In the pope's proceeding against Henry, the emperor, he was opposed by the council at Worms, in which were the bishops, not only of Saxony, but of the whole empire of the Germans, who agreed and concluded upon the deposing of Hildebrand; and Roulandus* was sent to Rome, who, in the name of the council, commanded the pope to yield up his

seat.

This same pope was again judged and condemned by another council held at Brixia, where were divers bishops of Italy, Lombardy and Germany, in which condemnation is recited amongst other things, "his usurping authority over the emperor, and taking away and forbidding the marriage of priests."

Towards the end of the year 1000, (when there were again two popes at once, Urban and Clement III.) William Rufus,† king of England, would suffer no appeal from England to the pope of Rome, as it was not lawful to do from the time of William the Conqueror. And when Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, appealed to Rome, the king charged him with treason for so doing. All the bishops of

* Roulandus sacerdos, literas imperatoris deferens, absque omni salutationis honore, tibi (Hildebrandum compellans) inquit, imperator, et Italiæ, Galliæ, Germaniæque episcopi, præcipiunt, ut te, munere quod astu, pecuniâ, gratiâ occupasti, abdices. Non enim verus pastor, neque pater, neque pontifex es, sed fur, lupus, latro et tyrannus.—Aventin. lib. 5. An. Magd. Cent. 11. p. 425.

Fox, Acts and Mon. vol. 1, p. 242.

the realm stood on the king's side against Anselm; though Anselm pleaded hard, saying, "Should I forswear Saint Peter, I should deny Christ." But all the rest of the bishops disowned any appeal from England to Rome.

About the year 1105, two famous bishops of Mentz, named Henry and Christian, recorded to be very virtuous and well-disposed, were cruelly and tyrannically dealt with by the pope. Henry would make no appeal to the pope, but said, "I appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ, as to the most high and just judge, and cite you (the two cardinals that had done him wrong) before his judgment, there to answer me before the high judge."* Upon which, they scoffingly said, "Go you before first, and we will follow after." Not long after the same Henry died, whereof the two persecuting cardinals having intelligence, said one to another jestingly, "Behold, he is gone before, and we must follow after according to our promise." A little after they both died in one day.

About this time the bishop of Florence taught and preached that antichrist was now manifest; for which pope Paschalis burned his books.t

At this time also historians mention two more famous preachers, Gerhardus and Dulcinus Navarensis, who earnestly laboured and preached against the church of Rome, defending and maintaining

* Acts and Mon. vol. 1, p. 254.

† Acts and Mon. 254.

"that prayer was not more holy in one place than in another; that the pope was antichrist; that the clergy and prelates of Rome were reprobates, and she the very whore of Babylon spoken of in the Revelations." These two brought thirty more with them into England, who by the king and prelates were all burnt in the forehead, and so driven out of the realm, and after that were slain by the pope.

At this time also in the city of Toulouse, there was a great multitude of men and women whom the pope's commissioners persecuted and condemned for heretics; of whom some were scourged naked, some chased away. One of the articles they maintained was, that the bread in the sacrament, after consecration, was not the very body of the Lord.*

In Germany also, Robert Abbot, of Duits, preached against the pope's jurisdiction as to temporal dominion, and interpreted that place, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church," to be understood concerning Christ, &c.

Besides these, Peter Bruis, A. D. 1126, and after him his disciple Henry, A. D. 1147, in France, drew many provinces from the church of Rome, preached against transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, suffrages and oblations for the dead, purgatory, worshipping of images, invocation of saints, single life of priests, pilgrimages, superfluous holy days, consecration of water, oil, frankincense, &c. The pope

and his prelates they called "princes of Sodom;" the church of Rome they termed "Babylon, the mother of fornication and confusion." This Peter Bruis preached the word of God among the people of Toulouse for the space of twenty years, with great commendation, and at last was burned.*

*

I must but name Honorius, bishop of Augusta, who set out the iniquity and wickedness of the church of Rome to the life; recited largely by Duplessis, Myst. of Iniq. p. 294. And Nordbertus, A. D. 1125, who protested to Bernard, that antichrist he knew certainly would be revealed in this present generation. And John of Sarisbury, who, visiting the pope, was asked by him, "What men thought of the pope, and of the Roman church,' and told him to his face, "They say the pope is a burden to all, and almost intolerable." And much

more.

Did the papists never hear of the Waldenses, or have they not been vexed with their doctrine before Luther was born, that they ask where was our doctrine and religion before Luther?

Did the council of Constance condemn the doctrines of Wickliffe and Huss as erroneous, and was there such a noise about them, and yet did not the church of Rome hear of our doctrines (then owned by them) before Luther? They can never make us believe it.

* Petr. Cluniacens. lib. 1. Epist. 1 et 2.

t Joh. Sarisbur. in Policr. lib. 6. cap. 24. Dupless. 319.

Let Rainerius, a friar, writing of the Waldenses, or Pauperes de Lugduno, satisfy them, who says, Among all the sects that are or ever will be, none can be more pernicious to the church of God [he means the church of Rome] than that of Lyons." And he gives these three reasons, 1. "Because it has continued a longer time than any. Some say that it has been ever since the time of Sylvester; others say from the times of the apostles. 2. Because it is more general, for there is almost no country into which this sect has not crept. 3. Because all others procure horror by their blasphemies against God; this of the Lyonists has a great appearance of piety, inasmuch as they live uprightly before men, and put their trust in God in all things, and observe all the articles of the creed; only they blaspheme the church of Rome, and hold it in contempt, and therein they are easily believed by the people."* A fair confession for a papist! So that

* Inter omnes has sectas quæ adhuc sunt, vel fuerunt, non est perniciosior ecclesiæ quam Leonistarum; et hoc tribus de causis; prima est, quia est diuturnior, aliqui enim dicunt, quod duravit à tempore Sylvestri; aliqui a tempore apostolorum. Secunda, quia est generalior, fere enim nulla est terra, in qua hæc secta non sit. Tertia, quia cum aliæ omnes sectæ immanitate blasphemiarum in Deum, audientibus horrorem inducunt, hæc magnam habet speciem pietatis, eò quod coram hominibus justè vivant, et bene omnia de Deo credant, et omnes articulos qui in symbolo continentur, solum modo Romanam ecclesiam blasphemant et clerum, cui multitudo laicorum facilis est ad credendum. Rainer. Cont. hær. cap. 4.