Who should disendow whom: the apish likeness

Falsehood. But it is still argued: if the clergyclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric ought thus to relinquish its lordshipsdominium: lordship, then, if it refuses to relinquish them freely, it ought to be compelled. Now this cannot come about through the secular armbrachium seculare: the secular arm, since the clergy is the more powerful, and this attempt would disturb the churchecclesia: church too much. Nor can it come about through the spiritual arm, since the popepapa: pope, the most powerful secular lorddominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it, is sworn to the opposite, and his subjects would freely resist him in this.¹ And it is confirmed from this, that the pope, from the universality 70of his lordship, confers kingdomsregnum: kingdom: for thus he is said to have given Ireland to the king of England, and, one king of Spain having been degraded, to have given Spain to another king.² Who, then, would depose unqualifiedinhabilis: unqualified (to hold office) kings and bring in qualified kings except the pope, since he is the highest vicar of Christ and it pertains to the highest earthly office to attempt this? Nor can a reason easily be devised why it is lawful for worldly princes to take worldly lordships away from the clergy thus habitually offending, without its being lawful, by the topic from the greater, for the spiritual arm to take secular lordships away from the temporal arm habitually offending. And yet this happened more easily, and the greater authority is clear.³ It seems that one ought rather to teach the converse: that the clericsclerus; clericus: the clergy; cleric should take away all secular lordship from the secular arm and reserve it wholly to themselves.

Truth. This quibbleargucie; argucia: stratagems, quibbles; a quibble would not hold except by the topic from apish likenesslocus a simili: the topic from likeness and on the devil’s authority,⁴ as if the devil wished to destroy the whole authority of the Christian order by exalting the pope above all Christian princes. I grant, therefore, since it would make for the radical pacification of the church, that all three of its parts ought to labour with prudence toward this ordinanceordinacio; ordinancia: ordinance; of the sacrament, ordination of the Lord: the clergy, by warning through the evidencesevidencia: evidence of the faith of scripture, lest it fall into heresy by consent; the secular arm, by guarding henceforth against amortizationmortificacio: amortization, and, when an amortization comes into its hands, which often happens to the king of England, by withholding the renewalrepplicacio; repplicare: rejoinder; to rejoin · of a grant, renewal of the clergy’s sin against the Lord.⁵ And there are many particular prudent measures by which this transgression could be removed gradually: as by telling the friarsfrater: friar (of the mendicants) / brother and all the priestssacerdos / presbiter: priest / presbyter of the kingdom of England that, on pain of their legal standinglegalitas: legal standing,⁶ they tell the king and the kingdom whether this endowmentdotacio: endowment is consonant with divine law. Or otherwise, that on an equivalent penalty they tell the king and the kingdom, from the effective authority of scripture or from reason, what the consecrated host itself is in its nature. And such are many cases necessary to the knowledge of a faithful kingdom, in which the father of falsehood has blinded Antichrist and all his clerics to this day.⁷ And if our clergy were asked publicly, under the same penalty, whether the state of honest poverty which Christ taught in word and deed is more perfect and more consonant with the church militantecclesia militans / triumphans / dormiens: the church militant / triumphant / sleeping than 71the caesarean state brought in today, and the clergy were compelled, as faith teachesex fide: as faith teaches; with a genitive, from the faith of [scripture], to prefer the pre-eminence of Christ’s ordinance, especially in the last days, with the world declining into avarice and the clergy ceasing from its ministry because of the abundance of temporal goodstemporalia: temporal goods, the clergy would of necessity have to inferconcludere: to infer for itself and confess the catholic truth. And so, with moderate prudence, the kingdom could be purged of many errors without uproar from the clergy or from the devil’s party that adheres to this crime. But however it may be with such prudence, it is enough for the faithful to say that thus, according to the law of the Lord, it ought to be. And it would be a wonder that the kingdom of England should thus dare, in an earthly cause, to invade many kingdoms, and should not know how to gain in its own homelandvia / patria: the way / the homeland, in God’s cause . . .⁸ especially since Christ, in Luke 14, teaches the secular arm to serve him by compelling the clergy to enter the state which he himself instituted.⁹ Hence, for the devil to teach Antichrist, his disciple, to argue by this likeness is the same as if he argued thus: "It is lawful for the secular arm, which has power or the sword from God, to coerce bodily those who rebel against the law of the Lord; therefore by the same token it is lawful for clerics to fight bodily and to chastise secular lords by force of power."¹⁰ But this madness moved popes, bishopsepiscopus; dominus episcopus: bishop; the lord bishop and very many priests to rave, as if one argued thus: "Christ gave this sword to the secular arm; therefore by the same token he ought to have given this sword to the more prudent and worthier arm of the priests. And so, if Christ granted temporal lordshipdominium: lordship to secular lords, by the same token he ought to have granted that lordship to the priest." Nor is this founded in the faith of scripture, except (to speak ironically) on the devil’s temptation in Matthew 4, by which in the third temptation he tempted Christ the high priest, promising him presumptuously and falsely that he would give him all [the things] of the kingdom of the world if, falling down, he would adore him; "therefore the pope, his chief vicar, ought thus to lord itdominus; dominari: lord; to exercise lordship / to lord it universally and to impart earthly kingdoms to his servants at his command."¹¹ But a faithful servant of Christ would deny such a quibbleargucie; argucia: stratagems, quibbles; a quibble, content with the Lord’s ordinance. For Christ ordained the secular arm, through coactive and coercive power, to be the vicar of the Godheadvicarius deitatis / vicarius humanitatis Christi: vicar of the Godhead / vicar of Christ's humanity, giving it the bodily sword; and he ordained the priesthood 72to be the vicar of Christ’s humanityvicarius deitatis / vicarius humanitatis Christi: vicar of the Godhead / vicar of Christ's humanity, by suffering and by imitating him in humility and tribulations, as Augustine teaches in many a place.¹² But the devil presumes that Christ ordained badly in this, since it ought to have been the converse; and so [comes] the topic from apish likeness, by which it is argued thus: "If the secular arm had to take from the clergy its own lordship, which the Lord gave it, then by the same token the priesthood ought to take from the secular arm the secular lordship which the devil usurped."¹³ One who argues so, I say, is an all too evident sophist of the devil; and so the power of the caesarean clergyclerus cesareus: the caesarean clergy, growing strong over the secular arm by the devil’s wilecautela: wile, has grown thus as a punishment for the sin of the secular arm. Therefore it ought to be tempered with Christ’s prudence, and so the temporal power of the clergy ought to be mitigated with God’s wisdom. And as the English Constantine is said to have presumed [to begin] this devilish madness, so God could easily ordain the king of England, prudent with spiritual help, and his council, for its destruction, and give them the counsel of the Holy Spirit, that they may attempt this by a more fitting means.¹⁴ But it is enough for us to exposedetegere: to expose the devilish quibbles fabricated to the contrary. And so, if the pope is sworn to the contrary, he is sworn with the devil against Christ, just as the acceptance of half the empire was usurped by the devil’s wile.¹⁵ And if the pope’s subjects, disciples of Antichrist, should resist him in this, where in Christ’s cause they would promote the contrary, they are to be inclined gradually, with Christ’s prudence, to the path of truth. And God has ordained at this time means to this end which in days past were hidden from the world. And as for the confirmation from the pope’s deed, some say that it is an accursed usurpation of Antichrist. Therefore, as the kingdom of England has prudently withheld the nine hundred marks in which it is said to have bound itself to him yearly on that account, so with prudence it will be able elsewhere . . . to attempt more in the name of the Lord.¹⁶ And so, as for the kingdom of Spain . . . has presumed in this, it is nothing else than that the devil for a time small . . . Jesus Christ. Christ, therefore, deposes unqualified kings by his hidden institution; so kings must confess to their Lord their fault concerning the defending of 73God’s lawlex dei / lex Christi / lex evangelica: God's law / the law of Christ / the gospel law, most just;¹⁷ and, as for what the pope or Antichrist thus attempts in secular fashion against kings beyond Christ’s licence, they ought prudently to turn aside from this tyranny of the devil and to raise up the Lord’s ordinance. For Christ humbly gave tribute to Caesar and in many ways enlarged his lordship, and acquired no such lordship for himself or his apostles.¹⁸ And so it seems that the pope is not the vicar of Christ but the vicar of Antichrist, since, having abandoned the heavenly office, he thus unduly attempts the earthly one. And so caesarean prelatesprelatus: prelate, forgetting the humble exhortation and holy preaching of Christ and his apostles, usurp by force of power the tyranny of Antichrist; and in such prelates, specially ordained, [it] is turned backward, and in their sons who follow them, leaving the doctrinedoctrina: doctrine of Christ and following the footsteps of Antichrist.¹⁹ And from what has been said the reason for the difference in the apish likeness that follows is clear: since the spiritual arm is the vicar of Christ’s humanity, disposed to patience and humility, and the secular arm is the vicar of Christ’s divinitydeitas / divinitas: the Godhead / divinity, inclined to a prudent and mild sword of vengeance on a rebellious people. And so neither did this happen more easily, nor is Christ’s authority for it clear, since he taught the opposite both in deed and in words. Nor do I doubt that the clerics of Antichrist must in a short time be chastised by the Lord. Such are many quibbles of Antichrist, which it is easy for the faithful man to resolve, the Holy Spirit teaching [him] through his sevenfold gifts.