A dissvvasive from popery to the people of Ireland By Jeremy Lord Bishop of Dovvn.

Sect. III.

BUt then for penances and satisfactions of which they boast so much, as being so great restraints to sin, these as they are publickly handled, are nothing but words and ineffective sounds. For first, if we consi∣der what the penances themselves are which are en∣joyn'd; they are reduc'd from the Antient Canonical penances to private and arbitrary; from years to hours; from great severity to gentleness and flattery; from fast∣ing and publick shame to the saying over their beads; from cordial to ritual, from smart to money, from hearti∣ness and earnest to pageantry and theatrical images of pe∣nance; and if some Confessors happen to be se∣vere, there are ways enough to be eased. For the Pe∣nitent may have leave to go to a gentler, or he may get commutations, or he may get some body else * 1.1 to do them for him: and if his penances be never so great, or never so little, yet may be all supplied by In∣dulgencies; of which there are such store in the Lateran at Rome, that as Pope Boniface said, No man is able to number them; yet he confirm'd them all.

In the Church of Sancta Maria de Popolo there are for every day in the year, two thousand and eight hundred years of pardon, besides fourteen thousand and fourteen Carentanes; which in one year amount to more than a Million; all which are confirm'd by Pope Paschal the First, Boniface the VIII, and Gregory the IX. In the Church of S. Vitus and Modestus there are for every day

in the year seven thousand years and seven thousand Carentanes of pardon, and a pardon of a third part of all our sins besides; and the price of all this, is but pray∣ing before an altar in that Church. At the Sepulchre of Christ in Venice there is hung up a prayer of S. Au∣stin, with an Indulgence of fourscore and two thousand years granted by Boniface the VIII. (who was of all the Popes the most bountiful of the Churches treasure) and Benedict the XI. to him that shall say it, and that for e∣very day toties quoties. The Divine pardon of Sica gave a plenary indulgence to every one that being confessed and communicated, should pray there in the Franciscan Church of Sancta Maria de gli Angeli, and this pardon is ab omni poend & culp••. The English of that we easily un∣derstand; but the meaning of it we do not, because they will not own that these Indulgences do profit any one whose guilt is not taken away by the Sacrament of pe∣nance. But this is not the onely snare in which they have inextricably intangled themselves; but be it as they please for this, whatever it was, it was since en∣larged by Sixtus IV. and Sixtus V. to all that shall wear S. Francis Chord. The saying a few Pater nosters and Ave's before a priviledged altar can in innumerable pla∣ces procure vast portions of this Treasure; and to deliver a soul out of Purgatory, whom they list, is promised to many upon easie terms, even to the saying of their Beads over with an appendant Medal of the Popes Be∣nediction. Every Priest at his third or fourth Masse is as sure (as may be) to deliver the souls of his parents; and a thousand more such stories as these are to be seen every where and every day.

Once for all: There was a Book printed at Paris by Francis Reg••ault, A. D. 1536, May 25. called The hours

of the most blessed Virgin Mary according to the use of Sa∣rum, in which for the saying three short prayers written in Rome in a place called, The Chappel of the Holy Cross of seven Romans, are promised fourscore and ten thousand years of pardon of deadly sin. Now the meaning of these things is very plain. By these devices they serve themselves, and they do not serve God. They serve themselves by this Doctrine:* 1.2 For they teach that what penance is ordinarily imposed, does not take away all the punishment that is due; for they do not impose what was antiently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons, but some little thing instead of it: and it may be, that what was anciently enjoyn'd by the penitential Canons, is not so much as God will exact, (for they suppose that he will forgive nothing but the guilt and the eternity; but he will exact all that can be demanded on this side hell, even to the last farthing he must be paid some way or other, even when the guilt is taken away, but there∣fore to prevent any falling that way, they have given indulgences enough to take off what was due by the Old Canons, and what may be due by the severity of God; and if these fail, they may have recourse to the Priests, and they by their Masses can make supply: so that their Disciples are well, and the want of ancient Discipline shall do them no hurt.

But then how little they serve Gods end by treating the sinner so gently, will be very evident. For by this means they have found out a way, that though, it may be, God will be more severe than the old penitential Canons, and although these Canons were much more severe than men are now willing to suffer, yet neither for the one or the other shall they need to be troubled: they have found out an easier way to go to heaven than

so. An indulgence will be no great charge, but that will take off all the supernumerary penances which ought to have been imposed by the ancient Discipline of the Church, and may be requir'd by God. A little alms to a Priest, a small oblation to a Church, a pilgri∣mage to the image or reliques of a Saint, wearing Saint Francis Chord, saying over the beads with an hallowed appendant, entering into a Fraternity, praying at a pri∣viledged altar, leaving a legacy for a soul Mass, visiting a priviledged Caemetery, and twenty other devices will secure the sinner from suffering punishment here or hereafter, more then his friendly Priest is pleased gently to impose.

To them that ask, what should any one need to get so many hundred thousand years of pardon, as are ready to be had upon very easie terms? They answer as before; that whereas it may be for perjury the antient Canons enjoyned penance all their life * 1.3; that will be supposed to be twenty or forty years, or suppose an hundred: if the man have been perjur'd a thousand times, and com∣mitted adultery so often,* 1.4 and done innumerable other sins, for every one of which he deserves to suffer forty years penance, and how much more in the account of God he deserves, he knows not; if he be attrite and confess'd so that the guilt is taken away, yet as much temporal punishment remains due as is not paid here: but the indulgences of the Church will take off so much as it comes to; even of all that would be suffered in Purgatory. Now it is true, that Purgatory (at least as is believ'd) cannot last a hundred thousand years: but yet God may by the acerbity of the flames in twenty years, equal the Canonical penances of twenty thousand years: to prevent which, these indulgences of so many

thousand years are devised. A wise and thrifty in∣vention, sure and well contriv'd, and rightly applotted according to every mans need, and according as they suspect his bill shall amount to.

This strange invention, as strange as it is, will be own'd,* 1.5 for this is the account of it which we find in Bel∣larmine: and although Gerson and Dominicus à Soto are asham'd of these prodigious indulgences, and suppose that the Popes Quaestuaries onely did procure them, yet it must not be so disown'd; truth is truth, and it is notoriously so; and therefore a reason must be found out for it, and this is it which we have accounted. But the use we make of it is this. That since they have de∣clar'd that when sinnes are pardoned so easily, yet the punishment remains so very great, and that so much must be suffered here or in Purgatory; it is strange that they should not onely in effect pretend to shew more mercy than God does, or the primitive Church did; but that they should directly lay aside the primi∣tive Discipline, and while they declaim against their adversaries for saying they are not necessary, yet at the same time they should devise tricks to take them quite away, so that neither penances shall much smart here, nor Purgatory (which is a device to make men to be Mulata's, as the Spaniard calls, half Christians, a device to make a man go to heaven and to hell too) shall not torment them hereafter. However it be, yet things are so ordered, that the noise of penances need not trouble the greatest criminal, unless he be so unfortunate as to live in no countrey and near no Church, and with∣out Priest, or Friend, or Money, or notice of any thing that is so loudly talk'd of in Christendom. If he be, he hath no help but one; he must live a holy and a severe

life, which is the onely great calamity which they are commanded to suffer in the Church of England: but if he be not; the case is plain, he may by these doctrines take his ease.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Eman. Sa, V. Satisfact. n. 10. T••let. l. 3. instr. sacerd. cap. 11. n. 6.
• * 1.2

  Tolet. instr. sa∣cerd. lib. 3. cap. 11. n. 6.
• * 1.3

  Vide Concil. Tribur. c. 54. Burchard. lib. 19.
• * 1.4

  Tertul. lib. de Poenitentia.
• * 1.5

  De indulgent. l. 1. c. 9. Sect. Existit autem.