which are alleadged by the Spanish Authors cited in the Margin Blessed saith the Psalmograph are they who diligently meditate vpon diuine Scriptures To know God by the testimony of them Reade and search saith Christ our Lord the Scriptures for they testifie of mee Hereunto alludes that of Deuteronomie Aluarado toâ—â— primero del arte de bien viuir fol. 1091. Chap. 22. Aske thy father and hee will declare vnto thee thy Ancestors and they will tell thee For as Father Serpi cloquently teacheth The writings and Scriptures whence wee should knowe and learne are no other then the Prophets Euangelists and Apostles whose Bookes wee all enioy And to these saith S. Paul Serpi en el tratade â—e Purgatorio pag. 1. as Father Serpi obserueth this saying wee must approach to gather learning and profit from them But that of Moyses transcendeth all these testimonies as Father Luys de Granada noteth as the most Illustrious and pregnant one Granada en el preambulo de la 2. P. de la introduâ—â—ion del Symbelo to conuince all vnderstandings who hauing propounded and declared the Law of God saith on this wise These words which I now set before thee shall bee in thy heart and thou shalt teach them to thy children and shult thinke of them when thou art in thy house and when thou iournyest when thou goest to bed and when thou risest vp againe thou shalt fasten them as a signet to thy hand and they shall bee and mooue before thine eyes and thou shalt write them in the galleries and portals of thy house With what other words wee may say with Granada could the consideration and studie of the Law haue been better exemplified and as if all this had been little in the 11. Chapter of the same Booke hee againe recommends it to vs in the selfe same words a thing which seldome happens in the Scripture so great was the care of this heauenly man who spake with God face to face desired wee should haue to be assiduous in the Law of God as who well vnderstood how much wee were bound so to doe and the inestimable fruits and benefits that would follow of it The same God that without making difference of Sexe age or qualitie enioyned all to reade the sacred Scripture did likewise ordaine that it should be diuulged in all languages that all might haue the fruition of it Leon en el prologo de los nombres de Christo So doth the learned Father Luys de Leon confesse it in these words That God compiled the holy Scriptures with very plaine words and in a language which was vulgar and familiar to them to whom hee first gaue them And when froÌ„ them together with the true knowledge of Iesus Christ this treasure was transferred and communicated to the Gentiles hee caused them to bee explicated into diuers tongues and almost into all those which at that time were most generall and common that they might bee obuious and familiar vnto all And to ratifie the trueth hereof wee reade that S. Hierome translated it into his mother tongue Prades en el prologo de la adoration delas imagines which was the Dalmatique And Iohn Chrysostome into the Armenique tongue Vlphilas a Gotish Bishop into the Gotish tongue as Doctor Prades relateth of all the three Iohn Prelate of Seuill translated it into the Arabique as Father Mariana storieth who saith that the said Prelate did it with intendment to promote the increase of all Christians Mariana en la historia de Espanua lib. 7. ca. 3. tomo primero and helpe the Mores for that the Arabique tongue was of ordinary vse among all And hee addeth that there are some copies of this translation which haue been propagated to our times being yet extant in some places of Spaine And the same Mariana saith that the King D. Alonso the tenth Idem ibidem lib. 14. cap. 7. procured the holy Books of the Bible to be translated into Spanish Would to God the most mighty Philip the fourth would command the like worke now Holy Scripture hath been imprinted many other times in the Spanish tongue and sometime in the Valentian tongue as the reader may see in the exhortation which the most learned and religious Cypriano de Valera made inducing to reade it which accompanieth the version which hee with great labour and studie made and caused to bee imprinted which is the last time that I knowe it hath been printed in our tongue I would it might please God that it were turned into all languages as also into our Spanish he in whose hands are the hearts of Kings can mooue the Catholike Kings to permit vnto our Countrey men the Spaniards the fruition of this inualuable treasure for the foresaid pious Gentleman for the good of our Nation imployed twenty whole yeeres labour in the said translation which in the iudgement of all the learned is a very excellent one Also the trueth of the former proposition appeareth to wit that all the faithfull are obliged to reade and ruminate the holy Scripture in that the holy Doctors and ancient Fathers exhortes all thereunto Puente en la guia espiritual fol. 291. Prades en el prologo de la historia de la adâ—racion de las imagines Father Puente doth clearely teach this as you may see in the place quoted in the Margent So likewise Father Prades doeth openly confesse it though hee adde that notwithstanding this the Catholike Church to wit the Romane did prudently and holily in prohibiting the vulgar to reade the Scripture that you may see how the Papists esteemed the authoritie of the holy Doctors when they speake which they oft doe against their errours and tyrannies Granada en el preambulo de la 2. part de la introduecion del Symbolo Luys de Granada approoues our proposition and in proofe of it alleageth that which S. Hierom wrote to a Virgin by name Demetria recommending to her the reading of sacred Scripture Hiero. ad Demet and giues the same aduice to S. Paula and yeelds this reason of it that the true nourishment of the soule is to meditate day and night on the Law of the Lord and S. Bernard writing to his sister perswades her to this study Bernard ad soreremde modo bene viuendi c. 50. declaring vnto her particularly the fruits and effects of this good reading And S. Paul counselleth his disciple Timothie who was full of the holy Ghost that till hee came hee should bee exercised in reading the holy Scripture which Timothie had learned from a childe Father Torres is of the same minde with Granada Torres lib. 25. ca. 2. de la Philosophia de Principes and brings to ratifie his opinion almost the selfe same examples and testimonies which the other did and addes that S. Fulgentius recommends the foresaid study of Diuine Scripture vnto Theodoret the Senator Fulgent epist 6. ad E. Of S. Hierome
sacred Scripture the onely meanes to know vnderstand and distinguish which is the true and which the false Religion what kinde of worship and manner of seruice and honour hee enioyneth and approoues of and what hee inhibiteth and detesteth but Sathan the father of lies and author of darkenes perceiuing that by this way alone his fraud is disanulled his darkenesse dissipated and the vanity on which his kingdome is grounded luculently detected whence results his eminent ruine Finding by the long experience of his losses that such miserable men as he hath captiuated vnto death and bound with the chaines of ignorance and blindnesse being irradiated with this heauenly light doe escape out of his prison and are transported into the liberty of the sonnes of God Hence it comes to passe that though by the quality of his peruerse and cursed disposition he abominates and persecuteth all the means that ten◠to the good and saluation of mankinde yet with more singular diligence and extraordinary violence he hath euer opposed will neuer intermit to resist vntil God altogether bridle him vp the bookes of sacred Writ Now amongst all the persecutions and wars which he hath stirred vp against it that which the Church of Rome by the interuention of his trusty Agents the Pope of Rome and the Inquisitors of Spaine doth at this day prosecute against it is without all comparison most transcendent and cruell For to omit those other infamous aspersions they cast vpon it there being allowed in those countreys where the Inquisition reigneth an infinite number of bookes repleate with a thousand blasphemies superstitions delusions lyes dishonesties and turpitudes to the great preiudice and destruction of numberlesse soules they prohibite the reading of holy Scripture vnto the common people quite exiling it from them and most shamefully calumning it to bee the cause and occasion of errours and the instigatrix to vice It is true that Pius the fourth gaue order to the Bishops and Inquisitors that with the consent of the Parson or Confessor they should licence the reading of Scripture in the vulgar tongue to such as could reade it with fruit Hereby intimating and that not obscurely that his meaning was not that they should reade it who were incited thereunto by a desire of knowing and inquiring into the trueth but onely such as by auricular confession their course of life and behauiour had giuen sufficient testimony that they were most obstinate Papists and such as had sworne vnto the Popes words But let the beneuolent Reader obserue that all that was granted by Pius were it much or little yet so much as hee permitted hath been all abrogated and annihilated by a Bull of the most vngentle Clement the eighth of infamous memory as may bee seene in Castigatione indicis librorum prohibitorum conformably whereunto are interdicted all the holy Scriptures in the vulgar tongue in the Catalogue of prohibited bookes made by the Cardinall Quirogua in his sixt rule as also in that recent one compiled by the order of Cardinal Bernardo de Rojas and Sandoual in the fourth Rule and yet not thus content the said ministers of Sathan send into all parts their familiars which are other incarnate deuils of inferiour authoritie to them but of no lesse cruelty and sagacitie who night and day goe from house to house and from company to company pretending themselues to bee friends and familiars withall being in trueth enemies and familiar deuils And by this meanes they knowe and discouer if there bee any that flying the contagion of dissolute bookes betake themselues to the Sanctuary of the holy Scriptures labouring to reade them in the vulgar tongue because they vnderstand not the other languages in which they are composed if they take a Lay-man that 's skill'd onely in the Spanish with this Diuine booke in his hands it were better for him they had surprized him coyning false money or machinating some notable treason against his Prince or naturall Countrey for that his offence and rebellion should be lesse cruelly chastened then the reading of holy Writte in the mother tongue is wont to bee This great truculency and vnheard Tyranny of the Pope and Inquisitors the deplorable blindnesse and the lamentable seruitude of those that are subiect vnto them especially of those of my Nation haue caused me to take vp my penne to doe that in my owne language which many graue and religious Doctors haue happily accomplished in other tongues to the wonderous and plentifull benefit of the faithfull to wit to euince and point out as with the finger the precise necessitie and obligation that all sorts and conditions both of men and women haue to reade and meditate on the holy Scriptures whether they be rich or poore learned or vnlearned small or great ones and that not onely if the Prelats permit it but also though they should all inhibite it The reasons and arguments which I will alleadge for this purpose are either drawne word for word or collected by necessary consequence out of Spanish bookes two or three Latine bookes excepted all which are imprinted in Spaine with priuiledge and as you may see in the Frontispice of all of them haue been examined and approoued not by one but by man Doctors and not by the lesse but by the most learned men and not by those that were the least but the greatest Papists so that euery good Catholique Romane especially if he bee a Spaniard may reade and peruse this my booke without any scruple of conscience and cannot chuse but giue credit to what he readeth in it My intendement herein hath been to gratifie my Nation as also that forreine nations which professe the true Religion and faith and particularly the Noble English Nation in which it flourisheth more then in all the rest and to which I stand more obliged then to all others may see that the strength of the truth we maintaine is so forcible that maugre all the power of Hell Pope and Inquisitors it is manifested diuulged by the mouth of it's enemies And this will be more perspicuous in those other Tractates which if God vouchsafe me his Diuine grace and my necessitie and pouertie affoord me time place and tranquilitie I will bring to light In which I will prooue by authorities I haue already gathered out of Spanish Authors and Bookes the principall points of our English Religion against the Romane God grant it may all be to the honour of his holy Name and edifying of his Church which shall be the maine remuneration and guerdon I most desired of the labour I bestowed in this Worke and the residue I purpose to imprint hereafter which how great it hath been iudicium sit penès doctos That all the faithfull whatsoeuer be their profession and condition are precisely obliged to Reade and Meditate the Diuine Scripture THis Trueth first appeareth in that God would haue it so and commands it as the ensuing authorities out of Scripture it selfe auerre the
Granada en el li. de la insinuacioÌ„ de la dinina Pedad fol. 22. Note that this Booke is approued by the grauest Doctors in all Spaine in that she was very perseuerant in reading of the holy Scriptures and in that shee confirmed whatsoeuer she spake out of the Texts both in the one and th' other Testament who if she were now in Spaine I make no doubt but she would be reputed a Lutherane Wee also prooued more in particular in what an obligation all the faithfull stand bound to reade the diuine Scriptures because it is Gods pleasure we should know and vnderstand him by them Lorenzo Iustiniano teacheth as much whoÌ„ Fray Ioseph de Iesus Maria followes Fray Ioseph cap. 12. del libro de las excelencias de la castidad and alledgeth in these words By meanes of the holy Scriptures our Lord meant to illuminate and instruct our ignorance informe and direct our faith and fortifie and strengthen our hopes The very same Father Arinçan openly confesseth and maintaineth saying that the holy Scripture Arinzano en su Rosario fol. 138 is a Booke plaine and delucide without danger which God imparted to vs that by the same wee might know him But aboue all these Testimonies that of S. Augustine conferring with God in prayer and speaking of himselfe propounds vnto vs and Father Lewys of Granada auerres and confirmes the same Whereas I was weake and insufficient sayth S. Augustine to finde out trueth with naked reason and therefore stood in need of the testimonie and authoritie of the holy Scripture Granada en la segnuda parte de la introduccion del Symbolo I began then presently to conceiue how it was not possible to beleeue that thou O God wouldest giue so great a diuinity and power to these writings in the world but that by their meanes thou wouldest be beleeued and by them sought out Saint Augustines words extend thus farre the which the Bishop of Tortosa also alledgeth to prooue what we haue formerly propounded and he addes That God gaue vs the Scriptures especially by them to finde out Christ whom as S. Augustine saith the Scripture sounded in his care From this it must needs infallibly follow that whosoeuer takes away the vse of the holy Scripture from the vulgar together with them they take away the onely meanes and instrument which God gaue them to know himselfe and his Sonne Iesus Christ and so consequently they shut against them the gate of eternal life which wholly consists in this knowledge and the same Iesus Christ testifieth speaking to his heauenly Father from which also we may collect how deepely we stand bound and obliged to the reading of the same holy Scripture if wee meane to know God and obtaine euerlasting life The said obligation and bond is also made more manifest wherein all Christians stand bound to reade the holy Scriptures for as God will be beleeued out of them so he will likewise by them be serued and reuerenced because in them hee reueales vnto vs his Diuine will and pleasure and hee sent amongst vs his holy Law which the vulgar can no wayes obserue nor keepe if they be not permitted to looke into it They will peraduenture alledge how this reason onely prooues that euery Christian ought to know and vnderstand the Law of God but hereof it doth not necessarily follow that the reading of the holy Scriptures is requisite for all in generall because it is sufficient that the Doctors and great Masters propound to the vulgar whatsoeuer is most necessary and requisite therein to be knowen First I answere this obiection That Gods will is not the people should onely heare and vnderstand what their Teachers and Pastors thinke good but that all and euery good Christian and faithfull man should search and looke into the Scriptures as formerly hath beene sufficiently prooued As also it is further auerred because as S. Basil teacheth and next to him the Bishop of Tortosa â—rena in Isaâ—og in totam Scripturam â—ol 7. all Scripture is diuinely inspired and written by the holy Ghost to this end that as a common medicine of the soule all men in generall and euery man to himselfe in particular might apply a fit and proper remedy Conformable to this S. Basil teacheth whom Doctor Fonseca cites and followes For as the eyes which behold all things and cannot see themselues except in some glasse that represents them to our sight so likewise our soule viewing and beholding all things cannot see nor discerne her selfe but onely by looking into the glasse of the holy Scriptures Hereupon it followes that the reading thereof is requisite and expedient for all men in that it is befitting that all men should both see and know themselues But the Pope of Rome will not permit the vulgar people to see and behold themselues in this diuine glasse that they may not discerne how odious and abominable the false doctrine he professeth maketh the Christian soule in the sight of God imitating herein the Ape or Monkie who breakes the glasse because it layes open his owne vglinesse and deformity and herein also resembling that ancient Lays who cast away her glasse whereof Ausonius made this Epigram At mihi nullus in hoc vsus quia cernere talem Qualis sum nolo qualis eram nequeo All which as by his daily workes it appeares the Pope alledgeth of the diuine glasse of the holy Scriptures for the vse he makes of them is but small or none at all Most true it is that there is this difference betweene the Pope and Lays for she hated her owne deformitie and not the glasse but hee loues his owne deformitie and abhorres the holy Scripture for he reueales and manifests it to all the world But let this suffise for this time and secondly let vs answere the reason propounded to vs for in that we are commanded to prooue and try the spirits because Sathan many times transformes himselfe into an Angel of light from hence it comes to passe that the reading of the sacred Scriptures is necessary for all men which teach vs how wee should discouer masked and hollow enemies and those inwardly deceitfull shewing vs also what we should retaine and what to auoid as S. Augustine affirmes and next to him Father Iesus de Maria. Fr. Ioseph en el cap. 12. del lib. de la castidad And questionlesse if it be not lawfull for vs to looke into the Scriptures wee shall so hardly be able to distinguish betweene bad and good the faire and deformed what God commands and so what himselfe prohibits as a blinde man can iudge of colours because it is only the Scripture that represents vnto vs all these things without any error or deceit If it be not so as I say let a Papist tell me that neuer saw the Bible how can hee trie the spirits whether they be of God or of the deuill how can he discerne betweene Gods
and the Popes commandements By the word of God he cannot because he neuer read it nor heard it read but only in a tongue he vnderstood not which is as much as if he heard it not at all It may be he will reply that he knowes sufficiently because the Pope and his Prelats haue so taught him But thus I answere He is subiect to a thousand errors and delusions for how can he but be deceiued who suffers himselfe to be led by the nose by those men who are deepely interessed in the same things they command Gueuara segund parte del monte Caluario fol. 702. seeing as Antonio de Gueuarra notes no man obserues loyalty and fidelitie where peculiar interests doe distract him and the same Gueuarra said The Lord is onely he that opens our sight that we may clearely see and who points out vnto vs the way wherein we must walke and remooues the stones that they annoy or offend vs not and aduiseth vs what wee are to doe in all things Now therefore such a Papist as neuer lookt into the Bible must needs be ignorant and indiscreet and therefore he cannot auoid the running into innumerable errours and therefore his safest course is to repaire to the holy Scriptures which without any deceit or ambiguity will informe him in whatsoeuer hee ought to beleeue or stands obliged to be for they are the most approoued and authenticall instruction leanning to no falsitie and therefore they are called Canons or Rules because conformable to the same Vt per Lydium lapidem fidei dogmata sunt examinanda as the Bishop of Tortosa prooues out of S. Augustines authoritie Tena ibid. fol. 4. and as the same Bishop said The Scripture is called the olde and new Testament quia sicut in Testamento mens voluntas Testatoris continetur ita in sacra Scriptura mens Dei qui illius verus est Testator As also it is like a Letter or Epistle which God writes to all the faithfull wherein hee reueales vnto them his will and what he requires from euery one Puente Tom. 3. tratado 7. c. 1. as both S. Gregory Father Puente teach Whereupon I conclude that all the faithfull in generall none excepted stand precisely obliged and bound to reade and meditate in the holy Scriptures Because it is requisite for all men to examine whether their faith be true or false all men must needs vnderstand the will of their heauenly Father exprest in this letter and Testament and as he should be accounted an vngratefull and inhumane sonne that did contemne to reade and peruse the deed and Testament of his Father to know thereby his Will and to put it in execution so with farre greater reason he ought so to be esteemed that regards not the Diuine Scriptures because they are the letters and writings wherein our eternall Father the King of kings and Lord of lords hath declared his will and pleasure and what he requires from vs. If any one Puente en la Guia spiritual fol. 298. saith S. Gregory next to him Father Puente should receiue letters from an earthly Emperour he would not cease till hee had read them and vnderstood what they comprehended to fulfill it how therefore can thy slothfulnesse be so great that the heauenly Emperour hauing sent thee his Letters and Certificates for thy good thou shouldest neglect and not reade them Study therefore I pray thee euery day and reade and meditate continually on the words of thy Creator conceiue and vnderstand Gods meaning in his owne wordes for in them his diuine meaning and will is exprest there you shall perceiue his sublimity and condition the loue he beares thee and what he would haue thee to doe to giue him contentment What Gregory and Puente speakes to all true Christians I tell it now to you noble and discreet Countreymen and let it be lawfull for me to speake freely and ingeniously I beseech you affectionately to tell me what would you thinke of a man vpon whose life it stands to knowe the will of his father to put it in execution and hauing meanes to vnderstand the same without ambiguity or doubt by his last Will and Deede he yet desires to bee informed of another that goes about to delude and deceiue him would you not hold such a man for the greatest foole and sot liuing Certainely if you doe thus you cannot but perceiue that you commit the same and a greater folly and therefore when you know that your heauenly Father hath left you his diuine Will manifested and reuealed in his Testament and the Letters Patents of of the holy Scripture and that on the knowledge or ignorance of it your euerlasting glory or damnation depends you neuerthelesse making smal account of this diuine Testament and letter repaire to the Romane Bishop to bee informed of your heauenly Fathers Will being true that the Pope is but a man as others are if peraduenture hee bee not a woman as Pope Ioane was giuen to deceiue and to bee deceiued whom it so neerely concernes that you should not know the will of God for your knowing of it euidently and perspicuously would but cause his ruine and perdition In a word deare Countrey-men open your eyes at last and seeing you are so subtill and aduised in the fluxible and momentany things of this life giue not occasion to all the world to say that you are fooles and indiscreete in matters that shall for euer be permanent in the future life and whereas without sparing any labour you goe inuironed with a thousand perils vnto the remotest parts of the world induced by I know not what pride and ambition which euer swayeth in you and are detested and misprised by other Nations to subiugate those who neuer were in subiection and to impose your yoake on the neckes of such as neuer vnder-went it bee not so sencelesse and so cowardly that for feare of the Pope of Rome you omit the perusing and scrutiny of the Testament and Letter which the Emperour of heauen hath dained to leaue you by the reading whereof you shall expedite your selues from that deplorable seruitude into which the Romish Antichrist hath plunged you shal exempt your selues frō infinite tribute which you pay to him and his Minister and which is more by Gods assistance you shall attaine the knowledge of the true Religion and Christian faith and bee able to iudge betweene good and euill that which is seemely and that which is vnseemely betweene vertue and vice and finally betwixt the commandement of God and the Popes Iniunction which you shall neuer bee able to doe if you reade not holy Scripture and which therefore are exceeding behoouefull to you and to all that desire to serue God as they ought Besides that before alleadged Puente en la guia spiritual fol. 401 we may prooue the precise necessitie of reading the holy Scripture by the faithfull in that God meant by them to enlighten our
This Author still prosecutes let all this be spoken that men may discerne and vnderstand that there can be nothing so good but it is exposed to some inconueniences yet procur'd rather by the abuses of men then out of the originall nature and qualitie of things And yet for all this there is no reason that through the disorder and misprision of a few many and good men should loose the fruit and emolument of wholesome doctrine All which our blessed Sauiour plainely intimated vnto vs in the parable of the Cockle where he sayes Matth. â—â— that the other seruants demanding of their master whether they should weed out the bad weeds or no that so they might not be preiudiciall to the good seed hee answered them that they should let them alone because it may well be that in plucking vp the weeds together with the they might irradicate the good eares In which parable hee points out vnto vs that the priuiledge and immunities of the good ought so tenderly to be reserued that many discommodities are to be digested rather then that good men should be hurt or damnified If Christ himselfe taught vs thus much why does the Pope who vaunts himselfe to be his Vicar both teach and practise the contrary Why doeth hee depriue good men of the diuine Scriptures and therein of a treasure inestimable in that some particular bad men vse them ill seeing he is not a vice god vpon earth as with a brasen face hee entitles himselfe but a vice-deuill of hell whose workes he performes and whom men obey in euery thing whereof except he speedily repent hee shall one day receiue the iust reward and recompence But yet let vs proceede a little further with this Author Vnto all this I adde saith hee that sound doctrine is so farre from being a motiue and stimulation vnto errour that rather it is the meanes to confirme and strengthen vs in our faith wherefore I thought good here to insert a thing which a certaine Lord of the holy Inquisition of these kingdomes of Portugall related to me the which is very behoouefull to prooue the benefit of good and discreet reading and the discommoditie that growes from bad and iniudiciall perusing of bookes This Lord therefore reported to mee that a man came to that sacred Court to require mercy who freely confest that applying himselfe to reade corrupt and vicious bookes his true faith was thereby so shaken as that he firmely beleeued hee had no more to answere for but to die like a beast But afterwards vpon a speciall occasion that fell out or rather in that it was so ordained by diuine prouidence he began againe to reade and peruse books of good instruction by meanes whereof he was released of the blindnesse wherein he formerly stood This very Author still annexeth another example of a Moore whose eyes God opened by the helpe of good and commendable reading euen as it happened to the Queene of Ethiopia's Eunuch by reading in the Prophet Esaias Wherefore if the benefites growing from good reading be so diuine and that of corrupt and vicious reading so hurtfull and pernicious let me aske of the Papists one question From whence comes it that bad reading is permitted to all in generall and the good onely to a few in number If they know and beleeue that the Eunuch being one in the ranke of secular men attain'd to the vnderstanding of Christian veritie by reading of the holy Scriptures and that the fore-mentioned Spaniard by the reading of profane bookes lost his faith and became an Atheist how comes it that the Lords Inquisitors after hereticall errors doe not consent that there one onely booke of the diuine Scriptures may be publisht in the vulgar tongue that so secular men like to that Eunuch may daily reade in it whereas they tolerate an infinite company of obscene and vicious bookes permitting them to come into euery mans hands If they take away the holy Scriptures from the popular sort which might be very profitable for many and no preiudice to any except they assume it from their owne corruption and blindnesse vnder colour and pretext that some ground their errors out of them how is it that they suffer so many bad and profane bookes that can benefite none but as experience continually teacheth are the instruments of many euils I cannot conceiue what answere the Papists will returne hereunto but this I am assured of that as the Pope the Inquisitors and great Prelats know well that the vulgar sort can neuer possibly come to the sense and feeling of that miserable seruitude whereunto they haue reduced them by the meanes of depraued and petulant bookes they therefore indifferently permit them to be read of all men making no account of the errors and vices that encrease through the reading of such bookes in that they speake not against the Authoritie of the Pope nor of the Inquisitors But by reason they know that the holy Scripture is a cleare and manifest light that will reueale their workes and false doctrine they vse all the care and circumspection possible that the vulgar sort may not reade them and so come to discerne the insupportable yoke they haue laide vpon them This out of all doubt is the true reason why they suppresse the reading of holy Scriptures and tolerate those that are corrupt and bad And that this may the more clearely appeare I thought fit here to set downe somewhat of much which diuers Spanish Doctors haue vtter'd against prophane bookes and the great preiudice that euery day growes in Spaine by the reading of them Father Torres amongst other things affirmes Torres en la Filosofia de principes pag 943. that many of those bookes vsually read at this day throughout all Spaine are obscene and dishonest and are good for nothing else but to make Pandors and secret Bawdes teaching them to sinne and to send many soules into hell These pernicious bookes haue a number of followers and well-willers but good writings that treat of vertue and pietie he close hid vp in corners for these ill bookes like a canker enter and seaze vpon all parts of the mind and so irradicate and plucke vp the root and ground of all vertues but the Lords Inquisitors winke at all this Father Ioseph de Iesus Maria is very admirable vpon this subiect Fr. Ioseph cap. 13. del lib. de la castidad exhibiting vnto vs many strong and vnanswerable reasons wherewith to subdue and ouercome our aduersaries First of all therefore hee sayes that in many bookes which are much read in the vulgar tongue and come into the hands of the common people in Spaine they vse idolatrous speeches and phrases wherein the Christian Faith and Religion is scandaliz'd and the religious and godly customes of Catholike people That bookes of Poetrie are full of blasphemies and vent more error then euer the Gentiles did in their writings All this the same Author affirmes and daily experience shewes