio Florentin, and the Oblats of S. Ambrose, founded by S. Charles, and the priests of the Oratory of JESUS, whose Congregation sprung up in France are almost all Frenchmen, pour out a sweet odour of sanctity and virtue through all the French Church, & gins to extend it branches, like a vigne planted near the Olives of grace, to foreign Countries. Is it possible, quoth Tristan, that there are so many sorts of Regular Clerks, whereas there are but four sorts of begging Orders? I told you that I observed seven several institutions of them while I was in Italy, and I know not but since there is some other new fashion sprung up. If my memory doth not fail me, I believe I shall name them well yet. The Theatins are the first for the date of the time, instituted by the right Reverend Father in God john Peter Carraffe Bishop of Thiette, who renounced his Bishopric, to lead a kind of life truly Apostolical, with some priests which did associate themselves to him, renouncing all things as well in common as in particular, adding this point to the strict poverty of begging Orders, that albeit they live only by alms, yet do they never beg A strange institution of the Theatins. neither by themselves nor by any interposed persons, casting all their thoughts upon the paternal care of the providence of God concerning their maintenance, and putting in practice according the literal since this Evangelicall Counsel, not to think of to morrow, nor of that which is necessary for food or clothing, imitating therein the Lyllis of the fields, and the birds of the air, which God doth clothe and feed without that they spin or labour themselves for it. This Bishop, institutor of this holy Congregation, after having illuminated & seasoned all the Court of Rome with the light and salt of his Doctrine, and of his good life, was elevated from the preambular dignity of Cardinal to that of the sovereign Bishop, possessing the Sea Apostolic under the name of Paul the third. The vulgar sort named these Regular Clerk's Theatins, in steed of calling them Thietins, as who would say, the Clerks of the Institution of the Bishop of Thiette. They have many houses in Italy, and I know not if they extend themselves elsewhere, this much I know, that as yet we have not seen of them in France, where it is to be thought they should be ill addressed if they would not ask or beg, considering that such as do beg do often find their alms very short, such is the humour of our Nation, which have their hands open for vain expenses and prodigalities, and shut up to just and holy liberalities, by which doth appear that the end of the world will come by that way seeing charity is grown so cold in it. Which is not in Italy, where men believe more firmly than we do, that sin is redeemed by almesdeeds, and that by this lavor or font all their filth & ordure are cleansed. The second institution of Regular Clerks is that of the priests of the society of JESUS, of which, as that ancient writer said of the magnificence of Rome, it is better say nothing then say little, being sufficient that this holy society is praised by the mouth of the holy Counsel of Trent, which is that of the holy Ghost, saying that their institution is praise worthy. The Barnabites doth make the third institution; this Order took it origine in Milan, the ordinary residence of their General, and they are so called, because that the first Church where they did assemble together was called of saint Barnaby, even as the Friars Preachers of the Order of saint Dominick are called jacobins in Paris, because of a Chapel of S. jake, otherwise james where they first loadged. The Clerk's Mineurs, which are of the institution of Pope Sixtus V. who was of the Order of the Friars Mineurs, do make the fourth sort. The fift is of the Sommasques, a name somewhat strange to such as do not know the origine of it, which is, that this Congregation of Regular Clerks was instituted by a gentleman of Venise in the march of Trevisane, in a bourg called Sommascha. So that as the Chartreux or Carthusians were so called of the place called Chartreuse, where they made their first abode, and where is the Capital house of their Order, as the Cluniacenses were called of the town Clugny, the Cistercienses of Cisteaux, Camaldulenses of Camaldoli, even so did the Sommasques receive their nomination from the place where they were first established. These do extend themselues in Italy & in France under the title of Fathers of the Christian Doctrine whose houses are renowned in Provance, Languedoc and Guenne. The sixth institution is of Regular Clerks surnamed the Infirmes, because their chardg is, to serve the sick, be it within the public Hospitals or in private houses, & also to secure such as are most miserable and forsaken. The seventh is that of the Regular Clerks of the mother of God, called the Congregation of the priests of Lucques, whereof Father Franciotti, who wrote so devotely, hath been one of the principal pillars. And that which is admirable in this variety of institutions is, that they are all particular rules, which level at some particular mark; the Theatins do apply themselves to study and to lead a retired life; the jesuits to instruict youth; the Barnabites to the Choir and to hear Confessions; the Clerks Mineurs to the rigour and austerity of mortifications; the Sommasques to keep S. and maintain forsaken Children, & Orphans, and to teach the Christian Doctrine; The Clerks of the infirm to look to the sick, and the Clerks of the mother of God, to direct devote people to spiritual things. This notwithstanding they have all but the self same habit, which is that we see the jesuits carry. All of them make profession of a certain rule with the solemn vows, and call themselves Religious men, differing in this from the Conuentuall Friars, that these under different habits do make but the self same thing, and the other do make different functions under a like habit. In sort that the one and the other coming to the succour of the Pastors do exercise All those Regular Orders came to secure the Pastors. Clericall functions, which heretofore was not affected or ordained but for the priests of the Ecclesiastical Clergy, some of them may be called Religious Clerks, others Clerks Religious, and all of them are comprehended under the Name of Regulars. Besides, all the Canons, which live under the rule of saint Augustin, who are very many, do call themselves Clerks Regulars, as those of the Order of saint Anthony, of saint Ruffel, of Val de Choux, of Val des Escoliers, the Trinitarians, the Friars de la Mercy, the Hieromites, the Dominicans, and so many other Military Orders which have this rule for the line of their direction and observance. Why do you put the Dominicans, saith Tristan, among the Canons, or Regular Clerks, whereas they are one of the four begging Orders? If you number, quoth the Hermit, the begging Orders according their rules there are but three sorts of them, for the Dominicans and the Austin Friars have but the self same rule, albeit their habits and constitutions do differ; the Friars Mineurs have the rule of S. Francis, and the Carmelits that of saint Basile, or of the Patriarche Albertus. But if you take them according their Congregations, the begging Orders do far exceed the number of four; Of the rule of S. Francis there are ten sorts. the only rule of saint Francis doth furnish ten sorts of them: The Cordeliers called Obseruantins'; the Conuentualls called the great Friars, which beg almost every where, albeit they may have rents; the Recolects of strict Observance, the Capucins, the Becquins, the Tertiarians; the Religious women of S. Clare, who hath a particular rule framed by S. Francis, which are subdivided into Damianists & Vrbanists, besides the Capucin women and the Hospitalists of saint Francis, in sort that men may say the ten begging Orders of Francis. Add to this the Dominicans, as well the Mitigated as the Reformed; the Friar's Hermit's of saint Augustine's Order as well the Mitigated as the Reformed, the shod as the unshodd: In like manner the Carmelits as well the Mitigated, and the unshodd of the reformation of S. Teresa, as the Reformed shod; the Friars Hospitalists of the Charity instituted by S. john de Dieu; the jesuates instituted by saint john Colomban; the Minims, which are put among the begging Orders, as are also the professed jesuits of the last vow, the Theatins, the Clerks Mineurs, the Clerks of the Infirm, the Friars de la Mort, and the most part of the Hermit's; besides many others which are seen in Italy begging after diverse manners, as those that are called Fate been Fratelli, and those that cry ask alms: Faciamo bene mentre che havemo tempo, and such like, in sort that according the count which we have now made, not speaking of that whereof we are ignorant, we should not say the four but the nine and twenty Mendicant Orders. To which if you will add such as live by rents and fundations, you shall find a little army of Regulars, of which men may say what jacob said of the Angels, these are the squadrons of the God of battles. Now to know among so many people, who are they whom we may call Monks without offending them, and who are to be called Religious men, it is no small matter, and to do it without danger of mistaking, a man must know many particularities and many histories, which is cause that men, to eschew all those formalities, do call all Regulars Religious men, & that the rather that all true Monks are very glad to be so called, and that such as hold themselves to be Religious men, do take it for an outrage and incivility, when men call them Monks. Which make me call to mind our gentlewomen who are very glad when men through error do call them Dames, and our grand-Dames who could not endure that men should call them gentlewomen, no more than those priests who will not have themselves called Clerks. In what then, replied Tristan, doth consist this state of perfection of which all Monastical and Conuentuall persons, Monks or Religious men, call them as you please, do make so great account, and from which they say you Hermit's are so far, as you can never pretend it? For my part, quoth Nicephorus, I believe they are as well grounded in the possession of the state of perfection, as they are in the title of Religious men. Those that are called in the Acts of the Apostles, Religious men, were devote persons in the primitive Church, which were neither Monks nor Regulars; and all Christians which live according the precepts of the Gospel, and of the Catholic Religion, established by JESUS CHRIST seemeth to me to have right to call themselves Religious All good Christians may be called Religious men. men, though they be lay and married men, and what other trade they be of. And that it is so, who doth not know that S. Francis wrote a third Rule of penance, in which all faithful people of what sex or condition soever they be may be enroled, and carry the quality of Religious men of the third Order of this Seraphical Father? Yea but, replied Tristan, those Religious men are not in the state of perfection, as the others are which make the three vows conformable to the Evangelicall Counsels: for me thinks the said Fathers said to me, that it is in that that this state of perfection doth consist, from which the Hermits are excluded. At this word excluded, the blood mounted to the Hermit's face, & coloured it, if not for spite and choler, at leastwise for confusion and emotion. This than made him reply in this sort: if we be excluded, it is with good company, for besides that we do not read, as I said already, that our Saviour, his holy mother, and the Apostles ever made the said vows, well we read that they practised the holy vertus counselled in the Gospel; and by this practice they arrived both to the perfection of their estate, and to te state of an eminent perfection; they must exclude with us all the Canons of the Cathedral and Collegiall Churches, all the Pastors & venerable Priests which are in the Church and have no other rule but the rule of rules which is the holy Gospel, to the line and square of which all other rules should be framed to be made right. Behold than we are in good company, the Pastors, Doctors, and Preachers, if they do not vow under a certain rule, they shall not be in the state of perfection, they that are the salt of the earth, & the light of the world. And a lay Brother that A hard censure. begs yp and down, that plays the Cook, and the gardener in a Convent, shall be in a more eminent state in the Church of God than all those people. A man without doubt must be well versed in the subtleties of the school to comprehend this Divinity, very hard to be inculcated to ignorant men. Let us mount our string to a higher note, and say that the Bishops, the Cardinals and the Pope himself shall not be in this state of perfection, having not vowed the observance of any of these rules approved by the Cburch, under which the Regulars are enrolled. To this the Regulars do reply, quoth Tristan, that those Pastors are in a state of perfection more eminent than that of the Religious, in so much as they call it the state of perfection Bishops are in the state of perfection acquired. acquired, and the other but a state of perfection to be acquired. So that they are the sun which comprend in their light all the light of the lesser stars: and the firmaments of the earth lifted up over the top of the montaignes of perfection, whose fruit do extend itself far over mount Liban, where these puissant Gods of the earth are strongly placed, because they are the children of the highest, and his arrows in the hand of the Omnipotent, which flee out with impetuosity. This is the estate which is called the supreme amongst men in the militant Church, which correspond to that of the Seraphins in the They correspond to the Seraphins in the Hierarchy. first Hierarchy of the Angels. In sort that as the rod of Moses did swallow up the rod of the Magicians, even so in the estate of Prelatship & Pontificat are contained all the perfections of all the Regular Orders, in the same manner that Priesthood doth contain in itself the inferior Orders. But my difficulty is to know in what doth consist this distinction between perfection acquired, and perfection to be acquired; for I believe that the greatest part of the world are in the last, and but very few in the other. For to say a perfect man, is to say a man without sin, and he that saith he hath no sin, is a liar and hath no truth in him, according the holy Scripture: Who thinks to be without sin doth seduce himself, for we are all conceived in iniquity. To say also with that Bishop of the Apocalypse lo: I am full of grace, and have no need of any thing, is to say, I am in the top of perfection, and consequently to get this reproach: Thou art naked, poor & miserable, & foolishly you esteem yourself rich. For I hold that man to be very imperfect that thinks himself to be perfect; it is in a manner to say as said the father of the proud: I Will lift up my throne of the North side, and I shall be like to the highest. Behold so much for the perfection acquired, & for the perfection to be acquired, it is a condition wherein are those that are most imperfect, seeing that at the most it sufficeth them to have the will to arrive some time to it when they shall be purged of their faults, and for men to vaunt themselves to be rich, either by the goods, which they desire to have, or pretend to gather, is express vanity. And by this estate to think to draw themselves from all parity, and to be separated Friars in their own estimation are not like other men. from the rest of the lay or secular people, it is in some sort to sing that song blamed in te Gospel: I am not like other men. Sir, quoth the Hermit, I see well that neither you nor myself are too well versed in these scholastical subtleties, this is a wrangling point which is not good but to entertain disputations upon the stools; it is properly according the proverb to contest with the Bishop for his crosiers staff. But as I heard say heretofore, they put great difference between the state of perfection acquired, or to be acquired, & perfection itself, be it acquired or to be acquired. I know that this distinction will astonish you at the first sight, as it did terrify me the first time that it sounded in my ears: but our masters the Doctors have far more subtle distinctions which would divide the very atoms. They say that he may be in perfection or perfect, that is not in the state of perfection, and that some are in the state of perfection which are far from being in perfection or perfect. And that it is so, we see but too many Monks, Religious men, & Pastors of very scandalous and bad lives who are nevertheless in the state of perfection, and many lay men of very holy conversation, and most complete in their own profession, & as it were perfect in their economy, who are not for all that in the state of perfection; yet our Doctors after many debats do conclude, that it is far better to be in perfection without the state, then in the state without perfection: Which do much comfort the simpler sort who go more round to work, and prefer their salvation to their reputation; in sort that it is much better at all adventures to be in the perfection of his estate, then in the state of perfection, having nothing more sure in all that matter then to search his perfection in his own profession, and to live in peace according the Counsel of the Apostle. This makes me think of those Politicians, who seeing themselves balanced betwixt reasons of state, and the considerations of Religion, as it were between the tree and the bark, do leave sometimes to support Religion, & run to secure the state; or else they let the state perish to conserve Religion, whenas they should maintain Policy & Religion are the two poles of all well governed common wealth's the one and the other if it were possible, as being the two poles, & the two hinges of all well ordered common wealths, giving to Cesar what belongs to Cesar, and to God what belongs to God. Even so among these contestations, sometimes a man doth quit the perfection of his estate to run to the state of perfection, sometimes he doth not care for the state of perfection to aspire to the perfection of his estate: but it happens often to such bad Politicians, desiring to conserve the state at the cost & charges of Religion, that they lose the one & the other, as it doth happen to unskilful Pilots who, to preserve their ship and merchandise do make shipwreck of both together: those that omit to perfect themselves in a laical state thinking to advance themselves more in spiritual things in a Religious state, dissipating their attentions, do not prosper in the one nor in the other, like Roman Senator unto that Roman Senator, who being a very good man in his charge of Senator, did believe that in making himself à Monk he would become an Angel, but he had such bad success in the Monastical exercises, that his Abbot one day said unto him: My friend you left of to be a good Senator Many that are good in the world may be bad in Religion. to make a bad Monk. An example which makes me remember an other very remarkable which is rehearsed in the life of saint Philipp Nerio fundator of the Oratorians of Rome; he brought up a young Polonian Priest, called Francis Bassus, who remaining for certain years under his discipline became a great preacher, and full of rare qualities; at length a temptation surprised his thought, persuading him that being but of the Oratory, which is a Congregation of reformed Priests, who have no other vows, but such as the Church annexed to Priesthood, that he was not in a state of so great perfection, as if he had made himself a Monk in one of the begging Orders. Notwithstanding any exhortation that S. Philipp made unto him he yielded so much to this impression, that he never ceased to pursue his purpose till such time as he was admitted to the Dominicans. Saint Philipp did assist at his reception, & at his profession, & albeit the Friars did think to have purchased a great deal of honour to their Order, by the organ of a subject which seemed to them so worthy of consideration, yet the good Father, who loved him tenderly, did nothing else but weep during the solemnity of these actions; and whereas the dominicans thought that it was because he lost one of the most famous work men of his vigneyard: Ha! saith he, it is not that, for charity is not jealous, nor subject to it own proper interest, I deplore only the evident loss of so many vertus. He was a Prophet, for he that was so prudent, & of so good edification in a Congregation, in which he did not believe to be in the state of perfection to be acquired, much less acquired, did commit so many scandals after in the regularity, that he gave much pain and discontent to his Order. It is not always the best to aspire to the sublimest degrees, the most dangerous trades are those that are exercised in eminent places; the higher the ascension be the heavier is the fall. You must not look to be eminent wise, saith the holy word, but keep yourself in an humble fear: Do not affect sublimity, saith the Apostle, but accommodate yourself to the little ones. Let us remember jacob, who whould not hasten to go with Esaü, nor go with a great pace towards his Father's house, but choosed rather to go soft & fair after his children & his lambs, meanly, but surely. I do not intent by this discourse to divert any man from embracing the Regular life, contrariwise I do counsel it as much as I may, as did the great Apostle counsel chastity, wishing that all had been Virgins like himself. I know with what anathemes they are threatened that divert faithful people from these paths of peace, & from the way of It is not lawful to dissuade any from Religion. the cross, and that it is in this point most of any other. that the Talion law should be executed with rigour, rendering to God in himself servant for servant, & soul for soul. Also I know it is of this state of life that it is said, whosoever can embrace it let him take it; yea, that it is good to press sweetly, without constraint, such as be doubtful and staggering to put themselves in it, to see & taste how sweet our Lord is. It is good I say to give them courage to lift themselves up upon this sacred Palm, to gather of it fruit: for no man can deny without offending our holy faith, & the discipline of the Church, that which S. Ambroise said heretofore of voiled Virgins, such as are now our Nuns, but it should and may be also said of the Regulars, that they are a famous portion of the flock of JESUS CHRIST. That which is to be desired in all this matter, according my judgement, (which is but a small thing) is, that such as are in this state of perfection, either to be acquired as are the Regulars, or acquired, as are the Pastors, do not look disdainfully, and as it were over the shoulders on those that are at their feet, no more than doth the horse troops of an army despise the foot companies, because that Every man in his own profession may work his salvation these foot men, I would say these whose secular condition doth not oblige them to so great points of perfection, may make themselves perfect and agreeable to God in their own profession. And reciprocally, it is not fit that such as are not in the state of perfection do insolently lose the respect which is due to those that dedicated themselves to God by holy motions, and by the profession of a life sequestered from the world. This is near the opinion of that great Apostle, who would not have him that fasts to despise him that eats nor tax him of gluttony, much less would he have him that eats mock him that fasts, and reproach him of hypocrisy. And albeit those that lead a chaste life are in an eminent condition, as saith the holy word, that continence cannot be duly prized: Yet is the state of marriage holy & blessed by God, & therefore aught to be respected, by Virgins themselves. It is good for a man to humble himself in all things, saith the holy Ghost, and not to aspire to things which are too great, or too sublime. They must be honoured that are in the state of perfection, but those that are in the perfection of their estate, do merit far greater commendation, according that which the Apostle saith, that Good Pastors are worthy of double honour. those who in the Pastoral charge have learning joined to good life, are worthy of double honour: for to that honour which is due to their quality should be joined that which is due to their proper merit. All those fair considerations, saith Tristan, do not satisfy my desire, which is to know in what doth consist properly this state of perfection acquired, or to be acquired. That I may not lie unto you, quoth the Hermit, I am so bad a scholastical Divine, that those very terms, which are not so well known to me as they are to such as have them every day in their mouths, and dispute hard of them upon the Bench, do seem very savage & strange to me. This word of perfection attributed to men doth astonish me, considering that the very Angels, which are in the state of subsistence do not attribute it to themselves but turn their wings over their eyes before the throne of God, who is only good and perfect, without evil and without fault. But that I do not blame, or it may be blaspheme that which I do not well understand, without censuring the Authors, or authorising the censurers of a Doctrine whereof I understand so little, that the same little is nothing; (if none upon earth be without spot, not a child of one day, saith the sacred Text; if the stars be not neat before him, who found disorder amongst his Angels) who can justly allege that he is in the state of perfection, considering that to be perfect & to be just is the same thing, and that no man living can justify himself before God? There is a certain generation, saith the holy Ghost Prou. 30. v. 12. which seem to itself, clean & yet is not washed from their fithlynesse: I know not which it is, but whatsoever it be, we may compare it to the Peacock which attend so much to the looking glass of her round tail, that she forgetts the deformity of her feet. Those kind of people puts me in mind of that ancient Hermit who imagined that he was an Angel, & so The imagination of an ancient Hermit. threw himself into a well wherein he had died miserable if his fellows had not drawn him out, and cured him of his folly. Notwithstanding, that I may not take the firebrand where it burns, I will tell you my opinion with the simplicity of a poor Monk, who knows better how to make Images then to decide a point of Divinity: I do think that the Regulars do say they are in the state of perfection to be acquired, in as much as they have choosen the Evangelicall Counsels as the shortest way to arrive to perfection, or else, be 〈◊〉 Why are Regulars said to be in the state of perfection to be acquired and Prelates in the state of perfection acquired. there state doth oblige them to search for that perfection which is proposed unto them by their Rules, which is, as it were, the cream of the Evangelicall Doctrine: in sort that their life should be nothing else but a perpetual combat, a study & exercise that aim at the acquisition of perfection. And they say that the Prelates & Pastors are in the state of perfection acquired, because they are in eminent conditions, whereunto none should be called but men consummated in Virtue & science: Or else because they are the successors of the Apostles whom we may not doubt Prelates the successors of the Apostles. to have been both very perfect, as being confirmed in grace, and also in the state of perfection: or otherwise because they are obliged by the greatness of their dignity, to be a pattern to the flock which are committed to them, by their good example: or also because they ought in this state, to exercise not simple & common vertus; out heroical and important vertus, whereof the greatest according the judgement of the Gospel, is to give his own soul for the salvation of his flock. This was also the Rule by which our Saviour measured the charity of saint Peter, before making No charity goes beyond that of the Pastoral charge▪ him his Lieutenant in earth, when he demanded of him three times if he did love him more than the rest, & that to his affirmative answers CHRIST replied; feed then my sheep, finding no greater proof of love then the exercise of this Pastoral charge. If Monastical and Conuentuall persons, quoth Tristan be not in the state of perfection to be acquired but in respect of the obligation which they have to make themselues perfect, & that the Prelates are not in the state of perfection acquired, but because they are obliged to be exemplar, me thinks the state of all Christians in general is such, considering that our Saviour in the Gospel said unto us: Be perfect as your Celestial father is, who doth make his sun shine equally upon the good and upon the bad, and power his rain without distinction upon the land of the just and the injust. And what? Kings & Potentastes, who as Constantin the great said, are the exterior Bishops, Magistrates, Goodmen of houses, and all those that are in sublimity and Superiority, are not they bound to give good example to their inferiors, and to be a good odour to all men in JESUS CHRIST? After this manner they shall be in the state of the perfection of Prelates, who are the Princes within the Church. And all Christians that pretend to come to the perfection of their estate shall not they, by this desire, as well as by vows be in the state of perfection to be acquired, as well as the Regulars? I would be near of your opinion in that, quoth the Hermit, if I did not fear to offend our Masters the Doctors, who have in their hands the kees of the doctrine, who do open that which no man durst shut, who do shut that which no man durst open, and who have, the Empire of science. But the respect which I bear to their opinions, which to me are Oracles, to which I submit my own judgement, do make me renounce to my own particular reason; and follow the most common opinion, considering that the Apostle do forbid us all contentions. But yet when I consider with myself that the The Angels were at variance the body of Moses. Angels of heaven were at veriance between themselves for the possession of the body of Moses, I do believe that men consecrated to God, either by the Sacerdotal character, or by the Monastical habit, who are called in the Scripture the Angels of the God of armies, may a little contest about the state of perfection, every one being glad, without prejudice to humility and charity, to magnify his own ministry, according the counsel of the divine Apostle. Pass for magnifying their ministry, but to despise others and to pull from those who according God & man do both appear, and are in effect more worthy than they; that is the thing which I cannot approwe, quoth Tristan, for had you known how the Conuentuall Friars did deschiffer unto me the Ecclesiastical Clergy whom they call Seculars; how they did depress this condition, & represent it unto me not only to be base but also dangerous, and above all the rest, how they did tear in pieces the condition of you Hermit's, I believe that had you had the patience of job you would break out in choler against them. For why should they take from the Pastors, Priests, Pteachers, Doctors, Confessors, Vicars, Canons, Deans, Abbots, and Priours called Commendataries, & from you Hermit's the pretention to the state of perfection to be acquired? Sir, quoth Nicephorus, I did wind myself expressly about this subject without entering into it, to shun this rock against which you force me now to strike, all that I can do is, to say with S. Paul, that you constrain me to pass through this danger and exceed a little the limits of moderation: Be angry, quoth the Psalmist or according an other version: Stir and fret a little, but do not sin. Under this permission Psal. 4. I will say to God: Lord put a sentinel to my mouth, and a door of circumstances to my lips, to the end that my tongue may not utter words of precipitation, or of malice. I know it is written, thou shalt not speak ill of the Gods: That is to say, of eminent persons, either in quality or sanctity, because that greatness and piety do make men approach to the Divinity. But albeit Socrates and Plato are my friends, and that I do perfectly honour the Regular Companies, yet the zeal of the truth hath more power over me then all that. I will then say this word of liberty, not for myself who am the meanest of all men, & the most contemptible (a title which one of the Prophets gave to our Saviour) but for so many grave and venerable Ecclesiastical persons which are in the rank of the Clergy, and compose the true Hierarchy of the Church instituted Who are of the Hierarchy. by JESUS CHRIST, and whose mission & vocation is altogether divine, that it is to pull away the fairest rose of the crown of so many sacred Priests, to take from them the honour to be in the state of perfection, at leastwise to be acquired, in which the Regulars do not stick to put their servants, & the very Nuns, as well those that sing in the Choir, as their maids servants that look to the business of the Convent. Ah! where shall Priestly unction be placed, which make those that are adorned with it a holy and Royal people, if they make the state of it inferior to the state of a simple girl, who hath command to hold her peace, and no right to speak within the Church, or to some porter or gardener of the Convent? Those that approach to the Altar, to whose words God doth make himself obedient, who have the kees of the kingdom The function and power of a Priest orderly laid down. of heaven, who do bind and lose, who are the Magistrates of the Church, who sit upon the seat of judgement in the house of David, and judge the twelve tribs of Israël, that is to say, all the world; whose sentences given upon earth are confirmed and ratified in heaven, whose hands blessed and consecrated do handle the most dreadful mysteries of our Religion, and who do that thing which the Angels do adore; who have power over the Devils, who dispense the Sacraments, and confer the grace of God to all mortal men; those Divine men which S. Francis preferred S. Francis preferred Priests to the very Angels. to the Angels, because that one only man of them doth make every day that which all the Angels in heaven cannot do. For to whom of the Angels was it ever said, consecrate my body, and what thou shalt lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven? those men that are almost to be adored, & that the Angels do reverence and call their fellow servants to God, shall they be the underlings of those which do not merit (in consideration of their dignity) to lose the lachets of their shoes? Ah! Regulars, pardon me, it is the zeal of the house of God which doth gnaw me, it is the desire of his glory and of his beauty which I see dried up in his principal members, which doth transport me to tell you, that you use very discourteously your elders the Ecclesiastical Clergy, whom (forsooth) you call Seculars, notwithstanding that by their clerical habit they have deposed Secular is no fit Epitetho for a priest. the ignominy of the secular habit, & that by the reception of their holy Orders they have renounced to the desires of the world, and to all that is profane in it. It seems that you would imitate jacob, and supplant them as if they were all Esaüs, but know; that if you be Hebrews, so are they; if you be Israëlites, so are they; if you be the seed of Abraham, so are they; and I will say more for them, that they are both more ancient in the Church, and of a greater rank (witness the processions) & of a higher dignity, & of more eminent functions, I will say so much (for it The Church may be without Monks but not without Pastors. is no time for a man to hold himself up when he is shaked and falling down) that their employments are more utile and more necessary than yours, for the Church hath been & may be without Monks, but it cannot be without Pastors, without Vicars, without Priests, without Doctors, without Preachers: for if the salt be melted with what shall men salt? if the candle be quinched how shall men have light? Perchance you will say that you do the same actions which It doth not properly belong to Regulars to administer the Sacraments. the Pastors do, but in you it is but in way of accessary, in them principally; in you it is pleasure, in them pain; in you it is of free will, in them of necessity; in you by way of recreation, and as passengers, in them it is of duty and office; in you it is without charge of souls, in them with charge, which make them to be answerable for the souls, and so far answerable that they shall give soul for soul, and blood for blood; in you it is but in some things, in them in all things; in them at all times, in you when you please, & that your commodity doth permit it; in you so that the service of your commonalty doth march before that of the neighbour, in them there is no exception; in you it is at certain hours, in them at all moments; you fight as voluntaries, they as necessaries; you march but in the wings of the battle, they make the body of the army; they carry the weight of the heat of the day, and the cold of the dew of the night, in summer and in winter, in spring time and in harvest, without rule in their diet, without assurance in their sleep. Of seven Sacraments you administer but two, and the one of them which is the Eucharist, but at your ease, within your houses, without carrying it to the sick in the heat of the sun, in frost, in snow, in rain and in Th' life and exercise of poor Pastor exactly described. tempest, at all hours of the day & of the night, and all days of the year through the dirt & encumbrances of the cities and towns, through the woods and the mere, through the mountains and the vallees, through the stones and the moors of the fields. And the other Sacrament which is that of penance you administer, when you are prayed, & particularly called upon, and as pleaseth your Superiors, who have as great care of the conservation of their own subjects, as they have of the sick, for whom they are not answerable. But the Pastors by obligation ought to keep still near the sick, to press them to enter in favour with God by the Sacrament of reconciliation, to preach unto them in season and out of season, to the end to make them think of their salvation, which is part of their own salvation, as being bound to give account to the Prince of Pastors the Bishop of our souls JESUS CHRIST, of his sheep committed to their Vigilance. As for Marriage, Baptism & Extreme-Vnction, they are things which you do not meddle with all (they are for the gleaners) no more than you meddle with Confirmation and Order which you leave for the Bishops. This you show your prudence, & declare that you have eaten both butter and honey, which make you reject the least and choose the Isaia 7. v. 15. best, & that you know how to make use handsomely of the fan which separate the corn from the chaff, and precious things from vile and base things. You do not snuff your lamps but with golden snuffers, & you do not take the coals as the Seraphim of the Prophet, but with gilt tongs. The rod of Moses doth not please you, because sometimes it is turned to a serpent and devour, or doth work dreadful and rude effects: The rod of Aaron fits you best, because it engenders nothing but flowers & fruit. Even so you know Friars take the profit & leave the pain for the priests how to pull the rose without touching the thorns, to gather the honey without feeling the sting of the be, to eat the kernel of the nut & cast away the shell, & to do as children do when they get bread & butter, lick away the butter and leave the bread. To cooperate to the salvation of souls without taking charge of them, is properly to take away the cream and leave the curd. It is an admirable thing to see that such as govern the people will not take charge of them, and such as have charge of them and are answerable for them, cannot have the government of them. And with all these delicateness & spiritual allurements, they are in the state of perfection, and those who like Giants do groan under the waters, that is to say, under the charge of the people, who are the waters of the sea of the world, shall be out of perfection? Truly I am faithful, and believe all that the Church doth believe, and if the Church believe that, I believe it also, but not without captivating my understanding to the obedience of faith. Would not you think that those good people vould fain add a cubite more to their stature, or to speak otherwise, would fain extol their own estate putting betwixt them & the Pastors' inferours to Prelates, their lay brothers? For if those be in the state of perfection, and not the Canons, Pastors and other Ecclesiastical persons of the Clergy, to what height do they raise themselves, placing their servants and their cooks before those that are the Masters, the Fathers, and the Doctors of the people? What? and if they prefer to them simple veiled girls, yea the lay sisters, is it not to destroy the law of nature, and the government of the Church, which in all kind of fashion hath declared women kind inferior to men? If the iniquity of a man is preferred to the well doing of a woman, what good can a woman do, suppose she made miracles, which may be compared to the greatness of Priesthood? Would not men laugh at the impertinence of him that would give the title of Excellence to a poor man that asketh alms from door to door, & would but thou a gentle man of note, or a Magistrate. The Regulars, and principally the begging Orders have bags which speak daily for them ask alms, and yet they must have so many Paternities and so many Reverences given them; and the Pastors and Priests shall be without honour, and unworthily treated so far forth as Great inequalities. to be put in a rank and state in the Church, more low than that of the Friar servants of the Reverend Fathers. But yet amongst themselves they know well how to keep the best place for Priesthood, and keep the Conuers or lay Brothers in the humility and baseness of servitude, distinguishing themselves by these terms Fathers and Brothers, albeit all of them are Brothers and children of one Order & of one habit, making profession of one and the self same rule, living under the same observance and the same vows, & all of them as well priests as others not permitted heretofore to take any other title but that of Brother, which is well observed by the most humble and most Friars heretofore had no other denomination but that of Brother. moderate of them. And I pray you, is priesthood another thing in the Regulars than it is in the Clergy? Is it an other character, an other Order, an other power, for being under a Capuce, under sandales, under a scapular, or under a clasp? Is it more eminent so then under a surplice, under a sutane, and under a corner cap? Certes we are now come to the time wherein the last are the first, and the first are put in the last rank. In your opinion to plant cabbage, to wash dishesse, to carry a bag, to keep a door, to snuff lamps, to patch, habits, the ordinary exercise of the lay brothers of the Conuents, are they employments comparable to that of the Pastors, who do consecrate the The functions of Pastors. body of the son of God, who dispense the merits of his blood in the Sacrament of penance, who do baptise, who do annoinct the sick, who do marry those that are called to that holy yoke, and do such other Pastoral functions? Verily, quoth Tristan, you restore them well what they lent you, and their bill of exchange is well paid in the same coin. If I had not known that you are well versed in these matthers in controversy, I would say that you are a Prophet, and that you have heard part of that which they said to me, to divert me from being an Hermit, or of the secular Clergy, so well you rehearse the particularities of that which they insinuated to me. For me thought I heard them say, that all devotions compared to Religious devotion is but orpin compared to gold, & glass compared to a diamant, & that they are like to those Roman scarlets, which seemed all stained and decolored, when they were put near that piece of purple of Tire and Sidon, which for the excellency of it was The functions of Regulars inferior to that of Priests & Pastors. sent to the Emperor. For aught I see then their state of perfection doth not proceed from their functions, which are inferior in greatness, in eminency, in utility, in necessity to that of Priests and Pastors, but from their vows; it is so held commonly in the schools, quoth the Hermit, School divinity disputes of all matters, & moves as many questions as it doth decide. but seeing this sort of Theologie doth maintain as much dispute and controversy as it doth decide, & stirrr up as much as it doth resolve, no point of faith so sacred on which she doth not move questions and frame difficulties; of this point which is but of government, I think that without offending Religion, we may speak problematically, submitting always most humbly & most absolutely our particular reason & judgement to the judgement of the universal Church, & to the holy sea Apostolic, the firm & fundamental stone, against which errors, which are the gates of hell, may not prevail. I say then after this protestation, which may serve me as a buckler against the plots of calumny, that if the state of perfection to be acquired doth consist in vows, the Priests of the Clergy, who are in the Hierarchy of the Church, aught to be admitted to it: For they make two solemn and indispensable Priests make two solemn vows. vows of chastity and obedience, annexed to their holy Orders. And if they do not make the vow of poovertie, it is because that being not in Commonalty, as the Regulars are, but as the Apostles were, dispersed Priests dispersed amongst the people do imittat the Apostles. amongst the people as the salt of the earth, it would be impossible for them to observe it in that manner that the Conuentualls do. But if it pleased them to go to the Country, and to see in the villages to what extremity of necessity are the poor Pastors brought, they would have occasion to say that it is much easier to vow poverty, as the Regulars do, then to practise it as the Pastors do. The Regulars cannot sing but in very close Quires, they cannot say Mass The pleasant life of Regulars in these Countries but with silver chalices, with neat vestments & with parfums, they cannot sleep but in hot celles, they cannot eat but very neat meat, proper & well seasoned, in gilt and painted Refectories, accompanied with pleasant lecture, having after every refection a full hour of recreation, they cannot walk but in fair gardens all laced with flowers & arroused with fontaines, they cannot go but under Cloisters & well covered from sun & rain, they cannot make their assemblies but in Chapters well polished and very lightsome, they cannot study but in fair and ample Bibliothekes, in some he that would learn a thousand little secrets for the commodity of man's living, let him take the pains to consider the Monastical & Conuentuall life. Instead that the Pastors of the Country The life of a Country Pastor. (for those of the city are a little better provided, but yet are they also in trouble over head & shoulders) are lodged in cabanes, like the grott of Bethleem, exposed at all times to the injury of the air, they lie upon the straw and upon the ground, they are nourished like clowns, without conversation, without consolation, they have much pain and little Unction, they are ill lodged, ill attired, ill paid, ill assisted, miserable in their Churches, in their ornaments, in their loadgins, in their houshould-stuffs, & in all other things. And for all this, the Regulars amidst all commodities Priests held to be rich though otherwise more poor the Friars. have the glory of the state of poverty, and the Pastors in all necessities and want are held for rich, & to be dispossessed of the state of perfection, which properly doth not consist so much in the vow of poverty, as we said before, as it doth in the practice of voluntary, & Evangelicall poverty, which is when a man selling all that he hath doth give it to the poor, without assurance of any prop or the help of any commonalty, of which we see very few examples. For, to forsake thirty or fifty pound rend to cast himself into a Monastery that hath a thousand pound rend, and to have his part of the same with thirty or forty other Monks, I do not see that such a leap is any thing dangerous: but to leave great revenues in the world & distribute them to the needy to put himself all alone, & without aid in a naked mendicitie, as did the Apostles, who reserved nothing of all the goods which the first Christians brought & laid at their feet, is a practice that is as rare as it is excellent, & some Regulars might be found which would call it temereity, although it be the true manner of the poverty counselled in the Gospel, in which our Saviour, who did counsel it, did place perfection. But let us make this matter agree, a Religious man that is proprietaire shall be deeply in imperfection, because he doth contrary to his vow, and yet in virtue of the same vow, he shall be said to be in the state of perfection: It is not all one to be in the state of perfection & to be perfect. and a secular man who doth distribute all his goods in alms to follow our Saviour, by this renouncement of his goods shall be without doubt well advanced in perfection, and yet shall not he be in the state of perfection? For my part I must acknowledge at one time both my ignorance, and the grossness of my understanding, that cannot get out the connection, of this admirable distinction, which me thinks cannot subsist but by this, esse rationale, whereof there is such great debate between the Philosophers, and by separating by the thought the state of perfection, as they separate in man, the animal part from the reasonnable. But perchance I shall expound myself better by this example. A good Pastor of a village, who An example of a poor Pastor. was (as almost all of them be) in the perfection of poverty in his own estate, received to his poor cabane a Conuentuall Friar, that should be a foot by his rule, but in effect was well mounted he entertained him according the short extension of his power & of his means. Wooden & earthen dishesse were his best movables, new straw was his best bed, the ground was his most assured bedstead, two brones made his fire, and the midst of the place was his cheminie, a block was his chair, his table was two planks ill joinct together, held up by some sticks made in form of a trestle, ill fastened; for the rest he was so austere that scarce he did wear any linen: he found nevertheless some napkin; for the use of tablecloths were as much unknown to him, as they are to the Capucins. The Religious man who had occasion to esteem more of his good reception then of his good cheer, and of the Pastors' goodwill then of the effects of it, drew a purse out of his sleeve, well furnished with a kind of mettle which is the rule and measure of all things, yet forbidden in the rule of Conuentuall Friars; With this he thought to entertain himself in all places: but this village was as ill furnished with things necessary, as was the house of the good Pastor. He was therefore constrained to content himself with a kind of pottage and some pulse, but to take this lean refection he used many fashions, & disposed himself with much delicateness and proprieties; he drew from his pocket a case wherein there was a silver spoon, a fork of the same mettle, & a knife with a haft also of silver. The good Pastor who had a pleasant wit, and knew a little more than his Prosne or sunday Sermons seeing this Regular sumptuosity said to the friar, Father, you and I would make one good Monk, for you would make the vow of poverty, and I would keep it. This blow of the beck or mouth did not hinder the good Friars teeth, who did not lose a whitt of his appetit for it. Now tell me, I pray you, who before God had the merit of poverty, he that was really poor, and used hospitality, or he that was not poor but in vow, with so much delicateness? For my part, quoth Tristan, I believe that as he is much commended in the Scripture that might transgress, and do evil, & did it not: Even so he, that putting himself in the state of perfection, & doth not tend to it, but let himself fall into imperfections, shall be whipped with many stripes. And as the merits of Regulars, are very great when they do their duty well, so are their faults very notable when they fail therein. They are like the figs of the Prophet, either all good, or all bad, which makes me remember an other example. A man of quality that lived very An example of a man of quality & of his servant. dissolute, being touched with repentance of his sins did cast himself into a Monastery: and a servant of his much fearing God following him in that retreat of the world, was received in the same Monastery in quality of a lay brother. What happened? the Master that knew his own iniquity, and that saw without cease his sins before his eyes, became so humble by that consideration, that he became a good Religious man, & the servant contrariwise seeing himself entered into the portion of Saints in a good rich Monastery, became so insolent & so delicate that nothing could content his vanity and delicateness: He that was his Master in the world serving him with all sort of charity and cordialitie he did check and rebuke him like a slave; which the other did endure with incredible patience, by which he gained heaven, and the servant became so arrogant and so presumptuous, that in the end his sottisnesse and disorder did oblige the Commonalty to take the habit from his back and chase him away ignominiously like a gnaw, that became as insupportable as he was incorrigible. Even so the same sun which melt wax, doth harden dirt, & regularity which is instituted as a holy Academy, to giude those that put themselves in it, as becometh, to perfection, was cause of the imperfection of this servant, who had done far better if he had remained in his first state of life. And indeed solitude, which the Scripture and experience doth teach us to be so proper to draw to it the Spirit of God, is often cause of the ruin of such as cast themselves into it without judgement. Loath, that was so wise and so chaste in an infamous city infected with the most horrible disorder that sensuality could commit, became dissolute and incestuous in the desert. And some Regulars do say that they find none so tractable nor so humble as those that were before eminent in dignity in the world, nor none so arrogant & harder to be governed then those that coming from base descent, do see themselves as the Ass of Isis in the Emblem, honoured because of the reputation of sanctity which there The Friars much honoured by their habits. habit doth get unto them, and that without it, neither by their birth, nor by their merits should they be any thing esteemed. It is to those that it belongs to say with the Psalmist, my cords or knots, that is to say, my vows do me great honour, & they are the most excellent portion of my inheritance. And if ease & commodity do carry them to immoderation, then may they say that their iniquity doth proceed from their fatness and from the abondance of their bread, being no more subject to the labour & travail of other men. And if propriety do slide amongst them, than is all lost, for that is the sin of Achan which draw malediction, upon their heads. For aught I can gather out of your discourse, quoth Tristan, the state of perfection acquired in which are all Prelates doth consist in the eminency of their dignity & character: and the state of perfection to be acquired, wherein are the Regulars, doth consist in their three vows, in which they put the essence of regularity. That is the opinion of some Doctors, saith Nicephorus, but in this subject all are not of the same opinion. And that it is so, the Regulars themselves do make distinctions of the state of perfection amongst them, and although their Provincials and Generals who with them do hold the place of Bishops and Archbishops in their particular Hierarchy, are but simple Priests for Superiors of Regulars are but simple Priests. their character, & for these dignities unknown in the Church four hundred years ago, nevertheless do they repute them to be in the state of perfection acquired as Prelates are, & they give them also the name of Prelates, which doth pass to the Abbots by they Titulars or Commendataries, and to many others in the Court of Rome, which have no Prelatship but by name only, having no charge of souls nor any function in the Church. Some Regulars do make this state of perfection acquired to descend yet more low, to their Priours, Gardiens, Ministers, Correctors, Rectours & other Superiors of particular Conuents, although they deny it to Curates & Pastors of Parishesse, it may be with as little reason as they do attribute it to themselves. For I do not think that I should swerve much from the judgement of the truth and of the Pastors as great as the Superiors of Regular houses. Church, if I should say that the Pastors are at the least as great & greater than the Superiors of Regular houses, as having many more souls under their government than they have; for where is that Monastery which hath forty or fifty thousand Friars in it, as there is a Parish that S. Eustase in Paris for one. hath so many Parisioners within it precinct, and which is more, holding The Hierarchy of the Clergy is the principal & most ancient of the Church. the same rank in the first, principal & most ancient Hierarchy of the church, which is that of the Clergy, that the Cloister Priors and Superiors do hold in the second and new Hierarchy, of Regulars? There do not want also some famous Doctors The Regulars make a new Hierarchy by themselues. which have placed the Pastors in the state of perfection acquired; as the Prelates are, because they have the same obligation which they have (& in some sort more strict than they, because they are the immediate Pastors of the people that put their lives in hazard for the salvation of their flock. For it is in that that the high point Perfect charity in the Pastoral charge. of perfect charity doth consist, and consequently the top of acquired perfection. Wherefore then saith Tristan, do they cast you so far of (I speak of you Hermit's) from the state of perfection to be acquired? It is without doubt, because you do not make the vows nor the profession of any rule. Sir, said Nicephorus, I did always divert myself from that blow, desiring rather to speak of those that are of some worth in the Church then of us poor solitary people, who live in obscurity, among the dead men of the world, of which there is no mention in the Catalogue of the living: but seeing you, by your inquiries do present them upon the stage, who by the profession of their life ought to hide themselues, to imitate our Saviour in his hidden life, it is requisite that I speak unto you of a thing that is not, as of a thing that is. Know then that as there are Conuentuall friars and Conuentuall friars, so are there Hermit's and Hermit's. There Good & bad friars as there be good and bad Hermit's is not almost any Order of Regulars whereof there is not a Reformation, in sort that such as live according the strict observance of their rule are called the Reformed, and the others the Mitigate, a name truly too mild, which doth injustly flatter their disorder and relaxation. For mitigation doth presuppose some temperature of austerity in the rule by Apostolical authority: But not so manifest infraction of the vows of obedience and poverty, as that which is known to be, and which the holy sea did never authorise. In like manner there are Hermit's vacabonds & voluntaries, who have neither house nor home, children of Belial, who will have no yoke nor subjection, who live after their own fancy, and as the Psalmist saith, who do walk in their own desires, & pass their lives according the inconstant affection of their hearts: Clouds without water Ep. judae. carried about of winds; and for whom the tempest of darkness is reserved, & perpetual unquietness in punishment of their instability. These kind of people are Hermit's only by habit, & not by life, by appearance and not by effect, people without approbation, slaves to their proper wills, and not only far from the state of perfection, but also from the perfection of their estate, if a condition so uncertain & so irregular may be called an estate. But there are other Hermit's, who are in the stability of a settled life, true followers and children of those first Anacorites, who like shining stars lightened the heaven of the primitive Church by the lively beams of their holy virtues, whose memory shall never perish, but will be still conserved fresh, in the very decline of time, and in the old age of the world They are men that stick like ivy to the stock & wall of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and like the vigne that join fast to the elm tree. Those men do sequester themselves from the world by a local solitude, to the end to hearken more attentively in the mental solitude that, which God shall speak to their hearts. They have chosen the best part with Marry, but in that sort that when the necessity of the neighbour or the service of the Church doth call them, they imitate these wise maidens, as said that ancient Hermit, who never departed their father's house, but to carry water when their neighbour's house was surprised with fire. Charity & necessity being the only two causes which might and ought justly interrupt the sweet repose of their silence. These Hermit's are absolutely and entirely subject to the Ordinaries, who are the Bishops, they may be judged by their officials, they are subject to the visits of their General Vicars and Archdeacon's, and they acknowledge also for their Superiors & Pastors, the Pastors in whose Parishesse are situated their Hermitages. These do receive their holy habit at the hands of the Prelates, or of such as are deputed by them to them with the Ecclesiastical benedictions & ceremonies, they go not out of the Diocese without leave, they establish themselves in their dwellings with the permission & leave of the Bishops and Pastors, & also with the consent A good example for Regulars. of the neighbouring people, they do not beg but with the licence of the Pastors; in some they depend in all things of their wills. If they be Priests, they make the two solemn vows annexed to holy orders, between the hands of the most Reverend Bishop who doth consecreate them, which are the vows of chastity and obedience, and that they may not lose also the merit of the vow of poverty, besides the practice which they make of it by begging, many of them do vow it between the hands of the Prelates or of their Officers, bereaving themselves of all propriety, and reserving but the simple use of the alms which are given them, ready to quit the same at the first command of those whom the heavens hath given them for Superiors. What think, you Sir, are those men in the state of perfection to be acquired as are the Conuentuall friars? I would think they are, quoth Tristan, but the Conuentualls do not think it, who do not put the state of perfection in the vows only, but do require besides that they be made under some of the Rules approved by the Church. Truly, quoth the Hermit, that is extreme rigour; but I pray you, what better rule can we have then that of the Scripture, than the examples of the patriarchs & Prophets, who lived in the wilderness, then that of our Saviour fasting in the desert, transfiguring himself upon mont Thabor, and passing a great part of his life upon the most retired mountains; then that of his forerunner saint john Baptist, then that of saint Paul the first Hermit, of great saint Anthony, of saint Hilarion; in some, of so many thousand Anacoretes, whose names written in the book of life are glorious in heaven, and blessed on earth? Can any man doubt but these excellent Anacoretes were in the state of perfection although they did not make the three vows under any rule? In good sooth, a man must have extraordinary patience to endure these inequalities; and to speak with the sacred Amante; The children of my mother fought against me, & put me, in the guard of the vines. It did not appertain but to S. Paul to diwlge his own proper praises with good grace, because he did know how to refer all very properly to God, when he said: Not I, but the grace of God in me, by which I am that which I am: but I did menage it well, & in such sort as it was not inutile in my hands. I dare nevertheless praise my soul in God as saith the Psalmist, to the end to rejoice the courteous, and tell you, that if so be the Regulars do say they are themselves in the state of perfection, for having made the three vows under a certain Rule between the hands of their Superiors, The Superiors of Regulars are but simple Priests. who are but simple Priests, I think to have right to say the same, having received my habit by the hands of a Bishop, made profession of the same vows between his hands, under such rules & Constitutions as pleased his charity to prescribe unto me, and having so submitted my will to his, that I have no other desire but to obey him: When he bids me go, I go, when he bids me come, I come, shuning no occasion by his commandment to do service according my power to the sheep of his fold, with the permission of the Reverend Pastors; In this sort I do visit the sick in these quarters, I confess those that come to me, being for that purpose approved by the Ordinary, Regulars should have the approbation of the Bishops. I do administer to them the holy Eucharist when they come to the Oratory of this house; I go from village to village teaching the Christian doctrine to children, Catechising the rude, Euamgelizing the poor, instructing the great ones, & making exhortations to them according the talent which God gave me. If in consequens of this they do me some good, it is according the Apostle, to reepe temporal things having sown spiritual things; and what I get over and above what is necessary, I give it to the poor. Lo how I pass over this life, caring little if I be in the state of perfection or no, so that I correct myself of the imperfections which are unworthy of my estate, little curious of those titles which the Cenobiticall friars do attribute to themselves, to be the Coadiutours of the Bishops, Specious titles which the Regulars give to themselves. to be Apostolical men, to lead the Apostolical life, to be men sent by the sea Apostolic to supply the defects of the ordinary Pastors, to be troops of succour, to be the props of the Church, to be the pillars and firm colomnes of her which is herself the colome and foundation of truth, knowing that all these qualities are annexed to Priesthood, sith that Prelates ordering Priests do call them their cooperators & fellow workers, the supporters of their Pastoral Order, and many other very honourable names. The condition of a Monk is truly very venerable, so is that of Conuentuall friars, of Religious men; let them call them as they will, and as they please, or in one word, that of Regulars or of Friars, (albeit the Regular Clerks do apprehend as much to be called this last name, as they would to handle a burning coal without tongs.) But for my part, I believe that all men of good understanding will always esteem as much The condition of a Priest is to be esteemed as much or more, as any other state in the Church. and more the condition of a Priest as any of those. Notwithstanding to shun the obstinate contention which the Apostle doth so expressly forbid, it is better leave them in the arbitrable possession of the state of perfection, seeing that by their tongues as by the tongue of Hercules Gaulois the Destinies do spin the reputation of men, nothing being well done, according the Castilian proverb, but that which proceedeth out of a Monk or friars head. THE RESPECT and honour which is due to the Order & dignity of Priesthood declared and proved by the authority both of holy Scripture and of the ancient Fathers of the Church. YOU have seen gentle Reader in the precedent Discourse how the Regulars to extol themselves are not content by their rigorous censures to give a sentence of exclusion against Hermit's and Secular Priests (as they term them) from the state of perfection in which they place the meanest of themselves, in virtue of their three vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, but also proclaim them to be base and of no consideration. And that you may judge whether that be conformable to the holy Scripture & to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers of the primative Church, I thought good to produce here a few authorities of the one & of the other, proving the dignity and authority of Priests. God instructing the children of Israël how to decide all controversies that should arise amongst them, said: Thou shalt come to the Priests of the Leviticall stock, and to the judge, that Deut. 17. shall be at that time: and thou shalt ask of them, who shall show thee the truth The high Priests chief judge of all controversies of the judgement. And thou shalt do whatsoever they, that are presidents of the place, which our Lord shall choose, shall say and teach thee according to his la; and thou shalt follow their sentence: neither shalt thou decline to the right hand nor to the left hand. But he that shall be proud, refusing to obey the commandment of the Priest, which at that time ministereth to our Lord thy God, & the decree of the judge, that man shall die. What could be said more to show the dignity and authority of Priests then whosoever would not obey them, nor stand to their judgement should die; but that is not all. The Prophet Malachias speaking of the covenant which God made with the tribe of Levi saith to the same purpose: The lips of the Priest Mala. 2▪ shall keep knowledge, and the law they shall require of his mouth: because he is the Angel of God. The Ecclesiasticus teaching a man how to carry himself first towards God, & after towards the Priests saith Eccles. 7. thus: In all thy soul fear our Lord, & sanctify his Priests. And after; Honour God withal thy soul, & honour the Priests. Saint Peter who was a Priest himself speaks thus to Priests: You are an elect generation, a kingly Priesthood, Pet. 2. a holy Nation a people of purchase. Was it not to Priests that our Saviour himself said: Whatsoever you Matt. 18. v. 18. shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall lose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. Many other passages might be produced out of holy Scripture to prove the dignity of Priests, & the respect which is due to them, but these shall fuffice at this time so you consider them well: for you see that to Priests God gave power to judge and decide all controversies, and that he gave sentence of death upon any that would not obey them. You see moreover that they are called the Angels of God, that all men were commanded to honour and respect them, that they are called an elect generation, a holy nation, and that their Priesthood is a Royal dignity. And which is more than all that, you see how CHRIST gave them the power to lose and bind upon earth, and that their act therein is ratified in heaven. Now rests to show what the ancient Fathers of the primitive Church do say of Priesthood, and in what esteem Priests were in their time, in which there was no speech neither of Benedictins which are the Ancientest in our Latin Church, and began the year 529. nor of Dominicans, nor Franciscans, which began the year 1209. nor yet of Augustins, nor Carmelites as they are approved by the Church, no nor of bernardin's, much less of the rest which now, flourish in the Church under several names, but all was ruled and governed by Priests. Saint Ignatius Martyr and the third Bishop of Antiochia after S. Peter commanding all lay persons to be subject unto, and reverence Epist. ad Smyrn. Priests and Diacons sayeth thus: Diaconos revereamini ut ex Dei praecepto ministrantes: Honour yea the Deacons as ministering by the precept of God. Epist. ad Ephes. And after: Enitimini charissimi subiecti esse Episcopo & Presbyteris & Diaconis. Qui enim his obedit, obedit Christo. My dearest do your best to be subject to the Bishop, and Priests, and Deacons, for he that obeyeth these obeyeth CHRIST. Saint Policarp disciple to saint john the Apostle sayeth: Subiectiestote Epist. ad Philip. Presbyteris, & Diaconis, sicut Deo, & CHRISTO. Be yea subject unto the Priests and Deacons, as to God and CHRIST. Saint Clement disciple to saint Peter, saith: Presbyteris si assiduè in study Const. Apost. l. 2. c. 8. docendi verbum Dei laboraverint, seponatur dupla etiam portio in gratiam Apostolorum Christi, quorum locum tenent, c. 35. tanquam Consiliarij Episcopi & Senatus Ecclesiae. Si de parentibus secundum c. 38. carnem ait divina Scriptura: Honora patrem & matrem ut benè tibi sit. Et qui maledicit patri aut matri, morte moriatur: Quanto magis de Patribus spiritualibus Priests are spiritual Fathers. verbis Dei moneamur, honore & charitate eos prosequi, ut beneficos & ad Deum Legatos. Quanto anima corpore praestantior est, tanto est Sacerdotium regno excellentius. Let there be a double portion, reserved for the Priests in honour of the Apostles of CHRIST, which shall have laboured in teaching of the word of God diligently, whose places they enjoy, as Counselors of the Bishop, and the crown of the Church. They are the Council & Senate of the Church. If the holy Scripture saith of carnal parents: Honour thy Father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. And whosoever doth curse his father or his mother, shall die: how much more shall we be admonished by the Priests are spiritual words of God, of our Spiritual Fathers, to respect them with honour and charity, as beneficial to us and Legates to God? How much more noble the soul is then the body, so much more excellent is Priesthood before a kingdom. And S. Ignatius Epist. ad Smyrn. addeth: Sacerdotium est omnium bonorum, que in hominibus sunt apex; qui adversus illud furit, non hominem ignominia afficit, sed Deum & Christum jesum primogenitum, qui naturâ solus est summus Sacerdos Patris. Priesthood is the ornament of all things, which are in men; whosoever doth rage against it, he doth not dishonour a man, but God & Christ jesus the first begotten, who by nature is the only high Priest of his Father. The Apostles writ by saint Clement's Const. l. 2. cap. 2. pen: Si Reges invadens supplicio dignus indicatur, quamuis filius vel amicus sit, quanto magis. qui Sacerdotibus insultat: quanto enim Sacerdotium regno est excellentius, cum regendarum animarum officio praesit, tanto graviori supplicio punitur, qui adversus id aliquid temere fecerit, quam qui adversus regnum: If he that setteth on a king is judged worthy of punishment, although he be his son or his friend, how much more should he be blame worthy that insulteth over Priests. For by how much more Priesthood excelleth a kingdom, when it doth by office govern The prerogative of Pastors. souls, by so much more greater punishment is he to be afflicted, who shall rashly do any thing against it, than he who hath offended a kingdom. Presbyteri sunt (saith saint Ignatius) Epist. ad Trallen. concessus quidam & coniunctus Apostolorum Chorus, fine his Ecclesia electa non est: nulla sine his Sanctorum Congregatio, nulla Sanctorum electio. Quid Sacerdotium aliud est, quam sacer caetus, Consiliarij & assessores Episcopi. Priests are indeed a certain Assembly, and united quire of the Apostles. Without The Church cannot be without priests. these the Church is not chosen, without these there is no Congregation of Saints, nor election of Saints. What else is Priesthood, than an holy Assembly Consellours and Assistants of the Bishops? Saint Anacletus Pope living in this age & made Priest by S. Peter, saith: Epist. 2. Iniuria Sacerdotum pertinet ad Christum, cuius vice funguntur. The injury done unto Priests, appertain to Christ, whose place they supplieth. Saint chrysostom treating of Homil. 5. de verb. Isaiae: Vidi Dominum. the same matter and comparing a Priest to a king, saith: Ne mihi narres purpuram neque Diadema, neque vestes aureas, umbrae sunt isthaec omnia, vernisque flosculis leviora. Ne inquam mihinarres ista, sed si vis videre discrimen quantum absit Rex à Sacerdote, expende modum potestatis utrique traditae, videbis Sacerdotem multo sublimius Rege sedentem. Regius thronus rerum terrenarum administrationem sortitus est, nec ultra potestatem hanc praeterea quicquam habet authoritatis: Verum Sacerdoti thronus in caelis collocatus est, & de caelestibus negotijs pronuntiandi habet authoritatem. Quis haec dicit? ipse caelorum Rex: Quaecunque ligaveritis superterran, erunt ligata & in caelis, & quecunque solueritis super terram, erunt soluta & in celis. Deus ipsum Regale caput Sacerdotis manibus subiecit, nos erudiens, quod hic princeps est illo maior. Speak not to me of these things, but if thou wilt see the power given to them both, thou shalt see the Priest sitting much higher in dignity then the king. The throne of a king is chosen of the administration of earthly things: neither hath he any other authority besides this: but to a Priest a throne is placed in heaven, & he hath authority to judge of heavenly business. Who sayeth this? The king of heaven himself. Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in the heavens: and whatsoever ye shall lose on earth, shall be loosed in the heavens. God hath subjected to the hands of the Priests the Regal head, teaching us, that this Prince is greater than that. The same Author speaking further of this matter saith: Sacerdotibus datum est, ut potestatem habeant, Chrys. l. 3. de Sacerd. quam Deus neque Angelis neque Archangelis datam esse voluit. Neque enim ad illos dictum est: Quaecunque alligaveritis in terrâ, erunt alligata & in caelo, Et quaecunque solueritis in terrâ erunt soluta & in caelo. It is given to Priests, that they shall have power, which God would have given neither to Angels nor Archangels. For it is not said to them: whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever you shall lose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. The power of binding which is in Princes, is only over bodies, that of Priests over souls, and extendeth to heaven. A continuation of the same Author: Chrysost. ibidem. Habent & terrestres Principes vinculi potestatem verum corporum solum: id autem quod dico Sacerdotum vinculum ipsam etiam animam contingit atque ad caelos usque pervadit. Terrene Princes also have the power of fetters, but of the body only; but that which I say, the bonds of Priests toucheth the soul itself, and passeth unto the heavens. This is the doctrine delivered by CHRIST, so expounded both by the Greek and Latin Church. Item, In an other place he saith: An Chrysost. Homil. 2. supper 2. ad Timot. ignoras quid sit Sacerdos? Angelus utique Domini est, non ex se ipso loquitur, si despicis, non illum despicis sed Deum qui illum ordinavit. Art thou ignorant what is a Priest? he is verily the Angel of our Lord, he doth not speak of himself, if you despise, it is not him that you despise, but God who ordained him. And in an other place: Monachorum certamen ingens & labour multus est: Verum si conferre quis volet instituti illius sudores Chrys. lib. de Sacerd. cum rectè administrato Sacerdotio, certè tantum esse inter duo illa discrimen comperiet, quantum est inter privatum & Regem. The conflict and labour of Monks is great: but if any would confer the pains & labour of that institution with priesthood duly administered; truly he shall find as much difference between them both as between a king and a private man. Lo how far he puts a Priest beyond a Monk or Religious man. Saint Hierome who was himself a S. Hier. in Malac. 3. Religious man saith: Sacerdotibus ac Levitis honorem debitum deferamus: quod qui non fecerit, Deum fraudare & supplantare convincitur. Let us give due honour to Priests & Levites: which, who will not do is manifestly proved to defraud and supplant God. The same Author in an other place Epist, ad Heliod. saith: Mihi ante Presbyterum sedere non licet, illi si peccavero licet tradere me Sathane in interitum carnis. It is not lawful for me to sit before the Priest, for him it is lawfall if I sin, to deliver me up to Satan, to the destruction of the flesh. Saint Ambrose in his learned treatise of the dignity of Priests salutes Lib. de dig. Sacer. them with those venerable Epitets: Audite me, beatissimi Patres, etsi dignum ducitis, sanctissimi Fratres, audite me stirps Levitica, germane Sacerdotale, propago sanctificata, Deuces & Rectores gregis Christi. Et paulò post. Honour & sublimitas Sacerdotalis, nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari, si Regum fulgori compares, & Principum diademati, long erit inferius, quam si plumbi metallum, auri fulgorem compares: quippè cum videas Regum & Principum colla submitti genibus Sacerdotum, & exosculatis eorum dextris orationibus eorum credunt se communiri. Hear me, most blessed Fathers, & if you take it in good part, most holy It is due to Priests to be called Fathers. Brothers, hear me you Leviticall stock, you Sacerdotal branch, you sanctified race, you leaders and governors of Christ's flock. And a little after; The honour and sublimity of priesthood cannot be equalised by any comparisons, if you compare it to the splendour of kings, & to Prince's crowns, that will be far more unequal to it, then if you did compare the mettle of lead to the splendour of gold: for you see the necks of kings and Princes bowed down to the knees of Priests, and having kissed their right hands they believe that they are fortified and strengthened by their prayers. S. chrysostom wrote six books of the dignity and power of Priests putting it above all kings, Princes & Potentats of the earth, and in his third book he saith thus: Sacerdotium ipsum in terra quidem peragitur, sed in rerum caelestium classem, ordinemque referendum est, atque id quidem merito; quip non mortalis quispiam, non Angelus, non alia quaevis creata potentia, sed Deus ipse ordinem huiusmodi disponit. Prieshood truly is exercised in earth, but it is to be referred to the rank and order of celestial things, and that truly very worthily; because it is no mortal man, nor Angel nor any other created power, but God himsef that doth dispose & appoint this order. Sacerdotibus sicut Episcopis, inquit sanctus Isidorus, dispensatio Mysteriorum Dei commissa est: praesunt enim Lib. 2. de Diu. Off. cap. 7. Ecclesiae, & in confectione divina corporis & sanguinis consortes cum Episcopo sunt, similiter in doctrina populorum & in officio predicationis. To Priests as to Bishops the dispensation of the mysteries of God is committed: for that they bear the rule in the Church and in the divine consecration of the body and blood of Christ, they are consorts with the Bishops likewise in teaching the people, and in the office of preaching. Philippus de Hareing a Religious and a most learned Abbot in his work which he wrote four hundred and fifty years ago: De dignitate, scientia & iustitia & continentia Cleritorum, doth highly commend the Regulars, but in every chapter he preferreth the Clergy before all Regulars, though himself was one: In his 17. chapter he saith thus: Nostrum est novissimum locum eligere nec ad altiora volatu praesumptuoso nos ipsos erigere. It is our parts (that is to say, the part of Religious men) to choose the last place, and not by a presumptuous flight to elevat ourselves to higher things. And in his 17. epistle he sayeth, that from all the bounds and limits of the earth, all antiquity did ever extol the clerical order, and ever gave it amongst the other Orders the principal rank and degree, and though by divine disposition a Soildiour or Rustic do excel in sanctity, yet the Clergy man in excellency of Ecclesiastical dignity; and although the Clergy man, as we do sometimes, decline to worldly things, and to the weak & poor elements, yet their Order declineth not in authority. Thus he: To which I must add this other passage of saint Jerome which doth occur unto me: Communi Presbyterorum Concilio Ecclesiae S. Higher in ep. ad Tit. gubernabantur: The Churches were governed by the common council of Priests; And I must not forget this passage of Bellarmin who was a jesuit and a Cardinal: Tria sunt Ecclesiae membra praecipua, primum eorum est, qui in statu perfectionis Belar. l. 2. cap. 5. de Gemitu Columbae. adeptae esse dicuntur, qui sunt Episcopi Ecclesiarum Principes, & Magistri, quibus adiungimus Presbyteros qui sunt minores Sacerdotes, atque eorum administros. There are three chief members of the church; the first of them are those that are said to be in the state of perfection acquired, which are the Bishops the Princes and masters of the churches, to which we join the Priests, who are the inferior Priests, and their assistants. And the same Author in the preface of his second book, De Monachis saith: Disseruimus, libro superiori de Episcopis & Clericis, id est, de prima & nobilissima parte corporis Eclesiastici: We have discoursed in the former book of Bishops and Clergymen that is to say, of the chief & noblest part of the Ecclesiastical body. The Council of Trent speaking of the Hierarchy of the Church saith thus: Si quis dixerit in Ecclesia Catholica Can. 6. non esse Hierarchiam Divina ordinatione institutam que constat ex Episcopis, Presbyteris & ministris anathemasit. Whosoever will say that in the Catholic Church there is not a Hierarchy instituted by divine ordinance, which consists of Bishops, Priests & Ministers, let him be cursed. Lo, You see that the Council makes no mention here of Regulars, which by all likelihood it would have done, if they had been of this Hierarchy. To be brief in all these passages, both out of Scripture & out of the Fathers which are not the toeth of the passages which might be produced for this matter, the Reader will see but little or no mention of Regulars; and in the little mention that is made of them by late writers, he shall find that Priests, both for dignity & office are still preferred to them, and are put in a far higher rank than they; which considered, he may conclude with himself that the propositions specified in the Dedicatory Epistle of this treatise, are of a new stamp forged by the Regulars themselves: For had there been any such prerogative granted to them by God or by his Church, who can imagine that all ancient writers, speaking of all the members & dignities of the Church would omit to speak of them, & of these prerogatives which now they challenge to themselves? Notwithstanding I do not wish Priests (but counsel the contrary) to take any pride of this, nor set the less by Regulars, but acknowledge them to be a noble & profitable portion of God's Church, and as such to embrace & cherish them; and rather receive injuries patiently of them, then offer them any, remembering that saying of the Apostle: If you bite and eat one an other: take Gal. 5. v. 15 heed you be not consumed one of an other. FINIS.