of his firste booke
of his Generall Historie of the Indies, putteth downe that Pope Alexander
the VIth, of his proper will and of his owne mere motion, with the
consents of his Cardinalls, gave of his free grace to the Kinges of Spaine
all the iles and firme landes which they shoulde discover towardes the
west, and therewithall alledged the Bull itselfe; I aunswer, that no Pope
had any lawfull aucthoritie to give any such donation at all. For proofe
whereof, I say that, if he were no more than Christes vycar, as Gomera
calleth him in that place, then he must needes graunte that the vicar is
no greater then his Master. Nowe, our Saviour Christe, beinge requested
and entreated to make a lawfull devision of inheritaunce betwene one and
his brother, refused to do that, sayenge, Quis me constituit judicem inter
vos? Whoe made me a judge betwene you? What meaneth, then, the Pope, not
beinge spoken to nor entreated, of his owne proper will and of his owne
mere motion, to meddle in those matters that Christe in no wise, no, not
beinge thereunto instantly requested, woulde not have to deale in? Againe,
oure Saviour Christe confessed openly to Pilate, that his kingdome was not
of this worlde. Why, then, doth the Pope, that woulde be Christes
servaunte, take upon him the devision of so many kingdomes of the worlde?
If he had but remembred that which he hath inserted in the ende of his
owne Bull, to witt, that God is the disposer and distributer of kingdomes
and empires, he woulde never have taken upon him the devidinge of them
with his line of partition from one ende of the heavens to the other. The
historie of the poore boye whome God stirred upp to confounde and deride
the Spaniardes and Portingales, when they were devidinge the woride
betwene themselves alone, is so well knowen as I nede not stand to repeate
it. But it is the Popes manner alwayes to meddle, as in this matter, so in
other thinges, where they have nothinge to doe, and to intrude themselves
before they be called. They mighte rather call to mynde the counsell of
the goodd apostle, who tolde godly Tymothe, the Bisshoppe of Ephesus, that
no man that warreth intangleth himself with the affaires of this presente
life, because he woulde please Him that hath chosen him to be a souldier;
and then they woulde learne to kepe themselves within the lymites of that
vocation and ecclesiasticall function whereunto they are called; which
ecclestiasticall function hath nothinge to do