PAPAL HERESIES APOCRYPHA. 365 " theft" to be lawful : " For theyare enjoined by no authority to per- form the allegiance which theyhave sworn to a Christian princewho is an adversary to God and his saints, and contemns their commands.s' Not only the holy Scriptures, Ezek. xiii. 3, &c., but common sense, shows it to be an enormous presumption to obtrude, for the inspira- tions, oracles, and dictates of God, any writings or propositions which are not really such. This the pope does notoriously, charging us to admit, as sacred and canonical, divers writings which the greatest part of learned men in all ages have refused for such; anathematizing all those who do not hold each of them for such,' even as they are extant in a trans- lation, not very exact, and framed partly out of Hebrew, partly out of Greek, upon divers accounts liable to mistake, as its author, St Jerome, avows. According to which decree, all who consent with St Jerome, St Augustine, St Athanasius, &c., with common sense, with the author of the Second [Book] ofMaccabees himself; must incur a curse ! Whatcan be more uncharitable, moreunjust, more silly, than such a definition? He pretends to infallibility, or encourages them who attribute it tohim; which is a continual enthusiasm, and profane, bold imposture. The Scripture avows a singular reverence due to itself, as contain- ing the oracles of God. But the pope obtrudes the "oral traditions" of his church (divers of which evidently are new, dubious, vain) to be worshipped with equal reverence as the holy Scripture: "And also receives and venerates, with the like pious respect and reverence, the traditions themselves, which have been preserved by continual succession in the catholic church."' Among which traditions they reckon all the tricks and trumpery of their mass service, together with all their new notions about pur- gatory, extreme unction, &c.: "He also used several ceremonies, as mystical benediction, lights, incensings, garments, and many other such things, from apostolical disciplineand tradition."4 ' Fidelitatem cairn quam Christiane principi jurarunt, Deo ejusque sanctis adver. canti, eorum praecepta calcanti, nulla cohibentur auctoritate persolvere, &c. P. Urb. II., apud Grat. Caus. xv. qu. 6, cap. 5. 2 Si quia auteur libros ipsos integros cum suis partibus, prout in ecciesia catholica legi consueverunt, et in veteri vulgata Latinaeditione habentur, pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit .... anathema sit.Coat. Trid. sess iv. " But if any shall not re- ceive for sacred and canonical those whole books, with the parts of them, according as they have been wont to be read in the catholic church, and are had in the old vulgar Latin edition, let him beanathema." 3 - nec non traditiones ipsas .... continua successione in ecciesia catholica con- servatas pari pietatis affectu ac reverentia suscipit, et veneratur.Syn. Trid., sess. iv. 4 Ceremonias item adhibuit, ut mysticas benedictiónes, lumina, thymiamata, vestes, shape id genus multa ex apostolica disciplina et traditione, &c.Conc. Trid., secs xxii. cap. 5, 11, de Sacr. Hiss.
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