Utrum horum, or, The nine and thirty articles of the Church of England, at large recited, and compared with the doctrines of those commonly called Presbyterians on the one side, and the tenets of the Church of Rome on the other both faithfully quoted from their own most approved authors / by Hen. Care.

The Papists

Do not in Terms contradict this Arti∣cle, but are guilty of many Errors and vile Superstitions about Excommunicati∣on. As,

1. In the form of it, For thus Gra∣tian in the Decrees (Caus. 11. q. 3. cap. 106. debent) reports the manner of it in that Church—Twelve Priests ought to stand round about the Bishop, with lighted Tapers in their hands, which at the end of the Curse, or Excommu∣nication, they ought to throw upon the ground, and tread upon with their Feet, and then a Letter is to be sent throughout the Parishes, with the Names of those Excommunicated, and the Causes of it. Others relate the Ce∣remony more largely thus, That it is done with three Candles or Tapers, and that they Curse the Parties, Soul and Body to the Devil, and say, Let us quench

their Souls in Hell Fire, (if they be Dead) as this Candle is put out (and therewith one of the lights is presently extinguisht.) If they be alive, Let us pray, that their Eyes may be put out at this Candle (and so out goes the Second.) And that all their Senses may fail them as this Candle loseth its light, (and so the Third is gone.) All which is per∣formed with ringing of a Bell, as the Mag∣deburgenses, Cent. 13. cap. 6. relate, whence arises our Proverb of Cursing With Bell, Book and Candle.

2. In the Causes of it; gross Sins e∣scape. For their ungodly Law saith,—He that hath not a Wife, but instead of a Wife a Concubine, Let him not be debarred from the Communion: They are the very Words of Gratian, de∣cret. dist. 34. cap. 4. Is qui non habet Uxorem & pro Uxore Concubinam a Communione non repellatur, and yet they Trifle with this Tremendous Cen∣sure in most trivial Cases. The Arch Bishop of Canterbury, in King Henry the 4ths time, laid an Interdict on the Churches of London for not Ringing their Bells when he went through the City; D'Au∣roult,

himself a Jesuite, in his Book In∣tituled, Flores Exemplorum, Tom. 1. Tit. 63. ex. 9. Licensed by the Provin∣cial of that Order, not 70 years ago, complains thus—We are fallen now (saith he) into such times, That if a Person hath but lost his Rakes, or Mattocks, or his Fork, he thinks he cannot find them by any more conve∣nient means, than by the Sentence of Excommunication, viz. upon the Stea∣lers, if they do not Restore them. 'Tis true, the Council of Trent. Sess. 25. cap. 3. inter Decret. Reform. Ordains, That no Excommunications for discovery, as they are called, of lost, or stollen Goods should pass by any other Person than the Bishop himself; and then with great Circumspection. Which shews that such abuses had been commonly pra∣ctis'd, and that they held the same not unlawful; Provided the Bishop granted the Sentence.

3. In the Subjects,—They extend it to the Dead: Their grand Council of Constance, Cursed Wickliffe more than forty Years after he was Dead—And D'Auroult, in his Book last cited, Tom. 1.

Tit. 62. Ex. 1. gravely gives the Reason of it, Although (saith he) the Dead cannot properly be Excommuni∣cated, or Absolv'd; yet in as much as they are in respect of their Bodies, ei∣ther in the Bowels of the Earth, or up∣on it, the Church for terrors sake Excommunicateth and Absolveth some. Nay, they thunder it out against Insects and Inanimate things; For St. Bernerd, they tell us, Excommunicated the Flies that troubled him, when he went about to Consecrate an Oratory at Fusniack, and in the Morning they were all found dead, if you will believe the Life of that Saint, l. 1. cap. 12. Sparrows us'd to foul St. Vincents Church; The Bishop of the Place Excommunicated them, and they ne∣ver came there more; nay, if any caught a Sparrow and thrust it into the Church, 'twould presently dye, de Tempore Serm. 69. A Priest saying Mass to the Young Men, they would be running out to gather Fruit in an adjoining Orchard, and he Excommu∣nicated it, and it ever after was barren; Promptuar. Serm. dist. Exempl. 41. To con∣clude, the Devil himself hath not escaped them; A Woman was six years plagued

with an Incubus Devil, soliciting her to naughtiness, she complains to St. Bernard, he Excommunicates the Devil, and In∣terdicts his Access to her, or any other, St. Antonines Chronicle, part. 2. tir. 17. cap. 5. Sect. 9.—What a graceless Religion is this, to tell such ridiculous lyes, and sport thus with an Instituti∣on so full of Terror.