SECTION VI. THERE is a proposition, which indeed is new, but is now the general doctrine of the leading men in the church of Rome; and it is the foundation on which their doctors of conscience rely, in their decision of all cases in which there is a doubt or question made by themselves; and that is, "That if an opinion or speculation be probable, it may in practice be safely followed:" and if it be inquired, What is sufficient to make an opinion probable? the answer is easy, "Sufficit opinio alicujus gravis doctoris, aut bonorum exem, plum," "the opinion of any one grave doctor is sufficient to make a matter probable;" nay, "the example and practice of good men," that is, men who are so reputed; if they have done it, you may do so too, and be safe. This is the great rule of their cases of conscience. And now we ought not to be pressed with any one saying, that such an opinion is but the private opinion of one or more of their doctors. For, although, in matters of faith, this be not sufficient to impute a doctrine to a whole church, which is but the private opinion of one or more; yet, because we are now speaking of the infinite danger of souls in that communion, and the horrid propositions by which their disciples are conducted, to the disparagement of good life,—it is sufficient to allege the public and allowed sayings of their doctors; because these sayings are their rule of living: and, because the particular rules of conscience use not to be decreed in councils, we must derive them from the places where they grow, and where they are to be found. But besides, you will say, that this is but the private opinion of some doctors; and what then? Therefore it is not to be called the doctrine of the Roman church. True, we do not say, it is an article of their faith,' but a rule of manners: This is not, indeed, in any public decree; but we say, that although it be not, yet neither is the contrary. And if it be but a private opinion, yet is it safe to follow it, or is it not safe? For that is the question, and therein is a Emanuel Sà. Aphor. Verb. Dubium. Escobar. The. Moral. Exa. c. 3. de Conscientia probabili, &c. the danger. If it be safe, then this is their rule, ' A private opinion of any one grave doctor may be safely followed in the questions of virtue and vice.'- But if it be not safe to follow it, and that this does not make an opinion probable, or the practice safe; Who says so? Does the Church? No. Does Dr. Cajus, or Dr. Sempronius, say so? Yes: but these are not safe to follow; for they are but private doctors: or, if it be safe to follow them, though they be no more, and the opinion no more but probable; then I may take the other side, and choose which I will, and do what I list in most cases, and yet be safe by the doctrine of the Roman casuists; which is the great line and general measure of most men's lives; and that is it which we complain of. And we have reason; for they suffer their casuists to determine all cases, severely and gently, strictly and loosely; that so they may entertain all spirits, and please all dispositions, and govern them by their own inclinations, and as they list to be governed; by what may please them, not by that which profits them; that none may go away scandalized or grieved from their penitential chairs. But upon this account, it is a sad reckoning which can be made concerning souls in the church of Rome. Supposé one great doctor amongst them (as many of them do) shall say, 'It is lawful to kill a king whom the pope declares heretic.' By the doctrine of probability here is his warranty. And though the church do not declare that doctrine, that is, the church do not make it certain in speculation; yet it may be safely done in practice. Here is enough to give peace of conscience to him that does it; nay, if the contrary be more safe, yet if the other be but probable by reason or authority, you may do the less safe, and refuse what is more. For that also is the opinion of some grave doctors: if one doctor says, it is safe to swear a thing, as of our knowledge, which we do not know, but believe it is so; it is therefore probable, that it is lawful to swear it, because a grave doctor says it, and then it is safe enough to do so. And upon this account, who could find fault with pope Constantine IV., who, when he was accused in the Lateran ▸ Eman. Sà Aphorism. Verb. Dubium. Escobar. de Conscientia probabili. council, for holding the see apostolic when he was not in orders, justified himself by the example of Sergius, bishop of Ravenna, and Stephen, bishop of Naples? Here was exemplum bonorum,' honest men had done so before him, and, therefore, he was innocent. When it is observed by cardinal Campegius, and Albertus Pighius did teach, that a priest lives more holily and chastely that keeps a concubine, than he that hath a married wife; and then shall find in the pope's law, that a priest is not to be removed for fornication; who will not, or may not, practically conclude, that since, by the law of God, marriage is holy, and yet, to some men, fornication is more lawful, and does not make a priest irregular, that, therefore, to keep a concubine is very lawful? especially since, abstracting from the consideration of a man's being in orders or not, fornication itself is probably no sin at all? For so says Durandus, simple fornication of itself is not a deadly sin according to the natural law, and excluding all positive law; and Martinus de Magistris says, To believe simple fornication to be no deadly sin, is not heretical, be'cause the testimonies of Scripture are not express. These are grave doctors, and, therefore, the opinion is probable, and the practice safe. When the good people of the church of Rome hear it read, that pope Clement VIII., in the index of prohibited books, says, That the Bible, published in vulgar tongues, ought not to be read and retained;' no, not so much as a compend of the history of the Bible: and Bellarmine says, 'That it is not necessary to salvation, to believe that there are any Scriptures at all written;' and that cardinal Hosius saith, Perhaps it had been better for the church, if no Scriptures had been written:' they cannot but say, that this doctrine is probable, and think themselves safe when they walk without the light of God's word, and rely wholly upon the pope, or their priest, in what he is pleased to tell them; and that they are no way obliged to keep that com 6 Apud Nauclerum. Generat. xxi. 26. d Dist. 82. Can. Presbyter in Glossa. Communiter e 3 Qu. 7. Lata Extravag. de Bigamis. Quia circa. dicitur quod clericus pro simplici fornicatione deponi non debet, dist. 21. Maximianus. Glossa in Gratian. f Sent. lib. iv, dist. 33. * Lib. de Temp. qu. 2. de Luxuria. h Vide Dan. Tilen. de Verbo non Scripto, lib. iv. c. 8. mandment of Christ, "Search the Scriptures." Cardinal Tolet says, "That if a nobleman be set upon, and may escape by going away, he is not tied to it, but may kill him, that intends to strike him with a stickk: that if a man be in a great passion, and so transported, that he considers not what he says; if, in that case, he does blaspheme, he does not always sin': that if a man be beastly drunk, and then commit fornication, that fornication is no sin": that if a man desires carnal pollution, that he may be eased of his carnal temptations, or for his health, it were no sin": that it is lawful for a man to expose his bastards to the hospital, to conceal his own shame." He says it out of Soto, and he from Thomas Aquinas: "That, if the times be hard, or the judge unequal, a man that cannot sell his wine at a due price, may lawfully make his measures less than is appointed, or mingle water with his wine, and sell it for pure, so he do not lie; and yet if he does, it is no mortal sin, nor obliges him to restitution." Emanuel Sà affirms P, "That if a man lie with his intended wife before marriage, it is no sin, or a light one; nay,' quinetiam expedit, si multum illa differatur,' 'it is good to do so, if the benediction or publication of marriage be much deferred:"" that infants, in their cradles, may be made priests, is the common opinion of divines and canonists, saith Tolet; and that in their cradles they can be made bishops, saith the archdeacon and the provost'; and though some say the contrary, yet the other is the more true, saith the cardinal. Vasquez saith, "That not only an image of God, but any creature in the world, reasonable or unreasonable, may, without danger, be worshipped together with God, as his image: that we ought to adore the relics of saints, though under the form of worms; and that it is no sin to worship a ray of light, in which the devil is invested, if a man supposes him to be Christ: and in the same manner, if he supposes it to be a piece of a saint, which is not, he shall not want the merit of his devotion. And to conclude, pope Celestine III,, as Alphonsus à Castro reports himself to have 1 Instruct. Sacerd. lib. v. c. 6. n. 15. Lib. v. c. 10. n. 3. n Lib. v. c. 11. n. 5. P Aphor. tit. Debitum Conjugale, 6. De Adorat. lib. iii, disp. 1. c. 2. k Lib. iv. c. 13. n. 4. 6 seen a decretal of his to that purpose, affirmed, That if one of the married couple fell into heresy, the marriage is dissolved, and that the other may marry another; and the marriage is nefarious, and they are irrita nuptiæ,' the espousals are void,' if a catholic and a heretic marry together, said the fathers of the synod in Trullo. And though all of this be not owned generally, yet if a Roman catholic marries a wife, that is, or shall turn heretic, he may leave her, and part bed and board, according to the doctrine taught by the canon law itself", by the lawyers and divines, as appears in Covaruvius, Mathias Aquarius, Bellarmine". These opinions are, indeed, very strange to us of the church of England and Ireland, but no strangers in the church of Rome; and, because they are taught by great doctors, by popes themselves, by cardinals, and the canon law respectively, do at least become very probable, and, therefore, they may be believed and practised without danger; according to the doctrine of probability. And thus the most desperate things that ever were said by any, though before the declaration of the church, they cannot become articles of faith; yet, besides that they are doctrines publicly allowed, they can also become rules of practice, and securities to the conscience of their disciples. To this we add, that which is usual in the church of Rome, the praxis ecclesiæ,'' the practice of the church? Thus if an indulgence be granted, upon condition to visit such an altar in a distant church; the nuns that are shut up, and prisoners that cannot go abroad, if they address themselves to an altar of their own with that intention, they shall obtain the indulgence: "Id enim confirmat ecclesiæ praxis," says Fabius; the practice of the church, in this case, gives first a probability in speculation, and then a certainty in practice. This instance, though it be of no concern, yet we use it as a particular, to show the principle upon which they go. But it is practicable in many things of * Concil. Constantinopol. 6. can. 76. u Cap. Fin. de Conver. Conjug. c. 2. de Divortiis. * De Matrim. part. 2. c. 7. sect. 5. n. 4. In Sent. 4. d. 39. art. 1. concl. ult. z Lib. i. de Matrim. c. 14. sect. Secundo sine consensu. a Scrutin. Sacerd. de Indulg. |