The apology of the Church of England, and an epistle to one Seignior Scipio…

5. WELL, but suppose in the next place, that the Pope, tho one is above all Councils, that is, that he is a part greater than the whole, has more Power, yea, and more Wisdom too, than all his Party besides; and that in spite of St Jeromes Judgment, the Authority of this one City, ¹is greater than that of the whole World. What if he has seen none of these things, and has neither read the holy Scriptures, nor the ancient Fathers, nor so much as any of his own Councils? What if like Pope Liberius of old, he becomes an Arian, or like Pope John, who lived not many years since, thinks very lewdly and wickedly of the Immortality of the Soul, and of the Life to come; or as Pope Zosimus, heretofore corrupted the Council of Nice, so he, for the enlarging of his own Power, should corrupt the other Councils, and aver, that those ⟨p. 110⟩things were deliberated and constituted by the holy Fathers, in them which were never so much as thought off; and that, as Camotensis saith, the Popes do frequently, he should offer Violence to the holy Scriptures, that he may thereby possess himself of a Plenitude of Power? What if he renounce the Christian Faith, and becomes an Apostate, as Lyranus saith, many Popes have done? What, will the holy Spirit for all these things knock at the Cabin of his Breast, and obtrude such a Light upon him, contrary to his Inclinations, and against his Will, that he shall not err though he would? Or shall such a Pope as this, be the Fountain of all Laws, and all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge be notwithstanding found in him as in a Cabinet? Or if these things be not in him, can he nevertheless judge well and conveniently of things of this great weight? Or if he be not qualified to judge of them, does he yet desire that all these things should be referred to him alone? What now, if the Popes Advocates, the Abbots and Bishops dissemble nothing, but declare themselves openly to be the Enemies of the Gospel, and will not see what they do see, but wrest the Scriptures, and knowingly and willingly deprave and adulterate the Word of God, and do foully and impiously transfer to the Pope, what is perspicuously and properly spoken of Christ, and cannot be applied to any other Mortal? What if they say the Pope is all, and above all, ²or that he can do all those things which Christ can do; or that the Tribunal and Consistory of the Pope is the same with