Thomas Browne - The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, Volume 1

That is, that it was not enough to all persons (though pretenders to Learning) that our Physitian had publish'd his Creed, because it wanted an exposition. I say further, that the German's is not full ; and that ( – Quicquid sum Ego quamvis infra Lucilli censum ingeniumq; – ) my explications do in many things illustrate the Text of my Author .

24 Martii, 1654.

The Epistle to the READER

Certainly that man were greedy of life, who should desire to live when all the World were at an end ;] This Mr. Merryweather hath rendred thus; Cupidum esse vitæ oportet, qui universo jam expirante mundo vivere cuperet ; and well enough: but it is not amiss to remember, that we have this saying in Seneca the Tragœdian , who gives it us thus, Vitæ est avidus quisquis non vult mundo secum pereunte mori .

There are many things delivered Rhetorically .] The Author herein imitates the ingenuity of St. Austin , who in his Retract. corrects himself for having delivered some things more like a young Rhetorician than a sound Divine; but though St. Aug. doth deservedly acknowledge it a fault in himself, in that he voluntarily published such things, yet cannot it be so in this Author, in that he intended no publication of it, as he professeth in this Epistle, and in that other to Sir Kenelm Digby .

Sect. 1. Pag. 1.

The general scandal of my Profession. ] Physitians (of the number whereof it appears by several passages in this Book the Author is one) do commonly hear ill in this behalf. It is a common speech (but only amongst the unlearn'd sort) Ubi tres Medici, duo Athei . The reasons why those of that Profession (I declare my self that I am none, but Causarum Actor Mediocris , to use Horace his Phrase) may be thought to deserve that censure, the Author rendreth Sect . 19.

The natural course of my studies. ] The vulgar lay not the imputation of Atheism only upon Physitians, but upon Philosophers in general, who for that they give themselves to understand the operations of Nature , they calumniate them, as though they rested in the second causes without any respect to the first. Hereupon it was, that in the tenth Age Pope Silvester the second pass'd for a Magician, because he understood Geometry and natural Philosophy. Baron. Annal. 990. And Apuleius long before him laboured of the same suspicion, upon no better ground; he was accus'd, and made a learned Apology for himself, and in that hath laid down what the ground is of such accusations, in these words: Hæc fermè communi quodam errore imperitorum Philosophis objectantur, ut partem eorum qui corporum causas meras et simplices rimantur, irreligiosos putant, eosque aiunt Deos abnuere, ut Anaxagoram, et Lucippum, et Democritum, et Epicurum, cœterosq; rerum naturæ Patronos. Apul. in Apolog. And it is possible that those that look upon the second Causes scattered, may rest in them and go no further, as my Lord Bacon in one of his Essayes observeth; but our Author tells us there is a true Philosophy, from which no man becomes an Atheist, Sect. 46.

The indifferency of my behaviour and Discourse in matters of Religion. ] Bigots are so oversway'd by a preposterous Zeal, that they hate all moderation in discourse of Religion; they are the men forsooth — qui solos credant habendos esse Deos quos ipsi colunt . Erasmus upon this accompt makes a great complaint to Sir Tho. More in an Epistle of his, touching one Dorpius a Divine of Lovain , who because, upon occasion of discourse betwixt them, Erasmus would not promise him to write against Luther , told Erasmus that he was a Lutheran , and afterwards published him for such; and yet as Erasmus was reputed no very good Catholick, so for certain he was no Protestant.

Not that I meerly owe this Title to the Font ] as most do, taking up their Religion according to the way of their Ancestors; this is to be blamed among all persons: It was practised as well amongst Heathens as Christians.

Per caput hoc juro per quod Pater antè solebat , saith Ascanius in Virgil : and Apuleius notes it for an absurdity. Utrum Philosopho, putas turpe scire ista, an neseire? negligere, an curare? nosse quanta sit etiam in istis providentiæ ratio, an de diis immortalibus Matri et Patri cedere ? saith he in Apolog. and so doth Minutius . Unusquisq; vestrum non cogitat prius se debere deum nosse quam colere, dum inconsulte gestiuntur parentibus obedire, dum fieri malunt alieni erroris accessio, quam sibi credere . Minut. in Octav.

But having in my ripers examined, etc. ] according to the Apostolical Precept, Omnia probate, quod bonum est tenete .

Sect. 2. Pag. 8.

There being a Geography of Religion ] i. e. of Christian Religion, which you may see described in Mr. Brerewood's Enquiries: he means not of the Protestant Religion; for though there be a difference in Discipline, yet the Anglican , Scotic , Belgic , Gallican , and Helvetic Churches differ not in any essential matter of the Doctrine, as by the Harmony of Confessions appears. 5. Epist. Theod. Bezæ Edmundo Grindallo Ep. Londinens .

Wherein I dislike nothing but the Name ] that is Lutheran , Calvinist , Zuinglian , etc.

Now the accidental occasion wherein, etc. ] This is graphically described by Thuanus in his History: but because his words are too large for this purpose, I shall give it you somewhat more briefly, according to the relation of the Author of the History of the Council of Trent . The occasion was the necessity of Pope Leo the Tenth, who by his profusion had so exhausted the Treasure of the Church , that he was constrained to have recourse to the publishing of Indulgencies to raise monies: some of which he had destined to his own Treasury, and other part to his Allyes, and particularly to his Sister he gave all the money that should be raised in Saxony ; and she, that she might make the best profit of the donation, commits it to one Aremboldus , a Bishop to appoint Treasurers for these Indulgences. Now the custome was, that whensoever these Indulgences were sent into Saxony , they were to be divulged by the Fryars Eremites (of which Order Luther then was), but Aremboldus his Agents thinking with themselves, that the Fryars Eremites were so well acquainted with the trade, that if the business should be left to them, they should neither be able to give so good an account of their Negotiation, nor yet get so much themselves by it as they might do in case the business were committed to another Order; they thereupon recommend it to (and the business is undertaken by) the Dominican Fryars, who performed it so ill, that the scandal arising both from thence, and from the ill lives of those that set them on work, stirred up Luther to write against the abuses of these Indulgences; which was all he did at first; but then, not long after, being provoked by some Sermons and small Discourses that had been published against what he had written, he rips up the business from the beginning, and publishes xcv Theses against it at Wittenberg . Against these Tekel a Dominican writes; then Luther adds an explication to his. Eckius and Prierius Dominicans, thereupon take the controversie against him: and now Luther begins to be hot; and because his adversaries could not found the matter of Indulgences upon other Foundations then the Popes power and infallibility, that begets a disputation betwixt them concerning the Popes power, which Luther insists upon as inferiour to that of a general Council ; and so by degrees he came on to oppose the Popish Doctrine of Remission of sins , Penances , and Purgatory ; and by reason of Cardinal Cajetans imprudent management of the conference he had with him, it came to pass that he rejected the whole body of Popish doctrine. So that by this we may see what was the accidental occasion wherein, the slender means whereby, and the abject condition of the person by whom, the work of Reformation of Religion was set on foot.